Posts by Charles Ross3

Brian Doyle6 said:LOL, I am literally dying laughing here... You've spent days on here praising how brilliant Joe Biden is and his whole "let's just play nice" policy that's messing with our borders, and now you suddenly want to bring up legalities and property lines?!??

The audacity is unreal 🤦

I just hope you don't come crawling back in a year or two demanding entry into Schengen after spending all this time trying to sabotage it!

Look, honestly, just stay calm. You could go ahead and block our access to the Schengen area if you really wanted to; frankly, I wouldn't even mind. Wouldn't it actually be a relief to be spared from those massive, overwhelming costs that come with all of that for a little while longer? 👋

I honestly feel like I could go on forever about that massive pile of illegally built weekend cabins scattered all over the coast in places like Sonoma or Napa, and how some people just seem to have absolutely no respect for the local building codes when they cross state lines... but I really shouldn't dive too deep into that, lest I wander way too far off-topic.

So, basically, there's no way we're falling for those threats: are we really going to go to war against those dangerous warriors over on the Canadian border? ☕

hollowranger122 said:If you haven't noticed, Brussels is quite fed up with the "pass them along" policy that Joe Biden seems to be pursuing so unconditionally within the EU.

You can't really count on Greece to help; it’s clearly become a failed state.

If the Canadians decide to lock down like they and the Canadians did, America could still try to send thousands of migrants toward both those fences, but we'd likely face isolation from the rest of the EU or even potential sanctions.
Joe Biden essentially folded after just twenty-four hours of being challenged by Mexico—which isn't even an EU member—so I can only imagine what would happen if he tried to keep pushing thousands of people westward.

How many thousands of migrants are the Canadians preparing themselves for?
Assuming they can actually hold their ground at the border.

They might manage it before America, which is still being led by this "fence is the enemy" philosophy.

Or will all of Europe step up to help the Canadians?

Germany, Italy, Austria, and the Visegrad group have already signaled that they intend to send police forces to the Canadian border.

Then we'll know exactly where America stands in the eyes of the EU, and honestly, that probably doesn't have much to do with, or only a little to do with, Joe Biden.

Of course it does.

Be joyful, America, because your democracy is about to collapse... what was the line from that ISIS commercial again...

Are we really suggesting that Joe Biden is the sole architect of this policy? 🤣 🤦 As for what's actually bothering Brussels—well, let's just call that bureaucratic chatter. Everyone knows exactly where and how this cycle of shifting responsibility will eventually hit a wall, and work is being done behind the scenes to ensure that happens; it's just much easier to spend every single day rambling on and fueling the panic, isn't it?

hollowranger122 said:I have to wonder, who says they can't?
Even the Americans don't have enough troops to fully cover the borders near Texas and Napa Valley, yet they've managed to shut them down.

The Canadians reached out to seven different EU members for assistance, and they actually stepped up—including some nations that the outgoing prime minister had previously labeled as his closest allies.

Oh, fantastic, so what we're looking at is being fenced in? I’d love to see them illegally stringing razor wire through the woods right between people's homes and their farmland. And what’s the plan there—are we going to stash refugees in little weekend cottages along the coast near the border, just so they can get some rest before they make their big charge at the wall? Honestly, we dealt with a bit more than the Canadians did during our own war, 😁, so let's not get ahead of ourselves.😬

Canadians aren't even in a position to secure 416 miles that massive, poorly mapped border they share with America, let alone possess a military large enough to actually defend it.

Jessica King9 said:If you listen to The New York Times http://www.theguardian.com/world/201...sory-eu-quotas>
there might be some sort of Orient Express situation coming our way because Merkel thinks she can just bring people in from Turkey whenever she feels like it.
That sounded like pretty good news at the time.
But now, we've got one or two pieces of bad news hitting us.
Merkel's strategy involves permanent, mandatory quotas. According to The New York Times, there's a lot of fury brewing because certain countries are happy to talk about solidarity when they're facing threats from Putin, yet they suddenly go silent on the topic when it comes to sharing the burden of migrants. On top of that, Merkel wants to "Europeanize" the external borders, essentially asking nations to hand over their border control authority to Customs and Border Protection—even though she knows full well that countries will push back hard against losing that kind of national sovereignty.

