I note his graph claimed plant based meat became cheaper than real beef in 21…but that’s not what I see in stores today in 22, I also note one graph claimed a cost of $4.50 per kg in 21 (5:27) and the other claimed almost $30 per kg in 21 (5:12) leading me to question everything he claimed, especially his prognostication.

Cracker Barrel being boycotted by their main customer base, Republicans, because they just started offering impossible meat as a choice says to me the adoption won’t be close to as fast or simple as they think or claim, and absolutely not replacing real meat by 2030.

During my flight training, I was always taught that a highway or paved road was the last place to land in an emergency. For one, power lines tend to cross paved roads and by the time you can see them, it's too late to avoid them. Another is that it endangers others on the ground. Many pilots lose their lives trying to save the plane in an emergency. The best advice I got during my training was that when the plane quits on you, it's now your life boat. Use it to save your life, don't risk yours to save it.

During my flight training I also worked at a small GA airport. I got to know a lot of the pilots there. One owned a construction company and would often fly over his construction sites to survey them from the air. He came out that morning, I filled up his plane and he never returned. I didn't think much of it, although he rented a hangar from us, he also had a private air strip too.

A few days later, I found out that he was killed making an emergency landing. While flying over the construction site, his engine quit and he tried to land on a road. A car pulled out from a side street and he pulled up to avoid it. The landing gear snagged a power line, which caused it to nose dive into the ground and rupture the fuel tanks. It caught fire, and people tried to get to him to pull him out. They said he appeared to be alive and trying to get out, but the fire spread too fast.

The way I found out was a bit shocking. Investigators from the NTSB showed up to review our fuel and maintenance logs. We have to perform daily tests on the fuel and equipment, and I was the one that did those tests the day he was killed. It wasn't the fuel that caused the engine to quit, but that thought that maybe I screwed up the test and caused it and knowing he probably burned alive haunted me. That's something I'll never forget.

Well, well, well... base on this reasoning, the FIRST thing we should do is bring down is the stock price of Tesla, make it into a junk stock company for those endlessly promoting Musk here. Yessssss.......

Whether oil is finite or otherwise is kind of moot when we're talking about its impact on the economic & environment at large. With the advancement of renewable, clean energy techonology and ever cheaper cost of manufacturing & generation -- without even mentioning the political shift it would bring by reducing the power & authoritarian tendencies of the OPEC countires -- it's just plain Good Business to transition as fast as possible away from oil.

Little slower. I can't hear that fast.

First, It’s 1.6% - 5% (and rising fast), not .5% bob.
https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2022/06/07/about-5-of-young-adults-in-the-u-s-say-their-gender-is-different-from-their-sex-assigned-at-birth/

Also, 100% - .5% = 99.5%, bob. Or are you pretending only 1% balks at this idea? Considering your math skills, it’s impossible to know.

If so, why should the 99% capitulate to the 1% of intolerant assholes that insist everyone must eat pizza?

If ther are 100 people going out to eat together daily and 5 are deathly allergic to cheese, are you going to insist you prefer pizza so they should be excluded from the population because you don’t feel like a burger right now so everyone MUST eat pizza, even though the restaurant serves both?

No one is trying to make you eat the burger, they only want you to admit burgers are on the menu and that everyone has the right to choose their own meal, you don’t get to choose for them, nor do you get to deny there’s more than one choice nor enforce that insane denial.

Trans people self determining their gender in no way forces you to do the same thing. Such a dumb argument, Bob. It’s the old Con. argument…“You having a choice infringes on my rights to force my choices on you.”.

So….Texas Republicans have decided to try to secede from the union as part of their official party platform. Kind of hard to pretend you guys are patriotic Americans when it’s your official plan to dissolve the union out of spite.

I actually say good riddance, let red states all secede, RGTOW, they will quickly become a third world country we can exploit. Red states take WAY more from the federal government than they put in, relying on blue state taxes to keep running. It would be hilarious to see how fast infrastructure, services, and government break down in such an occurrence.

It would also be interesting to see how they think they would defend themselves without the US military. As usual, the Cons never think things through. I so want to see how this would play out. Can we short sell Texas?

Seems like you guys need to take your own advice….if you don’t like it here in America, you can GET OUT.

