For a second there, I was sure that they had discovered that some of us are lizard people.

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.

Likely a lot more of the traffic is coming from smart TVs, vacuum cleaners, irrigation systems and the like.

They're looking at the upcoming effect on buying for the Christmas season. If Walmart's credit card processor gets DDOS'd at that scale they'd better be hosted on AWS or Azure, because Bank Of America's network sure as hell won't be able to deal with it. Amazon will be all right, but Pinconning Cheese's online store would be blown out of the water.

My daily driver is a 2002 Tacoma RWD with a five speed and the smallest 4-banger they sold, that vehicle or its equivalent is just plain not available in the US. I know damn well there's a market for it, since people keep leaving notes on it asking to buy it. I do a certain amount of remodeling and a lot of gardening and landscaping so I need a pickup. I don't need something that drives, sucks fuel, and weighs as much as a 737 MAX, but that's what manufacturers have decided that I have to buy. The 2003 Tacoma was the size of the 2002 Tundra, and it's only gotten larger and the same with Mazda. Why? Because the profit level is higher, so they can make more money from fewer vehicles. (Don't suggest something like the Santa Fe, it's a toy to carry other toys in. No one is putting a yard of manure or 1200 pounds of landscaping blocks in one.)

On the other hand, I **can** buy the vehicle that I need in Peru or Malaysia, but I'm not allowed to bring it home of course.

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.

It's not just greenflation. Companies have realized that they can make more money focusing on the top 10% of consumers and just what the bottom 90 go to hell. If they had the slightest fear of competition then they wouldn't take that risk because a competitor might work their way up in the cheaper markets and then jump into the more profitable ones, but since we don't enforce antitrust law because we're busy freaking out about trans girls playing field hockey in the Midwest you can kiss that goodbye.

During incognito browser mode. So that's fun. As usual we found out as part of a lawsuit and settlement.

Back in the '80s which kept the economy going and then we followed that with two huge economic bubbles that kept things going. There was also a lot more government assistance back then in a lot of ways that we don't think about. I'm not talking about food stamps I'm talking about heavy duty subsidies like the aforementioned infrastructure spending that made it easier to get jobs.

We were in a much better position to weather 12 years of Republican rule back then. The Republicans have been building up to this for 60 years, ever since Goldwater lost. Trump is the final form of the party. A pedophile pretending to be godly while openly admitting he will burn in hell and still somehow tremendously popular with the party.

It's not just about how terrible Trump is it's about how voters would let somebody like that have that much power. It's a sign that our civilization is near collapse. A fundamental breakdown in the institutions that have been protecting all of us for our entire lives.

It's the opposite. People here have mostly done okay for themselves. Most of us are well over 50 and we got the full benefit of the Great society and the New deal. For example the government paid for 70% of our college tuition.

I don't think anyone here believes that they are going to ever suffer any serious hardship. And that's why we have so many Trump supporters here. They keep quiet because this isn't a safe space and Trump supporters won't talk about it if they're not in a safe space. But I know they are there.

These are the same people that are learning the kind of terms typically associated with libertarians right now.

They always think they will get off scot-free and maybe some of them will. But the point is not all of them will.

This does not compute. You're presumably using your phone to complete this transaction? I can literally take my phone out of my pocket, unlock it with a thumb print, and wave it at the card reader to pay via my debit card. If you're ordering online the checkout process is identical enough enough using PayPal, Venmo, or a stored card. I would have to assume Klarna is the exact same number of steps?

Wharton as well.

I wouldn't think a late payment should count as a default. That last part sounds like trying to shove the data into your pre-assumed narrative.

Tell us how many people ended up not paying the money back, one way or the other.

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

To fix the problems Republicans inevitably cause with their trickled down lies and idiot moral panics.

We didn't get that this time. And we've had 60 years of right wingers sabotaging the economy.

The coming crash is going to be brutal and I don't think we can do anything about it.

The only possible fix would be to give the Democrats a super majority in the Senate during the midterm elections so they could completely undo and course correct decades of economic mismanagement and sabotage from Republican rule.

There is no way you can get people to understand that or to prevents distraction from whichever moral panic fits their fancy the most.

By 2028 many of the people here reading this will be homeless. Some of you might at least have a roof over your head if family takes you in. Good luck. It is as has been in America for decades now every man for himself. And we will continue to worship at the altar of I got mine fuck you