SpankyMcFarland

Warren is a better candidate. She looks decades younger (even before Bernie’s MI) and has a much sunnier approach to voters. On health care she’s not to the left of him and has actually left herself some wiggle room for the election.

To his credit, Bernie refused to endorse his son for Congress: https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/6/7/17438836/levi-sanders-bernie-2020-new-hampshire Less political nepotism would be a good idea in most countries.

Hard to believe the following statements from Trump. They are real, apparently: https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/465098-trump-defends-syria-move-the-kurds-didnt-help-us-in-normandy

Ford lacks the temperament required for a serious political post.

Are you talking about CO2 output a) per country or b) per person? If the second then we still have a long way to go. The West has not done its fair share. We have warmed the world. China and India will contribute in the future but the status quo is largely our doing. Let’s not try and weasel out of that reality.

This has catastrophe written all over it: slaughter of the Kurds; release of ISIS prisoners; and putting perhaps millions of Syrian refugees onto the front line of a war. Even by his own sleazebag standards, Trump has excelled himself here.

The West should lead the way on cutting carbon emissions. We have put most of the excess carbon dioxide and methane up there and we have the resources and technology to become much more efficient. Britain is showing a good example in this regard: https://www.greeneconomycoalition.org/news-analysis/a-uk-net-zero-target-must-inspire-global-action Of course, we are not going to abandon capitalism in this effort. Many multinationals are acutely aware of the need to change.

He should have dumped the beard and turban some time ago. We’re not that woke yet.

I disagree. May has a folksy charm for those willing to see it. Her remark was typical of her style.

The format was chaotic, preventing any serious discussion of any issue. Barton tried to stay on top of them and prevent heckling but not all the moderators were as successful. Scheer took a leaf out of JT’s book, interrupting all over the place and reducing the proceedings to noise at several points. He should probably should not have got as animated with Bernier which only raised the guy’s significance. Bernier made some interesting points in a rather academic way but for someone looking for votes in right-wing anglophone Canada his accent remains heavy and he makes the occasional grammatical error. He’s certainly no orator and does not come across well on TV. Singh brought much needed humour to the occasion and seemed comfortable in the format. Blanchet was excellent in English - those francophones put us to shame - and got in a few zingers. May did OK. Overall I’d say Trudeau would be happy enough with such a melee although Singh did better than expected. It would be nice to see the debate points continued online. Three debates might have done the issues justice.

They need to turn off the microphones of anybody speaking out of turn or too long.

I don’t think he ran on the make ISIS stronger platform. Keeping a modest number of soldiers in Syria alongside highly motivated local fighters is an efficient use of military manpower. The criticism today came from politicians, pundits and soldiers. Here’s Brian Kilmeade: Ominously for Trump, even conservative Fox News aired dissent. Host Brian Kilmeade described the pullout as “a disaster”, telling viewers of Fox & Friends: “Abandon our allies? That’s a campaign promise? Abandon the people that got the caliphate destroyed?” https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/oct/07/trump-syria-us-troop-withdrawal-turkey

Utterly irrelevant.

Perhaps you could reply to the comments of McConnell, Rubio, Graham, Romney, Cruz, Huckabee and Haley that criticize Trump’s action.

Wrong. Obviously familiar with that and not approving of it either. Two wrongs etc. etc. etc. This is a serious blow to US credibility. Here’s what some Republicans had to say: Our enemies and rivals (Iran, Russia, etc.) don’t abandon their allies; if we want allies to stand with America in the future, we shouldn’t either. Honorable nations stand by their friends. Ted Cruz https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/disaster-betrayal-mistake-republicans-slam-trump-s-syria-pull-out-n1063251

The fact remains that Trump has just betrayed the Kurds.

Depressing betrayal of the SDF by Trump today. America cannot be trusted.

1. How many of the 500 were actually scientists? 2. How many were climate scientists? Here’s some commentary on that letter: https://climatefeedback.org/evaluation/letter-signed-by-500-scientists-relies-on-inaccurate-claims-about-climate-science/

What I like about the Tories: 1. Scheer seems a decent enough, politically experienced fellow with a middle class, non-trust fund background and no major scandals in his past. 2. The Chrétien/Harper consensus of the inter-Trudeau years on the importance of balancing the budget could be restored. 3. Somewhat more vigilant on immigration as a problem. 4. I’d probably do better tax-wise under the Cons than JT. 5. My buddy is running locally for the party. Either way, it won’t affect me very much.

Negative stories about an incumbent are inherently less damaging because voters are familiar with the person already. On abortion, same-sex marriage, citizenship and what turns out to have been a surprisingly brief foray into the insurance industry before politics, Scheer had years to prepare positions that were solid and consistent. He has failed to do that. https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/andrew-scheer-american-citizenship-2019-election-1.5308174 As Wherry points out, Scheer could easily have divulged his US citizenship in that blogpost about Jean and sorted it out promptly. Instead he chose to hide it. The guy has been badly advised and vetted.

Given that this proposal would apply to all politicians, my voting preferences are irrelevant. It’s just basic common sense.

Whatever one thinks about dual citizenship, it’s certainly a distraction for Scheer right now. Instead of attacking the Liberals he has to spend time defending his own record. For his sake, he better have told the whole story.

The Scheer story has legs. It now emerges he registered for the US draft: https://globalnews.ca/news/5990192/andrew-scheer-us-draft/amp/ How many more little details are we going to be drip-fed? This is reminiscent of Ignatieff now, a quite unnecessary own goal by the Tories.

Canada is still a great country to live in - safe, prosperous, just. There is much that’s worth preserving here.

Doesn’t all that make the case for being a little stricter regarding the loyalties of those who govern us? I haven’t yet seen any good arguments here against a foreign citizenship ban.