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Jacinda Ardern

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Gruff, speaking of being intellectually challenged here is a transcript of Ardern's interview with Mike Hosking yesterday:

 

Ardern Refuses to Take Responsibility & Claims Our Economy Is All but Back to Normal

Mike:

 

So, what happened to the rules aye? Protesters all over the grounds of parliament, well in excess of 100 and not a sign of any social distancing, even the deputy prime minister this morning asking questions. The prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, is with us – good morning.

Jacinda:

Good morning.

Mike:

Do you condone that activity?

Jacinda:

No.

Mike:

And what about the police, where were they?

Jacinda:

(Sucks in breath) Ahh… they were present as they are other protests taking the exact same approach that they have all the way through. Aah… they take a graduated approach, Mike, and ultimately those are their calls. I should add these are operation decisions but the same approach is taken for any area where they’ve seen um… aah… gatherings, which is first to educate – warn, before they then move into enforcement action.

Mike:

Well, why didn’t they take any enforcement because presumably when they educated and warned nothing happened?

Jacinda:

Again, Mike, I am not going to um… aah… issue dictates on the police’s operational decisions. They are for them.

Mike:

Are you disappointed in them?

Jacinda:

Aah… in the…

Mike:

…police.

Jacinda:

Oh, aah…  they have played a phenomenal role all the way through the efforts of COVID-19. They are the ones on the ground needing to make these decisions and I leave those decisions for them and that’s appropriate.

Mike:

What’s the point of having rules if the rules can be so openly flouted and everybody else is supposed to adhere to them – unless you are a protester?

Jacinda:

And everyone… and everyone is meant to adhere to them. And, look Mike, I absolutely understand the strength of feeling and the sentiment. No one wants to have restrictions in place that inhibit peaceful protest um… or that stops funeral or tangihanga or celebrations, but they are there for a reason.

We have no restrictions in place that are not there for a reason currently…

Mike:

Well, no one’s arguing that. They are there for a reason but… but there’s no reason for having rules or regulations if they’re going to be so opening flouted and ignored by the police.

Jacinda:

And we have used a process all the way through that has served us well. It is a graduated approach. It doesn’t move straight in; in that it hasn’t moved straight in that heavy-handed way in the first instance. Um… but Mike of course my aspiration as a team, of course, is to move away from needing restrictions in all but the fastest way we can get there, it’s just being certain that we are in the better possible position to remove them.

Mike:

Winston said half an hour ago on this programme, given what we saw on the parliament grounds and in Auckland yesterday, why aren’t we at level one? He will presumably raise that with you again, so why aren’t we at level one?

Jacinda:

Well, the first thing I would say is that no one argued at level four that if someone broke the rules that was a reason to get rid of the rules, um… but of course as we’ve moved through we’ve always said that we need to make sure that we’re constantly reviewing the settings and the data that we’re getting.

So, what I intend to talk to cabinet about today is we’ve always said it would be no later than the 22nd of June that we’d have those… aah… that we would move to level one if we continue on the track that we have.

Aah… from the conversations I’ve had with the… from the Ministry of Health and the feedback I’ve had from the Director General of Health is that we are in a position to start considering that earlier than that. Um… so potentially that would be the 8th of June.

Mike:

So, you will consider at the 8th of June to go on the 9th?

Jacinda:

I’ll put… I’ll put to the cabinet that we consider it on the 8th of June. We’ve always left that up to 48 hours before we move, ahh so that’s what I’ll talk to cabinet about today.

Mike:

So, today’s the 2nd, six days’ time, what is it that’s happening between now and six days’ time that’s going to flip it?

Jacinda:

Mike, Mike you will remember that in the same way that when we went into lock down we said well actually we won’t see… there’s a lag here with everything, and the thing that ahh of course, our epidemiologist and the health officials continue to keep in mind is that we do have asymptomatic transmission and so if we want to be in the position where we already have some of the fewest restrictions in the world um… if we want to be in a position where we are probably the only one that has virtually none… which is keep in mind level one, that is what it looks like.

Basically, it’s border controls and nothing else. If we want to move into that position you can understand why we’d want to have that extra assurance of that lengthier period of time where there aren’t any cases…

Mike:

Well… well maybe we would and maybe we wouldn’t. What about the bloke who caught it from an event who said last week NZ cannot wait further weeks over minimal Covid cases knowing that the cost will only be extreme and unjustifiable?

Jacinda:

A couple of things to keep in mind. I mean you would have been out and about as I was Mike, over the weekend, for the most part the restrictions now are… are… um… impacting, you know, through fewer tables in hospitality and a particular way of working there, and mass gatherings are obviously having an impact, but by and large the economy is back.

We do need to start seeing people come back into our cities, but that’s nothink to do with our restrictions so there are some personal choices that are being made in the way that some employers are working. By and large we came out of some of those heavy restrictions the moment we started stepping into level two, and that is why we have some… basically are amongst the fewest restrictions in the world right now.

Mike:

So, if our economy is largely back why do we have 50,000 more people on benefits?

Jacinda:

(Sucks in breath)

Mike:

The answer is because it’s not back and you know it.

Jacinda:

No, that’s aah… I don’t think that’s entirely fair Mike, there are some who have not survived through this.

Mike:

And the retail association and the hospitality association say at level two we cannot make a living, yes, the doors open, but we cannot make a living and that’s what’s holding them back and that’s more jobs when the wage subsidy is over.

Jacinda:

Yeah, hospitality we know. We’ve just asked of course that there’s still registers ahh and that they have a metre between people who are dining.

Yes, and (indistinct)… retail I’d be interested to hear some of that feedback. Um… why… what those wider impacts are. I do still see some retailers who are doing things that they aren’t required to do and I understand that they are doing it for the safety of their customers but… but actually some of those restrictions are lesser on retail than others so…

Mike:

So, you’re… you’re arguing that people who are struggling to make a living at the moment, who are open at level two is good enough for them and the economy is back – your words not mine.

Jacinda:

No, no, not at all.

