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September 24, 2025 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 24 September 2025

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General Debate

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Nikola Donatello

I see that Jacinda has a documentary out. About her.

https://au.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/jacinda-ardern-talks-public-backlash-more-on-the-daily-show-84021/

The word salad is still in full swing.

““In these times when people do have a sense of uncertainty, and fear comes out of a sense of uncertainty, when they have financial insecurity, and that is also a feature I think we see globally, when you have those things, leadership matters,” she said.”

Of course audiences outside New Zealand love this. They have no idea of the horror show that went on here.
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September 24, 2025 8:01am
- Wandering Star
  
  While I personally can’t stand Ardern and think she’s an atrocious person, is that selected passage really “word salad”? I wouldn’t have thought so.
  
  While there is extreme irony in her in particular saying this, uncertainty creates fear, and in such situations, leadership matters. Sounds perfectly reasonable.
  
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  September 24, 2025 8:05am
  - Nikola Donatello
    
    Fair enough point. Thanks. I agree.
    
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    September 24, 2025 8:24am
  - Nigel Kearney
    
    Her solution was to provide ‘certainty’ by saying things that were not true. Opinions differ as to whether that is preferable to uncertainty.
    
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    September 24, 2025 8:25am
    - G152
      
      Politicians lie.
      The good ones dont get caught out
      
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      September 24, 2025 8:47am
      - Colville
        
        …or have compliant media cover it up for them.
        
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        September 24, 2025 12:09pm
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    You have managed to condense her 43 words into just 9 words…and still retained the meaning.
    
    No, she wasn’t speaking “word salad”,
    just dribbling verbal stodge.
    
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    September 24, 2025 9:24am
    - R
      
      Verbal stoge….that’s what children do, most improve their talking with the maturity of age
      
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      September 24, 2025 9:44am
    - Quail
      
      “ Don’t cry for me Aotearoa,”
      Is this promotion the start of Labours serious election campaign?
      
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      September 24, 2025 9:48am
  - In Vino Veritas
    
    Uncertainty creates fear. Only for those that are frightened of everything WS. Any individual can overcome any fear they might have. They don’t need a “leader” to do that for them. Her statement is nonsense, as so many of her statements were. She was a terrible PM, and even worse in her portfolios. Her one saving grace was putting her normal face on and looking miserable at the times she needed to (look how kind I am. Look how empathetic I am). And there were plenty of those.
    
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    September 24, 2025 11:07am
  - waikatosinger
    
    Compared to Kamala Harris she is the very model of conciseness and clarity.
    
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    September 24, 2025 2:06pm
- lastmanstanding
  
  The only reason the Governments of UK Australia and France are recognising Palestine is to appease and play to their Muslim populations. They dont give a rats about Gaza they are in it for the votes. Again we see shallow as a puddle politicians with no morals no ethics and no interest in the Israeli hostages. They are vile scum. May they all rot in hell where they belong.
  
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  September 24, 2025 8:43am
  - gravedodger
    
    I have concluded no one, and I mean no single person, even in Gaza give a rats for the territory, its people, the remnants of infrastructure or any future.
    I note Hamas executed in a public area, Gazans they had decreed. traitors for having worked with Israel.
    Due process not really apparent. I wonder what exactly the crime was, unloading a truck of Israeli supplies before Hamas had taken possession to demand their cut.
    
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    September 24, 2025 10:40am
  - Philview
    
    I listened to a guy talking about the intelligence problems this will throw up for those countries. The British Government might laud their multilingual toff spies but it is the likes of Mossad going into the dangerous places.
    
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    September 24, 2025 11:01am
- Swifty
  
  It’s not leadership that matters – it’s effective leadership.
  
  And, with regard to the financial matters she references, she and her government spectacularly failed to provide effective leadership 2017-23.
  
  The only she and her team lead us towards is bankruptcy and impoverished futures.
  
  Throwing tens of billions of additional taxpayer dollars at issues, hoping it might make a difference, is not leadership.
  
  It’s going to take years to repair the damage they caused.
  
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  September 24, 2025 8:46am
  - Paulus
    
    Many years actually – generational.
    
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    September 24, 2025 9:00am
    - wisteria
      
      It is costing $10b annually in interest alone for their mistakes.
      
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      September 24, 2025 9:04am
      - R
        
        Not forgetting the increased costs of infrastructure, health and education services that were abandoned by Ardern leadership in her pursuit of Marxist nirvana
        
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        September 24, 2025 9:46am
  - Nikola Donatello
    
    The debt could take a generation to repay. However even that is unlikely. There is no reliable path back to a big surplus on the government account. Also in the next 20 years we may well be hit with another earthquake. The Alpine Fault and a Wellington earthquake are always lurking.
    
    I think I’ll go back to my word salad assertion. Jacinda never talks about the substance of what she actually did. Because it was objectively awful.
    
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    September 24, 2025 9:17am
    - R
      
      There never was any substance in Arderns utterances
      
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      September 24, 2025 9:48am
  - Swifty
    
    There’s another point I’d make for what it’s worth.
    
    I don’t want to be lead, by Ardern, or anyone else. I just want a government with a fixed set of duties and responsibilities to deliver them effectively and efficiently and leave us citizens unmolested and free to live our lives as we see fit.
    
    I encourage more New Zealanders to think this way and suggest the more independent we all are from government the better off we’ll all be.
    
    Forgive my cynicism but all I see in Ardern now is a salesperson for her books and speaking tours. It’s abundantly clear she has now chosen to leverage her time as our PM to pursue a new career as a ‘leadership’ speaker and ‘thought leader’ but I regard this as little more than a sham.
    
    Every time I’ve seen or heard her talking about leadership it’s always about some small element of it, one that plays to her strengths, like ‘empathetic leadership’ or ‘kindness leadership’ etc – never, ever ‘effective leadership’ which is an area she quite comprehensively failed at. And I judge that primarily, as a leader, doing what you said you were going to do. Fulfilling the commitments made.
    
    KiwiBuild? Health? Education? Crime? Poverty? Social unity? Many promises made and almost none of them kept.
    
    If she was a real ‘leader’ she would be honest and tackle these parts of her tenure head on. Deal with them in detail in her speeches and books etc. Be self-reflective and provide real scrutiny and transparency as to why so many of her promises were made but not kept.
    
    But she doesn’t. From what I’ve seen she actively avoids tackling this stuff – and just focussed on the touchy, feely stuff where it’s easier for her to look good and harder for us to criticise her on.
    
    That’s not leadership. That’s cowardice. It’s her running from a full and frank appraisal of the issues she and we faced and how her government’s response could have been much, much more effective given better policy choices.
    
    That’s a distinct lack of integrity on her part, it makes it all much harder for us to learn from her time in office and which does no-one any favours except maybe her and her bank account.
    
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    September 24, 2025 9:57am
    - NeverMindTheBollocks
      
      100 upticks, Swifty
      
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      September 24, 2025 7:39pm
- Grumpy Silver Top
  
  I agree. The message is there, but mumbled around into 40-odd words so that it’s boring, soppy and needs to be teased out and sounds like a 10 year-old. No skilled writer or orator would make such a mess of expressing the idea, which is obvious to all thinking people. “Leadership is important in times of uncertainty”, see, simple. Although leadership is a moveable feast.
  
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  September 24, 2025 8:46am
- cmm
  
  As anyone who has been in the military will tell you, there is a huge difference between leadership and holding a leadership position.
  
