USA – Page 11 – Blazingcatfur

What to know about the US military presence in Europe as Trump seeks drawdown of thousands of troops

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s vow to shrink America’s military deployment in Germany has put a new spotlight on the U.S. role in Europe.

There are usually 80,000 to 100,000 troops on the continent, with more than 36,000 in Germany. The Pentagon announced Friday that it would remove 5,000 troops from Germany, and Trump said the next day that he would go “a lot further” than that.

The U.S. military presence is a legacy of World War II, when Americans helped stabilize and rebuild Europe, and the Cold War, when the troops served as a bulwark against Soviet expansion. More recently, the deployment has played a key role supporting operations in the Arctic, Africa and the Middle East including the current conflict with Iran.

by Blazingcatfur•May 4, 2026May 4, 2026•0•Europe, USA

Aligning the U.S. and Canadian Defense Industrial Bases

The United States and Canada are both racing to rebuild their defense industrial bases, recognizing that future conflicts will be determined not only by military capability, but by the ability to produce at scale. But they cannot succeed alone — and importantly, they do not need to start from scratch.

After decades of reliance on globalized supply chains for everything from consumer products to critical defense technologies, the United States is reasserting a more active industrial policy, using tools ranging from the Defense Production Act to incentivizing private capital investments and even selective government equity stakes. Canada is undergoing a parallel shift, with increased defense spending commitments, the recent release of its first Defence Industrial Strategy, and the newly launched Defence Investment Agency.

I doubt the USA will risk Canadian exposure given Carney is busy selling us out to the ChiComs and whoever else he thinks he can squeeze a buck from.

by Blazingcatfur•May 3, 2026May 2, 2026•0•Canada, USA

‘Christofascism’ is here: inside the slow demolition of US public health

In February 2025, Robert F Kennedy Jr began his tenure as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) with an unusual message for the federal department responsible for protecting public health.

America’s greatest challenge, he said, was not just chronic disease but a “spiritual malaise”, a kind of soul-sickness derived from America’s moral decline.

“Spiritual and physical maladies thrive on one another,” Kennedy told HHS employees in his first address. The solution, he said, “must begin with a spiritual question”, of personal responsibility and inward vigilance against the dark forces that would keep Americans “sedated” and “compliant”.

They gotta cut back on the caffeine, the cigarettes, the pot, the coke whatever.

by Blazingcatfur•May 3, 2026May 3, 2026•0•USA, WTF?

Will The Media Celebrate America’s 250th?

America’s Big Birthday is getting closer. Yes indeed, we are now just over two months away from the 250th birthday of America on July 4, 2026.

There is much to celebrate, and one can be sure that millions of Americans will be out in full force in the cities, towns and villages of this great country.

But what about the media? You know, the media that can’t abide President Trump and his decidedly patriotic Make America Great Again movement.

by Blazingcatfur•May 3, 2026May 3, 2026•0•USA

Latest Harvard/Harris Poll Shows (Extremely) Modest Bump for ‘Mass Deportation’

The latest Harvard/Harris poll was just released, and it reveals a modest bump in approval for President Trump’s immigration policies generally and for removing all aliens who are present in the United States illegally in particular. The electoral implications of the poll’s finding that a large majority of Democrats support “open borders”, however, have yet to be seen.

by Blazingcatfur•May 3, 2026May 3, 2026•0•"Remigration", USA

Is German troop withdrawal start of US uncoupling from Europe?

Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s assertion that the US is being “humiliated” in its war against Iran has triggered a new confrontation between Europe and President Trump. Four days after the comments were made, the Pentagon announced plans to withdraw 5,000 troops from its bases in Germany.

Many experts see it as a waypoint in the American military’s continuing uncoupling from the Continent. There are more than 38,000 active US troops in the Federal Republic and on Saturday the defence minister, Boris Pistorius, implied the move was expected, saying: “We Europeans must take on more responsibility for our own security.”

🚨 JUST IN: President Trump says the US will be withdrawing "A LOT" more troops from Germany than the 5,000 announced yesterday

FINALLY.

Bring our troops home! We don't need NATO — NATO needs US!

"We're going to cut WAY down and we're cutting a lot further than 5,000" 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/I4RBJnb3qL

— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) May 2, 2026

Payback to the base for the Iran conflict?

by Blazingcatfur•May 3, 2026May 3, 2026•0•Europe, NATO, USA

Two New Indictments Illuminate China’s Unconventional War Against The U.S.

Two federal indictments unsealed this week provide fresh evidence that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is waging an unconventional war against the United States, one that targets American lives, security, and scientific edge through hacking and industrial-scale drug trafficking.

On April 27, Chinese national Xu Zewei appeared in a federal court in Houston after being extradited from Italy. He faces a nine-count indictment for hacking campaigns between 2020 and 2021. According to prosecutors, officials of China’s Ministry of State Security (MSS) and Shanghai State Security Bureau (SSSB) recruited Xu and co-conspirator Zhang Yu in early 2020 and instructed the pair to break into U.S. universities and steal research on vaccines, treatments, and testing from leading immunologists and virologists.

by Blazingcatfur•May 3, 2026May 2, 2026•0•"China - Communist Slave State", USA

‘We love our Americans’: the German town rocked by Trump’s plan to withdraw US troops

Despite Donald Trump’s frequent bluster, Nadine Firmont said the US president’s move to pull American troops out of Germany had hit her town like a bombshell.

