candide

Trump's aides are contradicting themselves. This administration is completely cahotic! 😆 Vance Slaps Down Hegseth by Threatening Putin With U.S. Troops https://www.yahoo.com/news/vance-slaps-down-hegseth-threatening-113817347.html

If this administration's objective is really to lower debt, why does Trump want to raise the debt-ceiling? 🙂

It's more a question of political will. As I have explained, even the current level is not ridiculous. It's now close to 2% of GDP, and an increase to 3% of GDP is enough if invested on common European projects. It"s not huge. And that would put Europe at 50% more than the current Russian war economy budget in PPP, and 4 to 5 more in nominal value. Some budget choices need to be made , of course. It's quite feasible but the political will to do it is currently lacking. Another decision which requires political will is nuclear proliferation. Give nuclear weapon technology to Poland, Germany Finland, etc..

(Preliminary comment for posters who may not be aware of it. The EU has no defense prerogative, according to the treaties signed) Spending more is necessary, but it's not the main issue. Currently, the aggregated budget of European countries is far from being ridiculous. In PPP it's the equivalent of the current Russian military budget, which is at his maximum, and in nominal value it's 3 times higher than Russia. The problem is the coordination and optimisation at the European level. Each country spends to defend its own country, not to defend the whole of Europe. And they are far from being able to agree on a common project. For example, if Spain increases its spending to better protect its borders, it will have no impact on defending Europe from an invasion coming from Russia. A coordinated military spending would mean that countries such as Spain, France or UK would spend money to improve the protection of Finland, the Baltic States or Poland. There is probably a lot of unnecessary duplicated spending in the different countries, while there is not enough coordinated spending for common purposes. For example, European countries don't have enough logistical means without the U.S.. it can only be solved by a common European logistical force project. It's the same for Strategic stocks. Strategic stocks of weapons and equipment must be optimised and managed at the European level. Not to mention the lack of industrial policy to build an independent base of European production of weapons and equipment. Currently, European countries are unable to agree on a common project. At best, there may be a possibility of a few countries agreeing on some common projects, for a start.

Upset, me? It's you who make it personal, not me! 🙂 I've just shown that the two top poster were actually your MAGA poster pals!

Accusation/projection again? 🙂

Oooooh! Those people who post 500 times a week! 😆 So you haven't read his post but you criticize it?

“USAID procures condoms for around $0.05 a piece,” he wrote. “$50m would be ONE BILLION condoms. What’s going on here is NOT a billion condoms for Gaza. 🤣 https://apnews.com/article/gaza-condoms-fact-check-trump-50-million-26884cac6c7097d7316ca50ca4145a82 That's the problem with putting posters who contradict you with facts on ignore. You keep on posting the same B.S. over and over, without knowing it's B.S.....

How deep is that hole you're digging? 😆 Lame deflection again! Show your evidence e that $50 million worth of condoms was to be sent to Gaza province in Mozambique (and also that Hamas stays there, as the claim was that his administration had “identified and stopped $50 million being sent to Gaza to buy condoms for Hamas.”.🙂 You have nothing! BTW, this claim was ridiculous from the start. As if Trump would be able to know that there is a small province called Gaza in Mozambique! 🤣

As usual, a baseless claim! Where your evidence that Trump's administration had “identified and stopped $50 million being sent to Gaza to buy condoms for Hamas.”? I 'm not holding my breath! 🤣

To Gaza, or to the Gaza province of mozambique, it's still a false claim! 🤣

I remember that. Trump's aides claimed it was for the IMC. The IMC published the following statement, which debunks this claim. Trump was lying, as usual! 🙂 https://internationalmedicalcorps.org/press-release/international-medical-corps-operations-in-gaza/

Baseless claim. You have no evidence of it,,as usual!

Let's eliminate the NASA and its useless spendings! Oh wait! 😆

Defense is not part of EU's prerogative. It's up to each member State. The main problem is that they don't really agree with each other on a common defense project.

If it's so bad, why do Trump and Musk need to make fake claims, such as the ridiculous condom story?

Gag! 🙂 Trump officials fired nuclear staff not realizing they oversee the country’s weapons stockpile, sources say Trump officials fired nuclear staff not realizing they oversee the country’s weapons stockpile, sources say https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/14/climate/nuclear-nnsa-firings-trump

Exactly. The whole point is to make fake claims!🙂

(y − γ)(y − γ) = (y − Xβˆ)+(Xβˆ − γ)(y − Xβˆ)+(Xβˆ − γ) 😆

Retail price! You can buy 1000 for $275, and for 770 millions condoms, it's obviously much cheaper! 🙂 There's no way sending $50 million worth of condoms to only Gaza (wherever it is) can be considered as realistic. 🤣

Nice try but: - it's a FY 2012 number from the archive site. Of course, Musk blocked the USAID website so no one can cross-check his claims! 🙂 - it's not about Gaza, 🙂 - The claim by Trump and Musk was $50 million, not 50 million condoms! 🙂 In summary, you have nothing! 🤣

Then why are MAGA posters only showing tweets? Self reply after having a look at Doge.gov: Because the website only displays tweets and vids!

There's a recurrent debate among economists about economic indicators. They don't all agree.

Says AN macroeconomist! (I don't disagree with the claim that indicators are comparable over time)

Yes, as in the other countries, there was less inflation pre- Covid than post Covid. But your pals said that the indicators were misleading, or even lies. So according to their claims, they were misleading for Trump too?