General Debate 20 March 2025

Like this:

Like Loading...

Email
Facebook
Twitter
Comment221

Uncategorized
General Debate

Comments (221)

Login to comment or vote

Anthony Melchett

https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/news/crime/belligerent-whangamata-man-loses-bid-to-avoid-conviction-after-assaulting-partner/

Ironically if one of the all blacks he was watching earlier in the evening before he choked his partner did this they would have been let off…
14 3
Log in to Reply
Report
March 20, 2025 8:01am
- Graeme Hall
  
  Maybe if the belligerent man were to promise to send the judge a season ticket?
  
  3 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  March 20, 2025 12:00pm
peterwn

An ‘expert’ consenting panel has declined Contact Energy’s proposed Southland wind farm. The project had the support of the Department of Conservation, Ngai Tahu, Environment Southland and the Southland District Council. Obviously Contact had to do hard work and be prepared to accept conditions to get acceptance in principle from these groups and one would think that it would be a sho-in to receive consent from the expert panel. But no it appeared that a bunch of NIMBYS put up a well orchestrated case to oppose the project. No doubt those responsible think that cheap and plentiful electricity grows on trees. It seems that much depends on the attitudes and philosophies of those on the consenting panels. They are supposed to be chosen for their expertise and neutrality. However individuals being considered for the panels are hardly likely to recuse themselves from selection because of the influence they yield and the remuneration for serving. $20 million spent on the work to date is down the gurgler.
My immediate thought was that the whole fast track process is a complete waste of time and money for those making use of it at the invitation of the Government. Contact would have had a much better chance of success if it went via the usual RMA route. Michael Fuge CEO of Contact summed it up when he said that New Zealand was closed for business.
28 13
Log in to Reply
Report
March 20, 2025 8:01am
- Taieri
  
  No doubt those responsible think that cheap and plentiful electricity grows on trees.
  —————-
  
  Apart from everything else the electricity generated by wind farms is neither cheap nor plentiful…
  
  28 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  March 20, 2025 8:18am
- alloytoo
  
  but Wind farms do not produce cheap reliable energy.
  
  20 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  March 20, 2025 8:25am
  - Nobby2
    
    And they are the biggest, ugliest, eyesore you can get on the visual pollution of the environment.
    
    7 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    March 20, 2025 2:23pm
- cmm
  
  “No doubt those responsible think that cheap and plentiful electricity grows on trees.”
  
  Cheap and plentiful electricity definitely doesn’t grow on wind turbines either. They are one of the most expensive and least reliable electricity sources available.
  
  If Southland wants cheap and plentiful electricity then the answer is below their feet. Just Southland on its own has enough coal to provide all of NZs energy needs (electricity, heating and oil replacement) for over 300 years – including allowing for doubling the population and industrial output.
  
  76 5
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  March 20, 2025 8:30am
  - cmm
    
    Downticking makes the wind blow.
    
    19 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    March 20, 2025 8:57am
  - peterwn
    
    Cam Slater too would be laughing his head off at this decision although he has yet to mention it on his blog. He calls wind farms bird mincers.
    Since fossil fuels and new hydro have effectively been ruled out and nuclear pretty well off the table, the only prospective sources of additional electricity are geothermal, wind and solar. The easier geothermal projects have already been exploited (Contact recently brought a new geothermal development on stream). This leaves wind and solar. The ‘unreliability’ of these sources can be managed, initially it was relying on existing hydro stations as a ‘buffer’, now it is batteries and in the future would be pumped storage (like the abandoned Lake Onslow scheme) with smaller scale projects spread over time. Even those face potentially lethal environmental objections. If Labour were able to have progressed Lake Onslow it would have most probably bypassed the whole environmental process and put up specific enabling legislation. The Greens and other minor parties could however have been in a position to scuttle the proposal.
    So generation sources potentially available are not going to provide that cheap electricity. One other ‘source’ is power companies forgoing profits and dividends but that would not make electricity significantly cheaper. Indeed walloping the generation companies is not going to encourage them to develop new generation if they are forbidden to profit from it.
    The four ‘gentailers’ and the fifth generator recognise their responsibilities to keep developing more electricity sources and are actively doing that in the face of adversity.
    People hope for cheap and plentiful electricity, but expect ‘someone else’ to provide it.
    
    11 13
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    March 20, 2025 8:59am
    - cmm
      
      “Since fossil fuels and new hydro have effectively been ruled out…”
      
      Not really.
      
      The only laws that really rule things out are the laws of physics. And those laws are what make wind so bloody ineffective and expensive.
      
      NIMBYs do have a point too. The visual clutter of wind turbines is far from pretty.
      
      36 3
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      March 20, 2025 9:15am
      - peterwn
        
        I did say ‘effectively’ ruled out which would be for social and political reasons.
        Of course the laws of physics do not rule these things out. They do rule out ideas such as siphoning water from the tailrace to the lake of a hydro station to produce more electricity, or to build additional underground powerhouses on the Manapouri tailrace tunnels (never mind that the water at that point has minimal remaining potential or kinetic energy). Also there was this guy who thought that the output of hydro stations could be increased by 80% (one of NZED’s senior managers called it a ‘pipe dream’) and persuaded his MP to arrange a meeting with the Minister of Electricity and pay his travel expenses to Wellington.
        
        7 0
        Report
        March 20, 2025 10:03am
    - kowtow
      
      The geniuses are not only seeking new sources of ‘sustainable’ energy in place of ‘fossil fuel’.
      
      They are actively de industrialising our society , so there be less demand for power ……..
      
      Why are Greens so keen on bicycles .
      
      15 4
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      March 20, 2025 9:31am
      - the deity formerly known as nigel6888
        
        Bet they haven’t wondered at how a bicycle is actually made!
        
        Steel, aluminium, rubber, plastic. A modern bike is a triumph of the industrial age.
        
        You can’t make ball bearings from chewing flax leaves.
        
        17 0
        Report
        March 20, 2025 11:06am
    - JJ56
      
      “… the only prospective sources of additional electricity are geothermal, wind and solar.”
      
      “No doubt those responsible think that cheap and plentiful electricity grows on trees.”
      
      Assuming the comments were in respect of renewable fuels, both wrong for the same reason. That’s why Genesis is stockpiling torrefied pellets to cover dry periods.
      
      7 1
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      March 20, 2025 9:47am
      - peterwn
        
        I think the main reason Genesis is doing this sort of thing is PR and political reasons. I do not see these alternative fuels providing a significant amount of fuel for the three hungry boilers at Huntly.
        
        6 0
        Report
        March 20, 2025 1:07pm
    - goNZ1
      
      the overseas investors NZ is beseeching to come here need to be told they should pack lots of batteries and diesel generators because the electricity supply aint going to be reliable soon !
      
      9 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      March 20, 2025 10:36am
    - rouppe
      
      Contact recently brought a new geothermal development on stream
      
      All the energy of which has already been sold to Microsoft for a data centre.
      
      No energy to boost the national energy grid to keep our lights on
      
      11 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      March 20, 2025 10:50am
    - judith8409121
      
      coal, gas, and hydro are not ‘ruled out’ – they will be ‘ruled in’ when peoples kettles don’t work on demand and companies fail due to the high price that government officials have decided you will pay for energy. A power crisis is perfect for making stupid climate cult politicians look like the idiots that they are
      
      12 1
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      March 20, 2025 12:46pm
  - Steve Otto N Shore
    
    300 years should be enough time for NZ to get their heads around Nuclear.
    But maybe not. There are many stupid ignorant people in this backwater.
    
    31 3
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    March 20, 2025 9:08am
    - cmm
      
      In 300 years they won’t be our problem.
      
      In 300 years they might actually get fusion to work. It has been just around the corner for 50 years.
      
      17 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      March 20, 2025 9:16am
      - Steve Otto N Shore
        
        I think it is close but being held back Politically because of Green thinking.
        
        12 5
        Report
        March 20, 2025 9:33am
      - sirknz
        
        It is perpetually 25 years away from being viable, it’s a pity that we will all be dead in 5 because of the climate change…
        
        12 1
        Report
        March 20, 2025 9:54am
      - cmm
        
        I think it is the constraints of physics.
        
        9 0
        Report
        March 20, 2025 9:54am
      - Tom Hunter
        
        Readers might enjoy a post I did a couple of years ago on nuclear fusion power, Super Lasers and Miniature Suns.
        
        One bottom line is that even if/when they get it to work it won’t be economic if all it does is act as yet another “boiler” that turns water into steam, passed through turbines connected to generators, compared to coal, gas, and nuclear fission.
        
        Now if you can get electricity direct from the process then we’re talking!
        
        6 0
        Report
        March 20, 2025 12:59pm
      - Phronesis
        
        Geothermal is the future. We just need to sort the drilling technology and make use of the truly vast amount of energy stored in the hot stuff that the planet is made of. At the moment geothermal is at the stage that oil was for most of history. It leaked to the surface in a few places but it wasn’t until we started drilling for it that it became a viable resource.
        
        7 0
        Report
        March 20, 2025 1:24pm
      - NZer In Exile
        
        China will probably sell molten salt thorium reactors to the world unless the USA gets it’s shizzle together in short order.
        
        0 0
        Report
        March 20, 2025 9:14pm
    - judith8409121
      
      fusion is unobtainable – there is already fission – a perfectly good choice for high density/ high population countries that don’t suffer land movement problems. NZ has great choices for energy production – and should choose those – coal, gas, geothermal, hydro – no governing body should be looking wider than these options.
      
      0 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      March 20, 2025 6:40pm
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    Or wave power. The capacity down that way must be enormous.
    
