Youtube comments of afcgeo (@afcgeo882).

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  81.  @Scoots1994  Quite the opposite. Direct injection is very happy at high RPMs and can easily “keep up”. Valves also don’t need cooling. “How It Works According to Toyota, during low-to-medium engine loads, both direct-type and port-type fuel injection are used together, or one of them is used to create homogeneous mixed air and fuel, thus contributing to stable combustion processes. During high engine load ranges, only the direct-type fuel injection is used to cool down the intake air with the chilling effect of vapors in the fuel, which is injected into the cylinder, improving charge efficiency and anti-knock properties. Under some conditions, the intake valves open to allow the homogeneous air/fuel mixture into the combustion chamber, and fuel is injected during the first half of the intake stroke. During a cold start, the system times the opening of the port and direct fuel injector to decrease emissions and achieve stratified combustion. Immediately after a cold engine start and during the exhaust stroke, fuel is injected into the intake port from the fuel injector assembly (for port injection). Fuel is also injected from the direct fuel injector near the end of the compression stroke. This results in an air-fuel mixture that is stratified, and the area near the spark plug is richer than the rest of the air/fuel mixture. This process allows a retarded ignition timing to be used, raising the exhaust gas temperature. The increased exhaust gas temperatures promote rapid warmup of the catalysts and improve exhaust emission performance. It is impossible to detect where the changeover from port to direct injection occurs. The only way to see the different fuel injection operations is with a scan tool.” “Tomorrow’s Tech” article from their website, March 21, 2019.
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  163. I think it's because Doug doesn't know that this is a commercial van not meant for families and he's comparing it to family minivans, which are completely different vehicles. It's like comparing a truck to a bus. They're both big and they're both somewhat similar, but they have very different uses, so a truck makes a terrible bus and a bus makes a terrible truck. He thinks it's just another minivan, but done terribly, so he's comparing it to minivans. Also, there's no doubt that Doug thinks he knows more about cars than anyone else on the planet, including all the Daimler executives. That causes him to stick his foot in his mouth quite often. He's entertaining, but he makes A LOT of mistakes and assumptions, which is quite unprofessional. That's just my opinion though. Notice that Doug didn't mention even once that this is a commercial application vehicle sold through a commercial dealer network. Not once did he mention that this van carries 8 people instead of 7, which is maximum in any regular minivan. He never mentioned that the load floor is low, making entering and exiting all rows of the vehicle super easy compared to minivans and making it super easy to load/unload the cargo in the back. He failed to mention that all the seats seat upright unlike the 3rd rows of minivans, which have an odd, upward-angled seat, that there is more legroom and much more head room for all passengers (partly due to that upright seating and a tall, box-like shape of the vehicle.) That since it's a commercial van, it wouldn't be driven by the owners, but by chauffeurs on their shift, which is why they're low in driver amenities and comfort. That the wheels are tiny because it works MUCH better for fleet applications and gets a better ride quality than large 17"/18" wheels (though it looks worse). That third row bench is meant to be either moved to points front/back to customize the interior or be completely removed to provide a flat, large cargo interior, which fits standard dry wall sheets btw. Him tilting it is idiotic because that lever is for disconnecting the bench and pulling it out. All the seats come out or can be re-arranged. This van is super popular as a cab in Europe and is picking up here in NYC as well. It's also easily customized as a wheelchair accessible van. Then, in the comment below, he belittles his followers by calling them "sweetie" while talking complete nonsense, "Well, sweetie, it's nice that Mercedes-Benz marketing has convinced you of this -- but it's the same size as a Sienna/Odyssey, with the same price as a Sienna/Odyssey, and the same scope as a Sienna/Odyssey. If I were buying a "commercial shuttle van," I'd literally fall over laughing at the Metris ... annnnnd then I'd buy a Sienna/Odyssey. Which is what everyone does anyway." Yeah... NO ONE buys Sienna/Odyssey vans for commercial use. NOT ONE PERSON. People buy Ford Transit Connects, Ram PromasterCity, any full-size van or back in the day an Astro van, but no one buys soft, short and narrow Siennas or Odysseys for commercial use. The load floor is too small and too high for that. The only minivan that has been used for commercial use is the Dodge Grand Caravan and they actually made a W/T version of it. That's because its interior is boxy and low to the ground, giving people an easy loading hight and an interior that can actually fit large things.
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  245.  @Oddball_E8  You’re not arguing! You’re trolling! You haven’t presented ANY evidence for your claims at all! I’ve been in the US Air Force for 22 years now. Trained and fought all over the world, including in Svandinavia. Most countries operate from dedicated military facilities, but have back-up plans to operate their fighters from alternate air fields, including unimproved, and from highway stretches specifically designated for that purpose. Even the US has a few of these, although it has little to no need, due to incredible numbers of small, paved airports everywhere. In Europe, the Cold War doctrine created this use in every single country, in the West and in the Warsaw Pact as well. It’s LITERALLY normal, and if you bother to do some research, you’d find it to be true. Sorry that your ego bubble was burst by reality, but Swedes aren’t at all unique in this. You were saying that Sweden uses highways as its regular operational sites fir its air force, which is 100% a lie. It doesn’t. It occasionally trains its air force on how to use highways as air fields, in a WAR EMERGENCY. This is because Sweden doesn’t have many developed airports throughout its country. Most of Sweden is sparsely populated and heavily forested. It has no major cities in its interior, so no airports either. Almost all of its airstrips are on the East Coast. Most are general aviation, about 400m - 2,000m long. Sweden didn’t make its highways into runways. Quite the opposite. It designed small airbases called Flygbassystem 90 and then converted their runways into highways and roads, along with hard stands for heavy aircraft. That’s what’s unique about Sweden. Any country can operate from highways, but only Sweden built these small bases and converted them to highways. By the way, most of the Bas90 system has been shut down and eliminated since the 1990s. That brings the main point - Ukraine didn’t! They don’t have these layouts, hard stands or maintenance hangars on their roads. They don’t have the heavy forests to hide them. They don’t need STOL aircraft. They are a MUCH larger nation, with a lot of vast, open areas. They have lots of existing airfields and plenty of ways to operate the F-16, just as they operate the MiG-29 and SU-25.
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  522. Sylling Boy Back up a source for visibility? Get into the cockpit and judge for yourself! I’ve been in both! Without that, look at videos and notice the shape of the canopies and the relative sitting position of the pilot. It’s VERY easy to see that the sight lines out of a Hog are superior. LIFT, not engine thrust is what adds to an aircraft’s maneuverability. Forward motion is NOT maneuverability. Lift can be had with wing and surface area rather than speed. The faster a plane has to fly, the less tight the turning radius is. Thus, a slow aircraft can always out turn a fast one. In fact, that’s why the A-10 performs its role (air to ground attack) so well. It can simply out maneuver anything on the ground and attack multiple targets faster, including purely visually. That’s why it has straight wings, turbofan engines and a less than aerodynamic shape. It was built to go in after air superiority has already been established and SAMs have been extinguished, to attack infantry, armor and logistical ground targets and provide CAS. It does not need to defend itself against enemy fighters, go fast or climb quickly. No reason to. It needs to turn on a dime, deliver massive firepower onto the ground, loiter a long time, and survive small caliber fire from the ground. That’s its role. The Sukhoi has the same role, but it simply wasn’t built to fulfill it as well. It was a compromise between a fighter and an attack aircraft. USAF believes the A-10 is old (it is), requires a lot of maintenance (it does) and that its role can now be achieved by multi-role networks of F-22s and F-35s. To some degree, it can. The O/A-10’s observation role can be done with technology while its ground attack role can be partially achieved by fighter-bombers, the way the F-16 and F-18 have, but only partially. That’s why USAF hasn’t retired it. The actual combat studies show that it can do things no other aircraft can and that those things matter in actual combat. STOP TROLLING!
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  738. In the United States, Credit Card agreements require lending banks (credit card bank) to forgive fraudulent transactions and return the money to the customer when a legitimate complaint is filed and investigated. They purchase insurance for such things and consider it a simple cost of doing business. They also have much stronger anti-theft protocols than you think, including algorithms that look into your purchasing history, amounts and locations. When it comes to debit cards/checks, there are a lot fewer protections from fraud. If someone hacks your debit card and you don't report it within a few days, you may very well lose whatever amount you were taken for. They will shut down further debits and issue you a new card, but the money that's lost may be lost. The same with checks. Unless they track down the thief and find definitive evidence of fraud, you likely won't see that money back. That is why Americans are more prone to using credit cards than debit cards/checks. At the same time, technology implementation is much more difficult in the United States due to so many states having different laws for commerce, federal laws for interstate commerce, a HUGE amount of independent businesses and the overall attitude of the government not getting involved in business until it absolutely has to. Mandating a form of payment is not an option, like it may be in smaller countries. You cannot make a small business owner invest in particular technology. Checks didn't need any technology. They are paper. That said, businesses are moving to more technological systems on their own and you will RARELY see checks used in places like grocery stores anymore.