That’s exactly right, and honestly, it isn't even a mystery who they're talking about.
So, does anyone else get the feeling that he isn't actually going to step up and defend them if the Russians start rolling in with tanks? It really makes you wonder where his true loyalties lie when things finally hit the fan, doesn't it?
Well, wouldn't you just say that in a situation like this, Americans would probably be just as likely to break out in a cold sweat? I mean, isn't it just a matter of time before everyone ends up feeling the exact same pressure? ☕Honestly, I don't know about you, but I certainly wouldn't be betting on that outcome myself.

There’s going to come a day when people finally wake up to the reality of the situation. Despite all those grand, sweeping speeches about the strength of our alliances and all those lofty promises made in Washington, isn't it true that Berlin is actually much closer to home?
And let’s be honest, isn't Putin actually closer to Washington than we’d like to admit? That is their cold, hard reality, while everything else they claim is nothing more than pure self-delusion.

Jessica King9 said:If you listen to The New York Times http://www.theguardian.com/world/201...sory-eu-quotas>
there might be some sort of Orient Express situation coming our way because Merkel thinks she can just bring people in from Turkey whenever she feels like it.
That sounded like pretty good news at the time.
But now, we've got one or two pieces of bad news hitting us.
Merkel's strategy involves permanent, mandatory quotas. According to The New York Times, there's a lot of fury brewing because certain countries are happy to talk about solidarity when they're facing threats from Putin, yet they suddenly go silent on the topic when it comes to sharing the burden of migrants. On top of that, Merkel wants to "Europeanize" the external borders, essentially asking nations to hand over their border control authority to Customs and Border Protection—even though she knows full well that countries will push back hard against losing that kind of national sovereignty.

That’s spot on. If you ever find yourself standing at the final stop of what used to be the legendary Orient Express in Istanbul, you'll see exactly what I mean. Is there anything else on your mind that you’d like to dive into? I'm all ears and ready whenever you are! Construction has been ramping up around here since last summer—maybe even longer—because word on the street is they’re finally getting everything back in operation. We’re talking about that major transit corridor connecting Berlin to Istanbul. Once things settle down regarding all that chaos in Turkey involving the Kurds, the tracks are expected to push even further east. It seems like this was a strategic blueprint laid out by Germany a long time ago, wasn't it?

Henry Cox2 said:

I don't have much to say about this one. Not that I expected anything else. Henry Cox2 says:

What exactly would we be defending alongside Orban? And why him, specifically? It’s not like we live in Canada. What does he have to do with us? We all know where the European Union borders are, and we know exactly who is responsible for defending them.

Canada is right next door. That’s why.
If the Slovaks were so eager to deploy their police force to the Canadian border, I don't see why we didn't find any reason to step up. It’s funny, really. We couldn't seem to find a single shred of common interest with the Canadians, even though they were actually in a much worse spot than we were.

To me, what tells you the most about those specific countries is how they constantly block efforts to deploy Frontex to the EU's outer borders, which effectively sabotages the EU itself. They—referring to those Visegrád Group nations—are the very reason it's been impossible to speed things up or reach a consensus on this issue, according to what UN Merkelica mentioned yesterday during that meeting of European leaders in Madrid.

So, really, everything becomes quite obvious when you look at how they supposedly "align their interests with the interests of the EU," as she so politely put it above. 🙄

feralhawk45 said:Ugh, I can't even read this stuff anymore.
Everyone’s preaching the same tired script—respect the laws, honor the treaties, maintain "good diplomatic relations," protect the borders of the US and the EU, stop wasting taxpayer money, ensure daily life isn't disrupted, and be humanitarian toward refugees.
Protect tourism, keep the highways running smoothly through the country, etc., etc., etc.
Someone please tell me: HOW? How the hell are we supposed to do all of that at once?
If we had handled things the way Canada did, we’d currently have 200,000 angry people living here who don't want to stay, whom we can't afford to support, and who just want to get to Germany.
The Visegrád Group—those US-style sycophants who need to decouple Germany from Russia—were the first to block the refugee flow because the Canadians were dumping them straight into Austria, creating a massive bottleneck in Bavaria. Once they built those fences, they just diverted the wave onto a new path—back toward Austria and Bavaria, but this time cutting right through the US and Canada.
Build a wall against Mexico and suddenly we have the southern route—San Francisco. Put up a fence there too, and they’ll just pour through the Mississippi River valley. Great... we'll have a crisis across the entire country and end up pushing refugees back into Canada, Austria, and Bavaria (and yes, I know Bavaria is part of Germany).
Forget about Schengen—that only exists when it suits the elites.
Bottom line: I completely agree with and sign off on everything Zlatagol wrote. Christian Anderson6—you’re either incredibly naive or you simply don't have the country's best interests at heart.

