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December 5, 2025 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 05 December 2025

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General Debate

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Cassandra

The “fog of war”: The dispute about the follow-up strike centres on two issues. If Admiral Bradley, who was in charge of the SEAL Team 6 operation, knowingly and deliberately killed the survivors, both his order and the execution of it could qualify as war crimes. According to the Defense/War Department’s law-of-war manual, “orders to fire upon the shipwrecked would be clearly illegal.” And if, as the Washington Post reported, Bradley acted in response to War Secretary Hegseth’s oral instruction to “kill everybody” on the boat, the operation arguably violated the rule against “declar[ing] that no quarter will be given” or “conduct[ing] hostilities on the basis that there shall be no survivors.” Secretary Hegseth is denying that he gave the order. Putting the blame on Admiral Bradley, a veteran SEAL, is pretty much standard for politicians who don’t know what they’re doing.

The majority on this blog supports killing everyone ie survivors are to be executed. That is a crime. This post is headed “Debate” so can I ask the downtickers to justify their position?

Trump and Cassandra both endorse the first strike and we both criticise the second. Let’s hear why we are wrong. One possibility, reported by the NY Times, is that one of the survivors was using a cell phone. That may (or may not) be a legitimate reason for the second strike.

An investigation is underway. Admiral Bradley is briefing a Congressional committee right now. An initial report (a leak?) says that he denied the rumoured secretarial kill order. More to follow.
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December 5, 2025 8:01am
- Chuck Bird
  
  I agree with you.
  
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  December 5, 2025 8:06am
  - David Garrett
    
    Chuck: which bit do you agree with?
    
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    December 5, 2025 10:07am
    - Chuck Bird
      
      The killing in the first place and the killing of the survivors made it worse.
      
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      December 5, 2025 3:50pm
- Wandering Star
  
  The Trump administration seems quite schizophrenic at the moment: at the same time as they are murdering Venezuelan drug traffickers without due process (and let’s assume they are actually drug traffickers), they are pardoning Honduran drug smugglers.
  
  This strongly supports my consistent contention that it’s not about drugs at all, its about the relative alignments of the Venezuelan and Honduran governments, the former non-aligned and the latter aligned.
  
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  December 5, 2025 8:07am
  - NK
    
    Correct Wandering Star. It has NOTHING at all to do with drug boats. That’s what the CIA feed you, and give the MSM. It’s lies.
    
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    December 5, 2025 9:58am
    - Wandering Star
      
      In a sense, I don’t have much issue with how a hegemonic power such as the US ruthlessly asserts itself. Politics is power, and the more power one possesses, the more it can be exercised. What I do have an issue with is how they blatantly lie, obfuscate and moralise about what they are doing and why, and how they condemn others for behaving in similar ways in their own spheres of influence. More irritating than this, even, is how the gullible public believe them, on the false assumption that “we” are the Good Guys and anything “we” say is justified is actually justified.
      
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      December 5, 2025 10:42am
      - Don Beckett
        
        Or maybe the gullible constant critics who watch only CNN?
        
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        December 5, 2025 1:23pm
      - NK
        
        I agree with you WS and I’m a long time Act voter.
        
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        December 5, 2025 1:29pm
      - Wandering Star
        
        Don, CNN, as an Establishent organ, supports this kind of behavior. To the extent they protest, it is highly superficial. When Obama was murdering innocents in much the same way, they probably saw it as an empowered Black man showing Whitey how to harness the might of Empire.
        
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        December 5, 2025 1:32pm
- BananaLlama
  
  Look up the name Mush Morton if you think they will ever successfully convict someone of killing survivors. He was guilty of something far worse than killing a couple of drug dealers and was let off scott free.
  
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  December 5, 2025 8:19am
  - [email protected]
    
    Mush Morton is your example? A Commander in World War 2 fighting an enemy who :-
    
    -Forced America into the war by conducting an undeclared sneak attack killing hundreds in Pearl Harbour.
    -Whose armed forces regularly shot, starved and tortured both captured servicemen and civilians.
    -Regularly wouldn’t surrender when completely outnumbered and outgunned because their martial code demanded it. Making dealing with surrenders or survivors a very fraught affair.
    
    There is some context to why he made the choices he did and why he wasn’t prosecuted for it.
    
    And if you know anything of US history they have always had a very pragmatic approach to fighting since Abraham Lincoln’s day if not earlier. As Lincoln said “I cannot spare this man, he fights.”.
    
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    December 5, 2025 1:21pm
    - BananaLlama
      
      He machine gunned defenseless allied prisoners of war who were shipwrecked at sea, our allies.
      and nothing has been done about it to this very day so excuse me if i am bit too cynical for you.
      
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      December 5, 2025 2:30pm
    - Steve Todd
      
      Okay, I had decided to ignore BananaLlama’s comment, because he did not bother to provide a link to his source(s).
      
      Then, you respond to him, giving a little bit more information, but also not giving us a link.
      
      This is the link one of you should have provided, as a courtesy to your fellow commenters, so that we could see immediately exactly what you were referring to: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dudley_W._Morton.
      
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      December 5, 2025 3:51pm
- [email protected]
  
  They are throwing Admiral Bradley under the bus.
  
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  December 5, 2025 8:20am
- imalwaysright
  
  The main problem here is that the US military didn’t kill them all in the first strike.
  
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  December 5, 2025 8:42am
- Scott
  
  I disagree with you. The New York Times tells us that a strike was ordered on the boat. The boat was not destroyed with the first shot. So the admiral ordered a second shot to destroy the boat. Otherwise the drug dealers might retrieve the boat and its cargo.
  
  Hegseth ordered the strike but issued no orders after that.
  There is no rule you can only fire once. As in world War 1 and world war 2 you fire until the enemy ship is destroyed. There is no rule that you can’t fire because enemy sailors are in the water.
  
  Lastly you are being played. This is a Democrat hit job running along the exact same lines as Russia, Russia, Russia. And you are falling for it. Again? Have you learned nothing?
  This media furore is designed to build the narrative that Trump is issuing illegal orders and the armed services should defy his illegal orders. When the democrats put out the video about illegal orders people said in response, what illegal orders?
  
  This narrative is designed to be an example of illegal orders.
  Somehow firing more than one shot is a war crime and an illegal order? That’s patently absurd.
  There is a wrong end of the stick and you have firmly grasped it. Sorry. 🙄
  
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  December 5, 2025 9:07am
  - NK
    
    It’s you being played, Scott.
    
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    December 5, 2025 9:59am
    - kowtow
      
      Talking of being played , that’s exactly what’s going on .
      
      The rabid media in the US and here are singing from the far left crim hugging Dem songsheet because Team Trump is the target .
      
      All this’ concern ‘ about the law and a few scum drug traffickers .
      
      Meanwhile in the USA the same rabid media and Dems are very happy for the rule of law to be utterly abused re the release / non holding of violent illegal immigrants in “sanctuary cities” where the killing, raping and stealing from law abiding US citizens by said violent illegal immigrants runs rampant .
      
      Played indeed.
      
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      December 5, 2025 11:12am
      - Phronesis
        
        Remember when Biden directly ordered the death of 10 innocent afghans, including 7 children as young as 2. The family of an Aid worker no less.
        
        https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-58604655
        
        “One of those killed, Ahmad Naser, had been a translator with US forces. Other victims had previously worked for international organisations and held visas allowing them entry to the US.”
        
        These guys would be US citizens by now if Biden hadn’t ordered their execution.
        
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        December 5, 2025 11:51am
      - All_on_Red
        
        They are easy to ‘play’ because of their Confirmation Bias.
        Its quite funny really.
        
