Please tell me they're all in on it and we're supposed to believe them, please
Critical support for comrade Trump in undermining the American Empire.
<- When [Iran/China/Russia] shoots itself in the foot
<- When the [U$/EU] shoots itself in the footThis is dielectrics.
Who is making decisions in the US? I don't think a Maoist could do a better job at fucking stuff up than whoever is actually pulling the strings.
Big Sideshow Bob energy.
Step 1: Step on rake
Step 2: Groan
Step 3: Repeat
It’s the art of the deal baby, Trump makes extreme and outrageous demands and he meets halfway. It really does work
It's a very effective strategy when your targets are traditional lapdogs of the empire, who don't have the will nor the ability to truly oppose you besides pretending to be independent and not for sale, despite having sold out ages ago.
Western politicians aren't for sale in the same way that your living room furniture isn't.
Unironically in favor. US gas prices are far lower than they should be, which produces a bunch of knock-on effects like car dependency and demand for car-centric living. Yes, it's going to be painful, but I think it will be worth it if we get good pedestrian/mass transit/urban infrastructure out of it.
it will be worth it if we get good pedestrian/mass transit/urban infrastructure
We won't get anything.
We'll get expensive gas and still won't be able to ride our bikes to work.
They hate us.
Generally, yeah, you're probably right. That said, a lot of times these things are directly controlled on a MUCH more local level than you might think. It's well worth your while to start showing up to city council meetings and giving them what for; at worst, it's a fun hobby that's affordable and the cops can't stop you from enjoying. If your experience is like mine, though, it'll put you in contact with other like-minded individuals with whom you can network, organize, and push for change. It's how I ended up on my city's bicycle commission.
Going even further, a lot of times, local elections are pretty accessible and have much lower barriers to entry. If you have the time and gumption, you could run for local office for a pretty low cost, especially if you've spent some time networking with other local advocates.
Not all of us live in a city.
I can ride my ebike 15 miles to work over gravel farm-to-market roads, I actually kind of like it when the weather is nice, but I do not expect there to ever be bicycle infrastructure in my area. I'm just going to get expensive gas and have to live with it.
Most humans do live in a city. I'm not talking down at you for not living in a city, it's strictly a practical application of an observation.
It's worth noting a few things:
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Idk about elsewhere, but in the US, you still have local elected representatives at the county level. They have regular public meetings that you can go to and demand change, just like a city council. I'd guess other places have something similar.
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Better cities and better public transit are good for you too. It means fewer cars sharing the road with you and better road conditions overall.
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Other countries that have rural areas still manage to provide them with public transit. Our towns deserve better connections than they have- should be trains, but busses should be much more frequent and reliable.
You're probably right, but I'm going to be damned if I don't try. One day, sooner than I want to believe, my kids, and lots of others, will inherit the world I've helped to make.
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if we get good pedestrian/mass transit/urban infrastructure out of it.
Show
if we get good pedestrian/mass transit/urban infrastructure out of it
Show
I was hoping to get back into biking once spring starts rearing its head. ❤️
Same. Gained some weight over the winter since it's too damn cold to bike anywhere!
Yeah if there's a plan and a mechanism for change. He's just going to pump stock prices for his buddies while convincing his base that we need a 51st state and we'll all be totally fucked when the billionaires finish getting all the money. This is not a case where doing the wrong thing will lead to the right outcome. We're just fucked.
Yeah but knowing the US, if it does result in mass transit, it will likely be privately owned so it somehow costs more, delivers less and takes twice as long.
Ironic that the us was the mass transit country in the 19th century.
Only time Amerika could build trains was when it was still linked to genocidal land grabs
You know, the one thing you can say for US transit is that it has effectively resisted privatization.
Most older US cities had functioning trolley networks that were bought up and ripped out so not really
I live in a city that is referred to as a "streetcar suburb." Every main road here had tram tracks, then the 50s happened and everything was torn out.
No lol, Ztrip does the public transit in a ton of US cities
To be fair, mass transit is almost impossible to profit off of, even in the US, so private interests want nothing to do with it.
Plan? There's no plan.
But they definitely will start drawing down from the strategic reserve in Alaska.
Does anyone think anyone has told Trump tariffs aren’t a good idea and not to do them?
