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June 12, 2024 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 12 June 2024

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General Debate

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slightlyrighty

MAGA Republicans: “Biden and the Dem’s have manipulated and weaponized the justice system!!”

Hunter Biden: “FATHER!!! WHY HAST THOU FORSAKEN ME??”
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June 12, 2024 8:02am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Joe will Pardon Hunter after Trump is sentenced and after the Mar a Lago/FBI Trial.
  Either that or he will pay off the Judge big time. Soros money of course!
  
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  June 12, 2024 8:21am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Biden was asked if he would accept the verdict he said yes, he said would you pardon him, he said no, this was on a large tv platform for the whole world to see, Mar-a-largo is off till after the election is it not? And he has appealed other bullshit verdict
    
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    June 12, 2024 9:03am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      I think Mar a Lago is after the Election, but Trump is not POTUS on Nov 5th.
      Inauguration is on Jan 20th 2025.
      
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      June 12, 2024 12:04pm
  - RoboRob
    
    Biden will wait until after the election before pardoning Hunter. Biden promised he wouldn’t pardon him (stupid and an obvious lie) so he wont want that to be used against him during the election. Hunter better hope Daddy doesn’t cark it before then !
    
    The outcome of the trial is actually perfect for Joe. Right before the first CNN debate he can call Trump a convicted criminal and when Trump claims it was a political trial Joe can say, ‘obviously not my son just went down too. There is no favouritism.’. It’s almost as if Joe knew this when he organised the early debate.
    
    Hunters sentence is also likely after the debate so if it is pathetically weak (odds on) it wont have an effect.
    
    Joe just needs to be careful Hunter doesn’t feel like he is being hung out to dry by Joe. If that happens who knows what dirt Hunter might dish.
    
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    June 12, 2024 9:14am
    - slightlyrighty
      
      It will depend.
      
      If the sentence is non custodial, then there will be no pardon, but if the sentence is manifestly unjust???
      
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      June 12, 2024 10:25am
      - RoboRob
        
        Dont think the sentence will matter. I think he will get pardoned either way so that the conviction is totally removed from Hunters record. I think the pres can pardon whoever he wants without having to justify the reason. After Nov he wont have to stand for election again (he will or wont be pres in Jan) so there is no political flack for it.
        
        I know thats what I would do for my son in Joes position, which is whay it was stupid for Joe to lie about not pardoning him.
        
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        June 12, 2024 12:01pm
      - Ghost
        
        Joe won’t pardon him. President Kamala will
        
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        June 12, 2024 12:08pm
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        Hunter will still want the right to purchase a gun, and to vote.
        
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        June 12, 2024 12:07pm
      - NothingLeft
        
        This is a relatively stupid law in terms of US Constitution 2nd amendment. Though he was clearly dead to rights. I don’t think it matters if he gets off with a fine, point is made.
        
        It’s the tax and corruption stuff that really needs to go to trial – with huge penalties for clear huge-scale and impact corruption.
        
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        June 12, 2024 12:08pm
- cmm
  
  Someone has to go under the bus to take the heat off Joe.
  
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  June 12, 2024 8:24am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Well if Hunter is sentenced to jail the media will be all over it like flies on shit and crooked Joe Biden will keep on being crooked without the pesky media.
    
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    June 12, 2024 8:36am
    - All_on_Red
      
      I doubt Hunter will go to Jail
      It’s his First Offence
      
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      June 12, 2024 9:06am
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        Fining him is no good – China will pay the fine.
        
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        June 12, 2024 9:14am
      - RoboRob
        
        Apparently this is a serious offence and many people do get Jail time for it. A number of rappers have for example. 3-5 yrs is not uncommon. I am assuming it was first offence for those people too, doesn’t seem like the sort of thing you would do twice unless you were a mobster, but I don’t know.
        
        But I agree, Hunter will likely get some sort of community service type sentence and then after Nov Joe will pardon him to remove the offence from his record entirely.
        
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        June 12, 2024 9:17am
      - jkt
        
        Probation.
        
        All Americans better watch out, they are coming for your guns!
        About bloody time.
        
        Playing with guns and drugs is bad for poor citizens who can’t afford drugs or guns and need to go out and steel stuff.
        
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        June 12, 2024 9:36am
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        jkt@9.36.
        America does not have a gun problem.
        America has a mental health problem disguised as a gun problem.
        Not Hunter (as far as I know) these people are stoked up on anti-psychotic drugs to make them better, then they self medicate, be it coke, fentanyl, and such.
        Sane people do not go into Gun Free Zones and shoot up schools.
        
        Oh jkt, steal*
        
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        June 12, 2024 9:49am
      - jkt
        
        Thanks Steve
        
        One needs steel to steal.
        Steely nerves can be acquired.
        
        Do the crime, do the time!
        
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        June 12, 2024 11:12am
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        Roborob has the procedure correct. Even when Joe loses badly, he is still in action until 20th Jan 2025.
        
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        June 12, 2024 12:10pm
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      Manifestly unjust? What, it’s a felony, and max 20 years prison, he must get jail time, even if it’s 6 months
      
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      June 12, 2024 11:11am
      - RoboRob
        
        ‘he must get jail time’
        
        Yeah nah. There is no requirement in law to jail the perp, its up to the judge.
        
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        June 12, 2024 12:04pm
      - jkt
        
        The jury found that he was a drug addict when he made a declaration on a gun licence application.
        
        Like Trump, he could not take the stand for obvious reasons.
        
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        June 12, 2024 12:49pm
  - RoboRob
    
    Yes. I dont really give a toss about Hunters Drug, gun, porn addition or people trafficing offences.
    The real problem here is the effort put in to focus people away from the financial transfers that might implicate Joe. Those are important and should have been investigated.
    
    Instead the time limit has been left to run out on most of these and the FBI have actively blocked some aspects of the investigation (blocking a cell phone location check and notifying Hunter of the ‘surprise’ search warrant).
    
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    June 12, 2024 9:25am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Crooked Joe Biden did not get that name for nothing.
      
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      June 12, 2024 9:52am
      - MCōs
        
        Joseph was given to him when he was born by his parents
        ‘Crooked’ was given to him by, you guessed it, Mr Trump in 2020 because ’Sleepy’ didn’t work and was now an embarrassment to Mr Trump because who wants to be beaten by someone who supposedly slept walked to victory
        
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        June 12, 2024 10:05am
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        MCos, the name was given to him because of the dealings with China and Ukraine, with Hunter. The same Hunter who knows nothing about Energy but Ukraine gave him a job.
        
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        June 12, 2024 10:22am
      - RoboRob
        
        @steve
        
        You gotta give Hunter credit here, he happily admits that without the Biden name he wouldn’t have got the gigs he did.
        
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        June 12, 2024 12:06pm
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        Rob @12.06,
        
        I guess you have seen the vid about the Ukraine Prosecutor charging Hunter was sacked? No sacking, Ukraine does not get the loan.
        “Son of a bitch, he was sacked!” Daddy has power for Hunter to use.
        
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXA–dj2-CY
        
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        June 12, 2024 12:14pm
    - NothingLeft
      
      Ideally it will get re-opened on grounds of conspiracy to not-prosecute for political reasons at a later date. Findings of corruption and fraud tend to negate any legal benefits that accrue, so maybe would set aside beneficial consequences like statute of limitations.
      
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      June 12, 2024 12:13pm
- Nigel Kearney
  
  Hunter should appeal on the grounds that a gun ban for an historic drug conviction is an unreasonable infringement on the second amendment right to bear arms. Then whoever tells Joe what to say will have a bit of a problem deciding whether they agree with that.
  
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  June 12, 2024 10:11am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    That would be a classic move! Explaining the Second Amendment to Joe about Hunter’s rights to bear arms that shall not be infringed, when Joe wants all of the guns!
    
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    June 12, 2024 10:25am
- peterwn
  
  Hunter was convicted by a jury of three rather serious felonies and needs to face the music at sentencing like anyone else. Dad will let him stew in his own juices, that is Dad’s best political move. Hunter should have known better, his position was completely indefencible. It is like a certain Kiwi ex MP who falsely obtained a passport in some poor deceased child’s name – he should have known better and had to accept the consequences when found out years later.
  Compare with Jesus who did not even commit a crime – no significant crime could be identified (apart from getting up influential peoples’ noses and disrupting commerce). The whole thing was political and he was sentenced to appease the masses by a guy who should have known better.
  
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  June 12, 2024 10:28am
  - jkt
    
    The Romans accused him of Treason.
    A bit of Lawfare back then.
    
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    June 12, 2024 11:27am
    - peterwn
      
      Treason all depends on which side of the fence you and the accusers sit. Remember Lady Jane Grey in the 1500’s. She was proclaimed Queen and was due to be crowned in the Tower of London. Then the tide turned and the Privy Council proclaimed Mary Tudor Queen. Lady Jane was accused of treason (despite doing nothing treasonable) and was executed in the Tower. Arguably Mary was the one who committed treason and got away with it.
      
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      June 12, 2024 12:50pm
      - jkt
        
        Lawfare!
        
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        June 12, 2024 3:20pm
Tom Hunter

I don’t recall this scene from Frozen, but IIRC Biden wasn’t in that movie.

Christ, at least McConnell was standing alone when had his episode.
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June 12, 2024 8:07am
- ISeeRed
  
  Link doesn’t work.
  
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  June 12, 2024 8:30am
  - kevn
    
    ISee.. here you go…
    https://www.foxnews.com/politics/president-biden-appears-freeze-white-house-juneteenth-event
    
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    June 12, 2024 9:50am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Seems like Joe is some sort of cartoon anime who has not been activated.
      Guy on his left tells him to make movements.
      
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      June 12, 2024 10:27am
- RoboRob
  
  I’m no fan of Biden BUT if I was surrounded by black people dancing and the cameras were all focused on me I certainly wouldn’t be whipping out my pathetic white boy dance moves 🙂
  
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  June 12, 2024 9:21am
- NothingLeft
  
  Puppeteers were on a coffee break.
  
  There’s just no way he’s kept on till election.
  
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  June 12, 2024 11:17am
Grunter

Bidens plan to crank up WWIII on track. NATO ships ‘escorting’ Russian ships into Cuba. US provides full support to the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion to fire long range missiles into mainland Russia. No doubt more over the horizon radar systems will be taken out. NATO troops now openly confirmed inside Ukraine. F-16’s about to fly out of Romania and Poland to attack Russia.

All the things Biden said 2 years ago that “would mean WWIII”
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June 12, 2024 8:09am
- G152
  
  So according to you its okay for Russia to invade and shoot up a country but not ok for that country to hit back….
  
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  June 12, 2024 8:25am
  - RightNow
    
    So according to you, the US is Ukraine
    
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    June 12, 2024 11:34am
  - Grunter
    
    G152
    Nah – I didn’t say that at all, those are your words.
    
