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March 5, 2024 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 05 March 2024

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General Debate

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Biscuit

Great news, good people,

It’s less than a month till the big policy plank that Labour ran on to win re-election last year comes into force.

Yep, GST is coming off Fruit and Vegetables!

The savings in his household will be immense. Immense, I tells thee!

Aren’t we all SO glad we Kiwibloggers realised Chippie’s ‘In it for you’ pledge would, so to speak, bear fruit in time and ‘ticked Red twice’?
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March 5, 2024 9:07am
- pdm
  
  Biscuit you and I are the pacesetters this morning.
  
  Unbelieveable at about 9.10am
  
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  March 5, 2024 9:12am
- Cassandra
  
  And according to Labour increasing the cost of rego in 2027 by $50 “will impact the low paid”. The minimum wage is $48,000 a year! It’ll be 50 in 2027.
  
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  March 5, 2024 9:17am
  - nathie
    
    Have Labour and the Team of $55m forgotten car rego costs were over $300 during Helen Clark’s government? John Key’s govt slashed the costs down to under $100. Jacinda Ardern’s govt raised them slightly (just over $100).
    
    Labour/MSM labour luuvies = hypocrites.
    
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    March 5, 2024 9:59am
    - ISeeRed
      
      Why isn’t Luxon saying this?
      
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      March 5, 2024 1:48pm
    - Ghost
      
      Doesn’t matter if key reduced it. We should be demanding better from our poiuticsns. Local and central just keep finding ways to keep taking and taking.
      
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      March 5, 2024 2:03pm
- Swifty
  
  There was a woman interviewed recently on RNZ who has launched a petition to have GST removed from SPF sunscreens.
  
  She claimed that “the products will be 15% cheaper!”
  
  Bath maths on her part and a heroic assumption that 100% of the GST savings will be passed on to consumers by suppliers. There are reams of evidence that this never happens.
  
  And here’s the kicker! Guess what business she is in?
  
  https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/top/510619/sunscreen-maker-wants-gst-removed-to-get-more-kiwis-slip-slop-slapping
  
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  March 5, 2024 9:17am
  - Kiwiguy
    
    I’m often amazed by how people don’t understand how percentages work.
    15% on, is not the same as 15% off.
    Also: a double percentage discount say -5% – 4% is not the same as -9%.
    I have literally had to explain these things to someone with accountant training. And she still didn’t believe me until she went and tried it for herself.
    
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    March 5, 2024 9:31am
    - Swifty
      
      It’s a head scratcher.
      
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      March 5, 2024 9:37am
    - Simon
      
      Right accounting vs economics. Surprised someone made this comment but it was an accounting issue.
      
      In economics:
      
      Its case by case. Councils have no problem slapping 15% GST onto rates. If gst disappeared rates charges would drop by 15% GST amount.
      
      It depends on how competitive the sellers business / service is operating in. The more competitive the more likely the seller will absorb the greater GST amount themselves. In monopolies GST is added 15%.
      
      Worse is GST charged onto new residential housing. Labo happy to bank that. Chicken shit fruit & veges.
      
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      March 5, 2024 9:59am
    - O C Smith
      
      Yep primary school arithmetic
      
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      March 5, 2024 10:24am
    - Ian Boag
      
      15% on, is not the same as 15% off.
      
      Yeah – 100/115 = .869 so it’s 13.1% off. Not hugely different to 15% ….
      
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      March 5, 2024 10:45am
      - Kiwiguy
        
        I’m mighty glad you’re not my accountant.
        
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        March 5, 2024 11:06am
      - Media hater
        
        Wow, you actually made me laugh out loud, Ian.
        
        What an absolute character you are.
        
        “13.1 per cent of commentators find Ian’s math’s ability rather poor. Go figure”!
        
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        March 5, 2024 12:22pm
      - Ian Boag
        
        Umm ….
        $100 with 15% on is $115
        $115 with 15% off is $115 * 0.85 = $97.75
        $115 reduced to $100 is a reduction of 15/115 = 13.05%
        
        No black magic there.
        
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        March 5, 2024 3:32pm
    - Local Miller
      
      I had this argument with my very clever son this weekend. He insisted that if something “increased 100%” it would not change in price, but if you said it “increased by 100%” it would. I literally had to write out:
      $100 increase 25% = $125
      $100 increase 50% = $150
      …
      $100 increase 100% = ? Certainly not $100
      What get’s everyone is that a 100% increase is like multiplying by 2. He flipped when I had to explain that a 500% increase wasn’t $100 x 5 but $100 x 6.
      
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      March 5, 2024 11:52am
      - cmm
        
        That used to drive me crazy as a very pedantic kid.
        Now I just roll my eyes…
        
        Even worse is when people talk about reductions.
        
        eg. a 5 times reduction should mean you’re now at -4x where you started off from. Most people seem to mean you’re now at a fifth of where you started (ie. an 80% reduction).
        
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        March 5, 2024 2:06pm
      - mawm
        
        Apologies cmm – accidental downtick.
        
        It drives me crazy because I never understand exactly what a person means. Why can’t they simply describe it as a fraction or a percentage?
        
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        March 5, 2024 4:00pm
    - artemisia
      
      I’m reasonably numerate but still check via below. V useful.
      
      https://percentagecalculator.net/
      
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      March 5, 2024 12:51pm
    - Paul
      
      One word. TAX
      
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      March 5, 2024 6:19pm
  - Swifty
    
    *bad maths
    
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    March 5, 2024 9:35am
- Ian Boag
  
  Flat/sales taxes are regressive. That means they impact low income people more in % terms than higher income people. Progressive taxes impact higher incomes more on a % basis. I’m not expressing a good/bad opinion – just stating the facts.
  
  GST is a regressive tax. So are vehicle rego and petrol tax. PAYE is a progressive tax. So this government is about to increase a couple of regressive taxes (to fix roads) and decrease the biggest progressive tax. Not helped by the fact that the extra (foreign house sales) tax that was going to fund the PAYE cuts is not going to happen.
  
  Any little bit helps, but cutting the school lunch program will not make a significant dent in any of this.
  
  And while we are at the RB is still trying to reduce inflation (and demand) by keeping the OCR screws on while the gummint is looking to to loosen things with (unfunded) tax cuts.
  
  Funny old world. Go figure.
  
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  March 5, 2024 9:37am
  - jkt
    
    Funny world indeed.
    “Just stating facts.”
    Nearly everyone saw through you.
    
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    March 5, 2024 10:22am
  - Local Miller
    
    @Ian Baog “That means they impact low income people more in % terms than higher income people”
    
    Percentage terms are totally misleading when dealing with income and taxes, and I notice that socialist oriented believers like to use % when it reflects poorly on a policy they don’t like, but avoid % when it negates their policies.
    
    Flat/sales taxes impact higher income people much more in real monitory terms than it impacts poor people. GST is a good example because we all buy food. My rich sister and her husband buy wine at $100+ a bottle, where I don’t spend more than $15 on a bottle. In real terms they are paying significantly more GST than I am. Similarly, they have a much more expensive car, and spend a lot more on food because I buy cheep cuts of meat, etc. where they buy expensive cuts.
    Flat taxes based on spending are also better because they disincentivize SPENDING where progressive taxes like PAYE disincentivize hard work and incentivize tax avoidance. Why work harder and earn more if I’m just going to pay more tax? And tax avoidance is something both the wealthy and poor do. The wealth through generally legal means, the poor though under the table work to avoid PAYE.
    Under a flat/GST system, a poor person (actually anyone) can control to some extent the REAL tax they pay and particularly the value they get against that tax by making wise spending choices (buy specials, avoid expensive takeaways, etc.).
    
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    March 5, 2024 12:17pm
  - Taieri
    
    That means they impact low income people more in % terms than higher income people.
    ————
    
    If flat rate paid by poor people is 15% and progressive rate paid by the same people is also 15% the impact is exactly the same.
    
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    March 5, 2024 1:54pm
  - ISeeRed
    
    Rent or mortgage payments make up “more in % terms” of a low income earner’s wages than a higher income earner’s. These are GST-exempt. Therefore, you are wrong.
    
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    March 5, 2024 1:56pm
  - Paul
    
    Ian, unemployment must increase to bring down inflation, now at one of the highest levels at 4.7%.
    How do we unemploy unemployed people ? You did this.
    
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    March 5, 2024 6:23pm
- imalwaysright
  
  It rained yesterday so the fruit and veg will triple in price.
  
  Chippy would argue that our GST savings will also triple!
  
  Labournomics.
  
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  March 5, 2024 10:40am
- Local Miller
  
  Time to shift our diet to fruit and veg only 🙂
  
  Imagine the savings we’ll achieve.
  
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  March 5, 2024 11:13am
Diogenes

Oh dear, what’s happened to GD this morning? No link on the KB front page, and I could only make this post because I know how to modify a URL (ie, I went into yesterday’s GD, and in the web address, switched “04_March” to “05_March”.
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March 5, 2024 9:10am
- Flossie
  
  I was completely discombobulated! How could I get my day started!
  
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  March 5, 2024 9:33am
  - Biscuit
    
    Hope your combobulation is back up and running, Flossie!
    
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    March 5, 2024 11:15am
    - Flossie
      
      Thanks for your concern Biscuit….I did bounce back fairly rapidly!
      
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      March 5, 2024 11:46am
- peterwn
  
  Four fibre cables in the Red Sea area have been cut and carriers have been scrambling to reroute traffic. This could have knock on effects around the world so web sites etc dependent on offshore servers could be adversely affected.
  
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  March 5, 2024 9:45am
  - Paul
    
    I love a Lawyer on the case and your contributions are much appreciated.
    
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    March 5, 2024 6:25pm
- pdm
  
  Clever Diogenes and too deep for me.
  
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  March 5, 2024 9:49am
- Che Guava
  
  I even stayed up late into the night to get my extensive comment ready to post at 8am (logging on at 7:58 am and refreshing the page until GD popped up).
  
  I must say that I was disappointed to not get the pole position I craved, and with it, maximum dopamine from all the likes my comment was bound to attract (something about how appalling and unqualified the left are and how biased and woke the news is these days).
  
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  March 5, 2024 11:23am
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Must be daylight saving 🙂
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March 5, 2024 9:12am
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Unanimous.

https://patriotpoll.net/poll/scotus-rules-trump-eligible/1623?src=HOU20240304
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March 5, 2024 9:13am
- thirteenstars
  
  Yep, bad day for TDS sufferers when even the Liberal judges on the court agree.
  
  Who’d have thought it was wrong to deny a candidate from standing on the basis of a non-existent conviction? It’s as if the rule of law and due process, presumption of innocent and the right to a trial were needed before a person could be ruled ineligible.
  
  Huh.
  
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  March 5, 2024 11:42am
  - All_on_Red
    
    But but but, we had legal EXPERTS like Virtualmark tell us that the Colorado Jurists were the finest legal minds in the US and Trump was doomed!
    But no, he was wrong AGAIN.
    Lol
    
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    March 5, 2024 11:59am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Nikki Haley beat Trump in DC, now she will thrash Trump in the Presidential Election.//
      
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      March 5, 2024 12:38pm
    - virtualmark
      
      I have mixed views of this decision.
      
      On the supportive side, I agree with not letting states unilaterally remove candidates, because (1) it leads to a chaotic state-by-state patchwork and (2) it invites strongly partisan states to look for ways to suspend the opposing candidate. So I agree that there needs to be some sort of guideline or ruling that sets the ground rules.
      
      On the “surprised but not surprised” side there should be sensible concerns on several different levels.
      
      Firstly, philosophically, this is SCOTUS re-writing the Constitution rather than interpreting it. Go read the plain text of the 14th Amendment … there is nothing in there about Congress needing to pass a law. In fact the draftees of that Amendment do specifically refer to Congress being able to allow an insurrectionist on but then SCOTUS want us to believe they somehow completely forgot to say that only Congress could enforce this? Fails the common sense test.
      
      Secondly, in consistency, this is SCOTUS saying States don’t have freedom to rule, which is at odds with their previous rulings that States have considerable independent powers.
      
