Politics

[OxfordTheCat]

Just so happens I’ve got three chairs and and several brush piles left to burn I can probably even find a good bottle of whiskey on the bar if you an Oxford want to have a sit down and talk politics. Canadian whisky of corse. I’ll pour and keep score.

I'll keep you posted on DM, but might take you up on it.
The tentative plan is for a drive out east for late June.
Wife's connections in Halifax but want to get down to Lunenburg and maybe see the old homestead.

Cheers!

 

[John Wasmuth]

For those that just cant grasp the concept…

 

[steve white]

There are checks, but they don't seem to be working as designed at the moment when the President is quite content to govern via EO, and threaten any of the judiciary who deign to object.

The image below is from the US Holocaust Museum. How many of those can you spot in the new administration?

Actively threatening the sovereignty of neighbours and allies, constant complaints of stolen elections, shunning all traditional media like the AP and Reuters and limiting their reporting, threats against the judiciary. The list goes on and on.

Coupled with reporting like in this article?
US Could Lose Democracy Status, says watchdog

".... it refers to ongoing events in the U.S. as unprecedented, mentioning Trump pardoning 1,500 criminals who supported him; firing independent agency watchdogs without process; purging apolitical police and military brass; ignoring laws; and his unilaterally deleting federal programs, and even a whole organization, created by U.S. Congress.

In the last few days alone, Trump has smashed past several new milestones.

He's just called his predecessor's pardons void and vacated. He gave a bitterly partisan speech at the Department of Justice, demanding the prosecution of the media and certain adversaries. He threatened numerous universities with sanctions. He invoked a 227-year-old war measures law during peacetime — for the first time ever — to deport accused gang members without due process. And, most importantly, when that deportation plan wound up in court, he may have — although it's still in dispute — defied a court order, cracking the ultimate constitutional safeguard.

It's not just the scope of what Trump's done that has Lindberg envisioning the once-unthinkable: removing the U.S. from the democratic list and shifting it to the second-lowest tier among five, to a so-called electoral autocracy. It's also the speed.
.... "

We're a hundred years removed from OG fascism, and for the rest of us, what we're seeing looks an awful lot what neo-fascism might look like in 2025.

I do whole-heartedly agree with the sentiment about broadening data input, especially and particularly for Americans.

View attachment 673256

Don't give yourself apoplexy about things which, I can assure you, will never happen. Relax. I think you will find in the end that our nation is in more danger from the left than from the right.

Also know that, though our present leadership is exhibiting a somewhat adversarial tone in negotiations, most Americans still consider Canada a FRIEND. I am opposed to that getting lost in the fray. Been an awful lot of pro-"Ontario is our largest trading partner" ads on tv of late. Calmer heads usually prevail.

 

[OxfordTheCat]

Don't give yourself apoplexy about things which, I can assure you, will never happen. Relax. I think you will find in the end that our nation is in more danger from the left than from the right.

Perhaps, and it's not bad advice, but it's an area of particular concern when the same mercurial force is questioning Canadian sovereignty.

North of the border, there is both a government and a concerted media campaign underway to push for Canada to have a nuclear deterrent. There is also a media push for a national service just shy of a conscription initiative.

The Globe and Mail carried an article today not from a reporter, but from a current senior NATO policy associate advocating for a Canadian nuclear program.

Most likely scenario is we're going to go tit-for-tat and end up sending a squadron to Germany with French weapons (just like we did in the bad old days, but with American weapons), and also have French weapons on Canadian soil as a deterrent as a dodge around the NPT until we can decide how to handle that.

While the tendency of Americans is to hand wave it all away, it's a very different scenario for those of us watching with bewilderment on the outside of the US.

If a newly elected, unstable, and unpredictable President of Mexico floated invading Texas and said that the Arizona border is an arbitrary line drawn with a ruler, and that one day Arizona and New Mexico are destined to be Greater Sonora; Americans would demand that the 1st Armoured stream roll Juarez, the USACE and USAF would have deployed three or four million landmines on the border a month ago, and the 101st and 82nd would be in-country and ready to drop on the nearest Mexican airfields.

