General Debate 01 February 2025

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Chuck Bird

I am very impressed with Trump’s Press Secretary.
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February 1, 2025 8:05am
- Gravelroad
  
  Girls can do anything.
  Blondes are not dumb.
  
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  February 1, 2025 8:14am
  - Ra Henare
    
    Age is not a barrier to doing a great job
    ie the youngest Press Secretary.
    
    Smart is smart
    
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    February 1, 2025 3:34pm
- igm
  
  Drastic improvement on the apparition Biden had telling his lies.
  
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  February 1, 2025 8:30am
- Steve Otto N Shore
  
  https://babylonbee.com/news/white-house-reporters-mystified-by-press-secretary-who-answers-questions?
  
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  February 1, 2025 9:18am
- cmm
  
  I was very impressed Karine Jean-Pierre.
  
  Yes, she lied to the people who were paying her salary – the US public.
  
  Even though Joe and Hunter made her life close to impossible, she somehow managed to keep lying for them for 2 and a half years straight.
  
  That’s impressive skill.
  
  Having a dark skin helped to hide her blushes, but every now and then that little hint of red came through.
  
  My little fetish: that strawberry-chocolate skin tone of a dark skinned woman blushing…
  
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  February 1, 2025 10:43am
  - cmm
    
    I am surprised people fail to be impressed by KJP.
    
    She elevated lying and gaslighting to an artform and height that even our Cindy could not reach.
    
    Of course I don’t approve of what she did in any way. I am just admiring her skill and tenacity.
    
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    February 1, 2025 5:29pm
- sungsamning
  
  You and me both. totally on top of her job.
  
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  February 1, 2025 11:34am
Scott

“The Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill passed its second and third readings in Parliament on Thursday.
The Crown apologised for its confiscation of Taranaki Maunga and 1.2 million acres of Māori land in 1865.
As part of the settlement the mountain will become a legal person jointly managed by iwi and the Crown and Egmont will cease to exist as an official name.”

The above came from the taxpayer funded Radio NZ who can be counted on to give the pro Maori view on all occasions, great and small.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/540431/taranaki-maunga-becomes-a-legal-person-as-treaty-settlement-passes-into-law

This is another example of the futility of appeasement. Egmont and Taranaki became joint names for the mountain in the province of Taranaki. This was the compromise. Now the name Egmont is consigned to history and the Maori negotiators boast it will pass away never to be known by the next generation.

The mountain has been given personhood which reflects the pagan animist world view where trees contain spirits and the river has a taniwha in it. Christianity, on which western civilisation is built, got rid of all that, the creator God is separate from his creation. So you can dam rivers to create hydro electricity because you don’t believe in taniwha any more.

The Crown has apologised for the land confiscation of 1865 and Paul Goldsmith will give a profound apology. This reflects a trend where modern people see themselves as more enlightened and superior to their ancestors.

Well the facts are that the Taranaki wars began in 1860 when maurading tribes people killed 4 innocent settlers on the road from Omata to New Plymouth.

The facts are that New Plymouth was besieged by Maori tribes in 1860 and many settlers died from sickness and privation. The women and children were evacuated by sea. Some of the women refused to go. They would prevail together or they would perish together.

That year a rag tag army of 3-400 settlers and a few regular troops advanced on a pa in Waitara and were soundly beaten. The Maori took their defeated foes jackets and other souvenirs and paraded them to the Waikato tribes. The young men of the Waikato demanded their chief let them go to Taranaki to fight, “for the honour of the iwi and the pleasure of killing the pakeha”.

Eventually the rebel tribes were defeated only after two Taranaki wars and land was then confiscated.
Why we are now apologising to the half caste descendants of the Taranaki tribes who have lived since 1865 in peace and enjoyed the rights and privileges of British subjects is a mystery to me?

But I’m obviously out of step with our parliamentary representatives who unanimously voted for it.
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February 1, 2025 8:06am
- Jake Dee
  
  As I have mentioned several times before, British common law recognizes corporations, trusts, charitable associations and many other entities as legal persons.
  Is that anti-Christian?
  
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  February 1, 2025 9:46am
  - cmm
    
    I think you are being disingenuous trying to bring the concept of “legal person” into this discussion – apparently as a way to normalise things.
    
    A “legal person” does not have all the rights of a “natural person”.
    
    For example, human rights do not apply to companies etc. I face no murder charge if I kill off a company.
    
    The intended status of Mt Egmont seems to be that of a “spritiual person” which would seem to be considered closer to a natural person than a legal person, thereby giving is “rights” closer to natural people rather than face-less corporations.
    
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    February 1, 2025 10:50am
    - Jake Dee
      
      No it is an exact parallel, the mountain is now a legal person a registered company is a legal person.
      Both are distinguished from natural born person.
      Where are you getting this stuff about “a spiritual person” from?
      but that’s not even my point, my point is that ALL societies have a bunch of non-scientific metaphysical woo-woo they believe in. British common law has it too. It can’t be proven scientifically, but society requires people to believe it or act as though they believe because they expect it will cause good results.
      Modern day lawyers and judges saying “It is the law and it must be done!” is functionally identical to ancient priests and shamen saying “It is the law and it must be done!”
      
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      February 1, 2025 11:20am
      - cmm
        
        Oh please.
        
        The Western concept of a person being a “legal person” is just there to make it easier to formulate laws (eg. to say that a company can enter into contracts, be sued, own assets etc).
        
        The Western concept of “legal person” does not assign human properties or rights to a company.
        
        I introduced the concept of a “spiritual person” because that is the way the mountain is being treated here – as a spiritual entity which has many human and spiritual features.
        
        The way mountains are treated by Maori is like the way Roman of Greek gods were treated 2000 years ago.
        
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        February 1, 2025 5:26pm
- David Garrett
  
  Scott: while I completely agree with ur sentiments about Mt Egmont – I was part of the group which Achieved the “Egmont/Taranaki” compromise in the 1980’s – with regard to the Land Wars I highly recommend you borrow and read the report of the Sim Royal Commission, published in 1927, from ur local library
  
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  February 1, 2025 10:04am
- lifesgood
  
  As far as I’m concerned a mountain is not a person. What sort of idiots do they think we are.? Only a moron would think that. And it will always be Mt Egmont to me. I’ve even climbed the B***ard…mighty hard work. It was Egmont when I climbed it so Egmont it will remain.
  
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  February 1, 2025 11:03am
- Terry Dalee
  
  Well, if that’s the case, the mountain can therefore be considered a PCBU. A person conducting a business or undertaking.
  
  No where in the proposed Bill does it say that the mountain is not defined as a PCBU. But it has been granted the same rights as a person.
  
  Therefore the mountain is liable under the Health and Safety Act 2015.
  It is liable for any death or injury on it. WorkSafe should be issuing it a notice to remedy. Or it should be investigated for involuntary manslaughter of all the people that have died on its slopes…
  
  You can’t have it both ways…
  
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  February 1, 2025 12:23pm
  - Rintintin
    
    Yes! but is it a person of-colour?
    
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    February 1, 2025 1:54pm
Grunter

A very good blog from Rodney.

Helen Clark is a great example of how the Lefties from 20 years ago have gone completely insane and deluded. She was never very good, but chanting “Nazi” at anyone she now disagrees with just shows how sick they have become.

https://www.bassettbrashandhide.com/post/rodney-hide-helen-clark-declares-elon-musk-a-nazi
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February 1, 2025 8:06am
- Dr John
  
  I suggest that Helen Clark go to Auckland airport and walk past the Novotel hotel to the international terminal.
  She will see a life sized statue of Jean Batten giving [shock horror] a Nazi salute!
  
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  February 1, 2025 9:55am
- In Vino Veritas
  
  Clark has been irrelevant for some time after bodging the UN job. She’s just trying to keep her profile front and center to make sure she can leech some money from everyone for her foundation.
  
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  February 1, 2025 10:17am
- PurplePen
  
  Why don’t the left establish their own global trillion dollar enterprise like X, or Apple, or Alphabet, or Tesla, or Facebook, or Intel, etc.
  
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  February 1, 2025 11:03am
- lifesgood
  
  Is Helen really that stupid? I always had a bit of admiration for her albeit not for any of her views but simply because she was a strong woman. Do you think the years are catching up with her and maybe she is losing the plot? There are countless photos on X of many other well known people, including Hilary Clinton, doing the so called Nazi salute, why pick on Elon?
  
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  February 1, 2025 11:09am
  - mandk
    
    And there are also photos of Jacinda Ardern making the far-right OK sign with thumb and forefinger.
    
    They are everywhere.
    
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    February 1, 2025 2:24pm
- JimBobJoe
  
  The mask has just slipped. Helen is back in her Princess Street Branch glory now she doesn’t have to play nice to get votes. Student politics was her starting point and she has returned there as she gets ready to shuffle off this mortal coil…
  
  Fabianism in action when Helen was running for office and power – don’t scare the voters and implement socialism by slow creeping degrees.
  
  The Left now think taking people with them and slowly, slowly Fabianism is no longer required as they have control of the Bureaucracy and Academia so they have shifted to full on Leninist tactics of constantly attacking any who stand in their way – and lying, screaming and accusing with no proof is 100% in accordance with that approach
  
  The goal is always revolution, the tactics are entirely situational and dishonesty is tolerated in advancing the goal…
  
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  February 1, 2025 11:28am
- septic skeptic
  
  I can’t see why the term “Nazi” can’t evolve from its Aryan superiority/anti Semitic roots. After all the term “racist” used to have very negative connotations. But now in modern day NZ a racist is simply someone who believes all humans have equal rights regardless of ethnicity.
  
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  February 1, 2025 11:43am
- Keith White
  
  Crazy Cat Lady syndrome – a lay person’s diagnosis.
  
  “Crazy cat-lady syndrome” is a term coined by news organizations to describe scientific findings that link the parasite Toxoplasma gondii to several mental illnesses in CCLs…”
  
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  February 1, 2025 1:13pm
Matt Long

Our new Energy and Local Government Minister’s climate change rort announcement is going down like a cup of cold sick.
24,000 views, 24 likes.
https://x.com/simonwatts_mp/status/1885066373308834215
The Taxpayer’s Union view on the dissonance between promoting economic growth and then doing things that ensure the opposite happens here.
https://x.com/TaxpayersUnion/status/1885116543824257171
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February 1, 2025 8:08am
- Matt Long
  
  More lessons for CINOs as Reform go four percentage points ahead of Labour in the UK, the “Conservatives” are two points behind Labour.
  “I tried but was blocked repeatedly by the Cabinet.
  
  Every one of us in the Conservative Party has only one thing to say about our record on immigration: Sorry.”
  https://x.com/SuellaBraverman/status/1885081262928310329
  (In the context of predictions that Britain will shortly become the first Nuclear Islamist State in Europe.)
  
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  February 1, 2025 8:13am
  - Gravelroad
    
    The British Conservative Party is not conservative.
    When a political party completely loses its reason for being it is not surprising that it’s traditional support melts away.
    National?
    
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    February 1, 2025 8:32am
    - Mark Hanley
      
      “In total over four years, through both the mini Budget and Budget 2024, the government has redirected $2.4 billion in previously ring-fenced climate spending into other spending”
      
      Becoming a climate change outlier will provide damaging fodder to NZs competition.
      
      Adopting targets then finding the least cost method of achieving them is politically astute and financially better for NZ.
      
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      February 1, 2025 9:06am
      - Quail
        
        MH ,
        And where has this “petrol tax” etc been redirected to ?
        Treaty settlements?
        
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        February 1, 2025 11:20am
      - Mark Hanley
        
        Tax Cuts!
        
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        February 1, 2025 2:13pm
  - kowtow
    
    It’s not as if they weren’t put on notice .
    Powell’s speech was 1968.
    
    ( and that wasn’t just about immigration , it was actually about Labour’s Race Relations Bill which would create different ways of treating people under the law)
    
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    February 1, 2025 8:37am
    - slijmbal
      
      As a pom who grew up in the 60s I can say Powell was wrong about the then effects of immigration. We had immigrants who came to the UK, brought their culture with them but didn’t attempt to impose their way of life and would mainly integrate. Generally, their children were as British as me. He got (a lot of) his way with the immigration/right of abode in the 1968 law changes, which greatly reduced the pool of Commonwealth citizens who could abode in the UK. It was potentially a very large number. I also felt he was wrongly accused of being racist but history does show he was wrong to target Indian, Caribbean and even the then Pakistani immigrants. Typical Pakistani immigrants in the 40s, 50s and 60s were not the Muslim fundamentalist types were see much more commonly now. There weren’t serious immigrant related problems in the UK until much later.
      
      It is a more relatively recent trend for immigrants to behave differently. We had the unfettered EU immigration (mainly for work), vastly greater immigration from Muslim theocratic countries or unsuitable ‘asylum seekers’. We have also seen a general increase in Muslim fundamentalism everywhere. While I truly don’t care what fictional entity people believe in I find myself increasingly antagonistic to Islam because of its pernicious effects on western society imported via its more fundamentalist proponents.
      
      Powell lost the war as British immigration more recently (last 20 plus years) is resulting in the effects he railed against.
      
      Hopefully, NZ can learn from other countries’ immigration mistakes. Not all immigrants are created equal.
      
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      February 1, 2025 11:58am
- kowtow
  
  Jones talks a big game against the banks cancelling fossil fuel accounts .Talks up mining and wealth .
  
