Telemark
5 year old buck +
Speaking of Christians, the latest news I'm getting is that Trump is posting pictures of himself as Jesus and antagonizing the Pope.
That seems like a bad idea.
-
If you are posting pictures, and they aren't posting in the correct orientation, please flush your browser cache and try again.
Edge
Safari/iOS
Chrome
Conspiracy theorys, where do you stand?
- Thread starter 4wanderingeyes
- Start date
Speaking of Christians, the latest news I'm getting is that Trump is posting pictures of himself as Jesus and antagonizing the Pope.
That seems like a bad idea.
Howboutthemdawgs
5 year old buck +
1000% agree about Trump. People would rather partner with China than deal with his insane personality(s). But they need to understand the long game too. Trump will last 3 more years. Americas superiority will last a lot longer (maybe). I get human nature, so I can seem them circling the wagons to not allow Trump to get his way but they need to be careful about isolating themselves. Because if shit hit the fan, there’s a lot of dead weight in a European Alliance.
I see simple things like allowing us to use their bases as a low risk way to keep in our good graces. But I personally believe places like Spain and England and France are so permeated with Muslims that their influence would not allow us to do such a thing against another rmuslim country, or something that Israel would benefit from.
Howboutthemdawgs
5 year old buck +
Yep. The Jesus thing was grade A dumbass. The pope is an irrelevant figure and should stay out politics unless he wants the backlash.
H20fwler
5 year old buck +
This was posted on another forum and explains the geopolitics of it all pretty good I think.
“Trump has been in office for roughly 450 days and has in many ways reset the Geopolitical map.
When he came into office China was on the rise in terms of a threat. They were at the onset of his second term largely dictating to the world on things like rare earth metals and a number of other supply chain issues. While they continue to be the ones to watch he has done a tremendous job at mitigating that threat by being able to leverage a commodity they cannot live without. Oil. In addition he as asserted significant control over some very important pieces of real estate. Places where China was beginning to "win" they have now been kicked to the curb. Look at the list.
1. Panama
2. Venezuela
3. Iran - strait of Hormuz
4. New agreements with Indonesia () as well as airspace.https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/et-tu-indonesia
5. Efforts in Kenya and Somaliland which will mitigate China's influence there.
Using these pressure points he has largely put China in the place of not getting rowdy or we can shut down (in multiple places) their access to oil. These are all things that sit squarely in the Trump did this category.
Then there is Europe. Beyond just jawboning at them (first term) he has moved their actions. Europe is preparing to actually defend itself. Maybe we can actually bring the troops/money home from Europe and leave them to stew in their own messes (aka Ukraine) We have no stake in Europe and they clearly do not want us. We should leave NATO to defend itself (slowly but steadily) repositioning our assets. Greenland is yet to be settled, but it is probably that US will stay in NATO long enough to reposition and enlarge our bases there until we have achieved our goals.
Asia.
We continue to unapologetically let Taiwan buy major US military hardware.
We are reshoring chip manufacturing reducing our dependance on them and S. Korea.
See previous on Indonesia.
Then there is our little corner of the world.
Southern Border is now secure and becoming more so.
S. American countries are actually partnering with us to destroy cartels
Venezuela and their oil reserves have been brought back under control.
Cuba is almost done.
Alberta is poised to leave Canada. We may be first to recognize their independence and possibly arrange a mutual defence pact as well as trade agreements? That would be epic.
These are all amazing geopolitical resets that are not temporary and are all America First in that they provide our longterm security and position us in a place that prevents some of these countries from just taking advantage of us or putting us in a place where it is either all out war or subservience.
The impact of tariffs and resetting global trade is intimately tied with all of this.
Amazing results for 450 days.
And for fun we sent astronauts around the moon.“
My view on how some of Europe views Trump is who gives a crap what they think, many of those countries have been taking advantage of the USA for way too long. Many of them are so “woke” and overrun with Islam they can’t even govern their own countries.
“Trump has been in office for roughly 450 days and has in many ways reset the Geopolitical map.
When he came into office China was on the rise in terms of a threat. They were at the onset of his second term largely dictating to the world on things like rare earth metals and a number of other supply chain issues. While they continue to be the ones to watch he has done a tremendous job at mitigating that threat by being able to leverage a commodity they cannot live without. Oil. In addition he as asserted significant control over some very important pieces of real estate. Places where China was beginning to "win" they have now been kicked to the curb. Look at the list.
1. Panama
2. Venezuela
3. Iran - strait of Hormuz
4. New agreements with Indonesia () as well as airspace.https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/et-tu-indonesia
5. Efforts in Kenya and Somaliland which will mitigate China's influence there.
Using these pressure points he has largely put China in the place of not getting rowdy or we can shut down (in multiple places) their access to oil. These are all things that sit squarely in the Trump did this category.
