Speaking at a security conference in Munich, Vice-President JD Vance has given an astonishingly frank and serious speech to an audience of European government officials.
"A senior German politician who listened to Vance's speech summed it up with one sentence: 'It was a big boost to the far right in Germany and in Europe'."
There is no doubt in my mind that if he said this in Canada, that's what he'd be labeled as. I'm so damn jealous of the leaders you have, I can't imagine a Canadian politician of any stature speaking in this fashion.
Canada is pathetic. Invade us now please. Thanks, eh?
Would like to invade you, but right now we’re kinda busy trying to unplug the toilets in DC. Apparently there’s billions and billions of green backs blocking the sewer lines…….
I’m in an area in the US that’s inundated with Canadian snowbirds and many are great friends I’ve enjoyed for years. This year is different…not only do they openly express their hatred for Trump, they are angry with we Americans who “they assume” voted for him. It takes an uncommon degree of hubris to visit another country and openly criticize its leadership and its citizens.
I used to travel quite a bit in Europe on business, especially during the Iraq war, and people would criticize the U.S. to me as the “American within earshot.” My standard reply was to ask ”How many divisions have Britain/France/Germany had occasion to send to the U.S. to settle wars that they’d had no hand in starting, and how many of your soldiers are buried in the United States?” There was always a heavy silence of a few moments under my unblinking stare before the conversation moved on. Americans are certainly not perfect, but our men shed their blood on foreign soil in grossly disproportionate numbers.
I live in Vancouver and my neighbours are seniors like me. The clot-shot Mandates period made me even more unsocial than I was by nature. I will have friendly conversations with my neighbours but I don't engage in political talk because their opinions are stupid, because they are second-hand parrot talk at best. It struck me just now: my mother was a kind person with nasty opinions which she had at second hand. Person to person she was genuine and nice. That's the person I grew up with. I am going to mull that over more now that I consider it.
It’s the same here in England, very many brainwashed by the bbc and all the newspapers and radio stations. Remembering that 99% wore moron masks for years inside and out, their inane, childish parrot talk shouldn’t surprise us and yet I still wonder how they can continue to be so moronic.
Here in Vancouver's Kitsilano neighbourhood, a short bus ride westward to UBC campus, I see a small minority of people who will board the bus with face masks. I always whisper under my breath, "Creepy". Because it does give me the willies, a lingering fear that this behaviour will be revived and politicians here will both stimulate this mask-wearing by media projects and, once it begins to catch on they will then use the pumped-up stats on the manufactured popularity of this habit to get a "movement" rolling for renewed "mandates". I am aware that this worry of mine is a result of the psychological damage from the horror of 2020-2021-2022, when my country was neatly flipped into a nightmare of absolutism.
Maybe two or three at most on any full bus-load still will mask themselves even though everyone around them on the bus or on the sidewalk is barefaced. Maskers are usually elderly (and often do not seem vigorous or quite well) but some are college age kids (most deplorable of all! How do they become so stupid?!).
I hope the movement towards normality which I see in the bare faces of young and old alike evinces a spirit of, "I did what you asked. Now it's OVER and things are NORMAL. They better STAY THAT WAY! I'm working hard enough as it is. LEAVE ME THE FUCK ALONE!"
I feel damaged too by the lies and the fear that it will happen again because so many are so foolish and so easily led. Here in the north east of England I don’t see many mask wearers - the silly habit died off slowly but surely. If I do see a masked moron I really want to kick their backsides because they are normalising what should be absolutely abhorrent, as you say, making it easier for the evil ones to mandate such idiocy again.
Most Canadians are severely brain-washed and suffer from acute TDS. At least now we can point out the strong points of the Trump program without being instantly cancelled. They at least have to acknowledge that millions of humans disagree with their opinions and many are indisputably smart.
Why does this happen so much? Perhaps it is because the US has had the gall to directly undermine, through both propaganda and military means, the elections and governments of countries around the world? I hope the dismantling of USAID and other systems of graft, many of which do not uphold democratic principles, helps to curtail this tendency.
Listened to all of Mike Benz's Joe Rogan interview this afternoon. Whoa. Benz is on Tucker (haven't listened to all of that one), and he makes the point that USAID is the soft-power way the 'West' and US have had cheap oil, pencils, etc...
As a retired soldier, it has been unsettling to learn just how nasty, evil, and corrupt we have been--since probably 1948. The end of the podcast he discusses much of the narco tendrils...and it makes me want to hurl.
As a nation, we need to repent. We're addicted to cheap material shit, maintained by the corruption and evil of USAID. We are due for a very nasty wake up call.
Everyone has a right to criticize the actions of another nation, particularly when the influence is outsized, imperialistic, and murderous. Are you the thought police? Is freedom of speech an inherent right, as per our constitution? If so, set an example.
Sorry, but absent the Trudeau stink, Canada leans left vis-à-vis the U.S., and the required apportionment of 435 Representatives amongst the newly combined population (approximately 45 to Canada) would yield an increased number of Liberal/Democratic representatives vs. Conservative/Republican.
Similarly, there are 13 provinces/territories, of which 3 are Conservative and 10 are Liberal, either formally or de facto. With a population of ≈40M, I doubt Congress would create 13 states, but looking at population groupings, I’m sure there would be at least 4: BC, Prairies, Ontario, Maritimes, plus maybe Québec, although the U.S. population would not be tolerant of Québecois separatism, so maybe they’d be sent on their way into the World. In any event, 3 of those 4 states would be heavily Democratic and 1 Conservative.
The impact on the political balance in the U.S. would likely bring heavy Republican opposition to a union between the 2 countries.
Yes, and I’ve seen a similar argument in reverse about the possibility of California secession—there’s no way the Dems are going to let than many EC votes walk out the door.
My (silly) hope is that while the Civil War settled secession, it didn’t address expulsion, where the rest of the Union just can’t stand an obnoxious state any more.
So you prefer the slow consolidation of power to actual representative government? Just the time spent just drawing the districts would put an end to gerrymandering, I think.
