I’ll walk that comment back. I’ve only heard of suspicions or allegations of the use of hypersonic missiles. But so far I haven’t come across anything more concrete.

Also another point to make, in cynical fashion, Trump remains in power as because he brings profit to all of the correct gate keepers in American politics. If enough disruption to that petro-state to US loop occurs to shake the rattle the US economy, will the US voter finally awaken to its own self-interest and engage the system of checks and balances that the Americans are so fond of mentioning? Even outside readers can see that the US Justice system is corrupted, the use of dark money and the rise of the US billionaires are uncontrollable, and the power within that country is out of balance.

I’ll point out the obvious that the “average” American voter is actually poor, lower class, and on the verge of financial ruin on a day-to-day basis. Will a multipolar world order, a group of states, have the audacity to re-ignite this mentally beat down US public. I think the world, and even Iran, can benefit from that scenario.

Can they succeed?

If the status quo continues, US dysfunction with its out of control billionaire classes will continue to lash at the world itself with their excesses.

From a logical view, the US has every reason to stop the conflict and declare an end to the war. As others pointed out the war math doesn’t add up because modern 21st Century drone warfare can produce effective drones at 5 figures a unit and US interceptor technology produces missiles at 7 figures a unit. A child can already decide who will run out first. Readers will also know there are hypersonic missiles, and a combination of technologies that have already defeated the so called Iron Dome.

Iran on the other hand has operated with mostly a “tit-for-tat” approach, responding in kind to aggression and then de-escalating. And this pattern is simple enough for the world public to make out and appreciate. With the US potentially disrupting the economy and daily life of Iran and Iranians in general, I think the logic follows that Iran will simply do the very same thing to the US.

Trump has shifted a great deal of US wealth into the petro-states as a deposit box of sorts, and in turn, the petro-states have turned a lot of that money back into the US by way of investment. Iran is clearly aware of this - as would be casual readers - and they’re just disrupting that loop with devastating awareness.

I suspect that the US and others may have operated on the assumption that Iran was weak or on the verge of collapse. But, I also believe that the truth is coming out that Iran is actually much more prepared and robust than the US wishes to admit.

At this rate, the petro-states may end up suffering massive losses, creating knock-on impacts on the US economy. Everyone should be moving with urgency. This is actually a consequential war not in the bogus religious sense with references to “Armageddon”, but rather a power shifting moment from the age of superpowers to multipolarity. Only trouble is…no one advertised how destructive and violent that age shift would be.

Wow…what a way to divorce the US military from reality and play into a fantasy conspiracy that Israel is somehow central to some scheme by the Illuminati, the Jesuits, the Freemasons, and the Zionists.

Western leaders folks…these champions are losing their marbles all over the floor.

China alone is pushing the world into the renewables age. For the rest of us, we just follow the wave.

Nuclear does not have similar issues. Nuclear is a super long game that basically leaves a few states left to explore and invest in this area. Nuclear power is basically a bespoke option that needs to be developed like an art piece and an investment. Any nuclear power installation requires massive budgets, massive budget overruns, and over 10 years of development and installation which will overrun as well. By the time a nuclear project breaks ground, only the next generation will possibly enjoy whatever power is generated.

Nuclear also requires massive investments of teams of specialists. They basically need teams to operate over huge periods of time to retain the institutional knowledge of building, maintaining, and improving upon these installations. In that sense nuclear is similar to rail companies in that we want teams with over 100 years of experience in this business to maintain a certain level of competence.

Nuclear is fun to drop like in SimCity or Civilzation, but it is completely, seriously inaccessible for many.

What’s the show called?

So police did not have to flag the file as AI generated, and don’t prioritize the review of these allegations by an actual human?

Did anyone tell that man he was unlawfully detained and has a civil claim against the government who knowingly and recklessly detained an innocent person?

I thought Panasonic makes those infrared ovens still. They’re still around!

Productivity gains are not across the board, and is a subject of scrutiny and debate.

But what AI really has done is basically redistributed American wealth to a smaller group of people, and therefore a smaller pool for the US politicians to focus on satisfying. If there is an AI bubble pop, what market watchers suspect is there’s actually no other American sector to mitigate what is otherwise a recession.