  A Lance Corporal, or even a Private, can be a leader – a good one.
  A Lt or a Captain can have a leadership position without being an effective leader.
  
  The same holds in business/corporate where many managers are terrible leaders although they will call themselves leadership.
  
  Cindy might have held a leadership position but was no leader.
  
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  September 24, 2025 9:04am
Scott

On the good news front. This from the latest Act newsletter:
The Government capped the hectares of farm-to-forest conversions the ETS would subsidise
“The Government has introduced policy changes intended to limit how much farmland is converted to exotic forest and registered in the ETS. These changes are to protect our most productive land for food production while still allowing sustainable growth of the forestry sector.”

https://www.mpi.govt.nz/forestry/forestry-in-the-emissions-trading-scheme/news-and-changes-to-the-ets/limits-to-restrict-farm-to-forest-conversions/

And this also from the Act newsletter:

After constant agitation by Parmjeet Parmar, the University of Auckland Senate voted to make the institution’s compulsory Treaty course voluntary.

Ms Parmar has been agitating on this issue for some time –

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/chinese/545823/mandatory-nz-history-course-at-auckland-university-spurs-debate

So these are two good things to celebrate. Now I know it’s not everything you may want. I agree with you if you want more. But it’s a step in the right direction.

Under this govt, which is doing well in my humble opinion, you might get 50% of what you want. Limiting the amount of NZ land that is converted to pine forests is a good thing. No compulsory Treaty course is a very good thing.

Under the opposition you’ll get 100% of what you don’t want – NZ farmlands covered in pine trees and compulsory Te Reo for everyone. 🤔
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September 24, 2025 8:02am
- Grumpy Silver Top
  
  Yes! In particular the treaty course change. That is wonderful news.
  
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  September 24, 2025 8:48am
  - Paulus
    
    Will what they have done , work or !!!
    
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    September 24, 2025 9:01am
    - R
      
      Not if the embedded Marxist bureaucrats have their way. Tome for a major re-staffong of the Civil service.
      
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      September 24, 2025 9:50am
      - Paulus
        
        Can’t, not enough theorists to take their places.
        And no longer have Tea Ladies !
        
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        September 24, 2025 4:00pm
- G152
  
  I saw some outfit planting manuka to ‘stabilise’ somewhere.
  The old slasher is somewhere in the garage as a reminder of different times
  
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  September 24, 2025 8:51am
- RoboRob
  
  Well said.
  
  I would much rather have the current lot then Labour too. For me its just that they could do so much better.
  
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  September 24, 2025 9:05am
  - R
    
    Good things take time. The National element of the coalition has spent time analyzing and planning to correct the last six years of mismanagement
    
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    September 24, 2025 9:53am
Chuck Bird

Good to hear Trump tell the UN that climate change is a scam.
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September 24, 2025 8:03am
- keepcalmcarryon
  
  The looks on all those useless bureaucrat faces were priceless.
  
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  September 24, 2025 8:44am
  - Don Beckett
    
    Yes, Trump really gave them a serve. I would love to have been there & watch all the leftists heads explode.
    
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    September 24, 2025 11:06am
- G152
  
  Slipped up and told the truth…..
  
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  September 24, 2025 8:52am
- RoboRob
  
  Since the media generally disagree with everything Trump says, perhaps he should have said that the UN were great. Then perhaps the media might have been more critical of the UN 🙂
  
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  September 24, 2025 9:07am
  - septic skeptic
    
    It would make their tiny minds implode into miniature back holes.
    
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    September 24, 2025 10:43am
- Gussy Fink-Nottle
  
  And calling out UN-sponsored uncontrolled mass immigration that’s ruining nations, forever wars, and the hypocrisy of Europe buying Russian oil & gas.
  Truly a sight to behold.
  
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  September 24, 2025 10:40am
Tauhei Notts

After the Charlie Kirk killing a Democrat party honcho quoted a Japanese admiral, circa 9th December 1941 who said;
“I am afraid that we have awoken a sleeping giant and filled him with resolve.”
Chilling words.
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September 24, 2025 8:05am
- David Garrett
  
  Tauhei: Admiral Yamamoto, one of the architects of the attack. He had lived in the US, and thus understood its massive industrial capacity
  
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  September 24, 2025 8:35am
  - fightingtemeraire
    
    The Admiral warned about it even before Pearl Harbour. He said that they had to destroy the US Fleet asap.
    
    They missed the Carriers at PH as they were at sea.
    
    It was amazing how many of the sunken battle ships were back in the Battle Line, look at Surigao Strait and the San Bernadino Strait.
    
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    September 24, 2025 9:10am
    - Jack5
      
      If the Japanese had sunk the US Navy carriers in the Hawaii attack, America would still have won.
      
      By the end of the war, the US had put into service a total of 112 carriers, with 11 lost in action. Japan started the war with 11 aircraft carriers and built 17 during the war.
      
      The US added 26 fleet and light carriers during the war. The rest of those added were smaller vessels, including 50 of the Casablanca class, each of which typically carried 27 planes, or more when on a delivery run.
      
      Read More: https://www.slashgear.com/1942700/how-many-aircraft-carriers-did-united-states-have-during-world-war-2/
      
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      September 24, 2025 11:49am
      - Colville
        
        Jack5.
        Yip the Japs just couldnt make steel fast enough to compete with the USA on attritional basis.
        
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        September 24, 2025 12:24pm
  - Colville
    
    DG.
    Do you give any credence to the theory that the Yanks knew about the PH attack prior (they moved a lot of the fleet out on manoeuvres ) but let it happen as a way to engage the public to get the war started?
    
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    September 24, 2025 12:23pm
    - David Garrett
      
      Col: I recall this being discussed when I studied WW II history under the late great Vincent Orange.
      
      Vincent’s view was that there had indeed been early warnings of the attack, but the failure to communicate those warnings up the chain of command was down to cockup(s) rather than any deliberate strategy on Roosevelt’s part.
      
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      September 24, 2025 12:56pm
    - Paulus
      
      Not impossible, but I doubt that Churchill actually told them in advance prior to PH.
      
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      September 24, 2025 4:02pm
Sparrow

Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
I realise there are a lot of bloggers on this site who support Donald Trump, I respect their right to hold that view. After watching snippets of his UN speach I am curious to find out if they still hold that view. Frankly I have only one viewpoint. He is deranged.
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September 24, 2025 8:12am
- Nikola Donatello
  
  I heard only snippets.
  
  He said countries like the UK are going to hell via open borders. Correct.
  
  IIRC he said to the effect that net zero will send countries to hell. Looking at you Aotearoa. Also correct.
  
  He said the UN was a bit useless. Also correct.
  
  What were the deranged bits?
  
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  September 24, 2025 8:23am
  - David Garrett
    
    Nikola: How about “I stopped seven wars” (I can’t think of any; perhaps you can help me?) And “I was right about everything”… What sane person says that? Even yanks are not usually that vainglorious.
    
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    September 24, 2025 8:31am
    - David Garrett
      
      Instead of childish downticking perhaps one of you four – soon to be many more – could list a few of the “seven wars” Trump has stopped.
      
      He was/is an epic fail on the main one which he was going to stop “in about a day”. As the joke has it, he failed to specify which day.
      
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      September 24, 2025 8:44am
      - Scott
        
        The wars that he said he ended were, Israel and Iran, India and Pakistan, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, Thailand and Cambodia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, Egypt and Ethiopia and Serbia and Kosovo
        
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        September 24, 2025 9:04am
      - RoboRob
        
        Since the media refuse to give Trump any coverage around his successes he has to resort to covering these himself. It is what National need to start doing but thats an asside.
        
