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January 6, 2025 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 06 January 2025

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General Debate

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NeverMindTheBollocks

What is it with the cancellation of the ferry sailings? Once upon a time it was the trade unions going on strike. Now, it seems we are all whimps. This is on management because one thing’s for sure, it’s not the ships that can’t handle the swell.
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January 6, 2025 8:03am
- Steve Otto N Shore
  
  Can’t have union members getting seasick.
  Reminds me of a neat trick. Small can of fruit salad emptied into a plastic bag, hidden. Make some dry reaching noises and run to the rail and pretend to throw up. Come back in, pull out your bag and begin eating the fruit salad. Then what happens?
  
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  January 6, 2025 10:38am
  - Clyde
    
    Not an original one – Barry Humphries used to empty a can of creamed corn into a sick bag on a plane and do the same stunt.
    
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    January 6, 2025 12:36pm
- Burtland
  
  risk aversion – what do they know that we dont – boats not fit for purpose?
  
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  January 6, 2025 10:59am
  - marcw
    
    Perhaps they have had a reality check with all the incidents over the last couple of years, where but for a bit of good luck, serious carnage and multiple deaths have been dodged. One serious anomaly they need to address is the total lack of any capable rescue vehicle availability should a breakdown happen in rough conditions. A sea going tug on duty at all times would seem to be a minimum requirement. But who would pay for it seems to be the obstruction?
    
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    January 6, 2025 11:18am
- Biscuit
  
  NMTB, there’s not enough bike racks in mid-Cook Strait!
  
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  January 6, 2025 11:21am
  - Steve Otto N Shore
    
    That is where they all should be – 128M down! And the bloody bikes.
    
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    January 6, 2025 3:03pm
    - imalwaysright
      
      Here’s a thought. Why don’t the greenie enviro mentalists set up their bikes at home to drive generators to power the appliances? Then we wouldn’t need bike lanes, they would all be too exhausted.
      
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      January 6, 2025 3:43pm
      - Steve Otto N Shore
        
        Um, that is “work.” Greenies don’t do that four letter word thing.
        
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        January 6, 2025 6:43pm
- Paulus
  
  Have you ever been on a vessel in a heavy swell, such Cook Strait, from which you cannot get off – very unpleasant I can assure you, and I was a boaty.
  
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  January 6, 2025 11:30am
  - slightlyrighty
    
    What sort of boat? I was on the bridge on a ship in a tropical cyclone. Huge swells and a very rough ride. Short queue for dinner though!
    
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    January 6, 2025 12:43pm
  - AitchW
    
    I’ve been in a Cok Starit ferry in big seas, she was bashing straight into them. Surfing down one wave and burying her head in the next one..wheeeeeeeeee
    Lots of seasick folks that day!
    Also been in even bigger sea sailing from Melbourne to Adelaide. Sea was on the port quarter and addition to surfing down the back of the waves she was corkscrewing as well!! Her normal steaming speed was around 17knots, we were down to 4….
    
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    January 6, 2025 3:22pm
- rouppe
  
  You can likely blame health and safety legislation.
  
  If the ferry sailed knowing it was likely someone would be injured by being thrown into a bulkhead or wall, and they did nothing about it, they’re on the hook.
  
  I think 4m has been an upper limit for ferry sailing for awhile, though
  
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  January 6, 2025 11:51am
  - Steve Otto N Shore
    
    4M we get in the Hauraki Gulf. Not too comfortable in a small fizz boat.
    Shit, I have come back across the channel from the Rangi lighthouse to Takapuna in a 3M swell in a 12 foot dinghy! Got a bit wet though.
    
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    January 6, 2025 3:07pm
- peterwn
  
  It is a management decision for safety and comfort reasons. There would always have been ferry cancellations although admittedly in more recent times cancellations have been more readily triggered. In particular it is a terrible situation if a ferry ends up in Cook Strait and is unable to complete the journey or return. Many years ago the Aramoana was in that situation and the only way out was to sail for Lyttelton. In retrospect that voyage should have been cancelled.
  
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  January 6, 2025 6:52pm
Steve Otto N Shore

More on Trump’s non-sentence.
Former prosecutor gives her view.
“A lot can happen in four years. Trump could find a way to make it go away even though it’s a state case. Presidents have enormous powers, and not everyone is willing to stand up to them.”

https://www.msn.com/en-nz/news/other/judge-took-the-wind-out-of-trump-s-legal-arguments-in-criminal-case-former-prosecutor/ar-AA1wYwXz?
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January 6, 2025 8:07am
pdm

This submission should be compulsory reading on the Treaty Principles Bill.
http://eternalvigilance.nz/2025/01/principles-of-the-treaty-of-waitangi-bill-submission-by-tim-wikiriwhi/?
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January 6, 2025 8:14am
- Steve Otto N Shore
  
  Good to see Tim Wikiriwhi refers to the Littlewood Treaty, or more comonly referred to as the Littlewood Draft.
  It is the original version in English written by Hobson and Busby from which then translated into Maori by Edwards.
  David Seymour uses the Hugh Kawharu back translation. Kawharu was a Tribunal member and a claimant.
  My guess is this will be another submission binned. Cant’ have submissions written by people smarter than those on the committee.
  
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  January 6, 2025 8:35am
- MCōs
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  Hardly a day goes by when someone doesn’t proclaim that something should be compulsory reading.
  The New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 (BoRA), states (section 14): Everyone has the right to freedom of expression, including the freedom to seek, receive and impart information and opinions of any kind in any form.
  
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  January 6, 2025 8:39am
  - Anthony Melchett
    
    Instead of finding a reason why not to do things and be abrasive, why not open your mind and take on the reading someone has recommended you.
    
    Sure, take it or leave it but you don’t have to try and one up everyone all the time
    
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    January 6, 2025 9:37am
  - Keith White
    
    ..but we in NZ do *not* have “the freedom to seek, receive and impart information and opinions of any kind in any form.”
    
    Just ask for example my colleagues and myself who sought judicial review under BoRA of the Medical Council’s blanket ban on us imparting information that differed from the Sole Source of Truth™. Judge be like, no.
    
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    January 6, 2025 9:45am
    - Master Mariner
      
      Yes, The BOR only gets recognition when suitable.
      I’m still waiting for all my rights being trampled over trying to get home during an emergency during the height of Covid etc.
      
      If there are no consequences then BOR is Pffft. Not worth the paper its written on.
      
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      January 6, 2025 7:58pm
  - cmm
    
    I’m struggling to understand what point you are trying to make.
    
    Someone is viewing their opinion. Surely you support that?
    
    I don’t see that the BoRA actually forbids compulsory reading. It says you have the freedom to seek information, not that you have the freedom to refuse to read information.
    
    [Not that I believe for a moment that the BoRA is worth the paper it is written on. Where’s my right to read Tarrant’s manifesto (should I want to)? Where’s my right to get alternative information on Covid?].
    
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    January 6, 2025 9:57am
    - MCōs
      
      I’ve got no problem with someone expressing a point of view, but saying something/anything should be compulsory is a bad choice of words, in my opinion, whether it be that which pdm is pushing or some other point of view someone is hot under the collar about.
      
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      January 6, 2025 11:55am
      - pdm
        
        mcos the main reason I say this should be compulsory viewing is becausen this submitter describes himself as part maori and on the General Electoral Roll.
        
