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December 19, 2021 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 19 December 2021

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General Debate

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Warren

It just shows you how easy it is for Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to lie and con the public on what the entitled demand.
Nearly half of self- isolation pilot spots went to waste, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern unaware James Shaw got one.
How easy is it for our Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Covd-19 Minister Chris Hipkins to lie and con all those charged with the responsibility to holding the Government to task just to ignore what’s happening or are to lazy to follow up on stories like this for the public in New Zealand to be informed.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2021/12/nearly-half-of-self-isolation-pilot-spots-went-to-waste-prime-minister-jacinda-ardern-initially-unaware-james-shaw-got-one.html
How can this happen when the Prime Minister promised that James Shaw the Green Party Co Leader would not get special treatment after attending the latest World Cimate Change Conference.
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December 19, 2021 8:00am
- Marcus Vinicius
  
  I’ve followed NZ politics closely since I was a teenager in 1972. I cannot recall any Prime Minister in the 49 years that have passed whose had such an easy ride from the news media as Ardern.
  
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  December 19, 2021 8:34am
  - kowtow
    
    Yep and that started even before she bought them.
    
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    December 19, 2021 8:37am
    - KevO'Brien
      
      Had the WEF paid them off earlier?
      
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      December 19, 2021 12:18pm
  - Suze Wainwright
    
    It’s a new era of kindness
    
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    December 19, 2021 8:37am
    - KevO'Brien
      
      Kindness implies honesty or otherwise it jailers with nice faces.
      
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      December 19, 2021 12:19pm
  - Captain Mainwaring
    
    That’s because she pays them to look after her.
    A deplorable situation.
    
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    December 19, 2021 8:41am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Amazing what $110M does
    
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    December 19, 2021 8:43am
    - Roberta
      
      Plus all the advertising dollars this government spends with the media, must be ten times that!
      
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      December 19, 2021 9:20am
      - sooty
        
        Certainly pulled the print media out of a hole!
        
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        December 19, 2021 10:02am
  - H. Upmann
    
    Straight-out corruption and bribery obviously works.
    
    It certainly makes one think about NZ being in the top of anti-corruption surveys and just how bad other countries actually are. It could be a career option.
    
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    December 19, 2021 9:07am
- surfing
  
  Who cares.
  
  Now why isn’t Ed Sheeran performing at her wedding?
  
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  December 19, 2021 10:20am
  - Paulus
    
    Because she/we won’t pay for him to perform as she has got Lorde instead for free along with the Hedge Fund Billionaire’s place.
    
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    December 19, 2021 1:16pm
- david
  
  Bridges for sale, apply here.
  Anyone who believes that Cindy didn’t know about Shaw getting on the pilot home isolation scheme, is seriously deluded.
  Amidst the fallout from Shaw taking enough troops to field a rugby team to the after-match bunfest that he attended after all the important people had come, pronounced and gone, it was publicly announced that he proudly would not be taking up valuable MIQ slots as he was participating in the trial along with sporting heroes and other important people.
  If Joe Blow public know, then the PM with her army of media handlers, advisors and soothsayers cannot claim ignorance unless she is
  a) dumb – in which case she should not be allowed near the levers of power;
  b) lying through her teeth – in which case she should not be allowed near the levers of power;
  c) incompetent – in which case …. Yep you got it;
  d). …………. There is no ‘d)’
  
  As for Shaw, I have yet to hear a single word about what impact he and his team of 15 had on the rest of the world nor how whatever he said or promised will with any certainty at all have any noticeable effect on the planet’s climate over the next 50-100 years.
  He is like a retarded seagull that turns up late, when only the fish and chip wrapping is left, licks the wrapper, craps everywhere, screeches about it then flies off to find the rest of the flock so goes quiet until the next time the futile exercise can be repeated
  
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  December 19, 2021 11:30am
mikenmildagain

Eighty years ago today, HMS Neptune ran into a minefield off the coast of Libya, while on the way to intercept an Italian convoy. While trying to reverse out of the minefield, Neptune hit more mines. Other cruisers and destroyers in the force attempted to assist. Two cruisers and a destroyer were damaged doing so, and the rest of the force had to withdraw. Neptune then hit another mine and sank. All but one of her crew of 765 perished. At least thirty survived the initial sinking, but died over the next five days before the sole survivor was rescued by the Italians.
150 of the dead were New Zealanders, making the loss of Neptune our greatest single naval disaster.
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December 19, 2021 8:01am
- surfing
  
  Crazy that I’ve never heard this story.
  
  People who serve/served in active combat zones deserve the highest respect.
  
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  December 19, 2021 10:24am
- Man Among the Ruins
  
  Quite a disaster then. You’ll always be the Neptune of Kiwiblog to me, mike.
  
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  December 19, 2021 11:43am
- Kiwi Dave
  
  Six downticks at 12.27! Other than personal spite the reasons for the downticks are… ?
  
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  December 19, 2021 12:29pm
- Jack5
  
  Good post, Milky. ?
  
  Among the New Zealanders who died on Neptune were two sets of brothers, including twins Bruce and William Anderson, from Auckland.
  
  Four mines contributed to the cruiser’s sinking:
  
  https://navymuseum.co.nz/explore/by-themes/world-war-two-by-themes/the-loss-of-hms-neptune/
  
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  December 19, 2021 1:53pm
I remember when

“I reject the premise of your question.”
Is Jacinda the most prolific Labour rejector after Kris Faafoi.
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December 19, 2021 8:02am
- pdm
  
  IRW – Well she did keep Soubrek here even though it cost Lees-Galloway his job in Politics.
  
  Let no man stand in her way.
  
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  December 19, 2021 8:34am
  - michael_s2
    
    Speaking of Sroubek, has he been given residency?
    
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    December 19, 2021 10:05am
  - sooty
    
    But was that a loss to politics. Don’t think so!
    
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    December 19, 2021 10:05am
    - pdm
      
      Agreed Sooty but maybe it was either him or her and she held the whip hand.
      
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      December 19, 2021 12:41pm
  - david
    
    Mind you, it could be said that the world is a better place without Lees-Galloway in Parliament.
    
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    December 19, 2021 11:32am
G152

Looks like the social experiment is going well.
The prison Auckland gates opened for the festive season
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December 19, 2021 8:03am
- Suze Wainwright
  
  Don’t panic!
  
  Omicron’s a game changer. The modelers are salivating
  
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  December 19, 2021 8:41am
  - KevO'Brien
    
    Well they might, but they are coming for you and your families.
    Another 12 months should deliver NZ to the waiting enemy.
    
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    December 19, 2021 12:22pm
NeverMindTheBollocks

Andrea Vance has actually written a sensible article about traffic in Wellington. Although she spoils it in part when she asserts that Paul Eagle is part of the solution.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/127276766/most-of-us-want-a-greener-more-sustainable-wellington–but-it-has-to-be-liveable?
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December 19, 2021 8:07am
- KevO'Brien
  
  Wellington and trams? They have already been thrown out.
  Bendy buses? They require wider roads.
  
  Get rid of the excess public servants and there will be a little more space. I’ve been through all those problems in that City. It was just OK with a basic population of 125K for the city proper.
  
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  December 19, 2021 12:33pm
- I remember when
  
  Just replace Wellington with the name of whatever city, town or village you want.
  
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  December 19, 2021 1:40pm
  - KevO'Brien
    
    Wellington is unusual. The City at the end of the island has the tail end fingers of the mountain ranges coming down to the sea. The CBD was originally on boats on the shore with the hills going immediately up behind.
    This has left very little room for roads between the hills and around the shore for access.
    I spent 45 years in that City and enjoyed the double decker trams for a 1c ride from the Wadestown hills through to Hataitai.
    I believe there are too many cars for the physical road space.
    
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    December 19, 2021 4:58pm
info@cruzpro.com

Stuff has stuffed up.

This article has charts showing grossly incorrect figures for Covid cases and deaths per 100,000 population.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/127325242/covid19-omicron-in-the-community-would-be-a-gamechanger-for-christmas-plans#comments

For example, in the 70-79 year old age group it states that there were 9 deaths (due to or with Covid). The chart says that represents 2.45 deaths per 100,000. Wrong! 9 deaths is actually 0.18 deaths per 100,000 population. All of the figures in that chart are wrong and overstate the values by a factor of 1400%.
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December 19, 2021 8:09am
- Benedict Yu
  
  My observation is that few New Zealand journalists can do maths, science or statistics.
  
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  December 19, 2021 8:31am
  - info@cruzpro.com
    
    Hi BY,
    
    You are probably correct but in this case the data comes from:
    
    Table: Felippe Rodrigues Source: Ministry of Health, Stats NZ
    
    If Felippe is a journalist then he didn’t check/verify the figures.
    
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    December 19, 2021 8:37am
  - ldypen
    
    They also struggle with English.
    
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    December 19, 2021 8:38am
    - Paulus
      
      Which is why his report should be in Maori !
      
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      December 19, 2021 1:19pm
  - cmm
    
    Worse yet is that even their “science reporters” can.
    
    After the Chch EQ I went to a very interesting open lecture on EQs at Canterbury University and ended up sitting next to The Press’ science reporter.
    
    We both hear and saw exactly the same lecture, but he chose to quote a few soundbites out of context and thus really lies.
    
    I emailed him, saying that what he said completely misrepresented what was said. He said that he was entitled to write what he did because the prof actually said those words.
    
    He had no interest in carrying out his duty of informing the populace. His only interest was generating click bait.
    
    No doubt we have the same happening now and it is only occasionally that useful information gets through.
    
