Dont sit there crying.. DO SOMETHING!

@Punches Either Trump will do nothing but make noise, (in which case nothing will happen) Or he will do as he promised and contribute to inflation in the food industry and Labor shortages in a lot of low paid industries..😷

@Punches

The USA has never been a safe place to go to, even if Trump wasn't elected as POTUS and everyone here in Europe has always known that about the USA. The only people in the world who don't know that it seems, are Americans.

@SandWitch This is true. "Normal" is whatever you grow up with. So getting shot for going to school or shopping is a risk that goes with life there.😷

@SandWitch I hear what you say. But every culture has its differences..Sweden has a climate, and history that informs who you are today as does mine. And as does America, and indiviudality and the gun play a part. Sweden has a largely homogenous population with low immigrant numbers historically. Thats not good or bad. Just a point of difference. Each nation is a mosaic of such factors..😷

@whowasthatmaskedman
Okay, fair enough... America IS what it presents itself to be ..so to speak, in that all-encompassing, global mosaic you speak of then.

@SandWitch Exactly so. Of course its horrendous to us to look in and see such things. But the idea of that rancid canned fish is pretty strange to me. And I used to drive Volvos. 😂
😷

@whowasthatmaskedman
Oh, you mean a can of "surstromming"! 🤣

It isn't exactly rancid but in fact contains just enough added salt to keep it in balance from being declared as 'rancid fish'!.

Where America uses anchovies on pizza, Sweden uses surstromming on Swedish pizzas plus with other fine cuisine that is typically served at festive times, like Oktoberfest for example, where surstromming is always served with a Schnapps chaser!

My parents still drive a Volvo, though their year 2000 model S70 with AWD is considered obsolete now because they can't get parts for it anymore... even in Sweden, though it still doesn't burn any oil and doesn't have a spot of rust on it!

@SandWitch Volvos were brilliantly reliable until Ford bought them out.. Now the Chinese own them they are just a brand, like MG.. But back to the cultures, you clearly have things that are uniquely Swedish. You simply dont make them as violent as Americans do..Neither do we..To Americans, "freedom" equates to "more guns"..😷

@whowasthatmaskedman

I agree with you that to Americans, "freedom" means to be free to do whatever the hell they want, regardless of how their choices affect their next door neighbor and free to resolve all issues in their life with the use of a gun while using the legal excuse that they thought their life was in danger. Everyday that I awaken, I am grateful to God that I am not an American and that I do not live in the USA. From those two perspectives alone, I feel that I have won the lottery not once, but twice.

I do technical research in the marine industry and though unrelated, I was curious to find out why Volvo's reliability suddenly began to change and at what point in time this occurred. I discovered that Volvo was sold to Ford in 2006 and from that model year onward, the Volvo went from being made purely from aluminum which of course doesn't rust, to being 80% non-aluminum which was more in line with every typical Ford on the road... and which of course rust out without the metal being pre-treated, which it no longer is. The perforation warranty on a new Ford is now 2 years or 30,000 miles (50,000km).

From 2006 onward, a Volvo became a Ford in terms of life expectancy and the Volvo engineering that made the Volvo rather famous, was now history as Volvo engines were replaced with Ford engines and the structural design of the frame was changed to aline with Ford models on the assembly line.

What this meant was, all Volvos made prior to 2006 became instantly obsolete because those old Volvo parts were no longer being made.. intentionally... and any new Volvo parts that were still in inventory in Sweden were mass-auctioned to a US auto supplier who purchased all of Volvo's old stock, but then quadrupled the price on those new parts for those in dire need of parts for their old Volvos.

When the Chinese got involved with Ford/Volvo, the Volvo brand changed shape yet again, but this time to accommodate Chinese-made vehicles which now shared the same door shape and size with the Volvo brand. In other words, doors and trunk lids that were designed for a Chinese model will also fit on a Volvo.

Honda does this as well between the Honda Pilot and the Honda Passport and the Honda CRV... their doors are interchangeable, which is why the Honda CRV is one of the most stolen vehicles on the market because their parts will fit any other Honda product, which of course is why Honda's are sought after on the dark market!