Illinois went to shit after the parties agreed to reduce the number of state reps and senators as a “cost cutting” move. It consolidated power and created multi-decade fiefdoms. And its only getting worse.
The problem is not the number of representatives. It is the SCOTUS decision in “Citizens United” that money equals speech and that “issue” contributions are unlimited and not reportable.
We either need to 1) limit political contributions regardless of type (requires amending the 1A), or 2) have 100% public, online reporting of every cent. #2 is my preferred route.
Some back story: My in-laws are currently visiting, and I live in Saskatchewan. They are currently retired in BC and have lived there for nearly 15-20 years now. They are rabid, hopeless, lefties. Absolutely infected with TDS. They’re also in their very late 70’s and early 80’s.
On day one, only 2 minutes after I trudged down the stairs, yawning, in the early morning, and smiling giving them a “good morning!” pleasantry, my MIL tried to goad me into a political discussion with the prompt “so how’s that awful Trump (she says his name with an emphasis as though she’s also chewing something bitter) tariffs going to affect your job?”
I paused while dropping my tea bag into my mug and shrugged. “I dunno” I said. “Im a consultant, so I’m not sure it will. If Trudeau makes a reasonable effort to secure our border, maybe nothing at all happens.”
She then went on a rant with no clear connections being made about how Trump is “undermining our civil institutions we’ve worked so hard at building” (not clear how he’s doing that in Canada), and how the “homeless issue is also getting so much worse” (with no realization at the irony that that has happened under the watch of 9 years of Trudy). At this point I pick up my tea, hoping to avoid a heated argument with an 80 year old woman who can’t hold consistent thoughts in her head any longer, and head downstairs to my office to start my day.
Fast forward only one day, and she begins another conversation. Asking about my work. She had forgotten who I’d worked for in the past, and I mentioned that a small local company I worked for was purchased by SNC-Lavalin. Yes, the same company involved in so many national scandals. I chuckled and said I was glad I left that company because they were so riddled with scandals that they had to change their name (they’re now Atkins Realis). Then I threw in a bit of a jab: “SNC was the company involved in the big scandal with the Liberals/Trudeau”.
My MIL made a short gasp, and I shit you not, proceeded to defend Trudeau (who was found guilty of ethical misconduct) by blathering on about how hard it is to be a politician in Quebec due to all the organized crime that exists there.
To summarize, my MIL argued that it was ok to be ethically bankrupt, and criminal, if you’re a French Canadian politician, because Quebec is just so rife with corruption.
Long story short: Yes, many Canadian are hopeless. Their minds are gone, and they are unable to reason or even hear themselves.
No politician in the West has made a speech anywhere near this level since Kennedy's head exploded.
Watching this through for the second time a few minutes ago, I suddenly realized that one of Vance's major roles as VP is an unannounced one: assassination insurance. Those traitor creeps at CIA don't dare wind up another of their crazies on Trump now, with VPJD waiting to step up.
That office used to be appointed to accomplished men, often generals, who commanded respect. Now it's mostly loathsome DEI and ex-CBC hacks who check the right boxes.
Western liberals have become like some weird version of Rain Man where no matter what the input the output is always: Nazi Hitler far right fascist. (In America we add option 2: Jim Crow.) They've moved past autism into aphasia.
"They've moved past autism into aphasia." I'm stealing that. They lost it a LONG time ago. Some basics: You can't change your gender. The Earth isn't God, the Sun isn't killing us. Marriage is between one man and one woman. They've been on this crazy train for about ten years...and I'll show myself to the sanity Gulag now.
“They've been on this crazy train for about ten years...”
Disagree. This is derivative from Marxist tactics propagated by the Soviet Comintern 1919-43. You can trace this crap back to Communist “post modernist” sympathizers in Weimar Germany and later to the U.S. post -WWII when Marcuse & the Frankfurt School immigrated from Germany to the U.S. it took them 35+ yrs to fully inveigle their way into university and secondary school faculties to start pumping out indoctrinated students.
It’s not 100% fair to call young people who’ve been marinated in propaganda (and instructed to emote rather than critically think) for 16 yrs “idiots” for not knowing reality or being able to figure it out.
IMHO, what makes them idiots is that they don’t for a moment wonder why over 50% of Americans voted for the diametrically opposed perspective. They just attribute it to Naziism, and head out to an anti-Elon off key singalong.
It's important to note that the Nazi party never had majority support. Its high-water voter support was 43% - six days after the Reichstag Fire (J6 fedsurrection) that scared millions of voters to support them. 43% popularity.
Of course every "election" after that was rigged, 90%+, that dictatorships receive.
But never, ever, never ever ever were Nazi's supported by a majority of Germans; they had no legitimate support to rule, until the seized it - possession being 9/10 of the law.
MAGA has clear and unambiguous and durable popular support. Even overcoming a rigged election in 2024 - too big to rig. And therefore could never be similar to Nazi's. They bitterly cling to their monsters.
They could have gone to the library or downloaded some classic books to their Kindles or tablets. No one forced them to slurp up the propaganda. They have agency.
"...they are like eunuchs masturbating at the shadow of an image, in their perpetual attempt at provoking a response from a congregation that only responds with a saddened look of disparaging concern, and feelings of being hurt."
I think a significant percentage of the crowd yelling "nazi" at everything are, shall we say, closeted when it comes to leather harnesses, jackboots, jodhpurs and other paraphernalia of the Hugo BoSS-aesthetic.
The National Socialist (i.e., Nazi) heritage gear may be in the closet, brought out for sexual stimulation, but in public the modern Nazi wears a nonthreatening Bill Gates-style pink sweater while conspiring with fellow Nazis at the Davos to engineer a 90% culling of the herd.
HOW can you say Leftists do not address civil rights?!? Articles 39-69 of the 1977 Soviet Constitution addressed in great detail the innumerable rights enjoyed by the Soviet citizen. Of course, there was no mechanism whatsoever to enforce those rights against the State’s intrusions, but the citizens “had” rights. /sarcasm/
Considering what is classified as "far right" nowadays, I can tell you that old school hard-core commies from the 1970s would fall under that category.
