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December 23, 2021 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 23 December 2021

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General Debate

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2ic

I find it concerning to compare the safety profiles of the Influenza vaccine to the Covid Pfizer vaccine in New Zealand, given we keep being told how safe it is.

From Table 1 on the following MedSafe page we can see adverse events being reported for the Influenza vaccine at 16-20 per 100,000 doses:

https://www.medsafe.govt.nz/profs/PUArticles/March2020/Influenza-vaccine-2019-what-to-expect-this-year.html

Taking 2019 data, we have 16.9 adverse events per 100,000, of which it’s stated 2.6% were considered ‘serious’, which is 0.44 per 100,000.

Turning our attention to the Pfizer Covid vaccine:
https://www.medsafe.govt.nz/COVID-19/safety-report-38.asp

41,506 adverse events out of 7,726,319 doses administered, which is 537 per 100,000 doses. 1,651 of these are considered ‘serious’ (4%), which equates to 21.4 per 100,000 doses.

So your chances of a serious adverse event are:

Influenza Vaccine: 0.44 per 100,000 doses
Pfizer Covid Vaccine: 21.4 per 100,000 doses

That makes the Pfizer vaccine around 50x more dangerous than the influenza vaccine – more when you consider that you must have 2 shots to be considered vaccinated.

And to make matters worse, we are about to have people lining up for their booster now…
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December 23, 2021 8:00am
- Andrei
  
  And now they are going to give it to vulnerable children which horrifies me.
  
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  December 23, 2021 8:11am
  - KevO'Brien
    
    That seems a clear breach of the principles of the Nuremberg Convention.
    
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    December 23, 2021 8:50am
    - Ed Snack
      
      Didn’t you read Mikey’s comment yesterday Kev, the Nuremberg Convention is just so last century and not relevant (apparently) to today.
      
      We are all liable as part of of duties to the government to be willing (or unwilling) subjects in a large scale medical experiment. And if it turns out that the sceptics WERE right and there is a very long tail of medical adverse events, why, that is our own fault and neither the government nor Pfizer are liable for anything.
      
      That’s the new normal, get used to it.
      
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      December 23, 2021 10:06am
      - pdm
        
        the Nuremberg Convention is just so last century and not relevant (apparently) to today.’
        
        Ed – same could be said of the United Nations.
        
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        December 23, 2021 12:31pm
      - KevO'Brien
        
        If we let a steam roller overtake us don’t be surprised if we can’t get up again.
        
        I’m not for keeping down.
        
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        December 23, 2021 1:24pm
- Simon
  
  Pfizer vaxx more deadly than omicron
  
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  December 23, 2021 8:12am
  - Marcus Vinicius
    
    Seems that the Imperial College London disagrees with you.
    
    “Data presented by Mr Mayer at the seminar also showed that the vaccines studied (Pfizer and AstraZeneca) reduced the risk of testing positive for the coronavirus by more than 70%”
    
    From
    https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/232834/real-world-data-provides-valuable-insights-into/
    
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    December 23, 2021 9:46am
    - Simon
      
      “The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”
      
      ― George Orwell, 1984
      
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      December 23, 2021 9:57am
    - mawm
      
      His comment about there being no increase in the cases in the first 2 weeks after vaccination contradicts numerous statistical analyses I’ve seen. In fact there is a marked increase and they have never been counted in the “breakthrough cases” but instead have been lumped into the unvaccinated numbers.
      
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      December 23, 2021 10:06am
    - rangitoto
      
      Testing positive is a whole lot different to deadly.
      
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      December 23, 2021 10:07am
    - ClanMcleod
      
      That would be the Gates funded Imperial College London who employ the well known clairvoyant Neil Ferguson, who holds the world record for the worst predictions in history, period?
      There is no data presented, it tells us it was presented but it isn’t there for us to check over. It’s another “nudge” piece designed to get everyone jabbed. No mention of the disastrous adverse effects of the jabs. It’s all about how we get everyone jabbed. It’s obsessive to the point of insanity.
      Imperial College’s reputation is in shreds. Their strong association with Gates and Ferguson makes anything emanating from them tainted.
      
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      December 23, 2021 10:31am
    - Spoff
      
      Imperial College is now a thoroughly discredited institution thanks to its Gates-funded preposterous professor.
      Six questions that Neil Ferguson should be asked:
      Q1.
      In 2005, Ferguson said that up to 200 million people could be killed from bird flu. He told the Guardian that ‘around 40 million people died in 1918 Spanish flu outbreak… There are six times more people on the planet now so you could scale it up to around 200 million people probably.’ In the end, only 282 people died worldwide from the disease between 2003 and 2009.
      How did he get this forecast so wrong?
      Q2.
      In 2009, Ferguson and his Imperial team predicted that swine flu had a case fatality rate 0.3 per cent to 1.5 per cent. His most likely estimate was that the mortality rate was 0.4 per cent. A government estimate, based on Ferguson’s advice, said a ‘reasonable worst-case scenario’ was that the disease would lead to 65,000 UK deaths.
      
      … abbridged [please don’t post most of copyrighted publications – your link is sufficient. mod.]
      
      How many assumptions in the Imperial model are still based on influenza and is there any risk that the modelling is flawed because of these assumptions?
      https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/six-questions-that-neil-ferguson-should-be-asked/amp
      “Enough of the tyranny of experts in narrow fields, with no concept of the broader and quite disastrous consequences of their inability to think outside their range of knowledge.”
      
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      December 23, 2021 10:46am
    - alloytoo
      
      Testing positive is meaningless, especially if you are asymptomatic.
      
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      December 23, 2021 10:57am
    - bronny1
      
      I can’t find the date of the seminar he gave but its based on historical data which obvs is before that date and thus unlikely to include Omicron. Perhaps try this more up to date study instead, also from Imperial College. It says that Omicron largely evades immunity from two doses or past infection: https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/232698/omicron-largely-evades-immunity-from-past/
      
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      December 23, 2021 11:09am
- emmess
  
  And that is only of the ones reported.
  Anecdotally, we have all heard of quite a few. I have lost count, maybe ten.
  Of those, the doctor said it was nothing to do with the vaccine when it clearly was, i.e the next day
  
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  December 23, 2021 8:19am
  - Spoff
    
    You have to know it is flim flam when Medsafe keep insisting that “temporal proximity does not imply causation”.
    Strictly speaking, that statement is correct.
    Temporal proximity, however, is overwhelmingly coincident with causation.
    Just imagine. Detective: “You were seen in the vicinity of the murder at the time the victim died. What do you have to say?”
    Suspect: “Temporal proximity does not imply causation.”
    Detective: “Oh. OK. You’re free to go.”
    
    There have been 41,494 vaccine adverse events and 127 deaths reported.
    12,039 were reported by CIR Vaccinators, 6,557 by nurses, 3,754 by GPs, 285 by Pharmacists.
    
    According to Medsafe’s Summary for Influenza vaccine monovalent between 1/1/2000 and 1/1/2019 the number of reactions was 101.
    
    Medsafe’s opinion: “The mRNA “vaccines” are safe.
    
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    December 23, 2021 11:49am
    - RightNow
      
      Wonder how many Covid deaths were simply in temporal proximity too…
      
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      December 23, 2021 2:32pm
- Yvette
  
  2ic
  Not that I really want to besmirch my name by being down-ticked all to hell, I would humbly ask, what factor in your argument is the “paid-off” media in thoroughly emphasising downsides of covid vaccination without even mentioning measles?
  Nor do they say much about the under-lying comorbidities that are going to endanger those who will catch covid – a matter highly elevated in coverage, as Māori in particular have those underlying conditions – but not mentioning the same comorbidities when it comes to vaccination against covid – that in receiving an artificial spike protein to teach your body to recognise and eliminate covid virus cells when they invade (as seems quite highly likely now with Omicron) those who will be most susceptible to covid, are as likely to have some adverse reaction to the vaccine: any vaccine, which is the other matter our media does not address.
  
  So, what of the media who only mentioned measles when it was a Fijian issue, really not so long ago, but are now wall-to-wall with covid vaccine horrors.
  And see https://measlesrubellainitiative.org/fiji-and-measles-from-devastation-to-elimination/
  
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  December 23, 2021 9:03am
- UrbanNeocolonialist
  
  Dr John Campbell had a youtube peice on this the other day.
  
  One Scandinavian country that didn’t aspirate (to reduce chances of intravenous injection) vaccine injections was seeing 1 in 13000 serious heart issues, another country that did aspirate was more like 1 in 35000. Pretty clear what the problem is from that result (accidental injections into bloodstream), and super easy to make it safer (by aspirating to reduce chance of intravenous injection).
  
  Apparently the whole aspiration/no aspiration choice started 20 years back with some researchers suggesting it as a means for reducing pain in vaccinating kids, and asserting, without evidence, that it didn’t make any real different to safety, it was picked up and then without thinking or questioning basis for change it was been extending to adults. That’s it, the whole justification for using less safe non-aspiration of vaccine injections (saving only a couple of seconds per injection), the net result of which has been serious damage or death to 10’s of thousands during covid (and possibly other) vaccine programs. Unbelievably lax for a field that is supposed to be all about evidence based development of best practises.
  
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  December 23, 2021 9:08am
  - Ed Snack
    
    I’d still like to see a convincing explanation as to why this “no aspiration” issue is responsible for the fact that young males suffer from this problem at much higher rates than females, and why it is also age related.
    
    There may be such an explanation, but not one I can yet see as convincing. Young males are not necessarily less muscular or prone to having more veins in their muscles, at least, not that I know of.
    
    I reckon that although aspiration may prevent some cases, there is an underlying issue with the release of the S protein into the body such that it gets into the vascular system at some rate almost regardless of where it is injected, but that rate is age and sex mediated somehow. And that release causes the heart and blood clotting issues.
    
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    December 23, 2021 10:11am
    - UrbanNeocolonialist
      
      As one point; strong fit young men, particularly elite endurance athlete can have up to twice the normal volume of blood in their body as joe average with the same body weight (= bigger veins) enabling their higher sustained output. So up to twice the chance of hitting a vein.
      
      Also if you have ever known really fit low-fat young men they do seem to get sick a lot, apparently to do with higher cortisol levels that hamper immunity. super low fat apparently also makes you more susceptible to cardiovascular problems.
      
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      December 23, 2021 12:23pm
    - westernScientest
      
      It doesnt need to be aspiration which is causing the difference between males and females, age etc. The Scandinavian comparison shows that aspiration reduces the risk of serious side effects, i.e. the incidence per 1000000 jabs or whatever reduces with aspiration. Unless there is a difference in the ratio of serious side effects in males to females between country, it suggests that the aspiration reduces the change of serious side effects regardless of other attributes and what ever is causing the differential between males and females and age is to do with the medication its self.
      
      I suspect what it indicates is that with aspiration the chance of a significant amount of vax ending up in the heart is lowered. But that young males react to lower levels of vax in the heart, or react more strongly.
      
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      December 23, 2021 12:23pm
    - JohnRidd
      
      The problems of Myocarditis and pericarditis are most likely caused by the vaccine mRNA entering the blood stream and causing spike protein to be made outside of the muscle.
      
      It is the very fit young males who are most at risk.
      
      Very fit young males do lots of exercise and so their vascular system is more developed. Therefore they have more veins into which an inadvertent intravenous injection might occur. The chance of this happening is reduced by aspiration.
      
      Another possible cause might be that vigorous exercise post vaccination could possibly cause some vaccine to be pumped into the lymphatic system which drains into the blood vessels.
      
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      December 23, 2021 1:35pm
      - Ed Snack
        
        But it isn’t just “very fit young males” we are talking about. They show up with the high severity incidents during strenuous exercise because that’s the nature of myocarditis, but it is young males full stop who have a much higher incidence of these conditions. Very fit females do not seem to have rates as high as “ordinary” males, so it is almost certainly a sex linked difference. The fitness seems to affect how seriously the problem can show up as, but not specifically affect the incidence.
        
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        December 23, 2021 4:05pm
- yossarian
  
  Listening to the Joe Rogan podcast #1747 Dr. Peter A McCullough is eye opening. Pfizer is only 23% effective after six months, we were sold a dud
  
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  December 23, 2021 9:11am
  - mawm
    
    That’s a very good interview. I had always thought Rogan was a blowhard but I was pleasantly surprised in that he knew what questions to ask and when to keep quiet.
    
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    December 23, 2021 10:11am
    - OTGO
      
      I listened to many Rogan podcasts during my lockdown walks around the neighbourhood. He has some very interesting guests from Elon Musk to David Lee Roth. All very entertaining and the impression I get is that they are totally free balling the whole thing.
      
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      December 23, 2021 10:42am
    - UrbanNeocolonialist
      
      Don’t be fooled; he’s a pretty smart guy who plays it down for his audience.
      
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      December 23, 2021 12:24pm
      - mawm
        
        I had never listened to him before. My impression came from media – more fool me!
        
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        December 23, 2021 2:00pm
- lastmanstanding
  
  And nobody including the scientists know what the long term impacts might be.
  
  On a couple of related notes I hear one of the porn merchant scientists saying Covid could be with us for a decade.
  
