I’m old. I’d still hit it, no questions asked.
Ciao Bella ftw.
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From the stuff I’m seeing, his approval numbers among Republicans are rock solid, at their highs.
Unfortunately for midterm projections, his numbers among independents are what’s dropping, by a lot.
In deference to our friend @SepCalla , I remember Victor Davis Hanson being complimentary of Finland’s defense capabilities. And with respect to Finland’s guy at Davos, who probably got bitch slapped by the NATO head guy into toning down his comments.
Grok agrees:
“Finland has a highly capable and respected defense industry”
“Finland’s defense industry emphasizes pragmatic self-reliance, security of supply (ability to maintain/repair equipment even in crisis/war), and high-quality niche products suited to harsh northern conditions (cold weather, terrain, long borders).”
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Weeeeee!
I like this Grok dude. He seems pretty smart.
Well, he is The Son of The Great Elon Musk.
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A brainchild of sorts, huh?
I had to go back and capitalize the son:
To grok something means to understand it so deeply, intuitively, and completely that it becomes part of you — almost as if you merge with it or drink it in. It’s far beyond ordinary intellectual comprehension; it’s empathetic, holistic, emotional, and total identification with the subject.
- “Grok means to understand so thoroughly that the observer becomes a part of the observed — to merge, blend, intermarry, lose identity in group experience.”
- “Grokking” involves drinking in knowledge, feeling it with your whole being, and achieving unity with the thing understood.
True, but don’t confuse independent with moderate. Independents work construction and showed up to vote for the first time when Trump said “build a wall.”
POTUS has a point in this latest example of unpolished, impolite presidential behavior that some of our allies may be unaccustomed to.
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Finland’s program of record calls for 64 F-35As, which will be the largest F-35 fleet in northern Europe. The first aircraft will arrive in the country next year (2026)
Self-reliant indeed
Silly 2jar, haven’t you been paying attention?
Israel’s border is Israel’s border.
Ukraine’s border is Ukraine’s border.
The United States’ border is everyone’s border.
And we buy air defence from Israel.
But it is what it is. I doubt there aren’t many armies who are completely self reliant. Poland has bought a ton of stuff from US too.
Poland has the strongest military in Europe, Finland has also one of the best ones. Only 5 million people and we have 800 000 men reserve with high quality weapons. Baltics are small, but they’re well prepared.
It’s interesting that countries near Russia have not been sloppying on defence.
Surely. I’m not worried about US economy. Never have been.
This is not about being hurt, or blaming US. It’s just that we don’t want to be under anybody’s boot. Arm- and trade deals will still be done. But we don’t want US to dictate terms alone.
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Just dont ever say anything bad about them and you should be fine 
Poland is our little European Texas, and we love them.
Nordic countries get a pass for beautiful blonde women. They have a few uncanny long-range shooters too.
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Finlands probably best Middle East expert did criticize Israel quite harshly. Now he’s out of job…
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Anyone else keyed into this shit?
Exclusively Jewish town in upstate New York (Kiryas Joel) where the average household has 7 children and no one works.
Best comments on the video:
“Why does it feel like everyone besides me is allowed to be a parasite and live off of the money forcibly removed from my paycheck every week”
“I’m literally being ripped off by everyone in this country.”
“Meanwhile if I miss one rent payment I am homeless”
We’re cooked, fam
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Yeah. It’s the typical “pendulum swing”. European countries are still working democracies (not Hungary, fuck Orban), so the system corrects itself.
I doubt any of these European nationalistic movements/parties go full MAGA though. Americans do have a tendency go a bit over the top with everything they do. In most European countries multi party system and different political culture leans more towards compromises. Which means that there will be more nationalism and protectionism (and there kinda is already), but mostly the societies will look the same.
I guess both approaches have their value. More modest European approach, and the “all in” mentality Americans often have. Some things in US are better than in Europe, but other things are so much worse.
