Even though European defence investment was lacklustre - don't forget that those requests between the lines mean to buy US defence tech and still be dependent on US in time of war.
Countries that have actually invested have same problems - dependance on US tech and their unreliable leadership. Those who had stockpiles of American weapons (or even components from US in mostly domestically made weapons) - still need to coordinate with US (cannot find in the moment, but I definitely read about this, when Sweden couldn't send weapons due to American components inside).
France is mostly (totally??) independent in the matter of defence from America - and Americans hate French for that. America really hated de Gaulle's wish of military and political independence of Europe from America. But he was unsuccessful in his vision, essentially building this status quo: "Americans will military bases in European backyards, Europeans will be tame good boys and Americans will provide security with a pinky promise", Truman Doctrine - I believe.
(West) Germany's extreme pacifism is also thanks to USAs efforts to not repeat Versaille treaty's failures and rise of new Hitler-like figure.
> if you wanted to foment the sort of mistrust many Americans have of Europe, I don't think you could have created a more invidious policy
Sounds like something from Project 2025 propaganda preparations.
I will remind you that only USA triggered NATO Article 5 and whole Europe came to help in their now infamous "war on terror", even including countries that weren't in NATO at the time (though obviously were aligned and wanted to be there) and lost lives there.
I would maybe have believe this statement if current administration would have gone 110% into isolationism, as their election shouts where "America First". At the time it was phrased as: they won't help Ukraine, NATO, or any other organisation/action happening outside USA. Now it means: USA will take anything by force whether you like it or not.
Also you want to eat your cake and have it too. You still want to have tens of thousands of soldiers and your bases in EU, you want EU countries to invest in your defence sector (but pwease pwease don't get too independent, otherwise Uncle Sam will get angwy), though you want to freaking go to war against NATO countries, because Amerika stronk. Also not forget very close cooperation and access given to local military bases for Americans from European counterparts.
Many NATO countries in Europe are steadily investing in defence for 10+ years (mostly from 2014 Crimea annexation) and many more waking up with 2022 total war on Ukraine from ruzzia.
I want European part of NATO to be stronger and more decisive, actions are happening, but Europe still has democracy, not a some weird authoritarian kakistocracy with oligarchical flavour.
So let's not pretend that Europe should pay for USA's wish for total hegemony, worldwide policing and global reserve currency. Europeans lost their lives in USAs wars and enabled this USA vision of global hegemony for last 70+ years.
These rambles prove to me yet again - in what information bubble USA lives, which is dictated by geriatric 80-year-olds still living 20+ years in the past inside their heads and transferred by ignorant talking heads of 24h news cycle.
> Adams wrote about the incident (indirect link, via the Metatalk thread). He wrote that he makes contrarian predictions as calculated bets that in the unlikely event they pan out, he would get credit. [0]
Also to add - from Adams’ wiki[1], there are more examples of a bunch of bold contrarian takes that never became true.
I see you fulfilled one of his dreams and credited to him one of the guesses.
[0] from another comment in this thread, exposing how Adams was praising himself from third character.
I agree with you trymas! I myself spent time cataloguing a number of his predictions that did not come true.
I am still asking a specific question: for the prediction of Trump's rise, did the critics downvoting me read his actual writing and arguments? It was not a single contrarian prediction. It was an extended, thoughtful, and informed perspective that has helped understand the world for the past 10 years.
Further, he didn't just make multiple contrarian predictions in the hope he'd be credited -- he had a way of making predictions in ways that could be interpreted multiple ways later.
I both (A) found this infuriating and (B) found his understanding of what Trump is to be deeply insightful.
> built by foreign multinationals and then expropriated by Chávez in 2007?
If you follow this reasoning - after what happened today - you will get Iran 2.0: Venezuelan boogaloo
I have zero optimism that after this - ordinary Venezuelans will have better outcomes in 10 years time.
Current USA government is some weird klepto-oligrachy. Hates brown people. It’s not doing it out of benevolence to Venezuelans. Venezuelans will get either colonialist resource extraction treatment or some power vacuum will bring just another despot.
It blows my mind anyone can hold this opinion after 10+ years of Trump very publicly spewing racist garbage. Let's just review a few recent examples:
- Claimed Haitian immigrants were eating neighbors' pets
- Currently claiming Somalian immigrants have setup vast networks of fraudulent daycares
- While he's worked diligently to stop immigration from, what he calls, "shithole countries" like Somalia, Haiti, and Afghanistan, he's advocated for increased immigration from "nice" or "beautiful" countries like Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. He also specially carved out a special South African Afrikaner refugee status for white South Africans.
- Repeatedly called SARS-CoV-2 the Chinese virus, "kung-flu", etc.
- Told four congresswomen of color (3 of whom were born in the U.S.) to "go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came". A bipartisan resolution was passed in The House condemning these comments as racist.
