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February 22, 2022 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 22 February 2022

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General Debate

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mikenmildagain

Wishing a very happy 120th birthday for the Wellington Cable Car.
For our visitors to Wellington, a short walk along Lambton Quay will bring you to the terminus. Only $5 for the ride to the top at Kelburn, from which a leisurely walk through the Botanic Gardens can bring you back down to the middle of the city, hopefully with a more positive perspective on the world.
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February 22, 2022 8:00am
- Frank the tank
  
  I’d argue Workingtonians (who are separate from Wellingtonians) get out of Wellington – go visit a bar in Queenstown, a tourist operator on the West Coast or a sports club in Auckland to gain a more REALISITIC PERSPECTIVE of what is going on in New Zealand.
  
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  February 22, 2022 8:14am
- artemisia
  
  That leisurely walk down through the Botanic Garden will provide a great view of Parliament and its grounds. And access too if inclined.
  
  Plenty of cable car seats available these days too, sadly.
  
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  February 22, 2022 8:22am
- pdm
  
  `………………….a leisurely walk through the Botanic Gardens can bring you back down to the middle of the city, hopefully with a more positive perspective on the world.’
  
  Obviously not a walk you have ever undertaken Mike.
  
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  February 22, 2022 8:26am
- artemisia
  
  A great opportunity on the walk down to see the Harry Holland Memorial. A very nice bare bottom it is too. Someone once painted a red lipstick kiss on it, took a long time before it was removed.
  
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  February 22, 2022 8:43am
  - RalphT
    
    I believe that many a Wellingtonian has wandered to the front of Harry to see what’s on display. I’ve been told that it’s nothing that would startle the children. Oh, alright, yes I’m one of those nosy buggers.
    
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    February 22, 2022 11:45am
krazykiwi

Here it comes. The desperate spin and lies being dressed up as noble, voluntary initiatives

“Ardern refused to set a hard date, but said there would be a narrowing of vaccine requirements after Omicron reaches a peak, which is expected in mid to late March.”

Not good enough. Not by far.

We demand vaccine restrictions be completely removed, and laws passed to prevent businesses from discriminating against employees based on their medical status.
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February 22, 2022 8:01am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  And if we are all going to get a dose of Omicron by Mid March, have folks lost their jobs for nothing?
  
  (I don’t know anyone around here who is unvaxxed, so if I or my mates catch the virus, we will have picked it up from fellow vaxxed folks).
  
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  February 22, 2022 8:06am
  - mandk
    
    Yes, but the unvaxxed folk will still be blamed for the fact that the vax doesn’t stop vaxxed people from giving omicron to other vaxxed people.
    
    Still, someone has to be scapegoated, don’t they? 🙂
    
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    February 22, 2022 8:26am
    - krazykiwi
      
      Yes. It’s classic strategy from the tyrant’s playbook: Divide ‘us’ from ‘them’. Create symbols to identify ‘them’. Use political and media power to deny human rights to ‘them’. This seldom ends well, and never without causing societal damage. Oh, and the socialist in our midst typically applaud throughout.
      
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      February 22, 2022 10:37am
  - pdm
    
    Brother in Law is the only person I have contact with who I know is unvaccinated. In his case it is on the advice of his GP and a Cardiac specialist.
    
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    February 22, 2022 8:28am
  - curry4me
    
    Yes.
    
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    February 22, 2022 8:37am
  - bronny1
    
    Really? I know heaps but then I don’t live in Welly or auckland.
    You might be surprised at numbers of unvaxxed. The govt says 95%+ but I have friends in small to medium towns saying they can’t field a football team anymore as 50% of the players are refusing to be jabbed.
    
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    February 22, 2022 8:43am
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      My mates are in the over 65s or are in the service industries…
      they either needed to be vaxxed to keep their jobs; or they’re wanting to travel o/s; or they’re so ancient/decrepit that they’ll take any silver bullet offered.
      
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      February 22, 2022 9:04am
    - Weetbix3ways
      
      Govt says 95%, but 95% of… what? It is assumed the total population.
      My understanding is it is 95% of those that interacted with the health system in the preceding 12 months. At least in my area that is the case, I presume the count is the same everywhere?
      
      So healthier people and those who rarely visit the doctor may not be included in the count, and may by extension be the sort less inclined to line up for a jab they don’t need.
      
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      February 22, 2022 10:15am
      - The Boss
        
        95% of what? Exactly. My understanding is also that the base number is those that interacted with the health system. And those not on the system who do get vaxxed are probably counted in, so theoretically we can get to say 120% vaxxed!
        
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        February 22, 2022 11:56am
      - Wayne Mapp
        
        The govt says, using DHB records, there are 4.2 million people over 12 who are eligible to be vaxed. The Stats NZ data says 4.4 million. Most of the extra 200,000 are here on visitors permits.
        I imagine that those who are liked minded tend to associate with each other, so unvaxed will tend to know unvaxed people than the population data would indicate.
        
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        February 22, 2022 2:33pm
    - Benedict Yu
      
      I know one unvaccinated person. (The one with the fake vaccine pass and the fake mask exemption.) Everyone else I know is vaccinated because otherwise their livelihoods and lives would be ruined. Doesn’t apply to Chinese folk. They can never get enough vaccines and like wearing masks. ?
      
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      February 22, 2022 10:49am
      - ClanMcleod
        
        No such thing as a fake mask exemption Benedict. It would only be so if you needed proof of status from an official source. You don’t. If you are uncomfortable wearing a mask you can declare exemption. But if you are in Wellington you might have to put up with idiots asking you where your mask is. Even though your medical status is none of their bloody business.
        
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        February 22, 2022 11:26am
      - Rodion Raskolnikov
        
        “Everyone else I know is vaccinated because otherwise their livelihoods and lives would be ruined.”
        
        Kind of blows the spurious that “unvaccinated people have simply made their own free choice, just like any other choice” argument into small pieces doesn’t it.
        
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        February 22, 2022 12:15pm
    - Show me the evidence
      
      https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/in-depth/450874/covid-19-data-visualisations-nz-in-numbers
      RNZ data is most accurate as they use Stats MZ population estimates:
      91% of 5 and over, 77% of total pop, 55% of 18 and over boosted. Based on boosted rate it looks like we’ll get to, I’d say there are about 60% of adults who are really keen for a booster. The 40% I’m guessing were coerced or experienced a bad AE (or know someone else who did) so they aren’t rushing back for a 3rd dose. There are still quite alot of people in the boosted group who did have a bad reaction with the first 2 doses but they have to take the 3rd to keep their job or they just never realised that what they experienced (shingles, chest pain, heart palpitations etc) was related to the jab. I know many people in this group.
      
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      February 22, 2022 10:50am
- Scott
  
  One of the real worries to me in this covid era is the complete government control of the media. What journalists now report is not independent but totally according to the government line.
  
  Take this mornings Stuff. Two articles about the police action casting aspersions on the protestors but saying nothing about the massive provocation of police erecting barricades in the early hours of the morning.
  
  Then obediently one Rachel Thomas writes an article about why we need to keep all the covid restrictions. That’s the government line right there. That’s being a suck hole to the government right there.
  Hospitals overwhelmed blah blah blah.
  
  The truth is that 50 people in NZ have died of covid in what is now its third year. On average 93 people die in NZ each day of all causes. There is what, 100 people in hospital through the whole country? Dr Bryan Betty, head of the GPs in NZ, says it’s mild, Omicron is mild.
  
  But no our intrepid reporters continue to spout on – “we’re doomed, doomed I tell you!”
  
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  February 22, 2022 8:07am
  - cmm
    
    “The truth is that 50 people in NZ have died of covid in what is now its third year. ”
    
    WITH covid, not of covid.
    
    Unfortunately we don’t get the numbers on WITH covid because those would most likely be tiny.
    
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    February 22, 2022 8:22am
    - cmm
      
      Correction: Unfortunately we don’t get the numbers on “of covid” because those would most likely be tiny.
      
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      February 22, 2022 8:26am
      - backster
        
        two died with Covid yesterday. Both were hospital patients yet for the past week at least only one covid patient has been reported in ICU..curious.
        
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        February 22, 2022 8:40am
      - Loddenthinks
        
        @backster and cmm – yes the two were announced yesterday in the media as dying with Covid. One was in his 70s and the other we don’t know as the family asked for no details of the person to be released.
        
        For all we know the poor souls could have been late 70s with co-morbidities, or could easily have died with something really serious but they tested and found Covid, much like they’ve been doing at Wellington A & E for a week.
        
        Yet Pravda One announced it as “two more people have died, bringing the death toll from Covid to 53” or some such bollocks.
        
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        February 22, 2022 9:58am
      - Tony Stuart
        
        Backster – someone elderly, seriously/terminally ill who developed Covid is unlikely to be admitted to ICU; they’ll be managed in a ward until the inevitable comes.
        
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        February 22, 2022 12:02pm
      - Rodion Raskolnikov
        
        Loddenthinks
        So, if someone dies with a small fortune, will the media announce the cause of death as “being a rich prick”?
        
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        February 22, 2022 12:18pm
    - mandk
      
      I think you might mean OF in your final sentence.
      
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      February 22, 2022 8:28am
    - pdm
      
      cmm – apparently one of those 50 was shot.
      
      I wonder given our road toll how many others were in car accidents.
      
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      February 22, 2022 8:30am
      - 103PapPap
        
        Yes, there was a motorcyclist killed who was also counted as positive.
        
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        February 22, 2022 8:51am
      - GJM
        
        Or gunshot wounds. They cause fatal doses of covid as well
        
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        February 22, 2022 9:31am
    - Mr_Blobby
      
      That question is being asked, I think Italy has reclassified it’s covid deaths and I think some US states are also doing the same.
      
      Died WITH or FROM covid.
      
      The numbers drop substantially, what would it do to ours?
      
      Just makes us look even stupidier dosnt it.
      
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      February 22, 2022 9:41am
      - Rodion Raskolnikov
        
        Relatedly:
        
        https://www.politico.com/news/2022/02/07/biden-covid-hospitalization-data-recalculate-00006341
        
        “The administration’s goal is to get a more accurate sense of Covid-19’s impact across the country and whether the virus is causing severe disease. Senior Biden health officials have increasingly relied on hospitalization numbers, rather than case counts, to determine how to respond to the virus as well as the efficacy of the vaccines”
        
        Couldn’t they have tried to get a more accurate picture about 2 years ago?
        
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        February 22, 2022 12:22pm
      - mawm
        
        Rodion – 2 years ago hospitals were getting paid extra just to have the diagnosis of covid on the admission form, extra again for putting them on a ventilator and even more to have covid on the death certificate. I don’t know how they will ever sort out that mess.
        
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        February 22, 2022 2:43pm
  - curry4me
    
    It’s easy enough to bypass the MSM version. There’s plenty of material.
    
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    February 22, 2022 8:39am
    - cmm
      
      Unfortunately we can’t bypass paying the sods.
      
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      February 22, 2022 9:19am
  - Prince
    
    RNZ was full-on attacking anyone supporting the protest his morning. Corin Dann could hardly contain his anger. Suzie Ferguson’s disapproving ‘mmm’s were coming thick and fast.
    
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    February 22, 2022 8:44am
  - Bobba Fret
    
    And don’t forget, one of those got a bullet through him while isolating at home on his West Auckland driveway. Died of Covid!!!
    
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    February 22, 2022 8:54am
    - graham
      
      Correct – the story is here.
      
      https://www.1news.co.nz/2021/11/11/new-lynn-shooting-victim-was-positive-for-covid-19/
      
      The Ministry of Health has added an additional death to the national Covid-19 figures on Thursday.
      
      1News understands this person is Robert James Hart, a father of two who was shot dead in a driveway in the Auckland suburb of New Lynn.
      
      Since his death on November 5, the 40-year-old tested positive for the virus.
      
      Hart is included in New Zealand’s Covid-19 figures because of a change in the way the Ministry of Health reports on deaths.
      
      “The clinical criteria will continue to be guided by WHO definition which is basically to report any death where the person had an acute Covid-19 infection regardless of what the cause of death might be,” Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield told RNZ.
      
      (Emphasis added by me).
      
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      February 22, 2022 9:10am
      - rouppe
        
        I’d ask whether having a positive covid test result after being shot dead in their driveway can be classified as “acute”
        
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        February 22, 2022 10:52am
      - zulumonster
        
        To be fair they also state :
        “We will be now publicly reporting confirmed deaths as those where the death documents or an investigation has shown that the cause was Covid-19 and we will report other deaths where the cause of death is not certain but the person has Covid-19.
        
        “We will report them separately, and the latter group will be classified as ‘under investigation’ while we await further information from clinicians or a coroner’s follow up.”
        But they don’t seem to be making this separate reporting easily accessible … it would not suit the narrative.
        
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        February 22, 2022 11:32am
      - Jim
        
        You couldn’t make that up. If ever the WHO wanted to exaggerate the covid situation by their ridiculous definition, this one is up with the guy who was crushed by a London bus.
        
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        February 22, 2022 6:03pm
  - Overworked
    
    I get the impression that Rachael Thomas has a bit of a schoolgirl crush on the Dissembler-in-Chief.
    
    Too many women reporters are acting like starstruck chooks.
    
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    February 22, 2022 10:16am
  - Squeek
    
    RNZ was keeping up its end of the Government’s media subsidy bargain this morning. Corin Dann was incredibly animated and argumentative when interviewing Marty Verry. Constantly turning down Marty and yelling questions at him. Was a bit worried that Corin might have a coronary he was so excited. He kept throwing in isolated incidents such as protesters driving a car into the police – an alleged incident that the RNZ reporters a few minutes earlier weren’t even sure had happened. And he kept asking Marty Verry if he was giving money to far right groups, etc. Perhaps RNZ have been told to smarten their act up and get more on message ahead of the time subsidy round which must be due soon.
    
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    February 22, 2022 1:24pm
- WaynelSexton
  
  Why would Cindy go against her base who overwhelmingly support mandates?
  
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  February 22, 2022 8:13am
  - bronny1
    
    Wasn’t it 45% of the voters at the protest are labour/green? From the Platform market research at the weekend.
    
    Are they not her voter base?
    
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    February 22, 2022 8:45am
    - Mr_Blobby
      
      Not any more information I suspect.
      
      They won’t go to national so we could see a new political party in parliament my guess is NZ First or the conservatives.
      
      The disaffected National supporters won’t vote labour.
      
      ACT and the Greens will fare worst.They are both well overepresnted in the pro choice camp.
      
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      February 22, 2022 9:47am
      - ClanMcleod
        
        Not many of the 30% who support the protest area going to vote for any party who don’t ditch all mandates and vax passes. That’s it. Whoever puts that flag in the ground will pick up a lot of votes. So many countries around the world now doing it. Madness that nobody in NZ will do it.
        Talking round the edges like Ardern and Luzon won’t cut the mustard.
        
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        February 22, 2022 11:32am
    - Sir Cullen's Sidekick
      
      bronny1 – Cindy the clever princess knows very well those 45% will still vote Labour/Greens no matter what. Look at the Maori seats. Despite not getting any benefit out of Labour, they still vote Labour in droves. Maori party still wants to support Labour only. I have given up long time back. This gummit will be defeated only in 2035.
      
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      February 22, 2022 9:56am
      - Frank the tank
        
        When our glorious leader ejects over New York sometime in August/September – who are you going to move your affections to?
        
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        February 22, 2022 10:43am
    - Albert_Ross
      
      Yeah, but that doesn’t mean 45% of labour/green voters are anti-mandate.
      
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      February 22, 2022 10:25am
      - bronny1
        
        Who said they are?
        
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        February 22, 2022 2:27pm
  - Surely Knott
    
    “I hope that every American, regardless of where he lives, will stop and examine his conscience about this and other related incidents. This nation was founded by men of many nations and backgrounds. It was founded on the principle that all men are created equal, and that the rights of every man are diminished when the rights of one man are threatened.”, JFK – Your inalienable rights are your birthright as a citizen of a free country. It doesn’t matter if Cindy’s majority wants to discriminate against a minority. It is a moral issue. It is wrong. There is no science that supports these mandates. It is not a health emergency for a virus with symptoms that now resemble a cold. It’s totalitarianism. It’s discrimination. It’s apartheid. Passes please – not my NZ.
    
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    February 22, 2022 8:45am
    - Rodion Raskolnikov
      
      Exactly. Even if 100% supported mandates, they’d still be morally unconscionable and unsupported by logic.
      
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      February 22, 2022 12:33pm
- Frank the tank
  
  bahahahaha – if you fall for that dribble you must either extremely naïve or have an IQ of less than 80.
  
  1). We will have thousands of cases right through to the end of the year day-on-day.
  2). It is highly unlikely we will be out of the red light by 12/2022.
  3). It is highly unlikely we will be able to have international travel without isolation by 12/2022
  
  Therefore no major community sporting events, concerts or gatherings this year.
  
  You will be teased every 2-3 weeks, there will be hints, announcements of announcements followed by so-called experts such as the wee man from Dunedin or the pink haired lady of how it’s too soon and maybe in the near future. This will be backed up by the LameStreamMedia.
  
  Rinse, repeat.
  
  How anyone expects anything different 2 years into the plandemic has got me fucked.
  
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  February 22, 2022 8:24am
  - Cassandra
    
    The thought of being teased every two weeks fills me with horror.
    
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    February 22, 2022 8:40am
    - Frank the tank
      
      What should fill you with more horror is 75% of the population think current restrictions are either right or too lax.
      
      A lot of Clovers in this once great country….
      
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      February 22, 2022 9:08am
      - bjools
        
        FEAR a very powerful political weapon.
        
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        February 22, 2022 10:51am
  - In Vino Veritas
    
    Yep Frank, Labour are masters of making an announcement about the announcing of a future announcement. And the media lap it up, and then regurgitate.
    
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    February 22, 2022 9:26am
  - Mr_Blobby
    
    Jacinda will not willingly give back the power she has grabbed.
    
    It only ends when the people stand up and say enough.
    
    The protest marches did not work, the message was ignored.
    
    Let’s see how the occupation goes, the message is harder to ignore when it is sitting in your front yard.
    
    Opinion polls are slowly turning on the government but also National and ACT.
    
    People have lost faith in our politicians they don’t trust the media.
    
    Police are caught in a no win situation.
    
    Things spiral out of control when you discriminate and ignore people.
    
    The government has all the power and use of force, so it is up to them to deescalate the situation.
    
    Just saying “it is time to go home” is silly talk fron a silly little girl.
    
    Not even to sure where to start with “river of filth”.
    
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    February 22, 2022 10:00am
  - Plue
    
    If by the wee man from Dunedin you mean Michael Baker, please note despite him carrying the tag of Otago university he lives in Wellington and does not represent the usually sensible approach to life exhibited by the general populace of the south.
    
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    February 22, 2022 10:53am
    - Frank the tank
      
      So another Wokeington resident then – explains a lot.
      
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      February 22, 2022 12:03pm
- coge
  
  Ardern, is starting to become aware. That Kiwis across NZ are in the process of taking back their freedoms. They don’t require the permission of the political classes to do this. Whether Ardern wishes to be seen as part of this restoration, or not is entirely up to her.
  