        It is therefore possible that he has more maori blood running through his veins than the `tattooed hat wearer’ and the `īrish lady’ combined.
        
        We do not hear enough from self professed `half caste’ maori people and particularly those on the General Roll.
        
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        January 6, 2025 12:24pm
      - cmm
        
        I am not surprised a rational person, who happens to be Maori, is on the General Roll.
        
        Only a racist extremist would be on the Maori roll. Doubly so to be on the Maori roll and support the Maori party.
        
        Only a person who thinks they are racially entitled to be treated differently would go on the Maori roll. By definition that’s a racist.
        
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        January 6, 2025 2:49pm
      - Flossie
        
        One Maori here not on the Maori roll. Do not agree with apartheid.
        
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        January 6, 2025 3:54pm
    - Jake Dee
      
      Tarrant’s manifest is still banned and that is a key piece of information in a very serious matter, just one example among many.
      
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      January 6, 2025 3:15pm
- Mr T
  
  I strongly reccomend that readers should follow the link and read Tim’s submission.
  It covers off many of the arguments against the proposed . Luxon and the National party should bow their heads in shame.
  
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  January 6, 2025 9:14am
  - Keith White
    
    It is an elegantly ethical submission. Highest praise for that man, I’d be proud to be his neighbour / workmate.
    
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    January 6, 2025 1:13pm
- Skippytony
  
  Ive long been of the view that the only way this issue was going to get put back in its box was for the wider Maori community to stand up and reject these ideas.
  
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  January 6, 2025 10:30am
  - Paulus
    
    No – would be considered the wrong kind of Maori !
    
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    January 6, 2025 11:33am
Steve Otto N Shore

Wonder why the Govt suddenly did this?
“The government’s sudden decision to retender Whānau Ora funding.”
John Tamihere is in a lot of trouble it seems. Could this be the end of TPM?

https://centrist.nz/whanau-ora-shake-up-threatens-te-pati-maori-stronghold/?
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January 6, 2025 8:21am
- CJames
  
  I suspect that since the change in government, the information about alleged malpractices was taken a lot more seriously. Then it is a matter of making sure everyone follows due process so that it can’t be dismissed on technicalities. Making sure what happened when and why takes time, especially as some of the bureaucratic decision-makers who were involved are still at the top of their empires.
  
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  January 6, 2025 8:28am
  - Steve Otto N Shore
    
    Taken more seriously? You mean not hidden from public view!
    
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    January 6, 2025 8:38am
    - Biscuit
      
      My thinking, too, STeve.
      
      In an ideal world, the media would be up in arms demanding accountability.
      
      No sign, of course, of any members of that media running about with ‘I think there’s a story here’ or arms a-flapping.
      
      You’d almost think…
      
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      January 6, 2025 8:49am
  - artemisia
    
    I surmise, just surmise mind you, that current Ministers have had a good long look at contracts, reporting and outcomes. and found them wanting.
    
    I’ve seen a few reports, not Whanau Ora ones though, and consider some outcomes were seriously fudged. Like pages and pages in reports of meetings with groups and individuals up and down the country demonstrating that çonsultation requirements have been met. Or addressed. Or something, who knows. Nice work if you can get it.
    
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    January 6, 2025 10:28am
- Keith White
  
  “Faster, please.”
  
  And gooder and harderer for that apartheid-mongering race-grifter.
  
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  January 6, 2025 9:46am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  As i said in the weekend, they have delayed findings before it is sent to other authorities, probably the police and SFO, if corruption has occurred, it will weaken TPM, but it will be Tamahere that pays the consequences, TPM saying they have never been contacted suggest they know something big is coming and they know they need to cover their asses.
  
  I would love them to be caught fiddling that ballot box, it would see MPs in jail I would have thought
  
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  January 6, 2025 2:00pm
  - cmm
    
    ” it will weaken TPM”
    
    Exactly how would it weaken TPM?
    
    Remember who their support base are:
    * Anyone voting TPM is most likely on the Maori roll and feel that Maori should be treated differently. (I have not seen the numbers but I would expect there are inconsequentially few TPM supporters who are not on the Maori roll).
    * Any TPM supporter is a rabid race grifter. The few whites who vote TPM would vote TPM even if they killed puppies.
    
    I doubt 5% of TPM supporters would lose any sleep over TPM corruption.
    
    We are not talking about reasonable people who expect their MPs to behave properly. We’re talking about radical activists.
    
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    January 6, 2025 2:56pm
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      Some Māori will not vote TPM if they are gonna to be corrupt, it may take enough votes away so TPM win less seats, we don’t want them to be wiped out, we need them in Hipkins shit nest.
      
      By the way, I was replying to someone who said TPzM would be destroyed, I suggested they won’t
      
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      January 6, 2025 9:02pm
    - Paulus
      
      Can’t be Racist as they are Maori !
      
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      January 7, 2025 10:48am
bennerg

A short video on what is wrong with todays world, from the point of view of Maths, and does 2+2=4 or does 2+2=22?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zh3Yz3PiXZw

The ending is great.

PS: as a programmer it depends on datatype, but that’s another topic.
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January 6, 2025 8:30am
- Local Miller
  
  There are 10 types of people in the world. Those who understand binary and those who don’t.
  
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  January 6, 2025 12:03pm
  - Keith White
    
    There are 2 genders of people in the world. Those with expressed 2xX chromosomes, and those without.
    
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    January 6, 2025 1:15pm
Steve Otto N Shore

So much for AI.
“Meta has backtracked on its AI-generated profiles, deleting accounts like “Liv,” a self-described “proud Black queer momma,” and “Grandpa Brian,” after users flagged inaccuracies and false claims being generated by the bots.”
Fact checked and busted.

https://centrist.nz/meta-retreats-on-ai-profiles-after-backlash-over-deceptive-bots/?
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January 6, 2025 8:43am
Tauhei Notts

I will quote from an article on Modern Music. It reminded of Dad’s comments about 1963 about how all that music will be forgotten about within five years. Magic Music the FM station would disagree with my late father. Anyway;
“The steep downward spiral of the music industry in the past decade, as well as the slow death of the rock genre are to be regretted. Popular music has become increasingly sterile and generic and a lot of that can be attributed to the effects of the woke mind virus on the industry as a whole. There is also a laziness factor that can’t be denied, with many music personalities now incapable of playing an instrument or even singing without voice autotune software.”
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January 6, 2025 8:49am
- imalwaysright
  
  Tauhei
  Agree. Music has become soulless. The use of programs to cut and paste the same samples over the track has turned the artists into sounding like drum machines and synthesizers.
  Apparently they are doing the same at live concerts.
  Then there is the matter of artistic content… very sad.
  
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  January 6, 2025 9:00am
  - slightlyrighty
    
    My daughter’s playlist features a lot of Queen, Bowie and other 70’s and 80’s musicians, and that’s not uncommon with teenagers these days. Older music strikes a nerve that new music simply does not.
    
