Why the Interest

[El Nikko + 2,145]

1 hour ago, Jan van Eck said:

Relax, UNC, a lot of that stuff is just for show.  The USA survived Richard Nixon, it will survive Donald Trump just fine.  

I remind you of a major difference between America and Canada.  America is a dynamic, clever society.  It does well, not because of Washington, but in spite of it.  Canada, meanwhile, is an ossified, stultified society, where everyone wants to have a government job and own real estate.  there is little "ambition" to do something new and powerful and creative.  It does not survive, or thrive, due to the energy of the people; it survives only due to the heavy hand of Government, which funds itself by taxing away the earned incomes of the People. 

How things look depends on where you sit. 

 

1 hour ago, Jan van Eck said:

I spent 18 years in Canada building new manufacturing plants and providing hundreds of new, good-paying jobs, and built up millions of dollars of export earnings for the country.  The thanks I got was the overbearing and abusive hand of Government and the attitude generally that I was some form of "capitalist oppressor."   No thanks for the new products I developed, the intellectual property I developed, or the industry I developed.  My experience in Canada has left a rather bad taste in the mouth, so to speak. 

You folks have lousy governments, Federal and Provincial.  Nature of your country. 

That could be a description of the UK as well

[Jan van Eck + 7,558]

2 hours ago, UNC12345 said:

Your choice of terminology and extremely broad generalizations about the entire society lacking energy and ambition is definitely insulting and pretty unfair really

OK< UNC, I will concede the point.  It was a broad generalization and pretty unfair.    "Insulting"?  Well, that is a bit harsh, then again, it is Canada, so anyone with views just a hair to the left or right of LEster Pearson would be unfair, insulting, and extreme.  Agree?

I am also a bit rash in that assuredly the immigrant community I ran into in Canada was dynamic, in part.  Some of the immigrants did have "get up and go."  It was that segment that kept Canada from falling  down into total muskeg. 

I will also both grant and admit that I remain a bit bitter, in that all of my personal efforts and a lot of wealth went down the drain, with the ossified bureaucracy and the people in them working so hard to totally wreck everything that I had built, including wrecking the manufacturing plants out of nothing more than personal spite.  For example, I had these two larger plants down Hamilton (Ontario) way, which your Feds wrecked over a dispute over $147.53.   They came in and did an audit on the deductions at source, on a million-dollar payroll, and the auditor, a young kid just out of college and on his first job, claimed he found the discrepancy.  I handed the kid a cheque and took him out for a nice lunch, wishing him well in his career.  Six months after that the RCMP showed up to arrest me for having held back "wrongfully" that $147.53.  It was later admitted to me that the "District Director" of Revenue Canada took that attitude in order to instill "compliance" fear in the local business community.  I shut the plants down and moved the machinery to the USA.  Who needs that abuse?  [They demanded I plead "guilty" and pay a $250 fine. There is no way that that is going to happen, not with this boy. Nobody pushes me around.] 

So, in sum, you live in a society where your useless bureaucrats will shut down plants and wreck the lives of two hundred of the workforce just to be a mendacious, bullying bureaucrat.  As a society, you are good with that. You pay these guys the big bucks to be abusive, and you as a society think that is just peachy keen.  And then you wonder why the Loonie ends up trading at 62 cents.  Brilliant. 

It cost me esily two million dollars to abandon Canada and move the plants.  But,  if you are not prepared to pay the price, then you are nothing more than a slave, either a wage slave or a slave to some bureaucrat.  I refuse to be a slave to anybody.  And that is why I like living among Americans.  Americans refuse to be slaves to anybody.   Canadians?  Hey, they think it is fine. 

[LiamP + 168]

6 hours ago, Douglas Buckland said:

So, don’t deal with us and tell YOUR leaders not to follow Trump! If you disagree with the decision to defund the WHO, feel free to contribute the missing funding. Heck, for that matter, take over the US contribution for the entire UN mission!

You may laugh at us, but that goes both ways, believe me.

The international community seems to want the US to isolate itself, up to the point where the US ceases to fund initiatives that benefit others, while they laugh!

I am guessing that those freeloading days are over...hopefully!

Trump is a shoo-in for another term, may as well get used to it...

