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On February 15 2026 18:44 Biff The Understudy wrote:
Will be interesting to see if anything remains of the Atlantic alliance once those clowns get the boot.
I think they have a point though, Europe should never have to rely on the US for its independence and its security. The US is not a reliable partner, and its voters are so volatiles and clueless they can elect a completely erratic president that turns allies into foes.
The damage to US soft power is unbelievable.
They don't believe in soft power and they're genuinely confused why the rest of the world is making deals with China at the expense of the U.S. economy. It's literally the mentality of an abuser being outraged that their spouse is finally leaving them. There's not supposed to be consequences for their actions, they're the biggest and strongest around and it's their right to be a piece of shit.
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On February 15 2026 20:28 KwarK wrote:Show nested quote +On February 15 2026 16:56 Biff The Understudy wrote:
lol bad cop good cop, who do you think we are. The enemy. They think you’re the enemy.
Well at the very least they make abundantly clear that we should consider them as such. I have to say the shift in perception here in Europe towards the US is something i haven’t witnessed in my lifetime.
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On February 15 2026 23:39 Biff The Understudy wrote:Show nested quote +On February 15 2026 20:28 KwarK wrote:On February 15 2026 16:56 Biff The Understudy wrote:
lol bad cop good cop, who do you think we are. The enemy. They think you’re the enemy. Well at the very least they make abundantly clear that we should consider them as such. I have to say the shift in perception here in Europe towards the US is something i haven’t witnessed in my lifetime.
Th shift in perception is well deserved and the only hope we have of reversing any of this is that yall stick to it.
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These folks are so delusional they’ll even lick Marco fucking Rubio’s boots! There’s no telling how low the floor will go.
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On February 15 2026 20:17 Jankisa wrote:Show nested quote +On February 15 2026 15:27 Introvert wrote:
Rubio gave an excellent speech in Munich, the good cop to Vance's bad cop last year. While still not my top pick for 2028, he'd have the best chance of the people I like. Still not sold on Vance, as I think he's a thoughtful person but not a super principled one. But unfortunately as sitting VP he has to be considered the favorite.
I know this will just cause more accusations of "just likes to crap on Democrats" but honestly the contrast of Rubio with AOC is so night and day I have a hard time understanding how the party that thinks of itself as the smart one doesn't recognize that she's a blustering, bumbling ignoramus. Maybe it's just the clips I've seen but man...
anyways Rubio was quite good Democrats derangement syndrome in action again, can't talk about his preferred 2028 candidate who is obviously an incredibly morally dubious and completely unprincipled person
It doesn't look like he mentioned his preferred candidate. It clearly wasn't Vance.
On February 15 2026 20:17 Jankisa wrote:
without bringing up a smart, principled and well spoken person of color.
Rubio's quite a catch yes.
On February 15 2026 20:17 Jankisa wrote:
I'd be perplexed as to how can someone watch/read that speech full of outright lies that go directly against the stated US NSS and come away impressed, but, given that you are someone who supports Trump that absolutely makes sense.
The US NSS? National Security Strategy? Last published in November 2025 signed off directly by Trump? In what ways did you find that Rubio's speech (as Trump's Secretary of State) contradicts the NSS? Why would someone who supports Trump be impressed if Rubio contradicted Trump's own NSS? And what is so good about the NSS that you aren't glad Rubio contradicted it?
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On February 15 2026 23:45 farvacola wrote:
These folks are so delusional they’ll even lick Marco fucking Rubio’s boots! There’s no telling how low the floor will go.
More ragebait than delusion, these guys didn't spend 100 hours of their free time arguing the super important distinction between Trump being found guilty of fingerrape versus forceful penile pentration for any practical reason, they can't get off anymore without being called Nazi degenerates on the daily. Anyone that doesn't enjoy it would have stopped baiting those responses about a decade ago.
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On February 16 2026 00:11 Dan HH wrote:Show nested quote +On February 15 2026 23:45 farvacola wrote:
These folks are so delusional they’ll even lick Marco fucking Rubio’s boots! There’s no telling how low the floor will go. More ragebait than delusion, these guys didn't spend 100 hours of their free time arguing the super important distinction between Trump being found guilty of fingerrape versus forceful penile pentration for any practical reason, they can't get off anymore without being called Nazi degenerates on the daily. Anyone that doesn't enjoy it would have stopped baiting those responses about a decade ago.
