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February 12, 2024 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 12 February 2024

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General Debate

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NeverMindTheBollocks

I haven’t heard much about the Hamilton – Auckland train since the Labour government hit the buffers.

It must be paying its way by now
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February 12, 2024 8:01am
- Matt Long
  
  The North Auckland line is still closed after repairs that were supposed to take 6-8 weeks in April 2023.
  Rail, it’s the climate friendly way of the future.
  
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  February 12, 2024 8:32am
  - bjools
    
    Yes…. Labour and the Greens using the facts in that documentary….Back to the Future 3.. to write policy.//
    
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    February 12, 2024 9:22am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Nealy 3 hours to get to Auckland, designed to fail!
    
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    February 12, 2024 1:38pm
- pdm
  
  Bollocks said:
  `It must be paying its way by now’
  
  No way – and what is more there is talk of them putting on more `loss making’ trains.
  
  I heard someone appropriately named `Strange’ telling Mike Hosking this either Thursday or Friday last week.
  
  Don’t worry though – it is only ratepayers and taxpayers money going into the `Black Hole’.
  
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  February 12, 2024 9:37am
  - gravedodger
    
    Angela Strange Deputy Chair of Waikato regional Council the promoter of the whole obscene waste of Ratepayer extorted funds.
    A quote;
    
    “Waikato Regional Council Deputy Chair Angela Strange says a system has now been installed which will stop the train if it passes a red light.”
    
    Can a Patriot not find and install sufficient red lights to end the nonsense?
    
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    February 12, 2024 9:57am
    - JackRabbit
      
      “Waikato Regional Council Deputy Chair Angela Strange says a system has now been installed which will stop the train if it passes a red light.”
      
      Perhaps they should focus on train drivers that are not colour blind, and that actually know the rules of the track.
      
      “Red lights are wracist!!!”
      
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      February 12, 2024 11:49am
  - rouppe
    
    Yes after which Hosking disclosed that the running costs was circa $13 million and the government subsidy was circa $12.7 (might have been $12.3) million.
    
    In other words it brought in a few hundred thousand in revenue
    
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    February 12, 2024 10:49am
    - David Garrett
      
      rouppe: As I have admitted here many times I am only semi-numerate….but a train which costs $13 million to run, but only raises $700,000 surely has negative revenue?
      
      Accountants please correct me.
      
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      February 12, 2024 12:07pm
      - Matt Long
        
        Revenue equals income, not Profit/Loss
        
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        February 12, 2024 12:15pm
      - Paulus
        
        Don’t worry it is called Creative Accounting, as Grant Robertson would show you.
        
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        February 12, 2024 1:17pm
      - rouppe
        
        I’m also not an accountant so I might have the terms wrong.
        
        Basically the taxpayer is spending over $12 million to run it
        
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        February 12, 2024 1:56pm
      - David Garrett
        
        Matt: Yes, of course you are right.
        
        I offer by way of (weak) defence that Tongan litigants often claim lost revenue when what they mean – or at least intend to mean – is lost profit. And I haven’t been here long enough this time to have “gone native”….
        
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        February 12, 2024 3:16pm
- Geoff1
  
  It loses close to 1/2 million per month, there was only one month that patronage was above 50% (53%) since inception. The extra services that commenced 8th Feb with an extra return journey Thu, Fri and Sat at approx $5,200 each way it is doubtful any increase in patronage will cover the additional $11,000 per day running costs.
  The Moo L00 Choo Choo.
  
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  February 12, 2024 9:52am
  - Sir Cullen's Sidekick
    
    Now that Uncle Shaw has retired he can make the trip daily along with Golritz. Two passengers guaranteed.
    
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    February 12, 2024 10:13am
  - JackRabbit
    
    And it never had a carbon footprint lower than the car trips it replaced.
    
    Aside from the fact that the calculations were wrong and needed said trains packed to standing room only and passengers on the roof like in India to have a lower carbon footprint, an obvious fact was withheld.
    
    Diesel locomotives do not start up and shutdown like cars. They either have to:
    
    (a) keep idling when not moving to keep the engine at temperature, or
    
    (b) do a cold start every morning which in itself goes through diesel like water out of a fire hose, and pumps half burnt diesel into the atmosphere;
    
    (c) leave it plugged in overnight to keep the block warm; and
    
    (d) do a warm start several times a day, which increases wear and chews through even more fuel.
    
    All not as bad as say in the USA where it can get really cold, but still a factor.
    
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    February 12, 2024 11:57am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  Hosking had something on about it on Friday, apparently the trail is becoming more and more expensive, waiting for it’s axing with glee
  
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  February 12, 2024 10:25am
- cmm
  
  Bollocks: “It must be paying its way by now”
  
  You’re taking the piss right?
  
  I did some back of the envelope calculations a while back that showed it would have been cheaper to charter helicopters and fly all the passengers daily at taxpayer expense.
  
  That would have resulted in less CO2 too.
  
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  February 12, 2024 10:33am
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    CMM, 100%.
    
    If you follow my posts regularly, you’ll know that I had left the // implied but unstated.
    
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    February 12, 2024 2:43pm
    - cmm
      
      Good man Bollocks! Just checking :-).
      
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      February 12, 2024 4:33pm
- Local Miller
  
  Hear on Mike Hosking during last week that “due to demand” they are adding more services. I can’t recall the details, but there’s at least one extra trip each day.
  
  Mike’s follow up was that it’s all wishful thinking, there’s no where near enough use to justify the current activity let alone adding new services.
  
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  February 12, 2024 10:47am
  - lifesgood
    
    And the bloody thing takes an hour longer than a car and who the hell wants to be dropped at Frankton? It would be a good day trip if it was fast and dropped you in central Hamilton.
    
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    February 12, 2024 11:16am
    - JackRabbit
      
      Rail cars running at 160km/hr with dual lines all the way, and journey end right in Hamilton and Auckland would be a good start.
      
      Rail cars in the 1960’s ran way faster than trains today. Maximum speed was restricted to 88km/hr but top speed was over 120km/hr. Occasionally drivers would tweak things to make up time.
      
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      February 12, 2024 12:02pm
      - David Garrett
        
        Jack: Railcars…that takes me back! It was a full day’s journey on one from Gisborne to Wellington – and bloody uncomfortable and arduous it was too.
        
        At one stage it connected with a proper train called “the Endeavour Express” at Napier. Quite good it was; nicely refurbished old WW II era carriages, and a proper buffet car.
        
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        February 12, 2024 12:14pm
      - Inandout
        
        Jack, I believe the railcars were driven by Fiat diesels, which at first suffered overheating and gearbox problems. Fiat apparently brought in mechanics to modify the engines to better suit NZ’s hilly terrains.
        
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        February 12, 2024 12:38pm
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        Start from scratch. Dump the narrow gauge rail all over NZ. Make it like Alaska.
        I have never been on such a smooth ride. Sure the Denali Star is slow for the tourists, but after Healy they sure can speed up, there is nothing to see until Fairbanks.
        Two engines in case one fails I guess.
        But yeah, NZ is so backward.
        
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        February 12, 2024 1:51pm
      - Tauhei Notts
        
        Inandout commented on N.Z.’s hilly terrain.
        NZ Rail knew that ever since the first rail line ran from Wellington to Plimmerton, or from Auckland to Newmarket.
        So…..why did they buy railcars that were not suited to a hilly terrain.
        And similarly, Waikato District Council blame their awful roads on the peat land in their district. NZ Railways learnt that there was much peat land in 1880 when they tried to extend the Rotorua line from Hamilton to Morrinsville. Yes, that was 144 years ago. 144= one gross. Gross ineptitude.
        
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        February 12, 2024 2:07pm
      - cmm
        
        Steve: There is an engineering compromise between wide gauge for a fast smooth ride and a narrower gauge for twisty tacks.
        
        In the UK Brunel even put together some 7 ft gauge trains for this reason, but those were eventually ditched.
        
        I have never been to Alaska, but I take it the majority of the lines are straight and relatively flat. This is the sort of terrain that is superb for comfortable, stable, high speed trains.
        
        This is pretty much the opposite of what we have in NZ.
        
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        February 12, 2024 4:40pm
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        @cmm,
        In and around Talkeetna and Denali there are curves on the rail, there are large curves and some inclines. The twists would be the other train the Coastal Classic going down to Seward. There is a sort of spiral where you can photograph the train following itself. Large train so the circle is about 500 meters. No pics sorry.
        
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        February 12, 2024 6:52pm
- Geoff1
  
  NeverMindThe Bollocks – FYI
  Te Huia – 2021 Consolidated Figures
  Actual Pax Capacity %
  April 3,865 11,200 34.51%
  May 3,218 13,400 24.01%
  June 2,658 13,000 20.45%
  July 3,912 13,800 28.35%
  August 1,528 7,600 20.11%
  September No Service 18 Aug 21 – 23 Jan 22 – Covid-19
  Te Huia – 2022 Consolidated Figures
  Actual Pax Capacity %
  January 488 3,000 16.27%
  February 1,498 12,200 12.28%
  March 2,542 13,200 19.26%
  April 6,092 12,400 49.13%
  May 5,506 14,000 39.33%
  June 4,981 12,800 38.91%
  July 7,468 16,900 44.19%
  August 5,608 15,399 36.42%
  September 6,677 14,900 44.81%
  October 6,972 13,750 50.71%
  November 6,231 15,100 41.26%
  December 4,864 11,700 41.57%
  Te Huia – 2023 Consolidated Figures
  Actual Pax Capacity %
  January 3,056 7,000 43.66%
  February 3,825 10,800 35.42%
  March 7,120 15,400 46.23%
  April 6,734 11,800 57.07%
  May 5,500 15,400 35.71%
  June 5,463 11,800 46.30%
  July 4,727 13,000 36.36%
  August 8,006 16,900 47.37%
  September 6,438 14,700 43.80%
  October 6,172 13,800 44.72%
  November 6,000 14,800 40.54%
  December 5,189 11,200 46.33%
  
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  February 12, 2024 11:34am
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    Pax is one KPI; $ is another. All those Gold Card users …
    
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    February 12, 2024 2:52pm
- the deity formerly known as nigel6888
  
  I believe the fare paying customer share of the cost is up to 3% now!
  
  So successful the Councils are talking about increasing the number of services!
  
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  February 12, 2024 1:39pm
sungsamning

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9L94RevD7J0
Desperate Democrats File an FEC Suit Against RFK Junior.
Totally OK for the old man to be forgetful and too old to be prosecuted. But how dare you run for president and not be Joe! Let alone talk to a super pac, and not be the ‘big guy’.
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February 12, 2024 8:05am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Democrats eating their own, delicious.
  He is unaffiliated but was a Democrat.
  
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  February 12, 2024 8:53am
  - sungsamning
    
    Yes, he is. I’d like to see him in Trumps cabinet.
    
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    February 12, 2024 6:11pm
sungsamning

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agG4dnfkums
Reform UK Could Take Wellingborough.
Voting Labour or Conservative simply repeats the mistakes of the past.
If you want change, you have to change the way you vote.
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February 12, 2024 8:06am
Matt Long

Reminds me of the time scammers used the image of former newsreader Richard Long to promote a finance company scam.
But honestly, if people are going to trust anything fronted by Michael Baker after the last few years, should they really be in charge of their own finances?
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/deep-faked-and-doctored-michael-baker-demands-action-over-plague-of-bogus-ads/B2N73Q35Z5D6JIROBMQRIWMYPU/
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February 12, 2024 8:13am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Michael Baker’s past comes back to haunt him. There are still stupid people who still believe what he says, even though it is a scam. Been scammed? You only have yourself to blame.
  
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  February 12, 2024 8:37am
- Aquarius
  
  Anyone buying anything recommended by Baker thoroughly deserves to be scammed
  As the saying goes, fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me……
  
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  February 12, 2024 8:53am
- David Garrett
  
  Matt: Reminds me of the time scammers used the image of former newsreader Richard Long…
  
  Not quite. Long was paid to endorse one of the finance companies which collapsed in the Global Financial Crisis in 2008, thus demonstrating that a person who reads an autocue for a living knows absolutely nothing about prudent investing.
  
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  February 12, 2024 9:21am
  - Cassandra
    
    And Colin Meads doing something similar.
    
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    February 12, 2024 10:34am
    - David Garrett
      
      Cass: I just remember Meads exhorting good kiwi jokers to wear their life jackets… very good psychology on the part of whoever devised those ads.
      
      I am a regular fisherman, and am always a bit surprised to see how many guys these days are wearing them when it’s only compulsory to have them in the boat. A huge increase on 20 years ago.
      
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      February 12, 2024 12:17pm
    - pdm
      
      Colin Meads promoted Provincial Finance.
      
      One of the first to go under but within about a year they had fully refunded all investors.
      
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      February 12, 2024 12:57pm
      - Graeme Hall
        
        The ad showed Pine tree standing next to a pine tree – “Solid as” tapping his noggin.
        
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        February 12, 2024 1:38pm
  - Matt Long
    
    Yeah, how much did Hotchkins and Watson lose, totally not a scam.
    https://www.nbr.co.nz/law/court-finds-watsonwikeley-fraud-against-sir-owen-glenn/
    Didn’t Petrovic have another go at the same time?
    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/petricevic-in-line-to-face-1m-fraud-case/SII5NRS6NMIDMGETPYWWF6RJDA/
    
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    February 12, 2024 12:21pm
    - pdm
      
      Petrovic was Bridgecorp.
      
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      February 12, 2024 12:58pm
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        Yep, that prick and the brokers cost us $42K.
        I think we got $1700 back.
        
