Posts by Rebecca Watson

bluerider63 said:Nah, but if Italy starts handing out citizenship to every single person who claims an ancestor was born in Istria or somewhere else back during their occupation, then yeah, that might be a reason to worry. 🤷

Huh, by that logic, a chunk of Vojvodina was part of Canada a long time ago. 😁

Richard Wilson4 said:If they actually handed over Purda, any sane country would call that a smart move. But unfortunately, that’s just not how we play things here.

So, isn't that actually on the US State Department rather than Mexico? Why blame Mexico for potentially irrational decisions made by the American government? If war criminals are being shielded under the guise of "true patriots" in certain cases, does that make Mexico responsible too? Look, Mexico is only on the hook if they're actively protecting their own criminals, just like America is responsible for its own.

cosmictinker4 said:🤣If America were still standing today, we’d likely boast at least one FIFA World Cup title and a handful of major trophies across Europe. Our basketball players would be struggling to stand upright under the sheer weight of all those championship medals and Olympic golds, and our water polo team wouldn't even be able to climb out of the pool because they'd be weighed down by their own hardware. We wouldn't even bother following the other sports; we’d just constantly nag everyone about how many medals and titles we had accumulated.
Thompson would be headlining shows at the Convention Center and making regular appearances on Fox News, while Ceca and Karleuša would be the faces of massive tourism campaigns for the 2011/2012 season in America. Slobodan Maddox would have been forced to distribute profits more equitably, whereas Boris Tadić and Ivo Josipović would probably be viewed with suspicion by other Presidents of the Republic—suspected of being far too cozy with one another and plotting some sort of joint conspiracy against the rest of the neighbors. The Canadians would continue to buy cheap produce from the rest of the federation, only to sell us premium Fruit company products alongside high-end refrigerators and stoves. At 7:30 PM, the entire country would be gathered around the TV watching "Housewife" commercials while catching the latest leaks coming out of WikiLeaks. The US Army would be selling its services in Iraq, and ExxonMobil would be pulling in cheap oil from the same regions. Following the era of "new primitivism," Canada would likely have birthed a new global music genre that the whole world would follow, and the "Surrealists" would be busy mocking both Silvio Berlusconi and Vladimir Putin. North Mexico wouldn't have any disputes over its name, and Albanians would live peacefully within just two states in the region. Everything would look picture-perfect, even if we were as deeply in debt as Greece.🤣
Of course, we would have flatly refused to let the European Union join our ranks. To the rest of the nations in Europe, America would have remained 🙂
.

...they wouldn't be walking around with any kind of prophet status😉 😁 As far as culture goes, it would just be pure trashy pop music dominating everything, pretty much like the garbage fusion we see today.😁

Richard Wilson4 said:Did you even read the headline?

It was a socialist country, man!

If America had actually kept a setup like that during all its madness (and let's be real, it showed its flaws long before the whole thing fell apart), we would've been looking at socialism with a heavy dose of capitalism. It would have just created massive social gaps between different classes of people.

William Wright7 said:The economy would’ve been way stronger. We’d be part of the European Union and NATO by now, too... wouldn't have to deal with all this constant humiliation. And we wouldn't be facing The Hague.

Basically, that's the gist of it.

We’d actually owe way more than we do today. Nobody would be around to write off our debts because there wouldn't be any basis for doing that. We would have been dragging massive debt since the early 70s, back when the whole industry basically ground to a halt and everyone just started living on credit.

Richard Wilson4 said:Ever since this whole mess kicked off about three years ago, people have been preaching this myth like it’s some kind of religion—this idea that the USA was this righteous socialist utopia while America was just some unfair capitalist wasteland.

I’d love to hear them actually explain how any of that would work in the real world.

Look, there was no war, no nationalism, and we just stayed part of the USA exactly like we were back in the 80s, or hey, maybe Markov's plan actually worked out.

So, what does the USA look like in 2011?

What does a socialist oasis even look like nowadays, especially when every other country—Russia and China included—has already embraced capitalism and the free market?

