How is everyone out there making it financially?

[DFW]

78. Because other countries feel that we have made our bed, and they don't want to sleep in it

Here in EU-land, there is almost no country with harmonious politics. Most have parliamentary forms of government, which means one party rarely governs, and uncomfortable, unwieldy coalitions are the result. They muddle through, but they take a look at how the ham-fisted, proudly ignorant (or else downright cruel) ruling party is doing its level best to make the USA an awful place for those who don’t buy their line. They get that “it could be worse,” and they don’t get that a minority party can seize and maintain so much power against popular will. With a financially weakened Russia flexing the only muscle it has left (i.e. military), they are highly nervous about the idea of Trump and Hegseth being their guarantors of security. Neither of them is very inspiring. The European Defense Force is more and more of a real alternative, even though the post-World-War-II pacifist sentiment is still strong here.