Politics

[Field28]

You are correct, the Tundra will cost more but will also last longer as well and with fewer maintenance issues. As someone that is much closer to the 70K mark than the 700K; I honestly believe that many of the financial pitfalls can be avoided by shedding the consumerism mindset of needing a new car every couple of years.

People equal to and vastly above my income bracket often ask me how I afford to hunt and travel as I do, the answer is simple - I buy used, pay off early and follow the factory recommended service schedule and keep driving for extended periods.

This flies in the face of the average 100K earner who wears a Rolex and drives a new King Ranch Ford every 2 years; these are the same people who can't fathom dropping $15k on a hunt but have an $8k year deer lease that's 5 hours drive from home and that requires them to feed corn and protein year round.

When it comes to cars, keeping up with the Jones' holds many Americans back from building wealth.

You bring up a good point that gets lost in the tariff talk. The Rolex for example. There was a time where we imported items from other countries that we didn't have access to or that other countries were just better at making... Rolex, French wine, olive oil etc.

At sometime we became a quantity over quality culture. Keeping up with the Jones created a void that the Chinese were more than willing to fill up with cheap junk.

Where there used be a time that you worked hard and saved for something that was special and could be passed on to the following generation. A watch, fine gun or hunting jacket, bespoke suit, what have you.

8k to shoot some Wood Goats, damn that's steep! I'll take the 15k hunt in Africa all day long!

 

[RLD]

At sometime we became a quantity over quality culture. Keeping up with the Jones created a void that the Chinese were more than willing to fill up with cheap junk.

Where there used be a time that you worked hard and saved for something that was special and could be passed on to the following generation. A watch, fine gun or hunting jacket, bespoke suit, what have you.

This is a very good, but often overlooked point.

However the other part of the equation isn't working either. The wealth gap in America is growing, and the proportionate cost of housing and groceries has been rising for decades.

One of the reasons North Americans are "addicted" to cheap products from overseas is because they now spend so much of their income on groceries and housing, there is not enough left over to buy a great pair of shoes made in New England.

 

[Tanks]

Sounds like the dealer mark ups of years past......
...

If you are willing to pay $7k premium for the color she wants, that's certainly your choice. Just like it was the choice of people to trade in perfectly good cars for new ones that were often $10K over MSRP during COVID - Which has now lead repossession rates for 700+ credit scores nearly tripling.

It is not a markup. The $7K extra is part of the MSRP for any new order from the factory regardless of the color. I don't worry about repos as I pay cash unless there is a 0% interest loan.

Markups are listed separately, not part of the MSRP. For example, I did pay a $5K markup for my GX 550 OT+. It was the least of any dealers around as some were asking $10K+. And yes, it was a choice as there were no alternatives. As it is I waited 4+ months for one with the specs I wanted.

 

[Tanks]

One of the reasons North Americans are "addicted" to cheap products from overseas is because they now spend so much of their income on groceries and housing, there is not enough left over to buy a great pair of shoes made in New England.

Or almost anything made in the USA. One other thing is that it is no longer viable to make some things in the USA. Here is something I have bought in the past, dirt cheap and does not make sense to manufacture it here.

https://www.amazon.com/Punch-Watch-Remover-Alloy-0-7mm/dp/B0BZTX32CB/ref=sr_1_7?crid=ESPGDLQLEO21&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.NT4eocgKnSh2fxeU1IiWJloMyzBAYpD5bN8no6B031vDbKpXEvPleO1aFa9yU_ASdgYHAzFWMbWcrnj2hzv3qz9myhnAMOBxSQKN56wVOPMW1DuW9uqv97Vt-l6r6TpTUuQXjDbbm83NpMNrydbGs1jAsKodbQnvvFPIv6rT5q8QyDR7AfXUWD-1GGoPbRBUwGTEFRilxW3Jg2ToGfvwGTExYs2yX0TIY1k24e-Ol4a8QBhhR-o26XiLAGrGyMonOppOxRky_qGB0HKxRiNLhnKNqUn6g3zWlEuVq-A1c00.Wn7-WX1HknsvP07GIBPNlpMOUGvI71yyd_2x-4taNaw&dib_tag=se&keywords=0.7+mm+punch&qid=1745596793&sprefix=0.7+mm+punch%2Caps%2C160&sr=8-7

If there is any labor at all involved in the manufacture or packaging it would be 10X here.

