I suppose that if I were a nervous Nellie, right now I would be beside myself, but oddly enough, I can't really say that I am all that worried about things.

I am currently in the area of a flood watch. Since it has been bucketing down rain lately, the Willamette is pretty high and the creek that feeds into it (1/4 of a mile from my place) is as high as I have ever seen it, this would seem pretty normal to me. The folks here are treating it like the ass-covering by government officials that it is. There isn't a house that is threatened, the worse that could happen is that in a couple of places, folks might have to detour around some water on the road while on their way to the grocery store.

Look, the government should do exactly what they are doing...I really don't want to keep them from warning people that things are "different" for the moment. But like all things, such warnings should be tempered by the populace keeping their "twitterpating" over-reactions to a minimum. That seems impossible to a fair percentage of the population. So here in Stumptown (yet another Portland Nickname) there are folks demanding that the government "do something".

Nope, I have no fix. People will be people. Bad shit happens and sometimes folks get in the way of bad shit. Luckily for me, the whiners this time are a very small minority and I don't have to listen very much. But I just wanted to point out that this kind of thing happens at all levels and that you really have to look outside to see if the "crisis" that folks are whining about is real or just someone somewhere crying wolf.

[purple with bee.jpg]

‘Keep the Russians out, the Americans in, and the Germans down’ – Nato’s first Secretary General, Lord Ismay,

I come from a long line of soldiers. One of my ancestors died in a British POW camp during the war of 1812. Great-Grandfather was in the 15th Infantry when Teddy took all the credit. Grandfather was at Chateau Thierry with the 3rd Infantry. Dad waded ashore at Anzio.

So most of my family history in the military (I am the exception) was spent fighting the different flavors of the fractious Europe who were always trying above all to come out on top when trying to keep their feet on the neck of vassals. We tended to side with the effing Brits who were, in my humble opinion, the worst of the lot.

But my reading of history is that the Germans were pretty good at war. In my lifetime, they had decided that war was bad for business and the happiness of their people and for around seventy years trying to spend less on the military and spend more on the general welfare. I consider this a good thing.

But dumbshit Donny got to bitching about the US paying more than their fair share of the cost of defending Europe. He was right about that. But by being a stupid-ass American businessman who financialized everything without ever thinking about the reasons why things were done, he upset things and pulled the rug out from under a system where we didn't really pay all that much to keep the danger low.

Merz (who may be a stupid as Donny) has pointed out that America is in the process of pulling back to the Western Hemisphere. I can't say that he is wrong. But what that means is that Deutschland may very well begin to rearm and revert to the historic norm of being a warrior culture. I am not thrilled this, my family having fought a couple of wars with the Wehrmacht on the other side of the arena.

The wienies that are at the political top of the European military establishment are besuited morons that truly have been living in Olaf's garden for too long. They are talking about getting ready for a war in 2030. Germany is talking about a draft. I can't say that I like the way that this is heading.