Turning Gaza into a "riviera", meaning a plutocratic playground for pernicious parasites, is an insult to the residents there, of course, and it's a bad idea from every angle EXCEPT the angle of the totally crass brain-rotted mind of Donald Trump.

"Sleepy Joe", Trump sneered. What about senility Don?

Panama, Canada, Greenland, Gaza... Why not seize the French Riviera -- that's already open for business. Somebody else's business, but that's not a problem.

Unfortunately, plutocrats are not re-licensed every few years to make sure they're still mentally competent.

@SSU The size of the national debt does concern me. I understand that deficit spending keeps the economy afloat, particularly, consumption.

people do consume a lot; I do my part. It's good for the economy. BUT if we wanted to tighten our belts and spend less on consumption and spend more on national debt reduction, where could we save a significant amount of money???

Americans spend about 1.3 trillion dollars a year on products that are optional. I don't consider coffee optional, but the rest of you can jolly well live with out it. We could save $1.3 trillion a year by foregoing these products, which would significantly reduce the debt. Coke and Pepsi will really hate it, as will brewers, vintners, distilleries, and bottlers of tap water.

But there are other optional items I didn't list, and if coffee is critical for you, then maybe carpeting and floor care are non-essential for you. We spend about as much on lawn care as we do pet care. So, maybe ditch the lawn mower and get a puppy. A large dog will ruin the lawn, so no more mowing. Fair trade, I'd say.

If we can squeeze a trillion dollars out our worker pockets, think how much can be squeezed out of the pockets of the 1%? (Might have to be by force; I'm willing to sacrifice their comfort and convenience for the national good.)

What the rank and file could save on

$46 billion - bottled water
$29 billion - salty snacks
$164 billion - candy
$259 billion - beer, wine, spirits
$70 billion - commercial weight loss products
$30 billion - dietary supplements
$342 billion - sweetened and diet drinks at home and away from home
$13 billion - vaping products
$110 billion - coffee
$153 billion - lawn care
$5 billion - car washing
$48 billion - perfume & fragrance
$33 billion - cake (bakery, freezer case, mix)

1.3 trillion total

Nothing like that can happen here where the debt is basically there to uphold present consumption. And sooner or later DOGE has to look at where the actual government spending is, which isn't USAID.

Do we think that DOGE will go after enormously expensive health care spending, which first and foremost is expensive because corporations make profit from it? — ssu

There is zero chance that DOGE / Musk will go after United Health Care, et al. The sort of government spending that will be sacrificed are USAID, Corporation for Public Broadcasting, National Public Radio, National Endowment for the Humanities. The Library of Congress? How many congressmen ever check out books there, anyway? Sell it to Amazon!

his job derives from a mandate — Leontiskos

Trump won the popular vote by a little over 2 million votes out of a total of 152 million votes. That's not a mandate by a landslide vote by any stretch of the imagination. Musk's job derives from an electoral victory, but more from Trumps adoration of business success (richest man in the WORLD) and Musk's rabid animus toward government. Musk has the role of Trump's junkyard dog.

Biden had more popular votes than Trump and a bigger mandate--81.2 million votes, a 4.4% lead over Trump.

Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan had 23% and 18% popular vote wins respectively-- much closer to a mandate.

Why do you think he wants Greenland and Canada? — frank

Canada is a fine place, and may it continue as a sovereign nation forever. Even so, I don't quite see Canada as the escape hatch for anyone's existential threat. Even less so Greenland. Besides, Trump and his allies will be dead long before much more ice melts off of Greenland's chilly shores.

I also asked Gemini / Google about year to year budget reductions. It said:

AI Overview

Yes, the federal budget has been reduced year-to-year in the past. For example, in 1993, President Clinton's Economic Plan cut federal spending by $255 billion over five years. The deficit decreased year-over-year in December 2024, dropping by $44 billion.

Beats me.

The US paid off the huge WWII national debt through a combination of economic growth (a boom), higher rates of taxation (especially on top earners), and fiscal discipline. By 1974, the post WWII economic book started to wane; over the coming decades a lot of tax burden shifted from wealth to workers. At the same time, spending was not curtailed--indeed, it was accelerated for Star Wars and similar boondoggles. Expansions in social benefit programs are also expensive.

Short of another boom (none in sight), the main tool is fiscal discipline--reduce the yearly deficit by a) raising taxes on those with the most wealth (very unpopular among that group) and reduce spending (very unpopular if it's your ox that is gored in the reduced budget). Not impossible, just really, really hard to pull off -- even with cooperative congresses and presidents.