  Good on Ryan Bridges yesterday calling out his party who we must all remember put Ardern in power , and when in power as Bridges reported , was fully onside all the climate hocus pocus.
  
  What must be remembered in all of this is that the whole of the political establishment is onside with this scam . It’s just a question of degree .
  
  We don’t need “better managers” , we need Disruptors , who like Trump , Farage and others actually mean to implement common sense , rational and pro people policies .
  
  Not all this quasi and neo Marxist climate claptrap the Establishment all engage in , no matter how much they may bluster and blither to appear to their idiot supporters to be Hard Men , Jones and Peters in particular .
  
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  February 1, 2025 8:21am
  - AitchW
    
    Who could forget Peters’ “capitalism has failed” speech when apparently justifying his unforgivable decision to support the abysmal Ardern?
    If ever you wanted an example of running with the hare and hunting with the hounds you really could not do better.
    
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    February 1, 2025 1:56pm
- Tomtoddy
  
  This is unbelievable. What is Luxon thinking about? I am pissed off in a big way. They were not voted in to carry out this ridiculous crap.
  
  They have just kicked farmers right in the teeth. They are a worse than Ardern, Shaw and other green numbskulls.
  
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  February 1, 2025 8:28am
  - pdm
    
    What worries me is that Simon Watts is now Local Government Minister.
    
    Councils will walk all over him too based on this.
    
    More 20% plus rates increases coming your way in 2025.
    
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    February 1, 2025 8:49am
  - Quail
    
    TT
    Nationals history has been one of adopting and promoting Labours worst policies .
    Think RMA and the associated loss of individual property rights.
    Now it is Carbon and it’s requisite targets.
    The farmers they are kicking are disappearing.Ie 70 million sheep is now 20 million.Farmer numbers and rural infrastructure decline is huge—- and yet National is now asking for growth in agriculture. Asking for help from the same declining industry governments have regulated out of business??
    
    They are rejecting ,sorry spiking ,their partner Act’s attempt to have a country that has one law for all.
    A referendum on that would be revealing!
    
    It is time Nationals policies actually. represented the beliefs that New Zealanders who live in and care for this country have!
    And that they have the courage to implement these new policies.
    
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    February 1, 2025 10:05am
    - septic skeptic
      
      Alternatively, it’s time people with those beliefs stopped voting National as the lesser of evils or to keep Labour out.
      
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      February 1, 2025 11:50am
  - greybeard
    
    I posted the following on this blog early last year:
    
    “I would like to see the following: a new Political Party on the Centre-Right dedicated to promoting the interests, aspirations and activities of the New Zealand Rural sector.
    
    The people generally known by the rest of us as “farmers”, in all of their various permutations.
    
    Add to these “farmers” the hundreds of thousands of other rural workers, horticulturalists, vintners, market gardeners, orchardists, transport operators, rural delivery contractors, many and varied rural and farm contractors, shearers, vets, stock & station companies & agents, motor vehicle dealers, fuel suppliers, fertiliser suppliers, fencing suppliers etc etc.
    And all of their families.
    
    Get all of those people together and there could be a new political party before 2026:
    “The Country Party” – I like the sound of that.”
    
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    February 1, 2025 10:28am
    - Gravelroad
      
      Don’t we have a Minister for the South Island now?
      What is the purpose of that ministry?
      What he supposed to be achieving?
      Appeasement?
      The reality is that much (most) of today’s ag land use is in the hands of multi- national companies- eg grape growing, wine production, forestry, dairying – and the Maori corporations eg Ngai Tahu.
      Ngai Tahu owns a lot of dairy farms in the South Island.
      Debatable that there would be enough individuals to make up a viable country party.
      We, as what you might describe as traditional land owning family farmers, are now the outliers.
      
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      February 1, 2025 10:58am
      - pdm
        
        Gravel the SI Minister is `flat knacker’ at the moment leading the Justice Select Committee through the Treaty Principles Bill.
        
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        February 1, 2025 11:17am
      - G the giant from Dunedin
        
        There will never be a country party, or a farming party, it has been muted many times, but farmers are too busy to even think about it.
        
        I know I will be trounced with down votes but I don’t care, farmers will not be bothered with starting up parties
        
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        February 1, 2025 12:30pm
      - Quail
        
        Gravel,
        Absolutely right, and the accompanying change in land use ( and title to same ) is commensurate with a similar loss of supporting infrastructure. .
        Freezing works, wool brokers , stock firms , saleyards and even the local hotels are all disappearing.
        So a Country party now would likely be just another corporate party!
        
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        February 1, 2025 1:57pm
    - AitchW
      
      Surely ACT does that now?
      
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      February 1, 2025 1:57pm
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    No they haven’t, they have kicked the can down the road now by 5 years twice, it will never happen, problem is farmers have asked for a way forward, some guidelines, but by 2030 these will be pushed out further, or completely watered down as the time approaches
    
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    February 1, 2025 12:27pm
- Benedict Yu
  
  “Last night I announced New Zealand’s second international climate target under the Paris Agreement—reducing emissions by 51 to 55 per cent by 2035.”
  
  Why is this not headline news? The government has already conceded that we cannot meet the 2030 obligation…….
  
  “All countries signed up to the Paris Agreement have until the end of December to file Biennial Transparency Reports, sharing their progress with the international community.
  
  New Zealand’s was published on Wednesday.
  
  It said “the scale of emission reductions required to meet the [2030] target is greater than what can be achieved in an economically feasible way through domestic action alone”.
  
  https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/537178/government-s-first-paris-agreement-report-fails-to-address-how-it-plans-to-hit-targets
  
  Then you have Chris Luxon saying we need to be a “yes” nation and Shane Jones talking up mining.
  
  The government has just signed up for an astronomical bill. A fiscal bill of tens of billions and a brake on economic growth that will threaten New Zealand’s first would status in coming decades.
  
  Media coverage of all this.. Next to nil. Public awareness. Next to nil.
  
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  February 1, 2025 8:44am
  - Gravelroad
    
    If you keep the people in the dark they won’t ask any awkward questions or challenge the narrative.
    The msm here is well on board with the climate change programme- no matter which government is facilitating.
    It is not cool that climate based taxes here will be increased to help maintain the businesses in China and India.
    And our nation’s productivity (especially land use based) will continue to decline.
    In the eyes of the green managed and influenced msm, that is a good outcome
    Personally I have given my traditional electoral choice support and the benefit of the doubt since their election.
    Sadly that is coming to an end.
    
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    February 1, 2025 8:58am
    - pdm
      
      Your last couple of sentences are interesting Gravel.
      
      Earlier this morning I asked this question over at No Minister.
      https://nominister.wordpress.com/2025/02/01/how-many-national-party-members-are-resigning/
      
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      February 1, 2025 9:06am
      - Mark Hanley
        
        Hi pdm, your sources are exemplinary.
        
        It’s definitely not Labour spin doctors and misguided ACT zealots going on kiwiblog amd facebook using the tired old
        
        “I used to be a National supporter but…..” line.
        
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        February 1, 2025 9:12am
      - Yvette
        
        How Many National Party Members Are Resigning?
        Maybe not in droves or an avalanche but, at a steady rate mainly because of Christopher Luxon and Nationals refusal to support The Treaty Principles Bill.
        
        Which can evoke a further question –
        Did National (and NZF PMs) attempt at Cabinet stage to change, or improve, or even delete any portions of the Treaty Principles Bill, or did they just say “ACT’s Bill” and let it go to drafters – without National (and NZF PMs) doing their paid job of uplifting the nation?
        
        At least Willie Jackson has hidden the Response to 70 He Puapua Hui until he himself can edit it to suit his Cabinet colleagues of the time – except Willie ran out of time, before the last Election, so WTF is that report.
        Willie has set it aside on a shelf somewhere, ready for next time, but National could learn some things from it –
        and NZF a lot more.
        
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        February 1, 2025 9:21am
      - pdm
        
        Yvette the Bill was watered down and made more complicated from that originally put forward by ACT.
        
        I assume Cabinet had a hand in that.
        
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        February 1, 2025 11:19am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      Mark Hanley
      
      Yes you are correct about the same old tired bullshit. I have seen the messages from Act about how to attack Nats, what to say, and as you say the same old line, but it’s always the same old about 3 different phrases used, the very same three I was sent as I am still on their mailing list, people can screech there is no such texts, but facts tells us all we need to know
      
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      February 1, 2025 12:36pm
      - Mark Hanley
        
        Hi G. Are you able to post the ACT messages you received?
        
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        February 1, 2025 2:15pm
  - lastmanstanding
    
    The Elites and Virtue Signallers can afford Net Zero.
    I cant.
    
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    February 1, 2025 9:09am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      Have you seen anywhere in a budget that there is 30 billion set aside for this bullshit?
      
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      February 1, 2025 12:37pm
      - Benedict Yu
        
        What? You think it is not real?
        
        https://www.treasury.govt.nz/publications/climate-economic-fiscal-assessment/nga-korero-ahuarangi-me-te-ohanga-2023#foreword
        
        You think it will just go away? What are you actually suggesting?
        
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        February 1, 2025 3:28pm
  - Tom Hunter
    
    A Friday night news dump always means bad news. But will that still work in the age of rising social media and dying MSM?
    
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    February 1, 2025 9:35am
  - kowtow
    
    ‘Media coverage of all this’
    
    NZME business has a bigly story about Jones, the banks , fossil fuel industry and emissions today.
    Asks why shouldn’t banks not be allowed to cancel them , being the sunset industry they are .
    Sunset industry being a risk to the banks bottom line.
    
    Hahaha .
    
    Te legacy media are more of a sunset industry than oil gas and other mining.
    
    I’d love to see te legacy media business insiders rank themselves as the risk to their bankers ( and shareholders) that they actually are .
    
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    February 1, 2025 10:25am
    - imalwaysright
      
      Good point.
      The banks should be looking at the mortgages and loans owed by journalists. Especially now that the elephant in the room, negative equity, is starting to become a factor.
      
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      February 1, 2025 12:26pm
  - PurplePen
    
    Intrestingly, USA coal-to-gas switching has helped the US reduce greenhouse gas emissions over the last two decades, all while the population increases. Why can’t NZ do this. The Greens and fellow travelers don’t seem to cotton on to the idea that gas is good as a transition fuel, if you’re of the mind that we need to transition.
    
    https://www.eia.gov/environment/emissions/carbon/
    
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    February 1, 2025 11:12am
    - Handyman
      
      Gas is a transition fuel to nuclear.
      “Renewables” will be quirk of history, as future students learn that they did not magically renew themselves every 15 years.
      
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      February 1, 2025 11:58am
  - Mod88
    
    That simply had to be a Cabinet Decision. Act & NZ First are not exempt from this they are complicit. NZ is Toast, we just have more efficient wreckers in charge.
    
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    February 1, 2025 11:24am
- Grunter
  
  The only good thing about this is that now everyone can see that Luxon is truely a leftie. He’s not a centralist. This is an extreme left policy. No argument now.
  
  If this comes to being, NZ as a country will go bankrupt. There is no chance that this crap will not cause NZ to collapse.
  
  If I am wrong, please down tick me and then explain in detail where the billions $’s will come from to pay the carbon credits.
  
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  February 1, 2025 8:45am
- Steve Otto N Shore
  
  In 2021 Ardern and Shaw sowed the seeds for socialist National to work with.
  They signed NZ up to a climate change/emissions target of a net reduction in emissions of 50 percent (compared to 2005) by 2030, in Glasgow.
  This is not on the website yet so no link available. Email from Peter Williams substack extracts:
  “In short the Government has just locked in the Ardern/Shaw anti-farming legacy, and signed New Zealand up for a brand new (2035) commitment that will see thousands of dollars for every man, woman, and child sent overseas for climate credits.”
  “At the time, no meaningful economic analysis, public consultation, or debate occurred. In fact, the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment voiced their concerns saying “we are concerned that insufficient analysis has been undertaken to understand the fiscal and social impacts” of a 45 percent reduction target, let alone the 50 percent that Ardern and Shaw secretly agreed..”
  “the targets NZ signed up to include agricultural emissions (i.e. methane, or cow farts). Short of culling cows (and tanking New Zealand’s largest export industry), those emissions are impossible to avoid.”
  “It’s a dozen Dunedin Hospitals. Or 34 times larger than the total new spending allowance Nicola Willis has set for this year’s Government budget.”
  
  So Ardern’s destruction of NZ continues. If only the World knew of her bullshit.
  
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  February 1, 2025 9:50am
- Mr T
  
  Use the taxpayers format and voice your objection
  
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  February 1, 2025 1:50pm
dave_c_

Just read this morning that one school which provides lunches for the students, receive 500 lunches !
Do all schools feed every child – I thought it was only for those that do not / cannot bring their own lunch !
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February 1, 2025 8:14am
- PurplePen
  
  No. They decided to feed all as a way of avoiding those that don’t have their own lunches being stigmatised by those that do. Seems a rather expensive way to avoid that issue. Surely if teachers can inculcate children in all sorts of wokery, adding in how to not stigmatise must be within the teacher’s sphere of capability.
  
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  February 1, 2025 11:17am
- Handyman
  
  This episode shines a light on the leftwing mindset (which obviously includes teachers and media).
  The overriding commentary on TV and from teachers is “why would you make a change, producing a similar service just to save $130million?”
  