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        December 5, 2025 12:35pm
      - Wandering Star
        
        I would call myself far right and illiberal and I believe convicted criminals should be dealt with harshly, in some cases via the death penalty.
        
        In other words, I’m the opposite of a far left crim hugger.
        
        My opposition here is just my rejection of extrajudicial killings for geopolitical reasons by US forces, very likely on false pretexts. Does this mean I’m being “played” too?
        
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        December 5, 2025 1:55pm
      - Phronesis
        
        WS you are being played if you’re getting excited about this incident while ignoring the long history of such incidents.
        
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        December 5, 2025 4:32pm
    - NK
      
      I mean, FFS, he’s getting information from the MSM – The New York Times!!
      
      I don’t believe anything the MSM reports. Nothing.
      
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      December 5, 2025 1:30pm
      - Scott
        
        NK – regarding the New York Times I would generally agree with you. However on this occasion they are supplying information that is helpful to Trump, normally the last thing they would want to do. So if even the New York Times is not going with the “war crimes” narrative that tells you something.
        
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        December 5, 2025 3:36pm
  - slightlyrighty
    
    Scott. You miss salient points in your argument.
    
    The main one is this.
    
    The U.S. military cannot arbitrarily kill people who are not directly attacking them. U.S. military personnel are strictly bound by the U.S. Constitution, federal laws, military regulations (such as the DoD Law of War Manual), and international Law of Armed Conflict (LOAC), which includes the principles found in the Geneva Conventions and customary international law.
    
    Forces must at all times distinguish between combatants and civilians. Attacks may only be directed against military objectives and combatants; civilians and non-combatants are protected from attack unless and for such time as they take a direct part in hostilities.
    
    At a Prima Facie level, a crime has been committed. This is a classic example of an illegal order.
    
    Our own defence forces has been involved in a number of operations to interdict and arrest drug runners, and have done so legally.
    
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    December 5, 2025 10:36am
    - Scott
      
      Slightly, so you don’t agree with the first shot, never mind the second shot.
      The administration has said that they are in a war with the cartels and that justifies the use of lethal force. It’s a war situation.
      
      Given the thousands that have died of fentanyl overdoses and so forth in America I thinks it’s a reasonable argument.
      
      Here is the New York times article I referenced –
      
      https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/01/us/hegseth-drug-boat-strike-order-venezuela.html
      
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      December 5, 2025 11:56am
      - Steve Todd
        
        Fentanyl is not entering the US from Venezuela. As I understand it, it is coming in from Mexico and China. As others have said, this matter has nothing to do with drugs.
        
        For the record, in my view, all 83 people on the 21 boats have been murdered, pure and simple. Unfortunately, it will take up to 10 years to bring those responsible (including the execrable Hegseth) to justice, and Trump, of course, will escape justice entirely.
        
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        December 5, 2025 4:22pm
      - Ghost
        
        This is a small amount of the drugs that enter the USA being targeted.
        
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        December 5, 2025 4:36pm
    - Jake Dee
      
      Thanks for that.
      I disagree with your position but you are getting much closer to the crux of the matter than most commenters here who seem to be focusing far to much on the “drug runners are scum” or the “MSM are scum” angles.
      For me the crux of the matter is whether or not designating the narco cartels as terrorist groups is correct or not. I’m willing to hear both sides of that argument, but once the decision has been made (and made correctly) then the civilian/combatant distinction has been made, they are combatants, not civilians and so can be targeted accordingly.
      Your idea that “The U.S. military cannot arbitrarily kill people who are not directly attacking them.” is false.
      You can shoot a man with a gun but you can also shoot his gun, his car, his radio and the warehouse full of his guns cars radios and money.
      If these narco cartels are terrorist you can definitely blow up a big pile of their narcotics, it’s the lifeblood of their operation. The death and destruction just has to be proportional to achieve the desired results.
      Here’s an interesting one to consider (and certainly more relevant than Commander Dudley “Mush” Morton machine gunning shipwrecked sailors in 1943).
      Several of the anti-ISIS forces attacked oil refineries and tanker trucks in the ISIS occupied oil fields of Syria. A lot of those people killed would not have been ISIS at all, just regular civilian workers, but the oil was a crucial supply for ISIS so it was legally destroyed and the civilian workers with it.
      How does that fit into your moral calculations?
      Were those attacks crimes?
      
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      December 5, 2025 5:11pm
  - surfing
    
    Do you have inside info?
    
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    December 5, 2025 10:44am
  - Ra Henare
    
    Just a small adjustment in the cause of truth. 🙂
    
    An alleged drug running boat in International waters is not “”an enemy ship””
    
    as previously mentioned, the US/Like Israel Ignores international law and conventions and does whatever it wants. Because???? they can.
    
    The really amusing thing is that leadership in both Nationals rail against bullying!! Hypocrites.
    
    PS> Anybody who thinks this is all about drugs is delusional.
    
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    December 5, 2025 4:00pm
- In Vino Veritas
  
  If the objective (which I am assuming was to destroy the boat and its cargo) was not completed, a second strike to complete the mission is entirely acceptable. Whether or not there were survivors on the boat is moot. If the boat and cargo were destroyed (and still floating means neither boat nor cargo was destroyed), and the survivors in the water, then things would be different.
  Further, personally, I put no truck in any media reports out of the US from the usual suspects as they lie (Hegseth has been a target from the day he got the job). Nor would I listen to any increasingly rabid Democrat politicians, they too make shit up.
  
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  December 5, 2025 9:40am
  - surfing
    
    I don’t think we’ll ever find out the truth.
    It could also be a case of Lady Godiva — everyone knows, but noone will say.
    
    At these levels of power, narratives can be spun and presented in any way.
    
    Look at the Khashoggi killing — literally murdered on the orders King Salman. Yet, this is not the narrative in his home country.
    
    Remember the early days of the Ukraine war — Putin was reported dying of all sorts of diseases, yet, he looks great today. Can’t trust the news or authorities.
    
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    December 5, 2025 11:26am
    - In Vino Veritas
      
      “I don’t think we’ll ever find out the truth”. Don’t be so sure. The second strike has been viewed by Congress. If the boat was still afloat, and the crew still aboard, it won’t, and cannot be a war crime. Just because the crew survived the first strike, doesn’t get them off the hook as has been bandied about by Democrats and the US media.
      
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      December 5, 2025 3:07pm
- rouppe
  
  Things is, no one here has seen the full video, as it’s not been released. So determining motive for the second strike is purely conjecture.
  
  Your position is that the boat was struck, disabling it. Any subsequent strike is then illegal.
  
  But what’s the mission objective? Disabling a drug trafficking boat, or destroying the cargo?
  
  If it’s the latter, and the cargo wasn’t destroyed, and therefore recoverable, is a second strike warranted in order to complete the objective?
  
  I don’t particularly recall you being so angry when more than one bunker buster was put into the Iranian nuclear enrichment facility. Why not? Because you couldn’t see the facility? Or any number of workers in that facility?
  
  It’s the same thing. The objective is to destroy the enrichment facility/drugs. If it takes two shots to do that, well, it takes two shots.
  
  What if the USA took the Viet Cong strategy? Disable the boat in order to attract rescuers so you can get more of them later. Would that be legitimate targets?
  
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  December 5, 2025 9:44am
- NK
  
  I raised this here on GD a few days ago, and was left with many downticks. I was told the USA would not bomb Venezuelan boats. As I mentioned then, this has NOTHING to do with drug boats. It’s about oil, and Venezuela trading in it to BRICS countries, and paying in RMB. This is a message from the imperialist USA trying to protect its trade and economic hegemony. I despise them.
  