        When Trump refers to stopping seven wars he is referring to…
        
        Cambodia and Thailand
        Kosovo and Serbia
        Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda
        Pakistan and India
        Israel and Iran
        Egypt and Ethiopia
        Armenia and Azerbaijan
        
        While some would argue around how much Trump had to do with this, it is clear that he acted in all cases to prevent full on war breaking out.
        
        You can hate the man for his personality or his policy but one thing that cant be denied is that Trump is against war and has always worked to end or prevent them.
        
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        September 24, 2025 9:13am
      - MCōs
        
        The other day he said he stopped a war between Cambodia and Armenia
        So you can add that to the list
        https://www.independent.co.uk/bulletin/news/trump-war-armenia-cambodia-b2831670.html#
        I told my wife Trump had stopped the war between Thailand and Cambodia.
        It’s still going on according to her.
        
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        September 24, 2025 9:57am
      - JackRabbit
        
        So down ticking is childish. Is up ticking adult? How many times did you childishly down tick Mikey?
        
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        September 24, 2025 10:02am
      - Northshoredoc
        
        You’ll struggle to get any sensible commentary on Trump at this or any other blog David.
        
        Far too polarising a figure like debates on vaccination, flouridation of water and religion, a waste of time.
        
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        September 24, 2025 10:12am
      - Mattb
        
        He also stopped the Abbabaijan Albania war.
        
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        September 24, 2025 11:52am
      - Ghost
        
        No, he got confused with that. It was Armenia, not Albania.
        
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        September 24, 2025 11:59am
      - Jack5
        
        Cossie’s 9.57 post reports a Trump slip of the tongue: “Cambodia” for “Azerbaijan,” or was it “Armenia” for “Thailand”.
        
        More famous slips of the tongue by American politicians, including Reagan’s “facts are stupid things.”
        
        https://people.howstuffworks.com/9-political-slips-of-the-tongue.htm
        
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        September 24, 2025 12:22pm
      - waikatosinger
        
        JackRabbit:
        “How many times did you childishly down tick Mikey?”
        
        I never childishly down tick Mikey. I always down tick him in a mature and adult fashion.
        
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        September 24, 2025 2:21pm
      - JackRabbit
        
        @waikatosinger
        
        As do I. The statement was for DG.
        
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        September 24, 2025 3:40pm
      - Don Beckett
        
        Why all the angst about downticks?
        I give an uptick if I agree with the comment, and a downtick if I disagree.
        All a matter of opinion, and you are entitled to my own opinion. 🙂
        
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        September 24, 2025 4:06pm
    - Sacha
      
      That stopped me for a few seconds. when I first heard it, and then I thought – well maybe he’s including wars of all kinds – like winning the election, and surviving two assasination attempts. And then trying to sort out belligerent leaders in Europe – at least he intervened instead of just talking.
      I first ‘met’ Donald Trump about 20 years ago when he was a young and successful New York entrepreneur , doing a TV interview with one of the big networks. He was being questioned about his politics and when he would be entering the fray. Not for many years, he said, he had too much to do with his family and business and politics would be a full-time job.
      I would love to see that interview again, but have not been able to find it –
      
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      September 24, 2025 8:59am
    - rouppe
      
      Here are some peace treaties that have been brokered:
      Azerbaijan and Armenia,
      Cambodia and Thailand,
      Israel and Iran,
      Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo,
      India and Pakistan,
      Egypt and Ethiopia,
      Serbia and Kosovo.
      
      Not nothing, whatever you think.
      
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      September 24, 2025 9:08am
  - Gravelroad
    
    Beat me to it,ND.
    Context and whole content trump “Snippets”.
    As far as leadership goes: millions of people in the US voted for Mr Trump – twice.
    I did not vote for the “Leadership” of Ms Ardern for two terms.
    But just had to put up with it and respect the decisions of the majority who did vote for her.
    
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    September 24, 2025 8:39am
    - MCōs
      
      In NZ we vote for parties, not leaders.
      Furthermore only one party in recent times has secured a majority of popular vote.
      In America the outcome of the presidential election is determined not by the popular vote, but by the electoral college votes
      
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      September 24, 2025 12:35pm
- Scott
  
  I thought his speech was brilliant. The best speech at the UN ever. Why? Because he told them what he thought in plain language that everyone can understand. No weasel words, no diplomat speak. Just plain English.
  
  Just this bit, open borders are a disaster and it’s time to stop open borders and your countries are going to hell. That’s all true. And Trump is the only person who will say it.
  
  So yes he may not be the person you want to go to a BBQ with? So what. His policies are right, he’s the only person who spoke out and did something about illegal immigration and mass immigration.
  
  Mass immigration is a huge issue, for this country as well. I don’t care about his personality. I don’t care about style points. He’s dealing with issues that many of us are deeply concerned about and that is what matters.
  
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  September 24, 2025 8:43am
  - David Garrett
    
    Scott: Yes, I think some of the points you make are valid…He DOES speak in plain language rather than diplomatese…but i still think he’s a vainglorious narcissist. Perhaps you could tell me just one of the “seven wars” he stopped?
    
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    September 24, 2025 9:01am
    - rouppe
      
      https://www.whitehouse.gov/articles/2025/08/president-trump-brokers-another-historic-peace-deal/
      
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      September 24, 2025 9:12am
    - RoboRob
      
      Lol, that was scotts point. You might not like the man, and think he is a ‘vainglorious narcissist’, but his policy is clear and may be valid. Thats more then can be said for most leaders.
      
      A simple web search will give you can example of wars he has stopped. I have provided the list in another post above. The most recent would be Cambodia vs Thailand, where Trump came in right at the start and gave both sides the hard word before it could really kick off. Thats a good thing, even for a ‘vainglorious narcissist’.
      
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      September 24, 2025 9:17am
    - Libertarians are right
      
      Trump is a bloviating asshole but there is an argument that the Abraham Accords helped stop a potential war (until Hamas flipped the table), likewise with the India/Pakistan conflict, Cambodia and Thailand, Armenia/Azerbaijan, Rwanda/Congo so that’s only 5 that I can see where you could argue (if you squint really hard) that he did help stop potential wars. From a certain point of view.
      
      Honestly, his attempts at getting a peace prize are some of his better Presidential actions. For a Trump “lie” it’s about as close to the truth as you’re going to get.
      
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      September 24, 2025 9:22am
    - Yabster
      
      of course, he’s vain- but in general what he said is true- maybe not the wars comment- the rest correct- the UN are useless and need to be disbanded.
      
      After all David name me any politician (or ex) who hasn’t got a bit of vainglorious narcissist in them….
      
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      September 24, 2025 9:28am
    - JackRabbit
      
      He is an outspoken bully, but creates positive outcomes.
      
      Narcissists cleverly disguise themselves in platitudes, being nice and blaming others, refuse to accept responsibility, constantly tell lies, and create negative outcomes.
      
      Ardern, Hipkins, Robertson, all of TPM and all of Greens, plus a number of key Labour party goons, plus Greta, and most of key Democrats.
      
      Narcissists are hard to spot. That’s why people buy into their bullshit platitudes and vote for them. They believe the lies.
      
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      September 24, 2025 10:07am
- Rodney Hide
  
  I loved the speech. He spoke the truth to the UN. He eviscerated them.
  
  We have had the Charlie Kirk memorial. Big pharma corruption called out and the UN shredded.
  
  And it is only Tuesday in America
  
  The USA is so back.
  