 

[rigbymauser]

I don't think you caught my trolling comment......but I certainly caught you.....LOL

Buy a car made in America, or wait until all the tariff and trade deals are finalized

I read somewhere the John Deere company is heading for Mexico. Though I am not into farming equipment in generel I do find it sadding an old american instutution is moving out. Farmers overhere buy John Deere stuff and they are often represented at Farmers fairs and everybody knows its american made. This brings me to the “ american made”. In the 1960-1980s lots of stuff we bought overhere was made in america. Today we barely see anything( items)with the exception of old vintage cars and a few of the newer Mustangs and Hellcats. We still have McDs and a few Burger Kings. After WW2 america had a huge positive influence in Europe. Not just the Marshallplan but also culturalwise. I would say it peaked in the 1980-1990s. From here things has slowly declined. Huntingwise Winchester, Remington and Hornady products are still found as new imports in huntingstores.
The tariffs the different countries will be forewarded to the customer. I have always felt a bit irritated all these importduties were added before I got my hands on it. In the 1990s I imported a lot of american brand scopes( made in Phillipines) and truckloads of reloading stuff. This was done on as private import. I could then later sell it and make a little profit. After 9/11 it all died. Trade restriction from the US side made it all die.

 

[Field28]

This is a very good, but often overlooked point.

However the other part of the equation isn't working either. The wealth gap in America is growing, and the proportionate cost of housing and groceries has been rising for decades.

One of the reasons North Americans are "addicted" to cheap products from overseas is because they now spend so much of their income on groceries and housing, there is not enough left over to buy a great pair of shoes made in New England.

I agree, the cost of living is higher than the standard of living. I find myself putting more things back in the grocery store, I can afford those items but I feel guilty buying those items because I feel it's not worth the cost. I think some of that in me comes from hearing my grandmother talk about the Depression.
I also think that growing up eating the fish we caught, the game we shot and the vegetables that we grew in our own garden has an influence on me as well.

Funny thing, she lived just short of her 100th birthday and had become a lifelong pack rat. My Grandfather on the other side however grew up in the NC mountains. If you were to ask him about the Depression, he would have told you that they didn't know anything about it, that was for people down in the city.
If they had chickens and corn they would trade someone up or down the mountain for beef, pork, beans, molasses and so on.

As much as I hate to, I have to say that Biden did have a point about one thing, shrinkflation. Not that we didn't also have inflation, but we all know that a bag of chips keeps getting lighter. Same goes for things like a tomahawk ribeye, great marketing plan there. You can feel like a caveman while you pay extra money for a worthless rib bone.

That reminds me, that Grandmother that grew up in the Depression always had a can of Charles Chips at her house back in the day!

 

[Datchew]

The Chinese are so mad their having Pandas cook Bald Eagles, while listening to 1950's Mao songs!

Seriously though, these two men (One American, the other South African) combined have 25 years of experience living in China and their youtube channel is constantly attacked by Chinese bots for telling the truth about the state of affairs in China.

Very eye opening to see the CCP's propaganda called out and translated.

I smell fear and panic from the panda.
However, I have the feeling all this trade war stuff will not be anywhere near as straightforward as many of us would like to think. It's going to be an interesting ride.

 

[Field28]

Toyota Tundra has 60%+ USA content and having driven both, as well as having managed both in large company fleets I can tell you the Tundra is a superior product.

I actually thought the percentage of American parts was higher than 60%.
We all know the rest are most likely majority Japanese made, maybe Mexico but definitely not China.

 

[375 Ruger Fan]

I read somewhere the John Deere company is heading for Mexico. Though I am not into farming equipment in generel I do find it sadding an old american instutution is moving out. Farmers overhere buy John Deere stuff and they are often represented at Farmers fairs and everybody knows its american made. This brings me to the “ american made”. In the 1960-1980s lots of stuff we bought overhere was made in america. Today we barely see anything( items)with the exception of old vintage cars and a few of the newer Mustangs and Hellcats. We still have McDs and a few Burger Kings. After WW2 america had a huge positive influence in Europe. Not just the Marshallplan but also culturalwise. I would say it peaked in the 1980-1990s. From here things has slowly declined. Huntingwise Winchester, Remington and Hornady products are still found as new imports in huntingstores.
The tariffs the different countries will be forewarded to the customer. I have always felt a bit irritated all these importduties were added before I got my hands on it. In the 1990s I imported a lot of american brand scopes( made in Phillipines) and truckloads of reloading stuff. This was done on as private import. I could then later sell it and make a little profit. After 9/11 it all died. Trade restriction from the US side made it all die.

John Deere has several factories outside the US.

United States:

• Illinois: Moline (Harvester Works, Seeding Group, Cylinder Internal Platform), East Moline (Harvester Works)
• Iowa: Davenport (Davenport Works), Dubuque (Dubuque Works), Des Moines (Des Moines Works), Ottumwa (Ottumwa Works), Waterloo (Waterloo Works)
• Georgia: Augusta (Augusta Works)
• Wisconsin: Horicon (Horicon Works)
• North Carolina: Fuquay-Varina (Turf Care), Kernersville (excavator factory)
• Louisiana: Thibodaux (Thibodaux Works)
• Kansas: Coffeyville (Coffeyville Works), Kansas City (plant location)
• Tennessee: Greeneville (factory for lawn and garden tractors)
• North Dakota: Valley City (Seeding Group)
  

Mexico:
Monterrey (Industrias John Deere), Torreon (Motores John Deere), and Ramos (skid steer loader and compact track loader factory).

