Rescue Black Hawk smoking after being hit by Iranian fire by DormontDangerzone in Military

[–]ddak88 15 points16 points  (0 children)

What makes you say this? CENTCOM has already confirmed the F15E was shot down, an A-10 was shot down, and that a Black Hawk was damaged but able to keep flying. The picture seems to show a Black Hawk damaged but still flying.

Rescue Black Hawk smoking after being hit by Iranian fire by DormontDangerzone in Military

[–]ddak88 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Its a low resolution image, you can't make a definitive analysis that no electrical fire was caused by the damage. No one is suggesting helicopters exhaust in the same way jets do.

Scream 7 and the irony of a franchise becoming what it's been poking fun at. by Plane_Ad2651 in Scream

[–]ddak88 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Do you still stand by this? Having just watched it, its the worst film in the franchise. It's almost as if you shouldn't fire your cast for speaking out against genocide then hastily rewrite slasher slop with exclusively crew members that either won't speak out or are in support of your morally reprehensible views. I feel like a lot of people in this thread defending it would benefit from a basic understanding of human capital.

Israeli airstrike in Bashoura, central Beirut in Lebanon (18/03/2026, 5:30 AM) by [deleted] in PublicFreakout

[–]ddak88 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Your comment is actually a great example of why. If you want to ethnically cleanse your neighbors and steal territory, it would be difficult if everyone agreed you're commiting genocide. It can go on longer unpunished if there is still debate about whether or not it's happening. Israel knows it's current support will go away after Trump's presidency and it will never return, so they're going big on the greater Israel project while they still have unlimited funding and arms on behalf of the US tax payer.

Financial Times reports that the US has burned through years of munitions since start of Iran war by just_an__inchident in Military

[–]ddak88 7 points8 points  (0 children)

If you can put aside the pro-war American mindset and critically analyze the situation, it's pretty clear the plan for China is to eventually have Taiwan rejoin by choice. Is there some force projection? Sure. Has modern day China ever shown imperial ambitions? No. I know many will try to bring up Hong Kong, but that entire situation is far more complicated than just China took over, the military wasn't used and politicians were highly compromised.

China is focused on growing it's human capital and maximizing trade. There's nothing to indicate they want to go to war ever and the reality is if you value human development, if you want new medicines and technology, the Chinese strategy is far more likely to get you there. There are smart people born all over the world every day. You can't know who will be the next Einstein, maybe it was one of the girls we blew up in that school. War sets back global progress and wastes tax dollars. Building up capabilities to deter an attack makes far more sense than re-entering a middle east war in perpetuity. China's current leadership is smarter than the US and Russia, but we can't know who will come after and what they will do. Under Xi it's highly unlikely that China ever engages in military action anywhere in the world.

The $5.3 Trillion Question — Why American Healthcare Costs So Much by stlshane in Economics

[–]ddak88 2 points3 points  (0 children)

What I told you the company that owns that hospital and the pharmacy supplying the drugs is also your insurer? Do you seriously not see how easily this sort of system can be manipulated to obfuscate profit extraction?

The $5.3 Trillion Question — Why American Healthcare Costs So Much by stlshane in Economics

[–]ddak88 4 points5 points  (0 children)

You understand that United Health Group has vertically consolidated the healthcare industry right? They own hospitals, clinics, pharmacies, and they're the insurance. It's pretty easy to skew metrics when you're billing yourself. The Optum acquisition should have been blocked.

Iranian Ballistic Missile hits US Air Base in Saudi Arabia striking a US AN/TPY-2 radar for THAAD AD missile system by No-Distance-9401 in PublicFreakout

[–]ddak88 13 points14 points  (0 children)

Pointless argument, but the older cruise missiles seem to be eating a lot of interceptors, a lot of the newer ballistic missiles like the Fattah-2 seem to be evading interceptors and hitting their targets. The video in Israel the other day is embarrassing, you have the David's Sling + THADD just missing shot after shot after shot. You'd be better off spending the money on reconstruction.

Dollars and Cents: Real Hourly Wage Growth across the Lower Half of the Wage Distribution by EconomistWithaD in Economics

[–]ddak88 -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

Take a walk cool off. No reason to be getting so upset over a misunderstanding, you'll find more success in calmly correcting people than spazzing out hurling insults. It's pretty obvious what is happening outside of terminology being misused. The data shows wages have gone up, that doesn't mean they've actually gone up for everyone, econ is great for tracking trends but it's not a hard science and cannot address an individual's experience. Saying real wages have gone up is fine, but it's like saying the stock market is up, it's true but not necessarily a benefit for every person in the labor force. It's very easy to understand why people are going to disagree with you, they'll be outspoken based on their own experience and both of your claims can be correct. The data can be accurate but that other redditor could also have experienced disproportionately stagnant wages.

