I find all this very informative.  Thanks Gail for the mother of a soldier view too.  

Over the last 3.5 years I have gone from voting for 45 as the anti-Killary vote, to OMG is he crazy, to cautiously optimistic, to OMG I think I like him, to OMG what a GREAT president.  I have been reading and listening to more political analysis in one day than in the first 60 years of my life. 

They think he's stupid, he's a genius. They think they have him cornered and he busts out and makes them look like the liars and fools they are. The first step to getting where I am is to stop listen or reading ANYTHING that a left leaning person says or writes.  They are nucking futs.  Turn off all the alphabet news stations and find a handful of good independent content creators. 

Norma, I'm not going to insult your intelligence by suggesting you believe what you wrote. 
Your bold red words and overuse of quotation marks can't hide the fact that you seldom contribute anything meaningful, like Peggy pointed out.  You did said nothing to refute my premise that political debates are not warm and fuzzy and devoid of heated back-and-forth.  If my engagement scares someone away from jumping in with their point of view, I submit the problem is not mine.  It's a lack of courage in engaging and demonstrating the courage of their convictions.  When was the last time you actually contributed anything germane to a given topic? 
I post facts all the time.  Go back to when there was a ton of interest in Covid19, for example.  I took a lot of time explaining things and laying out facts.  I post facts all the time.  I answer questions all the time. People learn a few things.  That's just a fact.  I also post opinions.  In matters of politics you cannot ban emotional exchanges.
Facts and opinions are what forums are all about.  You get a mix.  

NATO wouldn't exist without the US.  NATO was a child of the Cold War.  It was an alliance whose goal was to combat the threat of aggression from the former Soviet Union.  The Soviet Union no longer exists, partly because Marxism has an inherently short life span, and partly because they couldn't keep up with the US.  Now there's Russia. Their military capability is nothing compared to that of the former Soviet Union.  
For decades, NATO members failed to meet their commitment of 2% of their GDP to defense spending.  The US spent nearly 4% of their GDP on defense spending.  Of the 30 members of NATO, only the US, Great Britain, and Greece met their agreed commitment of at least 2%. The U.S. pays 22 percent of the total NATO budget and makes up 67 percent of the defense budget (which is already included in the total budget).
Trump had the guts and audacity to call NATO out on this.  He was excoriated for this, but he was right and he knew it. Everyone knew he was right, but nobody expected a US president to have the guts to put their feet to the fire.

That's why "they" hate him and why I love him.  He's shaking everything up.  Taking power and money out of the deep states hands. Exposing their corrupt schemes. Their evil. When he's done all the deepstate-ish crap will be exposed.   

I would still like Norma's opinion because is does matter.

Let me pose this question .... what has NATO done for us lately? 

Exactly. We supported them for decades and what do they do for us but take our money and disrespect us. 

Norma what do you think?

Why so you can attack her some more??? I thought you had her on your ignore list?

She's attacking her?  Is that what you call it?

Sorry ....been gone for a couple of hours..... IF you really want my opinion .... I couldn't agree with Scott more...Nato was past due for restructuring ..... you see there are a lot of things that I agree with and have input in with facts....and Roxie .... it is not called attacking but "baiting" ..... they "bait" with the hope that I will say something that then they CAN jump on ... I have always enjoyed the debating of issues, etc, however, in the past year or so, it has become no more than a "few" (on BOTH sides) that refuse to discuss issues without snide remarks ...... I don't need that kind of aggravation! 

NJJ we agree NATO!

If we look hard enough we are going to find that we agree on more than we disagree.   We are close to a civil war in America.   Are we not going to be allowed to have an opinion without being attacked?  Come on folks we need to figure this out.  

I love baiting woke snowflakes, Marxists, and Antifa supporting progressive leftists.  It works well.  

She wants to be part of the conversation.  Instead of attacking me why don't you tell us what you know?

BTW Ponygirl Go back and read this thread. Where did I call her a name?  But one of your allies called every one of us conservatives names in the very first post.   Hypocrite much?

Here's something for the left lovers to enjoy 

https://www.laurencomelemorris.com/post/who-killed-austin-texas-the-live-music-capitol-of-the-world-yields-to-a-communist-revolution?fbclid=IwAR2Yl6rGG6_ky1AbCdRppQl-N83ft1Dkg8W3o1L5gEXcsjNHfoXtxm9FdgM

Thanks for posting.  I'm going to share the sh!t out of this.

This is the Democrat party.

This thread is a good example of what is why we are at the brink of civil war  with our  country.  Name calling ...from Mo fo's to Snowflakes.   This is a political debate and our own rules state enter at your own risk but I think we should be better than name calling.  

Really it breaks my heart and this is NOT what BHW was intended for.   Stick to the facts - we are talking about AFG and the original poster made an incendiary comment but has yet to reply to my response.

I support many of Trump's actions so Mecon does that make me a MO FO ?     So deal with it.  I consider myself an American above and beyond any political party and I do not condone Trump's method of communicating.  

And Bear - cool it on the name calling.   Aren't you like a  Rhodes Scholar?   You are much smarter than I am.  So don't embarrass me with my igorance .  I am doing the best I can.  

Carry on everyone. 

A preview of our future. This is what we can all look forward to if POTUS doesn't win in November.    

Actually we are already in a war. We haven't started shooting yet. But they have. If people still side with the [D] party they are part of the problem.  They keep pushing and pushing. Changing everything America stands for.  They won't be satisfied until the communism and control they want is in place on all of us.  The silent majority has started to see the future they want and we are fighting back.  I won't be silent anymore. They have drawn the rules up and the rules aren't nice clean debates on facts. They don't have facts. They are immune from facts.  This war is going to get dirtier until the election.  That's a fact.  That's why I love POTUS. He fights back instead of being a GOP pussy we've had for too long.  We either get our country back or we are done.