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2022-11-02 Europe
‘Let's Get Out Of NATO’: Discontent Soars Across Europe As Russian Sanctions Backfire
[ZeroHedge] Western sanctions against Russia have been considered a powerful foreign policy tool by the US and the EU to paralyze Moscow back to the 'stone age.' Though sanctions against Moscow have entirely backfired, sparking the worst cost-of-living crisis for Europeans in a generation.

In early September, we first noticed a wave of discontent sweeping across Europe as tens of thousands of people took to the city streets to protest soaring electricity bills and the worst inflation in decades. Some countries delivered relief packages to citizens to tame the anger, while other countries did not have the financial capacity to hand out checks.

Tens of thousands of people have marched across metro areas in France, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Germany -- many of them are fed up with sanctions on Russia that have sparked economic ruins for many households and businesses -- but also very surprising, support for NATO's involvement in Ukraine is waning.

There has been increasing awareness and dissent among Europeans about their countries' leaders prioritizing NATO's ambitions in Ukraine over their own citizens. The prioritization has been in the form of sanctions against Moscow, sparking energy hyperinflation and supplying weapons to Ukraine, which has made Moscow displeased with any country that does so. Some Europeans are now demanding NATO negotiate with Moscow to end the war so that economic turmoil can abate.

Here are the latest protests across Europe of tens of thousands of people (if not more) frustrated with high inflation and crying out anti-NATO slogans.
Many, many images and videos of massive anti-NATO protests at the link. See with your own eyes.

God be with them, I hope they succeed. NATO is a wildly expensive operation that we can't afford, not while our own people are homeless, suffering and watching their paychecks vanish from inflation and soaring gas prices. But we can't get any aid while we have to subsidize the defense of wealthy countries who despise us.


Posted by Spike the Hairy6811 2022-11-02 00:00|| || Front Page|| [11143 views ]  Top

#1 Uhh... wow.
Posted by Dron66046 2022-11-02 04:23||   2022-11-02 04:23|| Front Page Top

#2 True in 1935. True today.

US Marine Corps Major General Smedley Butler collected an award cabinet full of medals for his battlefield bravery. But perhaps his bravest act of all was to declare, after his retirement in the early 1930s, who was really winning (and losing) during the bloody clashes.

It was business interests, he revealed, who commercially benefited from warfare. War Is a Racket is the title of the influential speech Butler delivered on a tour across the United States, as well the expanded version of the talk that was later published in 1935—and is now reprinted here. This seminal piece of writing rings as true today as it did during Butler’s lifetime.

In his introduction, Jesse Ventura reviews Butler’s original writings and relates them to our current political climate—explaining how right he was, and how wrong our current system is. With an insightful new foreword by Salon.com founder David Talbot, and a new afterword by activist Cindy Sheehan, this portable reference will appeal to anyone interested in the state of our country and the entire world.
Posted by Besoeker 2022-11-02 04:49||   2022-11-02 04:49|| Front Page Top

#3 Not too many protests so far. Prague, Spain and France with numbers. Must still be warm in Europe.
Posted by The Walking Unvaxed 2022-11-02 06:40||   2022-11-02 06:40|| Front Page Top

#4 Chilly 60°F, down from 75°F this weekend (80°F on Saturday). Gas storage tanks in Germany are filled 99%.

Spike may continue to have wet dreams, but NATO will stay. 40 years ago more than a million Germans protested against Pershing 2 missiles, they were installed anyway.

Nobody will get out of NATO. Sweden and Finland are getting in, defense spending is up sharply.
Posted by European Conservative 2022-11-02 06:59||   2022-11-02 06:59|| Front Page Top

#5 Spike may continue to have wet dreams

Fritz has wet dreams over his favorite corruptocrat, the EU’s top Payola Frau Ursula von Der Leyen.

Shouldn’t you be out chopping firewood? The Brits forecast a zer kalt winter.

Chop-chop now. Brrrrr!
Posted by Huperetle 2022-11-02 07:20||   2022-11-02 07:20|| Front Page Top

#6 Nobody will get out of NATO.

No, of course not. Who in the EU cares about a little dis-content?
Posted by Dron66046 2022-11-02 07:22||   2022-11-02 07:22|| Front Page Top

#7 No, of course not. Who in the EU cares about a little discontent?

Indeed. After von Der Leyen and her crew sent billions to Pfizer and pocketed millions in baksheesh, the Germans were told to roll up their sleeves and take that nightmare jab that doesn’t work and that’s destroyed the health of millions around the world.

Big lies. Coercion. Gaslighting. Horrific medical experimentation on millions of live humans.