    Ukraine has every right to fight, that is their choice. But that choice to fight comes with obvious consequences. The same goes for NATO which has chosen to also fight Russia. That choice also has consequences.
    
    Back in April 2022, Ukraine and Russia chose to settle without further fighting. But NATO’s clownman (Borris Johnson) was sent in to rip that agreement up. That decision has had consequences, many lives lost.
    
    So now what….??? G152, what is your answer to this mess that is obviously getting more and more dangerous?
    
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    June 12, 2024 11:43am
- All_on_Red
  
  WW3 sounds serious
  This is interesting; ‘F-16’s about to fly out of Romania and Poland to attack Russia’
  Do you have a source for this or any further information?
  
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  June 12, 2024 9:05am
  - jkt
    
    No, but it may well happen.
    And why not?
    
    There are probably many experienced fighter pilots itching for some real action.
    
    Maybe when some come back in body bags the politicians will work harder at finding solutions to these issues.
    
    Then again, body bags do not seem to affect Putin and his sort.
    
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    June 12, 2024 9:39am
  - Grunter
    
    AOR
    A range of media (see link below from the Kyiv Independent) quoting Ukrainian Serhii Holubtsov, a top officer at the Air Force Command, who reportedly said this on Sunday…
    “A number of F-16 fighter jets donated by Western allies to Ukraine will be stationed at air bases abroad.”
    Interpret what you want from that, but their previous statements saying Romania and Poland air bases are being used to train F-16 pilots makes them the obvious candidates to operate F-16’s from.
    
    F-16s for Ukraine means it will need significant infrastructure and logistics. Spare parts, training, munitions, and repair crews. Infrastructure for complex weapons systems takes multiple years to develop and operate effectively, which would be difficult for any command to establish amid an ongoing conflict but will be particularly challenging for a country fighting a large-scale war against one of the world’s largest militaries. Russia will of course target any Ukrainian airfield quickly rendering it unusable for the F-16s.
    
    So, my interpretation is, F-16s, based in Romania & Poland, will very likely be used to fire into mainland Russia.
    
    https://kyivindependent.com/some-f-16s-donated-to-ukraine-will-be-stored-abroad-top-officer-says/
    
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    June 12, 2024 10:56am
    - jkt
      
      Exactly.
      
      Will the Russians target the Polish and Romanian airstrips?
      
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      June 12, 2024 11:40am
    - All_on_Red
      
      Grunter
      Stored abroad and held in reserve is a lot different than “about to fly out of Romania and Poland to attack Russia’
      You are saying they will attack from Romania and Poland- which is not what your source says
      And you wonder why I think you talk a lot of crap
      
      Oh and my sister is married to an ex F16 pilot (2000hrs) In the field they can work without a huge amount of support. F 35’s not so much
      
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      June 12, 2024 12:06pm
      - jkt
        
        Let’s say they house the pilots and planes in Poland or Romania.
        
        Lands in Ukraine, get armed, fly their sortie, return to be refuelled and rearmed, repeat and then fly back to base for maintenance and recuperation.
        
        There are some serious advantages in such a strategy.
        
        This war needs to be stopped. It is an insane waste!
        
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        June 12, 2024 12:58pm
      - Grunter
        
        As usual, you hit the personal attacks button……
        
        When, not if, Russia wrecks the Ukrainian airfields that can launch F-16s, where do you think the remaining F-16s will launch from?
        
        To say “in reserve” doesn’t mean they will fly out of foreign airfields…… that’s just Biden word soup. Of course, they will fly out of a NATO country at some point. My only speculation is that it will be Romania and Poland.
        
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        June 12, 2024 1:38pm
      - jkt
        
        Grunter:
        
        You could also have provided the source of your information.
        
        I think up most of the stuff that I post all by myself. You can do the same.
        
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        June 12, 2024 3:26pm
Simon

We have all seen many DEI shithouse govt depts sell NZ out for ideological reasons. Look at the RBNZ, run by DEI zealots. Would the RBNZ spike interest rates to kill off a govt they thought say wasnt moving on climate change? For the greater good. If you were shit for brains and thought man made climate change was real. Would you be justified in getting the Gweens / Labo back in power?

DEI & Treaty “principle” govt departments are run along political lines. Where is the purge of govt departments NZ voted for ?
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June 12, 2024 8:13am
- ISeeRed
  
  It’s too late. It’s baked in. DEI/climate change/te tiriti zealots are embedded in all our institutions and positions of power. They have sympathisers, supporters and allies across the political spectrum. There is no genuine centre-right or right-wing party in NZ politics. Short of a Kiwi Melei, New Zealand is doomed, because the majority of voters are ignorant soft lefties. They vote for who looks the nicest and sounds the kindest.
  
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  June 12, 2024 8:38am
  - jkt
    
    It sure is baked in.
    
    Most voters have sympathy and empathy towards those who believe in these three causes.
    
    Many voters are not convinced that prioritising actions to deal with these issues over more pressing issues – such as poverty, inequality, war, religious bigotry…. – will create public good for humans across the planet.
    
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    June 12, 2024 10:08am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    The State Sector Govt Septs have been infiltrated with Maori activists.
    See http://www.stopcogovernance.kiwi
    
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    June 12, 2024 10:31am
- Nukuleka
  
  A repetition of Simon’s rant from yesterday. At least be original and have a new thought, mate.
  
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  June 12, 2024 8:47am
  - Grunter
    
    If you disagree with Simon then at least explain why you think his rant is wrong.
    
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    June 12, 2024 9:02am
  - Simon
    
    At least I can think. You??
    
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    June 12, 2024 9:07am
  - jkt
    
    Nuke:
    Simon’s post demonstrates it is not a mere rant. He made a coherent argument two posts in a row.
    
    He has a strong opinion or is very committed.
    
    If one replaces the entire RB board with “conservative intellectuals” one may well find that they will favour climate change intervention and consider DEI credentials when developing employment strategies. Not even mentioning the reinterpretation of the Treaty.
    
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    June 12, 2024 9:54am
- PurplePen
  
  Appoint one of the govt CEOs from Singapore as head of the public service and then replace all agency CEOs with the same and start working your way down.
  
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  June 12, 2024 11:35am
Maggie Pie

“Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me”

– Matthew 26:17-30

https://x.com/dpfdpf/status/1800320232743145960
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June 12, 2024 8:16am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  12. Is that the Last Supper?
  
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  June 12, 2024 9:24am
  - jkt
    
    Last breakfast.
    
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    June 12, 2024 10:11am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  Brilliant
  
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  June 12, 2024 9:25am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  Good to know you’ve been paying attention during Mass, Maggie
  
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  June 12, 2024 9:26am
  - jkt
    
    They could have done it on zoom and claimed thousands attended.
    
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    June 12, 2024 10:13am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Like one of Trump’s breakfasts at Mar a Lago!
      
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      June 12, 2024 10:41am
      - jkt
        
        Yes, exactly like those crowds.
        
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        June 12, 2024 11:44am
Gussy Fink-Nottle

Re yesterday’s post on men’s health strategy…
The excerpt stated “We’re twice as likely to be injured at work”
Only if you include paper cuts and hurty feelings.
Because, if you’re a man, in NZ, you are over 18 times more likely to be killed or maimed at work.
The argument for seeking ‘equality of outcomes’ is quite selective, really.
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June 12, 2024 8:20am
- ISeeRed
  
  And no one provided a list of these supposed sex-based rights and benefits bestowed solely upon the menfolk. A privilege, after all, is something given to a select group that benefits only them with the implication it’s undeserved or unearned.
  
  So, let’s hear it, male feminist allies. Use logic and reason. Be consistent and principled. Don’t run away.
  
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  June 12, 2024 10:03am
Benedict Yu

I agree with this decision.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/fieldays-nzs-agriculture-minister-to-announce-support-for-farming-cutting-red-tape-around-forestry-the-front-page/ZSIJABGWHBG4FPNNYEHPZ6JFFU/

However, there seems little recognition that if I farmers do not pay for their emissions, the government needs to pay for them. This will simply add to government debt or displace other spending.

The only way to avoid this is to modify the Paris Accord commitments to exclude agricultural emissions from the pledged 30 percent reduction. The government shows no signs of doing so. Indeed it is rarely mentioned. A subject best avoided. 😒.
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June 12, 2024 8:47am
- cmm
  
  “However, there seems little recognition that if I farmers do not pay for their emissions, the government needs to pay for them. ”
  
  … or how about option (C): nobody pays for them.
  
  The Paris Accord is just a bit of paper it is not the laws of physics.
  
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  June 12, 2024 8:52am
  - Benedict Yu
    
    Option C is not the Government’s policy.
    
    My annoyance is the opaqueness with which Chris Luxon deals with the public on climate change policies. The decision to exclude agriculture will increase government expenditure by billions over the next 6 years. He is silent because he can rely on the media to be too ignorant to pick up on it.
    
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    June 12, 2024 9:01am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      Removing farming was a Nat policy, and now with the three parties agreeing, then it’s been taken out, this crap that Luxon is a greenie has to stop, he is doing what is right for the country, he uses words so not to lose a few teal votes, can you not understand that?
      
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      June 12, 2024 9:13am
      - Benedict Yu
        
        For gods sake did you read my comment?
        
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        June 12, 2024 9:47am
      - jkt
        
        Grow up Benedict.
        The Giant has the right to respond to your rant.
        
        If his comment offended god then god can surely deal with that if he chooses to do so.
        
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        June 12, 2024 10:25am
      - Benedict Yu
        
        My comment was not a rant and his comment was not a response.
        
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        June 12, 2024 11:18am
      - jkt
        
        Bene
        
        There you go again!
        You have been ranting on and on about Luxon not telling the public that what you want him to tell the public.
        
        If that is not a rant what is?
        
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        June 12, 2024 11:53am
      - Ghost
        
        I see a conversation, not a rant. You’re reading into it more than is there
        
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        June 12, 2024 11:58am
    - cmm
      
      This is classic Luxon isn’t it.
      
      He thinks he can sit on the fence and be everyone’s friend.
      
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      June 12, 2024 9:22am
    - jkt
      
      We all know where the Paris Accord will end up.
      Right next to the Kyoto Protocol …..
      
      Keep up with your protest. Government will pick up on this once the time is right.
      
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      June 12, 2024 10:20am
    - westernScientist
      
      They are banking on technology being able to deliver the reduction. In the budget there was something like 400 million over the next few years to develop ‘tools and technologies’. This is like 10% of NZ public R and D spend, it its pretty large, given it includes universities etc as well, so a lot of that total spend is not what you or I would generally consider R and D.
      For reference the gross revenue for Plant and Food was 180mil – of which about 60mil was public. So the GHG ‘tools and development’ fund is nearly agresearch and plant and foods public funding combined.
      
