Richard A Bale

@CanadianPM One of the most interesting lines of his speech was the quote from Thucydides “the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must”. Immediate relevance is obvious. But it perhaps reveals he is thinking about the “Thucydides Trap”, applied to the US and China.

@Shadow007US Isn’t this terribly old news?

President Trump reportedly received a text message from Norway’s Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre urging Trump to lower the temperature and “de-escalate” the rhetoric on Greenland. Trump fired back with a BRUTAL one-liner that ended the conversation. Here’s how the exchange went: STØRE: “Dear Mr. President, dear Donald: We believe we all should work to take this down and de-escalate.” TRUMP: “Considering your country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 wars plus, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of peace.”

@mark_slapinski It’s apparent that he has an obsession with making the US bigger, like his hero McKinley. The actual strategic thinking part is not really evident.

WOW: Trump is now saying he wants to make Venezuela that 51st state. Annexing Canada is not entirely off the table.

@Kanthan2030 @WhiteHouse @CLIFHIGH3 Chess game which ended in stalemate, as sometimes happens

@WhiteHouse @CLIFHIGH3 Trump’s 3D chess with the Strait of Hormuz

Bing, Bing, GONE!!!

@KranzBrandon @realstewpeters Nobody paying tolls is how it was, before Trump started the war.

@realstewpeters That isn't what he said retard.. back to starting your irrationality. Do you have a problem hearing what people actually say? Or just make your own shot up as you go along.. Key phrase: nobody paying tolls

MARCO RUBIO: “The goal of the war in Iran is now to return it to how it was before Trump started the war.” Unreal.

@MeidasTouch Most of Trumps promises are predicated on the transience of human memory. Short attention spans keep him going.

Has the hospital ship made it to Greenland yet?

And I always thought the Americans really wanted to have military bases all over the world Bit of a shock to learn they were just doing us a favour But then, in those days Russia was the enemy Now that Trump and Putin are close allies, there's no point at all in keeping the bases

@CaseJust_In @WallstreetTra13 @JamesTate121 Has the US really not broken 80 for average life expectancy yet? Come on guys,

@WallstreetTra13 @JamesTate121 Hey dumbass, look here:

You can’t really argue this. They believe in investing in the people and infrastructure.

@WallstreetTra13 @therealmofo99 @JamesTate121 I think judging what people in general think from “numerous posts on X” is always a bad start 🤣

@therealmofo99 @JamesTate121 Easy pal. Dont shoot the messenger. I have a lot of friends that cant stand the healthcare up there in Canada, moved here, and love the healthcare here way more. Judging from the numerous posts on X, Canadians are not happy at all with the healthcare too.

@ThomasManson420 @BengtMinerva @polidemitolog That doesn’t surprise me either. I’m definitely not suggesting any moral high ground for the British. Just interested in how contingent history is on these matters.

@RichardBale13 @BengtMinerva @polidemitolog You realize that until Antietam and the Emancipation Proclamation the British were considering siding with the Confederacy; right? They just wanted cheap raw cotton for their textile Mills

It's true that without the Soviet Union and the nations that comprised it, Nazism could not have been defeated. It's also true that it took another 45 years for Europe to be liberated from the Communist liberators. Never again.

@jhattara @BengtMinerva @polidemitolog It seems that Roosevelt wanted to join on the British side, but had to deal with strong isolationist leanings from congress, and the American people. In that sense, Pearl Harbor helped his cause. But of course it was Germany that declared war on the US, not the other way round.

@RichardBale13 @BengtMinerva @polidemitolog US probably would've joined regardless because of the Japanese attacks against them and it is thought by many historians that Stalin was also planning to betray Hitler with an attack, but it would've probably happened a year or two later.

@BengtMinerva @polidemitolog Personally, from my reading of history and the Lindbergh “America First” movement, it is possible that the US would have entered on the German side if they thought it was winning. That’s why the Battle of Britain was so important. And of course Pearl Harbor.

@polidemitolog No, that´s not the truth. The truth is that without US entering the war and the massive US lend-lease-agreement, USSR would have been defeated by Nazigermany. It was the overwhelmingly US industrial capacity that won the war.

@jhattara @BengtMinerva @polidemitolog We are all lucky Hitler decided to fight a two front war. If he had focussed only on Britain, both the USSR and the US would have watched from the sidelines. In fact until he broke the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, he had Stalin as an ally.

@BengtMinerva @polidemitolog Both of you are correct. Without Soviet manpower Nazi Germany would've been much harder to defeat. But without American lend-lease, Red Army would've collapsed from lack of resources and the Soviet manpower wouldn't have been there to help defeating Nazi Germany.

@ADavies61517 @Microinteracti1 Hotel should have a golf course and an ice hockey rink. Better yet, combine the two. A new sport! Ice golf!

@Microinteracti1 At this stage, it would be best to agree to a Memorandum between Ukraine, Europe, Canada, and the UK in which a hotel is built on the Arctic circle and both leaders are exiled there to end their days with the penguins and polar bears.

