US 2024 Presidential Election

Agema

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Here's an website no one has to subscribe to get the news.
I'm sure Truth Social's value will continue fluctuating. But I can't help but feel it will take a huge hit if Trump loses the election, because Trump will lose the opportunities to leverage the presidency for its value. All those small investors, when they suck up big losses, can ameliorate their pain by rationalising that it was worth it to show their support for Trump.

If Truth Social is losing $16M a month and has about $350M in the bank, that's over 20 years of gravy train for its execs to pay themselves six-figure salaries despite their virtually worthless platform. Nice gig if you can get it.
 

Chimpzy

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If Truth Social is losing $16M a month and has about $350M in the bank, that's over 20 years of gravy train for its execs to pay themselves six-figure salaries despite their virtually worthless platform. Nice gig if you can get it.
Gonna be nitpicky and point out 350 / 16 20. Bit over 2 years is still nice, though in reality it will probably less as towards the end the suits will start pillaging as much money as they can before it has to shutter. Assuming no new investments, bailouts, or whatnot, of course.
 
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tstorm823

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It's interesting how you've pivoted from "the pictures are fake" to "shut up it's not actually weird." If you didn't think there was anything wrong with the pictures you wouldn't have insisted that they were fake initially.
"Could" is not insisting. Being skeptical of something in only one specific way would be silly, it'd be asserting knowledge I don't have.

And I didn't say there's nothing wrong, just that there's reasonable explanations. All of you are the ones who would see nothing wrong if that exact same gag was done at a left wing rally. Do you remember the "pussy hats" from the women's marches? Where were you on the thousands of women marching around DC with visual representations of their vagina on their heads?
 

BrawlMan

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Schadrach

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That's probably true, before she decided to lose fans and state her politics she apparently got lots of neo-nazi support.
...and I'm sure they're pissed off at the role they played in propelling her into having fuck you money.

Like buying Cyber trucks is a sign of loyalty to Trump through Elon
I'd like an EV, but I can't think of an EV I'd want less.
 
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Agema

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I'd like an EV, but I can't think of an EV I'd want less.
I'm interested in an EV, as our car is coming towards the end of its lifespan.

I will not buy a Tesla, no matter how good the reviews are, and I will not buy them because of Elon Musk. It's not that he has thrown in his lot with Donald Trump. It's not that he has questioned climate change (which is pretty weird from a guy whose company surely makes business from concern over climate change), not least because a petrol car is de facto supporting the oil industry that have been orders of magnitude worse. It's not that he is a generally narcissistic prick and free speech hypocrite, because if you excluded buying stuff from business owners like that, you'd need to give up buying most things.

I will not buy Tesla because he has effectively thrown his lot in with the far right, and abused his position of power to enable them to cause greater chaos, crime and disorder, and spoken up in effective support of them whilst they were rioting in my country. Just no. Fuck you Musk, not a penny of my money. And if you don't like that, maybe you can do what you seem to think appropriate and sue me.
 
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BrawlMan

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It's not that he has questioned climate change (which is pretty weird from a guy whose company surely makes business from concern over climate change), not least because a petrol car is de facto supporting the oil industry that have been orders of magnitude worse. It's not that he is a generally narcissistic prick and free speech hypocrite, because if you excluded buying stuff from business owners like that, you'd need to give up buying most things.

I will not buy Tesla because he has effectively thrown his lot in with the far right, and abused his position of power to enable them to cause greater chaos, crime and disorder, and spoken up in effective support of them whilst they were rioting in my country. Just no. Fuck you Musk, not a penny of my money. And if you don't like that, maybe you can do what you seem to think appropriate and sue me.
For me, it's all the above.
 

Elijin

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I'd not buy a Tesla because they just don't seem that great? Plus a lot of totally unnecessary prestige features which drive the price up. Telsa is basically the epitome of luxury branding overpriced things.
 

Piscian

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I'd not buy a Tesla because they just don't seem that great? Plus a lot of totally unnecessary prestige features which drive the price up. Telsa is basically the epitome of luxury branding overpriced things.
Tesla is more of a technology driver when it comes to prestige vehicles. Their actual "car" is kinda shit. They are very affordable and have a bunch of dorky stuff like a fancy internal computer and smart internal components like windows, doors, seats whatever. Would actual millionaires and billionaires drive a Tesla outside of puff piece stuff? Fuck no. They drive Mclarens and what not.

Because everything is computer driven, when theres a fault, despite their claims otherwise the cars basically are undrivable, where as when my computer dies in my crappy dodge dart the car still runs fine.

Personally I will continue with my car until I'm two weak to strap on a harness everyday and drag it behind me. A big problem is that congress is still working on federal legislation around EV consumer protections against datamining, AI, and providing for right to repair. I would avoid buying a car at all right now.
 
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Thaluikhain

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I'd not buy a Tesla because they just don't seem that great?
Yeah, even if Musk wasn't in all ways a terrible person except for his cars being rubbish, his cars are rubbish. I've never seen anything good written about them that wasn't by an obvious Musk fanboy.

I'd seriously recommend thinking about getting a monowheel or a jeep converted to run on steam before a Tesla.
 
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crimson5pheonix

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All the weirdos yelling at Walz for his hot dish made me want to make hot dish

View attachment 11729

A true Minnesota Delicacy
You even had to post it in 4k, does your depravity know no bounds?

