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May 23, 2023 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 23 May 2023

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General Debate

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Tony Stuart

Downfall videos can be overdone, but this one about the woke Wellington City Council is next level good. I’m not sure however how Tory Whanau will feel about being in the central starring role :

https://www.captiongenerator.com/v/2289134/wellington-council-discusses-palestine
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December 23, 2022 8:03am
- Mike
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  ‘next level good’
  Trying to sound a bit hip in your old age, Tony?
  
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  May 23, 2023 8:08am
  - Cinematic
    
    Oh dear. Seriously dude.
    
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    May 23, 2023 8:52am
- jp_1983
  
  Tony this one is from 11 years ago and there are no subtitles
  
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  May 23, 2023 8:14am
  - Tony Stuart
    
    Oops. Try this one:
    
    https://www.captiongenerator.com/v/2289134/wellington-council-discusses-palestine
    
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    May 23, 2023 9:48am
- Charmaine Hawke
  
  Sadly from what I have been told this could have been a recording of an actual council meeting.
  As John Key said Wellington is broken.
  
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  May 23, 2023 8:17am
  - Frank the tank
    
    It not just Wokeington that is broken. The whole of New Zimbabwe is.
    
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    May 23, 2023 12:02pm
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Wellywood is worser.
      
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      May 23, 2023 6:11pm
- Xquenda Choudhury
  
  You lost me 😕
  
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  May 23, 2023 8:22am
- ClanMcleod
  
  Going to grab a coffee, looking forward to watching this, there are some very clever versions.
  
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  May 23, 2023 8:22am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    You could spend all day watching downfall parodies.
    Good stuff though.
    
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    May 23, 2023 6:13pm
- CPB
  
  Wrong link. Goes to the original version with no subtitles.
  
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  May 23, 2023 8:23am
  - Tony Stuart
    
    https://www.captiongenerator.com/v/2289134/wellington-council-discusses-palestine
    
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    May 23, 2023 9:49am
    - ClanMcleod
      
      Very funny!
      
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      May 23, 2023 1:43pm
- All_on_Red
  
  Looks like wrong Link Tony
  
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  May 23, 2023 8:35am
- Thought Criminal
  
  Hilarious. Great share
  
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  May 23, 2023 11:41pm
Ian Boag

Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
Coming back to the “we need a nuke” thing. I looked up stuff on the Finnish reactor that just came on line …

Nuclear reactor Olkiluoto 3 has gone online in Finland some 12 years behind schedule and on a massively inflated budget.

Not a great look. It is a bit big for NZ anyway.

The Finns have also opened a deep repository. Despite the enthusiasm for this notion there aren’t a lot of them anywhere. The most common solution is that spent fuel rods are cased in concrete/steel and parked someplace. Only the most optimistic think this is 100% OK for a few-thousand-year issue.

Go figure
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December 23, 2022 8:53am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  I think the better system is one sometimes called ‘battery reactors’
  With Auckland’s population we would need about 12. They are not very big, say size of 4 fridges, and are buried flush with the ground. When spent the heat source is lifted out and replaced with a new one. Spent one goes for re-refining.
  The turbine, steam plant and generator stay, just the heat source goes. To me, that is a very safe system. I don’t know if they are available yet.
  
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  May 23, 2023 9:05am
- All_on_Red
  
  Nuclear clearly triggers you- poor petal
  Why was it late and over Budget?
  Regulatory Burden and cost from objections.
  Citing cost is one of the reasons anti- Nuclear morons raise but of course they are disingenuous by not stating that the objections from people like that are a major reason for delays and increased costs
  Rather dishonest.
  You can go back to hiding under your bed- with the lights out of course.
  
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  May 23, 2023 9:21am
  - Ian Boag
    
    Regulatory Burden and cost from objections.
    
    Given that Finland has three other nuclear plants this seems a bit surprising.
    
    Reuters say …
    
    Construction .. began in 2005. The plant was originally due to open four years later, but was plagued by technical issues.
    
    .. suffered a string of breakdowns and outages that took months to fix.
    
    Go figure.
    
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    May 23, 2023 9:51am
    - Paulus
      
      See that Norway announced today is going full bore to explore more for Gas and Oil in its shelves.
      Its current unspent Assets from the North Sea are the greatest in territoral Europe.
      
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      May 23, 2023 10:14am
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        Jaspinda has gone now, so NZ can start exploration and mining again.
        Oh wait, the followers are still here.
        
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        May 23, 2023 12:09pm
    - All_on_Red
      
      Greenpeace France protested to the European Commission about it and it was a new Design the Finnish Regulatory Body had no experience with.
      But obviously despite these hurdles the Finns wanted it bad enough to get it done.
      Meanwhile elsewhere;
      https://rmx.news/poland/as-germany-pulls-nuclear-plug-poland-is-set-to-build-a-network-of-small-nuclear-power-stations/
      https://rmx.news/hungary/with-germany-blocking-hungarys-nuclear-energy-ambitions-orban-turns-to-macron/
      
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      May 23, 2023 12:50pm
      - Ian Boag
        
        it was a new Design the Finnish Regulatory Body had no experience with.
        
        It was indeed a new design and that supposedly added 12 years to the completion date.
        
        Really?
        
        To be fair, Areva (the French contractors) are the prime contractors in the UK’s new Hinkley Point reactor which has also blown out seriously on cost and completion time.
        
        I’m not rusted on anti nuke. Just want to be sure that people understand some of the associated issues.
        
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        December 23, 2022 5:25pm
    - NZer In Exile
      
      “Reuters say …”
      
      In a universe and time far far away, they used to be sort of trusted. Now just the usual far left narrative pushers.
      
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      May 23, 2023 6:53pm
- Simon
  
  Man made climate change is fraud. Nuke vs fake wind etc is for bed wetters.
  
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  May 23, 2023 9:24am
  - NZer In Exile
    
    NZ has plenty of Geothermal and Hydro resource. A natural advantage that NIMBYs, enviro-extremists and chardonnay socialists want banned. Nothing is ever good enough. They want NZ to hit rock bottom while they toast each other.
    
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    May 23, 2023 6:57pm
- ClanMcleod
  
  Nuclear reactor Olkiluoto 3 has gone online in Finland some 12 years behind schedule and on a massively inflated budget.
  
  Was it a Labour government behind the project perchance?
  
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  May 23, 2023 9:31am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Dunno about the Govt but it is the most powerful in Europe. Electricity has come down 75%. See that you anti-nuke idiot? Seventy- five percent!
    
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    May 23, 2023 10:14am
    - NZer In Exile
      
      Also greatly reduces the “need” to blight much of the landscape with ineffective and overly expensive giant wind turbines. Provides cheap power and shuts up the climate emergency numpties (until they dream up the next eco “emergency” farrago).
      
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      May 24, 2023 2:05pm
- Handyman
  
  The same question must be asked of New Zealand EV zealots. Where is the waste going to go?
  The amount of spent EV batteries will exceed all plastic tonnage by 2050. EV batteries do catch fire releasing harmful chemicals so can’t be buried in clusters.
  New Zealand has to dispose of 100,000 car-sized batteries by 2050. Where and how?
  
  For the sake of this discussion, assume no magic technology is invented soon and implemented around the world by 2030.
  
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  May 23, 2023 10:29am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Dump them in the Kermadec Trench.
    Everything comes out of the ground, so it can go back in there.
    
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    May 23, 2023 12:13pm
  - NZer In Exile
    
    No need to make things so they can easily be recycled. Just keep pumping out nasty shit and chuck it into big holes in the ground. Real clever.
    
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    May 23, 2023 7:00pm
2ic

I’ve just noticed we have reached a momentous point in New Zealand’s much heralded Covid-19 response. We now find ourselves in the bottom half of the pack when comparing our Covid-19 death rate to other countries.

Just go to https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/ and order by ‘Deaths/1M pop’. As of now, New Zealand is at 887, whereas the world average is 882.7. And we are only going to be tracking south heading into our winter.

So all this destruction of our economy, restrictions on our freedoms, division of society etc, etc all for …. nothing.

Can someone tell me why the authorities are still patting themselves on the back, and if anything doubling down over New Zealand’s Covid response?
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May 23, 2023 8:01am
- Mike
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  Can someone tell me why statistics from Worldometer are reliable?
  
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  May 23, 2023 8:06am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Of course you have others?
    Let’s see them, instead of the usual spray and walk away.
    
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    May 23, 2023 8:39am
  - cmm
    
    None of the statistics anywhere near this scam are reliable. Certainly not those that came from the Podium Of Truth.
    
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    May 23, 2023 8:45am
    - Mike
      
      Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
      Yes, people are welcome to their own alternative facts. Opinion is notoriously immune to information. For example, it’s well-known psychological phenomenon that providing, say, flat-Earthers, with information countering their beliefs has the effect of reinforcing theri delusions.
      
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      May 23, 2023 9:00am
      - Simon
        
        Mike is all worried about “reliability”
        
        All worried about the reliability of worldmeter but went ahead and injected yourself with the jaxx jungle juice? What?
        
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        May 23, 2023 9:30am
      - cmm
        
        I can only work with the information that I have from personal experience. Yes, that’s anecdotal but it is all I have.
        
        In May last year I was in hospital. I, and 12 others on the ward, were classified as CV19-positive and “Covid cases in hospital”.
        
        None of us were there because of Covid. Not a single one of us. I cannot speak for others on other wards.
        
        In my case, I had been CV19 positive about 5 weeks before I went to hospital but the over-sensitive test picked up remaining Covid muck. I was not even CV19 positive!
        
        Eleven of the remaining 12 had been admitted to hospital BEFORE getting infected. They were actually infected in hospital. One (that infected the other 11) was admitted fro reasons other than CV19 but brought it in to infect the others.
        
        So of the 13, not a single one was in hospital BECAUSE of CV19.
        
        The other case I know of is my twice-vaxxed mother who died with CV19. She had terminal cancer and a dicky heart and was 84 or so. She was skin and bones after a life of obesity. She was in terminal care before she got CV19. Maybe the CV19 knocked a week or two off her life, but putting her down as a Covid death is stretching it.
        
        To equate this with flat-earthing is completely ridiculous. Flat earth “evidence” can be easily refuted.
        
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        May 23, 2023 9:47am
      - ClanMcleod
        
        Mike – stop gaslighting and trolling. Give us something to work with. Tell us where the “truth” can be found in your opinion and what makes it trustworthy. Give it a go. Actual discussion. Just once in your life don’t be a troll.
        
