Rutler

@JohnOleske @WhiteHouse @joelcardwellX The throwaway, petty barbs from Trump we are accustomed to now. But, as a European, it’s still hard to fathom that there are not enough adults in the room to be too embarrassed to put that out. A great country’s official voice looks a slow and angry teenage boy in an online forum

@WhiteHouse @joelcardwellX Official White House account slandering our loyal allies who gave their lives for us the only time NATO Article 5 has ever been invoked. You’re all despicable. Shame.

“NATO WASN’T THERE WHEN WE NEEDED THEM, AND THEY WON’T BE THERE IF WE NEED THEM AGAIN. REMEMBER GREENLAND, THAT BIG, POORLY RUN, PIECE OF ICE!!!” - President Donald J. Trump

@Schizointel @ArmchairAdml Their aircraft on that island is more powerful than anything South America has, and other than military basis the island is basically a small British town from the 1980s.

You have no military capabilities capable of defending your colonial possession you can say it's your territory all you want but you don't have the strength to back up that claim. If the populace want to remain British they can move back to England. It is exactly a case of who the United States wants to side with. Monroe Doctrine is very much policy of the United States government, particularly this administration. Most recent 2024 referendum on where Puerto Rico should go 58% favored becoming a state of the United States and 11% supported Independence.

It’s not a case of who you want to side with. The island has occupants, it’s not just a rock in the middle of the sea with no one on it. The people there want to remain British, and until that changes THEY’RE OUR ISLANDS! “Illegal colonial possession” - shall we have a chat about Puerto Rico? The Monroe Doctrine is not a legal document, and is not international law. It’s irrelevant. So we are not “violating” anything.

@hestbort @misfitpatriot_ Do you really think this long term thinking, thankless guy you imagine is the same one that launches a shitcoin before his presidency and tries to personally enrich himself at every opportunity?

Trump moves now. Credit comes later. Maybe after he's gone. New world order bending. Red green alliance holding. He sees the cost of waiting. Same with @hestbort. They take the hits now so you get your funds back before the window closes. Bookmark that too. 2050 you'll say they were right.

It’s gonna take years for some people to realize the decisions Trump made in this term directly led to a new wave of American exceptionalism, and prevented this country from turning into the UK. He probably won’t even be alive when he finally gets credit for saving this country from the dark and bleak trajectory we were heading down. He’s single handedly taking down the new world order by way of the new red green alliance, and he doesn’t give a fuck how many people hate him for it in the moment, because he sees the cost of not doing it while he still can. Bookmark this shit and set an alert for 2050 so you can come back and tell me I’m right.

@russ18959 @BenedictSpence Think their generation may just realise they will also work their entire lives. The difference being they will not receive the same unsustainable benefits at the end of it.

@BenedictSpence It's as if no one in this fucking generation realises that pensioners worked their entire lives. Let's just slur them with the name boomer and forget everything they have contributed to society. Cunts.

Pensioners may wish to consider that responding to working people’s struggles with contempt and vitriol, as evidenced in the replies, might not be a great long-term strategy if they want to keep their benefits.

@Hal_Turner_Show @Microinteracti1 If that makes Russia right in your eyes. Who is right when it comes to Greenland? And who is right when it comes to certain defence promises made to Ukraine? You do realise your ‘ally’ Russia is currently helping Iran with their drone targeting against you.

We're aligning with Moscow because Moscow is right and Europe is wrong. We promised the Soviets we would not move NATO "one inch eastward" if they allowed East and West Germany to re-unify. They allowed it, then we broke our word; moved NATO right up to Russia's Border. When NATO then tried to recruit Ukraine, Russia told everyone "no." Ukraine said "We're sovereign, we will do as we like." Russia replied "If Ukraine joins NATO it will put American missiles on Ukraine soil with a five minute flight time to Moscow. No nation can defend itself from such a thing, you cannot join NATO." Ukraine replied "We are sovereign, we will do as we want." Russia said "Oh yea? Here. Meet the Russian Army." Now, Euro-trash like you whine about it. NATO expansion caused all this. Accept reality.

