“Raised to think Europeans were our gentler, more civilized partners, they now look like shameless freeloaders who let their bills for daycare and paid vacations be subsidized by middle-American taxpayers, descendants of those poor Okies and hayseeds who died in piles to save Europe from itself generations ago. Kids of my generation were fed a succession of movies from Red Dawn to Russia House to Rocky IV to make sure we stayed focused on the Soviet enemy, but I’m beginning to think the higher purpose of NATO was to keep Europeans from killing one another, a condition they apparently had to be bribed to accept”
I'm not sure. Matt's piece here is a little "hook, line and sinker" for me.
Like I think there's merit to noting that we've subsidized Europe in recent decades, but Matt's tone is like he never thought about it before but now doesn't question or critically evaluate it. We've just been massive suckers.
Being leaders and beneficent has some advantages that we reaped along the way, too, it's not like we were completely unaware that we were doing this. We weren't suckers, we just made choices. Being the clear far and away leader on defense has the advantage, for example, of being the clear far and away leader on defense. That made us the 500 lb gorilla in any room. Inviting anything closer to parity from Europe is cheaper but also may result in less clear control on all issues than we've always had. I don't like that our Neocons have steered where that control took us, but I'm also not sure that the control itself has been a bad thing.
Of course we did. We told Europe and the rest of the world, in our fight against the Soviets we will give you almost unfettered access to our markets and patrol the sea lanes to make sure you can get here. The cost - we get to control your security policy.
It worked. But once the Soviets fell, we didn't declare the game was over. We kept right on doing it - thought we could bribe China to become more like the west. In the process we hollowed out the middle class and sent our manufacturing capacity overseas. That bill has finally come due. Keeping that old post WWII political structure became what we now call the DC swamp. That world is being dismantled. Europe in their present form cannot survive that.
I'm not sure how much control and choice "WE" the People have had over any of the "unwarranted influence" spook landers, criminal finance and the D.C. swamp has exerted over American lives and treasure in the last six decades. Americans didn't vote to gut and decimate our major manufacturing cities, dismantle Glass-Steagall or loot our Republic's treasury in 2008. The Trump/Musk carnival's exposure of the USAID/NGO political remora feeding off American tax treasure and psyoping our national conversation was only a confirmation of what most us have long suspected. "WE" were not the ones who made the decision to gut American institutions, allow our Republic's infrastructure to crumble, rewrite our history and proclaim free citizens potential terrorists "..clinging to their Bibles and their guns.." The European aristocracy deserves a poke in the eye but "WE" the American people should remember that the European people are being stripped of their liberty, property and nationhood. A slow read of the FEDERALIST PAPERS will confirm that our founding
fathers feared and attempted to install in our Constitution a political system that would save us from the blood thirsty machinations and intrigues of European criminal finance. The Biden/Ukraine grift, Soros funded D.A. law fare and Davos John Kerry are pustules on the American soul but the disease began with the alliance of international criminal financiers who gave us the Russian Bolshevik Revolution, WWI, WWII, the Cold War and the countless little "police actions" that have come to define our lives and swallow our labor, treasure and future. "WE" the People can spend a million bucks a class room to educate out children but we can't produce a child who can read. The problem isn't the money, the problem is the money.
Whomever was in charge of the Biden White House and the Harris front intended the same repression for We the People Europeans are now experiencing. Seizure of homes, property and farms by rigged taxation, the destruction of national cultures by forced illegal migration and the ultimate reduction of free peoples to a CCP style techno feudalism. Subscription journalism and our Constitution saved us--for now. Trump is temporary reprieve not salvation. Musk, tech and the Silicon Valley billionaire mafia are not our friends.
Mr. Taibbi was the first to explore and depth report on the '08 Wall Street grift that looted and destroyed our economy. I hope RACKET, Glenn Greenwald, GRAYZONE and every other worthy subscription journalist will dedicate at least one week out of the month to reporting on American and European financial reality. It matters.
Señor Taibbi was the first to expose and explain the '08
One, abandon the field and encourage the Europeans to, for example, defend Ukraine.
Two, LEAD NATO and Europe still but lead them and us collectively to better choices. Like stopping everyone from defending Ukraine so that both of them don't bury themselves together. They are a lot more useful to us when they're not fighting pointlessly with Russia.
I think Trump is saying we will insert ourselves financially into Ukraine to provide a buffer. Europe will need to figure out how they make the money work. Their access to US markets is changing, for better or for worse. There is no appetite in the US to lead anything in Europe, at least not that I can see as a political emphasis. We are going to look inward for a while. The world hasn't seen that for over 80 years.
“No appetite”. Politics in the US are bundles of positions, not isolated positions. Nobody voted for isolationism fully and Ukraine wasn’t all that big on the radar. We voted for lower inflation/better economy and against immigration, with a dash of culture war.
Trump messes up on economic issues and the Dems take the White House in 2028 and then suddenly there’s “no appetite” back the other direction.
Yes, we've been massive suckers, but the real culprit is the defense industrial complex that has been ripping us off since WWII engaging us in war after war after war - non-stop for 70 years. Eisenhower warned us of the danger in 1952. but no one listened.
Bottom line: we didn't need all these frickin' wars and we didn't need all that "defense" and neither did the Europeans. And we still don't.
People continue to site Eisenhower for first warning us by originating a term we now use ubiquitously as the MIC. But he was not the first to do so. Smedly Butler wrote a book 30 years earlier (War is a Racket) telling all who would listen of the real purpose of our military.
August — History has not been kind to Butler. Coming out with his pamphlet just as it was becoming desperately necessary to rearm, to have a chance of stopping Hitler, his babbling about “munitions makers” is laughable.
By contrast, the world’s most famous pacifist, a much smarter man — arguably the smartest man in the world — realized it was time to set pacifism aside: Albert Einstein.
Yeah, stopped Hitler, replaced him with Stalin and bankrupted Europe which at the time was a group of colonial exploiters and occupyers. We are not now and never were the good guys. In the light of the lies we were told about COVID-19 84, we need to reexamine ALL the lies we've been told including WWII.
Yes, and good old Ike was late to his conclusion. Arriving to it after his administration made it possible. Better late than not though advice ignored since.
wrknight — You’re thinking of Ike’s Farewell Address in 1961.
In the end, of course, our military-industrial complex, with all its flaws, was still better than their military-industrial complex, so Ronald Reagan won the Cold War. Trying to undo the collapse of the USSR is what Putin is about in Ukraine.
Trying to keep Nato missiles off his borders seems closer to the truth to me. We would probably have a similar reaction if China put missiles in Mexico. Remember the Cuban missile crisis?
uselesseater — If Putin’s issue is NATO on his border, why did he publish an essay arguing Ukraine doesn’t exist, and that those old softies, Lenin and Stalin, shouldn’t have recognized its existence (by giving it its own Soviet Socialist Republic), a few months before he launched his blitzkrieg.
If Putin’s issue is NATO on his border, why isn’t he attacking Finland, which didn’t just talk about joining someday, like Ukraine did, put actually joined, together with Sweden, shortly after he started the war.
NATO isn’t a threat to Russia: Russia is a threat to NATO. Finland and Sweden didn’t give up 75 years of neutrality because they want to attack Russia. They did it because they don’t want Russia to attack them.
Reagan didn't win the Cold War. The USSR didn't collapse. Its people chose leaders who admired and sought partnership with the West. Men like Gorbachav (and Putin) dismantled the Soviet bloc, with the understanding that the West would become a partner and mentor. Instead we unleashed our greed industrial complex on Russia. Putin was forced to change course, as his people were starving in the streets. He successfully clawed back their assets, established good trade ties with Europe. and provoked US to blow up the Nordstream pipeline and start a war. Trying to protect his people is STILL a full-time job for Putin, as the neocons never give up their dream of global hegemony. They deliberately provoked a confrontation through "NATO expansion," using Ukraine as our pawn in this deadly game, to weaken Russia and cause its people to oust their leader. Our failure to understand why Russians support their leader is astonishing to me, but such is like when all that matters is money and power.
Bonnie — “provoked US to blow up the Nordstream pipeline and start a war”. You have the sequence of events backwards. 1. Trump bans the Nordstream 2 pipeline, which would have let Russia send fossil fuels to Germany without paying Ukraine billions of rubles in transit fees every year. 2. Biden cancels Trump’s ban, possibly not understanding the strategic implications. 3. Putin interprets the reopening of the pipeline as showing Biden favors Russia over Ukraine. 4. Adding that to the weakness shown in Biden’s Afghanistan fiasco, Putin orders the invasion of Ukraine. 5. Some time after the beginning of the war, the pipeline is blown up. (N.B.: It’s in rowboat distance of the Polish coast. Just sayin’!)
In other words, it was Western pandering to Russia, not Western “aggression”, that emboldened Putin to start the war. (About NATO, see remarks to uselesseater, below.)
“The USSR didn't collapse. Its people chose leaders who admired and sought partnership with the West.” Are you joking? People in the USSR didn’t get to choose their leaders: Gorbachev was elected by the Politburo, not the people. He was trying to strengthen the Soviet Union, not “dismantle” it.
He didn’t realize that the only thing holding together the Soviet Bloc was the threat of Russian tanks. When he hesitated to go full Stalin on them, all the Captive Nations, especially Ukraine, bolted for the exits. (Ukrainians were especially bitter about tens of thousands of children exposed to radiation when the Soviet Union covered up the Chernobyl disaster.)
And Reagan's military build up had nothing to do with it?
I'm not sure how much input the people of the USSR actually had in choosing their leaders, either.
Putin ". . . provoked US to blow up the Nordstream pipeline and start a war." I am not seeing the logic here. How would provoking a war protect Russian people?
As an example, if you spent any time in Europe in 2003 you could palpably feel the hatred of Americans everywhere. I personally marched against the Iraq war, so don't think I support it. But in 2003 when everyone except the UK, Denmark and Poland said "hey we don't like that you're going to invade Iraq", we could pat them on the back and say "thanks for your thoughts on this, lil' buddy".
Are we inviting a future where they instead glare at us across the table and say "No, now this is OUR hemisphere and we REALLY don't like that you're thinking about doing that".
Don't conflate the wisdom of invading with the abstract point that once you allow divergent muscle power and conventional wisdom, you won't simply do as you please any more.
We don't care about Europe, and they won't be sitting at any table across from us. Their population is in freefall, their economies, if they are going to really try to rearm, will become even more stagnant than they already are unless all the free stuff starts disappearing. If they are to at some point to become our equal, they have a ton of really hard decisions to make. Their decisions are hard even if they don't catch us.
The US will be the center of the only real vibrant economic center in the world for the next 20-30 years, a center that at the moment doesn't have a single European member. It's all about demographics and the economic strength we already possess.
I don't care about the Ukraine, because its economy is a raw materials and agriculture economy that I can buy the proceeds of no matter who is grifting off the top of that. Their GDP per cap is 1/16 of USA.
But I very much care about Poland, Germany, Switzerland, certain parts of Sweden, Northern Italy, amazing economic centers that we should do everything in our power to be in lockstep with and encourage the continued blossoming of. Germany is getting the entrepreneurial and venture risk-taking bug and could do great in the future if they can shed the shackles of the Euro and Russian energy dependence.
I have stated many times in recent weeks in comparing the US economy to Russia (an increasingly irrelevant country) and Ukraine (an already irrelevant one) that we're also lapping Europe. By US GDP per cap we are destroying Europe - for example French GDP per cap was 80% of the US in 2004 and now it's 55%. But total GDP of Europe is still about the same magnitude as the US, and several countries there have their act together and are directly competitive even with our economy. Ireland and Switzerland are outpacing us by 10%, and several smaller countries are keeping pace. Or, put another way, they pull their weight. So we want them in our corner to maximize our combined mass.
Actually, I believe we were somewhat similar at the turn of the century - we have leapt ahead of them. I pulled a GDP comparison for 2024 that showed the EU at around $16T and the US at $26T. You may find individual countries showing some strength, but the Swiss haven't seen a risk they don't try to make go away and Ireland survived on the US driving business away from the US. The trading block as a whole is no longer our equal. And the tariffs which protected their economies from US products, are now going to be met.
I've visited Europe; and even had a job that took me there often and have enjoyed my time there. But even then, in speaking with well educated people, they didn't understand what the US was all about, and the real underlying strength that allowed all the nice things in Europe to exist. Trump is the first true realist president we have had since Reagan. Europe is about to see what that means.
The UK has an opportunity to get into the US circle, which would probably help the Nordic countries as well. But to do so they will have to accept that America will expect reciprocal access.
The rest of Europe does not have an immediate opportunity to get that close. Of course, things can change, events unforeseen can change trajectories that appear locked in stone.
How exactly is Russian energy a shackle? It's cheap. And them paying for us natural gas costs way way more money which has forced Germany to deindustrialize.
GDP is a very misleading number. A more important figure is GDP per capita. Also important is how GDP is distributed. In the U.S., GDP is skewed toward the top 1% far more than any European country. A large GDP doesn't make a country wealthy if all of that GDP is owned by 1% of the population. It will, however, give that country a greater ability to wage war.
Foreign capital inputs are falling. They are sitting on a financial bubble (mostly real estate) that would make the US mortgage derivative recession of 07-09. They are the fastest aging country on the planet and are in a 40 year window where their population will halve.
No one believes their GDP figures, most would suggest they have been overestimated by approximately 30% for the last 20-25 years. They are losing access to high end chips, which means most of their economy's strength is in lower level value things. EVs are dying, there is no western market for them. They import 70-80% of their energy needs and the same for food or food inputs to grow their own.
Infrastructure is always a very interesting topic. They do have a lot of bright shiny things, and they have a substantial physical manufacturing plant installed. But if they are such a dynamic economy why is their youth unemployment rate so high now, compared to the past, when they are retiring workers in great numbers?
Interesting you should bring up the point of population freefall. If not for immigration, the U.S. population would be in freefall as well. Even worse for the white, male supremacists, the fertility rate among white women is 1.8 (2.1 is required to sustain the population). Actually, the white, non-hispanic, population is in freefall world wide except for parts of the Middle East.
Given Trump's penchant for deporting immigrants and the falling fertility rate, the U.S. population is likely to go into freefall. With an aging population and a declining workforce, the country will go bankrupt. Add to that, Trump's tariffs and economic policies are likely to put the economy in freefall as well. The only people left who will want to emigrate to the U.S. are those who are absolutely desperate.
The U.S. war on drugs is one of the main reasons we have as many immigrants as we presently have. Maybe if we start wars in more countries, it will make more people desperate enough to want to emigrate to the U.S.
Yes, the US fertility rate is not at all healthy. It is the healthiest among “white” developed countries, except perhaps Israel. The huge number of immigrants has maintained our population growth. The world in general is shrinking. We just will be shrinking slower than most, which provides us with certain advantages. The more interesting long term question is this: given this shrinking population, the government sponsored welfare state is unsustainable - Germany will be the first European welfare state to face total bankruptcy if they don’t make changes soon. More will follow them. Our entire governmental and economic assumptions are based upon an ever increasing population. That is gone. China is in the process of disappearing. Even India’s growth is rapidly slowing and is estimated by the 2040s will be older than the US.
Yes, we really reaped the benefits of being the 500lb gorilla when it came time to invade Iraq. Those were great times indeed. We will surely miss those halcyon days.
Don't conflate the wisdom of invading with the abstract point that once you allow divergent muscle power and conventional wisdom, you won't simply do as you please any more.
There is no guarantee they agree with us about the next terror camp we want to destroy anywhere... or let us use their air bases, etc.
I expect they perceive themselves as vulnerable to terror as we do, esp of the home-grown kind. If they deny us use of their air bases it will change the Western world order. For all the sniping and nit-picking the details, both our continents are Western liberal democracies. As long as that holds, we have more in common than we don’t
We can worry about that after they have invested here to avoid tariffs. Maybe long- term they can generate their own demand, but in the meantime, who else will buy European goods? China?🤣
I can't speak for 2003 but the last three times we were in Europe, between 2013 and 2021, where we spent time in Spain, Italy, France, Austria, Switzerland, Portugal, Belgium, Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Poland, Austria, Czecia, UK and Ireland, we never experienced any hatred from anyone. The people there were like most people here in America - friendly and hospitable. One thing we all shared in common was a universal contempt for politicians. I suspect that's still the case.
By specifying the year I meant to indicate that it was a transitory phenomenon related to the Iraq war, specifically the US invasion of Iraq. Ten years later it was not a thing, that is correct.
The world would have been better off had the United States not invaded Iraq. USA included. Is it better for the United States to live in a multipolar world? Maybe 30 years ago the answer was clearly no. But the corruption has gotten so bad that most of the public feels US foreign policy does not benefit them.
