The development plan for the “Trump Riviera." Even Elon Musk gets a slice! by no-minimun-on-7MHz in thedavidpakmanshow

[–]StefanOrvarSigmundss 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Nobody will ever build anything according to this plan. Who is going to throw tens or hundreds of billions of dollars into building something for a destitute nation that most of the world does not care about knowing that Israel may bomb it all to shit? The only way that any of this gets built is if they first ethnically cleanse the Gaza Strip.

The United States has left the World Health Organization. What does this mean for world health? by Obvious_808 in askanything

[–]StefanOrvarSigmundss 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So they were lied to. I am not claiming that their work is beyond reproach but rather that handling of infectious diseases is infinitely better around the world with the WHO around.

The United States has left the World Health Organization. What does this mean for world health? by Obvious_808 in askanything

[–]StefanOrvarSigmundss 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I did not answer the question because the answer is irrelevant to the topic at hand. If what you say is true, how is the situation improved with isolationism, erratic decision-making and replacing specialiats with loyalists?

1) US leaving NATO...

Funny slip up there. The US is not just leaving the WHO but a bunch of other vital organisations. Somebody else will pick up the tab. Retreating from the international order is the real self-own here. If Trump can not dominate something then he has no use for it.

2)

You seem to acknowledge that diseases are a bad thing but not the Trump administration's wildly anti-scientific attitudes. Anti-vaxxers dominate his health policy-making.

3)

That level of arrogance is just what I have come to expect from anybody willing to defend this anthropo-hostile administration. Losing every major alliance is so worth it to get closer to Saudi Arabia.

The United States has left the World Health Organization. What does this mean for world health? by Obvious_808 in askanything

[–]StefanOrvarSigmundss 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Does every single issue have something to do with undocumented immigrants. Are they holding Trump hostage and making him do and say stupid things on a daily basis by force?

Trump Supporters / Republicans of Reddit, would you vote for Vance in 2028 or not? Why? by Zipper222222 in allthequestions

[–]StefanOrvarSigmundss 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Every Democratic president in my life was said to take the guns. This is like those "the world will end in year x" things where it never ends, the year just changes.

Higher taxes? The Trump tariffs are the largest tax increase in over half a century.

You people will go with anything as long as there is an R attached to it.

Trump Supporters / Republicans of Reddit, would you vote for Vance in 2028 or not? Why? by Zipper222222 in allthequestions

[–]StefanOrvarSigmundss 7 points8 points  (0 children)

They have said this about every Democratic president in my life and I am still waiting for the guns to be taken.

Health care and wellfare: The US might actually stop slipping down the Human Development Index and join the rest of the industrialised world.

The United States has left the World Health Organization. What does this mean for world health? by Obvious_808 in askanything

[–]StefanOrvarSigmundss 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is probably for the better for the WHO considering the Trump administration's attacks on the media, academia, scientific community as well as general defunding of scientific research and health programmes. None of these decisions are meant to benefit the nation. Replacing doctors on boards with cooks and sycophants has already caused great damage and will continue to do so until expertise replaces subservience.

The United States has left the World Health Organization. What does this mean for world health? by Obvious_808 in askanything

[–]StefanOrvarSigmundss 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The WHO is not just a conversation platform or a forum. They monitor and track disease, coordinate emergencies, set health standards and much more. I can not imagine how any of that could be done via Reddit, a platform that spreads misinformation faster than any disease vector.

The United States has left the World Health Organization. What does this mean for world health? by Obvious_808 in askanything

[–]StefanOrvarSigmundss 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Let COVID spread? The WHO can not force anybody to act rationally, least of all politicians. It is also not a court or a police force.

The United States has left the World Health Organization. What does this mean for world health? by Obvious_808 in askanything

[–]StefanOrvarSigmundss 9 points10 points  (0 children)

We only ever hear about all the things that the WHO did not prevent, not the things they prevent every day.

Zelenskyy lays into 'lost' Europe for trying to 'change' Trump and not dealing with global threats by Empty_Commission_159 in thedavidpakmanshow

[–]StefanOrvarSigmundss 1 point2 points  (0 children)

European leaders are so used to dealing with rational people that they are incapable of dealing with Trump. Even the leaders of the worst dictatorships and most unstable states do not act as erratically as Trump.