Mike:

You seriously argued that!

Jacinda:

No, Mike. I am arguing that the difference between level two and level one are primarily is hitting on hospitality um… and we absolutely acknowledge that, but I am also arguing that the idea of going hard and go early meant that we went into heavy restrictions and we came out, relative to other countries, very, very quickly.

Mike:

So, Michael Barnett says we should be at level one. Adam Crichton wrote that piece in The Australian, I am sure you read last week, that you are pushing the economy off a cliff. Winston says we should be on level one, Hospitality NZ says we should be on level one.

The line of people saying we are on level one is long and loud.

Jacinda:

And Mike, and I’ve just explained to you that as a cabinet we are likely to consider earlier because we always said the 22nd was the very latest.

(Sucks in breath) But also, I can give you a line of epidemiologists who know a lot about the ahh transmission um… of viruses like this, who I also have to give consideration to as well…

Mike:

Is that… is that the point – you’re giving more consideration to the Siouxsie Wiles and the Michael Bakers of this world than you are to people who make a living in business?

Jacinda:

No… no, not at all. All the way through our entire strategy is about… bin about trying to open up the economy faster than others. And we have. We are more open right now than Australia. We are more open than most countries you could compare us to. The only countries considered more open than us currently, Mike, are Belarus and Taiwan.

So, I really push back on this idea here, that we haven’t been focused on opening up our economy. We have.

Mike:

If you go to them on the 8th with a view to opening when – the 9th? Or another two weeks past the 8th?

Jacinda:

We’ve tended to give people about… tended to be about 48 hours Mike.

Mike:

So, the 8th could be open at level one on the 10th?

Jacinda:

Ah… yes, yes it could be a scenario, yes.

Mike:

Is contact tracing a problem? We seem to have gone back to nine days from five, why?

Jacinda:

Ahh, sorry, you’ll have to give me an explanation of your argument.

Mike:

We’ve gone back… the Ministry of Health tells us we’ve gone back in contact tracing to nine days to get 80% of the cases and the close contacts, from five.  Ayesha Verrall said originally it should be four.

Jacinda:

(Sucks in breath) Well, all… as I’ve pointed out time and time again our biggest issue umm hasn’t ahh in more recent times… ahh so over the period of say from April, our biggest issue has been the timeliness of people getting a test because the clock starts as soon as… aah as soon as basically you’re symptomatic. If people don’t get a test in a timely way then it basically puts us behind on every element of that process…

Mike:

So, that’s not going to be a problem holding us back? So, you are happy that the contact tracing is not going to hold us back?

Jacinda:

I’m not going to… that has not been a reason for holding us back. No, Mike, but that does continue to be our biggest issue which is why we keep telling people if they’re sick, stay home, get a test straight way.

Mike:

On the wage subsidy, $10 billion wage subsidy, why would Carmel Sepuloni not be interested in getting regular updates and only be interested in looking at those once a quarter?

Jacinda:

No, I don’t think that was a fair characterisation. I think you might have seen that actually we came back on that and absolutely said that we agreed that’s information that we do ahh umm that there is public interest in and we are taking a very close look at and so we’ve got regular reporting on that.

I think we’ve had about 3,200 refunds that have been made, about $83 million has been returned and we’ve been applying an auditing process as well.

Mike:

Adrien Orr said there’s a lot of money in the bank, so what happens with the… this is the IRD loan scheme, small businesses come along, borrow the money, stick it on deposit and collect the interest. If they were doing that, does that bother you?

Jacinda:

We’ve essentially said… you know, I’ve actually spoken to businesses that are… that are not doing that in order ahh… ahh to ahh reduce for instance interest payments but actually out of just the security of knowing that it’s there we did have a limited time available for applications for those loans so they’re as … in cases the hospo businesses I spoke to last week, they’re okay for now. They’re worried about their ongoing recovery as the winter drags on and so for them it was about applying when it was available and having it there in case, they needed it… to call on it further down the track. And I know that it what it is intended for.

Mike:

Just quickly, on the Monark development, KiwiBuild promised to be in by June of this year – do you owe them an apology? They bought on KiwiBuild on the government promise of being able to be in June – they may be in in July 2022.

Jacinda:

(Sucks in breath) Look, without having all of the… of course with developments Mike, there are many, many factors at play that can lead to delays.

Mike:

Indeed, do you owe them an apology though? They built on the promise of KiwiBuild and they’re not getting a house until July 2022, if they get their house at all.

Jacinda:

No. Again, that would be something for Minister Woods to address.

Mike:

Appreciate your time very much. Jacinda Ardern.

 

 

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An excellent (and concerning) read:

 

Both of NZ’s Post COVID Futures Are Bad:

A Return to Normality Is Neither Simple nor Guaranteed.

By Alex Davis

After ten days of no new COVID-19 cases many New Zealanders are likely to be feeling a mixture of relief and complacency. The country dodged a bullet – now there is just the journey back to normality.

 

However for those prepared to look honestly at the challenges facing New Zealand a return to normality is neither simple nor guaranteed. In fact, there are strong arguments that New Zealand’s much triumphed “eradication” may have instead painted the country into corner.

At this point in time two likely futures radiate out in front of New Zealand and neither is pretty. There are others of course, mostly involving heroic suspensions of reality by academics such as Michael Lee who prove just how far removed from reality our tertiary institutions have become. Instead let’s focus on the two most probable.

Future 1: COVID-19 is not eliminated and breaks out or returns

New Zealand’s drastic seven week lock down at levels 3 and 4 was effective in the same way that burning down your house to eliminate bed bugs is – it worked but it generated catastrophic collateral damage. It has led directly to the largest and most rapid increase in joblessness in New Zealand’s history, which will have unintended consequences we will be dealing with for years.

