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Re: Merkel is a traitor

Posted: Fri Oct 26, 2018 4:38 am
by williatw
Skipjack wrote:That said, the US is spending way too much on defense. This is a problem with the US procurement system which I think is FUBAR. The German military is good enough for the most part. And with the economy as bad as it is, there is no money for more.
If the US pushes too hard for more spending, countries might feel compelled to leave NATO and that is IMHO not in the interest of the US either.
Whether "the US is spending way too much on defense" is a debatable point. You have to look at the enormous security obligations the US has taken on since the end of WWII. What were our defense obligations in 1939? Our shores (including territorial islands) and pretty much little else. What are they now? Let's see NATO:
At present, NATO has 29 members. In 1949, there were 12 founding members of the Alliance: Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, the United Kingdom and the United States. The other member countries are: Greece and Turkey (1952), Germany (1955), Spain (1982), the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland (1999), Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia (2004), Albania and Croatia (2009), and Montenegro (2017).)


https://www.nato.int/cps/ie/natohq/topics_52044.htm

And attack on one is an attack on all (US). Also Japan, South Korea, Australia, Saudi Arabia (strongly implied), Israel (implied) probably others I haven't mentioned. In order to have a credible deterrent to dissuade would be adversaries yes you have to have an expensive to maintain permanent large powerful military at all times even when you are (nominally) at peace (for the most part). So unless you are talking about the US severing these copious in number/scope stated security obligations (a debate I wouldn't mind arguing in favor of) then we are probably stuck with a large expensive military. And of course even if we did leave NATO & the rest the threat of nuclear attack (which didn't exist obviously in 1939) would still be there necessitating some kind of credibly strong national defense/deterrence.

Re: Merkel is a traitor

Posted: Fri Oct 26, 2018 5:58 am
by Skipjack
williatw wrote: I asked because if one is a citizen (of the US) then one is reasonably expected to have ones loyalties aligned with your own country; you may care about the world outside it of course. If you thought Austria (Europe) was such a socialist paradise why did you move here? You sound a bit like Californians who move to say Texas to get away from California's kookiness and then end up complaining about Texas not being more like what you ran away from.
I have no loyalties to Germany, if that is your concern. That said, I do not think that what she is doing is a good thing. A weak Germany is bad for the world in the long term, I think. Personally, I think that competing with other nations like the US is doing here, is not the right thing to do. It is based on the idea that economic growth is limited and thus others need to be pushed down in order for one to grow, which I think is the wrong mindset. IMHO this thinking is actually closer to the way socialists think.
As for the reasons why I moved to the US. Well my skillset is in high demand here, more than in Austria. As for socialism. I am not a socialist by any means. In Austria, I am leaning more on the other end of the political spectrum. I am just not keen on the choice of dying or leaving my family or myself in lifelong debt. I DO have a heart condition after all.

Re: Merkel is a traitor

Posted: Fri Oct 26, 2018 6:14 am
by Skipjack
In order to give some context to what I said about US foreign politics regarding Germany and Russia earlier, I highly recommend watching George Friedman's keynote speech at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, the most important US foreign policy think tank.
I think that he is spot on for the most part. This was in 2015 before Brexit and Catalonia and several other incidents that eerily proofed many of the points he makes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeLu_yyz3tc

Re: Merkel is a traitor

Posted: Mon Oct 29, 2018 9:58 pm
by Taliesin
Skipjack,
That was an excellent link. Thank you. Very interesting take on the European Union.

Re: Merkel is a traitor

Posted: Tue Nov 06, 2018 9:51 pm
by Diogenes
Skipjack wrote:
williatw wrote: Yes Skipjack brilliant moves on the part of Donald Trump; certainly consistent with his "America First" agenda. Imagine...a United States President who thinks his highest priority is acting in the best interest of America as opposed to how he "looks on the world's stage" whatever that is supposed to mean. So much for the idea of his (Trump) being Putin's stooge; maybe Putin is rapidly becoming Trump's stooge.
Yes, that still means that Merkel is not acting in the best interest of the people who elected her. That makes her a traitor.

And yet still no mention of how she threw open the borders to that Muslim invasion force.

Could it be she's just a liberal idiot?

Re: Merkel is a traitor

Posted: Tue Nov 06, 2018 9:54 pm
by Diogenes
Skipjack wrote: As for her immigration policies, well that is another topic all together. But it is probably worth mentioning that I believe that this was in the interest of the US as well (weaken Germany).

There it is. :)

Re: Merkel is a traitor

Posted: Tue Nov 06, 2018 9:59 pm
by Diogenes
Skipjack wrote:If it was JUST the immigration policy, then I would say it can be explained with stupidity. If it was JUST the Energiewende, then it can be explained with stupidity. If it was JUST some unfavorable trade agreements, then it could be explained with stupidity. But all of those (and then some)?
Two is a coincidence, three is a pattern.

Stupidity across every front is what I am accustomed to from people who embrace liberal ideas.

I don't find it remarkable or coincidental that she has been stupid across numerous fronts. I've seen it too many times.

Liberals are quite detached from reality. They only know what they hear in their social circles, and most of those people are also insulated from reality.

She's just stupid. It's really that simple.

Re: Merkel is a traitor

Posted: Tue Nov 06, 2018 10:02 pm
by Diogenes
williatw wrote: If you thought Austria (Europe) was such a socialist paradise why did you move here? You sound a bit like Californians who move to say Texas to get away from California's kookiness and then end up complaining about Texas not being more like what you ran away from.

And like as not, they immediately try to ruin their new home with the ideas that horribly destroyed their old home.

It does not occur to many of these people that they are bringing the sickness with them.

Re: Merkel is a traitor

Posted: Wed Nov 07, 2018 7:07 am
by choff
Regarding immigration, I saw one report drug smugglers and money laundering banks make 5 times as much from people smuggling. That would explain why if your from Europe and you object to Macron's plan to bring in 200 million migrants your a racist.

Someone should point the Muslims to people like Dan Gibson, Patricia Crone and Jay Smith. Basically, about 30 years ago western scholars started subjecting Islam to the same scrutiny reserved for Christianity the last 300. In the last ten years the results started coming out. Mohammed died in 632 and came from Mecca according to the official account. There are no written records or maps showing Mecca before at least 741. Massive construction going on in Mecca itself, foundations being dug. Saudi archaeologists admitted to having found no relics or other signs of habitation from before the 8th century in Mecca. Interestingly, for over the first hundred years after Mohammed died, all the mosques built during that time had the foundations and prayer walls pointed at Petra in Jordan. It took another 100 years before all new mosques pointed to Mecca.

The Koran it supposed to be completely unchanged since revealed to Mohammed in a cave by the angel Gabriel. Modern scholars have demonstrated that most of the stories in the Koran are copies of Jewish Heretic, Christian Heretic, Gnostic and Zoroastrian Apocryphal tales written between the 2nd and 6th century AD. There are currently over 30 different Korans being published today. Between them, total textual differences number over 50,000. The earliest copies of the Koran differ greatly from modern versions, the earliest copies are missing chapters and verses. There are write overs, erasures, tape overs. It's a man made mess, no official codex until 1924, not canonized by the Saudi government until 1985.

IMHO, the above information might save a few future tens of millions of lives lost to endless Jihads, wars and terrorism. Hard to be a suicide bomber when your cause is completely debunked. Not bad for a bunch of antiquarians.