    6 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    March 20, 2025 9:15am
    - imalwaysright
      
      Yes, I thought wave or sea current generation would be far easier and almost 100% reliable.
      Plus, most kiwis live near the coast so multiple generators around the country would be convenient and also provide network resilience.
      
      9 2
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      March 20, 2025 10:16am
    - Quail
      
      Agree NMB,
      Tide and wave power has been used successfully elsewhere in the world ( France Korea)
      Wave/ tide power is something that NZ has huge potential resources. The coastline is far longer than most other countries.
      Not on NZs radar though.
      
      12 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      March 20, 2025 11:08am
  - kowtow
    
    We could also turn that coal into petrol and be import free and energy independent. What would that do for balance of payments .
    The technology is well established .
    
    It should also appeal to teal type female voters as it is a bio fuel having once been critters ……and it will sustainably fuel their suburban tractors while they drive Tarquin and Tamatha to school and sports .
    
    14 3
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    March 20, 2025 9:19am
  - I remember when
    
    “No doubt those responsible think that cheap and plentiful electricity grows on trees.”
    
    If we finish up with enough unwanted pine forests it may well become an option.
    
    15 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    March 20, 2025 9:40am
  - Interested Party
    
    Cheap electricity does grow on trees, it just has to turn into coal first
    
    19 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    March 20, 2025 10:49am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  I wonder if rejection will mean Ngai Tahu has to return the koha they undoubtedly received from Contact.
  
  22 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  March 20, 2025 9:14am
  - imalwaysright
    
    I think that particular excercise in extortion was for the river rights.
    The wind rights will be a totally separate excercise in extortion.
    
    13 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    March 20, 2025 10:21am
- imalwaysright
  
  “It seems that much depends on the attitudes and philosophies of those on the consenting panels.”
  
  This is how NZ is run these days. Culturally and ideologically “safe” people are in charge of far too many of our essential services, particularly the Public Service.
  We will soon fall below the critical mass of essential capable people who will leave rather than be ruled by an Idiotocracy.
  
  13 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  March 20, 2025 9:32am
- thirteenstars
  
  Shane Jones, Minister of Resources, has just been interviewed Michael Laws on the Platform.
  
  The fast-tracking legislation the project was denied under is the COVID-19 legislation passed by the Ardern regime and the panel is stuffed with her cronies.
  
  Jones said the best course was for Contact to forego the appeal process, which would be time wasting and expensive, and simply submit the project under the new government’s fast track law, which he is confident would approve it. Jones says best case scenario the project would not be completed before mid-2030s.
  
  Jones, with good reasons, had concerns about special legislation to enable the project but said it was a possibility if the government want to, but if an energy emergency with predicted shortages this winter is not enough to justify special legislation, then nothing is. If that approach were adopted it would be best to specially enable a large hydro project and the bats and lizards be damned.
  
  This country is running around in circles in a clown car driven by malevolent idiots. No international investor would go anywhere near spending money in NZ. Between the anti-industrial, anti-growth Marxist bureaucracy and the co-governance ambitions of many Maori and non-Maori alike, we have become a toxic environment for sane decision making.
  
  14 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  March 20, 2025 10:40am
- Mike
  
  Did you read the decision?
  
  3 11
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  March 20, 2025 10:56am
- Local Miller
  
  Cheap, safe, environmentally friendly energy is on it’s way. China is testing a prototype Thorium reactor. Thorium is a safe nuclear fuel, produces almost no nuclear waste, has minimal use as a nuclear weapon, and is much more abundant than Uranium or equivalent elements. The current issue is the Thorium salt used in the reactor is very corrosive which was a problem, but with new ceramics this may no longer be an issue.
  We’ll know by 2029 if China’s prototype is successful, which would pave the way for a full scale reactor and the potential for international use.
  There’s over 6 million tonnes of known Thorium reserves in the world, with India, Brazil, Australia and the USA holding about 50% of that between them.
  
  13 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  March 20, 2025 11:25am
  - RoboRob
    
    At this point there are many Nuclear designs that are almost entirely safe that still use Uranium. The waste of which is tiny and easily stored. There are also designs that run on uranium reactor waste.
    
    The issue in NZ hasn’t ever been the technology. It has been the massive success that David Lange had in the 80s when he effectively convinced the whole country that any think with Nuclear in the name was evil and dangerous.
    
    18 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    March 20, 2025 11:35am
    - thirteenstars
      
      Well said. Tech ain’t the problem, it’s ideology, and Lange’s grandstanding has since been put on steroids with the anti-industrial, Marxist agenda of both the environmentalist and tribal lobby.
      
      As with most things in NZ, we are the agents of our own demise, increasingly feckless and complacent. No one’s coming to save us.
      
      12 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      March 20, 2025 12:27pm
    - Local Miller
      
      True, but maybe we can persuade a new generation that the Thorium Reactors are different enough from uranium based reactors to reverse the psychosis.
      
      8 1
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      March 20, 2025 1:52pm
  - kowtow
    
    So it’s still experimental , which means it’s not ‘on its way”.
    
    5 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    March 20, 2025 1:27pm
- Tom Hunter
  
  Peterwn represents much of National Party thinking here on this blog, among other such people, and this is just one more example.
  
  No doubt those responsible think that cheap and plentiful electricity grows on trees.
  
  Here’s a 16 minute video of Bjorn Lomborg, who very much agrees with Climate Change science, explaining why the shock-horror-scare tactics are bullshit but also the problems with wind and solar. I’ve timed the video to that part but the following is one of the most effective summaries I’ve seen of the problems:
  
  You know how you’re constantly being told that solar and wind is incredibly cheap? We’ve all seen this graph of how solar and wind has come down dramatically over the last couple of decades and it’s now cheaper than ever and many people will tell you that solar and wind is some of the cheapest energy in the world, some of the cheapest electricity in the world.
  
  They’re technically correct but they’re dramatically misleading you. Why? Because it’s only cheaper when the sun is shining or the wind is blowing. When it’s not, it’s the most expensive form of energy in the world because you can’t buy it for any amount of money Solar and wind is not cheap when you need electricity 24/7
  
  This is why I rolled my eyes in 2023 as National boasted about how they’d reform the Resource Management Act to allow wind and solar farms to be more easily and quickly built.
  
  Perhaps someone could show this Luxon, and in fact the entire cabinet.
  
  15 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  March 20, 2025 11:57am
  - thirteenstars
    
    Yes, and the cheap power becomes expensive in reality because the risk associated with an asset that has highly capricious outputs, and therefore returns, must be factored in to the price charged or it’s not viable to build.
    
    It’s like having a factory where it’s not known from one moment to the next if the workforce will show up.
    
    10 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    March 20, 2025 12:34pm
    - Don Beckett
      
      And consider the vast “non- Green” resources used to manufacture wind turbines & to a lesser degree solar panels.
      A wind turbine in its whole life does not produce the amount of energy required to built the thing – useless.
      
      7 1
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      March 20, 2025 12:58pm
  - peterwn
    
    I am not spouting National Party thinking. Indeed much of the thinking that I get from the media is in my opinion is ‘up the shute’. The reform ideas I am hearing are a load of nonsense and if implemented will have unintended consequences. I think many of the statements on this are bullshit aimed at a gullible populace. I pay attention to what the CEO’s of the four gentailers have to say on these things.
    Robbo would not forgo Government dividends and water royalties from the three 51% owned gentailers nor do I see Nicola forgoing these either.
    
    7 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    March 20, 2025 1:20pm
    - RoboRob
      
      The Gens aren’t short of money to build infrastructure, they dont need to stop dividends. The issues are around the incentives to build generation and ability to get the build approved.
      
      4 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      March 20, 2025 3:06pm
- Handyman
  
  In other words, the project had the support of everyone who was going to make money for the project (some via koha) and no support from the people who were going to be impacted.
  
  Now imagine if the same entities proposed raising Lake Manapouri. Who would be howling the most?
  
  7 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  March 20, 2025 12:40pm
- judith8409121
  
  excellent that this has been refused. there are much better use of money then spending it on wasteful, useless signalling energy projects that can produce zero output
  
  7 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  March 20, 2025 12:43pm
- MCōs
  
  An accountant friend of mine did his sums and always on the lookout to save a few bob, installed solar panels on his roof plus storage batteries in the basement.
  He had a big place which adds to the attractiveness, whereas my house is relatively small and the upfront cost would make it marginal.
  I believe the panels have a life expectancy of ~20yrs, but as it transpired they outlived himself.
  When I was a kid we had an open fire with a wetback. All our winter hot water was free, but the air stank of smoke and I think they’ve been banned.
  
  3 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  March 20, 2025 4:55pm
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    Wetbacks are still going strong all over the country. No shortage of borer-ridden rimu joists taking their last trip into eternity.
    
    2 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    March 20, 2025 6:33pm
Grunter

Outstanding! He looks a bit like a young Peter Snell. Big future.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/360620761/kiwi-athletics-prodigy-sam-ruthe-becomes-first-15-year-old-run-sub-four-minute-mile
26 3
Log in to Reply
Report
March 20, 2025 8:01am
- muzled
  
  Who the hell can downtick that?
  
  The kid is amazing, seems very down to earth and all things you’d hope for in an almost certain superstar.
  
  13 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  March 20, 2025 11:27am
  - Grunter
    
    muzled
    I’ve got some ‘followers’ on KB that downtick every comment I make.
    
    6 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    March 20, 2025 1:11pm
    - NeverMindTheBollocks
      
      Groupies
      
      2 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      March 20, 2025 6:34pm
Scott

As I head to church on a Sunday morning I go past about a dozen or so people with Gaza flags protesting for the people of Gaza. This has gone on for over a year.

A report to the British parliament has shown what these people are protesting for.

