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January 4, 2023 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 04 January 2023

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General Debate

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mikenmildagain

Happy World Braille Day!
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January 4, 2023 8:00am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Never saw that coming.
  
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  January 4, 2023 9:43am
  - mikenmildagain
    
    When it comes to braille, there are plenty of blind spots.
    
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    January 4, 2023 9:52am
    - Than
      
      OK, there is absolutely no way that didn’t get an Uptick (your comment too Steve Otto).
      
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      January 4, 2023 7:16pm
  - Biscuit
    
    My first ‘Groan!’ of 2023, Steve!
    
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    January 4, 2023 9:58am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Thought I would say it before someone else does.
      
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      January 4, 2023 11:13am
    - pdm
      
      Hell what did you do when Brentford? beat Liverpool a day or so ago?
      
      Kick the cat??????
      
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      January 4, 2023 12:11pm
      - Biscuit
        
        pdm, the cat has an UNCANNY sense of when it would be a good time to stop annoying me for its fifth breakfast and to just sit and starve outside for a wee while…
        
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        January 4, 2023 1:01pm
- Deane Jessep
  
  ⠠⠓⠁⠏⠏⠽ ⠺⠕⠗⠇⠙ ⠠⠃⠗⠁⠊⠇⠇⠑ ⠠⠙⠁⠽ ⠞⠕ ⠽⠕⠥ ⠞⠕⠕⠖
  
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  January 4, 2023 10:36am
  - rjay
    
    Touch screens are a real problem for blind people. They are increasingly common at ATMs, checkouts etc. Will Braille survive?
    
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    January 4, 2023 10:49am
    - Deane Jessep
      
      There is some interesting work in the area of communications accessibility that is looking deeper into upgrading Braille with screen vibrations. Of course voice prompts help too.
      
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      January 4, 2023 11:15am
  - Jack5
    
    Braille has been a great system, but is well complemented by modern audio and recording devices and products including audio books.
    
    Many people with very low vision who once would have depended totally on braille, are able to read the traditional way thanks to very large text on computer screens and the like.
    
    I wonder if anyone reads this blog by one of the many text-to-voice apps, or even posts using a voice-to-text app.
    
    Braille Day deserves to be acknowledged in honour of Louis Braille.
    
    Born on this day in 1809, at a French school for the blind Louis Braille learned a reading method of time, using embossed-printed, raised text felt by touch.
    
    At 15, he created the Braille system, inspired by an Army raised-dot code developed for reading in the dark.
    
    Another corner of the fascinating code world.
    
    https://www.ctvnews.ca/lifestyle/the-end-of-braille-why-fewer-people-are-reading-by-touch-1.4447543
    
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    January 4, 2023 11:29am
    - cmm
      
      Around 2000 I helped with the development of a Braille terminal that had a a Braille output and special keyboard. It also had text to speech.
      
      This device could read documents, emails and web pages.
      
      In most text to speech applications you want high quality speech output to make it easy to understand. Not so on these devices. What they wanted was fast. The blind people using these devices spend a lot of time using them so they don’t mind putting in the effort to learn to use the tools. Once they cranked up the speed it is almost impossible for most people to understand (more sounds than speech), but the blind users could use them fine.
      
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      January 4, 2023 12:29pm
    - Deane Jessep
      
      Hi Jack5, I often read this blog using Speechify. Not because I am blind, but because I usually have a lot on. Speechify allows me to listen to web pages on the way home after I drop my boy off at work daily. Apps like it are an absolute marvel. They also help a great deal with my attention regulation. The focus limitations of my severe ADHD are somewhat controlled by reading and listening to content simultaneously.
      https://speechify.com/about/?landing_url=https%3A%2F%2Fspeechify.com%2Fblog%2F
      
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      January 4, 2023 1:07pm
      - Jack5
        
        Nice to hear that, Deane.
        
        I have a young relative who is quite high on the autism-ADHD scale, and think I may have an idea of how tough things can be for you.
        
        It’s encouraging to hear that you have developed ways to cope with ADHD.
        
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        January 4, 2023 2:45pm
      - Alan Wilkinson
        
        Apart from the tools, is there a relationship between dyslexia and ADHD or autism? I have had several dyslexic friends and even an honours student who have done well in life despite their battles.
        
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        January 4, 2023 7:22pm
- softail 1450
  
  MMA,from a man blind in one eye who refuses to see the truth out of his other one.
  
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  January 5, 2023 7:41am
mikenmildagain

Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
I see the GOP is making history on its first day of business holding the majority in the US house of representatives.
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January 4, 2023 8:01am
- Im Right
  
  Much more pressing issues in NZ than bothering with US politics MMA.
  Like….when is the first poll(s) out in 2023, as this will determine whether St Jacinda steps down, or if the knifes are being sharpened plus the numbers calculated to dump her!
  Now that’s good politics, no need to look at the USA all the fun is potentially here!
  
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  January 4, 2023 8:13am
  - Ian Boag
    
    Much more pressing issues in NZ than bothering with US politics MMA
    
    My thoughts exactly. But there does seem to be a lot of buzz here about fiddled voting machines and who really won” and Hunter’s laptop and … and ..
    
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    December 5, 2022 6:44pm
  - pdm
    
    Roy Morgan about the end of next week is my guess IR.
    
    Labour below 30 again – 3rd month in a row for Roy Morgan.
    
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    January 4, 2023 9:03am
    - Sir Cullen's Sidekick
      
      pdm – Roy Morgan would have run out of money (like TV3) by now. So they may publish a poll only in March. Generally not many polls in the month of January which will be a great relief to our dear leader.
      
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      January 4, 2023 11:41am
  - mikenmildagain
    
    I think you will find that DPF, and many commenters here, are interested in US politics. I see two main reasons for this:
    1. What happens in US politics has a large impact on the rest of the world.
    2. US politicians are waay more interesting and amusing than our rather staid crop.
    
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    January 4, 2023 9:08am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      I follow US because I have friends there. NZ politics is just bitches fighting.
      
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      January 4, 2023 9:45am
      - mikenmildagain
        
        There has been a second votes and the republicans still can’t get a majority to vote in a new speaker.
        
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        January 4, 2023 9:54am
      - mikenmildagain
        
        Third round of voting under way, Steve. McCarthy has managed to peel off one of Gym Jordan’s supporters but it probably won’t be enough.
        
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        January 4, 2023 10:41am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      Biden certainly has the world in a mess
      
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      January 4, 2023 10:01am
      - HardAsTooth
        
        A couple of early hiccups aside, I think Biden has done has done a reasonably good on foreigner policy. If I was inclined to believe in a deity I would certainly be thanking them that Biden and not Trump was President when Putin invaded Ukraine.
        
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        January 4, 2023 12:24pm
      - kowtow
        
        HasT
        
        Is that because Biden gave Putin a green light for a ‘minor incursion’.
        
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        January 4, 2023 12:41pm
      - Matt Long
        
        That’s a time travel conundrum isn’t it? Imagining how badly Trump would have handled Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, when most likely Trump wouldn’t have green lighted the invasion to begin with.
        
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        January 4, 2023 4:55pm
    - Deane Jessep
      
      Very true Mike, I’m of the view that US politics is much more important than most in NZ realise. For largely the same reasons as you. Our position in the world is affected more significantly by US movements than anything we do ourselves.
      
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      January 4, 2023 10:46am
    - softail 1450
      
      MMA,”What happens in US politics has a large impact on the rest of the world” .
      The early 2000s have called, they want their political and economic policies back MMA.
      
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      January 5, 2023 7:45am
  - Paulus
    
    Nobody in Labour would dare challenge her so here’s hoping she stays on until the election when she can be publically humiliated.
    
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    January 4, 2023 9:27am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      I want to see the thermonuclear meltdown.
      
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      January 4, 2023 9:46am
      - G the giant from Dunedin
        
        Māori caucus goes feral !
        
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        January 4, 2023 10:02am
      - Jack5
        
        Paulus’s … Nobody in Labour would dare challenge her [Ardern] …
        
        Mahuta and Wily-Willy Jackson’s Maori faction are already in control. They’re the puppeteers.
        
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        January 4, 2023 11:35am
      - Cassandra
        
        To G: goes? Do you mean remains?
        
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        January 4, 2023 1:49pm
    - Sir Cullen's Sidekick
      
      She will win easily Paulus. Labour-Greens-Maori-NZ First gummit is as sure as Income Insurance scheme.
      
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      January 4, 2023 11:43am
      - NZer In Exile
        
        Is that you Hulun?
        
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        January 4, 2023 7:53pm
    - Geoff1
      
      Mahuta might and Robertson’s time is ripe to stage a coup, he is running out to be leader, however I’m with you hoping she stays on until the election when she can be publicly humiliated.
      
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      January 4, 2023 3:50pm
  - Deane Jessep
    
    Even though I think US politics is very important and useful to follow. I do agree with you that NZ Politics 2023 is going to be a blast to follow.
    
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    January 4, 2023 10:47am
  - HardAsTooth
    
    I would have thought dumping her is very unlikely. She remains relatively popular with the general public, even if her party does not, and they have no one who can credibly replace her. She’s their best and likely only chance of having any hope. No, I don’t buy the notion she will resign or be rolled.
    
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    January 4, 2023 11:33am
    - David Garrett
      
      Hard as: I agree entirely. Think this dog of a government is as good as gone is nothing more than wishful thinking
      
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      January 4, 2023 12:07pm
      - Cassandra
        
        You think Labour is in with a good chance next election DG?
        
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        January 4, 2023 1:51pm
    - ngatimozart
      
      HardAs; Agree and there’s a lot that can happen between now and November. This is to far out to say that this bunch of incompetents will be out on the street come November. They could do a Lazarus and that would not be a good outcome for us.
      
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      January 4, 2023 5:34pm
- Dougal10
  
  You are ruining a blog that was once quite informative with you infantile commenting.
  
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  January 4, 2023 8:26am
  - Dougal10
    
    And whats with the upticking of your own comments by your other logins?
    
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    January 4, 2023 8:28am
    - mikenmildagain
      
      Not something I do but it seems to me that many different logins would be required to move the overall trend of karma ticks. I use the karma ticks mainly as a way of ‘ticking off’ comments so that fresh ones stand out more when scrolling through the thread.
      
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      January 4, 2023 9:06am
      - Don Beckett
        
        So do I – and agreeing or disagreeing.
        
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        January 4, 2023 11:02am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      VPNs
      
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      January 4, 2023 9:50am
    - Deane Jessep
      
      I’m about as far away from Mike ideologically as it’s possible to be, but I often up-tick him as he sometimes provides an interesting point of view. So either:
      1) I’m really a Mike bot and this whole shit show is alot more metaphysical than any of us realised.
      2) Some of us play the ball not the player.
      
      I do find it odd how very innocuous and often useful comments by Mike get down ticked (like several above, including the Braille one).
      
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      January 4, 2023 10:56am
      - Ghost
        
        People down vote because Mike has a reputation. He’d be alright if he didn’t play people
        
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        January 4, 2023 11:03am
      - Deane Jessep
        
        Ghost, I know why they down tick. I just think that says more about them than him. And agree, someone has indeed set Mike’s Sardonic/Sarcastic dial right up to 10, then ripped it off and thrown it deep into the bush.
        
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        January 4, 2023 11:20am
      - Cassandra
        
        Uptick but see above. What goes round comes round.
        
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        January 4, 2023 1:52pm
      - Sol Invictus
        
        I’ve made that very comment myself quite recently.
        
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        January 4, 2023 6:58pm
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    You are ruining a blog
    
    That’s mikenmildagain’s raison d’être.
    
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    January 4, 2023 8:54am
    - mikenmildagain
      
      Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
      I really don’t think you should be imputing motives to another commenter’s post. I have stated many times my opinion that, the purpose of Kiwiblog comments is to entertain. Such entertainment cannot logically be described as ‘ruining a blog’, and if DPF thought otherwise I’m sure he would ban me.
      
      [Mod, since you have just recently returned from a ban, I am sure another can be arranged for you if you keep on this path]
      
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      January 4, 2023 9:03am
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        I really don’t think you should be imputing motives to another commenter’s post.
        
        Oh Goodness me, is that what I was doing?
        
        I wonder who I could have been emulating?
        
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        January 4, 2023 9:19am
      - Swifty
        
        Hahahahahaha!
        
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        January 4, 2023 9:26am
      - All_on_Red
        
        The issue is you derive your ‘entertainment’ from trying to ruin the blog.
        A strategy called ‘pissing in the well’.
        You’re a very petty minded little man.
        
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        January 4, 2023 9:29am
      - Aquarius
        
        Oh, please mods get rid of the sad little puppy
        
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        January 4, 2023 9:43am
      - Swifty
        
        A ban?
        
        Really?
        
        And here was me thinking that Mike hadn’t been posting because he had some top secret, mission-critical, public sector work he was absorbed in, working day and night in the national interest!
        
        But it turns out it was just a plain old KB ban!
        
        How disappointing, for me.
        
        How embarrassing, for him.
        
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        January 4, 2023 10:04am
      - Deane Jessep
        
        Other than expanding on Mike’s view by adding “…and inform” after entertain. I agree entirely with him.
        
        The counter position that Mike brings often livens up what could easily slip into little more than an echo chamber.
        
        Here I go defending him again, but really Mod, et al, what in the thread above is leading him to a ban? Seems like a wholly absurd response to a perfectly reasonably series of comments.
        
        Feeling like something is being “ruined” by someone’s words and wanting them banned is way to close to the exact kind of censorship of free speech many of us here find repugnant in the other side.
        
        If he’s not threatening or using foul language really what’s the problem?
        
        How about you all just excersise your right to not read or respond to what he says?
        
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        January 4, 2023 11:06am
      - ngatimozart
        
        Aquarius
        Oh, please mods get rid of the sad little puppy
        
        How pathetic. If you can’t handle the heat, stay out of the boiler room.
        
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        January 4, 2023 5:37pm
      - NZer In Exile
        
        One thousand lines.
        I
        MUST
        NOT
        POST STUPID
        CRAP
        
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        January 4, 2023 7:55pm
      - mikenmildagain
        
        NZer In exile only needs to write that another 999 times. Although perhaps he would find it easier in normal writing rather than all caps.
        
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        January 4, 2023 9:50pm
    - Swifty
      
      Can you imagine going to summer bbqs right now and being a right dick to the other guests, tipping over their drinks, maligning them and the points they make in conversation, pushing over little kids, kicking the dog and hiding everyone’s footwear.
      
      And then saying “All I’m doing is trying to be funny, the host hasn’t kicked me out so my behaviour must be fine…”
      
      That’s Mike’s logic.
      
      Finally a word to KB’s newer posters, I started with KB in ‘08 and Mike was a veteran then – and known for being a one-trick pony even at that stage.
      
      He ain’t going to change.
      
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      January 4, 2023 10:32am
      - mikenmildagain
        
        I’m sure Swifty will agree that this blog is a much nicer place since 2019 and the departure of the worst offenders against the comments policy.
        
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        January 4, 2023 10:54am
      - Deane Jessep
        
        Swifty, it’s amazing how often in the real world those sorts of behavior’s get a pass from party hosts. Myself and my close friends run a strict “Bring only nice people” policy. And many times I’ve kicked people out of parties.
        
        Though, just as often I’ll sit them down on the couch and ask what’s wrong, to discover recent pain and trauma they just need to talk about.
        
        Where your party metaphor fails though is in implementation of sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me. Physical threats in the real world need to be taken alot more seriously than a comment troll.
        
        I’ve been here since ’06, and honestly, to my recollection I never really let Mike get under my skin. And I do occasionally enjoy his posts and comments.
        
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        January 4, 2023 11:13am
      - Swifty
        
        All good and fair points Deane.
        
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        January 4, 2023 11:27am
      - Jack5
        
        Milky’s … this blog is a much nicer place since 2019 …
        
        Kiwiblog was more robust when a poster like Griff in tantrums threw around “paedophile!” accusations against posters he disagreed with.
        
        When we had the crazy Kea, brilliant but who went off her head from time to time and had to be banned by DPF.
        
