To a certain extent it is true that Trump is representative of America.
But just the ~25% who voted for him. Half the people vote, and slightly less than half of those voted for him.
And it might not be news to inform you that they hate us back. Or that we're all still Americans.
We have a Special Relationship with hatred. It comes from having Free Speech. We're used to hating each other openly, but still not killing each other over it.
It was an advisory opinion poll, not some sort of binding law, or even a plan that contained details.
That's the thing; they voted on the word Brexit, but not actually anything detailed or binding.
The precedent set by not chopping off your own fingers is simply that you shouldn't engage in self-harm, there is not any benefit from showing how macho you are in that situation.
Traveling to Brussels gave Boris Johnson bone spurs in his freedom bone.
It is practically a crime against humanity.
Also, prosperity was weakening their stiff upper lips, and without severe economic depredation and austerity their cultural identity is doomed.
Another good reason, after centuries of war with Ireland, they just can't stand the though of making it more than 20 years without violating their peace accords with a hard border. They have to backstab the Irish, or they just won't even know that they're English anymore!
What they didn't consider is this: After Scotland leaves the UK and rejoins the EU, won't it actually be Scotland with a claim to Northern Ireland? Wasn't the British claim based on having given most of the land in that region to Scottish protestants, and Scotland being part of the UK?
You can't have a no-deal Brexit, it violates the peace treaty in Ireland.
The backstop is already required under UK law, because they have Treaty obligations that prevent a hard border inside Ireland, and they also have obligations to themselves to enforce some sort of customs regime.
Voting on Brexit without having a solution for that was fucking idiotic in the extreme. It was a farce of a vote, and was only an opinion poll anyways, not a binding resolution.
What sort of idiot country would put an issue that big, with that big of an (entirely negative) economic impact, up to a public vote that only needs 50%+1?! That's totally insane. A more rational idea would be to do something that extreme if you got over 2/3 of the vote.
If you can change the legal basis of your sovereignty with 50%+1, your country is destined to be a backwater, because crazy fads are a thing that easily can touch 50%+1 of the people. But at that point, other feedback loops kick in, and it is really hard to get over 60% on just a fad. If the UK had been putting their past decisions of this magnitude up to that sort of vote, there wouldn't even be a UK!
Back then all it took a rich person to avoid military service was to avoid bribing anybody to get a slot!
Things were a bit different back then. The Romans were a warlike people, like most people were. The idea that the rich avoid having to fight in the wars is very, very recent. In the old days, people fought in wars hoping to become rich! It was one of the very few ways to advance yourself in society. And the rich fought in wars to gain fame and increase their position.
You couldn't be pressed into a legion. Those were really good jobs! You actually had to be able to buy a bunch of military hardware to qualify, and you had to be from a family that was rich enough that they'd trust you to be able to resupply yourself.
If you were pressed into the military, you'd be light infantry, and would not even be mentioned in most of the accounts of battle. You would be provided with a sling or light javelins, and you would generally go up against light cavalry trying to flank the heavy infantry.
China doesn't loan us money, they buy US Treasury Bonds.
The bonds have a certain repayment value. If a major buyer stops buying, that actually means the other buyers will get more profit. The higher the demand for bonds, the lower the profit.
If China stops buying them, non-China demand goes up.
In fact, most of them would be bought by Americans if the international demand was low enough that it could compete with other investments we have available. But large investors like nation states can't really find other investments that large; the money would just sit in a giant Scrooge McDuck vault otherwise, sitting there shrinking due to inflation.
Yes. Whatever Europe says, it means "please stay," because they also say that.
Europe is very careful to only let people who don't matter say the "go home" part, and then they coordinate to make sure all the important people say "please stay."
Also, most Americans aren't even from New England, the region that has "Yankees." So when they say, "Yankee go home," we know it is a total fucking cluestick talking, who has no concept of international geography even at the "names and places" level.
What does it even mean? Does it mean you want the Americans who support the British to go back to Britain? Or is it just a warning that "schna, schna, schna" sounds and the smell of cigarettes are about to erupt into the air of a cafe somewhere? A warning to get out umbrellas to avoid drowning in a rain shower?
That's because we never had an "empire" like the Europeans did, we only had Allies who can come and go as they please.
Only an idiot would think we didn't "pick sides" prior to giving the British substantial material support. We gave them as much free military equipment as we could ship through contested waters, and it was a lot!
We were supporting the British war effort from the start, did you actually not know about that?
