I don't understand why high-tech and social media companies put up with this extortion. If the Europeans want to play highway robbers and try to hold U.S. companies for ransom, too bad ... tell the Europeans to stuff it where the sun don't shine ... and, if that means Europeans no longer have access to Google or X or Facebook or the latest high-tech gadgets ... okay ... oh well ... the loss of some of your customer base is worth not having to pay BILLIONS of dollars in bribes to capricious, unscrupulous assholes. Life is too short to tolerate corrupt sleazebags like this.

The essential American soul is hard, isolate, stoic, and a killer. It has never yet melted. ~ D.H. Lawrence