  That said, Trump has an interesting speaking style. It is hyperbolic. It appears rambling. But it is powerful communication. He speaks with simple words and visually. He is a gifted communicator.
  
  My casual observation is that the centre right who get upset over him still glance or, worse, read the legacy media. The rest of us are on X seeing the speeches for ourselves and reading both free and contested commentary and analysis.
  
  MAGA!
  
  Rodney Hide
  
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  September 24, 2025 9:07am
  - David Garrett
    
    Rodney: Perhaps, former leader, you can help me out: what were the “seven wars” he stopped? Just two or three will do for starters.
    
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    September 24, 2025 9:13am
    - RoboRob
      
      Co Pilot
      
      Donald Trump has claimed to have stopped seven “unendable wars” during his second term as President of the United States. He made this assertion in multiple speeches, including his address to the United Nations General Assembly in September 2025. Here’s the list of conflicts he cited:
      🕊️ The Seven Wars Trump Claims to Have Ended
      
      Cambodia and Thailand
      
      Kosovo and Serbia
      
      Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda
      
      Pakistan and India
      
      Israel and Iran
      
      Egypt and Ethiopia
      
      Armenia and Azerbaijan
      
      Trump stated that these wars had been ongoing for decades—some for over 30 years—and that he resolved them within seven months of returning to office. He emphasized that many of these peace efforts were achieved through trade pressure and direct negotiations with national leaders
      
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      September 24, 2025 9:18am
  - RoboRob
    
    Interesting view Rodney. I wouldn’t have called him a gifted communicator as I find him often rambling and using to many words. That often give opponents an opportunity to take him out of context.
    
    I will pay more attention, perhaps you are right and he is a gifted communicator. Certainly his has a great sense of humour.
    
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    September 24, 2025 9:22am
    - R
      
      Rambling,too many words…….he is speaking to third world leaders with little comprehension of English. Polished English is no use in such circumstances.
      
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      September 24, 2025 10:02am
      - Paulus
        
        Perhaps he can learn Maori and come to Aotearoa and stop the quiet war going on currently.
        
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        September 24, 2025 4:07pm
    - Rodney Hide
      
      Hi RR
      
      He is persuasive. Like a powerful advertisement.
      
      Short, sharp sentences. He uses powerful imagery.
      
      He appeals to emotions, not reason. He repeats his message. He knows emphasis. He riles up his opponents especially in the media who repeat his message in disgust and so amplify it.
      
      Can anyone tell me Hilary Clinton’s immigration policy in 2016? The whole world knew Donald Trump’s. “Build a wall!” That is a masterclass.
      
      His opponents made a meal of it. His voters loved it. Three words that carried a huge message, and a deep philosophical change across the entire apparatus of government.
      
      Rodney Hide
      
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      September 24, 2025 10:04am
      - RoboRob
        
        Good point, well made. Agree with you on that. Certainly a masterful politician whatever you think of him personally.
        
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        September 24, 2025 10:39am
- leoj
  
  Blah blah blah.
  
  You don’t respect Trump supporters’ views. By suggesting that Trump is deranged, you cast his supporters into the same category. Why can’t you anti-Trumpers be bonest!
  
  Go back to your morning tea with Farrar, your biggest influencer.
  
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  September 24, 2025 10:12am
artemisia

Proposed funding cuts to sexual violence services will not guarantee support to survivors and could lengthen wait times, advocates say.

But the Minister for Social Development Louise Upston said funding was not being reduced. Instead, it was contracts with MSD for long-term care and prevention that had been extended from their original expiry dates of June 2025 to December 2025…. “The government is seeking to improve service delivery consistency and prioritise funding to better meet the needs of people impacted by family violence and sexual violence.”

That is really code for current contracted outcomes are not adequate and need to be sharpened up.

A little sentence at the end of the item: “The removal of Te Puna Oranga funding is a devastating blow to whānau Māori, forcing them into mainstream services that cannot meet their cultural or trauma recovery needs”.

Te Puna Oranga is specifically race based, and hopefully that funding will in future be available on the basis of need. Another quiet ‘reprioritisation’.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/573866/funding-cuts-a-devastating-blow-to-sexual-support-services
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September 24, 2025 8:15am
- Anthony Melchett
  
  All this stuff is great, they should be shouting it from the rooftops.
  
  “We have stopped funding inefficient maori based businesses that were taking money, buying fancy utes and not providing actual services, even to their “own” people. Now we are funding outcomes for all” That’s what most kiwis want to hear.
  
  The problem is, if they were to release it like that, the media and the 5% activists would pile on so hard and for so long it will actually cost them the election – even though they are doing what they said they would do.
  
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  September 24, 2025 8:26am
  - Grumpy Silver Top
    
    Softly, softly…
    
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    September 24, 2025 8:50am
    - rouppe
      
      Nah. Silence is what abusers of all types rely on. Including government financial abusers.
      
      ABC org received $$ of funding. Outcomes, x utes, y m² of lease space, $z in staff and “consultant” payments, and n people actually helped.
      
      That’s $ per person helped which we don’t consider value for money.
      
      The reason the Marsden Fund flew under the radar was because no one actually knew money was being spent on whale song for trees. Once that became known, most people were outraged, other insane things fell out of that, and now things have changed.
      
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      September 24, 2025 9:21am
  - artemisia
    
    Agree Anthony Melchett. I’m sure a softly softly approach is the strategy. That particular article has advocates who are in part advocating to keep their jobs. Sounds like some might, but contracts will be more specific and hopefully monitored carefully.
    
    Under the previous government I looked at several reports from contracted enterprises and was not surprised to see 100% outcomes achieved for (large) numbers of meetings and ‘consultations’. Easy to pull the wool if contracts are political, poorly written and not well monitored.
    
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    September 24, 2025 9:10am
    - imalwaysright
      
      The most frightening email that these publically funded wasters can imagine receiving is:
      
      “Funding suspended pending audit”
      
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      September 24, 2025 9:57am
Scooter

Trump’s speech on the climate scam from 39 min. The whole speech is worth listening to but especially about the climate, right on point. The first part he was rambling abit and made some grandiose claims about ending 7 wars. But who else would stand up at the UN and put it out there.

https://www.youtube.com/live/8auDD5MSGis?si=9TB0BLGJbiLEYoJ5
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September 24, 2025 8:18am
BeaB

TVNZ excelled itself interviewing a primary school child about recognising Palestine. Then we had their political commentator telling us that the core parliamentary democratic function of select committees examining legislation, in this case the changes to holiday pay, was a ‘rigmarole’. He also repeated several times not to panic as the legislation, which had been broadly supported, wouldn’t come into effect until 2029. Why would anyone even think of panicking?
Childish and inept
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September 24, 2025 8:19am
- sirknz
  
  It’s OK though, TVNZ audited themselves and found themselves to be completly impartial, even if they won’t release the whole report…
  
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  September 24, 2025 11:14am
Anthony Melchett

https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/early-edition-with-ryan-bridge/opinion/francesca-rudkin-trumps-autism-comments-are-unhelpful/

So a journalist who obviously complies with the obligatory “I’m in the media so I hate Trump” playbook has decided his comments about a possible link between medication talen while pregnant and autism are “unhelpful”.

She bases this off knowing some parents of autistic kids who never took paracetamol while pregnant and then says it’s offensive to want to find a cure or prevention for autism. Um what? You give any parent of an autistic kid the chance to go back in time and flick a switch and their kid doesn’t have autism. 100% will do it. They won’t admit it to your face though as it has become another trendy thing to have (like a transparent kid) to show how woke and better you are than everybody else.