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        February 12, 2024 2:00pm
    - David Garrett
      
      Matt: Petricovic was and I’m sure remains an odious worm.
      
      Acting pro bono for SST, I brought an action for judicial review aimed at keeping the bastard in jail for the full term. IIRC no less than THREE prison psychologists had reported – on three different occasions – that the prick lacked remorse, and still exhibited a well developed sense of entitlement.
      
      Mr Supposedly Bankrupt then hired his own psych who – wonder of wonders – was able to report that after a mere three sessions, his client now was deeply remorseful and had considerable empathy with his victims.
      
      We failed to keep the asshole inside – as I thought we would – but it was worth a go.
      
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      February 12, 2024 3:25pm
      - In Vino Veritas
        
        Lol David. I had several interesting conversations with Rod. He wasn’t my favourite bloke.
        
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        February 12, 2024 3:32pm
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        DG, he was ‘contained’ in a place (Pare?) where he had sports activities?
        Just let me have a chat with him.
        
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        February 12, 2024 6:58pm
vand

Teacher activist update 2024
First day back Year 13 assembly for our eldest grandchild:
Principal spends ten minutes bemoaning the ban of cell phones in class and encourages students to write to their MP/ the PM etc. to complain .
Now last year the group think teachers told students off when they attempted to use cell phones in class and “reluctantly” mentioned confiscation as a penalty.
Fast forward to a coalition right of centre government intending to ban then from term 2 during school time, now pro Labour /Green activist (some time) teachers want students to complain about the ban.
Students know they still can use laptops/tablets in class.
Grandchild mentioned the H word…
Later the same day…
English teacher introduces ch 1 of (e first?) Harry Potter novel and proceeds to indoctrinate students about wicked “anti-transgender” and “conservative views” and links them to the family in the novel – who apparently don’t like “odd people” ( a thinly veiled attack on JK Rowling)

Next… music class- 60 students with 40 Year 12 students included. A disaster.

Grandchild wants to leave school on day 1!
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February 12, 2024 8:16am
- lifesgood
  
  He should be removed immediately. Did his parents even research the school?
  
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  February 12, 2024 8:33am
  - peterwn
    
    Who says a youth has to do year 13 at school? Youth is probably over 18 so it is probably the youth’s own choice anyway. That Long Bay College girl excluded from a school trip after playing Good Samaritan in a stabbing incident should also be considering her options – why remain at an institution that has treated her like that – she should thumb her nose at the school and move on. In retrospect I wished I had got out of school and not done year 13..
    
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    February 12, 2024 9:14am
    - David Garrett
      
      Peter: Quite aside from the fact that Bro. Alan probably wouldn’t have wanted me back, I was delighted to end my high school years at the end of year 12. I wasn’t ready for more formal education until ten years later…sadly today I don’t think kids have the luxury of a “gap” ten years.
      
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      February 12, 2024 10:15am
  - Paulus
    
    We have a brand new huge Maori designed Kura ex Primary school, opened last week, and with Maori Head “Teacher”, and her staff you can see already where it is going ignoring anything this Elected Government can do
    Typical Education Department
    
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    February 12, 2024 1:23pm
- alloytoo
  
  English teacher should be sacked, clearly doesn’t understand a novel written for 10 year olds.
  
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  February 12, 2024 8:50am
- KH
  
  Principal has lost the plot. Next job McDonalds, although they will expect them to do the job.
  
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  February 12, 2024 8:59am
- thirteenstars
  
  Which should tell the true believers that enforcing an hour a day of basic reading and maths skills is not solving any problem. It’s like prescribing aspirin for terminal cancer.
  
  It can’t be fixed. Let parents get their kids the hell out of those indoctrination centres masquerading as schools. Implement ACT’s Student Education Accounts policy and streamline the creation of new community schools that place parents in control.
  
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  February 12, 2024 9:01am
  - greybeard
    
    The enforcement of one hour each per day for reading, writing and maths will probably be good for the teachers as well as the pupils.
    
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    February 12, 2024 9:40am
- RoboRob
  
  Name the school so that others can avoid it.
  
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  February 12, 2024 9:03am
  - pdm
    
    Plus name and shame the Headmaster.
    
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    February 12, 2024 9:42am
    - Don Beckett
      
      It’ll be a woke female who isn’t overly certain of her gender.
      
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      February 12, 2024 10:30am
  - PurplePen
    
    Maybe there’s use for a name and shame school website much like that one for tradies.
    
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    February 12, 2024 10:07am
    - lifesgood
      
      There was one as I recall but kids being kids it got smart alecs putting up rubbish and kids denigrating perfectly good teachers so I think it was abandoned.
      
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      February 12, 2024 11:21am
- Grumpy Silver Top
  
  Wisdom is a character development that seems to fail to be achieved by many. Teachers are often among the many, largely due to the fact they have never left school and so live very narrow lives with children and their similarly minded peers. The indoctrination reported by your grandchild is appalling.
  
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  February 12, 2024 9:50am
- MCōs
  
  Wait a minute
  You say the principle wants the kids to be able to use cell phones in class even though other devices are available?
  I’m told the positives of banning cell phones while the kids are on the premises far outweigh the negatives. No texting. No filming fights. If a kid needs to ring home they can go to the office.
  
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  February 12, 2024 9:51am
  - PurplePen
    
    Agree. I don’t get the high dependency between kids and parents being able to text or phone each other at any time of the day. I don’t think that once in all my and my siblings time at school we ever needed to call home or vice versa except when the older brother started wagging school.
    
    And those against them ban talk up how difficult it will be to manage the handing in and dishing out of phones. Tell you what, just suggest kids don’t bring their phones to school. Then other one is there’s learning they do where they use their phones. Really, more than you can get with your own mind and a pen and paper or the existing laptops and tablets at schools.
    
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    February 12, 2024 10:12am
    - lifesgood
      
      The school office staff will call home in an emergency. Kids do not need cell phones at school. Want, of course, is a different thing. They are not used to anyone saying no to them.
      
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      February 12, 2024 11:23am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Concentration is the key
    
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    February 12, 2024 10:36am
    - Jack5
      
      Meanwhile, from China, classrooms where computers scan pupils’ faces, and AI software tells the teacher who isn’t concentrating
      
      In this link, you have to scan down the page a little:
      
      https://news.switchtv.ke/2023/05/chinese-schools-use-of-ai-powered-headbands-to-track-students-concentration/
      
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      February 12, 2024 11:10am
- Jethrod
  
  What area vand?
  
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  February 12, 2024 2:03pm
Matt Long

Bjorn Lomborg, the area of new leaves in global greening since 2000 exceeds the area of the continental USA.
https://x.com/BjornLomborg/status/1755933390103040382?s=20
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February 12, 2024 8:16am
- cmm
  
  Increased CO2 improves greening and reduces deserts. This is basic botany that a junior school kid should be able to explain to you.
  
  Plants eat CO2 as part of the photosynthesis process. To do so they open these pores called stomata to let the gas in. Unfortunately opening up the stomata also lets water vapour out (aka transpiration).
  So plants in very dry conditions live on the edge of starvation and dehydration.
  Now they have more CO2 to munch on, so they don’t have to open as many stomata to get their food. That means they can get the CO2 they need without losing as much moisture. Therefore they can now live in slightly drier conditions than they could a while ago.
  
  Hence what we have been told – that CO2 will increase desert sizes – is complete bollocks. The opposite is true.
  
  It also means farm crop output can increase and water inputs can decrease.
  
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  February 12, 2024 10:45am
  - cmm
    
    Downtickers hate biology.
    
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    February 12, 2024 11:27am
    - Grunter
      
      Yep – they hate it when their scam gets called out. It is so “Inconvenient” – How Dare You cmm!!
      
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      February 12, 2024 2:42pm
Matt Long

Bill Maher adds his voice to the idea that the Democratic Presidential Candidate will be chosen at their convention, and it probably won’t be dementia Joe.
https://www.foxnews.com/media/bill-maher-says-biden-switched-out-dnc-convention
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February 12, 2024 8:22am
- RoboRob
  
  I think Joe will be gone in the next couple of weeks (as in not standing next election at a minimum). Clearly the Dems have decided to remove him, against his wishes.
  
  The is no way the special prosecutors report would have been published with those comments unless the Dems wanted it. Does anyone think the the head of the DOJ didn’t check the report before it was released?
  
  Note how quickly mainstream media outlets that aren’t Fox jumped on the bandwagen and started talking about his mental abilities. These are the same outlets that have refused to discuss bidens ‘gaffs’ or age over the past 5 years.
  
  Does anyone think it is just a coincidence that with biden failing in the polls, all a sudden the DOJ and MSM have turned on Biden?
  
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  February 12, 2024 9:09am
  - Grunter
    
    Yep, I think you’re right. Biden is gone burger.
    
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    February 12, 2024 10:29am
- dcrane
  
  Trump may need to dust off the Crooked Hillary monicker again.
  
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  February 12, 2024 9:19am
  - RoboRob
    
    My guess is its going to be Michelle Obama. He might have to come up with a new slogan, perhaps ‘Puppet Michelle’?
    
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    February 12, 2024 10:05am
    - NothingLeft
      
      An insider snared by James O’Keefe video a few weeks back claimed she was extremely reluctant to take on the hassles of presidency.
      
      But the fact she is still being mentioned by Democrat aligned media (who get their talking points from the top of the DNC) likely means she is still in play.
      
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      February 12, 2024 10:27am
    - fernglas
      
      The only thing more amazing than the Americans’ ability to field two mentally incompetent geriatrics as contenders for the Presidency is their touching faith that the ability to be a president can passed from husband to wife, and that the best candidate in a country with a population of around 330 million coincidentally happens to be married to a former president.
      
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      February 12, 2024 10:40am
      - MCōs
        
        Never happened yet with Hillary Clinton coming the closest.
        Michelle Obama standing for president is pure conjecture
        Interestingly I’ve been reading a book about Elizabeth Yates who was elected mayor of Onehunga in 1894 after her husband stepped down due to ill health. Five councilors and the Town Clerk resigned forthwith because she was a woman
        
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        February 12, 2024 11:06am
      - RoboRob
        
        It’s a popularity contest as much as a battle of policy. Michelle ticks the personal attribute boxes, being both black and identifying as a woman. This is important for Dems and some Reps. She is also the very popular first lady of a popular president. By all appearances she as a brain. She is also not ~80 years old. Her personality is not off putting in the way that Clintons was.
        
        Out of Trump v Michelle I think Michelle easily wins. She gets all the Dem vote and probably motivates some additional young Dem voters. She probably also gets some of the anti Trump republican voters.
        
        If I was the Dems I would be pushing hard for Michelle.
        
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        February 12, 2024 11:07am
      - Taieri
        
        and identifying as a woman.
        ———–
        
        Identifying?
        
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        February 12, 2024 12:34pm
      - All_on_Red
        
        Trump might be many things but he isn’t mentally incompetent.
        But your TDS has been noted before so hey ho
        
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        February 12, 2024 1:15pm
      - RoboRob
        
        @Taieri
        
        I said identifying as a snarky comment against that left. Many of whom believe there are no physical thing as a man and woman, that it is all how you identify. They believe you cant make a judgement call based on physical characterisics, you need to wait to find out how a person ‘identifies’.
        
        Thus we now have chestfeeding parents rather then breast feeding mothers.
        
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        February 12, 2024 1:25pm
      - thirteenstars
        
        “…is their [Americans] touching faith that the ability to be a president can passed from husband to wife”
        
        We’ll, every royal family does it and they don’t even ask for a popular vote, they just claim it by right. What measure of touching faith is required to believe mere accident of birth is a good qualification for head of state?
        
        That aside, 9% of respondents in the latest TPU/Curia poll still prefer Ardern for PM.
        
        https://www.taxpayers.org.nz/nztucuria2402poll
        
        Plenty of stupidity to go around.
        
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        February 12, 2024 3:17pm
      - Flossie
        
        Thirteen says says royals do it – hand power from husband to wife. No they do not. It goes parent to first born child now in UK, and previously parent to first born son.
        
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        February 12, 2024 8:51pm
      - Jake Dee
        
        There are plenty of ways the monarchy transfers power, even in the UK and even if there is a first-born son. James II wasn’t followed by his son but his daughter and nephew, the dual Monarchy of William and Mary.
        that was exceptional circumstances, but there are more examples of bumping off the old monarch in one way or another and taking over.
        
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        February 12, 2024 10:04pm
    - lifesgood
      
      Why is everyone talking up Michelle Obama. What poitical experience does she have or will she, like Biden, merely be a mouth piece for the Democratic puppet masters.
      
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      February 12, 2024 11:25am
      - cmm
        
        Political experience?? Wossat? Since when has that mattered?
        
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        February 12, 2024 11:29am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  Maher is just highlighting what political experts have been saying, but they are shut out by wimp leftie media
  
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  February 12, 2024 10:38am
  - MCōs
    
    By definition a wimp is the one shut out
    
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    February 12, 2024 11:07am
All_on_Red

Reading some threads over the past few days, its quite remarkable the lingual gymnastics the Jew Haters go through to justify their false equivalence and denial.
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February 12, 2024 8:23am
- Matt Long
  
  What amazes me is that people act as though killing a certain number of people is an appropriate response to terrorism.
  It’s like you have a dispute with your neighbour, you agree to stop fighting and let your neighbour in to do paid work on your house, in return your neighbour rapes, tortures and kills two of your family and takes another as a sex slave hostage, promising to do the same as soon as he can.
  Apparently in this case you’re supposed to kill two of his family to even things up instead of making sure he can’t do it again?
  
