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March 26, 2022 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 26 March 2022

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General Debate

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Mr_Blobby

I’m wondering what the tyrant and her circus have planned for us next.

One thing is for sure, they will want more power and relevance to push through their ideology.

We’ve seen the kindness and the pettiness, what next.
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March 26, 2022 8:18am
- Loddenthinks
  
  Mask mandates throughout winter, mandatory flu vaccination for all, maintaining the Traffic Light system “just in case it’s needed” and more money to prop(aganda) up the MSM.
  
  Rampant inflation, collapsing housing market, economic disaster, unprecedented division in NZ society and decades of debt.
  
  Did I miss anything?
  
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  March 26, 2022 11:41am
  - Cinematic
    
    Your list looks pretty complete. Of all their destruction the active division of our society by vaccination status, ethnicity and race is the most disgraceful.
    
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    March 26, 2022 12:05pm
  - Jim
    
    Yep you missed a biggie: apartheid.
    
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    March 26, 2022 12:09pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Travel exemptions for anyone coming to the wedding
    
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    March 26, 2022 1:33pm
    - Harriet
      
      Who’s exactly coming now?
      
      The Comrade in Chief of the Royal New Zealand Army has quietly changed sides in the war. 😎
      
      .
      
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      March 26, 2022 2:41pm
- Justitia
  
  Let’s have a look at Jacinda’s globalist UN agenda:
  
  Divide the country by Medical Status – achieved.
  Divide the country by race – well underway.
  Deindustrialize – oil and gas exploration banned, refinery gone, steel industry on its knees, aluminium smelter on a leash.
  Lay waste to agriculture in the name of climate change – just getting started.
  
  There’s your answer.
  
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  March 26, 2022 1:23pm
- cjn
  
  Mr Blobby: Ramping up the NZ Pilot Project for the World Economic Forum “Reimagining Regulation for the Age of AI” according to the Daily Sceptic 2022/03/04 thread on the article NZ Axes Vaccine Passports.
  
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  March 26, 2022 2:28pm
Souvlaki

Quite a good synopsis by Amy Brooke oo the state of things in ” Aotearoa” in todays Spectator.

https://spectator.com.au/2022/03/jacinda-ardern-on-the-way-out-but-crowing/
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March 26, 2022 8:19am
- krazykiwi
  
  Amy is, as expected, on target.
  
  The TL;DR version is this: Ardern has devastated our country like no PM prior, and there is little sign that a National government, under Christopher Luxon, is intellectually equipped to tackle Ardern’s destructive elevation of tribalism and identity politics.
  
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  March 26, 2022 8:28am
  - Benedict Yu
    
    Yes it is quite depressing. BTW the journalist is incorrect on this….
    
    “That National plans to rescind the Ardern government’s extraordinary ban on oil and gas exploration is excellent news.”
    
    It won’t make any difference. New Zealand will now be seen as a permanent risk. There are plenty of other places to prospect for oil and gas.
    
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    March 26, 2022 8:34am
    - Master Mariner
      
      Yes indeed, NZ is now known as politically unstable to invest Millions for research by Oil Majors.
      
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      March 26, 2022 8:45am
      - gravedodger
        
        When the morons wake up and rediscover that hydro carbons are what has got us here and will likely power us into a future, unless they flip flop again and embrace modern nuclear generation of energy, they can create Kiwioil, what could possibly go wrong?
        
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        March 26, 2022 10:37am
    - Ra Henare
      
      If Oil and Gas is extracted from someplace else.!
      Then perhaps our Oil & Gas could be thought of as “land banking”
      At some stage in the future, the political risk will have diminished against the desire for more fossil fuels.
      Might take a decade or two.
      But it is positive looking forward
      
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      March 26, 2022 9:07am
      - mikenmildagain
        
        It might well be the case in the future that hydrocarbons are sought after for more useful reasons than burning them.
        
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        March 26, 2022 9:57am
      - kowtow
        
        Huge, known and accessible quantities of coal.
        
        Great asset .
        
        Now use it.
        
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        March 26, 2022 10:27am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      If it is rescinded it will provide employment for many. But that will mean work, a four letter word.
      Far too many have been programmed to be welfare dependent
      
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      March 26, 2022 9:11am
    - virtualmark
      
      New Zealand has long been a pass for the big oil majors.
      
      New Zealand fields tend to be gas rich and oil light. Basically, lots of short-chain hydrocarbons and little of the long-chain ones. Oil majors prefer … oil. It’s in their name. They prefer to prospect for large oil-rich fields.
      
      More likely that if the Nat’s reverse the ban then it will just allow the existing players (basically OMV now) to continue small-scale work around their existing operations. But don’t expect a sudden boom of drilling rigs sailing over the horizon from BP, Shell etc.
      
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      March 26, 2022 9:51am
      - NeverMindTheBollocks
        
        Gas is great. It’s terrific for peaking electricity generation, enables methanol & urea to be produced & exported or consumed locally, is wonderful for cooking & house heating, replaces coal burning (if you’re concerned about climate change), assists with national energy security & is an all round good-guy. Go gas!
        
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        March 26, 2022 10:45am
      - All_on_Red
        
        We should be going after the Gas
        
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        March 26, 2022 11:39am
      - virtualmark
        
        Not saying gas isn’t great.
        
        But it’s not attractive to the oil majors *unless* it’s a really huge field that’s either (a) in a country with a big population who you can sell it to, or (b) is a big enough field to justify the cost of an LNG plant.
        
        NZ has had one really big field by world standards (Maui) but since then it’s been mid-sized fields that are (a) uncomfortably too big for the small local economy but (b) too small to justify the investment in liquefying.
        
        So you’ve seen Shell leave, and only tentative efforts by other majors.
        
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        March 26, 2022 12:06pm
      - Taieri
        
        New Zealand fields tend to be gas rich and oil light. Basically, lots of short-chain hydrocarbons and little of the long-chain ones.
        ————
        
        Very extensive seismic surveys in the Great South Basin in 2005 indicated the presence of commercial quantities of oil but very little gas. Same for the seismic surveys of East Cape. At the time, the price of oil was too low for development.
        
        Oil majors prefer … oil. It’s in their name. They prefer to prospect for large oil-rich fields.
        ————
        
        Not quite. Virtually all current developments in Australia are based on LNG.
        
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        March 26, 2022 3:23pm
    - Loddenthinks
      
      She’s also incorrect in referring to “This Labour coalition’s tenure….” as it’s not a coalition but an absolute majority.
      
      I wonder how those predominantly rural erstwhile National voters who switched to Labour in the hope it would protect them from the Greens’ “extreme” policies are feeling now?
      
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      March 26, 2022 12:03pm
  - Lee C
    
    This raises some questions, pre-election.
    If Luxon is essentially ‘nice, but dim’ how are the minor parties going to get a say?
    Watching Chantelle Baker the other day, she made the point that many of the smaller politicians are too separated to make an electoral impact – wouldn’t it be great for some kind of alliance to be formed, between those smaller parties and take this to a national level based on shared agreed interests?
    
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    March 26, 2022 8:49am
    - Benedict Yu
      
      Who would ACT form an alliance with?
      
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      March 26, 2022 8:52am
      - Brian McDonald
        
        Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
        Asian midgets. You could be the leader Benedict surrounded by red-haired women with security and disciplinary procedures for naughty boys.
        
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        March 26, 2022 9:13am
    - mikenmildagain
      
      Ask New Labour, the Greens, Social Credit, the Liberals and Mana Motuhake how their alliance worked out for them.
      
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      March 26, 2022 9:24am
      - Suze Wainwright
        
        The Alliance? Ah yes, the Tom & Jerry Party – they bring back fond memories…
        
        (How many Parties was it that left Jim Anderton again?)
        
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        March 26, 2022 9:48am
    - Tom Hunter
      
      If Luxon is essentially ‘nice, but dim’…
      
      I think the original article was poorly worded on this. From what I’ve seen Luxon is quite bright in terms of being able to keep complexities in his head and speak to them off the cuff.
      
      What I think she means is that Luxon is not a deep thinker about any of this, something he has in common with the rest of National and almost every other “centre-right” party in the West.
      
      Which is to say that he treats everything as a utilitarian exercise in “making things work” without ever recognising the underlying change in society that is being wrought by the originators of a policy – and is intended to do so.
      
      This sounds familiar:
      
      So you see a repeating pattern to American politics: There isn’t a true back-and-forth. Instead, Democrats change the country a lot while they’re in power. Then Republicans hold power and push the pause button. There’s no rollback that a new executive order can’t undo.
      
      Maybe they cut taxes; bring back the Mexico City policy; junk a regulation that Democrats created but didn’t manage to implement; but that’s about it. When was the last time Republicans passed a huge law — one that changed America forever the way Democrats do every time they hold serve in American politics? You don’t see it.
      
      Or perhaps some Advice from the peanut gallery:
      
      The result of this style of accommodationist politics, as my colleague Keith Joseph complained, was that post-war politics became a ‘socialist ratchet’ — Labour moved Britain towards more statism; the Tories stood pat; and the next Labour Government moved the country a little further left. The Tories loosened the corset of socialism; they never removed it.
      
      Both her and Reagan were labeled by their intra-party opponents as dangerous radicals and extremists – funnily enough the same labels applied to them by their overtly left-wing opponents.
      
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      March 26, 2022 9:26am
      - mikenmildagain
        
        Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
        More goddam link-whoring, Tom?
        And do you really believe your beloved GOP is not doing whatever it can to ‘roll back’ the US’s faltering steps towards becoming a liberal democracy?
        
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        March 26, 2022 10:00am
      - Stellaboxer
        
        There are no leaders at the moment who are capable of halting the present BS because none of them especially Luxon actually understand what they are up against. The fight against it was required after the fall of the Soviet Union but instead the West congratulated itself on winning the Cold War and commenced ruthlessly exploiting the former East Block. Politicians in the western democracies who are not left of centre seem to me to have only economic policy and no real ideological stand point or principles. As we have witnessed here they are quite prepared to go along with tyranny if they think it’s popular and far too timid to make a stand on principle if they think it will go against the prevailing hysteria. The damage is done the march through the institutions complete. Only a broad counter revolution can turn the tide and that means going through the public service sector, media and universities with a scythe. Anyone think Luxon even grasps that let alone capable of overseeing it? IMHO. Victory was a very dangerous opportunity missed and misunderstood.
        
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        March 26, 2022 10:28am
    - virtualmark
      
      Mate, knowing Chantelle Baker … if you think she’s smart but Luxon is dim … man, you need to get out more.
      
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      March 26, 2022 9:59am
      - Lee C
        
        Not really. I’d love to know her, but that aside…
        
        I thought she made a good point and the remark about Luxon was in reference to the lack of intellectual firepower in National suggested by the original article.
        
        Meanwhile I stillwould pesonally love to see a coalition of like-minded politicians have a go next election.
        
        Neither Luxon or Ardern appeal to this voter.
        
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        March 26, 2022 2:51pm
- Benedict Yu
  
  Just a post script… In reading New Zealand history, I never thought I would see a modern New Zealand PM who was worse. I was quite mistaken. Muldoon had many stupid policies, but they could be quickly reversed, as they were. And as a consolation, he did leave New Zealand with assets like hydro dams.
  
  When Jacinda goes, she will leave nothing but economic and societal destruction.
  
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  March 26, 2022 8:39am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Without those dams, where would Electric cars stand?
    
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    March 26, 2022 8:42am
    - I remember when
      
      When is reality going to strike the EV world.
      The bit where they have to start paying their share of the costs of motoring.
      
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      March 26, 2022 9:08am
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        Already subsidising the bastard with Ute penalties.
        I put EV owners in the same category as cyclists (road lice)
        Freeloaders
        
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        March 26, 2022 2:59pm
      - Jim
        
        Yep the Ute tax is ridiculous green gouging as there is no substitute. However, you simply can’t blame the EV owners, it’s a temporary government policy, and anyone can exploit it whilst it lasts.
        
