General Debate 05 March 2017

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wiseowl

Has Devoy resigned yet?
We are watching you.
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March 5, 2017 10:58am
- Steve (North Shore)
  
  She won’t resign, she is far from finished telling us how to live our lives. Besides that, there are no where near enough ratbag refugees and illegal immigrants yet
  
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  March 5, 2017 11:00am
- Rich Prick
  
  The great dame is nowhere near finished wagging her finger at the rest of us. Besides, what else could she do? There’s not much call for ball-bashing outside of Government Commissions of one sort or another.
  
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  March 5, 2017 11:14am
  - Paulus Gnome
    
    Especially those pesky whitie boys, they deserve some special amount of finger wagging
    
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    March 5, 2017 11:29am
    - holysheet
      
      Of course, who else is there. Not the brown ones.
      
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      March 5, 2017 11:31am
  - stephieboy
    
    Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
    The Great Dame that lefties condemned on her appointment and the righties condemn when she does her job .
    
    Interesting contrast .
    
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    March 5, 2017 11:47am
    - Rich Prick
      
      Pffft, whatever.
      
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      March 5, 2017 11:56am
    - lilman
      
      Love to see her girl marry you Stephie,then we would see a different Susan I would wager.
      
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      March 5, 2017 3:02pm
Steve (North Shore)

Obama’s dirty laundry on show again, this time phone taps. Why are the left so underhand??
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March 5, 2017 11:02am
- nasska
  
  It’s okay when the Left do it.
  
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  March 5, 2017 11:05am
  - stigie
    
    Crikey, that’s Burt’s line on the parasitic left..?
    
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    March 5, 2017 1:25pm
- cha
  
  Best Trump puts up or shuts up.
  
  POTUS can declassify & release any intel he wants. If Trump has proof of this shocking allegation, show the public.https://t.co/Arvkahst1N— John Schindler (@20committee) March 4, 2017
  
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  March 5, 2017 11:13am
  - Steve (North Shore)
    
    I think President Trump wants to let Obama bleed for a while – you know, rub salt into the wound
    
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    March 5, 2017 11:43am
    - All_on_Red
      
      Drip
      ‘
      ‘
      Drip
      ‘
      ‘
      Drip
      In other news. Found that evidence Jeff Sessions perjured himself? Oh noes…
      ‘I don’t even think this is a close case’ says Professor of Law from George Washington University
      http://video.foxnews.com/v/5347248139001/?#sp=show-clips/primetime
      
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      March 5, 2017 11:47am
      - stephieboy
        
        All On Red , Obama phone tap allegations based on what factual evidence .
        
        Obviously Trump in dire neeed of a diversion given another of his “stellar” appointees facing an ignominious departure .
        
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        March 5, 2017 11:53am
      - Ed Snack
        
        Nope, no perjury, try listening to the question he was asked first.
        
        This is all a planned campaign, planned well back before the election just in case Trump one. And if you think Obama wasn’t informed when the FBI and NSA started listening in to the Trump campaign, I have a bridge that you’ll probably want to buy.
        
        It’s worth remembering that Chicago is noted for three throngs, Pizza, Crooked and corrupt politicians, and gangsters. Obama ain’t a pizza. He has form on this, remember how he won his first election, the front runner had his juicy divorce proceedings released to the public even though they were under court seal, he eventually withdrew and Obama won unopposed. Gee, I wonder if Obama violated court secrecy that time ?
        
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        March 5, 2017 12:03pm
      - Kimbo
        
        It’s worth remembering that Chicago is noted for three throngs, Pizza, Crooked and corrupt politicians, and gangsters.
        
        In tom hunter’s absence, I’ll bring to your attention that you’ve missed out the fourth – the current World Series champions, the Cubs. 😉
        
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        March 5, 2017 4:00pm
    - Lance
      
      Or he just pulled it out of his arse.
      We won’t know until he shows us the evidence
      
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      March 5, 2017 3:55pm
- All_on_Red
  
  http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/03/03/mark-levin-obama-used-police-state-tactics-undermine-trump/
  ‘ October: FISA request. The Obama administration submits a new, narrow request to the FISA court, now focused on a computer server in Trump Tower suspected of links to Russian banks. No evidence is found — but the wiretaps continue, ostensibly for national security reasons, Andrew McCarthy at National Review later notes. The Obama administration is now monitoring an opposing presidential campaign using the high-tech surveillance powers of the federal intelligence services.’
  ‘January: Times report. The New York Times reports, on the eve of Inauguration Day, that several agencies — the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the National Security Agency (NSA) and the Treasury Department are monitoring several associates of the Trump campaign suspected of Russian ties. Other news outlets also report the exisentence of “a multiagency working group to coordinate investigations across the government,” though it is unclear how they found out, since the investigations would have been secret and involved classified information.’
  ‘In summary: the Obama administration sought, and eventually obtained, authorization to eavesdrop on the Trump campaign; continued monitoring the Trump team even when no evidence of wrongdoing was found; then relaxed the NSA rules to allow evidence to be shared widely within the government, virtually ensuring that the information, including the conversations of private citizens, would be leaked to the media.’
  
  Links to further sources in the Breitbart report
  
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  March 5, 2017 11:21am
  - fernglas
    
    The trouble is that Breitbart uses the expression the “Obama administration” when it was in fact the FBI, and Trump has turned that into it being Obama himself. Note also the reliance in the Breitbart report, or one of the links, to an anonymous source.
    Is it okay to rely on anonymous sources or not, Don?
    
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    March 5, 2017 11:49am
    - cha
      
      Seems any actions undertaken by his administration likely seen as doing exactly what he accuses Obama of doing.
      
      Special prosecutor, he we come.
      
      But a senior White House official said that Donald F. McGahn II, the president’s chief counsel, was working on Saturday to secure access to what the official described as a document issued by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court authorizing surveillance of Mr. Trump and his associates. The official offered no evidence to support the notion that such a document exists; any such move by a White House counsel would be viewed at the Justice Department as a stunning case of interference.
      
      https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/04/us/politics/trump-obama-tap-phones.html?
      
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      March 5, 2017 11:59am
    - All_on_Red
      
      The process is President Obama would write a letter to the Inspector General at the Department of Justice, who would then instruct the FBI to investigate.
      The IG is a Presidential appointment, just like their boss the Attorney General.
      So, yes the Obama Administration can drive this.
      I’m sure the FISA Court request will be on record.
      I guess we need a Special Prosecutor to get to the bottom of this McCarthyism! ?
      https://heatst.com/world/exclusive-fbi-granted-fisa-warrant-covering-trump-camps-ties-to-russia/
      
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      March 5, 2017 3:18pm
      - cha
        
        Dude clears the air.
        
        https://www.justsecurity.org/38347/tapping-trump/
        
        btw, I’m sure you’ll love Louise Mensch’s ongoing series…..nah, probably not…
        
        https://patribotics.wordpress.com/
        
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        March 5, 2017 3:43pm
      - Ed Snack
        
        Dude doesn’t seem very aware of certain things. For a start, a FISC order would NOT be sought for financial dealings, it’s for foreign intelligence, that is spying. So the use of FISA is irregular in itself.
        
        As for the “polite fiction” that Obama and his team would not be aware of something as potentially explosive as wiretapping the opposition party’s presidential campaign, you and he sound like you’d be real interested in this here bridge I have for sale…
        
        I agree we need to wait for all the evidence, but unlike the general allegations that Trump was somehow in league with the Russians, this one is just crying out for a special prosecutor to get to the bottom of it. If the allegations are true, then some senior members of the Obama administration should be looking at exteremely lengthy prison terms. Even Nixon never went this far.
        