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      June 12, 2024 11:01am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      Yes I did read your post, you said he is opaque with the the public, he has been absolute clear on taking taking farming out of the ETS, I don’t care if he is opaque with nut bar greenies
      
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      June 12, 2024 11:14am
  - Chris Nisbet
    
    There’s more than one study out there that reckons that agriculture is already ‘net zero’, or even possibly a net sink. The study out of Auckland springs to mind.
    
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    June 12, 2024 9:07am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      Sheep and beef farming are neutral now because of grass methods, stock rotation and planting, dairy farming is not
      
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      June 12, 2024 9:16am
      - Matt Long
        
        The generalisation is the that dairy farming is not neutral or carbon positive. However within the groups different farming methods will be both positive and negative.
        
        8 1
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        June 12, 2024 10:13am
    - imalwaysright
      
      CN,
      Correct, it would be hard to find a country with more vegetation, lower population density and with minimal industry than New Zealand.
      We are beyond doubt a carbon sink and we should be taking full advantage of the climate scam and claiming our share of the money in the ETS.
      
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      June 12, 2024 9:22am
    - cmm
      
      This is a point I have raised here many times too.
      Agriculture is a technology that takes carbon out of the air and converts it into food.
      The major three food molecules are:
      * Carbohydrates:As the name implies, these molecules are made up of chains of a hydrated carbon (CH2O)n. By weight they are 40% carbon. It takes almost 1.5kg of CO2 out of the air to produce 1kg of carbohydrtates.
      * Proteins: About 31% carbon. Each kg of protein removes about 1.2kg of CO2 from the atmosphere.
      * Fats: About 50% carbon. Each kg of fat removes around 2.2kg of CO2 from the atmosphere.
      
      The only wiggle room for debate is that agriculture emits some methane which has a higher GHG coefficient than CO2 (until it breaks down to CO2).
      But that’s the same methane that comes out of swamps, compost heaps, forest floor, wild animals,…
      
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      June 12, 2024 9:35am
      - Jethrod
        
        …….and humans!
        
        7 1
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        June 12, 2024 10:20am
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        You done it now. All of the loopy Greens are writhing around on the floor making stupid noises and having anxiety attacks!
        All of that data is just too much to handle.
        
        8 2
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        June 12, 2024 10:52am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    The left will say the government has to pay for it, but if you take Ardern flawed decision to put farming in, and take it out then why would you pay for something not in any longer,
    
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    June 12, 2024 9:08am
    - Benedict Yu
      
      Again for gods sake did you read my comment? The government has an international agreement to reduce ALL emissions by 30 percent by 2030. I was simply stating facts. Yesterday’s decision will cost the government billions unless it withdraws from the Paris Accord. We can debate whether it should do that. We can debate changing the UNFCCC methodology for calculating emissions. However AFAIK none of those things are planned by the government.
      
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      June 12, 2024 9:51am
      - Matt Long
        
        I don’t know if it will be necessary for the government to cripple agriculture with a poorly designed entry into the ETS, given both processors and lending institutions are setting up to be cat’s paws for global carbon scamsters.
        (Note, I’m not saying that climate change isn’t happening, I have insufficient knowledge to make that call, apart from that the loudest proponents are the least trustworthy people, my point is just that killing agriculture in New Zealand won’t help. )
        
        8 1
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        June 12, 2024 10:20am
      - Benedict Yu
        
        “I don’t know if it will be necessary for the government to cripple agriculture with a poorly designed entry into the ETS..”
        
        I agree – that is why I said at the start that I support the decision to exclude agriculture from the ETS. My criticism of the Government is that it refuses to tell the public that the decision will require the Government to spend billions on carbon credits over the next 6 years.
        
        7 2
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        June 12, 2024 11:21am
      - jkt
        
        Bene
        The public knows this. It is in the budgets!
        
        Your claim is that the government must come clean and tell the public that they are committed to the Paris Accord.
        
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        June 12, 2024 12:01pm
  - Taieri
    
    The Paris Accord is just a bit of paper
    ————-
    
    Does to provide any ways of enforcement and possible sanctions for non-conforming states?
    
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    June 12, 2024 10:17am
    - Benedict Yu
      
      AFAIK there are no sanctions. The free trade deal with the EU requires New Zealand to undertake actions to mitigate emissions (I can’t recall the exact words). Walking away from the Paris Accord may prompt retaliation from the EU.
      
      It may be that Chris Luxon is waiting for another country to “blink first”. If there is a change of Government in Canada in 2025, that is most likely to be the first domino to fall. Then Australia, if the current Labor Government is a one-term government which is entirely possible.
      
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      June 12, 2024 11:25am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  But but but – didn’t the Paris Accord specifically exclude food production from its rules? And didn’t Jacinda just ignore that in her $30B commitment?
  
  Surely, all we have to do is say that we’re going to adhere to the Paris Accord to the letter, no less & no more?
  
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  June 12, 2024 9:30am
  - Benedict Yu
    
    No. The Paris Accord has a let out clause on “actions that threaten food production” . However ALL commitments in the Accord apply to total country emissions. New Zealand pledged to reduce emissions by 30 percent. That includes agriculture.
    
    If agriculture is off the table, New Zealand would need to reduce all non agricultural emissions but roughly 60 percent. As that is impossible the only solution is to spend billions on carbon credits. Or to withdraw from the Accord.
    
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    June 12, 2024 9:58am
    - jkt
      
      Why withdraw when that can cost the government the treasury benches and loose us the war against climate change.
      
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      June 12, 2024 10:34am
      - Benedict Yu
        
        You think that New Zealand is going to ‘win a war against climate change’? How?
        
        2 1
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        June 12, 2024 11:27am
      - jkt
        
        Bene:
        I feel for you!
        
        If you cannot understand my comment that is on you.
        
        1 2
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        June 12, 2024 12:03pm
    - Handyman
      
      Let’s remember that the Paris accord was just politicians at the time from various countries making separate and independent pledges (for something to happen after they retire).
      China, for example, pledged to increase its CO2 emissions to at least 2030. It therefore is part of the Paris “agreement”.
      As the political cycle turns, newer politicians will amend the previous pledges. If polling is correct, France, Poland, Hungary, USA and Australia could withdraw from the Paris agreement in the coming years.
      
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      June 12, 2024 11:01am
      - Benedict Yu
        
        IMO Canada may be the first if it changes government in 2025.
        
        3 1
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        June 12, 2024 11:27am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Pull the plug on the Paris Accord. More Green nonsense.
  
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  June 12, 2024 9:35am
  - imalwaysright
    
    Or recalculate the numbers.
    We are nett users of carbon dioxide and are entitled to tens of billions from the ETS fund.
    We have so many of our plants excluded from the calculations that it isn’t funny.
    
    Does a plant in New Zealand cease to use carbon dioxide because it is excluded from a category in our Paris accord agreement ?
    
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    June 12, 2024 10:27am
    - Benedict Yu
      
      We cannot change the numbers without leaving the UNFCCC. We are bound to the UNFCCC methodology on calculating emissions on so called “Land Use, Land Use Change, and Forestry” emissions.
      
      Guess which country led the work that resulted in the UNFCCC agreeing to the current methodology?
      
      Yes the methodology can be changed but the negotiations for the current methodology lasted for 10 years.
      
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      June 12, 2024 11:30am
      - imalwaysright
        
        That the methodology negotiations lasted 10 years indicates that they may not have been based on logic and science. I wasn’t aware of that.
        
        Start with plant coverage and then subtract from that the activities that produce carbon dioxide.
        It would be difficult for most countries to not be carbon dioxide consumers.
        This highlights the stupidity of singling out a single chemical as being a direct cause of a temperature change of a planet that is composed of over a hundred different atoms and many magnitudes more of their combinations.
        
        Here’s an idea. Get Luxon interviewed by a scientist, that hasn’t sold their soul, and ask some very simple questions.
        They dont like simple questions .
        
        6 2
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        June 12, 2024 12:08pm
  - Handyman
    
    Is Paris About to Leave the Paris Agreement?
    
    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2024/06/10/is-paris-about-to-leave-the-paris-agreement/
    
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    June 12, 2024 11:13am
- Taieri
  
  How many and which countries are meeting their Paris Accord commitments at present?
  
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  June 12, 2024 10:03am
  - Matt Long
    
    The ones who are best at negotiation or dissimulation are meeting their Paris Accord targets, or the ones that didn’t see the Accords as a way to subjugate and impoverish portions of their populations.
    
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    June 12, 2024 10:23am
  - Benedict Yu
    
    The EU will meet its commitments.
    
    Australia and the USA are doubtful.
    
    Canada and New Zealand – no chance.
    
    Japan is doubtful but it will ensure that it buys enough carbon credits to make up the shortfall, no matter the cost.
    
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    June 12, 2024 11:37am
    - jkt
      
      Australia is “sandbagging” Vanuatu and creating high ground for development they have also offered residence to some 200 climate refugees per annum for Vanuatuans.
      
      Start counting the carbon credits that these actions represent.
      
      Will it change anthropogenic climate change. Of course not.
      
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      June 12, 2024 12:10pm
      - Jack5
        
        Is Australia offering climate-refuge help to people from Vanuatu, or is the the help it’s offering for the people of Tuvalu?
        
        https://www.skynews.com.au/australia-news/politics/australia-signs-landmark-treaty-with-tuvalu-offering-residents-resettlement-rights-as-island-nation-extremely-vulnerable-to-submersion-from-climate-change/news-story/051cb37a85d805c17b4a56cc5615b254
        
        3 1
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        June 12, 2024 3:22pm
- wsk12345
  
  I suspect the Nats are just waiting for the aussies to pull out of the Paris Accord then we will too. No need to mention it until then.
  
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  June 12, 2024 12:22pm
softail 1450

Hunter Biden should enlist in one of the readily available “ how to protect yourself in prison” tutorials especially the one “ the best way to ensure you don’t drop the soap whilst showering “ or he could just get some tips from his half sister Ashlie Biden although her hard taught lesson of “ I used to take my showers late at night to avoid showering naked with him” about her pedophile father won’t work out with the prison timeline ,oh well it’s about time Hunter found out about what it’s like to be f- -ked as he’s done to many thousands with his criminal behaviour.
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June 12, 2024 8:48am
cmm

The “cone of silence” around the Te Kuiti baby killing has been breeched within 2 or 3 days, so the cops are able to act when they want to.

So why has baby Ru’s case dragged on for over 6 months?

And, yes, there is public interest here. A lot of people must be asking how effective the police would be if something happened to a member of their family.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/350307195/baby-mustafas-dad-says-he-missed-some-things-initial-interview-police
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June 12, 2024 8:50am
- Benedict Yu
  
  What can they do? If the suspects all maintain silence the police are stuck. I think that it is unfair to blame the police, unless you have specific evidence of incompetence.
  
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  June 12, 2024 8:55am
  - cmm
    
    What can they do? Perhaps nothing. If so we have a very broken justice system.
    