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  February 1, 2025 12:21pm
- Pineapple Lumps
  
  Dave C – some schools get lunches, not all. Those that get it all students are covered – otherwise it would make the ones who genuinely need it feel bad.
  
  Now it is just the taxpayers feeling bad and the ones who can feed their children are denied the satisfaction of providing.
  
  Another Marxist tool to break down the family unit under the guise of being kind!
  
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  February 1, 2025 12:53pm
  - Keith White
    
    This is weird. There are a lot of good reasons why bringing your lunches to school – or having cast-iron reasons why you don’t have lunch to show anyone else – makes you harden up and less of a softy as you grow older. No wonder we have so many snowflakes leaving school. On the weeks where dad was too inebriated to work at the factory, and mum was doing her best to put something together, our lunches were minimal but never non-existent. I did not think of it in those terms at the time, but I defended my mother’s honour by lying through my teeth e.g. “I ate my lunch at playtime”. When the household was relatively flush on funds, I would get sandwiches with Marmite – which I hated – and with honey. I would trade the Marmite for other things, which I like, although always at a disadvantage because it was a buyers’ market haha. I can’t see why it’s so bad to have to sign up for a lunch so that we don’t subsidise everybody, just the ones that have to be. As Pineapple L quoth – Marxism in practice.
    
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    February 1, 2025 1:18pm
  - AitchW
    
    Parents who want to give their kids lunch are still able to do so, it’s not compulsory to eat the lunches provided.
    I wonder if they provide a vegetarian option?
    
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    February 1, 2025 2:00pm
Yvette

Taranaki Maunga becomes a legal person as treaty settlement passes into law
summary –
New Zealand’s Parliament has granted legal personhood to Taranaki Maunga, now Te Kāhui Tupua, including its surrounding peaks and lands. This follows similar recognition for the Whanganui River and Te Urewera. Ownership of Egmont National Park is vested in Te Kāhui Tupua, with management by a trust board representing Taranaki Iwi and the government. The bill acknowledges the maunga’s cultural, spiritual, and ecological significance while also including a Crown apology for the 1865 confiscation of Taranaki lands. This redress seeks to restore the maunga’s status and ensure its protection in partnership with the Taranaki Iwi.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/thehouse/540549/the-maunga-owns-itself-taranaki-histories-and-apologies

Sofa and BBQ summit
Posted on January 18, 2011 by Alistair McAlpine
Mount Taranaki Speed Records barbeque BBQ summitA group of 25 climbers carried a couch and BBQ up North Ridge so they could relax in style on the summit. The barbecue was broken down into three pieces and tied to packs, while the couch had a backpack screwed to its base. The group spent 12 hours on the mountain, three of which were spent cooking sausages and relaxing at the summit. They then carried all the gear down again.
https://taranakispeedrecords.wordpress.com/2011/01/18/494/

BBQ on Mt Taranaki offends
Otago Daily Times
19 Jan 2011 — A group of Christian climbers who hauled a couch and barbecue to the top of Mt Taranaki for an “epic barbecue” have angered local Maori
https://www.odt.co.nz/news/national/bbq-mt-taranaki-offends

Which is the greater expression of faith? –
Enjoying life, or attempting to give life to a heap of rocks
But no more summit saussies and sofa – to avoid a sects incident

Anyhow: gazumped by – Fire and Emergency New Zealand | 23 Jan 2025 All of the Taranaki District has moved to a restricted fire season as of 9am Thursday 23 January, until further notice
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February 1, 2025 8:17am
- Rintintin
  
  I grew up on a farm in East Taranaki…stared at the Mountain every day…could see it from my bedroom window , the cowshed and the school windows.
  I can tell you that it is known far and wide by all as the “The Mountain” I can also tell you that it knows nothing of Pakeha, Maori, or their squabbles.
  It is just a pleasantly shaped pile of rock that never spoke to me but its slopes did show to me the passing of the seasons.
  I suspect it will still be there after Man and all his
  silliness are long gone.
  
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  February 1, 2025 10:43am
  - septic skeptic
    
    Maybe still there but very much transformed. It’s dormant. Not extinct!
    It could be up on more murder charges than Tarrant at some point!
    
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    February 1, 2025 11:55am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Did it send you a punami
    
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    February 1, 2025 12:39pm
- pdm
  
  `Anyhow: gazumped by – Fire and Emergency New Zealand | 23 Jan 2025 All of the Taranaki District has moved to a restricted fire season as of 9am Thursday 23 January, until further notice’
  
  Now that Mount Egmont/Taranaki is now a legal person does this mean it must obey the restricted fire ruling and not erupt?
  
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  February 1, 2025 11:54am
Matt Long

“Also NZFirst members bill that will remove the banking licence of any bank that tries to de-bank companies that the death cult doesn’t like.”
I haven’t forgotten that NZ First anointed Ardern, but they are at least saying some of the right things.
https://x.com/2ETEKA/status/1885158426679943626
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February 1, 2025 8:18am
- NK
  
  It’s a great shame, but not surprising, it’s not a Government bill.
  
  I would vote for NZ First on this alone (holding my nose).
  
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  February 1, 2025 8:21am
- Matt Long
  
  I also haven’t forgotten National made animism the official religion of New Zealand by first making the Urawera Forest, then the Wanganui River, and now Mount Egmont officially persons.
  https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/new-zealand-mount-taranaki-legal-person-rcna190124
  
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  February 1, 2025 8:21am
  - peterwn
    
    Who are the puppet masters? That is the big question.
    
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    February 1, 2025 8:28am
    - Steve Otto N Shore
      
      The Maori Elite are the puppeteers.
      
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      February 1, 2025 10:11am
      - imalwaysright
        
        Maoristocracy
        
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        February 1, 2025 12:30pm
- kowtow
  
  What we’re witnessing is NZF early campaigning for the 2026 GE .
  
  They see Act getting all the attention with the Principles Bill and as is NZF’s wont are desperate to redirect attention .
  
  It’s typical NZF stuff and sadly given MMP enough people fall for the trick and keep them at the trough and in our wallets.
  
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  February 1, 2025 8:32am
  - Ra Henare
    
    You may find that NZF bill to remove all references to Treaty Principles in legislation will be high on NZF agenda before/during 2026.
    
    NZF let the ACT straw horse Principles bill die in a ditch.
    
    Then mounted on a non racist white charger will appear to lead the people in to the promised land of no treaty principles in legislation.
    
    At the same time the Coalition is slowly changing the face of the TOW tribunal and removing its decaying radicals.
    
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    February 1, 2025 4:02pm
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  BNZ will never get government work now, let them rot in the vine, I am sure other banks will be happy to step up to the huge monetary gain by supporting this
  
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  February 1, 2025 12:41pm
- Keith White
  
  We should never forget that we would not have had Ardern without Peters. Needs to be on his tombstone.
  
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  February 1, 2025 1:19pm
Yvette

[ Mod – you have a tendency to post large chunks of cut/paste followed by short bits of analysis. Just post a link and a summary ]

An oral submission on the Treaty Principles Bill

1
But I believe that the debate on whether Maori ceded sovereignty to the British Crown is sublimated by a long list of subsequent acts (and laws) that hold New Zealand to be an independent sovereign state.

2
… if we accept this bicultural view of New Zealand citizenship; that the treaty indeed establishes a partnership between two out of many ethnic groups residing in the country, then what does this imply for the quarter of the population that is neither Maori nor Pakeha?

3
We have a choice. We can choose to remain a liberal democracy where everyone counts, or we can become an ethnocentric nation based on identity politics and riven by ethnic tensions.

Make no mistake; the current path where particular ethnicities are granted “partnership” status can only lead to the eventual appearance of more ethnic parties fighting it out for a seat at the table as has happened in other parts of the world.
https://www.bassettbrashandhide.com/post/ananish-chaudhuri-oral-submission-on-the-treaty-principles-bill

It would seem that what I believe were the salient points of this submission, is actually what is wrong with the Treaty itself, not the ACT / National Bill?
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February 1, 2025 8:27am
- PurplePen
  
  I’d rather see us carry on a one nation as we are, but what’s actually wrong with this:
  
  Those tribes that have their own land can make law or rules for their own and people that are on their own land, ie. govern on their own land. Nothing more. I’m assuming that’s the native north American model. Definitely no partnership tho. Outside their own land, it’s the status quo. And how they fund their operation on their own land is entirely up to them. Koha anyone?
  
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  February 1, 2025 11:24am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    That’s where it gets tricky. How long before they then decide a state highway going through those land and then decides we must pay them for use
    
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    February 1, 2025 12:43pm
  - Pineapple Lumps
    
    PurplePen – if you do that, can we just all have the same right to make our own laws on our own property?
    
    The closest we have to this would be communes like Gloriavale and Centrepoint. Usually the evil in these communities prey on the weak and the rule of law from outside is necessary to hold them to account.
    
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    February 1, 2025 12:59pm
    - Keith White
      
      Agree PL. I would like a stockade, turrets, cannon (or mortars, I’m open to persuasion) and a moat to block the political canvassers.
      
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      February 1, 2025 1:21pm
    - PurplePen
      
      I’m not suggesting that’s the way we go, but so what if they did. To a certain extent we should be able to do what we like on our own properties so long as it’s not abhorrent to society in general and doesn’t affect your neighbours.
      
      In a way I’d like to say, give them the ability to rule over their own land and people with the expectation that they’ll completely stuff it and their people up. No funding from the NZ taxpayer.
      
      And if the NZ govt wanted to put a road through and they wanted to charge an unreasonable amount, don’t build the road. I’m sure they’d be the worse off with their shingle roads, horses and carts.
      
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      February 1, 2025 3:08pm
- Keith White
  
  I for one appreciate Yvette’s informative fact-chunks. Let it be said.
  
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  February 1, 2025 5:20pm
igm

Seems Wanganui’s mayor has a very appropriate surname. His policies and statements of late ensure he being a one-term mayor!
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February 1, 2025 8:27am
- kowtow
  
  Talking of which Watts is our energy minister .
  
  How good is that.
  
  10 1
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  February 1, 2025 9:52am
  - Steve Otto N Shore
    
    He is only one Watt.//
    
    15 1
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    February 1, 2025 10:14am
    - peterwn
      
      No, Hugh Watt was the one watt electricity Minister. He retired from politics, got London and a few months later Rob Muldoon told him to resign and come back to NZ.
      National has had two watts in Parliament. The other was Jack Watts a Minister in the first National Government (and the ‘Watts’ in law firm Minter Ellison Rudd Watts).
      
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      February 1, 2025 1:58pm
      - kowtow
        
        Labour had a Kelvin , he was very low energy and thank goodness gone.
        
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        February 1, 2025 4:28pm
- Keith White
  
  He lied like a carpet to get votes and once he got the votes to get in, he turned apartheid-coat. Really he should be called Benedict Arnold not Tripe.
  
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  February 1, 2025 1:21pm
Yvette

If a heap of rocks in Taranaki can be given life, what of the Treaty, said to be a ‘living’ document, but showing no signs of life, as was said by the Maori King “There’s no principles, the Treaty is written. That’s it.” Dead, right

The US Constitution with 27 amendments shows more life. In fact the Constitution in itself is a more lively document, even if it does not allow the right to an abortion.
Like the Treaty – a slight abortion, lost in translation?
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February 1, 2025 8:36am
- PurplePen
  
  Someone else pointed out that we have other items that have the status of a legal entity such as trusts, companies, etc, so why not a lump of earth. Is the mountain just a legal entity or is it more legally akin to a human person, does it get to vote?
  
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  February 1, 2025 11:27am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  Why does this shit even matter, if it makes Māori happy to sign their final agreement who cares a fuck. They did the same with the Waikato river many years ago, has t made any difference to your life? But of course it’s all Luxon fault
  
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  February 1, 2025 12:45pm
  - Cassandra
    
    The Waikato is costing Auckland’s ratepayers a lot of money, as the tribe takes its pound of flesh. Water, oil and metaphors all mix.
    
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    February 1, 2025 2:19pm
    - JackRabbit
      
      You can have your pound of flesh, but not spill any blood, therefore you cannot have your pound of flesh.
      
      You can have your river, but not the water that flows all over the world. Therefore you cannot have your river.
      
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      February 1, 2025 3:13pm
Im Right

Luxon will be rolled end of this year/early next year….he is Labour light in drag.
Luckily Peters and Seymour are there to ensure he doesn’t just morph into a labour/green blob that would surely happen had National been the more majority party.
A disappointment he has been thus far, cannot see him changing anytime soon.
First rule of politics is you can’t please everyone….in trying to do so you please no one…and end up just pissing off your actual voters, of which I’m one (and I know not alone!)
Thank goodness for ACT, who will be getting 1 tick from me next election, the other NZ First.
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February 1, 2025 8:40am
- fightingtemeraire
  
  I voted Nat electorate ACT Pary at last election.
  
  Next election NZF electorate, ACT Party.
  
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  February 1, 2025 9:57am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    NZF will never win a seat, you may as well vote TPM, you hate Nats cause TPB, but NZF were even more opposed to that bill than Nats, great working out of your support
    
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    February 1, 2025 12:48pm
- David Garrett
  
  I’m right: right you may be but you don’t understand MMP…you only get ONE party vote…but perhaps you meant you would give ur party vote to one of the two, and vote for the other party’s candidate in ur electorate?
  