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  February 22, 2022 8:35am
- John Pakes
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  Who is “we” Krazy. You are only you and you do not have a mandate to use the word “we”.
  Your use of the word illustrates the pompous arrogance that you continually display.
  To rebut what you say, I demand that the mandates remain in place until the peak of Omricon has past. And I demand that employers, particularly in the health and education sectors, continue to “discriminate” (if you like) against their workers who refuse to be vaccinated as a measure to keep me safe.
  As I have said before, I do not want an unvaccinated nurse getting up close and personal with me when I visit my dentist next week.
  
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  February 22, 2022 8:43am
  - bronny1
    
    Man you really are anti science.
    
    What has science done to you to make you so untrusting of it?
    
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    February 22, 2022 8:47am
    - In Vino Veritas
      
      C’mon bronny, he’s untrusting because he believes Jacinda. That’s ok. Each to their own. But in my opinion, that’s the same as believing a 5 year old child when they are telling you aliens came down in a space ship and took the cat.
      
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      February 22, 2022 9:32am
      - Don Beckett
        
        John’s extreme paranoia is the manifestation of his adherence to every word that issues from her royal dumbness’s mouth. He is so fixated that he can’t think or research for himself.
        
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        February 22, 2022 11:02am
  - alex Masterley
    
    Surely you are vaccinated John? What have you got to worry about?
    
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    February 22, 2022 8:47am
    - Other_Andy
      
      Now Alex, don’t confuse John.
      HIS vaccine only works when YOU are vaccinated.
      
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      February 22, 2022 8:53am
    - Mr_Blobby
      
      Probably lining up for the 4th shot
      
      Hasn’t figured out that it does not work.
      
      Pretending that the vaccinated are not getting covid.
      
      What’s the definition of insanity again.
      
      Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.
      
      I think our village idiot John pakes qualifies.
      
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      February 22, 2022 10:12am
  - Yabster
    
    Pakes scared stupid…
    
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    February 22, 2022 8:49am
    - Mr_Blobby
      
      It is rather sad and disappointing.
      
      How did we become a nation of such scared little shepple.
      
      Hey John. … BOO.
      
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      February 22, 2022 10:15am
  - Other_Andy
    
    The only way you will wake up is when you get infected by covid by one of those masked and fully vaccinated drones.
    I mean, the cognitive dissonance displayed by you is staggering. You think that an unvaccinated person, by virtue of being unvaccinated, will infect you with a virus you are vaccinated against?
    You should follow the warped logic behind this and might eventually come to the conclusion, as shown all over the world, that this so called vaccine only gives limited protection to the vaccinated for a very short time and that, even though vaccinated, you can still catch the virus and infect others. As a result of this, the vaccination status of a person is irrelevant.
    However, I won’t hold my breath…
    
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    February 22, 2022 8:50am
    - westernScientest
      
      No, it will clearly be one of those sneaky unvaxed that snuck into the cafe and took their mask of when he wasnt looking.
      
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      February 22, 2022 9:22am
    - Mr_Blobby
      
      To many big words.
      
      The vaccinated at at risk from the unvaccinated who are carriers of the covid virus.
      
      He must be totally bemused by the inconvenient fact that the unvaccinated carriers are not dropping dead in the streets.
      
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      February 22, 2022 10:19am
  - krazykiwi
    
    Steady on that synthesized apoplexy, John. It’s not good for your health.
    
    And as for the unvaccinated nurse, I’m sure the revulsion would be mutual.
    
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    February 22, 2022 8:54am
    - John Pakes
      
      Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
      “Revulsion” Really? Is that how you feel about the 95% of your fellow Kiwi’s who are vaccinated?
      Revulsion!!
      
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      February 22, 2022 9:15am
      - Libertarians are right
        
        No John, it’s to do with your completely unwarranted belief in your moral superiority, belief that everyone should do what you want and bigotry towards anything that doesn’t agree to your world view.
        
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        February 22, 2022 9:19am
      - Frank the tank
        
        Didn’t get the point – did you.
        
        Not surprising.
        
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        February 22, 2022 9:26am
      - Show me the evidence
        
        It’s only 77% of all kiwis vaccinated -don’t you keep up with the stats from RNZ?https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/in-depth/450874/covid-19-data-visualisations-nz-in-numbers
        By the way, the RNZ stats also show that the case rate in the vaccinated has been higher (double) that of the unvaxxed for most of February (see Vaccination status of new cases per 100,000 of population segment)!!! Not surprising to me as the UK govt data has shown the same since July 2021. Data is a bitch.
        For now, hospitalisation rates are lower for vaccinated……until your protection wanes completely and ADE kicks in -sorry but it’s one of the known issues with coronovirus vaccines. They were hoping it wouldn’t happen with these vaxes (see Medsafe Hazard sheet for Pfizer) but unfortunately overseas data seems to be saying it is happening. Don’t know for certain yet but death rates in advanced countries like Israel are the highest they’ve ever been (and that’s for Omi vs last years Delta). I take no pleasure in this really, all of my wider family are vaccinated and many friends.
        
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        February 22, 2022 11:12am
  - RoboRob
    
    Why would you be scared of an unvaxed nurse? You are vaxed so you are protected from serious sickness. The unvaxed nurse has about the same chance of giving you covid as a vaxed nurse. Vaxed and unvaxed pass on omicron pretty much the same (see the Lancet) .
    
    The concept of getting vaxed to protect others might have made some sence with previous versions of Covid, but not not. I wish JA and her followers would start following the science.
    
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    February 22, 2022 9:03am
    - mawm
      
      It has entered his head that he is a greater risk to that nurse than the other way round. I’ll leave it at that and see if has has the capacity to either work it out himself or do some research.
      
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      February 22, 2022 11:19am
    - Rodion Raskolnikov
      
      “The concept of getting vaxed to protect others might have made some sense with previous versions of Covid”
      
      No, the concept has always defied the laws of logic, because the laws of logic are fixed and unchanging.
      
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      February 22, 2022 12:39pm
  - westernScientest
    
    Would you take no dentist over an unvaxed one though? If this carries on that is going to be your options in a years time – or the black market.
    
    Who is going to come wipe your bum and help you have a shower, its not going to be a community support worker if this carries on, the money just isnt good enough for them to keep taking the jabs as they and their friends and colleagues get adverse reactions to it.
    
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    February 22, 2022 9:05am
  - Libertarians are right
    
    Krazy is part of the protest so I’m guessing “we” is quite a few people.
    
    But here’s the thing John, you are being selfish – forcing others to do something for your benefit.
    
    They are only expecting the right to do what they believe is right for themselves. The effect on you could be mitigated if your Government weren’t so incompetent. Instead, these people have lost their rights because people like you are too blind to see that the problem is the Government, not the unvaccinated.
    
    To take your dental nurse example – an unvaccinated nurse with a negative RAT is far less threat to you than a vaccinated but untested nurse.
    
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    February 22, 2022 9:14am
    - Rodion Raskolnikov
      
      “But here’s the thing John, you are being selfish – forcing others to do something for your benefit”
      
      Even worse, he supports forcing people to do something for his own benefit when no such benefit exists.
      
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      February 22, 2022 12:40pm
  - Rich Prick
    
    Keep YOU safe? Your health is not MY responsibility. If it were, I’d take pride in not doing as YOU demand. In short, go and get …
    
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    February 22, 2022 9:15am
    - KH
      
      Other peoples health is your responsibility if you cause harm to it. Grow up.
      
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      February 22, 2022 2:59pm
  - alloytoo
    
    Whether the nurse is vaccinated or not is largely irrelevant to you at this stage.
    
    You should be worried about her state of infection.
    
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    February 22, 2022 9:20am
    - Other_Andy
      
      “You should be worried about her state of infection.”
      
      John thinks vaccinated people can’t infect him because they can’t get covid.
      This is one of the reasons why it is spreading so fast. Lots of smug, uninformed and logically challenged people around.
      
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      February 22, 2022 10:35am
    - Tom Hunter
      
      This is simply a repeat of the conversation had with John the other day about him getting infected by a vaccinated nurse. He clearly didn’t listen then and is so wooden-headed that he won’t listen now – except to One News or whatever other such sources that very old men like him listen too.
      
      Or perhaps he’s just that frightened that he refuses to accept what the metadata of foreign nations show with Omicron exploding through three-jabbed populations, let alone specific control-group studies in places like The Lancet.
      
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      February 22, 2022 10:47am
      - Aquataur
        
        Sexual assault on front lawn of Parliament. Disgraceful and unacceptable say Police
        
        Sexual assault by senior Labour party official inside Parliament. Nothing to see here not our business say Police
        
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        February 22, 2022 12:19pm
      - alloytoo
        
        You’re right, it’s Deja Vu.
        
        Someone is meddling with the Matrix.
        
        Pretty much everything this government has done is theatre without a clinical merit.
        
        The RAT test is probably of best way of minimising his risk during his dental visit.
        
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        February 22, 2022 1:06pm
  - Littletramp
    
    If that un-vaccinated nurse caring for you at the dentist has had omicron, they now have stronger immunity than you do. Your opinion is outdated and totally illogical.
    
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    February 22, 2022 10:05am
  - Ehlana
    
    John, we’ve all lived in community with infectious people our whole lives. Mostly, it’s just a cold or flu virus; the symptoms are often so minor they don’t even keep us home. Yes, it is true that for some, more medically vulnerable people, that cold or flu could be their final straw. Such people usually take additional steps to protect themselves. This new virus isn’t going away, so we’re going to have to learn to live with it as we do with all the others.
    
    We don’t shut our whole country down to prevent people dying with influenza each winter. Not because we’re heartless, but because we know that we need to work to pay for our own needs and that it is our economic activity (as workers and consumers) that generates the taxes the government uses to fund healthcare. Without which, those medically vulnerable people would die much sooner.
    
    You may not want an unvaccinated nurse, but does your real risk of adverse effects from Covid-19 actually outweigh your need for dental care?
    
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    February 22, 2022 11:19am
  - Fuzzysnuggleduck
    
    I don’t care for your demands, John.
    Rather than demanding for others to keep you safe, I suggest you get your groceries delivered, and stay in your home permanently wearing water wings and a crash helmet.
    But don’t forget – most accidents in the home happen in the bathroom or the kitchen…..so don’t enter those rooms! Cut a hole in the living room floor to crap out of, and eat only canned food at room temperature, and you will get through this, old boy!
    
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    February 22, 2022 11:59am
  - coge
    
    NZ has resisted segregation before. This time it’s been implemented in our own country, via state mandated segregation. Active resistance to these mandates is now widespread and growing throughout NZ.
    
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    February 22, 2022 12:41pm
- kevn
  
  “Covid restrictions will end one day” says she.
  
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  February 22, 2022 9:00am
  - Littletramp
    
    Just like she said the vaccines will not be mandated. She is stalling for time, waiting to see how Canada pans out.
    
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    February 22, 2022 10:07am
- Roberta
  
  Looks like Jacinda watched Christopher Luxon’s speech…
  (He said National would end vaccine mandates after Omicron peak at 2.30pm, Jacinda makes an announcement at 8pm)
  
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  February 22, 2022 9:02am
  - Rodion Raskolnikov
    
    Why only after the peak? There is no justification today, or yesterday, let alone later.
    
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    February 22, 2022 12:46pm
  - curry4me
    
    She obviously didn’t take heed of Sir Jim Bolger’s speech where he asked her to get off her high horse. Mores the pity. He just went way up in mu estimation. I wonder if Chris from marketing will?
    
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    February 22, 2022 6:33pm
- Cinematic
  
  ‘Refused to set a hard date’. Useless bunch of pudding heads. This is OUR country, OUR freedom they’re messing with in ways people wouldn’t have believed possible just a couple of years ago.
  
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  February 22, 2022 9:05am
- mogg
  
  Ardern is folding.
  Yes the Great Communicator was back on Nat Radio yesterday, telling us how the mandates/restrictions would end, and wanting to stress that this is nothing to do with the ‘illegal’ protest outside of parliament.
  Yeah Right
  She is such a transparent liar, further proof that we can’t believe a word she says. The protest is forcing
  her to back down and there will be more to come.
  
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  February 22, 2022 9:06am
  - Harry Knuts
    
    her heels are getting higher to help her dig deeper and firmly into the ground.
    
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    February 22, 2022 11:18am
  - curry4me
    
    That’s why the good guys have to keep up the pressure.
    
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    February 22, 2022 6:34pm
- coolas
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  KK are you a nominated spokesperson for the protesters?
  
  Because your demands read as if you are mandated to speak for them.
  
  Or are you simply a demented old man, desperately seeking attention, feeding your ego with upticks?
  
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  February 22, 2022 9:21am
  - krazykiwi
    
    Not demented, but just a little krazy. I’m pleased to be of service.
    
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    February 22, 2022 10:27am
    - Don Beckett
      
      It’s a pity, coolas, that you are not as concerned for the welfare of your fellow man as kk is. He is being constructive & helping. You are sitting on the sidelines sniping with snyde remarks – you are copying from the milkenmild play-book.
      
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      February 22, 2022 11:07am
    - Tony Stuart
      
      I would have thought you’d have taken most exception at being called “old” KK 😀
      
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      February 22, 2022 12:06pm
      - krazykiwi
        
        My 4 year old granddaughter calls me old. After a day with her I’m inclined to agree.
        
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        February 22, 2022 1:36pm
      - Don Beckett
        
        I’ve ordered the tea shirt that says, “It’s wierd being the same age as old people”. At 79 years of age, I think I can lay claim to that statement. 🙂
        
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        February 22, 2022 5:02pm
  - bronny1
    
    Shall we have a vote on whether KK can speak for us about the protests? Upticks for yes, downticks for no.
    
    ?
    
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    February 22, 2022 2:40pm
- Mr_Blobby
  
  Is this our apartheid moment.
  
  We had the point the finger apartheid moment at South Africa, we had our nuclear moment, is this our apartheid moment.
  
  We are becoming the laughing stock of the world with our hermit state politics.
  
  Our futile attempt to eliminate a virus that can’t be eliminated.
  
  What I have noticed to quote, chopper Reid. Is that people around new Zealand are having a winge a sook or a cry about covid.
  
  We need to harden the fuck up.
  
  Apparently some businesses are having a hard time in Wellington because of this protest, they did not cry about every other protest that has hit town.
  
  They need to harden the fuck up.
  
  The police with their shiny new Skoda cars. But they don’t know how to change a tyre.
  
  They need to harden the fuck up.
  
  PM jacinda ardern is not happy with some protesters, she thinks, that it is “now time to go home” they have made their point.
  
  Has the point been made? I don’t think so, why would they go home, what a silly idea. PM jacinda ardern.
  
  You need to harden the fuck up.
  
  The rest of you, if you want MSN coverage, organise a counter protest, you only need 2 people.
  
  So take your skirt off, cancel your manicure, grow a mustache and harden the fuck up.
  
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  February 22, 2022 9:33am
  - alloytoo
    
    South Africa had a nuclear moment when they willingly gave up their nuclear arsenal.
    
    Funnily enough they kept their nuclear power station.
    
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    February 22, 2022 1:11pm
- lastmanstanding
  
  I see Spud Bolger has come out and said its time for the Pollies to get off their hind horse. Hes right. I have never seen such a bunch of up their arseholes dont you know who I am in the 50 years I have been following politics. From the days of Norm Kirk when pollies saw themselves as just ordinary blokes ( in those days children most were blokes) there to serve their constituents and represent them in Parliament.
  Then politics was a calling NOT a over paid free lunch life time appointment as it is now.
  So to the Arseholes I say. Get you heads out of your arses and have show some respect and then I might show you arseholes some respect.
  
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  February 22, 2022 9:53am
- Overworked
  
  Add to that:
  
  1: Where are the antivirals? Why not allow importation of Australian approved antivirals? Medsafe is hidebound by its rules, low prioritization of our info requests by suppliers and possibly a touch of the intellectual purism that has affected NZ thinking towards drug use. The government could easily cut through this using one of the Captain’s Calls it uses so freely.
  2: Why are individuals and businesses not allowed to import medsafe-approved RATs?
  3: Ffs why are we in this mess?
  
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  February 22, 2022 10:24am
- oldfella
  
  Even over at the Standard they’re not buying the way Cindy is treating the protestors.
  Why are these people not us? It is contempt.
  Ardern used to be globally renowned as one who would with skilled communication embrace all. Ignoring crisis is her new mode, and her polls are tanking almost as fast as that of Labour itself.
  https://thestandard.org.nz/they-are-us/
  
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  February 22, 2022 2:53pm
- KH
  
  I am not going to vote for Labour or Ardern or Robertson ever.
  But easing mandate requirements after the Omicron peak passes is a very good approach. Good on her for sticking to it.
  But but, as we only heard of Omicron two months ago you gotta know this viris could yet come up with something new. So you never know.
  The goverment is not the problem, the actual problem is the virus.
  
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  February 22, 2022 2:54pm
- Ian Boag
  
  We demand …
  
  Who is this “we”? Is it some people with real names?
  
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  February 22, 2022 7:53pm
WaynelSexton

Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
The beneficiaries protesting in Wellington have some tips on how to stay on the sickness benefit indefinitely.
https://mobile.twitter.com/FreedomNZ2022/status/1495551818717302787
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February 22, 2022 8:02am
- Inandout
  
  WS, some politicians remain on a benefit for 30 years.
  
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  February 22, 2022 8:38am
  - In Vino Veritas
    
    Phil Goff. Trevor Mallard. Snouts in trough for longer than anyone cares to remember.
    
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    February 22, 2022 9:40am
    - Tony Stuart
      
      Indeed; Goff entered Parliament in 1981, with Mallard following three years later. Both were ousted in 1990, Goff beaten by Gilbert Myles in Roskill, and Mallard lost Hamilton West to Grant Thomas.
      
      Both returned in 1993, Goff in Roskill, and Mallard in Pencarrow, having moved to Wellington after being kicked to touch in Hamilton. Goff resigned from Parliament on 12 October 2016, triggering a by-election won by Michael Wood, and Mallard, of course, retains his place at the trough. He is now the Troughmaster-General, by some distance.
      
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      February 22, 2022 12:14pm
  - Pavel
    
    Exactly. If you want to go on the dole forever parliament is where you go.
    
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    February 22, 2022 9:47am
- Prince
  
  The eyes say it all.
  
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  February 22, 2022 8:45am
- coolas
  
  And they don’t care about the health of ‘others’, tipping their shit into storm water drains, poisoning the harbour, so ‘others’ can’t swim in the water they have contaminated.
  
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  February 22, 2022 9:28am
- Fuzzysnuggleduck
  
  Yeah, the real full-retard anti-vaxxers think that the vaccinated are poisonous to others.
  
  It has broken up at least one family I know, where son had to move out from father’s place since he shed the spike proteins, lol.
  Even if the mRNA stuff is not good for you or bad or some tiny % of people, there is no mechanism for it to be passed out by ‘breathing’ – like she claims here.
  And also came across another person who though his kid got sick because of contact with a vaccinated person, and it passing to them.
  
