N dropped 2 little rubber bathtub toys into the toilet with predictable results. So I had to have the plumber out to wrestle the toys from out of there. The whole thing took 2 hours during which I found out a lot about the plumber’s life and his political beliefs.
Of course, the 57-year-old self-employed plumber supports Trump. The reason why he supports Trump is that he (the plumber) hates Hitler. He believes that the crimes of Hitlerism have largely been forgotten, and that’s horrible. By refusing to provide military protection to European countries, Trump will force them to shape up and become vigilant. And as a result, they won’t miss the rise of a new Hitler.
The plumber would also like to pay less taxes, of course.
Real people – irrespective of who they vote for – are so much more interesting than the caricatures of them one reads about in the press.
Clarissa's Blog 
After reading “The reason why he supports Trump is that he (the plumber) hates Hitler,” I thought I would hear something completely inane.
But, he may be partly right. Only today I read an article on German news site in English talking how if America stops providing protection, Germany will be the most suitable country to naturally step into that role.
I wouldn’t trust Trump to react adequately in crisis. And it’s not like Obama was in hurry to help Ukraine either, remember?
America is protected by sea from any consequences felt in Europe. Any European country, like Germany, knows it is close to Russia or any other European aggressor. It should move them to react assertively to stop dangerous situations from escalating.
As for Trump,
\ US President Trump is continuing battle with media by banning news outlets New York Times, CNN and Politico from taking part in unofficial White House briefing with Press Secretary Sean Spicer; Trump has repeatedly accused CNN and the New York Times of spreading lies to discredit him.
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And it’s obvious that he knows a lot about the Nazi Germany and feels very strongly about it. I haven’t heard anybody mention Hitler as many times since a colleague of mine taught a class on Hitlerism.
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Ha! The idea that postwar Germany — or any of the other Western European welfare states — is going to devert enough tax dollars from its very generous social safety net to fund a credible, stand-alone military is laughable. Any politcal leader who seriously proposed that would be voted out of power.
What the European countries are probably going to do, grudgingly, is increase their NATO dues to the agreed-upon 2 percent of GDP, so that Trump will continue to support NATO.
NATO backed by the U.S. is the only real military defense that the Europeans have — and that’s not going to change under Trump, no matter what anybody says.
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the only threat europe faces is russia, right? (at a state actor level, obviously radical islam is a shit show) Turkey, iran, saudi arabia all WAY too small, and there is no threat from china, the only country with a big enough economy besides russia to threaten any of the major european powers.
eastern europe might be in slight trouble, but that doesn’t threaten the core interests of western europe. As much as I enjoy making fun of the europeans (they mess up so so often and have a ridiculous nanny-crat welfare state) the only leverage russia has is natural gas supplied to them, so more and more renewables make russia have less leverage long-term.
I guess my point is the threat of major intervention is overblown due to their nuclear weapons making large scale war almost impossible involving germany, italy, france or the UK.
Agree?
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There’s currently no nation-state (I hate that term, but it seems to be in vogue) that’s a conceivable threat to any Western European country, and Putin isn’t going to attack any Eastern European country that belongs to NATO.
So — no, no forseeable European wars between “nation-states.”
Silly or not, the idea of a militarily dominant Germany is probably more frightening to countries like the Netherlands and France than it is to Russia. When the Cold War ended, both France and the UK were strongly opposed to the reunification of Germany because their leaders had long memories, and Germany was reunited only because Reagan’s will prevailed.
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I actually know some Russians, who are generally anti-West and moderately pro-Putin, who are welcoming Americans bringing their forces to Europe now because they believe Germany will need to be contained some day.
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Exactly. I talked to such people, too.
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“..no matter what anybody says.”
By ‘anybody’ you mean Trump, right?
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Pence in Europe: We support NATO, ignore my idiot boss.
Mattis in Iraq: we won’t steal your oil, ignore my idiot boss.
Well oiled machine, this administration.
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Yep. He’s the President, not the Fuehrer — and as he’s finding out, he’s ultimately going to have to follow certain rules and constraints, whether he wants to or not. Pence’s and Mattis’ statements demonstrate that.
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“He’s the President, not the Fuehrer”
Will you tell him this?
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Believe it or not, Trump hasn’t sollicited my opinion.
I stated my opinion when I voted — and the election is over.
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N dropped 2 little rubber bathtub toys into the toilet with predictable results.
N? What’s the story behind N doing that instead of Klara?
Of course, the 57-year-old self-employed plumber supports Trump. The reason why he supports Trump is that he (the plumber) hates Hitler. He believes that the crimes of Hitlerism have largely been forgotten, and that’s horrible. By refusing to provide military protection to European countries, Trump will force them to shape up and become vigilant. And as a result, they won’t miss the rise of a new Hitler.
The plumber would also like to pay less taxes, of course.
“We must Godwin the world in order to save it!” I wonder what news sources he consumes.
He may have something about the taxes. Self employment SICA is double that of employees because they pay the employers’ and the employees’ portion. If he’s not already making top income tax bracket money, he won’t see less taxes.
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” What’s the story behind N doing that instead of Klara?”
I’m so glad I’m not the one to bring this up. But now that it’s out there….
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The real mystery is how come I wasn’t the one to do it. 😄😄😄
Removing the toys cost $293, by the way. These turned out to be very expensive toys.
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Essentially $300??? That sounds extremely expensive for a one-shot service call to clear a toilet.
You could have gotten the same service 24/7 here in Arizona for around 100 bucks. (But there are 4.6 million people living in the Phoenix metropolitan area, so there’s lots of market competition for almost any service.)
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Yes, an illegal immigrant would probably charge you $30 an hour. But we have none in this region, so we pay licensed American plumbers $100 an hour.
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I can’t believe it took a competent licensed plumber three hours to get two rubber ducks out of a toilet.
That must have been a LONNGGG conversation you had with him about Hitler!
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They were stuck, the little bastards. And yes, that’s what I’m saying, there was a whole lot of Hitler. And North Korea.
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