u/nexusband on Reddit

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Cake day: June 14th, 2023

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  • nexusbandtopolitics Trump Just Made Bribing Politicians Legal Again
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    3 months ago

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Nazi_Germany

    Meanwhile, Schacht’s administration achieved a rapid decline in the unemployment rate, the largest of any country during the Great Depression. By 1938, unemployment was practically extinct. Price controls kept inflation in check but also squeezed out small farmers. The government also introduced rent and wage controls.

    The Great Depression had spurred increased state ownership in most Western capitalist countries. This also took place in Germany during the last years of the Weimar Republic. However, after the Nazis took power, industries were privatized en masse. Several banks, shipyards, railway lines, shipping lines, welfare organizations, and more were privatized. The Nazi government took the stance that enterprises should be in private hands wherever possible. State ownership was to be avoided unless it was absolutely necessary for rearmament or the war effort, and even in those cases “the Reich often insisted on the inclusion in the contract of an option clause according to which the private firm operating the plant was entitled to purchase it.”

    A very large portion of Germany was quite happy, going along between 1930 and 1938, simply because of the fact that they had a better life - looking the other way as your Jewish neighbour was deported (or worse) was a necessary evil for a very large portion. Giving up most worker rights as well.



  • nexusbandtopolitics Trump Just Made Bribing Politicians Legal Again
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    3 months ago

    I mean, in theory, this could be used by the Democrats as well and fight back with…

    On a side note: Those Hitler comparisons are stupid, imho as a German. Hitler and his entire staff was actually quite competent and benefited the German people - Trump and his cronies are basically just corrupt and don’t think further than their own nose points. They also don’t help the American people in any way - quite the contrary… Doesn’t make them any less dangerous, but Hitler got nearly 80% of votes in fair elections back then…Trump cheated and heavily used voter suppression, so that’s also very different.



  • According to Goldberg’s account of Baker and Glasser’s reporting, Kelly responded by explaining to Trump that the German generals “tried to kill Hitler three times and almost pulled it off,” but Trump reportedly was not swayed by the correction.

    Hitler “fended” off 23 assassination attempts. And with all his gutting of utterly everything, i highly doubt the Secret Service will be competent enough to actually fend off any serious attempts, let alone various other things threats.

    Specifically as a German, i can only tell you: Trump is as far away from Hitler as Washington from Berlin. Sure, Trumps clearly fascist, but at best he’s Temus Version of Hitler. Remember, Hitler was quite competent in various things and actually listened to his staff in the beginning. Not only that, Göring, the Gestapo and various other members were intelligent and had some serious education. There were many, many People you probably never heard of that helped Hitler in many ways. While some of us question the necessity of learning this stuff, it is still taught in schools and while i have to admit to have forgotten the Details, Himmler, Göring, Heidrich, Heß and Wiedemann are just 5 people in the spotlight. Trump’s MAGAts are dangerous no doubt and they are going to wreck basically everything. But let’s be honest…they aren’t competent, they don’t know shit except “destroying” stuff. But they will go down with the destruction.

    Hitler actually did stuff for the People, that’s why most Germans did go along and you have to remember, Germany was basically on it’s knees and grasped for straws. The issue(s) in the U.S. right now are very different - but most people still do very well, especially since Biden did one hell of an impossible job. However, the gap between the “well off” and the “fucked” is going to grow wider and Trump and his incompetent bunch can still use it to basically tear down any and all civil rights because there are not enough people paying any attention. Germans did pay attention back then and they desperately wanted change. Not to mention, Hitler had a lot of help from inside the Weimarer Republic.

    I don’t want to downplay this, but the parallels are currently still limited to politics and some unpleasant side effects that restrict the freedom of individuals, but do not have many effects on the whole. So if Trump declares Martial Law, i think he’s not going to last long after that - because by that point, things will have deteriorated far enough, that enough people will care and take action. Unfortunately this will have very ugly side effects for all of you and probably the rest of the world and may even be civilization ending…




  • Heads up on this, if anyone finds this post… playing it on Linux, Proton 9.0-4, Ryzen 7, 5800X3D, 7900XTX, 5120x1440@120 and Freesync 2, maxed out settings, but with RT off. I had a single stutter (interestingly enough, it wasn’t a traversal stutter…speaking of which, i have not experienced them at all), the rest of the way was smooth sailing. Most of the time with 120 FPS, some dips in the low 90s, but overall it ran incredibly good and it is an unbelievably beautiful game. World Building is insane and i utterly adore the Story. Cal’s path is amazing and what i hoped, all three Disney Movies could have been. Incredibly detailed and great puzzles - honestly, it may be the best game i have played in the last 5 years.



