Yeah, and the the EV9 (3-row) is $60k (not remotely cheap, but the cheapest I’m aware of). It’s obviously worth checking the 5-year cost proposition (given fuel vs. electricity pricing), but if the math doesn’t work out for your driving needs, then you’re pretty well out of options for now.
Schindler’s List - incredible movie, beautiful case, no way I want to rewatch it any time soon.
I loved the fountain, too. It is so incredibly beautiful, and I’m glad to own it for the same reasons. I also can’t imagine when I’ll want to watch it again…
I found more up-to-date numbers that suggest it’s more like 23x the aid (Ukraine:Israel):
How Much Aid Has the U.S. Sent Ukraine? Here Are Six Charts.
In any event, the US appears to have sent substantial aid to Ukraine, and it’s in jeopardy only (to my knowledge) if congress can’t get more through in early 2024. My understanding is that the war-specific funding (so far) requested by the Biden administration for Israel has been more to the tune of $14B requested for 2023 (e.g. this article), concurrent with a roughly-quadruple $60B+ request for Ukraine (this article).
It seems to me that the Biden administration is strongly in support for Ukraine, and is making (and, historically, getting through) requests for continued aid far in excess of those to Israel (which receives multi-billion-dollar aid from the U.S. every year and under every administration). Biden’s only non-standard “funding” here is authorizing sale of arms to Israel, which is in place of any congressional funding due to the unpopularity of the Israel war in the USA (which is unpopular for a variety of, in my opinion, very good reasons).
To be clear: I’m not suggesting that the U.S.A. should blindly fund genocide. I’m simply arguing that continued (substantial) funding for Ukraine hasn’t been in jeopardy until recently, and that it is still not a guarantee that extraordinary measures (beyond what Biden has already done with the lend-lease-style “loaning” of US Arms to Ukraine, etc.) will be necessary or helpful, given the broad support in the US Congress (to date) for the war in Ukraine. My expectation is that the Democrats in congress will make some concessions to the Republicans in congress, and a Ukraine funding package will pass early in the new year.
TL;DR: equating the funding of Ukraine to the funding of the war in Israel and using it to suggest the Biden administration hasn’t adequately attempted to fund Ukraine doesn’t make a ton of sense to me.
Israel received $3.18B in FY 2022 compared to $11.8B for Ukraine.
Edit to add a quote from the link:
In 2021, U.S. obligations to Israel amounted to $3.31 billion, a figure that saw Israel returning to the top spot among aid recipients that year. But in 2022, the U.S. committed $12 billion to Ukraine in its defense against Russia’s invasion, far exceeding Israel’s $3.18 billion that year. While some figures are still considered “partial,” total U.S. aid globally for 2022 currently adds up to more than $60 billion, a level not seen since 1951.
It’ll be interesting to see what that chart looks like for 2023 and 2024. And hopefully there’s less genocide all around, eh?
It looks like there’s some precedent for workarounds that FDR used to aid the UK when Isolationists didn’t want to help during WWII, and that Biden has already been doing a good chunk of it. Without direct cash, I do think there are fewer options, but I’m curious what will happen if an aid package isn’t passed by Congress in early 2024 once the current one runs out.
Politico: The WWII Strategy Biden Can Use to Bypass Republicans on Ukraine
Roosevelt’s effort to arm Britain ran the gamut from outright executive fiat (bases for destroyers, surplus transfers) to skillful negotiation with Congress (cash and carry, lend-lease). But there was a common thread running through these maneuvers: The United States never appropriated direct military assistance to the United Kingdom. It traded stuff for stuff. Allowed the British military to buy war materiel from private manufacturers and transport it on British ships. Offloaded “surplus” goods.
…
Biden faces a similar set of circumstances. To sustain America’s support of Ukraine, he will need to find creative ways to bypass the handful of GOP congressmen who currently enjoy functional control of the House. He already enjoys some leeway. Last year, he signed into law a latter-day version of the Lend Lease Act, patterned after the original law, that allows him to lease military equipment to Ukraine on a five-year basis. He might also look for ways to use NATO or other allies as a middleman in the transfer of arms.
More info from a different article that provides context:
Bypassing Congress with emergency determinations for arms sales is an unusual step that has in the past met resistance from lawmakers, who normally have a period of time to weigh in on proposed weapons transfers and, in some cases, block them.
In May 2019, then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made an emergency determination for an $8.1 billion sale of weapons to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan after it became clear that the Trump administration would have trouble overcoming lawmakers’ concerns about the Saudi and UAE-led war in Yemen.
Pompeo came under heavy criticism for the move, which some believed may have violated the law because many of the weapons involved had yet to be built and could not be delivered urgently. But he was cleared of any wrongdoing after an internal investigation.
At least four administrations have used the authority since 1979. President George H.W. Bush’s administration used it during the Gulf War to get arms quickly to Saudi Arabia.
As others pointed out, this appears to only apply to arms sales, not for aid packages as in the case of Ukraine.
This is so cool to see. Thank you for sharing!
DOOM: Eternal (single-player) and Star Wars Battlefront 2 (2017) (with friends). DOOM is incredibly fun and great to play even for 30 min at a time as a busy adult. Battlefront likewise supports my relatively busy group of friends being able to play for a bit at a time and in various combinations without being a huge commitment. I love that I can play easily with 1 or 5 friends without issue and still have fun.
Yeah, we’ve gone back and forth. The leaf actually has a few nice amenities as a 2nd car (heated seats, back row is easier for a kid’s car seat) and the range is irrelevant (it’s used for 5-mile trips or less). The volt doesn’t have heated seats, is worth a lot more when it comes it financing a new car, and has an engine that still needs annual maintenance. That’s why we’re still leaning towards replacing it over the leaf.
We’re driving an old Leaf (2013) and a 2018 Volt. We kind of want to swap the Volt for a full EV (to get better EV range, ditch the gas engine, and get a little more space), but manufacturers seem to resent selling sub-$50k EVs except for the Bolt EUV… which isn’t really an upgrade over the Volt for our needs. I’ll keep waiting I guess.
How are you liking the ID.4? I have a colleague who bought one (it wasn’t really the right vehicle for his use case) and who didn’t love it. It seems like a good vehicle, but (like most EVs) is hard to find cheap.
Yeah, I never had good luck with jerboa… it worked sometimes, but I was mostly using liftoff (which is pretty good, in my opinion).
This was my feeling on it, too. Way more depth than I first expected. It felt like a spiritual successor to TNG.
…Bortus?
Charcuterie boards are peak lazy cuisine.
“You mean I can just eat meat and cheese and nuts and fruit on the cutting board I used to cut them up… and it’s somehow fancy?”
Here’s a good explainer:
What is tidal locking? https://phys.org/news/2015-11-tidal.html
Basically, the moon acted like a spinning (unbalanced) wheel, and eventually stopped with the “heavy” side pointing “down” towards Earth. I.e. think of the moon as orbiting Earth with the heavy side staying pointed at Earth.
Oxidation (and other processes) do affect coffee flavor, and grinding it up increases surface area / exposure to oxygen, speeding that up. Putting it in the fridge seems to also worsen flavor, but the freezer seems to be pretty reliable. Here’s a nice video discussing this by a weird coffee person (James Hoffmann): Should you freeze coffee beans?
Also, KGLW, nice!