No serious nation in the history of warfare has spent fourteen months insulting its allies, siding with their common enemy, and then knocked on their door expecting them to rescue a catastrophe of its own making. You abused the UK. Threatened Canada. Tried to grab Greenland. Called the EU an adversary. Praised Putin. Hosted Kremlin officials in the Capitol. Abandoned Ukraine. And did all of it loudly, proudly, and on camera. And now you are surprised that nobody is returning your calls. You want European boots on the ground? Start by explaining why America is more aligned with Moscow than with Brussels. Take your time. We will wait. Gandalv / @Microinteracti1

@gerardtbaker On a recent visit to the US, I stopped by a few of their local traditional festivals. They called them fun-erals I believe….they were not particularly fun I have to say.

I do find it slightly inconvenient when I travel to northern France to have to clamber all those bodies they couldn’t be bothered to bury after two world wars. I asked a local and he just gave a Gallic shrug and said “What’s the point?”

@karol That’s so impressive how you invented dealing with the dead. No other culture in history has ever thought about that, we often trip over old relatives.

After 9/11 I had European friends confused that we would spend time, money and effort digging up the bodies at Ground Zero. What's the point, they said. But it's what Americans (and, ahem, Israelis) do. We love life, we care about our dead, and we don't leave anyone behind.

@StewartD58588 @OldblueAyeAyes @SirDanofC That doesn’t make much sense, is this the minimum and highest average? Or the lowest any property has rise is 37%?

@Rutler___ @OldblueAyeAyes @SirDanofC 37% is minimum and highest is over 70%

All well and good but scrimping and saving will not buy a house today. You need 5-6 times two salaries not 3 times one salary. By all means ditch the takeaways and new clothes but it isn’t going to make a dent into a quarter of a million quid.

@LoftusSteve The generational argument seems to boil down to math v merit most of the time. Younger people put forward the case that triple lock is unsustainable because it will always outgrow the money coming in. Boomers respond with, “I worked hard all my life”.

Again, how is "the triple lock is unsustainable" being confused for taking away pensions?

@StewartD58588 @OldblueAyeAyes @SirDanofC It has been much lower for younger people in apartments etc. but excluding that fact, 37% over 10 years equates to just over 3% a year, pretty much an inflation increase. Boomers had an average annualised increase of 9% for like 3 decades.

@Rutler___ @OldblueAyeAyes @SirDanofC House prices have risen minimum 37% over the last decade

@flowerpotweller @SandyofSuffolk It’s funny how a lot of their advice is to buy any property you can afford wherever it is and that will make you money. Not realising that in itself was a good fortune of the boomer generation

This @SandyofSuffolk blocked me ages ago. She’s now resurfaced to tell young people that they shouldn’t marry, shouldn’t eat, shouldn’t holiday, should commute for 3 hours, and should live in a shithole. If we forsake any of this, we are lazy. The epitome of the eternal boomer.

@OldblueAyeAyes @SirDanofC @StewartD58588 That is somewhat of a boomerism in itself. House price growth (and particularly apartments) has not been strong and is far from guaranteed.

@SirDanofC @StewartD58588 Its called the " housing ladder" for a reason.

@SebastianPott10 @de_varse @CptHastings1916 They also seem to miss t he contradiction between, ‘we were just good savers, that’s why we have houses’ and ‘there weren’t private pensions, so the state is needed’

@de_varse @CptHastings1916 Private pensions especially final salary schemes were abundant for boomers

One reason Boomers & older Gen Xers get so indignant when younger people point out their good housing fortune is that over the last half century many "luxuries" have become way more affordable, so they feel that it's somehow ungrateful for us to note huge housing cost inflation.

@veganukx @NewsonTed It’s not a question of merit, the issue isn’t whether people feel boomers deserve the money. It’s money in vs money out. The triple lock ensures the money out always grows faster than money in, which combined with a large generation, with a longer life span, is a problem.

@NewsonTed We paid for your education unless of course your parents sent you privately. We also paid for any hospital treatment you may have had including being born! It works both ways so stop whining.

To the pensioners who were howling at me discussing scrapping the triple lock last night I have just two things to say: Shouldn't you be nicer considering that my salary pays your pension? The state pension is a safety net, not a way of life. You've had years to save privately.

@adamw132 @agbdrilling @thinkdefence I had a friend based there for some time. Apparently the aircraft we have there is more powerful than most of South America.

@agbdrilling @thinkdefence You do realise Argentina would stand no chance against F-35s and they'd have to invade the islands which we have been making harder to invade since 1982.

Next time, we will be on our own, with zero help from the USA.

@TopGirlKeiko @ArshiaMoh This isn’t a ‘wish we had more tourism’ situation. Iran under the previous regime was very liberal and popular, they apparently had great ski resorts. They’re actively not looking to have westerners there

@ArshiaMoh They could do full bathing suits, not exactly bikinis. Bars with limited alcohol per person in tourist areas.

