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July 15, 2023 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 15 July 2023

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General Debate

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Mike

Happy St Swithun’s Day

St. Swithun’s day if thou dost rain
For forty days it will remain
St. Swithun’s day if thou be fair
For forty days ’twill rain nae mar
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July 15, 2023 8:01am
- ClanMcleod
  
  Sounds as scientific as the Green Party climate change manifesto……….
  
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  July 15, 2023 10:36am
- rjay
  
  Matauranga Anglo-Saxon
  https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/48991574
  
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  July 15, 2023 1:28pm
Chuck Bird

I am looking forward to seeing the men’s final at Wimbledon. I think I might put some money on Djokovic.
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July 15, 2023 8:04am
- Cassandra
  
  And the Springboks (sadly).
  
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  July 15, 2023 8:11am
  - pdm
    
    Cass I think you are right.
    
    There is no way that is the best All Black XXIII available.
    
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    July 15, 2023 9:49am
    - Tony Stuart
      
      Everyone was tipping Argentian to knock us over last weekend, and it didn’t happen. I’m going for the All Blacks by less than eight.
      
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      July 15, 2023 11:03am
      - Steve Todd
        
        I’m going for the All Blacks by less than eight.
        
        Yep, that sounds about right. And happy birthday, Tony.
        
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        July 15, 2023 12:16pm
- Cinematic
  
  Alcaraz is the real deal, but has sailed through a very weak side of the draw.
  
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  July 15, 2023 8:12am
- Cassandra
  
  On a more positive note BlueBet has the ABs well favoured.
  
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  July 15, 2023 8:30am
  - I remember when
    
    Great to see science triumphing over emotion decision making.
    
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    July 15, 2023 10:16am
- blue collar
  
  Djokovic is the greatest of all time .
  
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  July 15, 2023 8:48am
  - cas
    
    I would argue it’s Rod Laver.
    
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    July 15, 2023 10:33am
    - Loddenthinks
      
      Comparisons are odious, as the saying goes, but the Rockhampton Rocket was my hero growing up as a junior tennis player in Wellington. It’s impossible to know how he would have gone with modern training methods, fitness, technology, equipment, nutrition, sports psychology, greater competition, more consistent surfaces and so on. Fun, but ultimately pointless.
      
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      July 15, 2023 6:35pm
      - Steve Todd
        
        Totally agree, Loddenthinks.
        
        It’s the same with the great batsmen (not batters – ugh) of the past: Herbert Sutcliffe, Jack Hobbs, Wally Hammond, Don Bradman, Denis Compton, Len Hutton, etc.
        
        My bet is, if those guys were playing today – gosh, wouldn’t it be great to watch them? – and benefiting from the modern inputs you mention, they would still be world-beaters, as would Rod Laver be.
        
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        July 15, 2023 7:09pm
- Gravelroad
  
  Is he still unvaxxed?
  If he is, surely he should be made to wear a mask throughout the game?
  How is Djokovic even allowed to play at Wimbledon?Guess he still wouldn’t be welcome here.
  I usually avoid commenting on Covid stuff, but the way that champion was treated because he wouldn’t get a vaccination was reprehensible and ridiculous.
  I hope he wins big.
  
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  July 15, 2023 8:49am
  - krazykiwi
    
    His treatment was indeed reprehensible and ridiculous. He had the financial strength to brush it off, unlike a great many regular people who in declining the experimental genetic jab then lost jobs and careers. Their treatment was every bit as reprehensible, but largely invisible. These people are the unsung heroes.
    
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    July 15, 2023 9:03am
    - leoj
      
      …… and is why every opposition party leader is missing out on fuller support in our upcoming election.
      
      Seymour could boost his numbers overnight by coming out and apologizing for not talking to the protesters.
      
      Luxon is too woke to do that. Behind Jacinda’s skirt was much more comfortable.
      
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      July 15, 2023 9:29am
      - mandk
        
        He should also apologise for supporting the mandate.
        
        He helped to wreck people’s lives and livelihoods.
        
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        July 15, 2023 10:20am
      - ClanMcleod
        
        More importantly, Seymour could apologise for deceitfully implying that NZ doesn’t have an excess mortality problem. Deliberate data manipulation to tell a lie.
        I was very close to giving Act a vote up until he did that.
        
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        July 15, 2023 10:34am
    - ClanMcleod
      
      Absolutely, though I give kudos to Djokovic for the fact he gave up the opportunity to be go into the record books as the GOAT by refusing to accede, even though it meant he was kicked out of Australia.
      
      Money is clearly important, but legacy is often as big a driver for these sports superstars.
      Djokovic stood strong. Full of admiration for him.
      
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      July 15, 2023 9:41am
    - krazykiwi
      
      By way of example, in the UK approximately 60,000 care home workers (10% of the total workforce) lost their jobs. The mandates achieved nothing but career loss for them, and poorer care for the elderly.
      
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      July 15, 2023 10:07am
      - tf78
        
        Don’t forget the pilots, firemen, armed forces, police, teachers etc. also.
        
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        July 15, 2023 10:26am
      - ClanMcleod
        
        I had a couple of friends here visiting for the last week (one of whom you met) who are in that category.
        
        One recently returned to work as a teacher aide, though couldn’t do it at the same school who fired him without even an acknowledgment of their years of excellent service. The other is still struggling with anger and depression issues due to their treatment which was working with special needs kids. A great loss to the education system.
        
        The damage continues but National/Act want us to pretend it didn’t happen and worse, Seymour tells me personally that nobody died from the vaccine. Then wonders why I say I won’t vote for his Party. lol
        
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        July 15, 2023 10:31am
      - Che Guava
        
        They can take away your material possessions, but they can never touch your soul and take your self-respect if you don’t let them. Only in a hyper-materialistic and largely godless society could vaccine mandates be imposed and widely accepted.
        
        In fact, in a godless society where people reject the idea of a transcendent soul and autonomous agency, there is no real argument against forced vaccination anyway. In such a society, it’s just some matter being injected into the arm of different matter, and even if it kills the recipient, so what? When everything is matter, nothing really matters (pun intended).
        
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        July 15, 2023 11:02am
    - Che Guava
      
      While I get the point about Djokovic having the resources to refuse vaccination and absorb the cost of doing so, the idea that someone could or should only refuse if they can afford to do do is faulty, and it shows the problem that leads to conformity even against one’s better judgment. The power elite know the psychology involved – if most people are so attached to the material aspects that come with being and staying in “the system,” they will therefore do almost anything they are forced into just to maintain their material status, then the power elite is going to keep forcing things on us all. Ultimately, most people are too chicken shit to want to disadvantage or diminish their material positions, so they’ll fold easily and do what they are told. Sure, they’ll bitch and moan online about it, but they will still compromise themselves and tell themselves that they had no choice. Wrong. Only if you are willing to lose a lot of what you currently have are you truly free. If everyone had this mindset, then nothing could be forced on anyone.
      
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      July 15, 2023 10:29am
      - imalwaysright
        
        Id like to know the reasons for the three down ticks.
        
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        July 15, 2023 12:48pm
      - alphabeatrium
        
        I’m just guessing, but I don’t think you have children who depend on your income.
        
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        July 15, 2023 6:54pm
  - Scott
    
    Gravel road – quite right about Djokovic. He’s still the only man to be kicked out of Australia for not taking drugs! 😁
    
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    July 15, 2023 10:25am
- lastmanstanding
  
  This will be my 17th GE.IMHO over that time the country has swung to the Left. ACT is now where the Nats were, the Nats are where Labour were, Labour is where the Socialist Workers Party used to be and the Greens and TPM are where the Communist Party used to be.
  Governments have created a “Gimme” society. Gimme the money or I wont vote for you. The reason. To command and control. We now have a country that cant wipe its own arse. It requires the Government to supply the dunny paper, wipe the arse clean, dispose of the soiled dunny paper down the dunny and flush the dunny. Pathetic.
  To quote John F Kennedy’ Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country”. For me I have obeyed the law and paid my taxes. What I want a Government to do is deliver the mail defend the shores and get the hell outta my life.
  
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  July 15, 2023 9:38am
  - Opie
    
    Agree. We need less from governments (central and local)
    
    News articles are all about politics.
    
    I don’t care.
    
    Take the minimum tax to provide core services and only spend what you collect.
    
    Simple.
    
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    July 15, 2023 9:45am
    - tf78
      
      That’s how a budget used to work.
      
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      July 15, 2023 10:28am
  - Grunter
    
    Well said!
    
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    July 15, 2023 9:48am
  - krazykiwi
    
    Agreed. This is on topic: Failed fledglings, parasite singles, four NOs, basement dwellers, NEETs
    
    All over the world, the Millennial and GenZ generations (and their parents!) have a problem. The problem is that a large minority of these “adults” are choosing not to work or have a career, not to date, not to own many possessions and to not have a family. They want to earn the minimum amount possible to survive and then live life on the internet.
    
    Concerning to watch this trend parallel the rise of global socialism.
    
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    July 15, 2023 10:13am
  - Ian Boag
    
    get the hell outta my life
    
    Other than the pension, health, education etc …. 🙂
    
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    July 15, 2023 10:18am
    - krazykiwi
      
      No, I’d include those. The government’s role shouldn’t extend beyond
      1. Securing our national sovereignty
      2. Domestic law and order
      3. Commercial regulation to protect against monopolies, rorts etc
      
      Tax everyone 5% on their income and allow soundly regulated private enterprises to provide the rest.
      
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      July 15, 2023 10:27am
      - JeffW
        
        I would argue that very broadly defined, property rights are the single most important thing for government to do, perhaps, if defined sufficiently broadly defined, the only thing. (Very broadly defined, property rights would include national security, for instance – citizens don’t have secure property if another country can waltz in and take over).
        
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        July 15, 2023 10:44am
      - Ian Boag
        
        Is there someplace already doing this so we can see how well it works?
        
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        July 15, 2023 11:56am
      - Wayne Mapp
        
        A pretty extreme view of the role of government. No state provided roads, health care, education, old age pension, National Parks, etc. And these are the things that I reckon 95% of the population would think desirable.
        
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        July 15, 2023 3:16pm
      - Wayne Mapp
        
        I would add that no OECD government could actually have such a restricted government. The range of virtually mandatory international treaty obligations would prevent that.
        For instance would a Trump Whitehouse withdraw from the Paris Climate commitments? I think not, though they would apply the obligations in creative ways.
        
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        July 15, 2023 6:36pm
    - JimBobJoe
      
      Yeah Ian, No one is against public service provision to give a PLATFORM of Opportunity, accept the most hard core freedom and self responsibility individualists
      
      Most on this blog are sick of the attitude of ”the Government must do something” when any problem no matter how trivial comes along.
      