Can this be done, difficult as it is? Sure -- it just won't be done, in all likelihood.

The presence of Musk, Vance, and Vought signals that visionaries are gathering around Trump. — frank

Perverse visionaries!

In a democracy there is no way to limit government spending. Only an entity who does not answer to the people can do that. — frank

Of course there is: President Clinton's 1993 Economic Plan included $255 billion in spending cuts over five years.

Congress can cut future spending and fail to appropriate funds for previously approved spending. The president can veto spending bills, and unless congress overrides the veto, it stands. Congress can eliminate whole categories of spending. If the congress should so choose, it can eliminate the Education Department, for example. Or the Defense Department -- just don't hold your breath waiting for that to happen. States are more responsive to budget pressures because there is no such thing as "state's debt". If tax collection shrinks--as it sometimes does--spending has to also shrink.

Trump may think he is anointed by God to Rule, Reign, and Ruin, but Congress actually is the source of program creation and spending.

Foreign aid (think USAID) has been unpopular for decades, mostly because of a gross misunderstanding. Polls reveal that quite a few people think foreign aid is one of the largest expenses in the Federal budget. It is not! All forms of foreign aid amount to no more than 1% of the federal budget. As a share of GNI, it's is a minuscule amount. Still, the USA is one of the largest donors -- in total dollars, not as a share of our resources.

The US is actually not all that generous, in terms of capacity to give: As a share of income, Norway gave 1.1% of its GNI [gross national income] and topped the list in 2023, followed by Luxembourg (1%), Sweden (0.9%), Germany (0.8%) and Denmark (0.7%). The U.S. gave 0.24% of its GNI in official development assistance, ranking No. 26 on the list.

I think that we are talking about autocracy and totalitarianism rather than just fascism. Totalitarianism would be more useful than the just fascism. — ssu

Could've, would've, should've.

Totalitarianism and fascism are both bad, in the same way tuberculosis and AIDS are both bad but different, and you can have both of them at the same time. The Third Reich had both; the USSR did not.

The US is neither totalitarian nor fascist at this point, even if there are some symptoms of them. Oligarchs are another problem, as are extremists conservatives. (Extreme leftists could be a problem, but we don't have many of those, Trump's claims not withstanding.).

Martin Luther (apocryphally) observed that "A nation is better off if ruled by a wise Turk than a stupid Christian." We are going to have plenty of problems resulting from the rule of "stupid Christians", without having outright fascists in charge.

There are various ways of delivering bad government to the people. Fascism and totalitarianism don't exhaust the possibilities. Run of the mill incompetence, naked self-interest, greed, vindictiveness, crude nationalism, poorly thought-out (if thought at all) policies, ad nauseam will do the trick.

This is getting really, really serious. — Wayfarer

Yes, it is. Musk has [apparently] gained access to the Federal Government's financial "Holy of Holies" -- the Federal Payment System.

"Sources tell my office that Treasury Secretary Bessent has granted DOGE *full* access to this system. Social Security and Medicare benefits, grants, payments to government contractors, including those that compete directly with Musk's own companies. All of it," Wyden posted to social media site BlueSky on Saturday evening.

DOGE's reported access to the payment system comes after the Washington Post reported on Friday that the former acting director of the Treasury, David A. Lebryk, was planning to exit the finance department of the federal government following a clash over granting DOGE access to its payment system. Lebryk oversaw the Treasury Department in the days between President Donald Trump's inauguration on Jan. 20 and Bessent's confirmation to lead the department on Jan. 27.

The barbarians have breached the gate and are in a position to start playing with the levers of power. And for them it IS play. What with presidential immunity and being the richest parasite on earth, Musk is neither elected nor cleared by congressional confirmation, and as far as I know, he has not been sworn to uphold the law and defend the constitution. He more like "been let loose".

Of course, being sworn in isn't quite the same as perpetual protection from pesky prosecution, but it at least establishes some sort of possible accountability.

Characterizing USAID as a criminal enterprise [Musk] or radical lunatics [Trump] is unusually appalling.

NGO's that contract with USAID to carry out programs in Africa, Central and South America, the Caribbean, and Asia must state clearly what their goals are, how they plan to reach them, and how to measure progress to show success or not early in the contracting process. Further, contractors are audited. These are all rational procedures in the interest of obtaining what taxes are paying for. If goals are not met, the agency may find themselves summarily defunded (as the NGO I was working for years ago was--it was sudden death).

