People who saw project 2025 for what it was were not caught by surprise at all. Trump himself barely matters, it people like Peter Thiel and the heritage foundation who write policy. They need the US to fall apart and they don't mind helping Putin a bit along the way.

Trump often reminds me of the Galactic President from the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.

"Only six people in the Galaxy knew that the job of the Galactic President was not to wield power but to attract attention away from it."

So they choose someone flamboyant and zany and scandalous who will give the press nice headlines and good repeatable quotes.

Indeed a serious difference.

Oh I'm not disputing that one bit. But was Stalin in Stalin in Stalingrad at the time personally leading the defense? Or was that Russian soldiers and officers?

Also Russia did much of the same when it comes to scientists http://epizodsspace.airbase.ru/bibl/inostr-yazyki/nemets/Uhl_Stalins_V-2_2001.pdf

Thanks!

They thought trucks that had transitioned to male would molest the kids instead of just crushing them like the Ford intended? Ridiculous!

Yeah it's weird, and if there are elections popular opposition candidates will face a fate like mr Navalny, I'm afraid. Much as I would like AOC as a US president, I think at this point, she needs to run for her life rather than for president. And believe me, I truly hate that this is the case.

She is an amazing person and a fantastic leader. However she is the kind of person the fascists fear and she is also the right shade of skin to earn a one way ticket to El Salvador.

You see the people clamoring for the deportation of mr Mamdani, and he is at this point nothing more than one party's possible candidate for mayor of one town. Imagine what would happen if ms Ocasio-Cortez were an actual presidential candidate!?

Even now I worry about her safety often. Same for that wonderful ms Crockett, mr Frost and a few others.

The USSR did the greater part in defeating nazi Germany, seriously nobody who knows a thing about the fall of the 3rd Reich could deny that. They did so at a huge cost in soldiers and material. This is something that the world should thank the people of the USSR for, their sacrifice was terrible. However it was not Stalin defeating the nazi's single handedly. His troops and officers did, nor did Stalin do this out of the goodness of his heart or through personal heroics. It was a fight for survival.

And did worship their glorious leader, attacked intellectual, demanded absolute loyalty and caused a great famine.... Oh yes Trump's still working on the last bit. But tanking agriculture and making foreign import harder will get you there I'm sure.

They trigger people? I thought they just served as some kind of label to certify a car is owned by a bit of an immature prick, like a Trump sticker.

I've never seen anyone triggered by them unless someone put them on their car without their consent. I'd be pretty annoyed if someone superglued that shit to my car.

But they are speedrunning for the rapture, no consequences when they are off to heaven eh...

They should remove the transmission from their cars, just weld the engine directly to a wheel, not efficiënt but it won't turn the boys into girls.

Oh man, a thousand times this, fucking tankies are a pain and a ball and chain on the leg of progress.

We're not all from the US, but yes all the western block got anti-Ussr colored info. Still there is little you can find that can make a critical mind see Stalin as anything but a dictator. There are things you can admire in Marx, Trotsky and even Lenin, but if you cannot see how Stalin hijacked the revolution to make his own autocratic empire that while somewhat communism flavored, was structurally not that different of a fascist state, then you are willfully blind. The leader worship, the paranoia, the constant surveillance, those have no place in a communist society.

It is those aspects precisely that make Sanders equate the republicans to stalinists. I think the comparison is apt.

Wikipedia is a better source than most of what you can find on the internet these days. Its articles provide ample sources that you can check if you like. I'd say Wikipedia is one of the best things the current internet has. But if you don't like it perhaps you would prefer conservapedia.

Hmm I hadn't thought about the shocks on hard tires bbeing so tiring though that does make sense. It does make a serious difference in resistance though, main downside for me of hard tires is less grip, both because of a smaller contact area with the ground and because an uneven roard makes you bounce more. I suppose it's a matter of adapting to circumstances. I do lower pressure for soft or smippery roads a tiny bit sometimes.

I've been thinking about your post as I was biking to work this morning. I see others have talked to you about tires in the meantime but for on road riding I can really recommend pretty slick tires even on a mountain bike they will make a huge difference in resistance, especially if you inflate them as hard as they can take(look on the side of te tire for something that says inflate to xx psi). Hard smooth tires run nearly as good as racing tubes.

Another thing I was thinking about is saddle height. Most new cyclists put their saddle way too low, which is understandable as you want to be able to put your foot on the ground when you lose balance. However that is not the best thing for transferring muscle power to your pedals. I found that for good force you want to have your saddle so high that when you sit on it and you put a foot on the pedal at it's lowest point, with your foot parallel to the ground, your leg is fully stretched.

This does mean that to put a foot on the ground you have to keep your other foot on the pedal and slide forward off the saddle. The posture of your leg for pedalling will be way better getting more power to the bike and reducing stress on the knees.

Make sure your foot rests on the pedal with the front part, like you can see bike racers do. That allows for more muscles to work on pushing than when the pedal is under the middle of the foot.

Beware that raising the saddle does change the front-back balance a bit as your weight sits higher.

I read you bike down stairs, if it is only one or two steps that is not going to change much but if it's a full flight of stairs that might be a problem.

Frankly I'm 52 years old and have been riding bikes since I was 3 and I have not ridden off more than a couple of steps at a time for the last four decades, it's just not something I wish to inflict on my bike, nor on myself. Hopping down half a meter while at speed is no problem, but really riding of flights of stairs? You are a braver man than me.

If the current regime was in anyway interested in research, they would no doubt do much worse.

They don't seem to want to gain any kind of knowledge though....

Seems like an alpha version. Future pyramids had better resolution.

Hehe, I'm a big guy and weigh about 100kg, on flat ground I'm on the highest gear nearly all the time because my legs are strong rather than agile, but up a relatively steep hill I need to go on the lower gears and crank myself up there.

The Ferengi would mock him mercilessly, he is a cheap fraud and doesn't have the lobes for business.