General Debate 21 April 2017

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krazykiwi

Corbyn is an unelectable terrorist sympathiser. Venezuelans are rioting. Japan is facing a massive potato chip shortage. And an asteroid is about to pass dangerously close to earth.

But not to worry, Stephie will be along shortly to explain why Trump is to blame.
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April 21, 2017 8:00am
- Dafixeruppa
  
  NOOO!!!! don’t mention that name, it’s like the candyman, say it three times and it will appear. Then we are all doomed!
  
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  April 21, 2017 8:02am
  - krazykiwi
    
    The ‘team’ won’t be along until they’ve clocked on, hung up their cardies, popped their lunch boxes in the tea room, and held the team’s mandatory anti-Trump incantations for 15-20mins. After all that, and in the style of Mr Magoo, they’re unleashed on us.
    
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    April 21, 2017 8:11am
    - jonar
      
      All these cardie wearers didn’t want Trump. Bloody hillary sheeple.
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Republicans_who_opposed_the_Donald_Trump_presidential_campaign,_2016
      
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      April 21, 2017 8:28am
    - pdm
      
      They will progressively arrive later as the cooler autumn mornings slow down the roman sandal wearers.
      
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      April 21, 2017 9:21am
- Liberty
  
  Trump might not be to blame for a photo chip shortage in Japan.
  But he is out of his depth.
  
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  April 21, 2017 8:36am
  - kowtow
    
    And Merkel and Hollande aren’t, Cameron and Blair ?
    
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    April 21, 2017 8:41am
  - LisaGinNZ
    
    What are you on about? Trump is hardly ‘out of his depth’ on his foreign policy… give this a read mate:
    
    “♦ The number of NATO countries now fulfilling their defense spending obligations has increased from 3 to 5, with all nations agreeing to reach the compliant 2% GDP spending within 12 months.
    
    ♦ NATO and EU countries now emboldened to stand up to Russia.
    
    ♦ Russia has become more isolated and somehow, f**king incredibly, President Trump has cut the cord connecting Russia and China.
    
    ♦ China abstained, and did not veto, a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning Bashir Assad in Syria. Russia became isolated in their veto position and only Bolivia would concur.
    
    ♦ U.N. and international leadership praise Trump administration position of taking a hardline on chemical weapons attacks in Syria.
    
    ♦ Russian Vladimir Putin refused to meet Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, then abruptly did an about face after the G-7 meeting with T-Rex – because Russia’s influence was being further reduced and Putin felt threatened by diminishment.
    
    ♦ President Trump announces he will not label China as a currency manipulator. China has made no efforts to manipulate their currency since the Nov 8th, 2016, election.
    
    ♦ China turns back 12 North-Korean cargo ships laden with coal.
    
    ♦ China offsets N-Korean coal refusal with increased purchases of coking coal (steel-making) from the U.S.
    
    ♦ China halts direct air travel between Beijing and Pyongyang.
    
    ♦ China begins oil and fuel embargo of exports to North Korea.
    
    ♦ Stunningly, China announces their willingness to consider “Five Party Talks” about the denuclearization of North Korea without the government of Pyongyang at the table. (China, Russia, U.S., Japan and South Korea)
    
    None of these outcomes are delivered through the continuance of Bush/Obama/Clinton foreign policy of interventionism. Each of these outcomes is occurring because of talks, leverage and alignment of economic influence on a larger scale than the individual interests of the countries involved.”
    
    more here:
    theconservativetreehouse.com/2017/04/19/a-very-deliberate-and-structured-secretary-rex-tillerson-discusses-iran/
    
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    April 21, 2017 9:14am
    - SPC
      
      “♦ The number of NATO countries now fulfilling their defense spending obligations has increased from 3 to 5, with all nations agreeing to reach the compliant 2% GDP spending within 12 months.
      
      Yeah na. when the last baby boomer dies there will still be NATO members short of the 2% GDP.
      
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      April 21, 2017 12:33pm
duggledog

New immigration rules – Rest Homes are shitting themselves – pardon the pun:

http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/329179/resthomes-would-be-hit-by-new-visa-rules

Could this new policy from National be a Trojan horse for finally forcing our unemployed or unemployables into work? Could it signal a future cap on benefits?

It all seems a bit too ‘neat’ especially as it’s announced in the same week the Government has to pay care workers properly.

If the Filipino worker in the rest home has become somewhat politically intolerable, then someone has to do that job. It’s essential, unlike Kim Hill or Susan Devoy. An unemployed kiwi – also politically intolerable – will have to do the job.

Wiping cantankerous old people’s bums is hardly the dream job for an aspiring 20 something with a degree in Fine Arts but if it’s all there is, it’s all there is.

If the above is true then I pity those going into care in places like Northland. Replace smiling Fijian Indian with angry ex-con weed smoking Maori.
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April 21, 2017 8:02am
- tusker
  
  Rest homes will now have to do something radical like setting up training programs for young Kiwis – just as other businesses have to. Employing work visa migrants was the easy and cheapest option, not the only available one.
  
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  April 21, 2017 8:14am
  - Ross12
    
    You are saying the work visa migrants were already trained ?
    
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    April 21, 2017 9:34am
    - tusker
      
      At the risk of stereotyping – yes, in terms of attitude.
      
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      April 21, 2017 10:09am
- SPC
  
  Those under $49,000 have been placed on a three year time limit. Then have to re-apply.
  
  Do the maths – at $16 an hour, the old age care home work pays c $32,000. It will be going to $24 an hour – $48,000 before overtime (and the top rate within 5 years of $27 ($54,000).
  
  This is moving into the “skilled work” pay area – thus will attract more local applicants – places rationed by skills-training/experience (the payoff for those underpaid for years).
  
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  April 21, 2017 8:16am
- cmm
  
  “Finally forcing our unemployed or unemployables into work?”
  
  When you have multi-generational welfare dependence (DPB has been going for 44 years now, that’s 3 generations) then people will be very resentful if they are forced to work.
  
  Resentful workers are destructive. Worse than no worker at all.
  
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  April 21, 2017 8:17am
  - tusker
    
    They can’t be forced to work but there will be some who do want to. Yes, there will be challenges but given the work will continue to be female dominated, it will give women the opportunity to break out from dependency because jobs they can do will be available at reasonable pay that is better than welfare. And younger people not yet fully locked in to the cycle could be assisted into these roles with specific targeted help from agencies.
    
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    April 21, 2017 8:33am
- kowtow
  
  “Could this new policy from National be a Trojan horse for finally forcing our unemployed or unemployables into work?”
  
  You really think they have a plan?
  
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  April 21, 2017 8:44am
  - tusker
    
    kowtow. I doubt it. But live in hope there might have been some strategy behind it. Govt needs to be a bit careful about harming the tourism industry. While tourists like to experience kiwi staff, there just aren’t the numbers available in more remote places. Temporary work visas for young foreigners that are tied to a specified group of locations would address that.
    
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    April 21, 2017 8:53am
- stephieboy
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  Thus saith duggledog from the dementia ward in his Eventide rest home.
  
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  April 21, 2017 8:47am
  - GoVege
    
    Don’t mock old people, Stephie.
    We will all be old one day.
    
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    April 21, 2017 10:40am
    - Gazza_001
      
      Not Stephie
      
      He will have his 70 odd virgins well before then
      
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      April 21, 2017 11:23am
- SPC
  
  The new rules will have an impact on students who stay on to work here.
  
  They will have three years to get to skilled worker category (49,000+).
  
  Many in hospitality/tourism will struggle to do this, unless they excel and are highly valued by employers.
  
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  April 21, 2017 8:55am
- Rachael Membery
  
  Rest care work seems perfect for whanau. They respect the elderly, got good family values, are there special whanau rest homes yet?
  
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  April 21, 2017 9:44am
  - GoVege
    
    Like other Polynesians… .most old Maori get cared for at home, Rachel.
    (Apart from the really really cantankerous ones!)
    They live the life of Larry…and save the long suffering taxpayer a bundle.
    My mummy has just joined their ranks.
    She told us if anyone ever tries to put her in a rest home, she’ll be consulting a lawyer!
    (As if we would.)
    
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    April 21, 2017 10:17am
    - GoVege
      
      What jerk downticked me for that?!
      
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      April 21, 2017 10:39am
      - GoVege
        
        Must be a lot of cantankerous old KBers on today.
        I’m sorry you’re headed for a rest home.
        Try working on your personalities and one of your kids might take you in…unless they’re mean too.
        
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        April 21, 2017 1:07pm
      - Lance
        
        Maybe there is a power block of KB commenters in rest homes… and someone pissed in their cornflakes this morning?
        
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        April 21, 2017 1:17pm
    - Rachael Membery
      
      Anecdotally a friend of mine had her mother in one. She lives in Hamilton her Mother was in Whakatane, she went down nigh on every weekend especially towards the end. Six kids I think and there was a brother in Whakatane, she might have had dementia, but more confused I think.
      A huge extended whanau also and yes a very religious, educated family.
      
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      April 21, 2017 11:23am
      - GoVege
        
        That’s nice she got visited every weekend.
        I’ve heard about half of the old people in rest homes never get visited.
        My sister tried visiting some once.
        Unfortunately they started her off with the most difficult old guy on the place.
        And the female staff were unpleasant to her…probably because she is so glam.
        Typical horizontal hostility.
        
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        April 21, 2017 1:11pm
- Paulus
  
  You don’t really believe that the New Zealand unemployed will take a job in the Aged Health sector irrespective of the now very good money.
  Perhaps some of our young teachers or nurses could try – the pay is better now than theirs.
  It’s not the money that the so called unemployed can earn by working but actually having to do a job. No employer could afford to employ the New Zealand unemployables as they would soon be out of business.
  I have seen such moves in the Bay of Plenty fruit production. No way would I let any feral BOP youth or youthesses near my business.
  
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  April 21, 2017 10:44am
SPC

Our ANZC cobbers have retaliated for the loss of one of their Super Rugby teams …

Last year a new “special pathway visa” was created, which was meant to give Kiwis a new way to become Australian citizens.

It allowed New Zealanders who arrived in Australia between February 26, 2001, and February 19, 2016 and who have earned more than A$53,000 a year for five consecutive years to apply for permanent residence from July 1, 2017.

But the goal posts have been moved. Under the new rules, people have to be permanent residents for 4 years (rather than one) to become citizens. Permanent residents cannot get student loans, join the defence force, or vote in Australia. Non-citizens can also be deported if they commit even a minor crime.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11842199
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April 21, 2017 8:06am
- virtualmark
  
  One option might be for NZ to reciprocate with the same restrictions on Aussies here.
  
  I know there’s an argument that would be short-sighted, since the Aussies here tend to be contributors to society, not a drag on it. And I know that as a proportion of society there are less Aussies here than there are Kiwis there, so action here isn’t a major pressure point for Australia.
  
