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January 14, 2025 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 14 January 2025

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NeverMindTheBollocks

This article lauding Norway’s charge to EVs also inadvertently explains why they will be a leader with no followers.

ICE vehicles are taxed to hell and back again, whereas EVs are exempt from those while also benefiting from free parking, discounted road tolls and access to bus lanes.

However, all this largesse is funded by the oil royalties fund (hypocrites!), while the electricity comes from their abundant hydro resources – neither of which anyone else has.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cg52543v6rmo
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January 14, 2025 8:01am
- imalwaysright
  
  Check out the UK vehicle registration costs:
  https://www.gov.uk/vehicle-tax-rate-tables
  $6000 nzd for the first years rego on a vehicle with 255g/km emissions.
  And this year it will double to $12,000nzd.
  Subsequent years will be about $500/year.
  
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  January 14, 2025 10:35am
  - JerJer
    
    I’m sure this will be dropped as the climate scam falls apart and the avalanche of companies and countries pulling out of ruinous net zero initiatives accelerates. Even BlackRock, the woke US investment giant has now pulled out of net zero. It’s a dead duck. So, these stupid rules that you have highlighted will be abandoned soon enough. Voters will make sure of it……and they are already doing it.
    
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    January 14, 2025 11:11am
  - JerJer
    
    This is after all just the UK version of the NZ Labour crazy ute tax.
    
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    January 14, 2025 2:25pm
pdm

At last a bright sunny day in Hastings with temperature reaching 25 degrees I would think.

The first for 2025.
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January 14, 2025 8:10am
- Inandout
  
  Weekend weather looks crap though.
  
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  January 14, 2025 8:15am
  - Colville
    
    Yip, rain and cold wind on the day of the Bridge Pa wine festival.
    
    Might just save me a headache 😊
    
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    January 14, 2025 10:47am
    - pdm
      
      Never been. Mrspdm and I are not really into wine Colville.
      
      I prefer a beer any day.
      
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      January 14, 2025 11:19am
      - Don Beckett
        
        Followed up by a good rich Shiraz (red wine) 🙂
        
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        January 14, 2025 12:22pm
      - Steve Otto N Shore
        
        Don,
        Syrah. Shiraz is the trendsetters name. Not a wine drinker much but Merlot is nicer than any ‘shiraz.’
        
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        January 14, 2025 5:05pm
      - Don Beckett
        
        Steve.
        Merlot is for learners. 😆
        Remember when you first started drinking? For me it was back in the late1950’s early ’60’s – DB Draught was the beer – but after a year or so, I realised that it was a bit sweet, so shifted to Lion Red, which was more bitter. Of course, nowadays there is a huge selection of beers – craft beers now rule. I prefer a bitter IPA – Macs Green Beret is my favorite – but now I have gone to dark ales -slightly more bitter, but a health food as well as a drink.
        With wine its the same – started off with Merlot, the graduated to the more bitter/dry reds, & and a good Barossa Valley Shiraz – rich & complex – rules in the wine department. 🙂
        
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        January 14, 2025 6:08pm
- Benedict Yu
  
  Where I have been living for the last 8 weeks it has been 24 to 27 degrees most days. Must be the summer spot of choice in New Zealand.
  
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  January 14, 2025 8:28am
  - pdm
    
    Lucky you BY.
    
    Hawkes Bay has been crap – lucky to get past 20 and I think 23 has been the highest so far in 2025.
    
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    January 14, 2025 8:36am
    - Benedict Yu
      
      I’m here indefinitely. Will be a change.
      
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      January 14, 2025 8:41am
      - pdm
        
        Have you gone to Tonga with our coĺleague David G?
        
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        January 14, 2025 8:55am
      - Benedict Yu
        
        “Have you gone to Tonga with our coĺleague David G?”
        
        No. I am in New Zealand. As far north as you can go and still be in civilisation. That means the supermarket sells Italian cheese and Canadian maple syrup. You can figure it out. 😐
        
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        January 14, 2025 9:15am
      - cmm
        
        I suppose Kaitaia can fall within the general definition of civilization.
        
        Their hospital seems to work well. At one stage they probably had the best trauma surgeon in NZ. Best place in NZ to get shot.
        
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        January 14, 2025 9:26am
      - David Garrett
        
        pdm: Back to Tonga next Monday for me mate – far from being too cold, it’s too bloody hot and humid up there at this time of year. But in July and August, when it’s 3C in the South Island in the morning, it’s a very pleasant 23-25 in Tonga, with humidity no worse than Auckland. If night time temps get down below 16 the Tongans all freeze.
        
        My long term aim is to be able to spend Christmas to March or April down here, and the rest of the year in the Kingdom. God and the authorities willing!
        
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        January 14, 2025 9:35am
      - pdm
        
        DG I know all about humidity and heat at this time of the year. We lived in Suva 1974 to 1977.
        
        Mind you by 1977 I was wearing a jersey in July/ August. You do acclimatise.
        
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        January 14, 2025 9:49am
      - John Loveridge
        
        “As far north as you can go and still be in civilisation.”
        
        That’s very open to interpretation. It rules out just about anything north of Whangarei in the opinion of this Far North boy, and that’s already stretching the definition of “civilisation”.
        
        Some around here would say it rules out anything north of, say, Amberley.
        
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        January 14, 2025 12:11pm
      - Fender
        
        Lets hope your family stays healthy, keri and whangarei medical is off the planet bad
        You risk your life to those idiots
        
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        January 14, 2025 1:37pm
    - Benedict Yu
      
      This is a live wind map. There has been a South West wind over most of the country for coming on 3 weeks. Very unusual.
      
      https://earth.nullschool.net/#current/wind/surface/level/orthographic=-187.23,-42.84,2918
      
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      January 14, 2025 8:44am
      - Don Beckett
        
        Agreed Benedict. I am a little annoyed with our forecasters who back in July/August told us we would br having a hot dry summer in Tauranga, so I planned my garden & planting accordingly.
        Initially we had a few hot weeks – 28 & 29 C – back in November and my capsicums got off to a good start.
        But now, with night temps down to 11 -13 C, and daytime struggling past 20 C, they don’t seem to want to keep growing. Zucchinis, tomatoes & lettuces fine though, and plenty of spuds.
        I guess we can complain too much – should count our blessings. What’s wrong with an early autumn? 🙁
        
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        January 14, 2025 10:29am
      - NothingLeft
        
        You’d do better putting your faith in haruspicy (reading animal entrails) than the bollocks spouted by long range weather forecasters who truly have no idea.
        
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        January 14, 2025 1:17pm
    - Ra Henare
      
      To throw in my 2 bobs worth further to Bene and David.
      
      It winter here(Siem Reap), last week overnight bloody cold at 14/15c highs 25c
      Back to normal this week overnight 19 high 32, low humidity and sunny everyday!!!
      
      PS and the beer is still cheap $1.35 Kiwi/ 0.75 USD
      Bloody kiwi fallen thru the floor doesnt help.
      Kiwi/USD Down nearly $30% since I started visiting 10 years ago.
      
      Not looking forward to coming home in March to VERY expensive living costs.
      
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      January 14, 2025 3:10pm
  - Ghost
    
    No. I am in New Zealand. As far north as you can go and still be in civilisation.
    
    Nelson?
    
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    January 14, 2025 10:12am
    - Benedict Yu
      
      Really?
      
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      January 14, 2025 10:30am
      - Ghost
        
        What, you don’t think Nelson people are civilised?
        
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        January 14, 2025 11:40am
    - thirteenstars
      
      Hell, I’d have said Christchurch.
      
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      January 14, 2025 10:44am
      - G the giant from Dunedin
        
        The country ends at the Waitaki bridge 😊
        
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        January 14, 2025 11:22am
      - John Loveridge
        
        Remember that old ad?
        
        “Where does that go?” [pointing at railway line]
        
        “North, son.”
        
        “What’s north?”
        