- And we can go back a long time ago, and remember the Central Park Five, where he relentlessly attacked five innocent black and latino children, calling for the death penalty for them. Even after DNA evidence proved their innocence, Trump never apologized or acknowledged wrongdoing.
Each of these you could try to individually explain away as a misunderstanding or whatever. But there's an abundantly clear pattern of racism, not just with Trump, but much of his administration.
> Venezuela's cooperation with Moscow and Beijing is a much more likely motivation, i.e., US national security.
If that’s the case why pootin got a red carpet in Alaska instead of orange jumpsuit?
Why if ruzzia is such a “threat to national security”, current government of “no new wars” doesn’t help Ukraine?
Don’t forget that eliminating (or reducing its influence to nothing) ruzzia - would hurt China immensely. Two birds with one stone and all… also with a benefit of a true legitimacy of helping Ukraine and destroying ruzzian totalitarianism.
Look at Ukraine and how GOP was successful at blocking or significantly delaying any help.
In 2022 everyone was saying that military industrial complex (MIC) was so strong in US, that Ukraine will be getting anything they want. Apparently MIC lobby is rather weak.
How I understood OP - is that Costco pays better than other big retailers. Also probably not only for IT department, but on average (including cashiers and such).
But the context of the conversation is white collar crime, corruption, or unfair practices, and paying significantly above market rate.
Costco is a very egalitarian organization. They pay is flatter across the entire hierarchy. Lower rank people are paid more, higher ranked people are paid less. They are a super ethical organization, I'm a big fan (though they could do better at incentivizing innovation).
It's just not the same pattern as paying gigantic amounts of money to hoard up "CS grads" or lawyers.
Only reason is that orange mussolini does not like seeing wind turbines. That's it.
He sees them on Scotland's shores while flying to his resort - like a child he needs to have a personal vendetta on something he does not like, especially now when he has power to do it. God forbid he will need to see such monsters on God loving free country of US of A.
Countries that have actually invested have same problems - dependance on US tech and their unreliable leadership. Those who had stockpiles of American weapons (or even components from US in mostly domestically made weapons) - still need to coordinate with US (cannot find in the moment, but I definitely read about this, when Sweden couldn't send weapons due to American components inside).
France is mostly (totally??) independent in the matter of defence from America - and Americans hate French for that. America really hated de Gaulle's wish of military and political independence of Europe from America. But he was unsuccessful in his vision, essentially building this status quo: "Americans will military bases in European backyards, Europeans will be tame good boys and Americans will provide security with a pinky promise", Truman Doctrine - I believe.
(West) Germany's extreme pacifism is also thanks to USAs efforts to not repeat Versaille treaty's failures and rise of new Hitler-like figure.
> if you wanted to foment the sort of mistrust many Americans have of Europe, I don't think you could have created a more invidious policy
Sounds like something from Project 2025 propaganda preparations.
I will remind you that only USA triggered NATO Article 5 and whole Europe came to help in their now infamous "war on terror", even including countries that weren't in NATO at the time (though obviously were aligned and wanted to be there) and lost lives there.
I would maybe have believe this statement if current administration would have gone 110% into isolationism, as their election shouts where "America First". At the time it was phrased as: they won't help Ukraine, NATO, or any other organisation/action happening outside USA. Now it means: USA will take anything by force whether you like it or not.
Also you want to eat your cake and have it too. You still want to have tens of thousands of soldiers and your bases in EU, you want EU countries to invest in your defence sector (but pwease pwease don't get too independent, otherwise Uncle Sam will get angwy), though you want to freaking go to war against NATO countries, because Amerika stronk. Also not forget very close cooperation and access given to local military bases for Americans from European counterparts.
Many NATO countries in Europe are steadily investing in defence for 10+ years (mostly from 2014 Crimea annexation) and many more waking up with 2022 total war on Ukraine from ruzzia.
I want European part of NATO to be stronger and more decisive, actions are happening, but Europe still has democracy, not a some weird authoritarian kakistocracy with oligarchical flavour.
So let's not pretend that Europe should pay for USA's wish for total hegemony, worldwide policing and global reserve currency. Europeans lost their lives in USAs wars and enabled this USA vision of global hegemony for last 70+ years.
NB: also since last year all countries are spending at least a minimum: https://www.statista.com/statistics/584088/defense-expenditu...
Also expenditure is growing like crazy, especially since 2022 total war in Ukraine: https://www.nato.int/content/dam/nato/webready/documents/fin... .
And I believe there were budget plans since 2014 for all countries to reach 2% (i.e. well before trump took office): https://www.nato.int/en/what-we-do/introduction-to-nato/defe... - with commitments to increase spending to 5% in the next decade.
These rambles prove to me yet again - in what information bubble USA lives, which is dictated by geriatric 80-year-olds still living 20+ years in the past inside their heads and transferred by ignorant talking heads of 24h news cycle.
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