Latest leaks indicate the US will be given sovereignty over its existing and future bases in Denmark, along with oil drilling rights, at $0 to US tax payers. Some vassal indeed.
Re: fighter jets, the US and China are each producing about 4x as many jets as all of Europe combined. Europe's deliveries (41) barely exceed Russia's (33-39) despite Europe having 3x the population, supposedly superior industrial tech, not being the most sanctioned economy on Earth, etc...
Re: rockets.....well we don't want to judge by tonnage lifted, where SpaceX dwarfs the entire planet's efforts. Still it appears Europe struggles to put even a handful of new rockets up, so I'm not sure why you are characterizing that as "plenty" either:
> Europe is already great. It's why hundreds of thousands of Americans moved here in 2025.
HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS? Citation needed please. A migration of that scale would have journalists writing about it. Accurate data seems hard to come by but one expert puts TOTAL US expat numbers in Europe around 1.1 million.
> As for being a vassal: Trump was warned of the consequences of invading Greenland and he backed down immediately. Some vassal.
Yes sometimes vassals oppose their suzerain's most egregious overreaches of power successfully. King John of England's barons pressured him to create the Magna Carta. Afterwards...they were still his vassals, as they were before it.
Ok, let's take all of that as a given ... (and I've not clicked on one link, or read one line of it, so this is assumption).
Even after all of that... I'd still live in Europe any day of the week instead of your sh1thole country. How's your gestapo crackdown going? Your nation is currently as stain on democratic landscape. I hope you move beyond it.
Your comment here is arguably illegal under UK law that prevents extremism based on violence, hatred or intolerance. Referring to someone as affiliated with the Nazi party arguably fits that bill. Please exercise caution...
You're wrong, but I couldn't give a shit, mate. None of us do... freedom of expression is a wonderful thing. Try it out sometime if your gestapo will let you.
But anyway, I'd have a fine, FINE time in court arguing the similarities of Hitler's finest and your ICE agents.
And don't get me wrong. Just because I call the USA a sh1thole on the ILS glidepath to a fascist state, doesn't mean I don't see the wrong in our countries.
The difference is, I don't turn the other cheek about my own country. I don't look in the mirror and lie to myself like some of you do. Pathetic.
And, AGAIN, even now, even with your evidence (which I didn't click on and couldn't give a shit about considering your comment adjacent to it) ... I'd STILL live here over that sh1thole with your pretend stormtroopers with their trigger happy fingers... hilarious how quiet your 2A fanatics and loud auditors are now.
Hell, half of them probably took that $50k signing on bonus while smoking a big fat one (the burning embers of your constitution).
You're barking up the wrong tree; I haven't lived in the US for 15 years. Looking at the crackdown on Occupy Wall Street, and the militarization of law enforcement during the Ferguson Riots when we had a black President was enough to confirm how the Empire's overseas oppression would eventually come home. It's a contributing factor to why so many military veterans (including us NON-WHITE ones) are happy to settle out here in Asia. I get to leverage the power of US dollar income to build a future for my children who's only connection to the US / "The Old Country" will be the revenue generated from their family property.
>> How's your gestapo crackdown going?
Same shit, different day when you are black. We're just looking at the white liberals who are now getting shot by The State's goons like "Oh, first time?"
I think your response is below the threshold of quality commentary for HN, but I didn't downvote it. It's better that it is as visible as possible, to serve as an artifact demonstrating the combined arrogance and ignorance that so often spews forth out of the mouths of Europeans.
Ignorance? I'll call it assumption. Arrogance? No, just disgust.
And just like I assumed your background, so you assumed mine with the same level of precision.
I'll not call you a coward for lumping those who now suffer under your current pseudo-fascist government (because it still is your government). Ok, I will. When your fellow man or woman suffers under the same oppression you've suffered, you don't turn and run, you stand and fight, if you're able.
And it disgusts me that you look at those "white liberals" who will, and have, fought for you, and treat their deaths with pithy disdain.
I was going to say 'No way, profit > idealistic moral virtues'. But I could totally see Europe knee capping themselves. Look at how their food is inferior to the US because they stick to tradition.
I can totally see themselves doing this out of pride/humiliation.
Not direct numbers. But you can see r/BuyFromEU has 795K Weekly visitors. That is A LOT. In comparison, r/OpenAI has 676K Weekly visitors and r/webdev has 691K Weekly visitors.
