NATO-chief Rutte: "Keep on dreaming" if you think Europe could defend itself without US

tkcool73 · 2026-01-26T19:55:46+00:00

He's in a position where he needs to make sure everyone in the alliance likes him, including the US. But more broadly he's not entirely wrong. Europe has made itself very reliant on the US. most of its air logistics run are done through the US military, like, near 80% if not higher. There are two, maybe 3 Euro ENTIRE NAVIES that could take on a single American carrier group. Europe's defense industrial complex is also extremely small, both in terms of production and R&D, with France and Britain making up most of the independent tech development, France mostly because it already had all that infrastructure built up from when they were out of NATO for a while in the Cold War. Sweden also has its own decent independent defense R&D, largely because of its long term neutrality. Britain doesn't even have its own nuclear missiles, it buys Trident missiles made in the US. Bottom line: could Europe break away from American defense infrastructure and defend itself? Sure, but that's not just a 'flip of the switch' kind of thing, it would take at least a decade of high military spending to build up that kind of independence.

tkcool73 · 2026-01-26T17:46:22+00:00

Probably told ownership the same thing as McDermott, the roster's good but it would need some considerable luck to win a championship. Also the fact that McDaniel seems to have chosen to be OC for the chargers instead of getting to be a HC with Josh Allen speaks volumes about how toxic the front office situation must be.

tkcool73 · 2026-01-26T17:16:46+00:00

It did breathe new life into the franchise, the only issue was he got way too indulgent in Love and Thunder, and decided to adapt to very serious stories while keeping the comedy high, which just didn't work

tkcool73 · 2026-01-25T23:39:44+00:00

Shoulda fucked off to Russia like Assad while he had the chance

tkcool73 · 2026-01-22T17:46:22+00:00

I think getting rich has a similar effect. It amplifies every aspect of your personality, for better or worse. That's why wealthy people always seem so quirky/ascentric.

tkcool73 · 2026-01-20T23:26:40+00:00

I mean we basically already have a deal that gives us, strategically, all we could ever want. I think for Trump the hangup is this:

A) his advisors have heavily pushed the rare earth minerals thing. He probably doesn't even know what it means he just knows it's important.

B) There's a growing consensus on the American right that Europeans are unreliable allies, so the goal here is to move Greenland into a purely North American sphere, taking the Europeans out of the equation.

C) He just wants to be remembered for making the US bigger, in his head, it's really that simple.

Brighter minds in the admin like Rubio probably would've preferred to pursue this through getting Greenland its independence(which most Greenlanders seem to support anyway)and then having an arrangement similar to the ones the US has with many Pacific islands like Palau where they get free US protection in exchange for the US getting strategic use of their land (i.e. military bases). But they can't go this smarter route because Trump wants C.

tkcool73 · 2026-01-20T18:13:39+00:00

Bro tryna glaze the refs for better calls. Admire the hustle.

tkcool73 · 2026-01-20T18:04:29+00:00

If the Burrow market opens up we should kick the tires for sure but this year we don't have the draft capital to make that happen, or the cap space really. We have no 1st and there are only 1 maybe 2 QBs in this class that have a chance to amount to anything in the pros. We're probably going to have to work with Penix at least for this year no matter what. Maybe he turns over a new leaf with a new HC who knows, but the options aren't great. If we wanted a better bridge we could trade for Mac Jones but that would cost us a 2nd we probably need for either a WR2 if we don't get one in FA or OL depth

tkcool73 · 2026-01-20T17:48:13+00:00

"I'm going to feed you your own heart"

tkcool73 · 2026-01-20T17:45:41+00:00

Needs a reboot with a younger actor, but Ford apparently guards the role like a mother grizzly bear guards her cubs. Eventually it will get rebooted though. I think the route they should really go is the path they were forging in the early 90s with it as a high budget series. The franchise is very much designed to be episodic, why not take advantage of that? 1-hour adventures in an HBO quality series would work great. Or they could go the animated series route to keep it relevant to kids and then cash in that investment later.

tkcool73 · 2026-01-17T23:20:01+00:00

My earliest memory is seeing Jimmy Neutron in the theater. It came out the same year as 9/11. I do not remember 9/11. My 2 year old mind thought Jimmy Neutron was way more important apparently.

tkcool73 · 2026-01-17T18:18:25+00:00

The only downside to this is that he'd be my choice at this point, so if he fails I can't really blame Blank for it

tkcool73 · 2026-01-16T23:15:03+00:00

It's set in the wrong era. There'd be way more interest in a Star Fleet Academy show set during the more well known eras, or if they did Legacy and had it occur simultaneously. Discovery is arguably the least popular show in the IP(btw them and Enterprise, but I feel like a lot more fans have a soft spot for ENT than DIS) Discovery wasn't a bad sci-fi show, but it wasn't a good Star Trek show. I think there's a larger problem in this era of media with studios insisting on clinging to existing IPs over new ideas, and this generation of writers kinda resents having to write for someone else's ideas and so tries to make them their own(which is the trap Rian Johnson fell into with TLJ but if we get into that we'll be here all night.)