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I watched the whole speech this morning and found it to be exactly the kind of words I’d expect to hear from a career banker turned politician who was a close advisor to Justin Trudeau, who governed as a tyrant. Trudeau’s also probably Fidel Castro’s bastard son, which explains why he used such good Canadian manners when explaining to Canadians that they have no right to self-defense with a handgun while importing vast numbers of third world people who do not care about Canadian values.
This style of rhetoric is one of the things Americans have rejected in the last decade. Many of us are done with well-polished words spoken to us while we get plundered and the future earnings of our children are also plundered.
It wasn’t a terrible speech, but it did come across as a passive-aggressive shot at MAGA and Trump, which is to be expected when the USA stops worrying about all of the countries say about us while continuing down the path we rejected. To be a centrist when so much of the world has shifted hard towards the broad ideology of Democratic Socialism as it exists in the USA means that you are still a socialist, just one that doesn’t plunder quite as much as the hardcore communists wish you would.
It’s sort of like the old saying about National Socialists. If you have 10 people sitting at the table with 1 Democratic Socialist, you have 11 socialists.
The rules-based order he’s speaking about was made possible because Americans rejected all of the wild socialist ideas that sophisticated Europeans entertained 100 years ago, both of the national socialist and international socialist variety.
I say that with all of Roosevelt’s socialism taken into account, which didn’t end up being a long-term win for the USA. Part of what MAGA is doing is dismantling the institutional behemoths he began constructing that haven’t succeeded in their mission over the long term. Education and social security are two that come to mind, although we aren’t dismantling social security. Today in Maine, most students cannot read at grade level while our local school budget is now twice the municipal budget. 20 short years ago Maine led the nation in public education and our school budget was roughly equal to the municipal budget and had been for decades prior. Nationwide, our ivy-leaguers are in need of remedial mathematics that I mastered when I was 14 at a tiny rural K-12 public school in the middle of cornfields, with few public resources at our disposal but a very good learning methodology and education priorities.
I could go on and on with examples like this, where we allowed narrow-minded “experts” talk us in to more and more government spending we just didn’t need and turned out to be counter-productive over the long term.
The province Carney was born in, Alberta, has a rapidly growing secession movement fueled by younger people who realize that their futures are being mortgaged to keep Canada’s insufferable woke white women happy. That’s one of the fundamental problems here in N. America. When you make a compromise with narcissistic, neurotic sociopaths who believe they are the hero in their own story, you are still giving into their insane demands. MAGA simply rejects their ideas altogether, which makes the Trudeaus and Carneys of the world a little anxious.
When REAL trouble starts brewing, and it surely will at some point, the world will be glad that the USA had the collective will to tell our version of Mark Carney to go stuff it when we didn’t give Obama his fourth term by electing Commiela Harris and Tim Walz the retard.
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I’m not a surprised Carney being part of the elite, and maybe corrupt in some way. Trump is no different in this regard, although his speeches suck.
My intrepretation about the speech was that west finally learned that US does not seem it’s allies as a team members, but subordinates.
So no political freedom or opposition is allowed? What’s the solution if there can’t be one social democrat in the table? I thought you supported political freedom and the freedom of speech.
No, our first amendment is still very intact. You are free to be as much of a raging communist as you want. In fact, I am glad to see Democrats go all-in on the ideas of Democratic Socialism. At least they are being a little more honest about their ideas instead of pretending to be moderate centrists. NYC will definitely take one for the team while we watch these ideas play out in very predictable ways. Maine and Minnesota took one for the team by showing the world what happens when you leverage the state to import a new voting bloc and turn a blind eye to fraud and corruption in exchange for the political power the new population brings.
The Biden administration also showed us a very clear picture, which was probably necessary for us to reject it in ways that upset our allies.
I’d say your assessment is somewhat correct about American perception of allies, but we still see you as team members the same way that Michael Jordan saw Bill Cartwright, Ron Harper, and Jud Bueschler as teammates. They were really good basketball players, but it was still Jordan’s team.
We could definitely use a Scottie Pippen, which used to be the UK. I’d say that’s probably Japan right now. Canada was our Rodman for a long time, but I’m not sure that’s true anymore, either.