They probably don’t believe you because most of the time a 20% growth rate doesn’t just stay constant for a decade, allowing for such simplistic extrapolations. There are examples to the contrary. But a 20% growth rate means 750% growth over 10 years and that is a lot.

This points to a flaw in your question.

You probably should have said “foolproof countermeasure” if you really just wanted to remove nukes as a factor to see what happens.

But you said “foolproof deterrent” and now you’re quibbling at people over whether a psychological deterrent can actually be foolproof.

Maybe not, but then your question is nonsensical. The fact is that we are already using guaranteed total destruction of the world as a deterrent and it has so far worked. What more deterrence are you even suggesting we might add to that???

I mean… for now. How long until drones with thrusters on their backs can land on a missle and redirect it wherever they want?

Sometimes we ask questions to gain knowledge we simply haven’t found yet.

Other times we ask questions because some knowledge just won’t stick in our brains even when it’s given to us, and then we spend the thread fighting the answer for that same reason: it just won’t stick.

Anti-ballistic missile defense systems are a technology.

You asked what would happen. A treaty is a thing that can happen.

Why don’t you tell us what you think would happen and be done, if that’s what this is really about.

You’re right. I was thinking about private citizens but that’s not the situation on this one.

It’s very valuable for research purposes too.

I get where you’re coming from but leaking a list of names and how they voted is a terrible thought.

Oh yeah wow I hadn’t noticed the community this was posted under. Totally inappropriate. Wake up, mods.

I guess we can reasonably disagree on this. Posthumous damnation of Limbaugh sounds less likely to me than letting him fade into obscurity. He was already damned to anyone who would care now.

Somehow Palpatine Rush Limbaugh returned.

Oh, someone quoted him? Don’t even do that, y’all!

Pete Buttigieg is doing pretty fucking well, politically. It helps that he’s a medal-wearing veteran. I think that’s actually an important credential for most politicians but in the case of a gay man, perhaps moreso because it helps silence any slurs against his manhood. Your husband is lacking that. I don’t think success as a patent attorney is worth much in terms of image. The rest is someone who loves him listing his many virtues.

To be honest I think gay people are doing pretty fucking well these days versus when I grew up. There are still plenty of firsts left to happen, like President. But my whole childhood and young adulthood, gays were public enemies and the focus of conservative ire at every turn. They seem to have switched targets to trans people now, which is awful. But it has left gay people in an unusually quiet space. The marriage question is settled in all 50 states. With that, we seem to have moved on.

The existing currency pool is not the reason. Paper money has a pretty short durable life, and coins don’t have enough value to operate society on. It’s actually a fairly big task for a government to maintain the currency supply.

The military are practical. This is an issue that was behind them. They’d established their policies and programs. They were baked in. They had moved on. They don’t care for the politician of the hour jerking them around. People think the military are conservatives, but the army is neither a red state or a blue state. It is green.

I’ll just give some examples.

We know that construction workers build things, but many office workers are behind them. When you hear “office worker,” think “information worker” as that will help.

What information?

Someone has to pay the construction workers. This involves accounting and payroll tasks best done at a computer.

Architects design the project being constructed and this is done in an office.

There are permits, inspections, regulations, taxes, real estate licensing etc to clear the project and this is done through computers and telephones.

Coordination of the different work crews must be planned - we don’t just ask concrete, civil engineers, plumbers, electrical, and landscaping to all show up on the same day and just figure things out. These things are scheduled out and arranged with many different companies / subcontractors and this is mapped out on a computer and agreed to over the phone.

The new apartments being constructed will need tenants to rent them. Billboard space is going to be rented near the building. A graphic designer is designing the billboard on a computer in an office. Someone else is calling the billboard company to arrange the large scale printing of it and to purchase the time it will be displayed.

I’ll stop. This is off the top of my head. If construction workers, with their obviously valuable and easy to understand work have this many office workers behind them, you can imagine how it’s even more complex for things like tech companies.

The amount of power is the same

There is only one pope seat at a time which they can assign, true. But that’s not a complete measurement of all the power involved.

Think of fit this way. Every time there’s an election, everyone comes out to kiss their ass and offer favors so that they themselves or “their guy” will get elected. If elections happen only every 20 years, then this ass-kiss-fest only happens every 20 years.

They’d rather it happen every 5 years.

Mmm smart.

The biggest problem I see is that people don’t always understand others’ jobs and how to judge if they are doing them well. I know this will be unpopular but managers are the key example here. Everyone thinks they know who the good and bad managers are but until you’ve been one, you dont understand their job to truly know more than who you like and who you don’t like. That’s no way to decide anyone’s pay.

If they also consume it over the border, sure.

If they bring it back, they are importing it and that’s when you have to pay the tariff. If you’re thinking “just keep it in your trunk how will anyone know?” just consider how long smuggling has been a thing and ask yourself if you think border guards have thought of this. They have.

Of course signals are for inter-driver communication. It’s a signal “to” someone, right?

We don’t need to discuss how to use your signal when no one’s around.

Physically moving into the other lane also tells them that you are moving. The sole purpose of having a blinker is to use it in advance.