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  December 5, 2025 9:56am
  - Don Beckett
    
    Why would the USA want Venezuelan oil? – the USA is an oil exporter. And besides, Venezuelan oil is very poor quality crude & is expensive to refine.
    
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    December 5, 2025 10:44am
    - Ra Henare
      
      Don, reread NKS post!!!
      
      US doesn’t want the oil, they want regime change to stop Venezuela selling their oil to the “”bad guys”” in that filthy Chinese currency.
      
      and of course CONTROL of world oil and who gets it.
      
      This theatre about drug running boats is just a pathetic side show.
      
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      December 5, 2025 4:06pm
  - Scott
    
    NK
    And you deserved those many down ticks. Once a person starts talking about imperialist America and economic hegemony then we know we are in the presence of a hard leftist.
    
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    December 5, 2025 11:59am
    - Jake Dee
      
      Stop tone policing.
      Switch out leftist “imperialist America” and “economic hegemony” for rightist “American global pre-eminence” and “Leadership in the Rules Based International Order” and we’re still talking about exactly the same thing.
      Debate the substance, not the style.
      
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      December 5, 2025 3:58pm
  - All_on_Red
    
    ‘I personally witnessed how Hugo Chávez’s government became a criminal organization that is now run by Nicolás Maduro, Diosdado Cabello, and other senior regime officials.
    
    The purpose of this organization, now known as the Cartel of the Suns is to weaponize drugs against the United States. The drugs that reached your cities through new routes were not accidents of corruption nor just the work of independent traffickers; they were deliberate policies coordinated by the Venezuelan regime against the United States.’
    https://pjmedia.com/sarah-anderson/2025/12/04/maduros-ex-insider-turns-snitch-and-sends-trump-an-explosive-letter-n4946687
    
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    December 5, 2025 12:33pm
- Cassandra
  
  Update: Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.) said Bradley denied a Washington Post report that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth had issued an order to kill all survivors. “The admiral confirmed that there had not been a ‘kill them all’ order, and that there was not an order to grant ‘no quarter’,” Himes said, according to The Hill and CNN. As he left the briefing, according to the Associated Press, Sen. Tom Cotton, chairman of the Senate intelligence committee, said that Bradley “was very clear that he was given no such order, to give no quarter or to kill them all. He was given an order that, of course, was written down in great detail.”
  
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  December 5, 2025 10:19am
  - All_on_Red
    
    ‘MARTHA RADDATZ, ABC NEWS: So we’ve seen the video of the first strike, but that second strike video that the president said would be released will be key. And tonight, new information. According to a source familiar with the incident, the two survivors climbed back onto the boat after the initial strike.
    
    They were believed to be potentially in communication with others and salvaging some of the drugs. Because of that, it was determined they were still in the fight and valid targets. A JAG officer was also giving legal advice. ‘
    https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2025/12/03/raddatz_survivors_of_drug_boat_strike_tried_to_salvage_drugs_were_in_communication_with_supplier.html
    
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    December 5, 2025 12:31pm
  - Jake Dee
    
    So now you have to carefully consider what made you run with the “Hegseth said “kill ’em all” line in the first place.
    The drug war in Latin America is small potatoes compared to the propaganda info-war, that’s global.
    It’s a war in which everyone of us can become casualties, learn the techniques of mental self defense and practice them at all times.
    
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    December 5, 2025 3:46pm
- leoj
  
  I want drug traffickers eleminated, no matter what.
  
  This fiasco is merely another attempt to paint Trump as the villain when the real villains are the traffickers.
  
  As usual, the Dumbocrats are siding with criminals.
  
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  December 5, 2025 11:15am
  - kowtow
    
    They all guffawed and pooh poohed the ‘war on drugs” and now there is one , finally , they’re on the side of the narco murderers.
    
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    December 5, 2025 12:32pm
- Jake Dee
  
  Alright, I’ll justify my position, it’s in 2 parts, roughly what was said and what was done.
  1) What did Secretary Hegseth actually say, when did he say it, where did he say it, who was there, and what was the full context of what was said?
  Is “kill everybody” direct speech or someone else’s paraphrase? It’s not a full sentence, it must be part of a longer conversation, so what is it?
  Stripping crucial who, what, when, where, details out of stories is a key propaganda technique, it prevents it from being debunked.
  2) Two missiles were fired at the presumptive narco boat. The first when everything and everyone was intact, the second when the boat and cargo was partially destroyed and men wounded.
  If the mission was to totally destroy the cargo regardless of narco traffickers lives lost, then it’s perfectly legitimate. How can the first missile be legal and the second illegal if two missile are required?
  
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  December 5, 2025 2:44pm
- CJames
  
  They are now reporting that some people survived the first strike, climbed back in the boat, were attempting to salvage the cargo and were in communication with other boats in the area to come and salvage the drugs. There was also a JAG lawyer present when the order for second strike was given.
  If this is correct, then it puts a totally different picture there and destroys many previous commenters’ assertions.
  
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  December 5, 2025 5:16pm
TripeWryter

I think I am on the side of the Victoria University professor who objects to being greeted with ‘Hey’ in e-mails.
Thirty years ago when she was a teenager one of my daughters had a boyfriend.
He always greeted me on the phone with ‘Hey!’
I hated it. It just grated. Perhaps it was because, deep down, I could not stand him.
I said to him one day: ‘What’s this Hey! business?’
It sailed over his head.
Eventually she saw the light and dumped him.
I think if the Korean professor doesn’t like being greeted that way then her wishes should be respected.
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December 5, 2025 8:04am
- imalwaysright
  
  The professor should stop being so precious.
  
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  December 5, 2025 9:13am
  - TripeWryter
    
    Why do you think she’s being precious?
    
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    December 5, 2025 10:05am
    - NothingLeft
      
      because this isn’t stick-up-arse 1940’s, and form of salutation in emails or on phone outside of intended insults has absolutely no impact on anything if there are mentally balanced adults involved on both ends of conversation
      
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      December 5, 2025 10:59am
    - imalwaysright
      
      Its an extremely minor thing to get upset about.
      
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      December 5, 2025 11:21am
  - Christopher Thomson
    
    So we can stop using preferred pronouns for the mentally disadvantaged?
    
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    December 5, 2025 4:51pm
- PeterTrentham
  
  If people greet me with ‘Hey’, I reply ‘no thanks, I have just eaten’.
  
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  December 5, 2025 9:13am
  - TripeWryter
    
    PeterTrentham:
    I tried that once, too. Went over his head.
    
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    December 5, 2025 10:06am
  - NZer In Exile
    
    I just reply “Hi”.
    
    Even more annoying is the extended “Heeeeey” in a syrupy tone. More annoying still is ‘sup? The later usually comes from insecure kiddies trying to sound cool. All trivial first world “issues”in the scheme of things I guess.
    
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    December 5, 2025 8:39pm
- Kiwisaint
  
  Hey!
  
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  December 5, 2025 9:55am
  - MiddleclassTrash
    
    Hail Jacinda!
    
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    December 5, 2025 11:30am
- mw
  
  It seems timely reading your post as my son just had a job interview a couple of weeks ago and a follow up in email.
  I saw his draft reply where he started Hey James, …
  
  I changed it while he was gone, fixed a spelling mistake and when he got back I told him the importance when dealing with people you don’t know of being formal. You don’t know when you will use some slang or abbreviation that turns them off and makes someone else look like a better candidate. On the other hand, no one will ever take offence to using proper english.
  
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  December 5, 2025 10:03am
  - TripeWryter
    
    mw:
    Exactly so.
    My daughter – the one with the dodgy boyfriend – grew up, became an adult, and works in jobs where she has to hire and fire people.
    She disregards people who can’t be bothered writing properly.
    She says it suggests laziness.
    