  On another it seems the Winter Olympics are in doubt. Now wouldnt that be poetic justice for Ping a Ling having unleashed his biological weapon of war on the West.
  The CCP is the biggest danger to the West much bigger than Covid. They are taking control of space with large number of weapons platforms and the US is well behind in this race.
  
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  December 23, 2021 9:36am
- Fletch
  
  Yup, we’re up to 127 vaccine deaths now (only the ones we know of).
  
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  December 23, 2021 11:44am
- Stellaboxer
  
  I have a hunch that this is all going to end very badly. It seems to me that there are certain people that really don’t want this to end. It also seems likely that Omicron is the end of the pandemic and that trying to vaccinate against it is both stupid and dangerous. Given that it appears that Omicron is very much less deadly why would governments that have appeared to be so risk averse be so hysterical about dishing out more vaccine to anyone that has an arm???
  
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  December 23, 2021 12:18pm
  - mawm
    
    I think this is going to end with violence. When people find out how much they have been lied to, that friends and family died unnecessarily, that they have taken a vaccine that causes so much harm, they have been locked down unnecessarily and their businesses bankrupted for naught they might just get a little bit angry.
    
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    December 23, 2021 2:05pm
  - UrbanNeocolonialist
    
    The government are sheep. Terrified of the passing mountainbiker that their sheeply mates are bleating about and oblivious to real problems like the farmer gradually fattening them up for the meatworks.
    
    They need to stop reacting to the superficial and minor issue that Covid in a vaccinated population presents (just a few percent of NZ’s normal yearly deaths, statistically unremarkable compared to a bad flu season) and start concentrating on bigger real problems like halting the calamitous damage that their covid response is doing to NZ’s economy and the lives of kiwis (which will have a far bigger death toll than covid in the long term).
    
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    December 23, 2021 3:57pm
- Lee C
  
  If you tolerate this, then your children wil be next.
  https://www.aceshowbiz.com/video/download/00032377/
  
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  December 23, 2021 1:39pm
Tony Stuart

Well blow me down with a feather! A journalist, Marc Daalder from Newsroom, is reporting that the Government had no Plan B when it came to dealing with the Delta outbreak earlier this year. Daalder writes:

The Government never produced a strategy for handling Covid-19 in New Zealand if it failed to eliminate an outbreak, Newsroom can reveal.

In response to an Official Information Act request from Newsroom, Covid-19 Minister Chris Hipkins said his office held no information relating to a suppression strategy for Covid-19 or to any other strategy that wasn’t an elimination strategy. The request sought documents relating to other Covid-19 response strategies between July 2, 2020, when Hipkins became Minister of Health, and September 20, 2021, when Auckland moved down to Level 3 during the Delta outbreak.

“After an extensive search through this office’s records, I can confirm that there was no information provided to my office relating to any strategy that was not an elimination strategy during the period specified in your request,” Hipkins wrote.

University of Otago epidemiologist Michael Baker said he was surprised to learn that the Government hadn’t developed a backup plan.

“I would think it would have been sensible to have a range of alternative scenarios and plan accordingly,” he told Newsroom.

“Once you had the Delta variant, it showed that viral evolution was going to continue and could result in big changes in the behaviour of the organism. All of the literature said this virus was going to be changing and I would have thought that, at the very least, you would want to have a plan after seeing what Delta was capable of.”

National Party Covid-19 Response spokesperson Chris Bishop said the Government put all its eggs in one basket by planning only for elimination.

“The Government just bet the house on elimination and assumed it would work. Even after Delta arrived in MIQ in April and into the community in August, the Government just assumed it would work,” he said.

“They really should have been working on backup plans. By the time Delta arrived in New Zealand and into the community, it had already spread to basically every other country.”

https://www.newsroom.co.nz/pro/govt-had-no-backup-plan-if-elimination-failed

This really is a damning indictment of Jacinda Ardern’s government. The Delta outbreak was poorly managed, and as Daalder reveals further on in his piece, the Government was still fully focused on elimination as late as 20 September, five weeks after the country went into a “short, sharp” lockdown. Two weeks later, the elimination strategy was abandoned, without actually knowing what elimination would be replaced by.

Aucklanders especially should be furious at the Government. Because Ministers were still scrambling, making things up as the went along (Alert Level 2.1 anyone?), Auckland bore the brunt of the response, locked down in some shape or form for 108 days.

Sadly, with Christmas Day less than 48 hours away and with thousands of Kiwis heading away on holiday now, this story won’t be widely read. That’s a shame; it should be!
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December 23, 2021 8:05am
- cmm
  
  Cindy believes entirely in her awesome intuition. To put together a Plan B would mean she doubts her intuition which goes completely against the grain.
  
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  December 23, 2021 8:10am
  - I remember when
    
    Plan B is Plan A.
    Plan C is cancellation of Plans A & B.
    
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    December 23, 2021 8:29am
    - slightlyrighty
      
      we have always been at war with Eastasia
      
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      December 23, 2021 9:08am
  - Nickc2
    
    IMO, Cindy/Robertson/Hipkins do exactly what the WHO and WEF tell them to do. They are using a catastrophe like Covid-19 to further their Master’s aims of imposing a One World Govt and World Without Borders regime.
    Plans B, C and D etc will be released by the WHO and WEF when current plans fail to produce the desired results. Anything else is just a diversion.
    
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    December 23, 2021 9:24am
    - Man Among the Ruins
      
      Exactly. Talk of “no plan B, how outrageous” just prevents deeper consideration of what The Plan is, which is as you describe. Jacinda, Hipkins, Bloomfield etc. are just performing tasks on the ships deck, they is nowhere near the bridge.
      
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      December 23, 2021 10:31am
      - Master Mariner
        
        Yes indeed.
        The good ship Aotearoa is rudderless.
        To an ardent Navigator ( Not the folklore type) this was apparent at the good vessels departure.
        Its obvious there is no passage plan to safely navigate the treacherous seas.
        If any one is on the bridge its pretty apparent they are asleep on the watch.
        
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        December 23, 2021 1:49pm
      - Man Among the Ruins
        
        It’s worse than being rudderless: we at the mercy of interests who have no concern for the citizens of New Zealand and what they want. They have their own coordinated global agenda and are the people actually manning the bridge. To introduce another metaphor, Ardern is just reading her lines and following the stage directions.
        
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        December 23, 2021 3:09pm
    - Nickc2
      
      I wonder if this very important message has filtered its way down to Cindy yet?
      https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021/12/22/w-h-o-says-cancel-christmas-now-or-grieve-later/
      Oh, that’s right, she’s on holiday.
      Get back to work Cindy, the WHO has sent you another directive. If you don’t comply, there’ll be no Christmas Card from Comrade Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
      
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      December 23, 2021 12:53pm
  - coolas
    
    Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
    cmm .. your loathing of ‘Cindy,’ and probably of all powerful women, overlooks the fact she does not make the decisions on Covid response. Caucaus does, on advice.
    
    That she is guided by intuition is utter tosh, but convenient to your constant belittling of the PM, because she’s a woman.
    
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    December 23, 2021 10:24am
    - Nickc2
      
      She ignores advice from those whose job it is to advise. She has overridden Bloomfield (Director-General of Health) on many occasions to impose her own dictate on NZ’s population?
      As they say in the classics, ‘power corrupts and total power corrupts totally.
      
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      December 23, 2021 11:00am
      - UrbanNeocolonialist
        
        Frank Herbert’s “power attracts the corruptible” is a truer reflection of humanity. Never a shortage of Narcissists in parliament.
        
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        December 23, 2021 4:03pm
    - alloytoo
      
      Perhaps before assuming that CMM dislikes Ardern because of her sex, as apposed to her character and competence, we should ask him if he dislike’s other powerful women (current and historical) and if his loathing extends to the male members (no pun intended) of her (and I use the term loosely) goverment.
      
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      December 23, 2021 11:03am
    - Alan Wilkinson
      
      Unfortunately this Cabinet merely dilutes the intelligence brought to bear on any problem.
      
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      December 23, 2021 11:04am
    - Inandout
      
      coolas, surely you can weave ‘racist’ into your argument.
      
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      December 23, 2021 11:05am
    - oldfella
      
      coolas, I suspect cmm belittles the PM not because she’s a woman, but because she’s hopeless at her job. And hurting the country. Oh, and also a world class liar.
      
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      December 23, 2021 11:09am
    - bronny1
      
      oh rubbish, he never mentioned hating powerful women. I’m a woman and my loathing of her is as great as cmm’s. And i’m not a woman hater. Grow up.
      
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      December 23, 2021 11:12am
    - Stellaboxer
      
      How can you possibly know that cmm loathes Ardern because she’s a woman? I thought that Thatcher was awesome and she truly was a powerful woman. I do however loathe Ardern. Maybe cmm loathes her because she is an incompetent lying spin doctor who is all charisma and no calibre who has abused her power to push through all manner of undisclosed policies. That would I think be far more likely but hey you might be right only cmm knows I guess.
      
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      December 23, 2021 12:26pm
      - Ed Snack
        
        Of course he can say, it is the classic non sequitur comeback of the troll. Pay no attention, he hasn’t a clue.
        
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        December 23, 2021 4:09pm
    - Zorba
      
      Id say most of those labor types are disciples of Eckhart Tolle. When faced with a crisis they stare at flowers on a table, mumble incoherently and hope that the crisis goes away
      
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      December 23, 2021 1:16pm
    - Paulus
      
      No you’re wrong she is of course like so many current top jobs by far the best person for the job, but she also happens to be a woman
      
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      December 23, 2021 1:32pm
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        You forgot the //
        
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        December 23, 2021 2:02pm
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Vote Labour please, you type always do. Jaspinda sycophant
      
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      December 23, 2021 2:00pm
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      ‘Very little of what I have done has been deliberate. It’s intuitive’
      
      – Jacinda Ardern
      
      https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/apr/06/jacinda-ardern-intuitive-courage-new-zealand
      
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      December 23, 2021 2:07pm
    - fisho
      
      She’s the one who chose to trumpet that she’d made a “Captain’s Call” on oil & gas exploration. Ye reap what ye sow.
      
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      December 23, 2021 3:48pm
- Benedict Yu
  
  The elimination strategy was based on keeping delta out until there were high levels of vaccinations. Jacinda then explained we could open up and use the vaccines to stamp out isolated outbreaks “just like we do with measles”…
  
  That was the day I realised she did not understand how the vaccines worked. Therefore the elimination strategy was a disastrous folly.
  
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  December 23, 2021 8:13am
  - sooty
    
    What! You expected different from this labour government?
    Pigs don’t fly you know!
    
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    December 23, 2021 8:29am
    - Paulus Gnome
      
      Some wear lipstick tho’ . . .
      
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      December 23, 2021 9:23am
  - UrbanNeocolonialist
    
    She was dangerously technically ignorant when she started the job, and it’s not like she was ever suddenly going to become good at absorbing technical info while being PM.
    
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    December 23, 2021 9:13am
- pdm
  
  Still Inv I see Jacinda has apparently returned to reside at home in Auckland.
  
  A clear sign that the worst of the lurgy is over in the City Of Sails..
  
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  December 23, 2021 8:14am
  - alex Masterley
    
    Really?
    I will check that.
    
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    December 23, 2021 9:35am
  - GJM
    
    Means there won’t be a lockdown in Auckland for a while. If you want to stay out of lockdown, look at Jacinda’s calender abd be prepared to leave at short notice to whereever she is going to be staying.
    
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    December 23, 2021 9:47am
    - mawm
      
      Her new Bach on the Coromandel.
      
      11 0
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      December 23, 2021 10:16am
    - Paulus
      
      She will soon be off to Gizzie where I expect he will have his boat ready for fishing or escape.
      
      11 0
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      December 23, 2021 11:05am
  - Biscuit
    
    And after all that poor metropolis has been through…
    
    12 0
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    December 23, 2021 10:49am
- Charmaine Hawke
  
  Unfortunately National is not much better Tony it seems that their only strategy is vaccinate and get boosters out.
  That Baker is surprised just shows his ignorance because he is all about elimination being the only strategy. Well it looks like Labour is giving us covid for Christmas and if it gets us out of this nightmare then I am all in favour.
  
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  December 23, 2021 8:19am
- Suze Wainwright
  
  But the govt’s apologists are still claiming Jacinda did – and still does – what has to be done (and must be adulated for it).
  
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  December 23, 2021 8:31am
- Simon
  
  The virus has been around since late half of 2019. It was first reported in NZ early January 2020. The bozos in National didnt have any plan except being part of the zero covid cult.
  
  National meekly surrendered to Labo a long time ago.
  
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  December 23, 2021 8:35am
  - coge
    
    If National aren’t planning on delivering freedom, what exactly are they planning on delivering?
    
    24 1
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    December 23, 2021 9:02am
    - mawm
      
      Neither is ACT.
      
      11 1
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      December 23, 2021 10:17am
    - unaha-closp
      
      With two poll driven political machines, it is a problem for the losing party. They are the timid shadow of the government.
      
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      December 23, 2021 10:19am
    - Paulus
      
      Not currently being in Government National and ACT do not have current plans as they do not yet have the votes for power and decisions.
      Only Cindy can do that.
      
