Containing China is the primary military objective of the US at the moment (other than defending domestic territory): https://www.csis.org/analysis/2026-national-defense-strategy-numbers-radical-changes-moderate-changes-and-some#h2-priorities-homeland-defense-then-deterring-china
Their forces currently deployed to the ME are nowhere near half of what they have in total.
Thanks. Would they take advantage of US distraction to move against TW? I doubt it - the US can easily fight another war on another front.
Paywalled - I can only see the first sentence.
TBH Grok would probably tell them to avoid “femoids” and work on semen retention to activate their redpill powers.
That’s fine, they can survive on the large domestic market thanks to protectionist tariffs, and Americans can enjoy their very own Trabant equivalents
NYT stop sanewashing Trump challenge (impossible)
And this is why anybody who made a mistake in the past should be shunned forever, regardless of their current views and actions. They may as well just jump off a bridge and save us the trouble of setting up a firing squad.
Thanks for doing this - it isn’t a proper leftist get-together without some assclown imposing impossible purity tests.
It is really hard. IME the tactic with the highest success rate is buying older luxury goods - something from the 70s or earlier. Obviously this doesn’t work for clothing, but for things like furniture it’s great, or even houses themselves; high-end homes built before the 90s are enormously higher quality than modern “luxury” houses made of OSB and gray-painted cardboard. Clothing is much more difficult, especially outside of Europe, where they still have companies making things with care using high-quality fabric.
I guess the crux of the issue is that luxury used to mean quality, not ostentation. A Mercedes from the 70s doesn’t “seem” luxurious to the modern eye until you start interacting with the switchgear or opening and closing doors. Same thing for the sofa framed with real wood and metal springs and upholstered in outstanding fabric - you can’t tell why it’s better than IKEA by looking at a photo.
Possibly, but the average person is wrong about a lot of things, especially those they aren’t familiar with. The average person is no more an authority on luxury than they are on, to reuse your example, the logistics of running a farm. It’s probably also important to draw a distinction between parvenu countries like the USA and China, where “pop luxury” item are considered luxury, and old money countries like France or Switzerland where that’s much less the case.
That’s perfect, I’m stealing it!
I’m more partial to their early 90s lineup (E38/39/36) but yes, they used to be understated and elegant. Now they’re loud and brash and gauche, the automotive equivalent of a purse with a repeating logo pattern.
No, that’s only the particular type of “luxury” slop that multinationals sell. There are lots of “luxury” items that don’t fit that definition: traditionally-made bespoke suits and shoes, for example. There’s a guy in the town next to mine who handmakes leather boots. They cost about $500 and he sells only double digits per year. Luxury? Yes. Made as cheaply as possible and sold through brute-force marketing? No. The Gucci crowd will never notice what you’re wearing, but it’s luxury nonetheless.
Gucci is “luxury” for people with no taste, so their use of AI is rather on point. Their cutomers are the same kind of people who think new BMWs’ light-up kidney grille makes them look good.
This isn’t surprising at all to anybody who has spent time around hockey players. The percentage of right-wing douchebaggery (not to mention rape culture, etc) is off the charts.
“We’ll do the White House,” Trump told players. “We’ll just have some fun, we have medals for you guys. And we have to — I must tell you — we’re going to have to bring the women’s team, you do know that,” the president said, chuckling. The players laughed. “I do believe I probably would be impeached [if I didn’t],” Trump continued.
This is like finding a turd in an outhouse. The report’s conclusion could be said of any prominent account on Twitter - the whole site is a cesspool of bots.
This is really not Hetzner’s fault, it’s AI companies gobbling up all the hardware and driving up prices for everybody else.
You may want to check that link.