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    December 19, 2021 8:48am
  - Nickc2
    
    ….or tell the truth or write unbiased articles.
    
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    December 19, 2021 9:05am
    - curry4me
      
      Nickc2: They probably think truth is a defunct weekly news paper.
      
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      December 19, 2021 2:42pm
  - NK
    
    They also can’t do English, grammar and basic comprehension.
    
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    December 19, 2021 9:06am
    - tf78
      
      NK, they seem pretty good at taking dictation though.
      
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      December 19, 2021 10:09am
      - Manu-Rau
        
        From a dictator.
        
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        December 19, 2021 2:08pm
    - sooty
      
      What are churnilists going to do when cindy chucks it and leaves?
      
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      December 19, 2021 10:09am
      - KevO'Brien
        
        They will have to confront Luxon.
        
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        December 19, 2021 12:35pm
  - CRT changes NZ into the New Zimbabwe
    
    It’s a result of child centric learning: and what’s more if the author was of a different race then their unique binary system is completely different to your colonisation system; and if you challenge that you are a racist. Labour voters will uptick this 🙂
    
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    December 19, 2021 9:24am
  - Kiwi Dave
    
    Alas, BY & info, in my dotage I also can’t do maths.
    
    If there are 9 deaths in the 70-79 group and this is a rate of o.18 per 100k aged 70-79, then 9/0.18*100k=5,000,000, ie NZ’s population.
    
    If the rate is 2.45 per 100k aged 70-79, then 9/2.45*100k=367,347, a much more plausible number of those in that age group.
    
    Or, Occam’s razor at work, my maths reasoning, always dubious, is in terminal decline.
    
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    December 19, 2021 1:35pm
    - Kiwi Dave
      
      Ahh, should have read further down. Others – Rodney, Chuck, Wayne – had already noticed the problem hours earlier.
      
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      December 19, 2021 4:03pm
- bronny1
  
  It’s deliberate. Perhaps add your comment to their comments. Comments are open for a change.
  
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  December 19, 2021 8:36am
  - Joely Doe
    
    No point.
    Any comment that points out errors in Stuff does not get printed – otherwise they would be correcting errors all day!
    
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    December 19, 2021 10:39am
    - info@cruzpro.com
      
      True,
      
      I was one of the first people to comment to Stuff about the error in the article (comments were open but none yet listed).
      
      My comment was not published but over 100 others were. Stuff is allowing the error to continue. Comments now closed.
      
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      December 19, 2021 12:04pm
- pdm
  
  Info – first line should read.
  
  Stuff has stuffed up again.
  
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  December 19, 2021 8:37am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Must be that leftist roving decimal point causing trouble again. It could not possibly mean they are just stupid//
  
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  December 19, 2021 8:46am
- Stellaboxer
  
  Curious how the bad maths always seems to over state the case rather than understate it depending on what fuels the fire best
  
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  December 19, 2021 8:47am
- Rodney Hide
  
  Hi Info
  
  I think the difference is total population as the denominator versus the cohort. It’s not deaths per total nz population but deaths per 100,000 of the, say, 70 – 79 cohort.
  
  I haven’t checked the numbers myself but just eyeballed them. I am on my phone not pc so can’t get the stats.
  
  Best
  
  Rodney
  
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  December 19, 2021 8:49am
  - Fletch
    
    Probably right. If based on the deaths of all age groups then surely the number would be
    
    9 ÷ 49 = 0.18367 which you then multiply by 100,000,
    18,367 deaths per 100,000
    
    So I’m not sure where they get the 2.45 from at all in that case.
    Deaths per 100,000 is not a useful number when you have so few deaths to begin with.
    
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    December 19, 2021 11:09am
- Wayne Mapp
  
  I have looked at the chart. The death rate per 100,000 is pretty obviously related to the population within the specific age cohort. The rate of 2.45 is therefore accurate for the population of those aged 70 to 79.
  
  The whole point of the chart was to show the mortality rate within each age cohort. It is not enough just to know that covid tends to kill older people, it is also necessary to establish the actual risk for each cohort. The chart does precisely that.
  
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  December 19, 2021 9:06am
  - emmess
    
    Wayne Mapp is correct about the number dying with Covid
    But to put it in context, I heard yesterday from Ben Shapiro, 4000 per 100000 Americans over the age of 65 will die in any given year, it would be a very similar number here.
    
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    December 19, 2021 10:16am
    - Ra Henare
      
      Did some research a while back.
      Approx 70 persons over 65yo die every day.
      
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      December 19, 2021 4:36pm
- NK
  
  2.45 per 100,000!!! What’s the panic about???
  
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  December 19, 2021 9:08am
- Chuck Bird
  
  Is it possible that the 2.45 is the death rate of the number per 100,000 of those 70 to 79?
  
  I have not been easily able to find the number of people in that age group. However, say it was 367,300 then the 2.45 would add up.
  
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  December 19, 2021 9:19am
- yobi
  
  All things being equal per decade of age group in NZ is about 500,000. So for the 70 – 79 age group at 9 deaths that would be 1.8 per 100,000. At 2.45 that would suggest that this age group has a total of about 367,000 people in it, which sounds about right. Sadly it looks like Stuffed is right. It is a bitter pill to swallow.
  
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  December 19, 2021 10:19am
- Alan Wilkinson
  
  The real problem with those statistics is the lack of context. First, what is the period and what is the normal fatality rate for that period? Second, what is the confidence range for those case numbers? Third, what is the vaccination and Covid variant impact on those numbers?
  
  In the absence of that information little can be deduced.
  
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  December 19, 2021 10:59am
  - Nickc2
    
    Nevva mind Alan at least the Govt paid them to pubish it and probably provided the script.
    
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    December 19, 2021 11:33am
Lee C

This Austrailian piliot’s response to mandatory vaccinations is doing the rounds.

It’s twenty-six minutes long, so far in excess of the average attention-span that 99.95 people won’t get it.

https://youtu.be/vvKFE8cX9DU
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December 19, 2021 8:14am
- MCōs
  
  That would include me, particularly as I’m not that interested in what some random Aussie pilot feels about mandatory vaccines.
  Similarly I don’t expect anyone would be interested in what I, a retiree, would talk about on the subject for 26 mind numbing minutes.
  
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  December 19, 2021 8:31am
  - info@cruzpro.com
    
    To lose your job after 32 years of faithfull employment because you won’t submit to coercion. How sad.
    
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    December 19, 2021 8:43am
    - Warren
      
      Especially with the corruption happening with Government’s in many countries, take New Zealand as a example. They introduced a covid – 19 fund to help and fight the pandemic, only to get greedy and use it to bribe the voter with millions to camera’s on fishing boats, free lunches for all at any school, a money figure that hasn’t been released on what was given to the Kainga Ora Acceleration fund to help the poor purchase a new home and many other things to support their Party and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.
      If this is not corruption I don’t know what is because no mater how you look at it you have to say it’s buying support with taxpayers money and nothing to do with Covid-19.
      
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      December 19, 2021 9:39am
      - KevO'Brien
        
        They are also avoiding Parliamentary scrutiny for their unauthorised expenditure.
        
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        December 19, 2021 12:40pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  That was quite powerful, even though I skipped through it. Will watch the whole thing later.
  He is correct, they are NOT anit-vaxxers, they are freedom fighters fighting tyranny!
  A bloody good rant, I hope he keeps his job.
  
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  December 19, 2021 8:37am
  - Lee C
    
    So you are just indicating proof of my stat, then Mcos?
    Thanks.
    
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    December 19, 2021 9:00am
Mr_Blobby

So the battle of the compliant verses the non compliant continues.

The sheep v the goats.

The power of the State verses the Individual

Welcome to another day of lockdown tyranny.

And the would be Tyrant a Evil SLG who knows nothing about anything.
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December 19, 2021 8:15am
Iamright

I read in the Herald that our great socialist hypocritical leader is not doing the big day on the cheap. What she is spending on the wedding could probably lift a 1,000 kids out of poverty. Do as I say not as I do. Bloody typical socialist arrogance.
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December 19, 2021 8:18am
- Pavel
  
  Imagine being so wealthy that you fall out with the venue because you can’t have your favorite celebrity chef do the catering. It’s time to start questioning Jacindas wealth.
  
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  December 19, 2021 8:54am
  - Ruahine
    
    You may be surprised at the amount of ‘help’ that will be available by many ‘happy’ taxpayers, whether they like it or not, so that everything goes smoothly.
    
    For example getting a large chunk of the East Coast air space closed so that people in Cessnas won’t fly over whilst the great event is taking place towing large banners with ‘hurty’ words written on them.
    
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    December 19, 2021 9:37am
  - Prince
    
    Nah, stick to Luxon’s houses and religion.
    Can’t question the Chosen One’s lifestyle.
    
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    December 19, 2021 9:56am
  - Sacha
    
    She will have been well looked after by the vaccine maker.
    A few million dollars out of the few billion wouldn’t be missed – and the exchange rate is ok too.
    
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    December 19, 2021 10:00am
  - Scooter
    
    No wonder she’s now gone with a private residence, can bring in who she likes and I bet isn’t paying a fraction of what it would cost. I doubt the owner would seriously charge the PM, not for staying there.
    
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    December 19, 2021 10:21am
- KevO'Brien
  
  Are Hectors dolphins on the menu?
  
