Everything, and MORE
Trump is the landlord, and he keeps jacking up the rent and these deadbeats keep not paying it! It’s an outrage!
Also…
REPORTER: Are you concerned about rising sea levels at all? TRUMP: “You know, I’m concerned about everything, but I’m also concerned about…
He’s concerned about everything, but he’s also concerned about…
Words, how do they work.
He doesn’t know what “concerned” means. It’s a word that sometimes turns up in sentences and it’s good to say you are that word. Burt it’s not a proper word like “big” or “huge” or “wall” or “abduction” or “emails”.
But let’s skip to the part that makes us all rub our eyes in double-take horror even though we fully expected it: Trump wants nobody else to have nukes. He wants to have them, though and the rest of us should shut up about the things. I know, I know, we knew that anyway, but it still feels like my organs have melted when I hear people say it out loud.
And, of course, it remains clear that no one has actually explained NATO to him. We’re not in NATO to defend Germany or France or England. We’re in NATO so that they don’t have to defend themselves. Because all of them would immediately look to Russia, and decide that if they have to defend themselves from Russia on their own, and then they’d need an army big enough to do that. And history has shown that when Germany, France and England all have huge armies, bad things eventually happen. (I could totally see a Franco-Prussian alliance vs. the Brexiteers situation cropping up, especially if England can’t figure out the Northern Ireland situation, or if Scotland declares they want to split from Britain and rejoin the EU–since one of the main reasons the Scottish Independence referendum failed was that everyone thought that there wasn’t going to be a Brexit. That division would be bad if it’s just an economic war, but add three major militaries to the mix, and you’ve got absolute tragedy waiting to happen.)
Additionally Freemage, having a coherent Military alliance that included Western Europe and Canada directly benefits US security. It means/meant that Russia/Soviet block could not just pick off weak European states one by one, progressively weakening the west and isolating the US. Similarly, including Canada protected the US to the north, northwest and northeast. Having a clear and unequivocal ‘attack one of us, you’ve attacked all of us’ position ensured that crossing those boundaries would be a very uncertain fight for Russia.
Russia clearly isn’t ready to consider taking on western Europe, yet. But they have made it abundantly clear that military action around the fringes is their first point of call as they have demonstrated in several ex-soviet states. They seem to have also quite successfully de-orbited Turkey from the west, although nominally still part of NATO. I doubt the Europeans are factoring in military assistance from Turkey in their war scenarios.
Yes, Rob, it’s often been said by more politically astute people than I that the British have a severe on-again-off-again romance with fascism. I don’t personally know anyone who feels that that nice Mr. Hitler was just a bit misunderstood, but there are plenty of those people about and plenty more who suffer from imperial thinking and/or a sincerely held belief that the lights should be punched out of the kebab shop owner and that single mothers are a detestable drain on society, evil sluts that they are.
With people like that around and a Prime Minister like Johnson, an international organisation keeping our military in check seems like an excellent idea.
As for Brexit. Fucking Brexit. I don’t often make predictions unless I’ve already cheated and know for a fact what will happen but I’m making an exception in this case. In 20-50 years time there will be a whole genre of fiction set in an alternative timeline where Brexit turned out to not be an unmitigated disaster.
It’s worth pointing out for about the trillionth time that the entire reason we’re in this mess in the first place is that David Cameron was so out of touch with the British population that he thought we’d vote against it and raised the issue with the sole reason of strengthening his personal political ambitions. This is a man whose experience of university included ceremonial pig fucking and the wanton destruction of other people’s property. Mine was mostly about doing sums and working in the bars people like him and Johnson were ransacking and I was still considered too hoity-toit for my family.
(Sorry – and Freemage too)
latsot, I found it interesting when I was in college that my London-born and raised roomie would speak vehemently and passionately against imperialism – but then take pride in British imperialism, and the fact that her tiny little island nation had once controlled a huge swath of the world. She would also point out when challenged that British imperialism was not as bad for the countries they colonized as other countries. That may or may not be true (I haven’t made any sort of comprehensive study of the topic), but I’ve read enough about the colonial empire to know that it was imperialism, it subjected native people, and in many (perhaps most) cases denied them full rights. So better? Maybe. Good? No way.