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2025/03/what-happened-on-october-7-2.php

They are protesting on behalf of the murderous Hamas terrorists that began the war on October 7th 2023. The report details what happened on Oct 7th.

https://www.7octparliamentarycommission.co.uk/executive-summary

It seems clear that the Hamas attack was well planned over a substantial period of time. They lulled the Israelis into a false sense of security and then launched a devastating attack that claimed 5000 casualties, killed and wounded. It seems clear that the slaughtering of the Jews was a special pleasure for the attackers who were as cruel as they knew how.

Hamas has never backed away from this attack and indeed has gloried in it and promised to do it again and again.

That there a people in NZ who support Hamas is a mystery to many of us? However it’s a good thing that the United States president thinks differently and the way is now clear for Israel to defeat Hamas and ensure that these atrocities never happen again.
37 5
Log in to Reply
Report
March 20, 2025 8:06am
- goNZ1
  
  plus Mr Speaker needs to put a stop to the Rape Scarfs the Greens wear in the chamber – and all the other motley clothing on display, what the hell is this country coming to ??
  
  21 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  March 20, 2025 10:40am
  - pdm
    
    Agreed goNZ1.
    
    Sometimes the opposition benches look like the Public Bar patrons from the 6 O’clock closing days.
    
    At least the men in the Public Bars would have taken their hats off.
    
    4 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    March 20, 2025 8:01pm
- Mike
  
  Hamas is not equivalent to the whole Gaza population. In the same way as Nazis did not mean all Germans, all Russians aren’t guilty of war, etc.
  
  5 18
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  March 20, 2025 10:53am
  - Scott
    
    Nice to have you back Mikey. It seems that the vast majority of people in Gaza are complicit in this.
    Many of the hostages reveal they were imprisoned in houses of Gaza families.
    Hamas imbedded itself in local hospitals and schools and indeed in UNRWA. And one can of course recall the horrific images of naked Jewish bodies being kicked and spat on by the locals on Oct 7th.
    And we have the recent handing over of hostages watched by crowds of locals.
    So the population of Gaza appears to be thoroughly indoctrinated to hate the Jews and aspire to the destruction of Israel.
    
    16 3
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    March 20, 2025 12:26pm
  - In Vino Veritas
    
    Quite right Mike. Only 75% of arabs in Gaza supported Hamas’s Oct 7 attack on Israel according to Reuters. However, I’d suggest that you would agree that is a solid majority?
    
    9 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    March 20, 2025 1:20pm
- Philview
  
  This was probably discussed yesterday but there seems to have been a question posed yesterday ‘Would Jesus support ACT’. David Seymour replied with reasons why Jesus would support ACT. The journalist then went and spoke to various clergy who were of the view that Jesus would have no interest in politics. I can think of some clergy who would say that Jesus was on a very political mission.
  
  6 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  March 20, 2025 11:31am
  - Scott
    
    Philview, what I would say is that pastors and ministers would be very reluctant to insert themselves openly into partisan politics.
    
    Imagine for example a pastor who says, “I agree with David Seymour and I think the Christian thing to do is to vote Act!”
    
    There’s no better way to alienate the congregation, some of whom would vote Labour, some might vote Green or National or even the Maori party?
    
    4 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    March 20, 2025 2:22pm
- kiwimike
  
  I presume you are up to play with the part the head of Shin Bet played to suppress the intel for the invasion as he thought it was only a little attck with not many hostages !
  
  and his wife’s cell company giving 3000 Gazan mobiles rights to work outside Gaza and in Israel on Oct 7 ?
  
  4 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  March 20, 2025 12:25pm
Grunter

A long, but very good article from Ian Proud, former UK diplomat to Russia. An insiders detailed run down of the events in Ukraine prior to Feb 2022. Proud is the guy that is known as “Mr Sanctions” as he pulled together the program of sanctions against Russia. At the time he stated that they won’t work and explained why. He was obviously correct on that count, and he is an expert in his field.

https://open.substack.com/pub/thepeacemonger/p/the-ukrainians-failed-to-confront
6 6
Log in to Reply
Report
March 20, 2025 8:06am
artemisia

Tamatha Paul hilarity, Version 2. Radical police abolition – specifically and in her own words she was to talk to her audience last night about “What radical police abolition could look like in real terms”

https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA2503/S00157/is-police-abolition-official-green-party-policy.htm
25 1
Log in to Reply
Report
March 20, 2025 8:09am
- graham
  
  Wonder if she’s a member of People Against Prisons Aotearoa?
  
  https://papa.org.nz/
  
  11 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  March 20, 2025 8:32am
  - pdm
    
    Probably a foundation member graham.
    
    3 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    March 20, 2025 8:03pm
- peterwn
  
  A similar argument occurred in the 1970’s in the early days of colour TV’s. They were very expensive ($2,000 then, perhaps $10,000+ in today’s money). Questions were asked as to why the Police were wasting time and money on investigating and prosecuting these cases when it was only rich fat-cats who suffered from the loss.
  Others pointed out that quite a few less well off families had purchased colour TV’s and the theft of a TV from such families was a devastating financial blow.
  There is currently a significant example of a policing vacuum that is adversely affecting society. Financial crimes against businesses (and that includes shoplifting) are in many cases are not being investigated and prosecuted by police because of lack of police resources and no doubt is a matter of delight for the Green Party.
  Ideally the Police should have a strategy and plan to attach shoplifting including plain clothes police proactively looking out for shoplifters and bringing them to justice. A few ‘stings’ of this sort would soon reduce shoplifting especially the more blatant attempts.
  
  29 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  March 20, 2025 8:35am
  - kowtow
    
    Once caught though sentencing must be meaningful .
    
    12 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    March 20, 2025 9:22am
  - I remember when
    
    Victimless crime, stealing from the rich and businesses, is one of the great misunderstanding of society.
    Everybody finishes up paying.
    
    18 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    March 20, 2025 9:44am
- David Garrett
  
  This woman is so fucking stupid I can’t be bothered addressing her ridiculous proposal. Especially not using the phone (it requires more effort)
  
  41 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  March 20, 2025 9:07am
  - peterwn
    
    It is a serious indictment on the lack of intelligence and common sense of many people who inhabit Wellington. She is pretty well guaranteed to retain her seat and even if boundary changes affects this (her seat boundaries face being changed out of all recognition next year) she would remain in Parliament on the Green list.
    Enen if you cannot be bothered addressing her stupid proposals, Ministers have to regularly put up with her silly questions at Question Time.
    
    18 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    March 20, 2025 10:09am
- Steve Otto N Shore
  
  All it takes is one major threat to wake her ideas up. An attempted assault, a gun injury, a bag snatch, a car ramming. Any will have her screaming for the Police.
  I don’t wish her any harm, but you get the picture.
  
  29 4
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  March 20, 2025 9:13am
  - pdm
    
    Someone attacking James Shaw.
    
    Maybe not – he was expendable.
    
    11 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    March 20, 2025 9:19am
    - Suze Wainwright
      
      If you wanted to report a made up crime for political purposes, where would you go if aotearoa didn’t have a police force? Would you need to go directly to the msm?
      
      9 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      March 20, 2025 10:42am
  - sirknz
    
    An ex-girlfriend’s ex-police father said that nasty stuff needed to happen to the family members of some of the lenient judges before we would see decent sentences being handed out.
    
    This was said roughly 20-25 years ago.
    
    20 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    March 20, 2025 9:57am
    - goNZ1
      
      recently a Mongrel Mob criminal was reported as smiling in court after he was sentenced to jail time – time to make them scared to go to prison e.g el Salvador style
      
      15 1
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      March 20, 2025 10:44am
  - Eastlander
    
    Paul comes from a culture where crime is normal and honourable. A culture were criminal predation is much less resented than the feeble attempts of the police to suppress it. She feels ethnic and likely familial solidarity with criminals.
    
    It would not affect her world view in the slightest.
    
    11 3
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    March 20, 2025 11:24am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  Tamatha Paul is the walking definition of the waste of a University education.
  
  Still, there’s an alternative career path as a comedienne waiting for her. She’s streets ahead of the local competition.
  
  17 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  March 20, 2025 9:17am
  - peterwn
    
    No. Dai Henwood would always be streets ahead of her ilk with comedy.
    
    5 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    March 20, 2025 10:11am
  - Nobby2
    
    “is the walking definition of the waste of a university education” and is a complete waste of space.
    
    7 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    March 20, 2025 2:35pm
- rouppe
  
  She’s using a well established playbook, used in the 30’s, to forment discontent to a point where violence is considered justified
  
  7 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  March 20, 2025 10:57am
Damocles11

When it comes to polls and surveys, framing is everything. Ask people if race is a big political issue for them and most people – not being racists – will rank it pretty low in the scheme of things. If the pollsters were to frame the issue in a more honest way, such as : ‘how important is it to you that New Zealand preserve its democracy?’ or ‘how important is the right to own and use private property?’ or ‘how important is the democratic ideal that your vote is equal to that of every other citizen?’ and you might get very different responses and ranking of priorities.
Many of the polling companies work directly or indirectly for the major political parties. The establishment defends the status quo. These facts probably explain a lot about both the framing of poll questions & the lack of traction on serious issues such as governance, maorification, and the ownership of fundamental natural resources such as water.
17 1
Log in to Reply
Report
March 20, 2025 8:11am
- peterwn
  
  Yes, Sir Humphry Appleby is the expert on this!
  
  8 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  March 20, 2025 10:12am
Cassandra

Auckland University has a support centre for Maori students:

“For all our tauira Māori, they can guarantee a support system behind them. This is what it means to honour Te Tiriti o Waitangi here at Waipapa Taumata Rau.”