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    January 6, 2025 12:47pm
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      The Stones, i watch often as young people put their songs on the duke box at the pub
      
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      January 6, 2025 2:02pm
  - Jake Dee
    
    Check out Rick Beato he has many interesting things to say about the state of the modern music industry and how it got here
    https://www.youtube.com/@RickBeato
    
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    January 6, 2025 4:12pm
- bennerg
  
  Check out this Youtube channel called Wings of Pegasus to see just how many mainline acts are lip syncing and auto tuning… even the Eagles and Taylor Swift!
  
  https://www.youtube.com/@wingsofpegasus
  
  It all started with Milli Vanilli:
  
  https://www.northweststar.com.au/story/8821461/shattered-milli-vanilli-star-on-fake-vocals-scandal/
  
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  January 6, 2025 9:04am
  - Graham Sharpe
    
    It started before Milli Vanilli with Boney M. The guy in the group lip synched on stage. Interestingly I think it was the same producer for Boney M and Milli Vanilli.
    
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    January 6, 2025 10:34am
    - Bernard Black
      
      Yep same producer.
      Not only did the guy lip sync on stage he never sang a note on the records either.
      Producer had great success with BoneyM so thought he would do the same with Vanilli, but times had changed.
      
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      January 6, 2025 12:08pm
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  I have to say, I cannot name & doubt that I would recognise a song of Taylor Swift. When a young person plays me a track, it sounds asinine and is instantly forgettable.
  
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  January 6, 2025 9:37am
  - Philview
    
    I actually liked some of her early country songs. I haven’t heard much from the recent pop type albums.
    
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    January 6, 2025 11:19am
  - rjay
    
    My Dad used to say the same thing when I played Supertramp
    
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    January 6, 2025 11:22am
- mogg
  
  Working in Kings Cross early 1970s while all the GIs were there on RR from the Vietnam war, plus deserters and AWOL.
  Creedence Clearwater (Bad Moon, Fortunate Son) Country Joe McDonald, Rolling Stones (Paint it Black), Bob Dylan, The Animals, music playing in clubs like Whisky-a-go-go all along Darlington Rd.
  That music for me has a very deep meaning attached to to it, I am ‘a prisoner of the past’
  
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  January 6, 2025 10:33am
- Paul
  
  Downward spiral in the past decade? Pish. Music has been going downhill since Johann Strauss II started writing lightweight popular tunes because he couldn’t write proper music….
  
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  January 6, 2025 10:37am
  - ChristopherW2
    
    You don’t like Strauss?!!
    
    Oh dear – I have a Sumi Jo album (Echoes of Vienna) that might change your mind 🙂
    
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    January 6, 2025 11:57am
- ChristopherW2
  
  There’s a good argument to be made that the old Christians were right and that all Pop and Rock music is devilish and is the driving force behind the slow demise of Western Civ.
  
  It increases dumbness, reduces sensitivity to beauty, skill and artistry, and promotes hedonistic, selfish values.
  
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  January 6, 2025 12:03pm
  - Pope Punctilious II
    
    Nah. Have a listen to Steely Dan, or Khruangbin if you want a 21st century example. Plenty of beauty, skill and artistry there.
    
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    January 6, 2025 1:13pm
    - Jake Dee
      
      Steely Dan are clearly highly skilled and creative musicians but they are also total sexual degenerates.
      At least half of their lyrical stories are about getting high and getting freaky.
      “Cousin Dupree” is about as close as you can sail to the winds of underage incest as you can get without totally capsizing your luxury yacht and ending up on a police watch list.
      Catch out where they got their name from and what it refers to. That wasn’t just a random joke or a coincidence. That is a subtle piece of social signaling for those in the know who are hip to their druggy psycho-sexual freakiness.
      
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      January 6, 2025 4:31pm
      - Pope Punctilious II
        
        I’m not sure you’ve understood Steely Dan. Let me start by recommending you ignore their 21st century recordings – their reforming was a mistake. Like you, I’m unimpressed by “Cousin Dupree”. I’m talking about their 70s records. Most of their songs focus on unpleasant topics – crime, drugs, gambling, prostitution etc. But they’re not celebrating these vices, any more than “The Godfather” celebrates organized crime, or any more than “Macbeth” celebrates murderous intrigue and ambition. They didn’t want to write insipid songs about “love”, they wanted something edgier and more interesting. Some of their songs are plainly satirical, like “Bodhisattva” and “Time out of Mind” which mock superficial western converts to Buddhism. But then they occasionally dispense with the mockery and go deep, as in “Any World that I’m Welcome To”. Have another listen.
        
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        January 6, 2025 7:16pm
  - Jake Dee
    
    Plato thought that certain sorts of music should be banned in The Republic, apparently the Lydian and Ionian modes were too soft and effeminate and that was in 380 BC.
    But sure, let’s all pretend it was the producer of Boney M, Milli Vanilli, Frank Farian (their producer) and Christian objections to Hard Rock and Heavy Metal was where all this started.
    
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    January 6, 2025 3:35pm
- NothingLeft
  
  The traditional record label cost models that financed bands and kept popular music and rock so vibrant for 60 years have disappeared. Appearance/social media focused performers backed by computer generated music have become just about the only commercially viable product.
  
  There are still a few ‘big’ legacy bands operating, but almost nothing coming through to replace them as the promotional avenues that made them popular have largely disappeared.
  
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  January 6, 2025 12:04pm
- MCōs
  
  In the good old days there was some pretty good music as (almost) any young people of the time will tell you, but there was also an awful lot of crap too
  There was also a lot of music that missed the mark at the time and only became really popular years later
  
  I was amused one day when I rang the senior’s desk at WINZ and while I was on hold the background music was hip hop. It was a short wait that day, my word!
  
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  January 6, 2025 2:43pm
  - MCōs
    
    They don’t make them like they used to
    https://www.instagram.com/reel/DEXDf_fIl9j/?igsh=MW0yOHJ6MW9mMTBoeA==
    
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    January 6, 2025 4:28pm
Steve Otto N Shore

Global Warming, oh sorry, Climate Change.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360539854/watch-flurry-snow-falls-desert-road-middle-summer?
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January 6, 2025 8:53am
- G152
  
  Whip that global warming into the Gaza Strip where children are ‘freezing to death’ and its all Israels fault
  
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  January 6, 2025 1:31pm
Inandout

I think yesterday Benedict Yu made mention of the number of govt agencies and offshoots and the drain on our economy. Anyway this outfit survives with a levy on all alcohol purchased and I thought because of this they would abide by the Coalition thoughts on te reo flooded websites; but alas.
https://www.alcohol.org.nz/
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January 6, 2025 8:56am
- Steve Otto N Shore
  
  No English version? Even clicking on tabs finding the English tiny bits are hard to find.
  
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  January 6, 2025 6:49pm
Scooter

Happy New Year NZ.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/homicide-investigation-launched-after-man-drives-to-manukau-police-station-with-dead-child-in-car/BHVGQ4MVXBFBVNFXWPI2T4PAPQ/
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January 6, 2025 8:58am
- Ehlana
  
  We are six days into the New Year and already two children and a police officer have been murdered and 3 more police officers injured.
  
  Can we ditch “Be Kind” and go back to “Behave”?
  
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  January 6, 2025 2:12pm
  - Ra Henare
    
    I think the Genie is out of the bottle.
    But wouldnt it be good if RESPECT was reintroduced into Society.
    
    RESPECT For the Police
    RESPECT For Parents
    RESPECT for the elderly
    RESPECT for the community.
    
    Interesting to compare countries with little respect ie Western Countries, with those that have respect at a community level.
    I think of Japan, Korea, Singapore, Cambodia etc etc
    
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    January 6, 2025 2:51pm
    - imalwaysright
      
      Start with self respect. The rest will follow.
      