However, the real problem is that despite the run of zero cases it is likely COVID-19 is still in New Zealand. We know that overall 97% of infected persons are either asymptomatic or develop only very mild symptoms. This means it is likely there are New Zealanders who still have COVID-19 who don’t know it and as restrictions ease they will begin to re-establish chains of infection. Professor Sir David Skegg of Otago University warned of exactly this possibility just days ago. New Zealand’s poor contract tracing capability means any outbreak is likely to be difficult to contain without re-imposing the draconian level 3 and 4 style lock down we recently emerged from.

The problem with re-imposing a lockdown is two-fold:

Firstly, the March 24 lock down was enabled at least in part by mass panic induced by hysterical media reporting. In the absence of solid data, the media breathlessly reported mortality rates that were vastly over inflated. What we know now 10 weeks later, is that even the US Centre for Disease Control admits that the mortality rate for covid19 is 0.26%. This is approximately the same as the flu, 10 times less than the WHO’s estimates and 100 times less than early (now clearly inaccurate) reports from China, Iran and Italy.

The CDC estimates the death rate from COVID-19 for those under 50 years old is 1 in 6,725 and almost all those who die have comorbidities or underlying conditions. Those without morbidities are more likely to die in a car accident and schoolchildren are more likely to die being struck by lightning than COVID-19. This didn’t stop hysterical responses from teachers and parents alike throughout the country when schools returned a few weeks ago.

Secondly, What we also now know which we didn’t on March 24 is just how catastrophic the economic damage will be. New Zealand’s unemployment is on track to more than double to 10%over 1,000 jobs are being lost per day. Government debt is expected to balloon to $200 billion by 2024, more than NZ$40,000 for every man, woman and child in New Zealand. The economic damage to New Zealand of just seven weeks of lock down were enormous and will be felt for generations to come.

Now that New Zealanders know that COVID-19 is extremely unlikely to kill them but is extremely likely to cause severe economic damage, their willingness to be stampeded back into home detention is far from certain. What all but the most arrogant or ignorant governments recognise is that they rule with the consent of the governed and even Jacinda Ardern’s honeyed words are unlikely to convince New Zealanders to ask for or acquiesce to lockdown v2.0.

What this means is that if there is an internally generated second wave of infection in New Zealand it may well simply spread because a) our contact tracing capacity is extremely poor and 2) no one is prepared to sacrifice their future for what increasing numbers of people correctly recognise is an illusory threat. In which case COVID-19 will rip through New Zealand, do little damage to the vast majority of the population but will tragically end the lives of a very small number of almost universally already very sick, old people.

If that is the case it begs the obvious question: what was the point of lock down in the first place? All the jobs lost, the billions of dollars spent, the medical operations delayed and the plans destroyed – all for ending up in the same place?

When New Zealanders realise they were misled they are likely to be very unhappy. This is why the politicians want this issue kicked as far down the road as possible and why every effort is being made by the Legacy mainstream media to focus on meaningless death counts and distract from any empirical based reporting that actually reveals the truth: that bluntly, COVID-19 (as even the CDC now admits) is not particularly lethal.

The bad news is that this is the good news future. Which bring us to the second (and worse) potential future…

Future 2: New Zealand eliminates COVID-19 and becomes a South Pacific Prison for its Citizens

 

If we somewhat heroically assume that New Zealand does somehow eradicate COVID-19 then what?

Returning to the house burning metaphor, having burned down our own house to treat bed bugs we come to the horrible realisation that all the neighbours’ houses still have bed bugs. Whatever hope we may have to eradicate COVID-19 in New Zealand, one thing is certain – it will not be eliminated from the rest of the world.

So, what then? New Zealand is confronted with a lose:lose scenario. We can lower the draw bridge and let the world back in, but if we do so it is highly likely we will reimport COVID-19 for three simple reasons:

1. It spreads asymptomatically so you can’t rely solely on symptom-based diagnosis. Testing is required but…

2. Even if New Zealand somehow managed to test every single person entering the country (we had roughly 10.5M international arrivals in Auckland airport alone in 2019 so that is 28,000 tests per day in Auckland alone, vastly above New Zealand’s testing capacity)

3. We know that COVID-19 tests are notoriously unreliable.

Hence it is highly likely someone, somewhere will slip through. There is an excellent summary of the challenges New Zealand faces by Professor Juliet Gerrard here.

What if someone does slip through? Can’t we just “stamp it out”? In short, it’s possible but extremely difficult without reinstituting lockdown. We know for example that up to 25% of the US’s COVID-19 cases came from just one person.

“if we ease the lockdown too much, of course, if there’s a single person out there in the community… it could start again and spread like wildfire.”

Professor Luke O’Neill – School of Biochemistry and Immunology at Trinity College Dublin.

Controlling COVID-19 once it gets back out into the community without a lockdown will be all but impossible unless New Zealand radically improves its contract tracing capabilities, which it has shown no effective capacity to do since COVID-19 emerged six months ago. One would have thought improving contact tracing would be a high priority but apparently it’s not.

The implications of all this are obvious: if the government re-opens the border a second outbreak is not just possible but probable. If COVID-19 becomes re-established in New Zealand then the country will face the desperate choice outlined above: another lock down or abandoning the entire sacrifice we made through the first lockdown.

On the other hand, what if we chose not to lower the draw bridge, if we keep our borders closed, what then? Eventually COVID-19 will burn its way through the rest of the world – there is no stopping it now. It will become established as just one of the many coronaviruses that circle the globe. The world will move on, borders will re-open and herd immunity will eventually be established.

But New Zealand, isolated behind its 2000 km moat, will slowly but surely suffocate economically, politically and socially. We are a small, isolated trading nation; we simply cannot afford to remain cut off like North Korea from the rest of the world. Forget what academics and politicians tell you about doing business remotely – you can maintain a business that way for some time but you can’t grow one. The hundreds of New Zealand businessmen and women who left their families every week on Air New Zealand flights to grow companies pre-COVID-19 didn’t do so for fun – they did so because they had to.