        “Nothing, son.”
        
        Or something like that.
        
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        January 14, 2025 12:12pm
  - Paulus
    
    Tauranga – 2nd best Climate to Nelson.
    
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    January 14, 2025 10:31am
    - Colville
      
      But worse traffic than Auckland.
      
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      January 14, 2025 10:48am
artemisia

Nine ‘pundits’ in the Spinoff offer their opinion on 2025 big issues. The economy gets the most mentions but 4 of the 9 specifically mention unemployment.

Fast-track projects – jobs, jobs and more jobs. Sounds like a plan.
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January 14, 2025 8:12am
- cmm
  
  Sounds like “big government” thinking which ends up being: “do something, anything” type responses.
  This is what got Robbo to spend $150bn or so and achieve nothing other than a pile of debt.
  
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  January 14, 2025 8:26am
  - pdm
    
    Robbie of course was a talker not a getting things done chappie.
    
    As were all of his Labour mates.
    
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    January 14, 2025 8:38am
    - David Garrett
      
      pdm: a talker and more damaging, a spender
      
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      January 14, 2025 9:36am
    - Suze Wainwright
      
      You’re just being a cynic.
      
      Who’s going to inspect whether morning karakia are being uttered correctly on building sites (a likely legal requirement when Te Pati Maori become kingmakers in the next government…)?
      
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      January 14, 2025 10:07am
      - pdm
        
        Could be job for Hone Harawira and his cronies Suze.
        
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        January 14, 2025 11:23am
      - gravedodger
        
        For certain, it will not come cheap Suze.
        
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        January 14, 2025 1:59pm
  - artemisia
    
    Fast-track is to speed up the processes. Won’t result in approvals in all cases but that is not the point.
    
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    January 14, 2025 8:56am
    - Quail
      
      Artemisia
      Fast track just means a different lot of bureaucrats making the decisions ; bureaucrats presumably selected for their positivity.
      The awful RMA remains in place , so does all the associated misery.
      
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      January 14, 2025 3:30pm
  - john1234
    
    Disagree there. Robbo didn’t do anything constructive – he just threw money at people. The current government has a plan that allows real things to be built that provide ongoing productivity benefits.
    
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    January 14, 2025 9:25am
    - Colville
      
      He was someone happy to measure activity by spending. If money was going out the door he reckoned he was achieveing.
      
      People like Tamihere were happy to accommodate and ripped the taxpayer a new arsehole.
      
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      January 14, 2025 10:51am
- Paulus
  
  But some basic skills required for most jobs even to be able to write and spell and to turn Go signs on road construction.
  And be drug free.
  
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  January 14, 2025 10:33am
Yvette

Te Pāti Māori, Waipareira Trust, and trusting Debbie Ngarewa-Packer or her Pāti President
In a drive to become next Election’s king-maker, Te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer says the focus is on ejecting the current coalition from government and that means working more closely with the other opposition parties.
Te Pāti Māori has also been actively urging more Māori to join the Māori roll. Ngarewa-Packer said this was a deliberate strategy to increase the number of Māori seats, and in turn decrease the number of general seats.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/537076/opposition-parties-move-towards-formalising-collaboration

But Debbie Ngarewa-Packer has issues over the Altas Group and their possible corporate “aspirations”, so is that with or without her knowledge of what possible corporate “aspirations” her Te Pāti Māori president John Tamihere may have in his Waipareira Trust – such that Graham Adams asks “Do Storm clouds gather over Tamihere’s fiefdom?” – including the report into Manurewa Marae due at the end of January, news that the Charities Services intends to deregister the trust over political donations , and a largely unremarked move by the Ministry of Māori Development / Te Puni Kōkiri to reopen tenders for Whānau Ora cash, which clearly came as a bombshell to Tamihere, whose organisations have long been recipients of taxpayer money.

https://x.com/rosey_nz/status/1861664554582974728
https://www.instagram.com/debbiengarewapacker/reel/DC4svU_zTrE/
https://www.bassettbrashandhide.com/post/graham-adams-storm-clouds-gather-over-tamihere-s-fiefdom

Does Debbie Ngarewa-Packer decry Altas of corporate shenanigans while her Te Pāti Māori President John perhaps corporately shenanigs in his own Waipareira fiefdom – surely not befitting Debbie’s claim that the party had taken on the message of Kiingi Tuuheitia to Māori –”To be Māori every day, be proud to be Māori, and also do it as a united people and that theme of kotahitanga”?

For Debbie Ngarewa-Packer “The things we dislike most in others are the characteristics we like least in ourselves” – or those right next to us, if we recognise it – so the making of perhaps a situation marked by slightly violent controversy – what some people call a “shit storm”?
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January 14, 2025 8:14am
- Suze Wainwright
  
  So which bottom line policies is Ngawera-Packer ready to horse trade with at this early stage? (Presumably with Labour as TPM must already see the Green Party of Aotearoa/New Zealand as a complete pushover).
  
  Wouldn’t it be better to wait and see just how desperate Labour is at the time of the election? Or is Labour already at a point of desperation and ready to present as a united three-headed hydra?
  
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  January 14, 2025 2:34pm
MCōs

An apolitical perspective on the LA fires and fires past
https://x.com/zigmanfreud/status/1878670412139434400?s=61&t=yFkzCNMWRCaVt1p5eRxUog
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January 14, 2025 8:16am
- kowtow
  
  Great post.
  
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  January 14, 2025 9:22am
Chuck Bird

David Seymour was on NewstalkZB just after 8 AM.
It would be worth listening on play back if you did not hear him live.
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January 14, 2025 8:24am
- Tricati
  
  He was clear and measured and stayed on point – Hope Luxon was listening and took on-board how to present your position articulately.
  
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  January 14, 2025 9:41am
  - Debsta
    
    As always.
    
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    January 14, 2025 12:01pm
- Grunter
  
  Link below
  https://www.iheart.com/podcast/75437914/episode/257442396/
  
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  January 14, 2025 10:07am
Benedict Yu

Yesterday a commenter remarked that he was avoiding the COVID vaccine because he was concerned about the risk of blood clots to a mechanical heart valve.

Sadly this is a good example of falling for misinformation. If you have a mechanical heart valve it is critical that you receive the covid vaccine every 6 months

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9759278/#:~:text=Prosthetic%20valve%20failure%20and%20valve,in%20COVID%2D19%20infected%20patients.

The blood clot risk from even moderate COVID illness is orders of magnitude greater than the tiny risks of blood clots from the vaccine.
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January 14, 2025 8:25am
- kevn
  
  BY… Yep, ask an embalmer. Confidentially.
  
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  January 14, 2025 8:54am
- Grunter
  
  Benedict
  I couldn’t find the part in your link that stated that the people in these studies were unvaccinated and still got Covid-19, and then had blood clot issues…..?
  
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  January 14, 2025 8:59am
  - imalwaysright
    
    Sorry, meant to uptick.
    
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    January 14, 2025 10:38am
- cmm
  
  BY: Yes there is misinformation and distrust and one must ask where that originally comes from.
  
  There are no doubt many scenarios where the risk/reward favours getting the COVID vax. But that is likely for a very few high risk cases – not the general population.
  
  I take various medications and I think they are beneficial to me. I would not suggest that everyone line up and take my heart meds even though it would probably be low risk for them to do so. Further, my risk/reward calculation would be very different if the medicines I was taking were developed 2 years ago and not 25 years ago.
  
  “The system” has lied and coerced everyone and forced everyone to bow down and take a generally untested and controversial medicine whether or not it matches their risk/reward ratio.
  
  Having been lied to so much why should anyone rely on a random scientific paper – especially in an age when over 50% of ALL scientific papers are flawed and cannot be replicated?
  
  The system, and science, has lied continuously. That is the source of the breakdown of trust.
  
  That is the tricky part of lying – how does the average person assess what are lies and what are not? How do you rebuild that trust in the scientific and medical establishment as a whole?
  