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      January 6, 2025 3:56pm
    - Steve Otto N Shore
      
      When I was you it was a kick up the arse.
      I mean 15 years old.
      
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      January 6, 2025 6:59pm
  - MCōs
    
    There’s been endless political point scoring by the likes of our current Minister of Police over the last few years over this issue
    Maybe preventing crimes of this type isn’t the forte of his ministry and some other approach is required
    
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    January 6, 2025 3:19pm
  - NothingLeft
    
    Responsibility for one’s own actions is so passé. The pathological ’empathy’ of the woke is all about indulging and excusing shitty destructive choices and behaviors these days – regardless of the damage it does to the people it superficially claims to be helping (as everyone who has ever raised a successful kid knows, you don’t get good results excusing and accepting bad behavior)
    
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    January 6, 2025 3:52pm
I remember when

Another day.
Many people are again ferry disappointed.
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January 6, 2025 8:59am
- MCōs
  
  When it was time for us to move back to NZ my wife said fine, but we’re not going back to windy bloody Wellington
  So we loaded up the truck
  And moved to Mangere Bridge
  Hills that is, Swimming pools, movie stars.
  
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  January 6, 2025 3:33pm
Bridgenag

Arab tourist in Berlin provokes outrage by firing a rocket through a child’s bedroom window on New Year’s Eve, later complains to the press that he is a victim of German racism

https://open.substack.com/pub/eugyppius/p/arab-tourist-in-berlin-provokes-outrage?r=1aj1bv&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
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January 6, 2025 9:07am
- Steve Otto N Shore
  
  ‘“social media influencer” and all-around shithead’ is being too kind.
  
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  January 6, 2025 9:48am
I remember when

DPF: “I think Parliament would be derelict in its duty, not to provide a legislative definition.”

Or, put another way, Parliament is, at present, derelict in its duty.
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January 6, 2025 9:07am
Bridgenag

Sunday Strip: Swamp Monsters-
They live among us.

Good video about maths teaching

https://open.substack.com/pub/rwmalonemd/p/sunday-strip-swamp-monsters?r=1aj1bv&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
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January 6, 2025 9:09am
- Steve Otto N Shore
  
  22 thousand. Got him.
  
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  January 6, 2025 10:36am
- greybeard
  
  Best collection for ages !
  
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  January 6, 2025 12:47pm
cmm

Maybe I am missing something, but what is the new discovery here?

“It’s well-known getting sick can make you more vulnerable to other illnesses: a bad viral infection, for instance, can leave you more likely to develop pneumonia.

But Hilligan’s research also shows the reverse can happen: a mild infection might actually help protect you from other bugs.”

Isn’t that old news? That’s the basis of real vaccinations such as the the use of cowpox to protect against smallpox – demonstrated in 1786.

This is also thought to be the main reason why most of the mortality in the Spanish Flu was in younger people. Older people had likely encountered a milder infection earlier on in their lives and were afforded protection against the Spanish Flu. That bucked the trend – which is what made the Spanish Flu interesting – normally the oldies die in droves, but they did not.

I hope this is just an example of useless reporting and they really do have some breakthroughs.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/nz-research-what-scientists-are-discovering-about-how-our-bodies-fight-infection/INFXNCYNJRFJRM7Q5QAZRVAXCM/
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January 6, 2025 9:13am
- kowtow
  
  Talking of sick.
  
  Article in Herald today . Nurses have used up all their paid sick leave so when they get the wuflu now they’re not testing in order to keep working so they don’t lose out .
  
  This story was buried on p A12 .
  
  I don’t need to remind anyone that only a few short years ago at the height of the media inspired and hyped scamdemic covid ’emergency’ that such a story would have been on the front page in screaming headlines that they were genocidal maniacs out to slaughter the vulnerable .
  
  Now it’s just ho hum page 12.
  
  16 4
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  January 6, 2025 9:48am
  - Steve Otto N Shore
    
    Not just nurses. It applies across the board. Kids are sick so have to stay home. Under 14 must have a parent or guardian.
    
    11 1
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    January 6, 2025 11:04am
    - Paulus
      
      Isn’t that called Working from Home – great in the School holidays !
      
      4 0
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      January 6, 2025 2:06pm
      - cmm
        
        Dad, why are you driving the forklift in the lounge?
        
        WFH is easy for the laptop workers.
        
        5 0
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        January 6, 2025 2:58pm
      - Steve Otto N Shore
        
        Yes cmm.
        Stop it with that bright welding arc, it hurts my eyes!
        And the hammer – use it once more and you will get it.
        
        3 3
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        January 6, 2025 3:12pm
Bridgenag

Famous Artworks Retitled By The World Economic Forum

New World Humor

https://open.substack.com/pub/newworldhumor/p/world-economic-forum-retitles-famous-paintings-sculptures?r=1aj1bv&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
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January 6, 2025 9:13am
- mandk
  
  That one about David should have been retitled: Women’s Olympic 100m Champion 2024
  
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  January 6, 2025 9:38am
- graham
  
  Sad thing is, that’s actually quite believable 🙁
  
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  January 6, 2025 10:22am
I remember when

Some doctors have moved away from the weigh-in:
NY Times.
“Several large medical groups have recently eliminated routine weigh-ins in an effort to make visits to the doctor less taxing for obese patients.
Proponents of the change say that weight measurements are driving patients away from seeking care.
Critics argue that obesity is the top health concern in the US and addressing it should be the No.1 priority for physicians.”

Who knew that no weigh-in if overweight meant you’re not ‘obese?’

Sometimes the answer is just so simple.
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January 6, 2025 9:17am
- Steve Otto N Shore
  
  Remember “Cat Pause?”
  It is good to be fat.
  
  8 3
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  January 6, 2025 11:10am
  - Pope Punctilious II
    
    Fat Studies conference hilariously trolled by Steven Crowder, made up to look like a “large” woman https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bekDq_Ebi2I
    
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    January 6, 2025 1:19pm
    - Steve Otto N Shore
      
      Thing is the obese can say what they like – but the input hole is bigger than the output hole.
      
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      January 6, 2025 3:23pm
BananaLlama

Did Jack Tame ever apologize to Posie Parker for laughing at her on Air with his left-wing mates when she was assaulted or is he just too busy lecturing morality at the rest of us from his high horse?
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January 6, 2025 9:33am
- thirteenstars
  
  Or more importantly, was he ever censured by his bosses?
  
  “I guess she’s got dinner sorted”, was his quip live on air after Parker was doused with a red liquid by trans activist, Eli Rubashkin.
  
  Snotty little shit.
  
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  January 6, 2025 10:42am
Yvette

Surely if the National Coalition Government is to vote down its own Treaty Principals Bill, a clear and full statement, explaining why that is, should be made so all New Zealanders can understand the reasoning such an attempt at defining nationhood does not match the un-defined Principles of 1975, said to be inherent in the New Zealand “national founding document”.

If the Treaty Principals Bill is not acceptable, explain why.
Do not just say “There is nothing in the Bill that I like”

[Luxon] is not considering this Bill on its merits… but on what the consequences possibly could be for the National party should he support it.

