patrick.net

It's always darkest before the Don, everything bad seems unsolvable.

But as another poster said today, the Worm turns. The pendulum swings. The Wheel of Boethius, etc. etc. etc.

Really, there's a huge opportunity for Wall Street to profit from financing Re-Industrialization. Restoring Industry will create opposition and competition between Finance and Production, which I think is a major cause of current problems.

Fuck Europe as I'm likely going there in the next year or two. Iceland Air partnered with Southwest. I don't know prices or the details fully, but yeah, the wife is going to drag my ass to Europe at some point.

Besides international fees the flight will be free for the fare so I guess that's a plus. Saves probably $3-4k for the family. Hopefully their planes are more comfortable. Plus I still get two free checked bags and carry on and under the seat bag. Need to see what cities it will be. I'd be okay with Spain, Portugal, Greece and that's about it. Maybe Austria in the winter to snowboard. Not interested in France, Italy or Germany (maybe Octoberfest with the push up bustiers boobie gals).

UK is a hell no. Iceland is a maybe. Don't know if they'll have routes to Poland in the network, but that would be intriguing.

Either way it's likely happening now and I'm not happy about it. I've never told the wife, but I really don't want to go to Europe and give them money. They kind of started two world wars. https://youtu.be/fIO0DesXpdo?si=MPpgfa2lHHkFKRAq One of my favorite Norm bits.

Way people in Denmark are happy riding bikes regardless of weather.

Well...

The cost of owning a car is higher in Denmark than in other European countries. Denmark is known for high vehicle registration costs which go up to 150% of the car’s market value, which makes the cost of car ownership go high. However, most people resort to buying used cars, which have also become costly because of the rising demand. The government is trying its best to discourage car use.

European gave up on having children. Too much liability and too expensive to raise.

Came to idea of bringing immigrants. Finelly, have somebody to take care and who to work for.

DOGEWontAmountToShit says

REpro says

European gave up on having children. Too much liability and too expensive to raise.

Came to idea of bringing immigrants. Finelly, have somebody to take care and who to work for.

Sure, as long as you like Muslim Sharia Law (France) and Law Enforcement favoring immigrants over citizens (Germany.)

Looks like wireless charging is now illegal in the EU:



Meanwhile....

Actually I think this was one of the (few) better steps the EU took. It definitely makes charging easier by mandating a charging interface with a world wide recognized standard.

Not only is the chart about 6 years outta date, but is missing a crap load of big companies both US, European and Japan.

Europe's biggest thing is SAP, lol now it all makes sense.

@DOGEWontAmountToShit Where did you find that image?

Patrick says

DOGEWontAmountToShit Where did you find that image?

X

DOGEWontAmountToShit says

What does Europe produce for you? (not you specifically DOGE) It's literally cars and maybe some fancy chocolate. That chart is good, but really think about what has Europe done since WWII? It's a dead region that thinks it's still upscale. I'd rather be in Southeast Asia. Japan, if they take you.

I think a lot of Americans have a twisted version of what Europe is. Like it's some powerhouse. US has a ton of debt, but the EU per capita has as much and has more obligations for older people (per capita) than the US. Fewer young people. Their solution, war. 10-20 years there will be another European war.

We're technically in WWIII at this point anyway. I'm thinking WWIIII by 2040 in Europe. Long term prediction but I think the EU is toast and it will be a slow crash. Look at history, these things work in cycles.

WookieMan says

10-20 years there will be another European war.

Demographically dying countries can't engage in wars, as a rule. They can't spare the young ppl to fight them.

La Channel Francaise?

DOGEWontAmountToShit says

WookieMan says

10-20 years there will be another European war.

Demographically dying countries can't engage in wars, as a rule. They can't spare the young ppl to fight them.

Pukin didn't get the memo, apparently.

They can still go to war in the face of declining populations, and end up like the Sassanid and Byzantine empires - exhausted and bankrupt, and ripe for conquest.

The only "achievement" of Europeans in recent decades is plastic bottle tops which stay attached to the bottle.

The Europeans came up with Ozempic and Wegovy.

I will credit them for trying to make people look better.

Vance calls out the Europeans for canceling elections they don't like.

In response, idiot Kraut Defense Minister shoots himself in his Nazi foot:

"If American democracy can survive 10 years of Greta Thunberg's scolding, you guys can survive a few months of Elon Musk." - JD Vance

I don't really get all these gleeful proclamations about Europe being on their own from now on while we supposedly "pivot to Asia"* to concentrate on China. Let's do a thought experiment, shall we? Supposedly we withdraw our troops from Europe and even get out of NATO alltogether. Who says that left to fend for herself Europe won't align with Chyna to fill the security vacuum? They might not have the great technological achievements like Twatter of Fuckbook, but their engineering and manufacturing of such "useless" and "backwards" stuff as aircraft, missiles, artillery, semiconductor production equipment, engines of all kinds, small arms, etc. are still superb and on par or sometimes even better than ours. Do you think that China's access to all of that will make our life in Asia, where we just wisely "pivoted" easier?

What did you say? They won't do it because of "values"? C'mon, man: values are so passé. The realpolitik is in vogue now.

I think this shit needs to be toned down before it's too late.

*) I'm old enough to remember who came up with that slogan - Obama.

The Europeans aren't concerned about Russia. Germany spends less on defense than it did in 2022. France and Italy spend a paltry amount. The Eastern European states aren't pressuring the major European countries to increase defense spending. No, they want America to foot the bill.

The European leaders slipped off the rails onto the Woke/Globalist/Green agenda and instead of pulling back they are doubling down on that nonsense.

We're not "pivoting". The European leaders simply want totalitarian control with no dissention. We don't want to be a part of that.

No, Americans don't want to see our tax dollars going towards re-building Ukraine once the war is over. Biden moved our Federal deficit from 3% of GDP to 6% of GDP. We need to reduce our deficit not add an extra expense. So, if Europe doesn't want a festering 3rd world country sharing its borders. It needs to pony up for that. The European governments ain't got any kind of coin to be doing jack shit to materially help the Ukraine. The kindest solution would be to break the Ukraine up, with its neighbors getting parcels.

No matter what, without American leadership, the Europeans will be back to having major wars between themselves, and then the question becomes which faction do we back...if any.