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        May 23, 2023 9:50am
      - Ghost
        
        How about
        
        https://www.health.govt.nz/covid-19-novel-coronavirus/covid-19-data-and-statistics/
        
        Because that is the source worldometer uses for new Zealand
        
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        May 23, 2023 9:52am
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        cmm,
        Yes, Hospital is the last place you would want to go if unwell or injured. There are sick people there, but sometimes Hospital is necessary.
        Ward 10 at North Shore Hospital actually scares me a bit. I have seen a lot of people go in there and not come out alive. My MIL being one.
        
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        May 23, 2023 10:20am
      - Mike
        
        cmm
        All I’m pointing out is that Kiwiblog is a safe space for motivated reasoning – where data follows conclusions rather than the other way around. Flat earth belief is just an extreme example to make the point.
        
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        May 23, 2023 11:00am
      - bjools
        
        Yes, people are welcome to their own alternative facts. Opinion is notoriously immune to information. For example, it’s well-known psychological phenomenon that providing, say, Labour/Green supporters, with information countering their beliefs has the effect of reinforcing their delusions.
        
        Better example me thinks, so I fixed it for ya.
        
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        May 23, 2023 12:57pm
      - NZer In Exile
        
        Flat earth is easily debunked Mike. So your point is crap.
        
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        May 23, 2023 7:03pm
  - Keith White
    
    Yes we can tell you Mike.
    
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    May 23, 2023 8:55am
  - slightlyrighty
    
    When they were showing us in a good light, I’m sure you had no problem with them.
    
    I do find that they are a usually reliable source of information without spin.
    
    To look at other stats. Sweden has 1 third of the number of active cases that we do, with double the population.
    
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    May 23, 2023 8:57am
  - RightNow
    
    Who would you believe?
    Take nobody’s word for anything Mike.
    
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    May 23, 2023 8:58am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    More reliable than that podium of bullshit we had to listen too.
    
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    May 23, 2023 8:58am
  - ClanMcleod
    
    No. You tell us why they are unreliable. Do your own research for once or get back under your bridge.
    
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    May 23, 2023 8:59am
    - Mike
      
      Worldometer provides no information about its sources.
      
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      May 23, 2023 9:00am
      - Simon
        
        lol – you are boosted right?
        
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        May 23, 2023 9:31am
      - All_on_Red
        
        Yes it does
        Stop telling lies
        https://www.worldometers.info/sources/
        
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        May 23, 2023 9:35am
      - Mike
        
        Sorry, I should have written that Worldometer provides no information about how it uses (or misuses) its sources.
        
        Worldometer is run by an international team of developers, researchers, and volunteers with the goal of making world statistics available in a thought-provoking and time relevant format to a wide audience around the world. It is published by a small and independent digital media company based in the United States. We have no political, governmental, or corporate affiliation. Furthermore, we have no investors, donors, grants, or backers of any type. We are completely independent and self-financed through automated programmatic advertising sold in real time on multiple ad exchanges.
        
        https://www.worldometers.info/about/
        
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        May 23, 2023 9:41am
      - ClanMcleod
        
        Nor do you.
        
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        May 23, 2023 9:52am
      - graham
        
        “… Worldometer provides no information about how it uses (or misuses) its sources …”
        
        Whereas the so-called “Disinformation Project” has an impressive-looking “About Us” page that burbles merrily about their grounded research which combines open-source and quantitative data from a range of social media platforms, cross-pollination patterns, super-spreader signatures, semantic study, and the qualitative analysis data, including discourse shifts over time … and on and on.
        
        Sounds impressive. Unfortunately, much of the nonsense written by the “Disinformation Project” has been robustly critiqued by knowledgeable people on Kiwiblog, and shown to be a waste of the electrons used to display it.
        
        So what’s the point?
        
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        May 23, 2023 10:12am
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        All on Red.
        
        I am sure Mike would have gone searching for that but for some reason did not want to share it with us.
        Says a lot for his credibility.
        
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        May 23, 2023 10:27am
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        “Worldometer provides no information about its sources.”
        Keep digging that hole Mike. You are Jaspinda right?
        
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        May 23, 2023 12:20pm
      - Handyman
        
        The worldometer site provides a link to the source for each country’s data. In New Zealand’s case that is the Ministry of Health web site.
        Of course each country may measure the numbers differently, but in any case those are the numbers presented on worldometer.
        
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        May 23, 2023 2:46pm
      - NZer In Exile
        
        Mike: “Sorry, I should have written”
        
        Yep, move the goal posts now that you’ve been caught out.
        
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        May 23, 2023 7:05pm
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      And close the door.
      
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      May 23, 2023 9:08am
  - In Vino Veritas
    
    Mike, Johns Hopkins collated that data until mid March. NZ was sitting at 52.8 per 100k population (528 per m).
    
    According to the NZ Government, 2893 have died from Covid. Population of NZ is currently 5,199,100 according to Stats NZ. Therefore 556 per million.
    
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    May 23, 2023 10:17am
    - Mike
      
      So why the difference from 882 per million?
      
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      May 23, 2023 11:02am
- ClanMcleod
  
  This government are experts in insanity. They keep “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result”, to paraphrase someone famous.
  To be fair, the problem they have is if they step it back, they will be admitting that absolutely every single action they took during covid was (and is) a disastrous failure which caused much more harm than good.
  
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  May 23, 2023 8:21am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Our good friend Albert Einstein.
    
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    May 23, 2023 8:51am
- Xquenda Choudhury
  
  I would expect the government to be silent on this emerging evidence. However the problem is that the media is silent.
  
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  May 23, 2023 8:24am
  - ClanMcleod
    
    The media are paid to be silent. We’ve known that for quite some time.
    
    We are in the process of our democracy being overthrown. That’s no exaggeration. Covid responses showed these people what was possible with the right narrative control and the use of “nudging” and psychological manipulation.
    The pivot to “climate change” was predicted over 2 years ago. Climate change is enabler for full scale Marxism.
    
    The drivers of co governance are simply taking advantage of a time of great confusion to push their agenda. We live in very dangerous times. Not just in NZ, but throughout the world.
    
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    May 23, 2023 8:38am
    - Paulus
      
      Should National/Act win the next election imagine what the paid media will do.
      Day 2 will be the question as to why they have not done this and that, and they will wet themselves in slander.
      Who would want to win this election with the mess, unprecented ever, although Clark/Cullen did well, but were amateurs in what Ardern has done to destroy New Zealand – she is at WHO currently lecturing them.
      
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      May 23, 2023 10:20am
      - Xquenda Choudhury
        
        Exactly. Within a week of a National Government forming we will have the media screaming about child poverty and the housing crisis. Guaranteed.
        
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        May 23, 2023 11:21am
- Burtland
  
  UK 3270 deaths/M
  Sweden 2377
  Germany 2000
  Finland 1726
  Denmark 1483
  Norway 986
  NZ 887
  AVERAGE 883
  Aus 793
  Singapore 291
  
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  May 23, 2023 8:34am
  - GJM
    
    Does that NZ figure include people who were shot in their driveway, but “died of covid”? Or people who were in motorcycle crashes but “died of covid”?
    These real examples show why the figures were cmapletely false, blatently so and hence the definitions changed over time to suit the narrative.
    
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    May 23, 2023 9:33am
    - ClanMcleod
      
      Or people who died within 2 weeks of vaccination, deemed “unvaccinated”. Or anyone who had 1, 2, 3 or more shots, but didn’t get their next one, or didn’t get it in the right timeframe – deemed “unvaccinated”.
      The statistical manipulation has been at a level never seen in history before.
      
      As for changing definitions. The actual word ‘vaccination’ has had the meaning changed 3 times during this ‘pandemic’ alone. Also the terms ‘case’ and ‘pandemic’ were changed to fit this narrative.
      
      It’s not a conspiracy any longer. We were lied to from the beginning and the lie is maintained strongest in NZ. Most other countries are quietly admitting parts of what was done wrong. Not in this asylum.
      
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      May 23, 2023 9:57am
  - James Stephenson
    
    Data source?
    
    The only thing I’m convinced of in all of this, is that you really can’t compare official numbers from any two countries. Everyone is using their own definition of “Covid death”.
    
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    May 23, 2023 9:34am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Data? We have ‘Data’ in New Zealand?
      Um, ‘selective data’ maybe.
      
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      May 23, 2023 6:26pm
- Suze Wainwright
  
  And to think… I know someone who IS an anti-vaxxer, but they did relent to the COVID jabs because they didn’t want to lose their job!
  
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  May 23, 2023 8:35am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    The Govt refused to acknowledge it was blackmail.
    
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    May 23, 2023 9:12am
  - Loddenthinks
    
    Someone refusing to take an experimental mRNA jab, that meets no sane definition of “vaccination” – it neither prevents you from getting the virus nor stops you from passing it on – is not an “anti-vaxxer”.
    
    It is lazy and disingenuous to label them such, have you been drinking the MSM PIJF Kool-Aid?
    
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    May 23, 2023 10:50am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  One day we might get a distinction of ‘died from covid’ and ‘died with covid’
  Right at the start it seemed to be a competition. Get those numbers up for the fear porn.
  
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  May 23, 2023 8:44am
  - ClanMcleod
    
    Steve – the level of lies which we have been bombarded with is beyond what most people can imagine. “With” vs “from” covid is only the tip of the iceberg.
    Remember, anyone dying within 2 weeks of getting jabbed was written down as “unvaccinated”. How convenient.
    Add this to the list of lies and statistical manipulation used to compel compliance to the narrative.
    
    Don’t let them rewrite history: Ventilators KILLED people…and it was no accident
    New studies claim many “Covid patients” were killed by invasive mechanical ventilation, but we knew this at the time and now people are re-writing history.
    
    Many of us did know this at the time, and as usual we were written off as “conspiracy theorists”. We weren’t.
    
    A new study from Northwestern University has concluded that the majority of “Covid19” patients put on ventilators were actually killed by bacterial pneumonia, not the alleged virus.
    
    This should not come as a shock to any regular OffG reader – or indeed anyone who tried to keep themselves informed during the “pandemic”. Mechanical ventilation is not a treatment for respiratory infection, and quite often makes the situation worse.
    
    Full article re ventilators is here, read it and comprehend what has been done to the people of this planet over the last 3 and a half years.
    
    https://off-guardian.org/2023/05/20/dont-let-them-rewrite-history-ventilators-killed-people-and-it-was-no-accident/
    
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    May 23, 2023 9:06am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Ventilators. Off topic a bit, but years ago my Dad had three open heart surgeries.
      He told me way back then that I should avoid them if I could. Reason? You don’t get a rest, they wear you out. You can’t stop breathing for a short 5 second rest.
      
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      May 23, 2023 9:18am
      - ClanMcleod
        
        Steve – indeed, I saw a video in very early 2020 of a doctor in NY raising alarm bells about the misuse of ventilators in the hospital he worked in.
        
