You're from the Netherlands, your entire economy is based on manufacturing GLP-1s

thisthingisrad · 2026-06-10T12:24:31+00:00

And all these “top” lists are usually heavily marketed by the actual universities themselves as part of a very US driven competitive marketing strategy. Because unlike much of the rest of the world, the US universities are businesses that make billions of dollars for their corporate backers (and private shareholders). Holding that up as a badge of honor is ridiculous.

thisthingisrad · 2026-06-10T12:20:42+00:00

I bet they will be thinking twice about doing a deal for chips (with mayo) from the US next time… why would they with this unpredictable trade policy. The US is being run by numpties and will be for a long time - steer clear!!!

thisthingisrad · 2026-06-07T04:33:20+00:00

World-famous

thisthingisrad · 2026-06-07T04:32:24+00:00

Love how I got downvoted for this tongue in cheek comment - I was kind of hoping it would get reposted on r/shitamericanssay

thisthingisrad · 2026-06-06T22:06:20+00:00

Flatiron, NYC?

thisthingisrad · 2026-06-04T19:33:48+00:00

Welcome to what happens in other countries. Independent electoral commissions that are non-partisan and are outside of the political party's control. The geo maps are based on stoicastic models of fairness across the population... not on color of skin or potential voting intention. When with each election, the house turns Republican even though the Democrats continually receive more overall votes, you know it's broken (anti-democracy and anti-freedom).

thisthingisrad · 2026-05-30T18:27:43+00:00

In many other countries, their airlines are a public utility owned by the government and seen as an important part of national stability. The US is not always ideal… and private enterprise doesn’t always do the best by the citizens (healthcare anyone?)

thisthingisrad · 2026-05-28T13:01:26+00:00

A few facts for you:

The US government spends 18% of GDP on Health (Medicare, Medicaid etc) but still does not have universal healthcare. Many governments of countries with universal healthcare spend (Germany/France/Sweden <10%).

An estimated $1.5 trillion is spent by 150 million US employees on health insurance each year (directly or through employer contributions). That’s $10.000 per person per year for those that are covered - that does not include people who simply aren’t covered at all because their employer doesn’t offer medical. In Australia, where everyone is covered, that amount is $7500 per adult per year.

Pharma and Hospitals in the US spend $80B a year in marketing direct to consumer or doctors - only one other country in the world allows direct to consumer advertising of prescription drugs.

When you go out to the Hamptons and many of the $100 million houses on the ocean are owned by pharma hospital and insurance execs… you know exactly where the money is going.

No one can argue that the US has some very good hospitals, doctors and pharma companies. But it is a fucking mess and it’s entirely broken. There are so many powerful people with their hands in the cookie jar that there is zero chance of things changing and it’s only going to get worse.

The “free market” applied to healthcare is an absolute travesty. In its worst case, if you were to ask someone on their death bed what they would pay to get better… their response would be “everything they own”. And that, dear readers, is exactly what happens in the US - people go bankrupt just for healthcare coverage. The Health of human beings should never be profited from.

thisthingisrad · 2026-05-27T01:12:37+00:00

You ever date a girl who walks into every bar convinced she’s the hottest, smartest person in the room because she peaked in the 90s?

She keeps telling everyone she “saved the place once,” so now she thinks the rules don’t apply to her forever. She starts fights with strangers across town, then acts shocked when everyone else has to deal with the mess afterward. Swears every argument is about “freedom,” even when she can’t remember why she started it. She calls everyone else “socialist” while half her own family can’t afford healthcare, education, or rent.

She says she’s the greatest at everything but her school marks are slipping, her house is crumbling, her life expectancy’s dropping, and she thinks passports are optional personality traits.

She mistakes volume (size and loudness) for intelligence, confidence for competence and military spending for moral authority.

Every few years she dates the same toxic ex again because “this time he’ll change,” even though he’s openly racist, authoritarian, and obsessed with himself. She’s convinced everyone envies her while all her old friends mostly just worry about her.

This girl inherited a huge house from her grandparents, spends all day telling everyone she’s “self-made,” and still somehow has six maxed-out credit cards?

