Discussion: Trump Tweets Germany Owes 'Vast Sums Of Money To NATO'

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Here are NATO spending links from Defense One and The Economist.

From July 21, 2016

“I am willing to kind of chalk it up to a rookie mistake,” he said. “I don’t think there is anybody he would choose to be secretary of defense or secretary of state who would have a different view from my own.”

Addison ‘Mitch’ McConnell

@Geofu54

you were right, it didn’t take long for him to show his —.

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Diplomacy by petulant man-baby. EVERYTHING IS FINE NO WORRIES. I’m sure there’s nothing serious going on with the stomach pain or heart palpitations. LEARN TO RELAX GODDAMNIT

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Going long on Cornfield Futures.

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I wonder how McConnell is doing, seeing how these errors are just ‘rookie mistakes’.

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Not having a conscience makes life easy. Not joking.

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He has still not read a damn thing about how the NATO alliance works, has he?

Samantha Bee connected the whales for you

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47

I so stole this. Thanks!

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Not being Mitch McConnell myself—one of the few consolations in life currently—I couldn’t say.

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Agreed - we are suffering here so that Europe can wise up and keep the extremists from running (ruining?) their countries. I have no doubt that Brexit never would have passed if that vote were held today.

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Perfect!!!

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Chancellor Merkel, while thoroughly briefed I’m sure, still conveyed an ‘are you shitting me’ look that, for a German, was equivalent to one of Lucille Ball’s best double-takes.
The 2nd German reporter with his droll “any other suspects” was the comic German equivalent to slapping Trump with a large fish or squirting him with seltzer.
Trump, no matter the henchmen spin, is a laughingstock.

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The Chinese are telling Tilly to keep a cool head in regard to NK.

Rex Tillerson urged to be ‘cool-headed’ over North Korea

Media captionRex Tillerson: “We will do everything we can to prevent conflict”
China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi has urged the US to remain “cool-headed” over North Korean tensions.
The situation was at a “crossroads”, but must not be allowed to develop into a conflict, he said after hosting US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.
Mr Tillerson spoke of “dangerous levels” of tension, a day after suggesting the US might launch a pre-emptive strike against North Korea.
North Korea is working to develop nuclear missiles that can reach the US.
Last week, it launched four ballistic missiles - defying United Nations resolutions.

Embarrassing that we have to have Foreign leaders tell our SOS how to do his job.

Meanwhile,

Taiwan is accusing China of ramping up their espionage operations.

And us without a functioning Sate Department and a woefully ill-prepared and inadequate SOS.

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Seriously though…there’s some conjecture that he may have left S. Korea early because being so routinely tired, he either has a serious health problem no one knows about, he’s just a know-nothing cipher as J. Marshall has surmised, or he left early to make a secret rendezvous to Russia, since he only brought along one young 33 year old fawning journalist that had already written a puff piece on him. She also was written up in “The Hill’s” top 50 Most Beautiful List, while no other journalists or press pool were allowed to accompany him on his trip…at least on the airplane.

Just boggles the mind.

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Thanks, I missed that. Guess I have to give him a little credit, but I still don’t get the missed handshake.

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Everything is framed as a shakedown with this fucking fraudster.

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Trying my damnedest to not Google that Haberman-Sanger interview that essentially started all of this. One of my fears isn’t the Asian part of that piece, but its when he asks the duo if the tape recorder is still running.

@squirreltown

@spencersmom

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He’s 65, fat, and looks like he never exercises.
Age is 64, birthday next week, per wiki.

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So much fun.

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The thing about this, is it just shows how completely ignorant he is on the subject.

NATO members don’t give money to the United States. They are supposed to spend 2% of the GDP on their own defense, the idea being that they then have a robust enough military that they can respond to a NATO call for additional military aid.

So keeping the little caveat in mind…Trump just proposed a huge expansion in military spending. A few things from that:

  1. That doesn’t actually send a message to rest of NATO that they need to step up, because the U.S. isn’t. It actually sends the exact opposite message.
  2. The entire premise of the decades long military spending that we do, is to make the U.S. THE predominant military force on the planet. To maintain that…you don’t want other countries increasing their military spending.
  3. This is the essentially the NRA mentality on a global stage. More guns, tanks and bombs for everybody! If the entire world spent 3%+ of its GDP on military expenditures…we will have a lot more conflicts…not less. AND the global economy will contract…because military spending provides no other economic benefit after its spent. Hell, if its actually used, it dramatically decreases economic output somewhere in the world (the place being bombed).
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i think he’s 70