mctoasterson

I mean, this is true that the offramp was always going to be Russia keeping Crimea and the Donbas, and Ukraine getting some kind of security guarantees that fall short of NATO membership. Unfortunately we took the stupidest, most deadly, most costly way to get to this conclusion.

I have awesome luck with this kinda thing. Was in Paris during a huge garbage strike a while back, and may be arriving in Germany during this.

Keeping an eye on this because it is a concerning trend

Many critical treatments and medicines are developed in the US. Congress could pass protectionist trade laws requiring that the poorest uninsured American can't be charged a penny more than whatever artificially low negotiated costs are paid by foreign countries systems like the Canadians or the British NHS.

Its possible that other countries could retaliate with cost controls for their own domestically developed drugs but it feels like this is an area where the US can and should have leverage.

Chinese cars are a known data privacy nightmare with proprietary software/ecosystems.

Tesla is much the same in the US... I've heard it analogized as "Tesla is the Apple of the automotive industry" and it is hard to argue they're not. Like the iPhone at its first launch, Teslas were the "new hotness" until they became so ubiquitous they are now the most basic bitch car ever. They're massively overpriced for what they are, they promise lots of features that often fall flat in execution, they are terminally online and reliant on proprietary cloud services. They collect tons of user data and do lord knows what with it.

All that said, can you imagine if Apple itself had successfully launched a car in the US market? Its fanbase would be beyond insufferable and it would likely have all the worst issues of both Chinese cars and US EVs.

Yeah well assisted living with skilled nursing costs a fortune. Luckily most people only need that for 6 months to a year before they die anyway. I'm talking more like "55+ downsized housing" that doesn't yet require a nurse, memory care, or any of that stuff.

I think for most Americans, they are considering it a win if their parents saved enough to retire and have their affairs in order. Just knowing you won't have to do some bizarre financial trickery to handle your parents retirement housing and end of life care is a huge relief, to say nothing of having anything left over to inherit when they're gone.

"Major fracture detected."

Yeah that makes sense. And I don't mean you personally. My commentary was to solidify that many have criticized Braxman but from my perspective we need voices like his to bring awareness to privacy issues caused by Big Tech. We need different options and information in order to make informed choices. So I don't know why people would shit on someone offering information and alternatives.

I suppose your level of enthusiasm for this offering tracks strongly with how credible you consider Rob Braxman. I have heard people here and elsewhere say he's a quack or even a psyop. I do know that he's one of the few sources to talk about client side scanning, the illusory nature of Apple's "privacy" and other modern privacy issues.

We need robust options for privacy. Googled Android and Apple iOS are horrible options for genuine anonymity and privacy. So, I welcome any competition in this space.

No idea, just said it because of the coupon reference.