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        March 26, 2022 3:16pm
    - pdm
      
      Immobile Steve.
      
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      March 26, 2022 9:10am
    - G152
      
      In the car parks where they ran out of power 🙂
      
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      March 26, 2022 10:08am
  - Nickc2
    
    Ah but will we ever be able to rid ourselves of the woke brigade she leaves behind and what will it take to rewrite our history post its racial rewrite?
    
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    March 26, 2022 8:46am
  - Rodney Hide
    
    Hi Benedict
    
    I hope you and other commenters don’t mind me always jumping on your comments. I find your observations particulating stimulating and the only debate left in NZ is kiwiblog. It is certainly not in the media or parliament.
    
    I think it is much worse. It’s not just bad policy and economic ruin. Back in the 1980s rational debate was the standard that the fourth labour government largely applied and which voters and journalists could respond to.
    
    But that was New Zealand. We are in a country called Aotearoa now where reason and facts don’t apply. The thinking is abusive, bullying and violent. It is totalitarian.
    
    Look what happens to those who attempt to criticise with facts and reason.
    
    I don’t know how good policy gets developed, and bad policy reversed, in such an environment.
    
    I suspect that is why National and Act only nibble at the edges. They want to win and believe they can’t afford to challenge the dominant “narrative”.
    
    I have some sympathy for them. I well remember struggling trying to argue against our madcap climate changs policies. You end up just being endlessly abused as being anti science or in the pay of big oil or some such nonsense.
    
    It’s not happened over night but around the world the loss of the values that underpin civilised living has been precipitous as if it hit a critcal point and we have tipped over the edge.
    
    Bad thinking has driven out the good.
    
    Thank God for kiwiblog!
    
    Rodney Hide
    
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    March 26, 2022 9:15am
    - mikenmildagain
      
      Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
      I feel a bit sorry for Rodney Hide. His nostalgia for the good old days of ‘rational debate’ reminds me of even older people who pine for New Zealand to be as it was in the 1940s or 1950s, but are left in despair at the march of modernity.
      
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      March 26, 2022 9:28am
      - Benedict Yu
        
        What a stupid comment.
        
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        March 26, 2022 9:58am
      - Tom Hunter
        
        What a stupid comment.
        
        @Benedict
        You should understand that it’s more of a shit-posting troll comment. Mikenmild, as he has often said, is here merely to entertain himself and he has total contempt for the commentariat.
        
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        March 26, 2022 10:18am
      - Suze Wainwright
        
        I’m with you mike – I just can’t wait until I live in a nation where I’m told how to live and what to do by politicians the caliber of James Shaw & Marama Davidson. The thought of it gives me hysteria…
        
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        March 26, 2022 10:20am
      - kowtow
        
        The march of modernity a euphemism for the Long March through the Institutions.
        
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        March 26, 2022 10:32am
      - I remember when
        
        ‘The march of modernity.’
        My motor vehicle insurance company has no branch offices now.
        If I ring many businesses now I am able to either listen to music on a loop, all the time being reminded that my business is important to them and exposed to numerous ad breaks.
        Or, they will ring me back me at a time that suits them, because my business is important to them.
        At present I am having some changes done that involves the use of a sub-contractor.
        If I don’t like what has been done I can contact the disputes body who’s online address is supplied.
        Nostalgia is a dream world.
        
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        March 26, 2022 11:07am
      - Mike
        
        Tom is right, Benedict. Kiwiblog is not a place for reasoned, reasonable argument. It’s just ‘happy mischuef’
        
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        March 26, 2022 11:40am
      - Loddenthinks
        
        @BY: I think you meant to say “what a milky comment” – saves one keystroke and means the exact same thing.
        
        Follow me for more labour-saving tips 🙂
        
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        March 26, 2022 11:51am
      - Rodney Hide
        
        Hi Mike
        
        I see you had another clumsy attempt to denigrate below. I respond not for your benefit because you are incapable of reasoned debate but for my benefit and perhaps some other readers may appreciate it.
        
        Of course, societies change. And of course knowledge grows. But thete is an objective world and while our understanding can grow and change the objective world does not.
        
        There is truth and there is right and wrong and they are not social constructs.
        
        Rodney
        
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        March 26, 2022 12:04pm
      - Bridgenag
        
        Never read them just automatically downtick
        
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        March 26, 2022 12:19pm
      - Mike
        
        Well I just hope that it is of some comfort to you to be able to define truth, right and wrong so confidently across the whole gamut of human affairs. Some people prefer the certainty of doubt ovrt the confidence of zealotry.
        
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        March 26, 2022 12:28pm
    - Matt Long
      
      I always enjoy your input Rodney, Maggie W posted this yesterday https://rachelstewart.substack.com/p/cows-and-cowards?s=w which illustrates the power of cancel culture today.
      
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      March 26, 2022 9:37am
    - pdm
      
      Hey Rodney there is often some good stuff over at No Minister and Homepaddock is always excellent -both without the extensive debate one sees at Kiwiblog.
      
      Dare I say – broaden your horizons and have a look. lol.
      
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      March 26, 2022 9:49am
      - Rodney Hide
        
        Oh PDM
        
        I am over there most days. Thank you!
        
        I also am a regular reader of herald, stuff, the daily blog and the standard.
        
        I even study mikemildagain’s comments. I see he says above that the “march of modernity” has superseded “rational debate” (Mike’s quotes). He rather proves my point.
        
        For him history is an inevitable ride along railway tracks with enlightenment values just a station on the way.
        
        The complete destruction of his view is found in “The Poverty of Historicism” but having moved on from “rational debate” Mike is incapable of learning and knowing anything. He is incapable of the humility that comes with knowing that we are amusing ourselves with a prettier shell or smoother pebble “while the great ocean of truth lies undiscovered” before us.
        
        Rodney
        
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        March 26, 2022 10:16am
      - mikenmildagain
        
        You have completely missed the point, Rodney. Perhaps the ‘march of modernity’ was a clumsy way of pointing to the inevitability of change in the world and human society.
        Conservative attempts to preserve, or return to, the ‘good old days’, always fail in the long run. I feel a bit sorry for you if you haven’t moved on from Hayek, but perhaps you are one of those poor individuals who read Atlas Shrugged, imagined it could provide the philosophical basis for a brave new world, or even imagined that he (it’s almost always a he), could play the part of the heroic engineer.
        
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        March 26, 2022 11:25am
    - 70andstilllearning
      
      “I suspect that is why National and Act only nibble at the edges. They want to win and believe they can’t afford to challenge the dominant “narrative”.”
      
      Not that it’s likely to (or should) bother you but thoughts of that nature can earn you some grief without any debate – even around here. Been pondering this and one possible reason is that we live in an era of impatience – announcements are needed, and they must happen now, even though no action can be taken on them for at least 18 months. One way around it is, of course ,to announce the intent of a future announcement, followed by a further pre-announcement and eventually provide an announcement that something will happen in the distant future. Does that work? – somehow I don’t think so – it simple generates cynicism and people move on as there is no immediate action. It’s an “old” saying but maybe patience is indeed a virtue.
      
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      March 26, 2022 10:09am
    - emmess
      
      Rodney, it was a bit harder to argue against the prevailing narrative, ten or fifteen years ago.
      But these days when they throw the predictable anti-science slur at you, all you need to do is ask back, can you define the word ‘woman’?
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3Jmv0vZvJ4
      
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      March 26, 2022 10:30am
    - blue collar
      
      The only strong leader to stand up to the woke brigade and corrupt media was trump .
      
      The litmus test on the populations take will be 2024 .
      
      Unless the dems steal it again
      
      We don’t hv a trump . Only winston Peters can hammer the media and Maori and get away with it , and he isn’t broadly popular
      
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      March 26, 2022 10:34am
    - John Pakes
      
      Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
      What! Debate! On Kiwiblog!
      Goodness me, that could not be further from the truth.
      The best description that I have heard from others is that this blog is like a bunch of rabbits standing in a circle looking in at each other saying things that they agree with and nodding approval.
      
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      March 26, 2022 11:12am
      - leoj
        
        Yet you participate……..
        I suppose the Manawatu Standard forums are frequented not by rabbits but headless chooks.
        
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        March 26, 2022 11:29am
      - Captain Mainwaring
        
        Sorry fumble fingers. Hit up instead of down.
        
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        March 26, 2022 11:46am
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        Doesn’t look like you are getting many nods at the moment, John…. or haven’t you joined our little circle?
        
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        March 26, 2022 12:14pm
      - Stellaboxer
        
        Why are you on here then Pakes?
        
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        March 26, 2022 1:09pm
    - leoj
      
      A fragmented media makes it virtually impossible to change the current creeping leftward narrative, most of which starts with the disgraceful education system and ultimately promoted by left-leaning, never-lived-in-the-real-world university professors.
      
      The 1972-5 Labour Govt was destroyed by one advertisement which showed dancing cossacks, that communism was at the heart of the Labour party.
      
      If ACT and their supporting party, National, can find such a turning point, the country has a chance of reclaiming what was once a great nation that is being destroyed by moronic Labour/Greens.
      
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      March 26, 2022 11:23am
      - Ian Boag
        
        dancing cossacks
        
        The user-pays Labour scheme had just started up. Muldoon said he would refund all the user contributions to date plus all the employer contributions (not to the employer of course) plus he would start paying (from general tax) a pretty generous scheme from age 60. To a generation that had never “been paying into it”.
        
        What was not to like? Handout/bribe of the century. Almost 50 years later as the ongoing cost starts to look a bit hard, no way to reverse it.
        
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        December 26, 2020 6:15pm
      - Stellaboxer
        
        leoj Agreed a poster campaign with various broken promises lies and flip flops plastered across the country may do the trick and bypass the media completely. If we all agree that the media are in the pockets of Ardern why use it or worry about what it says?
        
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        March 26, 2022 1:12pm
      - MCōs
        
        The dancing Cossacks ad was an attack on a user pays superannuation scheme the Labour government had recently introduced.
        In its place the Nats, led by the self proclaimed financial genius, Muldoon, wanted to replace it with a far more generous version of the National Superannuation we have today entirely funded by other taxpayers.
        User pays v state funded
        Now tell me which was closer to communism?
        Furthermore
        It proved so expensive even those of us on not particularly flash incomes were paying over 60% marginal tax.
        
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        March 26, 2022 4:07pm
    - Jim
      
      When distilled right down, today’s world is a pure battle between ‘corporate globalist’ elites and the ‘patriotic nationalist’ populists. Sadly the former holds the power base and influences every facet of our lives to weaken social cohesion and drive their utopian agenda……but remember: you’ll own nothing but be happy.
      
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      March 26, 2022 3:27pm
  - Drone
    
    Not true @BY, she will have left a change to the history curriculum.
    
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    March 26, 2022 4:12pm
- artemisia
  
  From eugyppius: a plague chronicle this day, a wider look at the future of ‘Chronic Corona’. Speculation to be sure, but educated speculation. Sounds familiar? And seriously worrying for what was once a liberal democracy?
  
  Chronic Corona, because while all the specific energies SARS-2 called forth have exhausted themselves, the broader structures responsible for all of this remain not only intact, but strengthened, even optimised, for a second act. It seems to me we’ve entered an uncertain interwar period; immediate capacity for action is exhausted, but the deeper, driving problems remain unresolved.
  
  There will be no repudiation of lockdowns, masking, and vaccine coercion for a generation or more. Millions of people across the world will now demand their governments respond in this way to every future pandemic threat. The institutional framework and legal understandings necessary to satisfy this demand is in place everywhere.
  
  https://www.eugyppius.com/p/the-end-of-corona?s=r
  
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  March 26, 2022 8:46am
- Tomtoddy
  
  I am not as optimistic as some about the early demise of Ardern. Amy Brooke and many contributors in here fall into the trap of thinking that most voters are rational thinkers capable of figuring out how bad Labour has been and what needs to be done.
  
