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January 1, 2020 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 1 January 2020

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CJames

Reading the latest postings in Unherd, there is an interesting essay that has a great quote from Orwell, written in 1944, about the difference between patriotism and Nationalism (the capitalisation is intentional)
“By patriotism, I mean devotion to a particular place and a particular way of life, which one believes to be the best in the world but has no wish to force upon other people. Patriotism is of its nature defensive, both militarily and culturally.
Nationalism on the other hand is inseparable from the desire for power. The abiding purpose of every nationalist is to secure power and more prestige, not for himself but for the nation or other unit in which he has chosen to sink his own individuality……
Nationalism, in the extended sense in which I am using the word, includes such movements as Communism, political Catholicism, Zionism, Antisemitism, Trotskyism and Pacifism. It does not necessarily mean loyalty to a government or a country, still less to one’s own country, and it is not even strictly necessary that the units in which it deals should actually exist. “
https://www.orwellfoundation.com/the-orwell-foundation/orwell/essays-and-other-works/notes-on-nationalism/
Read the writings while you nurse your hangover. It is thought provoking and could easily fit today’s political climate. Written by a true master of both the English language and lower middle/ working class values. If George was around today, I wonder where he would be in the political spectrum. I suspect it would be as a reluctant Boris or even Trump supporter. He would definitely not be impressed by Jacindamania.
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January 1, 2020 8:02am
- Scott
  
  CJames – thanks for that. Orwell is always a good read.
  I would say nationalism is about country and believing in one’s own nation.
  
  Communism I would say is very different from nationalism. It’s about the revolution and communists wanted to bring about a world wide revolution.
  
  Today we have globalism which is about a new world Order based on materialism and secularism. Where everyone has the same views as the sociology professor at Victoria University. The idea in practice is that everything is made in China or India. The elites do well but the blue collar workers are forgotten.
  
  Nationalism or populism as it is described is about love of country, looking after one’s own people first and not being beholden to world elites such as George Soros, the United Nations and fat cat politicians such as the Clintons and Joe Biden.
  
  This new popular movement has given us Brexit, Pres Trump, Pres Duerte in the Philippines and Scott Morrison in Australia.
  
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  January 1, 2020 8:29am
- SGA
  
  “By patriotism, I mean devotion to a particular place and a particular way of life, which one believes to be the best in the world but has no wish to force upon other people.
  
  Does patriotism require the bit that I put in italics? Surely I can see the imperfections in my own particular place and its particular way of life, and even admire aspects of other places and their ways of life without being any less patriotic? In fact, my patriotism might make me want to make my place a bit more like theirs.
  
  I associate that sense of superiority/inferiority inherent in the phrase in italics more with Nationalism (whether or not you want to force it on others) than Patriotism.
  
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  January 1, 2020 8:41am
  - The King
    
    The problem with ‘patriotism’ is its very easy to clothe ones self in it and pretend. The people who do this are known as inquisitors, they can very easily destroy a nation.
    
    What is “Nationalism”? well it’s not a tool or an ideology, it’s a biological drive of people to bind with those of common blood and cooperate in the struggle for survival. It’s just a convenient name for the same instinct a mother has to protect her children and for men to fight to protect their family. It’s the source of courage men need to topple tyrants and resist invaders.
    
    Whether you like it or not Nationalism is Blood and Soil.
    
    I’m sorry none of you have anything in common with someone who eats caterpillars and mutilates the genitals of their daughters. If you believe these people are part of your “Nation” you’ve been sold a lie….by the Inquisitors dressed in jingoistic patriotism.
    
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    January 1, 2020 10:06am
    - CJames
      
      The King – you didn’t bother reading the full essay, did you. Look what he wrote that I quoted ” patriotism, I mean devotion to a particular place and a particular way of life, which one believes to be the best in the world but has no wish to force upon other people. ”
      Notice that last clause – that makes the rest of what you wrote rubbish.
      
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      January 1, 2020 11:41am
      - The King
        
        Yes i read it, and i wasn’t even replying to you, note my post is under someone elses post, not yours.
        
        Exhibit A:
        “if you don’t accept FORCED diversity, you’re not a ‘patriot/True Kiwi'” – t. NZ media.
        
        All i’m saying and my entire point is… “beware of inquisitors clothing themselves in jingoistic patriotism”
        
        If that’s ‘rubbish’ to you then you have no idea what you’re talking about.
        
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        January 1, 2020 2:49pm
    - IC5000
      
      > Whether you like it or not Nationalism is Blood and Soil
      
      So can a Jewish citizen of NZ ever really be a citizen under your version of nationalism?
      
      Asking for a friend.
      
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      January 1, 2020 5:06pm
  - Odakyu-sen
    
    “By patriotism, I mean devotion to a particular place and a particular way of life, which one believes to be the best for them and their community but has no wish to force upon other people.”
    
    Pretty much sums up Japan.
    
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    January 1, 2020 12:35pm
    - SGA
      
      Pretty much sums up Japan.
      
      I’m not sure that the nationalism that led to Japan’s horrific treatment of others is completely dead. They still very reluctant to acknowledge some of their excesses
      
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      January 1, 2020 4:48pm
      - Odakyu-sen
        
        SGA,
        Groups of so-called “ultra-nationalists” still exist in Japan. They are a bit of nuisance in Tokyo, but people generally ignore them. The Japanese Communist Party is alive and well. People generally ignore them, too.
        
        Given the sensitivity of the Koreans and the Chinese to opportunities to bash modern Japan for the sins of its grandfathers, I don’t think the Japanese government is going to be making any acknowledgements any time soon.
        
        You may be looking at the concept of forgiveness and redemption through a Judeo-Christian (Western) lens. Things are a little different in the Far East.
        
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        January 1, 2020 8:34pm
- Simon
  
  “He would definitely not be impressed by Jacindamania.”
  
  Orwell has got Ardern & all the other Marxist mongs covered in The Road to Wigan Pier
  
  “One sometimes gets the impression that the mere words ‘Socialism’ and ‘Communism’ draw towards
  them with magnetic force every fruit-juice drinker, nudist, sandal-wearer, sex-maniac, Quaker, ‘Nature Cure’ quack, pacifist, and feminist in England.”
  
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  January 1, 2020 9:08am
- ronsegal
  
  Given that a strong theme of ‘patriotism’ is ‘… one believes to be the best in the world but has no wish to force upon other people.’ Then I have to say that when it comes to trade, patriotism is not enough. We have to ‘force’ other nations to want our stuff by seeing us as being the best. A strong element of ‘Nationalism’, securing power and prestige for the nation in that respect is essential if we are to flourish.
  
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  January 1, 2020 12:32pm
  - Classic Liberal
    
    I’d say believing that some of our stuff is the best in the world (e.g. lamb) and another country’s other stuff is also the best in the world (e.g. cars) is the whole reason for trade.
    
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    January 1, 2020 2:54pm
artemisia

Our Prime Minister is tired so taking a couple of months off. Sure it’s a big job, but 8 weeks rest? Really? We should all be so lucky.

Has to be a suspicion there is more going on than just ‘tired’. Labour’s greatest asset has to be game ready for 2020, which BTW is going to be even tougher than the Year of not-much-Delivery.

Fragility protection initiated.
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January 1, 2020 8:05am
- kiwiracer
  
  That’s a lot of leave, she must have racked up a few days in lieu then.
  
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  January 1, 2020 8:20am
  - pdm
    
    `Days in lieu’.
    
    Those would be from the weeks where she worked both Mondays and Fridays.
    
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    January 1, 2020 8:43am
    - sooty
      
      And went to kindy on another day!
      
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      January 1, 2020 10:00am
      - pdm
        
        Sooty
        
        That would be Thursdays because she is never in the House then.
        
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        January 1, 2020 12:06pm
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  Even the lefties are waking up to the fact that our PTPM, her mates, and her year of delivery are just piss and wind.
  
  https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/dec/31/new-zealands-year-of-style-over-substance
  
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  January 1, 2020 8:43am
  - Suze Wainwright
    
    And the article says the ‘year of delivery’ was a slogan invented by a speech writer and not Cindy herself!
    Well I never…!
    
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    January 1, 2020 9:22am
  - artemisia
    
    That was interesting – Year of Delivery was flicked to the Prime Minister by the PR team so she had something positive to say.
    
    She did of course do her vid of 2 / 3 minutes of deliverables some of which were actually not. However a lot of working groups did deliver, apparently, recommendations quickly and quietly inserted into the shredders.
    
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    January 1, 2020 10:16am
  - greybeard
    
    The article says: “Simon Bridges’s National party is no different. It was reported earlier in the year that his office now employs more social media experts than policy advisers. :
    Well, as the MSM in this country gives him little coverage, and what he does get is generally sneering and negative, it is no wonder he has decided to go the Trump way and use social digital media to communicate.
    