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  791. Nick Moscho I can try. First off, it didn’t stall in any accident. Hopefully you know what a stall is. MCAS was designed to trim the nose down if the plane was being accelerated. Planes with engines under wings pitch the nose up when throttle is added. It’s physics. On the MAX, because of the position of these new engines, it pitches the nose up more than on the previous 737, the NG. The same system would pitch the nose down automatically if it sensed a stall coming (the nose pitching up too high for the current speed). The pitch of the nose is called “Angle of Attack”. So a choice had to be made: either teach pilots how to operate the plane differently or add a system that will make flying of it feel just like the NG. Boeing chose the second option. The plane’s sensors are always looking at air speed and AoA to warn the pilot if a stall is coming, and that is through loud audio signals and blinking AoA indicator gauge and on HUD displays, but also eventually through the yoke (stick shaker). The MAX would also pitch down up to 20° to avoid a stall. That was based on what the AoA sensor was showing. There are two AoA sensors on the 737 (and most planes). Because of (what I think ) a stupid measuring of risk, the FAA required that the MCAS be connected to just one AoA sensor instead of both. In the Lion Air crash, one sensor was malfunctioning for days, was eventually replaced with a bad one, and not checked. So during take-off, it showed an AoA higher than allowed for the still slow speed. The other AoA showed everything as normal. Pilots fought the plane back up, but it kept pitching back down, thinking a stall was happening. That went on until they hit the water. The pilots did not understand why the plane kept trimming the nose down and did not follow procedure to turn the automatic trim off. The Ethiopian crash was also on take-off and again, one of the AoA sensors malfunctioned. The investigation has not finished, so we don’t yet know why for sure, but I heard that maybe a lightning strike. Not verified though. So again, by bad luck, it was the sensor that controls MCAS and again, it showed the nose was too high and tried to pitch down. In this case, they were a little higher and a little faster than Lion air was when it happened. The pilot fought it a bit (it inly turns on for up to 20 seconds at a time, but repeats) and eventually turned off the automatic trim. 737 pilots know that if automatic trim is not responding properly, it needs to be turned off, and worked by hand. That is called a runaway trim. The Ethiopian crew did that, but by then were pointed down and going very, very fast. Because they were going so fast, they could not pull up by yoke alone, but also could not spin the trim wheel by hand to adjust the trim. The forces on the elevator are too high at those speeds. There is a technique to use to do that where they need to reduce throttle to slow down and then pull the yoke up a little and trim a little, but then release the yoke to let off the tension, then repeat. The pilots didn’t do that. Perhaps they didn’t know it. Anyway, they could not do it by hand, so they panicked and turned the automatic trim back on, so the MCAS started to pitch it down again (still a bad AoA sensor). They went into the water. The Lion air crash investigation by Indonesia determined that multiple factors played into the crash. Like the Europeans, but not Americans, they don’t assign levels of blame (what was most or least responsible). They just list them. They were: Poor maintenance, poor maintenance records, improper pilot procedures (no runaway trim procedures performed), the repairs made of the AoA sensor by a Florida company were improper, and MCAS.
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  795.  @JacobDlougach  Did you actually read it? It doesn’t at all say what you think it says. “3) On 28 February 2022 the Council adopted Decision (CFSP) 2022/335 amending Decision 2014/512/CFSP. That Decision imposed further restrictive measures prohibiting Russian air carriers, any Russian-registered aircraft, and any non-Russian-registered aircraft which is owned or chartered, or otherwise controlled by any Russian natural or legal person, entity or body from landing in, taking off from, or overflying, the territory of the Union. It also prohibits any transactions with the Central Bank of Russia.” “Regulation (EU) 833/2014 is amended as follows: (1) in Article 1, point (r) is added: ‘(r) “Russian air carrier” means an air transport undertaking holding a valid operating licence or equivalent issued by the competent authorities of the Russian Federation.’; (2) the following Articles are added: ‘Article 3d 1. It shall be prohibited for any aircraft operated by Russian air carriers, including as a marketing carrier in code-sharing or blocked-space arrangements, or for any Russian registered aircraft, or for any non-Russian-registered aircraft which is owned or chartered, or otherwise controlled by any Russian natural or legal person, entity or body, to land in, take off from or overfly the territory of the Union. 2. Paragraph 1 shall not apply in the case of an emergency landing or an emergency overflight. 3. By way of derogation from paragraph 1, the competent authorities may authorise an aircraft to land in, take off from, or overfly, the territory of the Union if the competent authorities have determined that such landing, take-off or overflight is required for humanitarian purposes or for any other purpose consistent with the objectives of this Regulation. 4. The Member State or Member States concerned shall inform the other Member States and the Commission of any authorisation granted under paragraph 3 within two weeks of the authorisation.” NOWHERE does this target individuals operating said aircraft. It targets Russian “air carriers” - airlines and Russian-registered aircraft. If the aircraft is owned, chartered or controlled (in the legal context) then it restricts that aircraft. Being a pilot is NONE of those things.
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  858. +Jamie Malawkin The same exact thing would have happened. Why? It's called business. You see, there's such a thing called a business contract which is enforceable by law. In the airline business, it is called the contract of carriage. Airlines are required to either perform the flight or cancel the flight. If they cancellation is due to their fault (not weather or airport or something out of their control) then they are required to compensate the ticket holder. If it isn't their fault, they are required to simply refund the ticket holder. There are DOT regulations in place to make sure this happens. Managers are also employees. There are literally thousands of managers working at American Airlines. It is the world's largest airline. Customer service managers do not schedule aircraft. That's operations' job. The operations of an airline are mind-numbing. AA flies thousands of aircraft each day on thousands of routes. Airplanes don't just sit around because that's a loss to the company and they'd just go out of business if they did that. The only airplanes sitting around are those that can't be flown due to maintenance. Furthermore, airplanes come in many different sizes. Getting a Boeing 737 for 300 people is useless since they only fit a little over 200. Even if you manage to get a plane that isn't scheduled for another flight, you still need someone to operate it. If it's exactly the same as the original plane, you can use the same crew. If not, you have to find a new crew who is certified in that aircraft type. You have to call their homes and then wait for them to get to the airport. That all takes hours! While operations coordinates all that with crew management, they're also checking they aren't breaking any union contracts and making sure all the support functions for the aircraft are set. They have to coordinate things with the caterers to offload the original plane and move things into the new one. They're busy too. They have to re-fuel, get the flight re-programmed by the FAA and the control towers (multiple) and then program a new flight path into the incoming aircraft. Meanwhile, the customer service staff have no idea of how long it'll take to get that done because everything depends on so many variables. There is no manager at the airport that can give you an accurate timeline since all this gets worked through the company's main Operations desks in Dallas and Chicago and then with LAX as well. Please, don't comment when you clearly don't know.
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  979.  @nofyfb123  You want the whole list? Okay… I’ll start with issues that have affected my last two Toyotas. 1. Rav4 hybrid 12v battery drain 2. Rav4 hybrid fuel tank/sender 3. Rav4 8-speed transmission performance at low gearing. That issue affects the Camry as well. 4. The Corolla CVT issues in its first 2 years. 5. 2AZFE engine’s head bolts unthreading. 6. Weak lower control arms and struts on the 2002-2007 Camry. 6. Oil consumption on the 2007-2012 Camry 7. Engine sludge issues on Camry prior to 2002. 8. Extremely thin paint on most models in the 2000-2015 years. 9. Then there’s this list: https://www.hotcars.com/problems-with-toyota-cars-everyone-ignores/amp/ 10. This: https://www.hotcars.com/problems-with-toyota-cars-everyone-ignores/amp/ 11. The Tacoma engine and transmission issues. 12. 4th Gen Rav4’s battery fires 13. Melting dashboards on various Toyota and Lexus models 14. Tacoma water leaks 15. Tacoma and Tundra frames 16. Bluetooth echoes on 2016- models 17. Electric window switches This is just a partial list of things wrong with Toyotas in the last 2 decades. The full list is far more exhaustive. The worst part of all this is that Toyota intentionally denies all issues until they are facing class-action law suits. So all those campaigns and recalls Toyota cultists mention aren’t a sign of Toyota’s self-awareness, but are rather a part of government-mandated safety recalls or a part of court room settlements. Toyota doesn’t even issue TSBs voluntarily.
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  1010. You’re incorrect on point 3. From the US Dept of State on the US Security Cooperation with Poland, “Together, the United States and Poland maintain a forward posture to defend the Alliance and counter Russia, which continues to undermine the rules-based international order. The United States leads the enhanced Forward Presence (eFP) Battle Group in Poland and deploys a rotational Armored Brigade Combat Team under Operation Atlantic Resolve, funded through the European Deterrence Initiative. Currently, approximately 10,000 U.S. personnel are on rotation in Poland. Poland is a regular contributor to NATO missions, including the eFP in Latvia, the tailored Forward Presence (tFP) in Romania, and NATO air policing missions in the Baltic, Iceland, and most recently, Slovakia. In 2019, the United States and Poland signed two joint declarations that listed planned locations for enhanced U.S. military presence in Poland and in 2020 our two countries concluded an Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA). The EDCA supplements the NATO Status of Force Agreement, further streamlines the functioning of U.S. forces in Poland, and establishes a mechanism for cooperation on infrastructure and logistical support for enhanced rotational presence. Additionally, the United States is building an Aegis Ashore facility in Poland as a contribution to NATO Ballistic Missile Defense. President Biden made a historic announcement at the June NATO Summit in Madrid that the U.S. Army V Corps Headquarters Forward Command Post, an Army garrison headquarters, and a field support battalion will be permanently stationed in Poland. These forces represent the first permanently stationed U.S. forces on NATO’s eastern flank and will improve our command-and-control capabilities, interoperability with U.S. and NATO forces, and management of prepositioned equipment.”