        There were, and maybe still are, a few pseudonyms shared by more than one person. Stephieboy was one where at times the person posting was obviously new to English.
        
        Kea, or the main person using Kea, seems to have been Marnie Sheppeard, a physicist, who was shown in a Stuff interview to be living on the bones of her arse as she tried to crack string theory.
        
        She would post sometimes about her trips into the mountains, and in 2021 Sheppeard went missing while climbing near the same place she had gone missing 17 years earlier (see link below).
        
        This time she was found dead.
        
        “Kea” had been given a final ban from Kiwiblog, but was posting on another site, and “Kea” postings continued there, at least for a time.
        This led to some on this blog feeling that “Kea” might not have been Sheppeard. To me, it seemed more likely that a posting partner kept the pseudonym alive.
        
        https://explorersweb.com/mountaineer-goes-missing-again-in-the-same-place/
        
        An obituary for Sheppeard, who many of us believe was the poster Kea:
        
        https://www.science20.com/tommaso_dorigo/remembering_marni-253758
        
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        January 4, 2023 12:11pm
      - Deane Jessep
        
        Wow Jack5, I wondered what had happened to Kea. Had no idea of the back story here; so sad to hear, May she rest in peace.
        
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        January 4, 2023 1:23pm
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        Kea is alive and kicking on YSB
        
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        January 4, 2023 3:16pm
      - Jack5
        
        Maggy Wassilieff, does the Kea at YSB periodically burst into anti-Semitic raves leading to YSB kicking that Kea off to cool down?
        
        If not, I am sceptical it is the same poster who was the main contributor under the Kea pseudonym on Kiwiblog.
        
        Sheppeard’s academic specialty and her mountaineering fitted her Kiwiblog posts.
        
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        January 4, 2023 4:51pm
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        @Jack5
        
        I don’t think folks get kicked off YSB.
        
        I haven’t noticed anti-semitic raves on YSB, but I only look in once in a while.
        
        Kea does seem to have strong opinions on other topics over there… something to do with housing and the economy ( I think).
        
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        January 4, 2023 5:17pm
      - Alan Wilkinson
        
        I really don’t find Mike hard to ignore and I never downtick anyway. Occasionally he makes a good point despite himself.
        
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        January 4, 2023 6:54pm
      - NZer In Exile
        
        Jack5 was Griff big on climate alarmism?
        
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        January 5, 2023 3:58pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Just downtick and ignore. Mike is a troll.
    
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    January 4, 2023 9:48am
    - Deane Jessep
      
      Exactly
      
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      January 4, 2023 11:06am
    - Loddenthinks
      
      My NY resolution, decided just now, is to ignore and NOT downtick. Insecure and immature narcissists thrive on any attention, uptick or downtick it makes no difference.
      
      His aim is to get inside people’s heads which to be fair he has evidently managed to do, including me on occasions. No more, I shall not respond to any comments or posts, including the predictable response to this one.
      
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      January 4, 2023 12:00pm
    - kowtow
      
      Yep , I really don’t understand why anyone engages with it at all.
      
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      January 4, 2023 12:43pm
    - wilderbeast
      
      Actually a bit sad, unless it’s just calculated to destabilise KB in general.
      
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      January 4, 2023 4:31pm
  - Prince
    
    Actually I find the ‘the vax is a hoax’, and ‘Luxon must do as I say or else he is toast’ entries more annoying.
    And also the young lady with friends in a tennis club.
    But this is still the best blog imo, so I’m staying.
    
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    January 4, 2023 9:55am
    - Bridgenag
      
      Don’t do Twitter and don’t need to when Maggie Pie is around ………. Lighten up. The various form of Mike are tiresome ….hope he gets a ban soon
      
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      January 4, 2023 10:29am
    - ClanMcleod
      
      Prince – I don’t recall anyone saying the vax is a hoax? Many have been critical of it’s (lack of) efficacy. That is a fact. There are concerns that it is injuring and killing people. That is also a fact, the only thing disputed is the numbers. So I’m not sure what you’re referring to.
      Maggie Pie’s post are generally amusing. Mike’s very rarely are. When they are I’ll uptick them.
      
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      January 4, 2023 11:38am
Opie

Regarding the “incident” in the American football involving the Buffalo Bills’ Damar Hamlin, who suffered cardiac arrest during a match last night. His heartbeat was restored on the field, the team said. He is in critical condition.

Yet another high profile heart attack.

This guy is 24.

Now I don’t know whether he has taken any of the covid “vaccines” – either by choice or by force to keep his career but I’m pretty sure the NFL required it.

But but this happens all the time, elite athletes are always having heart attacks on the field…

Dr. Peter McCullough pointed out in a recent paper that since the shots were deployed, 1598 athletes have suffered cardiac arrest, with 1101 of them dying. In order to find 1101 similar athlete deaths he has to examine a 38-year period.

Let that sink in. 38 years worth of heart attacks in around 18 months. And that’s only looking at athletes.

Can we prove that the experimental therapies have caused the increase? Not yet, but given that anyone trying to is silenced it pretty much says it all.

What’s a few heart attacks compared to 80,000 dying though right?

Safe – clearly not.
Effective – ask my boosted mate who is the only one in his household to have covid. The non vaccinated or non boosted family members are fine…
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January 4, 2023 8:06am
- Cinematic
  
  It’s pretty well established that PEDs and the vaccines don’t mix well.
  
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  January 4, 2023 8:54am
  - ClanMcleod
    
    PED’s aren’t in widespread use. In most sports they are tested for regularly. No doubt there will be some issues that occur as a result of injecting yourself with other chemicals. But the correlation between vaccination and increased all cause mortality has been alarming for a while now, certainly enough alarm to see the vaccinating immediately stopped.
    
    Many culpable people in powerful positions, including the 4th estate are doing everything they can to prevent this being investigated. It is the greatest health disaster ever and it was widely warned about, there is no “sorry we didn’t know” option.
    The backlash will be something to behold.
    
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    January 4, 2023 10:13am
    - yossarian
      
      Really?? I wish I could be so naive to believe that PEDs aren’t in every sport. You’d be surprised how many amateurs are using
      
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      January 4, 2023 10:28am
      - ClanMcleod
        
        yossarian – you know this how? I know for certain that many body builders use them. I thought it was only the Russians who were banned for using drug enhancement in sport? Or are you saying everyone else just hasn’t been caught yet?
        Well maybe that’s what’s causing all these young people to collapse and die from heart attacks and the correlation with vaccine rollout is just an unfortunate coincidence. //
        
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        January 4, 2023 11:40am
      - Deane Jessep
        
        ClanMcleod;
        Only those pesky Russian’s aye? Shame it’s just a meme;
        
        Cycling:
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_doping_cases_in_cycling
        
        Olympics:
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doping_at_the_Olympic_Games
        
        General Athletics:
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_doping_cases_in_athletics
        
        Baseball:
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Major_League_Baseball_players_suspended_for_performance-enhancing_drugs
        
        An informing note on amateur sports:
        https://metrifit.com/blog/drugs-in-amateur-sport-is-a-growing-problem/
        
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        January 4, 2023 3:09pm
- Benedict Yu
  
  The steadily emerging data suggests that myocarditis , especially in young athletic males, is more common than the ‘it’s one in a million, don’t worry’ that we were led to believe. The conclusion from article in ‘Science’ is worth quoting in full:
  
  “Subclinical myocarditis may be more common than thought. Christian Müller, director of the Cardiovascular Research Institute at University Hospital Basel, recently collected blood samples from almost 800 hospital workers 3 days after they got a COVID-19 booster. None met the criteria for myocarditis but 40 had high levels of troponin, a molecule that can indicate damage to the heart muscle. Chronic heart problems and other preexisting conditions might be to blame in 18 cases, but for the other 22 cases—2.8% of participants, women and men—Müller believes the vaccine caused troponin levels to rise. The findings, which he presented at a meeting in August, align with those of a recently published study from Thailand.”
  
  “Heart risks, data gaps fuel debate over COVID-19 boosters for young people”
  
  https://www.science.org/content/article/heart-risks-data-gaps-fuel-debate-covid-19-boosters-young-people
  
  That is 2.8 percent of the sample showing markers for heart damage. If you were a strong, fit, 25 year old, why would you be vaccinated? A 2.8 percent risk – say 1 in 30 is not a small risk.
  
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  January 4, 2023 9:01am
  - krazykiwi
    
    “If you were a strong, fit, 25 year old, why would you be vaccinated”
    
    Because PMs, directors or health, doctors, experts and media said you needed to be responsible, do your part, and be prepared to be ostracized or barred from civil society if you did not. Your complete, unquestioning obedience was demanded.
    
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    January 4, 2023 9:56am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  His cardiac arrest was caused by the impact he received, end of
  
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  January 4, 2023 9:01am
  - krazykiwi
    
    You are referring to commotio cordis which is a heart attack caused by the heart receiving a massive direct shock at a key point in the cardiac cycle. It is VERY rare, occurring ~20 times a year in the US and almost always in pre-teen or teen boys who are struck with a baseball or hockey puck.
    
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    January 4, 2023 9:17am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      I have been watching the us news for hours, yes that’s what they called it, but they said it was common in pre teens, but css as n happen to anyone, the angle, timing of the heart beat, and the impact can cause it for anyone, not just sports, it has nothing to do with the bloody vaccine
      
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      January 4, 2023 9:26am
      - krazykiwi
        
        “it has nothing to do with the bloody vaccine”
        
        That is an absurd assertion. You have no facts to support this. Given the alarming increase in cardiac incidents post widespread use of the experimental genetic injectables there is a very strong possibility that, like other on-field collapses, this one is related to his ‘vaccination’.
        
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        January 4, 2023 9:52am
      - Matt Long
        
        G has been watching the NEWS, now he knows all the FACTS.
        
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        January 4, 2023 5:01pm
  - ClanMcleod
    
    G – keep your head in the bucket of sand. It won’t change the facts though.
    
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    January 4, 2023 10:06am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      The guy’s cardiac arrest was nothing to do with the vaccine, what is head in the sand about that?
      
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      January 4, 2023 11:39am
      - ClanMcleod
        
        G – you have absolutely no evidence for making such a definitive statement, other than you heard it on the TV.
        The numbers emerging are flashing warning lights unlike we’ve ever seen before. The excuses for why so many people are “dying suddenly” get more stupid by the day.
        
        In 2006 the University Hospital of Lausanne, Switzerland, looked at sudden cardiac death in athletes under 35 years old. They found 1,101 cases over a period of 38 years. The site goodsciencing.com reported that by December 2022, 1,616 athletes had suffered cardiac arrests since their Covid injections and that 1,114 of them were dead, despite immediately being attended to by first responders and qualified first-aiders.
        
        Further.
        
        ‘From February 2021 to March 2022, millennials experienced the equivalent of a Vietnam war, with more than 60,000 excess deaths,’ he said. ‘The Vietnam war took 12 years to kill the same number of healthy young people we’ve just seen die in 12 months.’
        
        This 12-month period covers the Covid vaccination rollout for that age group so in theory we would have expected to see a decrease in excess mortality, not an increase.
        
        Feel free to read this full article and come back and report any errors you find.
        
        https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/sally-beck-wall-street-executive-edward-dowd/
        
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        January 4, 2023 11:50am
- krazykiwi
  
  Can’t locate the paper, but I read something about a dangerous correlation between the experimental genetic injections snd adrenaline leading to heart failure.
  
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  January 4, 2023 9:12am
  - kevn
    
    @kk… http://www.amidwesterndoctor@substack.com
    3rd Jan entry has more data.
    
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    January 4, 2023 9:24am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      I am not following that, don’t understand.
      
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      January 4, 2023 10:01am
      - ClanMcleod
        
        SO – think this is the link kevn was trying to post.
        
        https://amidwesterndoctor.substack.com/p/the-american-public-is-extremely
        
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        January 4, 2023 10:26am
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        Thanks ClanMcleod. I will digest that later. There is a lot going on there.
        
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        January 4, 2023 11:30am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Time for the World Governments to grow some balls and email Pfizer et all a please explain letter. Excuses not acceptable.
  
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  January 4, 2023 9:56am
- crikey
  
  Opie: The on-going, and more significant issue in my opinion, is that hospitals are able to undertake only ~40% of elective surgeries.
  
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  January 4, 2023 9:59am
  - Deane Jessep
    
    All-cause excess mortality is definitely suffering from a serious conflation of causes; Deferred electives, voluntary opting out of health treatment (mental health), vaccines, suicides, violent crime, etc.
    
    The key for me is that all of this can be laid at the feet of the public health response to Covid-19. So as much as I care about identifying specifics to treat and stop them. Part of me doesn’t care as it’s all caused by the same nonsense response; we need accountability and systemic changes to prevent it from happening again.
    
    This was an interesting piece on how we got here:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ippVFZXygZ8
    
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    January 4, 2023 3:24pm
- ClanMcleod
  
  Opie – if the effort being put in to maintain the covid circus narrative was instead put into investigating the alarming numbers of deaths and injuries, there is no doubt these experimental products will be implicated.
  The signals have been there for months, more than enough to stop the jabbing a long time ago while an investigation took place. There are too many heads on the chopping block right now and they will do everything in their power to stop any such investigation.
  It is inevitable the truth will come out, the longer these people lie and deflect, the more damage they do and the greater the punishment they deserve.
  
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  January 4, 2023 10:04am
- Scott
  
  Opie-totally agree with your comments. If we do have a Royal commission I would like an investigation about how many adverse effects have been recorded against how many shots of the vaccine? Some people say there is one in 500 adverse reactions to the vaccine. I have heard one in 100.
  
  Certainly there seems to be since the vaccine an unprecedented number of fit young men collapsing on sports fields. I remember when Christian Erickson collapsed playing football and almost died. They said that it had nothing to do with the vaccine.
  
  But here’s my point. If Erickson’s collapse was due to the vaccine, would the media report it? I don’t think they would? I think the media are so invested in propping up the covid narrative that vaccines are safe, they would not report an adverse event honestly. Am I wrong?
  
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  January 4, 2023 10:21am
  - ClanMcleod
    
    Reporting adverse reactions is actively discouraged. As per my comments above, so many people are implicated in pushing this experimental product. They really don’t want to know they may be responsible for injuring and killing people.
    I know of at least 3 people locally who are vaccine damaged, the kindest description of the response from the local medical centre is “lukewarm.”
    ACC won’t have a bar of it.
    
    It’s being actively covered up. Fact.
    
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    January 4, 2023 10:32am
- Grizz
  
  From this paper, define athlete. Were they professional or elite athletes? Or were they participants in recreational sporting activities that happened to have cardiac events.
  
  Those numbers of people would probably have cardiac events while undergoing exercise such as cycling, running, presidents grade rugby etc in NZ alone each year, for a whole host of reasons, ie ischemic heart disease, cardiac arrhythmias and structural cardiac disease. This was happening before COVID.
  
  As for the football player, he collapsed immediately following a collision. If you think it was a vaccine he may have had a year ago you are hearing hooves in a paddock of horses and thinking of zebras.
  
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  January 4, 2023 11:30am
  - ClanMcleod
    
    Grizz – the numbers don’t lie.
    
    Fit, young athletes, the healthiest among us, were collapsing and failing down dead while playing sports, such as Italian footballer Giuseppe Perrino who died at the age of 29 while playing in a memorial match for his late brother. This is not normal, and Dowd’s book has 23 pages of headlines devoted to dead athletes.
    
    Former England football player Matt le Tissier said: ‘I’ve never seen anything like it. I played for 17 years, and I don’t think I saw one person in 17 years have to come off the football pitch with breathing difficulties, clutching their heart. It’s not just footballers, sports people in general – tennis players, cricketers, basketball players, just how many are keeling over?’
    
    In 2006 the University Hospital of Lausanne, Switzerland, looked at sudden cardiac death in athletes under 35 years old. They found 1,101 cases over a period of 38 years. The site goodsciencing.com reported that by December 2022, 1,616 athletes had suffered cardiac arrests since their Covid injections and that 1,114 of them were dead, despite immediately being attended to by first responders and qualified first-aiders.
    