Of course one can find fault with USAID. Its goals may or may not be aligned with a given country's priorities or maybe its self interests. But in general, USAID funds work for the common good. And foreign aid can be a difficult game for any NGO / country to play. The best laid plans of mice and men and all that.

Not that we should be surprised of course -- considering the radical lunatic felon pulling the US out of the Paris Climate Accords-- stupid idiotic moronic--the World Health Organization--imbicilic dumb cretinous--or slapping tariffs on our closest friends and largest trading partners--wicked self-defeating delusional.

Arcane Sandwich

But is it really worth our time analysing an entire myth like this when thousands, perhaps millions have come before us?
— Tom Storm

Sure, why not? Who says that we can't do better than them, the ones from the past? — Arcane Sandwich

One reason we are not going to do better than all those who have preceded us is that 2000 years of thinking and believing have washed up on our shores much to our good (or not). Some of our predecessors developed penetrating insights into the nature of biblical texts also to our benefit.

Shakespeare died 409 years ago, and there is nothing new and sensible to say about his plays: It's all been said several times over by generations of PhD students toiling away on the doctorates in English Literature. The chance that someone will discover significant information previously unknown about the Gospels is vanishingly small. As small is the possibility that someone will come up with a good idea about interpreting the Gospels nobody has thought of already. UNLESS, of course, they hatch out some total bullshit.

That said, scholarship in well-plowed fields remains worth while, because learning to plow is still a good idea.

computers are already better than them — Eros1982

According to Google's AI, "AI can sometimes achieve higher diagnostic accuracy than physicians when presented with case reports or patient information". That's not QUITE the same as out-performing doctors.

In some important ways, it doesn't matter whether supercomputers and AI can outperform humans. The question we must ask is "In whose interest is it to replace human workers with computers? Chances are it won't be patients or doctors. It might be hospitals or it might be insurance companies.

Machines have been built for many years that replace human workers. Sometimes workers benefit by being relieved of horrible jobs. Fairly often workers suffer by losing their jobs to the machine, and thus their source of the means to live.

Yes, technology does create new opportunities, new jobs, etc. -- but not automatically and not necessarily for those directly affected. A machine may cost you your job; that doesn't mean you will become the worker that repairs the machine or makes more machines like it.

:100:

Me: "That sounds stupid to me. I prefer to stay at home like a coward, eating toast with butter, instead of risking my life in a war just so that I can convince myself and others that I'm brave."

Her: "Then you don't understand fascism." — Arcane Sandwich

I too prefer toast and butter and haven't found a cause for which dying seemed like a good idea.

In the last few decades, the practice of valorizing soldiers and military-adjacent agents like police has become more noticeable, more common in the US. Flags and flag-waving has become more prominent in some circles. Personally, I've been falling through a hole in the flag since the 1960s (per HAIR!) It sometimes sounds like the only citizens who possess and display courage, self-sacrifice, grit, and loyalty are people in uniforms.

Usually, this rhetoric of the patriot's game is voiced by people who are quite conservative, whether they served in the military or not.

A fascination with uniforms, flags, chains of command, obedient service, weapons, and so on isn't in itself fascist. Sprinkle holy water on the troops, and one is a little bit closer. [Contrarywise, U.S. United Methodists and Evangelical Lutherans, among others, no longer allow flags in the sanctuary, or allow their display during veterans' funerals.)

Thanks!

I think we can agree that fascism isn't a particularly coherent system of beliefs. It's based on sentiment, there is no rational ideology behind it. It works because it riles people up into a sort of raptured state of mind. — Arcane Sandwich

Very much so.

Fascism has also been characterized as "a style" -- by which I do not mean a mere preference for brown shirts and goose stepping. "Style" would include the regular crude use of force, ruthlessness, crass manipulation of the public, the deployment of sappy 'Volk' sentimentality (like PATRIOTISM), etc.

"It works because it riles people up into a sort of raptured state of mind." Indeed.

Only after the attack on Pearl Harbor that FDR prepared for war. — Vera Mont

Had FDR waiting until Pearl Harbor to prepare for a war that was already well underway in Europe and Asia at the end of 1941, we would have had one hell of a time. The level of war production ramped up steeply in 1942 and following, certainly. Remember the pre-Pearl Harbor Lend - Lease program.

You want to know what fascism is like? It is like your New Deal!

Reminiscent of Fascism is the principle that the state no longer leaves the economy to its own devices

When I look for fascistic features I generally don't look at social security, unemployment insurance, public works programs, and the like as examples. Or, was it the rapid marshaling of government programs that struck Mussolini as fascistic? Fascists are not alone in managing economies. Are programs which alleviate poverty fascistic in nature?