That may be very nice for the political elites who style themselves the "500 lb gorilla in the room", but as the taxpayer who foots the bill, gets zero power, and also gets the "benefits" of my job being shipped overseas and being insulted when I'm upset by this... what exactly am I getting out of this deal?
I don't want to be rude, but my reaction to your argument, as to the elites, is somewhere along the lines of flashing a finger located somewhere in the middle of my hand.
If empire was so good for the imperial core, they wouldn't need to argue with increasing panic with us about how great it actually is. It turns out, it sucks for most everyone at home. My attitude towards government bureaucrats complaining about being ousted is similar. If the government had done a good job of servicing its citizens needs, they wouldn't need to worry about Elon Musk's chainsaw. So they should really be directing their complaints at themselves; it is their own arrogance and lack of care towards the people they are meant to help that led all of this. They are staring the consequences of their own actions in the face. The same with the possible collapse of American support for European largesse. I'm not optimistic it will actually happen because of the amount of corrupt, anti-democratic dealing that goes on to keep the system in place, but it does happen, it will be the direct consequence of what has gone on before.
Maybe take a second and explain what job losses have to do with military domination. Separate choices.
then realize you're arguing with someone else, who might have written "It is undoubtedly a good thing for the US to be the 500-lb gorilla".
What I wrote, in contrast is "Taibbi talks like we were suckers in this scenario when we chose the path because there are pros to it. It's not all cons."
If you never want to project power, even when it's projected at you, fine. Maybe Flight 93 didn't upset you and make you want to strike back to remove the ability to train for those kinds of attacks on the US. If so, then having forward bases like our air bases in Germany is not needed.
I'm not even taking a side as to which should have carried the day in US decision-making, those pros or the cons. I see little point in debating it because we can't change the past. Instead, I'm simply a canary in a coal mine that this Taibbi op-ed smells of kool aid. It reeks of the air of a new convert who really really professes his faith in an emotional way, without the balance of the other perspective. I prefer clear, rational, thought to that.
They are all part of the same strategy. If I have to explain this to you, you have a lot of reading up to do. Nixon's subsidizing of China's economy was intended as a geopolitical strategy, not charity. It was directly correlated to military concerns.
Pacificus - "it's time we took a chance that Europe can responsibly defend itself" has been here and should have been acted upon ever since the implosion of the USSR in 1990.
Just like all the bloated, corrupt US agencies, NGOs, Europe/NATO needs to take a haircut. We can be a NATO supporter at a far lower level, decide Ukraine is not a bill to die on for us. We need to pare over a Trillion dollars from the budget and stimulate the economy. The way it’s looking DOGE/Trump/cabinet secretaries should be able to do this. Who knows, the Europeans may be forced to become capitalists and forego the socialism to pay their bills!
I'm sure that it has crossed his mind before. It has been alluded to and mentioned in Matt's writings here on Substack for years. I think, though, that it has only been in the last few weeks that the scale of it all, and the underhandedness, the back-handedness and the sleight-of-handedness of the whole thing has become apparent. And that is thanks to Trump and Musk!
You're suggesting there were advantages to having a relatively poorer citizenry because you could rule the world. You need consent from the rubes being ripped off for that
How about rattling off all of these benefits we have gotten for being europes bitch. So, we get to do what, exactly besides being thr 600 pound gorilla in the room?
We got to invade a some countries that most people in the USA couldn't find on a map, and enrich a bunch of shareholders and globalist elites you don't know and who don't care about you. In return the USA got 36 trillion in debt. Great deal, wasn't it?
The question that nobody seems to have asked is, who was the 600lb gorilla working for? Follow the money.
Oh, we (USA) might need them _now_. The point of the earlier arrangement was "Russia out, US in, Germany (i.e. Europe) down." One thing unleashed Europe can do is start wars, just like other big countries -- wars that may not only be uninspired by the US, but possibly very inconvenient for it. In fact, some of that has already happened, such as the unpleasant business in what was once Yugoslavia not so long ago. There was some value in keeping Europe quiet, as the first half of the 20th century could tell you. But certainly could not tell the head buffoon in charge, or his assistant monkeys.
Yes, the last 8 decades in fact. How many allies paid off WWII loans and Marshall Plan debt? The UK. And that ended in the last twenty years.
“… Being leaders and beneficent has some advantages that we reaped along the way, too…”
It has. Being the gorilla maybe the most. But europe stepping up won’t likely change that status. They lack meaningful preparedness, leadership, equipment, etc. They can buy lots of guns, weapons platforms, etc but I do not know how much we can trust them to use those things properly much less rely on them if we actually need to fight.
Did foreign policy stop Obamacare or leave you ineligible somehow? I think Matt's bar chart proved the opposite of his point by showing European social spending at 20% of GDP is not at all an actual direct tradeoff of 3-4% defense spending. It clearly is a separate choice given the 6x magnitude of the dollars involved.
I felt a little intertextual chuckle impulse, like Matt was less saying, “If it wasn’t for us you’d all be speaking German,” and more snickering at the “If someone else doesn’t pay for this, I guess we’ll have to do it,” obviousness of the European response. Faux naïf isn’t his usual authorial voice but here it’s warranted.
LG&M - Europe's world keeps getting tighter culturally, economically, and technologically such that a shooting war as you envision becomes less likely all the time.
The scheming, plotting, and manoeuvring for this or that advantage will continue unabated but not to the point of lethal armed conflict since too many have too much to lose for so little or nothing to gain.
I hope you're right. But once Germany starts the military buildup, and crows about wanting to lead Europe, many, many people get very, very nervous. With good fucking reason.
Given the historical precedents, I'll certainly grant you the validity of such nervousness. However, it might become moot; the buildup might never become a reality. I'll believe it when the 800 billion Euros proposed are actually authorized, then procured, and then effectively and rapidly tuned into weapons and the soldiers to utilize them.
Then there is the motivation, quality, and effectiveness of the soldiers themselves. A recent poll of young Britons revealed that only 11% of them were willing to fight for their country. There is little reason to believe
such an attitude is any different throughout the rest of Europe, including German young people.
Agreed. This needs to be shared and translated for Charlie Hebdo and Der Speigel readers. And I'll need more popcorn translating the comments section after those articles publish.
03/19/25: Having just read the first three chapters of a book written by an advanced-degree psychiatrist whose prose turns into semi-legible cement, it is a joy to be cured by reading the above. Thank you.
Another unintended consequence with “TheDon’s” re-election. All a bunch of faker-clowns! I don’t think the American courts can help them here …but stay tuned!
I don’t know, I’m sure there is a federal district court justice in Maine (closest to Europe) who will decree that the Trump Administration must pay at least $500B to keep Europeans in the comfort they’ve become accustomed to, as like all non US citizens, they are entitled to a mountain of benefits from the actual resident citizen taxpayers of America. Like, duh.
03/19/25: With the direction Maine has gone (right into the repeatedly used / unflushed toilet), that judge will extend the payments to both Europeans AND the Russians; in addition to which there will be a 10% service charge added, the proceeds of which will go to Iran and Hamas.
03/20/25: The fellow I had read (attempted to read) is Thomas Pappas ("Trump Derangement Syndrome," self-published, 2024). Honorable man. Terrible writer (for whom a competent editor could work wonders).
I read “The death of Psychiatry “ after seeing one for 20 years (he retired). The book was written in ‘72 published 2 years later from memory. It outlines how insanity defenses were invented in Ca and stated that there was never a medical reason for an abortion. Sigmund Freud was not comfortable with its classification
03/20/25: My last assignment was in 1994; since then, I've been on the loose. And if it weren't for the Japanese, perhaps I'd still be doing what people were telling me to do in exchange for a paycheck. All Hail Nippon!
Superb writing Matt! Wow, what an essay. The shoe I’m waiting to see drop is a small one, and that’s NPR and PBS being cut off from their government funded sugar high.
Or was the purpose of NATO always to keep the gravy train going for the military-industrial complex at home and allow the Europeans to have luxury vacays? It seems like both.
I thought the same thing! Especially the first sentence. I was at a funeral for my aunt today, who was 90, and she and my mom and siblings immigrated from Europe in the 50s because they wanted opportunity and self reliance and not nanny state nitwits. They never looked back.
Pretty much sums up our relationship with Europe. All this time, I didn’t have the foresight to realize we truly have helped them fund their pleasant lifestyle. What a dumb shit I have been. Oh well, back to work….
The irony here is that my grandfather faught literal Nazi's in World War II alongside Russians. People forget that the Soviet Union were our allies in that war.
Glad Matt is ragging on these countries. I too, thought they were so "advanced" and we were savages. If we are so uncouth, then they won't miss our filthy lucre, will they? :)
Between the UK grooming gangs coverup, their attacks on free speech, the covid intelligence they failed to share, and their demands for access to all our data.....at some point we have to wonder if we still want to be "special" friends instead of just normal friends, right?
Bankrolling their lifestyles didn't make them love us any more........
I think the Euro governments see us as 'friends with benefits' and they're now being told they're getting a relationship downgrade. Can't wait for them to try online dating!!
Not only pay for their own stuff--like the military--there's all those "diversity imports" that are sucking at the government tit and turning major cities into third-world poverty pockets.
Meanwhile, Americans are getting over viewing Europe as one giant theme park of castles and canals. Maybe the English and the French countryside. But stay the hell out of Paris, London, and above all Amsterdam!
This comes very close to being relevant. Your leaders have been taking dumps on your doorsteps for a very long time and when they ring the bell to ask for toilet paper you ask them if they'd like a blowjob with that.
Nothing better than a self appointed expert on all things that relate to American/european relations. I’m sure Europe is brimming with guys like this. Go back on vacation, dick head
Actually they resent us and turn their noses up. Like a petulant child, they throw a temper tantrum and demand we give them more. And many of our citizenry protest that we feel disrespected.
Yes, this. But I think just the leadership and “ upper classes.” Normal everyday Europeans are nice & like Americans. Likely bc they see through the EU BS & we buy stuff.
Wait a minute. You're saying we have zero contact with reality? And the reason for this is that we're stuffed with ideological flatulence? Are you absolutely certain about this? Because if this is true, I think we all are in need of some serious lifestyle changes. Thanks.
This translates to individual relations. Habitual freeloaders resent those they successfully put the touch on. I'm not sure how this works psychologically. Probably something like, "If this sucker is stupid enough to keep lending me money he knows I won't pay back, I'm going to keep hitting him up. This dumbass deserves to be taken."
I'm not a Trumpist by any means but it's really starting to look like the Orange One sort of gradually accidentally bulled, bullied and bullshitted himself into becoming the leader of the first global Peasants' Rebellion in history (to get as breathy as The Atlantic, if that's possible).
We're only 2 months out from "Inauguration 2: This Time He Means Business" and what a nest of incestuous corruption Donnie and his band of rebels have already revealed and attacked: the Dems and their network of NGOs, where their connected kids and friends get lucrative sinecures while getting to play "activist"; the universities and their endless slush funds, which keep them from having to dip into their enormous endowments; the US Govt subsidizing everything from global media orgs to astroturf resistance groups to paying to import then house and provide lawyers and docs to millions of "migrants", and then of course the racket that is our "security" arrangements, where the checks go from the Treasury and back to the politicians and their donors.
Donnie has become Hercules, cutting the heads off of the Hydra, which is why we're hearing such high-pitched screeching, on his way to cleaning out the Augean Stables.
And to think, this all started when Obama insulted him around 15 years ago at the WH Correspondents Dinner. Obama humiliated Trump on live TV and thought that the global machine he helmed could easily steamroll this ridiculous buffoon.
Despite the fact that Michelle Obama is now podcasting on how we need to cope, don't for a minute think they aren't working hard to pull the strings. This multi-district lawfare has Obama's and Holder's fingerprints all over it.
This last election is a total repudiation of their way of thinking. The only thing they have left is financing Angry Organizing for America. And we reject that.
Watching that splashdown last evening was just beautiful. We want that. Not burning Teslas. Dems are being pretty stupid.
Last night Gutfeld! did a story on this which was funny. Not only did the car cam capture the vandals facial images; they also don’t have the ninja stealthy wardrobe thing going on. One guy was wearing Lilo & Stitch pajama pants and the other guy had on orange pants with a black vest.
Although the best is in the New York Post today. Car cam video of guy on an ATV ramming into the Tesla in the China Buffet parking lot. The alleged perp was apprehended. He allegedly gave the police a false name. Our suspect reportedly is 5’2” and 449 lb.
These three examples were (allegedly) committed in broad daylight. People really believe there are no consequences for their tantrums. Why else . . .
Trump has managed to lift the shit off of the sleeping mushrooms in this country and bear us to the sun. It's a dirty job but It needed to happen. Thanks given! There is no unseeing the vast corruption that was being hidden from US citizens.
How could anyone know the size of something that was admittedly obscured? There is no telling how long it's been going on. I do find it amazing that they hid it under the guise of fake caring, climate initiatives and DEI. They practically told us where to look by shoving it down our throats. The whole DEI thing has always bewildered me. They like to make everything about race, gender and even religion when really it's always about income inequality which isn't even included in their phony DEI bullshit. It takes a certain kind of desensitized cruelty to hide your thievery among feeding the hungry and making everyone feel ashamed because some dude was feeling bad about being born with a weenie he didn't want. Like that was even on the same level as hungry children anyway. Then there is the climate stuff that people want but were exploited for . I'm relieved they are gone. I hope they aren't invited back.
It's been going on since humans first walked the earth and someone decided he/she had to be in charge. Be it presidents, prime ministers, kings, emperors, tribal chiefs or high muckymuks of any kind, corruption and exploitation have always been tools of their trade.
I too, am glad they are gone; but sadly, those who have replaced them are no better - they are just more blatant about it.
That remains to be seen. What is abundantly clear is the Democrats must never be put back in power. They have been completely exposed as undemocratic since at least 2016 and anytime anyone pointed out their corruption they doubled down with attitude and bad behavior. Remember when Bernie was going to "fix the party from within? " The last Presidential candidate that party actually allowed the people to choose was Obama. That was almost 20 years ago. The Democrats only got worse and their shenanigans more undemocratic to the point of wanting to end the first amendment because it was in the way of their "consensus". Remember the Iowa Caucus where for the first time in decades the newspaper poll wasn't published and when they put in a new system and Mayo Pete announced he had won but results didn't come for months later ( they completely skipped Iowa the next primary after decades of it being first.) but somehow an obvious senile guy who no one was going to see on the campaign trail (he couldn't fill high school auditoriums) and he was in like fifth place but miraculously now was in first place and was there a recount involved or something weird at that time? I wasn't born yesterday to believe such bullshit. Look at how the donors replaced Joe because he was going to lose, kept his war chest, gave it to Kamala, who like magic was then the nominee without a vote from anyone and everyone was told that it was legal under some corporate charter rule (because elections are now based on Democratic Party corporate charter rules.) Now with Democrats screaming about constitutional crisis after all of that and years of their propaganda and gaslighting abuse, the hollowness couldn't be any more clear. They can never be put in charge again. They do not respect the democratic process in this country. Seriously, preemptive, blanket pardons for people who used lawfare to kick someone beating them off the ballots? There is no going back. You do not take your abusers back even if they come bearing flowers and candy and promise never to hit you again. Even if they go to anger management or therapy.
Ahh, Clever, welcome to the fold. I’ve always liked your perspective and comments except the part where you define yourself as “I’m no Trumpist.” You just weren’t there yet, in that you didn’t see it yet. Trump has always been about “the people,” but they stained him mightily in 1st term & 20-24. Now they get their just desserts. You don’t have to be a “ Trumpist” (I emphatically am if that means I think he’s the best president in at least 50 years) to see what he’s accomplishing in a short period. And biggie-big-time Obama set this off in 2015. I wonder if he looks back on that as his biggest among many failures. He & all the other Dem politicians are being crushed in a tight vise from which there’s likely no return.
I don't love the Don, but I don't hate him either.
I understand why people support him (much of my family does) and I certainly cheer for him when he guts some bureaucrats, mocks some sanctimonious journalists and sends the SJW Thought Police scurrying like roaches...
I worked at a Trump property in NYC in the 80s, so I have some personal reasons why I could never vote for or actively support him, but as you can see, I do get him and enjoy watching him play Groucho to the liberal Margaret Dumonts.
Love or hate him or otherwise, there's no denying that the man is hilarious. He reminds me of that other famous Don, Rickles, who was also a killer insult comic.
I hadn’t thought of Don Rickles, but there’s definitely a comparison there!! I think the difference this time is after the intense lawfare and then the double attempted assassinations, I think his mind focused and by a large margin. As did other people, maybe like you, who were sort of on the margins. And now his team is fierce and I freaking love it. I probably am so certain about him because my sister is a hard-core dumbass leftist, wrong about everything, like all the climate/gender/DEI/ESG/social justice Warriors (warriors=losers). One of the wailers now. So I feel like it’s also just desserts for me.
