Politics

[mutedblade]

Almost nothing has the potential to affect us more than a resurgent Russia threatening Europe. It is why Xi blessed the Russian invasion of Ukraine to better free his hand in the Western Pacific. Sticking our heads in the sand in no way lessens the importance of that national interest. Making it the payee for our domestic mismanagement is fools errand. We spent over SIX TRILLION dollars last year as a nation. During the same period we spent approximately $50 billion on a critical national interest in Ukraine. You do the math on the percentage of that 6 trillion. And don't say we have to start somewhere. "Somewhere" should never be a critical national interest.

Apply that same 50 Billion to roads and bridges. It's folks like yourself that have no true understanding of how big, bloated and inefficient our government truly is. Us peons that work 12+ hour days, 6 days a week and paying ungodly sums in taxes are sick and tired of that attitude. Being a good steward of our money to begin with could have changed the nation's outlook on this, but when folks simply ignore the fact that we are printing money to prop other nations up, it's a little sickening. This ain't Monopoly

You state we spent 6 Trillion last year. How much of that was actually necessary? Half of it, maybe even just a 1/3rd of it and possibly less. Where does that same 50 Billion stack up against that number?

50 Billion here, 50 Billion there...makes no never mind, so long as we can keep adding to our national debt and Red Leg keeps making money on his defense stocks.

 

[deewayne2003]

Those who can not see( or believe)there is a divine good in the name of Jesus can not see the evil of this world either. They are blinded. Thats the best answer I can give. Putin is evil but the european leaders doesn`t understand because they can’t see. As someone said wisely: “Evil shouldn’t be explained it should be combatted”.

Agreed, I just find it highly hypocritical that EU leaders endlessly complain about the USA while they sit on their hands.

EU has pledged $800B Euro to rearm Europe, so I guess it’s better to be decades late than never.

But again they have “pledged” to rearm…..

Just like many Billionaires pledged to donate their money to charity years ago; and we are still waiting for them to do so.

It’s a whole new ball game, and Europe is going to have to get off the bleachers and take the field.

 

[Brent in Az]

DOJ has launched an antitrust investigation into large egg producers to find out if they conspired to raise prices and hold back supplies

 

[YancyW]

https://www.reuters.com/markets/china-announces-retaliatory-tariffs-some-canada-farm-food-products-2025-03-08/

 

[Red Leg]

Apply that same 50 Billion to roads and bridges. It's folks like yourself that have no true understanding of how big, bloated and inefficient our government truly is. Us peons that work 12+ hour days, 6 days a week and paying ungodly sums in taxes are sick and tired of that attitude. Being a good steward of our money to begin with could have changed the nation's outlook on this, but when folks simply ignore the fact that we are printing money to prop other nations up, it's a little sickening. This ain't Monopoly

You state we spent 6 Trillion last year. How much of that was actually necessary? Half of it, maybe even just a 1/3rd of it and possibly less. Where does that same 50 Billion stack up against that number?

50 Billion here, 50 Billion there...makes no never mind, so long as we can keep adding to our national debt and Red Leg keeps making money on his defense stocks.

"Folks like yourself who have no true understanding"......... That make you feel superior in some way? There truly is nothing more pathetic than someone taking it personnel when they are either unwilling or unable to discuss or debate the merits of defending any subject, much less our national interests. Especially when they actually know absolutely nothing meaningful about the other person.

No one here is defending spending 6 trillion dollars. What some knowledgeable people are suggesting is that within all that wastage there are any number of things that demand our attention. Sure, I am for real infrastructure investment. But ignoring critical national interests is the surest way we can create conditions where our future investments in both blood and treasure will be far far greater. The twentieth century offers two vivid examples of that sort of negligence.

Your last personal crack was in keeping with the sad start of your post. Since you assume to know all about it, allow me offer that my portfolio is quite a bit larger than defense stocks, and is doing very well thank you. How about yours? Are you an investment expert as well?

 

[Gyani]

Today's German magazines. USA: from close ally and friend to opponent? Trump, what a insane idiot.

 

[Wishfulthinker580]

View attachment 670129
View attachment 670130View attachment 670131

Today's German magazines. USA: from close ally and friend to opponent? Trump, what an insane idiot.

You Europeans are hopeless

 

[gbflyer]

My Polish neighbor tells me that in Poland, the country he fled from, now has amazing infrastructure. There wasn’t much before the forming and joining of the EU so it wasn’t as much about fixing the old stuff as it was building new. So the highways and bridges are new, built with modern standards and materials, unlike our crumbling mess here in the US. By the way, he is a full - on VZ replica, right down to thinking he can drive when given a ride, and hates Russia. Meanwhile we are financing the defense of Europe. Hard to square that all up for us who toil as peasants.