This is appalling. Basing services on race is awful. But if that is to be the norm in NZ why stop with Maoris? Why not seperate centres for each race and then by religion, gender, political views and so on? I doubt that this Maori-only service (it’s expensive – it has its own building and several staff) is funded by the local tribe, te mana whenua. Universities are going to have to have a much bigger budget to fulfill their racism obligations.

Is there a fourth article to the ToW? “Nu Tirani is to be divided into as many categories you can dream up, all funded by the Crown.” How do we stop this racist BS? I’d do it through funding but note that the U of A has a substantial endowment – so perhaps it’s got to be by changing the governance or the law.
49 3
Log in to Reply
Report
March 20, 2025 8:14am
- Blog-aholic
  
  Those poor students needing their hands held because they are maori?
  
  12 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  March 20, 2025 8:16am
  - Countrygirl
    
    I can’t understand how Maori continue to be comfortable with being thought of as helpless and useless, eg, can’t take themselves to a doctor despite it being free, can’t vote or fill out a census form without bribery. They used to be a proud people but have degenerated into hopeless cases who are always at the forefront of bad statistics.
    
    11 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    March 20, 2025 12:48pm
- kowtow
  
  ‘How do we stop this racist BS?’
  
  Make Act the senior partner in a two party coalition with the Nats ( as well as a clear out of the Wet Wing in the Nats, that’s most of the parliamentary caucus).
  
  Garner on the Platform this am has said the Nats have voted Maori dancing $48 mil over the next 3 years . Here was me thinking we were broke.
  
  17 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  March 20, 2025 8:22am
- pdm
  
  Cass have a read of this from Peter Williams latest substack.
  
  Censorship by NZ Herald (aided and abetted by NZME) in not publishing a Letter to the Editor by Dr Hylton Le Grice re 96 statutes favouring Maori.
  https://nominister.wordpress.com/2025/03/20/helping-peter-williams-and-dr-hylton-le-grice/
  
  37 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  March 20, 2025 8:24am
  - Tauhei Notts
    
    One must give some credit to the NZ Herald. By signing up to the Public Interest Journalism Fund they had to pledge, to put it in basic terms, to lick the haemorrhoids on all Kaumatua. To publish Le Grice’s letter would have been a breach of that pledge.
    
    30 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    March 20, 2025 9:05am
    - Jethrod
      
      When does the PIJF finish?
      
      6 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      March 20, 2025 11:18am
      - riffer
        
        July 2023.
        
        7 2
        Report
        March 20, 2025 12:56pm
      - riffer
        
        While the fund has officially closed for applications, some of the roles and projects are funded to run until 2026.
        
        7 1
        Report
        March 20, 2025 12:57pm
- Gravelroad
  
  Isn’t what we have here is that a paternalistic outfit (Auckland University) is identifying that a section of its students isn’t capable of making the grade without special help?
  So they offer “special help” to a group of students, whether they need it or not, in order to virtue signal.
  You would think that eventually, some of these students, most of whom will be just as clever and successful as the others, would tire of being constantly identified as “not quite up to it”.
  
  16 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  March 20, 2025 9:06am
  - cmm
    
    “You would think that eventually, some of these students, most of whom will be just as clever and successful as the others, would tire of being constantly identified as “not quite up to it”.”
    
    That might happen if the students were suddenly exposed to this patronising treatment.
    
    However that is not the case. They have been getting that special treatment since kindy. They are used to it.
    
    14 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    March 20, 2025 9:28am
- Scooter
  
  It’s actually ironic that in the past Maori were discriminated against in one form or another and today to make up for the past they are now being discriminated again, treated like they can’t look after themselves and must have support centres and easy access to University degrees, priority cancer screening, tax exemptions etc. It will ultimately fail because people will lose all interest or it becomes so embedded we end up a divided, apartheid lead country where everyone loses.
  
  9 3
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  March 20, 2025 9:25am
  - cmm
    
    “in the past Maori were discriminated against”
    
    Ummm, like being given the vote before whites?
    
    Hopefully it does fail before the country does.
    
    11 3
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    March 20, 2025 10:33am
    - riffer
      
      No, more like until 1945 they did not receive full old age and widows’ pensions.
      
      7 3
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      March 20, 2025 1:23pm
      - Jack5
        
        C’mon Riffer, get the full story …
        
        During its early years, the old age pension was granted “…relatively freely – and interestingly, more freely to Maori than to non-Maori.”
        
        That’s taken from: Page 162 of Thomson, D. (1998). “A world without welfare. New Zealand’s colonial experiment. Auckland, Auckland University Press.
        
        By the time of the 1898 Pensions Act there is one restriction that seems to have been designed to prevent double payment to Maori. It says of those excluded from the pension:
        
        Maori (the actual words used were “aboriginal natives of New Zealand”) “…to whom moneys other than pensions are paid out of the sums appropriated for Native purposes by the Civil List Act, 1863”,
        
        New Zealand did have racism in pension payment, but it was against Asians in the country. Naturalised citizens or not, they did not get the old age pension.
        
        9 1
        Report
        March 20, 2025 4:10pm
    - riffer
      
      When large areas of Taranaki were confiscated from Maori in 1865 after the Taranaki wars, this included the land of tribes who had not fought against the government. They lost land purely because they were Maori.
      
      4 5
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      March 20, 2025 1:24pm
      - Jack5
        
        What about Maori who fought on the side of the Government? They even got a memorial. Have modern Taranaki Maori left it standing?
        
        6 1
        Report
        March 20, 2025 3:54pm
    - riffer
      
      Hotels refused bookings from Maori. Rental properties were advertised for ‘Europeans only’, and in many places Maori were kept separate from Pakeha in cinemas and swimming pools
      
      3 5
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      March 20, 2025 1:25pm
      - Jack5
        
        Riffer, your … in many places Maori were kept separate from Pakeha in cinemas and swimming pools…
        
        I think it was Pukekohe that was a place this was alleged to have occurred. Can you name others, please?
        
        5 0
        Report
        March 20, 2025 3:46pm
      - pdm
        
        Sure did not happen in the Porangahau picture theatre (village hall) in the early to mid 1950’s.
        
        3 0
        Report
        March 20, 2025 8:10pm
  - judith8409121
    
    like being given the right to vote before women- yeah – i can’t really see what your saying here
    
    3 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    March 20, 2025 6:46pm
- alphabeatrium
  
  The iwi funding it would be sensible, I wouldn’t have an issue in that case. Similarly in Palmerston North, the council is going in $10m to the iwi’s $2m for a new marae and cultural centre on the banks of the Manawatu (from the LTP). (Specifically ANZAC Park; since renamed to something I can’t remember that’s not in English.) I put that the council has as much responsibility to fund 83% of a marae as it does a church, gurdwara or mosque.
  
  14 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  March 20, 2025 9:36am
- artemisia
  
  Meanwhile … Tertiary institutions ‘should not assume funding will be maintained’
  
  “Total funding available for Vote Tertiary Education will be limited and we will need to reprioritise our investment in a fiscally constrained environment. This will mean disinvesting from lower-performing and/or some non-priority provision to ensure funding is directed towards the government’s priority areas.
  
  https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/545382/tertiary-institutions-should-not-assume-funding-will-be-maintained
  
  10 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  March 20, 2025 9:36am
  - sungsamning
    
    The whole budget should be zeroed. Leave ‘tertiary education’ up to students, banks, and institutions to fund.
    
    4 5
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    March 20, 2025 9:58am
    - imalwaysright
      
      Correct, it would be cheaper, relevant, and much higher quality.
      Instead we fund the enemy within, a cess pit of feeble minded ideologues and activists.
      
      6 3
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      March 20, 2025 10:31am
      - Ian Boag
        
        Just out of curiosity – what (if any) tertiary quals do either of you blokes have …. ?
        
        3 9
        Report
        March 20, 2025 1:05pm
      - imalwaysright
        
        Thanks Ian, as I was saying, relevant and higher quality.
        
        3 0
        Report
        March 20, 2025 4:35pm
- kowtow
  
  I’d have thought that a “charity” engaging in such racist , political and divisive activity would be a trigger for te media paahti to renew their calls for de registration …….
  
  ……oh wait , wrong type of charity .
  
  11 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  March 20, 2025 9:53am
- I remember when
  
  Why can those responsible not see that while a support centre may seem like a good idea, it allows Maori (and any other group) to isolate themselves from things they do not feel comfortable with.
  It removes them from the rest of the university.
  The point of a university is to mix, learn new activities and ideas.
  A ‘safe’ area is at odds with such behaviour.
  
  12 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  March 20, 2025 10:23am
- Skippytony
  
  Got news for you, every campus of every tertiary institution in NZ has Maori achievement teams, Pasifica achievement teams, priority learner engagement structures, Maori only study spaces, it goes on and on. There is, in my experience little to no evaluation of the effectiveness of these, um, initiatives as guess who they are run by. None knows (or cares) what the cost to serve is for priority learners, but it certainly comes out of the total budget for learners support, so guess who gets less support?
  
  12 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  March 20, 2025 12:22pm
  - pdm
    
    What happened to `common rooms’?
    
    3 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    March 20, 2025 8:13pm
- kiwimike
  
  Luxon & National won’t sort this
  
  5 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  March 20, 2025 12:28pm
Scooter

I wonder if some of the reporters at the Herald have any grip on reality or even been on an overseas holiday? If they think 28° is a hot summer they should visit Europe where temps around 36-38° are the norm for weeks. If anything NZ should welcome an increase, as being surrounded by an ocean and a very small land mass, a more warm climate would be beneficial for all sorts of reasons e.g agriculture, tourism, health benefits

(“RNZ reporter Eloise Gibson, citing climate scientist Luke Harrington, claimed Hamilton experienced its hottest 10-day streak on record in early 2025, averaging 28.63°C—surpassing previous highs in 2018, 2019, and 1998.
Wishart presents historical newspaper records showing Hamilton experienced a much hotter and longer heatwave in 1934-35, with a 10-day average of 32.66°C and a continuous 63-day period of temperatures exceeding 27°C. This significantly surpasses the heatwaves recorded in the climate change era. RNZ is accused of ignoring or suppressing this historical data, with Gibson and Harrington choosing not to amend the story even when confronted with contradictory evidence.”)
10 0
Log in to Reply
Report
March 20, 2025 8:26am
- keepcalmcarryon
  
  Yes the Hamilton Heatwave Hoax.
  RNZ and NZ Herald are flat out spreading disinformation here – their story is just plain factually incorrect.
  And refusing to apologise and correct themselves.
  
