So what you’re saying is that the US can build bridges?

Huh? We are constantly building bridges, what a weird claim. But of course the US is quite capable of launching another space station.

There is already planning to have a replacement in place by then.

That’s not how it works. As long as FPTP exists, it will lock us into two parties. We have had multiple party systems that all demonstrated this principle. Some places are experimenting with alternatives on the state and local level, but it will take time.

Conflicts over language have been tied to other conflicts (political, cultural, war) for a very long time. Cultural genocide against indigenous people has targeted indigenous language use among young people. Many people in India have objected to the establishment of Hindi as a UN language because they fear it will advance the extinction of their own language. I’m not saying some Replacement Theory bigot kvetching because someone dared speak a language besides English is equivalent. It’s more that language does have a special place in culture in a way that is very common.

Legally, yes. But you’re going to have a bad time if you don’t speak at least some English.

I wouldn’t say it’s a point of pride in the US usually, because it does make life difficult and limited. In the US, a lot of situations simply require English. It means relying on friends and family as translators, so the person can be at their mercy. They also can become very isolated within their immigrant communities while they watch the younger multilingual generations be able to integrate. My impression is that it is usually older people who struggle most learning English that remain in this group. I can’t think of anyone who is even vaguely younger who didn’t make an effort to learn English.

I remember a middle aged Iranian woman who was taking ELL courses at my university. We happen to be at the gym at the same time some nights. I could tell it was a struggle, but she was clearly picking up more of the language.

I used OkCupid for some dates before I found my now husband. It took quite a few dates on my side, but I just considered that par for the course. For him, I was his first date on OkCupid. For that matter, I was the first man that he dated, though he had dated a girl in high school.

Unfortunately, in the decade since we’ve met, I think both straight and gay oriented dating apps have probably taken a turn for the worse. We both had extensive, descriptive profiles and talked for a long time before meeting up. I keep hearing that the gay apps have turned into mostly hookup apps, but I can’t speak for straight apps.

It can be easy to forget about the rest of the world from a linguistically viewpoint. You can go over 4,300 miles from the tip of Florida to Wainwright, Alaska and never leave a predominantly English speaking region. Then worldwide, English has a billion second language speakers, so many places will have someone around who speaks English.

It’s

China also had a couple of twists. At least parts of the West have general counterparts to these problems.

Some cities had infrastructure built out ahead of demand. Many of the cities did start filling up with people, which is great. However, the infrastructure aged well ahead of when it was used. So some of the infrastructure is coming due for expensive maintenance, often without a solid tax structure to pay for it. Readers of Strong Towns will recognize this general pattern of overbuilding without building a solid foundation, but it just has a Chinese character to it.

Linked to that is a growing debt crisis at the local government level. The most current estimate I could find is 94 trillion yen (US$13 trillion). Many infrastructure investments were made that are projected to never be paid off in their lifespan. Again, Strong Town readers will recognize this general pattern.

Going from pure speculation, I wonder whether they might have been able to avoid some of the problems with aging unused infrastructure by setting aside land and right-of-way. Here in Portland, when they were planning the I-205 freeway, one concession to transit and bike advocates was to set aside a right-of-way for a transit way and a bike path. That particular concession was made around 1975. The bike path was built immediately. The northern end was used to extend the preexisting light rail to the airport on September 10, 2001 (great timing) as part of the Red Line. The southern end became part of the Green Line later.

Those problems would absolutely apply. And moving equipment has never been a problem in Ukraine, it has been getting permission from a fickle Congress and training Ukrainian with gear they are not familiar with.

The simulated conflicts are run against an adversary that is perfect. No logistic errors, no maintenance issues, no communication issues, no human error. They are a teaching tool, not a crystal ball. In reality, in the event of a conflict there are plenty of areas where China would struggle.

My previous job didn’t have a ticket tracker for my team. It was my first real job, so I didn’t realize how far we were straying from best practices. If I had some more experience, I would have pushed hard for ticket tracking. I was constantly disorganized, and my manager blamed me for not keeping track of everything. He was probably in his 50’s, he should have known better.

My sincerest apologies, comrade. You see, I indeed do have a sinus infection and the therapy has involved huffing Flonase.

Every single person on the planet is aware of climate change

I’m still trying to get my husband’s uncle to get off his easy out of “well I guess it’s happening, but humans didn’t cause it.” He, along with a lot of other people, are in an echo chamber. Obviously plopping pigment on monuments isn’t going to do shit to convince them, but I don’t know what will.

I have heard accounts from people who were in the presence of Saddam Hussein. He was a special type of psychopathic. You could feel you were in the presence of someone dangerous.

No, I am arguing against nuclear proliferation. Especially a total psychopath like Saddam Hussein.

Putin, as part of the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, said that if any countries tried to stop Russia, they would face “such consequences that you have never encountered in your history”. It’s hard to take that two ways.

Also, much of the point isn’t who has threatened to use them. The more nuclear weapons material floating around, the more chance that it lands in the hands of someone with no compunctions about actually using it. The Doomsday Clock gets closer to midnight every time another country gets nukes.

Every country that has nukes means more risk that some loose cannon sets off a nuke. That is why nuclear non-proliferation agreements are so important.

To demonstrate, what if Saddam and Iran had had nukes during the Iran-Iraq War? Saddam used chemical weapons against the Kurds. Would he use nukes? I genuinely don’t know, the man was apparently a psychopath. Would you actually want someone like that to have nukes?