    But I suspect there are things they can do like charging people with being accomplices, failing to report a crime etc.
    
    In the case of a baby there is a duty of care that goes beyond just not thumping someone.
    
    I’m sure if they threw the book at them and locked up everyone involved as remand prisoners that would loosen a few tongues pretty quickly.
    
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    June 12, 2024 9:40am
    - Benedict Yu
      
      “I’m sure if they threw the book at them and locked up everyone involved as remand prisoners…”
      
      Without evidence sufficient to support a homicide charge, that would be overturned by the courts by lunchtime.
      
      Unless you want to abolish the right to remain silent, the police are stuck.
      
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      June 12, 2024 10:01am
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        Surely the dead baby is evidence?
        Just needs some pressure to make them squark.
        
        5 4
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        June 12, 2024 11:02am
      - newview
        
        BY Iv’e never really understood why anyone has the right to remain silent. If you are frightened you will incriminate yourself by being interviewed that speaks for itself. This family and baby was already known to police. They know what happened so protecting their right to silence is a crock. A dumb law IMO.
        
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        June 12, 2024 11:59am
- imalwaysright
  
  Britain has a charging tool called Joint Enterprise where others at the scene of a crime can face the same charges as the perpetrator if they reasonably knew the intentions of the perpetrator, or even reasonably knew that the perp was capable of the crime.
  
  It has draconian overtones, but would be palatable if restricted to baby killers.
  
  That would greatly simplify arresting not only the scum baby murderers, but also the scum who knew about it and turned a blind eye.
  
  (It would also be a handy tool to put multiple gang members behind bars.)
  
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  June 12, 2024 9:39am
  - cmm
    
    I am pretty sure we have some similar toys in our toybox:
    
    https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1961/0043/latest/DLM328506.html
    
    You don’t have to be the one that swings your fist to be party to an offence.
    
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    June 12, 2024 11:03am
    - imalwaysright
      
      Good find, you would think that would suffice but I think the difference to the British law is that they cite the culpability of those who should reasonably have knowledge of the propensity for a crime to happen.
      Law seems to be written for lawyers.
      
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      June 12, 2024 12:22pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

How many welfare queens or kings do we have in NZ like there are in the US?

https://quicknewsupdates.com/welfare-queen-caught-mocking-hardworking-taxpayers/?
7 3
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June 12, 2024 9:00am
- Jethrod
  
  Oh, how about 2 small parties on the left.
  
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  June 12, 2024 10:33am
edhunter

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/350306337/idyllic-waterfront-property-holiday-hotspot-going-cheap-comes-mob-boss
More than a couple of things disturb me about this story.
Firstly and most importantly, how do you have property and assets seized without having been convicted of a crime that garnered you the means to buy said properties & assets?
Just ‘knowing and feelz’ that as a gang president his money has come from illegal activities surely can’t be enough to have assets and properties seized?
If the police pushed so hard to get said assets and properties seized why haven’t they just gone in and seized the bloody properties?
How do the ‘Official Assignees’ rack up and justify a bill of close to half a million dollars in 2 years, 25-33% of said properties value and still have nothing to show for it?
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June 12, 2024 9:02am
- Jethrod
  
  Before I started reading it , I thought you were writing about JT!
  
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  June 12, 2024 10:32am
- Don Beckett
  
  Interesting. I grew up in Te Puke, and spent time in my youth at Maketu, and some of my Maori rellies own property/ live there. The Nicholas family, from memory, are long standing resident owners of property in Maketu going back many generations, so Val Nicholas – gang member or not – could well be right about the crown not being able to confiscate inherited land, especially if it is joint ownership as much Maori property is.
  This could well be a ‘Pass the popcorn’ case.
  
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  June 12, 2024 11:38am
  - Jethrod
    
    Oh surely not a Bastion Point moment?
    
    1 2
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    June 12, 2024 12:44pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

New report. Joe is not the same.

https://quicknewsupdates.com/new-report-rocks-white-house-dems-getting-nervous/?
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June 12, 2024 9:03am
- I remember when
  
  “New report. Joe is not the same.”
  
  Unfortunately, the problem is that he is the same.
  
  7 1
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  June 12, 2024 9:37am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    He is not sharp, he is Obama’s puppet.
    
    6 2
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    June 12, 2024 11:05am
    - imalwaysright
      
      S.O
      That is correct. He is a puppet.
      They have taken the idea of a figurehead whose job is to front and distract the media (NZ think adern) to the extreme. They are using a walking corpse to front the media and deflect attention from the actual criminals destroying the USA and the west.
      
      His final act will be his prearranged death. I am wondering if they will choose natural causes or a timely assassination.
      Whichever polls better?
      
      5 2
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      June 12, 2024 12:29pm
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        imalwaysright,
        
        Hillary, but I have been wrong before
        
        2 1
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        June 12, 2024 6:00pm
Maggie Pie

For those who have been following the Hunter-Biden-Gun-Trial like we have, thort this worth sharing with the group.

An X bestie has sent us a ‘MEGA THREAD’ of all the evidence presented in the case against him.
Videos, Bank Statements, Guns, Drugs, Hookers, Surveillance Footage, Txts…. the whole enchilada!

https://x.com/MiaCathell/status/1800026166474240491
8 3
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June 12, 2024 9:03am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  The pistol shown is a slug gun.
  
  2 3
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  June 12, 2024 11:12am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    So what have we here? 3 downtickers who think a GAMO PT180 is a 45 revolver?
    Slug gun girlies. .177 slugs, CO2 powered?
    Revolver in that it can hold rotary slugs.
    Hunter bought a 38 REVOVER.
    
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    June 12, 2024 5:56pm
All_on_Red

Just for Steve and Richard X
‘New footage released by House Republicans investigating the Select Committee on Jan. 6 from last Congress exposed then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi acknowledging her own culpability in the Capitol turmoil.’
‘Pelosi is captured on camera in an SUV speaking to her chief of staff, Terri McCullough, as the speaker and her team were taken to Fort McNair.’
‘Why weren’t the National Guard there to begin with?” Pelosi asks incredulously, adding the lack of preparation for mass demonstrations in the capital that day was her responsibility. “They clearly didn’t know, and I take responsibility for not having them just prepare for more.”
https://thefederalist.com/2024/06/11/j6-footage-shows-pelosi-expressing-regret-over-national-guard-failure-i-take-responsibility/
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June 12, 2024 9:09am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  The National Guard did not know? They were not deployed by Pelosi is why – such is her hatred of Donald Trump. He asked – twice.
  Richard won’t respond, other than to bend and twist it.
  
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  June 12, 2024 11:18am
  - RichardX
    
    You seem to forget that some of us have a life outside of KB.
    
    I’m not sure if it is an inability to comprehend or just wishful thinking but you both appear to enjoy flogging a dead horse.
    
    There is no need for me to “bend or twist” when you have made claims for which you have been unable to provide evidence.
    
    Your repeated claims of Trump at least twice requesting troops in the weeks prior to Jan 6 are not supported by any evidence that has been presented.
    
    The most complete summary of your claims is below but there are plenty of others.
    
    Steve Otto(North Shore)
    What is never reported is the infiltration of the Trump rally was on social media 2 weeks before Jan 6th. Pelosi knew, Trump knew. Trump wanted 22,000 National Guard Troops for security. Pelosi refused. 10,000 Troops and she still refused.
    Pelosi knew it was going to get nasty. Even helped her daughter setting her up to video it all.
    10,000 Troops would have stopped it in it’s tracks. Fact checkers say the request for Troops is false. Note, they write items about the false claim but it is all wild goose chases, naming other people that say false. The TDS is strong. Troop request was real.
    
    AUGUST 25, 2023 10:42AM
    
    While the clip shows Pelosi taking responsibility for the Capitol not being better prepared for Jan 6 there is no evidence presented that she is saying she denied requests for the National Guard. Her claimed refusal is an inference made by the author of the article.
    
    Even AOR’s claim that Trump requested troops is not supported as was previously pointed out last time AOR claimed a Federalist article supported his position as it made the distinction between Trump passively offering troops and Trump requesting troops.
    
    Last time this was refuted starts here
    
    https://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2024/04/general_debate_06_april_2024.html#comment-3539513
    
    All I need is answers, with supporting evidence, to the following questions.
    Who did Trump ask for troops?
    When did Trump ask for troops?
    How did Pelosi refuse him?
    
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    June 12, 2024 8:29pm
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Saying you would not respond was an easy way to flush you out. Hook, line, sinker, and most of the arm.
      Pelosi accepting responsibility says it all, Did you miss that bit?
      
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      June 13, 2024 7:20am
I remember when

Balance is Better: Sport NZ.
“Active Southland, in collaboration with Academy Southland and Southland Secondary School Sports designed a programme to address Maori, Pasifika and disabled youth facing barriers to participation in their Southland Secondary Schools.
Their innovative approach used the ‘Mana Taiohi framework’ to co-design a programme alongside young people which includes sports training, life skills workshops as well as holistic support to help develop these young people as participants as well as future leaders.”

Once again they plan to build a castle when targeted cheaper, smaller and strategic supports would solve the problems.

Incidentally, has anyone noticed a lack of Maori and Pasifika participants in sport lately?
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June 12, 2024 9:33am
- Jack5
  
  For poor white and Asian kids who don’t seem to among those to be helped, how about help with super maths teaching?
  
  Some disabled folk might also get more long-term benefit from maths and other tuition help.
  
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  June 12, 2024 10:36am
  - ISeeRed
    
    That must do wonders for the self-confidence of Maori and Pasifika youth to be lumped in with the disabled. And I thought it was “differently abled” now?
    
    6 1
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    June 12, 2024 2:18pm
- cmm
  
  I think the effort is being put in the wrong place.
  
  Sure, we should provide some opportunities for those that are really struggling at the bottom end.
  
  However far more important is to invest in expanding the capabilities of people at the top end.
  
  Most of the value in society generated from skills such as maths is generated by the top 5%. It is way, way more important that society invests in these people so that they can give their best.
  
  We understand that for sports. We spend well over 90% of our sport development money on a few elite athletes and rugby players etc. So why don’t we understand that for developing engineers etc of the future?
  
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  June 12, 2024 11:10am
Maggie Pie

I read where Scott Watson is again appealing his conviction for the Sounds-Murders. Must say that having read Ian Wishart’s book ‘Ben & Olivia What Really Happened’, I was left in no doubt he was guilty-as-charged.

And I’m certainly not the only one…..

https://x.com/nzpoliticsgroup/status/1800412150680502541
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June 12, 2024 9:34am
- Benedict Yu
  
  Can you explain your reasoning?
  
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  June 12, 2024 10:02am
  - Maggie Pie
    
    For a start, you need to check out his photograph when he was first arrested 🙁
    
    (Be happy to loan you the book. The answers are all contained within.)
    
    7 1
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    June 12, 2024 10:15am
    - Benedict Yu
      
      His photo. OK.
      
