Daniel Balan

I'll make a bold prediction now. After contemplating Trump, Putin, and current events in Europe, I predict that within the next 12 months, Putin will engage in direct military conflict with the West. He will exploit the chaos of the Trump presidency to launch a full-scale war with Europe. I believe that if Putin waits past 2028, he will face a Western world led by Gavin Newsom. A West led by a competent leader like Newsom would mean the window for attacking the West has closed. Europe is currently unprepared for war. I predict that if missiles and drones strike&swarm London, Berlin, Bucharest, Warsaw, Helsinki, Stockholm, Tallinn, Riga, and Vilnius, Europe will collapse almost instantly. Putin would have conquered Europe without a single Russian soldier stepping foot into NATO territory. Putin likely bets that Europe's population will stage massive protests to avoid further provoking Russia, seeking peace at all costs and accepting all of Putin's conditions, such as ceding former Warsaw Pact countries to his sphere of influence. He will also wager that the incompetence and corruption of the Trump administration will cause the West to crumble like a house of cards. In fact, Hitler's theory about the Soviet Union being a paper tiger—that a single kick would collapse the entire structure—aptly describes the West today. If Putin takes a real swing at the West and delivers a powerful blow to the West's door, the entire Western structure will likely collapse. It’s not Ukraine that would have collapsed in two weeks; it’s the West that will collapse in two weeks if Putin attacks while Trump leads the West.

This song... I love it more than life! Literally angelic. Resplendent.. Otherworldly. I've done things I'm not proud of... But for this, I get in trouble... Baby my sins, are all because for you Strong light Gin, the way I burn for you! <3

👍👍

@Yimpa Glad you are back! 🥳

The reason I'm a centrist isn't because I try to act mature or that I compromise with conservatives or that I try to split everything down the middle. This is a rather silly strawman of the centrist's position. I'm a centrist because I disagree with both the liberals and the conservatives. In my case I disagree more with the conservatives, that's why when I debate right wingers I view myself as a liberal but when I debate liberals I view myself as a centrist. There's too much idealism and dangerous fantasies in the liberal worldview to fully align with it. Defunding the police, having open borders, allowing millions of violent unchecked migrants, rioting like fucking fools, indoctrinating children with lgbtq/trans propaganda is something I can't side with. There is much more that I agree with the liberals than I agree with the conservatives, but liberals have glaring holes in their worldview that stain an otherwise pristine perception that I have of them. Also I'm a centrist because I do agree with a good chunk of conservative positions. Conservatives aren't the fascists and the nazis that the liberals label them.

Conservatives are right on: Migration Not allowing late term abortions. Pushing back against lgbtq trans propaganda Tight and secure borders Pushing back against demonic climate change action such as deindustrialization that leave millions of factory workers unemployed. Strong police and military Wanting to stop offshoring and having manufacturing jobs back in their country as opposed to offshoring manufacturing overseas. Liberals are right on: Well tought Climate change action. We need climate action as fast and as strong as possible but we also need to not have millions of people lose their jobs because of it. Protecting sexual minorites, making sure the lgbtq community is safe and protected and has the same rights as the regular community. Although without propaganda in schools or obnoxious parades. Protecting womens right to have abortions but only up until the 12th week of pregnancy. After 12 weeks abortion should be banned. Everything else

A few places in Europe that an American needs to visit so it understands the whole of Europe: Dublin London Lisbon Barcelona Paris Rotterdam Milan Berlin Oslo Helsinki Riga Kaliningrad Warsaw Vienna Budapest Bucharest Belgrade Athens Istanbul Chisinau Kiev Kharkiv Minsk Smolensk Moscow St. Petersburg Volgograd Tiraspol, Transnistya To me the most fascinating part of Europe is Ukraine, Moldova, Belarus and Russia. As a westerner, you will have a cultural shock in this soviet environment. Litteraly you can smell the soviet vibe through every brick of every building. It's like it is still 1990. It feels like time hadn't passed. It feels like you are still in the 20th century.

Otherworldly music

This is out of this world

The fact that an 80 year old is the best the left can offer speaks volumes. I love Bernie, he is my favorite politican on the planet.

Leftists should learn to confront the right in civil debates, in a conquest of ideas. Not with sniper rifles or brat behaviour. Like Charlie Kirk or not but the reason he was so successful was because he had the courage to debate anyone, anywhere, anytime, in a civil, and humane manner. He was a man. He had balls. Something the left seem to have a lack of. Leftists sit on their high moral thrones thinking that Kirk or Trump are "dumb fascists". The left are out of their minds. When have you guys seen a leftist with as much courage and grit as Charlie had? I have huge respect for Charlie! He died with a microphone in his hands, because the leftists weren't man enough to confront him in a battle of ideas. How does the left expect to win elections if they are too weak and pathetic to debate a man one on one, without killing him? Who in their right mind votes for people that are unable to have a debate without crying "Fascist" "Nazi" "Mysoginist" ? As I said, the left is out of their minds.