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  December 19, 2021 9:03am
- fernglas
  
  She will not be spending anything. She will be paid a six figure sum by Woman’s Day for exclusive photo’s, the exclusivity of which will be ensured by Police and the Air Force on the grounds of national security. She will get the wedding venue free of charge from some American hedge fund billionaire who wants to suck up to someone who might be important, and Lorde will do a couple of songs out of aroha. The security at the door will be looked after by Police security types, and any change to the number or vaccination status of people allowed to attend such events will take place the day after the nuptials.
  So don’t panic. No children will miss out on Christmas dinner because of this. They will all instead be able to join the team of 5 million in rejoicing in the beauty of our beloved leader’s publicity whoring. Then they can go back to the motel.
  
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  December 19, 2021 9:08am
  - sooty
    
    I have a question?
    What is it costing the taxpayer and would anyone other than labour spend it?
    
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    December 19, 2021 10:16am
    - pdm
      
      Probably a lot of flights from Wellington and Auckland by the Wedding Arrangers to get things `tickety boo’ for starters.
      
      Is Grunters Covid fund solvent enough to handle and hide that?
      
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      December 19, 2021 12:46pm
  - Fletch
    
    Would be ironic if it turned into a super spreader event…
    
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    December 19, 2021 11:22am
    - Lee C
      
      Hrd not to as Ardern is probably the country’s most efficeint ‘spreader’ we have…
      
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      December 19, 2021 12:51pm
- virtualmark
  
  I find it amazing that a Labour Party prime minister would choose to get married at the country manor of a US hedge-fund billionaire.
  
  Wonder if Michael Savage and Norman Kirk would attend? (if they were still alive, natch)
  
  Jacinda sees herself as a minor royal, rather than Prime Minister. She loves the adulation and attention. And she’s popular with a lot of the population. But I’ve never heard her say anything where I thought “Gosh, that’s smart and insightful”, and I have zero confidence she could stand up for NZ’s interests against a strong-willed leader like Xi.
  
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  December 19, 2021 9:09am
  - sooty
    
    Best First Friends?
    Her rumored $25 million is not in the same league!
    
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    December 19, 2021 10:18am
  - pdm
    
    like Xi – or Putin.
    
    Despite the common interests and agendas.
    
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    December 19, 2021 12:47pm
- NK
  
  And she’s hiring the estate of a New York hedge fund capitalist billionaire!!!
  
  I despise that woman with everything that makes up my human body.
  
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  December 19, 2021 9:11am
  - Chuck Bird
    
    Is she hiring it?
    
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    December 19, 2021 9:22am
    - Captain Mainwaring
      
      The number of anti-Cindy protesters at that wedding will make the recent crowd on Lambton Quay look like a backyard BBQ. I wonder how the police will control it.
      
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      December 19, 2021 9:31am
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        There’s no way protesters will be anywhere near to Nick’s Head homestead.
        
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        December 19, 2021 11:44am
  - David Garrett
    
    Nick K: Crikey! You are normally such an even tempered chap! I can’t stand listening to her, but that’s about as far as the reaction goes for me.
    
    I said back in the day that she spoke like the second speaker of the sixth form debating team. She now speaks like the captain of the team – but you’d expect that after 12 years practice – and lots of media training.
    
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    December 19, 2021 9:46am
    - pdm
      
      Hell GD – mrspdm and I gave up on her in April 2020.
      
      Too childish and partronising for us.
      
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      December 19, 2021 12:51pm
  - emmess
    
    Jacinda really is the Marie Antoinette of the 21st Century
    
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    December 19, 2021 10:23am
    - Scooter
      
      Cindy says in her wedding speech “Let them eat cake”and the all roar with laughter”
      
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      December 19, 2021 12:17pm
    - KevO'Brien
      
      Can she get the same attention?
      
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      December 19, 2021 12:43pm
    - tf78
      
      emmess, I liken her to Nero.
      
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      December 19, 2021 2:29pm
      - Bluegrass
        
        See Incitatus and Caligula.
        
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        December 20, 2021 8:12am
  - namron
    
    Try “Nick’s Head Station” in google and see if you approve of their venue!
    
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    December 19, 2021 12:44pm
- amospicton
  
  I hope someone checks that she’s paying the full commercial rate. Otherwise that’s a donation from a US hedge fund ‘billionaire’ to our PM directly. Doesn’t look good.
  
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  December 19, 2021 10:06am
  - pdm
    
    If he gets the PIE rate dropped 5% thats a good deal. lol.
    
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    December 19, 2021 12:52pm
  - Paulus
    
    Bet its free !
    
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    December 19, 2021 1:24pm
- tf78
  
  Iamright, if a magazine is ‘sponsoring’ the wedding I guess the taxpayers will be actually paying for it. She wouldn’t open her wallet, not even to let the moths out.
  
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  December 19, 2021 10:13am
- curry4me
  
  Nickc2: They probably think truth is a defunct weekly news paper.
  
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  December 19, 2021 2:46pm
Ipanema69

I passed through the SH1 checkpoint south of Whangarei yesterday at about 12.30pm.

Total of 11 cops present and 2 of TTTBC folk.

Hone must be having difficulty finding volunteers . I guess the novelty is wearing off.

The smartest thing that the police could do is insist on a 1 to 1 ratio of volunteers to police staff. If not met then the checkpoint just waves all vehicles through.
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December 19, 2021 8:20am
- Benedict Yu
  
  The whole thing will just fade away.
  
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  December 19, 2021 8:33am
  - Ruahine
    
    Should never have been there in the first place.
    
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    December 19, 2021 11:52am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  So the vetting must have found more bad bastards than they thought?
  
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  December 19, 2021 8:39am
  - Ipanema69
    
    Hi Steve,
    
    Yes that is possibly it.
    
    However to provide 24/7 shift coverage for a single person in any position you need generally 5 to 6 staff. This assumes that each staff member is working full time i.e. 40 hours per week.
    
    If I assume that on average the police have say 8 people on duty at any given time (more during the day and fewer ar night but an average of eight). Then there are about 50 police staff committed to each check point. As there are two checkpoints then that’s about 100 cops.
    
    For Hone to match this he would have to find 100 people prepared to volunteer full time for the foreseeable future.
    
    In reality anyone who could pass the vetting probably has a job, family and a life. Its unlikely that such people would drop everything to volunteer full time on this project indefinitely.
    
    In reality most such volunteers would be able to offer say 4hrs per week on average. If you do the math this means that Hone needs around a 1000 motivated people who can pass the vetting.
    
    I doubt he can get anywhere near that number.
    
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    December 19, 2021 9:15am
    - RalphT
      
      Hone’s supporters have jobs?
      
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      December 19, 2021 10:36am
- kowtow
  
  Hone doesn’t need vols , the Top Brass will always comply. If one of the blocks didn’t have the required civvy the Plod would probably detail one of their own to pull on a scivvy and pretend.
  
  Meanwhile all across NZ crime continues but police are sent to do this nonsense , the Media remain quiet and many voters don’t care .
  
  Appalling.
  
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  December 19, 2021 8:43am
  - sooty
    
    Would they rope in a genuine one or put on some bootpolish?
    
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    December 19, 2021 10:21am
- Pavel
  
  Sounds like the border iwi set up with police at Mokau, on the Taranaki/Waikato border, at the start of the last lockdown. Lasted about 3 weeks, the local iwi got bored and the police were too stretched to bother keeping it up.
  
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  December 19, 2021 8:52am
  - Pavel
    
    Well, what do you know? They’ll be gone tomorrow. Lol didn’t even last a week.
    https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/300481693/covid19-police-move-to-roving-checkpoints-and-spot-checks-in-northland
    
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    December 19, 2021 8:21pm
- Nickc2
  
  Hey, give Hone’s Gang a break, the pub was open and was Saturday FFS, //
  
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  December 19, 2021 9:12am
- David Garrett
  
  Ipane: He’s not having trouble finding volunteers per se mate; he’s having trouble finding volunteers who can pass the police vetting that Coster decided late in the day was required. The rest of the “volunteers” would be gang members or other criminals who even Coster couldn’t approve of.
  
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  December 19, 2021 9:51am
  - Ipanema69
    
    Hi DG,
    
    Very true.
    
    The media reported vetting fail rate was said to be 50% (and I was told by a local in the know it was more like 75%). If that sample is representative of the ngapuhi population as a whole then it is a fairly depressing statistic.
    
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    December 19, 2021 11:14am
    - KevO'Brien
      
      Good reason to prevent the whole of the north defiling the rest.
      
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      December 19, 2021 12:47pm
- 70andstilllearning
  
  Similar experience but late afternoon. All done and dusted in about 1/2 a minute – a booze checkpoint would have taken longer. When your’re the only north bound car on the road within sight that it wasn’t really a surprise.
  
  But a couple of takeaways from the experience:
  – firstly this trip is done every year on the weekend before Xmas. In over a decade I’ve never seen this part of SH1 as dead as it was yesterday between 4 & 5 in the arvo. I think John Bishop’s opinion piece in stuff the other day pretty well some sums it up.
  
  https://www.stuff.co.nz/opinion/127290132/sorry-northland-im-not-welcome-so-im-not-coming
  
  And the corollary of course, is that the taxpayer is paying a hell of a cost to support the final straw that will probably break the back of more Northland hospitality and tourism small businesses this summer.
  – secondly, a cynical comment from one of the passengers as we pulled up to the TTBC checkers, ” Looks like the kids can clear the vetting process, but not the parents – can only see one adult here”.
  
  All very sad really.
  
