It’s still up +10% over the last 6 months. Hopefully with how it’s going, not for long.

I’m really happy about that one. They haven’t announced what the alternative is going to be, probably either Rafales or Typhoons.

A puppet is as strong as the hand controlling it.

From you, and from anyone who says we don’t need defenses.

I’m a firm believer that hardware must never be linked to any sort of subscription to function. If it does, then it’s because the hardware only serves as a way to access the content, but in that case, it must allow competition between providers for that content.

If I buy something, it’s mine. No one should be allowed to dictate how I use it, I want to be free to do what I want with it.

“Why the hell does Ukraine need nukes?”

You in 1994, presumably.

That’s all well and good, but you’re also missing a critical point.

The European Union is very likely to introduce a bill that will massively subsidize purchases of local (EU) military equipment. This will make all EU alternatives much, much more attractive than F-35s.

This is a great move by the EU - it drives a lot of military spending away from the US and into the local economies, while shoring up its own security as well as preventing being at the hands of a fickle fascist for maintenance and upgrades.

O mundo já mudou. Houve eleições nos EUA, houve uma posição em relação à NATO e ao mundo, afirmada pelo secretário para a Defesa e pelo próprio Presidente dos EUA, que tem que ser tida em conta também na Europa e no que tem a ver com Portugal.

E esse nosso aliado, que ao longo de décadas foi sempre previsível, poderá trazer limitações na utilização, na manutenção, nos componentes, em tudo aquilo que tem a ver com a garantia de que as aeronaves serão operacionais e serão utilizadas em todo o tipo de cenários.

Interview here, in Portuguese.

The world has already changed. There were elections in the USA, there was a position [change] regarding NATO and the world, stated by both the Defense Secretary and the President of the USA, that has to be taken into account in Europe and in Portugal.

Our ally, who through decades has always been predictable [as in steadfast], may bring limitations to using, to maintaining, to components, anything that relates to the assurance that the planes are operational and can be used in all types of scenarios.

For some context, Portugal has an aging fleet of F-16s. The national Air Force wants to replace these with F-35s, but that is no longer likely to happen.

He was asked if Portugal would instead purchase, for example, French aircraft, but he declined to answer.

What the heck are you on about. That’s the worst possible solution to this, are you some sort of masochistic?

If Siri is something that needs to be paid for, don’t bundle it with the system. Charge extra from the start, and people can opt in to that shit.

Also, they run a massively profitable software store, and THAT is what justifies and pays for the bug fixing and security patches to the overall OS.

The “cell a year” practice isn’t to cover development costs, it’s to bring in massive profit by milking the consumeristic herd that buys their crap.

I saw my first one the other day (outside of America).

The guy clearly is an American living here. It’s hard to put into words just how out of place it all looked, it’s like you picked up a palm tree, cocunuts and all, and plopped it down in the middle of Antarctica.

They probably saw the Zelensky “talks” and decided to save their time.

Can you ship moose ribs to Europe? Never had them, but seems like something I’d enjoy.

Yeah the world’s doing its part, but it’d be nice if Americans did theirs.

Other than Bernie Sanders, the rest sure like to bitch a lot, but actions speak louder and they’re not getting out of their couches…

Or we make like, many more clones and give them blasters?

Thank you for the analysis, very insightful!

Do you reckon this is more of an oversight or bug in the BT stack, or a deliberately places backdoor as the title seems to suggest?

Look for the protest actions, join them. Like, casually, just happen to be there.

You’ll probably find like minded people there and as you connect to more people, that hopelessness will go away!

EDIT: since mods removed the post I was replying to, I’m adding context - it was accusing the poster above from spreading misinformation.

Clear as day.

How to tell: disinformation 101. It’s presenting an utter lie as a fact. This is easy to check, just give the article or even the summary a quick read, or better yet actually listen to what Bernie said.

Why is such a blatant lie effective? For most people here it won’t be effective. But if you’re already “preconditioned” by seeing these kind of baseless claims elsewhere, this will serve to defuse your critical judgement and “save you the work” of thinking it through.

This “democrats are the alternative” is just more bullshit. Sure, they’re not about the narcissistic cleptocracy, just about your run of the mill plutocracy. As if that’s any better.

At least the incompetency and recklessness of the current clown-in-chief might make it all blow up sooner rather than later, which to be honest, is probably the best outcome at this point.

You got to have a place where the people who want to get off the bat shit crazy fascist bandwagon can jump to…

How long is it going to take Bernie, AOC et all to walk out of the Democratic Party and start their own?

That’s the only solution. Hopefully some moderate Republicans do the same (create their own party), and finally America will have a democracy…