@Hardkill Also what drives me crazy in politics is demagoguery and populism. Populism is in my eyes the most dangerous and deadly political position one can have. The worst being economic populism. Economic populism is what drives the deficit spending though the roof. Economic populism is what ruins a nation and puts in grave danger two or three generations that will now carry the burden of gigantic public debts. Economy should be treated with extreme caution and pragmatism. Being overly liberal with how you spend money from the public budget might cause the whole economy to collapse like how it happened in Greece more than a decade ago. Economy is the single political aspect of a country that shouldn't have a political color. Economy shouldn't be treated as progressive or libera or conservative, economy should be treated with extreme pragmatism and caution.

@Hardkill I wasn't refering to the democratic party specifically! I don't even know much about American politics, I am talking in general, with my focus generally on European politics. And all the unrest in Europe today is because of the damage done by unchecked migration and overly liberal policies from the Merkel era. Also allow me to counter your narative when you say that the progressives are the ones that push for a return to the roots of the new deal era... Actually in my eyes, the centrist moderates are the ones that push for a return to the new deal paradigm. The centrist moderates like Gavin Newsom.

Have you seen the movie Schindler's List? The factory owner, Oskar Schindler, who saved the lives of a thousand jew was exactly what a centrist could look like in Nazi Germany. Had that man have the today's leftist paradigm, he would have been killed alongside all the jews he would have tried to save. If you can't read the room, if you are too idealistic in your worldview you get hurt. Reality isn't the lovey dovey fairy tale the leftists imagine.

Centrists are by far the most developed political group. I'm a liberal leaning centrist and I can't phantom how backward the nationalist/right wingers are and how dangerous and downright out of their minds the leftists are. The right is ignorant, selfish and corrupt for holding on for dear life to defend the status quo. However, the left is extremely dangerous! The idealism of the left, their childish understanding of politics is what leads to fascists taking power. The left is so out of touch with what the masses need, that they are dangerous. The reason I'm not further left than centre is because of how much dangerous idealism is. Idealism and pie-in-the-sky politics is what destroys democracies. Leftists have a grave misunderstanding of how selfish and corrupt the average humans are! Humans are much, much less developed that the leftists might want to acknowledge! If the citizenry would be 60% at stage green, I'd be a leftist myself, but reality shows that people would rather vote a stage red authoritarian than a woman. A reality check for leftists is to realise that they are an insignificant minority that only servers as fuel for the ones that want to dismantle democracies. I have so much criticism for the left because I have high standards for them. i don't expect the right to be less backward than they are but I do expect from the left some maturity because the left is pushing for the betterment of society. But their idealism spectacularly backfires in their face because society is functioning in very barbaric ways that cannot be changed unless the development levels of the masses goes at least to Green. Also the left is proposing some very bad and downright stupid policies such as: unchecked immigration, extreme climate change policies that leave many workers unemployed, excessive lgbtq and trans propaganda, race hiring quotas, gender hiring quotas, excessive and demonic bureaucracy and regulation, a movement that promotes extreme secularism, high AF taxes etc. This backfires spectacularly because most of mankind cannot comprehend such policies. Their level of development is too low to even acknowledge that same sex marriage should exist. On a personal level I abhor religion with all my being, I have no problem with immigrants as long as they are not violent, I have no problem with gays, I love fair and necessary bureaucracy, I love healthy regulations, I do support moderate taxation etc. The thing with the leftists is that they are well ahead of the current times. Their policies will work in 200 years, but right now leftist policies can't work because of how backward the citizenry is.

If the only tool you have is a hammer, don't be surprised if everything around you seems like a nail. Contemplate what I said here. It will grow your understanding of politics immensely.

Charlie was not a fascist, neither is Trump. They are backward nationalists semi-authoritarians that support the corruption of the capitalistic system. And that's about it. I perfectly described what fascist means here: In America you don't even have anything remotely close to fascism with Trump in power. By historical standards America was more "fascist" under Eisenhower. Because he was the commander of the American troops during WW2, and fascism is characterized by militarism. The notion ot Trump and Kirk being fascist is laughable and frankly stupid. Backward redneck Christian nationalism ain't fascism.

Please tell me that you were joking when you said that. Because if you weren't, then good luck defeating MAGA. If all the democrats think like you, I don't blame the American citizenry for voting Trump. If in your eyes Charlie Kirk and Gavin Newsom are fascists, I'm litteraly lost for words. My mind can't compute such a perspective.

That garbage human that killed Charlie Kirk should've been in front of Charlie with a microphone in his hand, using his ideas and brain to debate Charlie one on one. Like a man! Prove to the whole crowd that Charlie's ideas are not good. But he couldn't. Like all the leftists in existence, they start crying the moment you debate them like a man. Charlie would've wiped the floor with him and make him look like a fool in front of everyone. So he decided to shoot him in cold blood. Only a castrated man could do such a thing. And honestly, leftists are castrated creatures. When they can't withstand you during a debate, they grab their sniper rifle. Losers! I didn't agree with Kirk's political discourse at all, but I admired how much of a man he was. He debated anyone, anywhere using civil and nice language. No name calling, no bullshit. A fine man, killed by an ideology which couldn't counter his arguments with words, only with bullets. Rest in peace!