      It is nauseating. Adults need to stand up and do the necessary to supply themselves and their children with the necessaries of life.
      
      We have been subjected for 30 odd years to an incessant leftie complaint campaign. Endless demanding mummy provides pleas.
      
      And the relentless move of the Left through academia, teachers and journalist training facilities have meant that complaint campaign has borne fruit with the political whining being echoed in schools, universities and news media. Kids are indoctrinated from the time they step into most publicly run schools
      
      It has well and truly effed NZ as a dynamic, vibrant and can do society. The building underclass in the Hutt, Porirua, South Auckland and all the lower socio-economic suburbs around the country is getting more and more feral. Because it has a hand out mentality stoked by the Left and their adherents in our government agencies.
      
      And that hand out mentality is spilling over in to increasing violence and crime, as the underclass want more and more which the government cant provide. Exhibit A: 2 to 3 time increase in gang members over the last 6 or so years (go look it up yourself its been reported often enough by what passes for as our news media)
      
      It will boil out more and more into the leafy suburbs, and the entertainment districts of our big cities. And I cant wait for that to happen!
      
      The Lefties, the bureaucrats and the political classes who push, or enable, the hand out and no fault messages all live in the nice burbs – they deserve a taste of the wrack and ruin they have caused in the poorer areas of our country
      
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      July 15, 2023 10:38am
    - Taieri
      
      Other than the pension
      ————-
      
      A bit of an obsession with you this one…
      
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      July 15, 2023 10:50am
      - Ian Boag
        
        Like Clan and COVID …. 🙂
        
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        July 15, 2023 11:44am
      - ClanMcleod
        
        Ian Boag – if being concerned about the worst human rights abuses in living memory makes me obsessed in your mind, so be it.
        
        I prefer to focus on the important things rather than the trivial, like whether the old age pension is a benefit or not. 😊
        
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        July 15, 2023 12:39pm
    - Opie
      
      “get the hell outta my life
      
      Other than the pension, health, education etc”
      
      I have my own retirement fund. If you think you will survive on the pension here you are insane.
      
      I pay for health insurance.
      
      After dropping out of public school, i paid for my own trade training and followed that up with a degree once my body broke.
      
      My tax bill next year will be north of 45k.
      
      That’s a lot of money for a flaccid police force some pipes and a road network that fucks my car when I try to drive on it.
      
      Most of my tax gets spent on mean feeds for the unemployed and fancy cars for government departments that contribute nothing to society.
      
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      July 15, 2023 1:08pm
      - Steve Todd
        
        Comments like this greatly amuse me.
        
        Okay, Opie, so you’re one of Capitalism’s winners. Good on you. But, as you know, Capitalism [“n. an economic and political system in which a country’s trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state.” Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 2011] has to be regulated, so that winners like you don’t get to run amok (again). Hence, governments of the type we have had since at least 1893.
        
        I wonder how many Kiwibloggers understand that if we had a system whereby everyone benefited from a ‘privileged’ upbringing, whereby everyone received the best education, resulting in first class honours degrees in their chosen subjects, etc., etc., some other way would have to be found to find, or weed out, Capitalism’s ‘losers’. Because, as we all know, Capitalism, by its’ very nature, produces a few winners, but many losers. Present-day New Zealand is one, small, example of that.
        
        For one thing, a way would have to be found to weed out the greatly excess number of medical graduates, legal graduates, engineering graduates, business graduates, trades graduates, etc., because “the system”/society could only handle so many of such persons. In other words, the bar would have to be raised significantly. That would mean there would be many people who were grossly and, in many cases, inappropriately over-educated for the roles in society that they would be forced to perform.
        
        What then, would be the incentive to strive to attain such over qualifications in your chosen field, if it were known from the outset that your chances of practising your chosen profession/trade were little better than winning Lotto third division? Answer, there would be little or no incentive.
        
        So, Opie, don’t imply that just because you’re a ‘winner’, then there’s no reason why everyone else can’t be winners, too. Capitalism doesn’t, indeed can’t, work like that. So, be grateful that you ‘won’ – it doesn’t matter how you won; privileged upbringing, drive to succeed, your own hard work: yeah, yeah, like ‘losers’ don’t work hard, too – and graciously accept the fact that reasonable provision must necessarily be made for those who didn’t, indeed couldn’t, win.
        
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        July 15, 2023 6:35pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Last sentence. It is fairly simple, why do the Govt not understand it?
    
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    July 15, 2023 11:30am
  - Cassandra
    
    This is my 28th election, I think. I remember most of them (first campaign was 1949) and the Nats were never where ACT is now. In my memory, from Sid Holland on they were a centre party, only veering right for 5 minutes when Richardson was Finance Minister. Indeed, in global terms they’re leftish. By every measurement – welfare state, import controls, bloated public service, state education and health, low military spending – they have been and are left wing.
    
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    July 15, 2023 11:38am
    - NZer In Exile
      
      I think by today’s far-left fruitloop standards, they were definitely “right wing” (or at least definitely centre right).
      
      Aligned strongly with the USA & UK militarily.
      Fiscally sensible.
      Generally defended against the infiltration of communism.
      Pro meritocracy and the scientific method.
      Provided sustainable welfare but kept it’s growth in check.
      
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      July 15, 2023 11:59am
    - Ian Boag
      
      welfare state, import controls, bloated public service, state education and health
      
      Sounds good
      
      – Import controls bit the dust in the 1980’s.
      – State education is pretty much the OECD norm.
      – State health provision ditto.
      
      Go figure
      
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      July 15, 2023 12:02pm
    - Steve Todd
      
      @Cassandra @ 11:38AM
      
      My first election was 1972, so this one will be my 18th. If your first vote was at the 1949 election, then this one will be your 26th. You could have been 22 or even 23 then, which makes you about 95/96 now. Well done!!
      
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      July 15, 2023 12:31pm
      - Swifty
        
        Steve, rather than ‘voting in’ Cassandra may have just meant ‘alive for’ or ‘remembers’.
        
        Just a thought.
        
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        July 15, 2023 1:26pm
      - Steve Todd
        
        Swifty: I agree it’s not entirely clear what he meant, but I decided it was very unlikely he knew much about the difference between the parties if the 1949 election was the first one he remembers taking place, rather than involving a “first campaign” that meant something to him (because he would be voting for the first time). I did say, “If your first vote…”, acknowledging the possibility that he first voted at a subsequent election, most likely the 1951 election.
        
        My first memory of a general election taking place was the 1963 election (when I was 12). I knew there was a National Party and a Labour Party, but I had no idea of the difference between the two.
        
        I was born soon after the 1951 election, but I would never say that the upcoming election is “my 21st election” (because I remember the previous 20), and certainly not “my 24th election” (because 23 elections have taken place since I was born). For me, the only reasonable interpretation that can be placed on Cassandra’s comment is that the 1949 election (or perhaps the 1951 election) was the first one he voted in.
        
        Regardless, we know Cassandra has been around a while, which is a good thing.
        
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        July 15, 2023 3:45pm
  - Mike H S
    
    You could also add Martin Luther King “I have a dream that one day my child will be judged, not by the colour of his skin, but by the content of his character.”
    
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    July 15, 2023 5:05pm
Suze Wainwright

Splendid to see Stuff come up with its very own story to counter the Marc Ellis one this morning
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July 15, 2023 8:06am
- Thought Criminal
  
  The left are in denial.
  
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  July 15, 2023 1:20pm
Bridgenag

Friday Funnies: Censorship for thee, but not for me…
Woke Minority Rule

https://open.substack.com/pub/rwmalonemd/p/friday-funnies-censorship-for-thee?r=1aj1bv&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
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July 15, 2023 8:06am
Chuck Bird

Premium

Steve Braunias: The Secret Diary of … Lonesome Cowboy Chip

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/steve-braunias-the-secret-diary-oflonesome-cowboy-chip/WVOXSRRVH5BOTBCS6SOXUVCOIU/
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July 15, 2023 8:10am
Opie

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/unfolding-police-incident-in-shannon-horowhenua-cancels-matariki-celebrations/M2AUUGQ3X5AFTKHOMWSRHECMEE/

Nothing quite sums up matariki (or this country in general), like a Maori in a stolen car, crashing into a bunch of maoris day drinking and injuring a police officer before getting a “a really good hiding” from the community.

They are us.
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July 15, 2023 8:19am
- JackRabbit
  
  Matariki: Trojan Horse Day.
  
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  July 15, 2023 12:21pm
- Opie
  
  And you know that it was a Maori driving because if a white guy did it, it would already be labeled a terrorist act!
  
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  July 15, 2023 1:10pm
Chuck Bird

While I was looking at the odds at Wimbledon I checked the odds on the election on BlueBet. National is now paying $1.37 down from $1.48.
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July 15, 2023 8:25am
- Colville
  
  Well I have bet a $300 bottle of scotch on them so they better not disappoint!
  
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  July 15, 2023 9:27am
- Chuck Bird
  
  Sportsbet Aust is still paying $1.45 an 8 cent difference. That is bound to change as well. Betting odds as well as polls are good indicators of who will win 14 Oct.
  
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  July 15, 2023 4:10pm
G152

So why do people build houses on flood plains without adding elevating structures to save them and their property from the floods???
20 1
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July 15, 2023 8:29am
- Matt Long
  
  Because people are generally stupid and council standards are short sighted.
  I remember Dad warning someone on the local river flood zone not to build there, but they knew better, it wasn’t flooded that day.
  Why does insurance pay out on people who build in flood zones would be a better question.
  
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  July 15, 2023 10:02am
  - imalwaysright
    
    Don’t forget NIWA gave the pre 1900’s data a haircut so we would believe such weather events are recent phenomena, thereby putting peoples lives and livelyhoods at risk.
    
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    July 15, 2023 10:20am
- Colville
  
  Council and the building code requires floor level at 500mm above 100year flood event.
  The problems start when Council dosent clean out the drains or maintain stopbanks (or dig out the top of them to put bike paths in!) and then the house gets flooded.
  Insurance companies should be able to sue Councils IMHO.
  