Not joking, not hyperbole. We've got a couple of those still alive, and the young woke breed view them as nazis, because they aren't on board the homo-pedo-trans-islam-climate bandwagon.
It's Germany, man. They just "debated" a bill in parliament to crack down on illegal immigration. None of the debaters said anything about immigration, instead complaining that AfD was in favor of the bill. That was literally the ENTIRE Parliamentary debate. Legislation by virtue signal.
If the "far right" means a dedication to free speech and not allowing for the overturning of elections because the "wrong" person was voted in--in other words, acts of democracy--then I'd wear that label with pride.
“Far right” is in vogue because they’ve worn out the Nazi and alt-Right cards. Soon it too will pass and we’ll be on to get another epithet. ANYTHING to avoid the issues…
And what if he’s right? Maybe what these effete elites call “far right,” which would have been garden variety conservative say 20-30 years ago, NEEDS a boost. Especially when the ruling elites are doing their damnest to destroy democracy by “defending democracy.”
There are elections this month in Germany, and although EVERY party has relics of the former national socialist party within, the one the current Chancellor worries about is the AFD or alternativ fur deutschland. They are unlikely to gain full control though.
Apparently coming #2 is not even enough to participate. I hear the Conservatives would rather form a coalition with the GREENS than AfD.
I didn’t realize that AfD geographic predominance and the former East Germany are a perfect overlay. Although opponents often mention Nazis and AfD on the same breath as often as possible, is this as simple as the politics of most (or all) former Soviet bloc countries – they detest socialism and vote against it whenever possible?
The trouble for an outside observer is understanding of reality. Never, ever accept the description of a political party offered by its opposition. Does the AfD actually have tinges of Naziism? Or do they just want immigrants to assimilate, and want to deport those who won’t? The latter seems rational to me – so much so, it should be a condition of admission.
What I’ve heard about the AfD, which admittedly is limited, makes them sound conservative, not kooks, which of course the hard Left demonizes.
i wasn't expecting to hear (paraphrase) "at this point it's counterproductive to defend you because you fascist pigs are 180 degrees from what NATO was conceived to defend"
I constantly have that image with his head cocked....you know from the vs. Tim walz bugs vs Elmer fudd meme. I LOVE that meme. It should have been his VP portrait!
In some child-rearing circles, there is something called "the broken record technique" which insists that you don't yell, you just calmly restate-ad naseum- what you want the child to do, or not do. Having raised 4 children, I think that there are limits for that technique, eventually it must be backed up with consequences. I think Vance demonstrates that style very adroitly. We have to keep saying "If you arrest people for what they think, you are not a democracy". Calmly, insistently, resolutely.
"JD Vance's speech at the Munich Security Conference today was intended for an American audience. The German press & regime politicians are now lining up to denounce his statements. A real effort to nudge EU politics away from Eurocrat authoritarianism would look much different."
I think JD is in a unique position given his life experience that he recognizes the signs of self destructive addictive behavior in these Eurocrats. The denial on their part that they have a problem is what we’re seeing now. They get angry when their behavior is called out. The truth can be painful. Let’s hope they recognize that and can overcome their groupthink before it’s too late.
When Elon and Trump finish pulling the thread on the USAID/CIA/DOD/NGO/FBI sweater, it will take awhile, but as the money dries up, the instant consensus, constant "truman show" psyop will unravel. its already starting. the fighting is always worst right before the surrender.
Somebody needed to tell them the truth. Europe really is a stagnant culture. At least in my day they exported some pretty good rock and roll. Censorship is not the answer.
Look at how Hollywood has (increasingly) portrayed "white straight men", especially fathers, since the 1970s, plus other US media and what 50 years of that has done to white boys growing up in many areas in your nation.
Now, apply that same tactic to a nation and its people for 50 years.
(80 years for Germany and Austria, 10-15 years for the former Eastern Bloc.)
It's not stagnation: it's conditioned self-loathing and an equally conditioned "acts of contrition"-response that's achieving peak efficiency.
That, plus you guys never get to see real folk culture from any European nation unless you know how to search for it - I'd wager it's the same for me when I want to know stuff about different parts of the USA. Which is why it's so great we can have free speech and ask each other (and have bragging/smacktalk-contests!).
So true and very sad indeed. Many of God's gifts embellish their surroundings though they dis Him. Watch Tucker Carlson's latest interview with Viktor Orban. He sees and understands what is going on in Europe/Russia and so many liberal leaders there don't.
I watched Vance's speech, imagining the cringe possibility of T*mpon Tim or Coconuts Harris standing up at the podium in his stead, and was grateful and proud that he represents the US.
Notice how little applause he received...the sound of cockroaches afraid of the coming exterminator.
VP Vance is not afraid of them. He has lived more of a life in his 38 years than the jackasses who try to pan him have combined. They didn’t applaud because THEY are afraid—of each other.
I've traveled extensively in Western Europe for ten years ending 2023. The babble from politicians and the media is not the mood of the people, in my experience from the folks I've met and talked to. The exceptions are the UK (where I currently live), Denmark and parts of Germany - again in my experience. I can't really generalize too much. But it's been sorely apparent to me that the majority of people are not on board with the globalist EU agendas. The further south you go, the more disregard for authority, the more rebellion. The Mediterranean mentality and temper are not suited to obedience. That's an understatement.
Another important factor is that tradition is the fabric of Latin culture - France, Spain, Italy. The idea of progressivism is abstract and absurd. Not saying that they're against progress per se, but in the context of tradition and legacy. I would go further to say family is the fabric.
So the 'far-right' is actually normal life, common sense, tradition, family, respect. All the things we the people actually want. Of course, there are extremes everywhere, but I'm pointing to the non-extreme.
One can't help but notice: A, or even THE key component of EVERY attempted totalitarian take-over in modern times has been to actively discourage, or even impose an outright ban, on any hint of common sense, tradition, family, or respect.
Yeah. The two main exceptions for the entire 20th century would be Italian and German fascism: both emphasised family, tradition and respect (for authority, to a most unhealthy degree).
