General Debate 30 October 2019

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Maggie Pie

If a Krispy Kreme falls on the kitchen floor and you pick it up…..
that’s a Squat, right?
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October 30, 2019 8:02am
- Kiwi Dave
  
  Sure, but to get the maximum benefit, you need to do three sets of ten repetitions and, by eating the KK each time, you will progressively increase your body weight loading. With this regimen, you will soon embody squatness itself.
  
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  October 30, 2019 8:42am
- cmm
  
  Maggie, it is way, way, better than that.
  
  If it fell from more than 1m then the impact halved the calories. From 2 metres, three quarters of the calories have been obliterated.
  
  This is proven science.
  
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  October 30, 2019 9:14am
  - sooty
    
    Throw them off the roof of the house and you can eat as many as you like.
    The calories have reduced to bugger all and the calories you used to get on the roof, give you chance to eat all you want!
    What are these krispie kreams you talk of?
    
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    October 30, 2019 9:49am
    - cmm
      
      Gotta be careful… If you throw them from the roof the calories can go negative.
      
      So eat half a packet dropped from the roof and half a packet not dropped at all and it should end up being a zero calorie treat.
      
      Science is wonderful!
      
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      October 30, 2019 10:48am
    - NoCash
      
      Due to OSH rules, you would need edge protection if you do it from the roof, not cost effective.
      
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      October 30, 2019 11:42am
  - rightoverlabour
    
    BUT the friction between the Crispy Creme and the air during the falling has heated the air molecules, so you are adding to Global Warming. Off to the Gulag…. However, you could argue in your defense tha as you were stooping to pick up the Crispy Creme you were not exhaling CO2 at 44,000 ppm, so they may only torture you.
    
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    October 30, 2019 10:39am
- Fletch
  
  Did it break the 3 second rule though? Or was it lying on the floor longer than that?
  
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  October 30, 2019 9:56am
  - Michael
    
    5 sec…
    
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    October 30, 2019 10:08am
- Biscuit
  
  Krispy Kremes?
  
  Nah, Maggie.
  
  The weakness in this household is for Rocky Road Marshmallow biscuits … and they are so treasured that not one has ever come within cooee of being dropped on ANY floor.
  
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  October 30, 2019 9:57am
- NoCash
  
  Yup, but make sure you keep your knees behind your toes when bending your legs down. Top tip, proper form is very important. You’re welcome.
  
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  October 30, 2019 11:27am
- Paulus Gnome
  
  I don’t know about calories but I do know you have got to be faster than the dog . . .
  
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  October 30, 2019 12:15pm
RW Capitalist

Phil Twyford…lying again
Quelle surprise
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October 30, 2019 8:03am
- Tony Stuart
  
  Minister of Transport Phil Twyford has said repeatedly that the former board of the New Zealand Transport Agency – with which he had a fractious relationship – did not wish to be reappointed and that the replacement of all but one of the board members last month was due to the board’s term ending.
  
  But now sources have confirmed to Stuff that this was in fact not the case and that some board members did ask to be reappointed, raising questions over whether Twyford misled Parliament.
  
  Last week, Twyford was asked in Parliament by National Party Transport spokesman Chris Bishop whether he would “stand by his statement that no one on the New Zealand Transport Agency board asked to stay on?”
  
  Twyford responded, “Yes, I do”.
  
  In response to questions from Stuff, Twyford has now changed his story.
  
  https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/116986363/phil-twyford-repeatedly-forgot-key-nzta-job-offer-until-he-couldnt
  
  If we had a Prime Minister who took her boast of leading New Zealand’s “most open and transparent government ever” seriously, Twyford would be clearing out his Beehive desk right now, and preparing for a move to the furthest reaches of the back benches.
  
  But we don’t, so he won’t. This government is rotten, and a fish rots from the head down.
  
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  October 30, 2019 8:17am
  - Michael
    
    Jacinda is a Liar as Tall Man says.
    That’s why Min Twyford can get away with this behaviour.
    
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    October 30, 2019 10:09am
- lilman
  
  Twyford is simply a disgrace, how anybody can take anything he says as even remotely true is beyond me.
  
  A liar,just a lying barstard.
  
  Does he not have any moral compass?
  
  If he were my family member he would be put straight quick smart.
  
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  October 30, 2019 8:18am
  - rightoverlabour
    
    Moral Compass? He is a Labour Party Member. Rape – Yeah Nah, Sexual Assualt – Yeah, Nah, Lying – Yeah, Nah….
    
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    October 30, 2019 10:41am
  - curry4me
    
    If he was an actor; he’d be the dopey leftie from central casting.
    
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    October 30, 2019 9:11pm
- Simon
  
  Phil Twyford the face of NZ government. Massive six figure salary and utterly incompetent.
  
  Now he is lying. And this fuckwit is in charge of spending billions.
  
  Twfyord the incompetent liar gets to piss away $6 billion. (or maybe $10 billion no one knows)
  
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  October 30, 2019 8:35am
  - sooty
    
    On three or four hundy thou, while doing it on our dime!
    Sack the bastard!
    He was never worth three or four hundred!
    How did you ever think he was worth promoting above janitor, I will never know?
    You wonder why the puddle is so shallow when this is what you roll out!
    
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    October 30, 2019 9:54am
- kevn
  
  A real bag of snakes aren’t they? Who would want to be associated with them? twyford especially, he could kill your career.
  
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  October 30, 2019 8:47am
- Bobba Fret
  
  He’s the next Clare Curran. Jacinda will only do something about him if she is absolutely forced to. Same with Ian Lees-Galloway. She is a very weak leader.
  Also, you must remember, the team that are in at the moment are the best most talented people they have so just imagine the replacement.
  
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  October 30, 2019 11:51am
JibberJabber

Baroness Thatcher,
“There are significant differences between the American and European version of capitalism. The American traditionally emphasizes the need for limited government, light regulations, low taxes and maximum labour-market flexibility. Its success has been shown above all in the ability to create new jobs, in which it is consistently more successful than Europe.”
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October 30, 2019 8:06am
- Liberty
  
  Baroness Thatcher was correct.
  Then along came comrade Trump with tariffs.
  All tariffs do is pander to inefficient manufactures
  and farmers.
  
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  October 30, 2019 9:48am
  - Odakyu-sen
    
    While it is true that tariffs pander to inefficient farmers, what do you do in Japan where the average age of a farmer is 67? Ref: https://www.nippon.com/en/features/h00227/japan%E2%80%99s-farming-population-rapidly-aging-and-decreasing.html
    
    Are you prepared to throw your de-populating rural communities under the bus to appease the American farming juggernaut?
    If the Japanese farmers were a generation younger, then they could be expected to diversify and invest in hi-tech farming methods, but geriatric farmers with little cash are unlikely to be willing or able to do so.
    
    What do you do?
    
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    October 30, 2019 10:24am
    - Cobolt24
      
      Temporary foreign workers perhaps? That’s probably the easiest option for now.
      
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      October 30, 2019 11:10am
    - Stephen Russell
      
      Buy your farm products from New Zealand of course.
      
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      October 30, 2019 12:01pm
    - UrbanNeocolonialist
      
      Get rid of 95% of Japan’s farmers, consolidate the land into efficient production units 20-100x larger than existing inefficient microfarms and get same or more food off the land using big machines without subsidies.
      
      NZ produces enough food for 10’s of million of people something like 5% of our population
      
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      October 31, 2019 5:04pm
  - Jack5
    
    There are more effective, more subtle, ways to tilt trade advantages your way. For example, manipulating the national currency.
    
    Japan, Germany, and now China are among those who have used them successfully.
    
    And America, as Odakyu-sen confirms Japan has, protects American farmers with import quotas.
    
    New Zealand subsidises the film industry, and NZ free marketeers don’t have a lot to say about that.
    
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    October 30, 2019 10:29am
    - Liberty
      
      In an ideal world.
      After the revolution
      New Zealand on air along with the art and farts. would be the first to go.
      Farmers, Manufacturers, shopkeepers have to work or go hungry.
      Let the entertainers and their minions sing for their supper.
      
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      October 30, 2019 11:34am
Tempist

Phil Twyford, Labour’s unofficial Minister for Winning the World Cup 2019, has claimed the Government has achieved exactly what it sought from the recent tournament, despite being knocked out in the semi-final. “The All Blacks won their opening match verses the Boks, so that’s clearly meeting the key goal of our policy and was all that we intended. Beating Namibia was a bonus and demonstrated how the progressive policies of this Government are ensuring New Zealand finally succeeds after nine long years of neglect.”

After it was pointed out that the All Blacks has actually won the World Cup both times it was played in the last nine years, Mr Twyford responded that while on the face of it that was arguable, they had never been two African sides during pool play and he stood by his original comments.

He refused to comment on rumours that up until the eve of the semi-final, he had personally pressured the Rugby New Zealand board to select both Grant Robertson and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern in the playing 15, despite their lack of condition and concerns that Ms Ardern had never played rugby before. He refused to speculate that the stumbling block was the insistence that Ms Ardern should be captain on the day and that she absolutely had the support of Winston Peters. Mr Twyford did make the point that neither of his two cabinet colleagues did make the team or the reserve bench, and “we all know the result of that match”.

Unofficial sources within the All Blacks camp confirmed rumours that planning was at an advanced stage for the surprise debut of the two Labour heavyweights, but the proposal for Ardern’s sudden elevation to Captain despite any obvious experience in the role and the tactical challenges of playing two left wings were insurmountable.

Mr Twyford asserted that the outcome of the third and fourth place play-off would not detract from the success of the Government’s plan for the All Blacks to win as many matches as they could at the tournament which was ultimately the key goal of the policy, and the appropriate measure of success.
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October 30, 2019 8:06am
- oob
  
  Brilliant!
  
  “two left wings” -Ha!
  
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  October 30, 2019 8:17am
Prince

Is Red Radio troubled by the latest polls ?