A cynic in me suggests that this may be a move to push people off the system and disenfranchise them entirely, or the new rationale to create a second class of people who are forced to live with increased digital vulnerability while a new class of numbers can be generated with different privileges.

OpenAI is the same as any other publicly traded corporation: it serves society, but this service primarily focuses on the shareholders. We’re looking at a vehicle designed to take money, and give it to shareholders. (private in this case or otherwise)

Focus on growth of data centres at public expense, AI slop, the circular nature of some of the investments going into AI, and the productivity (or lack of), are part of it. We are not looking at any exceptionalism. AI isn’t unique in its capability for catastrophic harm. What we eat and drink can easily be on that list.

AI and these American companies, just want the money train to continue unabated, and any regulation to go away.

I always thought it was a bit like Goosebumps, but science fiction.

Share bud, there’s ladies living in tents in hotel rooms. I’m considering it.

Thanks for spelling out how to get started for me. I’ll give this a try later!

Thanks everyone for the responses!

Question: I do remember the days of those RSS buttons everywhere. But I never managed to see the value in it.

Can anyone share their experience with following feeds, and how they consume this content? Is there some kind of spam/tracker free functionality that people enjoy? Are there apps out there that organize this in a way that changes the game?

I’d like to give it another shot, sorry for all the questions.

I’m in the US as a failed state camp. Once the Americans can accept that position, there can be a proper rebuild.

I’d consider the label “competitive authoritarianism” as rather generous, and narrowly focused on just the internal processes of the US. I also believe that the current state of the US can be more defined once we expand the view to include the Americans have yet to fully explore the scope and extent of the Epstein files, along with the full collapse of the Supreme Court of the United States to corruption.

I have similar concerns for Canada: the lack of any check on the political party system itself. For the US, with only two functional political parties, the need for some checks is even more desperate. Originally I think the concern is that politicians are always the target of lobbying and potential bribery. They are technically the most fluid agents in the political system, and therefore one of the weakest points.

Perhaps what surprised both the Americans, and others abroad, is how there’s no check on SCOTUS Justices for what essentially amounts to the appearance of outright bribery and corruption. At that point, I would have expected a full audit of the suspect Justices cases should have been done and essentially a complete review of every case should have been committed. Maybe a temporary expansion of the number of Justices to include members of the American Bar Association and other Justice system participants should have been done to basically re-hear the compromised cases.

In any event, the damage to American institutions is far reaching, and deep. I don’t think the American public fully appreciates that even with the “frame” of what once was a democracy, the damage will probably take decades to recover from.

For those thinking about the switch, and happen to game, I understand that plenty of users are going to CachyOS or Bazzite as well.

If this were a terrible cake of mixed motives, one would be to throw out or damage the Epstein files in such a way that no one involved with those allegations can be tried.

Second, obtain war funding (Venezeula) to secure a coup, or to at least hold a significant portion of the the US indefinitely.

Third, in the event of complete failure, extort and move as much money out of the country that can resist tracing or recovery. Exit planning to leave the US on emergency basis.

I keep these three points in mind while looking at the Trump Administration.

From what I understand, Venezuela, Canada, and Russia are the primary suppliers of heavy crude. Even after so-called embargoes against Russia for the Ukraine-Russia conflict, ghost ships are still able to get product to market.

As for Iran, I’m not sure the US can even hold Iran, given their track record in Afghanistan and elsewhere. As it turns out, occupying another country requires huge troop deployments over decades.

Also, China’s built out relations through the Belts and Roads Initiative, meaning they’ve diversified the markets they can access.

One alternative plan, from an outsider’s point of view, is that the US has engaged in a long standing strategy of wealth transfer from its middle classes to its wealthy upper classes over decades. They’re in the process of breaking down their country for sale to its billionaire classes. While on paper it looks like a coup, the structure of the US suggests that the whole thing comes down with a whimper instead of a bang.

I suspect the billionaires are just waiting to see if they can get away with stealing the US, without the American people rising up and charging them for treason.