Michael Totten, one of my favorite journalists, weighs in. He would've voted to Remain, but offers arguments for both sides.

Quote:The EU is a brilliant idea. Unite splendidly diverse yet like-minded nations into a powerful bloc that’s greater than the sum of its parts. ... The actually existing EU, though, isn’t so brilliant. It includes all the good stuff, yet it’s crushed by a staggering amount of centralized regulatory bureaucracy and a disregard for the wishes of its individual member states.

Quote:And its internally borderless nature is bringing more immigrants than can be absorbed all at once without shocks to the system. ... Every racist jackhole in Europe is whooping it up over the Brexit results and pining for more, but even the most welcoming people and nations can only take in so many strangers at any one time, and Europe has never been as good at assimilating immigrants as the US and Canada anyway.

Quote:Cosmopolitan "citizens of the world" need to understand something: Nationalism isn’t necessarily bad. It can be—that’s for damn sure—but a lack of it can be just as destructive. Nationalism is exclusive, yes, but it’s also inclusive. It draws a line between those on in the inside and those on the outside, but it also binds those on the inside together.

Look at Syria, Iraq and Lebanon. Precious little glue binds them. Huge numbers of people in all three identify more with their sect—Sunni, Shia, Alawite, Christian—than with their own country. They’ve formed military alliances with belligerent foreign states against people who live down the street. More than a million have been slaughtered because of it.

Quote:I would have chosen to Remain if I were British. Better to reform and liberalize the EU than to scrap it. The uncertainty following Brexit is nothing compared to what could happen if the whole thing collapses. Those economic shockwaves will hammer us here in the US. I guarantee it.

http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/blog/...rns-europe

Which brings me to this question: Did the nations ever try to change the rules of the governing body or was it like a dictatorship of a sort? Who gave the governing body in Brussels the okay to push so many immigrants into the countries in the pact? Who are these Libs in the EU that is making the rules without (it seems) no one to stop them?

(06-28-2016 01:15 PM)olliebaba Wrote:  Which brings me to this question: Did the nations ever try to change the rules of the governing body or was it like a dictatorship of a sort? Who gave the governing body in Brussels the okay to push so many immigrants into the countries in the pact? Who are these Libs in the EU that is making the rules without (it seems) no one to stop them?

The nations (France and Belguim(?)) rejected the EU constitution and the body just turned the constitution into a treaty and passed it without a vote.

The EU is a farce.

He doesn't get it either.

So here is the question....

If we opened up NAFTA to the point where Mexicans could freely come to the US and work, getting all the benefits of being a 'citizen'... would this result in an increase, or decline in jobs for Americans? Of course the wealthy would be able to invest more freely in Mexico and put in infrastructure that might start to balance things out, so long as they could control the criminals there.... AND control the southern border. I've often actually called for just this...

The problem is they can't. The wealthy wouldn't want to spend money to clean up 'towns'... they'd just pay the cartels not to bother their factories. US workers wouldn't want to go there to work because they would get lower wages and not be as safe. Despite being more similar, they still aren't the same. I mean, we can't get poor people in New York to leave there to go to Texas where the jobs are and they can live better on their existing resources... and we're somehow going to get them to relocate to Jalisco?

The EU was fine for similar countries like Spain and France and Italy and the UK... arguably Switzerland, Austria and a few others... but now it includes many others who are far less similar and has become untenable. This is their 'civil war'... and the UK is Texas