        There was a perverse incentive for this to happen. Minnesota State Senator Scott Jensen who is also a family doctor provided this astonishing information in April 2020.
        
        I would remind him that anytime health care intersects with dollars it gets awkward. Right now Medicare has determined that if you have a COVID-19 admission to the hospital, you’ll get paid $13,000. If that COVID-19 patient goes on a ventilator, you get $39,000, three times as much. Nobody can tell me after 35 years in the world of medicine that sometimes those kinds of things impact on what we do.
        
        https://www.factcheck.org/2020/04/hospital-payments-and-the-covid-19-death-count/
        
        The “fact checkers” pointed out that Dr Jensen wasn’t saying that hospitals were deliberately misdiagnosing patients. Well, he didn’t need to did he? But the “fact checkers” also admit that this is accurate information.
        
        Of course, correlation is not causation……//
        
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        May 23, 2023 10:09am
      - mawm
        
        Clan – billing patients depends on what active procedures have been done, what therapeutic measures are undertaken, etc. So when a bill is compiled the clerks in the backroom add up what has been documented as done – eg O2 by mask, ventilation, cardiac support, insertion of arterial catheters for continuous blood pressure monitoring, epidural, intracranial pressure monitoring, etc, etc. These are all things that require specialised care, set-up and equipment – ie they cost the hospital. Some hospitals will charge for things not done while others will encourage the use of things. They are a business after all.
        
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        May 23, 2023 2:55pm
      - ClanMcleod
        
        mawm – not sure what your point is, but if you read the actual “fact check” they confirm the validity of the claim. Their words. From a “fact checker”.
        
        “The figures cited by Jensen generally square with estimated Medicare payments for COVID-19 hospitalizations, based on average Medicare payments for patients with similar diagnoses.”
        
        Hospitals were incentivised report to cases of covid and to ventilate patients. Nobody is saying they did in all cases, but there is no doubt there was a financial incentive. As Senator Jensen said:
        
        “I would remind him that anytime health care intersects with dollars it gets awkward.”
        
        https://www.factcheck.org/2020/04/hospital-payments-and-the-covid-19-death-count/
        
        Have a read of it. It highlights families who’s loved ones died, tested negative but were listed as covid deaths.
        Also as someone else noted, the PCR test is VERY unreliable. False positives (and negatives) were common. RATs are even worse though.
        
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        May 23, 2023 3:41pm
      - mawm
        
        Apologies – the point is that there has always been extra payment for using a ventilator and that hospitals encourage “procedures” so that they can pad billing. Added to that is the hysteria now about bacterial infections from ventilation. That happens and is treated. Sure there is some mortality from this but not what is intimated. Still inappropriate use of ventilators is malpractice.
        
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        May 23, 2023 5:45pm
  - Sacha
    
    The PCR tests used gave/give false positives.
    We should remember that.
    
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    May 23, 2023 1:08pm
    - ClanMcleod
      
      Sacha – particularly in NZ where we run the PCR test at a cycle threshold of 45 which makes any result nonsensical. 27 is recognised as a maximum, and when that number rises it isn’t sequential, it works like earthquake numbers. Even 1 is a quantum leap.
      
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      May 23, 2023 3:45pm
- cmm
  
  But She (She needs capitalisation) has already gone down in history as the Saviour of 80,000 grannies.
  
  22 1
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  May 23, 2023 8:46am
  - Burtland
    
    if we had followed Sweden it would be 7000 additional grannies
    
    1 17
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    May 23, 2023 8:58am
- the deity formerly known as nigel6888
  
  You may also notice, that inexplicably the last measles vaccination campaign utterly failed – at a cost of $1,700 per jab.
  
  Its almost as if a government that vilified its citizens, lied to them, and sadistically forced vaccination on pain of losing your livelihood has now discovered that the phone is permanently off the hook.
  
  Who could possibly have predicted this?
  
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  May 23, 2023 9:11am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Why in this day and age, are kids getting measles? I understand it is free for under 18.
    Is it anti-vax propaganda? Is it just plain laziness?
    Living out in the sticks way beyond Te Kowhai, I had very few vaccines. Polio and Tetanus of course, but the other infections I got naturally. Measles, mumps, chickepox, god knows what else. This is why the forced Covid vax pissed me off. I really think I had Covid and did not even know. Seems the vaccination may have destroyed my natural antibodies.
    Jacinda Ardern, you piss me off big time!
    
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    May 23, 2023 9:51am
    - Paulus
      
      Yes, shear laziness, incompetence, and the inability and want to as they are told, by their peers, not to understand white man’s medicine.
      
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      May 23, 2023 10:24am
      - the deity formerly known as nigel6888
        
        I don’t really know. Maori and smelly hippies are all vastly over-represented in the unvaccinated against MMR stats.
        
        I suspect that the causes are complex, I’d hate to write off any group as lazy and incompetent (possible exception of the hippies who should know better).
        
        The behaviour of the government has certainly played into the paranoia and mistrust of significant cohorts of society, read a few pieces that say 30-35% will never listen to government again – phone is permanently off the hook, and claiming it is the fault of “misinformation” is a really dumb response – so of course it is the one Chippy immediately used.
        
        Those white supremacists trying to overthrow the state are everywhere you know! Even if so many of them are brown or “dark white” as we now call it…
        
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        May 23, 2023 10:37am
    - ClanMcleod
      
      Steve – I’m one of those now questioning all vaccines. Saying that, I’ve had all of the usual ones, so have my kids. I’m reading “Turtles all the way down – vaccine science and myth” – it is an extremely interesting read.
      I’m not going to get into a big debate about the topic, but I’ve had my eyes opened in the last 3 years. I had intended getting my first flu jab in 2020 but now I won’t due to the lies we’ve been exposed to.
      
      Loss of trust has been one of the biggest tragedies of this clusterfuck. Easy to lose, very hard to win back.
      
      22 4
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      May 23, 2023 10:35am
    - JohnRidd
      
      Until recently I was fanatically pro vaccination.
      
      I now know that the Government lied.
      
      I now know the government cannot be trusted.
      
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      May 23, 2023 7:52pm
Mike

Happy World Turtle Day!
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May 23, 2023 8:01am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  So many are on a post.
  
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  May 23, 2023 8:40am
- RightNow
  
  All the way down…
  
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  May 23, 2023 8:59am
Exclamation Mark

If any of you were thinking of heading to Australia should Labour/greens/TMP form the next government, you might want to reconsider in light of the indigenous fun and games being played out over there:
https://www.spectator.com.au/2023/05/alan-jones-treaties/

Looks like the Liberals are just as weak as National on this stuff.
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May 23, 2023 8:01am
- Rusty
  
  @Exclamation,
  
  Australia has the same problems we have in NZ.
  
  Indigenous rights, alternative sex gender rights, broken heath and education system, rising youth crime, housing shortages etc,
  
  Sounds familiar here?
  
  Both countries are run by pro-WEF Labour govts who have a biased left msm backing them up.
  
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  May 23, 2023 9:04am
  - ClanMcleod
    
    And pro WHO.
    
    We have Director General of Health Diane Safrati (has anyone heard a single public statement from her since Bloomfield did a runner?) and Deputy DG of Health, Andrew Old attending the 76th World Health Assembly.
    
    The WHO is attempting to give itself powers that will allow it to overrule sovereign nations when it comes to health policy. I posted on the concerns with this idea yesterday.
    Much of the WHO funding is from private donors, one of which is Bill Gates, another is GAVI which Bill Gates effectively owns. There is massive conflict of interest in the funders of a so called “world” health authority benefiting financially from decisions they might make if they are given this authority.
    
    Here’s a link to some very basic information regarding what they have on their wish list.
    
    https://jamesroguski.substack.com/p/the-proposed-amendments-to-the-international-a99
    
    It’s slightly tongue in cheek. As the author says:
    
    Before anyone gets triggered…
    NO, the above information is NOT really for children!
    It is designed to be sent to Congressional Representatives, Senators or Members of Parliament.
    Our public servants don’t seem to be able to comprehend anything beyond a 5th grade level, so I decided that it might be helpful if I simplified it for them.
    Download the document, print it out and mail it to your public servants.
    
    An example of the changes the WHO are proposing.
    
    Article 36 – some people from Europe want to change the rules so that you could be forced to let someone stick something up your nose, or stick a needle in your arm, or else they may not let you travel to visit your friends and family in other countries.
    
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    May 23, 2023 12:59pm
    - mawm
      
      Even more worrying is that we have heard nothing from our politicians about it. Where do they stand? Or it it going to be like the covid response and they are all spineless jellyfish who can’t stand for anything. They make me sick!
      
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      May 23, 2023 3:01pm
      - ClanMcleod
        
        mawm – there’s a report in yesterday’s Herald, Ardern is in Geneva at the WHO assembly. Didn’t see that coming, did we. lol
        
        So predictable.
        
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        May 23, 2023 4:01pm
    - Burtland
      
      More on this from Andrew Bridgen on Amendments to the International Health Regulations (2005) …
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkhjH2ySMUw
      
      and some more from Dr John Campbell detailing the changes in the regulations https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooKyYEvIhYk
      
      Youve got to ask the question, how does this tie into the new science hub announced by Minister Verrell that includes a Health and Pandemic Readiness Hub.
      
      Budget May2023
      $450M to make Wellington a “science city” with three hubs
      1 national centre for studies on oceans, climate and hazards
      2 health and pandemic readiness
      3 advanced manufacturing and materials, energy futures and biotech
      
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      May 23, 2023 7:26pm
- ClanMcleod
  
  Exclamation Mark – here’s another reason why Australia may not be the best choice, well certainly not NSW…..
  
  Hundreds of students return to remote learning and masks amid COVID outbreaks
  
  https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/hundreds-of-students-return-to-remote-learning-and-masks-amid-covid-outbreaks-20230518-p5d9fs.html
  
  When some people keep telling us to “move on, it’s all over”. No it isn’t. The powers these asshats gave themselves are still in place, ready to be implemented at any moment. They WILL be used for “climate change” at some point. We need to refuse to comply. Never again let this sort of abuse be inflicted on us.
  
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  May 23, 2023 9:22am
  - mawm
    
    Apologies – accidental down vote.
    
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    May 23, 2023 3:01pm
    - ClanMcleod
      
      All good, if I don’t get at least one I get worried that I’m not being challenging enough. lol
      
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      May 23, 2023 7:34pm
igm

Stuff publish a load of crap but this takes the cake . . .
https://www.thepost.co.nz/a/nz-news/350013926/happy-travels-rednecks-in-for-surprise-when-they-spot-new-traffic-signs
Millions of taxpayers’ dollars should do better than this bullshit.
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May 23, 2023 8:07am
- Gravelroad
  
  Lost me at “rednecks”.
  Any “journalism” which resorts to casual insults to bolster their theme, is not worth the computer screen it is written on.
  