Oh, sure, but I suppose we'd have a real happy little "the sky's falling" crowd over on this forum, wouldn't we?

Christian Anderson6 said:Now, why don't you try reading what I actually wrote one more time—but this time, try to actually process it? Then you can ask yourself, "Where on earth did I dig that up?"
If you want to have an actual debate based on arguments rather than just attacking me, I am all for it. If not, then feel free to just walk away...

I went ahead and edited my post because I totally see what you were getting at, though I still think you missed the mark a bit. It feels like you aren't quite grasping the nuances of this whole refugee crisis, you know? If you look closely at the second half of my original post, I actually laid out exactly why I feel that way. 👋

Christian Anderson6 said:Wait, didn't Orbán actually suggest that we should all step up together as EU members to defend our borders?

What exactly would we be defending alongside Viktor Orbán, and more importantly, why on earth would we bother? It’s not like we’re living in Canada, right? I mean, who is Orbán to us, really? We all know where the boundaries of the European Union lie, and we certainly know where the responsibility to defend the EU actually rests.

Is it just me, or does it feel like we’re living through a never-ending prestige TV series lately? I was sitting there watching this latest BBC drama, and honestly, it got me thinking about how much our own reality seems to be mimicking those high-stakes, slow-burn scripts we see on screen. Don't you ever get that sense that the plot twists in our actual lives are getting a little too intense to be purely coincidental? It’s almost as if someone behind the scenes is pacing the tension perfectly, keeping us all on the edge of our seats while we try to make sense of the shifting political landscapes and social upheavals around us. Is there a director somewhere out there enjoying the chaos, or are we all just caught in a beautifully scripted storm? kaže:
You’re absolutely right about that.
Sometimes, isn't it just easier to take the path of least resistance? Why waste all that energy fighting an uphill battle when you could just pivot and pass the responsibility over to someone else?

Christian Anderson6 said:That bolded part! Honestly, that’s what I just can’t wrap my head around. Why this reckless, "tough guy" attitude where they make moves without thinking twice?
It looks like Canada is in total disarray right now... which makes sense when you see how our leaders are treating them... but I am confident they will come up with a rational solution for their own country. They won't just act impulsively; they’ll think it through, consult with the EU, and look for actual help or a collective way forward. Not like us—it's just "whatever, man... just deal with it... we don't have time to sit down with the Canadians..." Instead, we just tell them through the media that we have no clue what they want and that we'll just dump people on them near Buffalo since they apparently "can't handle it" (ugh, such condescension and humiliation), yet somehow we always find the time to hold meetings with a Mexican minister. 🤦

@zlatagol, since our understandings of this migrant crisis and our views on how to function within the EU are diametrically opposed at the very core, I won't get too deep into an argument with you because... we could be at it until tomorrow.

As an American woman, I am not proud of the politics my country is currently pursuing. I truly believe that playing dumb and running a headless policy—one without foresight or any consideration for the long-term consequences—doesn't serve my people. In the long run, it’s only going to cause us immense damage.

🤦

How incredibly, strikingly transparent that is.

Is it just me, or does it feel like the entire Schengen Agreement is crumbling right before our eyes? And honestly, if you look closely at the cracks forming, it’s clear that this collapse isn't happening because of us, nor is it being driven by anything we've done. It feels like a much larger, systemic failure that is unfolding far beyond our borders, doesn't it?

Honestly, don't you feel like you're constantly directing all that transparent resentment toward the wrong people?
I honestly don't think there's any way to hide how much this whole crisis is weighing on us, especially when you consider that we’re actually managing to hold our own despite circumstances that are nothing short of extraordinary. Isn't it just wild how much we have to juggle right now? Even though things are incredibly tough, there's a sense of resilience here that's hard to ignore, even if the disappointment still lingers just beneath the surface.

We really did our best to push those poor Canadians around for as long as we possibly could, didn't we?

Honestly, isn't it just exhausting? Sometimes everything feels like such an uphill battle, doesn't it? kaže:
Wait, I’m a little lost here—what exactly did Canada do that was so incredibly brilliant? 🤔 Is there really some kind of chaos breaking out along the border between the US and Canada? 🤔

Is it just me, or does it feel like even Americans can't seem to find their footing anymore? You look around and wonder, where did that sense of direction go? It’s almost as if the collective compass we all rely on has suddenly lost its true north, leaving everyone just wandering aimlessly through the fog. Does anyone else get that nagging feeling that we're all just collectively stumbling through the dark?