Then there is Europe. Beyond just jawboning at them (first term) he has moved their actions. Europe is preparing to actually defend itself. Maybe we can actually bring the troops/money home from Europe and leave them to stew in their own messes (aka Ukraine) We have no stake in Europe and they clearly do not want us. We should leave NATO to defend itself (slowly but steadily) repositioning our assets. Greenland is yet to be settled, but it is probably that US will stay in NATO long enough to reposition and enlarge our bases there until we have achieved our goals.
Asia.
We continue to unapologetically let Taiwan buy major US military hardware.
We are reshoring chip manufacturing reducing our dependance on them and S. Korea.
See previous on Indonesia.
Then there is our little corner of the world.
Southern Border is now secure and becoming more so.
S. American countries are actually partnering with us to destroy cartels
Venezuela and their oil reserves have been brought back under control.
Cuba is almost done.
Alberta is poised to leave Canada. We may be first to recognize their independence and possibly arrange a mutual defence pact as well as trade agreements? That would be epic.
These are all amazing geopolitical resets that are not temporary and are all America First in that they provide our longterm security and position us in a place that prevents some of these countries from just taking advantage of us or putting us in a place where it is either all out war or subservience.
The impact of tariffs and resetting global trade is intimately tied with all of this.
Amazing results for 450 days.
And for fun we sent astronauts around the moon.“
My view on how some of Europe views Trump is who gives a crap what they think, many of those countries have been taking advantage of the USA for way too long. Many of them are so “woke” and overrun with Islam they can’t even govern their own countries.
Westwind
5 year old buck +
I am am strangely without an opinion on the take that Eastern Europe isn’t Christian and isn’t freedom loving. I think that may be because it feels like an information warfare narrative to me. I’m not saying thats true because my finger isn’t exactly on the pulse of European politics but Putin using the Christian narrative, using the Orthodox Church for the benefit of reconstructing the USSR’s boundaries seems to point me that way.
I listen to two podcasts that have a Londoner for a co-host with an American. One is The Rest Is Classified, the other is Secrets and Spies. Both of those Brits are guys that deeply believe in our partnerships and the value of the “Special Relationship”. Both have values that I respect. Both seem to value grabbing bad guys, know that there is a time for warheads on foreheads and are aghast at the terrorism that seems to be all to common in GB and France. I have two other friends who visited Germany long term as part of their jobs or spouses jobs. Both of them talked about how much they enjoyed their time there and how they ended up feeling a mutual kinship with the Germans. I hope to visit there sometime soon. I just don’t get where all this stuff about how they aren’t allies comes from. They were just as taken aback when the towers fell. They certainly bled with us during GWOT. How is it that a guy who wouldn’t join the service can throw all that in the trash? Why is he speaking so badly about countries who stepped up in real ways when we needed them? And maybe after it turns out that some of the reasons we acted in the ME were fabricated or exaggerated, don’t they have the right to be a little careful about getting dragged into the next one without being told in advance that the next one was kicking off?
It’s bigger than that of course but you get an idea how I think about all this.
Westwind
5 year old buck +
Veep Jonah Ryan GIF - Veep Jonah Ryan Timothy Simons - Discover & Share GIFs
Click to view the GIF
tenor.com
Sorry, I had to do it!
And this isn’t a shot at you, it’s a shot at the fluffer that originally posted it.
Telemark
5 year old buck +
Three years is a long time to wait while there's a hot war on the continent, which already caused them problems with natural gas supplies, plus a hot war in the Middle East that is already causing problems with oil supplies, and the Middle East issues were caused by Trump. The Europeans are not above selling their soul to the Chinese and the Iranians. Look how Germany sold out to the Russians and how dearly it is costing them. Schroder was a Russian agent who still works for the Russians. People accuse Trump of being cozy with Putin, but my god, Schroder was the #1 Putin fanboy of all time. The Europeans conveniently ignore this little fact because it doesn't fit their narrative.
At this point, I wouldn't even be surprised if Spain tells us to close our bases there. Spain is all the way out on the end of the continent on their own peninsula, which is protected by a mountain range, so they've always been a bit cocky. I'm sure they're thinking if the Russians get through Poland, Germany, and France, then all is lost anyway, and they'll position their entire armed forces in the Pyrenees and take whatever deal they are offered. But with the way things are going, Russia doesn't seem like much of a threat to them, so they're even more arrogant than usual. The Spanish have become more and more douchey since Juan Carlos abdicated, and especially since Covid, so I have never even bothered visiting.
I don't see the Europeans completely abandoning the US. Like you said, in 3 years they'll have a different US president to work with, and it's unlikely they'll cut ties with the largest economy and most powerful military. However, in the mean time I expect a rather icy relationship.
