Jacinda has loosened the Covid restrictions and mandates just as the Omicron tsunami peaks.
It’s been read by the Identity Politic Covid hypochondriacs as blasphemy most foul!
The same people screaming at Jacinda for relaxing mandates were screaming NAZI at Parliament Protesters and were the same people screaming genocide at the vaccine roll out for Maori
it’s just a lot of screaming.
There are of course political winners and losers
WINNERS:
The long suffering double vaxxed & boosted Kiwis: FINALLY! All those Kiwis who have done as they were asked, who got double vaccinated and boosted and did all the QR bullshit scanning and masks and etc etc etc etc etc etc, FINALLY we get to have our fucking lives back! Finally I don’t have to tell the State where the fuck I am all the time! Finally the Police Officer can leave me the fuck alone! Finally the State is out from up in my grills! FINALLY! As far as I’m concerned I want to continue wearing masks at all times and continue social distancing because many of you are fucking awful people and I want you as far away from me as humanly possible! Now fuck off and leave me alone!
Greens: They have finally stumbled upon a voting demographic that they can dominate, Identity Politic Covid hypochondriacs. Every middle class millennial is immunocompromised, it’s an aesthetic just like every middle class Karen believes crystals can cure cancer. The only difference between the two groups is the millennials are militant about their pronouns. This is a demographic the Greens can ride all the way to the 2023 election.
Hyper Tourism: With restrictions being removed, hyper tourism is back with freedom campers shitting all over our country side and bus loads of tourists causing infrastructure stress all so a business (that is probably exploiting a backpacker for staff) can sell those tourists Red Bull and V.
Migrant worker exploitation: With restrictions being removed NZ can get back to exploiting migrant workers, undermining local wages and creating more stress on the rental market! Yay!
International Student language scams: With restrictions being removed the International Student language scams will be back pushing up rentals, pretending to create a pathway to residency and rorting the system. Yippee!
David Seymour: His criticism of Jacinda is mean, nasty and very, very, very funny. ‘Adernity’, come on, that’s hilarious!
LOSERS:
Jacinda + Labour: Paradoxically despite saving us from Alpha, Delta AND Omicron, Jacinda and Labour are not getting the gratitude they deserve this time around, they are getting hate and anger from all sides! On one side you have those feral lunatics who never supported these public health measures believing they have ‘won’ while on the other side you have those who see the dictates from Siouxsie Wiles and Dr Bloomfield as some type of religious instruction from a higher intelligence. Both sides are savaging Jacinda and Labour which is a type of insanity as far as I am concerned. To date Jacinda’s leadership has saved 3000 lives over 2 years, that’s extraordinary and deserving of our gratitude. Watching her and Labour get so much shit for protecting us is like a brain injury caused by listening to ZB Talkback.
Identity Politic Covid hypochondriacs: This tweet sums up the hilarious position the middle class health puritans have ended up in…
…ha ha ha ha ha. Oh the short sighted political shallowness of it all. I just can’t stop laughing!
National: Despite ‘winning’ by having Labour drop the mandates, National’s absurd positions if adopted would have seen the plague erupt in NZ and everyone knows it! National were on the side of the virus throughout this and people won’t forget that. They deserve no credit for these necessary moves and after watching their cowardice during this pandemic deserve none of our respect!
The Disabled Community: Once again the disabled community get right royally screwed over! Sure we need to reopen and yes the viruses ability to side step our border means lockdowns become less effective for a virus that won’t seriously harm the vast majority of those infected, but where is the vast ocean of extra resources that should be getting pumped into the lives of the disabled? I’m not even talking about vast increases in their benefit (although they sure as fuck deserve that), I’m talking the bureaucratic cruelty MSD uses to rule their lives with fear. They must reapply every 3 months for the benefit, this is an unnecessary cruelty during a time of pandemic! Why can’t we make their existence less stressful via simplification of the bureaucracy around their lives and a special focus on State Housing built specifically for their needs? We may not be able to fully protect the disabled community but we sure as Christ can make their existence far less stressful for them!
Homeless: Watch our kindness evaporate towards the homeless now we need their motel rooms for cheap tourists. The homelessness crisis that has been hidden in Motel rooms is about to explode now restrictions and mandates are off.
Renters: Now the borders are open, international students, desperate migrant workers and tourists will flood the market pushing up rentals, stressing public transport and causing more inflation. Yay, renters get fucked again!
The Economy: We are in so much danger economically now it’s just a matter of time which black swan triggers the meltdown. Brace for impact.
PREDICTIONS:
Beyond the immediacy of the mandates, there are so many problems mutating as rapidly as the virus itself – INCLUDING the virus mutating!