  The vast majority of people do not have the training/skills/time to assess scientific papers and rely on others to do so.
  
  Some people, and it would seem you are one of them, will blindly trust anything from “science” and the establishment.
  
  Others have a more skeptical approach and once lied to are far more skeptical,
  
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  January 14, 2025 9:08am
  - Grunter
    
    A well-written post cmm.
    
    For many people, trust in Big Pharma and Big Govt has probably been destroyed for the rest of their lifetimes.
    
    Bene’s link above certainly didn’t build any trust on my part, in fact, it was the opposite.
    
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    January 14, 2025 9:20am
    - cmm
      
      The whole medical system is built on layers of trust – as is society in general.
      
      Most of us have close to zero understanding of medical matters so we rely on GPs. Most GPs have close to zero understanding of statistics and research so they rely on the findings of researchers.
      
      We rely on the GPs to be gatekeepers of truth and they rely on others. Unfortunately they were all pressured into conforming to the Covid narrative. Those that stood their ground were rapidly attacked.
      
      It is naive to put GPs or scientists on a pedestal and believe that all they care about is the truth.
      
      GPs and scientists are no different from other people. They have egos. They have bills to pay. They will generally go with the flow.
      
      One thing is that has become clear to many is what has been clear to some of us for a long time – science and scientific papers etc are no longer robust sources of information.
      
      Trust is extremely difficult to rebuild. Given the huge increases in scamming, fakery and AI etc, I doubt trust will be rebuilt easily.
      
      This is eroding society. Low trust societies are extremely unproductive. Unless we can turn this around (and it is not clear how), then we’re on a very bad path.
      
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      January 14, 2025 10:18am
      - Steve Otto N Shore
        
        “Unfortunately they were all pressured into conforming to the Covid narrative.”
        By one crazy control freak socialist/commie.
        
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        January 14, 2025 10:31am
      - Colville
        
        Steve.
        Never forget it was Winston who put her there with that power and just let it happen.
        
        He got his baubles.
        
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        January 14, 2025 10:59am
      - kowtow
        
        steve
        
        It was way bigger than that one control freak.
        
        She was actually a follower of the other loons in the west , but given she was in charge of this south seas petrie dish she was able to supercharge her “kind” response.
        
        The media were a huge part of the whole thing .
        
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        January 14, 2025 11:25am
      - cmm
        
        Steve, I am not at all a Cindy fan, but I think you are falling into that “one rotten apple” trap. The same one that is generally used to blame everything on the leader of the day (eg. currently blaming the LA mayor for the fires there).
        
        Cindy on her own was not influential enough to have caused all the medical researchers and GPs etc to just fall into line. Nope, the whole system caused that.
        
        It is more comfortable to believe the leader has all the power because it allows you to believe that just changing the leader will fix everything. It didn’t fix NZ. It won’t fix LA either.
        
        In many ways this is the similar thinking to blaming all of the German WW2/genocide stuff on Hitler. To do so is naive, but it is convenient – it allows us to create the fiction that once Hitler was eliminated Germany would suddenly be free of his spell and could be reintegrated into polite society.
        
        The truth there was really different. Germany had form with genocide – especially in South West Africa. The genocide they enacted in SWA against the Herero and Nama was arguably far worse than what they did to Jews in Germany (over 80% elimination vs “only” 50% for Jews in Germany). That all happened when Hitler was a teenager and nothing to do with him.
        
        But we don’t want to believe we live in a world where Germans have a particularly nasty streak to them, so we blame it all on Hitler.
        
        Same here. I don’t think the NZ researchers and medical councils were all under Cindy’s spell. They could have stood up to her if they wanted to. The whole situation gave them a power rush and enabled the public health people, maths modellers etc.
        
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        January 14, 2025 11:34am
      - Jake Dee
        
        Steve
        Jacinda Ardern was and is a small cog in a big machine, a Bachelor of Communication Studies, she wasn’t and will never be a philosopher Queen.
        
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        January 14, 2025 12:33pm
      - bennerg
        
        CMM, love your well reasoned and articulate posts today on this topic.
        
        Having worked inside the medical system here in NZ (not as a medic/nurse) I have observed how it all works. It is a very hierarchical system still, even though the “matrons” of old are long gone (everyone feared them), but patterns of control and obedience are still there.
        
        I agree that the doctors and specialists, and others, should have had the balls to stand up and be counted. Instead they bowed the the orthodoxy of the day, or worse, they cowardly got an exemption and told no-one else.
        
        This is the bit that got me. Personally I believe even Bloomfield was not wanting to get it, and the on camera vaccination may well of been with just a saline solution. We will never really know, and I’m sure the vaccinator will never tell either.
        
        So the trust in the medical professional has gone way down. And any attempt to portray them as the single point of truth will now fail. We now have means to access credentialed and qualified individuals such as Malone, Kory, Campbell (the John from the UK not the idiot from NZ), who can give us a heads up. If we ever see them censored, then we know we are in trouble.
        
        NEWSFLASH: Seems RFK has the numbers to be approved, so watch out for some spectacular action of the coming months.
        
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        January 14, 2025 1:04pm
- imalwaysright
  
  ” it is critical that you receive the covid vaccine every 6 months”
  
  I don’t think you have read the report.
  They studied eight people with two different types of valve and varied health histories and came to the conclusion that:
  “In patients with prosthetic valves, COVID-19 related valve failure is plausible to include as a consequence of infection.”
  There were at least four other unrelated conditions that cause blood thickening.
  
  There was no mention of vaccines, specifically no mention that the participants were unvaccinated. Therefore causation due to the jab can’t be eliminated.
  
  You state that blood clot risk from getting covid is orders of magnitude greater than the vax. Really ? So a hundred times greater? Or a thousand? Where’s the evidence?
  
  Stop making things up and trying to scare people.
  
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  January 14, 2025 9:29am
  - 70andstilllearning
    
    Spot on ima – the only time vaccine appears in the paper is within the following context and for that matter the paper was published back in Dec 2022. Very much a case of pot, kettle …..
    
    “As COVID-19 continues to evolve and dynamically change and global prevalence continues, infection in the growing cohort of prosthetic valve patients with waning natural and vaccine related immunity or absent immune protection from emerging COVID-19 variants may further demonstrate clinical relevance of PVT in the setting of COVID-19 infection. Early diagnosis of PVT can modify treatment recommendations and improve the quality of care in patients with prosthetic valves.”
    
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    January 14, 2025 10:48am
  - JackRabbit
    
    Agreed.
    
    I do not know anyone, nor do I know anyone that knows someone that died of Covid. There were no excess deaths in 2020, or the start of 2021. Excess deaths only occurred when the vaccine was rolled out in bulk.
    
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    January 14, 2025 12:44pm
    - losingtheplot
      
      Bollocks.
      
      You can’t extrapolate to the whole population from your own experience. This is the equivalent of saying that because no-one I know died today, therefore no-one died in NZ today.
      
      BY is right. Vaccines save lives. The covid vaccine saved lives, and still does. If you don’t want to take it, then don’t. That’s on you.
      
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      January 14, 2025 9:33pm
- peterwn
  
  And the same people probably do not take their prescribed blood thinners, the modern type is vastly superior to Warfarin (aka rat poison) so much so that Pharmac rapidly approved it when it came on the market.
  
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  January 14, 2025 9:51am
  - Inandout
    
    peter, Plavix alters the platelets so they are less likely to clump and begin a blood clot.
    
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    January 14, 2025 10:18am
- igm
  
  The commenter was making the point that being on warfarin to stop clots and stroke he, due to circumstances, took the Pfizer poison till the 1st booster. This is where the clot and serious heart attack took effect, including mutilating heart valve causing replacement with open heart surgery. The replacement was not metal!
  
