They're getting ready for mass firings. California and New Jersey both have rules about how you do that. You can still do it, but it's gonna show up in the press and you can't cheat people out of unemployment insurance or agreed upon severance.

Also you have to report the mass firings. Texas lets you sweep them under the rug.

I'm saying don't move. You'll be fired in a year.

You can't race to the bottom

AND Iraq. None of those were military losses. The military did its job, what it was asked to do. The military is a tool, and America's is a sharp one.

Yeah, it might take some boots on the ground. Some operations require that. But soldiers are part of the military. Look at the casualty numbers in this engagement to get an idea of what air superiority does for a military: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

All that has to happen is for Europe and America to get together and say, "It has been decided that Russia will not be allowed to annex any part of Ukraine." Putin is not insane, he'll fight Ukraine but not NATO if NATO gets serious. But he hasn't crossed any red lines.

That's not what happened, though. Biden told Putin, "If you invade Ukraine, we will sanction you." Putin said, "Good deal."

If Trump backed candidates win then Europe is going to have to do something but if they lose even if it's Republicans winning Europe will see that as a signal that they can back down.

The basic question is will America return to some semblance of sanity with the economy crashing and gas prices skyrocketing or will they just keep doubling down on more Trump. There have been several primary elections where Trump backed candidates won though. So it's not looking good. The basic problem is American voters either are obsessed with voting Republican even when it hurts them economically and a lot of Americans aren't allowed to vote because we do heavy duty voters suppression.

So the country is really going off the deep end here.

The thing is Europe can't really ignore a mentally unstable United States because we still have this massive military. I know it looks like we got our asses kicked in Iran but the only reason Trump had the back down even a little is that a draft and boots on the ground is still a bridge just a little bit too far.

All it takes to change that is one middle-sized terrorist attack and the American public will freak the fuck out and send their kids off to die in the desert again. Hell the last time when 9/11 hit we didn't even have to do a draft because so many people signed up. Now mind you Iran is a much bigger country and taking Greenland is a bigger deal so yeah we would need a draft, but you can get away with pretty much anything when people think that they are under attack

It is true, if Iran gets control of the straits that will be a victory for them. A sort of "here's your consolation prize for surviving" sort of victory. We'll see what happens.

Someone else pointed out that it is well known who destroyed the Nordstream pipeline, but you rejected the facts.

I can't stand people who reject facts when they are well supported. It's anti-scientific.

Iran lost the war. Their main remaining military capability is killing civilians.

From a military standpoint, it was a resounding American victory. Whether or not Trump's goals were reached, who knows what's in his head? But that isn't a military question.

Also, I think you're dumb, because you don't write comments backed by fact.

If we're going to be clear, "capitalism" doesn't have a clear definition. It's used differently in different contexts, often with the meaning of "not communism."

It's better to use a different word. For example, you could have said, "The free market wins again" since that is what you actually meant.

So, you guess that Russia will use a nuke.

You need to look up what a mother fucking chesterton's fences.

Deregulating isn't going to create some magical world of competition and wonder and beauty. All it's going to do is what a handful of psychopaths abuse people's privacy and civil rights. Basically the exact same problem the United States has right now where finance Bros have used technology to do all sorts of fucked up shit and get us to where we are right now.

All Europe has to do if it wants to compete with Microsoft is take government money and dump it into software. That's it. Most of the software they need is already 60 to 80% of the way there. After that all you have to do is mandate the use of that software to interoperate with the government and with government contracts and everyone has to follow along because government contracts are worth way too much money to blow them off. It really is that simple and it's only corruption that prevents it from happening.

Every few years Europe threatens to dump Microsoft and Microsoft comes in and gives them tens of millions of dollars worth of free software and free support. This is been going on for at least as long as I've been paying attention and that's going on 30 years.

The reason we are here talking about this shit is because this doesn't look like another cycle of Europe pressuring Microsoft for free support, free software and discounts but instead they are legitimately trying to decouple themselves from America because America has gone bad shit crazy with right-wing extremism and the kind of laissez-faire bullshit that you're talking about when it comes to quote unquote deregulation.

What you're suggesting is basically Europe traveling the exact same road that the United States did which is the exact reason Europe doesn't want to buy software from the United States anymore. Counterproductive doesn't even begin to cover it. That would be batshit insanity.

That is a hope.

If the EU switches to open source, it will be the best thing Trump has done. Literally.

At this point you might as well just link to Vladimir Rudolfovich Solovyov's podcast, because you sound just like him.

Yeah, and Iran is a good example. America can hit any location they want in Iran, any time, and there is nothing the IRGC can do about it.

Did you seriously write that comment or are you just a AI chatbot? Honestly can't tell the difference anymore.

You might want to look up where most telecommunications hardware comes from regardless of what the rules and regs say. Or fuck where do you think phones are made? Yeah some of them are made in India not anywhere close to all of them.

People will buy from dictators all day long as long as those dictators are predictable.