There is always a bit of truth in trumps madness. Given that autism incidence has risen from 1 in 10,000 to 1 in 31 among the general population, surely this needs to be investigated? Maybe it’s off the shelf pain relief, maybe it’s vaccinations? Maybe it’s bad parents demanding a diagnosis for their badly behaved kid that has spent 8 hours a day on screens and social media since they were 5?

I don’t know, but for a so called reporter to take a moral high ground here with no scientific qualification or understanding and basically say that autism is wonderful and we shouldn’t try to help people because it’s trump just shows how bad our media bias is.
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September 24, 2025 8:19am
- David Garrett
  
  Anthony: Except the rate of autism hasn’t increased by anything like that amount – it’s gone from less than 1% to two…that’s still a disturbing increase – only partially explained by better diagnoses – but still nothing like the increase Trump claims.
  
  He and his mad mate RFK are going to be responsible for a resurgence of childhood illnesses not seen for 40 years in the US.
  
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  September 24, 2025 9:07am
  - BarryB
    
    David – you are a bit over active this morning!!. I recall that you are here in NZ at the moment in which case I completely understand your frustration. We who reside here feel like that all the time…. I think you should take a couple of paracetamol pills and have a lie down – oh shit no – not paracetamol that will give you ADHD or something….
    
    Trump is no worse than most other political leaders. I mean look at Starmer – a blithering idiot if ever there was one. At least with Trump you know what he is saying but Starmer (and the Canadian guy) are all word salad. I dont think they even know what they are saying.
    As for the seven wars – I think hes confusing the seven plagues of Egypt with modern middle east things. He should stop reading the bible……..
    
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    September 24, 2025 9:40am
  - JackRabbit
    
    David,
    
    According to the CDC figures, the Autism prevalence rate in children has gone from 6.7 per 1000 (0.67%) in 2000, to 32.2 per 1000 (3.2%) in 2022. That is a 377% increase in 22 years.
    
    https://www.cdc.gov/autism/data-research/index.html
    
    And according to Google, the rate in 1995 was 1 in 500. (0.2%)
    
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    September 24, 2025 12:15pm
    - wsk12345
      
      I was about to go look for those stats as it was clear that DG was way off the mark…
      
      I seem to recall that like transing kids, the ASD rates are way higher in clue states suchc as Cali.
      
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      September 24, 2025 1:32pm
  - Ghost
    
    Here is a look at why the increase, David
    
    There are two main reasons for the increase. The first is the broadened definition of Autism Spectrum Disorder, which means that more people are meeting this definition now than previously.
    
    Second, there have been many widely successful public health programs that increased screening at wellness visits for children ages 18–24 months to look for signs of autism. Parents, caregivers, and community members are also more aware of the symptoms, and autism is being more accepted in the community. People are not as afraid to seek help and know where to go when they have concerns.
    
    Article
    
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    September 24, 2025 12:21pm
    - MCōs
      
      My brother is on the autism spectrum, but wasn’t diagnosed until he was about thirty; presumably because his is a mild case and not picked up when he was younger
      
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      September 24, 2025 12:48pm
- Hapuku
  
  We have been in touch with a very respected US scientist who has been doing work on the Tylenol autism link. He has found strong evidence for Tylenol causing autism in some children under 5 who are already under stress from fever or viruses. He didn’t find the same evidence with pregnant women.
  He is getting quite a bit of pushback from vested interests including losing his funding from the university which he has been with for nearly 30 years.
  Tylenol has been around since forever and was never properly tested on young children. Children used to be given aspirin for pain but this was switched to Tylenol in the 90s. In paediatric wards they give it out like lolly water because everyone has always thought that it was ‘safe’
  
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  September 24, 2025 9:30am
  - rouppe
    
    Notable for me is that everyone is saying “Trump has claimed…”
    
    Yes he fronted the release, but he didn’t come up with this himself. If came via RFK from several research centres.
    
    Wherever those claims came from, let’s see the research.
    
    Ibuprofen is also considered completely safe, right?
    
    But I’m advised to not take ibuprofen, because I’m on certain heart meds. Apparently combining them increases kidney damage risks.
    
    Similarly I was up at Ohakune recently and woke up with a headache. Took my last two paracetamol, and went and got some nuremol from a local chemist. Was warned to wait 6 hours, as I’d already had paracetamol, and overdoing more paracetamol also had kidney risks.
    
    So there are risks with those meds. Those dismissing blindly perhaps have other syndromes at play.
    
    Let’s see the research.
    
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    September 24, 2025 10:10am
    - sirknz
      
      Paracetamol sends more people into ED than any just about other substance out there.
      
      But hey, let’s ban booze outlets and restrict the hours it can be sold.
      
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      September 24, 2025 11:18am
    - All_on_Red
      
      https://www.mountsinai.org/about/newsroom/2025/mount-sinai-study-supports-evidence-that-prenatal-acetaminophen-use-may-be-linked-to-increased-risk-of-autism-and-adhd
      
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      September 24, 2025 12:35pm
      - rouppe
        
        Thanks.
        
        So it’s not bespoke research, it’s a study of 46 other studies. Still, a large sample, 100,000.
        
        What I like least is the word “may”. Been used before as in “global warming may cause ice caps to melt by the year…”
        
        At least people, some here, should stop saying “Trump says Tylenol is unsafe” and direct their criticism to the Mt Sinai Icahn School of Medicine.
        
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        September 24, 2025 1:21pm
  - Raphael
    
    There is also evidence linking NSAIDS (like ibuprofen), which are handed out almost as much as paracetamol nowadays, to an increase in antibiotic resistance in germs.
    
    Is paracetamol to blame? Debateable (and I am on the side of I think it is more a case of correlation rather than causation).
    Do we hand out way too many medicines? Yes.
    Are we often finding that medicines we thought were safe have some long-term unforeseen consequences? Yes. And it may well end up being the case with paracetamol.
    
    Are there also dumb pregnant liberal women who are bragging on social media that they are now taking Tylenol when they don’t need it, to try and prove Trump and RFK wrong? Of course there are.
    
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    September 24, 2025 10:12am
  - JackRabbit
    
    And drugs, including those that cross the blood brain barrier has unknown effects. And some vaccines esp tetanus, contain mercury, aluminum and formaldehyde.
    
    The graphene oxide that fact checkers (Fat Chequers) said did not exist in the mRNA or any vaccine, was widely touted well over a decade ago, as a silver bullet for vaccines. “Fat Chequers” get their name for being well paid media / big pharma media shills.
    
    During the Covid plandemic, if you searched on google for graphene oxide, the first few dozen links would be to said fact checkers (Fat Chequers). But then up would come copious links to multiple NIH articles about the magic “graphene oxide” for use in vaccines. Some articles stretch back to 2010 or older.
    
    One concerning aspect of graphene oxide is that it is electromagnetic responsive.
    
    [1] It will react to strong electromagnetic fields, especially radio frequency fields that are similar to the (quarter) wavelength of the graphene oxide particle size.
    
    RF, Wi-Fi, Mobile phone frequencies etc.
    
    [2] It will react to strong electric fields. Including strong micro electric fields created by the Spike Protein. A corona virus is called so because of the electric field surrounding the virus molecule. The Spike protein has an electric field dozens of time larger than any other corona virus.
    
    Graphene oxide increases and potentiates the electric field of the Spike protein.
    