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  February 1, 2025 10:16am
  - cmm
    
    I am sure that is what he meant.
    
    After all so many people say “two ticks blue” or “two ticks Act”.
    
    Sometimes we don’t have a choice though… I didn’t have an Act candidate to vote for last election (perhaps they dropped the Act candidate to prevent vote splitting). Bit my tongue and noted for the National guy.
    
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    February 1, 2025 10:56am
    - PurplePen
      
      For the electorate I’ll vote for whichever candidate is not left that might be in a position to win, and if not, Labour, justto make sure the green candidate doesn’t get in. Party is always ACT at the moment.
      
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      February 1, 2025 11:30am
      - JackRabbit
        
        Labour, justto make sure the green candidate doesn’t get in. And that is how Labour won in 2020.
        
        4 1
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        February 1, 2025 3:15pm
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      Just look at the electorates that could be run if Nats NZF and Act worked together, Taieri was lost by just over 1000 votes, Nats have never ever had that seat, but NZF snd Act both could have gained a lot of votes and either seat for the first time. Also the seat Willis stood in had a large support for NZF but Willis lost by not too much, there are several other seats, but these seats can go either way if only they use their heads, I am convinced Labour went soft in Rongati to let Genter in, and they did it years ago Labour standing aside for Fitzsimmons and they stated they have never done a deal
      
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      February 1, 2025 12:53pm
  - pdm
    
    Read it again GD – probably needed a comma after ACT though.
    
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    February 1, 2025 11:58am
- Steve Otto N Shore
  
  It is looking very much like that if Luxon is not made to quit. He is not suited to be a Politician – just another socialist.
  Probably two ticks Act.
  
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  February 1, 2025 10:22am
  - imalwaysright
    
    I wouldn’t want Willis to replace him. Out of the frying pan and into the air fryer.
    Simeon Brown would make a good go of it.
    
    9 3
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    February 1, 2025 12:36pm
    - Steve Otto N Shore
      
      Simeon Brown will make his move when the time is right.
      I am thinking around Nov this year.
      
      6 4
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      February 1, 2025 3:18pm
- Jules99
  
  The thing that concerns me is that Luxon got in because many of those who voted for Jacinda last switched to Greens or National. Polls are not showing any uptick in NZF or ACT. Best outcome might be if Luxon can keep the left he picked up, NZF and ACT get a higher percentage to have more influence on policy. I just can’t see the electorate giving NZF or ACT a ruling vote.
  
  Last election my X friends were convinced that Winston would be our next PM. All feedback and online polls confirmed 60 – 70% favourable rating for Winston but he got exactly the result polls predicted. My X friends were listening to their own bubble and no one else. Indeed, they attacked those of us who tried to point it out, and so we stopped engaging, making the bubble even stronger.
  
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  February 1, 2025 11:06am
  - kiwikidsnz
    
    “Polls are not showing any uptick in NZF or ACT. ”
    
    Depends which poll you look at. The NZ MSM ignore Roy Morgan unless its favorable to their Left narrative
    “For the National-led Government there were increases for all three coalition parties led by National, up 2.5% points to 31% and joined by ACT, up 4% points to 13% and NZ First, up 1% point to 7.5%. This is the highest level of support for ACT since the 2023 New Zealand Election.”
    https://www.roymorgan.com/findings/9813-nz-national-voting-intention-december-2024
    
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    February 1, 2025 11:48am
  - septic skeptic
    
    At some point the right must make it’s case, win the argument and carry the country along. Can’t be done you say? Ask Musk and Trump!
    
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    February 1, 2025 12:02pm
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    That’s what he must do, these rehearsed attacks from from Acts keep saying the centre does not matter, but look in the last poll which I think was misleading being done at that time of year, shows the centre moving to Labour, instability with the TPB is creating it
    
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    February 1, 2025 12:56pm
- Ra Henare
  
  History tells us that Nat leaders get rolled when the party slumps in the Polls.
  
  So if polls keep low, then better than even money that:
  1. The PM changes his tune(like a good corporate manager would)
  2. He steps/aside gets rolled, like any good board would do to their CEO.
  
  To quote a famous Kiwi Advt.
  It might not happen overnight, but it will happen.
  
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  February 1, 2025 4:11pm
Bridgenag

Friday Funnies: Pinocchio’s Pocahontas
PharmaWhores in Congress

Very good videos

https://open.substack.com/pub/rwmalonemd/p/friday-funnies-pinocchios-pocahontas?r=1aj1bv&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
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February 1, 2025 8:42am
Bridgenag

Shout out to Piers Morgan
Bev Turner’s response to Piers Morgan telling Tucker Carlson about his “shame” at “lacking curiosity”…

“When presented with the opportunity denied to so many more worthwhile commentators, Piers Morgan’s arrogance is only outdone by his ignorance. Let’s see how many things he is still managing to get wrong after all this time in just one minute of condescending, insidious, vomit-inducing backtracking:”

https://open.substack.com/pub/metatron/p/shout-out-to-piers-morgan?r=1aj1bv&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
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February 1, 2025 8:42am
kowtow

Te Meedia Paahti really dimished / minimised / gaslighted the fact there were 5 Thai kidnapped by the Gazans .

I contend this was to fit in with their far left , extremist anti Israel stand that the outrages of 7 October were part of some sort of “resistence” / liberation movement .

Keep it simple , black and white . Israel Bad , Palestine Good .

Having poor , migrant worker Thais in the mix would stuff up their narrative.
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February 1, 2025 8:46am
- Swifty
  
  In some footage released immediately after Oct 7 I saw some jihadis standing around a bloke prone on the floor of some place, who looked south-east Asian, either Thai or Filipino, alive but clearly in a bad way, having his head removed by one of the jihadis with what looked like a garden hoe – one hack at a time.
  
  I guess if you are a domestic worker for an oppressor, that makes you a legitimate target, in their crazed minds.
  
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  February 1, 2025 9:59am
  - kowtow
    
    Where are our Greens , given all their hype about violence towards and rights for migrant workers .
    
    And women for that matter .Oct 7 was particularly anti women .
    
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    February 1, 2025 10:29am
Benedict Yu

Timely comments from the Samoa Director General of Health.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/540478/rfk-jr-s-comments-on-deadly-measles-outbreak-a-complete-lie-samoa-s-director-general-of-health

Kennedy is a liar and unfit for the office for which he has been nominated.

He lied about the Samoa measles disaster.

He refused to back down from his claim that vaccines cause autism.

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/4-takeaways-rfk-jr-senate-hearing/story?id=118213176

Anti vaxxers are usually limited in the damage they can cause. Of course they can harm or kill their children. (This is why New Zealand needs a law change to allow the state to intervene and have all children vaccinated.)

However in the case of Kennedy, we have an anti vaxxer, anti science fraud being considered for the Health Secretary. He can harm millions.
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February 1, 2025 8:48am
- wsk12345
  
  And he doubles down.
  
  [ Mod – personal abuse gets a bit boring. If you disagree with his position just say so and quit while you are ahead ]
  
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  February 1, 2025 8:56am
  - Keith White
    
    BY sez: This is why New Zealand needs a law change to allow the state to intervene and have all children vaccinated.
    
    Seriously – you want the government to decide what medical treatments you must have? Oh wait, yes, that’s exactly what Ardern did.
    
    Peace crimes trials will come for this… too many dead and damaged to ignore for too much longer.
    
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    February 1, 2025 1:24pm
    - Benedict Yu
      
      No I want a law change to protect children from stupid parents.
      
      BTW contrary to your suggestion, I do not need a medical degree to know that vaccines are safe. I just need a functioning brain. Nice try though.
      
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      February 1, 2025 7:51pm
- NoFax
  
  No, the state has far too much power as is without thinking your children are actually the states.
  Also, perhaps the Samoan Director General of Health has a reason to shift blame. I didn’t read the ABC story as my starting point with all legacy media is that they are actively lying to me.
  
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  February 1, 2025 9:14am
- David Garrett
  
  The man refused to admit that the supposed link between MMR vaccine and autism has been thoroughly debunked. He is indeed unfit for office
  
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  February 1, 2025 9:43am
  - MCōs
    
    Furthermore Kennedy claimed that the kids killed by measles may have actually been killed by the vaccine. Forgetting that they hadn’t actually been vaccinated.
    Two kids had been killed by contaminated vaccines, but that was a year previously
    Here’s quite a lengthy article about the whole unfortunate episode
    It’s by NBC so I suppose that means it might be treated with some skepticism on this forum
    https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/rfk-jr-samoa-measles-vaccine-crisis-rcna187787
    
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    February 1, 2025 11:18am
  - wsk12345
    
    You only think that because big Pharma a the media says so. Just wait till Kennedy looks at this more closely – I’d bet that there is a strong link given that most cases of autism involve sudden loss of milestones previously achieved. Food or pesticides or plastics are not that surden in impact.
    
    I’m surprised after the last few years of open lies that people are not more skeptical of what big Pharma and the media feed us.
    
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    February 1, 2025 3:53pm
- Jake Dee
  
  In regards to RFK Jr I recommend this new piece by Matt Taibbi
  https://www.racket.news/p/about-those-onesies
  Taibbi is a dissident journalist, former Democrat and was one of the key figures in “The Twitter Files” expose. He has been sticking it to powerful entities for years and is one of the most interesting political writers on the internet. He has framed this latest piece as an open letter to Senator Bernie Sanders.
  Just a little taste
  “You and Mr. Kennedy were both cited by one of the leading government-partnered “anti-disinformation” groups during the pandemic, the Stanford-based “Virality Project.”
  The Virality Project was the successor organization to Stanford’s Election Integrity Partnership, which ostensibly focused on election misinformation in 2020 and partnered with the Departments of State and Homeland Security. The second project focused on Covid-19 “disinformation” and partnered with the Office of the Surgeon General (OSG) and the CDC”.
  RFK Jr has been the target of a powerful disinformation campaign (perception management psyop) for years. That has to be taken into consideration when judging any statement made about him.
  As for myself, I am sure he has made many mistakes, he has certainly been around the block, but specific claims need specific evidence. However I think that the general thrust of his Presidential campaign was correct and many of his claims are undeniably correct. I’m not exactly sure if the USA is THE sickest nation in the world because I’m not sure how that can be exactly measured, but it is certainly VERY sick, as is the rest of the modern world.
  Here is one little fact that I found rather amazing,
  Iatrogenic deaths (deaths caused by doctors or medicine) are at least 250,000 people a year in the USA alone. If we were to include people killed by illegal narcotics that they got addicted to legally that number would be MUCH higher.
  All health care systems and the basic assumptions they rely on need to be checked, VERY carefully.
  
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  February 1, 2025 10:35am
- Pineapple Lumps
  
  [Mod – last warning to all, if these personal jabs, and abuse do not stop I will start banning people for them]
  
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  February 1, 2025 1:05pm
- JackRabbit
  
  Benedict,
  
  Rfk jnr probably has a point.
  
  Many vaccines contain toxic metals/chemicals. Items that we do not want in our food (Mercury, Aluminum), in even our cooking pans (Aluminum), in out teeth (Mercury), or in our buildings (Formaldehyde).
  
  We got rid of Lead decades ago and Mercury, Aluminum, and Formaldehyde are being phased out in situations where they can be absorbed into the human body.
  
  Yet you maintain, despite all the media attention on these products for decades, that these things are safe to be injected into young children. And that RFK Jnr is a liar for pointing out what doctors and concerned people have been pointing out for decades.
  
  How about you research and explain to us the effects of Aluminum, Mercury, and Formaldehyde on the body and brain, especially young childrens’ brains, before calling someone a liar.
  
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  February 1, 2025 3:28pm
- Ra Henare
  
  [Mod – just debate the issues]
  
  Lets look at policies (same as Trump) and get off the personal anathema bandwagon.
  
  As I see it.
  
  ALL departments of the US Government(and other western Governments) need disruption to stop the continuing slide of focus from the people/Voters to the bureaucrats wallets.
  
  The American population continue to slide down the healthiness scale at an alarming rate.
  Check obesity rates
  Check Mental problems with youth
  Check big pharma and big food, controlling regulation agencies and corrupting medical professionals.
  
  Personally, I don’t see RFKJnr as an anti-vaxer(such a simple, but idiotic label to throw around). You do know that his many children have been vaxed against measles and other challenges.
  You will have also seen him, under oath, at the Senate hearings declaring he is not Anti Vax. He supports vaccines(that are proven-like measles but not the Covid shots))
  
  So he has(in your view) some whacky ideas. Don’t we all???
  
  I see him as a health disrupter in changing the course of health in the USA.
  
  I look forward to a brave new world growing out of the USA. It will have its problems, but lets see the trajectory!!
  Will it remain in decline or change to an upward momentum for the better of all.
  
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  February 1, 2025 4:30pm
Sparrow

Reading Reuters this morning was surprised to see NZ mentioned. This is all above my pay grade and frankly holds little interest for me. Sorry to all the green folk out there. The article states that NZ has committed to reduce it’s carbon level to 51%_55% by 2035 instead of 2030 and zero by 2050. As I certainly won’t be around in 2050 and not sure about 2035 selfishly have little interest, but what I do have an immediate interest in is how much is this costing our economy and for what I understand is very very little positive impact on the environment, and is it even feasible to reach zero without returning to the stone age. Surely governments should be worried about the NOW.
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February 1, 2025 8:51am
- David Garrett
  
  Sparrow: our efforts are all meaningless. We could return to the stone age tomorrow and it wouldn’t make a blind bit of difference.
  