1. The US is a hegemony that meddles in others’ affairs
2. It does so selfishly, despite the high flying rhetoric about freedom, democracy, etc.
3. This is good
The preconditions for absence of war in Europe came before the EU existed and has to do with the post-WWII balance of power, which was heavily driven by the United States.
The poll you reference didn't ask a single country in the middle east (except Israel, of course!) or most of South American countries (half of which puppet governments were placed). I wonder why. And you really argue with a straight face that this is representative of "People globally"?
I'd be more insulted by your attempt of slight if PEW wasn't doing the same.
I’m not at all suggesting that the United States’s history isn’t fucked. I would suggest, though, that many people recognize that there are tradeoffs and having a single global superpower provides stability in exchange for freedom.
Yes, I’m aware of our history overturning democracies in South America or south east Asia due to communism or Iran because of oil. I’m also aware of efforts to install democracies (e.g. Iraq) not being about freedom. The people polled understand this as well.
I’m curious which counter factual reality you think would be better? Be specific as to what it would look like; who the regional powers would be; how they would cooperate / interfere with each other; what wars would look like, including frequency, between regional powers vs. today; whether states within their sphere of influence would be required to participate in these wars, etc etc etc.
The UK itself lost one third of its land area in 1921, following yet another insurrection in Ireland (always a coerced part of the UK subject to genocidal rule and expropriation).
The last straw for the Irish was summary executions of the insurrectionists and the ravages of the Black and Tans -- like ICE but with arsonists and criminals, but without masks. The US will be fortunate if the parallels remain only financial.
Yes, of course Europe doesn't have any US laws but to suggest that it doesn't have legislation about accessibility is simply wrong. Guess what... the legislation generally applies to buildings and construction post-dating the legislation. Applicability to earlier structures will vary depending on feasability and justification (cost, traffic).
If American companies don't want to pay taxes in Europe they can easily avoid doing so by staying home. If they prefer to earn profits in Europe they can comply with the law. As it is they do everything they can to avoid paying taxes, full stop, not just in Europe.
A rational entity would want a functioning society, with working infrastructure and social systems, not a crumbling country on the verge of revolution. Guess what pays for that? Taxes.
Stop trying to rebrand selfishness as rationalism.
Do you voluntarily pay more than the minimum taxes required or are you selfish? And don't try to deflect the question by making spurious claims that wealthy individuals or corporations should be held to a higher standard. Give us a clear yes or no answer.
Look, I'm no economist, I don't know the exact numbers.
I can tell you however, that Bezos and his oligarch friends booking out a Venice that is sinking from climate change, while people suffer without health insurance and we still don't have high speed rail as built out as it needs to be is definitely not my understanding of fair.
And again, I say this as somebody that I also think should be taxed more. To live this well while so many people and projects need the resources more is unconscionable.
Leave the implementation details to the experts and elected officials. It's clear which direction we need to move in though.
So in other words you have no clue and are just making stuff up. If you want to donate more money to the government then go ahead, no one is stopping you.
That's not at all what I said and you know it. Shame on you for using such a bad-faith interpretation in your defense of the indefensible. The details of how we try to bend our capitalist system do not interest me because it is an inherently broken system. It is because of selfishness like yours that we will all die in the climate catastrophe.
Fair would be Bezos and his ilk getting the Jack Ma treatment, oligarch fortunes reclaimed by the people and used for solving the climate crisis. But we won't get fair. Meanwhile greedy little moneygrabbers argue over some little tax. Ridiculous.
Shame on you for making a bad faith comment you while refusing to be specific. It's horrifying that your would support anything done by communists. All communists should be killed.
I want a Linux phone based on open source hardware. I gave up an iPhone for Android then switched to Pixels. My current Pixel 7 will be my last Google phone. I want out of the surveillance economy. I want AI assistance as badly I want a hole in the head.
I carry an 8 inch tablet (fits in a jacket pocket) and do most of my mobile web, email, podcast listening etc. on that, using my phone as a hotspot. Can't buy a new 8 inch tablet with a fingerprint reader. Got a couple of 2nd hand ones on eBay and will soon look at putting LineageOS on them (they have out of date versions of Android).
Europe is already great. It's why hundreds of thousands of Americans moved here in 2025.
As for being a vassal: Trump was warned of the consequences of invading Greenland and he backed down immediately. Some vassal.