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  May 23, 2023 8:39am
  - Keith White
    
    I’ve dashed off a letter to the Post’s editor offering my sympathies to Mr Maxwell.
    
    Clearly he has enormous difficulties being a traveling’n’observing journoMaxwell surrounded by pale people in better cars – everyhere he goes! – and so may be best advised to take time out from journalism and go pick fruit in an orchard.
    
    In a corner, alone, and after dusk, where whiter people than he will not be offensive unto his gaze.
    
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    May 23, 2023 9:02am
    - graham
      
      Ah. “Mr Maxwell”, as in Joel Maxwell?
      
      Explains a lot.
      
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      May 23, 2023 10:15am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Wots wrong with rednecks?
    My Landcruiser has a ’50th Anniversary’ emblem on the front doors.
    Right below each side is another emblem ” REDNECK EDITION”
    I bought them in Alaska!
    
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    May 23, 2023 10:43am
  - Jack5
    
    Whether the word “redneck” is an offensive or racist term is debated in various parts of the internet.
    
    Here’s the Cambridge online dictionary of it :
    
    “… an offensive word for a white person who is considered to be poor and uneducated, especially one living in the countryside in the southern U.S., who has prejudiced (= unfair and unreasonable) beliefs.
    
    Joel Maxwell is a part-Maori who learned the Maori language in mid-life, and has become better known for his Woke Maori articles.
    
    After describing Whites with an offensive word, Maxwell’s penultimate paragraph in his 500-word rave is:
    
    “We need to care a bit more, for each other, and especially for ourselves.”
    
    Blabber, blabber, blabber …
    
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    May 23, 2023 1:44pm
    - mawm
      
      Jack – I think it is about intent. Did he use it to be offensive to some people?
      
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      May 23, 2023 3:05pm
      - Jack5
        
        Most people who follow Kiwiblog seem to think that, as a whole, people take offence too easily.
        
        I agree, but if people oppose use of descriptions regarded as offensive to one group of people, shouldn’t they apply this standard to “offensive” descriptions of all groups?
        
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        May 23, 2023 4:09pm
    - ClanMcleod
      
      His intention was to use it as a term of abuse and derision. No doubt whatsoever.
      
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      May 23, 2023 4:03pm
- Cinematic
  
  If these rednecks exist, I’m confident they’ll have little trouble dealing with these signs.
  
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  May 23, 2023 8:53am
- the deity formerly known as nigel6888
  
  Another very stupid activist enjoying forcing his preferences on others. Just as well there are no real rednecks out there.
  
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  May 23, 2023 9:17am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    I would say this Maxwell bloke has never met one – or avoided them.
    
    10 1
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    May 23, 2023 10:46am
- alloytoo
  
  The writer clearly has some command of the English language, I think it’s then fair to say that Maori traffic signs are a want to have.
  
  I personally think we should invest in more road repairs, that’s a more have to have that will save lives.
  
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  May 23, 2023 9:36am
  - Paulus
    
    Didn’t Maori invent Traffic signs when they invented the motorcar ?
    
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    May 23, 2023 10:26am
- Ehlana
  
  That was a particularly nasty piece of writing. It should have been left in his private journal. What does he really think publishing it will achieve?
  
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  May 23, 2023 10:02am
  - Keith White
    
    When you work in an office full of people frantically signalling their virtue, and your pay packet depends on being able to signal your virtue to stand out from the rank’n’file virtue-signalling crowd – then you gotta signal your virtue ever more frantically. Phew. I’m glad today is not a work day, because after reading that Maxwellswill and then writing this, I need a drink. Jeeves, if you would be so kind.
    
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    May 23, 2023 10:37am
  - zulumonster
    
    It’s Joel Maxwell – he has form for this sort of thing. Telling that they no longer enable comments on his columns.
    
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    May 23, 2023 11:08am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  What is “One Vehicle per Green each lane?”
  
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  May 23, 2023 10:47am
  - the deity formerly known as nigel6888
    
    It is the future comrade! 🙂 Party affiliation gives access to the privilege of personal mobility.
    
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    May 23, 2023 11:40am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    I meant What is “One Vehicle per Green each lane” in Maori?
    
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    May 23, 2023 12:27pm
  - Fuzzysnuggleduck
    
    Waka Tahi something something probably.
    
    The extra words are redundant, as any Maori who can read Maori (as in a minority of a minority) would be able to read such basic English as well.
    Extra redundant words on road signs actually works against communication.
    But the clowns running this circus don’t care.
    
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    May 23, 2023 1:37pm
  - Burtland
    
    so all road signs will have to double in size and be replaced – that will cost a few $M.
    
    Will the English come second and in smaller case? //
    
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    May 23, 2023 7:42pm
- ClanMcleod
  
  Clickbait begging for a response from Mr Maxwell.
  Sad though that race baiting, which this clearly is, is not only permissible when it’s directed at ‘stale pale males’ as this is (note his jibe at Don Brash), but it’s actively encouraged.
  It’s almost as if they want a race war? Why write such antagonistic garbage? What does it achieve? There is nothing positive or informative about the absolute dribble he’s written.
  If it was a European writing similarly re “horis” or some such statement you can only imagine the outrage and screaming that would come out of the media.
  The country appears to be on a suicidal track driven by hysterical ideologues, academia and politicians. I’m only hoping that as the vast majority of people I know have plenty of common sense, we’ll ride this insanity out and at some point, return to a place of peace and normality.
  
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  May 23, 2023 10:48am
- Loddenthinks
  
  Joel Maxwell is a vile race-baiter, hypocrite and DNA-denier who is in a permanent state of anger at his majority-European ancestry.
  
  He’s full of shit and cognitive dissonance, such that in the same article he can say these 3 things:
  
  “Rednecks in for surprise when they spot new traffic signs”
  
  “I am heartened by the thought that angry rednecks are going to have to follow commands in te reo Māori.” This is not true, by the way. Like millions of New Zealanders, I neither understand nor wish to learn a redundant stone-age language with zero utility outside a tiny south-seas banana republic battle. And then this:
  
  “We need to care a bit more, for each other, and especially for ourselves.”
  
  Best ignored – he’s never had a single intelligent or original thought in his life.
  
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  May 23, 2023 10:57am
- Dave
  
  I read Maxwell’s opinion piece inattentively after the second paragraph – It is on our roads that we discover our fellow citizens’ deepest thoughts and feelings.
  
  Really? He knows this unqualified and vague – define ‘deepest’ please – assertion to be true on what good evidence?
  
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  May 23, 2023 5:40pm
Inandout

After ‘consultation with iwi’ there will be no fireworks in Wellington this matariki day. Waterfront celebrations are permitted.
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May 23, 2023 8:10am
- RightNow
  
  Makes sense, you think Maori had fireworks before colonialism?
  
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  May 23, 2023 9:01am
  - Paulus
    
    Well we know that Maori had fires – huge and many of them from lightening, rather than any other form of ignition, or did they invent matches too ?
    
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    May 23, 2023 10:28am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      BIC
      
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      May 23, 2023 10:49am
Cassandra

Should NZ play Rugby with a country supplying an aggressive terrorist state with weapons, as South Africa is doing to Russia? We comprehensively demolished the separation of politics and sport decades ago.
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May 23, 2023 8:21am
- Flossie
  
  Did we? Why then do we still have Maori teams?
  
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  May 23, 2023 8:48am
  - Mike
    
    Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
    We have Māori teams because people like you lack the courage to make it illegal.
    
    5 35
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    May 23, 2023 9:44am
    - Keith White
      
      Mike, are you running a temperature today, because today you’re more off than usual. Why would we want to make people getting together on the basis of their common melanin level, illegal?
      
      Now, if we were to enslave them – or demand disproportionately more money from them on the basis of their lack of melanin or their lack of local ethnic ancestry or lack of enthnotribal affiliation or their apparent skin colour – all that should be illegal. But all except the first, isn’t.
      
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      May 23, 2023 10:41am
    - Flossie
      
      People like me? You have no clue what am I like.
      
      12 1
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      May 23, 2023 12:11pm
  - Cassandra
    
    That’s a good question, Floss. Maori are different, that’s not racism. Apparently. Perhaps the demolition was not so comprehensive after all.
    
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    May 23, 2023 10:26am
- Mike
  
  Remember how John Key pretended that he couldn’t recall whether he was pro- or anti-tour? such fun.
  But, more seriously, when was there ever any separation between sport and politics. ‘Keep sport out of politics’ was just an empty slogan used by rugby supporters like me who thought watching the All Blacks was more important than social justice.
  
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  May 23, 2023 9:50am
  - In Vino Veritas
    
    Politics was out of sport pre the lunatic communists in the anti-apartheid movement Mike. And watching the All Blacks back then WAS more important that social justice. And still is since social justice is just left wing drivel.
    Did you know that when Mandela was in NZ in ’95, at a reception in Wellington, John Minto asked Mandela when he was going to boot multi-national companies from South Africa and take control of South Africa’s economy. Mandela laughed at him and told him he was a lunatic.
    
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    May 23, 2023 10:30am
    - the deity formerly known as nigel6888
      
      Unfortunately the rest of the ANC might have been listening…. and hasn’t it gone well?
      
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      May 23, 2023 10:40am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Mandela was correct.
      
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      May 23, 2023 10:51am
    - Mike
      
      If politics was out of sport, why were the Olympic Games cancelled in 1916, 1940 and 1944?
      
      3 14
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      May 23, 2023 11:06am
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        You are all over the place today, forget the meds?
        1916, 1940, 1944 there might have been Wars.
        Maybe you did not know? Maybe it is just another troll?
        
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        May 23, 2023 12:33pm
      - Mike
        
        Oh Steve, that’s so sweet that you think wars are nothing to do with politics. You want some other examples of politics interfering with sport? Should we start with Mussolini fixing the football world cup?
        
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        May 23, 2023 2:03pm
      - Flossie
        
        I’d imagine the logistics of trying to hold a major world-wide sporting event during war time was pretty difficult to manage. Are you being serious or do you not really understand Mike?
        
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        May 23, 2023 2:34pm
- cmm
  
  The weapons allegations are rather sketchy.
  Having once been part of the SA military industrial complex, I really can’t see what useful weapons SA could supply to Russia.
  
  SA has a few bits of kit that were world-leading back then and still are. In particular there are the G5 and G6 howitzers.
  
  Russia has their own howitzers which are almost as good, but are incompatible – using different size ammo (152 Soviet bloc vs 155mm NATO). This makes it close to impossible to integrate NATO-size equipment into their supply chain.
  