 

[Wheels]

Old video I had unsuccessfully tried to source before popped back up on the internet.

A Ukrainian official warns the Ukrainian Parliament that America is staging a civil war in Ukraine run through the US Embassy with NGO's. This speech was given three months prior to the Euromaidan uprising in 2014 when Yanukovych was successfully overthrown and ultimately replaced with Victoria Nuland and Jeffery Piatt's pick (leaked audio tapes pre Maidan) Poroshenko.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1898205623747051674

 

[flatwater bill]

My opinion is different.
The biggest threat to the USA and to Europe, is the CIA, USAID and the NATO war machine.
They carry out actions based upon RDS......Russia Derangement Syndrome.
As we fund atheist hate groups and Muslim terrorists within their borders,
Fire missiles into their Country, Use continuous cyber attacks (which Pete H. just paused)
Try to deny their access to warm water ports,
and blow up their pipelines, the major news propaganda pulpits tell us that THEY are the aggressors.
If you speak Russian, you can easily hear the 21 times Putin asks "why can't we all prosper together?"
(Oh, but he is Hitler, right?) As we currently build the largest NATO air base ever.
$9 trillion in recent foreign wars. To no real end. Your money wasted.
And they tell you another war is essential? Nonsense.
Just for fun, look at Romania. The pro-Russian candidate won.....and the CIA puppets cancelled the election......like in the Donbas.....didn't get the result they wanted, yet they champion democracy? The people in these puppet Countries have no voice. No NATO, no war.......a basic truth..........that's what I think.....FWB

 

[SaintPanzer]

One small correction to a bit of American mythology. The Colonial Army could do very little against the British until the forming of the Continental Regiments which could go volley to volley with British regulars. That first evenly fought battle was Monmouth in the summer of 1778.

And of course the "Rangers" were in fact a British colonial creation under Major Robert Rogers which fought during the French and Indian War 1755-1766.

American militia units were on the whole abysmal during the Revolution with a few exceptions like the Battle of King's Mountain.

You are so much more tactful than I. I was going to simply say: "Which they crushed until von Sutüben came along." But you beat me to it, and were much more polite.

 

[Tanks]

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[Wheels]

View attachment 670129
View attachment 670130View attachment 670131

Today's German magazines. USA: from close ally and friend to opponent? Trump, what a insane idiot.

No real difference between this and what Der Spiegel and others did in lampooning Trump during his first term when he told Germany and Europe to decrease their tariffs and increase NATO spending.

You say "from close ally and friend to opponent". If Germany was a close friend to America, why not get rid of all tariffs with America. Trump would match with zero tariffs. What friend abuses a friendship like this for 80 years other than Germany/Europe, then turn around and act like a petulant child for being called out.

 

[mdwest]

But again they have “pledged” to rearm…..

They also "pledged" to contribute 2% of their GDP toward defense dating back to 2006..

Im not saying they don't mean it this time..

But, Im certainly not holding my breath either..

 

[mdwest]

No real difference between this and what Der Spiegel and others did in lampooning Trump during his first term when he told Germany and Europe to decrease their tariffs and increase NATO spending.

You say "from close ally and friend to opponent". If Germany was a close friend to America, why not get rid of all tariffs with America. Trump would match with zero tariffs. What friend abuses a friendship like this for 80 years other than Germany/Europe, then turn around and act like a petulant child for being called out.

I guess what Im wondering is why they don't lampoon themselves.. It was Germany that bought 2.8M metric tons of oil from Russia in 2022, and continued to buy at that volume right up until the invasion happened..

It was Germany that sold $847M in products and services to Russia in 2024.. and purchased $134M in Russian goods and services in 2024...

Seems to me they are doing a fine job of continuing to prop up the Russian economy despite the war in Ukraine..

Perhaps the word hypocrite doesn't translate into German easily?

 

[OxfordTheCat]

If Germany was a close friend to America, why not get rid of all tariffs with America. Trump would match with zero tariffs.

Presumably because the US would continue to provide hundreds of billions in agricultural, manufacturing, energy, and tech subsidies to their domestic industries; continue to flout and ignore WTO rulings, continue the refusal to implement any type of carbon pricing, and continue to encourage domestic production to the point of being in a position to promote dumping.

Existing tariffs, including those the US has had in place historically, are in place for a reason.

 

[Tubby’s Canteen]

Presumably because the US would continue to provide hundreds of billions in agricultural, manufacturing, energy, and tech subsidies to their domestic industries; continue to flout and ignore WTO rulings, continue the refusal to implement any type of carbon pricing, and continue to encourage domestic production to the point of being in a position to promote dumping.