 

6 hours ago, Douglas Buckland said:

So, start providing your own damn security! Isn’t it YOUR country?

Well hey - you asked, we answered (and speaking for myself I hope I managed to be respectful and lighthearted in the spirit I think Tom was suggesting, whilst still being honest) so no need to get abrasive! Never mind I have thick enough skin :). Would you prefer if I had lied? I can do that - 'why, we're so interested because we all think Trump is a political genius and just cant wait to see what greatness he sets into action next'.

Addressing some of your points - well, sadly until Trump completely extracts the US from the global scene and builds a dome over the country (which the rest of the world should pay for) we kinda have to still try to deal with his administration - no choice!

I don't know where you get the idea the international community wants the US to isolate itself. We actually quite liked it when the US was a mostly cool headed and rational ally who was generally a team player and willing to participate in various international endeavours intended for the general wellbeing of civilisation as a whole and the planet itself.

I happen to think many of mankinds greatest achievements come from cooperation and alliances. It'll be a shame if the US withdraws from everything and in the long run will be to the detriment of us and you, but we'll all get by. This wave of nationalism sweeping the west, I personally don't think it leads to anywhere good. As Marcin suggests it's all a bit reminiscent of an era i hope we dont revisit. I'd hate the 2030s to be anything like the 1930s.

[Eyes Wide Open + 3,554]

1 hour ago, LiamP said:

 

Well hey - you asked, we answered (and speaking for myself I hope I managed to be respectful and lighthearted in the spirit I think Tom was suggesting, whilst still being honest) so no need to get abrasive! Never mind I have thick enough skin :). Would you prefer if I had lied? I can do that - 'why, we're so interested because we all think Trump is a political genius and just cant wait to see what greatness he sets into action next'.

Addressing some of your points - well, sadly until Trump completely extracts the US from the global scene and builds a dome over the country (which the rest of the world should pay for) we kinda have to still try to deal with his administration - no choice!

I don't know where you get the idea the international community wants the US to isolate itself. We actually quite liked it when the US was a mostly cool headed and rational ally who was generally a team player and willing to participate in various international endeavours intended for the general wellbeing of civilisation as a whole and the planet itself.

I happen to think many of mankinds greatest achievements come from cooperation and alliances. It'll be a shame if the US withdraws from everything and in the long run will be to the detriment of us and you, but we'll all get by. This wave of nationalism sweeping the west, I personally don't think it leads to anywhere good. As Marcin suggests it's all a bit reminiscent of an era i hope we dont revisit. I'd hate the 2030s to be anything like the 1930s.

I do believe one could go on for years on this subject, and you bring up some interesting timelines. My mind goes back to Germany and Japan, the US intervened and setup a entirely different model for them to follow and adhere to. Today they a quite civilized and powerhouses in there in own respect. I ask you or anyone had we interviend into Iraq in the same manner or Vietnam as long as we are here what would the world look like today.

One always needs to remember the US is made up of the world...formed to improve the human condition. Perfect absolutely not it has a human population it cannot be perfect

I do believe the US time for being the worlds piggy bank is over, let each governing body use its citizens to build there own societies...Japan and Germany have done a remarkable job following the US model...and building one in there own image.

Edited April 17, 2020 by Eyes Wide Open

[Rob Plant + 2,756]

15 hours ago, Douglas Buckland said:

I have a question for many of the non-American, non-Chinese members on this forum:

Why do you focus so much attention on President Trump and American politics?

Obviously, due to the ongoing trade war and the COVID-19 pandemic, there will be a significant amount of discourse between the American and Chinese members,?This is to be expected as these issues have a direct impact on both ‘camps’.

What I find interesting is the unnatural interest in American politics and the legal system from the European or British contingent. Do you not have similar issues in your own countries to discuss? Are your governments working seamlessly to address them? Are your politicians all blameless concerning recent events?

You don’t have any ‘skin’ in the American game, so why the interest and comments?

One individual told me that due to the fact that anything that America does, affects the entire international community. This may be so, but this line of reasoning could also be applied to each European country, Great Britain, and the European Union.

I am curious as to why you are so interested in, and comment on, American politics but rarely post anything concerning your own.