Canadians are expected to take the words of the President of the United States as an unserious joke. And it isn't sitting well.

Americans are laughing at Elon putting career civil servants out of work, raging about Teslas being vandalized, and wanting plans to impeach judges that dare question hastily made executive orders.

Canada is looking to cancel US defence contracts, align with China and the EU, and obtain nuclear weapons.
Europe is rearming, cancelling US defence contracts, looking to shut out US exports, omit the US from trade and defence negotiations, omit the US from 'NATO' (or what its successor will be) and expand the European nuclear umbrella.

Two very different perspectives on what is unfolding.

 

[rookhawk]

The Canadians on this thread are angry because they didn’t really get the insult. You’re reading way too much into Trump’s slam.

The insult against Trudeau went like this:

1.) Trudeau, you’re an amateur suitable for nothing more than a governorship. Maybe you could be governor of the 51st State.

2.) Canada trade doesn’t make sense unless you’re a State.

Were the insults necessary? No.

What was the point? To sling mud at Trudeau and get to a final negotiation that is ZERO tariffs either direction or America will self-inflict a paper cut on ourselves in exchange for a near mortal blow on Canada.

There are some annoying things about trade with Canada from an American perspective such as large tariffs USA pays for food and metals, or absurd socialized systems that create price fixing like Canada’s strategic Maple Syrup reserve system. If Canada wants to be our favored trading partner and wants the benefit of US military capabilities to keep North America safe, all we ask is that you don’t create special-interests tariffs on certain products.

Friends trade free and fair while looking out for one another.

 

[steve white]

Perhaps, and it's not bad advice, but it's an area of particular concern when the same mercurial force is questioning Canadian sovereignty.

North of the border, there is both a government and a concerted media campaign underway to push for Canada to have a nuclear deterrent. There is also a media push for a national service just shy of a conscription initiative.

The Globe and Mail carried an article today not from a reporter, but from a current senior NATO policy associate advocating for a Canadian nuclear program.

Most likely scenario is we're going to go tit-for-tat and end up sending a squadron to Germany with French weapons (just like we did in the bad old days, but with American weapons), and also have French weapons on Canadian soil as a deterrent as a dodge around the NPT until we can decide how to handle that.

While the tendency of Americans is to hand wave it all away, it's a very different scenario for those of us watching with bewilderment on the outside of the US.

If a newly elected, unstable, and unpredictable President of Mexico floated invading Texas and said that the Arizona border is an arbitrary line drawn with a ruler, and that one day Arizona and New Mexico are destined to be Greater Sonora; Americans would demand that the 1st Armoured stream roll Juarez, the USACE and USAF would have deployed three or four million landmines on the border a month ago, and the 101st and 82nd would be in-country and ready to drop on the nearest Mexican airfields.

Canadians are expected to take the words of the President of the United States as an unserious joke. And it isn't sitting well.

Americans are laughing at Elon putting career civil servants out of work, raging about Teslas being vandalized, and wanting plans to impeach judges that dare question hastily made executive orders.

Canada is looking to cancel US defence contracts, align with China and the EU, and obtain nuclear weapons.
Europe is rearming, cancelling US defence contracts, looking to shut out US exports, omit the US from trade and defence negotiations, omit the US from 'NATO' (or what its successor will be) and expand the European nuclear umbrella.

Two very different perspectives on what is unfolding.

Could use some clarification on statements like, "align with China and the EU"...excuse me, but how are those two entities related to the best interests of Canada. EU, sure. China...an existential threat looming in the future, plus a doomed by demographic falling star. Then, "Elon putting career civil servants out of work..." How does that jibe with putting some USELESS civil servants out of work, or cutting hundreds of billions maybe trillions in waste abuse and fraud? Am I to get angry with the man finding the fraud rather than the rascals involved in it? I think just about every country on earth would get a real apoplexy if their corrupt governments were "doge-ed." Why, because corruption is just about everywhere--and it is the citizens who are robbed to pay for it! Enough. Attack the real villains and give taxpayers some real relief.
Lastly, honestly--when did a fascist ever reduce the size of government?

