Similarly, my mom insisting I hate bananas because I didn’t want them one time when I was 4

No wonder cows are so fat

They are also spending big on domestic arms production. France will be a big winner out of this since they’ve long valued independent military arms production and the rest of Europe will want to buy French stuff (yes along with American stuff) while they get their arms production up and running. South Korea is also a big arms supplier internationally.

The reduction in US support for NATO is largely part of a pivot to focusing on Taiwan and China. The US military industry would love it if the US focused on both and kept cozy relations with europe. I’m sure they’re happy with the whole world increasing defense spending amid rising tensions, but they aren’t happy about the US scaring away customers. I hate how involved the US military is globally but acting like Trump is some mastermind of American imperialism is reductive and giving him too much credit. The thought that Europe shouldn’t be worried about Russia (the ones currently invading a European country) is bonkers.

That’s easy enough for leisure travel but it’s harder for business or if you have family in the US.

Same except I supplement with Gmaps. Transit is fantastic if you know your destination but Gmaps is way better at looking around for restaurants for example

This new agreement, with NATO signatories needing to commit 5% of their GDP, feels like a grift for the benefit of U.S. defense contractors. The U.S. cannot be trusted to actually honor their agreements anymore, so why pay more into their alliance? Is Europe really that scared of further Russian aggression?

They’re massively investing in European defense industry, not just buying more from the US. They are scared of Russian aggression and they are scared the US will not honor NATO agreements which is why they’re committing so hard to defense spending. Also, I believe it’s 3.5% for military and 1.5% for infrastructure.

Vaping is how I quit smoking cigarettes. I was also much more addicted to vapes than I ever was to cigarettes, but at least I didn’t cough as much. Now I use nicotine pouches. The day all this shit is illegal is going to be a good day for human health.

Fun fact: old Greg now hosts the great British baking show/bake off

Solar, wind, hydro, nuclear, even natural gas would all be independent from international conflicts. Obviously, if your goal is an energy transition, pivoting into fossil fuels is brain dead, but that seems like what we’re doing.

I agree that highways have no business being close to city centers. However, the edge case I described could cause a pileup. That sort of disregard would be gross negligence of something that’s supposed to improve safety. The first time that happened, there would be such intense backlash and rollback that the idea would be shelved forever.

This right here is why I’ve always laughed at the concept of “energy independence” through domestic oil extraction. The US produces much more oil than it uses. The oil coming out of the straight of Hormuz is not coming to the US. However, oil is a global commodity and the price goes up or down for everyone.

Israel also supplied Drones to Russia after the Crimea invasion, didn’t join sanctions and as reported by an Ukrainian official demanded Ukraine to surrender behind closed doors.

This is clear whataboutism. Iran and Israel can both be bad. Ukraine wants max pressure on the Russian war machine. So they cheer the weakening of a Russian military supplier. They also probably figure that if America is itching to fight again, it might as well help them out. They also probably sense the news cycle further shifting away from Ukraine and are trying to bring themselves into the conversation.

I can’t think of a good reason why car speeds aren’t mechanically capped.

There are countries that limit the top speed of cars. Japanese motorcycles used to be limited (still are?). Unfortunately, these limits are many times faster than would be needed to obliterate a pedestrian. I think cars should include some kind of dynamic governor that limits speed in certain areas. City governments could put out maps of the city center which is capped at 30km/h for example. The car’s gps would know it’s in that region and reduce the cars acceleration in that region. This would drastically cut down pedestrian deaths but there’s no political will behind directly intruding on people driving. Plus it would get messy with edge cases. What happens if a highway goes through downtown and my car thinks I’m a block over for a second while I’m going highway speeds?

Yeah true. I didn’t verify that. I know there are several countries with large restrictions on guns but little to no restrictions on suppressors, though. For shooting range or hunting applications, a suppressor is basically a heating safety device.

Truth be told, I hope the democrats don’t waste energy fighting this. Their effort would be much better spent on fighting the tax policies. Suppressors and short barrelled rifles (SBRs) are pretty easy to get if you don’t care about doing things legally. The $200 tax stamp and paperwork mostly serve to make law abiding gun owners’ lives more cumbersome. In the 30s, a $200 fee was basically a ban, these days it’s less than the suppressor itself. Hell America is actually pretty unique in restricting suppressors. They’re legal in many parts of the world because they have more sporting value than criminal value.

Same

That’s the point

I actually own a kettle because I use an aeropress for coffee but most Americans make coffee with a coffeemaker.

That’s not true and also it’s not the reason. We just don’t drink a lot of tea. There’s not a huge reason to own an electric kettle unless you’re drinking a lot of tea. It’s still much faster than a stovetop kettle.

The power is not why Americans don’t own electric kettles (well some do but most don’t). It’s still faster to boil water from an electric kettle than on the stove. Americans don’t own electric kettles because they don’t drink much tea.