So if I understand it correctly, there is literally nothing stopping anyone in the US to start such a party and participate. The only thing is that the party might not accumulate enough votes to be of relevance. It might be worth a shot if there is sufficient momentum (which currently there seems to be from my arm chair point of view).

Nice Shot!

Ignorant Dutchman here:

What’s stopping anyone from starting a new Workers’ party in the US? A multi party system seems more favorable than its current state.

Tesla was ahead 10-15 years, sure. But they mostly lost that lead. Yes, their software is great, but at the same time Tesla doesn’t seem to be able to do basic car features right. For instance, it doesn’t have a rain sensor and relies on the front facing camera to detect rain. I can tell you from experience that it doesn’t work as well as a sensor. It’s even worse when it detects rain, while it is completely dry. But you cannot turn the wipers off, because then you won’t be able to use cruise control anymore. Cruise control, which by the way (non FSD) is shit in comparison to the competition.

The tablet might be a couple years ahead of the competition. The value they bring in bang for buck with a great feature package is also greatly competitive. But the car is behind when it comes to just normal car things. I have buttons on my steering wheel as indicators for fuck sake, a problem we already fixed when we were still prosecuting Nazis.

To be honest, I think we are well passed that scenario. Even if Putin dies today, his puppets in Russia will grab for power. Meanwhile, they still own the president of the US. They know they have the support needed to win in Ukraine, they will use it to build trust with the citizens of Russia and show strength. Even better, the US will be weakened in supporting Russia, but that’s not really a bad scenario for Russia either.

until Trump determines that Ukrainian leaders are making a genuine effort toward peace.

They are literally shooting every Russian they spot on their soil, how is that not making a genuine effort toward peace?

Mostly in the US though, but unfortunately the US is leaking :(

It’s WYSIWYG all over again…

Question: do we attribute Russia’s actions to terrorism? I would wager yes, as it can easily be labeled as a terrorist state at this point. In that case, I think we can give them lots of credit, right?

Not sure if we can really blame Steve Jobs for this though, he wasn’t around when things turned to shit. The iPhone he introduced was merely a phone, web browser, email and music player.

I think it’s fair if we blame Tim Apple for this and the other big tech CEO’s of the recent past.

As a Model 3 (2024) driver, I fully agree! Meanwhile I finally nailed down a little over half the instances where it might phantom brake, so I’m more prepared. A common theme is cars moving within their lane while driving next to them. Even if they don’t cross the line into my lane, the car will still brake abruptly.

Why bother having cruise control if you cannot use it comfortably and always have to rest your foot above the accelerator anyways?

This is then only regarding phantom braking. Another dangerous thing is the automatic speed adjustment of the cruise control. I have this set to “off”, but the car seems to completely ignore that setting. It happened multiple times that the car changed set speed, both up and down. Imagine driving 130 on cruise and the car sees a sign that says “90 when asphalt is wet” but it’s dry. The car thinks it’s 90 and slams the brakes.

All I want is just dumb cruise control for cruising and traffic aware cruise control in traffic jams, is that too much to ask?

Such a long time ago and I still hear this scene when I see the picture combined with the slightly altered text. Wild.

Just to check, because I’m no longer sure:

Is this real?

Not sure how to effectively do that, but I reckon it would be no different than the cookie mess today. Which unfortunately is, hardly ever. The big GDPR related fines can still apply. Let’s say a data set is leaked that includes tracking data that was not necessary for the service to have, then the company can receive a hefty fine. As long as the fine is larger than the reward, it might not be worth it for the company to track you anymore.

Which is why I had hoped the EU would ban all forms of fingerprinting and non-essential data tracking. But they somehow got lobbied into selecting cookies as the only possible mechanism that can be used, leaving ample room to track using other methods.

But is capitalism really the issue here? As far as I can tell, you can put in place any economic agenda, if people just vote against themselves and if laws are actively ignored, the economic policy doesn’t really matter?

It would cost me about 75 euro’s (return) for a 4 hr commute (one way) with public transport to cover a distance of 150km (one way). This is a mixture of transportation modes, including bus and train.

Comparison with the car is quite difficult, but using a car cost calculator website, it says that for my car the average price per kilometer would be ~0,20 euro. So that would mean that the round trip would cost me roughly 60 euro’s by car. As for time, a one way commute to the office is about 1,5h to 2h by car, depending on traffic. So, twice as fast and 1/4th cheaper.

My company covers car expenses in the company leasing contract. All I have to pay is taxes to use the car privately, which in The Netherlands is quite high (compared to for example Belgium). So I pay 350 euro (net) a month to use the car privately. The mobility budget for the leasing car represents about 1000 euro gross a month. But of course if I were to take public transport, my company would reimburse that, but I would have to give up the car.

To be fair, the situation here in The Netherlands is not much different than you describe, outside the larger cities that is. Most people commuting to these cities from the smaller towns and villages are still heavily car dependent. Even within my own town, public transport is just a sham. If I were to take the bus to get groceries, I would have to wait 2 hours for the next bus that takes me back home. Ain’t nobody got time for that.

I drive, public transport in The Netherlands is horrible outside of the major cities. Even in the major cities it’s “meh” to be honest. The PR department of The Netherlands does a great job at portraying our country as some sort of engineering marvel / paradise. The truth is that mobility in The Netherlands is expensive and in case of public transport, it lacks proper connection to regions outside of the cities. The only reason why we “love” riding our bicycle around, is that it’s the only affordable mobility option.

Many people that cover longer distances, like myself, have a company leasing car. So it doesn’t hit my wallet as much.

I’m located in The Netherlands, the housing market here is fucked. An alternative solution would be to find something to rent closer to work, but I would pay 1,5 times as much in rent, for a small apartment in a neighborhood where I don’t want to live. Yes, I’m spending more time on my commute, but I also have more disposable income each month that I can save and invest. If all goes to plan, I can retire earlier and live mortgage free within 20 years. In essence, I’m trading a bit of time now, to have more spare time and a better financial position in the near future. I’m taking it.

Or have office jobs and commute a bit longer.

People say I’m crazy for commuting 1,5 hours (one way). But I get to go home to my own property. Especially now with hybrid working still being a thing, I only go to the office once or twice a week.