  7 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  March 20, 2025 4:44pm
Chuck Bird

I mentioned how a UN worker got killed in Gaza by the recent bombing and how I hoped it was someone from UNRWA who had helped Hamas on 7 October. I hope it was not removed by a moderator.
13 8
Log in to Reply
Report
March 20, 2025 8:30am
- cmm
  
  Hoping for someone’s death – even on that basis – is likely to earn the ire of the mods.
  
  I do understand where you were coming from though.
  If a UN worker does have to die, then hopefully it was one of the evil prick Hamas terrorists masquerading as UN workers and paid for by us – rather than someone else.
  
  That is not wishing ill on anyone. It is hoping for the least undesirable outcome.
  
  17 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  March 20, 2025 8:34am
  - Chuck Bird
    
    I hear Peters say that Israel should do nothing while Hamas still has hostages. He should stop funding UNRWA.
    
    16 6
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    March 20, 2025 8:50am
    - kiwimike
      
      If Peters said that, he is unfit for office.
      
      I can’t believe he did say it, as it is moronic
      
      2 4
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      March 20, 2025 12:30pm
      - Ghost
        
        He didn’t. He called for both sides to reinstate the ceasefire and fully implement the terms of the deal
        
        8 0
        Report
        March 20, 2025 12:48pm
- Ghost
  
  This is as disgusting as those who celebrate the deaths of Israelis.
  
  And it was a Bulgarian UNOPS worker that was killed
  
  0 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  March 20, 2025 8:59pm
Notsofast

Unusually in NYT there are a good proportion of comments supporting DJT for enacting his policy of getting men out of women’s sport. $175 million funding removed from Mr Lia Thomas’s university Penn State.

“Great reporting.

I switched parties and voted for Trump, and this is exactly the type of leadership I was expecting from the President.

Thank-you for listening to average Americans, Mr. President.”

80% support which makes me wonder what spoils the brains of the other 20%. The numbers are similar here.
Something for Mr Luxon to learn?

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/19/us/politics/trump-to-pause-175-million-for-university-of-pennsylvania-over-transgender-policy.html
13 3
Log in to Reply
Report
March 20, 2025 8:37am
Chuck Bird

Thanks for your support. I wish Putin would be assassinated. Do you agree?
9 18
Log in to Reply
Report
March 20, 2025 8:42am
- pdm
  
  I am surprised someone, Ukranian, Georgian or another disaffected former Soviet state has not had a shot at it.
  
  A rocket into the Kremlin would seem to be a good start.
  
  8 11
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  March 20, 2025 8:51am
  - Grunter
    
    Thats a sensible plan!! Then what happens pdm & Chuck?
    
    Your idiotic warmongering is beyond understanding.
    
    11 6
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    March 20, 2025 9:01am
- NothingLeft
  
  The problem with evil despots is that their successors tend to be worse – having survived and risen to top under previous monster.
  
  Whoever comes after Putin is likely to be even more brutal and uncaring about millions dying, though perhaps won’t care about being a ‘big man’ of history.
  
  A good way to deal with despots would be to crowd-fund removal – to fund any particular outcome – eg institution of democracy by payment to ruling oligarchs, or successful assassination OR for the despot to take to start a new life under amnesty in the west. Kinda like the old system of ‘offering quarter’ where a surrendering aristocrat would be allowed to keep a quarter of his assets.
  
  5 4
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  March 20, 2025 8:54am
  - Taieri
    
    The problem with evil despots is that their successors tend to be worse – having survived and risen to top under previous monster.
    ——————
    
    Like in Stalin vs Khrushchev?
    
    3 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    March 20, 2025 10:54am
- rouppe
  
  If he were, how do you know his replacement will be better?
  
  9 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  March 20, 2025 8:54am
- cmm
  
  Nope.
  I think it extremely naive to believe the “one bad apple” theory that just one person causes problems on their own.
  
  If Putin went away do you really think things would change? The vacuum would be filled by someone else – perhaps better perhaps worse.
  
  This is just a modern version of “If Hitler hadn’t been born then WW2 and the Holocaust etc would not have happened”. Not so. WW2 was essentially baked in to the WW1 settlement and the Germans have genocidal form (eg. Hereros in South West Africa just a few decades earlier). Moral decay and punitive invasion of the Rhinelands already leading towards nationalism and remilitarisation.
  
  History is full of these fictitious key moments. WW1 was all set to kick off. It was not caused by Archduke Ferdinand being shot.
  
  But humans like simple stories. Clear goodies vs clear baddies, nice linear story lines etc.
  
  15 5
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  March 20, 2025 8:56am
  - Grunter
    
    Exactly!
    
    So many seem to think that life and war are just like Hollywood movies. That is the BS we are being sold via the MSM. Believe it if you like, but so far the REALITY seems to be overriding the BS.
    
    BTW – that does not mean I’m a Putin supporter, nor a Trump supporter, nor a supporter of any current Government for that matter. It simply means I see through the BS you hear/read/watch on a daily basis.
    
    11 6
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    March 20, 2025 9:08am
    - newview
      
      It doesn’t make your opinion any more valid than anyone else’s Grunter and no I don’t believe many believe life and war are just like the Hollywood movies. If you think that you’re the one full of BS.
      
      9 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      March 20, 2025 3:24pm
  - David Garrett
    
    Cmm: I have to disagree with you on this one – in fact I disagree on several points.
    Firstly, I do not believe WW II was “baked in” by the Treaty of Versailles. This is no place for an essay, but consider just one point: the supposed “crippling reparations ” imposed on Germany.
    
    Those reparations were denominated in German marks, which meant the hyper-inflation of the early 1920s made them a joke. And in any event, none were paid after 1923, a mere four years after the treaty was signed.
    
    Secondly, I disagree that if Hitler had been taken out prior to 1933 someone equally evil would just have taken his place.
    As I’m sure you know, there were a number of fringe fascist parties in Germany during the 1920s. It was Hitler who made the NSDAP (Nazis) stand out from all the rest.
    
    For reasons I have never understood, Hitler had a unique mesmerising effect on million of ordinary Germans – such that he was able to “sell” the ideal of a blonde blue eyed Aryan superman on the German people despite the fact that neither he nor those in his immediate circle remotely resembled such a blonde Nordic giant.
    
    22 5
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    March 20, 2025 9:26am
    - RoboRob
      
      You dont have to be a 6ft tall supermodel to idealise that as the ‘perfect’ woman. I suspect for many germans a tall, blonde blue eyed nordic was the epitomy of Germany. The fact that Hitler was not didn’t mean shit.
      
      With regards to the rest. We will never know. I think it likely another leader would have taken Germany to war regardless. They may not have commited genocide against the Jews but they also might not have made some of the mistakes Hitler made. With a diferent leader we might be looking at ‘Europe’ today as Portugal, Spain, Germany and Russia.
      
      If Hitler hadn’t bought Russia into the war by attaking them, would Russia have become the military superpower it once was?
      
      Its all a game of what if. But to assume that assasinating Hitler or Putin would not have lead to them being replaced by someone worse (or as bad) is a mistake. Case in point, North Korea. When the new Kim came in everyone thought he would be better then his dad. How has that worked out?
      
      6 1
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      March 20, 2025 9:46am
    - imalwaysright
      
      “Hitler had a unique mesmerising effect on million of ordinary Germans .”
      
      It could be that he was giving the German public what many of them wanted.
      Hitlers people learned to read the room when he gave speeches.
      They would note that which got the best response and modify the next speech accordingly .
      He became the lightning rod of the Germans’ grievances.
      I’m not saying that this explains all, just that it’s another facet that may have played a part.
      
      7 1
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      March 20, 2025 9:49am
    - cmm
      
      You cannot sell stuff to people who are not ready to buy.
      
      The reparations were a small part of the issue. The occupation of the Rhinelands was more of an issue I would think. So too were the limits imposed on the German military. These, and similar, issues would have been extremely humiliating for a very proud nation such as the Germans.
      
      Nothing happens in a vacuum. When a society gets stressed by economic and other factors, they are far more open to nationalism and wanting to find glory etc. They are also far more keen to find scapegoats.
      
      Mussolini weas doing exactly the same across the border – harking back to a glorious past (often more mythology than historical).
      
      8 1
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      March 20, 2025 10:03am
      - David Garrett
        
        cmm: You unwittingly support my argument when you refer to Mussolini – adored by the majority of Italians throughout the 1920’s and 30’s.
        
        By 1943 the Italian people had had enough of him, and overthrew him to popular acclaim. As I’m sure you know, he ended his days being shot and hung upside down at a Milan petrol station.
        
        By contrast, despite the devastation of Germany – which was much much worse than that of Italy – Adolf stayed unchallenged as the leader until his suicide in April 1945. Unlike Italy, there was was never any real opposition to Adolf and his henchmen, even very late in the day.
        
        Hitler was unique in the 20th century, arguably in all of modern history.
        
