>"So a very tiny amount. Europe pays the vast majority..."
Europe is not a country. And not all of Europe is in NATO. Even the concept of "Europe" isn't perfectly well-defined.... some would say Russia is also in Europe. The NATO protection is, primarily, of European nations. Yes, it helps everywhere else, too, to keep NATO's "enemies" in check. But the USA is 1 of 32 members and yet pays more than five times 1/32nd.
>"I don't have an issue with Donnie hammering on those, I just wished he would have made clear that this was about overall defense spending."
He is often unclear, unfortunately.
>"Of course by abandoning Ukraine he now gives EU[...]"
I am not aware of him ever vetoing any support legislation, or threatening to do so (I could be wrong on that). He was confident he could work out a deal and quickly. Apparently Putin is not so cooperative.
>"It was Putin who succeeded in getting these countries to up their budgets."
Keep in mind the big invasion didn't occur until 2022, years after Trump left office the first time (which is when he was calling for them to live up to their obligations). Of course, Putin was already hostile before that and had already invaded during Oboma admin, but that apparently didn't motivate them.
Part of the treaty is to keep up their own military/defenses and they were not doing so (and for a long time and getting worse). Member states were expected to pay at least 2% of their GDP into defense/readiness, annually. "Donnie" wanted to make sure that the countries were ready and able to defend themselves and come to the aid of other member states, instead of immediately relying on other member's resources when it is too late. That is not an unreasonable expectation.
There are also direct contributions to NATO, itself, to cover its operating and management costs. "The total budget for these common funds is approximately â4.6 billion for 2025. Contributions are based on a cost-sharing formula that considers each country's gross national income." And the USA covers 16% of that operating budget, more than any other member.
>"And then you look at Europe, with their two years of maternity leave, and worker protections, and way more paid holidays, and universal healthcare, and they all like to look down their noses at Americans, while they benefit from a massive security umbrella that the US provides, which frees up the funds to spend on social programs."
While simultaneously NOT PAYING THEIR AGREED OBLIGATIONS TO NATO, leaving the USA to absorb that as well. I will now get downvoted by reminding people that it was Trump that demanded they start paying their obligations, and succeeded. https://www.usatoday.com/story...
"Rutte then nodded along as Trump recalled demanding that NATO nations pay up their fair share during his first term as president. [...] very few were paying, and if they were, they weren't paying their fair share, [...] After making it clear that U.S. wouldn't support NATO if member states didn't step up, the money started pouring in, [...] The U.S. contributes 3.4% of its GDP and about 16% of NATO's annual budget. [...] By 2024, all non-U.S. NATO allies spent the 2% target on average for the first time."
...are three different things
From what I've read, their technological problems is that there are too many rules and their economic problem is that labor laws restrict flexibility
I seriously doubt any streaming provider is actually going to invest in the kind of quality Australian content that really should be made and instead will invest in more of the same cheap junk that infests our free-to-air networks.
This is just dumb. There are conflicts over water, but when you include incidents that are part of a larger conflict that is not over water (Israel/Palestinian or Ukraine/Russia), you're just swamping any insight you might have gotten with meaningless noise. This is obvious, so I assume they're not looking for signal but just trying to make a big number for some other reason.
>"Saying Libre Office replaces MS Office like saying a tricycle vending cart replaces a step van."
I never said that LibreOffice can replace all the functionality of MS Office for everyone. You must be thinking of someone else. It can, indeed, replace all of what most people do with MS-Office, and most of what the rest do.
>"For instance, Libre Office has no support for group editing."
It does support tracking, authorship, and also "check in/out" on remote file locations, but not really true group editing. They are thinking on that, though:
https://design.blog.documentfo...
https://bugs.documentfoundatio...
The cloud is a trap
Run away
>"In the UK we have an annual inspection, but not until the car is 3 years old (from the point of first sale). They have said they will have a free odometer reading at the same place that does the annual check for the first two times."
Here it is every single year. Varies by State, of course. Some States it is 2 years, some have no inspections at all. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Oh, it must have changed a lot. I don't remember there being so many that have no inspections. Only 14 of 50 have regular inspections now. But my point was, they already have the info here, so it is ridiculous to play these games about mileage here.
>"The more annoying part is that you have to pay up front, i.e. estimate your annual mileage and then at the next odometer check you get a refund or pay more depending on if you are under or over. I can see why they did it, car tax is paid up front for the year too, and it allows people to spread it over monthly payments."
That is just stupid and unnecessarily complicated (making it in advance instead of arrears). Besides, it could still be made in payments if in arrears. It is not like the government will be starved of much precious revenue by it being one-time delayed this relatively small tax. Yeesh!
Beware the new TTY code!