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  1100. Aeromedical evacuation squadrons in the US Air Force are medical units. They do not have dedicated aircraft. They all utilize Air Mobility Command’s regular aircraft that are available at the moment, and so each unit is trained to utilize C-130s, C-17s, C-5s, KC-135s, KC-10s and now KC-46s. They used to have regional medical evacuation aircraft called the C-9A Nightingale and those were mostly devoted to AE, but they were retired in 2005. Each AE squadron is a part of an Air Mobility or Airlift wing which has its own set of aircraft, so the AE squadron mostly trains with them, but members of the AE squadron deploy independently of those aircraft and use whatever is assigned to them every mission in the theater. For example, the 109th Airlift Wing of the New York Air National Guard flies C-130 Hercules. The 109th Airlift Squadron does the flying. The 139th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron is the AE unit. They mostly train together, on their C-130s (mostly LC-130H), but when needed, selected members of the 109th AES will deploy as a team on a mission, on whatever aircraft the Air Force assigns and brings them or deploy to meet other members from other AE squadrons to make up an expeditionary AE squadron overseas, or to backfill/supplement other AE squadrons. A typical assignment could be to the 10th Expeditionary Aeromedical Evacuation Flight at Ramstein, AB, Germany, the 18th AES at Kadena AB, Japan, 379th Expeditionary Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron at Al Udeid AB or any other expeditionary or overseas unit. As such, the members need to be trained on using not just their typical C-130 aircraft, but any available aircraft that is designed for aeromedical evacuation.
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  1533. The US Marines are, in essence, Naval Infantry, though they have more than just infantry as far as capability. Their primary job is amphibious warfare - invasion via beaches. They are supposed to invade, destroy:overcome the enemy and hold for up to 1 month. For that, they deploy aboard specialized Navy ships, have amphibious armored vehicles, use Navy air cushioned transports (LCAC), various helicopters (transport and attack) and landing craft. The Marines can also fight in any environment, not just beaches. They have a training center in the California desert, one in the mountains of Vermont and they train in tropics as well. The Marines also have their own M1A1 main battle tanks, Howitzer cannons, C-130 transport planes, F-35 and F-18 fighter jets and their own special operations force for reconnaissance. They are purposefully self-sustained. The Marines are their own branch, but report to the Department of the Navy. Their officer training is with the Navy. The Army is bigger, more general, and is designed to hold objectives far longer. They do not have their own transport aside from a few specialized ferries and trucks, of course. They also have no combat airplanes or large combat drones. The Air Force does air transport/fighting for the Army. The Army is under its own department and has its own academy (West Point). The Army is the branch with paratroopers in it, though others have some select people trained in parachutes. The two services are designed for different use and so not comparable. One is better at some things, while the other is better at others.
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  2001.  @juliek5094  No one except Putin knows for sure what makes him tick. He’s known to have a troubled youth, often getting into fights in school. He was a bully. His time in the KGB is, of course, still classified. Some say he was just a paper-pusher. Others say he kept an eye on Stasi agents. Both are probably true. One can keep an eye on agents through administrative means. Since then he’s been an opportunist, a staunch believer in suppressing dissent and generally being extremely conservative. His experience through the 90s in St Petersburg, as the deputy mayor shaped him a lot, gave him contacts with the forming oligarchs/organized crime, whom he used to make his way to the top. He is a staunch nationalist and he does believe that Belorussians and Ukrainians belong under the Moscow umbrella, though not exactly in their equality. His main objective, like of others in his position, is to increase his personal power. He truly believes he’s a genius. Am I angry at him to what he’s done to Russia? I don’t consider Russia to be my country anymore and I don’t hold a Russian citizenship anymore either. No, I’m not mad at him. To be honest, Russians knew what was going on, know what’s going on, and mostly support him. They, like many others in the world, love a dominating figure in charge, and as long as it benefits them, it’s fine. That’s his job as the President - to strengthen Russia and the lives of Russians. My father moved back to Russia many years ago, even though he’s a US citizen. He knew it was coming, and he knows what’s going on, but to be honest, he doesn’t really care as it doesn’t impact him… until it does. He’s mad about the sanctions creating financial woes. Ukraine is inconsequential to him. My mother, on the other hand (they’ve been divorced for 30 years) is Ukrainian by both of her parents, and has relatives (or had now) there. Thankfully, they all live in the West now, the last smartly leaving everything they own in Odessa and escaping the first day of the attack. To Russians, Ukrainians, all those following Russia’s and Putin’s affairs, none of this is a surprise, really. Not after the attacks on Crimea and Georgia. Anything short of a coup d’état won’t change a thing, but here is something no one in the West knows or considers: The alternatives. The top five parties in Russia are nationalistic, with Putin’s party at the top, Communist in the second place, and numbers 3 and 4 are nationalist radicals. Who will take his place might be radically worse. Putin has been ensuring no reasonable candidate existed over the last two decades. One of the biggest flaws of democracy is the chance that people might willingly elect a monarch/dictator and prefer that type of ruling. It’s something even the US founding fathers worried about.
    2
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  2180. Why have theories when the truth is well-publicized and known by people who care to know? Oh... it's for those people who prefer to stay ignorant. The Metris (or the V Class as it's known in Europe) is a rear or all wheel drive work van that's sold in 3 different lengths and with 4 different available engines in Europe. In the past, the commercial and passenger versions were separated by different names (Vito and Viano, respectively) with the latter being completely differently equipped on the inside and slightly differently styled on the outside than the former. About a decade ago Mercedes considered whether they should bring the Viano to North America, but after lots of researched decided that the luxury minivan segment would compete against Escalades, Navigators and the like and that there wouldn't be much profit in it. They dropped it. However, the Mercedes Commercial Division saw the success of Ford Transit Connect and the Dodge Ram PromasterCity with fleets and decided to do the same with the Vito, which by then was renamed into simply the V Class, alongside the Viano. Thus, the cargo V vans are shipped to the US and then some are converted (to avoid the chicken tax) into passenger vans by addition of windows and seats. These vans are NOT sold through the regular M-B channels and you won't find them on their regular website. They are sold through the M-B Commercial Division and a website set up for them and Sprinter vans. They are meant for shuttle duties. They are durable, economical, spacious and easy to maintain, unlike the M-B passenger cars. They are sold and serviced at M-B commercial dealerships. These are FLEET vehicles sold as corporate vans, Uber cars, taxis, airport shuttles and light cargo trucks. They are NOT family haulers. What makes them popular with those crowds are a box shape that fits cargo and people well (8 grown adults fit easily), low floor, high torque with low horsepower (economical), able to tow heavy trailers and easy to maintain. They are not meant to be stylish or comfortable for long trips or luxurious. They're tiny buses.
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  2249. “Base pay for a sailor is about $22,000 a year.” While a fact, it’s misunderstood by most. First off, ALL military branches in the US are paid the same, according to federal law. There are pay grades. For most (not all) recruits, the base pay is E (stands for enlisted) - 1. E-1 base pay in 2022 is $1833.30 per month. It is taxed, federally. However, service members get allowances in top of base pay. There are allowances for food, housing and special duties. Currently the BAS (food) is $406.98 (not taxed.) During initial training you get all meals free, so no BAS. After that you pay for them out of that allowance. Housing is usually free for junior members who are not married (aboard a ship or in barracks), but if they didn’t receive free housing, an E-1 sailor without a dependent (spouse or child) would additionally receive $1,350 if they were stationed in North Chicago. The rate depends on where you are stationed. This amount is also tax-free. You get free uniform issue occasionally and get an allowance for additional items and upkeep. As mentioned in the video, submarine service gets extra duty pay, just as flight duty, hazardous duty and many others. You also don’t stay E-1 for long. You are automatically promoted to E-2 at the completion of boot camp (in the Navy, other services are slightly different), and then to E-3 after nine as E-2 and passing exams. So your base and housing allowances progress pretty quickly. E-3 base pay is $2,160.60 per month. The longer you serve and the higher your rank/pay grade, the more you earn.