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    January 1, 2020 10:22am
  - Doubledimp
    
    “National seems determined to emulate the successful online advertising campaigns of conservatives in Australia and Britain. Never mind the integrity of those campaigns.”
    
    And there we get the sneering of the lefties. Were the campaigns “successful”? Yes, but they did not win with “integrity”, because only the Left has that.
    
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    January 1, 2020 12:21pm
  - Classic Liberal
    
    “In fact no one will be surprised that New Zealand now has many more public relations practitioners than journalists.”
    
    At least with a PR person you know where they stand. ‘Journalists’ who use my tax dollar to spread their leftard biases would claim that they are neutral!
    
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    January 1, 2020 3:58pm
- burt
  
  Well a student debate team member expects a long summer school holiday.
  
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  January 1, 2020 9:46am
- Sydney Alvarado
  
  I don’t see how she can have 8 weeks holiday when the first Cabinet meeting of the year is on 28 January.
  
  Is there a source for the claim of 8 weeks vacation?
  
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  January 1, 2020 9:47am
  - Gazza the Giant
    
    The words came out of her mouth , she is pathetic , she says she will be at that Cabinet meeting , and she will also be at her retreat in late Jan , the woman is an airhead , and does not know what she says from day to day , but she said , she will be having an 8 week holiday
    
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    January 1, 2020 1:25pm
    - dave_c_
      
      Yes, ‘he’ did say that !
      
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      January 1, 2020 3:13pm
    - Sydney Alvarado
      
      Preparing for a Cabinet meeting would require a minimum of 10 hours reading. I don’t know how you can do that on holiday.
      
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      January 1, 2020 5:31pm
      - Overworked
        
        This is the woman who sat in parliament for 9 years and didn’t know what GDP is.
        
        I don’t think we need to worry about her spending too much time on her reading.
        
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        January 1, 2020 10:11pm
      - Gazza the Giant
        
        Not for said airhead
        
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        January 2, 2020 2:41am
- The King
  
  This women was the world leader of the socialist youth.
  
  Thinking this powerful Marxist who has already taken your guns, increased immigration and seeks to cut your tongue on speech as a meek fragile little women will be all of our downfall.
  
  She’s playing you and why shouldn’t she? you’re all falling for it.
  
  She’s done nothing but fail on every policy she got elected on yet she’s winning on every Marxist policy ever written.
  
  If she had of ran an election on grabbing guns and stifling free speech she would of been laughed at and lost big time.
  
  Now it’s her doing the laughing…at YOU.
  
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  January 1, 2020 10:29am
  - tf78
    
    The King -The words forgive her as she knows not what she’s done spring to mind, I think she’s too dumb to see any consequences from her actions.
    
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    January 1, 2020 10:52am
- Classic Liberal
  
  Another baby? Gotta feed the glossy magazines with news…
  
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  January 1, 2020 2:55pm
Captain Mainwaring

If anyone else is still watching MSM TV news you might have seen the interviews with random people seeking opinions of what they thought of 2019.
Some lunatic American woman in Queenstown answered: “The worst thing about 2019 is that President Trump is still in office”.
FFS.
Yes, FFS, directed at both the deluded woman and the editor that allowed this spiteful clip to get past first base.
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January 1, 2020 8:07am
- Lizziep
  
  Yes I saw that totally ridiculous comment on the news. WTF does it have to do with us here in NZ I have no idea. So would she rather have Hilary one of the most evil people on the planet in charge? FFS.
  
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  January 1, 2020 8:17am
- Brian McDonald
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  You clearly want to censor opinions, how very communistic of you. It would touching for Donald to know he had such a fan in NZ. I’m a bit of a fan of Boris at the moment but oddly enough I don’t expect any criticisms of him to be edited.
  
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  January 1, 2020 8:30am
  - info@cruzpro.com
    
    I agree. The woman was asked her opinion and she answered. Free speech anyone?
    
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    January 1, 2020 8:38am
    - Tall Man
      
      Cherry picking sound bites is not free speech.
      
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      January 1, 2020 11:07am
  - mikenmildagain
    
    Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
    Devotees of the orange overlord cannot comprehend how any criticism of their idol can be allowed.
    
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    January 1, 2020 8:41am
    - Simon
      
      “Devotees of the orange overlord cannot comprehend how any criticism of their idol can be allowed.”
      
      Lol – when you have moved on from Russian Trutherism let us know.
      
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      January 1, 2020 9:20am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      They don’t get triggered like the crazy left Mike
      
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      January 1, 2020 9:50am
      - mikenmildagain
        
        Captain Mainwearing certainly was triggered.
        
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        January 1, 2020 10:51am
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        Why would Capt get 58 upticks if he was triggered Mike?
        
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        January 1, 2020 2:25pm
    - burt
      
      I imagine you’d be a big supporter of #turntrump while telling us how stupid #turnardern is.
      
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      January 1, 2020 10:51am
    - Fletch
      
      Orange is the new black 😉
      
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      January 1, 2020 11:13am
  - krazykiwi
    
    As you well know Brian, lots of quote clips are taken and most are discarded. So ‘censorship’ as you put, it is already in place. The question is why did the editors pick a comment that is simply Trump-bashing? The MSMs TDS is tiresome, and it is supporting their slide towards irrelevance.
    
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    January 1, 2020 8:55am
    - KevO'Brien
      
      Ardern, al fresco, moonlighting is appearing frequently in random clips.
      Does she have a media placement agency paying for this? Who’s paying?
      
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      January 1, 2020 9:31am
- G152
  
  Fake news.
  And fortunately such silly news items are further isolating a once great media.
  Let them die
  
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  January 1, 2020 8:30am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Guess what lunatic American woman? Trump is still your President.
  MAGA. Trump 2020
  
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  January 1, 2020 9:49am
JibberJabber

Sept 4 2019 East Gippsland

https://www.trfm.com.au/articles/planned-burns-halted/
https://twitter.com/sandylanceley/status/1211808182403661825
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January 1, 2020 8:08am
- CJames
  
  That article of the protesters preventing controlled burnoffs in an area now being devastated by fire needs to be publicised a lot more. Even now, people are saying the two things aren’t related. They need to be called out and shamed.
  
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  January 1, 2020 8:28am
- Tony Stuart
  
  From the first link:
  
  “Our crews ignited the burn near Mossiface and then had to call 000 to activate Victoria Police when, contrary to Authorised Officers’ advice members of the public entered the burn zone and refused to leave.
  
  “This is reckless and irresponsible behaviour that puts their own lives and the lives of our firefighters and the community at risk in addition to tying up valuable police resources.
  
  “Crews were unable to ignite the planned burn near Nowa Nowa due to protest activity and again had to call for assistance from Victoria Police.
  
  “We have CFA volunteers attending many of our planned burns to assist us with operations and as training exercises.
  
  “These are the people our communities rely on to protect them from bushfires, yet their lives too could be at risk from this sort of protest activity.
  
  “The majority of planned burn areas are declared as Public Safety Zones under the Safety on Public Land Act 2004. This is to ensure the safety of the public and firefighters as burns are undertaken. No unauthorised personnel can enter a Public Safety Zone.
  
  “These protestors were behaving irresponsibly, endangering their own and other people’s lives through their actions.
  
  “Everyone has the right to protest but we cannot condone actions that obstruct Forest Fire Management Victoria from carrying out planned burning operations to protect our communities.
  
  Victoria is, of course, a stronghold of the Australian Green movement. These activists may not have caused the bushfires in Australia, but their behaviour has certainly hampered attempts to take preventive action.
  
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  January 1, 2020 8:31am
  - Earl Dumarest
    
    Yes – and they’re still at it – can’t help themselves
    In the aftermath of the Black Saturday Bushfires is was determined that the eco-inspired had gained control of all of the local and shire councils who banned clearing of fuel load from the eucalypts. Eucalypts drop incredible amounts of fuel-load every year. The councils view that as natural habitat for the native animals. Starting around 2001 all back-burning and clearing was banned. One power line that failed due to lack of maintenance set the lot off. 200 lives lost. 2000 homes lost
    
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    January 1, 2020 9:02am
  - KevO'Brien
    
    Australia needs a revolution in fire control. They seem to have forgotten the lessons of the extreme fires they had in the late 1800’s. The population growth has made a change of lifestyle imperative.
    
    Either the trees have to go or the people and they not for burning. Places like the Blue Mountains cannot continue in their present form. They now need to have 10km or more safe zones around each large organised tree stand, particularly eucalypts. Those zones need not be fallow but have minimal humans and crops or activities which not readily flammable. Grazing may be possible too.
    
    Even small housing clusters need separation. Roading too needs to be provided for through a safe zone not a tree zone.
    
