But we like this fascist leader because he’s only hurting other people and not us (yet).

I hope every last union member walks off the job if this happens.

So when will the 3 day special operation begin?

But it’s not just Tesla that wants to buck the dealership model. Rivian and other EV startups want to bypass it as well. The dealers see that as a threat to their business model in multiple ways.

My understanding is that the independent dealership model came about as a way to prevent the big automotive manufacturers from becoming too big & monopolistic. Imagine if Ford, Honda, and Toyota could collude on selling cars throughout the country. They could stifle competition by fixing prices, etc.

So state governments passed laws prohibiting them from selling directly, instead requiring them to partner with independent dealers who would be intermediaries in the sales process. Unfortunately those independent dealers have become mini monopolies themselves, with lots of political power in their pockets. So now that companies like Tesla, Rivian, etc. want to sell directly, the big dealerships are pressuring their politicians to keep the dealership model in place.

Exactly why I used to subscribe to the Washington Post until Bezos wiped his ass with it. I’ll have to look into subscribing to The Atlantic now.

And to bypass the NYT paywall: https://archive.ph/wLkOk

There’s Campobello Island in far downeast Maine. The island is Canadian and it’s only direct access to the mainland is a bridge to Maine.

Campobello Island in Maine is the exact opposite. It’s on the Canadian side of the border but their only land route is a bridge to Maine.

I somehow doubt they’ll be voting to join the US any time soon though.

GPS does not track anything. There is no possible way it can.

GPS satellites transmit time coded signals. That’s all they do. They don’t receive any signals from the devices that use them.

GPS receivers (which include everything from car navigation systems to smartphones to dedicated GPS receivers, etc) only listen for those time coded signals, decode them, and use that information to triangulate your location. That’s all that GPS itself can do.

Smartphones, tablets, etc. can determine their location by GPS if they have GPS receivers built into them. They can then take that location data and forward it on to companies like Google, Apple, etc. But that is done over either a cellular or WiFi connection.

Any claim of GPS based counting of crowd sizes should be taken with a huge grain of salt. The only way counts based on mobile phones could really be done is by asking companies like Google or Apple how many of their devices are being tracked in the area, or by asking mobile providers like Verizon or AT&T how many mobile phones are connecting to their cell towers in the area.

The total number of people/ devices identified by GPS in a given area is exactly 0. Because GPS by itself is simply incapable of doing anything like that on it’s own.

GPS itself isn’t the issue. Devices like smartphones are GPS receivers only, meaning they can only receive GPS signals. It’s what those devices do with GPS that’s the actual problem.

The thing is, smartphones can be tracked by multiple methods. You can locate them via cell tower triangulation. And to a lesser extent even WiFi tracking, Bluetooth tracking, etc. So if you really don’t want to be tracked then turn your devices completely off. Or better yet leave them home.

One thing I haven’t seen yet is that it will basically end accreditation of colleges & universities.

Today if you get an MBA, PHD, etc. pretty much everybody knows what that means whether you got that degree from Harvard University, Penn State, or the University of Alabama. The standards for such degrees are pretty well known.

While the Department of Education doesn’t directly perform accreditation it does manage the standards that third parties use for the process. Get rid of the standards and those accreditation bodies will eventually start doing their own thing. So eventually one body might only offer accreditation to schools that promote certain religious values and ignore other educational standards, while another only offers accreditation to schools that pay kickbacks, etc.

If those sorts of things start to happen then accreditation will become largely meaningless, and college/university degrees won’t mean as much as they currently do.

No no no. It’s only welfare if you get it. It’s critical operating capital if they get it.

We’re only the richest country in the world because we have roughly a football-stadium sized number of billionaires and multi-millionaires. The remaining 300+ million of us have largely been brainwashed to believe we need to sacrifice everything to prop them up.

Is that “piss yellow” by any chance?

It’s an open SAE standard now. No licensing fees.

https://www.sae.org/news/press-room/2023/06/sae-international-announces-standard-for-nacs-connector