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  July 15, 2023 12:36pm
Grunter

The end of the war in Ukraine now looking closer thankfully.
The Germans have just coughed up their final 23,000 rounds of 150mm shells. That’s about 4-5 days supply for Ukraine.
The US has sent their cluster shells with the statement that they have nothing else, it’s either the evil cluster bombs or Ukraine is left defenceless (Blinkens words).
The Poms have admitted that they only have 40 war ready tanks, so nothing else to give.
The mad Zelenskyy now facing the reality of going back to Kiev and admitting to his people that NATO don’t want them, they are now out of ammo, and the so called counter offensive has failed. So 200,000+ lives taken, his country destroyed, and for what?
Maybe he should have taken the peace arrangement back in March 2022 (the one his clown brother Boris J talked him out of).
Biden about to spin his way out of another failed US provoked war.
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July 15, 2023 8:36am
- kevn
  
  Grunter… Odd that biden is recalling.
  
  https://rwmalonemd.substack.com/p/breaking-news-biden-orders-to-active?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
  
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  July 15, 2023 9:56am
  - Grunter
    
    3,000 Reservists is a drop in the ocean and makes no real difference. Who knows what Biden is thinking…… Does anything he does make any sense??
    
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    July 15, 2023 10:02am
    - mawm
      
      The US has about 100 000 military personnel in Europe. Are these reservists cover for even more military being shipped?
      
      This war could be terminated immediately if the US stopped all support for Ukraine, but they don’t want to. What a sad loss of lives.
      
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      July 15, 2023 12:28pm
  - ClanMcleod
    
    I think dopey Joe is doing a bit of virtue signaling. Russia expects to have 1.2 million troops by next year.
    
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    July 15, 2023 10:45am
    - Ghost
      
      I think joe wants a distraction from the cocaine in the Whitehouse.
      
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      July 15, 2023 10:54am
      - ClanMcleod
        
        Amazing the FBI weren’t able to figure out how it got there or who owned it…..//
        
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        July 15, 2023 11:02am
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        Hunter and Joe were at Camp David, so impossible it was Hunter’s.//
        
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        July 15, 2023 11:42am
- All_on_Red
  
  “admitting to his people that NATO don’t want them”
  Ahem
  https://hotair.com/ed-morrissey/2023/07/13/secdef-austin-no-doubt-that-ukraine-will-be-in-nato-when-the-war-ends-n564351
  “I have no doubt that will happen, and we heard just about every country in the room say as much,” US Secretary of Defense Austin said in an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer in Vilnius, Lithuania, following a two-day summit that was dominated by the question of when Kyiv would join the alliance.”
  
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  July 15, 2023 10:00am
  - Grunter
    
    After the shooting has finished there won’t be a Ukraine. Unless the Russian hardliners allow a complete withdrawal. And why would they do that now? The Ruskies went in to stop Ukraine becoming part of NATO, so why would they now suddenly let a Zelenskyy lead Ukraine exist only to become a NATO member?
    The US has lead the rest of NATO into a complete mess that they now can’t fix without a nuclear cluster F war. NATO never had the ability to counter the Russians in a conventional war on their own border.
    As usual, the MSM is struggling to figure out the BS coming from Biden and his nutty mates.
    
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    July 15, 2023 10:15am
    - All_on_Red
      
      “The Ruskies went in to stop Ukraine becoming part of NATO, ”
      This is not true either.
      Putin is implementing what he has always wanted and that is to control the buffer countries to Russia.
      He has other countries on his list too.
      Ukraine could never join whilst a Border dispute is in progress so as long as that was occurring Putin had no need to invade. This has been pointed out to you before.
      
      Lastly, BOTH countries are screwed.
      Both now have more people dying than are being born and both have suffered from massive migration of their young people. Russians and Ukrainians are scattered around the world.
      I reckon they have less than 20 years.
      FWIW I think its a mistake if Ukraine joins NATO.
      
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      July 15, 2023 10:27am
      - ClanMcleod
        
        However this turns out, as usual, it’s the parasites rubbing their hands with glee. Blackrock and Klaus Schwab will have a blank board to implement their ‘great’ reset.
        
        https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/zelensky-blackrock-reconstruction-world-economic-forum
        
        Of course this is another ‘conspiracy theory’.
        
        As General Smedley Butler said:
        
        War is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.
        A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of people. Only a small “inside” group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of
        war a few people make huge fortunes.
        
        https://www.heritage-history.com/site/hclass/secret_societies/ebooks/pdf/butler_racket.pdf
        
        A great money laundering exercise also for the US and a boost to the MIC replacing all the dated stock they are getting rid of.
        A tragedy for the young of Ukraine and Russia who are dying for these parasites.
        
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        July 15, 2023 10:58am
      - Grunter
        
        I agree – Russia wants to neutralise or control their buffer zones. Who wouldn’t if you see a threat and have the capability to defend against that threat? Part of that is keeping Ukraine neutral and out of NATO.
        
        I also agree that both countries have a higher death rate than birth rate. Most developed countries do including the entire EU, UK, Japan, China etc. But Ukraine won’t last another 20 years.
        
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        July 15, 2023 11:08am
      - Colville
        
        All-on-Red/Grunter.
        
        Been listening to Zeihan??
        
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        July 15, 2023 12:38pm
    - Burtland
      
      [Mod – debate without the personal rubbish]
      
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      July 15, 2023 10:31am
  - ClanMcleod
    
    Then this war won’t end except with an exchange of nuclear missiles. Russia won’t stop this war while NATO membership is on the table I believe.
    
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    July 15, 2023 11:17am
    - Colville
      
      I believe that the USAS has made it very clear to Putin that they know where he is every second of every day and if missiles get sent they will be sent to where he is.
      No ifs, no buts, he dies.
      It would be a bit harder to push the button when you know you have less than an hour to live if you do.
      
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      July 15, 2023 2:07pm
      - ClanMcleod
        
        I would imagine the Russians have the same information about key American figures. I’m excluding dopey Joe from that list.
        
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        July 16, 2023 9:19am
- Cinematic
  
  It is looking closer but not for the reasons you’ve suggested. Fascinating conflict amongst Russia’s ruling elite is unfolding.
  
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  July 15, 2023 10:02am
- emmess
  
  I neither up or down voted what Grunter
  The thing is I don’t know if an offer was actual to return to the Feb 22 borders, truth is none of us do.
  
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  July 15, 2023 10:17am
- tf78
  
  Now that Ukraine have practically disarmed the West, is China waiting in the wings?
  
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  July 15, 2023 10:32am
  - Steve Todd
    
    I don’t know, tf78. What do you think?
    
    Should you deign to respond, please explain what you mean by “waiting in the wings”. To do what, exactly?
    
    3 3
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    July 15, 2023 11:23am
    - NZer In Exile
      
      Pretty obvious. Pretty sure they wouldn’t be waiting in the wings to announce they’ve become a democracy.
      
      3 2
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      July 15, 2023 12:02pm
      - Steve Todd
        
        Pretty obvious.
        
        Okay, then spell it out for us.
        
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        July 15, 2023 12:43pm
- JackRabbit
  
  It’s going according to Plan. The Ukraine now owes a massive financial debt (loans) to the “usual suspects” (the Elite). The Ukraine and all it’s assets are now owned by them.
  
  Rich farming land, minerals etc etc
  
  Zelensky was just a useful idiot to allow the Elite to take control of yet another resource rich country in its bid for depopulation and world control.
  
  The big “bonus” was that many Ukraine males have been needlessly slaughtered and a population exodus from the Ukraine. No-one left to defend the Ukraine for the Elite.
  
  Zelensky was played, like a gambler being set up to bet the house on a sure win horse or investment.
  
  No doubt in time to come the powers that be will declare him a war criminal and hunt him down and ‘suicide’ especially is he figures out he was played. Unless of course he was in it from the beginning.
  
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  July 15, 2023 12:31pm
  - ClanMcleod
    
    The document is already available re the ‘build back better’. Uncle Klaus and the Blackrock investors are rubbing their hands at the prospect of profits to be made and the easy implementation of digital currency, 15 minute cities and a digital ID featuring a social credit score.
    
    https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/19/business/zelensky-blackrock-reconstruction-fund.html
    
    Turn a resource rich country to rubble, wipe out many of the young, fit males who may have been part of any resistance, then mold the shattered remnants into a compliant society. Make an absolute fortune in the process.
    
    The Sims on steroids.
    
    Another damn conspiracy theory, so hard to come by these days.
    
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    July 15, 2023 12:47pm
    - JackRabbit
      
      Yep. Seen that.
      
      3 0
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      July 15, 2023 1:46pm
  - Steve Todd
    
    A cynical view based purely on your cynical view of politics specifically, and of life generally.
    
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    July 15, 2023 12:49pm
    - Steve Todd
      
      For the avoidance of doubt, I was responding to JackRabbit.
      
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      July 15, 2023 12:54pm
    - JackRabbit
      
      No Steve,
      
      An aware view based on decades of research, intelligence, facts, data, and following trends.
      
      For the avoidance of doubt, the Steve I’m referring to is you.
      
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      July 15, 2023 1:48pm
      - Steve Todd
        
        Thanks for responding, JackRabbit. I’ll let your defence of yourself rest.
        
        I wanted to make sure Clan knew I was replying to you, because I did not want him lashing back at me, full of anger, flecking his keyboard with copious amounts of foam in the process. (He’s done that once before.)
        
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        July 15, 2023 4:05pm
- NothingLeft
  
  The war is nowhere near over. Attrition of Russian artillery and tanks and APCs is colossal – pre-war Russia could build 200 tanks a year a few hundred APCs and a few dozen artillery systems (total) in last decade, but had ~10 thousand of each 40-70 year old rusting in yards that they figured were useable (they weren’t, with zero attention to preservation and having been picked over by scrap metal scavengers). To date they’ve lost 4000 tanks (a few per day now), 4500 Artillery systems (20-30 a day now), 6000APCs (10-20 a day now). Artillery losses are particularly critical – they’re literally dragging 60 year old tanks into fixed-position service to try and make up for shortfall. And that is without factoring in barrel wear making proper artillery increasingly unusable – 2-3000 shots before a barrel is worn out means the stuff still in service has at most a few months of life left. Barrels are hard to make and replace, and antique rusted barrels and ammunition make it worse.
  
  Informed estimates see only 2-3000 Russian artillery systems left along 900km of front line. Dropping by ~1% a day! Russia’s whole battle doctrine is based on now-depleted massive artillery dominance (10million shells fired last year, but can only produce 1 million a year at best) + meat wave infantry assaults (240k dead + ~700k wounded to date), that they’ve nearly lost. Critical Holes will start to appear soon.
  
  And UA continues to receive more, better and increasingly capable weapon systems all the time – their military is gaining in strength as the conflict proceeds, while Russia’s is diminishing.
  
  Ukraine need about a million per year 155mm shells. South Korea have many millions of 155 shells in storage – and can make something like a million a year. They’re ‘lending’ USA half a million – 6 months worth of supply that will obviously wind up with Ukraine.
  
