I have seen the marvelous socialist traffic in the Soviet Union first hand. It was highly efficient, with only a few cars on the streets, and nobody needed the fabulously free healthcare after collisions, because exactly nobody was left lingering after a crash, that much I can guarantee. At those speeds and with those driving skills, with the vehicles there, they all died immediately, probably by being vaporized. Of the places I've visited, Istanbul comes close, and yes, I very much prefer the current system here... even taking into account that Finland is the world leader in extorting that very same money from poor people only speeding just a little. I happen to like myself and my kids breathing, for example. But hey, utopias are nice places, eh?

https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/27/politics/us-pauses-saudi-uae-arms-sales/index.html



I have no faith in the Biden administration or any other American ruling class clique to truly do the right thing and cut off the most brutal allies of the United States from access to the tools of destruction, but this pause at least provides an opening to apply pressure to the administration to do the right thing. This is not a Left issue. This is not a Right issue. This is not a "Center" issue (whatever that might be). Whether you are a leftist opposed to US imperialism in all its violent manifestations, a small government conservative tired of obscene welfare handouts to brutal foreign dictatorships and giant military-industrial concerns, or simply a person of goodwill who wants to see an end to the worst humanitarian disaster on the planet, this is an opportunity to raise your voice and speak out against your tax dollars being put to use to murder innocent children and civilians. Stand up and FIGHT BACK!

The whole American politics terminology is fucked up. "Liberal" is used for someone on the left, "socialist", "marxist" and "communist" are used interchangeably and to describe anyone left of Hitler, there are "centrists" that would fall squarely on the right elsewhere, "libertarians" that support a police state or even a monarchy (Liberty Hangout anyone?) or are otherwise "Republicans+Weed" (or more rarely, "Republicans+child porn"), Joe Biden is decried as a radical leftists by his opponents on the right, "republic" doesn't mean a democracy (useful when you want to defend your politicians' fascistic rules that disenfranchise voters...), when it suits them "Nazis" are far-left, mask mandates are "communist", Republicans try their hardest to make MLK and other Black icons into "modern Republicans" (i.e. they want to have their black friend to show they're not racist). In such a mess, how do you really define a "centrist"?

There is a lot to blame on everyone for this mess, but the past decade has been terrible. Words have lost their meaning. People only speak in hyperboles. Someone disagreed with you? You're victim of "cancel culture". Your source of news is "fake news". Your disobedience towards COVID rules is equivalent to Black people fighting segregation, your refusal to wear a mask is equivalent to Rosa Parks, your
redneck uprising led by Bison Boy is your 1776. Everything is 1984.

It's like 1984 (eh - see above) and Idiocracy had a baby.

I took a proficiency test, which was inexpensive, gained my license to drive. I pay my car tax, which is inexpensive.

I can therefore drive within the rules of the road and various other laws, most of which pertain to safety. I'd hazard a very well educated guess that in the UK, those driving without licenses aren't some imagined set of 'poor oppressed victims of the system', they are people banned for driving intoxicated, causing an accident, driving an unsafe vehicle, or simply never actually passing that proficiency test, and so on.

Does passing that test & having that little pink card in my wallet give the government any opportunity to track or otherwise bother me going about any kind of journey ? Nope.

In Europe, anyone possessing the financial means to drive a car has the financial means to get the licence and insurance. Methuen is 100% correct there.

If your opinion of a good system is one that bypasses licences and other means of proving one can drive a car, as well as insurance of any sort, and also rejects the idea of any sort of penalties if damage is caused... well, for once, it leaves me speechless. Good luck.

A country that won't work to improve its citizen's life standards is a fucking failure, regardless of the political stance. My belief is that US is a country where corporations are absolutely more important for the overall bureaucratic system and its rulers than is citizens, in a way too disproportionate way. A country that spends trillions of dollars in weapons and leave their retirées and poor citizens at his fate is a country that MUST be reformed, if not, built completely again.

No matter how much people in US use political terminology at random, most of them accept or support the brutal and inhuman capitalism that rules there, even if the social breaches are wider and wider every day. There's a cultural sense of "save yourself, it's not my problem" thing that goes against even fucking human nature. Tribes were formed to survive and collaborate, taking care of every member of it. Today we are just near each other due geographic and economic reasons, but the government AND the very same citizens do their best to fuck up each other and to aid/support each other the less as possible. If some valueless mob is asking too much, you can always send them to jail or use the cops to kill them. Prison is exclusive for the poor. The rich buy their passes to do whatever they fucking want and get away with it.

This is something that MUST change, the sooner the better.

You're aware that the every modern vehicle has a GPS unit in it, right? The government can obtain any information about your travels in your car that it wants, just like it can pull the pings between your cellphone and the towers, just like it can monitor your social media and your communications metadata, just like it can check its interlocking networks of closed circuit cameras. It takes a special kind of ignorance to think personal automobiles represent some kind of shield from government surveillance.

Gotta say that I love how all of the responses to "what will you do for personal transportation" require city living. Kinda explains most of the opinions on the board.

GPS is built into every single modern vehicle, what is optional are the subscription services that allow you to make use of them for navigation, crash reports etc.