Douglas there is sod all else to do in lockdown!

i have commented already on the sad inadequacies of my own government that will no doubt lead to the largest death toll of any nation in Europe.

your response to the virus is no better so that’s another thing we have in common.
I’m sure you’re aware that POTUS is the most powerful man on the planet so American politics affect every nation whether they like it or not!!

why you find that interesting and think that is unnatural is surprising to me.

 

[Rob Plant + 2,756]

7 hours ago, Jan van Eck said:

the Brits had to struggle with the idea of Camilla marrying the next King, but tolerated the parasitic Press hounding Harry and his truly charming bride right out of the Monarchy and even the Country.  And the Americans are appalled by that. 

Who is struggling with Camilla?? No please explain the comment. I see no bad press or publicity or anti Camilla shite now, yes there may have been 20 years ago, time moves in Jan! At the time that was wrong but it was only because the British public adored Diana so much.

to say the press has hounded out Harry and Meghan is a joke. This was  what Meghan wanted and make no mistake about that!!

the press in the UK welcomed her like no other. read the articles at the time before during and immediately after her marriage!!

As Prince Harry once stated before all this shit happened “what Meghan wants Meghan gets” and boy did she get what she wanted!!

Americans can be appalled if they wish but make no mistake this is all down to Meghan not the British press ( for once). to say anything different is false and disingenuous.

[0R0 + 6,251]

5 hours ago, UNC12345 said:

I went to a college campus once and the cafeteria was the 17th ranked one in the US.  How is this important?  It doesn't mean anything.  I'm not saying some of that doesn't go on here, but you take it the furthest.

Hopefully that means it is a decent place to eat. But if you want a Michelin star restaurant then you are probably at the wrong place. 

[0R0 + 6,251]

To put this in Martin Armstrong's terms. This is the end phase of the global socialist movement that defined the 20th century. It had taken over the media and academia and has populated a communist like administrative class in the entire world, with the same people running the international organizations, giant corporations and banks, government and representing both workers and their employers as well as acting as if negotiating with the Union that elected them is possible in good faith. The oddity is that Europe has yet to notice the Eurocrat class and its total hold of power over everyone such that lopsided elections don't result in a change in outcomes. That this class is the entitled maleducated leaderships of everything espousing deformed versions of enlightenment ideas in the name of regional and global socialism. It includes both Merkel and her opposition, for example, the consensus of Europe is its disease. It is a product of a history of monarchy followed by authoritarian rule as in the background the same bureaucracy that served both, continued into the modern postwar parliamentary democracies ever removing bit by bit the ability of people to determine any aspect of their lives. 

What you see in the US is that the last vestiges of trust in the administrative class in America are beyond just gone. They are now reflexively associated  with evil, malevolence avarice and larceny on a grand scale. Trumpists call it "the swamp" the ivy league graduates who were set up to rule us all the way Saruman created Orcs. Their policy erudition immediately brings out a bristling among all but their own and the dependency groups who want other people to solve their problems for them. The Trumpistas want to do away entirely with this class, its powers, its people.. They literally want ALL of them fired. They elected the firing man to do the job. 

They don't like him, his evangelical supporters find him immoral and his sex tapes disgusting (everyone does). His businessmen/entrepreneurial/managerial  supporters think his track record is just about abysmal and his ethics questionable at best. His various outrageous implications of racism etc. are never addressed. Yet, his steadfast stance is demonstrably against the administrative "swamp", steadily cutting away the powers of the administrative class and narrowing the scope of some laws and attacking exclusions from others that provide the administrative class with powers. That is why he was elected, that is why he will likely get elected again.

The Trump show is not the actual man. It is a grating bullying buffoon persona meant to present him as the precise opposite of the personages of the administrative class. Opposing their sophisticated ivy league school presentation. The point of the matter is that he is making a big show of not being an elitist a$$hole. Though that is precisely how he was raised. He is playing deliberately that boor that pokes at the leaders he's supposed to work with. That is to differentiate himself and his direction from the broad "swamp" he came into. It also helps to keep the other side busy ridiculing his pronouncements rather than looking at what he is doing. 