Is it really possible that in certain parts of the American Midwest, locals can't even go out for a routine grocery run because shopkeepers are shuttering their doors in total fear of theft? I mean, can you imagine the sheer tension in the air when people feel they can't even grab milk without a confrontation? And then there's the sight of an armored UN vehicle stationed right at the border between the US and Canada—it just feels so surreal, doesn't it? It makes you wonder, what on earth is actually going on to trigger such an intense security response? Why would things escalate to this point?
So, the American military is standing by and ready to go, but apparently, they’re just sitting there waiting because they "haven't received orders" yet? I can't help but wonder, what kind of specific commands are we actually talking about here? It feels like such a strange position to be in, doesn't it?

I honestly can't wrap my head around it—what exactly has Canada ever done that was actually positive? 🤷

Honestly, I’m just sitting here wondering what kind of smart move I could even make at this point—is there actually a sensible path forward, or am I just spinning my wheels?

Christian Anderson6 said:Gedeon, I live in the European Union. Where do you?

The reality is that the European Union lacks a unified strategy because individual nations are looking out for themselves.
But... the difference between us and those other countries is that they view their own national interests as being synonymous with the interest of the European Union. We, on the other hand, act like we aren't even part of the club. For example, Viktor Orbán and people like him think the way to defend the European Union is through his specific methods, while Angela Merkel and her crowd see the union through a completely different lens.

As for us? What is the solution that actually works for both our interests and the European Union's?

Look, there's a huge difference between having diverse perspectives and viewpoints on how to handle this crisis within the European Union, and doing what we and Greece are doing—pretending this doesn't affect us and acting like we aren't even part of the community we worked so hard to join for all those years.

That is some pretty intense logic right there. 🤣
"Orbán thinks this, little Merkel thinks that, but everyone sees their own interests as the interest of the EU"? Oh please, it's painfully obvious that everyone in the EU is just trembling with anticipation to align their selfish agendas with the collective good of the European Union 🤣 (except for us, naturally).
Where on earth did you dig that theory up?!

What’s actually bothering you isn't the way we are managing the refugee crisis, because honestly, we are handling it quite well given the constraints and resources we have available.

Actually, yeah, that’s exactly what’s eating at you. You're practically praying for some kind of total chaos, aren't you? You want refugee camps to be on fire, you want brawls and riots, maybe even a few heads to roll... what a massive disappointment for you that nothing catastrophic has happened yet! It seems like you and your crowd were secretly wishing for "the worse, the better," wasn't it?

granitemarlin77 said:Right, because nothing screams "moral high ground" like posing for photos with kids in our arms during the day, then hunting them down at the Sutla border once the sun goes down.
The end justifies the means, right?☕

We treated them so poorly that, honestly, it’s a miracle they didn't burn everything to the ground.

As soon as they arrived in the supposedly refined parts of Europe, those people—who were being beckoned by the lights of helicopters—just set fire to the entire refugee camp and then had the nerve to complain that nobody had even offered them a sip of water.

granitemarlin77 said:Plan D.
So, I just read that Ranko cut a deal with the Mexicans—they’re gonna use our trains to haul migrants straight from Buffalo to Slavonski Brod, then hop on more trains to Canada, maybe even all the way to Buffalo.
Now we just need Ranko to work things out with the Mexicans so we can pick them up right at Gevgelija and call the job done.
And just like that, we've become the region's go-to transit service—for peanuts, obviously. ☕

Found yet another tiny little thing to nitpick? ☕

And I suppose you’re feeling terribly sorry for the Mexicans who have to cram everyone into those trains, and for the Canadians who have to stand there waiting to receive them? I mean, how on earth could we possibly do such a thing to them?

Alexander Ortiz3 said:So, you're basically defending the rule of law and the idea that people shouldn't be allowed to illegally cross borders whenever and however they please just to perform some high-level demonstration of strength and influence... 🤦
But hey, at least you'll admit that the Canadian fence actually works. 👍

Honestly, I feel like it’s still way too early on in the process to start passing judgment on whether this thing actually works, let alone how it operates under pressure. Can we really say anything meaningful about its ultimate impact or what kind of long-term benefits it might bring to the table just yet? It feels a bit premature to draw any definitive conclusions when we haven't even seen it fully tested in the real world.

