MotMotMot comments

Trump messed up by demanding an early debate. If Biden did really well it sets the tone early in the cycle. If Biden did really poorly they would have time to change candidates. Look what happened.

I'll hand it to the Harris Campaign, ever week has been a net positive. Walz is one of the rare times a VP has had a real positive effect. The roll out rallies have had massive turn outs. Momentum and enthusiasm is on their side. They have captured the every week and pushed the flailing Trump Campaign to the background.

Meanwhile JD Vance is a BOAT ANCHOR on Trump. The campaign has yet to find something actual undecided voters actually care about in terms of oppo on Harris. They are flailing while Harris keeps the momentum going.

The Harris camp feels confident enough they have Walz hitting up purple districts in red states to pull house seats.

Meanwhile Trump is taking the bait from the Lincoln Project and losing his mind over the ads they put on conservative news.

They've had members of his unit on cable news for a while now. Even the guys that are staunch republicans who don't vote for Walz called the attacks BS. He was the highest ranking enlisted person in his battalion. That's hundreds of soldiers and the GOP can't find SINGLE ONE to say a bad thing about his service.

He put in his notice many months before the unit was officially called up, which he had to do in order to comply with the Hatch Act. He was under no obligation to stay, the military had no issue meeting recruitment goals at the time, and none of the people smearing him ever served with him. Until they can put a guy up from his unit to say something it's a BS attack and anyone repeating it should be ashamed of themselves.

Kind of a small crowd in the photo.

Meanwhile Trump sending Cease and Desist letters to the republicans of the Lincoln Project didn't work. The rebuttal is epic. They bait him to file an actual lawsuit. Pointing out they know about the web of LLC he's using the skim money from the campaign. Name dropping the ones they already know about. Daring him to file so they can go all out on discovery on the shady dealings of the campaign.

if what they are saying is a lie Trump could easily sue them for slander. If he doesn't sue it's a really strong sign it's true and he is skimming money from the campaign.

It's an odd time for it. I was just watching a news segment the other month talking about how they were bringing more Japan centric offerings to 7-11 US, and had put a big investment into regional commercial kitchen/packaging plants to have a better selection of fresh and hot foods.

He was in syndication for decades and was the template for daytime talk shows.

He eventually moved to MSNBC, but his view that the Iraq war was BS and gov't was lying got the show cancelled and more or less ended his career.

Meanwhile Trump is sending Cease and Desist letters to the republicans of the Lincoln Project. The rebuttal is epic. They bait him to file an actual lawsuit. Pointing out they know about the web of LLC he's using the skim money from the campaign. Name dropping the ones they already know about. Daring him to file so they can go all out on discovery on the shady dealings of the campaign. And using some choice words to drive home how little respect they have for them.

On its face, if what they are saying is lies, Trump could sue them for slander. If he doesn't sue you'll know it's true and he is skimming money from the campaign.

Harris/Walz has momentum on their side, and short election cycle. Most polls under rate Trump if you look at polls vs results in 2016 and 2020. Which means when you look at swing states Harris needs 4-6 point lead.

One of the things Japan has been doing better than other nations is creating incentives to move Japanese factories from China to other countries or back to Japan.

NBC did pay him $500,000 per day. For that kind of money he's going to be engaged and in the thick of things.

On the other hand, Flavor Flav paid his own way and even sponsors USA Water Polo.

Say what you will about the Military Junta, however, if a foreigner was arrested for price fixing in Japan they'd still be in jail on rolling 23 day prosecutor detention unless a confession was coerced.

Like any good bully, China plays the victim card as soon as they get called on their actions.

Great, if Japan could take care of itself militarily and without the help of our military, one day perhaps, but not in the foreseeable future.

In order to do that Japan would need to make nukes. Which, they could in a fairly short amount of time. Neither the US nor China want to see a nuclear arms race kick off in the region.

Back in my home state their infectious disease specialist noted the spike rate and timing are pretty much the same as the previous year. It's just something that's cyclical. They also pointed out the largest health system in the state, with 11 hospitals only has a handful of covid patients on vents.

Vax worked. Hospital admission are the proof.

Filing charges after 12 days sounds pretty good compared to the 23 day hold and immediate rearrests Japan prosecutors like to use.