  That may have been the case in the past. The voters tipped Muldoon but it needed Bob Jones to make even that happen. I believe voters are much more emotively driven today. Feelings and fears motivate them. The way voters, particularly females fell for Arderns “kindness” claptrap and “team of 5 million” ploys scared me.
  
  Facts and logic are much less in play in this era. We are going to see a massive campaign around “I saved Kiwis” and “I saved you from Covid now I can save you from inflation, crime, etc” The same voters who swallowed that nonsense last election are capable of swallowing it again.
  
  Luxon and co have a huge task and have yet to show they are up to it.
  
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  March 26, 2022 9:15am
  - ClanMcleod
    
    Tomtoddy – exactly. How long now have the two main parties been more concerned with winning “the middle” via focus groups and polling? When was the last time a political party campaigned on policies that reflect their own beliefs? What happened to standing on principles, what you actually believe in, and letting people decide if they are good policies for themselves?
    Instead everything seems to be about the focus groups and what they “think”. This is as bad as pandemic policy being based on models. It isn’t real world. It’s theoretical and manipulative, and just like covid policy, not in a good way.
    Everyone seems to be driven by “likes” and terrified to stand up as an individual and speak out. The ACT and National response to Ardern’s insane covid policies is a prime example. They scratch around the edges looking for small points of difference instead of doing what most of us know is right. Calling the whole thing out as the bullshit that it obviously is.
    Seymour is making some noises in the right direction, but he lost any credibility he gained by calling for mandates and passes to be gone by stating that masks are still a good thing. They aren’t. The science is absolutely clear on this, and the fact that a leader of a political party trying to gain traction and gain some element of power in government doesn’t know this is very concerning.
    
    Grow a spine please.
    
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    March 26, 2022 9:49am
    - Rodion Raskolnikov
      
      Pandering to “The Middle” is a recipe for disaster. By implication, it means watering-down the wants and expectations of your existing constituency. Imagine if a pilot let his passengers decide the best way to a given destination: the plane would probably fly around in circles and eventually run out or gas. A bit like what has happened to New Zealand through years of pandering to people who don’t have a clue.
      
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      March 26, 2022 11:57am
    - leoj
      
      The Nats have adopted the exact opposite of “Be Bold, Be Brave.”
      
      Now, it’s “stick a finger in the air, see which way the wind is blowing.”
      
      Luxon is a master if just that. Weak, woke and wet.
      
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      March 26, 2022 12:56pm
  - kowtow
    
    So called mainstream politicians who self identify as centre right seem very afraid of upsetting the horses . I suspect they follow the advise that you win in the so called centre.
    But left wing politicians have no problem meanwhile driving their extreme aganda , dressed up as concern for minorities , race gender environment , whatever . And sadly the so called centre right have joined that.
    
    What’s needed is some guts , a disruptor .
    
    Think Farage and Brexit and Trump’s initial successes .
    
    Trump was so successful and such a beacon of freedom , that big business ( particularly tech) colluded with the far left to unseat him.
    
    What does that tell ya .
    
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    March 26, 2022 10:39am
  - Tom Hunter
    
    Well as I put it in The Precious Midpoint:
    
    It’s a truism of politics that you win the centre to gain and hold political power.
    
    But there’s a difference between acting on that and worshipping it as a religious principle that requires politicians to do nothing but sniff the winds and bend accordingly to what they detect.
    
    Politicians and political parties that do that are doomed to accomplish nothing in power beyond managing the status quo until they tire and are voted out in favour of the next new, shiny thing.
    
    Now that we’ve experienced Jacinda I wonder what Labour’s new shiny thing will be circa late 2020’s? Surely the trope of Youthful-Telegenic Woman-With-Baby-And-Cool-Edgy-Partner will be passe by then?
    
    A trans-woman perhaps? How will National match that excitement?
    
    That approach just won’t cut it anymore with Centre-Right parties. Real, practical solutions based around giving incentives to individuals – in education, healthcare and other areas – are what is required. Certainly not something that “‘we’, the clever ones, are going to impose upon ‘them’, the Lower Orders“, from the hearts of wealthy suburbs sporting myriad electric cars.
    
    The midpoint is there to be moved, not just accommodated while others move it.
    
    Just as important is that all this needs to be backed by a willingness to fight with the likes of Tova-Jessica, Jessica-Tova, John Campbell and others when they use their usual emotional bullshit arguments in opposition.
    
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    March 26, 2022 12:48pm
  - chukar
    
    TT ,
    Hugely difficult in this day and age.
    Half the politicians are appointed so any good ideas are nigh on impossible to implement.The reverse is true as well ,bad policies are almost impossible to get rid of,
    Thanks MMP!.
    
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    March 26, 2022 7:01pm
Scott

Watched the TV 1 news last night and reporting about Ukraine. Simon Dallow talked about Joe Biden in a confident tone as if Joe was on the case and everything would be alright.

Can they not see Biden is an old man who barely knows what day it is? That under his watch Putin invaded Ukraine, China is expanding into the Solomon Islands and also threatening Taiwan. That North Korea is testing missiles again and Iran is building nuclear weapons.

Biden is very weak and everyone knows it. Except for Simon Dallow and every other newsreader. They are all now spokespeople for the Democrat party and the Labour Party and every party of the left.

What else but ideology can explain their confidence in Biden, whose main job should really be organising the happy hour on Friday night at the rest home?
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March 26, 2022 8:20am
- kevn
  
  @Scott… They (msm) have just sold their souls, that’s all.
  
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  March 26, 2022 9:53am
- virtualmark
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  Scott, have you not noticed the Western alliances uniting to pose stinging sanctions on Russia? And to arm Ukraine with Western weapons that are taking a massive toll on the Russians?
  
  Who do you think pulled that together? Do you think that’s happened despite Biden, or because of Biden?
  
  Do you really think that Trump would have done that? Presumably while simultaneously pulling the US out of NATO and calling Putin a genius?
  
  Maybe it’s your ideology that’s out of whack with the real world. (Hint: It *is* your ideology that is out of whack with the real world).
  
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  March 26, 2022 9:57am
  - emmess
    
    Ukraine would not have been invaded under Trump.
    And we all know it.
    
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    March 26, 2022 10:31am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      One of Trump’s quotes explains how he thinks (paraphrased)
      “You don’t have to like someone to respect them, and with that respect, you gain respect in return”
      
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      March 26, 2022 2:00pm
  - All_on_Red
    
    The West went ahead and united because they could see Biden is hopeless. They acted despite of him.
    In fact its been obvious for sometime Western leaders have no respect for Biden and recognise he is incompetent. Just look at how they relate to him. Macron was scolding him like you would a child.
    Did you see Kamala Harris’s performance? My god, what a fuckwit. She’s cringeworthy.
    As for Trump, Germany is now increasing its Defense Budget as he asked them too. Its seems prescient of Trump that he was the one who put Patriot Missiles in Estonia and also sent a full Armoured Brigade to Poland during his Term.
    That has now been increased with a Para Battalion.
    Trump also started giving Ukraine Stingers.
    I guess you think that Putin never invaded during Trump because Trump was….something…
    More like Trump kept him on edge.
    Have to say , though, amazing display of unity from Europe against Putin.
    Perhaps Biden being a corrupt senile old fool is good!
    
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    March 26, 2022 10:45am
    - virtualmark
      
      Whatever keeps you warm at night Red.
      
      Here’s a job for you … go and find Trump’s meanest ever quote about Putin. Let’s face it, Trump *loves* insulting people. So find me Trump’s meanest most insulting statement about Putin.
      
      Then you can tell me more about how Trump kept Putin on edge.
      
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      March 26, 2022 10:59am
      - Rodion Raskolnikov
        
        Why would Trump not be conciliatory towards Putin? What is to be gained by the American people from such a belligerent approach towards Russia? The adult approach is forging sound relations with other nuclear armed nations, not fomenting unnecessary hostilities over strategically irrelevant areas of the world, that result in huge economic fallout and even getting us all killed. To what end?
        
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        March 26, 2022 12:05pm
      - All_on_Red
        
        Lol
        Nice rebuttal of my facts…
        Go and find some evidence about Trump first!
        Hilarious- soon, one day, maybe, we know its coming, its gonna happen.
        So funny.
        And only a moron would think it smart to troll people like Putin or Xie. Or that it was good diplomacy.
        
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        March 26, 2022 1:31pm
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      re: Germany. At a Whitehouse meeting didn’t Trump hand Merkel an envelope containing an invoice for USA defence of Germany?
      
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      March 26, 2022 2:03pm
  - Zero Kindness
    
    IMO Putin would not have invaded Ukraine if Trump was still POTUS.
    If Biden and the globalist elites are indeed real world ideology then this is out of whack with sanity.
    We don’t need wars, we need open debate and less vitriol.
    Biden appears to still be his war mongering self, the leopard has not changed his spots.
    
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    March 26, 2022 10:50am
    - Rodion Raskolnikov
      
      “IMO Putin would not have invaded Ukraine if Trump was still POTUS”
      
      Precisely. There is four years worth of empirical evidence to support this claim, whereas it took Biden only a year to provoke a Russian invasion.
      
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      March 26, 2022 12:08pm
  - virtualmark
    
    This is the same Trump that used stand-over tactics with Zelensky where he was going to hold back weapons unless Zelensky dug up dirt on Biden. You do remember Trump’s *first* impeachment right?
    
    This is the same Trump that only a few weeks ago called Putin’s invasion of the Ukraine “genius”.
    
    But yet you all seem convinced that Trump was a big guarantor of Ukraine’s security.
    
    There are none so blind as the muppets who will not see …
    
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    March 26, 2022 12:13pm
- kowtow
  
  Did they mention that Joe gave the green light with his mumbled , ‘little incursion’ . Or how well he said the brave Iranians were doing ?
  
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  March 26, 2022 10:41am
- Loddenthinks
  
  Of course they can see it, of course they know Biden’s a senile fool, but they must retain the narrative and avoid even acknowledging it (let alone doing their actual job and pointing out that the Emperor has no clothes, and has just pissed himself again).
  
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  March 26, 2022 11:58am
Simon

In the up coming US / West vs Russia / China conflict NZ should be neutral.

The west now is just woke neoliberal garbage. Not worth fighting for. Red State Merica will not fight for the corrupt broken clowns that run the West. (Not outside of Merica) Without the Red States the US/ West can not win.
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March 26, 2022 8:25am
- ClanMcleod
  
  The once mighty USA has been hijacked by a political class that does not represent the people of that great nation. They do not act in the best interests of the people of America. The demise has been ongoing since Tricky Dicky days and the circus we are now witnessing is embarrassing to watch. Biden, Harris, Clinton chirping away in the background. It’s a clown show.
  
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  March 26, 2022 9:54am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    I think the political class that does not represent America was always there. Trump just exposed them – but he underestimated the size of the SWAMP
    
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    March 26, 2022 2:08pm
- virtualmark
  
  So the non-woke Russians … the ones whose Army isn’t weakened by all that woke/equality culture-war stuff … they’re the really tough fighters who will win the war huh?
  
  Not seeing it at the moment …
  
  Dosvedanya Simonovich. Ostavaysya sil’nym.
  
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  March 26, 2022 10:09am
  - emmess
    
    Ukraine is also a based country
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKzJtX4g0tw
    
    And they are fighting for their survival too
    I don’t think Ukraine can fully push Russia out of its borders, but it is also highly unlikely that Russia cannot win outright from this point until they go for total war.
    
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    March 26, 2022 10:36am
  - ClanMcleod
    
    It’ll all work itself out eventually. It always does. Us “common” people can only watch and wonder.
    
