As I’ve said before, the story of cars in the last year and the next few years is going to be one of the US cutting itself off from the rest of the world through a series of policy choices that mean its automakers rely on a market with a scale of 15m a year while other manufacturers compete in a market with a scale of 60m a year for those without access to the US and 75m a year for those with access. That diseconomy of scale and the batshit attempt to push water uphill by trying to stop electrification is going to mean Americans have a small range of shitty choices for their car purchases compared to everyone else. Smelly, noisy, oversized, poor build quality, poor tech, data slurping, etc it’s going to be a cut-off market like Cuba.

While what you write is true, that’s *not* the most striking gap in the US auto market. The most striking gap is the complete absence of the A and B segments: superminis are an absolute mainstay in other markets. For eight years, I drove a succession of Renault Zoes, a car measuring 4.09m by 1.78m (161in by 68in). We had Zoes as a family of four till my oldest kid was 16. Having a supermini as a family car is completely unremarkable in the UK and across Europe, but would be considered completely unworkable in the US.

This is just such an astonishing level of cope. The Chinese are “dumping” these EVs in the same way they “dump” smartphones, ie they’re selling them in global markets and everyone outside the US is buying them.

Are you really that stupid that you think it’s only South American consumers who are buying Chinese EVs? If you are, let me disabuse you of that notion. Chinese EVs are selling well in the UK, in SE Asia, in APAC, and pretty well in the EU despite tariff and non-tariff barriers. The only place they don’t sell is the US, because of Donica.

Yes. Why else do you Chinese cars are outright banned in this country? Plenty of people on Youtube drive these cars and yes they are better quality and literally half the price. Domestic auto makers are scared shitless.

Yeah, I saw years ago when one of my in-laws was writing in it. I thought it was a joke or something but their humor doesn't really go that way. Absolutely mental looking when someone is a bit sloppy with their handwriting in Russian.

People can write in a neat and tidy way. And there are a few little marks people add when writing to make it easier to separate the letters. So be a little skeptical of the online examples, they're a bit contrived. Russian cursive is really difficult to read but it's not impossible.

The Soviet Union's collapse had more to do with them being a significant portion of the world economy but were frequently excluded in trade either because of their own internal politics or because of its poor relationship with the West. And the Soviet Military was kept at a top priority and tended to suck all the air out of the room when it came to investment in technology, leaving very little for pure civilian usage or for entrepreneur or peaceful long-term academic research. The workers' councils (Soviets) themselves were probably a good idea and regionally were frequently effective and represented the vast majority of people well. Actually turning many councils of industry and regions into a working country was far messier and less successful. But hey, our American democratic-republic is very messy and inefficient too and we used to make it work pretty well.

I do most of my shopping there, at Grocery Outlet, and at Costco. I actually do more shopping at grossout, because they are the closest thing that doesn't suck. We have a local market and mini-market, and I'm not a big fan of either one. (The market is somewhere around "OK", the mini market is disappointing.) I got Costco's card honestly just to get fuel quicker as the card is a membership card, and it's convenient for me to stop in there on my way to work.

Winco is an employee-owned co-op, and their pricing seems to be dynamic in general and the prices actually go back down, so I'm really happy with them. Grocery Outlet has beer I want to drink and high quality local dairy products, and an interesting and ever-changing stock of weird shit, and neither of the local ones are scuzzy. I have a chest freezer...

Of course it does. It doesn't have to do with just one thing. Keeping the machine spinning is the reason why even heartless fucks should be interested in workers' needs being met, if they weren't idiots. But that's the problem with such people, if you're smart then you realize that you don't want to live in a world of shit.

def Religion: A large popular cult
def Cult: A small unpopular religion

The people using this service already have credit issues. Hence the massive interest rates.

Just because there are people available to work that doesn't mean they will be hired. And they won't be hired because of AI.

If the GOP continues to run the government the old people won't be a problem either because they will die when they lose health coverage.

Creating icons in the game is part of creating the game. You just said it wasn't used for that and then said it was used for that.

"I'm against AI slop as much as anyone, and in general a fan of regulation, but this really is something that should be solved by the market. If people don't want AI slop, let them not buy it"

This isn't about the slop. If you're a fan of regulation, and saving jobs isn't a good enough reason for you, wait you're not actually a fan.

My local supermarkets, at least the ones where I shop, don't allow purchases with credit. This is irritating AF even though I have the money in the bank because I get a percentage back.

The last great recession was due to precisely this sort of spending pattern plus a collapse in payment. Banks may be healthy, for now, but they can't keep lending forever with no recover. This is not a good sign.