    At the very least, the experimental jab programme should be suspended while an immediate and thorough investigation is undertaken.
    
    https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/sally-beck-wall-street-executive-edward-dowd/
    
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    January 4, 2023 11:54am
    - Grizz
      
      Yes, again what does goodsciencing define as athletes.
      
      Again, the Bills player collapsed following a collision.
      
      Of these thousand deaths, do you have autopsy details?
      
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      January 4, 2023 2:04pm
- Jimbob
  
  This is not going to end well for Pfizer. It will be sued for billions. This alone will see Ardern run to the safety of the UN.
  
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  January 4, 2023 11:45am
  - Deane Jessep
    
    Their contracts included comprehensive liability waivers. Legally it’s we taxpayers, who will have to pay. Doubly annoying for me as I refused their dodgy “therapeutic”.
    
    One out might be proving bad faith and invalidating the entire agreement. But honestly, that’s never going to happen.
    
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    January 4, 2023 3:41pm
    - JohnRidd
      
      The liability waiver does not cover fr@ud.
      
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      January 4, 2023 6:36pm
- krazykiwi
  
  Here is a chronological record of athletes who have collapsed and/or died since 2021-2023.
  
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  January 4, 2023 12:25pm
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    Hell’s bells…
    
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    January 4, 2023 1:05pm
  - Scott
    
    Thanks for that krazy. That is an amazingly long list of fit young people, mostly men, collapsing on the sports field.
    Since when do fit young men collapse on the sports field?
    But hey nothing to do with the vaccine, move along, nothing to see here.
    
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    January 4, 2023 1:11pm
- Jake Dee
  
  All very interesting but highly emotional hot button issues is exactly when we all need to be extra careful about following rational rules of scientific inquiry. Exactly what is the data and where does it come from ? What are the criteria for being counted in or out and are they the same criteria over time ?
  If there is an uptick in heart attacks of young men, when did this trend start ? What are other possible explanations ?
  Some other possibilities that immediately leap to mind are drugs such as amphetamines, steroids and cocaine.
  You don’t have to look very deeply into the history of high performance sports (especially body building) to discover stories of athletes dying at shockingly young ages
  
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  January 4, 2023 1:47pm
  - Alan Wilkinson
    
    Exercise is bad for you. If you feel like exercise, lie down until the feeling goes away. Sport is fun and work is necessary but exercise for its own sake is just disgusting.
    
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    January 4, 2023 6:58pm
    - Nickc2
      
      If you’re not fit, exercise is dangerous. If you’re fit, you don’t need exercise. (anon)
      
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      January 4, 2023 7:02pm
- bco90
  
  “Dr. Peter McCullough pointed out in a recent paper that since the shots were deployed, 1598 athletes have suffered cardiac arrest, with 1101 of them dying. In order to find 1101 similar athlete deaths he has to examine a 38-year period.”
  
  Where is he getting this information exactly?
  
  Just as the govt/MSM approved health experts can lie and deceive with statistics, so can the unapproved, like Dr. McCullough.
  
  Even if we grant that his stats are correct, are we also forgetting that not only does the vaxx increase the likelihood of myocarditis in young males, but covid itself also does that.
  
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  January 4, 2023 11:10pm
Opie

https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2023/01/two-dead-in-far-north-crash-as-holiday-road-toll-period-comes-to-an-end.html

Congratulations to the government, for delivering the highest holiday road toll in 4 years.

All that money spent on adverts and reducing the speed limits instead of fixing the roads and adding the barriers that they said they were going to…

The response will be a press release saying how much extra money the government will spray out but it won’t be on solutions or delivery, just more stupid adverts.

This governments actions and inactions literally cause people to die unnecessarily. It’s past incompetence, it nust be deliberate.
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January 4, 2023 8:14am
- CJames
  
  You have to add that all the expenditure (together with cycleways) was instead of fixing the roads. There are numerous cases of the barriers being built next to potholes. But don’t worry, the Minister has asked NZTA why the roads are so damaged. If that isn’t the definition of clueless, I don’t know what is.
  
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  January 4, 2023 8:48am
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    I call for the Minister of Transport to resign due the failure of his policies to decrease the road toll.
    
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    January 4, 2023 8:55am
    - hullkiwi
      
      Not just Wood, but also the CE of Waka Kotahi w.ho is on record as saying her primary policy objective is the implementation & achievement of the Road to Zero Policy.
      
      The record and the excuses speak for themselves. I wrote a similar piece in the GD on Monday.
      
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      January 4, 2023 9:47am
    - septic skeptic
      
      Good thought but the reality is they will double down if the road toll goes up (because they need to do more as it’s not working) and double down if the road toll goes down (because it is working).
      
      FfS, I heard some looney lobby group advocating teaching safe driving practices in PRIMARY schools! So that when they sat their test a decade later they would be thoroughly indoctrinated already. I kid you not.
      
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      January 4, 2023 4:07pm
  - Cinematic
    
    There are pot holes up north that are literally death traps for motorcyclists. They’ve been there for at least 6 months.
    
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    January 4, 2023 8:56am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      But 9 years of under funding, and oh they had a heavy rain a while ago
      
      26 1
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      January 4, 2023 9:04am
- Benedict Yu
  
  In February the Government will announce lowered open road speed limits throughout the country.
  
  https://www.nzta.govt.nz/media-releases/consultation-opens-on-speed-management-plan-for-new-zealands-state-highways/
  
  Consultation closed on 12 December. 90 percent of submitters would have opposed the proposals. They will be ignored. Actually they will not be ignored. There will be trivial adjustments made so that they can say “See we listened”.
  
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  January 4, 2023 9:05am
  - mikenmildagain
    
    Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
    90 percent seems high. Have the submissions, or a summary of them, been released?
    
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    January 4, 2023 9:10am
    - Benedict Yu
      
      I’ll just repeat what the other guy said:
      
      “You are ruining a blog that was once quite informative with you infantile commenting.”
      
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      January 4, 2023 9:14am
      - mikenmildagain
        
        Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
        It would have been easier for you to write ‘no’.
        
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        January 4, 2023 9:25am
    - Matt Long
      
      Did you submit that speed limits should be lowered Mikey?
      
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      January 4, 2023 10:13am
      - mikenmildagain
        
        Of course not, Mattie.
        
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        January 4, 2023 10:26am
      - Matt Long
        
        Matty
        
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        January 4, 2023 5:02pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Seems to be very childish. Who wrote that shit for NZTA?
    
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    January 4, 2023 10:08am
  - Stu2
    
    Wonder what the benefit-cost ratio looks like.
    
    Increased travel times, reduction in the efficiency of road freight, problems on some truck routes with driving hours (trips that can just be done in a working day now will become impossible).
    
    vs
    
    lower fatalities, less fuel use, lower carbon emissions (100 km/hr is higher than the most fuel efficient speed, due to wind resistance)
    
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    January 4, 2023 11:07am
  - Deane Jessep
    
    Repeating something I commented on the other day. A friend of a friend works for NZTA; they told us over the break that it’s an open secret inside NZTA that the reduction in road speeds is really about reducing road wear and tear as we cannot afford to fix them anymore.
    
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    January 4, 2023 3:46pm
- Benedict Yu
  
  It is all so futile. A while back I posted data on deaths and injuries per 100,000 km travelled and per capita. Deaths and injuries peaked in the late 1980s, with about one-third of the numbers of vehicles we have on the roads today.
  
  The solutions need to be targeted at the terrible, criminally stupid drivers. Caught driving on methamphetamine. Banned for 3 years and straight to prison if you drive while disqualified. Second offence banned for life. Based on what I see while driving in New Zealand (and I have covered about 250,000 km in 10 years) a tiny percentage of drivers are causing the mayhem. And I can tell you they are not the drivers getting busted for driving at 115 kmh on an empty motorway, or at 120 kmh at the end of a passing lane.
  
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  January 4, 2023 9:13am
  - kowtow
    
    Tiny percentage ?
    
    Haven’t you noticed the amount of idiots on their phones.
    
    It’s huge .
    
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    January 4, 2023 9:31am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      They could use speakerphone but people seem to be text mad.
      
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      January 4, 2023 10:11am
  - MCōs
    
    Thailand has a terrible road toll.
    People drive at breakneck speed, drunk, drugged.
    The worst are inter city vans and buses.
    Few radars, and minimal drink testing.
    Motor cyclists are killed in droves. My wife’s sister, the father of her son and her niece all killed in bike accidents. Very distressing.
    
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    January 4, 2023 9:59am
    - Benedict Yu
      
      I was surprised at how horrific South Africa is. Rate per million km travelled twice that of Thailand. More than 13,000 annual deaths 🙁
      
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_traffic-related_death_rate
      
      Rather than the ‘road to zero’ a better target would have been for New Zealand to lower its death and injury toll to match Australia – that would be a 30 percent reduction. It would also have prompted a reasoned debate about how to go about it.
      
      But no they have target of “zero” which means they are ridiculed. Why am I surprised?
      
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      January 4, 2023 10:17am
      - NothingLeft
        
        South Africa is poor, and relies a lot beyond insanely overpacked minibuses to transport people around. They are so packed that for long distance trips they will even remove the steering wheel and replace it with a pair of vicegrips with smallest (young teen) driver to increase space. They drive at high speed to reduce time in horribly uncomfortable overpacked van and increase number of trips that can be undertaken. When they crash the death rates are high.
        
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        January 4, 2023 10:29am
      - Stu2
        
        Not easy to match oz.
        
        They are more urbanised than we are, and a lower proportion of their travel is open road where the majority of our road fatalities happen.
        
        Their interstate road network is higher quality than ours. Easier terrain and a stronger economy have helped.
        
        We spent decades with a lot of the petrol revenue being skimmed off by the govt, rather than being spent on the roads. The Clark govt fixed that in about 2007 and we have made a lot of progress on road building and improvement since.
        
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        January 4, 2023 11:01am
      - mawm
        
        You need to experience the behaviour of mini-bus taxi drivers to understand why the South African road toll is so high.
        
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        January 4, 2023 12:52pm
    - Deane Jessep
      
      I spent two weeks driving a rental around Thailand back in 2009. As far as I could tell there were no road rules except: give way to anything bigger than you. I remember seeing the results of a motoped v elephant v truck three party accident. Total carnage.
      
      The other thing was the automatic Toyota Corolla I rented had a regularly sticking accelerator and had to occasionally put it in neutral and turn the engine off to stop it.
      
      When I spoke to the rental company they told me almost all vehicles in Thailand were made from rejected and defective parts.
      
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      January 4, 2023 3:57pm
    - NZer In Exile
      
      Yep, personally know of one person killed riding a scooter there and another seriously injured.
      
      Then there’s the second nightmare; dealing with the authorities after the event.
      
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      January 5, 2023 3:51pm
- MCōs
  
  How many road deaths were directly attributable to the government?
  How many road deaths were directly attributable to poor driving?
  
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  January 4, 2023 9:31am
  - Pineapple Lumps
    
    Those are good diversionary questions, why not also throw in what would Seymour or Luxon do to fix this?
    
    On most issues the left would choose anything but individual responsibility to blame bad outcomes. eg poor health outcomes due to racism not the lifestyle choices of the individual.
    
    So Mcos, with the road toll do you think the issue is predominately the individual drivers responsibility?
    
    What, if any, responsibility do you think the Government has to address the road toll?
    
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    January 4, 2023 9:50am
  - hullkiwi
    
    MCos, sadly yesterday there was a death on West Coast Road, Warkworth. The cause was when two motorcycles connected.
    
    Connected, yes, they were racing parallel and the bikes touched on a windy piece of road. Result one dead, one in hospital in a serious condition (flown by air ambulance).
    
    Bottom line, they were observed riding and what they were doing was over confident stupid riding on a piece of road where doing 100kph in a car is foolish. I know this, because we are locals to the area.
    
    Unless there is a significant increase in enforcement this level of stupidity will continue to occur.
    
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    January 4, 2023 10:00am
    - Loddenthinks
      
      Darwin doing his job, tragic for those left behind and who had to clean up the mess. I see many idiotic motorcyclists and often comment “there goes another temporary citizen”.
      
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      January 4, 2023 12:12pm
  - Biscuit
    
    ‘Very few’ and ‘Most’, I’d say, MCōs…
    
    What twists my male mammaries immensely, however, is that in the rare circumstances when holiday road deaths either decrease or – has this ever happened? – not moved above Zero there will be a Minister proudly taking the credit.
    
    ‘Luck’ would appear to be the principal factor in how the numbers relate to previous years…
    
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    January 4, 2023 10:06am
  - krazykiwi
    
    You’re asking the wrong question. Try this one: For the 99.992% of drivers who don’t die on the roads how many are psychologically impacted government road travel propaganda and/or inconvenienced by shocking road quality or stupid, evidence-free speed restrictions?
    
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    January 4, 2023 10:10am
  - Opie
    
    The governments policies and expenditure is based on reducing the road toll. To zero apparently.
    
    They have made changes and the results have got worse not better. That is on them.
    
    Bad drivers will always crash, it’s about reducing the chances by removing additional factors eg potholes and resurfacing the roads before they get slippery and preventing head ons as an example by installing barriers.
    
    They have failed to take all actions to prevent road accidents. If it was a private business they would be trying to close them down…
    
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    January 4, 2023 10:13am
  - ClanMcleod
    
    They were all covid deaths obviously. //
    
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    January 4, 2023 10:36am
  - Deane Jessep
    
    Irrelevant, both road quality and driver education are things we trust the government to implement on behalf of the rest of us.
    
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    January 4, 2023 3:59pm
- crikey
  
  Opie: I prefer to think of Labour’s “Road to Zero” as the trend towards the next election.
  
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  January 4, 2023 10:01am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Early days, but they are trying.
    
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    January 4, 2023 10:04am
    - Loddenthinks
      
      Very!
      
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      January 4, 2023 12:13pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  There are too many people in the car that hit the barrier.
  Stupidest ad on TV.
  
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  January 4, 2023 10:03am
  - Opie
    
    Lucky I sold you the right tyres.
    
    There is no way that guy would sell anyone the right tyres.
    
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    January 4, 2023 10:15am
- Clyde
  
  ANYONE with half a brain (and that rules out the Liemore Pardy and their supporters) can see that the zero road fatalities target is a nonsense. It is UNACHIEVABLE unless ALL road users stop using the roads. But literally millions have been spent by faceless fwits in the Ministry in promoting a pointless target set by the Brylcream Boy.
  
  What is the answer?
  
  Confine the Brylcream Boy and ALL of the Liemore Pardy to political oblivion. Best way of doing that? Use all of your influence each day with all of your friends to point out the multiple failures to deliver on anything and follow it up by pointing out the pathway currently being followed by maori control on ANYTHING that can have its ticket clipped. Believe it or not, but heaps of people either don’t want to know or haven’t heard about most things that are going to affect them. Frightening.
  
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  January 4, 2023 10:31am
  - hullkiwi
    
    You are being unfair to the Brylcream kid. The real fault lies with Julie Ann Genter, and Phil the “Twit” Twyford. The Road to Zero Policy was implemented in 2018.
    
    Millions has been wasted, for the Road Toll to stay as it was pre 2018. Brilliant!
    
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    January 4, 2023 11:30am
- Alan Wilkinson
  
  This Government is composed of infantile morons some of whom are also crooks. They truly believe reality is what comes out of their collective mouths. There is absolutely no problem they cannot make worse and they are working hard to prove that. And the worst MSM in living memory is giving them a free ride.
  
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  January 4, 2023 12:54pm
- ngatimozart
  
  There are a variety of problems with NZ roads and at present is the physical condition of the roads. They are not up to standard and need significant repairs that last a lot longer than the next rain storm.
  
  The next point is driver behaviour and quality. That has decreased markedly in the last 30 years, with many taking very stupid risks. Unfortunately when they take one risk to far, they injure or kill other innocent road users.
  
  There is a complete lack of policing on the roads and as a result road rules aren’t being enforced and bad drivers being taken off the road. I am no saint and have been known to sit a few km/h above the speed limit, but idiots passing on yellow lines and / or blind corners, misjudging distance between them and oncoming vehicle, driving far to fast for the conditions etc., are getting away with it until they are involved in an accident. As much as I loathed the MOT cops, they were on the road allegedly doing their jobs. They were seen out and about and that is what counts.
  