      6 0
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      December 23, 2021 1:35pm
      - mawm
        
        National and ACT need to signal their intentions if they ever want to govern otherwise nobody will vote for them. National is Jacinda lite on Covid and ACT, our most Libertarian party, supports vaccine passports. These are hardly vote winning strategies seeing everybody has had lockdowns and vaccine apartheid up to their necks.
        
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        December 23, 2021 2:13pm
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Delivering another socialist led NZ Govt
      
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      December 23, 2021 2:06pm
  - Nickc2
    
    That was under the Collins regime.
    
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    December 23, 2021 9:56am
  - Ed Snack
    
    Hey, no complaints ! We’re only 90 or so weeks into “two weeks to slow the spread”, so we can keep this up ! Team of 5 million, protect the ones you love, etc, etc, and etc.
    
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    December 23, 2021 10:14am
    - OTGO
      
      A team of 5 million except when we are divided by vaccination status, race, gender, wealth and anything else they dream up imply one group has an advantage over the other.
      
      11 0
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      December 23, 2021 10:48am
  - alloytoo
    
    Technically incorrect.
    
    National had a pandemic response plan which was drafted in 2010 and updated in 2017.
    
    Ardern naturally ignored it.
    
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    December 23, 2021 11:05am
    - mawm
      
      The country has always had a pandemic response plan. It gets updated from time to time. Ardern ignored it, so did all the other Western liberal democracies.
      
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      December 23, 2021 2:16pm
- amospicton
  
  Which explains the otherwise absurd lack of investment in ICU beds. They were so sure of themselves it never occurred to them that they’d be necessary. Hubris, pure and simple.
  
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  December 23, 2021 8:52am
  - Man Among the Ruins
    
    The obvious reason the ICU capacity wasn’t increased over the last nearly 2 years (surely priority number 1 in a putative “global pandemic”) is that hyperbolic and hypothetical claims of overwhelmed ICUs is just another way to manipulate our behaviour. I have no reason to think ICUs would be overwhelmed, and neither do they.
    
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    December 23, 2021 10:36am
  - Paulus
    
    There are no staff to support current let alone new ICU facilities.
    These very experienced nurses are still overseas or are not vaxxed here.
    
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    December 23, 2021 11:07am
- KevO'Brien
  
  Archived.
  
  7 2
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  December 23, 2021 8:52am
- curry4me
  
  Tony Stuart: Get the National MPs asking questions when the silly season is over. Meanwhile, they can put it on FB.
  
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  December 23, 2021 1:18pm
Warren

If our economy was as rosy as our Finance Minister Grant Robertson keeps spouting can someone please explain why is it that foodbanks are overwhelmed this Xmas with record numbers needing help to put food on the table in New Zealand.
In Canterbury white collar workers are reportably struggling to pay their mortgages and have turned to food banks.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2021/12/covid-19-food-parcel-demand-quadruples-over-lockdown.html
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December 23, 2021 8:11am
- Simon
  
  The food banks are reality fact checkers on this horrible gubermint and the most useless opposition. Cindy set herself up to fix child poverty. That Luxon clown wanks on about building teams and problem solving. Go after Cindy on child poverty. Its wide open for National. But in the end National / Labo its just a nice cozy club,
  
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  December 23, 2021 8:28am
  - Captain Mainwaring
    
    If Luxon is the clown Cindy must be the ringmaster.
    
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    December 23, 2021 9:01am
  - coge
    
    It is absolutely wide open for National right now. However if they aren’t even prepared to discuss the restoration of NZ’s essential freedoms, their other commitments are meaningless.
    
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    December 23, 2021 9:36am
    - Sacha
      
      @ coge: I can sympathise with the Nats. Why discuss anything publicly when there are 2 years to the next election? AND when the current government has an absolute majority, and there is still a deal of approval if the polls are to be believed. And when the LABs will pinch any good ideas?
      The Nats are better to get up to speed with their current portfolios, note where the current policies are failing, and think about how to reverse them.
      
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      December 23, 2021 12:20pm
      - coge
        
        I understand that. But there hasn’t even been the slightest hint of concession that we’re being listened too. This leaves it wide open for Winston, should he be up for another tilt. Or another valid third party, although I can’t imagine what or who that would be. Restoring freedom isn’t hard, after all we now have the tools to help us handle the pandemic. The Govt overplayed their hand significantly with the vaccine passport, given the high rate of vaccinations, mask wearing, tracking aps, stay at home if unwell, social distancing etc are already in place. The passport must be the first to go. That discussion can take place now. The freedom movement is growing by the day, and the political classes are ignoring it at their peril.
        
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        December 23, 2021 1:50pm
  - Nickc2
    
    What’s the answer? Make you vote count FFS! Don’t give it to these UN glove puppets under any circumstances.
    
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    December 23, 2021 10:00am
- artemisia
  
  1900 new households added to the social housing waiting list in November. Not to worry, 33 new public homes added in November.
  
  Something not quite right with this picture.
  
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  December 23, 2021 8:33am
  - UrbanNeocolonialist
    
    Cindy got into politics to end child homelessness doncha know? Who could have guessed that subsidising unproductive people to have more kids, making welfare entirely there for the asking for anyone that prefers it to working, and not being able to organize a pissup in a brewery could make the problem worse? Lets do this.
    
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    December 23, 2021 9:29am
  - Nickc2
    
    That’s only due to this Govt competing with the private sector and buying houses using our (taxpayer) money.
    
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    December 23, 2021 10:03am
    - Master Mariner
      
      Yep. I wonder just how much of this is responsible for price of housing increase.
      Catalyst?
      
      6 1
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      December 23, 2021 2:00pm
  - Paulus
    
    Shhhhh ! – you are not supposed to say these things.
    
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    December 23, 2021 11:08am
- kowtow
  
  Coughlan in the Whoreald calls 2020 the yearof reconnection.
  
  Not according to the trade , shipping’s stuffed and so’s air freight.( see below)
  
  Very easy to shut down , not so much living with the consequences of their media induced ,panicked reactions.
  
  https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2021/12/securing-air-freight-capacity-likely-even-more-difficult-in-2022.html
  
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  December 23, 2021 8:40am
- amospicton
  
  It’s mostly simple economics. If you provide a service for free then demand for that service will increase.
  
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  December 23, 2021 8:53am
- Tony Stuart
  
  Our office is right next door to the local foodbank, and my wife sees most of the comings and goings. There has been unprecedented demand for help this year especially since about September.
  
  Unfortunately, the City Mission Christmas Lunch on Saturday has had to be cancelled; it normally has around 400 attendees. Instead the City Mission/Foodbank has done special packs for clients with a few Christmas goodies as well as the normal staple food items. It’s sad to see so many needy people dependent on support from community agencies, but it’s something we need to get used to because 2022 is going to be a rocky ride as inflation and interest rates climb.
  
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  December 23, 2021 9:04am
Ford Prefect

Have you wondered what it was like working for the public service over the lockdown? I started a new job this year moving from the private sector to the public service and could not believe the attitude of the employees

Lockdown was predictable with Teams meetings all day, every day. But when we moved to Level 2 in September in Wellington, I happily went back to work. 5 people turned up on a floor that holds 150. Then the CEO decided that we were all too important to risk infection so insisted we continue to work from home until Christmas. That destroyed any last semblance of productivity and the wind down to Christmas started in October.

No Christmas parties or Christmas lunches as everyone was happy at home. Then all communication ceased on Monday the 20th as it was only 5 days to Christmas so what is the point in working at all.

We have some major problems in our infrastructure and some huge projects, but getting anything up and running is beyond frustrating. No sense of urgency at all.

Its been a real eye opener for me, but everyone else seems to feel this is normal. That is your hard earned tax payers money at work.
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December 23, 2021 8:18am
- Weetbix3ways
  
  Do you believe this is ‘new’, or simply new to you?
  
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  December 23, 2021 9:05am
  - Ford Prefect
    
    New to me.
    
    Ive been in the private sector a long time but the opportunity was quite enticing. Not a huge amount of work but really interesting. Frankly I could have got everythng finished in 12 months but I can see this taking 3-4 years with the bureaucracy and incompetence
    
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    December 23, 2021 4:17pm
- pdm
  
  Hope you negotiated a decent salary FP.
  
  Obviously you are one of the few productive workers and Labour are known to be generous to Civil Servants so you should be on $200,000 plus.
  
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  December 23, 2021 9:08am
  - unaha-closp
    
    Productive work is not rewarded with the big bucks.
    
    Pay is judged by the amorphous size and complexity of organisation the Civil Servant creates. If you wish to get the money you need to do some good work and 50 Teams sessions to show everyone how great they will be by supporting the good work.
    
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    December 23, 2021 10:30am
  - Ford Prefect
    
    Its not terrible pay but nowhere near $200k. You do wonder about the waste as the there feels a deliberate ploy to not move projects forward but re-scope, re-document and ask for everyones opinion
    
    10 1
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    December 23, 2021 4:21pm
- UrbanNeocolonialist
  
  Organisations that exist to spend other people’s money without serious oversight were ever thus. They need to have their feet held to the fire by outsiders not captured by the groupthink of such work cultures. That is never going to happen with labour’s life-long troughers in charge.
  
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  December 23, 2021 9:35am
- Cassandra
  
  It’s been a long time since I saw public servants first hand (1985) but it was not like that then. They turned up on time and while the most dangerous place in Wellington was the steps of the Stout Street building at quarter to 5 pm mostly they put in an honest day’s work. It has changed over the years. No woke in those days, now heaps. We spent no time on diversity training (my boss was a Maori and Wira Gardiner was in my team). Now it’s all hurt feelings and being safe. The guy who built my house epitomized the private sector. Late for work twice? DCM etc. No wonder there’s child poverty. Not too sure about food banks. The demand for free stuff is infinite.
  
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  December 23, 2021 9:44am
  - Inandout
    
    Cass, I well remember visiting government departments fortnightly in the 80s and even back then many were semi retirement homes. State Advances were perhaps the laziest where nothing moved in the smoke filled offices until the (photocopied) crossword was finished at morning tea time. Then the railway yards at Quay St had an employee who secreted himself in a remote office but did absolutely nothing for his salary and his job title was unknown. The hardest workers seemed the old P&T staff who installed phones and such.
    
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    December 23, 2021 11:25am
    - Batman
      
      Yes, the 80s, so a minimum of thirty years ago and before the revolution of the 90s.
      
      NZ as a whole was a backwards cul de sac before the new liberalism saved us from bankruptcy.
      
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      December 23, 2021 11:48am
    - Sacha
      
      In the ’80’s I went to many retirement parties when the public servants made their 40th year. Many of them had joined as 16 yo straight out of school, and to a man they couldn’t wait to retire to their bach-es and dinghies to go fishing, and leave the Public Service behind.
      
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      December 23, 2021 12:28pm
      - NeverMindTheBollocks
        
        Hmm, not entirely restricted to the public sector, Sacha.
        
        1 0
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        December 23, 2021 6:39pm
- Suze Wainwright
  
  Perfect opportunity to embed and enforce the Te Ao Maori strategy…
  
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  December 23, 2021 9:58am
- lifesgood
  
  Couldn’t you have found a better job?
  
  4 0
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  December 23, 2021 10:08am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  I work in the private sector; Corrections has several floors in the building.When I pop out for a coffee or whatever, I walk down the stairs. Each floor has a door from the stairwell; the door has a reinforced glass window.
  
  All this week, the lights have been off on all of those floors.
  
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  December 23, 2021 6:38pm
alloytoo

Australia has decided on a new path

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVl5OkHcvf4
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December 23, 2021 8:21am
- Surely Knott
  
  Thanks for sharing. That was a little bit of light and hope as we see rising totalitarianism around the world. Scomo, “We’re going forward to live with this virus with commonsense and responsibility, and there will be other variants beyond Omicron. And we have to ensure as a country and as leaders around the country we are putting in place measures that Australians can live with.
  
  And what that means is we have to move from a culture of mandates to a culture of responsibility. That’s how we live with this virus into the future. We’ve gotta get past the heavy hand of government, and we’ve got to treat Australians like adults. And we all have responsibilities in our communities and for our own health. People should get vaccinated, if you don’t your more likely to get the virus, get serious illness and die from the virus”…….
  
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  December 23, 2021 9:19am
- curry4me
  
  allytoo: Cool, thanks for this clip. The premier of NSW wants to get on with life too. I haven’t heard any horror stories from Tasmania via Sky news.
  
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  December 23, 2021 1:34pm
Simon

Luxon wants to bring in hundreds of thousands of people into NZ. At the moment massive numbers are fleeing Victoria and heading to Queensland.

Victorians will not consider NZ because we are a Labo / National Axis basket case as well. In time Luxon will have to get people from the third world. Thats the very essence of National. National can not improve NZ to attract people from the other first world countries to move here.
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December 23, 2021 8:23am
- Tony Stuart
  
  Do you have a source for that allegation?
  
  16 1
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  December 23, 2021 9:05am
  - Simon
    
    “Do you have a source for that allegation?”
    
    Luxon said appropriate net migration levels could be in the vicinity of about 50,000 a year – akin to pre-pandemic numbers.
    