      Thirdly, in terms of practical implementation … how might Congress pass a law to disqualify insurrectionists if Congress is, say, full of insurrectionists? That’s why it was a Constitutional amendment, and not a law, in the first place. And if it’s a law passed by Congress then the Constitution says it needs a 2/3rds vote to allow an insurrectionist in but under this SCOTUS ruling Congress would just need a simple majority to repeal the law and so allow an insurrectionist in. Again, that just doesn’t add up.
      
      In real life it doesn’t matter. Trump isn’t going to win Colorado or Maine, and, say, Texas and Florida aren’t going to bar him – so it will make no difference to the November election.
      
      But it is another example of a SCOTUS that lacks consistency and that appears to have jurists who’ve been appointed for their ideological purity rather than their legal awesomeness.
      
      So I’m a “shrug, not really surprised but still disappointed at the lack of quality”.
      
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      March 5, 2024 12:43pm
      - Nigel Kearney
        
        I agree. Courts have to be able to apply the Constitution whether Congress likes it or not. They already do this for other parts of the 14th amendment. But there is serious doubt about whether Trump engaged in insurrection, or even whether he was an ‘Officer of the United States’.
        
        Letting states run federal elections is a bad idea also, especially when you have elected AGs in blue states who are more interested in virtue signalling to potential voters, than in applying the law.
        
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        March 5, 2024 12:54pm
      - virtualmark
        
        Nigel,
        
        Re whether Trump engaged in an insurrection … I recommend reading the two Colorado judgments, which considered that question at length. The Colorado judges surely knew this would end up at SCOTUS so they were careful and exhaustive in their hearings and in their judgments. The judgments make clear that Jan 6 far exceeds the legal definition of an insurrection, and that even though Trump wasn’t there on-site his involvement clearly met the legal test for having led or been involved.
        
        It’s also very telling that this SCOTUS decision doesn’t address that “Was Jan 6 an insurrection” question. Trump’s lawyers pressed them to rule on that, and they explicitly haven’t. It’s clear they are leaving that for the Jan 6 federal case.
        
        But yes, from our NZ perspective it’s easy to think the US should have a Federal law that sets out the rules for Federal elections (like, AFAIK, Australia does). But then that gets back to the problem of states arguing that they have a lot of independence to make their own laws. For example, imagine telling Texas how they have to run Federal elections. So it’s not a simple issue in the US context.
        
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        March 5, 2024 1:04pm
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        Insurrection.
        Well Trump has not been charged or trial, so why do people think his name should be removed from the ballots?
        “We The People” now get to vote for the candidate of their choosing. It is not any of these candidates but not Trump. Democracy wins and “We The People” win. The cheating Democrats lose.
        Unanimous remember? Unanimous!
        
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        March 5, 2024 3:23pm
      - virtualmark
        
        Steve,
        
        Trump has been charged over the Jan 6 events. It’s a Federal indictment, in DC. It’s currently paused while SCOTUS consider Trump’s claim to have a sweeping Presidential immunity.
        
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        March 5, 2024 3:30pm
      - Steve Todd
        
        @virtualmark @ 1:04PM
        
        I have twice previously suggested, most recently here, https://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2024/01/who_will_come_second_in_iowa.html/comment-page-1#comment-3498348, that there should be a Constitutional amendment that creates a Federal Elections Agency.
        
        Then, Texas would have no choice but to comply with any laws subsequently enacted to give effect to such Amendment.
        
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        March 5, 2024 3:57pm
    - Lee C
      
      No AoR, this time it was really, really really serious for Trump.
      
      Ask anyone.
      
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      March 5, 2024 2:07pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Yeah, where is that “Batman” dude and his list of Trump supporters?
    
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    March 5, 2024 12:35pm
  - virtualmark
    
    I recommend you read the dissent from the liberal judges. To me that was the most logical, consistent and best argued part of the overall decision.
    
    Basically they were saying that they do agree with the core question that states can’t disqualify candidates under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, hence the unanimous vote.
    
    But their dissent then says that they don’t agree with the rest of the SCOTUS ruling which goes beyond the core question to say that the *only* way to disqualify a candidate is via a law passed by Congress.
    
    They also point out that (1) the rest of the Constitutional qualifications for President (natural born citizen, age etc) don’t rest on laws passed by Congress and (2) the rest of the Fourteenth Amendment rights are self-executing (ie don’t require a law from Congress). So they’re pointing out the inconsistencies.
    
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    March 5, 2024 12:51pm
    - thirteenstars
      
      But what you’re missing is that for a person to be disqualified due to insurrection there first must be a ruling from a court that insurrection took place.
      
      To maintain that any court can rule prima facie that a person is an insurrectionist is truly an authoritarian prospect. Self-execution for a charge of insurrection would violate not only other parts of the 14th but almost the entirety of the 4th, 5th and 6th amendments.
      
      You could argue that Congress, as the highest court in the land, could make such a ruling, but that’s a very high bar, and Congress must in fact rule (as they do with impeachment) which they haven’t.
      
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      March 5, 2024 2:02pm
      - virtualmark
        
        Wrong.
        1. There is nothing in the Constitution that says anything remotely like that.
        2. The Courts that have considered this (Colorado, Maine) show that there is no such need.
        3. None of the prior cases where people were disqualified under this Amendment had a Court conviction.
        
        You may be parroting what Fox News tells you, but it’s wrong.
        
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        March 5, 2024 3:28pm
      - thirteenstars
        
        “Wrong.”
        
        No, you’re wrong because the Supreme Court just struck down Colorado’s action. If 1, 2 & 3 were correct they would not have.
        
        In fact SCOTUS made it clear that the ability of states to do such a thing would be untenable in a democracy.
        
        If Colorado or any other state had such powers they would simply find Trump engaged in insurrection and then bar him… oh, wait, they tried exactly that and SCOTUS said no.
        
        Try again.
        
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        March 5, 2024 4:05pm
      - Steve Todd
        
        @virtualmark @ 3.28PM
        
        Yes, quite right, virtualmark (well, at least in my opinion). See my response to Jigsaw, here: https://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2024/01/general_debate_13_january_2024.html/comment-page-1#comment-3498905.
        
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        March 5, 2024 4:13pm
      - virtualmark
        
        thirteen stars,
        
        Yes, fair enough, it’s “wrong” in the sense that SCOTUS have just decided it’s wrong.
        
        But, in my defence, I am “right” in the sense that all precedent aligns with what I said, and SCOTUS has invented new law that’s at odds with all the precedent. Oddly.
        
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        March 5, 2024 5:48pm
    - All_on_Red
      
      This is what VM was saying in December
      “There is broad legal consensus that Section 3 of the 14th Amendment doesn’t require a criminal conviction for a crime of insurrection to apply. Of the seven historical precedents of people being disqualified under this amendment none of them were charged under the criminal ‘rebellion or insurrection’ statute (18 U.S.C. § 2383) or its predecessors.
      Look, the State Court held a week of hearings on this. Trump was represented there. If you think there’s some straightforward reason why this judgement is wrong then you have to ask yourself why didn’t Trump’s lawyers make those arguments in court? Or on appeal? Answer: Because the arguments you think should be right are actually bogus.”
      Some legal expert huh.
      https://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2023/12/general_debate_22_december_2023.html#comment-3490050
      Hilarious
      How is that Fani women going. Charges Trump with False Statements and Perjury and then gets caught doing it herself.
      Democrats are so corrupt.
      
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      March 5, 2024 3:39pm
      - All_on_Red
        
        More from VM
        This post isnt aging well either
        “Um, so far there’s been zero evidence or proof that Willis and the special prosecutor were in any personal relationship – just an allegation from one of the defendants that that defendant won’t repeat under oath.
        
        Second, even if there were a relationship that won’t have any effect on the court case, which will be decided on the evidence provided to the Court.”
        So funny
        
        https://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2024/01/general_debate_11_january_2024.html#comment-3497558
        
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        March 5, 2024 3:54pm
      - virtualmark
        
        Oh Red, you’re really hung up on me aren’t you. Man, you need to get out more.
        
        I stand by what I wrote in December. Outside SCOTUS the constitutional legal experts were aligned that Section 3 of the 14th Amendment is self-executing, and so doesn’t require a conviction. That’s also what the dissenting SCOTUS judges said.
        
        But the SCOTUS majority didn’t want to throw Trump off the ballot, and so they didn’t, by inventing new Constitutional law from whole cloth. I’m uncomfortable with that, just exactly like I’ve always been uncomfortable with Judge Cooke inventing “the principles of the Treaty” from whole cloth too. It’s bad practice for Judges to write new law. And this decision is very … curious … for a SCOTUS that says its “originalist” and that it s there to follow the black-letter text of the Constitution.
        
        As for Fani Willis … we’ll have a judgement soon on that. I suspect the Judge will find for Willis, but let’s wait and see.
        
        I don’t see how Fani Willis’ love life impacts on Trump’s innocence or guilt. A prosecuting attorney having an affair with the accused, or the defence lawyer, or the defence investigator, or the judge, would be a conflict of interest that would get them thrown off the case (and disciplined). A prosecuting attorney having an affair with the prosecuting investigator doesn’t appear to present a legal conflict of interest. I don’t agree with it and I think it’s inappropriate – but I don’t see how it’s a conflict that would see Willis stood down.
        
        Even if she is stood down the charges still stand and the case would just roll over to another of Willis’ team. So this is not a get out of jail free card.
        
        BTW did you see that the two lawyers bringing this case on behalf of Michael Roman … are married? Is that a conflict of interest?
        
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        March 5, 2024 4:45pm
- Tom Hunter
  
  Heh. I was confident it would be booted but I hoped for a unanimous decision just to put this crap to rest once and for all.
  SCOTUS 2024, A Big Year – Part III: Trump and Colorado.
  
  Aside from all the legal arguments – although it’s worth noting the scathing dissents from the three Democrat judges on the Colorado SC, especially as the tore into the conflict between self-executing and due process – were two historical ones that I thought compelling:
  
  In other words, within six years after Section Three’s passage by Congress and four years after its ratification, the men who had fought against the Confederacy reached a consensus that the sanction against insurrection was largely unnecessary and perhaps undesirable. Symbolic of its evanescence was the seating of Alexander Stephens, former Confederate vice president, in the House of Representatives in December 1873. He served until 1882, when he was elected governor of Georgia.
  
  And…
  
  In a more civilized version of America – one that existed just a few decades ago – the notion of waging this sort of unrestricted lawfare against a leading presidential candidate, much less a former president – would have been considered ridiculous, and had it been taken seriously, would have been seen as enormously risky.
  
  When considering any political tactic, after all, one question is what happens if it doesn’t work. But sometimes an equally important question is, what happens if it does?
  
  Say the various Democratic flacks, special prosecutors, and state attorneys general somehow manage to eliminate Trump. What happens? Half the country – maybe more – will conclude that the whole system is rigged, that the establishment doesn’t follow the rules, and that it will gang up on anyone it sees is a threat. They will conclude, in short, that the government, and indeed the entire system, is illegitimate.
  
  And they will be right. And the politicians of even a generation ago recognized that as enormously dangerous.
  
  The arrogant idiots of Washington D.C. especially are confident they can ride right over the top of all that.
  
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  March 5, 2024 2:56pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    That is a dam good link Tom. It will shut up a lot with TDS.
    Send it to Joe Biden and watch his head explode??
    
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    March 5, 2024 3:41pm
  - Vory v zakone
    
    Sigh and Shrug Tom. How dare you quote Constitutional Scholars in your treatise. You should be quoting the ignorant pundits like the flea lawyers on Cable TV’s MSDNC and #FakeNewsCNN. Or worse still, the anonymous armchair lawyers on social media.
    😉
    
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    March 6, 2024 4:11am
  - jkt
    
    Good point.
    
    Change the constitution.
    
    I agree that SCOTUS got the decision sort of right. I do not like the idea that the President is above the law.
    
    Did SCOTUS kick the can down the road? Thank goodness conservatives dominated SCOTUS. Imagine if WOKE dominated SCOTUS…….. That is why I think they should amend the constitution.
    
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    March 6, 2024 9:38am
BeaB

The media have lost the plot. Big Jenna at Newshub and her squeaky wee friend seem to see themselves as the avenging angels for Labour’s dismal loss.
TV1 doesn’t even try to give us the full picture. Radio NZ is stacked with left wingers who see their role as activists rather than reporters.
No wonder the ratings are falling. I was brought up with the 6 o’clock news but nowadays I turn much more to overseas sources and social media. I get a fuller story and usually days before it hits our news. I can also keep up with developments which our media too often ignore altogether.
The much higher quality of writing is also a great attraction.
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March 5, 2024 9:14am
- Lance
  
  TV1 news last night was the worst yet. Quite some achievement.
  Wee gems like.. Luxon scored an invite to an overseas meeting so he can hide from the opposition’s questions (yes that was the actual lines).
  