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  February 12, 2024 8:40am
  - KH
    
    Ummmmh. You mean kill twenty of his family don’t you.
    
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    February 12, 2024 9:04am
    - Matt Long
      
      No, I mean what lunatics are suggesting is a proportionate response.
      
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      February 12, 2024 12:25pm
  - All_on_Red
    
    My fave was the halfwit who tried to tell us that because the Terrorists from UNRWA were on their day off, that didn’t matter or affect their job there.
    
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    February 12, 2024 9:05am
- imalwaysright
  
  Literary gymnastics
  
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  February 12, 2024 9:02am
- dcrane
  
  always admired Jewish culture, and long hoped the 2-state solution would somehow get sorted.
  
  But the Israeli govt is doing a pretty good job of cashing in all of the chips the Jewish people earned through their suffering in Europe. Ethnic cleansing – likely planned before 7 October – is a horror.
  
  Just because bad guys use some ambulances and hospitals as shields doesn’t mean it’s OK to bomb all of the ambulances and hospitals and everyone in them.
  
  Might as well bomb a school full of kids because there’s a school shooter inside.
  
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  February 12, 2024 9:23am
  - Cassandra
    
    I think that’s a gross distortion. IDF is not like that. Hamas is.
    
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    February 12, 2024 10:37am
    - All_on_Red
      
      Ironically dcrane proves my point.
      Claims like bombing hospitals and ambulances shows how ignorant people are about how Israel is prosecuting the War.
      I see some are still using Hamas death numbers too- which is quaint
      
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      February 12, 2024 1:05pm
      - MCōs
        
        During the Vietnam War the Americans used to release daily ’body counts’ that added up to absurd numbers
        Or did it
        Who’s to know without independent verification
        How many people people are killed in any conflict, earthquake, tsunami, flood, whatever
        That answer is often how many people suits . . .
        
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        February 12, 2024 2:44pm
      - David Garrett
        
        MCos: Quite so…which is why I pay little or no attention to the number of those supposedly killed which Hamas regularly reports.
        
        Remember the 500 or so who were supposedly killed by an Israeli missile, when the projectile was actually a failed Hamas missile fired from the car park?
        
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        February 12, 2024 3:29pm
  - Jack5
    
    Lots of ethnic cleansing in the Middle East.
    
    Like the Muslim extremists all but completely driving out the followers of the ancient Middle East Christian sects in recent decades. Follows the pattern of the genocide of Christian Armenians by the Turks a century ago.
    
    And, like the poor Yazidi and other non-Muslims, these Christians getting virtually no help from the United Nations.
    
    How many Christian refugees from the Middle East has the UN sent to NZ? Bugger all. Come to think of it, have there been Christian Palestinians among the Palestinian refugees the UN has sent to NZ?
    
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    February 12, 2024 10:53am
  - miltonF
    
    Exactly dcrane. I think we all know that if Hamas was located in Tel Aviv, they would not be bombing indiscriminately. They would be taking a much different approach to limit civilian casualties. The life of a Gazan child doesn’t seem to be worth much in the eyes of an Israeli citizen. Can anyone tell me what makes them different besides their ethnicity and religion? Why is 1200 civilian casualties by Hamas REALLY bad, but 20,000+ civilian casualties by the IDF nothing to worry about?
    
    I will say though, that one could see this coming a mile away. It was predictable that Israel would use the events of Oct 7th as a pretext to cleanse and annex regions or even all of Gaza. So much so that there are conspiracies suggesting it may have been a false flag of sorts. At the very least, the IDF were aware of a potential attack.
    
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    February 12, 2024 5:32pm
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  You mean Chloe?
  
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  February 12, 2024 10:38am
Maggie Pie

Sean Plunket asks a pertinent question…..

“Has anyone checked Chloe Swarbrick’s academic record?”

(And from what we hear, people with knowledge of the matter are saying her daddy bailed her out of a couple of failed cafes in K’Rd and Mt Eden)
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February 12, 2024 8:24am
- imalwaysright
  
  Is she mentally stable?
  
  She said herself that she had to shop around the medical community, at the cost of thousands of dollars, before one of them gave her the diagnosis she thought appropriate.
  
  Then again if someone wants to be declared mentally ill, they may have a point.
  
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  February 12, 2024 8:49am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    No Greens are mentally stable imo.
    
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    February 12, 2024 8:57am
    - pdm
      
      Anyone that thinks Cannabus is good and cigarretes bad is nuts in my opinion.
      
      Chloe flogged that dead horse.
      
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      February 12, 2024 9:45am
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        It’s ‘canofpis, canofpis’ffs//
        
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        February 12, 2024 7:00pm
  - Maggie Pie
    
    Another good question, Im’
    
    Chloe is among 30 Kiwis who shared their experiences in a book about being queer in Aotearoa. Here’s an extract….
    
    “Drinking was an escape. It did get very bleak, and I was suicidal for a while and thought I was a psychopath”
    
    It makes you wonder what is it with those on the queer left 🙁
    
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    February 12, 2024 9:05am
    - PurplePen
      
      Good lord!!! I’m a queer man and never felt the need to turn to drink nor drugs except to enhance the already great sex I was getting. And that was in a era when society was much less accepting of people’s differences. I’d guess that the drink etc must have been due to other issues. BTW … I’m still getting it and it’s great. Just not so frequently.
      
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      February 12, 2024 10:16am
      - Maggie Pie
        
        So how do you swing on the political divide PP…. Right or Left?
        
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        February 12, 2024 11:25am
    - NothingLeft
      
      A high proportion of Trans are just badly advised autistic spectrum disorder sufferers who are gay.
      
      Having mental health problems is awful and bad luck, but at same time it has to be disqualifying for some critical and high pressure professions.
      
      There’s some interesting suggestion that going to carnivore diet – as the ultimate ‘elimination’ diet, can, for some people, be a fix for a variety of chronic mental health issues that have unrecognised dietary causes.
      
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      February 12, 2024 10:37am
      - Jake Dee
        
        I find all of that very plausible but it’s going to take decades to sort out, we are now ingesting substances that have never existed before and in increasing amounts and different combinations.
        The answer might not be the carnivore diet for everyone, each person has their own particular situation.
        There is a very interesting twist here if we consider the connections between nutrition, environmental contamination, mental health and LGBTQIA+.
        Rainbow people are a protected group, so anything that causes those behaviors must also be protected.
        
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        February 12, 2024 6:23pm
- Cassandra
  
  She has a PhD in gabble. I think all the evidence is that she’s somewhere on the spectrum. The excitability, rapid speech, word soup, pro-Hamas + lots more.
  
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  February 12, 2024 8:55am
  - Souvlaki
    
    Yes….I saw a fragment of her interview with Jack Tame yesterday, she seems to be able to talk incessantly, without obviously breathing …..(reminds me of accomplished didgeridoo players… using ‘circular breathing ‘ 🙂 )
    
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    February 12, 2024 9:40am
    - PurplePen
      
      Yeah, I started watching the interview and then switched off. I couldn’t make sense of what she was saying. It was all waffle – with lashings of maple syrup.
      
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      February 12, 2024 10:19am
- In Vino Veritas
  
  I don’t know about her Dad bailing her, but you are correct on the “fails” Mags. I think there might be a fashion store somewhere in there as well. Miss Swarbrick’s business credentials don’t amount to a bucket of pig slop.
  
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  February 12, 2024 8:59am
  - Maggie Pie
    
    And I hadn’t heard about the ‘failed fashion store’, IVV
    Wonder if Golriz was a customer?
    
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    February 12, 2024 9:49am
    - Souvlaki
      
      …….possibly was…and contributed to its insolvency….?
      
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      February 12, 2024 9:50am
      - David Garrett
        
        Souv: Wouldn’t that just be delicious? A Green MP’s business going into liquidation because of thieving by another Green MP?
        
        You wouldn’t read about it!
        
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        February 12, 2024 10:37am
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      I think it was Menswear..
      
      https://www.nzfashionmuseum.org.nz/the-lucid-collective/
      
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      February 12, 2024 10:04am
      - Maggie Pie
        
        Alex was her parther for six years. Then along came Les whatshername 😛
        
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        February 12, 2024 10:18am
      - David Garrett
        
        Maggie: Would I be right in assuming that “Alex” was/is a friend of Dorothy’s??
        
        I have never understood the whole bull-dyke lezzie thing. If you are a woman, and fancy something with a number two haircut, a musculature like mine, and a propensity for wearing dungarees, why on earth would you seek out another woman? I genuinely don’t get it.
        
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        February 12, 2024 10:42am
      - Inandout
        
        Maggy, this is the ex partner sans facial hair.
        https://idealog.co.nz/tech/2019/09/day-life-spacetimes-alex-bartley-catt
        
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        February 12, 2024 10:57am
      - imalwaysright
        
        Inand,
        
        They probably had to be separated.
        When their eyebrows made contact it must have been like velcro.
        
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        February 12, 2024 11:41am
      - In Vino Veritas
        
        Responding to InandOut. Holy cow! those eyebrows! They’d give Dennis Healey’s doozies a run for their money……
        
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        February 12, 2024 12:03pm
      - David Garrett
        
        Inand: What does resilience look like to you? God I hate this “what would X look like” phrase which is now all over the media. What happened to “what would X involve/entail/be different from”??
        
        One thing I have to grudgingly give the Great Charlatan: he speaks the King’s English without the need of phrases like the above, and the mis-use of words like “confronting” to describe some thug with tattoos all over his face. (“Tattooed /Disfigured idiot” is the correct usage IMO)
        
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        February 12, 2024 12:29pm
      - pdm
        
        Golriz also shacked up that fellow Williams (Guy?) a sort of comedian now touting himself as some sort of Political commentator I think.
        
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        February 12, 2024 1:04pm
      - MCōs
        
        Another bloody self styled political commentator
        Thank god this is a self styled political commentator free forum!
        
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        February 12, 2024 6:38pm
Bridgenag

Sunday Strip: Legends of the Fall
Or some might say “A License to Fall”

Good video of Biden

https://open.substack.com/pub/rwmalonemd/p/sunday-strip-legends-of-the-fall?r=1aj1bv&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
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February 12, 2024 8:28am
- David Garrett
  
  Bridge: I can’t see any video of Biden in that link
  
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  February 12, 2024 10:45am
  - alwyn.a
    
    I think he only left in the part where Biden was making sense when he spoke.
    
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    February 12, 2024 2:19pm
  - Bridgenag
    
    just before the Gaza strip one [ orange with white circle]
    
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    February 12, 2024 5:38pm
oldpark

The top heavy staff employees with Wellington City Council will breathe easy .
A lot of them will retain their $100,000 plus incomes in favour of the community losing their reduced hourly or daily swimming pool usage amongst other types of recreation .Same applies for Libraries.
Yes wonder what the overpaid staff in that Council will do all day when Ratepayers paid services gets chopped .

Of course the answer is common sense . Instead of attacking the ratepayers to save a measly few dollars. Attack some of the big ticket items . Like too many employees or staff employed all day doing who knows whatever .
Of course that will not happen any time soon .
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February 12, 2024 8:30am
- MCōs
  
  How much do you think a WCC librarian earns?
  As it happens this information was provided June-2022 and the answer is not a lot apart from half a dozen people at the top
  https://fyi.org.nz/request/19369-request-for-salary-information-of-librarians-by-management-level
  
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  February 12, 2024 9:15am
- Paulus
  
  Remember that ALL Council staff are employed by the CEO, and neither Mayors nor Councillors can do anything but whitewash anything they and their unelected lobby groups put forward.
  
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  February 12, 2024 1:31pm
G152

I have come to the opinion that the global warming is not only a scam but also yet another cult to take its place among those cults awaiting the return of 2000 year old bone frgments or the out of orbit planet that a cult believes was/is going to crash into Earth.
So weather and weather events are now SIGNS and those who built their cities and towns on flood plains are {as historically others have found} flat because FLOODS.
And coastlines wear awy from tidal, wind and wave action.
Oh and sea ice is already in the sea so it melting will do nothing to sea levels but will affect polar bears…
Its a scam
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February 12, 2024 8:40am
- alloytoo
  
  The climate change phenomena is a modern doomsday cult with (as usual) a few folks making mint.
  
  Climate change demands I believe a few things which are demonstrably false (Which indeed falsify climate change)
  
  That I believe the earth is flat.
  That climate was static for millions of years prior to the industrial age.
  That flatulate oysters (never mind cows) pose a existential threat.
  That no animal prior to domestication of livestock ever emitted a toot or two.
  That the greening of the planet and reduction of deserts is somehow a bad thing.
  That intermittent wind and solar will ever produce enough energy to fill a battery capable of smoothing out the demand necessitated by their own intermittency.
  That adding reliable nuclear to intermittent wind and solar somehow justifies wind and solar?
  
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  February 12, 2024 9:30am
- Chris Nisbet
  
  Welcome aboard.
  