      4 3
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      June 12, 2024 10:40am
    - imalwaysright
      
      I heard Wishart talking to Michael Laws on the Platform.
      Before, I believed the conviction was a stitch up.
      After, I believe he could have done it.
      Apparently the cops set their version of what happened in stone and set out to protect it. This lead to missed opportunities to assemble a case that was closer to the truth but more difficult to prove.
      Putting the hairs on the blanket was an own goal.
      
      6 5
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      June 12, 2024 10:41am
      - Don Beckett
        
        Hasn’t motive always been a rather sticky issue ? Have they proved his motive for the killing ?
        
        1 3
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        June 12, 2024 11:45am
      - kowtow
        
        Don
        
        In English law motive doesn’t matter in terms of guilt or innocence.I think that’s a peculairly American thing.
        
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        June 12, 2024 2:46pm
- Gravelroad
  
  I don’t know if Scott Watson is guilty as charged, or not.
  But let’s say he is.
  Why would he keep denying it 25 years of prison time later?
  Wouldn’t you do your time, agree to do rehabilitation courses, keep quiet and be slunk out of prison by now?
  If someone committed a similar crime today, all the now acceptable excuses would be made and the criminal would be well out of prison – or on home D.
  
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  June 12, 2024 10:25am
  - Jack5
    
    Someone in Scott Watson’s shoes would surely consider the million dollar payouts that have been made when long sentences have been overturned.
    
    8 1
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    June 12, 2024 10:38am
  - slightlyrighty
    
    I don’t know if he is guilty or not, but the evidence that convicted him is dodgy as anything.
    
    I know that if I was convited on evidence that flimsy, I’d be pissed. Doubly so if I were not guilty.
    
    His Lawyer, Nick Chisnall KC, was the same lawyer that helped exonorate Alan Hall. If i were a betting man, I’d say the conviction will likely be quashed.
    
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    June 12, 2024 12:34pm
    - Steve Todd
      
      […], but the evidence that convicted him is dodgy as anything.
      
      Yes, so you more or less said, back on 1 January 2023, in response to Andi Brotherston’s 2018 article, here: https://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2023/01/the_case_against_scott_watson.html/comment-page-1#comment-3297350.
      
      But did you read Ian Wishart’s 31 Dec 17 article, at my slightly earlier comment, here: https://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2023/01/the_case_against_scott_watson.html/comment-page-1#comment-3297337, or did you watch the vimeo video he posted the following morning, including his written thoughts on the ‘hair transference theory’ — conclusion, Olivia was on Blade — here: https://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2023/01/the_case_against_scott_watson.html/comment-page-1#comment-3297640?
      
      The circumstantial evidence against Watson is very compelling. In this regard, as Wishart said in the Postscript to the article I linked to—
      
      “A famous judge explained the combined strength of circumstantial evidence this way:
      
      ‘Circumstantial evidence to the contrary, is like a rope. And each fact is a strand of that rope. And as the prosecution piles one fact upon another we add strands and we add strength to that rope. If one strand breaks – and I’m not conceding for one moment that any strand has broken in this case – but if one strand does break, the rope is not broken. The strength of the rope is barely diminished. Why? Because there are so many other strands of almost steel-like strength that the rope is still more than strong enough to bind these two defendants to justice. That’s what circumstantial evidence is all about.’
      
      “That then is the test you must apply to the evidence you have just read: as a ‘juror’ on this story, do you find the defendant guilty or innocent? […].”
      
      Kiwibloggers can decide that for themselves.
      
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      June 12, 2024 3:10pm
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  Photos of Watson st midnight at the lodge at mid night, he was clean shaven, the water taxi driver said he dropped the 3 of three of them off at the boat later and the guy which is supposed to be guilty had a 4 day growth, can’t be the same person
  
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  June 12, 2024 11:19am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  I say ask the parents.
  
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  June 12, 2024 11:21am
- wsk12345
  
  You do realise that Wishart has changed his conclusions since getting hold of the police file?
  
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  June 12, 2024 12:31pm
  - Damocles11
    
    Wishart changed his conclusions & now believes Watson is guilty. Hence his second book on the case.
    
    Another trope of NZ ‘they aren’t guilty!’ crime cliche (in addition to ‘the police are always dodgy / incompetent’) is that every defence witness is always telling the absolute gospel truth – including in matters that could be best described as hearsay (vis a vis another celebrated case).
    In regards to the evidence of Guy Wallace, he went over to Nelson and then claimed to the police that he saw the same ‘mystery ketch’ over there. When police established that he had never been in Nelson on that date Wallace admitted that he’d made it up. This is in Wisharts second book. So much for the reliability of the much vaunted Guy Wallace.
    
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    June 12, 2024 1:41pm
    - Ian Boag
      
      And of course – it hasn’t been mentioned in the appeal – Blade went away for a week and the inside was all painted which pretty much killed any chances of getting prints, DNA, whatever off any surfaces on the boat. Sinister? Coincidence? Who knows?
      
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      June 12, 2024 2:55pm
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      Guy Wallace seems to have had a dodgy history.
      
      https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/131357518/key-sounds-murder-witness-left-suicide-note-referencing-scott-watsons-conviction
      
      I’m not convinced that anyone at Furneaux Lodge at 3am-4am on that New Years day was in a state to have great recall of events happening down on the jetty/ out in the bay with minimum (if any) light.
      
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      June 12, 2024 4:59pm
      - Damocles11
        
        Bugger all people in the area that night, but there was one sinister fella in his boat ‘Blade’ that he needed to hastily re-paint. As to the claims of ‘no motive’, it is very easy to envisage a scenario whereby a drunk lothario making unwelcome advances and then lashes out in violence and anger, causing a situation to get irretrievably out of hand. ‘The act of killing may be spontaneous or premeditated.’
        
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        June 12, 2024 6:17pm
  - Ian Boag
    
    Wishart has a habit of coming up with explosive exposes that sort of never (well hardly ever) go anywhere …..
    
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    June 12, 2024 2:57pm
Taieri

The world is boiling…

Mosgiel -6.7 deg C @ 8.30 this morning
Dunedin 5 deg C @ 8.30 this morning

Only 10 km apart and what a difference.
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June 12, 2024 9:38am
- hmmokrightitis
  
  Rotorua lakes 0 degrees at 630AM. Currently 5, fire blazing.
  
  You’re welcome Chloe, doing my bit.
  
  Apparently coldest May in a fair while too. But we didnt hear about that much did we. I guess thats “weather”.
  
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  June 12, 2024 10:09am
  - Benedict Yu
    
    Yes it is weather. Let’s have another debate on climate change. 😂
    
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    June 12, 2024 10:49am
    - Don Beckett
      
      Yes, May was the coldest May in something like 40 years. However, I don’t know what the alarmists are going to say about June, but to date it has been very mild.
      
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      June 12, 2024 11:47am
      - Benedict Yu
        
        Coldest in 15 years.
        
        It was remarkable because in the last decade it was one of a handful of months with below average temperatures.
        
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        June 13, 2024 6:01am
- imalwaysright
  
  Dunedin gets the sun first maybe?
  Any hills between them?
  
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  June 12, 2024 10:46am
- PurplePen
  
  You can bet if temperatures were seasonably high MSM would have had screamed climate change.
  
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  June 12, 2024 11:43am
MCōs

The chances of Willie Jackson, Hunter Biden and Donald Trump bumping into each other in a Mangere Bridge cafe are less than zero now.
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June 12, 2024 10:22am
- Taieri
  
  What about The Pope, Francis? Is he likely to patronize this place?
  
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  June 12, 2024 10:31am
kevn

What’s happened to Robert McCulloch aka ‘Down To Earth Kiwi’ posts? He was always on the money.
That might have been the problem.
Example…
https://www.downtoearth.kiwi/post/otago-university-plummets-down-the-world-rankings-falling-in-the-2025-qs-survey-released-today-it?
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June 12, 2024 10:31am
Benedict Yu

We will never know for sure.

I have read a bit about the case over the years. IIRC the only physical evidence was two hairs from the victim in his boat. Is that definitive proof? Could he have come in contact with her hairs at the party they both attended?

The jury was best placed to judge of course. However on face value, it seems to me a verdict that is not based on overwhelmingly convincing evidence.

In any case, after 25 years in prison I can’t see him remaining in prison for much longer.
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June 12, 2024 10:48am
- rouppe
  
  More specifically, two hairs found on a blanket taken from his boat.
  
  Hairs that weren’t found the first time they examined the blanket. Only the second time, in between which they’d examined hairs from her hairbrush on the same lab table.
  
  That’s the “doubt” part.
  
  I’m not making any judgement about guilt.
  
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  June 12, 2024 11:13am
  - Hard Cheese
    
    It was reported that the two hairs that were “missed” on first examination of the blanket were 15 cm and 25 cm in length. Who did the forensic examination, Mr Magoo? How could you miss a blonde hair that was 25 cm long? Then two months later they’re “found”. I call BS.
    
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    June 12, 2024 1:05pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Two hairs is pathetic evidence.
  I say ask the parents. The Police were sent on wild goose chases.
  
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  June 12, 2024 11:26am
  - Benedict Yu
    
    He may be guilty. However, even if you concluded that he was ‘probably’ guilty that is ‘not beyond reasonable doubt’. However I was not on the jury.
    
    It was 25 years ago. The reality is he has been in prison for a very long time. If he is innocent it was a disaster. If he is guilty, by New Zealand standards, he has pretty much done his time. IMO he should be released unless the parole board concludes that he is a danger to the public.
    
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    June 12, 2024 1:13pm
    - Ian Boag
      
      I got the impression that one of the main reasons he had not been given parole is that he continues to deny that he did it ….
      
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      June 12, 2024 3:01pm
- kowtow
  
  Ian Wishart on Platform interview with Laws has a very interesting take on it .
  
  Well worth the listen .
  
  His conclusion matches that of the jury.
  
  The controversy though is how the police and prosecution presented the case.
  
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  June 12, 2024 2:41pm
- Scooter
  
  What I find hard to believe is that if they were on his boat and he murdered them, why is there no more DNA than 2 strands of her hair found. Presumably there’d be a struggle, blood etc. So he cleaned the inside of the boat so meticulously that only 2 hairs were found?
  
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  June 12, 2024 5:55pm
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    Cleaned? He painted it from end to end. Would take care of any DNA, I would have thought.
    
    Didn’t Watson take a short sail out into Cook Strait also? That’s where the bodies are.
    
    Because, make no mistake, someone did in two kids that night. If not Watson, then who?
    
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    June 12, 2024 10:51pm
Jack5

Researchers looking for taxpayer support …

TVNZ news at present is topped up with researchers highlighting their work, obviously with eyes on Government grants.

They vary from sensible earthquake engineering to a puzzling attempt to follow the world-acclaimed Dunedin project that’s followed kids for half a century. The plan is to parallel this by taking MRI brain scans of the subjects regularly over decades, presumably financed by taxpayers.

