Posts by Patrick Castillo4

Honestly, the US isn't really the vibe for open relationships... around here, people usually just think "open" means two people hooking up while one person is secretly hoping for a real commitment.

A true open relationship is when there are actually multiple people involved and both partners are totally on board with it... you definitely need a bit of life experience to pull that off without everything blowing up in your face.

Lisa Patel4 said:Thanks. I’m interested to see what everyone else here thinks about this.

Southern Europe has the worse geography, I guess. There are over 300 million Muslims in the Mediterranean Basin within reach of Europe.

There’s a solution here. We need a naval blockade of Africa and to isolate Turkey completely. Maybe we should just militarize the borders between Greece and Turkey too.

that sounds like a total WW3 scenario 😁
well, let's just hope it doesn't actually come to that

coppermoose7 said:Do you guys seriously not see what politics is doing to us, or are you just choosing to look the other way?

http://www.24ur.com/novice/slovenija...roco-reko.html

And honestly, I wonder what the rest of the EU thinks about you all...

Ever wonder what they actually think about us? Just curious... like, what's the real consensus out there?
So, I was wandering around those whole EU Commission and Parliament nonsense-filled buildings earlier... just soaking in all that bureaucracy.

Same here. Honestly, I’m right there with you on this one.
Man, if we were just some regular, everyday Americans...
Total washout... just a complete disaster.
Who cares, really... at this point, politics is clearly just every man for himself.

Houellebecq—where do you even look when you think about an Islamized Europe? :-)
I mean, honestly, this kind of reality doesn't feel all that far-fetched right now...

...'Meanwhile, over in Paris, because of the Muslim victory, they’re rolling out these new rules. You can only have Muslims lecturing at the universities. So, Houellebecq's anti-hero is stuck with a choice: convert to Islam or just retire. The Sorbonne (much like Oxford) has basically become a franchise owned by some Qatari king or someone similar. Primary school is mandatory, sure, but after that, people just handle their own education. But hey, overall, everyone seems happy. Crime has plummeted. Ever since France became a friendly nation to Muslims, the real estate market and the economy in general—well, they're booming. Even those lingerie shops are doing great, because unlike European women who just collapse into a stupor after work, these women actually want to dress up for their husbands. Even that whole business with polygamy and arranged marriages works perfectly...'

Don't sweat it, those political pundits shouting from the sidelines are basically just fairy tale characters at this point... totally irrelevant and out of touch with what's actually happening

We’re right in the middle of something massive and global... honestly, we just happen to have selfie sticks now, so some people are picking up on the shifts a little faster than others
But let's be real, these changes aren't going to be kind to the way of life we've always known and grew up with

restlessangler61 said:Conflict is brewing across the West. We’re seeing a massive surge in right-wing movements. People who once found those political circles absolutely repulsive are now drifting toward them. It seems not every American is content to just sit idly by while everything falls apart, right?

Germany has once again managed to stir the pot across the continent. They’ve adopted an entirely different approach and ideology this time around, but I fear we’re just staring down the barrel of déjà vu...

ah, Germans... devilish people
so wonderful, so inspiring, such humanists, unparalleled innovators...
really a two-sided coin, isn't it? 😁

History isn't just about memorizing dates for some exam
what it actually shows us is that the winners are always the ones who stay in motion

Walls don't really serve much of a purpose (not in the long run), and honestly, even those fancy razor wire fences
can only hold things back for so long... we aren't exactly the first people to come up with the whole 'perimeter' idea
The Great Wall, the Constantinople Walls—they were all just attempts to stall the inevitable ☕
ah, here I go again, drifting off into metaphysics 😁

Karen Doyle72 said:The weird part is that, historically, the aggressive ones always walk away with the win. And I'm talking about last year, not a millennium ago!

First off, we've always been a bunch of wild savages, haven't we?
The aggressors—or just the ones with way more people—always end up winning.

People have been migrating and blending together since forever; this isn't some crazy, unprecedented thing. In 300 years, everyone will probably look back and call it "progress." But honestly? It's always the first generation that gets screwed over—the locals and those just passing through.
And as far as things stand right now... well, that's us.

gentlemoose57 said:Oh, absolutely they would. It’s a given. Humans haven't actually evolved all that much—once things get tense, we all revert right back to our primal roots. Our "civilization"—if you can even call it that—is really just a byproduct of living life relatively comfortably.

