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AI Data Centre Boom Doubles Big Tech Debt

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#15 | Posted by LampLighter at 2026-07-12 10:02 PM
The question in my mind currently is...
Will AI's huge CapEx debt ever be recovered?

The same question you asked before?

Depends on who you ask. See #12

And then, debt aside, there are things like ...
Data centres account for almost a quarter of Irish electricity usage in 2025
So, aside from the increasing debt burden, then is also the operational cost burden.

Yes, it's called infrastucture and every company has operational costs. See #14.
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Posted by CutiePie at 2026-07-12 10:34 PM | Reply

AI Data Centre Boom Doubles Big Tech Debt

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#13 | Posted by LampLighter at 2026-07-12 09:16 PM
The cost of AI tokens (cost per transaction) has risen significantly.

Cost of AI token is NOT the cost per transaction. - see drudge.com

* 18% of organizations now orchestrating multiple agents across workflows, up from 9% in the previous period
* A $0.04 chat can become a $1.20 orchestration when it requires tool retrieval, planning and subagents
* AI coding costs are expected to surpass average developer salaries by 2028
* Despite enterprises spending an average of $11.5 million on AI in 2026, most struggle to demonstrate any clear return on investment.

* Recent tests have shown Chinese models to be much cheaper "per task" (not necessarily per token) and do almost as good a job as best US models, like Mythos, that run on more advanced hardware.

Nor does it matter how much money you make "per transaction" (however you want to define it), if you don't have enough of them (volume) to make a profit based on your costs structure - it's basic economics... hence, as I posted:

They are not necessarily losing money on every transaction because defining "transaction" in AI is very complex and involves many different, non-uniform costs.
However, they are losing a lot of money because the costs are huge, and they will definitely need a lot of subscription volume and high revenue growth to pay for their infrastructure, recurring expenses and continuous upgrades.

"Cost per transaction" is just one, poorly chosen, unit of many factors in trying to evaluate whether "Will the revenue generated by AI catch up to the CapEx for the hyperscalers?"
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Posted by CutiePie at 2026-07-12 09:52 PM | Reply

AI Data Centre Boom Doubles Big Tech Debt

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#11 | Posted by LampLighter at 2026-07-12 08:16 PM
They currently seem to be losing money on every transaction, but hope to make up for it with volume ...

They are not necessarily losing money on every transaction because defining "transaction" in AI is very complex and involves many different, non-uniform costs.

However, they are losing a lot of money because the costs are huge, and they will definitely need a lot of subscription volume and high revenue growth to pay for their infrastructure, recurring expenses and continuous upgrades.

That's how it usually works in the early stages.

Will the revenue generated by AI catch up to the CapEx for the hyperscalers?

Depends on who you ask - early/mid-rounds investors, founders and companies accountants, sell-side analysts, buy-side analysts, critics of technology, critics of financial structure, competition, etc. - and answers may depend on knowledge and assumptions, but also on what their financial incentives are.
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Posted by CutiePie at 2026-07-12 08:57 PM | Reply

AI Data Centre Boom Doubles Big Tech Debt

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#7 | Posted by donnerboy at 2026-07-11 02:23 PM
If you think AI is just about automated office tasks then you haven't been paying attention.

Today's "AI" is, mostly automation.

AI's reach extends far beyond basic "office tasks" because it handles complex workflows, accelerates physical and digital problem-solving, and increases the overall speed of tasks with less human error.

Instead of just drafting emails or sorting data, advanced systems will coordinate projects, analyze deep patterns, and drive major operational shifts. There is even an AI running its own business in SF now.

"Luna / Andon Market: An autonomous AI agent given a budget and lease to run a real storefront in San Francisco."

That sounds like a really lovely marketing material template of almost any "AI" prospectus.

www.businessinsider.com - Claude Code's creator says his setup involves thousands of AI sub-agents doing 'deeper work' overnight - 2026-05-13

|------ Anthropic engineer Boris Cherny says his coding setup now involves "a few thousand" AI agents working for him overnight.

Cherny, the creator of Claude Code, described his AI workflow during an interview with Sequoia Capital on May 4.

His answers - including how he mostly runs the agents via his phone - highlighted how some Silicon Valley engineers are beginning to use AI systems less like chatbots and more like always-on autonomous assistants.

Cherny said he relies heavily on two Claude Code features built for persistent automation: /loops and Routines.

He said users can schedule /loops locally via cron, while Routines run recurring tasks on a server, allowing engineers to keep agents working after their laptops are closed. ...
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Stories like this are popping up nearly every day now.

Yes, of course. There are also "stories" nearly every day that don't make it into popular, mainstream press.

"A pair of humanoid robots crossed a major medical milestone this week after successfully performing gallbladder removals in pigs for the first time ... "

Intuitive Surgical's DaVinci robots (and their copycats) are old news and have been on the market since early 2000s; if you have seen phrase "minimally invasive surgery" it most likely refers to all kinds of robot-assisted medical procedures, from head to toes.
"In 2012, it was used in an estimated 200,000 surgeries, most commonly for hysterectomies and prostate removals."

And robotics may or may not include AI, but often confused with AI because most are usually consumer-facing, even if it's as simple as Roomba.

The Singularity is Nearer.

Yes, every day, by definition... but none of what you posted before is even remotely close to Singularity, or much beyond automation of previously "manual" tasks.

In fact, most of what was described in that 'prospectus' I could run much cheaper on a network years ago with a logic module, few scripts and not very sophisticated task scheduler, with or without ERP or "supervising" the process.

I didn't call it AI.
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Posted by CutiePie at 2026-07-12 07:52 PM | Reply

California Drew the Venture Capital Than Any Other State

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lots of VC in AI right now

#6 | Posted by ClownShack at 2026-07-12 12:20 PM
- - - - - The Vietcong are back and they're doing AI???

VC stands for "Venture Capital" - quite a lot of VC firms are in Silicon Valley.

If you read a little further in the article than the hype about SV you'll find this about "why" and concentration of capital in a specific industry within technology sector:

|------- ... To be sure, the surge in the size and number of monster deals could be overshadowing other money-raising efforts from smaller companies and investment by smaller funds, industry experts said.