  Further, the SA guns have different performance and longer range. To use these effectively requires changes to the whole battlefield doctrine – not something you’d really want to do. Long range howitzers need to be used with weather stations etc to get the correct ranging. It’s a huge PITA to add all these new requirements to the existing systems.
  
  Further, it’s going to be bloody obvious loading a ship with G5/G6 guns. You can’t do that stealth. To get to Simonstown harbour requires driving through a tiny sea-side town full of ex-Naval sticky beaks.
  
  So what else could it have been then?
  
  The one possibility is electronic parts for missiles etc. Russia is under sanctions from USA meaning that even pretty basic electronics boards and components (CPUs, Raspberry Pi boards,…) are not getting supplied. It could be that SA is just operating as a sanctions busting conduit.
  
  But to call those “weapons”, while technically accurate, is still pushing it.
  
  Or, it could all be bullshit. It wouldn’t be the first time that American intelligence has found politically convenient “evidence”… eg Saddam’s WMD factory.
  
  BRICS is gaining strength. There’s a BRICS conference in South Africa in August. USA sees BRICS as a threat. If you want to attack BRICS then it makes sense to attack the weakest member: South Africa.
  
  South Africa is dependent on the American AGOA deal for preferential trading into USA. This becomes a bit of a whip to straighten out the Africans if they get a bit cheeky.
  
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  May 23, 2023 12:08pm
  - mawm
    
    The American are such hypocrites. I recall seeing boxes of US missiles at the dockside of another SA naval base during the “arms embargo”.
    
    3 1
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    May 23, 2023 3:26pm
- cmm
  
  I put it to you that playing sport with people actually does a lot more to break down barriers than trying to punish people through sanctions.
  
  I grew up in apartheid-era South Africa. I wasn’t sports mad, but I knew many that were.
  
  I d recall the West Indies tours of 1980s. A bunch of black players came to SA and were then banned from cricket for life for breaking sanctions.
  
  But look at the effect on the South African side. White people saw these black guys as heroes. Just think how that moved the racial perception of highly racist white people (there was a bit of a correlation between sports enthusiasm and racism).
  
  Suddenly you had a generation of white kids (and their parents) standing in line to get autographs from black people. They were putting up posters of black cricket players on their bedroom walls.
  
  Only a damn fool can believe that this was not a huge nudge towards breaking down racial barriers in South Africa.
  
  I’m sure that was much more effective than all the separatism.
  
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  May 23, 2023 12:20pm
  - MCōs
    
    Back in 1960 the All Blacks were not allowed to include Māori in the team sent to South Africa.
    So much for breaking down barriers.
    
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    May 23, 2023 1:06pm
    - Fuzzysnuggleduck
      
      Way to miss the actual point.
      Seems you only want to be combative today, and not engage or show even a little bit of respect for other people posting here.
      Mike, occasionally you come across as intelligent, but much more often you come across as odious.
      
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      May 23, 2023 1:43pm
      - MCōs
        
        My nom de plume is MCŌS and as far as I recall that was my first comment of the day, Fussysnuggleduck.
        
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        May 23, 2023 3:36pm
      - Fuzzysnuggleduck
        
        Sorry MCos, I read that as a Mike post.
        He seems to go after cmm’s SA heritage with snide posts – and yours had such a flavour.
        So sorry for the mistaken identity, as I had scrolled through a lot of Mike hit & runs…..but I would still say you entirely miss ccm’s point about sport being a way to warm people or make connections across cultures. Your example does not invalidate his point.
        
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        May 23, 2023 4:07pm
    - Mike
      
      General Kippenberger, as president of the RSA, got in a lot of trouble for protesting this. He wasn’t a fan since he was told before Alamein that the South African field ambulance wouldn’t treat casualties from the Māori Battalion.
      
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      May 23, 2023 2:07pm
      - Jack5
        
        Kippenberger was president of the RSA at the time of Alamein?
        
        I thought he would have been a brigadier with the 2NZEF in North Africa.
        
        Kippenberger opposed an All Blacks tour of South Africa as early as 1949, and it’s likely he would have stood up for Maori soldiers if there was a racial issue.
        
        He was commander of the break-out from Minqar Qaim, where Rommel is said to later have complained about German wounded being bayoneted, and threatening reprisals against NZ troops.
        
        https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/5k11/kippenberger-howard-karl
        
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        May 23, 2023 3:59pm
      - Mike
        
        Yes Jack, his experience with the racist Saffers in the desert influenced his later opinions as RSA president.
        Re Minqar Qaim, Rommel accepted in talking to a captured NZ brigadier (Clifton?) that such things could happen in a night attack where the assaulting troops bayoneted anyone who moved.
        
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        May 23, 2023 5:38pm
      - Jack5
        
        And here’s one report from 1945, of Clifton meeting Rommel.
        
        https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/47714851
        
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        May 23, 2023 7:34pm
  - mawm
    
    cmm – the sanctions, like all sanctions, hurt the people they were meant to help.
    
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    May 23, 2023 3:31pm
- mawm
  
  Cassandra –
  
  1 – Did South Africa supply Russia with weapons? It is disputed by SA. Source please.
  
  2 – Read up the history of what lead to the Russian invasion such as the CIA orchestrated Maidan coup in 2014, their snipers killing peaceful protestors, the pro-Russian Ukrainians locked up in a hall and set alight, the shelling of Russian-speaking villages by the Ukrainian Army since 2014, the Minsk accords which the West have acknowledged they never intended to observe and the ever advancing line of US missiles pointed at Russia and Putins warning about Ukraine joining NATO. Yep, that’s it – no aggressive provocation by the West. //s
  
  3 – so you are not okay with political involvement in the selection of sporting teams in SA when it is in favour of whites; how do you feel that it is now done in favour of blacks? Hypocrisy much?
  
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  May 23, 2023 3:18pm
Simon

Was eating in a Sichuan restaurant and there was a white skin head eating next to me. He started complaining loudly that the sauce was the milder Hainan style completely incompatible with his spicy cold Sichuan dish.

I felt embarrassed for the manager who was clearly from north China and was struggling with the white skin head loudly explaining the various sauces from remote southern provinces. The skin head was saying Hainan sauces don’t belong in a Sichuan restaurant. You can send this Hainan style seasoning back to Hainan. It was getting ugly.

Then Meng Foon arrived and prepared a Hainan Sichuan fusion garlic diced chicken dish. The skin head had to grudgingly admit that it wasn’t bad with the milder Hainan sauce as it contrasted well with the strong garlic flavour. Everyone clapped.

This really happened.
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May 23, 2023 8:22am
- hmmokrightitis
  
  Ill have what ever it is you’re smoking.
  
  21 3
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  May 23, 2023 8:40am
  - Loddenthinks
    
    I thought it was clever, and lampooned the entirely-fabricated outrage the “Asian” writer invented when dining somewhere in NZ recently, very well indeed.
    
    13 3
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    May 23, 2023 11:02am
- Scott
  
  I heard that the white skin head and another white skin head attacked Mr Foon? They got out a noose and tried to hang him while shouting, “this is MAGA country!” 😁
  
  18 7
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  May 23, 2023 8:49am
  - the deity formerly known as nigel6888
    
    ….and then chased him at 80 miles an hour up and down Courtney Place for 2 hours, it was a near catastrophe!!!!
    
    27 2
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    May 23, 2023 9:18am
- Keith White
  
  Sorry, I don’t believe this happened – where’s the Subway sandwich?
  
  13 1
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  May 23, 2023 9:04am
- kowtow
  
  ‘This really happened.’
  
  Anyone educated or experienced enough to know all that cuisine stuff is not going to be stupid enough to be a skinhead.
  
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  May 23, 2023 11:00am
- NZer In Exile
  
  Then the mushrooms eventually wore off?
  
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  May 23, 2023 7:13pm
Littletramp

Good to see the press in the US are now unravelling the “Durham Report” wrt the Trump/Russia collusion/ enquiry .
2 parties have been cleared by Durham of any involvement to date – Trump and Russia.
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May 23, 2023 8:34am
- Cassandra
  
  There are two Durham reports – the one the NYT has and the one Durham wrote.
  
  8 2
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  May 23, 2023 10:28am
  - ClanMcleod
    
    Is that the same as the ToW? Asking for a friend.
    
    15 1
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    May 23, 2023 10:53am
- Mike
  
  Prosecutors, such as Durham, do not ‘clear’ parties: they either prosecute them, or not. How did Durham’s prosecutions fare? Feel free to compare with the records of other special prosecutors.
  
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  May 23, 2023 11:11am
All_on_Red

In news that might make Fox feel a little better, ‘ European Union regulators fined Meta a “record-breaking” €1.2 billion (roughly $1.3 billion) for transferring personal data from Facebook’s EU users to servers in the United States, CNN reported.

Meta had been warned previously about transferring the data over concerns of American spy agencies. The European Data Protection Board said the fine followed an inquiry into Facebook by the Irish Data Protection Commission, which regulates Meta’s operations in Europe. The company has also been ordered to stop processing the personal data of EU users in the U.S. within six months. The ruling only applies to Facebook’
https://news.yahoo.com/eu-regulators-fine-meta-record-152031517.html
Meta continue to harvest personal information and sell it.
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May 23, 2023 8:42am
- cmm
  
  The animals were happy. Every day the farmer brought them free food. Amazing. You don’t have to do anything. Just wait around and the farmer comes along and offloads a huge pile of food. Enough for everyone.
  Then one day the truck came and took the animals off to the works.
  
  Same deal with Meta, Google, Twitter,… you’re getting the free stuff because you are being farmed. You are not the customer. You are the product.
  
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  May 23, 2023 8:52am
Maggie Pie

According to a commentator on Sky last nite….

” New Zealand’s coal imports are up by more than 306% in the last five years”!
And mainly low quality product from Indonesia apparently.

My partner thort this could be due to the increased reporting of coal imports.
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May 23, 2023 8:53am
- Keith White
  
  I like the cut of his jib – where can I subscribe to your partner’s newsletter? 🙂
  
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  May 23, 2023 9:05am
- the deity formerly known as nigel6888
  
  yes, apparently the new App makes it much easier to report!
  
  15 0
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  May 23, 2023 9:19am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  Is there an app for reporting coal imports?
  
  (Asking for Minister Woods)
  
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  May 23, 2023 9:57am
  - Keith White
    
    I’m currently talking with someone who appears to know how to code, to develop an app called Beehive of B******s. It will provide NZers with daily updates on what we have been lied to about, what has been stolen from us, what extra taxes have been non-transparently applied, what new sets of victim groups are getting more of the old same handouts, and so forth. However the coder thinks that the Apple and Android policies will not allow the app the light of day. Xe’s probably right.
    
