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December 23, 2023 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 23 December 2023

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General Debate

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mikenmildagain

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Happy Festivus!
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December 23, 2023 8:00am
- imalwaysright
  
  Serenity now!
  
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  December 23, 2023 8:12am
- Simon
  
  Good jaxx festival art from Bob Moran.
  
  https://www.bobmoran.co.uk/paintings/sanguis-balneum-original-artwork
  
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  December 23, 2023 8:47am
  - NZer In Exile
    
    Holy moly. That is one very bad trip!🤣
    
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    December 24, 2023 4:29pm
- JackRabbit
  
  Festivus means nothing to most people because it was dreamed up as a new idea for Seinfeld. So 99.9% of the world will not know what it means.
  
  The word sounds like an infection you might pick up after having drunken indiscriminate sex at the work Christmas Party.
  
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  December 23, 2023 9:39am
  - mikenmildagain
    
    Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
    It seems you have already started your airing of grievances.
    
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    December 23, 2023 9:56am
    - JackRabbit
      
      I don’t have one grievance to post on KB, let alone multiple (grievances – plural). And you have used the word ‘grievance’ which is not a good use of the word for this situation.
      
      The word ‘disapproving’ would be more fitting. You seem to lack intelligence and awareness, but perhaps that is your intent, as an Avatar. Your posts are just a series of “Look at me, look at me.”
      
      You do have use as a court jester, helping people on Kiwi Blog be better people. Many people go through life having self doubt. Some wake up in the morning, and feel their life is not what it should be, or that they have failed in some way.
      
      But if they read Kiwi Blog and see your inane comments, they realise their life is not as bad as it could be, after all it could be worse, they could have been like you.
      
      You have uplifted many people by holding up an image of what their life could have been. Thanks Mike, for your service of making people feel better about themselves.
      
      And enjoy your Festivus, which by the way can be cleaned up with a good anti-fungal cream. 😉
      
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      December 23, 2023 11:54am
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        Ouch!
        
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        December 23, 2023 1:10pm
      - KiwiSapper
        
        Well said that Man, very well said. One small grace, we can be grateful that MMA’s never ending low comment ratings are coming to an end…for this year.
        Sadly, I suppose we must prepare ourselves for yet another year of his witterings.
        
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        December 23, 2023 2:25pm
      - ISeeRed
        
        “Anti-fungal cream”? More like a shit ton of Savlon after that burn.
        
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        December 23, 2023 2:31pm
- mandk
  
  Hi mike,
  
  How about sharing the objective of your activities on KB?
  
  My guess is that it is to see how many thumbs down you can get in the course of a day, without pissing off the moderators.
  
  And, by the way, Happy Christmas. Tomorrow we can commemorate our God and our Saviour coming into the world.
  
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  December 23, 2023 11:10am
  - Happy1
    
    I was going to wait until Monday 25th of December.
    
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    December 23, 2023 12:06pm
  - David Garrett
    
    mandk: You have nailed it Sir…he is on record as saying – many times – he is solely here to troll, and proud of it.
    
    What a sad little life he must have.
    
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    December 23, 2023 12:16pm
    - KiwiSapper
      
      “…– he is solely here to troll, and proud of it…”
      Then we must remember, never feed the trolls, it
      only encourages them.
      
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      December 23, 2023 2:29pm
  - JackRabbit
    
    I believe it is pronounced “Our God and Saviour”, not “Our God and Our Saviour” which indicates two beings, not one. Twins maybe? But what would I know, I pissed off my Sunday school teachers by asking questions.
    
    Grand appearances 2000 years ago, no matter how well meaning, unfortunately only reinforced the idea that people do not have to take responsibility for the world, that some supreme being will fix it all.
    
    If you want to know who is the Saviour of this world, go take a long in the mirror, and ask, what can I do? What would God do? The world is a reflection of our values. If we want to change the world, it has to come from within.
    
    In the meantime I am watching with interest the “Three (somewhat) Wise Men of the Coalition”, who have brought Frank talking, Incensed at the damage done by last Inn keepers, and Mirth to candidly point out the wokeness.
    
    They are not perfect, but at least we won’t have to employ cleaners to pick up the camel dung in Parliament. And Jesus will not be riding into town on a donkey. The donkey escaped last January, ridden by Athaliah who occupied the throne for six years, and left the town to be ruled by a reincarnated SS Officer. 😉
    
    Can’t wait until the Trio send the money lenders like Black Rock packing out of the temple that is NZ.
    
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    December 23, 2023 1:48pm
CJames

Lionel Shriver has a good short essay on Spiked https://www.spiked-online.com/2023/12/22/the-daddy-state/ about how the UK has become an illiberal state, ever keen to punish any prole who steps out of the state defined lines. The dystopian vision of 1984 being enacted. Worth reading as it is what NZ would have become if the previous government was still in power with their soft spoken agenda, and what the current one still might. Not enough proof yet that the authoritarian bureaucratic juggernaut has been killed or even just turned around.
She certainly doesn’t hold back, though with a fixation on guava-flavoured yoghurt, nailing her colours to the mast. “The pursuit of Net Zero seems to justify unbridled interference with both commerce and individual liberty, because no restriction is too severe, unfair or poorly thought out, so long as it’s intended to ‘save the planet’. The free market is out the window. Embracing a Soviet-style command economy, as of 2024, Westminster will now idiotically fine the manufacturers of gas and oil boilers if they fail to ensure that four per cent of their sales are heat pumps. Shouldn’t the government instead fine customers for not wanting heat pumps? Effectively, the state will do just that. Manufacturers have announced a £300 fee per boiler installation to cover their fines.
Remember the WW2 speech by our then Prime Minister “Where Britain goes, we go”. The warning signs are out there.
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December 23, 2023 8:01am
- Biscuit
  
  CJames, I’m a peasant I know, but I had no idea until a couple of years ago that Lionel is a she-Shriver rather than a male-Shriver.
  
  Loved her book, and subsequent almost-as-good film, ‘We Need To Talk About Kevin’…
  
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  December 23, 2023 8:10am
  - CJames
    
    She changed her name from Margaret Ann as she was a tomboy and wanted to be a rebel.
    https://www.theguardian.com/books/2008/jun/15/biography.features6
    
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    December 23, 2023 8:22am
    - NeverMindTheBollocks
      
      Yeah, but Lionel?
      
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      December 23, 2023 6:32pm
- Chuck Bird
  
  We still have that climate emergency nonsense even pushed by National which supports the Climate Change Commission alarmist.
  
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  December 23, 2023 8:30am
  - Simon
    
    Window dressing. Keep this climate clown in place while not crippling NZ. Looks like NZ is compliant with GAE instructions. National led govt go through the motions
    
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    December 23, 2023 8:59am
  - lastmanstanding
    
    Net Zero is dead. It wont happen. Governments are walking back realising trying to implement it will be a vote and election loser. In Europe the banning of ICE vehicles is being pushed out from the inital 2030 to 2035 or 2040 and the manufacturers say thats not possible. Renewables are proving to be too costly and unreliable expect in Australia where the dumb Albo and the even dumber Bowen are closing coal fired power stations and planning on ripping out huge areas of native forest to build wind and solar farms with the materials coming from………………………China and having an economic life of around 20 years.
    I will be pushing up the daisies in 2050 but I betcha there will be no Net Zero.
    
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    December 23, 2023 9:14am
    - Benedict Yu
      
      In New Zealand the day of reckoning will come long before 2050. I don’t think that the 2030 Paris Accord obligations are achievable. The Government can pretend for a while. However before the 2026 election it will become clear that the game is up.
      
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      December 23, 2023 9:27am
      - Scott
        
        The idea of phasing out all fossil fuels by 2050 is utopian and completely unworkable. Apparently over 80% of the world’s energy comes from fossil fuels.
        
        Let’s not forget that wind and solar work less than half the time. When the wind isn’t blowing and the sun isn’t shining they supply no energy. So unless we are willing to get into nuclear then the phasing out of fossil fuels is not going to happen in the foreseeable future.
        
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        December 23, 2023 9:32am
      - Chuck Bird
        
        Why will no climate change alarmists not debate with experts? This applies politicians and Rod Carr.
        
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        December 23, 2023 10:01am
      - Nickc2
        
        Conveniently, people forget Fossil Fuels are used to manufacture most if not all components used to create so-called Renewable Energy systems.
        IMO, the concept of Renewable Energy is nothing more than an attempt to unite dumb people under a common banner for a nebulous cause dreamed up by unscrupulous persons.
        
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        December 23, 2023 10:50am
      - Tweedse
        
        A major part of the world is fed using fertilizer from fossil fuels. Net zero will cause widespread depopulation. It’s just not going to happen.
        
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        December 23, 2023 11:01am
      - JackRabbit
        
        @Scott
        
        The idea of phasing out all fossil fuels by 2050 is utopian and completely unworkable. Apparently over 80% of the world’s energy comes from fossil fuels.
        
        And that is not likely to occur anytime soon. And the figure is probably closer to 90%, since many undeveloped countries use entirely fossil fuels, and energy sources are tabulated.
        
        The only solution in the offering to reduce fossil use, is the Klaus/Gates/Who/Elite plan to eradicate 90% of the worlds population, through vaccines, eliminating meat, eliminating farming, making us eat bugs, etc.
        
        And there is no need to do eliminate fossil fuel use in the first place. If man keeps progressing, alternate forms of energy will be found.
        
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        December 23, 2023 12:03pm
      - JackRabbit
        
        “…since many undeveloped countries use entirely fossil fuels, and energy sources are untabulated.
        
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        December 23, 2023 12:13pm
      - sungsamning
        
        And if Trump wins in 2024; watch the US pull out of the Paris Accords. It’ll be drill baby drill. Ramaswamy, or whoever winning in 2028 won’t do a lot for the ‘globull warming’ scam either.
        
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        December 23, 2023 12:39pm
      - Tom Hunter
        
        @Benedict Yu
        A few weeks ago you provided a link a Treasury report (?) to government on this matter which provided several scenarios for how much we might be paying for Carbon Credits under the Paris scheme.
        