 

Europeans don't understand how Americans can choose Trump as something more than a crude showman. It is because Europeans don't understand that their own ossified bureaucracy is no more capable of responding to their shifting politics and needs than a stone, that they accept version n+1 of the same Ecole d'Administration grad, sitting in parliament, at the head of the ministry, at the EC department, prime minister, TV anchor, the school head, the union rep, the corporate management, all the members of the judge panel in court. The only alternative options are caricature nationalist strongmen who are not actually fighting the administrative class. There is no need for Europeans to develop their own buffoon anti-candidate, but they do need to break free of this government structure and social class that this bureaucratic mill is running to imperceptibly crush Europeans one after the other.. 

 

 

[ronwagn + 6,290]

17 hours ago, Douglas Buckland said:

I have a question for many of the non-American, non-Chinese members on this forum:

Why do you focus so much attention on President Trump and American politics?

Obviously, due to the ongoing trade war and the COVID-19 pandemic, there will be a significant amount of discourse between the American and Chinese members,?This is to be expected as these issues have a direct impact on both ‘camps’.

What I find interesting is the unnatural interest in American politics and the legal system from the European or British contingent. Do you not have similar issues in your own countries to discuss? Are your governments working seamlessly to address them? Are your politicians all blameless concerning recent events?

You don’t have any ‘skin’ in the American game, so why the interest and comments?

One individual told me that due to the fact that anything that America does, affects the entire international community. This may be so, but this line of reasoning could also be applied to each European country, Great Britain, and the European Union.

I am curious as to why you are so interested in, and comment on, American politics but rarely post anything concerning your own.

They have very little or no control over their own governments. They feel that they may have some impact on America's. Primarily they align with the Demoncrats. They hate that we have more rights than they do and want us to be as miserable as they are. Globalism is the one way they can feel they have some power as part of the system. With an assortment of strong and free countries they can only control their piddly little countries and economies. China is the only nation near equal to America. It is the evil dragon that must be slain economically to help preserve the freedom of nations. The recent World Health Organization support of the Communist Chinese Party Virus epidemic is a prime example of how the United Nations operates and what its goals are. 

We have a huge China lobby within America. We have many billionaires that depend on Chinese trade to fund their coffers. We must make it illegal to put Chinese business investment, by our citizens, above the interests of America. To do this we must have alternative suppliers though. I think the price of doing business with America must be having equal and fair trade with us, in so much as is feasible. 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/05/14/china-is-using-washington-swamp-against-us/

https://thehill.com/opinion/international/462149-americas-china-experts-ignore-the-chinese-communist-party

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-10-22/facebook-amazon-set-lobbying-records-amid-washington-scrutiny

https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/11/26/china-bids-lead-world-intellectual-property-organization-wipo/

Edited April 17, 2020 by ronwagn
added reference

[UNC12345 + 171]

2 hours ago, ronwagn said:

They have very little or no control over their own governments. They feel that they may have some impact on America's. Primarily they align with the Demoncrats. They hate that we have more rights than they do and want us to be as miserable as they are. Globalism is the one way they can feel they have some power as part of the system. With an assortment of strong and free countries they can only control their piddly little countries and economies. China is the only nation near equal to America.

Where to start.....hmmm

The US has control over their government?  You're kidding me right?  You have no more control than almost any other democracy.  Don't kid yourself.  Have you watched your these fools over the past 3 years?  They squabble so much, I don't even know how they govern anymore.

You have more rights than we do?  I will agree you have the right to own an insane amount of guns and be home to an incredibly high amount of gun violence, I'll give you that (and don't want that).  You also have the right to pay lower taxes it seems, no arguments there.  I'd like lower taxes but there's a cost to that.

And being miserable?  C'mon man. I know this will be considered a plot of the MSM and a tool of the left wing, but check out the happiness below.  Where is the US?  Quite a bit further down the list.  Notice any similarities amongst the very top group?  Don't say everyone else is miserable.  That's just so incredibly egotistical.

[UNC12345 + 171]

6 hours ago, Jan van Eck said:

OK< UNC, I will concede the point.  It was a broad generalization and pretty unfair.    "Insulting"?  Well, that is a bit harsh, then again, it is Canada, so anyone with views just a hair to the left or right of LEster Pearson would be unfair, insulting, and extreme.  Agree?

I am also a bit rash in that assuredly the immigrant community I ran into in Canada was dynamic, in part.  Some of the immigrants did have "get up and go."  It was that segment that kept Canada from falling  down into total muskeg. 

