SpankyMcFarland

That was why I put the EU in italics. Thatcher’s main point there was not about the EEC per se but the effect referendums could have on the constitutional order of Britain, a representative democracy.

Well then, let’s be more honest about our interests. If we want compliant dictators in control in the ME for the foreseeable future come out and say it: our murderers are preferable to their mullahs.

Here are some of Margaret Thatcher’s thoughts on a previous ‘EU’ referendum:

Pence went to Ireland, stayed in Trump’s golf club for no good reason at all and insulted the whole country: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/sep/05/mike-pence-ireland-shat-on-the-carpet

Si Kenen registered as a foreign agent before he founded and later incorporated AIPAC. We have either to assume he carried on in that role or suppose, more implausibly, that he changed tack. Here is a quote from his wiki bio:

One can’t easily go from one end to the other by train in Canada as the railway was abandoned in Newfoundland many decades ago and trains on the mainland are slow for the most part. Even driving from SJ to Victoria is weird; each province seems to arbitrarily name a road as their bit of the Trans-Canada Highway and we pretend we have a national motorway. It’s not a proper unitary system like the US interstate. The TCH should be entirely under federal control.

I would support targeted tariffs of that sort.

Ah now, I’m a free trader. Tariffs are a blunt instrument.

On fentanyl and China, I do cheer him on.

Over the years, AIPAC, initially a liberal organization, has swung sharply to the right and is now a strong supporter of Netanyahu.

You’re building straw men there. As I pointed it, it’s not ALL about the Benjamins. It’s also NOT about control. Omar was wrong about that. It’s about influence. Like any lobby group, AIPAC (and the many organizations it works with) tries to influence policy but it’s success has been so great that it’s in a different category from other groups lobbying for a foreign country. The appropriate way to measure the power of AIPAC and other pro-Israel organizations it works with is to compare them to other foreign lobbyists, not the oil industry. Do congressmen pay more attention to AIPAC Inc. than they do to, say, French, German, British or Saudi lobbyists? Only the Saudis come remotely close. Nancy Pelosi has already rebuked the British over the backstop and has threatened to block any trade deal post-Brexit. That shows how strong the British lobby is these days. Should AIPAC be registered as a foreign agent? Here’s the opinion of a former employee: https://forward.com/opinion/395676/its-time-for-aipac-to-register-as-a-foreign-agent/

Don’t react impulsively...would your friend Trump be a good example of conservative sang froid and measured judgement? I support Trump’s words on fentanyl and the Chinese but his response to the opioid crisis in general has been fairly lame, starting with picking Jared (!) as the guy to lead the fight.

The thing is that any half-sensible message Trump has to deliver on fentanyl and espionage gets lost in his own noise about everything else.

We’d be a lot less dependent if we’d been allowed to renegotiate the Churchill Falls deal with Quebec which depends on a power resource in our province. Had Canada negotiated such a lop-sided contract with a developing country, it would have been shamed into tearing it up long ago and Quebec would not have tolerated such injustice either, needless to say - some way out would have been found. I suspect our province will never escape from that ruinous agreement - an extension will be engineered for Quebec’s benefit, perhaps when NL goes bust. Ironically, one cause of our financial destruction may turn out to be the Muskrat Falls project which was made far more expensive because Danny Williams refused to involve Quebec in any way after our last unpleasant experience.

This story isn’t a big surprise: https://www.latimes.com/sports/angels/story/2019-08-30/tyler-skaggs-autopsy-report-fentanyl-oxycodone-alcohol-angels-rusty-hardin But I still can’t get over the way fentanyl is becoming normalized as a party drug.

If they don’t exist what are we arguing about? Firstly, they do exist: https://www.pharmacytimes.com/resource-centers/immunization/antivaccine-celebrities-have-inordinate-amount-of-influence https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/five-years-on-bill-maher-is-still-an-antivaccine-crank-and-proves-it-yet-again/ Secondly, they often like to describe themselves misleadingly as hesitant, sceptical or ’having questions’ about vaccines so that their real position is missed.

1. Omar was almost correct. It’s not all about the Benjamins but they are sure as heck matter a great deal to any politician. 2. AIPAC in its modern form was created by Isaiah Kenen, a Canadian who had previously worked for the Israeli government, for the express purpose of circumventing FARA law on foreign agents. Those who claim it is not a foreign agent now must specify when it ceased being one.

Assad’s sectarianism is tempered by Ba’athist ideology and Arab nationalism. The Alawite nature of the regime was good for business, more like the Italian Mafia (or Stalin’s fondness for non-Russians) than the purist theocracies of Iran or KSA. An ophthalmologist trained in London, he married a British-born Sunni woman. Many of his ministers were Sunni. The goal was always retention of power. Facing a mainly Sunni opposition, he targeted secular moderates first and made this conflict about religion for tactical reasons.

B’y, does ya fish wid dat?

Newfoundland.

Ottawa and environs look good - a capital city on the edge of wilderness and some fairly decent hills too. Not BC but not bad either.

That doesn't apply just to China these days and the Chinese are narrowing the technology gap with the West all the time. The new Huawei phones aren't excellent just because of espionage. The Chinese can see what's coming and are diversifying their customer base. Trade within Asia is increasing rapidly and so is Eurasian trade. The US can influence this process but it can't control it.

Do you talk like this when you're out of the house?

Nobody ‘is’ Canada just because their families have around here for a short while.

How keen on Israel does a Palestinian American really have to be? And what of other hotspots in the world e.g. Yugoslavia, South Asia, Northern Ireland. Do immigrants from these places have to watch what they say too?