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    December 5, 2025 11:08am
    - pdm
      
      Grandson , just turned 21 is upgrading his CV with the objective of changing jobs from Orcharding to Viticulture.
      
      He lives with us and we are trying to impress on him the need for good grammar, spelling and setting out.
      
      First impressions count.
      
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      December 5, 2025 11:54am
      - Paulus
        
        But are you forgetting the the most important language now in Aotearoa is Maori so can we assume he is competent in that language ?
        
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        December 5, 2025 1:41pm
  - lifesgood
    
    So I can image that same self university insisting that people refer to the mentally ill as “they” at their request but when an esteemed professor objects to “hey” they censure her. Can someone please explain this or is Victoria University run by a bunch of half wits?
    
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    December 5, 2025 11:24am
    - Christopher Thomson
      
      A rhetorical question?
      
      “Can someone please explain this or is Victoria University run by a bunch of half wits?”
      
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      December 5, 2025 4:52pm
  - R
    
    A very good dictum for young minds. Not emphasized nearly enough at school in the past. Erica may have this fault corrected by now. Hope so.
    
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    December 5, 2025 12:08pm
- kowtow
  
  Just as bad is the kia ora , nga mihi virtue signalling, in a language no one uses.
  
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  December 5, 2025 12:34pm
slightlyrighty

We are starting to see the fruits of the measures taken by the National led government, and the segment where I think we have had the most success would have to be education.

I was thinking about the differences between the Left wing and right wing approach to education. I think that the fundamental difference is that Left leaning educators teach students so that the educators can feel better about the students, while right leaning educators teach students to feel better about themselves.
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December 5, 2025 8:04am
- Positan
  
  Slightly, The RIGHT approach (politically and existentially) is to teach HOW to think.
  
  The LEFT approach is to teach WHAT to think – which is why so few of those who endorse the credo, actually can think for themselves.
  
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  December 5, 2025 9:34am
- Burtland
  
  believe the propaganda if you like because thats all it is
  
  organisations with strong marxist ideologies such as NZCER are still major players in the education sector and are at the heart of educational failure – they are all government funded – NZCER has 50 staff
  
  NZCER recently changed their ‘strategic priority’ from decolonisnig education in NZ to
  
  +Improving equity in education
  +Māori educational aspirations anchor our work
  +Strengthening aromatawai and assessment for learning
  +Centring(sp) indigenous knowledge in education
  +Transforming education in a changing world
  
  The Minister needs to defund this cancer if reforms are to be long lasting – changing a web page is appeasement.
  
  These marxist organisations are easily identified – root-and-branch reform by new management should eliminate them.
  
  https://www.nzcer.org.nz/about-nzcer
  
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  December 5, 2025 10:12am
Positan

Given the number of comparatively trivial issues in recent months on which our left-endorsing mainstream media has chosen to burble and prattle about extensively, it is utterly fascinating – nay, absolutely incredible – that Willie Jackson’s utterly corrupt and appalling MUMA performance has been so pointedly bypassed and “overlooked” by the mainstream media.

Jackson, in acting true to form as the elemental thug he really is, has surpassed virtually every historic instance in NZ politics where parliamentarians have seriously blotted their copybooks and been forced to end their parliamentary career.

Yet despite the matter having featured extensively on blogs, social media (and even Hosking mentioned it) for at least three days, NZ’s mainstream media has carried absolutely NOTHING about it whatsoever.

If I might employ a fatuous expression reportedly utilised yesterday by one MP in respect of the fate of the Gordon Wilson flats – if Jackson receives the punishment his corrupt and bullying actions so patently deserves, at the very least his parliamentary “career” is “goneburger.”
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December 5, 2025 8:09am
- Scooter
  
  Michael Laws very good interview with Matt McCarten. Important to note that MUMA are primarily funded by tax payers. Tania Rangiheuea the CEO who is accused of bullying is the wife of Willie Jackson.
  
  https://theplatform.kiwi/podcasts/episode/matt-mccarten-is-willie-jackson-caught-up-in-a-darleen-tana-moment
  
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  December 5, 2025 9:24am
  - imalwaysright
    
    Jackson has trespassed McCarten and his union’s staff from the MUMA workplace.
    Pretty sure that is illegal.
    
    As Laws said, this is far more serious than the Darleen Tana debacle.
    Willie has to resign from Parliament.
    
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    December 5, 2025 10:20am
    - pdm
      
      Willie Jackson will never get the DCM from Parliament because of this.
      
      From the Prime Minister through the Leader of The Opposition to Mr. Speaker there is not one man with the balls to do it.
      
      Jackson in Parliament is a protected species.
      
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      December 5, 2025 11:58am
      - imalwaysright
        
        Correct.
        
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        December 5, 2025 12:28pm
      - G the giant from Dunedin
        
        The only one that you mentioned who could do something about it as you say is the silent poor performer (when it comes to punishment) is the silent Hipkins, he has know this issue since September and has gone down the Coster road of ignoring the complaint.
        
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        December 5, 2025 1:16pm
  - R
    
    Peas in a pod aren’t they!
    
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    December 5, 2025 12:11pm
- Northshoredoc
  
  Jackson and Tamihere are cut from the same cloth.
  
  They employ similar tactics to not so petty gangsters whose only interest is their and their families own finances and prestige.
  
  They fact they have yet to resort to violence to protect their patches shouldn’t stop criminal proceedings and the immediate cessation of all public funding of their operations.
  
  I find their repeated accusations of racism when anyone dares question their behaviour to be disgracceful.
  
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  December 5, 2025 9:45am
  - Scooter
    
    Nepotism runs deep in Maoridom.
    
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    December 5, 2025 10:18am
  - NothingLeft
    
    The west will fall if we allow people with tribal, sectarian or race based decision making processes to hold positions of power. It inevitably fosters corruption and destroys trust basis for efficient operation of society and effective rule of law.
    
    Just see how things are falling apart in racially/culturally segregating societies of Europe and USA if you want to see evidence of this. People putting family, religion or ethnic allegiances ahead of rule of law debases and wrecks the institutions that made the west great – and leads you to replicating post colonial decline we see in places that have reverted to tribalism
    
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    December 5, 2025 11:05am
    - Observant Octagenarian
      
      Well you are seeing the impact of the United Nations Declaration of Indigenous Peoples.
      
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      December 5, 2025 12:27pm
      - NZer In Exile
        
        The UN needs to be told to piss off. They are long long past their use by date and now full of extremist lefty twits.
        
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        December 5, 2025 8:42pm
    - R
      
      This comment highlights the direction NZwas heading during the ‘ardernhipkins era of mismanagement. A prospect that we are still in danger of slipping back into, judging from MSM opinion pieces and agenda promotion.
      
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      December 5, 2025 12:55pm
- Simon
  
  NZ future is the third world. Get used to it.
  
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  December 5, 2025 11:41am
  - NZer In Exile
    
    I think a majority (just) of part-Maori are politically sensible and see TPM as idiots or at least seriously misguided. Ditto a majority of non-part-Maori. What NZ doesn’t currently have and is needed desperately is a political leader to rally those sensible people. But yeah the current trajectory looks seriously disturbing (as it does in many western countries).
    
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    December 5, 2025 8:53pm
- keepcalmcarryon
  
  Well Jackson IS the actual leader of the Labour Party so it’s hard to make him quit as an MP.
  How can the white woke whimps oust a protected person?
  They can’t.
  
