Politics

[VertigoBE]

Come over as a soccer fan and find out for yourself, like all the other new "America lovers". What you hear has to be filtered, else you are just falling for propaganda. I am surprised a post Hitler Europe is not much more sensitive to propaganda, but then it has gotten much more sophisticated this time around.

I must admit, the news we get here in Europe about the USA, is very different to what one might experience while being there. And this is on all levels, even very intelligent people who are more believing the propaganda than the reality.

Just today, while discussing with a high profile logistics company you all know, I had to underline that the expectations our analists have on inflation, growth, productivity, unemployment rates between the USA and Europe should account for such a bias. That US figures are mostly better than their forecasts and EU figures are usually worse than their forecasts… “it is in good taste to bash the USA” sigh…

 

[Boyd Brooks]

Canadians are no different than Europeans, most haven’t travelled to the USA, and are fed a full course of Libiturd bullshit by leftist government sponsored media. I travel across the USA every year and stay in the beautiful state of Arizona in the winter. All I ever meet is wonderful people in amazing places, not at all what the local news tells Canadians. Seeing is believing, book your trip now there is so much natural beauty to be discovered, and a new friend to be made along the way.

 

[Accidental Villain]

Interesting new analysis from Foreign Policy as reported by the New York Post which notes the short life expectancy of new Russian soldiers upon arrival at the actual front. From enlistment to arrival at the front is between 10 days to three weeks, illustrating the abysmal level of training this cannon fodder is receiving. Once there, he is dead or severely wounded in less than an hour. Several recent reports, to include from Russian military bloggers, indicate Russian casualty rates are now running 8 to 1. The vast majority of these casualties are from drone strikes (see below), which offer far more accurate casualty assessments than traditional BDA following an artillery strike.

Those losses are now exceeding 30,000 a month with the new added burden of long gas lines and strike drones flying over the Russian capital region.

Most Russian recruits have life expectancy of just 20 minutes on Ukraine front lines, chilling report claims

Once on the battlefield, Russian soldiers are being picked off in an average of 20 to 35 minutes, according to reports.

nypost.com

https://www.reddit.com/r/UkraineWarVideoReport/s/k5yQ1UoVYE

As noted in the Foreign Policy article, Putin is looking ever more like a drowning man, perhaps encouraging him to attempt something desperate to change the current calculus.

Yes, you are absolutely right there and the analysis I believe to be spot on. The Russian losses are truly staggering and also their economy does not look good at all. They are isolated. Sanctioned.

Still, there are talk from credible sources about a new possible Russian general mobilization after the Sept elections. This will eventually have huge implications of course on the Russian society.
If true, all thing considered the top brass, Putin included can seem out of touch with reality, and they are obviously in a no-win situation at least in Ukraine for now. On the basis of this, one can definitely say Putin can seem like a drowning man.
Ukraine will most likely soon have Gripen fighter jets with modern long range air to air missiles and lots of other capability's, they will also probably soon have the ability to manufacture their own long rang ballistic missiles. These things can and will absolutely hammer the Russians eventually if fully unleashed. Its a kind of strange, like are they totally blind? Don`t the see the writing on the wall?


So, one can wonder what this is all about. It is a little worrying in fact.
When the Russians invaded Afghanistan the babushka`s revolted when the casualty numbers reached like 26-30.000 if I`m not mistaken. Now, Total Russian casualty's since 2022 are estimated to be over 1,4 mill soldiers and it is still comparatively quiet.. So I guess its a lot more to it this time. They seem hell bent on achieving their objectives (whatever they are) at any cost.
Nazi Germany had their sights on Ukraine as the EU have now (actually since like, 2008 in reality?, correct me if I`m wrong there). Is it about Putins legacy maybe? Is it about restoring some of the old USSR borders? All of the above?
I think the Russians have done some terrible miscalculations and they don`t seem to be able to get out of the mess they have created.
Seriously wish I had a glass bowl to see the future in.

 

[Tanks]

Sounds about right.

 

[deewayne2003]

Just out of curiosity what areas have the Trump administration made significant progress in? Here in Europe all one hears about is everything that is held up in court, but I guess that there is a lot that is actually implemented aswell?

Securing our borders - decades overdue

Moving to stop/slow fraud in our social programs - again decades overdue

The rights of women to not compete against transgenders in sports - common sense

Shutting down the massive waste of money that was USAID

Ending "temporary protected" status for illegal immigrants - 17 YEARS is not temporary

Immigration enforcement - I can tell you first hand that companies blatantly hiring illegal immigrants in the USA and especially those that facilitate fake documents to hire illegal immigrants are being hit with massive fines and enforcement that were unheard of for decades.