We didn't have a big enough military when the war broke out to start fighting right away. Our whole society had to be put on hold, the Sleeping Giant had to wake up and take over American life for a few years to build enough equipment and train enough soldiers to go and fight.
Both my grandfathers fought in WWII, one in the Navy and one in the Air Force. You can't do those jobs without warships and warplanes.
My grandfather flew behind enemy lines, over the alps, to deliver donkeys and bullets to Partisans in the Balkans. On the way back over, they'd aim hand-tossed bombs out the door of the plane at the German supply paths over the Alps. They calculated how many bombs they could carry by their "reserve" fuel.
He didn't do it because he thought they'd be thankful, he just did it because it was the right thing to do. Snooty Europeans can't really imagine that aspect of the American military, which is also why they don't have comparable operational capability. Courage of conviction is a powerful thing, and we have it. Do you think Europeans making noises, "schna, schna, schna" into their coffee causes them to be morally superior? That's exactly the Freedom we wanted for you! Duh.
Right, the people who walked into the village were not the cause of the village being saved.
It took the entire war effort.
Without the support of the Americans, the Canadians would not have been there at all.
It is quite simple; the village was liberated by the Allies. Not by Canada.
It wasn't even Canada that chose that specific village to be assigned to the Canadians.
Pointing at the Canadian military and thinking that is substantially distinct from the American military, during joint operations, is just absurd. They're cheek and jowl. Canadian soldiers are ready to protect America, just like America is ready to protect Canada.
We don't have to tell Canada what to do for military cooperation, because they were already in the room when we decided what it was we wanted done, and they probably helped us decide it.
Well, when they ask you to make up a fake disability for your child to have so they need extra time on the test, you do know something about what is being done. When you also have to make up a fake family event so that they can take their entrance exams in some specific facility, instead of their one close to you or at the school you're applying to, then you do know something fraudulent is happening.
And when you pay $500k for the above services, you really know a lot more about the service. Actual test prep doesn't involve lying to the school, and it doesn't cost $500k.
Or, if you pay $2.5M for your student to get listed as being on an athletic scholarship, you probably already know what college sports are, if your child is really on the team, and if they've dedicated enough of their life for that to make sense. If it involves photoshopping a picture of their face onto the body of an athlete, you obviously already know the sport isn't a big enough part of their life to be earning a scholarship.
I'm having trouble finding any accusations here where they might have thought it was something else. Plus, I mean, they got them talking about it on tape before making arrests; if there were innocent rubes who didn't know, they probably didn't even get charged.
A bunch of specific people getting named, shamed, and arrested definitely makes it news instead of just something that people know happens.
They didn't bribe the "wrong" people, they bribed the "right" people who really did have the connections. Most of the people arrested already did it, successfully, before authorities busted the company selling the service.
It isn't like they accidentally hired a front company for the FBI.
We know well, from Merkel's cell phone, and others, that any secrets we share will get talked about on the phone, and that government employees, even at the highest level, consider their cell phone to be a normal way to conduct business.
Therefore if we're not sure about the security of your phone network, we don't want to share too much info.
There are 2 non-Chinese equipment suppliers to choose as alternatives.
They're both European.
D'oh!
This story is about America demanding the Europe buy the same European equipment that the US is trusting, because we're on the same side. It is as simple as that. You'd rather have cheap Chinese junk than the local stuff, who is gonna pay your taxes with an attitude like that?!
If this was a story about Russia telling Belarus not to buy American network hardware if they wanted full access to military information sharing, then you'd have a point.
But it isn't. So you don't.
This is the basic question presented: Are you a MILITARY ALLY of the United States... or not?
Unlike many world powers, all US allies have that status by choice and consent. You can leave at any time. Byeeeeee.
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To a certain extent it is true that Trump is representative of America.
But just the ~25% who voted for him. Half the people vote, and slightly less than half of those voted for him.
And it might not be news to inform you that they hate us back. Or that we're all still Americans.
We have a Special Relationship with hatred. It comes from having Free Speech. We're used to hating each other openly, but still not killing each other over it.
He did succeed at not being captured.
He was better at suicide than most who try, and none had more success.
Always look on the bright side; everybody has talents. Everybody is Special in their own way.
Dogs never know it is a dog whistle, it is just a regular whistle to them.
Just like, the racist shit is just regular political speech to you, so you quibble about the words instead of the racist shit.