Nearly 90% of invested dollars went to AI firms, up from last year, when around 65% of new funds were allocated to AI.

"If you're a tech company and you're not an AI company, you have a very, very difficult opportunity ahead of you to raise capital," Stanford said.

This concentration of capital in AI leaves smaller, middle-of-the-road venture funds without large AI holdings struggling to return capital to their investors.

Only the largest funds, such as Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia Capital - which possess the war chest to back OpenAI, Anthropic, and SpaceX - stand to gain from their initial public offerings of stock.

"It's going to concentrate the fundraising over the next few years as well into these already very large names," Stanford said.

Beyond the two potential blockbuster listings - Anthropic and OpenAI, each valued around $1 trillion - the IPO pipeline is thin.

"We don't really have a strong IPO market," Stanford said. "Obviously, SpaceX's IPO is great. OpenAI and Anthropic, if they go out this year, will be very large drivers of distribution. But a vast majority of investors do not have exposure to them, and so that money will not make it back to them." ...
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Well, OpenAI delayed IPO because of fear that the current valuation is closer to $750B, which is far short of $1T and would be considered a "failed IPO"... Anthropic is watching for now, since it's in only slightly better position than OpenAI.

There are already doubts about when or if the ROI on AI will materialize, and the tremendous debt needed to be raised for capex, due to rising costs of datacenters, memory and quickly outdated processors and availability of energy and qualified AI personnel, as well as ongoing "brain drain" due to Trump's immigration and "China Initiative" policies.

If OpenAI and Anthropic IPOs "fail" it could spell the beginning of the bust of entire hugely overvalued market, e.g., SPCX has already given most initial gains from IPO price.

Concentration is not just in the US - TSMC, Samsung, and SK Hynix now make up more than 30% of the MSCI Emerging Markets Index - as much as the exposure of the "Mag 7" in the S&P 500. Overall, technology accounts for 45% of the emerging market index.

Some may remember the high concentrations in overvalued markets during dot-com bubble of 1999-2000 and financial bubble of 2006-2008.
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Posted by CutiePie at 2026-07-12 05:30 PM | Reply

Iran, Not Trump, Is in Control of This War

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#26 | Posted by LampLighter at 2026-07-10 01:53 PM
Pres Trump says that the US is in full control of the Strait...

As I have explained before, if a sentence starts with "Trump says..." you can safely ignore the rest of it.

Now Iran may be starting to realize that control of the Strait is a better way to get global attention than having a nuke.

Entirely different purposes and timelines:

1. Unlike Trump, Iran doesn't really want "attention" - they want real regional power - that's why until recently they waged terrorist war against Israel through multiple proxies, like Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah (Lebanese and Syrian), Houthis et al, helped by Soviet Union / Russia.

Tenuous "control" of the Strait of Hormuz is, at best, a desperate short-term opportunity to "haggle" with Trump by making temporary inconvenience to our regional allies and Trump in an election year (and, most importantly for him, interrupting his numerous "concepts of plans" to enrich and ingratiate himself through various grifts while attempting to insulate himself and family from consequences).

There are plans and game's afoot already of countries in the region for alternatives, land-based bypass routes and/or pipelines, some of which may include Turkiye and Israel, e.g.:

www.aljazeera.com - Saudi, UAE, Iraq: Can three pipelines help oil escape Strait of Hormuz? - Al Jazeera, 2026-03-27

www.pipeline-journal.net - Gulf States Fast-Track Pipeline Projects to Bypass Volatile Strait of Hormuz - 2026-04-07

www.nextbigfuture.com - Other Pipelines and Projects to Bypass Oil From Hormuz - 2026-05-05

This will take some time, but Iran understands that time of having whatever "control of Strait" they want everyone to think they have is not on their side... and when it goes poof they may not be able to ship their own oil through... which will not go well for their economy and will make their main buyers very unhappy.

2. On the other hand, possession of nuclear (and/or chemical) weapons, is Iran's long-held goal with designs of controlling entire, mostly Sunni Muslim Middle East countries, with whom Shi'a Muslims have been waging 14-centuries old war, and would facilitate the ability to enact at least one part of long-stated desire of "Death to Israel! Death to America!" which the original Ayatollah (1979 edition) endearingly named "Little Satan" and "Great Satan."

jewishonliner.org - How Iran's "Great Satan" Doctrine Still Shapes the Regime - 2026-03-02
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Posted by CutiePie at 2026-07-12 06:38 AM | Reply

Musk in 2025: AI Will Take All Jobs, But Standard of Living Won't Fall

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1. Musk in 2025: AI Will Take All Jobs - complete BS, as usual...

So far, there has been little, if any ROI on enterprise AI rollouts, and companies found they are blowing their budgets by token-maxxing, and that was even before deploying agentic AI, when they don't know how many tokens the model's agents will burn doing requested tasks, and then get surprised with the bill:

fortune.com - "'The cost of compute is far beyond the costs of the employee': Nvidia executive says right now AI is more expensive than paying human workers" - 2026-06-14

* 18% of organizations now orchestrating multiple agents across workflows, up from 9% in the previous period
* A $0.04 chat can become a $1.20 orchestration when it requires tool retrieval, planning and subagents
* AI coding costs are expected to surpass average developer salaries by 2028
* Despite enterprises spending an average of $11.5 million on AI in 2026, most struggle to demonstrate any clear return on investment.

* Recent tests have shown Chinese models to be much cheaper "per task" (not necessarily per token) and do almost as good a job as best US models, like Mythos, that run on more advanced hardware.

