That’s wishful thinking

• Japanese manufacturers may have started driving toward the party but they’re way late and lost along the road
• US legacy manufacturers will stick with gasoline trucks, and are rolling back their EV efforts
• Rivian and Lucid are promising but still in the business of a small number of niche models. Rivian may change that in the next couple years but it’s not a given

So, Hyundai/Kia. And we’re wondering why Chinese companies look like they’re about to take over

That may no longer be enough. It won’t matter if people no longer boycott them but

• huge money loss in Cybertruck
• investment in robotaxi won’t pan out for years, if ever
• in US, batteries are mostly from overseas and heavily tariffed
• all the US protectionism won’t be enough if they lose China and European markets
• other companies are finally catching up, while they wasted their efforts
• semi has potential, but that’s a very conservative market and environmental regulations are getting rolled back so there’s no longer that push

There’s going to be blood at that company. A huge reset, in addition to musk leaving, is what they need

I wish I did that. My flatware is outstanding but of course they discontinued it right after I got it. I’m down to 5 spoons 🙁 and the Replacements.com price is higher than they were new

2 has the best tines but that huge duckbill handle is a non-starter. 5 has the best handle

We can hope there is a reckoning, a restoral of law and order, restoring Constitutional checks and balances, and justice for those who broke it

And yet they’re not just going about it the most boneheaded way they can think of, but have been actively killing off Biden era incentives to do what they claim they want.

If they actually cared about manufacturing locally, they would support those incentives, and support the infrastructure bill

At the time, news reports credited the scandal with forcing VW to start investing in EVs. Without that scandal, they’d still be struggling to get started

My kids school “boxes” phones if you’re caught using them or they interrupt class. They lock them inside a clear plastic case and let you carry that.

This avoids liability because the kid still has possession of their phone and can still see an emergency text or call. The can’t interact with the phone but can get a teacher to unlock if there’s a visible emergency text

Depending on state, healthcare applies to spouses but may not for long term partners. You can’t do that with a will or trust

You also get tax benefits

Getting married should only be expensive if you want it to be, although too many people fall for the peer pressure.

• For me I was overwhelmingly in love, ready to declare it to the world and willing to pay anything for the one big party of my life. That may not have entirely worked out, but was how I felt at the time
• My best friend just got married for reasonable cost. Still had a big party, but it was 40 people in a park, and we went to a restaurant after.
• Another friend got married inexpensively, maybe. Was it the $100 actual cost, or do you count the week in Vegas?

Another method of control: exceptions to whoever has the biggest bribes, personal favors and enrichment. Tariffs for everyone else

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Wow, I’ve done that (in simpler times, and I’m white). For me it was just an expensive and time consuming mistake - I had to pay an extra toll in a currency I didn’t have. Of course they won’t convert the exact amount for the toll

Right. I don’t care much about his alignment or even that he’s come out as a Nazi. While it’s a huge red flag, I guess it’s his preference. The important parts are how he acts on those beliefs, who he hurts and how many, how his actions hurt our society

Since we’re talking stock value here …. I don’t believe he actually does have an insane salary. It’s all stock

He’s selling to himself to get out from under that:

• https://apnews.com/article/x-musk-sale-xai-b245f463076ac9b72c41f92160dc77eb

How about they just stop cutting college aid and we call it even?

It’s all in what insurance, and the hospital ital costs are only the beginning

About 18 years ago we were pretty well covered: deductible wasn’t bad. But other people talked about first year supplies. You also have multiple doctor visits so even if it’s just deductible it starts adding up. Then we had an allergy thing where special food was $1,400/month - luckily we only had to pay a few months while arguing with insurance

Then we arrive at today. All those years of kid expenses made it tough to save, but now we have college expenses and the current administration is cutting financial aid

We need so much more than $5k to raise kids

It doesn’t even have to be a derailed boom, but simply

• a maturity transition where the dilettantes fall out, concentrating on the biggest players
• more efficiency. There’s been a ton of research on efficiency and that’s a great profit multiplier so will be rapidly taken up

Aside from the obvious questions everyone else is posting …. How is this even relevant? Saudi Arabia mainly exports oil, but US uses almost no oil products for generating electricity. Unless data centers start installing their own generators (please no) for full time power, it’s a non-starter. What electrical utility does s going to build an oil burning generator plant?

History we’ve used a lot of coal and natural gas, so that’s the most likely fossil fuels to increase. And those are fuels the US has tons of

Yet talking, or extending the talking, not disagreeing but asking for detail, is one way of buying time. Maybe they’ll have to make concessions or maybe someone will distract mango Mussolini before they do. Maybe just playing along while never resolving anything is a great way to play it