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  March 5, 2024 9:31am
  - Swifty
    
    Shut TVNZ down and kill two birds with one stone.
    
    1. Eliminate a taxpayer-lefty propaganda factory and 2. Clear the field for new media players to emerge without having to compete against a dominant state player.
    
    It’s a win/win.
    
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    March 5, 2024 9:41am
    - Ghost
      
      Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
      Only a few shows are taxpayer funded with nz on air. Tvnz is self funding with advertising. Last year bringing in over $300 million in advertising revenue.
      
      No govt will close it down.
      
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      March 5, 2024 9:50am
      - Swifty
        
        Yeah, I know that they obtain revenue thorough ads but also that they posted a loss for the financial year and that they haven’t been paying dividends for some years. So the taxpayer is carrying them and that’s not even mentioning the cost of the taxpayer capital tied up in the operation.
        
        I’m quite sure that neither National nor Labour would ever scrap TVNZ but that’s not to say that they shouldn’t.
        
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        March 5, 2024 9:57am
      - Grunter
        
        “Tvnz is self funding with advertising. Last year bringing in over $300 million in advertising revenue.”
        
        Wrong – they actually lost over $4.6 million in 6 months. No dividend to the owners.
        
        Shut them down before they lose more taxpayers’ money. We do not NEED TVNZ and most do not WANT TVNZ.
        
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        March 5, 2024 9:58am
      - Ghost
        
        Tvnz have had no funding from the government apart from some programs getting nz on air. Total advertising revenue was $309 million. They had a revenue decrease of $14.1 million to $327.6 million
        
        https://corporate.tvnz.co.nz/assets/Uploads/TVNZ_AnnualReport_2023_WEB.pdf
        
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        March 5, 2024 10:12am
      - Yabster
        
        We have had this conversation Ghost, they aren’t self funded – if it wasn’t for nz on air (the tax payer) they would have lost millions last year- just go and read the financials and stop repeating stuff that is not true. Advertising revenue also fell by $13m -and the trend is down….
        
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        March 5, 2024 10:08am
      - Ghost
        
        Yes do go read the financials $309 million in advertising revenue.
        
        No tax payer funding except nz on air. You can twist it anyway you want, but tvnz do not get any funding, some programs get nz on air, that’s it.
        
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        March 5, 2024 10:17am
      - imalwaysright
        
        Clearly not self funding if they are losing money.
        
        16 2
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        March 5, 2024 10:09am
      - Simon
        
        ” Tvnz is self funding with advertising”.- lol.
        
        Not any more with National gutting wasteful public sector ads.
        
        And not if you take into account how much funding TVNZ has had over the years vs the chicken shit dividend paid. Return on assets under 1%. Just another chicken shit SOE. Utter waste of tax payer funding.
        
        TVNZ doesnt pay for itself and will not in a thousand years.
        
        19 0
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        March 5, 2024 10:18am
      - O C Smith
        
        … and how much in Govt funded advertising?
        
        15 0
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        March 5, 2024 10:26am
      - BananaLlama
        
        Yeah i would agree that is quite a substantial amount of revenue that they are generating from advertising compared to how much top influencers make on social media.
        
        7 0
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        March 5, 2024 10:46am
      - Grunter
        
        Ghost
        Revenue is not profit. Sure they sold around $300 million in advertising (a lot of it was Govt advertising/propaganda BTW). But their costs were larger than their revenue.
        
        That’s basic maths/accounting.
        
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        March 5, 2024 11:14am
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        I think you need to look at some more recent figures..
        
        They’re doomed:
        
        1 March 2024:
        
        Media Release: TVNZ announces an interim loss as it responds to challenging economic conditions and market disruption
        
        https://corporate.tvnz.co.nz/assets/Uploads/TVNZ-Interim-Results-FY24-Media-Release.pdf
        
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        March 5, 2024 11:27am
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        Melissa Lee hasn’t got her teeth into it yet.
        I an sure she will.
        
        4 1
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        March 5, 2024 3:43pm
    - Swifty
      
      *taxpayer-funded
      
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      March 5, 2024 9:52am
      - Yabster
        
        lol Ghost I’m a CA – I produce Financials- here’s a hint if nz on air funding was not received and they produced the same rubbish they do would they have made a loss? Answer is yes- if you can’t work it out. The are meant to pay a dividend – but can’t – because they haven’t adapted to how people view content and are turning off due to the woke agenda.
        
        This year it will be worse as the advertising dollar is going elsewhere.
        
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        March 5, 2024 10:44am
    - jkt
      
      Sell it.
      Surely the value is up now that Newshub……….
      
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      March 5, 2024 10:30am
    - Paulus
      
      Advertising Sales is the only way to succeed which they all have not achieved eg see Newshub.
      TVNZ will have to cut the huge Salaries they pay their staff – some Newshubbers will do it for half I am sure !
      
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      March 5, 2024 11:11am
    - gravedodger
      
      Anyone suggesting TVOne is self funding is ignoring the rather large elephant in the room, Government paid advertising that is so often publicising their electability.
      Let’s examine the quite striking LTSA advert, car hitting the barrier in what looks very similar to the Wakatipu road from Kingston to Frankton. So many people exiting the little car claiming their contribution to road safety when all it suggests to this old ex first responder, a grossly overloaded small car exceeding its passenger capability by many times.
      
      My local authority spends money on advertising road safety on Newstalk ZB, sorry I do not see that as a function, always asking myself if it is someone at the Bureaucracy funding someone making a living selling advertising, taking advantage of OPM.
      
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      March 5, 2024 11:40am
- Flossie
  
  Benedict Collins is getting worse with his anti government sneering. But to be fair it would appear Maiki Sherman has toned it down a bit. Or is it just me thinking that?
  
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  March 5, 2024 9:35am
  - Paulus
    
    Early days yet until Sherman sees if TVNZ will replace her from idiots from Newshub at half her price !
    
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    March 5, 2024 1:19pm
- I remember when
  
  BeaB:P
  Now less than four months to inflict as many wounds on the Government as possible.
  If you have failed, there is no point in changes to strategy as that would make it appear you think it is your fault.
  Heaven forbid.
  
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  March 5, 2024 10:02am
- kowtow
  
  Add NZME’s Herald to that .
  
  Screaming front page headline “Hard Road Ahead” re govt proposals to raise some costs topay for roading ( someone has to pay)
  
  I can’t recall such negativity towards the spendthrift Labour regime which was always going to have a cost , especially in inflation , rates and taxes.
  
  And the daily cartoon is yet another attack showing two charcaters , presumably Seymour “I’ll Take that” snatching a kids lunch box away while another blows cigarette smoke in the kids face saying “you can have this instead”.
  
  They’ve also run an RNZ story re newshub essentially blaming the new minister for a lack of action since Nov .
  
  Extraordinary .
  
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  March 5, 2024 10:02am
- Damocles11
  
  I watched TV3 / Newshub last night as am intrigued as to whether they will go feral because they are losing their jobs and have nothing left to lose, and watching the pieces from Jenna Lynch and Amelia Wade it became apparent that they have gone feral because they are losing their jobs and having nothing left to lose. Both of them presented themselves like pouty goth teenagers who have just had an argument with their parents over a boy. Both looked like they’d been sucking on a lemon immediately prior to going to air. Luxon was presented as the devil incarnate, just a thoroughly evil and repulsive villain. Sorry to use this cliche, but it is a ‘threat to democracy’ if they are allowed to remain on air for the next few months, as any last semblance of balance has well and truly disappeared.
  
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  March 5, 2024 10:04am
  - Paulus
    
    You mean that the Duly Elected Prime Minister is not called Prime Minister as Ardern and her Chippy were addressed but continuingly called just Luxon.
    Poor out of work persons
    – do they remain Members of the Parliamentary Press Gallery if not employed by a member company?
    Can’t do that and Job Seeker I suppose.
    
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    March 5, 2024 11:18am
- Paulus
  
  Poor Jenna, hope she bet better treatment than she gives, when she signs on for the Job Search as nobody will want her especially at her huge salary plus redundancy.
  Sad she has now revealed herself again, and continually, in a blaze of vitriol glory, along with her co redundant such as Amelia Wade in full blown glory, as rat shit awful.
  Hope she gets the B757 to Melbourne last trip as a parting gift.
  
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  March 5, 2024 11:08am
Cassandra

From The Telegraph re Argentina’s President: “Milei, by contrast, means what he says about shrinking the government. Already he has reduced the number of government departments from 18 to nine and fired 30,000 public sector workers.” That’s his 100 days – how’s Luxon and National doing?
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March 5, 2024 9:14am
- Kiwiguy
  
  Milei also achieved a balanced budget for the first time in a decade in Argie. Took him two months.
  
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  March 5, 2024 9:33am
- JeffW
  
  Fat fingers, should be uptick
  
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  March 5, 2024 9:47am
- Grunter
  
  I sense that Seymour is itching to “do a Milei”. He has TVNZ in his sights along with a stack of other money-wasters.
  
  I say – “Bring it on!!”
  
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  March 5, 2024 10:02am
  - kiwi_chileno
    
    Télam, Argentina’s state-owned news agency, established by Peron, a propaganda outlet for Peronists and the political caste, has been forcibly shut-down today. Milei also intends to close other public television and radio news outlets.
    
    https://buenosairesherald.com/politics/milei-vows-to-close-telam-argentinas-largest-public-news-agency
    
    https://derechadiario.com.ar/argentina/chau-telam-milei-cerro-la-agencia-estatal-de-noticias-que-administraba-la-pauta-y-monopolizaba-a-la-prensa
    
    …that Seymour is itching to “do a Milei” – sorry, Seymour is not NZ’s Milei. Even if Seymour had the numbers, he would never ‘milei’ (verb, ‘to milei’) the State. Seymour is a yapping dog, not a roaring lion who has mobilised the Forces of Heaven https://k-larevue.com/en/javier-milei-the-torah-his-rabbi-and-the-forces-of-heaven/ (an excellent Argentinian analysis of Milei’s rise and syncretic philo-semitism).
    
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    March 5, 2024 5:29pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Haley beats Trump!
That makes Haley the first Republican woman to ever win a primary in U.S. history.
Hang about, she is not a Republican, she is a RINO!

https://shorturl.at/goRT4
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March 5, 2024 9:17am
- sirknz
  
  Who knew that Trump was unlikely to win in the Washington DC Primary…
  
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  March 5, 2024 11:01am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    The place is infested with Democrats. They even hate illegal aliens, but don’t mind their vote.
    
    5 1
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    March 5, 2024 12:49pm
  - Lee C
    
    In a Primary in which Democrats are entitled to vote…
    
    4 0
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    March 5, 2024 2:10pm
    - Its only I
      
      He won it with 75% last time. Same voters then…they know him know ?
      
      But back then we all thought Trump as a painted parody of the american dream actually being a POTUS was going to be funny as F#ck…its was and is.
      
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      March 5, 2024 4:57pm
Kiwiguy

So, I have come up with a controversial idea after a drink or two:

Should government department employees be banned from voting?

Hear me out:

1. Many govt employees are privy to confidential information which ordinary people have no access to, and which I guarantee would influence the way they act and vote. If this was a financial institution, this would be called insider trading, which is illegal.
2. It would deter govts from bloating their departments with excess staff & creating more junk departments IE, just like Labour did over their last two terms. Govt’s would know that every new employee is a potentially lost vote.
3. Point 2 above would have an additional benefit relating to inflation: If a govt bloats their departments with excess staff and takes them out of the private job sector, this puts more pressure on the private job market due to staff shortages, and businesses have to pay more to attract and retain staff – which contributes to inflation. Also, when a govt increases its running costs due to excess staff, it needs to extract more money typically via taxes etc – putting more financial pressure on people and businesses – so prices increase, also contributing to inflation.

Some could argue that this idea is undemocratic – but if you think about the fact that these govt employees are privy to confidential info that the public is not – well that’s not very democratic either.