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  February 12, 2024 11:56am
TripeWryter

The New Zealand Herald is doing its bit to dissuade us from backing David Seymour’s quest for a referendum on the Treaty of Waitangi.
Should I be politically correct and add the almost compulsory ‘Te Tiriti o Waitangi’?
Last week they wheeled out Richard Prebble, Matthew Hooton, Claire Trevett, and now Sir Ian Taylor, who has written an ‘open letter’.
All high-minded, heavyweighted stuff.
Matthew Hooton sounded confused. He seems to be so revered on the Right am I allowed to say that?
But I had difficulty following his argument. Perhaps that’s more down to me and my galloping towards ga-ga-ness than him.
Sir Ian Taylor – whom I admire immensely and once interviewed – wrote an interesting ‘open letter’.
But he didn’t tell me anything about why we New Zealanders can’t have a referendum on the principles of Waitangi. What they mean.
Back in the 2000s as I tried to get myself off the dole at various times I would apply for jobs.
The government departments would have a section about respecting the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi.
Of course I ticked ‘yes’ or ‘I agree’. I wanted a job.
But I had no idea what they entailed. I still don’t.
Does the Treaty as it’s interpreted these days mean my Maori cousins – and a nephew, my brother’s part Maori grandson – have more rights than the Pakeha members of the whanau?
Of the Herald and NZME, its parent, there seems to be a pocket of rebellion. Hosking, du Plessis-Allan, Soper, O’Sullivan, Beverige, who seem to show an understanding about what David Seymour is on about.
I also note that Newstalk’s political editor, Jason Walls, seems also to have opened his mind a little about what Seymour proposes.
Our so-called news media are otherwise doing an abysmal job of doing their job, which is to inform their communities.
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February 12, 2024 8:59am
- pdm
  
  It must have been a major effort for Jason Walls to broaden his thinking.
  
  I like Tim Beveridges opinions but I do wish he would not waffle and repeat himself so much. I enjoy his Sundau afternoon `Politics Central’ but he does balls up his interviews some times.
  
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  February 12, 2024 9:57am
  - Tony Stuart
    
    Walls told an outright lie on ZB yesterday morning telling Francesca Rudkin that National was “effectively getting rid of” S27 cultural reports.
    
    That of course is not correct. Offenders or their defence counsel are still absolutely able to request S27 reports, but the government is not going to pay for them.
    
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    February 12, 2024 10:10am
    - fernglas
      
      “not going to pay for them”, which for most defendants means effectively getting rid of them.
      
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      February 12, 2024 10:42am
      - David Garrett
        
        fernglas: Oh I don’t know…selling meth and even weed is a pretty lucrative business, so I am told.
        
        And of course doing away with gummint funding will allow the invisible hand of the market to determine the value of these bullshit reports.
        
        (NO Ian Boag, I have not seen any of them…but I was once close to Newbold, who wrote them as a sideline, and discussed the rort with me)
        
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        February 12, 2024 10:53am
      - fernglas
        
        Drug offences make up about 10% of charges before the Courts (excluding traffic). I missed the boom in s27 reports, but others on here suggest that they have taken the place of the usually well prepared probation reports that were available a few decades back and which were very helpful to the courts when sentencing. I will be interested to see if the judges push back on the basis that they can’t properly do their jobs without the type of information that is contained in the reports. If so, then you may find that the government winds up still funding the reports but in a different guise.
        
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        February 12, 2024 11:05am
    - David Garrett
      
      Tony S: Why are you not surprised? The MSM are all – or mostly all – grossly misleading the public by saying ACT’s treaty policy is to do away with it. It is of course no such thing but rather attempting to define what these nebulous and ever changing “principles” are.
      
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      February 12, 2024 10:50am
- PurplePen
  
  I wonder if there’s a case that could be taken to the employment tribunal or even employment court forcing someone to sign up to treaty principles almost as if it’s a belief and not even defined clearly. Surely before you commit yourself to respecting the principles you would have to be provided with education in them, and can you be forced to respect something ethereal in a workplace.
  
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  February 12, 2024 10:25am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  As I have said before we know what Seymour wants, but his original murmurings were confusing, I know I will get down tick for this, but Seymour should have had his wordings bang on to begin with, the bill should have been much closer to finalising before he spoke about it, he will never be able to fix that now, the not do level headed simply think he wants to wipe the treaty, and we all know that’s not the intention
  
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  February 12, 2024 10:48am
  - Fuzzysnuggleduck
    
    Seymour has been consistent the whole time.
    What happened was the media called it a referendum on the Treaty, or rewriting the Treaty, etc, etc and banged on so much that some low information people or types with poor reading comprehension assumed this was what ACT proposed.
    
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    February 12, 2024 1:41pm
- Fuzzysnuggleduck
  
  I had to laugh out loud when on ZB I heard Jason commenting on the rise of the ACT party % and he mused that, ‘we sometime forget that NZ as a public is conservative and we on the media might not think the same as they do’ or something like that.
  No shit Sherlock! I had to guffaw at his moment of clarity.
  All the footage of Maori stamping and bulging eyes (or getting their dicks out) and all the quotes of academics and headlines warning of ‘divisiveness’ (like it was a new thing) and the ‘rewriting the Treaty’ (utter lies and distortion) and the public are not on the same page at all with the enemedia.
  I note that the Maori party % had also gone down in the polls.
  So how much really is the worth of the tender feelings of so-called Iwi, assuming that these Iwi leaders really speak for Maori? ‘
  Seymour is right to carry on and damn the critics.
  Most Maori do not support the Maori party, and many of those with some Maori blood might not relate very much to the tattooed faces, elites and spokespeople like Tuku Morgan or Margaret Mutu at all.
  
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  February 12, 2024 1:39pm
Souvlaki

Hosking is going to quiz Luxon on the excellent points raised in Slaters opinion piece, tomorrow am.
A ‘ must listen to’ for this ‘ tragic’🤣

https://thebfd.co.nz/2024/02/12/act-surges-in-latest-poll/
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February 12, 2024 9:09am
- Tony Stuart
  
  Slater’s points about Luxon would be more valid had National not also received an increase in support in the Curia poll. The big story is not division between National and Act, it’s a significant shift of votes from the Left to the Right.
  
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  February 12, 2024 9:32am
  - kiwikidsnz
    
    Nationals vote went up 7% on their prior result. ACTs vote went up 70%.
    
    “Must try harder”
    
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    February 12, 2024 10:01am
    - Grumpy Silver Top
      
      70 percent from a very low base. It’s same as using a limited x axis on a graph to show a steep rise, or fall, in a metric. Get real. That said, I like the rise in ACT support. Largely due to DSs stand on treaty matters methinks.
      
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      February 12, 2024 10:41am
      - jon
        
        Grumpy i too like the rise in support for Act. That support will grow much more once the public get to see the very three Treaty Principles and the select committee gets under way. Apart from Act all the other parties are clearly on the wrong side of public opinion re this issue. Luxon and the Nats have made a big mistake by their latest position on the matter!
        
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        February 12, 2024 3:35pm
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      Let’s not forget they lost that 70% before election
      
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      February 12, 2024 11:29am
  - NothingLeft
    
    Seymours preferred PM percentage went up by 6 points to 10% Luxon dropped 4 points to 29%.
    
    That’s pretty telling.
    
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    February 12, 2024 10:44am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    I can’t see where the votes have come from, perhaps greens have gone back to Labour but Nats snd ACT have plundered more Labour votes, to be fair, the Nov poll had NZF at 8% I think which was never right, and they are down to 5% maybe it’s simply a mixture
    
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    February 12, 2024 10:50am
- greybeard
  
  All of ACT’s increase in popularity is attributed to their request for a referendum on the principles of the treaty.
  However, it is entirely possible that it is Seymour’s personal traits which are becoming more appreciated: his unflappable demeanour, his ready and well-researched answers to questions, his humour, sticking to the point, etc etc.
  
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  February 12, 2024 9:55am
  - pdm
    
    ACT is setting a pace that both National and particularly NZFirst seem to be struggling to keep up with. Brooke van Velden alone has probably been responsible for more Bills reversing Labour disasters than the other two parties combined.
    
    Where ACT have a big advantage, as indicated by others, they are focused and well prepared plus they are prepared to do the Hard Yards!!!
    
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    February 12, 2024 10:02am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      Many of Acts Wishlist policies were Nats as well, for instance the 90 day trial and the unionist asshokes being able to stomp in my smoko room being booted for a start, dhe is the minister for that piece of work, and was required to produce the bill, let’s not be fooled all these bills are Acts, they are not
      
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      February 12, 2024 10:59am
- Damocles11
  
  CEO Luxon, conscious of Potaka looking over his shoulder, is putting his head in the sand & hoping the backlash against Maorification & separatism will all blow over. It won’t. Mike Smith is going to war against our major food (and export earnings) and electricity providers, aided and abetted by activist judges who are citing ‘tikanga’ in their judgement. This is an ominous & significant ramping up of the war on our nation.
  In Tauranga, local Maori groups are blocking the Port of Tauranga’s long-delayed but much needed container terminal expansion. ‘Port of Tauranga has been called on to pay up to $100 million towards harbour restoration projects and initiatives for one of several local iwi challenging the port’s Environment Court bid to extend its operations.’ This is nothing but aggressive extortion, and a threat to our nations economy as Tauranga is New Zealand’s busiest port.
  My question is: what is Luxon going to do about Maori attacks on our economy and the dangerous collusion with this behaviour being exhibited by the judges and the courts? Urgent legislative fixes are needed. Seymour has picked up some of the burden with his Treaty principles bill, and Shane Jones is not silent about how he views these matters. Luxon and his ministers need to join the fray; stop ducking for cover and address the issues head on. Weakness and capitulation only emboldens those who seek to extort and undermine. Appeasement doesn’t work. I would encourage all to think long and hard about what is happening before our eyes, the two junior coalition partners are apparently the only ones with the gumption and the nous to do what is necessary.
  
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  February 12, 2024 10:54am
  - Ghost
    
    He should do absolutely nothing about what Mike smith is doing. That is up to the courts to deal with.
    
    The port should also be nothing to do with Luxon as it is before the environmental court and already been given a provisional grant for stage one based on further matters the port has to address.
    
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    February 12, 2024 11:12am
    - Damocles11
      
      Parliament makes the law!!!!
      
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      February 12, 2024 11:57am
      - Ghost
        
        Do you not understand both cases are before courts. No govt should be interfering with that process
        
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        February 12, 2024 12:02pm
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Postal’s has stated himself just like Tania Tapsell that handouts to their communities are not the answer, let’s give him a chance, surely he retains that right with that view.
    
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    February 12, 2024 11:31am
  - Paulus
    
    Understand that so far Maori have blocked the enlargement of Tauranga Port for 11 years.
    
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    February 12, 2024 1:36pm
In Vino Veritas

Just reading Christopher Hitchens book “The Trial of Henry Kissinger”. Very interesting regarding Kissinger’s role in the scuppering of a peace agreement (being pushed by Johnson to advantage Hubert Humphreys in upcoming election) in Vietnam in 1968 (and then used the same|similar terms in reaching peace in ’72), the bombing of Laos and Cambodia, his role in the Greek junta coup in Cyprus and following war with Turkey, his role in the East|West Pakistan conflict, the destabilising of Allende in Chile and insertion of Pinochet (and subsequent murder, imprisonment and torture of 1000’s) and Indonesia and Timor. Kissinger doesn’t appear to have been a great guy or great statesman.
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February 12, 2024 9:11am
- kiwikidsnz
  
  Many would say Kissinger’s a war criminal, with good reason.
  
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  February 12, 2024 10:03am
- Rusty
  
  @In..
  
  Back in the 1970’s and 80’s some christian fundamentalists were convinced Kissinger was behind a one world govt and that he was the anti-christ.
  
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  February 12, 2024 10:27am
- imalwaysright
  
  In vino,
  
  Kissinger was the devil incarnate. He makes Hitler look like a complete novice.
  
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  February 12, 2024 11:14am
- Grunter
  
  Kissinger was a warlord. One of the original Neocons who tried his very best to insert the USA into wars wherever he could.
  
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  February 12, 2024 11:18am
vand

“He should be removed immediately. Did his parents even research the school?”

Well she has been there since Year 9 but it’s got worse in five years…
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February 12, 2024 9:13am
KH

Thank you Curia for telling us what the people really think.
Prancing and bellowing at Waitangi. ACT and the Nats go up in the polls.
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February 12, 2024 9:24am
- Damocles11
  
  What exactly have the Nats done to earn a boost? Seymours hard work ‘floating all boats’ I feel.
  
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  February 12, 2024 11:00am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Look, many of the things dumped weee priorities for all three parties in government, why are you suggesting this is all Acts work ffs
    
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    February 12, 2024 11:33am
peterwn

Not a problem for Chris Luxon. ACT would have a mighty long way to go to draw even with National. While bringing on board another 5% or so is relatively easy in the circumstances, the next 5% is a far bigger challenge and the last 5% well nigh impossible. Anyway how much notice are people going to take of Cam Slater’s views.
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February 12, 2024 9:30am
- Damocles11
  
  Luxon can put his feet up he likes. It’s like the tortoise and the hare: David is the patient and determined tortoise, Luxon is the complacent and nonchalant hare. We know how that race eventually finished up.
  
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  February 12, 2024 11:02am
  - peterwn
    
    I would frame it the other way round – David Seymour is the impatient hare where as Chris Luxon is plodding slowly but surely towards his target.
    
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    February 12, 2024 9:19pm
- Souvlaki
  
  In this article however peterwn, his points, (I think at least ) are valid….best to look objectively at them imo. 😉
  
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  February 12, 2024 11:10am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  I would say they have simply hot back what he lost when threatening to sit on the cross benches
  
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  February 12, 2024 11:14am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  Slater alienated himself after his interference was found out and Nats had to lance the boil
  
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  February 12, 2024 11:15am
  - Fuzzysnuggleduck
    
    I loved this Commentator quote on The BFD, and I bet you to will too G:
    
    “….Seymour and Peters are Luxon’s missing balls.”
    