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  February 1, 2025 9:47am
  - NZer In Exile
    
    Yep there’s that big nail in the net zero coffin.
    
    Then there’s the fact that all climate related events (floods, fire burn acreage, cyclones etc etc) have reduced over the last century.
    
    Then there’s the fact that it has been at least as hot as now many many times in the recent and ancient past.
    
    Then there’s the fact there is no evidence that increasing Co2 levels drive earth’s climate to any significant degree. Quite the opposite.
    
    Then there’s the enormous propaganda effort by the alarmists and their woke media sycophants (including a massive smear machine that trashes any scientist that dares to point out the emperors obvious nakedness).
    
    Then there’s the fact that countries/states that have “invested” (haha) heavily in net zero are getting burned badly economically and increasingly face brownouts, blackouts, and capital/industry flight, third world style.
    
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    February 1, 2025 11:49am
- cmm
  
  The whole point is to wring your hands and feel like you just need to do something… anything…
  
  You switch to LED lightbulbs and Jimmy Shaw’s replacement can fly to conferences to tell them how bad you are.
  
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  February 1, 2025 11:00am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  It will continue to be kicked down the road unless the left get back in, why can people not see it, if labour were in these drastic things would have happened this year
  
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  February 1, 2025 12:59pm
- JackRabbit
  
  Getting rid of farmland and planting trees is a sure way of:
  
  [1] Never reaching “net zero”. Grass sinks between 5 and 7 times as much CO2 as full canopy trees. The only thing that give the illusion that trees are better than grass, is the grass that grows around trees, and the illusion of the mass of the trees.
  
  [2] The cost in money for carbon credits to plant trees will bankrupts the country.
  
  [3] The reduction in farming will lead to a reduced food supply, and an increase in GM farming, 3D printed food, and artificial food. All of which has a much higher carbon foot print.
  
  Mother nature and the intelligence that created nature had far more intelligence than the likes of the money hungry numpties and their puppet masters.
  
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  February 1, 2025 3:38pm
Tomtoddy

Anne Salmond gets a heap of coverage in the left wing media. With Dame in front of her name and a lot of articles she has influence among the unwary.

She has resorted to deceitful tactics in a recent contribution suggesting that any timid, mild steps to deregulate or privatise automatically lead to the most extreme and impossible outcomes. Misue of fear in arguments is an abomination.
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February 1, 2025 9:18am
Jack5

What use is AI?

Artificial intelligence is accelerating development of fruit-picking robots, and fairly soon farmer markets might be boasting of “hand-picked” apples.

Robot picking pioneering began in New Zealand six years ago at T&G Global orchards using machines from Abundant Robotics, of California, which seems to have shut down. T&G Global is majority owned by a German farming co-operative.

Robotics developers in Australia, Italy and Israel as well as America are among those progressing with equipment, and occasionally there are reports of NZ start-ups.

So far, reports the Wall Street Journal, a team of human pickers follows to pick fruit missed, sometimes hidden by branches.

However, the AI now analyses each picking and improves its accuracy.

Two approaches in actual picking are used for AI robot pickers. One uses cameras and analyses fruit by sight. The other uses robots made mainly of fabric and equipped with silicone fingers that softly test the hardness of apples.

Both use AI to improve their selection.

Results at an American “farming” robot developer:

https://advanced.farm/
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February 1, 2025 9:21am
- artemisia
  
  New Zealand is also well advanced in apple packing robotics, including exporting it.
  
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  February 1, 2025 10:31am
- cmm
  
  NZ has been looking into robotics for low skilled tasks since the late 1980s, especially in meat processing etc.
  
  The “AI” element moves low-power AI into the machinery to be able to do some of this improved decision making.
  
  One of the best ways to test fruit quality is using ultrasonics. The sound travels differently in the fruit as quality changes. The resulting signals are then fed into a neural net (aka AI) to determine fruit quality.
  
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  February 1, 2025 11:05am
  - Jack5
    
    NZ has been looking into robotics…especially in meat processing etc.
    
    That would be by Dunedin-based, international automation engineering company Scott Technology, now 53 per cent owned by the world’s biggest meat processor, JBS SA, of Brazil.
    
    It’s meat industry robotics using X-Ray and other vision technology is described here:
    
    https://scottautomation.com/en/products/meat
    
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    February 1, 2025 12:26pm
    - cmm
      
      Before Scott, there were people working at DSIR/IRL on this.
      
      From my understanding, many of the key players at IRL robotics ended up at Scott after IRL did the usual government thing of losing its way.
      
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      February 1, 2025 5:32pm
- JackRabbit
  
  @jack5
  
  What use is AI?
  
  I am disappointed with the marketing of AI, when it is not AI.
  
  AI is still just programming. Even if it can learn it does not make it “AI”.
  
  Your mobile phone, TV, radio, etc are constantly and intelligently altering circuit signals to adjust for signal strength, interference, frequency deviation, etc etc, so that you get crystal clear stable reception. And this has been happening for over a century. But we do not call it AI.
  
  Computers in some vehicles “learn” a drivers profile, adapting to the way a driver drives. That has been happening for years.
  
  Pick and Place machines have been loading parts on circuit boards since the late 1960’s, and they have got very very clever, but no-one calls them A.I.
  
  There are temperature controllers using PID that have been around for yonks that “learn” and modify output based on trends in order to achieve the ideal output. We don’t call them AI.
  
  AI is a term restricted to actual “intelligence” that is the ability to take a set of principles and make a definitive ethical decision on a new situation outside its programming, and unaffected by influencing factors. In a way programming, is sort of modeled on that, in that the programming consists of logical statements, rules and conditions.
  
  But a machine does not understand life, its meaning or value. And the rule sets are based on what is fed into it.
  
  It would be far more honest to say it is automation, no matter how clever it appears to minds that sit in awe at the machine doing its job. Minds that have never created or attempted to create anything of technical and computational complexity.
  
  These minds, not understanding how the automation works, gleefully call it AI. In the same that people of old called something wonderful they didn’t understand a “miracle”.
  
  Automation is loyal to its programming. Calling it AI is about as honest as calling a puppet a free man.
  
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  February 1, 2025 4:04pm
  - cmm
    
    JackR – your analysis here is not entirely correct and misses a few points.
    
    I have been working in the embedded systems space (ie designing things with computer chips in them) since 1984 and worked with AI on and off since about 1985.
    
    There is a place for non-AI and AI in control space.
    
    Non-AI techniques are sometimes called analytical techniques are where a programmer sits down and figures out the control algorithm, then writes computer code which explicitly executes that algorithm – and no other algorithm. A typical exmple of this is the commonly used PID control loop.
    
    AI techniques are different. Normally the program is split into two parts – the learning part (machine learning) and the deployment part (that executes the result).
    
    The machine learning part figures out an algoirithm by being exposed to training data in many thousand (and for more complex cases many millions) of iterations, tweaking the algorithm it is developing slightly each iteration until it meets some “good enough” criteria.
    
    In simple applications we generally prefer to use analytical approaches (eg. PID loops) for various reasons:
    1) they are relatively cheap to execute. A 10 cent CPU can execute millions of PID calculations a second.
    2) they are easy to analyse and confirm that they will always do the right thing.
    3) they don’t need huge amounts of training data etc.
    4) there are many simple tools which will generate reference PID code.
    
    On the other hand, AI methods (typically neural nets):
    1) Require far more execution resources. Instead of a 10 cent chip you probably need a $1 chip which can only do thousands of computations a second.
    2) There is no way to analyse them (well not to the same depth), so it is difficult to know what they will do with novel inputs.
    3) They take many, many training cycles and need a lot of training data.
    
    So why even bother with AI then? Well it provides us with a way to control systems we have struggled with before.
    
    You mentioned tracking radio signals (something I work with often). A typical way to do that is with a Costas Loop (a variant of a PID loop) which can be done in around 10 lines of code.
    
    That works great on a very clean radio signal. However Costas Loops can perform poorly when the radio signal has been bouncing off buildings etc which makes the radio waves very messy.
    
    This is an area where AI-based methods shine. They are typically better at determining good tracking information from messy data (if well trained).
    
    You are 100% correct it is not really “intelligence”. AI is just pattern matching: If it see something that matches X bits, it spit out Y bits. It has no understanding of what it is doing. It has no concept of morality, self preservation or any such concpets that govern our intelligent thought.
    
    It really is not intelligence at all – just pattern matching.
    
    The biggest fear with AI is that there is no real way to work out what it has learned. If you teach a car to drive from video, then there is no way to tell what it might do with strange inputs. For example, it could swerve right if it sees 2 blue triangles. You never know.
    
    One of the leaders in embedded AI is Edge Impulse: https://edgeimpulse.com/case-studies
    
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    February 1, 2025 6:18pm
    - JackRabbit
      
      The machine learning part figures out an algoirithm by being exposed to training data in many thousand (and for more complex cases many millions) of iterations, tweaking the algorithm it is developing slightly each iteration until it meets some “good enough” criteria.
      
      I too have been involved in analytics and the design of systems. I understand what you are saying, but the code / algorithm in the machine learning part does not write itself.
      
      You don’t just supply an empty chip, and let it grow code, interfaces and sensors. All learning is still controlled by base code, algorithms, boundaries, interfaces and sensors. And in order to make decisions it requires decision making capabilities. All that has to be programmed.
      
      The biggest fear with AI is that there is no real way to work out what it has learned.
      
      That may actually be the case if the chip maker has put in another hidden layer you can’t access, that is providing hidden directions. Sort of like the back doors that have been discovered in some chips that were “phoning home”.
      
      When building any system, we were always taught to first build (a) monitoring – to track what it is doing, and in your example, what it is doing/learning. (b) To build in safeguards and controls. (c) Feedback loops and control. (Cybernetics)
      
      Think of that AI as a child with an IQ of 368, and a photographic memory. You sit him down in front of a monitor and play videos non stop of what life on planet earth is about. He figures out nuclear fission, and starts to build it, but you don’t know if he is going to build a nuclear power station and solve the energy crisis, or a gigantic bomb to split the earth in two because mankind is so depraved.
      
      But we do know based on what input data we fed in, what is most likely to happen. The “not knowing” is in fact caused by forcing him to watch the videos holus bolus instead of educating the child in ethics.
      
      It is not the AI we need to fear; It is the idiots that build unconstrained systems and letting it loose.
      
      The Terminator movie was a warning about the dangers of AI. We have invented Skynet and given it the ability to learn and be sentient. What could possibly go wrong?
      
      People with troubled minds get enamoured with the idea of an artificial mind, that does not have the baggage they do. So they build a thinking machine that is flawed and influenced by their imperfect view of the world.
      
      And then there those who are evil, who will take advantage of the machines, and create something that will be the downfall of mankind.
      
      There are literally dozens of Movies and TV series that warn of that.
      
      And we are already witnessing the assault on planet earth, by evil, in the form of “AI”, used to spread untruths, censor free speech, on Covid/Vaccines, climate change, co-governance, wars, DEI, etc etc
      
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      February 2, 2025 12:16am
    - JackRabbit
      
      You mentioned tracking radio signals (something I work with often). A typical way to do that is with a Costas Loop (a variant of a PID loop) which can be done in around 10 lines of code.
      
      No cmm,
      
      While you are correct, I’m thinking even more basic than that: PLLs (Phased Locked Loops), AGC (automatic gain control) to mention a few that are built into the electronics, a subject I also have a lot to do with.
      
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      February 2, 2025 12:53pm
Gravelroad

I see that President Trump has asked federal employees to remove pronouns from email signatures.
Have found these signature additions puzzling since they first appeared.
What is the point of them?
I receive communications from a range of individuals and employees writing on behalf of groups, businesses and politicians.
When they sign off:
Nga Mihi,
Joe Bloggs he/him or she/her/they
I can’t help but wonder why they bother? And why they think I care about whether they are him/her/them.
A person writing from a government ministry, for example, is a stranger to me.
Their sexual orientation is irrelevant.
Why does the government here think I should know that about their employees?
Serious question.
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February 1, 2025 9:38am
- David Garrett
  
  Gravel: If I could afford not to deal with prospective clients who subscribe to this pronoun nonsense I would.
  
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  February 1, 2025 9:54am
  - cmm
    
    DG: Are they also pronouning in the Islands?
    
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    February 1, 2025 11:06am
- NoFax
  
  I like when people use the pronouns as it tells me this person is an idiot and I cannot trust him or her.
  
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  February 1, 2025 10:08am
  - Steve Otto N Shore
    
    That is how it works for me. Just conformation of a wanker.
    
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    February 1, 2025 10:52am
    - Steve Otto N Shore
      
      Confirmation*
      Typo.
      
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      February 1, 2025 11:19am
- rouppe
  
  The point was described as:
  
  Someone who is a Trans man may look like a woman, but want to be referred to as “he”.
  
  Similarly a Trans woman may look like a man (I’ve seen a few with beards and hairy legs) but want to be referred to as “she”.
  
  The even more rare examples among us may want to be referred to as “they”.
  
  Thing is, there are so few, that if only those people overtly stayed their preference for pronouns, that would be stigmatising (apparently).
  