  • I have learned so much I’ve forgotten over half of it.

    The crux is, i have learned it, told myself “Oh yeah, that’s on Wikipedia” and only remember where to find what information. I’m utterly useless without Wikipedia, as many family quiz losses around Christmas turned out… Hell, even sources i use for discussions on the internet i get often from Wikipedia articles, they sometimes link the actual studies…my google foo is pretty good, but some things i’m simply unable to find, except in the Wikipedia source lists…



  • Hence Synthetic Fuels made from renewable energy and “steering” the market. Making old cars still able to run, but just changing the fuel and making them at least carbon neutral and maybe even net negative in the long run? There is nothing better for the environment - heck, with all the pollution Lithium production does, one could argue we’re changing one evil for another evil, just on a different scale. It’s like switching the old NiMH battery for a LiFePo. (The scaling doesn’t work that well for the energy densities needed in bigger applications though…)




  • Not sure if that’s true though

    It’s an aspect, but not the whole Picture. Germans are relatively tech savvy on the one hand, but on the other hand, we also don’t like change. A consequence of combining both things is that we calculate risk different. With all the issues surrounding Nuclear Fission and how much safeguarding a potential “BDBE” (Super-GAU in German or Beyond-design-basis events, like Fukushima and Chornobyl) needs, they also became pretty damn expensive to run. The fact of the matter is, German Power Companies never made money with Nuclear Fission, most of them broke even and covered the running costs, but actual profits weren’t that great. Russia - with help of the SPD - made Gas so cheap, it simply made no sense to invest in Nuclear Fission reactors…even with high subsidies. With most of them being over 25-30 years old and most of them needing general overhauls due to new safety regulations and general technology improvements, the Power Companies also pushed the Lobby behind the scenes to either change regulation or phase out Nuclear Fission. The Krümmel NPP also had a serious incident in 2009 that confirmed suspicions of many Germans, that the Power Companies cut corners to make profits. It resulted in a partial meltdown, after a very serious Fire in 2007. Also, Geesthacht - the community where the NPP was located - has had a significantly higher rate of leukaemia and chromosome defects. Then came Fukushima and that was the final nail in the coffin, as popular opinion shifted. Even before actually deciding on the phase out of NPP, Krümmel was shut down in 2011 for good.

    Krümmel wasn’t the only reactor that has had issues. Then there’s been issues with finding a suitable waste repository - turns out, encasing nuclear waste in concrete in old mine shafts is a very bad idea in most of Germany, as deep groundwater seeps in through the layers and wreaks havoc with a supposed “final and safe” resting place. And as i mentioned, most of Germans were (it has changed a bit in the last 10-25 years, sadly) relatively tech savvy and most, if not all Germans understood the basic principles of nuclear fission, as well as the dangers (some maybe blown out of proportion), because they were taught in even “Hauptschule” (Lower Secondary Education) Physics, Chemical and Biology. Considering Germany is relatively densely populated, many, many people would have been directly affected by a BDBE/Super-GAU. Either through non usable ground water, loosing their livelihood, jobs or actually losing their lives gradually. (Nodding back at not liking change…)

    Granted, the way the phase out was done has been a total disaster or utter shitshow and in my personal opinion, it should have been done gradually, because a few NPPs still had runtimes for over 15 years. But yeah - general anti-fission stance, cheap Gas from Russia with the help/enablement of the SPD, negligence from the operators/loosing confidence in the operators to actually run the plants safely and different risk evaluation in the German populace all played their part. Maybe also a bit of irrational fear as well, due to the history and being right in the middle of two seemingly mad Nuclear Powers.

    In any case, it isn’t as cut and dry as some people think it is - IMHO. But despite what i said about letting the runtime on the plants run it’s course, I’m against Nuclear Fission (or rather Boiling Water / Pressure Water Reactors) as well. Now if we get Molten Salt Reactors working properly and maybe Transmutation as well, things would be different because the equation changed…