this post was submitted on 15 Mar 2025
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Vice President JD Vance recently traveled to Bay City, Michigan to speak at a manufacturing plant to tout President Donald Trump's economic agenda, and was welcomed by a crowd of protesters.

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 4 hours ago

That's some "let them eat cake" level of out of touch.

[–] [email protected] 59 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

I so have a job. And I pay a huge chunk of my check into social security, as I have been for over 20 years. And if the system collapses I'm not going to get a damn thing for all that money I paid in. So either stop fucking with social security or give my money back.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 hours ago

That's a very hopeful "if".

[–] [email protected] 28 points 6 hours ago

"it's a cool afternoon, on a Friday, and don't you all have jobs?"

We're here because we heard some asshole was cutting our benefits.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 8 hours ago

Their tariffs are actually killing jobs and preventing companies from investing in domestic manufacturing. Who's going to dump millions into a plant when it's obvious a recession (at least for average people) is in process.

[–] [email protected] 36 points 8 hours ago

They do have jobs, and they probably add more value at theirs than you do at yours. You could be asking yourself why they'd take time away from those jobs to be there giving you the middle finger instead, if you could pull yourself away from your couch or... whatever it is you do all day.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 9 hours ago

Don’t you all have torches and pitchforks???

[–] [email protected] 89 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

"You were supposed to be too shackled by the minimum wage jobs we allow you to have two of and kept fearful of loosing your worthless health insurance to run around and protest when we abuse you some more, damnit! Who allowed you out?"

[–] [email protected] 39 points 9 hours ago (3 children)

On god, US is such a dystopia I always remain flabbergasted when people talk about the american dream. My third world country (Romania) is a shithole but at least I can hope to pay for serious medical illnesses if I go jobless.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Honestly, most foreigners would probably prefer to live in Romania than the USA right now. The US is the shithole country.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

As an American, I would prefer Romania right now. Tell us more about this healthcare you have...

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

The service itself is not great, especially in smaller cities, but it’s quite cheap compared to private healthcare and in big cities you actually have decent to good treatment. My dad has treatable diabetes (doesn’t require insulin) and spends something like 50 euros a month for them. Not free, but affordable.

Bad part of Romania is the rampant corruption and lack of infrastructure. It’s gotten better the past years but still behind western countries.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 hours ago

While we're on the way down the corruption hole, hopefully you can set an example for us to crawl out

[–] [email protected] 17 points 7 hours ago (2 children)

if I go jobless.

LMAO I'm from the American Midwest and I HAVE a job and can't afford a serious medical illness.

I broke a tooth in November and I still can't afford to get it fixed.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Man this breaks my heart, I wish american people would wake up and stop voting against their own interests…

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 hours ago

So do a huge portion of Americans.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Have you considered pulling yourself up by your toothstraps?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

While we're on that subject, how are things going in Romania at the moment what with the election annulment and all?

[–] [email protected] 26 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago) (2 children)

I'm obviously biased but my observations are:

  • any remotely sane person know the election canceling and the further banning of the Russian asset (he was a former high echelon communist/member of the Securitate and there were rumors he was hijacked by the KGB in the 80s) was the right call. Would've been better had he been not let in the race in the first place, but our government/secret services were circle jerking each other.
  • for the next presidential election in May we have a better than ever (at least theoretically) choice, in the pro-european candidate Nicusor Dan, which on polymarket has the highest score right now.
  • there are a myriad of pro-russians candidates: Sosoaca (which just got banned again apparently), Simion, Gavrila, Pisarloglu, Ponta. From these Ponta and Simion are known figures and I doubt they can gain much more than the last time (Ponta didn't participate, and Simion got 4th place). The joker seems to be Pisarloglu which already started a massive TT campaign of disinformation, fearmongering and other things Georgescu also did.
  • the people supporting Georgescu were pissed, but no massive protests took place

Overall I am hopeful we can get over this bad dream, elect a pro-european, and get on the bandwagon of ReArm Europe and also to get rid of the leeches from PSD (the main party and the most corrupt one). Sad part is that society is more polarized than ever, and most of the Georgescu's voters are like MAGA: braindead cultists that you can't reason with.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago) (1 children)

Hello there fellow Romanian!

100% agree on all points, and would like to add for anyone else reading this that there's another part to this which just isn't covered in international news: Georgescu is a loud and proud member of the neo-Legionary movement (Romanian fascists). His friends run summer camps for kids where you can learn how to handle a rifle, Codreanu (basically Romania's Hitler) was an amazing guy who fought for Romania, and Brussels is run by a shadowy cabal of Jews. Close allies of his (ex-mercenaries) were arrested for travelling with weapons with intent to intimidate journalists and politicians.

International news has correctly pointed out that he's a wacky conspiracy theorist, but not that for some reason.

Also, I'm very happy Toni Grebla got fired. I'm mildly disappointed it wasn't out of a cannon though. it's his fault Georgescu was allowed to run in the first place.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 hours ago

Yup, Georgescu and supposedly some of the secret service/army were planning a violent coup d’etat. Looks like for now we avoided that.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 9 hours ago (2 children)

Thank you for taking the time to provide the rest of us with an insightful local perspective on things. I try to keep appraised, but I think you'll agree that there's a lot going on all over the place at the moment. That just makes this kind of summary by a local all the more valuable.

Regardless, know that a lot of us hope that things turn out for the best for Romania. And by best, I naturally mean you guys being successful in resisting and rejecting the usual tiresomely predictable Russian manipulations. There's no viable future to be found in that sphere of influence, such as it is.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 hours ago

There's no viable future to be found in that sphere of influence, such as it is.

I think it speaks to how effective Russian propaganda and bribery is that some politicians still look eastward to Russia when all they have to do is look at what happened to Armenia and Baathist Syria. They won’t have your back when push comes to shove.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 8 hours ago

Yeah, I really hope EU steps up on fighting russian hybrid warfare, because at this point is more harmful than actual war: we let our countries be run over without a bullet flying.

Hope americans also wake up and pushback agains the ongoing shitshow Trump, Musk, Vance and Thiel are running.