Hasn’t changed much since the days of Goebbels.
Posted by Huperetle 2022-11-02 07:32||   2022-11-02 07:32|| Front Page Top

#8 "Shouldn’t you be out chopping firewood?"

Since we have our own forest (and hunting ground), already done. Our Kachelöfen (Besoeker will know what this is) will keep us warm. Our retreat in the Bavarian mountains is well stocked with firewood as well. Don't worry.
Posted by European Conservative 2022-11-02 07:50||   2022-11-02 07:50|| Front Page Top

#9 Btw chopping firewood for THIS winter would be pointless, as it needs to dry.
Posted by European Conservative 2022-11-02 07:56||   2022-11-02 07:56|| Front Page Top

#10 Our retreat in the Bavarian mountains is well stocked

Berchtesgaden won’t protect you when the good people find out how you and your schatze von Der Leyen fucked up their health with your corrupt monstrous spike-protein experiment.

Best to stock up on cyanide pills.
Posted by Huperetle  2022-11-02 08:02||   2022-11-02 08:02|| Front Page Top

#11 Eat your borscht.
Posted by European Conservative 2022-11-02 08:09||   2022-11-02 08:09|| Front Page Top

#12 
Posted by badanov 2022-11-02 08:18||   2022-11-02 08:18|| Front Page Top

#13 @Huperetle

Borscht with spittle doesn't taste good
Posted by European Conservative 2022-11-02 08:32||   2022-11-02 08:32|| Front Page Top

#14 Now, for some Borscht Belt humor....
Posted by DooDahMan 2022-11-02 08:35||   2022-11-02 08:35|| Front Page Top

#15 Nobody was forced to take the vaccine. In Bavaria, 25% of the population didn't (in the U.S. 32%, not a big difference).

Our lockdowns were quite mild compared to those in France, Spain, Italy or Australia.

I'm fully vaccinated, no side effects, and didn't even catch a cold in the last three years.
Posted by European Conservative 2022-11-02 08:47||   2022-11-02 08:47|| Front Page Top

#16 Good that nobody was forced, but it sure came close in Germany hearing the rhetoric from the politicians (and certainly not like in Austria (subsequently rescinded)).
Posted by DooDahMan 2022-11-02 08:48||   2022-11-02 08:48|| Front Page Top

#17 Bullshit. Of course you locked down your fellow Bavarians.

Men wearing protective face masks walk after residents of the Berchtesgadener Land district of Bavaria will not be able to leave their homes from October 20, 2020, without a valid reason for two weeks, making it the first area in Germany to go back into lockdown since April, in the city of Berchtesgaden, Germany - October 20, 2020

Germany's Bavaria region to tighten coronavirus lockdown - Yahoo! News
Dec 6, 2020
The southern German region of Bavaria, which has so far recorded the country's highest coronavirus death toll, announced on Sunday that it will impose a tougher lockdown from Wednesday until Jan. 5. People in Bavaria will only be able to leave their homes with good reason, state premier Markus Soeder told a news conference

Posted by Huperetle  2022-11-02 08:52||   2022-11-02 08:52|| Front Page Top

#18 They trust us as little as they trust the Russians. Why not get out of NATO and save our money? Save it for what we really need: ourselves. It certainly benefits us not at all to help Europe, particularly when they despise us and want us gone. It's anti-democratic on both sides, on the European elites that ignore their people and the American elites that ignore us.

Posted by Spike the Hairy6811 2022-11-02 08:54||   2022-11-02 08:54|| Front Page Top

#19 Why not get out of NATO and save our money? Save it for what we really need: ourselves.

Amen.

NATO is useless and a total waste of our money. We have two vast oceans. We have nukes.

We don’t have any vital interest at stake in a corrupt shithole like Ukraine.

#EndNATO
#BringEmHome
Posted by Billy B  2022-11-02 08:58||   2022-11-02 08:58|| Front Page Top

#20 Amis Raus, baby!
Posted by DooDahMan 2022-11-02 09:01||   2022-11-02 09:01|| Front Page Top

#21 Spike,

Wow. Exact same level of distrust for the Amis as for the Russkies. Seventy-four percent of Germans don’t trust us. Amazing.

And we still are sending billions — hundreds billions including the Great Ukraine Grift — down that sinkhole.

Enough. End this insanity.

#EndNATO
#BringEmHome
Posted by Billy B  2022-11-02 09:45||   2022-11-02 09:45|| Front Page Top

#22 I wasn't really a fan of these lockdown measures They were seen to be necessary in times when incidences were high and no vaccine available.