  USA and Europe currently produce about half a million a year and are ramping up (slowly) to several million a year. But there are other countries that also manufacture and supply.
  
  USA also has millions of politically toxic cluster-munition shells in storage, that they are now willing and able to supply to Ukraine – making 155mm shells less of an issue going forward.
  
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  July 15, 2023 2:23pm
Im Right

I believe the election will not be as close as polls are showing, I believe Labours vote has crashed and the Greens will not crack 7%+
The polls may show it’s closer, but I don’t believe them to be honest.
I do not have a lot of leftie voters in my circle of friends/ aquantancies but the ones I do have are voting TOP/NZ First as they refuse to vote National/ACT, not very scientific agreed, but I’m pretty sure it’s a sample of the Labour vote rot that is setting in….guess we will see in approx 3mths!
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July 15, 2023 8:38am
- Littletramp
  
  Farmers have a wide network of suppliers and clients, kids activities etc, that they actively & regularly engage with.
  Does anyone know a farmer, or anyone they engage with who will vote for Labour this time around?
  
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  July 15, 2023 10:13am
  - JackRabbit
    
    No.
    
    Even hard core Labour voters are saying en mass they will not vote Labour, but do not know who to vote for.
    
    Unless the election is rigged, or they all vote for fringe parties, or do not vote at all, Labour should be out on October.
    
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    July 15, 2023 12:34pm
  - Gravelroad
    
    No.
    But please remember that not everyone living in rural is a farmer, or associated with farming.
    There is a significant grouping of rural poor- especially elderly rural poor – who are struggling big time.
    Few services, landline phones going, Post Office shut down, can only pay bills on dodgy internet (which they can’t afford), transport services diminishing (can’t use cycle ways as too old, or don’t have bike), shops and pubs in small settlements closing and inhibiting social inter-action.
    Doctor gone. Health services miles away.
    All this makes for a lonely, struggling life for many in rural.
    I don’t think Labour or the Greens would care at all about these people – so why would they vote for them?
    Only desperation for a few crumbs to come their way.
    National/Act please take note.
    
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    July 15, 2023 1:13pm
    - JackRabbit
      
      Doctor gone. Health services miles away.
      
      Health system 25% short of specialists and professionals. No dermatologists or pysch doctors in public health, so having to relay on private contractors. Massive shortage of anesthetists, which is why critical surgeries which involve general anesthetic have very long waiting lists.
      
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      July 15, 2023 1:54pm
    - NeverMindTheBollocks
      
      With all of that, you’d think they’d struggle to get to the polling booth
      
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      July 15, 2023 7:59pm
  - Ghost
    
    My GP is a farmer, a lot of his patients are farmers, no labour supporters amongst them. But some of his townie patients are, or I should say we’re. He has told me about a lot of the who are life long labour voters who have told him they will never vote labour again.
    
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    July 15, 2023 8:02pm
- mandk
  
  How anyone could decide to vote NZFirst because they are fed up with Labour is beyond me.
  
  They must have short memories, forgetting that Peters visited the vile Ardern upon NZ.
  
  I shall never forget and never forgive him.
  
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  July 15, 2023 10:29am
  - ClanMcleod
    
    The people I will never forget or forgive are those who implemented medical apartheid and supported tyrannical human rights abuses against NZ citizens.
    
    Especially those who now want me to pretend none of it ever happened and give them my votes.
    
    Especially those who refuse to even acknowledge that their active support of, and refusal to oppose this lunacy not only enabled it, but encouraged more of it. Even with clear evidence that none of those policies had a positive beneficial effect.
    
    Yes, enabling Ardern was a very bad thing, but so was supporting her during the worst abuses of the people of NZ ever, and now refusing to admit there was ever a problem. That is cowardly.
    
    If Peters takes advantage of this then the only people to blame are the cowards themselves. Don’t blame the voters who go to whoever appears to be speaking on their behalf.
    
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    July 15, 2023 11:14am
    - JackRabbit
      
      If you listen to him on RCR you will find he admits he was conned by the Trojan Horse, muzzled and horse whipped.
      
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      July 15, 2023 12:36pm
- Colville
  
  Im Right.
  I would love for you to be correct but I doubt you are.
  IMHO for every two votes lost by Labour the Greens will pick up one of them.
  I believe there is a 32% – 35% block that will never go anywhere else.
  So if Labour do hit 25% which I believe is likely the Greens will hit 10%.
  
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  July 15, 2023 11:59am
- NothingLeft
  
  Don’t kid yourself. The polls might not be perfect but they won’t be far off. We should all be very concerned and be doing everything we can to ensure Te Pati Greebour lose – they’re an existential risk to NZ’s 1st world status.
  
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  July 15, 2023 2:27pm
softail 1450

Chuck Bird ,Do they give odds on how many 10s of thousands of our best most talented workers will leave in the 1st year of a new Labour Greens Maori government after October??
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July 15, 2023 8:44am
- JackRabbit
  
  Many people have overseas tickets booked for post election in case the communists get back in.
  
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  July 15, 2023 12:37pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

What will Joe do now? Withdraw from America and leave all of the military equipment behind? Yes, Joe is now that far gone. Janet Yellen is a commie.

https://patriotsnewsstand.com/theteapartydaily/winnie-xi-pooh-has-chinese-troops-prepping-for-battle-as-biden-sends-his-number-12-to-visit/
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July 15, 2023 8:49am
- Inandout
  
  SO, the shocking video of Joe sniffing the Lithuanian child just reinforces Xi’s aggressiveness. He knows that having a brain impaired President in the WH gives him a distinct advantage in attacking Taiwan.
  
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  July 15, 2023 9:07am
hullkiwi

Impertinent question of the day, how much did the state patronized farce that was this year’s Matariki Day celebration cost New Zealand Taxpayers?
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July 15, 2023 8:52am
- Jethrod
  
  Don’t know the answer to that question, but Hastings had a big fireworks display last night….. so bright that couldn’t see the Pleiades at all!!
  How very uplifting for the local Farno.
  Just hope HDC didn’t fund it
  
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  July 15, 2023 10:12am
  - emmess
    
    Yeah, they are stealing other traditions, such as Guy Fawkes, Diwali, and (Chinese) lunar new year for a made up holiday
    
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    July 15, 2023 10:22am
- tf78
  
  I heard that the government has pledged $18m over the next four years for Matemitiki.
  
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  July 15, 2023 10:35am
- JackRabbit
  
  Impertinent question of the day, how much did the state patronized farce that was this year’s Matariki Day celebration cost New Zealand Taxpayers?
  
  Hull get the spelling right!
  
  It is St Jacinda Day.
  No-one, not even most Maori spiritual leaders have a clue about what Matariki is. It had multiple meanings in Maori history, including a group of stars.
  
  But the full star cluster of “Matariki” was not uncovered until 161o, with a telescope. I don’t recall any accounts of the latest arrival of Maori having telescopes. Perhaps the Chinese, Egyptians, Cook Islanders, Waitaha, Moriori, PATU-PAIAREHE, or humans with heart shaped heads as documented at length in hundreds of Moriori drawings, (Aliens from a crashed ship?) that were here centuries if not thousands of years the late arrival cannibal Maoris.
  
  Galileo Galilei was the first astronomer to view the Pleiades through a telescope. He thereby discovered that the cluster contains many stars too dim to be seen with the naked eye. He published his observations, including a sketch of the Pleiades showing 36 stars, in his treatise Sidereus Nuncius in March 1610.
  
  No doubt the Maori Elite will try and steal copyright on Moon(ing) and Uranus as well.
  
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  July 15, 2023 12:53pm
NeverMindTheBollocks

It’s only taken 13 months to make a start on reducing the mass duplication of health service middle managers

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/300927777/te-whatu-ora-redundancies-to-begin-next-week
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July 15, 2023 8:54am
krazykiwi

I suggest anyone who still thinks Musk’s purchase of Twitter will advance liberty reads this: It’s s trap: Musk pays surrogates revenue share.

His admiration of WeChat is particularly creepy.
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July 15, 2023 8:55am
- ClanMcleod
  
  Unbelievable.
  
  I was ‘permanently suspended’ 18 months ago, apparently for spreading covid ‘misinformation’ that of course, turned out to be 100% verifiably accurate.
  
  I suppose I should wear it as a badge of honour after reading that link.
  
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  July 15, 2023 9:08am
  - herb1
    
    Exactly. But based on an RNZ Facebook article this morning on decolonizing the dance floor, Maori racism and rule breaking is ok.
    I’m sure racist comments against Maori would be swiftly blocked by RNZ but the other way is obviously acceptable
    
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    July 15, 2023 9:16am
  - NZer In Exile
    
    Was that under the rabble of prior commies/anarchists/adolescents, or under Musk?
    
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    July 15, 2023 12:04pm
- Grunter
  
  You only have to read Musks Tesla BS narrative to realise he just another one of the crooks! Never trust him.
  
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  July 15, 2023 9:27am
  - NothingLeft
    
    Doesn’t look like BS to me. While personally I won’t be buying an EV soon (second hand petrol more cost efficient):
    
    Tesla is consistently managing 50% growth per year, at which rate they’ll be biggest car company in world in a few years, and all while maintaining outstanding profit margins of nearly $10k/car where most competitors are closer to $1k/car. That means that their production costs are already equal to petrol cars, even while building in expensive potentially self-driving computer systems.
    
    Cybertruck is near to launch with millions of pre-orders and at some point in next few years they’ll bring in a small cheap A/B segment car that will double their sales.
    
    And EV costs will continue to fall due to learning curves, typically ~15-20% drop in costs with every doubling in volume, while the reverse will start to happen to petrol as they start to lose significant market share they will get more expensive.
    
    EV subsidies should be done away with now. They can compete on a level playing field
    
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    July 15, 2023 2:42pm
- JackRabbit
  
  WeChat: Spying on Chinese citizens and Westerners stupid enough to use it, since 2011.
  
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  July 15, 2023 12:57pm
ClanMcleod

One of the most annoying aspects of the ‘climate change’ lunatics is that they treat people like idiots and think we can’t seen through their nonsensical claims.

YOU probably saw stories last week claiming that Thursday July 6 was the hottest day on Earth in the history of human civilisation. Climate scientists said that the global average temperature was precisely 17.23 deg C. Yes, not 17.22 or 17.24C.

Some went as far as to claim that it was the hottest day for 125,000 years.

Naturally the BBC’s Justin Rowlatt attempted to trick the public into thinking that because we had some sunny weather last month, the whole world must be burning up.

