If I had 700k in savings I could probably retire right now, nevermind when I was 67.
Says he still has an outstanding mortgage, but how much could he possibly have left to pay off??

I feel we have been hovering right around there for a while now.

I have about the same position on this. A lot (though not all) of these people are insufferable, though we don’t have nearly as many in my country as the US does. Being annoying on the internet is, thankfully, not something people get deported for however.

Nor does it mean I wish them death, which is likely what would happen if they were sent back. Their death and a prolonging of a war that is just going to kill even more.

Surely they don’t actually think NATO is an equal partnership between them and the US, right?

“The US is upset that China is” is probably enough of a headline already.

But it is okay, YouTube told me they will collapse any day now! Annnnny day now.

So…what would the change be exactly?

I opened their website as much as it pains me. You know, for research. They have a host of AI “staff” you can select to work with, with fake profiles and pictures and everything and different areas of “expertise”. Desperately trying to make their programs seem like actual people.

Even if I were somehow bought into the AI con (I am 1000% not), why wouldn’t I just want to buy into one singular entity that handles everything, rather than trying to replicate human divisions of labour.

Their second “about us blurb” is them nonironically saying “We are leading a paradigm shift”. Which should have any rational person running away screaming. They literally promote their CEO as having a pedigree of pumping-and-dumping startups. There is a close to 0% chance they are selling anything to actual consumers. He is the one that could easily be replaced with an AI.

I hope they can all make it out before the conscription comes into effect. I have to imagine a lot of people saw this coming and fled already, but I wouldn’t wish anyone to be sacrificed to that meat grinder if they can avoid it.

They are totally free to vote for anyone* they want!

*As long as they are anti-China, anti-DPRK, and pro-US.

They realise that every time they have denied China access to something, China has just made a better version?

They already have CEF anyway I suppose, which is already the biggest Chinese electronics tradeshow. They could easily just start inviting more foreign companies (including USian companies that are willing to work within Chinese structures).

Weird. Having the worst work-life balance in the world that nearly requires widespread alcohol dependency has a negative impact on the birth rates. Who would have guessed. I mean, they are beating out my country for shitty work culture, and that takes an almost conscious effort.

But hey, I think they are giving a one-time bonus to couples for every kid they have. Surely that will fix the problem and result in happy well-adjusted families.

we’ve seen what lengths americans would go through to enable a clueless entitled white man to win over an intelligent and accomplished minority woman

As USians did not elect Trump (presumably the clueless entitled white man) over Sheinbaum, the reasonable assumption here is that the “intelligent and accomplished minority woman” you were referencing was Harris, no? Sheinbaum wasn’t running against an entitled white man.

I could see that, and would be all for it. At least partnership status, if not a full member.

to win over an intelligent and accomplished minority woman

That is one of the most generous descriptions I have ever heard of her, unless you mean accomplished in war crimes. People going to bat for either side of the US Party are missing the point.

They go into a lot of detail on how these markets work without a whole lot of discussion as to whether or not this should be happening.

I mean, it isn’t surprising in the least. I imagine most USians care less about the effect of the outcome (how many people voting for a major party could tell you much about their own candidate’s policies, nevermind the opposition policies) and more on whether their team won or not. It is turning the whole thing into a sports competition, so of course people would gamble on it.

Which I imagine, is exactly the intended result.

The US keeps doing this, and expecting China to come begging to be let back in the club. Everytime China just goes off and does it way better themselves.

In a way, the US repeatedly shooting themselves in the foot is probably one of the biggest impetus for Chinese development around. China probably would have been happy to cooperate with US space organizations or to keep using their existing chip agreements.

How else would you have room to buy the newer and more expensive bombs from your contractors?

Stop…murdering people? I am sorry, but how will the Lockheed CEO possibly win the yacht contest without the US government paying him billions of dollars? Do you expect him to show up with last year’s model?

“The problem now”

They have been in desperation draft mode for a while now, we always knew the problem was people. Anyone with sense was saying this like a month into the conflict. Getting western powers to shovel their old equipment to them was never an issue as it just let the weapons manufacturers sell newer ordnance to said powers.

Not only do they lack people, they need more than just warm bodies that they can shove a rifle at and point them in a direction. Armies aren’t lining up and charging at each other anymore. Modern warfare isn’t just which side has more troops, you need trained and experienced soldiers that have a willingness to fight and know how to use their equipment. Ukraine has none of those.

So their current line is that the explicitly anti-Russian military alliance is checks notes controlled by Russia?

That’s…wait, yes that makes perfect sense. Quick, disband NATO in order to spite Putin! That will show him!