Trump: Don’t pay? Russia can do whatever it wants to a NATO member

Nowadays NATO is more of a political alliance than ailitary organization. It serves little purpose. Disband it.

 

When you have a bunch of rubes that believe anything you say, all you need is the thinnest of explanations and they will back you on any play. Especially since they are too dumb to know how poorly appeasement works on evil conquerors.

 

Well said.

 

Nothing wrong with a trade organization based on first and foremost, a military alliance.

 

NATO is an economic alliance, and its enforced by military sales.

Europe is a mess, always has been, and likely always will be. They need to solve their own issues, our biggest threat is China, not Russia or the ME.

 

Smart people realize that keeping NATO partners accountable makes for a stronger deterrent in the aggregate. Imagine a football locker room. A team that doesn't hold each other accountable. Someone didn't show up to practice, but still expects to start. Someone doesn't give their best effort on running plays. Someone expects some other form of special treatment. Next thing you know, your team finishes 5-7 or even worse.

If they're not paying the membership dues agreed upon, how do you depend on them in combat? No, I do not want American service members giving their lives for European countries that can’t even pay the share they agreed to pay. That they expect the same treatment whether they pay or not should be a huge red flag, but some of us here really like that blue pill.

 

But let's hear how Putin

Except if your teammate misses a blocking assignment you don't slit his throat on the sidelines.

 

I've come to the conclusion that no matter what follows "Did you hear what Trump said?", his supporters will ALWAYS spin it. And I mean anything. The lack of independent thought, in a country supposedly known for its independence is astounding. Take your equivocation elsewhere...

 

The EU is an economic alliance, NATO is military alliance formed by Truman and several European countries in 1949 to deter Soviet expansion. It originally included the US, Canada and Belgium, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Portugal, Italy, Norway, Denmark and Iceland. As far as China is concerned if the US abandons Ukraine the decision would immediately send the message to China that we (the US) respond the same way to an invasion of Taiwan.

 

We need a “Trump says…” Megathread stickied to the top of the forum…also to include Trump tweets. Then we could break the world record for longest message board thread of all time.

 

MAGA bots didn’t start hating NATO until Daddy Trump told them to. They’re such an impressionable group.

 

Only to be surpassed by the Taylor at the Super Bowl thread.

 

What a coincidence the people who believed in “America First” 90 years ago supported Hitler taking Europe and now the people who believe in “America First” support Putin taking Europe.

 

I just read all the posts (except from those I block) and didnt see anyone defending him. Telling, however, was the absence of anyone on the right criticizing him. The closest anyone came was belittling the thread itself. SEE #30.

I have noticed we have a number of moderate republicans here whose first allegiance is to the Constitution and democratic norms. I have immense respect for them. They together with democrats do not hesitate to criticize (a) democrats when they are wrong and (b) Trump. Who are left are people whose first allegiance is to Trump, though they have fooled themselves into believing they are the TRUE patriots. They are the ones who routinely post come on man and funny emojis. I've blocked most of them. There's "is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
sIgnifying nothing."

 

On one side: NATO: Germany, UK, Spain, France. Democracies.

On the other: Putin (who has killed any rivals, is nowhere near a democracy, invaded Afghanistan/Ukraine). Godless communism is their system.

But Trump says NATO bad (or cheap), Putin good - and folks buy it. It is actually comfortable to me - people parroting this are simply sychophants because I simply cannot believe they are that unpatriotic or willing to destroy democracy and freedom built under western culture.

 

It is not in our national interest for nato to collapse, nor is it for Europe to become vassals of Russia.

 

Were Trump's business suppliers that he stiffed his "sugar daddies" because, in effect, they were paying his bills for him (by providing products for free, because Trump refused to pay for them)? If Trump were a real man, he would pay his own bills. And if he had any integrity, he would pay his bills before accusing others of not paying theirs. Other than not being a real man and having no integrity, I'm sure he's a fine candidate.

 

You’re one of those America first moderates I had in mind. We may disagree on issues, but I’d never question your patriotism.

 

That's why it's bizarre for Trump to undermine security or why anyone in the US would want a weaker alliance with an aggressive Russia. The agreement is for each nation to contribute 2% of their GDP to defense however, that is a guidance not a law. All NATO nations are contributing to their defense per the agreement. By Trump threatening allied nations over a non-existent law is non-sensical. Like withdrawing from the Iran deal with nothing to replace and making the situation worse.

 

kompromat - it is a way of doing business in Russia. I was scheduled to go to Moscow many moons ago to meet the owner of a major piece of real estate in St. Croix I was working on. He was/is the owner of the Armenian Industrial Bank. the american rep for his company told me in no uncertain terms that I would be offered whatever vice I wanted but I better not do it in my room or her room or it will be used against me at some point. He sounded like he spoke from experience.

banks weren't financing any real estate in 05.

I'm really surprised that nobody ahs ever done a deep dive into how many hundreds of millions of Trump real estate has been purchased by Russians or shell companies controlled by Russians

Eric Trump in 2014: ‘We have all the funding we need out of Russia’ | The Hill

He said asked Donald Trump how he was paying for his courses, and the now-president “sort of tossed off that he had access to $100 million,” Dodson said in the interview.

Dodson said he then questioned Eric Trump, who was along for the day.

I said, ‘Eric, who’s funding? I know no banks — because of the recession, the Great Recession — have touched a golf course. You know, no one’s funding any kind of golf construction. It’s dead in the water the last four or five years,’” the writers told WBUR.

“And this is what he said. He said, ‘Well, we don’t rely on American banks. We have all the funding we need out of Russia.’ I said, ‘Really?’ And he said, ‘Oh, yeah. We’ve got some guys that really, really love golf, and they’re really invested in our programs. We just go there all the time.’”