Therefore, to the woke, some Marxists, and pomos - any idea originating from "white people" about family, tradition, heritage, culture and so on, must be fascist.
Therefore, destroying any and all of those are acts of anti-fascism.
I spent my childhood in Germany, have often returned to visit, and stay current with German media, and my impression differs from yours, Navyo: Germans are the first to fall in line and to be good little boys and girls. There's not much critical thinking there, not much individuation... but, on the other hand, why would there be? Not like there's a lot of it in the US, at any socio-economic level.
I'm in the United Kingdom, which is far from United, or Great Britain, which is far from Great. I make sure to carry garlic everywhere now. I believe there's an 'open carry' law.
I get the media...they are bought and paid for whores. ( Sorry language) But how did some of these people become so brain damaged as to defend the corruption of the government,child mutilation,the mentally ill tranny clown shows pedophiles and murders?? It's not just the schools, tons of elderly people ( especially women) fighting for this....wtaf?
They are just these screaming delusional giant sized toddlers.
Yes, it hasn’t taken that long to go from protesting female mutilation by some Muslim religious sects to celebrating child mutilation because of a child’s mental disorder. With an expectation that all involved in this child’s life must participate in this mental illness. That is the mental illness & cannot be tolerated.
You ask "how". A close friend and I used to argue about that "how" over coffee and lunch back in '05, at our favourite café.
He came up with a good explanation:
"Everyone's got these lines they won't cross, right? And we think of that lines as some hard absolute object, right? But it's like this, that line? It's elastic, see. Endlessly elastic. So it's just a small step, and another, and another, and suddenly you're so far in you can't see where you started, but to you it looks as if you never crossed the line, because you're holding it in front of you, like if the rope at a sprinters' track was made that way."
That's the bricklayer/lead pencil artist/restaurant manager's explanation, and I think it's a good one.
And it also proves that academia? It mainly teaches one how to be ignorant in polysyllabic words (I'd have need ten times the words to explain the same thing, had I thought of it.)
I've also read that the human mind is best at rationalization, which once you start to identify people doing it to excuse poor behaviour/choices, you can't unsee.
You SHOULD apologize – your description wasn’t nearly brutal enough. 😂
They became so brain damaged because as young people they never examined different systems of morality and picked one to live by, come thick or thin. They live by peer acceptance, which is no system at all. Anyone who looked at the vagaries of high school popularity knew that peer acceptance was vaporously ephemeral.
What a team! Trump is our wrecking ball. Vance is our rebuilder. For the first time in 20 years, I think the Republic might be salvageable.
Best lines:
"If your democracy can be destroyed by a few hundred thousand dollars of advertising from a foreign country, than it wasn't very strong to begin with."
"I've had lots of conversations today about what you are defending yourself from, but it's less clear what you're defending yourselves for."
"There is no security if you're afraid of the opinions of your own people. You can not win a democratic mandate by censoring your opponents or putting them in jail."
5 years ago, I heard Victor Orban say the same things. Now the Vice president of my own country is saying them! I wonder if DW News will carry any of his speech in Germany tonight? Yeah... right. Wouldn't want to help the "far right" in 9 days.
That's so discouraging to hear from the German pol. (One would think they'd learned some lessons after Merkl.) Vance is firing a heavy shot over the bow: "here's what we stand for - so what's your choice". A great speech.
"A senior German politician who listened to Vance's speech summed it up with one sentence: 'It was a big boost to the far right in Germany and in Europe'."
https://www.axios.com/2025/02/14/vance-munich-speech-free-speech-afd
Pathetic.
There is no doubt in my mind that if he said this in Canada, that's what he'd be labeled as. I'm so damn jealous of the leaders you have, I can't imagine a Canadian politician of any stature speaking in this fashion.
Canada is pathetic. Invade us now please. Thanks, eh?
Would like to invade you, but right now we’re kinda busy trying to unplug the toilets in DC. Apparently there’s billions and billions of green backs blocking the sewer lines…….
They always try to flush the evidence.
I’m in an area in the US that’s inundated with Canadian snowbirds and many are great friends I’ve enjoyed for years. This year is different…not only do they openly express their hatred for Trump, they are angry with we Americans who “they assume” voted for him. It takes an uncommon degree of hubris to visit another country and openly criticize its leadership and its citizens.
I used to travel quite a bit in Europe on business, especially during the Iraq war, and people would criticize the U.S. to me as the “American within earshot.” My standard reply was to ask ”How many divisions have Britain/France/Germany had occasion to send to the U.S. to settle wars that they’d had no hand in starting, and how many of your soldiers are buried in the United States?” There was always a heavy silence of a few moments under my unblinking stare before the conversation moved on. Americans are certainly not perfect, but our men shed their blood on foreign soil in grossly disproportionate numbers.
Like!
I live in Vancouver and my neighbours are seniors like me. The clot-shot Mandates period made me even more unsocial than I was by nature. I will have friendly conversations with my neighbours but I don't engage in political talk because their opinions are stupid, because they are second-hand parrot talk at best. It struck me just now: my mother was a kind person with nasty opinions which she had at second hand. Person to person she was genuine and nice. That's the person I grew up with. I am going to mull that over more now that I consider it.
It’s the same here in England, very many brainwashed by the bbc and all the newspapers and radio stations. Remembering that 99% wore moron masks for years inside and out, their inane, childish parrot talk shouldn’t surprise us and yet I still wonder how they can continue to be so moronic.
Here in Vancouver's Kitsilano neighbourhood, a short bus ride westward to UBC campus, I see a small minority of people who will board the bus with face masks. I always whisper under my breath, "Creepy". Because it does give me the willies, a lingering fear that this behaviour will be revived and politicians here will both stimulate this mask-wearing by media projects and, once it begins to catch on they will then use the pumped-up stats on the manufactured popularity of this habit to get a "movement" rolling for renewed "mandates". I am aware that this worry of mine is a result of the psychological damage from the horror of 2020-2021-2022, when my country was neatly flipped into a nightmare of absolutism.
