In that article it is mentioned that Trump is going back on an agreement he signed a few years ago.

Therefore agreements made with Trump do not mean anything. He will choose not to honour them if and when it is convenient to him.

But then I guess we already knew that from his business practices.

The art of the deal is to make the other side believe you are honourable, use that credibility to offer more than you intend to give and leverage them to give you what you want. Then invent a pretext to cancel the deal and keep your ill-gotten gains.

The problem with governments dealing with trump is that they trust him to be true to his word. I do not believe he will. I fear he will use this approach with Ukraine to hand them over to Poo-tin. Then when it’s to late for the international community to do anything he’ll just say Zelenskyy didn’t hold up his end of the bargain.

Thought trump was strong on the economy?

Let’s say Russia invaded and occupied Alaska. The US tried to get them out but couldn’t. After valiant fighting for years they turn to the international community for help. The EU accuse America of starting the war and start directly negotiating with Russia without the US at the table. The rest of the world says you need to sign this deal to give us your resources but we won’t guarantee your security in return but as part of the deal to end the war swiftly you need to let Russia have Alaska. The US says that is unacceptable and the rest of the world says that they are being disrespectful and don’t really want peace.

I’m glad Europe is backing him.

It was hugely ironic that Trump and Vance sat and told Zelensky how things are based on what they’ve watched on TV, cutting off his attempts to correct them and then called him disrespectful.

It had the feeling of a pupil reporting to the headmasters office for punishment for fighting back against a bully. The headmaster didn’t need to hear his side of the story because violence is not the answer.

I’m conscious that an analogy like this can appear insensitive and diminish the whole thing. Especially as Zelensky tried to say several times. “I’m not playing cards” when Trump made analogies about “you don’t have the cards right now.”

I am ashamed that I used to be a somewhat vocal advocate of Musk and Tesla.

I remember saying how great it was that Tesla released a bunch of patents to further humanity. I remember telling people I thought his nervous rambling presentation style showed he was a down to earth guy forced into the limelight who just wanted to bring his progressive vision to the world. I remember praising the aesthetics of the model s and really wanting one. I remember cheering on Tesla as the underdog taking on the established automotive giants through direct sales and installing their own charging networks etc. I remember retelling the story of a model-s breaking the safety test equipment with glee and wanting what I thought was the safest car on the road which just happened to be the cheapest to run, the most environmentally friendly and with “ludicrous” performance. I remember reading about full self driving and the car parking itself so you can drive to the door of whatever shop or restaurant you were going to and leave the car to figure out the rest.

Then the paedo guy thing happened. This is the moment I can point back to where I first reminded myself to think critically about something I was a fan of. I still excused it, "ok maybe Musk might be a bit of a dick, but at least he has a noble mission at heart " Then the floods gates opened. Autopilot deaths. Union busting. Full self driving that is perpetually less than a year away. The cyber truck that reminds me of that Simpsons episode when Homer designs a “car”. Nazi salutes…

How could I get it so wrong?

I am thankful that Elon Musk has reminded me that I like anyone else believe what I want to believe and fall for marketing more easily than I thought I would.

BUT I am ashamed that I am so stupid. Even more I’m ashamed that through my falling for it, I may have helped others fall for it.

We all live in our own little comfort zone. It takes effort to challenge your opinions. Truly challenge them. I fail at it more than I succeed apparently, but at least knowing that might help me be a little less gullible next time.

TL;DR Musk is a wanker.

Edit: some typos

Ding ding ding!!!

We have a winner.

“you’re wrong about what’s going on in your own country. I done seen it on ma boob toob”

I was thinking more about his survival prospects but ok.

Can we strip him of earth citizenship and send him to Mars? Preferably without any of the engineers whose work he claims the credit for?

On the plus side, if there is one, after this, they will never be able to say tax cuts for the rich benefit everyone because everyone except the rich is going to suffer massively. Trickle down my ass. The “job creators” now have no excuses to continue laying off staff.

Not yet

Sure, what was the import tariff on eggs again?

Whether Trump likes it or not, EVs are happening and it’s because of every other government. So he’s trying now to stop the snow ball which is now half way down the hill and 10 times the size. BMW, VW, Mercedes, Toyota, Nissan, Hyundai, Kia, etc etc aren’t going to stop the transition. All that will happen is the US will be left behind. The rest of the world will be weaning off oil and the US will be left with no option eventually, but will not be a major player in the tech because of these anti EV policies. Or are they simply viewed as anti tesla as tesla is already established???

Precision 3581

This is my ~8 month old work laptop.

Is a Dell.

2 usb c not pictured.

You have options.

AI: Dave, turn right and walk across the bridge.

Dave : But AI, there is no bridge

AI: I am 99% sure based on 99 billion images that there should be a bridge

Dave: ok , you’re the smart one

Dave: aaaargh . . . .

SPLAT

Anything which drives nails into the xitter coffin is a good thing as far as I’m concerned. Bluesky may not tick many people’s boxes here on lemmy, but this migration shows that lots of people wanted to leave xitter but didn’t see an option. Threads clearly didn’t attract them, likely due to the owner. I hope it nothing else, Bluesky is a less toxic place and xitter and musk become less relevant. In the long run Bluesky may end up being another head of the hydra , but for now, it’s not, and it may get people used to the idea of federation.

Maybe if they weren’t destabilising the world, their citizens might feel happier about bringing children into it.

I love to see free speech absolutism being so unshakable.