Raider of the lost Ark

LOL, I had to laugh so loud when she went up to him at the beginning of the debate to formally introduce herself to him. He was immediately irritated.

Unfortunately this will not happen. Keep in mind, both countries receive EU payments. In 2022 Hungary got 4.6 billion more than they paid, Bulgaria 1.6 billion Euros. Of course there are other perks that come with EU membership, most above all free trade. The biggest problem with the EU is that there is no way to kick out "problematic" countries. Countries may only leave on their own. See Brexit. The "founding fathers" of the EU obviously did not believe there would be countries acting in an inappropriate manner that are not in line with values of the whole project. From my perspective a complete overhaul of the EU treaties are needed. Most above all, get rid of the principle of unanimity. If nothing works, the only way may be am EU 2.0 with the biggest nations like Germany, France, Spain, The Netherlands etc. leaving the current EU to form EU 2.0 and I am sure, plans have been developed already because of several unpleasant situations that occured in the past . Maybe the threat of such action will do the trick.

British authorities have done a great job with this situation. It got a lot of positive response here in Germany. The general concensus was that this is the right way to deal with those people. Charge them with a crime, arrest them, convict them. Done. If you have evidence on tape or witnesses, deal with it right away. Obviously the laws are in place to process them immediately. So even from a judicial standpoint and considering civil rights, all is perfectly fine. Well done! And I guess this is a great success for Keir Starmer.

I'm sorry, those people are plain stupid. This guy is clearly not a Christian. He has shown over and over again, he is not. He cannot recite anything from the bible, he does not even know how to hold a bible correctly. He visited a church merely once, for his own communion. But it is the same with the people claiming he is this great business man. So great that basically all his companies had to file for bankruptcy at some point. Even his casinos. How do you bankrupt a casino? And he is not self-made either. All his money was provided my his father. Donald Trump is a grifter first and foremost. Mark my words, at the end of September he will sell all his Truth Social shares and all his cult followers who bought that junk will lose all their money because it will turn into a penny stock. Based on the financial reports it should be already. I hope he will finally go away once he loses in November. And with "go away" I mean "to prison".

And this is exactly what will happen. In the end, Bulgaria will cave in. And once again, "pro-Russian". People really need to wake up, all this nonsense is coming from Russia to destablize the democracies of other countries. It is the same with the "outrage" over the Algerian female boxer. A campaign coming from the disgraced boxing federation led by this guy from Uzbekhistan who happens to have many ties to Russia and is allegedly a close friend with Putin.

Unfortunately this was very much the idea of him. And some people still believe it. Truth is, he is an investor and he WAS pretty good at seeing the potential of certain products or businesses. But he has not invented anything. At this point he has even become a liability for his "own" companies. The board of Tesla already put a gag order on him because they are so worried about the things he says. Problem: the association Tesla = Musk is there and therefore many people would never buy a Tesla, even if this product would be the greatest thing ever, which it is most definitely not (outdated designs, quality issues, features that were sold but do not work). And then there is X / Twitter. A huge financial mistake on his part, simply because his ego got so out of bounds.

I have just read that the German publisher of J.D. Vances book Hillbilly Elegy has decided to no longer publish him and his book. I wonder at what point Glenn Close and Amy Adams will step forward and make a statement. I don't think they appreciate to be associated with him.

Dare I say, that Obama endorsement telephone call was kinda cringe? Also, and I don't know what it is, something rubs me the wrong way with the Obamas in recent years. The vibes they give are weird.

I suggest Kreuzberg on the 1st of May. Well, it's not what it used to be.

THIS. And Russia is doing this for many years already. It's all about dividing the society. I'm so grateful for the journalists that uncover this regularly. Of course, all the right wingers, the AfD and Marine Le Pen have always denied being in bed with Russia. Yeah, right. And of course did the Kremlin interfere with elections in 2016 (and most likely in 2020) in the U.S.