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    March 26, 2022 11:51am
Alan Wilkinson

The crow and its cronies are still squawking but have lost the room.
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March 26, 2022 8:29am
mikenmildagain

Well, it’s the last game for NZ today in the cricket world cup. Immensely disappointing to see them unable to provide consistent performances with the massive advantage of hosting the tournament.
But it is a great tournament, and it’s good to see that there are still two team in contention for the last semi-final spot.
Unfortunately, it seems a foregone conclusion that Australia will win, but what can one say? They are comfortably the best team.
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March 26, 2022 8:31am
- Gravelroad
  
  Yes, the Australian women look as though they have been trained and coached by the same people who made professionals out of Steve Smith and Mitchell Starc.
  The Aussies swagger and chew gum while running relentlessly between the wickets for a quick run.
  The NZ team seem to lack urgency and confidence – but perhaps the main thing is for them to be “kind.”
  
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  March 26, 2022 10:25am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  From limited viewing I’m appalled by the low fielding standards. So many players seem unathletic. There have been some very good catches, but these are out balanced by dropped dollies. I wish it wasn’t so, but it’s undeniable.
  
  The exception is the Aussie team, which is a cut above the rest.
  
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  March 26, 2022 10:55am
Yvette

Ardern’s destructive elevation of tribalism and identity politics –

While David Seymour’s ACT policy call for a referendum on Maori / Crown co-governance promises to dominate Election year (Oh, God, must it?) what is the bet now that Labour will – how you say it – “pull finger” and deliver (surprise as that will be, that they deliver something!) their long postponed “hate speech” laws so we can not discuss a minority in negative terms, such as any “conversation” of the matter may construed to be?

And that “hate speech” WILL include political issues to accomodate this matter as well as the matter that messed up Trevor’s Parliamentary front lawn and children slide.
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March 26, 2022 8:31am
Steve Otto(North Shore)

If you are wearing a mask in your car, I assume it is to control your urge to like the windows
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March 26, 2022 8:43am
- Captain Mainwaring
  
  No it’s just to prove that you are an obedient Labour voter.
  
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  March 26, 2022 8:46am
  - redqueen
    
    Or that you’re a forgetful numpty, as my daughter oft reminds me when I get in the car and, ‘Someone’s a forgetful numpty…daddy…’.
    
    Amazingly, I’ve gotten better for fear of sarcasm… 😉
    
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    March 26, 2022 8:53am
- cjn
  
  Like? Lick?
  
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  March 26, 2022 8:48am
- mikenmildagain
  
  What’s not to like about the windows, Steve?
  
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  March 26, 2022 8:50am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Yep – I must proof read
    
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    March 26, 2022 10:07am
- Bobba Fret
  
  I think I’ve mentioned it before, but it still makes me laugh now, when I saw the cyclist wearing a mask but no helmet cycling up Remuera road.
  
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  March 26, 2022 8:51am
  - pdm
    
    Saw a cyclist wearing a mask in Hastings a couple of days ago Bobba.
    
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    March 26, 2022 9:52am
  - ClanMcleod
    
    I’ve got a cardboard box for sale that doubles as a very effective bomb shelter if anyone is interested in buying it.
    
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    March 26, 2022 11:52am
- Matt Long
  
  It’s like the memory loss thing with their zipper, first they forget to pull it up, then they forget to pull it down.
  
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  March 26, 2022 8:51am
- ClanMcleod
  
  Was it the passenger? If they had crayons and a big piece of paper that’s ok then.
  
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  March 26, 2022 9:56am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  *lick ffs. My typo
  
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  March 26, 2022 10:06am
- mogg
  
  The mask has already become a fashion item, which could go on for years. It will join the Che Guevara beret, Chairman Mao uniform, Lenin’s hat and now we will have the Ardern mask.
  
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  March 26, 2022 10:34am
Lee C

I agree with this from the Hatchard Report:
“The Hatchard Report wants to reiterate that both the vaccinated and the unvaccinated have been disadvantaged by disinformation, discrimination, and medical misadventure.
In fact, governments distracted their populations from needed debate by dividing us into vaxxed and unvaxxed—characterised as the ‘saved’ and the ‘dangerous’.
They created this strong distinction without any adequate scientific basis.
Their fear narrative overhyped the dangers of Covid infection—the mean age of deaths was in fact similar to average life expectancy.”
https://hatchardreport.com/the-long-read-where-to-from-here/
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March 26, 2022 8:45am
- I remember when
  
  We allowed ourselves to be divided into ‘vaccinated’ Labour and ‘unvaccinated’ the Other Parties.
  Lead by ‘vaccinated’ Jacinda against ‘unvaccinated’ Simon, Judith and Todd Muller.
  The ‘Policy’ was get ‘vaccinated.’
  Result was a ‘vaccinated’ single party MMP Government.
  
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  March 26, 2022 8:57am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Did she actually get vaccinated, or was it saline – just for theatre?
    Lat’s see her vaccine passport
    
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    March 26, 2022 2:14pm
    - Observer of Life
      
      Steve: Agree. But they would give her vax passport anyway. It’s all just theatre and control.
      All hail Cindy of the Pestilence.
      
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      March 26, 2022 5:26pm
  - Its only I
    
    And it’s not over yet.
    The MSM are instrumental in that strategy saying things Labour couldn’t or shouldn’t and being a vehicle for Labours very active social media teams.
    Labour look clean while its media sling the dirt.
    
    Proof if you need it is use the search engines on mainstream sites like $tuff who can publish articles that included the writers declaration of being a card carrying Labour supporter and based the conversation around why nationals sexual predation of woman has to be much worse than Labours.
    
    Maybe Labours “useful idiot” MSM believe the high vaccine rates must also be approval rates.
    
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    March 26, 2022 2:41pm
- Matt Long
  
  https://democracyproject.nz/2022/03/24/bryce-edwards-political-roundup-end-of-a-covid-era/
  Here’s a bit of a reminder of the nastiness of the misinformation about vaccines the government and MSM spread, Newsroom’s Marc Daalder complains, today that “the Government has decided a certain level of disease burden and death is acceptable, in exchange for freer economic and social lives.”
  
  He argues the Government has got it wrong in viewing their restrictions as being responsible for the economic downturn, especially in the hospitality sector. Instead, he argues, the downturn is simply due to the public’s legitimate fear of catching the virus. And he suggests that, even with the lifting of government restrictions, we’re unlikely to see anything like a “return to normal” in eateries and bars. He ponders whether the repeal will make things worse for hospitality – given that without vaccine passes, customers now have to fear mixing with the unvaccinated.
  
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  March 26, 2022 8:57am
  - mikenmildagain
    
    You raise an interesting point. Perhaps redolent of Rodney Hide’s despair at the imagined end of rationality.
    Governments implicitly make trade-offs between social and economic goals all the time. And the impetus for making those trade-off is inevitably modulated through a political process. Some might pine for a polity in which economic rationality reigns supreme over human impulses. I recommend they read John Ralston Saul’s Voltaire’s Bastards.
    
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    March 26, 2022 9:34am
    - glowworm
      
      Thanks Mike. I’ve not read this book (yet), but I just read this review.
      
      http://scott.london/reviews/saul.html
      
      Does sound like an interesting read.
      
      As someone who trained as a so called expert in academia, the outcome has always felt as though I exited academia with a lot of expertise – about not much… In fact, I think it can be argued that people like me have less general knowledge, due to our heads being engrossed in our niche disciplines…
      
      However, many of the more general technical skills I obtained during my study have been highly useful since. I think this enforces the Enlightenments philosopher’s concepts, in which they considered ‘experts’ to have general expertise across a broad range of subjects… If this is indeed the case, then it appears that the enlightenment philosopher’s, such as Voltaire, had some of the solutions and answers to our current problems, which ironically Saul seems to not provide answers for.
      
      A snippet from the above review:
      
      “The cult of expertise is one of the defining characteristics of today’s rational elites, as Saul sees it. “Among the illusions which have invested our civilization is an absolute belief that the solutions to our problems must be a more determined application of rationally organized expertise,” he writes. “The reality is that our problems are largely the product of that application.” The division of knowledge into “feudal fiefdoms of expertise” has meant that general understanding and coordinated action are increasingly difficult and often looked upon with suspicion, as evidenced by our systems of education which reward the specialist and disdain the generalist. It has also resulted in a fracturing of society into smaller and smaller and increasingly insulated professional groups. While the emergence of professionalism has paralleled the rise of individualism over the last two centuries, the result has not been greater individual autonomy and self-determination, as was once hoped, but isolation and alienation. “The professional [found] that he could build his personal empire,” Saul writes, “but curiously enough, the more expert he became, the more his empire shrank.”
      
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      March 26, 2022 12:05pm
      - Mike
        
        I must re-read it. It is very thought provoking.
        
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        March 26, 2022 4:54pm
  - Ehlana
    
    I have seen comments (admittedly on Twitter) from people who say they fear mixing with the unvaccinated.
    
    It’s actually tremendously sad and reflects very poorly on the current crop of political leaders that so many people have become so dominated by their fears (and feelings generally). Both courage and rational thought are abandoned.
    
    What on earth would Ardern and her fearful followers do if they found themselves in Ukraine’s situation?
    
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    March 26, 2022 9:34am
    - krazykiwi
      
      One of my own staff members won’t meet with me in person because I’m unvaccinated. He “follows the science, and does what the government suggests”. After the half-baked removal of vaxx passes he decided it would be ok to meet with me. I’m still trying to rationalise the tortured metal gymnastics required to volunteer a 180 degree change based on Ardern’s hand waving and vacuous piffle.
      
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      March 26, 2022 9:43am
      - info@cruzpro.com
        
        The fear of mixing with the unvaccinated is irrational. Why fear someone who has not been allowed to participate in the activities that are the most likely to get you infected?
        
        I would much rather breathe the air around an unvaccinated person than a person who has been going to crowded bars, restaurants, sport events, barbers, libraries, etc.
        
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        March 26, 2022 12:53pm
      - Jim
        
        KK you can’t help those ‘normies’ who remain (mis)informed on two helpings of corporate/government media each day.
        Some people are beyond help, such as the ‘idiots’ today who were queuing up to scan the supermarket QR code.
        LOL only worse was the two Japanese soldiers they found hiding 60 years after the war had ended.
        
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        March 26, 2022 3:42pm
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      Oh, it’s just not on twitter.
      
      We have had MSM articles decrying the fact that the unvaxxed will now mix with the vaxxed.
      
      Greens: ‘We don’t have a choice … we are no longer safe’
      Green Party Spokesperson Golriz Ghahraman however said the moves for the most vulnerable would mean a shift away from normality, and towards the lockdowns that had been left behind.
      
      https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/463880/parties-critical-of-plan-to-lower-covid-19-restrictions
      
      Folks seem to be unaware that most of the transmission is occurring between vaxxed folks.
      
      or do these vulnerable folks really want every unvaxxed infant and baby in NZ to be kept in isolation until they are old enough to have a Covid-19 jab?
      
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      March 26, 2022 12:26pm
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      She would put Ukraine into a huge lockdown – and that is not satire
      
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      March 26, 2022 2:16pm
- Nickc2
  
  In Cindy’s own words. “Yep, that’s the way it is,” she said when being interviewed about dividing our nation.
  
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  March 26, 2022 9:02am
  - krazykiwi
    
    This is one of her most repugnant interview responses. I will never forget this. She is evil.
    
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    March 26, 2022 9:44am
    - kevn
      
      @kk… “yip, yip”.
      
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      March 26, 2022 9:51am
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        It’s not what she actually said, but the manner is which she said it. ‘Fuck you bastard peasants’
        
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        March 26, 2022 2:19pm
    - Jim
      
      Agree, that response was an egregious lack of leadership, that (for me) she lost all morale authority from that point on.
      
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      March 26, 2022 3:46pm
  - ClanMcleod
    
    That comment alone must never ever be forgotten. She is pure evil.
    
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    March 26, 2022 10:21am
    - Sacha
      
      – and vile with it.
      
      18 3
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      March 26, 2022 11:23am
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      It was when the silly woman told us we must not talk to our neighbours that I knew she had little understanding of how our society works.
      
      People must stay at home in level 4, only leaving for essential services, she said. “And if you undertake these activities, please wear a mask when you leave your house.”
      
