Damn.. belligerent is an understatment at this point. They're outright thugs, encouraged by the protection by the US.

Damn.. belligerent is an understatment at this point. They're outright thugs, encouraged by the protection by the US.

I just wonder if they'll leave it at this or find a way to roll it out slowly and silently in some places anyway. I certainly hope they genuinly learned from this.

But then you can't call the US a liberal democracy in any way as they aren't hands-off at all. Time and time again they meddle in other countries' business to exert influence and power and to advance their interests.

Israel itself was created by the West as Palestine was a British colony before and the US has since given more support to Israel than they would usually grant an ally. The continuous protection (political and militaristic) makes Israel almost a vassal state of the US. This is the real reason why "liberal democracies" have not reacted much (yet, hopefully).

They only logged the IP. That's metadata. IIRC Apple refused backdooring its phone encryption. That's a lot more invasive.

Really? I'm not convinced the Chinese government acts in the interests of its people at all. That's probably the biggest reason I can't call it Socialism. Just because government influence is stronger than in the West, the economic system isn't completely different.

But isn't the means of production still mostly controlled by capital owners? Sure, some industries are influenced by the government, but that is also the case in the West. The plan is certainly more detailed for China, but to me Socialism always meant labor is controlling the means of production. How's that the case when an elitist single-party government influences the capital owners?

Enlighten me then. Means of production doesn't seem to be controled by the party alone. Most of China's economy still follows capitalist principles. Rich Chinese and owners of businesses are still private citizens. Sure, some influenced by the government, some industries very heavily regulated, but China still follows capitalist principles in most cases.

I always thought Socialism means that means of production is controlled by labor directly, not capital owners or an elists single-party government.

Yup, the "roar that matters" is the one people can hear when you quickly approach the speed limit in the city.

As the life-sustaining places become more scarce, they become more expensive. Your best play for survival is to play the game, amass wealth and afford the trip to Elysium. That's why even the people understanding the problem are part of it.

Let's not call China socialist when a single party dictates larger economic trends in an otherwise competitive global market. It's just not "free" as in free market capitalism.

Otherwise I completely agree with the weaknesses of the western capitalist systems.

Lol, as all ratings there's biases and simplifications..

Even the biolab one could be both natural and man made: the virus was found and isolated by biologists studying local bat populations. They then failed to contain it properly (remember how surprised everyone was when they realized how contagious it was over the air?) and it started spreading.

This is our natural AC overheating slowly..

Well, France needs the rest of Europe to align or it doesn't matter much what France is doing on its own. They have the best nuclear arsenal in Europe, but that alone doesn't enable them to act independently.

There's a few things Europe isn't good at:

• Weapons and weapon systems are developed independently. That results in incompatible weapons and very expensive production costs because they aren't produced at scale and multiple versions of the same are developed by the different countries/manufacturers.
• The only military international logistics and organization that European countries currently know is NATO. Outside the NATO framework organization is completely chaotic.
• Similar to the first two points: The European countries don't have their military interests aligned and can't agree on deployment, funding and procurement of weapons. Bureaucracy stands in the way of scaling up production.

On the other hand: Europe is rich and technologically advanced. We've seen in the first two years since the Russian invasion that technological superiority can outpace the sheer mass of human capital that Russia can throw at the front.

Dude, the other day I was reading some rag because there was nothing else to do in the train... One article was just Trump's agenda without any commentary. How is that news if you don't put it in perspective and with the context that Trump barely reached any of his goals in the first term. Unbelievable.

Of course not. Extra deliveries past congress. Not that they would block it

You could argue they're a bit in denial, so France's clear words may wake them up a bit.

I see. So it's probably because I don't have Google Play Store in the first place. Maybe it can be configured somehow. No idea