Trinidad

As a non-native speaker, I don't want to be pedantic (and I may be wrong), but shouldn't this be: 'The past tense and past participle of "lead" are "led".'? I would think that in a language where "the police" and "a set" deserve a plural, an enumeration (even if it contains only two elements) should deserve one too. Rik

The comparison in defense spending isn't entirely fair. The defense spending in Europe goes to ... guess what ... defense. The defense spending in the USA goes to ... defense, the defense industry, military R&D, not so military R&D, not so military - not R&D, hidden unemployment, education. When I was doing my PhD in the USA, about 10% of the grad students in my department were there on a DoD project. Part of the staff were fully funded by the DoD. There was little military about those projects, other than that all the research would potentially be useful for defense. But it would also be useful to the automotive industry or to silicon valley, or ... In Europe these projects would have been funded by industry, the economy/energy department or, most likely, the science department. (The US government doesn't even have a science department. The DoE has an Office of Science.) In a similar way, American students use the ROTC to help pay for college. In Europe, the department of education takes care of that. Now, don't get me wrong. I don't think the US DoD should stop funding research or education. But these dollars are labeled as "defense money" whereas the equivalent euros are not. If they would also be labeled "defense money", the numbers would look different. In addition, the USA should keep in mind that the wars in the 21st century that the USA has been fighting (Afghanistan, Iraq) were started by the USA... against the advice from their European NATO partners. Nevertheless, these same NATO partners have been fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq alongside the USA for the good of the alliance. Many European NATO soldiers have died in the Middle East in what were -in essence- American wars. The European NATO countries have not been complaining to the USA for ignoring their opinions and getting them involved in a war. Instead, they have been loyal NATO members and paid the price, even if they could have said no (since these were not article 5 situations). Currently, NATO members are active in Syria and Iraq (and on various UN missions). As an example: probably it is not known to the American public that a significant portion (I believe 50%) of the Dutch fighter jets are deployed in Syria and Iraq, alongside the US. (The remaining part is taking turns defending the Baltic states and Poland against the Russians.) I can understand that it isn't really visible in the USA if a country about the size of Maryland sends half of their fighter jets to fight alongside Americans, but in The Netherlands, this is felt. How do you think we feel about Trump's demonstration of commitment to NATO? Just my, slightly different, perspective on these things. Thanks for reading. Rik

Most that I know are laughing. But most also want the implication that Sweden is seriously suffering from terrorist attacks publicly rectified. Americans thinking that Sweden is unsafe, is unlikely to be good for Swedish business. Well, the good thing in this deal is that now most American will be reminded that Sweden is the capital of Denmark (or something like that). Rik

No mine are, among others, based on friendliness and mutual respect. Do you think that Trump's BS on Sweden was friendly or respectful towards the Swedes? Do you think it would be friendly and respectful towards the Swedes for Trump to apologize and explain? Do you think it would be friendly and respectful towards the Swedes for Trump to just ignore his gaffe? Rik

My POV: Bridge is played one board at the time and one table at the time. If North is dummy at table 3 on board 1 of the Monday Pairs game on February 20th, 2017 at Bridge Club "TiOH" (Thirteen in One Hand, not some weird hydroxide of Titanium), then North will be the dummy at table 3 on board 1 of the Monday Pairs game on February 20th, 2017 at Bridge Club "TiOH" (Thirteen in One Hand, not some weird hydroxide of Titanium) forever. It is an entirely different question who will be the dummy on board 2. Rik

If a friend of yours makes up some complete BS implying that something really bad has happened to you and goes around telling everybody, don't you think he owes you an apology and an explanation? That is the situation here. Would you accept it if his mother would tell someone else and say that "he had heard from someone else that you had a broken finger nail" and a sister saying to again someone else that he was probably refering to how you are getting older each day. Or would you want your friend to come to you and apologize and explain? Rik

So, when Trump talked yesterday about what happened in Sweden on Friday, what did he think happened in Sweden (other than the arrest of a drunk driver, a failing microphone at a rehearsal and an avalanche warning)? I've lived 7 years in Sweden and they are laughing their ass off and are angry at the same time. I think that they are entitled to some answers from the White House. But I also think that the US population is entitled to some answers, first of all to the question that Carl Bildt (Swedish diplomat and former Prime Minister and Secretary of State) asked: "What has he been smoking?". Rik

But Trump isn't in the White House to feel good about doing good. (In fact, he basically hasn't done anything at all and I think that right now he is not feeling that good either.) He has one reason to be in the White House: "Look, everybody! I am in the White House!" So far, he hasn't been able to get much further than that. But I fear that the next step will be: "Hmm, I would be crazy if I wouldn't totally use this to my advantage. And I was elected bigly, so the voters are okay with that." Rik