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    February 12, 2024 1:47pm
In Vino Veritas

And another interesting fact. The American armed forces currently have 44 four star Generals (each has around 1,000 staff). There are about 1.2 million in the American armed forces. During WW2, there were 7 four star Generals (or Navy equivalents) commanding around 11m personnel. Go figure.
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February 12, 2024 9:30am
- Cassandra
  
  It’s the same everywhere. When I were a lad NZ had three 2 stars. We now have more admirals than ships and more generals than battalions. Uganda didn’t have a general and ended up with a VC Field Marshall! (Idi Amin for those interested, Sergeant to FM in about a year).
  
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  February 12, 2024 10:47am
  - MCōs
    
    NZ also has an apostle
    
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    February 12, 2024 11:14am
- David Garrett
  
  In vino: What somewhat irks me is that currently serving personnel in all three armed forces all seem to sport a chest full of medals – for what I wonder?
  
  No-one but a Green voter would begrudge the VC won by Willie Apiata, and campaign medals for those serving in shit holes like Afghanistan. However, the vast majority of today’s forces’ personnel would, I suspect, never have served anywhere other than Australia or the UK.
  
  In WW II – the last major conflict we were involved in – military decorations actually meant something; conspicuous gallantry of various kinds, or at the very least, a medal confirming that the bearer had served in this campaign or that.
  
  In the case of Bomber Command, it was an absolute disgrace that the 100,000 odd thousand men who served – including 6000 New Zealanders – never even got a campaign medal, because for political reasons, by the end of the war what they had done so bravely was no longer blessed by the high and mighty.
  
  If anyone knows what a 50 year colonel in the NZ army has done to warrant being awarded a chest full of medals, I would be very interested to know.
  
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  February 12, 2024 11:18am
  - lifesgood
    
    My brother was in the military and he has a heap of medals, never served in a conflict or even overseas, that’s if you don’t count aid to hurricane affected islands etc.
    
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    February 12, 2024 11:37am
    - David Garrett
      
      lifes: Exactly my point. Helping Islanders recover from the irregular cyclones shouldn’t warrant a medal.
      
      Did you ever ask your brother what they were all for?
      
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      February 12, 2024 12:33pm
      - lifesgood
        
        I do know a couple of them are just from doing a certain amount of time in the army, also one for disaster relief.
        
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        February 12, 2024 1:56pm
      - Jack5
        
        The guys who served in Vietnam, especially the infantry, deserved their campaign medals.
        
        Some of them must have had to crawl in Viet Cong tunnels, likely to be booby-trapped, and with a pistol as their weapon.
        
        Then in the “Confrontation” with Indonesia, an NZ officer won a decoration at the recommendation of the Gurkhas, after hiding a Gurkha senior NCO in the Borneo jungle, and getting the wounded man safely away from the Indonesians.
        
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        February 12, 2024 9:01pm
  - Manu-Rau
    
    David, didn’t the NZers who served in Bomber Command qualify for the Air Crew Europe Star?
    
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    February 12, 2024 1:26pm
    - David Garrett
      
      Manu: IIRC that star wasn’t issued until the 1990’s, when a lot of the veterans were dead.
      
      1800 New Zealanders in Bomber Command never came home.
      
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      February 12, 2024 3:38pm
  - Jimbo666
    
    My father in law was in Guadalcanal with the RNZAF. Because he was a few days short of 6 months overseas he didn’t qualify for the Pacific Star!
    He enlisted, trained, was sent to the islands, returned to NZ and demobbed before he was 21 years old!
    
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    February 12, 2024 2:12pm
  - In Vino Veritas
    
    SAS, David.
    
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    February 12, 2024 3:35pm
Maggie Pie

And for those STILL with concerns about how the body reacts to the Covid-19 vaccine, Dame Jacinda provides an explanation that should put most people’s minds at rest…..

A bestie tweets (watch)

https://twitter.com/SpideyCatNZ/status/1756422119133749566
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February 12, 2024 9:37am
- Grumpy Silver Top
  
  Gave me the creeps just looking
  
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  February 12, 2024 10:43am
  - Don Beckett
    
    She looks terrible. Wonder if Clark is having seconds… 😆
    
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    February 12, 2024 10:50am
    - Maggie Pie
      
      I assume you mean ‘thoughts’ Donald?
      
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      February 12, 2024 11:02am
    - NZer In Exile
      
      Just the classic NZ feminist look methinks. A la Chloe etc etc. No makeup (or as little as possible).
      I notice (anecdotally) that those around me who’ve been jabbed up do seem to get a lot of colds and flus.
      
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      February 12, 2024 9:06pm
- Local Miller
  
  I’d love to know where she saw that article. A children’s colouring in book?
  
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  February 12, 2024 11:55am
- Ghost
  
  Looks fake, lips aren’t matching the words
  
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  February 12, 2024 11:58am
- NZer In Exile
  
  Holy Moly! SpideyCatNZ has some very funny and it has to be said, brutal, posts.
  
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  February 12, 2024 9:15pm
PurplePen

Reported in Herald today traffic management can be 15 even 20 percent of cost. I’m assuming the traffic management work is outsourced. If so, who owns all the traffic management companies, is their any competition, is it a family business and they just rark up the work and cost. Does anyone know.
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February 12, 2024 10:04am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  An Aussie Company…trading in NZ as Traffic Management NZ Ltd
  
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  February 12, 2024 10:17am
- peterwn
  
  Traffic management and scaffolding have been the biggest growth industries in recent years. Gone are the days when traffic management consisted of some white painted 44 gallon drums.
  
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  February 12, 2024 11:10am
  - David Garrett
    
    peterwn: Up here in the Magic Kingdom I am constantly amused that the Tongan MOW seem to manage quite major things – like replacing a power pole – with three or four cones, and ONE guy standing in the road slowing people down.
    
    When I was last in NZ, there was some minor tree pruning going on in my very little traveled country road, somewhat akin to Tongan roads. I counted SIXTY cones, and SIX “traffic control” operatives.
    
    Along with the fruit picking which the lazy bastards on the dole in NZ won’t do, perhaps we should also outsource traffic control to the Pacific Island states?
    
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    February 12, 2024 11:25am
    - imalwaysright
      
      Outsource policing as well.
      I wouldn’t mind seeing a few hundred Tongan and Fijian police officers being let loose on the NZ gangs.
      Paid by the head.
      
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      February 12, 2024 12:00pm
      - David Garrett
        
        imalways: Back in the day – they have gone a little soft these days – I saw Tongan cops in action now and again….put it this way: I certainly wouldn’t have wanted to be on the receiving end!
        
        Even in their currently softened state, they’d eat your average Mob member for breakfast.
        
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        February 12, 2024 12:36pm
- NothingLeft
  
  I am sure it is far higher than that on a lot of smaller (and so far more numerous) projects. I saw some plumbing work being done on a house a few weeks back with 4 traffic management staff a few hundred road cones and only one actually productive worker in a front yard well back from the road doing the useful work.
  
  I know another person who was looking at having sewage lines upgraded to a back section for subdivision, quote for in ground work was ~$30k, but ~$120k including traffic management to do the connection work to pipes in road.
  
  It’s utterly fucked, and destructive to NZ – making infrastructure and housing unaffordable. Roll back the safety regs & practices to 1990’s standards
  
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  February 12, 2024 11:12am
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Stop Co-Governance. Julian Batchelor.

Luxon a closet activist? You decide.

https://stopcogovernance.kiwi/blog/newstalk-zbs-heather-du-plessis-allan-on-luxon-the-man-has-no-spine-and-no-principles/
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February 12, 2024 10:05am
- Grunter
  
  HDPA says….
  
  “The bill is cleverly written so that it’s hard to argue against. The three proposed principles are no-brainers: the Government is allowed to govern, we all have private property rights and we’re all equal under the law. Who doesn’t agree with that? Who can mount an argument against that without arguing for more rights for one ethnicity?”
  
  The answer of course is Luxon, Willis,……. pretty much all The Nats as they have most likely all been told to “go read a book…”
  
  The world has truly lost the plot when the ‘conservative’ National Party is opposing these 3 fundamental principles. How the hell can you oppose them!!??
  
  And don’t come back with the argument “But that’s what we campaigned on…” Come on Nats, time to grow a pair and lead. Come out and say:
  
  “We agree with Seymours principles, but we want to put these into law immediately. No need for a referendum and protracted pointless debate.”
  
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  February 12, 2024 11:38am
  - imalwaysright
    
    G,
    Its hard to fathom why Seymour linked the three proposed principles to the treaty.
    He would have been better off citing them as a core of a constitution.
    The treaty is an offer of terms that are accepted and active upon signing, there are no principles.
    We don’t need principles to determine whether a signature means acceptance of terms. The mere existence of the signature accomplishes that feat all by itself.
    
    Maybe Seymour should scrap this one and try again next year with a more generic proposal .
    
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    February 12, 2024 12:19pm
  - Wayne Mapp
    
    David’s principles bill would make sense if it was simply a general expression of human rights, but it is not. The bill amounts to rewriting the treaty to say something different to what it says. This is in part why Prebble has said incorporating the principles bill into an expansion of the Bill of Rights would make more sense.
    The te reo version of the treaty has specific protection for maori treasures, which has come to mean language and culture. That is why Maori language has specific legal protection whereas other languages do not. Also the various consultation rights about the conservation estate and various rivers.
    National has a very long standing relationship with the Iwi Forum, specifically around treaty settlements. It would not want to destroy that relationship by supporting the Bill, not when the entire leadership of all iwi are opposed to the Bill.
    In short the relationship issue have to endure across many decades into the future. National will not jeopardise that by supporting a Bill, which even if it passed, would only last as long as the current government.
    
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    February 12, 2024 12:20pm
    - David Garrett
      
      Wayne M: The bill amounts to rewriting the treaty to say something different [from] what it says.
      
      Utter bollocks Wayne. The Bill – quite rightly – makes no attempt to define that nebulous and ever changing word “taonga” but seeks to finally give some definitive definition to the ever changing ever evolving ever increasing “principles” which that modest three paragraph 500 odd word document supposedly contains.
      
      No more, no less than that.
      
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      February 12, 2024 12:41pm
    - Elli
      
      “National has a very long standing relationship with the Iwi Forum, specifically around treaty settlements. It would not want to destroy that relationship by supporting the Bill, not when the entire leadership of all iwi are opposed to the Bill.”
      
      Sounds like some very poor negotiating is going on there, and a very good reason for ACT’s Bill. Maori can protect their language all they want, but having “horrible nasty colonial” ministries renamed and peppered with maori is not protecting it. Sounds more like cultural appropriation.
      
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      February 12, 2024 1:00pm
      - David Garrett
        
        Elli: If one is a student of history, like me, it is very clear that the Maori language was largely lost because Maori themselves didn’t value it.
        
        It is not hard to find historic film footage – at least into the 1950’s – which features Maori slipping between fluent Maori and fluent English. I am thinking particularly of a piece of film of Maori soldiers getting off the train in Gisborne before boarding buses for their homes “up the coast” in 1946.
        
        Their commanding officer gave a speech all in Maori which I am told was an exhortation to go back to their homes and families and get on with their lives – but to never forget those who did not get to return.
        
        Into the 90’s I have seen footage of former Maori Battalion members visiting their old battlegrounds in Crete – and speaking fluent Maori to each other.
        
        So at least as late as the 1940’s – and for some into the 90’s – the language was alive and well. That was 30 years after the much quoted “being beaten for speaking our own language” which in any event was a policy introduced by Sir Apirana Ngata in the late 1920’s.
        
        The rationale for that policy was that to succeed in the (then) modern world, Maori needed to be fluent in English – hence it was English only at school, and Maori at home.
        
        So at some point between the 1950’s and now, clearly Maori themselves did not value the language enough to preserve it. Absolutely nothing to do with “colonization” or the evil honkey.
        
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        February 12, 2024 1:42pm
    - Taieri
      
      supporting a Bill, which even if it passed, would only last as long as the current government
      ————–
      
      Not necessarily. If such a bill was to be supported by referendum it would be a bit difficult to revisit.
      
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      February 12, 2024 1:19pm
    - Max Mansplain
      
      “The te reo version of the treaty has specific protection for maori treasures, which has come to mean language and culture.”
      
      So if it has come to mean this you seem to be saying that it didn’t mean that at the time of signing. I agree.
      
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      February 12, 2024 1:40pm
    - Grunter
      
      Thx for the reply Wayne. I actually appreciate your perspective as a past politician who has been part of the ‘system’.
      
      You always make it clearer to me how this country got into such a twisted mess. And you always reinforce my natural distrust of politicians. I’m sure you mean well, but……… bloody hell….! It does illustrate how the elite world (Govt & Iwi) operates. No wonder Luxon can’t swallow “equal rights for everyone”.
      
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      February 12, 2024 3:13pm
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      [Mod – cut out the little personal insults]
      
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      February 12, 2024 7:07pm
- David Garrett
  
  Steve O: I particularly liked this sentence in HDPA’s piece:
  
  If Mr Popularity himself – Sir John Key – couldn’t convince New Zealanders to back something as fun as a flag change, Luxon probably can’t convince voters to chill out about something as triggering as race relations
  
  Of course Luxon’s seemingly rigid stance can be changed, just as Key’s position on the three strikes Bill was changed, in that case by hard evidence of ridiculously light sentences handed down for what became “strike” offences.
  
  Seymour is going to have to relentlessly draw the public’s attention to the clearly very popular – and non-threatening – three principles in his proposed Bill. And shove the evidence of support for the Bill in Luxon’s face at every opportunity.
  
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  February 12, 2024 11:40am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Oh boy DG.
    How long before Luxon wakes up and realises that his job is not a Public Sector glide time job like Air NZ?
    Oh wait, did somebody mention glide time – like cruising. Like Botany, Waiheke, Hawaii?
    