Maybe the plan is to further juice the US oil industry? With the price of Canadian crude up, refineries will prefer to buy from US producers. As long as they jack up their own prices by less than 25% they'll still scoop up Canada's lost customers.
Funny enough I think this will make oil cheaper in Canada?
I think the shock it would cause immediately in both countries would shoot prices up
Oh they'll shoot up in the US, but I don't see that happening in Canada. They're going to be hit with a drop in demand from US refineries and either be forced to cut prices to overcome the tariff, go to other markets, or overproduce.
They might be able to just sell to other markets and not have to cut prices much, though.
A big problem is that the Canadian dollar value is tied to oil price. But these tariffs are a different sort of oil price than the standard OPEC pricing. Usually if oil prices go down worldwide, demand for the difficult to refine Canadian oil goes down and our dollar devalues.
If price goes up, then we become more competitive and put dollar strengthens. This new situation is different because it will decrease demand and increase the domestic cost of oil, so our dollar will get weaker AND oil costs will go up in Canada. I think. It will be bad, regardless.
The thing is that refineries are designed around refining specific types/qualities of crude. The US produces a lot of light (low viscosity) and sweet (low sulfur) crude oil, but a lot of our refineries are actually set up to refine heavy (high viscosity) and sour (high sulfur) crude, because it's cheaper to buy and more advanced refineries can make a larger profit on it. And as you might have guessed, most of the crude produced is Canada is heavy sour crude. A lot of the majors/super majors will pump light and sweet US crude and then export a good portion of it overseas to countries that don't have the same refining capabilities and then buy the cheap and dirty stuff that they know how to handle. I'm not a down stream expert, but I would imagine going from heavy sour crude to light sweet crude is probably going to be costly, even if it's easier than going in the other direction. What I expect is more likely is that refineries won't stop buying Canadian crude and will just raise prices, instead.
The US is famously the sort of country that takes its massive in-house crude production and adds in different types of petroleum from the rest of the world to create a robust and very lucrative refining industry.
This seems like just a way to scam the american people at large by charging extra for energy. It's not the sort of measure that increases internal production either because actual crude production in the US has been in a plateau for a long time now. Not because of lack of demand. But because that's just how things are. Oil is not an infinite resource.
I would be surprised if prices went down significantly, seems like the oil corps operate as an unofficial cartel. There's not much compelling them to cut prices unless there's a huge drop in demand like a second pandemic, or some kind of government intervention (lol). There's still much oil storage capacity left in Alberta.
I'm saying that tariffs might represent a large drop in demand from refineries, because they'll all stop buying from Canada.
Isn't canadian uniquely heavy oil (good for asphalt and stuff), but not that easy exchangeable for anything else (this side of venezuela as well, i believe, whom they swapped)
Hey Alberta, thanks for all your help on the softwood lumber issue that's made life hell for a lot of Maritimers. We'll be sure to help you out on this just as much.
Lmao, I wonder if it's even worth pumping put of the ground then. Game over for the CAD
Really going to collapse the whole ass economy? I'm honestly not confident Trump is going to hold on to power if prices for everything keep going up. 3 meals away from a revolution, something like that.
I gotta think that capital is going to intervene to stop this. It's just too obviously disruptive to profit making.
Ironically, capitalism may have some self preservation and do a good thing like stopping these wars.
yeah but the ten guys that everything is consolidated under will have plenty of lead time to protect their assets and prepare to buy up the smoldering ruins for cheap
i'm actually starting to believe a collapse is being engineered on purpose because all this artificial "growth" and market inflation isn't actually making real wealth
so pull the plug, do a post-Soviet doctrine. if shit gets too real who cares they can just leave
i don't think they've thought much beyond this stage and think civil disruption can be easily dealt with.
I'm so glad I got an ebike before Biden's tariffs on batteries and Trump's tariffs on Chinese goods in general come into effect. Like with COVID's supply shock there's no telling what will be impacted by 1/5th of the crude oil supply being interrupted. Everything is downrange of fuel prices and there will be the compounded shock of the other inputs being restricted as well.
i never did even after we discussed it. too many other things i've been grabbing up before these hit. mostly PC stuff, and my budget is limited
oh well here we go i guess going to be a wild ride
Turns our walking everywhere for my entire 40 years is gonna pay off in a big way lol
do nothing, win.