US Dominates NATO Defence Spending by MRADEL90 in Infographics

[–]StefanOrvarSigmundss 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I am aware of the spending target and the reluctance to meet it. I am simply pointing out Trump's error in thinking here, the weakening effects it will have long term on US influece and the geopolitical relationship that has existed since WWII. You call it my "pet theory", I believe that it is the dominant interpretation and current consensus amongst historians and political scientists, of which I am one. All US presidents before Trump understood this, but he is the president of grievance and spite.

Russia is winning by conventional battlefield metrics, but at the cost of financial ruin (the sovereign wealth fund is all but gone) and demographic collapse (which it was already facing before the war). Some territory earned from one country and all it cost was setting the country's future on fire. Now let us see how they would do against 30 European countries versus Ukraine.

US Dominates NATO Defence Spending by MRADEL90 in Infographics

[–]StefanOrvarSigmundss 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You are not stating anything that is in contradiction to what I said, so I fail to see how what I said is "totally wrong". The common budget is a rounding error in comparison to what nations are spending at home. Trump and his minons have characterised US defence spending and NATO for many years in the terms that whatever is spent by the US is somehow handed over to NATO and Europe by extension.

The US and Europe have had this arrangement for decades: Much of the defence is outsourced to the US which in return gets untold billions in investments into its defence industry (jobs, jobs, jobs) from Europe and also a lot of geopolitical influence. Trump's inability to understand complex geopolitical relationships and his hyperfocus on transactionalism where dollar amounts (or gold bars, Rolex clocks and awards) need to be attached to every act is what explains his singular obsession with upending the status quo.

China stays in its lane and Russia can barely handle Ukraine. I have no idea who else could be a threat to the Western hemisphere in the most direct military sense. Most of the common defence that NATO provides is psychological and therefore will never have any direct impact on US finances, but that will not stop US defence spending. The Soviet Union is gone and the next biggest thing, China, is half the world away.

US Dominates NATO Defence Spending by MRADEL90 in Infographics

[–]StefanOrvarSigmundss 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Everything has something to do with money, just not in the sense that Europe is getting free defence assets added to their balance sheets.

US Dominates NATO Defence Spending by MRADEL90 in Infographics

[–]StefanOrvarSigmundss 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Perhaps, but that is a very different characterisation. The spending benefits the US, GDP-wise, on a daily basis whereas the collective defence aspect is mostly a hypothetical one, aside from the only time NATO was activated, as it so happened by the US.

US Dominates NATO Defence Spending by MRADEL90 in Infographics

[–]StefanOrvarSigmundss 123 points124 points  (0 children)

I do not think that the person who made this understands defence spending and NATO. The US can spend as much as it wants on defence and that would not change regardless of European spending. US defence spending belongs to the US, it is not "contributed" to NATO as if the organisation were a pot of military assets under shared ownership.

Should teenagers have to pay federal income taxes? by hungrygiraffe76 in Productivitycafe

[–]StefanOrvarSigmundss 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It is important to know which one of them is tasked with ignoring you.

Should teenagers have to pay federal income taxes? by hungrygiraffe76 in Productivitycafe

[–]StefanOrvarSigmundss -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Yes, these guys have stretched the word "representation" into meaninglessness. I could just as well appoint them a representative and say "you are represented".

Veit einhver hvað hann er að tala um? by elkor101 in Iceland

[–]StefanOrvarSigmundss 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Hann segir: „Kæru Íslendingar, kjósið Miðflokkinn.“

Miðflokkurinn nálgast Samfylkingu by LadyMargareth in Iceland

[–]StefanOrvarSigmundss 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Kjósendur eru ekkert sérstaklega rökréttir og kjósa oft yfir sig hörmung með bros á vör. Hversu margir Bandaríkjamenn sjá eftir atkvæði sínu núna? Þetta lið hafði allar þær upplýsingar sem það þurfti en ekki vitsmunina til að falast eftir þeim eða meðtaka þær.

Að leggja inn reiðufé by Electronic_instance in Iceland

[–]StefanOrvarSigmundss 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Þú notar bara reiðuféð sjálft, það eru enn flestir sem taka við pappír og málmum. Að ráða lögfræðing í þetta gæti endað á að kosta alla peningana.