taking a break in St Louis

I think it is generally agreed that NATO should pay more for their defense.  It's not like they are supposed to put money in some general pot, they are required to spend two percent of their national budget on defense.  I don't know how much they are spending now but whatever it will take to bring it up to two percent is not a hill of beans,

Was trying to look up the budgets of other countries to see what percent they are spending on defense because I guess it is complicated.  Did come across the fact  that we spend twice as much as China and Russia put together, so Geez how come we're not doing a lot better?

The Saudis, although their society is feudal, is a big ally of ours, and I'm not sure why.  I think we can be sure that some of the weapons we sold them will go to terrorist factions.  They are sort of the head of the Sunnis so it will be Sunni terrorist organizations, which by the way ISIS is one.  Mostly now they are pounding Yemen into rubble because they suspect Iranian influence there.

I was going to go on to list all the alliances and allegiances of the middle east, but what's the point? The world is such a mess.  I was watching a movie made in the 60s last night and what a mess the world was in then.  You know it's like the pundits are always writing about things that happened n troubled times, but when weren't times troubled?

I don't have much in the tank this morning.  Flying out to St Louis tomorrow morning so I won't be posting on Friday.  I'll try to get back to you on Monday, Tuesday at latest.  Who knows what the world will look like then.