anonymouse

jfabula1 said:

charlesn said:

Marvin said:

This is what the government spending cuts and tariffs are about. If there's a better way to fix the debt issue other than cutting spending and trying to make up trade deficits, they'd probably like to hear some ideas. These moves suggest they don't have any better ones.

In mid-October last year, the widely respected financial journal, The Economist, ran with this headline and cover story: "The American Economy: The Envy of the World." And the sub-head was: "The American economy has left other rich countries in the dust." Not bad for the country that Trump has would have the brain-dead believe is in an "economic emergency" and the trading partner punching bag of the world. If so many countries are taking advantage of us, it would seem they're doing a pretty bad job of it! 

The last time we tried tariffs this insane (Trump's are actually worse than Smoot-Hawley), they helped usher in the Great Depression. So there's your "proof of concept" and the reason high tariffs have been discredited by economists left, right and center ever since. It also goes without saying that triggering a recession and stagflation with this stupidity will cut growth and revenue, thereby driving up deficits even higher. And spare me the BS that Trump, the self-styled King of Debt, has ANY interest in solving the debt problem. In his first term, his unpaid for tax breaks to the richest blew up the national debt by more than all 44 previous presidents COMBINED. 

As for spending cuts: the Pentagon budget is nearly $850 billion dollars and for decades has been spending more each year than the next 8-10 largest militaries in the world COMBINED. So how is it that we're always falling behind our adversaries? Why are so many weapons systems wildly overbudget, hugely behind schedule and never work as advertised? Seems like a place that's rife with waste, fraud and abuse. Musk, himself, has excoriated "idiots who are still building the F-35" and has pleaded, "...in the name of all this is holy, let us stop the worst military value for the money in history, which is the F-35 program." Did DOGE stop it? Nope. Where are the mass DOGE firings at the Pentagon? Why hasn't DOGE taking over the Pentagon computers? Why hasn't DOGE limited Pentagon credit cards to $1? Instead, DOGE is devastating health care and services for the veterans who risked their bodies and lives in defense of this country. Nice! DOGE isn't looking for waste, fraud and abuse--it is indiscriminately taking a chainsaw to the government to free up more money for tax cuts to millionaires and billionaires. 

Big BS about veterans, I am DV and not lost a single cents, in fact my health care is far to none. Stop your big BS about veterans please

meterestnz said:

lordjohnwhorfin said:

I still can’t believe people voted for this moron. It’s sad to see the pathetic joke this once great country has become.

For many people through out the world, who understand the the risks of the current worldwide Marxist takeover, your country is seen as once again leading a global recovery. 

AppleZulu said:

This is going to be a disaster. 

iOS_Guy80 said:

MplsP said:

I’m confused - If I go to bed with my Apple Watch on and put it on silent, why would I want to get alerts that I’m trying to avoid with the silent mode?

Was wondering the same thing, unless the article is referring to  an alarm for waking you up in the morning?

avon b7 said:

anonymouse said:

avon b7 said:

beowulfschmidt said:

If they had said, "ATT is fine, but Apple has to follow the same rules, so since you didn't, we're fining you," that would have been pretty legit.

Instead they said, "ATT is fine, nothing wrong with it.  But we're going to fine you anyway.  Because we can, and there's not a damned thing you can do about it."

The Reuters article is a little clearer on that point. 

"Coeuré told reporters the regulator had not spelled out how Apple should change its app, but that it was up to the company to make sure it now complied with the ruling.

The compliance process could take some time, he added, because Apple was waiting for rulings on regulators in Germany, Italy, Poland and Romania who are also investigating the ATT tool."

https://www.reuters.com/technology/french-antitrust-regulator-fines-apple-150-million-euros-over-privacy-tool-2025-03-31/

On the size of the fine, that was also tackled head on (it was proportional):

"We apply competition law in an apolitical manner," Benoit Coeure told a press conference."

While maximum fines can be up to 10% of global revenue (and it's global as a dissuasory measure), the fines still have to be proportional and take into account other factors such as reincidence. 

Like everything else the EU and Eropean countries do, this is like a bad joke. "We didn't say what you needed to do, but, because you didn't do what we wanted, we're fining you."

That's like deciding you want a low speed limit, not setting or posting it, then fining "speeders" for being over the limit by whatever amount you want them to be. Europe and the EU no longer operate under the rule of law, they operate under the whims of the "regulators".

Each EU member state has to transpose EU law into its own national laws. As a result, there can be different requirements across different member states but all of them comply with EU legislation. 

This case is France specific but Apple knows it could fall foul to other member state requirements. It could come up with a compliance effort that satisfies everyone. 

That means waiting for other rulings to be made and that is exactly what my quoted text says.

It's not a joke. 

The French ruling makes it clear that Apple exempted itself from the application of ATT for its own apps. 

ATT itself was not a problem. Apple's implementation was (in the view of the regulator).