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  2262.  @wingracer1614  Again, you DO NOT need to show motive or opportunity. There are NO legal standards that need to be shown. In FACT, many murder cases are tried without evidence of motive or opportunity because many murders aren’t premeditated. Lots of photo and video evidence nowadays plainly shows who killed someone and if there’s no evidence of self-defense then that’s that. You’re confusing specific charges needing to meet specific legal standards with juries needing them to convict. For example, murder in the 1st degree usually needs an element of premeditation shown. In my friend’s case, there was no motivation. It was a street shooting by a couple of thugs. They shot a bystander by accident instead of their target. A woman saw it and gave incredibly detailed descriptions of their fairly unique clothing. The cops got them 2 or 3 blocks away, matching the description put out on the radio/computer EXACTLY. It was at night on a pretty empty street. No gun was recovered. The shooter was found guilty of assault 1 (NYS) on the woman’t testimony of having seen them chase and shoot at people and calling 911 with a very exact description of their appearance and the clothing of the shooter having a very rare design logo. No ballistics, no DNA, no fingerprints, no video, not even GSR on the shooter. No victim testimony was used, although PD and EMS records were included to show the crime took place and where. There was also “gun spotter” system data admitted to show that gun shots were fired in the vicinity at that time. That’s pretty much it. If the victim had died, the plan was to upgrade charges to manslaughter. He survived, thankfully. You’re trying to quantify the evidence that’s needed to convict. Don’t. A jury simply needs to hear enough evidence to satisfy the burden of “beyond a reasonable doubt” a prosecutor that will connect/explain that evidence, and a defense attorney that doesn’t refute it. Whether it’s a quantity of weak evidence or a little but of very strong evidence is irrelevant. It just needs to convince the jury that the accused committed what they are charged with.
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  2297. @Mark C That has nothing to do with law school. It has to do with our history. North America was (and still is) a vast frontier land that was mostly uninhabited when Europeans came here. Guns were necessary for them to survive: to hunt and defend against native tribes that attacked them. I won’t get into the ethics of colonization here. Suffice to say that the average resident European needed a gun to protect himself and hunt. When America rebelled against England, King George decided to use regiments of the regular British Army to quell the rebellion, so the residents took their muskets and rifles and formed groups of militia. When our Constitution was first written, we were in the middle of that war. It was seen as a Brit against Brit by both sides, as a civil war. The reason why the Colonists fought was for freedom from the King and his abusive laws and rule. So the fear was of a totalitarian, abusive ruler. It was recognized that democracy was not that likely to succeed, as there were a lot of competing interests among the Colonists, they had no money, no power and no trade partners. An amendment to the Constitution (one of many) was passed to make sure the new government doesn’t take away guns from citizens, so they can have another revolution, if that one doesn’t work out. They were afraid that the new government would be as oppressive as the king, and wanted to preserve the ability to fight for themselves. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your beliefs), the amendment was seen as a justification of gun ownership in general, with no limitations, as it was vague. Because the United States had continued to be very rural, owning a gun was seen as normal, historically, at least for people in the rural areas. They had little police protection, lived on giant properties often miles from the closest neighbor and needed to hunt and protect themselves. Slowly, through urbanization, that is changing, but culture is slow to change and the Constitution is rather difficult to change. Sorry for the long paragraph. It’s a long and complex historical topic. I’m a European immigrant myself and until college history and law classes, could not understand it either. Most governments on Earth are more authoritative. The US government is based on the power being built from the ground, up. It has many positives and negatives. Both systems do.
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  2322. Hybrids, by their technological nature, improve city driving above all else. If most of your driving is in the city, a hybrid is going to translate into lots of fuel economy. Right now, this is just one of two (the other is the Toyota Rav4) compact CUV hybrids on the market, even though it's the biggest selling passenger vehicle class in North America. The Rav4 is, arguably, a much better hybrid because it provides better driving characteristics and better fuel economy than the Nissan, but... the Nissan feels more refined, is probably more comfortable for most people and larger than the Rav4. If your driving isn't mostly city, don't bother with this one. The CR-V would serve you much better in most circumstances, offers better performance, better handling, better fuel economy and more utility than the Rogue or Rav4. If your driving is mostly highway, the GMC Terrain Diesel should also be a consideration, but the $3,000 premium over the gas engines means that if you're leasing, you won't earn the money back in fuel economy (Diesel is also almost 30% more expensive than 87 octane gasoline). The 2019 Rav4 is something to consider and the CRV (if you live in warmer climates due to the 1.5 engine issue). If you're performance-minded, you should look at the Escape 2.0 EcoBoost (Titanium only now) and the Mazda CX-5. The Hyundai Tucson Sport seems to be a very acceptable compact CUV for budget-minded people and the Cherokee Trailhawk is for those looking for off-road capability. However, the ultimate compromise (a car that's good at all, but not great at any) is probably the 2019 Subaru Forester, which does above average in all categories, despite not being the champion in any one category.
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  2616. I appreciate your opinion, but it’s absolute, mindless horse shit, sorry. Whether you want to call it in Japanese (kaizen) or English (evolution), continuous improvement isn’t a uniquely Toyota concept. In fact, ALL vehicle manufacturers, and all manufacturers in general, use it. Every engineer and developer bases designs on past lessons. Kaizen is a term for “lean manufacturing.” When someone says “I’ve been working exclusively for one employer”, please understand that that person has only one single perspective and may be exhibiting what’s known as the Stockholm Syndrome. Look, I drive a Toyota. In fact, both my new cars have been Toyotas. I believe Toyotas are a good value and fit my driving style well. That said, their FACTUAL (statistical) reliability is just above average and they have been getting worse with complexity and cost cutting over the years (as have most other manufacturers). There are things they do very well and always have (electricals, hybrid drivetrain, metallurgy). There are things they’ve really improved on in the last decade (engines, suspensions and AWD) and there are things they’ve really crapped out on lately (steering, technology, infotainment, paint and transmissions). Despite all that, having an employee tell us corporate tales of culture is honestly gross. It feels like listening to a cult member. Believe me, Toyota isn’t that special. They make good cars, overall, but they are not industry leaders in anything at all and they’re not incredibly concerned about their customers. Case in point: although I own a 2021 Rav4 Hybrid and live in NYC where I do frequent short trips (mostly) and have cold winters (relatively), and Toyota’s own recommendation to change the oil every 5,000 miles, Toyota has REFUSED to pay for it via Toyota Care. They simply said they would, if the technician would determine an oil change is needed. 😂 Which is of course impossible without a chemical test or absolute self-destruction of the engine. I had two very long conversations with supervisors on the phone and caught BOTH flat out lying and back pedaling. When I had the service manager listen on the speaker, he just shook his head and gave me a free oil change because Toyota basically said, “Yes, the contract says you’re entitled. No, we won’t pay.” That is today’s Toyota. Three people at Customer Care said this, including two supervisors.
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  2703.  @HAL-bo5lr  No. Go look at a map and explain it. You can’t. The official reports are saying it will go to Hartford and then Providence, not Springfield. Springfield is in the opposite direction of Boston (Northwest instead of Northeast). The fact that this train will miss the two most populated cities in Connecticut will be a non-starter alone. The project assumes this service will be created IN ADDITION to the current Acela service, which will NOT happen. They assume the federal government will end up paying for the entire cost, which will not happen. That also assumes that all of this track will be Amtrak-owned, but that’s not going to happen either because they want to run their trains on the Waterbury branch of the MetroNorth, which is owned by the CT DoT and isn’t at all capable of high speed travel, as it meanders with the Naugatuck River. You can’t comprehend a basic thing about trains. They have to be filled and being in money. Without the additional cities along the way, no high-speed train can exist. They need the ridership. Are you a child that you can’t comprehend this? First of all, I quoted you, you moron. Second, none of those “feats” have ANYTHING to do with this. The TGV? Those are train tracks, the same as we have already! I’m talking about a tunnel under an 18-mile inlet that’s 300 feet deep! For reference, the English channel is 23 miles wide at the Chunnel crossing. Even the Seikan tunnel’s underwater section is shorter at 14.5 miles! Like I said, this tunnel alone would be a project the size of the Chunnel construction.
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  2889.  @hitens4573  As well India SHOULD pay for its own infrastructure. Every nation should. The point was that the UK was the reason India ever got that infrastructure. When it was built, India had no means, resources, technology nor know-how to make these projects happen. You don’t get development out of a vacuum. Colonization has terrible repercussions, but ignoring the benefits is equally bad. Afghanistan was never colonized. India would have been equal to that today if it wasn’t for its history under Britain. Look at Macau/Hong Kong versus (real) China. Look at the Americas. They were all colonies. Also, you have a very skewed perception of history. India DID NOT import much of anything it could make on its own from the UK. It only imported goods that wealthy Indians still wanted. India was also NOT a wealthy country right before colonization. That’s an absolute lie. India was a purely agrarian economy. Its exports were mostly via Europe, which is why the British colonized it so easily. Different factions within were constantly warring. In the early 1800s India was falling behind other nations because it was failing to industrialize. It had very vast natural resources, but failed to make use of them (a legacy it continues today). You’re confusing the Indian wealth during the height of the Mughal Empire in the 16-17th centuries, which was vast, with its condition at the end of the Mughal empire in the early 19th century. By then, the Mughals lost control of most regions to the Sikhs, Marathas, Mysoreans, Nizams, Rajputs, Afghans, Jats, etc. and India lost most of its wealth through internal conflicts and a deterioration in trade. The Jats and Persians easily plundered all wealth from India. It was hundreds of years of foreign Islamic rule that actually destroyed India, not the British.