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  December 19, 2021 10:28am
  - NoFax
    
    John Bishop’s piece was interesting but he, like many, is peddling misinformation. He states “I’m simply not going to take the risk of catching Covid-19 because there are still so many unvaxxed people up there…”
    It is widely known that the chances of catching Covid from the vaxxed or unvaxxed is the same. Unvaxxed pose no greater risk of catching Covid than the vaxxed – hence why the vaccine passport makes no sense whatsoever.
    While these lies are still spreading and not be corrected we will continue to make stupid decisions.
    
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    December 19, 2021 11:26am
    - KevO'Brien
      
      The score now suggests that the unvaxxed are more at risk from the vaxxed.
      
      Makes all the lock downs dubious. Even worse when the economic, social and mental health implications are considered.
      
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      December 19, 2021 12:50pm
      - 70andstilllearning
        
        Which is one of the stupid features of the checkpoints. Allow proven “clean” unvaxed thru and assume all vaxxed are automatically “clean” despite the acknowledged shortcomings of the vaccine efficacy.
        
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        December 19, 2021 2:13pm
- Manu-Rau
  
  I suspect that ‘volunteers’ thought/had been told they were going to be paid. When it became apparent that they were expected to do it for free, most went back to the pub, the couch or the weed patch.
  
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  December 19, 2021 2:18pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

I have a MAGA meme that I can not get into here, but the text goes like this.
Interviewer: “Out of all the lies you have told, which one is your favorite?”
Ardern: “I don’t tell lies”
Interviewer: ” Yeah, that’s my favorite too”
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December 19, 2021 8:24am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  Nuclear burn!
  
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  December 19, 2021 8:26am
- Bobba Fret
  
  Very good but will never happen with our media.
  
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  December 19, 2021 10:51am
Tony Stuart

A damning indictment of the dual clusterf#ck that is MBIE and MIQ. It’s just a shame Nicholas Jones waiting until six days before Christmas, and after Parliament went into the summer recess to go to print:

Healthcare workers were stranded overseas because inexperienced officials deciding who deserved MIQ rooms “strictly followed the criteria rather than considering the wider contextual factors”, government documents reveal.

Another problem was a “breakdown in process” that meant some DHBs didn’t actually forward on applications for rooms to the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment.

The Herald on Sunday has obtained emails and documents that show why some doctors, surgeons and midwives weren’t able to get into New Zealand, despite critical healthcare workers being able to apply for an emergency allocation of rooms.

Health Minister Andrew Little asked his officials to get to the bottom of the situation, after his office received numerous and troubling examples of workers being locked out of the country.

That included Dr Jim Faherty, who couldn’t return to his job as clinical director of Southland Hospital’s obstetrics and gynaecology service, after travelling to the United States to care for his dying father.

In September, Southern DHB chief executive Chris Fleming wrote a letter in support of Faherty, who is the only person at the DHB who does certain surgeries, and had a list of more than 30 operations awaiting his return, “some with potential cancer or pre-cancer diagnosis”.

Faherty’s service had vacancies and more than 200 patients were waiting too long for treatment, Fleming wrote: “His absence is exacerbating this situation and denying the Southland population health care.”

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/revealed-why-critical-healthcare-workers-couldnt-get-into-nz/CM5WRVOZ26V42XON5MG2GQWBUI/

Fortunately, Dr Faherty got in on his THIRD application for an emergency exemption, but only after the involvement of the two southernmost National MP’s, Penny Simmonds (Invercargill) and Joseph Mooney (Southland)!

At a time when our health resources are stretched so thinly, and now exacerbated by more than 50 doctors and 500-plus nurses unable to work because they won’t get vaccinated, you’d think Ministers would have given MBIE an instruction to prioritise healthcare workers. But no, although somehow they managed to fit global gas-guzzler James Shaw into a self-isolation pilot (which was only 50% subscribed, by the way).

So next time a Labour MP tells you about New Zealand’s world-leading Covid response, ask them about this omnishamble!
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December 19, 2021 8:34am
- Alan Wilkinson
  
  The public service doesn’t have brain cells, only instructions and a Union. Usually the instructions conflict so nothing gets done. The Union is ok with that.
  
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  December 19, 2021 10:41am
KevO'Brien

Contracts to avoid:
https://joannenova.com.au/2021/12/say-hello-serf-to-your-new-head-of-state-mr-pfizer/

These terms would not be enforceable in NZ so they include offshore arbitration to get around their mafioso actions.

Why didn’t the govt’s legal team point out the absurd terms of such a “contract”?
Is the Solicitor General up to scratch?
Did MBIE do the job instead?
Were Pharmac in love?
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December 19, 2021 8:37am
- RichardX
  
  Kev, Did you read the bit in the article you linked to that said all the contracts may be fake?
  
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  December 19, 2021 10:07am
  - KevO'Brien
    
    It was only a maybe. I have read some of the docs referred to.
    Any such doc should have raised flags top mast at any reviewing lawyer of the NZ govt.
    
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    December 19, 2021 12:53pm
    - RichardX
      
      Did you miss where I used the words “may” and “be”?
      
      If the docs are fake you are wasting everyone’s time and spreading conspiracy.
      
      DO you have evidence the docs are not fake?
      
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      December 19, 2021 6:29pm
MCōs

With any luck the Blackcaps recent record for the worst defeat by runs in Test history with be beaten at least once by the even more pitiful English cricket team in Australia.
Pity it had to be Australia.
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December 19, 2021 8:41am
- Tony Stuart
  
  I hate to be a corrector MCos, but New Zealand’s defeat by India was only the 20th worst of all time. Ironically, Australia holds the record for the worst ever, a defeat by 672 runs versus England at Brisbane in 1928.
  
  https://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/records/283901.html
  
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  December 19, 2021 9:20am
  - pdm
    
    NZ hasn’t lost to the Netherlands either – Aussies have.
    
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    December 19, 2021 9:28am
Truman lodge

Denmark opened up a couple of months ago lifting all restrictions and declared we must learn to live with covid.

Well cafes, pubs, cinemas etc no crowd’s at sports has been implemented because of the rise in cases. It’s going to happen here and everywhere. Level 3 or 4 lockdown coming our way late January or February. Go hard Go early…
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December 19, 2021 8:59am
- oldfella
  
  Level 3 or 4 lockdown coming our way late January or February. Go hard Go early…
  
  But not if it impacts the Wedding of the Century. Maybe after that.
  
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  December 19, 2021 10:45am
- UrbanNeocolonialist
  
  yep if you want to do any summer activities get in quick. We’ll be locked down before end of Jan.
  
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  December 19, 2021 12:07pm
- KevO'Brien
  
  I hope your wishful thoughts are right. “Ought” may not be considered.
  
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  December 19, 2021 12:55pm
KevO'Brien

See how Jacinda is connected to the heartbeat of the world–she must be constantly in contact. Is her allegiance to NZ or elsewhere?

https://www.globalresearch.ca/klaus-schwabs-wefs-school-for-covid-dictators-a-plan-for-the-great-reset/5764929
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December 19, 2021 9:01am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  She’s going to the wrong school
  
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  December 19, 2021 9:04am
- tf78
  
  Kev, a shame the don’t actually teach economics.
  
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  December 19, 2021 10:31am
- RichardX
  
  KevO’Brien
  See how Jacinda is connected to the heartbeat of the world–she must be constantly in contact. Is her allegiance to NZ or elsewhere?
  
  https://www.globalresearch.ca/klaus-schwabs-wefs-school-for-covid-dictators-a-plan-for-the-great-reset/576492
  DECEMBER 19, 2021 9:01AM
  
  Why do you think “post hoc ergo propter hoc”, the basic premise of that article as laid out in the 2nd sentence, is useful?
  
  Do you have an issue with all the graduates of that programme or just the ones that have been pointed out to you?
  
  Do you think it is odd that a programme aimed at high achievers who are potential global leaders has a high number of graduates who are leaders in their field?
  
  Where do you think Maria Bartiromo’s allegiance lies?
  
  Where do you think Adam C Bird’s allegiance lies?
  
  Where do you think Eli Beer’s allegiance lies?
  
  Don’t beat around the bush.
  If you want to make a claim about the PM of NZ, man up and make the claim.
  
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  December 19, 2021 10:38am
  - KevO'Brien
    
    Read Klaus Scwab’s manifesto and other writings.
    He believes in population reduction, micro chipping, climate change lock down and transhumans–you will like it and own nothing.
    He has cleverly founded a school of international operators and is well underway.
    
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    December 19, 2021 1:00pm
    - RichardX
      
      KevO’Brien
      Read Klaus Scwab’s manifesto and other writings.
      He believes in population reduction, micro chipping, climate change lock down and transhumans–you will like it and own nothing.
      He has cleverly founded a school of international operators and is well underway.
      
      DECEMBER 19, 2021 1:00PM
      
      Do you have any evidence of your claim?
      
      Do you have any evidence that the PM of NZ is part of a group of “international operators”
      
      Do you understand “post hoc ergo propter hoc” is fallacious reasoning?
      
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      December 19, 2021 6:33pm
Yvette

Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency REVIEWING THE SPEED LIMITS – so why are you changing all the speed limits? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=412e9HHorLc

Is this near saturation television campaign featuring absolutely obnoxious children (sorry, children I hope you paid well for you smearing in this ad – as reflected a couple of days ago on talkback radio – NewsTalkZB, I think), to evidence an immensely expensive television exposure for a matter that is happening any case, or is it to purposely frustrate viewers to a position of ignoring something else this Labour Government is doing specifically or just what the dividers-of-the-nation (slow roll-out of Pfizer fizzes, so the first vaccinated should have Passes with expired Expiry Dates, to He Puapua, and to vaccinated v “unvaxxed”) are doing in general?
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December 19, 2021 9:06am
- graham
  
  I saw one of the TV ads last night, and found it incredibly frustrating to watch.
  