  So the solution was to make everyone state their pronouns, so as to make the few feel like they aren’t any different, cause everyone’s doing it.
  
  So everyone was to follow one single script, in the name of diversity. And they never saw the irony.
  
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  February 1, 2025 10:14am
  - Gravelroad
    
    Ok.
    I could possibly understand it if I had an occasion to visit (as an example) an MP at Parliament.
    And the employee in the outer office introduced themselves as Jim Bloggs: “ but please refer to me as she/her. “
    But email traffic is different.
    I don’t care if Jim is a woman, or wants to be a woman. It is irrelevant to my visit.
    But they still feel the need to share that information anyway as part of a signature.
    Because?
    
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    February 1, 2025 10:36am
    - Ra Henare
      
      Its very simple. Those who use pronouns on emails are just wanting to “”fit in””.
      
      Same happens with kids at school. They all want to conform to the team/group/tribe.
      
      I well remember having to buy my youngest son a particular brand of shoes, even tho I had noname replicas. His bleat, But all the kids have xxxx. Name brand more expensive.
      
      yep I caved after days of grumpy whining.
      The power of wanting to belong is very very strong. Hence, all this gender/pronoun/Climate change hysteria.
      
      With The Donald getting rid of pronouns at the Federal level. That will give “”permission”” to the rest of the population to discard the stupidity.
      
      Hopefully the USA and other major nations not going along with Paris Accord hysteria will also filter thru.
      
      Give it a couple of years, and we may see NZ, adopting different ways of measuring emissions. (Politicians are sneaky buggars) to show us meeting our commitments
      
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      February 1, 2025 4:43pm
  - I remember when
    
    If I wanted to state my pronouns, I can see no reason why I ever would, and I decided on “Me/I” what would the result be?
    
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    February 1, 2025 10:45am
    - rouppe
      
      That became a bit of a thing. People wanting to identity as an F16 and be referred to as “the real deal” (or something).
      
      I worked in a govt department, but ignored the email directives. They didn’t care so much about ICT folk.
      
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      February 1, 2025 10:06pm
- Jake Dee
  
  Serious answer: it is status and allegiance signaling, just like how the old time clerics would write “by the grace of God”.
  
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  February 1, 2025 10:40am
  - imalwaysright
    
    Pronoun abusers are sending a passive aggressive message of where they stand politically and socially.
    When they are also public servants and dealing with a member of the public, they are effectively implying that any deviation from their political correct personal construct may be treated as hostile and the persons access to public services restricted or denied.
    Unacceptable .
    
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    February 1, 2025 12:57pm
- PurplePen
  
  I remember the first time that happened too. I thought, what an idiot. I don’t care what your sex is. If I receive an email from a Chris, I’m not sitting their wondering if they have a penis or an ovary, it’s irrelevant. And if I have to reply to them, there’s no cause to refer to them in the third person.
  
  The only time I would have cause to refer to them in the third person would be if I was writing to their boss or someone else about them, in which case if the sex wasn’t clear I’d just naturally use they.
  
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  February 1, 2025 11:40am
- JackRabbit
  
  It is my belief that when people sign off emails / letters with the DEI garbage, it is because they are not comfortable with who they are.
  
  Not Joe Bloggs. Nothing else. The buck stops here. I am accountable for what I have written
  
  Even though they are not conscious of it, they feel more comfortable hiding behind some kind of veneer or mask.
  
  Same as when Maoris give their Iwi. Unconsciously they feel defined by their Iwi as if they themself cannot rise to respectability without it. It is also very tribal and aggressive.
  
  On Star Trek, the Klingons, a brutal and tribal race somewhat not unlike the Maori, identified also by their family. “Worf, Son of Moog”
  
  And then you have the characterisation of communism / indoctrination. “Seven of Nine, Tertiary Adjunct of Unimatrix 01”
  
  The Borg, slaves, all ruled over by a Borg Queen. A lot of similarities with the “sole source of truth” queen we had.
  
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  February 1, 2025 4:20pm
AitchW

Where is the report into the Maori Party and Waiparera Trust driven corruption at Manurewa Marae?
It was to be released in late January was it not?
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February 1, 2025 9:42am
- Ghost
  
  https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/news/national/manurewa-marae-inquiry-findings-delayed-hours-after-press-conference-called/
  
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  February 1, 2025 9:49am
  - AitchW
    
    Thanks Ghost. One can only assume from the successive delays in the release of the report that it will incriminate and or criticise some powerful and influential people with deep pockets to fund legal action.
    We’ll need popcorn. Lots of popcorn.
    
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    February 1, 2025 10:14am
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      Someone (or some folks) must have brought in some very heavy legal hitters.
      
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      February 1, 2025 10:24am
      - kowtow
        
        I heard somewhere in media land that that Tamihere guy is very fond of litigation , the media world knows that and has become quite gunshy as it were.
        
        So much for their sacred duty to hold power to account.
        
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        February 1, 2025 10:32am
      - DimChappie
        
        I msged Allan Halse, whistleblower advocate, and he says:
        
        “This delay is a real mystery to us, David (my facebook alias). It’s is critical that our whistleblowers are validated (I’ve seen the initial evidence) because we are sitting on more whistleblower cases in public service and local government.
        The taxpayers and ratepayers will be horrified if they see 25% of what we’ve got a record of.
        We need access to media and we’re exceptionally lucky that Andrea Vance wanted the Manurewa Marae story.”
        
        I have emailed The Platform suggesting they get Allan on.
        
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        February 1, 2025 11:58pm
    - DimChappie
      
      This delay does not look good for the Public Service Commissioner. But I agree it suggests there are some damning findings in the report.
      
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      February 1, 2025 9:06pm
  - I remember when
    
    A stay of execution?
    
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    February 1, 2025 10:39am
Ghost

This is bizarre, the helicopter flew directly at the plane crashing into it. It seems strange that he didn’t see that plane

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTgUrfQsOnA
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February 1, 2025 9:43am
- Ian Boag
  
  It’s not bizarre. Depending on the angle of approach, there would have been very little time to see/act on things. This was an unthinkable situation (helicopter in the descent path) plus it was at night with city lights all around etc. I think the investigation will conclude something along the lines of “the helicopter was in a place it should not have been” and the conclusion will be something like “pilots should make sure they are where they should be in the sky and should also keep a good lookout”. The helicopter maybe had ADSB turned off or the jet’s pilot might have seen it. Ditto for the helicopter.
  
  But it would have all happened so quickly …. I very much doubt that the controller can be blamed for any of it. The “diversity hire” thing is rubbish – controllers all go through a couple of years of pretty intensive training ….
  
  A jet on final is pretty sluggish manoevring – flaps down, power reduced, pilot concentrating on the landing and all that.
  
  We will get the results of the enquiry in a year or so because that’s how long these things take ….
  
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  February 1, 2025 10:24am
  - Taieri
    
    controllers all go through a couple of years of pretty intensive training
    —————-
    
    So apparently do the people that convert surface navy ships into submarines…
    
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    February 1, 2025 11:45am
    - Nobby2
      
      A good insight T. I can’t wait to see who and how many are going to face a Court Martial.
      
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      February 1, 2025 2:45pm
  - greybeard
    
    It is more likely that the jet was in a position it would not normally have been, as it had a change of runway just minutes before the crash. Would the helicopter pilot have known of that change ?
    
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    February 1, 2025 12:25pm
  - Ra Henare
    
    Ian,
    I have come across a DEI hire as an air traffic controller.
    Made it all the way to my local tower as controller.
    Nice personality but not up to the job.
    Never did understand how they/he/she/it passed all the tests and assessments OTHER than being DEI.
    
    Only got removed after an avalanche of complaints from pilots!!
    
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    February 1, 2025 4:49pm
  - kevn
    
    iboag… Another vid.
    https://x.com/MattWallace888/status/1885074726113927313
    
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    February 1, 2025 6:17pm
- rouppe
  
  The plane isn’t hovering.
  
  It was travelling at say 125-150mph at an acute angle to the helicopter. A blackhawk has a cruising speed of 170mph.
  
  So pretty much until impact, they are not in each other’s direct line of sight.
  
  The plane pilots would have been concentrating on their approach. The helicopter pilots… Well I guess we’ll find out. But with the pilot having 1000 hours experience, and the copilot 500 hours, they weren’t chumps.
  
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  February 1, 2025 10:29am
  - Ra Henare
    
    1000 hours and 500 hours. Maybe not chumps. But certainly would not fall in to the category of very experienced.
    
    I have a Pilot friend who refused a Promotion to Captain on 737s with Lufthansa with 1500 hours under her belt.
    
    Reason. She didn’t want a low hour copilot (300-600 hours with her in the urgent decision-making mode.
    
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    February 1, 2025 4:53pm
    - rouppe
      
      Curious.
      
      1. Presumably she was a low hour copilot when she started, and someone mentored her.
      2. How many urgent decision making events are there in say a year’s flying?
      
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      February 1, 2025 10:11pm
      - Ra Henare
        
        Her mentors would have been Captains with many thousands of hours flying time over a number of years and aircraft types.
        
        Urgent decisions in a year. From my experience many 100s…at least 2 or 3 a week!!
        
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        February 2, 2025 6:47am
- All_on_Red
  
  Maybe a couple of reasons
  Background lights and seeing a plane from the side can obscure its navigation lighting
  When helicopters climb while going forward, they climb with the nose down so they may not have seen it as they flew up into it
  It seems they were too high anyway (?) and I would have thought ATC would have seen them on radar and stopped them but I guess we have to wait for that to be determined
  It does seem crazy
  
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  February 1, 2025 10:35am
  - All_on_Red
    
    On the DEI issue,
    It seems that what was happening was that qualified and experienced applicants were being turned down as the FAA tried to fill the quotas it had been told to fill with DEI applicants.
    We saw this come out recently in LA where white applicants for the Fire Dept had to wait many years to get in because they were told to hire different ‘types’ of people ie Black women.
    Its notable that Reagan Airport was supposed to have 30 Controllers and only had 19. The guy controlling the Helicopters had been sent home because of long shifts.
    The whole organisation was massively understaffed.
    ‘In 2013, the FAA started using a “biographical assessment” to increase the hiring of preferred minority racial groups at air traffic control centers. The assessment asked applicants about their participation in school sports and the age at which they started earning money.
    
    The assessment disqualified more experienced, qualified applicants, many of whom were Air Traffic Collegiate Training graduates or had other critical experience, such as a pilot’s license.
    
    More than 3,000 rejected applicants filed a lawsuit claiming discrimination. The FAA dropped the biographical assessment in 2018 after Congress enacted a law banning its use.
    
    As late as last year, the FAA was recruiting those with targeted disabilities, including “hearing, vision, missing extremities, partial paralysis, complete paralysis, epilepsy, severe intellectual disability, psychiatric disability and dwarfism.” The recruitment began during the Obama administration and appears to have continued through Mr. Trump’s first term and into Mr. Biden’s presidency.’
    https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2025/jan/30/faa-diversity-hiring-practices-scrutiny-long-air-d/
    
    Could the focus on DEI recruitment have caused understaffing?
    Could the understaffing on the night of the accident have contributed to the accident?
    Whatever, its a terrible accident with such a loss of life.
    And Trump should have said nothing about it. Dumb and inappropriate comments
    Lastly, what were they thinking routing Helicopters or any aircraft across a flight descent path…
    
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    February 1, 2025 11:04am
    - Steve Otto N Shore
      
      The DEI rubbish is just another attack on Trump. Predictable.
      
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      February 1, 2025 11:13am
    - All_on_Red
      
      The previous week Trump said this;
      “I hereby order the Secretary of Transportation and the Federal Aviation Administrator to immediately return to non-discriminatory, merit-based hiring, as required by law,” the order said. “All so-called DEI initiatives, including all dangerous preferencing policies or practices, shall immediately be rescinded in favor of hiring, promoting, and otherwise treating employees on the basis of individual capability, competence, achievement, and dedication.”
      https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/airline-news/2025/01/27/trump-federal-aviation-administration-dei-hiring/77973466007/
      All of that aside, personally I think the theory that the Helicopter had wrongly identified which Jet they were supposed to look out for and then flew into the one they didn’t see seems plausible.
      
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      February 1, 2025 11:35am
  - newview
    
    AoR. Why is everyone looking at the VFR. The Black hawk is a sophisticated military aircraft. I would have thought through the radar systems on it no aircraft could be on a collision course with it without them knowing. Just saying.
    
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    February 1, 2025 12:13pm
    - All_on_Red
      
      Agree, it should have TCAS and that should have warned them- so should the Jet
      Although when you listen to the audio the Blackhawks Pilots asked for approval of visual separation
      I think they did that because they also said they had it in sight, but obviously didnt.
      But the warning from TCAS should still have gone off…
      https://nbaa.org/aircraft-operations/communications-navigation-surveillance-cns/tcas/
      
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      February 1, 2025 12:58pm
    - Terry Dalee
      
      TCAS Resolution Advisories (RA) are inhibited below 1500 ft AGL depending on the fitout to reduce nuisance alerts. This is the “CLIMB, CLIMB” or “DESCEND, DESCEND” alerts
      
      You get TCAS Traffic Advisories (TA) but all they do is alert you to the presence of traffic. It is still up to each pilot to visually acquire the traffic with the TCAS display only to assist in this. All you get is “TRAFFIC, TRAFFIC”.
      