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  3120.  @jamessanders8895  No, YOU are incorrect. I spent 18 years in the Reserves and the National Guard. Learn not to speak when you’re ignorant. National Guard units are activated for active duty, never part-time duty, by either the state (SAD) of federal (Title 10) governments. They DO NOT turn into Army or Air Force reserves. EVER! There is no process for it and all of our laws on the military expressly prohibit the federal government from taking away Guard units. They can only federalize them in time of need, and only on defined, limited basis. Once under federal orders for active duty, the soldier or airman remain members of the National Guard and still belong to their home Guard unit, but are temporarily attached to other units or deploy as an entire Guard unit. They stay administratively and financially separate, ALWAYS. Even in basic and follow-on training, Guard units pay for their members’ training to the actual branches. The money comes out of their unit budgets. In return, the departments of the Army and Air Force transfer funds and equipment to State Divisions of Military and Naval Affairs or Military and Veterans Affairs, whatever each state decides to call them. Again, Guard NEVER become federal reserves. Reserves are ENTIRELY separate things under separate commands and separate budgets. Reserves are covered by different policies and laws. For example, Army Reserves are not combat arms specialties, while Army National Guard can be. Reserves cannot enforce laws, but Guard members can. They receive different points and benefits too. You are incorrect about the ownership of Guard units. They always have been and always will he owned by the states, but in return for some funding and equipment, may be appropriated by the federal government, TEMPORARILY. This is CLEARLY outlined in the National Defense Act of 1916. The Act expanded the President’s authority to mobilize the Guard during war or national emergencies here or for service in different parts of the world for the duration of the event that caused the mobilization. Previously, the 1908 Militia Act authorized the Guard’s use overseas and the 1903 Militia Act established the first National Guard. No law has ever stipulated that National Guards are owned by the federal government. In fact, that goes against the very mature of our Constitution and federal law!
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  3589.  @7aramkeda334  Yeah... you were LIED to. Service managers’ primary job is to sell you services. They’re not engineers or mechanics. They’re literally sales people. Car manufacturers, decades ago, used to add heavy mineralized oil to speed up the break-in process by having light corrosives in the system. They would basically file down all the imperfections on surfaces. They were supposed to be left in the system, up to 3,000 miles, which is what recommended oil change intervals used to be. During that time, specific break-in protocols had to followed. That stopped in the 80s and 90s. Today, machined parts are coated in a special lubricant upon assembly, and regular motor oil is added to the system. The machining of the parts is FAR better and the quantity and size of contaminating particulates far smaller. Manufacturers no longer ask for a break-in process because it’s no longer necessary. Just do the oil changes on time and use high quality oil and filters. Don’t skimp on them. Your first oil change at 10k miles will be perfectly good. If you want piece of mind, take an oil sample early and send it out for a test. It’s cheap and enlightening. https://www.blackstone-labs.com/?session-id=wtjb5y55hxmmh3mp3qbd2z45&timeout=20&bslauth&urlbase=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.blackstone-labs.net%2FBstone%2F%28S%28wtjb5y55hxmmh3mp3qbd2z45%29%29%2F Then do a test at 10k miles, right before an oil change. You’ll see how it really is. Don’t trust mechanics or sales reps. Trust science!
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  3634.  @rodneybooth4069  Dana makes frames to the manufacturers’ designs, not their own. Also, if it had been, it would have been a party to the class action suit “Brian Warner et al. v. Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc”, which it wasn’t. Toyota settled it and paid for the replacements. http://www.toyotaframesettlement.com/ The worst part is that Toyota denied all claims of this frame issue for about 15 years and then fought in court for two more until settling. That’s the real Toyota way. My biggest issues aren’t design or manufacturing mistakes. Those happen to everyone. My issue is how the company deals with them. My other issue is that if you maintain your Toyota the way the company tells you to, it won’t see 100k on the odometer. My Rav4 Hybrid, according to the company, needs 10k oil changes, no transmission or differential fluid changes and its hybrid battery filter needs no checking or cleaning, though the cabin air filter certainly does. This all while the dealership techs say 5,000 oil changes, 50k diff and tranny fluid changes and constant hybrid battery filter cleaning. All are systems that are CRITICAL. That’s what Toyota is. They even gave their Tundras a sealed transmission. Tundras! They are 4x4 and tow! Did you know that Toyota cheated on EPA fuel economy tests and was caught back in the 1990’s and fined $180 million for not reporting emissions failures from 2005 to 2015? Apparently the Japanese employees knew, but ignored the issue. https://www.caranddriver.com/news/amp35226937/toyota-fine-clean-air-act-violation/ I’m not implying others haven’t. Not at all. I’m saying Toyota’s just as bad.
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  3696.  @marcoparada6652  you disagree with my "perception"? What exactly are you disagreeing with? I pointed out facts and your whole comment is about your feelings. I won't argue someone's feelings of what's fast enough or not fast enough, but I will argue that some things simply are or aren't fast enough for certain outcomes to happen. Physics are physics. When you accelerate, you either can do it fast enough to achieve the speeds of the traffic flow without getting into an accident or you cannot. Your feelings are irrelevant there. You also have to keep in mind that a 1/4 mile on-ramp may be perfectly sufficient to come to 70mph within the needed time, but an on-ramp of 100 feet may not be, and before you start saying those don't exist... they do. While I'm happy that your flat, open ND driving area and your personal driving preferences accommodate the Forester's 2.5 engine acceleration, you need to understand that my Hudson Valley, New York up/down hill driving with 50 foot on-ramps with stop signs at their beginnings require more power than that. You also have to understand that some people live on mountains, like in New Hampshire or Utah or Colorado, and they require MUCH more power for everyday driving because of oxygen depletion. Those are just facts, powered by physics. Furthermore, you state, "I'll never consider a 4x4 or all time 4 wheel drive for my own car", but mention the "'12 Forester" you've driven for the "better part of 6 years." Umm... The Subaru Forester has a full-time AWD system. It NEVER sends power to just one axle. Both are ALWAYS engaged. Handling is a function of the suspension, steering system and tires. It is NOT a function of the AWD system. AWD simply gives you initial traction to get going and not get stuck in snow. It seems you don't know much about cars.
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  3722.  @tamoroso  The idea wasn’t Trump’s, but he has been, in the last 50 years, the only President to really push it, and it actually did work. This was before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but Russia’s invasion of 2014 was what brought that. There were other successes too. Actually, I hate to say it, but the wall on the Southern border did reduce the number if illegal migrants crossing in. The issue of bigotry of all kinds only got “flushed out” for the very privileged few white men who enjoyed living in Eden’s Garden. Everyone else has been on the receiving end for centuries. Regardless, Biden has also kept many “America First” policies, immigration (including Title 42), the pullout from Afghanistan, etc. Biden even expanded the “remain in Mexico” program and the China trade policy was kept too. Anyway, the real point was that Americans aren’t all that clueless, but rather cognizant of the fact that the US has fingers in every part of the world and the often conflicting interests make it impossible to satisfy everyone every day. That’s with the international policy anyway. With the domestic policy, Europe are the last ones who should concern themselves. The craziness going on in Italy, France, the UK, and in the EU in general is something they should be minding, not other nations’ drama laid out in tabloids. I was in London last week and Trump, who isn’t the President or an official candidate, was talked about more than Johnson, which is typical distraction.
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  3793.  @quintrankid8045  Actually, if you dig deeper, you’ll see that case wasn’t Mr Frese’s first offense under the statute, and he had a prior conviction from pleading guilty for same. The issue in New Hampshire, and they’re being sued by the ACLU, is that their statute isn’t specific enough. Nothing in the Constitution allows unfettered free speech. In fact, there are many types of restricted expression: fraud, obscenity, child pornography, incitement of lawless action, perjury, violation of intellectual property law, true threats, and commercial advertising. Defamation is also still a tort, which has to withstand the test of Constitutionality (and has). So the issue is not of it as a general legal matter, but rather of overly broad application through statute wording. That application and wording may be viewed as an overall encroachment onto protected free speech. In Gertz v Robert Welch, Inc. (1974) the Supreme Court has said that “there is no Constitutional value in false statements of fact.” The SCOTUS has established four specific areas where free speech is not protected: First, when false statements of fact are said with a “sufficiently culpable mental state”. This can be persecuted by civil or criminal means. Second, knowingly making a false statement can be punished (this is where defamation falls). Third, negligent false statements of fact may be torts. And lastly, some implicit statements of fact, with a false factual connotation, can also fall under the torts category.
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  3844. The term, “reasonable” is actually an amazing term, in law. It infers that reason must be used to convict someone, and by multiple people and stages of the legal process. Law enforcement must first consider what is reasonable, given the specific conditions, and be able to express that reasoning to a judge or jury, while the judge and/or jury also have to apply their own judgement to see if it was reasonable. Standard measures are simply too inapplicable and capricious for most situations. Was that 200 feet in the fog? Are you even able to do it in 200 feet? Ridiculous. You sewing doubt in the US judicial system is a pure act of anarchism, which is ultimately your goal anyway. It is predicated on an assumption that most cops out there are just in it to nail every motorist. Of course that’s how you make money, off conspiracy theorists and fear-mongering, so I get it. Folks, the reality of law is that it is a judgement… of a person or a group of people. It is not some arbitrary, black/white thing that little children need. It is open to conjecture, debate and unique circumstances. That is why laws are written vaguely and why law enforcement officials have broad latitude. You cannot write a law for every single possible situation that can or could ever happen in the world. So you need laws that are adaptable and that can use reasoning to be applied. Laws don’t exist so you would comply. Laws exist so that you are protected from others. If a reasonable person concludes your actions were unsafe, they likely were. Do better next time.