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  December 5, 2025 3:03pm
rockape

Is the file of, “ what would you have done” I give you a family example and ask you respond.
My father volunteered as a young sergeant to stay behind at Dunkirk with his platoon to slow and sabotage the German advance. Most of his platoon were killed and it was just him and a young Corporal. He came across a German platoon resting who promptly surrendered to the two of them. Now he is 30 miles behind German lines. So what is his answer ? Try and March them back to the British side? Let them go knowing it would be the end for you soon. Or do what he did, kill them all.
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December 5, 2025 8:11am
- Wandering Star
  
  If you are saying that he killed these POWs, it sounds like your father was a war criminal.
  
  But is this a boastful lie told by your father? Why would a platoon of Germans, who were winning, surrender to two guys?
  
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  December 5, 2025 8:15am
  - Libertarians are right
    
    Because they came upon a group of unarmed German soldiers (still a legitimate target) and had them dead to rights. The Germans “surrendered” because that was their only option, knowing that they would either escape, slow down or incapacitate their captors. There was no way to fulfil their mission with those soldiers alive. It’s an awful choice to make but it was the best choice for the two soldiers.
    
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    December 5, 2025 9:17am
  - rockape
    
    Thirty guys sitting enjoying breakfast v two guys with machine guns! So I ask again what of the three options would you have taken. You didn’t answer. My father went from their to Scotland to train the French resistance, see the book by Sir James Hutchinson called “ That Drug Danger “ then post war became Sir James’s political organiser when he was MP for Glasgow Central. My father finished is war through North Africa and Italy and served post. War as a Major in the TA until he was 55. Ps I have read his situation for Mentioned in Dispatches for his action at Dunkirk.
    
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    December 5, 2025 9:19am
    - Wandering Star
      
      He probably should have escaped across the Channel with the rest of the fleeing British forces, rather than committing a war crime. By your own admission the Germans surrendered, which made them POWs protected under law.
      
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      December 5, 2025 9:58am
      - rockape
        
        [ Mod – you said that already ]
        
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        December 5, 2025 12:40pm
    - imalwaysright
      
      Thirty guys shouldn’t have been sitting around necking bratwurst.
      There should have been a perimeter set up to protect those eating.
      
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      December 5, 2025 10:58am
- Michael Johnston
  
  My honest answer – I don’t know and I’m immensely grateful I’ve never had to find out. What I do know is that I honour your father and his generation for making the hard choices that were necessary to defend liberty.
  
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  December 5, 2025 8:56am
- Cassandra
  
  Rock: that’s a classic dilemma. In some circumstances it’s not a war crime.
  
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  December 5, 2025 8:57am
  - pdm
    
    A `them or us’ situation Cass,
    
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    December 5, 2025 9:06am
  - Wandering Star
    
    Please explain under what circumstances is it permissible to kill captured soldiers who have surrendered?
    
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    December 5, 2025 9:19am
    - Swifty
      
      When they’re members of the 1st SS Panzer Division who have just perpetrated the Malmedy Massacre?
      
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      December 5, 2025 10:13am
      - Wandering Star
        
        According to whose evidence? If we just cite some alleged atrocity as a reason to commit another atrocity, this tends to undermine and negate any self-assigned moral superiority. Surely you see the difficulty here?
        
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        December 5, 2025 11:30am
      - In Vino Veritas
        
        Swifty, this is a similar situation as Rockape’s father. The Waffen-SS captured 80 odd Americans. They were advancing at speed and could not take the prisoners with them. Nor could they spare the manpower to take them back. What to do? Since the Waffen-SS involved were judged to have committed a war crime, then what of Rockape’s father? If one has sympathy for Rockape’s fathers position at the time, then shouldn’t the same courtesy be extended to the Waffen-SS at Malmedy? Or is it just the losers that are considered to have committed a war crime?
        
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        December 5, 2025 12:46pm
    - Libertarians are right
      
      When they are still a legitimate threat. For example if there are 30 enemy soldiers and only two of you and you are behind enemy lines. The legality is probably on your side though. Not that it matters when it’s your life on the line.
      
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      December 5, 2025 10:37am
      - rockape
        
        He stayed behind so others could escape. It’s called sacrifice. He didn’t expect to come home, but being a gamekeepers son was fairl expert at field craft. You obviously don’t understand the military. I guess you would have pushed to the fro t of the queue to run to safety.
        
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        December 5, 2025 12:42pm
      - R
        
        No indication of how well armed the German platoon was, and what was the ‘surprise advantage that your father and mate held; before the Germans could act ND shoot dad and mate
        
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        December 5, 2025 1:07pm
      - Libertarians are right
        
        Rockape. I was giving Wandering Star a clear example of why what your Grand Father did was warranted, at least on moral grounds. Legally, where people that have never been in that position decide what is legally right or wrong, maybe not. But I am 100% behind what your Grandfather did to protect himself and his partner.
        
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        December 5, 2025 2:31pm
    - NothingLeft
      
      If you are Russian obviously (they’ve tortured and murdered 100’s of ukrainian POWs, in many cases on camera)
      
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      December 5, 2025 11:09am
    - Don Beckett
      
      FFS it happened 85 years ago.
      
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      December 5, 2025 11:12am
      - imalwaysright
        
        Correct, everything should be judged according to its time and the context.
        
        Litigating blame or credit without that knowledge is just gas bagging.
        
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        December 5, 2025 12:07pm
    - rockape
      
      I expect you think bomber pilots who bombed civilians should also all be considered war criminals! I think it’s best you start brushing up on your Chinese.
      
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      December 5, 2025 12:45pm
      - Wandering Star
        
        Yes, pilots bombing civilians are clearly war criminals.
        
        “We were only following orders” was rejected as a defence for the Germans, so why should the Allies have recourse to it?
        
        Bomber Command, for instance, were never held to account, and this was just because their side won the war, not because they didn’t participate in atrocities.
        
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        December 5, 2025 1:39pm
      - Jake Dee
        
        What if you’re bombing a military production facility manned by civilians?
        The famous Dam Busters raid for example killed at least a thousand slave laborers.
        I don’t think that made it into the movie.
        
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        December 5, 2025 6:39pm
    - Jake Dee
      
      when you have no capacity to take them prisoner.
      
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      December 5, 2025 2:48pm
    - Ipanema69
      
      What rockapes relative did was legal. The german troops were combatants. In rockapes description of the action the enemy were never disarmed or taken into custody and hence had not become POW. There is no obligation on the attacking force to immediately accept an offer of surrender.
      
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      December 5, 2025 6:45pm
  - imalwaysright
    
    “Rock: that’s a classic dilemma..”
    
    Why is it a classic dilemma?
    War isn’t a recent concept, surely situations such as this have occured many times.
    
    Wouldn’t there be a ‘self preservation’ rule? Or a ‘situation beyond control’ rule?
    
    Would it be a ‘classic dilemma’ if two Germans blew 30 kiwis into the afterlife?
    
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    December 5, 2025 12:33pm
- Simon
  
  Interesting stuff. Do you think NZ should start to build prison camps for Chinese in case of a war between GAE and China. What was your father’s experience when dealing with prisoners? NZ will face the same problem if keep on the war path of cretins.
  
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  December 5, 2025 9:13am
- rouppe
  
  If his intent was to slow and sabotage the German advance, why would two men step up to thirty and say “hands up” if he intended to kill them anyway.
  
  Why wouldn’t he just open fire with the element of surprise?
  
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  December 5, 2025 9:51am
  - rockape
    
    Gee you’re naive. Firstly if you start firing you’re going to get some fire returned. If you tell them to leave their weapons they believe they have a chance of life and will take it.
    Most of the stuff ups behind enemy lines even to this date involve showing mercy. The SAS patrol that lost 6 of its team of 8 because they spared a young goat herd to name just one. The goat herd alerted the Talliban and that patrol paid a heavy price. War isn’t fun, civilians get killed .
    