I will also both grant and admit that I remain a bit bitter, in that all of my personal efforts and a lot of wealth went down the drain, with the ossified bureaucracy and the people in them working so hard to totally wreck everything that I had built, including wrecking the manufacturing plants out of nothing more than personal spite.  For example, I had these two larger plants down Hamilton (Ontario) way, which your Feds wrecked over a dispute over $147.53.   They came in and did an audit on the deductions at source, on a million-dollar payroll, and the auditor, a young kid just out of college and on his first job, claimed he found the discrepancy.  I handed the kid a cheque and took him out for a nice lunch, wishing him well in his career.  Six months after that the RCMP showed up to arrest me for having held back "wrongfully" that $147.53.  It was later admitted to me that the "District Director" of Revenue Canada took that attitude in order to instill "compliance" fear in the local business community.  I shut the plants down and moved the machinery to the USA.  Who needs that abuse?  [They demanded I plead "guilty" and pay a $250 fine. There is no way that that is going to happen, not with this boy. Nobody pushes me around.] 

So, in sum, you live in a society where your useless bureaucrats will shut down plants and wreck the lives of two hundred of the workforce just to be a mendacious, bullying bureaucrat.  As a society, you are good with that. You pay these guys the big bucks to be abusive, and you as a society think that is just peachy keen.  And then you wonder why the Loonie ends up trading at 62 cents.  Brilliant. 

It cost me esily two million dollars to abandon Canada and move the plants.  But,  if you are not prepared to pay the price, then you are nothing more than a slave, either a wage slave or a slave to some bureaucrat.  I refuse to be a slave to anybody.  And that is why I like living among Americans.  Americans refuse to be slaves to anybody.   Canadians?  Hey, they think it is fine. 

If this was your experience, I do understand your views.  Your pronouncements though, still seem rather broad but again, understandable that you would feel that way.

[ronwagn + 6,290]

10 minutes ago, UNC12345 said:

Where to start.....hmmm

The US has control over their government?  You're kidding me right?  You have no more control than almost any other democracy.  Don't kid yourself.  Have you watched your these fools over the past 3 years?  They squabble so much, I don't even know how they govern anymore.

You have more rights than we do?  I will agree you have the right to own an insane amount of guns and be home to an incredibly high amount of gun violence, I'll give you that (and don't want that).  You also have the right to pay lower taxes it seems, no arguments there.  I'd like lower taxes but there's a cost to that.

And being miserable?  C'mon man. I know this will be considered a plot of the MSM and a tool of the left wing, but check out the happiness below.  Where is the US?  Quite a bit further down the list.  Notice any similarities amongst the very top group?  Don't say everyone else is miserable.  That's just so incredibly egotistical.

All very nice little (aside from Canada), mostly cold countries with very small populations and left wing governments. They all have top down big government systems compared to ours. None of them wield much clout economically or geopolitically. 

We have a Bill of Rights, and a constitution that is actually followed to a great extent. 

Anyone can make up a list of popular countries based on anything they wish. The actual test is where people choose to live and try to emigrate to. The winner is America. 

https://goodmove.co.uk/blog/top-global-countries-to-emigrate-to/

[Hotone + 412]

9 hours ago, Jan van Eck said:

I spent 18 years in Canada building new manufacturing plants and providing hundreds of new, good-paying jobs, and built up millions of dollars of export earnings for the country.  The thanks I got was the overbearing and abusive hand of Government and the attitude generally that I was some form of "capitalist oppressor."   No thanks for the new products I developed, the intellectual property I developed, or the industry I developed.  My experience in Canada has left a rather bad taste in the mouth, so to speak. 

You folks have lousy governments, Federal and Provincial.  Nature of your country. 

Were you an employee or an entrepreneur?  Did you get compensated very lucratively for your work?

[Hotone + 412]

9 hours ago, Jan van Eck said:

I spent 18 years in Canada building new manufacturing plants and providing hundreds of new, good-paying jobs, and built up millions of dollars of export earnings for the country.  The thanks I got was the overbearing and abusive hand of Government and the attitude generally that I was some form of "capitalist oppressor."   No thanks for the new products I developed, the intellectual property I developed, or the industry I developed.  My experience in Canada has left a rather bad taste in the mouth, so to speak. 