Here is a prime example - A former employer was caught red handed and given a $750 fine in 2015 with Obama in office; he was caught again in 2018 with Trump in office and $1.8mil dollars was seized.

Here is an article from early 2020 that shows several companies that were hit, including my former employer.

ICE’s Actions Against Company Owners Who Harbor Undocumented Workers

In the past six months, owners of companies, who re-hired undocumented

www.tba.org

 

[Rafiki]

Just out of curiosity what areas have the Trump administration made significant progress in? Here in Europe all one hears about is everything that is held up in court, but I guess that there is a lot that is actually implemented aswell?

OK, I'll play for a while:

1. Convincing Europe that they need to contribute more for their own defense. Many countries in the EU were not living up to the goal of 2% of GDP, Germany for one. Now some have actually pledges 5% (we'll see if that actually happens).

2. More recently, finally address the I ran problem. This has been festering for 47 years, everyone is responsible for this including every US president until President Trump. Many may not like his approach but the reality is it is the only approach that could be effectively taken against that regime. Europe has been particularly corrupt in it's dealings with Iran in helping with it's enrichment program.

3. In looking at what has happened in Europe and at out own borders under Biden, President Trump recognized that it is unsustainable to throw the borders open to a world of poor foreigners of poor education, means or interest in assimilating, especially in countries with a huge welfare state. European states are losing their wealth and culture to unfettered immigration. The Biden administration said that it would take an act of congress to secure our border, Trump did it is 6-weeks.

4. Addressing the Fentanyl crisis here in the US. This obviously is work-in-progress but he has made significant inroads in closing down the pipeline. Some people may say that blowing up drug boats is overreach, too many dirtbags are being killed on the high seas; well, 100,000 Americans were being killed yearly by these drugs.

5. Venezuela: Again, many may not like snatching a drug dealing head of state but it turned out that doing so has so far worked out for the better of the Venezuelian people and the US. Doing so is not without precedent, in 1989 we captured Manuel Noriega.

There's much more but I'll stop boring people with this.

 

[mdwest]

Trump is a dick. I dont think many people will dispute that. He's often a dick when being a nice guy would have gotten him more of what he wanted, which appears to be one of his fatal flaws..

All of that said, I dont think anyone in their right mind would argue that the country has improved over the last 18 months. The economy might not be great for some, but almost every measurable metric shows that its better than it was, and is heading in the right direction on many metrics that were nose diving prior. Socially maybe some folks dont like MMA matches on the white house lawn.. but I think most would agree that its an improvement over transvestites dancing around the oval office on Easter.. DEI is largely dead at the federal level now and you can see performance improvements across many governmental organizations (still far from perfect.. but certainly improved).. people may or may not like or appreciate the actions of those federal organizations.. but the fact that they are more efficient and effective at doing the business of their organization is notable...

I dont appreciate much of Trumps methodology.. Ive been pretty vocal about that.. and he's very intentionally strained some relationships that Im not sure were in the best interest of our nation.. but at the same time he's intentionally strained some other relationships that needed a swift kick in the balls for a very long time, and I appreciate that..

Im far less concerned with POTUS himself (whether we're talking Biden, Trump, Obama, Clinton, Bush, etc) as I am the cabinet they select to help them run the nation.

Ill take Rubio over Blinken any day and twice on Sunday... While I find Hegseth a bit clownish and still more of a Fox News commentator than a SECDEF (his Deputy SECDEF is who is really running the show BTW, and the Deputy SECDEF is freaking awesome).. Ill take the Fox News commentator over Llyod Austin any day of the week.. Yellen was a travesty of a SECTRES.. Bessent has been highly effective... Lutnick is a velociraptor of a Secretary of Commerce.. Raimondo was nothing but a joke in that position....

 

[Brent in Az]

Roberts, Barrett, and Kavinaugh, vote with the libs to keep birthright citizenship. 6-3

 

[Tanks]

While I find Hegseth a bit clownish and still more of a Fox News commentator than a SECDEF (his Deputy SECDEF is who is really running the show BTW, and the Deputy SECDEF is freaking awesome)..

So, is it the Deputy SECDEF responsible for firing of our experienced general officers then?

 

[Tanks]

Roberts, Barrett, and Kavinaugh, vote with the libs to keep birthright citizenship. 6-3

I think there was plenty of precedence not to mention the 14th Constitutional Amendment which is pretty unambiguous.

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.