        6 3
        Report
        March 20, 2025 10:48am
      - kowtow
        
        DG
        
        I wonder if the lack of opposition to Hitler was at least partly down to some 10 years of total destruction of potential threats first via the concentration camps ( which they opened very early in the piece ) and then to actual outright mass murder , accompanied by torture , show trials etc and an all encompassing security state.
        
        A totally cowed populace . Recall Canaris and the other officers etc who were part of the bomb plot , even Rommel on the periphery.
        
        I suppose partly same thing in Russia today with Putin’s ruthless murder of any opposition and massive state security apparatus. Pour encourage les autres.
        
        6 1
        Report
        March 20, 2025 11:15am
      - cmm
        
        I am in no way disputing that Hitler was highly effective as an orator, and probably did a better job of sweeping people along than others, but my main points were:
        1) Germany was ready for it due to many factors. Many things made them ready to listen.
        2) Germany had prior form with genocide. It wasn’t a Nazi anomaly.
        
        I think it absurd to believe that one person could hoodwink and entire nation and turn them into savages.
        
        But we like to believe that for our own convenience. Unless we believe that we are stuck with a massive problem: how do we re-integrate Germans into polite society?
        
        Thus you string up a few bad eggs at Nuremberg, say that all the evil resided in them and all the rest were poor victims of propaganda etc.
        
        5 3
        Report
        March 20, 2025 11:59am
      - David Garrett
        
        cmm: I don’t think anyone thought “stringing up a few bad eggs” was going to solve anything going forward; in fact Stalin was probably more realistic when he proposed picking 50,000 of the worse Nazis and summarily shooting them. The fact that he was arguably a worse tyrant than Adolf is not really relevant to the validity of that proposal.
        
        I think the world has been trying to 80 years to understand just how he and Goebbels and a few others so comprehensively turned an entire people in homicidal maniacs – or at least a nation who approved of homicidal maniacs.
        
        Are you familiar with the Milgram experiments after the war? They were one of the first steps in trying to understand how a nature of highly cultured people became – by and large – “Hitler’s willing executioners” as a Jewish writer called Goldhagen has called the vast majority of the German population from 1933 to ’45
        
        5 2
        Report
        March 20, 2025 12:08pm
  - I remember when
    
    Do we need to remember that if fascism hadn’t become the government in Germany, then Communism may have.
    What would the outcome have been then?
    
    5 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    March 20, 2025 10:58am
  - Dave
    
    While Allied terms for the armistice, the continued blockade between the armistice and Versailles, then the Treaty of Versailles itself caused considerable German resentment and Foch, on hearing the terms of the treaty, predicted a second round of fighting within 20 years, WWII was not inevitable.
    
    The Nazis were a minor political party until the economic crash and being blocked from markets crashed the German economy. In the 1930s. German diplomats were confident the losses of Versailles could be reversed through diplomacy.
    
    WWI was set to kick off, but also not inevitable. Previous Balkan and non-Balkan crises had been resolved peacefully since the turn of the century. Had the Austria-Hungary leadership been just a little less aggressive and ambitious, a deal meeting most of A-H’s demands and humiliating but not destroying Serbia was possible. It’s difficult to see the Kaiser’s father issuing a blank cheque to Vienna. Gavrilo Princip killed the wrong member of royalty – the Arch-duke was not an enthusiastic war-mongerer.
    
    1 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    March 20, 2025 5:48pm
- G152
  
  The trouble is if/when Putin gets killed the next maniac may be even worse
  
  7 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  March 20, 2025 9:36am
  - MCōs
    
    That’s never a good reason not to replace a poor leader
    
    9 3
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    March 20, 2025 11:22am
- imalwaysright
  
  “Thanks for your support. I wish Putin would be assassinated. Do you agree?”
  
  Start a Give a Little page and get yourself over there and do it yourself. The index finger isn’t just for typing Chuck.
  
  6 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  March 20, 2025 10:52am
- Eastlander
  
  We have here a dopey legalistic liberal with a ravenous appetite for bizarre compromises like Minsk-2 or the grain deal and was willing to walk away with the status quo back in April 2022, and the whole discourse is dominated by people who think he’s Adolf von Blofeld.
  
  God help us if you people ever got your wish. Would you like President Medvedev back? Perhaps you’ll get really lucky and it’ll be something like Albert Makashov. Thank God Navalny is dead because if he’d ever gotten into power he would have done the quickest about-face of all time and we would have seen tanks on parade at ploschad Navalnovo (formerly Kreschatik) in Navalnygrad (formerly Kyiv).
  
  3 3
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  March 20, 2025 12:03pm
- kiwimike
  
  I have a long list for benefit of the world.
  China
  Iran
  Turkey
  N Korea
  Venuszuala
  Belarous
  Syria
  Saudi Arabia
  Qatar
  there are a few more
  
  0 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  March 20, 2025 12:33pm
NothingLeft

Good discussion or realpolitik of Ukraine/Russia war between Konstantin Kisin and Winston Marshall from a few days ago:https://youtu.be/RgoaWMKfWlg
3 1
Log in to Reply
Report
March 20, 2025 8:59am
Matt Long

What sort of Christian celebrates Ramadan and bows down to Hindu idols? A WEF one.
https://x.com/2ETEKA/status/1901799531798487234
7 4
Log in to Reply
Report
March 20, 2025 9:01am
- alphabeatrium
  
  Luxon should order some milquetoast for school lunches.
  
  8 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  March 20, 2025 9:42am
  - NothingLeft
    
    Media would then be up in arms about PM’s support for racist school lunch.
    
    5 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    March 20, 2025 11:15am
- Conservatarian
  
  A leftist wearing Conservative Party Clothes.
  
  “If I just make GDP line go up, and they have a few extra dollars in their pockets by the middle of next year, they’ll be convinced my plan is working”
  
  2 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  March 20, 2025 1:52pm
Steve Otto N Shore

Look What’s Being Delivered To Christchurch Letter Boxes! (Part 3)

Yesterday I posted Part 2 but it has disappeared for some reason. For those who want to see Part 2 it is on the Stop Co-Governance Youtube channel. It included a video from a Ngai Tahu member who is not happy with his iwi.

Video 11 minutes.
This is about getting a reply from Ngai Tahu to the pamphlet delivered in Christchurch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FsNe3d9NBU
10 5
Log in to Reply
Report
March 20, 2025 9:04am
cmm

Reason #467 for the 120 people a day taking the one-way flight out of NZ…

Paddy “I am the news” Gower takes a ride to visit the mob.

This Dr and nurse travel around giving GP services to various people including gang members.

IMHO this is a bullshit waste of resources. Why should gang members (aka criminals) be getting at-home medical care?

These people can get off their arses and go to the doctor like anyone else. But no:

“They are good people, they just come out of the goodness of their hearts,” Chopper Dogg says. “They come out here and help me and my family, because we don’t really go to the doctors, me and my people.”

It would seem to me that all this doctor and nurse are doing is feeding “The Prez” and his ilks’ delusion that they are special people and deserve special treatment.

Doctors and nurses are in short supply. Except in extreme cases like frail people who can’t get out of bed, patients should be going to the doctor – not the other way around. All that time driving is time when they could be serving patients.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360621546/meet-bus-driving-gp-and-nurse-pink-scrubs-helping-mongrel-mob-president-chopper-dogg-and-his-gang
17 3
Log in to Reply
Report
March 20, 2025 9:08am
- Chuck Bird
  
  I pay to see my doctor. Do they?
  
  17 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  March 20, 2025 9:30am
  - cmm
    
    Hint: Your wallet gave a twitch.
    
    10 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    March 20, 2025 10:05am
- David Garrett
  
  Cmm: Couldn’t agree more. Gangs and their members are a cancer on our society. All these silly naifs are doing is trying to suggest that beneath the patch, they are really “just like us”.
  These women would be absolutely horrified if they knew just what these scum had done to earn the said patch – which they say they just look beyond.
  
  21 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  March 20, 2025 9:31am
  - cmm
    
    … and most importantly Gower managed to selfie himself into the main picture…
    
    7 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    March 20, 2025 10:05am
    - kowtow
      
      Not only are the gangs a cancer on society .
      
      So too are Gower , stuff , those medicos and for good measure anyone else out there doing their level best to “normalise” them.
      
      13 1
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      March 20, 2025 11:05am
    - Conservatarian
      
      Gower is the same Gower who last year claimed, live on the radio in an instalment of “The Huddle”, that a karakia was not a Maori prayer.
      
      HDPA very quickly came back with an appeal to authority straight out of the lib bible (on air, she Googled an online dictionary). It wrecked Gower.
      
      Gower is an idiot. Either that, or he makes his money by repeating things that idiots like to think and hear.
      
      5 1
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      March 20, 2025 1:57pm
- rockape
  
  I hope they are self funding and not supported by the health ministry.
  
  6 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  March 20, 2025 11:54am
Matt Long

Matt Doocey and Mark Carney have joint interests that should be great for the NZ Canadian relationship.
The Tavistock Clinic.
https://x.com/SimonEsler/status/1902052702911070372
10 2
Log in to Reply
Report
March 20, 2025 9:16am
- JackRabbit
  
  I think the problems with Canada are more than Carney having a transgender child.
  
  It appears that corrupt Trudeau may have put Canada in the hands of Blackrock, just as Ardern attempted to do here.
  
  Canada Is A Failed State and Mark Carney is BlackRock’s Bankruptcy Trustee
  
  https://elizabethnickson.substack.com/p/canada-is-a-failed-state-and-mark
  
  https://www.woolstangray.eu/canada-in-probate-what-do-you-do-with-canadian-traitors/
  
  Canadians would be lucky to be the 51st state.
  