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        March 5, 2017 5:57pm
      - cha
        
        So the use of FISA is irregular in itself.
        
        Perhaps not.
        
        ..
        Probably the only thing in the larger range of allegations against Trump people that might be treated as a crime rather than a counterintelligence investigation is Paul Manafort’s acceptance of payments from Ukrainian oligarchs he may not have properly disclosed. Yet later reporting actually confirmed that that started as a criminal investigation, for which (as McCarthy points out) is a lot easier to get warrants. The rest involves bribery by a foreign power, so spying. So an appropriate use of FISA.
        
        https://www.emptywheel.net/2017/03/04/the-conspiratorial-game-of-telephone-in-bannons-rag-that-made-left-right-and-potus-go-crazy/
        
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        March 5, 2017 6:10pm
  - Pateke
    
    You seriously believe that stuff? By all means read what you want in news but do not for Pete’s sake spread it as the truth.
    
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    March 5, 2017 11:53am
    - Ross12
      
      The Guardian reported on this in January , does that help?
      
      https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jan/10/fbi-chief-given-dossier-by-john-mccain-alleging-secret-trump-russia-contacts
      
      “The Guardian has learned that the FBI applied for a warrant from the foreign intelligence surveillance (Fisa) court over the summer in order to monitor four members of the Trump team suspected of irregular contacts with Russian officials. The Fisa court turned down the application asking FBI counter-intelligence investigators to narrow its focus……”
      The revised warrant was given in October, according to other reports.
      
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      March 5, 2017 2:02pm
- virtualmark
  
  Steve I need your help in explaining something to me.
  
  So at 1am this morning Donald Trump outed the biggest political scandal since Watergate … that his predecessor used the United States’ police & spy agencies to spy on Trump’s political campaign. If true this is the biggest political blockbuster in over 40 years.
  
  But by at 2:15 this morning he’d moved on to talking about the ratings of a TV show.
  
  Either one of these stories isn’t important (perhaps … dare we say … isn’t true?). Or we have a problem with concentrating on the big issues.
  
  I need your insight.
  
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  March 5, 2017 12:30pm
  - fernglas
    
    Or both stories are equally important to the tweeter, which is also a worry.
    
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    March 5, 2017 12:35pm
  - Fletch
    
    I wouldn’t put it past Obama. Remember the tapping of James Rosen and his family, and the Associated Press?
    
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    March 5, 2017 1:15pm
    - Ross12
      
      Don’t forget Mrs Merkel’s phone.
      
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      March 5, 2017 1:58pm
  - Steve (North Shore)
    
    It’s a good game to play isn’t it? Moving the goalposts one step ahead of the media all the time!
    President Trump does not need the media, the media desperately need him
    
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    March 5, 2017 4:09pm
fernglas

There was a tragic recent death of a well known sportswoman who was on life support which was switched off and the she was left to die naturally. While respecting the rights of family in such a case, it underpins the apparent reluctance in this country for people to become organ donors; in this case an otherwise healthy person whose organs could have given life or sight to others. I read of one country which was considering a presumption of donation. I know that in this country the number of people who express a desire to be a donor is high, but it doesn’t seem to be followed through in the incidence of actual donation. What is it that makes for such an anomaly?
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March 5, 2017 11:08am
- nasska
  
  ….”What is it that makes for such an anomaly?”…..
  
  The right of the relatives of the dead or dying person to rescind the wishes of the potential donor.
  
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  March 5, 2017 11:12am
  - fernglas
    
    Do you support them having that right?
    
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    March 5, 2017 11:17am
    - nasska
      
      ….”Do you support them having that right?”….
      
      No. It is my belief that I own my body but the law of the land & my opinion are at odds. Apparently a cadaver belongs to the executor of a person’s estate & he/she should be the one to say aye or nay.
      
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      March 5, 2017 11:25am
      - fernglas
        
        But why is there such an anomaly between the donors’ expressed wishes and their implementation? Why do families so frequently override them? I don’t expect you to answer, but it is food for discussion and debate.
        
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        March 5, 2017 11:32am
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        It is a bit more complicated than that wrt organ/tissue donation…
        
        In practice a close rellie can thwart the executor/nominee of the dying person if they had agreed to organ donation.
        http://communitylaw.org.nz/community-law-manual/chapter-24-a-death-in-the-family/donating-organs-who-decides-chapter-24/
        
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        March 5, 2017 11:35am
    - holysheet
      
      no
      
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      March 5, 2017 11:33am
    - MickMac
      
      No.
      We should have an opt out system only for the deceased wishes in writing before they die.
      
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      March 5, 2017 11:39am
- marcw
  
  How do you know that the family declined any request for organ donations? Why do you assert there were none made? Only the family would know this, so I think you should just shut up. Disgraceful and disrespectful BS. You need to feel ashamed.
  
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  March 5, 2017 11:41am
  - fernglas
    
    Sorry to upset you, but it’s an important issue. If someone is taken off life support and allowed to pass away, it is from organ failure, which means that donations are not possible.
    
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    March 5, 2017 11:51am
  - holysheet
    
    Must have been a catlick.
    
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    March 5, 2017 11:56am
DifferentPerspective

Pelosi – when socialists lie and cheat it’s OK

Hilariously, the most unpopular congressional leader Nancy Pelosi (yes House minority leader) suggests that the heinous crime of “once having spoken to a person who might’ve been Russian or not” is Ok when Dems do it.

And she thinks that it’s perfectly OK for the Democrat Head of the DoJ to chit chat with the husband of a person under investigation – but doesn’t think Trump’s A-G should stay in the job with the Dems “fake news” hit-job attempt to blame the Russians for Hilary being the stupidest candidate ever (ie failing to campaign in states she needed to win).

It’s ok to be dishonest if you are a socialist.
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March 5, 2017 11:12am
G152

There’s that inconvenient fact of the evidence of a court refusing one wiretap and allowing another that stuffs up your snowflake anti Trump waffle
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March 5, 2017 11:13am
- fernglas
  
  I thought it was the FBI that sought permission to tap someone’s communications, not Obama, and that they could only get such permission if a specialist Court could be persuaded that there were reasonable grounds to believe that the target was committing a crime or assisting a foreign country? So if it was Trump’s communications that were targeted, which of those two alternatives was it? And is Trump so truly naive that he thinks that the FBI is somehow indivisible from the president?
  
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  March 5, 2017 11:22am
  - MCos
    
    Trump on twitter
    How low has President Obama gone to tapp my phones during the very sacred election process. This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!
    
    ‘Don’t Drag Me Into This, Asshole,’ Nixon Tells Trump from Hell
    (Comment by Andy Borowitz)
    
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    March 5, 2017 2:53pm
    - Ed Snack
      
      Nah, Nixon’s comment via the ouija board was quite clear, the “asshole” comment was directed at Obama, and very accurate it is too.
      
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      March 5, 2017 5:59pm
      - Kimbo
        
        Can’t be. If it was really from Nixon, the message would have been ‘Don’t Drag Me Into This, (expletive deleted)’. The so-called mediums always betray themselves with small slips 😉
        
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        March 5, 2017 6:13pm
Monique Watson

It’s okay when you do it with your left hand.
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March 5, 2017 11:20am
Manolo

Another classic for Kimbo:“Billions and billions” by Carl Sagan.
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March 5, 2017 11:24am
- Kimbo
  
  He he. I remember once hearing a conservative preacher, commenting on Carl Sagan’s enthusiastic quasi-religious extolling of the wonders of the “cosmos”, that he was “Sagan the pagan”.
  
