I always think back to that one Nixon biopic as an example of a believable portrayal having a lot less to do with if an actor looks like the real life person and more to do with their acting skills. I can't remember which Nixon movie it was, actor might have been John Goodman or something, but they nailed Nixon's affect and mannerisms perfectly.

Their issue wasn't the hairstyle but blonde hair on someone with dark skin. Apparently it's "unnatural". Growing up mixed race black in the US, you run into this with a certain type of person. Evidence of misagination really bothers them.

Interesting. California rice fields (state grows a decent amount of rice) have always used this method of intermittent flood irrigation rather than the rice paddy method most Asian nations use. Biggest reasons are higher yields and less abundant water rather than concern about greenhouse gas production.

I feel bad for EU nations who all seemed to forget the US foreign policy motto about the US having no actual allies and only interests. It's always been and always will be America first.

US elites learned something after the 2016 election took them by surprise about the general discontent with worsening economic conditions among the key US car dealership and gym owner population. After the COVID economic shocks, the obvious move for US leadership was to leverage the situation in eastern Europe to jump at the opportunity to cannibalize the UK, Germany, and possibly France. It's some real craven real-poltik shit that Henry Kissinger has to be proud of and looking at the numbers is infact reindustrializing key segments of the US at northern European expense.

This is why the Biden administration doubled down on the Trump admins various tarrifs on EU imports and even restructured their China sanctions to maximize friction not just with imports to the US but Chinese trade with the EU. The White House and State Dept also seem to be gleefully watching (and even exacerbating) the situation involving France and its neo-colonies. France due to most of their energy coming from state owned nuclear has had their industry a lot more sheltered than Germany against the shocks in energy prices and shortages in LNG. Since France relied on its African colonies for both nuclear fuel and cheap fossil fuel, they may be in the process of having its own energy supply chain collapsing and ending up as fkd as Germany.