    The Spike protein and the use of Graphene oxide has been praised as the “Holy Grail” of vaccines, solving the eternal problem of “How do you administer a vaccine when the human immune system rejects it, because the vaccine is almost identical to a virus the body already has immunity against?” Vaccines that don’t work, don’t sell. And certainly not every year.
    
    Example being: How do you administer flu vaccine 1998, when the body sees that vaccine as being the same as flu 1997, which the body has immunity against?
    
    Big Pharma had been searching for decades for a way to “rip out and rebuild” immunity. To successfully administer vaccine 1998, it has to destroy the antibodies created by response to vaccine 1997.
    
    The spike protein with graphene oxide potentiation were the break through.
    
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    September 24, 2025 10:57am
    - ISeeRed
      
      You don’t understand. TRUMP SAID IT SO IT MUST BE WRONG!!!! That’s most Trump “critics” here.
      
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      September 24, 2025 11:38am
      - JackRabbit
        
        What exactly did Trump say? I don’t recall him saying any of what I just said.
        
        But I get your point. If Trump said rain is water from clouds, critics would argue that rain was God taking a leak.
        
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        September 24, 2025 12:19pm
  - imalwaysright
    
    Just listened to Michael Laws interview the head of Autism NZ who said that autism shows in different ways and has many degrees of severity.
    
    If the diagnosis of Autism is so subjective, then how can a link to Paracetamol, or any other drug for that matter, be accepted or rejected?
    
    Temporary pain or fever relief from Paracetomol is far less important than the possibility of being autistic, therefore, until we get proof either way, caution has very little downside.
    
    Laws asked him that if he could cure autism would he do so?
    
    He said no, he wouldn’t !
    
    He said something to the effect that autistic people make society more interesting.
    
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    September 24, 2025 12:18pm
    - Ghost
      
      I wouldn’t cure it either. Why does it need a cure?
      
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      September 24, 2025 12:51pm
      - imalwaysright
        
        What a ridiculous statement.
        
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        September 24, 2025 1:14pm
      - Ghost
        
        No, it doesn’t need a cure, we don’t need to cure everything. It’s not an illness, it’s not a disease.
        
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        September 24, 2025 1:19pm
      - lifesgood
        
        Because life for autistics is difficult for them socially and emotionally and difficult for those around them.
        
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        September 24, 2025 4:39pm
      - Ghost
        
        Your comment reminds of adults who medicate their children because they’re being too active.
        
        Personally I won’t be taking any “cure” for my Asperger’s. No one I know would want to cure their autism.
        
        It’s a strange world we live in, where people want to cure others’ uniqueness and make them more like themselves instead of embracing the differences.
        
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        September 24, 2025 5:18pm
artemisia

Being reported that an estimated 1.6 million of the undocumented have self deported from the US since January this year. New Zealand should be publicising self deporting as an opportunity for overstayers here to leave and then apply for legal entry.
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September 24, 2025 8:26am
- cmm
  
  Dreams are free.
  
  We’ve still got Kim Dotcom,
  
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  September 24, 2025 9:09am
- Colville
  
  They are saying that USA population will drop this year for the first time in history…that many people are gone!
  
  Births minus deaths is circa 450K…so that is the number that would need to go!
  
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  September 24, 2025 3:06pm
TripeWryter

I’ve just read a piece in The Post – the former Dominion Post – by a lawyer that Dame Noeline Taurua might have a case for a personal grievance against the netball people.
I hadn’t realised how ineptly the netball high-ups had handled the whole thing.
But what has intrigued me from the start after this became public was some netballers had felt ‘unsafe’ in Dame Noeline’s presence.
I have been waiting for some breathless, intrepid reporter – especially one of the sports jocks and jockettes – to ask: what do you mean? Has Dame Noeline threatened to punch them or smack their bottoms if they don’t do what she instructs?
If not then what does ‘unsafe’ mean?
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September 24, 2025 8:30am
- Grumpy Silver Top
  
  Much has been hidden about the whole sorry mess but we can speculate that it was a classic girls-in-the-playground- clique ganging up on a person they decided they didn’t like. Very sad.
  
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  September 24, 2025 8:54am
  - TripeWryter
    
    Grumpy Silver Top:
    Yes. Apparently a bit like the soccer girls. Herr Heraf’s main crime was that he didn’t show some players the respect they and some of the supporters felt they were due.
    
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    September 24, 2025 11:12am
- David Garrett
  
  Tripe: You have to bear in mind that the young now feel “unsafe” in all manner of situations those of us with grey hair wouldn’t even have noticed.
  
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  September 24, 2025 9:09am
  - TripeWryter
    
    David:
    Yes, the poor wee things (although most of them seem to be 6ft and over).
    The netball authorities did the worst thing possible – they sided with the players.
    
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    September 24, 2025 11:14am
- imalwaysright
  
  It seems that long days of practice and Noelene instructing them how to improve their individual and team skills may have upset some of the players.
  
  How dare a coach coach…
  
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  September 24, 2025 9:23am
  - TripeWryter
    
    Imalwaysright:
    God, yes.
    A rugby coach of schoolboys told me he gave up because he wasn’t allowed to point out his boys’ failings.
    He was not allowed to be ‘negative’.
    
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    September 24, 2025 11:16am
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    Not to mention sending some of them hone because they were too fat.
    
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    September 24, 2025 8:30pm
- artemisia
  
  Maybe Dame Noeline said no to puppies, bean chairs and hot chocolate on tap.
  
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  September 24, 2025 10:47am
sungsamning

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlfeieH4z38
Why Saudi Arabia signed a defense pact with Pakistan.
By signing the defense pact, Saudi Arabia has gained a nuclear umbrella without breaching non-proliferation norms, while Pakistan has landed the strongest bankroller in the Middle East without the fiscal strings of the IMF.
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September 24, 2025 8:45am
- cmm
  
  These two countries already have very close financial ties with huge numbers of Pakistani workers going to Saudi and sending back lots of money to families back home. Remittances are almost 10% of the Pakistani GDP and Saudi is the biggest contributor. Having defence pacts helps stabilise some of those relationships.
  
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  September 24, 2025 9:30am
  - sungsamning
    
    Yes, that sounds logical. I wonder if they’re treated better there than in Dubai?
    
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    September 24, 2025 4:38pm
- David George
  
  Interesting implications “Sun”.
  Saudi Arabia has a formidable defense capability of their own (best air force in the region?) and are committed to containing Iran. The real possibility that Saudi/Israeli/US would completely destroy Iranian oil export facilities forced them to pull their heads in real quick – in particular their threat to blockade the Straits of Hormuz.
  
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  September 24, 2025 9:51am
  - cmm
    
    I am not convinces Saudi has any interests in containing Iran.
    They certainly do not want Iran damaging their own interests but beyond that I doubt they care what Iran does.
    
    Certainly getting into bed with Pakistan would be a better deal for Saudi than having Iran and Pakistan get cozy.
    
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    September 24, 2025 10:02am
    - Paulus
      
      Are not Saudis only interested in Money, and living a life few could aspire to particularly, in overseas countries where they are free to enjoy what they want.
      Walk down the West End in London.
      
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      September 24, 2025 4:21pm
      - sungsamning
        
        Maybe, but their government has a country to rule.
        
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        September 24, 2025 4:41pm
    - sungsamning
      
      Yes, that’d make things awkward for them.
      
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      September 24, 2025 4:40pm
  - Colville
    
    David.
    Israel flew jets over Saudi a couple of weeks back and smacked Qatar without being noticed.. so I wouldn’t rate the Saudi defences too highly.
    