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  March 5, 2017 11:42am
- Jack5
  
  Keep the book recommendations coming, and thanks Manolo.
  
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  March 5, 2017 12:00pm
  - Manolo
    
    More than happy to do it, Jack, so nothing to thank me for. Long live science!
    
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    March 5, 2017 12:06pm
  - Kimbo
    
    Hear, hear!
    
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    March 5, 2017 12:36pm
reid3

A former CIA agent has warned that the deep state is working overtime to oust Attorney General Jeff Sessions from the White House because he is refusing to back down in his campaign to break up the sex trafficking and pedophile networks that control Washington D.C.

http://yournewswire.com/jeff-sessions-pelosi-pedo/

Pizzagate Turned PedoGate Leads to Momentum Surge in Busting Global Child Sex Trafficking Rings

https://empireexposed.blogspot.co.nz/2017/02/pizzagate-turned-pedogate-leads-to.html

Media attacks Sessions for talking to Russian Ambassador as John McCain repeatedly meets with terrorists and Obama sends billions to our enemies

https://www.intellihub.com/media-attacks-sessions-for-talking-to-russian-ambassador-as-john-mccain-repeatedly-meets-with-terrorists/
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March 5, 2017 11:27am
- stephieboy
  
  reid , John McGain did not meet with terrorists . That is a lie . He met with Rebel factions like the Free Syria Army .Not al Nursa or ISIS etc..
  
  Pizzagate and its other manifestations are a myth, At best a joke . Let ot go and move on.
  
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  March 5, 2017 12:00pm
  - Ed Snack
    
    Sadly Stephieboy that’s untrue. McCain met with several people subsequently identified as ISIS and related groups supporters.
    
    Probably McCain didn’t know that, but it merely highlights his naivety and ignorance; and also highlights the complications of the Syrian situation. A person can apparently support/represent several groups that are apparently in opposition to one another, pure localism may mean that groups in overall opposition are locally allied for tactical reasons. It is, as they say, complications.
    
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    March 5, 2017 12:08pm
    - stephieboy
      
      Ed Snack , sources please ?
      
      In the meantime try this ,
      
      Raising McCain
      
      A photograph taken in Syria in 2013 shows Senator John McCain posing with a commander of a Syrian opposition group, not ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
      
      FALSE
      
      http://www.snopes.com/john-mccain-meets-isis-leader/
      
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      March 5, 2017 1:46pm
- virtualmark
  
  If you think Intellihub and YourNewsWire are credible media sources then you need to back off the meth a little.
  
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  March 5, 2017 12:22pm
  - reid3
    
    If you discern truth by the publisher you need to educate yourself. Start with logic 101, that may help. But I doubt even that would.
    
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    March 5, 2017 2:00pm
    - stephieboy
      
      reid, like here ?,
      
      http://www.veteranstoday.com/2014/12/05/chemtrails-synthetic-alien-biology-and-climate-change-war-on-mankind/
      
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      March 5, 2017 2:03pm
    - Lucia Maria
      
      Reid,
      
      Start with logic 101, that may help.
      
      You need to take your own advice, here.
      
      Logic doesn’t seem to be a strong point for you.
      
      It’s all, discernment on your part. Except you never think you could be wrong.
      
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      March 5, 2017 6:44pm
Happychappy

I see Bill English has thrown a pretty big bone out there on Super without releasing any fact on what he might do and he seems to have hooked the Labour leader into another negative comment. I wonder if Bill has decided to play games with Andrew Little knowing that he will get the response he wants.
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March 5, 2017 11:29am
- waikatogirl
  
  Bill threw the Super comment bone at the insistent yappy chuahuahua Lisa Owen during an interview to give her something to chew on…
  
  Bill said more detail to be revealed before the election.
  
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  March 5, 2017 11:37am
  - marcw
    
    Goodness knows why anyone intelligent would subject themselves to that harridan’s agenda. If he answered that no he wasn’t considering making changes, then he would be abused, but when he is honest and says changes are being considered, well, then he is abused. Don’t Feed. These. Trolls.
    
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    March 5, 2017 11:48am
  - MCos
    
    Whichever way you want to put it it’s a change in direction by National whose previous policy had been no change, full stop.
    
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    March 5, 2017 12:09pm
    - Happychappy
      
      Isn’t that funny it was Labour Policy and Andrew decided to do his flip flop and go back to the status quo. So Labour went backward while National may and go change forward. As I already qualified for it we will just have to wait and see what happens.
      
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      March 5, 2017 6:01pm
Hugh Pavletich

Rapidly changing housing inflation / pricing expectations for Christchurch and Auckland …

Christchurch housing paradox – the downside of a building boom (?) … Michael Wright … The Press

http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/property/90012513/christchurchs-housing-paradox–the-downside-of-a-building-boom

… comment on thread …

Bush Telegraph

Just a moment! I recall he Government (Nick Smith) and Demogaphia,blaming Councils for creating chronic unaffordability – demand and supply and all that. Now it seems, at least in Christchurch, planning has increased supply, prices are dropping, affordability is increasing – where is the problem for the first time house buyer?
… ticks … +30

Christchurch bucks trend in Demographia housing affordability survey | The National Business Review

http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/property/90012513/christchurchs-housing-paradox–the-downside-of-a-building-boom

… Auckland’s vulnerable housing bubble … running out of fools …

Barfoot & Thompson says uncertainty over whether current prices provide value for money has seen sales volumes dive | interest.co.nz

https://www.interest.co.nz/property/86308/barfoot-thompson-says-uncertainty-over-whether-current-prices-provide-value-money-has

Housing sales slumped in February for Auckland’s largest real estate agency, with most of the fall off occurring in the middle to bottom end of the market.

Barfoot and Thompson sold just 556 homes in February, the lowest number of sales it has made in any month since December 2010 and the lowest number of sales in the month of February for at least 16 years.

The agency sold 698 homes in February last year and 843 in February 2015. Last year’s February sales volumes were 142, or 20%, higher than February this year. … read more via hyperlink above …
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March 5, 2017 11:34am
- Hugh Pavletich
  
  Housing revealed as most important issue in helping Kiwis decide on vote | 1 NEWS NOW | TVNZ
  
  https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/housing-revealed-most-important-issue-in-helping-kiwis-decide-vote
  
  Housing has come out on top as the number one election issue in the 1NEWS Colmar Brunton poll. … view and read more via hyperlink above …
  
  September 2016 TV One Colmar Brunton poll …
  
  Majority want Govt action on affordable housing – poll | 1 NEWS NOW | TVNZ
  
  https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/majority-want-govt-action-affordable-housing-poll.html?auto=5122516645001
  
  A majority of New Zealanders think the Government should do more to make housing more affordable even if that means property values drop. … view and read more via hyperlink above …
  
  May 2016 Newshub / Reid Research poll … The poll that ended John Keys political career …
  
  Opinion: John Key’s Govt has failed New Zealand on housing | Newshub
  
  http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2016/05/opinion-john-keys-govt-has-failed-new-zealand-on-housing.html#axzz49XsDT0NS
  
  Opinion: John Key’s Govt has failed New Zealand on housing
  
  The verdict is in: John Key’s government has failed the New Zealand public when it comes to controlling the housing market.
  