“I have to tell you I was honestly shocked,” said Firmont, 45, who works at a high school in Landstuhl, south-west Germany, the heart of the largest American military community outside the US.

Even with previous drawdowns and discussions of US redeployments, Trump’s angry outburst carried a blunt menace that startled Firmont and her neighbours.

by Blazingcatfur•May 2, 2026May 2, 2026•0•Germany, USA

Thousands of ‘lost Karens’ have applied for dual citizenship – is Canada ready?

As the youngest of five children, Joe Boucher learned a lot from his older brothers and sister – how to ride a bike, how to navigate the miles of forest behind their house and how to skate and play hockey. But one thing he didn’t really pick up from them is how to speak French.

Although both of Boucher’s parents were of French-Canadian descent and spoke French with each other, it was once illegal to teach French in school in the US state of Maine, where the Bouchers lived. And so his siblings, amongst themselves, defaulted to English.

“Shame was heaped upon French speakers as being second-class citizens,” he recalls.

by Blazingcatfur•May 2, 2026May 2, 2026•0•Canada, USA, WTF?

Cuba says Trump’s fresh sanctions on its economy amount to ‘collective punishment’

Cuba’s government has said new sanctions imposed on the island by Donald Trump amounted to “collective punishment”, as an enormous 1 May procession outside the American embassy in Havana vowed to “defend the homeland”.

In an executive order on Friday, the US president said he would impose sanctions on people involved in broad sections of the Cuban economy, as he seeks to put more pressure on Havana after ousting Venezuela’s leader, Nicolás Maduro, earlier this year.

The latest sanctions constituted “collective punishment” of the nation’s people, said Cuba’s foreign minister, Bruno Rodriguez. “We firmly reject the recent unilateral coercive measures adopted by the #UnitedStates government,” he posted on X in English.

by Blazingcatfur•May 2, 2026May 2, 2026•0•Cuba, USA

U.S Troop Withdrawal Expands Yawning Rift Between U.S. and Europe

BERLIN—German officials shrugged off President Trump’s decision to withdraw 5,000 U.S. troops from the country as symbolic, but analysts warned the broader trans-Atlantic rift risks leaving Europe’s economy and security dangerously exposed.

Trump’s latest increase in tariffs on European cars, his apparent U-turn on plans to station long-range missiles in Germany and the economic and military fallout from the war in Iran will have a bigger impact on the region, they warned.

“All of these are a bigger deal than a symbolic 5K-troop reduction,” said Thorsten Benner, director of the Global Public Policy Institute, a Berlin security think tank. “So is the rapid depletion of U.S. arsenals due to wasting enormous amounts of precious assets in the Iran war.”

by Blazingcatfur•May 2, 2026May 2, 2026•0•Europe, USA

Of course we should be deporting America-hating noncitizens

New York magazine recently published an overwrought essay penned by pro-Palestine activist Mahmoud Khalil, who contends his life has been turned into a nightmare since being “abducted by ICE” for deportation.

Khalil is a forever student and former spokesman for the Columbia University Apartheid Divest, a group that targets Jewish students and engages in rioting and other revolutionary activity. To give you a sense of the group’s oeuvre, it brags about fighting for the “total eradication of Western civilization,” advocates “global intifada,” and supports the “armed resistance” of Hamas, an organization designated as a terrorist group by the Justice Department.

by Blazingcatfur•May 2, 2026May 2, 2026•0•Camp Of The Saints, USA

US to cut troop levels in Germany by 5,000 amid Trump spat with Merz

The US Department of Defence plans to withdraw 5,000 troops from Germany, amid a spat between US President Donald Trump and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz over the war with Iran.

The decision comes a day after Trump criticised Merz, who suggested the US had been “humiliated” by Iranian negotiators.

In social media posts on Thursday, Trump said Merz was “doing a terrible job” and had “problems of all kinds”, including on immigration and energy. Trump has also suggested pulling US troops from Italy and Spain.

by Blazingcatfur•May 2, 2026May 1, 2026•0•Germany, Germany: Not Bombed Enough?, USA

Trump threatens to withdraw troops from Italy and Spain

Donald Trump has threatened to withdraw US troops from Italy and Spain a day after saying he was looking at reducing the number deployed in Germany.

The US president’s threat to Germany came after the country’s chancellor, Friedrich Merz, said America was being “humiliated” by Iran.

Trump has severely criticised Nato allies for not sending their navies to help to open the strait of Hormuz, a crucial commercial shipping corridor.

by Blazingcatfur•May 1, 2026May 1, 2026•0•EU, Europe, USA

Guatemalan dealer who sold drugs to kids caught at Canada border after he’s set free with no bail: DA

A Guatemalan drug pusher who dealt gummies to Long Island kids was cut loose with no bail – then caught trying to escape justice by running to Canada, authorities said Thursday.

Wilmer Castillo Garcia, 22, was busted in August 2025 for selling cocaine to an undercover cop and pushing pot gummies to William Floyd Middle School students, with 12 of the kids ending up in the hospital but he was set free because of the state’s “broken” bail laws, Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said.

by Blazingcatfur•May 1, 2026April 30, 2026•0•Camp Of The Saints, USA