Two interviews.
Ardern yesterday, long rambling answers, no interruptions:

https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2018719712/royal-commission-chair-to-be-announced-very-shortly-ardern

Bridges today. Every answer talked over, interrupted.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2018719881/national-wants-tougher-tests-for-gang-members-on-benefits

Journalism, or political activism ?
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October 30, 2019 8:07am
- Tony Stuart
  
  What else is new? RNZ knows what side its bread is buttered on, and its journalism reflects that.
  
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  October 30, 2019 8:13am
  - pdm
    
    Journalism?
    
    Not so sure Inv.
    
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    October 30, 2019 8:19am
- G152
  
  Fake news at full volume…
  How dare Simon Bridges interrupt the commentators rant..
  It’s almost like he’s leading a successful political party to an electoral victory next election and must be stopped
  
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  October 30, 2019 8:15am
  - srylands
    
    When I am in the car I have started listening to Peter Williams and Sean Plunket on Magic Talk. They seem quite sensible.
    
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    October 30, 2019 9:05am
    - Inandout
      
      srylands, I like to listen to them as well, but as an aside has Garner gone for good from TV3?
      
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      October 30, 2019 9:15am
      - UrbanNeocolonialist
        
        just like everyone else will be in a couple of months when 3 shuts down.
        
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        October 31, 2019 5:06pm
- hullkiwi
  
  Spot on, even Bridges had a go at Dann about this, this mornin ie that Ardern was able to waffle on without interruption in her interview.
  
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  October 30, 2019 8:15am
  - alloytoo
    
    Bridges is getting better cut through. and the COL chickens are coming home to roost.
    
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    October 30, 2019 9:00am
  - The Proper Ghandi
    
    Let her waffle. On. And on. And on. And on. Waffles tend to crumble and have very little nutritional substance. It’s a great advert for the Nats.
    
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    October 30, 2019 10:07am
- pb
  
  The water that nourishes the fish in the mainstream media water tank has slowly leaked out. The only fish left thrashing about are those too dopey to get out. Or those ideological fish whom thrive on activism.
  
  “The most fundamental fact about the ideas of the political left is that they do not work. Therefore we should not be surprised to find the left concentrated in institutions where ideas do not have to work in order to survive.”
  Thomas Sowell
  
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  October 30, 2019 8:46am
- Clyde
  
  I am starting to believe that there is a quota in Morning Report of “maori issues” stories as well. Not a day passes where some activist or another is able to rave on with the assistance of the Maori reporting staff about what they see as racism etc. Today a soft interview with a Black Power gang member and “social worker” on how these gang member’s families would be targeted by Bridge’s proposed gang legislation.
  
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  October 30, 2019 8:59am
- dave_c_
  
  Yer – what a fricking arsehole. Forget ‘political’ or ‘activism’, this loon is outrageously rude and obnoxious.
  
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  October 30, 2019 10:11am
- oldgolfer
  
  Activism, and it was always so.
  Dann was so rude this morning – again – I switched off. Again.
  
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  October 30, 2019 10:26am
- The only red for me is that of Manchester United
  
  Interesting contrast. With Dann and Bridges I sense Dann is wanting Bridges to give a reply without thinking out his answer just so that those words can then be used by Dann later on. A you said situation. The interview with the prime minister was light and easy going. Almost as if Suzie was instructed not to push too hard. Dann like Epsiner is why I stopped listening to Morning Report.
  
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  October 30, 2019 11:00am
- Brian Marshall
  
  Sexism. Shocking disgusting display of sexism by our national radio. I mean it can’t be because of any politics bias can it?
  
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  October 30, 2019 3:10pm
oldpark

Could not help but wonder as i walked into Countdown Supermarket a few days ago .There was a large notice that said on Wednesday afternooons between the hours of 2.30 pm and 3.30 there would be peace and quiet reflections.
Maybe perhaps increasing the price of groceries at the same time. There just one case in point,was the much back then Heralded $1.00 Loaf of Bread.
Except this time with quiet reflections the new price is $1.20. No drum banging this time. Ouch.
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October 30, 2019 8:11am
- igm
  
  If Countdown were the last supermarket open I would go hungry in preference to supporting the woke/left-wing/deadbeat greasers.
  
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  October 30, 2019 8:25am
  - rightoverlabour
    
    Countdown is spelt with too many “o”s
    
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    October 30, 2019 10:44am
  - KevO'Brien
    
    Countdown’s target customers are a richer set with more money than sense. Next, they’ll be mediating in the isles about being reborn as plastic single use shopping bags with little green frog motifs.
    
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    October 30, 2019 11:42am
- sooty
  
  Why not the rest of the shop opening hours aswell?
  So the rest of the time you can let your kids run riot, wear onesies or your PJs, trosers at half mast and a butt crack big enough to hide half a trolly!
  Just another day at PacNSave!
  
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  October 30, 2019 8:30am
  - MCos
    
    I go to the supermarket because that’s where the basic ingredients are to make a meal.
    As it happens the nearest one is Pak n Sav, Mangere, where the kids are well behaved.
    I went to a boutique supermarket in Mt Eden a couple of times where they gave out free flat whites & I saw a bottle of cooking oil for $900. That’s where the obnoxious kids were. Learning the ropes, I suppose.
    
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    October 30, 2019 9:29am
- Nigel Kearney
  
  There are people who, through no fault of their own, have trouble dealing with loud noises and bright lights. It’s just one hour a week. Go shopping some other time if it’s a problem for you.
  
  When they find a way to do these things without making the rest of us pay for it, I think that should be applauded and encouraged.
  
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  October 30, 2019 9:20am
  - Zapper
    
    Probably not applauded – that could trigger someone too
    
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    October 30, 2019 1:13pm
- Close Hen Counters
  
  Our Countdown is in a pretty crummy part of Auckland and I asked the checkout operator about the benefit of the quiet hour to which she replied none -music off, lights dimmed so jolly low you can barely see stuff on the shelves and all the dodgy neighbours come in pinching more stuff and getting away with it. They gave up on a security guard who had the physique of being only half a staircase away from a heart attack
  
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  October 30, 2019 1:13pm
Happychappy

Has Phil Twyfords lies caught up with him and has he misled Parliament.
https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/116986363/phil-twyford-repeatedly-forgot-key-nzta-job-offer-until-he-couldnt
Twyford stated the no member of the NZTA Board wanted to be selected for the new board but now it has been stated by some that is not correct.
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October 30, 2019 8:13am
- rockape
  
  I am sure he didnt lie just misspoke.
  
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  October 30, 2019 9:25am
peterwn

Rio Tinto has a bit of a problem on its hands concerning Tiwai. It wants to screw concessions out of Meridian, Transpower and the Government by threatening to close down the smelter. Trouble for Rio is few are listening – most have heard it all before. One journo called it ‘noise’. Megan Woods is not interested. Greens and ultra left wingers would like to see it closed.
So what does Rio do? It sends in a goon squad to plan how the smelter can be closed down and commissioned. This sabre rattling has put the wind up some people like Sarah Dowie – it is ‘for real’ this time. Well it may be or may not be. From Rio’s point of view it is fairly inexpensive to send in the goon squad to rattle the cage and soften up the other side for negotiations. Rio is also relying on a mis-balance of information, that is Meridian etc is unaware of Rio’s strategic plans, ‘bottom lines’ etc.
However Meridian is probably more clued up than Rio would like to think and is well aware of when Meridian is talking BS.
Perhaps Rio is crying wolf once too often.
Perhaps Rio has provided a buying opportunity for those wanting to buy power company shares.
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October 30, 2019 8:15am
- Happychappy
  
  Labour will swallow the dead rats and drop the power rates to keep it open, no one does backflips better than a Labour led Government.
  
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  October 30, 2019 8:41am
  - peterwn
    
    Labour may receive another confidential letter from JAG.
    
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    October 30, 2019 8:55am
  - david
    
    Time for a “Captain’s Call” it would seem.
    Quick, alert the Taiwan Pt Kindergarten to expect a visit from a strange female wearing a tam-o-Shatner and preceded by some heavies armed to the back teeth with prohibited weaponry. You will all be lined up for a phot call and you will be expected to smile a lot and look like you are having a great time with the lovely lady.
    
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    October 30, 2019 9:11am
    - david
      
      Damned predictive text.
      Tiwai
      Tam-o-shanter
      Photo
      That is all
      
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      October 30, 2019 9:37am
- G152
  
  Shut the power supply down.
  They want to play games let them do it without electricity
  
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  October 30, 2019 9:16am
- virtualmark
  
  We could just try capitalism.
  
  Like real capitalism. No state subsidies or jollies. Just “That’s the price of electricity, put on your grown up pants and decide if you can make a go of it at that level or not, but just quit whining”.
  
  And then we could do the same with Callaghan. And VIF. And a long list of other quasi-capitalist things that exist only because they suck on the public teat.
  
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  October 30, 2019 9:27am
  - Ed Snack
    
    Problem is this, the actual cost of the power produced by Manapouri is pretty low – the capital cost has largely been amortized and the operating costs are tiny. And because of the design of the current far south power grid, there’s really only one way that power can go – South to Tiwai Point.
    
    RTZ and Meridian know this, so as long as the price paid by the smelter covers the current operating costs with a bit left over for the remaining capital cost and profit, it makes commercial sense to sell the power at this marginal price. The argument as always is over just how low this price really is.
    
    The only way to shift this narrative is to spend a shedload of money upgrading the grid to connect Manapouri to the Benmore hub to enable more than a small amount of the Manapouri power output to be sent Northwards. The last cost I saw was something like $1.5B – which would be Transpower’s to find.
    
    Then we would be able to negotiate on more even terms, right now it’s a bit of a TINA case for Meridian – if RTZ doesn’t buy the power, nobody else can. We might even find out how serious RTZ really is about closing the smelter, plus we would make a tidy bit of extra power reserve available as Manapouri is generally less subject to low rainfall dry periods than the lakes further North.
    