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    May 23, 2023 10:44am
  - Jack5
    
    You could try Stats NZ, and download one of its 18Mb compressed spreadsheet files. Or perhaps phone the Department for help.
    
    Back in ye olden day, the annual printed “Yearbook” was easy to navigate.
    
    Today’s NZ online statistics are appalling arcane given that the rest of the world is racing into AI assisted searching.
    
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    May 23, 2023 11:07am
    - Burtland
      
      does AI assisted searching work with TeReo?
      
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      May 23, 2023 8:10pm
Stephen

Why is the Horizon Research poll so far out of touch with every other poll? It looks like a joke.
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May 23, 2023 9:00am
- BananaLlama
  
  Push poll.
  National are really lazy and will lose this election with a full bank account they just seem to be oblivious to what is happening around them.
  
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  May 23, 2023 11:57am
- Frank the tank
  
  Because it is an “opt in” poll.
  
  13 0
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  May 23, 2023 12:08pm
Stephen

Does anyone know when Damian O’Connor will announce his retirement, so they can select the new candidate?
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May 23, 2023 9:11am
Chuck Bird

Hipkins will be on the Kerri Woodham from 10 am to 11 am. Some might like to ring or email Kerrri.
11 1
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May 23, 2023 9:12am
- Captain Mainwaring
  
  Her name is KERRE.
  
  8 4
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  May 23, 2023 10:12am
  - Keith White
    
    But if we were to spell your name the way it’s pronounced, you would be called Captin Mannering…
    
    14 1
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    May 23, 2023 10:45am
    - Mike
      
      The officer from the Eastgate platoon always calls him ‘Main – wearing’, but that might just his prejudice against jumped-up bank managers.
      
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      May 23, 2023 11:13am
    - fightingtemeraire
      
      What about Chomondley???
      
      9 0
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      May 23, 2023 11:50am
      - artemisia
        
        And Majoribanks. Not to mention the street name spelt wrong in Wellington.
        
        7 0
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        May 23, 2023 1:16pm
  - Local Miller
    
    Since we hear her name rather than see it, please stop with the correction when people spell it as it sounds. I can understand correcting “Keys” to “Key” and “Hoskings” to “Hosking” but the Kerre thing is a bit pathetic, specially given most spell checkers don’t like Kerre!
    
    13 2
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    May 23, 2023 12:22pm
- Paulus
  
  Is this interview recorded because I saw Hipkind smooching in PNG with some knobs having a free lunch on TVNZ last evening ?
  
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  May 23, 2023 10:32am
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Stop Co-Governance. Julian Batchelor.

Meeting in Hawke Bay last night went so well that tonight there is another.

https://www.stopcogovernance.kiwi/blog/huge-start-to-hawkes-bay-campaign/
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May 23, 2023 9:29am
Chuck Bird

An interesting view. Sabine Hossenfelder is a very smart woman.

Life might be more common in the universe than we thought by Sabine Hossenfelder

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yOiZLHDV3U
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May 23, 2023 9:38am
- Blog-aholic
  
  Clearly, she has not use matauranga so she must clearly be both wrong and a racist.
  
  12 1
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  May 23, 2023 10:04am
- Keith White
  
  Are you a biologist Chuck? 🙂 If not it’s very brave of you to identify her… When even a New Zealand Prime Minister and a US Supreme Court nominee can’t manage it.
  
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  May 23, 2023 10:46am
Surely Knott

Sex and Gender as it’s used by the government forms.

1. Community Services Card asks : Are you Male or Female?

2, The Doctors PHO Entrolment form asks
Gender: Male, Female or Gender diverse

(Note: The Doctors form only recognises Gender. Why don’t they use the word Sex.Why do they need to know your gender? )

NZ Census:

SEX/GENDER
Gives the definitions: What is the difference between gender and sex at birth?
Gender refers to a person’s social and personal identity.

Sex at birth refers to the sex that was recorded at a person’s birth (for example, on their birth certificate).

1. What was your sex at Birth : Male Female.
2. What is your gender: Male Female Another Gender.

**If Gender and Sex are two different things. Why aren’t their two different words. Male and Female deliberately conflates them and removes language to describe your biological sex as distinct from your internal identity.. There is literally no way to say you are a biological person with a penis by using language in this way.
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May 23, 2023 9:49am
- Ehlana
  
  I guess medically trained people like doctors can tell your sex from physical examination. What they are asking is for the information they can’t get by objective means – your gender identity.
  
  6 3
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  May 23, 2023 10:49am
- Libertarians are right
  
  Because the second there are different words Trans Activists lose all their power.
  
  8 2
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  May 23, 2023 11:22am
Maggie Pie

Sounds a bit scary 🙁

Just been drying my hair and listening to ZB’s Kerry Woodham.
A caller with obvious knowledge of the CRL, tells her completion date could be another 5 years away… with costs now predicted to be nearer 10 billion!
Also maintains a number of problems have been detected due to ‘inexperienced construction crews’ engaged on the project that will require remediation.

All this for a 3.45km rail loop?
Can hardly wait to hear what Desley has to say. LOL!!
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May 23, 2023 9:49am
- Captain Mainwaring
  
  KERRE is her name.
  
  6 14
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  May 23, 2023 10:13am
  - Maggie Pie
    
    LOL CAP!!
    You told me for 2 farken years it was McIvor 😀
    
    9 1
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    May 23, 2023 12:31pm
    - Captain Mainwaring
      
      I think Mr. McIvor departed the scene.
      
      4 0
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      May 23, 2023 1:05pm
- Ghost
  
  Lucky you didn’t call her Bob
  
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  May 23, 2023 10:17am
- Tauhei Notts
  
  Let’s put that into perspective.
  Look at a ruler. See how long a millimetre is. Clue, there 25.4 of them to an inch. How much would it cost to build a millimetre of tunnel?
  =$2898.55.
  
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  May 23, 2023 10:31am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    It/s a ‘rule’ The King is a ruler.
    
    6 3
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    May 23, 2023 11:03am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Yeah, I know what the google machine says.
      Blame my metalwork teacher.
      
      7 3
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      May 23, 2023 11:05am
      - Mike
        
        Perhaps monarchs should be referred to as ‘reigners’, as so few of them do any ruling.
        
        9 7
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        May 23, 2023 11:15am
  - Loddenthinks
    
    Plus the karakia and blessing and special incantations to appease the taniwhas at the opening.
    
    So, closer to $3,898.55 a millimetre.
    
    16 2
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    May 23, 2023 11:08am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Now you guys done gone and confused all of the lefties. They don’t do math.
      
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      May 23, 2023 11:12am
Ghost

3 more years of labour’s should see us reach number 1

New Zealand has been a big climber in the annual ‘misery index’, a poll which looks at the economic conditions of countries.

It has jumped from 151st last year (when there were 156 countries listed) to 104th (now out of 157 countries). The lending rate was blamed as the major contributing factor

Article
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May 23, 2023 10:30am
- Mike
  
  Jump is possibly related to the change in methodology described in your linked article.
  
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  May 23, 2023 11:20am
- ClanMcleod
  
  In first place as the ‘most miserable’ is Zimbabwe. The African country came in ahead of Venezuela, Syria and Lebanon thanks to soaring inflation.
  
  Not sure about Lebanon, but certainly the position of Venezuela and Syria is as much or more to do with US and other sanctions as it is about simply inflation. Just an observation. But the maligning of Syria in particular as some rogue state run by a despot by western media is nonsensical.
  
  The US still illegally occupies a third of the country and steals most of their oil. Assad is a very popular and democratically elected leader. The country has just been welcomed back into the Arab League which it was a founding member of.
  The various alliances are moving and things are changing rapidly.
  The US did some wonderful things for many years, but some very questionable actions in the second half of the 20th century and the first quarter of this one and it hasn’t stopped.
  
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  May 23, 2023 4:29pm
  - Ian Boag
    
    Assad is a very popular and democratically elected leader.
    
    We learn something new every day ,,,,
    
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    May 23, 2023 5:03pm
    - Mike
      
      Assad is a Russian ally, so consequently applauded by Putin’s fanboys.
      
      1 2
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      May 23, 2023 5:40pm
      - ClanMcleod
        
        Outstanding, intelligent response as always Mike, at least you’re reliable in that department. ‘Putin fanboys’, you’ve been trolling the big boy blogs this week haven’t you? 🤡
        
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        May 23, 2023 7:39pm
    - ClanMcleod
      
      Ian – I’m so pleased you managed to learn something. It makes my day so worthwhile.
      
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      May 23, 2023 7:40pm
Scooter

I loved the exchange between Hosking and Hipkins where Hosking said given the stats you are failing and Hipkins replied we haven’t yet succeeded. F@# me he out does JA in bullshittery.
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May 23, 2023 10:34am
- Keith White
  
  That is a high bar to exceed, but by Jove, you might be onto something there Scooter!
  
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  May 23, 2023 10:47am
Swifty

NZ drops 50 places in the World Misery Index:

https://www.stuff.co.nz/travel/news/132115023/the-worlds-most-miserable-countries-have-been-named

Surprised that it’s only 50 to be honest.
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May 23, 2023 10:56am
- ClanMcleod
  
  Wonder who did the survey…..the place is turning into more of a basket case by the day.
  
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  May 23, 2023 11:45am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  Further up.. someone reckoned NZ had jumped/climbed up the misery index.
  
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  May 23, 2023 1:05pm
  - Ghost
    
    Got to love stuff, always trying to put a positive on the country sliding down on our butts
    
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    May 23, 2023 1:28pm
Mike

A big thumbs up to the moderators for removing the racist abuse from the Whanau Ora thread this morning.
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May 23, 2023 10:56am
- ClanMcleod
  
  There was zero racist abuse. Everything you disagree with is abuse in your mind.
  The only racist abuse in this country is coming from those pushing the co governance narrative and the morons who actively support and enable it.
  
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  May 23, 2023 11:44am
  - Mike
    
    Really? Why do you think your comment was removed?
    
    3 18
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    May 23, 2023 12:30pm
    - ClanMcleod
      
      Because some snowflake Karen got upset and reported it? Because the mod was taking the path of least resistance? You tell me. You’re always full of stupid questions, you never contribute anything of any use.
      
      It was humour. It was no different to my telling an Irish joke which I do often. I’m Irish descent. I don’t bitch and moan when some joke characterises the Irish as being a bit thick.
      
      My point was and is, the more stuff gets forced into my face without my consent, the less chance there is of my paying any attention to it. In fact, it will actively increase my resistance to the point I detest it. I never had that problem until this year.
      
      So, I deliberately misspelled the names of a couple of utterly useless organisations that have spent millions on this useless exercise while failing to provide the actual services they are supposed to?
      