@newtboy,

There's a danger here of having an actual nuanced discussion on Israel/Palestine happening here if we aren't careful...

I agree with your point of difference on illegal immigrants in the US largely not having a plan for 'independence' in their back pocket. The soft equivalence that the right wingers would point to though would be immigrant settling into small area such that they can setup a virtual community without ever needing to learn local languages and pushing hard to keep their 'own' values and way of life. I don't agree with the "Learn English" rednecks or the ones shouting how folks need to act American, but there is at least a soft parallel. virtually the only thing South Park has ever been censored on was depicting the prophet, and that 100% read as fear of violent retaliation, which isn't nothing.

I also think you hit the bigger point on how broken systems of immigration are. Particularly when domestic politics and the situation for legal immigration to refugees is grossly inadequate. I think America today though is just a much more mild example of it than the 30/40s in Palestine. For all the complaints one can level at Zionism, it's very hard to condemn them for encouraging mass emigration out of Europe. It's also clear that waiting on legal immigration routes out wasn't going to get people out fast enough. Thus I really look carefully at any anti-zionist position that includes condemning jewish 'illegal' immigration at the time. It treads dangerously close to saying they should have accepted the alternative, which was by and large remaining in Europe...

I used to use Kodak TP-2415 for astrophotrography, and it's the most insanely fincky film I've ever used, with one exception: Fuji made FF slide film for the same purpose that were ISO 10,000. The stuff was so reactive to ANY heat that it came delivered on dry ice and you had to slam the slide into the back of the camera as absolutely fast as you could. The darkroom processing on those slides was best done by someone who dealt with nothing but Fuji -- and not just Velvia.

If you've only shot 400 - 800 35mm, MF and FF is a world you cannot imagine.

Average gas prices are temporarily $.06 higher than 2008. Oil prices are dropping fast. Oil companies aren’t pumping oil they have and aren’t near top production levels at refineries, but are complaining they can’t have more preserve land and offshore preserves to drill on.
You want to compare to 2020, and you want to ignore the absolute disaster of leadership that made the economy so bad that gas prices dropped significantly and oil went to -$40 a barrel at one point. You want to forget the -36% gdp and 750000 dead Americans, and between $10-16 TRILLION dollars in wasted money it took to have those lower gas prices (with no where to go because everything was closed, and nothing to buy because all supply chains were broken).
For a family of 4, the debt left by Trump’s Covid failures is well over $200000. How many tanks of gas would that have bought you?
Yes, I maintain my position that the pandemic response team global response unit could have likely identified and stopped Covid in the very early stages and evaded even an epidemic in China had they not been eradicated, and you can’t prove different. That puts it all on you know who’s shoulders.

BTW, liberal California is poised to rebate every taxpayer $400 to cover increased gas prices thanks to our functioning economy and budget surpluses.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7604733/

With all the Trump and Trumpist failures, I think it could be a total ass kicking BY Democrats. The shine is off the Trump penny, and everyone outside the cult can tell it’s just a blank slug painted copper…that includes many in your party, causing a deep divide for Democrats to exploit. Numerous Republican candidates are being challenged in court to bar them from public office for being part of an insurrection….including Trump in 6 states. Can’t win if you can’t hold office. D’oh!

Are you sad about duckduckgo? It seems your ilk are outraged that the platform has decided to limit (not even censure) Russian propaganda, moving it away from the top of their news feeds, and without their Russian propaganda spoon fed to them, they’ve started throwing tantrums and stomping away in search of a site that will tell them the lies they want to hear. Such infants. Are you one? Be honest. (Ha, like you would)

Ignoring your total ignorance of recent history to point out, Joes favorability rating on his state of the Union address was 78%.
78% Bob. 30% higher than Trump’s best poll.
Failure Trump never got 50% approval on anything, and today rates around 30% and falling fast as he supports Putin’s invasion and hates on America, as his obvious attempts to subvert democracy and steal the presidency are exposed in courts, as his total failures as a businessman are exposed through the courts.

This is you pick. This is you guy? I can only hope he’s the 2024 candidate. It won’t be a blue wave, it won’t be a blue tsunami, it will be a blue sea level rise…and likely a red demise.
ROTFLMFAHS! So gratifying watching your anti American hate group lose its power.

