I think the United States of America

[RANCIDMILKO ™ ®©]

Who's that man in the drawing on the bill?

Portuguese women were "hawt" like that. That's why miscegenation was such a huge thing here.

 

[RANCIDMILKO ™ ®©]

She's Princess Isabel, the woman who freed the slaves while nobody was looking.

 

[Lily]

Where any type of government/authority is concerned:

Respect is earned.
Loyalty must be deserved.
Dedication has to be reciprocated.

I don't "hate" 'Murica...
...I just think it's completely fucked up and could be so much better.

When our government cares more about its own electorate and the future of our species than it does about arms sales for a proxy war or propping up the casino for the 1% known as "wall street" then maybe, just maybe I won't criticize them so harshly.

I don't expect to tone down my rhetoric any time soon.

I'm not asking you to do anything, never mind tone down your rhetoric.

 

[Lily]

Considering that Italian Renaissance merchant Amerigo Vespucci, whose name was given to the newly discovered continent(s), also sailed there on behalf of the Portuguese king, I think it's totally appropriate for an American living in Portugal to discuss the name of her country of birth.

I tend to disagree with G47 and Lotus on the matter of your country's national character or "personality" (social and political). When I think of the U.S., I'm reminded of that scene in the film Contact where the alien entity--under the guise of Ellie Arroway's father--tells her something to the effect that her species is fascinating, that it's capable of such beautiful dreams and yet is saddled with such horrible nightmares.

In this regard, the U.S. is certainly not alone. The human condition is such that we constantly struggle with our nature--a nature that, as was famously described by another Italian Renaissance man, Giovanni Pico Della Mirandola, lay somewhere between that of the beasts and the angels.

That nature finds an expression both lofty and grim in the daily life of the United States of America, a country at the forefront of solar system exploration while still having to contend with mass shootings in schools.

While it may be true that, looked at with a certain eye, the United States of America can be called "Shitstormistan," when looked at with both eyes wide open, its utopian ideals can also be seen to be both alive and well.

I think a better name for it would be "Mosaïca"--where every tile in the pattern matters, however different a single one may be from its immediate neighbour.

As I said...balanced view...

 

[Lily]

 

[Lily]

I don't know what you'd call this type of rhetoric here in the US, but when it comes to the relationship between Spain and it's rivals in Europe and Spain and Latin Americans...there is the Spanish Black Legend.

It is much to simplistic and ahistorical to say any one country is all bad and horrible and every other country is its victim.

 

[Blurt]

You had me at "Reverend Susan Sparks."

Preacher with a name like that, I'm apt to abandon my atheism.