2. ... But Standard of Living Won't Fall

True, but it's more of Musk selling "Utopian" future (remember "Occupy Mars!" or Hyperloop or "Saving the Earth with EVs and solar panels") if only everyone buys into his "vision" and his "X-tools" - recently merged with SpaceX, xAI has just been rebranded as SpaceXAI (makes it easier to hide financial losses from xAI / Grok / eX-Twitter etc):

fortune.com - Can Elon Musk really save the world? - 2023-09-23

The real reason that "standard of living" won't fall is not because of bogus "AI will take all jobs... but you will like it" and Musk's upselling non-workable dystopian "UBI" into Utopian "UHI" - typically, "standard of living" and employment has risen with new, revolutionary or evolutionary technology, while often displacing some occupations and jobs. "AI" is not that much different - more technologically advanced, better educated societies replace brawn with brains:

www.forbes.com - Ford Hiring 350 Engineers After AI Failed Shows Human Value In AI Era - 2026-06-30

geekspin.co - Unions are furious after GM replaces 1,000 workers with 50 cobots - 2026-06-23

3. Tesla CEO says work will soon be optional... - more BS, never worked, even when "From each according to their ability, to each according to their need" was fashionable - this is how it ends up:

en.wikipedia.org(The_Twilight_Zone) - To Serve Man (The Twilight Zone) (1962)

4. ... as AI takes over all labour. - as in the "Horseshoe theory" it's a fine line just where and how this Musk's dystopian vision turns into Musk's Utopian vision; see point 1.
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Posted by CutiePie at 2026-07-11 10:10 PM | Reply

Trump to Cut Solar, Wind Subsidies on July 4th

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#12 | Posted by ClownShack at 2026-07-05 05:18 AM
If America wasn't dependent on oil, the Middle East would be meaningless to us.

#13 | Posted by donnerboy at 2026-07-05 11:43 AM
... to have your economy be so completely reliant on fossil fuels from the Middle East.

The US is not at all reliant on 'fossil' fuels from the ME - we are net exporter of oil, gas and coal... but most developed countries do: e.g., Japan just relaxed the rules - for a year (for now) - to increase the use of coal-fired power plants, despite increased coal prices, because they're very dependent on imported energy, partly because of shutting Fukushima nuclear reactors - they are importing LNG to meet 98% of gas demand, of which only 6% goes through Hormuz.

Outside of France - which has ~70% of domestic energy needs delivered by nuclear power, and is the world's largest net exporter of energy - large industrial countries in Europe and Asia are reliant on 'fossil' fuels, despite (or because of) heavy investments in renewable energy. EU even categorized NG as "green" energy and, with Hormuz closed, relaxed restrictions on methane emissions.

drudge.com - Electricity rates by state

Energy is a global market, and is priced accordingly. Most of the world's nations, capitalist or "socialist" - and tremendous industrial and technological progress achieved in 20th century - have been reliant on 'fossil' fuels, some hydropower and nuclear :

drudge.com - France's Solar Power Generation Hits Record High on Friday - 2026-05-11 :

... Because the worldwide demand for energy grows along with all the "records" of growing supply of energy [from renewables], 80+% of the world's energy is still generated by oil, coal, NG (32%, 27%, 24%) with hydro (6%) and nuclear (5%).

If only there were some better, efficient, cleaner energy sources discovered and produced in the 20th century! Maybe starting some time around 1940s? Bueller? Bueller?
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Posted by CutiePie at 2026-07-06 09:04 PM | Reply

Tesla Driver Arrested for Manslaughter

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#6 | Posted by sitzkrieg at 2026-07-04 09:12 AM
Otherwise any of these fatal autopilot accidents between 2021 and 2025 would make the list.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Tesla_Autopilot_crashes

#5: From 2021-2025 there have been 2,081 incidents involving autonomous vehicles (ADS only - so Tesla was not included).

Truly self-driving cars (not Tesla) have much lower rate of accidents, and fatal accidents in particular.

Happy Independence Day!
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Posted by CutiePie at 2026-07-04 02:06 PM | Reply

Tesla Driver Arrested for Manslaughter

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#4 | Posted by moder8 at 2026-07-03 08:45 PM
LOL. Only suckers trust self-driving cars at this point. Just a shame innocent people are dying in the process.

Try Waymo taxis, especially new minivans; they are fun, safe and very polite on the road - have good driving etiquette and no road rage.

They have kinks sometimes, which make headlines, but they "learn" from their mistakes faster and better than human drivers.

Truly self-driving cars (not Tesla) have much lower rate of accidents, and fatal accidents in particular.

As often happens, especially with technology and politics, it's actual data and statistics vs perception and "influencers", particularly from those who may be negatively affected by technology.

safer-america.com - How Many Accidents Has Waymo Had?

|------- ... Comparing Waymo to Human Drivers
According to Waymo, studies have shown that Waymo's autonomous vehicles have a lower rate of accidents compared to human drivers. For instance, with over 25 million fully autonomous miles, the Waymo Driver had fewer serious collisions than human drivers, independent of who was at fault. This data suggests that autonomous driving technology has the potential to enhance road safety significantly. ...

Challenges and Public Perception
Despite the promising data, public skepticism remains a hurdle. High-profile incidents, even when not caused by autonomous systems, can influence public opinion and slow the adoption of self-driving technology. Waymo acknowledges these challenges and continues to focus on transparency, rigorous testing, and collaboration with regulatory bodies to build trust within the communities it serves.
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safer-america.com - How Many Accidents Are Actually Caused by Self-Driving Cars? - 2026-03-04

|------- From 2021-2025 there have been 2,081 incidents involving autonomous vehicles (ADS only - so Tesla was not included).
Of those, 2,052 included narratives; the remaining ones did not, making it impossible to determine fault.

234 accidents were caused by an AV. However, 157 of those only involved the AV; 77 involved another vehicle or person.
1,705 accidents were caused by another road user
36 accidents had shared fault
22 accidents were unavoidable or fault was unclear
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www.trialproven.com - Data Analysis: Fault in Autonomous Vehicle Accidents (2021-2025)

"Headlines citing 'thousands of AV accidents' can be alarming, but context matters. ... Of 2,052 AV incidents reported to the NHTSA, autonomous vehicles were solely at fault for only 4% of accidents that involved other road users. There have been zero human fatalities caused by an AV from 2021-2025."
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Posted by CutiePie at 2026-07-04 04:44 AM | Reply

Congress to Vote on Stripping Aid to Israel Next Week

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#8 | Posted by Hughmass at 2026-06-29 06:52 AM
If I were boss, America would simply walk away from the insane asylum called the Middle East, and let everyone know if we need their products we pay cash, but no more American blood will be spilt in those endless wars, Israel against Arab, Sunni against Shia...

Finally, a perfect description of "America First" policy.

But then, that is what Trump has said he would do...

Except people didn't expect that he would try to divorce NATO, trading partners in Europe, Asia, North and South Americas, "acquire" Greenland or any "51st state" anywhere - just to make his mark and "etch his name in history"...