        Mind providing the link again?
        
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        December 23, 2023 1:04pm
      - Benedict Yu
        
        “@Benedict Yu
        A few weeks ago you provided a link a Treasury report (?) to government on this matter which provided several scenarios for how much we might be paying for Carbon Credits under the Paris scheme.”
        
        https://www.treasury.govt.nz/publications/climate-economic-fiscal-assessment/nga-korero-ahuarangi-me-te-ohanga-2023
        
        “Additional investment in key mitigation technologies beyond baseline counterfactual levels is expected to be required to meet New Zealand’s emissions targets. ”
        
        “The composition of the economy is likely to significantly change, with the land and energy sectors and others reliant on fossil fuels particularly affected.”
        
        “Adverse impacts from changing consumer prices over time are likely to disproportionately affect lower-income households.”
        
        “Findings from Treasury modelling of the impacts of NZ ETS prices on household expenditure indicate that petrol, electricity and other price changes will be regressive, and Māori households will be more negatively impacted.”
        
        “Based on the illustrative scenario analysis in this report, the cost of offshore mitigation purchases required to meet NDC1 (in addition to domestic action) represents a significant fiscal risk under all scenarios considered.”
        
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        December 23, 2023 4:46pm
      - Tom Hunter
        
        Thank you sir!
        
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        December 23, 2023 5:24pm
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      Mammals breathing creates carbon dioxide, zero might mean neutral I guess
      
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      December 23, 2023 11:17am
    - thirteenstars
      
      “Net Zero is dead”
      
      Might be but for many years to come its corpse is going to create a nauseating stench.
      
      Mask up.
      
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      December 23, 2023 11:52am
    - NZer In Exile
      
      Ah but batfink and the bug meister have their undemocratic and unaccountable global ESG fascist network in place. Corporate cowards kowtow to it for fear these creeps will mark them down with low ESG scores. This results in corporate entities slavishly enforcing quasi marxist loony initiatives like net zero. Democratic governments need to outlaw this dangerous plot now or we are all going to be heading down the road to being ruled by scumbags/morons, being treated like ants in their ant farm, and reduced to poverty, with zero possibility of ever voting them out.
      
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      December 23, 2023 8:44pm
  - Wayne Mapp
    
    Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
    Chuck,
    They are in constant dialogue with a wide range of scientists, but probably not your “experts”. That bus left the station over a decade ago.
    
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    December 23, 2023 10:10am
    - Benedict Yu
      
      Well they are not in constant dialogue with the public. I posted a long comment on GD on 16 December showing the mountain that needs to be climbed to meet the 2030 obligations. This is simple empirical analysis. Apart from platitudes, I have never heard Chris Luxon acknowledge the fiscal and economic challenges of meeting the Paris obligations. Is that too much to ask?
      
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      December 23, 2023 10:21am
      - JackRabbit
        
        Bene, the Paris accord is jackshit just like 90% vaccination to save granny. It was more likely granny and grandpa that died in the excess mortalities as a result of the vaccine, although a lot of younger people have kicked the bucket as well.
        
        How to keep stupid people amused?
        
        Tell them there is a problem that is undisputed i.e. the science is settled, then distract them by getting them to focus on the range choices offered to solve the problem.
        
        It is the old ball and 3 cups game where the mark has to guess which cup the ball was under. Dumb people who think they are smart and keep at it, trying to outsmart the magician/fair sideshow conman, never realising that the ball was never under any of the 3 cups. It was all sleight of hand.
        
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        December 23, 2023 2:38pm
    - JJ56
      
      Wayne to introduce you to the conversations that are going on and that will pull you and others like the CCC back from their extreme positions check out https://judithcurry.com/2023/09/05/do-cmip5-models-skillfully-match-actual-warming/ or https://judithcurry.com/2022/09/20/important-new-paper-challenges-ipccs-claims-about-climate-sensitivity/ or https://judithcurry.com/2023/12/18/climate-attribution-method-overstates-fingerprints-of-external-forcing/
      
      Not necessarily easy reads for the uninitiated, but the tide is going out on the extremist positions.
      
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      December 23, 2023 10:36am
    - Chuck Bird
      
      Wayne, can you name the experts and who would be willing debate with Dr Judith Curry?
      
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      December 23, 2023 10:43am
      - Matt Long
        
        They won’t enter into debate, the “Science” is “settled” and entering into debate just gives the deplorable a platform.
        Did Stalin or Hitler enter into debates about individual rights or economic autonomy? Of course not.
        
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        December 23, 2023 11:37am
    - JackRabbit
      
      @Wayne
      
      There is no point in entering into any debates with scientists that are bought and paid for.
      
      It is like debating the colour of the “Emperor’s New Clothes.” It is an immaterial debate, pardon the pun.
      
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      December 23, 2023 2:41pm
      - Chuck Bird
        
        What scientists are you saying are bought and paid for?
        
        Dr Judith Curry is self employed.
        
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        December 23, 2023 3:11pm
      - JackRabbit
        
        Chuck, I wasn’t talking about Judith Curry. I was talking about scientists that are bought and paid for. As per my statement.
        
        But in any case if we want to have a solid debate, we shouldn’t be relying on Judith Curry, or any knowledgeable and correct expert, Gods or scientists. We should endeavor to gain our own understanding, as per my comment earlier on about relying on saviours.
        
        Any decent debate relies upon the debaters to understand the core principles at stake, not a string of experts, and copy and pastes of what they said.
        
        I don’t know about modern generations, but in my day, in science, you would not get full marks in an exam question, or in some cases get awarded no marks even if you got the right answer, if you did not show the working out, formulas and logic.
        
        We should all endeavour to understand a debate based on its core principles, not continually rely on experts. If you rely on Judith Curry and the other side relies on say Jimmy Shaw or Al Gore, it is a stalemate, as it becomes “he said, she said”. Worse still, the core science never actually gets discussed.
        
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        December 23, 2023 5:37pm
      - Chuck Bird
        
        If you rely on Judith Curry and the other side relies on say Jimmy Shaw or Al Gore, it is a stalemate, as it becomes “he said, she said”
        
        Not so. Have you ever seen Dr Steven Koonin in a proper debate? He won 4 out 5 and the fifth was a draw.
        
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        December 23, 2023 5:52pm
    - NZer In Exile
      
      ” That bus left the station over a decade ago.”
      
      In your mind apparently Wayne. That’s the propaganda from the narrative pushers. You’ve bought it hook line and sinker. Which is scary and sad. The alarmist hypothesis does not hold up if you care to look at the numerous credible scientific take downs of it. Ignoring those extremely credible scientists is how the climate scam snowballed into the giant grift that it has become. The proposed “solutions” to this runaway scam are extremely dangerous to human civilisation.
      
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      December 23, 2023 8:53pm
- Dudley Quaffquaff
  
  Mmm. Let’s look at her conclusion:
  
  The larger problem is what Britons, and Europeans in general, expect of government: too much. When you demand the government solve all your problems – from whether you’re fat, sick or eat too much processed food to the collective temperature of the entire planet – total responsibility translates to total power. The solutions poorly qualified if not incompetent politicians concoct are likely to engender the worst of both worlds: clumsy and ineffective on the one hand, onerous and expensive for individuals on the other. How much better things would be if we resigned ourselves to the idea that the state should basically constrain itself to maintaining some rough semblance of public order and providing for the common defence. Who knows? We might then accept responsibility for solving our own problems. That is, we might, to coin a phrase, take back control.
  
  But most of the examples of daddy-state regulation that she gives in the article aren’t the result of people demanding that government solve their problems, things that they could address themselves if they took pErSoNaL ReSpOnSiBiLiTy. They’re examples of government responding to demands that they do something about the behaviour of other people.
  
  No amount of personal responsibility on my part will stop other people from fly tipping, not sending their children to school, riding their bicycles irresponsibly, letting their large and poorly trained dogs run around offleash in public, tipping paint down stormwater drains etc. And without consequences for the perpetrator for such actions, those actions won’t stop. Are we willing to live in a world where the freedom that we exercise so judiciously and responsibly for ourselves, is also exercised injudiciously and irresponsibly by stupid and selfish people?
  
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  December 23, 2023 9:31am
  - Swifty
    
    Well said.
    
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    December 23, 2023 9:41am
  - JackRabbit
    
    I don’t think she is implying lawlessness per se. Just people taking responsibility.
    
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    December 23, 2023 2:46pm
    - Dudley Quaffquaff
      
      It is true that if everybody behaved responsibly, there would be no need for laws against fly tipping, public drunkenness, enabling truancy etc. But that’s nothing more than a general moaning in the wilderness about the state of the world, not a useful or actionable insight. It does not follow, as Shriver implies, that not having such laws will cause such responsibility to break out.
      
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      December 23, 2023 4:18pm
      - JackRabbit
        
        There is a vast difference between laws that apply when you infringe on the lives, liberty and property of others, and “minority report” type laws we currently have, that seek to protect feelings, or prevent some perceived injustice.
        
        As per the quote: “When you demand the government solve all your problems – from whether you’re fat, sick or eat too much processed food to the collective temperature of the entire planet – total responsibility translates to total power.”
        
        You simply cannot save people from themselves.
        
        There is a very clear line between protection of life, liberty and property, and woke laws that try to influence behaviour according to someone else’s values, well meaning or not.
        
        And the counter to your argument is in your last statement:
        
        “Are we willing to live in a world where the freedom that we exercise so judiciously and responsibly for ourselves, is also exercised injudiciously and irresponsibly by stupid and selfish people?”
        
        Clearly no.
        
        We need laws to punish infractions. Not laws to interfere. Stupid people continue to do stupid things, because there are no consequences.
        
        Take for example the swearing in at Parliament. Some didn’t do as the law requires. That’s Ok, because without that oath, the full oath and nothing but the oath, they cannot be admitted to Parliament. No place in Parliament, no MP Salary.
        
        “See you. We will now have a new list member tha twill comply or a by-election. Parliament security will escort you off the grounds.”
        
        Instead our lawmakers are taking the “minority report” route. “Ah we can’t be hard on them, otherwise they might revolt and break the law further.”
        