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    October 30, 2019 10:42am
    - gump
      
      The cost for upgrading the national grid to move all the power currently consumed by Tiwai Point into the North Island was estimated at $600 million in 2016.
      
      https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/311785/smelter-shutdown-could-boost-north-island-power
      
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      October 30, 2019 11:52am
    - peterwn
      
      Do not be spooked by the $1.5B figure. It is probably a worst case/ gold plated option. Also transmission upgrade costs can be spread out over some years. In reality there would be a mixture of extra transmission and inducement for power hungry industries for Southland.
      A possibility would be to build a Southland to Benmore HVDC line and install a half terminal station at the Southland end (possibly at the North Makarewa facility). Perhaps run HVDC from Manapouri. Remove the middle conductors and middle crossarms from one Manapouri double circuit line (there are two double circuit lines), reinsulate the top conductors and use this for HVDC. This could be cheaper than 220kV patch-ups.
      Meridian and Transpower will have thought this through to aid bargaining.
      
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      October 30, 2019 12:11pm
    - virtualmark
      
      Agreed. I was involved in a previous iteration of this Meridian:Rio Tiwai Point negotiation so I understand the extent to which they are both a little captive to each other.
      
      But it’s for those two parties to negotiate a price for the power, and then Rio can decide whether that works for them or not. If I were in Government I would tell them to just have that negotiation and make their decisions and that there will be no subsidies or soft money.
      
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      October 30, 2019 12:43pm
  - david
    
    Just add to that, if you want to go we will take the plant over for $1 and go into competition with you. Our stock market needs an IPO about now!
    
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    October 30, 2019 12:35pm
    - peterwn
      
      RTZ would want to render the plant inoperable even if it costs them big $$$ to rip the equipment out. Just like redundant freezing works – they were rendered inoperable then the land and buildings sold subject to a covenant prohibiting meat processing.
      
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      October 30, 2019 2:02pm
    - Jack5
      
      David, Rio Tinto also mines the bauxite at Weipa, where the Bluff smelter gets its raw ore. Rio Tinto wouldn’t give an independent NZ smelter a sweetheart deal.
      
      Rio Tinto also owns four or five aluminium smelters in Australia, including the two largest ones.
      
      The two biggest international aluminium producers are China (by a mile) then Russia. Trump’s tariffs on Chinese aluminium have caused the world price to drop as China pours product on to the international market.
      
      Rio Tinto’s Australian smelters benefit from the tariff exemption Trump granted to Australia. Jacinderella and J. Peters have failed to get an exemption for NZ.
      
      If Rio Tinto pulled out of Bluff, the only rational course would be to get another bulk user at or near Bluff, where the distribution is already set up. That would also require some sort of deals on power price – subsidies some would call them, but it would just be a deal for a big customer. Happens all the time in business.
      
      This is the rational course because New Zealand badly needs the export earnings from the billion dollars a year or so the Bluff aluminium smelter brings in. It ain’t going to get export earnings from power burned by Auckland consumers.
      
      It is rational because it would cost heaps to beef up the national grid and cross-strait link to take the power 1600km or so to Auckland.
      
      It is rational because up to 12 per cent of the power would be burned in transmission over the long distance.
      
      It is rational because the smelter (or a new big user) meets a disproportionate share of the national grid costs. Without a big user, all users would pay more in transmission costs. These would be considerably higher as the grid upgrade costs were recovered.
      
      We have made some weird, financial-whiz transactions over the national grid. Remember when the whizzes virtually sold, or tried to sell, the freehold asset of the national grid itself in what they saw as an ultra-smart accounting move?
      
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      October 30, 2019 2:23pm
- Nickc2
  
  The fact that Cindy efed up our aluminium exports wouldn’t have anything to do with it would it?
  Wait and see if NZ Steel is the next export industry to threaten shut down.
  Our farmers have only escaped government enforced bankruptcy for the time being.
  
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  October 30, 2019 10:16am
  - marcw
    
    Question Nickc2, is the aluminum produced at Tiwai by RTZ available on world commodity markets as NZ or Australian product? If it is actually as Australian, then the US tariff penalty will not apply as they have the exemption.
    
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    October 30, 2019 11:33am
    - Nickc2
      
      Agree, but do we have another smelter producing aluminium that we alone are trying to sell to the US?
      I stand to be corrected, but I’m under the impression aluminium exported from Tiwi is NZ’s produced by an NZ subsidiary of an Australian company.
      
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      October 30, 2019 2:01pm
  - MCos
    
    Our agriculture industry will always be a true export industry for us inasmuch as the whole process is carried out here before being exported.
    We are only a part of the aluminium production process because at one time we let them have cheap electricity. One fine day Rio Tinto could shut up shop here and open a plant somewhere else.
    This sort of thing happens all the time.
    Workers conditions improve in China so clothes manufacturers move to Bangladesh.
    Detroit emptied out of car manufacturers who went to Mexico or wherever.
    
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    October 30, 2019 12:04pm
- KevO'Brien
  
  RTZ is well aware that their sales of aluminium bring significant export receipts to NZ.
  This is two way trade: they provide the bauxite and we provide the electricity. Both sides gain.
  
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  October 30, 2019 11:47am
- UrbanNeocolonialist
  
  In 10 years (as electric cars increase market share) that Manapouri electricity could be displacing the import of about $1 billion a year in fossil fuels (at $60/barrel). So long term will help our export position – particularly if we can get more non-imported-fossil generation going to replace the oil and gas industry we are losing.
  
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  October 31, 2019 5:25pm
hullkiwi

Question for you all. Yesterday, DPF posted an opinion piece by Dave Cormack, one of Liebore’s spinmeisters saying that Jacinda must sack the failure that is Twitford. So the question is, is there strategist close to the PM who has been given the ho ahead to get Twitford pushed under a bus?
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October 30, 2019 8:19am
- krazykiwi
  
  Possibly. If she does sack him it will be closer to the election, to coax the forgetful hoi polloi into believing she’s a tough leader.
  
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  October 30, 2019 8:28am
- Brian McDonald
  
  He’s proved more than once that he does need jettisoning out to the dung heap somewhere.
  
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  October 30, 2019 9:16am
info@cruzpro.com

Tiwa Point … I feel for the people who might lose their jobs if the aluminum smelter is allowed to fail but firmly believe that the $30,000 subsidy per worker could be better spent on backing winning businesses instead of this seemingly lost cause. Lose jobs there but create jobs elsewhere.
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October 30, 2019 8:21am
- Wired-one
  
  The $30million dollar subsidy Tiwai received would’ve been played back several times over in P.A.Y.E alone, not to mention all the local and national economic benefits and exports. It was a smart subsidy at the time and a similar offer should be made again. $30million to get hundreds of millions back? Surely that’s a no brainer.
  
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  October 30, 2019 9:24am
  - gump
    
    I’m the Director of a national logistics company that employs over 2,000 staff.
    
    Why should Rio Tinto be preferentially treated with a generous subsidy when businesses like ours do not?
    
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    October 30, 2019 11:54am
    - Wired-one
      
      I have no issue with tax payer money going to any large business that contributes greatly to this country. People whine about Tiwai getting cheaper power, but fail to mention that all large industrial sites in NZ, from meat works to dairy factories also get cheaper power. It’s simple, if you buy 1 billion of something, surely you’d get a better price than the people buying two?. I know I may be in the minority, but I’d far rather my tax money went to businesses that are net contributors to this country, than the NZFirst re-election fund. NZ greatly benefits from Tiwai, we should be doing the math and help them out if it makes financial sense.
      
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      October 30, 2019 1:43pm
    - Jack5
      
      Gump, you might get the same price as the Bluff smelter if:
      
      1. You bought as much electricity in total; and
      
      2. It was delivered to the same site; and
      
      3. The site was on part of the grid set up now to deliver it; and
      
      4. The demand was steady, round the clock, for seven days.
      
      I can ‘t imagine a logistics firm, even if across the country, being anywhere near as big a customer as the smelter, even if the firm was running a 5,000 electric trucks.
      
      I bet your logistics firm gives better prices to its biggest customers than it does to one-off small users.
      
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      October 30, 2019 3:20pm
- Stephen Russell
  
  Backing businesses that Labour thinks are winners would be a quick way to waste a LOT of money.
  
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  October 30, 2019 12:11pm
oldpark

Heard another complaint the other day about the much vaunted electric car being the future for us all and the so called naughty petrol car being an also ran .
It so happened with the massive fires in California many many people were fleeing the scene. Petrol cars were seen zooming away to safety . Also there was one huge people mover unable to get going. Aboard were at least 15 people all anti petrol users.Sadly because of the huges fires the authorities had switched off all electricity feeds.
You guessed it the ignition light didn’t engage for the people mover vehicle,reason no power no electricity.Not sure if the story is fact or fiction. Maybe a check on the death notices could confirm 15 people burnt to death sitting in a people mover tuned for electricity. nuff said.
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October 30, 2019 8:22am
- DJ Ward
  
  Number of people burnt to death in petrol car fires, less 15 (maybe). Who wins?
  
  Number of petrol cars who’s petrol tank burst into flames trying to escape the heat vs safe electric cars?
  
  Electric cars are profoundly safer. What a pointless comment.
  
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  October 30, 2019 9:59am
  - Inandout
    
    Yes DJ, but the little kids mining minerals for the EV brigade might care little whether electric was ‘safer’.
    
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    October 30, 2019 10:26am
  - herb1
    
    DJ Ward you really have no idea on the flammability of lithium ion batteries do you.
    Surprising when there have been a number of articles recently on just this issue .
    
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    October 30, 2019 10:44am
  - Ed Snack
    
    Quite wrong, petrol fires do occur of course but can easily be put out with even hand held “vanity” extinguishers unless they’ve been burning for a time.
    
    A ruptured LI ion battery will usually discharge all its power via a very high temperature uncontrollable fire that needs highly specialized equipment to deal with, and even then can remain subject to re-ignition for up to days afterwards.
    
    Also petrol vehicles very very rarely spontaneously ignite even if there is a leak of petrol. A faulty battery can ignite without any external trigger and as above, once started typically cannot be suppressed without specialized equipment.
    
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    October 30, 2019 10:50am
    - MCos
      
      I think if you’re in a position where your vehicle is on fire you’re in trouble whatever the means of propulsion.
      
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      October 30, 2019 12:10pm
    - info@cruzpro.com
      
      55 petrol car fires per billion miles driven as opposed to 5 EV fires per billion miles driven.
      
