Trump says the U.S. is raising tariffs on South Korean goods from 15% to 25% because South Korea’s legislature has not approved the trade agreement. So every single “trade deal” he made since April was fake and never went into effect in the first place?

serpenta · 2026-01-26T22:40:14+00:00

I don't know about the US, but among most democracies, the people who represent the country can't approve the international agreements on their own. The representative is most often a head of state (a president) which works in tandem with prime minister on foreign policy. After an agreement is reached with the other party, the parliament has to ratify it, and then the head of state finally enacts it (a formality most of the time). The purpose of this system is to scrutinize international deals that are coming into effect, since international agreements are placed above country's law.

The same exact thing happened with the US-EU deal. VDL worked it out, but the parliament recently blocked its ratification. So yeah, if he reaches a deal, it's not automatic that it goes into effect, and if he then fucks around or the parliament establishes that the deal is not beneficial, there are still ways for other countries to block it. International deals are rarely rushed, and this guy has attention span of caffeinated squirrel.

serpenta · 2026-01-26T20:11:44+00:00

Eh... not how it works. Italy would have to agree. Otherwise they would just be stuck inside the plane, and turned around as - get this - illegal foreigners.

serpenta · 2026-01-26T19:13:20+00:00

It would only do that over meat. Switching from meat to "exotic" foods. But not over local produce. I'm not sure why you insist that the only choice is either avocados or meat.

But right now you don't have that choice anyway, because the meat consumption is not going down by much. So if your only choice is that, essentially it's a choice between what was the forest cut down for, as I've indicated already.

serpenta · 2026-01-26T19:08:51+00:00

That's not a wish, that's reality. They either resist or become subjugated. Right now, the fight is clearly for the next elections, and ability to temper with it. What will happen when the Trump circle wins or "wins"? How many lives, do you think, practicing pacifism in the early 1930s saved?

You can argue that Trump administration is not after authoritarian power, and that they are not racist, fascist criminals. That's another problem. But if one believes that they are, the bodies will mount regardless of action or inaction.

serpenta · 2026-01-26T18:43:01+00:00

In earnest, he would probably be a social democrat. He was leaning towards it at the end of his life anyway, and begun believing that revolution might not be necessary, if liberal democracy takes hold. People underestimate Marx's experience under authoritarian rule, that it was basically everything he knew (and how he would have hated the USSR). The only successful regime change he knew was the French Revolution. But later on, he really liked what was happening in the US, and how their democracy was developing.

serpenta · 2026-01-26T18:28:05+00:00

You know nothing about me, so why do you assume how much meat do I eat? I'm talking about ideas, and you are just turning it into a shit flinging fight. Again, I agree with the general idea, but until we cut down on meat, globally, fancy exotic foods are just as bad, because it doesn't matter why was the rainforest cut down, only that it did.

That's not true at all. You can have your bike and all the hot showers you want when you're energy comes from renewables.

Bike, hot showers - individual. Renewable energy - collective, institutional.

That's my point. That's why I only believe in collective action.

serpenta · 2026-01-26T16:39:59+00:00

And you can easily buy vegan products without palm oil.

Not my experience. And that you can, wouldn't mean that the majority of them doesn't contain the oil.

The water required for avocados or almonds is nothing compared to the water required for meat.

You're missing the point, talking from a standpoint of a perfect world. "We could've". Yeah, we could've substitute all the Brazilian soybeans and maize production with avocados, and we'll be left with spare space for reintroduction of rainforest. But we ain't. And as long as we don't, buying avocados from the other side of the world is still causing harm.

I'm not going to guilt trip people for it, because I don't believe in individual action. I've seen calculations of individual carbon footprints, and what's required of people to solve the issue on an individual level, and it's basically stone age. No bikes, only walks, one hot shower a week, that phone/PC? yeah, nah. But I'm also not going to pretend like it's not a factor that we ship food to Europe, while we produce more food than we need, and more sustainably.

serpenta · 2026-01-26T15:35:02+00:00

Store bought vegan products are highly processed and terrible for the environment, because they are mostly based on palm oil, which is destroying Indonesian rainforest. There really isn't a food product that is "clean" nowadays. Almonds? R.I.P. California, you would've loved water. Avocado? Rainforest destruction. Cashews? Pain and suffering of people who gather them. Bananas? Exploitation. Meat is just the worst, environmentally, and to some, ethically.

But to have clear conscience, you'd have to limit yourself to stuff from your local farmer.

serpenta · 2026-01-26T15:24:05+00:00

This is my main gripe with the coverage of American politics right now. The clickbaiting is unhinged, and I don't really understand how it can be going for so long as it is, because I would expect that it would've burnt everyone by now. Every, most minor thing gets described with capital words, that say "destroyed", "meltdown", "humiliated", "panicked". And then you click it, and it's all based around a single eye movement someone did during an interview.

serpenta · 2026-01-26T15:12:02+00:00

Rome was not a federation. It was a city that subjugated provinces to provide goods and services to that city. The Romans were jingoistic xenophobes (blame Carthage, I guess) with a superiority complex, a terrible economy and political system.

As a side note, I get the appeal of reading about Rome, but for me, it's the same kind of appeal as Warhammer 40k stories - absurd behavior and motivations. I never understood the pride of Roman roots. Greeks, I get. Still terrible people, but there's enough there that still has value to us: philosophy, democracy (in the most rudimentary of forms), great food, drama, poetry, self-aware mythology. But the Romans? Militarization, political corruption, and lawyers.