  Penalties are a joke and should be on par with Australian ones. Make them so that it does hurt the offender and hopefully force them to consider the error of their ways.
  
  My 2 cent coins worth.
  
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  January 4, 2023 5:51pm
Debsta

I see Act newsletter on New Years Day nailed a pretty good list to start with…

The next Government must deliver real change. It needs to:
• Hold an honest conversation about why the Treaty made all New Zealanders equal, not equally divided, with a referendum on co-governance
• Make sure victims have rights, and criminals face real consequences for a change by reintroducing three strikes and ending the pre-sentencing report gravy train
• End useless government spending, for good, then cut income taxes
• End the bureaucracy and waste of the climate change commission, deliver a no-nonsense climate policy
• Protect the best farmers in the world instead of punishing them
• Get kids attending schools where a knowledgeable adult transfers valuable academic knowledge to them
• Fund and finance infrastructure so that first world roads get built, within a truly reformed resource management law based on property rights
• Stop distracting the health system with ideology and the woke agenda, so medical professionals can do their job.
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January 4, 2023 8:16am
- Its only I
  
  I have been critical of Act in the very recent covid years. They talk about doing the easy stuff when its easy to do so and cower when they should be talking about what’s right when its hard. They had the least to loose by doing so, cowards.
  
  Its easy to apologise right now for the wrongs of COVID, until then why split centre right votes for them? Its bad enough having holding my nose while voting national.
  
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  January 4, 2023 9:11am
  - HardAsTooth
    
    Given that David has taken them from under 5% to around 10-11% and given Act a real shot of being a major player in the next government, this seems to me to be an odd criticism. And Act has, on the important issues like crime, co-governance, and economic policy, been as vocal as they can be, and with regards to co-governance can reasonably be called brave.
    
    As far as splitting the vote goes, in an MMP system this is not really an issue. National will not be able to govern alone. Voting Act does not split the vote, it helps grow the vote beyond one party.
    
    Disclaimer: I am biased. I’m a paid up member of Act and they are the only party I have any respect for.
    
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    January 4, 2023 12:15pm
- mikenmildagain
  
  I agree with:
  
  End useless government spending, for good
  
  But I would prefer a cut in GST to a cut in income tax.
  
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  January 4, 2023 9:12am
  - Paulus
    
    Am amazed that Robertson has not increased GST – he would not dare now in election year, but will leave the totally stuffed and indebted country for somebody else to sort out so he can blame them for it.
    
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    January 4, 2023 9:32am
    - Pineapple Lumps
      
      He doesn’t need to raise the rate when he and Orr have driven inflation up. Outcome in terms of increasing GST tax take is the same.
      
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      January 4, 2023 9:52am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      He may do if these mongrels sneak back in
      
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      January 4, 2023 10:06am
    - Jack5
      
      As I recall, when Labour introduced GST, the relevant Minister, Caygill, said it would be held at 10 per cent.
      
      One of the things allowing is was that it would be universal, rather than amounts varying for goods and services.
      
      In NZ, much boils down to the problem, as stated by a UK High Commissioner to Wellington: New Zealanders want Scandinavian scale welfare, but with American scale taxes.
      
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      January 4, 2023 2:42pm
      - G the giant from Dunedin
        
        They also put it up to 12.5%
        
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        January 4, 2023 4:01pm
  - Taieri
    
    But I would prefer a cut in GST to a cut in income tax
    ————
    
    You’re right, your Jobseeker support payment wouldn’t increase much if taxes were to be cut.
    
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    January 4, 2023 10:20am
    - mikenmildagain
      
      Nice attempt at trolling.
      
      5 17
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      January 4, 2023 10:28am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  No-nonsense climate policy. Nope.
  Drop anything to do with climate change. Climate changes all the time over hundreds of thousands of years. Spending hard eared money in nothing will not stop or change anything. It is a hoax, a scam.
  
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  January 4, 2023 10:21am
- Jimbob
  
  That’s a good start, then they can throw the RMA in the bin and draft a new one. About ten pages long in plain language.
  
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  January 4, 2023 11:52am
- Loddenthinks
  
  I’m a big fan of David Seymour and ACT, and will continue to give them my party vote as I have the last 2 elections (after voting National every election since 1978).
  
  However I don’t fully agree with this:
  
  “Get kids attending schools where a knowledgeable adult transfers valuable academic knowledge to them”
  
  Yes, that’s important but I believe the most important role of the education system is to teach kids how to think, and in particular how to think critically. They used to do a bit of that using Edward de Bono’s Lateral Thinking primer, but it has since been phased out IIRC.
  
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  January 4, 2023 12:18pm
Nickc2

Is there any truth in the rumour that Winston Peters has recruited Materia Turei as Secretary-Treasurer for NZ First, the position vacated by Tracey Martin?
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January 4, 2023 8:20am
- Yvette
  
  Nickc2, good morning – see your rumour and raise you two more –
  Another rumour says that Materia outed her own welfare fraud because she was aware of yet another rumour that Winston was just about to do that for her, if she didn’t.
  So would the two of them be able to work together? Really? :o)
  
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  January 4, 2023 9:07am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  That information should be able to publicly sourced.
  
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  January 4, 2023 9:07am
  - Steve Todd
    
    So, too, should the name of the woman who, according to you, is running around the West Coast-Tasman electorate claiming to be Labour’s candidate for the 2023 general election.
    
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    January 4, 2023 11:15am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      I can only go by one of the posters on this blog that is in the west coast electorate, he said he has met her, he says she openly states she will be the Labour candidate, he says she is quite nice, and says she is a local dairy farmer.
      
      Don’t shoot the messenger, O’Connor will not stand at the election, but they can say yet because he is required as Min of agri.
      
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      January 4, 2023 11:45am
      - Steve Todd
        
        Her saying she is the candidate (https://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2023/01/stuffs_2023_predictions.html#comment-3297549), and saying she will be the candidate, are two different things.
        
        I am not “shooting the messenger”. I have no recollection of anyone else saying what you now say – are you referring to Gravelroad, perhaps? – but in your three comments about this Mystery Woman, you should have said that you understand that there is a woman on the West Coast saying she will be Labour’s candidate – not is; she doesn’t know that yet – rather than giving us the impression that it is privileged knowledge originating with yourself. Taking the word of another anonymous commenter, because it suited your narrative, and repeating it as if it is fact, was reckless of you.
        
        I have no idea if Damien O’Connor will stand down at the upcoming election, although it wouldn’t surprise me if he did, especially if the polls during the year ahead show Labour is likely to be cast onto the Opposition benches (and given that he will be 65 on 16 January and will have been an MP for 10 terms come election time).
        
        Also, being a Minister of the Crown does not preclude someone from announcing their retirement at an upcoming election (whether there are impending negotiations, or not).
        
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        January 4, 2023 12:44pm
      - G the giant from Dunedin
        
        Rock Ape
        
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        January 4, 2023 3:16pm
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  Very doubtful…
  
  Metiria Turei is now a Senior Lecturer (Pukenga matua) in Law at Otago Uni.
  
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  January 4, 2023 9:28am
  - Matt Long
    
    Cool, if ecver there was a warning about checking your lawyer’s background that would be it.
    
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    January 4, 2023 10:18am
  - NothingLeft
    
    So benefit fraud is not disqualifying to being a law lecturer?
    
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    January 4, 2023 10:33am
    - Steve Todd
      
      Does she have a conviction for benefit fraud, NL?
      
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      January 4, 2023 11:25am
      - Jack5
        
        Turei’s page at the Otago University site is linked to below.
        
        The first university in the country, founded by education loving Scots, is now thoroughly Maorified.
        
        New Zealand has set up three wananga, tertiary institutions to promote Maori knowledge and a Maori approach to modern educations.
        
        But that ain’t enough. Maori are taking over out traditional universities.
        
        https://www.otago.ac.nz/law/staff/otago230671.html
        
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        January 4, 2023 12:26pm
    - Loddenthinks
      
      You might want to check the cv of Dr Greg Newbold, recently retired Senior Lecturer in Law and now Emeritus Professor at Canterbury Uni.
      
      Convicted heroin dealer who was sentenced to 7 1/2 years in prison, so no – a conviction would not necessarily disbar you from teaching the law.
      
      https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/122558905/retirement-ahead-for-convicted-drug-dealer-who-became-a-top-criminologist
      
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      January 4, 2023 12:22pm
  - alex Masterley
    
    It came as a bit of a surprise to see my old law school has employed Turei. I thought the place had more integrity than that. I am attending the law schools 150th at Easter. I will be telling the assorted academics my thoughts on the subject of her employment.
    
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    January 4, 2023 11:31am
  - Nickc2
    
    IMO, there’s never been such political interference in the law as in the Turei situation.
    Again, IMO, justice was not seen to be done (if it ever was).
    
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    January 4, 2023 12:14pm
    - nathie
      
      One of the first to be swept under the Beehive’s 9th floor rug when Labour assumed power in 2017.
      
      And by crikey what a large lump that was (I mean the political interference)!
      
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      January 4, 2023 2:55pm
curry4me

https://defiantamerica.com/breaking-ray-epps-admits-to-orchestrating-the-infiltration-of-the-capitol-in-a-text-to-his-nephew-screenshot/
Breaking! Ray Epps Admits To Orchestrating The Infiltration Of The Capitol In A Text To His Nephew (Screenshot)
The two agencies’ responses to the curious case of their former person of interest, identified in photo No 16 in an FBI list of people whom the feds wanted to identify, provided more fodder for speculation after the select committee investigating the January 6 riot outright denied he was a federal agent or informant.
“Mr. Epps informed us that he was not employed by, working with, or acting at the direction of any law enforcement agency on January 5th or 6th or at any other time, and that he has never been an informant for the FBI or any other law enforcement agency,” a select committee spokesperson said.
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January 4, 2023 8:21am
- bennerg
  
  Some context may help. Who is Ray Epps?
  
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  January 4, 2023 10:05am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    The google machine seems to know who he is.
    
    5 3
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    January 4, 2023 10:26am
  - mikenmildagain
    
    One of the Oath Keepers nutters, I think.
    
    5 12
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    January 4, 2023 10:32am
  - NothingLeft
    
    Good backgrounder: https://www.revolver.news/2021/10/meet-ray-epps-the-fed-protected-provocateur-who-appears-to-have-led-the-very-first-1-6-attack-on-the-u-s-capitol/
    
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    January 4, 2023 10:35am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Shit. All the time I thought it was planned by Donald Trump.//
  
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  January 4, 2023 10:29am
  - mikenmildagain
    
    Planning is not really Trump’s strong point, Steve.
    
    9 12
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    January 4, 2023 10:33am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      See? Once again, lefties have no sense of humour.
      
      11 5
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      January 4, 2023 10:36am
    - In Vino Veritas
      
      No Mike, that’s one of the reasons he became a billionaire. Inability to plan. It makes me laugh when the likes of you make assertions like this about people like Trump. Someone hugely successful and then there’s you.
      
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      January 4, 2023 10:43am
    - HardAsTooth
      
      Thinking in general is not really Trump’s strong point.
      
      5 8
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      January 4, 2023 11:53am
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        He is a billionaire and you are not.
        How come?
        
        8 3
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        January 4, 2023 1:08pm
      - NothingLeft
        
        Rich dad. If he had put the money he inherited in the 1970’s into a no-brainer S&P500 tracking EFT he would be richer now than what he is from decades of running businesses badly.
        
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        January 4, 2023 1:59pm
curry4me

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/12/huge-house-republicans-find-text-email-evidence-pelosi-staffers-secretly-decreased-security-us-capitol-jan-6-time-pelosi-organizing-film-crew-day/
Pelosi Staffers Decreased security for Jan 6th.
Rogan O’Handley posted a text message from Nancy Pelosi’s staff secretly editing the J6 security plan for the US Capitol and then telling the House Sergeant at Arms to “please act surprised” when the final draft was published.
The House Sergeant at Arms responded, “I’m startled!” to the request showing his willingness to play along.
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January 4, 2023 8:22am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  She really is a nasty bit of work.
  Trump wanted 10 to 20 thousand National Guard Troops there, and Pelosi killed it.
  She knew of the infiltrators.
  
  19 4
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  January 4, 2023 10:33am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Pelosi was even organising a film crew ffs.
  
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  January 4, 2023 10:37am
- kevn
  
  @NothingLeft… But, but think of all the thousands of people Trump has and does employ.
  
  4 0
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  January 4, 2023 3:52pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Back when 9/11 happened, Trump pulled his workers off building sites so they could help the first responders.
    
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    January 4, 2023 5:36pm
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Ad, that was about 300 workers.
      
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      January 5, 2023 9:10am
cas

I have just started a book called The Ship Beneath The Ice about finding Shackleton’s Endurance, which I could recommend to someone for holiday reading.
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January 4, 2023 8:28am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Is that the same book as Jaspinda was pretending to read when on her holiday to Antarctica?
  
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  January 4, 2023 10:39am
  - cas
    
    No sadly she is not as up to date as me.
    
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    January 4, 2023 12:08pm
    - cas
      
      How amazeballs. I was at the supermarket and there was a long queue so you grab something to read on the way. And wouldn’t you know it the latest Australian Womens Weekly has 8 pages on Jacinda plus the cover. I was fascinated to quickly read her going on about Shackleton and how he is her hero – lots of failures but got his men home. She mentioned reading about him but didn’t mention the book I’m reading so I am definitely ahead of her
      
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      January 4, 2023 1:57pm
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        Word soup isn’t it? Jaspinda must have read about herself.//
        
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        January 4, 2023 5:38pm
  - NothingLeft
    
    I don’t think anyone would believe that Jacinda reads books.
    
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    January 4, 2023 2:00pm
  - Pineapple Lumps
    
    Jac’s is not into books about Colonist explorers. Apparently she was actually reading the book “Raising the White Feathers Waka”. The exploratory mission to recover the Waka used by Polynesian during the original discovery of Antarctica.//
    
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    January 4, 2023 2:44pm
Tomtoddy

One of the key factors in poor quality driving is frustration. Many drivers can’t wait to get past you even if you are keeping right up to the limit. Just been down to Taupo and back and experienced stupid overtaking, scary tailgating, cars doing what appeared to be 130 – 140 kph, cutting in too close and more.

Reducing the road speed limits is going to make these drivers even more frustrated. Accident numbers may well increase. This has to be just one more barb from the anti-car crowd – not something produced by sound research.
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January 4, 2023 8:30am
- mikenmildagain
  
  Is there anything useful about our driver training system that could be tweaked to encourage sounder behaviour, such as patience and good decision making?
  
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  January 4, 2023 8:37am
  - JimBobJoe
    
    Courtesy wouldnt go a miss Mike. I drive a car capable of safe driving at and above the the open road limit. I have decades of experience and know my limits…
    
    I encounter, constantly, people doing 80 on the open road, hugging the centre line and oblivious to what is behind them.. Or driving in the rightmost lane on motorways doing 95…. Just moving road blockages
    
    Being a good driver means driving inside the capabilities of the vehicle and yourself, driving to the conditions but also getting out of the way of following drives when you are comfortable 10 or 20kphs below the limit.
    
    It is easy to check your mirrors and pull over when traffic builds behind and it is safe to pull over. Its really easily to tay left on motorways when not passing..
    
    Courtesy.. Courtsey…Courtsey
    
    Never see NZTA or Police messaging about moving over and not impeding traffic flow… Its all speed is the problem, when its not the only issue.
    
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    January 4, 2023 8:46am
    - mikenmildagain
      
      I agree. I really don’t know how good our driving training is at the moment. One thing drivers should be able to control their frustration with others who do not meet reasonable expectations of road behavior, whether the problems are perceived to be speeding, driving too slowly, or the myriad of other deficiencies on display every day.
      