  The failure has been made clear with an unprecedented 76 percent of voters in the latest Newshub-Reid Research poll saying ‘no, the Government is not doing enough when it comes to housing’. … view and read more via hyperlink above …
  
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  March 5, 2017 11:36am
  - starboard
    
    Lol..morning Trendsetters.
    
    “I was just saying what most New Zealanders know that to have affordable housing prices need to come down and incomes need to rise,” Greens co-leader Metiria Turei said today. ”
    
    This was back in September Hugh. Nobody gives a toss what Fatty Turei from McGillicuddy Serious Party thinks. They are on 13%. So really, when you say majority of NZ, you are actually telling porkies. 76% of 13% is not many Hugh..stretching it a wee bit. Most Kiwis will be quite happy where they sit, except the down and out, the losers, the alcoholics..those that waste their money and will never save for a house. Meanwhile, the rest of NZ just gets on with it, knowing National will romp in again and leave the rabble in their trail. Heh.
    
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    March 5, 2017 12:01pm
    - Hugh Pavletich
      
      Starboard … You are with all due respects completely wrong. Please read the Demographia Surveys http://www.demographia.com closely.
      
      To illustrate … those with household incomes of about $100k should expect to pay about $250 – $300k to house themselves … with mortgage loads about the $250k mark.
      
      Going forward … there is no way they are going to pay about the $600k mark in Christchurch and the truly ridiculous million bucks in Auckland.
      
      As a check measure … total housing stock value should be about 1.2 times GDP … screaming tops 1.5 … not the current hugely risky 3.9 times … the highest in the Anglosphere according to Leith van Onselen of MacroBusiness Australia.
      
      The USA is currently about 1.2 times.
      
      Pity there’s about $650 billion –ish of bubble value. Note this loony-tunes stuff in the NZ Herald back mid January …
      
      http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11781028
      
      Confidently expect the increasingly fearful Banks to quietly and progressively tighten their lending multiples as well going forward. Note the caps in Ireland at about 3.3 times incomes and in the UK about 4.5 times.
      
      We are very much on the rapid road back to reality.
      
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      March 5, 2017 12:25pm
      - Hugh Pavletich
        
        Things are tightening in Oz as well. Note this interesting comment by Dominic regarding Brisbane on Fridays MacroBusiness Au article thread …
        
        NZ Treasury: Government lacking Auckland land supply plan – MacroBusiness
        
        http://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2017/03/nz-treasury-government-lacking-auckland-land-supply-plan/
        
        Dominic
        March 4, 2017 at 5:38 pm
        
        Just been chatting to a couple of guys who work for major developers here in Bris. The banks are clamping down and access to credit isn’t anywhere near as easy as it has been in recent times. The banks are trapped — supply easy money and pump up the bubble even more, cut off supply and pop the the bubble in the process. Damned both ways. There is no middle ground for ponzi schemes.
        
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        March 5, 2017 12:50pm
  - Nookin
    
    Sir Robert Muldoon was the last Prime Minister who tried to “control” a market and failed miserably because of the artificiality of the exercise.
    
    It is not up to the government to “control” a market and it would be a disastrous day for New Zealand if that ever happened. It would be open to political manipulation of markets to best suit the supporters of the party in power at the particular time.
    
    It is open to the government to create an environment where the bargaining chips are evenly spread. That is not always possible.
    
    I seem to recall that Nick Smith identified the increases in costs of building and costs of land over a defined period and the increase in the cost of land was out of all proportion to inflation and increased costs of development. That came down to availability – no more, no less.
    
    Building costs have increased as a result of more stringent regulations and the difficulty in getting skilled labour. The earthquakes have not helped.
    The Labour Party advocated knocking down the wall on the urban/rural divide in Auckland but has been consistently bloody-minded about attempts to amend the RMA. It is not all the fault of the government. In Auckland, ACC must carry a hefty portion of the can.
    The government’s problem is that it cannot make land development compulsory and it is inappropriate to take land under the Public Works act for wholesale housing developments. It can create incentives. One such incentive might be to make changes to the rules relating to the taxation of land – particularly in the case of small subdivisions of land.
    I am also in favour of some change to the taxation of profits where value is added on the one hand and taxation of profits where no value has been added and substantial amounts of money are made as a result of a speculative deal.
    
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    March 5, 2017 12:52pm
    - Jack5
      
      British Columbia’s tax on foreigners buying property seems to have lowered the Vancouver housing bubble so successfully that the province is now able to ease the tax.
      
      This suggests it was in fact a bubble rather than a routine mismatch of supply and demand.
      
      This is intelligent government management of a market.
      
      http://business.financialpost.com/personal-finance/mortgages-real-estate/b-c-lifts-foreign-buyers-tax-for-people-with-work-permits
      
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      March 5, 2017 1:52pm
MickMac

Why HNZ doesn’t have a factory between Hamilton and Auckland building kitset 2-3-4-5 bedroom homes.
Supplying it’s 12 regional building teams with ready to put up state dwellings, on the plots it’s prepped in it’s regions that,
the buying teams have identified and sourced from local data.
As part of it’s national plans to build 1000 new houses a year for 15 yrs
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March 5, 2017 11:46am
Happychappy

Hugh it must piss you off because National don’t think or treat you like Labour does so obviously they don’t rate you as a businessman or your knowledge.
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March 5, 2017 11:53am
- Hugh Pavletich
  
  Happychappie … You are too unkind.
  
  I am loved by performers and not loved by non-performers.
  
  There has been an extremely long history to all this … going back to the time I got the Demographia Surveys underway in late 2004.
  
  Much of that history is accessible on my archival website PERFORMANCE URBAN PLANNING … http://www.PerformanceUrbanPlanning.org .
  
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  March 5, 2017 12:02pm
  - Viking2
    
    times have changed.
    This year we will over build houses in the rest of NZ just like you have in CHCH. Last year we had 70000 PLT immigrants or approximately the need for 23000 houses. How many did we build?
    
    This year ?
    
    No wonder the banks are tightening their lending.
    
    You might like to think about this as well.
    https://croakingcassandra.com/2017/03/04/whats-wrong-with-auckland-and-wellington/
    
    Add to all this the oldies moving to retirement villages which are never accounted for. 16% of Tauranga’s population live in villages. Imagine how many villages are needed in Auckland. Then they have a resale rate of around seven years.
    every town is getting villages now as well.
    
    Soon we will need more immigrants to fill the houses, just like Germany.
    
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    March 5, 2017 1:17pm
    - VicParking
      
      Between Hamilton and Auckland you would have trouble getting anyone to pass a drug test.
      
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      March 5, 2017 2:01pm
    - Hugh Pavletich
      
      John Key on housing reform in 2007 …
      
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWPgoAI1cLE
      
      What this gullible (then) John Key supporter said after the 2008 election
      
      …
      
      New Zealands Pragmatic Political Approach Welcome | Scoop News
      
      http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/BU0903/S00467/new-zealands-pragmatic-political-approach-welcome.htm
      
      … with plenty more stuff here …
      
      http://info.scoop.co.nz/Hugh_Pavletich/4
      
      How foolish of me believing John Key then !
      
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      March 5, 2017 2:44pm
      - Nostradamus
        
        Hugh:
        
        … with plenty more stuff here …http://info.scoop.co.nz/Hugh_Pavletich/4
        
        Ok – so no chance of you running out of links anytime soon then?
        