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    September 24, 2025 3:12pm
    - Allan
      
      You assume that Saudi defence forces didn’t know what was happening and wouldn’t have approved if they did.
      
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      September 24, 2025 5:54pm
    - All_on_Red
      
      Israeli Technicians are contracted to the Sauds to maintain a lot of their Military equipment.
      The Sauds and Israel have an improving relationship- almost at Ally status.
      
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      September 24, 2025 5:55pm
      - waikatosinger
        
        Not so strange. They both hate and have been attacked by Iran. It is an enemy of my enemy thing.
        
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        September 24, 2025 9:04pm
  - sungsamning
    
    Plus, they get a second nuclear umbrella.
    
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    September 24, 2025 4:39pm
sungsamning

https://nypost.com/2025/09/22/us-news/trump-signs-executive-order-designating-antifa-a-domestic-terrorist-organization/
Trump signs executive order designating Antifa a ‘domestic terrorist organization’.
President Trump signed an executive order Monday designating the shadowy, left-wing group Antifa a “domestic terrorist organization,” according to the White House.
The order comes after Trump teased slapping a terror label on the radical “anti-fascist” group last week. [Now do the same for BLM. And use the RICO Act to go after the donors, and leadership.]
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September 24, 2025 8:45am
- sirknz
  
  Will the NZ Govt do the same to Antifa here, given how quickly they designated the Proud Boys (who killed 0 people and burned down 0 buildings) a terrorist organisation here, despite there being no presence of the Proud Boys in either NZ or Aotearoa.
  
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  September 24, 2025 11:24am
  - imalwaysright
    
    Sirknz
    
    The Proud Boys get Terrorist designation.
    
    NZ gangs get welfare, government grants, police liaison officers, sympathetic jurists, support from political parties, event management and road closures while the Police stop us to let them pass, and the ability to run the only growth industry we have left-drugs.
    
    Thank God the Police and the SIS spotted the Proud Boys though…
    
    8 0
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    September 24, 2025 12:30pm
    - sungsamning
      
      Labour would probably do the same for Antifa. Luxon would sit on the fence.
      
      3 0
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      September 24, 2025 4:44pm
  - sungsamning
    
    There is an FBI office here. So, something might happen; now there’s a real live president in the White House.
    
    3 0
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    September 24, 2025 4:42pm
Sponge

Behind a paywall sorry but Tory thinks she could be Minister of Foreign Affairs. This woman’s delusion has no end!

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/wellington/wellington-mayor-tory-whanau-plans-future-run-for-parliament-drops-2028-mayoral-plans/3LCUTSGZ6FH47EO4JJEB5YISPY/
27 0
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September 24, 2025 8:46am
- pdm
  
  Sponge – this is a scary thought.
  
  Do you think she could make Nanaia Mahuta look really, really good as Foreign Affairs Minister.
  
  23 0
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  September 24, 2025 9:08am
  - Sponge
    
    She would make Mahuta look like Henry Kissinger!
    
    16 0
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    September 24, 2025 9:26am
- Taieri
  
  This woman’s delusion has no end
  ———–
  
  Why delusion? With her pedigree and intellectual capabilities she’s virtually guaranteed a good place on the Green party list.
  
  14 0
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  September 24, 2025 9:12am
  - Sponge
    
    If she thinks she has the intelligence or any other attributes required to be Foreign Minister she is clearly deluded.
    
    That said, you make a fair point, if the Greens get in with Labour absurd appointments of ministerial positions is possible (in fact almost certain!).
    
    11 0
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    September 24, 2025 9:33am
    - Quail
      
      Sponge ,
      
      MMP has created opportunities for the incompetent to rule, and there is not one thing that can be done about it.
      Example: Eugenie Sage stood in the Ellesmere electorate and received less than 20% of the vote, but then entered parliament on the Green list.
      Sage was then appointed a minister.
      So someone thoroughly rejected by the electorate was put in charge of that electorate and also the country.
      The quality or otherwise of this MP would surely be best known in that electorate.,
      MMP has destroyed any semblance of democracy.
      Bureaucracy rules!
      
      11 1
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      September 24, 2025 10:20am
    - OlderChas
      
      Would all foreign countries that we have relations with agree to only hold meetings in the mornings (NZtime) so that tory could get her rest periods in?
      
      8 0
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      September 24, 2025 12:45pm
- rouppe
  
  She looks at all the travel Winston does and thinks “Oh, that would be so cool! I can be paid to have affairs with foreigners! ”
  
  Never mind the actual work required.
  
  13 1
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  September 24, 2025 9:37am
  - pdm
    
    Watch out for your mid morning coffee but:
    
    Can you really imagine Tory Whanau addressing the United Nations on New Zealand’s behalf?
    
    10 0
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    September 24, 2025 10:43am
    - Ponderer
      
      This woman is quite unbelievable – if she can’t see that she has completely destroyed her credibility in the last three years she must be blind ‘ Her old job at the greens is now vacant – maybe she’s missed out on that so is looking for an alternative !. She would need to be picked ahead of Kermit the frog on the greens list and I suspect that’s unlikely !
      
      6 0
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      September 24, 2025 12:21pm
    - Paulus
      
      She may even pretend to be sober at the UN !
      
      5 0
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      September 24, 2025 4:23pm
Stu2

Bemused to see that Wellington local body voting papers are posted to Auckland for scanning. It must be a national contract.
7 0
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September 24, 2025 8:56am
- mandk
  
  If the papers are read by machine, it would probably make sense.
  
  4 0
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  September 24, 2025 10:44am
Positan

Just curious, but on Hosking on Wednesdays, does Ginny Andersen’s over-speaking of Mark Mitchell annoy anyone else? While at no stage ever extending such reverse courtesy to Mitchell herself, she frequently interposes, “let me finish, Mark”, as if in her mind it was an entitlement due only to her when she spoke.
Her fixation in demanding she get her point across appears to stem from a sense of inferiority, in that she feels the points she’s trying to make are so important they simply have to be heard.
Frankly, all she inspires in me is a strong desire to quit listening.
32 0
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September 24, 2025 9:03am
- rouppe
  
  does Ginny Andersen’s over-speaking of Mark Mitchell annoy anyone else?
  
  100%
  
  What’s worse is that he lets her, and then allows himself to get shut down when he does it to her.
  
  19 0
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  September 24, 2025 9:30am
- RoboRob
  
  Ginny is a grat advertisment for National.
  
  18 0
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  September 24, 2025 9:39am
  - wsk12345
    
    Sadly lots of middle aged women – labour green target market – thing that’s amazing, the sign of a
    String woman. That’s how they speak to the men in their lives too , or wish they did.
    
    8 1
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    September 24, 2025 1:42pm
- Graeme Hall
  
  Ginny has achieved the socialist’s dream – travel to Italy for her husband’s birthday. Forget the Proletariat, Ginny is living the dream on the taxpayer’s back. Absurdly high salary + perks for what?
  
  20 0
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  September 24, 2025 9:49am
  - Jack5
    
    Ginny (Virginia Ruby) Andersen seems proud of her great uncle, Bill Andersen, a former president of NZ’s Socialist Unity Party. It broke from the NZ Communist Party in favour of the Soviet Union when Kiwi Communists swung support from Moscow to Bejing.
    