  The stupid walk amongst us.
  But like I always said, there will be 5G=genocide and other Billy Te Kahika fan people in front of the beehive.
  People should not throw poo at the cops, and fools like this should not be given a loudspeaker.
  
  A shame that the protest is like a rorschach test for the viewer. You either see loving and noble people, or you see far-right Nazis.
  The Platform poll was a great thing. It is clear the crowd is a great mix of people – the government and hard left are wrong about the white-supremacy and Islamaphobia trope, but we shouldn’t pretend there aren’t some very stupid people there too.
  
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  February 22, 2022 1:09pm
  - Batman
    
    Plus some very insidious people too, Melvyn Alp, Karen Brewer and Carlene Hereora just to name three off the top of my head.
    
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    February 22, 2022 1:27pm
  - mawm
    
    Fuzzy – the Pfizer application for the emergency authorisation said the the spike protein could be shed by vaccinated people. I don’t know if it is true or not but there it is from the horses mouth so to speak.
    
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    February 22, 2022 2:59pm
Yvette

Would RATs, if used properly. avoid unvaccinated persons contacting vulnerable patients, victims, or schoolchildren, any less than vaccinated people – those who have “obeyed” mandates?

Vaccination may avoid a person transmitting such a high viral load to someone else, but that contact should not occur unless the infected person is unaware they have the virus, which is why very essential workers take a RAT anyway.

So –
1 – do essential workers (except teachers, oddly) have to take a RAT any case, and their attending work depend on that?
2 – is the only way an unvaccinated employee, or in fact a vaccinated employee, can approach a vulnerable patient, victim, or schoolchild or whomever, is if a required RAT fails?
3 – would the proper use of RATs negate the need for mandates?
4 – are RATs reliable enough for such a purpose? and –

5 – if the answer of all four preceding questions is Yes, is the only thing, stopping mandates from ending, Ardern’s intuitive anxiety (see NEXT interviews) or her political ineptness which has her in her present self painted-in corner?

Or is it that the RATs were not ordered at the right time to now be available as they could be.

Protesters even less likely to get audience with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern after throwing human waste at police
Have the protesters, some of whom are stupid, played into her narrative?

Are mandates now irrevocably attached in Ardern’s mind to protesters, the people who are “Not Us”, but as her Minister says, are “a river of filth” – same logic as Jacinda’s in stating on 1 News that National now sides with the protesters: “the river of … OK – we got it

So, When asked if her announcement was a response to the protesters outside demanding an end to vaccine mandates, she replied: “Absolutely not. When that happens, it will be because easing restrictions won’t compromise the lives of thousands of people – not because you demanded it.” – Ardern is addressing protesters, not the remainder of the nation, who are still out here …

But then her view of matter is becoming a little disorientated – Overwhelmed laboratories struggling to keep up with demand of processing COVID tests call for PM to see reality firsthand

Ardern needs a reality check in more ways than one. – ICU beds next, and strikes are waiting …
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February 22, 2022 8:08am
pdm

Hey NZ Police and Coster The Imposter.

As soon as you are finished clearing the protesters from around Parliament will you be off to Shelley Bay to clear out the protesters there.

Hmmmm thought not!!!!

What happened to one law for all New Zealanders?
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February 22, 2022 8:10am
- Frank the tank
  
  It’s different if the left do it silly.
  
  All Animals are equal, just some are more equal than others.
  
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  February 22, 2022 8:25am
- Jack5
  
  Perhaps Coster can’t find Wellington cops who can play guitars.
  
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  February 22, 2022 8:44am
Scooter

Great to hear Ryan Bridge interview the PM, he first asks the question then again when she doesn’t answer it. The more he does this the more it will rattle her.
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February 22, 2022 8:11am
- alloytoo
  
  He’s been doing it for a while.
  
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  February 22, 2022 9:22am
- In Vino Veritas
  
  Don’t say Scooter, that some of the media are turning the heat up on Labour? No way! Maybe they read Graham Adams piece on Sean Plunkets “The Platform”. He quotes Newsrooms Mark Jennings when queried about being bought by the Government “It makes me angry. It’s so misguided. We’ve gone after the government in so many different ways.” Yes, with your piece of soggy toilet paper. And other outlets that are a bit cross with the way they are being perceived, as it affects their traffic and sales of course. But you get what you deserve I guess. Anyway, Adam’s article is a very good read.
  
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  February 22, 2022 9:48am
- 70andstilllearning
  
  Agreed – but he’ll be a Plunket , Hosking, Garner ….. type casualty shortly – Chen’s already been put in place to slide seamlessly into #1 spot.
  
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  February 22, 2022 10:01am
70andstilllearning

Guess Spinda and her Executive can tick another item off their “Lets retry every mistake a NZ government has made in the past” list:
– Long batons out a week or two back
– 3:00 a.m. dawn raids yesterday
– ‘80s style riot shields out of the basement this morning.
Red rags to a bull really which sure provoked the campers into getting out of bed early. Pity it’s only real purpose is to get the MSM into lather in support of her “extreme behaviour” theme!
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February 22, 2022 8:11am
- RoboRob
  
  The more the protestors throw poo (and now apparently acid) at the police and drive cars at them, the more they will lose support of the population and people will move to support the government. Regardless of the provocation I am sure JA gained support today.
  
  Before you downtick me to oblivion, I support the protestors cause but there actions are not helping it.
  
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  February 22, 2022 9:07am
  - 70andstilllearning
    
    Sadly I agree – every protest/demo has the fringe element that go OTT and can’t be got rid of. Problem is the PM/MSM have used that aspect shamelessly since day one to try and “brand” anyone that disagrees with her position, whether at the protest or not, as being part of that fringe element. The sheeple lap it up and some of them that were swinging will swing back tout de suite.
    She’ll be in full cry later today if not already.
    
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    February 22, 2022 11:18am
  - Trev
    
    I’m skeptical that it even happened or if it did that it wasn’t a sole protestor. Very clearly there is a government co-ordinated propaganda campaign to demonise the protestors. The live streams and the Curia polling revealing the make up the protestors shot down the earlier allegations re the composition of the protestors. The excrement and anti Semitism claims are part of a playbook to discredit the protestors and try and win gvt support. Labour are happy to lie, invent, distort to try and strengthen their position. What happened to “they are us”? 45% of the protestors supported Labour or Greens last election. That won’t be happening again. (I do hope they vote even if not for a mainstream party)
    
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    February 22, 2022 11:43am
  - Its only I
    
    I have to agree. I wanted the protest to grow and cause a significant impact on this free to roam gov.
    
    I was heading up to rejoin the protest, got to Queenstown then the poo chucking, acid(or a dehydrated protestors pee), and now car ramming attempts kicked off. Turned around a bit frustrated and went home. That’s just not me.
    
    I have ripped down the tracer posters off the our reception walls only 1 in 10 were using them.
    
    I have to protest my own way from now on.
    
    Who would have thought Labour would have been able to hold up a Grapefruit turn off all of the of checks and balances and convince the nation it was a Lemon and do it so well that at some point everyone will see that farken Lemon, if only briefly.
    
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    February 22, 2022 12:55pm
    - bronny1
      
      I wouldn’t believe everything the MSM tells you about what the “feral” protesters are up to.
      
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      February 22, 2022 2:46pm
    - ByGolly
      
      How do you know any of it true?
      
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      February 22, 2022 9:00pm
  - TS Child
    
    So on the understanding that the protest holds a very mixed crowd and that there are people with some .. fringe … beliefs in it. And completely in line with ‘formenting happy mischief’ … if I were the PM faced with a raucous but generally pleasant crowd who were making me look bad by camping on my front lawn making demands I didn’t want to discuss .. well, one or two hired ‘protesters’ to stir things up a bit could be money well spent ..hmm? Who knows? Maybe she has some clever advisors after all ?
    
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    February 22, 2022 3:16pm
  - curry4me
    
    Photos, and prosecutions, or it didn’t happen. Save for the car.
    
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    February 22, 2022 6:41pm
  - ClanMcleod
    
    If there was a shed of fair and balanced reporting, Ardern would be gone by the end of the week. Apart from the fact these events have yet to be proven, the media focus solely on anything negative. They ignore completely the 99% of people there, the acts of kindness, the donations of money, food, items and time from total strangers, the true story is sadly not allowed in the mainstream and that is very sad because it is a genuinely beautiful story.
    Ardern is wrong, it’s not time for the protesters to go, they will go when the mandates and apartheid goes. Then it’s time for her to go.
    She’s made her point, time to go.
    
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    February 22, 2022 11:50pm
Tricati

Surely if a protester threw poo at the Police as claimed by the PM and many MSM outlets, then there would be videos of the event given the coverage going on. Seems the Police didn’t film it, no protesters filmed it, and no MSM media have footage of it.
Now I hear Barry Soper has debunked the claim, and it all appears to be the crap that was supposedly thrown.
The MSM are still referring to it this morning, so I guess it will be like the claim of poo running down the walls of Middlemore Hospital, which was also bloody rubbish, and just a prop to denigrate an opposition.
And on another issue, what journalist has the fortitude to call the PM out on her claim there is capacity to do 70,000 covid test a day. Again, just bullshit as evidenced by article below.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2022/02/overwhelmed-laboratories-struggling-to-keep-up-with-demand-of-processing-covid-tests-call-for-pm-to-see-reality-firsthand.html
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February 22, 2022 8:12am
- curry4me
  
  There aren’t because they didn’t. The MSM are shilling for Stalinda as per usual.
  
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  February 22, 2022 8:42am
- 103PapPap
  
  Yes, given the amount of press cameras, drones and videos you would expect some photos or footage.
  And if Mr Plod got hit by such stuff, wouldn’t he or she immediately turn to the closest camera?
  And where would it have come from? Even our mighty press have recorded that since the installation of porta loos they place has been clean.
  So it’s really looking like a media beatup.
  
  52 1
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  February 22, 2022 8:56am
- Yvette
  
  Tricati
  Given that protesters thought suddenly “Let’s throw some shit at the Police”, was it just lying about, or did it require a visit to the portaloos, how accessible is that, and did they just take handfuls or carry it in something, or is it all crap?
  
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  February 22, 2022 9:03am
  - Tricati
    
    Yvette, I would go for the ‘all crap’ option.
    
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    February 22, 2022 11:09am
    - curry4me
      
      Yes, indeed. All crap. The bovine variety from the MSM.
      
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      February 22, 2022 6:44pm
  - Hard Cheese
    
    Definitely doesn’t pass the sniff test
    
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    February 22, 2022 11:59am
  - Rodion Raskolnikov
    
    Hypothetically, even if there was a constant stream of excrement being piped under pressure in the general direction of the police, as well as an incessant campaign of bullying passersby, it’s a blatant non sequitur to then conclude that the substance of the protest is without merit. The only reason the media invent stories like this concerning the real or imagined actions of the protestors is because if they addressed the actual issue, they would be in an unwinnable position and be forced to concede defeat.
    
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    February 22, 2022 1:04pm
    - Batman
      
      “my argument is so powerful” etc.
      
      Laughable crap from you as usual!
      
      3 13
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      February 22, 2022 1:39pm
      - Rodion Raskolnikov
        
        Keep seething. Feel free to make the case for vaccine mandates then, as this is the ideal forum. For that matter, you could make a case against anything I ever say. But you don’t.
        
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        February 22, 2022 2:03pm
      - ClanMcleod
        
        And a laughable response from you as usual. At least you’re consistent!
        
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        February 22, 2022 11:54pm
- bjools
  
  Given the possible maximum range for launching human excrement. I would have thought that the perpetrator was within the reach of the long arm of the law.
  Q: Who was arrested for this egregious assault on our brave men in blue?
  or
  Q: How is the investigation going, into this egregious assault on our brave men in blue?
  or
  Q: Is it as we suspect, the only ones flinging excrement (of the bovine kind) are the MSM and ardern.
  additional question:
  Genuinely, have actually heard the police make this accusation or just the sycophants of the govt. and ardern herself?
  
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  February 22, 2022 9:09am
  - Yvette
    
    7:39am – Police have released a statement updating the situation occurring outside Parliament on Tuesday morning.
    Here is the full statement:
    Police this morning have been working to further reduce the perimeter around Parliament, by moving concrete barriers further into areas currently occupied by protesters.
    Some officers are equipped with shields, in order to protect themselves from objects thrown by protesters, such as human waste.
    https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2022/02/live-updates-latest-on-parliament-protest-covid-19-community-outbreak-tuesday-february-22.html
    
    Interestingly the same term – “human waste” – is used, as did Ardern yesterday evening, 1 News
    
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    February 22, 2022 10:33am
    - Ehlana
      
      That doesn’t say there has been human waste thrown at this protest, it says their shields would protect them if this happened.
      
      So did it actually happen?
      
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      February 22, 2022 11:58am
      - Nickc2
        
        Thanks for that Ehlana. I wonder if it’s not just a Govt bought and paid-for Journalist interviewing their own keyboard?
        
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        February 22, 2022 12:21pm
      - ClanMcleod
        
        No. It didn’t happen.
        
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        February 22, 2022 11:56pm
    - mawm
      
      Can you imagine how the press would have reacted if it were French farmers using their manure sprayers on the police like they do every protest they have. It’s a shit job being a French policeman doing weak man Macron’s bidding.
      
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      February 22, 2022 3:11pm
  - bjools
    
    TV1 still pushing the narrative “human waste”and still no EVIDENCE it ever happened.
    No actual police complaint or investigation, as far as we know.
    
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    February 22, 2022 6:14pm
- cmm
  
  The 70,000 capacity was based on the idea of using pooled testing, but this only works at very low positive levels.
  
  Basic idea: take part of a hundred samples, mix them all together. If it tests negative then one test has essentially given 100 negative tests, giving a 100x increase in testing rates.
  
  Occasionally there will be a positive pool, then that can be re-analysed in smaller pools of, say 10, then down to 1 to find the few individuals that test positive.
  
  This works fine when the positivity rate is very low.
  
  But once the positivity rate rises, the chance of finding pools where 100 are all negative drops, so you need to try with smaller pools. ie. Skip past the 100 pool size (because it is pointless) and go directly to the 10 pool size.
  
  Thus, an increase in the positivity rate, massively reduces the throughput of the testing system.
  
  Note: The numbers I have used are purely for illustrative reasons. The real numbers are likely very different.
  
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  February 22, 2022 9:33am
  - Rumblestrip
    
    We have never pooled as high as 100:1. I believe the typical maximum was around 8 samples in 1 although I have heard of some labs experimenting with up to 20. Your point remains perfectly valid of course.
    
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    February 22, 2022 9:37am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  Yet today they ram raid the cops with a car, and spray acid on the police, and we are to Believe they didn’t throw shit?
  
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  February 22, 2022 9:46am
  - Alan Wilkinson
    
    Spray acid seems unlikely. More likely someone squirted a cleaning fluid plastic bottle containing bleach or ammonia.
    
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    February 22, 2022 10:27am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      They said it appears to be acid, anyway, peaceful protesters do not throw any substance at police, this is going to turn vulgar and nasty, and Cindy will love the hate
      
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      February 22, 2022 10:53am
    - bjools
      
      Show me the stained uniform of the unfortunate policeman…Then, MAYBE, I would believe .
      
      14 2
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      February 22, 2022 10:55am
  - freemark
    
    By the looks of some video it was keystone cops where 1 deployed pepper spray and accidentally (maybe) got his colleagues. Never let a cock-up go to waste, though.
    
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    February 22, 2022 9:43pm
  - ClanMcleod
    
    No they didn’t.
    
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    February 22, 2022 11:57pm
Positan

Given the unprecedented state of NZ’s daily-worsening economy, just when are National and ACT going to show themselves to be a responsibly-performing Opposition by demanding immediate public accounting of the country’s economic position, official recognition of the extensive damage this appallingly inept Labour government has inflicted, with estimates of how much economic pain is going to have to be suffered in the recovery.
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February 22, 2022 8:19am
- curry4me
  
  The 12th of never, going on current performance.
  
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  February 22, 2022 8:43am
- bjools
  
  I think, that we are approaching the line that defines the difference between.
  Keeping your powder dry and allowing your opposition to make all the mistakes, and just plain inaction.
  
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  February 22, 2022 9:13am
lazza

Putin now on BBC announcing commencement of bloodshed and mayhem.

And! … limp economic sanctions won’t cut it … not with China in cahoots.

Feels a bit like Kruschev- Cuba- missiles- No?
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February 22, 2022 8:20am
- RoboRob
  
  Mike Hosking was claiming this morning that Russias economy has low debt, is well run and has significant reserves. The sanctions are more likely to hurt the economies that have been throwing cash around. Lets not forget the Europe needs Russias fuel too.
  
  The US (in particular) has handled this whole thing disastrously. Biden has been soft on Russia and supported the oil pipeline to Germany. His rhetoric since the start of this issue has been strictly inflammatory. One might believe that he wanted a war to distract from his issues at home.
  
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  February 22, 2022 9:13am
  - virtualmark
    
    The sanctions will focus more on Putin, the oligarchy, the security services and the Russian mafia. Things like confiscations of property, revocation of visas, and deportation back to Russia.
    
    The Russian power-makers are smart enough to have their assets in Western banks, and to live in London or the South of France (for example).
    
    Those sort of actions won’t have much, if any, impact on everyday Russians.
    
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    February 22, 2022 10:52am
  - virtualmark
    
    Actually Biden has done very well here.
    
    He’s aligned his Europe and NATO partners. He’s pro-actively declassified intelligence information to stymie Russia’s disinformation and provokatsiya. He’s sent arms to the Ukraine. He’s sent clear message to Americans, Europeans and Russians about where his red lines are. He’s not over-committed NATO or the US to a position that’s beyond their mandates.
    
    The next test will be exactly how, and how quickly, they react if/when Russia crosses the Ukrainian border.
    
    Don’t let your political slant screw with objectively weighing the facts.
    
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    February 22, 2022 10:59am
    - RoboRob
      
      I’m not 🙂
      
      Biden has really talked up the Russian invasion and made it very difficult for Putin to back down, if he ever wanted to.
      
      The Intelligence info that has been declassified is of the ‘we have information that…’ type. So they could be telling the truth or exaggerating. Very hard to know.
      
      I guess I’m coming at it from the avoid conflict perspective, rather than the ‘its going to happen view. I see it is all on now, so I probably backed the wrong horse?
      
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      February 22, 2022 12:19pm
      - virtualmark
        
        Interesting that some of the information they’ve declassified likely came from leaks from Russian army or security services leadership. There are good indications the Russian military are being dragged into this. Releasing info that likely came from insiders is a good way of sowing doubt and dissension in the Russian ranks.
        
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        February 22, 2022 1:46pm
    - Frank the tank
      
      LOL. Really?
      
      A modern day Neville Chamberlain. Russia now has it’s Sudetenland moment as what does the old coot and Kamila do – sit there and watch it happen. No sanctions – no nothing. Leader of the free world. LOL.
      
      While the leaders of Germany and France are left to do the heavy lifting – the old coot is probably talking strategy with Commander his new puppy.
      
      Don’t let your political slant screw with objectively weighing the facts. Putin 10 – old coot and the West – 0.
      