Sooo… fire away!
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March 5, 2024 9:17am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Point 2 is a beauty!
  Nothing more than buying vote the way it is now.
  
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  March 5, 2024 9:43am
- JeffW
  
  A similar crazy idea: one should have to pay a certain amount of tax before being able to vote, with earnings from government not counting. Exceptions for police, military.
  
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  March 5, 2024 9:50am
  - Keith White
    
    No exceptions for police.
    
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    March 5, 2024 10:15am
  - Sacha
    
    I don’t agree with that. Anyone above a certain age who is earning an income and paying tax should be able to vote.
    Those whose income is sourced from the taxes paid by others, should be spared the responsibility of trying to make decisions that they will not help pay for.
    
    6 1
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    March 5, 2024 10:18am
    - Ian Boag
      
      Those whose income is sourced from the taxes paid by others, should be spared the responsibility of trying to make decisions that they will not help pay for.
      
      Sounds good. Except for schoolteachers … and cops … and the military …. and doctors/nurses …. and of course pensioners.
      
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      March 5, 2024 10:50am
      - In Vino Veritas
        
        Except Ian, pensioners paid money to the Government (which should have been invested on their behalf) to pay for their pension. So no deal, pensioners get to vote.
        
        4 1
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        March 5, 2024 1:16pm
      - Keith White
        
        What’s stopping you leading the way, Ian?
        
        0 1
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        March 5, 2024 3:45pm
      - Ian Boag
        
        I’m still in the PAYE net. Using the “responsible” criteria one might suggest that over-80’s are binned because they are voting for things that they either won’t see or that won’t affect them ….
        
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        March 5, 2024 4:00pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Public Sector employees do not pay Tax, right through to Police, Govt Dept workers, Nurses, the whole lot. It is just numbers on paper.
    All get paid by Net Taxpayers in the Private Sector.
    
    6 2
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    March 5, 2024 10:54am
    - Cassandra
      
      I think that’s a bit of sophistry aka bollocks. So if you’re a builder of State houses? Roads? Lay the runway at Ohakea?
      
      4 2
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      March 5, 2024 11:05am
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        All funding for any Govt project or Department comes from the Private Sector.
        Put it this way, if all of the Private Sector up and left NZ where would the Govt get the money from?
        
        5 1
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        March 5, 2024 12:52pm
- Ghost
  
  No one should lose their right to vote just because they’re a civil servant.
  
  Seriously why are there people on the right the last few months determined to take people’s right to vote away. We should be protecting the right to vote, not coming up with stupid excuses on why people should have that right removed.
  
  Damn, who knew the right would turn into such big cancel culture
  
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  March 5, 2024 10:05am
  - Keith White
    
    Civil Servant Dogma, meet Taxpaying Citizens’ Karma.
    
    6 2
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    March 5, 2024 10:16am
  - In Vino Veritas
    
    I’m with you Ghost. Employment in Cicil Service shouldn’t be a criteria to prevent voting. Nuts.
    
    2 2
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    March 5, 2024 1:18pm
- Grunter
  
  “So, I have come up with a controversial idea after a drink or two:
  
  …..government department employees should be banned.” (Full Stop)
  
  I tidied up and re-arranged a little – I think it reads better now… 🙂
  
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  March 5, 2024 10:06am
  - jkt
    
    No we can’t have that!
    Who will ban smoking?
    
    4 0
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    March 5, 2024 10:39am
- Bobba Fret
  
  You need to have more drinks. Those are great ideas.
  
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  March 5, 2024 10:38am
  - Kiwiguy
    
    Thank you. I’ll do as you suggest!
    When my wife comments on my increased drinking I can say Bobba told me to.
    😉
    
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    March 5, 2024 11:09am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    I’ll help. 2.30 today the bar will be open.
    
    4 1
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    March 5, 2024 12:53pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Waste of Police time.
Better of trying to stop meth, heroin, and lawnmowers.

https://shorturl.at/bwQ35
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March 5, 2024 9:20am
- Handyman
  
  These are the same people who howled at the moon when the government didn’t make cigarettes illegal.
  
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  March 5, 2024 9:25am
Maggie Pie

“Principals will be forced to decide to between feeding the children,
or providing resources for the School Curriculum”

– NewshubAM

(People with knowledge of the matter, are saying NZ’s education system has been on a backwards trajectory ever since Helen Clark appointed Chris Carter as Minister-of-Education in 2007)
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March 5, 2024 9:22am
- I remember when
  
  Resources for the School Curriculum:
  I wonder if they have considered the staff providing their own?
  
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  March 5, 2024 10:05am
  - Paulus
    
    Both my Daughter, and her Daughter, were at a Girls Private school, and the last two years they made their own curriculum within the correct framework.
    Both did spectacularly at Uni, with excellent jobs following.
    
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    March 5, 2024 1:24pm
- NothingLeft
  
  Schools should have a stock of apples and frozen sandwiches, perhaps 2min noodles to feed any kid truly in need. And there should be followup, intervention and censure by social services with parents of any kids that make it a regular thing.
  
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  March 5, 2024 10:19am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    Does anyone remember the good old days of free school milk?
    
    All that healthy protein, fat, calcium, vitamins and minerals for young growing bodies and minds.
    
    https://nzhistory.govt.nz/end-of-free-school-milk
    
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    March 5, 2024 12:36pm
    - Cassandra
      
      Warm and horrible.
      
      6 0
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      March 5, 2024 2:35pm
- Handyman
  
  in a world where parents were responsible for their kids, the headline would have been:
  Parents forced to choose between their kids’ lunches or cigarettes.
  
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  March 5, 2024 10:39am
- Jimbo666
  
  No it started in 1984 with David Lange’s “Tomorrow or future Schools”. That was the start of the decline.
  
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  March 5, 2024 10:55am
- Grunter
  
  When did it become legal to starve your own children and then send them off to school?
  
  FFS – $2 buys an apple and a few sandwiches! And if you don’t like your sandwich trade it with your schoolmate for something else. That system worked for decades…….
  
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  March 5, 2024 11:22am
- Ghost
  
  I was fun for my parents in primary school. The principal would ring them up to ask why I wouldn’t bring lunch to school some days. Ah that’s just him, some days he eats lunch, some days he doesn’t. Other times, why is he wearing long pants in summer and shorts in winter. Another time, why isn’t he wearing shoes to school, again, just the way I am. School camps why am I not eating breakfast, because I never eat breakfast. In the end the principal gave up trying to understand the way I worked.
  
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  March 5, 2024 11:34am
  - Local Miller
    
    Not much has changed.
    
    5 2
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    March 5, 2024 2:31pm
- Damocles11
  
  The Left continue to make excuses for people who won’t feed their kids. Feeding your kids and keeping a roof over their heads comes first, every other expense is secondary. In New Zealand we have a social welfare safety net, we have benefits indexed to inflation so the (relatively) ‘poor’ don’t lose purchasing power, and as a last resort their are food banks run by non-profit organisations. If you don’t feed your kids you are not ‘a victim of capitalism’, you are a child abuser. Yet the Left continue to scream “they can’t feed their kids cos they have no money!” It is absolute tripe. Labour increased benefits by 43% during their profligate time in office. I will not be guilt tripped into supporting the state taking over the fundamental duties of parents. If you don’t feed your kids you should be behind bars.
  
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  March 5, 2024 11:55am
  - Taieri
    
    If you don’t feed your kids you should be behind bars
    ————-
    
    Agreed.
    But then the government will have to feed not just your kids but you as well…
    
    3 0
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    March 5, 2024 1:40pm
    - Close Hen Counters
      
      Haha! Yes
      
      1 0
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      March 5, 2024 2:30pm
    - Keith White
      
      ‘Cool Hand Luke’-style field-working chain-gangs.
      
      1 0
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      March 5, 2024 3:46pm
  - david
    
    You don’t seem to see many skinny tattooists around.
    
    1 0
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    March 5, 2024 2:57pm
Opie

https://twitter.com/aniobrien/status/1764105835129782747?

Hipkins getting angrier by the day. Imagine if Luxon spoke to a speaker or gave a speech in this tone… you don’t have to, for all his faults he is at least semi professional.

Think about what would happen if anyone spoke to mallard like that? They would be kicked out and the defunct media calling for their resignation

[Mod – fixed link]
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March 5, 2024 9:22am
- Ghost
  
  It’s a debating chamber, it gets heated at times. No one has ever had the media call for their resignation for getting shitty with the speaker.
  
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  March 5, 2024 9:46am
- G152
  
  Hipkins rages and socalled anger are products of a poor training as an actor/politician..
  To be laughed at
  
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  March 5, 2024 11:52am
- Close Hen Counters
  
  I watched chippy vs Winston today whilst eating lunch – wish I had popcorn … I have to admit I’m not a huge Winston fan normally but in the absence of mr luxon today, Winston is wiping the floor with labour in the debating chamber 🍿
  
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  March 5, 2024 2:32pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Vaccine.
I have to admit my tinnitus is much worse these days, but it could be age. Never been this annoying before.

https://freedomeagledaily.com/theteapartydaily/new-study-uncovers-hearing-and-balance-disorders-post-covid-19-vaccination/?
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March 5, 2024 9:23am
Maggy Wassilieff

Benedict Collins on TV1 News last night couldn’t resist opining that Christopher Luxon would be happily off to Melbourne today so wouldn’t have to cope with Questions in Parliament today about his accommodation allowance.

I can’t recall TV One reporters ascribing ulterior motives to Jacinda Ardern’s frequent jaunts away from Parliament’s Question Time.
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March 5, 2024 9:24am
- wisteria
  
  This is one more rediculous thing for Benedict Collins to say. It really shows up the shallow thinking of these journos .
  
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  March 5, 2024 9:46am
  - oldpark
    
    @wisteria 9.46 am .
    “journos” more like the control freak sycophants wishing the end of NZ Democracy by Ardern/Hipkins gang of no hopers .Hoping they had won on 14 10 2023.Check out the CNN stable of Newshub. with their fake news and daily lies as they have learned nothing . As I said its long time to June 2024 .Would have saved all of us a lot of grief and angst, and also a lot of money if the mentioned rabble were dumped by lunchtime .
    
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    March 5, 2024 10:11am
  - Damocles11
    
    Collins is the opposite of professional. He smirks and mugs for the camera, always seeming to be on the point of bursting into chuckles, and always injects sarcastic humour into his pieces. He seems to treat the whole thing as a joke. I don’t know how these people get where they do, and whether nepotism or brown-nosing is involved; maybe the talent pool is so shallow in New Zealand that this is invariably what we will have to put up with.
    
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    March 5, 2024 12:06pm
- Blog-aholic
  
  You can’t because they never did! Simple.
  
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  March 5, 2024 9:46am
- Paulus
  
  RNZAF B757 broken down in Wellington before it started so Prime Minister gone AirNZ to Melbourne but late thanks to our Air Force and the media are still waiting that it be fixed as they want their fix in Melbourne as a usual free bee.
  Plane will almost certainly go back to Auckland base anyway.
  
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  March 5, 2024 1:31pm
Opie

Number 874 in the “What’s wrong with country file”

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/uk-grandfather-facing-deportation-for-failing-to-declare-criminal-past-allowed-to-remain-in-nz/JBCJS7ZOARGINIA7QATFLH7K4E/

Immigrant fails to declare sexual offending (including against a child)

Instead of deporting him we let him stay so he can be with his grand kids.

If that’s not a red light I don’t know what is
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March 5, 2024 9:25am
- pdm
  
  Red Light or Green Light Opie?
  
  I think Green for go ahead again.
  
  As you say he should be deported.
  
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  March 5, 2024 10:26am
- jkt
  
  Prude.
  He was convicted for what used to be called flirting.
  
  Cool story.
  
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  March 5, 2024 10:54am
  - Opie
    
    So you are ok for people to just put a hand down someone’s top?
    
    The offence against a kid isn’t described so who knows what that was.
    
    I assume this is either a wind up or you are a sevu Reece supporter
    
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    March 5, 2024 1:39pm
Chuck Bird

Either we have a climate emergency or we don’t.

If we do surely the alarmist would support pulling out all stops including Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) when they become available in a few years.
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March 5, 2024 9:33am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Biggest problem is the Green nutters.
  