 

[Rocked and Loaded]

If a newly elected, unstable, and unpredictable President of Mexico floated invading Texas and said that the Arizona border is an arbitrary line drawn with a ruler, and that one day Arizona and New Mexico are destined to be Greater Sonora; Americans would demand that the 1st Armoured stream roll Juarez, the USACE and USAF would have deployed three or four million landmines on the border a month ago, and the 101st and 82nd would be in-country and ready to drop on the nearest Mexican airfields.

I live 26 miles from the Mexican border and I can guarantee I would not be the least bit concerned if the president of Mexico did as you suggest. I doubt many Americans would be. Elements within Mexico and Mexicans within California bring up a reconquista of California from time to time but it’s a pipe dream.

I’m far more concerned about non-state actors such as the cartels operating along the border with relative impunity. That is a real rather than hypothetical threat in the backcountry along the border. The Mexican government’s inability to control organized crime is realistically far more dangerous than anything the Mexican government could threaten to do.

 

[rigbymauser]

The Canadians on this thread are angry because they didn’t really get the insult. You’re reading way too much into Trump’s slam.

The insult against Trudeau went like this:

1.) Trudeau, you’re an amateur suitable for nothing more than a governorship. Maybe you could be governor of the 51st State.

2.) Canada trade doesn’t make sense unless you’re a State.

Were the insults necessary? No.

What was the point? To sling mud at Trudeau and get to a final negotiation that is ZERO tariffs either direction or America will self-inflict a paper cut on ourselves in exchange for a near mortal blow on Canada.

There are some annoying things about trade with Canada from an American perspective such as large tariffs USA pays for food and metals, or absurd socialized systems that create price fixing like Canada’s strategic Maple Syrup reserve system. If Canada wants to be our favored trading partner and wants the benefit of US military capabilities to keep North America safe, all we ask is that you don’t create special-interests tariffs on certain products.

Friends trade free and fair while looking out for one another.

I can tell from an european perspective. Lots of american foods are right down illegal overhere because the america food industry are putting things in the food products that are illegal overhere. The american food industry can almost do what they want because the Food & Drug administration are mysteriously permissive towards the foodindustry. The food and Drug lobby of the US have succeded. To put this on the line american comming overehere describes the foods overhere so much cleaner(better). Americans who have been stationed overhere have even said there were certain medications they didn`t need anymore after awhile.

Before I was married I had rented a house by a farmer family. The farmer described the american company Monsanto as a hostile greedy company who owned a strong lobby to force traditional american farmers to use GMO seeds. Those who didn`t was squeezed to submission. This was back 30 years ago. I don`t how things are today. But the story with Monsanto tell if there are big money envolved everyhting is allowed. The authorities that was suppose to be the watchdog have been bought(or forced) to look the other way. But in general the american consumer protection agency doesn`t really have a strong political mandate in the US. Never mind GMO was found toxic for humans and nature....hey we are making money right now so who cares consequenses later on?.

When this written the european farmers today are the most subsidized folks here in EU. Its right down crazy how much support they recieve from EU. With american spectators on there is no fair trade. Its China No2. With the exeption of very few organic farmers who refuse to recieve "social benefits" from EU the entire farming industry would go bust without money from EU. Many people and me included wants to let the freeforces set the pace and remove all subsidizing. I don`t think any other business overhere recieve "social benefits" overhere. Here its boom & bust which its suppose to be.

In regards to american car import. The american cars doesn`t meet the regulative requirements in the EU. When this said we actually see Hellcats, Mustangs and a very few Corvettes overhere(mostly summer). But I haven`t seen an american build van, familycar or SUV in years and years.