  But at the same time, eventually you just need to stand up to the people (i.e. Aussie government) who are treating you like a doormat. So I say mirror the exact same conditions for Aussie permanent residents in NZ.
  
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  April 21, 2017 8:17am
- tusker
  
  And applicants must demonstrate acceptance of Aussie values. They shut down the vile people smuggling trade by decisive action and ignoring the outraged howls of those who wanted a human tidal wave to swamp the country. Now they are again showing we timid kiwis the way.
  
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  April 21, 2017 8:25am
  - stephieboy
    
    tusker , Aussie values ?
    
    http://www.nma.gov.au/online_features/defining_moments/featured/white_australia_policy_begins
    
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    April 21, 2017 8:48am
    - tusker
      
      yeah, saw that. Some good satire coming out. Just as it did back in the Tampa days. Funny thing is you don’t see a lot on the boat people issue now. I wonder why?
      
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      April 21, 2017 8:57am
  - kowtow
    
    They should just front up and say “Muslims not welcome” , that’s what this is actually about.
    
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    April 21, 2017 9:31am
    - Rachael Membery
      
      Not allowed to, we are so politically correct, that we just roll over without a fight.
      
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      April 21, 2017 11:46am
  - Lance
    
    Must eat the Aussie delicacy a ‘pie floater’ in front of a selection panel.
    Bloody hell, that’d sort out them out
    
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    April 21, 2017 1:20pm
- MCos
  
  If a New Zealander wants to divest themselves of their NZ citizenship why should it be of any concern of ours?
  I don’t understand why these people think the NZ Govt should go out of their way to help them.
  
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  April 21, 2017 8:38am
  - SPC
    
    CER. Australians who live here can access government services but Kiwis over there have to become citizens to do the same.
    
    They said all they would do was enable a pathway to citizenship for some of the Kiwis, now they have delayed this for 4 years.
    
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    April 21, 2017 9:02am
    - Rachael Membery
      
      Their choice.
      
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      April 21, 2017 11:48am
  - cmm
    
    Do they divest themselves of NZ citizenship or do they just dual citizen?
    
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    April 21, 2017 9:25am
    - Kimbo
      
      If they aren’t in New Zealand they are unlikely to be paying tax here, or directly benefiting NZ Inc. Sorry, but our government has other priorities, and it is the Aussies’ business what pathway they provide to whom for citizenship and the accompanying benefits…
      
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      April 21, 2017 10:45am
- howitis
  
  Aussie is just protecting itself.
  NZ lets is a lot of low quality trash that tried to get into 1) USA 2) Canada 3) UK 4) Australia then 5) NZ
  NZ is the last resort, the end of the line.
  
  It had been too easy to get in to NZ then jump across to Australia. Australia ended this in 2001 out of frustration that NZ would not address this.
  NZ has continued to bring in low quality trash esp on the shonkey ‘student visa’ back door nonsense.
  
  Australia is doing the right thing.
  NZ is not and has had a decade and a half to clean up, yet has not through both Nat and Lab Govts.
  
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  April 21, 2017 11:37am
oldpark

Mr funny peculiar Angry Andy Little, Mr 7% to his joined at the hip green party wannabees. Seems Little has learnt nothing from his egg on his face verbal assault on the Hagamans,especially the 91 year old Mr Hagaman who it is said is almost at deaths door. Now Little with his mind always in neutral, makes another stupid statement on immigrants. He says he will restrict immigration to circa 20k. That would just about eliminate NZs returning home to NZ as of right.Imagine him and his joined at the hip macgully serious convert,ME-TU ,from green party in charge of NZ , both clown parties and their stupid comments,or actions could turn NZ back the the trade union disasters of 1950s.
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April 21, 2017 8:16am
- holysheet
  
  He says he will restrict immigration to circa 20k. That would just about eliminate NZs returning home to NZ as of right
  
  I wasn’t aware these returning kiwis were classed as immigrants. Surely they are not?
  
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  April 21, 2017 8:38am
  - oldpark
    
    Me either, except dumbo Angry AndyLittle, mr 7% has yet to say that.
    
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    April 21, 2017 9:00am
- tusker
  
  oldpark. And choke off the highly skilled top end immigrants that we so much need. Socialists instinctively love fixed quota plans.
  
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  April 21, 2017 8:46am
- Paulus
  
  As Angry was found guilty of defaming Mr Hagaman what happens next ?
  I assume he will be let off when Mr Hagaman passes away which is why I assume that any deliberate delay is helping.
  
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  April 21, 2017 1:16pm
duggledog

SPC

In Australia, ‘Kiwi’ often means ‘Maori’ or ‘PI’. Not all of them become gainfully employed in the mining sector, let me tell you.

Add to that the tens of thousands of others who took off from NZ over the last three decades of the 1900s leaving behind trails of wreckage here including single mothers, failed businesses, debts etc and I’m surprised the long-suffering Aussies let us in at all.

As always, the law abiding, good buggers get over-regulated due to the actions of the unruly.
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April 21, 2017 8:17am
- Jack5
  
  There’s also a race element to Australia’s immigration controls.
  
  Australia introduced passports requirements for New Zealanders virtually without consultation when the century-old people traffic across the Tasman included increasing numbers of brown-skinned people.
  
  Australians are likely to tighten further on NZ flow into Australia if New Zealand’s population becomes more multi-ethnic than Australia’s population.
  
  Call it a White Australia policy, or call it a preference for similar people of similar ethnicity, it exists in fact if not on paper.
  
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  April 21, 2017 8:45am
  - stephieboy
    
    Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
    Jack5 , your dream of a white NZ only beginning to bear fruit ?
    
    https://museumvictoria.com.au/pages/5915/mn010824_sm.gif
    
    Laughable Xenophobic garbage .
    
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    April 21, 2017 8:51am
    - tusker
      
      Not entirely. The Aussies recognise the risk of migrants who pose a risk to them and enter AU by routing first through NZ
      
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      April 21, 2017 9:02am
    - Jack5
      
      Morning, Stephie X!
      
      We were talking about Australia – that’s the continent to the west of New Zealand.
      
      They wouldn’t have heard of Australia when you were in the madrassa, Stephie.
      
      Now your cousies in Stephiestan think Australia’s just a short fishing-boat trip away. They don’t know you need visas. Nor that, rather than Australia, their new home is likely to be Papua New Guinea.
      
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      April 21, 2017 9:30am
      - GoVege
        
        Ah …PNG.
        That Pacific paradise.
        The spawning ground for our favourite exonerated mass killer.
        
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        April 21, 2017 11:02am
duggledog

Also SPC regarding rest home workers – it’s a bit of a misnomer about the very low pay. It’s often augmented by large chunks of cash from a person’s estate when they finally shuffle off this mortal coil.

It’s not spoken about but it happens all the time. I’m not surprised the ‘journalists’ never investigated it.
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April 21, 2017 8:24am
- MCos
  
  When you say ‘often’ what do you mean?
  Every couple of weeks?
  My sister has been doing that work for years and she’s still waiting.
  
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  April 21, 2017 8:48am
- GoVege
  
  I’m sure the rest homes wouldn’t allow that, dd.
  A few years ago I was volunteering to visit old people and the organization makes you sign a form that if the elderly person gives you a gift, you have to hand it over….to the outfit!
  
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  April 21, 2017 10:44am
Jack5

ACT’s Seymour won’t pick up many party votes in Southland with his attack on the Invercargill Licensing Trust.

The licensing trust movement began in Southland, and the Invercargill and Gore licensing trusts have built swimming pools, a velodrome, an ice-skating rink, stadiums, and a multi-sports complex.

They are monopolies, or near-monopolies, but they are public owned.

Many voters on the Right in the far south regard licensing trusts to be acceptable near-monopolies, just as power lines companies are or local airports. Some may suggest ACT focus on commercial near-monopolies like the Marsden Point refinery, or the State commercial-law privileges that have allowed Fonterra to dominate the dairy industry.

But then, today’s ACT probably doesn’t have much time for co-operatives either, though most co-operatives are groups of businesses serving businesses.
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April 21, 2017 8:25am
- Jack5
  
  The link for ACT leader Seymour’s economics lecturer to Southlanders:
  
  http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/91754043/act-party-leader-david-seymour-slams-invercargill-licensing-trust-monopoly
  
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  April 21, 2017 8:36am
  - mikenmild
    
    You are opposed to a free market in alcohol?
    
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    April 21, 2017 8:40am
    - Jack5
      
      Milky, I think there are bars and breweries and restaurants and clubs with alcohol available in Invercargill that the trust doesn’t own. One area of monopoly used to be, and perhaps still is, bottle shops – no alcohol in supermarkets. And supermarkets are their own duopoly.
      
      Perhaps a Southlander can tell us.
      
      What free market? Booze is a business heavily regulated by Government and local bodies.
      
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      April 21, 2017 8:50am
      - doggone7
        
        “The ILT returned between $8-10 million each year to the community’s not for profit organisations and charitable organisations,” ILT general manager Greg Mulvey said.
        
        Seymour would rather the $8-10 million each year go to a few rich individuals to buy flash boats and holiday homes in Wanaka for themselves rather than being spent on the community.
        
        He’s worried about monopolies yet seems determined to show he has a monopoly on silliness. and arrogance.
        
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        April 21, 2017 9:07am
      - mikenmild
        
        I just wasn’t sure of your argument, Jack. Whether you wanted a monopoly for licensing trusts or open competition in which community-owned liquor suppliers had a role.
        
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        April 21, 2017 9:16am
      - Jack5
        
        I think the Invercargill Licensing Trust began as a fairly full on monopoly, but I hear it has eased a bit.
        
        Southland was a bit of wild,boozy frontier place until the Presbyterians revolted and shut down the liquor trade in the towns before World War 1.
        
        Privately owned pubs survived in the countryside and the smaller towns. A friend tells me that there was hotel five miles from the centre of Invercargill. It continued selling beer, with up to 40 bar staff and a car and bus service to the centre of town. It was hit by the opening of the trust hotels when Prohibition ended at the end of World War 2. I believe there was also a brewery in the middle of dry Invercargill, and you could pick up a keg outside the town limits, and my friend says his father remembered sly groggers operating.
        
        The Invercargill trust was NZ’s first. A committee of local citizens campaigned for it on the model of municipal-owned hotels in a northern English town where booze had distracted munitions workers in World War 1. Labour politicians backed the plan, and have taken credit for it ever since.
        
        The monopoly trusts based in Gore, Invercargill, and perhaps Balclutha have delivered great sports and leisure amenities to these towns, and, by effectively cross-subsidy, have given the the towns better hotel accommodation than would have been provided by free enterprise. The trusts also drip feed cash to scores of clubs and community groups, much as the savings banks used to.
        