  That is what Carney did to Canada in the ‘08 crisis, a crisis entirely created by larcenous government and investment bankers: he loaded us up with so much debt that the moment the economy turned, the working class – and Canada is now 75% working class – paid for it through interest rates so high they crippled and broke every middle class family with a mortgage. Then, he moved to England and did it to the English. His name there? Mark ‘Carnage’. During the ‘08 crisis, he in Canada and the UK and Obama in the US transferred trillions in public wealth to the investment banks to keep them going after the worst crisis since ‘29. A crisis they caused. That was the people’s money, not theirs.
  
  4 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  March 20, 2025 1:59pm
Dudley Quaffquaff

Well – thank you, President Trump. It was worth a try, and you gave it your best shot. Nobody could have done more than you did to try to establish a productive, constructive relationship with Russia as a step towards a just and lasting peace in Ukraine. We know that your efforts to gain President Putin’s respect came at a considerable cost, albeit not to you personally, and required great courage and fortitude, albeit not from you personally. Nobody can say that it was because you didn’t try, that Russia has continued to act in bad faith. It’s on them. Everybody can see that.

So now we’ll be seeing America back where she belongs, leading the struggle for freedom, democracy and justice, right?

Right?
11 12
Log in to Reply
Report
March 20, 2025 9:34am
Master Mariner

Five Years On: How Sweden and New Zealand’s Covid-19 Response Fared
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnLZ7n1xwEI

Blind Faith in models, Here’s looking at you Labour.

When is NZ media going to report this ?
13 4
Log in to Reply
Report
March 20, 2025 9:34am
- cmm
  
  We all know that National would have done nothing different. They might have just enforced things more efficiently.
  
  16 3
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  March 20, 2025 10:29am
  - Master Mariner
    
    Yep, Unfortunately so.
    Power comes from the power point, Food from supermarket and fuel comes from the bowser.
    Meantime if anyone is watching, There is a mad scramble too shore up supply chains and resilency, Unfortunately being the arse end of the World , We have not been instructed as yet.
    No lessons learnt during Covid down here unfortunately.
    
    8 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    March 20, 2025 1:01pm
- Steve Otto N Shore
  
  “Don’t talk you your neighbours.”
  
  9 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  March 20, 2025 11:06am
sungsamning

Donald Trump Endorses Mark Carney.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsrQO4wVnrk

Donald Trump will have an easier time dealing with Mark Carney because he is a weak man, Pierre is not.
5 5
Log in to Reply
Report
March 20, 2025 9:51am
- JackRabbit
  
  If Trump has endorsed Carney, my trust of Trump has dropped by 3/4.
  
  Stephen LeDrew (a liberal)
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_LeDrew
  
  Carney is a wickedly dangerous man,hoping to curtail individual freedom in order to achieve his view of what the world needs. He makes the WEF look like Libertarians!
  
  2 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  March 20, 2025 2:09pm
David Garrett

Steve O: I lasted until question 30…all a complete waste of time because Ngai Tahu are never going to respond to any of the questions.
While Julian Bachelor raises many important questions and issues, I remain of the view that he is absolutely the wrong front man for this cause – he’s a pom and a clergyman. Two strikes against him in the eyes of many right there.
16 6
Log in to Reply
Report
March 20, 2025 9:52am
- Yabster
  
  Maybe David- but there not alot of others putting up a fight is there??
  
  5 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  March 20, 2025 10:56am
- Steve Otto N Shore
  
  I know he is a Minister and Evangelist. That does not worry me at all. I am not a man of faith at all.
  Having met and talked with him in person, he is genuine. I asked him “what drives you?” He said “I am committed.”
  He has stopped his career in real estate to pursue this.
  
  8 3
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  March 20, 2025 11:10am
sungsamning

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/03/boom-laura-loomer-uncovers-enormous-taxpayer-funded-conflict/
Judge Has Conflict of Interest.
The radical judge trying to stop President Trump from deporting dangerous illegal aliens has been Loomered.
As The Gateway Pundit reported, a federal judge appointed by Barack Obama issued an ’emergency’ injunction Saturday night ordering planes already in the air to turn back mid-flight to prevent the deportation of Tren De Agua members to El Salvador.
The case was brought by the Marxist, America-hating ACLU and Democracy Forward.
But the order came too late. Two flights from the U.S. carrying nearly 300 Venezuelan and other gang members landed in El Salvador despite Judge James Boasberg’s emergency order. This prompted a mocking reply from the country’s president, Nayib Bukele.
7 8
Log in to Reply
Report
March 20, 2025 9:52am
- Steve Otto N Shore
  
  Another dodgy leftie Dudge.
  Who the hell is the “Commander in Chief?” Does that title mean nothing and Dudges just ignore it?
  
  5 7
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  March 20, 2025 11:21am
- MCōs
  
  The judge was appointed by GWB and promoted by Obama I think you’ll find
  
  6 4
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  March 20, 2025 11:37am
  - Tom Hunter
    
    In case you hadn’t noticed the legacy of GWB has declined inside the GOP and the US Right Winger even faster and further than Trump has risen.
    
    Primarily for domestic policy reasons, but also with a fair number of pissed off veterans of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
    
    5 4
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    March 20, 2025 12:17pm
    - Don Beckett
      
      The judge obviously doesn’t know the powers vested in the executive – i.e the president.
      Perhaps he does, but is a rank lefty trying to proceed the Dem. agenda.
      
      6 7
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      March 20, 2025 1:09pm
      - MCōs
        
        On the other hand the judge does know the law, unfortunately for the president whose only answer was to throw the toys out of the cot.
        
        4 6
        Report
        March 20, 2025 3:12pm
I remember when

Once upon a time, as stories used to go, a four minute mile was the ultimate in middle distance running.
In Auckland last night, three New Zealand athletes, including a 15 year old, managed it in the same race.
At the other end of the spectrum increasing numbers can bearly manage to run.
12 4
Log in to Reply
Report
March 20, 2025 9:57am
- Jethrod
  
  It is interesting that the Mile is being reintroduced at the next Commonwealth Games in Scotland, instead of the 1500 Metre race.
  
  8 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  March 20, 2025 11:29am
- MCōs
  
  I’ve been in the latter category for many years now.
  
  4 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  March 20, 2025 11:47am
  - muzled
    
    I’m guessing you’re not 15?
    
    2 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    March 20, 2025 1:40pm
    - MCōs
      
      Affirmative
      
      1 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      March 20, 2025 3:26pm
  - Ghost
    
    With what you’ve been through, you’d be just happy you can walk and enjoy life.
    
    1 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    March 20, 2025 5:23pm
    - MCōs
      
      Walk!
      Luxury!
      
      0 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      March 20, 2025 6:48pm
Richard

Anyone else notice that at around 5pm every day someone downvotes every post on this site?
8 4
Log in to Reply
Report
March 20, 2025 10:05am
- Interested Party
  
  Not at all, but I’ll review your post later today (at 5)
  
  7 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  March 20, 2025 11:05am
- NothingLeft
  
  amusing, can just imagine the sad wee petal’s feeling of virtuous triumph in devoting themselves to the task of downticking Hitler (AKA everyone they don’t agree with).
  
  4 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  March 20, 2025 11:17am
- Steve Otto N Shore
  
  That person is just telling everyone that they are over the target.
  [Mod – stop the abuse]
  
  7 4
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  March 20, 2025 11:24am
- Jethrod
  
  What really is the point of that?
  Can the moderator tell who is upticking/downticking any particular post?
  
  1 3
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  March 20, 2025 11:32am
  - rouppe
    
    One would imagine.
    
    Once you’ve up or down ticked a comment, you can’t undo it or do it again.
    
    Therefore each tick must be recorded against the comment with the login id or some foreign key value for the login as part of the data.
    
    3 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    March 20, 2025 3:05pm
- MCōs
  
  Shock horror
  
  3 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  March 20, 2025 1:52pm
Conservatarian

I bowed deferentially to my local kaumatua this morning. Of course, he’s a convicted double murderer, but he’s old and Maori, so that means he’s a kaumatua.
15 1
Log in to Reply
Report
March 20, 2025 10:35am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  Dean Wickliffe, a life-long oxygen thief. Read his criminal record and weep.
  
  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dean_Wickliffe
  
  4 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  March 20, 2025 1:09pm
  - Blog-aholic
    
    I’ll not weep for him.
    
    3 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    March 20, 2025 2:03pm
  - Nobby2
    
    The longer he is on a hunger strike the better, as it will mean the end of life for a scumbag.
    
    3 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    March 20, 2025 3:09pm
imalwaysright

The Principals Federation aren’t keen on a proposed national testing scheme for children to assess writing , reading and maths.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/545364/principals-stunned-as-ministry-looks-for-new-reading-maths-tests

They seem scared that children and schools will face comparison.

That the government are going offshore to buy a testing system is indicative of their faith in our 4000 strong Ministry of Education. What do they do all day?

(Here is some wise words about herself from Principals Federation president Leanne Otene :

““I have been a teacher all my life, I have actually never not gone to school since I was 5,” she said.”)

For fuck sake.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/pou-tiaki/131116222/new-zealand-principals-federation-elects-first-wahine-mori-president
12 1
Log in to Reply
Report
March 20, 2025 11:37am
- R
  
  Such comments explain why our children’s education achievement level is so low. Federation leader can’t write a grammatically correct sentence, what chance do the children have?
  
  6 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  March 20, 2025 1:52pm
- fightingtemeraire
  
  In the UK they want to make the GCSE easier to reduce stress in the students.
  
  Get them to sit the PRC/Japanese/Korean exams and they will see what stress is!!!
  
  6 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  March 20, 2025 1:57pm
Jack5

Indian accents of staff at the world’s biggest call-centre firm are being “neutralised” by artificial intelligence, reports the Telegraph.

The French company Teleperformance, which has 90,000 employees in India, is using “real-time” AI software from Sanas, of the US.