The view that government economic policy is fascistic leads me to wonder about the relationship between fascism and libertarianism, which finds government activities so repugnant.

Welcome to TPF.

I also believe that to fairly judge an action, one must set aside the circumstances and intent and evaluate the act itself. — ZisKnow

We can judge the performance of a motor itself while setting aside circumstances and intent (which motors are not supposed to have). I don't see how we can evaluate a person's significant act in isolation from the circumstances and intent. What is left to evaluate?

I picked up a rock and smashed your window. In the absence of circumstance and intent, you might consider how well I threw the rock or how much repairing the window would cost. It would be much more useful if you considered WHY I threw the rock through YOUR window, and not someone else's. Did I wish to harm you and your family? Did I want to scare you? Did I want to drain your bank account? What happened in the several days before your window was broken?

Granted, there are events that do not involve intent. My rear wheel kicked up a rock that hit your windshield and broke it. The event was without intent. The only relevant circumstance is that we were both on the same road.

morality is tied to what we do, not necessarily what we think or feel — ZisKnow

Sure. I agree. But one could quarrel with this position.

For one thing, what we DO is quite often related directly to what we were or are THINKING. First degree murder involves planning. Supporting one's alumni scholarship fund also requires planning.

FWIW, Jesus thought that our thoughts counted; "Whoever hates his brother is a murderer": the thought and the act are weighed the same. We don't want that standard to apply in civil court, for sure; we'd all be behind bars! For our own good (setting salvation aside) cultivating moral thought is probably a better strategy than cultivating wicked thought.

It is very possible that the UK is just beyond saving. — BitconnectCarlos

Possible, but I don't know whether it is or not. Just guessing, it is salvageable.

Each of Paxton's fascist characteristics might apply in some degree and together not add up to fascism. The January 6 attack on the capital (instigated by DT) seems like an overtly fascist act, which hasn't been repeated so far.

The American political system works. A frustrated voter said it doesn't make any difference who you vote for -- nothing changes. Precisely. Both parties will deliver reasonably adequate government, sufficient to keep the various vested economic interests happy. That's not fascism -- that's merely loathsome corporate capitalism.

All I'm asking is for you to be consistent. — Mr Bee

I'm sorry, but your statement triggered a mental reflex: "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds." Ralph Waldo Emerson

Sure. I'm familiar with these methods of seeing the earth's curve. There's also the curved shadow of the earth during an eclipse.

Several someone elses figured out the earth was round and about 24,000 miles in diameter long time ago. According to NASA:

It has actually been known that the Earth was round since the time of the ancient Greeks. I believe that it was Pythagoras who first proposed that the Earth was round sometime around 500 B.C. As I recall, he based his idea on the fact that he showed the Moon must be round by observing the shape of the terminator (the line between the part of the Moon in light and the part of the Moon in the dark) as it moved through its orbital cycle. Pythagoras reasoned that if the Moon was round, then the Earth must be round as well. After that, sometime between 500 B.C. and 430 B.C., a fellow called Anaxagoras determined the true cause of solar and lunar eclipses - and then the shape of the Earth's shadow on the Moon during a lunar eclipse was also used as evidence that the Earth was round.

Around 350 BC, the great Aristotle declared that the Earth was a sphere (based on observations he made about which constellations you could see in the sky as you travelled further and further away from the equator) and during the next hundred years or so, Aristarchus and Eratosthenes actually measured the size of the Earth!

Once civilization collapses in a few years (or next week) this knowledge will soon be lost and will have to be rediscovered, IF there is anyone around to rediscover anything at all.

What does any of this have to do with sexual arousal? — flannel jesus

Just "Because" by McCarthy and Lennon: Because the world is round it turns me on.

I have no personally obtained evidence that the world is round or that the earth is the third planet from the sun. Various someone elses figured out all this out and I take their word for it. I have experienced gravity first hand, so I am confident it exists. There are a lot of alleged facts about the world which seem to be true, but of which I have not a shred of personal evidence. Somehow atoms manage to produce what we suppose to be substantial matter. Don't ask me how. Somehow electrons manage to move from here to there; are they moving within a field or are they moving within a copper wire? Beats me.

The world seems to work in a particular way for which various people have gathered evidence. I am taking their word for it.

Kant would have been really good at Esperanto — Arcane Sandwich

Does Esperanto have categorically imperative verbs?