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      October 30, 2019 1:06pm
  - backster
    
    https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/us-news/tesla-driver-burnt-death-car-20710095
    
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    October 30, 2019 11:15am
  - Stephen Russell
    
    I’d rather flee in a vehicle that might catch fire than stay for certain incineration because my car has no electricity.
    
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    October 30, 2019 12:15pm
sooty

Well bugger me! that Twit Twyyford thought he was that swarmy, he opened his bloody great gob and put both feet in it!
He told a lie, while forgetting he was in parliament and you are not aloud to tell lies in parliament are you!
How are you going to duck shove this one, Ducky! You had better take sometime out from all that 5 star supping you are doing in Japan!
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October 30, 2019 8:24am
- igm
  
  He seems to fit the Labour mould well . . . Ardern, Lees-Galloway, Curren, Woods, et al, are absolute strangers to common decency and truth.
  
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  October 30, 2019 8:40am
  - sooty
    
    Must be interesting when they are all in a room together!
    Should lock the door and she who emerges the winner!
    
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    October 30, 2019 10:00am
- david
  
  You do have to wonder if Twyford really understands what he is doing to himself at a purely personal level. To play publicly fast and loose with the truth is something that will brand him for the rest of his life, will make him a permanent laughing stock, will render him unemployable in NZ and everywhere someone has the gumption to Google his name, and will make any association with him something to be avoided at all costs.
  It is either extreme stupidity or monumental arrogance that can explain why he cannot see the truth about himself and make him go quietly to hide under a rock somewhere to reflect. Perhaps both!
  
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  October 30, 2019 9:23am
  - hullkiwi
    
    david, usually arrogance is born out of ignorance, with ignorance being born out of stupidity and a willingness to listen/learn. All of which sums up Twitford nicely.
    
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    October 30, 2019 9:51am
    - sooty
      
      I think he’s been like that all his life!
      
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      October 30, 2019 10:01am
- Nickc2
  
  Sooty, telling lies in our current parliament is only permitted when there is a duck/goose residing in the Speaker’s Chair.
  
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  October 30, 2019 10:27am
Maggie Pie

I wonder if it truly was…… love 😛

https://twitter.com/true_pundit/status/1189142387412623360
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October 30, 2019 8:25am
- stephieboy
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  Must make Trump pine for the good old days!
  
  LOL
  
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  October 30, 2019 8:42am
  - Maggie Pie
    
    Have the lambs stopped screaming yet, steph?
    
    LOL!
    
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    October 30, 2019 8:50am
    - igm
      
      No his forte is goats . . . it is in the koran.
      
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      October 30, 2019 10:28am
  - All_on_Red
    
    Have security stopped following you around when you go to St Luke’s [deleted by Mod]?
    Didn’t think so.
    LOL!
    
    [Mod: attempting to name other commenters is against the rules. This is a warning]
    
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    October 30, 2019 9:34am
    - sooty
      
      Do they let you near the collection plate, yet!
      
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      October 30, 2019 10:02am
    - mikenmildagain
      
      Reported for doxxing.
      
      [Mod: have notified the mods and DPF]
      
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      October 30, 2019 10:25am
      - Ed Snack
        
        I did think that that specific ID was already public knowledge, so not doxxing as such. It was certainly released on the pre-modded version of KB.
        
        That said, if a person wants to comment under a pseudonym, let them.
        
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        October 30, 2019 11:42am
- virtualmark
  
  Mmm. One America News Network.
  
  Which I prefer to shorten to “Onan”. For the Biblical among you.
  
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  October 30, 2019 9:29am
- Jules99
  
  She wasn’t very discerning then.
  
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  October 30, 2019 9:37am
- Bell-47
  
  I’m enjoying the slow release of dirt on this lot. I also expect this week we will see more details on the investigation into the illegal FISA warrant and those involved. Already there has been hints of very damaging information on the lead up process in 2016 and further goings on in Feb 2017. Republicans will not dump a lot at once on the media but will increase as the election draws closer. They will need to dump a doozy to quiet down this impeachment BS in the interim.
  
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  October 30, 2019 9:47am
  - Scott
    
    Bell 47 – I think there is a lot coming down the pike about the Obama era intelligence agencies investigating and surveilling the Trump campaign. I suspect that there will be criminal indictments regarding leaking and other activities.
    
    I think Gen Flynn will probably get the case against him dropped soon.
    
    And I think the Democrat impeachment process against Pres trump is going to go nowhere. If you actually read the call that he made to the president of Ukraine he is asking Ukraine to investigate the 2016 election and possible interference from Ukraine? This is what he is supposed to do. The investigation about Joe Biden relates to a corrupt prosecutor in Ukraine and Biden boasting about firing the prosecutor.
    
    So Trump can easily be defended because he is investigating overseas interference in the 2016 election, which Democrats have urged him to do. And just because Joe Biden is a political opponent does that mean he should be immune from investigation? Particularly when Biden has boasted about having a prosecutor fired at the risk of withholding American aid money. And particularly when his son was getting $1 million a year for sitting on a board of an Ukrainian energy company. We know that Hunter Biden had no prior experience in energy or the Ukraine and never actually went to the Ukraine to attend any board meetings.
    
    It looks very suspicious and Trump was right to have an investigation. So you are going to impeach him over this?
    
    https://edition.cnn.com/2019/09/25/politics/donald-trump-ukraine-transcript-call/index.html
    
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    October 30, 2019 10:03am
    - Bell-47
      
      Agreed on every point. The Dems only defence now is more offence, in the form of trumped up impeachment charges (pun not intended). I can’t believe Shiff manages a straight face when he fronts the media. While it does anger me that this lot are just creating havoc over the 2016 loss it’s actually mostly quite amusing watching them squirm and try to come up with lie after lie just to obfuscate. Trump’s only mistake/s in many cases is opening his mouth. He does have some odd stuff to say at times but for the most part I agree with his objectives and the reasons for them.
      
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      October 30, 2019 12:57pm
- Ed Snack
  
  Debunked – based on a misreading of some tweets. Page does seem to have been having an affair with Strzok, but not McCabe, though.
  
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  October 30, 2019 11:40am
Happychappy

Well has the relationship between Mike King and the Goverment become not as healthy as it once was with Mike Kings Gumboot Day Charity all but run out of funds with many Councilors not being paid.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12280694.
Now the Government have got their own Mental Health Scheme up and running have they now let him down.
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October 30, 2019 8:34am
- greybeard
  
  I thought the ‘reporter’ could have given us some information re the hourly rate for the counsellors, so that we could get some idea of how much work has been done.
  
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  October 30, 2019 11:22am
- marcw
  
  There is no COL Mental Health Scheme “up and running” as far as I am aware. They have announced multiple schemes will be initiated, at this stage just an announcement that x hundreds of $taxpayer will be spent. I believe they are still trying to work out what office furniture is needed and who will have the biggest office. No actual counseling or practical work at all, which is par for this worst ever Government – virtue signalling world champions.
  
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  October 30, 2019 11:44am
Paulus

Understand that the Unions are having a serious look at their Party.
One important item for Labour Party Conference shortly is succession as there is still a chance that Cindy could remain part time Prime Minister after the Greens/Labour election.
But the thought that a continual show pony is not achieving what the Unions expected of her.
Only Andy appears to be well ensconced in this philosophy that cannot be achieved with Cindy as she is only a Joan of Arc figurehead and not a Leader which is what they envisaged.
And Twyford will be listed for the election as it gives the Unions a chance to elect a real Unionist and possible leader.
Will be interesting as Twyford announces his list position soon.
More to come.
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October 30, 2019 8:35am
- John Warren
  
  Somehow, reading that, I had a horrible fleeting vision of Twyford as Labour leader and PM… made me suddenly nostalgic for the golden age of Cunliffe.
  
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  October 30, 2019 9:02am
- Brian McDonald
  
  Union leaders are not adapting well. Recently they complained on behalf of drivers about a Wellington business, Higgins Transport, that it wasn’t compliant to its transport licence. On notice the company took immediate steps, long term that meant Land Transport did not charge them under the Act. Then the Union complained long and loud. Anyone with half a brain would have accept that the problem was resolved, and compliance achieved (albeit monitored) and perhaps in the case of the Union could taken some credit for that. Instead they make themselves look like jerks out of touch with compromise and achieving the best results for their members.
  
  So I expect there are indeed ‘rumblings’ within the Unions over this Government. The col is centrist because it wants to be re-elected. So perhaps the unions don’t realise that and will attack it therefore sinking their own ship.
  
  Lifts in the minimum wage, settling with the teachers indicates Unions need to rethink themselves. If the col kicked off with more theory at steering the ship than accomplished adroitness at doing so they’ve since trimmed the sails. but perhaps some unions see that as weakness or a let down and that confrontation is the only course.
  
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  October 30, 2019 9:07am
- Bobba Fret
  
  I don’t think the unions want Cindy as the leader and would much prefer Angry Andrew, but I’m sure they realise that Cindy pulls in all the young votes and without her, I cannot imagine them winning. She will remain as the “leader” (and Kelvin as the equally impotent 2nd in command) but the party will be run by Little, Robertson, Parker etc. Cindy will just front media etc. and say what she’s told to say.
  
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  October 30, 2019 9:23am
Gandolfo

Are all the sexual harassment issues reported some months ago involving a senior staff member in the Prime Minister’s office now buried? Did the QC report to the PM? If so, this too has been buried?
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October 30, 2019 8:37am
- Brian McDonald
  
  It will only be unresolved if the complaints were found to unfounded or if some resolution has taken place. The reason for that is simple, the complainant will have the last say if not happy.
  
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  October 30, 2019 9:10am
- Liberty
  
  The Sexgate report was delayed until November.
  Writing the report needed another month to suck of the state tit .
  And to come up with some plausible BS that Dear Leader new nothing.
  Researchers have spent hrs wading through the numerous scandals during the reign of Aunty Helen. Which mostly resulted in some BS. Made plausible by a compliant media.
  