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        March 5, 2017 4:51pm
      - Hugh Pavletich
        
        Viking2 … You will note on this MacroBusiness Au article thread …
        
        NZ Treasury: Government lacking Auckland land supply plan – MacroBusiness
        
        http://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2017/03/nz-treasury-government-lacking-auckland-land-supply-plan/
        
        … I have posted links to further ‘market behaviour’ information with respect to Texas & California around the 2007 California bust.
        
        Texas didn’t bust of course. There was no bubble to bust there !
        
        The key point to note is that in comparison with the then normal markets of Texas, California was grossly under-supplied with housing. On an adjusted population basis in comparison with Texas at the time, about a million units short !
        
        That was massive.
        
        10 years on, its likely double that (at least) thanks to the persistent gross underbuilding.
        
        Following the 2007 bust … by 2009 California residential consents collapsed even further to just 37,000 units for a population of at the time about 37 million … a world-record bust of one unit per 1000 population per annum.
        
        If NZ was consenting at that rate it would mean 4700 consents in one year … not the roughly 30,000 now … about 16% of the current volume.
        
        After the bust in Ireland, consenting there slumped from about 20 / 1000 population per annum to less than 2 / 1000 … pretty much overnight.
        
        The average Median Multiples for the major Irish metros went from 4.7 to 2.8 (refer Demographia Surveys access via http://www.PerformanceUrbanPlanning.org ).
        
        New Zealand metros overall are a whopping 5.9. Worst in the Anglosphere.
        
        Just like California back in 2007, the under-supplied Auckland housing bubble, now at a stratospheric 10 Median Multiple, is more than capable of blowing up. Indeed, I think it is already happening. The Barfoot & Thompson February report is just further confirmation of this.
        
        Put simply … nobody accepts the prices anymore.
        
        It greatly saddens me how a supposedly centre-right government could have allowed this to get out of hand … as I made clear at the time of the release of this years Demographia Survey 23 January …
        
        Not PC: Auckland world’s fourth-hardest place to buy a house
        
        http://pc.blogspot.co.nz/2017/01/auckland-worlds-fourth-hardest-to-buy.html
        
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        March 5, 2017 5:29pm
      - Rodney Randall
        
        The 2007 video of Key eloquently outlining the 4 point plan to tackle the market distortions is a perfect example of political weasel words.
        
        We have the highest housing costs in the world relative to incomes.
        
        Wonderful legacy National.
        
        I won’t be voting for this Labour in drag party again.
        
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        March 6, 2017 8:46am
waikatogirl

“Why HNZ doesn’t have a factory between Hamilton and Auckland building kitset 2-3-4-5 bedroom homes.”

Too simple a solution for govt. department to grasp. Also, where would all the govt jobs go!
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March 5, 2017 11:53am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  ooii!!
  Andy has promised that kitset factory (or something like it) for Gizzy.
  
  http://www.labour.org.nz/labour_pledges_to_build_on_gisborne_s_strength
  
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  March 5, 2017 12:30pm
  - Paulus Gnome
    
    Right at top of the list when labour gain control of the treasury benches in about 2036ish; don’t hold your breath
    
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    March 5, 2017 12:42pm
  - Viking2
    
    building you transit huts like they did in the depression.+
    
    https://www.google.co.nz/search?q=immigration+transit+huts+nz&biw=1525&bih=701&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj-nafki77SAhWEEpQKHedoDjkQ_AUIBigB#tbm=isch&q=TRENTHAM+transit+caMP+NZ&*&imgrc=Y5qlncikW-NUQM:
    
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    March 5, 2017 1:28pm
- Kabull
  
  If it were the answer, I’ve no doubt it would be taken up. But I see some major factors contributing to the housing supply debate, beyond just land availability.
  1. Once young people were willing to start in moderate cost housing in outer suburbs
  2. Once a 2 or 3 bedroom, one bathroom weatherboard house was sufficient for first home buyers, who would move into something bigger and fancier on the 2nd or 3rd cycle. Now the demand is for 3-4 bedrooms, 3 bathroom, double garage with internal access, huge kitchen, indoor-outdoor flow, etc. as the first step o n the ladder.
  3. With the cost of labour and materials, builders need to build big houses to make a (in their eyes at least) fair return.
  
  The solution is not simple – other than to build so many houses, so that the market is flooded. Good luck in trying to do that – regardless of the colour of the government.
  
  And lets not forget that less than a decade ago we were loosing population so fast that effectively whole towns were being vacated. Immigration, a direct consequence of a successful economy and a country that appeals to people from all over the world, has changed the scene. Again, good luck in changing this – short of creating a recession that pushes successful and energetic NZrs back to Australia or elsewhere.
  
  Harden up, cupcakes. Housing is a significant issue in most successful modern western nations.
  
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  March 5, 2017 2:13pm
Jack5

Auckland sitting on a nest of volcanos – old news, but an interesting take, if a bit ominous.

When a volcano blows, where will the new ethnic Chinese and Indian Aucklanders go if Australia has by then closed open entry from NZ?

An Auckland blow-up will be good for the tourist industry – 1800 years later – come and see the South Pacific Pompei. “Drug dealers frozen making deals, a hundred brothel ruins locked in full business, ancient traffic jams, beggars …”

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11812068
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March 5, 2017 11:55am
- stephieboy
  
  Jack5 , where did the new ethnic chinese and Indians in Christchurch go Feb 2011 ?
  
  Obviously in Auckland like eleswhere they’ll mostly stay put .
  
  Simple.
  
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  March 5, 2017 1:41pm
Chuck Bird

I am no great fan of Hosking but Mau is delusional if she thinks she could attract the viewers that Hosking does. She believes a person’s salary should be determined by a committee not the market. She goes on about domestic violence but is like Queen Victoria when it comes to lesbian violence.

Alison Mau: The day TVNZ told me they wouldn’t pay me as much as Mike Hosking

http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/90046139/alison-mau-the-day-tvnz-told-me-they-wouldnt-pay-me-as-much-as-mike-hosking-for-the-same-job
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March 5, 2017 12:18pm
- MrTips
  
  She doesn’t seem to understand that she wasn’t as good or revenue generating as Hosking and therefore had less bargaining power.
  
  Judy Bailey could swing it.
  
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  March 5, 2017 12:40pm
  - VicParking
    
    Right on.
    Experiance, qualifications, senority and length of service seem to mean nothing to her. Its all because she does not have a dick.
    
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    March 5, 2017 2:04pm
- doggone7
  
  Read the Mau piece. She should have taken the breakfast show offer and simply clocked off early according to the pay proportion.
  
  If runners in the women’s 100m said they were only running 74m people would look askance. Mind you the organisers would be trying to make them run 126m for the 100m
  
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  March 5, 2017 12:44pm
- Huevon
  
  Mau embraced lesbianism to remain in the pubpic eye. I guess that was moderately successful but it’s passé in the Current Year. Now she is trying Social Justice Warrior (TM). Again, might get some traction. But she just isn’t as popular as Hosking. No amount of complaints will change that.
  
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  March 5, 2017 1:11pm
  - stephieboy
    
    Huevon any evidence she embraced lesbianism merely to remain in the limelight ?
    
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    March 5, 2017 1:43pm
  - sam green
    
    The sad thing is you believe what you say.
    
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    March 5, 2017 5:17pm
- Longknives
  
  Didn’t Judy Bailey earn like twice what the other Newsreaders earned?
  
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  March 5, 2017 2:45pm
  - RF
    
    The mother of the nation. What a money grubbing Prat.
    