Suffice to say the economic growth we use to pay for our schools and hospitals, our cars and houses, will trickle away. The future of our children will become the future of children cut off behind the Iron Curtain, stifled and stunted by governments “protecting them” from the rest of the world. If you want to see what New Zealand looks like under this future look to North Korea, Venezuela or Cuba or any of the Soviet Bloc countries pre the fall of the Berlin Wall. For a more detailed explanation of some of the consequences of turning New Zealand into the prison of the South Pacific see here.

What about a vaccine?

 

For those pinning their hopes on a vaccine there is some bad news. Firstly, a vaccine is not likely to be ready until mid-2021 at the earliest and New Zealand has chewed through over $10.9 billion dollars in 10 weeks. Secondly (and more critically) there is a very strong possibility there will never be a vaccine for COVID-19. 

Humans have never managed to create a vaccine for any of the many coronaviruses. Even the WHO admits there may never be a vaccine. This is highly problematic because the government seems to be relying on a vaccine as its exit strategy and Ardern has warned border restrictions will probably last until a vaccine is developed. There are also highly vexed questions about a COVID-19 vaccine including:

a) Can the government compel the population to be vaccinated? (There is a large anti-vaxx movement in New Zealand); and

b) Should the 99.99% of the population that is healthy accept a vaccine for a virus that is extraordinarily unlikely to ever make them even mildly sick; and

c) Is it is morally or even legally defensible to restrict travel for those who don’t accept a rushed vaccine, effectively turning them into prisoners in New Zealand? 

What Now?

The consequences of New Zealand’s improvised response to COVID-19 are now coming home to roost. Panicked by hysterical media coverage, the terrified public demanded a lockdown and the Ardern government responded; burning down our metaphorical house and causing immense economic carnage. Then, riding high on Stockholm Syndrome-like support and reinforcing it with the false narrative that it went “hard and early” (it did not by the way), Ardern painted herself (and the country) into a corner. If she lifts the restrictions and COVID-19 breaks out again she must force New Zealanders back into lockdown or admit that the first lockdown was a mistake and the sacrifices were for nought. Or she reopens the border and we end up in the same place. Richard Prebble, former Labour Minister, correctly observed:

…politicians rarely acknowledge mistakes. Governments spend millions of dollars, good money after bad, to avoid admitting a mistake. Governments rarely go broke and so can go on trading in insolvency to the point where ministers, if they were directors, would be facing imprisonment

[paywalled at the NBR]

New Zealand now faces a very dark future. It is possible of course that some unforeseen miracle, some deus ex machina, may occur and we are rescued, but reality doesn’t typically mirror the positive endings of Hollywood movies.

Our country is in peril, and the only path out of the trap is for our leaders (political and academic) to admit they made a terrible mistake. That mistake is the refusal to recognise the obvious truth that COVID-19 is not, when you look at the big picture, especially dangerous. This is the key to getting out of this mess. Once you recognise that COVID-19 only affects a tiny portion of the population you can start to craft policy responses that actually deal to the problem in a logical, coherent fashion: for example by re-opening the border but heavily protecting rest homes, where up to 80% of the deaths have occurred. Until we do this, however, nothing will change because we are fighting the wrong enemy.

I am not holding my breath for a sudden attack of sanity among our ruling elite. For the pre-eminent example of why see this excellent article by the Prime Minister’s chief science adviser, Professor Juliet Gerrard. Professor Gerrard does a superb job of analysing the issues New Zealand faces about re-opening the border but completely fails to test or even question the core assumption of how lethal COVID-19 is in the first place. I simply do not understand how you can be a scientist, let alone the Chief Scientist, when you make mistakes that fundamental. If that is the Prime Minister’s Chief Science advisor we can safely assume the ship is captain-less.

The Future

I am reluctant to ever make predictions because by definition they are almost certain to be wrong. However, in this case I am going to loosely sketch what I believe New Zealand’s likely future looks like. COVID-19 will burn its way through the rest of the world – it is unstoppable. In New Zealand Ardern’s political pony is now firmly hitched to COVID-19. Politically, she cannot admit the mistakes she has made. Supported by academics with zero political or economic understanding and beloved by a feckless media, she will bluster her way through to the election while trying to distract from data that shows a) the world is slowly shaking off COVID-19 and b) New Zealand’s economy is sinking into a quagmire.

I can’t guess the multi-factorial outcomes of an MMP election: a lot will depend on how long it takes for the economic damage reports to reach the public’s ears and how much Ardern can block up those ears with debt-fuelled government hand-outs. Eventually however, whoever is in power in New Zealand will have to accept the inevitable. They will have to re-open the borders and watch COVID-19 do what it has done everywhere else: slightly shorten the long lives of a small number of already very sick old people. Their deaths will be tragic and very public (unlike those for example of cancer sufferers whose treatment was delayed by the lockdown). The ship of New Zealand will come to rest exactly where it would have otherwise, COVID-19 will be among us causing little harm to all but a handful, but we will be vastly indebted, causing harm to many.

And Ardern? My guess is that she will fly off to the UN to where people still believe her fairy tales, while the rest of us keep living the horror story she penned for us.

 

 

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Where is Adern getting her ‘Coronavirus’ Directives....the...WHO from the ministry of health :rcf-thinking:

Aah… from the conversations I’ve had with the… from the Ministry of Health and the feedback I’ve had from the Director General of Health is that we are in a position to start considering that earlier than that. Um… so potentially that would be the 8th of June.

Bakers already on the record  saying he was ‘following’ WHOs reccomendations. And WHO has already got Mass Mandatory Vaccination protocol on their Website. 

Always comes back to Bill and Melinda Gates

 

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Justinda Gets Her Orders

By GP

Your intrepid eyewitness, having being locked up unnecessarily for far too long, was delighted to hear that her Imperial Comradeship, Justinda Ardeau, had, in her beneficence, allowed her subjects to emerge from their warrens and breathe a limited amount of fresh air. His first thought was that a chicken should be sacrificed to her Divinity in gratitude for this enormous act of kindness, but none being to hand, your eyewitness decided that a chicken pre-sacrificed by the good Colonel would do nicely instead.