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  October 30, 2019 10:36am
  - The Proper Ghandi
    
    I’d imagine the report won’t see the light of day, if at all, until Christmas Eve or thereabouts.
    
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    October 30, 2019 10:59am
- Billy Collins
  
  Jacinda told Hosking that the deadline for the report is pushed back to end of November.
  
  I guess we’ll see then.
  
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  October 30, 2019 4:22pm
krazykiwi

First the alarmists came for my light bulbs, and I was a bit miffed.
Then they came for my car, and I grumbled somewhat.
Then they came for my travel, and I ranted online.
Now they’ve come for my Netflix. Bring it on you Mo#@$#@’ers. I’ll fight to the death over this 🗡
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October 30, 2019 8:38am
- MCos
  
  Don’t forget your AR-15, yer fags, your race tracks, your measles, your crook cows.
  
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  October 30, 2019 10:03am
stephieboy

Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
LOCK HIM UP!
LOCK HIM UP!

The crowd shouts as the US President attends the opening of the world series

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/video/2019/oct/28/lock-him-up-trump-greeted-with-boos-at-world-series-video

LOL!
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October 30, 2019 8:40am
- Tony Stuart
  
  And just where did this happen stephieboy?
  
  Why, it was in Washington, home of the Washington Post which described the dead ISIS leader as an “austere religious scholar”, and the very same Washingtom which is the site of the swamp Trump is draining.
  
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  October 30, 2019 8:55am
  - MrTips
    
    The WaPo thats about to get sued by the Covington boys, Nick Sandermann in particular, as the judge reversed his decision and allowed it to go ahead. Bezos not happy about it either as discovery is such a pain in the fact finding ass.
    
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    October 30, 2019 9:01am
    - mikenmildagain
      
      That suit seems highly unlikely to make it to a judgement for the plaintiffs, especially for the hundreds of millions sought, given the protected place of the news media in US defamation law.
      
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      October 30, 2019 9:27am
      - Ed Snack
        
        Protected, but not absolutely. If one is a public figure you have very little chance as you have to prove deliberate malice. Sandermann though is most definitely not a “public figure” and so the bar is considerably lower.
        
        I would think, given the bare facts as we now know them, that he actually has a pretty good chance of proving his case and gaining significant damages. It was a pretty despicable bit of behaviour from the WaPo and they certainly, IMHO, deserve a good kicking over it.
        
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        October 30, 2019 11:47am
    - G152
      
      And hopefully the fake news will have to shut down as those libeled by them come a sueing.
      Buying ink by the tank is so 19th century
      
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      October 30, 2019 9:36am
  - Batman
    
    Hey, it’s good for Trump to get outside of his rally bubble and see a microcosm of the other half of the country think of him.
    
    Aside from anything else, all politicians get booed at events. Key, Ardern, Bridges, Obama, Trump et al.
    
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    October 30, 2019 9:01am
    - All_on_Red
      
      ‘The other half’
      Lol. The DC Elites who can afford to pay $2000 for a standing only ticket at a ball game.
      Only an effete millennial snob working in Government would think like that.
      
      Batman is Max Boot.
      
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      October 30, 2019 9:24am
      - Batman
        
        Nasty little boy you are, AoR.
        
        You get so triggered by any criticism of your Daddy figure.
        
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        October 30, 2019 9:31am
      - All_on_Red
        
        Lol
        Triggered yourself.
        Perhaps if you stopped telling lies you wouldn’t get the ratio eh Max.
        
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        October 30, 2019 9:36am
    - Nigel Kearney
      
      The population of Washington DC is not “the other half” of anything. It’s mostly bureaucrats and other swamp dwellers.
      
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      October 30, 2019 9:27am
      - Batman
        
        I said “a microcosm” not a full scale representative sample ?
        
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        October 30, 2019 9:38am
      - The Proper Ghandi
        
        Batman
        You clearly don’t know what a microcosm is then:
        
        microcosm
        /ˈmʌɪkrə(ʊ)kɒz(ə)m/
        
        noun
        a community, place, or situation regarded as encapsulating in miniature the characteristics of something much larger.
        
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        October 30, 2019 10:12am
      - Ed Snack
        
        DC went 96% for Clinton in 2016, so I don’t think it is representative of anything but a swamp making a very good living off the efforts of the rest of the country.
        
        I don’t think that Trump needs any reminder of how the venomous snakes of the permanent bureaucracy feel about their comfortable sinecures being disrupted.
        
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        October 30, 2019 11:53am
    - Ed Snack
      
      The booing sure seems to have put the hex on the local team, they lost by a reasonable margin. The curse of Trump !
      
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      October 30, 2019 11:49am
  - mikenmildagain
    
    Hah, it was a baseball crowd. Apart from NASCAR, about as Trumpy a crowd as one could get.
    
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    October 30, 2019 9:09am
    - Tony Stuart
      
      Wrong. Baseball, especially in big cities such as Washington, has been priced off the market for the average punter, and even moreso when the World Series is on. When we were in Chicago three years ago, we could have gone to Game Five of the World Series at Wrigley Field if we were prepared to pay more than $2000US (yes, two THOUSAND dollars) for standing room tickets. Needless to say, we declined, and spent less than $100 to watch the match at the tavern near the hotel, which included beers and dinner.
      
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      October 30, 2019 9:16am
      - mikenmildagain
        
        Game tickets start at about $300 bucks, from memory. Surely no one clever enough to vote for Trump would be stuck seeking re-sold tickets like some moron tourist.
        
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        October 30, 2019 9:23am
      - SGA
        
        we could have gone to Game Five of the World Series at Wrigley Field
        
        Well, yeah. The World Series. Game 5. When the rugby world cup was in NZ 8 years ago, you paid through the nose for tickets to the semi-finals and finals too (as a loose comparison)
        
        There’s a lot of variation in average ticket price across teams
        https://www.statista.com/statistics/193673/average-ticket-price-in-the-mlb-by-team/
        and, unless things have changed a lot, it’s still the cheapest of the big US pro-sports to attend (NFL, in particular, is a lot more expensive).
        
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        October 30, 2019 11:15am
      - SGA
        
        Actually, if this site is accurate and reliable, you can take a family if 4 to a standard game in most places relatively cheaply (I’m guessing these are the cheaper seats)?
        https://thecostguys.com/data-blog/most-expensive-mlb-teams
        
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        October 30, 2019 11:27am
    - The Proper Ghandi
      
      “Hah, it was a baseball crowd. Apart from NASCAR, about as Trumpy a crowd as one could get.”
      
      How prejudicial of you. I bet they were all smoking corn cob pipes and chewing tobacco too, right? That’s what you think, and that’s why you keep losing.
      
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      October 30, 2019 10:01am
      - Paulus
        
        Imagine what price Trevor could have on sold these tickets !
        
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        October 30, 2019 1:37pm
  - Brian McDonald
    
    That’s a worry Tony and a big jump that WP controls a baseball crowd. They booed so what, and who knows why? Not you or me without a few thousand interviews.
    
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    October 30, 2019 9:21am
    - Batman
      
      It doesn’t take a genius to figure out why.
      
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      October 30, 2019 9:42am
      - mikenmildagain
        
        Bezos, Soros, etc would have plenty of money to buy blocks of ticket and bus in crowds of specially coached Mexicans to chant against Trump.
        
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        October 30, 2019 9:47am
    - stephieboy
      
      Brian McDonakd, WP own Comet Ping Pong too?
      
      LOL
      
      1 11
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      October 30, 2019 10:46am
  - Inandout
    
    TS, but surely booing is scary to the Washington petals, why don’t they use the butterfly waves like in their universities? Funny that Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Castro and now Kim enjoyed rounds of applause interspersed into their speeches and no one was seen carried out blubbering. Ironically that ultra Nazi Hitler wasn’t normally clapped, he was saluted with a shout. Clapping bad; maybe seig heil good.
    
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    October 30, 2019 9:24am
  - slightlyrighty
    
    He was an austere religious scholar. Look up what Austere means. It’s not a complement. It’s a factual statement.
    
    It was his strict and severe interpretation of his faith that created ISIS in the firstplace. If you are going to criticise others for the words that they use, it would pay to be sure of the language used.
    
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    October 30, 2019 1:19pm
- virtualmark
  
  Those who live by the sword …
  
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  October 30, 2019 9:30am
- The Proper Ghandi
  
  Typical. The Lefties can’t even be original with their memes. Stolen from the side of good. 2020 will be Meme War II, and it’s gonna be another blood bath.
  
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  October 30, 2019 9:56am
Maggie Pie

Word of the day…..

CALLIPYGIAN

😛
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October 30, 2019 8:53am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  https://twitter.com/ctessedeloynes/status/1054448282661986305
  
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  October 30, 2019 9:17am
  - Maggie Pie
    
    that’s it Maggs, from the Greek – nice arse 😛
    
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    October 30, 2019 9:25am
    - MH
      
      i,m a bit supercalifragilistic myself.
      
      5 1
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      October 30, 2019 10:08am
    - sooty
      
      Was too!
      
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      October 30, 2019 10:09am
    - Biscuit
      
      If Clark and Simpson were/are H1 and H2, does that make Maggy and Maggie M1 and M2?
      
      Not my face, ladies, not my pretty face!
      
      Re cute female derrieres, though, I’m reminded of an incident in St Petersburg from 2016.
      
      From my Diary:
      
      But what was my fave bit of The Hermitage?
      [And, nope, it weren’t the Monets – few of the ones displayed here had his classical Impressionist eye and all were painted before he got into Water Lilies and/or painting things at different times of the day.]
      Read on, heh…
      Walking ahead of [partner], I turned to say something and noticed the impressive rear end on one female statue.
      Before I then noticed some curious stains on the back of the young lady’s upper legs, ha.
      ‘Ooh, look’, I observed, ‘it’s the Statue of the Maiden with Diarrhoea!’
      I have no idea if the Яussiдn language uses diarrhoea as the term for (erm) liquid droppings in human beings, ha, but (as [partner] stalked off haughtily) I noticed a small group of Яussiдn schoolboys (9? Maybe 10 years of age) smile at me, giggle, and then take delight in pointing out the spectacle to their mates.
      And, doubtless, to their teacher .. though I quickly removed myself from the locale lest I cop myself a detention…
      
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      October 30, 2019 10:12am
      - Jack5
        
        Biscuit: you can check Google Translate, but one of the two Russian common words for diarrhea sounds as it does in English.
        