You’re telling me this is what Iran looks like? They have the absolute worst PR then.

@OSlark2000 @cmclymer Yet for some reason they all seem to contradict themselves and publicly fellate him just to be in his good books briefly. It will be so embarrassing when they’re all sacrificed.

@cmclymer Everyone Trump hires is a short-timer. It comes with the Fall Guy job description.

Pam Bondi did everything that sociopathic rapist asked her to do, including the willful cover-up of a massive child sex trafficking operation. And in exchange for all of it, she was tossed out with the rest of Thursday’s trash. Embarrassing beyond imagination.

@horizontalescal @PeterMeijer Is that response more infuriating than the proposal? “Please come join this war we started, and won, without planning alongside the country we did, whose motives are questionable. Once we’ve won the war, which we just did again, we’ll get back to discussing taking your land”

@PeterMeijer The european response is especially infuriating. "we aren't obligated to help you against iran" yeah no shit this conversation isn't about legal obligations.

It would behoove our NATO allies to appreciate that this sentiment is *very* widely shared, including amongst erstwhile boosters of trans-Atlantic relations.

@MoffFrieren @PfHamburguesa @MsMelChen Is it really Europe that would be the leak vs the president that can be bought with a fancy jet or a large purchase of his or his wife’s shitcoin

what would consulting europe accomplish without sharing specifics they would have leaked? khamenei was the head of a regime that killed over 1000 americans. Denmark sent some dog sled teams. how was he trying to steal greenland by social media posts? saying "well eurostains overreacted" isnt a compelling argument for anyone with a brain.

Let’s be real here. Europe has spent decades freeloading on American security. Even now, with every NATO member finally hitting the 2% GDP target in 2025. But beyond the financial contributions, the real rupture is philosophical and the Iran crisis has shown a spotlight on it. Europe worships process. Endless committees, consultations, and “predictability.” Macron actually calls it a virtue. For Trump, this is paralysis as his style is to articulate a threat, fix a target, and act. The Americans are men of conviction and purpose. Europe on the other hand lives by bureaucratic liturgy and in high-minded abstractions. Sure, Americans might make mistakes when acting. But Europe never considers what the costs of not acting actually are. Just look at how their nations are doing on various fronts, especially on the border crisis, and you see the same cancerous rot that undergirds their foreign policy approach play out domestically. It's the same problem on a different scale. Iran is currently holding the Strait of Hormuz hostage, choking 20% of global oil and spiking prices past $100 a barrel. Meanwhile, the regime is bleeding from strikes, its nuclear ambitions are still alive despite degraded capability, and its proxies are firing missiles at allies and oil tankers. If this isn’t a clear and present danger to the global economy - of which Europe is a part - then I don’t know what is. Yet when Washington asked to use European bases to finish the job - bases the US has defended for generations, the response was hesitation and hand-wringing. The US did strike from RAF Fairford, but only after warnings that British soil could become a “legitimate target.” If you cannot agree that a theocratic regime with eschatological ambitions who have shown no restraint in hitting out at Gulf countries and threatening the world’s energy jugular is an enemy worth confronting, then what, exactly, are we allies about? Europe loves to preen about being tough on Russia. They issue condemnations and speeches and slap sanctions that hardly work to cripple the Russian economy. Now here was a chance to do something concrete: let the Americans use the bases they already pay for, help clear the Strait, and actually degrade the Iranian war machine that arms Moscow’s proxies. Turmp didn’t ask for boots on the ground or any kind of more offensive action. All he wanted was permission to operate from the infrastructure America has underwritten for decades. They couldn’t even manage that. So can you blame the Americans for seeing NATO for what it is? A paper-tiger alliance that expects Washington to bleed and pay while Brussels and London convenes and deliberates. If Europe refuses to treat Iran as the threat it is while happily letting American power keep the Strait open and the lights on, then the alliance is already dead. Trump is simply stating the obvious and the Americans are becoming very reluctant to subsidize the European delusion any longer.

@MsMelChen @Go_Crene Use the bases to defeat an enemy that has been defeated 15 times in the last month and also had their nuclear capacity completely destroyed last year?

@Go_Crene This is true And I will say after Iraq and Afghanistan, the Europeans do have a reason to be cautious But again this time, America did not ask for troops or machinery. They asked nothing more than to use the bases