Probably. Although oBlade seemed genuinely outraged when people found it funny that people mourned a homophobic podcaster by arranging gay hookups at his funeral. Maybe humiliation kinks are just more complicated than I realize.
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It‘s incredibly annoying.
European leaders have to run triple appeasement.
Support Ukraine, make it clear to the Russians that its intentions are defensive while fending off the US exploiting the war to overexert their influence here from a moral low ground.
Because the US somehow collectively feels exploited while it‘s not their soil someone‘s trying to chip away at. As if it‘s other peoples fault that their internal policies are completely bonkers and their own citizens have caught up to that.
It‘s hard to pull off the shift into totalitarianism the leadership wants when the living standard and threat level doesn‘t warrant it. The only threat they face is that they can‘t hide what some elements of the billionaire class are doing forever, which likely involves advocating for social darwinism at least.
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On February 15 2026 15:27 Introvert wrote:
Rubio gave an excellent speech in Munich, the good cop to Vance's bad cop last year. While still not my top pick for 2028, he'd have the best chance of the people I like. Still not sold on Vance, as I think he's a thoughtful person but not a super principled one. But unfortunately as sitting VP he has to be considered the favorite.
I know this will just cause more accusations of "just likes to crap on Democrats" but honestly the contrast of Rubio with AOC is so night and day I have a hard time understanding how the party that thinks of itself as the smart one doesn't recognize that she's a blustering, bumbling ignoramus. Maybe it's just the clips I've seen but man...
anyways Rubio was quite good
The bits and pieces I've seen of AOC over the years haven't revealed her to be a blustering, bumbling ignoramus, though I haven't dug terribly deep. One of the first things that comes to mind is her playing Mario Kart with Walz during the last presidential election cycle, which was at least endearing though not exactly a testament to intellect.
That said, in a system that seems to reward being a blustering, bumbling ignoramus, if you're correct I'm surprised she's not even more popular.
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On February 16 2026 02:05 Fleetfeet wrote:
That said, in a system that seems to reward being a blustering, bumbling ignoramus, if you're correct I'm surprised she's not even more popular.
She should be like Marjorie Taylor Green and blame wildfires on Jewish space lasers to win the centrist vote.
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On February 16 2026 02:27 LightSpectra wrote:Show nested quote +On February 16 2026 02:05 Fleetfeet wrote:
That said, in a system that seems to reward being a blustering, bumbling ignoramus, if you're correct I'm surprised she's not even more popular. She should be like Marjorie Taylor Green and blame wildfires on Jewish space lasers to win the centrist vote.
We don‘t know the full story, maybe some people in the party suddenly woke up without foreskins.
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On February 16 2026 02:27 LightSpectra wrote:Show nested quote +On February 16 2026 02:05 Fleetfeet wrote:
That said, in a system that seems to reward being a blustering, bumbling ignoramus, if you're correct I'm surprised she's not even more popular. She should be like Marjorie Taylor Green and blame wildfires on Jewish space lasers to win the centrist vote.
She also should do more Kpop-Salutes.
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On February 15 2026 17:24 Yurie wrote:Show nested quote +On February 15 2026 15:27 Introvert wrote:
Rubio gave an excellent speech in Munich, the good cop to Vance's bad cop last year. While still not my top pick for 2028, he'd have the best chance of the people I like. Still not sold on Vance, as I think he's a thoughtful person but not a super principled one. But unfortunately as sitting VP he has to be considered the favorite.
I know this will just cause more accusations of "just likes to crap on Democrats" but honestly the contrast of Rubio with AOC is so night and day I have a hard time understanding how the party that thinks of itself as the smart one doesn't recognize that she's a blustering, bumbling ignoramus. Maybe it's just the clips I've seen but man...
anyways Rubio was quite good Last year was a speech on the exact same topic with the same core content aimed at the core Republicans in the US. This year they got somebody that cares about how Europe reacts to a speech about Europe to write it. So it is a better speech, but is it different when you go to the core of it?
It is very similar, yes. It's not just aimed at a domestic audience though. What's so funny about all of this is that rather than being some American imperialism this is the opposite. Telling them to get it together and that the US wants a change in relations in response to a change in the global situation. A thing that has been in the works for decades now. I suspect that to our European allies "softpower" just means doing what they want. Those days were always going to end, there are other areas that need attention. And if Europe is so great as they say, they ought to able to handle it. It's been 5 years since Russia invaded Ukraine?