Your intrepid eyewitness was also able to place his ear to the ground again, and having heard from a reliable source that the formidable Auntie Hellish Quark was about to pay one of her regular visits to Justinda Ardeau, made sure that the Spyfly device, serviced and ready to go, was waiting on Justinda’s wall in a vantage spot, ready to satisfy the world’s curiosity as to what happens when a megalomaniac meets a pandemiciac. 

The door burst open, and through it erupted the human Krakatoa, also known as Auntie Hellish.

“Sit down, sit down,” bellowed Hellish in her best imitation of the mating call of  the Deep-Throated Bison. The still seated Justinda, had been practicing her serious face in preparation for this very meeting.

“Don’t look so glum Justinda,” said Hellish, firmly planting herself in an adjacent chair. “Everything is going splendidly. Even though the Not-Made-in-China virus has been a disappointing fizzer, the economic damage is done now. I don’t know why it didn’t deliver the number of cases and deaths we’d hoped for, but it’s probably due to our benign strategic environment.”

“It’s made me look a bit silly,” said Justinda in her little girl about to cry voice. “I did promise 80,000 deaths to Uncle George, and Bill Yates. Has Uncle Xi got another virus in the pipeline? That would be so much fun. I could continue my daily reports. I just love those cameras, and the easy questions the journalists ask, and maybe we’ll get to 80,000 deaths.”

“There’s probably another one preparing to escape as we talk,” said Hellish, “but we don’t really need it. You can make an announcement straight after the election about the virus having mutated to a long-tailed variant which will require another five years at Level Five.”

“I’m a bit worried that if we keep at Level Two much longer, some voters will start to get a bit restless,” said Justinda. “Some of them seem to be ignoring my rules, and some are saying mean things about me, like I went soft and late. Like my Sparky Boy,” she added in her disappointed voice. “I was a bit annoyed too, about the demonstration on Monday. They should have kept in groups of a hundred, and socially distanced to two metres apart. I thought they would do that, just for me. How dare they? How can I justify staying at Level Two after that?”

 “What is the first word a good Marxist baby speaks, Justinda?” demanded Hellish.

“Revolution? Proletariat?  Bourgeoisie? Comrade? That’s it, Comrade,” shouted Justinda excitedly. “It was Eve’s first word.”

Hellish sighed heavily, like a Marxist who’s just discovered a close family member reading the Bible.

“No, Justinda, wrong again,” she growled, like a Growling Highland New Guinean Killer Bandicoot. “Listen carefully. The word is hypocrisy. It’s our watchword. And I might add, I’m very disappointed that it wasn’t Eve’s first word. Comrade’s okay, but hypocrisy is better. That’s why  it doesn’t matter about the demonstration. Just ignore it, no need to defend. We need the election before the economic damage becomes more apparent to the beneficiaries.”

“Do we really need to have the trouble of an election?” asked Justinda. “It’s so tiresome, I don’t want to do it.”

“I’m afraid it looks as though we’ll have to,” Auntie Hellish said. “But don’t worry about it, you’re a shoo-in. The media will help you through, and we’ve got a bit of nasty stuff planned.” Her eyes lit up like unapproved high-wattage light bulbs and she chuckled like Stalin spotting a peasant wearing a MAGA hat. “I’m looking forward to it,” she added, “but of course I’ll be in the background as usual. And don’t forget, they have Todd Duller and Nikki Stray as leaders now.” She roared with laughter. “You won’t even need to do much. Just flash your fangs, and everything else will be done for you.”

“But I don’t want to do it,” whined Justinda. “I’ll have to do some… what’s that thing again? You know, the thing I don’t like.” She stood up expressly for the purpose of stamping her foot, then sat down again. 

“Would the thing you don’t like be work?” queried Hellish sternly.

“Yes, yes, that’s it,” said Justinda, “I don’t like it. It’s yucky.” Tears rolled down her face and her bottom lip stuck out like a large oyster,  “I hate fulltime work, I hate it.” 

“Never mind, Justy Wusty,”  Hellish cooed, in a talking to a baby voice, “don’t cry, everything’s going to be okay, you’ll”… Then her voice changed to a roar not dissimilar to the attack roar of a Patagonian Bass-Voiced Snow Panther, “My non-existent God, Justinda, every time we talk I end up feeling like I’m in a nursery. I get so embarrassed, it’s just as well nobody else can hear me. Just do what I tell you, keep taking the pills, and stop whining… that’s all!” She leapt to her feet, spun on her heel, and stalked out of the room, closing the door in a loud hate-slam.

Justinda remained at her desk, bottom lip quivering like a jelly, and repeating to herself, “I’se doing my best Auntie Hellish, I’se doing my best…”

Your intrepid eyewitness, gathering up his equipment and placing it in a briefcase together with a cold pie, emerged cautiously from the Parliamentary broom cupboard from which he had been observing proceedings, and walked briskly home, deep in thought as usual, while keeping a sharp eye out for Officers Rawsprat and Hagar.

 

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Alinsky Writes the Ardern Agenda

By JC

On May 30 on Backchat, Jeff posted an article headed HOW TO CREATE A SOCIALIST STATE by Saul Alinsky. The article began by stating there are eight levels of control that must be obtained before you are able to create a socialist state. Before looking at these in detail it is important to be in no doubt that this is the sole reason Jacinda Ardern is in politics. This is her raison d’être.

According to Alinsky, of the eight, the first is the most important. And the first is –

 

Healthcare. Control heathcare and you control the people.

Jacinda must give a nightly silent prayer of thanks to Xi Jinping for presenting her with the opportunity to realise her innermost desires. With the compliant Dr. Bloomfield in tow she is well on her way. Dr Bloomfield was appointed during the term of this Government and the appointment is made independent of the Government. Allowing for that, there seems to exist a remarkable rapport between Bloomfield and Ardern. It must also be remembered that Bloomfield spent time at the World Health Organisation, which China virtually controls.