    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/national-leader-chris-luxon-backs-violence-prevention-strategy-net-migration-50k/
    
    National open doors immigration from the third world. Thats National’s economic plan. Not repair but more tenants, credit card holders & cheap workers. You are National? How cant you know this?
    
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    December 23, 2021 10:03am
    - Tony Stuart
      
      Here’s what I get when I follow that link…
      
      Oops!
      Looks like a dead end.
      
      Back up or head to our homepage….
      
      Some would say that a “dead end” is a pretty good metaphor for New Zealand just at the moment, and it’s going to get worse next year as visa-holders bugger off to countries where they are welcome. We already have massive skill shortages across the whole economy, and in reality, until spending your entire life on the dole is no longer an option, we’re going to be reliant on immigration to staff everything from driving agricultural machinery to staffing our ICU’s.
      
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      December 23, 2021 10:36am
      - artemisia
        
        Don’t forget the black / grey economy. Has been conservatively estimated at $20bill a year. Plenty of opportunities to collect the dole and other government free money, then top up with a side hustle, a day job or supplying essential services.
        
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        December 23, 2021 10:54am
      - Simon
        
        https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/national-leader-chris-luxon-backs-violence-prevention-strategy-net-migration-50k/5BTM3YAGZPS7FTZZLFQK4VNJ74/
        
        “we’re going to be reliant on immigration to staff everything from driving agricultural machinery to staffing our ICU’s.”
        
        Because New Zealanders cant staff ICU or drive a tractor………….. Insane.
        
        If NZ was a desirable place to live you would not see so many leaving and not returning. The National / Labo solution instead of making NZ a better country is to import the third world.
        
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        December 23, 2021 10:55am
      - Tony Stuart
        
        New Zealanders can staff ICU’s or drive specialist farm machinery, but both require intensive training. It takes two years for a nurse to become fully competent for ICU, although Andrew Little seems to think ICU nurses can be trained up online in a couple of hours. Likewise, you’re not going to send someone out in a piece of specialist farm machinery worth seven figures when they’ve driven it once around the paddock.
        
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        December 23, 2021 12:06pm
    - Man Among the Ruins
      
      Regardless of where they come from, what exactly is the aim of bringing in 50,000 new people every year? Who benefits? In the main, big corporations, banks and the immigrants themselves, while the “native” population suffers. Populations are meant to boom and bust of their own accord over natural cycles. The dogma of “endless growth” (of population, of consumption, of house prices, of wage decreases) benefits only a very few.
      
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      December 23, 2021 10:46am
      - alloytoo
        
        In reality the country wins because we are importing skills and experience that we have not had to pay to train.
        
        Skilled migrants contribute from day one.
        
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        December 23, 2021 5:59pm
      - david
        
        Otis in part a hangover from the Brierley era when large companies were taken over by the asset strippers. Part of their philosophy was to rapidly cease incurring training costs so firstly there were no more apprentice positions particularly among mechanical services, equipment maintenance, instrument servicing and general electrical. These new “lean and mean” companies just bought in the output of those who had invested in training. It is a common event to find that the first thing a newly qualified tradesman will do is to change employers after being bound to the same one for 4 years, they were ripe for plucking. Those who did the training however quickly got fed up with putting in the effort and then not benefitting so they too cut the number of apprentices. These things manifested themselves in trades shortages, rapidly rising salaries and pressure to fill the gaps with imports. Simple cause and effect really.
        
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        December 24, 2021 12:26pm
    - KevO'Brien
      
      He said, she said, the troll said follderoll we’ve had it all before.
      Is a repeat program to take out Luxon underway? We will turn the tables.
      .
      
      5 3
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      December 23, 2021 1:35pm
  - RichardX
    
    Credible sources are not necessary to make allegations on Kiwiblog.
    
    All that is required is a belief and some confirmation bias.
    
    5 12
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    December 23, 2021 10:10am
Pavel

Generally I read stuff for a laugh. As someone who follows international news I find their generally about 6 months behind on their “facts”. They go on and on about how they fact check everything and that we can trust them and their panel of experts that fact check everything yet often, when compared to what’s being reported overseas, I feel like I’m reading the Babylon Bee. But the one thing that really gets me is when they print stuff like this https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/health/300483734/covid19-the-financial-burden-of-supporting-unvaccinated-family-members.
The problem I find with articles like this (and they print them everyday) is that there is no way to verify them. Anyone could sit down and write this. How do we know it is not made up? It’s another example of how they generally write opinion pieces. The whole structure of the article screams propaganda and yet the masses read it and believe it and fall for it thinking it is real. This is not journalism. How can they honestly claim to be bearers of truth. Have they asked themselves why, after 20 years, the company sold for a dollar.
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December 23, 2021 8:25am
- Weetbix3ways
  
  Reads like a propaganda piece if ever there was one.
  
  Babylon Bee is far more entertaining and informative.
  
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  December 23, 2021 9:12am
- bronny1
  
  Yes, “Aroha” should go inform herself if she thinks her nieces are being endangered by not being vaxxed (and that’s just for starters). The Govt has given these stupid people the moral high ground to look down on people who make other choices.
  
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  December 23, 2021 9:51am
- NoFax
  
  Babylon Bee just interviewed Elon Musk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvGnw1sHh9M&ab_channel=TheBabylonBee
  
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  December 23, 2021 10:01am
- rouppe
  
  Aroha’s sister is getting the dole apparently. And no doubt accommodation supplement.
  
  One wonders with all those kids why she isn’t on the dpb which would pay more. But stupid is as stupid does.
  
  What got me was “My uncle says it’s hard watching our very own whānau be colonised by the Far Right…”
  
  WTF?! Isn’t it “her people” that are leading the charge to not get vaxxed? Own your own shit, babe.
  
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  December 23, 2021 12:11pm
G152

Dont worry folks. The social experiment is going well. The next variant of the virus is waiting in the wings. Cindy will save you
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December 23, 2021 8:27am
I remember when

My family have a long tradition of oral history recording.
A member, who was at Waitangi at the time the Treaty was signed, has passed down this story which explains the partnership confusion.
The misunderstanding arose because of an American vessel that was moored in the bay at the time.
The Captain, who was Texan, shook hands with Hone Heke and said, “Howdy pardner.”
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December 23, 2021 8:27am
Twinkle

A couple of quotes from “The Madness of Crowds” a novel by Louise Penny. Does this sound familiar?

“Though the pandemic was now over, it had left behind a population worn down. People were tired of being self-disciplined, of self-isolating. Of social distancing and wearing masks. They were exhausted, shell-shocked, from months and endless months of worrying about their children, their parents, their grandparents. Themselves.”

“They were battered and bruised from losing relatives, losing friends. Losing jobs and favourite haunts. Tired of being isolated and driven near crazy with loneliness and despair. They were tired of being afraid
I was there at your rally. You whipped them into a frenzy with your patented mix of facts and fear. Like some snake oil salesman at a fairground, trying to get gullible people to buy your poison. First you scare them, then you offer them false hope. It’s disgusting. But it works. And now the politicians, familiar with the power of fear, have bought your potion wholesale.”
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December 23, 2021 8:28am
- Man Among the Ruins
  
  Our “leaders” despise you and I. They hold us in contempt.
  
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  December 23, 2021 10:52am
emmess

Though, like most, I have always had the impression that politicians were likely the cause of more problems than they were the solutions.
https://www.newsweek.com/my-name-brandon-opinion-1660525

Let’s go Brandon (unironically)
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December 23, 2021 8:30am
Spoff

Jigging the numbers-
“In a Facebook post this week MidCentral DHB admitted they don’t base vaccination rates on actual population figures.
Instead, vaccination percentages are reached by comparing jab numbers with the Health Service User (HSU) database, which records the number of people who interacted with the health system in the previous year……..The DHB made no mention of inaccuracies that might arise from the possibility that an indeterminate number of people would have had ‘no interaction with the health system’ the previous year, or from the fact that baseline comparison number would change on a daily basis.”
https://dailytelegraph.co.nz/news/midcentral-health-admit-they-dont-base-vaccination-rates-on-actual-population-figures/
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December 23, 2021 8:32am
- Weetbix3ways
  
  Maybe that’s why I have never received any vax reminders by phone or mail – it has been a long long time since I’ve interacted with the health system.
  I guess that means I’m not considered in the stats!
  
  Ditto for my kids – strong healthy bunch have no need to visit the doctor – assuming one doesn’t go out and break an arm today!
  
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  December 23, 2021 9:15am
Yvette

Three Waters, already …
After Kiwiblog host David Farrar identifies some monumental Government wastage – Auckland light rail non-progress (except 7 meters of press releases) and $51 million spent on the Auckland cycle bridge to nowhere, there is more money down the gurgler here, with One to also Rule Them All –
Of course, don’t read all this crap if you don’t want to – just perhaps peruse the portions in bold type.

♣ New rules in place to restore healthy rivers?
Wednesday, 5 August 2020,
Press Release: New Zealand Government
Hon David Parker, Minister for the Environment
Hon Damien O’Connor, Minister of Agriculture

New rules to protect and restore New Zealand’s freshwater passed into law today.
… The new national direction complements the Government’s $1.1 billion Jobs for Nature package in the 2020 Budget. Last month, the Prime Minister announced 23 projects to be funded from this programme.
… A multi-agency Water Taskforce led by Ministry for the Environment developed the regulations, working with four advisory groups involving the primary sector, scientists and academics, Māori, environmental groups and local government. In 2019, extensive national public consultation was held and a record 17,500 submissions were received.
https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA2008/S00045/new-rules-in-place-to-restore-healthy-rivers.htm

A related website …
He taiao tōnui mō ngā reanga katoa – A flourishing environment for every generation
https://environment.govt.nz/news/action-for-healthy-waterways/

♠ Then there is WATERCARE – Auckland Council – a really nice website – indeed, worth a look, I think :
https://www.waterforlife.org.nz
Ko wai koe? ~ Are you water?

Water for Life shares stories and information about the water that sustains the growing city of Tāmaki Makaurau / Auckland.
In te reo Māori, the greeting “Ko wai koe?” can be interpreted in two ways. The direct translation is “Who are you?” while the symbolic translation is “Are you water?” or “What waters define who you are?”
These translations reflect how important water is to all of us, collectively as people – it makes us, it flows through us and connects us.

Through this website you can learn about what we do at Watercare, to deliver safe drinking water to households and businesses, and treat your wastewater once it leaves. …
Ko wai ahau ~ I am water
I fall as rain on to the whenua – the land – to begin my journey from sky to sea. I bring life to everything I touch along the way. Plants, people, birds and animals. Everything.

♥ There may be more out there – but finally (I think) there’s the brand new (opened November) Government department : Taumata Arowai
In my humble opinion (15 letters in art and design qualification after my name) this website is not as good as Auckland Council WATERCARE

Wai ora. Tangata ora – Healthy water. Healthy people.
Taumata Arowai is the dedicated water services regulator for Aotearoa, New Zealand.
We’re a Crown entity with a Ministerial-appointed board. Alongside the independent board is a Māori Advisory Group.
https://www.taumataarowai.govt.nz

Our identity
Our name Taumata Arowai was gifted to us by Hon Nanaia Mahuta, Minister of Local Government.
The name creates an identity for Taumata Arowai. Taumata is used to refer to a summit or gathering of people coming together around an important area of focus. This speaks to the importance of our kaupapa, the bringing together of people to reach a shared goal, and the weight and responsibility to our role as a regulator.

Where we have come from
The establishment of Taumata Arowai is one of three pou, pillars, of the Government’s 2020 Three Waters Reform programme (the other pou are regulatory and service delivery reform). A dedicated water services regulator will be essential to provide safe and reliable drinking water and improved delivery of waste and storm water.

See? – it is the “4th Water” established before the full instigation of “3 Waters“
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December 23, 2021 8:36am
- KevO'Brien
  
  See the NZCPR Xmas newsletter for an excellent summary of Ardern’s perfidy.
  https://www.nzcpr.com/merry-christmas-and-happy-new-year/#more-36064
  
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  December 23, 2021 8:59am
- Cassandra
  
  “Gifted by Mahuta”? Phooey. By all means have a Maori name – it’s an official language – but use it in Maori publications. This pigeon English rubbish is nuts. Labour in inventing a creole for us.
  
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  December 23, 2021 9:49am
  - artemisia
    
    Maori names for some government institutions do send a subtle message, though probably not the one intended.
    
    Oranga Tamariki.
    Kainga Ora.
    Royal Society Te Aparangi.
    
    I always liked Te Tari Taake (IRD).
    
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    December 23, 2021 10:36am
    - Hard Cheese
      
      I reckon the Queen should sue the Royal Society for defamation of character
      
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      December 23, 2021 11:59am
    - NeverMindTheBollocks
      
      The Taker!
      
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      December 23, 2021 7:38pm
  - david
    
    “pidgin” please unless you are describing the mangling of the English Language as a pile of bird crap.
    
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    December 23, 2021 11:16am
    - Yvette
      
      David – “kererū English”
      
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      December 23, 2021 12:18pm
      - KevO'Brien
        
        Strictly pidgin.
        
