Cpt VooDoo

Gamer--Destiny 2 Not affiliated with or endorsed by Bungie

[Cpt VooDoo @cpt_voodoo]

@DestinyTheGame Just finished Soulfed earlier today, you guys make such awesome and fun missions with killer lore… Saving the coup de grace of this mission for a day I need great content to pick me up. Thank you so much

[Fotballandslaget @nff_landslag]

Norway is coming🇳🇴

[Luke Smith @thislukesmith]

At its best, content was a machine to create memories and friendships. No new content stings.

This pain is about losing a place where so many memories were made. It stings not because of what it was, but the realization of what it won't be.

[Gandalv @Microinteracti1]

The MAGA crowd in Washington has decided that since Europeans don’t sufficiently appreciate Trump, the American bases on the continent must go. This is the strategic reasoning of a man who burns down his own kitchen.

American bases in Europe were never a favour. They are the logistical spine of every war the United States fights east of Gibraltar. Ramstein moves the cargo, Aviano launches the jets, Rota services the ships. Without them the Pentagon does not project power into the Middle East. It projects PowerPoint.

The fantasy assumes the alternative is aircraft carriers gliding majestically into the Persian Gulf. That era is ending. A modern carrier is a thirteen-billion-dollar trophy that can be reduced to scrap by a couple of hundred cheap missiles fired from the Iranian coast. China noticed.

The other fantasy is that America simply fights from home. Picture the alternative: twenty thousand transatlantic sorties shuttling spare parts, munitions, fuel bladders, mechanics and replacement pilots from Norfolk and Dover to wherever the war happens to be. A C-17 burns through roughly 35,000 dollars of fuel every hour it flies, and the round trip from the American east coast to the Gulf is the better part of a day. Multiply that by every bolt, every missile, every spare engine. The war becomes a sustained airborne traffic jam with the bill arriving by the second.

So you need land, specifically land near the war. Modern combat aircraft are not Spitfires you fuel up and send off with a wave. An F-35 demands an entire Walmart of spare parts, a small city of technicians, climate-controlled hangars and a supply chain stretching halfway round the planet. Drones need operators, networks, satellites and a steady diet of components no carrier can store. Modern war arrives by container ship and lives in a warehouse.

Close the bases, and Washington loses the warehouses. Lose the warehouses, and the next confrontation with Iran is either fought by phone or fought from Kansas with a flight schedule that bankrupts the Treasury before the first missile lands.

MAGA thinks shutting Ramstein punishes Europe. It punishes America. Europe will be inconvenienced. America will be unarmed.

And so, after a thousand insults, a thousand sneers, a thousand late-night posts about freeloading allies, Europe is quietly drafting the politest letter in diplomatic history. It thanks America for its service. It wishes the troops a safe journey home. It suggests, with great warmth, that Washington might now turn its attention to its neighbours in Latin America, where a fading superpower can busy itself with whatever a fading superpower busies itself with.

Spain had its century. Britain had its empire. The Soviets had their parades. Each ended the same way: as a shadow of itself, with the historians left to argue, volume after volume, about precisely when the rot set in and why nobody noticed in time. America is welcome to join them on the shelf.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

If you like what you read, please follow Gandalv on Substack:
https://t.co/2TO5x2O8nI

[Cpt VooDoo @cpt_voodoo]

@UnitedStandMUFC

[Gandalv @Microinteracti1]

Listen to what this American says about what a US trade deal really means for our food and health.

[Very Brexit Problems @VeryBrexitProbs]

MAGA calls Europe freeloaders. Here’s what they’re not telling you.

​1. Ramstein Air Base, the most important US military hub outside America, is built on German land provided rent-free, with Germany contributing hundreds of millions to its upkeep. The US couldn’t replace it anywhere in the world.

2. Every US military operation in the Middle East, Africa and Central Asia flows through Ramstein. Lose it and US power projection in the Eastern Hemisphere is crippled.