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  January 14, 2025 9:55am
- hookerphil
  
  B Y – I have had a replacement aortic valve – (metal, not pig,) in 2008. No way I would let a covid vaccination anywhere near my blood stream. I am firmly of the belief that if at anytime I feel that my end time is near I would be able to enable it by simply stopping taking my daily warfrin.
  Why would I want to risk having a clot form after the vaccination when the valve must be allowed to have the blood flow through at all times.
  I was surprised when yesterdays comment mentioned that he had a clot form – must have been parked up – would be a worrying time waiting to get rid of it.
  May have mentioned this before but in counter to your claims that the vacination was safe etc etc – I personally know of 6 men that ended up in hospital within a 2/3 month period after being vaccinated with kidney problems, basically they all stopped peeing. Two died not long after, including a brother, one had a stroke, one still had ongoing problems and two are ok.
  
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  January 14, 2025 9:56am
  - Steve Otto N Shore
    
    It is all a bit worrying for me at 72. Not at the warfarin stage yet, just aspirin.
    If this Covid shit ever starts up again I will never be taking the vax – stupid passport or not. Ridiculous, passport to be allowed to go to the supermarket!
    Another Ardern type can go to hell.
    
    17 3
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    January 14, 2025 10:42am
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      It is all a bit worrying for me at 72
      
      Have a cup of coffee in the morning…..
      
      Our MSM is assuring us that you'll have a 16% chance of NEVER dying.
      
      Compared with people who did not drink coffee, morning coffee drinkers were 16% less likely to die of any cause and 31% less likely to die of heart disease.
      https://www.odt.co.nz/lifestyle/magazine/top-start-day
      
      I’m doomed…. Hubby usually doesn’t make my coffee until lunchtime (noon).
      
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      January 14, 2025 12:29pm
      - Don Beckett
        
        I have my first coffee at morning smoko. Cup of tea with breakfast.
        
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        January 14, 2025 1:47pm
      - cmm
        
        If I was to have three cups of coffee it would likely overwhelm my rate control medication and I would probably go into atrial fibrillation, needing a trip to hospital to get my chest zapped.
        
        Ditto any other stimulants. If I have just half a squares of dark chocolate I can feel my heart getting worryingly out of control. Two or three squares would turn into an ambulance ride. Milk chocolate seems fine though.
        
        I am not a medic and I recommend people to do their own research, but stimulants and some heart conditions don’t mix too well.
        
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        January 14, 2025 4:30pm
      - Steve Otto N Shore
        
        I don’t drink coffee. I detest it. Vile stuff.
        I drink tea thankyou very much. Brands don’t matter, the bulk comes from mostly the same places. Dilma? PG Tips? Bell? Choysa?
        Add, hot strong and sweet, just like my Woman!
        
        2 1
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        January 14, 2025 5:43pm
  - pdm
    
    I have a pig valve. Including redo.
    
    No worries or consequences with having the jabs. Missed one and never had covid.
    
    5 1
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    January 14, 2025 11:30am
  - JackRabbit
    
    HP,
    
    A friend also had peeing issues right after the 2nd vaccine. Also he and his wife started suffered aching legs both at the same time after the vaccines, as well. Their GP, said this is normal for your age, this happen when you get older.
    
    I said to them, what did the GP say when you informed him that hubby is 18 years older than the wife? Both went white as a sheet, and you could hear a pin drop.
    
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    January 14, 2025 12:50pm
    - JackRabbit
      
      I should have mentioned he was admitted to hospital over the peeing.
      
      4 1
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      January 14, 2025 5:40pm
- Bridgenag
  
  It would be really good BY if you looked at all the facts posted here via opinions from real experts and links. None so blind…….
  
  14 3
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  January 14, 2025 10:53am
- JackRabbit
  
  Specifics please.
  
  [1] How many people have you talked to? Including patients, GPs, and specialists?
  
  [2] Tell us your own words from your own understanding the mechanisms involved. Copying and pasting is not proof. There are $80,000,000,000 reasons annually why the NIH cannot be relied to publish the truth.
  
  [3] There are articles on the NIH that show blood clots and thrombosis from the mRNA. It is all how you search.
  
  [4] There are hundreds of medical websites, with articles written by professionals, including photos of clots, of live moving organisms in the mRNA after defrosting, and stacks of photos of blood clots from funeral homes as mentioned by kevn.
  
  [5] Think of the taking the mRNA vaccines as you would eating Arabian Puffer Fish, or playing Russian Roulette with a 100 shot chamber.
  
  You can get away with it, many times, and boast that there is no downside. But sooner or later the breech will be loaded, or the TTX in the Puffer Fish causes a fatal reaction and you are toast.
  
  There is no cure for stupidity.
  
  During the vaccine drive, I urged people to not get the jabs. A colleague of mine, in his early 50’s, went ahead and did it anyway. After the first jab he had arthritis for a week in one knee. His GP said “that’s normal, shows the vaccine is working.”
  
  After the second jab he got full blown permanent arthritis in both knees. He went to a specialist, and demanded answers.
  
  Specialist said: “I’m sorry, but it is a vaccine injury, and we are lots of these.but even if we report it, you won’t get ACC because unless arthritis is listed as a known side effect of the mRNA jabs, they won’t acknowledge it”
  
  Mate said: “What what the hell do I do?”
  
  Specialist said: “Join the other 15% of people with vaccine injuries and learn to live with it.”
  
  My mate recounted this to me, when he came in to apologise for not have taken my advice “I should have listened to you”. He sold his business, and his house and he and his wife moved overseas to much warmer climate where he could get some relief.
  
  This is one story out of dozens.
  
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  January 14, 2025 12:38pm
- NothingLeft
  
  The novel pasta-like amyloid clots weren’t seen by pathologists during 2020 – the early days of covid pandemic, only in 2021 after the vaccine programs were rolled out and when excess deaths in NZ shot up even in absence of amy respiratory viruses. The temporal correlation with that causative factor is the smoking gun for hundreds of thousands of cardiovascular linked deaths from covid shots.
  
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  January 14, 2025 1:22pm
- Observer of Life
  
  BY: Well I sure got a couple of blood clots in very unusual places a couple of years back, of which the specialist had absolutely no explanation for. The subject was quickly changed when I mentioned the spike protein in the jabs potentially being the problem. Have you read/listened to Drs Aseem Malholtra, Peter McCullough, John Campbell etc on this subject? If not, maybe hunt them out for alternative opinions to what you have read.
  
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  January 14, 2025 2:40pm
- Ra Henare
  
  As in all things Bene. The devil is in the detail.
  
  from your link
  “”A systematic literature search in PubMed was conducting using the four search terms “COVID and Aortic Valve,” “COVID and Mitral Valve,” “COVID and Tricuspid Valve,” and “COVID and Pulmonic Valve” to identify PVT incidents in the setting of COVID-19 infection. Only articles that were published before July 14, 2022 were included.””
  
  Would like to see the reference for your claim:
  The blood clot risk from even moderate COVID illness is orders of magnitude greater than the tiny risks of blood clots from the vaccine.
  
  Sadly in the modern day and age its almost possible to find any research to support any hypothesis.
  
  As to peer-review. It can’t be used to validate anything, it would appear.
  
  https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1420798/
  
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  January 14, 2025 3:21pm
Pope Punctilious II

The Herald features a long rant against the Regulatory Standards bill by Lady Turitei Moxon https://www.nzherald.co.nz/kahu/tureiti-moxon-regulatory-standards-bill-undermines-maori-equity/7VRXCWYTYJDSNF5HBWSHXODRU4/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
So many words without a single honest argument.
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January 14, 2025 8:28am
- 7kiwi11
  
  All I have heard from those opposing the bill is ranting. Never a sound argument, just untruths and hyperbole.
  
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  January 14, 2025 10:30am
- Cantabrian
  
  She is pathologically against anything this government does.
  By the way, it is Turitei, Lady Moxon – the title is her husband’s, not hers.
  
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  January 14, 2025 11:51am
Ipanema69

No trains in Auckland until 27th of January. Incidentally there will be at least 100 days of full network closure in 2025.

