When the ransom is $8200 why would anyone pay $150,000? OK, maybe in this case he negotiated a lower price, but if they were always paying the ransom it's hard to see how this scheme could be so profitable.

The US govt "bailed out" Chrysler and General Motors. Isn't that a subsidy? Fact is every govt subsidizes something. They often don't use the word subsidy.

And Boeing made the plane that dropped the atomic bomb and the firebombing of Tokyo. Both of which would have been war crimes if the US hadn't won the war. My point is that there are no clean hands in the ruling classes.

Apparently it's only a problem when Israel does this. The Pentagon, no problem. It's that double standard that defines antisemitism.

It doesn't matter how many parties you have, what matters is what set of social/political/economic (class) interests they represent. And given the general lack of imagination AI has demonstrated, any party it creates will echo/mirror/generally copy the parties it was trained on.

As described by Karl Marx. This is how capitalism works--a feature, not a bug.

"Welfare queen"? Bad news, my friend, Ronald Reagan's dead, and his bs is rapidly dying too.

Most Lebanese hate Hezbollah. Hezbollah has been imposed on them--no one voted for them, and they rule by force.

Hamas has admitted that around 11,000 of these reported deaths can't be verified. In other words, they made them up. Also the "Gaza health officials" (aka Hamas) that the media always cite uncritically don't report how many deaths were actual civilians, how many were Hamas terrorists, and how many were the victims of Hamas using them as human shields.

Even more, if any of those three-letter agencies want your info they're going to get it no matter what technical fix you've got in place. There's a tendency to forget that those agencies have guns.

Actually, they did learn quite a lot. Colin Powell was quite clear about this--the need to have broad and deep domestic political support for a war. The "Vietnam Syndrome" is carefully studied in the military academies and colleges.

No. Violation only if used for commercial purposes. Perfectly legal to draw anything you want if you're not selling it.

The biggest problem for the French isn't data security, or "consideration," or any of that crap. It's that these are American products from American companies.

"It's better..." for who? If it's better for the employers, why don't they do it? Are they stupid? Are they short-sighted? I don't think so, I think they know exactly what's best for their class interests, and paying workers more, either in wages or working conditions, is not. That's why there's such a staggering imbalance in pay and living conditions between the employing class and their technoservants on the one hand and the working class on the other.

But the local cops where the VPN is located can, and they're best friends with the FBI, or can made to act like best friends. The fact is that if the FBI/CIA/NSA /whoever wants to go after you, nothing will stop them. This is not a good thing.