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      February 1, 2025 3:13pm
  - Ra Henare
    
    All on. Correct. Night flying in that environment is sorta like flying thru a big hall with xmas lights, spot lights and strobes all firing at once.
    
    That is why procedural flying is so important.
    Depending on visual separation/identification is useless.
    
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    February 1, 2025 4:57pm
- Steve Otto N Shore
  
  Here is a good summary posted by thirteenstars yesterday.
  The helicopter had a visual with a plane, but not the one he hit.
  I thought it was explained well.
  
  Here is Captain Steve with a summary opinion:
  Here’s a real commercial pilot giving a blow by blow of the ATC with graphics:
  
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfgllf1L9_4
  
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  February 1, 2025 11:11am
- Terry Dalee
  
  https://www.atsb.gov.au/publications/1991/limit_see_avoid
  
  The limitations of the “see and avoid” principle, which is fundamental in Visual Flight Rules.
  
  This problem is as old as when Wilbur said to Orville, lets both build a plane and go flying….
  
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  February 1, 2025 12:43pm
kowtow

There appears to be a much bigger backstory to the recent murder of US Border agent David Maland in Vermont.

But as usual as it does not fit the legacy media narrative , we’re not being told.
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February 1, 2025 9:49am
- Jake Dee
  
  Oh there is a huge backstory to that one and it is a VERY VERY strange one.
  The two perpetrators (one now dead) seem to be members of the “Zizian” cult, a radical off shoot of the San Francisco bay area “Rationalist” and “Effective Altruists”.
  It is one hell of a rabbit hole, proceed with extreme caution.
  I am not even joking about that.
  These are people who believe in “Info-hazards”, information that can literally drive you mad by just knowing about it, and there is some evidence to suggest they are right.
  
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  February 1, 2025 10:50am
Benedict Yu

The Samoan Director General is blameless. Kennedy refuses to even acknowledge that the children died from measles.

On the power of the state to protect children, are you suggesting that the current power be removed? You think that parents should be free to kill, injure, sicken or otherwise harm their children? We have a dedicated state agency that sadly intervenes every day to prevent children being harmed. I am simply suggesting that the law should be changed to treat anti vaxxer parents the same way in which we treat parents who bash their children.
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February 1, 2025 10:07am
- NoFax
  
  I assume this was a reply to me. The Samoan DG of Health is blameless? That’s impressive – the man tasked with securing the health of the country failed but it’s some outsider that’s to blame 100%. That stretches the bounds of credibility.
  Also, surely you see the difference between parents that beat their kids to death or near so and parents that chose not to vaccinate. I know you are super pro COVID vax but I think it’s rather obvious children don’t need it but you want to force kids to do so because the State knows best.
  Killing children is always and everywhere wrong but in other matters there are prudential factors to considered. The state is not infallible and granting powers to the state in matters that have factors to weigh only calls the state to intervene more and more into the family. What other decisions do you think the state should decide over the parents; bedtime as a good night sleep is important for health.
  
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  February 1, 2025 10:17am
- I remember when
  
  It would be a pity if MMR, and similar vaccines, clouded the need for greater oversight of safety of future vaccines.
  Also the overemphasis of the need for vaccination by companies for their financial gain.
  
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  February 1, 2025 10:28am
  - Benedict Yu
    
    The current oversight of vaccines, including of new vaccines, is perfectly fine.
    
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    February 1, 2025 12:49pm
    - Jake Dee
      
      There is no way that is true, quite part from the fact that it’s a black box that you have no access to,
      The current oversight of the political system is not perfectly fine.
      The current oversight of the financial system is not perfectly fine.
      The current oversight of the academic system is not perfectly fine.
      The current oversight of the scientific system is not perfectly fine.
      Any oversight of the vaccine system is downstream of all of those above.
      
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      February 1, 2025 12:58pm
    - JackRabbit
      
      Benedict, as was pointed out to me by several medical professionals in the employee of the govt, in early 2021, the mRNA vaccines completely bypassed the 10-17 year oversight process, and therefore no-one could know if they were safe and effective.
      
      And when as it was pointed out there were no excess deaths or risks from Covid19, and never has been, as the IFR is that of the common cold.
      
      If you are going to have standards and controls to regulate things, they have to apply to all, and decisions not made subjectively.
      
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      February 1, 2025 5:06pm
    - kevn
      
      BY… No.
      https://dailysceptic.org/2024/12/11/revealed-the-full-hidden-pfizer-report-that-shows-heart-conditions-in-the-vaccinated-getting-worse-over-time/
      
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      February 1, 2025 5:15pm
- Taieri
  
  The Samoan Director General is blameless.
  —————-
  
  So, who was in charge of the Samoan health system, Samoan DG or Kennedy?
  
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  February 1, 2025 11:47am
- JackRabbit
  
  @Benedict
  
  I am simply suggesting that the law should be changed to treat anti vaxxer parents the same way in which we treat parents who bash their children.
  
  All laws have to be based on justice that is bling and non discriminating.
  
  Based on that, and when the harm the mRNA vaccine has done finally gets shown sunlight in NZ, as it is overseas, can I assume that you will applaud parents and vaccinators been treated as if they have bashed a child for have forced injections?
  
  Can I also assume you will be happy when the leaders of the last govt are residing in Her Majesties prisons?
  
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  February 1, 2025 4:59pm
  - MCōs
    
    His Majesty — keep up
    Apart from that New Zealand prisons are not prefixed HM as they are in the UK and in isolated cases throughout Oz and a sprinkling of other commonwealth countries.
    
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    February 1, 2025 6:50pm
- Keith White
  
  If you follow down this course of action, you may find that the law will be changed to treat anybody who disagrees with the current government narrative – whether it’s vaccination, medication, lockdown, denial of education, denial of voting rights etc. – as if those people are beating and killing their children.
  
  Once that happens, everybody is both complicit and vulnerable.
  
  Are you really sure that this is what you want? Because just about the worst thing in life that can happen is if you get what you think you want, at the expense of other people.
  
  For my undeniable sins, over the years, I have been at the bedsides of many people dying. And I have to say – a lot of those people’s last regrets were that they thought they should have what they wanted, at the expense of other people. Especially but only their families, their spouses, their children, their colleagues. And it was too late
  for them when they realised that they were wrong.
  
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  February 1, 2025 5:26pm
I remember when

Outrage as Government ends cancer trial: Central Leader.
The Government has ended the 50+ Maori and Pacifica bowel cancer screening trial.
The articles states that for Maori 58% of female and 52% of male bowel cancer cases occur before 60 years of age.
This compares with 27% of female and 29% of male for non-Maori.
It mentions that the Waikato trial diagnosed six cases of cancer and numerous removals of precancerous polyps.

No suggestions are offered for the considerable difference in Maori/Pacifica and non-Maori results.
Or of whether better options exist for reducing the cases in all of the population and more especially Maori/Pacifica.
Is the 50+ screening option, while commendable, simply an ambulance at the bottom of the cliff?
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February 1, 2025 10:16am
- Keith White
  
  The “considerable difference’ is due to presenting in a timely fashion when symptoms appear. Once people present, they are treated/triaged in the order of severity of symptoms. If they present late, they are treated late. The best way to reduce the delayed treatment of this nasty disease, is to encourage everybody regardless of melanin count, to present early.
  
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  February 1, 2025 5:28pm
Swifty

This learned professor thinks Maori underperformance will be resolved by the political process – Maori wards, the Maori sovereignty push and so on.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/540491/treaty-principles-bill-s-promise-of-equal-rights-ignores-blind-spots-of-our-democracy

How quaint. How naive.

People who invest their futures in the political process are in for a rude awakening in my view. I’ve not seen one single idea come out of the Maori sovereignty movement to address Maori underperformance other than the vague and amorphous ‘by Maori, for Maori’ calls and pleas for more taxpayer cash.

It’ll all end up with a very thin slice of Maori obscenely wealthy and the rest largely unchanged – trudging off to work daily, living week to week just like most of the rest of us.

Maori sovereignty can happen, quite how I have no idea, and Maori can have a new set of (now exclusively brown or shades of brown) faces making their decisions for them and running for Maori elections promising this and that but the large intractable problems will remain.

How will they adequately fund themselves and over the next century or two?
How will they enable their young people to fiercely compete in international job markets?
How will they arrest our educational slide down the international rankings?
How will they balance economic growth versus unemployment versus inflation?
How will they make and meet international climate change targets and how will shortfalls be funded?
How will they ensure economic growth is at levels sufficient to fund an increasingly aging population?
How will they restrain themselves when it comes to spending? Or do they think there exists some endless supply of dough out there somewhere?
How will they attract talent and capital sufficient to keep us at first world status?
How will they deal with increasing numbers of malingerers who refuse to work and where we have families benefit dependent and over generations?

These intractable problems exist in all countries around the world and no country has come up with real answers.

Do people really think that Rawiri Waititi, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, John Tamihere or Willie Jackson have answers to these questions where no one else in the world does?

I bet everything I have in the world that, should these people be in charge, the result will be a great unmitigated disaster. These people act and talk like they are the answer to everything but in fact they haven’t got a clue.

New Zealanders are free to go all in with such people as Waititi and Packer etc, but I say with absolute certainty that no real answers lie with them and our futures will be lost as a result.
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February 1, 2025 10:40am
- Steve Otto N Shore
  
  White Man will fund everything because White Man is Racist.
  
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  February 1, 2025 12:00pm
- kevn
  
  Swifty… Ford Rangers are the go.
  
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  February 1, 2025 5:14pm
  - Swifty
    
    Of that I am certain.
    
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    February 1, 2025 5:29pm
- Eastlander
  
  People who have to be bribed with food to go to doctor’s appointments need less power over their lives, not more.
  
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  February 1, 2025 7:43pm
Maggy Wassilieff

Another murder in that thriving little town of Opotiki..

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/540568/man-dead-after-suspected-gang-fight-in-opotiki

Probably as a result of police terrorism…..

https://www.teaonews.co.nz/2024/11/06/opotiki-is-a-thriving-town-not-run-by-gangs-and-drugs-iwi-leader/
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February 1, 2025 11:01am
- JimBobJoe
  
  I stopped there a few years ago for a late lunch… seemed a nice place, but have thought that about Wairoa as well when stopping there on the way to Mahia and Gizzy (Wairoa bakery close to bridge is damn good, as is eating food under a tree watching the river roll by)
  
  Both places are gang infested and have issues with gang violence – guess its in the back streets …
  
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  February 1, 2025 11:37am
  - Eastlander
    
    Once had a confrontation with a meth head in Wairoa, right along Marine Parade.
    
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    February 1, 2025 7:46pm
- kevn
  
  Maggy…. Cowboy country, like the wild west.
  
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  February 1, 2025 5:13pm
sungsamning

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKfPd2_M3R8
Press Secretary Confirms Dr. Fauci Created Covid.
How do you make a statement like “there will be a surprise outbreak” without being directly involved in the planning of it? [Move along folks. Nothing to see here. Jacinda and CNN told me so.]
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February 1, 2025 11:32am
- Benedict Yu
  
  OK. I’ll file that claim with the moon landings were faked.
  
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  February 1, 2025 6:25pm
sungsamning

https://issuesinsights.com/2025/01/30/iranian-people-are-ready-to-bring-about-regime-change-does-the-west-see-it-coming/
Iranian People Are Ready To Bring About Regime Change. Does The West See It Coming?
t was like yesterday. Nearly 50 years to the day, on Dec. 31, 1977, the Shah held a state dinner for U.S. President Jimmy Carter. Watching on television from my family’s middle-class home in western Tehran, I was eager to hear Carter’s speech. Having visited the U.S. as a curious tourist the previous summer, I had learned a few things about the American political system.

In the middle of the speech, Carter toasted the Shah, saying Iran was “under your majesty, an island of stability in one of the more troubled areas of the world.” At that, I turned to my uncle beside me, who was back in Iran after years of living in California, and asked, “Where is he talking about? Americans, with their embassy and all its personnel, really don’t know what is going on in Iran?”
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February 1, 2025 11:32am
Gussy Fink-Nottle

Hamas using UN premises to hold hostages.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj91ygv803xo

It’s ok though, because ‘A Downing Street spokesperson said they “welcome the fact that Unrwa have said there should be an investigation into the use of their facilities”.

Alternatively, UNRWA could simply visit their facilities, and count the number of hostages held there.
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February 1, 2025 11:54am
Steve Otto N Shore

“I’m not sure I want a job where I have to work,”
Sounds like NZ’s Public Sector.

https://babylonbee.com/news/federal-workers-concerned-that-returning-to-office-will-interfere-with-them-not-working?
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February 1, 2025 12:10pm
- Benedict Yu
  
  A myth like COVID vaccines kill people and the earth is 4000 years old. New Zealand public servants working at home are generally highly efficient. The ones in the offices in Wellington are more inclined to hrow paper planes, play the fool and disrupt anyone trying to work.
  
  Unless you have worked in these places, you are just making things up.
  
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  February 1, 2025 6:23pm
  - Steve Otto N Shore
    
    I have rellies in Wellywood who turned down work from home – purely because it would make them lazy. 3 out of 4 did not want this.
    Must be a family thing where we work and not skyve off.
    
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    February 1, 2025 7:06pm
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    Benedict, if public sector workers throw paper planes while in the office, they will certainly do similarly when “working” from home.
    
