That's because they couldn't be trusted in the dark.

 

Hmmm..
‘to thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.’

 

Well the Lucas Electrics on my old Norton gave good reason to have fear of the dark.

Which is quite an excellent Iron Maiden song.. (also British)

 

Anything British with wheels wasn't really known for having good electrical systems. But neither did 80's Volkswagon/Audi products.

And yep, seen Maiden, PLENTY. Landed right behind ED FORCE 1 years ago.

Despite being British, they seem to be able to perform reliably in dark/low light conditions.

 

Perhaps so. But there is no one way to get there first.

 

True. As long as the spark production remains intact.

 

"It was supposed to increase efficiency by producing things where they could most cheaply be produced. And when it works, it does that. When it works." <-- I don't think that's the true reason we have outsourced most production from the U.S. I think there's a much more reasonable and simple explaination - plain old greed.

The "Chicago School of Economics" of Milton Friedman and his take on the role and responsibility of the "corporation" is at the heart of this trend in modern times, but it's been part and parcel of the U.S. since it's inception. Matched with the ascent of Saint Ronnie in 1980 and you have that first domino tip over. It's taken 20, 30, even 40 years for the hens to come home to roost but home they are now.

The outsourcing of stuff FROM the U.S. wasn't some grand Phd economic plan, although cloaked like one, - it was just plain greed and a government that gave corporations big tax and off shore income advantages to do just that. Suprise, they did.

History may record Reagan AND Trump as the most effective enemies to the "west" that ever lived.

Even a casual observer should see how Trump et al are systematically dismanteling just about every system and department that kept this country actually running - and their doing it by appealing the absolute bottom of human motivation - greed, racisism, msogyny, and fear. MAGA fear destitution more than death and at the center of their hearts are slaves to authority. They will fold like a house of cards when ICE comes knocking. We're seeing in real time how these supposedly tough 2nd amendment gun bearing rugged individualists with the don't tread on me flags and bumper stickers - you'll take my gun from my cold dead hands - have all become cucs who say don't bring a legal gun to any kind of protest, just comply when they say get out of the car or open the door (how far is it from just get in the cattle car?). None of this is new, but the galactic ignorance of history by Americans is blinding us to what's actually occuring in the streets. Frog, meet boiling pot of water.

The U.S. has been permently changed (for the worse) by these actions and the global economy will push us to the side and move on with countries that can be relied on to be stable trading partners - like China, the EU, Canada, Mexico, BRICs, etc. We will NEVER have the same relationship with our allies that we had just 2 years ago. Not militarily, not economically, not intel sharing - none of it will come back to what it was. Some will cheer that - others will see further and know that we aren't an island that can exist outside the global community.

While that's all bad for us by itself (and it is), just wait till they (EU countries, China) sell the treasuries they're holding and the dollar ceases to be the global reserve currency. There'll be a war, of course, with mass death and destruction right here on the ground inside the U.S., and we're going to lose that war and our economy will be destroyed - along with God knows how many cities and deaths... Having 10,000 rounds of ammo, a dozen AR's, and thousands of MRE's in your house will matter little. Physical distance from the U.S. is the only thing that might save you.

 

I’ve been to those “far away places with strange sounding names, far away over the sea”. They are no improvement, and most far worse. But they are going to have to fix themselves, particularly the worst of them, because it’s cultural as much or more as it is economic.

But while you may decry Capitalism as “greed” in a free market economy every transaction that occurs happens because BOTH sides feel that - at least in the moment - they are benefitting from that transaction. Are the transactions sometimes unequal? Oh hell yes, the residue of 500 plus years of mostly European Colonialism. You do realize that most of Africa didn’t become self governing until the 1960s, right? That people living today still remember growing up under the thumb of the West. The Peace Corps didn’t change that.

Uganda just had an election Museveni allegedly won again - he’s been allegedly winning since 1986 - which is a little suspicious but any improvement over Idi Amin is progress - low bar that that is. Other African countries have been less fortunate on a continent that was cut up by Europe based upon geographic features agreed to (or fought over and won) by European countries rather than in accordance with the cultures of the indigenous people there. So as effed up as Europe left Africa the region is probably going to need a few generations and a non-trivial amount of conflict to sort itself out.

Most of South and Central America has been putting themselves back together after similar colonization. Mexico was a colony for 300 years, Canada actually wasn’t self governing until After our Civil War and is still a little schizoid along French/English cultural and linguistic lines. Most of the Carribean and yes - Greenland - is still quasi colonies. The less said if Haiti the better, I think the French might have FUBARed that poor half of an island permanently.

of course most of Asia suffered the same fate - getting conquered by European powers (read up on the Opium Wars) Japan, China, etc.

i don’t see that our decade plus and 50,000 dead American intervention in Vietnam or our 20 year $2.3 Trillion investment in Afghanistan improved things much in either region and am skeptical that our other attempts with AID and “soft power” have done all that much either. Sometimes the locals just need to work out their own modus vivendi (or not).

Now I get it, you don’t like Trump and you didn’t like Reagan and I’ve no trouble with that. But Reagan is long dead and Trump’s be out of office in three years - hell Museveni’s an old man, he may be too since he can’t live forever, but that’s a lot less sure.

we don’t have Presidents-for-life here and every four years we get a chance to change direction - which can’t be said for much of the world, but go hiide out in Australia or New Zealand if you must. I’ll take my chances here.