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        December 23, 2021 4:31pm
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      https://www.researchgate.net/publication/324014745_On_the_Etymology_of_Pidgin
      
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      December 23, 2021 2:47pm
  - KevO'Brien
    
    This “gifting” is a Polynesian custom. The chiefly personage bestows mana with the object gifted. That represents their power too. Is Nanaia Mahuta, Waikato, deliberately teasing other tribal leaders?
    
    Maori are the Crowns subjects, we are not theirs.
    
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    December 23, 2021 4:29pm
Rusty

What is 2022 going to bring us — more of the same?

Even if we knock omicron on the head soon — the chances are another covid strain appears and we are back into it again — restrictions, lock downs, more vaccines and boosters and more sore arms!

Will the majority of Kiwis continue to be compliant to govt directives or will they start saying enough is enough– lets live with this flu strain and no more govt bullying.
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December 23, 2021 8:37am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  I doubt that they will say let’s live with it..
  
  Israel is rolling out its 2nd load of boosters (i.e.. 4th vax).
  https://edition.cnn.com/2021/12/21/middleeast/israel-fourth-covid-vaccine-booster-intl/index.html
  
  I suspect before 2022 ends, NZ will be doing the same.
  
  I fully expect to be under some type of lockdown-traffic-light system this time next year.
  
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  December 23, 2021 8:59am
  - UrbanNeocolonialist
    
    Completely [deleted] sick to death of this bullshit. Enough already. I want my life back, I (and most NZers) have 100x more likelihood of dying from something other than covid during the next year even if I catch it. I do not want to waste any more of my and my families life sitting around in the P.M’s pointless prison.
    
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    December 23, 2021 9:43am
    - rouppe
      
      In West Auckland it seems you’re more likely to catch a stray bullet than to catch Covid
      
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      December 23, 2021 12:34pm
      - Paulus Gnome
        
        Bullets are counted as a Covid death . . .
        
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        December 23, 2021 2:20pm
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        Still be a Covid death when in reality is is lead poisoning
        
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        December 23, 2021 2:23pm
      - Surely Knott
        
        Yes last night the west Auckland community page at 1am reported more gunshots and car chases, followed by the police chopper. But no reports in the paper this morning.
        
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        December 23, 2021 10:49pm
    - UrbanNeocolonialist
      
      Interesting that swear words are now seemingly proscribed on kiwiblog too, the creeping tide of censorship and speech policing inches ever forwards over NZ. Death by 1000 cuts.
      
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      December 23, 2021 3:09pm
  - Ed Snack
    
    I doubt it will, if the current trajectory continues, stop at a fourth shot. It will be every 3-4 months in perpetuity.
    
    Good news though is that with every 10th shot Pfizer will give the survivors a free pizza. So get your vax card today and make sure they stamp each booster on it so you can claim your freebie.
    
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    December 23, 2021 10:21am
emmess

Boris is backing down
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vk1mxsD-568
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December 23, 2021 8:40am
I remember when

There seems to be some misunderstanding about the PM’s wedding.
The title is the “Wedding of the Sentry.”
The Sentry will, of course, be fully au fait with the workings of the Traffic Light system and an expert when it comes to Covid Passport protocols.
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December 23, 2021 8:41am
Maggie Pie

TRENDING

New twist in the saga of Remuera Surgeon Philip Polkinghorne’s recent ‘Careless Driving’ case.

Respected international website EMINETRA, shows the Surgeon using FOUR different surnames….

1. POLKINGHORNE
2. POLKING HORN
3. POKER HORN
4. POKING HORN

So which is it? The plot thickens 🙁

https://eminetra.co.nz/remuera-surgeon-philip-polkinghorne-was-charged-with-a-collision-due-to-careless-driving/435594/
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December 23, 2021 9:16am
- plc
  
  Seriously….who cares?
  
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  December 23, 2021 9:37am
  - Maggie Pie
    
    Well probably not anybody living in a run-down shack with moldy ceilings and peeling wallpaper in Auckland’s outer suburbs I suppose.
    
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    December 23, 2021 10:18am
    - plc
      
      But obviously somebody whose life high point was being mentioned in a “Felicity Ferret” column in METRO in the 80s 🙂
      
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      December 23, 2021 10:27am
- Surely Knott
  
  The whole Polkinghorne case is weird. She died 5 April.. She was head of the vaccination programme logistics. From BFD ” the original story in the New Zealand Herald stated that on the Easter Sunday, Hanna and Polkinghorne had visited a covid vaccination centre, where Hanna had received her covid vaccination. However by the next day, that piece of information had been removed from the story, with the explanation that the family did not want the death to be in any way associated with Hanna having received the vaccine. ” But why should the cause of death and reporting be determined by the family.
  
  6 months on has there been an autopsy and what was the cause of death. Was she poisoned? Heart Attack?
  It’s also unusual for the media to name the suspect when you consider the murderers who have been given name suppression even after being charged. The media are also reporting all of the weird details of their sex life and their dysfunctional marriage despite no charges being laid against the husband except for a car crash.
  
  I have no idea if it was a murder but the vaccine info seems to have been wiped. What was it about her death that suggested foul play?. The way this case is being reported is very weird. 8 months later we should have more than just salacious gossip from the media.
  
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  December 23, 2021 10:22am
  - Man Among the Ruins
    
    Murder is apparently more socially acceptable than vaccine scepticism.
    
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    December 23, 2021 10:56am
- Inandout
  
  Maggie, a bit of background on Pauline, to refresh memories.
  https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/remuera-death-who-was-pauline-hanna-and-what-happened-on-easter-monday/GQYSVZLWT2GEW3ROJW3O6BGOFA/
  
  As an aside, I am watching ‘Lupin’ on Netflix and it features a very wealthy and influential businessman who engineered illegal acts with Police knowledge, and for a long time got away with it. It is of course a pop corn type production but even dubbed from French is still watchable.
  
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  December 23, 2021 1:00pm
  - alloytoo
    
    In my youth I remember a French series called
    Arsène Lupin, which was dubbed into Afrikaans.
    
    theTVDB says 1971. I probably watched it in the late 70’s.
    
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    December 23, 2021 6:08pm
Chuck Bird

FYI

Covid 19: Japan urges public ‘do not discriminate’ against the unvaccinated

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/covid-19-japan-urges-public-do-not-discriminate-against-the-unvaccinated/ZUQ2KJ3LTQX74YUZ63IEDOGH5Q/
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December 23, 2021 9:19am
- Opie
  
  If the Japanese are doing it, it’s likely a pretty good way of doing things.
  
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  December 23, 2021 10:05am
- Lexicon
  
  Theirs seems a very civilised approach.
  
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  December 23, 2021 1:51pm
KevO'Brien

Lock down without reason?
https://www.globalresearch.ca/fake-science-invalid-data-there-is-no-such-thing-as-a-confirmed-covid-19-case-there-is-no-pandemic/5761960

Why is it that 20th c.professional economists interpret data much better than more recent ones?
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December 23, 2021 9:25am
- RichardX
  
  KevO’Brien
  Lock down without reason?
  https://www.globalresearch.ca/fake-science-invalid-data-there-is-no-such-thing-as-a-confirmed-covid-19-case-there-is-no-pandemic/5761960
  
  Why is it that 20th c.professional economists interpret data much better than more recent ones?
  
  DECEMBER 23, 2021 9:25AM
  
  What comparative examination of sets of validated facts did you conduct to test the veracity of the claim?
  
  KevO’Brien
  …
  Truth may be hard to ascertain but it’s in scripture and otherwise in the midst of comparative examinations of sets of validated facts.
  …
  DECEMBER 20, 2021 12:52PM
  
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  December 23, 2021 10:20am
  - KevO'Brien
    
    Yeah, I have a follower. Careful where walk my path my lurch unexpectedly.
    
    I did refer to Prof Michel Chossudovsky. I don’t need to defend his analysis with facts and reputation. The emeritus Prof. is sound.
    
    Craig Paul Roberts is another economist of very high standing and with a former public life. His latest shows he is prepared to put his reputation on the line too:
    https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2021/12/22/fauci-and-biden-are-pathological-liars/
    
    Paul like me sees a great deal and is a very wise man.
    
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    December 23, 2021 1:48pm
    - RichardX
      
      KevO’Brien
      Yeah, I have a follower. Careful where walk my path my lurch unexpectedly.
      
      I did refer to Prof Michel Chossudovsky. I don’t need to defend his analysis with facts and reputation. The emeritus Prof. is sound.
      
      Craig Paul Roberts is another economist of very high standing and with a former public life. His latest shows he is prepared to put his reputation on the line too:
      https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2021/12/22/fauci-and-biden-are-pathological-liars/
      
      Paul like me sees a great deal and is a very wise man.
      
      DECEMBER 23, 2021 1:48PM
      
      Kev, I don’t doubt your sincerity, just your epistemology.
      
      I know that nothing I say will ever change what you believe.
      
      If however, you present credible evidence for what you believe, you may be able to convince me your beliefs are valid and I will change what I believe.
      
      I don’t need to defend his analysis with facts and reputation. The emeritus Prof. is sound.
      
      Using an argument from authority fallacy by claiming a professor is sound without actually validating the specific claim is fallacious. It also contradicts your earlier truth statement.
      
      Craig Paul Roberts is another economist of very high standing and with a former public life.
      
      Claiming that Craig Paul Roberts enjoys the same high standing now as he did prior to his retirement from his former public life is factually incorrect.
      
      His latest shows he is prepared to put his reputation on the line too:
      
      Claiming that ”he is prepared to put his reputation on the line” somehow makes his claim true is fallacious. It also contradicts your earlier truth statement.
      
      Paul like me sees a great deal and is a very wise man.
      
      How have you quantified his wisdom?
      You appear to be applying confirmation bias. CPR agrees with KOB so he must be right.
      
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      December 23, 2021 2:21pm
      - KevO'Brien
        
        Read the original from the Prof. It’s an instalment of a well researched work presented here as an ebook.
        It has copious detail and references. It’s about as authoritative as it gets.
        The Prof. is an economist and is well capable of sorting out the meaning of data as anyone.
        
        I don’t do public nit picking.
        
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        December 23, 2021 4:40pm
Chuck Bird

Another example that this government is not kind.

Covid 19 Delta outbreak: Schoolgirl stuck in Australia after visiting for two week holiday in July

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/covid-19-delta-outbreak-schoolgirl-stuck-in-australia-after-visiting-for-two-week-holiday-in-july/MWOPBN2RS54NXXCYHGPSMPHBZU/
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December 23, 2021 9:25am
- Alwynn
  
  Of course they are kind, or else Lorde is just supernaturally lucky.
  “Lorde confirmed on Wednesday that, “by some stroke of good fortune”, she has returned home to New Zealand for Christmas and a much-needed summer break.”
  https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/celebrities/127358847/unbelievable-to-be-warm-again-lorde-returns-to-soak-up-aotearoas-solar-power
  
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  December 23, 2021 9:35am
  - buzzler
    
    [deleted by Mod, unfounded speculation]
    
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    December 23, 2021 11:22am
  - Nickc2
    
    Surely, this taxpayer-funded investigative journalism clique should be looking into this apparent rort.
    Oh shit, that’s right, never bite the hand that feeds you eh?
    
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    December 23, 2021 12:01pm
  - rouppe
    
    And to sing at the PM ‘s wedding.
    
    Though I’m sure that’s as much a coincidence as Ricardo Mendez-March getting his miq spot, and James Shaw being one of the 75 who could trial self isolation (out of 500? planned)
    
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    December 23, 2021 12:39pm
  - UrbanNeocolonialist
    
    There are clearly means of improving your chances if you are wealthy/connected). There are a number of categories allowing the politically connected to get near immediate approval for eg NZ’s “substantial economic interests”.
    
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    December 23, 2021 12:48pm
  - Surely Knott
    
    “Cristal, Maybach, diamonds on your timepiece
    Jet planes, islands, tigers on a gold leash
    We don’t care”
    
    “And we’ll never be royals (royals)
    It don’t run in our blood
    That kind of luxe just ain’t for us”
    
    “And baby, I’ll rule (I’ll rule, I’ll rule, I’ll rule)
    Let me live that fantasy”
    
    “Oh
    Oh (oh, oh)
    We’re bigger than we ever dreamed
    And I’m in love with being queen
    Oh
    Oh (oh, oh)
    Life is great without a care”
    
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    December 23, 2021 12:59pm
  - Benedict Yu
    
    The thousands who cannot get in will be angered by the “some stroke of good fortune” comment. It implies that she literally does not know how she got an MIQ spot, which is obviously untrue. It is in the public interest that she should disclose the route by which she obtained an MIQ spot.
    
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    December 23, 2021 1:25pm
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Quite easy. She obtained it by telling Jaspinda she would vote for Labour and so will all her followers. If the followers don’t, she will ‘unfriend’ them.
      So called celebrities are full of shit
      
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      December 23, 2021 2:29pm
    - Scooter
      
      An extremely tone deaf and unwise comment made by Lorde. No wonder her and Cindy are friends, both immature.
      
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      December 23, 2021 9:41pm
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  Here’s Alexandra Birt, spokeswoman for Grounded Kiwis telling of how she was sitting next to an English DJ on her flight back to NZ. She had spent the last year fighting for NZers who were desperate to get a MIQ place and this chap was just turning up to DJ at a festival..
  
  https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/nights/audio/2018825500/the-case-for-a-risk-based-approach-to-miq
  
  (from about 10 min into interview)
  
  Clearly some folks are more important than others.
  