Ardern says all decisions taken are with his advice in mind. Bloomfield is warning that even under Level One, life still won’t be back to normal. He urged businesses not contact tracing to “get with the programme” and hinted it might be an official requirement under Level One. We are also reminded to wash our hands and keep a diary of where we have been. Yes Daddy to the first part and bollocks to the second. This man is either a control freak like Ardern or he’s happy to be her fall guy.

The second is Poverty. Increase the poverty level as high as possible as poor people are easier to control and will not fight back if you are providing everything for them to live. Ardern promised that she would eliminate, or at least heavily reduce the numbers in poverty. A lie? The reality is they have increased as they need to according to her agenda. With that increase has come breakfast and lunches in schools and now the supply of sanitary towels.

The third is Debt. Increase the debt to an unsustainable level. That way you are able to increase taxes; which will produce more poverty.

Remember the ‘no more taxes’ lie? That was never the plan because it does not fit the agenda. Hence the capital gains tax in the mix. Debt is always higher under a Labour Government. They invariably inherit a surplus from the prudent fiscal management of the other side and manage to spend it, wastefully, within the first year. Think free university attendance as one of many examples.

The fourth is Gun Control. Remove people’s ability to defend themselves from the Government. That way you are able to create a police state.

It is quite amazing how events have transpired to help this woman with her agenda. The Christchurch massacre enabled her to implement what turned out to be a fiasco regarding gun control. Nevertheless we are well on the way to a police state thanks to another highly paid and compliant civil servant, the Commissioner of Police. Families are removed from beaches but left wing mob rule is quite OK.

EZZqdKuUYAALwV-.jpeg?resize=630%2C354&ss The BFD No social distancing and more than 100 in the group yet nothing was done by the NZ police.

The fifth is Welfare. Take control of every aspect of their lives (food, housing and income).

Increasing welfare numbers is something Labour excels at. Largely this is because they operate a system of no accountability. Drop a sprog to some nameless male member of the species and the Government doesn’t care who he, the father, is. The Minister said so. Same as she said the Government doesn’t care how much fraud is being committed under the current wage subsidy scheme. All part of their laissez faire approach. Where there should be control there isn’t and where there shouldn’t be there is. Numbers on housing waiting lists are also increasing. All part of the plan.

The sixth is Education. Take control of what people read and listen to. Take control of what children learn in school.

This appeared to be the case with the online school learning programme on TV during the lockdown. Some parents were complaining that a particular agenda and world view were being peddled in the lessons. This was an eye-opener as to what is actually being taught in the classroom.

Jacinda and her left wing friends were reading stories to young children. David Hill has written a children’s book, Taking the Lead, telling children how Jacinda has wowed the world and become the world’s youngest Prime Minister. It’s available in schools apparently. It is supposedly telling children that anything is possible. Evidently when she was young she wanted to be a clown. Say no more. End of story! And don’t forget this Government closing down Charter Schools.

The seventh is Religion. A touchy subject anyway. While not banning it, the Government is not encouraging it and if a state school wants to teach it there are a number of rules that now apply.

The eighth is Class Warfare. Divide the people into the wealthy and the poor. This will cause more discontent and it will be easier to take (tax) the wealthy with the support of the poor.

The wealthy are of course Dr Cullen’s rich pricks who deserve to be taxed out of existence. These are anyone who owns a business, landlords, farmers etc. This strategy is of course to the detriment of the poor, the ones they supposedly represent, but that is not the point. Never mind that businesses provide jobs, farmers provide basic food, landlords provide housing, it is the manifestation of the idea for political effect that counts. Create a political climate of envy.

When Jeff posted the article on Backchat he asked us if it sounded familiar. It sure does. If it hadn’t had Alinsky’s name attached I would have supposed another name starting with the letter A. This prescription for some sort of misguided utopia must be stopped before this country becomes the basket case of the Pacific. The virus might be a health pandemic but it will be nothing compared to the ensuing economic pandemic. The Government might think they have done a good job controlling the heath side of things but they will prove to be babes in the woods when it comes to tackling the economic mess they have created.

Agree Comrades?

 

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Adern is Stopping Kiwis going to the ‘Covid ‘free Islands with no issue  going to Australia who have ‘Covid ‘ cases, because they are focused on a Trans tasman  bubble . When was the last time you got a flu from Sunshine, surf and fresh air. 😆 Im voting Act , get rid of the status quo

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Labour's Pike River disgrace  now that victims' remains  will not be recovered .

Mike Hosking

So the day of reckoning, or at least a day of reckoning, has arrived. The jig is up.

Andrew Little, the Minister in charge of Pike River, fronts the appropriate select committee and reveals what most of us had worked out well before they ever entered the mine.

The retrieval of bodies is no longer practical. The simple truth, a decade on, is that the retrieval of remains was never practical.

Little perpetrates the con a little further by suggesting that the main reason they are still there, apart from perceived political gain, is to gather evidence for the crime committed.

READ MORE:
Pike River: Andrew Little says it is 'just impractical' to expect all bodies to be recovered
Coronavirus Covid 19: Pike River mine recovery suspends operations
Pike River victim's mother says 'enough is enough', re-entry has already spent too much
Pike River recovery: 238m in, 2km to go, more money needed

If it needs to be stated, let me state it again, there is no evidence, there will be no evidence, and there will be no charges. I called it in the CTV Building destroyed in the Christchurch earthquake, I call it on Pike River.

Families who are angry, and rightly so, who want vengeance, justice, or a bit of both, all have good arguments and much emotion behind the cause. But that does not a case or charges make, or indeed anywhere close.

The Labour Party should be ashamed of themselves. They took a tragedy, saw a political gap, and leapt on it.

The previous National government did what any logical, sensible, and adult government would have done, all they could. Short of making up stories and promising false hope like the current lot have.

They consulted experts, the experts said it was too dangerous and too big a risk. The Labour Party promised the world. Winston Peters chimed in equally as opportunistically and promised to be one of the first down the shaft.

Millions has been spent, budgets have been blown - and now the cold hard truth. There will be no bodies. The families asked for and were granted by the Labour Party their loved ones back, but it won't be happening.

