Mailwatch(ed) Forum

Watchman wrote: ↑Fri Jan 31, 2025 10:48 am I wonder if Muskie’s got a new toy that “could do it better”

If by better you mean cheaper and much, much worse, then almost certainly.

Teslas used to come with standard radar parking sensors as well as cameras. Now, they just come with cameras (fairly cheap, shitty ones as well - think basic smartphone from 5 years ago) to save money and the software is expected to pick up the slack. It’s one reason why the Tesla self driving only “works” in the US with its grid-like road structure and lack of oversight, and why the small print says you have to be paying attention at all times. Because you’re beta-testing Musk’s corner cutting.

I’m also sure his desperation to say Teslas really do now have fully automated driving, and his wanting to launch his robotaxi, is nothing whatsoever with his cosying up to Trump and desire to gut federal oversight. But I know I wouldn’t fancy driving on US roads in the next few years…

Bones McCoy wrote: ↑Fri Jan 31, 2025 1:30 pm Cissy SpaceX…

*applause*

Andy McDandy wrote: ↑Fri Jan 31, 2025 11:33 am He's going to build the entire plane out of whatever they build the black box from. After all, that thing's indestructible!*

*The basis of this joke being an understanding of the relative weights of Aluminium and Titanium, and the impracticality and inability to take off of any plane made mainly of Titanium.

That’s why they’re so safe. Can’t fly? Can’t crash!

There's also a picture, for those who tire of reading about the shitshow.

Crabcakes wrote: ↑Fri Jan 31, 2025 2:34 pm
That’s why they’re so safe. Can’t fly? Can’t crash!

Of course! Bert Fegg'*s modern British safety plane**!

*Comic creation of Michael Palin and Terry Jones.

**Comes attached to 16 ton weight so plane cannot take off.

25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico coming on Saturday, apparently.

That's tmrw!

Canada supplies about 60% of the US's crude oil imports.

I look forward to Trump explaining how the subsequent cost of living rise is making America great again.

Oboogie wrote: ↑Fri Jan 31, 2025 8:18 pm I look forward to Trump explaining how the subsequent cost of living rise is making America great again.

American goods are exclusive. Only alpha men with big salaries can afford them.

Maybe it’s called Project 2025 because by the end of the year they won’t be getting anything through the house as half of its own representatives will be shitting themselves about mid terms if this continues.

Apologies for the long post, but this is an interesting analysis of Trump's basic methodology, and explains a great deal.

I might also link it, politically, with corporatism and Italian fascism...

Corran Addison
10 July 2018 ·
The best, most cogent and elegantly simple explanation into the inexplicably destructive negotiating processes of the president,by Prof. David Honig of Indiana University.
Everybody I know should read this accurate and enlightening piece...