        The main down side seems to have been fairly bland bars and drinking conditions. I imagine that Systembolaget, Sweden’s state monopoly on booze over 3.5 per cent content, is fairly similar.
        
        It’s interesting how people from the far northern latitudes have
        strong love-hate relationships with alcohol (Southlanders and Otago-ites are mainly of Scottish descent).
        
        The smaller, suburban trusts that followed southern trusts in other NZ centres seem mostly to have died.
        
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        April 21, 2017 9:51am
duggledog

Cmm

‘Resentful workers are destructive. Worse than no worker at all.’

This is what the low info voters are voting for.

Fewer immigrants – more chance they or one of theirs will be forced to work a variety of shit jobs.

Exhibit A: The U.S of.
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April 21, 2017 8:27am
- Tirebiter
  
  Speaking of the USofA: Theoretical capitalism requires that if one cannot get enough workers to do a particular job at a particular price (a labor shortage) then the cost of labor should rise – meaning higher wages for that particular job. But the wages, at least for jobs done by imported labor, don’t rise and most often aren’t even comparable. This applies not only to low-skilled agricultural workers, but to doctors, IT techs, scientists, engineers, and other skilled jobs. Nothing stops employers from training employees to do that particular job instead of importing them except a business tendency to want others to pay for the business’s expenses. It’s one of the reasons conservative led governments often borrow money instead of taxing to cover current expenses, thereby having the next generation pay for the current generation’s needs. It’s done every year by the state I live in and I find it understandable but despicable.
  
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  April 22, 2017 12:56am
Happychappy

Well Andrew Little goes on about rich Americans buying land here but has no trouble bringing American Democrat’s here to help him win a election and a chance to be Prime Minister.
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April 21, 2017 8:28am
Tarquin North

I hear Sonny Bill Foran is of to the Bulldogs.
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April 21, 2017 8:32am
- LisaGinNZ
  
  The Warriors were just a rebound team for Foran to ‘recover’ from whatever he needed to recover from…. and back to Aussie he will go…
  
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  April 21, 2017 9:11am
- G152
  
  Isn’t that Sunni Bill ?
  
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  April 21, 2017 9:13am
  - pdm
    
    I don’t care what he does off the field – he is still a bloody good rugby player.
    
    Just don’t call him shiite Bill.
    
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    April 21, 2017 9:25am
    - mikenmild
      
      Sunni Bill, I believe.
      
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      April 21, 2017 9:32am
Monique Watson

Have you noticed how the lefties are muddying the pond water more so than usual of late? Just posting dribble all over GD? Anyone else think that?
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April 21, 2017 8:33am
- kowtow
  
  What I think is the TVNZ news editorial team is in full on general election ,let’s get Labour elected mode. It’s like looking at a party political broadcast.
  
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  April 21, 2017 8:46am
  - cmm
    
    TVNZ (and RNZ) are all watermelon Greens.
    
    They don’t really give a shit about Labour or Labour voters except that they want their numbers to help get them in power.
    
    If that was to happen you can expect a serious Green/Labour inter-tribal bloodbath.
    
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    April 21, 2017 9:22am
- stephieboy
  
  Monique Watson ,
  
  Nope !
  
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  April 21, 2017 8:55am
- GoVege
  
  No Monique….that’s just your “rightie” delusions at work.
  
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  April 21, 2017 10:47am
- Fletch
  
  According to one website, the networks in America have given trump 89% negative coverage in his first 100 days.
  
  http://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/rich-noyes/2017/04/18/honeymoon-hell-liberal-media-vs-president-trump
  
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  April 21, 2017 12:02pm
Monique Watson

That’s right duggledog. Got saddled with a student loan and then got worked over by the Clark/Cullen tax the rich pricks era so left to find opportunity elsewhere. Try to send a bit of money home sometimes.
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April 21, 2017 8:38am
- stephieboy
  
  They still don’t do that ?
  
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  April 21, 2017 8:56am
- VicParking
  
  I went to Uni in the 70’s. All was free, the sun shone every day, dope was strong and jobs were plentiful.
  Did my OE to Europe like all good Kiwis.
  Brought a house in the 90’s $5000 depoisit, locked in 4% so missed the big interest hikes. Paid off my mortgage.
  Dont know what you are all moaning about.
  
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  April 21, 2017 9:32am
- thedavincimode
  
  So who held the gun at your head and made you borrow the money? What stopped you flipping burgers to save/support yourself? So you were paying Herr Doktor’s 39c but couldn’t pay your loan back? Why did it go so badly for you, unlike most of the others?
  
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  April 21, 2017 11:27am
  - mikenmild
    
    The whining of the over-entitled is always amusing.
    
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    April 21, 2017 11:33am
RRM

WTF JIM BOLGER!!??!??!?

http://i.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/91769882/the-9th-floor-jim-bolger-says-neoliberalism-has-failed-nz-and-its-time-to-give-unions-the-power-back
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April 21, 2017 8:40am
- Captain Mainwaring
  
  He’s probably suffering from some age-related illness.
  
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  April 21, 2017 8:49am
  - MCos
    
    He’s 81; that’s probably younger than most of the people on this forum!
    
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    April 21, 2017 8:58am
- Soffet
  
  Quite spooky how these revelations are coming out – I wonder if Guyon is spinning this a bit and his framing of questions are a wee bit on the anti-current government side? Surely not!
  
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  April 21, 2017 8:52am
- krazykiwi
  
  My God, what a read.
  
  Like an entrepreneur who makes billions only to then embark on personal-cleansing by saving the planet, politicians like Bolger get to the top on ‘pragmatic policies’, and then in their dotage philosophise their efforts away as ‘failed neo-liberalism’.
  
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  April 21, 2017 8:57am
  - mikenmild
    
    Bolger was one of our most underrated PMs, precisely because many did not appreciate his pragmatism. Never better illustrated than when his successor’s government fell apart after promising to be tougher on Winston Peters.
    
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    April 21, 2017 9:19am
- David Garrett
  
  RRM: Yes indeed…the bit I liked was right at the end, when Espiner referred to the interview in Bolger’s “stately home”…
  
  So, Old Jim Bob is advocating repowering the unions and handing out more money to the Maoris for past wrongs…while sitting in monied spendour on the Kapiti Coast, one of the wealthiest areas of NZ…
  
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  April 21, 2017 9:22am
  - Captain Mainwaring
    
    Sounds like he’s become National’s equivalent of the pompous do-gooding Geoffrey Palmer.
    
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    April 21, 2017 9:56am
    - Happychappy
      
      Exept Bolger has the upper class boarding school accent when talking.
      
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      April 21, 2017 12:38pm
      - MCos
        
        He went to Opunake High School and left at 15, apparently.
        I noticed the inflection in his accent disappeared as he became less guarded.
        
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        April 21, 2017 1:03pm
      - Jack5
        
        Bolger’s speech affectation is quite distinctive.
        
        When he’s trying to impress he says “ah-ah-eye” for “I” of for syllables pronounced “eye”.
        
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        April 21, 2017 8:51pm
      - mikenmild
        
        He was famous for imitating the accents of visiting VIPs. An unconscious desire to put them at ease, but sounds like a piss-take.
        
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        April 21, 2017 9:22pm
      - Jack5
        
        Just listened to the Bolger interview. It was surprisingly interesting. Bolger came across as Left-Centre-Left: a soft-socialist, Doolan do-gooder.
        
        Pull down prisons, make Maori language compulsory in schools, form a republic perhaps with an all-Maori second chamber to the Government, and full-steam ahead into multiculturism. Those were some of the points.
        
        Espiner could have pressed Bolger on whether he had had any ambition of being the first president of his dream Republic of Aotearoa New Zealand.
        
        Bolger seemed fatalistic on the future of white people in New Zealand, which I guess includes most Kiwiblog readers.
        
        White countries are dying out because of low birth rates, and immigration of non-whites into them is inevitable, Bolger argued. He and his wife Joan had a big family of their own and thus did their bit to stem multiculturism. So maybe, in hindsight, Bolger thinks they should have had fewer of their own kids and topped up by adopting non-white kids.
        
        Bolger said negotiations with Winston Peters to form the National-NZ First coalition lasted two months. Happy days ahead for Bill English.
        
        http://www.radionz.co.nz/programmes/the-9th-floor/story/201840999/the-negotiator-jim-bolger
        
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        April 21, 2017 10:59pm
- howitis
  
  Two words for Bolger.
  Leaky homes.
  
  This useless fart brought in leaky homes that has cost billions in dollar terms and countless hours of stress to NZ residents for no practical benefit.
  This has reduced NZ housing stock from what it should be and contributed as well to higher house prices based on supply/demand.
  
  In three years Bolger went from 47% of the popular vote to 35% and lost 15 seats of 99 in the process.
  The only thing he created was a host of new political parties. NZ First; Gilbert Myles multi party, Future NZ et al.
  
  He flogged off BNZ after using taxpayers money to rescue it then was later chairman of Kiwibank.
  No irony there, or here….
  He flogged off NZ Rail in an appalling deal then was happy to be Chairman of KiwiRail where he got his catholic mate from outside the industry to be CEO.
  Speaking of trains: – He started the Treaty Gravy Train still steaming along today run by another catholic.
  Scorecard 2/10
  
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  April 21, 2017 12:55pm
  - starboard
    
    Spud Bolger was as useful as a chocolate teapot. He got the arse because he wanted to spend 100 million to move the beehive a few feet to the left, right in the middle of the asian crisis when we had fuck all $$$. Pompous fool.
    
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    April 21, 2017 3:51pm
    - howitis
      
      Spud wanted …..to move the beehive a few feet to the left…
      
      Well National went about 2 miles left after that anyway.
      
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      April 21, 2017 4:06pm
  - gump
    
    Leaky homes?
    
    Did Bolger build them? Did he make people leverage themselves to buy them? Or did the collective greed of developers, builders, and home buyers just come home to roost?
    
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    April 21, 2017 5:25pm
    - mikenmild
      
      That was the fuck up of the more extreme free-market fans behind the 1991 Building Act. Any prizes for guessing who was in charge of that?
      
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      April 21, 2017 6:34pm
- wiseowl
  
  Heard him interviewed on talkback this afternoon.
  He said we have to be multicultural, sang the praises of Finlayson, is a globalist , believes the rewriting of history by O’Malley and was all over the treaty.
  What a bloody disappointment.
  
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  April 21, 2017 5:33pm
  - mikenmild
    
    What ‘rewriting’ of history?
    
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    April 21, 2017 6:35pm
    - starboard
      
      Do your own homework. How many fucking times need you be told?
      
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      April 21, 2017 7:26pm
      - mikenmild
        
        I was asking wiseowl. I already know that you are an ignorant fuckwit.
        