Maybe "America First" and "MAGA" was just "misunderstood" or are they just meaningless slogans, meaning whatever Trump wanted it to mean - "I am MAGA"?

Of course, just because we may want to stay away from Middle East doesn't mean that Middle East will stay away from us.

And last time we tried to pacify terrorists or stay away from Middle East politics, they found us on September 11, 2001.

Times when Bill Clinton passed on killing Usama bin Laden:

www.humanitiesforwisdom.org - Bill Clinton and missed opportunities to kill Osama bin Laden - WP, 2006-02-16

www.c-span.org - C-SPAN: Clinton had 10 chances to kill Osama Bin Laden

www.latimes.com - Bill Clinton: "I could have killed" Osama bin Laden in 1998 - 2014-08-01

www.historynewsnetwork.org - CIA Agents Reveal How Bill Clinton Stopped Them From Killing bin Laden and Preventing 9/11 - 2020-04-19

en.wikipedia.org - "Death to America"
en.wikipedia.org - "Death to Israel"

The Sarkha of the Houthis in Yemen reads, "Allah is the greatest. Death to America. Death to Israel. A curse upon the Jews. Victory to Islam".

It's not a recent development - both Nazi Germany and Soviet Union were active in the Middle East, predating the state of Israel. Islamist takeover of Iran passed the torch after USSR was dismantled.

Most Arab neighbors in the region fear Iran, not Israel. In fact, Israel was asked and helped protect UAE and Saudi Arabia from Iranian attacks, as well as providing high-end technology for Qatari and Saudi F-15s and other defense infrastructure.

You can ignore reality, you can't ignore the consequences of ignoring reality.
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Posted by CutiePie at 2026-07-01 06:59 PM | Reply

Trump Gives $17.5 Billion in Loans for 10 Nuclear Reactors

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#23 | Posted by SomebodyElse at 2026-06-27 04:13 PM
"A nuclear power plant produces power for decades; the nuclear waste it leaves behind will remain lethal for 10,000 years. Put on a blackboard the year the EPA has determined these materials will be safe, 11,993."
Daniel Ellsberg, 1993.

This scaremongering from the usuals old "doomers" and fear of anything "nuclear" is the kind of thinking that left us decades behind China and some other countries in energy buildout that is necessary if we want to have enough relatively cheap energy for all the things that need to be or we want to be electric: EVs, datacenters (AI-centric or plain old "cloud" data storage and servers) and just increase in commercial and consumer electric demand, including portable and wearable devices.

For example, a single ChatGPT query consumes 10x the energy of a Google search.

If we stupidly demand to keep TikTok datacenters in America, then we need plenty of stable portable energy, like nuclear, gas, green/blue hydrogen.

China is energy-abundant, in part, because in the last 20+ years they were also investing in and building nuclear plants and other energy solutions, like hydro, gas and coal.

itif.org - Chinese firms are well ahead of their Western peers. China likely stands 10 to 15 years ahead of the United States in nuclear power - 2024-06-17

world-nuclear.org - Plans For New Reactors Worldwide - 2025-10-29

drudge.com - Why tech giants such as Microsoft, Amazon, Google and Meta are betting big on nuclear power - 2026-05-11

www.congress.gov -

|------- ... Over the last several hundred years, human beings have been moving away from matter-dense fuels towards energy-dense ones. First we move from renewable fuels like wood, dung, and towards the fossil fuels of coal, oil, and natural gas, and eventually to uranium. ...

... Energy-dense nuclear requires far less in the way of materials, and produces far less in the way of waste compared to energy-dilute solar and wind. A single Coke can's worth of uranium provides all of the energy that the... American... lifestyle requires. At the end of the process, the high-level radioactive waste that nuclear plants produce is the very same Coke can of (used) uranium fuel. The reason nuclear is the best energy from an environmental perspective is because it produces so little waste and none enters the environment as pollution. ...
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www.cnbc.com - New U.S. nuclear power boom begins with old problem: What to do with radioactive waste - 2025-11-09

|------- ... But you can count Gates, the big tech billionaire who was backing nuclear even before the AI data center boom, as having not only thought about the waste problem, but dismissed it as major impediment. "The waste problems should not be a reason to not do nuclear. The amount of waste involved ... that's not a reason not to do nuclear. ... Say the U.S. was completely nuclear-powered - it's a few rooms worth of total waste. So it's not a gigantic thing," Gates said in 2023.
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In addition, new SMRs / fast-breeder reactors can actually reuse and "burn" spent nuclear fuel, in effect reducing nuclear waste.
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Posted by CutiePie at 2026-06-28 05:59 PM | Reply

Exceptionalism Can Be Lonely -- Ask Britain

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#8 | Posted by Nixon at 2026-06-24 06:52 AM
That said, there are plenty of jobs being lost to foreigners who will come in with advanced degrees and do the work for pennies on the dollar while telecommuting from India, Pakistan, etc.

Every single year 1040 preparation work is sent overseas to foreign nations where a return that would cost $1000 in time here to prepare and review will be done for $200 and still billed out for $1700 to the client.

If only there was something to stop those damn "globalists" and advances in "cheaper better faster" technology!

The next step is already happening with letting a business return that can be billed for $4000 will be prepared for $100 by AI. I've seen both the good and the bad with AI used in tax law research.

Like with most technologies, there is good and bad... "bad" mostly relates to eliminating or completely changing the nature of certain jobs affected by technology.

www.reuters.com - Google to spend $15 billion on AI infrastructure hub in biggest India investment - 2025-10-14

cloud.google.com - Announcing America-India Connect and new investments to advance global AI access - 2026-02-18

www.cnbc.com - Over $50 billion in under 24 hours: Why Big Tech is doubling down on investing in India - 2025-12-11

www.cnbc.com - How a $4 billion Indian startup Cred won Meta's backing but lost its founder to WhatsApp - 2026-06-22

Both the Left and the Right are pining for the "good old" but ephemeral 1950s, "when a working man without much education could buy a house, a car, and comfortably support entire family on single salary" - they just blame a different color Tribe for that, but offer near-identical populist remedies that have never worked as advertised and usually make things worse for most people, especially those they claim they want to help.
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Posted by CutiePie at 2026-06-25 05:39 AM | Reply

Exceptionalism Can Be Lonely -- Ask Britain

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Exceptionalism Can Be Lonely -- Ask Britain

There is nothing about "exceptionalism" in the headline or the article - Britain of "Rule, Britannia!" has not been "exceptional" for centuries.