3. The UK provides and maintains RAF Lakenheath used almost entirely by the US Air Force. Italy provides Aviano. Greece provides Souda Bay. Turkey provides Incirlik. European land. European infrastructure. American operations.

4. The US Sixth Fleet depends entirely on European ports for fuel and supplies. Souda Bay, Naples, 11 Greek ports. Without them the Sixth Fleet cannot operate in the Mediterranean or project power into the Middle East.

5. The majority of NATO’s intelligence and surveillance capacity is hosted on European soil and fed directly to the CIA, NSA and Pentagon.

6. Early warning radar at Fylingdales, UK. Missile tracking in Greenland. Norwegian monitoring stations near Russia. All dependent on European goodwill.

7. It would cost America MORE to bring the troops home than keep them here. European hosts subsidise roughly a third of all basing costs.

8. Europe is America’s largest arms customer. Stop buying American and part of their defence industry goes bankrupt.

9. The bases aren’t charity. They’re America using European soil, European money and European goodwill to project power across the world.

10. We’re not the freeloaders.

[Cpt VooDoo @cpt_voodoo]

@FmrRepMTG TACO

[Rod Dreher @roddreher]

Wait … we STOLE Switzerland’s money?! Am I reading this right?

[Dominik Hasek @hasek_dominik]

Congratulations to all Americans who dared to take to the streets today and publicly expressed their stance and disagreement with the actions and policies of their president. #WeSayNoKings 👍👍👍

[Gandalv @Microinteracti1]

If America Leaves NATO, the Bill Lands in Washington

“NATO wasn’t there for us. We send billions of dollars to them every year to protect them. We would have always been there for them. But based on their actions, I guess we don’t have to be, do we? Why would we be there for them if they’re not there for us?”

That argument sounds airtight. It also gets almost everything backwards.
The Industrial Logic No One Wants to Say Out Loud.

For decades, NATO membership has functioned as the world’s most effective arms sales platform. When a country joins the alliance, it buys American. F-35s, Patriot batteries, HIMARS, Javelins. It becomes structurally dependent on American spare parts, software updates, and maintenance contracts. It is the most sophisticated captive market in military history.

Poland alone devotes 4.7 percent of its GDP to defense. These are not abstract trade figures. They are jobs in Fort Worth, Orlando, and East Hartford. They are the economic foundation of entire congressional districts.
A US exit from NATO does not preserve this arrangement. It ends it.

Canada and Portugal have already signaled reservations about F-35 commitments worth up to $19 billion, citing political unpredictability in Washington. When two countries walk away from an American platform, others begin running the same calculation.

EU member states spent 343 billion euros on defense in 2024, a 19 percent rise from the year before. The political momentum behind “Buy European” is real and growing. The market will remain.

NATO gives the United States something no defense budget line can purchase: forward positioning, intelligence integration, and political legitimacy across 30 countries. These are the operating system of American global influence.Without them, the United States becomes alone.

The Indo-Pacific pivot is not wrong on its merits. But forward positioning in Europe is not a drain on Pacific readiness. It is the network that makes global power projection coherent. Cut one node and the whole system degrades.

The Quiet Withdrawal Already Underway. A formal exit has not happened. But the functional retreat is well advanced. The Trump administration has told European allies the US will no longer serve as NATO’s primary conventional defense provider after 2027. Joint force commands are being transferred to European generals. Intelligence-sharing arrangements built over decades are being quietly renegotiated.
Each move is individually defensible. Collectively, they produce the same outcome as a formal withdrawal, without the legal fight or the Senate vote.

The irony is considerable. The administration that views NATO as a bad deal for America is dismantling the mechanism that made American arms exports dominant in global defense markets. The alliance was never just a security arrangement. It was the most durable commercial advantage in the history of the defense industry.

So back to the question. Why would America be there for allies who aren’t there for America?

Because “there for us” included $343 billion in European defense spending flowing toward American suppliers. It included 30 countries hosting American bases and intelligence networks. It included the political architecture that let Washington call itself the leader of the free world and have other governments agree.