      Stay 2m away from anyone you pass, don’t congregate and don’t stop to talk to your neighbours, she said.
      
      https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/449376/covid-19-community-case-nationwide-level-4-lockdown
      
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      March 26, 2022 2:12pm
- Yvette
  
  To add now to the discussion of – the vaccinated and the unvaccinated have been disadvantaged by disinformation, discrimination, and medical misadventure – Dr Ashley Bloomfield recently redefined “fully vaccinated” [1] as only those who have had three vaccine injections (the third an additional shot for direct medical reasons, or a “booster”) and those numbers yesterday were 34,172 third primary doses; 2,567,717 booster doses totalling 2,601,889 doses, being 52 percent of the “Team of 5 Million”
  
  So just over half the population is now fully vaccinated and half is not.
  
  [1] https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2022/03/coronavirus-three-doses-now-considered-up-to-date-with-vaccinations-not-two-dr-ashley-bloomfield.html
  https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/checkpoint/audio/2018834318/covid-fully-vaccinated-now-requires-three-doses-health-officials
  
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  March 26, 2022 10:06am
  - ClanMcleod
    
    Presumably with each subsequent requirement for another jab, those percentages will move closer to rational territory.
    
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    March 26, 2022 10:24am
  - krazykiwi
    
    The definition of ‘vaccinated’ is fungible, but the definition of ‘never vaccinated’ is mutable. This will become clearer as studies on sub-clinical vaccine harm go mainstream.
    
    18 3
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    March 26, 2022 10:32am
I remember when

Why do the media always spell weather ‘Climate Change’ now.
Did I miss the memo?
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March 26, 2022 8:47am
- pdm
  
  I R W – I get a lot of negative comments on facebook for calling (so called) climate change the weather or Nature doing what it has always done.
  
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  March 26, 2022 9:55am
  - ClanMcleod
    
    Yes, the same thing happens if you call covid a seasonal respiratory illness. Weird.
    
    19 4
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    March 26, 2022 10:25am
  - Nickc2
    
    Don’t despair, they are the people who are brainwashed, can’t think for themselves, always go with the flow, and vote Labour/Green regardless of how many of their human rights have been abused or taken away from them.
    PS: and they wouldn’t know what effin day of the week it was!
    
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    March 26, 2022 1:53pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  ‘Weather’ has been crossed out of the Labour Operating Manual?
  
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  March 26, 2022 2:20pm
Suze Wainwright

Heh, I read a comment from a pakeha wokester Twitterati yesterday stating that he couldn’t see any problem with co-governance because, as a pakeha, he had never felt disadvantaged by any measure that had ever been introduced to benefit Maori…
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March 26, 2022 8:48am
- Matt Long
  
  There’s a lot of sociopaths out there that vote Labour because they can’t be bothered finding out how their policies hurt people or they simply don’t care.
  
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  March 26, 2022 10:29am
Ra Henare

Wonder what the NZ stats are?

→ Alcohol deaths spike during the pandemic, killing more than Covid: More adults aged 18-65 died of alcohol-related causes in 2020 than of Covid. A new study out from the National Institutes of Health shows the devastating reality of what lockdowns did to Americans, contrasting 2019 with 2020.

The number of deaths with an underlying cause of alcohol-associated liver diseases increased 22.4% and the number of deaths with an underlying cause of alcohol-related mental and behavioral disorders increased 35.1%. Opioid overdose deaths involving alcohol as a contributing cause increased 40.8%. Deaths in which alcohol contributed to overdoses specifically on synthetic opioids other than methadone (eg, fentanyl) increased 59.2%.

Common Sense by Bari Weiss (ex NY Times)
https://bariweiss.substack.com/
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March 26, 2022 8:50am
redqueen

Well, four weeks into the latest war and the family-in-laws are all relatively safe. All the people with kids (or are kids) are safely (in relative terms) in Poland and my father-in-law perpetually bombards me with Ukrainian propaganda (some of which is kind of funny, particularly as an ex squaddie – watching the amateurs playing soldier is a bit disconcerting).

Now, if only NZ wasn’t an immigration nightmare, I might even be able to get my wife’s nerves down :p
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March 26, 2022 8:57am
- mikenmildagain
  
  Don’t worry, NZ has already decided to favour Ukrainians with family members here over, for example, anyone from Afghanistan. Perhaps only a crumb of comfort, though, as NZ accepts very few refugees overall.
  
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  March 26, 2022 9:36am
  - redqueen
    
    Except not really, as they have excluded cousins and aunts/uncles. When the PM, after a week, said that 200 applications had been made, it tells you how much of a joke this policy really was. Nobody is coming from my wife’s family, as they either can’t or won’t. It was a cruel joke by our Government, designed to get good headlines and do nothing (same old story, again and again).
    
    And as for the Afghans, that was outrageous as well. If they worked for us or were family of Kiwis, they dammed well should have been allowed here. We have the most ‘caring heartless Government there is.
    
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    March 26, 2022 11:11am
Nukuleka

I always thought that it was a lost opportunity that Bridges and Bennett didn’t play the Maori racists at their own game by prefacing statements with ‘Speaking as a kiwi with Maori heritage….’ as a way of taking the wind out of the sails of the extremist ethnonationalists in the Maori Party or Greens or Labour. By not stressing his own mixed race heritage Seymour is similarly allowing the racists to hurl crazy insults his way, for example labelling his call for a referendum on co-governance as an act of ‘white supremacy’! I doubt that many NZers would even know he is Ngapuhi on his mother’s side.
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March 26, 2022 9:07am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  I’m not too sure about that.
  
  Why play the race card in politics?
  
  As a mainstream politician in NZ you surely want to cater for all peoples in your policies and electorate.
  
  The racists in NZ are self-identifying themselves daily by ascribing nonsensical attributes to others who aren’t interested in defining themselves by eugenic ideology.
  
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  March 26, 2022 2:52pm
Lee C

I agree with this from Kate Hawkesby – except she’s only two years too late with her analysis, in my opinion:
https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/early-edition/opinion/kate-hawkesby-time-to-drop-the-fearmongering-epidemiologists/
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March 26, 2022 9:10am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  But who will we get our misinformation from?//
  
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  March 26, 2022 9:16am
  - Ehlana
    
    If you just need to immerse yourself in non-truth for a while, I recommend Dr Suess, Lewis Carroll, JK Rowling, etc. Trust me, there’s lots of non-truth for you to explore at your leisure.
    
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    March 26, 2022 9:36am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      What about watching play school TV1 news?
      
      12 2
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      March 26, 2022 11:00am
- ClanMcleod
  
  The damage done to trust in our health institutions is massive. It will take many years to get that back again. These “experts” are as responsible for this as Ardern and her acolytes.
  
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  March 26, 2022 10:31am
  - Observer of Life
    
    Clan: Agree. I no longer trust my doctor, the medical establishment in general, Police … really sad. I’ve never trusted politicians, so nothing has changed there.
    
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    March 26, 2022 7:09pm
All_on_Red

So Rawiri Waititi eloquently answers the question ‘what is a rascist’ with his self own.
But what about the question, ‘what is a women?’
Seems not many know or are prepared to answer- including the SCOTUS Nominee Jackson
https://m.theepochtimes.com/ketanji-brown-jacksons-big-lie-to-sen-blackburn-exposes-progressivism_4357459.html

She’s not the only one though.
https://www.dailywire.com/news/matt-walsh-talks-new-doc-reveals-shocking-answers-he-received-to-simple-question-what-is-a-woman
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March 26, 2022 9:13am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Does the US really want someone as ignorant and evasive as that on the Supreme Court?
  What is a woman? Simple – it is a human without a dick
  
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  March 26, 2022 9:22am
  - Biscuit
    
    Reminds me of a joke that appeals to my infantile mind, Steve:
    
    Doctor: The child, gasp, was born without a penis
    Everyone: Noooooooooooo…
    Doctor: But she’ll have a nice place to put one in in a few years down the track…
    
    25 3
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    March 26, 2022 9:30am
    - Tauhei Notts
      
      More infantile comments;
      If I had a one dollar coin for every gender there is I would have $87, of which eighty five would be counterfeit.
      
      24 3
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      March 26, 2022 9:41am
      - Biscuit
        
        You’re a racing man, TN:
        
        Will either of us be alive when the first transgender horse runs in, and wins, a Fillies Only race?
        
        18 3
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        March 26, 2022 9:55am
      - pdm
        
        Biscuit – you do think outside the square.
        
        BTW did you see that real Hawkes Bay man Danny Toala score the winning try last night??????
        
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        March 26, 2022 9:59am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      This is a joke Mods, OK.
      Doctors smack the newborn babies bum to make the dicks fall off the silly ones
      
      10 3
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      March 26, 2022 3:05pm
  - mikenmildagain
    
    Part of the performance art that is practised by judicial nominees at senate hearings is avoiding answering questions. Buying into questions as though they were seeking genuine information or opinions is an easily evaded trap.
    The purpose of questions is to generate video clips for the questioners’ own causes – in this case auditioning to retain the approval of the feared ‘base’.
    
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    March 26, 2022 9:42am
    - All_on_Red
      
      There’s a fair bit of truth to that Mikey. Both sides indulge in it, but the question did serve its purpose at highlighting how far Progressivism has crept.
      Lets hope no one dares to ask her if she drank beer at College
      //
      
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      March 26, 2022 10:27am
      - virtualmark
        
        https://www.deadder.net/post/cartoon-for-washington-post-1
        
        IMHO Michael de Adder is the best political cartoonist in the world.
        
        9 3
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        March 26, 2022 10:51am
      - Tom Hunter
        
        IMHO Michael de Adder is the best political cartoonist in the world.
        
        You truly have been broken by Trump.
        
        Good appellate judges faithfully follow the Supreme Court; great ones influence and help steer it. Several of Judge Kavanaugh’s most important ideas and arguments — such as his powerful defense of presidential authority to oversee federal bureaucrats and his skepticism about newfangled attacks on the property rights of criminal defendants — have found their way into Supreme Court opinions.
        
        It really does not get more influential than that, while I see no evidence that the same can be said of Jackson.
        
        BTW, before you go apeshit about such “partisan” defences of Kavanaugh, observe that this is from DPF’s post of 2018, A Liberal’s Case for Brett Kavanaugh, and that the praise comes from Akhil Reed Amar, a professor at Yale Law School and constitutional law expert who has himself been cited by the Supreme Court in over 30 cases or as DPF said of him: “one of the rock stars of US constitutional law.”
        
        Not to mention being a solid supporter of the likes of Obama and Hillary Clinton – and likely a Biden voter in 2020 as well.
        
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        March 26, 2022 1:15pm
      - Mike
        
        But does Akhil Reed Amar like beer? Everyone knows what Kavanaugh’s legacy will be.
        
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        March 26, 2022 7:00pm
- virtualmark
  
  Red, I watched quite a lot of Jackson’s confirmation hearings. She comes across as a very accomplished and capable judge. Certainly smart enough to not fall into transparent ideological traps from someone like Marsha Blackburn.
  
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  March 26, 2022 10:17am
  - All_on_Red
    
    She’s smart alright. Not overly experienced though.
    
    10 3
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    March 26, 2022 10:29am
    - virtualmark
      
      Really?
      
      Amy Coney Barrett. 3 years as a judge on a third tier court, and then on to SCOTUS.
      
      Ketanji Brown Jackson. 5 years on the Sentencing Commission, 8 years as a judge on a third tier court, a year on the second tier court, and now nominated for SCOTUS.
      
      Too many people here let their ideology and prejudices get in the way of the facts.
      
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      March 26, 2022 10:49am
      - All_on_Red
        
        FFS she has only been an Appeal Court Judge since 2021
        Before that she was only a District Court Judge.
        Hardly a lot of experience for someone going to SCOTUS
        Be nice if she knew what a woman was. And eff off with your baseless smear about ideology.
        You’re the TDS sufferer
        
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        March 26, 2022 1:26pm
      - Rodion Raskolnikov
        
        She’s been nominated because she is a Black female. It is inconceivable that she is the most qualified for the job, even among the pool of liberal justices, which should be the only criterion.
        
