2 All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.
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As time has shown, they just never fucking do when they’re in charge.

Yes, the problem is that USA only has 2 right wing parties.

I’m hoping things are bad enough this time for democrats to actually do something. I’m not holding my breath, though.

That’s what I hoped under Bush, and his 2nd election was already a serious slap in the face. That Obama was elected made me somewhat hopeful, although he too was clearly right wing, and had clearly American exceptionalist viewpoints.
When Trump was elected, all hope was shattered, and now that Trump was elected a second time, I almost don’t care about USA anymore, except that USA is still a significant global power. And trends in USA have a tendency to spread globally. So we can’t ignore USA. But fuck they are the drunk bullying cousin you wish would have stayed home at family gatherings, because whenever he turns up, he ruins everything.

I also do still care, because despite USA being an asshole country now, there are a lot of Americans who are actually good people, and I do hope they will be able to turn things around. But as you say, I’m not holding my breath.

If USA falls completely it may be both a blessing and a curse. But yes USA is falling like an angry giant.
But I wouldn’t underestimate China, they came from next to nothing half a century ago, to now being a global power in many ways equal to USA, leading in production but also many scientific fields and having one of the worlds 3 biggest economies while still growing their economy faster than USA and EU. They have been doing just about all the right things, investing heavily in education and infrastructure, while also improving living conditions and creating a huge middle class.

I agree 100% that Russia is no super power, Russia is way worse off than China regarding incompetence and corruption, and they are merely the 4th biggest economy in Europe. IMO The only thing really scary about Russia is that they have nukes.

Best wishes to South America and Africa.

If we could have a world order built around the values of EU, based on the concept of prosperity through cooperation and mutual respect, that would be awesome. If we can agree among the different parts of the world on how to coexist, it doesn’t matter who is at the center of it or has the leadership. But as things are looking now, it can’t be USA. USA is way to disruptive to be a plausible world leader anymore.

What I notice is that the job losses mentioned are not related to AI, they are related to an economic slowdown, that on the GDP number is camouflaged by the AI bubble.

And while inflation remains reasonably low, it has increased 0.3% the past 4 months. This should not happen in a period with economic slowdown and increased unemployment. This is 100% due to Trump economics making conditions worse for American businesses.

My guess is that job numbers in January and February will be horrible.

Calm down, now you are talking to yourself.

From the article:

This could be five to 50 times greater than the rate found in plastic bottles or metal cans, scientists say.

By normal formatting standards that means cans have the lowest average.

From the article linked by u/givesomefucks:

The study could not directly establish whether there was any health risk from the consumption of such beverages sold in glass bottles or not, due to the lack of toxicological data.

The plastic particles turned out to be contamination matching the paint of the caps, so it is different types of plastic, and that could be either better or worse.
Seems like cans are the safest option.

Just because you can drive a few kilometers in it doesn’t mean it works decently. Both FSD and Autopilot still have the stupid phantom breaking problem for no apparent reason. And that’s when driving on normal roads where there shouldn’t be any problems.
FSD also has problems detecting some forms of curves with safety rails. These issues appear under normal conditions that would appear optimal.

So don’t claim the shit works just because it has anecdotally worked for you and your brother in law, because Tesla FSD is still not approved for actual self driving, even under optimal conditions.
And the reason it isn’t approved is that it doesn’t work well enough.

IIRC, Tesla and SpaceX had people dedicated to distracting/minding him so they could get actual work done.

LOL I wouldn’t be surprised. 😋

I 100% understand what you mean. I just bought a VW ID.4, and IMO they have a good balance. Everything needed for normal driving is handled with buttons, and although some are touch, they do have haptic feedback, and it works OK IMO.
I was looking at the Skoda Enyaq, because it has traditional buttons and more things operated through them.
But it cost about €5000 extra for the same features as is in our fully equipped ID.4 when used and 4 years old. But now I’m happy we chose the ID.4 instead of an Enyaq with fewer features. Because the ID.4 works way better than I expected.
It’s crazy and previously absolutely unheard of that the Skoda version of a similar car to a genuine VW is more expensive.

greece nearly drug down the EU when theirs popped off,

Erh no! Don’t trust the sensationalist stories about the Euro collapsing for this or that reason. Those stories are always without merit, my guess is they serve a purpose for speculation or are just sensationalist stories.

USD is the cornerstone to the entire western financial system

What are you smoking? It doesn’t make a hoot of difference to the rest of the world to trade in another currency. But more likely than not, it won’t be a single currency replacing USD, it will be a basket of currencies where USD will probably be a part.
In Europe the Euro totally dominates the financial market and has done for years. I think you mean the currency for trade, and for that the Euro obviously dominates in Europe.

You can PM me too if it comes to that.

I like how they start off with inflation, and show it’s not so bad.
Then second they show the interest rate is declining, something the steadying inflation makes room for.

Then third they show the jobs numbers are awful. The thing that might explain 1 and 2.
Because if the economy is in recession, it is normal for inflation to drop, the economy is cooling so no overheating causing inflation.
Finally GDP seems fine too, but we know this number is heavily influenced by AI growth that has absolutely nothing to do with Trumps policies, and that most think is a bubble.
Looking closer on the inflation curve, it shows a significant uptick from April and forward. Something that shouldn’t happen when the economy apart from AI seems to be slowing down. This increase in inflation seems to me 100% created by Trump making difficulties with for instance tariffs for the general American market.

So all in all IMO from an economic perspective this looks mostly like a C minus when considering the context of the numbers.
But that’s actually way better than expected, because I expected an F. I think without the AI bubble it most definitely would have been an F, as the declining interest rates have NOT kept the wheels turning, showing something with the economy is off.

Remember Elon Musk knows more about production than probably anybody else on this planet. /s

Which is probably the reason that in Denmark 30% of his cars fail their first mandatory security check at 4 years. And in Germany 17% fail their first check at 2 years. Previously unheard of bad results in both countries, even the cheapest cars are doing better!
And his rockets keep failing. And his FSD is nowhere near working yet, and his demonstrations of his fully automated robots are shown again and again to actually be remote controlled.

The guy is a megalomaniac, which some people confuse with being a genius because they are stupid.

I bet there are people who don’t think Trump is crazy enough, and want Elon Musk to “fix it”. 🤡

USA already has widespread poverty, the longest work hours, lacks free healthcare and education, has the lowest life expectancy among economically comparable countries, has a dysfunctional democracy and AFAIK the greatest inequality among rich democracies.

So USA is already a shit-hole country, and among shit hole countries, totalitarian countries are the absolute worst.
If you think people have it bad now, especially below middle class, you just wait and see what it will be like if USA becomes a totalitarian country!

Oh I absolutely expected USA to be surpassed by China at some point. And for USA to gradually lose international dominance.
But the shit USA is making for itself is turbocharging that process by at least a factor 10.
Some might say it doesn’t really make much difference because the end result remains the same. But the problem is that this doesn’t give the world the same amount of time to adjust. Disruption is generally bad, and disruption of world power is no exception.
Of course the worst disruption is to USA, and that will have a serious negative impact on American business, and if the US dollar loses the position as the world reserve currency, the significance of the American debt will be way more serious.

And then lose control of numerous functions of your car.
It’s simply not an option in modern cars.

I’m an EU citizen.

Thanks. 👍 💖

You know most Americans are descendants of that historical lesson too right?