Article is "exceptionally" anti-Brexit biased - not surprisingly, reflecting NYT point of view - but, also not surprisingly, plays fast and lose with economic data.

Brexit was supposed to let Britain return to a time when it still counted as a global power.

BS, UK is world's fifth largest economy and on course of overtaking Japan in near future; Brexit was about independence from politics and taxes of "Brussels" and independence of their economy and currency (GBP) from EURo... just like Canada not wanting to be "51st state" of the USA.

Brexit still holds majority of mindshare in Britain: "There is now a mountain of evidence that support for rejoining the EU crumbles when the costs and conditions are revealed. We Brits still value our sovereignty and do not want to hand control back to Brussels."
https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/2216906/rejoin-eu-campaign-faces-nightmare - Rejoin EU campaign faces nightmare - 2026-10-13

Mr. Starmer was the sixth occupant of the office during the past decade. In the previous two decades, there had been just three prime ministers.

Again, sleight of hand comparison - Britain's current social problems wouldn't be any easier had they stayed in EU - EU had and still has their share of turnovers / "flipping" of failed "conservative" and "liberal/progressive" governments and deep divisions in the last decade (see Italy, Greece, France, Germany, Belgium etc.) - this actually coincides more with the issue of "immigrants" and arrival of destabilizing Trump on the political scene than anything to do with Britain or Brexit specifically.

For example, relatively more stable 4-year USA system had 3 two-term presidents (changes of party in power) in 24 years since 1993, and 3 one-term changes during the past 10 years.

Starmer/Labour, in particular, won last election with the lowest number of delegates in the history of UK.

Now, to the real economics of Brexit:

UK's predicted "economic collapse" due to Brexit didn't happen; in fact, their average growth rate since is higher than many in EU, Canada and Japan:

Real per capita compound annual GDP growth rate change - (2016-2025) delta (2007-2016) in USD (data from https://data-explorer.oecd.org/?lc=en):
............... PPP ... nominal
Germany : -5.9% ... -5.4%
Japan :.. +3.2% ... -0.8%
France :. +6.4% ... +4.5%
Canada :. +0.9% ... +7.2%
UK :.... +3.2% ... +9.0%
USA :... +12.1% ... +11.0%

In 2015 UK exports to EU members were only 42.3% of total exports, least of any other EU countries;

Second largest importer of UK exports was the USA, and since 2011, US GDP grew by 40.0%, almost 2x of EU's 20.5% growth rate, increasing nominal value of UK exports.

Sure, UK has problems, their taxes and costs are higher and regulations have not eased, "green energy" policies are hurting their economy, NHS is a wreck... but none of that would be remedied had they stayed in EU.

Brexit (and keeping the GBP) was not the economic disaster many predicted, rejoining is not the solution to internal problems.
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Posted by CutiePie at 2026-06-25 04:54 AM | Reply

US Announces Military Review, EU Leaders Brace for Cuts

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#11 | Posted by madbomber at 2026-06-19 10:28 AM
... it's just baffling to me that modern-day Repubs rate Trump higher than Reagan. Or higher than anyone for that matter.

In Nuremberg (2025) (at 00:55:30), there is an interesting conversation between psychiatrist Douglas Kelley (www.history.com, www.forbes.com) and Herman Goering about what drew him to Hitler, which can shine some light on what drew/draws some to Trump:

[K] Let's talk about Hitler.

[G] It is interesting you have not asked me this directly before.

[K] I'm curious what the attraction was. He was a failed painter, right? Not a very good soldier, yet he's worshipped and revered.

[G] He made us feel German again.

[K] How?

[G] Well, the war had seen Germany crushed. And along comes a man who says... We can reclaim our former glory. Would you not follow a man like this?

[K] Depends what else he wanted to do.

[G] The first time I saw Hitler talk was... 1922. Upstairs of a coffee shop. For maybe 30 people. This was peacetime, but it was a peace without food, jobs, shoes. And he stood up. And he said "French bellies are being filled with German pain." And then... "If you make threats, you need bayonets. Rearm! Down with Versailles!" So that night... I became a National Socialist.

[K] Off of... One speech?

[G] Well, I could tell he would appeal to the old soldiers. If they have the old soldiers, they have the manpower. Even with his antisemitism, it served a practical purpose. It brought towards us men who needed something else to focus their emotions. Something else to blame.

[K] And the camps?

[G] They were to be work camps for our political opponents. Nothing more.
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Posted by CutiePie at 2026-06-21 11:10 PM | Reply

US Announces Military Review, EU Leaders Brace for Cuts

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#11 | Posted by madbomber at 2026-06-19 10:28 AM
There was a poll conducted recently. ... Trump was voted the second-most popular president in the last 40 years. ... No harm, no foul, but it's just baffling to me that modern-day Repubs rate Trump higher than Reagan. Or higher than anyone for that matter.

#14 | Posted by donnerboy at 2026-06-20 10:18 AM
National polling shows a sharp divide on this topic, with different surveys reflecting varied results. In a Pew Research Center study examining which U.S. president over the last 40 years did the best job, Barack Obama ranked first (36%), followed by Ronald Reagan (21%), and Donald Trump (19%).

Close enough...

www.pewresearch.org - Pew: Beyond Red vs Blue - 2026-06-10

www.newsweek.com - Summary of Beyond Red vs Blue - 2026-06-11

Last 40 years had 7 presidents, including Bushes and Biden who clearly wouldn't make it to the top of polls. Clinton had a troubled presidency, huge dot-com bubble market crash in his last year and was part of Hillary's "baggage" in 2016, so another scratch off the list.

That leaves Reagan who won Cold War and caused demise of Soviet Union and communist block ideology, Obama and Trump.

So Democrats' choices are essentially down to one, a no-brainer.