Spot on.
Even though my last post got nuked because apparently I was being too "politically incorrect"—which, honestly, was just me telling the truth
In this age of high tech, supposed "humanism," and everyone walking around with selfie sticks, we’re basically watching a rerun of medieval barbarism... you know, the whole burning people at the stake or decapitation thing, straight out of a Dracula movie.

When it all boils down to basic survival—like, can we actually put food on the table or find a roof over our heads?—all the polite masks are going to slip. We could end up facing pretty much any of those wild scenarios you see playing out on the History Channel right now.

Yeah, you’ve gotta try setting up some boundaries and making it clear that you just can't do business with a mob like that.

Because, let's be honest, it’s a total mob—I mean, where does this whole idea come from, that they're just people who lost everything when nobody even knows who they are in the first place?
This has turned into a massive wave of migration—so what, things aren't looking great over in Pakistan?
I mean, whatever, life isn't exactly a walk in the park for me here either... just bad luck, I guess..

This isn't going to stop unless we see some real action

I honestly don't get where this whole narrative comes from—this idea that everyone arriving is just a refugee fleeing war zones. Is it just some trendy, high-society hipster delusion, or is there actually a deeper conspiracy at play? It feels like once you poke the bear, you're in for it. You've got these massive crowds of all sorts of characters moving in, basically following a "lay down and let them feed me" strategy—just looking for a guaranteed apartment and a government check, fueled by whatever info they pick up on those smartphones of theirs. That seems to be the main driver, which explains why they're so incredibly persistent.
And who's actually getting taken advantage of here? The poor folks from Syria who truly need a hand? They make up barely five percent of that crowd.

Our current approach is just playing it by ear as we go, but let's face it, we can't keep this up forever.
We’re going to need a Plan B. Because right now, their so-called strategies are just different versions of the exact same playbook used by people like the guys over in Mexico.

If we don't find a way to shut this down, I might as well just switch over to the Australia thread instead.

David Baker2 said:I would truly love—honestly, for the sake of all of you who seem to believe some fence is going to be your magical salvation—if the Department of Homeland Security would just decide to unload three or four trains and about a hundred buses full of people onto that Canadian wire all at once, just to see ten thousand refugees pile up against it within a twelve-hour window.

After twenty-four hours of watching that happen, I’d love to sit down and ask you what you think about the effectiveness of that wire. ☕

The only reason that barrier on the border actually "works" isn't because of the steel; it's solely because the flow was redirected toward us from Mexico, and then we diverted the direction toward the Americans in the Midwest.

So, the wire hasn't solved a single thing.

And I would really, truly—even if you call me a villain for saying it, but sometimes a man has no other way to make a point—love to see DHS gather ten thousand people in a staging area and perform one express delivery right onto that line.

Just so the idea that a wire is a solution finally gets hammered into your heads.

Without firing shots and using force, you aren't stopping those people.
You could install sixteen rows of concertina wire, but if you don't intend to use lethal force, you're just wasting your time painting the fence. ☕

But hey, go ahead, keep drooling over how "ingenious" Viktor Orbán is. If that's what brings you satisfaction and makes you happy, who am I to stand in your way? 🤷

Exactly.

It’s going to stay like this until things boil over into violence. People are like ants—if they hit an obstacle, they either find a way around it or they just climb right over it.
Violence is inevitable. Once they realize there’s nowhere left to go, they’ll clash with the locals where they are. Then comes the scramble for resources—food, heating (and winter is coming fast)...
It can't end any other way than through conflict. The only question is how high it’s going to escalate.

I’m honestly just sitting here waiting to see how they react when they finally land in Germany and realize there's absolutely nothing waiting for them...

No offense intended—but I’m just sitting here fascinated by how everyone seems so incredibly welcoming toward all these exotic cultures, especially in a country where the biggest curse is usually having your neighbor be a total nightmare...

coppermoose7 said:I'm with you, but only up until Tuesday 😉 and Zoki knows that perfectly well. He actually got a warning from Vienna today—he needs to hurry up. It’s like that old song, "Tuesday, like Grasse—I'll pour my pain out before you." 🐔

Man, this really hits home... seeing Canada close its borders like that. It’s honestly pretty moving to watch.
How does that even work? Like, you just shut down the border? Are the cops at the checkpoints really going to get their feelings hurt and just stop breathing if those 200,000 people don't slide their paperwork through the little window? Seriously...

