bitofarambler

The world is much, much bigger than one sparsely populated country, and there are far more important metrics than the physical size of the US.

Metrics like population, geographic isolation, health care, political instability, violent crime, technical superiority, countless others that mark a country like the US as an entity to be safely disregarded.

Thailand passed the US in health care years ago, China passed the US in renewable and next-gen tech, not to mention manufacturing, most countries citizens enjoy much more robust civil rights.

Yes, the physical country is large, but the US is s small, insecure, violent pocket of the world that people don’t need to pay nearly as much attention to as its groupies demand.

The US looks very tiny from out here, and even tinier from the inside after seeing some of the rest of the world.

Cool music, though. Nice forests.

I get it, I was shocked when I looked it up. Extremely disappointing

Michelin stars are pay to play.

Inspectors will not visit cities unless the city registers with Michelin, which carries high, recurring fees.

That’s why many prominent cities like Boston, for example, have zero Michelin star restaurants, because they won’t pay the shakedowns(tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars depending on the city) that Michelin demands for their stars.

Michelin stars are highly valued because advertising, elitism and tradition are highly valued.

The Michelin Brothers thought it would be good advertising for their tire company, and it was, and it kind of became its own thing but stars are still owned and operated by Michelin the tire company.

Important to note that beyond it being owned by a tire company, they don’t even give stars to the best restaurants, only restaurants that fit certain prestige requirements as well as agree to pay Michelin to give them a star.

Other tire companies don’t pursue the same scam because Michelin is the front runner, and it obviously doesn’t tie in to car accessories very heavily, so there’s not much incentive for other tire companies to do the same thing, especially when it’s basically just a “pay me $400,000 for a fake gold star racket”.

I looked into this after watching the bear, when they were talking about Michelin stars, and then I found out the extent of Michelin star chicanery.

No trust necessary; like IRS form 2555, it’s all publicly available and verifiable info.

As a traveler, I have a travel community. Not very strange.

I haven’t tried to sell a thing, and I have months of legitimate conversation, travel advice and information publicly available for scrutiny.

I hear you and understand your resignation; tender despair is the most common result of whirlwind threats and proclamations.

You don’t have to leave your spite behind, and I’m not telling you to; I’m letting people know that if they want to live for themselves and others rather than dying for their enemies, it’s possible and I’m here to help.

Thanks. I appreciate simple, correct solutions and I understand why emotional investment and habit makes those solutions difficult to accept and implement.

If you take a step outside of your situation, it will quickly become apparent that the grip you believe others hold you in is largely insubstantial and based on empty proclamations and threats. Magnates can plead for your attention, but you don’t have to give it to them(climb a mountain, play video games), your government can scream for your taxes and you don’t have to hand them over(IRS form 2555, foreign earned income exclusion).

The world is huge and no matter how important someone demands you think they are, you don’t have to.

There are no failsafe assurances anywhere, but some places are safer and more comfortable than others and I’m very happy to talk about how you can move to those places.

I’m originally from the US and have mostly been living abroad for over a decade since I left over many of the issues US Americans still deal with today.

Perspective on the US is much more clear from the outside.

If you’d like to live abroad, I can definitely help you do that with information and advice.

tldr is get a passport, secure $500 USD in monthly income (English teaching is in very high demand), buy a plane ticket.

Someone from the US I’ve been offering advice to this year literally left the US today based on that tldr.

I’m very happy to go into details and supply more context for anybody interested in living abroad.

That’s basically what has happened.

Political leaders and journalists have visited and done “welfare checks” on the US, and come to the same conclusions you just have.

The US looks bigger and more influential from the inside. Its tantrums look tiny and rambunctious from out here.

Irritating and embarrassing, but largely self-contained so far.

Do you mean Russia? Their attacks have resulted in external military buildup near borders, NATO assurances, local military alliances.

Russia’s aggression directly harms and threatens other nearby countries.

Different measures for different circumstances.

There are 200 countries and the US is one relatively small, isolated pocket hurting mostly themselves.

US problems benefit their rivals immensely and are influencing their former allies to become more independent and form new local alliances; there’s no benefit to either to long jump into one isolated hornet’s nest.

Sanctions are specifically difficult against the US because 1) they’re largely hurting themselves, most countries don’t agree the US is doing the wrong thing about Palestine/ foreign/other policy to warrant sanctions and 2) the US still has so much rapidly dwindling legacy political and financial/banking influence that sanctions won’t make much of an immediate impact if an issue to sanction was agreed upon.

If your dog starts defecating on the floor and rolling around in it, you clean up your dog.

If your neighbor starts defecating on their floor and rolling around in it, well…

I can’t imagine that some of their lessons won’t stick with her.

Bluey and Bob’s Burgers are both amazing for healthy family dynamics, and Bob’s burgers can be so funny I’ve cried laughing. The camping episode!

How much the parents care for their children and each other is extremely touching.

Bluey has such a healthy, compassionate family dynamic I was confused watching it for the first time.