The idea that we can measure the world’s temperature to a hundredth of a degree is of course ridiculous. Indeed the very concept of a global temperature is unscientific, because there is no such thing.

The calculations behind this claim are, you won’t be surprised to learn, based on computer modelling. The models go back only to 1979, when satellite data became available. This was a time when there had just been three decades of global cooling and a massive expansion of Arctic sea ice. It is little wonder that temperatures have increased since.

https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/the-climate-scaremongers-the-day-the-earth-didnt-catch-fire/

They got away with the same shit during the covid narrative circus. They’re trying the same thing again with the climate narrative. Don’t let them do this again. Call them out at every opportunity.

Ridicule these ideological clowns at ever turn, it’s the least they deserve for their society destroying madness.
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July 15, 2023 8:56am
- Benedict Yu
  
  Sorry you are wrong about global temperatures being based on modelling. The calculations are based on data from tens of thousands of weather stations. There are four data sets administered by the USA, Japan and the UK.
  
  This explains one of the data sets.
  
  https://www.carbonbrief.org/explainer-how-do-scientists-measure-global-temperature/
  
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  July 15, 2023 10:11am
  - ClanMcleod
    
    BY – no need to apologise, I didn’t write it but I did repost it and always comfortable with stuff being challenged.
    
    The way I read the article is, that it isn’t saying data isn’t collected at all, but that the claim that there is a ‘global temperature’ is idiotic, as is the claim that it’s the the hottest day in 125,000 years. Satellite data has only been available since 1979.
    
    Factor in all the other variables around the reliability of data collected using different methodology prior to that means to claim a temperature down to exactly 1/100th of a degree is nonsensical. I believe this is the reference to modelling? Otherwise such a claim has nothing to support it.
    
    I think it’s fair to say that data is being manipulated to support an ideological belief, not to support science. Just as was done during the covid circus.
    More than happy to be corrected on any of that information.
    
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    July 15, 2023 10:25am
    - Benedict Yu
      
      I am not so sceptical about the data. There are hundreds of people involved in the four data sets. The results of the four data sets are averaged. I just can’t see it as a conspiracy.
      
      Regular readers will be aware of my strident criticism of New Zealand climate change policies. However I have no doubt that mean temperatures are increasing. Claiming it is the hottest in a hundred thousand years is stupid. In 50 years not so much.
      
      Check out temperatures in South Western USA for the next week. Las Vegas, Phoenix. Not sure if those temperatures are the hottest for 100,000 years, but they are unprecedented since those cities were founded.
      
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      July 15, 2023 10:42am
      - Taieri
        
        The results of the four data sets are averaged. I just can’t see it as a conspiracy
        ————
        
        And just as useful as averaging entries in the phone directory. There’s no such thing as an “average global temperature”. It would be completely meaningless.
        
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        July 15, 2023 10:56am
      - Benedict Yu
        
        “There’s no such thing as an “average global temperature”. It would be completely meaningless.”
        
        Why? Is it completely meaningless to calculate the mean temperature in New Zealand or Australia? Those temperatures have been calculated for decades.
        
        There is something about climate change that triggers many commenters here. Even the most innocuous observations supported by data. That is unfortunate because it can detract from debate about rational climate change policies. In the case of New Zealand, those policies will soon become ruinous. This is a reality that Chris Luxon is going to need to deal with if he is PM for the next three years.
        
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        July 15, 2023 11:07am
      - JackRabbit
        
        I am not so sceptical about the data. There are hundreds of people involved in the four data sets. The results of the four data sets are averaged.
        
        Benedict – one the first rules of research is to only accept raw unabridged, unchanged data, from which to make judgements. Simple accepting someone else’s narrative about data is foolhardy.
        
        And modelling is banned in most REAL scientific pursuits. Graphs from raw data only, is what counts.
        
        I have been researching for nearly 50 years, as well being involved in test and measurement, design and implementation based on those things.
        
        NASA have made, and apologised for numerous goofs and clusterf**ks on so many fronts that even a 1st year science student would not make.
        
        You can drive a truck through the gaps politically funded research groups make.
        
        I am not just skeptical about that data. I know it to be false. There is written historical accounts of massive heatwaves over 1500 years that make any heating over the last 46 years pale into insignificance.
        
        NASA’s two most recent clusterf**cks.
        
        [1] Claiming that the rate of sea level rise is now 3mm per year (so increasing), double that of tidal gauges that put it at 1.5mm per year. Some whistleblower pointed out that while “technically correct” it was in fact factually incorrect. NASA took the mean DIAMETER of the seas and the mean diameter of the land masses and used that.
        
        It is the RADIUS that tells you the amount of sea level rise at the local beach.
        
        [2] They published alarming figures up to about 2015 to 2016, of how much ice Antarctica was losing on an annual basis. Lets call this loss -X. This data was quoted over and over again, and used in narratives to fuel climate change panic that we were all going to drown in the near future.
        
        Sometime after that date, around 2016 or so, they put up an update on their website stating (paraphrased) that they had “only been measuring the Eastern Antarctic Ice mass. When they decided to measure all of Antarctic, they found that the Western Antarctic Ice mass was increasing ( 2X) at twice the rate of the Eastern loss. So a net change (increase) of X.
        
        The media have ignored this, and it was still in NASAs website late time I looked a couple of years ago.
        
        It is unbelievable that an organisation has billion dollar satellites would somehow “forget” to measure the entire continent.
        
        It could be compared with measuring net country migration by only measuring departures not arrivals, or the other way around.
        
        Our government carrying out the same con, doing exactly that by blowing sunshine up the public’s derriere by stating the numbers of new police, new doctors and nurses, (immigration) but saying didley squat about the massive exodus due to mandates, bullying, early retirements, resignations, and general increasing loss due to medical professionals being able to earn double in Australia.
        
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        July 15, 2023 1:26pm
  - All_on_Red
    
    The Sites aren’t accurate and there are huge gaps in the coverage and data.
    They ‘infill’ the gaps with made up data. They even have a name for it; Homogenisation. They ‘model’ the data to fill the gaps.
    https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-97685-7
    For example of gaps there are 361 million sq kms of Ocean but they only have 3500 Argo Buoys to measure the Temp.
    https://www.climate.gov/news-features/features/argo-revolution
    So 1 Buoy for roughly every 100 million sq kms of ocean.
    The land Temp sites are just as bad.
    I recommend you have a look at some of the stuff Tony (The Debug God) Hiller does about this.
    The US has only just started installing high tech digital thermometers.
    
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    July 15, 2023 10:43am
    - All_on_Red
      
      Tony Heller not Hiller-sorry
      https://www.youtube.com/@TonyHeller
      
      7 2
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      July 15, 2023 10:59am
      - NZer In Exile
        
        Plenty of great material from Tony Heller.
        
        Climate Fakery Part 10 (more climate BS from the sleazy lefty “fact checkers”):
        https://odysee.com/@TonyHeller:c/climate-fakery-part-10:b
        
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        July 15, 2023 12:25pm
    - NothingLeft
      
      100,000 not million approx 400km diameter circle.
      
      Ignore the land based stuff, satellite records (UAH tropospheric series) are far more reliable.
      
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      July 15, 2023 2:45pm
    - Ignoranus
      
      Homogenisation is removal of non-climatic changes. Filling in areas of sparse readings is kriging.
      
      Earth is warming. Most obvious in the oceans where the natural variability seen on the surface – that totally confuses you – does not occur.
      
      With El Nino it’s going to get so bloody hot even the most ardent climate denier is going to be struggling to get any support for the garbage they spout.
      
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      July 15, 2023 6:07pm
      - ClanMcleod
        
        I’ve been hearing the same garbage for over 40 years. “The end of the world is nigh!”
        
        I used to be concerned, but with each passing of each deadline for the ‘end of the world’ as predicted by the latest climate doom merchant, I’ve gone from concern to total ridicule of the idiots spouting this rubbish.
        
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        July 16, 2023 9:29am
- H. Upmann
  
  This is quite a good read on climate Mac –
  
  https://www.lewrockwell.com/2023/07/no_author/climate-change-crime-depopulation-in-the-name-of-human-rights/
  
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  July 15, 2023 10:19am
  - All_on_Red
    
    The population in the high CO2 emitting Western countries and China is now starting to decrease.
    So emissions should fall.
    This will accelerate over the next 20 years.
    Problem solved
    So we really dont need to do anything.
    
    10 2
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    July 15, 2023 10:52am
    - Ignoranus
      
      CO2 is increasing and warming will continue even when it stops increasing.
      
      Stop looking at crackpot sites and learn some science.
      
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      July 15, 2023 6:10pm
blue collar

Fascinating test tonight . My only concern is fozzy still playing players out of position and not picking on form .
Hard to pick , think it will come down to the bench and discipline
10 2
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July 15, 2023 8:59am
- Cinematic
  
  Yes, as talented as he is Jordan is not close to being one of the best wingers in NZ. Just one example.
  
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  July 15, 2023 10:12am
  - Colville
    
    That comment didnt age well….
    
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    July 15, 2023 7:28pm
- JimBobJoe
  
  A good game to lose in my opinion…. a game to test out attack theories versus the Boks D structure.
  
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  July 15, 2023 10:44am
  - Colville
    
    Please explain why any team would want to lose a game??
    
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    July 15, 2023 8:19pm
- greybeard
  
  There will be lots of penalties , therefore whoever has the better kicker will prevail.
  
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  July 15, 2023 12:47pm
Chris Nisbet

Hmm, apparently some scumbag got a hiding (a “really good hiding”) for crashing his stolen vehicle into some other cars near a Matariki celebration.
Putting aside what I might think of those actions, what I want to know is will the police be laying charges against the people who gave out the hiding, like we know they would do to a dairy owner if they clobbered a ram raider?
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July 15, 2023 9:02am
- Opie
  
  If some maoris bash another Maori in a small rural nz town with high unemployment, does anyone care?
  
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  July 15, 2023 9:06am
  - pdm
    
    Opie – Mongrel Mob took crowbars to Ocean Spa in Napier to celebrate Matariki yesterday and as expected a brawl ensued.
    
    Napier is a bit more than a small rural town.
    
    It is the city of the useless former Police Minister (2 goes) Stuart Nash.
    
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    July 15, 2023 9:59am
    - Matt Long
      
      I’m just sooo pleased Maori celebrate Matariki in such a noble way, no alcohol and fireworks for the enlightened people.
      
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      July 15, 2023 10:16am
      - pdm
        
        Yep Matt – in Napier it is crowbar jousting in the cities heated baths.
        
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        July 15, 2023 11:49am
  - Piniwi
    
    No Opie not at and it could be a good spectator ervent on a regular basis. Like a tree falling in a forest.
    