But the con is, it never was. The families were used for political gain, and cheap violin string headlines.

Most of them won't admit it, I don't think because they all seem enamoured with the Labour Party. This was as much about being against the last government as it was about a rescue.

But the facts don't lie. Are bodies coming out? No. Were they ever? No.
Will there be evidence? No. Will there be charges? No.

So what has been achieved apart from a whole new department being created and millions spent for the admission from Andrew Little that was always coming?

It was only a matter of time.

 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 

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Jacinda is Angry

The Prime Minister Has No Understanding of Business, and It Shows

By JC

 

The prime minister has expressed her anger at the fact that The Warehouse Group is about to lay off 1,080 workers. She is particularly angry because the company accepted the government wage subsidy in March, taking $68 million in government subsidies at that time.

The-Sulk-scaled.jpg?resize=630%2C413&ssl The BFD. Photoshopped image credit Luke

This week alone, we have the women’s fashion chain Max closing 17 of its stores, and Air New Zealand about to lay off another 2,000 workers, cutting its pre-COVID-19 workforce more or less in half. We also have one of Jacinda’s favourite designers, Ingrid Starnes, announcing its move to online sales only, with the closure of all of its stores.

Jacinda once again demonstrates her fundamental lack of understanding of anything to do with business.

The wage subsidy, introduced last March, was a very good scheme, designed to help employers to keep their employees during the lockdown period. It was an acknowledgment that businesses that pay workers to do nothing will not survive for long. But that is all it was. It did not help business with anything other than wage costs. The funds were designated to be paid to employees, and that is all.

Did Jacinda think that the wage subsidy would actually save businesses from capitulation? Did she not realise that all it would do would be to stave off redundancies for 3 months, unless the economy had been allowed to reopen properly a lot sooner?

Cartoon-The_BFD-BoomSlang-breathe-scaled The BFD. Cartoon credit BoomSlang

Had we been in lockdown for just a month, and retail and hospitality premises allowed to open up after that, we would not be seeing as many redundancies as we are now. Tourism would still have taken a heavy blow, but shops, cafes, bars and restaurants would have done much better, instead of being in partial lockdown for the following month. The wage subsidy would have continued to help them through the pandemic while they built up the revenues lost during the lockdown period.

But that didn’t happen. Retail and hospitality suffered considerably during the lower lockdown levels. Looking at the queues snaking around the carpark at The Warehouse last weekend, I decided to give the place a wide berth. I am certain that many other people did the same thing.

To add insult to injury in The Warehouse’s case, there was confusion at the start of lockdown as to whether or not their stores would be open throughout. You can be fairly sure that the stores all ordered extra supplies in the expectation that they would be able to remain open. While not much of their stock is perishable, it still has to be paid for; and that is difficult when there is no revenue to offset the stock payments.

As the first tranche of the wage subsidy comes to an end, we can expect to see a lot more redundancies announced, and the bulk of them will come from tourism, hospitality and retail. These are the industries that are just coming back to life now, after more than two months of limited trading, or for most of it, no trading at all.

Jacinda is also implying that The Warehouse should not have taken the wage subsidies if they knew they were going to lay people off. Once again, this shows her total naivety when it comes to business. In March, as the pandemic was ravaging countries around the globe, no one knew what was going to happen. Many business people had no idea whether they should apply for the wage subsidy or not. You could say no one ever knows what the future holds, but this was the most uncertain territory ever. Forecasting, a precarious practice at the best of times, became totally impossible. No one, at The Warehouse or anywhere else, had the faintest idea of how this was all going to play out. But many experts recognised that enforcing a lockdown was going to create an economic downturn. The question as to how bad it will be is as yet unanswered.

Jacinda has reached almost cult status in this country but she has a poor understanding of business and economic matters. She should definitely ‘stick to her knitting’, which is being the government’s front person, and leave economic matters to those who understand them. Oops. Did I say something sexist just then?

 

 

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Warehouse were going to shut shop ages ago, go back & read news articles in the last 2 years.

They wrecked the manufacturing industry here around 30yrs ago.

Cheap products, plastic rubbish & Tindal brings in single use masks when other countries like the UK make "cloth face coverings" that can be washed & reused.

Both Ardern & Warehouse are as bad as each other with destroying our economy.

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Those on the Jobseeker benefit now tops 190k and it won't be long until 200k is reached.

 

Robertson Joins the Fray

The Minister of Finance Needs to Understand Company Structures

By Christie

While Grant Robertson has no financial or economic background, I thought he was doing a reasonable job as minister of finance. There may, however, be an element of comparison with some of the true dullards in the current cabinet that helped forge that opinion. He is certainly no Bill English, or Steven Joyce, but then again, he is not a disaster either. He may have had no economic knowledge before taking on the finance role, but it seemed to me that he had worked hard to get on top of his portfolio and deserved credit for the effort that he had put into it.

Well, maybe not.

 

Finance Minister Grant Robertson is urging big businesses to “rethink” layoffs and consider what small businesses are doing, as COVID-19 weighs heavily on the economy.

“We’re seeing particularly from small businesses the owners of them dipping into their own pockets, their own private savings, to keep their staff on board,” Robertson told Newshub.

“I think a lot of New Zealanders will look at some of the bigger parties who aren’t doing that and say, ‘Well, hang on, we are all in this together, could you rethink those plans?'”

So our Minister of Finance does not understand the difference between small private companies and publicly listed companies. Read on, Grant, and let me explain it to you.

Most private companies are operated by a small number of people (often family members) who are both the owners and managers of the business. In fact, there may be only one business owner. They own the business outright and make all the decisions. They may employ people to take on various roles within the company, but the employees generally have no influence over important decisions for the business.

When a small business owner ‘dips into his own pocket’ to support the business, the family home is often on the line. Banks do not generally give small business anything like the facilities that are granted to large businesses, as small businesses are viewed as a higher risk. Thus, the banks will often require a security over the shareholder’s own home to grant any facilities. If a small business fails, the shareholders may well lose the family home as well.