Gotta say that I love how all of the responses to "what will you do for personal transportation" require city living. Kinda explains most of the opinions on the board.

Sure do gotta love that "everybody needs to live where I say they need to live" mentality. Can't see why folks don't get on board eith the PSL. At all.

And it can be, quite literally, removed. Just like any other piece of your vehicle. Or do you think that modifications to motor vehicles are impossible?

And it can be, quite literally, removed. Just like any other piece of your vehicle. Or do you think that modifications to motor vehicles are impossible?

On my street, we have household with more than one car per driver. For instance, my neighbour has two kids too young to drive, one SUV, one van and one car for him and his wife. Another has one company vehicle (pickup truck) and they have two cars; two adults, no kids. I've literally seen someone use their car to go to the convenience store 100 meters away, and back.

But to get back to my remark - I love the idea of the car-free society, I really do. I walk, take buses, take trains where I can. Great for the environment (and for me) in a massive way. I'd just like to such a change happen more broadly without more avenues for professional arseholes to make my life more difficult, fit me into their marketing models, generally spy, and so on - which again, seems reasonable to me.

I'm all for protecting the environment so we'll do what we have to. But personally I really love driving my own car. One of my favorite things - just get in the car and go. But we'll have to start looking more critically at it... I live in a place with a basically shit public transit system. There'd have to be a great amount of transformation to get it on track to stop using cars so much.

Despite what I said previously, I don't think a car-free society is likely anytime soon. However, I'd hope to see a massive reduction in number and use. On my street, we have household with more than one car per driver. For instance, my neighbour has two kids too young to drive, one SUV, one van and one car for him and his wife. Another has one company vehicle (pickup truck) and they have two cars; two adults, no kids. I've literally seen someone use their car to go to the convenience store 100 meters away, and back.

To me that's totally crazy, not only just from an environmental perspective, but how the fuck do people pay for three cars and think that's reasonable? It's not just three times the price, it's three times the maintenance, tires, wear, and so on. And like I said, it's a place where transit is decent when you need to go to "hubs", like schools, industrial sector, downtown, etc. I don't believe all these people work so far from these hubs...

Also, I don't think it's realistic to expect small towns and far away places to have any kind of decent transit system. It should be an option anywhere, and many, many cities could do better if they wanted, but not everywhere.

I don't know what town you live in where people are that obsessed with cars, but I can assure you that it isn't this bad in my area.

I understand the arguments for going car-free, at least in cities, but this country has basically as much of a car culture as it does a gun culture.

I love to drive, too. It has always been a release. I've lived in the country half my life and prefer it markedly to city life, but the way America in particular functions, and the way the most developed capitalist powers generally function to a lesser degree, is totally unsustainable and is killing the fucking planet (which is still the only one we got).

On another subject, politically related. I think after the events of the last two days with Gamestop/Nokia/AMC/etc, we are finally going to see congress come together and push some regulation on financial firms. The fact that robinhood and the other vendors shut down trading on specific stocks because of 'volatility concerns' is the absolute proof in the pudding that the entire stock market is rigged towards billionaires and institutional investment. I knew 0 dollar commission fees were a scam from the getgo, and this just proves it. When all the vendors are so dependant on Hedge funds and instutional investments for their revenue that they become servants to their needs, the game is rigged.

And yeah, I bought nokia this morning. I'm down and could give two fucks.

On another subject, politically related. I think after the events of the last two days with Gamestop/Nokia/AMC/etc, we are finally going to see congress come together and push some regulation on financial firms. The fact that robinhood and the other vendors shut down trading on specific stocks because of 'volatility concerns' is the absolute proof in the pudding that the entire stock market is rigged towards billionaires and institutional investment. I knew 0 dollar commission fees were a scam from the getgo, and this just proves it. When all the vendors are so dependant on Hedge funds and instutional investments for their revenue that they become servants to their needs, the game is rigged.

And yeah, I bought nokia this morning. I'm down and could give two fucks.

"We are seriously telling those Taiwan independence forces: those who play with fire will burn themselves, and Taiwan independence means war," Chinese defence ministry spokesman Wu Qian said at a press conference on Thursday.

He also defended China's recent military activities, saying they were "necessary actions to address the current security situation in the Taiwan Strait and to safeguard national sovereignty and security".

On a query about the change to UK citizenship rules for BNO-eligible Hong Kong residents from 31 January, China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian on Thursday said: “China has repeatedly stated its position on this issue.

"The British side, in breach of its promise, has chosen to obstinately and repeatedly hype up the BNO passport issue to interfere in Hong Kong affairs and China's internal affairs. This will only end up hurting its own interests.”

I don't know what town you live in where people are that obsessed with cars, but I can assure you that it isn't this bad in my area.

It's not like this in the whole city, but there are streets like that where people have more cars than common sense. It's a nightmare in winter when they have to park their pickups and vans and SUVs in the street that is filled with snow. There's a house in particular that's multi-generational, and they have like the grand-father, the parents, and all three adult/late teen kids, almost each has their car! It's just so fucking mind-boggingly stupid. I get that they have money (it's a house twice as big as anything else on the street), but come on, who needs six cars? What happened to teens/young adults having to borrow a car from their parents? I'm not even sure they're that rich, they just spend all on their cars...