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  December 23, 2021 3:07pm
  - fisho
    
    Couldn’t they have just boxed up his records and sent them to NZ? I would’ve been quite happy to dust off the Pye radiogram and spin some vinyl for the peeps, all for a fraction of this UK chaps fee.
    
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    December 23, 2021 4:15pm
  - UrbanNeocolonialist
    
    Labour knows how to appease the bobble-headed ‘person with a vagina’ Gen Y-Z vote. And screw the oiks.
    
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    December 23, 2021 4:15pm
Spoff

“If you support the discrimination and segregation entailed by vaccine passports I don’t want to hear you use the words “equality”, “justice” or “rights” ever again: coming from you they will, from now on, be as devoid of meaning as the random and raucous chatter of a parrot.”
“Enough of the tyranny of experts in narrow fields, with no concept of the broader and quite disastrous consequences of their inability to think outside their range of knowledge. Scientific qualifications bestow absolutely no added ability to behave ethically or to form policy.”
– Ian Jenkins.
https://off-guardian.org/2021/12/22/audio-misrepresenting-humanity-on-a-grand-scale/
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December 23, 2021 9:29am
Truman lodge

There will be another varient later in the year. Like omicron which 2 jabs don’t protect against but a booster shot does protect you from omicron. This will be called the decepticon varient. It will be resistant to 3 shots of the vaccine. However studies show if you have a second booster it will protect you.
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December 23, 2021 9:42am
- Man Among the Ruins
  
  “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” All you have to do to get off the hamster wheel is step off.
  
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  December 23, 2021 11:03am
Yvette

Te Reo
I have wondered a little sometimes, how I would feel about the cultural appropriation of Te Reo Māori by 1-News, in particular, if I was a Māori myself

Or are both sides of my brain too white to even comprehend such a position – to not be able to worthily reflect the dichotomy of being the lowest in almost every social statistic – No mana for Māori: Māori are more likely to be overweight, depressed, homeless, incarcerated and uneducated according to these disturbing statistics produced under National’s watch [Kelvin Davis, then (2017) MP for Te Tai Tokerau, spokesperson for Māori Development, and Corrections – but, at the same time, raised to the heights that Māori climate activist India Logan-Riley did in introducing themselves (she are plural) on stage at the United Nations climate summit in Glasgow in te reo Māori, to tell G-20 leaders, in no uncertain terms, that it is imperative that they listen to young indigenous* peoples and support their fight for a better future: “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.

However, such a mental-disonance could perhaps go something like
News Anchor: Nau mai , haere mai
‘Maori’ mental me: thinks – Welcome, come – OK, he’s addressing the whole national audience as being Maori, how exclusively inclusive.
Anchor: Tonight, on One News, the controversial weed killer …
‘Māori’ me: OK, English … and anything important, or in fact anything telling you all else, other than “greetings’, what is ”next or coming-up’ as a continuity link, or “farewell”, is in English. Occasionally a word like “mahi” for work, which everyone knows because Labour especially has so much of that still to do, or in many matters: are even to start – like: right across the “motu” – so nation-wide.

And then there is the European looking Anchor greeting or thanking the European reporter ‘in the field’ – “Ngā mihi nui” – “Thank you very much” non-Māori to seeming non-Māori, and even more bizarre when ‘in the field’ is The United Kingdom, Australia to Austria – which is “porangi”?

Or Sports Anchor: “Nau mai ki ngā hākinakina o te wā” (about the longest Māori sentence 1 News tokenistically and culturally mis-appropriates) and is something sports reporter Saville usually says every evening on 1 News, and is understood by few, but seems to cause irritation to outright racist anger at the interruption it is to majority-English viewing. And Maori, fluent in the language probably also think, “Get on with it, and tell us about the Blues …”
Notably, female presenters whack out “kia ora e te iwi” (it sounds like) which is much shorter and faster, but still a “shout out” to an utmost 16 percent of the viewing audience, without greeting the Asians, or anyone else.

But it is actually unbelievable that those supporting Te Reo Māori do not see this causes more opposition to learning the language than it is in any way helpful. But for those who object, the phrases now seem to be getting faster, glib, so waste less time – however become more incomprehensible.

But Broadcasting Standards have now rejected consideration of any te reo complainants – before they are ever received, even surpassing Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who must still hear something before she can say “I absolutely reject that”.

And of course if you do pick up the pronunciation [1] and understand its meaning, how often in a day do you want to say to anyone “Nau mai ki ngā hākinakina o te wā” – Welcome to the sports of the day – or, it seems, without the macrons: Nau mai ki nga hakinakina o te wa – Welcome to the sports of the season – not so often, I have opportunity to say that, really.
_____________
[1] pronunciation … sometimes wrong, because no Maori syllable ends in a consonant, and Maori doesn’t employ “q” in its un-reparated appropriation of the English alphabet, although if I were Maori, as attempted to be envisaged above, I might not mention that – I’d have to consider inventing a Maori hieroglyph (Greek for “sacred carvings”) system ourselves – and you can do only so much with a ‘koru’

* “indigenous” being India’s word, when “listen to our stories, honour our knowledge” emphasises the great Arrival of the First Seven Canoes in their Great Immigration to New Zealand (waiting to be censored by the Royal Society of New Zealand)
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December 23, 2021 9:42am
- oldfella
  
  Brilliant summary, Yvette.
  
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  December 23, 2021 12:00pm
- Alan Wilkinson
  
  I’m pretty sure Maori aboard the gravy train will listen to those phrases with a glow of satisfaction that their useful idiots are still stoking the boiler to keep their ride on track. And the vast majority who aren’t will be as irritated as the rest of us.
  
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  December 23, 2021 12:43pm
- KevO'Brien
  
  Watch out: the 7 canoes did not arrive as one. Effectively we had 7 new migrant nations turn up. Their languages place them as distinct and intertribal hostility still exists.
  
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  December 23, 2021 1:55pm
Diogenes

According to RNZ, securing air freight capacity to and from New Zealand is expected to be even more difficult in 2022. Transport officials are warning as North America and Europe begins to re-open it will be increasingly difficult to keep large international operators in New Zealand. Air Canada quietly left the New Zealand market in September, and Emirates recently pulled its Christchurch route.
Another consequence of keeping our borders closed. And another instance of how a decision made in isolation, without consideration of flow-on effects elsewhere, can have serious effects. We have a government that seems to specialise in myopic thinking.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/458483/signs-of-few-options-for-air-freight-to-new-zealand-next-year-govt-officials
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December 23, 2021 9:47am
- Master Mariner
  
  Along with 2 x coastal tankers departing due to Marsden pt closure.
  Back to the caves for shelter coming soon.
  
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  December 23, 2021 2:37pm
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    Really? How’s that?
    
    I thought that refined fuel is going to be transported from wherever to Marsden Pt for storage, after which a local tanker would load & distribute it around the country (excl Akld) as it does now.
    
    How will the South Is get its fuel?
    
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    December 23, 2021 7:48pm
CAKE FACE1

“Deadly Delta” has been a bit of a damp squid… Any flu season this mild would be a huge success.

“Omi-con” is beginning to look like a huge hoax.

Of course, masking up is used for the placebo benefits.

Why are we hiding under our beds again?
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December 23, 2021 9:49am
- rangitoto
  
  Damp squib.
  
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  December 23, 2021 3:01pm
bronny1

I listened in to a Chantelle Baker seminar last night (you can find the link on Voices for Freedom I think). She had a few doctors (including Matt S? who has been de-registered and two others who are under investigation) and some maori folk including one who i think is an MP for the Maori party? (I came in late).
ANyway – they asked one of the Maori fellas how much funding they got to get people jabbed. These are people who are against having it pushed on them. He said that Murupara, population 800 was given $5m to get their maori population vaxxed. I don’t know where the money went, perhaps to the local Marae? If true, that’s over $6000 per person. Given that prob 50% were already vaxxed, that’s 12000 per person they are hunting. Can anyone verify any of this?
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December 23, 2021 9:56am
- Yvette
  
  Bronny1, perhaps part of the funding involves –
  Te Runanga o Ngati Manawa COVID 19 – Iwi Support Plan March 2020
  • Government will be reprioritising $10 million from the Māori Development budget to support community outreach.
  https://www.tearawhiti.govt.nz/assets/COVID-19/TRONM-Iwi-Support-Plan.pdf
  
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  December 23, 2021 11:08am
All_on_Red

Interesting, although possibly too late given we are on the end run of the Pandemic but perhaps useful for the future
https://www.defenseone.com/technology/2021/12/us-army-creates-single-vaccine-effective-against-all-covid-sars-variants/360089/
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December 23, 2021 9:59am
James Stephenson

Would you be surprised to learn that a number of key instigators of the Jan 6th ~~insurrection~~ unscheduled tour of the Capitol, who have been positively identified, somehow remain uncharged or memory-holed by prosecuting authorities?

Federal Bureau of Instigation strikes again?

A long, but worthwhile read (HT/ plug for Viva Frei who is a must-follow for anyone in the Anglosphere interested in the conjunction of law and politics who flagged the article yesterday)

https://www.revolver.news/2021/12/damning-new-details-massive-web-unindicted-operators-january-6/

If the Washington establishment can put that much effort and co-ordination into merely persecuting (deliberately chosen word, I don’t mean “prosecuting”) Joe Bloggs Trump Supporters, what lengths would they go to, to ensure that the man himself was out of office? That this is the supposed “Leader of the Free World” makes me very queasy indeed.
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December 23, 2021 10:04am
- UrbanNeocolonialist
  
  yeah something stinks to high heaven. Clearly a well planned and organised effort to get casual protestors into the Capitol Building, but with the coordinating ringleaders identified on video now mostly identified but studiously not charged by FBI there is clearly something rotten at play. Did the FBI set it all up, or are they providing immunity in return for going after someone higher up?
  
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  December 23, 2021 12:54pm
andretti

After a break of several weeks i got back to read Stuff today.Holly hell this is straight govt propaganda on there,they dont even try to hide it.The article i read was about an anti vaxer in northland,writen by a woke feminist big boned girl.
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December 23, 2021 10:06am
- MCōs
  
  Which article is that?
  
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  December 23, 2021 10:25am
NoFax

The wedding of the century might be her “let them eat cake” moment.

I have heard from people who are usually Cindy fans the wedding is going down well – a lot of feeling that she isn’t a celebrity but the PM. So many NZers have suffered and now she is having an extravagant wedding at a billionaire’s estate. A lot of brides over the last 2 years had to worry about lockdowns and no guest from overseas. Of course with Cindy that’s not an issue. She can make as many captain calls as she likes.

The Queen read the room well when she cancelled the Christmas celebrations. Maybe Cindy should just do a small private wedding at home with a handful of guests.
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December 23, 2021 10:06am
- Warren
  
  I would like to know if Ella’s Yelich – O’conner other wise known as Lorde got assistance from the Prime Minister or any other official to get a late MIQ spot to come back to New Zealand for Christmas and also the wedding as she mentioned on the News last night she was lucky to obtain a late MIQ spot.
  
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  December 23, 2021 10:47am
  - Nickc2
    
    Have the Wiggles been invited to the wedding of the century? No doubt they are keeping some MIQ beds available for em.
    
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    December 23, 2021 11:40am
  - Hard Cheese
    
    “lucky”. Like the mad Mexican was “lucky”
    
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    December 23, 2021 12:10pm
    - UrbanNeocolonialist
      
      some animals are more equal than others.
      
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      December 23, 2021 12:56pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    There is a catalogue of bridges for sale online
    
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    December 23, 2021 2:37pm
Homas

Having just received my covid freedom pass after a moderate dickaround (didn’t have one of the default MyHealth ID types – could still have dickaround potential ahead as I’ll be fucked if I’m going to be carrying my foreign passport around for some barista who wants to see photo ID), a thought occurred to me.

(Given that I didn’t have the sacred requisite photo ID on hand when getting my shots) what assurance does anyone have as to whose arm actually received the vaccine?

The whole clown-party is a bit like me trying to worm the little stray cat I leave food out for. I left some pill-laced mince out the other day but didn’t have time to check who ate it. All I know is someone’s cat got wormed.
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December 23, 2021 10:10am
- sooty
  
  Are you sure it was the cat?
  
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  December 23, 2021 1:47pm
  - Homas
    
    I guess hedgehogs deserve intestinal health.
    
    Or were you hinting at something more sinister?
    
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    December 23, 2021 3:29pm
Maggie Pie

FOX reporting the jury is getting close with their decision on the fate of Ghislaine Maxwell.
They have already sent 6 notes to the Judge seeking clarification surrounding conspiracy in relation to her accusers.
Both my partner and I are rooting for a Not Guilty verdict.
It’s Epstein that’s on trial here – not Ghislaine.
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December 23, 2021 10:14am
- Alan Wilkinson
  
  I’m with you on that Maggie but principally because people who chose to get paid for something have no basis for later complaints. And I don’t care if they were teenagers, they were and are responsible for their choices.
  
