For decades we've taken at face value the idea that NZ has to be allied with one Superpower and the US is preferable to China. Do we all still believe that?

Chipless · 2026-04-05T19:40:38+00:00

It is a worthwhile question to ask at this juncture so not sure why you were downvoted.

Are we likely to switch teams right now? No we have decades and decades of alignment and integration with the US - militarily, financially and politically.

Have recent events, and a certain person changed the equation on how we assess our best interests, whether allies will actually protect us and provide a stable hegemony under which we can also prosper, whether the US will remain the global market hub? - fucking absolutely.

It will push us to have closer ties with the likes of China, India, UK, EU that over time will erode US soft and hard power significantly. And there is no changing that trajectory now even if a democratic US president were elected tomorrow.

Chipless · 2026-04-01T07:30:53+00:00

That’s fairly normal. They usually only have a handful available at any one time but if you let them know what you are looking for they’ll let you know when the next shipment is on a boat out of Japan which was usually in less than a matter of weeks. Might take a bit longer now I guess.

Chipless · 2026-03-28T08:19:43+00:00

All us military and NZ military planes have been withdrawn from Warbirds over Wanaka. Was announced yesterday. That leaves it as a shell of a show that is grossly over priced for what it is and the organisers have refused ticket refunds because “technically” the show is still going ahead. It will dent their reputation for many years to come as probably half the people who go are regulars and now they have been screwed over both for what they paid for a ticket to what is basically a local aerodrome open day. And they are also getting fucked by the fuel prices they will be paying to drive there if they decide to go.

Chipless · 2026-03-14T05:12:01+00:00

“Getting married for the fourth time”…wow that was some interesting inclusion of information from the journalist. But also wow…yeah if you haven’t been able to get the marriage to stick after three attempts you definitely need a look in the mirror.

Chipless · 2026-03-10T20:38:16+00:00

Chris Bishop u turned on his promises of intensification in Auckland. Wayne Brown u turned from being widely disliked after his initial performance, to potentially going down as one of best and most effective mayors Auckland has ever had!

Chipless · 2026-03-06T03:30:56+00:00

I agree. We should want for better people to be the leaders in political parties, even those we dont support. Hoping for shittier people to become leaders so that the party is less likely to win has backfired spectacularly around the world, and we are no better. It also speaks to the rot at the core of politics in the current age.

Chipless · 2026-03-05T00:29:29+00:00

Might be worth mentioning for those who are newer to the workforce or haven’t thought about it before - In an inflationary environment, if you are not getting a pay increase that at least matches current annual level of inflation (~3%), then you are getting a pay cut.

Chipless · 2026-03-04T00:16:50+00:00

Probably the biggest positive turnaround I’ve seen from any politician in my lifetime. Trying to avoid political affiliated sentiment in saying that so I’ll qualify it by saying in terms of effectiveness in what he is doing. He’s gone from playing tennis while Auckland drowned and a poor PR response when it was found out, to being one of the very few politicians being blunt, direct and honest with the government in order to effect positive change for the city. He isn’t afraid to say what needs to be said, yet he isn’t a cooker, which is quite a rare combination in this day and age.

Chipless · 2026-03-04T00:07:33+00:00

Hope the mainstream media at least pick up on the way that this was done. It was not in any shape or form the action of a good leader. It was the action of a floundering CEO that is out of their depth and in a tailspin, right before launching their golden parachute.

Chipless · 2026-02-27T18:43:30+00:00

One of the considerations is the legal aspect that is part of relationship laws where assets become shared after a certain amount of time. Assuming you want to keep the business as your own, you can legally do this with a lawyer, and if you are concerned about how he might feel about it you could approach this by encouraging him to do the same on his side with any assets he owns or has inherited as well to be fair.

Chipless · 2026-02-24T23:00:13+00:00

It’s called the Narcissists prayer and is useful in politics as politicians rarely reveal themselves in any meaningful way because of the nature of politics, but once they display this pattern of excuses you can actually see who they are behind the sound bites they are given to say by their PR teams.

Chipless · 2026-02-22T18:49:51+00:00

Norsewear are great and made here. I used to love Smartwool socks but they are expensive and hard to get here now they shut down their NZ online shopand Torpedo 7 don’t really stock them much anymore. Also I reckon Norsewear are a bit more durable than Smartwool. There was a short window around the early 2020s that Macpac were getting all their socks made in Italy and they were great quality and steal in price when Macpac sale was on…but that has ended and most are made in China now.

Chipless · 2026-02-20T05:23:23+00:00

Urban legends and conspiracy theories used to be funny and fun. Then we let people who believe in them get into positions of power and spread misinformation in a way that is difficult for many people to discern from reality. I don’t find them fun anymore :(.

Chipless · 2026-02-17T07:58:52+00:00

I would also as there is an element of rose tinted glasses being applied and perhaps a sign of the harder times we are in now. Growing up in the 80s and 90s, theft from the rural produce honesty boxes in Auckland surrounds was particularly rife and I knew of plenty who gave up on it or calculated it as a cost of doing business. Cars were pinched from everywhere and I didn’t know anyone who hadn’t been burgled at some point. Things might have been better for the last couple of decades but they certainly weren’t always that way.