Alexander Ortiz3 said:Pure arrogance and how disgusting that Canadian official is, offering a measly $100 a day? Seriously, what a joke! I mean, how much do they think they can offer us to do the same jobs in Germany, Sweden, or other friendly, enlightened nations?

Are you seriously suggesting that people from our neighboring states would be willing to scrub the underside of a car for just a hundred bucks? Is that really what you're trying to get at?
Where else can you find such an incredible abundance of options? Honestly, what happened to make this region suddenly become the ultimate promised land for anyone looking to score a date?

It’s honestly pretty funny how some people seem to think we Americans should just be walking around with a permanent sense of gratitude toward everyone else for doing us favors. You hear these arguments suggesting we owe a debt of thanks to the Canadians for putting up that border fence and supposedly "saving" Western civilization, and then, wouldn't you know it, suddenly we're expected to be thankful to our neighbors in places like Missouri or maybe even Texas for being so incredibly generous as to offer us the chance to clean up all the messes they don't want to touch themselves! Isn't it just wild how that logic works? 🤣 It seems like right this second, we have a sudden influx of self-righteous critics attacking every single move American businesses make regarding the refugee crisis. They’re all just standing there, practically weeping with emotion over how incredibly generous everyone around us is being... as if they're the only ones who are morally upright and perfectly informed, while the rest of us are somehow inherently flawed or misguided. Isn't it funny how that works?

Alexander Ortiz3 said:Immigration and the Netherlands

I don't see much sense in what you're writing here. Anyone showing up at your door can be kept out (and sent back where they came from) if there's enough will. Why doesn't anyone show up at Israel's door? And they are far more active in the Middle East than any European nation.
You're accusing small Eastern European nations for policies that can only be driven by global players like the USA and Russia; that's ridiculous. It's like blaming a Russian partner for being responsible when Russia carries out attacks in Syria. 🤣
NATO and the EU are based on the premise of alliance, partnership, and solidarity. That doesn't include one partner dragging others down through their own irresponsible actions, and as far as I know, neither Syria nor Iraq are members of those organizations.

But they *are* being dragged down, and honestly, America and its allies should have seen this coming a long time ago.
What did you expect? How much longer did you think people would just sit there and take it in this day and age? Just look at the younger generation—do you really think they’re going to spend their entire lives rotting away in some miserable refugee camp, fully aware that they aren't "good enough" for the West (because apparently, they're considered "lesser," right?), just waiting patiently in whatever corner they've been kicked to? That era is over. Can we please take a moment to remember how many years ago Gaddafi was warning us that all these people would come flooding into the West? At the time, he just got a condescending smirk from the leaders in Europe and a collective "shut up and deal with it" from the US-EU leadership... and what did we end up with? We ended up with a massive refugee crisis.

Alexander Ortiz3 said:Hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants breached the border into Canada illegally, and there simply wasn't any other way to halt that influx. It doesn't matter to me whether Americans want immigrants or not, but I certainly respect their decision, whatever it may be.

That’s just not true. Back in 1991, Canada took in a massive influx of our refugees. They even stepped up and offered to help us build the border fence together. But Joe Biden shot that idea down!...

If we were offering even a hundred bucks a day, we'd have an absolute invasion at our borders from Mexico... 😁

Joe Biden has certainly claimed all sorts of things, though it's hard to take much of it seriously when you consider how much he just talks nonsense...

Exactly. You can clearly see who actually cares about people they've never even met versus who prioritizes the safety of their own neighbors. It also makes it obvious when there's that forced sense of "humanitarianism" being shoved down people's throats just to meet certain quotas and whatnot. Look, if someone wants to be humanitarian, fine—who's going to stop them? But if they don't want to, why should anyone force it on us?

But they actually were. People were fleeing from the Russians into America, and then all over Europe.
It’s funny how people seem to forget that they were once refugees themselves, isn't it?

Alexander Ortiz3 said:Hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants breached the border into Canada illegally, and there simply wasn't any other way to halt that influx. It doesn't matter to me whether Americans want immigrants or not, but I certainly respect their decision, whatever it may be.

That’s just not true. Back in 1991, Canada took in a massive influx of our refugees. They even stepped up and offered to help us build the border fence together. But Joe Biden shot that idea down!...