I'd not buy a Tesla because they just don't seem that great? Plus a lot of totally unnecessary prestige features which drive the price up. Telsa is basically the epitome of luxury branding overpriced things.
Simply I hate that all the controls are a computer touch screen instead of buttons. That's just a terrible idea. The fact the high end Teslas don't even have steering wheels is even worse.
 
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tstorm823

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Plug-in hybrid is genuinely an excellent experience for me personally.
 

Phoenixmgs

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Plug-in hybrid is genuinely an excellent experience for me personally.
A friend has a plug-in hybrid and loves it. It has a battery to go like 50 miles and then afterward it would use gas obviously. I didn't even know they made hybrids like that and when he explained it, I was like people would actually buy that (as I didn't even know that was an option). He has a truck since he's in construction and he said over the life of the car, he's essentially getting 80-something miles to the gallon.
 

tstorm823

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A friend has a plug-in hybrid and loves it. It has a battery to go like 50 miles and then afterward it would use gas obviously. I didn't even know they made hybrids like that and when he explained it, I was like people would actually buy that (as I didn't even know that was an option). He has a truck since he's in construction and he said over the life of the car, he's essentially getting 80-something miles to the gallon.
I replaced my dead vehicle with essentially the same model but plug-in hybrid, and I went from somewhere in the 60-90 gallons per month range down to less than 20 gallons per month, at the cost of like $50 tacked onto the electric bill. And it's quieter, smoother, and allegedly the brakes will last like a decade. Full electric's feasible now near me, but still not practical in borderline rural PA. I have no doubt that would also be an excellent driving experience, but I find myself wondering if the hybrid isn't actually the currently most environmentally friendly option. I use like one-fifth of the gas I would be using in a full gas vehicle while also requiring one-fifth of the battery a full electric needs...
 

Dirty Hipsters

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I replaced my dead vehicle with essentially the same model but plug-in hybrid, and I went from somewhere in the 60-90 gallons per month range down to less than 20 gallons per month, at the cost of like $50 tacked onto the electric bill. And it's quieter, smoother, and allegedly the brakes will last like a decade. Full electric's feasible now near me, but still not practical in borderline rural PA. I have no doubt that would also be an excellent driving experience, but I find myself wondering if the hybrid isn't actually the currently most environmentally friendly option. I use like one-fifth of the gas I would be using in a full gas vehicle while also requiring one-fifth of the battery a full electric needs...
Yup, hybrids are still the most sensible cars in terms of efficiency, and will be until we have several more breakthroughs in battery technology that allow us to store more energy in smaller batteries that use less rare elements. I'm kind of regretting that I didn't buy a hybrid when I needed to get a new car in 2019. The up front cost on a plug in hybrid that was just way higher than I wanted to pay at the time since I was also saving up for a house.
 

crimson5pheonix

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I replaced my dead vehicle with essentially the same model but plug-in hybrid, and I went from somewhere in the 60-90 gallons per month range down to less than 20 gallons per month, at the cost of like $50 tacked onto the electric bill. And it's quieter, smoother, and allegedly the brakes will last like a decade. Full electric's feasible now near me, but still not practical in borderline rural PA. I have no doubt that would also be an excellent driving experience, but I find myself wondering if the hybrid isn't actually the currently most environmentally friendly option. I use like one-fifth of the gas I would be using in a full gas vehicle while also requiring one-fifth of the battery a full electric needs...
Yup, hybrids are still the most sensible cars in terms of efficiency, and will be until we have several more breakthroughs in battery technology that allow us to store more energy in smaller batteries that use less rare elements. I'm kind of regretting that I didn't buy a hybrid when I needed to get a new car in 2019. The up front cost on a plug in hybrid that was just way higher than I wanted to pay at the time since I was also saving up for a house.
The only thing I don't like about hybrids (plug in or otherwise), is that you effectively have 2 powertrains you have to keep up with. If someone threw me the keys to one, I'd take it without a second thought, but realistically I'd prefer to have just one or the other, preferably electric.
 

Phoenixmgs

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I replaced my dead vehicle with essentially the same model but plug-in hybrid, and I went from somewhere in the 60-90 gallons per month range down to less than 20 gallons per month, at the cost of like $50 tacked onto the electric bill. And it's quieter, smoother, and allegedly the brakes will last like a decade. Full electric's feasible now near me, but still not practical in borderline rural PA. I have no doubt that would also be an excellent driving experience, but I find myself wondering if the hybrid isn't actually the currently most environmentally friendly option. I use like one-fifth of the gas I would be using in a full gas vehicle while also requiring one-fifth of the battery a full electric needs...
My brakes are at least 8 years old (and 110,000 miles since I bought it), probably 12 years old (it's a 2012 that I bought used in 2016, I doubt it had new brakes).
 

tstorm823

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The up front cost on a plug in hybrid that was just way higher than I wanted to pay at the time since I was also saving up for a house.
I'm a sell-out that took the rebates from the state and federal programs. What would have cost $4000 more ended up $5000 less after $9000 in government handout.
The only thing I don't like about hybrids (plug in or otherwise), is that you effectively have 2 powertrains you have to keep up with. If someone threw me the keys to one, I'd take it without a second thought, but realistically I'd prefer to have just one or the other, preferably electric.
Counterpoint: I don't have a traditional transmission to worry about. To me, that feels like a trade worth dealing with two sources of propulsion. Though it is moot, as electric has the least maintenance by a mile.