CHINA ECONOMIC CRUNCH: China’s continued zero tolerance towards Covid infection continues to shut down Ports and supply chains causing immense bottlenecks which are causing intense economic pain. This is going to be felt by NZ most actually because we are so economically dependent upon China. If China’s economy contracts, so will ours.
COVID MUTATES INTO SOMETHING FAR WORSE: To date the virus has been able to spend all its evolutionary energy on mutating to be as spreadable as possible because we have had no immunity to a novel virus, but as vaccination rates and people catching it grows, the virus starts spending more evolutionary power on bypassing our immunity. This could result in a new pandemic with higher mortality rates. With 80% of the planet not vaccinated, that is an enormous reservoir for Covid to mutate in.
PSYCHOLOGICAL DAMAGE: We are not even close to understanding the true magnitude of a universal unique event that has caused intense social dislocation. From the Qanon conspiracy radicalisation to basic depression and isolation, we will see domestic violence soar, violent crime rise and people shut themselves away at home which in turn will impact hospitality and retail. Think of the psychological damage as radioactive fall out that will stain our culture for decades.
FLARE UPS: We are simply assuming that the current rate of Covid will stay static when it can easily flare up and over run our hospital system at any time we let our guard down.
I think masks, social distancing and a culture of social hesitancy will become the norm for the remainder of 2022 combined with the psychological fall out and the economic damage.
And that’s the best case scenario.
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Pretty optimistic then Bomber? Remember the old line from the band The Church – ‘things are never as good as you hope or as bad as they seem’. I do agree, however, with your identification of a new voting segment in our society – The Covid Hypochondriacs. These are the people who for some reason which I am yet to fathom, want to keep on ‘scanning in’ everywhere they go – ‘just in case’.
All of this conjecture about little NZ at the end of the chain is nothing compared to what is happening on a grand scale to the American empire.
A fair assessment Martyn, well done. The amusing side:
> It was all about “The Science” right up until Labour got three bad polls in a row.
> Siouxsie Wiles left stamping her feet off camera. She’s had her 15 minutes of fame. Her reputation left in tatters over the ‘matauranga maori’ scrap.
> Ardern assuring us that her capitulation was absolutely nothing to do with the protests, honestly.
What remains to be seen is the next poll result. Was the tide turning against Ardern because of vaccine mandates etc or was it because of the forced adoption of apartheid in NZ? My pick is that it was the latter and Labour’s numbers won’t recover.
This was the most amusing side…
“Watching her and Labour get so much shit for protecting us is like a brain injury caused by listening to ZB Talkback.”
Apartheid? FFS. If you were a “coloured” or “black” citizen in apartheid-era South Africa, you couldn’t choose to change the colour of your skin. But you can choose to have a vaccination, or not.
I don’t think Andrew was talking about the vaccine mandates with his apartheid reference Steve. The implementation and institutionalisation of the governments ethno-separatist agenda is, and will be, a major issue. As it should be.
The context of his comment does not suggest that at all
David was correct.
The unstated assumption is that Labour’s recent fall in the polls is due to untenable vaccine rules but I don’t think that’s the case, based on a number of conversations I’ve had with people, some of whom voted Labour at the last election.
In my view, what is *really* getting under people skin is this government turning the country into a race-based ethno-state where a privileged brown iwi elite rule the rest of us.
No it is ACT creating a race based eco-state to the point Seymour wants a referendum and is his bottom line of a coalition with National.
oh dear my andy back with the apartheid nonsense….
contrary to the misquote you’ve heard repeating a lie doesn’t make it true.
My hope is that the “official truth” and “science” becomes what it always should be, that is open to debate and discussion. Jacinda may have been correct but claims by her and government officials to be the only source of truth has been incredibly damaging.
Comment of the day!
And this imo is why a lot of people won’t vote Labour again (I’d like to say left but they’re not left at all).
The crazy ‘control the narrative’ thing scares people way more than even voting for a ‘stuck in the 1950s’ conservative Christian leader does.
“…a virus that won’t seriously harm the vast majority of those infected…”
Disagree. For the gazillionth time, SARs viruses are not the same as the viruses that cause cold or influenza.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7192220/
There is mounting evidence of serious long term effects on the brains of Covid survivors.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-04569-5
The capitulation to the Smug Assassin and the parasites he represents will cost many in terms of health.
Undoubtedly the Opposition’s undermining of the Team of 5 million solidarity has been successful.
Of course, that situation we experienced in the first lockdown – of a unified citizenry, determined to do their bit for their fellow Kiwi, was simply too dangerous a situation for some to be allowed to be continue. That mindset had to be destroyed, and of course the result is we’re all at each other throats again – the twitter rage, the road rage etc. Yep, it’s all back. And those that can profit are happy to see it.