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    March 5, 2017 8:40pm
Manolo

Those cheeky Mexicans: spending lots of money to defend their illegals.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_MEXICAN_IMMIGRANT_CENTERS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2017-03-03-14-35-00
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March 5, 2017 12:20pm
Ed Snack

I do suggest that the single major cause of the housing issue (price inflation and lack of affordable housing) is “cheap money”, and that’s not an issue NZ can address in isolation, it’s a world wide one.

NZ can’t hold interest rates up in NZ or the currency would go up in value to cause serious competitiveness issues. So we too have cheap money and low interest rates, and this has the down side that investors looking for a reasonable return have mostly moved into real estate as the one area providing that return at a low risk. That alone is pushing up,prices way beyond inflation.

Restrictions on supply are the other cause, but the most desirable locations do have issues with land availability anyway, Auckland does not have large areas available for development within a reasonable distance of the CBD, the fact that one major development is at Pokeno reveals that, Pokeno, used to be 20 or more minutes beyond the end of the motorway until it was extended from Drury (admittedly some time back). That and Albany and beyond are a long way out, plenty of space on marginal land to the North, but a distinct lack of access.

Any plans to deal with the whole housing issue does need to have a way to get around the cheap money issue. Maybe a punishing and restrictive capital gains regime, but then where will all the money that desperately seeks a reasonable return go ? Cheap money, artificially cheap money especially, creates bubbles, that’s just what it does. Which is why this “temporary” policy of QE and related measures badly needs to be rethought and removed. Short term it probably made sense to prevent an imminent crash as the velocity of money dropped precipitously, but it has been running for 8 or more years and the distortions are now turning out to be as bad as the original issue it was instituted to prevent.
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March 5, 2017 12:26pm
- Fletch
  
  Rates used to be much cheaper in Pokeno and surrounds until the Council put them up to match rates in the City in around 2015. It really hacked off a lot of people for whom one of the attractions of Pokeno et al was the lower rates. Some people ended up paying three times as much.
  
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  March 5, 2017 4:13pm
Manolo

The crook Bliar is always looking for an oportunity:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4282190/Tony-Blair-s-secret-White-House-summit-work-Trump.html
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March 5, 2017 1:14pm
Fletch

Tucker Carlson totally demolishes the Democrat congressman from New York (you know, with actual facts) on the Jeff Sessions witch hunt.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xn9EsHK5CHE

You know the whole thing is a sham when the extremely left-wing Young Turks Network starts attacking the Washington Post and the New York Times and calling the Russia claims “overblown” and “shrieking”.

https://medium.com/theyoungturks/the-basic-formula-for-every-shocking-russia-trump-revelation-e9ae390d9f05#.pmlq6p6q5
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March 5, 2017 1:24pm
- kowtow
  
  Talking of New York and Trump derangement syndrome ……
  
  “New York museums pull Picasso, extend Muslim art shows in divisive cultural war on prejudice in Trump’s America”
  
  and
  “Building on the city’s culinary diversity, foodies are offering tours of Syrian, Yemeni and Iranian cuisines, and have introduced curious New Yorkers to perhaps lesser-known culinary delights of Somalia.”
  
  A culinary delight of Somalia , a plate of sand?
  
  http://www.scmp.com/culture/arts-entertainment/article/2075849/new-york-museums-pull-picasso-extend-muslim-art-shows
  
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  March 5, 2017 1:44pm
- Inandout
  
  Desperation by snowflakes, but Trump is wise to their tricks.
  
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  March 5, 2017 2:38pm
  - stephieboy
    
    Wise to their tricks ? In what way ? Severing ties with Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states ?
    
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    March 5, 2017 2:43pm
stephieboy

kowtow , you of course are an expert on all international culinary delicacies including Somalian ?

http://xawaash.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Cubed-Chicken-1-Somali-Food-Blog.jpg

kowtow the proud naked face of bigotry !
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March 5, 2017 1:51pm
- Jack5
  
  Stephie Y, at 1.51, talks of the “naked face of bigotry”.
  
  (The bold type emphasis is mine.)
  
  Why do Muslims have a hang-up about human faces? Many or most of them prefer women’s faces covered outside the home. And there is Islam’s aniconism – the ban on depiction of human faces not only in places of Muslim worship but in the homes of many sects of Islam.
  
  This can extend to photographs in the home, and among some extremists, even a ban on TV.
  
  Here’s a quote from an Islamic web site:
  
  The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “The angels do not enter a house in which there is a dog or pictures.” (Reported by al-Bukhaari, see al-Fath, 10/380).
  
  https://islamqa.info/en/365
  
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  March 5, 2017 2:24pm
  - Inandout
    
    Doesn’t stop them looking at pictures on the internet, when they have sexual emergencies.
    
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    March 5, 2017 2:39pm
    - stephieboy
      
      Much like you ?
      
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      March 5, 2017 2:42pm
      - Inandout
        
        Oh that’s right, St Lukes is your internet.
        
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        March 5, 2017 2:53pm
- Manolo
  
  Open your eyes, stephieboy: Somalia is a shithole in all fronts.
  
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  March 5, 2017 5:45pm
stephieboy

Jack 5 , like most Synagogues the use of Imagery depicting human likenesses in Mosques are forbidden ,

The 4th Comnandment ,

“You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.”

Even certain Christian closed sects and Orthodox Jews ban TVs and other trappings of modern secualar living and the like . But as with most Jews and Chrsitians I’m not aware that there is general ban amongst most Muslim families .
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March 5, 2017 2:37pm
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  Ancient synagogues had imagery
  
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tzippori_Synagogue
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dura-Europos_synagogue
  
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  March 5, 2017 3:04pm
- reid3
  
  stephie, are you referring to the commandments from the Bible or the Koran?
  
  If the former then your interpretation of it is wrong.
  
  How surprising.
  
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  March 5, 2017 3:06pm
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    He’s quoting from the New International Version of the Bible.
    
    (Where did “graven” go????)
    
    Those verses don’t occur in the Koran
    
    nearest is something along the lines of…
    “Creator of the heavens and earth…. there is nothing like him…
    Koran 42:11
    
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    March 5, 2017 5:16pm
Inandout

https://www.quora.com/Are-Muslims-forbidden-from-hanging-family-pictures-in-their-homes

Hang family pictures at your peril.
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March 5, 2017 2:44pm
- stephieboy
  
  These stock family photos suggest that this is not generally the case ,
  
  https://www.shutterstock.com/search/muslim+family
  
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  March 5, 2017 2:48pm
  - Inandout
    
    The only ones that resemble a family picture that you would display on a wall are paintings. The rest are snapshots, so good try banger.
    
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    March 5, 2017 2:57pm
reid3

The real question is how has contact with Russian government officials become criminalized, grounds for removing a National Security Adviser, an Attorney General, and impeaching a President himself. President John F. Kennedy had ongoing contact with Khrushchev, the head of the Soviet government, in order to resolve the Cuban/Turkish missile crisis without nuclear war. President Nixon had ongoing contact with the Russians in order to achieve SALT I and the anti-ballistic missile treaty. President Carter had ongoing contact with Russians in order to achieve SALT II. President Reagan worked with the Russian leader in order to end the Cold War. I know. I was there.

But if President Trump wants to defuse the extremely dangerous tensions that the reckless Clinton, George W. Bush, and Obama regimes have resurrected with a powerful thermo-nuclear state that only wants peace with the US, President Trump and any of his appointees who spoke to a Russian are unfit for office! This madness is the position of the idiot liberal/progressive/left, the CIA, the Democratic Party, the right-wing morons of the Republican Party such as Lindsey Graham and John McCain, and the two-bit whores that comprise the Western media.