There are plenty of people who don't have their own interests at heart. On a small scale: Ask any parent. Most of them would take a bullet for their kids. Many people would risk their own life for a stranger. (Did you hear the story last week about the guy who was overtaking a swerving car on the German Autobahn and saw that the driver was unconscious? He starting driving in front, breaking slowly, letting the other car rear-end him as gently as possible and got the car to stop safely. This action, that risked his own life and severely damaged his car, saved the unconscious driver's life and possibly some others too.) On a larger scale: You can have opinions on and agree or disagree with Barack Obama, Francois Hollande, Theresa May or Angela Merkel, to name a few. But in their jobs, they will/would do what they think is right for the country or the world, not what is best for themselves. They may be wrong about what is right for the country or the world, or they may fail in getting the job done. But they do not put self-interest ahead of the interest of everybody else. And, of course, being in the position that they are in makes them feel good, perhaps even proud. But they will only be proud if they get the difficult job done for the country. Rik

Trump is starting to be very philosophical: He slowly, but steadily, comes to the conclusion that the rest of the world is fake. At some point, the fakeness will get so close to him that he will ask himself the fundamental question: "Am I real?". And then we have come full circle, because for years already most of us have been asking ourselves: "Is this guy real?!?" ;) Rik

Thanks for the memories. They don't make comedy like this anymore! Rik

And don't forget that according to an -admittedly unreliable, but your favorite- source, those Christian Mexicans are also rapists. Rik

Wasn't there this little scandal in the Judeo-Christian tradition, involving a few priests in a handful of countries who had been sexually abusing a few kids for a few years? In that little case the numbers are a little higher than "thousands". So, from your Judeo-Christian perspective, which has sexual abuse in its core, I wouldn't want to point out that there are rapists among Muslims. It sounds so Matthew 7: 3-5. Rik

I was aware that you are not from the USA, but I wasn't aware that you considered yourself "not American". Rik

My son asked me today why some people didn't have their kids vaccinated. He is a cub scout leader and one of his cubs has rubella. I told him that vaccinations work to stop the disease and, at the same time carry (very small) risks for the individual vaccinee (nice word, huh). When the disease is practically eliminated (as with rubella in the Netherlands), the very small risk for the individual from the vaccination may be larger than the risk for serious harm from getting rubella. I said that, in my estimate, we hadn't reached that point yet, but that there is such a point and that it is not far away. I told him at the same time, that this is a matter of society over individual: Suppose every individual makes the calculation like the parents of this cub scout. They determine that the risk for side effects is higher than the risk for harm from rubella and that, therefore, they don't have their kids vaccinated. In no time, the risk for harm from rubella will be much higher for the entire population. This is a case where "my interest first" harms the entire population and I compared it to evading taxes or disregard for traffic rules (though there is no law mandating vaccination). Rik

I am completely clueless about this, but maybe American lawyers (mikeh?) have an answer: Isn't Trump's language contempt for the court? Or does that only count for proceedings in the court room? Or is the POTUS immune for such things? (I would think that the Trias Politica proscribes that the POTUS should not be immune for these things.) Rik

The right to free speech does not mean that you are entitled to a platform. A POTUS should know that. Perhaps it is time to block his twitter account to demonstrate that. ;) Rik

I can assure that I did not leave the USA to go to Europe to minimize taxes. ;) Rik

Did you know that a US citizen officially petitioned to make the Netherlands second? (from petitions.whitehouse.gov) Rik

At the risk of opening a can of worms, I don't think that the fact that Idrews doesn't live in the USA anymore means that he is not entitled to an opinion on the USA or to express it. I myself have studied in the USA, where I had the time of my life. As a result, I will always be genuinely interested in what happens there, both with a view from within and with a view from the outside. I don't think the fact that I am neither a citizen1, nor a resident (now) means that I cannot hold an opinion and express it. And if I think that I can express my opinion than Idrews can too, even if he would live on Mars. Rik 1 I am a citizen of the country that should come second, according to Al_U_Card's post.

What the president is doing is shoot with a nuclear bomb on a mosquito, and even the wrong mosquito. (Correct mosquitos would be Saudi-Arabia or Pakistan, places where actual terrorists came from, were trained and funded.) If he would take equivalent measures against drunk driving his priority would be to ban bread, since everyone knows that bread contains alcohol. The effect is zero and the consequences for the innocent who are affected are tremendous... But hey, he is doing something about drunk driving! Rik

By teaching people elementary math: How many people died in the USA through Muslim terrorism in the past 20 years? (Note that this includes 9/11. I could have said the past 10 years.) How many people died from gun accidents in the USA in the past 20 years? How many people died from drunk driving in the USA in the past 20 years? Don't get me wrong. Every victim of Muslim terrorism is one too many. But if you would look at these facts, what would be your priority? 1) Make people afraid of Muslims for electoral gain. 2) Do something about the real killers. Rik

The organization of democratic elections is a task for the government. If a country doesn't believe in government, they get the voter registration and elections that they deserve. Rik

i strongly disagree. Often starting the auction is the most practical way to stop opponents discussing the previous board. You can ask them politely to start the next board, and they will ignore you (because you have no business interfering with their "pleasure of the game"). But once you have started the auction, they will know that they are supposed to play bridge. Starting the auction on the new board is a pretty powerful gesture that doesn't lead to ill feelings. (The actual situation is quite different since it was an opponent starting the chatting, about the score on the previous board.) Rik

So as I understand, Trump's plan is to finance the wall to Mexico by a 20% tariff on import from Mexico. Now, who is paying that tariff, the Mexican exporter or the US importer? So, who will be paying for the wall? Rik