The ideas are topped by Stuff’s report of a suggestion of research for huhu grub farms:

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/350306989/newsable-huhu-grub-farms-could-help-future-proof-nzs-food-sources
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June 12, 2024 11:08am
Ghost

What kind of low life scum assault an ambulance driver for passing you.

In a distressing incident from Bengaluru, an ambulance carrying a critically ill five-month-old baby on oxygen was stopped and the driver beaten up by four people for allegedly overtaking their car.

The incident was reported from Bengaluru on Sunday night when the ambulance, en route to Vani Vilas Hospital from a private hospital in Tumakuru, was transporting the infant.

Article
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June 12, 2024 11:09am
- Benedict Yu
  
  Easy answer – low life scum in India.
  
  If you injure a person with your motor vehicle, you will likely be attacked by the injured person’s family. Whose fault it is does not come into it.
  
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  June 12, 2024 1:16pm
  - kowtow
    
    Apparently there’s a huge problem there where young women in particular are extremely vulnerable when they go out to their outdoor toilets .
    
    Sounds like a very dangerous culture for women.
    
    ‘But the women told me something I hadn’t heard before. “I get up before dawn,” said one, “and I go and knock for my friend. Then we go to the field together.” The half dozen women all said the same thing: They always go under cover of darkness for modesty’s sake, and they would never go to the field on their own. Men lurk and watch, and do worse. I had been in India for a few weeks by then. I had visited slums and poor villages and seen terrible sanitation or none at all. But this was the first time a woman had hinted that not having a toilet was more than just undignified. It was dangerous.
    
    No country in the world has more open defecation than India.’
    
    https://www.zocalopublicsquare.org/2015/07/30/300-million-women-and-girls-in-india-dont-have-access-toilets/ideas/nexus/
    
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    June 12, 2024 2:37pm
    - Maggie Pie
      
      TBF… we did experience something similar at our place during Covid lockdown, when a few of the girls from tennis came over for an outdoor luncheon.
      
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      June 12, 2024 3:29pm
- Jack5
  
  Bengaluru was well known as Bangalore in English. It’s the biggest city in South India, with a population of about 8 million.
  
  Some of us thought the tubular mine called a “bangalore torpedo” was a soldier pun on blast noise, but no, it was invented at Bangalore in 1912 by British Army engineers attached to the Indian Army.
  
  The US Army used Bangalore torpedoes in D-Day landings and in Vietnam.
  
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  June 12, 2024 1:32pm
Damocles11

English first is it? Not even according to the government itself –

https://www.govt.nz/

I think we need to wake up.
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June 12, 2024 11:13am
- PurplePen
  
  I’ll post this one again .. should be like this
  
  https://www.gov.wales/
  
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  June 12, 2024 11:45am
- Ghost
  
  Oh no, a couple of Māori words on a page that is 99.9% English
  
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  June 12, 2024 11:52am
  - Damocles11
    
    I’m only pointing out the difference between this governments rhetoric and the actuality of what had happened. Also the ‘we are being exterminated’ rhetoric of TPM and the actual truth.
    
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    June 12, 2024 1:44pm
  - PurplePen
    
    Well, can you imagine the uproar if government agencies started inserting English words into Maori. And maori sanctioned transliterations don’t count.
    
    Respect for people’s culture is a two-way street. English is part of NZ culture and it should be respected just as much as any other language.
    
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    June 12, 2024 5:57pm
    - Ghost
      
      Māori is an offical language of N.Z. It’s only natural that it is on govt websites.
      
      There is far more important things in this country than a friggen website that has a Māori word above an English word then the rest of the website in English.
      
      Crime
      Cost of living
      Health
      Education
      
      Na, let’s have a moan because a website has te kawanatanga o aotearo on it
      
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      June 12, 2024 6:21pm
- Benedict Yu
  
  Yeah, the public service won that battle. Indeed many agencies have doubled down.
  
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  June 12, 2024 1:17pm
- MCōs
  
  Hardly a hill worth dying on
  I have a drawing full of correspondence from Te Whatu Ora/Health NZ and the name is the only Māori language to be seen.
  Any other interaction I’ve had with the health system has always been in English
  Sounds like you want to rid NZ of any trace of the language of the indigenous people
  What’s next?
  
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  June 12, 2024 1:58pm
  - Ghost
    
    Exactly, far more important things for the govt to concentrate on. Shit, here is how the website looked before labour, oh no it still had Māori on it……
    
    https://web.archive.org/web/20160413032038/https://www.govt.nz/
    
    So much that needs done and being done but people whinge about a Māori word.
    
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    June 12, 2024 2:28pm
    - Jack5
      
      Ghost’s archive link does show what people are talking about.
      
      Current site:
      Maori language title leads, and is in bolder (i.e. more noticeable) type face than the English-language title.
      
      Pre-Labour site as found by Ghost:
      English-language title leads and is in bigger type size than the Maori-language title.
      
      Why the change and when and who by? Was it a politician’s direction, the House Speaker’s, or just someone working on the web site?
      
      Regardless of who’s right or wrong, who’s calling the shots on language at Parliament’s web sites?
      
      Ghost’s pre-Labour site:
      https://web.archive.org/web/20160413032038/https://www.govt.nz/
      
      The current site:
      https://web.archive.org/web/20160413032038/https://www.govt.nz/
      
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      June 12, 2024 10:33pm
  - Taieri
    
    Sounds like you want to rid NZ of any trace of the language of the indigenous people
    What’s next?
    ————-
    
    Language, particularly as used in official communication should not be used to make a political point. It’s there to convey information. As Maori is an official language, the government can of course choose to communicate in that language but it would not be very practical, if Maori was a sole means of communication, as hardly anyone can understand it. The solution? Use both English and Maori versions as Purple Pen above suggests, but not a mixture of them.
    
    BTW: quite often you defend the public use of Maori, which is very commendable. Do you understand, speak, read and write it yourself?
    
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    June 12, 2024 4:27pm
  - PurplePen
    
    Don’t be daft. No-one is trying to rid NZ of the maori language. As found in other bi-lingual countries, the most effective way of restoring and maintaining the language is in the home. No amount of insertion of Maori words and phrases into english is going to make this happen. In fact it’s detrimental. Those words merely get absorbed into english and end up becoming english words, they start to take on the rules of the parent language.
    
    The other point is that it’s efficient to communicate in the same language that the majority of your customers speak, to first communicate in a language they don’t speak is ineffective and inefficient. Hence, it’s better to put the most-spoken language first in any communication.
    
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    June 12, 2024 6:06pm
  - Damocles11
    
    ‘Get rid of any trace’….you are indulging in extreme rhetoric redolent of the ‘exterminate’ language being used by TPM. Again, I have only pointed out the difference between what the Coalition have said about *naming conventions* regarding Government departments and agencies, and what has actually happened. I have said absolutely nothing about the broader use of Te Reo. Please do not become a hysterical gaslighter along the lines of TPM.
    
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    June 12, 2024 6:29pm
- Jack5
  
  The lead word is Te Kawanatanga o Aotearoa.
  
  An online Maori dictionary says “Kawanatanga” is a loan word for government.
  
  A specialist dictionary of Maori etymology might help with the language in NZ, especially if online. Even if many of the words are listed as “loan” why and how they are borrowed would be interesting.
  
  At least the domain name is “.govt” which is neutral, compared with “.maori” or “.iwi”.
  
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  June 12, 2024 2:04pm
  - Don Beckett
    
    Kawana is aMaorification of the English word Governor.
    
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    June 12, 2024 5:18pm
Maggie Pie

And for anyone who thinks the ‘Coalition’ isn’t doing what it promised…..

CHECK-THIS-OUT 😀

https://x.com/LabourMaoriNZ/status/1800396889105612885
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June 12, 2024 11:34am
- Swifty
  
  Some great comments below….
  
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  June 12, 2024 12:02pm
  - Maggie Pie
    
    This is my fave….
    
    https://x.com/SanityRetention/status/1800482467239080257
    
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    June 12, 2024 12:16pm
Ghost

I’d like to see cases not play out in the media, but alas, this is what the media do

Hussain said he visited the family three times – most recently about three months ago – and thought everything seemed fine.

“They seem like a normal family to me, happy young couple seen in the community, and they seem like good, happy couple really, proud parents. That’s what I saw them as in public,” he said.

Hussain said the baby was the “joy of the house”, and he couldn’t believe what had happened.

Article

I guess not really the joy of the house after all

He said police were already investigating non-accidental injuries to Mustafa, reported in October last year.

Oranga Tamariki said it had involvement with the family before Saturday’s incident and was supporting police with the investigation.

I know when I saw the story a few nights ago I just moved on to the next one, no shock, just a bit of, oh well, another one

Meanwhile, Waitomo District Mayor John Robertson said there was shock and sadness across Te Kūiti.
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June 12, 2024 11:49am
goNZ1

o well – another day and news of another record loss of NZers
The net migration loss of New Zealand citizens was also a provisional annual record at 56,500, again well above the previous record (pre-2023/24) of 44,400 again in the February 2012 year.

Tipping point well and truly happened….
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June 12, 2024 12:34pm
bennerg

I see a reward is now being offered to try and resolve the Tom Phillips and family issue. Along with this is the usual PR campaign to go along with this that “he is not a good father”.

While many of the details elude me at the moment, I do remember that the family situation was “complex”, and perhaps not handled well by the authorities, leading Tom to go off with the children for a break. On his return I guess he realised that the forces of (good/evil – take your pick) were against him, and decided that he and the kids were better on their own.

Given the frequent tragedies we have witnessed with whatever our Govt child services organisation is called these days (still waiting for that English name Luxon!!), eg. a child taken out of loving home just because the parents were of the wrong skin colour … I must say I have some sympathy for his point of view as to how he would have been treated.

And rather than de-escalate the situation and find a compromise, it has been blown up into another “George Wilder” scenario.

Obviously Tom and his kids are a tight unit, and there are many others who support him, otherwise he’d have been given up long ago. I do agree that they’d be better in a stable home situation, with their father. But not under the control of some woke nebulous entity that will try and impose their woke ideology on what appears to be a capable and caring father who just thinks differently to them.
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June 12, 2024 12:49pm
- Ghost
  
  After committing crimes with his children involved, injuring people you think this person should be allowed to have custody? A father wouldn’t put his children in the situations he has. He will be deservedly going to jail.
  
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  June 12, 2024 1:02pm
  - bennerg
    
    Ghost, I am not denying these things, but people get driven to these situations when the “options” are stacked against them.
    
    I’m just raising the point, because there may well be a better way to bring a resolution. The “posse” solution mentioned below brings us back to the wild west days of bounty hunters. How will that work out if the father is shot in front of the kids? Escalation rarely works out well.
    