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        December 23, 2023 5:52pm
Benedict Yu

The Adjournment Debate that closed Parliament for Christmas had some entertaining moments.

https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/hansard-debates/rhr/combined/HansDeb_20231219_20231221_44

“Hon DAVID SEYMOUR (Leader—ACT): Thank you, Mr Speaker. As I listened to the last two speeches from Labour and the Greens, I couldn’t help but have a few thoughts. That speech by James Shaw sounded like a speech by a man who’s resigned already. He’s just forgotten to actually leave. He was phoning it in. The energy, the conviction, it just was not there. And we wish him well; he’s nearly free.” 😅

James Shaw assured MPs that he would be returning in 2024 to “Green “Pōneke”. I had to look that up. 😕

“Darleen Tana: Honour Te Tiriti.🤡

Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Oh, honour the Treaty—really? Which Treaty are you talking about? Which Treaty are you talking about? Are you talking about the one that you are writing every day because you don’t know anything about the history of this country, or the one that great—[Interruption] Oh, not more than me. No, no, you won’t. Excuse me, I was there a long time before you were, right there—[Interruption] No, right there with Whina Cooper when you weren’t—right there when all these great causes like kōhanga reo were started, and you weren’t. I can speak to you all day about things that I’ve done, and all we’ve seen from people like you is noise, noise, noise. All talk—all hui and no do-ey.”

😂
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December 23, 2023 8:05am
- Vinicius
  
  Shaw tries to make out he’s a reasonable man but I strongly suspect that deep down he has just as phoney and hypocritical as the rest of his fellow Green MP’s.
  
  Give him one thing, I’d prefer him to Swarbrick, who is just plain unlikeable.
  
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  December 23, 2023 8:16am
  - Benedict Yu
    
    Chloe sits directly behind James Shaw in Parliament. When he speaks she nods like one of those nodding dogs that I have seen on the dashboard of some Uber cars 😂
    
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    December 23, 2023 9:47am
    - goNZ1
      
      She has a big head and an even bigger mouth,which got her into hot water recently.
      The Greens and TPM are beside themselves having their pet and warped Marxist racist ideologies confronted by the Coalition
      
      [Mod – don’t copy and paste the same message multiple times]
      
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      December 23, 2023 1:05pm
    - Beach Haven expat
      
      Watching this, I wouldn’t be surprised if Chloe didn’t have her hand up James’ behind – I kept expecting to see her lips move but clearly she’s a talented ventriloquist.
      
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      December 23, 2023 6:33pm
  - kevn
    
    Vini… kiri tried.
    
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    December 23, 2023 11:16am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    He flies the world saying he is carbon neutral because he planted some trees, while telling the rest of us stop flying, eat bugs, even if you have planted your own trees, he is the biggest of hypocrites
    
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    December 23, 2023 11:22am
    - goNZ1
      
      She has a big head and an even bigger mouth,which got her into hot water recently.
      The Greens and TPM are beside themselves having their pet and warped Marxist racist ideologies confronted by the Coalition
      
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      December 23, 2023 1:16pm
  - Beach Haven expat
    
    Looking increasingly like a Manson wife
    
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    December 23, 2023 6:34pm
    - NZer In Exile
      
      Manson fed them LSD everyday apparently.
      
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      December 23, 2023 8:59pm
- Suze Wainwright
  
  That Winston Peters is just so racist. How does he get away with it??
  
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  December 23, 2023 8:29am
  - Littletramp
    
    How is it racist for one to to believe and preach that Maori &/or any ethnic group can compete with whitey on equal footing any day, any way, any time?
    Maybe look into the mirror to find the racist, or just use some common sense & ignore the whole trendy racist narrative used by today’s grifters?
    
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    December 23, 2023 10:24am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  Pōneke is a transliteration of Port Nicholson, ie Wellington.
  
  In the spirit of Petone becoming Pita-one, I’m hereby launching a campaign to rename the Poneke Rugby Club as Port Nicholson Rugby Club.
  
  I’ll let you know how I get on.
  
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  December 23, 2023 8:30am
  - OlderChas
    
    And while you’re there – can you sort out the Poneke Kilbernie Softball Club please? //
    
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    December 23, 2023 10:12am
- jedmo
  
  Chris Hipkins aligning himself with our febrile and biased media, and calling out Winston Peters for pointing his pointing out of their grave failings, says it all, Hipkins (and Labour) aligning with the Wellington swamp/bubble, while telling “the working class can kiss my a…”.
  
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  December 23, 2023 8:43am
- Simon
  
  Lol James Shaw. Now just National’s useful idiot to camouflage NZ’s inaction around the climate scam.
  
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  December 23, 2023 8:56am
- Rusty
  
  @Benedict
  
  About this time last year Ardern called David Seymour an arrogant prick.
  
  The following month she was gone as PM.
  
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  December 23, 2023 9:05am
  - JackRabbit
    
    At least she acknowledged he was a “prick”, as opposed to her off-sider who didn’t know what a woman was, and there didn’t know if he was Arthur or Martha.
    
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    December 23, 2023 2:51pm
- Tweedse
  
  And Winston is the only one who can stand up in parliament and get away with saying what we are thinking. The more the better!
  
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  December 23, 2023 9:17am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Yes, and I can see Luxon knows this, he is pm, but can’t start nasty tactics, look what happened to Hipkins when he was nasty. Note Luxon laughs and smiles when Peters smears others.
    
    I also noticed in question time when dead beat Hipkins was asking about tax payers funding Luxons Te Reo, Luxon created Hipkins and said good luck with what ever job the ex Wairarapa Mp gives him in the new year, hahahahahaha, there is different ways to go about rubbishing opponents, and it looks like Luxon has his own style and that’s good
    
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    December 23, 2023 11:31am
Paulus

Great Christmas News –
Chippy is going to lead New Labour into the promised land.
He has said that he is the Leader so will lead the Renaissance of the Left wing Party.

This is the very best that I have heard – Grunter will be off to the Busses now that he knows what is going to happen.

[Mod – please keep politicians partners out of it]
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December 23, 2023 8:28am
Gravelroad

Janet Wilson, writing in The Post, is already calling the Finance Minister to account. After a couple of months.
I do not recall Ms Wilson, or many of her colleagues, ever calling the previous Finance Minister Robertson, to account for anything over the six years of his tenure.
And then the msm wonder why readers don’t trust them.
(Havn’t linked the opinion article because it was actually rather boring and an example of end-of-year interviewing the typewriter just to meet a deadline requirement).
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December 23, 2023 8:35am
- Swifty
  
  Gravel, just for a change I slow-roasted a lamb leg last Sunday. A 2.7kg leg, 150 degrees, covered, for three and a half hours and then 50 mins uncovered at 180.
  
  Pleasant enough – but pales when compared to a hogget shoulder prepared similarly.
  
  As my dearly departed mother, and her mother, used to say to me “It’s the fat, the fat makes all the difference….”
  
  And they were right.
  
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  December 23, 2023 8:43am
  - Flossie
    
    We totally agree re hogget. But where on earth can you buy it?
    
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    December 23, 2023 12:10pm
    - pdm
      
      Nothing wrong with mutton either. I grew up with it because my father was a Shepherd and a Farm Manager so all the lamb went to the works and only old ewes were killed for family consumption. That included for the farm owner too.
      
      1950’s to mid 1960’s when my father retired at age 63.
      
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      December 23, 2023 1:09pm
    - Benedict Yu
      
      You can buy hogget online and have it delivered in chilled boxes.
      
      https://www.uppercutsbutchery.co.nz/prices/
      
      There is a halal butcher in Christchurch that sells it but you need to buy a half side.
      
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      December 23, 2023 5:12pm
- Che Guava
  
  How are we supposed to make a judgment on the merit of the article when we don’t even know what it says?
  
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  December 23, 2023 8:44am
  - Vinicius
    
    Try here (it is paywalled content),
    
    https://www.thepost.co.nz/a/nz-news/350136620/bad-news-has-landed-so-whats-plan-finance-minister?utm_source=stuff_website&utm_medium=stuff_referral&utm_campaign=mh_stuff&utm_id=mh_stuff
    
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    December 23, 2023 9:58am
  - Swifty
    
    What, you can’t look it up without Mummy’s help?
    
    13 3
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    December 23, 2023 10:14am
    - Che Guava
      
      Another incisive and mature comment from you.
      
      If a commenter is not going to post a link to the article they are calling a load of garbage (and boring, btw) so that I can decide for myself, then why should I care about said article? I can’t really see the point of even mentioning it, tbh.
      
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      December 23, 2023 10:40am
      - Swifty
        
        [Mod – Both of you cut it out]
        
        If his not providing a link triggers you so then just move on! Or go and look it up yourself if it means so much to you.
        
        FFS.
        
        [Mod – when discussing an article please provide a link to it]
        
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        December 23, 2023 10:58am
- Vinicius
  
  Don’t read Wilson’s commentary anymore as she stopped making sense a long way back.
  
  Ditto to Tova O’Brien, 1News Jessica and John Campbell, Jenna Lynch et al. Jason Walls from NewstalkZB isn’t much to write home about either. Don’t watch either TV news bulletins at 6pm.
  
  They all behave like they’re the official opposition.
  
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  December 23, 2023 9:16am
  - Paulus
    
    They are the Official Media Party Opposition –
    After all they are the only ones who are always right, and Chippy will agree with them.
    
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    December 23, 2023 10:42am
  - JackRabbit
    
    Most of these media cretins make about as much sense as totally drunk leprechauns. The only difference being if you catch a leprechaun you find a pot of gold; if you catch a media cretin, you find a crock full of something that smells really foul.
    
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    December 23, 2023 12:09pm
Chuck Bird

FYI

Islamic culture not compatible with European Values: Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GV7O18IZQug
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December 23, 2023 8:43am
- hookerphil
  
  Gene Pitney sang about it all those years ago.
  “East is East and West is West and never the twain shall meet” or something like that.
  
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  December 23, 2023 8:50am
  - MCōs
    
    I live on the West side, she lives on the East side of the street
    And though they say that East is East and West is West
    And never the twain shall meet
    
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    December 23, 2023 12:21pm
- Ruahine
  
  Giorgia Meloni is one of the few honest political leaders in Europe.
  