As Cassandra says – The middle of the road is where you get run over
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January 6, 2025 9:35am
- Steve Otto N Shore
  
  Luxon is going to get more than run over at the next Election.
  If we get socialist Labour, commie Greens, and racist TPM then we know why.
  He is a closet activist.
  
  16 6
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  January 6, 2025 11:14am
  - MCōs
    
    ‘Closet activist’
    Now there’s an oxymoron!
    
    7 2
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    January 6, 2025 12:26pm
    - Steve Otto N Shore
      
      Can be, sure!
      
      3 4
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      January 6, 2025 1:14pm
    - Yvette
      
      Keyboard warrior
      
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      January 6, 2025 2:03pm
  - Jethrod
    
    So….. you posting stuff like that will ensure that we end up with a toxic, out of control collection of misfits. There has been substantial correction of stupid things that the last lot did, but just not at the speed you think it should be. The Coalition is just ensuring they have another term or two . You need to have a bit of patience !
    
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    January 6, 2025 1:32pm
- MCōs
  
  Under the coalition agreement the new Government would not support Act’s proposed referendum on the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi, but the Government would introduce a Treaty Principles Act.
  There was no agreement to support it beyond the first reading and considering the discussion caused by the introduction and the select committee process thus far I expect David Seymour is well pleased.
  
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  January 6, 2025 12:23pm
Clyde

Is it just me, or is the indoctrination arm (TVNZ) of the Liemore/Watermelon/Racist Pardys going completely overboard with this whole Turia thing?

She was a MP who stood for Liemore, formed the Racist Party and voted (apparently) National. Also encouraged young East Polynesian girls to get pregnant. Might have been a pleasant lady – have no idea, but wall to wall coverage?
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January 6, 2025 9:36am
- David Garrett
  
  Clyde: your scepticism is well founded. Mrs Turia – as she then was – encouraged 13 year old Maori girls to get pregnant. The hagiography her demise has given rise to is ridiculous.
  
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  January 6, 2025 10:51am
  - David Garrett
    
    …and then of course there is her “gangs are just another whanau” comments made frequently when I was in parliament sitting right behind her…but those comments were always made sotto voce so the Hansard girls couldn’t record them.
    
    Hard to know which of her comments was worse – I guess promoting underage sex to increase the Maori population would win by at least half a length.
    
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    January 6, 2025 11:52am
- Keith White
  
  Since I was old enough to get it, I never understood why “De mortuis nil nisi bonum dicendum est”. Why would I care what anyone says about me when I’m dead and won’t ever know it? And if the people I leave behind think the same then everyone’s in agreement. And if the people leave behind are upset by untruths, they can fight their own battles because I’ll be dead.
  
  While the plural of anecdote is not data, but, speaking of quite a few recently deceased public figures, if one listens to some of the people who worked alongside them when they were in their pre-important pre-government roles… one gets a much better view of the ‘content of character ‘than one does from official eulogies and retrospective tongue-bathing. Just saying.
  
  When it should come to pass one day that any of y’all find out that I have snuffed it = have assumed dead parrot status, feel free to say whatever you like. DILLIGAF 🙂
  
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  January 6, 2025 11:30am
cas

Another reason not to listen to Morning Report on Radio NZ. One of the hosts for the next two weeks shortened version is Paddy Gower.
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January 6, 2025 9:37am
imalwaysright

Another child murdered:

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/538238/man-charged-with-murder-after-child-s-body-found-in-vehicle
15 2
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January 6, 2025 9:49am
- Graham Sharpe
  
  What’s the bet that he’s the mother’s new boyfriend?
  
  14 0
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  January 6, 2025 10:39am
  - David Garrett
    
    Graham: I wouldn’t take that bet…the latest boyfriend killing the evidence of the last occupant of “the missus’ ” bed is the case nine times out of ten…But whey are they almost always Maori? That colonization thing eh…still doing harm 180 years later…the only catastrophe the effects of which get worse the more time which has elapsed from the event.
    
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    January 6, 2025 1:16pm
- Anthony Melchett
  
  The community will be rallying around the whanau while they close shop
  
  12 0
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  January 6, 2025 11:35am
- Scooter
  
  What’s the bet, it’s one of our over valued over compensated Maori, add in drugs and child with incomprehensible name. Surprising he helped the police by handing himself in, so whanau don’t need to cover and lie.
  
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  January 6, 2025 1:15pm
  - imalwaysright
    
    And lets not forget the baby who was stabbed to death last week. Minimal news coverage.
    Have children become disposable in this country?
    
    If somebody had stabbed a baby seal to death the uproar would be deafening.
    
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    January 6, 2025 3:05pm
  - AitchW
    
    Perhaps he handed himself in naively hoping for protection from the rest of the victim’s whanau.
    
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    January 6, 2025 7:34pm
Yvette

What logic does the Parliamentary Committee on the Treaty Principles Bill apply to public submissions?
Is a very sound logical argument of two A4 pages equal to a one sentence submission?
How are submissions assessed as having any impact on the Committee’s conclusions?
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January 6, 2025 9:57am
- imalwaysright
  
  Read on KB that multiple submissions using downloadable forms could be treated as a single submission.
  What does that mean?
  The extreme interpretation is that 100,000 signatories could be negated by one single contrary signatory.
  Some clarity is needed.
  
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  January 6, 2025 11:00am
- rouppe
  
  It’s not a vote, it’s a submission.
  
  State your support or otherwise, with some cogent statements of why.
  
  Avoid “so-and-so is a racist bastard”, or “if Chris Luxon doesn’t support this bill I’m never voting national”, state your support or opposition clearly.
  
  More isn’t in and of itself better, 50 pages isn’t going to do any good if it’s drivel, but one sentence offers nothing to the reader
  
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  January 6, 2025 12:08pm
- PurplePen
  
  I recall helping process submissions for the Labour Relations Act. I had a very minor role, a part- time job while at uni. My job along with others were to read or scan the submission, get an idea of the content or argument then make a half sentence note that represented that and then increase a counter for whatever topic the submission covered. So form submissions would just add 1 to a counter for a particular topic.
  
  I would say that it’s better to put multiple submissions in, each one on a separate argument or topic.
  
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  January 6, 2025 6:01pm
Keith White

A new study by Salmaggi et al found among 8,821,812 Italians that mRNA COVID-19 vaccination increased the risk of several serious neurological diseases:
Ischemic Stroke: IRR 1.44 [95% CI: 1.34–1.54]
Cerebral Hemorrhage: IRR 1.50 [95% CI: 1.32–1.70]
Transient Ischemic Attack (TIA): IRR 1.67 [95% CI: 1.46–1.91]
Myelitis: IRR 2.65 [95% CI: 1.49–4.70]
Myasthenia Gravis: IRR 1.71 [95% CI: 1.29–2.28]

The majority of patients hospitalized for neurological diseases in 2021 received at least 1 vaccine dose.

But hey – the Sole Source of Truth / NZ outpost says nothing to see here.
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January 6, 2025 10:38am
- Steve Otto N Shore
  
  TIA I have had twice. Not nice. It was pre Covid vax.
  Never found any cause.
  
