Rustie
@rustie.bsky.social
Sewer socialist technocrat.
Infrastructure. Psephology. Shitposting.
Long-suffering Blues fan. 🏳️🌈 but bad at it. He/him. Not a pigeon.
Pōneke/Wellington, Ao/NZ
Infrastructure. Psephology. Shitposting.
Long-suffering Blues fan. 🏳️🌈 but bad at it. He/him. Not a pigeon.
Pōneke/Wellington, Ao/NZ
So I did, and my main beef is that Jessie uses an FE2 which is some boomer nostalgia BS.
The truer-to-life version of grabbing your dad's camera here would be a Rebel XTi with the kit lens.
The truer-to-life version of grabbing your dad's camera here would be a Rebel XTi with the kit lens.
I really need to watch "Civil War".
Stunning photos from Minneapolis, including this one by John Locher for the Associated Press. www.theatlantic.com/photography/...
January 18, 2026 at 11:23 AM
So I did, and my main beef is that Jessie uses an FE2 which is some boomer nostalgia BS.
The truer-to-life version of grabbing your dad's camera here would be a Rebel XTi with the kit lens.
The truer-to-life version of grabbing your dad's camera here would be a Rebel XTi with the kit lens.
Basic competent national governance and the second highest GDP per capital of any real country.
Incredible with basic competent national governance can do.
"Voters backed the Alpine Initiative and NRLA decades ago. Engineers then spent years refining routes and safety systems. A separate federal rail fund now guarantees long-term financing for upgrades... instead of short political cycles."
"Voters backed the Alpine Initiative and NRLA decades ago. Engineers then spent years refining routes and safety systems. A separate federal rail fund now guarantees long-term financing for upgrades... instead of short political cycles."
January 18, 2026 at 6:37 AM
Basic competent national governance and the second highest GDP per capital of any real country.
Local (~16, normie-coded) youth at the pools was talking to bro about how the problem with Wellington is it doesn't have walkable streets "like Europe or Christchurch".
The kids are alright.
(I know this sounds like a 'woke cafe' story but I swear it happened).
The kids are alright.
(I know this sounds like a 'woke cafe' story but I swear it happened).
January 18, 2026 at 5:08 AM
Local (~16, normie-coded) youth at the pools was talking to bro about how the problem with Wellington is it doesn't have walkable streets "like Europe or Christchurch".
The kids are alright.
(I know this sounds like a 'woke cafe' story but I swear it happened).
The kids are alright.
(I know this sounds like a 'woke cafe' story but I swear it happened).
So all it took for Shane Jones to find an environmental protection issue he cared about was a racism angle.
January 18, 2026 at 4:54 AM
So all it took for Shane Jones to find an environmental protection issue he cared about was a racism angle.
I talk about how "every map of Auckland is the same map" but man the spatial partisan divides in smaller centres are so wild.
January 18, 2026 at 1:42 AM
I talk about how "every map of Auckland is the same map" but man the spatial partisan divides in smaller centres are so wild.
I keep coming back to this dataset (land quality) when messing around with maps because its hiding so much of the country's history and development in it.
January 18, 2026 at 12:20 AM
I keep coming back to this dataset (land quality) when messing around with maps because its hiding so much of the country's history and development in it.
Reposted by Rustie
Three kinds of gym clothes: painting a house, tech-ninja assassin from sex-future, basketball.
January 17, 2026 at 8:21 PM
Three kinds of gym clothes: painting a house, tech-ninja assassin from sex-future, basketball.
Reposted by Rustie
Photo by Pierre Lavie. Yes this is me. And I threw my Leica. It landed on the bass plate with hardly a scratch. Another Photographer grabbed it along with my phone and I was able to track him later. I was held face down tear gas deployed right in front of me and pepper sprayed directly into the eye.
January 17, 2026 at 2:57 PM
Photo by Pierre Lavie. Yes this is me. And I threw my Leica. It landed on the bass plate with hardly a scratch. Another Photographer grabbed it along with my phone and I was able to track him later. I was held face down tear gas deployed right in front of me and pepper sprayed directly into the eye.
Invading Greenland would be bad, but hey at least there would be some positive side effects.
It's really impossible to overstate how much *everyone* is watching the US threats towards Greenland, not just Europe. If you want to break not just NATO but Five Eyes and maybe our Asian defense alliances too, taking Greenland is how you do it.