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    February 12, 2024 7:12pm
- Souvlaki
  
  IMO, hard to mount cogent argument AGAINST Batchelor, in the face of Luxon’s ( thus far ) total capitulation to Maori demands !
  
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  February 12, 2024 12:07pm
Maggy Wassilieff

What price Love?

I know I’m not in the big spender league.. (blame my Scots genes), but seriously, are there folks who would ~~spend~~ waste $6000+ on Theresa Gattungs’s match-making abilities?

In the first option – the Platinum ‘Match Me’ – people pay an annual fee of $5995 for a service where experts actively search for the perfect match. This includes face-to-face meetings, a crafted profile as well as wraparound support from the company.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/culture/350174464/i-just-told-world-im-single-theresa-gattungs-search-and-solution-love
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February 12, 2024 10:28am
- Grumpy Silver Top
  
  One born every minute.
  
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  February 12, 2024 10:44am
- Swifty
  
  Ask hubby if he’ll lend you the $6k.
  
  🤣
  
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  February 12, 2024 11:23am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    Costing me a fortune supporting #1 hubby, why would I want more encumbromances?
    
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    February 12, 2024 1:20pm
    - Swifty
      
      Fair point!
      
      😂
      
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      February 12, 2024 1:33pm
- David Garrett
  
  wraparound support
  
  Who the hell chose that particular phrase as a selling point??
  
  “Wrap around support” is what we are told gang families with their “high and complex needs” must have in order to behave like the rest of us. Hardly a selling point for a high end match making service which costs $6,000 a year!
  
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  February 12, 2024 11:43am
  - imalwaysright
    
    “wraparound support
    
    Who the hell chose that particular phrase as a selling point??”
    
    D.G
    
    It was a Freudian slip.
    
    Most of the lads will be gangsters lining up to get their hands on desperate spinsters assets.
    
    The wraparound support will be a “Know your Rights” brochure and a “We wish you all the best” email from Theresa.
    
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    February 12, 2024 12:35pm
- My-Gumboot
  
  Just put this ad in Fishing World.
  Looking for a husband. I can:
  bait hooks
  catch fish
  gut and fillet fish
  cook fish
  I have a boat..
  Here is a picture of the boat
  
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  February 12, 2024 11:50am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Surprised by the number of replies.
    Nope, she can’t even put on a lifejacket!
    Stop it!!!!
    
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    February 12, 2024 7:15pm
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  Annually?
  
  If they can’t deliver within 12 months then I’d have low confidence in them doing so in 24 or 36.
  
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  February 12, 2024 7:55pm
Ghost

I cannot work out the math here, perhaps someone can help me.

Catherine had her operation and On Jan. 17, Kensington Palace announced that the Princess of Wales underwent a “planned abdominal surgery” at The London Clinic on the previous day.

Now this is where I’m having trouble with my math

The royal has spent twelve weeks recovering at home in Adelaide Cottage in Windsor following her discharge from the London Clinic.

Article
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February 12, 2024 10:44am
- Cassandra
  
  A one ar Stuff can’t count? Who would have thought?
  
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  February 12, 2024 10:50am
- Don Beckett
  
  Maybe they meant 12 DAYS ????
  
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  February 12, 2024 10:55am
  - Ghost
    
    Yeah, but their inability to proofread is getting worse. They’ve taken the article from nine au and published it without checking for errors
    
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    February 12, 2024 11:03am
- MCōs
  
  Maybe everyone concerned with writing and reproducing the various articles were too bored stiff to give a toss
  
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  February 12, 2024 11:54am
- David Garrett
  
  It’s MATHS in New Zealand FFS!!
  
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  February 12, 2024 12:44pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    I was going to explain how it works in common core, but my head hurts already sorry.
    
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    February 12, 2024 7:18pm
Maggie Pie

Cop has called into ZB’s Kerry Wooham to say…. just how much morale has increased since the change of government.

Said cops on the front line are all sooo happy to finally have a Police Minister who actually WANTS to be one!
(Altho a lot of them are saying it’s a shame he still has to work with a wimp like Cuddles.)

Six years of Labor which we will never get back 🙁
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February 12, 2024 10:59am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  There seems to be a far larger presence by police everywhere, snd Costs term finishes early next year I think, he won’t be reappointed
  
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  February 12, 2024 11:37am
- MCōs
  
  An alleged policeman who has name suppression, no doubt
  I was talking to the woman in the local bakery and she told me the bobbys don’t pop in for morning tea and a ‘chat’ anymore
  “Hello, sunshine, usual discount on these pies, innit?”
  
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  February 12, 2024 11:37am
  - Maggie Pie
    
    Must admit haven’t seen the Skoda with the rainbow paint
    job outside Bakers Delight for months either.
    
    They must really be feeling it I reckon.
    
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    February 12, 2024 11:50am
  - RightNow
    
    I’ve met a few “alleged” police in my time too.
    
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    February 12, 2024 2:00pm
- David Garrett
  
  Maggie: a policeman acquaintance of mine says Cuddles is also known as “the lantern” by the rank and file…Very bright, but needs to be carried.
  
  I noticed a news story the other day that would never have been seen in Labour’s time: a guy suffering from road rage followed his terrified victim into a supermarket where he threatened him and keep bashing into his trolley.
  
  The police were called, and Mr Road Rage was promptly arrested and charged with a number of offences, including threatening to kill.
  
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  February 12, 2024 11:57am
  - Maggie Pie
    
    That is so pleasing to hear about.
    They’ve been nothing but social-workers for the last 6 years.
    
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    February 12, 2024 12:06pm
Swifty

This fuels my prejudice against Chinese food producers wonderfully:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNTO5OfINro

I haven’t knowingly bought Chinese foodstuffs for a good twenty years now, and I have no intention of doing so in the future.

And to the good Chinese producers who would feel hard done by my not buying their products I ask “How can I tell if you’re one of the good ones?”

Sorry, there’s no chance of me giving my family and friends fake or plastic foods.

None.
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February 12, 2024 11:05am
- stiff cheese
  
  What about garlic? They seem to have cornered the market for garlic. Look in any supermarket: nearly all Chinese grown.
  
  I wouldn’t touch it with a barge-pole. No idea what conditions it’s grown under, but I expect that when I researched that country’s standards years ago and was disgusted by some of their practices, nothing’s changed.
  
  Unfortunately, it’s added in small quantities to so many other foods (dressings, chippies, sauces) that I have to study the label so I can reject the stuff. The dreaded “Local and imported ingredients” tells you nothing.
  
  Still it’s obviously cheaper and THAT’S all Big Food care about. Forget about tariffs to protect our own growers (never happen under Luxon.)
  (If we did protect local growers, it’s such a trace element in the foods I mentioned, you’d never notice the price differential. . . but not gonna happen is it!).
  
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  February 12, 2024 2:57pm
  - Swifty
    
    I refuse to buy Chinese garlic, doesn’t matter how cheap it is.
    
    I always buy NZ and, if that’s not available, I’ll go for the, usually US, non-Chinese imported stuff. If that’s not available, I’ll go without.
    
    Chinese goods, yes. Chinese food, no.
    
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    February 12, 2024 3:23pm
  - David Garrett
    
    stiff: As I’m sure you know, that Chinese garlic lasts about two weeks after your buy it…and the taste is nothing like the NZ grown stuff.
    
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    February 12, 2024 3:41pm
- Jake Dee
  
  More utterly bogus nonsense.
  You almost had an important bit of self-realization when you noted,
  “This fuels my prejudice against Chinese food producers wonderfully’
  This is propaganda designed to fuel anti-Chinese prejudice. Did you notice how none of those clips ran from beginning to end or included names dates or places?
  That first clip which showed red and white plastic that looked a little bit like beef, was of a plastics factory making plastic! Pink silicone plastic! Put globs of white and red plastics into the rollers and they roll out pink plastic! That would have been obvious if they had let the clip run for a few more seconds. which they didn’t. Hunt around and you will find exactly the same machines running and producing blue, yellow green etc. etc. plastics.
  For example
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4ZTnW4d2dQ
  Take a little more time and consider how (or why) selling plastics as food could possibly work.
  Sharpen up. Do some research, take a little bit of time to discover who exactly this “China Observer” group is, who they are, where they come from and who is funding them. Then consider why they don’t make ANY of that information available.
  
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  February 12, 2024 7:05pm
PurplePen

I emailed local library Wellington suggesting they added some missing items to a page a out the treaty and this is the reply:

“Tēnā korua
Thank you for this trail of comment.
A timely reminder to look further than just recent kōrero.
We will need to remember these sources when re-working the webpage.”

Govt-speak – what does “trail of comment”, “recent korero” mean. I’m surprised there isn’t a “thank you for reaching out” or “going forward” or “Aorearoa” in there.
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February 12, 2024 11:07am
- Swifty
  
  “At the end of the day…..”
  
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  February 12, 2024 11:22am
  - David Garrett
    
    Swifty: And “at this point in time”…usually totally superfluous.
    
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    February 12, 2024 11:59am
- imalwaysright
  
  Reads like AI wrote it.
  
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  February 12, 2024 1:44pm
PurplePen

Too much coffee today and wine biscuits….
On an aside, when I’m speaking French I’ll say La Nouvelle Zealand, English I’ll say New Zealand, if I was speaking Maori I’d probably say Nu Tirani, and Bengali.. had to look this one up I’d say Ni’ujilyanda. What is it with some of the pseudo intelligentsia in NZ that when they’re communicating in English with someone they feel the need to say Aotearoa New Zealand. Does bi-lingual mean when you’re speaking English you always double up on words using both languages. A nonsense when you consider it’s all about communicating efficiently and effectively.
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February 12, 2024 11:11am
- Swifty
  
  The purpose is not to communicate efficiently and effectively – the purpose is political; to communicate what sort of person you wish to be perceived as.
  
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  February 12, 2024 11:21am
- cmm
  
  Purple: Correct. When words get borrowed into a new language then they become the property of the borrowing language which then pronounces them and mangles them as required to fit into the new language.
  
  bœuf became beef when the English picked it up. We don’t say Paris the way French do.
  Maori don’t say policeman, instead they now have pirihimana.
  
  This is how languages work internationally. In South Africa, Xhosa people saw tables and chairs and windows for the first time and adopted mangled versions of the Dutch words (tafula, stulu, vastela). Words need to be mangled to fit in with the new language’s rules (grammar, available sounds, etc). For example in Xhosa there is no “r” sound and nouns about people end in “u”, so “boer” becomes “bulu”.
  
  So how should English speaking people say Taupo? Any bloody way we want. It isn’t up to Maori to tell us whiteys how to say Taupo any more than it is up to us to tell Maori how to say policeman.
  
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  February 12, 2024 11:42am
  - David Garrett
    
    cmm: up here in the Kingdom the almost invariable practice is to to add and “i” to the end of an English word…thus “invoice” becomes “invoici” and “machine” becomes “misini”.
    
    I do however lament the fact that the word(s) for car were once “misini saliote” for “chariot machine” but now it’s just plain “kar”. (No “c” in Tongan.)
    
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    February 12, 2024 12:03pm
    - cmm
      
      DG: I am curious.
      
      After embedding a whole lot of borrow words, do they reach a point of just saying sod it and using English?
      
      For example there are surely few traditional words for Western-style law and business. After you’d dropped 3 borrow words into a sentence you might as well swap to English.
      
      I noticed this when listening in to some Russian colleagues having a technical discussion a few years back. As it got more technical they were dropping in more English borrowed words. Eventually they flipped over to speaking the whole sentence in English.
      
      In some languages (eg Zulu) the number system is so cumbersome to use that pretty much everyone just uses English after 3. I grew up speaking almost as much Zulu as English when I was a child and the only Zulu number words I ever learned were for 1, 2, 3, then 10. For all the rest all the Zulus I knew used English.
      
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      February 12, 2024 5:04pm
      - Jake Dee
        
        You are right of course, but those terms are English as such but rather cognate to English terms that probably derived from Romance languages such as French, Italian and Latin. When you pick up a new technology from a foreign nation you usually also pick up their terms to describe it.
        I noticed similar things when listening to Russians taking about the Ukrainian war. Terms like “artillery” “technical/technology” “Radio/Radar” were quite obvious. But when the Russian first got artillery, they wouldn’t have picked it up from the English.
        
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        February 12, 2024 7:19pm
      - cmm
        
        Jake
        
        It is often not just down to where they got the technology from (the Russians have made some really amazing stuff), but also what language is used for communications.
        
        No matter the country you are in, technical comms is pretty much all in English. While many/most countries will have high school and undergrad textbooks in their languages, you’re stuffed if you try getting other material in languages other than English.
        
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        February 12, 2024 9:10pm
      - Jake Dee
        
        Yes, but up until the end of WWI European political communication was in French, and before that Latin.
        If a Russian is talking about “diplomatic protocols” “the bureaucratic elite” “espionage” or “sabotage” he’s using French not English.
        
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        February 12, 2024 9:41pm
  - MCōs
    
    French for NZ is Nouvelle-Zélande
    Naturally enough Thais don’t say Thailand because land is not a Thai word. It’s prathet Thai, country of Thais. England is ang-grìt
    
    My uncle’s grave is in France near a city called Laon
    I pronounced it phonetically when buying a train ticket and very nearly went to Lyon
    
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    February 12, 2024 12:21pm
  - PurplePen
    
    Agree .. am familiar with borrowed words terminology and that the borrowed word will take on the phonetics of the language. And English actually has the most of any language. Issue is with the necessity to use more than one for the same word in the same sentence such as saying Aotearoa New Zealand which is a sort of tautology. As Swifty says it’s political.
    