I think Trump was focused well before that time. He got there in Jan of 2017 with a rosy view of government and how he would make it work. He discovered the reality was much different. When they stole the 2020 election I think he went to work surrounding himself with people he could trust to wargame out so to speak what he would do next time to really drain the swamp. The democrats then did the silliest of things by making Trump a sympathetic character with the lawfare and eventually two assassination attempts.
We now know why they feared him so much, as Clever so eloquently summarized up above. I remind people who think Trump is dumb or a goofball to be very careful making flippant assessments of your adversaries' capabilities.
He is most certainly not dumb, and in the space of two months has pretty much forced the democrats to take the 20/30 position on every 80/20 issue in the country.
YES JIM, yes to all. I always wonder why they think Trump could possibly be dumb when he constantly outfoxes all of them & they just keep losing & looking stupid. I guess they were lulled into a cozy cocoon when they had "Biden" in office & an outrageous censorship regime + corrupt media + a massive NGO cabal funding every globalist/leftist cause of the moment. Ahh, the reckoning is sweet!
Clever Pseudonym - Wow! You absolutely nailed it, and in such an expressive and arresting manner too. This equals Matt at his best. Hands down winner for a Taibbi(better than a Pulitzer)Prize.
Bear with me here, from a vedantic perspective this is a dark age we are in and the only solution one has is to pit darkness against darknes to try and alchemize some light.
To this effect we have: Trump's wounded ego versus the Huberis of the deep state and now NATO. Trump's ignorance of the system versus, "everything is so rotten that if you poke it or turn anything over by just being curious or even uncareful you automaticall send rats fleeing and alow sunlight to start disinfecting things." Trump's vindictiveness against systems of power that attempt to silence people it doesn't like such as him. Trump's "this isn't my club so I am not paying the dues or respecting the bylaws and traditions", to endless shady systems and schemes globally that apparently all relied a great deal on compliance from American presidents. Trump stocking some "creatures" for his perferd "swamp" that replace alternately aligned swamp creatures from a different type of swamp and also fight the rest giving the peasants a rare taste of "divide and conquor" in their favor. Etc...
Trump is alchemizing light by pitting his darkness against greater darkness.
It was pretty funny at the time, as Donnie is such a flaming rectum who loves dishing it out but can't take it. Who knew he would transform into Orange Julius?
100% CORRECT. Europe is the older brother who is a career "student" who lectures you at the Thanksgiving dinner table about the evils of capitalism, all the while he's being supported by your parents, while you are out busting your ass.
The option to grow the economy to pay for a military buildup is not even considered.
Europe is poor and its economies have stagnated. The per capita GDP of Britain is less than Mississippi.
They can’t afford a military buildup. The pledged 800 billion Euros is overstated. It’ll be a quarter of that and will take some creative accounting to get there.
I didn't believe your claim that British GDP/ capita is less than that of Mississippi, our poorest state. But I checked and it appears to be. Crazy! I had no idea.
No, he's right. Europe is in big trouble. The EU is essentially broke, really really really broke. So be it, they did it to themselves. I'm just glad we're turning off the spigot.
Now which one first succumbs to Islamic governance? Thats the really interesting question, and also when things get really really really really interesting!
I foresee something akin to all those movies that depict the squabbling amongst the offspring, after the well to do family patriarch dies and leaves them nothing in the will.
They have spent the last 5 decades decrying the capitalism that the US used to fund their lesiure. Now they don't have a system that will let them grow and they don't know how economic growth happens. Since they aren't having children either, their problems will soon enough be solved.
I think it is possible that in 20 years the US, Russia, China, and maybe a few other BRIC countries will be allies fighting the Caliphate, which will by then include Europe, if not Canada, and Mexico.
Its possible. I don't think Mexico would be in that mix though. They are still a devout Judaeo Christian country. Canada might be a toss up. But times are going to get interesting for sure.
Everybody goes off on Trump. But that conversation in Mar a Lago went down when Trump said he's going to cut off the tariff imbalance which subsidizes Canada to the tune of about $5k per citizen. Trudeau said "Canada will cease to exist as a country." To which Trump replied "Then Canada can become a state and you can be it's governor." But somehow Trump is the villain here.
As Eugyppius pointed out, big portions of the "military spending" buildup in Germany will go to Green party perogatives that have zero relationship to anything resembling actual defense spending. For Germany, it's all about nomenclature over substance.
Not just stagnated - - What could you call Germany's premature retirement of perfectly functional nuclear plants, and the other parts of their Energiewende, other than self-sabotage?
These groups are self-driven but have always been helped along by Russia funding. Increasing dependence on Russia gas has been a Kremlin goal and they spent heavily, including buying Gerhard Schroeder as a lobbyist for 20 years.
And, truth be told, why the hell do they need a military buildup? If they (along with us sadly) just stopped killing people all over the place for the MIC war pigs, then we could all have a military sized for common sense defense.
exactly and that is what the people in each of their countries will realise eventually and maybe be able to get their respective governments in place to achieve that
"The option to grow the economy to pay for a military buildup is not even considered."
Another thing Europe is going to have to give up is some of its luxury economic beliefs.
The EU economy has stagnated for the last twenty years, due to overregulation and in particular for the concept of energy "Net Zero", which provides no economic benefit to Europe, but allowed Europe's elites to feel superior to everyone else.
That may prove to be too expensive if they have to pay for a vastly expanded military.
How did Europe become broke, if you happen to know? It can't be only spending on social programs, because that money came primarily from not spending on large militaries. Is business down that much in Europe?
They have for the most part become 100% energy dependent, with the exception of France. Germany's economy was the engine, and then Merkel said go green, turn off all coal, nuclear, and anything else thats not green. But the industrial base needs affordable energy, had it to a degree with cheap Russian gas, but no more. Western Europe has sent more money to Russia for energy than they've provided Ukraine. They talk help Ukraine, send them some money and weapons, but fund the war machine bent on destroying it. Then want us to bail their asses out and protect them at the same time. Nope. No more.
Well, could paying for housing, food, health care, phones for all the illegal immigrants have contributed to this? Like in Illinois, our governor is cutting off free healthcare for 50,000 illegal immigrants because, frankly, we do not have the money. When will these politicians see that frankly, my dear, we do not have the money!
Can count on one hand the # of new large EU businesses in last 20 years. Those that come to mind are ASML, Spotify, ASOS and mRNA vaccine producer, Biontech. The only one valuable to the entire world is ASML (computer chip machine maker)
If you believe Peter Zeihan, it's all due to population collapse. I'm not saying he's 100% right, but it does explain Europe's desperate move to open the immigration gates. They don't have enough Europeans to prop up their welfare state. Trump pulling our support simply accelerated Europe's speeding around a sharp turn and careening off a cliff.
Could you elaborate on your Britain/Mississippi numbers? Perplexity sez:
Mississippi
• Total GDP: Mississippi’s GDP is approximately $146 billion, comparable to the economy of Morocco.
• GDP per Capita: In Q3 2024, Mississippi’s GDP per capita was $53,872 (€49,780), which is higher than most European countries except Germany and a few others.
England (as part of the UK)
• Total GDP: The UK’s total GDP in 2024 was estimated at around $3.7 trillion, with England contributing the majority due to its size and economic activity.
• GDP per Capita: The UK’s GDP per capita in 2024 was approximately $51,000 (€48,441), slightly lower than Mississippi’s.
We are lapping Europe due to our risk taking culture, ability to attract best talent via brain drain, and the venture capital model.
In 2004 France's GDP Per cap was 80% of USA. Today it's 55%. That 25% drop is about median for European countries. Tax havens like Ireland and Switzerland are keeping pace. Others are falling behind drastically. Turns out that the famed American work ethic actually yields direct economic advantage. Who knew that working hard could yield more?
I worked for a time as a preservation archaeologist at Mesa Verde National Park - the pueblos deteriorate, we fixed them. One day in 2012 we went to a presentation by a visiting Italian preservation archaeologist about the work he’d been doing on a Roman villa in Sicily. The extent and cost of the work he presented was, to our constantly cash-strapped eyes, incredible.
I left thinking how in hell does Italy, then counted among the PIGS (Portugal, Italy, Greece, Spain) - the economies so underwater that they threatened to crash the Euro - have the money to do all this elaborate preservation work on some random Roman site in Sicily, and we don’t have a pot to piss in?!
Then I remembered, we’d been bankrolling their defense for 70 years.
Again…i know this i s futile, but reign and rein are two different words…there is no “k” sound in etcetera…it’s is not possessive (i have some sympathy for this one)…and thanks for your post!
Elected officials and family member inside Non-Profits and NGO's. Did anyone ever wonder why spouses of Gov't officials(and Democrats, Media) have different last names? Harder to trace affiliations to grifting our tax $
We have people sleeping under every bridge in America, a rampant drug epidemic that is only subsiding a bit now because the forest fire of fentanyl is running out of trees to burn, and out of control living costs because NIMBYs refuse to allow new housing. We somehow don't have the money to fix any of these issues, however we need to protect Israel and Europe for the rest of time because why? So THEY can enjoy free everything? Fuck that.
With respect, I suggest the American ills you listed are because of the same sorts of delusional policies that screwed up Europe. I agree that we need to keep more dollars at home, but we also need to have some rational sense.
We have been shedding blood (350-400k dead in WWI and WWII) and money for Europe for more than 100 years and guaranteeing its security for the last 80. The Cold War has been over for 35. People like "Herr" Starmer and the WEF people with German accents want to get rid of our free speech. For the life of me, I do not know why Ukraine is our problem other than DC types who are reliving the 80s and see Soviet tanks in the Fulda Gap just around the corner. These people are so stupid, they forget the Soviets were our allies in WWII and wind up unthinkingly saluting Nazis in recent memory. The Russians of today are no more "enemies" than the Germans, Japanese, or Italians of today are. Have they done something we disagree with. Yes. Does it affect our vital interest no. So, yeah, Europe, you are officially grownups. This is your problem. I am sure with the combined "might" of France, Germany, and the UK, you can defeat the Czar this time!
Yes, but particular "Uncle Sam's" like old fool Biden and his statement about maybe a little incursion was OK and the neocons, Victoria Nuland, and all the DC types as I call them.
Joe "Warmonger" Biden in his aviator shades, who regales people with the story of how his uncle got eaten by cannibals and who was shoved in by the Democrat's machine, which saw their stocks soar with the expenditures of borrowed money.
It would be "ALL" the blame, but in a plot-twist that would make J. K. Rowling wince, it turns out the primary pusher for WW3 has been none other than...:
I'm actually much younger than that, never seen the show and it doesn't sound like I'd care for it - but it's not like one can't hear of these things after their time!
"I Love Lucy", "I Dream of Jeannie", the 3 Stooges, the Marx Brothers, Monty Python above all - I grew up on these and more (and I've recently discovered "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In", easily available online).
And, gee, it's not like you need to need to be 3,000 years old to "get the reference" if someone brings up, say, the Upanishads...!
In my personal opinion, Europe is more of an enemy than Russia. The UK wants unfettered access to all Apple data. The EU demands censorship. Those soon-to-be dictatorships are trying to bleed their authoritarianism over onto the US.
Actually, it was our Democrat friends who were encouraging them to do this and were working on it here themselves right up till Elon bought Twitter and ruined it all.
It's probably darker than that. Russia has great reserves of natural resources. The West was very happy with the state of affairs when Russia was a shamble and run by corrupt and pliant buffoons. We had plans to turn Russia into a third world resource extraction zone. Putin ruined that for them and they hate him for that.
Having a Big Mac in Moscow was one thing but to have Citi-bank was not going to happen. The Russian paranoia from being invaded so many times might have had the effect of hanging onto Marxism. The vast resources of Ukraine and Russia are a tempting target after China kicked out the WEF accountants.
Well . . . you are being disingenuous there. Actually it was three years after the Archduke was shot when German submarines started indiscriminately drowning civilians-including Americans.
The Ukrainians and Russians have been at each others throats for generations.... Ukrainians will never forget the Holodomor.....or forgive Chernobyl for that matter. The boot of the oppressor is on their back....too, too long...'Little Russians ' resent the intimidation and forceful banning of their language in ancient days......They are guilty of Pride......which 'goeth before a Fall'.....(Israel, look out !)
Israel was lulled to sleep by the US and the EU and played along with the coddling of Hamas. Nothing Hamas did was outside what it said its intentions were. Nothing that happened in Gaza wasn't funded by the USA and the EU among others. We knew, or should have known that Oct 7 was inevitable. We chose to ignore it. Those silly hamas folks don't mean it!! They are such nice people... I don't think Israel is in a mood to ignore it anymore. Even if we want to.
Israel's problems began long before when European Zionists (not meant as a pejorative, but referring to Theodor Hertzl, et al.) decided to return to the Promised Land, unwilling to accept that it wasn't nearly so promising after 1500 years of habitation by Muslims who think they have the better, that is, most recent claim.
So there you have it; two Abrahamic peoples believing with Semitic certainty that G-d has given one primacy over the other with no regard for mercy or humanity on the part of either. Guaranteed murder and mayhem as far ahead as can be ascertained forever. An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth until all are blind and toothless.
Can't believe how little it took for all the gratefulness towards US to vanish. ~100 years of being there to help us (and let us freeload), when we were fucking ourselves over on the continent. Old grudges and petty fallen overly proud empires awash.
Few things we have plenty of though. Arrogance and hubris.
Have the feeling European Central Bank will become involved in this too, like they have been buying worthless bonds in Southern Europe ever since 2008.
There is also a lot of noise re. the proposed Central Bank Digital Currency that is coming in October.
One way out, cancel all the climate change projects and use on military, but doubt very much that will happen.
We can't be bothered to pick our leaders. 40% don't bother to vote (a plurality that would win every election). But now with vote harvesting, they still don't have to bother. Not that it matters because both political parties are essentially grift machines. Something our founders well understood when they created a "limited" government. But we couldn't keep it because the grifters never sleep, and we never wake up. Most of what most people believe on both sides is quite frankly not actually true. It is very hard to see past the disinformation and preferred narratives we are continuously fed. What is true is that government is a grift machine. It has no reason to do a good job at anything.
In my little cosmos here in Northen Europe though, I have around 1-2% of people I know saying anything nice about US incl. Americans. Maybe it's too anecdotal to be a common thing, I don't know.
My 27 years in South Texas were a dream ! Wonderful people, fabulous friends and mountains of memories in abundance to fuel my aging brain ! The people are NOT the sick, power elite.....never have been, never will be.....
My memories from having visited anywhere in US, also in Southern Texas, are filled with great people. Always loved the hospitality of Americans and the people is always the main thing.
Listen, it's NOT all bad.. politically, economically maybe, but culturally. The beauty of especially old places and the incredible cuisine etc, it's maddening good. I've lived in Southern Europe and I miss it every day.
I stayed in Paris in 1973 with my 6 year old son , Andrew, on our voyage to meet up with my husband in Denmark ( his homeland ). I took my son and my friends’ 5 year old to the Louvre so I could see the Mona Lisa. Ashley the 5 year old started grabbing the penis of a marble statue and the attendant nearby yelled ‘ fais attention’ then escorted us promptly out the door onto the street ! . Kicked out of the Louvre !!! Memories
Denmark ay? Well that is where I am from too, and am living once again now. I'm from Western Jutland and live in Odense now, known as the birthtown of H. C. Andersen mostly. It's a pretty old town though. Settled more than 4000 years ago, first time mentioned in writing in 988.
Stayed in Chartres ( Paris was too expensive ) we were startled by the quiet ‘ whooshing ‘ of bicycles flying past us on the street one morning in 1990… twas the peloton of the Tour de France! Then the Cathedral and Versailles ! INCROYABLE !!!
Wonderful memory. I was never in Chartres, but lived north of Paris (Compiegne) and right next to Sacre Coeur in Paris for 1.5 years back in 2008. Will never tire of walking around Paris.
Yes, great walking and bicycling cities in Europe. …we here could benefit from something like that. We bicycled all around the island of Børnholm in 1992 and tented in campgrounds.
I’ve always thought people in Europe look down on Americans in some strange way …. They only read crappy, dark news about the country tho’ as do my Canadian neighbours, so they think it’s all trash. Biases abound.
Most definitely. I sadly hear it all the time and I often challenge the belief, which when digging down IS always from either media or social media. It's never personal experiences. If they know any Americans, they are the exceptions to the rule.
I always encourage people to go there, meet people, talk with them. Which is really the same for every country on Earth. The media narrative is always bs.
Most of the ones I challenge either don't want to go or only want to go as tourists to see the landmarks etc.