What I've said is that lockdowns in Germany were milder than in other European countries,. let alone Israel or Australia. People could always leave home ("taking a walk was a "valid reason"). There was a short time around Christmas 2020 when people weren't supposed to leave home in the night. I found this measure unneccessary. But death rates were the highest at this time.
Posted by European Conservative 2022-11-02 10:26||   2022-11-02 10:26|| Front Page Top

#23 Btw the numbers Spike posts are from Trump times. They were a lot better before and are a lot better now.
Posted by European Conservative 2022-11-02 10:31||   2022-11-02 10:31|| Front Page Top

#24 US foreign policies during Trump times They were a lot better before and are a lot better worse now.

Fify

I’m willing to bet you supported that warmongering shithead Biden. Fess up.
Posted by Huperetle  2022-11-02 10:49||   2022-11-02 10:49|| Front Page Top

#25 And Hillary too. Fess up
Posted by Huperetle  2022-11-02 10:56||   2022-11-02 10:56|| Front Page Top

#26 And Hillary too

Hillary’s paid shills at the New York Times are doubling / tripling / quadrupling down on their “Russiagate” Big Lies today.

Unfuckingbelievable. This asshole is actually trying to resurrect the Mueller Clownshow. Mueller. In 2022.
Posted by Billy B  2022-11-02 11:06||   2022-11-02 11:06|| Front Page Top

#27  They trust us as little as they trust the Russians.

I shouldn’t trust us so long as Joe Biden is in the White House either, nor the current lot of Democrats, with or without him. It would be interesting to see how Spike the Hairy6811’s 2018 graph would look if redone today.

President Trump started out as an unknown commodity whom we all watched with concern at first, though he quickly made headway in certain circles; but he never tried to soothe the many who disliked him because he was a brash outsider.

Huperetle, you are being ineffectively rude. European Conservative dislikes President Biden for all sorts of good reasons, and has said so regularly.
Posted by trailing wife 2022-11-02 11:33||   2022-11-02 11:33|| Front Page Top

#28 Huperetle, you are being ineffectively rude.

When the only pitch you have is an average fast ball, ya gotta rub some Vaseline on it for a little movement.
Posted by swksvolFF 2022-11-02 11:59||   2022-11-02 11:59|| Front Page Top

#29 I think my views about Hillary are well known here.
And Biden unfortunately is clearly not fit for office. That's not something I'd want to say about a U.S. president. Any U.S. president.
Posted by European Conservative 2022-11-02 12:53||   2022-11-02 12:53|| Front Page Top

#30 Contrary to the NY Times lies and fairy tales, if Trump had remained in office this shitty war would never have occurred.

All the NeverTrumper assholes and neocon warmongers have blood on their hands. Fuck them. Fuck them in the same place Pelosi’s husband takes it.
Posted by Billy B  2022-11-02 13:06||   2022-11-02 13:06|| Front Page Top

#31 /\ Thanks Billy. Never quite know where you stand on the issues.
Posted by Besoeker 2022-11-02 13:07||   2022-11-02 13:07|| Front Page Top

#32 😂

We’ll know soon enough where the American people stand on this shitty war.

The Great Ukraine Grift ends in six days. Tick tock.
Posted by Billy B  2022-11-02 13:16||   2022-11-02 13:16|| Front Page Top

#33 
Posted by Huperetle  2022-11-02 13:22||   2022-11-02 13:22|| Front Page Top

#34 The beautiful thing about democracy is that we aren't forced to like the same guy.
Posted by European Conservative 2022-11-02 13:31||   2022-11-02 13:31|| Front Page Top

#35 The truth is this was never America's conflict. It is a European conflict, with Russia. And Trump would never let the US taxpayer pay for it. Also, the Russian speaking folks of east Ukraine would've gotten their own place, Zelensky may have still sold his countrymen into the supranation but America could never have been guilt tripped by clever sons of bitches into supplying Zelensky for his ego trip. And no, Putin was never out to capture Kyiv... or Poland, that's absurd.

Trump is not liked because he wasn't good for the supranation calling in uncle Sam as muscle for the global order. He was for self contained sovereign societies coexisting and trading, with always the best outcome for America. The globalists want the exact opposite. A weak and gullible American leadership, proxy warfare to establish governorates and corporate fiefdoms, social and demographic re-engineering on a global scale, and no sovereignty ever, for anybody.

