European Union

       I will not be using any of my space to complain about the spectacularly self-serving removal of troops ordered by our President.  There are many others doing that, and this is a space for deeper lines of thought.  Instead I will be offering this little aside, roughly based on a conversation I had with my brother-in-law.  It is intended as humor, despite any facts presented.

G:  "You know why the European Union was created, right?"
Me:  "No, why?"
G:  "To keep an eye on Germany."
Me:  "Yeah, speaking of, they are one of the only countries in Europe right now with any financial success."
G:  "True, and they don't seem to care for that."
Me:  "Yeah, they might feel like there is an unfair subsidy of Europe, with German-earned money.
G:  "Also they don't much care for the influx of immigrants that began when the Euro was adopted.
Me:  "What?"
G:  "Yeah, apparently the floodgates opened and now there are a lot eastern Europeans in Germany."
Me:  "So Germany has a lot of non-Germans working in the country, and a lot of people they might consider  'undesirables'."
G:  "Yeah, that's about right."
Me:  I wonder if we, in the rest of the world should be concerned."
G:  "What about?"
Me:  "I wonder if there is some 'historical precedent' of anything similar that happened with Germany.  Some point in history where they were sending a lot of money to the rest of Europe, and had a country full of non-Germans."
G (laughing):  "None that I can think of."
Me (also laughing):  "Me neither."