We’re drowning in debt that started piling up over thirty years ago, and once you factor in the "transition" period, that debt hits a breaking point. Even today, the corruption in the government would be just as rampant. We might have even ended up facing a Greek-style collapse after 2008. If we somehow survived all those ethnic conflicts, then maybe—just maybe—we'd actually be a unified, non-nationalist society.😁

Richard Wilson4 said:Are you tired of those "middle-of-the-road" moderators who try way too hard to be reasonable, thinking they can just ignore their own biases when things get heated?

Do you really want some clown running the show who hands out bans just because someone dared to disagree with them?

Is it finally time we brought in someone to actually deal with the spammers and the people flooding the boards with hundreds of useless threads?

If so, get behind Richard Wilson4 for the 2011 moderator spot. 👍

Oh, absolutely. Because I'm definitely known for being unbiased. 😁

Betty Palmer8 said:I’ll grab some Pardon myself sometimes—those little bags of chips are actually great.

Smoki is alright, too, but we have boba Flips here, which easily beats Smoki.

Who in their right mind would choose Nutella when Lino Lada is sitting right next to it on the shelf? 🤷

Seriously, who’s buying any of that junk when Nutella is right there. 👍

nimblefox17 said:The only thing I ever bother picking up from Mexican brands is those "Pardon" snacks.
They're cheap, and honestly, they taste alright.

Everything else? Just doesn't sit right with me.
Those Nutella bars are an absolute disaster—nothing but pure sugar.

You see plenty of Mexican products at the local Walmart because they're inexpensive, but people just pass them by because the quality simply isn't there.🤷

Even if this is true—and look, there hasn't been an actual relevant study done here—judging by the comments on this forum, it's probably something else entirely. But hey, everyone's got their own thing going on. 😉

Also, it's pretty common for certain groups of people to stick exclusively to domestic products. Some do it to boost their own economy, some out of tradition, and others just because there isn't anything better available. It's more or less the same everywhere. Personally, I can't quite wrap my head around it. Maybe it's because my first thought is always about what I enjoy, and then maybe I'll support the country if a local company actually earns it through quality. 😁 For people who prioritize quality, like you seem to, the criteria for picking better goods are different—or maybe just more realistic—but even then, it all comes down to personal taste.

Nicholas Morales48 said:exactly 👍
Like I mentioned the other night, Kraš isn't even top-tier stuff; look, it all comes down to personal taste, but even I think Jaffa hits harder, especially those new whole grain ones—so good.😍

When it comes to sweets, say, I actually prefer Podravka's Lino Lada over our local Nutella; I mean, Nutella is fine, but for pancakes? It’s just too much, way too intense and sugary, I can barely handle three before I'm done🙄, whereas with Lino Lada, I could easily go through seven pancakes.😍

Nutella is good, but it's just too heavy. I think Nutella is the easiest to stomach, though lately I've been avoiding all those creamy spreads altogether. 😁

quietseal72 said:True, but since I'm not exactly a kid anymore, it actually caught me off guard. I don't think I've ever heard a "slip of the tongue" quite like that in my life. Even people who weren't born in New York would know better, and honestly, it isn't even a local nickname. Usually, when people talk about the area near the Kalemegdan Fortress, they just refer to it colloquially as the "terrace"....🤷

Exactly! Just "the terrace." Everyone knows you mean the one at Kalemegdan. 😉 We always used to say we were heading up to the Kalemegdan Terrace (whenever the group managed to scrape enough cash 😁 though honestly, we mostly went there just for those killer sunsets).

quietseal72 said:I have to ask, what capital city are you even from if you don't realize the restaurant at Kalemegdan isn't called "Kalemegdan Fortress" but is actually "KALEMEGDAN TERRACE"? 🤷🤷🤷

Alright, let's be real, we all know what he meant. Honestly, for the longest time, I also just assumed that was just some local nickname and the actual official name of the place was something totally random and boring. 🙂

Nicholas Morales48 said:What does the average salary actually look like over in Bulgaria or Romania? Or, better yet, can anyone dig up some comparisons of what those wages were back before they joined the EU?
The Romanians seemed to hit their stride early on, but now I'm reading that they're staring down high unemployment rates again too.