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  March 5, 2024 9:54am
- MCōs
  
  The problem with Small Modular Reactors is going to be cost and that’s once planning permission is sorted, which would take years
  According to this article a planned SMR in Idaho was cancelled because of cost escalation; US$9.3bn for 462MW year before last (Benmore is 540MW)
  Current wind generation is 749MW
  Then there’s the different seismic conditions in NZ
  
  https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/nov/09/small-modular-nuclear-reactor-that-was-hailed-by-coalition-as-future-cancelled-due-to-rising-costs?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
  
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  March 5, 2024 10:16am
  - Chuck Bird
    
    I am not suggesting SMRs regardless of costs because I do not believe there is a climate emergency. However, you would think those who do believe there is a climate emergency cost should not be an issue if it means saving the planet.
    
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    March 5, 2024 10:24am
  - NothingLeft
    
    The reason nuclear reactors are expensive is almost entirely regulatory. The vast majority of which is not actually usefully improving safety, just fighting off zealots and people with anxiety disorders.
    
    Offshore jack-up nuclear barges are the best solution. Built and decomissioned in distant specialist shipyards. Surrounded in unlimited emergency cooling water, and far from Nimbys. Evtol aircraft coming to market very soon will make getting staff to and from them cheap and easy.
    
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    March 5, 2024 10:25am
  - Chuck Bird
    
    I checked the link and they are pushing the Labour Greens line.
    
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    March 5, 2024 10:32am
    - MCōs
      
      Whether you like it or not there’s going to be an ever increasing demand for electricity and new coal/oil stations are not on the radar in NZ
      Are you suggesting we take the plunge with SMR or maybe wind or solar or rotating power cuts maybe?
      Sounds like Premier House is a big drain on the national grid!
      
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      March 5, 2024 10:54am
      - Chuck Bird
        
        I am suggesting that we do not rule nuclear out in the future. If there is a change of government in Oz it is likely Dutton will change the law that bans nuclear. That does not mean they will go straight to nuclear but it could happen in the future. I would hope that NZ would say nuclear could be considered after Oz has nuclear.
        
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        March 5, 2024 1:24pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    They will be more expensive in the future MCos.
    Best get the asap.
    
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    March 5, 2024 11:14am
    - MCōs
      
      I would suggest even if a decision was made today to set up a committee to explore the options it would be ten years before King William would flick the switch and by then the cost would have doubled due to unforeseen ground conditions, technology improvements, seismic design upgrades, labour shortages, natural upheavals . . . . all the usual setbacks
      
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      March 5, 2024 12:35pm
Maggie Pie

And just how much is Cindy’s gig with ‘The Christchurch Call’ bullsh*t REALLY costing taxpayers?

https://www.dpmc.govt.nz/sites/default/files/2023-10/dpmc-roia-oia-2023-24-0076.pdf

Twice as much next year if National agrees to extend it again 🙁
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March 5, 2024 9:35am
- Damocles11
  
  ‘The Christchurch Rort’.
  
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  March 5, 2024 10:13am
- imalwaysright
  
  $1,303,000 for “other” expenses last year.
  A very specific figure for non specific expenses.
  Christopher, please explain.
  
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  March 5, 2024 10:21am
70andstilllearning

Quite amusing unpacking this little bit from the AM show – seems that Amelia is a little pissed that she missed her free seat and it sounds like her employers won’t stump up with an (expensive?) last minute commercial seat. Also they seem to be struggling with not really being able to criticise the PM for the plane’s reliability woes. Wonder if the real reason she’s pissed is that she won’t get to do a little side trip to Bourke Street Mall? 🙂
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March 5, 2024 9:35am
- Paulus
  
  Probably Amelia’s final rort free trip and shopping spend in Melbourne – Boo Hoo !
  
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  March 5, 2024 1:46pm
Keith White

British Man Jailed For 2 Years Over Stickers As PM Whines About “Democracy”

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/british-man-jailed-2-years-over-stickers-pm-whines-about-democracy

That’ll happen in NZ all too soon.
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March 5, 2024 9:37am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  That’s punishment for hurting snowflake’s feelings.
  
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  March 5, 2024 9:59am
Grunter

Gustave Gilbert & Hermann Goering, 1946

These comments are worth thinking about as NATO & Russian leaders crank up their war speeches over the past week.

These comments were made privately to Gustave Gilbert, a German-speaking intelligence officer and psychologist who was granted free access by the Allies to all the prisoners held in the Nuremberg jail. Gilbert kept a journal of his observations of the proceedings and his conversations with the prisoners, which he later published in the book Nuremberg Diary. The quote offered below was part of a conversation Gilbert held with a dejected Hermann Goering in his cell on the evening of 18 April 1946, as the trials were halted for a three-day Easter recess:

“Why, of course, the people don’t want war,” Goering shrugged. “Why would some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best that he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece. Naturally, the common people don’t want war; neither in Russia nor in England nor in America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship.”

“There is one difference,” I pointed out. “In a democracy, the people have some say in the matter through their elected representatives, and in the United States only Congress can declare wars.”

“Oh, that is all well and good, but, voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country.”
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March 5, 2024 9:38am
- imalwaysright
  
  Frightening how simple it is to create war.
  
  (Three down ticks but no rebuttals. Very odd.)
  
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  March 5, 2024 10:27am
- MCōs
  
  My father sailed away with the NZ Army in 1939 and came back in 1945 so his opinion was worth listening to and he told me there would never be a problem getting young blokes to go off to war; no so much out of a sense of patriotic duty, but for the adventure
  Probably applied more in his day when traveling was out of reach of a lot more people
  
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  March 5, 2024 11:56am
Prince

Speaking as a (now) ex Hurricanes follower, I hope these fools lose every game.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/sport/510794/hurricanes-poua-lash-out-at-government-in-revamped-haka
Delighted to see they were thrashed last Saturday.
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March 5, 2024 9:41am
- Yabster
  
  Wellington what a fucking swamp- get out if you can- hope that Haka gets booed- but as no one will understand what they are chanting it will be irrelevant- heres an idea concentrate on playing some rugby people want to watch and generating some actual income to pay for costs of the comp…..
  
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  March 5, 2024 10:15am
  - kowtow
    
    Rugby .
    
    If these people are so heavily invested in all things “indigenous” why the hell are they playing an Upper Class English public school game .
    
    They should be authentic and play some indigenous “sport”.
    
    meanwhile they and the whole shebang should be given the Bud Light treatment or more appropriately for an ex colony , Boycott !
    
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    March 5, 2024 10:27am
    - Paulus
      
      Rugby founded in 1567 is a Private Boys School, so why do we play its tormented game once being with around ball, until some idiot picked up the ball and ran with it.
      (My school was two years earlier and has always played with a round ball).
      
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      March 5, 2024 1:50pm
- I remember when
  
  Elliot Ikilei: “I have ancestors from Nuie, England, Tonga, and I hail from the iwi, Te Ati Awa and the hapu, Ngati Raukawa.
  
  A single sentence that explains the stupidity of trying to impose the Treaty of Waitangi, 1840, on present day New Zealanders.
  
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  March 5, 2024 10:20am
  - Paulus
    
    I read today in the Herald that Ngapuhi number 165,000 throughout the world, so how many are there a) here b) Australia (largest I suspect) and c) other overseas places eg UK.
    Or are these figures made up as Maori Censuses and Electoral Registered are false and fiddled for many years.
    
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    March 5, 2024 1:55pm
- Clyde
  
  I would suggest that you and thousands more write to the CEO and Chair of the Hurricane’s Board to express their disgust at this racist decision. The CEO of National Storage based in Brisbane is also worthy of sending a message to. Unless there is reaction to this racism, they will not change their behaviour.
  
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  March 5, 2024 10:40am
  - PurplePen
    
    have written to 4 of the principle sponsors asking if they support the new haka.
    
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    March 5, 2024 6:05pm
- Grunter
  
  As a lifetime rugby head I’m almost at the point of switching off entirely. And this nonsense is just appalling. Add it to the long list of things that are wrong with the game.
  
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  March 5, 2024 11:30am
- Conservatarian
  
  Unfortunately I had to click on a Red Radio link but I had to as I don’t know what a “Poua” is. There I learnt a “Poua” is a racialised intersectional feminist who participates in high theatre equivalent to the US women’s basketball league (the WNBA): tools of the political far left, darlings of the activist-journalist class but shunned by the ordinary fan. They play in front of empty grandstands, and ultimately are subsidised by income the men bring in. Oh well, at least they are fit and healthy and not causing our buckling healthcare system any further pressure.
  
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  March 5, 2024 1:16pm
MCōs

Twelve degrees in Dunedin today
In a couple of weeks the English Women’s Cricket team start a tour of NZ down there. One hopes the weather doesn’t deteriorate

It doesn’t look like weather is going to be an issue at Chch for the Blackcaps tests, but batting ability, dropped catches & general lack of confidence may be.
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March 5, 2024 9:43am
- Blog-aholic
  
  Twelve degrees for English cricket is also sunbathing weather.
  
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  March 5, 2024 9:48am
  - MCōs
    
    You’re thinking of Scotland
    
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    March 5, 2024 10:21am
    - imalwaysright
      
      Sunbathing is for jessies!
      
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      March 5, 2024 10:29am
      - Keith White
        
        Here ’tis 31C with a gentle 5km ‘breeze’, coming off the night shift. Reviewing some more patients and hope they’re getting better with Rx, then downtime until the evening.
        
        It’s not home here but it’s nice here. Not primarily because of the climate, because of the people.
        
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        March 5, 2024 3:52pm
slightlyrighty

https://www.1news.co.nz/2024/03/04/hurricanes-poua-lash-out-at-government-in-revamped-haka/

I don’t care about the politics of Rugby Players, but this should have been nipped in the Bud.

I am a mad Canes Supporter, but will not be supporting their women’s team in the future
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March 5, 2024 9:46am
- JimBobJoe
  
  As a Canes fan I am pissed off.
  
  If individual players want to make statements fine, thats free speech…
  
  But the team reps the region and the region has lots of political views…. And as womens rugby is not self funding they need to be careful or Canes overall will feel the withdrawal of support.
  
  My membership is now under review for next season…
  
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  March 5, 2024 10:11am
  - Yabster
    
    email the canes management and show your displeasure- imagine if the men’s team did the same- complete bs.
    
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    March 5, 2024 10:17am
    - slightlyrighty
      
      I have
      
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      March 5, 2024 11:13am
    - Martonman
      
      I have sent email to CEO
      
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      March 5, 2024 11:45am
    - JimBobJoe
      
      I have… And I have made a decision to stop attending matches which is a biggie given I have paid for a season pass and first home game is this weekend.
      
      But I am beyond pissed off by the Canes Poua deciding to call 1.5 odd million people who voted for the Coalition parties Rednecks by association (I went and looked up the Electoral Results). The Poua can literally go eff themselves
      
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      March 5, 2024 4:38pm
  - pdm
    
    Although living within the Hurricanes franchise area I am not a supporter and never have been.
    
    It is my view that from day one they (the Hurricanes) have shafted the provinces within the franchise area..
    
    I say good on Taranaki for changing to the Chiefs and I advocated for Hawkes Bay to join with Otago when there were more HB players with the Highlanders than the Hurricanes.
    
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    March 5, 2024 10:32am
    - JimBobJoe
      
      Its populationbased pdm. The bay can provide 20k at McLean….. Welington holds 35k…
      
      And in the heyday of canes rugby 35k sellouts were the norm…
      
      A game a year in the Bay nade economic sense
      
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      March 5, 2024 11:48am
  - Clyde
    
    Also email National Storage in Brisbane. Hopefully they will review their sponsorship.
    
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    March 5, 2024 10:43am
    - Yabster
      
      yep- and 2 degrees- although the ceo is woke as.
      
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      March 5, 2024 11:49am
  - PurplePen
    
    wrote to 4 of the principle sponsors asking if they support the new haka. Hit them where it hurts $$$$
    
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    March 5, 2024 6:07pm
- PurplePen
  
  Haven’t watched it, but read the article. Inappropriate. And have emailed NZRU with something similar to this. If you’re going to engage in national politics on the field, then expect the stand to also engage during a game. Is the men’s team as political or is it just the women’s team, if so why?
  
