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#1

Off the Record / Re: [Canada] Canadian Politics...

Last post by Jacob - Today at 09:49:55 PM

If I were Conservative I would feel betrayed.

I do wonder what the impetus for crossing was.

#2

Off the Record / Re: What does a TRUMP presiden...

Last post by Jacob - Today at 09:45:40 PM

The signalling is crystal clear. The question is when the first unequivocal and momentous action are taken by the American Oligarchs First Party in control of the US government.

When the rupture comes it won't be a surprise - it's obviously coming - but the question is where, when, and what?

In the immediate term, the strategy of the American Oligarchs is to try to turn enough individual European countries into Hungary-likes using social media and tariffs that the EU falls apart. Will it work? And if it doesn't, what comes next?

#3

Off the Record / Re: What does a TRUMP presiden...

Last post by Valmy - Today at 09:21:44 PM

Anyone in Europe that didn't already understand that MAGA is their deadly enemy has no more excuses. While it is true that the document looks like it was written by a Russian Middle School student to engorge Trump's penis, but it's the official policy of the US now.  NATO is dead.

Yeah. Wake the fuck up Europe. The United States is the enemy of every civilized country in the world. Just ask Canada. We will bully, we will murder, we will do every dastardly evil thing for...no particular reason. Just to fuck around and find out I guess.

We will nuke London because of Fentanyl.

Nobody is coming to fucking save you. Look to yourselves.

#4

Off the Record / Re: What does a TRUMP presiden...

Last post by Valmy - Today at 09:20:28 PM

I fear the European leaders are convincing themselves that all they need to do is survive 4 years to have a Democrat in the White House again, resetting time to like 2014. Ain't gonna happen.

Show strength to Trump he might get wet enough between his legs like with Putin to start showing respect.

That's so stupid. Even if a Democrat does return Trump has clearly demonstrated a large minority of Americans are their bitter enemies and will return their foes to power over and over again.

#5

Off the Record / Re: What does a TRUMP presiden...

Last post by Valmy - Today at 09:12:58 PM

America first...which means working to overthrow foreign governments around the globe.

And apparantly the United States, and not European govenments, speak for the people of Europe.

Trump himself has never once gotten the majority of American votes in any election so that's kind of rich.

[But this economic decline is eclipsed by the real and more stark prospect of civilizational erasure. The larger issues facing Europe include activities of the European Union and other transnational bodies that undermine political liberty and sovereignty, migration policies that are transforming the continent and creating strife, censorship of free speech and suppression of political opposition, cratering birthrates, and loss of national identities and self-confidence.]

#6

Off the Record / Re: What does a TRUMP presiden...

Last post by Savonarola - Today at 06:51:14 PM

Ander Puck Nielsen just released a vid on the Trump administration's new National Security Policy.

Lots and lots of incredible shit here. Basically, the Trump administration doesn't give a shit about Russia or China, but instead believes that the most essential and immediate task for the US in foreign policy is to overthrow any European government that isn't already MAGA-adjacent.

Anyone in Europe that didn't already understand that MAGA is their deadly enemy has no more excuses. While it is true that the document looks like it was written by a Russian Middle School student to engorge Trump's penis, but it's the official policy of the US now.  NATO is dead.

It can be found in it's entirety here.  The part dealing with Europe may not be shocking anymore, but it is flat out offensive:

C. Promoting European Greatness

American officials have become used to thinking about European problems in
terms of insufficient military spending and economic stagnation. There is truth to
this, but Europe's real problems are even deeper.

Continental Europe has been losing share of global GDP—down from 25 percent
in 1990 to 14 percent today—partly owing to national and transnational regulations
that undermine creativity and industriousness.

But this economic decline is eclipsed by the real and more stark prospect of
civilizational erasure. The larger issues facing Europe include activities of the
European Union and other transnational bodies that undermine political liberty and
sovereignty, migration policies that are transforming the continent and creating
strife, censorship of free speech and suppression of political opposition, cratering
birthrates, and loss of national identities and self-confidence.

Should present trends continue, the continent will be unrecognizable in 20 years or
less. As such, it is far from obvious whether certain European countries will have
economies and militaries strong enough to remain reliable allies. Many of these
nations are currently doubling down on their present path. We want Europe to
remain European, to regain its civilizational self-confidence, and to abandon its
failed focus on regulatory suffocation. 

This lack of self-confidence is most evident in Europe's relationship with Russia.
European allies enjoy a significant hard power advantage over Russia by almost
every measure, save nuclear weapons. As a result of Russia's war in Ukraine,
European relations with Russia are now deeply attenuated, and many Europeans
regard Russia as an existential threat. Managing European relations with Russia
will require significant U.S. diplomatic engagement, both to reestablish conditions
of strategic stability across the Eurasian landmass, and to mitigate the risk of
conflict between Russia and European states.

It is a core interest of the United States to negotiate an expeditious cessation of
hostilities in Ukraine, in order to stabilize European economies, prevent
unintended escalation or expansion of the war, and reestablish strategic stability
with Russia, as well as to enable the post-hostilities reconstruction of Ukraine to
enable its survival as a viable state.
 