Yeah, honestly? We might as well just rip off that patent ourselves at this point.

Just so there's zero confusion here, the initial emergency care was top-tier back in the European Union where the accident actually happened

I’ve been stuck lying here for eight days straight, and all I got out of their "treatment" was having my leg wrapped up three times...
And now they’re going to bill me for this "expert medical opinion" by the day just because I don't have supplemental insurance
Honestly, seeing as they can't even look at an X-ray and realize it's a fracture of four toes instead of just one, their "expertise" could have easily led to an amputation—or at least permanent disability in my case

Seriously, it’s terrifying. God help anyone who gets sick or needs help in this country

Ronald Green31 said:I feel like the topic is a bit too broad—maybe it needs some refining.

It’s honestly not really fair to generalize like that—especially when talking about the entire hospital.

No, I think it's totally fair to say this
because I'm finally back home now, though all I got was a discharge summary that was basically two sentences long.
I have a seriously nasty fracture in my right lower leg
and now I'm just struggling to even track down a physiatrist.
I've been calling various info lines for Mercy Hospital (which is actually the same facility now)
and the lady at the info desk tells me I might be waiting until May? But then she gives me a number to call Drašković Trauma Hospital directly
so I call that number, but instead of reaching Drašković, I get transferred back to Mercy... so I'm begging this second woman to please, please just give me the actual number for Drašković
and she doesn't even know it..?..
then I try calling Drašković directly, and somehow the info desk there hangs up on me twice in a row

I mean, look, I'll probably just end up paying for private care in the end, but it just hurts that I'm forced to pay extra on top of everything else for this so-called "healthcare" that provides absolutely zero service.
If I'm paying a monthly premium of $667 for health insurance instead of this useless "health" tax, I don't think I'd be dealing with these headaches or being treated like a second-class citizen.

Stuff like this doesn't help anyone, and honestly, it's not helping anyone either, unfortunately.

You probably worked here before all the "reforms" started
if things keep going the way they are (and honestly, I don't see any reason why they wouldn't), this whole healthcare system won't even exist in two years

with all these massive "cost-cutting measures" and "reforms," we've hit a breaking point. We used to have seven operating rooms—which, by the way, the U.S. government spent a fortune equipping and paying for—but now only three are actually running because there’s been a total exodus of anesthesiologists
every single nurse I know has a plan to pack up and head to Germany or Austria, regardless of how old they are

It’s getting ridiculous. They're "saving" so much money that they actually told a woman she was being discharged because there weren't enough funds for her surgery. She was right there in the bed next to me! And she’d already been lying there for ten days for nothing, just taking up a hospital bed (I have no clue what the daily cost for that is, really)
It's basically pure chaos, total disorganization, and just general dissatisfaction everywhere
Being a patient right now is the absolute worst

I’ve been stuck here at the Mayo Clinic for eight days now
The thing is, they honestly don't even know their own schedule an hour in advance... it's just total chaos
People are basically camping out in hospital beds for seven whole days just waiting around for their surgeries

And don't even get me started on the nurses. They're honestly the worst—rude, lazy, dismissive, and they've even handed out the wrong meds
In my opinion, they should all just be fired. Period. They need to hire a fresh crew and make it crystal clear from day one that if they act like this, they're gone just like the last group

There are all these rumors floating around about myths and conspiracies, and looking at how "organized" this place is, I can see why people believe them. It’s fertile ground for that kind of stuff

The lines are absolutely insane too; you end up waiting for hours just for a simple check-up
Long story short—it’s a complete disgrace

fadedtrucker8 said:It is illegal, I suppose...

But what choice do you really have if your work hours are 8:30 to 4:30 and after-school care is only offered for first graders? If you aren't in a financial position to hire private childcare for a seven-year-old because the local school district isn't able to provide extended care for second graders, you're stuck.😕

It isn't even illegal, really.

Section 94 of the Family Code
(1) Parents have a duty to protect, nurture, and provide for their child's needs.
(2) Parents may not leave a child of preschool age without adult supervision.

So, yeah, a kid who's already starting first grade doesn't fall under that "preschool" category anymore... it’s just that our perception of what's "safe" has shifted so much. I mean, looking back at our generation, we were practically walking to school alone and hanging out by ourselves all the time without anyone blinking an eye.