Other Locations:

• China: Tianjin (factory for agricultural tractors, combines, and engines), Ningbo (tractor factory)
• Germany: Mannheim (tractor factory), Zweibrücken (combine harvester factory)
• Brazil: Indaiatuba (backhoe factory)
• Canada: Vancouver (forestry swing machine factory)
• India: Patiala (tractor factory)
• Russia: Orenburg (seeding equipment factory)
• France: Arc-lès-Gray (baler factory)

 

[Datchew]

We have to ask ourself...is article 5 dead..? Let us say Putin launch an attack on one of the baltic states...what will Trump do..? Say its not Americas war..?

FFS. Yes, let's just say that happens, will you say it IS America's war?
What about India vs. Pakistan starting to go kinetic - is that America's war?
What if the troubles start up again in N. Ireland - is that America's war?
By whom do you propose this is decided?

For all you "putin is the boogeyman" neocon, war-justifying TDS people here, please provide some reasoning why you think Putin plans to invade and take over Europe.
He's a classic kgb thug that functions as a dictator with a shiny wrapper of having been elected. I get it.
Zoom out a little.

This is classic silly reasoning based on a "what-if" style of fearmongering. Classic propaganda based justification. No different than selling software and spreading fear about Y2k.

 

[Tanks]

Classic propaganda based justification. No different than selling software and spreading fear about Y2k.

Actually, Y2K fears were real in a lot of instances. A lot of our legacy software would have quit working if not upgraded as when developed we used a byte (max value 255) or two characters in databases to store the year instead of an integer (32767) due to memory constraints at the time.

Wish we had AI back then for conversions, would have saved millions for a lot of companies.

 

[RLD]

FFS. Yes, let's just say that happens, will you say it IS America's war?
What about India vs. Pakistan starting to go kinetic - is that America's war?
What if the troubles start up again in N. Ireland - is that America's war?
By whom do you propose this is decided?

For all you "putin is the boogeyman" neocon, war-justifying TDS people here, please provide some reasoning why you think Putin plans to invade and take over Europe.
He's a classic kgb thug that functions as a dictator with a shiny wrapper of having been elected. I get it.
Zoom out a little.

This is classic silly reasoning based on a "what-if" style of fearmongering. Classic propaganda based justification. No different than selling software and spreading fear about Y2k.

Talk about silly reasoning!

Happy to answer your questions though.

If Russia invades one of the Baltic states it is America's war. And Canada's, and Germany's and the UK and Iceland's and Turkeys because they are all part of NATO and have a clear, firm, written mutual defense agreement. I know it is an old fashion concept, you sign a deal, you abide by it.

Clearly India and Pakistan are not an American war by any stretch.

The troubles in N. Ireland starting again would not be an American war either, in fact it would even be what is thought of as a war it is an internal civil conflict, which is very different than a proper war between sovereign states.

There is a ton of evidence to lead one to conclude Putin has designs in the Baltic. His statements, writings, military deployment and other non-military actions against those countries make it as plain as the nose on your face that he has ambitions there. We can only hope the bloody nose Ukraine has given him forestalls them.

Putin is not just a little KGB thug. He is a man with a certain sense of and thinking on Russian nationalism and empire, and his own place in history. He believes in the concept of Russian Empire the same way that little postcard painter from Austria believed in Lebensraum, and everyone who has studied him knows it.

If he was just a left over KGB thug he would never have invaded Ukraine.

 

[Tanks]

We can only hope the bloody nose Ukraine has given him forestalls them.

Not if Trump succeeds in browbeating Ukraine into accepting Putin's terms. The peace proposal put on the table by Trump is the same demands Putin made of Ukraine 3 years ago.

 

[John Wasmuth]

And it just keeps getting better!!! A Wisconsin judge arrested for obstruction an official procedure!!

https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/25/politics/fbi-director-wisconsin-judge-arrested/index.html

 

[fourfive8]

Actually, Y2K fears were real in a lot of instances. A lot of our legacy software would have quit working if not upgraded as when developed we used a byte (max value 255) or two characters in databases to store the year instead of an integer (32767) due to memory constraints at the time.

Wish we had AI back then for conversions, would have saved millions for a lot of companies.

Well, did AI solve the Y2K pending apocalyptic disaster? Oh that’s right, AI in the present form didn’t exist at the time. What an inexplicable paradox! Hah! I have no clue why so many insist on worshipping at that alter of AI??

I’m certain AI has become more and more a part of weather forecasting. But anecdotally, I see no increase in accuracy of the predictions. If anything, I’ve noticed more failures of predictions even in the short term, 1-2 day forecasts! So much for super computer modeling….