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  December 23, 2023 8:52am
  - mawm
    
    I’m not so sure about that. She has gone back on some of the policies she was elected on. But I wonder if this was her or pressure from the EU and all the rest of the gang forcing her to do so.
    
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    December 23, 2023 11:43am
- Che Guava
  
  Then why has Afro-Islamic immigration got even worse under Meloni, despite her running on a “far right” anti-immigration, pro-Italy platform? This is much less about Italy and Europe than it is about her being a devout Zionist and obediently pushing Zionist narratives. There’s a reason she’s saying this now. There’s only a problem with these immigrants if they are openly anti-Israel. If not, they are let in by the literal boat load.
  
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  December 23, 2023 8:52am
  - Paulus
    
    Because I understand some 230,000 boat immigrants from Muslims Africa and the Middle East have landed in Italy in recent times.
    
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    December 23, 2023 10:43am
    - Che Guava
      
      Probably fleeing Gaza. Or Syria. Or Lebanon.
      
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      December 23, 2023 10:57am
      - mawm
        
        Just opportunists coming from Africa hoping to be provided free money, housing, health care, etc.
        
        10 1
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        December 23, 2023 11:46am
      - Che Guava
        
        “Just opportunists coming from Africa hoping to be provided free money, housing, health care, etc.”
        
        Which begs the question, what are the origins of the revolutionary politics that led to the expansion of the welfare state to unsustainable levels, and the mass immigration movement feeding beneficiaries into it? Oh dear.
        
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        December 23, 2023 12:20pm
- Scott
  
  On the video the Italian Prime Minister and the British Prime Minister both talked a good game. But neither of them seem to have a clue about how to stop the boats? Boatloads of illegal immigrants are landing in Italy and England every day. And the government seems powerless to stop them?
  
  I can’t understand why they don’t turn the boats back?
  
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  December 23, 2023 9:53am
  - Paulus
    
    The Left Wing media will not let them complain as they can blame the Governments for not doing anything about it.
    
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    December 23, 2023 10:45am
    - MCōs
      
      I don’t know about Italy, but there ain’t much left wing popular press in the UK
      
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      December 23, 2023 11:17am
      - James Stephenson
        
        Guardian, Independent and Mirror are all massively left leaning even if only the Mirror probably counts as “popular”. Paulus said “media” though and broadcast media in the UK is overwhelmingly Left. BBC, C4 are very left, Sky and ITV Centre Left. That’s why GB News has been so successful, a big gaping gap in the market to step into.
        
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        December 23, 2023 3:18pm
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        Why are we all laughing?????
        
        1 0
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        December 23, 2023 6:30pm
  - Che Guava
    
    “I can’t understand why they don’t turn the boats back?”
    
    They could all turn the boats back tomorrow, but they don’t want to. 50 years of mass immigration, the last 10 or 20 seeing huge numbers of both legal and illegal entry, but only now it is a problem?
    
    As I suggest above, they just don’t want Muslims who openly oppose Israel. All the others are fine. Notice how immigration started to be seen as a mistake on or about 7th October when they started protesting Zionism?
    
    Clearly, then, the interests of Europe and Europeans do not determine immigration policy.
    
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    December 23, 2023 10:52am
    - James Stephenson
      
      Notice how immigration started to be seen as a mistake on or about 7th October when they started protesting Zionism?
      
      Immigration was the single biggest driver of the Brexit result…seven f-ing years ago (and we still haven’t got out properly).
      
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      December 23, 2023 3:21pm
      - Che Guava
        
        That’s entirely my point: mass third world immigration is generally very unpopular anywhere in the West, and particularly where the ill-effects are the most apparent. But popular opinion is obviously subordinate to other considerations, namely that it only becomes a political problem that politicians want to fix when Jews feel that the immigrants are “anti-semitic.” Since the “anti-immigration” expression that was Brexit, things have become even worse. Clearly, then, the popular will is not what counts in order to take action. The destruction of Europe obviously comes a very distant second to the hurt feelings of the Jewish lobby. What does that tell us?
        
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        December 23, 2023 4:43pm
- miltonF
  
  {shrug}… finally someone had to state the blindingly obvious.
  
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  December 23, 2023 7:13pm
Maggy Wassilieff

NZ Herald runs a story about ACT party criticising Creative NZ for awarding a $60,000 grant to poet Tusiata Avia.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/act-party-slams-creative-nz-over-tusiata-avia-60000-poetry-award/RY2AS7LQUBAJTGTNRK3OIOAZ5U/

The Herald mentions her racist violent poems, but fails to reveal the offending contents.
Act did not hold back in its press release:

https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA2312/S00083/act-condemns-60000-poetry-award.htm

Hey James,
it’s us.
These days
we’re driving round
in SUVs
looking for ya
or white men like you
who might be thieves
or rapists
or kidnappers
or murderers
yeah, or any of your descendants
or any of your incarnations
cos, you know
ay, bitch?
We’re gonna F… YOU UP.
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December 23, 2023 8:51am
- mikenmildagain
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  ACT gets upset about…poetry.
  
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  December 23, 2023 9:02am
  - RalphT
    
    Poetry is just words. So I guess you’ll be having a go at all those trans demonstrators getting upset at those simple words spoken by Posy Parker?
    
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    December 23, 2023 9:06am
  - Suze Wainwright
    
    It’s vile poetry mike.
    
    I guess nothing beats shock value though aye. Sounds like this poet wants to do more than throw dildos about
    
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    December 23, 2023 9:09am
  - RightNow
    
    Or, and I think even you could understand this, they’re upset about the poor quality spending of public funds.
    Creative NZ must have too much money to disburse if this is considered good value. They’re volunteering for a well deserved budget cut.
    
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    December 23, 2023 9:17am
    - Paulus
      
      Creative NZ can pay this money after all, it is not
      their money, it is our money !
      
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      December 23, 2023 10:47am
  - Taieri
    
    ACT gets upset about…poetry
    —————
    
    Poetry?
    Is it really?
    
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    December 23, 2023 9:20am
  - Clyde
    
    So the[Mod – use correct names] is now an expert on what constitutes poetry. Unlike the MBK, I don’t profess to know much about poetry, but I do know that the hateful, racist, scribbling of some East Polynesian doesn’t cut the mustard. Creative NZ, I hope, is one of those bodies whose membership and decisions will come under action early in the New Year.
    
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    December 23, 2023 9:24am
    - mikenmildagain
      
      Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
      Still with your ‘East Polynesian’ racist schtick?
      
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      December 23, 2023 9:42am
      - Suze Wainwright
        
        Heh, hey Mike, imagine if in a few decades – not so far from now – Rawiri is bemoaning young Maori activists. It wasn’t like that in his day you know – these young upstart fellas have no respect!
        
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        December 23, 2023 9:52am
      - Clyde
        
        Call them as they are. Nothing racist about that. Is European racist? You would say yes, which just underlines where your racist, trolling views originate from.
        
        11 1
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        December 23, 2023 11:53am
  - Swifty
    
    Have you accidentally misrepresented ACT’s objection or have you come here to do it deliberately?
    
    Either way it reflects poorly on you.
    
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    December 23, 2023 9:26am
    - mikenmildagain
      
      Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
      A lawyer elected to parliament five minutes ago presumes he can judge literary merit better than the literary community. Tusiata Avia has been widely published and received critical acclaim and multiple awards for her work.
      I thought this was a good piece:
      https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/01-11-2023/i-cannot-write-a-poem-about-gaza-a-poem-by-tusiata-avia
      Todd Stephenson could perhaps concentrate on his other interests, such as promoting pharmaceuticals and ‘modernising the language in company policies to reflect a diverse workforce’.
      
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      December 23, 2023 9:51am
      - Benedict Yu
        
        If she has received “critical acclaim” why does she need Government subsidies? If she literally has critical acclaim, she will be able to hire large venues and charge admission so folk can hear her read her poetry.
        
        The Christchurch Town Hall holds 2,200 people. $20 admission that is $44,000 for say 90 minutes work on a Sunday afternoon.
        
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        December 23, 2023 10:47am
      - Swifty
        
        What exactly is critical acclaim anyway?
        
        Lefty fan bois and girls heaping praise upon their own? And for political reasons?
        
        Would they heap ‘critical acclaim’ on an author of white supremacist literature under any circumstances?
        
        And would they part with their own money for it though?
        
        23 1
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        December 23, 2023 11:02am
      - Clyde
        
        Critical acclaim coming from a place like a Marxist Maori Dept in a woke University? These twerps would describe Tennyson, Keats, et al as colonisers etc. About time MBK that reality comes along as a Christmas present.
        
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        December 23, 2023 11:57am
      - JimBobJoe
        
        Critical acclaim by a bunch of pretentious lovies trying to stay hip and cool means jack Mikey as you well know. Its akin to a circle jerk.
        
        Avia has little talent but trades on being an oppressed woman of colour to reap unwarranted income.
        
        The Left continue to disappear up their own fundamental orifices with their weird obsessions and rituals
        
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        December 23, 2023 7:12pm
    - Tom Hunter
      
      Either way it reflects poorly on you.
      I expected better of you, Swifty, since you know damned well that trolls who are here to entertain themselves are incapable of being shamed. 🙂
      
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      December 23, 2023 1:16pm
      - Swifty
        
        Fair point Tom.
        
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        December 23, 2023 1:46pm
  - Aquarius
    
    What a puerile comment
    Albeit typical .,……
    
    15 2
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    December 23, 2023 9:27am
  - Prince
    
    Poetry ?
    Really ?
    
    17 2
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    December 23, 2023 9:37am
  - Cassandra
    
    Poetry? What part is poetry? How about doggerel? Or Rapihi? The “poet” is a racist hate-speaker.
    