Trump's current standing can be explained by several factors, the main of which are the Recency Bias (en.wikipedia.org), self-selective (FoxNews) and algorithmic- / "influencers"-driven digital 'news channels' consumption that favor him and sing his praises, people generally poorly educated in economics, history and politics, and also younger audience who don't have the reference (again, a subset of both Recency Bias and education/knowledge) and are much more influenced by zeitgeist's "marketing / slogans" and "causes / movements".

So, in light of all those factors, 19 percent overall is not that high - about the size of his base plus voters who can't (yet?) admit they made a mistake voting for him.

Would be interesting to see the percentage of people one year before 2024 elections who would give Trump same number as now, or thought Biden's presidency was the best, because of "great economy" and "lower inflation" - pretty sure it would be much higher for Biden than it is now. Even a week before elections there were posters here (some of whom are no longer posting) that were looking at the "good" employment/unemployment numbers and predicted victory, totally oblivious to what the real economy was for > 65% of voters. Harris' campaign was apparently blind to that, too: "I would not change anything", utter failure to take campaign seriously and choose competent VP, pay attention to swing states and "woke" issues, and hit Trump on his atrocious actual "business" and "dealmaking" record.

Most recent generic poll of "red"/"blue" states:

www.newsweek.com - Map Shows Donald Trump's Approval Rating in Every State After 17 Months - June 20, 2026
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Posted by CutiePie at 2026-06-21 08:48 PM | Reply

Gazan Exiles Stoke 'revolution' Against Hamas

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#22 | Posted by snoofy at 2026-06-16 06:02 AM
Israel is Stern Gang and Levi, and nothing else?
Hahaha, Levi. You know what I mean.

No, I have no idea who/what you are referring to or WTH you mean... nor do I care.

"So, humanitarian aid is a "policy of propping up Hamas"?"
--- Giving money to a charity is propping up the people running said charity.

1. Hamas is not a "charity"
2. You just condemned the USA, EU and other donors for giving humanitarian aid intended for Gazans.

"Why Arabs Are Fed up With the Palestinians"
Did they get so fed up they killed 70,000 Palestinians, or was that somebody else?

According to your previous answer, Arabs countries engaged in "policy of starvation" of Palestinians - we don't know how many it killed.

Why is Netanyahu so adamant in maintaining Hamas as the Highest Governing Authority in Gaza?

Again, totally nonsensical "conspiracy theory" loopback because you didn't even try reading or understanding posts and links debunking the premise.

Hamas and Iran have been "maintaining" Hamas as "Highest Governing Authority" (that's what Gazans call Hamas) in Gaza, by brutal repressions and public executions of "Israel collaborators."

"How come there aren't any articles saying Netanyahu didn't support Hamas?"
--- "Because writing one would be stupid"
------ In the middle of writing that very article. Congratulations, you played yourself.

That's because I wasn't writing an "article" - I directly answered your illogical question.

So, congratulations... for "playing yourself"... and wasting even more of my time.

On that note, a couple of sincere suggestions that could make life easier for you, and anyone having to deal with your rambling, babbling posts and questions:

1. Lay off tequila or whatever else you're drinking these days, especially in the morning.
2. Ask your doctors to check you for ADD/ADHD - there are meds and therapies for that.
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Posted by CutiePie at 2026-06-17 03:58 AM | Reply

Gazan Exiles Stoke 'revolution' Against Hamas

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#19 | Posted by C0RI0LANUS at 2026-06-15 06:04 PM
Red Alert! Red Alert! CutiePie hit-and-run attack!
40,000 pro-Israel online operatives target Americans 24/7 with PSYOP.

At least 100,000 anti-Israel online operatives target Americans 24/7 with PSYOP!!

There... "Play stupid games, win stupid prizes"

Funny that a prolific online operative who owns and operates a web site under a different nom de plume and is spamming a blog site with anti-Israel misinformation 24/7, is preemptively "warning" about ("insert huge number pulled out of the a$$ here") of phantom pro-Israel "operatives" here. Better skills than troll-bot Effeteposer - which is not a high bar - but same MO and messaging.
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Posted by CutiePie at 2026-06-16 05:31 AM | Reply

Gazan Exiles Stoke 'revolution' Against Hamas

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#15 - #18 | Posted by snoofy at 2026-06-15
In the late 2010s and early 2020s, Israeli officials encouraged Qatar to support Hamas,[8] especially by approving the transfer of large sums of financial aid by Qatar to the organization.

I addressed that but you ignored it, as usual - it wasn't support of Hamas, it was humanitarian aid for Gaza via Qatar:

FTA: Israel has allowed suitcases holding millions in Qatari cash to enter Gaza...
Letting UN's Humanitarian Cash Assistance to Gaza program pass through Qatar has been a long-standing negotiated policy.

From 2014 to 2020, U.N. agencies spent nearly $4.5 billion in Gaza, including $600 million in 2020 alone... With Israel's approval, Qatar has provided over $1 billion in reconstruction funds and humanitarian aid for poor Palestinians in the Gaza Strip... **

So, humanitarian aid is a "policy of propping up Hamas"?

You've been peddling this nonsense here for years, despite clear rebuttals.

[9] Several Israeli intelligence officials have cited Qatari money as a contributing factor to the success of Hamas in leading the October 7 attacks in 2023;[10]
en.wikipedia.org

Money is fungible ("money is money"). Hamas, being the Highest Governing Authority in Gaza, was the receiver of any "humanitarian aid" from the USA and EU indirectly (because Hamas is a designated terrorist entity) through UNRWA and UN and was in position to [mis]use the money for any purpose...

Does that mean that USA and EU have a policy of "propping up Hamas" or "making Hamas stronger"? You understand now how ridiculous that line of thought is?

Unless your argument is that Gaza had to be deprived of all humanitarian aid because they are governed by Hamas (BTW, all Arab countries finally ended aid **), it still is absolutely contrary to "policy of making Hamas stronger" - anyone but you understands that.

Netanyahu admits Israel backing 'criminal' groups, rivals of Hamas, in Gaza
www.aljazeera.com

You are again undermining your own argument by providing the article that directly contradicts your assertion that Netanyahu had a policy of "strengthening Hamas" - even al-Jazeera proves you wrong.

Netanyahu doesn't even deny it.