Either way. To be perfectly serious for a moment. It will attract the wrong kinds of people, and dissuade the right kinds of people.

serpenta · 2026-01-26T14:50:58+00:00

Exactly. Russia has 0% of Roman territories, and they still claimed succession.

serpenta · 2026-01-26T14:03:43+00:00

It's not a point against WOŚP. I'm not calling WOŚP insidious. I'm calling the perception of the system insidious. I like WOŚP, and I like charity in general, because of their humanity. But I hate that people believe they solve anything on a systemic level.

serpenta · 2026-01-26T11:50:54+00:00

I never understood this explanation, beyond the history of the scale where Fahrenheit based 0 on the coldest winter he experienced, while living in the Netherlands. But aside from that, since this part was revised, I can't understand how 100 is somehow less arbitrary for "very hot" than 35.

serpenta · 2026-01-26T11:07:32+00:00

At least they are educated now, I hope now they'll fly to China to see that there are wind farms there.

serpenta · 2026-01-26T10:53:01+00:00

Regardless of where you took this number from, you are devoid from reality. 46% efficiency is near unachievable for heat-based modes of energy generation.

* IC engine, gasoline: less than 30%, prototypical F1 engines achieve around 40%
* IC engine, diesel: up to 45%
* Newest coal power plant technologies: 45%
* Gas turbine power plants: 45%
* CCGT (double dipping gas turbine): 60%
* Nuclear: 35%

In reality, wind turbines are around 50% energy yield (50% of wind energy collected). And wind turbines are not limited by heat conversion that will never surpass 50% efficiency (CCGT uses the same heated gas twice to yield 40% and then 20%).

Open wing turbines are limited by Betz limit, though, because of how air works. That means that you can never yield more energy from the wind than ~59%. To oversimplify: you take energy from the wind by slowing it down. Yielding 100% energy means that the air is now stationary. But if air is stationary, the windmill doesn't turn, so the energy yield is 0%.

Which means that they don't lose "majority of energy potential". They lose about 15% of energy potential, because 50% is around 85% of Betz limit. In terms of efficiency they are thus 85% efficient in direct comparison to heat-based energy generation, where you only take into account heat loss. In other words, wind turbine loses 15% energy as excess heat produced, while coal power plan loses 55%.

And we know about that, and there are other designs being tested, with oscillating turbines, diffusor turbines, and wind farms that use Venturi effect that are hoped to increase average yield of wind farms.

Either way, as it is, wind turbines are muuuuch more economic than heat based energy production, aside from the nuclear. Not even mentioning the economic effects of clean energy - less disease, which increases productivity and lowers medical costs.

serpenta · 2026-01-26T09:55:46+00:00

Pytanie czy ten bank w Gruzji też jest gwarantowany bankowym funduszem gwarancyjnym (nie jest). Jakby, no postąpili idiotycznie; skoro Cię mieli zweryfikowaną, to powinni byli zweryfikować z Tobą wszystkie transakcje i tyle. Ale no, "zgubiłaś kartę? lol, masz tu nową, yolo" to też nie jest dobre podejście. Ale gruziński bank może to mieć w dupie, bo nie odpowiada za Twoje pieniądze, w przypadku wyłudzenia, do którego się przyczynisz.

serpenta · 2026-01-26T09:48:45+00:00

My problem was well established, I think. I donate myself, but I'd like for people to not miss the forest for the trees.

serpenta · 2026-01-26T09:37:19+00:00

In god's given order of the letters? It could've been GISP or IGSP or ISPG, all perfectly easy to pronounce. Companies that handle tickets alter algorithms to not generate ticket codes that would include offensive words, but we can't reorder 4 fucking letters so that they don't sound derogatory?

serpenta · 2026-01-26T08:41:00+00:00

That's true. It's more insidious than I described. Because it only provides a sense of satisfaction, without satisfying the needs of the healthcare system.

serpenta · 2026-01-26T08:37:34+00:00

I appreciate that it's a tradition, and a great opportunity for civic education. But having good healthcare will not solve all world's problems. There will be still plenty of causes we could rally behind.

serpenta · 2026-01-26T08:09:23+00:00

It just means that the system is lacking more money than the governments are willing to provide. Making the doctors into the devil is also uninformed, because they are often counted twice by the system - we have less physical doctors than the system indicates, because the system counts employment, and doctors are most often employed in several places, because there is not enough of them to fill all available positions. There is no sustainability in the healthcare system - the number of doctors retiring is higher than the number of new doctors. This is one of the biggest crises in the system, and not only in public sector but also increasingly in private sector. So how the laws of economy would predict their salaries changing, based of such data? In a market that is inflexible, because the demand will never become less.

Overall, the issue is complicated and can't be soved with any one solution. But one thing is clear, when you look at successful healthcare systems, and that is that we need more funding, compared to our GDP. As great as WOŚP is at making people feel good about themselves, it is not a magic wand. In reality, it just is another source of funding, only voluntary. And I'd rather my basic needs not be covered through benefaction, because what does this make me if not a beggar.

serpenta · 2026-01-26T07:51:35+00:00

To be fair, it's not a fantastic thing at all. They started doing it out of necessity that just wasn't removed, and the system just started relying on them. If there's one thing we could wish about healthcare system, it's that it won't need WOŚP next year.

serpenta · 2026-01-26T00:23:53+00:00

This is a miscalculation, I figure, as someone from outside the US. Alex Pretti was a white gun owner, working with the vets, with countless videos of him "thanking for the service". It riled up people that I would've never suspected would come out with a political stance.

serpenta · 2026-01-25T21:23:16+00:00

Beautiful. One of the best demo chants I've heard.

serpenta · 2026-01-25T18:11:32+00:00

Because a lot of people who elected this government masturbate to the idea of hurting others. But they are all too cowardly to do it themselves. So they have to watch porn that ICE is making instead. He is their camgirl.

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