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  4112. The war against Iraq pre-dates your extremely limited knowledge. Go back to the Cold War when the US had a good relationship with Iran and Iraq sided with the USSR, being a target for Communization for the US to gain a foothold in the ME region. Then the ultra-religious coup in Iran cut its ties from the West and the US. Saddam Hussain attacks Iran because it’s now cut off and because Iran is Shia. Hussain at the same time oppresses Kurds and Shias in Iraq. After many years of that war, Saddam chose a different enemy: The Emirates, by attacking Kuwait and massing to attack Saudi Arabia. The UN, other Arab nations and NATO get involved to protect Kuwait and Saudi Arabia from the invasion. Iraq is defeated until it signs a peace treaty. No-fly zones are established by NATO to protect the Kurds and Shias in the North and South regions where they are being exterminated, including by chemical attacks. NATO aircraft are attacked by Iraqi SAMs multiple times. The no-fly zones continue. The UN sets requires inspections of Iraqi chemical warfare labs, missile factories and nuclear power facilities to be regularly inspected. Iraq agrees, but doesn’t allow inspectors to inspect. The UN passes numerous resolutions against Iraq. That’s what led to the last invasion of Iraq. Oh and by the way, despite the popular belief that WMDs weren’t found in Iraq, a very lengthy and extensive investigation by the NY Times later published documents from both sides that showed they in fact did exist in Iraq at the time of the invasion.
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  4153. This is just an advertisement for this rail company. The fact is that there is already an existing, robust commuter rail system in South Florida that connects Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach. It’s called Tri-Rail and it runs parallel to Brightline, makes mores useful stops including airports and costs far less than Brightline. Because of this, Brightline has been discounting their tickets to meet the investors’ estimates for ridership. In fact, regular coach tickets are sold as “buy one, get three free”. That artificially elevates ridership numbers as numbers of tickets sold far exceed actual bodies on the train, and obviously exceeds revenue collected. This line is trying to he a commuter train AND an intercity train, but it’s going to fail at both. To be a commuter train you need many stops, which cost time. You need to be inexpensive and sell weekly/monthly passes. You need yo serve commuter hubs. This train does none of those things. To be a good intercity train it needs few stops at key cities, and serve large population points without a fast and convenient connection. However, South Florida residents are already well connected by car, bus and air and Miami, Orlando, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach are just too small and too spread out. There’s a reason why these metro centers are called by County and not city names. Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties are large in population, but those cities aren’t. Orlando is more of a tourist destination than somewhere Floridians go to. It also has the busiest airport in Florida (yes, busier than MIA or FLL). Tourists that go to the theme parks in Orlando and tourists who go to Miami Beach are different tourists and those two vacations are very different. Brightline is just an exercise in spending the billions of dollars the federal government made available to railroad developers under the Obama administration. They’re actually funding real estate purchases with money intended for infrastructure projects. That’s what Brightline is.
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  4172.  @jamietung8233  That’s a bit off. The revolution happened in February of 1917 in St Petersburg. It was led by Lenin, a Russian man, and fought by Russians. Eastern Ukraine was a part of Russia at the time. Bolsheviks (Communists) had been rising all over the region for decades. The Western part was under the Austro-Hungarian empire. You probably know that in WW1, those two forces were opposing. After a successful offensive by the Russians in Eastern Ukraine, Volhynia and eastern Galicia were ceded to Russia. When the revolution (the first one) happened, the socialists of Ukraine decided to demand autonomy from Russia and a Ukranian republic was created, with very close ties to the new Russian provisional government that replaced the Czar, but wasn’t Communist. Then Russia suffered major losses in the war and lost a lot of soldiers and territory, fast. This led to hunger among the people and a total dissolution of the armed forces. This led to the October revolution (Communism). In Kiev, an uprising took place against the Communists and the Central Council took control from the Russians. This led to the Bolsheviks to declare a separate country, loyal to Russia and Communism called the Ukranian People’s Republic (vs Ukraine) and its capital in Kharkov. This is similar to Korea today. A war between them broke out immediately. The Central Rada (Council) declared independence of Ukraine on January 22, 1918, but the new USSR government refused to recognize it. A month later, the Bolsheviks took most of Ukraine, forcing the Central Rada government to turn to Germans and Austrians (opposing side of WW2) for help. The Axis powers were able to clear the Russians out of Kiev quickly and Russia withdrew from WW1 on March 1st. The Central Rada’s Army was then able to clear the Bolsheviks (Red Army of the USSR) out of Crimea and Kharkov. When the Central Powers were defeated in 1918, the pro-Western government left with the Germans and the local socialists easily overthrew the rest of the government. Moscow immediately annulled their treaty and by 1919, the Red Army overran most of Ukraine, even the far Western section in Lviv which was about half Polish ethnically. There were many counter movements in Ukraine and it wasn’t until 2021 that the USSR Red Army finally defeated all opposing forces in all of Ukraine, up to the Polish border, and made it a Soviet Republic.
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  4492.  @jamesreisenauer1778  First off, it doesn’t keep its members from integrating in the local community. Most airmen and other personnel assigned to Ramstein live in the towns around it. The products sold at the Base Exchange at Ramstein are very often local. The fuel and supplies are local. There are actually whole cities that have grown just on US service members being there. The mist famous one is Kaiserslautern in Rhineland-Palatinate. It’s a city if 100,000 native residents and about 45,000 NATO personnel, which contribute about $1 billion USD a year to the German economy. As per Afghanistan… I don’t even know where to start with you. You’re INCREDIBLY ignorant on the subject. The North of Afghanistan is the MOST friendly area to the US and the West in general out of the whole country. The North is held by Pashtun and Uzbek tribes that paired with the US to topple the Taliban. The Northern AOR (RC-N) was divided between Germany, Hungary, Norway, and Sweden to patrol because it had very friendly populations. The toughest areas were the East and Southeast, which were almost completely American responsibility, with assistance from France, Denmark, Australia and Georgia. Why do I know this? I spent an entire deployment in working C-17 operations out of Bagram AB and three years working out of Ramstein AB. Why was Germany there? That’s simple. The US invoked the NATO Article 5 after 9/11. This created the ISAF mission to eradicate Al Qaeda and Taliban that supported it. All of NATO was involved. The fact thar you don’t know this demonstrates just how ignorant you are about events of just 22 years ago (or thar you are a simple internet troll). The events at Chernobyl and Fukushima were great examples of mismanagement at power stations, but the safety record of the world’s nuclear power stations is incredible. There are 440 nuclear power reactors in the world, in 32 countries, plus Taiwan. They provide about 10% of the world’s electricity. If German plants were old, the solution to that is to build modern ones. Modern plants are small, clean, and incredibly safe. Instead, Germany chose the easy way out - buy fossil fuels from Russia. Germany wants to LOOK like they’re using clean energy, but in reality simply increased their fossil fuel expenditures. Fossil fuel pollution has NOT increased in Russia or in the US. In fact, it has decreased, as both have switched to cleaner coal, natural gas and renewable energy production, including wind and solar. Russia was never a large CO2 producer. It relies mostly on hydro power for electricity. Most of its coal and oil were, and are, for export.
    1
  4493.  @jamesreisenauer1778  Again, your ignorance is on full display! Americans are only stationed there for 2-3 years. They’re not considered legal German residents while they are. They have no rights to attend school or college in Germany. At the same time, if their kids did go to a German school, they’s miss out on their American curriculum and a diploma (possibly) for having finished school. The local volunteer fire department cannot take non-German residents. The same goes for Afghanistan. ISAF was the NATO HQ joint command structure organization. “Enduring Freedom” was the name of the American operation in Afghanistan. The latter spanned the ENTIRE time Americans were in AFG. The former covered the entire time a joint command structure was in place, which started in late 2001 and ended in 2014. ISAF was first deployed on the basis of a request for assistance by the Afghan authorities and a United Nations (UN) Security Council mandate, which authorised the establishment of the force to assist the Afghan government in the maintenance of security in Kabul and its surrounding areas. NATO took the lead of that in 2003. Resolute Support took over for ISAF starting in 2015. Despite that, Germany went to Afghanistan in 2001, BEFORE the establishment of ISAF. My father-in-law builds nuclear power plants. Actually, he inspects their building. It takes about 5 years in the US. They are modular and small. What France is doing is building old-school large plants of the past and it takes them so long because they stop work to protest every other month. No, nuclear power is not a danger to Germany. German ego is.
