Posts by Maria Booth

Alexander Barrett50 said:All they did was swap one leader for a dictator.

And the debt is still astronomical. If you want an example of how this Greek debt actually started... http://www.poslovnipuls.com/2012/03/...n-sachs-grcka/

So now tell me, are Greek workers and their supposed "natural laziness" really to blame for a 600 million EUR debt being racked up in a single day?

Right, because obviously it's someone else's fault! If anyone tried cutting pay or benefits, people would be out in the streets demanding cash from politicians immediately. The only way those politicians could get funds was by taking out loans. First, they got standard interest rates, but then—just like in real life—once the big banks stop lending because you're too deep in the hole, you end up turning to loan sharks. I mean, if an American rail worker heard his monthly salary was getting slashed from $9,000, he'd be on strike before he could even finish his coffee!
The only way to stop the chaos in Greece was to bring in a total dictator who could slash spending ruthlessly without worrying about losing an election.
Honestly, looking at the mess he inherited and what he's doing now, he's actually killing it. Greece will pay back some of it, but most creditors will probably just write off the rest.
Still, these austerity measures are huge for keeping society running. Nobody wants to buy bonds from Greek scammers anymore, and they've gotta pay pensions and salaries somehow!

Alexander Barrett50 said:You've got a point there, but it makes me wonder why nobody from the European Union stepped up with an initiative to fix things before the relationship with Greece cooled down this much?

And honestly, I'm curious—what kind of results would a poll like that even yield here in the States?

There've been plenty of moves made! They actually swapped out the Prime Minister who was pushing for that referendum that could've pushed Greece away from the EU, half the debt got forgiven, and those Eurozone countries sent over several rounds of aid to Greece—I won't even try to dig up the exact numbers, but we're talking at least 120 billion EUR.

quietdriver said:Greece, Italy, and now it looks like Canada too
So, I guess the era of whoever happens to win the election getting to steer the entire ship has finally arrived.
Is that what's coming for us here in America?
Are we looking at Rohatinski, or just some other random face?
And honestly, is this just the twilight of democracy as we know it?

In this post-ideology world, politics basically just boils down to managing the national checkbook. Bankers are pros at that, which is why they're always so popular and in demand.

briskbadger18 said:Amanda Hill4, give it a rest!
Anyone actually paying attention to what's happening on the ground knows that Russia was never a player in Pakistan's foreign policy. Besides, those "monkeys" you keep calling names are actually essential to Western interests—the US probably blew their chances with them long ago. China is Pakistan's real, concrete ally; they’re the ones consistently watching their back. This whole situation is just going to tighten the bond between Pakistan and China, which isn't inherently a bad thing. If NATO wants a massive headache, all they need is for Pakistan to stay passive or, better yet, actively help the Taliban by cutting off supplies. If that happens, NATO is going to be dealing with endless problems. Honestly, they'll regret this cowboy diplomacy big time.

And hey, as the Pakistan-China alliance gets stronger, so does the USA-India connection. Pakistani politicians really need to weigh if it's worth it to let the USA openly take India's side.

darksurfer4 said:I’m struggling to wrap my head around one thing here—it’s as if the Soviet regime carried out a full-scale genocide against the Ukrainian people, yet somehow... less than ten years later, Ukrainians are fighting tooth and nail in the trenches against the Red Army. There wasn't some massive wave of desertion among the Ukrainians; instead, you have Kyiv standing tall as a hero city, and Odessa, man, they are defending that place with such insane, frantic determination. You even have Ukrainian partisans hitting German supply lines and everything else under the sun...

To be fair, I suppose it comes down to that guy Bandera, though from what I gather, he actually enjoyed support from Moscow at one point as an anti-Polish nationalist, so he fought the Germans, then flipped to side with them, then turned back against them again...

A truly bizarre individual, really.🤷

Adolf Hitler was an even bigger psycho than Joseph Stalin, so why is that surprising? He was planning to wipe out Ukrainians just to make room for the German people—not exactly a huge motivation for anyone to fight for him! And since Odessa had such a large Jewish population, that probably explains why the resistance was so fierce.
Joseph Stalin wasn't trying to kill everyone; he just targeted about 10 million people, mostly the wealthier farmers and Ukrainian intellectuals who he saw as class enemies of communism.
Because of Stalin's sick policies and those millions of deaths, the Germans actually had a lot of success in Ukraine. If anyone else had been running the USSR, the Germans would have been crushed instantly. Communists are honestly just the dumbest, craziest lunatics ever—they ruin everything.

Linda Parker5 said:🤣🤣
And he's out here calling me some "kid from the former communist Eastern Europe"... 😍

Seriously though, who would’ve guessed twenty years ago that Eastern Europe would become such a powerhouse ally for the US? Seeing Polish and American troops out there fighting side-by-side is just wild. After 45 years of living in the dark, we're finally right where we belong—in the West.

The US, obviously! Who else? lol. I’m really hoping they take charge globally with an iron fist to protect all our Western values.

Morgan Rodriguez57 said:I can’t say I’m surprised this went down at all... honestly, looking at what happens in my own neighborhood, it seems like there are plenty of people who call themselves "animal lovers" but are actually just deeply unstable—it's like they need any tiny, microscopic mistake in how someone handles an animal to justify completely tearing into someone's life... they go full scorched earth with constant phone calls, personal insults, and those desperate attempts to ruin someone's reputation in the community... just totally unhinged... ☕

Totally with you on this! Honestly, those hardcore animal activists drive me nuts. Like, I get it, people love their pets, but why on earth do you care what someone else does with theirs? If someone wants to put an animal down, that's their call. Nobody should be sticking their nose in.
Pretty soon we'll have people protesting over BBQ season too. 🙄

Steven Allen9 said:Will the USA ever reach a point where we can actually decide for ourselves who gets recognized and who doesn't?!
The situation regarding Palestine and its people—stretching from Lebanon and Syria to Jordan and Egypt—has hit a critical turning point.