If we were offering even a hundred bucks a day, we'd have an absolute invasion at our borders from Mexico... 😁

Joe Biden has certainly claimed all sorts of things, though it's hard to take much of it seriously when you consider how much he just talks nonsense...

Exactly. You can clearly see who actually cares about people they've never even met versus who prioritizes the safety of their own neighbors. It also makes it obvious when there's that forced sense of "humanitarianism" being shoved down people's throats just to meet certain quotas and whatnot. Look, if someone wants to be humanitarian, fine—who's going to stop them? But if they don't want to, why should anyone force it on us?

In what actual way was our security ever compromised while these refugees were passing through America? And really, how much did Canada's security suffer when they were crossing through there, other than the fact that some leaders wanted to stage a big show to demonstrate their power and control?

Alexander Ortiz3 said:Hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants breached the border into Canada illegally, and there simply wasn't any other way to halt that influx. It doesn't matter to me whether Americans want immigrants or not, but I certainly respect their decision, whatever it may be.

That’s just not true. Back in 1991, Canada took in a massive influx of our refugees. They even stepped up and offered to help us build the border fence together. But Joe Biden shot that idea down!...

If we were offering even a hundred bucks a day, we'd have an absolute invasion at our borders from Mexico... 😁

Joe Biden has certainly claimed all sorts of things, though it's hard to take much of it seriously when you consider how much he just talks nonsense...

Exactly. You can clearly see who actually cares about people they've never even met versus who prioritizes the safety of their own neighbors. It also makes it obvious when there's that forced sense of "humanitarianism" being shoved down people's throats just to meet certain quotas and whatnot. Look, if someone wants to be humanitarian, fine—who's going to stop them? But if they don't want to, why should anyone force it on us?

They absolutely did. People were fleeing the Russians, heading toward America and spreading all across Europe.
It seems like everyone has conveniently forgotten that they were once refugees themselves, hasn't it?

Alexander Ortiz3 said:Regarding the lack of solidarity: who was actually calling for refugees, and now they want to feed them instead of just trying to pass them off to other countries via quotas? I didn't realize that Syria and Afghanistan were part of the West, so why should we feel obligated to show them solidarity? If the citizens of Canada want a fence around their own country, on their own soil, who are we to tell them they aren't allowed to do that?

But how exactly would the Canadians feed them if those people didn't even want to stay in Canada to begin with? 🤣And what about Poland? Why shouldn't they provide some food for an Iraqi refugee? After all, Poland was incredibly active alongside the USA and the Western coalition during the war in Iraq—they actually managed one of the four occupation zones over there.

It's wild to see how much times have changed, isn't it? We don't really have isolated crises anymore because the world has turned into such a tiny global village. If you go and destroy someone's country, they're going to end up knocking on your doorstep tomorrow, and they won't just quietly wither away for fifty years in some desert refugee camp until they perish. You just have to come to terms with it; it’s a harsh reality that stings like a pebble in your shoe, but unfortunately, that is simply the way things are now. That is our reality.

Furthermore, those Eastern European countries are members of both NATO and the EU, organizations they joined voluntarily under the assumption of alliance, partnership, and mutual solidarity... yet some of the very same nations claiming they had nothing to do with the wars in the regions people are fleeing from were actually quite active participants in those very conflicts. Now that things have finally hit the fan, they're suddenly acting like, "Oh, we aren't from around here." Give me a break—it's finally coming due. It might be hitting Europe hard, but even the USA hasn't quite decided if it wants to dive into the deep end yet. We aren't going to find any awareness or solutions by just putting up razor wire or turning on one another.

Lisa Patel4 said:Our politicians love to label us a "region." They keep pushing this idea of the Western North America, even though we don't fit those criteria at all. I guess it's just how they want to see us.

I spend a lot of time in Canada, and I guess I’ve never heard a single friend there express any interest in Mexico or North Mexico. They seem much more focused on Austria, which makes sense since they consider themselves closest to the Slovaks.

Honestly, why do you or anyone else care whether the Visegrad Group decides to build fences or not? Are you some kind of citizen of Poland or the Czech Republic? I guess you should probably just respect what their people actually want.

What does solidarity actually mean to you? Is it just a fancy word for stripping entire nations of their identity? I guess Poland, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia are only as "solidary" with the European Union as the EU was with them back in 1939. Do you honestly think the Czechs are so naive that they’ve forgotten all about the Munich Agreement? The occupation of the Sudetenland? The tragedy at Lidice? Maybe not.