  As for the acknowledging “He Whakaputanga (Declaration of Independence) , a contract signed between Ngāpuhi chiefs and the Crown before Te Tiriti o Waitangi”. Correct. But so what. That was superceded by them then signing the ToW so is of no relevance now. And the ToW was superceded by the 1852 NZ Constitution Act, section 71 being specific about the status of Maori, and then that was superceded by the 1986 NZ Constitution Act, specifically section 26. Someone needs to get with the programme, its now the 21st century. And it’s worth noting in said act and the ToW the land is referred to as Nu Tirani, not Aotearoa.
  
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  March 5, 2024 10:41am
- AndyW
  
  The current narrative; what is being voiced and taught, is that everything white is bad. This will destroy our country.
  
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  March 5, 2024 7:08pm
Maggie Pie

Then there’s this from the Parliamentary Website….

‘PETITION TO REMOVE ALL MUSLIMS FROM NEW ZEALAND’

https://petitions.parliament.nz/095ab232-3535-4230-cc91-08dbf445a108
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March 5, 2024 9:51am
- pdm
  
  Link does not show it Maggie.
  
  May be my old laptop etc. as it can be temperamental.
  
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  March 5, 2024 10:02am
- Maggie Pie
  
  Petition by one ‘Michael Anstis’ was lodged 21st December 2023 with 126 signatures at 9:15 today. Still had another 240+ days to run.
  
  Appears to have been taken down in the last 30 minutes. LOL!!
  
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  March 5, 2024 10:06am
  - MCōs
    
    I might start one to remove all Protestants
    They’re nothing but trouble
    
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    March 5, 2024 10:30am
  - imalwaysright
    
    M.p
    
    Have they gone already?
    
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    March 5, 2024 10:31am
- Ghost
  
  There are some stupid petitions on there
  
  This one believes porn creates pedophiles and changes sexual orientation
  https://petitions.parliament.nz/bdd61edc-cd19-49ca-d8c8-08db370d7b1b
  
  This one, I think might be from Chris hipkins in disguise wanting a vote of no confidence in the govt
  https://petitions.parliament.nz/6ec81b48-aeef-410e-9afb-08dc1a38f37b
  
  A couple that are worth signing
  Provide girls only bathrooms in school
  https://petitions.parliament.nz/3682bb30-d77c-4005-25f9-08dbbccfc965
  
  I doubt this one will ever go anywhere but it is right. You refuse to talk about the murder of a child in your house, arrest them all
  https://petitions.parliament.nz/d35f5876-4891-46c1-891d-08dbf9b75105
  
  This one also makes sense, someone who is disabled and unable to work I do wonder if there should be a disabled pension to move them too. It would be a small amount of people
  https://petitions.parliament.nz/e8e83093-d192-480e-4f8e-08dbde376730
  
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  March 5, 2024 10:52am
My-Gumboot

So we have 25,000 kids stood down from school.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/thousands-of-student-stand-downs-highest-in-20-years/RQLWNQOM3RH7NIUCM227K3QJT4/

And 45% not attending school.
https://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/statistics/attendance
This has to be fixed.
This is on you Labour. There is no excuse, no justification, for the complete stuff up you have made in education.
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March 5, 2024 9:51am
- MCōs
  
  You mean 45% not attending 90% of the time according to the graph
  Not less that half class turning up every day!
  
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  March 5, 2024 10:42am
Damocles11

The mainstream media is awash with attacks on the government. Every activist and crank with an axe to grind over this or that policy is being given carte blanche to rip into coalition as the refusal to accept the results a democratic election continues for day after excruciating day. The coalition must just grit their teeth and carry on, ignoring the braying & howling. They must continue ripping out the most egregious parts of Labours creeping socialism, the country cannot pay for a laundry list of freebies and giveaways. ‘Robbonomics’ must be consigned to the dust bin of history.
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March 5, 2024 10:11am
- kowtow
  
  Barry Soper on his missus’ show last night said the PM faced a “very angry” parliamentary press gallery .
  
  Not sure what got their collective panties in a twist.
  
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  March 5, 2024 10:51am
  - MCōs
    
    Coffee machine broken, someone pinched all the chocolate biscuits
    I never worked in an office where people got emotional about the content of their work; it was more peripheral items like malfunctioning systems
    
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    March 5, 2024 12:46pm
- Keith White
  
  What is sometimes good in life?
  
  To annoy your enemies, hear them wittering before you, and to hear the lamentations of their whole soy-based peer-group.
  
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  March 5, 2024 10:59am
- Paulus
  
  The Opposition are now identified as The Media Party, no longer Labour, its playboys and girls.
  
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  March 5, 2024 1:59pm
Maggie Pie

Recall yesterday, Judge Kevin Glubb granted the ‘Grannybasher’ name suppression
and discharged it without conviction 🙁

Looks like Kev has form in this regard…..

https://stuff.co.nz/national/crime/122289420/auckland-man-escapes-conviction-after-masturbating-in-front-of-child-at-pool
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March 5, 2024 10:21am
- kowtow
  
  Thinking of that case ;
  
  what the hell was the Crown thinking only charging with common assault , surely a more serious charge was appropriate for multiple strikes by a strong young man against an elderly woman , to the head and resulting in severe bruising.
  
  I ask because senior ministers including Hipkins were expressing negative sentiment towrds Parker . Can they be accused of sending a very public signal to the police about where the regime stood ?
  
  Likewise ,viewing the footage as per ghost’s link last night ;
  
  the disruptoion was a very serious criminal event , which taken in full looks more like a riot than a single man assaults a woman .It was organised and that thug who hit the woman was in the vanguard of the attack on the event .
  
  No shrinking violet with mental health issues .
  
  He and others there could have/ should have faced other charges as I said of riot or unlawful assembly etc
  
  We know had they been “anti vaxxers” Plod wouldn’t have hung back ………..
  
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  March 5, 2024 10:42am
  - Ghost
    
    It looks more like thugs for hire. I wonder if a couple of politicians should have been charged with incitement.
    
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    March 5, 2024 11:02am
  - BananaLlama
    
    common assault
    
    I have been told that it is hard enough to even get this across the line lately. Police do their job but Judges are just reluctant to convict and will toss out more serious charges.
    It will have to be resolved by Parliament rewriting laws and they don’t look like they are in any hurry.
    
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    March 5, 2024 11:12am
    - kowtow
      
      ‘Police do their job’
      
      Sorry , I don’t buy that .There’s no way that attck with those injuries was a simple “common assault”.
      
      And if that were true about the judges they could be appealed .
      
      btw ; last night on HDPA she covered the case of the Tauranga police finally doing their job and turning up to shop theft and prosecuting ( allegedly something they weren’t doing previously)
      
      And lo and behold, by simply doing the job they used to do , is having a positive effect !
      
      It doesn’t take parliament passing new laws . It takes people doing the job they’re hired and paid to do.
      Police , prosecutors , judges all . Simple.
      
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      March 5, 2024 12:20pm
      - Ghost
        
        We see pitiful court judgments all the time in the media. But it’s obvious from the overnight change with the government that labour’s soft on crime and reduce prison population stance has been behind a lot of the past few years of injustice
        
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        March 5, 2024 12:32pm
      - BananaLlama
        
        I have seen it happen with my own two eyes i don’t know what else to tell you. Police turn up and arrest some monkey that is clearly guilty only for it to go to trial and have the Judge start waffling.
        Even IF you doubt me here is a public case of a young lady that was assaulted at knife point only for the Judge to start waffling and hand out discounts and reduced sentencing.
        The laws are just crooked and bent there should be mandatory sentencing and no way for Judges to apply leniency.
        https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/350187208/survivor-led-rapist-security-cameras-gaze
        
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        March 5, 2024 12:46pm
- Keith White
  
  Occam’s Razor applied here suggests some interesting potential reasons.
  
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  March 5, 2024 11:00am
- Martonman
  
  Posi Parker has been commenting on the case.
  
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  March 5, 2024 11:50am
- greybeard
  
  https://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/local-news/western-leader/9836601/Glubb-goes-in-new-direction
  
  I like this excerpt:
  “The senseless waste of life and brutality never ceases to amaze Judge Glubb but his ability to separate work from his personal passions has got him through, he says”.
  Tui Ad time !
  
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  March 5, 2024 3:12pm
Jack5

Argentina goes to the dogs, and rents fall …

Rents in Argentina have fallen 20 per cent since the new President, Javier Milei, scrapped rent controls, reports the Telegraph.

Under four years of the controls, rents rose 286 per cent as landlords fled the market.

The controls, introduced in 2020, included a mandatory lease term of three years, and a rent limit based on growth in the consumer price index and the wage index.

Rent payment had to be in the Argentinian peso, which has plummeted about 95 per cent against the US dollar over five years, the Telegraph says.

Milei, a Catholic convert to Judaism, describes himself as an anarcho-capitalist.

Among his quirks is his love for dogs, says the Wall Street Journal. Specifically, love for his five English mastiffs, which he had cloned at an American laboratory from his beloved first dog. Four of the mastiffs are named after economists, and the fifth is named Conan, after the clone parent.

When the five arrived, Milei had to knock a wall out of his apartment to make room for them.

Milei is unmarried and childless, and his younger sister, Karina, fills some ceremonial roles.
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March 5, 2024 10:46am
- Jake Dee
  
  That ” Catholic convert to Judaism” seems to be an unsubstantiated rumor. from what I’ve been able to find out he has expressed some interest (perhaps opportunistically) nothing confirmed.
  
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  March 5, 2024 5:51pm
PurplePen

https://breakingviewsnz.blogspot.com/2024/03/frank-newman-book-burning-at-hutt-city.html?m=1

NZCPR recently distributed some 600,000 copies of a booklet called The Treaty of Waitangi – An Explanation by Sir Apirana Ngata. Distributed as an insert in 31 NZME and Stuff newspapers throughout North Island and earlier South Island in July last year. In total 1.1 million inserts were distributed.

The Treaty of Waitangi – An Explanation was written in 1922 and was considered of such importance that in 1963 the Ministry of Maori Affairs translated the work into English and distributed it to every Maori household in NZ. Sir Apirana Ngata is still held in high regard (his portrait appears on our $50 banknote).

February NZCPR were tipped off that management at the Hutt City Council had ordered copies of the insert be removed from its premises.

Ngata’s explanation is an easy and useful read, but it doesnt fit the left-wing Maori view.
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March 5, 2024 10:48am
- Yabster
  
  lets face most council staff are full on lefty socialist twats- not surprising is it.
  
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  March 5, 2024 11:54am
Tauhei Notts

I have been very critical of government outfits here on this site but have found a little gem that is wonderfully good.
The NZ Transport Agency’s road toll payment system is a credit to the Information Technology industry. It is simple, easy and informative. Things that are rare in our age.
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March 5, 2024 10:57am
- kowtow
  
  If there’s one thing “they” are good at ,it’s fleecing ‘us’.
  
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  March 5, 2024 11:50am
  - MCōs
    
    $2.30 to use the motorway up to Warkworth as opposed to that which it replaced is not what I would call being fleeced
    Personally I think a lot more of Auckland’s motorway network should be tolled
    My understanding is that that’s what will finance a lot of these new roads announced yesterday and the money will be charged by the contractors
    So you might get a much needed flash new road somewhere, but pay a lot more than $2.30 to use it.
    Mr S. Brown doesn’t sound like the sort of bloke who’s going to give away something for nothing
    
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    March 5, 2024 1:02pm
    - kowtow
      
      I don’t oppose tolls , I’m merely pointing out that just about the only thing govt gets right is its ability to take money off us.
      
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      March 5, 2024 1:16pm
      - MCōs
        
        Your original comment inferred the toll was excessive
        
        I note, listening to Minister of Transport that although a new bridge is penciled in for the Ashburton River the four lane expressway clear through to Chch seems to have slipped through the cracks
        This is interesting because the Rakaia bridge and the Rangitata for that matter are around the same age.
        Replacing these two lane bridges with four lanes bridges would be very expensive, particularly the Rakaia bridge
        
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        March 5, 2024 3:00pm
    - jonno1
      
      It’s $2.60 each way MC.
      
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      March 5, 2024 1:32pm
      - MCōs
        
        Quite right, I should have checked
        
        It cost my mate about $80 a few years ago when he used my car and forgot to pay (or tell me!)
        I didn’t know what to make of the fine notification when it came to me.
        Was it a scam?
        I’ve had other ones that were clearly scams in the forms of texts from Uzbekistan or somewhere
        
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        March 5, 2024 3:13pm
    - kowtow
      
      Didn’t.
      