Maybe two or three at most on any full bus-load still will mask themselves even though everyone around them on the bus or on the sidewalk is barefaced. Maskers are usually elderly (and often do not seem vigorous or quite well) but some are college age kids (most deplorable of all! How do they become so stupid?!).
I hope the movement towards normality which I see in the bare faces of young and old alike evinces a spirit of, "I did what you asked. Now it's OVER and things are NORMAL. They better STAY THAT WAY! I'm working hard enough as it is. LEAVE ME THE FUCK ALONE!"
I feel damaged too by the lies and the fear that it will happen again because so many are so foolish and so easily led. Here in the north east of England I don’t see many mask wearers - the silly habit died off slowly but surely. If I do see a masked moron I really want to kick their backsides because they are normalising what should be absolutely abhorrent, as you say, making it easier for the evil ones to mandate such idiocy again.
Most Canadians are severely brain-washed and suffer from acute TDS. At least now we can point out the strong points of the Trump program without being instantly cancelled. They at least have to acknowledge that millions of humans disagree with their opinions and many are indisputably smart.
Canadian boomers, so yes snowbirds for sure but not all Canadians suffer from TDS, the under 50 crowd is not at all like that.
I'm in Toronto and that is *definitely* not the case. When I venture out of the city, different story.
Why does this happen so much? Perhaps it is because the US has had the gall to directly undermine, through both propaganda and military means, the elections and governments of countries around the world? I hope the dismantling of USAID and other systems of graft, many of which do not uphold democratic principles, helps to curtail this tendency.
Gadfly,
Listened to all of Mike Benz's Joe Rogan interview this afternoon. Whoa. Benz is on Tucker (haven't listened to all of that one), and he makes the point that USAID is the soft-power way the 'West' and US have had cheap oil, pencils, etc...
As a retired soldier, it has been unsettling to learn just how nasty, evil, and corrupt we have been--since probably 1948. The end of the podcast he discusses much of the narco tendrils...and it makes me want to hurl.
As a nation, we need to repent. We're addicted to cheap material shit, maintained by the corruption and evil of USAID. We are due for a very nasty wake up call.
bsn
I completely agree.
Not to mention bad manners.
Canadians might be the most smug, self-righteous people on the planet.
Everyone has a right to criticize the actions of another nation, particularly when the influence is outsized, imperialistic, and murderous. Are you the thought police? Is freedom of speech an inherent right, as per our constitution? If so, set an example.
They have the freedom to be rude. That doesn't make it appropriate.
I say you should deport them, but I don't want them back. Send them to Mexico?
Sorry, but absent the Trudeau stink, Canada leans left vis-à-vis the U.S., and the required apportionment of 435 Representatives amongst the newly combined population (approximately 45 to Canada) would yield an increased number of Liberal/Democratic representatives vs. Conservative/Republican.
Similarly, there are 13 provinces/territories, of which 3 are Conservative and 10 are Liberal, either formally or de facto. With a population of ≈40M, I doubt Congress would create 13 states, but looking at population groupings, I’m sure there would be at least 4: BC, Prairies, Ontario, Maritimes, plus maybe Québec, although the U.S. population would not be tolerant of Québecois separatism, so maybe they’d be sent on their way into the World. In any event, 3 of those 4 states would be heavily Democratic and 1 Conservative.
The impact on the political balance in the U.S. would likely bring heavy Republican opposition to a union between the 2 countries.
Absolutely on point.
Yes, and I’ve seen a similar argument in reverse about the possibility of California secession—there’s no way the Dems are going to let than many EC votes walk out the door.
My (silly) hope is that while the Civil War settled secession, it didn’t address expulsion, where the rest of the Union just can’t stand an obnoxious state any more.
435 representatives ought to be increased to about 4350. Then we’ll have actual representation.
How does that help? The population per Rep goes down by 90% but the number of Reps goes up by 1000%, leaving each citizen’s influence unchanged.
So you prefer the slow consolidation of power to actual representative government? Just the time spent just drawing the districts would put an end to gerrymandering, I think.
Illinois went to shit after the parties agreed to reduce the number of state reps and senators as a “cost cutting” move. It consolidated power and created multi-decade fiefdoms. And its only getting worse.
I learned a valuable lesson from that.
The problem is not the number of representatives. It is the SCOTUS decision in “Citizens United” that money equals speech and that “issue” contributions are unlimited and not reportable.
We either need to 1) limit political contributions regardless of type (requires amending the 1A), or 2) have 100% public, online reporting of every cent. #2 is my preferred route.
Some back story: My in-laws are currently visiting, and I live in Saskatchewan. They are currently retired in BC and have lived there for nearly 15-20 years now. They are rabid, hopeless, lefties. Absolutely infected with TDS. They’re also in their very late 70’s and early 80’s.
On day one, only 2 minutes after I trudged down the stairs, yawning, in the early morning, and smiling giving them a “good morning!” pleasantry, my MIL tried to goad me into a political discussion with the prompt “so how’s that awful Trump (she says his name with an emphasis as though she’s also chewing something bitter) tariffs going to affect your job?”
I paused while dropping my tea bag into my mug and shrugged. “I dunno” I said. “Im a consultant, so I’m not sure it will. If Trudeau makes a reasonable effort to secure our border, maybe nothing at all happens.”
She then went on a rant with no clear connections being made about how Trump is “undermining our civil institutions we’ve worked so hard at building” (not clear how he’s doing that in Canada), and how the “homeless issue is also getting so much worse” (with no realization at the irony that that has happened under the watch of 9 years of Trudy). At this point I pick up my tea, hoping to avoid a heated argument with an 80 year old woman who can’t hold consistent thoughts in her head any longer, and head downstairs to my office to start my day.
Fast forward only one day, and she begins another conversation. Asking about my work. She had forgotten who I’d worked for in the past, and I mentioned that a small local company I worked for was purchased by SNC-Lavalin. Yes, the same company involved in so many national scandals. I chuckled and said I was glad I left that company because they were so riddled with scandals that they had to change their name (they’re now Atkins Realis). Then I threw in a bit of a jab: “SNC was the company involved in the big scandal with the Liberals/Trudeau”.