On one side of the Atlantic, you have a 79-year-old former game show host who believes windmills cause cancer, personally ended a war that hasn’t ended, and that crowd sizes at his inauguration defied the known laws of mathematics. On the other side, you have a 72-year-old ex-KGB man who has just accused Finland of secretly plotting to invade Russia. Finland. Famous for saunas, reindeer, and minding their own business since approximately the Bronze Age. Putin’s reasoning, delivered with the solemn authority of a man who hasn’t slept since 2003, was this: Finland joined NATO because they were waiting. Biding their time. Lurking. Ready to swoop in and grab Russian territory the moment Russia collapsed. “Swoop in and grab what they could,” he said. This is a man who sent 200,000 troops across an internationally recognised border, seized territory by force, and has spent four years reducing Ukrainian cities to rubble. Describing someone else as the type who swoops in and grabs what they can. The psychological term is projection. The clinical term is considerably less polite. Meanwhile, across the ocean, the other one is imposing tariffs on islands inhabited exclusively by penguins and receiving world leaders at a golf club in Florida as though the White House is simply too far to drive. Two old men. Two fantasy worlds. Zero connection to observable reality. The Cold War at least had the decency to be frightening. This is just embarrassing. When your entire worldview runs on paranoia, grievance, and whatever the Kremlin version of Fox News feeds you at 3am, a fence looks like an invasion. A neighbour looks like a threat. And five million Finns quietly getting on with their lives looks like a geopolitical conspiracy. x.com/nexta_tv/statu…

@BrittLee58 @MarkJCarney @BarackObama @POTUS Isn’t it still traditional to still refer to previous presidents as “president”? I’m sure the same was true for Clinton and Bush. What really are you unhappy about?

Fck off Carney! Berry is not our President. We are on to you and Berry ! We know you are trying to build a Communist- Socialist New One World Order… President Trump @POTUS has and is destroying the One World Order secret society that has been around for decades! Trump is watching every thing Berry is doing. You will never 👎 ever succeed in re building your New One World Order asswipe Carney!

Welcome back to Canada, President @BarackObama. Thank you for joining us in Toronto for important conversations on how we can build a better and more just future — and empower more people to build with us.

@pastormarkburns I honestly misread the word “honor” as “horror” at first. It actually made more sense.

One of the greatest honors of my life was leading the dedication of President Donald J. Trump’s statue to the world. What amazes me is how quickly some people have compared this beautiful statue, created and made possible by more than 6,000 patriots, to a golden calf or idol worship. Let me be very clear. We worship the Lord Jesus Christ and Him alone. The Word of God says, “You shall have no other gods before Me.” Exodus 20:3. It also says, “You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.” Matthew 4:10. That is the line. Honor is not worship. Respect is not idolatry. Celebration is not bowing down to a false god. Romans 13:7 says, “Render therefore to all their due: taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor.” Giving honor where honor is due is biblical. Bowing down and worshipping an idol is sinful. There is a major difference. This statue was not created for worship. It was created as a symbol of resilience, patriotism, courage, and gratitude. It was created to honor a man whom many may disagree with, but millions of Americans believe has done extraordinary things to make this nation stronger. People celebrate athletes, musicians, entertainers, and cultural icons while they are still alive. Michael Jordan has a statue in Chicago. Cristiano Ronaldo, Taylor Swift, Shakira, Ed Sheeran, and many others have been honored publicly in different ways. Yet Christians were not screaming “golden calf” over those moments. So why now? You may dislike President Trump. That is your choice. But you are in gross error if you think for one second that I worship this magnificent statue or anything made by human hands. Acts 17:24 says, “God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands.” My worship belongs to God. My gratitude can still honor people. My faith is in Christ. My respect for a leader does not replace my reverence for the Lord. Before you judge, condemn, or spread false accusations, use spiritual discernment. 1 John 4:1 says, “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God.” Some of you know the voice of the Holy Spirit. Listen to that voice before you give room to the devil through lies, slander, and false judgment. Ephesians 4:27 says, “Nor give place to the devil.” We can disagree politically and still tell the truth spiritually. This was not idol worship. This was honor. This was gratitude. This was patriotism. And above all, Jesus Christ is still Lord.

@peterrhague @BoredtownBoy One example where traffic flow is essentially fluid dynamics is when you move from 3 lanes to 2, or from 2 to 1. The speed of flow is reduced on the higher number side and then increases on the lower number side. Initially this is counter intuitive.

@BoredtownBoy That’s a different phenomenon I think

I'm sorry but believing that roads spontaneously generate cars is like a medieval peasant believing that meat spontaneously generates maggots.

@Tablesalt13 Hardly news. The economic rise of China and India has pushed down many of the original G7.

lol canada calls itself a G7 country but its slipped to G11

@snorrisnorrison @TheKikoOne @sciencegirl They are the safest form of transport, even ahead of flying.

@TheKikoOne @sciencegirl Are railroads drug addicts? I see all the time that they are killers.

Passenger rail networks in the USA compared with Europe

@BobCorona1953 @sciencegirl That’s the funniest, most I’ll informed I’ve seen in 2026 so far

@sciencegirl Maybe inexpensive and fast air travel will catch on in Europe one day. 1800’s technology is obsolete.

@yippekiyaymfs @thomastousi @sciencegirl Generalizations abound. “Socialists love X”. “People don’t love Y”. The fact is people vary. But generally, trains on a good network are more pleasant than battling gridlock on roads, so many people prefer trains. Hardly anyone drives into London to work for example.

@thomastousi @sciencegirl People don't love trains, those people were forced to take trains because they weren't allowed to buy cars and then couldn't afford them. Now that they do, they rarely use the shitty infrastructure built during Communism. Trains suck!