Anyways, it’s ‘let her rip’ time. And as Martyn has indicated, the great step backward is occuring.
But with collapsing climate, collapsing capitalism and the lessons of lockdown (that we can be socialistic in attitude, that the sky doesn’t fall if BAU is halted, that money can be brought into existence at a keystroke – even if it was given to wrong people), that so called return to normal is going to be far from that!
Let the real fun begin.
Jase – great comment.
The requirement to enforce the neo liberal mantra by stealth once again is via “freedom” this time has worked a treat for the RW hardliners. If only the left could be as organised. Covid was the best opportunity to make those changes away from our totally neo lib policies. Alas, that time has now past and it’s BAU. Groan….
Flare ups. Definitely!
Maybe, just maybe our government can finally take public health seriously and FUND the system properly. There is nothing worse than working in an organisation that runs on the bones of its arse financially, reliant on the goodwill of its remaining staff but the favour never returned.
BTW, Luxon’s erotic fantasy of tax cuts galore rules them out as a serious contender for government. We’ve lived with the consequences of this kind of self centred fuckwittery for far too long. We’ve lived it for past two years especially.
well said xray
Fund the system probably??? Like the mental health system that spent nearly $2 billion on what exactly???
Why is the leftist solution to every problem is “hey let’s throw more money at it, because then it can at least appear like we’re trying”
Why not hold those people spending tax payers money to account for once??? It’s like employing a plumber to install a toilet and you’ve paid the deposit, and six months later he still hasn’t shown up (but you’ve seen him driving around in a brand new Ford Ranger). You go and get your money back and employ someone who is actually capable of doing the job
The opposite is the righties attitude of do mote with less and then 12 years down the track our heath system is fucked yeah good plan by the righties.
It’s like let’s flood the country with people policy but spend nothing on health and infrastructure.
Can I send you my address so you can post your money to then? I am sure I can spend it better than Grant or Jacinda, and since you love throwing money away, let me do it for you.
Send money to you because you can spend it better? You have an overinflated opinion of yourself and not judging by your numbers.
So why did Nact underfund health for so many years? Because they couldn’t get a return on their investment, money over lives. And here we are today the same parties willing to keep the economy going at the expense of how many lives, 10, 100, 1000, 100,000?
And BG is the evidence of why our health system is fucked.
Funny, no matter how kind or generous you are you can never satisfy an ungrateful person.
I see David Seymour is race-baiting a referendum on Maori co-governance bert. The righties and NACT voters will be frothing like they did during the convoy and occupation of hate. The righties won’t even need their daily viagra pills while this referendumb shitstorm plays out on talkback..
Seymour, Brash – ACT alt-right politicians. Watch for Chris Luxon to drop the referendum idea like a turd in a punchbowl and head for the Sensible Centre vote that the guy with the bow-tie used to inhabit.
Yes Mike, Seymour playing the race card is a tried and true method for separatist types.
Seymour also wishes to abolish the Treaty of Waitangi stating we are one people. Except if you live in Epsom where he does not wish to have state houses built in his elitist electorate. So much for the one people theory.
Sounds like Don Brash’s Orewa Speech has been chewed up, regurgitated, spat down Seymour’s throat then, out the other end of Seymour.
Ironed dry and read out to the Milford Rotary Club: Here’s his full speech: https://www.act.org.nz/david_seymour_speech_to_milford_rotary_club
Here’s his “bottom line”:https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2018835643/chris-finlayson-on-act-s-proposed-co-governance-referendum
The ACT party is calling for a referendum on co-governance saying the country is abandoning liberal democracy and replacing it with an “ethno state” where there are two types or people.
“But with collapsing climate, collapsing capitalism and the lessons of lockdown (that we can be socialistic in attitude,…”
I think you mean the fear mongering based on false modelling that badly scarred/scared the sheeple
One good thing about Covid, is that the so called ‘expert modellers’ have been found out to be the charlatans they always were.
AOC “the world will end in…like…ten years” Yea right.
What does Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have to do with New Zealand? If you go there why not add some balance and pick some views from the other side of the divide. How about Marjorie Taylor Greene and those pesky Jewish space lazers causing wildfires.
The anylogy is that AOCs ten year protection comes from modellers about as accurate as the Bakers and Hendreys of the world. And any time a doomsday ‘expert’ predicts the end the world, well people are going to think twice about believing them.
Should I have used Greta as my example?
I don’t think I have ever heard a climate scientist say the world will end in ten years.