Forcibly annexing Greenland would be a strategic catastrophe—for Europe, for Canada, and perhaps most especially for the United States itself.
My latest in @foreignpolicy.com on how we're all sleep-walking into a disaster: foreignpolicy.com/2026/01/06/g...
My latest in @foreignpolicy.com on how we're all sleep-walking into a disaster: foreignpolicy.com/2026/01/06/g...
January 17, 2026 at 7:53 PM
Invading Greenland would be bad, but hey at least there would be some positive side effects.
I was about to say "mate tmi" but apparently OP was unaware of the semantic content of Ceiling Cat.
And no one in the comments is bullying him about that fact, which is a good distillation of why this place still isn't 100% my speed.
And no one in the comments is bullying him about that fact, which is a good distillation of why this place still isn't 100% my speed.
January 17, 2026 at 1:02 PM
I was about to say "mate tmi" but apparently OP was unaware of the semantic content of Ceiling Cat.
And no one in the comments is bullying him about that fact, which is a good distillation of why this place still isn't 100% my speed.
And no one in the comments is bullying him about that fact, which is a good distillation of why this place still isn't 100% my speed.
Between this and the strike he's being handed the big "do you want to be President [yes][no]?" card and all he has to do is tick the right box.
Breaking news: The Justice Department has issued subpoenas for Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey as part of an investigation alleging that they are impeding federal law enforcement officers’ abilities to do their jobs in the state.
Justice Dept. launches criminal investigation of Minnesota governor
The Justice Department has issued subpoenas for Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey as part of an investigation into impeding law enforcement.
www.washingtonpost.com
January 17, 2026 at 2:00 AM
Between this and the strike he's being handed the big "do you want to be President [yes][no]?" card and all he has to do is tick the right box.
After an evening of whale watching, I was having a pint at the pub when a man walked by and I said to my companion "look it's Justin Lester, the actual former mayor of Wellington (likely place for him to be)".
Then I realised it was - in fact - Jimmy Carr and it really brought the vibe down.
Then I realised it was - in fact - Jimmy Carr and it really brought the vibe down.
January 16, 2026 at 11:02 AM
After an evening of whale watching, I was having a pint at the pub when a man walked by and I said to my companion "look it's Justin Lester, the actual former mayor of Wellington (likely place for him to be)".
Then I realised it was - in fact - Jimmy Carr and it really brought the vibe down.
Then I realised it was - in fact - Jimmy Carr and it really brought the vibe down.
It's norms but it's also transport infrastructure. The lack of alternatives to private automotive transport and the dangers posed by drivers aren't cultural norms: they're policy choices.
(I can speak to whether spending more time with kids is good or not: but it not being a choice is bad).
(I can speak to whether spending more time with kids is good or not: but it not being a choice is bad).
An underrated factor in "why don't people in wealthy societies have more kids" is changing societal norms that now expect even older kids to be chaperoned by an adult any time they are in public, and to be chauffeured by a parent as their only means of transportation
Older generations spent a lot less time parenting. Millennial dads spend nearly as much time parenting as Boomer moms did. Millennial and Gen X moms way more.
via The Economist
via The Economist
January 16, 2026 at 5:35 AM
It's norms but it's also transport infrastructure. The lack of alternatives to private automotive transport and the dangers posed by drivers aren't cultural norms: they're policy choices.
(I can speak to whether spending more time with kids is good or not: but it not being a choice is bad).
(I can speak to whether spending more time with kids is good or not: but it not being a choice is bad).
House to house trading is roughly equivalent to the gift economy around homegrown veges. A laudable way of building local community ties, but largely insignificant on a system basis.
Today on Volts: Swedish tech entrepreneur Jonas Birgersson was once known in his country as "broadband Jesus" for his efforts in spreading decentralized, low-cost broadband access. Now, he wants to bring the same decentralized, peer-to-peer revolution to the electricity grid.
Making the electricity grid work like the internet
Jonas Birgersson joins me to explain how "packet-switching" for electrons can lead to energy abundance and grid resilience.
www.volts.wtf
January 16, 2026 at 4:30 AM
House to house trading is roughly equivalent to the gift economy around homegrown veges. A laudable way of building local community ties, but largely insignificant on a system basis.