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      February 22, 2022 4:14pm
      - virtualmark
        
        Frank,
        
        Question 1: Do you think America, Europe and NATO should go to war with Russia if Russia invades Ukraine?
        
        Noting that that war with Russia could easily accelerate to a nuclear exchange (Russian military doctrine is to use tactical nukes in a war with a peer state).
        
        Assuming you are sensible enough to say “No, they shouldn’t go to war” then …
        
        Question 2: What steps short of war do you think America, Europe and NATO should take to deter Russia?
        
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        February 22, 2022 7:08pm
      - virtualmark
        
        Frank,
        
        Can I also suggest that the favoured outcome of America, Europe and NATO is that Putin is deposed and replaced, but that that’s done internally, by Russians.
        
        Can I suggest that Punitive (capital P) sanctions on the oligarchs, such as the 8 that Navalny recommends (https://www.facebook.com/vladimir.ashurkov/posts/3924279780956491), and on key Russian power-brokers (like Lavrov, whose mistress owns several expensive properties in the UK), and on Russian mafia figures (like Semion Mogilevich) is more likely to see Putin replaced than attacking Russia would.
        
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        February 22, 2022 7:19pm
- bjools
  
  My question.
  If they wait till Russia invades to implement sanctions. How is that deterrent?
  Especially as it will take Russia days to overrun Ukraine, but sanctions will take years, if at all, to have an impact?
  Fact to add to the mix, watering down sanctions impact, Putin and China (with their own agenda) have been buddying up recently.
  
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  February 22, 2022 9:18am
  - All_on_Red
    
    You want to punish someone BEFORE they have done something?
    Russia doesn’t have enough men there to overrun Ukraine in ‘days’ anyway.
    
    9 1
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    February 22, 2022 10:10am
    - bjools
      
      1. YES the do. They have just, all but, annexed 3 provinces (refer to Sudetenland for historical similarities)
      2. He has troops in Belarus, therefore has the Ukraine almost surrounded (on 3 sides)
      Direct border with Russia
      Troops in Belarus
      Naval domination combined with occupation of the Crimea.
      AND
      3 friendly provinces, that he just recognized….see my opening.
      Putin is a highly ranked chess player, it would seem he is just one or two moves from CHECK MATE.
      
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      February 22, 2022 10:47am
      - All_on_Red
        
        You said “it will take Russia days to overrun Ukraine’.
        He has only annexed two areas which are sympathetic and controlled by rebels anyway
        Not all of Ukraine.
        You would need far more than 190,000 men to OVERRUN UKRAINE.
        Ukraine is effing huge.
        And Russia has always been dominant on their Border.
        
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        February 22, 2022 12:36pm
      - Nickc2
        
        And Biden still can’t tell the difference between Pawn, Prawn and Porn.
        Oh, I just saw Jill lead him away from the Chess Table, it’s time for his Nanna Nap.
        
        7 2
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        February 22, 2022 12:40pm
      - bjools
        
        AoR
        Yes 2 provinces….makes all the difference//
        Hitler only annexed the Sudetenland.
        Ukraine has almost no airforce and almost no way of stopping the Russian airforce, almost no way of stopping tanks and armoured vehicles.190000 troups backed by air and armour, coming at you from 3 directions, yes DAYS.
        This is not the battle for Kursk.
        https://www.britannica.com/event/Battle-of-Kursk
        Where the sides were actually quite balanced.
        DAYS
        
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        February 22, 2022 2:52pm
      - Mike
        
        I’d like to take a balance between your two extreme positions, but I think I’ll wait to see the opinion of noted strategist Tom Hunter.
        
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        February 22, 2022 3:40pm
      - virtualmark
        
        bjools,
        
        Hitler annexed the Rhineland, Austria and the Sudetenland.
        
        Putin has annexed South Ossetia, Abkhazia, Transniestra, Crimea and now DNR/LNR (and he’s all but annexed Belarus).
        
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        February 22, 2022 7:10pm
- virtualmark
  
  Less Cuba Missile Crisis and more like Hitler spending the 1930s ranting about the need to redress the injustices of WWI and the Treaty of Versailles.
  
  Putin views the breakup of the USSR in the 1990s as a catastrophe and would like to rebuild that empire and re-position Russia as a superpower (rather than a third world nation that has lots of nukes).
  
  He’s also threatened by Ukraine steadily developing democracy and the rule of law. He knows bad things could happen if everyday Russians start to ask why they can’t be more like Ukraine. So best to snuff out that comparison before it gets to threatening.
  
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  February 22, 2022 10:47am
  - Don Beckett
    
    You misrepresent the Russians. I was there in eastern Russia in 2004, and the people were relishing the demise of the USSR and there newly acquired freedoms – and they loved Putin. Make no mistake, most Russians – when I was there – had a huge amount of time for Putin.
    
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    February 22, 2022 5:19pm
    - virtualmark
      
      Maybe in 2004.
      
      All indications are that if Putin were to face a fair election today against a true opposition leader like Navalny then he would lose in a landslide.
      
      Lots of Germans loved Hitler in the 1930s. Lots of Italians loved Mussolini in the 1920s. Lots of Argentinians loved Peron in the 1950s. But the arc of totalitarian fascist Governments ends in destruction. (Asterisk there for Franco).
      
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      February 22, 2022 7:11pm
Maggie Pie

Wellington retard channels Darrell Brooks by attempting to drive car into Police lines…..

https://twitter.com/southernscoop/status/1495823095407394817

(full screen/sound up)
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February 22, 2022 8:21am
- Frank the tank
  
  Sure he isn’t from Mt Roskill down in Wellington for the day?
  
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  February 22, 2022 8:26am
  - Maggie Pie
    
    Don’t think so….the car appears to be Warranted and Registered 😀
    
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    February 22, 2022 8:42am
- I remember when
  
  Perhaps the media are going to report the obvious dismay of the protesters, at the actions of the driver, in later editions.
  
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  February 22, 2022 8:31am
- bronny1
  
  I heard that he was asked to move it and directed by Police (from someone who was there). Sure looked fast though. Shame a few nutters have to ruin it for everyone.
  
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  February 22, 2022 8:51am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    You could see there was nutters involved from the start, they guy they had to drag away from the camera the other night saying when the THIRD tower was knocked down in NY on 9/11 was when he knew it was orchestrated got me, and the idiot woman divorcing her hubby for getting the booster even though he was fine double jabbed
    
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    February 22, 2022 9:50am
- Surely Knott
  
  They obviously have the guy. Why don’t they release his name and photo instead of tarring everyone with the same brush. It seems this really happened.
  
  But there have been reports eg. the fireworks. Where the media have made it sound like the protestors were the ones irresponsibly letting them off, when in fact the guy was shooting them at the protestors. The protestors caught the guy and handed him to police. Strangely the guy who shot the fireworks at protestors also wore an earpiece.
  
  Have they found the people banging on the labour mps’ window at parliament and shouting threat yet? Surely there is video footage. Have they been named?
  
  https://twitter.com/NzFubar/status/1495651482334789634/photo/1
  
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  February 22, 2022 8:51am
  - Surely Knott
    
    Here is video of a policeman sitting calmly on the step having his eyes washed out with saline by a medic. I presume this is in relation to the “acid” in the police eyes incident reported on the news. He clearly has some irritation with his eyes. I condemn any harm to the police or anything being squirted in eyes. But this video does not show an “acid attack” which is an extreme and specific crime/accusation. Are there police in hospital from acid in the eyes, or is this the acid in the eye incident?
    
    https://twitter.com/i/status/1495840583684075520
    
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    February 22, 2022 9:35am
    - Surely Knott
      
      More raw footage of the protests. Protestor being eye gouged.
      https://twitter.com/i/status/1495858976088801280
      
      20 1
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      February 22, 2022 9:45am
    - cmm
      
      It’s probably one of those lies wrapped up in truth.
      
      After all, fizzy drinks are acids with a pH of around 2.5 to 3.5.
      
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      February 22, 2022 10:50am
      - alloytoo
        
        Carbolic acid as I recall
        
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        February 22, 2022 1:20pm
      - mawm
        
        Alloytoo – carbonic acid? Formed by CO2 bubbled through water.
        
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        February 22, 2022 3:23pm
      - cmm
        
        Various.
        
        I believe Coke contains Phosphoric acid.
        
        Even vitamin C is an acid as are most fruit juices and food in general: https://pmp.errc.ars.usda.gov/phOfSelectedFoods.aspx
        
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        February 22, 2022 3:25pm
    - Surely Knott
      
      Herald headline “the alleged acid attack” being used to justify bringing in the army. ”
      
      The police’s own press release says three police were assessed after being sprayed “with a stinging substance.” and are reported to be “doing well.”
      
      Police do not say it is acid. Where did the Herald get the word acid. A stinging substand and an acid attack are worlds apart. It is grossly misleading and being used to justify extreme force. So it’s important that it is accurate.
      
      An acid attack is a first degree crime, it burns the skin off your body. It is a serious accusation. The police men are doing well. If they were attacked with acid they would not be. Fizzy drink or perfume being sprayed by a single person does not constitute an acid attack nor justify the army. The Herald needs to stop “alleging” and start reporting truthfully. https://www.police.govt.nz/news/release/update-protest-activity-0
      
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      February 22, 2022 1:21pm
      - UrbanNeocolonialist
        
        maybe homeopathic pepper spray?
        
        6 0
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        February 22, 2022 2:38pm
      - mawm
        
        I’m sure Jacinda is waiting for the opportunity to rain violence down on the protestors. It seems to be the desire of all the Schwab young leaders to violently suppress any opposition.
        
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        February 22, 2022 3:26pm
      - Mike
        
        Genuine LOL for that, Urban.
        When I went through the site last week, though, I did notice one woman wearing a ‘Homeopathic First Aid’ shirt.
        
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        February 22, 2022 3:44pm
I remember when

Is it time to call it the “Hearsay Mandate Protest.”
Except for the barriers put in place by the police concrete facts seem to be few and far between.
There are more “expert” witnesses at a fire in a small rural settlement than in most Mandate Protest stories.
The constant reference to ‘potential’ dangers, ‘possible’ outcomes that will result in violence, and ‘unacceptable’ behaviour (and there clearly has been some) is happening daily.
Sit down in front, the reporters at the back can’t see what is happening!
If you want ever more sensational reporting, just increase the number of reporters on site.
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February 22, 2022 8:24am
Tony Stuart

The Treasury has an interesting job advertisement running at the moment. They’re seeking a Senior Analyst – Economic Strategy but elsewhere in the advertisement it is noted We are seeking a well rounded candidate – an economics background is not essential.

https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=503797184439900&set=a.494357178717234

Oh really? How do you be an effective Senior Analyst – Economic Strategy if economics isn’t your thing?

H/T Chris Bishop
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February 22, 2022 8:24am
- 70andstilllearning
  
  The essential qualification will be: “Bachelor of Communication Studies (BCS) in politics and public relations.” 🙂
  
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  February 22, 2022 8:32am
- westernScientest
  
  WTF, What do they expect you to have then?
  
  So I went looking for the add, and I think I found it (Sorry for the long copy paste). In short, 70andstilllearning is correct.
  
  Unique Senior Analyst opportunity to operate at the forefront of economic thought and policy to enhance the wellbeing of all New Zealanders.
  Varied work in a critical area of central Government
  Opportunities to engage with international organisations e.g. the OECD
  A passionate team making a real difference in Aotearoa, with opportunities to connect with others and engage in social activities.
  Mō mātou | About Us
  
  Here at Te Tai Ōhanga – The Treasury, we are committed to Tiakitanga (our role of stewardship) to make Aotearoa a better place for people today and in the future. We safeguard New Zealand’s finances and are the Government’s trusted economic advisor. Our vision is to lift living standards for all New Zealanders.
  
  Kōrero mō te tūranga | About the Role
  
  This role will offer you space to lead on or contribute to a diverse work programme that will have far-reaching impacts over multiple years of Treasury advice to successive governments.
  Contribute to the development of the Treasury’s first Wellbeing Report in 2022
  Work across Treasury to enhance understanding of New Zealand’s economic performance and resilience
  Contribute to the work of other Treasury teams advising on the economic response to COVID-19
  Working across Treasury teams and a wide-range of other agencies to find solutions to complex economic or policy challenges.
  Ō pūmanawa | About You
  
  We are seeking a well-rounded candidate – an economics background is not essential. You will also bring
  Critical thinking through constructive debate
  Good people and relationship skills
  Comfort working at pace (when required) and dealing with ambiguity
  Be a superb communicator with good EQ
  The ability to motivate and influence others
  An interest in mentoring and supporting other team members.
  Ko ngā hua | What we Offer
  The opportunity to work in a supportive and high-performing team and internal opportunities across the organisation.
  An environment where excellence is recognised, and staff are encouraged to develop their own talents and potential
  A workplace that values diversity and inclusion and recognises the value of your lived experiences
  Flexible work arrangements and encouragement to enjoy a positive work/life balance with and a range of health and wellbeing initiatives.
  5 weeks annual leave for permanent full-time employees (pro-rated for part-time employees)
  Tono mai ināianei | Apply Now
  
  Please see the Job Description for further detail or for more information and a korero please contact Natalie Labuschagne, Manager at natalie.labuschagne@treasury.govt.nz.
  
  Rā kati | Applications close Monday 21 February. All applications must be made online. We will be reviewing applications as they are received and may progress with suitable applicants prior to the application closing date.
  
  Please note it is Treasury’s policy that all individuals entering our premises are required to have a COVID-19 Vaccination Certificate, otherwise known as a My Vaccine Pass (CVC).
  
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  February 22, 2022 8:35am
  - westernScientest
    
    For comparison, I just went and found the first mid level treasury analyst job in the private sector. I wont paste the whole thing, but here are the requirements to be considered:
    
    Your willingness to learn, advanced technical analytical skills and your excellent outward communication skills across multi-faceted teams will be pivotal to ensure your success in this role. Alongside these key attributes we will also be looking for someone who has:
    
    · Relevant tertiary qualification
    
    · CA, CPA or CFA qualified
    
    · Financial modelling and Advanced Excel experience
    
    · Experience working in one of the ‘Big four’ is desirable
    
    · Intellectually curious
    
    · Genuine interest in financial markets·
    
    For a treasury analyst at Synlait a milk powder company that I think is chinese owned, but operates in NZ, its the tankers with Pink on them you see around occasionally.
    
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    February 22, 2022 8:40am
  - 70andstilllearning
    
    wS – pretty sure it’s already taken by some other qual but (BCS) should really just be (BS).
    
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    February 22, 2022 8:49am
  - Rich Prick
    
    What a load of bollocks. The ad should have just asked for some unemployable woketard with a big soap-on-a-rope who wants to be given $100k pa.
    
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    February 22, 2022 9:55am
- Benedict Yu
  
  You can’t.
  
  Treasury, like the Reserve Bank, is a failing institution. That should be of great concern.
  
  It is nonsensical. No doubt the “economic strategy” will be riddled with te ao Maori. Seriously if National wants to make a difference it needs to pledge to reverse the decline of these important institutions. Because the decline will accelerate. Any competent economists in Treasury will see this happening and leave.
  
  It will need to start at the top. Replace the Public Service Commissioner and tell him to appoint competent Chief Executives.
  
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  February 22, 2022 8:37am
  - Paulus
    
    Treasury recently apponnted an Aussie lady Dr Caralee MCleish as new Secretary of Treasury.
    She comes from NSW where she head of TAFE -Technical and Secondary Education organisation.
    
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    February 22, 2022 10:01am
    - All_on_Red
      
      This article from Karl du Fresne is notable
      https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/opinion-analysis/116620926/overseas-appointees-cannot-and-do-not-represent-new-zealanders
      
      He has a point. There is no way these people are in tune with our culture. We seem to import the worst when we do this.
      
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      February 22, 2022 10:19am
      - Jack5
        
        Don’t want to get too parochial, though.
        
        The article All_on_Red refers to includes in its criticism the appointment of an Australian to run the NZ operation of ANZ Banking Group.
        
        ANZ Bank is an Australian bank, and quite logically won’t discriminate against appointing an Australian to run one of its bigger subsidiaries.
        
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        February 22, 2022 11:35am
      - Mike
        
        We shouldn’t rule out overseas appointments to senior public service roles. I can’t think of any who have been successful, though. ?
        
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        February 22, 2022 4:20pm
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  Looks like there is already a chosen candidate for the plum job…(lacks an economics background, but has connections to a certain political party).
  
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  February 22, 2022 8:45am
- Jack5
  
  If Treasury is to follow the sleeping Reserve Bank, it will be in for further Maorification and priority given to global climate change.
  
  Meanwhile, at the interest.co web site, Roger Kerr suggests the Reserve Bank’s weak stance will affect the exchange rate, further fuelling inflation.
  
  https://www.interest.co.nz/currencies/114439/roger-j-kerr-says-it-appears-rbnz-will-need-be-more-aggressive-their-monetary
  
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  February 22, 2022 9:04am
- Libertarians are right
  
  All Government departments are under a mandate to employ Arts degrees because they are supposedly better at thinking outside the box (I’m not even making this up). That is of course a completely unfounded and arbitrary factor and it’s really because Arts degrees churn out left wing ideologues and if they only employ Arts degrees then they will have complete control of all Government Departments and suitability for the roles is irrelevant. You will also noticed that they have now transformed STEM into STEAM – adding Arts even though it’s the polar opposite of what STEM represents.
  
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  February 22, 2022 9:33am
- In Vino Veritas
  
  C’mon Tony, round can be hammered into square with a very large sledge. The only surprise with this is that they want any qualification at all. I guess it’s against the rules to put “We are seeking a complete moron, no particular background is required, though being able to hang from a tree by your tail would be advantageous”.
  
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  February 22, 2022 9:54am
  - Libertarians are right
    
    The only “qualification” they want them to have is adherence to Left wing ideology. It’s easy to ensure this by simply ensuring that all successful applicants have gone through Left wing indoctrination through Arts Degrees.
    
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    February 22, 2022 10:34am
- lastmanstanding
  
  You gotta laugh Tony. 20 somethings fresh out of Uni no life skills yet “advising” the Minister.
  LOL. All theory no real life experience explains a lot about why this Government is such an omnishambles.
  Maybe if they hired some real experience they wouldnt keep F…… it up all the time.
  
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  February 22, 2022 10:04am
  - In Vino Veritas
    
    I’m not sure that they do get to advise the minister lastman. There is, I believe, a hierarchy that ensures the work the young people do is reviewed, and put into something coherent. I think you will find that the advisers to Ministers are the higher level people, and almost certainly are way out of the current bunch of Ministers league in terms of ability to read and comprehend what they are seeing. The senior people at Treasury are in awe of the at the outright inability and stupidity of the current Labour Ministers, as they didn’t believe it was possible to have so many of that ilk in one place, at one time.
    
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    February 22, 2022 1:07pm
Benedict Yu

She is such a hypocrite.

