They have been having decreases in their ability to grow food, so yes they absolutely want Ukraine. You really think people around here know dick.

I have overly expensive cable internet already, I don't need to also pay for CATV.

I got a Google TV because I knew it would have the best app support. Looks like you didn't.

My desktop TV-used-as-Monitor has stupid LG WebOS, but I also don't need a TV-specific app since my desktop is connected to it and I don't connect the TV to the network, only HDMI.

Most iPhone owners didn't buy them outright.

World trade was headed to destruction. Now it's just heading there a bit quicker.

Because that will not pacify the poor. Printing money constantly will cause monetary inflation, so only the rich will be able to buy anything of significant value like homes. You'd have to also give away housing. It makes much more sense just to take the money from the rich and give it to the poor, the rich will end up with it again anyway.

It's not wrong to say that America is largely at fault. We got Ukraine to give up nukes in exchange for vague and non-binding promises that we would protect them from Russia. Obviously this is a deal they should not have taken, but it was our sleazy idea.

I buy from AliExpress all the time. (Same business, different storefront.) As a rule they are roughly as responsive as Amazon. Shipping takes longer but prices are much better. Pretty much all the cheap crap on Amazon comes from them and it's much cheaper from the source. So far they have processed all of my complaints gracefully.

I agree that's the main problem in this context, but there are other large ones of course. The nuclear isn't just a problem in construction, it's also a problem in maintenance, and in decommissioning. Nuclear is also not cheaper than fossil fuels if you consider full lifecycle costs of operation. You might say it's cheaper because it's possible to contain the waste and that's not possible for fossil fuels, but fossil fuels shouldn't actually even be in the running.

Well it's a problem or the US too. The last bastion of American industry is heavy equipment including construction and agricultural machines. Interestingly this is also a prime industry for Europe too. A lot of stuff is still made locally. But China is now making their own versions and just beginning to exporting them. And it's a double whammy. They can make them cheaper, but choose to just barely undercut western equivalent products (say by 20%), making a huge profit.

The Trump administration seems to think so. Increased government regulation through tariffs will fix it, along with bigger government. Ironic how the GOP has done a complete 180 over the years isn't it.

Except that in the case of Canada, there was a great deal of trade in both directions, in terms of commodities and also finished goods. It was a mutually beneficial trade arrangement too. It promoted the US' interests without ham-fisted authoritarian threats. This sort of trade made the US the powerhouse it was. In other words this was a sharp shift in US government attitude from one of friendship to one of an adversary (which is really how all relationships and business deals have ever been done in Trump's life). Sadly there's no going back. The damage is done and the US will never ever recover the good will and trade benefits it once had with its closest allies and trading partners, no matter what a future Democrat does to try to undo the damage, now that Trump's attitude has become the attitude of the GOP.

With China, though, there was no abrupt shift. China's goals have always been clear. The only thing they want from the west in terms of trade is raw commodities and foreign currencies. Whereas the west demands cheap goods, full stop. So China's domination of European industry and economies has been ongoing for years, and it's benefited by European policy and attitudes. China is happy to build high quality items and sell them for a premium, but there's no very little demand from the west. If there was demand, we wouldn't have seen local manufacturing capability disappear in the first place. Tariffs are not going to change these fact.

Sure do :) I can provide more if you want, but start there, as it's a good read. Indeed, blind people are much better at understanding the consequences of colours than they are at knowing what colours things are..

Very interesting point. For all the talk of how efficient EVs are, the fact is at higher speeds you need much more energy to accelerate. In other words going from 0-20 in an instant requires not much kw compared to trying to accelerate from 60 to 80 mph.. This is why EVs have such ludicrous motor power ratings for their direct drive systems. And in reality all EVs have a gear train even if it's a fixed ratio with few parts. It's a real head scratcher why more don't use a two speed gearbox to better handle the difference in energy requirements for high speed acceleration vs low speed. Could use much smaller and cheaper electric motors too with good efficiency.