Well.... crap. The USA is a terrorist state. We don't respect the sovereignty of other nations. We've invaded another country for oil on the pretext of "drug charges" and kidnapped their president and his wife. What's next?
I've sometimes wondered what I would do were I a German in the 1930's. Apparently, just wring my hands looking at my limited options.
Jan 3rd is a special day for me. It's Jennifer's Rebirth day. Jan 3rd, 1994 Jennifer received a Kidney-Pancreas transplant. She had been on the transplant list after being diagnosed with kidney failure and having to rely on dialysis to live. The wait was excruciating. In 1994, people on transplant waiting lists carried pagers to enable notification. Several times there were "false alarms". This was either being a secondary transplant candidate, or being rejected due to immunological reasons. This meant that she waited for a second page to come in or stay home. Finally she got the page, about 9pm while we were at a friends house for a post New Year get together. We gathered her hospital bag and drove to Washington Hospital Center. After a wait she was scheduled for a final dialysis with the transplant surgery scheduled for the morning. I was sent home as the preparations excluded me and they would call after the surgery and recovery and she could receive visitors. The weather was poor, snow and sleet had moved in to make things slippery. On Jan 4th, I got the call that the surgery was successful and that Jennifer was in a room, but would probably be pretty out of it for a while longer. On the 5th I went out to find one of my tires was flat, so I had to get up to a local place to get new ones. Once I got to the hospital the word was that everything was as expected, the new kidney and pancreas were working. As predicted, Jennifer was still recovering and was confused. She got better, but had to have some additional surgeries related to the pancreas and how it drains. She stayed at the hospital for a while. I managed to contract the flu and Jennifer had to stay with friends for a week while I recovered. Recovery was long, the effects of Diabetes and the kidney failure were very hard on Jennifer. Due to those issues it was several years before she was able to resume a normal life. But it did happen.
This long winded post is a round about way of getting to my yearly message. Jennifer's kidney and pancreas gave her an additional 29 years of life. A young girl in the Pittsburgh area died, and her parents agreed to donate her organs. Jennifer was not the only person who benefited from this extremely generous gift that transformed their grief into hope for many.
If it fits within your beliefs, Please become a transplant donor. So many people have been helped by organ transplants and been given a gift of life. But it takes a decision on your part to make it happen Give the gift of life.
Amid whitewashing of history of Capitol siege, new transcript of House interview w/ Jack Smith highlights police injuries:
"Cracked ribs, traumatic brain injuries, smashed spinal disks & heart attacks as rioters used bats, flagpoles, chemical sprays, stolen police shields & batons"
"They openly called for kidnappings, hangings, gassing, burning, and other executions -- all on live video & audio. Had plans in advance. The public does not even know most of the story. They can forget about whitewashing it."
It is truly horrifying that the republican terrorist that committed these heinous assaults on police were pardoned by the felon insurrectionist rapist.
@Democracy Dies in Dumbass Nods, "I know of that now, but I was born in 72, so for me in the 80's I was just learning politics and being taught how great America and Reagan were. I wasn't legally an adult before I started questioning that."
At this point, technologically, I doubt it's "if" but rather a question of how long EVs winning can (continue to) be deferred artificially. But I'm also sure there will be other resources to exploit and fight over.
Rule of Law? What does it mean in general? Btw I think electric cars are a good idea, they are best if you can afford your own solar panels (and maybe batteries) at home. Once installed, no more transporting costs (apart from regular service, which is very limited on electric cars compared to fossil fuel ones).
@dexter I use one as a delivery vehicle, even with fuel costs, its massively better than a gas vehicle, so long as you can charge at home, the local WalMart's fast charger is 56Β’/KwH, home is 11.4Β’/KwH, I'm spending maybe a third of what I used to spend on gas.
Considering fossil fuel prices lately thats a really good thing I guess. More and more people will switch as used but good range electric cars are becoming fairly cheap. This era should have started much earlier, we are at least fifteen years too late (where we are now should have happened around 2010). But its better to switch later than never.
If I'm not mistaken, forecasts are saying that demand for fossil energy wlll decline soon. Oil product demand peaked in 2022, Gas consumption had a decline in Europe of over ten percent. I'd say electric cars are an important piece of the puzzle. Interesting to notice that Chinese seem to become the best at it (building really good and affordable electric cars).
@dexter Honestly I'm not surprised the Chinese are so good, their gas powered cars were a joke for so long that they developed a reputation China couldn't live down, but electric? The western world gave up on them, so China dove in and created a new image for themselves, and here we are.
Interesting to notice that Chinese seem to become the best at it (building really good and affordable electric cars).
The US is simply giving the market away. Interestingly, I count Three separate times that General Motors engaged in major efforts to make, market, and sell electric vehicles - and it failed three times. Such incompetence leads to very bad consequences. Ford is doing no better, while Tesla has excommunicated itself.
Exactly, they were smart enough to admit that they are too far behind with fossil fuel engine technology. So they put their bet on (cheap) battery technology and all electric cars. I notice more and more BYDs and MGs on the streets here in Europe every day. GM literally tried to kill electric car development in the 90s. There was even a movie about the story. People liked their test venicles and wanted to buy them - GM seized all the cars and delivered them to a junk yard for recycling.
In general, this is the notion that people can agree to live within certain limitations in order to guarantee a better living place for all. And generally this works quite well when the parameters are reasonable and there is some mechanism for enforcement. The was the The International Court of Justice, which looked promising until the US decided it did not like the constraints. And the UN Security Council, which has been similarly ignored.
If the major powers had abided by the principles of these international institutions, and worked to bring about enforcement of abridgements, we would have a much better world today.
π¬ 1Β Β π 31Β Β β€οΈ 52Β Β·Β A lot of Substack readers have told me this one landed in a tender spot. It's for people waking up to consequences they thought had someone else's name on them. Sharing the fullβ¦
So, figure since it's a new year, should take a new photo of m'self. I don't think the glasses are a new sight, I've had them for a bit now, but look, hair!
Yeah,I've been bald by choice because hair requires too much effort to maintain frankly. Goatee isn't going anywhere, but it won't be joined by anything, nothing else feels right.
Ugh, keeping bouncing from one thing to another. This weekend I need to get the usual stuff done, grocery shopping, clean kitchen, do laundry, and that's about it, but so far I've killed 3 hours online, not because I'm doom scrolling or something, but because I keep jumping to one thing to another, rather than zipping through a relatively quiet internet.
"Microsoft and Google keep the energy consumption of their Dutch data centers secret, despite European reporting obligations. The Netherlands Enterprise Agency (Rijksdienst voor Ondernemend Nederland, RVO) received blank forms or no data at all. The Dutch newspaper NRC reports that the government has no legal means to request the actual figures."
President Donald Trump escalated his fundraising rhetoric this week by warning his own supporters that they would be punished if they failed to send him
President Donald Trump escalated his fundraising rhetoric this week by warning his own supporters that they would be punished if they failed to send him
Muse
in reply to π΄ Seph π πΎ • • •I used to have one of those I could carry around in my hand bag for when I needed to straighten out my paintings!
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