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      January 4, 2023 9:21am
      - Deane Jessep
        
        Sound’s a lot like you are promoting individual responsibility rather than punishing everyone for the behaviours of a few…
        
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        January 4, 2023 4:02pm
    - Paulus
      
      Over 60 years ago my Driving Instructor told me to Always Drive to the Conditions.
      My only offences is twice speeding in conditions I felt appropriate.
      
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      January 4, 2023 9:40am
    - Biscuit
      
      Agreed, JBJ.
      
      I was in Higb Heaven one day beeting along at 180 kph (and being passed by others…) on a perfectly-maintained German autobahn and noticed way in the distance that the traffic had halted and that cars were deliberately leaving the centre lane free.
      
      Que? I thought.
      (But in English because I don’t speak Espanyol!)
      Turned out that there was a flashing sign saying ‘AMBULANCE APPROACHING’ and those drivers were were doing their bit to assist that vehicle’s passage.
      
      Chances of that happening here?
      
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      January 4, 2023 10:15am
    - rjay
      
      For Christmas I bought my boys dash cams. It might show them how dangerous their own driving is.
      
      12 0
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      January 4, 2023 11:01am
  - rouppe
    
    There’s also having consideration for other drivers. I had several examples of slow drivers with 20 cars behind them not letting others pass
    
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    January 4, 2023 8:47am
    - Cinematic
      
      The old ‘slow through the turns quick on the straights’ syndrome.
      
      17 0
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      January 4, 2023 8:59am
      - david
        
        Otherwise known as the motorway waltz. Slow, slow, quick, quick, slow.
        
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        January 4, 2023 2:26pm
    - I remember when
      
      Has attempted economy increased the prevalence as petrol gets more expensive.
      
      5 0
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      January 4, 2023 9:30am
    - Paulus
      
      Wait until the speed limit is reducd to 50 in many more places – New Zealand driver are neither tolerent or patient so it will be a SNAFU.
      
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      January 4, 2023 9:42am
  - I remember when
    
    Good decision making is often made difficult when it needs to be made when vehicles are approaching each other at 100 kph.
    If they are approaching at 120 kph it is another equation altogether.
    More passing lanes would seem to be an obvious answer.
    
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    January 4, 2023 9:20am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Driving Instructors who can actually drive would be a start.
    Sure, they drive by the book but some should not be on the road.
    
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    January 4, 2023 10:43am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Example, driving around a corner at speed, a good driver would go left, hit the apex then come out onto the road. The idea is to drive to the line of least resistance. Any racetrack driver will tell you that.
      Now a driving Instructor would tell you that you are all over the road.
      Told a Cop that once, his answer? “this is not a racetrack Sir” Fucking wanker.
      
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      January 4, 2023 5:48pm
- rouppe
  
  I didn’t find that at all.
  Wellington-Raglan-ohakune-waitarere-wellington over the last 10 days.
  
  I set my cruise on 100 and kept it there. Anyone who overtook me waited till passing lanes or clear road.
  
  I had more trouble with those doing 85 in 100 zones than anything else.
  
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  January 4, 2023 8:46am
  - notreadyet
    
    I tow a large caravan ,2500kg, and with a good tug can easily travel at 90km+, and with rear view camera regularily pull over when I can once I have 2-3 cars behind, however I cant pass a car travelling at 80, lack of acceleration and needing to blatently break the law. the number of 80-90km drivers on the road is amazing, incompetent and inexperienced to drive on open country roads
    
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    January 4, 2023 9:34am
    - Sacha
      
      I tow a horse float and regularly pull over when I have 3 vehicles behind me.
      I wish they wouldn’t toot their thanks though – it can scare the horses, which rattles me!
      
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      January 4, 2023 10:36am
      - ClanMcleod
        
        A quick flash of the hazards once you’ve passed is the way to do it. Take note if you didn’t already know.
        Anyone who has driven extended trips at night will know that the truckies have their own set of signals re overtaking etc. They are very courteous and their signals are very useful.
        
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        January 4, 2023 12:07pm
      - Loddenthinks
        
        @Clan: yes and no! I also do a lot of night driving, and truckies’ signals can be confusing. Many like to acknowledge other truckies with a quick flick of their right indicator – the one that should only be used to signal that you’re turning right.
        
        When I first saw it I instinctively slowed down to allow them to turn without being rear-ended, only to learn they had no intention of turning. That’s not only confusing but illegal.
        
        Some do use their left indicator to let me know it’s safe to overtake – but it could also mean they’re about to turn left. I’d prefer it if they used their indicators for their intended purpose, although I also quickly flash my hazards to say “thank you” which is usually reciprocated by a quick flash of their lights, and a warm feeling by all.
        
        Stay safe out there.
        
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        January 4, 2023 12:34pm
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        Clan, Yes Sir! Class 5 here. Not that I use it, but I have it.
        
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        January 4, 2023 5:51pm
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Driving at 80K preparing for the future speed changes?
      
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      January 4, 2023 10:45am
  - All_on_Red
    
    Since before Christmas I’ve done Akld- Napier, Napier- Dannevirke and back, Napier to Akld, Akld to Rotorua and back (same day) and am now at Whangarei Heads from Akld.
    Some observation’s.
    The Expressway South is magnificent. Brilliant to drive on and very smooth. But, please move to the left lane if it is free. Let those who wish to travel quicker by. Its just ignorant not to.
    Fucking Tirau and their Pedestrian crossing over SH1 and the delays that causes. Bypass Tirau as soon as.
    Being able to bypass the nightmare at Warkworth would be good too but that’s close.
    Off the Expressways, as others have commented, our roads are rubbish. Uneven and broken surfaces, potholes frequently seen and the repairs just make the road even more bumpy.
    That SH50 to Dannevirke in places was almost undriveable (pretty countryside though).
    Saw a couple of really bad overtaking examples. One young guy in a Ford almost had a head on with a Truck, (north of Taupo approaching the Dam) after passing 4 cars…
    Another almost caused a massive pileup by going too far at the end of a passing lane and causing a truck and several cars to jostle around avoiding each other.
    Campervan drivers need to be a bit more courteous and pull over occasionally to let cars passed.
    Otherwise, reasonably stress free experience.
    Be nice if the rain stopped now though…
    
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    January 4, 2023 9:55am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Rain until after the weekend. Windy.com
      
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      January 4, 2023 10:51am
- 70andstilllearning
  
  “…80 on the open road, hugging the centre line and oblivious to what is behind them.”
  Can’t agree with the “oblivious ” bit – the very same drivers will speed up to ~100 -105 when they reach passing lanes and give you a filthy look when you pass them and then immediately drop back to their slower speed once back to two lanes. They just love to being self appointed “traffic police”!
  
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  January 4, 2023 9:39am
  - PeeJay
    
    I understand this is actually a psychological condition, something to do with space perception. When driving on single lane roads, the perception is that the sides of the lane feel closer than they are, and the traffic in the other direction is a lot closer. As a result, these drivers tend to go slower than the speed limit. When they get to the passing lane, the road is wider so they are more comfortable driving at higher speed, hence the tendency to speed up – lanes feel wider and oncoming traffic is further away. As the passing lane ends, they reduce their speed again as a result of the perception issues.
    
    Agree it can be frustrating, and no doubt some idiots do the slow-fast-slow dance on purpose, but I understand it is mostly a condition.
    
    Might be some on the blog that can comment further on that.
    
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    January 4, 2023 2:04pm
    - 70andstilllearning
      
      Yes – I saw an article along these lines a couple of years ago – it was done by a psychologist who funnily enough happened to work/consult for either NZTA/Police – can’t remember which, and was part of one of their safe driving articles!
      A couple of points I find difficult with the theory is that I would expect the behavior to change a little under dark/very poor visibility conditions where the “feel factor” is far less real – strangely it doesn’t. Secondly most usually start increasing their speed at the 400 m advance notice signs and are happily doing the 100/105 well before they reach the double lanes. And lastly many, when you start to pass with a small differential ( if conditions permit), will try to match/exceed your passing speed in order to force your speed higher to complete the maneuver. These all kind of negate the “perception” theory.
      Somewhat interestingly, I recently did a 5 day/ 2000 km trip through Vic & South Au and saw very little evidence of the same sort of behavior there – I wonder whether it’s a NZ thing.
      
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      January 4, 2023 3:13pm
    - Ehlana
      
      I’ve heard the same thing PeeJay, more than once. And recognised what it describes from my own experience.
      
      There is, of course, also the fact that narrow winding roads often actually have lower posted speed limits, so someone driving according to the posting will also exhibit that slow in the narrow, fast on the broad behviour that so infuriates some other drivers.
      
      I wonder how often that person giving a dirty look as they are overtaken in the passing lane is reacting to someone who has tailgated, or honked, on the narrow section.
      
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      January 4, 2023 3:20pm
      - 70andstilllearning
        
        Veiled innuendo Ehlana? – I’ll give you benefit of the doubt 🙂 – those with professional Class 6 driving experience with liquid loads tend not to follow too close or honk their horn – for very good reason!
        
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        January 4, 2023 3:36pm
    - Alan Wilkinson
      
      The condition is principally not giving a stuff about the queue behind you.
      
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      January 4, 2023 4:20pm
- pdm
  
  TT – I have said this here and on other blogs many times.
  
  Lower speed limits mean impatient drivers.
  IMPATIENT DRIVERS ARE DANGEROUS DRIVERS!!!!
  
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  January 4, 2023 9:54am
  - Loddenthinks
    
    True, but that’s on the drivers to manage their emotions, surely?
    
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    January 4, 2023 12:36pm
    - Alan Wilkinson
      
      Increasingly we inhabit a country run by women to suit women. Women prefer to drive slower than men. Speed limits are being adjusted down to suit women. Men’s caualty rates are skyrocketing in consequence. Likewise education has been reorientated to suit girls. Boys attainment levels have fallen. These are serious problems being completely ignored.
      
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      January 4, 2023 1:56pm
    - Ehlana
      
      Yes, it is. Driving to the conditions means understanding that other drivers may be less confident, or more law abiding. They may be unfamiliar with the road (some people sometimes drive to new places!). It’s not easy to find somewhere to pull over if you don’t already know where those places are – especially if the impatient driver behind you is too close for comfort.
      
      Defensive driving also teaches that if the driver behind is too close, you need to slow down so that if you stop suddenly, they’ll have time to stop before they hit you. So impatient drivers tailgating and honking may be the cause of the slow driving behaviour they complain about.
      
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      January 4, 2023 3:27pm
      - Alan Wilkinson
        
        What nonsense. If you know how to drive considerately it is not difficult to find somewhere to pull over. Mostly those who don’t simply have no intention of doing so and will pass innumerable opportunities. As for slowing down with someone tailgating the only excuse is preparing to pull over. If you are driving properly sudden stops should be very rare and imposing them on following vehicles even rarer.
        
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        January 4, 2023 4:17pm
      - 70andstilllearning
        
        Interesting – when taught defensive driving techniques ( many decades ago ) the advise was to pull over and let the idiot pass, but more importantly, to drive in manner that always ensured that you had an escape route identified for the unexpected, which includes the idiot behind you – sudden braking with a vehicle behind you was not was never a preferred option.
        I’m sometimes chided for not waving back to someone going the other way and my answer is simple – “sorry, didn’t see you wave as I was too busy watching the next idiot behind you as you no longer posed a problem I could do anything about”. Always assume the other driver is an idiot – it’s worked quite satisfactorily for me over 5+ decades.
        
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        January 4, 2023 4:29pm
      - Alan Wilkinson
        
        @70 It’s always better to have someone who wants to go faster in front of you and get them there asap. However if you are in a queue on a multilane highway sometimes there’s not much you can do about it except keeping a good space ahead so you don’t risk sudden braking. I do the same when following a tailgater so I have more time to smooth their inevitable sudden braking.
        
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        January 4, 2023 5:20pm
      - 70andstilllearning
        
        Lol Alan – multilane highway e.g. Southern Motorway – leave room for a mini there and you’ll soon have a big SUV full of school kids nosing into the gap 🙂
        
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        January 4, 2023 7:43pm
- NothingLeft
  
  What we need is a distributed community censure system for cars. Say if 3 drivers lodge a complaint against your number plate within a set period of time you get a $200 fine. Would work against slow and fast or dangerous inconsiderate drivers.
  
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  January 4, 2023 10:39am
  - rjay
    
    That would encourage Karens to target their current “problems”.
    
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    January 4, 2023 11:04am
NeverMindTheBollocks

I blame the increasing road toll on cellphone usage while at the wheel. My solution is to ban cellphones in NZ.

Simples, eh.

#road2zeroidiocy
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January 4, 2023 8:32am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  The phonecall is not the problem. The addiction to texting is the problem.
  
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  January 4, 2023 10:48am
  - Alan Wilkinson
    
    Exactly. The pigheaded refusal to differentiate is typical of the stupidity of our governing class.
    
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    January 4, 2023 4:22pm
I remember when

A number of posts have been critical of doctors/medical staff seen wearing masks in public.
Rather than showing their fear of covid, is it a case of trying anything so that they can continue to be available for their patients.
They probably know that it is of limited use but feel it is all they can do.
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January 4, 2023 8:38am
- ClanMcleod
  
  I remember when – masks are of zero use against a respiratory virus. It’s virtue signalling, nothing else.
  They were the people who supported this and helped drive it. I was refused access to the medical centre in the middle of winter even though I have an official exemption card from the government. I was seen in the car park by someone in full PPE who, when they realised it was pissing down with rain and cold and windy, suddenly decided they could see me inside. Because the virus doesn’t come inside in the winter……..
  
  It’s like seeing Michael Baker being interviewed with his stupid face nappy on, even though he was one of the first to truthfully tell us that masks don’t work.
  
  https://rumble.com/v1cjmox-july-16-2022.html
  
  It’s a refusal to admit they were wrong.
  
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  January 4, 2023 12:16pm
Rusty

Looks like the bad weather is going to affect the ASB tennis classic in Auckland.

Why has nothing been done to get a rotating roof put in at Stanley street?

Surely private investment could finance most of it, and would attract more top players if done.
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January 4, 2023 8:40am
- mikenmildagain
  
  Sports venues are not typically paid for or maintained by private investment.
  
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  January 4, 2023 9:22am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Tell that yo Owen Glenn
    
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    January 4, 2023 10:09am
    - mikenmildagain
      
      Perhaps Rusty will ask him to buy a roof for the ASB tennis center. Perhaps the ASB could buy one.
      
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      January 4, 2023 10:37am
Taieri

Reducing the road speed limits is going to make these drivers even more frustrated.
————–

Speed limits are arbitrary anyway. 100 km/h? Why not 95 km/h? Or 105 for that matter. Is it because the “round figure” is easier to remember?
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January 4, 2023 8:43am
- Cinematic
  
  There seems to be an inverse relationship between vehicle safety and speed limits.
  
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  January 4, 2023 9:01am
- Benedict Yu
  
  Years ago I read an interesting article about the use of psychology in setting speed limits. The conclusion was that speed limits should be set at a point where 90 percent of competent drivers think they are set appropriately. If they are set below that point people ignore them, or lose all respect for the authorities.
  
  This makes total sense. Setting the open road speed limit at 80 kmh will not meet that test.
  
  A real example – the 30 kmh speed limit in central Christchurch is ignored and held in contempt. If they had set it at 40 kmh most drivers would have said ‘fair enough’.
  
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  January 4, 2023 9:22am
  - Taieri
    
    the 30 kmh speed limit in central Christchurch is ignored and held in contempt. If they had set it at 40 kmh most drivers would have said ‘fair enough’.
    —————-
    
    I agree.
    What pisses me off most is the seemingly increasing variety of speed limits. Hampden in North Otago is a good example of that. There’s 70 km/h, 80 km/h and 60 km/h in the relatively short stretch of road, with signs located in most confusing places. Why not make it uniform? Even 60 km/h would be better than what they have now.
    
    As for 30 km/h, it’s the same in Dunedin. I don’t drive there all that much, but when it does happen it’s virtually impossible to stay within prescribed limit. Again, if speed needs to be reduced why not make it uniform 40 km/h?
    