You folks have lousy governments, Federal and Provincial.  Nature of your country. 

Were you an employee or an entrepreneur?  Did you get compensated very lucratively for your work?

[Douglas Buckland + 6,308]

 

”Alright Douglas, Dan..have at me.”

Not going to happen. You said what you wanted to say.

I can understand why ‘foreigners’ ridicule Trump, and I am not a fan of his tweets, but the guy gets things done (to the extent that he can with an antagonistic House). 
What I can’t understand is the anger over his ‘America first’ policy...isn’t that his job? Isn’t that the job of ANY Head of State?

Everybody was aware, for decades, that the Chinese were not competing, trade-wise, on a level playing field. Trump decided to do something about it. Why didn’t the EU do something about it, or at least get off of the fence and support Trump’s initiative...seriously, why wasn’t the EU not more aggressive?

Another issue I keep hearing about is Trump tearing up the nuclear treaty with Iran, antagonizing our allies. This was an agreement, not a treaty! A very different animal.

Anyhow, I started the thread honestly to try and understand the obsession with Trump and American politics, so please keep responding.

(If I appear distraught and antagonistic at times, keep in mind that I am in week 5 of lockdown/house arrest in Kuala Lumpur, in an 1100 sq ft apartment. My TV died during week 1, and the battery pack on my Mac ignited a few days ago. Cut me some slack!)

[ronwagn + 6,290]

14 hours ago, LiamP said:

OK I'll go first! I'm a noob so no reputation to jeopardise. There seems to be plenty of love for Trump in here, so you might not like what you hear, but you asked!

Some obvious more general reasons I can think of first...

1. Simply most folk here are American. That's pretty common in international English language forums for many areas of interest for obvious reasons, so most of the discussion seems US-centric. Us non-Americans generally just like to join in and chat with you guys on whatever is being discussed, occasionally interjecting with things like 'damnit USA isn't the entire world you know!'. We could make threads or sub-forums for our 'minority interests', but realistically speaking, if I was starting threads here about UK politics, or even worse Norwegian, it would just be tumbleweeds.

2. America is big! American values and culture permeate our own societies more than any other nations. I grew up loving American 80s TV shows and movies, listening to American artists, etc etc. Americans were cool. Everyone wants to go to America. American politics are on the news here a lot. What the US is up to is a much more significant ingredient in our everyday lives than any foreign nation is in yours. Always been that way. So of course we all think we know as much about US politics as any American!

But the fascination with Trump specifically, that's different. Best I can describe it is a morbid curiosity. A captivating mixture of high comedy to amuse us and deep concern about where the hell the biggest superpower on the globe is headed, with inevitably much of the west following.

He obviously has enough support in the US to have been elected, and, I shudder at the thought, probably to be elected again. But support outside the US for Trump... how can I put it... it's low. We're not so subject to the polarised partisan media in the US, so we generally just get reports on the things he says and the things he does, in full context with rational analysis and commentary. And a lot of the time what comes out of his mouth, or through his fingers on Twitter is just so bizarre and so unlike anything we've ever seen from a world leader it is just hilarious. We genuinely can't believe you guys elected this man as President.

But at the same time, like I said, genuine concern as, with reckless abandon, he insults long-time allies, pokes enemies, rips up international treaties, starts trade wars that even the US suffers from, pulls out of the WHO, builds his Great Wall of America, argues with journalists like a teenager, etc etc.

Many of us grew up looking up to America as the coolest nation in the world, leaders in Science and tech, leading in culture and values. Now, not so much. Sad to say America is increasingly becoming more of a backwards laughing stock in the eyes of the rest of the world, and it's getting harder and harder for our own leaders to deal with the US seriously and take them seriously. If Trump gets another round I cant imagine how far the reputation of the US is going to fall in the eyes of the rest of the world.

So yeah - fascinating!

The Republican side is unlike anything commonly accepted in Europe. You believe in one national government. We are The United States of America. We are made up of fifty states. The Federal government has limited powers, the individual states govern their own affairs beyond those limited powers. We are a very large country with very different states. Comparing urbanites to suburbanites and rural folks is difficult. There are large differences. There are also large differences between our rich, our middle class, and our poor (which are wealthy by world standards). 