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  January 6, 2025 11:20am
- Paul
  
  Without a reference to the actual article, it is hard to know what study this is.
  But if you mean
  Salmaggi, A., Bortolan, F., Ercolanoni, M. et al. Impact of COVID-19 disease and COVID-19 vaccinations on hospital admissions for neurological diseases in the Lombardia over-12 population. Data from a self-controlled case series analysis. Neurol Sci 46, 25–32 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10072-024-07870-5
  then the study actually says that vaccination indeed increased the risk of certain adverse outcomes, but that getting Covid increased the risk of those same adverse outcomes even more.
  Is it a fair bet that you have not read the study yourself, but are simply quoting a biased second-hand report from some antivax site?
  As for “The majority of patients hospitalized for neurological diseases in 2021 received at least 1 vaccine dose”, for which you provide no source at all, by 30 June 2021 Italy had administered 50 million doses, and by 9 September had administered 80 million (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_vaccination_in_Italy) in a population of under 60 million. So the majority of Italians had received at least 1 dose, and so of course the majority of those hospitalised (for anything) will have received at least 1 dose. So what?
  
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  January 6, 2025 11:35am
  - imalwaysright
    
    “the study actually says that vaccination indeed increased the risk of certain adverse outcomes, but that getting Covid increased the risk of those same adverse outcomes even more…”
    Bear in mind that getting the jab doesn’t prevent getting covid, therefore your conclusion could be baseless.
    Getting the jab and then getting covid could well be the compounding factors responsible for this observation.
    
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    January 6, 2025 12:25pm
  - Keith White
    
    Paul quoth “Is it a fair bet that you have not read the study yourself…”
    
    You’d lose that bet.
    
    I do not cite or quote from studies I have not read. I still have a Springer (inter alia) login from my former professional practice.
    
    I also do not rely on Wiki for science.
    
    And it would be helpful to note that when one opines along these lines
    
    “…the study actually says that vaccination indeed increased the risk of certain adverse outcomes, but that getting Covid increased the risk of those same adverse outcomes even more…” plus “So the majority of Italians had received at least 1 dose, and so of course the majority of those hospitalised (for anything) will have received at least 1 dose. So what?” — a rather large elephant in the so-what-room is that the vaccine was both touted and mandated on the basis it was both safe and effective-at-preventing-Covid infection; and it was neither.
    
    But by all means go ad hominem against biased anti-vax sites. Always convincing.
    
    Oh, and, for those not yet bored with all this. the authors noted as a summary of their results:
    
    Results: ***The 28-day post-vaccination period was associated with a significant increase in the occurrence of ischemic stroke, cerebral haemorrhage, TIAs and myelitis (IRR 1.44, 1.50, 1.67 and 2.65 respectively).***
    
    If the vax was effective as well as safe, then that increase cannot be laid at the foot of Covid infection, hmmm?
    
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    January 6, 2025 1:22pm
Yvette

Trumped?

Four years ago today, protesters stormed the Capitol with clubs, chemical irritants and other weapons, inflamed by Donald Trump’s lie that the election had been stolen from him.
Several people died during and after the riot, including one protester by gunshot and four police officers by suicide. More than 140 officers were injured. After the attack, Trump’s political career seemed done. But in two weeks, he takes the oath of office.

In the years since the riot, both he and his supporters have devoted considerable effort to reinventing the events of the day. They have spread conspiracy theories to their ultimate political gain. As his allies in Congress and the media played down the attack and redirected the blame, violent rioters — prosecuted, convicted and imprisoned — were turned into patriotic martyrs.

Now, Trump has the platform to further spin the attack into what he has called “a day of love.” He has vowed to pardon rioters in the first hour of his new administration, while his congressional supporters are pushing for criminal charges against those who investigated his actions. This is how Trump inverted a violent day and turned it into political capital.

Trump refers to the U.S. as ravaged by crisis, calling it a desolate hellscape of crime, chaos and economic hardship.

And to turn it into something relevant to New Zealand – and to possibly be construed as a little divisive – if this is rewritten ‘history’ after only four years, what can you get after 184 years?

[Quote from? https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/05/briefing/trump-jan6-russia-syria.html?smid=url-share mod.]
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January 6, 2025 10:56am
- Keith White
  
  A big problem with that narrative is that the police killed at least two unarmed-and-not-fighting protesters*; and no police were killed by any protesters.
  
  *Ashli Babbitt and Rosanne Boyland.
  
  The one policeman who died, died the next day, having been sprayed with irritant gas by his own colleagues.
  
  Two other protestors died of “natural causes” (cardiovascular and cerebral vascular disease) before they ever entered the building.
  
  5 police officers who had served at the Capitol on Jan. 6 died.
  Officer Brian D. Sicknick of the Capitol Police was never ‘attacked’ died on Jan. 7, as above.
  Officer Jeffrey Smith of the Metropolitan Police Department killed himself after the attack.
  Officer Howard S. Liebengood of the Capitol Police also died by suicide four days afterward.
  
  (The Capitol Police had previously said that Officer Sicknick died from injuries sustained “while physically engaging with protesters.” The Washington medical examiner later ruled that he had died of natural causes: multiple strokes that occurred hours afterwards).
  
  Two more Metropolitan Police officers — Gunther Hashida and Kyle DeFreytag — died by suicide in July.
  
  Lies all the way down.
  
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  January 6, 2025 11:37am
  - Paulus
    
    No, typical left wing made up rhetoric, and thanks to the complicit media.
    Same as here too !
    
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    January 6, 2025 2:10pm
- Scott
  
  First of all don’t believe anything the New York Times tells you.
  
  Secondly the Jan 6th protest was a protest against an election that appeared to be stolen.
  Joe Biden got 81 million votes??
  
  Thirdly the person who died on that day was an unarmed female protestor, a former veteran who was shot by the police.
  
  Fourth there is the role of FBI informants and provocateurs. Why did Ray Epps never go to jail, given that he plainly encouraged everyone to go into the capital building?
  
  Lastly there is the inhumane treatment of J6 people who have been held without trial, in bad conditions and solitary confinement for years.
  
  I look forward to seeing a full and truthful account of what really happened on Jan 6th. Which you will never get from the NY Times.
  
  Finally I hope and pray that on day one Trump pardons and releases the non violent Jan 6 prisoners.
  
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  January 6, 2025 11:58am
  - imalwaysright
    
    Its also odd that the so called insurrectionists forgot to bring their guns…
    
    Trump is also planning to reinstate all military personel who lost their jobs to the covid regime. He is also planning to give them their lost earnings and benefits.
    I wish we had him here.
    
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    January 6, 2025 2:18pm
marcw

There are increasing references to an (apparently) new news/information/opinion site – Centrist. Can anyone shed light on which organisation or person(s) are behind it? There is no helpful identifying information on the website, in fact their About Us link refers to the organisation in part as “Founded in 2023, Centrist is a free online news platform aimed at curating New Zealand relevant content that is important when it comes time to vote. We provide links and summarise our top picks from a growing list of independent, alternative, and mainstream media. ”

I’m not implying any criticism or praise to the site, I am just interested in who is behind it and possibly their motives.
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January 6, 2025 10:57am
- Cassandra
  
  I subscribe, it’s quite interesting. Seems CR rather than C.
  
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  January 6, 2025 11:16am
- Steve Otto N Shore
  
  A bit more info using the google machine:
  
  https://centrist.nz/a-plan-for-balance-in-nz-government-media/
  
  I am subscribed. I don’t know how it happened, just one day the newsletter started being emailed to me.
  It is pretty straight up.
  