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        March 26, 2022 1:47pm
      - Mike
        
        It’s funny that AoR thinks only people who disagree with him have an ideology.
        LOL
        
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        March 26, 2022 3:32pm
    - NeverMindTheBollocks
      
      She’s been a Public Defender. Can’t do that job without coming in contact with a broad section of the community.
      
      9 1
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      March 26, 2022 11:06am
    - kowtow
      
      Really . Not smart enough to be able to define wot a woman is .
      
      Strange that as the criteria for Creepy Joe nominating her was a woman of colour , nuttin’ to do with jurisprudence . All politics of appearance.
      
      4 2
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      March 26, 2022 12:20pm
      - Ra Henare
        
        I thought it was a brilliant response from a wanker Senator trying to make a name for themselves.
        
        3 0
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        March 26, 2022 6:03pm
    - UrbanNeocolonialist
      
      Married a white guy – so obviously a white supremacist
      
      6 2
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      March 26, 2022 1:20pm
    - Paulus
      
      But Jackson is a Woman of Colour so that is all that matters.
      Anything else does not matter.
      
      4 3
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      March 26, 2022 2:16pm
Rusty

Jacinda is right about one thing, our children and grand children will be suffering in the future not because of global warming/climate change but due to the crippling debt they will have to pay back as a result of this govt’s foolish borrowing.

Just where this govt has borrowed tens of billions of dollars from is anyone’s guess but these people will want their money back or large chunks of NZ land and assets will be under
foreign ownership.

And all this borrowing was so unnecessary anyway, shutting down NZ’s economy on and off for 2 years over a flu bug was crazy.
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March 26, 2022 9:27am
- Tom Hunter
  
  It’s also cleverly put paid to any plans National might have re cuts in government spending and tax cuts.
  
  Oh I’ve no doubt they’ll be some trimming in spending here and there – there’s too much low-hanging fruit to miss – but the reality is that core government spending will not be wound back in any serious fashion. For example I’ve been assured by a National Party person that there is no way the number of civil servants would be reduced to the “servant”/public ratio of Shipley’s time. By my calculation that would mean about 36,000 such “servants” today but apparently that’s impossible to achieve.
  
  And aside from cutting spending and taxes, what else has National got, especially in terms of “core policy” (always have to watch that weasel term)?
  
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  March 26, 2022 10:52am
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    Whatever happened to needing fewer people due to computers doing all the work?
    
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    March 26, 2022 7:27pm
Maggy Wassilieff

Newshub informs me that there has been significant changes to our covid-19 settings overnight, but I can’t see that the changes have changed anything for most of us.

https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2022/03/covid-19-new-zealand-s-traffic-light-system-rules-change-overnight.html
What am I missing?
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March 26, 2022 9:40am
Warren

https://www.odt.co.nz/news/national/govt-appeals-high-court-decision-vax-mandates I just hope that if the Government loses this appeal they are held accountable the public for using taxpayers money to pay for their gross incompetence.
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March 26, 2022 9:41am
- mikenmildagain
  
  The way it usually works is that the appellant wins at the court of appeal then loses at the supreme court. Keeps the lawyers busiest that way.
  
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  March 26, 2022 9:44am
- ClanMcleod
  
  An obnoxious and disgusting use of taxpayer money for utterly nefarious purposes. She wants to be seen as THE person who removed the mandates. She doesn’t want anyone to ever be able to say she only did it because the courts had deemed them illegal in the first place.
  Notice how she removed the mandates for the 2 that were deemed illegal, police and defence forces and that the education sector had been heard in court but the decision not released yet? So Brenda appears magnanimous, but only did what the courts had ordered anyway.
  A bit like her performance over the protests. She was never going to admit that any of her backdowns were a result of the protest, so she smashed the protests with violence, waited a few weeks, then pretended her decisions were not related to the protest. A lie.
  Anyway, so now, she needs to put some closure on this. She needs to get the court decision overturned so nobody can point out in the future that she only did it because her actions were illegal. Oh, and also so she can have mandates back in her wonderful, totalitarian “toolbox” in case she feels the urge to repeat the exercise and abuse the people of NZ in the future.
  
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  March 26, 2022 10:44am
  - Jim
    
    Clan, you may appreciate that like Trudeau the NZ PM is a classic virtue signaller, who never misses a theatrical opportunity (remember the Tonga volcanic eruption announcement).
    So be mindful that Ardern’s stage managed press conferences are performed as much for the her international globalist protagonists, as they are for her domestic audience. Hence the usual 8-10 minutes of preamble used to reiterate ‘her truth’ to the world.
    
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    March 26, 2022 4:20pm
Tomtoddy

I am going to stick my neck out a bit on the wider issue of Covid and the way it has been handled. Proabably set a record for downticks. Here goes. When Covid struck and it became apparent it was going to be a pandemic or at least very widespread and contagious Governments pulled in health experts and officials and asked what do we do.

Officials, under heavy influence of big Pharma, said we need to vaccinate everyone and spend multibillions on emergency facilities in hospitals. What they didnt make clear was that there was no vaccine, that producing a true vaccine that is safe takes a decade and that all the jab will do is slow things down so we can get our hospitals upgraded.

Building surplus emergency facilities is not a big vote winner so the gullible pollies went with the “vaccine” and the juvenile campaigns of masks, lockdowns and jabs for all. There was never any real commitment to upgrade ICQ and train nurses. “If the “vaccine” is as successful as big Pharma says we will look silly spending billions on hospitals”.

The worse that Covid got the tighter the controls, the harsher the lockdowns. Pollies were in danger of losing both ways – a useless “vaccine” and no emergency facilities.

Fortunately Covid was only a bad flu that sadly brought forward a heap of mortality that was going to happen anyway in the next year or three plus taking out a few others with serious co-morbidities. Death rates in many countries are now running below average as anyone likely to die has been taken by the bad flu.

Only Sweden and a couple of others did not fall for the nonsense. Big Pharma made trillions, pollies supported by immature and sensational-seeking “experts” got more exposure and support than they ever dreamt possible and economies were shattered.

Whats the next bogey? Ukraine? Climate change? More fear. More “expert” commentators making money. More politicians riding the storm. More gullibility in the ranks. Same ole, same ole.
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March 26, 2022 9:44am
- kevn
  
  @Tom… You have missed the tsunami of (not a) vaccine adverse reactions. The true scale of this is yet to show.
  
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  March 26, 2022 9:48am
- krazykiwi
  
  The largely manufactured Covid ‘crisis’ has achieved in 2 short years what the Climate Change™ architects have only dreamed of over 30 years: increased fearfulness and the abandonment of critical thought when presented with ‘expert’ guidance. We can be sure that there will be another carefully crafted crisis to nudge us still further into the grasp of the transnational elites. Have a read of Uncovering the Corona Narrative.
  
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  March 26, 2022 9:54am
- Ruahine
  
  I was told yesterday that Jacinda will now save us from inflation and high grocery prices just like she saved us all from Covid. She is so clever and so lovely and such a good talker.
  
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  March 26, 2022 10:52am
- ClanMcleod
  
  TT the evidence is coming thick and fast. It’s no longer a case of us trying to figure out what it was all about, it’s about us asking pertinent questions and demanding answers. We are entitled to ask these questions and we are entitled to be given the answers. Here are just a couple that demand answers.
  
  1) Why were our normal pandemic preparedness plans (that have been developed over decades) abandoned for this experimental idea of lockdowns, social distancing, hand sanitisation etc? Why abandon proven plans? The Great Barrington Declaration is worth looking at in this regard.
  2) Considering it was apparently all about stopping the hospitals being overwhelmed, why was there no money spent on improving the hospitals and their ability to cope? Why was millions instead spent on terrifying the population into complying with measures that didn’t work anyway?
  3) Why did we never get told about the beneficial effects of things like losing weight, taking regular vitamin C, D and zinc, exercising, basically having a reasonably healthy body and immune system that could fight diseases?
  
  These are just a couple of questions, the list of inane policies and decisions that were made is very long. Contradictions, hypocrisies, U turns. Too numerous to list here.
  Then add to this that we now know that during the phase 3 trials, these “vaccines” were never even tested for their ability to prevent infection or transmission. They were never tested for their ability to prevent death. They were only ever tested for their ability to reduce symptoms. That isn’t a vaccine, that’s a panadol. But we were told it was going to be our great saviour.
  So the question is. Is it possible that any government could be this stupid? To get so many things wrong? I doubt it. This was deliberate economic destruction and terrifying of a population to prepare for our “new normal”. We aren’t allowed to ever go back to our old lives again.
  
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  March 26, 2022 11:31am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Jaspinda was testing the grounds of socialism? An experiment on what to do and what not to do when the chance comes for a full on takeover?
    Trial run on how to become a tyrant?
    
    12 2
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    March 26, 2022 2:35pm
- H. Upmann
  
  Tt: The climate fascists are very pissed at having lost the fear limelight and will be back with viscous vengeance once the pestilence plague has subsided.
  
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  March 26, 2022 11:46am
Benedict Yu

Just as we start to emerge from Covid insanity, James Shaw is finalising the details of New Zealand’s first three year “emissions budget” ☹️
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March 26, 2022 10:02am
Benedict Yu

It is a sunny day. Am off to Mitre 10. 😀😀 Pity they scrapped their fund raising sausage sizzles on Saturday. Apparantly COVID makes them to dangerous. ☹️
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March 26, 2022 10:04am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Take your own bangers and eat them in front of the store!
  “Where did you get that?”
  “Oh the manager gave it to me”
  
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  March 26, 2022 2:37pm
- KKKKatee
  
  I hope you didn’t wear a mask. In fact, if every single New Zealander pinned a ‘I am exempt from wearing a mask’ notification on their chest, mask wearing would disappear overnight. I never wear a mask anywhere.
  
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  March 26, 2022 3:33pm
  - Ra Henare
    
    Went for lunch at a local restaurant for my sisters birthday party. 8 adults.
    
    7 adults walked in with masks.
    
    Once seated a waitress came to ask for vaccine passes.
    7 whipped out their passes which were photographed.
    1 person said I dont have a vax pass.
    
    Oh said waitress. Thats OK.
    
    Yes that 1 stoppy bastard was me.
    Some of those attending castigated me for not coming prepared. Said I was prepared…to come for lunch…
    
    First time I have been asked for a vax pass…
    just in time before vax passes will be canned 🙂
    
    Hilarious fun
    
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    March 26, 2022 6:14pm
    - Observer of Life
      
      Go you Ra!!!
      
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      March 26, 2022 7:33pm
- Jim
  
  Ha typical, MoH never cared about Staphylococcus aureus and Salmonella.
  
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  March 26, 2022 4:27pm
blue collar

SOLOMONS
If China gets in to the Solomon Islands it’s just the beginning .
Start with fishing fleets hoovering up around oz n Nz .
Build military bases .
Get another few island states on board ( bribe officials to sign up ) build up strength
In time the day will come where Nz first , oz second will quite possibly become Ukraine .we are the jewels and the end game in this theatre
Easy to isolate with navy blockades .
EAsy to invade and control with isolated cities and limited connecting roads .
The only thing preventing this is the USA .and uk
I hope we stay on good terms ,
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March 26, 2022 10:05am
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Hillary and others about to get their beans. The usual culprits are bending and twisting it (CNN especially)
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/03/24/donald-trump-sues-hillary-clinton-and-allies-russia-00020174
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March 26, 2022 10:16am
- virtualmark
  
  Counter-discovery gonna be lit.
  
  It’s a pity this suit will get dismissed almost immediately, because I’d love to see the defendants step up and say “Okay Donald, yes, let’s have the Courts take a look at this”.
  
