Europe's 9/11?

 Ironic that this post comes from a guy whose parents are legal immigrants to a country with an illegal immigrant population of over 12 million.....

There is going to be a civil war in Europe.  I am not sure where exactly (France, Germany, or Britain are leader on the odds board...) but it will happen in twenty years.  Out of nowhere it seems, nearly a million refugees (?) from Syria (?) are fleeing that countries civil war.  Turkey and Lebanon have absorbed as many as they can and now they are trying to get into Greece on their way further west.  The German government--against the wishes of its people--wants to take in 800,000 (!) people.  Macedonia, Hungary, Croatia, won't let any of these "immigrants" stay and there seems to be problems all ready building up.

Only 15% seem to be from Syria.  We don't know who these people are and what diseases they have or even what their intentions are.  Letting them in wholesale is suicidal and is going to start a war.  Look at Marseilles and what that has turned into.  London is another growing disaster.

Austria as at least woken up and won't let in any train traffic in from Hungary.  How is Greece supposed to take in 150,000 people when it can't pay its own bills?  It looks to me that Croatia and Hungary have the right idea.

Legal immigration is a good thing.  This mass exodus/invasion is not.

What happens next is hard to say, but it won't be good. The idiot governments will screw it up.  You can take care of people and not turn it into the Dark Ages all over again.

We don't owe you squat...US Emabassy in Cuba reopens

It was inevitable that the US and Cuba would reestablish diplomatic relations.  I would have preferred to wait for Castro to kick off, but he did step down back in 2006, so just as well.  There was some talk of re-establishing relations back then, but that had to wait until 2015. 

Neither country is buddy-buddy but no one expected that either.

The US broke diplomatic relations back in 1961 when Cuba became a Soviet ally.  A Soviet ally 90 miles from Miami who a year later tried to have Russian nukes stationed there and nearly start World War III.  Cuba also tried to export Communist revolutions in Latin America--coming close in Nicaragua and El Salvador as well as Soviet requested interventions in Ethiopia and Angola.  Generally Castro like to stir up mischief all over the place.

The US has leased Guantanamo Bay since 1898.  Castro demanded it back in 1961, but we kept sending him rent checks which he never cashed.  In 1997, the ninty-nine year lease was up, but no one said anything, so there we are---still.

Back in 1961, the United States put Cuba under an economic embargo.  It was largely symbolic since the only export they had was sugar.  Furthermore, most of Latin America ignored it.  Still, it was good propaganda for Cuba who blamed the nation's poverty on the embargo. With the embargo lifted, that poverty will still be there.....hmmm...Well, that is brother Raul's problem.

Castro penned an essay demanding that the US pay milllions in debt that seem to exist only in his mind.

You are not getting squat.

Enjoy the new embassy. :-)

ALL Lives Matter!

People helping people...let's see more of this

I have no idea who I am voting for in the 2016 presidential election, but I can tell you it won't be that O'Malley goofball from Maryland.

He was at a "Black Live Matter" event and when he said "All lives matter", he was booed.

Booed?

For saying he felt all life--regardless of race, color, or creed--matters?

Then the idiot apologizes.  Great moral leadership there.

ALL LIVES MATTER.

Anyone who thinks otherwise--including the idiots booing O'Malley--are racist scum.  Look at the picture above.  A black cop is helping a neo-Nazi recover from heat exhaustion.  There is a good example to follow.

Try hashtaging something positive for once!

The EuroZone and Greece

First of all, the Greeks did it to themselves.

Second of all, the European creditors made it worse--much worse.

How many times did we see something like "stocks soar on Greek debt solution"?  Everyone knew nothing was solved.  It was just a band aid.  Still, the bankers had no problem sending tax payer money to a country that was broke so they could make money off of it. They were enablers and they they dared to make the last bailout sound like an ultimatum.

They ordered Greece to cut pensions and raise taxes. Greece decided to hold a referemdum because they, like the rest of the European Union, is a democracy.

The creditors, living in allegedly democratic countries, got mad.

Greece got mad too and voted NO.

Now the EuroZone might fall apart.  The European Union has been trending away from democracy and more toward autocracy and no one seems too happy.  If Greece is this big of a problem, then imagine what is going to happen when Spain or Italy start to go under.

The European Union might be better off without Greece and the Greeks might be better off without the European Union.  The arrogance shown by Brussels in presuming that the EU is unbreakable, infallable and all-knowing is its undoing.  Some humility and accountablility is in order for both Brussels and Athens.

In the meantime, get the drachmas ready.  Greece has five days to come up with a plan.

Let's see if "stocks soar" on Monday.

Westward ho!

Iowa landscape

Or Mid-West at any rate!

Michelle and I went north and west to places we have not been before.  We ventured northwest past familiar places like Greensboro, NC and into the "Lizard Tail" part of Virginia. We went up and down a bunch of mountains in West Virginia before reaching something I had seen before--the Ohio River! There was no Monongahela or Allegheny to see but the Ohio is still the Ohio.  We went into Kasich's state and arched across past Cincinasty, flipping off the Bengals stadium along the way, towards Indianapolis.  After spending the night in Greensburg, Indiana, we continued west, across southern Illinois and reached the mighty Mississippi River.  We crossed into the Western US and descended into Iowa.

Iowa was a great place!  We made it into a place called Newton.  We ate at a place called Taco John's and noted how the Iowa Hawkeyes college football team has uniforms that look a lot like the Steelers.  We went further west until Des Moines and decided it was time to come back east. 

We moved with a speed that would have brought a smile to a Mongol in the 1200s, and got as far as Rockville, Indiana where got to watch the back end of a domestic dispute in a parking lot.  After that, we ran alongside the Ohio river, jumping back and forth between Ohio and Kentucky.  We even saw the birthplace of US Grant, who was born on the southern most part of Ohio and within sight of what would be the Confederacy....ironic....

Back into West Virginia we went and went into a pizza place where there were a lot of people wearing "Pitt" stuff.  Everyone agreed  that we were happy about the return of the "script" . We made it back home just in time to feed Michelle's cats, who, I might add, had plenty of food.

They like the canned stuff more.

Next time we go to the Pacific!

Alexander the Great--Greek or Macedonian?

I have heard this question asked in some form or another for a long time.  My answer has always been that Macedonians were Greeks, just a little out of the Athens-Sparta-Thebes mainstream.  Today's Former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia calls itself a Slavic nation and claims Alexander as its national hero.  I don't blame them, but back we go to the original question--Were Alexander's Macedonians Greek or something else?

I was reading Arrian,s Campaigns of Alexander detailing Alexander's conquest of Persia and invasion of India.  In it I find an interesting passage, a letter from Alexander to the King of Persia at the time, Darius: (emphasis is mine)
       "Your ancestors came to Macedonia and the rest of Greece and did us great harm, though you had suffered no harm before then." (Arrian, 2.14.4)

It sounds as if the Macedonians considered themselves Greek and, of course, most of Aleander's army was Greek.  Sparta's attack in 333 BC on Antipater back in Greek while Alexander was crossing into India seems to fit the pattern of Ancient Greek history where the reigning hegemon is attacked when preoccudied somewhere else.

Something to think about as another thunderstorm rolls in!

Happy Memorial Day!

Thank a vet!!!!