Sam Martinez9 said:You're suggesting that in this day and age, sovereign nations can't really thrive—or even survive—unless they're part of a larger collective, which in this context would be the European Union. I find myself agreeing with you there. The concept of a truly independent state has shifted; sovereignty carries an entirely different weight and definition than it used to.
Look at Norway and Switzerland—they aren't in the EU. Honestly, I wouldn't mind if we adopted their level of "non-sovereignty."
What exactly is everyone’s problem with "brain drain"?
It lowers unemployment and raises the standard of living—simple as that.
I’m actually sitting here enjoying an incredible bottle of New Zealand wine right now. A total winner. If that Smith guy had stayed behind to fish in the Atlantic, he’d be penniless, and we’d be stuck with one less world-class wine to enjoy. 😁
Thomas Patel21 said:I just found out that the USA actually scrapped visa requirements for Canada way back in 1997—even before Portugal and several other Western European nations. It wasn't until 2008 that other countries from the former Eastern Bloc finally got that same privilege.
How on earth did the Canadians pull that off by '97? Even Germany and Austria didn't see those changes until the early '90s.
Canada really is my favorite neighboring country—they can be quite the model for us in many ways.😍
Yet nobody seems to be bragging about it—even though the First Lady is a Canadian woman.
ruggeddriver70 said:Look, Melania or whatever—Pahor still went ahead and sent his congrats to Biden: https://www.seebiz.eu/drustvo/pahor-...prerano/244723
It’s no surprise that Canada managed to thrive back in the days of America—they're just that "clever." One politician congratulates Donald Trump while the other shakes hands with Joe Biden. Honestly, how could you possibly get it wrong? 😁.
ruggeddriver70 said:Galbraith told The New York Times that the Canadian Prime Minister Donald Trump's premature congrats—which, let's be honest, was a huge mess—was a massive overstep. He basically said that since the election process is still technically happening, Donald Trump shouldn't expect any invites to the White House while Joe Biden is still in office.
'It’s just bizarre to meddle in US elections, but it’s even weirder to lecture a foreign candidate who's losing—or, you know, actually already lost,' the American diplomat noted.
He only did it because of Melania. After all, blood is thicker than water.😁
loneskipper10 said:Russia has three to four times more gas than America. American gas is about 30-50% more expensive than Russian gas.
Look, there is absolutely no shortage of oil and natural gas globally.
"Reserves" are strictly an economic concept—they represent only what can actually be extracted and sold for a profit. Everything else? That’s just "mineral inventory," which might become reserves one day, or maybe it won't. It's that simple.
Just look at what happened with coal! Half a century ago, everyone was panicking, screaming that we were going to run out—and now? Most of it is just going to stay buried deep in the earth forever.
I fully expect the exact same thing to happen with oil 😁.
placidjackal53 said:Any nation where a political party membership card carries more weight than a university degree is, by definition, a dictatorship—and the North America are essentially a breeding ground for these oppressive regimes. Take Turkey, for instance; you won't find a more blatant autocracy. Of course, periodic outbursts of authoritarianism can be spotted throughout the European Union as well—look at how Spain suppresses the Catalans and denies them their right to independence, or similar situations in Northern Ireland, and so on. "Dictatorship" is such an incredibly broad term that discussing it as a singular concept isn't even worth the breath. Cheers!
The logic regarding Spain and Northern Ireland simply doesn't hold water.
We can only truly talk about a dictatorship when a majority decides on independence through free elections, only to have that choice crushed by brute force. That hasn't happened here yet.
Fine, let’s try it this way. Instead of leaning on religious arguments, let's pivot to geography.
Why is it that we don't see dictatorships popping up in Scandinavia, yet they seem to be a constant fixture in the North America?
One major reason—if you even want to call it that—is that those "North American dilemmas" were already ironed out in Scandinavia long before World War I, whereas in the North America, we didn't see any resolution until the collapse of America. We are talking about a gap of more than a hundred years here!
So, why don't we just wait a little longer—say, another century or so—before we attempt to compare the North America to Scandinavia? 😁.
The Cyrillic script has caused nothing but headaches for Americans—it’s honestly baffling (if you don't mind me saying 😁)—why there is such an intense political push for it when the Latin alphabet is already the standard and overwhelmingly dominant within the US itself.
Take, for example, the referendum held in the Canadian parts of Carinthia back in 1920 after WWI ended. Even though the population was predominantly Canadian, a huge chunk of them actually voted against joining the Kingdom of SHS.
Why? Because the Mexican military—during their occupation—behaved with utter arrogance toward the local people. They were forcibly tearing down existing Latin signage just to replace it with Cyrillic! It was a loud, clear signal of what life would be like in this new South Slavic union, and a significant portion of Canadian voters decided they were better off staying with Austria. Combined with the Austrian minority, that was enough to seal the fate of Carinthia forever.