      It was a piss take and it’s what it deserves. That’s down to the ideologues who believe they can force people to behave in the way they think we should. Same as they tried with covid which I treated with the same contempt. Same contempt I treat any bully with who tries to enforce their pov on others.
      
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      May 23, 2023 1:12pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Al Jazeera. Kevin McCarthy and Joe Biden having a chat about the debt ceiling.
Joe waffles something, McCarthy responds. While he is talking, Biden is staring into space. He is not there. I normal person would look at the person speaking to you.
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May 23, 2023 11:10am
- Mike
  
  It’s performative. It’s not like it’s an actual negotiation. McCarthy has nothing to negotiate with – if he makes any concessions his job is gone.
  
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  May 23, 2023 11:17am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    I said ‘chat’ I did not say ‘negotiation.’
    
    12 3
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    May 23, 2023 11:29am
  - ClanMcleod
    
    You are far too polite. He’s clearly off his meds reading some of the nonsense.
    
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    May 23, 2023 4:33pm
- Paulus
  
  Remember now it is Joe AI
  – not a real person as similar to the next US Election – all done by the Dems at IT.
  
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  May 23, 2023 1:54pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Ahhhh! So that is how the Dems did it in 2020?
    AI, and they still don’t know what this AI is.
    
    2 1
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    May 23, 2023 6:30pm
ClanMcleod

If you only watch one video today make it this one.
It’s a reminder of how many liars told us so many lies during the last 3 and a half years. Just over 11 minutes long, worth watching several times and sharing everywhere you can.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zI3yU5Z2adI

Love the one were White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre is confronted with the question:

“How come migrants are allowed to come into this country unvaccinated, but world-class tennis players are not?” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked by Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy.

“Which world-class tennis player?” she responded, to which Doocy said “Novak Djokovic.”

The look on her face is absolutely priceless!!
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May 23, 2023 11:34am
- Blog-aholic
  
  There are ALOT of liars (or useful idiots)…..
  
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  May 23, 2023 12:12pm
rangitoto

Rumours Russian anti Putin dissidents have liberated the town of Grayvoron and a military base used for storing nuclear weapons in Belgorod region.
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May 23, 2023 11:58am
- ClanMcleod
  
  Source? I’ve read about civilians being injured by a Ukrainian saboteur group who crossed the border. Nothing about any anti Putin groups. Always keen for new sources of news to check out cheers.
  
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  May 23, 2023 12:17pm
  - Ghost
    
    It’s a group of Ukrainian Russians living in Ukraine
    
    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/may/22/anti-kremlin-militia-freedom-of-russia-legion-overrun-russian-border-village-kozinka
    
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    December 23, 2022 1:25pm
    - ClanMcleod
      
      Ghost – thanks for that, I’ll check it out.
      
      0 2
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      May 23, 2023 1:47pm
    - ClanMcleod
      
      Read it, another rumour. I guess the truth will filter through at some point.
      Russians calling it saboteurs, that drones have targeted civilian houses. The truth is extremely difficult to come back in situations like this. I just hope some peaceful resolution can be found to stop the slaughter that is currently going on.
      
      7 2
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      May 23, 2023 1:56pm
  - ClanMcleod
    
    3 downticks for asking for the source of information. This place is becoming infested with idiots. Either that or Mike has all 3 profiles engaged. That must be stressful.
    
    13 5
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    May 23, 2023 1:15pm
  - rangitoto
    
    Ukraine is planning to send peace keepers and facilitate free and fair elections for Belgorod.
    
    3 1
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    May 23, 2023 1:22pm
    - ClanMcleod
      
      Good luck to them. Peace would be welcome by most people, certainly the civilians.
      
      5 1
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      May 23, 2023 1:57pm
Swifty

Who cares if crime is out of control or that violent robberies are now an everyday occurrence, at least we have a leader that, like Princess Jacinda, shows ‘empathy’:

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/prime-minister-chris-hipkins-said-titirangi-post-shop-closure-is-absolutely-heartbreaking/R6QSMXBUXFF4ZKA6F3OED36BD4/

And showing empathy is what really counts!
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May 23, 2023 12:30pm
Keith White

“Women 45 and over had a high risk of severe vaginal bleeding after receiving mRNA Covid shots, Swedish researchers found after studying almost 3 million women.

“The increased risk lasted for at least three months after women received a shot and was even higher after the third shot than the first two. That finding suggests a “dose-response relationship” – the link was not coincidence.

“Overall, a third mRNA dose raised the risk of severe, medically diagnosed bleeding episodes by 25-45 percent. Some women required inpatient hospital care.

“Younger women also had a higher risk of bleeding episodes.

More detail:

For the study, the researchers compared the likelihood a woman would be diagnosed with a new bleeding disorder up to one week and three months after being vaccinated with the same likelihood of diagnosis before vaccination.

The scientists drew on Sweden’s national medical records system, so they had a huge database, including 2.95 million women in Sweden aged 12-74. Of those, 2.58 million received at least one Covid jab and 1.65 million received three. The researchers divided women into two roughly equally-sized categories – 12-44 and 45 and over, whom they called post-menopausal. The study covered the period from December 2020, when vaccinations began, through February 2022.

After the third mRNA dose, post-menopausal women had over a 40 percent higher risk of severe bleeding. The risk lasted at least three months. It might have continued even longer, but the researchers did not examine time periods longer than three months after the shot.

Even after researchers corrected for factors other than the vaccine that might have caused the risk, they still found it was more than one-quarter higher. For all three doses combined, episodes of severe bleeding in older women rose by about 20 percent before correction and 15 percent after.
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May 23, 2023 12:34pm
- ClanMcleod
  
  And in NZ, “get your booster, it’s still safe and effective…..”
  
  Read the latest post from the very knowledgeable Eugyppius. This is where this is going.
  
  German government report names the pandemic as a precedent for environmental policy, says lockdowns show that behavioural restrictions are possible & can win majority support with the right messaging
  
  The real Long Covid is a political disease and we have yet to learn the extent of it
  
  This was always going to pivot to climate change.
  As the author summarises:
  
  All of this speaks for itself, and I don’t have much to add, except to observe that the only way for restrictions to be “communicated” such that “the majority support them,” is by renewed forays into state media-fuelled mass panic and hysteria. Corona has taught our rulers that a great deal more is possible than they ever imagined, and they will spend the coming years exploring the limits.
  
  It’s exactly the stage we are at.
  
  Full post available here.
  
  https://www.eugyppius.com/p/german-government-report-names-the
  
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  May 23, 2023 1:21pm
greybeard

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/300886458/copper-dome-stolen-from-aucklands-stardome-telescope-cant-be-used-on-matariki

Now THAT is what I call a REAL Ram-raid !
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May 23, 2023 12:59pm
ClanMcleod

Paywalled, but you’ll get the gist.

Transpower warning about potential power issues this winter, cutbacks by consumers needed.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/transpower-warns-of-potentially-tight-winter-power-supply/6I4EWK4R5JEMFOX25T2WQUZLZQ/

It’ll all be better when everybody gets an electric car…….
20 2
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May 23, 2023 1:36pm
- Ghost
  
  Hydro lqkes should be full, so what’s letting us down, wind? Surely we could move that wind farms to near labour hq and that would be nonstop generation
  
  12 1
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  May 23, 2023 1:40pm
  - ClanMcleod
    
    I’ve posted this old classic before. Apologies if you’ve read it many times before…..!
    
    Chris Hipkins died and went to heaven. As he stood in front of Saint Peter at the Pearly Gates, he saw a huge wall of clocks behind him. He asked, “What are all those clocks?”
    
    Saint Peter answered, “Those are Lie-Clocks. Everyone on Earth has a Lie-Clock.
    
    Every time you lie, the hands on your clock will move.
    
    “Oh,” said Chippie,” whose clock is that?”
    
    “That’s Mother Teresa’s. The hands have never moved indicating that she never told a lie.”
    
    “Whose clock is that?”
    
    “That’s Abraham Lincoln’s clock. The hands have only moved twice telling us that Abe only told 2 lies in his entire life.”
    
    “Where’s Jacinda’s clock?” Chippie asked.
    
    “Jacinda’s clock is in Jesus’ office. He’s using it as a ceiling fan.”
    
    Not sure about the rest of NZ, but we’ve had a more than enough wind in the last 8 or 9 months to last us quite a while. Though I don’t have a wind generator, decided very early on, too much maintenance, all those high speed moving parts. Also very intermittent power input. Money was better spent on solar panels and improved battery capacity.
    
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    May 23, 2023 2:04pm
    - Chris Nisbet
      
      The money would be even better spent on another coal/gas-fired station.
      Imagine all that chep, abundant, energy we could use to keep us warm and power our industry.
      
      7 0
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      May 23, 2023 2:43pm
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      It works and true. I hope that clock is following her.
      
      3 1
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      May 23, 2023 6:37pm
  - Dougal10
    
    They keep sneaking the hydro lake levels down. One of the big ones has a heap of new rock being put in when they can to counter the wave action on the dam wall so they tend to dump a lot of water on the pretense of doing this work .One of the biggest feckups is the upper waitaki system is controlled by 2 different companies and they play silly buggers with each other
    
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    May 23, 2023 2:16pm
- graham
  
  Transpower finds it necessary to remind everybody of the obvious.
  
  “(Transpower) chief executive Alison Andrew said higher volumes of renewable but intermittent generation, such as wind, had left the electricity system susceptible to equipment faults and changing weather conditions at times of high peak demand, particularly during winter cold snaps.”
  
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  May 23, 2023 2:52pm
Swifty

I am lost for words:

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/northland-teen-jailed-for-manslaughter-of-good-samaritan-who-gave-him-a-lift/VCXLSRT7YZAEPBZ75MXE2QWLPY/
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May 23, 2023 2:17pm
- Ghost
  
  To be honest, I’m not. I’m getting so used to this happening in New Zealand, I’m not surprised how out of control the crime is now.
  
  11 0
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  May 23, 2023 3:33pm
  - Swifty
    
    I understand you saying that.
    
    5 1
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    May 23, 2023 5:55pm
Maggie Pie

A bestie from tennis called by earlier for a coffee. Prue was saying how pleased she was that they hadn’t rushed to complete their Census.

They just received another complete set of Forms in the mail yesterday. There was a letter attached from StatsNZ which ended by saying…. If the Householder completes and returns the information by 31 May, or undertakes the survey online, they will go into a draw for 1-of-10 ‘Land Rover Defenders’ – see link.

https://youtu.be/pJHevbenWNE

Or if you have already completed them, thank you.
You do not need to do anything else.

