141–150 of 193 posts
For context Doge saved 2-3 billion by independent estimates. And cut some of the most important international aid around the world.
Not only aid, it was a powerful tool for the extension of American soft power around the globe. But I guess we're no longer able to reason in the abstract beyond "helping people is woke."
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For many weapon systems, we burned through a decade of inventory in a month. Rapid replenishment will be expensive.
Those stock piles are for war with China/Russia/Iran. If we end up in a situation where that has shifted to China/Russia, they will have been put to their intended/purchased for use.
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Being a net exporter is completely irrelevant when prices are set globally. Such a statement is like shining a laser pointer to distract a cat, fun, but meaningless.
You do realize some net exporters subsidize their domestic supply to keep the people happy?
Prices are still set on the international market, that subsidy does not affect prices.
Or, do you have some other subsidy that brings down the prices that consumers in the US pay? If so, name it!
If President Trump–who is so deep in oil & gas special interests that he has decided that US Taxpayers need to pay nearly $1B to cancel a wind power project–is going to start doing export controls to keep oil prices down, well then he runs into the problem that we export and import a ton to get the right type of crude in our refineries. If he is going to start subsidizing oil consumption, well, my god we are in for a wild ride on the economy and deserve all the misery that it will bring.
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> Many cannot accept its dangerous world. The ballistic missiles are the danger, and Iran already has those. There is no missile or reentry vehicle in Iran's possession that can credibly threaten the United States with a nuclear weapon. > US & USSR alone has several near-miss detonations/launches. According to Seymour Hersh, Israel was close to using their nuclear weapon as well. Why not focus on their disarmament fi…
Yesterday the Iranian embassy in the UK called for attacks in the UK. Today there were stabbings. Iran likes to demonstrate that they can reach out a touch someone.
Their Tom & Jerry reenactment is not casus belli for the US or Europe. You'll note that no Article 4 has been invoked over Iran because it's not a legitimate security concern for any of NATO's members.
Perspective: - $9b per month increase in US oil export revenue as a result offsets probably 40% of the cost. - Several trillion (with a 'T") of realized and yet to be realized FDI commitments from gulf states more than offsets cost by about 3x. - A nuclear Iran carries economic costs I won't detail here to prevent a wall of text. In sum, forces other countries to go nuclear and take other actions to manage risk, and…
A problem with your "voice of reason" is the assumption that it will prevent nukes in Iran or the region. The US people have just offered an object lesson in why deterrent weapons are useful. How capricious they are in diplomacy. And how willing Americans are to withdraw boots on the ground in allied countries. Of course most of that won't be surprising to Iranians.
It's easy, we don't let them have nukes, period. Bombing their underground facilities was absolutely the right thing to do and can be repeated if/when they rebuild. I would go further, finish the job, and insist on complete disarmament of the country.
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Trump kidnaps a sitting president of a foreign nation after months of conducting strikes in the Caribbean. This is not a war but calling him "averagely warmongering" is just wrong.
Which American president did not cause the removal of a sitting leader of a foreign nation from power? Doing it bloodlessly rather than through direct military force or by arming local terrorists absolutely does make you less warmongering than average.
Joe Biden. Unless you'd contend that withdrawing from Afghanistan was an elaborate, self-owning plot to overthrow the US-friendly government in favor of the Taliban, which I think goes against the spirit of your question.
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Is it? I don't think so.
> Is it? I don't think so. I mean, they're projecting $750 billion in 2026, and apparently they spent $450 billion on them last year: https://about.bnef.com/insights/commodities/ai-data-center-b... . $25 billion is like six datacenters worth of money: https://www.reuters.com/commentary/breakingviews/how-big-tec... . It's a drop in the bucket.
$25B in a few months is also more than the average annual amount of military aid sent to Ukraine from the US, and the Trump administration considers this to not be a "drop in a bucket" either, and in fact a huge imposition that should not happen at all.
As a European center/moderate kind of person I agree with the US POTUS about this one thing: Iran can not be allowed to build nuclear weapons. I personally don’t buy the line of thought that Iran has no such ambitions; YMMV. Whether this war is effective at stopping that is another question.
They had an agreement that was working which Trump tore up and then went to war on Israel’s behalf. So it was largely a solved problem until Trump created the problem.
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Trump kidnaps a sitting president of a foreign nation after months of conducting strikes in the Caribbean. This is not a war but calling him "averagely warmongering" is just wrong.
Which American president did not cause the removal of a sitting leader of a foreign nation from power? Doing it bloodlessly rather than through direct military force or by arming local terrorists absolutely does make you less warmongering than average.
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That could be asked of the data centers and the war
The data center money was private capital put up by individuals and corporations willingly. They are seeking to provide a product (compute) to paying consumers. You can have an opinion on whether or not AI/data centers are worthwhile, but ultimately it wasn't made by your money.