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    January 4, 2023 10:28am
  - Hollyfield
    
    I wonder if the psychology is to make driving more frustrating to encourage more people into public transport.
    When I learnt to drive it was 50km in the cities/towns, 100km on the open road or motorways, 70km transitioning between open road and towns, or in rural areas where there was maybe a petrol station or a couple of businesses not big enough to be a town. You could tell what the speed limit was by the surrounds and could adjust your driving.
    A few weeks ago I had a rental car in Hamilton which would ding whenever I went over the speed limit. It was constantly dinging as the speed limit changed so frequently – lots of 100 metre stretches of 30km zones, or 100 metres of 50km between two 30km zones. This constant changing of speed limits and such a variety of speed limits makes it very frustrating to keep within the speed limit, especially since the proliferation of signs around businesses makes it easy to miss a speed limit sign.
    
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    January 4, 2023 10:33am
peterwn

So Wellington buses will be running Saturday timetables up to late January because of driver shortage. Reminds me of a line in a VUW student revue years ago – ‘Why are Wellington buses like a pair of Hush Puppies? – Because they make walking a pleasure’.
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January 4, 2023 8:54am
- Cinematic
  
  Surely we could move all 501’s straight into a driver training program? Kiri, get to it.
  
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  January 4, 2023 9:02am
  - peterwn
    
    You need a ‘P’ endorsement to drive buses or taxis and this requires a Police character check. So 501’s would just not be eligible.
    
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    January 4, 2023 11:42am
    - nathie
      
      No problemo, Labour are good at bending the rules and best of all they can have Coster front this (meaning he will be the fall guy if it turns to custard … like the bus driver holding up the passengers for loot and jewelry or using the bus after hours for ram-raiding)!
      
      Anyway imagine if a tough 501 was the bus driver – he ain’t taking no sh*t from misbehaving passengers and best of all the Wellington public servants will not only be on their best behavior but they will mix and mingle with people they profess to support but wouldn’t want to be seen with)!
      
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      January 4, 2023 12:25pm
    - RalphT
      
      But surely most of the 501s heartily endorse P?….
      
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      January 4, 2023 12:28pm
    - Loddenthinks
      
      You’ll almost certainly find that most of them do have a ‘P’ endorsement in their background, but we’re probably talking about a different kind of ‘P’.
      
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      January 4, 2023 12:38pm
    - Dougal10
      
      P is probably why they are 501s
      
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      January 4, 2023 4:06pm
    - NeverMindTheBollocks
      
      Funny. They could just join Metiria Turei in the law faculty then.
      
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      January 5, 2023 8:23am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  Are they making the bus drivers use up their leave during January? If not, why bother.
  
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  January 4, 2023 9:05am
  - peterwn
    
    Meaning what? Leave flexibility works both ways. Generally no problem if leave is taken within a year. Leave carried over for longer periods causes accounting and possibly taxation issues (the value of accrued leave must be shown as a ‘liability’ on a company’s balance sheet).
    
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    January 4, 2023 9:25am
    - NeverMindTheBollocks
      
      Meaning what? Meaning that drivers aren’t being paid to do relatively little in Jan; then using their leave in Feb & Mar when workers, pupils & students are back at the grind & waiting for buses that won’t turn up because of a driver shortage.
      
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      January 4, 2023 12:39pm
- Bridgenag
  
  Went into Auckland along Queen street. Horror holdups, cones, machines doing I don’t know what…3 ginormous buses came hurling down, one after the other 3 people in each………Cheaper to run free taxis OR what would be wrong with smaller buses. Too sensible?
  
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  January 4, 2023 9:06am
  - peterwn
    
    All these pretty pictures commissioned by planners and left wing councils showing malls etc with lots of people milling around are a myth. Why do your shopping in Queen Street with limited and expensive parking when you can go to Sylvia Park by car (tons of free parking) or train. Queen Street pedestrian counts are right down (thanks to street works rail works and Covid) and the Auckland CBD is starting to become a ghost town what with lots of empty shops in Queen Street. And light rail (if it proceeds) will make things worse.
    
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    January 4, 2023 9:34am
    - graham
      
      Agreed. Depending on where you live, there’s probably a decent sized shopping mall within easy access. For me, it’s the Westfield Albany Mall – heaps of free parking, surrounded by lots of specialty shops that I can walk to or drive to within a few minutes – all with free parking – and easy to get to without getting caught in the traffic that I would have to endure if I drove into the city.
      
      Plus I don’t have to put up with the beggars that line Queen Street, or negotiate my way through the horrors of the CRL construction.
      
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      January 4, 2023 10:38am
      - peterwn
        
        And lots of buses on a dedicated busway to get there – provides 80% of what light rail would provide at 20% of the cost.
        
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        January 4, 2023 11:46am
NeverMindTheBollocks

You don’t see much in the way of analysis of the causes of the road toll; and any proportionality in NZTA/ Police responses.

By which I mean the extent to which driver inattention, speeding, alcohol/ drug impairment, road quality, car safety, etc can be described as the principal cause of any given accident. Obviously most accidents have multiple causes; but is the principal cause isolated and if so reported? More pertinently, are policy responses matched to identified causes?

As an example, two people died around midnight when a single vehicle hit a tree in Northland. How will this be reflected in NZTA decisions around open road speed limits?

http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2023/01/two-dead-in-far-north-crash-as-holiday-road-toll-period-comes-to-an-end.html
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January 4, 2023 9:19am
- Blog-aholic
  
  They ban all roadside trees.
  
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  January 4, 2023 9:28am
- notreadyet
  
  my thoughts exactly, an air crash has a report avaliable for other pilots to learn from.
  I think every fatal crash should have a report avaliable as to the cause, take the recent Athenery Gorge crash, must be very obvious to those there what happened, seems likely a Headon, but why, there is a windy bit of incline with a short passing lane, we could all learn from what happened if we knew what happened
  
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  January 4, 2023 9:44am
- Blackbob
  
  The accident would never have occurred if the tree hadn’t been moving so fast…
  
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  January 4, 2023 9:45am
- MCōs
  
  I don’t know about that particular road, but one day I was taking my sister for a spin between Lyttelton and Governor’s Bay and there was a sign on the side of the road ‘100’ where 70kph would have more appropriate.
  The whole road was like that.
  
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  January 4, 2023 9:48am
  - All_on_Red
    
    Congratulations.
    You used your judgement and drove to the conditions.
    That’s how it should be.
    
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    January 4, 2023 10:01am
    - Matt Long
      
      Yes, it’s not actually a minimum speed, or a target 🎯.
      
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      January 4, 2023 10:37am
      - greybeard
        
        And in one short sentence you have nailed the real problem.
        
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        January 4, 2023 11:20am
- Biscuit
  
  Exactly, NMTB…
  
  Every holiday period, without fail, we get some lame police spokesman opining that ‘The toll is too high. We need to be be careful. Factors like cellphone usage, high speeds, bad weather, drugs usage, alcohol, and bad roads are involved…’
  
  Unless there is (never yet seen by me) investigation into the cause(s), this is just excessive verbiage for ‘We have no idea’.
  
  [I’m not kicking the police wih the ‘lame’ bit up there, mind. They have a thankless task hoping that the toll will stay down when they know, in their hearts, that nothing they do is going to have much impact on the numbers.]
  
  And don’t start me on idiotic MOT campaigns like ‘Zero Deaths’…
  
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  January 4, 2023 9:57am
  - 70andstilllearning
    
    As far as I know all “serious” crashes are investigated (which is often why roads are closed for lengthy periods while the initial scene forensics are done). Problem is that it is difficult to get investigation information concerning crashes as demonstrated below.
    
    https://www.police.govt.nz/advice-services/request-traffic-crash-report-tcr/request-traffic-crash-report-when-you-were-involved
    
    Sadly I suspect that most cases involve “driver error” these days with few attributable catastrophic mechanical failure but also the impact of other factors (particularly road surface “condition”) is not something that the govt/ NZTA/Police want to highlight due to it’s lack of political palatability.
    
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    January 4, 2023 10:58am
  - peterwn
    
    Interestingly the advent of the Ngauranga Gorge speed camera (since late 1990’s) had reduced the road toll on that road to just about zero. The money saved from the consequences of these deaths and injuries would far outweigh the money collected by the camera.
    
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    January 4, 2023 11:50am
    - 70andstilllearning
      
      Interesting thought peterwn but having traveled that road 5/7 for around 6 years (2001 – 2007) maybe the VMSS had more to do with it? see p9 of link for wet weather incident conclusions.
      
      https://www.nzta.govt.nz/assets/resources/research/reports/253/253-Effectiveness-of-variable-mandatory-speed-signs-within-the-Wellington-ATMS-New-Zealand.pdf
      
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      January 4, 2023 5:51pm
I remember when

‘Climate Change’ dangers often emphasise the increasing (supposed) strength of hurricanes.
That being the case, why have Florida got one of the highest population growth rates in the US?
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January 4, 2023 9:34am
- Benedict Yu
  
  Nice climate. Easy access to guns.
  
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  January 4, 2023 9:55am
  - kevn
    
    @BY… Lots of Californians heading for Florida.
    
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    January 4, 2023 9:59am
    - krazykiwi
      
      Yup. Gov Gavin Newsom(D) is U-Haul’s best salesman.
      
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      January 4, 2023 10:01am
      - Matt Long
        
        Socialists build walls to keep people in, not out, that’s why they couldn’t support Trump’s border wall. Wait until they notice the outflow south of people and assets, then Dems will want armed guards across the whole border.
        
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        January 4, 2023 10:41am
- krazykiwi
  
  Low taxes. Anti-woke government. Nice climate. De Santis.
  
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  January 4, 2023 10:00am
  - mikenmildagain
    
    Disneyworld.
    
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    January 4, 2023 10:38am
    - All_on_Red
      
      https://www.reifflawfirm.com/35-disney-employees-arrested-sex-crimes-children-since-2006/
      Fan of the House of Mouse are you Mikey?
      
      6 2
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      January 4, 2023 11:50am
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Stop Co-Governance. Julian Batchelor.
There is going to be a Roadshow.
Be interesting to see how many MPs and Councilors turn up.
https://www.stopcogovernance.kiwi/blog/raising-25k-for-the-stop-co-governance-nz-road-tour/
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January 4, 2023 9:42am
Swifty

Forty percent of our school leavers cannot read or perform maths at levels of a twelve year old, or younger and the unions want access to all primary students for indoctrination purposes:

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/481856/young-people-starting-first-jobs-at-risk-of-exploitation-union-says

I fully expect Labour and the Greens wholeheartedly endorse this call and incorporate it into their election manifestos for later in the year.
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January 4, 2023 9:53am
- Taieri
  
  Forty percent of our school leavers cannot read or perform maths at levels of a twelve year old
  ————–
  
  But they can count out the current number of genders.
  
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  January 4, 2023 10:30am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    52 at the last count.
    
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    January 4, 2023 11:00am
- In Vino Veritas
  
  And they will be exploited Swifty, by those same Unions.
  
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  January 4, 2023 10:47am
  - Swifty
    
    A very good point IVV.
    
    I posted on here a few years ago a YouTube vid of “An Introduction to Unionism”-type session held locally and delivered by some local union officers.
    
    It was well over an hour and I have never heard such vile, slanted, make-believe, naive, extreme-left, divisive, factually-incorrect, cloud-cuckoo land nonsense in all my life.
    
    It delivered in barrow-loads the great socialist
    deceit of always comparing capitalism in practice versus socialism in theory i.e. look at all the inequality under capitalism but under socialism it will all be wonderful! (quite how this will be achieved, by when, at what cost, how many of our freedoms must be extinguished to achieve it etc they never say.)
    
    The last thing New Zealand needs is these people infecting the minds of our school kids.
    
    And anyway, why should it be the work of schools? Haven’t they enough on their plate?
    
    Why didn’t the union rep call for parents to do this instead of schools? We know why don’t we.
    
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    January 4, 2023 11:20am
- Paulus
  
  Would be all right if School leaver’s Reading and Maths learning was all in Maori !
  
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  January 4, 2023 1:29pm
- Alan Wilkinson
  
  The UK government is proposing to make maths compulsory to age 18.
  
  It certainly should be a compulsory attainment for our Government Ministers.
  
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  January 4, 2023 4:27pm
Stellaboxer

I have just been refused a LPG fill at my local gas station. They have plenty of LPG and I have a perfectly legal gas bottle but it seems that the government has decided that the gas filling station though positioned in line between the petrol bowsers, as most are, is 30cm too close to the building. They are not allowed to dispense gas until they have moved it by at least that much. Not withstanding the fact that it is outside its between two petrol bowsers that dispense 98, 95 and 91 octane petrol that’s just fine where they are. Driving home with my empty bottle and playing the new driving game of dodge the pothole I realised that the laughter that I was gripped by wasn’t a product of humour but rather despair, disbelief and anger. Please please please everyone we must vote this barrow load of monkeys out of power. They are not fit for office and are impacting on even the smallest most mundane aspects of everyday life.
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January 4, 2023 10:08am
- barnacle bill
  
  You have not seen anything yet.
  
  Wait until the next lot take control.
  
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  January 4, 2023 10:40am
  - barnacle bill
    
    It is hard to imagine how Luxon , Seymour getting on together and then throw in Peters into the mix.
    
    How long would that Government last ?
    
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    January 4, 2023 10:58am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      Piss off, Peters will be smouldering in opposition with his hated bunch of crocks beside him
      
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      January 4, 2023 11:49am
      - barnacle bill
        
        OK knowledge box, what happens to Peter then ?
        
        I will tell you, all he has to do is sit on the cross benches and he can achieve whatever he wants.
        He can spoil the Right wing Parties, so much so that can get nothing achieved and he will be laughing all the way..
        
        As will many others
        
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        January 4, 2023 12:56pm
      - MCōs
        
        I very much doubt NZF will achieve the necessary 5% to get some seats in parliament, but if they do it’ll make them not a lot more ‘hated’ by your definition than the other minor parties.
        ACT has never been terribly popular, but at the moment are more coherent than the pitiful Nats. One would expect the latter to get their shit together during the year and present some actual policies and stronger leadership otherwise they’ll be outflanked Labour if the economy holds up.
        
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        January 4, 2023 2:26pm
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      How dumbo, Nats 38%, ACT 11% NZF 4% at present Nats snd ACT have enough to govern , NZF clearly taking support from Labour, Luxon will do what Key did and offer a place at the table to Peters, but won’t want to play second fiddle to Act and will sit on the the opposition benches.
      
      How’s that for knowledge you smart ass?
      
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      January 4, 2023 3:24pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Engineering workshop. Welders, grinders, hydraulic metal cutter, steel bandsaw, drills, gas axe, plasma cutter, all sorts. We had 6 fire extinguishers, had to increase it to 10. Wombles. If a rag is on fire hook it onto the floor and throw a sheet of something over it. Steel, plywood, whatever. No oxy, no fire, simple.
  These wombles could never hold down a real job.
  
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  January 4, 2023 11:09am
  - Colville
    
    And if your acetylene bottle catches fire what then?
    Or the three phase mains to a sub board?
    Try throwing a sheet on that.
    
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    January 4, 2023 9:21pm
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Master switch. I have had to hit that when a 3 phase lead grabbed a guy and he could not let go. Saved his life. Acetylene? It will be a hose or a regulator, not the bottle. Turn off and stand back util it is exhausted. Simple is best.
      
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      January 5, 2023 9:19am
Maggy Wassilieff

Our Dear PM has no interest in fighting the coming election on race…..

Ardern said as she looked ahead to the 2023 election, she had no interest in fighting it on race, saying she would campaign on the government’s record.

https://www.teaomaori.news/no-back-down-on-maori-issues-ardern
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January 4, 2023 10:25am
- Matt Long
  
  I think she’s planning on campaigning on a fantasy fairy dust version of her government’s record, and I think the team of 50 million may well get some public interest funding to prop up the narrative and combat “disinformation.”
  
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  January 4, 2023 10:45am
  - Gravelroad
    
    I think she will be campaigning on ‘keeping vulnerable people safe in a troubled world (over which we have no control)” paid for by more benefits and handouts.
    