  We know the changing of the speed limits will happen, and it has already been presented as a fait accompli – in the so-called “consultation” the new speed limits are listed and if you feel they are wrong or unjustified you then have to present a case explaining why the speed limits should remain as they are. The NZ Transport Agency don’t have to justify why they are changing the limits beyond, “We are telling you it will be safer”, but you have to justify why you wish to retain the status quo. And we know full well that any consultation will be ignored, so one might as well ask, why bother?
  
  And the ads achieve nothing other than rubbing salt in the wound.
  
  NZTA are just one of several bodies that are completely out of control. They are drunk on power, they know they can wield their power as they wish and there is absolutely nothing you or I can do about it.
  
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  December 19, 2021 10:12am
- Yvette
  
  Token Maori girl: So you are changing all the speed limits?
  Clipboard: Yes – no! Just the (rubbish truck whizzes by) – rubbish ones. (another waste truck) Just the shi– (waste truck whizzes by, honking horn) – ones!
  
  For a long time now (since the Toyota ute ad) you have been able to say “Bugger” on network television, but it seems now you can almost say “shi–” in a younger audience viewing zone too.
  
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  December 19, 2021 10:50am
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Imagine, if you will, that there’s a 99.97% chance that you won’t shit your pants, but you are forced to wear a diaper just in case.
Now imagine that you must wear the diaper to prevent your neighbours from shitting theirs as well
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December 19, 2021 9:07am
quarterpack

You have got to admire the ability of the Climate Change Ministers shameless ability for utter bullshit….in reply to the question of how heavy road transport is going to be made 100 per cent carbon neutral by 2040 the reply was “we have yet to identify the policy settings” ( translation… I dunno)
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December 19, 2021 9:13am
Julie

Evidence from the UK shows that Omicron is an issue because of the number of people who are getting sick and need up to a week off work to recover, not because they need hospitalisation or are at risk of death. This is putting pressure on services with so many off at once. The number of people in hospital with Covid has increased but they are in hospital for other reasons not Covid and would be there regardless. Death rates
of people with Covid is also likely to increase but Covid has not caused there deaths.
The BBC explain that clearly unlike our press who continue with there fear porn.
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December 19, 2021 9:15am
- mandk
  
  In his latest YouTube vid, Dr John Campbell reported that there were 65 people in the UK in hospital with Omicron. That’s equivalent to 4 people in NZ being in hospital with the bug.
  
  He also reported that the top 3 symptoms are runny nose, headache and sore throat.
  
  Sounds like a bad cold or mild flu.
  
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  December 19, 2021 9:53am
artemisia

Article in Time magazine – ‘Want to Win the White House? Recruit a Candidate for School Board’ – pointing out that coattails can make a difference. By which they mean that candidates on the same ticket can impact results even if they don’t win. Likely by getting multiple candidates knocking on doors and explaining the ticket’s approach.

An extract –

“We’re getting a more definitive body of evidence that running people for office, even in places where we know Democrats might not win, has ancillary benefits. It has people out, organizing in communities where maybe those folks haven’t seen a Democrat knocking on their door in a long time,” says Ross Morales Rocketto, a co-founder of Run for Something. Strategic party committees are now starting to look at filling the gaps on existing ballots, not necessarily to win the races but to build capacity, goodwill and potential. The low-cost local races may actually be a better investment for parties than the marquee races.

Different system here, but Labour does well in local body elections, and maybe they have figured out that quantity beats quality. And maybe there is a crossover to party votes in general elections.

Could also work for other parties with a named ticket.

For example, ACT has been getting traction and could consider a couple of trial runs in the local body elections in 2022. A candidate for mayor, several councillors, other roles on the ballot, and door knocking. Lots of door knocking.

Seem to recall David Seymour saying a few years back he had knocked on every door in Epsom. Last local body elections only one candidate knocked on my door. Didn’t get my vote as rather clueless and slogan driven, but did get elected as a councillor.

Stupid idea?

https://time.com/6129828/local-elections-midterms/
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December 19, 2021 9:15am
Yvette

Relief from covid – too bloody long, I know – flying in the face of more popular misery… take one’s mind off covid, or scroll on down –
Pike River – Random question –

Background –
13 December 2021 Operational update for families.pdf
Items of low or no economic value are being sold to local businesses and contractors through a tender system – this includes items such as mesh. Items such as the main [surface] fan which has been decommissioned is remaining on site as part of the handover to the Department of Conservation including all buildings and workshops and other infrastructure remains such as the old coal slurry line and pump station foundations.
https://www.pikeriverrecovery.govt.nz/documents/document/?ID=1053

Further background
Commissioning and operation of the fan
65. The main fan was first operated on 4 October 2010, but sparks came from the fan shaft at the junction with the intake stopping through which it passed. To resolve the problem Pike removed a brass bush, which formed a seal between the drive shaft and the stopping. This left a gap which Mr Sanders estimated was at least 20mm. Mr White accepted there was potential for methane-contaminated air to leak through the gap if the fan was not operating. [1]
– Royal Commission on the Pike River Coal Mine Tragedy Te Komihana a te Karauna mō te Parekura Ana Waro o te Awa o Pike Volume 2 page 93 https://pikeriver.royalcommission.govt.nz/Volume-Two—Contents

◼ Where is the brass bush (separation plate or further seal) now?
Removed from the fan motor assembly, was it set down beside the main fan motor and now blown to hell somewhere in the mine workings west of its possible resting place?
Or was it bought to the surface to sit on a shelf in a workshop, now to be handed over to to the Department of Conservation, who may not know what it is?

[1] … commissioning of the fan – which was completed only nine days before the explosion of November 19, 2010 – did not go well. It produced sparks when it was put through its first test run. To resolve the problem, Pike removed a brass bush (washer) which formed a seal between the drive shaft and the stopping (seal), leaving a gap through which gassy air could leak if the fan was not operating.
None of these details is new or controversial –all are in the Royal Commission report.
– Rebecca Macfie, author of Tragedy at Pike River Mine: How and Why 29 Men Died, https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/20-02-2019/why-the-missing-pike-river-evidence-really-matters
_________

And from a personal record of WhaleOil comments [apparently otherwise erased when a court case of defamation was won against Cameron Slater] is the remark –

While Andrew Little [surely somewhat self-conflicted by a prior Union position to now be Minister Responsible for Pike River Recovery] was defending Pike River Coal, an Australian gas drainage engineer (anonymous because he feared ‘recriminations’) said he visited Pike River in 2009 and observed that its operating standards were “extremely poor”.
He said that he had been told by miners [so some, if not all, definitely knew] that the mine was flooded with methane gas about three weeks before the first explosion.
He said miners had bored through ‘high flow methane holes’ without any risk assessment conducted or procedure on how to manage gas flow from the hole in place. He was critical that PRC has not yet implemented a gas drainage drilling regime that could relieve the pressure when there was a build up of gas by drilling a hole in the coal seam.

There was an item on YouTube which featured leaked audio recordings – from the mine to a surface control room – of incidents that went wrong on the morning prior to the first explosion, later in the afternoon. The item is now removed, but was alarming in that it indicated methane monitors shutting down machinery, break-downs of equipment and absence of a means to measure the gas levels.

◼ Why did certain miners in certain locations remain working?
In comment at the end of the video clip, a miner said there were several incidents in the two weeks before the disaster when miners should have walked off the job, many miners had already lined up other work to go to, and remained only for a $13,000 bonus.

Dean Dunbar has said, “You don’t wipe out 29 innocent people and walk away from that” but “innocent” in the sense of “without experience or knowledge” does not apply here – they were well aware of the danger, the lack of gas monitoring or drainage, and methane monitors shutting down machinery.
“They were playing Russian roulette with everyone who went underground” – that may be true, but so was Everyone who went underground was knowingly playing Russian roulette.
[Russian roulette (русская рулетка, russkaya ruletka) is a potentially deadly game of chance in which a player places a single round in a revolver, spins the cylinder, places the muzzle against the head or body (of the opponent or most usually themselves), and pulls the trigger. If the loaded chamber aligns with the barrel, the weapon will fire, killing or severely injuring the player, her or himself]

If the police entering the “crime scene“ of the mine, find the evidence of machinery that has shut down because of gas levels – if such evidence is possible, considering the forces of an explosion – will safety officers or mine management be at fault, or the operator and other miners who should have walked away from it and exited the mine?

Amongst those to blame for this tragedy – from union representation to safety officers [to the non-existent Manager of Ventilation – Royal Commission], to management – little mention is ever made of the miners themselves. Being victims, are they absolved of any culpability, is it some cultural blasphemy or utter disrespect of the dead [but still said sincerely, with due respect for the dead], or does a total disregard for absolute reality stop anyone from saying “Had they not chosen to remain there in obvious danger, they would not have died“

◼ Where now is the item which featured on YouTube, supposedly of leaked audio recordings of incidents that went wrong on the morning prior to the first explosion

And. perhaps rather ironically, are both brass bush and audio recording on the surface somewhere, and not a part of the roughly $50 million exercise to seek evidence underground?

And who is the person(s) who has drip-leaked-fed so much material to Newshub and / or THREE – mostly in their prior entities? And what else does she or him or they have?

OK, that is more than one random question.
But the last may be: Does anyone care? Another Royal Commission, that into the Christchurch Mosque Massacres, appears to not actually fathom the vital crux of those heinous events and the media still labels Tarrant as a white supremest rather than sorting “ecco-terrorist”, and a proposed Royal Commission into the entire Labour Government response to the covid pandemic will suffer the same demise.