I guy I know here just went to San Fran to a convention. Ironically he asked if anyone knew of there being a protest of the US GOV at the convention. I find that almost unbelievable. He's caught up in the media narrative and he's not a bad dude, but that behavior is so incredibly wrong and hypocritical I don't even know where to start.
80% of the news is negative (I tested this recently) and about USA it's much closer to 100%. Tesla, Elon, Trump, Vance etc also very close to 100%.
It's no wonder people don't know any better. They grew up trusting the news to a T.
A bit less immigration in Denmark (where I am from) than some of the other countries in the last few years, because we started having opposition against it 10-15 years ago.
Started getting especially Turkish migrants up here on invitation in the 60s, because we lacked workers. Most 1st gen and to some extent 2nd gen worked out fine and I know many Turks and Curds, 1st and 2nd gen.
It was the massive immigration later on that caused problems. No society is equipped to handle this well, at least if there is free wellfare.
Re. the military - they're drumming up PR for it here again, but I don't know what the numbers are. I'm guessing low as well. We have all grown up being used to America protecting us and taking that for granted. I served in 1993, but stopped when I was given the choice of going to Bosnia in a white tincan that was used for firing practise by all 3 sides in the war without even the right to fire back (that changed later).
I remember visiting a friend in Berlin in 2011. There was a piece on TV about Obamacare. She looked at me and told me how she was so happy that America was finally going to have decent healthcare without the giant price tag, like Germany and the rest of Europe. She shamed my country and made me embarrassed. I was non-political and didn't have a comeback. I lived in the UK for a time and you could literally die from an ingrown toenail because there was no appointment available until next August because their healthcare was nationalized. Now I would have plenty to say...plenty too much.
There are SO many snake holes to go down with your article. Everyday, a whole other aspect of just how hard we were funding the world comes out and I want to scream.
"I lived in the UK for a time and you could literally die from an ingrown toenail because there was no appointment available until next August because their healthcare was nationalized."
Interesting conclusion. Increasing wait times definitely couldn't be because the NHS is grossly underfunded on purpose by Tories & Labour so they can then turnaround and point to it and say "see! public healthcare isn't working! we need to privatize it so our corporate masters can make profits off of your illnesses! Commodify sickness and disease! We want to be more like America who spends the most on their healthcare system and has the worst public health as a result!"
As someone who's lived in both America & the UK, I'll take the UK system every day of the week. The peace of mind of walking into A&E for treatment knowing you won't be walking out with a massive fucking bill that can bankrupt you afterwards is priceless.
If Obama had actually given Americans a public healthcare system, which "Obamacare" was not, it was just a mandated private insurance scheme, Americans would've elected him until he was dead, if they could.
I had a bff English nurse. She had not many good things to say about the nhs. With all the vacation and bank holidays they constantly had to hire private nurses to cover all the shifts on vacation. Which obviously was a drain on the budget. Then I seen the numerous physicians who complain about the low pay they receive. Of course the wait lists for operations.
National health in America is a joke. Most with low pay have the option already for charity care. Wealthy can afford insurance it is always the middle class who may have a home who get screwed. Obama care was a huge disaster. No we could not keep our own doctors. The healthcare system here has already been centralized for the most part as doctors csn no longer afford to carry the umbrella insurance against lawsuits so the get hired by a large group who control how they doctor. They now spend most of the time inputting data into the system as opposed to listening to their patients. The insurance business is run by a few big corporations and is overpaid. As are the hospitals. Everything is becoming centralized in preparation for the one world government? Seems that way.
I guess my point in all this was...America was subsidizing Europe so hard that they could afford to have healthcare like this while we were working our butts off so they could.
And my friends in the UK all have private insurance because they have enough money to be able to do that.
Yes, that dread of the medical bill at the end of a treatment in the USA is really bad, but it is negotiable. After the last 5 years I am staying as healthy as I can and have quit my job as a rodeo clown so I don't plan on submitting myself to the healthcare system...EVER.
Honestly I'm disappointed in Matt's framing of this issue that America has been subsidizing Europe's security at the American taxpayer's expense, as if the US government has any benevolent intentions in any project it funds. The US government has made Europe less safe with its obsession of NATO enlargement towards Russia's borders, doing nothing but enriching US weapons manufactures that profit from NATO expansion, and provoking Russia in the process. If NATO dies because the US is going to cease or decrease support, good riddance. NATO should have died alongside the Warsaw Pact. The threat of Russian expansion into Europe is nothing but fear-mongering from those who seek to benefit from Russia's downfall and isolation. Europe has no imminent security threats that requires a giant military expenditure to defend itself from. Listen to Matt & Walter's podcast from last week, they even admit as much, that Russia is not the aggressor. They were provoked to respond to a legitimate security threat of having NATO on its doorstep.
As someone who is coming up for air after raising a family with a husband who has been away at sea a lot of the time, it is interesting to look behind me and see how entrenched I was in the checker board. Hubs was USN and also worked for a defense contractor that took us to the UK and onto an RAF base. Then my daughter was stationed there when she joined the USAF. So, we lived in England and had a hell of a time. But we were the 80's model. Daughter was 2012 model. I absolutely believe that NATO is dead weight...and God forbid we actually listen and approve of the speech given by Putin 3 years ago before he 'invaded' ukraine. And the way the whole world cancelled Russia at the same time? Hello BRICS. Thank you for the great conversation. I really appreciate it and your time.
I also find it interesting that Europe is singled out, but Israel isn't mentioned? Really? On top of the $3-4 billion Israel receives every year, they received at least an additional $18 billion since Oct 7 to wage their genocidal slaughter against Palestinians.
Israel also has public health care. Americans are subsidizing that.
Europe is in bad shape but according to Ursula yonder Leven Russia's economy is in "tatters", they have to cannibalize computer chips from washing machines.
When she was Germany's Minister of Defense the German Army had to participate in war games using broom sticks instead of rifles. And just because she is said to have gotten rich through her husband's big pharma connections during covid, there is no reason to think she will grift off military spending too.
The post of the year, so far. Well said, Mr. Taibbi! The fact that this exercise in economic logic is so surprising to so many people doesn't speak well for our educational system...or theirs.
Agreed. But as I thought more about it, I can't help but wonder if the Education Systems are working exactly as designed, i.e., as an indoctrination system. I watched my (now) 26 year-old son enter Univ of Vermont an open-minded, independent thinker, only to emerge as a regurgitator of left-wing narratives with little interest or respect for most conflicting viewpoints. I pray the Real World will restore his ability to think for himself!
Nothing will ever be the same. THAT is why Teslas are torched, Tim Walz wants to beat everybody up, and Gavin Newsom is twitching his way through podcasts. It's kind of glorious, isn't it?
I’m a 60+ cancer survivor with post surgery lymphedema in both legs, and a few other ailments, who hasn’t been in a fight since high school (my one and only); and I’m pretty sure I could take Tim Walz in a cage match. I think I qualify as an opponent of Tim Walz. If he’s willing, he can take a shot at me. 😉 We can save you younger opponents for any tussles with the odd Darth Vader federal district court justices that may come up. Judge Chutkan seems like she’d be a whole lot tougher than Tampon Tim! 🙂
I take exception when Matt writes that this is “our fault.” I never voted for it, and I doubt that Matt did, or most of those reading this, or most Americans at all.
We were lied to. The politicians lied and the media and academics and the permanent ruling class lied along with them. About damn near everything. About the “need” for NATO; about its cost; about the need for full blown wars with no realistic end point in Afghanistan and Iraq. About the need and wisdom to support European interventions in the Balkans and Libya and a dozen other places. About what we were spending our money on, and why, and who really benefitted— foreign and domestic.
And USAID vigorously refused to be audited or questioned, and it took a sledge hammer of Zoomer autists and the latest AI tools to crack their arcane criminal code of endless pass-throughs, and lay bare the breathtaking grift, corruption, and sinecures for all to see.
Fomenting the Maidan revolution in Ukraine was a major mistake. These people (e.g., Victoria Nuland) never think about the consequences of what they do.
I think you are citing facts not in evidence. What makes you think Nuland didn't intend the consequences? I'd at least like to see some evidence for the claim that it was unintentional.
In the US elections over the past 15 years or so, who were our options that could have changed this trajectory? 13% of people vote in primaries, and we get candidates they choose, and the candidates know who these 13% who vote are.
You must not vote in the Democratic primaries. We get the candidates the the party leadership chooses. And this year, we got the candidate that only the President chose.
I lean left but not the faux Democrat left. The only two candidates I have expressed any enthusiasm for are Bernie Sanders and for a very brief moment, John Edwards. Was seduced a bit by Obama but his complete Wall Street capitulation in early on and then allowing HRC and Biden to wreak havoc in Ukraine against his much better judgement.
“Raised to think Europeans were our gentler, more civilized partners, they now look like shameless freeloaders who let their bills for daycare and paid vacations be subsidized by middle-American taxpayers, descendants of those poor Okies and hayseeds who died in piles to save Europe from itself generations ago. Kids of my generation were fed a succession of movies from Red Dawn to Russia House to Rocky IV to make sure we stayed focused on the Soviet enemy, but I’m beginning to think the higher purpose of NATO was to keep Europeans from killing one another, a condition they apparently had to be bribed to accept”
What a paragraph!
Very well written Matt. It was incisive with a such a descriptive flourish. I can only wish that I had a smidgen of your talent and flair!
I'm not sure. Matt's piece here is a little "hook, line and sinker" for me.
Like I think there's merit to noting that we've subsidized Europe in recent decades, but Matt's tone is like he never thought about it before but now doesn't question or critically evaluate it. We've just been massive suckers.
Being leaders and beneficent has some advantages that we reaped along the way, too, it's not like we were completely unaware that we were doing this. We weren't suckers, we just made choices. Being the clear far and away leader on defense has the advantage, for example, of being the clear far and away leader on defense. That made us the 500 lb gorilla in any room. Inviting anything closer to parity from Europe is cheaper but also may result in less clear control on all issues than we've always had. I don't like that our Neocons have steered where that control took us, but I'm also not sure that the control itself has been a bad thing.
Of course we did. We told Europe and the rest of the world, in our fight against the Soviets we will give you almost unfettered access to our markets and patrol the sea lanes to make sure you can get here. The cost - we get to control your security policy.
It worked. But once the Soviets fell, we didn't declare the game was over. We kept right on doing it - thought we could bribe China to become more like the west. In the process we hollowed out the middle class and sent our manufacturing capacity overseas. That bill has finally come due. Keeping that old post WWII political structure became what we now call the DC swamp. That world is being dismantled. Europe in their present form cannot survive that.
I'm not sure how much control and choice "WE" the People have had over any of the "unwarranted influence" spook landers, criminal finance and the D.C. swamp has exerted over American lives and treasure in the last six decades. Americans didn't vote to gut and decimate our major manufacturing cities, dismantle Glass-Steagall or loot our Republic's treasury in 2008. The Trump/Musk carnival's exposure of the USAID/NGO political remora feeding off American tax treasure and psyoping our national conversation was only a confirmation of what most us have long suspected. "WE" were not the ones who made the decision to gut American institutions, allow our Republic's infrastructure to crumble, rewrite our history and proclaim free citizens potential terrorists "..clinging to their Bibles and their guns.." The European aristocracy deserves a poke in the eye but "WE" the American people should remember that the European people are being stripped of their liberty, property and nationhood. A slow read of the FEDERALIST PAPERS will confirm that our founding
fathers feared and attempted to install in our Constitution a political system that would save us from the blood thirsty machinations and intrigues of European criminal finance. The Biden/Ukraine grift, Soros funded D.A. law fare and Davos John Kerry are pustules on the American soul but the disease began with the alliance of international criminal financiers who gave us the Russian Bolshevik Revolution, WWI, WWII, the Cold War and the countless little "police actions" that have come to define our lives and swallow our labor, treasure and future. "WE" the People can spend a million bucks a class room to educate out children but we can't produce a child who can read. The problem isn't the money, the problem is the money.
Whomever was in charge of the Biden White House and the Harris front intended the same repression for We the People Europeans are now experiencing. Seizure of homes, property and farms by rigged taxation, the destruction of national cultures by forced illegal migration and the ultimate reduction of free peoples to a CCP style techno feudalism. Subscription journalism and our Constitution saved us--for now. Trump is temporary reprieve not salvation. Musk, tech and the Silicon Valley billionaire mafia are not our friends.
Mr. Taibbi was the first to explore and depth report on the '08 Wall Street grift that looted and destroyed our economy. I hope RACKET, Glenn Greenwald, GRAYZONE and every other worthy subscription journalist will dedicate at least one week out of the month to reporting on American and European financial reality. It matters.
Señor Taibbi was the first to expose and explain the '08
Excellent summation. I too was 'brought in' by Taibbi's 2008 analysis and of course writing style!
There are two ways to do what Trump is doing.
One, abandon the field and encourage the Europeans to, for example, defend Ukraine.
Two, LEAD NATO and Europe still but lead them and us collectively to better choices. Like stopping everyone from defending Ukraine so that both of them don't bury themselves together. They are a lot more useful to us when they're not fighting pointlessly with Russia.
I think Trump is saying we will insert ourselves financially into Ukraine to provide a buffer. Europe will need to figure out how they make the money work. Their access to US markets is changing, for better or for worse. There is no appetite in the US to lead anything in Europe, at least not that I can see as a political emphasis. We are going to look inward for a while. The world hasn't seen that for over 80 years.
“No appetite”. Politics in the US are bundles of positions, not isolated positions. Nobody voted for isolationism fully and Ukraine wasn’t all that big on the radar. We voted for lower inflation/better economy and against immigration, with a dash of culture war.
Trump messes up on economic issues and the Dems take the White House in 2028 and then suddenly there’s “no appetite” back the other direction.
Nor can the US. Virtually everything in China is better and cheaper.
Yes, we've been massive suckers, but the real culprit is the defense industrial complex that has been ripping us off since WWII engaging us in war after war after war - non-stop for 70 years. Eisenhower warned us of the danger in 1952. but no one listened.
Bottom line: we didn't need all these frickin' wars and we didn't need all that "defense" and neither did the Europeans. And we still don't.
People continue to site Eisenhower for first warning us by originating a term we now use ubiquitously as the MIC. But he was not the first to do so. Smedly Butler wrote a book 30 years earlier (War is a Racket) telling all who would listen of the real purpose of our military.
August — History has not been kind to Butler. Coming out with his pamphlet just as it was becoming desperately necessary to rearm, to have a chance of stopping Hitler, his babbling about “munitions makers” is laughable.
By contrast, the world’s most famous pacifist, a much smarter man — arguably the smartest man in the world — realized it was time to set pacifism aside: Albert Einstein.
Yeah, stopped Hitler, replaced him with Stalin and bankrupted Europe which at the time was a group of colonial exploiters and occupyers. We are not now and never were the good guys. In the light of the lies we were told about COVID-19 84, we need to reexamine ALL the lies we've been told including WWII.
Yes, and good old Ike was late to his conclusion. Arriving to it after his administration made it possible. Better late than not though advice ignored since.
Just reading it now.
wrknight — You’re thinking of Ike’s Farewell Address in 1961.
In the end, of course, our military-industrial complex, with all its flaws, was still better than their military-industrial complex, so Ronald Reagan won the Cold War. Trying to undo the collapse of the USSR is what Putin is about in Ukraine.
Trying to keep Nato missiles off his borders seems closer to the truth to me. We would probably have a similar reaction if China put missiles in Mexico. Remember the Cuban missile crisis?
uselesseater — If Putin’s issue is NATO on his border, why did he publish an essay arguing Ukraine doesn’t exist, and that those old softies, Lenin and Stalin, shouldn’t have recognized its existence (by giving it its own Soviet Socialist Republic), a few months before he launched his blitzkrieg.
If Putin’s issue is NATO on his border, why isn’t he attacking Finland, which didn’t just talk about joining someday, like Ukraine did, put actually joined, together with Sweden, shortly after he started the war.
NATO isn’t a threat to Russia: Russia is a threat to NATO. Finland and Sweden didn’t give up 75 years of neutrality because they want to attack Russia. They did it because they don’t want Russia to attack them.
Unfortunately, Americans tend to have poor memories, and those who are not old enough were never taught.
Reagan didn't win the Cold War. The USSR didn't collapse. Its people chose leaders who admired and sought partnership with the West. Men like Gorbachav (and Putin) dismantled the Soviet bloc, with the understanding that the West would become a partner and mentor. Instead we unleashed our greed industrial complex on Russia. Putin was forced to change course, as his people were starving in the streets. He successfully clawed back their assets, established good trade ties with Europe. and provoked US to blow up the Nordstream pipeline and start a war. Trying to protect his people is STILL a full-time job for Putin, as the neocons never give up their dream of global hegemony. They deliberately provoked a confrontation through "NATO expansion," using Ukraine as our pawn in this deadly game, to weaken Russia and cause its people to oust their leader. Our failure to understand why Russians support their leader is astonishing to me, but such is like when all that matters is money and power.