The voters that elected President Trump won fewer national votes but more states and than the Democrats. Our electoral college system made the difference. 

What is very odd is that people like you in this country and around the world care NOTHING about the REAL EVILS of the Obama Administration and the three year long false attacks on President Trump. That is all good to you. All deserved because you are blind to facts that do not fit your preconceptions. See my topic on the Scandals of the Obama Administration (including Hillary Clinton). https://docs.google.com/document/d/11axnqv_b3L2k9CD6HWNMwrdIECJZSxowxjO4RIc-rbE/edit

Your sheer ignorance of the realities of what has gone on here is incredible, but is not as bad as the ignorance of the Demoncrats. They are dead to the truth, you are just, apparently, not aware of it. Your mainstream media is just as bad as ours is. 

Derek Prince, a famous British theologian says that the primary activity of Satan is slandering his enemies. I believe that is true. 

[ronwagn + 6,290]

13 hours ago, Enthalpic said:

US and Canadian economies are intertwined; I have financial interest in knowing what mistakes are currently happening. I have more "skin in the game" than some broke moron with a vote in states.

 

Plus it is entertaining.  Ever "rubberneck" at a bad car crash?  It is horrible but entertaining at the same time. Foreign bodybuilders who can barely speak can become governor.  Reality TV host becomes POTUS.  Fake wrestling 'athletes" stand a reasonable chance of getting elected...

WWE is not an education - nor is trump university... but who cares except the courts and those defrauded.

We look at Trudeau, the man child of the left and how he says he is ashamed of his fellow Canadians who are not urbanite leftists. It is another way of saying the deplorables. President Trump had to call him out about his childish behavior a couple of times. 

https://conservativedailypost.com/5000-canadian-deplorables-storm-parliament-hill-praise-trump-destroy-trudeau/

Critical Information https://docs.google.com/document/d/1choW_wq0D5DfjRPjqLlAkfxCnnVJhRzrHeXppE6D4E8/edit

Edited April 18, 2020 by ronwagn
added reference

[Enthalpic + 1,496]

9 hours ago, Jan van Eck said:

OK< UNC, I will concede the point.  It was a broad generalization and pretty unfair.    "Insulting"?  Well, that is a bit harsh, then again, it is Canada, so anyone with views just a hair to the left or right of LEster Pearson would be unfair, insulting, and extreme.  Agree?

I am also a bit rash in that assuredly the immigrant community I ran into in Canada was dynamic, in part.  Some of the immigrants did have "get up and go."  It was that segment that kept Canada from falling  down into total muskeg. 

I will also both grant and admit that I remain a bit bitter, in that all of my personal efforts and a lot of wealth went down the drain, with the ossified bureaucracy and the people in them working so hard to totally wreck everything that I had built, including wrecking the manufacturing plants out of nothing more than personal spite.  For example, I had these two larger plants down Hamilton (Ontario) way, which your Feds wrecked over a dispute over $147.53.   They came in and did an audit on the deductions at source, on a million-dollar payroll, and the auditor, a young kid just out of college and on his first job, claimed he found the discrepancy.  I handed the kid a cheque and took him out for a nice lunch, wishing him well in his career.  Six months after that the RCMP showed up to arrest me for having held back "wrongfully" that $147.53.  It was later admitted to me that the "District Director" of Revenue Canada took that attitude in order to instill "compliance" fear in the local business community.  I shut the plants down and moved the machinery to the USA.  Who needs that abuse?  [They demanded I plead "guilty" and pay a $250 fine. There is no way that that is going to happen, not with this boy. Nobody pushes me around.] 

So, in sum, you live in a society where your useless bureaucrats will shut down plants and wreck the lives of two hundred of the workforce just to be a mendacious, bullying bureaucrat.  As a society, you are good with that. You pay these guys the big bucks to be abusive, and you as a society think that is just peachy keen.  And then you wonder why the Loonie ends up trading at 62 cents.  Brilliant. 

It cost me esily two million dollars to abandon Canada and move the plants.  But,  if you are not prepared to pay the price, then you are nothing more than a slave, either a wage slave or a slave to some bureaucrat.  I refuse to be a slave to anybody.  And that is why I like living among Americans.  Americans refuse to be slaves to anybody.   Canadians?  Hey, they think it is fine. 

