Obviously. Everybody knows that if the US is able to invade Venezuela and set up some puppet government. The big question is if they end up with some sort of rebell movement. That however would be supported secretly. Also neither helped Iran, so that was to be expected.

In Germany for example there were 19km of Autobahn and 56.5km of high speed rail line added in the last five years. Rail is an alternative to large roads. So freeways like the Autobahn network is similar to high speed rail, larger local roads with regional rail and four lane or more roads inside cities are tram or metro lines. However for local roads the alternative is cycling and walking paths and even there you probably want some limited access for things like ambulances, trucks(stores or moving large things), firetrucks and so forth. So everybody is building a lot more roads then rail.

This is propaganda though. At least the other post of OP today gets all the facts wrong. That is clearly not meant to start a good discussion on the topic.

Since when are European countries no longer part of the West?

Thermal mass so stuff like stone, brick, earth or similar stores the average temperature. The more you have the longer the time period they average out over. So for in Panelleria the mean temperature in August is 26C and that is what those buildings keep over the entire day, even though it can get as hot as 34C during the day. If you have more thermal mass, for example in caves or underground structures, you can have the mean temperature of an entire year.

You got to hand it to Infantino. I thought that going lower then the “I feel a migrant worker” speech was impossible, but the cut off hands dooming earth award for Trump might just do it.

This has nothing to do with masculinity and everything to do with money.

Turns out birds are smart enough to understand that the blades can kill them. So they avoid flying into them.

That can be changed. Pretty sure Trump is not opposed to slavery.

Venezuelas oil infrastructure is in such bad shape, that oil spills are pretty common. Lake Maracaibo has them on a regular bases.

The war is currently seeing a very very slow Russian advance, but Ukraine seems to finally be able to strike the Russian economy. The drone attacks against the Russian oil industry are certainly new and increase the cost of war for Russia. Germany lost WW1 without a hostile soldier on its original territory for example.

Air-droppable combat vehicles have been bad in Ukraine. Russia is unable to fly into Ukraine with large aircraft, so the drop would likely be an uncontrolled fall after an explosion. On the ground they are lightly armored, so a lot of weapons can take them out rather easily.

However this can keep Russian arms factories open after the war and China is paying for it, which is a problem.

Under Biden the US was actually moving in the right direction with the Inflation Reduction Act. That would have helped a lot, but the American people rather elected Trump again.

The German car industry is more then just the big car brands. They are aware of the Chinese competition and they have invested a lot to be able to compete. However for parts suppliers this is much more difficult. If you are a making some metal engine casts for example, you really do not have expertise, which translate well to EV production. So you probably go down. Those sort of ICE car part suppliers have fired 50k workers in Germany this year already. The transition is hurting them badly and they would love five more years.

The good news is that Germany is at 30% BEV production and rising fast. So those companies are already in a very bad place and so is their lobbying power long term. For Germany Spain and France blocking this is probably the best thing to happen. Oh and the EV industry did get buyers subsidies in Germany for the next five years.

This entire article imho stinks. Some insurance company boss from the UK says that the EU, which the UK is no longer a part of is going to do something. Sure some actors would like that, but this seems strange. Especially with France and Spain being against it.

As someone who never romanticized the past or cared for fantasy (genre?, I could never understand why others would, even the cute versions seem awful because they have no internet, but it’s always nice to hear a perspective so alien to my own.

When you talk about the present a lot of things close of. Just as an example, when you talk about socialism in the US, the other sites walls off. A similar thing happens, when you are talking about personal life. You are always the hero of your own story, so you identify with similar characters. So by changing the environment, you can get to tell stories, you can not otherwise tell.

The Lord of the Rings is mainly about defeating totalitarianism by a small group of loyal brave friends and ending it all by the lust of power literally cursing itself to die. It manages to do that, while still being loved by right wingers. To be fair they did not get it, but I am sure that Musk never read Marx.

On television something like Mad Men is looking about how society influences individuals and how we constantly lie about who we are, to please society and the consequences of doing so. Setting the show in the 60s is just brilliant, as it is similar enough to out own reality so we can relate fairly well, but a lot of the influences we have such as television are still new and at least when it was made a lot of things like racism were much more below the surface then in the 60s.

Important stuff. I think critical analysis of luddism, romanticism, nostalgia and general idolisation of the past should be required reading/understanding for leftists. Too many people with anprim tendencies or who’s views are best summarised as “technology bad, society bad, fuck gays and the disabled if it gives me an excuse” rather than any meaningful set of beliefs.

Luddism was the first large scale labour movement against the then forming capitalist class. Romanticism also has a lot of overlap with solarpunk. As in the value of self expression, art and feelings.

In other words not all technology and society is not by default good. For example using fossil fuel is a technology we have, but that we should not use and sometimes it is just a hell of a lot fun to have open sex in the park, even if society does not approve.

This is the end of US car makers besides Tesla. Very few countries like to buy those massive American trucks and SUVs and without EVs selling normal cars is going to be difficult in many large markets, such as China and Europe. GM has basically left Europe already and Ford is firing workers like crazy. Stellantis is very likely to follow, but they have strong European brands and probably manage a bit longer.

Yeah the only thing Germany got out of that deal was 80 years of peace and the ability to turn itself into one of the best countries to live in. That for the most part without being too big a part in the really shitty stuff the US does.

That is surely why the Canadian government claims to not have sold arms to Israel since 2024… /s

Great to read some good news!