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    January 1, 2020 9:45am
- Stephieboy2
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  jibberJabber, so we can safely say that the unprecedented evacuation plans at Mallacoota are all the result of planned burn offs earlier in the year Nothinhg to with the results of prolonged drought , the highest national average temperatures ever expereinced in Australia ,
  
  https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/world/2019/12/australia-bushfires-thousands-trapped-by-bushfires-on-mallacoota-beach-in-victoria.html
  
  Or maybe deliberately lit? Wonder what was the firestarter brand of choice. Lucifer, Beeehive, Tiger Tims etc?
  
  Pathetic lame excuses and explanations by most usually climate change deniers
  
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  January 1, 2020 8:40am
  - Tony Stuart
    
    Have you missed all the recent news articles stephie about people being arrested for arson related to this current tranche of bushfires? Last I saw, the count was 170, in NSW and Queensland alone.
    
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    January 1, 2020 9:21am
  - CJames
    
    Stephiegirl, I thought you would have a day off from being an idiot, but it isn’t to be.
    The Mossiface prevention burn would not have directly prevented the Mallacoota one, but it is a very practical example of how they can’t do even basic sensible work. Those protesters at the September event are almost certain to be the same ones saying the now damaging fires are solely climate change. The linked articles were by actual people on the ground, not armchair greenies. As you seem to be such an expert, what was the ground loading in the forests around Mallacoota? Maggie who actually knows what she is talking about, unlike you, had comments on this yesterday. When did it last have a preventative burn?
    When you can answer that, you might be taken seriously. Until then, you are just a know nothing, and proud of it.
    
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    January 1, 2020 9:28am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    41 year old man arrested over Melbourne fires.
    
    https://7news.com.au/news/vic/police-investigate-melbourne-bushfire-c-627646
    
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    January 1, 2020 9:30am
    - CJames
      
      Sorry I got your name wrong Maggy, but I acknowledge your expertise.
      
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      January 1, 2020 9:38am
  - Greg Ettridge
    
    What a moronic statement, thank god you are not near Mallacoota. It is people or should that be plural, that keep pushing “nothing to see” line.
    I have a fire plan, I keep myself safe by burning back where the idiots in charge let me, I have large areas mowed around buildings and house, fire fighting unit next to house.
    I could still easily get burnt out as some moron has decided burning back roadsides is no longer an option.
    The greenies and the likes of you living in surburbia are just either pig ignorant or outright dangerous when it comes to these matters.
    Sitting in Mount Roskill making jokes about what all these bastards use to burn people out just isn’t funny, it just shows real immaturity.
    Grow some common sense and empathy.
    And don’t comment on this that show you to be completely found wanting on subject matter.
    F—-ing disgraceful.
    
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    January 1, 2020 9:44am
    - Sydney Alvarado
      
      In 1939 a massive fire destroyed over 20,000 Square km of Victoria. That is 2 million hectares. The fires were so intense that the effects can be seen today. Many people and hundreds of buildings were destroyed. Five towns were destroyed including two never rebuilt.
      
      The subsequent Royal Commission recommended proactive back burns in winter and autumn to manage risk.
      
      https://www.ffm.vic.gov.au/history-and-incidents/black-friday-1939
      
      80 years later the recommendations still resonate.
      
      Of some comfort, the numbers of people killed and injured seem to be a fraction of those killed in similar fires during the last century.
      
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      January 1, 2020 11:01am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    Yesterday I posted a number of references to some of the recent bushfires that had been started by an arsonist.
    
    Perhaps it is time for you to start reading and watching some Australian News.
    
    Tasmanian bushfire, believed to be deliberately lit, downgraded to watch and act
    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-12-31/fears-of-property-loss-in-tasmania/11833068
    
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    January 1, 2020 10:21am
    - Stephieboy2
      
      Umm the Bush fires referred are in NSW and Victoria.
      
      Regardless of whether deliberately lit or not unprecedented high avaerage temperatures and prolonged drought have made these events a sure certainty .
      
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      January 1, 2020 10:49am
      - CJames
        
        Stephie – you continue to show your stupidity and post vacuous links to “support” your non-existent case.
        How does this current drought compare to the Federation drought – particularly the earlier years? It doesn’t. The latter was hotter, longer and covered a larger area than this present one. That is why BoM start their analysis in 1910 so they don’t have to explain inconvenient facts. And look up the fires that happened in the 1850s long before SUVs. The 1851 one in Victoria had 5 million hectares burn in one set of fires.
        There has always been fire in Australia, at least since Aboriginal occupation started. What makes this one different? Two things. People now live in areas prone to the fire and government rules make it near impossible to do sensible measures like preventative burns and clear felling around houses. Why hasn’t Western Australia which is just as dry been affected? Because they still do a lot of wet season burns. Something that anyone with a few braincells, which seems to exclude you, could understand.
        
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        January 1, 2020 12:14pm
  - Sydney Alvarado
    
    Stephie you come across as a bit dumb sometimes.
    
    Australia has experienced devastating bushfires forever, many of them more extensive and more lethal than the current fires. For example..
    
    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Friday_bushfires?wprov=sfla1
    
    Most folk are not too good at history, and even worse at science. That largely explains why folk decided that Christchurch was a low earthquake risk. That was never the case. Just the same as you concluding that these are the worse bushfires ever and caused by climate change. You are wrong on both counts.
    
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    January 1, 2020 10:50am
    - Tall Man
      
      Sometimes?
      
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      January 1, 2020 12:29pm
  - Twinkletoes
    
    So you have temps. from the 1700’s to compare with the officially recorded temperatures from the last couple of centuries to prove your point?
    
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    January 1, 2020 11:52am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  Brendan Soukaluk was sentenced to jail for 17 years for starting bushfires in Gippsland on Black Saturday 2009.
  
  A menace or simply misunderstood? What motivated Brendan Sokaluk to light one of Australia’s deadliest bushfires on the hottest day of the year, resulting in the deaths of 11 people?
  
  https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-12-10/brendan-sokaluk-inside-the-mind-of-an-arsonist/10464234
  
  https://www.penguin.com.au/books/the-arsonist-9780670078189
  
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  January 1, 2020 10:44am
  - Stephieboy2
    
    You can confidently assure us thae currentEast Gippsland fires were deliberately or carellesly lit.
    
    1 24
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    January 1, 2020 10:51am
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      Of course I can’t.. because the current East Gippsland fire has resulted from lightning strikes.
      
      But do you forget your posts of yesterday when you queried Greg Etteridge
      
      Delibrately lit ???
      
      Whew there must be some busy arsonists and busy police investigations !
      
      Thumb up 2 Thumb down 16REPLY REPORTDECEMBER 31, 2019 11:17AM
      
      and you accused All- on-red of “Dog paddling way above your depth again,” when he wrote of man-made bushfire disasters.
      https://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2019/12/general_debate_31_december_2019.html#comment-2616024
      
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      January 1, 2020 4:04pm
    - toby1845
      
      Stephie, as a Labour supporter,can you reliably inform us that that you aren’t a r (deleted by Mod)?
      
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      January 1, 2020 8:17pm
  - Sydney Alvarado
    
    In New Zealand, he would have received community service.
    
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    January 1, 2020 11:03am
    - Suze Wainwright
      
      Aotearoa/New Zealand please
      
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      January 1, 2020 8:28pm
- burt
  
  Inconvenient truth. Please resume putting the blame on our atmosphere changing from 3 molecules of CO2 per 10,000 molecules of air to 4 molecules of CO2 per 10,000 molecules of air for causing fires.
  
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  January 1, 2020 10:55am
- V
  
  https://ipa.org.au/wp-content/uploads/archive/IPAbackgrounder16-2.pdf
  
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  January 2, 2020 1:17am
Yvette

#TurnArdern
• Which publication will be the first to put Ardern on both its front and back covers?
• Can Ardern survive the jokes about being two-faced – forward and back
• Will Winston have to leak his own “private details” in a nude centre-fold to compete?
(oops! – still eating breakfast? sorry, again)
• Will the possible Labour 2020 Election slogan “Return Ardern” be dropped after all, because Helen thought it up, and Jacinda didn’t?

Will Hannah Tamaki use #BurnArdern or #SpurnArdern, and will a vote for Winston #ConfirmArdern, AnotherTerm?
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January 1, 2020 8:38am
- pdm
  
  Yvette – excellent.
  
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  January 1, 2020 9:45am
- toby1845
  
  I’ve thought of an alternative to the Turn Ardern campaign.
  
  Skunk bait. A small tube in the hand, and quick swipe across the front of the mag, will guarantee a 5 metre vacuum round the mags stand.
  