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  4703. EcSight Games While that’s true, they’ve also said that a long wheel base 4-door model will be the first one, followed by a 4-door pickup, so 110 and 130 competitors, so lets use those prices for fairness. I can’t find any of your claimed quotes, but I linked a quote relating to pricing from one of their executives. He said they can’t sell them as cheaply, and it makes lots of sense. It’s a small production factory of a brand with ZERO recognition, so very limited. It will need to be profitable right off the start to continue to produce and since it’s a modern vehicle with modern emissions and safety requirements, it will be significantly more expensive to produce. Then there’s a whole issue of a non-existent dealer network that will want to make back their investments into infrastructure. My guess is that the first model will actually sell for closer to £80k and will never see any dirt. Footballers and their wives will be collecting them in their Cheshire mansions. As far as the main company having money... that’s not how businesses work. The books are kept separately. Investors frown upon mixing revenues and expenses between different industries. The main company is a chemicals manufacturer and has nothing in common with automobile manufacturing. They will not move the funds around. Ineos is comprised of over 20 separate businesses, each with its own board, budget and Ineos Automotive, Ltd id just one of them. These are basically independent businesses under one umbrella. Meanwhile Ratcliffe and the other two owners are moving to Monaco, they’re shutting down a plant in England, with hundreds of jobs lost, and the car is even supposed to be designed in Germany. https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/aug/09/britains-richest-man-to-leave-uk-for-tax-free-monaco
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  4757. Sher's Fords and Others So lets not bullshit here. The Civic Base/LX Sedan (2.0L) is rated 30mpg city/33 combined/38 hwy. The Jetta is rated 30mpg city/35mpg combined/40mpg hwy. However, Car and Driver tested it and got 43mpg highway on the Jetta with auto, 48mpg on the Jetta manual. https://www.caranddriver.com/volkswagen/jetta The Civic LX sedan has 158hp and 138 lb-ft of torque and its 0-60 time is 8.2 seconds (Car and Driver test). The Jetta’s 1.4T produces 147hp and 184 lb-ft of torque with a 0-60 time of 7.6 seconds (0.6 seconds FASTER than the Civic). So to recap, the Civic LX sedan has a little more horsepower, a LOT less torque, is .6 seconds slower and gets worse fuel economy than the Jetta. To get the better (still not better than the Jetta) fuel economy you have to pony up to the EX or higher, which gets the 1.5T. That 1.5T is also more powerful, at 174hp/162 lb-ft of torque (still less than the Jetta) and clocks in at 6.8 seconds.That trim starts at $23,800. The Jetta starts at $18,895. That’s an almost $5,000 difference. The important part of the acceleration curve is that the Jetta will actually be faster at 0-30 than the Civic as the Civic 1.5T’s torque is lower and that peak horsepower comes in at the crazy 6,000rpms that no one will drive at. The Jetta’s torque peaks at around 1,300rpm and stays there until 4,000rpm. https://www.motorbiscuit.com/a-new-engine-shows-that-vws-turbo-power-is-better-than-ever/ The Civic’s peak torque starts at 1,900rpms and stays until 5,000rpms. So to utilize the most of it, you’d have to rev that engine high, destroying the fuel economy. So unless you’re full on racing, the Jetta is the winner. #factsmatter
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  5150.  @obinator9065  That’s FALSE. From DefenseNews on September 12 of this year (look it up): “WASHINGTON — The German government will work to ease its restrictive export policy when pursuing joint weapon programs with European partners, German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht said on Monday. The pledge follows a provision in the governing coalition’s charter, approved last year, that envisions a complete revamp of Berlin’s bureaucracy, famous for its secrecy and, as critics would argue, the appearance of political doublespeak on sales to problematic regimes like Saudi Arabia. Speaking at the German Council on Foreign Relations in Berlin, Lambrecht argued Germany “owes” to its European partners a guarantee it will refrain from derailing exports of jointly developed weapons those countries need to offset their initial investments. “We make cooperation hard because we insist on special provisions and veto power,” Lambrecht said. If countries like France, Italy or Spain see no problem with giving arms to a given country, Germany won’t invoke its “values caveats” and hold up sales, she added. “We’re not talking about delivering to rogue states,” Lambrecht clarified. Arms exports have been an evergreen topic in Berlin policy circles, as the issue combines thorny questions on military and morality for which no muscle memory exists in modern Germany. The country’s cabinet agency devoted to economic affairs has the lead for arms exports, combining input from the Defense and Foreign Affairs departments. The trinational Future Combat Air System of Germany, France and Spain — now hindered by work-share disagreements among key industry players Dassault and Airbus Defence and Space — almost died some years ago because of export disagreements. French officials were pushing against a German veto caveat for eventual exports of the aerial weapon, going so far as to threaten abandoning the project over the disagreement. In the end, officials decided to table the issue, as Germany instituted a policy of approving exports by default if components included few Teutonic contributions. It remains to be seen how Lambrecht and Chancellor Olaf Scholz can wrangle their party, the Social Democrats, as well as the Greens into a compromise. Both parties have vocal opponents to loosening arms export controls. According to Lambrecht, finding a more permissive policy could give a needed push to European Union defense-related development programs.”
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  5426.  @CursedLemon  That’s partially true. To be an anti-vaxxer one needs a willful hate of science and humanity in general and we all recognize that someone who is against very basic truths is most likely suffering from a serious mental illness, rather than basic ignorance. Making fun of them won’t magically change their nature. What can do, however, is highlight the insanity to those who are simply unaware of these people’s pathology and might be thinking that there’s enough truth in what they say to not trust the facts. There is a huge set of people who claim that science needs to be questioned. Science doesn’t need to be questioned. Science is a STUDY, a PROCESS OF QUESTIONING. The results of any scientific study are what may be questioned. One may, and should do that, if they have at least the basic understanding of the study, the methods and the subject. After all, how can you question if something is correct if you don’t even know what it is? These people aren’t calling for an objective review of data… they’re simply calling for a general mistrust of people who know more. It comes from personal insecurities of their own knowledge - it’s fear of the unknown. To them, viruses, vaccines, mRNA, DNA, cellular structures… they’re all things as wild and unknown as quarks, black holes, demon magic. It’s the same principle the church applied to Copernicus and Galileo and countless of other scientists before. These people are a symptom of failed secondary school systems in this country, that don’t demand a basic comprehension of physical sciences in order to graduate.
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  5651. The Soviet and Russian military doctrine had always been very different than the modern US system or even the older US system that included the draft. The bulk of the armed forces’ enlisted personnel are draftees. The conscripts are drafted for a one-year term in order to provide them basic and specialty (equivalent to US AIT) training. They are then released and listed as reservists. Russia has no active reserve or guard system. It relies on the active duty and inactive reserve only. As such, conscription serves to give basic military skills to all men, leaving them in reserves if needed, and to make up the bulk of the active forces at any time. During the Soviet times, there were very few professional, contracted personnel. Conscripts in all services except the Navy did 2 year conscriptions. The Navy did 3 years. That allowed them to train and then retain members to actually do their work after training. In 2007 that all ended with a professional force being instituted, though it is still less than 1/3 of the total force. Officers have always been commissioned from military schools (colleges) and served careers much like their Western counterparts. Military Academies, in Russia, are considered to be graduate level schools, similar to War Colleges in the US. Generally, you’d attend an Academy when you are a Captain/Captain-Lieutenant. So why did I just write all that? The training, given the goals, is quite limited for conscripts since they’re unlikely to ever be mobilized once they are reservists and the training for reservists is limited because they’ve already had one year of service. The entire system is predicated on having very large amounts of very basically trained men to defend the country if attacked. A competent force to invade simply doesn’t exist in large enough numbers to deal with a peer nation. Yes, they could fight a developing nation, but not a large force.
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  5719.  @moose354  I think YOU missed the point. He says to do it EARLIER than on time during break-in, but then defaults to Toyota recommendations, which makes zero sense. He was trained by Toyota to pitch their logic instead of relying on engineering and science. My driving is 90% city. I mean REAL city, stop and go. I live in NYC. Every single car I’ve owned before said 3,000 miles (defaulting to organic oil) in city, mountains, towing or dirty environment. My 2005 Camry just said “5,000”. My 2021 Rav4 hybrid says “10,000”. Meanwhile those same cars with those same engines have other distances listed in other countries. Urban driving isn’t even listed as a reason to do more frequent changes in the Toyota manuals. Why? Toyota capriciously placed arbitrary figures that have NOTHING to do with real world maintenance. Then they said, organic or synthetic oils are the same. That’s a lie too. The truth is that whatever your oil is, you need to clean the system out soon after getting the car, but you need time to first let the engine shed the extra metal debris. Ideally, 2500 miles, then 5000 miles. Factory oil is organic. I would stick to Toyota organic at those changes. Then, I would do a change at 10,000, but now full synthetic and high grade filter. At that point, I would switch to 10k intervals with top end oil/filter. That’s with city driving. I ran my Camry ran on Mobil 1 oil and filters for 15 years (after 1 year of 3,000 mile organic changes) and I changed those every 6,000 miles. I had the oil lab tested twice. Once at 6,000 miles, with 50k on the odometer. It was well within tolerances, with low contaminants. Then I ran 7500 miles with 90k on the odometer and again, it was well within tolerances, but getting close to needing to be changed. So... in NYC driving, that old 4-cyl Camry could do 8,000 mile intervals, safely. Given the nature of my hybrid (that the engine runs only about 50% of the time, mostly when I’m driving faster), there is no reason to do 5,000 mile oil changes after initial break in, with synthetic oil. It’s just money down the drain. Does Toyota want to get into that so technically? No, of course not. Every person’s experience is a bit different, so they just make up a number from the top of their heads, mostly relying on Toyota Care costs, to keep them down, and to create future warranty claim denials. All manufacturers do this.