@SandWitch Well researched..I wish I had had the means to keep my old 940.And a V70 with the Ford 3L motor was what killed Volvos for me. But after some searching I did find the Mitsubishi Outlander. The nearest thing you will get to a Volvo wagon in this day and age..
For a relatively small nation, Swden has had a few global hits.. Volvo, IKEA and ABBA. Nothing last forever. But Sweden has been a stand out..😷

@whowasthatmaskedman
My father maintains all his farm equipment on their dairy farm up in northern Sweden and he has a hobby of restoring old cars and trucks as well, but with the assistance of a full-time mechanic whom he keeps employed for the routine maintenance. What finished him off with Volvo was Ford's dilution of the Volvo brand, when Ford should really have just taken Volvo off the market completely, rather than try to pretend that Ford knew how to maintain that same quality from a cultural perspective which American Ford didn't know how to do.

Surprisingly, Volkswagen is shutting down one of it's VW Atlas plants in Germany because people are not buying them, mainly because they sit too high off the ground and there's way too many blind spots inherent with the vehicle's design. What's becoming popular again are wagon-style SUV's because they're not so much like a truck when trying to get in and out of them, the Outlander being one of those better choices I'm learning about.

I think another thing Sweden is showing the world is how they could switch from fossil fuel cars and small trucks to pure electric throughout our entire country, provided it is done right. Just about 99% of all car traffic in Sweden is purely electric, not even hybrid. The exception is large transport trucks and farm tractors which still rely on diesel.

The USA as expected, totally dropped the ball when it came to the transition from fossil fuel to electric vehicles because they did everything backwards... they built the cars THEN they tried to figure out the infrastructure needed to keep those cars charged. As it stands in the USA, don't be surprised if Trump swings everything back to fossil fuel cars and small trucks and totally abandons all attempts to go purely electric.

@SandWitch We agree. But the thing to remember about any decision about the US is someone has to make a profit or it isnt going to happen. The idea of a "Common good" for the good of the community or the nations future, rather than a quick profit is called "Socialism" which is a dirty word in the US, even if it ends up costing them more so the rich can get richer..😷

@whowasthatmaskedman
I am grateful that I wasn't born in the USA.

@SandWitch At one time, the USA was called "the greatest country in the world".
I think that statement had strong merits.

But now, many Americans are worried about this becoming a dictatorship. The MAGAts seem to think it is great that trump was re-elected but I think they are ignoring what could happen. Sooner or later they could lose whatever rights that are important to them.

I know some people do NOT value freedom because they do not want the responsibility that comes with it, but it is hard to imagine more than 1/2 a nation feeling that way.

Some Americans think it cannot happen but I imagine places like China, NK, fascist Germany, and others thought the same before it happened.

@Punches

Point of order here CestManan. The only people in the world who have ever called the USA "the greatest country in the world", are Americans!

The only place in the world where that quoted statement of your's has ever had strong merits, was if it was spoken pretty much anywhere in the world ...by an American.

That is why Americans voted Donald Trump into the US Presidency for a second time, because the only people in the entire world who believe Trump's self-absorbed mantra about the USA being the greatest country in the world, are Americans.

@swirlie Most of us no longer believe that mantra. I haven't heard it in a long time.

But yeah trump is making these steep promises that are pretty much impossible at this point.

Like how he talks about mass deportations, just how does he think he will pull THAT one off? 🤨
Even if he did manage that, during the time the cops and military were wrapped up, domestic criminals would be having a field day.
The police and military are not organized enough for such an operation. 😂

Or how he wants to fix the economy yet also impose tariffs on imported goods, all that will do is jack up prices even more. Most good in America come from China and Mexico.
BTW, this same man who wants to fix the economy was also on youtube asking for donations.

Restructure the government? It would then be a completely different kind of mess than what it is now.

Of course all these huge changes and solutions, he claims he will do it in one day. Give me a f*ckin break.