The EU will appreciate only the Trudeaus and Macrons and Aderns and Merkels. A Trump for them is an everyman boor that's in the way.
Posted by Dron66046 2022-11-02 13:51||   2022-11-02 13:51|| Front Page Top

#36 But it's okay, everyone has a right to work for and aspire to the best for their chosen flag. Even China didn't like Trump. You can't hold it against them. I'll bet Netanyahu was angry with him for letting the Turks roll on the peshmerga. But Trump was only watching out for America. That's his job. That's the point of being a state leader. I don't want a state leader who loses sleep over how fucking Somalia will pull through without him.
Posted by Dron66046 2022-11-02 13:59||   2022-11-02 13:59|| Front Page Top

#37 Trump respected leaders who advocate for their nations’ interests. He expected Xi to work like hell for China, Putin for his nation, Bolsonaro for Brazil, KSM for Saudi, Bibi for Israel, Abe for Japan and Modi for India.

Which is why, to the liberal Globalists’ dismay and scorn, Trump established good and reasonably stable relations with every one of those leaders.

It’s only the WEFfers and left-lib soyboys and neocons who had a problem with this sound, sensible, centuries proven-wise approach.
Posted by Billy B  2022-11-02 14:19||   2022-11-02 14:19|| Front Page Top

#38 I see the little censors are busy again. (Now we know who hired all the Twitter creeps that Musk sacked.)

Let’s try one more time.

@European Conservative, are you a NeverTrumper?
Posted by Huperetle  2022-11-02 14:23||   2022-11-02 14:23|| Front Page Top

#39 I see the little censors are busy again. (Now we know who hired all the Twitter creeps that Musk sacked.)

Let’s try one more time.

@European Conservative, are you a NeverTrumper?
Posted by Huperetle  2022-11-02 14:23||   2022-11-02 14:23|| Front Page Top

#40 Wikipedia says:

"The Never Trump movement, also called the #nevertrump, Stop Trump, anti-Trump, or Dump Trump movement,[1] began as an effort on the part of a group of Republicans (known as Never Trump Republicans) and other prominent conservatives to prevent Republican front-runner Donald Trump from obtaining the Republican Party presidential nomination."

I'm German, and not a member of the Republican Party.
Posted by European Conservative 2022-11-02 14:32||   2022-11-02 14:32|| Front Page Top

#41 I'm German, and not a member of the Republican Party.

And... wikiwackypedia ain't the truth.

So, there is that, too...
Posted by M. Murcek 2022-11-02 14:45||   2022-11-02 14:45|| Front Page Top

#42 Well define "Nevertrumper" then.
Posted by European Conservative 2022-11-02 15:08||   2022-11-02 15:08|| Front Page Top

#43 A NeverTrumper is someone who dreads orange man coming back. For whatever reason.
Posted by Dron66046 2022-11-02 15:51||   2022-11-02 15:51|| Front Page Top

#44 Not that I'm calling you one, EC. It's the simplest definition O could think of.
Posted by Dron66046 2022-11-02 15:52||   2022-11-02 15:52|| Front Page Top

#45 NeverTrumpers are liberal Globalists masquerading as conservatives.

Mitt Romney, the Cheney family, the Bush family, Anne Applebaum, David Frum et al.
Posted by Goober Thud4163 2022-11-02 15:56||   2022-11-02 15:56|| Front Page Top

#46 ^ Succinct. And apropos of those on both sides of the conversation in the comment thread here.
Posted by M. Murcek 2022-11-02 16:05||   2022-11-02 16:05|| Front Page Top

#47 Of course war is a racket. Pull back the curtain and what will you find?
Posted by Thumper Jirt1874 2022-11-02 17:14||   2022-11-02 17:14|| Front Page Top

#48 Have agents been sent by Ukraine
To share their unbearable pain
By posing as Russians
In every discussion
And spamming you Burgers for gain
In a clever attempt
To engender contempt
And appear -- dear oh dear! -- to campaign?

Has the real Russian deal
Been assigned to play heel
In peruke to provoke your disdain?

And if so, how would you know?

Now off to read thread. But first I assure all comrades that rumours of comma shortage are completely untrue!
Posted by Varmint the Imposter3495 2022-11-02 17:51||   2022-11-02 17:51|| Front Page Top

#49 I don't want Trump to win a second term.
I don't want Biden to win a second term.
What I want doesn't matter.
Now what?

"NeverTrumpers are liberal Globalists masquerading as conservatives."

I'm a businessman whose company is trading worldwide, with a lot of business in the U.S. The European definition of globalism differs a lot from the definition of Trump supporters. Even the word "liberal" does.

That said, some of you should get their act together.

In the last years you blamed Germany for being too dependent on Russian energy.