    Ginny’s Great Uncle Bill:
    
    https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/afternoons/audio/2018699466/bill-andersen-s-lifelong-fight-for-workers-rights
    
    9 1
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    September 24, 2025 12:53pm
    - lifesgood
      
      I didn’t know that but it explains a lot. Personally can’t stand her so it begins to make sense…in the genes.
      
      5 0
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      September 24, 2025 4:44pm
- Ron Jeremy
  
  Agreed she is very annoying and I find myself turning it off when that segment is on .
  
  11 0
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  September 24, 2025 11:01am
- Hugh Jarse
  
  “Let me speak” is all about playing the victim. Drives my wife up the wall, Hosking has let her take the show over and has little control over her contribution. It is turn off time when that segment is on.
  
  4 0
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  September 24, 2025 5:50pm
leoj

Climate change is a scam.

Open borders and mass immigration is bad for all countries.

Sadiq Khan is a horrible mayor of London.

These are why I love Trump, because he tells it as it is and he does not think or speak like a politician.

I hope he runs for a third term. He is listed as the 45th and 47th president of the US. The 45th was separate from the 47th so he should be able to run for another four years.

There are no term limits on senators or house reps. There should be no limits on the president either. Let the voters decide.
10 3
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September 24, 2025 10:19am
- AitchW
  
  The 22nd amendment says that no person shall be elected to the office of president more than twice.
  Unless he changes the constitution then this is his last gig. He’d be a million years old if he did a third term.
  
  8 0
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  September 24, 2025 3:04pm
Rusty

Apparently Sept 23rd was the date for the rapture of the church among “some’ christians.

It failed but now I’m being told the 24th is actually the correct date.

These people just don’t give up. Jesus even said no man knows the date of his return but these Nostradamus people think they do.
10 1
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September 24, 2025 10:22am
- mandk
  
  Anyone who proclaims that they know the date of the rapture is guilty of hubris and should be ignored.
  
  Similarly, anyone who believes these false prophets is guilty of not reading the Bible.
  
  8 1
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  September 24, 2025 10:41am
  - Rusty
    
    mandk – agree
    
    5 0
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    September 24, 2025 3:12pm
    - Don Beckett
      
      The “Rapture” is rubbish and has no biblical basis.
      
      2 1
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      September 24, 2025 4:15pm
- sungsamning
  
  Yup, Jesus doesn’t know. But every You Tube huckster with merch to sell does.
  
  0 0
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  September 24, 2025 4:48pm
BeaB

Just wait for NZ to announce a generous quota for refugees from Gaza.
10 0
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September 24, 2025 11:00am
- Jack5
  
  Thank goodness Ardern’s gone from power. She allowed in a thousand or more Muslims in apparent contrition for the Christchurch mosque massacres.
  
  Ardern would have opened the gates to the Gaza folk.
  
  11 0
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  September 24, 2025 12:56pm
  - Notsofast
    
    But not Afghan women and girls for an education.
    That is the noblest current cause, ethically unambiguous.
    
    5 1
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    September 24, 2025 2:05pm
    - Sir Henry Morgan
      
      Honestly, why on earth do we need to be educating Afghan women and girls? You open the door to Afghan females and Afghan men will inevitably follow. Seems like it’s not our problem. Anyway, decades of military action while everyone waited with baited breath for the first female Afghan astronaut ended in tears didn’t it?
      
      Only way to educate Afghan females while keeping Afghan men out would be for the Afghan girls and women arriving in New Zealand to start their schooling to be somehow paired up with local blokes. I can imagine this might appeal to New Zealand farmers or other types in need of hard-working wives and not fussed if they’re a bit rough around the edges. Could set up some booths with uniformed staff just after luggage claim and the MPI biosecurity check point.
      
      3 0
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      September 24, 2025 6:49pm
Vidar

Another Trump win. Despite the left (and others) telling me it’s impossible to deport people en masse

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced that two million illegal aliens have either been deported or self-deported from the United States since President Donald Trump took office on January 20.

According to DHS officials, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents are on pace to deport almost 600,000 illegal aliens by the end of Trump’s first year in his second term.

Broken down more specifically, DHS officials say an estimated 1.6 million illegal aliens have self-deported from the U.S., while ICE agents have deported more than 400,000 illegal aliens.
6 1
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September 24, 2025 2:03pm
- All_on_Red
  
  ‘If you are here illegally and you want to go home, the Department of Homeland Security now offers use of the CBP Home Mobile App so that you can voluntarily self-deport. Through the CBP Home Mobile App, you receive a complimentary plane ticket home, receive a $1,000 exit bonus upon your return, and will have any unpaid fines for failing to timely depart forgiven.’
  https://www.uscis.gov/projecthomecoming
  
  Better than being arrested, sent to Alligator Alcatraz and then deported to wherever.
  Incentives matter.
  
  9 1
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  September 24, 2025 2:29pm
Notsofast

I got this email as response to a query:

From: Law Commission – Ia Tangata

Date: 24/04/2025 13:51 NZST
Subject: RE: News from Te Aka Matua o te Ture | Law Commission – March 2025

Tēnā koe

The Law Commission is not considering criminalising misgendering or deadnaming, whether online or otherwise.

Ngā mihi,
(end)

Now we have this case with international interest:

Links:

https://x.com/KDansky/status/1970527772050071951?t=N52M6fgS8yDl9ssCciJfIg&s=19

https://reduxx.info/maori-woman-facing-jail-time-after-being-reported-to-police-by-trans-activist-for-offensive-social-media-posts/

“During the call, police advised Landy that she was required to refer to Johnston as a “woman” and respect his self-declared gender identity.”

And

“While in court last week, Landy was told the prosecution was not willing to entertain diversion or discharge without conviction because of her beliefs.

“They said I was not eligible because I was in the ‘grip of an ideology’ and was ‘unlikely to change my mind,’” Landy explains, rejecting the premise that a belief in biological sex is ideological. “So this is an exercise in them trying to get me to change my mind.”

She is next expected to appear in court on December 16, and faces three months in jail or a $50,000 fine. Her current bail conditions include a ban on directly or indirectly contacting Johnston.” ”

Worth following this court case.
7 3
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September 24, 2025 2:20pm
- Don Beckett
  
  So we are now approaching the idiocy of the UK.
  This is disgusting.
  
  9 2
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  September 24, 2025 4:20pm
  - Notsofast
    
    This is adults playing stupid games but this legitimising means children get the stupid prizes by way of sterilization and mutilation.
    When will the adults grow up?
    
    4 1
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    September 24, 2025 4:26pm
- waikatosinger
  
  She needs to contact the free speech union.
  
  2 0
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  September 24, 2025 9:11pm
  - Ghost
    
    I don’t think they will pick up the case of a person who has abused and threatened politicians.
    
    0 1
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    September 24, 2025 9:36pm
greybeard

https://www.stuff.co.nz/culture/360833675/get-ready-slow-mo-running-beach-baywatch-coming-back
I heard that Jacinda Ardern, Tory Whanau and Megan Woods were frontrunners for the female leads……………
8 2
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September 24, 2025 2:45pm
rouppe

Ryan Routh really doesn’t think things through.

Routh tried to stab himself in the neck with a pen after the verdict was read, but authorities stopped him.

With a pen. Who does he think he is? John Wick?
11 0
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September 24, 2025 3:09pm
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  Chuck Norris
  
  1 0
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  September 24, 2025 8:38pm
Swifty

I sleep better at night knowing that whenever Chloe flies internationally to combat global climate change she is nice and comfortable in business class:

https://x.com/troy_prophet/status/1970726301104501090?s=46
5 0
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September 24, 2025 6:55pm

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