So, I was somewhat absent the last couple of weeks because I went to Portugal for a cruise down the Douro River, which wends its way through the tiny Iberian country’s legendary wine region, and I’ve got to say that some of Europe is still really nice, as well as based. Understand that I spent about four years living in Europe, and not in the prime locations – Stuttgart, Kosovo, and some extended stays in Ukraine. It was cool to visit a part of Europe that you go to by choice rather than under orders. Portugal is actively fantastic – Lisbon is clean and modern, while Oporto is just great. It’s highly recommended, particularly if you are an oenophile – yeah, we were winery-maxing.
But you’re not here for my travel hints or wine recommendations – well, maybe you are, but let’s get to the political stuff. We Americans sometimes get the impression that Europe is a roiling Third World hellhole, and parts of it certainly are, but not all of it. Probably not even most of it. In fact, many of the foreigners we met were pretty based. Portugal is turning right (the center-right party came in first in the recent elections); we saw lots of signs for candidates for the “far-right” (meaning “not lefty business as usual”) Chega party that came in third in the last elections. “Chega” translates to “Enough” in Portuguese; gee, sound familiar?
There’s a lot of resentment against the garbage commie nonsense that their alleged betters at the EU are inflicting upon them. That’s common across the EU. While Portugal seems squared away, I’m hoping for a revolution elsewhere. Sadly, the euros don’t have any guns because they gave them away. On a totally unrelated note, every time I go overseas, it reminds me to remind you to buy guns and ammunition.
I wasn’t on some Carnival Cruise, recently hailed as “the Section 8 of the sea.” We took a Viking Cruise, and it was filled with affluent American elderly people. I was literally the fourth youngest guest of 100, and I was still alive when Winston Churchill died. I don’t spend a lot of time around super old people, so I forgot some of their habits, like chattering about things that don’t matter and standing in the midst of public thoroughfares blissfully unaware that people might want actually to walk by. But they were nice, and they were pretty based. There were no commies. At least, if there were, the commies never said anything. Statistically, there had to be some leftists aboard, but they were probably so freaked out to be in the minority – living in a blue state, you’re never outnumbered by actual American patriots – that they kept their traps shut lest we have them shipped off to the glorious gator gulag. It was our demographic politically. A lot of people were really excited because their stock market portfolios were going through the roof – thank you, Donald Trump. Yeah, they liked Donald Trump. There was even one nice couple from New Zealand, and they loved Trump, too.
You might say it was a festival of normal people, people who had obviously worked hard all their lives, raised families, love their country, and are now spending their golden years cruising up and down foreign rivers drinking grape nectar and enjoying life. Yeah, they were boomers, but not the ones who caused all the problems. They were the ones who solved the problems – retired businessmen, military folks, engineers, and others who contributed to society, as opposed to spending their lives with their hands out expecting to be taken care of.
You know, the Republican base.
The Portuguese people are absolutely lovely, even though they have a cultural tendency towards never not talking. Portuguese is related to Spanish, but to our ears, it sounds like Russian for some reason. In any case, the Portuguese don’t play. Walking through Lisbon, we came upon a park in the middle of a residential area. It was about 4 o’clock in the afternoon, and the place was packed. Little kids were running around everywhere. Old people were sitting on benches. Young people were chatting. What was missing? Weirdos, losers, mutations, perverts, criminals, junkies, hobos, dope-smoking morons, music-blasting idiots, and the other human detritus that garbage blue cities allow to dominate America’s public spaces. Though there was never a heavy-handed cop presence, it’s pretty clear that Portuguese society has made the decision that normal people get priority and that there will be no catering to the freak show. It made me mad that we here have made a conscious decision to cede our streets to lowlifes instead of allowing normal people to use them. And this isn’t a new thing. I remember during the Los Angeles riots in 1992, when I, a white suburban guy on duty in South Central LA, was hugged by a local woman because our troops had driven all the drug dealers out of the park across the street and her kids got to play there for the first time. Kudos to the Portuguese for understanding that the purpose of a government is to protect normal people, not to indulge society’s fringes.
The Portuguese I had a chance to chat with were all intensely patriotic, but they all wanted to come to America to visit and liked Americans. Weird that none feared Trump; I guess they are too busy living to watch MSNBC. It’s kind of sad that foreigners are more patriotic than the Democrats, 50 percent of whom polls indicate despise their own country. I had a long chat with one fellow who just loved Trump, and he started complaining about immigrants in Portugal. Except there weren’t that many. It wasn’t like Paris or London. There were just a few, and the Portuguese are still done with Third World migration. Good on them. There’s absolutely nothing to be ashamed of for wanting your country to remain your country. Again, I wish more Americans felt that way.
So, I came back with a lot of hope and also some ginjinha, a Portuguese liqueur made from sour cherries that’s pretty amazing. Once you get out of the big cities where all the American reporters go, Europe isn’t quite as far gone as we thought. That’s good news.