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    January 4, 2023 11:27am
    - Swifty
      
      She will be flat out with lines such as “Don’t throw away all the gains we’ve made…”
      
      “Don’t put all NZ’s progress at risk…..”
      
      “The work’s just started, let us finish the job….”
      
      All horseshit of course. There have been no gains and all the progress has been backwards.
      
      We are a much worse off country than in 2017.
      
      The facts don’t lie – but Labour does.
      
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      January 4, 2023 1:12pm
      - Nickc2
        
        No matter what she says, our country is now divided along racial lines and that can be sheeted back to this Labour Govt. Racial disharmony, elitism, and tribal aspirations among Maori may have been smoldering in the background since 1840, but she permitted her Govt to give it legs.
        She should have taken control of her Maori Caucus and fired a few of them when they exceeded their terms of reference and tried to be better than clearly, they were.
        To adapt an old saying, “the head lunatic’s in charge of the asylum.”
        
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        January 4, 2023 1:54pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Jaspinda is handing NZ over to Elite Maori in a Coup.
  
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  January 4, 2023 11:11am
- Bob
  
  campaign on the government’s record……
  That is going to be a very short campaign then.
  How often can she repeat the phrase ‘we failed’!
  
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  January 4, 2023 11:41am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  Her arrogance when saying how great they are is what makes people sick, they have been a total failure on every single issue, trying to suggest success is worse than the failure.
  
  She clearly doesn’t realise why she is hated now
  
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  January 4, 2023 11:52am
  - David Garrett
    
    G: And yet, they are still polling above 30%, and she is still the preferred PM…
    
    As I have said here many times, anyone who thinks Labour will definitely lose this year is simply delusional (Of course I hope they do, but I am a realist)
    
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    January 4, 2023 1:35pm
    - Swifty
      
      I can’t rule out a Labour win this year but one point I’d make is that I believe the preferred PM question is highly suspect – I believe it to be as much about name recognition as anything else.
      
      The ‘preferred PM’ in every poll is and has always been to my knowledge the person who currently occupies the role.
      
      DPF or Steve Todd can correct me if I’m wrong on this.
      
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      January 4, 2023 2:27pm
      - Steve Todd
        
        […] – I believe it to be as much about name recognition as anything else.
        
        That has always been my belief, too, Swifty.
        
        Regarding the ‘preferred PM’ in every poll, I don’t believe you’re wrong, but, like I said to you, here (https://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2022/12/hamilton_west_results.html/comment-page-1#comment-3287621), I’m no political scientist. In fact, I don’t really start paying close attention to the polls until the election campaigns have commenced.
        
        I’m sure if Winston had topped a poll between, say, March and October 1996, I would have remembered it. The fact that I can’t, suggests to me that he didn’t. And if he hasn’t topped a PM poll – then, or since – then I feel comfortable in assuming no other non-incumbent has either.
        
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        January 4, 2023 3:17pm
      - G the giant from Dunedin
        
        Only Key has topped a standing pm in polls since MMP, he got there 6 months before the election, Ardern May have lead English a couple of times, but as I remember they were beck and beck, remembering she only became leader 3 months before the election. If you look at Luxons numbers, he is on the up, and just a three % swing to level peg, remembering of course only 60% actually answer the question
        
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        January 4, 2023 3:35pm
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      David, often polls have them at under 30%, she might be higher as pm, but Luxon is getting closer with only 6% last poll, under MMP even an unpopular pm is always ahead except for Key who took over about 6 months before the election, I think Luxon may well poll ahead by the election, if they think they can win the election at 30% because she still has a lead in pm figures then they are deluded.
      
      She says she is going to the poll on their record, Bwhahahaha, it’s her record that has them done
      
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      January 4, 2023 3:29pm
    - Suze Wainwright
      
      I’m pretty sure that Sir Robert Muldoon was the ‘preferred Prime Minister’ heading into the 1984 election….
      
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      January 4, 2023 5:59pm
      - Swifty
        
        Thanks Suze and G.
        
        I stand corrected.
        
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        January 4, 2023 6:35pm
- H. Upmann
  
  She is biding time for a new pestilence variant to appear and save another 80,000 people. Why change a winning formula?
  
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  January 4, 2023 12:10pm
- Rich Prick
  
  The gaslighting required will be epic.
  
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  January 4, 2023 12:55pm
Sparrow

On a completely different subject. Just got my renewal for house insurance gone up 23%. Wow more money out of my meagre savings helping the insurance company to make more millions in profits. Rip off etc etc etc. They are all sharks. However on the other side of the coin I am wanting those companies and others to make profits as my kiwisaver invests in them. So hopefully I get my money back. It seems to me as a silly and possibly stupid old fart to be a vicious circle. Is this capitalism at work ?
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January 4, 2023 11:19am
- nathie
  
  Possibly insurance companies increasing their renewals due to factoring in for “climate change” and “rising sea levels” …. so thanks, not, Greens, Labour and MSM cheerleaders and story tellers.
  
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  January 4, 2023 12:33pm
  - Paulus
    
    And hugely increased staff employment costs and reduced investment income, as a result of this Government incompetence.
    
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    January 4, 2023 1:33pm
- Pineapple Lumps
  
  Other impacts on premiums as opposed to increased profit margins:
  – increased levels of claims due to increased crime, damage from poorly maintained roads etc
  – increased cost of repair and/or replacement due to inflation
  
  But Jacinda and Grant will be happy to blame it on greedy corporates, Putin, Global pressures, climate change …
  
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  January 4, 2023 1:30pm
  - Pineapple Lumps
    
    Also they will be happy, as only rich people who own assets pay insurance. This is reducing the gap in society. The Great Reset.
    
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    January 4, 2023 1:57pm
  - MCōs
    
    I doubt if any of those are factors.
    Natural disasters, I would suggest are a big factor.
    
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    January 4, 2023 2:04pm
- barnacle bill
  
  If you look at all your contents, add up what it will cost to replace them all and then look at what they will actually pay out for each item you will soon see who is being ripped off.
  They do not pay new price, like for like.
  
  We cancelled ours several months ago thinking it was just a waste of money. We will just self insure our contents
  
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  January 4, 2023 3:28pm
- Simon Arnold
  
  Ours doubled and went to the market and got a rate similar to our previous bill. I suspect the old company took a bath on recent earthquakes and was playing catch up.
  
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  January 4, 2023 8:08pm
Yvette

If Jacinda Ardern loses the Election later this year, will that delay the Maori Caucus agenda for maybe another six to nine years, so perhaps near a decade, and having reached a certain seeming momentum now, will the Maori Caucus be happy with a decade gap then having to regain ground to then push further? Will they again have Waikato / Tainui on top, Nanaia Mahuta where she is, her sister Tipa Mahuta chairing Te Puna / Taumata Arowai and in the Maori Health Authority, and Willie Jackson in charge of Broadcasting?

Our Dear PM has no interest in fighting the coming election on race …
I guess the Maori Caucus could agree – but how much faith do they have in Jacinda.
What for them, if she loses?
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January 4, 2023 11:38am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  Jackson will not make it back to parliament going by the polls
  
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  January 4, 2023 11:53am
  - fritter
    
    They will put Willie way up the list so he is guaranted a seat.
    
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    January 4, 2023 2:22pm
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      They said that the last two elections, but he is well done the list, he will only make it if they lose all their seats which could happen
      
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      January 4, 2023 3:38pm
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  The population of our country is changing..
  
  The % of Maori is probably at its maximum.
  
  In the next few years the number of folks of Asian background will surpass that of the Maori Population .
  
  https://www.stats.govt.nz/information-releases/national-ethnic-population-projections-2018base-2043
  
  These Non-colonizer folks will soon be requiring their share of equity and representation.
  
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  January 4, 2023 1:42pm
  - NothingLeft
    
    I strongly doubt it. There’s money in claiming Maori ancestry – however diluted, so it will continue to grow. And ‘Maori’ are having something like 30% of babies in this country, rich successful educated women don’t have 9 kids to various sperm donors increase their income.
    
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    January 4, 2023 2:11pm
    - Jake Dee
      
      Well it’s possible, but what I think would be interesting to see is an Iwi taken over from the inside by The Woke (in what-ever form). It’s happened to plenty of churches, universities and charitable institutions so why not a tribe ?
      If the Iwi can claim some share of co-governance it would not be a matter of If but When.
      
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      January 4, 2023 2:32pm
    - Taieri
      
      There’s money in claiming Maori ancestry – however diluted, so it will continue to grow.
      ———
      
      Not sure about that. People I know get sweet FA. But then again, they don’t go out with the begging bowl, so maybe that’s why.
      
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      January 4, 2023 3:17pm
  - Surely Knott
    
    Maybe that’s why they are securing their special legal and voting status now so they can’t be outvoted. No matter how demographics change they will have secured 50% co-governance and guaranteed seats within councils.
    
    I’m not sure Maori have reached maximum percentage though. Because Maori is defined as anyone with a single ancestor in NZ. So all interracial-marriages with a person with any Maori ancestry will therefore result in Maori children. Or just like Gender people may identify as a culture according to the UN.
    
    Also with all sorts of important rights and services now depending on ethnicity I expect in the next survey we will have a number of people claiming their Maori ancestry.
    
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    January 4, 2023 3:08pm
- Nickc2
  
  What for them, if she loses?
  I would like to see them all retire gracefully. However, I’m not holding my breath. NZ’s too small to release that number of egos into without constraints.
  IMO, people like Willie Jackson, Nanaia Mahuta, and Kelvin Davis see themselves as evangelists for their self-fashioned Maori Elite Cronyism and won’t give up because they consider it’s their crusade to win and they will likely scout universities to recruit like-minded crusaders to the cause.
  Out of the ashes of this Labour Govt’s defeat will rise an even bigger, more evil, and Maori-centric Labour Party.
  
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  January 4, 2023 2:14pm
  - rockape
    
    But it will be quite small. We may also see Labour split and have a Maori Labour and something equivalent of the Lib Dems as the right wing of The Labour movement. Give National six years and you could see the end of reds/greens in education at all levels being replaced by people from industry. Watch for industry sponsored schools and universities !
    
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    January 4, 2023 2:37pm
    - fightingtemeraire
      
      In the UK even people like Deloittes are starting Apprenticeships. Going back to the tried and true way started in the Middle Ages and comtinued unttil quite recently when everyone had to go to Uni.
      
      Watch when Nurses start being trained the old way and the Hospital is run by the Director of Medical Services and THE MATRON.
      
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      January 4, 2023 2:45pm
      - Alan Wilkinson
        
        That was the essence of both freedom and productivity. Now Governments create millions of useless jobs both directly as bureaucracies and indirectly through regulation. Not only is productivity ruined by all these useless jobs but regulation prevents others doing useful things. Academia has been a willing participant in this destructive process.
        
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        January 4, 2023 9:38pm
  - fightingtemeraire
    
    I think that the ” Maori Caucus” will debunk lock, stock and barrel to the Maori Party. The max number of seats they will get is 7 and they will only work with Labour and Hreens.
    
    When the av voter sees how racist they are and they know a vote ofr Labour/Greens is a vote foir TMP they will never sit on the Govt Bench
    
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    January 4, 2023 2:47pm
G the giant from Dunedin

Can anybody elaborate what is behind Jane Clifton’s pay walled article, headlined screaming U turns can’t save government. I know the headline says it all, but is there anything good in the article?
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January 4, 2023 11:56am
ClanMcleod

I posted this on a different thread, I think it’s more appropriate here. Hope that’s ok mod.

Eugyppius with an outstanding post regarding the “jersey changers” who now want us to forgive and forget as if nothing bad happened in the last 3 years.

Alena Buyx, chair of the German Ethics Council, warns against assigning blame for pandemic failures, would prefer instead “honest retrospection” & “learning” because that sounds much nicer
Yet another Head Girl insists that nobody should be held personally responsible for catastrophic policies that ruined millions of lives and unleashed unprecedented economic chaos.

Among the failures serving on the Ethics Council is its chairwoman, a medical ethicist and professor named Alena Buyx. Like Emily Oster, Buyx is an archetypal Head Girl – highly conscientious, deeply conformist, mildly intelligent, and totally bereft of all originality and independence of thought.

Also like Emily Oster, Buyx has decided that it would be better not to blame anyone for the hell that the Corona brigade has put all of us through.

Of course, the reason you publicly denounce, investigate, fire and imprison criminally negligent bureaucrats and policy makers is not because anyone “would benefit from public flagellation now.” The damage has been done. Where it might help, though, is in dissuading future bureaucrats and policy makers from doing anything similar the next time a novel coronavirus presents itself.

https://www.eugyppius.com/p/alena-buyx-chair-of-the-german-ethics

If it is paywalled let me know. I have asked the author for permission to reproduce it in full. I am sure they will be happy to oblige. It really is worth reading at this stage of the covid nightmare.

(Steve Otto has told me it isn’t paywalled)
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January 4, 2023 12:24pm
- Deane Jessep
  
  This is very good. The comment thread was also a very interesting read. Alena Buyx et al, got this all so wrong it makes me wonder if it wasn’t by design. One great comment states:
  
  “Medical/bio-ethicist” is just a fancy word for the more truthful term “eugenicist”.
  
  Compare and contrast these numpties with a real Ethicist (Julie Ponesse):
  https://brownstone.org/articles/if-we-only-knew/
  
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  January 4, 2023 4:50pm
  - ClanMcleod
    
    Deane Jessep – I had read that article, it is excellent. It is so good to see so many qualified and decent people speaking up. The last few years have been a nightmare.
    
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    January 4, 2023 10:03pm
- Jake Dee
  
  Yes I’ve been reading Eugyppius. Personally I think they are a bit of a fanatic, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t worth reading.
  As is often the case, the real story is the story behind the story, in this case beyond any mistakes the bureaucracy made with corona we get a look at how the machinery of the bureaucracy actually works. Here it looks like they want to write themselves a retrospective pardon. That’s pretty corrupt stuff.
  I recently learned that in the catholic church if a priest absolves an accomplice in one of the priest’s own crimes they are to be automatically excommunicated. Fair enough, no one maybe a judge in their own case.
  
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  January 4, 2023 8:35pm
  - ClanMcleod
    
    Other than your thinking Eugyppius a “fanatic”, I totally agree with you. I’d be keen to get some examples of what they have written that got you to that conclusion? I’ve always found them very measured and rational.
    
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    January 4, 2023 10:05pm
    - Jake Dee
      
      Well I’ve only been following Eugyppius for a short time but have they ever written on anything other than the politics of the ‘rona ?
      
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      January 4, 2023 10:54pm
      - ClanMcleod
        
        Jake Dee – you’d need to check through all their posts, but as the blog site is called “A Plague Chronicle” then I imagine it was created specifically during and for the covid era.
        
        Actually, if you go to the site the information is available under “about”. As I said above.
        
        Welcome to my plague chronicle. Here I post primarily on matters related to SARS-CoV-2 and containment policy, in Germany and internationally. Occasionally I will also consider broader political and historical matters, various conspiracy theories, and the absurdities of modern academia.
        
        As far as I can ascertain, the author is an expert in the health field who posts anonymously due to the threat of censure and job loss that we have seen everywhere in the last few years. It’s a sad state of affairs in our so called “democracies.”
        
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        January 6, 2023 9:30am
      - ClanMcleod
        
        The site is covid specific. That doesn’t make it “fanatical.”
        
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        January 6, 2023 9:31am
MCōs

The Republicans in America are struggling to unify themselves behind one nominee for the position of speaker.
What an unusual situation.
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January 4, 2023 1:03pm
Pineapple Lumps

I’d be interested in a survey on here to know who is still keeping up with the Covid vacinnes and boosters to ensure the ongoing protection of our vulnerable, looking after the Whanau etc etc

Downtick for YES
Uptick for NO

Will 90% of Kiwibloggers still be doing the right thing to save us all from Covid?

Friends who are still completely of the view the Government has done an amazing job of managing Covid, that people who didn’t vax are selfish scum that didn’t do the right thing by everyone else and deserved to lose their jobs etc aren’t interested in continuing to get boosted. They can’t rationalise their position though. It’s going to be something I continue to ask them to explain in the hope they eventually see how they have been manipulated.
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January 4, 2023 1:41pm
- Steve Todd
  
  Your prejudice / agenda is obvious.
  