    To think anything else is patently absurd.
    
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    February 1, 2025 8:45pm
Tauhei Notts

Sports Betting.
I see where pundits are picking an increase on last year’s turnover of USD24,100,000,000 on the Superbowl.
Once upon a time punters could only bet on horse racing. Sports betting really has rocketed.
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February 1, 2025 12:11pm
- Jack5
  
  We’re on the downward path. Think of the Roman Empire on its way down.
  
  Entertainment, entertainment. Gladiators, feeding time of Christians to lions, then the peak – chariot racing, with crowds of up to 200,000.
  
  That topped off with the Nika riots in the eastern part of the Roman Empire over a week in Constantinople in the year 532.
  
  Half the city burned down and tens of thousands were killed in fighting between chariot racing fans in factions known as the “Blues” and the “Greens”.
  
  They were worked up about galloping charioteer teams definitely unlike the harness drivers of Addington and Alexandra Park.
  
  https://www.horseracingguru.com/articles/did-the-romans-create-our-love-of-racing-gambling/
  
  Gaius Appuleius Diocles, the Roman charioteer who was perhaps the richest sports competitor of all time:
  
  https://www.historydefined.net/gaius-appuleius-diocles/
  
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  February 1, 2025 12:42pm
  - kowtow
    
    J5
    
    That’s interesting about riots between different team supporters , however and knowing zero about it , surely there’ll be some other much more profound underlying reason for people choosing to be in one faction or other. And thatot those reasons will be the real cause of the unrest , the race just being the spark to set it all off.
    
    Like the Archduke in Sarajevo .
    
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    February 1, 2025 4:41pm
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  Not sure that’s quite right, you could bet on anything over seas even election results. Sports betting started here in the 90s but as far as I remember you could bet on anything most of my life in foreign lands
  
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  February 1, 2025 1:05pm
- AitchW
  
  24 trillion? Surely not.
  
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  February 1, 2025 2:12pm
  - AitchW
    
    Oops, billion, not trillion…still sounds an awful lot…
    
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    February 1, 2025 3:19pm
Benedict Yu

Seems that Kennedy is raking in money via a lawsuit related to the HPV vaccine. For “referral fees”.

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/major-reversal-kennedy-tells-senators-money-vaccine-lawsuit/story?id=118321043

So he is not content with wrecking COVID and MMR vaccines. He wants to undermine efforts to end most cervical cancers.

I hope that he ends up in prison.
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February 1, 2025 2:23pm
- kevn
  
  BY… e.warren aka Pocahontus says? Credibility = nil.
  Good luck with your hope.
  
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  February 1, 2025 5:09pm
- JackRabbit
  
  There is no “cure” for cancer, because Pfizer run a break-fix drug model. If cancer was cured, Pfizer and other big pharma companies would go bankrupt.
  
  There are cures for cancer that do not involve big pharma.
  
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  February 1, 2025 5:11pm
  - Benedict Yu
    
    What are those cures for cancer?
    
    3 5
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    February 1, 2025 6:19pm
    - Ian Boag
      
      Peach pits? Milan Brych was the man
      
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      February 1, 2025 7:47pm
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        As the Rarotonga Cemetery proves….
        
        https://hrc.cass.anu.edu.au/events/promotion-and-control-cancer-quack-milan-brych-australia
        
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        February 1, 2025 9:50pm
    - RichardX
      
      Bene, Given some of Jack’s stated beliefs, you’re probably wasting your time asking that sort of question.
      
      JackRabbit
      According to latest scientific theory based on similarities between old dilapidated structures on Mars and on Earth, and according to the US governments remote viewing project ‘Stargate’ several decades ago, a part of the Earth’s population may be long term descendants of colonists from Mars.
      
      Mars destroyed itself, probably in the same way the subsequent Atlantis colony destroyed itself. If you were a Martian Landing on earth, with plans for world domination, you would thank Jacinda for all her preparation work. If you were a freedom lover you utter, “oh no, not again” and throw support behind an Act / National government to get rid of the serpent in the new Garden of Eden.
      
      https://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2020/09/general_debate_23_september_2020.html#comment-2807119
      
      As I have asked before, how may batshit crazy beliefs does a person need to hold to be considered batshit crazy?
      
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      February 1, 2025 8:24pm
      - JackRabbit
        
        It is interesting that you think this is batshit crazy. It is a matter of public record.
        
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        February 2, 2025 12:23am
Swifty

French gynaecologist suspended for declining to treat a patient with a male body:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14347543/Gynaecologist-suspended-refusing-treat-trans-patient-saying-qualified-deal-real-women.html

FFS.
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February 1, 2025 2:36pm
- Steve Otto N Shore
  
  It probably didn’t have a shave.
  
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  February 1, 2025 3:41pm
  - kevn
    
    SteveO… The brazilian or face?
    
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    February 1, 2025 5:07pm
    - Steve Otto N Shore
      
      Both probably.
      Best ask the French gynaecologist. I am not familiar with these things
      
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      February 1, 2025 7:09pm
Ghost

A business jet has crashed near a mall in Philadelphia, with multiple casualties reported, according to several law enforcement sources.

Harrowing footage of the incident, from multiple angles, showed an enormous explosion after a twin-engine Learjet 55 came down in a “high traffic” residential neighborhood of northeast Philadelphia.

Article

Video of crash

X post
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February 1, 2025 2:51pm
- Ghost
  
  Sad, it was a medical flight
  
  https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/small-plane-crash-northeast-philadelphia-explosion-roosevelt-boulevard-airport/4095575/
  
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  February 1, 2025 4:55pm
Steve Otto N Shore

Are US federal Govt websites closing for the weekend for cleaning and “scrubbing?”
“There are only two genders.” DJT

https://www.msn.com/en-nz/news/other/not-normal-trump-admin-trashed-as-government-websites-expected-to-go-dark/ar-AA1yd1Vt?
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February 1, 2025 3:52pm
kevn

Just putting it out there. In the body of this article pilot health is discussed…
https://dailysceptic.org/2024/12/11/revealed-the-full-hidden-pfizer-report-that-shows-heart-conditions-in-the-vaccinated-getting-worse-over-time/
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February 1, 2025 5:05pm
- JackRabbit
  
  Thanks for the link.
  
  The number of changes that have been made in light of heart damage from the vaccines.
  
  [1] A significant number of pilots being stood down because they could no longer pass the medical because of heart issues. This happened here in NZ.
  
  [2] The FAA increased the acceptable heart PR interval from 210 milliseconds to 300 milliseconds.
  
  [3] Prolonged PR interval (1st degree AV block) indicates delayed conduction from atria to the ventricles, and may be seen in conditions such as myocarditis, rheumatic heart disease, certain congenital lesions, drug toxicities, hyperkalemia, and ischaemia.
  
  You can see a table of PR intervals both mean and upper level in the table “PR Interval according to Heart Rate and Age” at https://starship.org.nz/guidelines/electrocardiograph-ecg/
  
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  February 1, 2025 5:25pm
  - Benedict Yu
    
    “heart damage” from the vaccines is extremely rare. What is common is heart damage from COVID.
    
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    February 1, 2025 6:18pm
    - JackRabbit
      
      That is your opinion, and contrary to al the data I have studied and doctors I have spoken to, and people I have spoken to that had heart irregularities after the vaccines, and sought answers and were by specialists that these heart issues were caused by the vaccine.
      
      It is on record as a result of Official Information Requests filed and completed that this was known about by Bloomfield, AND that the later doubling of the time between the first and second jab was to try and minimise the number of people having heart issues. However Bloomfield told the public it would make the vaccines more effective.
      
      A lot of tripe.
      
      There have been an overwhelming number of heart irregularities in patients that were vaccinated, who did not get Covid, and people that got vaccinated and then got Covid.
      
      Benedict, you are spreading disinformation.
      
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      February 1, 2025 11:37pm
- Keith White
  
  It is reasonably well known that the FAA decided to reduce the threshold for cardiac irregularities following the mRNA vaccine, because suddenly it was newly-normal to have these irregularities.
  
  Now, we have had FAFO for the last couple of years. It doesn’t mean that this particular crash or series of crashes is mos. def. linked to this type of problem – it is equally possible that this particular crash a series of crashes is linked to DEI policies.
  
  But, I think one thing we can be sure of is that there will be no intensive no-holds-barred investigations of the contributions of mRNA vaccination and/or DEI hiring policies, to such cases. Too many Biden-Ardern-Bloomfield-Fauci-adjacent criminals.
  
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  February 1, 2025 5:32pm
  - Benedict Yu
    
    What crap. You know what causes “heart irregularities”? COVID. Anyone with any type of congenital or acquired arrhythmia should receive a covid vaccination every 6 months.
    
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    February 1, 2025 6:16pm
    - kevn
      
      BY… Read this then re-comment. Dare you
      https://dailysceptic.org/2024/12/11/revealed-the-full-hidden-pfizer-report-that-shows-heart-conditions-in-the-vaccinated-getting-worse-over-time/
      
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      February 1, 2025 6:28pm
      - JackRabbit
        
        Thanks for posting that link Kevn.
        
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        February 1, 2025 11:39pm
  - JackRabbit
    
    Keith OIA requests show that they were all aware of the heart issues very early on, but did not warn the public.
    
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    February 1, 2025 11:38pm
Swifty

Oh don’t worry Jacinda, I see you as very much human – a human who proved quite disastrous as our Prime Minister and who headed a team as flawed, wrong-headed and weak as you.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/documentary-on-dame-jacinda-ardern-wins-award-at-sundance-festival/FAUCUI24ONHL5AYWDWUSY66CBY/

I strongly criticise you for the false hope you deliberately sowed in the hearts of my country folk as PM, the many promises you made and then failed to deliver on, and the fact that you now have become nothing but a grifter.

Never has someone so perfectly personified what the modern Left has become – full of empty promises and aspirational statements, but an abject failure in delivering practical outcomes – and all while squandering tens and tens of billions of New Zealanders hard earned taxes annually in spending for which we have little or nothing to show.

What a disaster. What a disappointment.

What a wretched way to conduct yourself.
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February 1, 2025 5:22pm
- Steve Otto N Shore
  
  Stop picking on the World’s best friend!
  
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  February 1, 2025 7:17pm
Ghost

Poor Ted, should hire Facebook to fact-check for him

Foreign Minister Winston Peters has called out US Senator Ted Cruz for sharing “fake news” about New Zealand’s visitor visas for Israelis.

Cruz had posted to social media saying, “It’s difficult to treat New Zealand as a normal ally within the American alliance system, when they denigrate and punish Israeli citizens for defending themselves and their country from Iranian-controlled terrorists.”

Article
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February 1, 2025 6:06pm
- Quail
  
  The Greens and their “ river to the sea “ comments are continuing to damage NZ relationships with other countries.
  It is hard to explain that the Greens are irrelevant and have no numbers ,power ,or credibility in this country.They don’t count.
  This is just more MMP enabled misinformation damaging this country.
  Cruz should check his information sources.
  
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  February 1, 2025 8:56pm
  - Northshoredoc
    
    Ted Cruz and the NZ Greens are as moronic as each other.
    
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    February 2, 2025 7:47am
Benedict Yu

The USA Environmental Protection Agency has been ordered to delete references to climate change from its website.

What a clown show.

https://www.levernews.com/trumps-epa-just-deleted-climate-change/
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February 1, 2025 6:12pm
- Keith White
  
  [Mod – just debate the topics, not the people. I know you can do that better than most, please]
  
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  February 1, 2025 6:37pm
  - kevn
    
    Keith… It is frustrating isn’t it.
    
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    February 2, 2025 7:55am
Benedict Yu

There is a widely held belief that COVID rarely severely affects children.

Yet in New Zealand, since the start of the pandemic, children under ten years of age have experienced 4,914 hospitalisations, including 94 ICU admissions.

https://www.tewhatuora.govt.nz/for-health-professionals/data-and-statistics/covid-19-data/covid-19-case-demographics#cases-by-age-group

While the risks are much lower than for adults, they are far from negligible. Certainly the risks are far higher than the miniscule risky posed by the vaccine.

The low take up of the pediatric COVID vaccine is a result of the turbo charged anti vax movement. That is why it is so important that Kennedy is not confirmed by the Senate as USA Health Secretary. He is not just a menace to the USA but to all of us.
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February 1, 2025 6:43pm
- Keith White
  
  BY: are you even aware of the faux-limitations of the Covid PCR ‘test’?
  
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  February 1, 2025 6:59pm
- NoFax
  
  Kids get the flu all the time and we don’t lose our heads over it. Second, the current state of our health isn’t great – you have admit that. It’s actually hard to imagine it much worse than it is now. Doing the same thing over and over again and trusting the same “experts” that destroyed our country is surely madness. Given the state of “science” right now, it needs a reset. Too many peer-reviewed papers are simply false and un-repeatable and this is the real threat. The most unscientific period in post WWII just occurred with things like “trust the science” being trotted out has left a lot of people, myself included, with a healthy distrust of “scientists”. You went through COVID like the rest of us, and had good things to say at the time, but this blind obedience to the experts can’t be explained logically.
  
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  February 1, 2025 8:50pm
Suze Wainwright

Auckland FC seem to be doing quite well in the top Aussie competition – good crowds & great results.

I see no evidence of te Ao Maori at the stadium – is there something wrong?
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February 1, 2025 6:59pm

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