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    December 5, 2025 3:12pm
Chuck Bird

I went to hear Dr Will Happer at Clevedon, Auckland. I was very impressed, as were most there.

I asked him about the use of inhibitors to reduce methane emissions from livestock. He said this was harmful. Luxon wants to pressure farmers to use these inhibitors.

Who is right, our farmers or Luxon?
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December 5, 2025 8:12am
- [email protected]
  
  I vote for the farmers. Using/feeding inhibitors to livestock to reduce methane emissions is unnatural and could have unintended results.
  
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  December 5, 2025 8:23am
  - Positan
    
    “Unintended results” – like poisoning, or inducing cancers in consumers..
    
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    December 5, 2025 9:20am
- Dudley Quaffquaff
  
  Fine, stipulate that dairy farmers can’t reduce their own emissions without exorbitant cost and/or animal welfare problems.
  
  So what?
  
  That’s a reason why they shouldn’t be expected to reduce their own emissions.
  
  It’s not a reason why they shouldn’t have to make any contribution to the effort to reduce overall emissions. They can and should pay others who can do it more cheaply than they can.
  
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  December 5, 2025 9:02am
  - Don Beckett
    
    Dairy farming WRT to carbon & methane emissions is garbage – farming is a closed cycle.
    That was proven years ago, but ‘crickets’ from the Climate enthusiasts.
    
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    December 5, 2025 10:54am
    - Dudley Quaffquaff
      
      Please cite the paper that proved it?
      
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      December 5, 2025 11:56am
- Burtland
  
  the political and science elite have allowed the climate change junket to completely derail the economy
  
  why are we wasting time and money trying to ‘fix’ ruminant (in)digestion
  
  the same with kiwifruit – millions being spent developing varieties that can cope with climatic temperature rise, creating nurseries in northland to raise these varieties in projects with 20yr time frames – they could just encourage new orchards further south
  
  the worst is the Paris Commitment – a naive promise which will result it billions being paid to offshore boondoggles – the Kyoto agreement failed from this stupidity
  
  a generation of lost opportunity
  
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  December 5, 2025 10:39am
Southern Raider

The fallacy of race based education

Pakuranga College posted about their Pacifica and Maori students attending a UoA open day.

Sounds positive until you looked into the details
– in responding to a question in the comments Pakuranga Collage said UoA had this special day only for Pacifica and Maori students and others weren’t allowed to attend
– many of the kids were very blond and blue eyed in the picture

So racism is alive and well still at UoA. Plus there is no leg up for just those who need it, but instead kids who may come from good and wealthy families but have the right blood can get preferential treatment in our University system.

Effectively a white looking kid from Remuera with a splash of Tongan blood would get accepted into Med School over a poor European kid from a dysfunctional family
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December 5, 2025 8:14am
- Notsofast
  
  This fractionally driven privilege is an accelerating disaster for New Zealand as the country evolves to a melting pot. There is everything wrong with calling a one quarter maori 3 quarter European child maori. He is European with a touch of maori ancestry.
  Willie Jackson is not maori, he is chinese ashkenazi jew with a trace of Polynesian.
  It is a total distortion of science, common sense observation, and leads to preposterous misallocation of resource.
  And it seems without black blood in the body you can forget medical school short of being Einstein.
  
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  December 5, 2025 9:41am
Philview

I was looking at Breakingviews earlier and saw JC’s article about what is really motivating the media behind their stories on Colonel Brendan Jull. They have tied the story into his son, the Platform and the Free Speech Union. It is amazing when someone clears the fog and a bigger picture emerges and we can see an ideologically motivated journalist not just reporting a story but pushing a wider attack agenda.
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December 5, 2025 8:29am
- TripeWryter
  
  Philview:
  I found the John McLean piece on Breaking Views that you refer to.
  I read the Paula Penfold story the other day.
  It seemed straightforward although her distaste was obvious.
  Colonel Jull did send a dick photo to someone he knew and that someone apparently was no stranger to him and the appendage.
  Five years ago.
  He didn’t send it to a teenage schoolgirl, for example, which would have been a most sackable offence.
  But … as with anything written by a Stuff journalist (particularly by Paula Penfold and Andrea Vance and Tova O’Brien) I couldn’t work out what we were not being told. What was the ‘angle’?
  The anonymous sources: we have to take the journalist as their word that the sources are real and not the product of interviewing their keyboards.
  But I think we’re entitled to ask: what is the axe the anonymous sources are grinding here?
  What is Paula Penfold being used for?
  Were the sources women officers?
  The Army commander is a woman.
  Why were they disgusted if the pic was private to a woman who was familiar with him?
  Journalists and their bosses still seem to be oblivious of the lack of public trust in them.
  They’re still carrying on with their brand of journalism, in which only one side of the story gets told – or the side that suits the journalist.
  
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  December 5, 2025 10:52am
  - Philview
    
    I referenced the wrong writer so thanks for picking it up. It will be interesting to listen to Sean Plunket’s viewpoint as he has prominently backed the son’s free speech issue.
    
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    December 5, 2025 12:37pm
Yvette

Misleading Parliament through the Speaker? Schrödinger’s Kata-Kingi?

Legal counsel for Kapa-Kingi appeared at the High Court in Wellington on Thursday, before Justice Paul Radich, for an urgent hearing ahead of the party’s annual meeting in Rotorua this weekend, where it is understood the party would seek to formalise the expulsion of the two MPs …
[The MP’s counsel, Mike Colson KC] said he believed there was an “overwhelming” case that Kapa-Kingi was wrongfully expelled.
https://newsroom.co.nz/2025/12/04/i-wish-i-didnt-need-to-ousted-te-pati-mp-goes-to-court-seeking-reinstatement/

If it is decided Kapa-Kingi was wrongfully expelled, what of the person or persons who informed the Speaker resulting in Kapa-Kingi and Tākuta Ferris sitting as independent MPs in Parliament in recent weeks.
Is there such a thing as misleading Parliament, but through the Speaker?

Kapa-Kingi is applying for an interim injunction against Tamihere ahead of a substantive hearing to be held next [February] that will challenge the legality of her expulsion from the party.
So, legally, is she still a Pati Maori MP at the moment, or not – like Schrödinger’s cat: both dead to them and not dead, at the same time?
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December 5, 2025 8:31am
I remember when

Etzebeth gets 12 match ban for eye gouge meaning he will not play again until August.
He states it was not deliberate.
While that may well have been the case, the sentence does seem to be on the light side.
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December 5, 2025 8:33am
- pdm
  
  Ardie Savea apparently stood up for him with a personal reference.
  
  According to Stuff that helped reduce the sentence.
  
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  December 5, 2025 9:09am
- Blog-aholic
  
  Looks can be deceiving but from where I was looking it looked totally and unequivocally deliberate…..
  
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  December 5, 2025 9:17am
  - imalwaysright
    
    If it was deliberate then he should be out of the sport.
    
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    December 5, 2025 11:03am
- MCōs
  
  According to this article it’s twelve weeks, but then it lists twelve games he’ll miss up to the end of March
  https://rugbypass.com/news/rumoured-length-of-eben-etzebeth-ban-doing-the-rounds-on-social-media
  Note that the actual headline says ‘Confirmed’ not rumored
  For what’s it’s worth I saw a clip of the incident and it looked pretty deliberate to me
  
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  December 5, 2025 9:21am
  - OlderChas
    
    Mr Etzebeth has a history of totally losing his temper and causing – or attempting to cause – damage to other players. I saw a clip of him utterly out of control with complete madness in his eyes holding the throat of an opposing player. very frightening guy who I would not take the field against!
    