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        April 21, 2017 7:44pm
Kiwi_in_Paris

Muslims killing innocent people in Paris again.
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April 21, 2017 8:43am
- stephieboy
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  Kiwi in Paris , evokes memories Muslim Police officer Ahmed Marabet shot by fellow Muslim Terrorists Charlie Hebro massacre ?
  
  http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/charlie-hebdo-executed-muslim-police-4945468
  
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  April 21, 2017 8:59am
  - GoVege
    
    That’s so sad.
    He looked like such a nice man.
    
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    April 21, 2017 10:51am
    - GoVege
      
      He was!!
      I know some lovely Muslims. And murdering raping “Christians”…
      
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      April 21, 2017 9:13pm
- Peter
  
  The cultural dividend is glorious, Comrade!
  
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  April 21, 2017 9:15am
  - stephieboy
    
    Peter, you twit . Jihad Terrorists don’t care whether you are Muslim , Christian , Commie , Trumpist or whatever .
    
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    April 21, 2017 9:52am
    - Peter
      
      Yes, we are ALL indeed blessed with an abundance of their cultural gifts, Comrade!
      
      Sometimes they are so generous, they are delivered in trucks! For all!
      
      We are all indeed most lucky and should promote this ideology….
      
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      April 21, 2017 10:04am
- cmm
  
  The person was shouting out advertising slogans for a new bar called the Aloo-ak Bar or similar. Some sort of new theme bar I guess.
  
  It was obviously not a Muslim. Muslims do not have anything to do with alcohol!
  
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  April 21, 2017 9:18am
  - Peter
    
    That is indeed culturally enriching news, Comrade!
    
    These wondrous culinary treats of the Middle East are a gift to we culturally-barren Western capitalists!
    
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    April 21, 2017 9:40am
    - stephieboy
      
      Peter , better a dead Mulsim than a live one ?
      
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      April 21, 2017 9:53am
      - Rachael Membery
        
        Is it a sin not to spell Muslim correctly?
        
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        April 21, 2017 12:04pm
- krazykiwi
  
  More of the same planned for Marseille.
  
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  April 21, 2017 9:19am
- David Garrett
  
  So, THREE loan wolves who just happen to be Muslim kill police officers in Paris
  
  YES…let’s keep letting the bastards in here! What could go wrong??
  
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  April 21, 2017 9:40am
  - Peter
    
    Erm…..”loosely organised gangs of lone wolves”, perhaps?
    
    Don’t worry. All will have had depression, a string of minor convictions and a bad childhood. Or something. The cause certainly won’t be a belief in a blood-thirsty stone-age religion of some kind.
    
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    April 21, 2017 9:46am
    - David Garrett
      
      Peter: All joking aside, they will more than likely turn out to be French born, the children of Muslim immigrants…which is precisely why, no matter how carefully we select Muslim immigrants who come here, we will almost certainly suffer the same fate once they get above 2% of the population (about 1% now)
      
      NO Stephie, the 87 Muslims in Dunedin are not currently a threat…because there aren’t yet enough of them…ditto however many there currently are in Mt Roskill.
      
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      April 21, 2017 9:53am
      - stephieboy
        
        Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
        David Garrett , I see so you anticiapte a Jihadist Terroist attack Paris style to emanate from Mt Roskill.?
        
        You deluded buffoon !
        
        LOL
        
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        April 21, 2017 10:03am
      - cmm
        
        “I see so you anticiapte a Jihadist Terroist attack Paris style to emanate from Mt Roskill.?”
        
        Who was predicting those in France 10 years ago? Yet they came.
        
        Who was predicting no-go zones in Sweden, Germany and France just ten years ago? Well they’re there now.
        
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        April 21, 2017 10:13am
      - cmm
        
        France currently has 15,000 Muslims being tracked as being in the process of being radicalised.
        
        http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/europe/84146375/French-PM-warns-of-more-terror-attacks-to-come-as-teen-arrested
        
        That is an astounding number:
        * About 1 per 15 cops in France
        * About 1 per 4000 French people
        * About 1 per 250 Muslims.
        
        Those are just the people the cops are currently tracking. There are many more who support them but would not actually go the whole hog themselves.
        
        And it is only getting worse, very quickly too.
        
        If we had those sorts of numbers we’d have some serious problems on our hands.
        
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        April 21, 2017 4:16pm
      - Kimbo
        
        If we had those sorts of numbers we’d have some serious problems on our hands.
        
        Yes, but we don’t, neither is it likely with our current immigration policies and trends, and neither did we have a policy of claiming Muslim-dominated Algeria was a part of our nation. Much in the same way the French claimed they were conducting nuclear tests on their home soil of Mururoa Atoll in the 1970s and 1980s
        
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        April 21, 2017 4:18pm
  - stephieboy
    
    Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
    David Garrett, nothing could go wrong ? Show other wise ?
    
    Nasty , nasty piece of work !
    
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    April 21, 2017 9:54am
    - Peter
      
      Don’t you pay attention to the obvious trends in Europe, Stephieboy?
      
      Not all Muslims are terrorists but almost all terrorists are Muslims. That’s a problem with ideology, whether you choose to acknowledge it or not.
      
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      April 21, 2017 10:02am
      - stephieboy
        
        Peter , all I know using our 50,000 Muslims as a benchmark don’t all represent a security threat.
        Never have and never will .
        
        And that includes my neighbouring suburb so called Mt Roskill stan
        
        LOL
        
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        April 21, 2017 10:07am
      - cmm
        
        Stephie
        
        “Don’t all represent a security threat”.
        
        That is a bullshit strawman.
        
        If you mean that not every individual Muslim is a security threat then yes, that’s true.
        
        But as a group, they’re a problem.
        
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        April 21, 2017 10:15am
      - David Garrett
        
        Peter & cmm: He knows all this…and note how, even when I make it very clear that our 1% Muslim population is NOT yet a threat, he responds as if I have said an attack here is imminent?
        
        It’s a complete waste of time engaging with him…but I know, it’s hard….I have succumbed too…
        
        But here is my very solemn and most reluctant prediction: We WILL have a Muslim terrorist attack here, within ten years, probably sooner…and the terrifying thing is our own liberal elites will trot out the same “lone wolf/mentally ill/no threat from wider Islam” bullshit that we see right now in Europe…
        
        And we will have no-one to blame but ourselves for squandering our ten years of lead in time before Auckland became Paris/London/Berlin/Amsterdam
        
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        April 21, 2017 10:57am
      - Peter
        
        I know, David.
        
        His inability to argue this point is not unique to him, either. Engage any Islam-apologist leftist on this topic and you’ll get diversion rather than acceptance of facts.
        
        They can’t admit how tragically wrong they got it.
        
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        April 21, 2017 11:58am
      - Lance
        
        I don’t know why you bother Peter?
        Stephieboy is like a faked moon landings conspiracy nutter, no amount of evidence or logic will convince him of the truth.
        
        Edit
        
        Bugger DG beat me to it
        
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        April 21, 2017 1:29pm
      - cmm
        
        DG: “We will have an attack within 10 years.”
        
        We’ve had one already. Almost 9 years ago.
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eagle_Airways_Flight_2279
        
        And she promised to keep doing them.
        
        She wanted to back to Somalia. Should have sent her first class or even a private jet. It would work out cheaper than the $million or so it has cost so far to keep her in prison.
        
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        April 21, 2017 2:12pm
    - Rachael Membery
      
      Yes they are.
      
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      April 21, 2017 12:06pm
  - Pateke
    
    Loan wolves. Is that like rent-a-wolf? Where can i get one. I have this neighbour……
    
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    April 21, 2017 10:13am
    - Salacious Crumb
      
      Good thinking. Is there an Instant Finance version maybe? Sort of like a Dial-A-Jihad with Lone Wolves ready to take your call and impose your chosen fatwa?
      
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      April 21, 2017 1:18pm
- GoVege
  
  I was staying around the corner from there recently.
  Why couldn’t those bast**ds have struck then?
  I’ve always wanted to kick some Isis ass! !
  
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  April 21, 2017 1:18pm
  - cmm
    
    I think you would have struggled kicking Comrade Kalashnikov’s arse though!
    
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    April 21, 2017 7:42pm
    - GoVege
      
      I’m sure you’re right there, cmm, but dreams are free….
      
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      April 21, 2017 9:28pm
dime

sweet jesus this is sad

this idiot may actually be dumber than our own horse mouth

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/04/18/17/3F5A2B5200000578-4421912-image-a-8_1492533695426.jpg

lol @ the power of women.

Chelseas only power was being born to the right parents.
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April 21, 2017 8:50am
- stephieboy
  
  dime , share with us your idea of femme fatale ?
  
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  April 21, 2017 9:04am
  - Captain Mainwaring
    
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9t_KDGqOmE
    
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    April 21, 2017 10:38am
  - Jack5
    
    Stephie X asks Dime to “share with us your idea of femme fatale.”
    
    Stephie moves from jibber-jabbering to hijabbering.
    
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    April 21, 2017 3:32pm
    - stephieboy
      
      jack5 , Chelsea turn’s you on after all ?
      
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      April 21, 2017 3:33pm
      - Jack5
        
        Hell’s teeth we’ve got Babie Stephie rostered on today.
        
        Probably a teenager, probably the Stephie who got the syndicate a ban by linking to a porn site.
        
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        April 21, 2017 3:51pm
- Fletch
  
  Chelsea also won an “impact achievement award” bestowed by Variety, and Tucker Carlson makes the point to the author of the piece from the magazine that Chelsea has been a documentary film maker, worked at a hedge fund, she had a paying gig on the Today show, she is now a professor at an ivy league college – none of these things are connected in any way and it is just nepotism – because of who her parents are. Why should she be awarded for that and appear on the cover?
  
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Mu-F41glmA
  
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  April 21, 2017 12:15pm
  - stephieboy
    
    Fletch , can we expect soon the President ‘s much promised Media Conference on Melania’s immigration status ?
    
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    April 21, 2017 3:35pm
  - mikenmild
    
    Whereas the Trump kiddies have pulled themselves up by their bootstraps…
    
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    April 21, 2017 4:14pm
Monique Watson

Oh sweet Jesus re Jim Bolger. Too much tax killed off the economy and ruined lives.