    18 1
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    December 23, 2023 9:57am
  - In Vino Veritas
    
    Yeah, and Labour, the Greens and the Maori Party get so upset about names of Government Departments they change the language that they are written in. Maori can’t be arsed speaking their own language, and the Greens and Labour join them in being so upset they force, by legislation, Maori on everyone. I reckon ACT should introduce legislation to prevent non-white people from threatening violence on white people in any way, shape or form. I mean, yep, its bad Mike. Real bad.
    
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    December 23, 2023 10:19am
  - rangitoto
    
    This is poetry and the story is still widely known after 3,000 years.
    
    μῆνιν ἄειδε θεὰ Πηληϊάδεω Ἀχιλῆος
    οὐλομένην, ἣ μυρί᾽ Ἀχαιοῖς ἄλγε᾽ ἔθηκε,
    πολλὰς δ᾽ ἰφθίμους ψυχὰς Ἄϊδι προΐαψεν
    ἡρώων, αὐτοὺς δὲ ἑλώρια τεῦχε κύνεσσιν
    5οἰωνοῖσί τε πᾶσι, Διὸς δ᾽ ἐτελείετο βουλή,
    ἐξ οὗ δὴ τὰ πρῶτα διαστήτην ἐρίσαντε
    Ἀτρεΐδης τε ἄναξ ἀνδρῶν καὶ δῖος Ἀχιλλεύς.
    
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    December 23, 2023 5:56pm
    - JimBobJoe
      
      The Odyssey or Iliad? The collective known as Homer is great reading in the English translation
      
      By the by, Troy (the movie) lifts some of the script pretty directly from the Iliad (well from the English translation I read at least)
      
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      December 23, 2023 7:08pm
      - rangitoto
        
        The start of the Iliad. Literal translation of the first line
        
        The wrath sing godess of Peleus’ son Achilles ….
        
        I quite like the Butler translation although he weirdly uses the Roman names of the gods and I think the word ‘anger’ is too weak to put in the opening line. I think menin really means something like divine rage.
        
        Butler “Sing, O goddess, the anger of Achilles, son of Peleus”
        
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        December 23, 2023 10:55pm
- Rich Prick
  
  Charming. But is the creature producing this crap worth $60k of our money?
  
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  December 23, 2023 9:04am
  - Clyde
    
    In a word – “NO”.
    
    26 2
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    December 23, 2023 9:25am
  - Rich Prick
    
    Oh look, some bent leftie thinks yes, this mental patient should scoop $60k of public money for its vile rantings. You gotta love Labour/Greens/Maori losers.
    
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    December 23, 2023 11:59pm
- Benedict Yu
  
  I don’t understand why poets should get government money. Why can’t they get a job and write poems on the weekend? 😕
  
  52 2
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  December 23, 2023 9:12am
  - Swifty
    
    I’d close down Creative NZ by lunchtime.
    
    The thought of the screaming and wailing of those on the gravy train, particularly the luvvie bureaucrats who would lose their jobs, fills my nostrils with a sweet fragrance.
    
    I’d ring fence the money for child immunisations or cancer drugs.
    
    Let’s hear their wailing then.
    
    38 2
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    December 23, 2023 9:31am
    - Tom Hunter
      
      I’d close down Creative NZ by lunchtime.
      
      Yep, and just like RNZ and TVNZ that crowd demonstrated years ago that they hate – and I mean really hate, National.
      
      So why does National keep funding people who hate them – and by extension their voters? I can’t decide whether it’s some weird BDSM message, a degree of cluelessness about how ideological and even outright partisan the MSM are nowadays, or that there are more than a few in National who regard all this has helpful in getting policies like Net Zero foisted on the public.
      
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      December 23, 2023 1:28pm
      - thirteenstars
        
        Sanction of the victim:
        
        Then I saw what was wrong with the world, I saw what destroyed men and nations, and where the battle for life had to be fought. I saw that the enemy was an inverted morality—and that my sanction was its only power. I saw that evil was impotent—that evil was the irrational, the blind, the anti-real—and that the only weapon of its triumph was the willingness of the good to serve it.
        
        …
        
        I saw that there comes a point, in the defeat of any man of virtue, when his own consent is needed for evil to win—and that no manner of injury done to him by others can succeed if he chooses to withhold his consent. I saw that I could put an end to your outrages by pronouncing a single word in my mind. I pronounced it. The word was “No.”
        
        John Galt, Atlas Shrugged — Ayn Rand
        
        http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/sanction_of_the_victim.html
        
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        December 23, 2023 3:01pm
  - In Vino Veritas
    
    Correct Ben, and shut down the funnel of money that goes to comedians, actors etc. If you can’t make a living without being subsidised by taxpayers, you are in the wrong job.
    
    25 1
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    December 23, 2023 10:20am
    - Swifty
      
      Yep, your output is so unattractive to people you cannot convince enough of them to part with their own money in sufficient quantities to fund your lifestyle.
      
      There’s a lesson there.
      
      17 2
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      December 23, 2023 10:33am
    - Ra Henare
      
      Same would then apply to NZ Symphony Orchestra, NZ Ballet Company, NZ Journalism fund, Concert Program, NZ Film Commission(ie Subsidies for Film Making in NZ) etc etc.
      
      We all have our bias.
      Some here obviously dont like poetry
      Many seem not to respect freedom of speech and love the cancel culture ethos.
      
      My Bias is to stop government funding of stupidity.
      ie the ability to change your birth certificate gender.
      
      https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/weird-laws-you-never-knew-existed-in-new-zealand/VHTTKNXOKNUXZYV766GVJKINUY/
      
      5 2
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      December 23, 2023 2:17pm
      - Swifty
        
        Yep, great idea.
        
        Stop the lot.
        
        It is not the role of the state to take money from the mouths of New Zealand families to subsidise the arts.
        
        What makes the arts so special?
        
        If people value the arts so much, if the arts enrich people’s lives so much, as the luvvies claim, I’m sure the arts producers will have no difficulty getting people to support them with their own cash.
        
        Good art finds its market. Always has, always will.
        
        The state funding of art is just naked vote buying with taxpayer cash. It allows political parties to say “look, look at all we’ve done for you.”
        
        “Now vote for me if you don’t want this to stop.”
        
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        December 23, 2023 2:56pm
      - JimBobJoe
        
        If the NZSO, Ballet, Concert Radio etc cant make it with funding form tax payers by way of government transfers I am happy for it to go… and I attend NZSO concerts on occasion, listen to Concert FM regularly. And Peter Jackson doesnt need out taxes to run his business…
        
        All that funding could be used in health instead
        
        The cultural mavens may howl, but their are plenty of wealthy patrons who would step into the breech and fund cultural activities…. it would be delicious to see the Arts lovies justify why they deserve tax payers support and not sick children….
        
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        December 23, 2023 7:05pm
    - miltonF
      
      Totally agree. Arts/actors etc should not be funded by the govt. If there is a market for the product then people will pay out of their own pocket. Give people a tax cut instead so they can support whatever is valuable to them personally, instead of it being shoved down their throat.
      
      Now for the real test of moral consistency for Kiwiblog readers: Should the govt fund sport?
      
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      December 23, 2023 7:29pm
  - Suze Wainwright
    
    Show some respect, you Philistine!
    
    Those creative types were a significant part of Jacinda’s fan base
    
    13 0
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    December 23, 2023 11:01am
  - Paul
    
    Poet Material: channeling Sam Hunt:
    
    Paremata sunset, bays gone by,
    a little James K. Baxter, fills my eye,
    lonely now, I glory with my wine,
    my sunset, is my time.
    
    3 0
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    December 23, 2023 7:09pm
    - goNZ1
      
      I did like one of Sam Hunts early ones which included the line “One a kori,two a kori,Tinakori road”
      
      If that got published in these PC days we live in ,he would likely be cancelled and have Meng Foon melt down!
      
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      December 23, 2023 8:34pm
- Bruce C
  
  I saw ACTs post on X regarding this. The comments are pathetic but not unexpected as they crow on about this as a free speech issue. Never mind inappropriate use of a scarce resource. Meh, just borrow more…
  
  18 1
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  December 23, 2023 9:21am
  - Benedict Yu
    
    Of course she should be free to write such poetry. On her own dime.
    
    30 1
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    December 23, 2023 9:38am
    - Cassandra
      
      Actually no, she shouldn’t write this stuff, even on her own dime. Advocating killing white men is racist and a crime.
      
      26 1
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      December 23, 2023 9:59am
      - mawm
        
        It is hate speech, the very kind of speech all hate speech laws are aimed at……… but it’s anti white so it has become acceptable and not prosecutable.
        
        11 1
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        December 23, 2023 12:03pm
      - Benedict Yu
        
        I would be very surprised if her poems constitute “threatening to kill” as defined in the Crimes Act.
        
        https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1961/0043/latest/DLM330785.html
        
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        December 23, 2023 12:04pm
      - Dave
        
        I think the poem’s speaker (not necessarily the poet herself) is looking for men who might be rapists etc or might look like (reading it charitably) rapists etc, rather than looking just for white men, regardless of character, so perhaps not an entirely racist rant, and certainly not an incitement to violence, despite its in-your-face aggression.
        
        But it’s so depauperate in language technique and precise observation as to be barely poetry.
        
        Here’s an altogether superior and more moving poem about racism, Telephone Conversation by Wole Soyinka:
        
        https://ncert.nic.in/textbook/pdf/keww114.pdf
        
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        December 23, 2023 1:39pm
      - NeverMindTheBollocks
        
        You’ll know it when you hear it
        
        2 0
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        December 23, 2023 6:48pm
      - Beach Haven expat
        
        Both points are true at the same time.
        
        BY is countering the lazy denial of free speech argument. Taking away her funding does not prevent her scribbling her drivel down, probably using capitals and different coloured pens, as the deranged are wont to do. She retains that freedom of speech.
        
        But if it is then incitement to violence then she is vulnerable to prosecution.
        
        I just don’t think anyone sensible wants the taxpayer to pay for her crayons or exotic fashion sense. Or large grocery bill.
        
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        December 23, 2023 8:32pm
    - In Vino Veritas
      
      Can you just imagine the vitriol that would be served up if a poem was written about Maori eating each other and how white people should f them up? You’d be a white supremist in no time at all.
      