As Kant said, "Nothing straight was ever built with the crooked timber of mankind."

And now a ski lift has collapsed in Northern Spain. Hey, wait: Don't blame Spain. It might very well be the fault of the French or the Germans.

Our politicians decided back in the 1990s and early 2000s that it was better to manufacture everything in random Chinese villages, with zero labour rights. — javi2541997

Not just in Spain -- the same damned neoliberal policy was pursued in the US, beginning with New England manufacturing moving to cheaper southern states, and then to the Caribbean and Mexico, and finally Asia. Quite a few European countries off-shored manufacturing. It's been a long time since England made its own shirts.

INDITEX (Zara) have their manufacturers there — javi2541997

Luxury Italian goods are often made in China. Still luxury, but Italian and European workers are dealt out of the game. It's a rare shoe that's made in the US. New Balance is one company where SOME of their shoes are made in the US; Allen Edmonds makes quality shoes in Port Washington, Wisconsin -- I have bought their shoes; they last a long time.



ONE of the reasons Henry Ford paid his workers $5 an hour (back in 1914--doubling their wages) was so that they could afford to buy Ford's cars. Plus, they would be more loyal; work harder, etc. There are a lot of workers who can not afford to buy the goods and services they produce.

Boyband or the Highwaymen (country super group), I liked listening to them both.

IN order not to totally derail Javi's castigation of Spain's decrepit economy, here's a lefty American folk song which is applicable to agriculture in Spain (where the rain may or may not stay mainly on the plain resulting in greater or smaller yields):

I really am glad you are familiar with labor songs such as this and that you posted it. But Panopticon's recording sucks! What screwy method was used in the recording studio?

I first heard this song on a Folkways record in 1972.

Here's a performance by the song's author -- Sarah Ogan Gunning. Her voice is not pretty, but it's authentic. Harlan County, Kentucky was where a lot of underground mining was done -- very hard on the workers. Now coal is mostly extracted in open pits -- easier on the workers, far worse for the land (unless the mining companies restore the land -- which tends to reduce their profit margins).



Come all you coal miners wherever you may be
And listen to a story that I'll relate to thee
My name is nothing extra, but the truth to you I'll tell
I am a coal miner's wife, I'm sure l wish you well.
l was born in old Kentucky, in a coal camp born and bred,
I know all about the pinto beans, bulldog gravy and cornbread,
And I know how the coal miners work and slave in the coal mines every day
For a dollar in the company store, for that is all they pay.
Coal mining is the most dangerous work in our land today
With plenty of dirty. slaving work, and very little pay.
Coal miner, won't you wake up, and open your eyes and see
What the dirty capitalist system is doing to you and me.
They take your very life blood, they take our children's lives
They take fathers away from children, and husbands away from wives.
Oh miner, won't you organize wherever you may be
And make this a land of freedom for workers like you and me.
Dear miner, they will slave you 'til you can't work no more
And what'll you get for your living but a dollar in a company store
A tumbled-down shack to live in, snow and rain pours in the top.
You have to pay the company rent, your dying never stops.
I am a coal miner's wife, I'm sure l wish you well.
Let's sink this capitalist system in the darkest pits of hell.

1) We are also a country with a high number of low-skilled workers. Who would manufacture those microchips? — javi2541997

Rural people in Asia weren't born knowing how to manufacture microchips. A lot of the labor on the factory floor isn't immensely complicated. Very high-tech machines do a lot of the work. Spain could buy he high tech machines from the Netherlands, just up the coast a ways, who have a lock on the premier fabrication technology (so I have read).

Pedro Sanchez wanted to build a factory of microchips in Madrid. — javi2541997

There have been various schemes to build big high-tech factories in the industrial midwest of this country. Some have succeeded, many never saw the light of day. It's just damn hard to compete with cheap labor of the sort that Asia has in abundance. (Not that your average Asian likes being cheap labor on behalf of Foxconn, Apple, et al.). Same for Mexico: Lots of cheap labor, which Mexicans would likely prefer to not be.

I guess ecologists would not be happy with that — javi2541997

This is true everywhere. Metal is indispensable--not just for our advanced civilization, such as it is, but civilization at all. Somehow the ecologists and extreme greens suppose that we can maintain civilization without more copper, iron, nickel, zinc, tin, etc. and elements like Lithium · Beryllium · Rubidium · Strontium · Cesium · Barium, uranium · phosphorus · potassium, etc. For instance, computer, TV, and smart phone screens and mini-speakers require elements like yttrium and neodymium. They have to be dug up and refined--all messy processes. Are the anti-mining folk ready to do without their big, bright, screens? Go back to landlines, green computer screens, and black and white TVs (which used a lot of lead)? Probably not.