Publicly listed companies are completely different. They have a board of directors and a large number of shareholders, who have invested in the company for its good performance and good returns. These parties are mostly unrelated. If the company performs badly, the share price will fall, making the company less attractive to investors. The shareholders are the owners of the business, and the directors may not actually own any company shares. Directors can be external directors who do not work in the business itself, or they may work in the business on a full-time basis. Most publicly listed companies have a mixture of both on the board.

The board of directors makes all the business decisions, and the board is responsible to shareholders. The shareholders can force the resignation of directors that do not perform. They can also veto decisions made by the board. The shareholders have the ultimate power, but only if they can get a majority to force a decision.

The only way a large company can ‘dip into its own pocket’ is by raising capital. The process here is asking existing and potential shareholders to buy more shares. Usually, this is done when a company wishes to fund a new venture. The listed company Augusta Property Ltd did this in May this year, saying it wanted to pay down debt, which sent a shiver around the markets, which assumed that the company had fallen outside its banking covenants. The share price tumbled and has remained low. Infratil has just done a similar thing. Its share price fell from $5.25 to $4.97. Neither move has done anything to improve market confidence in either company. The idea of raising capital just to keep on excess employees in an economic downturn is unheard of, mainly because it would equate to fiscal suicide for the company involved.

The right thing for a business to do in hard economic times is to make the cuts necessary for it to survive. Yes, this may mean staff have to be laid off, or that stores have to close, but the company must do everything it can to weather the storm. Since writing yesterday’s article, I have heard of two Michael Hill stores closing in the Wellington region and layoffs at the Todd Corporation and Placemakers. Raising capital to pay for workers who have nothing to do was not an option in these cases, in spite of the devastation to the lives of their employees. Carrying on with unsustainable levels of cost may have resulted in the eventual demise of the entire company in each case. I am struggling to see how that could possibly be a good outcome for anyone.

Both Jacinda and now Grant Robertson are acting as if they have done enough to save the economy from serious damage, but clearly they really do not understand these issues. We now have deficits in the region of $13 billion, but this is still only the start. The economic carnage is only just getting going. A bit of wage subsidy here, a few extra DoC workers there and they think they are economic wizards. Robertson himself admitted at the outset that the government could not save every job. Now, it seems, he is beginning to understand what ‘not saving every job’ will look like. I heard a prediction today that 25% of NZ workers will lose their jobs. Robertson said he would never accept that, but he may not have a choice. This is what happens when you lock down your economy almost completely for the best part of 3 months. Clearly neither of them had a clue as to the consequences of their actions, but maybe they do now. One thing is for sure. Things are not going to get better anytime soon. They can be as angry as they like, but there it is.

Home General Business Robertson Joins the Fray
Pixy-Dunce-Grant-Robertson-The_BFD.png?w

 

 

 
 

 

 

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Sheer incompetence....they couldn't organize a root in a brothel with a fistful of $100.00 notes.

 

Covid 19 coronavirus: Heather Du Plessis-Allan - Ministry of Health can't follow their own rules

The thing that upsets me the most about the quarantine stuff up with those two women is the risk that this is going to make it harder to start opening our borders.

It's happening already.

I've seen an article arguing that we can't possibly "expect unrestricted international travel with places like Australia" if we can't do quarantining properly.

And I've seen people arguing that compassionate exemptions should be cancelled across the board.

But travel's not the problem. Compassionate leave is not the problem.

The problem is the Ministry of Health. They have rules designed to make both of those things safe for us, and they fail to follow their own rules.

This isn't the only problem we've had with the ministry's quarantine and managed isolation facilities. These places look like a joke.

One News last week showed footage of people in "isolation" in a hotel mixing with each other in the smoko room. One of these people was in their first week of isolation, another was leaving to come into the community the very next day - which isn't doing much to avoid cross-infection from new arrivals, is it?

One News also played footage of people being taken on managed walks through Auckland city and having unsuspecting punters walk right through the middle of the crowd supposed to be in isolation.

We've had other people now saying they were also not obligated to do tests before leaving the hotels.

The Ministry of Health is letting us all down.

We could make excuses for it at the start when Ashley Bloomfield didn't have enough tests, and didn't know much PPE he had, and couldn't get his team to contact trace properly.

It was starting to take the mickey when lock down was supposed to end but couldn't because the Health Ministry still couldn't contact trace properly, according to a leading epidemiologist.

But now it's nearly three months since the start of lockdown and they still can't contact trace properly to even 20 per cent of what they still aren't testing properly.

This isn't good enough.

We shouldn't give up on a transtasman bubble and the jobs that would save. And we shouldn't give up on basic human decency like letting people say goodbye to loved ones.

We should demand that the Health Ministry pick up its act and do its job properly.

They are supposed to be our defence against further lockdowns and more economic damage and they are stuffing it up and letting us down.

 

 

 

 

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On 6/14/2020 at 5:52 PM, Idolmite said:

So many experts, so little time. 

The experts are running this show Mitey😆

How can you destroy your countries economy  over the flu and let this happen ? 

Braindead

Trust your immune system and let life unfold naturally . How easy is that 😆

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7 minutes ago, Gruff said:

The experts are running this show Mitey😆

How can you destroy your countries economy  over the flu and let this happen ? 

Braindead

Trust your immune system and let life unfold naturally . How easy is that 😆

For those that have an immune system......some of us no longer do, unfortunately.....

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3 minutes ago, Idolmite said:

For those that have an immune system......some of us no longer do, unfortunately.....

Kids are born with agamma glutelinen have been seen to have antibodies to measles from my reserach Mitey, if you were that feeble how are you still alive????!

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While everyone was watching TV and playing games i spent countless hours looking up this shit  and watching Victorian  jumpouts, i found enough winners to pay for lockdown... was i wrong about the PCR testing ? The fact RNA viruses mutate is simplistic and obvious......if you believe in a vaccine your brain needs to be rewired  with all due respect...avoid like the plague

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