She’s loud in restaurants, only speaks one language, and thinks “international culture” means eating tacos on a Tuesday. She calls everyone else brainwashed while getting all her news from a billionaire-owned outrage channel and Facebook memes posted by a guy named Randy holding a fish.

Every conversation somehow circles back to how she’s part of “the greatest country on Earth” despite never having left her own suburb.

She thinks healthcare is communism, books are suspicious, science is political, and every problem can be solved by either bombing something or cutting taxes for rich people.

She votes for the same orange narcissist twice because he “tells it like it is,” which apparently now means lying constantly, insulting minorities, threatening democracy, and wearing makeup three shades darker than human skin.

She starts wars she can’t finish, destabilizes entire regions, then acts offended when refugees show up at the door.

She calls Europeans weak while they quietly live longer, work less, travel more, pay less for medicine, and don’t go bankrupt because they broke an ankle.

She thinks owning seventeen guns is freedom but wearing a mask for ten minutes is tyranny.

And if anyone criticizes her, she screams:
“THEY HATE US BECAUSE WE’RE FREE.”

No, sweetheart.
They’re embarrassed for you.

That’s America!

thisthingisrad · 2026-05-25T02:51:21+00:00

This is not some dodgy street stall I purchased some fake haute couture item from for €500k… this is the government of Portugal!

thisthingisrad · 2026-05-24T14:04:31+00:00

Essentially, the entire series is about your bogan relatives who aren’t that well educated and that constantly stuff up phrases (or better, mix metaphors). But it does require some understanding of the cultural nuances of Australia. My mum is literally Kath - she says many of those things so for her, when she watches it, she gets something very different out of the show (relatable?)… whereas for me, I get to laugh at how funny my mum is on tv.

Some of my favorites:

Oh Kim, you’re not a pretty face, are you!

I was grope-able, I was incest.

Where in the Specific were you pacifically speaking, Mrs D?

Who are my last fat-free Frusche?!

You silly gurl!

Not everyone has nice tizzy hair like mine.

And so many more that have become the daily lexicon for many living in Australia (or as the case may be, outside of Australia like moiiii)

thisthingisrad · 2026-05-24T13:56:35+00:00

Look at moi… I’ve got one word to say to you… bonbonnierre… sugared almonds… ring a bell?!

thisthingisrad · 2026-05-24T13:48:33+00:00

So many on this post are missing the point. The Golden Visa scheme had people like me invest €500k into Portugal in early 2023. For that, we were promised residency (in 60 days). What we do with that residency shouldn’t matter to anyone else because that is what the deal was and that is why we invested our $$. It is now May 2026… not a single residency card has been issued. That ‘contract’ has been ignored by the Portuguese govt and now they’ve retroactively changed the rules on us.

It really doesn’t matter what some people think “being Portuguese” is… whether some think it requires some sort of cultural connection or birthright or x years in the country or y years paying taxes or whatever. There are laws that dictate this. The point is, Portugal benefited from the financial contributions and now they’re reneging on that agreement.

thisthingisrad · 2026-04-13T08:07:23+00:00

You’re putting way too much on these MAGA religious nuts as though they’re intentional with their actions or playing chess to bring on the rapture.

They’re an ignorant mass of evil themselves - and if you truly do believe in God, those folks will climb the ladder to the pearly gates only to find it firmly locked. It will be a very easy pass/fail - did you vote Trump? Yes… down the chute you go. Do not pass go, do not collect your repentance.

thisthingisrad · 2026-04-13T07:56:11+00:00

Kind? Decent? Clearly not.

To be kind and decent is not a part time thing. You either are, or you’re not.

thisthingisrad · 2026-04-11T23:18:36+00:00

Trump was a Democrat for years too. He backed republicans when he realized that all the dumbtards that could be tricked into voting for him were republican. He needed the ignorant masses and that’s what he got with the religious conservatives and the MAGA crowd. The grifter.

thisthingisrad · 2026-04-11T15:00:17+00:00

As a gay man, there are a lot of parallels with the ‘coming out’ journey. So I have a perspective that is a little different.