Dear reader, ask yourself, how did communications with Russians in the interest of peace and the reduction of tensions become a criminal act? Have laws been passed that it is forbidden for US officials to speak with Russian officials? Are you so utterly stupid that a presstitute media that has never in your entire life told you anything that was truthful can convince you that those who seek to avoid a conflict between thermo-nuclear powers are “Russian agents”?

Apparently, a hell of a lot of you evidently in fact, are.

Which is interesting. Not surprising, to me, but interesting. In that while I expect hypocrites like stephie to be so profoundly idiotic they clap and cheer as the world inches toward nuclear oblivion, I thought some of you had a few more brain cells than that. I mean, let’s face it, you don’t have to have too many to work out that’s going to be endgame if the anti-Russia hysteria works its way to its inevitable conclusion, do you. And we all know with people like stephie who clearly have virtually none at all, well, that’s just expected, isn’t it, that he can’t think it through. But the rest of you who clap and cheer this not just dangerous but also palpably false Russophobia, lets face it the only evidence is cos the lying media says its so, isn’t it. That’s the only “evidence” you have, isn’t it. The word of a media that’s proven to have lied, and lied and lied and lied and lied and lied and lied, isn’t it.

Isn’t it.

No actual facts, are there.

No.

So hug and kiss your children while you can, you may not have them for much longer.

And if it does happen, remember, it’s not just who is going to die, it’s us too, the ones who told you what was going to happen, if you continued your idiotic support of a palpable lie.

Thanks.

http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2017/03/03/done-paul-craig-roberts/
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March 5, 2017 2:59pm
- Griff
  
  The real question is how has contact with Russian government officials become criminalized, grounds for removing a National Security Adviser, an Attorney General, and impeaching a President himself
  
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logan_Act
  § 953. Private correspondence with foreign governments.
  
  Any citizen of the United States, wherever he may be, who, without authority of the United States, directly or indirectly commences or carries on any correspondence or intercourse with any foreign government or any officer or agent thereof, with intent to influence the measures or conduct of any foreign government or of any officer or agent thereof, in relation to any disputes or controversies with the United States, or to defeat the measures of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.
  
  This section shall not abridge the right of a citizen to apply himself, or his agent, to any foreign government, or the agents thereof, for redress of any injury which he may have sustained from such government or any of its agents or subjects.
  
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  March 5, 2017 7:49pm
Jack5

South Australian moderate Islamic leader warns of Muslim plans to create a caliphate within Australia – a state within a state.

Whale Oil’s link to TV interview:

https://www.whaleoil.co.nz/2017/03/afraid-afraid-coming-new-zealand/
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March 5, 2017 3:21pm
Steve (North Shore)

You won’t see this on CNN:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZnV3dSYRlA&feature=share
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March 5, 2017 4:20pm
Manolo

South Africa continues its decline:
http://dailycaller.com/2017/03/04/south-african-president-calls-for-confiscating-white-owned-land/

South African president Jacob Zuma this week called for the confiscation of land owned by white people in his country — without any restitution made to the Caucasian property owners.
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March 5, 2017 5:48pm
- Jack5
  
  Bit like Rhodesia/Zimbabwe …
  
  Western countries’ trade boycott forced the white settlers to the negotiating table, and the deal was that Rhodesian white farmers would be allowed to keep their land.
  
  When Mugabe’s thugs drove them off, often brutally, the Western countries looked the other way.
  
  Is it now the turn of South African white farmers, largely Afrikaaners, to be betrayed? As if we didn’t do them enough harm a century and a quarter ago.
  
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  March 5, 2017 8:33pm
  - NutBag
    
    There are no lessons to be learned from Zimbabwe
    Move on.
    
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    March 5, 2017 8:37pm
  - JasonJohns
    
    Well said Jack. South Africa was a thriving nation where black and white were advancing under the sensible motto separate but equal. Now it is a human abyss, hellhole of the world. And here in NZ we have a government intent on copying Mandela’s policies of racial hatred and anti-white hysteria. Sad. Read John Ansell for the revelation that there is another way. John is my pick for NZ’s PM.
    
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    March 5, 2017 9:51pm
Ross12

Will this help solve the housing affordability issue

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2017/03/03/incredibly-cheap-house-3d-printed-just-24-hours/
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March 5, 2017 6:58pm
Nostradamus

Bill Shorten accuses Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull of dodging LGBTIQ party

The Prime Minister was a notable absentee from Saturday night’s Mardi Gras parade in Sydney.
…
Federal Opposition Leader Bill Shorten marched and accused the PM of dodging the event. “I don’t think there’s much point in being the Prime Minister of Australia if the only thing you do when you become Prime Minister is look for a place to hide,” he said.

This is the same Bill Shorten who wanted to hide from the Royal Commission into trade union corruption. No surprise, really, as the Royal Commission uncovered what Bill got up to in his trade union days.

At November’s Mardi Gras annual general meeting, the group Community Action Against Homophobia successfully campaigned to have Mr Turnbull barred from receiving an official invitation to the parade. However, that decision was later overturned by the event’s board.
…
Community Action Against Homophobia co-convenor Cat Rose said Mr Turnbull was not welcome at the parade. “He has not given us equality, and now he has run for the hills,” she said. “We don’t need his phoney friendship or his excuses. We need equality.”

Newsflash: There are 150 members of the House of Representatives and 76 members of the Senate. So, on my calculation, that means Malcolm Turnbull has 1/226 – or 0.44% – worth of influence. Hopefully, in the name of consistency and equality, Cat made sure that other politicians weren’t invited.
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March 5, 2017 7:41pm
cha

Skill.

https://twitter.com/NumbersMuncher/status/837473457852018688
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March 5, 2017 8:44pm
starboard

Winstons picked up the ball and is running with it

Labour -lite is in for a battle

Super is affordable as it is. Silly Bill.

You’ve got my vote Winston.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/90070673/peters-puts-his-foot-in-the-open-door-after-english-confirms-option-of-super-reset

Kiwis are being railroaded into thinking New Zealand Superannuation is unaffordable,” by “all sorts of self-appointed experts, including political parties”.
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March 5, 2017 9:17pm
Jack5

With the State superannuation eligibility age set to become an election issue, there should be a careful look at numbers, or if this has been done, an explanation of them would be helpful.

In the Hooerald, an article based on Prime Minister Bill English’s comments in a TV3 interview, says:

The cost of NZ Super is expected to triple in the next 20 years from $11 billion to $36 billion as more people reach the over-65 age-group and live for longer.

A population bubble has been working through like an egg through a snake. It is the surge of population after World War 2 as returning servicemen married and began families.
These babies, born from 1945 to say 1950, if still alive, will be aged 87 to 92 in 20 years time, 2037. They will be dropping off the perch quite quickly.

If there is a population surge then, it won’t be from the baby-boomers it will be from immigration.

There are many benefits from immigration, but it does have a cost if economic growth in terms of GDP per capita does not at least keep growing apace.

Without immigration since the late 1940s, and because of baby boomers heading for old age, would New Zealanders’ average age begin dropping, and fairly quickly, in about 15 years time?

If the superannuation blowout is going to be caused by immigrants ageing, has there been something wrong with our immigration policy? Have we been bringing in too many middle aged people, too many of their grandparent-aged parents, and too few young people about to begin having families?
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March 5, 2017 9:42pm
- Griff
  
  http://www.stats.govt.nz/tools_and_services/interactive-pop-pyramid.aspx
  
  You can see the egg coming out the snakes pooper.
  For nz the bulge above the 40 age group will mean
  more on super and less working to support them .
  This will have to come from some where
  Either cut entitlements means test or rise the age .
  Or we need to tax those working a lot more .
  
