The US mil will certainly be negatively effected in the short term if China were to cut/be cut from manufacturing. This substack article is by a retired US navy/NATO officer who explains it better than I can, but the short answer is a LOT of very important munitions, vessels and equipment have chinese semiconductors in them

https://cdrsalamander.substack.com/p/you-cant-go-to-war-with-your-factory

I agree but I assume the same goes for most EVs

Has anyone actually looked at the amount of water needes to handle a tesla fire? The pdfs are available and we looked at them when I was a volunteer. It’s like 8,000 gallons or something to keep battery temps under control. Our tanker holds 2,000 gallons and foam isn’t effective like it is for normal car fires.

A single tesla on fire needs a response similar to a house fire. Most fire response is going to be very strained with multiple, especially if they are at different locations.

deus ex intensifies

It sucks to say but yeah. For all the talk about saving democracy they forgot about the winning elections part.

They like free speech that doesn’t get them immediately banned, not free speech for everyone else’s ideas

maybe they just really need the help?

I think it’s part of human nature to try to improve things. If we just said “be happy with what you have” we wouldn’t have the very nice things we enjoy today.

But at the same time people are wary of change, and if something works well it is a risk to try to improve things. Older people have been around a long time, so nostalgia and routine is more engrained so they’ll be more critical of change even if it works out in the long run.

But no matter how good it gets people can ALWAYS find something to bitch about and some are just insufferable

Deep state is (generally agreed to be) non-elected officials who have the ability to sway govt functions. They can stick around for decades which is a good thing until it’s not. Their “power” is more about making things not happen.

The “resist” movement from the first admin could be seen as an example of deep state. If an elected person wants to do something that they have the power to do but the lower levels of govt disagree (ie it isn’t in someone else’s best interest) suddenly there will be things to stop it from happening or make it so slow, painful and costly that the elected would rather do something else instead.

Errors in paperwork, extra “random” inspections, key people in the process calling sick, insisting on following all procedure step by step no matter what etc.

BBC’s “Yes Minister” really nails the concept

The inflation reduction act was in 2022, everything but amazon was built and operational prior but I get what you mean. I should have phrased it better.

Yes the federal govt likely had some role in getting favorable conditons for factories to be built. For people living there the following years (and years) of company cash flow caused a lot of the actual second and third order effects, not federal programs aimed at the region specifically. That is what I mean by “the fed govt had little to do with it (from the residents’ pov)”

I guess it’s storytime! The rural area I grew up in was full of unionized industry jobs that shut down in the 80s, and then the auto industry followed in the 2000s. Many moved and for those that stayed life had sucked for a long while.

But the local mall stayed relevant (there’s not a whole lot else to do) and is now being filled with all kinds of new restauraunts and stores where old dead ones were. This was to meet demand since electric vehicle factories were built as well as amazon warehouses and other stuff. Then the taxes led to libraries and schools being built and upgraded.

Now it’s not all sunshine and rainbows of course but for the people there the world seemed cold and uncaring for decades. Now in their eyes it’s starting to come back and the federal government had little to do with it. I guess what I’m saying is that it’s all pretty subjective

It gets said over and over but the country is huge and your experience can vary greatly. If you are a govt employee work is likely more chaotic, some more than others. Telework people coming back to the office, looming layoffs, people resigning/staying, big organizational shifts etc.

If you know a person deported of who may be deported you are probably very concerned for them and the world feels turned upside down.

But for most people the gas prices are about the same, groceries are about the same and their life is about the same. If it wasn’t for the news/internet most people probably couldn’t tell the difference between administrations so far. It takes a big event you can’t easily ignore (Covid 19, Hurricane Helene, LA fires) for even ONE REGION of the country to focus on a problem for a while.

And even then if you are outside of that area people probably won’t change their routine beyond posting about it.

You think him not being mentioned is a coincidence? I think it’s mainstream media doing damage control to reel in their prior reporting. Since he was at large for a while his face and later his name was EVERYWHERE. In cases of mass shootings the shooter is almost never mentioned or named anymore. There’s a reason for that

Media plays a big part in encouraging copycats looking for their weeks of infamy. In the past it used to be serial killers, then years ago it was mass shootings, and thanks to the instant stardom they gave Luigi the near future could very well be more assassinations.

Right or wrong his success was demonstrating that being rich doesn’t mean someone is untouchable.

If you have some time check out the Hardcore History Addendum episode “Superhumanly Inhuman” that delves into the nazis and the Holocaust. I just started it a few days ago

The OSS has a similar manual. This one may even be just a rebranding of the same thing. Essentially how to be a super shitty employee.

My favorite part was going to meetings and saying to think things over and wait until next meeting to finalize anything and use proper procedure no matter what. The idea is to make even the smallest most obvious decisions a bueaucratic slog. Shitty management and office politics 101

You get a sick Metal Gear game

They would have an “acting” president to make decisions but if the hostage pres was freed they would be put back in charge

And welcome to the watchlist btw

He has been at the head of a company for years. He is now in a position of overseeing and altering whole government organizations.

He knows the stakes, he knows the responsibility, he’s been in the public eye for a long time. The salute was legit that is out of the question, he could have made any number of different gestures but he did that particular one twice.

Now at BEST it was “just” a senseless and reckless lapse of judgement or some batshit level trolling. But even if I gave that benefit of the doubt why would I want someone with that little self control anywhere near the level of government that he is currently playing with?

If I was calling the shots I would show him the door and pull all US Govt support for anything he touches on principal alone. Not a fan of Trump but even he hasn’t pulled shit like this.

Wonderful! I hope you have a great time here in the US, I know I enjoyed my time in Germany

Just go for it, so long as you aren’t overtly rude you’ll have minimal issues (hard to do, in my experience Germans are quite polite). Few people will care at all and those that do probably won’t tell you to your face which is for the best for everyone anyway.

Assuming you’re going to visit as a tourist most places you will be at will be fine for both of you.

Also check out Atlas Obscura and Wikivoyage if you haven’t they are both cool resources for getting around and finding things to do

He was already president once, anything post 2016 is probably noted.

And some people just never EVER shut up about them so there’s plenty of noise to hide in