> Capitalism is all about the free market.

This is a lie that Capitalists tell to make Capitalism sound less evil.

Capitalism is about making money. It's right there in the name. The idea is that a free market would enable those who are best at making money to make the most money, but you know what's even more effective at making money than investing in a better product for a better price? Investing in kneecapping your competition and creating a captured market where people are functionally *forced* to buy your product because there's no alternative.

Monopolies and regulatory capture are the natural conclusion of a capitalist system, unless the "free market" is enforced by actively preventing these things through force of law... oh, oops! Guess that's not a free market any more either! Turns out a free market economy is a fucking fairy tale!

> are not a capitalist. You are at best a plutocrat.

These are not mutually exclusive, and in fact the natural conclusion of capitalism is the creation of a plutocracy. To suggest otherwise is paradoxical; capitalism is about increasing wealth and plutocracy is about leveraging wealth.... to make even more money.

=Smidge=

Keep in mind that the "American Century" included nuclear nonproliferation. Which, to be sure, was already on life support. But it's dead now. We're all going to miss that.

It also included the US Navy guaranteeing freedom of navigation. We're going to miss that, too.

Knowing what people get paid here (Europe) and what other benefits people get, I do not see your argument. Maybe you have no clue what you are talking about?

Yes. Evangelicals and other Christian fanatics are really no better than Muslim fanatics, they are just better organized and more sneaky. All fanatics are bad. Period. All fanatics are loud and try to rule the world. And all fanatics try to force others to think their way. They are the one group in the human race (besides the Billionaires these days) that must be carefully controlled and limited and, if needed, suppressed. Because if that does not happen, then everything goes to shit.

Also refer to "The Paradox of Tolerance" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradox_of_tolerance), which essentially says that the one group you must never tolerate are those that promote intolerance.

Yep, I see that happening every day and I am scared! Well, if there were any truth to this deranged claim. There is not.

At this time, the new rules put in place after the Schrems II ruling still allow that. But they might not do so for much longer. Putting any EU citizen's personal data into O365 may already be technically illegal now.

The EU is not "flexing" at all. That is just the deranged framing the US media puts on things. This has been quietly going on for quite some time, it just became more public and urgent as the US regime leader turns more and more insane.

Indeed. But the crap MS does stops now. I have no idea how they could be so incredibly stupid to block the ICC accounts or, recently, leak the names of Swedish Government Regulators to the US Congress. Yes, they are required to do this by law (just a "maybe" for the first case), but it seems MS has not fought back one bit and they did not really oppose the Cloud Act when they could have when either.

It is now exceptionally clear to any government and most companies on the planet that US companies like Microsoft can disable your MS-based IT when the US administration wants them to do so for arbitrary reasons or personal vengeance but the regime leader and can also steal all your data in there and hand it to the US administration. That completely removes any longer-term future for this tech outside of the US.

Oh, they will collect. The US earns a lot of money processing data for EU companies. After the Schrems II ruling this is dependent on the EU being able to enforce its laws in the US whenever data of EU citizens gets processed.

You are an idiot. The GDPR applies to Clearview because it stole data from EU citizens that were in the EU at that time.

That is really insightless nonsense. I have done GDPR audits for companies as small as 5 people working there. It takes one person with a working brain a few days to figure this out. That is, unless you plan to steal your customer's data and use every loophole available. Then it gets really tricky. And that is why the billionaires complain and useful idiots believe this nonsense.

That is some fine FUD you have there. For example, the only time the GDPR gets tricky is when you plan to abuse and circumvent it. You should not believe the propaganda the billionaires put out. It rots your brain.

Same with my Fairphone 4. Does what it should and is currently on Android 15. Had to replace the battery once, a 5 minute task, including the time for ordering a new one.

Funny how disconnected and completely without insight people can get. And notice nothing. You are a really striking example.

So, no, the GDPR is not actually hard to navigate, except if you plan to abuse and circumvent it. Then it it becomes a nightmare.

I am not sure. With his attack on Iran he may have done massive good for decarbonization and climate protection. Not what he intended, of course.

But his biggest achievement will doubtlessly be ending the American Century. It was about time.