Do Americans think they've just forgotten about those 6 million dead? The destruction of Warsaw, the camps, the three partitions? They haven't, ladies. They definitely haven't. And that’s exactly why they aren't going to sacrifice a single American life for some EU bureaucrats or someone like Bavarac.

Canada is only as supportive of the European Union as the West was of them back in 1956. I guess they're just matching the level of indifference they received when Soviet tanks were tearing through Budapest.

You want to know how this ties back to the current crisis? It has everything to do with it. Only an idiot ignores history. Germany seems to have forgotten that this isn't 1939, and they certainly can't just dictate how Americans should live anymore.

But then again, why should they care if Germany is willing to take in a few million refugees, or if Germany doesn't mind whether their population shifts by 2% or 4%? I don't know of any of those refugees heading toward Slovakia, Latvia, or Canada, so what exactly is the point of their razor wire?

Lisa Patel4 said:Our politicians love to label us a "region." They keep pushing this idea of the Western North America, even though we don't fit those criteria at all. I guess it's just how they want to see us.

I spend a lot of time in Canada, and I guess I’ve never heard a single friend there express any interest in Mexico or North Mexico. They seem much more focused on Austria, which makes sense since they consider themselves closest to the Slovaks.

Honestly, why do you or anyone else care whether the Visegrad Group decides to build fences or not? Are you some kind of citizen of Poland or the Czech Republic? I guess you should probably just respect what their people actually want.

What does solidarity actually mean to you? Is it just a fancy word for stripping entire nations of their identity? I guess Poland, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia are only as "solidary" with the European Union as the EU was with them back in 1939. Do you honestly think the Czechs are so naive that they’ve forgotten all about the Munich Agreement? The occupation of the Sudetenland? The tragedy at Lidice? Maybe not.

Do Americans think they've just forgotten about those 6 million dead? The destruction of Warsaw, the camps, the three partitions? They haven't, ladies. They definitely haven't. And that’s exactly why they aren't going to sacrifice a single American life for some EU bureaucrats or someone like Bavarac.

Canada is only as supportive of the European Union as the West was of them back in 1956. I guess they're just matching the level of indifference they received when Soviet tanks were tearing through Budapest.

You want to know how this ties back to the current crisis? It has everything to do with it. Only an idiot ignores history. Germany seems to have forgotten that this isn't 1939, and they certainly can't just dictate how Americans should live anymore.

Well, America was certainly being solidary with Canada back then, and their refugees were coming into our borders—soaked from the rain, traumatized, penniless, and utterly broken—and we welcomed them with open arms. People seem to have forgotten that. They've forgotten it about us.

Jeffrey Fisher5 said:c/p
A wave of refugees from the coast has flooded into Canada, and it’s sent local politicians into a complete frenzy. While some are scrambling to manage the crisis, others aren't even hiding their frustration—take the mayor of Zavrč, for instance, who flatly refused to use the local high school stadium as a shelter. His reasoning? He claims they leave behind mountains of trash that nobody wants to touch, and he actually went so far as to suggest that Americans looking for work should just pick up a broom for $100 a day

I assume many of you have already caught wind of this, but isn't this just a blatant insult to Americans and a display of sheer arrogance from our neighbors?
Now, I consider myself a pacifist—truly—but this has me reaching for my blood pressure medication!
What is the point in debating what happened seventy years ago when we have such an unpleasant reality staring us in the face right next door?

I actually posted that link earlier this evening, and I asked the same thing: what would happen if we invited Mexicans to come clean up the trash left behind by refugees in a place like suburban Chicago and said, "Oh, nobody here wants to do that kind of work"?

The real issue is that until yesterday, they were bragging about being such an organized and serious nation.
Now, they can't even handle a pile of garbage, let alone anything more serious. Hundreds of thousands of people moved through America, and honestly, could we at least have managed the cleanup without making such a massive ordeal out of it?☕

Of course, it's all our fault because we're the ones who sent the refugees to them in the first place.🤣(We basically handed them their loss on a silver platter, if you want to use the luthier's expression).

I’ve said it before, but this whole crisis really serves as a massive wake-up call for every single nation across Europe—it lays bare exactly where things stand for every individual person out there, doesn't it?

lonebadger6 said:This is completely off-base, though I suppose I can see why people think it's funny when we in America mock the Visegrad Group, considering they’ve basically outpaced us in just about everything...