Telemark
5 year old buck +
Not to Catholics.
Telemark
5 year old buck +
I agree with most of that, with a few exceptions. Europe is a large and powerful region, and probably always will be. I would much rather have them as allies than as neutral or hostile to our interests. I don't think we are at serious risk of losing them as long-term allies, so this is not much of a concern for me. I don't even mind Trump giving them a stern talking-to on account of their arrogance and they way they treated him in his first term. Trump specifically warned them that their reliance on Russian energy would eventually hurt them, and they laughed at him. However, I think the Greenland debacle was beyond the pale. Denmark has never told us no on anything we ever wanted to do on Greenland, and it's far cheaper for us to let them pay to administer it while we use it for military purposes, so why use jingoist rhetoric against a staunch long-time ally?
I doubt Alberta will ever leave Canada. I think they are just using the situation as leverage to negotiate better terms with Ottawa and the other provinces. Trumps rhetoric on Canada has empowered the Canadian left and weakened US influence in Canada. Every Canadian province has a closer economic relationship with the US than with other Canadian provinces, and that seems to be slowly changing. We have a stranglehold on their oil exports because Alberta and BC can't even agree on a pipeline. This has been huge for our economy. We get basically all Canadian oil at a deep discount because they have nowhere else to send it. A pipeline through BC to the coast would cut that oil out of our economy and probably send most of it straight to China. It's anybody's guess how this all will turn out, but let's hope Trump sees the so-called trade deficit with Canada for what it really is. I don't care if they tariff our dairy as long as we get discounted oil, fertilizer, timber, etc.
I do agree with his assessment of Trump's actions in Central America. It was a slam dunk, and it was long overdue. No complaints so far. And anything Trump can do against China, I generally support.
I'm not sure how significant Somaliland and Kenya are. China's Africa operation is massive, and just about everyone has a military base in Djibouti. Africa is corrupt, so I can't imagine foreign policy being any more sophisticated than offering a bigger bribe or a bigger threat. Several African nations already stole piles of money from China, so it's not exactly a playground for the Chinese. I never really looked into the region much, so I don't know much about it. But hey, if what he's doing is hurting the Chinese, I'm probably for it.
The Iran war, at this point, is a failure. I was all for it, and I tried to remain positive as long as possible, but I think there was a serious error in judgement and a lack of understanding of the situation. I don't think the people can rise up and take over the country. I still haven't made up my mind on the final outcome, because the war is not over. I started well, now it's not going so well, but tomorrow who knows? I hope Trump has a secret plan that is about to unfold, and that is a real possibility with the Tripoli deployed to the area and the Boxer on its way. I'm still rooting for Trump on this one. The potential benefits of weakening Iran are enormous.
I've never been shy about giving Trump credit for the positive things he does. He's my president, and I want him to succeed. But I do reserve the right to criticize his actions that I don't agree with, and I think that's fair. So far in this term, he has fumbled the Ukraine/Russia situation, and the Iran war is not going in our favor. The positive things he's done do outweigh the negatives, and Iran and Ukraine aren't over, so there's potential to settle those wars in our favor as well. His first term was a success, so I remain cautiously optimistic.
H20fwler
5 year old buck +
Veep Jonah Ryan GIF - Veep Jonah Ryan Timothy Simons - Discover & Share GIFs
Click to view the GIF
Sorry, I had to do it!
And this isn’t a shot at you, it’s a shot at the fluffer that originally posted it.
But it is, isn’t it.
Welcome to my ignore list.
H20fwler
5 year old buck +
Nice thought out post.
Agree on the Alberta take on that, there are many people in Alberta that are not happy with the Canadian politics right now.
I think a lot of the Greenland talks were a head fake to get the ball rolling. In the end we will end up with a dozen new military bases there.
As far as Western Europe many of our so called “allies” have shit the bed and will no doubt be loosing funding and our military bases along with any revenue that came with them. I think some will get shifted east to countries that are supportive.
I disagree with you on the Iran stuff, I think the US has done a great job pounding them into submission and has boxed them into a corner, so I think it is going in our favor. The next week will probably determine how this plays out.
I also think that most of the IRGC is basically Hezbollah and they will have to be dealt with somehow because they are zealots.
Telemark
5 year old buck +
I'm withholding judgement on the new events until I see some results and thoughtful analysis.
So far, it looks like more of a meme war between bots. One guy says a Chinese tanker got through, another guy says that tanker came from UAE, not Iran. Trump says China agreed to stop selling weapons to Iran, China says no such conversation evert took place. In this era of bots and AI, I don't take much at face value.
I'm still not clear on what exactly has changed. We are blockading Iran? Is Iran still blockading anything? I'll probably have another look at the situation Sunday evening to see if anything has meaningfully changed.