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    July 15, 2023 11:37am
    - pdm
      
      Revisit the Collosem without the Lions pini?
      
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      July 15, 2023 11:50am
  - NZer In Exile
    
    The ones there just trying to live their lives as honestly and decently as they can probably do care!
    
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    July 15, 2023 12:22pm
  - greybeard
    
    Do we know for sure that the driver was a maori ?
    
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    July 15, 2023 12:47pm
    - Ghost
      
      No information on the driver has been released
      
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      July 15, 2023 12:50pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Police are waiting for orders from the Great White Poobaa Loyal Order of Water Buffaloes.
  
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  July 15, 2023 9:21am
  - Biscuit
    
    Steve, don’t you just bet that Auckland Police will have stopped by the All Blacks camp yesterday to caution Sam Cane to NOT lash out at any angelic protestor who might disrupt the Test vs South Africa tonight.
    
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    July 15, 2023 9:32am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Nah, All Blacks and Boks won’t stand for that shit. Just pick the bastards up and throw them out of the park like the English Cricketer did at Lords.
      
      11 3
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      July 15, 2023 10:34am
- leoj
  
  This bastard government took guns off law abiding citizens as they know vigilante groups will eventually take matters into their own hands.
  
  Once that happens, the govt will have lost their authority.
  
  The public has had a gutsful of soppy police and soppy judges.
  
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  July 15, 2023 9:34am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    First they came for the guns…..
    Heard of the Venezuela and Cuba places?
    
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    July 15, 2023 10:36am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  TV One News completely omitted the vigilante violence from locals. They mentioned that a police officer was injured, but not that his injuries came from locals trying to kick the living daylights out of the offending driver.
  
  http://www.1news.co.nz/2023/07/14/fleeing-offender-interrupts-matariki-event-public-help-with-arrest/
  
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  July 15, 2023 9:40am
  - pdm
    
    Bollocks
    
    Imagine co-governance.
    
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    July 15, 2023 10:00am
    - I remember when
      
      Co-governance:
      I’m sorry sir/madam, you’ll have to go to the non-Maori police station to report that.”
      
      17 1
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      July 15, 2023 10:13am
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        Co-Governance actually means Governed by Elite Maori Tribes.
        Democracy will be no more, Tyranny is what we will have.
        This has been brewing since the Waitangi Tribunal of 1975 – with a rogue Treaty.
        
        24 2
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        July 15, 2023 10:42am
- Suze Wainwright
  
  Heh, the way the justice appeared to be panning out, maybe by Maori for Maori would definitely work on some occasions…
  
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  July 15, 2023 9:45am
  - tf78
    
    Good idea if they’re paying out of their treaty settlement money and not from or taxes.
    Where has all that money gone by the way?
    
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    July 15, 2023 11:07am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      The money has been hoarded by the Elite Maori. There are about 1000 according to Julian Batchelor. The Maori guy on the street never got 1 cent of it, and never will.
      If anyone gets a chance to go to a Stop Co-Governance meeting, please do.
      You will learn a lot, a lot more then just reading his booklet.
      
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      July 15, 2023 12:03pm
- Ghost
  
  I would hope charges are laid against the people considering they left a police officer with head injuries. I’d also hope they fine the residents of the town who decided to block a road with their cars to celebrate Matariki.
  
  Can you give an example of police prosecuting a shop owner for fighting back, I can’t find one. I can find this shop owner fighting back and they weren’t charged
  
  https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/watch-west-auckland-liquor-store-owners-fight-off-five-weapon-wielding-youths-after-attempted-robbery/ARQL4URWBNHNTDIBTKUKNHPRHQ/
  
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  July 15, 2023 10:05am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Liquor Store can be a dangerous place. Smash one bottle and you have a deadly weapon. The tables can be turned very quickly.
    
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    July 15, 2023 12:07pm
  - JackRabbit
    
    The police don’t take cop bashers lightly. The police want to take a strong arm on crimes including ram raids, but “orders from upstairs” continually countermand that. Good police are leaving the force, but that is not new. It’s been happening since the 90’s.
    
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    July 15, 2023 1:35pm
- rouppe
  
  Dairy owners should follow this with interest. This person put others at risk, but through being a moron.
  
  If no charges are laid, then when someone comes into your shop with intent I reckon they’d have a good defence via precedence to clock them good.
  
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  July 15, 2023 10:15am
  - Ghost
    
    Dairy owners have fought back for a while, one of the funniest was the dairy owner that kicked the guy in the face.
    
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    July 15, 2023 11:01am
    - JackRabbit
      
      Or the Jewellery store owner’s wife in Christchurch that came out out of the back room wielding a crow bar and chased said criminal out of the shop.
      
      ‘He’ll hath no fury like a woman scorned. Or seeing assets that will feed her family being picked up by a grubby paw.”
      
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      July 15, 2023 2:03pm
  - pdm
    
    The Hastings Dairy owner attacked 10 days or so ago said this to mrspdm the other day when she asked how he was.
    
    `Rough quote – `the worst thing was he did not come for money or cigarettes – he just came in to attack me!!!!’
    
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    July 15, 2023 11:54am
NeverMindTheBollocks

And so it continues.

There’s a call for the NZ winter honours list to be released on Matariki rather than on Kings Birthday.

Something about the King’s Birthday having no relevance for Royal honours.

I know, I didn’t understand it either.
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July 15, 2023 9:05am
- Burtland
  
  maybe theyll get their gongs from the maori king
  
  is it possible to have a maori queen ?
  
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  July 15, 2023 11:04am
  - Ghost
    
    The Māori king took over from his mother after Te Arikinui Dame Te Atairangikaahu died.
    
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    July 15, 2023 11:08am
- Piniwi
  
  They really want that Matar-iki day to have some relevance a bit like the native gibbnerish that is costing Billions to keep on life support. Lol
  
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  July 15, 2023 11:42am
herb1

The current belief that woman can have penises and other transgender issues , remind me the of “The Emperors new clothes” story.
I wonder who the little kid , who brings us all back to reality will be
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July 15, 2023 9:11am
- pdm
  
  herb
  
  It used to be that in a womans sprint the one with the largest breasts had an advantage at the finishing tape.
  
  Now is it the one with the biggest donger? They may need to lower those tapes.
  
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  July 15, 2023 10:02am
Jack5

Long weekend topic ….

Progressives have riled up California university science educators with recommended changes to school maths, or as they say there, school math.

The California State Board of Education advocates replacing “algebra II” with “data science”.

The “Wall Street Journal” quotes a critic of the change as saying:

” … the progressive-education authors of the math framework want students to learn through their own inquiry and self-discovery. The authors give little emphasis to mastery of facts and standard algorithms. The authors want to organise math instruction not in the architectonic system of increasing abstraction in which it has traditionally been taught, but instead in accordance with vague, billowy “big ideas.”

Below, from the San Francisco Standard, is a report on the changes. You should be able to read it free as the Standard seems to have a one-article free rule. A sample:

As an alternative to eighth-grade algebra, the framework recommends that a task force investigate whether eliminating redundancies in the content of current courses could reduce four courses—Algebra I, Geometry, Algebra II and Pre-Calculus—to three and reach advanced math like calculus by senior year.

https://sfstandard.com/2023/07/12/californias-controversial-math-instruction-framework-faces-big-test/
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July 15, 2023 9:24am
NeverMindTheBollocks

Former man to compete in women’s darts competition.

‘The rules as they now stand are unequivocal: trans women are eligible to play in women’s tournaments as long as their passports say they are female, they have been in hormone replacement therapy for over 12 months and their testosterone level is below a certain mark. This is, of course, exactly as it should be. Physical strength, body development, player safety: none of these are remotely an issue in a game where all you really need is a functioning arm and decent eyesight… All you need is three darts. In the purest sense, this is a sport for everyone.’

Which is true, but it begs the question of why there are gendered darts competitions in the first place

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2023/jul/14/noa-lynn-van-leuven-darts-interview
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July 15, 2023 9:26am
- Opie
  
  Never seen him play but i bet he will be no match for Fallon Sherrick, who was too good for the women’s completion so plays with the men (and goes pretty well!)
  
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  July 15, 2023 9:50am
Maggie Pie

When Miriama tweeted how happy she was to be celebrating Matariki for the second year in a row, some people were quick to ask what had stopped her celebrating it 3 years ago anyway?

https://twitter.com/MiriamaKamo/status/1679594206397108224
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July 15, 2023 9:54am
- Ghost
  
  She didn’t know it existed until it was on Shortland street?
  
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  July 15, 2023 10:07am
- Maggie Pie
  
  And just as an aside, my partner was telling me that thanks to Dame Cindy, it cost the country in the order of $400 million to close down yesterday 🙁
  
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  July 15, 2023 10:09am
  - Ghost
    
    The stupid thing is for events like this most shops remain open, the things that close are essential services that have backlogs, hospital operations, dentists, doctors, specialist appointments, etc.
    
    28 0
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    July 15, 2023 10:21am
    - Maggie Pie
      
      Banks.
      
      15 0
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      July 15, 2023 10:22am
      - Ghost
        
        Do people still go into those other than to rob them?
        
        7 2
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        July 15, 2023 10:26am
      - peterwn
        
        Banks are not worth robbing. Most cash is now held in a contraption and is only released for approved transactions. Banknotes received from customers are fed into the contraption to be counted and safely stored. The contraption would take more time and effort to force open than the average robber would be prepared to do.
        
        7 1
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        July 15, 2023 12:35pm
  - Observant Octagenarian
    
    How come only people that work get the holiday?
    
    4 0
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    July 15, 2023 1:42pm
- Blog-aholic
  
  The tweet from one that stated they grew up in Te ao Maori and went to a Kura and presuming they are in their mid 30’s they say they ain’t never celebrated it…..go figure.
  
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  July 15, 2023 10:28am
I remember when

FDA Approves First US Over-the-Counter Birth Control Pill: NY Times.
FDA have approved Opill birth control pill for sale without prescription.
Dublin based manufacturer said Opill would likely be available from stores and online supplier in US in early 2024.
Cost as yet unknown, however, company is committed to making it “accessible and affordable to women and people of all ages.”
The over-the-counter pill will be identical to prescription version.
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July 15, 2023 9:55am
- Che Guava
  
  They should be getting married and having kids, rather than spending their most fertile years being promiscuous and messing up their biology with pharmaceuticals, only to come out at the end of it depressed and unwanted by any man with a brain. Feminism and the so-called liberation it brings has been instrumental in destroying the foundations of society. Not only does it undermine birth rates, it increases divorce rates because people who have had far too many sexual partners and who marry just because they’ve realised time is running out are highly likely to get divorced, which then screws up their kids (if they have any), who then frequently become dysfunctional adults. All of our social problems are tightly related.
  