Why would he deny that he wants to weaken Hamas by "supporting" its rivals? Again, that is exactly opposite of "propping up Hamas"!

How come there aren't any articles saying Netanyahu didn't support Hamas?

Because writing one would be stupid and journalists need to at least seem credible... as opposed to posters on blog sites.

Your arguments are now reduced to a challenge of proving the negative. What kind of "logic" is that?

You are such a time-toilet... but I am clarifying your posts here so those reading the thread understood that.

Keep the "faith"!

** www.gatestoneinstitute.org - Why Arabs Are Fed up With the Palestinians - by Khaled Abu Toameh, July 12, 2022 (even before October 7, 2023)

|------- ... The Palestinians are disappointed: their Arab brothers have stopped providing them with financial aid. ... The Arabs are apparently not only fed up with the Palestinian leadership, but also with international organizations and agencies that help the Palestinians. Arab financial aid to the UNRWA has dropped by 90% in the past few years... -------|
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Posted by CutiePie at 2026-06-16 05:14 AM | Reply

Gazan Exiles Stoke 'revolution' Against Hamas

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#13 | Posted by snoofy at 2026-06-15 08:41 AM
"Was "uniting" them a job of Netanyahu's or any other government of Israel?"
Why ask a rhetorical question so disconnected from history.

The question is not rhetorical if you know the history - I provided links and facts, you ignored them, because your entire worldview depends on "faith" in "alternative facts" on this subject.

Dividing Palestine politically was the policy choice that Netanyahu chose.

Again, ignoring the facts, because because they will shatter your "faith" in something.

You either didn't read the posts and links, which disprove this with facts, or just have to go with "faith" and this is your shibboleth - I understand that.

Netanyahu: Money to Hamas part of strategy to keep Palestinians divided
www.jpost.com

Article is from 2019 and proves exactly what I posted - money going through legit channels (UN, US, EU or PA) to Gaza/Gazans for humanitarian aid is not about "propping up Hamas" or "making Hamas stronger" or about "dividing" them - they were divided very well by themselves - read the post and links again.

FTA: |------- Netanyahu explained that, in the past, the PA transferred the millions of dollars to Hamas in Gaza. He argued that it was better for Israel to serve as the pipeline to ensure the funds don't go to terrorism. -------|

As I posted, that's exactly opposite of "making Hamas stronger":
Were Netanyahu and others unhappy about continued internecine warfare and split between the PA and Hamas? No, same way Putin and Xi are pleased with Dems and GOP at each other throats or USA split from NATO or Israel. But "propping up Hamas" was not needed to get there.

Instead, you can (and probably will) keep finding the articles with the "right headlines" that may provide opinions and "alternative facts" that satisfy your confirmation bias and fit your view all day long, as I explained in my posts - they just won't be the facts. It's like trying to prove something to Trump or MAGA - they can't accept it or their narrow worldview and psyche will be crushed.

Politicians need to find "villains" to blame and "heroes" to support, to create policies - so Netanyahu will make a great "villain" for both you and Trump/MAGA. Trump is treating Israel as 51st state, anyway... and there can only be one "PRESIDENT."

I am not trying to convince you - that would be a fool's errand - my posts were for the people here who don't know the facts and history and may be confused by what your "faith" and some relatively popular "alternative facts" distort.

It's OK, keep the "faith" - you gotta believe!

You can have the last word(s), I don't have time for this.
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Posted by CutiePie at 2026-06-15 05:25 PM | Reply

Gazan Exiles Stoke 'revolution' Against Hamas

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** www.timesofisrael.com - Barred from working in Israel, West Bank Palestinians pay a price for Gaza's war | With permits down to 11% of pre-October 7 levels, laborers once dependent on Israel for decent wages are drowning... - July 19, 2025

|------- ... The October 7 attack reinvigorated distrust in Palestinians for many Israelis, which was coupled with suspicions that Gazans who had entered Israel in the past had provided intelligence to attackers regarding the communities they had worked in.

But the decision to severely limit permits marked a change: In the past, defense officials had insisted on keeping them in place even after attacks originating in the West Bank. Indeed, terror incidents involving Palestinians with permits to work in Israel, who must undergo an intensive Shin Bet vetting process, have been rare.

At the same time, small numbers of West Bank Palestinians without permits have continued to find their way into Israel, whether to work or carry out attacks " or sometimes both. The assailants in a fatal January 2024 attack in Ra'anana had been working illegally in Israel in the period leading up to the rampage, and that attack was just one of several acts of terrorism inside Israel committed by Palestinians from the West Bank during the Gaza War, despite heavy IDF deployment there.
-------|

*** How else would Mossad and IDF identify, locate and eliminate top Hamas leaders and other terrorists hiding in Gaza? Intelligence and special ops require funding.

BTW, the security level of annual Pride Parade in Tel Aviv-Yafo on June 12 was elevated due to reports of possible violence. 4-day Pride festival on June 1-4, 2026 at Dead Sea was largest in history of the Middle East. No public Pride celebrations were held in West Bank or Gaza.

www.secrettelaviv.com - Pride in Tel Aviv 2026 Guide - 1 June 2026 - 30 June 2026
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Posted by CutiePie at 2026-06-15 02:37 AM | Reply

Gazan Exiles Stoke 'revolution' Against Hamas

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#2 | Posted by snoofy at 2026-06-12 10:53 AM
For years, Netanyahu propped up Hamas. Now it's blown up in our faces
www.timesofisrael.com

Good article, if you read what it actually says and avoid the author's "editorial conclusions" - the content itself completely refutes the headline and intentional narrative of blaming Netanyahu for "policy of propping" Hamas - article was written a day after Hamas attack on October 7 2023, with expected reflexive finger-pointing and scapegoating, especially by opposition parties and press, like in all democracies. It's like reading NY Post op-ed to form opinion about Bidens or Obamas.

FTA: For years, the various governments led by Benjamin Netanyahu took an approach that divided power between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank

Hamas took care of "dividing power" when it won elections in Gaza in 2006 and then hunted and threw Fatah / PA members and their families from the rooftops. Was "uniting" them a job of Netanyahu's or any other government of Israel?

www.encyclopedia.com - al-Fatah
www.encyclopedia.com - Hamas
en.wikipedia.org - Fatah - Hamas conflict

FTA: The idea was to prevent Abbas - or anyone else in the Palestinian Authority's West Bank government - from advancing toward the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Again, bass-ackwards "mainstream" opposition opinion.