It was an advisory opinion poll, not some sort of binding law, or even a plan that contained details.
That's the thing; they voted on the word Brexit, but not actually anything detailed or binding.
The precedent set by not chopping off your own fingers is simply that you shouldn't engage in self-harm, there is not any benefit from showing how macho you are in that situation.
Traveling to Brussels gave Boris Johnson bone spurs in his freedom bone.
It is practically a crime against humanity.
Also, prosperity was weakening their stiff upper lips, and without severe economic depredation and austerity their cultural identity is doomed.
Another good reason, after centuries of war with Ireland, they just can't stand the though of making it more than 20 years without violating their peace accords with a hard border. They have to backstab the Irish, or they just won't even know that they're English anymore!
What they didn't consider is this: After Scotland leaves the UK and rejoins the EU, won't it actually be Scotland with a claim to Northern Ireland? Wasn't the British claim based on having given most of the land in that region to Scottish protestants, and Scotland being part of the UK?
Nah. We we got rid of that kind of thing when we stopped letting people like you run our country.
Wait, you can't even afford potatoes anymore? That's pretty bad.
Wait, wait, wait, you're saying their stiff upper lips don't grant them Exceptionalism in the eyes of other Europeans?! Shocker.
But, but, but, they had Churchill! And Queen Elizabeth!
You can't have a no-deal Brexit, it violates the peace treaty in Ireland.
The backstop is already required under UK law, because they have Treaty obligations that prevent a hard border inside Ireland, and they also have obligations to themselves to enforce some sort of customs regime.
Voting on Brexit without having a solution for that was fucking idiotic in the extreme. It was a farce of a vote, and was only an opinion poll anyways, not a binding resolution.
What sort of idiot country would put an issue that big, with that big of an (entirely negative) economic impact, up to a public vote that only needs 50%+1?! That's totally insane. A more rational idea would be to do something that extreme if you got over 2/3 of the vote.
If you can change the legal basis of your sovereignty with 50%+1, your country is destined to be a backwater, because crazy fads are a thing that easily can touch 50%+1 of the people. But at that point, other feedback loops kick in, and it is really hard to get over 60% on just a fad. If the UK had been putting their past decisions of this magnitude up to that sort of vote, there wouldn't even be a UK!
Back then all it took a rich person to avoid military service was to avoid bribing anybody to get a slot!
Things were a bit different back then. The Romans were a warlike people, like most people were. The idea that the rich avoid having to fight in the wars is very, very recent. In the old days, people fought in wars hoping to become rich! It was one of the very few ways to advance yourself in society. And the rich fought in wars to gain fame and increase their position.
You couldn't be pressed into a legion. Those were really good jobs! You actually had to be able to buy a bunch of military hardware to qualify, and you had to be from a family that was rich enough that they'd trust you to be able to resupply yourself.
If you were pressed into the military, you'd be light infantry, and would not even be mentioned in most of the accounts of battle. You would be provided with a sling or light javelins, and you would generally go up against light cavalry trying to flank the heavy infantry.
Except that you're the town drunk in this metaphor, and the bar owners all love us. ;)
China doesn't loan us money, they buy US Treasury Bonds.
The bonds have a certain repayment value. If a major buyer stops buying, that actually means the other buyers will get more profit. The higher the demand for bonds, the lower the profit.
If China stops buying them, non-China demand goes up.
In fact, most of them would be bought by Americans if the international demand was low enough that it could compete with other investments we have available. But large investors like nation states can't really find other investments that large; the money would just sit in a giant Scrooge McDuck vault otherwise, sitting there shrinking due to inflation.
Yes. Whatever Europe says, it means "please stay," because they also say that.
Europe is very careful to only let people who don't matter say the "go home" part, and then they coordinate to make sure all the important people say "please stay."
Also, most Americans aren't even from New England, the region that has "Yankees." So when they say, "Yankee go home," we know it is a total fucking cluestick talking, who has no concept of international geography even at the "names and places" level.
What does it even mean? Does it mean you want the Americans who support the British to go back to Britain? Or is it just a warning that "schna, schna, schna" sounds and the smell of cigarettes are about to erupt into the air of a cafe somewhere? A warning to get out umbrellas to avoid drowning in a rain shower?
You'd "cope" by learning Russian though.
You wouldn't look back on it as "coping," either.
You should listen to the Germans cry and whine when we threaten to reduce troop numbers, though.