On February 15 2026 20:17 Jankisa wrote:Show nested quote +On February 15 2026 15:27 Introvert wrote:
Rubio gave an excellent speech in Munich, the good cop to Vance's bad cop last year. While still not my top pick for 2028, he'd have the best chance of the people I like. Still not sold on Vance, as I think he's a thoughtful person but not a super principled one. But unfortunately as sitting VP he has to be considered the favorite.
I know this will just cause more accusations of "just likes to crap on Democrats" but honestly the contrast of Rubio with AOC is so night and day I have a hard time understanding how the party that thinks of itself as the smart one doesn't recognize that she's a blustering, bumbling ignoramus. Maybe it's just the clips I've seen but man...
anyways Rubio was quite good Democrats derangement syndrome in action again, can't talk about his preferred 2028 candidate who is obviously an incredibly morally dubious and completely unprincipled person without bringing up a smart, principled and well spoken person of color. I'd be perplexed as to how can someone watch/read that speech full of outright lies that go directly against the stated US NSS and come away impressed, but, given that you are someone who supports Trump that absolutely makes sense. I guess it also makes sense, when you are supporting a pedophile who's hell bent on destabilizing the world and you are pretending to be a non cult member, what else will you do except come here to attack a women who you feel threatened by. By the way, still no answer regarding why USA healthcare is what it is, I'm still very curious how you will make that one about Democrats, but I'm sure you will find a way.
Rubio is the model Trump admin person. Does the job for the elected president, while still being able to advocate for his positions and occasionally get them through. He has his own opinions and policies but does not try to undermine the elected president.
AOC wasn't even prepared for a question about Taiwan. Not even a boilerplate non-answer. What she said would make Kamala Harris blush in embarrassment. Now does every politician have less than stellar moments? Of course. But she was totally unprepared. Moreover, House members are pretty much never elected president.
Is that what you were asking me? American haalthcare is not expensive for one reason but many. Much of goes back to something I said last week i think. Americans are so rich that they don't like the idea of tradeoffs and will just spend more or expect the government to spend more. But among the many however, are not reasons involving immigrants. Not sure where you are going with this, you aren't going to find the secret set of words that's going to make me say something I have repeatedly denied.
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Threatening to invade Greenland because we need it for our Golden Piss Dome is the opposite of imperialism, actually. We should also demand the Sudetenland while we're at it just to confirm our commit to peace.
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On February 15 2026 15:27 Introvert wrote:
Rubio gave an excellent speech in Munich, the good cop to Vance's bad cop last year. While still not my top pick for 2028, he'd have the best chance of the people I like. Still not sold on Vance, as I think he's a thoughtful person but not a super principled one. But unfortunately as sitting VP he has to be considered the favorite.
I know this will just cause more accusations of "just likes to crap on Democrats" but honestly the contrast of Rubio with AOC is so night and day I have a hard time understanding how the party that thinks of itself as the smart one doesn't recognize that she's a blustering, bumbling ignoramus. Maybe it's just the clips I've seen but man...
anyways Rubio was quite good
I guess to most Americans foreign policy seems a bit like a game because for a long time whatever happened it didn't really impact average Americans. The notable exception being covid (which really isn't foreign policy) which really riled you guys up. Other countries are more used to external factors pushing them around so even if national policy might have been even worse for covid it hasn't stuck around as hard in people's minds.
I guess if you are a hypercompetitive economy with low social safety nets your number priorities are going to be 1) the economy 2) the economy 3) the economy [...] 478) foreign policy that doesn't impact you much.
Domestic politics are just that much more important for the economy in the US so that's the focus.
The thing is. The factor insulated the average American from foreign policy is not that you are the most powerful nation on earth, although that is certainly a factor. It's that your "dad" is the global reserve currency and you got his credit card.
Of course Iraq, Afghanistan, foreign aid or whatever won't impact you much when you can just borrow money at ultra low rates.
Right now your $38,5tn in debt. After Trump is done that's going to be at least somewhere between $41-42tn.
Do we think democrats will balance the budget the next 4 years after that if they win? Unlikely.
Republicans? They control the trifecta and they obviously aren't interested.
The old world order that both Vance and Rubio seems to be done with has several built in features keeping interest rates down for government debt in return for a stable American hegemony. That's something that should be valuable considering the US current situation.
The US needs to deal with debt somehow. I (and much of the rest of the world) is struggling to see how the new foreign policy is a good thing given that it's quite instrumental to it. Just look at Bessent and the scare over Japan right now.