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  January 1, 2020 8:23pm
CJames

See how the Herald has an article on Chris Luxon’s son has a summer job as a temporary flight attendant.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/118515001/son-of-former-air-new-zealand-chief-executive-christopher-luxon-joins-airline-as-cabin-crew The whole tone seems to be that it is nepotism. If that is the best his dad’s influence can do – well doesn’t say much does it. Or is this just envy and setting the tone for bashing Dad if goes for the leadership of the journalists’ hated National party
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January 1, 2020 8:42am
- sooty
  
  It’s better he’s in the back than the pointy end!
  
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  January 1, 2020 10:05am
oldpark

Heard the Polecat Peters from NZ First denying he knew anything about a mysterious $500,000 that has turned up in the coffers of his one man controlled PARTY. That is much the same him denying that today is January 1 2020.Would not put it past him.
He vehemently believes that the voters heads in NZ are made of Chocolate and will melt at election time .In fact keeping his power to control and allow mad dog parties like Greens/Liebour to destroy the traditional lifestyle and well being of NZs with communistic idealogy.What price Peters meglamaniac control as long as he pulls the strings.
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January 1, 2020 8:44am
- Suze Wainwright
  
  #Iamnotacrook!
  That might have already been used once, but then again it might really resonate with his support base…
  
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  January 1, 2020 9:30am
- yossarian
  
  Winston’s election strategy this year, will be, “if you don’t vote for me, then you’ll get Labour and the greens”
  
  He has 2% core support, that will never leave him, he only needs 3 more.
  
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  January 1, 2020 9:43am
Yadayada

Happy New Year, all you crazy Kiwibloggers, you!
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January 1, 2020 8:49am
Odakyu-sen

To assure he re-election, the Prime Minister needs to schedule her big wedding (with Neve as the lead flower girl) a couple of weeks before the election.
The voters will go “Aaaaaww! That’s so cute!” and vote based on the power of feeeelz.

Sounds like a winning strategy to me.

//
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January 1, 2020 8:55am
- Richard
  
  She needs to get another bun in the oven to seal the deal with voters.
  
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  January 1, 2020 9:36am
  - Odakyu-sen
    
    Richard,
    
    You’re right! For the Prime Minister to show up in her wedding dress several months pregnant would be a master stroke.
    
    //
    
    17 3
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    January 1, 2020 10:43am
    - toby1845
      
      It might take more than a stroke, but I know what you mean.
      
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      January 1, 2020 8:28pm
  - Sydney Alvarado
    
    She may decide one is enough. She will be 40 this year.
    
    10 0
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    January 1, 2020 10:52am
    - sooty
      
      What she’s not youth adjacent any more,
      Into the old saggy and baggy!
      
      8 0
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      January 1, 2020 12:44pm
      - Suze Wainwright
        
        Stale and pale???
        
        1 0
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        January 1, 2020 8:30pm
  - tf78
    
    Don’t think a bun would help her – she already spends too much time with Neve to do her job right now.
    
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    January 1, 2020 12:14pm
  - mark15
    
    But she’s already said that the first squirrel doesn’t need her! Why pop another one out?
    
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    January 1, 2020 4:58pm
- KevO'Brien
  
  No way. Winestoned will not be upstaged and Shane is expecting a seat to be bought for him.
  
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  January 1, 2020 11:46am
Stephieboy2

Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
Australia fires: Military to be deployed to help rescue effort

Australian military aircraft and vessels will be deployed to help emergency services in the fire-ravaged states of New South Wales (NSW) and Victoria.

Thousands of people fled to beaches in the south-eastern states on Tuesday as emergency-level fires spread.

In Mallacoota, Victoria, about 4,000 people sought shelter on the coast.

Two more people have been confirmed dead in NSW, bringing the fire-linked death toll to 12.
Authorities say four people are missing in Victoria and another in NSW.

“We’ve got literally hundreds, thousands of people up and down the coast, taking refuge on the beaches,” said Shane Fitzsimmons, commissioner of the NSW Rural Fire Service.

Mr Fitzsimmons said it was “the worst fire season we have experienced here in NSW..”.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-50956318

It is thought these fires were most likely started by dry lightning . The phenomena where Thunder storm clouds form but the rain evaporates before reaching the ground. Of course, exacerbated by several years of extremely dry weather

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-australia-bushfires/evacuation-order-in-australias-south-east-as-bushfires-rage-and-temperatures-soar-idUSKBN1YX0L5
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January 1, 2020 8:57am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  A forest fire requires 3 things only:
  
  an ignition spark, oxygen and fuel.
  
  Dry leaf litter will not ignite at temperatures below 400C… and ignition temperatures around 700-800c are usually required.
  Differences in Leaf Flammability, Leaf Traits and Flammability-Trait Relationships between Native and Exotic Plant Species of Dry Sclerophyll Forest
  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3832464/
  
  Climate Warming does not produce ignition temperatures.
  
  So we are left with 2 ways forest fires can start… through lightning strikes or by man.
  
  Lightning strike fires have always occurred throughout Australia… their vegetation is adapted to frequent fires.
  
  But some 80% of forest fires in Australia and USA (and probably elsewhere) are started by man – accidently or deliberately.
  
  In the Australian, Mediterranean and Californian climates, the only solution to limit devastating forest fires around settlements is to manage the volume of fuel in the forest.
  
  (and that has been one of the recommendations of every Commission of inquiry into Australian Bush Fires).
  
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  January 1, 2020 9:47am
  - Greg Ettridge
    
    Recommendations just totally ignored.
    Well said Maggy, I have had 5 fires within 30 kms in last week, was mowing green grass just before Xmas.
    Season has turned really late, grass is massive on roadsides, it will be a anxious summer.
    Maybe I can get Stephieboy or girl or person to person the fire fighter unit, now that is a notion that could give me nightmares.
    You have great knowledge, thanks for sharing it.
    I have experience and memories of how fire works.
    Never been burnt out but have been close.
    Happy new year.
    
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    January 1, 2020 9:58am
  - MrTips
    
    Indeed. Conversely, it only takes one word at 37C for a hysterical climate activist and their lying media mates to set off a written firestorm that consumes all truth and reason before it.
    
    Humans are getting stupider, not smarter.
    
    26 2
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    January 1, 2020 10:22am
  - Stephieboy2
    
    Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
    But climate change produces the very important condittions to ignite bush fires ( accidentaly or delibrately)
    
    Namely unprecedent drought and dry conditions and the highest national average temperatures ever experienced !
    
    And if you don’t believe in climate change then ask Australian Farmers!
    
    https://www.sbs.com.au/news/beyond-time-for-action-australian-farmers-call-for-climate-change-plan
    
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    January 1, 2020 10:42am
    - burt
      
      Please explain how this new phenomenon of drought in Australia is related to CO2 changing from 3 molecules per 10,000 of air to 4 molecules of CO2 per 10,000 of air.
      
      24 2
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      January 1, 2020 10:59am
    - Sydney Alvarado
      
      It is not a matter of not “believing in climate change “. It is a matter of the appropriate and rational policy response.
      
      OK tell me this. In the last 20 years, name three instances of specific climate change mitigation policies that have materially reduced a country’s greenhouse emissions. Let’s say by 10 percent or more.
      
      Market driven changes don’t count. I’m talking about these “climate change plans “ you screech about. Tell me three climate change plans anywhere in the world that have been successful. Good luck.
      
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      January 1, 2020 11:08am
  - Stephieboy2
    
    MW, wrong,
    
    “Australia bushfires factcheck: are this year’s fires unprecedented?”
    
    Conservative commentators have pointed to a long history of bushfires to suggest there is nothing unusual about this season. Experts disagree
    
    The 2019 bushfires are like nothing we’ve seen before
    
    “…But scientists says fire conditions today are fundamentally different, and fundamentally worse in many ways, when compared with some of the fires experienced in the past.
    
    The centre’s director, Ross Bradstock, says the 1974 fires burned through largely remote country mostly in the state’s far west, devouring green, non-woody herbaceous plants. The conditions were created by above average rainfall which produced ample fuel in outback grasslands.
    By contrast, the fires in the east of the state this year have been fuelled by a lack of rain. The extent of the fires is in significant part driven by the amount of dry fuel available, some of it in highly unlikely places, and the amount of dry fuel is linked to the record-breaking drought.
    Rainfall between January and August 2019 was the lowest on record in some areas, including the northern tablelands of NSW and Queensland’s southern downs. Parts of both states experienced record low soil moisture. As temperatures and wind speeds increased but humidity remained low, conditions were primed for small fires to become major conflagrations.
    
    https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/nov/22/australia-bushfires-factcheck-are-this-years-fires-unprecedented
    
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    January 1, 2020 10:59am
    - Tony Stuart
      
      Really stephie; if you’re going to quote sources, something more reliable than the left-leaning Guardian would be a good idea,
      
      26 3
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      January 1, 2020 11:55am
      - Stephieboy2
        
        Much more preferable than the Trump staple Gatewaypundit, One America , Fox etc.
        