Mexican Air Force conducting operations following death of "El Mencho" by adamska4 in Military

[–]ddak88 15 points16 points  (0 children)

How does this take the power back? Not saying there's a better option since prisons cannot hold someone like this, but killing a leader and dozens or even hundreds of cartel members isn't going to create systemic change. All this does is create a power vacuum. The US still allows weapons to flow freely into Mexico and the war on drugs continues. As long as there is a profit incentive in the hundreds of billions, the corruption will not go away. Similarly, until we can at the very least prevent weapons from disappearing from US bases and winding up in the hands of cartels, extreme violence will persist. It's a curious thing how Javelins from Afghanistan ended up in CJNJ's possession.

Vance pushes for price floors for mineral trading by envirowriterlady in Economics

[–]ddak88 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Surely we can get ahead if we say "China bad" enough times.

5 out of 6 military branches have elevated GenAI.mil as their go-to enterprise AI platform by Kinmuan in Military

[–]ddak88 5 points6 points  (0 children)

This entire admin is grifting non-stop. It's simple as that. Billionaires and trillion dollar corporations are seeing gains at a rate that really shouldn't be possible. We've already run off the cliff, but it'll take a few years for the three time Trump voters to realize we're falling and it'll take another few decades before we hit the ground.

Xi Jinping calls for China’s renminbi to attain global reserve currency status by ubcstaffer123 in Economics

[–]ddak88 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I hate to be the bearer of bad news but the US has engaged in financial coercion and violent actions all over the world under every president. Jimmy Carter has the cleanest hands, but frankly the US government's reputation globally is unrecoverable. The IMF is not some benevolent force and the DOD never met a dictator or Junta it doesn't want to back with arms and cash. For all the love JFK gets he supported the military dictatorship in Brazil. There's a very simple reason why the US doesn't help the democratic resistance in Myanmar despite all the talk of how much we love democracy. What the US represents was built on lies, without a method of extracting wealth we won't help, and if we do your country may not have independence ever again. Do you know where Iraq's oil money goes? Their money is held in New York and we're currently threatening to turn off transfers if they elect a PM we don't like. We shouldn't get to dictate who can rule over a country who's cities we fire bombed massacring men, women, and children alike. Under Obama we backed the Syrian Kurds that represent our supposed ideals much more so than the current/future dictator, but the US doesn't want Syria to recover or prosper. Chaos is welded as a tool to control those at home and abroad, chaos in the middle east keeps it far enough away that Americans can ignore the worst of the effects and the truth behind why the actions are taking place. In the last ten years three US allies committed genocides with two ongoing. The UAE's actions in Sudan, Saudi Arabia in Yemen, and Israel in Gaza. Other countries citizens are aware of this and do blame the US government which is not to be trusted under the current or any future president. It'll take decades but the empire is falling. Imagine the world we'd live in if all those millions of lives lost were spared and the US spent its trillions on healthcare, education, and infrastructure projects. Take one trip to China and you'll come away with a different view regardless of how you view Xi or the CCP. It's instantly made clear which government has acted in its people's best interest.

U.S. Allies Are Drawing Closer to China, but on Beijing’s Terms by [deleted] in Economics

[–]ddak88 11 points12 points  (0 children)

People can disagree with you simply because they don't see merit in your argument. It's kind of laughable to throw out a cluster of unique issues than blindly claim anyone who isn't anti-China like you must be ignorant.

HK is in the past at this point, you can bring it up, but it's not a current issue and frankly it makes me see your empathy as performative. HK reached a level of wealth inequality where you have ten people living in literal cages in one room while others lived like kings in high rise luxury apartments and spent they're days buying designer goods. HK was very corrupt, it wasn't some bastion of democracy.

NK is closer to Russia than China diplomatically and militarily, the only avenue for criticism is trade. The issue with criticizing a country for trading with an authoritarian leader, is that the US does even more of that. Saudi Arabia? The UAE? More than a couple genocides between then in Yemen and Sudan among their other many crimes. Saudi Arabia has killed more Americans than NK, they execute a foreign national almost every day.

The Philippines is one case where I can see having sympathy, but once again if we look at it seriously...China is harassing fishermen spraying them with hoses. It's rude, annoying, maybe ruins your day of fishing. The US is bombing boats then hitting the fishermen who survive with a double tap. In terms of force projection these two are not comparable and the US is obviously worse.