I agree Seymour is hilarious, a compete joke. So whilst you find him funny, remember one thing, his and Acts covid policies would Seymour deaths than any other party. Not sure that’s a laughing matter Martyn.
He was laughing at one comment.
Bert needs to stop being Karen.
Death is no laughing matter.
Ma needs to stop trolling.
Ma
I was gonna warn you that Bert has no humour and will snipe at you if you comment on his comment – he calls it trolling. But I see I don’t have to warn you as he has already sniped at you. It’s typical defensive lefty teenage behavior so forgive him. Of course when he trolls Andy then that’s ok. Ma, watch this…he will lash out now and call me Hitler assuming I am German…
interesting, I assumed you were a cabbage
I should’ve warned you about Sour Kraut he likes to attack.attack.attack but doesn’t like the repercussions. He’s just a tad immature as most people recognize. Seems he likes to promote death or is he just the resident Karen?
Hard right commentary by the Kraut, clearly trolling my comments. Well it makes a.change from the constant barrage of hard right teenage attacks on the P.M. and government. I note you are still hiding behind your ridiculous pseudonym, whatever happened to The Kraut, were you banned at some point?
It’s nothing to do with being a German. It’s to do with Sour Unkraut NOT denouncing the Nuremberg.NZ site https://nuremberg.nz/
This alt-right hate site threatens to execute politicans, Maori and Polynesian Leaders and 71 out of their list are prominent women, so add misogyny into your alt-right site Sour Kraut.
Denounce it and get it over with Sour!
Seymour Deaths is loosing ground and struuggling for relevancy, a lot of his flock have gone back to National and new Messiah Chromus Domus.
Agree, seymore and the act party are a joke. Seymore in particular is of no consequence and can make up all sorts of bullshit. He has been advising the scientists and right wing since 2020 to follow Taiwan, Australia, MSW, Sweden, UK, Singapore, Taiwan, Australia, etc. Thank god we didn’t have Act and the dirty politics lead Tories leading the covid response otherwise we would have had containers of body bags and tupapaku in halls and car parks. Thats why Reti and Bishop keep requesting that labour acquire the extra hospital beds and ICU beds that have not been required.
True that and Seymour talks about us being all one people unless you live in Epsom of course where no state housing is allowed to be built.
I am definitely concerned that we now may need a fourth jab!
Our Glorious Leader and her red army are withdrawing at a speed that the combined Italian and French armies would be proud of. She’s done – she knows it, we know it, even the feckless know it.
The hilarious thing is it won’t arrest the economic decline – by winter this country will be in a sustained recession, Labour will be in the 20’s and post her white house, ‘honoree’ doctorate and New York job interview the eject button will be hit and poor man’s Gordon Brown will have to explain away spending 100B for not even a t-shirt.
Honest question – without Ardern would Labour get beyond 25% of the popular vote?
“Honest question – without Ardern would Labour get beyond 25% of the popular vote?”
Possibly because the alternatives are worse? Actually I’m not so sure about that, but it would be painful to install the self professed “economic experts” only to find out the hard way that it’s all bluster and jelly beans. Heaven help us, for the choices are so very poor.
Why not just say:
WINNERS: Selfish Auckland Pricks
LOSERS: The rest of you fuckers.
Martyn, I worry you’ve been overly influenced by Mr Grant’s eternally dismal outlook.
I’m in Australia today and it’s brilliant – concerts, events, bars full – you name it.
They’re throwing the masks away and living again. I think the sooner we get past this insane approach of controlling everything the sooner we can get on with living again and rebuilding our fuxked economy.
We’ve one of the highest vac rates in the world. Our problem is that we also have one of the most incompetent governments in the world. Just look at $1.9 BILLION for stuff all in health, RATs being stolen by the government because they hadn’t planned, thousands living in motels costing millions a week!
Who said we are not moving Yeti? You have just told us you travelled to Aus and I assume you are coming back. Can’t be that controlled.
Headline last week……Australia has recorded 295,146 new Covid-19 cases in the past week, surging by more than a third compared with 215,701 cases the previous week.
Might want to keep that mask handy
high vax rate = incompetent govt….interesting equation there yeti
don’t worry about the RATs your kiwi mates will still be able to exploitatively price gouge NZers they way they do in Oz
I find it amusing that 4.7million of us have not yet caught covid. Wonder if the modelers could tell us why .
Don’t worry brother she’s coming and knows no boundaries.
I wonder if the 96 per cent vaxed has something to do with this outcome. I would note we are a small group of people in a big space who as a race do not hung or kiss complete strangers as happens in many countries. It is easy not to be close to someone like the crowded conditions in Asia or Europe . We had 53 dead for nearly 2 years it is now 200 plus so be careful water you wish for.