My MIL made a short gasp, and I shit you not, proceeded to defend Trudeau (who was found guilty of ethical misconduct) by blathering on about how hard it is to be a politician in Quebec due to all the organized crime that exists there.
To summarize, my MIL argued that it was ok to be ethically bankrupt, and criminal, if you’re a French Canadian politician, because Quebec is just so rife with corruption.
Long story short: Yes, many Canadian are hopeless. Their minds are gone, and they are unable to reason or even hear themselves.
No politician in the West has made a speech anywhere near this level since Kennedy's head exploded.
Watching this through for the second time a few minutes ago, I suddenly realized that one of Vance's major roles as VP is an unannounced one: assassination insurance. Those traitor creeps at CIA don't dare wind up another of their crazies on Trump now, with VPJD waiting to step up.
51st State??
Please, no.
We'll make you Lt. Gov.
That office used to be appointed to accomplished men, often generals, who commanded respect. Now it's mostly loathsome DEI and ex-CBC hacks who check the right boxes.
Forget the invasion. Let us know when the going out of business sale starts.
Far right in Germany = moderate everywhere else 😂😂😂
Western liberals have become like some weird version of Rain Man where no matter what the input the output is always: Nazi Hitler far right fascist. (In America we add option 2: Jim Crow.) They've moved past autism into aphasia.
"They've moved past autism into aphasia." I'm stealing that. They lost it a LONG time ago. Some basics: You can't change your gender. The Earth isn't God, the Sun isn't killing us. Marriage is between one man and one woman. They've been on this crazy train for about ten years...and I'll show myself to the sanity Gulag now.
“They've been on this crazy train for about ten years...”
Disagree. This is derivative from Marxist tactics propagated by the Soviet Comintern 1919-43. You can trace this crap back to Communist “post modernist” sympathizers in Weimar Germany and later to the U.S. post -WWII when Marcuse & the Frankfurt School immigrated from Germany to the U.S. it took them 35+ yrs to fully inveigle their way into university and secondary school faculties to start pumping out indoctrinated students.
Oh we know. This isn't about "them." It's more about the idiots that don't know any of that - and vote for "them."
It’s not 100% fair to call young people who’ve been marinated in propaganda (and instructed to emote rather than critically think) for 16 yrs “idiots” for not knowing reality or being able to figure it out.
IMHO, what makes them idiots is that they don’t for a moment wonder why over 50% of Americans voted for the diametrically opposed perspective. They just attribute it to Naziism, and head out to an anti-Elon off key singalong.
It's important to note that the Nazi party never had majority support. Its high-water voter support was 43% - six days after the Reichstag Fire (J6 fedsurrection) that scared millions of voters to support them. 43% popularity.
Of course every "election" after that was rigged, 90%+, that dictatorships receive.
But never, ever, never ever ever were Nazi's supported by a majority of Germans; they had no legitimate support to rule, until the seized it - possession being 9/10 of the law.
MAGA has clear and unambiguous and durable popular support. Even overcoming a rigged election in 2024 - too big to rig. And therefore could never be similar to Nazi's. They bitterly cling to their monsters.
OK, it's 85% fair.
They could have gone to the library or downloaded some classic books to their Kindles or tablets. No one forced them to slurp up the propaganda. They have agency.
Also "ethnic cleansing" and "genocide."
don't forget "apartheid"!
slogans/loaded moral jargon have supplanted discourse.
…and “white supremacist” and “misogynist”. 🙄
oh yeah good ones
You are right. Some sort of a spectrum disorder. Predictable and consistent.
None of these leftist ever engage with the topic -- not once.
They can't because they can't leave their mental safe space of: everyone who disagrees with us is a "far right" Nazi Hitler fascist.
Entertaining one unapproved thought scares them too much, pull one thread and their entire sacred worldview could completely unravel.
Western liberals have fried their brains with panic porn and have lost the ability to think or speak clearly.
Quoting myself form a different stack:
"...they are like eunuchs masturbating at the shadow of an image, in their perpetual attempt at provoking a response from a congregation that only responds with a saddened look of disparaging concern, and feelings of being hurt."
I think a significant percentage of the crowd yelling "nazi" at everything are, shall we say, closeted when it comes to leather harnesses, jackboots, jodhpurs and other paraphernalia of the Hugo BoSS-aesthetic.
The National Socialist (i.e., Nazi) heritage gear may be in the closet, brought out for sexual stimulation, but in public the modern Nazi wears a nonthreatening Bill Gates-style pink sweater while conspiring with fellow Nazis at the Davos to engineer a 90% culling of the herd.
I think you underestimate the culling target. Just how many Troglodytes does it take to feed the gods on Mt. Davos? Certainly not 800M…
🎯
HOW can you say Leftists do not address civil rights?!? Articles 39-69 of the 1977 Soviet Constitution addressed in great detail the innumerable rights enjoyed by the Soviet citizen. Of course, there was no mechanism whatsoever to enforce those rights against the State’s intrusions, but the citizens “had” rights. /sarcasm/
lolol
Its called “passive-aggressive”.
From the BBC:
“German defence minister brands Vance's remarks unacceptable.”
I’m hoping eugyppius will give us a summary from the German press.
Same.
Considering what is classified as "far right" nowadays, I can tell you that old school hard-core commies from the 1970s would fall under that category.
Not joking, not hyperbole. We've got a couple of those still alive, and the young woke breed view them as nazis, because they aren't on board the homo-pedo-trans-islam-climate bandwagon.
It's Germany, man. They just "debated" a bill in parliament to crack down on illegal immigration. None of the debaters said anything about immigration, instead complaining that AfD was in favor of the bill. That was literally the ENTIRE Parliamentary debate. Legislation by virtue signal.
If the "far right" means a dedication to free speech and not allowing for the overturning of elections because the "wrong" person was voted in--in other words, acts of democracy--then I'd wear that label with pride.