Bonnie — “provoked US to blow up the Nordstream pipeline and start a war”. You have the sequence of events backwards. 1. Trump bans the Nordstream 2 pipeline, which would have let Russia send fossil fuels to Germany without paying Ukraine billions of rubles in transit fees every year. 2. Biden cancels Trump’s ban, possibly not understanding the strategic implications. 3. Putin interprets the reopening of the pipeline as showing Biden favors Russia over Ukraine. 4. Adding that to the weakness shown in Biden’s Afghanistan fiasco, Putin orders the invasion of Ukraine. 5. Some time after the beginning of the war, the pipeline is blown up. (N.B.: It’s in rowboat distance of the Polish coast. Just sayin’!)
In other words, it was Western pandering to Russia, not Western “aggression”, that emboldened Putin to start the war. (About NATO, see remarks to uselesseater, below.)
“The USSR didn't collapse. Its people chose leaders who admired and sought partnership with the West.” Are you joking? People in the USSR didn’t get to choose their leaders: Gorbachev was elected by the Politburo, not the people. He was trying to strengthen the Soviet Union, not “dismantle” it.
He didn’t realize that the only thing holding together the Soviet Bloc was the threat of Russian tanks. When he hesitated to go full Stalin on them, all the Captive Nations, especially Ukraine, bolted for the exits. (Ukrainians were especially bitter about tens of thousands of children exposed to radiation when the Soviet Union covered up the Chernobyl disaster.)
Oh, please!
And Reagan's military build up had nothing to do with it?
I'm not sure how much input the people of the USSR actually had in choosing their leaders, either.
Putin ". . . provoked US to blow up the Nordstream pipeline and start a war." I am not seeing the logic here. How would provoking a war protect Russian people?
What's more astonishing is why any American supports our "leader".
You are right. I got the dates mixed up with something else.
Sorry about that.
As an example, if you spent any time in Europe in 2003 you could palpably feel the hatred of Americans everywhere. I personally marched against the Iraq war, so don't think I support it. But in 2003 when everyone except the UK, Denmark and Poland said "hey we don't like that you're going to invade Iraq", we could pat them on the back and say "thanks for your thoughts on this, lil' buddy".
Are we inviting a future where they instead glare at us across the table and say "No, now this is OUR hemisphere and we REALLY don't like that you're thinking about doing that".
Don't conflate the wisdom of invading with the abstract point that once you allow divergent muscle power and conventional wisdom, you won't simply do as you please any more.
We don't care about Europe, and they won't be sitting at any table across from us. Their population is in freefall, their economies, if they are going to really try to rearm, will become even more stagnant than they already are unless all the free stuff starts disappearing. If they are to at some point to become our equal, they have a ton of really hard decisions to make. Their decisions are hard even if they don't catch us.
The US will be the center of the only real vibrant economic center in the world for the next 20-30 years, a center that at the moment doesn't have a single European member. It's all about demographics and the economic strength we already possess.
I don't care about the Ukraine, because its economy is a raw materials and agriculture economy that I can buy the proceeds of no matter who is grifting off the top of that. Their GDP per cap is 1/16 of USA.
But I very much care about Poland, Germany, Switzerland, certain parts of Sweden, Northern Italy, amazing economic centers that we should do everything in our power to be in lockstep with and encourage the continued blossoming of. Germany is getting the entrepreneurial and venture risk-taking bug and could do great in the future if they can shed the shackles of the Euro and Russian energy dependence.
I have stated many times in recent weeks in comparing the US economy to Russia (an increasingly irrelevant country) and Ukraine (an already irrelevant one) that we're also lapping Europe. By US GDP per cap we are destroying Europe - for example French GDP per cap was 80% of the US in 2004 and now it's 55%. But total GDP of Europe is still about the same magnitude as the US, and several countries there have their act together and are directly competitive even with our economy. Ireland and Switzerland are outpacing us by 10%, and several smaller countries are keeping pace. Or, put another way, they pull their weight. So we want them in our corner to maximize our combined mass.
Actually, I believe we were somewhat similar at the turn of the century - we have leapt ahead of them. I pulled a GDP comparison for 2024 that showed the EU at around $16T and the US at $26T. You may find individual countries showing some strength, but the Swiss haven't seen a risk they don't try to make go away and Ireland survived on the US driving business away from the US. The trading block as a whole is no longer our equal. And the tariffs which protected their economies from US products, are now going to be met.
I've visited Europe; and even had a job that took me there often and have enjoyed my time there. But even then, in speaking with well educated people, they didn't understand what the US was all about, and the real underlying strength that allowed all the nice things in Europe to exist. Trump is the first true realist president we have had since Reagan. Europe is about to see what that means.
The UK has an opportunity to get into the US circle, which would probably help the Nordic countries as well. But to do so they will have to accept that America will expect reciprocal access.
The rest of Europe does not have an immediate opportunity to get that close. Of course, things can change, events unforeseen can change trajectories that appear locked in stone.
How exactly is Russian energy a shackle? It's cheap. And them paying for us natural gas costs way way more money which has forced Germany to deindustrialize.
GDP is a very misleading number. A more important figure is GDP per capita. Also important is how GDP is distributed. In the U.S., GDP is skewed toward the top 1% far more than any European country. A large GDP doesn't make a country wealthy if all of that GDP is owned by 1% of the population. It will, however, give that country a greater ability to wage war.
"The US will be the center of the only real vibrant economic center in the world for the next 20-30 years"
Jim, Check your facts and try again. China's economy is superior in:
1) Manufacturing Output
2) Economic Growth Rate
3) Trade and Exports
4) Purchasing Power Parity (PPP)
5) Infrastructure Development
6) High-Tech Areas Including Electric Vehicle Development
Foreign capital inputs are falling. They are sitting on a financial bubble (mostly real estate) that would make the US mortgage derivative recession of 07-09. They are the fastest aging country on the planet and are in a 40 year window where their population will halve.
No one believes their GDP figures, most would suggest they have been overestimated by approximately 30% for the last 20-25 years. They are losing access to high end chips, which means most of their economy's strength is in lower level value things. EVs are dying, there is no western market for them. They import 70-80% of their energy needs and the same for food or food inputs to grow their own.
Infrastructure is always a very interesting topic. They do have a lot of bright shiny things, and they have a substantial physical manufacturing plant installed. But if they are such a dynamic economy why is their youth unemployment rate so high now, compared to the past, when they are retiring workers in great numbers?
China is in a world of hurt.
Demographic time bomb.
Interesting you should bring up the point of population freefall. If not for immigration, the U.S. population would be in freefall as well. Even worse for the white, male supremacists, the fertility rate among white women is 1.8 (2.1 is required to sustain the population). Actually, the white, non-hispanic, population is in freefall world wide except for parts of the Middle East.
Given Trump's penchant for deporting immigrants and the falling fertility rate, the U.S. population is likely to go into freefall. With an aging population and a declining workforce, the country will go bankrupt. Add to that, Trump's tariffs and economic policies are likely to put the economy in freefall as well. The only people left who will want to emigrate to the U.S. are those who are absolutely desperate.
The U.S. war on drugs is one of the main reasons we have as many immigrants as we presently have. Maybe if we start wars in more countries, it will make more people desperate enough to want to emigrate to the U.S.
Yes, the US fertility rate is not at all healthy. It is the healthiest among “white” developed countries, except perhaps Israel. The huge number of immigrants has maintained our population growth. The world in general is shrinking. We just will be shrinking slower than most, which provides us with certain advantages. The more interesting long term question is this: given this shrinking population, the government sponsored welfare state is unsustainable - Germany will be the first European welfare state to face total bankruptcy if they don’t make changes soon. More will follow them. Our entire governmental and economic assumptions are based upon an ever increasing population. That is gone. China is in the process of disappearing. Even India’s growth is rapidly slowing and is estimated by the 2040s will be older than the US.
Interesting things to contemplate.
delusional.
Yes, we really reaped the benefits of being the 500lb gorilla when it came time to invade Iraq. Those were great times indeed. We will surely miss those halcyon days.
Don't conflate the wisdom of invading with the abstract point that once you allow divergent muscle power and conventional wisdom, you won't simply do as you please any more.
There is no guarantee they agree with us about the next terror camp we want to destroy anywhere... or let us use their air bases, etc.
I expect they perceive themselves as vulnerable to terror as we do, esp of the home-grown kind. If they deny us use of their air bases it will change the Western world order. For all the sniping and nit-picking the details, both our continents are Western liberal democracies. As long as that holds, we have more in common than we don’t
We can worry about that after they have invested here to avoid tariffs. Maybe long- term they can generate their own demand, but in the meantime, who else will buy European goods? China?🤣
I can't speak for 2003 but the last three times we were in Europe, between 2013 and 2021, where we spent time in Spain, Italy, France, Austria, Switzerland, Portugal, Belgium, Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Poland, Austria, Czecia, UK and Ireland, we never experienced any hatred from anyone. The people there were like most people here in America - friendly and hospitable. One thing we all shared in common was a universal contempt for politicians. I suspect that's still the case.
By specifying the year I meant to indicate that it was a transitory phenomenon related to the Iraq war, specifically the US invasion of Iraq. Ten years later it was not a thing, that is correct.
That's simply not true Kelley. That was the year I moved to Europe.
Europeans aren't so stupid as to confuse people with their governments.
I got yelled at in multiple countries and know several Americans who pleaded Canadianism.
I don't know which countries those must have been. In Italy, no one was blaming out people, everyone was blaming the government.
They rarely have done as we asked….
The world would have been better off had the United States not invaded Iraq. USA included. Is it better for the United States to live in a multipolar world? Maybe 30 years ago the answer was clearly no. But the corruption has gotten so bad that most of the public feels US foreign policy does not benefit them.
That may be very nice for the political elites who style themselves the "500 lb gorilla in the room", but as the taxpayer who foots the bill, gets zero power, and also gets the "benefits" of my job being shipped overseas and being insulted when I'm upset by this... what exactly am I getting out of this deal?
I don't want to be rude, but my reaction to your argument, as to the elites, is somewhere along the lines of flashing a finger located somewhere in the middle of my hand.
If empire was so good for the imperial core, they wouldn't need to argue with increasing panic with us about how great it actually is. It turns out, it sucks for most everyone at home. My attitude towards government bureaucrats complaining about being ousted is similar. If the government had done a good job of servicing its citizens needs, they wouldn't need to worry about Elon Musk's chainsaw. So they should really be directing their complaints at themselves; it is their own arrogance and lack of care towards the people they are meant to help that led all of this. They are staring the consequences of their own actions in the face. The same with the possible collapse of American support for European largesse. I'm not optimistic it will actually happen because of the amount of corrupt, anti-democratic dealing that goes on to keep the system in place, but it does happen, it will be the direct consequence of what has gone on before.
Maybe take a second and explain what job losses have to do with military domination. Separate choices.
then realize you're arguing with someone else, who might have written "It is undoubtedly a good thing for the US to be the 500-lb gorilla".
What I wrote, in contrast is "Taibbi talks like we were suckers in this scenario when we chose the path because there are pros to it. It's not all cons."
If you never want to project power, even when it's projected at you, fine. Maybe Flight 93 didn't upset you and make you want to strike back to remove the ability to train for those kinds of attacks on the US. If so, then having forward bases like our air bases in Germany is not needed.
I'm not even taking a side as to which should have carried the day in US decision-making, those pros or the cons. I see little point in debating it because we can't change the past. Instead, I'm simply a canary in a coal mine that this Taibbi op-ed smells of kool aid. It reeks of the air of a new convert who really really professes his faith in an emotional way, without the balance of the other perspective. I prefer clear, rational, thought to that.
I agree, this article felt like something I could have read on ONAN, parroting the President’s talking points with zero skepticism.
I have to ask... did you mean OAN? Because given the "sin of Onan" that's an awesome typo.
This has been a really good discussion. Thanks to all from an interested reader!
They are all part of the same strategy. If I have to explain this to you, you have a lot of reading up to do. Nixon's subsidizing of China's economy was intended as a geopolitical strategy, not charity. It was directly correlated to military concerns.
Right On
I think it's time we took a chance that Europe can responsibly defend itself... It's time..
Pacificus - "it's time we took a chance that Europe can responsibly defend itself" has been here and should have been acted upon ever since the implosion of the USSR in 1990.
If the US would stop starting wars, I'm pretty sure we'll be fine.
Personally, I'd prefer to take Greenland with less of a contest.
Just like all the bloated, corrupt US agencies, NGOs, Europe/NATO needs to take a haircut. We can be a NATO supporter at a far lower level, decide Ukraine is not a bill to die on for us. We need to pare over a Trillion dollars from the budget and stimulate the economy. The way it’s looking DOGE/Trump/cabinet secretaries should be able to do this. Who knows, the Europeans may be forced to become capitalists and forego the socialism to pay their bills!
Agreed.
Mike R. Very well said and fully articulated. Thank you.
I'm sure that it has crossed his mind before. It has been alluded to and mentioned in Matt's writings here on Substack for years. I think, though, that it has only been in the last few weeks that the scale of it all, and the underhandedness, the back-handedness and the sleight-of-handedness of the whole thing has become apparent. And that is thanks to Trump and Musk!
Did you make the conscious choice to send trillions of dollars to cover Europe's portion of NATO?
You're suggesting there were advantages to having a relatively poorer citizenry because you could rule the world. You need consent from the rubes being ripped off for that
A lot of us seemed to be saying 'Merica a hell of a lot for those decades and proudly signing up to serve in the military.
How about rattling off all of these benefits we have gotten for being europes bitch. So, we get to do what, exactly besides being thr 600 pound gorilla in the room?
We got to invade a some countries that most people in the USA couldn't find on a map, and enrich a bunch of shareholders and globalist elites you don't know and who don't care about you. In return the USA got 36 trillion in debt. Great deal, wasn't it?
The question that nobody seems to have asked is, who was the 600lb gorilla working for? Follow the money.
I think the bitch is the one who bitches. Which seems to be you a lot of the time.
In this scenario, I think most would agree the bitch is the one who needs protection, not the one doing the protecting.
Well-said
Oh, we (USA) might need them _now_. The point of the earlier arrangement was "Russia out, US in, Germany (i.e. Europe) down." One thing unleashed Europe can do is start wars, just like other big countries -- wars that may not only be uninspired by the US, but possibly very inconvenient for it. In fact, some of that has already happened, such as the unpleasant business in what was once Yugoslavia not so long ago. There was some value in keeping Europe quiet, as the first half of the 20th century could tell you. But certainly could not tell the head buffoon in charge, or his assistant monkeys.
“… we've subsidized Europe in recent decades…”
Yes, the last 8 decades in fact. How many allies paid off WWII loans and Marshall Plan debt? The UK. And that ended in the last twenty years.
“… Being leaders and beneficent has some advantages that we reaped along the way, too…”
It has. Being the gorilla maybe the most. But europe stepping up won’t likely change that status. They lack meaningful preparedness, leadership, equipment, etc. They can buy lots of guns, weapons platforms, etc but I do not know how much we can trust them to use those things properly much less rely on them if we actually need to fight.
I'd rather have vacation, parental leave, and healthcare than nebulous control of something
Did foreign policy stop Obamacare or leave you ineligible somehow? I think Matt's bar chart proved the opposite of his point by showing European social spending at 20% of GDP is not at all an actual direct tradeoff of 3-4% defense spending. It clearly is a separate choice given the 6x magnitude of the dollars involved.
I felt a little intertextual chuckle impulse, like Matt was less saying, “If it wasn’t for us you’d all be speaking German,” and more snickering at the “If someone else doesn’t pay for this, I guess we’ll have to do it,” obviousness of the European response. Faux naïf isn’t his usual authorial voice but here it’s warranted.
It all ruined America! Stupid Empire.
And the Euros said Vance gave such a mean guy speech. Let’s sent Taibbi over for one of their conferences.
Ohhh, I'm in on that!
I like the sound of >Trump...Musk...Taibbi
OMG LOL
A wonderful summation. And remember how Trump was vilified in his first term for even mentioning Europe needed to shoulder more of the defense burden?
Reminds me of adult children having their parents pay for their cell phone plans.
Where shall we set the over/under on when Europeans will resume killing each other?
2030? Is that too generous?
I would guess it will take a few more years than that but history tells us it won't be long...
LG&M - Europe's world keeps getting tighter culturally, economically, and technologically such that a shooting war as you envision becomes less likely all the time.
The scheming, plotting, and manoeuvring for this or that advantage will continue unabated but not to the point of lethal armed conflict since too many have too much to lose for so little or nothing to gain.
