We're not going to debate the measuring stick when the stick itself is incapable of measuring the outcome.
In none of those scenarios provided did a sitting US president come close to insinuating acquisition of land by "hook or crook" - either agree with us or we take it.
The closest modern discussion that comes to mind is the PRC saying they could militarily "walk in and take the whole this afternoon" in regard to Hong Kong.
Thatcher, for all her wrongs, provided a salient response:
"There is nothing I could do to stop you, but the eyes of the world would now know what China is like."
The US has shown the world what we're like with the current administration.
I believe Saddam Hussein would disagree with you, if he could.
Just bonkers how basic history is getting rewritten.
"The great satan USA" has been a slogan since the 1960s. The US dropped napalm and agent orange on Vietnamese civilians en masse - Lyndon B Johnson was what, a good guy?
A consequence of that large political movement and its leaders is that numerous people have been murdered. MAGA can't wash its hands of the consequences of its beliefs and actions.
You’re getting very worked up arguing about a 6% difference. Please grow up. You can call people doomers all you want, but that doesn’t change the fact that the economy is getting worse.
I'm not worked up about anything, just pointing out that a contrived metric isn't all that meaningful but feeds into the preconceived notions of people like the parent poster who seem to love to submit drive-by comments about how terrible everything is.
The economy is not doing great. That doesn't mean the "economy is completely fucked and we are in a race to steal and horde all the data before people catch on", which is an absurd statement on numerous levels.
And don't tell me to grow up, especially when you've completely missed the point.
>”economy is completely fucked and we are in a race to steal and horde all the data before people catch on”
Have you been following current events for the past year? This is not an absurd statement.
You can’t just dismiss news you don’t want to accept as ”doomer FUD”, call a leading economics an “huckster” and then not back it up with real data. Go to twitter or truth social if you want to cherry-pick the news you want to believe in.
Yes, I've been following current events for the last few decades, including the last year. We weren't "completely fucked" in 1990-1991, 2000-2001, 2008, or 2020, (or any of the other cataclysmic events that occurred long before my lifetime) so why would slowing down from the hottest labor market in a generation mean we are "completely fucked" now?
And what on earth does "we are in a race to steal and horde all the data before people catch on" even mean? Who is the "we" who are stealing and hoarding (which is the correct spelling FYI) compared to the "people" who would catch on that it's happening (and presumably care)? What data is being stolen, how, and from whom? Why is hoarding data a problem? Why would any of this matter in the first place if we're "completely fucked" anyway?
Could it be that people like you and the parent poster lack perspective (and potentially some self-awareness) and are prone to overreacting?
Wages for doctors and staff are not the cause of high medical bills.
The US spends something like $4.9 trillion dollars on medical care, and employs around 1 million physicians, 4.5 million nurses, or 9.8 million health care workers in total [1].
If this was paid out in wages the average health care worker would be make almost $500k/year. Compare that to the wage of the average doctor at $335k/year [2] or average nurse at under $100k/year. There is a lot of money in medical care that is not going to wages.
Anti-trust doesn’t have to involve force, but monopolistic behavior.
Google has spent over a decade advertising Chrome on all their properties and has an unlimited budget and active desire to keep Chrome competitive. Mozilla famously needs Google’s sponsorship to stay solvent. Apple maintains Safari to have no holes in their ecosystem.
Stop being silly defending trillion dollar companies that are actively making the internet worse, it’s not productive or funny.
It makes me wonder who their audience is if they are targeting users that will pay a premium for an upgradable system, but are afraid of modifying the guts of the computer.
if you don't think Trump is a departure from norms you aren't paying enough attention