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  March 26, 2022 10:20am
  - All_on_Red
    
    Sorry?, the Courts will be looking at who?
    Careful what you wish for.
    But you probably still think Trump colluded with Russia and that the Steele Dossier is real.
    Lol
    
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    March 26, 2022 1:20pm
    - virtualmark
      
      Red,
      
      You seem to have been hitting the whiskey a lot earlier today.
      
      If you were still sober you might stop to think that:
      * the statute of limitations on this case was 4 years … and we’re now 6 years on from 2022,
      * Trump can’t show damages, given he was elected President in 2016,
      * defendants in this case will be able to call on the (GOP-led) Senate Intelligence Committee report that clearly and baldly shows the Russian actions in support of Trump’s 2016 campaign, and the unredacted Meuller report.
      * defendants in this case will be able to depose Trump under oath.
      
      This is a legal nothing-burger. It’s just another in the endless line of Trump-lawsuits-as-distractions. It’s going nowhere.
      
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      March 26, 2022 2:26pm
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      The dossier is real – real bullshit, A grade
      
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      March 26, 2022 2:39pm
  - Mike
    
    Does it come with another fundraising appeal to the faithful ‘base’?
    
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    March 26, 2022 3:48pm
NeverMindTheBollocks

Hi Mods, this comment was posted on GD late yesterday by Surely Knott. I’m not trying to steal his glory, but I don’t think it was widely viewed, haven’t seen it referred to elsewhere on KB & is important (& horrific) enough to be reposted.

Stuff’s article endangers children, disrespects and falsely blames women and appears to have hidden the true history of an offender who appears to have changed their identity but not their criminal behaviour.

Stuff’s article on Laken Maree Rose headline describes her as “New Zealand’s most prolific female child sex offender”.

The Detective Sergeant described the crimes as almost unprecedented. The article is stomach churning in its depravity. But interestingly, the article uses the word female 20 times and repeatedly refers to her as Ms Rose as they describe how unusual female sex crimes of this type are. He noted that her female gender “put people at ease” and is what allowed her and her partner, Andrew Alan Williams, to draw in the girls and offend.

But a quick google and it turns out that another nz paedophile shares the same name – Laken. Transgender man Rory Francis was convicted of multiple paedophile charges and in jail transitioned to Laken Mckay of Auckland. Laken has HIV and HEP C. Another detail the Stuff article seems to have overlooked.

The detective said “over his four decades in the police, he had encountered females who had been convicted of ‘party to sex offending “but none like this.” “She in most cases created the opportunity for Mr Williams to offend”

Ms Rose’s evidence presented her as a victim of female domestic violence…..in “every case her offending was in response to threats or actual physical violence ..” which the judge did not find credible.

“The rarity of female sex offenders is also made clear in ministry of justice data on sex offences…” The article tells us.

However” a female can only be convicted of rape as a party to an offence committed by a male.” “But Rose broke that mold” “Rose was a principal offender so she was not only grooming these children she was participating in their violation.” So a female can’t usually be committed of rape, but rose was violating them.

I think it’s grossly irresponsible to not tell the full history of Laken and the person’s offending and identity for the safety of NZ. And I leave you with the final message stuff leaves us with from psychology lecturer Dr Jacinta Cording ..”The low numbers (of female sex offenders) is sometimes taken as proof of overlooking and underreporting these kind of offences by women..”.”people found child sex offending more jarring from a female perpetrator as it clashed with the notion females are more trusting and caring.” “Females can be deviant” she said.

The takeaway message is clear. Females are sexually dangerous. This record offending will no doubt be recorded as female sex crimes.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/128064031/theyre-young-theyll-get-over-it–how-laken-maree-rose-became-one-of-new-zealands-most-prolific-female-child-sex-offenders

Laken changes name and gender:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/96139172/paroled-paedophile-changes-name-and-gender-behind-bars
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March 26, 2022 10:17am
- Ehlana
  
  So convicted paedophile Rory Francis turned himself into Laken McKay, supposedly female, while in prison. Now we have a Laken Maree Rose teamed up with Andrew Alan Williams to commit more than 100 child sex offences.
  
  It looks like Laken McKay changed name again – to Laken Maree Rose. Presumably legally, since that is the name used in the later Court trial.
  
  Interestingly, it turns out that while “Birth, death, marriage, civil union and name change records are a public register — anyone can generally request copies of someone’s information”, there is an exception for pre-sex reassignment birth certificates, if the individual has changed their sex on their birth certificate. Which might make establishing the connection between Rory Francis and Laken Maree Rose rather more difficult than I think we would want it to be, given his predatory offending.
  
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  March 26, 2022 1:17pm
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    It looks like Laken McKay changed name again – to Laken Maree Rose.
    
    No.
    
    These are two quite separate individuals.
    
    Laken Rose was a horse Trainer based in Cambridge
    
    Laken McKay is a few years older, had spent much time in Christchurch Prison during the years that Rose & Williams were offending against kiddies on the horsie circuit.
    https://www.odt.co.nz/news/national/extended-supervision-repeat-child-sex-offender
    
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    March 26, 2022 3:35pm
I remember when

Is there any correlation:
In 1958 the first Foodtown supermarket was opened.
The first New World opened in 1963.
Finally in 1985 the first Pak’n Save store.
Launching of Tracking the Obesity Epidemic: New Zealand 1977-2003;
Obesity levels: 1977 -10% to 2003 – 21%, for both males and females.
It didn’t really begin to accelerate until late 1980s or early 1990s.
Maori increased from 20% in 1989 to 27% in 2003. A smaller increase proportionately than in the total population during the same period.
Although it was noted, the prevalence of obesity remains higher than in the total population over the same period.
There were too few Pacific people to allow seperate analysis – but the 2002/3 New Zealand Health Survey showed prevalence among Pacific adults at approx 40%.
So the first Pak’n Save opened just before obesity started to accelerate.
Their opening started the real competition between Foodstuff and Woolworths for market share.
And where was the emphasis often placed – on biscuits, chippies, fruit drinks, soft drink and confectionary.
Hardly essential groceries.
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March 26, 2022 10:17am
- MCōs
  
  All that stuff has always been around.
  What hasn’t has been cheap, heavily advertised, American style junk food and cheap crappy Asian takeaways
  Fish and chips was about it where I came from.
  Plus a lot more home cooking.
  Interestingly enough life expectancy has improved quite a bit since those days.
  
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  March 26, 2022 10:39am
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    Not for the non working class target audience for fast food advertising it hasn’t.
    
    The fact that South Aucklanders were lured to vaccination clinics via fried chicken vouchers underlines the moral bankruptcy of this Government.
    
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    March 26, 2022 11:42am
    - Rodion Raskolnikov
      
      Lol. They employed a racial stereotype to get predominantly brown South Aucklanders to act accordingly, thus validating the stereotype.
      
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      March 26, 2022 1:43pm
    - MCōs
      
      I live in South Auckland.
      I saw no sign of any such inducements, but then there’s a lot of stuff I don’t see that’s supposed to be happening hereabouts.
      
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      March 26, 2022 4:29pm
  - ClanMcleod
    
    MCōs – I think you’re going to find that the negative impacts of all the shit diet, fast foods, processed foods etc is just starting to emerge now. Pretty sure obesity, diabetes etc are on the increase.
    These things take decades before the true impacts are actually seen. A bit like rushed vaccines.
    Improvements in certain medical areas have helped increase lifespan in certain areas, but as for quality of life? I doubt it.
    
    Then there’s the forty years of dumbing down the population through shit education and brainwashing through shit TV. I’m old enough to remember TV first starting up as many here probably are. The 70s were probably the best era for investigative journalism and real shows asking real questions of politicians etc. It’s been a downward spiral from the 90s on to now, looking at the television line up on any given night is depressing and a sad reflection of where most of our species seem to be. MAFS? Good grief.
    
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    March 26, 2022 11:44am
    - Harriet
      
      I was only a kid in the 70’s and I’ve often said that Dougal Stevenson etc. read you the news but now you are being told the news.
      Trump was like Muldoon and Hawke – they all told you what was going on.
      
      At school you were taught to speak and write properly and told about civil behaviors etc. along with being shown Europe and their standards, like Switzerland, something you would expect a ‘modern society’ like NZ to now be.
      
      But now kids are essentially being told that
      
      “Switzerland’s values are the equivalent of Swaziland’s, and hence South Auckland is world’s best practice in equality. ”
      
      No wonder they don’t want to go to school.
      
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      March 26, 2022 5:34pm
- krazykiwi
  
  Have a look at the war between producers of fats and sugars in the 1970s USA. Hint: only one ended up being demonized.
  
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  March 26, 2022 10:40am
  - Matt Long
    
    And of those it was the healthy stable fats that were demonised.
    
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    March 26, 2022 10:44am
    - Harriet
      
      Sugar is cheaper, lots lots cheaper.
      
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      March 26, 2022 5:36pm
- Matt Long
  
  The late 80s also saw the end of low skilled high energy labouring jobs for many and the beginning of intergenerational benefit dependency.
  
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  March 26, 2022 10:47am
  - Ra Henare
    
    I personally believe it started in mid 70s with social welfare giving away gobs of money to the …poor people…for many introducing a benfit based lifestyle.
    
    I well remember a client (Horizon concrete) in the early 80s bemoaning he couldnt get labouring staff.
    
    He had a majority share in a Video rental store and came across a number of young guys. All on the bennie living the highlife 5 living in one rental..(more than one case)
    
    Spending all day watching videos, eating KFC and in the evenings wopping back the beers and getting in to mischief
    Next day rinse and repeat. All funded by the bennie.
    
    This was Lower Hutt, not south Auckland.
    
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    March 26, 2022 6:29pm
- UrbanNeocolonialist
  
  It’s a combination of factors.
  -Food is waaay cheaper, less than half the price in real terms now than the 70’s, and incomes have gone up too.
  -Home entertainment has improved immeasurably, no shortage of fun cheap diversions available from your couch. Internet, Netflix, Videogames
  -Welfare has become far more generous, rewarding sitting around baby farming, standards of living for welfare dependent are the highest they’ve ever been in historic terms
  -Jobs involving physical exertion are disappearing.
  
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  March 26, 2022 4:35pm
peterwn

Possibly prior to these developments the average grocery shop (4 Square, IGA etc) had their stock behind the counter so there would be less ‘impulse’ purchasing. However at the beginning of the large format supermarkets, even 4 Square and the like were moving to a model where customers could examine and pick their own goods. Indeed the early New World supermarkets were expanded 4 Square stores trading as ‘4 Square New World’.
Perhaps the worse thing was the pervasive ‘in your face’ cigarette advertising in supermarkets – an old photo of a New World showed large XXXXX and YYYYY cigarette banners above each checkout. Pity the poor checkout operators at the time – they had to key in the price of each item purchased and memorise the prices of high volume items that were not price tagged.
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March 26, 2022 10:33am
krazykiwi

If Facebook existed in 1776
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March 26, 2022 10:37am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  brilliant.
  
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  March 26, 2022 3:38pm
blue collar

Canadian opposition leader Candice Bergen will be the beginning of a new era of leaders .
Well spoken , articulate , and strong enough to stand up for the right thing
Ditto de Santis
If trump doesn’t run he will nail it
We hv Seymour as the closest to this strength.
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March 26, 2022 10:38am
Maggie Pie

A bestie from tennis tweets….

“No one, and I mean NO ONE, has done more to harm this country than the Ardern Labour Government!”
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March 26, 2022 10:47am
- Tauhei Notts
  
  Maggie,
  Are you seeing a trend amongst women in the 18 – 60 age bracket?
  Go back to October 2020; they all thought the sun shone out of Jacinda’s posterior.
  
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  March 26, 2022 12:04pm
  - Maggie Pie
    
    I can honestly say…. there wouldn’t be ONE person at the tennis club, who wouldn’t say they don’t despise this government and all it stands for, with an absolute passion.
    
    Although secretly, I know they’re all pretty chuffed with their latest CV’s.
    
