Derp de derpity derpy derp. Until one day, the derpa derpa derpaderp. Derp de derp. Da teedily dumb. From the creators of Der, and Tum Ta Tittaly Tum Ta Too, Rob Schneider is… a fascist!

Had erger gekund. De VVD is hier wel weer de grote winnaar - stappen in dit kabinet is al een enorme concessie, dan hadden ze er op zijn minst wel een beperkte aanpak van de hypotheekrenteaftrek uit kunnen slepen.

Not if you slice it by spending as a percentage of GDP, in which case the US ranks above average among NATO members but does not especially stand out. Of total NATO military spending, about two thirds comes from the US mainly because of its large productive capacity. Most of the NATO members, especially in eastern and southern Europe, are simply not very rich countries. Indeed, those three I mentioned are all rich Nordic countries (the top 10 is rounded out by Israel and Gulf states).

If you want to reduce military reliance on the US, which you unequivocally should do, it will require either significant investments in defense or the acceptance of a significant reduction in military assets and preparedness for the EU as a whole.

It’s a fiction that European NATO members spend little and rely only on the US for defence. None but the US itself could realistically oppose a coalition of non-US NATO members. This is precisely why increased spending is necessary, to hedge against the uncertainty of an increasingly erratic and authoritarian US.

Of the top 10 countries in military spending per capita (as of 2023), three are European NATO members.

Unfortunately, her case will almost surely be denied since the US has been designated a safe country by Dutch officials, and the trend in most of Europe, under pressure from racist voters and the surging popularity of fascism, is to make the already extremely strict asylum rules even stricter. In some cases (e.g. Denmark) refugee asylum has been all but abolished, in an egregious violation of treaties on assisting refugees (and preventing genocide).

The good news for people like Arc is that for US citizens it is overwhelmingly easier to obtain residency status legally in the EU in countries like the Netherlands, compared to getting a Green Card in the US. She probably should have figured that out before panicking and booking that flight.

After all this time, still no one has managed to convey Trump even a rudimentary understanding of what tariffs are, and what the EU is.

Unfortunately, many UK voters don’t realize they’re setting themselves on the same path in the next election. The UK has one of the most fragile democracies in Europe, and its system is ill-prepared for a fascist majority in the Commons. Farage may be less of a moron than Trump (a low bar), but his voters are cut from the same cloth as Trump’s.

USD counts for about 58% of global currency reserves. That’s the largest by far to be sure, but far from the only relevant one, and the ratio has been steadily trending downwards (though interestingly, it hasn’t been the euro it lost ground to).

Trump has a 43% approval rating despite destroying the country.

Macron’s approval rating is around 25-30%. Merz’ is just over 20%. Starmer’s is around 45%.

Okay, so a poll among the self-identified Hispanic community says more of them think their economic situation has worsened rather than improved.

Meanwhile though, Trump’s approval rating is stable at 43%, still somewhat above the lowest point of his first term, and the GOP still has a 10-point lead over the Democrats in favourability. Polls for the midterms predict a close race with a small edge for Democrats.

They perhaps shouldn’t, at least not in these cases, but in practice they are either championed or condoned by an overwhelming majority of the population.

Sounds like violations of the constitution aren’t all that consequential then, doesn’t it?

Doesn’t the constitution also say something about things like attempting to overthrow the government, assisting foreign military forces in attacking domestic targets and taking bribes from foreign governments?

A more equal society than the most equal to have ever existed (in modern times at least - some hunter-gatherer tribes are highly egalitarian)? No, I don’t think so, but the kind of issues Americans popularly hypothesize as reasons for low birth rates are just not relevant in these societies, and I don’t see lower inequality having much effect on the real reasons people have no or few children there.

The least unequal societies all have low birth rates though. While inequality is still a serious issue in these societies, I’m not aware of any evidence or mechanism suggesting addressing this would increase birth rates.

Interessant dat je dat zegt, één van de voordelen van in het buitenland wonen vind ik nu juist dat de mensen elders in Europa (zo lang je niet naar Zuid-Europa gaat) een stuk afstandelijker zijn (en dus ook wat meer respect hebben voor je privacy).

And how do you renewably generate the power for electrolysis without solar or wind farms?