◼ PS – DNA. Since New Zealand (South Island) scientists were behind the efforts to detect Nessie’s DNA in Loch Ness water samples, and detection now reveals covid remnants molecular debris in New Zealand cities waste water, did the Government ever test the outflow from the Pike River drift for human DNA?
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December 19, 2021 9:39am
- Yvette
  
  Please note, the above “Pike River” screed was written and placed without the slightest knowledge of the Newshub “Breaking News” –
  Pike River Mine: Further human remains have been discovered
  https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2021/12/pike-river-mine-further-human-remains-have-been-discovered.html
  – but, so far, I doubt it changes anything.
  
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  December 19, 2021 10:46am
  - Jack5
    
    The Herald report says borehole drilling was due to finish last Friday, “but additional funding had been secured which meant further boreholes would be drilled in the new year.”
    
    The costs of recovery exploration are already over $50 million. And no bodies recovered and no conclusive cause of the disaster.
    
    Ardern land, where money grows like pine cones.
    
    We live in a Socialist Paradise.
    
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    December 19, 2021 12:52pm
Chuck Bird

For those who can access premium this is a worthwhile read.

Christopher and Amanda Luxon on life as leader, what lies ahead – and Luxon’s bad habits

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/christopher-and-amanda-luxon-on-life-as-leader-what-lies-ahead-and-luxons-bad-habits/C76445J3SIME7FDV5RWE7RIM4Q/
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December 19, 2021 9:42am
- 70andstilllearning
  
  I’ve got principles Chuck – refuse point blank to pay for Heralds “premium” news that they don’t really want the masses to read. As an amusing side point, Advocate/Herald used to drop daily papers to about half the street (30 houses) a couple of years ago. Looks to be about 2 now!
  
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  December 19, 2021 11:36am
  - sooty
    
    Don’t love luxon enough to pay for it!
    
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    December 19, 2021 11:47am
  - Alwynn
    
    Only half the street?
    I grew up in Napier during the late 1950’s. In that era virtually every single household got the paper home delivered. If a paper boy was off sick there was a simple rule for the substitute doing the delivery. It was to deliver a paper to every single house along the route. It was less bother than working from the list of subscribers and only added a couple of percent to the number of papers they tossed over the fence.
    Those were the (pre TV) days of course.
    
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    December 19, 2021 2:20pm
WaveyDavey

Modelling again…

SAGE is the group that advises the UK govt on the pandemic
They then commission modelling
Imperial College/Neil ferguson performs the “magic numbers”
Hendy picks up the magic numbers and runs them through his “tweaked” IC model to suit
NZ govt makes decisions on Hendy’s “woo”

Now look at this twitter exchange

“We generally model what we are asked to model. There is a dialogue in which policy teams discuss with the modellers what they need to inform their policy.”

TL:DR The modellers are told what outcomes are required and to produce evidence to justify those outcomes

https://dailysceptic.org/2021/12/18/sage-modeller-says-they-dont-model-good-outcomes-because-it-doesnt-add-any-further-information/

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/my-twitter-conversation-with-the-chairman-of-the-sage-covid-modelling-committee
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December 19, 2021 10:02am
- Ian Boag
  
  Not quite. The “model” is basically a large set of differential equations where the modeller sets up his/her version of all the relationships between the inputs/outputs involved.
  
  There are a whole raft of coefficients involved – eg the R0 value. The modeller has to take a stab at these based on numbers that makes physical sense. The “solution” is a time series for each of the outputs.
  
  To allow as best one can for the manifold uncertainties you run the model lots of times while varying the coefficients in a statistical way that makes sense.
  
  Not quite the same as “being told what answer you should produce”. Models are obviously not precise. The alternative of “we have nothing to worry about because I say so” is not all that flash either.
  
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  December 19, 2021 12:05pm
  - WaveyDavey
    
    If you’d actually bothered to glance at either of the links I supplied – clearly you haven’t – you’d have seen that the guy in charge of the SAGE modelling IN HIS OWN WORDS says that they ignore less dramatic (but equally likely) models as they PUSH a “we must do something” agenda
    
    He even stupidly says that they ignore models where the output suggests doing nothing and then says that “doing nothing” is not making a choice
    
    Surely any modeller worth anything should be providing a range of outcomes – Worst Case, Least Worst Case and Most Likely Case. If not then are not giving options but making prediction – all of which have been empirically proved wrong
    
    TL:DR, as you clearly don’t bother reading, equally likely and less terrifying outcomes are ignored
    
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    December 19, 2021 1:46pm
Truman lodge

The only people who have Grammy calibre artists play at their weddings are billionaires and A list Hollywood actors and sports stars. Jacinda showing her true opulence inline with most communist leaders.

Mind you lorde probably offered her service for free..
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December 19, 2021 10:25am
- kevn
  
  @Truman… Just a PR exercise for both media players.
  
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  December 19, 2021 1:34pm
- Alwynn
  
  Well, a precedent was set by our future King. After all he had Kiri Te Kanawa sing at his wedding to Diana. I would say he had better taste in his choice of singer than the PM.
  The following year Kiri was made a Dame of the British Empire. I wonder if Lorde will feature in next year’s New Year Honours? I guess that it would make her Dame Lorde? Rather like a chap I knew whose name was Earl King.
  
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  December 19, 2021 2:41pm
CAKE FACE1

The implications of the new variant Omicron have not been stated clearly and unequivocally.

New Zealanders have patiently hidden under our beds for two years waiting for 90% of our population to get vaccinated.

The cost has been exorbitant. We have closed our schools, and endured months of lockdowns. We have spent $150 billion so far. We have crippled our economy. We have created a divided society. We have obliterated entire industries, including tourism, which used to be our biggest.

Alas, the Omicron variant seems to be very resistant to a vaccines, to such an extent, they are largely a waste of time. We are back to square one. We have delayed the reckoning, at unaffordable cost.

We have a huge sunk cost, but to admit this is to lose face.

Everyone is silent on the matter. The chances are that Cindy will now go back to the legendary “elimination strategy”. The borders will remain closed.

Personally, I’m giving this ship of fools until August, then I’m off.

I would like to see Cindy questioned as to whether her previously announced border opening from January – May is still going ahead. I doubt it will.

CAKE warned day one of the first lockdown that new variants could mean that NZ was forever in and out of lockdown, with our borders closed forever, or at least until we went bankrupt. Way back then, I could see the absence of an exit plan. I realised it would get harder and harder to change strategy, because of the absolutely massive and growing sunk cost being accumulated.

This sunk cost could sink New Zealand. Cindy and her “so-called” experts can never admit they have been wrong since day one.

New Zealand is drowning in sunk costs and foolish pride.

What does Mr Luxon and Mr Seymour have to say on this matter?
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December 19, 2021 10:37am
David Garrett

Chuck: You actually PAY to read the former Journal of Record? But then I forget – you are wealthier than me!
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December 19, 2021 10:41am
- ByGolly
  
  If you are on Chrome, download this from Chrome web store and read it for free.
  
  https://chrome.google.com/webstore/search/NZ%20Hearld%20Premium%20Article%20Viewer
  
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  December 19, 2021 11:06am
  - kevn
    
    @ByGolly… Herald spelt Hearld.
    Is it a bona fide site?
    
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    December 19, 2021 1:33pm
  - Alwynn
    
    An alternative is to see if your local library offers Pressreader. That gives you free access to hundreds of papers and magazines worldwide, including the various editions of the Herald.
    
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    December 19, 2021 2:44pm
oldfella

THE US WEEK IN PICTURES: UNHAPPY LIBERAL HOLIDAYS EDITION (Powerline) Funny!
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2021/12/the-week-in-pictures-unhappy-liberal-holidays-edition.php
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December 19, 2021 10:49am
Jack5

Whities oppressing Melanesians as well as Maori?

A Fijian psychologist at the the University of Waikato, “Apo” Aporosa, in the Herald criticises the group that monitors food safety standards across the two countries,
Food Standards Australia New Zealand.

It is seeking submissions on proposed changes to the standard regulating kava use.

These would effectively ban takeaway kava and tighten regulations on how it is prepared.

Asked by the Herald, ferocious defender of our rights, why the changes were needed in New Zealand, an Australian spokesperson for FSANZ said: “Code requirements for kava are identical for Australia and New Zealand. Enforcement of the code is the responsibility of food enforcement agencies in Australia, and the Ministry for Primary Industries in New Zealand.”

Aporosa questions why the process isn’t “being run by members of the Pacific community”.

“It feels like we are being treated like ignorant natives, incapable of speaking for ourselves and our cultural substance and practice,” Aporosa told the Herald.

The procedure is: make submissions.

Other than that, should Fijians, or other kava-drinking minorities, decide NZ, or Australasian, food standards, on kava? Do Otago-Southland folk decide standards on scotch whisky? Should “refugees” NZ is bringing in from Colombia decide our laws on cocaine and heroin?
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December 19, 2021 11:01am
emmess

A christmas message from Neil Oliver
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69FgDShiDqc
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December 19, 2021 11:04am
kevn

@DG…. Yes, moi as well.
Got them down to $1 a week to access ‘premium’ content.
Worth it just to read Richard Prebble and Steven Joyce as they appear.
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December 19, 2021 11:17am
curry4me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5Nhl9EiGEg

Sadiq Khan Declares ‘Major Incident’ In London.