The importance of "natural wealth" to the modern economy is massively overstated and the reason New Zealand is poor is not primarily distributional.
It's because we lack scale and sophistication and underinvest in public and private infrastructure.
It's because we lack scale and sophistication and underinvest in public and private infrastructure.
"You know, really, by rights, New Zealand should be a rich country, because there's not a lot of people there, there's a phenomenal amount of natural wealth per person, it can sustain a good quality of life for every single person in the country."
January 16, 2026 at 3:22 AM
The importance of "natural wealth" to the modern economy is massively overstated and the reason New Zealand is poor is not primarily distributional.
It's because we lack scale and sophistication and underinvest in public and private infrastructure.
It's because we lack scale and sophistication and underinvest in public and private infrastructure.
Most of us look over at ICE with horror but INZ look with envy.
Skilled migrants on path to residency warned status may change
Skilled migrants on path to residency warned status may change
Migrants told their jobs were skilled may find that's no longer be the case.
www.rnz.co.nz
January 16, 2026 at 2:35 AM
Most of us look over at ICE with horror but INZ look with envy.
We need to bring back Bills of Attainder for Peter Theil's citizenship specifically.
New: meet ELITE, the Palantir app ICE is using to find neighborhoods to raid. Map interface; officers search for immigrants; click person to bring up individual dossier. This is clearest link between what Palantir is building and ICE's activities on the ground yet www.404media.co/elite-the-pa...
‘ELITE’: The Palantir App ICE Uses to Find Neighborhoods to Raid
Internal ICE material and testimony from an official obtained by 404 Media provides the clearest link yet between the technological infrastructure Palantir is building for ICE and the agency’s activit...
www.404media.co
January 16, 2026 at 1:47 AM
We need to bring back Bills of Attainder for Peter Theil's citizenship specifically.
Reposted by Rustie
hey Mom can you come pick me up. yeah everyone on the niche microblogging website is arguing about who has the correct emotional posture to the unknowable future again
January 15, 2026 at 6:09 PM
hey Mom can you come pick me up. yeah everyone on the niche microblogging website is arguing about who has the correct emotional posture to the unknowable future again
I really need to watch "Civil War".
Stunning photos from Minneapolis, including this one by John Locher for the Associated Press. www.theatlantic.com/photography/...
January 16, 2026 at 1:13 AM
I really need to watch "Civil War".
Bouie is one of the few posters keeping me more sane rather than making me more insane.
Whether that's a good thing or not I'm unsure.
Whether that's a good thing or not I'm unsure.
Trump's aim, in the first months of last year, was to elide the difference between the two categories. It was to try to leverage his formal authority to bolster his informal power and influence. And it was to try to overpower those actors that could contest his more limited forms of authority. (5/?)
January 15, 2026 at 10:26 PM
Bouie is one of the few posters keeping me more sane rather than making me more insane.
Whether that's a good thing or not I'm unsure.
Whether that's a good thing or not I'm unsure.
At least 30% of the country has terminal peasantbrain. They'll comply with the most threatening proximate violent force.
The goal isn't to change them. You can't. It's to change who that force is. Either by taking over the state (peacefully or otherwise) or by supplanting it.
The goal isn't to change them. You can't. It's to change who that force is. Either by taking over the state (peacefully or otherwise) or by supplanting it.
Stage 5 pundit-brain is watching an innocent woman being killed by agents of the state and going, "hmm this says a lot about the urban-rural divide in America."
January 15, 2026 at 10:13 PM
At least 30% of the country has terminal peasantbrain. They'll comply with the most threatening proximate violent force.
The goal isn't to change them. You can't. It's to change who that force is. Either by taking over the state (peacefully or otherwise) or by supplanting it.
The goal isn't to change them. You can't. It's to change who that force is. Either by taking over the state (peacefully or otherwise) or by supplanting it.
Going for growth. Except there. Or there. Oh and not there either. Actually gimme those colouring pencils this thing's all wrong.
January 15, 2026 at 7:31 PM
Going for growth. Except there. Or there. Oh and not there either. Actually gimme those colouring pencils this thing's all wrong.
Thinking about this meme a lot recently. Or more like constantly since October 2023.
Borders on art.
Borders on art.
January 15, 2026 at 11:10 AM
Thinking about this meme a lot recently. Or more like constantly since October 2023.
Borders on art.
Borders on art.