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  July 15, 2023 11:53am
  - kevn
    
    Che… STD testing is recommended as well.
    
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    July 15, 2023 1:34pm
Maggie Pie

WORTH SHARING ?

Whenever I hear my partner talking about Crypto, my eyes glaze over.
However, he thort some of the group might be interested in what ‘Blackrock’ are up to. Although he says he wouldn’t trust them as far as he could throw them.

https://twitter.com/WatcherGuru/status/1679861535261310977
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July 15, 2023 10:31am
- NZer In Exile
  
  My hunch is if it can be created digitally, it can be monitored and/or closed down (by large state level agencies), especially if large volumes are dodging the tax radar. It’s too hideously complex for most people to get their heads around anyway.
  
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  July 15, 2023 1:09pm
- JackRabbit
  
  Blackrock and others control Crypto.
  
  “Buy at a low en mass, pumping price up, sell en mass, collapsing price, buy at a low en mass, etc.” Rinse and repeat.
  
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  July 15, 2023 1:45pm
- rockape
  
  He doesn’t want his KiwiSaver with ASB then.
  
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  July 15, 2023 3:01pm
  - pdm
    
    My advice – get your kiwisaver away from any of the trading banks.
    
    Superannuation saving is a different philosophy to banking.
    
    3 0
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    July 15, 2023 7:03pm
- mogg
  
  Fink by name Fink by nature. People like this can affect markets in the short term, reading between the lines Blackrock have crypto that they want to dump. If we are now at ‘peak interest rates’ how much have Robbo’s 50B Covid Bonds depreciated, 12 months ago they had lost 10 billion capital value, what is it now 15..16 billion loss to the taxpayer.
  
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  July 15, 2023 3:17pm
sirknz

I guess they’ve moved on a bit from “But what about the children!?” and are looking to make he internet safer and more inclusive. What would a ‘safer, more inclusive internet’ look like without censorship of wrong think?

https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/opinion-analysis/300927107/a-onceinageneration-opportunity-to-make-a-safer-internet

Now it is all about the ‘marginalised communities’, you know, the ones who can’t defend themselves from point of view that doesn’t agree with them 100% so they always silence their critics.

Why does every single left leaning entity, organisation, and/or person always want to restrict what you can say, think, or do, and always under the guise of making it safer for whatever their pet group of the day is?
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July 15, 2023 10:39am
- Che Guava
  
  Because if people were free to say and discuss the things it is supposedly “unsafe” to talk about, and to talk about who is largely responsible for promoting the dominant orthodoxy as a means of social destruction, liberalism would be finished and everyone would become what is called “far right”, i.e, they would become reactionary against liberalism because they could openly discuss its faults and its consequences, and they would discover that many people shared their views.
  
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  July 15, 2023 11:14am
  - NZer In Exile
    
    They would become reactionary against the quasi-marxist hyper-precious bullshit that is now pervading all institutions.
    
    Liberal is probably what national and labour were before deep lunacy took over.
    
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    July 15, 2023 12:43pm
    - Che Guava
      
      Liberalism isn’t a good thing, in my view. It is an abstract ideology that was thought up to “liberate” people, but it denies reality and tries to impose a conceptual framework that is at odds with how humans and groups of humans actually are. Taking an idea to its logical conclusion, irrespective of any practical implications grounded in reality, is the characteristic of the type of rationalism that gave rise to liberalism. The revolutionaries of the French Revolutions espoused liberalism over Catholicism, but it was shown to be divorced from reality on its implementation.
      
      Marxism came out of the Enlightenment in much the same way that Liberalism did. They are both a denial of intrinsic essences, intrinsic distinctions between individuals and groups, and rejects natural hierarchy and so on, which were all characteristics of almost all of the pre-Enlightenment period. People are seen as just interchangeable units. Reason in the here and now has all the answers, they say, rather than accumulated wisdom.
      
      Liberalism is really a reaction the perennialism that manifested in various forms for millennia, and particularly a reaction to Catholicism. It is no coincidence that Liberalism has established itself at the expense of illiberal ideas like Christianity and a respect for tradition. They cannot coexist. It based on a “contract” between people only in the here and now, rather than a contract between the dead, the living and the unborn.
      
      Because it focusses on the short-term, it is bound to put the future in jeopardy. We are now in the “future” that liberalism ignored, and the consequences of “freedom to do what you want” were entirely predictable based on the accumulated experience of humans who lived under more illiberal conditions.
      
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      July 15, 2023 1:16pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  “left leaning entity, organisation, and/or person” want CONTROL!
  
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  July 15, 2023 11:22am
I remember when

UK Govt Report: Automobile Industry Does Not Know How to Repair EV Batteries: WUWT.
“Much of the automobile insurance industry is yet to adapt to mass BEV adoption challenges, and the implications remain unquantified on repair capacity, training and skills, cost and lifetime sustainability of BEVs.
This means BEVs are often deemed irreparable, leading to premature write-offs because of high battery cost and the lack of value the UK ecosystem can recover from them.”

Global Metal Solutions, a scrap metal recycler, has secured funding to explore disposal of lithium batteries in New Zealand.

Their premises is sure to be willingly accept in any Labour, or Green, community.
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July 15, 2023 10:39am
- NothingLeft
  
  Hopefully eventually the world will see sense and switch to battery-swapping EVs.
  -Instant charging for long trips
  -Ability for people who don’t have off-street parking to charge their vehicles
  -Less capital sitting around in unused battery capacity
  -Battery life no longer dependent on car life – has value after car dies and vice versa.
  
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  July 15, 2023 2:50pm
  - Ghost
    
    EV’s will be a blip in history that will not last into the next decade
    
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    July 15, 2023 2:57pm
    - Colville
      
      Really??
      
      https://www.stuff.co.nz/motoring/300927139/opinion-toyota-may-yet-do-a-tesla-and-upend-the-ev-world
      
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      July 15, 2023 3:16pm
    - peterwn
      
      Just like cars running on CNG. When the cylinders were due for survey the survey cost was so high the owners just stopped using CNG. Service stations who installed CNG dispensers ripped them out after several years.
      
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      July 15, 2023 9:26pm
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    EV batteries weigh heaps! They are buried low in the car for stability reasons.
    
    Swapping in & our ain’t as easy as you suggest.
    
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    July 15, 2023 8:19pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Stop Co-Governance. Julian Batchelor.

https://www.stopcogovernance.kiwi/blog/100-protesters-at-golden-bay/
The Police did their job. 10/10.
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July 15, 2023 10:49am
I remember when

From ‘Letters to the Editor.’
“though sadly there are also those who are there to make ever bigger profits out of their valuable farms.”
“In order to prevent intensive exploitation of the land, which often is being used to the extreme.”
“The government should see that there are rules that nobody can get away with misusing the soil, waterways, trees and other parts of nature.”

I think that most farmers would get the paper to spontaneously combust just by reading this letter.
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July 15, 2023 11:02am
- rouppe
  
  The most regular commenters in Newsroom.co.nz are hard left zealots
  
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  July 15, 2023 2:48pm
- Gravelroad
  
  If this letter refers to activities in Golden Bay, please be aware that there are two types of farmers there :
  1.Your usual traditional land use pastoral farmers.
  2. Hippies who grow and market cannabis.
  As far as I am aware, the extensive growing and farming of bulk cannabis/marijuana involves a lot of:
  1. Soil
  2. Water
  3. “Trees and other parts of nature’”if grown outside.
  4. Electricity or solar power if grown inside.
  
  Let’s have the same rules applied to everyone who grows a crop “In order to prevent intensive exploitation of the land, which often is being used to the extreme.”
  Farming cannabis does not make you anymore user friendly than those who grow ordinary grass to feed animals.
  
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  July 15, 2023 3:13pm
Inandout

Interesting to witness Hollyrude ‘stars’ have now joined the workers’ strike out of solidarity. They also want more dosh from movies.
7 2
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July 15, 2023 11:24am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  Take a look at the long list of retread sequels affected by the strike. Teenage Ninja Turtles? Plu-eese!
  
  Frankly, if that’s the best Hollywood can do then I’m not going to shed a tear if the whole place goes tits up.
  
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  July 15, 2023 1:19pm
- rouppe
  
  I went to the new Mission Impossible movie last night.
  
  Quite disappointed. Thought it was pretty weak.
  
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  July 15, 2023 2:46pm
- info@cruzpro.com
  
  A few movies make a killing. Many don’t break even. If the actors want a cut of the profits will they also agree to pay back their wages if the movie makes a loss?
  
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  July 15, 2023 7:06pm
Maggie Pie

“Michael Hill. Jeweller”

You can bet Mikes pleased he pulled the plug over at Takapuna 😎

https://twitter.com/NewstalkZB/status/1679999214343061504
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July 15, 2023 11:51am
- Benedict Yu
  
  And the stolen car is yet again a Toyota Aqua, the most stolen car in the nation.
  
  Apparantly the ones imported used from Japan don’t have any kind of immobiliser security. Car stealing not really a problem there.
  
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  July 15, 2023 12:06pm
  - pdm
    
    BY have they surpassed the Mazda Demio?
    
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    July 15, 2023 7:04pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Glenfield Mall one is still there after being smashed up with hammers. No guns, no knives, just hammers.
  10am. Nobody tried to stop them.
  Talked with Security. Can’t touch them he said.
  
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  July 15, 2023 12:22pm
- kevn
  
  But it ‘would have been’ a profitable location.
  
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  July 15, 2023 1:29pm
Benedict Yu

Just checked the UK bookmakers odds on the election.

Labour 13/8 (2.62)
National 4/9 (1.44)

https://www.oddschecker.com/politics/world-politics/new-zealand-election/winning-party
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July 15, 2023 12:02pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Zero subjects for white powder. “blaming it on a random White House visitor.”
Wait, you have to have a high security clearance to be in there.

The Secret Service is *CLOSING* its White House cocaine investigation.
They never OPENED it!

https://valiantnews.com/2023/07/secret-service-concludes-white-house-cocaine-investigation-with-zero-suspects-report/
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July 15, 2023 1:08pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Well it’s not Joe, he likes kids.
  Not Pelosi, she is a pisspot.
  Not Hillary, she has another hobby.
  
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  July 15, 2023 1:12pm
- Che Guava
  
  They can identify thousands of people who attended the Capitol on Jan 6th, but they can’t identify one guy who brought cocaine into the White House? Lol.
  