        Your staple?
        
        2 21
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        January 1, 2020 1:08pm
  - KevO'Brien
    
    Around the blue Mountains the haze is eucalyptus oils in the air. That will probably have a flashpoint too.
    
    13 1
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    January 1, 2020 11:49am
    - Stephieboy2
      
      Oh weally?
      
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      January 1, 2020 1:09pm
      - Nukuleka
        
        This type of post indicates just how childish the stephie syndicate of commentators really are.
        
        Yes really.
        
        6 1
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        January 1, 2020 4:33pm
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        Yes, indeed stephieboy
        https://ecos.csiro.au/beating-eucalypt-blues-new-ways-model-air-quality/
        
        Might pay to swat up on biogenic VOCs…. it’s becoming the current fad of Jim Salinger
        https://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=12219776
        
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        January 1, 2020 4:50pm
- Sydney Alvarado
  
  Well fortunately Australia is a rich country because it has pro growth policies. Rich countries can adapt. In the next decade expect to see more dams constructed, at least six next generation desalination plants, and hopefully two nuclear power stations.
  
  I also predict legislation that will force local authorities to more aggressively manage fire risk.
  
  The good news is that despite the scale of the fires, few lives have been lost. That is not luck.
  
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  January 1, 2020 9:58am
  - Stephieboy2
    
    And how to do propse they manage unprecedented pro longer droughts and the highest average national temperatures?
    
    1 27
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    January 1, 2020 11:00am
    - Sydney Alvarado
      
      I just answered that. Stop being deliberately obtuse.
      
      If Australia experiences prolonged drought, land use will change, desalination plants will be built, dams will be built, government spending priorities will change.
      
      In 30 years it will be a hotter dryer country than today. But it will be way richer than New Zealand.
      
      I don’t understand the point you are trying to make here. Is it deliberate?
      
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      January 1, 2020 12:38pm
krazykiwi

It had to happen. 2020. Perfect vision. Woke this morning and can’t find my glasses!
27 1
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January 1, 2020 9:03am
- Suze Wainwright
  
  I mis-read that initially – I thought you were trying to say you were woke this morning…
  
  11 1
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  January 1, 2020 10:28am
  - krazykiwi
    
    I’m happy to report that my woke-o-meter is flatlining.
    
    10 0
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    January 1, 2020 11:33am
Happychappy

Didn’t Winston campaign inthe price of cigarettes and tobacco being taxed and was the reason for the dairy getting robbed.
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/your-packet-cigarettes-just-got-more-expensive-today
It seems that Winston’s values change when he Leads the Government that he installed with 7% of the vote with all policy having to have his approval before it is debated in Parliament. So now the poor have been converted the price went up from just over 7% last increase to 11.43% this increase. It seems Winston has no values when he leads a Government.
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January 1, 2020 9:12am
- Tall Man
  
  There has to be something in it for “what’s in it for wynston” or he doesn’t care.
  
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  January 1, 2020 11:01am
- tedbear
  
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yb40SET4qec
  Ah the Serial Hypocrite Liar “I’ll be first down the mine” Winston Peters at a 2017 pre-election speech stated “The first thing we’re going to do is make sure cigarettes are not massively overtaxed and bring them back to a reasonable value.”
  
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  January 1, 2020 11:06am
  - Paulus
    
    That was before Peters gave up smoking on medical orders.
    
    6 0
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    January 1, 2020 1:38pm
    - Rich Prick
      
      And here I was think he’d just forgotten where he left his last pack.
      
      6 0
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      January 1, 2020 5:27pm
- tf78
  
  Last year’s increase was 11% too, whereas previously it had been 10% – so the extra 1% is obviously another con by the COL.
  
  Today I became an OAP so Thank you every tax payer for my fortnightly bonus to cover some of the tax increases.
  
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  January 1, 2020 12:35pm
  - Tall Man
    
    But…. if you are smoking you won’t be an OAP for very long.
    
    As far as I am concerned they can double or triple the cost if it reduces the long term negatives that our country experiences.
    
    1 1
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    January 1, 2020 2:25pm
    - tf78
      
      Are you saying smoking makes you young – yippee!
      
      0 0
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      January 1, 2020 8:29pm
    - toby1845
      
      I think you mean treble the cost, but understand what you are trying to say.
      
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      January 1, 2020 8:35pm
Captain Mainwaring

Son and his two kids (one of whom gets very nervous on takeoff) boarded their Air NZ flight from Wellington to Auckland a couple of days ago to find that their seats were spread all over the plane. The reason: Nine non-working cabin crew who were being ferried to other flights were all assigned to the comfortable seats over the wing. My family eventually ended up down the bouncy back where the staff should have been.
Nothing changes. Air NZ still exists for the comfort of the entitled staff and doesn’t give a stuff about the fare-paying passengers.
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January 1, 2020 9:22am
- SGA
  
  The reason: Nine non-working cabin crew who were being ferried to other flights were all assigned to the comfortable seats over the wing.
  
  Perhaps. Or it might be a safety policy to seat non-working cabin crew near the emergency exits in the centre of the plane? I don’t know, but that seems an working alternative hypothesis.
  
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  January 1, 2020 9:37am
  - Tall Man
    
    If I had paid the extra to be there I’d be a little pissed off to be moved.
    
    14 1
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    January 1, 2020 11:00am
    - Albert_Ross
      
      Fair, but Captain Mainwaring’s family doesn’t appear to have done that. If it was important to them to be seated together, that option was available to them.
      
      4 0
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      January 1, 2020 12:11pm
  - Captain Mainwaring
    
    I thought of that, but surely just one of them by each exit would have been enough.
    Unless they all wanted to be together for chit-chats with their mates. And all be out first in the event of a crash landing.
    
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    January 1, 2020 11:41am
    - Tall Man
      
      Nope, they just want the more comfortable seats.
      
      4 3
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      January 1, 2020 11:52am
- MCos
  
  Sometimes a bloke has to take a bit of personal responsibility and check the seat numbers on the boarding passes when they are issued.
  
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  January 1, 2020 12:05pm
  - MCos
    
    As of right now three people don’t think so.
    
    The airlines, the banks, the supermarkets and all the rest of them won’t give a shit about you if you’re not going to stand up for yourself.
    
    1 0
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    January 1, 2020 2:30pm
- info@cruzpro.com
  
  To be assured that you get to sit next to your spouse/kids/loved ones you now have to pay extra to select seats!
  
  This appears to be true even if you pay a huge amount extra to travel premium economy.
  
  I resist such extreme money gathering exercises and if I am not seated next to my travel partner make a really loud noise at the check-in desk. That usually solves the problem instantly!
  
  2 0
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  January 1, 2020 7:08pm
  - info@cruzpro.com
    
    So what would you think if your family went to a restaurant for dinner or a movie and they required you to pay extra to sit together as a family? You would tell them to stick it where the sun doesn’t shine and find a different place to spend your money, wouldn’t you?
    
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    January 1, 2020 7:36pm
Humble Capitalist

2020 the year of onetermArdern
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January 1, 2020 9:31am
- tf78
  
  Like it!
  
  9 0
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  January 1, 2020 12:37pm
curry4me

President Trump will have an easy victory if Sanders is nominated.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4iqV4hUKNE
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January 1, 2020 9:32am
- Rich Prick
  
  President Trump will have an easy victory no matter who is nominated. Have you seen the line up? Unelectable woke dross and commies.
  
  18 0
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  January 1, 2020 12:04pm
  - curry4me
    
    It might be a bit trickier if Bloomberg is the nominee. None of his ads are the usual woke rubbish the other Dems are spouting. They’re set to appeal to swing voters, and independents.
    
    1 0
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    January 1, 2020 7:47pm
curry4me

A new year’s message from Pocahontas.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-kSClxj28w
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January 1, 2020 9:33am
Richard

Happy new year! This year we get to change the govt!
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January 1, 2020 9:34am
- MCos
  
  What do you mean ‘we’, kemosabe?
  
  Doesn’t matter who’s running the place it sure ain’t ‘we’.
  
  1 13
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  January 1, 2020 11:54am
  - Suze Wainwright
    
    So you’re saying we isn’t us after all?
    
    0 0
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    January 1, 2020 8:35pm
- Tony Stuart
  
  Amen, amen and amen; preach it Brother Richard!
  
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  January 1, 2020 11:58am
Simon

Everyone in the US embassy Baghdad so happy Trump won Nov 2016 instead of Clinton.
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January 1, 2020 9:43am
Sydney Alvarado

Air New Zealand seats ferried flight attendants in vacant emergency exit seats to help in any evacuation. All airlines do it.
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January 1, 2020 10:07am
Maggy Wassilieff

Stephieboy seems to be in denial that arsonists are in any way responsible for Australian bushfires.