Be careful putting all your eggs in the AI basket. We’ve had AI for a while now in the form of the simple google search. At least half the time I use google search it tries to convince me I’m really looking for something 180 degrees away from what I’m really searching for. It may be fast but it is most assuredly NOT smart. Just yesterday the child of the lying evil idiot Zuckerberg, Meta, kept correcting a person to person message I was composing. Meta had no clue about the format nor grammar needed so the person on the other end could understand the message. Fast but dumb as s wedge! I gave up and had to shut the unit off, reboot and start over to get rid of the Meta override. Go ahead, keep investing more of your brain into relying on AI. Hope it works out

 

[Datchew]

Talk about silly reasoning!

Happy to answer your questions though.

If Russia invades one of the Baltic states it is America's war. And Canada's, and Germany's and the UK and Iceland's and Turkeys because they are all part of NATO and have a clear, firm, written mutual defense agreement. I know it is an old fashion concept, you sign a deal, you abide by it.

Clearly India and Pakistan are not an American war by any stretch.

The troubles in N. Ireland starting again would not be an American war either, in fact it would even be what is thought of as a war it is an internal civil conflict, which is very different than a proper war between sovereign states.

There is a ton of evidence to lead one to conclude Putin has designs in the Baltic. His statements, writings, military deployment and other non-military actions against those countries make it as plain as the nose on your face that he has ambitions there. We can only hope the bloody nose Ukraine has given him forestalls them.

Putin is not just a little KGB thug. He is a man with a certain sense of and thinking on Russian nationalism and empire, and his own place in history. He believes in the concept of Russian Empire the same way that little postcard painter from Austria believed in Lebensraum, and everyone who has studied him knows it.

If he was just a left over KGB thug he would never have invaded Ukraine.

Silly reasoning is using hasty generalization fallacies.

A ton of evidence?
Everyone who has studied?

Irony is answering a question (not asked to you) in a literal fashion about treaties in order to be cute and avoid the point inside a discussion about supporting Ukraine where the US has no treaty or obligation to defend.

 

[Tanks]

Go ahead, keep investing more of your brain into relying on AI. Hope it works out

It is working. One of our projects is replacing the automation on a multitude of pump stations for a municipal district. They used.Bristol Babcock RTUs programmed in their Accol programming language back in 1991. No documentation or drawings, a reverse engineering project to start. Using AI we not only documented the programs, but converted them to Siemens SCL language with about 95% accuracy. Already saved us thousands of hours of engineering time (read profit).

 

[Dudders]

I read somewhere the John Deere company is heading for Mexico. Though I am not into farming equipment in generel I do find it sadding an old american instutution is moving out. Farmers overhere buy John Deere stuff and they are often represented at Farmers fairs and everybody knows its american made. This brings me to the “ american made”. In the 1960-1980s lots of stuff we bought overhere was made in america. Today we barely see anything( items)with the exception of old vintage cars and a few of the newer Mustangs and Hellcats. We still have McDs and a few Burger Kings. After WW2 america had a huge positive influence in Europe. Not just the Marshallplan but also culturalwise. I would say it peaked in the 1980-1990s. From here things has slowly declined. Huntingwise Winchester, Remington and Hornady products are still found as new imports in huntingstores.
The tariffs the different countries will be forewarded to the customer. I have always felt a bit irritated all these importduties were added before I got my hands on it. In the 1990s I imported a lot of american brand scopes( made in Phillipines) and truckloads of reloading stuff. This was done on as private import. I could then later sell it and make a little profit. After 9/11 it all died. Trade restriction from the US side made it all die.

The 6 series john deere tractors are made in germany at Mannheim.

 

[RLD]

Silly reasoning is using hasty generalization fallacies.

A ton of evidence?
Everyone who has studied?

Irony is answering a question (not asked to you) in a literal fashion about treaties in order to be cute and avoid the point inside a discussion about supporting Ukraine where the US has no treaty or obligation to defend.

The question was what would happen if Russia invaded the Baltic states and whether that would be a U.S. war.

You seem to think it would not be, or do I misunderstand you?

Do you think the United States has a collective defense obligation to any of the Baltic states?

And yeah, there is a very broad consensus on Putin's Imperial Russian worldview. It's not big secret. I can't think of a single scholar or expert who does not agree with that.

Serious question for you, what makes you conclude he is just a KGB thug with no vision? Have you ever read any of the stuff Putin himself has written on the subject?

Putin has actually published tons of stuff about Kievan Rus' and Russian Imperialism. You don't even have to infer anything. Have you read what Putin himself says on these subjects?

 

[Wheels]

Second Judge arrested this week for harboring or hindering the arrest of an illegal. Wonder if DOJ can pull off a hat trick.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1915816561144721667