Today in Europe

[JohnnySavage]

Few things that happen in Europe deserve their own thread, but collectively, they could be a thread.

Today:

France declares war on England over fishing. Brit fishing boat detained.

I expect a drawing and quartering.

 

[JohnnySavage]

Not topical, but I was watching the G20 and the sign said Rome. I lived in Sardinia for a few years and the best meal I ever ate was a mushroom lasagne in Rome. Just west of the Pantheon. About 1988.

 

[AlterErgo]

https://th.bing.com/th/id/OIP.lGVNktyqAGQvoJLHb-8X1AHaFf?pid=ImgDet&rs=1

 

[pecksniff]

They shoulda known Brexit would lead to something like this.

 

[BidudeinWi]

Few things that happen in Europe deserve their own thread, but collectively, they could be a thread.

Today:

France declares war on England over fishing. Brit fishing boat detained.

I expect a drawing and quartering.

Does ANYBODY in America give AF?

 

[oggbashan]

Does ANYBODY in America give AF?

Nobody in the wider EU, or in the UK, gives a fuck either. It is President Macron grandstanding before a Presidential Election which he could lose because of anti-EU sentiment in France. the EU is NOT backing him in his dispute with the UK. They are pissed off with him.

 

[Champakian]

If France and England actually went to war...,



... would anybody notice?

 

[oggbashan]

If France and England actually went to war...,



... would anybody notice?

We know what happened in WW2.

The last successful invasion was 1066, and that wasn't the French, that was the Normans. The French invaded to support rebellious Barons against King John and between them took large parts of Southern England but failed to take Dover Castle and eventually lost.

Napoleon planned to invade the UK but couldn't because of the Royal Navy. Hitler planned it in 1940 but needed air superiority so he could neutralise the Royal Navy. He had to call it off.

It is far more likely that President Macron will lose the Presidential Election because so many of the French are pissed off with him. Will anyone in the US care?

Probably not.

 

[Champakian]

I was being facetious.

 

[Champakian]

The only people who will care are Francophiles...



The French are well known for their sitzkrieg method of war.

 

[oggbashan]

The only people who will care are Francophiles...



The French are well known for their sitzkrieg method of war.

Or anyone who enjoys French wines and cheese.

The French are also pissed because an English wine won an award this year, beating all French competitors.

Sacre Bleu! Les Rosbifs making wine? Whatever next? They will make french cheese...

We do.

 

[Champakian]

The wine in Missouri is fine with me and
cheese comes in from up North.

Most of us'ns are not pretentious...
Those people are busy up in the big city
doing everything they can to resemble a French sewer.

 

[oggbashan]

I used to go to Calais for the farmer's market. The range of local cheeses was amazing but there is a cheese shop a few miles down the coast in Boulogne that is sought after by French cheese lovers. It always has a queue but it is worth it.

But once I bought some smelly cheese in Calais. We had to drive home with all the car windows fully open.

 

[Champakian]

We have more robust tastes here,
but we don't have a history of getting our asses kicked...

 

[JohnnySavage]

Looks like England is fixin to retaliate.

HMS Victory is making sail.

 

[Champakian]

Lmao...

 

[JohnnySavage]

(the rest of the fleet is in the Indian Ocean, down with the covid)

 

[oggbashan]

(the rest of the fleet is in the Indian Ocean, down with the covid)

What fleet? The UK now has more admirals than ships...

When I was in the Admiralty, we had twice as many ships in the Reserve Fleet than we now have as operational ships. Each modern ship's capabilities may be far more than a WW2 ship but the current numbers are pathetic.

 

[JohnnySavage]

The US is in the same boat. (Ha! I crack myself up)

In the 80s we built up to 600 warships. Now, we have less than 500, including rust buckets in the reserve fleet.

Sailors no longer perform maintenance - civilian contractors do it. Sailors are no longer trained in damage control - a ship caught fire next to the pier and was a total loss last year because the crew didn't know how to put it out. Our navy has become too dependant on technology and less dependant on seamanship.

 

[oggbashan]

The US is in the same boat. (Ha! I crack myself up)

In the 80s we built up to 600 warships. Now, we have less than 500, including rust buckets in the reserve fleet.

Sailors no longer perform maintenance - civilian contractors do it. Sailors are no longer trained in damage control - a ship caught fire next to the pier and was a total loss last year because the crew didn't know how to put it out. Our navy has become too dependant on technology and less dependant on seamanship.

In the 1970s, HMS Dampier broke a prop shaft when in South Africa. There were no spares available, so the crew improvised sails and sailed the ship back to the UK. I can't see modern sailors being capable of that.

 

[WillJ8787]

Or anyone who enjoys French wines and cheese.

The French are also pissed because an English wine won an award this year, beating all French competitors.

Sacre Bleu! Les Rosbifs making wine? Whatever next? They will make french cheese...

We do.

LMFAO...too funny....the French are full of themselves.

 

[Bud_Spencer]

The wine in Missouri is fine with me and
cheese comes in from up North.

Most of us'ns are not pretentious...
Those people are busy up in the big city
doing everything they can to resemble a French sewer.

Look, I'm from Missouri and I appreciate the props for local vineyards, but our wine just doesn't do it for me yet.

 

[JohnnySavage]

Nothing like an ice cold bottle of Boone's Farm. Tickled Pink.

 

[Bud_Spencer]

The US is in the same boat. (Ha! I crack myself up)

In the 80s we built up to 600 warships. Now, we have less than 500, including rust buckets in the reserve fleet.

Sailors no longer perform maintenance - civilian contractors do it. Sailors are no longer trained in damage control - a ship caught fire next to the pier and was a total loss last year because the crew didn't know how to put it out. Our navy has become too dependant on technology and less dependant on seamanship.

Yes, but our sailors are hell when it comes to identifying and disrupting systems of oppression...so long as it doesn't involve, you know, seamanship.

 

[Champakian]

Look, I'm from Missouri and I appreciate the props for local vineyards, but our wine just doesn't do it for me yet.

No wine does it for me.

I'm a whiskey neat kind of guy.