Who wants me to link whore. Ok I will. One for the ladies who seem to be frequenting this blog more of late:
http://www.enlightenedhousewife.com/2017/04/secret-life-of-pets-ft-barack-obama/

You can find me on Facebook. Don’t rush over at once.
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April 21, 2017 8:58am
Maggy Wassilieff

Has your mobile phone been taken over by aliens?
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/apr/20/no-encounters-most-ambitious-alien-search-to-date-draws-a-blank
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April 21, 2017 9:01am
VicParking

Why are Cigarettes part of the Inflation calculations. They are were artificially increased in price by tax increases (12.5%) and therefore do not reflect the real inflation pressures which make up price increases and/or decreases in NZ society.
The same with alcohol to some expect as well. To balance it out they should use the price of P and dope which have no tax component.
I dont smoke or drink so my inflation was much lower than 2% so I’m happy especially as I had a income increase of 2+% this year.
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April 21, 2017 9:22am
- Captain Mainwaring
  
  Good point Vic.
  I would have thought that a much bigger contributor to rising inflation would have been house prices/rents.
  
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  April 21, 2017 9:59am
- cmm
  
  Because cigarettes are a major part of the expenditure of the loser element most sensitive to inflation.
  
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  April 21, 2017 10:17am
- GoVege
  
  I’ve always had the theory that certain sections of our society almost have to knock over shops and houses to fund their smoking and drug addictions.
  Now cigarettes are so dear…they knock over shops specifically to flog them.
  
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  April 21, 2017 1:22pm
mikenmild

Some of our more deranged community link sometimes to the conspiracy site Infowars. Now it seems that all of Alex Jones’s contributions there are to be regarded as ‘performance art’, as he desperately tries to convince a jury that he is sane enought to have custody of his children.
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April 21, 2017 9:23am
- dime
  
  geez milky, youre a bit slow. that came out days ago.
  
  Jones says all the time that he plays it up, goes into satire mode etc
  
  the thing about Jones is – he says this shit, and then a lot of the time it turns out to be correct.
  
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  April 21, 2017 9:27am
  - mikenmild
    
    I’m sure you have examples. Like the time Exercise Jade Helm led to Obama imposing martial law? Okay, maybe not that one. Maybe the Sandy Hook hoax using ‘crisis actors’? Not that, either?
    But, amusement aside, my point wa.is that there are deluded fuckwits who come onto Kiwiblog and link to this bullshit as if it’s real.
    
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    April 21, 2017 9:38am
    - Peter
      
      Isn’t all news performance “art”?
      
      Like that Campbell chap. All that fawning and amateur theatrics. Aren’t there some who take that dead seriously, too?
      
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      April 21, 2017 10:13am
      - mikenmild
        
        I think there might be a fundamental difference between ‘fawning and theatrics’ (common to presenters like Campbell or Hosking) and outright invention of crazy bullshit.
        
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        April 21, 2017 10:21am
  - stephieboy
    
    “..the thing about Jones is – he says this shit, and then a lot of the time it turns out to be correct.”
    
    Extaordinary !
    
    Examples ?
    
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    April 21, 2017 10:38am
    - dime
      
      he said “stephieboy is a shit head”.
      
      he was proved correct.
      
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      April 21, 2017 12:45pm
Happychappy

The Defence portfolio in a NZ First, Labour and Greens coallision is going to be interesting after Ron Mark’s remarks over the Grounded Helicopter Fleet. So this Portfolio could make or break who Winston selects to partner after the Elections.
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April 21, 2017 9:36am
Keeping Stock

From CNN:

JUST IN: Paris shooter was on authorities’ radar

The Paris shooter was known to French security services for radical Islamist activities, a source close to the investigation told CNN.

The suspect, who was shot dead by French police, was the subject of a “Fiche S” surveillance file and was on the radar of the French domestic security service DGSI, the source said. French investigators now believe this was, in all likelihood, a terrorist attack, according to the source. They believe there was just one attacker, and the danger is likely over, the source said.

http://edition.cnn.com/2017/04/20/europe/paris-shooting-live-updates?lf-content=192550693:lb-post-36e1fc7593c6edb2ec20e678b02c960e@livefyre.com&hubRefSrc=permalink

I guess Stephie will pass this off as a mere coincidence…
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April 21, 2017 10:08am
- Rachael Membery
  
  being on the radar hasn’t made any difference, has it? Too many to watch constantly, although I do hope that they have a list of associates, but really isn’t that every other Muslim?
  
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  April 21, 2017 10:16am
  - GoVege
    
    They can’t even put them in jail because that’s where they have their meetings to plan attacks.
    
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    April 21, 2017 10:35am
  - stephieboy
    
    Rachael Membury,
    
    “..but really isn’t that every other Muslim?”
    
    Utter balderdash . If that were the case France’s security problems would be unsoverable and unamamagble.
    
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    April 21, 2017 10:36am
    - Swifty
      
      They are.
      
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      April 21, 2017 10:40am
      - stephieboy
        
        Swifty , in what ways ?
        
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        April 21, 2017 1:36pm
      - Jack5
        
        Stephie X’s 10.36 post includes:
        
        France’s security problems would be unsoverable and unamamagble …
        
        Stephie X, please type OR chew khat. Don’t try to do both at the same time.
        
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        April 21, 2017 3:30pm
    - RalphT
      
      I’m not sure whether France’s security problems are “unsoverable and unamamagble” but I think that events of the last couple of years are showing that they definitely are unsolvable and unmanageable without some pretty drastic action, which will not be pretty for all concerned.
      
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      April 21, 2017 10:44am
      - kowtow
        
        There’s a few good comments on the Groaniad site re this very issue. And this is why nothing will be done by the mainstream ,until it gets to the stage of Balkanisation and ,I won’t call it civil war , but it will be religious wars all over again. Not in 10 or 20 years but certainly in 100 , when the Mo’s have the numbers. The ghettoisation is already there.
        
        Politicians would have to make some difficult choices, defend such choices and then implement them.
        
        “The public would have to have a hard look at society and make tough decisions, maybe even changing their outlook or way of life.
        
        The Right and Left would have to work together so actual change can come about. A dialogue would have to be formed.”
        
        https://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2017/apr/20/marine-le-pens-rise-in-forgotten-france-video-front-national-burgundy#comments
        
        One of the ironies about French politics now that there’s such a massive Muslim vote there ,is that that block may well be the decisive factor in the run off vote.
        
        LePen will never get in , the borders stay open and France will become a Muslim shit hole.
        
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        April 21, 2017 11:28am
      - tusker
        
        RalphT. What ‘drastic action’ are you thinking of ? Perhaps a modern day version of the French OAS led purge of the Muslim ghettos in major cities. That worked well in Algeria.
        
        The Muslim Trojan horse has already bolted (yes, I know,but go with it) in France. The West must now grimly endure the violent consequences of following a liberal immigration agenda.
        
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        April 21, 2017 11:37am
      - stephieboy
        
        Ralph T, a bit of ethnic cleansing wouldn’t go a amiss , eh ?
        
        http://www.history.com/topics/bosnian-genocide
        
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        April 21, 2017 1:32pm
      - GoVege
        
        Kowtow: I only saw 3 obvious Muslims when I was in Paris last February.
        Two of them frisked me at the airport.
        (That was ok: quite a charge to be singled out as a potential terrorist….)
        The 3rd was some dork in a burqa striding through a McDonald’s who put me off my filet of fish.
        
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        April 21, 2017 6:50pm
    - Rachael Membery
      
      Unsolvable and unmanageable?
      Sounds about right to me.
      So are you telling me that when, not if, push comes to shove that there will not be sides taken?
      Which side do you think that other Muslims will take?
      
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      April 21, 2017 12:16pm
      - tusker
        
        Not solvable as in coming up with a solution that will prevent violence. That can only come from within Islam. It is manageable though, as is currently occurring – with massive investment in preventative security and provided societies are prepared to accept the casualties when inevitably security fails at times.
        
        The era of liberal domination of the immigration agenda has come to an end. Even in moderate Sweden. Islamic communities have failed to contain the hard line islamist factions within them and now face the consequence of entry barriers to the west being lowered.
        
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        April 21, 2017 12:39pm
      - stephieboy
        
        Rachael Membery , evidence that France’s Muslims are flocking to join Islamic State ?
        
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        April 21, 2017 1:35pm
- David Garrett
  
  KS: Of course he will…We all know that even when it eventually happens here – as sadly I believe it will, and sooner rather than later – he will still be making excuses…and he won’t be alone…all our stupid liberal elites will also be making excuses for the first (and the next and the next) New Zealand “lone wolf”
  
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  April 21, 2017 11:22am
  - stephieboy
    
    David Garrett, ACT and its leader apart of the”stupid liberal elites “?
    
    Shall we add Colin Craig and John Stringer
    
    LOL
    
    “Stupid “? yet another rich irony alert ?
    
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    April 21, 2017 1:38pm
  - GoVege
    
    Dave: we’ve already got a few potential lone wolves here….all umpteenth generations and formerly known as something like Wiremu.
    
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    April 21, 2017 6:53pm
    - mikenmild
      
      I have usually found vegetarians to be pleasant, inoffensive people. I assume you are the exception that proves the rule.
      
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      April 21, 2017 7:05pm
      - GoVege
        
        What the hell did I say to upset you THIS time, milky?
        And to think of all the times I’ve up-ticked you against all the right-wing jerks on here.
        Is it coz I criticise Maori a bit?
        It’s more their leadership I’m agin. …and idiots who join Isis.
        
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        April 21, 2017 8:07pm
Dafixeruppa

Well I am sure this has already been posted:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11842099
The issue with the Air force Helicopters being grounded, the ones that Labour purchased in 2006 (Not saying they were a mistake, just adding here for completeness).
Brownlee said: “I wouldn’t call the NH90s a white elephant [but] I think they’re a challenging piece of kit. And we’ve got to be very careful that we don’t end up buying more unsuitable equipment.”

Now how is that for a bit of polite speak? He was able to say that he thought they were not the right helicopters for NZ, but without pointing the finger at Labour for the original purchase.
I was impressed that in an election year, he didn’t take the opportunity to get in a cheap shot.
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April 21, 2017 10:22am
- mikenmild
  
  Even Brownlee knows that all government routinely have fuck-ups procuring defence equipment.
  
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  April 21, 2017 10:35am
  - thedavincimode
    
    milky is quite right. The sad reality is that our defence forces shouldn’t be let loose within a mile of the taxpayer cheque book and the fact that successive governments have presided over these fuckups makes one wonder what, if any, procedures exist within Treasure, Audit NZ and at Ministerial level, to ensure that little things don’t pop up such as helicopters designated as being naval compatible, being unable to fly over water – a curious problem to have given we are surrounded by the stuff.
    
    I can understand (lower level incompetence to one side) how fuckups get past Ministers (eg helicopters and the Charles Upham), but there is a point where a Minister can still ask a question like: “400 LAVS? You want 400 LAVS? What are you planning on doing with 400 LAVS – starting a cross country taxi service?
    
    I also can’t help but wonder the extent to which some of these decisions are borne of inter-service rivalry and competition for funds, or penny-pinching because of under-funding and winding up with crap (the Charles Upham).
    
