Funny thing that, European countries haven’t lasted nearly as long as the US on average: revolutions, conquest, coups. Only a couple of monarchies and even those had some big changes in the way the government is structured like with constitutional changes. The US, though, has a ton of new laws but is fundamentally unchanged.
Define country, because the American government is actually one of the oldest continuous governmental systems in the world. Certainly the oldest republic that isn’t a micro-state.
Now if you want argue that France, for example, is an older country than America because there’s been a fairly stable region largely called France for several centuries you can, you’d just be wrong.
Now if you want to start talking about nations that’s different, but also a much, much blurrier subject in general.
I’m using the term to mean more or less the collectively agreed upon “identity” of a state. Not merely a single contiguous government (for the same reason you just bring up, people still consider France to be France even though the government has changed fundamentally many times over the years), but I’m not using it to just mean “nation” either, since were France to be completely conquered and annexed by a foreign power, the French nation, as in the group of people, would still exist, but the country would not, at least until such time as it could be recreated, or for a different reason, that one can have a national identity split between different states, or a state involving different such groups.
It’s an honor to be invited to dinner with the leader of your country. When that leader can’t pay the staff to make the dinner, so he orders McDonald’s, it’s not a relief.
Well you probably never accomplished anything but most people, especially athletes who have had to be on a strict diet all season would rather party and just joke amongst themselves
So you think Trump saying, “there’s a partial government shutdown, so we can’t give you a fancy catered dinner full of the fanciest food you’re ever likely to eat in your life because it is literally made for the world’s royalty, but instead I’ve dug deep into my rich man pockets and spent $3000 on some room temperature Big Macs and Chick-Fil-A” is something that would appeal to them? Yeah, I guess you’re right. I mean it’s not like you’d want to be treated like a king after winning a national championship. Much better to have to travel to DC at the team’s expense and have the president buy them the worst possible burger he could have bought them.
But sure, it’s because I’ve never accomplished anything that I wouldn’t understand why someone would be honored to eat a Big Mac paid for out of Trump’s generous pockets when he could have had lobster flown in fresh from Maine. Or, I don’t know, catered well-made burgers from a good burger place. I’m guessing D.C. has one or two local places that might just possibly taste a little better than what they’ve got at McDonald’s.
It’s not even that it’s a burger. It’s that he put it on display as a banquet, talked about how he paid for it personally, and he acted like they should be honored to eat the burger.
And, again, maybe it’s because I’ve “never accomplished anything” that I would hope that the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES would spring for more than a cold Big Mac after inviting me to the WHITE HOUSE.
I’d do what I could to offer those guys more than a cold Big Mac if I invited them to my house and I’m by no means someone who brags about his fabulous wealth.
I think they deserved to be treated better regardless of you think what they would have wanted because of all of your amazing accomplishments. I’m sorry, but your Nobel Prize doesn’t mean they aren’t entitled to be treated with at least the modicum of dignity as a visiting head of state.
I mean at the absolute very least keep them warm instead of taking them all out for a photo op where they’ll get cold! Is that making too big a deal out of it? Saying they were entitled to a warm Big Mac when visiting the President of the United States at the White House who brags to you about paying for it with his own money?
Yes, expecting someone to get warm food when they get invited to the White House is an embarrassing position and I don’t know why I haven’t deleted it yet. Maybe it’s my lack of accomplishments.
Hand drying options are actually much better than they were 20-30 years ago. Even the electric ones are pretty great now. 30 years ago it would be one of those electric ones with the round button that feels like someone blowing on your hands through a straw, or at the gas station it would be one continuous loop of thick blue cloth.
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