It’s basically all spam now. They even ruined cat videos. Might as well unplug the internet at this point.
Yeah the algorithm is garbage, though I guess the AI slop is at least somewhat generated for me. Its ~50% 90s rock/movie babes or hot athletes promoted, and stuff actual people posted 4 days earlier in some cases.
Well well, somebody goes off topic or drags another president in or does a whatabout and your knickers get in a twist. Betcha ya don't do that to others do ya?
Global free trade isnt free. Never has been. Its largely been funded by the US tax payer in the form of hundreds of US Navy ships patrolling the worlds oceans. Thats whos been protecting the cargo. Those days are coming to an end. The US has moved what ship production capacity it has left towards offense and regime change. Then there is the increasing problem of all the people who know how to actually build ships retiring. I guess we can farm it out to China? They already stole US ip for our latest carriers and fighters. Are they going to be the worlds police for the next century? Will they have the man power to police oceans and manufacture theirs and the worlds goods as their population implodes? I keep hearing what a bunch of xenophobes Americans are. Have you ever A/B'd our demographics to those of Asia? Lets say they wage another cultural revolution and start importing labor - then we will have to compete with them on that front as well. If they do assume that role do you think they will allow the dollar to remain the reserve currency? What will have more elasticity - the dollar or the yuan? If all those dollars flood home will fractional reserve banking grease the skids? I dont have the answer. It all puts a chokehold on my brain pretty quick. Im pretty sure printing up more to protect borders on the other side of the world in hopes of adding another freeloader to our "trade organization" isnt part of the answer though.
It's communist in name only. China is an authoritarian state with a crony capitalist economy not unlike Russia and what the US may be become under Trump.
You mean Trump will jail opponents, consider reeducation camps, deplatform and debank citizens!? Will he slander folks as anti-science horse paste eaters while bankrupting wrong thinkers!!?
If history is any blueprint, he will not slander the advocates of eating horse dewormer. But he will slander other folks. (See the multiple multimillion dollar judgements against him for defamation.)
The U.S. has just about 100 Navy ships deployed, and obviously not close to all of them are engaged in anti-piracy activity. What nonsense are you reading??? Good grief. The big threat to us isn’t “free trade”. That’s our strength! Esp relative to the Chinese. I don’t think China’s navy is going to meaningfully outclass ours either, even if they get superior #’s of ships. Either way, the threat to national security isn’t the relatively small potatoes we spend lighting up the Houthi’s or Somali pirates who threaten cargo ships around Africa. The real threat is if the Chinese decide they want war, with their 1Billion population and cheap view of life, they wouldn’t hesitate to spend 10 or 20 million lives (or more). That’s where the nuclear deterrent has to come in. If China decided to confront the U.S. navy or put on a blockade against the U.S. that would be act of war. I take it you are already for surrender!? How do you think that ends for the U.S.? There is no doubt the Chinese relationship is weird. They are both our #1 trade partner and our #1 strategic adversary, but even with that in mind our ships aren’t out there actually making sure Chinese or Vietnamese cargo gets here. They are out there to make sure China doesn’t get any crazy ideas about world domination. It isn’t just “cargo ships”, it’s far more existential.
I was actually referring to using the government to reward friends and punish enemies economically a feature of crony capitalism and a practice of Putin with respect to Russian oligarchs and Xi with respect to Chinese companies and billionaires. He already promised to do so when he was running for office.. You think the investigations of Tesla will continue after Trump takes office? How about the TikTok ban? Trump was all for it until he received a large contribution from a private equity guy who had a large investment in Byte Dance, the Chinese company that owns the app. And let's not forget Trump's party for oil company execs in which he promised them favorable policies in turn for campaign contributions or Trump's position on crypto. He called it a scam until he embraced it following large contributions from "crypto bros". I also have little doubt that Trump will use tariffs to punish his enemies and reward his friend through exemptions. There is also little doubt that he will use the power of agencies like anti-trust division of the DOJ or the FCC to punish his perceived enemies. Keep in mind that he threaten to investigate or pull the licenses of media outlets that he thought were treating him unfairly. Trump’s growing threats to strip broadcast licenses send chills across industry Trump & Musk Will Quash NHTSA Investigation Of Tesla Full Self Driving System Trump’s TikTok flip raises concerns over billionaire clout Donald Trump flips on crypto: From 'scam' to building a 'crypto army'