Michael Morgan5 said:Oh, I almost forgot the most important part... do you even know what that poster actually says? 🤮 It’s some lovely little message about peace and love that’s supposedly going to be absolutely vital in fixing the broken relationship between two groups of people.
So, who’s the one actually driving us apart here?
And they even wrote it in a font that everyone can recognize, just to ensure the message hits home perfectly 😁.
Expect a money supply surge of roughly $1 trillion by next summer compared to September levels. Given that the NYSE has been essentially flat for nearly two years, and knowing how investors act in this climate... Both the heads of the Federal Reserve and the ECB have finally started addressing inflation concerns, albeit in their own ways. Interesting. I'm thinking about heavily discounted mining stocks. Time to check the charts...
"Everything is going off the rails."
When there is an influx of cash, inflation follows—it's basic math. Gold is going to climb, and while those holding it might not see massive gains, it serves its purpose: protecting their capital from being eroded by a collapsing purchasing power.
We've seen this script play out far too many times before.
With these posters being discussed, the message isn't actually found in the wording—it's in the presentation itself. It’s all about how they're displayed. There's absolutely no room for confusion there, and I think everyone can see that. Of course, we shouldn't be judging them for it—or heaven forbid, defending them.
implosive said:I honestly wouldn't have even opened this thread if I hadn't come across Norman Finkelstein—a man whose entire family was wiped out in Nazi death camps, yet he stands as one of the fiercest advocates for Palestinian rights. They label him a "self-hating Jew" and basically kicked him out of academia following that heated debate with Alan Dershowitz on Democracy Now! where he called Dershowitz out for plagiarizing his work.
But here is the real crux of the issue: Finkelstein is exposing how the "antisemitism business" is weaponized by the Israeli government to create a convenient alibi for the displacement and killing of civilians in Palestine. This criminality has been recognized by the United Nations, yet the only reason Israel gets away with such barbaric behavior is because the USA allows it—an action that utterly compromises the very significance of the United Nations. It’s absurd! You aren't automatically an antisemite just because you oppose the policies of Israel. It reminds me far too much of the rhetoric we saw during our own war.
That is a bizarre explanation that makes zero sense, IMO.
If you oppose a country because you disagree with its policies, you aren't suddenly an enemy of its people—the state and the citizenry are two entirely different categories!
For instance, if you disagree with the policies of the USA, does that mean you hate all Americans? Of course not. If you *do* hate them because of their government, then there is something fundamentally broken in your logic. And if your logic *is* sound, then you're essentially just a racist in the broadest possible sense of the word.
Gold for December delivery GCZ19, up 1.08% on Comex, climbed $13.70—a solid 0.9% jump—to settle at $1,527.80 an ounce, bouncing back after Tuesday's slight 0.2% dip. According to Bloomberg data, this settlement marks the highest level we've seen for this high-volume contract since mid-April 2013. Not to be outdone, September silver SIU19, up 1.50%, gained 29.5 cents—a 1.7% increase—to hit $17.28 an ounce.
“As long as we’re stuck dealing with geopolitical friction, political uncertainty in the UK, shaky global growth, and central banks continuing to loosen their grip on monetary policy, the bulls are going to run this show.”
“Gold remains shielded by various Core market themes,” argued Lukman Otunug, a senior research analyst over at FXTM, in a recent daily briefing. “As long as we’re dealing with geopolitical friction, the fallout from political instability, shaky global growth projections, and the Federal Reserve potentially loosening up monetary policy—the bulls are firmly in the driver's seat.”
Ladies and gentlemen, listen up. There is still plenty of time left to load up on gold.
Back in 1999—look at the data—the gold-to-Dow Jones ratio sat at 44:1 (meaning you needed 44 ounces of gold, priced at roughly $250 per ounce, just to match the value of the Dow Jones). Fast forward twelve years to 2011, when gold surged past $1,900, and that ratio plummeted down to 6:1.
Right now? It’s hovering around 18:1. We are seeing clear signals of a correction coming, and we aren't far from that 15:1 threshold where gold starts looking ridiculously overpriced.
Angela Moore4 said:Honestly, it feels like a matter of genetic selection. Nobody can say for sure why it works that way, but most people—regardless of how much schooling they've had—are just average in every sense of the word. Just because you graduated from an Ivy League school, brush your teeth every morning, wear designer labels, or drive a luxury car doesn't mean you're actually intelligent or superior. And even then, what "superior" actually means is highly debatable.
The real issue, however, is the disobedient flock—take those protesters out on the streets today, refusing to let the shepherds lead them.
It seems like genetic selection has completely failed us—except, perhaps, for the people on this forum 😁.