I just liked that with no idea of what you are talking about!
who’s Accrington Stanley?
Stevenage got relegated to non-league, semi-professional football and Barrow are replacing them in the professional EFL.
A more accurate example might be Macclesfield Town though, as Trump is (morally) bankrupt and most people have no idea how he is still around.
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Well, not most (that would be wild!) but enough that the demographics had flipped by that point.
Me too! now back to studying Italian & looking at art books. I haven’t rescheduled yet…thinking even March 2021 is too soon.
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Whoa, am I gonna need a mail-order husband? 
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I’d disagree partially.
Does the civilized world need America? No, it needs a leader. For a long time, even when we were just flat out stupid (see: the Bush years), we had competent leadership in most other parts of government so it kept going. For the most part, the people we had in place who helped keep the world generally moving forward did so excellently. You never hear about them. They’re not the political appointees - they’re the people who work for them, and their dozen predecessors. The problem is many of these are gone now. Some left out of disgust, otherwise fired or quit for random reasons, and some were replaced with political appointees when you need a practical touch.
America has been the underlying support for the world for decades. The world tolerated our occasional bits of crazy because when it came down to it, we would do what was right when pushed. Not so in the era of Trump - he does whatever is good for him and him alone, country and world be damned. And thus the soft power that America has had for ages, that show of constant support that people knew was there like bedrock is gone.
The world wants that. It keeps the planet spinning. People want to know that when they get out into deep water that they can reach down a toe and just feel the ground. Know that someone has the interests of the future in mind. Someone is going to step into that space. I wouldn’t trust us again, would you? I remember traveling in the Bush era and people would laugh about his random stupid comment, but they generally weren’t afraid he’d come after them and kill them. In these times, we have no idea if we will take up some morning to find out Trump has made pants illegal.
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If there’s a vaccine, soon we’ll be back to traveling with a passport and an immunization booklet.
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Given that the UK now has a debt larger than its entire economy (along with several other countries) and jobs are disappearing at an alarming rate and it’s looking increasingly likely we’ll be crashing out of the EU without any trade deal at the end of the year… i will see your itchy pox and raise you anus boils on all brexiteers. 
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Can you define what you mean by this? And is the countries you don’t mean “uncivilized”? If so, who are they?
How did that work out for Vietnam and Angola?
Do they though?
I’m sure it does that without any intervention from us, actually.
Maybe that doesn’t need to involved top-down “leadership” but bottom up structures that actually support everyone instead of us some of us, because that’s how the America led world has actually worked, empowering certain people, not support all of us.
Maybe in this tumultuous time, we should start looking at the world as it is, not as we believe it to be from the propaganda. It’s well past time to make some real structural changes that benefits the whole of humanity, regardless of place of birth, race, gender, sexual orientation, or religion.
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We just have to fire our manager and bring in a new one. Unfortunately, while Mauricio Pochettino is available and would be the option if we had any ambition, we’re getting Sam Allardyce.
Depends. Do you have any parents or grandparents who were immigrants? You might be able to work with that.
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Nope, all were born here (as well as 3 generations before them).
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Well…mail order spouse it is!
Don’t scrimp. It’s a false economy.
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It’s not so much leadership as it is stability. America has been one of the most powerful players on the world stage—militarily, economically, and socially—for almost a human lifetime. Even when we haven’t been worthy of it, that position has been maintained by a network of international relationships that prefer that status quo to an uncertain alternative… but four years of abject dumbassery have made that alternative a lot less uncertain. Our allies would be wise to consider their future position in a world where America isn’t their most important trade/business/policy partner to keep happy—between Trump’s tariffs, diplomatic fits, and general foolishness they’ve definitely already had to weigh their interests against going along with the American disaster, and have likely found that, well, they’d actually survive without us. It might be unpleasant, and they might still prefer the devil they know, but we aren’t necessary.
I think we could probably recover our position in the international community (except maybe with China), deserved or not, but only because that status quo pull is so strong. The more we demonstrate that the cost of American goodwill outweighs its benefits (in trade offs like, say, American tourism dollars vs. a basically guaranteed second wave of economy-destroying deadly plague), the harder it will be as other countries get used to the idea of living without us.
To be fair, I said that first… and I meant it as a bit of dig against the America who believes itself to be the pinnacle leader of an elite community of free countries with well-off populations but can’t manage its own public health, safety, education, or ostensible democratic process on even a basic level. I probably should have used some scare quotes.
The European Union may not admit Americans once their borders reopen
Can’t say that I blame them.
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Americans are like feral cats; they carry more germs than a rotting manure pile. Keep them out of Europe.
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Gee Al, tell us how you really feel.
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Were you the first one to say “civilized countries”?