Is Gavin Newsom also a fascist? Acording to the logic stated above he is a fascist for having a podcast with a fascist. This is pathetic and silly on levels beyond my ability of comprehension. No wonder leftists and democrats lose all elections. Every leftist influencer has the blood of Charlie Kirk on their hands. When MAGA calls a leftist a communist it implies someone who wants to take your property, but when the leftists call someone like Kirk a fascist it implies someone whose political ideology is responsible for the killing of 60 million people during WW2 and unimaginable horrors. Calling someone fascist or nazi should lead to serious jail time for anyone who uses this label for someone. Leftists seem really goofy and stupid by calling a Christian Conservative Nationalist a fascist. A fascist is someone who advocates for empire, for the rebirth of the nation via military conquest & territorial expansion, for extreme nationalism, for extreme obedience to religion and tradition, for dictatorship, for nationalization of all the means of productions that will now produce for the revival of the nation, for the collective, not the individual. Only one individual in the world right now could be legitimately called a fascist and that is Putin. While Charlie was just a voice that advocated for more tradition and religion and less woke ideology. Leftists are so weak and pathetic that they can't defeat a man using ideas and arguments therefore they go and kill the voices they can't outwit in a political debate. Leftists are such losers. If you are a man go ahead and debate a conservative using civil language, not bullets that have written on them "Fascist catch". Every leftist influencer should be sent to live few years in Chechnya, Russia to see how life really is. Those spoiled brats don't even know what a fascist is. Leftists need to touch grass ASAP.

@Tyler Robinson Thats fucking preety india

May Charlie rest in peace. Regardless of whether you agree with his political agenda or not, no one should be killed while holding a microphone in his hands. It leads to the impression that he was killed for speaking his mind. This is totally unacceptable. As long as someone is not advocating for hate or violence, that somebody should never be censored, let alone being killed. Speaking your mind in a civil and non hateful manner should be protected and championed by everyone. I didn't even heard of the guy before yesterday but as far as I know, he was just a conservative voice speaking his mind. As a liberal I value a lot the ability to speak my mind in a free civil manner, I have respect for anyone who speaks his mind in a civil non hateful manner. If I don't agree with someone's worldview I simply don't engage with that persons content. There is no need to hate or demonize people who hold different opinions than you. Live and let live! May he rest in peace. So sad.

@zazen I have a friend that moved to China because he married a girl from China. He met her when he was studying abroad in the US. And he said that the people in China are extremely smart and hard working, he said that the culture is great, he said that everything about China is great except the way how everything is centralized, the censorship, the dictatorship and the one party rule, and the non stop state sponsored propaganda that is displayed non stop everywhere. So according to my friend, China's only downside is exactly the very thing that you seem to be head over heels in love with.

@zazen elections and democracy are the best tool for advancing society because people vote out of office the ones that govern badly and worsen their quality of life. In China and Russia you don't even know what the people actually think about the current governance. Protests and votes of no confidence are a sign that democracy is working. Lack of protests, bruttal crushing of public revolt is what actually sets back a society. In the dictatorships of Russia and China that you so much seem to love, you don't even know what is actually happening there. All you know is what the propaganda machine of Putin and of the communist party in China want you to know. Western democracies have their flaws so obviously displayed because in the west no government has a monopoly on information and no government creates non stop propaganda about how good the country runs. Russia is the worst form of governance that a country can have. I genuinely think that there isn't a single good thing that the west can learn from the form of government that Russia under Putin has. China has a lot of positive aspects that we can integrate in the west, it is a mistake to totally dismiss China's way of governance. Overall China has developed a lot, but so did Taiwan and Japan and South Korea. So to praise centralized economy as the only driving factor for economic improvement is quite a partisan thing to do. The reason I don't want to do rebutalls and to debate you is because you have some unique semi-Duginesque ideology that I am not here to challenge. No ammount of debating and rebuttal can get you to step out of that "4th way" of viewing politics. Nor should you step out of it per se. It is a good thing for this forum to have a pool of diverse unique perspectives. My main issue with you is the bias and the one sidedness of your arguments. If you look at how Leo is approaching geopolitics you would notice that he has like 15 lenses that he uses to see how geopolitics work. If he is doing a blog post critiquing China, he is also keen to praise the positive aspects of China. So when he critiques the west. I've watched a lot of your posts and frankly you sound exactly like the people that appear on the far right propaganda tv outlet in my country. Only shitting on the west and praising China and the authoritarian world. Shitting on Ukraine all day long, wanting Ukraine to surrender to Putin, while they pump their chest saying that they are patriots. How are you patriot if you want another sovereign country to become the vassal of Russia? As I said previously, I will take you seriously when I will see from you that you also criticise the authoritarian world. Right now you only shit all day long on Ukraine and the west, how about you also start shitting on Russia and China and the rest of the "Centralized planned economies". Have a nice day.

To my shame I've never contemplated or grasped or came to the realization of something as deep as the topics Leo is discussing in his videos.