The difference is that there is a more or less healthy counter movement. I agree, the Eastern European countries have their problems but even there people have had enough. I suppose the sanctions of the EU did help to some point. In Poland they kicked out the right-wing government. In Hungary the opposition is getting stronger. In former East Germany, whenever there are right-wing or even neo-nazi events, there are demonstrations from the left, incl. Antifa (I always roll my eyes when U.S. politicians use this term) that outnumber the right wingers. Recently some from guy from the AfD in a small town said something disgusting about LGBTQ+. And what happened? This town had its first Pride with people from all over Germany participating. Is there a chance the AfD might become the strongest party in some former East German state. Yes. But they will be far away from a majority and since no other party will form a coalition with them, they will not get in power to govern such state. The risks compared to the U.S, are relatively low. In addition, I am sure, some clown like Trump would never have a chance in Europe. The closest we got is Boris Johnson and Victor Orban. But they are far away from the crazy and dangerous that Trump is.

Interestingly you always only hear people telling Democrats that. Democrats wihile adressing right-wing voters need to be lenient, need to be thoughtful, need to be respectful. How about the other side. They are the most agressive bunch of people out there. In fact they are getting even more agressive ever since that shooting at Trumps rally and Harris nomination. And let's face it, many of those people are dumb. And even worse, wilfully ignorant. Those are the people Trump meant when he once said, he loves the uneducated. They are useful idiots. To top that, many of those also seem to have a disdain for knowledge. They seem to enjoy their lack of knowledge as if knowledge or education in general is something bad and stupidity is something to be celebrated. How do you have a discussion with someone who does a) not understand or b) does not want to understand? Why waste your time? I have said it before, those right-wing voters are the ones to need to come around at some point, not the Democrats. All the Democrats need to do, is to do politics that supports the working/middle class. Something they are already doing and I can see them doing a lot more if they stay in power by passing respective laws. Contrary to Republicans who will pass laws that will hurt U.S. American people. That's all Democrats can do at this point.

And yet they can never explain what was so much better during Trumps presidency. All they come up with is nonsense. None of it is based on facts. Their wording says it all: "I believe" or "I feel". They all fall for the proganda coming from Trump and his minions incl. the media that is in bed with him, most above all those right-wing influencers in social media. Never in my life have I seen such hateful people, all of them disingenous to say the least. At this point, everyone who votes for Trump is MAGA. At this point we know what Trump and the Republican Party (by name only) stands for and what they plan. Everyone who says otherwise, is just pretending. Well, they may already look for an excuse once shit hits the fan and Project 2025 becomes a reality. It is Trumps clientele that will be hit the most. "We did not know". As someone from Germany, this has my alarm bells ringing. How many people after the WW2 made that claim? Of course, how could they know there was a concentration camp nearby. The smoke from the smoke sticks, but there was no factory. The lovely smell in the air when the wind came from a certain direction. And what about that entry in the telephone book? Sorry, "We did not know" or "I did not know" will not fly with me. If you don't know, educate yourself! But here comes the next problem: education in the U.S. is so bad overall and unsurprisingly the states that rank the worst on education (and on many other criteria) are red states. Is this a coincidence? I don't think so. I am sure politicians in those states keep their citizens intentionally dumb. I will say it as it is: Trump voters are stupid assholes. Period. Democrats should not waste their time on those voters. At this point they are a lost cause. They are like alcoholics or drug addicts. They need to realize for themselves they need to change. Strengthen your base and look after the undecided, who tend to be more liberal anyway. If Democrats wish to entertain the idea of "Unity" then unite the so called left and middle first and foremost.

I am so grateful that Europe had the period of enlightment and religion became a less defining thing in peoples lifes. The human came forward and God had to step in the background or disappear. People understood that the development of a society and ones own development should not be defined by or depend on a higher power. A realization that brought immense progress in all kinds of life. Today in Europe, even those who consider themselves religious, mostly Christians (Catholic and Protestant) do not have religion as the centre of their lifes and most definitely take everything the church says with a grain of salt. Afterall, the history of Christianity in Europe is filled with violence and hate. Especially the organized religion has shown to be on the wrong side of history over and over again. At this point, in Europe more people visit churches for the architecture and great acoustics but less for religious activities. In Germany, the day the most people go to church is Christmas Eve. And most people go merely for the "show", the songs, the nice decoration. The only thing the Church has been really good at, are the arts. This I can acknowledge.

Well, I hope they don't have daughters that have problems during their pregnancies. Might cost them their lifes. Or those women themselves hopefully don't end up in an abusive marriage. They may spend the rest of their lifes with their abusive husbands or they decide to live in poverty if they leave them. But you get what you vote for, I guess. Some people are just so short-sighted. And some are just incredibly dumb.