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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[–] balssh@lemm.ee 83 points 3 days ago (7 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.

[–] futatorius@lemm.ee 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

You also set an inspiring example with how you dealt with Ceausescu.

[–] balssh@lemm.ee 1 points 1 day ago

Sadly what started as a people's revolution got deturned into a coup d'etat back then: the old guard of the Securitate and high echelon of the Communist party continued (and still continues to a high degree) to have most of the power.

[–] Raiderkev@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

You can probably afford a home too.

[–] balssh@lemm.ee 1 points 1 day ago

Eh, more or less. I’ll probably be able to afford one in about a year (with a loan ofc), but I make almost double the median salary.

[–] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago

Next you'll say poor people get to live indoors there

[–] AtariDump@lemmy.world 12 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

"That's why they call it the American Dream, because you have to be asleep to believe it." -George Carlin

[–] SARGE@startrek.website 49 points 3 days ago (5 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.

[–] SolarMonkey@slrpnk.net 1 points 1 day ago

That honestly makes me feel a lot better about the cavity that has rotted through nearly the entire molar.. it’s gunna need extraction which I can’t afford, because the alternative is like.. losing my jaw or something..?

I’ve been sitting on doing anything about it for years because I can’t afford to fix it..

And sure sure I know dental isn’t covered by insurance because luxury bones… whomever can afford to have them has them..

But like.. I’d really like to get that tooth extracted.

I’m sorry we are in a shitty boat friend. I hope eventually we can at least patch it so we can keep above water..

[–] SabinStargem@lemmings.world 7 points 2 days ago

I have good health insurance, but still resist going to the doctor out of fear of debt entrapment. It is paranoia, but looking at other people, the fear takes hold of me. I fear poverty more than death, because life without the nice things ain't worth living with.

[–] ICastFist@programming.dev 7 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Travel to Mexico, get your tooth fixed, go back home

[–] cheers_queers@lemm.ee 1 points 1 day ago

IDK, my mom did this for a front tooth crown, and it looks awful. she regrets it to this day

[–] SARGE@startrek.website 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

If I didn't live paycheck to paycheck, sure.

[–] rigatti@lemmy.world 27 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Have you considered pulling yourself up by your toothstraps?

[–] balssh@lemm.ee 15 points 3 days ago (1 children)

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

[–] drtaco@lemmy.dbzer0.com 14 points 3 days ago

So do a huge portion of Americans.

[–] WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world 19 points 3 days ago (1 children)

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

[–] cabinet_sanchez@midwest.social 15 points 3 days ago (1 children)

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

[–] balssh@lemm.ee 10 points 3 days 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.

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

[–] wwb4itcgas@lemm.ee 13 points 3 days 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?

[–] balssh@lemm.ee 35 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (3 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.

[–] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

Makes sense. Good luck y'all

[–] wwb4itcgas@lemm.ee 17 points 3 days 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.

[–] balssh@lemm.ee 16 points 3 days 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.

[–] NOT_RICK@lemmy.world 5 points 3 days ago (1 children)

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.

[–] wwb4itcgas@lemm.ee 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

They won’t have your back when push comes to shove.

Not only that, but every historical example I can think of clearly demonstrates that Russia have only ever considered any nation falling under their sway as vassals, at best - a resource to be exploited for Russian gain. I know of no evidence that Russia even understands the notion of win-win situations; they've always been transactional zero-sum gamers. No wonder Trump likes them so much.

Up until recently, that was - from the perspective of a minor state caught between large players - one of the primary differences between the US on one hand and Russian on the other, with China waffling somewhere in between. Sure, the US threw their weight around too, but at least they had the good sense to ensure that those on their team got sufficient benefits out of it that people wanted to stay on the team.

Then Trump went and fucked that up royally seven ways to Sunday.

Now, if someone wants free trade and a chance of peace and prosperity, there's really only the EU left.

[–] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

Even when they're controlled by non Russians. Russia fucked Georgia while ruled by a Georgian

[–] Barbarian@sh.itjust.works 9 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days 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.

[–] balssh@lemm.ee 3 points 3 days 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.