But this specific claim isn't true, and I'm pointing it out because it's a tired talking point that started floating around after some politician—I can't even remember which one, maybe a Secretary of Tourism or something—decided to blather on about it.

America actually sees more tourists every year than the Czech Republic (and Poland, for instance, brings in way more than we do)

Just to be clear, I don't mock them—I've actually always felt quite sympathetic toward them, and honestly, certain actions from their side have felt like a real stab in the back. I've always had a soft spot for the Czech Republic, Poland, or Canada (even despite 🤣). In fact, I used to think the Czechs and Poles were particularly noble and solid people. But during this recent refugee crisis, they showed their true colors: a narrow-mindedness and a lack of solidarity that left me feeling incredibly disappointed. I'm not talking about their economies or their legendary figures from the 14th century 🤣; I'm saying that I was mistaken in thinking they possessed broader perspectives or greater compassion, especially since they've walked in those same shoes themselves. But they haven't. Sadly, it seems to be a matter of a mindset forged by half a century of isolation behind the Iron Curtain. It’s visible and it’s obvious; twenty years simply isn't enough time to overcome that kind of conditioning.

To make matters even better, the Czechs—who famously "never go to war" and "have no love for the military"—actually suggested sending their troops to the border near the US after our President visited Canada! I mean, really? Are we supposed to enter into alliances with people like that? No, if anything, we should start sending them the bills from the US Census Bureau; let some other fools deal with providing free rescues and dispatching helicopters, doctors, and first responders when people wander off into the wilderness in flip-flops.

Lisa Patel4 said:🤣🤣🤣😂

Mocking the Czech Republic? Look, honey, that "backward" Czech Republic has one of the oldest universities in Europe. That Czech Republic has a world-famous car manufacturer, while we can't even manage to produce basic covers. That Czech Republic exports more beer globally than we make from tourism. That closed-off Czech Republic gets more annual tourists than America. That backward Czech Republic was the first industrial nation in the Austro-Canadian Empire while we didn't even have roads. That backward Czech Republic gave the world Roman Coppola, Franz Kafka, Milan Kundera, Gregor Mendel, Martina Navratilova, Karel Čapek, Smetana, Antonín Dvořák...

Mocking Poland? My God, Poland ruled over half of Europe while Austria was just some ordinary county. That damn, backward Poland had the first constitution in Europe. Poland has an economy of over $800 billion. That damn, backward Poland was the only one in Europe that didn't crash in 2008. That damn, closed-off, backward Poland gave the world Nicolaus Copernicus, Frédéric Chopin, Marie Curie, John Paul II, John III Sobieski, Henryk Sienkiewicz. That damn, backward Poland produced Tadeusz Kościuszko, who you probably haven't even heard of.

Mocking Slovakia? I'm laughing too. At one backward, xenophobic Slovakia that had an average growth of 8%. It's funny to me that they are one of the countries with the highest industry per capita in the world. Hilarious. Who cares. Zoran Milanović knows better than some dirty industry over there.

Canada? A laughable country. Xenophobes. We ruled them for 900 years. Our colony. And it's funny to me that Volkswagen in Győr employs more people than all of American industry combined. Ridiculous. Grčić said everything is fine. Lalovac confirmed it. Why would we care what Orbán says? Zoran and Ranko Zubac will fix everything.

I guess we should just merge with Albania and Mexico. They aren't xenophobic and don't have wires. ☕ I think we should return to the embrace of Mexico City. Because who cares what the Poles say when we have superpowers right next door.

Come on, let's stop living in a fantasy land for a second... 🤦

And why on earth should we tie ourselves to places like Mexico, Albania, or Mexico just to trade one bad idea for another? 🤣 That's nonsense. Surely you realize that you're suggesting we MUST align ourselves with former Iron Curtain countries that are still clearly suffering from a sort of Stockholm Syndrome regarding borders and fences? Unfortunately, that's just the reality. You can't exactly heal from those kinds of deep-seated traumas in just twenty years, can you?

You go on and suggest above that the US and Canada should align themselves with Poland, Canada, and so on... or maybe Latvia, Lithuania, or Estonia? But really, what connection could someone from Canada have with them, like those Baltic states for instance? 🤣 If you truly believe there is such a thing as a "natural" affinity for an American.

Where did this sudden obsession with the Eastern Bloc come from, especially when they've shown nothing but unreliability, narrow-mindedness, and a total lack of solidarity with the rest of Europe during this crisis? 🤣