The vaccines and Booster and the leadership of Jacinda and the expert scientific advisers kept the numbers down – simple as that. She has saved at least 15000 deaths by not following the right wing advice and strategy of other countries.
There has certainly been a noteable lack of clothing on the emperor ever since the “River of filth” descended on the palace, even though the protesters weren’t all scientifically correct in their understanding of vaccines.
The protest certainly highlighted the detachment of parliament and media to the suffering of people they supposedly represent however non mainstream they were. A bunch of woke clergy on certain blog sites whipped up moral hysteria at these dirty pagan non believers.
And this handbag clutching from the palace walls and the imperial guard shoving the filthy peasantry from the gardens was a turning point in public perception.
It turns out the truth wasn’t being told on a bunch of things and what government and media said were happening, wasn’t happening on the live video everyone got to see.
So their credibility was shot, the polls swung and here we are.
In my opinion there has also been a shift in the NZ herald since they got absolutely roasted on a live q and a session on media impartiality they, like government have realized the public mood shifting against them and in their case are trying to portray more balance.
Stuff is a lost cause so add them to the loser column.
In my opinion nothing has changed from the right wing Herald. John Key, Steven Joyce, Mathew Hooten, Audrey Young, Barry Soper, Mike Hosking, Fran O’Sullivan, have all been around for many years. Now tell me again about balance in the media. You see what you want to see. If you have evidence of your claim, show it, otherwise your own bias is shining through.
the takeaway, as always is ‘kiwis can get fucked’
Context is important.
Today’s news, tomorrows fish and chip wrapper.
Whatever perceived winners there are in April will just as likely be losers in May.
We are still 18 months out from election day so here is my perspective.
The Ardern Government motivated by several factors including self preservation will be all out to at least make some progress in all areas. They don’t need to resolve anything, just “appear” to be making progress. They have a shit ton of $$ to call on to make that progress. The Ardern Government was touted as transformational. The very last thing they will want is to go back in time to National with all that entails. They will be HIGHLY motivated. If they lose the election next year there will be a lot of things headed straight into the bin. Ask yourself if that will create desperation and motivation?
Luxon can’t hide who he really is for another 18 months. National are always going to be National. Young people especially along with many females will recoil at what Luxon represents and the role religion plays in his life. He can’t keep hiding the reality there.
In 18 months Covid will not be the priority it is now. Many will have context about things such as Mandates. We know what percentage of Kiwis bought into the vaccination process. Bottom line is they were tools used to help save kiwi lives. When you compare the loss of life in NZ to similar size countries, you’d have to say our fight against Covid was largely successful.
Norway population 5.3 million. Covid deaths = 2169
Denmark 5.83 million. Covid deaths = 5460
New Zealand 5 million. Covid deaths = 184
What family members are you prepared to sacrifice ?
Context.
Agree. The Ardernista’s will need to reprogram themselves if they want support from NZders again. My guess is their doctrine doesn’t allow for this change in ideology and dogma.
From now on in, it’s whoever can adapt to the rapidly changing environment and survive the next few years. If you see the next decade and in the same position then that you’re in now. You’d be doing ok.
Biden’s New World Order of a unipolar world doesn’t bode well for everyone.
What did I get from all this?
Next time anything happens just copy what Sweden does.
Right from the outset we had, “Why don’t we do what so-and-so is doing?” Hosking had us copying Australia, then not, then yes, then not. It was like a game of fucken tennis in his head. And in our ears. And it got to doubles, and multi doubles with Singapore and Taiwan and Finland and others in the play.
What did I get from all this? There are New Zealanders with such inferiority complexes that they will not accept that New Zealanders have brains and ability and creativity and can come up with considered solutions to problems. Led by mongrelzs like Hosking.
Well said Peter. Hosking is an absolute knob end.
Is Hosking still living in NZ?
He is quoted as saying he would leave NZ if Labour continued as government.
He has no integrity, is clearly dishonest.
He is the Qanon of NZ radio but don’t just blame him, blame those that listen to him. Think Heather Du Plessis Allan being broadcast by the Parliament rioters as they are brainwashed into submission.
Bert,
Hosking received 4 pieces of very big news that changed his mind over the threat / promise to piss off to Australia.
1) His ghastly wife bought him a new pair of designer ripped jeans.
2) His ghastly wife bought him some new hair product.
3) He discovered most kiwi’s couldn’t care less if he pissed off.
4) Australia didn’t want him. They said they didn’t want any more kiwi trash to deport.
hoskins lied bert?
oh please say it isn’t so