    Regarding maori words when speaking English you would definitely say them however is natural to you as an English speaker. Its nonsense to try and retain the foreign language pronunciation. As you say France in English, Frohnce in French, Paris vs Pahree. So Taupo is Towpoh not Torpor.
    
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    February 12, 2024 2:47pm
- Elli
  
  During the morning drives into the CBD I like to listen to the Scottish bloke on Concert FM pronounce maori place names. Start the day laughing, that’s what I always say.
  
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  February 12, 2024 1:11pm
Inandout

This morning Hosking mentioned Winston mistook Shane Reti for Shane Jones while speaking in Tonga or some such Island. This was in response to Biden’s continual misnaming of people. CNN must have really put the pressure on NZME to quell the talk.
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February 12, 2024 11:13am
- graham
  
  Regarding Biden, I don’t know if this has already been mentioned on Kiwiblog:
  
  Headline: Is Jill Biden secretly running America with US president’s cognitive abilities under scrutiny?
  
  https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/is-jill-biden-secretly-running-america-with-us-presidents-cognitive-abilities-under-scrutiny/TWGFWZAUOBEFDC73P7SVQWHLGE/
  
  While he has always been prone to “gaffes”, Joe Biden’s public slip-ups have in recent weeks gone from playfully doddering to alarming.
  
  Questions over his fitness for office have snowballed since the last northern summer when concerns centred on dressing him in tennis shoes to avoid him slipping after he tripped over a sandbag at an Air Force One ceremony.
  
  Remember how the press mocked Trump for holding a glass of water with both hands? Now they’re “concerned” for Biden.
  
  There is nobody who would have been more frustrated at the car-crash appearance (emergency press conference held on Friday NZT), which could have waited until yesterday, than Jill Biden, who has been known to scold aides for failing to protect her husband.
  
  She showed she is a force to be reckoned with when she demanded to know: “Why didn’t anyone stop that?” after her husband held a shaky press conference littered with factual inaccuracies that ran for almost two hours in January 2022.
  
  Err, so the President of the United States needs to be ‘protected’ from a PRESS CONFERENCE?!
  
  But while it’s clearly not unusual for a first lady to have the ear of the president, for Joe Biden to win another term, he’s going to have to convince voting Americans that he’s fit and able to helm the country for another four years.
  
  And whether that’s with his wife whispering in his ear, steering him by the elbow and organising the staff, remains to be seen.
  
  Even the MSM have realised that they can no longer pretend Joe Biden is fit and capable.
  
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  February 12, 2024 12:12pm
  - All_on_Red
    
    Um, I think clue about who is running the US might be that 3/4 of Bidens Staff are ex Obama…
    
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    February 12, 2024 6:16pm
- Elli
  
  He did “worse” that that, but the media are so blinded by their eagerness to paint him as a doddery old man that it flew right over their heads. Just goes to show their “woke principles” are really just pasted on.
  
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  February 12, 2024 1:14pm
wreck1080

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/police-plans-to-pull-back-from-family-harm-call-outs-cause-concern/ZO4OMEWD45EIZNHTWRBVWDBG6I/

Police will no longer attend family harm incidents.

However, these families do not call police for fun — there is a genuine need for assistance.

This is disappointing from National , who have positioned themselves as being more competent when it comes to real world problems. At the very least, another agency should have been given the responsibility to attend these call outs.

Speaking from personal experience here. Our friend’s child ultimately ended up committing suicide due to mental health issues. Had police not attended every call from their family, there could have been other deaths. Some families deal with this daily during bad periods, and the police are bailing on them. With no alternative option.
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February 12, 2024 11:34am
- westernScientist
  
  not really the same thing, mental health is a different code. Family harm is very broad and they get a lot of bullshit calls – waa my boyfriend is yelling at me – but no threat of violence etc. or I think my girlfriend my car keys and wont give them back, etc. that they have to attend. It seems more likely that they are splitting the codes so ‘family harm’ is the bullshit stuff they shouldnt attend anyway, and some new code like ‘domestic abuse’ is the actual harmful stuff that they will still attend. I could be wrong though, I dont have any insights into the organisation.
  
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  February 12, 2024 12:45pm
- mandk
  
  The example you give is sad, but I don’t think it was really a police matter. It was a mental health matter.
  
  Mental health professionals are trained to deal with acute mental health episodes. Cops are not.
  
  We should be asking what Andrew Little did with that $1.9 billion he was given to improve services for mental health.
  
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  February 12, 2024 12:49pm
- Ghost
  
  This was in a briefing to the minister, so it was the police decision before national even became government. And if you read the article which I doubt you have, you would see the police have suggested that they withdraw over time from some of these call outs and that be filled by others. Which is right. Some of these call outs don’t need police, they need mental health support. Police have become social workers and mental health support where they shouldn’t be, that belongs to other agencies. The police aren’t withdrawing completely.
  
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  February 12, 2024 1:07pm
Maggie Pie

A few of the girls from tennis are heading over to
Melbourne to see Taytay on the 17th. Not me tho.
I’ll be watching out on TV1 this arvo hoping to
catch sight of her at the footy game.
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February 12, 2024 11:45am
- David Garrett
  
  Who the fuck is “tay tay”??
  
  Do you use baby-speak at home?
  
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  February 12, 2024 12:05pm
  - Maggie Pie
    
    “SWIFTY”, silly!
    
    And it’s about to start.
    
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    February 12, 2024 12:30pm
  - MCōs
    
    Swifty has already been taken
    
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    February 12, 2024 12:36pm
    - Swifty
      
      Damn right.
      
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      February 12, 2024 1:50pm
- mogg
  
  Maggie does the wind up satire.
  
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  February 12, 2024 12:55pm
  - David Garrett
    
    Satire or just sloppy language usage?
    
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    February 12, 2024 2:31pm
mogg

More shrewd comments from Trotter;https://www.interest.co.nz/public-policy/126321/chris-trotter-says-you-can%E2%80%99t-just-switch-populism-and-lightbulb-nor-can-you
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February 12, 2024 12:01pm
- David Garrett
  
  Trotter writes very well, although I don’t always agree with him.
  
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  February 12, 2024 3:01pm
- Grunter
  
  Trotter is always worth a read, but he does tend to over-do the identity stereo-types (Left, Right, Populous, Conservatives, etc) and makes a lot of assumptions around that. As KB shows, there are a lot of diverse thoughts and opinions of different topics and I’d pick 95% voted Nat/ACT/NZF.
  
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  February 12, 2024 3:31pm
Notsofast

Jo Phoenix describes clearly to Andrew Doyle how she won her case against Open University for dismissal for being correct on trans matters. She has more balls than the disgraceful collective New Zealand Parliament.
A must listen:
10 minutes

https://youtu.be/uF9O_2R6rxY?si=sJtvJisv0AZ2swe9
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February 12, 2024 12:28pm
Burtland

Sir Ian Taylors letter in the NZH needs to be read by everyone, if only to get an inkling of his maori world view …

it seems to contain three points which I will only talk to the first -Matauranga

He seems to view this as maori STEM (Science Technology Engineering Maths) that is deeply ingrained in his maori DNA – “this thing we call STEM is in (our) DNA”

“This has led me to understand that it is the combination of Mātauranga, alongside the STEM expertise that my Pākehā colleagues have brought with them, that can truly explain our company’s position as a global leader in the world of technology.”

seems like matauranga is exclusively for those with maori DNA

Unfortunately the combination of matauranga and metaphor didnt elevate maori out of the stone age – it was STEM ingrained in pakeha DNA, using Sir Ian’s parlance, that did this.

Sir Ian has swallowed the neo-marxist pill.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/opinion-sir-ian-taylor-a-letter-to-act-leader-david-seymour/J7FD3COIVNBVLBYGPS4OUPO2LA/
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February 12, 2024 12:43pm
- Blog-aholic
  
  I read almost all of it but could not finish because he was starting to sound like a born again. He really has either lost some of his plot or fallen over the fence to the other side where he thinks the grass might be greener but in fact the only green is gorse.
  Funny how a guy can make so much money and be a self made success (whilst actually apparently being maori but for going his maoriness) then he discovers that being a maori was what got him there even when he did not know it…….
  
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  February 12, 2024 1:08pm
- Grumpy Silver Top
  
  I read his letter earlier and was concerned that a man whose business credentials are well known has taken on board the bs of the 15% who claim a Maori ancestor. What fuels my anger is the claim that only those who have a maori ancestor love this land, and want to care for it (Irony warning) as they did in pre european days. HAH!
  
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  February 12, 2024 1:20pm
- Fuzzysnuggleduck
  
  It was a bizarre read:
  ….”our Polynesian ancestors could not have crossed the largest expanse of open water on the planet without developing a deep knowledge of astronomy, astrology, science, maths and engineering.”
  
  An extreme flattering, if not willfully blind take.
  Navigators, yes, top notch they were.
  But advanced maths and engineering? Not at all. The wheel, the arch, and other fundamentals are missing and not sure what complex “mathematics” he thinks was expressed in pre-European Maori society.
  Especially when the closest thing Maori had to writing was notches in a Tohunga’s stick.
  
  Maori science is a falsehood, since there is only the collective of human knowledge and “science” which belongs to us all.
  If there was anything uniquely Maori and useful then the world would have appropriated it to.
  What did the Maori give the world which did not already exist? Nothing really, save perhaps the haka, and then Maori get upset when other people do it. And it is really not that great anyway.
  This article really is a patronising take, the talking up of Maori technology and knowledge beyond any recognition.
  
  10 0
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  February 12, 2024 2:00pm
  - Jack5
    
    Taylor’s “… deep knowledge of astronomy, astrology, science, maths and engineering …”
    
    Maths? Science? Engineering? Examples please.
    
    As for navigation, why didn’t Maori continue two-way journeys to east Polynesia? They lost any ocean navigation skills they had.
    
    Micronesians, cousins of Polynesians, retained their navigation skills longer. Micronesians and Polynesians are in the Austronesian ethnolinguistic group, that originates in what are now the remote hill tribes of Taiwan.
    
    Taylor is full of hype. He’s been a successful entrepreneur, using Western technologists. Taylor’s a former TV presenter, and before that, a pop musician.
    
    7 1
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    February 12, 2024 2:34pm
  - cmm
    
    One of the huge problems with this stuff is misunderstanding the difference between tribal knowledge or country knowledge and science.
    
    Tribal/country knowledge might be something like plant your kumaras when you see a certain star.
    
    That is not science. Science digs deeper and understands what’s really behind it. Science works out that what is really important is temperature and waiting until the soil temperature is right. After that we can use a thermometer and no longer use rough indicators like stars. We can also move to an area with a different night sky and still plant our kumaras.
    
    Navigation by stars is possible without understanding what a star is, or the speed of light or even angles etc. This is knowledge, but it is not science.
    
    This is one of the reasons a lot of the early British scientists were country clergymen. They were the only educated people in the countryside and were exposed to the country knowledge and attached it to a more scientific framework.
    
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    February 12, 2024 4:54pm
- Grunter
  
  Paywalled so I haven’t read the letter. But based on your summary and comments from others, Sir Ian seems to be connecting one’s ability, knowledge, and innate skills to race/ethnicity? So some races are better than others when it comes to certain things like science?
  
  Sounds kinda racist?
  
  Maybe we need to “equalise” those differences?
  
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  February 12, 2024 3:46pm
Maggie Pie

Watched the first quarter of Superbowl…. no crowd shots!
Did catch a glimpse of Travis with his helmet off.
Would have to be one of the the stupidest games I’ve ever seen.
They wear more regalia than Mob Members travelling to a Tangi.
And soo many ads. They lost me I’m afraid.
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February 12, 2024 1:34pm
- Maggie Pie
  
  And I’ll tell you something else… straight men don’t dress like this!
  
  https://twitter.com/AmyKinLA/status/1756781187128062312
  
  6 2
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  February 12, 2024 1:59pm
  - NZer In Exile
    
    Not sure whether it’s about being straight or not. To me just looks like a fashion train wreck! Needs better wardrobe advisers.
    
    5 1
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    February 12, 2024 2:24pm
    - Maggie Pie
      
      And did you see the half-time ‘entertainment’?
      No wonder people with knowledge of the situation
      are saying Biden has completely f***ked the country 🙁
      
      It was sooo pathetic!!
      
      3 1
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      February 12, 2024 2:43pm
      - marcw
        
        It must have been embarrassing to be the only white in the entire show – a dancer in the roller skate team.
        
        3 0
        Report
        February 12, 2024 3:06pm
- greybeard
  
  Hosking was wetting himself this morning in anticipation of this show !
  He was even crowing that the NFL was taking the game to other countries !
  
  3 0
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  February 12, 2024 3:07pm
- MCōs
  
  https://x.com/itsjefftiedrich/status/1756888510894625018?s=61&t=yFkzCNMWRCaVt1p5eRxUog
  
  0 1
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  February 12, 2024 6:10pm
Ghost

United States Invasion Route Exposed
3 0
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February 12, 2024 1:54pm
- Jack5
  
  And fastest growing group coming through Mexico and illegally entering the US are Chinese!
  
  https://youtu.be/M7TNP2OTY2g?si=7fprhiGVgNG8S97F
  
  8 0
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  February 12, 2024 2:06pm
  - Ghost
    
    Easy way to get your military into a country…..
    
    7 0
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    February 12, 2024 2:12pm
Ghost

Can Auckland’s trains not cope with a warm day?

Trains across Auckland are being cancelled this afternoon and during the evening rush hour due to the “heat”, Auckland Transport says.

