Independent portable media players. Most of those functions have been susumed by phones.

Office phones.

The issue for China is that it needs people to purchase the goods that it makes to pay off the country’s sky high debt. Consumption form the USA is going to drop for various reasons, so domestic consumption was likely seen as a way to replace dropping international consumption.

Alternators don’t exist on electric cars. The closest is regenerative breaking, which powers the car by slowing the car down.

I’m shocked, shocked! Well, not that shocked.

You post Devil’s Panties.

I have no clue.

I haven’t been home for several days.

I’d also look into leaving the house, even if it is to just walk around the neighborhood.

Beyond books, tools that are a store of knowledge that are only used infrequently. For places dependent on cars, that would include an auto engine code reader. For areas with wood frame construction, a stud finder.

Orange juice and some kind of simple food. Right now, it is toast with butter.

It was a dumb mistake, but it was a dumb mistake that had broader political support than the narrative that “car companies destroyed mass transit” suggests. It is important to recognize how a broad base of support was created in order to fight it in its current interations.

And I completely agree that Musk tunnels are a shit technology and that actual trains need to be built. I just think it requires understanding how politics functions rather than just accepting a corporate bogeyman.

It is a lot more complicated than that.

Most early 20th century mass transit networks were private businesses subject to government regulation. Most of the government regulation focused on controlling fares, so there was a lot of deferred maintenance. This was made worse as some mass transit systems were built to be a loss leader to support selling real estate.

Several mass transit networks went bankrupt due to the combination of fares not covering expenses and reduced demand due to completion with cars. Most American cities weren’t equipped to take on subsiding or taking over mass transit, so they let the existing networks die.

Japan was forced to be demilitarized, but the US could have easily let Japan militarize as a US vassal state under the control of an American alliance, but it didn’t.

In regards to South Korea, it could choose to open negotiations to merge with North Korea. We even saw a conservative South Korean President impeached; the political implication bring a more pro-North Korean president taking power.

How is it legal? The law makes charging a minor as an adult legal.

Enough to be able to save 25% of my income and not be in want. I’m wealthy enough.

I feel like income needs to be divorced from spending and wealth. If you’re not in want and can save with your salary, you’re wealthier than someone with four times your income and yet is still drowning in debt.

As someone who has ridden Mexico City’s and Istanbul’s metros, Americans should be fucking embarrassed of mass transit back home.

Japan’s politics are very different from American politics. While the USA has a two party system with one party who is generally dominant, Japan has had effectively a one party state since World War II. The NDP is so entrenched that factions within the party have greater power than other political parties.

Yeah, you can make the argument that Japan is a vassal state of the USA. However, the demilitarization of Japan was relatively popular amongst Japan’s neighbors.

Tankie isn’t a political ideology, it is a commentary on the practice of policy in comparison to stated beliefs.

Again, “tankie” in practice is just a pejorative for communists

It isn’t, though. Tankies want the term to be a pejorative term for communists because it hides the criticism for the term. Calling someone a tankie is a criticism that their values don’t match what they support politically. After all, the term comes from supporters of the Soviet Union using tanks to crush a local revolution that didn’t comply with Soviet power politics.