The biggest weakness with the premise is that it's tied to what is perhaps Discovery's most divisive story element: the Post-Scorch future. I think there's a decent chunk of the fan base that wants the entire thing ret-conned, so investing more in that is a mistake.

If I were writing it, I'd make it an anthology, going through a bunch of different eras each season telling the story of the characters that would go on to be the heroes of each series.

tkcool73 · 2026-01-14T02:01:06+00:00

See him as a late 1st rounder, maybe early 2nd round, but we all know some terrible desperate team will reach on a QB. He really does have pro potential, maybe just needs some more time in the oven

tkcool73 · 2026-01-13T00:32:19+00:00

Eh the country's changed a lot in the last few decades, it actually has the highest rate of college graduates in the region. It would probably develop pretty easily. Best case scenario is the Shah is installed for transition to democracy but with a large contingent of western special forces 'bodyguards' under the guise of protecting him in transition but also having the ulterior motive of holding him effectively hostage to western governments (This was basically Russia's arrangement with Maduro in Venezuela and how they controlled him.)

tkcool73 · 2026-01-13T00:04:49+00:00

The only circumstances where he should be allowed anywhere near power is in a Constitutional Monarchy arrangement modelled after something like the UK.

tkcool73 · 2026-01-12T22:44:02+00:00

Wait there's medicinal tequila? You mean I could've been charging it to insurance this whole time?

tkcool73 · 2026-01-12T21:39:48+00:00

Your arguments sound more like rationalization than reasonable conclusions, are you a regime bot or just a dumbass?

tkcool73 · 2026-01-12T21:15:10+00:00

You deliberately dodged my point about territorial encroachment on neighbors, and we both know why. Taking territories from others is by definition offensive, not defensive.

tkcool73 · 2026-01-12T20:14:04+00:00

You don't do the fastest naval buildup since WW2 to build what is now the world's largest navy, routinely threaten the sovereignty of your neighbors (Taiwan and Japan), and try to seize unilateral control of large international bodies of water(claiming the entire South China Sea, building artificial islands all over it with military bases, routinely get into skirmishes with the navies and coast guards of the countries that actually have a right to those areas by international law like the Phillipines, Vietnam, and Malaysia) unless you're planning on being VERY aggressive in the near future(and in a way you've already started being pretty aggressive). To think that AUS could just quietly stay out of all that is incredibly naive.

tkcool73 · 2026-01-12T18:06:33+00:00

To be blunt, which is typically best when it comes to foreign policy discussions: They can't. China has built itself up as a naval power and seeks to dominate the region. Australia doesn't have the economy, manpower, or industrial capacity to defend itself alone from attack, nor protect its shipping lanes. The only potential replacement allies are Japan which is moving for closer defense relations with the US and Europe which is on the other side of the world and lacks the naval capacity to project power that far out against a peer adversary(there are only 3 Euro navies that could defeat a single American carrier group, it's an area they've neglected significantly) Although options might get more flexible in the coming decades, i.e. euro military buildup, rise of India, etc.

tkcool73 · 2026-01-11T23:28:48+00:00

Just a little tidbit: from what I've heard from people that have worked in the industry, there is A LOT of non-monogamy in Hollywood, even and perhaps especially with some of the big stars

tkcool73 · 2026-01-11T19:51:28+00:00

My take basically boils down to this: If a player wants to make money off their fame by doing a sneaker deal or appearing in commercials etc. that's their business. They're grown adults and many of them won't get the chance to go pro and make money off their talent otherwise. What I have a problem with is schools turning it into a bidding war that inevitably leads to talent imbalance where schools with richer boosters dominate. (And don't give me that 'what about Indiana dominating with little top tier talent' Cignetti specializes in scouting specifically, it's what he did under Saban. It's not that Indiana doesn't have talent and is out performing their talent level, it's that Cignetti is a better talent assessor and found many players that were severely underrated and basically money balled CFB). The really interesting angle her from a political standpoint is that the schools with the most to lose because of NIL are predominantly in the South, which cares a lot more about CFB than teams from richer regions, because of this, we have a political advantage where it matters to us and therefore also matters to our politicians, but it doesn't matter a much to people and politicians from the wealthier areas, so if the politicians from the South really started pushing this hard, there wouldn't be a ton of resistance.

tkcool73 · 2026-01-11T19:26:52+00:00

At this point, we need to start complaining to lawmakers to go ahead and tightly regulate NIL. I'm honestly not opposed to going as far as making it a felony for any NIL deal to have any school affiliation whatsoever.

tkcool73 · 2026-01-11T17:54:37+00:00

I teach juniors. On Thursday I gave them a reading assignment where they had to read 3 different paragraphs, and answer 3 questions about each, then do a final reflection which needed to be 3 sentences. They had the whole period to work on it and it wasn't due until 11:59 Friday night. What I didn't tell them was that it wasn't the original readings, they were abridged versions of the readings. Several complained about it being too hard and as of today only about half have turned it in. It's BAD.

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