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  January 6, 2025 11:37am
  - Steve Otto N Shore
    
    Duckduckgo gives me this:
    
    https://dailytelegraph.co.nz/news/the-centrist-what-kind-of-new-zealand-do-you-want-to-live-in/
    
    They are also on Facebook
    
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    January 6, 2025 11:42am
- NZer In Exile
  
  From the NZ companies office:
  https://app.companiesoffice.govt.nz/companies/app/ui/pages/companies/6139791#
  
  A bit of info about two key people (apparently Canadians with NZ residency who also have family in NZ)):
  https://centrist.nz/media-release-reporter-becomes-the-news/
  
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  January 6, 2025 2:12pm
  - marcw
    
    Thank you NZer In Exile, that is very helpful. It seems a little strange, but they do claim to have a business plan. Barakat certainly has news “credentials”, but Grenon’s background is more shady in the sense of “not sure what his motive could be”. He does seem to be well financed.
    This RNZ item has some interesting content.
    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/election-2023/499861/the-political-newcomers-spending-thousands-to-influence-the-election
    
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    January 6, 2025 4:05pm
sungsamning

https://pjmedia.com/matt-margolis/2025/01/05/are-we-being-groomed-for-another-pandemic-once-trump-takes-office-n4935686
Are We Being Groomed for Another Pandemic Once Trump Takes Office?
In 2020, President Trump’s re-election campaign appeared poised for success. The economy was thriving, unemployment was low, and consumer confidence was high. However, when COVID-19 hit, it all came crashing down. The pandemic crippled the economy, and the resulting lockdowns, travel restrictions, and other measures presented Democrats with a unique opportunity to undermine Trump’s presidency and seize the election. It’s clear that the political and economic fallout from COVID-19, as well as other restrictions, were central factors in Biden winning that election. [Fool us once.]
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January 6, 2025 11:28am
- Steve Otto N Shore
  
  Democrats are NEVER to be trusted.
  They will kill to win you know.
  
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  January 6, 2025 1:17pm
  - sungsamning
    
    Yes, I agree. Ditto for Labor/Labour, and Liberal. I don’t think it’d fly this time.
    
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    January 6, 2025 7:12pm
sungsamning

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2025/01/04/report-senate-democrats-open-to-confirming-rfk-jr/
Report: Senate Democrats Open to Confirming RFK Jr.
The Hill reported that many sources state that Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and John Fetterman (D-PA) are considering backing Kennedy. The sources believe that the Democrats and Kennedy share concerns over how corporations heavily influence food and how processed American food is now.
This comes as other Democrats have questioned Kennedy’s skepticism towards vaccines.
“I think Bernie will give him a fair review,” a sources close to the senator said.
“I definitely think his Senate office will use the opportunity to point out the shortcomings of the industrial food system, supply chains, etc.,” a source close to Sanders’s office said.
The source added, “I think they’ve been doing a little of that already.” [Didn’t they get the memo from big pharma?]
7 1
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January 6, 2025 11:28am
- NothingLeft
  
  Big Pharma will be slipping large envelopes full of cash to a few Senators to prevent his confirmation.
  
  6 1
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  January 6, 2025 2:14pm
  - Steve Otto N Shore
    
    That is the way they work. Democrats, RINOs, and some dodgy Republicans who have not yet been outed as RINOs.
    “Is that a gun in your pocket, or are you just glad to see me?”
    “Um neither, it is just a gift.”
    
    4 3
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    January 6, 2025 3:36pm
  - sungsamning
    
    That wouldn’t surprise me.
    
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    January 6, 2025 7:12pm
Suze Wainwright

Can anyone on here confirm whether Ginette McDonald, Lucy Lawless and Robyn Malcolm’s Moral Grandstand meets current earthquake code of compliance requirements?
16 1
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January 6, 2025 11:51am
- Pope Punctilious II
  
  Very good, Suze. But went right over my head – is this grandstand to be seen somewhere on TV?
  
  7 0
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  January 6, 2025 1:25pm
  - Suze Wainwright
    
    Ginette McDonald seems to be quite vocal about the Treaty Principles bill on social media at the moment – I’m not sure if she believes much in people’s democratic freedom of choice
    
    8 0
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    January 6, 2025 1:39pm
    - NZer In Exile
      
      Trading on her incredible stardom?
      
      4 0
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      January 6, 2025 2:25pm
      - Suze Wainwright
        
        She possibly needs to be reminded about the effectiveness of ‘celebrity’ endorsement for various causes…
        
        4 0
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        January 6, 2025 4:00pm
- Jethrod
  
  None of them were ever earthshattering
  
  7 0
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  January 6, 2025 1:42pm
- AitchW
  
  Why do these people who walk and talk on TV for a living think their opinions have any more merit than anyone else’s? If anything they should keep their traps shut to avoid influencing the more gullible of their followers…
  
  13 0
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  January 6, 2025 3:27pm
- imalwaysright
  
  Ginette, Lucy and Robyn. You can just feel the tidal wave of intellect…
  
  11 0
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  January 6, 2025 4:16pm
  - PurplePen
    
    I enjoy their theatre and acting.
    
    1 0
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    January 6, 2025 6:04pm
    - John Loveridge
      
      Good for you. I don’t!
      
      1 0
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      January 6, 2025 9:54pm
  - sungsamning
    
    Reason number 958 why I have almost total contempt for ‘popular culture’. If its popular, it probably won’t be culture.
    
    3 1
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    January 6, 2025 7:14pm
Steve Otto N Shore

Trump to Reinstate Workplace Raids and ‘Remain in Mexico’ Policy.
He really does mean business.

https://threepercenternation.com/2025/01/03/trump-to-reinstate-workplace-raids-and-remain-in-mexico-policy/
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January 6, 2025 12:45pm
- sungsamning
  
  From memory, the plan will likely include EVerify. That will determine ones right to work in the USA. It should be made mandatory.
  
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  January 6, 2025 7:19pm
Steve Otto N Shore

Funding research for mosquitoes to be “flying vaccinators.”
I don’t know how true this may or may not be. If Gates is involved who knows?
Far fetched? Gates is a crazy and dangerous person.

https://threepercenternation.com/2025/01/03/bill-gates-plays-god-again-funds-project-turning-mosquitoes-into-flying-vaccinators/
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January 6, 2025 12:49pm
- imalwaysright
  
  Ironically, mosquitoes have been the main killers of humans.
  Do we want to trust Gates with a weapon of that magnitude?
  
  8 1
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  January 6, 2025 3:15pm
- cmm
  
  Pulling off a stunt like that would be quite a task and, I doubt would be very successful.
  
  Female mozzies (the biting kind) only need a small amount of blood for breeding purposes. Malarial mozzies have had their “brains” subverted so that they don’t just seem one drop of blood, but to constantly seek blood and thereby infect many victims.
  
  Without that, mozzies would not really transmit malaria in significant numbers and malaria would be an inconsequential disease (compared to all the other ways to die in Africa).
  
  So any mechanism to use mozzies as a vector would really also need to pull this stunt too.
  
  Given how rampant STDs and baby making are in Africa, I humbly submit that subverting an STD would be a better choice. Or maybe just using food additives.
  