    No-one has acknowledged that the authorities may have some complicity in this whole affair. And that for them to admit that, and seek a middle path for a non-violent resolution is something sadly I doubt they will consider.
    
    This current approach will only harden attitudes, including those of Tom’s supporters, and may lead to him going further underground, if in fact he has not already done so, elsewhere.
    
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    June 12, 2024 3:04pm
    - Ghost
      
      Nice way to shift blame onto everyone else except for the person who has kidnapped the children and committed numerous crimes. You are not raising any point, you are trying to shift blame. There is one person responsible for this and that is Tom. There is one simple way for this to end and that is for Tom to hand himself in.
      
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      June 12, 2024 3:46pm
      - bennerg
        
        Ghost,
        The situation is complex, as it did not derive out of a single “he kidnapped his kids” scenario as you appear to promote. They obviously love him and wish to stay with him. Kids aren’t dumb, and if they are not happy, they will get their way one way or another.
        
        My concern here is how the situation is being handled, and the assertion that he alone is to blame. Family law in NZ is stacked against fathers, and I’m getting the feeling here that Tom found he was being disadvantaged, and his only solution was to “go away”. (Happy to be fact checked but no-one is talking about it right now)
        
        Just asking Tom to give himself up will not help, unless the underlying situation is addressed at the same time.
        
        I do not wish to apportion any blame here Ghost, but I’m concerend how this could all turn to s**t very quickly when a man is put in a corner, with the threat of loosing his kids. And before you counter and say “he should have thought about that before he went bush”, I would say he most probably did, and made the decision based on how he was being treated.
        
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        June 12, 2024 4:07pm
      - Ghost
        
        Let’s see, does the mother have her children. No. He has kidnapped the children, he has involved at least one child in his crimes. Your are barking up the wrong tree. They haven’t got any choice but to stay with him and he’s likely manipulative with them towards their mother and grandparents.
        
        Nice way to try and shift blame off him. Pathetic. Stop making shit up to reason why he did this. Then to claim after you’ve invented a story you’d be happy to be fact checked on what you made up. Bloody hell
        
        Tom was charged with wasting resources the first time he did this. He alone decided to not face those charges and do this again.
        
        Thid ends with Tom growing up and acting like a father instead of endangering the children, involving them in crimes and keeping them from their mother. It ends with you Tom supporters growing up as well
        
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        June 12, 2024 4:19pm
      - bennerg
        
        Ghost, please do not assume what I support. What I’ve tried to bring out in this discussion is that the way it’s going, Tom is being set up as the bad guy, they’ve established a bounty and the good old boys and their guns will go out and hunt him down… not a civilised way to go about it.
        
        Here is the Wikipedia page, (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phillips_family_disappearances) which is the only reference I can find now on the background:
        
        Thomas Phillips lived in Ōtorohanga with his three children … They also spent much of their time at the family farm in Marokopa. Phillips had separated from his wife of eight years,Catherine, a few years prior, and was homeschooling his kids as he himself had been. He was an experienced hunter and camper. The Phillips family had farmed in the area for generations and were well-respected.
        
        So the kids were living with him. He was homeschooling them, so obviously a devoted father. Anyone who takes that job on deserves an award!
        
        In a NZ Herald article here:
        https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/marakopa-mystery-private-investigator-explains-how-easy-it-can-be-to-go-missing-as-tom-phillips-and-children-have-not-been-seen-for-over-a-year/E5UIK24RKBGBDCRHZO6WWFSMPY/
        
        … a private investigate Chris Budge comments:
        
        Asked why he thought Phillips had run away again, Budge said he believed it was his solution to family court matters. I think it’s his way to keep his family together”
        
        So I was correct in my earlier assumption that it was a family law issue. And as I also commented, the Family Court is stacked against fathers, and for someone from the country, rather than a city dweller, I can understand that he would have been this as his only option.
        
        I get the sense he is being set up. His original trip to the bush was not illegal, and yet he was charged with “wasting Police resources”. Someone is driving this, perhaps the estranged wife, or her family, unhappy with the (lack of) access she had, or the fact that the kids preferred to be with their father. We just don’t know, but I am confident it is not straight forward, and we are not being told the whole story.
        
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        June 12, 2024 4:58pm
      - Ghost
        
        No one needs to assume anything, you’ve more than painted your colours on this post. Sadly you don’t even express any thought for the mother whose children have been stolen from her. No you just want to make shit up and try to defend this criminal.
        
        He didn’t have custody of the children, get that into your head. He has kidnapped these children, he has involved them in crimes. He has kept them from their mother and family. Stop supporting this criminal, and making crap up. For once think about the kids mother and what she is going through. Stop making shit up for what you think is going on. Stop making shit up and claiming you get the sense.
        
        “Phillips does not have legal custody of the children. He is sought by police and there is a warrant for his arrest.”
        
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        June 12, 2024 5:31pm
      - bennerg
        
        Ghost, I am not “making shit up” as you call it. I’m just asking questions because if people do not, then injustices occur.
        
        If you know something additional from direct knowledge then please say so. Otherwise you can only view the situation as we all do, and for me something here does not add up. I understand Police have to keep some things confidential, and reporters likewise.
        
        I see just within the comments here, there are people forming a “possse” with camo gear and guns and going “hunting” for the bounty. This is not a situation I feel is good for our country, Tom, or his kids.
        
        I did not claim he had custody as you emphatically state, only reporting (from Wikipedia) that the children lived with him where he homeschooled them, and that he was separated from his wife fro some years. Now you can read between the lines that the kids were living with him. Actual legal custody? Well it sounds like that was the dispute, and how this whole thing blew up.
        
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        June 12, 2024 9:42pm
      - Ghost
        
        Yes you are, and to make it worse you have no thought for the children’s mother. You claim your sense is, no that is you making shit uo
        
        This useless piece of shit you are trying to defend kidnapped his children from the person with legal custody. He has involved at least one child in his crimes. He has shot a person. Assaulted people, rob from people and businesses. But hey, you think things don’t add up and want to pretend he’s not at fault.
        
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        June 12, 2024 10:06pm
      - bennerg
        
        Ghost, some how you have introduced the case for the mother here, which is not well addressed in the media, apart from indicating she had been out of the picture for some years.
        
        Your reference to the legal custody status was only published at the same time the reward was offered, 2 days ago, so suggest this is either a recent ruling of the Family Court (all in secret sadly) or had never been an issue in the past.
        
        Again for reasons of how the Family Court operates, we are not able to be informed of the full circumstances of the family situation. eg why the children had lived with Tom for many years, and not with their mother, and the timeline of events that lead to this whole debacle.
        
        The press do not appear to be asking all the questions I would like posed. Perhaps they know something we don’t, or are being told not to ask. Stuff reports “the Police have had a curiously relaxed attitude to this case”. No I’m not making that up – read the article below.
        
        https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/300948487/marokopa-mystery-the-disappearance-of-the-phillips-family
        
        One last point, where is the mother you so stoutly defend? I can only find online one interview 2-3 years ago, but she hides her face. What are her circumstances? What lead to Tom becoming the children’s “full time father” for so many years? And why the dispute over the kids got so out of hand?
        
        I’m not a big fan of Stuff on the best of days, but that article above raises many of the questions and issues I have here.
        
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        June 13, 2024 7:49am
      - Ghost
        
        Nice try to attack the mother whose children have been taken from her.
        
        It’s been known from the start he didn’t have custody. But hey, what ever goes on In your head to come here, no compassion for the mother and shift blame on to everyone else speaks volumes about you.
        
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        June 13, 2024 9:36am
- BeaB
  
  I cannot find any excuses for him. Those children have been kept isolated for years – no school, no medical or dental treatment, no socialising with other kids, no sports, no normal life. The girl is a teenager I think. Is she safe? Where does she get clothes, sanitary products, help and advice? This man is misguided, obsessive and cruel – with his own kids!
  
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  June 12, 2024 1:16pm
  - bennerg
    
    BeaB, for the family to be away so long, I don’t think you need to stretch the imagination to understand that friends and members of his family must be helping out in more ways than one.
    
    As to safety, one could say they’re safer than being on the streets in Auckland. I’m not being facetitious, but to last this long he must be a man of many talents, a Bear Grylls sort of bushman, so suggest safety is the last thing to worry about. Coming from a back country farm I’m more comfortable with this viewpoint than perhaps a city dweller would.
    
    I would suggest there is an alternative viewpoint – not saying this is correct, but he could just be a loving father fighting for his kids. As I said elsewhere, family law is stacked against fathers in NZ, and this may have been the only option he perceived he had.
    
    Family issues are complex, and never straight forward. I hope reason reigns, and they don’t push Tom into a corner. Mothers are not the only one’s who will fight to the end for their kids.
    
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    June 12, 2024 4:18pm
- Maggie Pie
  
  My partner txt earlier to say he wanted me to iron his Camo gear.
  Him and his mate who he often goes hunting with, have decided to head down to Marokopa tomorrow night. They’ve booked accomodation for a few days at a really nice property close to the water. About 5 hundy a night apparently.
  Still, as he said, with 80k up for grabs, could be quite a lucrative weekend.
  
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  June 12, 2024 1:36pm
  - Jethrod
    
    Hope the camo gear hasn’t got a target painted on the back.
    
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    June 12, 2024 7:04pm
  - MCōs
    
    The movie Deliverance comes to mind
    
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    June 12, 2024 8:30pm
- Damocles11
  
  ‘Tom’ is denying his kids proper socialisation, healthcare, education, dental care, and it has been alleged he has involved them in criminal activity. ‘Woke’ doesn’t come into it. It is not ‘woke’ to stand against someone who behaves as a renegade and believes they have impunity to act outside the law. There will be many New Zealanders involved on disputes with partners where issues of children and their custody are involved – it is extremely common. But we don’t flee from the law and society and then allegedly start robbing banks. He allegedly fired a weapon at a member of the public. Your moral compass needs checking, and trying to make this all political through the use of the word ‘woke’ is completely wrong-headed.
  
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  June 12, 2024 2:04pm
  - bennerg
    
    Damocles11, I suspect you have missed the essence of my point, that being that Tom may not be the sole cause of the problem. And that the escalation so far has lead to greater problems – ie alleged robbery (NB. no established proof yet… just indistinct photos and assumptions) – and sadly if things escalate further, the outcome I’m certain will be worse.
    
    It’s obvious the kids love their father, and at that age their decisions may affect the outcome.
    
    All I am looking for is for someone with oversight to try and find a better way to resolve the issue. A solution that may just require some “public servant” of some department (or 2) somewhere to find a compromise.
    
    Otherwise I fear that when the stakes get ramped up, the outcome is invariably sad.
    
    3 3
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    June 12, 2024 3:12pm
    - BeaB
      
      I am sure he is keeping them safe from wild animals but are the kids safe from and with him? Especially the girl.
      