Ha - because the slaves were not considered people let alone citizens!

Have another civil war.

Edited April 18, 2020 by Enthalpic

[Douglas Buckland + 6,308]

9 minutes ago, Enthalpic said:

Ha - because the slaves were not considered people let alone citizens!

Have another civil war.

Really....your commentary is childish to the point of being asinine.

[Enthalpic + 1,496]

1 hour ago, ronwagn said:

We look at Trudeau, the man child of the left and how he says he is ashamed of his fellow Canadians who are not urbanite leftists. It is another way of saying the deplorables. President Trump had to call him out about his childish behavior a couple of times. 

https://conservativedailypost.com/5000-canadian-deplorables-storm-parliament-hill-praise-trump-destroy-trudeau/

Critical Information https://docs.google.com/document/d/1choW_wq0D5DfjRPjqLlAkfxCnnVJhRzrHeXppE6D4E8/edit

Trump hates half the US population; is that any different?

I have no problem calling right-wing gun-nuts who have no regard for the poor deplorable.  Insulting trump is apparently bad but calling the elected leader of Canada a "man child" is fine.  

Trudeau has far more diplomatic skill and class than trump. 

 

Edited April 18, 2020 by Enthalpic

[Enthalpic + 1,496]

1 hour ago, ronwagn said:

The Republican side is unlike anything commonly accepted in Europe. You believe in one national government. We are The United States of America. We are made up of fifty states. The Federal government has limited powers, the individual states govern their own affairs beyond those limited powers. We are a very large country with very different states. Comparing urbanites to suburbanites and rural folks is difficult. There are large differences. There are also large differences between our rich, our middle class, and our poor (which are wealthy by world standards). 

The voters that elected President Trump won fewer national votes but more states and than the Democrats. Our electoral college system made the difference. 

What is very odd is that people like you in this country and around the world care NOTHING about the REAL EVILS of the Obama Administration and the three year long false attacks on President Trump. That is all good to you. All deserved because you are blind to facts that do not fit your preconceptions. See my topic on the Scandals of the Obama Administration (including Hillary Clinton). https://docs.google.com/document/d/11axnqv_b3L2k9CD6HWNMwrdIECJZSxowxjO4RIc-rbE/edit

Your sheer ignorance of the realities of what has gone on here is incredible, but is not as bad as the ignorance of the Demoncrats. They are dead to the truth, you are just, apparently, not aware of it. Your mainstream media is just as bad as ours is. 

Derek Prince, a famous British theologian says that the primary activity of Satan is slandering his enemies. I believe that is true. 

Clearly the total collapse/death of the world is the fault of the previous administration that was several years ago...

[ronwagn + 6,290]

3 minutes ago, Enthalpic said:

Trump hates half the US population; is that any different?

I have no problem calling right-wing gun-nuts who have no regard for the poor deplorable.  Insulting trump is apparently bad but calling the elected leader of Canada a "man child" is fine.  

Trudeau has far more diplomatic skill and class than trump. 

 

The brown face, black face elitist that says he is ashamed of the Canadians who built the country.

[ronwagn + 6,290]

4 minutes ago, Enthalpic said:

Clearly the total collapse/death of the world is the fault of the previous administration that was several years ago...

You just don't have any comprehension of the evils of the Obama Administration and their attempts to impeach President Trump before he was even sworn in. That is not uncommon though. Sadly it is true of half of Americans also. 

[Enthalpic + 1,496]

9 minutes ago, ronwagn said:

The brown face, black face elitist that says he is ashamed of the Canadians who built the country.

That was a long time ago...

The Aladdin thing was not racist, just poor taste.

If you close your eyes and imagine the person who "built the untied states" it would almost certainly be a white male in his 40s. Be Honest.

 

Edited April 18, 2020 by Enthalpic

[Enthalpic + 1,496]

8 minutes ago, ronwagn said:

You just don't have any comprehension of the evils of the Obama Administration and their attempts to impeach President Trump before he was even sworn in. That is not uncommon though. Sadly it is true of half of Americans also. 

He was impeached, just as much as POTUS Bill C.

Edited April 18, 2020 by Enthalpic