“Far right” is in vogue because they’ve worn out the Nazi and alt-Right cards. Soon it too will pass and we’ll be on to get another epithet. ANYTHING to avoid the issues…
I hope so because the left is destroying Europe( regarding the big boost to the right)
And what if he’s right? Maybe what these effete elites call “far right,” which would have been garden variety conservative say 20-30 years ago, NEEDS a boost. Especially when the ruling elites are doing their damnest to destroy democracy by “defending democracy.”
There are elections this month in Germany, and although EVERY party has relics of the former national socialist party within, the one the current Chancellor worries about is the AFD or alternativ fur deutschland. They are unlikely to gain full control though.
Apparently coming #2 is not even enough to participate. I hear the Conservatives would rather form a coalition with the GREENS than AfD.
I didn’t realize that AfD geographic predominance and the former East Germany are a perfect overlay. Although opponents often mention Nazis and AfD on the same breath as often as possible, is this as simple as the politics of most (or all) former Soviet bloc countries – they detest socialism and vote against it whenever possible?
https://www.reuters.com/graphics/GERMANY-ELECTION/RESULTS/movaynkgova/
The trouble for an outside observer is understanding of reality. Never, ever accept the description of a political party offered by its opposition. Does the AfD actually have tinges of Naziism? Or do they just want immigrants to assimilate, and want to deport those who won’t? The latter seems rational to me – so much so, it should be a condition of admission.
What I’ve heard about the AfD, which admittedly is limited, makes them sound conservative, not kooks, which of course the hard Left demonizes.
If you so much a sneeze to the right of Communism, then you are labelled as "far right"!
Yes this is pathetic but it is an answer to be expected these days. The same in France
Left unsaid, “The far right rises when the far left oversteps and lets the HR ladies take charge of policy.”
SJWs always project
Pathetic is the word.
When exposing a crime is treated like committing a crime, you may then know you are ruled by CRIMINALS.
I love it! The era of milquetoast VP has ended w/ JD. What courage, eloquence and resolve our badass VP has.
Perfect balance/compliment to Trump.
Vance is among the very few politicians that I would guess is the same speaking in Munich, or across the dinner table.
DAMN this guy talks a good game
i wasn't expecting to hear (paraphrase) "at this point it's counterproductive to defend you because you fascist pigs are 180 degrees from what NATO was conceived to defend"
🤣🤣🤣
Vance is so good at this.
Freakishly good. Calm, firm, unforced.
Which I suspect is why the shrieking in response was particularly obstreperous.
The more I see and hear our new VP the more I like him
Vance side gaze...DEPLOY!
They shriek (in unison) because they have nothing. No ideas, no counterpoint, nothing. One wrote “scold” and the rest dove into the thesaurus.
I constantly have that image with his head cocked....you know from the vs. Tim walz bugs vs Elmer fudd meme. I LOVE that meme. It should have been his VP portrait!
Vance = 48
And clear, without hyperbole or obscure jargon.
In some child-rearing circles, there is something called "the broken record technique" which insists that you don't yell, you just calmly restate-ad naseum- what you want the child to do, or not do. Having raised 4 children, I think that there are limits for that technique, eventually it must be backed up with consequences. I think Vance demonstrates that style very adroitly. We have to keep saying "If you arrest people for what they think, you are not a democracy". Calmly, insistently, resolutely.
Another view:
"JD Vance's speech at the Munich Security Conference today was intended for an American audience. The German press & regime politicians are now lining up to denounce his statements. A real effort to nudge EU politics away from Eurocrat authoritarianism would look much different."
https://x.com/eugyppius1/status/1890482228259393584
gato wrote a long post about this. It was excellent.
Where he landed was this was a message from the US to the citizens of Europe telling them that we get it and that they're understood.
With a little luck, the preface to a social rebellion on the continent.
I think JD is in a unique position given his life experience that he recognizes the signs of self destructive addictive behavior in these Eurocrats. The denial on their part that they have a problem is what we’re seeing now. They get angry when their behavior is called out. The truth can be painful. Let’s hope they recognize that and can overcome their groupthink before it’s too late.
It’s nice we have leaders that are proud to be American and don’t give a damn what anyone overseas thinks about it!
Or opponents at home. Leave it to a Marine to clarify matters.
Amen.
When Elon and Trump finish pulling the thread on the USAID/CIA/DOD/NGO/FBI sweater, it will take awhile, but as the money dries up, the instant consensus, constant "truman show" psyop will unravel. its already starting. the fighting is always worst right before the surrender.
Somebody needed to tell them the truth. Europe really is a stagnant culture. At least in my day they exported some pretty good rock and roll. Censorship is not the answer.
Look at how Hollywood has (increasingly) portrayed "white straight men", especially fathers, since the 1970s, plus other US media and what 50 years of that has done to white boys growing up in many areas in your nation.
Now, apply that same tactic to a nation and its people for 50 years.
(80 years for Germany and Austria, 10-15 years for the former Eastern Bloc.)
It's not stagnation: it's conditioned self-loathing and an equally conditioned "acts of contrition"-response that's achieving peak efficiency.
That, plus you guys never get to see real folk culture from any European nation unless you know how to search for it - I'd wager it's the same for me when I want to know stuff about different parts of the USA. Which is why it's so great we can have free speech and ask each other (and have bragging/smacktalk-contests!).
Given our name-similarity, R, I’ll show you some surviving SoLa (South Louisiana) culture anytime.
A terrifying truth. Once you can see it, it is everywhere.
It seems to be a decaying museum culture that doesn't have much time left given the demographic shifts happening there.
VOLUNTARY, SUICIDAL demographic shifts…
And an invasion.
So true and very sad indeed. Many of God's gifts embellish their surroundings though they dis Him. Watch Tucker Carlson's latest interview with Viktor Orban. He sees and understands what is going on in Europe/Russia and so many liberal leaders there don't.
I watched Vance's speech, imagining the cringe possibility of T*mpon Tim or Coconuts Harris standing up at the podium in his stead, and was grateful and proud that he represents the US.