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    March 26, 2022 1:09pm
    - artemisia
      
      Being reported that the Labour government since 2017 has overseen a wealth transfer of a trillion dollar. To the well off.
      
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      March 26, 2022 2:52pm
    - freemark
      
      And that’s exactly it I think. For plenty of people that rise in “wealth” over the last 2 years, plus a bit of swanning around at home “working” has insulated them from the unnecessary chaos wreaked through the country. I even had a hard-core Cindy loving (now ex) friend admit that he was quite happy about the state of the nation due to this.
      
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      March 26, 2022 5:06pm
NeverMindTheBollocks

An excellent article by Shane Jones discussing the moral bankruptcy of Labour’s meddling in the car market.

It’s extraordinary how politicians can talk sense when they’re out of office.

Lest you think I am praising Shane, I have not forgotten the $3B pork barrel – but credit where credit is due.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/opinion/300549336/the-cleancars-discount-scheme–the-jokes-on-bluecollar-families
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March 26, 2022 11:38am
- kowtow
  
  No credit , and you got it right there .
  
  ‘It’s extraordinary how politicians can talk sense when they’re out of office.’
  
  They’re hypocrites .
  
  ps He’s just manouevring for another go at the public teat .
  
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  March 26, 2022 12:17pm
- kevn
  
  @Never… m. wood = a race toward total uselessness along with twyford.
  
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  March 26, 2022 12:26pm
Maggie Pie

Tame Jack admits to practicing ‘celibacy’

LOL!!!
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March 26, 2022 11:47am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  I think he means ‘incelibacy’
  
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  March 26, 2022 12:08pm
- oldfella
  
  Maggie: When? Where? Send pictures. 😉
  
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  March 26, 2022 12:58pm
- skyblue
  
  With his anus?
  
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  March 26, 2022 12:58pm
- MCōs
  
  Same as *ahem* the priests in that church you go to every Sunday.
  
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  March 26, 2022 1:09pm
- Inandout
  
  Maggie, just saw this. I understand Chris Finlayson also claimed he was celebate and I know my male hairdresser says he is now. The latter got civil unioned before the law change.
  
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  March 26, 2022 3:07pm
oldfella

Hands up everyone on KB who didn’t see this coming.
Many baffled by Taliban reneging pledge on girls’ education
https://www.wbir.com/article/news/nation-world/world-baffled-by-taliban-reneging-pledge-on-girls-education/507-77caab05-233d-4b99-a621-e757efd51bea
Can’t wait to see Charlotte Belliss answer questions about this, being something of an expert on these men who treated her so well. /s
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March 26, 2022 11:56am
- kowtow
  
  Bellis was the classic useful idiot.
  
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  March 26, 2022 12:15pm
oldfella

Couple of questions for the PM…
Has the wedding been rescheduled now restrictions have been eased?
And how many overseas DJs will be invited back to help her celebrate on the big day?
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March 26, 2022 12:00pm
- KKKKatee
  
  Cancelled means cancelled.
  
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  March 26, 2022 3:39pm
oldfella

If it happens, it’s a big win for the Brits. Now it’s our turn…
Free speech to get legal supremacy, says Dominic Raab as he unveils plan to stop democratic debate being ‘whittled away by wokery’ in major victory over cancel culture
Deputy PM Raab warns democratic debate is being ‘whittled away by wokery’
He says that the principle of free speech will become a legal ‘trump card’ after unveiling plans to replace Labour’s Human Rights Act with a British Bill of Rights
The changes will protect media freedom and allow press to expose wrongdoing
Justice Secretary Mr Raab exclusively told the Mail about the proposed reforms
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10653643/Free-speech-legal-supremacy-Dominic-Raab-unveils-plan-stop-democratic-debate.html
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March 26, 2022 12:05pm
NeverMindTheBollocks

Regarding the 450 illegal immigrants being accepted by NZ ex Manus Island, many of these will be seriously disturbed, no-longer-young men. They will require significant mental health counselling to settle, along with everything else. Of course, mental health services are among those in crisis.

Jacinda, any adverse outcomes for ordinary New Zealanders are on you.
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March 26, 2022 12:07pm
kevn

@old…
we
don’t
care
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March 26, 2022 12:29pm
kowtow

Interesting how the Media Pardy villified the Freedom folk in Wellington.

How much national prominence will this vandalism be given.

‘ Two Owaka farmers were supported by friends and neighbours after scores of bales of stock feed were damaged in an attack on Thursday night, allegedly targeting the anti- mandate movement.’

https://www.odt.co.nz/rural-life/rural-life-other/feed-bales-slashed-overnight-attack
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March 26, 2022 12:30pm
tknorriss

Russia has now decided to focus its efforts on the eastern side of Ukraine.

https://edition.cnn.com/2022/03/25/europe/russian-general-calls-encirclement-of-ukrainian-cities-a-deliberate-plan/index.html

That is code for “retreat because our arses are being handed to us everywhere”.
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March 26, 2022 12:52pm
- All_on_Red
  
  I suspect once they clear Mariupol out they will call it a day and keep their land bridge and water for Crimea.
  
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  March 26, 2022 1:17pm
  - tknorriss
    
    If they had kept Mariupol intact that would have been the case. But now that it has been totally destroyed, I don’t think it is much use as a land bridge.
    
    Have you seen the state of the roads as well as the buildings? All just huge crater holes now. Good luck using that as a bridge.
    
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    March 26, 2022 1:41pm
    - tknorriss
      
      What Russia should have done is focus their forces on the south in the first instance.
      
      If they had done that they would have quickly captured all the port cities which would have allowed them to strangle the Ukrainian economy. It would have been much easier for them to hold that because logistics would have been straightforward.
      
      Also, it would not have given time for NATO et al to build up steam with sanctions. There would likely have been the normal huff and puff without much happening.
      
      But if Russia retreat back to Donbas now, they are going to have to maintain a strong military presence there in the face of crippling sanctions.
      
      Also, they will have to contain a strong insurgency from Ukranians armed to the teeth.
      
      So, I don’t think this works out well for the Russians. Major strategic blunders like the world hasn’t seen I think.
      
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      March 26, 2022 1:46pm
      - UrbanNeocolonialist
        
        Military commanders who surround themselves with obsequious yes men and sycophants will always underperform.
        
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        March 26, 2022 2:13pm
    - tknorriss
      
      Here is a great video:
      
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7abBoHUEvsA
      
      If Russia is going to retreat back to Donbas, then the message from the international community should be that sanctions begin to be withdrawn once Russia has withdrawn its forces completely from Ukraine including exiting from Crimea.
      
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      March 26, 2022 2:42pm
  - virtualmark
    
    The question will be whether Ukraine wants to call it a day. Both sides of the conflict get a vote on whether to end things.
    
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    March 26, 2022 2:28pm
    - tknorriss
      
      Exactly. Russia may want to hold onto Donbas. And under ordinary circumstances they may be able to.
      
      But they are trying to keep their military going in a background of crippling sanctions. I saw a report the other day that their main tank factory can’t get critical parts at the moment for instance.
      
      And the Ukrainians are well kitted out with Western gear. Plus all the Russian stuff they have captured and repurposed. Apparently they have more tanks now than they did at the start of the conflict.
      
      So why should they stop fighting?
      
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      March 26, 2022 7:05pm
NoCash

I know it’s politically unacceptable, but we should have hired the Chinese to build Transmission Gully, it would have cost at least one third less and been done in half of the time, and in equally good if not better quality. You might ask how about all the local jobs, well if we could saved 400 million bucks, we could use some of that savings to pay for the kiwi workers to do nothing and still come out better. Instead, we’ve been fleeced by the Oz again.
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March 26, 2022 2:09pm
- greybeard
  
  But what would have been the Quid Pro Quo for getting China to do this?
  
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  March 26, 2022 7:08pm
Nickc2

China moves another step closer to Aust and NZ
Come on Mahuta and your bought and paid for MSM, get your collective heads out of your collective arses, wake up and tell the NZ Population what’s happening wrt China’s expansion into our area of concern.
https://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2022/03/text-of-whats-reportedly-a-securitymilitary-cooperation-agreement-between-china-and-solomon-islands.html
PS: Don’t hold your breath, Mahuta and Co don’t work weekends eh.
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March 26, 2022 2:33pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Something to ponder, especially lefties.
Why has the sixth Labour Government done the same as the last five Labour Governments? Got to be more than plain incompetence.
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March 26, 2022 2:43pm
- UrbanNeocolonialist
  
  Every labour govt since the 60’s has left NZ in recession. I doubt this one will be any different, left wing ignorance, wishful thinking and ill discipline always put the economy in the shitter.
  
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  March 26, 2022 4:53pm
Maggie Pie

Thort this worth sharing….

We were invited to a private-viewing of a home that’s coming to market over at Stanley Point.
A wonderfully restored two story Bungalow down a ROW, situated close to the cliff edge. Infinity pool and views to dye for…across from St Heliers to the HB, with an everchanging panorama over the entire city! Tiny site, (about 800s/m), but fabulously landscaped and nothing much to do except enjoy. Personally, I’d sell up and move there in a heartbeat.

My partner always has to put the kibosh on anything I like. He reckons it’s far too close to the Naval Base.
His biggest worry, was not only the traffic on Lake Rd, but now that they’ve turned the gun-emplacements on Mt Victoria into a Tourist attraction, the chinks could easily sneak into the channel with a nuclear powered sub out of the Solomon’s, and destroy the entire Navy Base with a thermobaric rocket. The whole cliff could quite easily collapse.

The Northern Slopes it is then.
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March 26, 2022 5:37pm
- Muttonbird
  
  By “chinks” you mean Chinese people?
  
  Could have sworn this type of thinking went out years ago.
  
  Still, Kiwiblog must endorse it because it’s not been moderated.
  
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  March 26, 2022 6:31pm
  - Maggie Pie
    
    Listen, if u don’t have a sense-of-humor, don’t bother me with your sensitive ass!
    
    Laugh or keep scrolling. We have fun here.
    
    12 6
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    March 26, 2022 7:37pm
    - Mike
      
      A few days ago one of the snowflakes even called me a racist for making a joke about the Irish.
      
      1 0
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      March 26, 2022 8:37pm
- Tauhei Notts
  
  I have enjoyed some posts on this blog labelled as being by “Maggie’s Partner.”
  They have been well written and a pleasure to read. So it is astounding that such a refined gentleman could make such an idiotic comment.
  
  10 3
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  March 26, 2022 7:52pm
- fightingtemeraire
  
  The traffic in Lake Road is diabolical. Especially at about 1530=1600 when the Navy Base knocks off
  
  2 0
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  March 26, 2022 8:07pm
kevn

@Maggie… Too far from New World as well.
8 1
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March 26, 2022 5:48pm
Swifty

Cat Pause has died.

RIP.
7 2
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March 26, 2022 6:21pm
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  Only 42 years old.
  
  8 1
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  March 26, 2022 7:51pm
- fightingtemeraire
  
  Not surprised.
  
  1 0
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  March 26, 2022 8:08pm
- freemark
  
  As they didn’t mention Covid I’d say it was probably booster related…
  
  2 0
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  March 26, 2022 10:47pm
Tom Hunter

That’s amazing timing given the post here the other day on Steve Crowder’s fun with the fat crowd and …..

Wait. Has that post been vanished by DPF?

https://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2022/03/you_tuber_gets_rave_review_for_fake_paper_from_fake_person_at_massey_university_conference.html

404’d

Seriously?
2 0
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March 26, 2022 7:52pm
David Garrett

Come on guys…morbidly obese people die early…a simple fact of life. As someone said here the other day, her heart was having to do the work of two or even three people.
13 3
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March 26, 2022 8:41pm
NeverMindTheBollocks

“Pause spoke to Stuff in January about the discrimination fat people face in their everyday lives, especially in regard to healthcare. Moral panic over obesity levels perpetuate this.”

Turns out concerns over health and obesity are not just a moral panic.
4 0
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March 26, 2022 10:11pm

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