The process gives the Indian workers an American “twang”, and reduces background noise, says the newspaper. It also that Sanas has been criticised in the past for making voices “sound whiter”.

How long before scamsters’ voices emulate those of trusted people?

Fun voice changers have been available free for trial on the Net for a year or three, but the technology now is serious.
6 2
Log in to Reply
Report
March 20, 2025 2:37pm
- greybeard
  
  Well Goodness Gracious Me.
  
  1 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  March 20, 2025 8:00pm
Steve Otto N Shore

Anti-Trump Judge’s Corruption EXPOSED. Liz Wheeler.
Liz wheeler puts the Judge’s past out there, with his anti Trump actions.
Impeachment has now been filed against Judge James Boasberg.
To keep MS 13 member and Tren de Aragua member illegals in the US is corrupt – all because of the Judges hate of Trump.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cfp9roWQCgg

Lauren Boebert is not standing for any nonsense either.
Boasberg is the current head of the alien deportation court, yet he tries to stop Trump deporting illegal aliens.

https://www.msn.com/en-nz/news/other/impeachment-filed-against-judge-who-ordered-trump-to-stop-deportations/ss-AA1BfDkn?
3 5
Log in to Reply
Report
March 20, 2025 2:51pm
Jack5

Themes or “memes” on internet features such as YouTube come in waves, and some seem orchestrated.

An example.

The Ukraine war brought lots of online jabs at British treatment of Polish allies in and after World War 2.

They mostly suspiciously stop short of blaming the Western Allies for not fighting the Soviet Union after Nazi Germany’s defeat.

A frequent angle is alleged lack of recognition of Polish pilots’ role in the Battle of Britain (there were almost as many Poles in it as there were pilots from Australasia).

Divide the enemy is a classic tactic. Russians cyber-saboteurs may well be having a game with this theme by sowing dissension between Brits and Poles.

Another example:

Trump’s move on tariffs and on taxing American companies abroad has been paralleled by a surge of Irish stuff – rebel songs, history, boozing, and an exceptional hyping of St Patrick’s Day.

The Irish Republic surged to prosperity by undercutting American taxes on companies.

Is there a subtle appeal on to Americans partly of Irish descent. A bid for Irish-American heat on Trump tax policies?

Vice-President Vance is a challenge if this is so. He’s of Scots-American stock — the Scots borderers the English placed in Ireland centuries ago to subdue the locals. However, Vance recently crossed a line from his ancestors by converting to Roman Catholicism.
4 1
Log in to Reply
Report
March 20, 2025 3:09pm
cmm

Well duh! Of course the “conspiracy theorists” were on the most likely path for finding the Covid origin.

Anything else makes Lotto look like a sure bet.

There are over 44,000 (yes, 44 THOUSAND) wet markets in China.

It was just very bad luck that Covid first turned up in the market closest to the virus research lab.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/world-news/360622430/we-blew-whistle-covid-lab-leak-five-years-ago-and-were-written-cranks
8 2
Log in to Reply
Report
March 20, 2025 3:23pm
- JackRabbit
  
  The only “wet market” of concern was the Wuhan World Military Games in October 2019, and the presence of Wuhan Lab ~~wet market~~ infectious disease workers sent to the Games accommodation village. People started getting seriously ill in the village in October.
  
  The Wuhan wet market story was a red herring/false flag. The Wuhan World Military Games complex was ground zero, allowing the virus to be transferred to participant countries.
  
  If wet markets were a real risk, there would have been thousands of outbreaks over many decades.
  
  6 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  March 20, 2025 3:46pm
  - imalwaysright
    
    Correct.
    
    2 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    March 20, 2025 4:48pm
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  Just to be clear, the “Stuff” article in question is lifted straight from The Telegraph.
  
  Stuff itself was firmly in the “it’s the pangolins wot dunnit” camp and, as far as I know, still cling to the skirts of the Jacinda-era explanations. Certainly, I do not recall seeing a culpa mea retraction from Stuff.
  
  0 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  March 20, 2025 6:48pm
cmm

Procrastination sometimes pays off…

One of my major customers is a woke-as-hell USA company. The CEO was all excited to comply with the Biden-era DEI rules etc. Almost as excited as when 2 of the whiter-than-white employees gave him a “genuine” Maori welcome and presented him with a “genuine” Maori carving made by a Dutch immigrant employee on a bandsaw.

The electronics industry is full of innuendo-ish terminology that was upsetting the luvvies. Male and female connectors. On computer buses (the wires chips use to communicate) we talk of master and slave devices (the master tells the slave device what to do). Clearly that would cause the 1 or 2% of black engineers to run for their safe spaces.

All such terminology was verboten. I had a long list of these to change in both code and documentation.

Then came Trump. Trump put his foot down. The CEO reluctantly withdrew his DEI love-fest.
I am going to stop worrying about coming up for new terminology for master/slave buses (??initiator/responder??). I suspect all the wokery will just get ignored and go away.

Thanks Trump!
6 2
Log in to Reply
Report
March 20, 2025 4:00pm
- imalwaysright
  
  Is the negative terminal the least popular?
  Maybe positive terminal and less committed terminal?
  
  3 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  March 20, 2025 5:09pm
- Inandout
  
  cmm, I must go check the man hole in case it is sitting proud on the driveway.
  
  0 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  March 20, 2025 6:06pm
NothingLeft

Most human-like moving robot yet from Boston Dynamics, doing cartwheels, rolls etc:
https://youtu.be/I44_zbEwz_w

The AI systems that control them are being trained for equivalent of years inside physics simulation environments – a bit like games – in which mass, inertia and friction of virtual robot are simulated allowing robot AI to learn how to control movement before being loaded into real-world robot at which point it’s virtual learning means it is able to move in agile/deft way straight out of the box.

Amazing how rapidly the improvement is occurring. They’ll be more agile (though probably not more dextrous given our remarkable hands) than almost all humans in a year or two.

They are going to be terrifying when turned into soldiers – or assassins.

On a practical level there is a huge amount of work they’ll be good for, and scaled up they will make heavy construction work much faster/cheaper. I expect we’ll eventually also see many of the creatures of fiction bought to life in robot form. Giants, Ogres, Centaurs, Dragons, Pegasus, Velociraptors, Pterodactyls, T-Rexes.
2 0
Log in to Reply
Report
March 20, 2025 4:34pm
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  Weeding. I want a robot that does the weeding.
  
  0 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  March 20, 2025 6:02pm
Jethrod

Here it is….. 1800….. I counted at least 3 comments unticked on the downside.
1 0
Log in to Reply
Report
March 20, 2025 6:02pm
Albie

Paywalled NZ Herald today:“Contact’s rejected wind farm project will delay NZ energy transition, industry body warns”.
Excuse me, but am I missing something here? The bat enthusiasts concerns about the windmills playing wack a mole with bats aside, haven’t we worked out yet that “renewables “ are a colossal waste of money and only lead to higher electricity prices?
Perhaps those three “expert” panelists in a perverse way did us a favour!
2 0
Log in to Reply
Report
March 20, 2025 6:57pm
greybeard

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360623085/doctor-former-tvnz-host-has-medical-registration-cancelled-over-misleading-covid-videos
“Bailey was found to have made comments criticising microbiologist Dr Siouxsie Wiles and epidemiologist Dr Michael Baker, who were at the forefront of Covid-19 commentary.
In one video, Bailey accused Wiles of becoming “detached from the very nature of human health”. In another, she claimed Baker had “been terrifying New Zealanders with his mortality estimates”.”
I think Bailey should be applauded for her opinions: they are simply what many New Zealanders have been saying for years.
6 0
Log in to Reply
Report
March 20, 2025 7:58pm
NZer In Exile

I see some AI offerings are mindlessly pushing climate alarmism, with dense word salad apologetics for the unsuspecting.

Grok appears not to be.
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
March 20, 2025 8:59pm

Add a Comment Cancel reply

Login to comment or vote

« 71 different procurement rules!

Not telling us everything »

Donations

You can now donate to Kiwiblog

Exclusive content from DPF on Patreon

Become a Patron!

Never miss a post

Email Address

Join 37.4K other subscribers

Highlights

Health Target 5 – elective treatments
Health Target 4 – Specialist appointments
Health Target 3 – Emergency Dept Waiting Times
Health Target 2 – Immunisations

Links

Law, culture, and the OIA
No Right Turn
"Treaty of Waitangi politics intrude ever more conspicuously into many areas of our society and our public life." Including internet access!
Not PC
Commerce Secretary Lutnick Is Among Those Government Officials Who Are Ignorant of Basic Economic Facts
Utopia
Daily review 21/03/2025
The Standard
We are still waiting for NZ Foreign Minister to apologise for Russian disinformation scam
The Daily Blog
How do we judge Trump’s sagacity? Counting the strength of voter support for him is one measure
Point of Order
Word of the day
Hompaddock
David Seymour Shows Christopher Luxon How To Run A Prime Ministers Press Conference
No Minister
Heeadsss-Up Warning To Parents
Bob McCoskrie's McBlog
RUGBY REFORM
No Punches Pulled (Bob Jones)
Super Rugby Predictions for Week 6
Stats Chat
A Return to a US Gilded Age?
Kiwipolitico
Eliminating Woke
NZCPR
On the way ahead
Croaking Cassandra
Maybe allow competition?
Offsetting Behaviour
Tory Whanau may have to sell Wellington mayoralty to make ends meet
The Civilian
The Accidental Engagement
Imperator Fish
Legal Beagle: Election '23: The Special Votes
Public Address
Making this movie might have been a mistake
Liam Hehir
Why I am retiring from political blogging
Kiwi FireWalker
Angie Warren-Clark: Meet the Newbies
Dan Moskovitz