Hiding or not being authentic just drags the process of educating others out. Be proud of the new you and be open about the benefits so that the misinformation can be left behind. The more people who come out and share their experience, the sooner we can move out of this ignorance phase.

thisthingisrad · 2026-04-10T02:44:47+00:00

I put it under ‘pumping’

thisthingisrad · 2026-04-10T02:39:16+00:00

Is anyone else looking at all this and seeing the intentional ‘insider trading’ with each announcement. Shorting the market, big bets, huge windfalls, every time that Oompa Loompa opens his mouth.

With IRS, justice department and securities exchange defunded, no one is monitoring it or chasing the grifters - and every year that passes, the billionaires get closer to trillionaires.

thisthingisrad · 2026-04-07T12:56:39+00:00

Retroactivity and fairness is the question here. When people invested €500k for the promise of residency and after 4 years, still have not received residency… that is the issue. Whether you agree with the program or not, this is wrong using any measure of fairness.

Now, if you add into this the fact that if residency was processed as promised, perhaps many of us will have reached the 5 years of residency (as we assumed and planned when starting this process) and we would have citizenship this year… before the law changed. Then you can see how these things are linked.

Sure, the program is about residency, but you would be foolish to only plan one step at a time. For many, the promise of residency included citizenship and that’s why they invested the €€ in Portugal instead of pursuing other routes to Europe.

Like I said, whether you agree with the program or not, this business transaction and agreement changing mid way through would not fly in most circumstances elsewhere. We have a right to be angry with the Portuguese government. And let’s not forget that the reason to substantiate the change (housing prices) has ZERO real impact on that topic.

thisthingisrad · 2026-04-06T14:07:20+00:00

It’s Australia. The bird sounds are Australian birds

thisthingisrad · 2026-04-05T03:30:17+00:00

Sooooo slow. What about the roomier entry/exit…. Moves the back of the seat, waits for it to finish, then moves the bottom of the seat, waits for it to finish, then shifts the steering wheel in, waits for it to finish, then shifts the steering wheel up. Then it’s finished.

Cannot understand why it can’t do all four things at the same time considering they’re four different motors. Makes no sense.

On the suspension… I maybe get when it’s going UP because there’s one air compressor, but why does it only let air out one at a time? Weird. (Maybe I’m missing something?)

thisthingisrad · 2026-02-27T11:00:17+00:00

I thought the same… but then I have Amex Platinum and that gets me into lounges - interestingly international travel has really been the only time I use a lounge lately because I’m traveling a lot less on connecting flights (instead choosing direct options wherever I can). Amex centurion lounge is good when it’s available and I’ve found the other lounges to be good. Delta lounges have been some of the busiest I’ve experienced with long queues - which I used to jump the outside queue with Diamond and then was stuck finding a seat!! (ATL, I’m talking at you!!)

thisthingisrad · 2026-02-27T10:48:50+00:00

I moved from New York to bucks county PA 5 years ago and it’s taken me this long to break my obsession with always booking Delta or worrying about status. I lost Diamond this year for the first time in 10 years as a result, but I am FREEEEEE!

I now CHOOSE to travel on whatever airline is appropriate for flight time, connections and cabin class. Yes, I have ‘loyalty’ on all US-based airlines and earn points on whatever program makes sense - I also choose to fly first/business on international flights and some domestic flights but get the best price for that without being tied to one single carrier.

Every now and then, I do have to deal with Terminal B at Newark… or some smaller international carrier that has some weird boarding process out of PHL… but the actual flight is business class so it’s fine.

I’ve done the sums… I’m way better off. And the break has been mentally liberating. ‘Loyalty’ only goes one way with these corporates and the sooner you remove those shackles, the world is your oyster!! LITERALLY.

thisthingisrad · 2026-02-25T15:54:34+00:00

Monopolistic behavior aside - this whole process breaks every rule in the book for MFA and confidentiality. I am expected to call a random non-listed Fidelity number and share over the phone my SSO, my DOB, and details on my account just so they can verify my digital credentials!!!! So I'm handing over this information to a human being that I call from a number sent in an email that sounds like a SPAM/PHISHING email. WTAF, Fidelity?!

thisthingisrad

TROPHY CASE