This is off the back of the Eastern, Southern and Western lines being sequentially closed for an 18 month period over 23 and 24.

Not sure how AT expects to increase patronage without increasing system availability.
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January 14, 2025 8:35am
- cmm
  
  Bloody hell!
  
  Japan managed to do a complete station upgrade overnight – only stopping trains for 2 hours.
  
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  January 14, 2025 10:21am
- G152
  
  Does that include the freight trains with their loads of containers?????????
  
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  January 14, 2025 10:30am
- 7kiwi11
  
  Not to mention our main national highway, SH1, is closing for 2 months.
  
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  January 14, 2025 10:31am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  Yeah, but will anyone notice?
  
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  January 14, 2025 11:30am
Cassandra

I’ve just read two submissions on ACT’s regulations Bill, one from the NZ Initiative (supportive, suggests some amendments), the second from a Maori academic named Moxon which is totally opposed because the Bill seeks equality and she wants Maori preference. According to Moxon NZ is divided into Maoris and those who are not Maoris. The latter are all equal (Samoans & 160 IQ Chinese & working class Europeans & Cape Coloureds who arrived here yesterday). Maoris are all disadvantaged. So Tamihere on $1 million a year is disadvantaged and my European daughter health assistant on the minimum wage is advantaged? It’s an interesting and appalling world view.
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January 14, 2025 8:41am
- Pope Punctilious II
  
  I don’t think Moxon is an academic. According to wikipedia she is managing director of Te Kōhao Health, a “health, education, social and justice service provider”. But it wouldn’t surprise me if one of our unicorps had conferred a worthless “honorary doctorate” on her.
  
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  January 14, 2025 8:54am
  - Paulus
    
    Ain’t she a Lady of some sort not your normal Missus?
    
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    January 14, 2025 10:38am
    - NeverMindTheBollocks
      
      Wife of some bloke. Not a Lady in her own right.
      
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      January 14, 2025 11:31am
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      She is the wife of a Knight of the Realm _ Sir David Moxon – An Anglican Archbishop
      
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Moxon
      
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      January 14, 2025 11:36am
      - John Loveridge
        
        They must have some interesting pillow talk.
        
        6 0
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        January 14, 2025 12:15pm
      - bennerg
        
        Historically, knighted members of the clergy do not use the “sir”, but this one does.
        
        8 1
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        January 14, 2025 1:13pm
      - NoFax
        
        As noted below, clergy don’t use the title “sir”, in part, because it’s a down grade. An archbishop is equivalent of a Duke and, therefore, addressed as ” your grace”. But who knows what the Anglicans are up to today.
        
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        January 14, 2025 7:16pm
- cmm
  
  Playing the Victim Olympics is perhaps the very worst thing you can do to a population.
  
  It absolutely destroys agency and leads to the systems we have where pretty much everything is viewed through a racial lens and reinforces Maori under performance.
  
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  January 14, 2025 9:17am
  - mandk
    
    You got to admit, though, that being part of the Māori elite and encouraging the little people to adopt a victim mentality can earn you heaps of money.
    
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    January 14, 2025 9:30am
    - NothingLeft
      
      But the opportunity cost, and destruction of potential for success and happiness in very people they pretend to be helping, is immense.
      
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      January 14, 2025 1:32pm
      - mandk
        
        Of course it is.
        
        But that’s good because it allows the Māori elite to demand more money from the government.
        
        Just ask John Tamihere.
        
        7 0
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        January 14, 2025 2:21pm
  - kowtow
    
    The left , allies and useful idiots found playing viewing everything through a “class” lens didn’t work , so have over time variously focused on :
    
    sex ( feminism)
    
    race /indigeniety/colonialism
    
    more recently “gender” and all things trans etc
    
    But the bottom line is still division ,chaos and through it all ;
    
    control.
    
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    January 14, 2025 9:44am
    - Debsta
      
      Divide and conquer, as old as the hills.
      
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      January 14, 2025 12:13pm
    - NothingLeft
      
      Or more particularly feathering the expensive nests of the parasitic exploiters and promoters of woke bigotry.
      
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      January 14, 2025 1:34pm
  - Prince
    
    And who is Maori, and who isn’t ? Can we have a scientific description please, and a method of identification. Or is it all ‘feels’ ?
    
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    January 14, 2025 9:50am
    - Paulus
      
      No !~
      
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      January 14, 2025 10:39am
- trout
  
  I read the article and was amazed that Moxon expects her opinion to be taken seriously. Society is expected to treat modern Maori like children; they are apparently incapable of understanding that civilization offers endless opportunities to individuals who value education and a healthy lifestyle. All we hear from the likes of Moxon are excuses and demands for preferential treatment. Fortunately there are plenty of Maori making their way in the world, by not buying into the idea that they have been disempowered by historic events and have shaken off the shackles of dependency.
  
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  January 14, 2025 9:31am
  - peterwn
    
    The whole racket depends on having a perpetual underclass to give the upper classes someone to rule over. Perhaps Lady Moxon’s outlook is similar to the outlook of another bishop’s wife Cecil Frances Alexander (from the 1800’s) who was a prolific writer of childrens’ hymns including ‘All Things Bright and Beautiful’ with its notorious third verse (which has been omitted from modern hymn books) starting ‘The rich man in his castle, the poor man at the gate ….”.
    Coming to think of it George Orwell’s “1984” exemplifies things rather well with society split into the ‘Inner Party’ (the elite), the ‘Outer Party’ (middle class white collar) and the ‘Proles’ (proletariats) kept happy with ‘Prolefeed’ entertainment. The elite depended on the Proles for justification of their position.
    Political parties like National want to improve the lot of the underclass so it greatly diminishes whereas left wing parties and groups like the Maori elite are dependent on the continuing existence of an underclass who are continually promised of better things to come (which never happens because Labour for example cannot even run a bath) and hence their votes.
    
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    January 14, 2025 10:24am
  - cmm
    
    I don’t think Moxon really cares whether or not (s)he is taken seriously.
    All that Moxon cares about is whether the trough is kept open.
    
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    January 14, 2025 10:25am
    - NothingLeft
      
      I am sure she rationalizes what she is doing as good. No-one is a villain in the stories they use to justify their choices.
      
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      January 14, 2025 1:36pm
  - Paulus
    
    Many Maori of very sort have left New Zealand and many having done well, become Citizens of Australia.
    Some Non Citizens with huge criminal records being returned as New Zealand by the 501 system, then back to jail here and joining the Gangs.
    I am told that many Maori went to Australia so that their childtern would not be tempted by Drugs and Gangs.
    
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    January 14, 2025 10:44am
    - hookerphil
      
      Have a nephew in Australia – married now, 3 children, good job, good house – has done very well with no benefits or special treatments.
      Left because he wanted to get away from that kind of life here in New Zealand.
      No regrets on either side of the Tasman.
      
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      January 14, 2025 11:59am
    - peterwn
      
      There are arguably more Maoris helping to run NSW prisons than there are Maori inmates.
      
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      January 14, 2025 1:23pm
- Swifty
  
  Lady Moxon of course is part of the elite inner sanctum – she’s done extremely well out of the victim Olympics.
  
  You know you’re a real one percenter when you celebrate your kids entering US Ivy League universities while kids in Huntly and many, many other places run around the streets in shorts or nappies with lesions on their legs and green and yellow snot running down their faces.
  
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  January 14, 2025 9:31am
  - Swifty
    
    I owe Lady Moxon an apology- it was Oxford her son attended, not a US university:
    
    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/kahu/lady-tureiti-moxon-honoured-with-waikato-universitys-highest-award-for-30-years-of-mahi-for-maori/HWLDBPMNKBCDDBWWGSFV4TOPD4/
    
    She and her family have done very well for themselves haven’t they? What with all the tilted playing fields, cards stacked against them, inequity, rights breaches, inequality, white supremacy and systemic racism in all our institutions they’ve had to contend with.
    