  6 0
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  January 6, 2025 3:16pm
  - Steve Otto N Shore
    
    Had a swarm of mozzies follow me at a camp in Alaska. Went for a short walk (bears out there) and when I came back a 4M cloud of them followed me.
    “Why did you bring them here Steve” “The bastards just followed me.”
    Stood in the campfire smoke and they went away. For some reason mozzies don’t bite me. Annoy me sure but never bite.
    Don’t they like Jack Daniels?
    
    4 2
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    January 6, 2025 3:46pm
    - Don Beckett
      
      Nah Steve, they don’t like bad meat. 😆
      Just put plenty of onions on the BBQ, and that’ll keep them away. Doesn’t do much for your farts, tho’. 😆
      
      4 1
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      January 6, 2025 5:21pm
Albie

It’s no wonder NZ is in the situation we find ourselves now in economically and socially.
The Jordan Peterson – Pierre Poilievre interview covers Canada’s rapid deterioration under 10 years of Trudeau’s government.
A point Poilievre made about conservative government’s stuck with me. They take for granted their base votors but think they can grow their base by adopting socialist policies.
It all seems fine until they start enacting on those policies.
This is exactly where the liberals in National have been taking the party and now the results are coming out in the polls.
They end up pleasing no-one and the country slips further and further to the left.

https://youtu.be/Dck8eZCpglc?si=g1fZ0PD7JBuv3MSM

Well worth the watch.
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January 6, 2025 1:12pm
- slightlyrighty
  
  word around the traps is Trudeau will quit, possibly tomorrow!
  
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  January 6, 2025 4:23pm
bc

The Golden Globes are about to start. Predictions anyone?
Best motion picture, musical or comedy:
Wicked; Anora; Emilia Perez; Challengers; A Real Pain; The Substance
My prediction: Emilia Perez
Best motion picture, drama:
The Brutalist; A Complete Unknown; Conclave; Dune: Part Two; Nickel Boys; September 5
My prediction: Conclave (loved Dune 2 however)
Best television series, musical or comedy:
Abbott Elementary; The Bear; Hacks; Nobody Wants This; Only Murders in the Building; The Gentlemen
I really hope “Hacks” gets it instead of “The Bear”.
Best television series, drama:
Shogun; The Diplomat; Slow Horses; Mr. and Mrs. Smith; The Day of the Jackal; Squid Game
My prediction: Shogun (a sure bet)
4 1
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January 6, 2025 1:20pm
Steve Otto N Shore

Submission to the Treaty Principles Bill.
Simple instructions and suggestions from Julian Batchelor.
Note, this is not a template for mass submissions which may not be read I hear.
Other stuff I read is a bulk template style submission may be treated as one submission. The Public Sector wants this submission to totally fail and be thrown out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66QiwqMlzdI
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January 6, 2025 1:25pm
MCōs

Michael J Fox received a Freedom Medal yesterday for his work with his Parkinson’s Foundation https://x.com/proseccoliquido/status/1875590346639601874?s=46&t=XZLqGbhN-xeYzprhTaktsg
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January 6, 2025 1:47pm
- Paulus
  
  And so did Hilary Clinton get the Freedom Medal medal.
  Another desperate senile President proclamation.
  Why – neither she or husband would not know what freedom was if it hit them ?
  
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  January 6, 2025 2:16pm
- Inandout
  
  MC, Joe Biden received the award with distiction in 2017. A bit like our knighthoods I gather, thrown around with gay abandon.
  
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  January 6, 2025 3:13pm
Paulus

No, typical left wing made up rhetoric, and thanks to the complicit media.
Same as here too !
5 1
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January 6, 2025 2:17pm
Swifty

The politicisation (and falsification) of science in the UK:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DYa5bxUkixU

So depressing.
4 0
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January 6, 2025 3:11pm
- Inandout
  
  Swifty, some academics see racism and sexism under every skeleton. Our universities have been captured by psuedo archaologists who refuse to publish any findings that put Maoris in a bad light.
  
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  January 6, 2025 4:16pm
kowtow

Taxpayer funded media continue to attempt to normalise organised crime.

Defund the media.

”
Finding a place to work out started a chain of events that led to a Hawke’s Bay-based photographer capturing Mongrel Mob members at ease and in force on their home turf.”

https://www.odt.co.nz/news/national/photographer-sparks-revealing-gang-connection
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January 6, 2025 4:05pm
- Inandout
  
  kow, amazing what $2.75 million buys.
  
  3 1
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  January 6, 2025 4:29pm
greybeard

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360540381/person-found-leg-injury-after-report-firearm-being-discharged-feilding
Anyone know where Mike Hosking is at the moment ?
3 0
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January 6, 2025 4:43pm
Chuck Bird

Great post by Don. Always a gentleman.

DON BRASH: DAME TARIANA TURIA – MAY SHE REST IN PEACE

https://www.bassettbrashandhide.com/post/don-brash-dame-tariana-turia-may-she-rest-in-peace
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January 6, 2025 4:48pm
Sparrow

A common theme on the blog has been and continues to be ” whats wrong with today’s world” driving back from the vets I got the answer. Driving towards me (not directly!!) was this hideous abortion of a car the new Defender. As a proud and loving custodian (note not owner !!) of a 1962 Mini Cooper it got me thinking ,(yes very dangerous at my age) Mini’s are no longer a Mini and the greatest insult yet a f….electric one. Poor Izzy will be turning in his grave again. So the iconic original Defender has been brutalised along with the Mini to satisfy the whims of the inner city wankers ignoring the history of these ,,” people cars”Then to crown it off that creator of beauty Jaguar deems it unnecessary in todays world to show a car in its advertising but to have a bunch of who knows what prancing around. There you have it why the world is in turmoil its because of car companies bowing and scraping to consumerism. Where did I put that f..Spanner
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January 6, 2025 5:01pm
- PurplePen
  
  I used to get a lift to town down the hill in wgtn from a very cheerful, personable, pie-eating, beer drinking, hugely rotund neighbour. He drove a mini, a real one back then. As he swerved out onto Brooklyn Road I was advised to hold the passenger door shut as it was likely to swing open … which it did first time.
  
  Then I sometimes got a lift back with the boss’ PA. She drove this huge red Chrysler Valliant .. like driving a couch. You were a looong way away from anyone sitting on the other side of the car. They are a wide vehicle.
  
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  January 6, 2025 6:12pm
Swifty

Willie Jackson labels a considered submission ‘rubbish’ but doesn’t bother explaining why.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ThhQRZp_yVY

I think it’s because he can’t. He doesn’t have an argument.

It’s just pathetic.
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January 6, 2025 6:07pm
greybeard

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360541012/police-investigate-serious-head-injuries-dargaville-baby

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360540122/dead-child-found-vehicle-after-man-arrives-manukau-police-station

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360540507/police-investigating-death-gore-toddler

There is something bloody wrong with some people in this country.
No caring, no compassion, no brains. No hope.
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January 6, 2025 6:27pm
AitchW

Against my better judgement I’ve been venturing into the loony bin that is X.
Amongst the sea of conspiracy theories and vitriol there is a recurring theme from the left that, not only will Trump not be sworn in on the 20th, but that Harris will be sworn in in his place. I’ve seen no explanation for why they’re convinced of this. Does anyone have an explanation for this strange belief?
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January 6, 2025 7:59pm
Suze Wainwright

Who finances all of John Minto’s trips around the motu to ensure that he conducts all his protest mahi at all the right places?
1 0
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January 6, 2025 9:02pm

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