As bad as this is, it can still get a lot worse. The market seems to be pricing in a high probability that Trump will reverse course. If the tariffs stay on for at least a few months, there will certainly be a recession, probably a depression, and possibly social unrest that will take decades to fully recover from.

Yes, lemmy.world

Horses, the original automatic braking

There’s no doubt the 22nd Amendment would disqualify him, the only question is what happens when he’s disqualified? If the Supreme Court goes the same direction the majority went on the Colorado ballot case, they’d say it’s up to Congress to enforce it. Now there’s good reason for assuming they won’t say the same exact thing here, but the same cop-out instinct that the 6 Republicans have had with Trump will still be there. Maybe they’ll just say it’s up to the voters to not elect him again and leave it at that.

Now I’m wondering why we don’t attach giant balloons to ships to reduce water resistance by cutting down how much of the ship needs to be underwater. Perhaps it’s because you would need more size for the balloon, and maybe the air resistance and water resistance needs to even out due to physical laws that I’m too lazy to think about?

It’s not all him, several other people invested in both. According to some article Elon owns 79% of X, and only 54% of xAI (barely enough to control it). Since the valuation of X in the deal is about $20 billion more what others have estimated ($12.3 billion), it definitely seems like it’s a corrupt bailout 46% funded with other xAI investors’ money, basically netting Elon $8 billion overnight.

That being said, the other investors in xAI are easy marks like Marc Andressen (famous for funding Adam Neumann’s project that came after WeWork) and various Saudi Royals who possibly were convinced that this is ok.

Miss Cleo was big in the 90s. And she wasn’t even the dumbest one. Americans have always believed in stupid bullshit. The CIA used to hire psychics too. Go back to the 1920s, and Americans pretty much took it for granted that fairies are real.

What’s changed recently is that the news media went from being a mostly curated place where completely lunacy was hard to find, to a right wing clown show led by con artists. When I was a kid news was for nerds only, now it’s more like the national sport where everyone has their team. And don’t underestimate the degree to which this was done deliberately - Elon buying Twitter was a pretty clear example of the billionaire mafia taking a platform that was sort of trying to be more attached to reality and making it a lot dumber and more right wing.

Because protests don’t do shit. There were mass protests over police brutality in 2020. Didn’t do shit and the right wing media reaction arguably helped kill off police reform legislation that was in progress before the protests.

The reason protests from the left don’t do shit is because the most popular media is controlled by Maga. The top social media network for news, the top podcast, and the top cable TV news are all outright maga propaganda. A narrative can arise without them, but they will determine what happens to it. So last time, the protests arose due to George Floyd, but the right wing media turned it into a narrative about lawless riots, using exaggeration and fake images.

See also Palestine protests.

Basically, the left is fucked in the US until something changes in the media so there’s no point in trying.

Many theories:

• Trudeau has criticized Trump in the past so it’s just a revenge quest
• Trump wants to be emperor and trying to rule over neighbors is just what emperors do
• Just some delusionial Trump bullshit that demonstrates his mental decline
• (highly speculative) Influence from Elon, whose grandfather wanted to turn Canada into an NRx-style white supremacist corprate-fascist state 80 years ago and failed, hence the move to south africa. Conceivably Elon wants Trump to make him governor of Canada so he can finish the job. Generally I’m not in favor of wild intruguing speculation like this but it’s just too fun/horrifying to pass up.

American public transit varies widely, ranging from better than driving to comically horrible.

No, it’s better. Because they people who are doing it don’t suck.

No more DEI! (Dogs Eating & Ingesting)

Interfere themselves. The US media landscape is dominated by right wingers, backed by Russia. Canada could help the other side.

So

1. this comment adds zero value to the discussion because you’re not even being specific about what your insults are referring to, it’s just insults with zero context
2. I’m pretty sure you misread what I said, but I’m not sure because ^
3. Yes, I do believe this and I think it’s a pretty obvious thing to believe at this point.

To be honest, Canada partly has itself to blame. They let Russia interfere in US elections for a decade at this point but didn’t lift a finger to interfere for the other side that respects them. That attitude needs to end.

Edit: People seem to be misreading this? I’m saying Canada should interfere in US elections. Everyone who hates democracy is already doing it and Canada/Europe is letting them win.

There’s a million things you could do with that. The musk of kleptocracy? I dunno.

Or you could do a bunch of other Elon refences - Don’t buy from klepto-guy, gimme a Model FU, Elon owes a horse by now, etc.

It’s interesting that no one in the media talks about how Fetterman was one of the most progressive politicians, then he had a stroke and started taking the maga side on a lot of things.

It tracks with a lot of other anecdotal evidence (e.g. Tila Tequila becoming a nazi after an aneurysm, some lady in a recent Channel 5 video said she became pro-Trump following a head injury in a car accident, a couple of people in my personal life, RFK Jr. obviously). I’m not saying all magas are brain damaged - there’s many different reasons I’m sure. But someone’s gotta at least start asking the question. There is at least this study which ties brain damage to religious fundamentalism, which isn’t exactly politics but it’s pretty darn close.

It’s bullshit to cover up for the fact that his corporate donors like Blackstone can’t handle any more stock market pain.

But when he attempted to pull Tsukahara from that same window, Riordan testified, “I grabbed her arm to try and pull her towards me, but she retreated because of the fire.”

Remember that the right wing media rushed to blame this on speeding and intoxication without mentioning that they were still alive and able to move when the vehicle was on fire. They were cooked alive inside, foreseeably and preventably, and that was covered up in a way that maximized the shame the victims’ families felt. Deplorable.

Elon’s blaming DDOS. You know I heard that the people who bulit Twitter did a great job figuring out how to handle those. Gosh, I wonder what ever happened them?