      19 1
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      December 23, 2023 10:21am
  - Prince
    
    ‘just borrow more’ ?
    Are you auditioning for a job on Morning Report ? That seems to be their answer to everything.
    
    10 1
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    December 23, 2023 9:39am
- Swifty
  
  What a hypocrite.
  
  Happily takes money from the very ‘colonising’ people and institutions she claims to hate and despise in her writings.
  
  Why am I not surprised?
  
  36 2
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  December 23, 2023 9:24am
  - kowtow
    
    And using “their” lingo.
    
    No authenticity at all.
    
    10 1
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    December 23, 2023 11:57am
    - pdm
      
      kowtow – a very limited market if it was produced in Te Reo.
      
      0.5% of the English market for the tripe she wrote maybe – no more.
      
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      December 23, 2023 1:23pm
- Ghost
  
  Change James to Hone, white for brown, and the backlash would be huge.
  
  22 1
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  December 23, 2023 9:36am
  - Swifty
    
    Do you think Creative NZ would fund the author of that sort of poetry even if it were astounding in every other literary respect?
    
    17 2
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    December 23, 2023 9:45am
    - Suze Wainwright
      
      Well, Hone might not identify as a cis-gender male…
      
      7 2
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      December 23, 2023 10:11am
  - Beach Haven expat
    
    Or if it was hung in Te Papa and then Cook’s relatives came and spray painted it.
    
    2 0
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    December 23, 2023 8:34pm
Matt Long

LA Times extreme TDS author still thinks Colorado Court’s decision to remove Trump from the Republican ballot will help Trump.
https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2023-12-19/trump-colorado-supreme-court-rules-ineligible-for-ballot
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December 23, 2023 8:51am
- Its only I
  
  This time its a republican removing a republican and that republican has listed the many times its happened before.
  
  The Party’s implosion over the maga fascists walking away from democracy and the constitution who prefer an authoritarian and those few republicans who still believe in the constitution is fascinating.
  The Make Attorneys Get Attorneys Trump extremists struggle with the constitution as much as Trump struggles with religion.
  Farking hilarious but facinating.
  
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  December 23, 2023 9:26am
  - Che Guava
    
    Why do you suppose that democracy and the constitution would be better for America than authoritarianism? If the parlous state of America is a consequence of democracy and the constitution, then that’s not really a ringing endorsement of either, is it? How could you expect to turn things around without changing the fundamentals? You couldn’t expect that.
    
    If the alternative to what has led to degeneracy and social decay is authoritarianism, then any rational analysis (assuming we don’t prefer degeneracy and social decay to their opposites) leads to authoritarianism.
    
    If Trump or someone of his ilk is a fascist authoritarian (never defined, btw), then so be it. Who cares what you call it, so long as it gives you the best outcomes.
    
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    December 23, 2023 11:51am
    - virtualmark
      
      Che, which fascist authoritarian has managed to give their people the best outcome?
      
      3 2
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      December 23, 2023 12:46pm
      - Che Guava
        
        As the principle example, Hitler took Germany from deep economic depression to the pinnacle economic success in about 5 years, being named TIME magazine’s Man of the Year in 1938.
        
        Not only did WW2 negate a rival system, it also saved the economies of the Allied nations. Kind of a 2 for 1 deal. The rhetoric used against competitors nowadays (“Trump is Hitler” “Putin is Hitler” “Iran is Hitler’ “Hamas is Hitler” and so on) hasn’t really evolved in 100 years.
        
        It’s not that fascism is an inherently faulty system like we are instructed, it’s that anyone who went off the approved capitalist/communist plantation back in those days got a target put on their back. I don’t think any system is perfect, but there are always obvious motivations to ensure one’s own system dominates, than another of someone else.
        
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        December 23, 2023 6:01pm
      - virtualmark
        
        How about you tell us the other half of the Hitler story?
        
        And let’s not over-glamourise pre-WWII Nazi Germany. It wasn’t that great if you were a Jew. Or an opponent of Hitler. The first concentration camp opened in 1933 and there were at least half a dozen of them before WWII.
        
        So why don’t we just be intellectually honest and accept that fascist authoritarians base their populist appeal on building up military might, targeting “the other”, and that eventually all that leads them to conflict that has terrible effects on their own country.
        
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        December 24, 2023 7:22am
    - Its only I
      
      Che I almost took you seriously for a moment 🙂
      
      What is the republican party if it isn’t about the rigorous adherence and defence of the constitution, Democracy and the selective morality of religion?
      
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      December 23, 2023 1:04pm
      - Che Guava
        
        Fealty to a foreign interest group lobby, mostly. I don’t know what else they stand for, tbh.
        
        And talking about taking people seriously: what is religion if it isn’t a paradigm instance of “selective morality”? What is morality if it isn’t selective and discriminating? Run along, please.
        
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        December 23, 2023 6:06pm
- sungsamning
  
  The GOP said they will have a Caucus in Colorado instead. Some red states have removed Brandon from their ballots.
  
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  December 23, 2023 12:52pm
kowtow

Iconoclasm in New Zealand.

‘The country’s oldest war memorial will be removed from an historic Whanganui reserve following objections to an inscription condemning upriver Māori for “fanaticism and barbarism”.’

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/505406/fanaticism-and-barbarism-offensive-whanganui-war-memorial-to-be-removed
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December 23, 2023 9:05am
- mikenmildagain
  
  Isn’t that the memorial Mark Twain wrote about when he visited NZ?
  
  Patriotism is Patriotism. Calling it fanaticism cannot degrade it … But the men were worthy. It was no shame to fight them. They fought for their homes, they fought for their country; they bravely fought and bravely fell.
  
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  December 23, 2023 9:54am
  - Cassandra
    
    BS. The upriver Maoris attacked the downriver ones.
    
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    December 23, 2023 10:01am
    - mikenmildagain
      
      So just one group of the Māori involved were fanatics and barbarians?
      
      5 11
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      December 23, 2023 10:30am
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        I find it hard to believe that the followers of Pai Marire were/are rational folk.
        
        https://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-Cow02NewZ-c1.html
        
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        December 23, 2023 1:25pm
    - Jack5
      
      Milky, who is particularly bilious today, goes off half-cock again.
      
      Here’s what Mark Twain wrote of the two memorials he saw on a visit to Wanganui:
      
      December 8. A couple of curious war-monuments here at Wanganui. One is in honor of white men “who fell in defence of law and order against fanaticism and barbarism.” Fanaticism. We Americans are English in blood, English in speech, English in religion, English in the essentials of our governmental system, English in the essentials of our civilization; and so, let us hope, for the honor of the blend, for the honor of the blood, for the honor of the race, that that word got there through lack of heedfulness, and will not be suffered to remain. If you carve it at Thermopylae, or where Winkelried died, or upon Bunker Hill monument, and read it again “who fell in defence of law and order against fanaticism” you will perceive what the word means, and how mischosen it is. Patriotism is Patriotism. Calling it Fanaticism cannot degrade it; nothing can degrade it. Even though it be a political mistake, and a thousand times a political mistake, that does not affect it; it is honorable—always honorable, always noble—and privileged to hold its head up and look the nations in the face. It is right to praise these brave white men who fell in the Maori war—they deserve it; but the presence of that word detracts from the dignity of their cause and their deeds, and makes them appear to have spilt their blood in a conflict with ignoble men, men not worthy of that costly sacrifice. But the men were worthy. It was no shame to fight them. They fought for their homes, they fought for their country; they bravely fought and bravely fell; and it would take nothing from the honor of the brave Englishmen who lie under the monument, but add to it, to say that they died in defense of English laws and English homes against men worthy of the sacrifice—the Maori patriots.
      
      The other monument cannot be rectified. Except with dynamite. It is a mistake all through, and a strangely thoughtless one. It is a monument erected by white men to Maoris who fell fighting with the whites and against their own people, in the Maori war. “Sacred to the memory of the brave men who fell on the 14th of May, 1864,” etc. On one side are the names of about twenty Maoris. It is not a fancy of mine; the monument exists. I saw it. It is an object-lesson to the rising generation. It invites to treachery, disloyalty, unpatriotism. Its lesson, in frank terms is, “Desert your flag, slay your people, burn their homes, shame your nationality—we honor such.”
      
      From: Mark Twain’s “Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World,” 1898.
      
      So Twain advocated dynamiting the monument to the Government’s Maori allies
      
      He criticised the wording on the memorial to the settler soldiers for implying the Maori “rebels” as fanatics and calls them patriots.
      
      But it is the monument to the white soldiers that is coming down. The other, if it still stands, is to Maori allies of the settlers, who will have Maori or part-Maori descendants still in the region.
      
      The revision of the history of colonial settlement, and the land wars, has already seen the Woke removing symbols, such as street names, commemorating colonists’ heroes like von Tempsky.
      
      The move on the monument is another step in this racist revision.
      
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      December 23, 2023 10:52am
      - Odakyu-sen
        
        First they cleanse history, then they cleanse ethnicities.
        
        7 1
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        December 23, 2023 5:17pm
I remember when

Did the media ever ask Labour whether the law about smoking after 2008 would apply to tourists?
Surely some of our Asians tourists would fall into this category.
If not tourists, what about those applying for asylum or residency?
Would they be disqualified?
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December 23, 2023 9:24am
- MCōs
  
  Conversely does the Thai prohibition on vaping apply to tourists, refugees, asylum seekers?
  Of course it does
  Plenty of visitors are caught out thinking things are just like home and if they aren’t they should be!
  
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  December 23, 2023 11:07am
Tomtoddy

Among the growing problems in USA ….
The President of the American Library Association (ALA), one Emily Drabinski describes herself as being a “Marxist Lesbian”. “Drabinski posts openly on her Twitter feed in support of sexually exposing children, union-led political strife, socialist politicians, and libraries pushing explicit and far-left material on unwilling taxpayers,” Joy Pullman writes for The Federalist. “She described queering the library as ‘critical thinking’ and ‘thinking critically’ about the catalog.”

Fortunately, some states are withdrawing from the ALA.
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December 23, 2023 9:25am
- Flossie
  
  Why dies the “Rainbow Community ” deem it necessary to always define their like by their sexual preferences? Nowhere else do we say “hetersexual author/footballer/parliamentarian etc”… whoever did whatever.
  
