Not an embassy. Iran has made it clear that should the US push too far their plan is to start blowing up the hundreds of billions of dollars of US industrial infrastructure (oil, refineries, docks, etc) in the Gulf region and North Africa. Most of those state oil companies have their infrastructure owned and operated by US companies like Exxon who then cut them a percentage of the profits.

The real downside for the rest of the world is without a doubt a second US civil war will result in minimum a few hundred nuclear weapons being detonated. Civil wars are one of the most brutal and nasty forms of warfare where some of the worst crimes against humanity regularly are played out.

Due to the nature of the US nuclear triad all sides of a second US civil war will end up with hundreds of nuclear warheads. Washington state has the US Navy nuclear weapons for the Pacific and Virginia state has the nuclear weapons for the Atlantic. States in the middle of the nation like Montana and the Dakotas have the ICBM nuclear weapons. California and Nebraska have large numbers of US Air Force nuclear weapons with the rest of the Air Force nuclear weapons being kept at dozens of US Air Force bases around the globe. All of the officially inactive but still functional nuclear warheads, numbering in the thousands, are stored in underground vaults at the PanTex facility in Texas.

In the US they tend to be so indoctrinated on the ideology of rugged individualism (owe nothing to society, thus owed nothing) that concepts like martyrdom are just meaningless words they read in religious text. Extremely ironic because it's a concept that is near universal to all religions.

This is the USA where dueling involved firearms and there was never much of a dueling culture centered around swords/rapiers. Although it's a lot less deadly with muskets that couldn't hit shit and I for one welcome politicians blowing each other away with modern firearms. Infact, I suggest this law require the use of Glock 18C machine pistols for maximum carnage.

every other regional power will be using advanced smart weapons built with off the shelf Ali Express parts

Biggest factor in cost is all the other regional great powers (China, Russia, Iran) have military industry under state enterprise while the US military industry is entirely privatized. The state enterprise military industry operates under supremacy of responsibility to the nation while the US privatized military industry has fiduciary responsibility to private capital as their only real responsibility. Under US law the corporate leadership of Raytheon, Boeing, Lockheed, and Northrop Grumman must follow a doctrine of shareholder supremacy and those shareholders are not the American people but a collection of private capital investment banks. It would be against US law for them to not make every effort (including buying politicians) to under deliver on contracts and milk every possible dollar from the US government.

Funniest part is they got owned by either Somali fishermen or Houthi fighters. Also the US are such fkn hypocrites to scream about Yemenis interdictions off the coast of Yemen when the US has been covertly doing it in the same area for the past decade. This isn't US waters, ridiculous. The US only ever talks about it when their SEAL teams get owned and there are too many questions.

Is funny because sports psychology has been a thing in professional sports for a while now. They make the players read philosophy books and try to coach them on how to get into the right mental state. Mental state is actually a big deal when it comes to peak physical performance. None of this is for altruistic reasons but about winning.

Also checking a players cognition and mood during games can probably help spot signs of injury. Entire reason coaches and owners started giving a fk about all the brain damage and stroking out is losing an investment. Everything from heat stroke to brain injury often comes with behavioral symptoms like confusion. Spot that shit immediately by doing basic neurological assessments, you can treat a player soon enough that you might not lose your investment.

In addition to spotting signs of internal physical injuries or degraded performance... mfkers, spotting signs that a player has deteriorating mental health and intervening also protects the investment. If they attempt suicide, successful or not, that's a problem. If they become emotionally unstable and commit an act of violence in their personal life (crime) or in-game (foul), that is a problem. Not just losing them to penalty, injury, prison, or death but the damage to the teams brand from the public relations fallout.

Yeah. I remember something about everyone intentionally using incompatible rail gauges out of fear that other nations would use trains for military invasions. It's only been in recent decades where we have started to see a globally adopted standard rail gauge for freight networks.

Also, can't help but see the BRI guys feeling a little extra smug about their plane for overland transport through the Middle East.

I had actually forgotten that China's belt and road initiative involved electrified freight train routes from China up through Russia or the middle east into Europe proper. Iirc there is also work to build routes from China deep into Africa to allow reliable trade of resources and goods without ocean going freight.

Years ago I was honestly surprised to learn that there wasn't already a reliable freight train network connecting all of continental Asia, Africa, and Europe. That everyone was sending freight longer distances via ocean going freight traveling around continents rather than via rail in straight lines over land seemed so wasteful. Ocean going freight should only be necessary for oversized freight, island nations, or freight between the eastern and western global hemispheres.

Funny because US presidents have immunity from criminal prosecution, have always had it, but when other countries set their laws up the same way it's dystopian.

The tech CEO?