“I’m going to get a little wonky and write about Donald Trump and negotiations. For those who don't know, I'm an adjunct professor at Indiana University - Robert H. McKinney School of Law and I teach negotiations. Okay, here goes.
Trump, as most of us know, is the credited author of "The Art of the Deal," a book that was actually ghost written by a man named Tony Schwartz, who was given access to Trump and wrote based upon his observations. If you've read The Art of the Deal, or if you've followed Trump lately, you'll know, even if you didn't know the label, that he sees all dealmaking as what we call "distributive bargaining."
Distributive bargaining always has a winner and a loser. It happens when there is a fixed quantity of something and two sides are fighting over how it gets distributed. Think of it as a pie and you're fighting over who gets how many pieces. In Trump's world, the bargaining was for a building, or for construction work, or subcontractors. He perceives a successful bargain as one in which there is a winner and a loser, so if he pays less than the seller wants, he wins. The more he saves the more he wins.
The other type of bargaining is called integrative bargaining. In integrative bargaining the two sides don't have a complete conflict of interest, and it is possible to reach mutually beneficial agreements. Think of it, not a single pie to be divided by two hungry people, but as a baker and a caterer negotiating over how many pies will be baked at what prices, and the nature of their ongoing relationship after this one gig is over.
The problem with Trump is that he sees only distributive bargaining in an international world that requires integrative bargaining. He can raise tariffs, but so can other countries. He can't demand they not respond. There is no defined end to the negotiation and there is no simple winner and loser. There are always more pies to be baked. Further, negotiations aren't binary. China's choices aren't (a) buy soybeans from US farmers, or (b) don't buy soybeans. They can also (c) buy soybeans from Russia, or Argentina, or Brazil, or Canada, etc. That completely strips the distributive bargainer of his power to win or lose, to control the negotiation.
One of the risks of distributive bargaining is bad will. In a one-time distributive bargain, e.g. negotiating with the cabinet maker in your casino about whether you're going to pay his whole bill or demand a discount, you don't have to worry about your ongoing credibility or the next deal. If you do that to the cabinet maker, you can bet he won't agree to do the cabinets in your next casino, and you're going to have to find another cabinet maker.
There isn't another Canada.
So when you approach international negotiation, in a world as complex as ours, with integrated economies and multiple buyers and sellers, you simply must approach them through integrative bargaining. If you attempt distributive bargaining, success is impossible. And we see that already.
Trump has raised tariffs on China. China responded, in addition to raising tariffs on US goods, by dropping all its soybean orders from the US and buying them from Russia. The effect is not only to cause tremendous harm to US farmers, but also to increase Russian revenue, making Russia less susceptible to sanctions and boycotts, increasing its economic and political power in the world, and reducing ours. Trump saw steel and aluminum and thought it would be an easy win, BECAUSE HE SAW ONLY STEEL AND ALUMINUM - HE SEES EVERY NEGOTIATION AS DISTRIBUTIVE. China saw it as integrative, and integrated Russia and its soybean purchase orders into a far more complex negotiation ecosystem.
Trump has the same weakness politically. For every winner there must be a loser. And that's just not how politics works, not over the long run.
For people who study negotiations, this is incredibly basic stuff, negotiations 101, definitions you learn before you even start talking about styles and tactics. And here's another huge problem for us.
Trump is utterly convinced that his experience in a closely held real estate company has prepared him to run a nation, and therefore he rejects the advice of people who spent entire careers studying the nuances of international negotiations and diplomacy. But the leaders on the other side of the table have not eschewed expertise, they have embraced it. And that means they look at Trump and, given his very limited tool chest and his blindly distributive understanding of negotiation, they know exactly what he is going to do and exactly how to respond to it.
From a professional negotiation point of view, Trump isn't even bringing checkers to a chess match. He's bringing a quarter that he insists of flipping for heads or tails, while everybody else is studying the chess board to decide whether its better to open with Najdorf or Grünfeld.”
— David Honig

See also Johnson's style: always campaign, better to win than to succeed. Because winning just requires someone else to be a loser.

But if he poses like a tough man enough, scowling at the camera, the seals will clap and groan and he'll feel great!

It's beyond pathetic.

It's "We won. Get over it," all over again.

RedSparrows wrote: ↑Sun Feb 02, 2025 11:35 am But if he poses like a tough man enough, scowling at the camera, the seals will clap and groan and he'll feel great!

It's beyond pathetic.

He learned that from Mussolini.

The Weeping Angel wrote: ↑Sun Feb 02, 2025 1:23 pm

I don't think Trump actually believes that.
He knows enough of his cult will hear it an believe it.

Meanwhile the USA, now devoid of regulators, gets a massive slush fund of tariff money to bunch where it will.
It'll make the UK's PPE scandal look like a church jumble sale.

I think he does believe other people pay tariffs, because he's an idiot, much worse than the mainstream Brexiters who purported to believe that a trade deficit with the EU put us in the driving seat. But equally, I'm sure "pay to play" is very much a part of it, as it has been for many Republicans for ages.

You know what all these agents who are chasing law abiding brown people around were doing before?

Yep, lots of them were targeting Fentanyl smugglers, who can relax a bit.

Musk's going through government payments shutting off payments he and Mike Flynn don't like the sound of. One they've settled on is Lutheran Family Services, who get a lot of taxpayer funding. As well they might, if you look at what they do- loads of social work, including with such Republican favored groups as seniors and veterans.

https://www.onelfs.org