Exactly. And you see those guys doing something competent like building rail, or stockpiling oil for crises and you’re like - fuck why can’t my gov’t have this basic competence. Why the fuck am I waiting for a basic surface light rail line in Toronto, not a subway, for 18 years… (I know why, it’s a rhetorical question.)

The world - for sure, but these are numbers for Americans.

This graph shows something interesting. The numbers held steady for a long time. Then the opinion started rapidly shifting during Trump’s first presidency as they ramped up anti-CHAYNA! propaganda. That continied under Biden and the opinion trend followed. But look what happens after 2023. Despite the anti-China propaganda taps being fully open, the opinion trend goes positive. To me this means the propaganda is stopping to work for increasing number of people.

Anecdotally I see this with people I talk to in RL (in Canada). People who used to be on the China-bad (like myself) train have gotten off it and see their previous opinions as shaped by propaganda. Far from universal but things are shifting.

They know there’s no chance Israel’s gonna abide by that ceasefire.

This is not brain rot, it’s propaganda, just painfully obvious instead of subtle.

The TEE-01B satellite, built and launched by Chinese company Earth ​Eye Co, was acquired by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Aerospace Force after it was launched ​into space from China,

So an Iranian satellite.

All good signs. I hope they follow through.

Are there good signs these guys would make such reforms instead of holding onto the power given by changes made by Orban?

Likely yes because that would be akin to a small general strike. And if it’s a real general strike, they woud def concede as the ruling class is gonna lose serious money, and they would push politicians whose campaigns they fund to concede. Working people have one real leverage to use against their ruling class - labour power - the ability to stop creating wealth for the ruling class. I think pretty much all other leverage we have derive from that. Protest, even the right to vote.

You’re not wrong but some render their opposition to capitalism by reducing the scope of the capitalist system. Something liberals tend not to do. Are all reformists committed to bringing it down to zero? Maybe, maybe not. I probably wouldn’t call a self-proclaimed socislist who spends their life reducing the capitalist part of their state a lib if they are okay with say 10% of the economy remaining capitalist.

Being a socialist doesn’t mean you have to ban capitalism the moment you get power. Or at all. There are many ways to be socialist and do socialist policy. The overarching ideology is the belief we can do better than capitalism by distributing the resources we create according to amount of work and need, instead of profit maximization. How and how quickly we achieve that differs between different kinds of socialists. Sometimes dramatically.

Too bad Iran is already deeply sanctioned. It’s what happens when you overuse your leverage. I suppose they could try the opposite - offer lifting of sanctions.

I imagine vastly lower cost would be one reason. 450km range chargeable in 11 minutes would be enough for a significant proportion of people and likely desirable if the cost is low enough. I don’t think it’s likely that lithium would match the price/perf ratio of sodium so I think we’re likely to see a lot more sodium in applications that don’t require the absolute best energy density. So in a way, sodium might be the front runner, ahead of advanced lithium, in terms of what’s going to be adopted. 😅

E: Also we’re talking sodium batteries in production. If and when double-triple density lithium or another shows up, it might change the calculus depending on price, safety, etc.

The packs CATL makes now are 175Whr/kg which is very close to LFP. They’re already EV-worthy.

So how long do we think this ceasefire will last?

Less than the time it took to reply to your comment.

Did you misspel WW3? 🤭

I only meant for analysis sake 😅

Did an edit to add that before I saw your reply. Don’t buy what Israel tells you about how they love the Iranian people. Consider Israel’s material interests.

E: Also it’s fairly public fact that Israel lobbied against the deal and following it lobbied for repeal.

The US had a perfectly good deal. Israel didn’t. If the deal had stayed in place, the Iranian econony would have roughly doubled by now. That’s a lot more resources that could stay in Israel’s way of expanding into Lebanon for example.

Libya now is still better off than Libya under Gaddafi.

What the actual fuck. Holy dear Jesus. That’s a wild take if I ever saw one.