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    U.S. presidency and politics thread

    in Politics and World Events

    Posted

    33 minutes ago, Raider of the lost Ark said:

    Can we please stop to pretend as if the USA did or does pay for Europes safety. Every European country does have its own military and is spending large amounts of its GDP for defense. I bet, Donald Trump and many US Americans don't even understand what this 2% "payment" means. I bet, they think countries transfer this amount to some bank account of NATO, when in reality it means this percentage is what countries have to invest into their very own defense. The real funding of NATO is a different thing an funny enough, the USA merely pay 16% of the budget, roughly 570 million per year. The EXACT amount Germany is paying. 

    Furthermore, do peope realize that allied countries that "host" the US military have to pay large parts of the costs of their military bases? Military bases that are hardly ever related to anything in Europe, but will be used for hubs to organize the military engagement of the U.S. in the Middle East and Africa. And maybe we should discuss the fact that NATO is basically a tool for the U.S. to provide U.S. arms manufacturers with new contracts. Those companies make tens of billions of profits from those contracts. Companies that employ tens of thousands of people in the U.S., mainly in red states. Luckily, attitude in NATO is changing and more and more suppliers from the EU or Korea are used, which nowadays produce technically more advanced arms and devices at a more reasonable price. An then there is the question, what is the price tag for military hegemony? How much are the US willing to pay for the support of allies that is needed to keep this hegemony alive? Without those allies, without those bases in foreign countries the US were not be in the position they are, would not have the influence they have, would not be as powerful as they are. Maybe NATO member states should start to talk how the US wish to finance this kind of influence. 

    I agree with this second part, but not with the first one, we don´t pay the same.BUt, for some strange reason that I don´t know about, Germandy and the US pay exactly the same

    Defence expenditure as share of GDP CREDIT NATO

    U.S. presidency and politics thread

    in Politics and World Events

    Posted

    "As a portion of GDP, Poland (4.1 percent), Estonia (3.4 percent), the US (3.4 percent), Latvia (3.2 percent) and Greece (3.1 percent) spend the most while Spain (1.3 percent), Slovenia (1.3 percent), Luxembourg (1.3 percent), Belgium (1.3 percent) and Canada (1.4 percent) spend the least."

    So yes, all the states in the NATO pay the NATO,but is not the same amount of percetange of the GDP

    U.S. presidency and politics thread

    in Politics and World Events

    Posted

    14 minutes ago, elijah said:

    NATO could remain intact in theory, but with Trump in office it will remain theoretic and the EU needs real army like yesterday.

    It could be. I don´t know,I think I heard him saying before that he didn´t want the USA to pay that much there. It has worked basically as an army of the USA, so that made sense for decades...

    and about EU needing a real army, could be true, but, then we don´t need the NATO. 

    U.S. presidency and politics thread

    in Politics and World Events

    Posted

    Just now, elijah said:

    Most here weren't seeing the war in Ukraine until the day it started. Just saying. Hope you are right there would be no new wars and this gets settled. But we will be left to deal with an aggressive Russia and eventually US (attacking Denmark should involve EU), possibly China. EU is obliged to form that EU army.

    I was one of them! and then I realised that the war had been happening for ages! the only info that I had about a problem in Ukraine was because of a Pet shop boys song (London, I don´t know what did they say, but I was like, why do they escape from Ukraine???) if the european union has to create an army, what will happen with the NATO? not that I like it, actually, the opposite, but I can´t imagine US attacking a country that is supposed to be a friend.But they had done worst things in the past...

    U.S. presidency and politics thread

    in Politics and World Events

    Posted

    3 hours ago, elijah said:

    Europe could be given to Russia or at least divided with Russia. The war could be extended in Europe. WW3 could start. It could get much worse.

    I don´t know, but I don´t think a war could get in middle Europe. I mean,an economical war, that´s for sure, but not a real one. Trump will make European countries pay more to the NATO and that´s going to make their-our economical situation be worse than it is. And I bet a lot of far right politicians will be trying to finish with the union. But a war ala Ucraine? I don´t see it happening. Is easier for me to see an internal civil war in the US

    U.S. presidency and politics thread

    in Politics and World Events

    Posted

    well...I really don´t know a lot about internal politics in the USA, but most of the presidents, if not all the presidents in the last decades, have, if we speak of foreign affairs, blood in their hands. I really don´t know what is going to happen, I hope is nothing, but it seems to me that can´t be way worse than the ones before. Again, in foreign affairs. Let´s see what happens. Nothing good, but I wonder if it´s nothing good as always, or worse.

    TikTok

    in Politics and World Events

    Posted

    3 hours ago, zephyralexxx said:

    Yes but that is only in US. It was never popular worldwide, not even in Europe. TikTok is the worst disease of social media.

    I agree, people are on tik tok all the time, as it is a drug.It´s addictive.

    California wildfires

    in Politics and World Events

    Posted

    3 hours ago, jonski43 said:

    One celebrity posted a request for a private fire crew he was willing to pay to save his house and he got absolutely slammed for asking. Mandy Moore has set up a go fund me too. Not a good look when average people are losing everything.

    As for the corta fuegos,  there has been a lot of criticism that the land hasn't been properly managed over the years enabling the spread of the fires - insurers were cancelling insurance policies in the area because of the increasing risks. This comes at a time where the LA fire department have said their budgets have been cut and water resources haven't been managed.

    This is the LA mayor who went on holiday despite weather warnings of severe winds coming in this weekend which could exacerbate the problem. 

    The devastation is unbelievable and the repair costs will be over $100 billion.  

    wow, something similar happened in spain: the mayor didn´t go on holidays, but, the governor of the region was having a lunch-dinner with a woman and it was impossible to locate him so they didn´t do anything

    California wildfires

    in Politics and World Events

    Posted

    On 1/10/2025 at 7:48 AM, Lolo said:

    Shocking and scary images! I feel so sorry for all the people who have lost their safety and their homes. This is happening on a regular basis now. Sad how people use it for conspiracy theories and political campaigning, basically acknowledging anything but the real reason that is climate change. Humanity is truly lost, it seems. 

    I agree with you, it´s because of the climate change. It reminds me a little bit to what happened in the south east of spain, in Valencia, a couple of months ago, with the floods: the mediterranean sea was so hot that the rain has been crazy in that area.

    California wildfires

    in Politics and World Events

    Posted

    ok...I haven´t been following this news a lot, but apparently is a rich neighborhood the one burning? can´t this rich people pay firetrucks? because I haven´t seen a single one in the images on the news...

    I don´t know if it´s related, but I have family in las vegas, and a few months ago they were complaining about a  politician stopping the creation of "corta fuegos" because he didn´t want to cut trees. A corta fuegos is like a road you create in the woods cutting the trees, to stop the fire...

    Israel, Hamas, Iran, etc.

    in Politics and World Events

    Posted

    On 12/25/2024 at 9:33 AM, jonski43 said:

     

     

    I have never said I was in favour of what extreme muslim people think. I´m only against people killing people.And of course, I know I would live with more freedom in a state like Israel than in a state like palestine (well, if they have the posibility to have one)

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