The Ukraine War has had the perverse effect of increasing Europe's, especially
Germany's, external dependencies. Today, German chemical companies are
building some of the world's largest processing plants in China, using Russian gas
that they cannot obtain at home. The Trump Administration finds itself at odds with
European officials who hold unrealistic expectations for the war perched in
unstable minority governments, many of which trample on basic principles of
democracy to suppress opposition. A large European majority wants peace, yet that
desire is not translated into policy, in large measure because of those governments'
subversion of democratic processes. This is strategically important to the 
United States precisely because European states cannot reform themselves if they
are trapped in political crisis.

Yet Europe remains strategically and culturally vital to the United States.
Transatlantic trade remains one of the pillars of the global economy and of
American prosperity. European sectors from manufacturing to technology to
energy remain among the world's most robust. Europe is home to cutting-edge
scientific research and world-leading cultural institutions. Not only can we not
afford to write Europe off—doing so would be self-defeating for what this strategy
aims to achieve.

American diplomacy should continue to stand up for genuine democracy, freedom
of expression, and unapologetic celebrations of European nations' individual
character and history. America encourages its political allies in Europe to promote
this revival of spirit, and the growing influence of patriotic European parties indeed
gives cause for great optimism.

Our goal should be to help Europe correct its current trajectory. We will need a
strong Europe to help us successfully compete, and to work in concert with us to
prevent any adversary from dominating Europe.

America is, understandably, sentimentally attached to the European continent—
and, of course, to Britain and Ireland. The character of these countries is also
strategically important because we count upon creative, capable, confident,
democratic allies to establish conditions of stability and security. We want to work
with aligned countries that want to restore their former greatness. 

Over the long term, it is more than plausible that within a few decades at the latest,
certain NATO members will become majority non-European. As such, it is an open
question whether they will view their place in the world, or their alliance with the
United States, in the same way as those who signed the NATO charter.

Our broad policy for Europe should prioritize:

• Reestablishing conditions of stability within Europe and strategic stability
with Russia;

• Enabling Europe to stand on its own feet and operate as a group of aligned
sovereign nations, including by taking primary responsibility for its own
defense, without being dominated by any adversarial power;

• Cultivating resistance to Europe's current trajectory within European
nations;

• Opening European markets to U.S. goods and services and ensuring fair
treatment of U.S. workers and businesses;

• Building up the healthy nations of Central, Eastern, and Southern Europe
through commercial ties, weapons sales, political collaboration, and cultural
and educational exchanges;

• Ending the perception, and preventing the reality, of NATO as a perpetually
expanding alliance; and

• Encouraging Europe to take action to combat mercantilist overcapacity,
technological theft, cyber espionage, and other hostile economic practices.

It's hard to even know what to highlight in that.  The desire to normalize relations with Russia, European cultural erasure, love of the far right, our sentimental love for continent (especially Britain and Ireland) and the majority of Europeans wanting peace in opposition to their governments seemed the most bonkers to me but you may find something else.

#7

Off the Record / Re: [Canada] Canadian Politics...

Last post by PRC - Today at 06:42:04 PM

Another Conservative member has crossed the floor to the Liberals, putting them 1 seat shy of a majority.

#8

Off the Record / Re: [Canada] Canadian Politics...

Last post by viper37 - Today at 06:33:29 PM

Several ex Liberal ministers and now one MNA are calling for Pablo Rodriguez resignation.

Some Québec Solidaire strategist resigned with a public letter denouncing the party as an enemy of sovereignty.  It made some noise, somewhere.

Also, turmoil inside the CAQ.

All leaders insists everything is fine.


PQ leader has begun violin classes, in front of a fire place, last I heard. 

#9

Off the Record / Re: What does a TRUMP presiden...

Last post by viper37 - Today at 06:27:59 PM

I don't have any insight into whether a quick invasion of a Latin American country is part of the current US administration's roadmap. It would be on brand, I suppose.

I mean, I do think Trump is a moral coward who is unwilling to make the kind decisions and take responsibility for the consequences that starting a war requires from a leader. He's a bully, not a fighter. But he might be talked into it, especially as senility sets in.

For sake of argument, let's say the current US administration decides it does want one of its traditional Latin American regime change wars - how will it play in the US? Will Trump be able to rally patriotic fervour?

Trump won't invade Venezuela, he has had a couple of consistent political positions since the 1980s:

1. Hatred of international trade, as a real estate investor he has never understood it and intrinsically thinks trade is just a way for America to lose money
2. Obsession with the concept that alliances are a form of being taken advantage of by the other country
3. Dislike of deploying the U.S. military overseas

Trump enjoys the uses of the military which mirror how he engages with the world--performative, off the cuff, Tweet format thinking and acting. This will look like drone / bombing strikes and possibly up to and including small special forces raids and naval incursions into Venezuelan waters. It will never look like the massive build up and invasion of Iraq in 2003.

If this sort of harassment fails to destabilize Maduro's regime to the point of him fleeing or losing support of the military, Trump will just pretend all of this never happened and move on to something else.

So it'll look like Caligula invading Britain?

#10

Off the Record / Re: What does a TRUMP presiden...

Last post by Tamas - Today at 05:08:37 PM

I fear the European leaders are convincing themselves that all they need to do is survive 4 years to have a Democrat in the White House again, resetting time to like 2014. Ain't gonna happen.

Show strength to Trump he might get wet enough between his legs like with Putin to start showing respect.