Thundermail… yeah yeah. :gently pushes my aol.com account under the sofa:

I mean if top US officials can drop top secret battle plans on a chat with a journalist and get away with it.

Why can’t a low level government employee wet their wick in a Chinese honeypot every once in a while. I just don’t see the point.

Bezos wants his own X…

European and Chinese infrastructure is the problem.

Our infrastructure has lasted over 60 years but it is time to renew it. We also don’t approach infrastructure the same way Europe or China does.

China has traditionally approached infrastructure by overbuilding well beyond any future need for the sake of chasing GDP figures and keeping the population employed (though this has changed in recent years). What they build can be dubious at times. They build apartment buildings, condos and houses much denser than in the US but they are built cheaply.

Europe tends to over build. Roads are usually much thicker, smoother, public transportation is top notch. Buildings are built to a much higher standard. But the population pays for that quality and it can’t be spread out as much. As a result your population density is much higher.

We build enough infrastructure to satisfy the need. If something is older we repair it and keep it in service well past its lifetime. Our houses are built cheaply and we tend to have less dense populations. That is the key to our demographics. No one wants to raise children in a small apartment in a city, let alone four or five of them. In the US large houses with a yard and 3 or four bedrooms is the norm. As a result it isn’t as hard raising kids so we have more than the equivalent couple in China and Europe.

As a result of 40 years of low birth rates most of Europe and China are aging rapidly. They have no large Millennial population like the US does. This means their consumer base is dwindling and if they want to maintain their industrial base they need export markets to sell their goods.

You mean WOT, the Great Recession and Covid were just a dream?

Meh we put ourselves at the center of globalization and trade by offering the Europeans access to our markets in exchange for being our meat shields if the Ruskies ever decided to get uppity.

Now globalization is starting to break down because we have no interest in maintaining it. Every president since Clinton has been more and more isolationist than the last. Even Biden had no interest in maintaining the order. The aid he offered to Ukraine was primarily military support, there was very little economic support for after the war.

Trump has moved the needle on populism in the US. Breaking global trade was always going to happen, but Trump is accelerating it. Yes he is a corrupt skum bag, but we’ve had skum bag presidents in the past.

America in the long term will be fine, our demographics are better than Europes or Chinas, we make our own energy and grow enough food to feed our population. We just need to restore manufacturing to North America (I.E. Canada, Mexico and USA).

America can exist quite happily as a regional hegemony and let Europe, India, Russia and China fight over the rest of the world.

I see we have a dirty tankie in our midst.

I knew I’d get the ol’ switch-a-roo comments. Please enjoy one internet point sir.

Did you happen to notice the one country not on the list?

Here I’ll give you a hint it’s name starts with an “R” and is run by a man who’s name starts with a “P” and is currently at war with a country that starts with a “U”…

I think they will find our resolve weak and crumbly like an orange cheese puff.

You are making the same mistake every player has made in regards to Trump.

You are under estimating him and you believe he is transactional in relationships. You give him X, he gives you Y. Trump is NOT transactional. Trump sees you giving him X as weakness and will try to take Y and Z from you in the future. He will never give you Y unless he is forced to.

Trump does not give a shit if you like him. Trump only cares that you will follow him and do what he says either willingly or by coercion.

Europe and Canadian leaders came to, or called Trump at Mar-a-lago in the weeks after the election and kissed his ass.

It accomplished nothing. Trump is still moving forward with tariffs and his agenda to break up NATO and make America a regional power with hegemony over North America.

If you want to figure out what Trump is actually up to ask yourself why does he want Greenland? We already have military bases there. Denmark will let us build more or exploit the resources on that island.

The only reason you would seek to annex Greenland is if you are working toward a future where Denmark would see you as an enemy and would not allow the US access to Greenland.

Think about what would have to happen to make that a reality…

I say this as an American, Europe needs to start arming itself ASAP. Because no one here has managed to stop this Orange Fucker. I don’t have any faith we can stop him from whatever shitty plan he has.

This only shows weakness to Trump. It tells him your country is weak fearful and seeks his protection.

Trump is going to do whatever it is he wants to do and this just confirms Finland won’t be a major obstacle to his plan and/or Finland will just go along with it.

Finlands President is a fool.