The establishment screw up the health system. Botch the response to the CCP virus, and
Now the chickens come home to roost. [4:10]
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December 19, 2021 11:20am
curry4me

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

Festive Season I An open-air dining experience in Bree Street Cape town kicked off today.

An open-air dining experience in Bree Street Cape town kicked off today. The one-day affair aims to help CBD-based eateries boost trading in a safe and socially distanced way by bringing more people back into the CBD. Through pedestrianising certain streets, the event seeks to facilitate and support restaurants that would’ve had a peak trading period with more international tourists if it were not for the travel bans. [8:23]
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December 19, 2021 11:21am
Fletch

Oh dear. From the British Medical Journal. That new pill from Merck that was supposedly so great and which our govt has ordered.

Molnupiravir was billed in press releases by Merck as having reduced hospital admissions by 50% in a phase III trial. That was the benefit cited by regulators in the UK, the first country to authorise the drug’s use last month. But the data presented to the FDA panel showed only a 30% reduction in admissions, a change that several panellists said was poorly explained.

[…]

The full data showed more hospital admissions among patients taking molnupiravir (6.2%) than among those taking a placebo (4.7%) and led Merck to revise the benefit of preventing admission downwards to 30%.

https://www.bmj.com/content/375/bmj.n2984

I bet Ivermectin is more effective than that.
Our govt has ordered some of the new drug as well.

https://pharmac.govt.nz/news-and-resources/news/2021-10-11-media-release-pharmac-negotiates-deal-for-molnupiravir-to-treat-covid-19/
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December 19, 2021 11:36am
David Garrett

Yet another poor little Maori boy bashed to death by those supposed to care for him:

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/300481742/police-name-10monthold-baby-who-died-of-nonaccidental-injuries-in-auckland

I have no inside information on this at all, but here’s my prediction: the little chap will have been killed by mum’s latest boyfriend…the little boy is evidence of the latest – or an earlier – occupant of mum’s bed, so he has to go. Rinse and repeat, again and again and again.

When are Maori going to demand that this horror stops among their people?
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December 19, 2021 11:47am
- Yvette
  
  David – When are Maori going to demand that this horror stops among their people?
  
  Without diminishing the dire seriousness of the matter you address, “For your consideration” …
  “Land in my region was stolen by the British Crown in order to extract oil and suck the land of all its nutrients while seeking to displace people. “These historic forces continue to shape my life and have brought me here,” they added. The activist says that those same forces remain at play in Aotearoa, mentioning the “theft of the foreshore and seabed”. … “I have grown up, graduated, fallen in love, fallen out of love, started and changed a couple of careers, all while the global north, colonial governments and corporations fudged with the future,” they said.
  “This is an invitation to you. This COP, learn our histories, listen to our stories, honour our knowledge and get in line, or get out of the way. “Kia ora, thank you,” they concluded.
  
  “They” are one person, by consider, in the pronoun confusion, the added power and presence it gives ones’ reported statements.
  
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  December 19, 2021 12:21pm
- Captain Mainwaring
  
  Well what a surprise that name is.
  
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  December 19, 2021 12:39pm
  - David Garrett
    
    Captain: Quite so…but if I had opined three days ago on the ethnicity of the latest dead little boy, Milky and his ilk would have called me a racist…of course my comment above is also inevitably racist for some stupid wokesters.
    
    I need to choose my words carefully here so as not to upset the mods – some of them are very sensitive…I an generally a strong proponent of the rule of law, i.e. the law of the land as enacted by our elected reps, but in this kind of case I can’t help thinking that a touch of “traditional Maori justice” might be appropriate.
    
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    December 19, 2021 12:48pm
- oldfella
  
  DG: Maori protecting their ‘borders’? Essential.
  Maori protecting their kids? Too busy protecting their borders.
  
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  December 19, 2021 12:41pm
- Nickc2
  
  That trend won’t appear in the revised curricula of Maori History/Culture and Maori Science can’t explain it away.
  
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  December 19, 2021 12:50pm
- Maggie Pie
  
  Honestly, beats me why these people don’t get a Cat.
  
  At least when you’re done holding them you can just drop them on the floor.
  
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  December 19, 2021 1:09pm
  - David Garrett
    
    That is an extraordinarily crass comment Maggie…even for you. At least you didn’t suggest it was your mythical “partner” making it.
    
    How can you make corny jokes over the death of a 10 month old baby? Really, tell me how that is remotely funny.
    
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    December 19, 2021 1:14pm
    - Maggie Pie
      
      What’s with this ‘mythical’ identity rubbish you go on with?
      Seems a bit rich coming from you. LOL!!
      
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      December 19, 2021 1:25pm
  - David Garrett
    
    …and the two (so far) who think it’s amusing to make jokes about the killing of a baby ought to be fucking ashamed of themselves.
    
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    December 19, 2021 1:33pm
    - Maggie Pie
      
      You know nothing about the circumstances of the case than anybody else.
      Yet you speculate on who the ‘killer’ is.
      
      Then when it suits, you decide to play the good-guy all of a sudden, throwing a Burke at me and suggesting…. I should “go and f–k myself.”
      
      I think you’re nothing but a blowhard misogynist keyboard bully.
      
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      December 19, 2021 2:05pm
      - David Garrett
        
        Well let’s see if I’m right about the killer…of course s/he may not ever be identified if “the whanau” close ranks around him or her as they did in the utterly shameful Kahui case.
        
        Oh and at least I am not an anonymous keyboard bully…even my address is public knowledge.
        
        And I will repeat myself: if you think the killing of a baby is a suitable subject for puerile jokes then shame on you…and your “partner”
        
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        December 19, 2021 2:17pm
      - Maggie Pie
        
        I see the mods have removed your revolting response to moi….had it been me that said that, I’m sure a ‘holiday’ would have been in order.
        
        You really need to learn how to control your pathetic outbursts.
        
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        December 19, 2021 2:30pm
      - David Garrett
        
        You are nothing more than a sad anonymous troll… you and the “partner”… and in saying that, I am being kind: if you really think joking about the killing of a baby is appropriate then you are a terrible human being
        
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        December 19, 2021 2:43pm
      - Maggie Pie
        
        You might think that Davey….but you’ve never had someone like Sir Bob Jones himself, come on here and write a ‘Guest Post’ praising any of your contributions to GD.
        
        Well I have. What does that tell you?
        
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        December 19, 2021 3:03pm
    - Alan Wilkinson
      
      Obviously you don’t get sardonic humour at least in this case. It’s not laughing at the event but mocking the perpetrator(s). Which is really what your speculations were also doing.
      
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      December 19, 2021 3:59pm
- Alan Wilkinson
  
  Child deaths are the tip of the iceberg, the remaining 12/13th being the children surviving abuse to perpetuate it.
  
  Short of forced sterilisation the ferals easily outbreed society’s ability to cope with them so early deaths must control the population.
  
  Racism is no answer and compounds the problem. Booming numbers of male school failures sets us up for worse times ahead. Giving departments cute Maori names has already just racialized their failures.
  
  Making it a Maori problem suits the Government which can wash its hands of it by throwing them some money. The real answer is to fix the kids leaving school with no prospect they can ever buy a house and feed and support their own family. Everything this Government does makes that even less likely.
  
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  December 19, 2021 3:35pm
Rusty

Can someone explain how the Hong Kong elections work.
Do the people get a “choice” to vote for the party in power and a candidate they want as leader of it?

That would appeal to Jacinda and Labour if correct.
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December 19, 2021 11:50am
- MCōs
  
  Hong Kong has never been democratic, not under Chinese rule, not under British rule.
  
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  December 19, 2021 2:19pm
- Kiwi Dave
  
  HK had a free press for a while with some seats being freely voted for by the public in vigorous campaigns, but it has never been democratic.
  
  There is a chief executive officer who must be approved by Beijing, an executive council chosen by the CEO from senior legislative council members and the civil service, and a legislative council.
  
  The legislative council is made up of three constituency types: a minority of freely and democratically chosen geographical electorate representatives, though I think Beijing can now veto candidates it doesn’t like, and many leaders of one party are in jail on charges of sedition, as broadly re-defined by Beijing; functional constituencies (eg, shipping, finance, construction, etc representatives) in which small numbers of tycoons (often beholden to Beijing) choose a disproportionate number of representatives; and IIRC, a group chosen by the indigenous people of HK, ie, people with historical ties of land ownership and some rights not available to most HKers.
  
  There are also local councils with limited powers; in the last local council election, pro-democracy parties overwhelmingly thrashed pro-Beijing parties, but I expect the CCP has found ways to prevent a repetition of that embarrassment.
  
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  December 19, 2021 5:41pm
Bob

such behaviour is in their DNA.
can only be breed out over many many generations of ‘bedding’ with another ethnic group.
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December 19, 2021 12:01pm
- Alan Wilkinson
  
  No. It’s in their heads not their genes. A child or even an adult can be rescued by one decent person who believes in them if got to in time though damage already done may be crippling and limiting.
  
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  December 19, 2021 5:25pm
Fletch

Last month the British Medical Journal penned an open letter to Facebook’s Mark Zuckerburg criticizing Facebook’s “fact checkers” for disallowing the posting of BMJ articles.

[…]
But from November 10, readers began reporting a variety of problems when trying to share our article. Some reported being unable to share it. Many others reported having their posts flagged with a warning about “Missing context … Independent fact-checkers say this information could mislead people.” Those trying to post the article were informed by Facebook that people who repeatedly share “false information” might have their posts moved lower in Facebook’s News Feed. Group administrators where the article was shared received messages from Facebook informing them that such posts were “partly false.”