Existing tariffs, including those the US has had in place historically, are in place for a reason.

The same reason why Canada can’t remove tariffs on U.S. dairy. Our farmers are on a quota based system too keep the price of milk high enough to be sustainable for the farmers and low enough to be bought by the consumers. They simply can’t compete with American dairy operations that can increase the size of there herds at will. It has admittedly been awhile sense I looked up quota prices but the last time I looked into it it cost 22000$ for kg of quota enough to roughly milk one cow per day. Also there is a dairy regulatory board which controls the quota on the market so there may not even be any available to buy.

Edit- I looked it up after posting a kg is currently 24000 in Nova Scotia

 

[Red Leg]

Old video I had unsuccessfully tried to source before popped back up on the internet.

A Ukrainian official warns the Ukrainian Parliament that America is staging a civil war in Ukraine run through the US Embassy with NGO's. This speech was given three months prior to the Euromaidan uprising in 2014 when Yanukovych was successfully overthrown and ultimately replaced with Victoria Nuland and Jeffery Piatt's pick (leaked audio tapes pre Maidan) Poroshenko.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1898205623747051674

I think it is worth offering some context to this sort of thing before drawing too many conclusions about the insidious and supposedly incredibly effective efforts of Victoria Nuland or Jeffery Piatt.

The speaker is Oleg Tsaryov. He was a member of a pro-Russian parliamentary faction called called The Party of Regions. While he was pointing fingers at the United States as the anti-Russian demonstrations were beginning that would lead to the 2014 Maiden Revolution, his sponsors in the Kremlin were fomenting an actual insurgency in the Donbas and were well into their preparations for the Russian invasion of Crimea and the shoot down of a Malaysian airliner.

I am always amused, depending upon the narrative, how the CIA is either a bumbling institution incapable of any successful action in the nation's interest, or a sinister cabal capable of bending the will of whole nations.

I think the clearest indicator of what constitutes "truth" among these suppositions is the behavior of the Ukrainian people themselves. Rather than alleged puppets manipulated by any foreign power, Russian or American, for three long years they have fought valiantly with great skill and at great cost to defeat Russia and preserve THEIR right to self-determination for themselves and their decedents.

Sadly, the proponents of the Kremlin propaganda pandered by Mr Tsaryov seem to have won the day in this country as we systematically do nearly as much damage to Ukrainian warfighting capability in a month than Russia could achieve in three years.

 

[Wheels]

Presumably because the US would continue to provide hundreds of billions in agricultural, manufacturing, energy, and tech subsidies to their domestic industries; continue to flout and ignore WTO rulings, continue the refusal to implement any type of carbon pricing, and continue to encourage domestic production to the point of being in a position to promote dumping.

Existing tariffs, including those the US has had in place historically, are in place for a reason.

You make some fair points regarding US subsidies. Have a feeling but don't know that much of this will start going away after the midterms. Not priority now but will be in years 3-4. Carbon pricing will never happen under Trump. If a country wants to do business with America they will have to take that into consideration. If they want to penalize America for carbon, they will be penalized back.

I haven't looked recently but American tariffs are historically one of the five lowest in the world. European tariffs are apx. 3-4 times as high not including VAT which blows the tariffs completely out of the water. If European countries want to maintain their VAT with America the return tariffs will seem significant. Trump has said he will go to zero if a European country wants. He will also match any tariffs from any country. The years of America being taken advantage of are over. At least for four years. It will be hard for any President or Congress to overturn this politically going forward.

 

[Red Leg]

My opinion is different.
The biggest threat to the USA and to Europe, is the CIA, USAID and the NATO war machine.
They carry out actions based upon RDS......Russia Derangement Syndrome.
As we fund atheist hate groups and Muslim terrorists within their borders,
Fire missiles into their Country, Use continuous cyber attacks (which Pete H. just paused)
Try to deny their access to warm water ports,
and blow up their pipelines, the major news propaganda pulpits tell us that THEY are the aggressors.
If you speak Russian, you can easily hear the 21 times Putin asks "why can't we all prosper together?"
(Oh, but he is Hitler, right?) As we currently build the largest NATO air base ever.
$9 trillion in recent foreign wars. To no real end. Your money wasted.
And they tell you another war is essential? Nonsense.
Just for fun, look at Romania. The pro-Russian candidate won.....and the CIA puppets cancelled the election......like in the Donbas.....didn't get the result they wanted, yet they champion democracy? The people in these puppet Countries have no voice. No NATO, no war.......a basic truth..........that's what I think.....FWB

I am confident those sentiments would be met by a standing ovation in Moscow, Beijing, Tehran, and Pyongyang.