        Coincidentally (to the diarrhea story), I’ve just watched on YouTube how the RAAF’s 75 squadron of Kittyhawks held the line against Japanese air attacks for 44 days in the PNG campaign.
        
        The outnumbered pilots soon suffered from gastroenteritis because of the sanitation at the air strip. Apart from diarrhea, this caused painful digestive-gas attacks, worsened because, as their planes gained altitude, the gas expanded.
        
        The video’s got a plum-ish narrator and is a bit long, but:
        
        https://youtu.be/biDuIzs8CYg
        
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        October 30, 2019 11:17am
Batman

Let me guess, Vindman is a radical leftist partaking in a coup plot?

P.S. how’s that narrative about second, third, and forth hand information going?
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October 30, 2019 9:02am
- mikenmildagain
  
  Nah – Ukrainian born, so undoubtedly planted as a foreign spy. His decorated service in the US Army is just a cover.
  
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  October 30, 2019 9:15am
  - All_on_Red
    
    Gee, that’s quite Smarmy Mikey
    Yes, because being in the US Army means he couldn’t possibly be a spy
    //
    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_Fort_Hood_shooting
    
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    October 30, 2019 9:31am
    - mikenmildagain
      
      Gosh, that’s a handy smear for any military person who has the temerity to criticise your cult leader.
      
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      October 30, 2019 9:40am
    - Batman
      
      Given Vindman is carrying around shrapnel from the IED attack in Iraq where he got a purple heart, your comment is particularly low rate.
      
      But that isn’t surprising from the people who will do anything to defend their false prophet.
      
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      October 30, 2019 9:50am
- All_on_Red
  
  Don’t need second, third or fourth hand at all.
  Because here’s the Transcript.
  https://www.scribd.com/document/427409665/Ukraine-Call-Transcript#from_embed
  
  Ha ha ha.
  
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  October 30, 2019 9:28am
  - KH
    
    President’s job in part is to root out Ukranian corruption that affects the USA
    
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    October 30, 2019 9:40am
    - All_on_Red
      
      Well yes.
      Especially when there’s an Anti Corruption Agreement between those two countries.
      But Shhhh with your inconvenient fact KH.
      Didn’t you hear.
      They’ve almost got Trump.
      You see, “the dam is breaking”!
      Well, that’s enough fun stirring up Max, Smarmy et al.
      C ya.
      
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      October 30, 2019 10:12am
  - Batman
    
    “I need you to do us a favour, though.”
    
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    October 30, 2019 9:43am
    - All_on_Red
      
      ‘Need’?
      Those weren’t his words.
      Can’t help telling lies about Trump can you. He triggers you that much you have to lie about what he says?
      
      “I would like you to find out what happened with this whole situation with Ukraine, they say Crowdstrike etc”
      
      Only an effete Millenial snob would think finding out who interfered in an Election isn’t important.
      Eh Max.
      
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      October 30, 2019 9:58am
    - Bell-47
      
      “I need you to do us a favour though”, please stop investigating the company my son works for and on top of that, i want you to fire the prosecutor involved. If you don’t, we will withhold the aid promised. 🙂
      
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      October 30, 2019 9:58am
  - mikenmildagain
    
    Linking to the transcript requesting a foreign leader to give assistance for the president’s personal attorney to dig up dirt on a political rival is probably not the strongest part of your argument.
    Perhaps you should stick to smearing the witnesses and railing against ‘secret’ hearings.
    
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    October 30, 2019 9:45am
    - All_on_Red
      
      Giuliani had already been approached by the Ukrainian Justice dept who wanted him to help bring forward evidence they had been trying to give to the US.
      Do try to keep up Smarmy.
      
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      October 30, 2019 10:02am
  - virtualmark
    
    First, that’s not a transcript. It’s a summary of a 30 minute call. The summary takes 10 minutes to read so it clearly omits a lot of detail.
    
    Second, Vindman was on the call. So he’s a first hand witness.
    
    Third, Vindman testified that he tried to correct the call summary, at least twice, but that his corrections were refused – which he attributed to his corrections not being helpful to Trump.
    
    But you keep polishing those turds Red.
    
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    October 30, 2019 9:47am
    - All_on_Red
      
      Yes it is the Transcript.
      As recorded by two Agents writing down what they heard.
      You think those two Agents lied?
      
      ‘So clearly omits a lot of detail’
      Annnd there’s the TDS. Say, maybe they’re suffering from dementia too
      LOL
      
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      October 30, 2019 10:05am
      - virtualmark
        
        There is a full word-for-word transcript that is prepared by stenographers as the call happens. That has not been released. There has been some controversy about the White House filing it into a codename only server that has very very limited accessibility.
        
        There is also a call summary which is written by analysts, from their notes, after the call. That summary is then distributed to a small group of people across the VPs office, State, CIA etc. That is the document that has been released. And the document that you have referred to.
        
        You can guarantee that if the full transcript exculpated Trump then it would have been released by now.
        
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        October 30, 2019 12:51pm
      - virtualmark
        
        And just putting this here, on 31 October, to confirm this point …
        
        “The White House lawyer later directed the transcript’s removal to a system known as NICE, for NSC Intelligence Collaboration Environment, which is normally reserved for code-word-level intelligence programs and top-secret sources and methods, according to an administration official.
        
        Former Trump national security officials said it was unheard of to store presidential calls with foreign leaders on the NICE system but that Eisenberg had moved at least one other transcript of a Trump phone call there.”
        
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        October 31, 2019 7:42pm
    - Ed Snack
      
      It’s a transcript that is signed off as a true and correct record. It is also translated, two ways. So reading it in one language is pointless as a time measure.
      
      Vindman was trying to insert comments for things that didn’t exist in the call, that’s why they were rejected. He has no business telling Trump how to conduct foreign relationships, he can advise but not dictate. By going behind the administrations back to privately advise the Ukrainians he is committing treason.
      
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      October 30, 2019 12:07pm
      - All_on_Red
        
        Thanks Ed
        Yes, it’s the full transcript. The two Agents *are* the stenographers.
        
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        October 30, 2019 6:36pm
      - virtualmark
        
        Red. No, no they’re not.
        
        But regardless of whether you think it is a transcript or just a “memcom” (Memorandum of Conversation … which is the term used for these summaries) the content is still damning for Trump. And it has led to subsequent testimony from others, such as Taylor, Hill and Vindman, that is (a) consistent with the whistleblower complaint and (b) more damning than the whistleblower or this summary.
        
        In other words … you can say to-may-to and I’ll say toe-mah-to but that’s just fiddling while Trump burns.
        
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        October 30, 2019 9:35pm
- virtualmark
  
  It’s the Deep State Batman. The Deep State.
  
  But seriously … the dam is breaking. You’re seeing more and more people testifying. Just wait until Bolton comes in – and he will, because Hill and Vindman have both referenced comments he made to Sondland and so the House will want to hear from Bolton directly about “Rudy and Mulvaney’s drug deal”.
  
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  October 30, 2019 9:36am
  - Batman
    
    Five people this week.
    
    A busy week for the talking points typists.
    
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    October 30, 2019 9:53am
    - mikenmildagain
      
      Also expected soon, according to the Trumpistas, indictments for all their favourite ‘deep state’ hate icons who have been plotting against the dotard-in-chief.
      
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      October 30, 2019 10:01am
      - virtualmark
        
        That’s just Barr trying to please his orange tyrant.
        
        I’ll believe the Obama/CIA/Brennan narrative when indictments actually happen. So far the one time Barr requested an indictment from his grand jury it got thrown out.
        
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        October 30, 2019 12:54pm
    - KevO'Brien
      
      The Ardernistas must be getting worried. The Police must be due to call soon to pick up the QC’s report under warrant as evidence of a an attempt to obstruct the course of justice by the PM.
      
      When a complaint of sexual misconduct in the PM’s Office echoes all around the media non-referral to the Police must be their business.
      
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      October 30, 2019 2:48pm
  - All_on_Red
    
    “The dam is breaking”
    Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
    
    7 3
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    October 30, 2019 10:07am
    - stephieboy
      
      All on Red ,the deluded effects of deflections and investigating the investigators of the cult of Trump!
      
      LOL
      
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      October 30, 2019 10:51am
  - mikenmildagain
    
    I saw this amusing take on another site:
    Whistleblower: He did it.
    DNI IG: He did it.
    White House Attorneys: Oh crap, he did it. Again. Quick, hide the evidence!!
    Giuliani: He did it.
    Trump: I did it.
    Trump: Look, I’m doing it again!
    Republicans: We don’t know what happened. We may never know.
    Taylor: He did it.
    Yovanovitch: He did it. I got fired for pointing out that he did it.
    Republicans: It’s all hearsay. No one witnessed everything.
    Vindman: I was there. I heard and saw the whole thing. He did it.
    Republicans: Traitor!
    
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    October 30, 2019 11:48am
    - All_on_Red
      
      Smarmy Mike says: Reeeeeeeeeeeeee
      
      3 1
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      October 30, 2019 6:38pm
      - mikenmildagain
        
        Anything special you’d like for your eleventh birthday?
        
        2 4
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        October 30, 2019 6:48pm
      - All_on_Red
        
        Oh what a cutting riposte.
        Ouch.
        Hahahahahahaha
        Oh dear, you seem to be losing your Smarm.
        
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        October 30, 2019 8:28pm
- Ed Snack
  
  He disagreed with Trump’s foreign policy (and FP is a presidential prerogative under the constitution) and was actually advising the Ukrainian government contrary to the administration’s wishes. That makes him an actual traitor and guilty of treason.
  
  He had no right from his position to actually take action as he did, if he disagreed his option was to resign. To actively oppose he needs to be a private citizen.
  