Perhaps he is unaware of the Bushfire Arson Bulletin
Published by the Australian Institute of Criminology
Bushfire arson bulletin
Fact sheets on a broad range of topics relating to bushfire arson.
https://www.aic.gov.au/publications/bfab

Check out this:
The Australian Institute of Criminology has estimated that around half of the nation’s bushfires are either arson or suspected arson.

Most offenders are male. Many are children. Some have been the victims of sexual or physical abuse, while much work has been done to explore the motivations of adult firebugs.

“Usually they are marginalized, they are confused. It is thought that they have very low intelligence, but I suspect that that is only because we are catching the ones that have low intelligence,” said Paul Reid, a criminologist at Monash University. “They tend to have deep depression, and (are) very socially awkward. They usually have a history of drug use and violence.”

Arsonists are responsible for thousands of bushfires in Australia every year and they can face long jail terms if found guilty.
https://www.voanews.com/east-asia-pacific/australia-confronts-arson-bushfires-burn
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January 1, 2020 10:28am
- The King
  
  They are the same people setting the Amazon on fire. It’s the extinction rebellion cult.
  
  19 2
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  January 1, 2020 10:36am
- Greg Ettridge
  
  Stephieboy’s attitude to arsonists appears to be the same as it’s attitude to the Labour fiddlers, give them the benefit of the doubt and joke about what they use for lighting fires.
  Summing it up, a protector and denier of low life scum, domestically and internationally.
  If this insanity continues, maybe he or she should be outed before it transitions to Stephie unknown no.3.
  It is entertainment, but today it’s almost lock up stupidity.
  
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  January 1, 2020 10:43am
- Stephieboy2
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  MW , the explanation is really quite simple ,
  
  “Yes, Australia has always had bushfires: but 2019 is like nothing we’ve seen before
  
  Record low rainfall has contributed to a continent-scale emergency that has burned through more than 5m hectares and alarmed scientists, doctors and firefighters
  
  As the area burned across Australia this fire season pushes beyond five million hectares, an area larger than many countries, stories of destruction have become depressingly familiar…”
  
  https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/dec/25/factcheck-why-australias-monster-2019-bushfires-are-unprecedented
  
  And how bushfires start? A great many reasons other than deliberately lit.,
  
  This is how most bushfires in Australia start, and how we know
  
  https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2019-11-20/bushfire-ignition-source-how-we-know/11701132
  
  What climate change deniers and conservatives need to get through their thick skulls is the factor of unpredendented dry conditions and higher than usual average temperatures !
  
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  January 1, 2020 11:14am
  - CJames
    
    They are not unprecedented – see the Federation drought – so it shows you are the perfect Dunning Kruger
    
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    January 1, 2020 12:17pm
  - All_on_Red
    
    Unprecented =’Bullshit
    Here’s an extract from the Newspaper The Advocate Jan 11 in 1939
    ‘HOTTEST DAY ON RECORD
    IN THREE CAPITALS
    Seven Deaths: Many People
    Collapse
    READINGS OF UP TO 121 IN MALLEE
    HEAT WAVE again blistered south-eastern Australia yesterday, and the day was the hottest on record in Melbourne, Adelaide and Canberra, while in parts of the Mallee (Vic.) recordings
    exceeded 120.
    Adelaide thermometers soared to 116.9, while in Melbourne the temperature reached 113 degrees.
    At Ivanhoe (N.S.W.) the temperature has exceeded 100 degrees for the past 27 days.
    Four people died in Melbourne, two in Mildura, and one in
    Sydney due to the excessive heat, while many others collapsed.
    MELBOURNE, Tuesday. – To-day
    was the hottest day in Melbourne’s his-
    tory, the temperature reaching a maxi-
    mum of 112.5 degrees at 3.25 p.m. Five
    minutes later 113 degrees were record-
    ed in the heart of the city.
    At 10 a.m., the reading was 93.1 and
    at 2 p.m. 106.
    https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/68533670/6691547#
    
    In Fahrenheit of course
    In summer of 1838 over a dozen Towns in Australia recorded 51-54c
    Now that is hot!
    Others have explained why these current fires are bad.
    Sure it’s a hot Summer but the Temps aren’t unprecedented.
    
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    January 1, 2020 12:38pm
    - All_on_Red
      
      Here’s the Drought and Flood record from 1789 to 1864 as published in the newspaper The Empire on Tuesday 13 October 1868
      https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/60828173
      Lots of draughts and floods huh
      Well before Rich Prick got his twin turbo V8
      (Epic engine btw)
      
      16 2
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      January 1, 2020 12:52pm
      - All_on_Red
        
        On February 6, 1851 most of Victoria burned up and countless people were killed. It was 117F (47C) at 8AM in Melbourne.
        The Argus newspaper in Melbourne on 17 Jan 1857
        about that day in 1851,they call Black Thursday
        https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/7143278#
        
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        January 1, 2020 12:59pm
    - Rich Prick
      
      Leftie group-think only goes back five years.
      
      17 2
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      January 1, 2020 12:56pm
      - Stephieboy2
        
        Rich Prick , now why do you bother?
        
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        January 1, 2020 1:18pm
    - Stephieboy2
      
      Um try and think about for amoment ,
      
      1 Prolonged droughts
      
      2 Higheest average temperatures
      
      I repeat “Highest Average” temperatures
      
      Get it!?
      
      Not the highest temp backin 1851 etc!
      
      Australia bushfires factcheck: are this year’s fires unprecedented?
      
      Conservative commentators have pointed to a long history of bushfires to suggest there is nothing unusual about this season. Experts disagree
      
      The 2019 bushfires are like nothing we’ve seen before
      
      “…But scientists says fire conditions today are fundamentally different, and fundamentally worse in many ways, when compared with some of the fires experienced in the past.
      
      The centre’s director, Ross Bradstock, says the 1974 fires burned through largely remote country mostly in the state’s far west, devouring green, non-woody herbaceous plants. The conditions were created by above average rainfall which produced ample fuel in outback grasslands.
      By contrast, the fires in the east of the state this year have been fuelled by a lack of rain. The extent of the fires is in significant part driven by the amount of dry fuel available, some of it in highly unlikely places, and the amount of dry fuel is linked to the record-breaking drought.
      Rainfall between January and August 2019 was the lowest on record in some areas, including the northern tablelands of NSW and Queensland’s southern downs. Parts of both states experienced record low soil moisture. As temperatures and wind speeds increased but humidity remained low, conditions were primed for small fires to become major conflagrations.
      
      https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/nov/22/australia-bushfires-factcheck-are-this-years-fires-unprecedented
      
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      January 1, 2020 1:13pm
      - All_on_Red
        
        “Highest average” is meaningless. I’ve pointed out that Australia, historically, is hot a lot.
        Read that draught record.
        You keep ignoring this from Maggy W
        The answers are in there why this season is worse than some ⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️
        ‘A forest fire requires 3 things only:
        an ignition spark, oxygen and fuel.
        Dry leaf litter will not ignite at temperatures below 400C… and ignition temperatures around 700-800c are usually required.
        Differences in Leaf Flammability, Leaf Traits and Flammability-Trait Relationships between Native and Exotic Plant Species of Dry Sclerophyll Forest
        https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3832464/
        
        Climate Warming does not produce ignition temperatures.
        So we are left with 2 ways forest fires can start… through lightning strikes or by man.
        
        Lightning strike fires have always occurred throughout Australia… their vegetation is adapted to frequent fires.
        
        But some 80% of forest fires in Australia and USA (and probably elsewhere) are started by man – accidently or deliberately.
        
        In the Australian, Mediterranean and Californian climates, the only solution to limit devastating forest fires around settlements is to manage the volume of fuel in the forest.
        
        (and that has been one of the recommendations of every Commission of inquiry into Australian Bush Fires).’
        
        The Fires have nothing to do with any climate change as the climate hasn’t changed.(see the Newspaper articles)
        
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        January 1, 2020 2:23pm
      - Stephieboy2
        
        Australia’s Angry Summer: This Is What Climate Change Looks Like
        The catastrophic fires raging across the southern half of the continent are largely the result of rising temperatures
        “Of course, unusually hot summers have happened in the past; so have bad bushfire seasons. But the link between the current extremes and anthropogenic climate change is scientifically undisputable.
        
        The fires raging across the southern half of the Australian continent this year have so far burned through more than 5 million hectares. To put that in context, the catastrophic 2018 fire season in California saw nearly 740,000 hectares burned. The Australian fire season began this year in late August (before the end of our winter). Fires have so far claimed nine lives, including two firefighters, and destroyed around 1,000 homes. It is too early to tell what the toll on our wildlife has been, but early estimates suggest that around 500 million animals have died so far, including 30 percent of the koala population in their main habitat. And this is all before we have even reached January and February, when the fire season typically peaks in Australia.
        