See above links, Israel didn't need to do anything - corrupt and bankrupt PA could barely keep all factions together, let alone joining Hamas in forming some kind of Palestinian state, when Hamas' stated goal is "Palestine" in place of Israel.

Were Netanyahu and others unhappy about continued internecine warfare and split between the PA and Hamas? No, same way Putin is pleased with Dems and GOP at each other throats or USA split from NATO and Israel. But "propping up Hamas" was not needed to get there.

FTA: Hamas was also included in discussions about increasing the number of work permits Israel granted to Gazan laborers, which kept money flowing into Gaza, meaning food for families and the ability to purchase basic products.

Oh horrors! They were letting tens of thousands of Gazans to cross the border to work in Israel (just like workers from West Bank **) to make several times what they could in Gaza - so much for Israel's "policy of starvation" and "genocide"!

Hamas is the "Highest Governing Authority" in Gaza - who else would Israel discuss work permits with, or supplying Gaza with electricity and water (for which Hamas refuses to pay) and letting in food and medicine that Hamas "distributors" kept intercepting?

FTA: ... Netanyahu-led governments have practically turned a blind eye to the incendiary balloons and rocket fire from Gaza.

More nonsense - every time Israel responded to missiles attacks, US governments demanded "ceasefire".

FTA: Israel has allowed suitcases holding millions in Qatari cash to enter Gaza...

Obviously! Letting UN's Humanitarian Cash Assistance program to Gaza (and shhh! "financing intelligence activities" shhh! ***) pass through Qatar has been a long-standing negotiated policy.

None of this was "propping Hamas" or "making Hamas stronger" - the billions making Hamas (and Hezbollah, Houthis etc.) stronger came from Iran and other parties, for missiles and tunnels.
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Posted by CutiePie at 2026-06-15 02:36 AM | Reply

Trump (Again) Claims Deal to End Iran War Near

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Trump (Again) Claims Deal to End Iran War Near

And now, the end is near...
I planned each charted course
Each careful step along the byway
And more, much more than this...
When I bit off more than I could chew...
I ate it up and spit it out...
I've had my fill, my share of losing
And now, as tears subside...
I did it my way

And now for something completely different:

babylonbee.com - Trump Sets New World Record By Winning War With Iran 27 Times In One Year - 2026-06-11

|------- WASHINGTON, D.C. - President Donald Trump set a new world record this week by winning the same war with Iran for the 27th time this year, shattering the previous record of one.

... "No one thought we could win the war so many times," Trump told reporters. "We won it very strongly. Then we won it again bigly, and then we won it even more. Frankly, nobody has ever won the same war this many times. It's incredible, many people are saying historic, what we're accomplishing."

Guinness World Records awarded Trump with a special plaque commemorating the prestigious record for winning the most wars against the same country in a single calendar year.

"It's an honor. What can I tell you? It's a great honor," Trump told reporters as he humbly accepted the long-sought-after award. "I've been gunning for this one a long time, and it finally paid off, let me tell you. Lots of people were talking about it. They said, 'You can't do it. No one will fight America enough.' But they weren't thinking about Iran. Iran really made this possible. The great people of Iran. I love them, but I had to keep bombing them so I could lock down this record. It's a beautiful record, and I don't think anyone will ever beat it." ...
-------|

Bonus: babylonbee.com - Trump Repairs The Crack In The Liberty Bell - 2026-06-05

< /satire >
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Posted by CutiePie at 2026-06-13 12:17 PM | Reply

Trump Family Gains $2.3 Billion in Crypto While Investors Lose $2.3 Billion

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#12 | Posted by snoofy at 2026-06-12 01:26 PM
Because Trump is a transactionalist.

This is not about being "transactional" where you exchange something of value to someone for something of value to you - that's exactly how commerce or barter works.

It is because Trump is a lifelong scammer and grifter, "at the highest level" - and people just keep falling for the "value" of his cultivated "reputation" and business persona as a "winner / not a loser" on all things with his name on them. **

Investing in "Trump/DJT" has been a losing proposition for millions of people for decades, regardless of their wealth or status, so Trumps make it easy for suckers to keep "investing" in/with them through worthless "coins" or stocks minted out of ether, via ICOs or SPACs - it's literally a "Boiler Room" (2000) - en.wikipedia.org(film) ** / "Wolf of Wall Street" - en.wikipedia.org(2013_film) enterprise, Trump style.

One of the crypto scams was sale of Trumps'-Witkoffs' $WLFI coins to Alt5 Sigma (ALTS) miner in August 2025, now a penny stock company rebranded as AI Financial (AIFC):

www.cnbc.com - Trump family got about $500M from crypto venture " but investors saw steep losses - 2026-06-09

Another recent scam is Enhanced Group (NYSE:ENHA) that lost over 70% of its value in its first week of trading ("buy on the rumor/ hype, sell on the news") after SPAC merged with actual company whose 'recognition boosters' and stakeholders include Peter Thiel and Donald Trump Jr. Stock is now down 72% from its high, -61% YTD, even after one-time +58% spike due to publicity around Enhanced Games (aka "Steroid Olympics") in May. Like most of the Trump-adjacent companies, it still has a long way down to go.

www.cnbc.com - Donald Trump Jr.-backed 'Steroid Olympics' are happening on Sunday. Here's what to expect - May 22 2026

** The Art of the Con:

"Look, I didn't get to where I am today by losing my clients' money. Put your confidence in myself and J.T. Marlin... and I'm telling you, we'll never have to ask for it again.
... You call me when the stock doubles, all right?"

The psychology of the scams:

fundooprofessor.wordpress.com - The Boiler Room Lollapalooza
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Posted by CutiePie at 2026-06-13 05:20 AM | Reply

Trump Family Gains $2.3 Billion in Crypto While Investors Lose $2.3 Billion

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Trump Family Gains $2.3 Billion in Crypto While Investors Lose $2.3 Billion

By Satoshi, if this isn't a definition of "balanced trade"...
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Posted by CutiePie at 2026-06-12 01:07 PM | Reply