I don't think they're wrong about historical and often religious corruption existing, it's only wrong to appeal to it. We should be improving going forwards, not using the past as an excuse.

The world will never trust America as much as it did (whatever amount that was — but notably including allowing military bases practically everywhere) again without America's governmental structure changing significantly.

No, but it requires all the states to cooperate. GLWT.

The best thing as far as the presidency would really be just to eliminate the electoral college and move to counting the votes directly. We can do that now. Also we should do it with paper. Fuck computer voting.

I'm amused by those who imagine that the laws of physics can be defied merely by looking the other way. It makes me ponder how unbelievably moronic humanity is, how pathetic, and how deserving of what it is come.

How funny. I didn't vote for them because I wanted them. I just didn't want the worst person ever alive to be president, which comes back to what Rosco said above. People who voted for Trump did it specifically because they wanted Trump to do terrible things, which was because they are terrible people. They specifically wanted other people to suffer, because they are suffering, and they think making other people suffer more will make them feel better. This in turn is because they don't know shit, so they are somehow able to believe that punishing people for doing jobs they don't want to do will make them better off.

I don't think for the most part that there are fundamentally, physically "good" or "bad" people, and there may or may not even be fundamentally smart or dumb people, at least not to the extent we think there is — some of those people may just not have learned how to use their brains, and society certainly doesn't want them to learn lest it loses its source of cheap labor. But voting for Donald Trump because you think hurting other people will help you is both stupid and hateful.

I forget where he's from, but it sure reminds me of the result of Reagan's education plan

so we can unfuck all the things he's fucked.

But the reality is, Trump is a symptom, not a disease. He was elected by the people. Those who voted Trump once were either Nazi sympathizers or fools. Those who voted Trump the second time around were definitely Nazi sympathizers, or definitely fools.

Impeaching Trump won't do anything. The next Nazi in line is JD Vance and he's ten times worse because, unlike Trump, he's not an idiot with a case of fronto-temporal dementia.

And even if Vance and the rest of the Nazi goons are out, the people will vote another fascist in the next time around because the people has proven twice now that they're fucking fascists or fucking morons.

In short, America is fucked because Americans are hopeless.

Yeah, when thinking of the typical air fryer market, think "working mom with kids who wants to serve something nicer than a microwave dinner, but doesn't have the time for much prep or waiting". You can get those mailard reactions that microwaving doesn't really get you, nice crisping and browning of the surface that you normally get from an oven, without having to wait for an oven to preheat. I don't think anyone disputes that an oven will do a better job, but the air fryer does a better job than a microwave, which is what it's really competing against. They're also marketed as easy-clean, which again is a nod to their target audience.

How costs build up is really staggering. I'm getting into the business of importing 3d filament. In Iceland, it currently sells for like $35/kg minimum. The actual value of the plastic is like $1. The factory's total cost, all costs included, is like $1,50. If it's not name brand, e.g. they're not dumping money on marketing, they sell it for $3 for the cheapest stuff. Sea freight adds another dollar or two. Taxes here add 24%. But you're still at like $5/kg. The rest is all middlemen, warehousing, air freight for secondary legs from intermediary hubs, and all the markup and taxes on those things.

With me importing direct from the factory, sea freight only, I can get rid of most of those costs. Warehousing is the biggest unavoidable cost. If I want to maintain an average inventory of like 700kg, it adds something like $5/kg to the cost. Scanning in goods and dispatching user orders (not counting shipping) together adds like $2,50. And then add 24% tax (minus the taxes on the imported goods). There's still good margin, but it's amazing how quickly costs inflate.

Your "junk" is someone else's "must-have".
Your "must-have" is someone else's "junk".

Trump's approval rating was at 33% post covid and 55% right before the 2024 election. Never underestimate what a completely captured media owned by billionaires combined with sane washing can do.

And it wants to Democrats win big in the midterms we can expect it to become a depression.

Right wing trickle down economics not only don't work but they do active harm. Normally we go through a cycle where we elect a republican because they are better at messaging than they wreck the economy and we come to our senses briefly and then we elect the Democrat and then have eight years of relatives stability and then flip back and forth between chaotic destruction by people who know how to push our buttons and boring ass administrators who know how to run a country...

We only got 4 years of those boring ass administrators and it was not enough time for them to fix the mess. It actually is never enough time to for them to fix the mess there's always a bit left over and is always a bit of resentment because they didn't fix things fast enough. This is typically because in between major elections we put the Republicans in charge of Congress and they sabotage any attempt by the Democrats to fix the damage their policies caused.

You would think after a 40 or 50 years Americans would have figured out this pattern but nope.

His point was probably that it was owned by Bezos.

You could google "why bezos owning the post is bad" or something if you don't get it

It helps to read to the end.

I'm going to say one thing about this and then I'm out, we shouldn't reward this story with more interaction. Yes, I'm being IRONIC MAN today. It's my turn.

It's certainly a testament to how many of those calls didn't need to happen, and I'm not seeing here that we're sure those people would have made it if the calls had gone through, or they'd even have had a good chance.

On the flip side, if anyone certainly died because of negligence around a critical emergency service, some heads should roll. Unfortunately, it won't be the ones which it needs to in order to prevent it from happening again.