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  December 23, 2021 11:16am
  - Nickc2
    
    I liken this to the Harvey Weinstein affair. Harvey put lots of so-called actresses’ names in lights and when their lights/looks began to fade, they turned on him. [deleted by Mod, defamatory]
    
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    December 23, 2021 11:31am
  - Maggie Pie
    
    Exactly right Al.
    The other thing, it’s amazing just how much she looks like my partner’s mum.
    
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    December 23, 2021 11:33am
- Bluegrass
  
  MP – It’s way beyond Epstein – it’s political. US political.
  
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  December 23, 2021 1:28pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    See above. Amazing Maxwell is still alive
    
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    December 23, 2021 2:41pm
- Paulus
  
  Remember it is all about Money.
  – Epstein’s money is still tied up and these young high earning “waitresses” and their lawyers want as much as they can.
  If they can find Maxwell guilty they can hope to get Epsteins money somehow.
  This is US law – it is all about Lawyer’s money.
  
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  December 23, 2021 1:50pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Maxwell knows where the bodies are. I am amazed she is still alive
  
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  December 23, 2021 2:40pm
ClanMcleod

This response from Japan to covid is how this event should have been dealt with.

“The following notice appears on the website for the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare:

Although we encourage all citizens to receive the COVID-19 vaccination, it is not compulsory or mandatory. Vaccination will be given only with the consent of the person to be vaccinated after the information provided. Please get vaccinated of your own decision, understanding both the effectiveness in preventing infectious diseases and the risk of side effects. No vaccination will be given without consent. Please do not force anyone in your workplace or those who around you to be vaccinated, and do not discriminate against those who have not been vaccinated.”

https://dailysceptic.org/2021/12/21/do-not-discriminate-against-the-unvaccinated-japanese-government-tells-citizens/

Simple. To the point. Fair and non discriminatory.
Instead we get a North Korean dictatorship, segregation and discrimination against a minority who choose to make an informed decision around what is clearly an experimental drug.

Even allowing for the fact that the first couple of months may have been filled with uncertainty and mistakes may have been made, there is no excuse for what we have been subjected to in the last year or so. It has been nothing to do with health. It has been the worst kind of abuse of power. It has been malfeasance and overreach. Acting illegally then changing laws under emergency.
What has been done to the people and economy of this beautiful country is a tragedy and a crime against the population, particularly our children.

Ardern, Hipkins, Robertson, the group of “experts”, the bought and paid for shills and stenographers in the mainstream media – as a group they have wrought destruction on an unimaginable scale.
Never forget who caused this. It wasn’t some “deadly plague virus”. It wasn’t
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December 23, 2021 10:19am
- Ed Snack
  
  Apologies for the downticks, fat fingers on an iPad. Meant to be an uptick !
  
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  December 23, 2021 10:26am
CAKE FACE1

The Plan b guys were correct all along. The Swedes were also correct all along.

After Omicron, new variants are very likely to come along.

This means that lockdowns are only ever justified if hospitals are about to be overrun. This hasn’t happened. We have destroyed our economy for nothing.

All our lockdowns have been unjustified. All our border closures are unjustified.

The good thing is that NZ simply can’t afford the Zero Covid nutjob policies anymore. Lockdowns should be off the table as an option.

Professor Baker seemed to believe that his Zero Covid fairy tale was possible and desirable. It was neither. He is supposed to be an expert? How has he not been run out of town?

Our “experts” such as Wiles, Hendy, Jackson and Baker are all clearly incompetent. No other country in the world follows their policies. We walk alone down the road to nowhere.

NZ needs to stop listening to these clowns. They are dragging the NZ economy and society into the abyss.

I suspect that National knows that border controls are nonsense, but they also realise that this policy is popular, so they collaborate. At some point, National needs to draw a line in the sand, and oppose this insanity.

Woe is me…
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December 23, 2021 10:20am
- Bridgenag
  
  Well said
  
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  December 23, 2021 12:45pm
curry4me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_0BiwCyfl8

6,091 Fully Vaccinated Cruise Passengers Suffer Massive Outbreak; 48 Cases Already | Facts Matter.

For the second time this month, there was an outbreak on a cruise ship — even though all of the crew members (and all of the adult passengers) were fully vaccinated. [19:02]
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December 23, 2021 11:03am
- Inandout
  
  curry, even before the C19 cruising was always dodgy with stomach bugs being spread with amazing speed. We did our cruise thing a couple of times but being a passenger is rather like being an inmate.
  
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  December 23, 2021 11:33am
  - curry4me
    
    Spoff: They don’t hInandout Not sure if I’d want to go on a cruise either. It underlines the pointlessness of lockdowns though if the elect can still get the new scariant.
    
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    December 23, 2021 2:04pm
    - BeaB
      
      I miss my annual cruises. Loved the big ships. Extremely high standards of cleanliness, food safety, security and hygiene. Better than most hotels. I’d feel safer with my favourite cruise line than in my local mall.
      
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      December 23, 2021 3:06pm
curry4me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOp6FiUUYUs

The new German leadership confirms China’s biggest fears.

The effects of former German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s exit has led to a sudden turn of events. And now Germany and the EU, which is heavily influenced by Germany, have decided to dump China and embrace Taiwan. [4:57]
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December 23, 2021 11:04am
- Bluegrass
  
  I follow German political news [in German] and would at this point say that “dump” is a stretch, having regard to German manufacturing and market tie-ups with the Chicoms.
  
  But if the Chicoms continue with their zero-sum mindset, then the Germans will likely re-align their views. And with the Germans, the EU.
  
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  December 23, 2021 1:55pm
  - curry4me
    
    Bluegrass: Yeah, maybe a bit of wishful thinking. Be nice if they really did dump China though.
    
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    December 23, 2021 6:27pm
- Master Mariner
  
  Following as well.
  Regarding Russia reducing gas to Germany via Balerus pipeline and German regulators refusing to sign off Nord Stream 2 isnt going to end well for german energy security.
  Now Tawan ??
  
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  December 23, 2021 2:51pm
curry4me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeAiGZoTudY
NPC University Season 4 Episode 4.

NPCU has Chris Wallace as their special guest. [2:29]
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December 23, 2021 11:04am
emmess

Interesting interview with Elon Musk by the Babylon Bee
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvGnw1sHh9M&t=0s
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December 23, 2021 11:05am
Maggie Pie

I’ve never set foot in Britomart. And never likely to either.
They say the place is like a free-range-asylum. Especially after dark.

I blame the parents 🙁

https://twitter.com/Clumpassion/status/1473159577805877249
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December 23, 2021 11:12am
- MCōs
  
  I’ve been there many times.
  It’s a railway station.
  If you don’t catch a train of course you won’t go there.
  
  3 6
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  December 23, 2021 12:31pm
  - Maggie Pie
    
    You ever tried that ‘Herbal Ignite’ stuff, Cossie?
    
    Asking for an elderly neighbor.
    
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    December 23, 2021 2:21pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Sometimes it is fun to watch the sheep behaviour
    
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    December 23, 2021 2:48pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  5 plods to contain a small girl? Jesus they are a woke bunch
  
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  December 23, 2021 2:47pm
  - Ed Snack
    
    Probably unmasked and unVaxxed, so deserved it in the eyes of at least some who post here.
    
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    December 23, 2021 4:53pm
Alan Wilkinson

Further to my comment yesterday re mismanagement of Covid treatment options:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/dec/21/paxlovid-anti-covid-pill-why-not-available
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December 23, 2021 11:41am
- Ed Snack
  
  As I understand it, it has just been given emergency authorisation and at very high speed compared to the usual process. Safety data is just not there for longer periods after administration.
  
  Have to ask though, it has results comparable to the average impact of Ivermectin, which does have safety data and is a hell of a lot cheaper. No good reason not to authorise that either, except that it would cut into Pfizer’s profits no doubt.
  
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  December 23, 2021 4:56pm
Maggie Pie

TRENDING

Mt Eden couple tell reporters….

“They have no interest whatsoever in hearing about the unexplained death of Remuera socialite Pauline Polkinghorne, or her husband’s ‘Careless Driving’ charge”

https://twitter.com/NZStuff/status/1473737504046080014
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December 23, 2021 11:52am
-D

Forgive me if I missed it in earlier discussion…but can someone please tell me if iwi staffing at traffic checkpoints are being paid for their services? And if so by whom?

It seems in his complaint about vetting of participants Hone H. was making a point about ‘volunteers’.

Thank you.
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December 23, 2021 12:06pm
- MCōs
  
  They’re funded by George Soros, the well know Māori billionaire.
  
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  December 23, 2021 12:33pm
  - Inandout
    
    MC, imagine Maori now adopting ‘s’ in their language.
    
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    December 23, 2021 1:39pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    For that you get a truckload of upticks MCos
    
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    December 23, 2021 2:50pm
- graham
  
  I don’t know whether they were being paid or not, but I think the point is now moot anyway as the checkpoints have been disbanded. Certainly the one at Maungaturoto is gone, I drove up there a few hours ago.
  
  Possibly the police realized just how annoyed people were getting, especially at the stupidity that had fully vaccinated Aucklanders being checked, while people heading south from unvaccinated Northland got a free pass.
  
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  December 23, 2021 12:46pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  They are getting paid whether they turn up or not. Who is paying? We fucking are
  
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  December 23, 2021 2:51pm
- Hollyfield
  
  I have no first hand knowledge, but either Kerre McIvor or Heather du Plessis Allen asked this question in an interview with one of the key players, could have been Hone or Reuben, or could have been someone else. He said they were volunteers.
  
  I haven’t heard what Hone has been saying about volunteers and police checks, but any requirement for a police check should be the same regardless of whether they are paid or are volunteers.
  
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  December 23, 2021 4:14pm
I remember when

Has covid shown us that we are world leaders –

at following the lead of countries doing the research themselves.
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December 23, 2021 12:16pm
- MCōs
  
  Why would NZ want to reinvent the wheel?
  BTW
  We also import cars from those countries that develop them.
  Someone had a crack at manufacturing a homegrown contraption once called the Trekka. It wasn’t a great success.
  
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  December 23, 2021 12:40pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    I think that was just assembly. Parts came from Czechoslovakia. Before TradeMe someone was trying to flog off leftovers.
    Fuck, what a shitbox to drive
    
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    December 23, 2021 2:54pm
    - Maggie Pie
      
      About a couple of years back, my partner fitted a plum into one that was completely restored.
      They paid 26k for it!!
      
      3 1
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      December 23, 2021 3:28pm
    - Ed Snack
      
      The engine was from Skoda, and it wasn’t the worst part of it. The old Skoda 1200 engine was reasonably solid if, like all engines of the era, it was properly cooled and maintained. It was quite badly assembled, with only 2WD albeit with an LSD. They were pretty horrid on the road at least in part because they had swing-axle rear suspension that gave them tolerable suspension travel at a lighter weight, but atrocious handling and real problem handling any significant load.
      
      Off road they were moderately capable with the LSD providing some grip, not Landrover rivals but better than most 2WD vehicles though not really good enough for real slippery conditions. A mate of mine had one (or his father did, some sort of sponsored deal) briefly, and all else I can recall is a very basic and tinny interior.
      
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      December 23, 2021 5:04pm
Maggie Pie

A bestie of mine has been a Midwife for nearly 20 years.
She was saying just how slack the service they receive these days from certain Government Departments has become, ever since they re-branded under Maori names.
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December 23, 2021 1:15pm
Master Mariner

How Kiwi Seafarers are being repatriated.
https://i.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/127354753/sealord-spend-600000-bringing-crew-home-for-christmas#comments
This is now heading towards Negligence.
Such an easy solution but easy solutions are unfathomble to this Government.
Al Jezeera have a good article as well.
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December 23, 2021 1:25pm
Rusty

Reading the general blog today, I’m noting more than normal a lot of frustration and annoyance from Nzers towards the govt response to omicron.

All I can say is–I agree!

Come on Cindy get your fellow Kiwis to sing “God of nations at our feet…”
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December 23, 2021 1:57pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  She does not know the lyrics – not even off a teleprompter
  
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  December 23, 2021 2:55pm
  - Ed Snack
    
    She thinks it goes “God of nations, at my feet….”
    
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    December 23, 2021 5:05pm
Chuck Bird

This is today’s podcast of The Country. However, if you want to hear another great poem by Graeme Williams to Dear Aunty Jacinda you just forward to 26 minutes. I hope to get the text later but if anyone has it please post it.

https://podcasts.apple.com/nz/podcast/merry-christmas-edition/id1305527677?i=1000545869665
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December 23, 2021 2:09pm
- Chuck Bird
  
  Here it is as text.
  
  Dear Aunty Jacinda,
  Three letters to you I’ve sent.
  I’m yet to receive a reply,
  So not sure just where they went.
  
  I gather you’re coming to Gisborne,
  Indeed to tie the knot.
  Word is on the street is that Clarky boy,
  He must have lost the plot.
  
  A wedding is a wedding
  And I wish you all the best.
  Other things I wish to raise
  And I say them not in jest.
  
  Concerns I have a-plenty
  And Jamie says I’m one ahead of you
  In the top 10 yearly interviews,
  That all his punters listen to.
  
  Not sure if that’s a compliment,
  But I’ll take it just in case.
  But I reckon I’ve got a reasonable grasp,
  Of what’s happening around the place.
  