Now Germany is making great sacrifices to achieve independence from Russian gas, and the U.S.is greatly benefitting from that by selling damn expensive LNG.

So what do you want? Should Germany go back to appeasing Russia?
Posted by European Conservative 2022-11-02 18:11||   2022-11-02 18:11|| Front Page Top

#50 ^ Yes. Both sides prospered. They were at peace.

As Bismarck knew, Germany has to have a good relationship with Russia, or both countries will suffer.

The wrench in all of this was the Ukrainian Nazis and their American patrons, the neocon shit-stirrers, esp liberal Globalists like McCain and cvnts like Vicky Nuland.

Posted by Billy B  2022-11-02 19:33||   2022-11-02 19:33|| Front Page Top

#51 And speaking yet again of...

Ivan having died at the front
Attacking a "neocon cvnt,"
Our New Russian Troll
Shows us quota of holes
Is surpassed, though alas, she is scrunt.
Posted by Varmint the Imposter3495 2022-11-02 20:19||   2022-11-02 20:19|| Front Page Top

#52 Bozhe moi, is true! Wikipedia is devil! Click for pic illustrating "scrunt."
Posted by Varmint the Imposter3495 2022-11-02 20:23||   2022-11-02 20:23|| Front Page Top

#53 Ok then, Nuland is a vile warmongering cunt.

Ah, but you liberal Globalists are running out of time, old boy. (In more ways than one.)

Just six more days and your neocon Great Grift comes to an end.

Tick tock.

😃

Posted by Billy B  2022-11-02 20:55||   2022-11-02 20:55|| Front Page Top

#54 Oh, if your portfolio’s down (thank you, Brandon!), don’t fredt.

Non-COVID deaths are soaring, and Service Corp International’s revenues and earnings are soaring too. $SCI’s stock shot up 10.7% today! Buy $SCI and be happy.

Happy days for the funeral industry in America! Take it away, Thomas Ryan, Chairman & CEO of Aneruca’s largest publicly-traded funeral parlour and cremation service operator:

CEO THOMAS RYAN: [in the] third quarter of this year [2022], we did 15% more calls [ie deaths serviced] than we did in the third quarter of 2019. That is not what anybody would have anticipated. And that has just a very de minimis amount of COVID deaths.

So, then you say, is that sustainable? Well, I don't think 15%. But I guess what I'm telling you is, I don't think we're going back to 2019. I think -- and the reason for that is, there's more baby-boomers dying. There's an impact from this, call it, the unhealthy America concept…”

😃
Posted by Billy B 2022-11-02 21:10||   2022-11-02 21:10|| Front Page Top

#55 Should Germany go back to appeasing Russia?
Or you could invade Poland. What, too soon? It has been half a century.

Actually there is method to this madness. Taking Poland would place the formidable German army as a blocking force plugging the gap at the Ukr-Polish border, the gateway to Western Europe.

In the meantime, the Russians have secured their positions east of the Dniepr, so they are happy. Western Ukraine becomes the De-Militarized Zone. No more fighting and everyone can get back to grifting and rebuilding the Ukrainian electric grid. Also cheap gas for everyone! It's a win-win on a global scale.
Posted by SteveS 2022-11-02 21:23||   2022-11-02 21:23|| Front Page Top

#56 ^ that’s Minsk II. That’s actually the platform which Zelensky ran on and was elected to sign and implement — during Trump time.

It was Biden and the neocons along with Azov neo-Nazis who forced Z to provoke Russia and R.I.P. up
Minsk in March 2021.
Posted by Cresing Clolutch5606 2022-11-02 21:38||   2022-11-02 21:38|| Front Page Top

#57 #55 Or you could invade Poland.

Please be serious, SteveS. I mean, one can't really invade Poland, can one?
Posted by Germany and Russia 2022-11-02 22:41||   2022-11-02 22:41|| Front Page Top

#58 EC,
Stop replying to these stupid f#cks.
Beneath your dignity.
Posted by The Walking Unvaxed 2022-11-02 22:46||   2022-11-02 22:46|| Front Page Top

#59 Or you could invade Poland. What, too soon? It has been half a century.

Three quarters of a century, SteveS, so even less soon.
Posted by trailing wife 2022-11-02 23:24||   2022-11-02 23:24|| Front Page Top

#60 Appeasement is absolutely what a weak nation should do when it lives next to a great power. Only a stupid chickenhawk would argue otherwise.
Posted by Thatle Tingle3625 2022-11-02 23:30||   2022-11-02 23:30|| Front Page Top

09:43 Mullah Richard
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