  And the substance of his advice ? If the Ukrainians did start actively looking into Burisma and corruption again, they would apparently likely forfeit the bi-partisan support they enjoyed in Congress. So he was actively supporting and condoning corruption and pay-offs for US politicians as long as they were Democrats.
  
  Funnily enough he didn’t have a similar reaction when 3 Democrat Senators wrote to the Ukrainian government and threatened them in order to get further investigations into Manafort and the Trump campaign.
  
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  October 30, 2019 12:03pm
- Billy Collins
  
  So who is correct? Vindman or Taylor?
  
  They are making different claims. Again, get the story straight.
  
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  October 30, 2019 4:38pm
  - Batman
    
    They’re the same claim.
    
    Learn to read.
    
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    October 30, 2019 4:48pm
    - Billy Collins
      
      No they aren’t.
      
      Did Taylor say anything about an investigation in to Joe Biden?
      
      PS: Joe Biden is a US Citizen. Burisma is a Ukrainian business. Joe doesn’t work for Burisma either. Just incase you’re confused.
      
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      October 30, 2019 5:58pm
      - All_on_Red
        
        He doesn’t know.
        Yesterday he was telling me Flynn was in prison.
        He’s another of these effete Millenial snobs who hate Trump and looks down on his ‘redneck’ supporters.
        Never provides Citations or Sources either- so ignorant of the facts.
        Sigh.
        On the bright side, it’s funny to watch. He’s NZs version of Max Boot.
        
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        October 30, 2019 8:32pm
Maggie Pie

What about the story in ‘Stuff’ yesterday about that silly woman teacher from Marlborough who was caught having sex with a couple of 15 year old schoolboys.
She must have believed all the hype. LOL!
Let me just say that back when i was at boarding school, we used to have regular Saturdasy dance nights with the the 6th form boys from Marist – talk about hopeless 😛
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October 30, 2019 9:15am
MCos

So the UK is going to have its first GE since 1923 or whatever.
Recently parliament sat on Sunday for the first time in yonks.
Not so long ago test cricket was never played on Sunday either. It seems, & this is true, they didn’t want to pay the workers overtime.
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October 30, 2019 9:35am
- MCos
  
  First GE in December that is . . . .
  
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  October 30, 2019 10:23am
KH

The US says it is staying in Syria to “protect the oil from ISIS” A plain lie.
Reality is that if they let the Syrian back in there ( it is Syria actually ) the Syrian Arab Army would obliterate ISIS.
The ISIS remnants do worry a bit about the US sure, but ISIS know the SAA will extermiinate them like rats. No exceptions.
Syrians will exterminate ISIS in the end anyway and the sooner the US leaves and let happen the better.
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October 30, 2019 9:37am
- Ed Snack
  
  If they were doing so to prevent the local bandits (whoever they are) from using the oil as a funding source, good on them. But I actually doubt that is their intention and it is a bad decision by Trump if they are “looting” the oil to pay their proxies.
  
  They could prove me wrong by handing it over politely to the Syrian army when it gets there, which would be the correct action, and one could forget about the oil extracted in the interim as payment for the protection.
  
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  October 30, 2019 12:10pm
adaman

ELECTION TIME IN THE UK!!! Hopefully BoJo can get his majority
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October 30, 2019 9:54am
- Bell-47
  
  I hope he kicks out all those remoaners in his party that have ignored the will of the people and the democratic process. a GE certainly a risk but I rate Corbyn about as much as I rated Cunliffe and I’m pretty sure only a small portion of Poms want him in government let alone PM. BoJo for PM and a majority in the house!
  
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  October 30, 2019 10:08am
  - James Stephenson
    
    Labour activists seem convinced that Corbyn can repeat his performance from last time being “fantastic old-school campaigner”.
    
    This of course, totally overlooks that last time he was against ~~a block of wood~~ Teresa May who was promoting a really really terrible manifesto.
    
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    October 30, 2019 10:29am
    - MCos
      
      It’s a funny place the UK.
      From this distance Corbyn looks far too left wing, but the UK is far more polarised than NZ.
      
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      October 30, 2019 12:28pm
Fletch

If you thought the Dems were going to hold a formal vote on impeachment this week, you were sorely mistaken. They have now “walked that back”.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/congress/democratic-leaders-walk-back-thursday-impeachment-vote

They wouldn’t have the votes, anyway, and it would nullify Schiff’s secret hearings…
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October 30, 2019 10:03am
- Batman
  
  You can thank Trey Goudie for the ‘secret’ hearings that include all members of the relevant committees.
  
  You’ve also fundamentally misunderstood what that article is saying. It is the House leaders making clear that it is not an impeachment resolution, which is not required. It is a motion of procedures and rules for the investigation.
  
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  October 30, 2019 10:21am
  - Fletch
    
    Of course it is required. That was the case in both the Nixon and Clinton impeachments. As I have mentioned before, the Constitution states that the House “shall have the sole Power of Impeachment” (Article 1, Section II, Clause 5). That’s the House (made up of representatives from each State, chosen by the people) not a bunch of the House Democrats led by a partisan Speaker, which is what we have at the moment. Schiff is making it up as he goes along. Oh, and Schiff said exactly the opposite back in 2015. The hypocrite contradicts himself.
    
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gwDLAIr1E0
    
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    October 30, 2019 10:29am
  - virtualmark
    
    Fletch the only time the House of Representatives has to vote on this is a vote on whether or not to refer impeachment charges to the Senate. Until then they can run this any way they like. If Pelosi wants to draft a rule that says all the hearings will be on Tuesdays after 4pm she can do that.
    
    The vote they are about to have is to codify the procedures and rules for the public hearings. Much of what they are voting on is already set out in the House’s standard rules. But they are sweeping it all into a single resolution so that no one can whine later on (who in American politics would whine?) that this was somehow “unfair” or a “witch hunt” (who would use those words?).
    
    And yes it is the House voting on this. The Republicans in the House can vote “nay”, but the simple truth is that there just aren’t enough of them thanks to the 2018 election. Simple maths says if the Democrats want this then they will carry the vote.
    
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    October 30, 2019 1:07pm
Fletch

A book by Brett Velicovich called ‘Drone Warrior: An Elite Soldier’s Inside Account of the Hunt for America’s Most Dangerous Enemies’ details how drone pilots had a positive identification of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi back in 2011, but because the Obama Administration changed the rules they had to ask for permission from the “suits in Washington” to take him out which took two weeks, and by that stage he was not there.

You can hear Mark Levin read an excerpt from the book at the beginning of his podcast yesterday (10/28/19)

http://www.westwoodonepodcasts.com/pods/the-mark-levin-podcast/

He also goes into the fact that they could have also got the ISIS leader back in 2015 if not for a leak by the media.
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October 30, 2019 10:08am
- stephieboy
  
  Fletch, this Amazon.com reviewer doesn’t feel the book messures up on all counts,
  
  Jay
  1.0 out of 5 starsI’m left angry after reading this book
  January 15, 2018
  Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
  I never write reviews, but felt compelled to do so after reading this book. The stories in this book are embellished and it’s embarassing and shocking for all of us who are qualified UAS Pilots and Sensor Operators with an actual logbook to document real combat flight time. I could spend days writing detailed rebuttals that would disprove the stories out of most every chapter in this book. If you are looking for a self serving story line with delusional thoughts of 007 operations by the author, this is your book. The prologue in this book should be rewritten to explain that much of the content should not be taken as a literal account. The operations described in this book are much more compartmentalized than the author portrays. I’m left angry after reading this book to think that this guy is trying to take credit for work that took hundreds of men and to women to complete as a team, not one guy in a box over a few short deployments.
  18 people found this helpful
  
  https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/R31VVTOGUC6JBT/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_ttl?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B01MSAEAWZ
  
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  October 30, 2019 11:03am
  - Libertarians are right
    
    That complaint was about procedure, not the facts provided re Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi so has no relevance.
    
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    October 30, 2019 11:50am
  - The Proper Ghandi
    
    So, some guy who bought a book on Amazon could “spend days writing detailed rebuttals that would disprove the stories out of most every chapter in this book”…but doesn’t.
    
    However, he is “angry,” “embarrassed,” and “shocked”, so that is enough for some people.
    
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    October 30, 2019 11:51am
  - Fletch
    
    The facts are the facts though, stephie. The guys had followed Baghdadi for months and months, familiarizing themselves with every nuance of his life and habits, etc, finally track him down, and aren’t able to take him out because the suits in Washington took 2 weeks to decide because of new rules. When they finally did kick in the door and capture who was there, the occupants confirmed that Baghdadi had been there only days before.
    
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    October 30, 2019 12:23pm
    - stephieboy
      
      Fletch, Syrian and Kurdish intelligence were mainly responsiple for pinpointing al Baghadi location hideout for US Special Forces and CIA.
      
      Fact!
      
      https://www.businessinsider.com.au/heres-a-timeline-of-the-raid-on-isiss-leader-baghdadi-2019-10?r=US&IR=T
      
      Now don’t tell me that OBL is not dead still hiding out in the Pakistan or Afghan mountains?
      
      NOw did Obama kill OBL or did the Nayv Seals according to motor mouth Trump?
      
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      October 30, 2019 2:17pm
  - cmm
    
    Well that is true of any operation including “American Sniper” or any of the thousands of books written about WW2 or whatever. Sounds like Mr reviewer was a bit grumpy-pants.
    
    Chris Kyle (“American Sniper”) wrote a book from his perspective, adding in enough detail about other people’s roles to make something worth reading. Did he fail if he left out every detail and give credit to exactly every person who contributed to his kills – from the people gathering intel he was working with to the people who designed the rifle and packed his MREs.
    
    Any of these books are primarily infotainment. They are not official war histories which are as dry as hell.
    
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    October 30, 2019 2:42pm
Hugh Pavletich

AUCKLAND …

Barfoot & Thompson’s auction numbers steady over the last four weeks but remain well down on this time last year … Greg Ninness … Interest Co NZ

https://www.interest.co.nz/property/102337/sales-rates-averaging-around-50-barfoot-thompsons-auction-rooms

Activity in Barfoot & Thompson’s auction rooms appears to have settled into a fairly steady pattern over the last few weeks, with the agency handling 107 auction properties in the week leading up to Labour weekend (21-27 October), while the number of properties handled has ranged from 91 to 115 over the previous three weeks.