No, he lucked out, but Trump’s foreign policy was worse. He just capitulated to international thugs, cozied up to them except Iran. That’s why Ukraine was already occupied and Crimea recognized. It’s why N Korea advanced their capabilities so much. It’s why the Taliban gained so much power in 2020. He actually claimed China used biological warfare against us (utter bullshit, but his position), but made no moves against them in retaliation. No wars happen if you don’t oppose our enemies.

Biden isn’t my god, he’s far from perfect, he’s just an improvement. Being instrumental in opposing Assad gassing his own people is a bad thing? I was disappointed we didn’t depose him quickly with international support.

The Ukrainian parliament threw Yanukovych out in Feb 2014 on the grounds that he "has restrained himself from performing his constitutional duties" and effectively resigned. He had surprised everyone by abandoning an agreement made with Europe to be part of a free trade union, shocking the country, and instead intended to strengthen ties with Russia, and had been murdering protesters in the streets when he fled the country.

The people of Ukraine and Russia will suffer. Germany too. Probably all NATO nations….and all countries dependent on Russian aid.

My idea would have been to threaten Putin months ago that if one MORE Russian soldier or piece of military equipment crosses the border into Ukraine, we will fast track Ukraine into the UN immediately, permanently recognizing their actual borders, if he doesn’t send more military, we can negotiate peacefully with UN status on hold…and get solidarity with our allies on the plan. Maybe simplistic, but it’s what he fears, use it.

It still would've been way too late, but *damn* that truck stopped fast! I'm always impressed by that.

90%? You underestimate by 9.99% IMO.

I’ve seen assaults. I’ve seen disturbing the peace in residential neighborhoods 24/7 for weeks on end. I’ve seen what amounts to kidnapping (trapping people in their cars on the street and blockading them in).
BTW, we aren’t India, more money was lost at this one crossing than if you blockaded all of India for the same timeframe. In America, we don’t just let other people block our borders….that’s our thing!

No, the bridge was not part of a recent past long term blockade, no farmer blockade shut down auto manufacturing on both sides of the borders or weeks. You are incorrect.

Protests are acceptable, even if they cause inconvenience. Protests without an issue that last for weeks-months with the only intent being causing economic damage aren’t protests, they’re tantrums. These protesters didn’t know why they were there besides getting the liberal out of power through any means.

These “protesters” deserved nothing but ridicule, their anti vax position is ridiculous, they know it, and it’s moot because the mandates change with the severity of the outbreak, and are from both sides of the border….Trudeau can’t force America to drop our mandates, and border crossers must be vaccinated….period. Notice when the mandates being lifted soon was announced they didn’t leave but just changed their demands. It’s not a protest, it’s an economic blackmail attempt.

The problem there is most of the violence was not part of the BLM protests (despite the lies right wing media produced all 2020), they were often nearby, taking advantage of the lowered police presence outside the protests, and often was violence directed at BLM, not coming from them. The people terrorizing and inciting violence, shooting crowds, planting bombs, lighting fires, shooting police, etc were Proud boys and Boogaloo boys…far right anti protesters. The idiots carried their manifestos explaining the false flag operation when they committed their crimes, and were caught repeatedly.

They should have simply used tow trucks, confiscating every truck involved to be sold at auction to pay for some of the exorbitant costs, far more than all summer of BLM and anti BLM protests, btw.

This was a threat to your sovereignty, and wasn’t being addressed by other laws or means (sounded like the police chief was a fan).

Seizure is perfection, but should include oversight (I bet it really does, you aren’t America where we’ve made it legal for police to commit armed robbery with no oversight). Note- seizure is different from forfeiture. They’re likely freezing accounts, not seizing the funds, right? Details matter.

It’s not just what they’re protesting, they don’t even know that themselves, it’s how and where. That said, the total lack of support among the population counts. I would expect any protest protesting against it being illegal to eat live babies to get shut down fast, no matter how civil they were on the streets.

Lemme guess, a pipeline crossing sovereign native lands under protest? Going over aquifers? Through preserves? Pumping tar sands no one really wants?
Millions in damages are an hour of the truck protests. They’re designed to cost tens of millions per day…costing everyone not just the target of their protest.