  If you ask people to respond to a proposition, it is usual to ask them to Uptick for YES; Downtick for NO.
  
  So, what you’re trying to do is get the NO respondents (in particular) to respond in a way that is counterintuitive.
  
  Yesterday, you said “I’m Christian and understand religious beliefs have a huge bearing on the actions taken individually and in society.”
  
  Would a real Christian be so manipulative? I think not.
  
  I decline to participate in your little charade.
  
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  January 4, 2023 2:17pm
  - Blog-aholic
    
    Steve, I have no dog in this fight but IMO all religions are manipulative. Doctrine like ideology is designed to manipulate a persons thinking away from the individuals critical reasoning to the collective.
    
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    January 4, 2023 2:50pm
    - Steve Todd
      
      No argument from me Blog-aholic.
      
      My problem with the so-called Christians on Kiwiblog is that they display so few of the characteristics that one would expect adherents of the teachings of Jesus Christ to possess.
      
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      January 4, 2023 4:06pm
  - Pineapple Lumps
    
    Wow stiff rebuke – my apologies for poor survey method or etiquette – I am genuinely interested in the result and happy for the survey to be rerun the other way around. Not sure I get your point about why you feel running it this way is manipulating the outcome but will give that more thought.
    
    I agree I have made my view clear on the vaccines and should have left this out of the survey.
    
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    January 4, 2023 2:52pm
    - Steve Todd
      
      Okay. On reflection, perhaps “manipulative” was not quite the word I was looking for.
      
      As I said, though, it is clear where you’re coming from. As soon as you wrote “Downtick for YES” it must have jarred with you. You must have thought, “No, that’s not right.” Yet you didn’t change it to enable your respondents to respond intuitively. Why did you not correct yourself? What were you hoping to achieve by framing the responses in that manner?
      
      I hope you’re not a professional pollster.
      
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      January 4, 2023 4:43pm
      - Matt Long
        
        Mind reading, without it how would we know other people’s motives?
        
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        January 4, 2023 5:21pm
  - Surely Knott
    
    But you didn’t answer the question Steve. Have you had the 3rd booster and do you plan to continue.
    
    If not why not. Is the extremely low uptake because people now have changed their positions and no longer believe the vaccines are safe and effective?
    
    In light of the clearly changed position, Do they still look back and think forcing it on people was justified and legal. Have the apologised to friends and family and colleagues who were forced?
    
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    January 4, 2023 3:02pm
    - Steve Todd
      
      Surely Knott: This is a brief, courtesy response. I received my fourth Covid jab (second booster) on Friday 22 July 2022.
      
      Covid has barely impacted my life. I have not yet contracted it, and, as at right now, I know nothing about the availability of a third booster shot.
      
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      January 4, 2023 3:43pm
    - Ehlana
      
      Are we actually meant to have a third booster? And, btw, what was the difference between the booster and the original shot?
      
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      January 4, 2023 4:22pm
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        Saline, induced by fear porn
        
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        January 4, 2023 5:58pm
      - Surely Knott
        
        I don’t know if you need a third booster. But I thought the reason you needed a second booster was because it’s powers (whatever they may be) waned after a few months. If you had your fourth shot in July are you still vaccinated or protected at all?
        Or is it kind of an admission it didn’t work?
        I haven’t had the virus either but the impact of the response on our society has been significant.
        
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        January 4, 2023 9:14pm
    - ClanMcleod
      
      Surely Knott – Chris Trotter is one of those who wants to forget what they were advocating over a year ago. Tougher treatment for those “anti vaxxers.”
      
      He’s now talking as if what we know now is all hindsight and that his position at the time was justified. That is nonsense. There were many oppositional voices, Chris just didn’t agree with them at the time. Now the body of evidence is swinging that way he tries to pretend there was no other opinion available at the time. He is being extremely disingenuous.
      Grow a spine and apologise for getting it wrong Chris. People will forgive.
      
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      January 4, 2023 10:11pm
      - Surely Knott
        
        They absolutely knew. They knew it wasn’t tested for transmission. They knew the covid deaths they were putting in t he newspaper were misleading and were actually deaths of any cause within 28 days of a positive test. And they didn’t clarify that until after we were vaccinated. They worked to systematically suppress and destroy dissenting voices anc suppress any medical details of the deaths. They suppressed all details or media coverage of vaccine injuries. Trotter should be asking how a liberal democracy allowed it and why media were complicit.
        
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        January 4, 2023 10:53pm
  - Pineapple Lumps
    
    BTW, I am Christian but don’t mistake that for me claiming to be perfect.
    
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    January 4, 2023 3:18pm
  - ClanMcleod
    
    The only way it can be seen as manipulative would be if people didn’t read the question? It’s like saying people prefer heads to tails in a coin toss.
    
    It’s a good question. I know a number of people who aren’t having a booster, but refuse to talk about the failure of the jabs to do what they were supposed to do. They are embarrassed. I know they are so I don’t push it.
    They’ll come round eventually, but at the time they were arguing that covid was killing 3% of those who got it when the actual IFR was 0.15%. They were believing the bullshit being pushed by the media.
    Though in saying that, when I asked them why they were taking the risk they basically said, they wanted to travel overseas to see their parents and would have done anything asked of them to do so. That’s what I detest most about Ardern and her supporters, the bullying, coercion, threats, bribes and psychological manipulation that was based on zero science.
    A fraud and a liar.
    
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    January 4, 2023 4:18pm
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Nobody will be forced, blah blah, and those who opt out will not be punished.
      That is the biggest whopper LIE that Jaspinda told!
      
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      January 4, 2023 6:08pm
      - Surely Knott
        
        And ironically she told that lie, “those who opt out will not face any punisment at all”…in response to claims made by Jami Lee Ross and Billy T K who were called conspiracy theorists by media. A smear they continue to use for anyone who criticises the official line. But Ross and Billy T K were right. We were forced to take it and we were ruthlessly punished if we didn’t.
        
        Here’s another gem from the same article about that conspiracy. “If most people have been vaccinated, the virus will rarely come into contact with new hosts – meaning outbreaks are snuffed out before they can reach vulnerable people who can’t be vaccinated, such as young babies or those with medical conditions.”
        
        Yip. No it hadn’t been tested for transmission by pfizer and it didn’t stop transmission. We have very high vaccination rates and it hasn’t stopped widespread outbreaks.
        
        Grossly misleading from the govt and the media who were spreading disinformation.
        
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        January 4, 2023 10:10pm
- NothingLeft
  
  A recent study saw 2.5% of vaccine recipients showing evidence of heart damage (elevated Troponin level), though generally at a level below where people notice symptoms. With pretty much everyone having had Omicron now the risk of fatal infection is tiny, Vaccines are likely done for outside of a few high risk groups.
  
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  January 4, 2023 2:21pm
  - ClanMcleod
    
    NothingLeft – one of the problems of the heart damage problem is that it isn’t “minor” as claimed by the vaccinators. There is no such thing as “minor” heart damage. It is damaged for life, at some point, whether 5, 10 or 20 years from now, that damage is likely to kill someone – sooner than they would have otherwise died.
    
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    January 4, 2023 4:27pm
NeverMindTheBollocks

In the events of the last five years there are echoes of the French Revolutionary period. In those days, monsieur and madame were replaced by citoyen and citiyenne; here we have pronouns. Then, the names of the months were replaced; now government agencies are renamed. I predict that the modern day Robespierres and Marats will come to a (figurative) sticky end as they outlive their usefulness to those calling for the restoration of order, with a new aristocracy.
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January 4, 2023 2:07pm
- Surely Knott
  
  This revolution is funny though. Usually revolution is the powerless rising up against the government and against those who hold the power and the resources. This revolution , the fourth revolution, is led by the global elites often hiding behind global ngo’s and quangos, who want to overthrow the annoying rights and voting power of citizens and local democracies.
  
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  January 4, 2023 2:57pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Horrible Link Between COVID Vaccine And Degenerative Brain Disease Has Been Revealed…
https://gopnewsfeed.com/horrible-link-between-covid-vaccine-and-degenerative-brain-disease-has-been-revealed-5/
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January 4, 2023 2:33pm
- Matt Long
  
  Those with degenerative brain disease got all the boosters? Sorry too lazy to read the links?
  
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  January 4, 2023 5:22pm
  - ClanMcleod
    
    The more shots you take, the worse the outcome. That seems to be the message coming out via empirical evidence. More covid, more heart issues, more cancers, more shingles. It’s fucking with peoples’ immune systems.
    
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    January 4, 2023 10:14pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Trump Witch Hunt.
https://gopnewsfeed.com/dems-just-leaked-it-all-donald-trump-is-fuming/
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January 4, 2023 2:40pm
- peterwn
  
  Donald should have considered all these things before running for President.
  
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  January 4, 2023 4:04pm
  - Inandout
    
    peter, Biden and son have done far worse things yet still carry on as if nothing has happened.
    
    10 2
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    January 4, 2023 5:13pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Could be an Electioneering stunt. Trump is a smart cookie.
    
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    January 5, 2023 9:26am
G the giant from Dunedin

I see after the 4 day wait to see if this government will ask Chinese who later this week be able to fly the world to holiday and spread the wu flu, they are not changing anything, but I find it strange this comes out just after they said we had peaked and are starting to fall in our new wave.
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January 4, 2023 3:42pm
Hugh Jarse

I have driven around 1200 kilometres around Canterbury and Central Otago over the holiday period, in that distance I saw two near head-ons and two slightly less serious situations caused by slow moving camper vans. Two ended up with three vehicles across the two lanes, one being passed, one overtaking and one oncoming vehicle being forced to pull over to the side of the road to let the overtaking car through. The other two incidents were very similar but not quite as dramatic. Two required me to slow right down to avoid being tangled up in the potential mess. My observations over this time were that high speed is not the issue, it was a waste of time to try to get or maintain 100k due to density of traffic and slow drivers. Yes the overtakers were wrong to pass where they did but the other major contributing factors were the poor roads and slow drivers not allowing other vehicles to pass. As someone mentioned earlier the other issue was slow drivers speeding up on passing lanes preventing following traffic getting past. Road surfaces are getting very broken in some places. Police were evident in some areas but not doing anything about the accident promoting slow drivers. I suspect that lowering the speed limit to 80 will only increase travelling times, increase driver fatigue and reduce the average speed even further with even more dodgy passing manoeuvres. The other comment was that Queenstown is very expensive, I don’t know how the average young kiwi family will be able to afford to go there and take part in the attractions on offer. Service was pretty good in the cafes and restaurants we went into and the staff were friendly with no long delays but you had to plan ahead to get an evening meal out. Looks like they are catering for the Australian market. Goodness knows what it will be like when Nash’s 500000 overseas tourists arrive !.
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January 4, 2023 4:21pm
- Dougal10
  
  Nash’s tourists have heard about the price of a nz holiday and aren’t coming.
  
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  January 4, 2023 6:00pm
- LB
  
  Painting horizontal(perpendicular to the direction of travel) in left hand lanes of passing areas would force the monkey brain in most of those drivers to drop their speed, only an alert and very conscious driver would be able to override this reaction, i suprised that nzta(waka coathanger) hasn’t done this but then it’s common sense, so i guess that’s why they won’t.
  
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  January 4, 2023 6:13pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  That is hard to read. Paragraphs help.
  People read paragraphs and stop and think.
  Come on Big Jarse, it hursts my eyes.
  
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  January 4, 2023 6:14pm
  - Hugh Jarse
    
    Yep fair call, note to self must do better next time 👍
    
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    January 4, 2023 10:27pm
- Alan Wilkinson
  
  The other day I was behind a thick as a brick campervan driver with a queue about a kilometre long who speeded up on every passing lane and never once pulled over despite innumerable opportunities. IMO people like that should lose their licence.
  
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  January 4, 2023 7:10pm
  - Colville
    
    *555 and report them.
    
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    January 4, 2023 9:31pm
    - Alan Wilkinson
      
      They’d charge me for using a mobile phone and do nothing about the campervan.
      
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      January 4, 2023 9:45pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  How many accidents happen with rental cars? Drivers not familiar with the vehicle and the power (or lack of) I am sure this does happen.
  
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  January 5, 2023 9:33am
Swifty

Labour piss away billions in poor, low value and wasteful spending since 2017 but are now trying to skimp on $90 million for hospital infrastructure:

https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/health/130904487/southern-mayors-seek-urgent-meeting-with-health-minister-andrew-little

Labour are a bloody shambles.
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January 4, 2023 6:26pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Speaker? Yeah OK. He is a Prosecutor.
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January 4, 2023 6:31pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Missed this bit.
  https://rumble.com/v23rs1o-jim-jordans-speech-on-house-floor-is-exactly-why-some-want-him-as-speaker.html
  
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  January 4, 2023 6:32pm
  - Mike
    
    Steve, do you really believe that Gym Jordan and his coterie can hold the rest of their caucus hostage indefinitely? What is their plan?
    
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    January 4, 2023 7:10pm
kevn

Nek minit the Czech is getting deported…
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January 4, 2023 8:02pm
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  In March…
  He’s been given a couple of months to put his business matters in order….
  
  https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/drug-smuggler-and-former-kickboxing-champion-karel-sroubek-to-be-deported/4AOIMVFBDFDNPBZP6WJJWFI3SA/
  
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  January 4, 2023 8:32pm
  - Dougal10
    
    Most Ardern supporters will be sidetracked by the Clarke puff piece and miss this article.
    
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    January 4, 2023 8:52pm
- Hard Cheese
  
  I wonder if he will go quietly or spill the beans?
  
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  January 4, 2023 8:46pm
  - NZer In Exile
    
    Non Disclosure Agreement deal lurking somewhere?
    
    8 0
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    January 4, 2023 8:53pm
- Rich Prick
  
  Wow, I thought Cindy’s powers would save her friend. Someone must go under the bus I guess.
  
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  January 4, 2023 10:11pm
ClanMcleod

I’m posting this again in GD tomorrow, it’s a disturbing story re the measles outbreak in Samoa a few years ago. That story was used to pump the covid fear porn here.
It makes for disturbing reading. If all true, the implications are massive.
For those still up and about, have an early read. Let me know your thoughts.

Before Christmas Paula Jardine reported for TCW on the strange case of the South Pacific island nation of Samoa’s 2019 ‘lockdown’ and compulsory mass measles vaccination programme over a period which saw the deaths of 76 under-fives. Since then she has interviewed the Samoan businessman Edwin Tamasese who reported widespread measles outbreaks six to seven days post-vaccination, and who was subsequently arrested for distributing the Vitamin A the children needed to cope with either the vaccine or a measles infection. As Paula explained in her previous article, the high mortality was more likely to be due to a combination of malnutrition and an under-attenuated vaccine – that is, a vaccine where the virus had not been sufficiently weakened before being administered, as opposed to the disease itself. Here she reports Edwin Tamasese’s story.

https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/vaccines-and-the-suffering-children-of-samoa/
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January 4, 2023 10:21pm
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  Malnutrition? In Samoa? Has Paula ever met a Samoan?
  
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  January 5, 2023 8:37am
  - ClanMcleod
    
    NMTB – I have no idea. I know they tend to be large people, I thought that was mainly genetic and poor diet. But “malnutrition” isn’t restricted to starving people.
    
    Malnutrition is the condition that develops when the body is deprived of vitamins, minerals and other nutrients it needs to maintain healthy tissues and organ function.
    
    Malnutrition occurs in people who are either undernourished or overnourished. In the United States, more children suffer from malnutrition due to dietary imbalances than due to nutritional deficiencies.
    
    Undernutrition occurs when not enough essential nutrients are consumed or when they are excreted more rapidly than they can be replaced. Overnutrition occurs in people who eat too much, eat the wrong things, don’t exercise enough or take too many vitamins or other dietary replacements. Risk of overnutrition is increased by being more than 20 percent overweight or consuming a diet high in fat and salt.
    
    https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/malnutrition
    
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    January 5, 2023 11:21am

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