      3 2
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      June 12, 2024 4:51pm
    - balanceplease
      
      I’ve had experience with divorce cases. The politics is vicious, men have little hope of getting even shared custody of their children. This situation wins women’s votes for politicians, and leaves fathers shattered. I have seen many men utterly broken and driven to suicide in divorce situations. I don’t know much about Tom Philips, is he a monster or a dad who loves his children?
      As a starting point Tom should have been able to get shared parenting of his children, he probably would never have absconded if he had. He likely has been set up. Now he could wind up getting a bullet from a bounty hunter.
      I cant understand how our society has become so cruel.
      
      2 3
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      June 12, 2024 5:42pm
      - NeverMindTheBollocks
        
        A bullet from a bounty hunter?
        
        Is the reward for dead or alive?
        
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        June 12, 2024 10:58pm
    - Damocles11
      
      Nobody is ‘complicit’, this bloke Tom has done what he has done and will have to take responsibility for his actions. Nobody ‘needs’ to rob a bank, or rob anywhere else for that matter, and brushing it all off as it being because things ‘escalated’ is disgraceful as well. This guy is not to be celebrated and romanticised as a ‘devoted father’ / Bear Grylls example to us all. His motives may be a need for control, narcissism, criminal deviance, or a combination of those.
      
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      June 12, 2024 6:47pm
      - lifesgood
        
        No decent father take their young son out at night to commit burglary. Tom did.
        
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        June 12, 2024 7:06pm
      - bennerg
        
        Lifesgood .. “No decent father take their young son out at night to commit burglary”
        
        We have to be careful, as it’s only an allegation at this stage …. check the press items and they are very careful about it.
        
        Whatever, even if it is true, this is not a career option, he’s been pushed into a corner.
        
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        June 12, 2024 10:17pm
      - bennerg
        
        Damocles11, it is obvious that there’s a backstory here we are not being told, and what appears to be a decent guy from a respected family (quote from a press article) has found himself and his family being threatened.
        
        I’m just concerned after reading here on Kiwiblog that there is at least one group arming themselves up for “the hunt” to collect the $80k.
        
        And I’ve just raised the point that this is a very sad day in our history, when the situation could not be resolved in a better way. It seems from all accounts it is a family issue that got way out of hand. Anyone with experience in family dust ups and it hits the courts knows that it can be challenging, costly and nonsensical at times for the average man.
        
        I would have thought that given the background to the case the Police could have come up with a better strategy, as anyone close to Tom is not at this stage going to give him up, and the $80k has quickly garnered the attention of the goon squad(s).
        
        I find it sickeing that he is being characterised here as a danger to his kids (mentally, as as some here infer sexually) – which is the very outcome I see from the ham-fisted way the Police are dealing with this case. There are obviously issues with the family court to be sorted out, but an offer for help and support ($80 towards a good family court lawyer would have been a better spend) in return for him coming back might have been a more positive approach.
        
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        June 12, 2024 10:38pm
      - Ghost
        
        What’s truly sickening is the way you are trying to defend this person and shift blame.
        
        You would have to be a complete idiot to think that kidnapping the kids from the person with custody, hiding out, involving them in his crimes is anything but a danger to his children. This criminal has shot someone, assaulted people, robbed businesses and people and you want us to believe he is not a danger to his children, my god. What’s sickening is you defending this creep, not a single thought for the mother or the family who he has stolen the last few years away from. No, you just want to continue to make shit up and defend him.
        
        Now you want to attack the police for the way this has been handled. You are one of these people who lack self responsibility aren’t you, and want to always blame everyone else.
        
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        June 12, 2024 10:54pm
- Gravelroad
  
  Two or three months ago there was an hour-long TV documentary with police seeking people to come forward with information regarding the disappearance (and suspected unlawful death/murder) of a young woman in Marlborough.
  At the end of the programme, a reward of $100,000 was offered for information leading to a resolution of this suspected murder.
  Havn’t heard a thing since – publicly at least .
  Could have missed some announcement I guess, but
  with $100,000 of taxpayer coin on offer for info regarding the above situation, when do we get some report back?
  
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  June 12, 2024 2:59pm
Maggy Wassilieff

Some Journos have come up with a solution for MP (past & present) sleepovers at Parliament

https://thebluereview.substack.com/p/parliamentary-dormitory-enquiries
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June 12, 2024 1:29pm
- Ghost
  
  Laughing, love it
  
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  June 12, 2024 1:35pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  JAG, hilarious!
  
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  June 13, 2024 7:39am
Damocles11

Life in Te Kuiti –

——

‘Landlord Moshif Hussein told Newshub the father was a tenant in the Meads St home with his young wife, his older relative and another friend.

“They were good tenants, they lived like a family together. Baby Mustafa was such a cute little boy, it’s so very sad,” Hussein said.

The young couple met at Te Kūiti’s meat processors where they worked together with the other two men.

He believed the two other tenants were in Fiji on a holiday and were not home when neighbours heard “hysterical screaming” from an adult at the home on Saturday afternoon.

“They all seemed quite good guys, they were regularly at the mosque together,” Hussein said.’
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June 12, 2024 1:58pm
Maggie Pie

Here’s a blast from the past 😛

One of the girls from tennis re-tweets….

https://x.com/MsBevanChuang/status/1800683928006877216
2 2
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June 12, 2024 2:30pm
- Omni Consumer Products
  
  I can’t take anyone who polished Len’s knob seriously.
  
  9 1
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  June 12, 2024 3:13pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Seriously, I don’t know what a loverly woman like her ever wanted to see that knob on a Council table.
    Len! You own this for life buddy.
    
    4 0
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    June 12, 2024 6:07pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Oh Maggie, Ms Bevan used to be a member of that Otahuhu Club right? //////
  
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  June 12, 2024 6:09pm
  - Mike
    
    Maggie Pie likes to pretend she isfrom Otahuhu.
    
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    June 12, 2024 6:15pm
Scooter

Is wee Willie whispering sweet nothings in JT’s ear? Cranmer has a transcript of Willie Jackson telling Waititi to ask his party’s president JT about how much money Labour gave the Waipareira Trust. I wonder just how much lose talk goes on between those two?

https://x.com/CranmerWrites/status/1800741204331782298?t=Aitd7n_S3X5czlPw0pKwhQ&s=19
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June 12, 2024 6:00pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Ok hang on to whatever you have:

While shopping earlier today, I picked up some chicken legs. Just before the young lady rang them up, I asked if she knew whether they were front or back legs. She paused for a moment, read everything she could on the package and not finding the answer said; “I don’t know. Let me go ask my manager”. She came back a few minutes later ,looked at me. and said, NOT FUNNY!! I said, I’m sorry but I thought it was. The guy behind me laughing hysterically blurted out…..NOT FUNNY, IT WAS HILARIOUS. Have a great week
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June 12, 2024 6:14pm
- fightingtemeraire
  
  At sea in the 60’s and 70’s the shipowners were reputed to own a chicken farm that bred centipedal chooks.
  
  Reason was that when chook was on the menu only Master and C Eng got breast meat everyone else legs.!!!
  
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  June 12, 2024 6:20pm
The Other Rusty

After lurking for quite a while I just signed up so I thought I would say hello.

Hello.

It’s a pleasure to metaphorically meet you.
7 0
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June 12, 2024 6:46pm
cmm

I wonder whether it would take $80k for Baby Ru’s family to break their cone of silence?

Maybe they’d do it for 2 buckets?
7 1
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June 12, 2024 7:03pm
Jack5

The Herald says Cabinet is expected to consider this month “proposals to address challenges” to the New Zealand media industry.

The newspaper says this is the deadline for new Media and Communications Minister Paul Goldsmith and options the Government could take “to aid the sustainability of local content providers in the face of declining revenue and overwhelming competition with global streaming and social media entities”.

NZME, which owns the Herald, reported a profit of $12.2 million for its latest financial year with advertising revenue of $243 million. The report shows NZME had 487 staff paid $100,000 or more in the 2023 financial year. Of these, 29 were on $300,000 or more.

Is it the State’s role (on behalf of taxpayers) to nurse news media through technology transition? To subsidise them through the change, or even, perhaps, to subsidise them permanently?

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/proposal-to-address-media-industry-challenges-set-for-cabinet-this-month/MJKNG4FFDZA4LPCGVQJXWPXYOY/
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June 12, 2024 8:26pm
Surely Knott

State of NZ media…horrific sexual abuse of minors in court which happened at a “youth group.”

The offenders name is suppressed
The youth groups name is suppressed
But Destiny church of which the offender was simply a church member is named.

Was the youth group a destiny church group. It doesn’t say that specifically so I assume not. But they are trying to smear Destiny with the most horrific of crimes.

Innocent until proven guilty unless you are Destiny Church
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June 12, 2024 8:39pm
- Ghost
  
  the offending took place while the youth leader was involved with the destiny church youth group. I’m sure you know that in cases involving children the offender gets name suppression to protect that identity of the victims.
  
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  June 12, 2024 8:51pm
  - Surely Knott
    
    Thanks but that’s not what the article. It says….”A Destiny Church disciple has been arrested and charged with sexually abusing teenagers in alleged offending involving a South Auckland youth group.”
    
    From the sentence it seems the South Auckland youth group where he offended is different to Destiny Church.
    
    And they repeatedly say he is a “Disciple” of Destiny. They don’t call him a Destiny youth leader.
    
    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/destiny-church-disciple-arrested-and-charged-with-historical-sexual-assaults-involving-teenagers/2JBFK2EV3RGTHKMZMFZKDEMWJM/
    
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    June 12, 2024 9:24pm
    - Ghost
      
      Two articles
      
      She said her family joined Destiny Church in about 2018. Her son became involved in the youth group, which she thought would provide a positive influence in his life.
      
      However, he had suffered post-traumatic stress disorder following the alleged abuse, manifesting in violent and volatile behaviour.
      
      Article
      
      And
      
      A Destiny Church spokeswoman declined to comment, saying: “We are not in a position to comment while it is under police investigation. That’s all I’m prepared to say.”
      
      However, a message sent to an affiliate by a senior church leader, viewed by the Herald, says the matter came to light late last year.
      
      The church leader says he supported one of the families to go to police and that child welfare agency Oranga Tamariki had also been notified.
      
      “I have stood down [the accused man] from attending church, making contact with any of the [alleged] victims and visited police to ensure he pays the price for this. I will not permit [the accused man] and his [alleged] crimes from going any further and am totally disgusted with this.”
      
      From the article I think you’ve linked to but it’s not working
      
      “When the church became aware of allegations against this individual in his voluntary work, he was prohibited from attending Destiny Church.
      
      “When this individual began attending another church in Counties Manukau, Destiny Church notified that church of the allegations against his [sic] individual.”
      
      Article
      
      So you can see with those comments it happened while he was a youth leader at destiny, once he left the church advised the new church of the allegations.
      
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      June 12, 2024 9:33pm

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