I hope you're right. But once Germany starts the military buildup, and crows about wanting to lead Europe, many, many people get very, very nervous. With good fucking reason.
Given the historical precedents, I'll certainly grant you the validity of such nervousness. However, it might become moot; the buildup might never become a reality. I'll believe it when the 800 billion Euros proposed are actually authorized, then procured, and then effectively and rapidly tuned into weapons and the soldiers to utilize them.
Then there is the motivation, quality, and effectiveness of the soldiers themselves. A recent poll of young Britons revealed that only 11% of them were willing to fight for their country. There is little reason to believe
such an attitude is any different throughout the rest of Europe, including German young people.
Agreed. This needs to be shared and translated for Charlie Hebdo and Der Speigel readers. And I'll need more popcorn translating the comments section after those articles publish.
“We will ultimately need to spend less on other things, or tax more.”
Taxing more is just a fancy way of saying spending less, just in this case, it's the not the government who gets to spend less.*
(odd, I just noticed how similar "taxing" is to "taking")
*Until the tax revenues are less than expected because of the brake increased tax rates put on economic activity.
🍿, and 🧂.
I copied the same paragraph before clicking on the comment button. One of the most profound statements I have read in ages.
He has been on fire as of late.
Sent it to a friend after posting it on X with a link to this 'stack.
03/19/25: Having just read the first three chapters of a book written by an advanced-degree psychiatrist whose prose turns into semi-legible cement, it is a joy to be cured by reading the above. Thank you.
Another unintended consequence with “TheDon’s” re-election. All a bunch of faker-clowns! I don’t think the American courts can help them here …but stay tuned!
I don’t know, I’m sure there is a federal district court justice in Maine (closest to Europe) who will decree that the Trump Administration must pay at least $500B to keep Europeans in the comfort they’ve become accustomed to, as like all non US citizens, they are entitled to a mountain of benefits from the actual resident citizen taxpayers of America. Like, duh.
03/19/25: With the direction Maine has gone (right into the repeatedly used / unflushed toilet), that judge will extend the payments to both Europeans AND the Russians; in addition to which there will be a 10% service charge added, the proceeds of which will go to Iran and Hamas.
03/19/25: Yours was a logical assumption, with 80-90% of this country's faculties injected with the Woke ideological poison.
However, this particular author sides with Trump and I agree with his points.
Tragically, he's the Achilles Heel of his cause:
The illiterate college graduate with advanced academic degrees.
Jumpy tempo. Impenetrable psychological jargon. Tragically unreadable.
Are we talking about the same person?
03/20/25: The fellow I had read (attempted to read) is Thomas Pappas ("Trump Derangement Syndrome," self-published, 2024). Honorable man. Terrible writer (for whom a competent editor could work wonders).
A "competent editor" cannot fix a "terrible writer". Lipstick on a pig and all...
I read “The death of Psychiatry “ after seeing one for 20 years (he retired). The book was written in ‘72 published 2 years later from memory. It outlines how insanity defenses were invented in Ca and stated that there was never a medical reason for an abortion. Sigmund Freud was not comfortable with its classification
You lead us to believe your psychiatrist retired BECAUSE he treated you for 20 years. You must have been doozie of a challenge
There's two kinds of nurses. Those who will assist in an abortion and those who won't. Those who won't go all PTSD on you if you bring up the subject.
Ok……I guess
Surely you mean "those who will" rather than "those who won't".
No, I mean those who have assisted in an abortion once, and have PTSD over the experience.
"When you're holding a little severed hand" is the only thing she said.
Wow. Ouch. Gag.
Please tell me you're reading it as an assignment.
03/20/25: My last assignment was in 1994; since then, I've been on the loose. And if it weren't for the Japanese, perhaps I'd still be doing what people were telling me to do in exchange for a paycheck. All Hail Nippon!
Superb writing Matt! Wow, what an essay. The shoe I’m waiting to see drop is a small one, and that’s NPR and PBS being cut off from their government funded sugar high.
Oh yes, please. Can't happen soon enough to a nicer bunch of marxists...
The same paragraph stood out to so many of us. It's stunningly good. Matt Taibbi is a national treasure...what a writer!
Or was the purpose of NATO always to keep the gravy train going for the military-industrial complex at home and allow the Europeans to have luxury vacays? It seems like both.
Indeed. Our "leaders" love the power to drone people anywhere on earth at a moments notice.
Some of 'em even brag about their "kill list."
Guns and butter in overdrive
I thought the same thing! Especially the first sentence. I was at a funeral for my aunt today, who was 90, and she and my mom and siblings immigrated from Europe in the 50s because they wanted opportunity and self reliance and not nanny state nitwits. They never looked back.
Pretty much sums up our relationship with Europe. All this time, I didn’t have the foresight to realize we truly have helped them fund their pleasant lifestyle. What a dumb shit I have been. Oh well, back to work….
Mark steyn had similar comments two decades ago.
Where is mark these days?
Noticed that as well!
Read it 3 times and took a screenshot.
The irony here is that my grandfather faught literal Nazi's in World War II alongside Russians. People forget that the Soviet Union were our allies in that war.
Glad Matt is ragging on these countries. I too, thought they were so "advanced" and we were savages. If we are so uncouth, then they won't miss our filthy lucre, will they? :)
Yes! A stupendous paragraph!
Between the UK grooming gangs coverup, their attacks on free speech, the covid intelligence they failed to share, and their demands for access to all our data.....at some point we have to wonder if we still want to be "special" friends instead of just normal friends, right?
Bankrolling their lifestyles didn't make them love us any more........
Don’t forget that the initial Russia Hoax was birthed in the UK by the CIA and their suck buddies in the shadowy European spy scene.
I think the Euro governments see us as 'friends with benefits' and they're now being told they're getting a relationship downgrade. Can't wait for them to try online dating!!
Or maybe like a sugar daddy that they occasionally had sex with (on dull weekends when no friends were in town).
Not only pay for their own stuff--like the military--there's all those "diversity imports" that are sucking at the government tit and turning major cities into third-world poverty pockets.
Meanwhile, Americans are getting over viewing Europe as one giant theme park of castles and canals. Maybe the English and the French countryside. But stay the hell out of Paris, London, and above all Amsterdam!
Yep. They flop on our couch and ask for sex.
For much too long, they’ve treated America like a vagrant who takes a dump on your doorstep, then rings the bell and asks for toilet paper.
lol...
This comes very close to being relevant. Your leaders have been taking dumps on your doorsteps for a very long time and when they ring the bell to ask for toilet paper you ask them if they'd like a blowjob with that.
Americans, eh?
Nothing better than a self appointed expert on all things that relate to American/european relations. I’m sure Europe is brimming with guys like this. Go back on vacation, dick head
It's always August for the elites of Europe.
Amen brother.
Maybe its time to see other people...
Actually they resent us and turn their noses up. Like a petulant child, they throw a temper tantrum and demand we give them more. And many of our citizenry protest that we feel disrespected.
Yes, this. But I think just the leadership and “ upper classes.” Normal everyday Europeans are nice & like Americans. Likely bc they see through the EU BS & we buy stuff.
They don’t need to love us cause they think we’re pretty stupid. America…the bottom floor of their Downton Abbey fantasy.
03/19/25: Wouldn't it be more affordable for America to maintain their "special relationship" with Europe by going to Reddit for its escort services?
"They" didn't do anything to you folks.
Your government and your masters in the economy did all that.
And why did you let them do that?
Because you are gullible halfwits so stuffed with ideological flatulence you have zero contact with reality.
Wait a minute. You're saying we have zero contact with reality? And the reason for this is that we're stuffed with ideological flatulence? Are you absolutely certain about this? Because if this is true, I think we all are in need of some serious lifestyle changes. Thanks.
No problem. I live to serve.
"Lifestyle changes" won't do it I fear. But very American of you to take it that way.
"Hey we aren't a democracy and our worldview is a fiction!"
"Right! Let's kick out the wetbacks, imprison the Blacks, and get the women back in the kitchen!"
"No way, racist sexist transphobe! Be vegan and adopt a trans child and pay for their castration!"
American politics, eh?
And every once in a while, we legislate an army to go help you from ending up speaking Deutsch.
Wie get es Ihnen, schweinhund?
lol... that old chestnut out of the fire and into the bedpan!
Friss meine Scheiße, Arschloch!
"Hey Duane! Go fight the Nazis! Dem's bad!" "Sher boss!"
"Hey Purdy Mouf! Go kill gooks! Dem's bad!" "Sher boss!"
"Hey MAGA freedumb fighter! Bend over and stick your head up your ass!"
"Sher boss! Sum lefties up in there?"
What in the fuck are you trying to instill in us?
How about you go fuck yourself? Just a thought
That's obviously your kink, you supine cumbucket.
You are funny!
Taking Russian lessons yet?
This translates to individual relations. Habitual freeloaders resent those they successfully put the touch on. I'm not sure how this works psychologically. Probably something like, "If this sucker is stupid enough to keep lending me money he knows I won't pay back, I'm going to keep hitting him up. This dumbass deserves to be taken."
Great article and perspective - appreciate that your experience offers some great relevance, ie you lived there and multiple places.
The question I have - why did we let this go on for so long without any pushback?
Thoughts?
I'm not a Trumpist by any means but it's really starting to look like the Orange One sort of gradually accidentally bulled, bullied and bullshitted himself into becoming the leader of the first global Peasants' Rebellion in history (to get as breathy as The Atlantic, if that's possible).
We're only 2 months out from "Inauguration 2: This Time He Means Business" and what a nest of incestuous corruption Donnie and his band of rebels have already revealed and attacked: the Dems and their network of NGOs, where their connected kids and friends get lucrative sinecures while getting to play "activist"; the universities and their endless slush funds, which keep them from having to dip into their enormous endowments; the US Govt subsidizing everything from global media orgs to astroturf resistance groups to paying to import then house and provide lawyers and docs to millions of "migrants", and then of course the racket that is our "security" arrangements, where the checks go from the Treasury and back to the politicians and their donors.
Donnie has become Hercules, cutting the heads off of the Hydra, which is why we're hearing such high-pitched screeching, on his way to cleaning out the Augean Stables.
And to think, this all started when Obama insulted him around 15 years ago at the WH Correspondents Dinner. Obama humiliated Trump on live TV and thought that the global machine he helmed could easily steamroll this ridiculous buffoon.
Hubris meet Nemesis!
Despite the fact that Michelle Obama is now podcasting on how we need to cope, don't for a minute think they aren't working hard to pull the strings. This multi-district lawfare has Obama's and Holder's fingerprints all over it.
This last election is a total repudiation of their way of thinking. The only thing they have left is financing Angry Organizing for America. And we reject that.
Watching that splashdown last evening was just beautiful. We want that. Not burning Teslas. Dems are being pretty stupid.
Democrats burning other democrats Teslas.
Made by the leading company in the fight for climate awareness, their favorite passion.
And who thinks you can fuck with a Tesla and get away with it? Don't they have like 11 or 12 cameras?
I just read that a guy caught on camera keying a Tesla had been arrested.
Beautiful.
Last night Gutfeld! did a story on this which was funny. Not only did the car cam capture the vandals facial images; they also don’t have the ninja stealthy wardrobe thing going on. One guy was wearing Lilo & Stitch pajama pants and the other guy had on orange pants with a black vest.
Although the best is in the New York Post today. Car cam video of guy on an ATV ramming into the Tesla in the China Buffet parking lot. The alleged perp was apprehended. He allegedly gave the police a false name. Our suspect reportedly is 5’2” and 449 lb.
These three examples were (allegedly) committed in broad daylight. People really believe there are no consequences for their tantrums. Why else . . .
I got the impression that so far, Mrs. Obama's podcast is a dud. Seems people are bored with her schtick now and aren't interested.
I always wondered who, exactly, liked her, as we were always hearing how "popular" she was.
She just seemed like a RACIST loafer to me. . .
I think I owned a pair of racist loafers back in the day.
Crap!
I knew I should have used the word “slacker.”
Damn! I was hoping for some inspiration. Oh well, there’s always Nancy Pelosi.
Hey man, if Taylor Swift's boyfriend's brother's wife can have a podcast, pretty much anyone can. And it seems like they all do.
Yes, but Michelles podcast is not shedding a good like on her man.
I'm not going back there.
Trump has managed to lift the shit off of the sleeping mushrooms in this country and bear us to the sun. It's a dirty job but It needed to happen. Thanks given! There is no unseeing the vast corruption that was being hidden from US citizens.
So now, the corruption is visible and greater than ever.
How could anyone know the size of something that was admittedly obscured? There is no telling how long it's been going on. I do find it amazing that they hid it under the guise of fake caring, climate initiatives and DEI. They practically told us where to look by shoving it down our throats. The whole DEI thing has always bewildered me. They like to make everything about race, gender and even religion when really it's always about income inequality which isn't even included in their phony DEI bullshit. It takes a certain kind of desensitized cruelty to hide your thievery among feeding the hungry and making everyone feel ashamed because some dude was feeling bad about being born with a weenie he didn't want. Like that was even on the same level as hungry children anyway. Then there is the climate stuff that people want but were exploited for . I'm relieved they are gone. I hope they aren't invited back.
It's been going on since humans first walked the earth and someone decided he/she had to be in charge. Be it presidents, prime ministers, kings, emperors, tribal chiefs or high muckymuks of any kind, corruption and exploitation have always been tools of their trade.
I too, am glad they are gone; but sadly, those who have replaced them are no better - they are just more blatant about it.
That remains to be seen. What is abundantly clear is the Democrats must never be put back in power. They have been completely exposed as undemocratic since at least 2016 and anytime anyone pointed out their corruption they doubled down with attitude and bad behavior. Remember when Bernie was going to "fix the party from within? " The last Presidential candidate that party actually allowed the people to choose was Obama. That was almost 20 years ago. The Democrats only got worse and their shenanigans more undemocratic to the point of wanting to end the first amendment because it was in the way of their "consensus". Remember the Iowa Caucus where for the first time in decades the newspaper poll wasn't published and when they put in a new system and Mayo Pete announced he had won but results didn't come for months later ( they completely skipped Iowa the next primary after decades of it being first.) but somehow an obvious senile guy who no one was going to see on the campaign trail (he couldn't fill high school auditoriums) and he was in like fifth place but miraculously now was in first place and was there a recount involved or something weird at that time? I wasn't born yesterday to believe such bullshit. Look at how the donors replaced Joe because he was going to lose, kept his war chest, gave it to Kamala, who like magic was then the nominee without a vote from anyone and everyone was told that it was legal under some corporate charter rule (because elections are now based on Democratic Party corporate charter rules.) Now with Democrats screaming about constitutional crisis after all of that and years of their propaganda and gaslighting abuse, the hollowness couldn't be any more clear. They can never be put in charge again. They do not respect the democratic process in this country. Seriously, preemptive, blanket pardons for people who used lawfare to kick someone beating them off the ballots? There is no going back. You do not take your abusers back even if they come bearing flowers and candy and promise never to hit you again. Even if they go to anger management or therapy.
Candi Wease - Well done! Comprehensive and yet devastatingly right to the point.
Damn! Well said. Wonder how long would it take for the republicans to act exactly the same way as demokrats?
It remains paramount to be a skeptic
Always question.
What a great line “lift the shit off us mushrooms”
THIS.
Greek epic poems meets WWF!
lol yes exactly
Hulk Hogan Tyrannus!
Donald the Giant!
"Hacksaw" JD Vance!
Elon "Billion Dollar Man" Musk!
Jesus...it's all becoming clear
The Magnificent Marco (Rubio)
Pete "The Hammer" Hegseth
I could do this all day!
Kash "Hitman" Patel
"Rowdy" Dan Bongino
"Pretty Girl" Pam Bondi
Tulsi "Superfly" Gabbard!
i submit!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1i1KZ2mV4U
"The first global Peasants' Rebellion in history." Yes, I think you have captured the moment in that phrase.
thanks
And Clinton recruited him to run so her election would be a slam dunk.
Very Greek.....I hope it's not all a Tragedy.....
Could be a comedy tho? We got all of those Leftie girls playing Lysistrata and part of the humor is how earnest they truly are about it...
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 Well put!
thanks!
Ahh, Clever, welcome to the fold. I’ve always liked your perspective and comments except the part where you define yourself as “I’m no Trumpist.” You just weren’t there yet, in that you didn’t see it yet. Trump has always been about “the people,” but they stained him mightily in 1st term & 20-24. Now they get their just desserts. You don’t have to be a “ Trumpist” (I emphatically am if that means I think he’s the best president in at least 50 years) to see what he’s accomplishing in a short period. And biggie-big-time Obama set this off in 2015. I wonder if he looks back on that as his biggest among many failures. He & all the other Dem politicians are being crushed in a tight vise from which there’s likely no return.