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    December 5, 2025 12:03pm
I remember when

RNZ asks why the Aratere is still in New Zealand after being taken from service in August and sold in October.
They seem to want to suggest some problem may have occurred although they did concede it was now renamed the ‘Vega.’
The photo acccompanying the article also shows that it is now registered in Basseterre (St Kitts).
This was not mentioned in the article.
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December 5, 2025 8:43am
Flossie

There’s some concern in Maori broadcasting that budget cuts (from the taxpayers) is about to happen. How much funding do they get from the various tribes that have had huge payments from taxpayers? In fact what do the tribes do with all these funds?
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December 5, 2025 8:47am
- pdm
  
  Flossie maybe they could get off their shiny posteriors and sell some advertising rather than waiting for handouts.
  
  Or is that too much effort?
  
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  December 5, 2025 8:49am
  - Swifty
    
    Maori media stats are dire – very few are watching or listening. Not even Maori.
    
    That’s the problem – who would advertise with them for poor rewards compared to other more rewarding channels and media sites?
    
    It’s really just a make work scheme – and frequently a make work scheme with clear, obvious and frequent bias towards one side of the political spectrum.
    
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    December 5, 2025 9:23am
    - imalwaysright
      
      Maori media has the sole purpose of “legitimising” activists by portraying them on a nation wide broadcast as viable and approved representatives of Maori people.
      
      The Government falls for this charade and further legitimises the grifters by assuming that they ACTUALLY do represent Maori and, hey presto, another passenger on the Gravy Train.
      
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      December 5, 2025 10:44am
    - septic skeptic
      
      My bet is that 95% of the viewers are white, woke civil servants wanting practice in their te reo comprehension.
      
      11 1
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      December 5, 2025 11:29am
- Libertarians are right
  
  It’s not a budget cut. It’s the non renewal of short term funding.
  
  18 0
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  December 5, 2025 9:19am
- Paulus
  
  Try this one
  Tauranga Moana has just had approved a new Court House for $206 million (and the rest ) for a new Courthouse, well actually Te Koti Matua me te Kori a rohe Tauranga, which includes the designs of the for six local Iwi group, Te Kahui Hapu o Te Papa, along with everything else so it looks like a Whare.
  It is now increased to 13 Court rooms plus fit for purpose whanau rooms, whatever that means.
  We are told the design draws on the principle of Hohou Te Rongo, a traditional Maori process of reconciliation and peace-making.
  I assume the overriding factor will be Tikanga !
  But I suppose that as 90%+ of the cases which will be heard there are Maori it fits as another winner for Maori.
  
  11 2
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  December 5, 2025 11:05am
  - Jethrod
    
    Can you please supply a translation for all those words that don’t appear in the Websters and Oxford dictionaries.
    
    5 0
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    December 5, 2025 11:23am
  - david
    
    How could one word an OIA question about the cost to the taxpayers of NZ of the inclusion of race based design, layout and inclusion over and above a utilitarian processing facility for common criminals?
    
    4 0
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    December 5, 2025 12:15pm
- Paulus
  
  And why is a Maori only programme being broadcasted at 4pm every day on TV1 when Maori have at least two of their own corresponding time slots ?
  
  10 2
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  December 5, 2025 1:47pm
Scooter

The “mouldy food school” principal Peggy Burrows says in the video below that the school has an industrial kitchen, a commercial kitchen and a cafe (at 6mins). So is she lying when she says on a Stuff interview that the only reheating they have is a small oven which would not fit the meals.

https://youtu.be/H__U4TZe7zg?si=-T8wG1DC1k25fq_z
29 0
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December 5, 2025 8:56am
I remember when

An older retired teacher I know asked an experienced teacher nearing retirement whether the stories about reading standards were justified.
She replied that she didn’t teach reading but did do some remedial work.
It was suggested that the old support systems were no longer being used.
Neither of them could understand how/why this has been allowed to happen.
So it appears that much of the reason for the poorer results may be at the teacher education level.
13 0
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December 5, 2025 9:00am
- Paulus
  
  Who appointed her to the role of Prinipal ?
  
  8 2
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  December 5, 2025 11:06am
Yvette

Will New Zealanders pay a price for products both inside the IKEA store – and outside?

IKEA’s Hawke’s Bay pine tree expansion flames fears residents will be left to pay
‘Dumbest thing NZ has done in agriculture’
‘I’m embarrassed to be a New Zealander’
‘… the pine problems seen in Tai Rāwhiti with slash and community loss were creeping down the East Coast, and Hawke’s Bay was set to make the same mistakes.’
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/580928/ikea-s-hawke-s-bay-pine-tree-expansion-flames-fears-residents-will-be-left-to-pay

“Forest fallacy”: … the disconnect between the public’s perception of Ireland’s “green” landscapes and the ecological reality that most of this greenness is now composed of a few commercial species that are detrimental to native biodiversity. – Ireland, the Green Wall
9 0
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December 5, 2025 9:00am
- Jethrod
  
  Slightly off topic; a resident of Hastings was recently directed by the local council to remove a Kauri tree that person had planted 15 or so years ago. It appeared that resource consent was not obtained meaning it had to be removed. The council then said if not done they would do it themselves. The resident then decided to get it done himself and then donated the trunk to the local Menzshed.
  No slash was involved!
  
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  December 5, 2025 11:33am
lastmanstanding

Auckland Council have replaced the traffic islands in Glencoe Rd Browns Bay. Problem is there was nothing wrong with the existing traffic islands. I have emailed Wayne Brown and suggested he check the policy for replacing traffic islands. I told Wayne I fear it is “After so many years replace regardless of condition”. I told Wayne alas I have seen many such policies over the years. Expect if I get a reply it will be from one of the minions telling me “noted” which means no action and so more rates wasted. Bastards!!!
14 0
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December 5, 2025 9:25am
- Ehlana
  
  Seems a weird policy for traffic islands. I could understand if it was something like a bridge and you couldn’t determine its internal condition but failure would be catastrophic. Not sure how a traffic island could fail or cause harm doing so.
  
  14 0
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  December 5, 2025 10:21am
  - R
    
    Part of a unionized council staff’makework scheme’ to keep us in well-paid unnecessary employment, which involves no effort on our part
    
    5 1
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    December 5, 2025 4:41pm
- Paulus
  
  Dought if Brown knows anything about the roundabout as it is the well paid Council staff executives who make all the decisions and the Councillors white wash them as a rule, but Brown is different, but still only one vote.
  
  11 1
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  December 5, 2025 11:10am
artemisia

95 percent of fast-track amendment bill submitters opposed to changes

The proposed changes in the below article should be pleasing to those who think the coalition government is too slow.

And the 95% opposed obviously think the coalition government is going way too fast and way more ‘consultation’ is required. Not to worry, the 95% and those that agree with them are putting their hands up to pay more tax and more rates to cover ‘consultation’ and delays. Waiting ….

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/580921/95-percent-of-fast-track-amendment-bill-submitters-opposed-to-changes
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December 5, 2025 9:36am
MCōs

The Blackcaps test is going along about as expected and so was the Ashes test for about five minutes.
NB
A bit of history.
Back in the old days the West Indies had four fiery fast bowlers who smashed anyone they came up against. On the odd occasion when the opposition got the better of them they slowed down their over rate to about 11-12/hr so there wasn’t enough time to finish a game. Consequently a mandatory 90 overs per day was brought in and the playing hours were extended
Initially it was open ended, but now it’s a 6-1/2hr cutoff.
Yesterday Australia bowled 74 overs in 6-1/2hrs i.e. 11.4 overs per hour instead of 15.
In NZ 88 overs were bowled in the same time by the West Indies. Two more overs per hour.