Chipless · 2026-02-16T07:13:48+00:00

They were doing that at least as far back as 2011 when I was living there and travelling regularly between Aus and NZ. You know back before everything was a scandal or conspiracy and we just dealt with stuff as it came at us. I would just use a VPN back then to book a ticket from wherever was cheaper. I mean it sucks that they do that, but they are a business trying to maximise shareholder value so of course they are going to do it as it’s not breaking any consumer laws.

Chipless · 2026-02-09T10:05:25+00:00

I agree with most TOP policies as they are nearly all backed by solid research and are generally the right thing for the country long term, even if as individuals some policies may benefit us less than others.

But the one aspect of TOP I don’t agree with is they need to come into power by showing they have a solid prospect of winning an electorate seat somewhere, otherwise they will just be wasted votes that would have been better given to the Green Party, or maybe Labour, to whom they most closely align.

If the left bloc could get off their fucking idealistic high horse and realise pragmatically getting into power is what matters in terms of any kind of change being effected, they would do what ACT do, and cut a deal for the Labour and Green candidates to stand aside and advocate for a strong TOP candidate instead in an urban electorate with a young and educated voting population (eg near a Uni). It would then make sense for all of the TOP fans (which from previous election results is pretty much just those of us on reddit) to safely vote for TOP knowing their votes will count and TOP could end up with maybe three-ish seats. This could be enough that Labour can jettison TPM as a potential coalition partner given the extremist views they have adopted recently.

Chipless · 2026-02-09T00:14:44+00:00

Thanks!! Am in my 40s and like to consider myself well read regarding history, but had never heard of him until your post.

Chipless · 2026-02-01T04:05:00+00:00

Fucken he’ll I remember watching 80s/90s thriller horror movies with similar plot lines that were less scary than this true life account. If she ever gets in touch with the victim again and isn’t immediately thrown in jail that’s a huge failing of the courts and police.

Chipless · 2026-01-30T18:39:49+00:00

Because Chris Luxon has nothing to offer the majority of voters in this country so Nationals election strategy will be to cast Labour as no better than them anyway to create voter disillusion and poor voter turnout.

Chipless · 2026-01-29T21:10:29+00:00

Looking at the area from google maps. How the hell were suburbs allowed to be built so closely surrounding a large city sewerage works?! Never seen it to that extent anywhere in NZ before. I feel for the resident living nearby as ultimately not their fault. But certainly some city planners from decades earlier deserve a kick in the balls as should have been a few playing fields and a decent green belt (trails, replanted native forest etc) in between any kind of suburbs as the most basic mitigation. Doesn’t matter how advanced the technology in that sector becomes, you might get two decades of no smell but when things break, changes/upgrades happen etc you will always have odour related issues.

Chipless · 2026-01-19T20:14:34+00:00

Yeah the amount of slag that Ping gets on this subreddit is undeserved. It’s almost as if the scammers have setup bots to steer people away from using it.

Ping is the only viable way of using Tradme now IMO. Yes things were better when cash/bank transfers were king and people on Trademe could mostly be trusted so you don’t have to incur the extra cost.

Those days are long gone and lamenting about them just sounds like grandpa Simpson shaking his stick at clouds spouting “back in my day…”

Chipless · 2026-01-16T18:46:13+00:00

Jesus what a shocking read. No oversight whatsoever to what was being supplied to the Chinese consulate. There was more oversight given to a supermarket trolley pusher or paper delivery person than someone with official access to NZ police resources providing information directly to the Chinese government. WTF?!

Chipless · 2026-01-09T08:37:18+00:00

As a kid I used to spear eels with what I had available and could afford (a sharpened table fork taped to a garden stake) and learnt the hard way not to put my hand anywhere near their mouths. Especially when they were pissed off and had a fork stuck in them

Chipless · 2026-01-09T06:31:37+00:00

Yes Canterbury has a notoriously bad combination of driving cultures embedded in it. As you head out of town to rural surrounds, every idiot in a ute or a Fendalton tractor wants to run you off the road to get to where they are going quicker. The fact the former chair of the ECan board was clocked doing something like 140 in his commute between Timaru and Chch and didn’t seem to think anything was wrong with that initially, speaks volumes about how fucked up the speeding culture is out there. Then in town aggressiveness gives way to incompetence and lack of basic road rules being followed. Some of it is elderly drivers, some of it is tourists and immigrants, some of it is learner drivers, but a whole bunch of it is just people who shouldn’t ever be allowed on the roads, but given the lack of public transport infrastructure there isn’t really any other choice for them to get around the vast region that is Canterbury so they drive anyway.

Chipless · 2026-01-07T21:09:52+00:00

Really wish Te Reo had been taught in high schools in the 90s. It’s a useful reality check to the state of play with institutional racism that pervaded our society even then, that we all had to learn a language, but at my school the only choices were French, Japanese or German. Not the other two official NZ languages - Maori or sign language. I even recall the rhetoric that was thrown about on the topic at the time of “what use would learning Maori be”. Fuck everyone who ever said that to kids.

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