13 March 2019

“New Zealand PM Ardern backs students striking for climate action”

https://news.trust.org/item/20190313054642-8mx7e/

“‘Don’t underestimate the power of your voice’, the 38-year-old Ardern told local organisers of the protests and students during a live debate at a college in Wellington.”
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February 22, 2022 8:25am
- alex Masterley
  
  Sound bites from the PM’s past statement are starting to appear that contradict her contemporary statements.
  Soper had one talking to that noddy on ZB which shut the noddy up quickly.
  
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  February 22, 2022 8:50am
  - Vory v zakone
    
    That would be the Timorons on in the early afternoon. They are completely ignorant when it comes to the convid plandemic.
    
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    February 22, 2022 9:27am
- mogg
  
  I wonder if Aredern has heard the story of the little boy who told so many lies, that nobody believed him even when he was telling the truth.
  
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  February 22, 2022 10:06am
  - alex Masterley
    
    The boy who cried “wolf” you mean?
    The PM is that child personified.
    
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    February 22, 2022 12:21pm
surfing

Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
I see the cuddly protestors are now driving cars into the police and spraying acid into their faces.

Police need to identify and remove the crims out of the protest .
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February 22, 2022 8:27am
- alloytoo
  
  Indeed, if they exist they should be removed.
  
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  February 22, 2022 9:43am
- Nickc2
  
  You’re over-egging the situation.
  The person driving car = singular, not plural, likewise Car vs Cars.
  Was the substance (assumed to be acid ATT) sprayed or thrown and can you verify it was intentionally into faces?
  You sound like you’re an MSM Journalist.
  
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  February 22, 2022 9:52am
  - mawm
    
    Don’t be silly Nick – even the MSM have some standards.
    
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    February 22, 2022 3:32pm
- bjools
  
  Acid????
  Haven’t seen that reported.
  I assume by now we will be able to see a police uniform with holes in it.
  
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  February 22, 2022 9:56am
Opie

Many will have seen my daily covid case numbers over the last week with a breakdown of vaccinated vs unvaccinated cases that shows of course the majority of cases to be occurring in the vaccinated.

To further push this message I sent the data and an explanation on how to calculate it to Luxon and Seymour.

I asked them if they thought the situation still justified mandates and passes given that the vaccine clearly does little to prevent transmission (we already knew this from delta and omicron even more so) and that they need to be pushing for the removal of mandates if not immediately then a commitment of when they will (cant expect too much of a panicking PM who appears to be scared of her own shadow).

The result? Luxon’s last 2 releases have contained sections of my email word for word and yesterday Act/Seymour released a communication using my data sets to say that mandates and passes are no longer relevant. Newshub even ran an article referencing the numbers. I should have saved it because it now seems to have been removed!

I should sue these guys for plagiarism!

While I’m happy that this is starting to be discussed its a bit scary that these guys couldn’t even work this out themselves.

Finally yesterday we get told by the fuehrer that restrictions will be eased probably late March. While it’s a half assed commitment with no substance (as you would expect from her) its movement.

Congratulations to the protesters, take this as a victory. Without them (and the shift by the opposition to demand removal of mandates etc) there is no way she would have come out with anything. We know they have no plan and this has forced their hand.

Of course she absoludely refuded that the protest forced the change. Yea right!
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February 22, 2022 8:28am
- Benedict Yu
  
  Can I just ask a question? Of course most hospitalisations are vaccinated folk. Virtually 100 percent of over 65s are vaccinated.
  
  But are you saying that the RATE of hospitalisations per 100 people, across age groups, is higher for vaccinated people vs. unvaccinated people? If true that would be astonishing. Not sure if you have that.
  
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  February 22, 2022 8:41am
  - bronny1
    
    I don’t have it handy, but the Scottish public health data which has now been taken down to “avoid people misinterpreting it” showed you were 3x as likely to catch Omi if vaxxed vs unvaxxed. (Per 100k of vax/unvaxxed). So the avoid hospitalisation benefit of the vax would need to be big to make up for this. It may have been with delta but not with Omi.
    
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    February 22, 2022 8:57am
    - Benedict Yu
      
      Thanks. The protection against infection is irrelevant. As I said, every person in New Zealand will be infected. I am asking if the RATE of hospitalisation and serious illness from those infected with omicron, per 100 people, and across age groups, is HIGHER in vaccinated people. That would be remarkable and worrying. I am not saying one way or another if it is true. I was simply asking the question. Because debating the vaccine’s protection against infection is no longer relevant.
      
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      February 22, 2022 9:13am
      - Islay Malt
        
        The rate of infection is highly relevant still, since that is the basis on which many private businesses are excluding unvaxxed from their workplaces – i.e. due to the transmission risk unvaxxed pose to the vaxxed if they were allowed onto their premises.
        
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        February 22, 2022 10:41am
    - Albert_Ross
      
      No, the Scottish data didn’t show that. The health authority explained carefully and in detail why it didn’t show that.
      
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      February 22, 2022 10:32am
      - bronny1
        
        No they didn’t. They provided some pathetic non explanation then took the data offline a week or two later.
        
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        February 22, 2022 3:01pm
  - westernScientest
    
    Im not sure the data for NZ to break it down like that has been publicly released, but even if it was I would not be that surprised, here is why:
    
    1st: Think about the proportion of interactions you have where you would not have them if you were unvaxed, what does it do? for a lot of people, particularly social people that like cafes and bars etc, it would substantially reduce their exposure if they dont have a vax pass.
    
    2nd: how may are incidental at the point of ED, going in for say sports injuries, which again unvaxed are less likely to be involved in, because the clubs etc cant let them play. The average age of hospitalisation is low 50s at the moment, which somewhat implies there is a lot the hospitalisations are in the category, given we know from oversees data that covid its self disproportionately effects older age groups.
    
    Lets assume the vax does nothing at all.
    At what rate would you expect to see the proportions of vax vs unvaxed hospitalised? I dont know what it is, but its not going to be in proportion with the entire population.
    
    So to what degree does the vax need to work to bring the two different populations to have the same hospitalisation rate, given the differential exposures to the risk of being infected, and the risks of being an incidental case of hospitalisation for an unrelated injury etc.
    
    I suspect, although I cant back it up with data, that to get a hospitalisation rate which is in portion to the vax rate, would require the vax to have some positive effect, due to the differential risk exposures of the two groups.
    
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    February 22, 2022 9:00am
    - mawm
      
      https://dailysceptic.org/2022/02/19/vaccine-effectiveness-continues-to-fall-vaccinated-now-up-to-three-times-more-likely-to-be-infected-ukhsa-data-show/
      
      This is data from UKHSA. Note the first table is per 100 000 and the second is actual percentages of population. Note the deaths of the vaccinated are out of proportion to their number. There are also graphs of vaccine efficacy and how it becomes negative.
      
      These are the Scottish figures – they are self explanatory.
      
      https://www.eugyppius.com/p/public-health-scotland-discontinues?utm_source=url
      
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      February 22, 2022 3:44pm
  - Surely Knott
    
    It’s also worth considering what happens to over 65’s in Retirment homes who catch covid. Most big NZ Retirement homes have onsite Nurses. There are even homes advertised as “Retirement home and hospital.” Are these private facilities counted in our data. This could mean that elderly get hospital level care outside a hospital setting for many health issues and would not be counted as “hospitalised”.
    
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    February 22, 2022 9:12am
  - cmm
    
    “But are you saying that the RATE of hospitalisations per 100 people, across age groups, is higher for vaccinated people vs. unvaccinated people? If true that would be astonishing. ”
    
    That was the case in data coming out of Baragwanath Hospital in South Africa.
    
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    February 22, 2022 9:38am
    - westernScientest
      
      i could be completely wrong, so correct me if I am as I dont much about the SA health system etc.
      But wouldn’t that be confounded. Wealthy people being more likely to both go to hospital and be more likely to be vaxed?
      
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      February 22, 2022 9:45am
      - cmm
        
        Baragwanath is a state hospital. It is the largest hospital outside of China. It serves mainly the Soweto area.
        
        They were the first large hospital to gather Omicron data.
        
        They gathered some numbers which, on the face of it, showed that the admission rates for unvaxxed were no higher than for vaxxed.
        
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        February 22, 2022 11:23am
    - waikatosinger
      
      Most of the unvaccinated in Baragwanath Hospital would have been previously infected with an earlier variant and so would have had natural immunity. So this just shows that natural immunity gives better protection than a vaccine. This is completely unsurprising except to the ideological morons with social science degrees who do the “fact checking” for facebook.
      
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      February 22, 2022 10:07am
  - 70andstilllearning
    
    Benedict – been watch this site for last couple of days since somebody here kindly posted the link.
    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/in-depth/450874/covid-19-data-visualisations-nz-in-numbers
    This metric is ambiguous as I can’t figure out definitely the size of the various segments.
    “Vaccination status of new hospitalisations per 100,000 of population segment
    Seven day rolling average”
    As presented it “suggests” a “rate” of 0.25/100k for unvaxxed vs .o7/100k for vaxxed which is opposite to above. But the segment sizes based on vax rates data have to be in the order of 10:1 (roughly) if not higher meaning that if the data was normalised the would reverse the “rate” result drastically. On the back of an envelop type thing true rate would be something like .7/100k vaxxed vs .025/100k unvaxxed.
    
    Not sure if my thinking isn’t a bit woolly on this one so was actually working on a post to ask if any of the stats gurus around here knew what the ‘per 100,000 of population segment’ actually equated to.
    
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    February 22, 2022 9:45am
    - westernScientest
      
      Per population segment should be per 100000 that are of that status, i.e. per 100000 people who are vaxed or per 100000 people who are not vaxed or per 100000 people under 12 etc.. IF they are using the terminology correctly.
      
      What is interesting is that the under 12s, is tracking very closely to the vaccinated population, which would imply that infection is much more correlated to potential exposure than to vax status (under 12s being until very recently all unvaxed but allowed in to vax only areas/events regardless). See my comments above as to my theory on why this would be happening.
      
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      February 22, 2022 9:58am
      - 70andstilllearning
        
        Ta – said my thinking might have been a bit woolly 🙂
        I’m finding the site quite good as it provides a useful level of time/detail related data from which you can draw some inferences. It’s MOH source data of course and some data sets are dubious.
        e.g” Ethnicity of active Covid-19 cases
        The prioritised ethnicity classification system is used. This means each person is allocated to a single ethnic group, based on the ethnic groups they identify with. Where people identify with more than one group, they are assigned in this order of priority: Māori, Pacific Peoples, Asian, and European/Other. So, if a person identifies as being Māori and New Zealand European, the person is counted as Māori.”
        So, if a person identifies as being Māori and New Zealand European, the person is counted as Māori – is pure category/class fudging – it most like warrants a class of it of its own in NZ’s environment:
        and the ” Vaccination status of total cases and hospitalisations since August 2021″ graphic is totally meaningless without a breakdown into some sort of split i.e a time break based on say the 90% vax target or variant type (Delta/Omicron).
        But overall it’s useful for our current outbreak. One of the Aussie media had something similar for their outbreak which was interesting to follow and making comparisons.
        
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        February 22, 2022 10:46am
- westernScientest
  
  would you mind posting the email?
  
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  February 22, 2022 8:43am
- Benedict Yu
  
  Just to clarify my question. Vaccinated vs unvaccinated case numbers is no longer important because every person in New Zealand will be infected. The ONLY rationale for the vaccine is to reduce the RATE of hospitalisations and serous illness. If you are saying the opposite is happening, that would be very important to know.
  
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  February 22, 2022 8:50am
  - Show me the evidence
    
    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/in-depth/450874/covid-19-data-visualisations-nz-in-numbers
    The RNZ data shows hospitalisation rate in vaxxed is lower than unvaxxed (Vaccination status of new hospitalisations per 100,000 of population segment, 0.25/100k unvaxxed, 0.07/100k fully vaxxed). So yes, vaxxed still have protection against hospitalisation. Not sure why death data have never been released or publically available , would love to see this data.
    These guys at Queen Mary Uni of London do some great analysis of the data though as they explore some of the difficulties with the way the data may not mean what we think it does https://probabilityandlaw.blogspot.com/2022/
    You have to back through some of their posts and papers from last year to see what I mean, but these guys know their stuff.
    Also,Geert Vanden Bossche is a virologist who has worked at Gates Foundation and GAVI )Senior Ebola Program Manager) gives some really technical analysis about why mass vaccination into a pandemic is actually really dangerous, but also it is wise not to take a snapshot in time and make all conclusions based on this.
    
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    February 22, 2022 1:45pm
- curry4me
  
  Thanks for doing that. Good to see it produced results.
  
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  February 22, 2022 8:52am
- bronny1
  
  In the media today the date to end the mandates has been pushed back to “well after the peak”. So yesterday I thought maybe end of a March. Today I think perhaps June. Unless the opposition and media grow some balls.
  
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  February 22, 2022 8:55am
  - alloytoo
    
    Omicron will peak in March with very little pressure on the health system.
    
    Maintaining mandates will be very difficult.
    
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    February 22, 2022 1:25pm
Tomtoddy

Met a very well qualified nurse yesterday who has lost her job because she isnt vaxxed. I believe she should be vaxxed as there is evidence vaxxing slows hospital admissions but I also stand by her choice not to get the jab. She is a very sensible, capable New Zealander making a choice after careful consideration of the consequences.

She is in Wellington today at the protest. Maybe some of the ninth floor lackeys calling themselves journalists for Stuff and the Ferald could interview her and hear her story. That might put their pay at risk and offend her highness so they will stay closeted in their ivory tower and cast aspersions, focusing on trivia, using their position of responsibility and influence to defend the worst government in our history.

Meanwhile genuine people, hurt, lives ruined, honest, hard working get ignored.
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February 22, 2022 8:29am
- Tony Stuart
  
  Sadly, these voices are being drowned out by a loony fringe within the protest. And that’s a travesty, because there are some heartbreaking stories to be told, but when idiots drive cars into a Police line, or allegedly spray Police with acid, you can guess what stories will dominate the media.
  
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  February 22, 2022 8:43am
  - Salacious Crumb
    
    Wrong Tony. These voices have been ignored by the media, the government and more alarmingly, the so-called opposition. These stories have there since the beginning if you had cared to listen. The focus on the fringe is a convenient diversion.
    
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    February 22, 2022 9:16am
curry4me

https://www.bitchute.com/video/YektjFCVObFV/
Justin Castro Has Already Lost.

He alienated a lot of people- including half his provincial governments- by invoking what is basically a war power act. Brandon, and the NYT have criticised him too. [08:34]
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February 22, 2022 8:35am
curry4me

https://redstate.com/streiff/2022/02/20/democrat-congressional-candidate-gets-drunk-at-daughters-sleepover-curses-kids-and-throws-up-on-their-shoes-this-could-be-a-metaphor-for-2022-n524400

Democrat Congressional Candidate Gets Drunk at Daughter’s Sleepover, Curses Kids, and Throws up on Their Shoes; This Could Be a Metaphor for 2022
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February 22, 2022 8:36am
Jack5

From the Red Radio report of the attack on a Muslim girl at a Dunedin high school:

The school principal has declined to be interviewed but says they have strong processes in place and will listen to both sides of the story – a response which some Muslim leaders say is inadequate.

Listening to both sides of a story is inadequate? What does this mean? Do Muslim citizens regard Western-style law and justice as inadequate?

Or is this just part of an Ardern media bloc diversion campaign now that Jacindarella’s popularity is diving?

https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2018830888/islamic-women-s-council-wants-more-from-school-after-attack-on-muslim-teen
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February 22, 2022 8:36am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  Of course it is inadequate if nothing is done to ensure the young thugs don’t carry on with their bullying and violence.
  
  Reading yesterday’s report it made it clear that the expelled girls had committed previous violent actions against other school kids..and had written “letters of apology”.
  
  Her daughter, who suffered bruises and abrasions, was later sent “apology letters” from the perpetrators.
  
  Those letters were dropped off to her house by police, but the mother questioned whether anyone had read them as they contained thinly veiled threats.
  https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/300260047/victim-stomped-on-video-shared-on-social-media-by-teen-culprits
  
  https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/127834979/two-teens-expelled-after-assault-on-muslim-student-had-offended-violently-before
  
  It was also clear that earlier episodes of bullying had been ignored or inadequately dealt with by the school.
  
  https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/461885/islamophobic-abuse-at-dunedin-school-there-were-complaints-but-nothing-was-done
  
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  February 22, 2022 8:57am
  - Jack5
    
    The Red Radio report, by its wording, suggests the Muslim group takes exception to the school’s process in hearing complaints about the incident.
    
    The concept of audi alteram partem, or hearing both sides, is a fundamental legal principle, at least in the West.
    
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    February 22, 2022 9:19am
    - Ehlana
      
      Unfortunately, Jack5, the Muslim community may well have experienced school “processes” before. When I was at school these were focussed on the well-being of students who misbehaved (especially if they had powerful parents) with the victims of their actions simply expected to accept whatever outcome the perpetrators agreed to.
      
      Hearing from both sides is important, but in the Western legal system there is also the idea that if you break the rules of society, there should be a penalty. And if you keep on breaking the rules, you shouldn’t just keep getting away with it, if only for the safety of everyone else.
      
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      February 22, 2022 1:32pm
  - Fuzzysnuggleduck
    
    The school doing a crap job of bullies is one thing, as that is an issue for sure – but the special-group status of the victim is perhaps neither here nor there, except as click bait and tribal-lens.
    Kids are mean, and some are really awful.
    
    It doesn’t have to ALWAYS be about the identity politics of the victim.
    If it wasn’t a hijab, it could have equally been because they wore glasses, or spoke funny, etc etc.
    If this is the only kid in school the group was ever mean to, that is one thing. But I doubt that was the case.
    Bullies are generally not exclusive in their attentions.
    
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    February 22, 2022 2:00pm
- Swifty
  
  Is it telling that the race of the thugs has not been mentioned in any news media reportage of this issue?
  
  It seems to me that if they were white it would have been made mention of well before now.
  
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  February 22, 2022 9:31am
curry4me

https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?ref=notif&v=718390109331887&notif_id=1645466982237670&notif_t=live_video

Wellington Protest today.
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February 22, 2022 8:36am
ex-golfer

Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
Driving a car the wrong way down a one-way street aimed at both protestors and police is a deliberate provocation.
Substances being thrown at the police – maybe acid.

This can no longer be claimed to be a peaceful protest. Time to give the reasonable ones fair warning that they must leave – then take whatever action is required to break down the protest.

Enough is enough.
You’ve made whatever varied points you’ve been attempting to make, albeit in a confused and mixed way.

The loonies and and activists wanting to create trouble have taken over your “peaceful protest”. They are asking for trouble, they can have it.
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February 22, 2022 8:37am
- Tony Stuart
  
  Justification too for the MP’s from all parties who did not engage with the protesters. There was always the likelihood that a loony fringe would emerge, and completely undermine the good intentions of a large number of the protesters.
  
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  February 22, 2022 8:45am
- mandk
  
  The loonies and activists you speak of could also be part of some kind of black ops.
  
  I speculated sometime ago they could happen.
  
  But we will probably never know if this is true.
  
  And people like me suggesting it is possible will be dismissed as conspiracy nutters by people, who at the same time, will accept the likelihood of false flag events in the Ukraine.
  