Mining can be done better and it can be done worse. Generally we can extract and refine metals without wrecking the environment -- it just costs more to be neat and clean.

Spain does have a tourist industry, which means service employees, and sadly they don't get paid a lot. Spain also produces quite a lot of agricultural products--essential to everyone who likes to eat, but the big money is in processing and marketing food, not in growing it. BTW, I have a bottle of Spanish olive oil in the kitchen. So...

Spain also produces ceramics and flamingo dresses. Why do flamingos even need dresses? Spain also harvests cork. Cork used to be used in very nice flooring and walls; now it mostly gets stuffed into bottles.

In 2021, Spain produced roughly 3.8 billion euros worth of mineral products. Spain is an important producer of copper, tungsten, fluorspar, magnesite, and bentonite, among others. In 2021, it ranked as the fourth leading country worldwide in tungsten reserves, and the seventh in fluorspar and magnesite production.

My advice: keep digging.

Unfortunately, mining is not all that popular with the populace: dust, big holes, noise, toxic waste, etc. Minnesota has lots of big holes and piles of mining waste. It can be a problem. Miners do tend to get paid well, but machinery has long since taken the place of masses of men with picks and shovels.

Has Spain considered more manufacturing? There's a big demand these days for military drones, for instance. They are profitable and the killer drones have a short life, so lots of replacement orders--€€€!

North Korea recently got into the mercenary business, sending soldiers to help the poor Russians out in Ukraine. Maybe your guys would like to do that?--not for the Russians, of course. Canada, Greenland, and Panama will be needing soldiers to defend their territories from the acquisitive Trump administration. Stop by the Denmark embassy and ask what their plans to defend Greenland are.

Hey, Javi, things could be much worse than you think they are!

Spain is the world's 15th largest economy by nominal GDP and the sixth-largest in Europe. Spain is a member of the European Union and the eurozone, as well as the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development and the World Trade Organization. In 2023, Spain was the 18th-largest exporter in the world.

Every country has disreputable episodes in its history, bar none. Might as well blame it on those wicked Visigoths!

I very much doubt that it's a good idea to commemorate / celebrate / or ruminate over Franco's existence. Maybe you all should dig him up and burn him at the stake in order to get closure.

This makes me sad: The average income in 1975 Spain was €15K, and now €31K. I don't see a big improvement. We are a country of low wages, as always — javi2541997

A doubling of the average income over 50 years isn't terribly good, unless you compare it to the growth in wages between, say, 500 a.d. and 1400 a.d. when wages didn't grow at all. But working people in many countries have suffered from slowly rising income over the last 50 years. So welcome to our oppression by capitalist scum!

China is probably willing to use military force (aka war) to force Taiwan into union with the PRC.

True, Taiwan produces a large share of advanced chips. (The Netherland produces a large share of the advanced machines which make the advanced chips.). Presumably, the PRC would find the equipment blown to bits and of no use to them.

We could preemptively move Taiwan's industry to Wisconsin -- machines and necessary personnel.

Outside of chips and dips, how much does anyone in the US care about Taiwan? Know anyone from Taiwan?

How committed to Taiwan's defense is the US? Japan? Korea?

I'd prefer to see Taiwan continue on as an independent country.

Right; a group of armed Fascists for Jesus seizing the White House shouldn't have free speech / freedom of religion defense in court. However, they wouldn't need guns to seize the White House if a sympathetic candidate were duly elected to the presidency [How could that POSSIBLY happen?]

British, French, American (et al) activities in the Middle East have triggered reactions among various ethnic and religious groups--not least among them founding the state of Israel. This has been discussed extensively and I don't have anything new to add to the topic.

But I would like to raise a related issue: how do we deal with militant politico-religious groups anywhere, including our own?

How do we deal with American Christian Nationalism? Who is responsible for 'causing' it? Should it be stamped out? Should it be punished? Forbidden? Who has the responsibility for solving the problem of American Christian Nationalism?

I'm not claiming that our far-right extremists are no different than Jihadists. I'm just wondering whether we have enough insight into extreme political and religious behavior to deal with either one effectively.

In my opinion, extreme political / religious behavior, whether Islamic, Christian, Hindu, or what have you is NOT compatible with secular societies (which, of course, can contain actively religious citizens). Recognizing it as incompatible, however, doesn't tell us what to do about it, at home or abroad.