Europe 'our friends'?
You're joking ain't you?
Good post Ben. I feel me and my family are safe in N Thailand as there's nothing here worth hitting even with a low yield nuke. Plus even if town was ever hit there are a coupla hills between it and our digs. Dunno how we'd cope with the fallout though. Still it's a safe place and well under the radar.BenThere wrote: ↑Mon Mar 11, 2019 9:49 pmI feel safer hiding out in Mexico should tensions reach the boiling point. In fact I'm heading back down there tomorrow for a few weeks.
So what do I predict is coming, you ask? I think the US will continue disengaging from its nuclear umbrella policies of the past; notify its allies that they need to develop and fund their own defense strategies as sovereign nations, and where collective effort is warranted, come to the table with real commitments to agreed doctrine and principles. The politics will always be a factor. A lot of people just don't like Americans, even many Americans, themselves.
Last point: What happens when European nations, especially those with nuclear weapons, become Muslim states?
Can you give a few examples of this please?Even as a non-Yank I'm fed up with these bastards who when it hits the fan start yelling "where is America to help us??!!"
Rwy in Sight wrote: ↑Wed Mar 13, 2019 5:22 amI gave one and please don't forget the line: "Yankees go home and take us with you".
Of course nations will vote as they see fit and one should remember it is very difficult to buy friends. Among the top recipients of US aid are Afghanistan, Iraq and of course Israel. Egypt too although that is a special case as IIRC aid to Egypt was negotiated as protection money for Israel. Afghanistan needs aid but not because they screamed for it but because the US destroyed the country and of course Iraq is in the same category.BenThere wrote: ↑Wed Mar 13, 2019 4:50 pmOne place you might want to look is at UN general assembly voting history, where you will find a plethora of nations receiving US aid then voting against US positions, many of them regrrding Israel, but not all, such as votes concerning US and coalition actions vis-a-vis Iraq.
"I'm fed up with these bastards who when it hits the fan start yelling "where is America to help us??!!"
That's all very niceAdditionally, while many US allies have been stalwart partners, they often, as in the cases of UK, Canada, and most of the EU excepting former Soviet satellite states, embed a substantial popular resentment and hostility toward the US. All you need to do is read a few pages of the Guardian 'comment is free' to get my gist. Let me shout out, stand up and applaud UK, Australia, Canada, and lately, Poland and other Eastern Europe stalwart allies, standing with us through thick and thin.
I am pleased you are enjoying the good life Ben.I'm old enough to appreciate that I don't have much to lose. I'd like the world to be better for those who' survive me, but I have severe concerns about that as I see both hatred of President Trump and the increased attraction to Socialism among young American millennials, the next dominant demographic, as players in the not-distant future. I'll be sitting on a Caribbean beach watching it all unfold in 2020, sipping a margarita on the rocks, with salt. I'm spending about half my time in Mexico now and find the more time I'm here (where I am right now) the less animated I am about the politics back home. I'm hoping a majority of Americans will perceive the improvements the Trump administration has brought us all, but the array of academic, entertainment, and news media determined to overthrow it gives me pause. As I've always said, in a democracy you get the government you deserve; in republics as well.
I'm getting better, very good, I'm told, at grilling whole, fresh red snappers and sea bass on my terrace grill , and alternately preparing fine Argentinian beef on the grill with a layer of traditional briquettes and 4 charcoal blocks of mesquite added later for searing. It's an art I'm trying to perfect. I buy beautiful fresh Red Snappers, 4-5 lbs, at the Akumal fish market for around $5 US, which will feed four. Limes are less than $1/kilo. Tequila ranges from $4-80/litre and it all tastes the same to me. I tend toward the lower end. An Argentinian rib-eye steak goes for about $3/pound. All prices US. If you want to go downtown, especially if you go to a dusty cantina away from the beach and tourists, you can get an enchilada dinner with a beer for $3 or so, and it will be just as good as the same thing in Tulum for $10.
There's a market town in the interior of Yucatan called Valladolid. It's an old colonial Mexican marketplace unaffected by the tourism of the Riviera Maya. You go there early in the morning; it's a 45 minute drive for us. This farmers market has everything, a range of peppers that will boggle your mind, and magnificent fruits, avocado, tomatoes, pineapples, beans, meats and tortillas. You fill up a cart full of all the food you think you can eat for a few weeks and the tab comes out to $10 for a careful of fresh food. After a shop there I'm in a much better mood to stop off at the signature hotel at the town center to indulge in the best the town has to offer. The other plus is that when you go to Valladolid, you get real, today, Mexico - a community of great people, hard working, respectful of others, loving and caring for their families, grateful for the business, and a smile on their faces.