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  February 22, 2022 8:57am
  - My
    
    Yep, I have heard from some of those down there that there were some that were identified as undercover cops trying to cause trouble. If this is the case, this is a sad sad indictment on our country.
    
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    February 22, 2022 2:26pm
- ex-golfer
  
  I have to laugh at the ratio of downtickers.
  For years all I have heard on this blog is that the rule of law must be upheld, police need to break up the gangs, police need to take more action against crime etc, etc.
  
  Now you’ve all pivoted on a dime to support illegal activities and refuse to support the police taking action to break down an illegal occupation of the streets?
  
  You’re all as bad as the lefty losers we have to put up with all day long who pretend to be running the country.
  
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  February 22, 2022 9:07am
  - leoj
    
    The reason for the downticks is that most of the negativity is media-driven and we all know which way they lean. $105 million helps.
    
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    February 22, 2022 10:50am
  - alloytoo
    
    Stop comparing the protester to criminals.
    
    These are New Zealanders seeking to get their voices heard at the people’s Parliament.
    
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    February 22, 2022 11:09am
    - ex-golfer
      
      Anyone who has illegally parked a car or vehicle has lost their right to protest.
      
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      February 22, 2022 2:38pm
  - Tom Hunter
    
    It would be more accurate to say that this MSM narrative has been in place since day one, that it magically aligns with the Labour government’s take on the situation, that this is unlike how every other protest has been treated, including violence, that one car has been transformed into “cars” plural, and that there has been nothing said about the “acid”, in the same way that there is no video of the crap thrown at Police.
    
    In short, if you had concluded earlier that the MSM-government and opposition parties were telling lies about this protest, why would you suddenly start thinking their latest claims are true?
    
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    February 22, 2022 11:31am
  - Nickc2
    
    Protesting in NZ is not yet illegal! It’s not illegal to protest on the Grounds of Parliament either. That’s one of the reasons why Mallard’s Trespass Notices were withdrawn AFIK.
    Courtesy RNZ:
    “Protest is not illegal in New Zealand. Building camps on the lawn of Parliament, obstructing the ability of young people to go to school, of workers to operate, and harassing those who are wearing masks and taking measures to keep themselves safe – that is what is unacceptable.
    Note Unacceptable is not necessarily illegal.
    Unacceptable defined: If you describe something as unacceptable, you strongly disapprove of it or object to it and feel that it should not be allowed to continue.
    Cindy’s words are often chosen for effect, not for their clarity of meaning. I’m pretty sure she must have been a Journalist in a previous life.
    
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    February 22, 2022 12:09pm
- Jack5
  
  Can we believe the media about the protesters’ behaviour?
  
  One drives a car into police. It becomes “cars” plural.
  
  Allegations of them throwing excrement are counter-claimed to be a lie: that it was an incident in which merely rubbish was thrown.
  
  Next, it’s “acid”. Details please!
  
  Now we have the Herald calling for the Army to be brought in.
  
  Sounds like the subsidiser is putting the squeeze on the Ardern media bloc — “C’mon, earn your money.”
  
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  February 22, 2022 9:30am
  - alloytoo
    
    Maybe somebody “dropped” acid a little too hard.
    
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    February 22, 2022 11:11am
- Other_Andy
  
  The PM dismissed the protest by thousands of New Zealanders as it was only a minority and they did not speak for New Zealand.
  Now you have 3 (?) protestors out of more than a thousand allegedly doing something dodgy and suddenly the this tiny minority is important, they can’t be dismissed and speak for all the protestors?
  You can’t have your cake and eat it too….
  
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  February 22, 2022 9:54am
Nickc2

Exactly. If the Police had the training and skills to disperse protestors as they are currently doing in Wgtn, why the eff didn’t they use these attributes to disperse protestors at Ihumatao? Look at the eff-up they created by not dispersing that bunch of ……ers.

Ask yourself why they didn’t do their job at Ihumatao and you’ll probably arrive at the conclusion that it was not political to do so. The Govt’s Maori Caucus would not have approved and the ramifications of that would be embarrassing to Labour having invited their Maori Caucus into the Inner Sanctum of the Party.
If you now turn your attention to the situation in Wgtn, you will most likely conclude that this protest is not only embarrassing to the Govt, this Govt has been adding fuel to the fire through their misguided statements and outright amateurish vindictive attitude displayed by the Govt’s Speaker.

Now that the Govt’s run out of options and their own incompetence is clearly visible to all, they call on the PM’s appointed Police Commissioner to disperse protestors using whatever means they wish, so long as their actions can’t be sheeted back to the Govt.
I feel sorry for the Police in this instance, they have been used as Political Tools.
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February 22, 2022 8:39am
- Benedict Yu
  
  The police did not evict the protesters at Ihumatao because Jacinda supported them. She halted construction of the houses and paid out the developer.
  
  Same as Shelley Bay. Which will remain an eyesore long after my time on earth comes to an end.
  
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  February 22, 2022 8:45am
waikatosinger

Could we please have a condemnation by our government of Justin Trudeau who is destroying the foundations of democratic freedom in Canada. He is confiscating assets and closing bank accounts of political opponents. He has banned peaceful demonstrations, and invoked the emergency powers act effectively turning Canada into a police state. This is incredibly dangerous stuff.
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February 22, 2022 8:39am
- ex-golfer
  
  Ha ha ha – you are joking right?
  Our govt would never condemn the actions of Jacinda’s best mate and kindred spirit.
  They are more likely to praise him.
  
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  February 22, 2022 8:45am
  - Nickc2
    
    They’re both in ‘lockstep’ with the aims of the WEF according to Klaus Schwab.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Global_Leaders#Members_and_alumni
    
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    February 22, 2022 11:36am
- Nickc2
  
  Coming to Lil-Olde-NZ in no time flat. Cindy’s been taking notes and seeking advice from the WEF.
  
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  February 22, 2022 8:49am
- Inandout
  
  waikato, at least now we see Canadian MPs debating with Trudeau. How refreshing to hear real politicians speaking so eloquently.
  
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  February 22, 2022 8:52am
- Jack5
  
  The Canadian Paliament will vote later today (NZ time) on Trudeau’s handling of the truckers’ protests.
  
  It will vote on use of the Emergencies Act to end anti-government blockades in Ottawa and several border crossings.
  
  Trudeau seems confident about winning the vote, and the Leftist New Democrat Party has indicated it will support Trudeau’s Liberal Party in the vote.
  
  Candice Bergen, interim leader of Canada’s Conservatives, said her party will vote against Trudeau’s use of the Emergencies Act.
  
  “Folks would have moved on had the Prime Minister decided he actually wanted to listen,” Bergen said.
  
  7 1
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  February 22, 2022 11:56am
  - Jack5
    
    Have the NZ protesters come up with any songs?
    
    Here’s a song from the Canadian truckies:
    
    https://youtu.be/dDzHtBZO5wE
    
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    February 22, 2022 12:12pm
  - jon
    
    I note the Conservatives in Canada have had a bump in a recent poll of 10% and now leading Trudeau’s Liberals by 9% . All in response to his handling of the latest turmoil no doubt.
    
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    February 22, 2022 1:11pm
  - Jack5
    
    Trudeau escapes censure …
    
    The Canadian House of Commons has voted to support the Federal Government’s use of the Emergencies Act to deal with the truck convoy protests and border blockades.
    
    The 185-151 result was in favour of the declaration of emergency. Members of the Conservative Party – the official opposition – and the Bloc Quebecois voted against Trudeau’s use of the Act.
    
    The BBC reports the Act has been used over the last week to ban public assembly in some areas of Ottawa, and to prohibit travel to protest zones.
    
    The Canadian Federal Government has also used it to freeze at least 76 accounts linked to the protests, representing $C3.2 million (about $NZ3.8 million),
    
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    February 22, 2022 5:35pm
- Rusty
  
  Canada usually never in the world news about anything but come the Truckie freedom protesters and they are headline news around the world for the wrong reasons.
  
  This drop kick PM Justin Trudeau represents all that is wrong with progressive politics — its a marxist/anti-freedoms ideology.
  
  Jacinda Ardern take note.
  
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  February 22, 2022 2:29pm
Inandout

Tom, if that lady was a self employed plumber or sparkie she could happily carry on with ‘urgent’ jobs around some person’s home…no questions asked. Rest homes are screaming out for nurses but obviously won’t accept an ‘unclean’ person.
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February 22, 2022 8:50am
Maggie Pie

As my Doubles-Partner was saying last night……there will always be vulnerable people in society. This is the only time in human history where the majority have given up their freedoms to protect the old, the fat and the few.
The average age of death from Covid is around 85.

Fleur thinks we’ve done the wrong thing.
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February 22, 2022 8:54am
Benedict Yu

If 2000 people protesting against climate change set up camp at Parliament, Jacinda would put on a sausage sizzle and DJ for them.

It is that simple. She hates the protestors for the same reason that Hilary hated the deplorables.
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February 22, 2022 8:58am
- BAM
  
  She hates them because they’ve pulled back the curtains and ruined the illusion.
  
  Ardern is not kind, she’s a revolting, egotistical, nasty, vindictive individual and now everyone can see it.
  
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  February 22, 2022 9:01am
- bravefart
  
  Succinctly and perfectly summed up
  
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  February 22, 2022 9:18am
- Swifty
  
  Or, alternatively, can you just imagine if it was National in power and the bile and abuse that Labour and their friends would be throwing at them right about now; not to mention the protests, hikoi etc being actively organised by them and their union comrades.
  
  You can absolutely guarantee they would be vilifying National for the very same things that would be doing is they were in the hot seat.
  
  It’s been one of my most disappointing realisations over the last 20 years or so just how two-faced the left is both here and around the world.
  
  They have no principles; everything is politics.
  
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  February 22, 2022 9:28am
  - waikatosinger
    
    They have no principles and all they care about is power.
    
    9 1
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    February 22, 2022 11:10am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  Yet both Roman are deplorable
  
  1 5
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  February 22, 2022 10:09am
- MCōs
  
  That’s a mighty big ‘if’
  
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  February 22, 2022 11:02am
potato

I believe the underlying important narrative is that there is a segment of society that is very unhappy with Arderns divisive leadership, I think the spin machine has done a great job painting an “illegal” protest etc, But it’s to late the damage is done the uncertainty tide is coming in for the 6pm news watcha
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February 22, 2022 9:06am
- Paulus
  
  Heard some exper Auckland Uni lady this morning talking the most crap about the fact that she says New Zealand is in no way divided.
  Wow, and that is what we have to put up with and pay big money.
  
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  February 22, 2022 10:09am
Benedict Yu

On a happier note, I am currently parked in the remote East Cape for a few days. If you want to really get away, this is the place to be.

https://tinyurl.com/mr2hzhc7
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February 22, 2022 9:06am
- Rich Prick
  
  How that brings back childhood holiday memories. Back when summer seemed to last for near on six months.
  
  15 0
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  February 22, 2022 9:22am
- pdm
  
  BY – go and have a look at the lighthouse -it is worth a visit but you may not be able to go up to it due to covid.
  
  Hard to understand why that would be though.
  
  14 1
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  February 22, 2022 9:56am
  - Other_Andy
    
    “Hard to understand why that would be though.”
    
    Punishment for not complying with government demands!
    
    9 0
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    February 22, 2022 10:13am
- Tauhei Notts
  
  Many woke people have used that phrase;
  “across the motu.”
  But on your trip from Opotiki you really have been across the Motu.
  
  11 1
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  February 22, 2022 1:08pm
- Trev
  
  I spent about quarter of a century regularly visiting that area. Many happy memories of fishing diving and the leasehold Maori land fringed with pohutakawa trees where we had huts, boat ramp etc.
  
  7 0
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  February 22, 2022 1:11pm
- zulumonster
  
  Stayed at the the Maraehako Retreat a year or so back – definitely a 2 star spot, but magical location and very friendly and laid back host.
  
  8 0
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  February 22, 2022 1:39pm
  - Don Beckett
    
    Used to go fishing there back in the 1970’s. Indeed a beautiful part of our wonderful world.
    
    4 1
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    February 22, 2022 5:30pm
Rusty

Peoples power does work.

The PM announced an easing back on covid restrictions and an end to some vaccine mandates (whatever that means)

But she said this had nothing to do with the protests in Wellington, she was going to do it anyway –believe her?

Of course all vaccine mandates should go not just some, so maybe our protesting brothers and sisters can put up some new signs demanding this.

Despite our PM’s dismissal of the protests having no influence on her decisions — this is clearly not the case.

Surely it must enter the PM’s mind just how many other Nzers throughout the country feel the same way as the protesters in Wellington?

Peoples power in numbers does work when unjust and undemocratic measures are forced on Nzers.
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February 22, 2022 9:12am
Maggie's partner

Headlines we can expect to see this week in the Herald:

Tuesday: “Links to Slavery” – the dark underbelly of the protestors’ ancestors revealed.

Wednesday: “Vile and Disgusting behaviour” Protestor puts ketchup on pasta.

Thursday: Sir Helen Clark buys tent at Kathmandu sale, heads to Wellington protest.

Friday: “New evidence means mandates can go” – Prime Minister our saviour once again.

Saturday: Policymaking and parenting, the art of multitasking for the modern mum.

Sunday: Savea or Sosutu? The conundrum facing All Black coaches.
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February 22, 2022 9:14am
- Lee C
  
  sorry reported you by accident:
  This too, though:https://www.facebook.com/100005942164425/videos/509133647222219
  
  5 1
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  February 22, 2022 10:55am
  - curry4me
    
    Oh, yes, that video. The first few seconds sound like she is complaining. Ofcourse she isn’t.
    
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    February 22, 2022 7:11pm
Maggie Pie

Looks like Matthew Hooten has deleted his Twitter account.

Maybe he’s working for National again?
13 3
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February 22, 2022 9:19am
- mandk
  
  National would be bonkers to have him.
  
  With friends like Hooten, who needs enemies?
  
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  February 22, 2022 9:21am
  - Other_Andy
    
    Then again, how could he damage National even more than Luxon?
    
    7 10
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    February 22, 2022 10:14am
  - All_on_Red
    
    Yes, him and Michelle Boag
    
    13 2
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    February 22, 2022 11:05am
- Frank the tank
  
  God help us if he is.
  
  15 0
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  February 22, 2022 9:28am
- Libertarians are right
  
  God, I hope not.
  
  12 0
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  February 22, 2022 9:41am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  The Ferald may have warned him, although he has been busy twitting about the protests, so maybe he has had threats, by protesters or the police.
  
  7 1
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  February 22, 2022 10:12am
- Nickc2
  
  I know National’s desperately in need of friends but they sure as hell don’t need someone like Hooton. He did the dirty on them previously when he spat his dummy at Muller’s removal and he wrote some terrible stuff about Judith Collins.
  
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  February 22, 2022 1:28pm
Frank the tank

Here’s the thing so the current split is:

One third – planet real world
two thirds – covid cult

Can we not create 2 countries? Or at least individual provinces/states where we could make appropriate laws for the populace.

At least in Australia, Canada and the States you can move to regions more suited to your views and politics…….
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February 22, 2022 9:35am
Vory v zakone

People who have blindly trusted the CDC in the US over the last two years are about to have their world turned upside down as the lack of transparency and manipulation of data become undeniably evident.

Their response when questioned about their withholding of Covid data and lack of transparency is essentially “we don’t trust you to be able to understand the truth.”

The condescension is palpable. The wheels are finally coming off.
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February 22, 2022 9:40am
- Vory v zakone
  
  https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/20/health/covid-cdc-data.html
  
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  February 22, 2022 9:46am
Maggie Pie

And is it just me…
or are all Wellingtonians dressed by the iconic fashion designer St. Vincent de Paul?
21 2
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February 22, 2022 9:45am
- mandk
  
  When I came to NZ, my first boss told me that, for most Kiwis, formal dress was when you made sure you were wearing matching socks.
  
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  February 22, 2022 10:44am
kevn

@Maggie… Perfect attire to (freedom) camp out in.
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February 22, 2022 10:02am
Maggie Pie

Do you honestly think Cuddles Coster has any f—ing idea what these guys actually have to put up with? Asking for a friend.

https://twitter.com/nzpolice/status/1495844063630991361
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February 22, 2022 10:09am
- Frank the tank
  
  Bring back Bush (Mike)?
  
  5 2
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  February 22, 2022 10:45am
  - Maggie Pie
    
    Saw a girl once holding that message up on a placard during the Ponsonby gay parade 😛
    
    13 1
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    February 22, 2022 11:13am
logan0312

I see Russia has recognised the independence of the breakaway Donbass republics. Seems they remember what the West did over Kosovo. Next move NATO I guess. Will they proceed to bombing Kiev like we did to Belgrade? Perhaps they aren’t that brutal…
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February 22, 2022 10:12am
- hullkiwi
  
  Are you for real?
  
  Putin wants war, and he wants Ukraine/NATO to fire the first missiles.
  
  Putin is a 1970s styled imperialist Soviet, who wants to spread his influence in a manner not seen since the Cold War.
  
  Over the 22 years he has been in control of Russia, he has provoked and supported conflict that has spread his sphere of influence.
  
  He lacks any vision, other than to stir conflict.
  
  11 8
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  February 22, 2022 12:03pm
  - DistantObserver
    
    Wasn’t it Ukrainian government shelling/attacking it’s own people in its East for the last 7 years?
    Heard of the Azov battalion?
    What do you think that symbol represents and what do you think the Russians might not like about it?
    
    10 3
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    February 22, 2022 12:52pm
    - Batman
      
      Ahhh, that old Chestnut. And why would there be conflict in the East? Please, refresh our memories on 2014…
      
      Mr Putin thanks you for his assistance in Making Ukraine Russia Again (MURA)
      
      6 12
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      February 22, 2022 1:21pm
      - DistantObserver
        
        You mean when with only about 10 months to an election they decided to institute a coup in Kiev and overthrow an elected President?
        (as corrupt as he was, like the last god knows how many Ukrainian leaders.)
        Trash their constitution and start removing rights of Russian speakers?
        Are you referring to that time?
        
        8 2
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        February 22, 2022 1:26pm
      - Batman
        
        The people decided they had had enough of living under the criminal and cultural thumb of Russia.
        
        Sour grapes are just that.
        
        Your Russian Empire fantasy is an affront to the idea of borders and the nation state.
        
        5 12
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        February 22, 2022 1:53pm
      - DistantObserver
        
        I see ‘the people’ decide via coups now, rather than elections?
        Typical ‘ends justify the means’ mentality.
        
        4 1
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        February 22, 2022 2:01pm
      - logan0312
        
        Thats right, George Soros’ mob and the other NGOs were just acting in the best interests of the Ukrainian people. Pure altruism motivated them in engineering the Maidan Coup. And none of the actors were acting as proxies for the US State Dept, were they?
        And Biden didn’t run the country for gangsters who employed the likes of his son. And over 30 billion in foreign loans weren’t stolen from the poor Ukrainian population by the very people who now cry out that Russia is unjust!. No, the West has only EVER acted from a heartfelt and sincere love of righteousness through all of this.
        And the West haven’t lied, ever, about violating agreements not to expand NATO. They haven’t cynically ignored the Minsk Agreements, nor have they stirred up neo-Nazis in the Ukraine to attack native-speaking Russians, have they?
        But we demand Russian capitulate to the West while we have as much virtue as a whore who has rediscovered her virginity.
        Russia has a case here and we do a disservice to ourselves and the world by lying and concealing that fact.
        