  17 2
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  December 23, 2023 10:18am
  - Ghost
    
    Are you sure about that? I was looking at YouTube the other day and came across a video that was lame but it was a group chat that started off with people giving their chosen pronoun and their sexuality. The vast majority were proclaiming they were heterosexual.
    
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    December 23, 2023 10:37am
Diogenes

An excellent piece in Breaking Views on the decolonisation movement (link below), which spurred a tiny thought.

For any two parties to be in some form of successful co-governance arrangement there has to be respect on both sides. (In once sense, you could possibly say that marriage is a form of co-governance, and we know what happens there when respect breaks down.) The TPM has made very clear that they not only do not respect the other parties, they hold them in utter contempt. They have drifted a long way from what I understood to be the kaupapa Maori of some of our great early Maori leaders, when respect was a high value.

TPM is making it very clear what the ultimate outcome will be if co-governance is pursued under these conditions.

Peter Schwerdtfeger, John Raine and David Lillis: Is the Decolonisation and Indigenisation Movement Dividing our Country?
https://breakingviewsnz.blogspot.com/2023/12/peter-schwerdtfeger-john-raine-and.html
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December 23, 2023 9:40am
- Philview
  
  The sorts of tribal governance systems envisaged by He Puapua would have no place for TPM. Back when Stuff allowed comments I would raise scenarios that wouldn’t get past the moderator. For example if a foreign government ( perhaps China) comes in with a cheque book and wants to put a military base on tribal land to counter the US in the Pacific then that is an extreme example of the risks of having tribal government. A democratic society could reject such a move.
  
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  December 23, 2023 3:23pm
Vinicius

Stuff has some commentary online about Hipkins thoughts on the 2023 election walloping by the voters.

The issue is he talks in cliche’s, which reveals a shallow thinking politician.

“Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose,” Hipkins said. “The tide comes in and the tide goes out.”

“We didn’t project the stability that we needed to if we were going to be re-elected … that certainly cost us.”

Neither does Hipkins believe his party’s manifesto was fatal to its re-election chances! So, us voters were too stupid to understand all the failed policies Labour implemented?

Party strategists thought the GST free fruit and vegetables was a vote winner. Well Labour, not all of the voters were that dumb.

It seems to me that Hipkins and Labour are still in denial about whey they lost so badly. As David Seymour said until Labour actually do some penitence….they’re no danger.

Finally, when Hipkins has nothing to offer in TV or parliamentary debates policy wise he turns feral.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/301031923/sometimes-you-lose-labour-leader-chris-hipkins-reflects-on-2023
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December 23, 2023 9:52am
- emmess
  
  Until Labour unequivocally condemn the Ardern/Hipkins government, they are never getting anywhere near power anytime soon.
  I don’t see that happening for quite some time.
  
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  December 23, 2023 10:09am
- goNZ1
  
  Hipkins must be the only guy in NZ left who can’t work out why Labour isn’t running the govt any longer!
  
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  December 23, 2023 1:39pm
  - Beach Haven expat
    
    Robertson? Especially now he’s thrown away his tie in some sort of Rik from the Young Ones virtue signal of defiance.
    
    Remember when much was made of Ardern giving him a tie for each budget?
    
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    December 23, 2023 8:43pm
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  “The tide comes in and the tide goes out.”
  
  Sounds like Chance the Gardener, in ‘Being There’.
  
  But that was satire.
  
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  December 23, 2023 6:53pm
emmess

I have thought this for a while about Israel and Palestine
In the long term there will need to be a multi-state solution

https://www.aei.org/op-eds/forget-a-two-state-solution-for-palestinians-three-or-four-is-more-realistic/
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December 23, 2023 10:06am
- mikenmildagain
  
  Advocating for Bantustans. Well, it’s the AEI after all.
  
  1 18
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  December 23, 2023 10:33am
  - emmess
    
    You have just called small countries a insulting name with negative conations.
    What would be wrong with that, as long as they are territorially contiguous and are not enclaves?
    Are Singapore, Brunei, Monaco, Luxembourg, Lichenstein, Bahrain, Qatar etc, bantustans?
    
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    December 23, 2023 11:05am
Jack5

The killer of the Wagner rebel and nine others in a aircraft bomb in August is named in the Wall Street Journal today.

Named is Nikolai Patrushev, head of Russia’s Security Council. He is a former chief of the FSB, successor of the KGB. The newspaper says Patrushev is de facto head of Russia’s security services.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, owner of the Wagner paramilitary group, in June led a mutiny and a march on Moscow with some of the group’s 20,000 or so mercenaries, with tanks. Prigozhin and nine others died when a bomb blew up his aircraft.

Patrushev had warned Putin for a long time that Moscow’s reliance on Wagner Group in Ukraine was giving Prigozhin too much political and military clout and that was increasingly threatening the Kremlin.

Patrushev is 72, but his son, a former banker, is seen by some as a potential successor to Putin.
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December 23, 2023 10:11am
- Paulus
  
  He may be a successor to Putin but should not go in a airplane !
  
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  December 23, 2023 10:52am
  - kowtow
    
    or hotel windows over three stories.
    
    6 1
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    December 23, 2023 11:51am
    - Beach Haven expat
      
      I’d suggest windows on the ground floor – Putin’s goons will still make it look like an accident.
      
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      December 23, 2023 8:45pm
Flossie

I notice boxer Parker swanning about in one of those tea towel headdresses. Just in support of Gaza or has he converted to Islam…anybody know?
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December 23, 2023 10:21am
- Ghost
  
  He is fighting in Saudi Arabia, he’s wearing it because he is there. As he says on Facebook “when in Saudi”
  
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  December 23, 2023 10:30am
  - Flossie
    
    Wouldn’t that be cultural appropriation? If one of theirs came here and decked themselves out in Maori regalia that would be frowned upon I’m sure.
    
    7 2
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    December 23, 2023 12:13pm
    - Ghost
      
      You made a stupid accusation, you should stop now, or at least show us where a visiting sportsperson, team or dignity has been accused of cultural appropriation for wearing anything Māori, which is typically gifted to them.
      
      2 8
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      December 23, 2023 12:37pm
- MCōs
  
  Just so you don’t embarrass yourself in future it called a Keffiyeh Arab Scarf
  Advertising on Amazon for ten bucks
  
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  December 23, 2023 10:59am
Ghost

I’m really unsure why this lady went to the media

Rising interest rates are coinciding with an increase in homeowners losing their properties in mortgagee sales.

One of them is Auckland woman Janna Gilligan, who has lost the biggest investment of her life, and is warning homeowners how easily it can happen.

“It’s heartbreaking when you try, because I tried, believe me, I begged,” Janna, whose Glen Eden property sold in a mortgagee sale earlier this month, told Newshub.

Article

The important part of the article

But the bank said Janna “has not made any repayments for over two and a half years, resulting in substantial arrears” and say they “provided her with a long period of time to sell the house herself, which she had agreed to do, but not completed.”
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December 23, 2023 11:10am
- mandk
  
  It’s sad that people cam be so foolish.
  
  If the bank let the matter run for 2.5 years before activating a mortgagee sale, presumably the woman initially had quite a lot of equity.
  
  I’m guessing most or all of the equity has now gone.
  
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  December 23, 2023 11:25am
I remember when

Another spiked article:
“The truth about the Gatwick drone incident:”

The fact that five years ago the authorities closed an international airport for 72 hours because of a non-existant drone intrusion.
Another example of the inertia caused because of the fear of unknown consequences.
As a result there is a failure to be able to separate the obvious facts from the resulting ‘dross.’
Public fear manifestly increases the pressure and the inertia gets worse.
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December 23, 2023 11:11am
Swifty

I’ve got a great idea!

Instead of helping this family for seven long years, let’s instead give money to racist poets, or well-paid civil servants to learn Maori, or fund $10-15 million per year to fund extreme lefty activism at the HRC, or pour millions into ‘fat studies’ which goes against everything we know about the negative health effects of obesity.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/505418/family-on-housing-register-for-seven-years-finally-get-a-house

Who’s with me?

//
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December 23, 2023 11:54am
- Ghost
  
  So for 6 years under the most caring and compassionate government they couldn’t get a home.
  
  15 0
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  December 23, 2023 12:09pm
  - Swifty
    
    That government clearly had other fish to fry.
    
    Other priorities.
    
    10 0
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    December 23, 2023 2:02pm
sungsamning

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3lYmU3HO3w
Peter Zeihan on Poland.
Poland would to have a leadership role in relation to former Soviet satellites. Reality renders this unlikely though. It would neeed Swedish help at a minimum. America won’t be that interested unless they can act through Sweden. [9:41]
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December 23, 2023 12:05pm
sungsamning

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JX5-1dAc1SM
Congressman Exposes Epstein Blackmail List.
Congressman Tim Burchett dropped Bombshells about the Epstein List. Members are being Blackmailed. [30:30]
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December 23, 2023 12:05pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  That was dam interesting. Burchette and many others have to watch their backs.
  The suicide machine is there.
  
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  December 23, 2023 7:36pm
Tasman devil

I see the woke Christmas articles from the supine media of so called starving fat tatood mothers has commenced.

Observations:

1 They didn’t get fat without excessive eating;

2 Unlike Mary they didn’t have immaculate
conceptions; and

3 Their tatoos cost several thousand dollars
per limb.

Just making these observations on behalf of contributing members of society.
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December 23, 2023 12:48pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  They did contribute. They gave the tattooist a job and they gave the Govt GST.
  Otherwise the tattooist would have no job and be on a benefit and that means the Govt (Taxpayer) has to pay and the Govt gets no GST.
  See how this welfare circle works?
  
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  December 23, 2023 7:45pm
  - goNZ1
    
    An interesting point actually, if Ms Rangatira can afford extensive tatts and scribbles,then why are their mokopuna arriving at kura with no kai in their puku?
    
