His mother died at 92, so don’t hold your breath or you’ll go first.

Yeah, some of the computer science theory I learned occasionally comes in handy when I’m reasoning about problems or when I’m picking apart some spec. My husband who attended a code school instead is a perfectly apt developer, but he struggles more. College also just gave me the time and resources to get a survey of knowledge outside of formal coursework. On the job, I tend to go more in-depth on topics closely related to the job.

The Hapsburgs, a Spanish noble house that held the Spanish throne, made a practice of the inverse of this with uncle-niece marriages to keep power in the house. This was the closest marriage the church would allow. The generations of inbreeding produced the distinct “Hapsburg jaw”. Eventually that led to the poor, ugly, absurdly inbred Charles II of Spain. And remember, those portraits are official portraits that paint him in the best possible light. He died without an heir, ending the Hapsburg monarchy.

The Democratic Party is a big tent party. There is far left, center left, center, and center right. And of course the left-right spectrum is always going to be reductive. Joe Biden has been observed to track the center of the party as a whole over time, so he would be a center left politician.

Yeah, it always kinda weirds me out that “killing women and children” is the rallying cry in most conflicts. Civilians. Killing civilians. That’s what’s bad.

Under the Ukrainian constitution, they cannot hold an election while martial law is under effect. Much of the population (a majority?) is either displaced or in an occupied territory.

Sometimes those judgement calls have allowed moderation that is at the very least poorly defined in the rules. I posted one comment complaining about a local protest about the current Palestine-Israel conflict that trashed my university’s library and shuttered it for the next few months. I got a delete-ban over that for a “CHUD Opinion”, which is very much not in the rules. And that is far from the first time that I’ve run into unwritten rules that feel like they’re putting a thumb on the scales.

So they helped, once they stopped threatening to attack. Minimum standard of decency.

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.

Said by a man who ran a country that outlawed all but the party he was prime minister of. He was probably a little salty about criticism over the lack of democracy in his country.

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

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.