If we look at the goals for the administration some key point seems to be
- onshore manufacturing in the US
- politics driving inflation (tariffs, pressure on the fed)
- a large focus in trade imbalances
- no real effort in balancing the budget (quite the contrary actually)
- no care about soft power or maintaining the US status as hegemon diplomatically/economically
Solving the debt crisis through traditional conservative fiscal responsibility seems out. If anything inflating it away seems to be in.
In that context things actually makes sense.
If your plan is to inflate away the debt problem and you couple that with the tech bros supporting Trump expecting massive job losses due to AI then onshoring manufacturing makes sense. Both because people need to work with something but also because foreign goods will be to expensive.
The losses to the elite from massive inflation is acceptable because of AI and investment opportunities.
It's more questionable if much of the American middle class think it's a good solution seeing as they would be the ones getting an express ticket to poverty when their comfortable job gets replaced by manufacturing and their saving become worthless.
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On February 16 2026 03:43 CuddlyCuteKitten wrote:Show nested quote +On February 15 2026 15:27 Introvert wrote:
Rubio gave an excellent speech in Munich, the good cop to Vance's bad cop last year. While still not my top pick for 2028, he'd have the best chance of the people I like. Still not sold on Vance, as I think he's a thoughtful person but not a super principled one. But unfortunately as sitting VP he has to be considered the favorite.
I know this will just cause more accusations of "just likes to crap on Democrats" but honestly the contrast of Rubio with AOC is so night and day I have a hard time understanding how the party that thinks of itself as the smart one doesn't recognize that she's a blustering, bumbling ignoramus. Maybe it's just the clips I've seen but man...
anyways Rubio was quite good I guess to most Americans foreign policy seems a bit like a game because for a long time whatever happened it didn't really impact average Americans. The notable exception being covid (which really isn't foreign policy) which really riled you guys up. Other countries are more used to external factors pushing them around so even if national policy might have been even worse for covid it hasn't stuck around as hard in people's minds. I guess if you are a hypercompetitive economy with low social safety nets your number priorities are going to be 1) the economy 2) the economy 3) the economy [...] 478) foreign policy that doesn't impact you much. Domestic politics are just that much more important for the economy in the US so that's the focus. The thing is. The factor insulated the average American from foreign policy is not that you are the most powerful nation on earth, although that is certainly a factor. It's that your "dad" is the global reserve currency and you got his credit card. Of course Iraq, Afghanistan, foreign aid or whatever won't impact you much when you can just borrow money at ultra low rates. Right now your $38,5tn in debt. After Trump is done that's going to be at least somewhere between $41-42tn. Do we think democrats will balance the budget the next 4 years after that if they win? Unlikely. Republicans? They control the trifecta and they obviously aren't interested. The old world order that both Vance and Rubio seems to be done with has several built in features keeping interest rates down for government debt in return for a stable American hegemony. That's something that should be valuable considering the US current situation. The US needs to deal with debt somehow. I (and much of the rest of the world) is struggling to see how the new foreign policy is a good thing given that it's quite instrumental to it. Just look at Bessent and the scare over Japan right now. If we look at the goals for the administration some key point seems to be - onshore manufacturing in the US - politics driving inflation (tariffs, pressure on the fed) - a large focus in trade imbalances - no real effort in balancing the budget (quite the contrary actually) - no care about soft power or maintaining the US status as hegemon diplomatically/economically Solving the debt crisis through traditional conservative fiscal responsibility seems out. If anything inflating it away seems to be in. In that context things actually makes sense. If your plan is to inflate away the debt problem and you couple that with the tech bros supporting Trump expecting massive job losses due to AI then onshoring manufacturing makes sense. Both because people need to work with something but also because foreign goods will be to expensive. The losses to the elite from massive inflation is acceptable because of AI and investment opportunities. It's more questionable if much of the American middle class think it's a good solution seeing as they would be the ones getting an express ticket to poverty when their comfortable job gets replaced by manufacturing and their saving become worthless.
Maybe part of it is a difference in perspective as you say. Because I view tariffs as far more detrimental to the things you listed than a re-orientation of defense policy. It's possible to have a good, mutually beneficial trade relationship while having the US pull back defensively and Europe step up. I'm going to say something that sounds like bait at first, but it's not. If Europe is such a great place, and one of such significance, as I keep hearing, I don't see the downside in having it reassert itself? It seems more like it does not *want* to. And i think this was part of what Rubio said, but not in those words. Give the continents behavior over the last 5 years i suspect they don't actually want to do it.
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EPT