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    April 21, 2017 11:12am
    - mikenmild
      
      If you are interested in this subject, which I find quite fascinating, there was a good book about NZ defence about 25 years ago by Jim Rolfe. It covers the routine procurement shenanigins (political incompetence, service rivalries, etc).
      I recall mainly the story of the Lake-class patrol craft, an A1 cock-up from the 1970s.
      
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      April 21, 2017 11:26am
      - thedavincimode
        
        I’ve managed to locate “Gardening with Camelias: A New Zealand Guide” by Jim Rolfe, but I suspect that isn’t the book you’re referring to.
        
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        April 21, 2017 11:33am
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        Probably this one
        
        James Rolfe 1993: Defending New Zealand: a study of structures, processes and relationships
        
        http://ips.ac.nz/publications/publications/show/111
        
        (I believe the Camellia Jim Rolfe is the father of this author)
        
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        April 21, 2017 3:26pm
      - thedavincimode
        
        Thanks Maggy.
        
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        April 21, 2017 4:40pm
    - howitis
      
      Small fry when you compare to Australia’s commitment last year to spend AUD 56 Billion on submarines.
      
      These are French gear to be outfitted in South Australia in a unit to be created for the purpose.
      In a state that can’t guarantee power supply to hospitals but wants heavy industry.
      It is a Turnbull decision. What could go wrong?
      
      http://www.news.com.au/finance/business/dick-smith-furious-at-50-billion-subs-fiasco/news-story/6f85752a58e5a7afa5472c0ac5453065
      
      The group, which includes entrepreneur Dick Smith, Gary Johnston of Jaycar Electronics and adman John Singleton, took out a full-page advertisement in The Australian on Tuesday slamming the move to go with French producer DCNS, suggesting buying off-the-shelf nuclear subs would be a better option.
      
      https://phys.org/news/2016-12-australia-france-submarines.html
      Germany, which had publicly offered to build the entire fleet in Adelaide for AU$20 billion—less than half the navy’s expected cost—offered a larger variation of its Type 214 submarine made for Australian specifications called a Type 216. It promoted as its edge over competitors its partnership with German engineering firm Siemens which would have provided the submarines’ software and promised to create a digital shipbuilding center in Adelaide.
      
      Oh well the French have some experience down this way with submarines.
      They turned the Rainbow Warrior from a surface ship to a submarine then collected the perpetrators in a submarine off the Ouvea.
      
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      April 21, 2017 1:26pm
      - thedavincimode
        
        Dick Smith, Gary Johnston of Jaycar Electronics and adman John Singleton, took out a full-page advertisement in The Australian on Tuesday slamming the move to go with French producer DCNS, suggesting buying off-the-shelf nuclear subs would be a better option.
        
        They seem to be missing from the Jaycars NZ catalogue.
        
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        April 21, 2017 4:44pm
      - mikenmild
        
        Must be a fucking big shelf if it has nuclear submarines on it.
        
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        April 21, 2017 4:47pm
    - Paulus
      
      I always assume that it was the Ministry of Defence who made these purchase decisions and the Military were only to give comment as to requirements.
      
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      April 21, 2017 1:27pm
      - mikenmild
        
        That is how it works in theory, but the ministry has to work very closely with the armed forces for which it is acquiring equipment and, indeed, needs to have staff with military experience.
        There was a unified defence structure until 1990, when the Ministry of Defence was established as distinctly different from the Defence Force. Tensions in the relationship led to a sort of a rapprochement after a number of years, with the institution of mechanisms of co-operation which, funnily enough, imitate many of the structures and processes the old diarchy depended upon.
        These sort of structural changes tend to come and go in cycles.
        
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        April 21, 2017 4:22pm
  - Happychappy
    
    Maybe Ron Mark could take a lesson on the subject then as his comments were not so kind to former Defence Ministers. But then again he is a expert in and about our military force’s.
    
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    April 21, 2017 11:39am
  - Dafixeruppa
    
    MM, I regularly dislike your comments and regularly down tick them… yes I know, I’m a sod sometimes.
    But, in this case, I gave you the up tick and can’t understand the downticks to your comment.
    You simply stated that everyone makes mistakes and he recognises it. What is there to downtick in that?
    
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    April 21, 2017 12:35pm
    - GoVege
      
      You bast**d….downticking milky!
      But at least you’re man enough to admit your wrong-doing.
      As for that last comment, must be a lot of crabby people on KB today.
      
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      April 21, 2017 1:25pm
Scott

Totally agree Rachael. One thing Trump is doing is saying there are thousands of Muslims in the United States that are being watched by the authorities. He asks a simple question – why are we doing that? If we think that people are a potential danger to the United States why not send them back from where they came from?

I know it’s not so simple in France because there are millions who are citizens who were born in France. But from the French point of view I would expect there are thousands and thousands of potential terrorists who are watch list suspects and are not French citizens. Why not cancel their visas and send them home?

France has got to crackdown on the Muslim problem or else it will no longer be France.
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April 21, 2017 10:23am
- Albert_Ross
  
  Civilised countries don’t punish people on the basis of what they think they might do.
  
  Some people think all men are potential rapists. Should all men be made subject to a curfew?
  
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  April 21, 2017 10:36am
  - Scott
    
    Yes good comment – but not good example. Regarding your comment I would say there should be a different standard for citizens as opposed to noncitizens. If someone is a citizen of the country then they are entitled to all of the protections and rights of citizenship.
    
    But if someone is not a citizen and let’s say they are a Muslim, they disappeared for a period of time to Yemen, they are attending a radical mosque and they have been involved in suspicious chatter on the Internet with Isis recruiting sites. Would you use taxpayer dollars and resources to monitor this guy? Or would you send him home?
    
    Right now given all the Muslim terrorism all around the world I would deport first. It’s just too much risk.
    
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    April 21, 2017 10:49am
    - Kimbo
      
      Regarding your comment I would say there should be a different standard for citizens as opposed to noncitizens. If someone is a citizen of the country then they are entitled to all of the protections and rights of citizenship.
      
      …Right now given all the Muslim terrorism all around the world I would deport first. It’s just too much risk
      
      Er, Scott, given your views on the application of the moral aspects of the law of Moses to national life, you may want to consider the following, which is primarily concerned with the good juris prudence:
      
      You shall not oppress a resident alien; you know the heart of an alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.(Exodus 23:9)
      
      You shall have one law for the alien and for the citizen: for I am the Lord your God. (Leviticus 24:22)
      
      You and the alien who resides with you shall have the same law and the same ordinance. (Numbers 15:16)
      
      Cursed be anyone who deprives the alien, the orphan, and the widow of justice.” All the people shall say, “Amen!” (Deuteronomy 27:19)
      
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      April 21, 2017 10:59am
    - Kimbo
      
      But if someone is not a citizen and let’s say they are a Muslim, they disappeared for a period of time to Yemen, they are attending a radical mosque and they have been involved in suspicious chatter on the Internet with Isis recruiting sites.
      
      And as you are arguing for a blanket restriction on the migration of those who are Muslims, you have implied with the pitch of your hypothetical scenario that it is typical of most Muslim immigrants to New Zealand, or anywhere else in the West for that matter. I’d suggest it is the extreme exception, not the norm. And you are an honest guy, so I think you’d acknowledge the same…
      
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      April 21, 2017 11:06am
    - stephieboy
      
      Scott ,
      
      “Right now given all the Muslim terrorism all around the world I would deport first. ”
      
      Is that in the books of Daniel and Revelations etc ?
      
      “It’s just too much risk.” ????
      
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      April 21, 2017 1:42pm
    - Tirebiter
      
      Scott
      
      “Right now given all the Muslim terrorism all around the world I would deport first. It’s just too much risk”
      
      Far more people in open societies die each year in car accidents, medical misadventure, or falling off ladders than Muslim terrorism. Risk is the price we pay for an open society. If you don’t want the risk, and I hesitate to suggest this, move to a nice, neat closed society if you think that will make you feel safe. (It probably won’t.) There are plenty of these closed societies about; many in the Middle East.
      Fear is an emotional, often irrational response. No amount of guns, police protection, or military might will alleviate it. Witness the mass levels of fear in the US with the most potent military, most guns in civilian hands, most police, and highest levels of incarceration. Often the greatest levels of fear are found in those living in rural areas where the chance of a terrorist act is just about zero.
      
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      April 22, 2017 1:38am
  - kowtow
    
    Our “civilisation” will end if Muslims are allowed to migrate to the west uncontrolled. Look at Asia Minor or the Balkans if you want practical and real examples.
    Demographics and time will determine the outcome. Because western pollies have no appetite to tackle it.
    
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    April 21, 2017 11:33am
    - Kimbo
      
      Too late! We let in the bog Irish Catholics, Yellow Peril and other assorted wogs years ago… //
      
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      April 21, 2017 11:40am
      - kowtow
        
        Ah, de bog Oirish ?
        
        Here’s a re enactment of the bog Irish at V Beach.
        Warning , there’s a rosary beads in the footage ,which may be offensive to bigots.
        
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKEC2FCo76c
        
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        April 21, 2017 1:00pm
      - Kimbo
        
        I see your “offensive to bigots” and raise you: Or the Islamic prayer beads in this one
        
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTnb3xRbXdw
        
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        April 21, 2017 1:07pm
      - Rachael Membery
        
        I wouldn’t be here, if the bog Irish hadn’t, I shall forgive them ;).
        
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        April 21, 2017 2:26pm
  - David Garrett
    
    Albert: So…”civilized countries” should just ignore a hate spouting Imam preaching death and destruction to gullible youth? And what should said civilized countries do, after the inevitable happens, and one of the Imam’s students commits a terrorist outrage?
    
    Sorry, but harsh and inevitably unjust as it was, Roosevelt had it right when he ordered the internment of all Japanese Americans…we will never know how many – if any – deaths were thus prevented…but it was a sensible precaution.
    
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    April 21, 2017 11:37am
    - tusker
      
      DG. I hesitate to undermine the purpose of your comment but there is little comparison between the deep cultural and political alignment to western values of the multi generational Japanese Americans in 1942 and the component of the muslim immigrant communities today that is diametrically opposed to our western secular way of life.
      
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      April 21, 2017 11:50am
      - Kimbo
        
        OK, Why – other than it doesn’t suit your argument and/or prejudices? With reference to Japanese culture, political expansionism and militant aggression in the twenty odd years leading up to 1941, including the death of millions of Chinese in the 1930s (Rape of Nanking, anyone?), and with reference to the fact that Japan had only “opened up” to the world less than 100 years before due to the arrival of an American gunboat…
        
        But despite that, and as you say, it was wrong, and unnecessary, just as, in proportion to the threat, restrictions on Muslims because they are Muslims is wrong and unnecessary. Or don’t people learn from previous moral panics?
        