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    January 14, 2025 10:30am
    - NeverMindTheBollocks
      
      Double uptick, Swifty
      
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      January 14, 2025 7:16pm
  - imalwaysright
    
    Imagine posting pictures of the houses and cars of Moxon, Tamihere, Jackson and the rest of the gravy trainers outside the dole offices.
    Better still, hand out leaflets outlining their wealth and incomes.
    Maoris get very jealous very quickly.
    
    15 2
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    January 14, 2025 11:14am
    - Swifty
      
      Oh yes, I’ve thought of that from time to time.
      
      There is a thin slice of elite Maoridom doing extremely well out of the current state of affairs.
      
      They of course won’t want this situation to end any time soon.
      
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      January 14, 2025 12:12pm
- Graham Sharpe
  
  Moxon? Spelling mistake surely. Moron- there fixed it.
  
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  January 14, 2025 11:02am
  - Debsta
    
    Pox on?
    
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    January 14, 2025 12:16pm
- goNZ1
  
  Moxon moans about Maori infant mortality rates .
  Well get your warriors to stop killing their kids then lady,dont blame colonisation !
  
  https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/nia-glassie-case-no-parole-for-rotorua-murderer-michael-curtis/4SLRJKRQ4NEBJM5G6FECOQ7SZQ/
  
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  January 14, 2025 2:08pm
Steve Otto N Shore

He Admitted on Live TV That He Cheated in 2020.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_QROzaeKcg
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January 14, 2025 8:46am
pdm

Moxon is a long time activist.

I have just started a bit of fun on Facebook with an outfit opposed to the bill. Their first post was shared by Chris Perley long time Green candidate in Tukituki.
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January 14, 2025 8:59am
Scooter

Nia Glassie’s killer still using drugs AND he’s been in jail for 17 years. Unbelievable.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/nia-glassie-case-no-parole-for-rotorua-murderer-michael-curtis/4SLRJKRQ4NEBJM5G6FECOQ7SZQ/
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January 14, 2025 9:03am
- cmm
  
  Completely believable.
  
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  January 14, 2025 10:32am
  - Scooter
    
    Nice warm bed, 3 meals a day, drugs, what more could the NZ justice system provide?
    
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    January 14, 2025 10:42am
sungsamning

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQZxOB0lFzk
Seb Gorka Explains Mystery Drones.
Sean Spicer gets a guy with true expertise. In my experience when a big controversy suddenly goes silent it is because the critics were wrong. The greatest inhibitor to solving problems is misdiagnosis. I don’t often agree with Seb Gorka. But, this is Seb Gorka’s area of expertise.
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January 14, 2025 9:10am
sungsamning

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfO2zhM_3xU
Greenland’s Prime Minister reaction to Donald Trump and how Greelanders feel about King of Denmark.
Greenland Prime Minister Múte Egede addressed comments made Donald Trump about the northern island, calling for united amongst Greenland’s residents.
While many Greenlanders want independence, a member of Denmark’s Parliament from Greeland said the newly crowned Danish King Freerick X remains popular on the island controlled by Denmark, although Greenland is now a semi-sovereign territory.
If it were to declare independence, it would require a referendum. During his first term, Trump’s offer to buy Greenland in 2019 was rejected by Denmark.
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January 14, 2025 9:10am
Rusty

How do climate change/ global warming alarmists figure out that is the reason for the wildfires in California?

These fires have been accelerated by powerful winds blowing across the state which can’t be attributed to climate change/ global warming.

The winds are actually only one reason the other being incompetence.
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January 14, 2025 9:33am
- cmm
  
  The winds are nothing new. They are the Santa Ana winds (aka the devil’s wind).
  
  “According to research done by Orange County historian Chris Jepsen, the first reported reference to that term comes to us in 1871 from the Anaheim Gazette.”
  
  “The longest recorded Santa Ana event was a 14-day wind in November 1957.”
  
  The winds are katabatic winds. Caused by the laws of physics. Santa Ana winds have been blowing hot for as long as the Traverse Ranges have been there (however many millions of years that is).
  
  So to blame “global warming” would be extremely lazy and inaccurate.
  
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Ana_winds
  
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  January 14, 2025 10:49am
  - Mod88
    
    Like blaming climate change for “The Barber” in Greymouth, NZ’s very own Katabatic Wind.
    
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    January 14, 2025 11:16am
  - NothingLeft
    
    Santa Ana is supposed to be Mary’s (victim of deity rape) mum.
    
    1 6
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    January 14, 2025 1:41pm
    - cmm
      
      The wind is named after the valley it comes down which, presumably, is named after her.
      
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      January 14, 2025 2:58pm
    - NoFax
      
      So ignorant of the faith yet so bold in condemning it.
      
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      January 14, 2025 7:19pm
Steve Otto N Shore

Trump Stirs Global Tensions with Bold Military Claims Amid China Threat.

https://politicalactionalerts.com/trump-stirs-global-tensions-with-bold-military-claims-amid-china-threat/?
From the item:
Trump’s Message to Xi Jinping: ‘I’m Nuts!’
https://pjmedia.com/vodkapundit/2025/01/09/trumps-message-to-xi-jinping-im-nuts-n4935810
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January 14, 2025 9:34am
Steve Otto N Shore

Fact-Checking the Fact-Checkers: Who’s Really Pulling the Strings?

https://patriotpowerednetwork.com/fact-checking-the-fact-checkers-whos-really-pulling-the-strings/?
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January 14, 2025 9:49am
- imalwaysright
  
  Note that “fact checkers” never say why they consider something false.
  Its always untrue, unverified, disinformation etc. Never a factual rebuttal. Suckers fall for it.
  
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  January 14, 2025 10:18am
  - JackRabbit
    
    ~~Fact Checkers.~~ Fat Chequers. They get paid to debunk stuff. They never have specifics.
    
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    January 14, 2025 1:01pm
- Inandout
  
  SO, ZB use CNN to fact check.
  
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  January 14, 2025 10:21am
Steve Otto N Shore

Fire Claims Conservative Actor’s Home.
The left go septic as usual. Just can’t stop being nasty.

https://americanvoterpolls.com/leftists-celebrate-as-fire-claims-conservative-actors-home/?
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January 14, 2025 9:56am
- Ghost
  
  Bit like some on this blog who show their ugliness by proclaiming the victims of this fire got what they deserved, what they voted for. Disgusting lack of compassion and just people on both sides showing how ugly they are
  
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  January 14, 2025 10:22am
  - imalwaysright
    
    Agreed. Vindictive nasty people.
    
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    January 14, 2025 11:17am
  - Steve Otto N Shore
    
    True.
    
    3 2
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    January 14, 2025 11:35am
  - cmm
    
    It isn’t a matter of saying they got what they deserved.
    
    LA, especially the outer areas, is a high fire risk area. If you want to live there then it behooves you to take the risks seriously and take precautions.
    
    Rather it is people saying that they brought the worst of this on themselves by failing to take correct practical steps:
    * voting in useless leadership
    * prioritising growing eucalyptus trees over over fire risk
    * failing to have go-bags and fireproof safes in their $10M+ mansions.
    
    That is a matter of being practical. “Deserves” is a moral judgement – that has nothing to do with it.
    
    Few, if any are saying they deserve this (ie. that they are bad people and deserve the wrath of god), rather that they are stupid for not taking precautions.
    
    Big difference.
    
    The same would apply to being ready for natural disasters in NZ. If you are not prepared that is not a matter of “deserves”, but you’re a bloody idiot.
    