Article
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February 12, 2024 2:33pm
- sirknz
  
  And it is cooler today than it has been for the last month…
  
  6 0
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  February 12, 2024 2:41pm
- alex Masterley
  
  And its not the warmest day in the past few weeks either.
  
  7 0
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  February 12, 2024 2:49pm
- mandk
  
  from the article:
  “As of 1pm it was 23C in Auckland and expected to peak at 3pm rising to 25C.”
  
  Hardly hot.
  
  9 0
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  February 12, 2024 2:51pm
- Maggie Pie
  
  Yet we’ve seen trains running in India when it was 45c !
  People hanging out the windows and crouching on the roof.
  Honestly, what a joke AT is… they only do this to put more buses on the road to piss off car owners. It’s all part of a bigger plan.
  
  10 1
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  February 12, 2024 2:53pm
  - Ghost
    
    We have the freight train going by in 30 degrees heat. Weird.
    
    6 0
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    February 12, 2024 2:57pm
  - mogg
    
    In 1970 I travelled by train from New Delhi to Calcutta as it was then. Not only were there people riding on the carriage rooftops there were also people riding underneath on the axles.
    At all stations there were railway employees armed with long bamboo poles who would prod and poke any free riders until they came out from under.
    This wasn’t the end of it because they would then be chased over the rails and into the countryside while being beaten with the bamboo poles. Happy days!!
    
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    February 12, 2024 3:22pm
    - muzled
      
      The trains in India are awesome. 2nd class sleeper for the win, so good with all the spruikers coming through selling their wears at each stop.
      
      Only bad train experience I had there was when I couldn’t get 2nd class and had to go first class. The way the high caste Indians treat other Indians is truly appalling.
      
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      February 12, 2024 6:16pm
- SoloView
  
  @ Ghost @ 2:33pm
  I thought the article actually explained quite well why some trains are cancelled.
  
  From the article
  “Heat on the track is not directly related to air temperature, Knight explained, adding the steels rails get hotter than the air.
  
  “Also, if there have been warm nights, the rail may not cool enough from the previous day. Temporary speed restrictions can have a cumulative effect on services and, to maintain schedule integrity, some services can be cancelled.”
  
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  February 12, 2024 3:33pm
  - Chris Nisbet
    
    “Also, if there have been warm nights, the rail may not cool enough from the previous day”.
    I’m very sceptical of this claim. I would have thought that the rails would be quite good at radiating heat away. An actual engineer might like to chip in and give a back of the envelope idea of how long it’d take for a warm rail to lose the bulk of the heat built up from a say in the sun.
    
    7 0
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    February 12, 2024 4:09pm
- Grunter
  
  Its called “Global Boiling Science”….
  1. Because of global boiling you have to take the train.
  2. Because of global boiling it’s too hot for trains to run.
  3. Because of global boiling, even though it’s only 23 degrees, the train tracks get even hotter.
  
  I know I know…..it’s complicated. But the science is settled!
  
  13 0
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  February 12, 2024 3:53pm
  - mogg
    
    According to TV One news a while back, the “railway lines were melting in the heat”. now that’s what I call
    Global boiling.
    
    10 0
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    February 12, 2024 4:28pm
greybeard

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/350176233/father-accused-murdering-8-month-old-repeated-punches-stomach
My God, how can anyone do this sort of thing?
Surely there should be only one outcome for this sick bastard.
10 0
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February 12, 2024 3:03pm
- Maggie Pie
  
  Was it one of them again Yogi?
  
  9 0
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  February 12, 2024 3:15pm
- cmm
  
  Another playmate for Chris, Cru and Ru…
  
  7 0
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  February 12, 2024 4:42pm
NZer In Exile

Some of the most juvenile and unhinged morons of the far left go full Nazi in Australia:

From Sky News Australia:
‘Nazi-like’: Hundreds of Jewish Australian artists and their families doxed by high-profile pro-Palestine activists
https://www.skynews.com.au/australia-news/nazilike-hundreds-of-jewish-australian-artists-and-their-families-doxed-by-highprofile-propalestine-activists/news-story/cf5a43be6585c555f3a553b7bda58c3c

Not only this. In Fitzroy Melbourne (home of some of the most insane lefties in Australia) Jews are selling up and fleeing the area because of the intimidation and harassment they constantly receive).
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February 12, 2024 3:24pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Heat. 23 degrees is too hot to run trains.
Can you believe this shit?

https://www.msn.com/en-nz/news/national/trains-across-auckland-cancelled-due-to-heat/ar-BB1i8aMW?
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February 12, 2024 3:34pm
- Chris Nisbet
  
  No.
  
  5 0
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  February 12, 2024 3:46pm
- Chris Nisbet
  
  Our leaders want us to use public transport? And then have to put up with excuses like this for not running a half-decent service?
  No thanks – It’s bad enough that I’m forced to pay for these ‘services’, let alone actually use them too.
  
  8 0
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  February 12, 2024 3:51pm
- cmm
  
  Climate change!
  
  3 0
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  February 12, 2024 4:41pm
- greybeard
  
  Too hot for the staff, not the trains.
  
  2 0
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  February 12, 2024 4:53pm
Ghost

The Coalition Government is continuing work to restore council ownership and control of water assets by repealing Three Waters and appointing a Technical Advisory Group to provide expert advice on the implementation of Local Water Done Well, Local Government Minister Simeon Brown says.

“The Government will pass a bill to repeal Labour’s divisive and unpopular Three Waters legislation by February 23 as part of our 100-day plan. This will restore continued local council ownership and control of water services, and responsibility for service delivery,” Brown said in a press release.

Article

Awww, another labour achievement hits the bin
7 0
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February 12, 2024 4:04pm
cmm

Haven’t people figured this out yet?

Having anything to do with a dude like this is not a healthy idea. Don’t sell drugs to the prick, don’t try enforce a drug sale,…

Just one wee stab with a boning knife…. didn’t mean to kill him…

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/naya-ropiu-fabian-wharekura-pleads-guilty-to-manslaughter-in-drug-deal-gone-wrong/OKHZKQRYMRFB5HYPJZSZTOW7HQ/
7 0
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February 12, 2024 5:15pm
Swifty

“Lashes out…..”

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/trains-cancelled-across-auckland-due-to-heat/FTQVJQEM5ZD4ZNTYHMUCGUNWOA/

“Auckland Transport lashes out at KiwiRail over track ‘heat’ issues, multiple city trains cancelled”

Herald, you suck.
7 0
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February 12, 2024 5:53pm
- marcw
  
  Makes a change from the usual “slammed”.
  
  4 0
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  February 12, 2024 6:04pm
Jade Warrior

What is going on with TV 1 News tonight? They have devoted 20 minutes of their bulletin to Cyclone Gabrielle. Well OK sure, it was a disaster when it hit a year ago but … is this really news?
12 0
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February 12, 2024 6:28pm
- artemisia
  
  Thinking up things for John Campbell to earn his pay cheque.
  
  8 0
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  February 12, 2024 7:07pm
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  They did the same last night, too.
  
  I think we’ve got a week of it…
  
  Must be too expensive for their journos/reporters /camerafolk to file some news.
  
  9 0
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  February 12, 2024 7:13pm
- JerJer
  
  Yes, the news should be that Labour had an entire year and did stuff all. An absolute shite job of the recovery, and yet they didn’t mention it at all.
  
  6 0
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  February 12, 2024 8:07pm
NZer In Exile

Why did Hitler hate the Jews?

From Anne Frank House.
https://www.annefrank.org/en/anne-frank/go-in-depth/why-did-hitler-hate-jews/
2 0
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February 12, 2024 6:59pm
Maggie Pie

Surely it’s time 1EWES pulled the plug on Simon Dallow?

Honestly, there’s spunkier looking guys at Ma’s Retirement Village.
One of then is an absolute ringer for Jeffery Epstein.
Some people there reckon Simo looks like an Inanga with glasses.

Just saying.
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February 12, 2024 7:01pm
NZer In Exile

Did you know “Palestinians” REFUSED to have a state?

Peel commission 1937
UN partition plan 1947
Israel declaration of independence 1948
Oslo accords 1993
Barak offer Camp David 2000
Saudi initiative 2002
Olmert’s offer 2008
Kerry Obama initiative 2013
Trump’s “deal of the century” 2020

The reason was ALWAYS their refusal to acknowledge the right of Israel to exist as a Jewish state.
5 1
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February 12, 2024 7:10pm
- Jake Dee
  
  That’s a canard.
  The Palestinians were never offered a state. A true state has sovereign power. They were offered limited autonomy in a zone under Israeli military control.
  That’s nothing like a “State” unless you mean “Vassal State”.
  
  3 5
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  February 12, 2024 7:23pm
  - All_on_Red
    
    Good to hear that Hamastan was being denied sovereign power.
    They have proved they don’t deserve it.
    Why does pretty much everyone in the ME want Hamas destroyed?
    
    2 1
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    February 12, 2024 8:02pm
    - Jake Dee
      
      The West Bank, under the Palestinian Authority is being denied sovereignty today. All the Palestinian territories, when under the PLO (a secular organization) were denied sovereignty for decades. As NZer in Exile points out this has been going on since at least the 1940s.
      Hamas began in 1987.
      You can’t travel backwards through time and blame it on them, there is clearly something else going on.
      With your slow (very slow) ponderous steps, you are actually moving closer to reaching a reasonable conclusion.
      You say that HAMAS doesn’t deserve sovereignty, who decides that and by what rules? Where are these arbiters of sovereignty, Washington, London, Tel Aviv?
      How has sovereignty been determined in every other case in human history?
      How did Washington (both the man and the national capital) become sovereign? How did James II stop being “The Sovereign” and William of Orange become it?
      If you can’t make a reasonable deal (which will require TWO reasonable parties) then you will just have to fight it out. Any talk of this party or that party “not deserving sovereignty” is just pure fancy and political rhetoric.
      It’s old school power politics and always has been.
      
      1 2
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      February 12, 2024 8:50pm
  - NZer In Exile
    
    Jake Dee, looking around at a glance (avoiding the usual lefty faucets of disingenuous spin) that does not appear to be so. Where are you getting this claim from?
    
    2 0
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    February 12, 2024 8:49pm
    - NZer In Exile
      
      From everything I can see the attempts at two states were pathways to building independence and mutual security over several years.
      
      1 0
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      February 12, 2024 8:58pm
    - Jake Dee
      
      You claim that the Palestinians were offered a state as far back as 1937. I claim that a state has sovereign power, anything less is some species of a vassal state.
      If you believe that those earlier deals offered full sovereignty then that’s on you to show, don’t try to shift the burden of proof onto me, if you propose the thesis then you defend the thesis.
      I’m not familiar with the details of those earlier proposals but I am familiar with the later Oslo Accords. The Palestinians were offered limited autonomy, under the ultimate “security control” of Israel. That’s nothing like a state, that’s a vassal state. Unless you disagree and if so I would like to know why.
      
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      February 12, 2024 9:20pm
- Maggie Pie
  
  Obiously the green marxist Chloe wouldn’t know the first thing about it.
  As my gran would have said….”She someone who rambles on as her arse guides her”.
  
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  February 12, 2024 7:32pm
Maggie Pie

And Aljaz just reporting that Israel is bombing Palestinian civilians trapped in Rafah.

Wait a minit….how can they be ‘trapped’?
A quick look at our World Globe liquor cabinet shows there’s a border crossing into Egypt.
2 2
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February 12, 2024 8:24pm
- kowtow
  
  Mexican prez won’t let them cross the border.
  
  1 0
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  February 12, 2024 9:41pm
Truman lodge

Another awesome kiwi export

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/25837342/mongrel-mob-new-zealand-uk-gloucester-violence/
3 0
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February 12, 2024 8:40pm
Jack5

Defence Minister Judith Collins should be following what Britain’s doing to halt Woke culture in the country’s armed forces.

The Telegraph reports that the UK Defence Minister, Grant Shapps, is holding crisis talks with military chiefs over plans to relax to relax security checks on recruits so that diversity can be increased.

Shapps says a Woke and extremist culture has infiltrated the British Army.

The British military is suffering a recruitment crisis and has repeatedly failed to meet its targets, which include boosting women and ethnic minority numbers.

We can conclude that Woke diversity weakens a country’s military.

America, too, is having problems recruiting for its armed services. Recruiting is still stronger in the South and the Mid-West.

The second link below is to an article by an African American who says a strategy espoused in US military recruiting, DEI – “diversity, equity, and inclusion” – is the “opposite of the social justice values espoused by the civil rights movements”.

Telegraph on Woke crisis in British Army (outside the newspaper’s paywall when I read it):

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/02/11/grant-shapps-army-resources-squandered-political-agenda/

Flaw of the Woke programme, DEI, in the US military:

https://www.cato.org/commentary/dei-should-be-mia-us-military
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February 12, 2024 9:35pm
- NoFax
  
  It is actually very simple, those that join the military generally have a love of country, wished to be challenged, and have get up and go. Not the traits Leftists are known for. So, by demonizing those with love of country and trying to attract a “modern recruit” they get neither. Those who hate Western Civilization and being indoctrinated into thinking we have nothing to offer won’t join the institution designed to defend our country.
  
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  February 12, 2024 9:51pm
Ghost

Wellington turns down offer to help fix the leaks. Weird.

Wellington Water is warning it may move the city into Level 3 water restrictions in the next two weeks.

That’s despite the agency turning down an offer from the plumbing industry to help fix the thousands of leaks plaguing the city.

Wellington Water is warning it may move the city into Level 3 water restrictions in the next two weeks.

That’s despite the agency turning down an offer from the plumbing industry to help fix the thousands of leaks plaguing the city.

Article
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February 12, 2024 10:01pm

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