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        April 21, 2017 11:59am
    - Kimbo
      
      How the hell did you make that jump?! Where the hell did Albert Ross imply that treating people on the basis of what they say and do, not what they do equate to, “just ignore a hate spouting Imam preaching death and destruction to gullible youth”?
      
      Those are actions, and we have laws regarding sedition, domestic security, surveillance. Whether they are radical Muslims, militant Nazis, or whatever.
      
      I think I’ve got you figured out, DG. You are a clever guy, you are a focused guy. But, despite your legal training, you are like some people I met in the course of study and preparation for a discipline, and while they learn how to manipulate the nuts and bolts of, in your case the law, they come out unchanged the day they graduate and put out their shingle, and continue to remain the same person they always were.
      
      Which would be ok (although a lawyer arguing something that is “inevitably unjust” is good, right and necessary, FFS?!), but when you use your rhetorical and legal skill, rat cunning and reputation as a former MP to slyly manipulate someone’s words to mean something they didn’t mean, and you almost certainly know what you are doing, well, there’s a word for that sort of action.
      
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      April 21, 2017 11:51am
      - David Garrett
        
        Kimbo: Do you really think I care about your opprobrium? Really?
        
        I don’t give anonymous snipers skulking behind the digital arras the time of day mate…
        
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        April 21, 2017 12:01pm
      - Kimbo
        
        Opprobrium? Big word for someone putting on the faux “I remain a working class boy from Gizzie” shtick , isn’t DG? Watch out – your carefully crafted image will take a hit.
        
        No, DG, you don’t strike me as the sort of guy who much listens to anyone who isn’t in lock step with your existing opinions. But opprobrium? That implies I have some distress or outrage at your opinions, or attempts to deceive. Not at all. As I implied, you are a fascinating specimen, or at least you were until I worked you out. Now you are just…a predictable bore. Hence your well-practiced side-step of the pertinent issue, in this case your misrepresentation of Albert_Ross’ words.
        
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        April 21, 2017 12:09pm
      - stephieboy
        
        David Garrett , what makes you think the public will take you seriously given your rather chequered background ?
        
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        April 21, 2017 1:45pm
    - UrbanNeocolonialist
      
      Median estimates by researchers put human level AI in about 20 years, and rapid escalation to super-intelligence (AI developed by AI) within months or years after that, though given recent massive increase in AI research it could easily be far sooner. At that point all predictions about human socio-political issues become moot.
      
      The human race will either be wiped out or education, governance and economics will change so radically that a lot of current problems will largely irrelevant. Muslims in west unlikely to be an important problem after then. (Unless they get control of Skynet and tell it to wipe out all infidels)
      
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      April 21, 2017 4:52pm
    - Tirebiter
      
      DG
      If the Japanese-Americans were a threat, why weren’t the German-Americans considered an equal threat? Why weren’t they locked up?
      Or do you support locking up those who might commit a crime, instead of those who did commit a crime? Unless they’re white.
      
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      April 22, 2017 1:44am
  - Rachael Membery
    
    Yes? they can stay home with the children ;).
    
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    April 21, 2017 12:25pm
  - Rich Prick
    
    We can be a bit more sophisticated than that. Propensity evidence says Muslims are a terror risk. Once the risk is identified it can be controlled, avoided or eliminated. Measures can range from immigration control, to simply avoiding Islamic no-go zones in larger European cities.
    
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    April 21, 2017 12:27pm
    - stephieboy
      
      Rich Prick,
      “All “Muslims a Terror risk ? Evidence and facts ?
      
      Who says there are Muslim no go zones in Western Europe ?
      
      https://www.buzzfeed.com/ishmaeldaro/no-go-zone-myth?utm_term=.jfNqOG67J#.pwmEnjrXG
      
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      April 21, 2017 1:47pm
      - Rachael Membery
        
        I would rather that there were zones where the Muslims couldn’t go.
        Here we are barricading ourselves in our homes away from those who might have a community based sentence, when the threat is far more insidious.
        
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        April 21, 2017 2:34pm
      - Rich Prick
        
        Look up the meaning of propensity and try to comprehend it in the context given, fool*.
        
        *This should not be read as an admission by me that I care about you, your views or anything you have to say.
        
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        April 21, 2017 2:46pm
  - GoVege
    
    Now that’s a good idea!
    
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    April 21, 2017 1:26pm
Hugh Pavletich

Posted at … https://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2017/04/links-21-april-2017/#comment-2854544

Rob Stock: Lessons from home affordability report | Stuff.co.nz

https://i.stuff.co.nz/91565685/Rob-Stock-Lessons-from-home-affordability-report

OPINION: A report by a landlords’ lobbying group has proved houses haven’t become more “unaffordable” to the young.

Phew, that’s a relief, because I was under the impression that in our big cities they were severely unaffordable.

I had been seeing signs of severe unaffordability everywhere; falling home ownership, increasing years to save a deposit, parents guaranteeing mortgages, youngsters needing gifted deposits, and the skyrocketing ratio of house prices to household incomes.

But then the Property Investors’ Federation (PIF) Housing Affordability Report assured me: “Commentators who state that it has never been less affordable to get into your first home are wrong and may inadvertently be doing a great disservice to first home buyers.” … read more via hyperlink above …
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April 21, 2017 10:25am
- Captain Mainwaring
  
  There’s old Hugh, pissing into the wind again.
  
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  April 21, 2017 10:46am
  - Hugh Pavletich
    
    Watch Nick Smith blow a fuse when this sees the light of day ! …
    
    Do check the GONE GONE GOING section of http://www.PerformanceUrbanPlanning.org !
    
    MBIE worried ministers won’t like their long-overdue housing affordability measure | Stuff.co.nz
    
    http://i.stuff.co.nz/national/91742963/mbie-worried-ministers-wont-like-their-longoverdue-housing-affordability-measure
    
    MBIE failing to meet self-imposed targets | Radio New Zealand News
    
    http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/328975/mbie-failing-to-meet-self-imposed-targets
    
    … excerpt …
    
    … The annual Demographia housing survey found Auckland had the fourth-least affordable houses in the world, with prices more than 10 times the median income.
    
    That’s up from 6.4 times the median income when National took office in 2008.
    
    It found houses in Hamilton, Tauranga, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin were all severely unaffordable too.
    
    Co-author Hugh Pavletich said housing has become far less affordable and mortgage rates have nothing to do with it.
    
    “What the gentleman from MBIE is saying really is confusing housing affordability, structural housing affordability, with mortgage affordability, and they are two entirely different subjects.
    
    “New Zealand is considered to have some of the most unaffordable housing in the world.”
    
    Mr Pavletich said New Zealand was on the brink of a housing market crash.
    
    Labour’s Grant Robertson said nearly all of MBIE’s indicators were going backwards – and massively so – on housing affordability.
    
    “Well I think that’s the greatest failure of this government, unfortunately housing is getting less and less affordable. We’ve seen increases in the prices of 15, 18 even 20 percent over the last few years,” Mr Robertson said. … read more via hyperlinks above …
    
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    April 21, 2017 10:56am
    - Hugh Pavletich
      
      Maybe not, Minister? Nick Smith’s housing measure suppressed – LABOUR | Scoop News
      
      http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA1704/S00262/maybe-not-minister-nick-smiths-housing-measure-suppressed.htm
      
      MP for Te Atatū
      
      Housing Spokesperson
      
      MEDIA STATEMENT
      21 April 2017
      
      Maybe not, Minister? Nick Smith’s housing measure suppressed
      
      Sir Humphrey: Minister, remember the Housing Affordability Measure work you asked us to prepare back in 2012? Well, it’s ready now.
      
      Minister Smith: Oh goodie, what does it say?
      
      Sir Humphrey: Nothing.
      
      Minister Smith: Nothing?
      
      Sir Humphrey: Well, sir, you asked us to prepare a measurement of affordability and we simply couldn’t find any evidence to support such a notion.
      
      Minister Smith: Oh, bugger. Get my togs, towel and drive me to the nearest river. I’m going swimming!
      
      The scene in Nick Smith’s office as he tries to bury the long-awaited Housing Affordability Measures – delayed since 2015 – would be farcical if it wasn’t such an important issue, says Labour’s Housing Spokesperson Phil Twyford. … read more via hyperlink above …
      
      Access yesterday’s postings …
      
      http://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2017/04/general_debate_20_april_2017.html/comment-page-1#comment-1913803 … and … https://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2017/04/links-20-april-2017/#comment-2853842 … with other postings immediately up-thread
      
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      April 21, 2017 11:16am
      - Hugh Pavletich
        
        Wow … see the hit vols this thing is getting now ! …
        
        John Key – Housing Reform – 2007
        
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWPgoAI1cLE&t=1s
        
        I have it highlighted at http://www.PerformanceUrbanPlanning.org as well.
        
        10 lying years on … the National led Government should be ashamed with itself.
        
        Honestly … these wets couldn’t run a bath …
        
        New Zealands housing consensus: Where is the political leadership ? … Hugh Pavletich … Not PC
        
        http://pc.blogspot.co.nz/2017/01/auckland-worlds-fourth-hardest-to-buy.html
        
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        April 21, 2017 11:54am
    - howitis
      
      I’ll insert myself between Hugh and Hugo.
      Dotty ol’ Hugh is answering his own questions.
      Shades of Colin interviewing Colin.
      
      That’s right Hugh I do agree with me, do Hugh?
      Uh huh. Oh yes, hugh are such a clever man, and hugh can type.
      
      Just a question Hugh.
      Are hugh going senile and hugh forget hugh posted the previous comment?
      
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      April 21, 2017 6:13pm
thedavincimode

Hugh, why not just say what you want to say on your own site and then just paste a link here without comment? That much link-whoring could be tolerated but this deluge is a serial “Employment Wanted” ad that most of us appear to be content to do without. Otherwise, why not just go to the pictures of for a walk? Take up golf? Maybe the Zoo? Mix it up a bit to help your empty days pass.
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April 21, 2017 11:19am
- Nostradamus
  
  thedavincimode:
  
  it’s almost as if Philu’s back..eh?
  (..hello..!)
  did’ya miss me..?
  hugh’s my link-whore alter-ego..!
  ~~phil~~hugh ~~whoar~~demographia.co.nz)
  
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  April 21, 2017 11:48am
- Captain Mainwaring
  
  Very well said davinci. The man’s quite wound up with his own self-importance, is he not?
  And who cares what he has to say/post/link?
  
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  April 21, 2017 3:05pm
kowtow

“In an apparent policy U-turn, Social Housing Minister Amy Adams told the Otago Daily Times the Government planned to increase the social housing stock in Dunedin by 40 within the next three years.”