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        February 22, 2022 2:37pm
    - hullkiwi
      
      No, it was the Russian ethnic minority in Eastern Ukraine who did not accept the removal of a Russian puppet regime (albeit via a coup) supported by Moscow.
      
      Over the past 8 years, it has been Putin who has 1. supported the civil war in Eastern Ukraine; and
      2. Who annexed the Crimea.
      
      What would your view be if the Baltic countries annexed Konningsberg? Somewhere that has close historical ties to the Baltic nations around it.
      
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      February 22, 2022 2:57pm
      - Mike
        
        How abot restoring East Prussia to Germany!
        
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        February 22, 2022 4:40pm
      - Batman
        
        Why not bring back Austro-Hungary!
        
        A week of throwbacks could be fun!
        
        Maybe even bring back Aotearoa as a collection of Maori tribal areas?
        
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        February 22, 2022 5:13pm
      - Jack5
        
        Königsberg was formerly the key city in East Prussia, part of Germany. It’s now Kaliningrad, part of the Russian enclave the Kaliningrad Oblast (province).
        
        What the Russians didn’t keep after brutally ethnically cleansing the area of Germans became part of Poland.
        
        East Prussia was the homeland of the colourful soldier of the New Zealand Land Wars, Gustavus Ferdinand von Tempsky.
        
        Hullkiwi’s parallel would be better if it was: what if Germany and, or, Poland, tried to take over Kaliningrad?
        
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        February 22, 2022 5:19pm
Nickc2

Has anyone heard anything from Blossom Bloomfield or Clarke Gayford lately? Asking for a friend.
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February 22, 2022 10:14am
- waripori
  
  [We don’t deal in rumour – stick to twatter. mod.]
  
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  February 22, 2022 12:00pm
  - Nickc2
    
    What rumour? I certainly didn’t mention one. I asked a meaningful question. No matter though, it’s been answered in terms of Gayford. Bloomfield’s still missing in action though.
    
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    February 22, 2022 12:34pm
BeaB

When did our cartoonists become finger-wagging busybodies, spouting government propaganda?

And the shameful message of most of our media, ” be grateful and shut up”.
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February 22, 2022 10:14am
Surely Knott

West Auckland covid testing centre turned away everyone in line because there were too many people in the line for a test by 8:30 am according to the community facebook page. Another testing station in neighbouring suburb closed yesterday at 2 due to too many people. What is the cost for every test we give. What other ways could this money be used to save lives.
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February 22, 2022 10:20am
kevn

@Maggie… I gather most of them don’t want to be there and many are very sympathetic to the rally cause. But a few like the cut and thrust.
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February 22, 2022 10:32am
Frank the tank

https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2022/02/oriini-kaipara-joins-simon-shepherd-as-newshub-nation-co-host.html

Good God. Just when you thought serious news couldn’t get worse……….
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February 22, 2022 10:47am
- Nickc2
  
  Willie Jackson, Marama Davidson, Nania Mahuta and Kelvin Davis will be doing cartwheels. There will no doubt be a massive piss-up in the Back Benchers pub in Wgtn when the protestors let them go there.
  I wonder if they’ll invite the LGBTQI Brigade?
  
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  February 22, 2022 11:47am
  - Paulus
    
    Mahuta is in Europe sorting out Putin currently.
    
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    February 22, 2022 1:28pm
    - Nickc2
      
      Putin will probably die laughing. I wonder if that’ll call off the land grab by Russia in Ukraine?
      
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      February 22, 2022 2:01pm
    - DistantObserver
      
      Can you imagine it, her and Kamala?
      The west is becoming fundamentally unserious.
      
      I am more worried about Canada: freezing of bank accounts with no due process, a declaration of emergency with no real evidence to suggest what is going on is at the level of WWI/WWII or Quebec terrorists – the only other times such act has been used.
      
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      February 22, 2022 6:13pm
- rouppe
  
  Kaipara is of Ngāti Awa, Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Ngāti Rangitihi and Ngāi Tūhoe descent
  
  Wow. Didn’t realise there were still full blooded Maori left!
  
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  February 22, 2022 12:26pm
Captain Mainwaring

Who is this idiot Collins who wants to be mayor of Auckland and thinks that public transport should be ‘free’. What that really means is that everyone pays for it, not just those who use it.
I think golf should be free. That means those who want to play golf can put it on everyone else’s tab.
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February 22, 2022 10:50am
- Nickc2
  
  While he’s at it, I’ll ask him to include at least seven free beer days a week for Akld Ratepayers.
  
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  February 22, 2022 11:50am
- hullkiwi
  
  Captain, sorry to blow away your delusions, but the taxpayer already pays for 51% of each regions public transport network (20% is paid for by fares & the balance by the respective regional council).
  Auckland’s network is more extensive than anywhere else, so costs a great deal more.
  
  Collins (a Labour councillor) is trying to out Labour by Labour, by using the Greater Auckland Tanspirt Blog manifesto on PT patronage and fares policy.
  
  It is a policy that is not thought out, will cost a fortune to implement and cause unknown capacity problems in unknown parts of the network. It is a policy that has not been thought out at all!
  
  Makes him a suitable candidate for mayor then……?
  
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  February 22, 2022 12:36pm
  - alloytoo
    
    Mayor? Hell he could lead this Labour government.
    
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    February 22, 2022 1:39pm
Frank the tank

https://www.foxnews.com/media/kamala-harris-roasted-for-presser-in-munich-an-outrageous-move

One for Bats.

No wonder the Dems want to exhume Billiary……..
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February 22, 2022 10:51am
Lee C

This damning indictment of the protest:
https://www.facebook.com/100005942164425/videos/509133647222219
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February 22, 2022 10:52am
- bjools
  
  I am so pleased, from one so young, to see that genuine sarcasm has not died.
  But please warn this astute young lady, that very soon now, under a Labour govt., sarcasm will……
  …….be………TAXED.
  
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  February 22, 2022 11:02am
PatrioticSolidarityNow

Finally some common sense comments from a former P.M.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/462025/political-leaders-should-get-off-their-high-horses-jim-bolger

Ardern will never back down or compromise, it’s just not her ideologically arrogant, control freak nature.

If the cops continue to escalate the situation, as seems to be the case this morning, then down the track this may lead to more extreme, ‘terrorist’ like resistance to labour’s iron grip?
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February 22, 2022 10:55am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  Perhaps our Dear PM is too thick to understand how democracy works.
  
  “The essential principle of democracy is that leaders listen to people, and I am not certain that the prime minister has got it right by saying she won’t listen to people.
  
  https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/300523379/political-leaders-should-get-off-their-high-horses–jim-bolger
  
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  February 22, 2022 11:53am
Maggie Pie

A LITTLE DARK HISTORY 🙁

Maybe just a tad off topic – but you’ll find this interesting nonetheless.

Now most people think that American President George Washington’s dentures were made with wooden teeth.
Well no….they were actually HUMAN teeth extracted from his black Slaves!

https://mountvernon.org/george-washington/health/washingtons-teeth/
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February 22, 2022 11:05am
- cmm
  
  Were they from his slaves or from other human sources?
  
  Slaves were pretty valuable assets and people back then generally treated them better than day workers (basically like how rental cars take a thrashing). eg. It was the Irish day workers that ended up doing the most dangerous work in Boston harbour. Who cares if a Mick gets crippled? Why endanger a precious slave?
  
  Teeth were also harvested from corpses (eg. undertakers would pull teeth and sell them).
  
  In some cases, people would even sell their healthy teeth if they needed some money.
  
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  February 22, 2022 1:50pm
  - Mike
    
    For a refugee from the white colonies in Africa, you sure have some odd ideas about slavery.
    
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    February 22, 2022 3:22pm
- waikatosinger
  
  I gather the use of teeth extracted from corpses was a common thing back then. Looking up the history of dentures you find that:
  
  The best dentures were made from human teeth. The source of these teeth ranged from robbed graves, peasants looking to make a quick buck, and even dentists’ collections. Understandably, these sources provided poor quality teeth. Their poor quality meant that dentures were mostly cosmetic and needed to be removed for eating.
  
  The death of 50,000 men at the battle of Waterloo in 1815 soon diminished the lack of quality human teeth. Soldiers marching at Waterloo were young and healthy, so their teeth were ideal for denture making. “Waterloo teeth” became the fashion in Britain and were often worn as a trophy despite the impossibility of knowing their direct origin.
  
  This practice of using human teeth for dentures continued on into the late 1860s. The American Civil War provided one source to these later versions of “Waterloo teeth.”
  
  If people were using teeth from fallen soldiers then I don’t think they would see anything wrong with using the teeth of dead slaves. Unless these were extracted from live slaves (which would be horrific) it would just seem to be 18th century business as usual.
  
  The page has gone. Perhaps they had second thoughts about the claim.
  
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  February 22, 2022 4:02pm
krazykiwi

Coster: “I’ve got a great idea. Let’s surround the peaceful protestors with enormous concrete blocks, and then slowly move them inwards. The people will get tired of not having enough space, and not having enough food and sanitation… and then they’ll just go home. It’s brilliant. Let’s do this!”
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February 22, 2022 11:15am
- kevn
  
  @kk…. Get one the lads to go undercover (with a earpiece so we can have comms) and throw fireworks at them. That should rark it up a bit.
  
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  February 22, 2022 11:56am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Get ‘cuddles’ to go in with a blonde wig on.
    Not going to work is it? Lefties get others to do their shit
    
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    February 22, 2022 5:34pm
bjools

Putin’s speech re Ukraine

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/extracts-putins-speech-ukraine-2022-02-21/

From the speech

“Russia assumed obligations to repay the entire Soviet debt in return for the newly independent states giving up part of their foreign assets. In 1994, such agreements were reached with Ukraine, but they were not ratified by Ukraine…

“(Ukraine) preferred to act in such a way that in relations with Russia they had all the rights and advantages, but did not bear any obligations…

“From the very first steps they began to build their statehood on the denial of everything that unites us. They tried to distort the consciousness, the historical memory of millions of people, entire generations living in Ukraine.”

Sounds familiar?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mein_Kampf
Justification for the annexation of the Sudetenland?
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February 22, 2022 11:21am
- hullkiwi
  
  You are correct. Putin is following the pattern of Hilter augmented by iron fist of Stalin. Will the west really:
  1. Stand up to this bully; and
  2. Impose true pressure on Putin and his regime as Reagan did in the 1980s that led to the eventual demise of the Iron Curtain?
  
  Unless Russia (& other wannabes) get rid of those who are leading that country back to its Soviet imperialist past, the world will never live peacefully with itself!
  
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  February 22, 2022 12:25pm
  - Tom Hunter
    
    Given how far Germany is in Putin’s pocket for gas supplies and given that they’re (supposedly) the main NATO actor aside from the USA, I wouldn’t think that any real action will be taken.
    
    And Putin knows it. Mid-winter and Nordstream II, plus other gas supplies, are one twist of the handle away from being cut off. Pity about all those closed German nuclear reactors, right Herr Merkel?
    
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    February 22, 2022 12:45pm
    - hullkiwi
      
      Tom you are correct about Western Europe’s dependence on gas provided by Gasprom. Do you remember the problems Putin created in 2007/8 when he played dictator with supplies to Europe? Putin understands Euope’s weaknesses all to well.
      
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      February 22, 2022 3:02pm
    - Mike
      
      Tom Hunter’s contempt for liberal democracies, always leads him to assume that the western Europeans will bow cravenly to any sword-rattling dictator.
      Putin, for his part, seems to have assumed that the US’s will to stand with its NATO allies has been permanently crippled by the Trump presidency.
      But Tom Hunter and Putin are nodoubt much more aware of geopolitical realities than I.
      
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      February 22, 2022 3:19pm
    - PatrioticSolidarityNow
      
      Frau Merkel will be very upset with your gender reassignment. But you’re right, this is globalisation for ya, all nations are now dependent on other nations for their wellbeing & survival, none more so than small players like Kiwiland.
      
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      February 22, 2022 3:29pm
  - MCōs
    
    Times have changed since Reagan’s time.
    Back in his day Russia’s influence extended far beyond Ukraine to include Poland, East Germany, Hungary, and so.
    
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    February 22, 2022 12:57pm
    - hullkiwi
      
      Times may have changed, but Putin is old school Soviet. He was stationed in East Germany in 1989 when the wall fell.
      
      I’ve seen it written, that he felt humiliated when the wall fell & he considers it his duty to the “motherland” to see that Russia is reinstated as a super power. This is a man without vision, because all he does is live and breathe past glories.
      
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      February 22, 2022 3:12pm
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        Putin is a naughty naughty man.
        CNN told me and then the best told me -play shcool TV1
        
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        February 22, 2022 5:31pm
      - MCōs
        
        You sound like you haven’t got a clue what’s going on.
        Are you waiting for rumble.com to tell you what to think?
        
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        February 22, 2022 6:35pm
    - PatrioticSolidarityNow
      
      So who has been doing extending since 1989 then? Would I be right if I said the globalist western powers, global corporations & big tech.
      
      The west is driven by a crusading urge to impose their (western) ‘rules based order’, rights obsessed, liberal worldview & cheesy consume culture on the whole world.
      
      It didn’t work out very well in Iraq or Afghanistan did it.
      
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      February 22, 2022 3:41pm
- PatrioticSolidarityNow
  
  Relativisation of Hitler’s worldview with that of Putin’s is not helpful at all.
  
  I suggest you brush on your history. The Ukraine & Belarus (white Russia) areas are the heartland of Slavic culture & civilization. On this point Putin is totally correct.
  
  I experienced the fall of the iron curtain & the reunification of Germany first hand. Friends of mine in a group called ‘Neues Forum’ opposed the reunification of Germany. They wanted the GDR to become more democratic & retain its independence.
  
  Fat chance of this, as the western, free market capitalist powers that pulled west Germany’s strings had visions of colonizing & privatizing the whole of the former east block. For the west, the ginormous consumer market & untapped source of cheap labour in the east was irresistible.
  
  Once the reunification of Germany deal was done the gradual ‘wild east’ occupation of Russia & all of eastern Europe by western capitalists, global corporations, liberal & human rights ideologues, UN institutions & NATO began in earnest.
  
  Putin warned the west about it’s continued overreach way back in his Munich speech in 2007.
  
  Overly liberal western crusading, arrogance & clandestine destabilizing activities in the Ukraine & the Caucuses are the real cause of the current, extremely dangerous situation.
  
  Love them or hate them, Putin & Lavrov are Slavic patriots & very sharp chess players who are running rings around our weakened & desperate liberal western world.
  
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  February 22, 2022 1:02pm
  - Batman
    
    Oh geez, where to start with this apologist crap?
    
    For a start, Russia signed an agreement with Ukraine when it gave up its nuclear weapons. Putin is now breaching it and invading a sovereign state.
    
    He is a dictator who should be repelled by every state that believes in freedom and rejects the creation of a new Soviet Empire.
    
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    February 22, 2022 1:43pm
    - PatrioticSolidarityNow
      
      Ok, I volunteer you for the front line, pack your bags sunshine.
      
      7 4
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      February 22, 2022 3:12pm
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        Supervisor, via Kiwiblog
        
        4 2
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        February 22, 2022 5:28pm
    - hullkiwi
      
      Batman, it would help if knew what he was talking about for a start.
      
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      February 22, 2022 3:39pm
  - cmm
    
    “They wanted the GDR to become more democratic & retain its independence.”
    
    Sorry if I missed the sarcasm, but GDR is East Germany.
    
    You know, the place with a wall around it where over 100 people died trying to escape the place. Not exactly democratic – despite its name.
    
    “Retain its independence”? It was not independent it was a Commie satellite state. Sure, it was independent from the more prosperous Western Germany, but that was not really independence.
    
    No doubt there were people who struggled with the change of communism, and certainly many of the GDR elite were upset about giving up their special corrupt priviledges. However the unified Germany bent over backwards to include as many of these GDR bureaucrats as possible. Ask Auntie Angela.
    
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    February 22, 2022 2:00pm
    - PatrioticSolidarityNow
      
      Ich weiss genau was die DDR bedeutet. I lived in the shadow of the wall for many years you insular ignoramous.
      
      The DDR was an independent country. Don’t you remember them winning all the medals at the Olympics. The west German constitution did not recognize their constitution. No surprise there, no way the western victors of WW2 would sanction this.
      
      Now let’s not mention that the Russians did most of the hand to hand grunt work in WW2 & payed a very high price for doing so. Oh yes, that’s right, the Nazi’s got a lot help from Ukrainian fascists in the eastern killing fields. Better no mention that either. History’s a dog, but well worth reflecting on in a balanced way.
      
      Go have a cuppa & a lie down & soak up some more saber rattling bullshit from the yanks, poms & other European lapdogs.
      
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      February 22, 2022 3:07pm
      - Mike
        
        And how is the weather in St Petersburg today, comrade?
        
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        February 22, 2022 4:50pm
MCōs

So Putin has declared parts of Ukraine are not Ukraine after all and sent his armies in to maintain the peace.
That’s a bit like Mexico recognizing the independence of Texas.
Note that a similar number of Texans want to secede from the USA as people in these areas of Ukraine want to secede. About 15-16%.
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February 22, 2022 11:26am
- Frank the tank
  
  Kinda like here Cosy. About 25-30% want to secede from your lot and the transformation of this country into New Zimbabwe.
  
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  February 22, 2022 12:10pm
  - Mike
    
    I can well believe that 25% of Kiwibloggers would like their own microstate.
    
    2 9
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    February 22, 2022 2:44pm
    - PatrioticSolidarityNow
      
      Sounds good to me, as when He Puapua is fully implemented & NZ becomes a totally failed state I’ll be looking for a true blue kiwi homeland.
      
      If the truth be known, I’ve already come with a ripper of a concept & a layout design. Keep it to yourselves though, don’t want every Tom, Dick & Harry crashing our independence party.
      
      5 3
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      February 22, 2022 3:20pm
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Toss a coin Mike.
      Which side are you on Boy?
      
      4 2
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      February 22, 2022 5:25pm
      - Mike
        
        I’m on the side of freedom and justice for all, Steve. What other side do you support?
        
        2 2
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        February 22, 2022 5:52pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  ‘Back in the USSR’
  
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  February 22, 2022 5:26pm
  - Mike
    
    Let your balalaikas ring out loud…
    
    2 1
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    February 22, 2022 5:53pm
Maggie Pie

TRENDING

One of the girls from tennis who used to work with Clarke on FM retweets…

“Fab to see CLARKE back again! There have been sooo many of us worrying where he was.”

https://twitter.com/NZClarke/status/1495878216716001280
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February 22, 2022 11:46am
I remember when

Does the media have no shame or professional standards.
Kanoa on the Project (usually ably supported by Jessie another rabid supporter of government actions) has a rant about the Anti Vaccine protesters.
As a support item she introduces the Matthew Kukaki assault claim.
No mention that it is a media interviews media story.
No mention Matthew is/was thinking about introducing a petition against the AVP.
Matthew tells the story with suitable reference to his being a casual visitor buying his sushi lunch.
For no apparent reason, he was harassed by an unidentified and unnumbered group of threatening protesters.
The situation, he said, was escalating and he was getting worried about his ‘safety.’
“Is that when you were assaulted,” Kanoa inquired breathlessly.
“No,” said Matthew, “FORTUNATELY, some Police stepped in and prevented the protesters taking any further action.”