Notice how little applause he received...the sound of cockroaches afraid of the coming exterminator.
VP Vance is not afraid of them. He has lived more of a life in his 38 years than the jackasses who try to pan him have combined. They didn’t applaud because THEY are afraid—of each other.
I've traveled extensively in Western Europe for ten years ending 2023. The babble from politicians and the media is not the mood of the people, in my experience from the folks I've met and talked to. The exceptions are the UK (where I currently live), Denmark and parts of Germany - again in my experience. I can't really generalize too much. But it's been sorely apparent to me that the majority of people are not on board with the globalist EU agendas. The further south you go, the more disregard for authority, the more rebellion. The Mediterranean mentality and temper are not suited to obedience. That's an understatement.
Another important factor is that tradition is the fabric of Latin culture - France, Spain, Italy. The idea of progressivism is abstract and absurd. Not saying that they're against progress per se, but in the context of tradition and legacy. I would go further to say family is the fabric.
So the 'far-right' is actually normal life, common sense, tradition, family, respect. All the things we the people actually want. Of course, there are extremes everywhere, but I'm pointing to the non-extreme.
"So the 'far-right' is actually normal life, common sense, tradition, family, respect."
Here, have all the "likes" on the internet!
One can't help but notice: A, or even THE key component of EVERY attempted totalitarian take-over in modern times has been to actively discourage, or even impose an outright ban, on any hint of common sense, tradition, family, or respect.
Yeah. The two main exceptions for the entire 20th century would be Italian and German fascism: both emphasised family, tradition and respect (for authority, to a most unhealthy degree).
Therefore, to the woke, some Marxists, and pomos - any idea originating from "white people" about family, tradition, heritage, culture and so on, must be fascist.
Therefore, destroying any and all of those are acts of anti-fascism.
I spent my childhood in Germany, have often returned to visit, and stay current with German media, and my impression differs from yours, Navyo: Germans are the first to fall in line and to be good little boys and girls. There's not much critical thinking there, not much individuation... but, on the other hand, why would there be? Not like there's a lot of it in the US, at any socio-economic level.
I'm in the United Kingdom, which is far from United, or Great Britain, which is far from Great. I make sure to carry garlic everywhere now. I believe there's an 'open carry' law.
🤣 Beware Nosferati. !
I get the media...they are bought and paid for whores. ( Sorry language) But how did some of these people become so brain damaged as to defend the corruption of the government,child mutilation,the mentally ill tranny clown shows pedophiles and murders?? It's not just the schools, tons of elderly people ( especially women) fighting for this....wtaf?
They are just these screaming delusional giant sized toddlers.
Yes, it hasn’t taken that long to go from protesting female mutilation by some Muslim religious sects to celebrating child mutilation because of a child’s mental disorder. With an expectation that all involved in this child’s life must participate in this mental illness. That is the mental illness & cannot be tolerated.
Agree, Dena, but I have a minor quibble.
"because of a child’s mental disorder" should probably read, "because of a child, OR PARENT'S mental disorder".
You ask "how". A close friend and I used to argue about that "how" over coffee and lunch back in '05, at our favourite café.
He came up with a good explanation:
"Everyone's got these lines they won't cross, right? And we think of that lines as some hard absolute object, right? But it's like this, that line? It's elastic, see. Endlessly elastic. So it's just a small step, and another, and another, and suddenly you're so far in you can't see where you started, but to you it looks as if you never crossed the line, because you're holding it in front of you, like if the rope at a sprinters' track was made that way."
That's the bricklayer/lead pencil artist/restaurant manager's explanation, and I think it's a good one.
And it also proves that academia? It mainly teaches one how to be ignorant in polysyllabic words (I'd have need ten times the words to explain the same thing, had I thought of it.)
That's a solid take.
I've also read that the human mind is best at rationalization, which once you start to identify people doing it to excuse poor behaviour/choices, you can't unsee.
“…whores. ( Sorry language)”
You SHOULD apologize – your description wasn’t nearly brutal enough. 😂
They became so brain damaged because as young people they never examined different systems of morality and picked one to live by, come thick or thin. They live by peer acceptance, which is no system at all. Anyone who looked at the vagaries of high school popularity knew that peer acceptance was vaporously ephemeral.
Especially when your peers are such loathsome creatures lol
84 shots of aluminum upside the head by age 18 will do that to you
i pity gen z, it's a miracle any of them can think at all
Not to be dense, but the “84 shots of aluminum upside the head” refers up vaccine stabilizers or to softball bats?
vax adjuvants...and now that you mention it, amyloid plaques from the mrna jabs
btw - they haven't gone back to wood bats in softball? that's tragic
I have no idea about current softball bats. I just remember the metallic thunk when I’d connect in grade school.
“They are just these screaming delusional giant sized toddlers”made my day, thanks.
What a team! Trump is our wrecking ball. Vance is our rebuilder. For the first time in 20 years, I think the Republic might be salvageable.
Best lines:
"If your democracy can be destroyed by a few hundred thousand dollars of advertising from a foreign country, than it wasn't very strong to begin with."
"I've had lots of conversations today about what you are defending yourself from, but it's less clear what you're defending yourselves for."
"There is no security if you're afraid of the opinions of your own people. You can not win a democratic mandate by censoring your opponents or putting them in jail."
5 years ago, I heard Victor Orban say the same things. Now the Vice president of my own country is saying them! I wonder if DW News will carry any of his speech in Germany tonight? Yeah... right. Wouldn't want to help the "far right" in 9 days.
Well, we know what Eurocrats think of Viktor Orbán, so look for Vance to be pooh-poohed.
Magnificent speech.
Sharpen your stakes, folks. Vampires are back on the menu.
That's so discouraging to hear from the German pol. (One would think they'd learned some lessons after Merkl.) Vance is firing a heavy shot over the bow: "here's what we stand for - so what's your choice". A great speech.
The Nazional Socialists were defeated in WWII? Yet the Socialist Nationalists now rule the E.U... ain't it strange... both using the SAME Bankers? 😂😂😂