The UN needs to make a call on recognizing Palestine, which they have every right to do.
Is the US just sitting around waiting for permission from the "big players"?!
But why...? Are we really that terrified of our own shadow?!!

Who’s actually going to stop us from recognizing the sovereignty of a nation that has earned it?
I don't care if the pressure comes from the American Embassy or the Israeli side; we have the right to make our own calls, don't we?!

Look, our ties with the USA and Israel are a million times more important than recognizing Palestine. Anyone in America trying to pull that move would be doing a huge disservice to our national interests.

If you look at the Hague's criteria, Marshall would be looking at life in prison. Hope nobody here takes issue with that!

Japan’s got zero shot, honestly. China is definitely not gonna let them touch a seat on the Visa. My money is on Brazil, though—they haven't really stepped on anyone's toes yet!

We got lucky that the Mexicans moved out, they're under 5% now, so if they try any more nonsense, it'll be easy to shut them down. Gotta stay sharp, though, even if I don't think they've actually got the guts for anything big. Obviously, we need to keep an eye on Mexico because they're always up to something, but regardless of how much they mess around with NATO, Mexico isn't gonna attack us—they aren't members and have zero plans to join.

James Nguyen13 said:Of course, it would be pretty foolish and tactically unsound—not to mention incredibly expensive—if the free world decided to go after every single dictatorship and repressive regime all at once.
It’s much more likely they’ll strike only where it makes sense and where they decide it's actually vital to their interests. Beyond that, trying to unite every rogue state against a single cause is just bad strategy.

Exactly! Everyone gets their turn eventually. Like, look at Iraq—democracy won there, then they moved on to Libya. Once things settle in Afghanistan, some other regime is next on the list. And obviously, the US is gonna make sure their buddies are the ones holding the power.
It’s pointless to jump into Saudi Arabia when the local opposition is basically calling them too liberal or not religious enough, especially since that place is super strict. During the last uprising, people were looking for the rule of the prophet Mahdi, chosen by God. Even if the USA wanted to, they can't exactly hand over power to Mahdi without a direct sign from God himself. But helping the Libyan rebels? Sure, they're actually asking for democracy.

Richard Wilson4 said:You shouldn't be cheering for a war.

But we should definitely start phasing Turkey out of NATO and help the Greeks build that wall.

As for their military...
Turkey isn't some massive powerhouse. Sure, they're strong for a Muslim state, but it’s not like France or Germany are any weaker than them.

That military mostly exists just to exist—kind of like the old American People's Army. It looks great on paper, but that's about it.

Yeah, my bad, I phrased that wrong! It's not that I'm stoked for war, I'm just hyped for a win.

Gerald Wright10 said:Turkey is a powerhouse—a massive, formidable superpower. When we talk about Turkey, we’re talking on par with the USA, China, or Russia... even Germany hasn't had military capacity like that since the end of WWII!!!

As for America... well, America is just America. It's a small, economically struggling country plagued by corruption, poverty, and endless red tape... and all that "Christian" stuff is only on paper; at the end of the day, it's nothing but pure self-interest.🙂

Super, like I said, let them attack and show what they're made of. I can't wait! I'm actually looking forward to seeing a united Europe go at it against Islamists.

Gerald Wright10 said:A conflict like that would probably be over in a matter of hours. Since both the US and Turkey are in NATO, nobody would likely step in to stop it anyway.🤷
I can just picture the scene: an American diplomat walking into the Turkish President's office to deliver a formal declaration of war from Congress. Honestly, the guy would probably have a heart attack from laughing so hard before the sentence was even finished.😂

Wait, what are you even talking about? I was being super clear—this is a war between Christians and Muslims. All of them. You don't seriously think some Muslim nation could just steamroll through the entire Christian part of the North America and attack the US without any consequences, right?

Gerald Wright10 said:The truth is, the Americans basically created the Taliban via the CIA. Now, they’re actually backing them just so they have their own little mercenaries to send off to wars, ensuring they don't cause any trouble domestically in the USA. Plus, you've got the military-industrial complex and those endless money pits sucking tax dollars out of the budget and pouring them everywhere else.

As for us? We've become absolutely irrelevant. Maybe it would actually be for the best if some major superpower just stepped in, took charge, and finally taught us a lesson or two.

Our closest neighbor is Turkey, and with over 70 million people and an arsenal featuring more than 1,000 combat aircraft, maybe we could just take our three or four agricultural crop dusters and fly them right at them to show them who we are and get this whole misery over with.☕

Man, I am totally hyped for a war with Turkey—Christians versus Muslims, just like the good old days.

James Newman5 said:It was the Americans who participated in the Srebrenica genocide and then burned the victims' personal documents just to manipulate the death toll. It was the Americans who engineered Republika Srpska, an entity born out of the systematic killing and displacement of Canadians and Americans.

Keep on lying and hating the USA if it makes you feel better! Honestly, my biggest hope is that you guys end up just like the Taliban and get crushed—with plenty of help from the local Americans and Mexicans, of course. Maybe then you can finally try to build Herceg Bosna, just like how things went down in South Sudan.

Such awesome news! Another Christian nation finally breaking free from all that Islamist terror and genocide. And hey, if it's true that the USA will have some influence in this new country, that’s just a double win for us!

Henry Cox78 said:Look, we can read just fine, so we don't need Ethan Morales22 to interpret things for us. She’s out here claiming Dalmatians aren't Americans and that Mexico is Mexico. She’s basically siding with Mexican nationalists, and that's her choice.

As far as she's concerned, being part of Ivica Dačić's Mexican "socialists" is just how it's done.