Readers were directed to a “fact check” performed by a Facebook contractor named Lead Stories.[2]

We find the “fact check” performed by Lead Stories to be inaccurate, incompetent and irresponsible.

— It fails to provide any assertions of fact that The BMJ article got wrong

— It has a nonsensical title: “Fact Check: The British Medical Journal Did NOT Reveal Disqualifying And Ignored Reports Of Flaws In Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccine Trials”

— The first paragraph inaccurately labels The BMJ a “news blog”

— It contains a screenshot of our article with a stamp over it stating “Flaws Reviewed,” despite the Lead Stories article not identifying anything false or untrue in The BMJ article

— It published the story on its website under a URL that contains the phrase “hoax-alert”

We have contacted Lead Stories, but they refuse to change anything about their article or actions that have led to Facebook flagging our article.

https://www.bmj.com/content/375/bmj.n2635/rr-80

These social media giants are pushing the govt/left narrative using bogus “fact checkers” who aren’t looking at the facts at all. It’s mere opinion, and a bad one at that.
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December 19, 2021 12:02pm
Scooter

At least they gave his name some thought. Seems all that matters is their “culture” and language.
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December 19, 2021 12:26pm
Reid

One of the top scientist’s on all-things covid issues the top five studies this week on Omicron, and it’s good news.

https://rwmalonemd.substack.com/p/omicron-today

It’s very mild.

Here he is on Laura Ingraham’s showing explaining Omicron. If you want the science, read that substack. This vid is his take on it for laypeople.

https://media.gab.com/system/media_attachments/files/093/492/225/original/517fa4caaec03ae8.mp4
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December 19, 2021 12:45pm
Reid

Excellent new piece from Revolver on the Jan 6 “insurrection” at the Capitol which the congress is currently investigating.

Revolver is the top US media source investigating the involvement of the Feds in setting up the MAGA crowd, that day. They published a major piece on it a month or so ago, and this is part 2. You don’t need to read part 1 to know what they’re saying in this one, and if you want to know what really happened that day, you have to know about facts like this, in this article.

https://www.revolver.news/2021/12/damning-new-details-massive-web-unindicted-operators-january-6/
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December 19, 2021 1:35pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  The left still say Trump instigated it – when he was still giving a speech 20 min later. Setup by the Fedsurrection
  
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  December 19, 2021 2:11pm
TT500

Just read the urgent update from the MOH
Bloomfield et al date 15/12/21 to registered
medical practioners re myo/pericarditis

Hidden translation Houston we have a problem
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December 19, 2021 1:46pm
- Reid
  
  Can you be more explicit mate, what exactly did it say?
  
  Understand if you can’t share but would be helpful if you feel able.
  
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  December 19, 2021 2:51pm
  - Alan Wilkinson
    
    Most times the first GPs hear updates is when their patients report the latest J&A TV show. The MoH communication is as woeful as the rest of their operation.
    
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    December 19, 2021 3:44pm
  - Joely Doe
    
    Here it is…
    Urgent update on COVID-19 Vaccine-associated Myocarditis and Pericarditis
    
    6 0
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    December 19, 2021 5:08pm
    - Aquataur
      
      Why is it going out now, 3 months after Israel noticed increased incidents?
      
      4 0
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      December 19, 2021 7:02pm
      - Reid
        
        Because they don’t care. It’s a feature, not an issue.
        
        1 1
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        December 19, 2021 10:04pm
I remember when

Was there ever a name with more foreboding to it than “Chance.”
It almost instantly suggests there will not be one.
9 2
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December 19, 2021 1:47pm
- David Garrett
  
  I remember: I’ll tell you what the name – and my unfortunate experience of this kind of crime – tells me:
  
  You see the boy had a hyphenated surname: his mother’s surname will be one of his…the father’s the other one. The killer will almost certainly not be the natural father, but mum’s latest boyfriend.
  
  If “Maggie Pie” wants to take the bet, I’ll give 10:1 odds on that…but s/he would need to email me to make the wager, and that might reveal his/her name…and they won’t be willing to do that. And I don’t wager with people with gmail or similar email addresses.
  
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  December 19, 2021 2:52pm
  - Captain Mainwaring
    
    DG: Go easy on Maggie Pie, she might stray off the reservation on occasions but she’s one of the more entertaining commenters on here.
    I’d hate to see you two falling out.
    
    16 2
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    December 19, 2021 3:54pm
  - Maggie Pie
    
    There you go again. Can’t help yourself can u Dave.
    
    Stop being such a big baby….. carrying on with all your silly BS.
    
    And anyway, given your history, why would someone in their right mind want to supply you with their personal contact details?
    
    SHEESH!!
    
    16 4
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    December 19, 2021 4:25pm
    - nathie
      
      Oh You Are Awful! But …..
      
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkLRZzukcJc
      
      5 1
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      December 19, 2021 5:05pm
  - fernglas
    
    You said the child was Maori, but are either Aipolani or Nielson Maori surnames?
    
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    December 19, 2021 5:11pm
mandk

Another great piece of polemic from Neil Oliver on GBNews:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69FgDShiDqc
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December 19, 2021 2:54pm
Sparrow

Sir Ian Taylor for PM. Another great article by him in the Herald. Surprisingly not in premium. Knocked it out of the park again
17 0
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December 19, 2021 3:01pm
- Tony Stuart
  
  Not so long ago, Sir Ian revealed, just in case he was accused of being a right-winger, that he was a lifetime Labour voter, with the exception of one election when he voted for John Key. So the PM and her acolytes should pay his some attention.
  
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  December 19, 2021 3:19pm
  - Alan Wilkinson
    
    They should pay attention because he is right, not because he voted Labour in the past. But they won’t because their control depends on the airhead, risk averse, female vote that is driven by fear not facts. Ironically fear also inflames their opposition in the anti-vax ranks and in those opposed to Maori privilege. In dividing the country they have put themselves out on a limb.
    
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    December 19, 2021 5:59pm
fernglas

From Monday, the checkpoints for those going North will be removed. So what happened to checking everybody? What a fucking joke this all is.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2021/12/covid-19-police-pleased-with-extremely-high-level-of-compliance-at-northland-checkpoints.html
13 1
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December 19, 2021 3:50pm
- Alan Wilkinson
  
  How many jobs has that dickhead Hone and his useless police and Ministerial enablers cost Northland?
  
  16 0
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  December 19, 2021 5:14pm
- Inandout
  
  fern, those cops want a Christmas and are pretty pissed off being dragged from their areas to please Hone. In fact many are just waiting to get out of the job when the time comes, and Jacinda’s $2.75 million Mob koha was the final straw.
  
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  December 19, 2021 5:56pm
- Alan Wilkinson
  
  Police warned that motorists in Northland can expect to be stopped at any time and may be asked to provide their proof of address.
  
  They’ll be getting some rude answers from locals.
  
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  December 19, 2021 6:04pm
  - Sparrow
    
    I have my very rare yellow sticker. It will become a collectors item and be known as “Cindy’s Folly”
    
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    December 19, 2021 8:05pm
TT500

Reid its on BFD headed Shocking Matters Of The Heart
Thanks for all your posts
8 0
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December 19, 2021 4:00pm
Julie

Good to see Baker the expert of doom admitting it is good news Aucklands cases have been going down since we went red not exploding out if control.
Of course he can’t help himself he has to say we can’t relax and enjoy ourselves.
I will not be holding my breath for an apology at this and every prior wrong prediction.
12 0
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December 19, 2021 4:03pm
KevO'Brien

Sir Ian has made the ODT too:
https://www.odt.co.nz/opinion/pm-wrong-who-deserves-break-taylor
8 1
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December 19, 2021 5:05pm
- alex Masterley
  
  Sir Ian doesnt mince words.
  I suspect he is off the invite list then.
  
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  December 19, 2021 6:34pm
greybeard

https://www.stuff.co.nz/opinion/109548012/emma-cook-cartoons
Silly maori-obsessed Emma Cook woman couldn’t even spell “Aotearoa” correctly on the cartoons’s postcard’s sender’s address !
Typical of Stuff’s contributors!
15 1
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December 19, 2021 5:20pm
- Alan Wilkinson
  
  The funniest thing about Stuff’s cartoonists is that they think they are witty. That Stuff pays them tells you all you need to know about its ideology and judgement.
  
  17 1
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  December 19, 2021 5:36pm
- Tauhei Notts
  
  The co-ordinates place her just south of Kapiti Island. Is she a sea urchin?
  
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  December 19, 2021 6:16pm
TT500

Apparently the PM may have to trim her wedding
invitations

Some people have all the luck
5 1
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December 19, 2021 6:12pm
Fletch

Good news (yes I am being sarcastic). Kiwis with Covid may now be eligible for euthanasia… ?

https://www.defendnz.co.nz/news-media/2021/12/19/exclusive-euthanasia-expansion-moh-says-kiwis-with-covid-19-can-now-be-eligible
2 2
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December 19, 2021 6:27pm
Chuck Bird

This is not premium.

Sir Ian Taylor: Politicians and officials go on holiday at arguably the most dangerous time in this pandemic

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/sir-ian-taylor-politicians-and-officials-go-on-holiday-at-arguably-the-most-dangerous-time-in-this-pandemic/SNGH2DVEUYFRJ76TT3EO2QVQMM/
12 1
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December 19, 2021 8:22pm
Scooter

What better way to control citizens than to limit or ban travel.

https://www.schengenvisainfo.com/news/iata-urges-countries-to-rescind-travel-bans/
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December 19, 2021 8:58pm

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