Trump tweets: "Despite what you have heard from the FAKE NEWS, I had a GREAT meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Nevertheless, Germany owes ... vast sums of money to NATO & the United States must be paid more for the powerful, and very expensive, defense it provides to Germany!"

Pay up, Germany. Make it a cashier check.

That's not how the NATO works... does he even know how the NATO works?

This is like those cutscenes in Civilization games where a rival leader (often Gengis Khan) makes crazy demands to you.

^^"Does he even know how anything works?" is more like it.

Yeah, it's almost exactly how I play Civilization/Total War. Every once in a while, just check through all my allies and go "Hey, we're still friends right? Gimme some money for no reason."

Although I guess it's true that Germany isn't quite meeting NATO guidelines for defense spending, so maybe that's why Trump feels like he has the right to badger them.

I always loved burning down the UN in Civ 4 when they vote against me.

What's this? Oh, I see! It's a disaster in the making because certain people couldn't come up with real solutions! Here we go again. :rolleyes:

Regardless of how he says it, there is still the issue of how most of NATO members don't contribute their fair share as mandated.

It is a viable issue, though I am not certain there is a correct way to solve it.

Threats from Russia to some of those NATO members are more immediate, so at some point one would think it's in their best interest to try to resolve this issue. All recent signs point to Russia is speeding up modernizing their own military might, so it's not unreasonable to think in not so foreseeable future more aggression is on the way.

Indeed, I am looking forward to the day he actually offers a real solution to a real problem.

Trump's tweets are good for health! ;)

Little of topic! :p

I heard you will be one of those helping build the wall monir! :D Please o please listen to this while building! XD
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To be clear, I was thinking of someone far closer (someone on this very forum, who thought it would be best to shut down conversation entirely instead of moderating it more closely -- who decided to blame me for absolutely everything that went on in a certain thread while breaking his own rules in private) but the same works for Trump. I remember seeing him plastered all over the cover of a magazine making all these claims about how he's creating jobs, lowering health care costs, etc. None of that ever happened and none of that is even in the works.

I don't see how your problem with a moderator has to do anything with this thread but just in case you're talking about the US politics thread, your ban was completely justified from your behaviour in there, even if it was apparently only temporary :heh:

As for Trump's tweets, apparently he tweeted during Comey's hearing: which Comey flat out confirmed false. Comey, who was at the hearing, fact-checked tweets about the hearing - during the hearing :heh::heh::heh:

I'm confused why you continue to contribute to a conversation that you clearly are unable to do in mature and constructive manner.

This type of stuff has stopped being funny a long time ago. It might be shits and giggles right now because it's relatively inconsequential but he has irreparably damaged the credibility of the current white house administration. When something that really does matter happens, how are we supposed to believe him? If there is an issue of utmost national security importance he needs to communicate to people who really matter in this country, will they be willing to listen? This is extremely dangerous, and not to be a sour puss over this stuff, it's exactly why I refuse to treat it as a small laughing matter.

I like Trump, but I still engage in making fun of him, that's totally fine to do. In fact it's kind of expected that any new president becomes the butt of jokes for the next few years, that's one of the great things about liberal(?) western(?) nations.

And he certainly provides a wealth of material for that purpose.

I get that people are pretty gung-ho about politics, so any thread on the topic will have an increased incidence of personal attacks, but I'd prefer this to be moderated with a scalpel rather than the nuclear option.

You're obviously speaking for yourself.

His behavior is not phasing his supporters in any way. 80% of Republican favors him highly and thinks he is doing a great job. Let's not forget 62.7 million people voted for him, fully knowing what they're getting in their president. Your concern are not equally shared. If they were, GOP would not be in control of the House, Senate, Potus and soon to be, the Scotus.

And no, it's not a joke thread. This is in place to discuss many of his tweets and the subject he highlights in his own colorful and hilarious fashion.

I'm not speaking for myself. I'm speaking for the countless national security experts and advisers who work tirelessly on some of the most important issues of this country. I'm speaking for our ally nations who are vital partners in hot spots all over the world. This is common sense and should be above partisan politics. It used to be before this election at the very least.

Those countless experts don't outweigh the sheer number of voters who have given GOP the majority in congress and the presidency to Trump. As I said, you ARE speaking for yourself where you see partisan politics while someone else with a different set of perspective thinks GOP is doing exactly what their respective voters sent them to do.

In the end, it is (hopefully) history that will decide if this was a good or bad administration for the United States.