Not a subsidy to Europe. A return on investment that took 75 years to build.
The bill for dismantling it will not arrive in Brussels. It will arrive in Fort Worth.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Stay connected,
Follow Gandalv @Microinteracti1

[Aaron Black @ABlackPolitical]

Bruce Springsteen is currently playing to a #NoKings crowd of over 200,000 people in Saint Paul Minnesota right now!

Trump is using government to hurt people who disagree. That is what kings do to scare others. We will not be scared. We will not be silent.

[Cpt VooDoo @cpt_voodoo]

I bought the deluxe edition of Marathon. I’ve been playing Destiny for the entire lifespan of that game. I really like Bungie’s games, and I’m glad I could be a part of Marathon as well. But being mostly solo in Destiny is a far more rewarding experience. Not being able to «grow» outside Cryo when you’re mostly solo is not. Which is fair and ok. I’ll play the Marathon I’ve already bought, but Will probably Leave it at that. I’m sure you’re still gonna keep player retention on your game anyway. But I tried the game at least, and had fun up until the endgame made it different. Good luck evolvimg the game

[Mary L Trump @MaryLTrump]

In 40 minutes, Donald said: the Strait of Hormuz isn't closed, but he wants it reopened; we’re not at war with Iran, but our allies are cowards for not helping; he wants a ceasefire, but he doesn’t want one. He also declared victory three times.

Such clarity. Such leadership.

[Gandalv @Microinteracti1]

Here is all of Donald Trump’s failures 200 days in. Donald Trump would hate if this went viral.

[Cpt VooDoo @cpt_voodoo]

@MacticsG1 I Think there are bigger problems in the US right now to focus on

[Cpt VooDoo @cpt_voodoo]

@DirtyEffinHippy Mine

[(((Tendar))) @Tendar]

Trump last night: „We are helping NATO with Ukraine, so NATO should help the US to keep the Strait of Hormuz open.“

This is a lie. Trump suspended all help to Ukraine with his inauguration. Not a single cent is going to Ukraine. European countries are buying US weapons. This is not helping, this purchasing. When I buy my goods in a store, then the store is not „helping“, it is making business.

Trump threatened allies around the globe with invasion and denigrated them at every step, including fallen soldiers in Afghanistan. Putin on the other hand got a pass, received a warm welcome in Alaska and even got sanctions lifted.

Those are the facts.

[Cpt VooDoo @cpt_voodoo]

@MarathonTheGame @MacticsG1 Would say eye lids

[Roman Sheremeta 🇺🇸🇺🇦 @rshereme]

What a disgrace. Trump has removed sanctions on russia’s oil.

I am truly sorry to the Ukrainian people.

This is a direct backstabbing of Ukraine.

And it comes after Ukraine agreed to help the United States defend itself and its allies from Iranian drones. Ukraine shared its drone interception technologies and sent three groups of experts, military personnel, and engineers to the Middle East — people who are desperately needed at home to protect Ukrainian civilians from russian drones and missiles.

Instead of standing with Ukraine, Trump just handed a lifeline to the russian economy.

Lifting sanctions on russian oil means billions flowing back into the Kremlin’s war machine. It means more missiles. More drones. More dead Ukrainians.

But sadly, none of this should surprise anyone who has been paying attention.

Trump promised he would end the war in “24 hours.” It has now been well over a year.

He appointed a number of russian assets to his cabinet — such as Tulsi Gabbard, who has been repeating Kremlin propaganda for years; Kash Patel, who has literally been paid by russia; and Steve Witkoff, along with other pro-Kremlin figures.

His administration halted military aid to Ukraine, restricted intelligence sharing, and repeatedly treated Vladimir Putin as a partner instead of the war criminal responsible for Europe’s largest war since World War II. Instead of sanctioning russia, he welcomed a war criminal to the United States with a red carpet. And now the portrait of a war criminal hangs in the White House.

Instead of isolating the Kremlin, Trump has repeatedly chosen to appease it.

And now comes the final step.

Removing sanctions on russian oil while Ukrainians are still dying under russian missiles.

History will remember this moment.