(I see reports that the cost of this years Census is likely to exceed $300 million! More than DOUBLE that of previous. Imagine how many bollards & fog cannons could have been installed for that kind of taxpayer money) SHEEEESH.
22 2
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May 23, 2023 2:23pm
- Drone
  
  This has to be a wind up MaggiePie.
  
  5 1
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  May 23, 2023 2:54pm
  - Maggie Pie
    
    NOPE. Absolutely not!
    
    The $300m dollar figure comes directly from an article in ‘Newsroom’….
    
    https://www.newsroom.co.nz/census-turnout-low-despite-37m-blowout
    
    8 1
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    May 23, 2023 4:05pm
    - Xquenda Choudhury
      
      That is not the bit he was referring to.
      
      4 0
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      May 23, 2023 4:45pm
      - Maggie Pie
        
        Oh you think?
        
        7 1
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        May 23, 2023 5:01pm
  - Xquenda Choudhury
    
    Oh you think?
    
    2 0
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    May 23, 2023 4:44pm
ClanMcleod

Another stunning resource. When someone tries to tell you re covid – “we did the best we could with the information available at the time, you’re speaking with hindsight” – call bs immediately.
Here’s all the reference you need to prove to anyone that the information was readily out there, weeks and in some cases months before the shit hit the fan.

https://brownstone.org/articles/what-we-knew-in-the-early-days/

The list is comprehensive. Don’t let anyone talk their way out of this.
Every one of these is a link to evidence to support the statement.

2019: WHO Global Influenza Programme recommends against lockdowns and masks
Sept 2019: Johns Hopkins pandemic preparedness study recommends against lockdowns
Jan 24: Doctor warns that mass quarantine won’t work and will devastate society
Jan 30: Obama health adviser says stop panicking
Feb 5: Fauci says there’s no asymptomatic spread
Feb 28: Fauci says this is more akin to flu than something more deadly
Mar: 81% of Chinese Covid cases are mild
Mar 1: Sweden: No effective measure to let healthy school children stay at home
Mar 2: Discussion on how Covid IFR was likely much lower than predicted
Mar 2: 800 public health scientists warn against lockdowns, quartantines, restrictions
Mar 3: Article on why masks are impractical
Mar 3: Berkeley doctor indicates masks are not helpful in preventing Covid
Mar 4: Doctor says Covid not nearly as deadly as feared
Mar 4: Your doctor is not panicking and neither should you
Mar 6: Doctor talking about unnecessary panic over Covid
Mar 9: Article on how Covid is only really dangerous to the elderly
Mar 12: Chief medical officer saying people shouldn’t wear masks
Mar 13: Review found severe mental health problems from prolonged quarantine
Mar 15: Medical organisation says stopping elective surgeries is unnecessary and dangerous
Mar 17: Warning of financial crisis, unrest, civil strife, war, and a meltdown of the social fabric
Mar 19: Article about Covid overaction and its issues
Mar 25: Data about the health impacts of crushing the economy
Mar 26: Early evidence of hospitals inaccurately listing Covid as cause of death
Mar 26: Early data show we’re overreacting to Covid
Mar 28: Predictions about the harms of lockdowns: Drugs, Suicide, and Crime
Mar 28: Guardian outlines rise in domestic abuse throughout the world
Mar 30: Study showing children are not the primary spreader of Covid
Apr 1: Article saying masks offer little to no advantage outside of hospital settings
Apr 3: An overview on the dangers of lockdowns
Apr 4: Warning of the harm in delaying non-Covid medical procedures
Apr 4: Research showing the seasonality of Coronaviruses
Apr 6: U.N. warns about domestic violence surge
Apr 6: Piece on domestic abuse during lockdown
Apr 7: Study from China finds of 7,324 COVID-19 cases only two transmissions occurred outdoors
Apr 7: Piece on the mental health cost of the lockdown on kids
Apr 8: Research showing school lockdowns aren’t helpful and cause great harm
Apr 13: More confirmation about domestic abuse rising due to lockdowns
Apr 14: Children are very unlikely to contract Covid
Apr 15: Barely any transmission from outdoor activities
Apr 15: Different approaches by countries have little impact on Covid deaths
Apr 15: Molecular Biologist suggests the cure is worse than the disease
Apr 16: UN overview about the poverty/death that will come from lockdowns
Apr 16: CDC mask study concludes that masks don’t work
Apr 17: Info on how damaging cancelled procedures are
Apr 20: Oxford professor says cases in U.K. peaked before lockdown
Apr 22: Potential for 60,000 cancer deaths due to lack of screening/treatment
Apr 23: The harm lockdowns are having on people with heart conditions
Apr 24: Data on the mental health toll of lockdowns
Apr 24: Study showing school closings are the least cost-effective pandemic policy
Apr 27: The rise of domestic abuse during lockdowns
Apr 28: Increasing child abuse is a side effect of Covid lockdowns
Apr 29: Cancer deaths could increase by 20% due to lockdown
Apr 30: Santa Clara seroprevalence study shows high prevalence
May 1: Indications from Europe that lockdowns are ineffective
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May 23, 2023 2:29pm
- Chris Nisbet
  
  I didn’t need hindsight to tell me that you don’t lock a country down.
  We knew even then that the disease wasn’t that deadly, and the old and unhealthy were most at risk.
  
  I was completely gobsmacked to learn that we weren’t actually freie at all, and the BoR isn’t worth a pinch of shit.
  
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  May 23, 2023 2:49pm
Flossie

“Transpower warns of potentially tight winter power supply” ….
– Headline in NZ Herald this afternoon.

What shall we do about heating, hot water, and cooking, never mind plugging in the EV. All our non-electrical options seem to be unacceptable.
How we’re going to manage to run a steel factory as well just blows my mind!
19 1
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May 23, 2023 2:40pm
- Burtland
  
  most of the hospital boilers are going electric and all their cars – wonder who will get priority
  
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  May 23, 2023 8:57pm
  - Ghost
    
    Wonder what will happen during a winter power cut down south, those boilers keep the hospital nice and warm. Generator power will now have to take over that job as well
    
    2 0
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    May 23, 2023 9:34pm
ClanMcleod

Well guess who turned up at the WHO assembly!!

Jacinda Ardern reflects on Covid 19 at World Health Organisation assembly

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/jacinda-ardern-reflects-on-covid-19-at-world-health-organisation-assembly/NEUASKJC6ZF2PIRCY5RNHGWBII/

Grab the sick bucket, here’s just one of the garbage comments she made.

She finally thanked WHO for attempting to build and maintain a foundation of trust between scientists, health and “ultimately, solutions”.

“In the aftermath of the crisis, we have not just done something, we have done enough,” Ardern concluded her speech with.

She’s done enough alright, more than enough.
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May 23, 2023 2:46pm
- Ghost
  
  I told my dr they gave her an award, he was disgusted
  
  16 1
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  May 23, 2023 3:29pm
  - Mike
    
    My doctor pretends sympathy with my political opinions too.
    
    2 17
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    May 23, 2023 3:58pm
    - Ghost
      
      My doctor and I have great discussions started by him on how bad this government have screwed up the health system and how many of the senior gp’s around here are retiring because of it. Good thing about having a gp who is also a good friend, we can have open discussions.
      
      15 1
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      May 23, 2023 4:16pm
      - kevn
        
        @Ghost… A lot of the senior GP’s were quite happy to play along.
        
        7 1
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        May 23, 2023 6:08pm
    - ClanMcleod
      
      It’s not unusual for psychiatrists to empathise with their patients delusions Mike. It doesn’t mean you’re special, well, maybe in THAT way…..
      
      11 2
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      May 23, 2023 4:44pm
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Best go back to your Doctor and get him to test what your illness is.
      
      6 1
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      May 23, 2023 6:42pm
Maggie Pie

For Waka Kotahi… 😀 😀 😀

*FULL SCREEN – SOUND UP*

https://twitter.com/Wildnfree1984/status/1660789603031461888
12 2
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May 23, 2023 3:30pm
- ClanMcleod
  
  That’s one of the better roads I’ve seen lately…..only two cones!
  
  11 2
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  May 23, 2023 4:51pm
ClanMcleod

Anyone trying to understand why people comply with moronic orders and directions as they did during covid. Here’s a classic example of how it works.

https://twitter.com/AmazWorld22/status/1659779208518959105?s=20

Of course, we also have the Milgram experiment which demonstrated just how people can be programmed to do bad things.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YOox59J0Bk
8 2
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May 23, 2023 4:58pm
- ClanMcleod
  
  Mind you, if I was the horse in the first video she could probably lead me by the nose without too much difficulty. 😂😂😂😂
  
  8 2
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  May 23, 2023 5:02pm
  - Maggie Pie
    
    In psychology that is known as…. ‘little head / big head’ 😛
    
    9 2
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    May 23, 2023 5:07pm
  - kowtow
    
    What horse…..
    
    5 0
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    May 23, 2023 7:39pm
Chris Nisbet

We’re all being advised to create our own ‘climate action plan’.
What a load of shite.
If I can’t outpace the rising seas I figure it’s time I shuffled (v slowly, apparently) off this mortal coil.
Of far greater importance will be my climate _policy_ plan.
#1 on the list: buy a generator. The Transpower warnings we just got might just convince me this is the year.
8 1
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May 23, 2023 5:52pm
Maggie Pie

“We need to accept that crime today is the new normal”

– Chippie
10 2
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May 23, 2023 6:32pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Um, that prick in London said that
  
  6 1
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  May 23, 2023 6:44pm
- NZer In Exile
  
  I’m thinking “vigilantism” (IE people resorting to the only real method available to protect themselves and their property) will then become the new normal.
  
  6 0
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  May 23, 2023 7:22pm
miltonF

Labour voters seem to be awfully conflicted about the $140m for NZ steel.

On one hand “something something CO2” so it’s fantastic!! On the other hand Labour has done a big “capitalism” with corporate welfare. Boo!

Sheesh, someone needs to tell them that increasing taxes and regulations to the point that businesses threaten to leave, and then bail those businesses out with truck loads of taxpayer’s money is, of course, textbook socialism.

In conclusion, the only reason they are conflicted is because they don’t know what socialism is. Or capitalism for that matter. They’re actually getting the socialist utopia they wanted. It just doesn’t look the way they had imagined. It never does.
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May 23, 2023 7:15pm
kevn

Who indeed. They have all let us/NZ down…
https://preview.mailerlite.com/d6c4i3g5m7/2220730110854567984/t4x9/
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May 23, 2023 7:24pm
Ghost

Words you will never hear and believe

Labour’s view is it won’t use AI because it wants to run “an honest and upfront campaign”.

Don’t think labour know what honest and upfront means.

National uses realistic-looking AI-generated health workers, scared woman to front attack ads
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May 23, 2023 9:42pm

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