I don't love the Don, but I don't hate him either.
I understand why people support him (much of my family does) and I certainly cheer for him when he guts some bureaucrats, mocks some sanctimonious journalists and sends the SJW Thought Police scurrying like roaches...
I worked at a Trump property in NYC in the 80s, so I have some personal reasons why I could never vote for or actively support him, but as you can see, I do get him and enjoy watching him play Groucho to the liberal Margaret Dumonts.
Love or hate him or otherwise, there's no denying that the man is hilarious. He reminds me of that other famous Don, Rickles, who was also a killer insult comic.
I hadn’t thought of Don Rickles, but there’s definitely a comparison there!! I think the difference this time is after the intense lawfare and then the double attempted assassinations, I think his mind focused and by a large margin. As did other people, maybe like you, who were sort of on the margins. And now his team is fierce and I freaking love it. I probably am so certain about him because my sister is a hard-core dumbass leftist, wrong about everything, like all the climate/gender/DEI/ESG/social justice Warriors (warriors=losers). One of the wailers now. So I feel like it’s also just desserts for me.
I think Trump was focused well before that time. He got there in Jan of 2017 with a rosy view of government and how he would make it work. He discovered the reality was much different. When they stole the 2020 election I think he went to work surrounding himself with people he could trust to wargame out so to speak what he would do next time to really drain the swamp. The democrats then did the silliest of things by making Trump a sympathetic character with the lawfare and eventually two assassination attempts.
We now know why they feared him so much, as Clever so eloquently summarized up above. I remind people who think Trump is dumb or a goofball to be very careful making flippant assessments of your adversaries' capabilities.
He is most certainly not dumb, and in the space of two months has pretty much forced the democrats to take the 20/30 position on every 80/20 issue in the country.
YES JIM, yes to all. I always wonder why they think Trump could possibly be dumb when he constantly outfoxes all of them & they just keep losing & looking stupid. I guess they were lulled into a cozy cocoon when they had "Biden" in office & an outrageous censorship regime + corrupt media + a massive NGO cabal funding every globalist/leftist cause of the moment. Ahh, the reckoning is sweet!
Seems plausible. But Trump will figure out a way to fuck it up.
He didn’t fuck it up last time. A mysterious virus emerged that our deep state lied to us about
That virus totally jumped from a bat to a human. The scientists told us.
Oh yes, the scientists🤣
You are confusing him with the people in the R party who never came to his defense for the last 10 years.
Nice! 😂 Fun to watch all this unfold, isn’t it?
it really is, every day is like a cross bw Christmas and a Marx Bros movie
Except there's that little bit that says our Republic is rotten at its core...
I don't believe good guys, even semi- good guys/bullshit slingers like Trump always win.
Clever Pseudonym - Wow! You absolutely nailed it, and in such an expressive and arresting manner too. This equals Matt at his best. Hands down winner for a Taibbi(better than a Pulitzer)Prize.
thanks!
cheers
Yes. That dinner was where it began! You can’t make this stuff up.
Its interesting right?
Bear with me here, from a vedantic perspective this is a dark age we are in and the only solution one has is to pit darkness against darknes to try and alchemize some light.
To this effect we have: Trump's wounded ego versus the Huberis of the deep state and now NATO. Trump's ignorance of the system versus, "everything is so rotten that if you poke it or turn anything over by just being curious or even uncareful you automaticall send rats fleeing and alow sunlight to start disinfecting things." Trump's vindictiveness against systems of power that attempt to silence people it doesn't like such as him. Trump's "this isn't my club so I am not paying the dues or respecting the bylaws and traditions", to endless shady systems and schemes globally that apparently all relied a great deal on compliance from American presidents. Trump stocking some "creatures" for his perferd "swamp" that replace alternately aligned swamp creatures from a different type of swamp and also fight the rest giving the peasants a rare taste of "divide and conquor" in their favor. Etc...
Trump is alchemizing light by pitting his darkness against greater darkness.
It's not possible to get as breathy as The Atlantic.
Man, Half-Black Jesus stepped into a big ol' cowpie at the correspondents dinner.
It was pretty funny at the time, as Donnie is such a flaming rectum who loves dishing it out but can't take it. Who knew he would transform into Orange Julius?
100% CORRECT. Europe is the older brother who is a career "student" who lectures you at the Thanksgiving dinner table about the evils of capitalism, all the while he's being supported by your parents, while you are out busting your ass.
Great description, Rene. Is there also one for Israel?
That is basically what they are doing with their ultra-hawkish Russia stances. Easy to talk tough when someone else has to back it up.
The option to grow the economy to pay for a military buildup is not even considered.
Europe is poor and its economies have stagnated. The per capita GDP of Britain is less than Mississippi.
They can’t afford a military buildup. The pledged 800 billion Euros is overstated. It’ll be a quarter of that and will take some creative accounting to get there.
I didn't believe your claim that British GDP/ capita is less than that of Mississippi, our poorest state. But I checked and it appears to be. Crazy! I had no idea.
No, he's right. Europe is in big trouble. The EU is essentially broke, really really really broke. So be it, they did it to themselves. I'm just glad we're turning off the spigot.
Now which one first succumbs to Islamic governance? Thats the really interesting question, and also when things get really really really really interesting!
I foresee something akin to all those movies that depict the squabbling amongst the offspring, after the well to do family patriarch dies and leaves them nothing in the will.
I see the “Black Knight” from Monty Python when I think of the EU.
700 billion? Bah, it's just a flesh wound.
Tis but a scratch.
“Running away, eh? You yellow bastard!”
They have spent the last 5 decades decrying the capitalism that the US used to fund their lesiure. Now they don't have a system that will let them grow and they don't know how economic growth happens. Since they aren't having children either, their problems will soon enough be solved.
Well-stated.
I think it is possible that in 20 years the US, Russia, China, and maybe a few other BRIC countries will be allies fighting the Caliphate, which will by then include Europe, if not Canada, and Mexico.
Its possible. I don't think Mexico would be in that mix though. They are still a devout Judaeo Christian country. Canada might be a toss up. But times are going to get interesting for sure.
Mexico doesn't allow non citizens to do much of anything.
....and they are Broke in more ways than one.....
Don’t look now, but so is Canada’s.
Everybody goes off on Trump. But that conversation in Mar a Lago went down when Trump said he's going to cut off the tariff imbalance which subsidizes Canada to the tune of about $5k per citizen. Trudeau said "Canada will cease to exist as a country." To which Trump replied "Then Canada can become a state and you can be it's governor." But somehow Trump is the villain here.
That $5k per tariff figure is interesting. Where did you see it? I might like to use it.
There's about 40m Canadians. $200B/40M is $5k.
I wasn't an econ major. I thought the $200 billion was our trade deficit, not the tariff deficit.
03/19/25: Breeding mosquitos apparently is a real cash business!
Outside of London being Wall St in EU...what exactly do Europeans produce/build/create?
Yeahhhh...there's no there there.
It's where Melania gets all her gowns, so they have that going for them.
As Eugyppius pointed out, big portions of the "military spending" buildup in Germany will go to Green party perogatives that have zero relationship to anything resembling actual defense spending. For Germany, it's all about nomenclature over substance.
And to the armoured personal cariers that have been designed to carry pregnant soldiers safely.
battery powered
Love that guy's stuff.
Everyone else on that continent should be juuuuuuust a bit nervous about a German with a military budget.
Not just stagnated - - What could you call Germany's premature retirement of perfectly functional nuclear plants, and the other parts of their Energiewende, other than self-sabotage?
How about just plain stupidity?
These groups are self-driven but have always been helped along by Russia funding. Increasing dependence on Russia gas has been a Kremlin goal and they spent heavily, including buying Gerhard Schroeder as a lobbyist for 20 years.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/schroder-russia-links-germany-putin-b2048009.html
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/jun/19/russia-secretly-working-with-environmentalists-to-oppose-fracking
But, like, striving and capitalism is icky. And also racist and unfair.
Europe, including UK, doesn't have an empire of colonies from which it can steal resources anymore, is part of the answer.
They have an even larger problem. Who's going to fight for them? Certainly not their aging native populations. Certainly not the recent imports.
And, truth be told, why the hell do they need a military buildup? If they (along with us sadly) just stopped killing people all over the place for the MIC war pigs, then we could all have a military sized for common sense defense.
exactly and that is what the people in each of their countries will realise eventually and maybe be able to get their respective governments in place to achieve that
"The option to grow the economy to pay for a military buildup is not even considered."
Another thing Europe is going to have to give up is some of its luxury economic beliefs.
The EU economy has stagnated for the last twenty years, due to overregulation and in particular for the concept of energy "Net Zero", which provides no economic benefit to Europe, but allowed Europe's elites to feel superior to everyone else.
That may prove to be too expensive if they have to pay for a vastly expanded military.
It may be easier to learn Russian, or maybe Arabic.
I took that "pledge" as typical politician lip service. Does anyone believe what a politician spouts in front of scheduled media appearances?
How did Europe become broke, if you happen to know? It can't be only spending on social programs, because that money came primarily from not spending on large militaries. Is business down that much in Europe?
They have for the most part become 100% energy dependent, with the exception of France. Germany's economy was the engine, and then Merkel said go green, turn off all coal, nuclear, and anything else thats not green. But the industrial base needs affordable energy, had it to a degree with cheap Russian gas, but no more. Western Europe has sent more money to Russia for energy than they've provided Ukraine. They talk help Ukraine, send them some money and weapons, but fund the war machine bent on destroying it. Then want us to bail their asses out and protect them at the same time. Nope. No more.
Well, could paying for housing, food, health care, phones for all the illegal immigrants have contributed to this? Like in Illinois, our governor is cutting off free healthcare for 50,000 illegal immigrants because, frankly, we do not have the money. When will these politicians see that frankly, my dear, we do not have the money!
We haven't had the money for decades, and they are well aware of that.
We’ve always had enough money but you let the robber barons lock it up in their banks and then enforce austerity on the rest of us smh
Would that be Governor I'm A Real Billionaire (who made the money the old-fashioned way--inheritance)?
That’s what happens to an economy that glorifies leisure and nobody wants to work.
Can count on one hand the # of new large EU businesses in last 20 years. Those that come to mind are ASML, Spotify, ASOS and mRNA vaccine producer, Biontech. The only one valuable to the entire world is ASML (computer chip machine maker)
If you believe Peter Zeihan, it's all due to population collapse. I'm not saying he's 100% right, but it does explain Europe's desperate move to open the immigration gates. They don't have enough Europeans to prop up their welfare state. Trump pulling our support simply accelerated Europe's speeding around a sharp turn and careening off a cliff.
Could you elaborate on your Britain/Mississippi numbers? Perplexity sez:
Mississippi
• Total GDP: Mississippi’s GDP is approximately $146 billion, comparable to the economy of Morocco.
• GDP per Capita: In Q3 2024, Mississippi’s GDP per capita was $53,872 (€49,780), which is higher than most European countries except Germany and a few others.
England (as part of the UK)
• Total GDP: The UK’s total GDP in 2024 was estimated at around $3.7 trillion, with England contributing the majority due to its size and economic activity.
• GDP per Capita: The UK’s GDP per capita in 2024 was approximately $51,000 (€48,441), slightly lower than Mississippi’s.
I’m going off an article in Euronews:
https://www.euronews.com/business/2025/01/03/the-poorest-us-state-rivals-germany-gdp-per-capita-in-the-us-and-europe
Europeans do comparatively better if you adjust for purchasing power. Overall, though, Europe’s per capita PPP is still about 3/4 of the US.
We are lapping Europe due to our risk taking culture, ability to attract best talent via brain drain, and the venture capital model.
In 2004 France's GDP Per cap was 80% of USA. Today it's 55%. That 25% drop is about median for European countries. Tax havens like Ireland and Switzerland are keeping pace. Others are falling behind drastically. Turns out that the famed American work ethic actually yields direct economic advantage. Who knew that working hard could yield more?
It's going to be cheaper for Europe to retool the Putin is a Predator narrative. But it may take a few years.
THey can. But then they won't be able to afford other things. Of course they could just learn Russian or maybe Arabic.
Is there a way to put 1,000 likes on this article?
03/19/25: Exhausted Index Fingers Inc. says, "Yes."
🤣
I worked for a time as a preservation archaeologist at Mesa Verde National Park - the pueblos deteriorate, we fixed them. One day in 2012 we went to a presentation by a visiting Italian preservation archaeologist about the work he’d been doing on a Roman villa in Sicily. The extent and cost of the work he presented was, to our constantly cash-strapped eyes, incredible.
I left thinking how in hell does Italy, then counted among the PIGS (Portugal, Italy, Greece, Spain) - the economies so underwater that they threatened to crash the Euro - have the money to do all this elaborate preservation work on some random Roman site in Sicily, and we don’t have a pot to piss in?!
Then I remembered, we’d been bankrolling their defense for 70 years.
functional hypocrite ( great moniker) & appreciate the work you did in Mesa Verde; been there many times.
The next entitled group that needs to be reigned in are elected politicians that use inside information to get rich in the American stock market.
Term limits and no stock trading.
Don’t forget, no pension, but a 401k and Social Security. Oh, and Medicare if they qualify like everyone else.
Again…i know this i s futile, but reign and rein are two different words…there is no “k” sound in etcetera…it’s is not possessive (i have some sympathy for this one)…and thanks for your post!
“
And I once had a boss who suggested to me that it would be "politicians who..." vs. politicians that...
Didn’t mean to imply that you had committed these errors
Ha ! Ha! Ha ! They'll all leave Washington......Turn off the spigot and dry out the Swamp....all the tadpoles will shrivel.......
Elected officials and family member inside Non-Profits and NGO's. Did anyone ever wonder why spouses of Gov't officials(and Democrats, Media) have different last names? Harder to trace affiliations to grifting our tax $
We have people sleeping under every bridge in America, a rampant drug epidemic that is only subsiding a bit now because the forest fire of fentanyl is running out of trees to burn, and out of control living costs because NIMBYs refuse to allow new housing. We somehow don't have the money to fix any of these issues, however we need to protect Israel and Europe for the rest of time because why? So THEY can enjoy free everything? Fuck that.
With respect, I suggest the American ills you listed are because of the same sorts of delusional policies that screwed up Europe. I agree that we need to keep more dollars at home, but we also need to have some rational sense.
I believe Israel buys our military weapons and shares intelligence, whereas Europe enjoys having our troops in country pro bono.
We have been shedding blood (350-400k dead in WWI and WWII) and money for Europe for more than 100 years and guaranteeing its security for the last 80. The Cold War has been over for 35. People like "Herr" Starmer and the WEF people with German accents want to get rid of our free speech. For the life of me, I do not know why Ukraine is our problem other than DC types who are reliving the 80s and see Soviet tanks in the Fulda Gap just around the corner. These people are so stupid, they forget the Soviets were our allies in WWII and wind up unthinkingly saluting Nazis in recent memory. The Russians of today are no more "enemies" than the Germans, Japanese, or Italians of today are. Have they done something we disagree with. Yes. Does it affect our vital interest no. So, yeah, Europe, you are officially grownups. This is your problem. I am sure with the combined "might" of France, Germany, and the UK, you can defeat the Czar this time!
To be fair Uncle Sam gets much of the blame for the current shit-show in Ukraine.
Yes, but particular "Uncle Sam's" like old fool Biden and his statement about maybe a little incursion was OK and the neocons, Victoria Nuland, and all the DC types as I call them.
Joe "Warmonger" Biden in his aviator shades, who regales people with the story of how his uncle got eaten by cannibals and who was shoved in by the Democrat's machine, which saw their stocks soar with the expenditures of borrowed money.
It would be "ALL" the blame, but in a plot-twist that would make J. K. Rowling wince, it turns out the primary pusher for WW3 has been none other than...:
Great Britain, the Eddie Haskell of Empires.
"Great Britain, the Eddie Haskell of Empires."
Well done, sir. Tho you have to be of a certain age to get the reference. "You sure look lovely today Mrs America".
"I was just telling young Theodore..." haha
My what a lovely frock you have on.
I'm actually much younger than that, never seen the show and it doesn't sound like I'd care for it - but it's not like one can't hear of these things after their time!
"I Love Lucy", "I Dream of Jeannie", the 3 Stooges, the Marx Brothers, Monty Python above all - I grew up on these and more (and I've recently discovered "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In", easily available online).
And, gee, it's not like you need to need to be 3,000 years old to "get the reference" if someone brings up, say, the Upanishads...!
That's exactly right. And Korea, and Viet Nam, and Iraq, and Afghanistan.
Well, no shit Science… because uncle sam started it!