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      March 5, 2024 9:16pm
  - Paulus
    
    Government Policy.
    
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    March 5, 2024 2:11pm
Maggie Pie

I feel I’m on a roll this morning, so will share this from TikTok …..

It’s absolute GOLD 😀

https://tiktok.com/shockwayve8/video/7337571113737719047

Full screen/Sound up

[Mod – yes you are on a roll, another dud link]
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March 5, 2024 11:02am
- Maggie Pie
  
  Obviously another humorless lefty censoring everything about Cindy 😀
  
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  March 5, 2024 11:12am
  - Muttonbird
    
    Get your pool boy to show you how to use TikTok, Maggie.
    
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    March 5, 2024 11:37am
    - Maggie Pie
      
      You’d be looking for a job wouldn’t ya Muttsy? 😀
      
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      March 5, 2024 11:42am
      - Yabster
        
        that would be beneath old mutton- working that is…
        
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        March 5, 2024 11:55am
MCōs

Not something you see everyday in Mangere Bridge
https://x.com/the_pattayanews/status/1764760433133810163?s=46&t=XZLqGbhN-xeYzprhTaktsg
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March 5, 2024 11:29am
Ghost

I can’t stop laughing at this, badly done, but still a good laugh

Rishi Sunak’s “Protecting Our Democracy” speech – Remixed!
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March 5, 2024 11:40am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  If I put that on Facebook will I go to jail?
  
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  March 5, 2024 2:19pm
sungsamning

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaI6GCYypRg
Unhinged Libs Want SCOTUS Dissolved!
Woke leftists are a tad miffed that SCOTUS have overturned any bans on President Trump running in any state. They’ve left it up to Congress. [Liberal tears, and schadenfreude incoming.]
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March 5, 2024 11:44am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  “We The People” won and the unhinged left going apeshit!
  
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  March 5, 2024 2:30pm
  - Ian Boag
    
    I might have this wrong – as I heard it the SCOTUS justices expressly refrained from expressing an opinion on whether Jan 6 was an insurrection.
    
    They just said that state legislatures had no business looking into federal constitution matters.
    
    So they – quite neatly – ducked the issue.
    
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    March 5, 2024 6:00pm
  - sungsamning
    
    Yes, that’s excellent news.
    
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    March 5, 2024 9:20pm
sungsamning

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01eCIXNCY3M
ACT’s Cameron Luxton Talks Woke Government Procurement Rules.
Sean Plunket talks to ACT’s Cameron Luxton about woke government procurement rules. [It looks like the gravy train will lose some more passengers if these woke quotas are ditched.]
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March 5, 2024 11:44am
thirteenstars

Radio news reports car dealers are way overstocked with EVs. Apparently since the clean car discount was removed sales have gone from 1 in 6 to 1 in 24 new cars sold.

It’s as if EVs are viable only if they are subsidised.
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March 5, 2024 11:45am
- kowtow
  
  For months now overseas media have been running stories about the consumer falling out of love with EV’s ( reality bites)
  
  Of course here in “we’re such early adopters” NZ , only bucket loads of taxpayer money thrown confetti style by Labour has incentivised the greedy to take unfair subsidies in order to buy their Smugmobiles .
  
  HDPA last night said Rivers of Filth Wood wanted to subsidise e bikes as well .
  
  Thank goodness we were able to give them the arse.
  
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  March 5, 2024 12:04pm
  - Matt Long
    
    Very kind of ROF Wood, I didn’t think his salary or undisclosed share portfolio would stretch so far.
    
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    March 5, 2024 6:17pm
- Chris Nisbet
  
  I wonder how many current EV owners will go out and buy another once the one they have gets a bit old.
  Also, if I understand correctly, Seymour had some sort of agreement with National that the 10,000 EV chargers they promised would only go ahead if they made financial sense. I wonder how rhat analysis is going. I wonder if National are secretly thinking that Seymour has given them a nice reason to kick that promise into the bin.
  
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  March 5, 2024 12:05pm
  - Don Beckett
    
    My daughter bought an EV about 18 months ago. Lovely car, drives well & very well appointed.
    Problem is that it is losing its worth, so are thinking of selling it while it has some value and buying a hybrid – or another small ICE to compliment the Volkswagon SUV they’ve got.
    
    9 1
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    March 5, 2024 12:46pm
    - Ian
      
      New or second hand? If new and it’s still doing its job, there’ll be years left in it. Why sell? If second hand, probably worth zilch…
      
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      March 5, 2024 1:02pm
    - MCōs
      
      Any car I’ve ever owned has fairly rapidly lost its value, but that’s they way things are and have been for decades
      I’ve never bought a car and worried about it’s depreciation
      
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      March 5, 2024 2:41pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  And still no Road User Charges.
  Duck Steve, incoming freeloaders in 3, 2, 1……
  
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  March 5, 2024 2:32pm
Maggy Wassilieff

NZ Herald reporter reinterpreting events:

Parker aborted her two-event Let Women Speak New Zealand tour when her planned speech in Albert Park was drowned out by counter-protesters.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/posie-parker-protest-act-responds-to-tragedy-of-discharge-without-conviction-after-71-year-old-woman-punched/NY5MM62TOFGMJO3IOBMXYGYVWI/

No, Posie Parker ended her tour because she was assaulted.
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March 5, 2024 12:28pm
- thirteenstars
  
  “NZ Herald reporter ~~reinterpreting~~ lying about events”
  
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  March 5, 2024 12:42pm
- kowtow
  
  As far as I’m concerned Pearse is making quite a name for himself in terms of Orwellian 1984 style writing.
  
  He did the big story about Peeni Henare’s”bugle” but left out the bit about getting out a gun, firing at the enemy and letting the shots speak for him.
  
  But this answers the question of the shitty state of the parliamentary press gallery . He’s a boy sent to do a man’s job.Barely 5 odd years and he’s in such a responsible position ,after being a Jock Hack.
  “After working for two years with the student magazine and graduating with a degree majoring in journalism, I completed Massey University’s one-year postgraduate journalism course in 2018 which led me to a work placement at the NZ Herald office in Auckland. From there, I was asked whether I wanted to interview for the sole sports reporting job with the Northern Advocate in Whangarei, which is where I have been since November, 2018”
  
  “Believing it’s your work that makes a difference rather than making yourself a familiar face or name is much more rewarding in my book.”
  
  He sure is trying to make a difference , instead of just doing his job and telling the facts ……how hard can that be.
  
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  March 5, 2024 1:12pm
- Maggie Pie
  
  I see the ‘Grannybasher’ is from your neck of the woods Maggz.
  You probably know the family?
  
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  March 5, 2024 1:27pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Stop Co-Governance. Julian Batchelor.

Part 7 seems to be a repeat of yesterday’s part 6. The date is also wrong.

https://stopcogovernance.kiwi/blog/analysis-treaty-of-waitangi-comic-for-high-school-students-has-been-quietly-brainwashing-away-since-2018-part-7/

Part 8: (7-2)

https://stopcogovernance.kiwi/blog/analysis-treaty-of-waitangi-comic-for-high-school-students-has-been-quietly-brainwashing-away-since-2018-part-7-2/

Abel Tasman came to NZ in 1642 but did not come ashore and did not claim it.
Captain Cook came in 1769 and carved “Endeavour” into a tree. He could have claimed NZ then.
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March 5, 2024 1:08pm
- Blog-aholic
  
  Tasman may not have come ashore but he charted NZ and named it……name it you claim it. lol.
  
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  March 5, 2024 1:49pm
edhunter

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/350181590/mothers-stolen-babies-want-apology-we-die
My sister and I both consider ourselves to be the lucky ones, lucky to be put up for adoption, lucky to be brought up by a couple who wanted us, who could afford us, who didn’t see us as a potential permanent source of income. Life was not perfect, we were not perfect & our parents certainly weren’t saints, we didn’t have everything we wanted but we had everything we needed.
I wish there were more adoptions now, I wish more babies had the chances afforded my sister & I.
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March 5, 2024 1:22pm
Maggie Pie

Was about to shoot up to the Deli earlier and get a piece of their fab Feta & Spinach Quiche for lunch, but unfortunately it pissed down so decided to make myself something at home instead. Remembered we still had a hunk of Pork Belly in the fridge leftover from Saturday nite, so quickly defrosted a couple of Brioche buns, filled them with oceans of Lurpak and Apple Sauce….omg they were to dye for.

Anyway, it got me thinking just how easy it is to make a filled-roll.
Honestly, any parent that sends their kids to school hungry and without a nutritious lunch, you can bet your sweet ass those children were both unplanned and unwanted from the very beginning
(And we all kno who’s expected to pay for them over the next 16 years.)
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March 5, 2024 1:23pm
- Paulus
  
  Problem is that the current Mother generations have no idea how to cook, as their mothers may have done.
  So easy to go to Macs/KFC and then bitch they have no money for their children’s lunches during term time.
  
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  March 5, 2024 2:15pm
- cmm
  
  “both unplanned and unwanted from the very beginning”
  … or planned and wanted for the extra cash they bring in…
  
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  March 5, 2024 2:16pm
Frederick

[Mod – sorry but as he has name suppression we won’t be allowing posts telling people how to find out who he is, thanks]
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March 5, 2024 1:38pm
- Biscuit
  
  Aw, mod, I can follow your reasoning but that is SO not gonna get you sent this here Easter Egg I bought for you!
  
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  March 5, 2024 4:59pm
Swifty

Posie Parker won in the end.

https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2024/03/05/posie-parker-puncher-gets-mercy-but-victim-ultimately-wins-politically/

A reasonable piece from Bradbury.
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March 5, 2024 1:39pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Not hard to find – even with photo.
  2 brain cells is all you need.
  
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  March 5, 2024 3:15pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Swifty, that is not an insult to you.
  I was saying that it is easy to find.
  
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  March 5, 2024 4:08pm
lifesgood

Interesting advert from St John’s on Newstalk ZB this morning. In a lengthy ad pleading for money they consistently referred to St John’s, and not once to Hato Hone. The only Maori words used were kia ora at the start of the ad. Quite amusing really, they seem to have got the message about the virtue signalling of adding a Maori name to a venerable old European service and are now desperate to recapture lost donors. They’ll have to rid themselves of the sign writing on their vehicles next. I notice Plunket vehicles now have some Maori words in large letters across their doors and Plunket in tiny letters underneath. Truby King would be turning in his grave.
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March 5, 2024 1:54pm
- Paulus
  
  Queen Victoria ordained the Order name in 1880 and that included most Commonwealth countries – still know as St John.
  Original derivation goes back to St John of Jerusalem, about year 800 where they were considered the first to acknowledge medicine and cures.
  So why change the name and lose long time sponsors like me, until it goes back.
  
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  March 5, 2024 2:19pm
  - fightingtemeraire
    
    The full title of the Order based in Rome and of Roman Catholic Faith is;
    
    The Sovereign and Military Order of St John of Jerusalem Rhodes and Malta.
    
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    March 5, 2024 3:01pm
- greybeard
  
  You mean Turupi Kingi ?
  
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  March 5, 2024 3:00pm
David Garrett

I am more than a little disconcerted with this sentence:

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/350201097/david-benbow-sentenced-life-imprisonment-friends-murder

Benbow has received the 17 year minimum non parole period for a murder in which: neither the body nor weapon was ever found, and there was no forensic evidence. It was an entirely circumstantial case, based on the alleged – but probably correct – intense jealousy Benbow felt when the victim took up with Benbow’s ex partner. So the only thing can reasonably be proved is motive.

Despite that complete lack of evidence – particularly re how the murder was actually done – the judge was able to conclude:

Justice Eaton said the Crown was right in describing the murder as “an execution style killing”.
He said the premeditation, callousness in disposing of McGrath’s body, concealing of evidence, and the significant breach of trust were all aggravating factors in the case

How can he possibly know is was “an execution style killing”? How does he know the disposal of the body was “callous”? While it’s probably very unlikely, if he did it, Benbow may well have treated the body of his former friend with respect, and said a few words over the grave. Stranger things have happened.