So why is Daft Dunners so keen on putting its own people on waiting lists in favour of Syrian refugees? Every Syrian family taken in is one New Zealand family disadvantaged.

https://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/social-housing-boost-dunedin
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April 21, 2017 11:37am
Maggy Wassilieff

Russia decrees Jehovah’s Witness as an extremist group.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-39661339
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April 21, 2017 11:50am
Longknives

Lots of ‘LOL’s and obvious enjoyment this morning from Stephieboy in the wake of yet another Terrorist Attack in Paris.
Stay Classy Pal….
16 1
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April 21, 2017 12:25pm
Monique Watson

Happy 4/20 from California where it’s legalized.
6 2
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April 21, 2017 12:43pm
Rachael Membery

I see that only one person has died, that is great, modern medicine can save people that once would have died.
I was curious about one of the reports though. Surely ‘fatally wounded’ just means dead?
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April 21, 2017 1:05pm
Nostradamus

Someone posted this image at Pete George’s blog.

“Who said the Hijab had anything to do with modesty?”
“well she doesn’t even appear to be wearing a …thong…”

I wonder what Stephieboy thinks of the photo.
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April 21, 2017 1:05pm
- David Garrett
  
  Nostra: Kerr-rist! A bit ironic, what? Hair covered lest it inflame Stephie’s mates’ passions, but “commando” down below…
  
  6 0
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  April 21, 2017 1:50pm
- Rich Prick
  
  Actually, there is an argument for the burqua.
  
  7 1
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  April 21, 2017 3:13pm
- stephieboy
  
  Turning you on ?
  
  Seek Help !
  
  2 13
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  April 21, 2017 3:38pm
  - UrbanNeocolonialist
    
    Those who perv at girls in malls and post porn to a public forum have no moral authority on anything.
    
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    April 21, 2017 4:58pm
- krazykiwi
  
  She’s a builder. Obviously.
  
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  April 21, 2017 5:12pm
David Garrett

Ok, so the latest on the ISLAMIC TERROR ATTACK in Paris is that IS has claimed responsibility…Of course that may or may not be accurate: I guess there is nothing preventing them taking “credit” for a piece of infamy committed by a third party…

But when does a “lone wolf” attack become one sponsored by IS? At the very least, they are solidly behind it…
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April 21, 2017 1:09pm
- SGA
  
  But when does a “lone wolf” attack become one sponsored by IS?
  
  I would imagine that sponsoring an attack would entail some tangible support in terms of money, equipment, logistics, or training.
  
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  April 21, 2017 2:42pm
- KevinH
  
  A feature of these string of attacks is that they consist of 1 – 2 terrorists operating independently thus making detection of their activities all the more difficult for security agencies.
  Perhaps a new description such as cells is more appropriate to describe these type of attacks.
  
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  April 21, 2017 3:25pm
  - Kimbo
    
    I think in terrorist parlance, “cells” take direction from head office in a specific pre-planned and directed series of attacks that fit into an overall strategy. “Freelancers trying to get retrospective acceptance by the franchise” may be more accurate to describe how ISIS claims credit for something for which they did nothing tangible, just “inspiration” in the loosest sense of the word.
    
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    April 21, 2017 5:14pm
Viking2

only 7 per cent of the best-performing CEOs — who ran companies from Fortune 10 behemoths to those with just $US10 million ($13.2 million) in annual sales — had an Ivy League degree, despite the conventional wisdom that pedigree matters. “There was zero correlation between pedigree and ultimate performance,” she said, acknowledging that number could be higher if they were just looking at large Fortune 500 firms.

Another misconception boards make when picking their next CEO is to choose candidates who have an impeccable career trajectory, with nothing but a resume full of achievements.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/better-business/91787901/what-makes-a-good-ceo-probably-not-what-you-think

So the smart arses are not that good at running things. Oh dear your degree doesn’t make you a business manager of note. What a surprise.
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April 21, 2017 1:24pm
- krazykiwi
  
  I don’t have a degree and my career trajectory has been more like a bar-room rodeo bull, than like a rocket: Successful startups, failed startups, enterprise cog, unemployed, director of a multinational, self-employed. It’s been fun. But don’t ask Mrs KK. She’s over it 😉
  
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  April 21, 2017 5:10pm
Monique Watson

You’d think they’d lined up a getaway car DG instead of being a bunch of fragmented losers claiming responsibility via Twitter.
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April 21, 2017 1:31pm
- David Garrett
  
  Monique: For me it doesn’t matter that much whether these attacks are lone wolf Islamic nutters or part of a more organized plot…the poor fucking victims are just as dead, no matter how organized their killers are…
  
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  April 21, 2017 1:40pm
Rachael Membery

http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/capital-life/91674703/chinese-expat-inspired-by-helen-clark-is-buyer-of-her-discarded-portrait
There you go, one of Helen’s immigrants done good?
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April 21, 2017 2:45pm
- Rich Prick
  
  The Mona Lisa it certainly ain’t. But seriously, 2.4 metres of it??
  
  5 0
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  April 21, 2017 3:07pm
- Captain Mainwaring
  
  I wish him the best of luck with his gallery with that horrendous visage as its centrepiece.
  
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  April 21, 2017 3:09pm
- UrbanNeocolonialist
  
  Install it under glass in the bottom of a porta-loo and charge $5 per shit. Would make a killing at A&P shows.
  
  6 1
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  April 21, 2017 5:01pm
- Nostradamus
  
  Surely Peter could have put in a decent bid and scored a few brownie points with Helen?
  
  3 0
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  April 21, 2017 5:13pm
Captain Mainwaring

Don’t tell me they’ve been taking advice from the Greens. A sure way to piss our savings up against a wall.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/91790574/super-fund-suffers-setback-with-expansion-capital-strategy-after-writeoff
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April 21, 2017 2:59pm
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  What a bloody scandal.
  
  As if the yanks could ever produce a cheap, efficient wind turbine.
  
  Someone didn’t do due diligence on this company
  http://www.wind-works.org/cms/index.php?id=668&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=4335&cHash=64077637ba5f02c2107bfa97335d4099
  
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  April 21, 2017 3:42pm
  - UrbanNeocolonialist
    
    That’s appalling, any engineer with a brain laughs at shrouded turbines – various companies (like Vortec in NZ 15 years ago) have tried and failed to make them work economically – because it is easy to see that slightly longer blades and slight slower generator with no shroud is much cheaper.
    
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    April 22, 2017 12:14am
GazzaW

Here we go again!

Get out your sandbags, torches and emergency supplies.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/new/article.cfm?c_id=1&object=11842646

Is it for real or another ‘cry wolf’?
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April 21, 2017 3:14pm
Jack5

Westland District Council is going ahead with its controversial $7 million “cake decorator” works contract.

From a quick reading, it appears the Auckland Indian lady who owns a cake decorating shop was director of an NZ company set up by an Indian engineering outfit to meet NZ official requirements. However, the Indian company seems to have had no experience working in Australia or New Zealand.

It’s of interest that taxpayers are kicking in $257,000 towards the contract through a Ministry of Health subsidy.

The council’s asset manager, Vivek Goel, who oversaw the award of the contract, is on leave and under investigation by the Serious Fraud Office.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/91766106/westland-district-council-goes-ahead-with-controversial-company-for-water-treatment-plants
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April 21, 2017 3:23pm
- Nostradamus
  
  Jack5:
  
  There are a few unexplained matters in that article. Compare:
  
  – “$405,000 contract with Techno Economic Services to upgrade the Kumara and Whataroa plants”
  
  – “Vivek Goel, who is on leave from his position as assets manager for the Westland District Council, oversaw the controversial offer of a $7m contract to build a wastewater treatment plant in Franz Josef to TES. TES director Neha Bubna is a cake decorator from South Auckland. ”
  
  So, different contract values, and different project scope.
  
  Which makes this statement puzzling: “Council sought and obtained clarification on the tender evaluation process from two independent engineers on the tender evaluation panel.”
  
  So how can we have a tender evaluation process that results, apparently, in a different project scope and a different contract price?
  
  But then we find out:
  
  The contract would be partly paid by a $275,000 Ministry of Health subsidy.
  
  Wonderful news for taxpayers (not)!
  
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  April 21, 2017 5:01pm
MH

latest 5 eyes download intelligence report sent to PoTUS ” USS Carl VINSON, This is Kaitia Lighthouse, NEGATIVE, ADVISE you MOVE TO STARBOARD”
4 0
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April 21, 2017 3:35pm
- Rachael Membery
  
  Did you ask Starboard?
  
  4 0
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  April 21, 2017 7:08pm
  - starboard
    
    Helloooo…from Bangkok..37deg and sweating like a murri learning english ?
    
    5 3
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    April 21, 2017 7:53pm
Jack5

Christchurch brothel owner fights to keep her assets seized by the police.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/91737246/police-move-to-strip-brothel-owner-fan-jiang-of-2m-assets
1 0
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April 21, 2017 3:36pm
- krazykiwi
  
  I struggling to unsee the image I have of a brothel owner having her assets siezed. I blame Trump.
  
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  April 21, 2017 9:47pm
RF

A friend living at Hanmer Springs has been told that there is further trouble for those using the alternative route from Christchurch to Picton via the Lewis Pass. During the winter there will be a ban on those wanting to use chains to get through snow / ice. In other words if you need chains they are shutting the road. Apparently they are concerned that vehicles stopping to put on chains will cause congestion as the roads are narrow enough now.

This is not confirmed but I can see it happening.
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April 21, 2017 3:54pm
Rachael Membery

Why don’t we commercially can feijoas? the season is so short, there is a absolute glut, then nothing.
5 0
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April 21, 2017 7:12pm
- Rachael Membery
  
  The season is so short, there is an absolute glut…
  
  4 0
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  April 21, 2017 7:20pm
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    yummmmy…just had Feijoas and chocolate Mousse for 2nd night in a row.
    
    Feijoas probably aren’t canned because there’s no commercial surplus… All the growers can sell their produce here.. or export (still a bit of a nascent industry).
    I saw Feijoas selling for S9.99/kilo in Wellington Moore Wilsons last month.
    NZ Feijoas sell for $2 each in Aussie.
    
    1 1
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    April 21, 2017 8:21pm
    - Rachael Membery
      
      An industry in the waiting, I think that they would preserve well, feijoa crumble, yum, lol thank goodness the glut coincided with the school holidays, the grandkids have now acquired the taste.
      
      4 0
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      April 21, 2017 9:02pm
    - sam green
      
      Yes Maggie – but they are fragile as all hell. Best straight off the ground once they have fallen.
      
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      April 22, 2017 2:21am
noskire

Religion debate now solved https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xagqiIVW6qk
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April 21, 2017 7:38pm
Manolo

The Calvinist lone wolf:
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/3376910/paris-shooting-terror-attack-champs-elysees-picture-karim-cheurfi/
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April 22, 2017 1:49am

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