  People are unhappy,
  Saying enough, it is enough.
  I know it’s nearly Christmas,
  But we’re not all turkeys you can stuff.
  
  I’ve lived all 60 of my years,
  As a resident of the Coast.
  Clark, I’m sure will back me up to say,
  A place that’s better than most.
  
  Every single resident here,
  I guarantee, is living the dream.
  Epitomised by Ngāti Pourou East Coast,
  Hosea Gear and his team.
  
  We really are one people here,
  Despite the differences plain to see.
  Honkys are the minority,
  Sammy Parkes plus two, or three.
  
  It doesn’t even register,
  Not an iota of any fuss.
  It’s the way we’ve always lived,
  You should model the country on us.
  
  Unity and mutual respect,
  Is what a partnership’s all about.
  The Coast is living proof it works,
  Of that, I have no doubt.
  
  Creating problems where they’re not,
  Will destroy what’s been achieved.
  “Them and us” is prehistoric,
  Narrow-minded and ill-conceived.
  
  History must be history,
  Even when it’s far from nice.
  Lessons must be learned from it,
  It’s not for us to pay the price.
  
  Every sector knows the rules,
  They were laid out from the start.
  Every sector contributes something,
  That makes us stand apart.
  
  But ultimately we’re all the same,
  And must be treated together as such.
  You’d be extremely wise to learn from this,
  No one’s asking much.
  
  We’ve all made many mistakes,
  Creating discontent and strife.
  Mistakes are part of learning,
  A fundamental part of life.
  Read More
  
  Year in Review: The Country’s top 10 articles of 2021
  Year in review: The Country’s top 10 interviews of 2021
  Jamie Mackay: 2021 in review (and a couple of awards too)
  Pete Fitz-Herbert: My thoughts on carbon farming
  
  Throwing money at a problem,
  Without accountability and vision,
  Is not the maths of multiplication,
  It’s the maths of vast division.
  
  So, I suggest that whilst you’re in our town,
  Where you’re coming to be wed,
  You take a serious listen
  From what the majority has been said.
  
  Marriage is uniting,
  For a journey spent together.
  The parties require that mutual respect,
  If unity is forever.
  
  And whilst we’re on the wedding,
  I need to address the honeymoon.
  The Coast is where you should spend it,
  As it will be really buggered soon.
  
  Thanks to carbon farming,
  You’ll destroy life on the Coast.
  I’ve lived up here all my life,
  I understand it more than most.
  
  Huiarua and Matanui,
  Have significance to us all.
  Iconic parcels of heritage,
  To the East Coast one and all.
  
  Every single family,
  Has contributed and reaped reward.
  Losing these stations to carbon farming,
  Is something the country can’t afford.
  
  Listen to Graeme Williams recite his poem on The Country below:
  
  Listen to the people,
  Unanimous on the ground.
  Not a single, solitary individual,
  In support, there can be found.
  
  A dozen families on these stations,
  With roots throughout the Coast.
  Twelve homes for Christ’s sake,
  Is more than Megan Woods can boast.
  
  Mokamoka and Waiau,
  We have no problem with the trees.
  Huiarua for carbon,
  Shutting the school down if you please.
  
  Where the hell’s the sense in this?
  As you prepare your wedding vows,
  A mandate for your future,
  Best you spare a thought for ours.
  
  I’d happily drive your bridal car,
  And guide you around the Coast.
  And show you real New Zealand,
  The envy I suggest of most.
  
  Life, we’ve got it sorted here,
  On a limb out on our own.
  Best you allow the status quo,
  And leave us well alone.
  
  This feeling is unanimous,
  It’s imperative you take heed.
  Carbon farming will destroy our region,
  It’s b*llsh*t based on greed.
  
  United like our rugby team.
  Ka pai the mighty Blues.
  The recipe, we’ve got it right,
  We’re even winners when we lose.
  
  My Christmas wish is reflection,
  And I heard it in a song.
  Humble pie is marvellous stuff,
  Never too late to right a wrong.
  
  Sir Apirana Ngata,
  Undoubtedly East Coast’s greatest son.
  Unity is paramount,
  Together we are one.
  
  https://www.nzherald.co.nz/the-country/news/opinion-farmers-final-poem-for-the-prime-minister-for-2021/3UQLF5UCWSC7PACSMVAY5YQZ2I/
  
  8 4
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  December 23, 2021 4:29pm
  - lifesgood
    
    I gave up, it’s dreadful poetry If poetry is to be written do it properly or not at all
    
    10 2
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    December 23, 2021 4:43pm
Lee C

finally an interesting interview: I wish we had one of these here: https://rumble.com/vr3xz6-maria-zeee-interviews-riccardo-bosi.html?fbclid=IwAR3ecf93Te8jEo91rL-3HRAyW_-WLMbdsiOCuCWWgLgj9z4jo8XHXe3BayQ
1 2
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December 23, 2021 2:36pm
- Chuck Bird
  
  I don’t. The guy is nuts. He is talking about hanging politicains as traiters.
  
  2 3
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  December 23, 2021 3:44pm
wilderbeast

Listened to Jeremy Coney and Bryan Waddle on a cricket podcast last night. Turns out NZ is the only country not sending a team to the Under 19 World Cup in the Caribbean. The other 15 countries range from some of the richest (Australia & Canada) to the poorest (PNG & Afghanistan). So why is NZ not sending a team? No not because of covid itself but because of the draconian MIQ requirements that will meet them when they return home. This strikes me as a bloody good illustration of the hermit kingdom we’ve become. And on the very rare occasions someone in the MSM challenges the PM on this, or National does in the house, rage looms large in her eyes and she paints ALL alternatives to the hermit kingdom as tantamount to treason or a death sentence to every NZer.
8 1
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December 23, 2021 3:02pm
- big bruv
  
  That’s one of the reasons. There are others but NZC will never admit to them.
  
  2 1
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  December 23, 2021 4:21pm
Maggie Pie

Partner’s mum just phoned to say she’d been down to Smith & Caughey in Newmarket.
I said….”You were only there yesterday!”
She said, “I know. But it’s the only place in Auckland that asks to see my Vaccine Pass”
12 4
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December 23, 2021 3:24pm
- Russ the Muss
  
  Yes those 5% people out there are everywhere and of course they all have covid and of course even with summer and masks and social distancing, they will hunt you down and give it to you, and your own Vax status won’t work, hold on? Something wrong with that logic, just can’t figure out what?
  
  5 2
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  December 23, 2021 3:39pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

How ’bout that? Why did someone in NZ do a ‘Let’s go Brenda’ wrap?
https://thepoliticalinsider.com/company-makes-so-much-lets-go-brandon-christmas-wrap-it-could-cover-six-nfl-football-fields/?
2 2
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December 23, 2021 3:28pm
Russ the Muss

Hands up those that want Omi let in and get this thing done and dusted in 2022?
20 0
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December 23, 2021 3:37pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  I do, but Jaspinda will not allow that.
  Control – she must have CONTROL CONTROL CONTROL.
  Go back to Youtube 2009 and watch the president of her in Hungry. I thought at the time this would be serious trouble back then. Listen to her – and what did she say??? Fuck all, just waffle and word soup.
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9rsxFaq6Ig
  
  12 2
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  December 23, 2021 4:28pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Clearly insane 12 years ago.
    OK lefties – respond when your mum allows you to do
    
    9 2
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    December 23, 2021 4:33pm
CAKE FACE1

If National / ACT win the next election, they must be prepared to act straight away to fix New Zealand’s institutions. It will not be the time to sit on their hands doing nothing, as is the normal National conduct after winning.

In the first 100 days, they should address:

1. The Universities – Change the structure to corporatise them, with a focus on science and business, and international students. Change the government subsidy to depend on the subject. For example, science study might be subsidised 100% by the government, and media 0%. This should reflect market demand.

Ruthlessly de-fund all fake academics and nonsense programmes.

The demand for fake subjects will collapse as the State jobs related to these nonsense subjects are brutally eliminated.

2. The Police – fire the woke weirdo, and select someone with no tolerance to crime.

3. The Courts – as per above. Some judges would be better suited to becoming social workers. Mandate them to give proper sentences.

4. The Media – Privatise all State television and radio. Pass anti-corruption laws forbidding the Cindy media bribes.

5. Purge government institutions of Labour Party activists – People like Wiles are openly Labour Party activists. Nobody should be allowed to work on the government payroll who is openly a party activist. As such, fire Pinky, Hendy and the rest.

6. Eliminate all nonsense politically motivated quangos and commission – Meng the Merciless et al should be fired, and their organisations boarded up.

This would be a good start.

Make it so…
21 2
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December 23, 2021 3:37pm
- Alan Wilkinson
  
  Not a chance in hell. I’d settle for scrapping the Waitangi Tribunal and media funding along with pruning back the bureaucracy sharply and preventing it from funding political projects.
  
  Then there’s years of work to repair the damage.
  
  17 1
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  December 23, 2021 4:24pm
Maggie Pie

ZB News@3;30

‘Sixty-five year old man dies in Wellington Hospital after hitting his head when he was tackled to the ground by Police trying to arrest him’.

No word on the condition of the Cop. Our prayers are with him.
7 2
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December 23, 2021 3:46pm
- ByGolly
  
  Hope he wasn’t arrested for not wearing his muzzle.
  
  6 1
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  December 23, 2021 4:05pm
- Alan Wilkinson
  
  Sounds like a mental health case gone badly wrong. I doubt any involved are in a good state.
  
  9 0
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  December 23, 2021 4:11pm
- Bobba Fret
  
  Will it go down as a covid death like the New Lynn bloke that was shot?
  
  0 0
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  December 24, 2021 1:51am
CAKE FACE1

I posted on extreme lefty Chris Trotter’s blog (Kommissar Trotsky), under the moniker “PALE STALE MALE”.

This uber lefty joined the Free Speech Union with great fanfare, but it is interesting to note that free speech certainly doesn’t extend to his blog! Talk about echo chambers…

Cindy hates capitalism, but is having her wedding at astronomical cost at a billionaires property.

What to make of it all?

I think with socialists, its the hypocrisy that grates the most. The name “champagne socialist” wasn’t invented without reason…
15 2
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December 23, 2021 4:09pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Limousine Liberals
  
  9 2
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  December 23, 2021 5:10pm
Fletch

Gen Flynn files a restraining order against Pelosi and her witch hunt.

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/robert-spencer/2021/12/21/gen-michael-flynn-files-restraining-order-against-nancy-pelosi-n1543391
5 1
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December 23, 2021 4:37pm
- Inandout
  
  Fletch, that fossil is as mad as a meat axe. I still remember her tearing up Trump’s speech and the compliant media said nothing.
  
  8 1
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  December 23, 2021 5:58pm
Cassandra

Labour plans to embed the Treaty of Waitangi in its science/research policy. National plans to—————
do nothing.
12 1
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December 23, 2021 5:22pm
- krazykiwi
  
  If National’s focus groups recommended drowning puppies, Bishop would order sacks, bricks and a camera crew.
  
  Values: 0
  
  Support irrespective of cost: 1
  
  1 2
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  December 23, 2021 11:39pm
Alan Wilkinson

I’ve just received Scott Atlas’s book on the pandemic. It promises to be an incendiary read.
5 2
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December 23, 2021 5:57pm
TT500

Remember last year when “Experts” were warning
everybody about the danger of hard surfaces transmitting the WuFlu

Lift buttons, Rubbish tin lids, Frozen peas etc

Incredibly this years “Experts” appear to have the
same names
15 0
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December 23, 2021 6:40pm
Maggie Pie

And I’ll tell you someone else who REALLY pisses me off….

That smarmy Nigella Lawson!

Who the f**k looks like that when they’re basting a Ham?
3 5
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December 23, 2021 7:10pm
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  Caught watching TV1, Maggie!
  
  3 0
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  December 23, 2021 7:57pm
- Paul Marsden
  
  You’re only jealous because she oozes sexuality.
  
  3 0
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  December 23, 2021 8:16pm
- Captain Mainwaring
  
  Maggie.
  Leave my girlfriend alone.
  The Captain.
  
  2 1
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  December 23, 2021 9:30pm
fernglas

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/21-year-old-man-arrested-and-charged-with-murder-following-death-of-10-month-old-baby-in-auckland/VEYKY6HBNEZWX3HKY24UDJRQBQ/
Statistically, in New Zealand, the chances of a child being beaten to death by a family member are about 5 times higher than of them dying from Covid, and there are many more who don’t die but suffer long term physical and psychological effects from violent abuse. Has Pfizer been looking into a vaccine against this? What measures does the Government propose to prevent this from happening again?
Is this what caused the death of the under 10 year old who tested positive for Covid after death? And if it was, why is the fact that the child had Covid allowed to be made public, but not the actual cause of death?
3 0
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December 23, 2021 9:31pm
- Chuck
  
  “Statistically, in New Zealand, the chances of a child being beaten to death by a family member are about 5 times higher than of them dying from Covid, and there are many more who don’t die but suffer long term physical and psychological effects from violent abuse. ”
  
  This needs to be put on billboards across NZ.
  
  3 1
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  December 23, 2021 9:50pm

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