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    January 14, 2025 3:12pm
- All_on_Red
  
  Woods didnt lose his house, but your point is still valid.
  https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/celebrities/2025/01/12/james-woods-house-survives-la-fires/77653856007/
  
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  January 14, 2025 10:50am
Maggy Wassilieff

Were our Prime Ministers the “cream of the crop” or just a bunch of mediocre lightweights?

https://pointofordernz.wordpress.com/2025/01/14/quality-ministers/#more-34890
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January 14, 2025 10:00am
- Dudley Quaffquaff
  
  To get to be Prime Minister, you have to (1) decide to go into politics (2) get selected by your party either to contest a seat or get highly placed on the list (3) win enough votes for yourself locally, or your party wins enough votes nationwide, for you to get into Parliament by one of these means (4) stand for election as your party leader and win and (5) your party gets into government.
  
  At which of these stages would you expect the necessary conditions and filters to kick in, that would make it a reasonable expectation that the person who gets through all these stages and becomes Prime Minister would be “the cream of the crop”?
  
  Personally, I don’t think many most of those who’d count as “cream” would make it to step 1. Politics these days is such an unattractive and unrewarding career option that we should count ourselves lucky that anybody of any competence goes anywhere near it. We certainly have no right to expect that the best of us will make that sacrifice
  
  10 1
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  January 14, 2025 11:05am
  - peterwn
    
    Many National (and other parties) potential politicians need a nudge to think of standing. John Key and I think Chris Luzon were in that category. Prior to last election National ran it’s NATIONAL101 on line course in a further bid to attract potential candidates with good results. I understand that it will be run again next year.
    
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    January 14, 2025 12:12pm
    - kowtow
      
      ‘ Chris Luzon ‘
      
      Our man in Manila.
      
      8 0
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      January 14, 2025 1:29pm
      - goNZ1
        
        along with Chris Hopkins and Simon Brown
        
        3 0
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        January 14, 2025 2:10pm
  - NothingLeft
    
    Toxicity of cancel culture and offense archaeology makes it unlikely that charismatic men will seek top political leadership, on the right at least, where ghosts of the past can and will be dredged up or invented to try and destroy you.
    
    7 0
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    January 14, 2025 1:45pm
- cmm
  
  Do you really want the cream of the crop to be PMs?
  
  I think that the cream of the crop often operate outside of the limelight position of PM. An example of that is Bill English. While John Key hammed it up on the stage, it was really Bill’s firm hand on the tiller that navigated the GFC. Steve Joyce also operated well in his various portfolios. Making either of them PM would have likely not worked as well.
  
  You often see the same in large organisations. Often it is those at the VP level are the real powerhouse of the organisation. The guy at the top is just a figurehead that must allow the others to flourish.
  
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  January 14, 2025 11:56am
  - imalwaysright
    
    Luxon would be better as Chief of Staff.
    No kerb appeal.
    
    6 1
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    January 14, 2025 1:55pm
Steve Otto N Shore

Melania Trump Prepares to Move Out: White House in Chaos.

Video incl.

https://americanvoterpolls.com/melania-trump-prepares-to-move-out-white-house-in-chaos/
2 2
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January 14, 2025 10:05am
Paulus

Umm
What is Melania Trump doing in the White House, as her Husband has yet to be crown President.
So why is she preparing to move out – you mean in?
6 0
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January 14, 2025 10:48am
- Steve Otto N Shore
  
  Moving stuff out of Mar a Lago I guess. It can be a confusing headline.
  
  7 1
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  January 14, 2025 11:36am
  - imalwaysright
    
    I heard Trump say that in his first term he went to the Whitehouse only 17 times and never once stayed the night.
    
    5 1
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    January 14, 2025 1:59pm
    - Steve Otto N Shore
      
      Mics and cameras in the Whitehouse you know.
      Just ask Obama…..
      
      5 1
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      January 14, 2025 6:04pm
    - Steve Otto N Shore
      
      Oh, how many times was Joe at the beach? or on “vacation.?”
      
      4 0
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      January 14, 2025 6:48pm
Chuck Bird

This is by Richard Lindzen. He also talks about the media and politicians.

Climate Change: What Do Scientists Say? | 5 Minute Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwqIy8Ikv-c
4 2
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January 14, 2025 11:00am
Morgan H

National’s polling for 2024:
Highest Point – 41 (Curia – January)
Median – 37
Average – 34.2
Lowest Point – 28.5 (Roy Morgan – November)

What does everyone think the numbers will be for 2025?
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January 14, 2025 11:01am
- Morgan H
  
  National’s polling for 2009:
  Highest Point – 60 (Reid Research February)
  Median – 54
  Average 52.9
  Lowest Point – 48 (Roy Morgan – Early January) (Roy Morgan – Late January)
  
  Quite a big difference between Key’s National and Luxon’s National.
  
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  January 14, 2025 2:10pm
  - Pope Punctilious II
    
    But which would you prefer in terms of policy? This coalition government has at least shown some willingness to fight the culture war, unlike the Key government.
    
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    January 14, 2025 6:34pm
Morgan H

Labour’s polling for 2024:
Highest Point – 33 (Talbot Mills – April) (Talbot Mills – November)
Median – 28.2
Average – 27.99
Lowest Point – 21.5 (Roy Morgan – February)
7 0
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January 14, 2025 11:31am
sirknz

Harping on about the parliament website crashing due to last minute rush to submit on the principles bill. RNZ article reposted by NZ Herald cites a couple of IT experts with many years experience.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/parliament-website-issues-on-treaty-bill-feedback-could-be-cost-cutting-tech-experts-say/QFPSJ5BRZ5BATOTABNTRCX765A/

The article neglects to mention that one of the experts looks to work for UC and the other works for a tech firm that looks like it does a fair bit of work for govt agencies and other orgs that are govt adjacent.
11 0
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January 14, 2025 11:35am
- Swifty
  
  I’ve not seen single article on this issue that isn’t total evidence-free speculation by outsiders.
  
  What a beat up.
  
  5 1
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  January 14, 2025 12:05pm
Yvette

The chief executive of a Māori trust that administers land in the central North Island says he was blindsided by news that the Desert Road was closing for two months for maintenance.
Lake Rotoaira Forest Trust administers the interests of 12,000 owners and of nearly 23,000 hectares of land and its chief executive Topia Rameka said it was the biggest private land owner along the Desert Road.
Rameka is also involved with a helibiking adventure company Kaimanawa Alpine Adventures which he said would be “severely impacted” by the road’s closure.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/538900/desert-road-closure-maori-trust-chief-executive-blindsided-by-nzta-decision
_______

Youtube – Desert Road to close over summer | 1News on TVNZ+
Nov 23, 2024
The Desert Road will be closed for two months during summer from January, adding a lot of time on the journey of those who travel around the Central Plateau.
Kaimanawa Alpine Adventures HELISIKA helicopter operator interviewed
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xmjowas1dcs.

Is six weeks “blindsided”, or at least partial “victim syndrome”?
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January 14, 2025 12:24pm
- Tauhei Notts
  
  Not one of the twelve thousand owners would consider to raise the matter with Topia Rameka.
  
  7 0
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  January 14, 2025 2:06pm
- imalwaysright
  
  Actual victims will be truckers. Extra RUC and running costs plus losing an hour each way.
  
  Also, what is Plan C when the alternate route is closed by a fatal accident?
  
  6 0
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  January 14, 2025 2:07pm
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    New Plymouth, Taumarunui or Napier, take your pick.
    
    2 0
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    January 14, 2025 7:20pm
- pdm
  
  Yvette He was getting slayed on facebook.
  
  3 0
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  January 14, 2025 2:50pm
- greybeard
  
  One sentence explains the whole article:
  ” But it was very difficult to get compensation from an organisation such as the NZTA and it needed to improve its consultation processes, he said.”
  As always, their whole object is to get someone else’s money.
  
  5 0
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  January 14, 2025 5:02pm
cas

I just had to peel 2 plastic stickers off my peach.

Didn’t some wonderful woman with kindness and empathy and concern for the planet promise we would get rid of plastic?
18 1
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January 14, 2025 12:43pm
- cmm
  
  NZ fruit stickers are one of the more cursed NZ inventions.
  