        Australia is the most fire prone of all of Earth’s continents. But what has made its latest fire season so extreme? Wildfires need four ingredients: available fuel, dryness of that fuel, weather conditions that aid the rapid spread of fire and an ignition. Climate change is making Australian wildfires larger and more frequent because of its effects on dryness and fire weather….
        
        Read on…
        
        https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/australias-angry-summer-this-is-what-climate-change-looks-like/
        
        Once the above facts are digested then all fixed!
        
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        January 1, 2020 3:04pm
      - Stephieboy2
        
        Highest average temperature meaningless ?
        
        Not here it isn’t!
        
        Australia has experienced its hottest day on record with the national average temperature reaching a high of 40.9C (105.6F).
        
        The Bureau of Meteorology (Bom) said “extensive” heat on Tuesday exceeded the previous record of 40.3C set on 7 January 2013.
        Taking the average of maximum temperatures across the country is the most accurate measure of a heatwave.
        The record comes as the nation battles a severe drought and bushfire crisis.
        Forecasters had predicted the most intense heat would come later in the week, meaning the record could be broken again.
        As hundreds of fires rage, Prime Minister Scott Morrison has been criticised for his response to the natural disasters and his government’s climate policies….”
        
        https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-50817963
        
        It’s really so very simple!
        
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        January 1, 2020 3:08pm
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        Stephieboy,
        
        Australia’s vegetation by and large evolved in a landscape dominated by fire.
        
        Unlike most trees in the world Eucalypts are not only fire resistors, they are fire promoters…. and they have been that way for at least 30 Million years (possibly 60 million).
        
        Eucalypts have inﬂuenced the ﬁre ecology of the Australian landscape more than any other plant group….
        there is no doubt that eucalypts are best characterised as being both ﬁre survivors and ﬁre promoters.
        https://www.researchgate.net/publication/309746546_Evolution_of_the_eucalypts_an_interpretation_from_the_macrofossil_record
        
        As more people in Australia move into this fire-promoting vegetation with their power lines, farms, machinery, and mentally disturbed folk, catastrophic fires are going to increase in frequency.
        
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        January 1, 2020 5:23pm
      - CJames
        
        Maggy – you have taken on a noble task trying to talk sense with appropriate science links, but you are wasting your breath with Stephiegirl. His cultish mantra is impervious to facts. You only have to look at his/ her links. If it isn’t wokish, it doesn’t make it past the filters.
        The rainfall in Eastern Victoria where the big fires currently are haven’t been that low http://www.bom.gov.au/jsp/awap/rain/index.jsp?colour=colour&time=latest&step=0&map=decile&period=12month&area=nat
        But that is irrelevant when you have propaganda to push
        
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        January 1, 2020 6:34pm
tedbear

https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/the-weekend/audio/2018728553/tom-roa-translating-classics-into-te-reo

Associate Professor Tom Roa from Waikato University has translated Alice in Wonderland into te reo Māori and parts of his translation have been used at a new exhibition at Te Papa in Wellington”
As the original book published in the 1860s has long since lapsed into the public domain, I imagineTom is free to translate it to his heart’s content.

The article goes on to to say that Tom’s next Te Reo translation project is the Hobbit.
The Hobbit was published in 1937, so with
copyright duration of 95 years, Hobbit copyright lasts through to 2032.
However, it’s a fair bet that Tom won’t have to wait until 2033 to do the translation as I imagine under The Treaty, any works by anyone in the world are actually owned by Maori.
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January 1, 2020 10:39am
- Stephieboy2
  
  The Bible was translated into Te Reo Maori much, much earlier 1827 etc ,
  
  https://biblesociety.org.nz/discover-the-bible/the-bible-in-maori/
  
  There would be little difficulty translating Alice in wonderland I would think.
  
  Anyhow Maoris have their own contemporary writers which they would I say find far more relevant.
  
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  January 1, 2020 11:21am
- Jack5
  
  Tom Roa’s work is going to be cut out.
  More than 560,000 new titles or re-editions are published in English every year.
  
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  January 1, 2020 11:22am
marcw

Climate Normal Average Temperatures, Christchurch Airport For December:

2019 15.7°C
2018 15.4
2017 17.4
2016 15.0
2015 14.6
2014 14.9
2013 15.6
2012 16.3
2011 14.6
2010 17.0

Average (10 years) = 15.7°C

Rainfall December 2019 = 34.8mm; Average 47. There were virtually only 2 rainfall days last month, which is below average.

Oh dear, Scoldilocks will be displeased, no evidence of any emergency here (as usual). NIWA of course claims the year was ‘warmer’ than average.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/118379255/christchurchs-warmer-than-average-year
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January 1, 2020 10:44am
- mikenmildagain
  
  You believe NIWA is lying about weather data?
  
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  January 1, 2020 10:55am
  - burt
    
    The controversy over NIWA adjusting data gas been going on for years. I guess since it didn’t suit your preconceived belief you just ignored it.
    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/11/27/more-on-the-niwa-new-zealand-data-adjustment-story/
    
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    January 1, 2020 12:24pm
  - tf78
    
    Yes Sir!
    
    12 0
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    January 1, 2020 12:40pm
  - ronsegal
    
    Wish it weren’t so but having experienced truth bending by more than one NZ ‘authority’ (including scientific), to fit the required answer, I no longer take at face value what any of them publish. ‘Bending’ is undoubtedly worse elsewhere in the world where there is more at stake.
    
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    January 1, 2020 2:19pm
- burt
  
  There will need to be some adjustment to the past numbers if we’re going to make the graph the correct shape.
  
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  January 1, 2020 11:07am
- ronsegal
  
  ‘Christchurch Airport’ – Makes one wonder how representative would be a temperature sensor close to an airport, or indeed any man made facility.
  
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  January 1, 2020 1:02pm
Swifty

All sorts of cool. Bob Kramer, knife-making, smoking fish using the induction heating of a meteorite and Bourdain:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4x0f2b_0kn0
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January 1, 2020 10:54am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Thank you for that. So interesting. I am very familiar with the machinery in that workshop (not the mechanical hammer) I never knew Bourdain did this program.
  Such a sad loss when he left. The pedophiles got to him before he could expose them. Think what you like, but he was not the type to suicide
  
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  January 1, 2020 2:47pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Why the fuck would some cocksucker downtick that? It was a complement. I do this shit, can’t stop, and I am 67 and have no reason to retire.
    Fuck off you down ticking retard
    
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    January 1, 2020 4:44pm
  - Swifty
    
    My pleasure.
    
    I met Bourdain (briefly) once. Loved his shows and books.
    
    A great loss.
    
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    January 1, 2020 5:25pm
Maggie Pie

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Only just dragged my ass out of bed to be honest 😀
Actually, it was a fairly subdued affair last night. Only about 6 people came around and it was all over by about 12:30. My partner even had time to gather up all the bottles and rubbish etc, fill a few of those big plastic ‘Black Sacks’, and quickly drive over to Countdown Mall where he knows how to access the after-hours delivery bay. He can then chuck them into the huge disposal bin there.
Hey presto, everything is nice and clean here this morning!

And i also thort this was worth sharing. One of our friends introduced us to a new word last night that she reckoned described this bunch of ‘Col Numpties to a tee:

FIRTLE (v) …to look busy despite doing very little.

LOL!
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January 1, 2020 11:08am
- Captain Mainwaring
  
  “Only just dragged my ass out of bed to be honest.”
  
  You sleep with a donkey ???
  
  13 1
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  January 1, 2020 1:22pm
  - Tall Man
    
    FFS… let’s not go there 😉
    
    There are times when Maggie needs an “R” rating… I have a feeling her reply will be one of those 🙁
    
    13 1
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    January 1, 2020 1:49pm
Nukuleka

Have come back to listening to RNZ Concert after a bit of a break- so sick of their presenters’ constant pc comments instead of just allowing the music to play and speak for itself.

But no change. The presenter just played Gershwin’s ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ prefacing it with the comment ‘America needs some positives right now’. We all know what that is meant to mean!

I resent the fact that my taxpayer dollars are funding this politically and socially charged public radio network.
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January 1, 2020 11:18am
- Classic Liberal
  
  Yes, FFS, even Concert Progamme can’t just keep out of woke virtue signalling! I can’t bear National Radio most mornings anymore, they are so biased and about the US one hears nothing but ‘Orange Man Bad’. It is so bloody predictable what their snide commentators and boring academic interviewees are going to say. And everything is such an enormous problem, as told to us by self-important leftist lobbyists, and can only be solved by more money, much more money from: taxpayers.
  
  Cut off their funding! All the music we want is available online now. And National Radio is too biased to be any use to democracy.
  
  As for ‘America needing positives’, how about the lowest unemployment rate and best wage rises and 401k (i.e. every citizen’s participation in the evil capitalist stock market). But no, leftards just ignore this.
  