In my personal opinion, Europe is more of an enemy than Russia. The UK wants unfettered access to all Apple data. The EU demands censorship. Those soon-to-be dictatorships are trying to bleed their authoritarianism over onto the US.
Edited for embarrassing typos. 🤦
Actually, it was our Democrat friends who were encouraging them to do this and were working on it here themselves right up till Elon bought Twitter and ruined it all.
I've always thought that under the right circumstances, the 2 countries could be fast friends, if not allies. Of course we were allies during WWII.
It's probably the only Christian country left in Europe. And the US is fairly Christian, too, so they have that in common.
Is UK a Christian country?
Last I heard.
It's probably darker than that. Russia has great reserves of natural resources. The West was very happy with the state of affairs when Russia was a shamble and run by corrupt and pliant buffoons. We had plans to turn Russia into a third world resource extraction zone. Putin ruined that for them and they hate him for that.
Gee, Americans could learn to deal fairly for things they want, ya know, fair deals. Trading on the up-and-up. As equals.
Having a Big Mac in Moscow was one thing but to have Citi-bank was not going to happen. The Russian paranoia from being invaded so many times might have had the effect of hanging onto Marxism. The vast resources of Ukraine and Russia are a tempting target after China kicked out the WEF accountants.
Yeah, but what else can you do but send American boys to fight when the Archduke Ferdinand gets shot?
Well . . . you are being disingenuous there. Actually it was three years after the Archduke was shot when German submarines started indiscriminately drowning civilians-including Americans.
Wish I could have used a laugh emoji- that was good!
For the life of me, I do not know why people don't know why the US spends so much on defense.
Did anyone hear Hillary Clinton at World Forum?
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2025/03/19/hillary_clinton_autocracy_is_on_the_march_the_united_states_has_made_a_choice_to_support_those_who_wage_war_not_peace.html
The Ukrainians and Russians have been at each others throats for generations.... Ukrainians will never forget the Holodomor.....or forgive Chernobyl for that matter. The boot of the oppressor is on their back....too, too long...'Little Russians ' resent the intimidation and forceful banning of their language in ancient days......They are guilty of Pride......which 'goeth before a Fall'.....(Israel, look out !)
Israel was lulled to sleep by the US and the EU and played along with the coddling of Hamas. Nothing Hamas did was outside what it said its intentions were. Nothing that happened in Gaza wasn't funded by the USA and the EU among others. We knew, or should have known that Oct 7 was inevitable. We chose to ignore it. Those silly hamas folks don't mean it!! They are such nice people... I don't think Israel is in a mood to ignore it anymore. Even if we want to.
Israel's problems began long before when European Zionists (not meant as a pejorative, but referring to Theodor Hertzl, et al.) decided to return to the Promised Land, unwilling to accept that it wasn't nearly so promising after 1500 years of habitation by Muslims who think they have the better, that is, most recent claim.
So there you have it; two Abrahamic peoples believing with Semitic certainty that G-d has given one primacy over the other with no regard for mercy or humanity on the part of either. Guaranteed murder and mayhem as far ahead as can be ascertained forever. An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth until all are blind and toothless.
As a European, I feel seen lol.
What a clusterfuck we are.
Can't believe how little it took for all the gratefulness towards US to vanish. ~100 years of being there to help us (and let us freeload), when we were fucking ourselves over on the continent. Old grudges and petty fallen overly proud empires awash.
Few things we have plenty of though. Arrogance and hubris.
Have the feeling European Central Bank will become involved in this too, like they have been buying worthless bonds in Southern Europe ever since 2008.
There is also a lot of noise re. the proposed Central Bank Digital Currency that is coming in October.
One way out, cancel all the climate change projects and use on military, but doubt very much that will happen.
None of these countries are truly democratic (including the US), so it's important to distinguish between the people and their so-called leaders.
We can't be bothered to pick our leaders. 40% don't bother to vote (a plurality that would win every election). But now with vote harvesting, they still don't have to bother. Not that it matters because both political parties are essentially grift machines. Something our founders well understood when they created a "limited" government. But we couldn't keep it because the grifters never sleep, and we never wake up. Most of what most people believe on both sides is quite frankly not actually true. It is very hard to see past the disinformation and preferred narratives we are continuously fed. What is true is that government is a grift machine. It has no reason to do a good job at anything.
Always is, agree.
In my little cosmos here in Northen Europe though, I have around 1-2% of people I know saying anything nice about US incl. Americans. Maybe it's too anecdotal to be a common thing, I don't know.
My 27 years in South Texas were a dream ! Wonderful people, fabulous friends and mountains of memories in abundance to fuel my aging brain ! The people are NOT the sick, power elite.....never have been, never will be.....
My memories from having visited anywhere in US, also in Southern Texas, are filled with great people. Always loved the hospitality of Americans and the people is always the main thing.
Well, bigotry certainly isn’t an exclusive domain of Americans.
Europe is just a decade or two ahead of us here in the USA. We are heading that way as shown by our deficits and general lack of control.
........and, and, great cheese and chocolate !
Damn Susan…I coughed up my soda laughing out loud! Thank you indeed!
You are very Welcomed Sir !
HAHA true.
Listen, it's NOT all bad.. politically, economically maybe, but culturally. The beauty of especially old places and the incredible cuisine etc, it's maddening good. I've lived in Southern Europe and I miss it every day.
I stayed in Paris in 1973 with my 6 year old son , Andrew, on our voyage to meet up with my husband in Denmark ( his homeland ). I took my son and my friends’ 5 year old to the Louvre so I could see the Mona Lisa. Ashley the 5 year old started grabbing the penis of a marble statue and the attendant nearby yelled ‘ fais attention’ then escorted us promptly out the door onto the street ! . Kicked out of the Louvre !!! Memories
Haha what a turn that museum trip took.
Denmark ay? Well that is where I am from too, and am living once again now. I'm from Western Jutland and live in Odense now, known as the birthtown of H. C. Andersen mostly. It's a pretty old town though. Settled more than 4000 years ago, first time mentioned in writing in 988.
Where's your husband from?
He too is from Odense…. Emigrated to Canada in 1956….
Oh wauw, pretty cool. I am not from here (Odense), but have lived here for past 6-7 years.
Stayed in Chartres ( Paris was too expensive ) we were startled by the quiet ‘ whooshing ‘ of bicycles flying past us on the street one morning in 1990… twas the peloton of the Tour de France! Then the Cathedral and Versailles ! INCROYABLE !!!
Wonderful memory. I was never in Chartres, but lived north of Paris (Compiegne) and right next to Sacre Coeur in Paris for 1.5 years back in 2008. Will never tire of walking around Paris.
Yes, great walking and bicycling cities in Europe. …we here could benefit from something like that. We bicycled all around the island of Børnholm in 1992 and tented in campgrounds.
I’ve always thought people in Europe look down on Americans in some strange way …. They only read crappy, dark news about the country tho’ as do my Canadian neighbours, so they think it’s all trash. Biases abound.
Most definitely. I sadly hear it all the time and I often challenge the belief, which when digging down IS always from either media or social media. It's never personal experiences. If they know any Americans, they are the exceptions to the rule.
I always encourage people to go there, meet people, talk with them. Which is really the same for every country on Earth. The media narrative is always bs.
Most of the ones I challenge either don't want to go or only want to go as tourists to see the landmarks etc.
I guy I know here just went to San Fran to a convention. Ironically he asked if anyone knew of there being a protest of the US GOV at the convention. I find that almost unbelievable. He's caught up in the media narrative and he's not a bad dude, but that behavior is so incredibly wrong and hypocritical I don't even know where to start.
80% of the news is negative (I tested this recently) and about USA it's much closer to 100%. Tesla, Elon, Trump, Vance etc also very close to 100%.
It's no wonder people don't know any better. They grew up trusting the news to a T.
Absolute Ditto !
A bit less immigration in Denmark (where I am from) than some of the other countries in the last few years, because we started having opposition against it 10-15 years ago.
Started getting especially Turkish migrants up here on invitation in the 60s, because we lacked workers. Most 1st gen and to some extent 2nd gen worked out fine and I know many Turks and Curds, 1st and 2nd gen.
It was the massive immigration later on that caused problems. No society is equipped to handle this well, at least if there is free wellfare.
Re. the military - they're drumming up PR for it here again, but I don't know what the numbers are. I'm guessing low as well. We have all grown up being used to America protecting us and taking that for granted. I served in 1993, but stopped when I was given the choice of going to Bosnia in a white tincan that was used for firing practise by all 3 sides in the war without even the right to fire back (that changed later).
I remember visiting a friend in Berlin in 2011. There was a piece on TV about Obamacare. She looked at me and told me how she was so happy that America was finally going to have decent healthcare without the giant price tag, like Germany and the rest of Europe. She shamed my country and made me embarrassed. I was non-political and didn't have a comeback. I lived in the UK for a time and you could literally die from an ingrown toenail because there was no appointment available until next August because their healthcare was nationalized. Now I would have plenty to say...plenty too much.
There are SO many snake holes to go down with your article. Everyday, a whole other aspect of just how hard we were funding the world comes out and I want to scream.
"I lived in the UK for a time and you could literally die from an ingrown toenail because there was no appointment available until next August because their healthcare was nationalized."
Interesting conclusion. Increasing wait times definitely couldn't be because the NHS is grossly underfunded on purpose by Tories & Labour so they can then turnaround and point to it and say "see! public healthcare isn't working! we need to privatize it so our corporate masters can make profits off of your illnesses! Commodify sickness and disease! We want to be more like America who spends the most on their healthcare system and has the worst public health as a result!"
As someone who's lived in both America & the UK, I'll take the UK system every day of the week. The peace of mind of walking into A&E for treatment knowing you won't be walking out with a massive fucking bill that can bankrupt you afterwards is priceless.
If Obama had actually given Americans a public healthcare system, which "Obamacare" was not, it was just a mandated private insurance scheme, Americans would've elected him until he was dead, if they could.
Totally. And the US has huge wait times too, and that's only if you have everything pre-approved and in-network.
I had a bff English nurse. She had not many good things to say about the nhs. With all the vacation and bank holidays they constantly had to hire private nurses to cover all the shifts on vacation. Which obviously was a drain on the budget. Then I seen the numerous physicians who complain about the low pay they receive. Of course the wait lists for operations.
National health in America is a joke. Most with low pay have the option already for charity care. Wealthy can afford insurance it is always the middle class who may have a home who get screwed. Obama care was a huge disaster. No we could not keep our own doctors. The healthcare system here has already been centralized for the most part as doctors csn no longer afford to carry the umbrella insurance against lawsuits so the get hired by a large group who control how they doctor. They now spend most of the time inputting data into the system as opposed to listening to their patients. The insurance business is run by a few big corporations and is overpaid. As are the hospitals. Everything is becoming centralized in preparation for the one world government? Seems that way.
I guess my point in all this was...America was subsidizing Europe so hard that they could afford to have healthcare like this while we were working our butts off so they could.
And my friends in the UK all have private insurance because they have enough money to be able to do that.
Yes, that dread of the medical bill at the end of a treatment in the USA is really bad, but it is negotiable. After the last 5 years I am staying as healthy as I can and have quit my job as a rodeo clown so I don't plan on submitting myself to the healthcare system...EVER.
Honestly I'm disappointed in Matt's framing of this issue that America has been subsidizing Europe's security at the American taxpayer's expense, as if the US government has any benevolent intentions in any project it funds. The US government has made Europe less safe with its obsession of NATO enlargement towards Russia's borders, doing nothing but enriching US weapons manufactures that profit from NATO expansion, and provoking Russia in the process. If NATO dies because the US is going to cease or decrease support, good riddance. NATO should have died alongside the Warsaw Pact. The threat of Russian expansion into Europe is nothing but fear-mongering from those who seek to benefit from Russia's downfall and isolation. Europe has no imminent security threats that requires a giant military expenditure to defend itself from. Listen to Matt & Walter's podcast from last week, they even admit as much, that Russia is not the aggressor. They were provoked to respond to a legitimate security threat of having NATO on its doorstep.
As someone who is coming up for air after raising a family with a husband who has been away at sea a lot of the time, it is interesting to look behind me and see how entrenched I was in the checker board. Hubs was USN and also worked for a defense contractor that took us to the UK and onto an RAF base. Then my daughter was stationed there when she joined the USAF. So, we lived in England and had a hell of a time. But we were the 80's model. Daughter was 2012 model. I absolutely believe that NATO is dead weight...and God forbid we actually listen and approve of the speech given by Putin 3 years ago before he 'invaded' ukraine. And the way the whole world cancelled Russia at the same time? Hello BRICS. Thank you for the great conversation. I really appreciate it and your time.
I also find it interesting that Europe is singled out, but Israel isn't mentioned? Really? On top of the $3-4 billion Israel receives every year, they received at least an additional $18 billion since Oct 7 to wage their genocidal slaughter against Palestinians.
Israel also has public health care. Americans are subsidizing that.
True, but we still have a really goofed up health care system.
Gamed health care system. Nothing this lucrative is by accident.
Goofed up is too polite.
But it still is a hell of a lot better than letting DC run it (and all those imbecile democrats).
Europe is in bad shape but according to Ursula yonder Leven Russia's economy is in "tatters", they have to cannibalize computer chips from washing machines.
When she was Germany's Minister of Defense the German Army had to participate in war games using broom sticks instead of rifles. And just because she is said to have gotten rich through her husband's big pharma connections during covid, there is no reason to think she will grift off military spending too.
She would never do such a thing!
That woman is every Gestapo officers' ideal of an Aryan Goddess Lover. She gives me the Heebie Jeebies.
Sure they had to cannibalize computer chips. Surely China would NEVER sell them any....
The post of the year, so far. Well said, Mr. Taibbi! The fact that this exercise in economic logic is so surprising to so many people doesn't speak well for our educational system...or theirs.
Agreed. But as I thought more about it, I can't help but wonder if the Education Systems are working exactly as designed, i.e., as an indoctrination system. I watched my (now) 26 year-old son enter Univ of Vermont an open-minded, independent thinker, only to emerge as a regurgitator of left-wing narratives with little interest or respect for most conflicting viewpoints. I pray the Real World will restore his ability to think for himself!
Same for my beautiful granddaughter who now resides in L.A.
Nothing will ever be the same. THAT is why Teslas are torched, Tim Walz wants to beat everybody up, and Gavin Newsom is twitching his way through podcasts. It's kind of glorious, isn't it?
Tim Walz couldn’t whip his way out of a wet paper bag.
Claiming to want to beat up his opponents is what put Biden over the top so I thought. Maybe Walz learned something from the master?
I’m a 60+ cancer survivor with post surgery lymphedema in both legs, and a few other ailments, who hasn’t been in a fight since high school (my one and only); and I’m pretty sure I could take Tim Walz in a cage match. I think I qualify as an opponent of Tim Walz. If he’s willing, he can take a shot at me. 😉 We can save you younger opponents for any tussles with the odd Darth Vader federal district court justices that may come up. Judge Chutkan seems like she’d be a whole lot tougher than Tampon Tim! 🙂
I take exception when Matt writes that this is “our fault.” I never voted for it, and I doubt that Matt did, or most of those reading this, or most Americans at all.
We were lied to. The politicians lied and the media and academics and the permanent ruling class lied along with them. About damn near everything. About the “need” for NATO; about its cost; about the need for full blown wars with no realistic end point in Afghanistan and Iraq. About the need and wisdom to support European interventions in the Balkans and Libya and a dozen other places. About what we were spending our money on, and why, and who really benefitted— foreign and domestic.
Everything.
And USAID vigorously refused to be audited or questioned, and it took a sledge hammer of Zoomer autists and the latest AI tools to crack their arcane criminal code of endless pass-throughs, and lay bare the breathtaking grift, corruption, and sinecures for all to see.
No, we weren't paying attention, which IS our fault.
Fomenting the Maidan revolution in Ukraine was a major mistake. These people (e.g., Victoria Nuland) never think about the consequences of what they do.
I think you are citing facts not in evidence. What makes you think Nuland didn't intend the consequences? I'd at least like to see some evidence for the claim that it was unintentional.
Exactly what she and her ilk intended.
In the US elections over the past 15 years or so, who were our options that could have changed this trajectory? 13% of people vote in primaries, and we get candidates they choose, and the candidates know who these 13% who vote are.
"...we get candidates they choose..."
You must not vote in the Democratic primaries. We get the candidates the the party leadership chooses. And this year, we got the candidate that only the President chose.
I lean left but not the faux Democrat left. The only two candidates I have expressed any enthusiasm for are Bernie Sanders and for a very brief moment, John Edwards. Was seduced a bit by Obama but his complete Wall Street capitulation in early on and then allowing HRC and Biden to wreak havoc in Ukraine against his much better judgement.