Of course, we all know that it was only the belated presence of the constabulary that saved the day.
I just wish the AVP members would stop harassing unnamed and unidentified members of the passing public.

E-Tangata: 14 April 2019:
Matthew Kukaki: I’m making it up every day.
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February 22, 2022 12:02pm
- 70andstilllearning
  
  Also believe I heard her say something about her own “personal experience” near the protest in “Wellington”. Thought “The Project” was AKL based!!!!
  But Paddy Gower’s “makes my day” type comment re Corbett’s “Daily Dose” vids? He’s said that he’d had issues in the past in one of his documentaries but watching video’s of some other unfortunate’s woes has that sort effect on you – that’s real sick puppy stuff on national tv.
  
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  February 22, 2022 12:47pm
- The Housekeeper
  
  IRW, that article was so remarkable I bookmarked it. Incredible eh, that he now posits himself as a credible spokesperson for all Maori.
  https://e-tangata.co.nz/korero/matthew-tukaki-making-it-up-every-day/
  
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  February 22, 2022 7:41pm
Maggie Pie

Twitterati reckons it was actually Apple Juice thrown at Police, was assumed to be Urine, then reported as Shite by the msm.

Anyway, this only just in from our very own…. GILDA

https://twitter.com/Strange_G/status/1495907301177589767
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February 22, 2022 12:57pm
- Frank the tank
  
  [removed by Mod, due to accusations of sexual assaults at the occupation]
  
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  February 22, 2022 1:25pm
- Fuzzysnuggleduck
  
  Yeah, I really don’t know what to make of the ‘shields to protect from human waste’ statement actually means protestors/a protestor was throwing poo like a monkey.
  The mechanics of this, from within the protestors, would not make them popular.
  
  The way the media are around slanting the narrative and injecting in details, Apple juice splash -> Urine spray -> Human waste thrown -> poos being thrown seems like a potential unpicking of the headline.
  And the footage of the policeman with eyes being flushed does not = Acid attack to me.
  Looked about as pained as when I sweat and sunscreen runs into my eyes.
  I simply don’t trust the media, so can’t assume anything.
  The car footage was real though – and that person needed a thrashing to an inch of their lives.
  
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  February 22, 2022 2:35pm
  - Maggie Pie
    
    I see where Gilda is calling the vid of her friend FUBAR being arrested outside the toilets….
    
    “The Battle of Porta Loo”
    
    😀 😀 😀
    
    9 2
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    February 22, 2022 3:08pm
  - Mike
    
    No one ‘needs a thrashing’ from police officers. Violent protestors blocking city streets for two weeks do need to leave, or be removed, though. It would be no surprise if people obstructing police get injured in the process. More unfortunately, it’s likely that police officers will get injured too.
    
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    February 22, 2022 3:10pm
    - Don Beckett
      
      “Violent “protesters ???
      And did you say you went there to see for yourself??
      Funny……..you must have gone to the rare “fringe element” location.
      
      6 2
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      February 22, 2022 5:48pm
      - Mike
        
        I’ll drop the ‘violent’ adjective. So now you can agree with me that the protestors beed to clear off the streets, or be cleared off.
        
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        February 22, 2022 5:55pm
  - Hard Cheese
    
    “Human waste” would have originated from Ardern’s spin team and passed to reporters – it’s such a non-specific term it could mean anything pulled from a rubbish bin. If it actually was poo thrown at police, it would have been described as excrement or faeces. Using “human waste” is either a deliberate reporting of a Beehive sourced rumour designed to be ambiguous and implied to be excrement, and/or the facts can’t be corroborated because it didn’t happen.
    
    16 2
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    February 22, 2022 3:56pm
- cmm
  
  Technically, apple juice is and acid with a pH of around 3.5 (anything less than 7 is acidic).
  
  The major acid in apple juice is malic acid (C₄H₆O₅). Evil stuff when mixed with dihydrogen monoxide.
  
  The best lies are wrapped in a layer of truth.
  
  11 2
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  February 22, 2022 4:59pm
surfing

War in the Ukraine… I wasn’t sure if he would, but seems the bloodbath has begun.

Will we see a domino effect ? Anything is possible now, including nuclear war although that would be worst case scenario.

I wonder if Putin has some terminal condition, and he is just going out with a bang!
10 3
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February 22, 2022 1:28pm
- Batman
  
  His pre-prepared speech this morning was extremely dark and angry. Must unlike any of his previous speeches on the topic.
  
  It seems Biden was right that the decision to invade had already been made.
  
  Fingers crossed it doesn’t escalate into all-out war and Russia is routed quickly.
  
  Targeting such an invasion is exactly what the F-35 was designed for. Let’s hope Europe uses them wisely and quickly.
  
  6 21
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  February 22, 2022 1:50pm
  - Jack5
    
    Would-be conquerors of Russia: Napoleon, Hitler, ?Batman …
    
    16 3
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    February 22, 2022 3:33pm
- Mike
  
  Terminal paranoia and megalomania? Stalin is his role model, after all.
  
  4 4
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  February 22, 2022 3:11pm
Maggie Pie

The ‘NEW FACE’ of Auckland 🙁

https://twitter.com/efesocollins/status/1495872605366149130

Still nothing heard from Leo yet about the ‘Corporate-Cabs’ thing?
4 2
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February 22, 2022 1:38pm
Dougal10

Its a little funny that the very morning a new zealander with a bigger personal marketing budget and credibility than the pm arrives at the protest the media is only covering poo and police violence stories . Someone must have been watching Coutt’s and his travel plans closely .
20 3
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February 22, 2022 1:41pm
- MCōs
  
  He was probably still having a leisurely breakfast at the hotel when the police were confronting the more obnoxious faction of the peace loving protesters.
  
  3 7
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  February 22, 2022 3:09pm
  - westernScientest
    
    maybe enjoying a cuppa with old winnie
    
    5 1
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    February 22, 2022 5:00pm
I remember when

As David said, “Clinton,Trump and Russia.”
What Joffre did was wrong.
But, if anyone did deserve it – Donald Trump nearly did.
Well almost said.
3 3
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February 22, 2022 1:47pm
Russ the Muss

As Putin takes Ukraine one piece at a time I wonder how the Taiwanese authorities are feeling? The Australian military will also be running around Panicking given the weakness of the States. Our military? Not so much. More concerned about other vital Interests like diversity and lowering physical standards, following the police playback. Sleep safely at night people:)
8 3
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February 22, 2022 2:18pm
- In Vino Veritas
  
  The army has been losing people hand over fist since the beginning of the pandemic Russ. So there aren’t as many as there were to panic.
  
  6 1
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  February 22, 2022 5:08pm
Maggie Pie

TRENDING

Remember how our mothers used say…..

“Don’t let the dog lick your face because they lick their bums”

https://twitter.com/VahsiHayatlar/status/1495851369496039425
6 2
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February 22, 2022 2:20pm
BananaLlama

Any idea why our media have gone feral reporting utter lies about the protests now? are they liable for being sued when they just start making up bullshit stories about groups of people?
19 1
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February 22, 2022 2:50pm
cmm

PRiNZess says she’s concerned about the safety of cops at the protest.

Really? These cops are supposed to be trained to be tough enough to stand up to gangs, but they fall over if faced by almost entirely peaceful protesters?

Pull the other one Cindy!
27 2
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February 22, 2022 3:21pm
- krazykiwi
  
  She’s not concerned. She simply wants people to hear she’s concerned, and to do so through a haze of PR-spun fairy dust.
  
  But her magic is failing her, and the fawning masses have diminishing mass, and increasing animosity.
  
  4 1
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  February 22, 2022 7:54pm
rangitoto

Winnie has now turned up at the protest. Ever the opportunist.
15 0
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February 22, 2022 3:31pm
- Gravelroad
  
  What took him so long?
  And where is Mr Seeless?
  Hiding in a safe room in the Beehive?
  
  8 3
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  February 22, 2022 4:27pm
- emmess
  
  Is he going to apologise for putting Ardern into power?
  
  7 0
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  February 22, 2022 6:16pm
hullkiwi

PatrioticSolidarity

You say Putin and Lavrov (with the crook Lukashenko) are patriotic white slavics, what nonsense.
Tell that to ethnic Ukrainians, the people of Poland and other Slavic countries of the former Warsaw Pact that are now part of the EU or NATO. These countries want democracy and freedom, not the tyranny offered by Putin.

Part of my wife’s family is from Leipzig, and I have also travelled and worked with people from Russia & Eastern Europe.

1. GDR was a Communist dictator satellite of the Soviet Union, every bit a totalitarian & authoritarian state as ever Nazi Germany was;
2. There was never going to be any chance of democracy in East Germany;
3. Germany and German families were separated by the iron curtain. The only people wanting to retain East Germany were the Stazi, a handful of party apparatchics and Communist academics. The population wanted what the west could offer.

East Germany was so poor, that Germans were paying a reunification tax to finance the rebuilding of East Germany 20 years after reunification. Modern day West Germans resented this cost.

Are you telling us that East Europe wants the legacy of the past visited upon them?
13 0
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February 22, 2022 3:34pm
- RdM
  
  “The population wanted what the west could offer.”
  
  As an aside, you might enjoy the alternate history novel “Plan D”.
  You might find it in a local library.
  
  https://dublinliteraryaward.ie/books/plan-d/
  
  A crime thriller set in an alternate modern world where the Berlin Wall never fell.
  
  The author studied in Leipzig and elsewhere.
  
  4 0
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  February 22, 2022 5:25pm
- Jack5
  
  East Germany was a totalitarian backwater, as Hullkiwi says, but it’s worth remembering that British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher strongly opposed its reunification with West Germany.
  
  https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/state-papers-thatcher-opposed-german-reunification-after-collapse-of-berlin-wall-1.4119052
  
  AND
  
  https://www.ft.com/content/dd74c884-c6b1-11e6-9043-7e34c07b46ef
  
  6 1
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  February 22, 2022 5:44pm
- PatrioticSolidarityNow
  
  How about getting off your high horse & think this through. I was referring to the original homelands of Slavic peoples & Slavic cultures that sprang from those regions.
  
  Of course, none of the countries who found themselves under the soviet jackboot after WW2 weren’t to happy about it, which is initially why they lapped up all goodies the rockin in the free world west threw at them.
  
  Way back in the bars of 1989/90 Berlin the air was electric with discussions about such things & the pros & cons of the political state of play.
  
  You may have a wife with family from Leipzig (I remember the Monday night demos well) but this was nothing like being in front line Berlin at that time.
  
  I tend to play devils advocate, as I hate all forms of ideologically driven expansionism & the colonizing of minds, bodies & souls that result. The west is just as guilty of such things as the east, in fact even more so over the past few hundred years.
  
  The west won the cold war & has been hammering home its world dominating advantage ever since. These disrespectful moves have been at the expense of both Russia & China & now the bear & the dragon have woken up.
  
  Don’t get me wrong, the fall of the wall was a watershed moment in my life, which even to this day, I’m still trying to process. To be able to visit my friends in east Berlin & Prague without subterfuge & fear was extremely liberating.
  
  But 30 years on many things have changed, & strangely many people in the east are becoming nostalgic for the good things they lost.
  
  This is especially so in east Germany as not everything in the DDR was rotten. Many ossies feel like second class citizens in their own land. Of course for the post 89 generations this is not so prevalent.
  
  Many also now understand that the authoritarian rules & methods of maintaining social order & control in the west is not all sweetness & light. The big difference between our controlling, liberal western system & those of the former eastern communist block, is its a lot more subtle.
  
  Why do you think that Poland & Hungary have begun to resist being blackmailed & cajoled by an increasingly centralized & dictatorial overly liberal EU regime. They’ve finally realized that this kind of behavior is not that different to what they went through under communist domination.
  
  6 6
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  February 22, 2022 6:06pm
- RdM
  
  While I’m referring to fiction, which can create empathy when well told, I’ve just finished reading another novel which involves historical aspects of the Germans, Russians, and Ukraine partisans in WWII – the Kursk battle, the massacre at Yaremche and so on, involving a female Russian sniper in the plot.
  
  https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Snipers-Honor/Stephen-Hunter/9781451640236
  
  So the modern reported news narrative from the west at present is certainly worth examining and critiquing in light of other known history revealed.
  
  I was thinking of PatrioticSolidarityNow post at 3:07pm, where he wrote:
  
  Now let’s not mention that the Russians did most of the hand to hand grunt work in WW2 & payed a very high price for doing so. Oh yes, that’s right, the Nazi’s got a lot help from Ukrainian fascists in the eastern killing fields. Better no mention that either. History’s a dog, but well worth reflecting on in a balanced way.
  
  And my insights above, just from a cheap paperback … led me to think a bit more.
  
  And so it goes …
  
  2 1
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  February 22, 2022 6:46pm
MCōs

Tweet of the day, so far
https://twitter.com/infinite_ink/status/1495952653041680385?s=21
5 8
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February 22, 2022 4:07pm
- In Vino Veritas
  
  Nothing with that charlatan clown Peters in it can be tweet of the day. 150 years ago he would have had rotting fruit and veg thrown at him.
  
  3 3
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  February 22, 2022 5:06pm
Maggie Pie

TWITTER TRENDING

“NZ calls out Russia’s pretext for invasion of Ukraine as Tanks roll in”

~~~The look on Vlad’s face – PRICELESS ~~~ 😀

https://twitter.com/NewshubPolitics/status/1495955894449831938
8 2
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February 22, 2022 4:18pm
- westernScientest
  
  haha it looks like he is trying to work out what he is looking at…. The kind of look when you find something in the back of the fridge and your not sure if it is going to run away or not.
  
  6 1
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  February 22, 2022 4:24pm
- fightingtemeraire
  
  Saw the Maori Princess on TV 1. Has she got a breathing problem and her dress sense puts a bag lady to shame
  
  3 0
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  February 22, 2022 6:59pm
In Vino Veritas

It’s late in the day, and not many will read this, but the testing system is a joke. My oldest daughter had gone on a bit of a road trip up north with her boyfriend and called my wife on Saturday. She’d gone out for dinner with friends on Friday night, and one was now Covid positive. So, she and her boyfriend did the right thing, and got tested in Dargaville Saturday morning. The lady there told her that they were run off their feet, though daughter reported no one else there! They carried on to the remote bach they were staying at, beginning their isolation. They came back here on Monday night, and are now isolating in a self contained part of our house. Both are Uni students, and neither could work. This afternoon, they got a text, saying their samples had arrived to be tested, and should be completed in 72 hours. Tested Saturday morning, 3 days to get to where they should to be tested and 3 MORE fucking days to get a result. 6 bloody days. How inept is this system?
19 2
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February 22, 2022 5:03pm
- Lipo
  
  I am buggered why anyone would get tested any way. What is the point? If you don’t know you have a life threating condition without getting tested then there is something wrong with your self diagnosis. Everything else is just background noise
  
  8 1
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  February 22, 2022 6:46pm
  - krazykiwi
    
    Agreed. It is all theatre. Playing along legitimises the failed construct.
    
    5 1
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    February 22, 2022 7:48pm
greybeard

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/127836014/theories-abound-about-identity-of-mysterious-tim-at-centre-of-miq-proposal
It’s Auckland.
It is probably a Tom who is chasing Tim.
5 1
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February 22, 2022 5:06pm
nathie

Ouch, Luxon just got “chewed up” by the “Princess of Kindness”, or was that “Kindergarten”? //

Meanwhile Winston tours the “rivers of filth” (as described by Labour) and ends up with having selfies taken with him!

There must be lots of stompy feet jumping up and down in the Beehive in total frustration?!!

Must be time to fire up the Duck?
24 2
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February 22, 2022 5:08pm
- MCōs
  
  I wouldn’t think for a moment Labour, National, Greens or the Maori Party are in the slightest bit concerned that Winston & the leader of Sensible Sentencing are campaigning for votes down there.
  ACT, New Conservatives, Vision NZ & the Matt King Party got some catching up to do.
  
  5 4
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  February 22, 2022 6:22pm
Mike

I think Winston Peters, Russell Coutts, Colin Craig and Kim Dotcom are now discussing the launch of a new political party.
2 10
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February 22, 2022 6:00pm
Jimmy Brown

[Deleted – try again without the casual racism. mod.]
0 1
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February 22, 2022 6:24pm
wilderbeast

When the MSM and government are so thin skinned and hysterical about anyone who has the gumption to question “the narrative” it makes me wonder just how deep and dastardly the agenda actually is…..reading earlier posts for example, what do Kanoa, Jesse Mulligan, Matthew Tutaki and the likes REALLY want to happen…?
8 1
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February 22, 2022 7:55pm
Inthe09

3 Waters position on Seek ($200k pa plus of course…)

https://www.seek.co.nz/job/56022716?type=promoted#sol=7bb6ca2d5ef93d85d3ea750e20c98286732a212a

One of dozens no doubt. Good grief.
5 0
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February 22, 2022 8:23pm
nathie

Police helmets, full riot shields and batons – not seen since the 1981 Springbok tour?

If so, welcome to life in 2022 under a Labour government and all because Labour refuse to follow the advice of experts which is to negotiate with protesters!

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/covid-19-omicron-outbreak-parliament-protest-police-appalled-after-violent-scenes-three-injured/6Q4JPMD7OXHRARAJKV67DERSYA/
5 0
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February 22, 2022 8:30pm
- Ian Boag
  
  batons ??????
  
  1 5
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  February 22, 2022 8:34pm
In Vino Veritas

I can’t for the life of me think who this might be. Any ideas people?

[From your link … Both men appeared in the Rotorua District Court and were granted interim name suppression.]

[Do you understand what name suppression means? Any naming of alleged perps here will get referred to the Police, and most likely receive a life ban on KiwiBlog. mod.]

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/operation-trojan-shield-well-known-kiwi-entertainer-charged-with-6m-money-laundering-conspiracy/VEHEV4OWPRK4KMJXG7VQF37UVY/?fbclid=IwAR19pLyiyWN4K8cAsG3jHOGQaAfqNl04ThhjGlwUOSVeD3rOXBuafdNts4k
0 2
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February 22, 2022 8:31pm
- In Vino Veritas
  
  Hello moderator,
  Firstly, I did edit the “Any ideas” out, but it appears not to have changed. The reason I edited it was because at second glance, it could be construed as inviting people to comment on the blog. The intent was to have everyone think about it.
  Secondly, yes, I am intimately aware of what name suppression means.
  And thirdly, I had no intention of naming anyone, else it would have been done in the post.
  I guess we will see what tomorrow brings.
  
  3 1
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  February 22, 2022 10:18pm

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