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  January 1, 2020 3:34pm
- curry4me
  
  I’ve downloaded a lot of classical music from YouTube. I’ve put it on my phone, and bookmarked it on another browser. No ads. No PC garbage from Red Radio. Some of the recordings last 8-9 hours.
  
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  January 1, 2020 7:54pm
tedbear

While looking up that Winston Peters video, I came across this one on lying https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_6vDLq64gE
There are good liars and there are bad liars.
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January 1, 2020 11:22am
- Tall Man
  
  Or… you could just ask me 😉
  
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  January 1, 2020 12:25pm
waitakereman

Just read the billion dollar bonfire by christ Lee
.a good read
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January 1, 2020 11:24am
- secondcumming
  
  I’m looking forward to reading it as well. Unlike most out there these days, Chris Lee still isn’t afraid to call it like he sees it 😎
  Going by some of the reviews I’ve seen, it doesn’t sound like too many of our so called ‘financial elite’ come out of it squeaky clean. Still, it was only tax-payers money, there’s plenty more where that came from.
  
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  January 1, 2020 12:10pm
Tall Man

https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/world/2020/01/volcanic-eruption-in-peru-sends-ash-cloud-3000-metres-into-the-sky.html

No impact on global warming though but a petrol powered SUV is extremely destructive…………….
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January 1, 2020 11:42am
- Albert_Ross
  
  Here’s the US Geological Survey (https://volcanoes.usgs.gov/vhp/gas_climate.html)
  
  All studies to date of global volcanic carbon dioxide emissions indicate that present-day subaerial and submarine volcanoes release less than a percent of the carbon dioxide released currently by human activities.
  
  They also give figures comparing the Mount St Helens and Pinutabo eruptions to annual (2015) anthropogenic emissions.
  
  Are they lying? Are all the referenced studies lying?
  
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  January 1, 2020 12:23pm
  - Tall Man
    
    Like breathing?
    
    2 1
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    January 1, 2020 2:19pm
  - Tall Man
    
    When “plant food” is a problem, let me know.
    
    2 1
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    January 1, 2020 2:20pm
  - fightingtemeraire
    
    About 10 years ago 2 volcanoes erupted both with unpronounceable names. One in Iceland and one in Chile I think.
    
    THe volcanic clouds disrupted air travel for weeks and affected the weather
    
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    January 1, 2020 5:21pm
- tf78
  
  I’ve just been watching a doco series on Egypt’s unexplained files and it was a volanic eruption they think that caused cooling because the ash deflected the sun away from the earth. Huge repercussions on the weather which ended up causing crop failures and famine.
  
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  January 1, 2020 12:46pm
  - krazykiwi
    
    The Toba eruption ~74,000 year ago dropped global temperatures by 14 degrees.
    
    3 0
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    January 1, 2020 3:13pm
JibberJabber

Jeepers, who does this remind us of?
https://twitter.com/labor_trash/status/1211927831975886848
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January 1, 2020 12:15pm
Hugh Pavletich

AUSTRALIA: Sydney housing at near a stratospheric 12 times annual household earnings … Demographia Survey http://www.demographia.com …

EDITORIAL: Long-term answers needed for high cost of housing … Sydney Morning Herald
… h/t Dr Tony Recsei, President, Save Our Suburbs NSW Australia …

https://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/long-term-answers-needed-for-high-cost-of-housing-20191230-p53npd.html

… concluding …

… The only long-term answer to the high cost of housing is an increase in supply. Unfortunately, new home building has collapsed over the past year because of the fall in house prices. Buyers are also wary after the defects in developments such as Opal Towers. The NSW government needs to rebuild confidence in the system so developers can start building again.
.
.
… Where are the sub $50,000 lots on the fringes of Sydney … as is the case in much of the United States ? … U.S. National Association Of Home Builders (NAHB) reports …

Lot Values Hit Record Highs … NAHB

http://nahbnow.com/2019/11/lot-values-hit-record-highs/
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January 1, 2020 12:38pm
- Hugh Pavletich
  
  Meantime in New Zealand there is a long overdue emerging Grand Consensus of politicial parties (Labour, National, New Zealand First, The Greens) to restore affordable lot / section prices … by dealing effectively with land supply and appropriate debt financing of infrastructure …
  
  Infrastructure Funding and Financing Bill … New Zeakand Parliament
  
  https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/bills-and-laws/bills-proposed-laws/document/BILL_93461/infrastructure-funding-and-financing-bill
  
  Urban Development Bill … New Zealand Parliament
  
  https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/bills-and-laws/bills-proposed-laws/document/BILL_93361/urban-development-bill
  
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  January 1, 2020 12:40pm
Odakyu-sen

I read a lot in the media about “equality for ___” or “______ equality,” but in each case I am pretty sure than the writer means “equality of outcome.”

Is it possible to achieve equality of outcome without repression?

I don’t think so…

If this is the case, then when some journalist calls for “equality for ___” or “______ equality,” they are effectively calling for the repression of some perceived successful segment of the population.
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January 1, 2020 12:39pm
JibberJabber

https://twitter.com/mantasledge/status/1211895798096515072
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January 1, 2020 1:21pm
Gazza the Giant

2020 , the year of dispatching the worst Government lead by the worst PM in our history #voteforchange
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January 1, 2020 1:26pm
Tall Man

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12297585

Not a problem… ardern will give everyone a hug… but only if you are foreign and near a camera.
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January 1, 2020 1:45pm
Maggie Pie

My partner just reminded me of a joke one of his mates told us last night.
[Stop me if you’ve heard it before 😀 ]…

“The PM and Clarke had booked in for a few days sun & relaxation at the ‘Whakatane Nudist Park’.
They were both sitting out by the pool enjoying a few rays – Clarke stretched out, old fishing hat pulled down over his eyes, Jacinda reclining in her seat and catching up on a bit of reading. After a little while, Jacinda puts the book into her lap, turns to Clarke and says, “Have you read Marx?” Clarke looks up, tilts his cap back and replies, “It’s these wicker chairs.”
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January 1, 2020 1:53pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Some fun. Those with TDS don’t blow a gasket OK?
https://trendingpolitics.com/video/relive-trump-s-most-hilarious-moments-of-219-6450.html?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
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January 1, 2020 2:29pm
- Nermal
  
  Hadn’t seen some before, even those I had still make me laugh.
  
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  January 1, 2020 4:25pm
Chuck Bird

Maybe Boris Johnson Could Be Good? – by Dominic Frisby

https://youtu.be/GE6mx6wyKmU
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January 1, 2020 2:50pm
Tall Man

https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/world/2020/01/anak-krakatau-erupts-spewing-ash-into-the-indonesian-sky.html

greta will be cross……….. Again!
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January 1, 2020 5:34pm
greybeard

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/118546900/blood-red-sun-greets-nz-on-new-years-day-as-australian-bushfire-smoke-stains-skies

Excerpt from this article:
“Many in Dunedin said they could smell a smoky scent in the air. ”

Ha! That smokey scent , my Dunedin nephews, has nothing to do with Aussie fires. Pot. Weed. Mary Jane. NOT bushfires. As you well know.
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January 1, 2020 6:13pm
Hugh Pavletich

HONG KONG …

Room rates as low as US$12 a night bring no joy to Hong Kong’s half-empty hotels at Christmas … Martin Choi … South China Morning Post

https://www.scmp.com/business/companies/article/3043446/room-rates-low-us12-night-bring-no-joy-hong-kongs-half-empty

• The outlook for Hong Kong’s hotel sector looks bleak as occupancy continued to fall for Christmas despite room rates dropping to as low as US$12 a night

• According to the Hong Kong Tourism Board, there were 3.31 million arrivals in October, a decline of 43.7 per cent from the same month in 2018 … read more via hyperlink above …
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January 1, 2020 7:35pm
Rich Prick

So, now that Australia’s CO2s have arrived and are blocking out the sun, who pays the carbon tax? Us or them? It must be them, because I’ve never seen our cow farts ever obscure the sun.
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January 1, 2020 7:57pm
- krazykiwi
  
  It’s both. The rapacious UN will have its dues. Pay up, pay up, and keep working you inconsequential economic unit.
  
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  January 1, 2020 10:16pm
greybeard

https://www.stuff.co.nz/travel/news/118551473/not-made-for-australians-tourism-minister-defends-new-kylie-ad-campaign

I like it !
I am a Kiwi, and I just love Australia: the size of the place, the fantastic scenery and natural features, the great people.
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January 1, 2020 8:50pm
Paul Marsden

So whilst Australia burns, not a public pip squeak from our Government on any condolences and/or, how we might assist our brothers in arms across the ditch. It seems like we only ‘do’ tragedies during business hours. Words fail me.
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January 1, 2020 8:51pm

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