Of the 107 marketed for auction last week, sales were achieved on 56, giving an overall sales rate of 52%, compared to sales rates ranging from 48% to 57% over the previous three weeks.

However, both the number of properties being marketed for auction and the number being sold at auction remain well down from where they were a year ago. … read more via hyperlink above …
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October 30, 2019 10:38am
- Bell-47
  
  That is because almost everyone knows, you should never bid at an auction if nobody else does. I would say almost every auction I have been to nobody has bid. There in lies why they can’t add it to the stats because most who go to auction invariably sell after the fact through negotiation with any interested party. You would have to, quite frankly, be out of your gourd to sell at auction, the realestate company hold all the cards having, in many cases the buyer and seller in the same place. Brow beat them both until one gives in. It’s a BS way to create a pressure situation for both seller and buyer with the only ones that win being the agent. I rank realestate companies in the same bracket as car sales people and lawyers…bottom dwellers all of them.
  
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  October 30, 2019 1:06pm
Jack5

Croaking Cassandra skewers the the weekend newspapers’ fawning over the two-year anniversary of the Labour Coalition.

One of Michael Reddell’s conclusions:

“Once upon a time, I wondered (perhaps naively) if perhaps they – upper reaches of the Labour Party – really did care. They should. After all, it is their traditional voters – the poorer people, the working classes, the younger – who suffer most from the decades-long failure of successive governments to improve New Zealand’s woefully poor productivity performance. But all the evidence from their time in office is that any care is superficial at best.”

https://croakingcassandra.com/2019/10/29/two-years-on/
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October 30, 2019 10:39am
- Hugh Pavletich
  
  Further reasons why we were hopeful Prime Minister Ardern and her team would care enough to deliver …
  
  Mormon Apostle and Other Leaders Meet with New Zealand Prime Minister
  
  https://www.mormonnewsroom.org.nz/article/mormon-apostle-and-other-leaders-meet-with-new-zealand-prime-minister
  
  Improving opportunities for children, youth and adults discussed
  .
  .
  Housing is the No One public policy issue in New Zealand … and No Six in Australia … check page 27 below …
  
  The IPSOS New Zealand Issues Monitor – July 2019
  
  https://www.ipsos.com/sites/default/files/ct/news/documents/2019-08/6th_ipsos_new_zealand_issues_monitor_released_1_aug_19.pdf
  .
  .
  Overwhelmingly Kiwis want affordable detached housing with a backyard …
  
  Survey finds Kiwis’ backyard dream still alive and well (Westpac Bank) … Scoop New Zealand
  
  http://business.scoop.co.nz/2019/05/28/survey-finds-kiwis-backyard-dream-still-alive-and-well/
  
  Where is the delivery ?
  
  4 9
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  October 30, 2019 12:19pm
  - Hugh Pavletich
    
    One in five homes damp … Statistics New Zealand
    
    https://www.stats.govt.nz/news/one-in-five-homes-damp
    
    More than one in five homes were damp some or all of the time, and for renters, dampness was more than twice as common than for those who owned their home or held it in a family trust, Stats NZ said today. … read more via hyperlink above …
    
    One-in-five Kiwi homes suffering from damp … Leith van Onselen … MacroBusiness Australia
    
    https://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2019/10/one-in-five-kiwi-homes-suffering-from-damp/
    
    … When does Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and her government intend to ALLOW new affordable, dry and warm housing to be built ? …
    
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    October 30, 2019 3:44pm
- DJ Ward
  
  The left requires the poor for voters. Solve poverty with things like productivity and they have less voters. After all the working voter is perfectly aware of the cost of government policy, called taxes.
  
  Labour of course is going to script with benefit numbers rising, no houses being built causing rising rents and more poverty, etc etc.
  
  Farming is struggling to increase productivity as huge amounts of time and money is being dedicated to ever changing compliance. Diversification etc is dead due to regulation on property rights. Manufacturing is near dead as no import protections exist to protect them from worker exploiting wage countries.
  
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  October 30, 2019 1:00pm
pb

Kanye’s new album (Jesus is King) is causing quite a few of the appropriate heads to explode, Kingsman style. I’m a bit on the fence with his music, but enjoying his swagger. Kanye has Trump-sized-troll-balls.
3 3
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October 30, 2019 11:13am
rightoverlabour

Hmm, any mention of this in Stuff, or NZ Herald, or any Commy aligned “news” outlet…

https://electroverse.net/the-continental-u-s-just-set-its-coldest-ever-october-temperature/
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October 30, 2019 11:27am
- stephieboy
  
  Amply covered by US MSM,
  
  https://www.denverpost.com/2019/10/10/denver-october-temperature-drop-record/
  
  Other than that whats your point?
  
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  October 30, 2019 2:26pm
  - All_on_Red
    
    Denver post
    ‘Amply covered by US MSM’
    You’re so full of s**t
    
    3 1
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    October 30, 2019 8:37pm
Bobba Fret

Does anyone remember Blackadder when he said to Baldrick “We are not at home to Mr Cock Up”. Well we’ve started using “We are not at home to Mr Twyford” at work.
6 0
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October 30, 2019 12:28pm
Bobba Fret

Any body know when we will have a decision on JAG’s letter being released or not?
8 0
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October 30, 2019 12:36pm
- Paulus Gnome
  
  We always had the decision, it was no.
  
  They are just waiting for a meteorite to take out the south island on a Friday at 4 o’clock to release the no.
  
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  October 30, 2019 1:33pm
rightoverlabour

Wilson Parking and Parking Wardens – Scum of the earth. May they rot in hell.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/116986294/auckland-man-wrongly-fined-by-wilson-parking-proves-innocence-with-cctv-footage-and-gps-tracker
5 1
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October 30, 2019 12:47pm
- Swifty
  
  Issuing invoices without absolute certainty of their accuracy should be a criminal offence.
  
  This lackadaisical stuff will continue until there is some sort of sanction.
  
  To me it’s bordering on ‘demanding with menace’.
  
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  October 30, 2019 1:31pm
  - KevO'Brien
    
    The use of the word “fine” is dubious too. Wilson have no power to fine anyone.
    
    7 0
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    October 30, 2019 2:37pm
    - Swifty
      
      Indeed KevOB
      
      2 0
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      October 30, 2019 2:53pm
- Bobba Fret
  
  Good on the bloke. It was a good job he had the evidence / technology else I bet Wilson would not have backed down.
  
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  October 30, 2019 3:27pm
Maggie Pie

Just dropped a steak&cheese pie and a couple of KK’s into my partners mum for her lunch. She was sitting there listening to Magic Talk.
Reckoned that Shawn Plunkett has turned into a total soft-cock.
12 2
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October 30, 2019 12:50pm
- stephieboy
  
  Your partners Mum still beleive “Mt Roskillstan” is an ISIS hot spot?
  
  2 15
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  October 30, 2019 2:32pm
  - Maggie Pie
    
    Get it right Silly…she spells it “Roskilistan”
    
    😀
    
    9 2
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    October 30, 2019 4:06pm
    - sooty
      
      Get her to ring in and tell him!
      
      6 0
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      October 30, 2019 4:31pm
Wired-one

https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/117017482/national-promises-welfare-crackdown-and-return-to-social-investment-if-elected

Good, I agree with most of this. And thankfully tax payers contributions to this country are going to be treated with the respect it should be. You need targets, incentives and penalties in a thriving democracy. This incompetent governments abandonment of targets in our health system especially speaks for itself, disastrous.
14 0
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October 30, 2019 1:20pm
Swifty

Colonialism….

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12280809

And there are some absolute wankers who label Oranga Tamariki ‘child stealers’.
6 0
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October 30, 2019 2:09pm
- KH
  
  Clearly it’s the fault of Captain James Cook that there is so much abuse of children amongst Maori. How do we know this ? They told us at the Wananga and we wrote it down in our exercise book.
  
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  October 30, 2019 2:34pm
Happychappy

This Countries political system is fucked when MP’s like Julie Anne Genter and Phil Twyford can get away with practice’s verging on corruption and blackmail to get councils and boards to adhere to the Coalition Policies.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12280940
This is just another step to allowing corruption in NZ Politics with Minister’s allowed to treat tax payers money as their own and set a bad example for others to follow.
11 1
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October 30, 2019 3:33pm
sooty

What should the Poms do next time they meet up,
go down to the goalposts and turn their backs,
Wait on the sidelines for the dancing to finish.
8 1
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October 30, 2019 4:33pm
Johnboy

Oh look. Yet another “Orchestrated litany of lies”
in the aviation industry. 🙂
https://www.stuff.co.nz/travel/news/117022882/us-senators-grill-boeing-ceo-over-plane-involved-in-two-crashes
0 0
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October 30, 2019 4:44pm
BlairM

Anyone sick of Farrar’s Trump derangement should read this article by House Rep. Andy Biggs. Brings some clarity to this impeachment nonsense:
https://hotair.com/archives/ed-morrissey/2019/10/29/exclusive-rep-andy-biggs-tells-house-dems-stop-punishing-trump-job/
6 3
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October 30, 2019 5:16pm
Maggy Wassilieff

Genter exposed

Associate Transport Minister Julie Anne Genter wanted tunnel project delayed

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/117030100/ombudsman-says-julie-anne-genter-correct-in-withholding-letter-on-lets-get-wellington-moving
11 0
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October 30, 2019 5:41pm
Maggie Pie

I just reminded my partner he needs to put the toilet seat down.

He said he didn’t even know it was that seriously ill.
6 0
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October 30, 2019 5:53pm
mikenmildagain

I. Can’t. Even.
https://time.com/5713145/trump-halloween-white-house/
2 4
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October 30, 2019 6:49pm
- All_on_Red
  
  Smarmy Mike says : Reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
  
  3 2
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  October 30, 2019 8:38pm
  - All_on_Red
    
    Reeeeeeeeeeee
    
    2 2
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    October 30, 2019 8:39pm

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