Data isn’t very valuable if you can’t transmit it.

At some point you need to trust someone

Hehe. Of course not.

For clarity, how exactly would you define “retail” American politics?

Local campaigning for individual elected offices. The process of raising money, building up staff, getting yourself on the ballot, building name recognition, and GOTV.

I think of a physical location of a business in which a consumer goes to buy a physical product.

Campaigns work similarly. You need offices to coordinate staff. You need to balance budgets. And you need to sell the product by getting voters to show up at election stations.

Been part of a number of campaigns.

Retail American politics is not conductive to forward looking ideology

Sanders was forward looking during the primary. But he collapsed back into defensive, borderline reactionary “this is the best we can do” during the general.

Fully unironically.

But you’re not going to find that kind of tech optimism in the States. At least, not in any political debate

You mean high speed rail and electric cars?

Every politician I’ve seen seems obsessed with past. Maybe the Obama past. Maybe the Reagan past. Maybe LBJ and FDR. Maybe Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis.

I haven’t found anyone interested in talking about the future, except maybe those weird AI obsessed dorks who insist humanity won’t be around in another generation or three.

Don’t forget to bring a towel.

• Go to an alternate dimension

• Immediately look for a history book

• Find one

• It’s in French

Combining French snobbery with Linux snobbery could set off some kind of chain reaction.

How soon until Quebec joins the Bloc de L’nux?

It’s adorable that anyone thought we’d have a political class willing to combat pedophilia, except as a pretext to harass LGBTQ folks, immigrants, and vulnerable minorities.

I only take issue with calling them anything other than something like crony capitalism

The fundamental difference between Chinese Socialism and American Capitalism can be summed up in their retirement rates.

In China, white collar men can retire at 63. Blue collar women are out at 55. That upwards of twelve years gap in retirement age is why China has billionaires and America has trillionaires.

If I died right now and was told I was going to be reincarnated but unfortunately I would be born poor and was given a choice of where to go, China would be near the bottom of my list of developed nations.

The real value of a civilization is its infrastructure. And you’re going to find it difficult to name a country more advanced and resilient - particularly to looming climate change.

But if you want to roll the dice on Starmer’s UK or Takaichi’s Japan or Milei’s Argentina? Good luck.

Slovenia - a Yugoslav state - was a major trading partner of the USSR. It’s economy was hollowed out, first after the decline of Russia, and then after a decade of looting, sanctions, and war.

That’s what my government tells me

It’s like when China every few years trots out some rich person or powerful politician and nails them for tax evasion or corruption in a show trial then goes back to pretending to be socialist

I think Chinese domestic economic planning goes a few steps beyond the semi-annual show trial.

Their green energy and ev markets illustrate as much

How does a Slovenian model meet an American billionaire?

Through modeling agent Paolo Zampolli. This is well-documented.