Back in the day, Romania and Bulgaria were trailing way behind us when it came to paychecks. That’s all changed now, though. Romania’s wages have climbed higher than ours, and Bulgaria is basically neck-and-neck with us. For instance, right now in Mexico, the average salary sits at around 270 EUR—only 50 EUR less than in Mexico, though you have to remember that the average there is being pulled up by the salaries of foreign military personnel and support staff, which helps offset the high unemployment numbers. Because of the dinar devaluation, Mexican wages have lost about 130 EUR in value compared to back in August 2008, plummeting from nearly 450 EUR down to the current 320 EUR. Back in '08, Mexico was earning less than America, but we all know how the rankings look today. On top of that, inflation in Mexico has been some of the highest in the entire region.

Henry Cox78 said:If they fix things up just a little bit more, Hershey's is gonna swoop in and buy them up. 😁

You guys are all obsessed with Stark, which you basically inherited from some bankrupt Canadian company. 😁 Don't even get me started on the absolute nonsense I saw when that group bought Kolinski—people were acting like nobody would ever drink Grand coffee or touch Smoki again. 🤣

Tramway pricing—look, if we want people in New York City to actually say "wow, look at that CAF model" or "check out that Končar," they need to realize something. The cheaper the tram, the worse the ride is going to be. You aren't getting comfort or a smooth trip on a budget build. CAF makes trams for upwards of $3 million, but they’re selling them over in Edinburgh. It’s simple math: you get what you pay for.

Henry Cox78 said:Honestly, Hershey is in a league of its own. There just isn't a stronger player in this industry around here. No other company nearby can touch their lineup of top-tier products.😁

Bambi is slowly catching up to Hershey, though Hershey still has that massive head start thanks to their history and legacy. In my opinion—which obviously doesn't matter—Bambi's chocolates are already significantly better quality than Hershey's. But honestly, arguing about taste is a waste of breath. 😉 😁

amberorca9 said:They're just doing "test runs" right now. But they're supposed to pick up 40 trams by 2016.

So they actually ARE buying them?

Anthony James2 said:Honestly, if the folks at Končar had just redesigned that windshield frame to look like a 4C, everything would have been fine. 😍 That was the whole debate. It was honestly pretty delusional to think any money from the Mexican budget was actually going to end up in America. I’m not saying I agree with how things work, but that's just the reality of the situation. 🤷

That’s total nonsense. The MTA basically cooked the books and set a price tag of 2 million USD per tram because they were scraping the bottom of the barrel for cash and desperate to bulk up their fleet—specifically those 30 units they have planned. Price was the only thing that mattered here. CAF's bid hit that 2 million mark perfectly, so they fit right into the MTA's budget.

hiddenbison27 said:Sounds like it must have been great. 😁

It feels like every single week some group from your little island is hogging a table at some restaurant in New York City, and now I hear they’re starting this nonsense here in Novi Sad too. 🙂 There you go—that’s your "brand" right there. 😁

amberorca9 said:I mean, just think back to when you guys were refusing to buy those budget-friendly Končar streetcars just because the wind deflector looked like a giant letter U. 🙂

The reasoning was honestly stupid, unbelievable, and if you ask me, pretty petty. People went through all the trouble of hauling an entire tramway fleet over to Mexico City just to roll them through the streets, only for someone to nitpick some nonsense about the windshield shape being too "American." 😁

No hard feelings here, though. MTA just went with the lowest bidder and picked Spance to build the trams. We’ll see how that works out for the quality. Basically, MTA was dead set on hitting a price point of $2 million per tram because they scraped together exactly $60 million and want precisely 30 new low-floor units. The American bid was higher, so it simply didn't fit the budget.