The IRGC are scum. As far as I'm concerned, Trump and Benni can bomb every single one of them. I just don't think it's possible. The organization was designed to keep control over the Iranians. I think they are too fanatical and too agile to be seriously crippled. If they are as bad as Hezbollah, then we're in trouble. We're talking about fanatics who welcome death because they think they will go to paradise for waging jihad against the great Satan. That is something I don't think we understand deeply enough to really fight it. If you are fighting an enemy that welcomes death by your hand, nothing short of genocide can conquer that kind of ideology.
Telemark
5 year old buck +
Sheesh. The pope is the head of the Catholic church. There are about 1.4 billion Catholics in the world, about 75 million of whom live in the US. Catholics make up about 20% of US voters, and they are a fickle group when it comes to voting.
Now, I'm not Catholic, and the pope has no significance to me personally, but he is a very significant figure to a LOT of people. If I was a politician, I would sure as hell not be antagonizing the pope publicly. That's just bad politics, regardless of your faith.
Additionally, I don't see Trump as any kind of Christ figure, no matter how many AI images he posts of himself, and I am personally not offended by it. However, a lot of people do get offended by such images, so again, it's bad politics.
It's one thing to come into the Republican party and shake things up, but it's an entirely different thing to arrogantly and unnecessarily start driving the party into the ground with childish social media messages. Likewise, it's unbecoming of the President of the United States of America to participate in such behavior. Being a good leader is about leading by example and being a leader people want to follow. Trump should be attracting people to the Republican party, not alienating them. Christians are an important part of the GOP, and Christian apathy toward the party on election day is almost as dangerous as hostility. The country was founded on Christian ideals, and courting Christian voters is a good way to politically combat the evils of the current Democratic party.
Westwind
5 year old buck +
The U.S. trucking industry is running on fumes. It used to be that one truck could support one family and a living could be made by folks who like this way of living or have less options. Americans willing to do the work could run small companies and make a real living.
That was then, this is now. Foreign drivers willing to live in a truck and make no money. Brokers screwing the drivers, providing no value and siphoning the money out of the industry. Safety standards in the gutter.
This 60 Minutes episode is about Super Ego, a Serbia based trucking company posing as a truck and trailer leasing company. You will see their equipment on every interstate in the country. They are criminals, they are causing deaths and destruction on the roads you and your families drive every day. They are sucking money out of the U.S. trucking industry. They are not alone. Indian trucking companies, many based out of the Sacramento area have been doing the same thing at a smaller scale since I don’t know when. Destroying safety, flouting hours of service laws, importing drivers who cannot speak and read the English language or safely drive. Driving trucking rates into the toilet. Any produce you buy in a grocery store that came out of California was overwhelmingly likely hauled by a foreign born or based Indian company. And a really significant portion of drivers were not safe in any way.
The answer is enforcement and a remaking of Federal Motor Carrier Safety (FMCSA). The answer is also getting the goddamn brokers out of the buisness or curtailing their ability to screw the drivers.
Anyway, this is a very good and imho accurate report on the state of trucking in the U.S. The video is in the upper right corner.
www.cbsnews.com
That was then, this is now. Foreign drivers willing to live in a truck and make no money. Brokers screwing the drivers, providing no value and siphoning the money out of the industry. Safety standards in the gutter.
This 60 Minutes episode is about Super Ego, a Serbia based trucking company posing as a truck and trailer leasing company. You will see their equipment on every interstate in the country. They are criminals, they are causing deaths and destruction on the roads you and your families drive every day. They are sucking money out of the U.S. trucking industry. They are not alone. Indian trucking companies, many based out of the Sacramento area have been doing the same thing at a smaller scale since I don’t know when. Destroying safety, flouting hours of service laws, importing drivers who cannot speak and read the English language or safely drive. Driving trucking rates into the toilet. Any produce you buy in a grocery store that came out of California was overwhelmingly likely hauled by a foreign born or based Indian company. And a really significant portion of drivers were not safe in any way.
The answer is enforcement and a remaking of Federal Motor Carrier Safety (FMCSA). The answer is also getting the goddamn brokers out of the buisness or curtailing their ability to screw the drivers.
Anyway, this is a very good and imho accurate report on the state of trucking in the U.S. The video is in the upper right corner.
The trucking companies evading federal safety enforcement and plaguing U.S. highways
In a scheme plaguing roadways, some commercial trucking networks are racking up safety violations and evading federal enforcement by dissolving bad records and operating under new names.
www.cbsnews.com
Westwind
5 year old buck +
Interestingly, flatbed companies, livestock haulers and tankers are a little bit immune to this problem so far. You have to be trainable, speak the language adequately and know how to load/unload specialized trailers…. Rates are probably better but not great. I don’t deal with these kind of companies much if at all because of that.
Similar threads
