They have rich soil, a moderate climate, and an abundance of fresh water, so it is easy to grow food and raise livestock. They import virtually all their oil and gas. While the interconnected globalized world supplies a lot of what they use, if push came to shove and NZ were isolated the people would survive independent of the outside world, though there would be some challenges as thy learned to live without what they purchase from abroad.

Everything is relative. I currently live in Southern California in an area where the median home price is $930K USD ($1.565M NZD). A $1M NZD home is only $590K USD, which would be a “steal” here. Accordingly, housing, the biggest expense in the cost of living here, seems like a relative bargain in NZ.

Yes, other things may be a bit more expensive, but overall I’d be looking at a reduction in the cost of living. As far as “standard of living” goes, it depends on what you value. Personally, I love nature, the outdoors, and am an avid surfer and mountain biker. From my perspective NZ’s less crowded waves and spectacular natural beauty makes for a very attractive standard of living.

The challenge for me is that given my age (~60), I am not a preferred immigrant, so residency offers some challenges, as I am not yet to the point financially where I can spring for the golden visa (though I should be at that point in not too long of time). Accordingly, if I were to move there I’d have to implement other strategies. I’d probably start with a tourist visa to check it out and see if I wanted to live there, then perhaps enroll in some classes and apply for a student visa to buy more time.

Meh. “Friendly” is a relative term. While NZ may be swinging a bit towards the right these days (as opposed to when Ardern was PM), NZ has ranked choice voting, which mitigates some of the political polarity seen in places like the U.S. where things stratify into two camps. This tends to make political power more responsive to the people, so even if the current administration is favorable to Trump, as the U.S. slides off the rails I would expect the NZ government to step back.

The level of dangerous ignorance is exactly why the entire world is worried.

I found out about them from a swing dance website (I dance swing/lindy hop), and saw them again last night. During the opening act, the singer was selling merch from the booth across from me. No one was buying anything and she was rocking to the show, so I asked her to dance. She was new to swing, but had excellent rhythm and a great vibe and was fun to dance with.

“Hallooo!”

Whoever told you that is your enemy.

A $37K Chinese electric car.

She looks like she’s clearly in need of a neck massager.

Shhhhh!

There is a reason that gold is in the biggest bull run of all time, and has eclipsed the one in the late 1970s sparked by the U.S. abandoning gold backing for the dollar. We’re witnessing the demise of the dollar as the world’s reserve currency in real time, and central banks have been loading up on gold in preparation for what comes next.

And how the cross is hidden in the 4th panel by the cleavage.

RealID is insufficient to confirm citizenship, yet a facial recognition app that is known to make errors is “definitive”? Sounds like racist bullshit to me.

Hey man, you can’t hug with nuclear arms!

Are you familiar with the concept of limerence? It’s an intense infatuation with a person typically rooted in romantic interest. It occurs when you don’t really know a person, and you build an idealized version of them in your mind that likely doesn’t reflect reality. You attribute all sorts of positive traits to them and overlook all their negative traits. You effectively view them through “rose colored glasses”. This is how Trump’s followers look at him. They have this delusional view of him as this strong man here to save them from the mean old leftists. His efforts to seize and wield extraordinary power is viewed favorably, because he is their savior. Everything he does is either awesome or it’s just minimized and ignored. When he does horrible things, it’s just haters looking to knock him down, because he’s just giving the U.S. the tough medicine it needs. There is no way to reason with them, because you can’t reason someone out of something they didn’t reason themselves into in the first place. It’s an emotional thing, in the same way you might be smitten by an attractive woman and build her up in your mind into something that she isn’t. The only way to break the spell is when your fantasy runs into cold, hard reality. In this case, the cold, hard reality will be financial collapse of the U.S. (or worse).

I’m going to see them at noon. They’re playing a free show at a car show.

Thanks, Obama!

A majority of Americans polled in the survey – 58% – characterized Trump’s first year of his second term as a “failure,” according to the poll.

Just 42% of respondents said Trump’s second term has been a success.

Imagine how dim the 42% must be.