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  5862. Doug, like others have mentioned, this is a cargo van that's been adopted for limited passenger use. What they didn't mention (I don't think) and certainly what you didn't mention, is that it is sold not by Mercedes-Benz the normal car company, but rather by the Mercedes-Benz Commercial Vehicles division. In fact, if you wanted to buy this minivan for your family and you went to the Mercedes-Benz website (www.mbusa), you wouldn't find the Metris or any reference to it. Not in any category. This van is sold alongside the Sprinter vans and trucks through www.mbvans.com, which is their commercial vehicle website. This vehicle isn't meant to be sold to families. This is a FLEET vehicle. It is meant to be a taxi, corporate shuttle or delivery van. It is very similar to the use of Ford Transit Connect and Dodge PromasterCity and not at all comparable to the Honda Oddyseys, Toyota Siennas or Chrysler Pacificas. You just fail to understand this whole vehicle segment which is common in other countries, but only starting in the United States. These are commercial vehicles and are not there to compete with passenger vehicles just like buses aren't meant to compete with limousines. These are not marketed to families. They are marketed toward corporations and fleet managers. This was the decision of M-B when they evaluated their presence in the minivan segment. They didn't want to enter their V Class as they didn't see people spending that much on a luxury minivan. However, they identified a niche in the commercial market for a people hauler at the 8 person capacity. It is attractive to fleet buyers who simply don't need the 10+ Ford Transit, Ram Promaster (Fiat Doblo) or Mercedes-Benz Sprinter capacity. The van bypasses the chicken tax by being built and shipped to the United States as a cargo version, where it is converted with seats and windows into what you see there. That's why it's so spartan.
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  6431.  @ElkaPME  Your example is a bit off into WW2 land. First off, landings are done by amphibious combat groups of ships, including destroyers and cruisers armed with Tomahawks. The island (or a beach, as it more often would be) is first targeted by F-35s and/or F-18s and major C4 and defenses are taken out via missiles. Second, amphibious assaults are actually not so hard to do with modern tactics and equipment. It’s literally the whole purpose of the Marines. Without giving away too much, it’s a multi-pronged effort that combines air, sea and land (joint arms) assaults. Third, anti-ship defenses are used against ships, not landing craft. It is the reason why our landing ships are stationed at stand-off distances. Our landing craft can travel 50+ miles to the shore, and it’s a big part of the tactical plan. Also please understand that beaches are not ports. There is often no more than a few inches of water for hundreds of feet out, meaning that your equipment cannot get to dry land. Wet sand displaces underneath you in seconds, sinking everything on it (ever try standing on the sand in a foot of water?) Once you’re on a beach, you have natural obstacles like marshes and dunes to scale. Then you often have wetlands beyond them. Once past that, you will often face a tree or heavy brush line or even mangroves. This is all terrain a tank cannot deal with. Even a very lightly loaded 13 ton LAV often has trouble getting stuck. This tank, although “light” and tracked is still 40 tons. An Abrams weighs 80 tons. They simply CANNOT roll into a beach and go through it until days after we take it and engineers have a chance to put down planks, blow through dunes, and cut through the forest growth. Ideally, we find the closest port, take it, and then simply offload armor with cranes, onto pavement. Keep in mind too that those tanks cannot simply fire while being transported or even once on the beach. They will have no visibility or situational awareness, but will be giant targets. That’s not even considering the fact that landing sites are very often full of anti-armor mines that engineers don’t get to clear before assaults. Which brings us to beach defenses. The enemy has a stable ground and time on their hands. Very basic beach defense hardening makes it impossible to penetrate with large vehicles. Ditches, steel barriers, etc, added to natural ones just make it hard for anything, but infantry. Add enemy RPGs, arty, and ATW systems and you pretty much make armor obsolete in amphib warfare. Oh and contrary to your personal beliefs, the FACT is that tanks are LESS survivable today than they were 20 years ago. Modern anti-armor weapons are exploiting all the weak sides of tanks, from beyond visual range (distances) and are simply plentiful. Gone are the days when a TOW missile on top of a humvee was the way to kill an MBT. A practically untrained guy with a Javelin, sitting in a fox hole can kill one at 2+ miles, fire and forget. We’re not talking T-72s either. We’re talking modern reactive armor heavy tanks. Remember, you don’t need to completely destroy a vehicle and its crew for effect. All you need is to disable it. A lighter vehicle can be disabled by even more basic weapons. Light, 105mm direct fired sabot rounds will decimate light tanks. There is a big question nowadays in the Army armor community, in light of seeing modern weapons’ effectiveness in Ukraine, of whether armor is really going to be a big part of war in the future at all. It’s one of the reasons the Army is looking at a faster, cheaper tank. A heavy tank simply doesn’t provide the protection to infantry that it once did. In fact, it needs infantry to protect it, unlike in WW2 when you had big tank battles like Kursk.
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  6439.  @lebron3505  And the experiences of fighting battles the Marines weren’t trained, equipped or missioned to fight taught us that we need to be more specializes at what we do. Ever since the 1990’s the Corps have been fighting an Army fight and a tremendous amount of money and attention was put into traditional Army fighting, which is traditional joint arms, maneuver warfare and asymmetric warfare. Meanwhile, the Corps de-focused from the Marine specialties like amphibious warfare, world-wide QRF, asset security and integrated, organic combined arms. By doing “Army work”, our abilities on those fronts have atrophied by loss of specialized equipment and training. Furthermore, the more you don’t use something, the less the chances of you ever gaining it back because the folks on Capitol Hill start thinking, “eh, they don’t do that anyway.” The Marines need to be light because the nature of their work demands it, not because it’s more lethal. It’s the reason why the Coast Guard has no big ships. We operate in littoral waters, in wetlands, in sand, mud and the tropics. That dictates what we need, not our egos. What we need is light, easy to transport equipment that can withstand salt water and get into a fight quickly, without a logistical train behind it. Tanks and heavy artillery just aren’t it. Yes, we got rid of 155 howitzers too. We have our own attack planes and helicopters. We have the Navy. Those bring capabilities that the Army typically don’t get to enjoy. That means we don’t need our own field hospitals or large caliber fires. What the Marines are supposed to do is bring self-sustainable, battalion-sized QRFs anywhere in the world at any moment, and to do it consistently. That is a very different role than the Army’s. What learned that on D-Day in 1944 because despite winning the assault, we took tremendous losses doing it, mostly because our troops were never trained to do it.
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  6540.  @ErickDoe  You are absolutely exhibiting very clear signs of the personality disorder called psychopathy (and very obviously don’t understand what it is or isn’t.) You’re also very obvious in your lying, very carefully omitting sources (or even a mention of them), omitting source languages, omitting what languages you have degrees in or actually anything on the subject. Furthermore, you’re deflecting from the actual language (English) and its use of articles onto some mysterious “group” of languages. In English, an article “a” or “the” is used to denote or modify definite and indefinite nouns. Ukraine always has been a PROPER NOUN - a name of a specific, single object. As such, according to the rules of the English language, articles do not apply to it. That has been the linguistic rule of the language since before it was even considered modern English. Even old English had incorporated the use of articles in this manner. In fact, the use of indefinite articles wasn’t even a thing in Old English. The rule in English usage is: “In general, do not use an article with a proper noun unless the noun contains a prepositional phrase.” You’re welcome to do your own research on the use of articles with proper nouns, of course, but it’s very clear that you will not. You’re also showing your absolute idiocy in references to Norse mythology when the context of “troll” is very obviously of you being an internet troll here - another sign of a personality disorder.
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  6687. @ That’s actually ALL false. Categorically. 1. European companies DO participate in arms competitions. BAe, EADS (Airbus) and many others are regular arms manufacturers that compete (and win) in the US. In fact, the new light tank M10 Booker is the GDPS Griffin II, derived from the Austro-Spanish ASCOD. BAE systems had a competing design of the M8 AGS. In fact, both designs in the program were European. The US only requires that it be produced in the US by a US subsidiary, but the parent company and design are perfectly fine being European. 2. Trucks and buses from ANY nation (other than sanctioned ones) are allowed to be sold in the US, as long as they meet US Department of Transportations requirements for safety and size, and EPA requirements for emissions. We actually have European buses all over the place, with Irizar (Spain), Volvo, Mercedes, Setra, Neoplan (in the past), Alexander Dennis, and Van Hool are the most common. European trucks are not common, but do operate here as well. The two biggest reasons: cabover designs fell out of favor in the 1990s and price. European trucks are significantly more expensive, even without the 25% tariff. Volvo makes a separate design of trucks in the US for North America. Scania is actively trying to market currently. 3. Skanska USA is a MAJOR construction company operating all over the country. However, because of union and legal reasons, yes, the US does require that they be US-registered businesses. You are confusing me saying that the EU is extremely protectionist with a claim that the US isn’t protectionist. I never made thar claim. EVERY country is protectionist to some degree. It’s just that the EU is EXTREMELY protectionist and most Europeans don’t know or understand that. They are neger self-reflective, always out to down others the way Trump just treated Zelensky.
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