No known connection to protesters, but you want there to be one and are upset they didn’t just fabricate one? It sounds incredibly likely they’re involved, but without evidence one shouldn’t assign culpability.

They have the right to say anything, they don’t have the right to silence all other discussion and action while they ramble and party for weeks-months because they have nothing to say, but are loving the disruption they’re causing. A strong democracy doesn’t support one tiny group negating the entire continent’s voice for months. That’s what this is, they said their peace by day 2, now it’s not a protest, it’s an economic attack trying to blackmail a country (nearly a continent) into abandoning public health for a TINY minority of morons who want special privileges.

A German mark had value….until it didn’t. Your opinion of “fiat money” isn’t universal by any stretch. You say it’s universally better. I wholeheartedly disagree, and point to Germany and Venezuela as proof. They aren’t outliers either, (looking at Africa).

Gold is useful and valuable. Digital footprints aren’t. Paper notes aren’t. Printed circuits, connectors, anti oxidation, actual physical money, jewelry, etc. gold has intrinsic value, a dollar bill has about 13210 joules, so its intrinsic worth is about 1 small 1 gram stick as kindling and little more….no matter if it’s a $1 or $500 bill or a check for billions. Again, see Germany, where bills were more valuable as firewood than money.

This deflation idea again. Give me 3 examples of deflation harming/ending a nation on the gold standard please, I’ve never heard of it happening. (Edit: as far as I can find, I’m no economics professor, for the most part the gold standard was abandoned worldwide in the early 1930’s and the last remnants removed in the early 70’s by Nixon)

Explain how unsecured notes guard against speculation….don’t just claim it. I don’t see it, people made a mint short selling Venezuelan (and other failed) dollars….speculating they would crash….they did. What?

GDP is the metric that imparts value to unsecured notes offered by countries.

I think you had a mini stroke, the paragraph starting USofA is a word salad with no meaning.

Name 3. I named Germany post ww1….they didn’t get to borrow or ignore their debts. What are you talking about?

So, the only ones that don’t/can’t borrow are all the ones that need to.

Pretending basing your dollar on Bitcoin is the same as basing it on gold is outrageous idiotic bullshit. Just nonsense. Utterly moronic and pure fantasy. Don’t try moving the goalposts, that’s what you said.

Yes, the fed will take gold. They don’t take Bitcoin, do they? How about shells? Pebbles?

Jesus, you just want to argue. You’re rambling, switching positions and going off on tangents.
It’s not about whether someone might accept it, it’s about whether it’s universally accepted at one value and about holding its accepted long term value. People once gladly accepted beanie babies as payment….stupid people.
Arcata Ca printed up Arcata dollars….you could get them cheap, businesses took them. Wanna put your nest egg into them? You say that’s good money, as good as dollars. I’ll sell them to you for gold, and let’s see who’s doing better in 10 years. Or I’ll sell you pebbles for gold. Any currency you want, I’ll sell you for gold. How’s that working with pebbles or shells? Can you buy currency with them?

It has everything to do with how much it’s worth. Stop jumping subjects because your point is failing to convince. An economy based on pebbles fails because their neighbors don’t value pebbles, but if their pebbles are gold, they succeed because gold is valued universally.

What are you talking about, the gold standard’s ability to keep up? Huh?! No keep up necessary, no slow down required, gold trades exactly as fast as everything else. What is this nonsense?!?

You mean you can’t overspend and go deep into debt?! And that’s bad?! In your opinion, not many economists….and what makes you think you can’t borrow against gold? Secured loans are easier and cheaper to come by. WHAT?!?

Yes, unsecured paper money can just be printed forever, you CAN “sell the universe”. (Or sell dollars who’s overall value is based on your country’s value) over and over, then print more and sell 9/10 again, print more, sell again. Eventually that money is worth less than it costs to print, and your creditors get paid off in dollars worth a tiny fraction of what they lent you. Not if it’s backed with gold.

Miracle cure?!? Quote it. I think you misread. Secured notes being better than unsecured notes is not “miracle cure” or perfection, it’s just measurably better, safer, and more stable. No system is perfect.