    Ditto fags or vapes
    
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    December 23, 2023 8:45pm
Tauhei Notts

I’m off for the Christmas holidays.
I have been warned that one must exercise extreme care on the new Johnstone’s Hill to Warkworth motorway. It was very expensive to build (look at those enormous cuttings) and the cost is partly paid by motorists exceeding 100km at the foot of steep downhill slopes.
Be very aware.
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December 23, 2023 1:06pm
- Ghost
  
  There are a lot of bloody idiots on the road at the moment, be safe.
  
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  December 23, 2023 1:13pm
Ghost

4 months community detention for destroying two people’s lives, bloody hell

An elderly couple say they will never get to live the rest of their days the way they had hoped after a car crash in Gore stripped them of their independence.

First-time offender Jake Hemi Aitcheson-Marwick, 20, was sentenced in the Gore District Court this week after pleading guilty on two charges of dangerous driving causing injury.

On March 11, the defendant was driving at 112km/h in Main St — a 50km/h road.

Article
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December 23, 2023 1:12pm
- JackRabbit
  
  Hell of a light sentence for actions that qualify as attempted manslaughter by negligence.
  
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  December 23, 2023 3:09pm
Prince

Oh but you are forgetting the judge also ‘disqualified Aitcheson-Marwick from driving for 12 months, which she said was a “significant penalty” for someone his age.’
The innocent victims ?

The 83-year-old driver was flown to Dunedin Hospital where he stayed in the ICU for two weeks before being transferred to the recovery unit.
He suffered an intra-abdominal bleed, a broken hip and a stroke, while his wife had injuries to her neck, back and hip.
“I had to learn how to walk again … I could not eat or drink without assistance,” the man said.
“The way that I intended to live out the rest of my life has been taken away from me, and that is a hard pill to swallow.”
The court heard the couple could no longer live in their house and had to move into a rest home to receive assistance after the crash.

Justice in New Zealand 2023 !
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December 23, 2023 1:32pm
Swifty

Vile.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/cyclist-chased-kicked-slingshotted-into-parked-car-by-angry-man-on-illegal-dirt-bike-in-panmure/M2LFSCN7TZEELH4BSKQRKP7GFY/

I hope they locate him eventually and I hope that if caught a judge looks at him in the eye sternly, denounces his thuggish behaviour, reiterates that his behaviour is totally unacceptable in our society and sends him away for a long stretch.

If you can’t control yourself, we will.

He could have killed that cyclist, easily.

I note that the two youths in the US who deliberately rammed an elderly cyclist, and killed him, are being tried as we speak – and look likely to receive many, many years of incarceration for their disgrace.
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December 23, 2023 2:01pm
Ra Henare

Have been looking at trends in KB for a while now.
Would be interesting to know how many MODS there are, as different mods seem to have different interpretations of the rules.

Thats fair enough they are humans. I am not complaining.

Also, it seems to me that Racism is creeping? rushing? in with a strong anti Maori level of comments

As I say just an observation. Other than the self identifying “”rednecks”” would be interested how others see the opinion bubble of KB commenters.
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December 23, 2023 2:23pm
- Swifty
  
  “Also, it seems to me that Racism is creeping? rushing? in with a strong anti Maori level of comments.”
  
  Well you’d be wrong.
  
  The vast majority of Maori-related comment on here is pushing back on racially discriminatory state policies and resistance to a rewriting of both our history and of the Treaty, through that most modern of devices, the so-called principles.
  
  It would be quite wrong to characterise that resistance to discrimination and reinterpretation as racism. It is not.
  
  Further, outright racist comments have been banned on here for years. If you ever do see one it will be exceedingly rare and very short lived and neither creeping nor rushing.
  
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  December 23, 2023 3:35pm
- Clyde
  
  Wrong. For 6 long years that has been a fear created for any sort of pushback on what are central and local Government racist policies. I think it was in one of Bill Bryson’s books where he said that once the skin is peeled off a corpse, all corpses are largely the same. Now we have a Government that looks like it is going to support the supply of services based on need, not race. It is now ok to call out racists like little Willie Jackson and almost the entire Green and Maori parties, let alone the maori caucus of the Liemore lot. People were cowed into submission by the last Government and it is great to see people standing up and calling out the woke virtual signalling BS that is endemic in New Zealand. Yes, the MSM are still crammed full of bias and entire Government Depts are filled to the brim with Liemore sycophants, but standing up for equality is not, nor ever will be racist.
  
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  December 23, 2023 5:35pm
  - Swifty
    
    “….but standing up for equality is not, nor ever will be racist.”
    
    Well said.
    
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    December 23, 2023 6:18pm
- Benedict Yu
  
  “…as different mods seem to have different interpretations of the rules…
  
  No
  
  “Also, it seems to me that Racism is creeping? rushing? in with a strong anti Maori level of comments”
  
  No.
  
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  December 23, 2023 6:15pm
  - goNZ1
    
    If one looks at Hansard and reads some of the Green and TPM speeches just last week,for example the 90 day trial Bill, it should be no surprise that a pushback is occurring. Below is an example from a new TMP member Ferris,who along with the girl that has only just left school is utterly brainwashed in Treaty Grievance Theory:
    
    MP Ferris- “I reiterate: Te Pāti Māori vehemently reject and oppose this bill, this anti-worker, anti-whānau, anti-mokopuna,
    anti – Te Tiriti o Waitangi bill. Tēnā tātou.”
    
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    December 23, 2023 8:58pm
  - Ra Henare
    
    Blunt and non enlightening opinion Bene. Not your usual lucid reply.
    
    But you are exercising your freedom of speech…..as limited as it is 🙂
    
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    December 23, 2023 11:15pm
Sparrow

A totally, totally different subject. Interested to know if anybody else is being driven mad by this. I love cricket especially test cricket. Have attempted to watch the games between NZ and Bangladesh. Impossible to watch as being driven mad by the incessant verbal crap from the commentators even during the bowlers run up. We can see what is going on. OK virtually all the commentators are ex players but certainly are not commentators . Is it just me ? Probably a very very small viewing audience.
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December 23, 2023 2:30pm
- Prince
  
  Cannot stand Katey Martin’s cackles at her own jokes.
  
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  December 23, 2023 3:28pm
- MCōs
  
  I listened to an interview with one of our top netball commentators. She described the Australian method as like a wall of sound and the same could be applied to both their cricket commentaries and ours
  
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  December 23, 2023 3:29pm
- rouppe
  
  I wonder if the commentary is being used for radio. Just a thought
  
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  December 23, 2023 10:33pm
mandk

Hipkins is dumber than I thought. He doesn’t know what he could have done differently to win the election.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2023/12/chris-hipkins-reflects-on-2023.html

It obviously doesn’t occur to him that, if Labour only pretends to be the party of working people, it will end badly.

He is still wedded to stupid woke causes, like putting the interests of “trans women” in sports ahead of the interests of real women and girls. That sort of idiocy is bound to alienate most people.

That’s just one example.
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December 23, 2023 2:31pm
- JackRabbit
  
  He knows what cost him the election, as Labour employ enough squirrels, paid for by the taxpayer, to monitor social media to know what people are saying.
  
  He just can’t say it in public, otherwise he is toast, and might have to move to somewhere like Chad to prevent being held to account. Or perhaps a country close to De Nile.
  
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  December 23, 2023 3:05pm
  - Swifty
    
    “He just can’t say it in public….”
    
    Yes, that’s my view.
    
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    December 23, 2023 3:21pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Well if Hipkins and his 3 bosses did what Labour was supposed to do, they may have stayed in power. Nope, the Labour of yesteryear has gone.
  I refer to the commies Hipkins, Jaspinda, and Helen Clark.
  Mad and power hungry.
  
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  December 23, 2023 7:52pm
NeverMindTheBollocks

Heading out of Wellington, light traffic, easy driving all the way to Otaki. Two lanes down to one as you come off SH1 motorway onto the goat track towards Levin; vehicles backed up 4km, grinding forward.

It’s a national disgrace.

To channel my inner Maggie Pie, I’d like to make every Green & Labour politician drive from Wellington to Levin & back every day of the holiday period.
9 1
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December 23, 2023 2:32pm
- MCōs
  
  That’s not a national disgrace
  That Blackcaps loss to Bangladesh is a national disgrace!
  
  5 1
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  December 23, 2023 3:16pm
- greybeard
  
  Why were you driving? You should have been in a bus, or on a bicycle. You were warned……
  
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  December 24, 2023 6:30am
Swifty

Kemi Badenoch is the most popular Minister for conservative voters.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/kemi-badenoch-most-popular-tory-b2404948.html

Those filthy racist tories.

//
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December 23, 2023 3:20pm
- Beach Haven expat
  
  You forgot sexist
  
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  December 23, 2023 8:54pm
Ghost

Bloody hell, I missed this story when it broke. I wonder if tvnz knew this when they aired the show.

A woman who appeared on a Channel 7 TV show is facing almost 80 rape and child abuse charges, court documents reveal.
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December 23, 2023 3:44pm
- Inandout
  
  Ghost, other shows like The Chase must have very strict protocols for their contestants. When Bradley says ‘the contestants have never met before’ would indicate thorough background checks.
  
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  December 23, 2023 5:16pm
  - Ghost
    
    channel 10 wasn’t going to air MasterChef after their chef died, but 7 and tvnz ran this show after she was charged.
    
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    December 23, 2023 5:27pm
Ghost

Agree, the ram raiders need a punishment that will stop this madness instead of labours wrap around hugs.

But disagree about calling on the government to deliver on their police increase, they’ve just got into power, give them time.

But it’s not just ram raiders, the entire justice system needs a reboot. Home detention for rape. Home detention for partner strangulation. Home detention for killing a pedestrian when drunk. Teenager in jail for manslaughter changed to home detention. Convicted murders still in jail going online and claiming they are innocent.

We need a reboot

A dairy owner in Auckland’s Te Atatū has lost thousands of dollars in stock in a brazen ram-raid just two days before Christmas.

Samir Ghandi is calling for the teenagers responsible to be put behind bars, and he says after 500 ram-raids this year he wants the Government to deliver on its promised increased police numbers.

Article
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December 23, 2023 7:38pm

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