  Immigration brings its own issues .
  
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  March 5, 2017 9:55pm
JasonJohns

It’s a pseudo-problem Jack. The state isn’t obligated to pay people for getting old. Scrap super and the problem disappears. Super is pure communism. It’s as bad as ‘public’ education and health.
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March 5, 2017 9:46pm
- Jack5
  
  Jason, that may be so, but NZ is a leftist country, similar to the social-democrat Scandinavian nations. While the State might not be obliged to pay superannuation to retired people, it is obliged to keep voters happy.
  
  Leaving out superannuation, why there should be an old-age bubble in 20 years times is interesting, given that the baby-boomers will be dropping out of the population quickly by then.
  
  I suspect the baby-boomers’ families would have been smaller on average than their parents’ families. Why will the surge in old folk continue as the baby boomers die?
  
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  March 5, 2017 9:52pm
  - JasonJohns
    
    Jack 70% of NZers on super have no other source of income. They are life’s losers, pure and simple, and can’t be the responsibility of the state in an era of crisis and wars. Best to let them go swiftly and surely. Some may survive on private charity. Others may die. But as with the bludgers who rely on public health the time has come to make them discover adulthood.
    
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    March 5, 2017 10:08pm
    - JasonJohns
      
      Trump is currently destroying the communist perversion known as Obamacare. His next challenge will be to kill Medicare, an incredibly expensive scheme that lets America’s elderly bludge their healthcare off the state. Ben Carson has explained how to smash medicare http://www.politico.com/story/2015/10/ben-carson-medicare-medicaid-215055
      
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      March 5, 2017 10:11pm
      - Griff
        
        Yip story
        Almost double the cost in terms of GDP
        A shrinking tax base to pay for it .
        That is why they are so keen on immigration.
        Too keep the ponzi scam going .
        So you can not scream out for super to stay the same and demand we reduce immigration .
        One or the other not both .
        
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        March 5, 2017 10:26pm
    - starboard
      
      Lol…winner.
      
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      March 5, 2017 10:27pm
    - Komata
      
      JJ
      
      A simple question : How old are you ? (and if you don’t want to answer specifically, are you Gen X, Gen Y or Millennial?)
      
      Thank you.
      
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      March 6, 2017 7:08am
JasonJohns

Amazing news today from Trump. The filthy animal Obama has been bugging Trump Tower. The Obamanation’s behaviour has now become intolerable. He is fomenting a silent coup. Trump has the right and the duty to detain Obamanation.
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March 5, 2017 9:48pm
JasonJohns

Obama has already been fairly investigated and tried for his crimes.
http://progressillinois.com/quick-hits/content/2014/06/28/immigrant-rights-advocates-host-mock-trial-find-president-obama-guilty
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March 5, 2017 9:55pm
starboard

Super is affordable, currently around 4% of gdp rising to around 7% in 20 years ( loose figures ) but as gdp increases super becomes more affordable.
Play with super at your peril Andy/Bill.
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March 5, 2017 10:13pm
JasonJohns

Super by its nature is immoral starboard. All welfare is immoral. Life’s losers deserve to be confronted with their failure not given succour by a thieving state.

Abolish all welfare and create a 1% flat income tax.
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March 5, 2017 10:19pm
Inandout

That brave Muslim woman who wants to modernise Islam is on Radio Live now.
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March 5, 2017 10:22pm
starboard

I’d hardly call pensioners life’s losers Jase.
DPB recipients..yes..long term unemployed..yes..pensioners, no. Well deserving of a few bucks each week, we have earned it.
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March 5, 2017 10:23pm
JasonJohns

No starboard you haven’t. All welfare is immoral. Those who draw pensions are life’s losers. Money measures success and hard work. Those with money win. Those without lose. That is the brutal truth of life. The state intervenes and tries to fudge the lesson.
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March 5, 2017 10:26pm
starboard

Jason, Jason..Im far from being a loser. I have plenty of coin because I worked my arse off for a long, long time. Paid a lot of tax along the way. You get to drive on the roads because MY tax helped pay for establishing the roading network all those years ago.. You get to take a shit every morning because MY taxes help pay for the network of pipes that carries YOUR shit away. You get to live in a warm house because MY tax helped set up the electricity network all those years ago. Need I go on? I think we are due a little bit of financial payback.
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March 5, 2017 10:37pm
JasonJohns

No starboard you are stealing from me. If you are honourable you would pay the money back. NZ roads should have been privatised long ago the same with water and sewage. But at least you are honest enough to admit your bludging communistic ways.

In the Trup era people like you are going to have to live by your own sweat or else perish. Life is tough.
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March 5, 2017 10:41pm
- starboard
  
  Good night Jase..( and its Trump )
  
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  March 5, 2017 10:47pm
JasonJohns

Goodnight bludger. I am sorry that you have failed, but the game of life always has losers.
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March 5, 2017 10:52pm
Maggy Wassilieff

Those with money win. Those without lose. That is the brutal truth of life.

Sometimes, but not always.

We all have to die and having heaps of money isn’t much use if you have a terminal disease.
And what have you “won”, if you leave no offspring capable of perpetuating your genes?
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March 5, 2017 10:59pm
- Griff
  
  Money dose not buy happiness.
  Once you have enough you have reached the limit of how happy money could ever make you .
  Enough is subjective.
  
  ….
  
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  March 5, 2017 11:31pm
- reid3
  
  Money means absolutely nothing but to sad people who’ve learned nothing from their human adventure. Some of the greatest people who’ve ever lived had nothing: e.g. Ghandi and some of the worst people who’ve ever lived were richer than Croessus. I don’t need to give examples.
  
  Life is a spiritual journey of discovery, period. By spiritual I’m not referring to religion I’m referring to the discovery of what it means to be human. Religion purports to have an answer to that but whether or not you buy that as an explanation is irrelevant to the truth that life is about spiritual matters, not material.
  
  I find it very sad that billions of people, perhaps even many more than half of us currently on this planet, have allowed themselves to become distracted by the pursuit of trinkets and baubles. Sad because those people will find, at the end, when its too late, their entire life has been a complete waste of time. No-one ever died wishing they’d spent more time at the office.
  
  Maggy, you don’t “win” in life by perpetuating your genes. What’s so special about your genes you think they should be preserved over others? No, you win in life by giving to others. That can come in many forms, both material and non-material. And one’s children of course are the people to whom most give the most. And by giving you receive. You think how much you have received in love, wisdom and insight, through giving what you have to your children. That’s your ROI on that, and not a cent changes hands.
  
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  March 6, 2017 6:42am
sam green

JasonJohns of the X-Men troll team.
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March 5, 2017 11:35pm
Manolo

Did he or didn’t he?
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/3009405/donald-trump-barack-obama-wires-tapped-trump-tower-election/
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March 6, 2017 6:44am
- mikenmild
  
  Yes he did: Donald Trump did indeed launch another bizarre Twitter rant in the middle of the night.
  
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  March 6, 2017 7:04am
  - Manolo
    
    It seems it will be investigated.
    http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_TRUMP_THE_LATEST?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2017-03-05-10-01-52
    
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    March 6, 2017 7:34am
Maggy Wassilieff

(British) Labour Leader’s dodgy tax return
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-39175570
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March 6, 2017 12:08pm

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