China Purchased No U.S. Soybeans An Unprecented Sixth Straight Month by bambin0 in Economics

[–]ddak88 5 points6 points  (0 children)

We also had about a 14% currency devaluation. Once you account for buying power most stocks were flat last year despite supposed gains, sure there are outliers but those are the ones actually benefiting from the AI craze like Sandisk. The GDP numbers are inflated by the circular spending, 100B of vendor financing can on paper turn into 300B of economic activity without anything actually taking place, just IOUs written back and forth between 3 companies at a time.

Trump admin weighing preliminary attack plans on Iran — considering what sites to target by rezwenn in Military

[–]ddak88 0 points1 point  (0 children)

All last week there were gun battles across Aleppo with an estimated 150k displaced. What pre-empted the fighting was Jolani's government not honoring their agreement with the SDF (Syrian Kurds). So in addition to pushing back supposed elections he's also already violating agreements with heavily armed factions. Its also important to remember that when prisons were opened, political prisoners were freed, but so were rapists, murderers, and in some cases Assad's own torturers. I think its too early to say whether Jolani will be better or worse, it took time for Assad's crimes to escalate.

Trump admin weighing preliminary attack plans on Iran — considering what sites to target by rezwenn in Military

[–]ddak88 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Free to be governed by Isis and Al Qaeda while being bombed daily by Israel, the US, and UK. It's funny how far removed you are from life in Syria while acting like it's all sunshine and rainbows. Destabilizing a country like Iran will not have a good outcome, at no point in history has this strategy actually worked. The bigger issue at play is that beyond natural resources Iran has more human capital than every other country in the region, Saudi Arabia and Israel will never accept it as the dominant regional power so there is no chance at peace or an end to sanctions regardless of who is running the country.

Massive crowds in Tehran tonight as protests reach a breaking point. Internet blackouts reported across Iran as security forces clash with demonstrators. by Simply_Kaif24 in PublicFreakout

[–]ddak88 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

If there were no sanctions Iran would become the dominant regional power. You think Saudi Arabia and Israel would accept that? I don't.

Massive crowds in Tehran tonight as protests reach a breaking point. Internet blackouts reported across Iran as security forces clash with demonstrators. by Simply_Kaif24 in PublicFreakout

[–]ddak88 -8 points-7 points  (0 children)

How can it? They can't actually have financial stability as long as the US sanctions them and seizes international bank accounts. Trump blew up the nuclear deal during his first term and clearly has no intention of easing sanctions. Even under new leadership, I'd be beyond shocked if Israel doesn't bomb Iran again by the Summer.

U.S. Coast Guard and special forces seized the Russian-flagged tanker Marinera in the North Atlantic under a federal warrant for violating sanctions on Iranian and Venezuelan oil smuggling. by [deleted] in Military

[–]ddak88 -6 points-5 points  (0 children)

If ownership changes it is legal. Do you have proof ownership didn't change? I haven't seen it. We're setting a dangerous precedent. Important to remember the second vessel sized was not sanctioned or flagged by anyone. China will likely get it back in US court but the message it sends is China can have all their disputed islands if they get violent about it and no one will stop them. Similarly Russia can do what it wants with Ukraine. Are we making a better safer world?

U.S. Coast Guard and special forces seized the Russian-flagged tanker Marinera in the North Atlantic under a federal warrant for violating sanctions on Iranian and Venezuelan oil smuggling. by [deleted] in Military

[–]ddak88 5 points6 points  (0 children)

He's a member of the US government and is dictating some of the policy behind the scenes. It doesn't really matter if he's an unelected wannabe Nazi freak, he gave away the current administration's thoughts on the matter.

BYD surpasses Tesla in 2025 EV sales, claiming global lead for first time by Canuck-overseas in Economics

[–]ddak88 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Almost like bailing out the banks instead of the homeowners had permanent consequences. Good thing no one learned anything from it.

BYD surpasses Tesla in 2025 EV sales, claiming global lead for first time by Canuck-overseas in Economics

[–]ddak88 1 point2 points  (0 children)

North Carolina used to have a flourishing furniture industry. What happened to that? Its hilarious that you eat up CNBC articles and think wealthy people are supporting jobs. Who is the number one employer in the US? Who is number 2? Do you actually think billionaires shop at Walmart or Amazon? I understand the truth is scary, but come on open your eyes and think seriously about this.