David Carpenter

Hungary chose Europe today. Budapest’s streets are packed, with people chanting “Russians out”

🚨🇮🇪Conor McGregor Calls on Ireland to Shut Down in Nationwide Strike – "Everything Must Stop NOW!" The famous MMA fighter and human rights advocate has urged all Irish citizens to close their shops, skip work, and take to the streets in a dramatic stand against government dictatorship. "While Irish families are freezing in their homes and businesses are being bled dry by extortionate energy costs, those in power continue to squander our money, carve up our land, and lie to our faces with arrogant contempt." "We are closing our doors, our shops, our sites, and our businesses so that the voice of the Irish people roars louder than their excuses, their lies, and their broken promises." "No more bleeding the Irish worker dry! No more sacrificing our families, our farms, and our future on the altar of radical green ideology and endless foreign wars!" "We are Ireland! This is our stand for survival.This is our stand for sovereignty." "This is Ireland First.National Strike in full effect.We will not be silenced. We will not back down. We will not surrender our country." "To every farmer, haulier, trucker, builder, shopkeeper, factory worker, and every hardworking Irish man and woman JOIN US. Shut it down." "They will feel the pain they have inflicted on us. Rise up, Ireland!"

My message here clearly struck a nerve. A few friends from when I was press secretary, domestically and abroad, don’t like what I said. Instead of seeing how Western European nations must change, they just want to attack Trump. The reason it struck a nerve is because they recognize that this time NATO nations are being held to account. They know they’ve come up short for decades and by denying us overflight rights, they’ve gone too far. Americans are fed up, especially with France and Spain. Trump won’t stand for it and they know it. They now fear the consequences of their inaction. The UK, unlike its days under Thatcher or Blair, is wishy-washy. They’ve often been a good allie, but this time they want to sit it out and have it both ways. We can use their bases, but only for limited operations. At least the UK spends real money on defense. France, Spain, and Italy are another story. So too is Canada. None of these four contribute seriously to NATO. They’re laggards, trying to get away with it. Spain and France force our pilots to fly thousands of miles out of the way (I thought they didn’t like carbon footprints) en route to Iran. Eastern Europe is a different story. They spend more on defense and they understand power. They lived under Soviet domination and recognize weakness when they see it. They won’t be weak. Western European governments, especially France, are good at issuing communiques and statements. They enjoy hosting conferences. They love to ponder deeply. Getting them to act is another matter, unless it’s to purchase Russian LNG, which they still do. The world is changing. Out of this war will come a new group of younger nations that understand real power and the importance of strength. The UAE, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Israel and Eastern Europe will emerge stronger than ever. Western Europe will continue to fall behind. As for Trump, you don’t have to like him. He often says things none of his predecessors would say. But don’t underestimate the fact that US taxpayers are fed up with nations that don’t pull their weight, and then force our pilots to take risks and longer flights so we can rid the world from the menace that is Iran. Today’s Western European leaders would rather mollify Iran and pay them ransoms (trade) than support the US. Things are different today. We all know it. The UK, France, Spain and Italy (despite its Prime Minister) have earned the consequences that will unfold. They could have and should have supported us. Not as a NATO alliance. But as individual free nations. All we wanted was overflight rights and full access to airfields. They’ve made their choices. Soon, they’ll see the results.

Big scrap in Dublin City 😲🤷🤦‍♂️

U.S. Navy F/A-18 Super Hornet making a low-level strafing run with its gun over the Iranian port city of Chabahar.