Politics

Aaron N said:

I met a 60+ instrument tech one night at work probably 12 years ago or so. One of the first things he did was pull out Polaroids of all his young Asian girlfriends.

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Was his handle @fourfive8 ?

cwpayton said:

What ever reason he resigned, probably just what he said in his letter

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It conflicts with many other posts he has made on social media in the past as pointed out on other posts earlier. So, he has changed his mind recently. I do respect his decision to resign if he disagrees with his boss (POTUS).

rigbymauser said:

Many communities around the different states are run down. Lack good city water, no trash facilities, poor roads, High Schools lacks newer updated educational books/materials etc.

When I wrote "societies" its because its difficult to describe the US as one society as the US consists of many different kinds of societies. Language barrier?

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The same is true all over the world..



thats paris..




thats Bradford, UK..




Thats Gottengin Germany





Thats just outside Bonn Germany..



these are migrant Roma in Malmo Sweden..



Im afraid Im not seeing your point..

All of those countries have substantially more social welfare programs than the US.. and yet they have notable numbers of people living in abject poverty and filth..

Of course there are poor people in the US.. there are 340M US citizens and a super conservative estimate is that there are another 18M illegals in the US as well..

The question is how does someone define "poor" or poverty?

If you use the World Banks definition of poverty (less than $3 per day) then exactly zero americans live in poverty...

If you use the US's definition of poverty (less than $20 per day) then just under 6% are in poverty.. and a conservative estimate is that over 70% of those people choose to be in poverty (refuse to work, etc) or have mental or physical health issues that prevent work and become wards of the state)..

What most people consider "poor" in the US is actually pretty damn wealthy by the worlds standard.. People living in our "projects" (government provided housing) live significantly better than anyone in any of the photos above..

The US, despite liberals trying desperately hard to change things, doesnt prescribe to the same social welfare systems that Europe does.. and its honestly pretty proud that it doesnt..

In contrast to the US, by the German definition of poverty, roughly 16% of Germans live below the poverty line and another 5% live at "risk" of dropping below the poverty line.. Germany defines poverty as less than 1440 euro a month..

15.4% of French live below the French definition of poverty (1041 Euro a month)...

etc etc...

RLD said:

You are not trying to say BMW USA wants to sell 11% less cars are you?

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Good grief man, I thought you were a lawyer, you guys are supposed to be good at seeing the details in writing. Read carefully again the following that I said:

That said, I agree with you, no factory wants to see a drop in orders. However, it isn't necessarily a gloom and doom scenario as is being assumed by some.

It may actually turn out to be a good thing.

The bottom line is as is so often the case, "it all depends on the circumstances." Both times of higher demand and lower demand have their upsides and downsides.

My point once again is that while no manufacturing busing ever wants to see orders drop, you can't make a conclusion of how one would impact the business in the long term or even if at all without knowing more details.

Pondoro said:

We can agree on this Dave.. Trump is an asshole..

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AND I think you are one so what have we solved.

Pondoro said:

Housing is cheaper than UK many places in Scandinavia..

I suspect Rigbymauser referring to the fact that people in America who have jobs cannot afford proper housing and are forced to live i trailer parks..

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Holy crap, do you just dream this drivel up? Have you been to the USA???

General Keane confirms the thoughts @Red Leg mentioned a few days back.

farmer_john said:

Even just on one front. There soldiers have a very high degree of variability in quality and training.

China would be even less of a detterent because they have 0 direct acess. At least russia has naval assets in the atlantic.

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Not from what Ive studied, the NCO,s cant even make a decision its all from the top, no flexibility. Human meat grinder charges time and again ,or be shot.

Oil (Brent)​

110.97+7.55+7.30%
03:29:03 PM
MI Indication

LNG plants in Iran and Qatar hit..

A real oddball figure..

RLD said:

Good luck with that.

If I understand correctly, in fear of Trump taking office Congress "Trump proofed" NATO:

The Senate Tried to Trump-Proof NATO. Now They Hope Their Effort Worked.

A 2023 law, co-sponsored by Trump’s secretary of state pick, Marco Rubio, is giving senators some assurance, as it makes it much harder for the U.S. to withdraw from NATO.

www.notus.org

It is hard to imagine 2/3's of the Senate buying into that.

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It seems like that congress might have made Nato less Trump proofed than what they intended:

cwpayton said:

Not from what Ive studied, the NCO,s cant even make a decision its all from the top, no flexibility. Human meat grinder charges time and again ,or be shot.

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You have 2x armies in russian military
Conscripts get 0 training beyond this is gun.

Contract soldiers they invest more in.
And their special units they invest alot in.
(Most of the latter two groups are dead)
But the latter have alot more training and are much more disciplined and motivated than your average.
Ukraine has a similar setup. Difference is their conscripts have a greater reason to fight.

But russia does have some good units. There just not alot of them and its more inconsistantly spread out

American soldiers greatest weakness is reliance on tech. Generally being soft and going away from the basics of soldering.

KJE81 said:

It seems like that congress might have made Nato less Trump proofed than what they intended:

https://www.politico.com/news/2024/11/08/trump-nato-congress-courts-00188426

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I'll give you 5:1 the Trump side argument fails if he tries it. He would be putting all of his eggs in a "can't find someone with standing" basket, and that is a tough sell.

KJE81 said:

It seems like that congress might have made Nato less Trump proofed than what they intended:

https://www.politico.com/news/2024/11/08/trump-nato-congress-courts-00188426

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Being Trump proofed is a relative term...

Lets assume he attempted to withdraw the US, but the legislative branch managed to get a stay from the action and then a year later the courts determine that he lacks the authority and that the US remains in.. and only congress and withdraw, and only then with a 2/3 majority...

None of that changes that he is the commander in chief.. and that the Secretary of Defense reports to him, and not to congress.. as do all of the joint chiefs..

so he defunds every penny that the US would have spent on NATO, refuses to participate in any NATO actions or activities (by withdrawing funding), etc.. etc.. etc..

how valuable is the US to NATO as a member?


but.. again.. as said more times than can be counted in this thread... there is 2.5 years left in his presidency.. all of the wincing and moaning about leaving NATO and so many of the other things that people continue to raise hell about are much ado about nothing.. leaving NATO isnt going to happen.. its not even going to be attempted..

There MIGHT be some valid concern if we were 12 months into his first term and he still potentially had 7 more years left to execute his vision and there was a potential for a follow on POTUS that was totally bought into his vision that could also keep moving the ball forward for another 8 years..

Thats simply not the case..

Even if Vance ends up the next POTUS (I think that is highly unlikely.. but.. who knows), who is even more isolationist than Trump, the likelihood of this scenario playing out is outrageously minor..

The reality is the next POTUS MAY be another conservative.. but whoever it is will likely be a bit more centrist and a bit more diplomatic than Trump (look at the field of people rumbling about a bid.. all of them that have any chance at all of winning other than Vance fit this description)... or.. the next POTUS will be a democrat... and there is no way in hell any democrat, extreme leftist or centrist, would further anything on Trumps agenda at all in any way, shape, or form..

If Trump wants to screw over NATO all he needs to do is proclaim them the Greatest Organization EVER! Maybe even better than that! The Democrats will withdraw funding by the end of the month (maybe even sooner!).

It’s pretty hilarious that Europe still hasn’t figured out Trump after 5+ years.

Trump asks for help with the Straits. Everyone turns him down or doesn’t answer. Trump insinuates there may be no need for NATO and all at once NATO and Europe are in a scramble.

The embarrassment could be avoided and the optics would be so much better by working on some form of agreement to begin with.