I think back in the pre war days more than a hundred overs were bowled in a day.
8 1
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December 5, 2025 9:47am
- MCōs
  
  Carrying on in that unimportant vein.
  In a test match at Lords in 1946, England v India, 161 overs were bowled in one day. That’s twice as many as Brisbane yesterday.
  
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  December 5, 2025 10:01am
- reubee
  
  With the over rate penalties for slow bowling of overs, they only come into effect if an innings lasts more than 80 overs. There is some strong incentive for England to block out 6 overs at beginning of todays play / for Australia to take a wicket in 6 overs.
  
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  December 5, 2025 11:08am
sungsamning

https://townhall.com/columnists/derekhunter/2025/12/04/dont-believe-the-left-the-tennessee-election-was-a-big-gop-win-n2667318
Don’t Believe the Left, the Tennessee Election Was a Big GOP Win.
There’s this thing in politics where people scramble to find something “good” to talk about for their side, no matter how bad reality happens to be. It’s like someone being blown up in a terrorist attack, but their pants were not stained or torn at all – whew! It’s a special kind of “missing the forest for the trees” you can only find in politics and dysfunctional relationships.
5 4
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December 5, 2025 10:16am
- Steve Todd
  
  Sure, that’s an alternative point of view that is pretty weak, in my view.
  
  The fact remains, there are 35 House Republicans who won last year by 13 points or fewer, who will now be somewhat nervous about the mid-terms, whereas 10 days ago they weren’t.
  
  Of course, further Republican gerrymandering and Trump lowering prices by revising his Tariff policy and lowering interest rates, could change things over the next 11 months. We await developments.
  
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  December 5, 2025 1:28pm
  - sungsamning
    
    Yeah, as always its events, and a bit of luck.
    
    1 1
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    December 5, 2025 7:42pm
sungsamning

https://californiaglobe.com/fr/fda-admits-children-died-from-covid-shots-that-ca-mandated/
FDA Admits Children Died from Covid Shots that CA Mandated.
On November 29, 2025, a leaked internal FDA memo written by Vinay Prasad — the new director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER) — confirmed what many parents had warned and what California officials aggressively denied: American children died because of the COVID vaccines.

The memo summarizes an FDA review of 96 pediatric deaths reported between 2021 and 2024, cases drawn from VAERS and cross-checked against records, timelines, hospitalization notes, and autopsies where available. After this review, analysts concluded that “no fewer than 10” children likely died because of the vaccine. In regulatory terms, that is a finding of causation — not correlation — and it is seismic.
7 4
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December 5, 2025 10:16am
I remember when

‘The fever has broken’: teacher says gender ideology is losing its grip in schools: Centrist.
“…the stmosphere became tense as staff feared accidental misgendering.”
“Summer argues that teachers, too, were swept along by a culture of silence. When he raised concerns with colleagues, he found only reluctance or resignation.”
“But this year, he says, everything feels different.”

Teachers love to think they control the destiny of the pupils, but for this to be true they have to be prepared to stand up to pressure.
11 1
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December 5, 2025 10:23am
imalwaysright

Medical Schools in NZ award Preferential Entry (PE) to members of certain demographics who may not otherwise qualify.

If, say 30% of the intake are PE, does that mean that 30% of graduates are from the PE group ?
12 3
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December 5, 2025 11:16am
- MCōs
  
  An article on the subject explaining why Maori, Pacifica and rural applicants get a quota of acceptances. Also the racism the brown skinned students face from their colleagues.
  https://www.1news.co.nz/2022/05/31/auckland-maori-med-students-sick-of-racist-remarks-over-entry/
  
  5 5
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  December 5, 2025 1:07pm
  - imalwaysright
    
    Sounds more like resentment than racism.
    
    If the resentment is because of special treatment, and the special treatment is applied according to race or any other characteristic, then its still resentment.
    
    7 2
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    December 5, 2025 5:42pm
    - MCōs
      
      Nobody is entitled to be there.
      The point of the med school is to fill a need in society
      
      2 0
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      December 5, 2025 8:25pm
Swifty

What Maori values are these?

https://x.com/the_anglo_saxon/status/1996651466946413010?s=46

Genuine question.
8 2
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December 5, 2025 12:08pm
- Ghost
  
  Here are some photos. Wonder what nationality some of them are
  
  https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360909051/watch-road-cones-fly-people-pile-mass-brawl
  
  4 1
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  December 5, 2025 12:16pm
  - Jethrod
    
    Mmmmm….. some look like they could be 50% New Zealanders
    
    3 1
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    December 5, 2025 12:26pm
  - Swifty
    
    I’m going off the voices.
    
    Unmistakable.
    
    2 1
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    December 5, 2025 12:27pm
    - Ghost
      
      Looking at the guy wearing the 55 shirt and the one with the road cone, it doesn’t look Māori against Māori.
      
      2 1
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      December 5, 2025 12:34pm
      - Swifty
        
        I’m on my tiny phone and can’t make out individual faces, sorry, but I’ll take your word for it.
        
        1 1
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        December 5, 2025 1:12pm
KH

Serial complainer Peggy Burrows keeps digging the hole she is in.
From past bitter experience there are rules when dealing with her
1. Peggy is always right
2. When in doubt rule 1 applies.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360909983/school-centre-mouldy-food-incident-launches-internal-investigation
I feel sorry for the kids.
14 1
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December 5, 2025 12:25pm
imalwaysright

An absolutely brutal exchange of plastic and epithets …!!

Stand by for the Roscommon Rd Battle Haka!

As an aside, there is a theory in Anthropology that monkeys may have entered the Stone Age.
9 2
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December 5, 2025 12:56pm
Ghost

Seriously, are your bottles not labeled. Bloody hell

Multiple children have suffered chemical burns at a Christchurch daycare centre this afternoon.

The cause has been established as a “corrosive product” misidentified as a detergent and used on a water slide.

Article
10 0
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December 5, 2025 3:40pm
- Ghost
  
  Poor girl
  
  One four year old girl has been transported to Christchurch Hospital with serious burns to her legs and buttocks after a chemical liquid spill.
  
  Chris Lynch
  
  7 0
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  December 5, 2025 4:48pm
- [email protected]
  
  Even a detergent should have been washed off afterwards! Poor maintenance procedures.
  
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  December 6, 2025 7:15am
Chuck Bird

I note that there has been no mention of Leighton Smith’s podcast where he interviewed Dr Happer on NewstalkZB. Usually, Leighton’s podcasts are mentioned regularly. More of NZME’s lack of balance on climate matters.
5 5
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December 5, 2025 3:54pm
Chuck Bird

This sexist judgment should be appealed.

Hamilton woman Kate Gough avoids jail after sexually assaulting teen boy

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/hamilton-woman-kate-gough-avoids-jail-after-sexually-assaulting-teen-boy/KKEFBFRR2NEW7DKXBCDFCF6QIQ/
6 3
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December 5, 2025 4:19pm
Ghost

I’m laughing so hard it hurts

The Te Tai Tokerau MP sought an urgent High Court injunction against Te Pāti Māori’s decision to expel her from the party. She claims it breached numerous parts of the constitution.

Expelled Te Pāti Māori MP Mariameno Kapa-Kingi will return to the party after an interim judgement by the High Court.

Article
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December 5, 2025 4:44pm
- Don Beckett
  
  I’m sure she’ll be as welcome as a fart in church, or a pork sandwich in a mosque. 🙂
  
  10 2
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  December 5, 2025 5:35pm
  - Ghost
    
    the Māori party work Christmas party just got interesting.
    
    7 1
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    December 5, 2025 5:59pm
greybeard

The current “Stuff” homepage must surely go down in history as the most appalling, childish, unininspiring webpage ever created.
How many 12-year olds do they have on their payroll ?
5 3
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December 5, 2025 7:17pm

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