RETAC21

That is BS, the US was doing its own bidding, I am sure the Brits and the French are very thankful (but then, there wouldn't be a US if it wasn't for the French and the Spanish - we got paid with a war of conquest for our efforts), the rest of Europe? not so much. To the point that most of it was thrown under the shackle of communism. Thank you US for delivering us to the Soviets. The problem of the MAGA Christian Conservative man is that he's neither Christian nor Conservative, but drinks MAGA koolaid with the same abandon that the D's drink woke BS and live on a base of falsehoods that is pissing away the relationships that were won by blood sometimes with its allies (and on that note, us Spaniards in particular, have little to thank the US that the US hasn't taken times 10)

When was this happy time that the US was doing the "European elites" bidding? Iraq or Afghanistan? It wasn't Europe that opened up China to World markets, it was the US, you mean then? if you think nothing bad will come out of Greenland, you are wrong, just being on the news day in and day out is turning Western Europe against the US at the root level.

I agree, and I think that is going to be his legacy, and to be clear, much of the fault will lie on this side of the pond, not for meeting artificial spending targets that may or may not reflect actual capabilites (DDG-1000, F-35, Constellation, I am looking at you...) but because this continuous ruckus and displays of ungratefulness will play to 2 types of Euro politicians that want the US out of the way: "patriots" and leftists. End result: US loses access to European bases, cannot project power to the Med and beyond. I think the Israelis see this clearly and that's why they want Iran done asap.

Which part of the past? the one in which the US invokes article 5 and Europe responds with 2 concurrent wars? or the mythical one Murphs harps about in which the US alone defends Europe? Doesn't it occur to you that his "gigantic personal weakness" may have been kindled by your Eastern "brother" through its troll farms? I don't claim to have proof by any means, but I can't rationally explain his choices without he being a willing or unwilling Russian asset. Even polarising the US internally works for the Russian, as the US can only be brought down by internal dissension. And yes, it may all be coincidental, but if so, it's damned unlucky.

No, far from it, you will find no European on this grate forum that is against spending more and better on defence. The problem comes when the Euros do, Trump also doesn't like it (see his reaction to Europe deploying 10 guys in uniform to Greenland or calling Europe unhelpful when bankrolling Ukraine). The first reaction of the EU to the tariffs was to propose a ZERO tariff on all industrial products, at which point TACO kicked in and mumble, mumble, leave everything as it was... And no, I wish MAGA to become true and be a win, because I'd rather have a US overlord than a Chinese one, the problem is that the acts do not follow the words.

I would agree if he had stopped with the Greenland nonsense or had supported Ukraine when he said he was fed up with Russia and its antics, instead he's slapping tariffs on countries that deployed 10 guys in uniform to Greenland and left the Ukraine to whither on wine while helping the Russians recover from their offensives to nowhere. If it was all about kicking Europe to defend itself, he would be helpful in setting up joint armament initiatives, instead it's "buy US or northing" (see EuroPULS) Re. the last, that's the worrisome part, that he may be acting like a Russia asset in exchange for nothing...

No, Trump is a Russian asset. That simple. Hopefully, he gets something in exchange, because it would be plainly stupid to do this for free, but every action he has taken is to the benefit of Russia, and where Russia stood to lose, it was despite him: 1) Destroy NATO: Russian win 2) Weaken China: Russian win 3) Venezuela: weakens China, raises ghost fleet oil prices: Russian win 4) Tariffs: weaken the West in general: Russian win 5) Cuba off the table as soon as Putin says something: Russian win And the MAGA crowd applauding like seals.

Here Sandy Grimes explain very well how Rick Ames was caught and how was he: https://youtu.be/Zx7zEe57puA

Welcome to the 21st century!

No, everyone is saying the same thing. Our local oil company, Repsol, was at the meeting to keep on getting oil already owed to them by Venezuela. No way they are going to invest a cent in Venezuela unless a huge change happens, because the country offers zero security to any investment. What happens is that there's a substantial amount of oil stockpiled (because of the blockade) and the oil companies would rather take that now than wait for a golden future that may never happen.

All oil companies are just interested in recouping the investment they made historically in Venezuela. Exxon CEO commented that Venezuela is uninvestable.

Absolutely all here is incorrect, you seem to have been asleep in 2025, and missed all the changes, not to speak about the errors about the recent past (Europe's defence money wasn't cut back, it was spent fighting wars on behalf of the US, for example). You also seem to miss that Trump is temporary, he will be gone in 2027, what comes after him won't have the political capital to do anything to follow up on his ideas. In the meantime, China will keep on catching up if not surpassing the US, so fucking allies over to encourage them to reach an acommodation with the one superpower that doesn't have any overlap geographicaly with Europe is beyond stupid.

The "embargo" is just a ban on direct sales from the US to Cuba, needless to say, there's a huge and very profitable market in routing US items through other countries and ending in Cuba. If you don't see more US stuff in Cuba is because the regime is incompetent even by Communist standards, so the one thing they have developed very well is the repressive machine that keeps the people under the boot. In part, that's why the Chavistas preferred Cuban bodyguards.

Bodyguards and quite senior at that (neither cops nor secret agents). Chavez inner security ring also was Cuban, Maduro inherited it. At least one of them was recognised by a Cuban exile as the bastard that tortured her.

Yes, that's the idea, maintain numbers with what is already in the water, keep a trickle from shipyards. The best way would probably be to do what the Chinese did: prototyping until you are happy and then it the "print" button.