My point here is that the 17 year bar to advance from a minimum NPP of 10 years is a very high one; I have read case notes of numerous quite awful murders – where unlike in this case all the facts are known – and judges have still refused to impose a 17 year minimum NPP.

It is also surely relevant that this was Benbow’s second trial; the jury was unable to agree at his first. Very odd case.
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March 5, 2024 2:07pm
- Maggie Pie
  
  And what about that guy Scott Watson, DG. Was that a similar circumstance?
  
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  March 5, 2024 2:13pm
  - David Garrett
    
    Maggie: Not even close. Watson is guilty as charged. Read Ian Wishart’s most recent book which explains the whole “mystery ketch” thing very well.
    
    In short, there WAS a vessel which rather resembled the “mystery ketch”, but the police established conclusively that it had already left the anchorage at a time when Hope and Smart had been seen alive. It puzzles me greatly why the cops never made that explanation themselves – rather they just kept saying “there was no mystery ketch”
    
    Talking of mysteries, the one thing that puzzles me greatly in that case is that Watson has been eligible for parole for some time, but has never applied. And No, admitting guilt is NOT a pre-requisite for being released on parole. David Tamihere still maintains he didn’t kill the Swedish tourists, and he’s been out for some time.
    
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    March 5, 2024 2:28pm
    - fernglas
      
      https://www.paroleboard.govt.nz/decisions/decisions_2021/scott_watson_30112021. I think he’s applied four times.
      
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      March 5, 2024 2:44pm
      - David Garrett
        
        fernglas: Thanks for that…to quote the great Humphrey Bogart, “I was misinformed”
        
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        March 6, 2024 9:03am
    - Maggie Pie
      
      Thx DG. That’s interesting. We’ve actually heard people say whether he did it or not, the worlds a safer place with him behind bars.
      
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      March 5, 2024 2:51pm
    - Notsofast
      
      David Tamihere did not kill the Swedish tourists.
      Not a single person who carefully read Missing Pieces by Ian Wishart believes he did.
      The killer is certainly the man named in the book, which I can’t remember off hand.
      The book is Wishart’s best, where he strays into the ludicrous only when locating Heidi Paakonen on Kawau Island.
      
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      March 5, 2024 2:58pm
    - Paul Marsden
      
      I strongly disagree. I couldn’t care less whether Watson is guilty or not, there is no way he slaughtered Hope and Smart the way the Crown alleges. There is also no way either, that he would be convicted if he (or anyone), was facing the same charges based on the same ‘evidence’, presented in a competent court today. Have you read the Police file notes on the case? They will send a chill down your spine. Watson was set-up and I strongly believe the hair fibres allegedly belonging to Hope, were planted. If they have not been ‘lost’ and/or tampered with a competent, forensic analysis will yield their provenance. I believe this is one of New Zealand’s greatest miscarriages of justice, far worse than Arthur Alan Thomas. It’s a disgrace to the entire NZ judiciary. God help us should anyone ever find themselves in a similar position to Watson.
      
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      March 5, 2024 5:37pm
- fernglas
  
  Is it the sentence or the conviction that disturbs you? If the conviction was good, then the sentence is appropriate. But on the face of it, a conviction for murder without forensics or indeed anything other than circumstantial evidence means there must be more to the case than can be conveyed in a short newspaper article.
  
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  March 5, 2024 2:42pm
surfing

Is this usual?
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/bay-of-plenty-times/news/hotel-and-conference-centre-for-tv3-tauranga-cbd-site-progresses/EVMR5SD7KFCU7PJC2F3IF4U73Q/

I thought, this is great, some turkey wants to spend 150 million dollars on a conference center in the Tauranga CBD.

I was trying to find out the people behind this — turns out, it is Ann Tolley, using ratepayers money …..why are they making commercial decisions like this?

I’d prefer they invested this 150 million dollars in US tech stocks myself. There will be a better return over time.
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March 5, 2024 2:18pm
- Ghost
  
  Time they chuck her out to and let them vote in a council
  
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  March 5, 2024 2:22pm
  - Steve Todd
    
    As at right now, that’s happening in July, Ghost, as I’m sure you well know.
    
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    March 5, 2024 3:17pm
Paulus

No, Watson, the Police set him up I am sure – look at the Policeman in charge and his history.
And where he is now !
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March 5, 2024 2:21pm
Swifty

Arrest Jenna Lynch!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=35x6q2EEVE8&pp=QAFIAQ%3D%3D

Arrest Newshub editors and executives!
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March 5, 2024 2:31pm
Jack5

Red Radio clings to its Leftism, disregarding the general election result.

Headlines on its web site today:

National Party MP Melissa Lee
Lee denies hiding, despite turning down all broadcast interviews

And….

Broadcasting Minister Melissa Lee denies hiding after Newshub news

State radio can demand an interview with a Cabinet Minister?

What would happen if it no longer existed?

Bugger all.
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March 5, 2024 2:54pm
Maggie Pie

Melbourne’s Ch 7 features a couple of ‘cultural enrichers’ on the news….

Filming themselves while they’re at it 🙁

https://twitter.com/7NewsMelbourne/status/1764534306456862722
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March 5, 2024 3:01pm
- Keith White
  
  Why the downtick on that post? Does the truth hurt someone in their special feelzplace?
  
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  March 5, 2024 3:58pm
  - Maggie Pie
    
    Honestly Keith, I always think if you can’t upset at least ONE lefty loser every day, then may as well quit posting shit altogether 😀
    
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    March 5, 2024 4:37pm
    - Biscuit
      
      Agreed, Maggie.
      
      It’s a Kiwiblog badge of honour – bringing a ray of sunshine into that downticker’s life by making him/her/whatbloodypronounispreferred feel important!
      
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      March 5, 2024 4:56pm
    - Keith White
      
      Fair enough Maggie. And I think I am scraping by 🙂
      
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      March 5, 2024 5:04pm
thirteenstars

The Colorado Secretary of State who tried to deny Trump the right to be on a primary ballot, and following the Supreme Court’s unanimous decision denying states the right to do such a thing, admitting it’s now up to the people to decide for or against Trump:

https://youtu.be/IMsUlHVpnXE?si=H4PutpLo21Wyk-J5&t=40

Which proves just how distrustful the modern elites are of the democratic process which should have been good enough all along.

Note the crazy eyes and generally nutty demeanour. Remind you of Swarbrick, Ghahraman, Julie-Anne Genter, Marama Davidson?
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March 5, 2024 3:28pm
Maggie Pie

Fox just reported that Trumpy has won ‘North Dakota’ by 85% !!

MAGA 😀
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March 5, 2024 4:03pm
Biscuit

Middle Amerca is nearly always Republican, Maggie.

For a real contest you have to head to states like Florida where, I swear, if there was a choice between ‘Free Ice Cream For All’ and ‘A Kick In The Head Every Day For A Year’ the locals would go 50.5% to 49.5% for the alternative they preferred!
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March 5, 2024 4:52pm
- Maggie Pie
  
  What you need to understand now tho Bikkie…. TRUMPY IS INEVITABLE.
  
  (Hey next time, make sure to hit the REPLY button…
  otherwise in all good conscience, i am unable to include your ‘upticks’
  in my daily total)
  
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  March 5, 2024 5:04pm
  - Biscuit
    
    Be gentle with me, Maggie, but I have no idea what you mean with your bracketed comment.
    
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    March 5, 2024 5:18pm
- thirteenstars
  
  “Middle Amerca is nearly always Republican”
  
  That’s just not true. What you call “Middle” America jumps both ways. Since the end of WWII the split in presidents by party is almost 50/50 by years served, and it’s that great middle that decides the president.
  
  Indeed it’s no different than NZ. You might as well say we default to one party or the other and we obviously don’t.
  
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  March 5, 2024 6:21pm
  - Biscuit
    
    I disagree, thirteenstars.
    
    This link (https://www.270towin.com/historical-presidential-elections/) shows the results of the 8 Elections from 1992 onward.
    
    Middle America, with minor variations, is solidly Republican … and will be again in 2024.
    
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    March 5, 2024 6:44pm
    - thirteenstars
      
      What do you disagree with? That since 1945 presidential representation has been 50/50? If so, you’re incorrect. Reason? Facts. Just add up the years GOP/DEM presidents have been in office.
      
      Who do you think elected Clinton for eight years? Who do you think elected Obama for eight years? Middle America.
      
      Jesus, even since your mark of 1992 which is 32 years, Democrats have been in office as president for 20 of those years which is 62%.
      
      Can you add?
      
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      March 5, 2024 8:49pm
      - Biscuit
        
        A tad harsh, thirteenstars.
        
        Yes, you are correct that the Democrats have been in office for 20 of the last 32 years.
        
        My pint was that they have done so largely by harvesting the votes from the seaboard states … but that. as the pretty red areas in the graphs show, they have done so without convincing Middle America (I mean geographically) to tick Blue.
        
        Can we at least agree on that?
        
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        March 6, 2024 7:35am
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Colorado Lost And The Tears Are Delicious.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVYmfQgbvlI
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March 5, 2024 5:09pm
Ghost

Rumour has it a spacecraft travelled light years to introduce the human race to other life off the planet. As they approached earth they started to receive transmissions from earth. Signs have now been put up around the planet that there is no intelligent life on this planet, to bypass it

Lefties Losing It’: Woman takes son to vet because he identifies as a cat
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March 5, 2024 5:29pm
- Keith White
  
  …or maybe they’ll just put a hyperspatial bypass through it…
  
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  March 5, 2024 6:03pm
- Tauhei Notts
  
  Some years ago my youngest brother thought he had broken his ankle. The Matamata doctor’s surgery told him they were so busy that he cannot be x-rayed until next Wednesday.
  So he went to the vet, (Thompson & Marks) who promptly did the x-ray and told him that they thought it was broken, but cautioned him that they were veterinary surgeons, not doctors and take the x-ray to his doctor, who treated the break.
  
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  March 5, 2024 6:46pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Candace Owens.
STOP EVERYTHING! The Media Is Trying To Cover Up The EXPLOSIVE Diddy Lawsuit.
I have no reason to think that Candace would lie. Bigger than the Epstein scandal?
She needs to watch herself and her kiddies.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3D3k4luNPDA
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March 5, 2024 5:37pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Here is a Facebook link that tells a condensed version in 8 minutes.
  
  https://fb.watch/qCmUyhenj0/
  
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  March 5, 2024 5:40pm
- Ghost
  
  Hasn’t been covered up. Been in the news since last year, as is the current one.
  
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  March 5, 2024 5:55pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  The Youtube video is 37 minutes. It is her show. She also touches on Covid psychology.
  
  1 1
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  March 5, 2024 6:04pm
Ghost

Note to self. Get more popcorn

House Dems Implode Over Supreme Court Decision; Raskin Crafting Legislation To Bar Trump From Ballot
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March 5, 2024 6:53pm
greybeard

https://www.stuff.co.nz/world-news/350201889/scorpion-dozens-babies-its-back-discovered-sydney
Great name for the next NRL team: Sydney Scorpions
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March 5, 2024 6:57pm
JimBobJoe

Canes CEO weasel word apology… Didnt know, wasnt consulted.

Ok, maybe … but the actions of the Poua ladies reflect the messages the players are receiving from somewhere….

Oh!!! Maybe that would be the Marae days that are part of Canes preseason…

They Canes organisation is busted… But it doesn’t react till loss of revenue scares them… NZ Rugby is basically dying and its happening in front of our eyes…

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/hurricanes-to-apologise-to-government-over-poua-redneck-haka/WUUHEHLE5ZHGDF3NMNL7XXOCBY/
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March 5, 2024 7:26pm
- Inthe09
  
  Even in woke Wellington the Canes CEO is going to find a number of wallets stay firmly shut when it comes to ticket sales or sponsorship this year. Oh he’ll be told “it’s the economy” by most, but, it’s not.
  
  What is it with all these sports teams, cricket, rugby – stick to throwing a ball around and leave the politics out of it.
  
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  March 5, 2024 8:10pm
Gravelroad

Cool that the New Zealand Rugby Union is now paying players to be anti Government activists.
And wasn’t it so lucky that a TV crew just happened to be on hand to film the women yelling out about the rest of us being red necks.
How fabulous is that haka.
Am over it.
No way would I be buying a ticket to go and watch that.
10 1
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March 5, 2024 7:41pm

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