It really helps when you have a centrally planned communist government that can get things done, rather than being ruled by greedy capitalists, whose interests are grossly misaligned with the interests of normal people.

That's not really how it work. Provincial governors have a fair amount of power and are heavily rated on GDP/Poverty. The article notes there's are issues getting green power from one province to another. Those issue is less technical and more about the governors fighting for economic boost energy product brings to the province. The way the system works creates headwinds for generating power in one province and using it another. Hence all the little coal fire plants that have been the norm in China.

They should look at some of the Data Centers the French have recently build. Datacenters generate a tremendous amount of heat. The french are converting that heat to hot water which is then sold to a local utility. Which then is used from everything from Urban Farming, heating water in swim venues, and heating houses. Japan already has an industry of selling hot spring water as a subscription in some parts of the country.

One study showed Data Centers could be converted to heat over 8 million houses in Europe. Given the density in many parts of Japan, there's a market.

Honestly I'm surprised it hasn't collapsed quicker. So much business has moved to Singapore in the past decade. Many Western companies are fearful of having senior executives stationed in HK for fear that they could be arrested for political reasons.

And from a Western business perspective, Singapore is an easy sell.

Given Japanese law allows the cops/prosecutors to hold people 23 days without charge I'm having a hard time feeling sorry here.

More buses to handle the increased number of tourists, as is sorely needed in Kyoto

This. Sadly the city seems to have thrown it's lot in with an over priced and under serviced "Hop On, Hop Off" scheme operated by private bus Companies. Not enough buses. It's open top even in the winter. Frequency and crowding are as bad if not worse compared to city buses.

Disorganized crime seems easier to fight than organized.

Generally it leads to more violent crime. Organizations tend to use violence in very specific ways and often with permission and direction. Average gang isn't as forward thinking about the consequences.

China also dumped $72bn into their EV industry last year. That's $72bn they don't have to build into the price of the cars. Yes, I'm sure the average Chinese retiree holding bonds in Evergreen is sad they didn't put their savings into T-Bills.

Can't wait for EVs to displace ICE. Then we'll never have to give a crap about the Middle East again.

EV sales are up 19% YOY. There's more brands now so some are losing sales, while others have big gains.

perhaps a Toyota would have been more appropriate than a Ford?

Not just a Ford. A Ford Mustang that came out in the late 80s.

There's a lot more ad hoc tourists now. Last year we took a trip there and hired a driver with a big van since we had a modest sized group. The Chureito Pagoda was mobbed. People were parking in all sorts of places they weren't supposed to and the police had to be called. The driver commented he'd never seen it this bad. A lot of tourists renting cars and parking all over the place. Not using the designated parking lot areas.

I can't imagine this even being feasible unless someone had roots in Japan. The vast majority of tourists wouldn't have a clue how to sell things, let alone have the language skills.

The Japanese gov't did a really good job playing match maker between Sony and TSMC. US provided a lot of money for the TSMC AZ plant, but they mandated bleeding edge out of the gate. They also don't have a partner like Sony on the ground to smooth things over with local gov't. The Japanese plant is starting at 28nm, and will expanding into low and lower nm processes as time goes on.

Ice Cream division is Wall's, Magnum, Cornetto, Solero, Viennetta, Carte d’Or and Ben & Jerry's.

The spin off will make them a ton of money. But it's a short term move to appease large share holders.

His close friend and ex-girlfriend, Mary Austin

less maintenance? yeah try spend 1-2 hours in the charging station every 2-3 days,

Most car owners charge at home. Often taking advantage of super low overnight power rates using a Level -2 charger.

The Godzilla VFX team was only 35 people with a shoestring CGI budget compared to the other films. Furthermore, unlike other Oscar categories, they had put a put on a technical presentation back in January for the Academy Members. Kiyoko Shibuya, VFX supervisor and producer, is only the third women to ever win in the VXF category.

Freakanomics has done several shows on women executives.

There have been many studies that show women are often only offered the CEO/President position when a company is in trouble. Usually because men are not interested in taking on a job that's going to be very difficult and has a higher risk of failure.

China just doesn't get it. Any hope of having Taiwan move closer went away the moment they breached the agreements they had with Hong Kong. You can't trust China. "One country, two systems" is just a facade.