"Oh but the jobs on the base, we need those dollars!" LOL
If you only have "thousands" of witnesses, you have no idea how they got there, or who else made it safe for them to walk into your village.
I guess you think some Canadians wandered out behind German lines into your village, and the Germans moved their lines back to let them have it.
That's because we never had an "empire" like the Europeans did, we only had Allies who can come and go as they please.
Only an idiot would think we didn't "pick sides" prior to giving the British substantial material support. We gave them as much free military equipment as we could ship through contested waters, and it was a lot!
We were supporting the British war effort from the start, did you actually not know about that?
We didn't have a big enough military when the war broke out to start fighting right away. Our whole society had to be put on hold, the Sleeping Giant had to wake up and take over American life for a few years to build enough equipment and train enough soldiers to go and fight.
Both my grandfathers fought in WWII, one in the Navy and one in the Air Force. You can't do those jobs without warships and warplanes.
My grandfather flew behind enemy lines, over the alps, to deliver donkeys and bullets to Partisans in the Balkans. On the way back over, they'd aim hand-tossed bombs out the door of the plane at the German supply paths over the Alps. They calculated how many bombs they could carry by their "reserve" fuel.
He didn't do it because he thought they'd be thankful, he just did it because it was the right thing to do. Snooty Europeans can't really imagine that aspect of the American military, which is also why they don't have comparable operational capability. Courage of conviction is a powerful thing, and we have it. Do you think Europeans making noises, "schna, schna, schna" into their coffee causes them to be morally superior? That's exactly the Freedom we wanted for you! Duh.
Right, the people who walked into the village were not the cause of the village being saved.
It took the entire war effort.
Without the support of the Americans, the Canadians would not have been there at all.
It is quite simple; the village was liberated by the Allies. Not by Canada.
It wasn't even Canada that chose that specific village to be assigned to the Canadians.
Pointing at the Canadian military and thinking that is substantially distinct from the American military, during joint operations, is just absurd. They're cheek and jowl. Canadian soldiers are ready to protect America, just like America is ready to protect Canada.
We don't have to tell Canada what to do for military cooperation, because they were already in the room when we decided what it was we wanted done, and they probably helped us decide it.
Yeah but, they're going to jail, and you're not.
The specific people in the story are not nearly as privileged as they were led to believe.
They don't let you out of prison on the weekend to drive your Ferrari.
Well, when they ask you to make up a fake disability for your child to have so they need extra time on the test, you do know something about what is being done. When you also have to make up a fake family event so that they can take their entrance exams in some specific facility, instead of their one close to you or at the school you're applying to, then you do know something fraudulent is happening.
And when you pay $500k for the above services, you really know a lot more about the service. Actual test prep doesn't involve lying to the school, and it doesn't cost $500k.
Or, if you pay $2.5M for your student to get listed as being on an athletic scholarship, you probably already know what college sports are, if your child is really on the team, and if they've dedicated enough of their life for that to make sense. If it involves photoshopping a picture of their face onto the body of an athlete, you obviously already know the sport isn't a big enough part of their life to be earning a scholarship.
I'm having trouble finding any accusations here where they might have thought it was something else. Plus, I mean, they got them talking about it on tape before making arrests; if there were innocent rubes who didn't know, they probably didn't even get charged.
A bunch of specific people getting named, shamed, and arrested definitely makes it news instead of just something that people know happens.
They didn't bribe the "wrong" people, they bribed the "right" people who really did have the connections. Most of the people arrested already did it, successfully, before authorities busted the company selling the service.
It isn't like they accidentally hired a front company for the FBI.
We know well, from Merkel's cell phone, and others, that any secrets we share will get talked about on the phone, and that government employees, even at the highest level, consider their cell phone to be a normal way to conduct business.
Therefore if we're not sure about the security of your phone network, we don't want to share too much info.
It is that simple.
There are 2 non-Chinese equipment suppliers to choose as alternatives.
They're both European.
D'oh!
This story is about America demanding the Europe buy the same European equipment that the US is trusting, because we're on the same side. It is as simple as that. You'd rather have cheap Chinese junk than the local stuff, who is gonna pay your taxes with an attitude like that?!
If this was a story about Russia telling Belarus not to buy American network hardware if they wanted full access to military information sharing, then you'd have a point.
But it isn't. So you don't.
This is the basic question presented: Are you a MILITARY ALLY of the United States... or not?
Unlike many world powers, all US allies have that status by choice and consent. You can leave at any time. Byeeeeee.