 

[Brent in Az]

I think there was plenty of precedence not to mention the 14th Constitutional Amendment which is pretty unambiguous.

A mistake the founding fathers made, as illegal immigration was not taken into consideration during the framing of it

 

[pilar]

Come over as a soccer fan and find out for yourself, like all the other new "America lovers". What you hear has to be filtered, else you are just falling for propaganda. I am surprised a post Hitler Europe is not much more sensitive to propaganda, but then it has gotten much more sophisticated this time around.

This is what amazes me about European people, is how they are usually full of propaganda against the USA, when I lived in Spain during university, usually I heard mainly anti American propaganda repeated back to me , then lots of my school mates
Entered graduate school in the USA and once here and experiencing the real daily life in the USA they had a 180* change in their attitude. After discovering the truth.

 

[deewayne2003]

Didn't the power go out in Texas years ago? Something like that happened, didn't it?
According to ERCOT (?), the power grid was on the verge of a complete collapse that would have lasted for months...

I believe what you are referring to in Texas was the "Big Freeze" when it was -22C/-7F and yes we had over 200 people die from the cold, most of which were illegal immigrants crossing the desert who were caught in the winter storm while miles away from any power source.

However I remember back in the summer of 2011 we had an all time record heat wave of 100+ consecutive days above 38C/100F and we had 5 deaths from the heat.

Food for thought though, more Europeans have died from heat in the last month than all USA firearms deaths for all of 2025.

 

[LivingTheDream]

A mistake the founding fathers made, as illegal immigration was not taken into consideration during the framing of it

The 14th was added in 1868, it wasnt about illegal immigration but a way to protect freed slaves and give them and their families rights.

Personally, I think the "subject to its jurisdiction", it is pretty clear that those here illegally, should not be allowed to get birth citizenship. But not the case.

Personally, what I would like is for the IRS to really start enforcing this now. Lots of citizens aboard not paying taxes.

 

[VertigoBE]

A mistake the founding fathers made, as illegal immigration was not taken into consideration during the framing of it

I would be very careful to ever (from the Republican side, as democrats do it all the time) to call any part of the constitution, bill of rights, amendments, a “mistake by the Founding Fathers”. That opens the door to modification of the 1st and 2nd…

Live with the 14th and control the borders.

 

[deewayne2003]

I think there was plenty of precedence not to mention the 14th Constitutional Amendment which is pretty unambiguous.

The 14th Amendment was made to protect freed African slaves from being deported by slave owners(Democrats) after they were freed; it was never meant to facilitate anchor babies or Chinese birth tourism and was damn sure never meant so that the Children of "El Chapo" could have dual citizenship by having the women give birth in the USA.....so if convicted they can choose which country to go to prison in or escape the death penalty because Mexico doesn't have one.

Seems like the Democrats have a history of trying to keep the cheapest labor possible around....

 

[Tanks]

A mistake the founding fathers made, as illegal immigration was not taken into consideration during the framing of it

Ahem, the 14th Amendment was ratified 1868 almost a hundred years later. And if it was a mistake (like the 18th Amendment was), there are mechanisms to repeal it.

 

[Tanks]

The 14th Amendment was made to protect freed African slaves from being deported by slave owners(Democrats) after they were freed; it was never meant to facilitate anchor babies or Chinese birth tourism and was damn sure never meant so that the Children of "El Chapo" could have dual citizenship by having the women give birth in the USA.....so if convicted they can choose which country to go to prison in or escape the death penalty because Mexico doesn't have one.

It does not say that though, and it is pretty straight forward.

 

[Brent in Az]

I would be very careful to ever (from the Republican side, as democrats do it all the time) to call any part of the constitution, bill of rights, amendments, a “mistake by the Founding Fathers”. That opens the door to modification of the 1st and 2nd…

Live with the 14th and control the borders.

It was definitely an oversight by the those that drafted the amendment. They had no clue as to what would come 100+ years later.
We can't control the borders when Democrats rule the Whitehouse. They open the border floodgates and let them pour across at will.
With the wave of socialism and communism that seems to be creeping into the Democrat party, things will get much worse at some point.

 

[deewayne2003]

It does not say that though, and it is pretty straight forward.

"Under the jurisdiction of".... is pretty straight forward, as is "Shall not be infringed"

Tell me how people entering the country illegally, not paying taxes and giving fake names at hospitals to get free delivery are under jurisdiction of the laws of the USA?

Quite simply, if their first action in the USA is to enter the country illegally, then they certainly are not under the jurisdiction of the USA.