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  July 15, 2023 1:28pm
Maggie Pie

And great to see KDC has maintained his irrepressible sense of humor since his business partners turned dog on him. We all miss Kim & Liz up here 😎

https://twitter.com/KimDotcom/status/1680018267254194176
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July 15, 2023 1:14pm
- mandk
  
  “Entrepreneur, Innovator, Gamer, Artist, Internet Freedom Fighter & Father of 6”
  
  He forgot: Thief
  
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  July 15, 2023 1:36pm
  - Maggie Pie
    
    WHOA! Thats a wee bit harsh mannie.
    You never got invited to any of the parties at Coatesville by the sound of it?
    
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    July 15, 2023 1:47pm
    - mandk
      
      Do you think Megaupload (i.e. copyright theft) was OK?
      
      You know, like shoplifting; a victimless crime.
      
      You could also check out his Wiki page for his rap sheet.
      
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      July 15, 2023 4:50pm
NeverMindTheBollocks

Waiheke locals moan that the ferry to their luxury island lifestyle must be subsidised by hardworking, low paid people who don’t have kids.

At least, I think that’s what they’re saying.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/auckland-top-stories/300928277/held-hostage-waiheke-island-residents-to-protest-overpriced-unreliable-fullers-ferry
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July 15, 2023 1:16pm
- rouppe
  
  They could always run their own vessel.
  
  By Waiheke For Waiheke.
  
  Frankly no one owes them a ferry
  
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  July 15, 2023 2:40pm
- Benedict Yu
  
  “These changes have forced people into choosing between groceries for the week, or hospital care.””
  
  Boo hoo. Don’t like it sell your multi million dollar home and move somewhere else. These people move there knowing it is an island and they need to pay for ferry.
  
  Fares have gone up by 19 percent. When was the last increase? Diesel prices have doubled since 2021. That and labour will be there biggest cost inputs. Minimum wages have gone up by 12 percent since 2021.
  
  Suddenly it all looks rather less outrageous 🙂
  
  And this takes the cake 🙂 “Chlöe Swarbrick’s office confirmed the Green Party member will be attending the protest in her capacity as MP for central Auckland.”
  
  The resident communist standing up for some of the wealthiest most privileged people in the country.
  
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  July 15, 2023 2:55pm
  - Swifty
    
    Labour has increased the minimum wage by 40% since 2017.
    
    Has your pay gone up similarly? Or anyone else you know?
    
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    July 15, 2023 4:54pm
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    The resident communist standing up for some of the wealthiest most privileged people in the country.
    ———————————————-
    
    I’m ok with that. Chloe should be representing all of her constituents, poor or not.
    
    Funny, though.
    
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    July 15, 2023 8:23pm
- All_on_Red
  
  I’m curious as to why this Karen thinks Public Ownership will make it cheaper or better.
  
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  July 15, 2023 3:20pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Well this guy is still alive.
A ‘hot’ round means more powder than normal. I have heard 50 cal when going past a military base in Alaska. A lot of guys all shooting. The roof of the Dodge Ram was vibrating. Very loud.
19 min vid. Not for the faint-hearted.

https://theinformedamerican.net/this-video-of-a-mans-rifle-exploding-on-him-at-a-range-is-not-for-the-faint-of-heart-2/
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July 15, 2023 1:49pm
- Benedict Yu
  
  It seems like a bit too much gun for most folk.
  
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  July 15, 2023 2:45pm
Swifty

Petty squabbling 2023 Maori styles….

https://fb.watch/lNKkK3ELbF/?mibextid=v7YzmG

Tihei Mauri Ora!
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July 15, 2023 2:11pm
Benedict Yu

Looks like Maori did not have a monopoly on myths about the Pleiades star cluster.

“The Star Dreaming story of the Seven Sisters is one of the most widely distributed ancient stories amongst Aboriginal Australia. The songline for this story covers more than half the width of the continent, from deep in the Central Desert out to the west coast. The songline travels through many different language groups and different sections of the narrative are recognised in different parts of the country.”

“The story relates to the journey of the seven sisters that make up the star cluster known as the Pleiades, in the constellation Taurus. ”

https://japingkaaboriginalart.com/articles/star-dreaming-seven-sisters/

https://www.ramint.gov.au/publications/royal-australian-mint-looks-stars-honour-australian-indigenous-stories

In fact folk all over the world have been telling stories about those stars for thousands of years.

https://nominister.wordpress.com/2023/07/15/what-a-bloody-larf/

I am not seeking to denigrate Maori culture, but this story about those stars has been, well elevated to a level that may not be warranted.

I stand by my view that a holiday celebrating the birth of Rutherford, and science generally would have benefited us all, in particular children. Imagine workshops all over the country celebrating physics and chemistry.
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July 15, 2023 2:27pm
- Benedict Yu
  
  HAT TIP: No Minister
  
  https://nominister.wordpress.com/
  
  6 1
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  July 15, 2023 2:28pm
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  Perhaps the oldest story told by man….
  
  https://www.livescience.com/pleiades-constellation-origin-story.html
  
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  July 15, 2023 2:42pm
- mogg
  
  As in ‘Songlines’ by Bruce Chatwin.
  
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  July 15, 2023 2:44pm
krazykiwi

Biden to “forgive” $US39 billion in student loans. There must be an election shortly – yes?

The obvious pork barreling aside, this simply shows how worthless university education has become relative to cost of acquiring it.
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July 15, 2023 2:49pm
- Ghost
  
  Damn long time to be paying off your student loan
  
  The relief is a result of fixes to the student loan system’s income-driven repayment plans. Under those repayment plans, borrowers get any remaining debt canceled by the government after they have made payments for 20 years or 25 years, depending on when they borrowed, and their loan and plan type.
  
  Article
  
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  July 15, 2023 2:54pm
Jack5

Israeli officials have unsuccessfully protested to Swedish police for granting a permit for a Hebrew Bible to be burned in a demonstration outside the Israeli Embassy in Stockholm.

The police earlier allowed a Koran to be burned in an anti-Muslim demonstration, and they are allowing a Christian Bible also to be burned in the protest in which the Hebrew Bible will burn.

Bibles to burn in Sweden:

https://www.jta.org/2023/07/14/global/sweden-grants-permit-to-burn-torah-outside-israeli-embassy-drawing-widespread-criticism?
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July 15, 2023 3:09pm
- Matt Long
  
  Not sure how I down ticked that, big fingers on phone screens.
  Equal opportunity book burning is fine by me. I hope they treat all stripes of protesters the same.
  
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  July 15, 2023 6:41pm
Sparrow

Very curious as to whether our media has picked up on this story. Just read the UK Daily Express. Big story is about their Trade Minister signing a trade deal with the CPTPP in NZ today. This is the 11 country trading agreement that NZ is a member of. The story is a pro Brexit anti EU beat up. So of no consequence to us as we recently signed a trade deal with the UK but would have thought our media would carry the story. Apolgise if they have I have not found it.
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July 15, 2023 3:15pm
- Ghost
  
  ZB
  
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  July 15, 2023 3:19pm
  - greybeard
    
    “Export NZ Executive Director Josh Tan told Tim Dower that the CPTPP gives New Zealand exporters better access to new markets such as Mexico or Canada, where there are no agreements already in place.
    He says that the UK’s desire to join the CPTPP indicates that they want to engage with New Zealand economically, and that they’re willing to do it on our terms.”
    The only reason I can think of for the UK to join such a trade partnership on the other side of the world from them is to grab a share of the business for themselves, probably at our expense.
    
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    July 15, 2023 3:46pm
rouppe

Because I’ve trekked to Everest Base Camp, this story caught my eye.

Kiwi journalist Holly Beckham’s journey from P addict to climbing Everest

The title suggested to me she had climbed Everest. Reading the story, it just turns out she wants to climb Everest. So far, her highest ascent is to summit Mt Aspiring, at 3033m.

I’ve trekked over Cho La Pass, at 5600m, in 2017, 18 months after a collapsed lung and 14 rib breaks, aged 55. Maybe I should be on TV too?

I am overly grumpy today.
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July 15, 2023 3:53pm
jon

With Ron Brierley having lost his title and Sir James Wallace in the process of losing his, one has to wonder how the convicted fraudster Sir Ralph Love managed to keep his, especially given a sentence of two years or more leads to the loss of a royal title. What makes it worse is that Sir Ralph was awarded the first class knighthood ie GNZM as opposed to the lesser KNZM. Despite Love now being deceased, he too should have his honour removed.
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July 15, 2023 3:56pm
- fightingtemeraire
  
  Ks and Ds cannot be removed posthumously.
  
  People asked that about Jimmy Saville in the UK and that is what they were told.
  
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  July 15, 2023 4:53pm
Ghost

Hmmm, is there no category for the most made up piece of shit and back stabbing doco? For a couple that wanted privacy and to be left alone they sure haven’t shut up yet.

A royal expert has claimed Prince Harry and Meghan are “devastated” after their Netflix docuseries Harry & Meghan was snubbed by the prestigious Emmy Awards.

Despite the show racking up a record 81.55 million viewing hours globally in its first week of release, the project failed to score any Emmy nominations when they were announced earlier this week.

Article
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July 15, 2023 4:05pm
Ghost

I don’t think Biden will finish this term, I expect before the year ends the USA will have, gulp, President Harris

According to a CNN report (make of that what you will) leading Democrats have begun reaching out to “possible replacements” for Joe Biden because they know that the 80 year old president will not run for a second term.

Article
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July 15, 2023 5:38pm
Scooter

Is there also nepotism in policy making in Labour? Hipkins mother involved in new school curriculum. How much more dodgy can they get?

https://twitter.com/CranmerWrites/status/1680060665049018368?t=EFWWeQb6t8BHd13LVhr-SA&s=19
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July 15, 2023 6:10pm
- fightingtemeraire
  
  She has been working behind the scenes to reduce NZ’s educational standards to zero for about 12 years.
  
  She is anti Charter Schools, that is why Chippy closed them.
  
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  July 15, 2023 7:15pm
Ghost

The fate of 1600 health sector staff will begin to crystallise next week, with Te Whatu Ora bringing the axe down on three backroom departments first.

“It will be a challenging week for some, so please ensure you support your colleagues,” acting chief executive Dr Nick Chamberlain told staff in an email sent this week, which The Post has seen.

Article
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July 15, 2023 9:21pm
Ghost

Looks like now the medlab has decided to change its name

https://www.medlabsouth.co.nz/2023/07/05/our-name-is-changing-introducing-awanui-labs/#
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July 15, 2023 9:37pm

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