  7 0
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  January 14, 2025 2:03pm
  - Paulus
    
    Agreed, but necessary for the marketing of a New Zealand product, and not a fraud from elsewhere, in Overseas Markets.
    
    4 0
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    January 14, 2025 2:25pm
- imalwaysright
  
  Apparently they are edible!
  
  5 0
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  January 14, 2025 2:08pm
  - cmm
    
    Edible, as in not dangerous to eat, maybe. They certainly are not digestible.
    
    We run some serious worm bins that allow the worms to much [munch] away at stuff for months. They even break down avocado pips. Those fruit stickers come out the other side unharmed.
    
    7 0
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    January 14, 2025 3:44pm
kowtow

Second most powerful ?

Why not the simpler second most senior , or maybe I’m missing something.

https://www.odt.co.nz/news/national/top-cop-suspended-amid-criminal-probe
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January 14, 2025 1:56pm
cmm

The advice of TravelSafe, the official advice for the NZers travelling abroad is interesting. Many of these make a lot of sense – such as avoiding much of Africa and Haiti etc.

However it would seem to deal with perceived risk and prejudice rather than real risk.

They advise against visiting Israel (“Do not travel”). South Africa, it seems, is OK (just “exercise increased caution”).

Yet reality is far different. The murder rate in South Africa is way higher than in Israel, even if you include all the October 7th murders.

South Africa has a murder rate of 455 per million inhabitants. Israel is generally 16 per million. The October 7’th atrocity was “only” 120 per million.

And if we look at rape etc, then Israel is at 190 per million while South Africa is at 700 per million. The South African numbers are woefully under reported – not sure about Israel. Your chances of being robbed are not comparable either.

So what is driving the SafeTravel policies? It would not seem like science and statistics. There is more at play.

Perhaps SafeTravel refering to “Israel and Occupied Palestine” might give a clue.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/travel/360547406/these-are-22-countries-kiwis-are-advised-avoid
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January 14, 2025 1:58pm
- kowtow
  
  Something our utterly shit media deliberately fails to report is Israel is under daily air attack from the Houthis .( Iranian proxies) There are still occasional rocket attacks from Gaza .
  
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  January 14, 2025 2:40pm
  - cmm
    
    Yup, but the Israelis are generally well set up for that and there are few lives lost.
    
    From what I can see, it is safer for Israeli civilians to face Gazan and Huthi rocket threats than it is to drive on NZ roads.
    
    Where’s the TravelSafe advisory to stay off NZ roads?
    
    6 0
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    January 14, 2025 3:27pm
Swifty

I wonder who is paying for this guys legal representation (Mike Heron KC and Linda Clark)?

Us or him?

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360547197/top-cop-suspended-amid-criminal-investigation
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January 14, 2025 2:04pm
- David Garrett
  
  Swifty: A very good question…That team will be on something like $1,500 per hour between them. Note also that it is a criminal investigation, so the allegations are somewhat more serious than sexual harassment in the workplace.
  
  7 0
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  January 14, 2025 2:35pm
  - Blog-aholic
    
    That is only 333 hours of MBIE sitting and posture training……not a biggie //
    
    3 0
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    January 14, 2025 2:37pm
  - Swifty
    
    A well-connected little birdie has just written to me “Being naughty with his staff. Not criminal.”
    
    We shall see……
    
    2 0
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    January 14, 2025 3:41pm
    - MCōs
      
      As reported by the Porirua News before Christmas
      https://www.poriruanews.co.nz/2024/12/18/senior-police-officer-under-investigation-over-alleged-inappropriate-conduct/
      
      3 0
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      January 14, 2025 7:01pm
- AitchW
  
  Police union I imagine.
  
  2 0
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  January 14, 2025 2:57pm
- MCōs
  
  The NZ Police Association provides legal assistance to members who can be anyone employed by NZ Police.
  I’m not sure what ‘legal assistance’ means. I suppose it depends on the nature of the alleged offence.
  
  3 0
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  January 14, 2025 6:43pm
John Loveridge

I griped about the price of butter the other day. Apropos to that, I was wondering just how many butter producers there are in New Zealand. I mean, if you walk into the supermarket you can choose from a whole bunch of brands, but how many actual producers are there? Does everybody just buy from Fonterra, and stick their own wrappers on the same blocks?
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January 14, 2025 2:49pm
kevn

Good observations on the LA fire and the earlier poor response to firefighting needs….
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2025-01-13/los-angeles-burns-left-fiddles
2 1
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January 14, 2025 3:24pm
cmm

We saw a good example of plod doing some outstanding work in Bealey Ave earlier today.

Someone driving a (presumably) stolen car got tyres spiked and crashed. By the time we drove past a minute later there was a woman in cuffs lying on the road with either a terrible make up job or some minor injuries.

Good work cops!

The cost to society for this criminal scum is huge:
* At least 4 vehicles were badly damaged (I would guess at least two write-offs). Probably $70-80k.
* I am guessing there was more mayhem that I didn’t see. Maybe another $30k.
* There must have been at least 10 cops in attendance – most of whom will likely have the rest of the day and maybe tomorrow taken up in paperwork. So call that 7 cop-days of policing lost. Call that another $10k.
* More costs to follow (lawyers, judges, cops, …): $30k at least.

I really hope the crims involved get a good custodial sentence. Sure that costs us $120k a year, but they cost us more that in one day. Every day they’re off the streets is a win.
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January 14, 2025 3:39pm
- mandk
  
  The costs of crime are huge, and I think you have probably underestimated them in your example (especially the lawyer, judge, jury etc costs).
  
  The costs are something the crim-huggers on the left don’t care to acknowledge because doing so would reveal how good the benefit-cost balance of keeping people in prison really is.
  
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  January 14, 2025 3:47pm
  - cmm
    
    $120k per prisoner is obscene. That’s 5x the cost of providing the Super or almost twice the cost of putting someone in an aged care facility.
    
    There is no way it should cost even $20k.
    
    I would personally prefer to make it a non-argument by getting prisoners to pay their way (at least partially).
    
    Almost all prisoners are physically able to do manual tasks (if you can climb into a window to commit burglary you can plant cabbages). Get them to grow their own food, clean, construct prisons, do carpentry and factory work.
    
    On top of 30 hours work per week minimum, add another 20 hours per week of mandatory education.
    
    Apart from giving them some skills that would also reduce costs and tire them out a bit meaning they probably are less boreed and less likely to be stroppy and therefore need less management – reducing the supervision costs.
    
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    January 14, 2025 5:30pm
    - MCōs
      
      ‘$120k per prisoner is obscene.’
      Hence home detention where appropriate
      Since 2007 the District Court has been able to impose a sentence of home detention. Now about 3000 offenders a year are being sentenced to home detention.
      While there are costs involved it’s obviously far less of a drain on the taxpayer
      https://www.districtcourts.govt.nz/about-the-courts/j/home-detention-provides-real-alternative-to-prison/#:~:text=Since%202007%20the%20District%20Court,being%20sentenced%20to%20home%20detention.
      
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      January 14, 2025 6:19pm
      - cmm
        
        Where appropriate, yes.
        
        Unfortunately home D is overused allowing the criminals to continue with their activities.
        Out of control criminals cost us way more than incarcerating them.
        
        PS: Some woke court document is probably not really worth reading.
        
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        January 14, 2025 7:01pm
- cmm
  
  Here’s the Press’s write up of the incident.
  
  The vehicle was stolen from Breens Road – one street over from where I live. Breens Rd has a few KO baby factories. The Breens Rd KO houses are a little nest of crime that the cops need to work on a bit harder.
  
  https://www.thepress.co.nz/nz-news/360547626/stolen-car-munted-driver-crashes-while-fleeing-police
  
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  January 14, 2025 7:06pm
kevn

LA Fire Dept budgets…
https://x.com/shellenberger/status/1878171577336090996
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January 14, 2025 5:23pm

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