SpankyMcFarland

So what should US policy be on Ukraine? Pro-Russian? Neutral?

My reference to Trump was on his Russian policy. What about my Ukraine quotes? I have heard nothing from the US on Israel's stance there.

Two things. West Jerusalem is a different ball of wax from Jerusalem. Secondly, Russia and Israel have a complex relationship. For example, Israel has not followed the US line on Ukraine: http://www.pravdareport.com/news/world/asia/11-12-2017/139362-israel_crimea-0/ http://m.jpost.com/Features/Front-Lines/Can-Israel-be-neutral-on-Ukraine-349814 See the last line here: http://m.jpost.com/Diaspora/Honoring-of-antisemites-a-problem-says-Israels-ambassador-to-Ukraine-507995 There's been 'no media conniption fit' over this divide between close allies for some reason, although with Trump in charge Lord knows what US policy is now. The Iranians should be worried about their Russian friends.

The 1.1 state solution leaves enclaves whose inhabitants will never have a vote in elections that determine their lives. Israel will get what it wants but generally does not admit it wants - land with little or no Arabs to deal with.

One problem is that the Israelis are not waiting for the Palestinians to see the light. In the next few years, they will end the possibility of a viable Palestinian state in the West Bank forever.

I don't agree with suicide bombing - it's not only a moral mistake but a strategic one as non-violent resistance would be a far more effective tool for the Palestinians - but that's not really my call to make. In such conflicts, tribes tend to do what they can. Against overwhelming force, the options are limited. The West is hypocritical too. The whole concept of collateral damage is a very convenient and elastic one which allows the US to kill as many civilians as it likes and pretend it's all good and ethical. How many Hollywood movies have been made in recent years about the thousands of Japanese children burnt, choked and crushed in Nagasaki, Tokyo and Hiroshima? When was the last close-up of kids with skin hanging off? The civilian casualties were definitely part of the point the US was making there. They were intended. Collateral damage my eye.

All tribes celebrate their warriors. We do. The Israelis do. The Palestinians do. That's human nature. The regime has been a disaster for the people of Gaza but people will support their own. I don't hear much talk of Hamas terrorists on our streets. Local and international terrorism deserve separate nouns. Hamas are more like ETA and the IRA In that regard despite US attempts to equate them with ISIS and AQ.

The US is supposed to be an honest broker here, a ref between the two sides. This concession is like the ref giving one side a penalty shot for no reason whatsoever. In soccer, you'd assume the ref was on the take if this happened. I can see no good reason beyond internal US politics for this move. Even the Saudis couldn't support it.

More bad news for the Brexiteers: https://www.independent.ie/world-news/europe/britain/theresa-mays-government-suffers-first-brexit-defeat-as-mps-support-tory-rebels-amendment-on-meaningful-vote-36406333.html

It’s hard to make out what’s happening here. How long can a bubble last? There does seem to be a strong demand for cryptocurrencies out there. Whatever about bitcoin, blockchain might have a future in many fields including health care records.

The Conservatives can’t agree on what sort of Brexit they want which means their negotiators have to fudge what they are doing in order to keep the Cabinet united: https://news.sky.com/story/david-davis-slammed-for-calling-brexit-deal-statement-of-intent-11167642 https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/dec/06/david-davis-escapes-mps-criticism-over-lack-of-brexit-assessments

A century on, Balfour's Declaration needs a few changes; it's the Palestinians who are getting the homeland, actually a series of them if Naftali Bennett and his friends have anything to do with it, disconnected from each other and controlled by the Israeli state. The solution will not be one state or two states but 1.1 states. Arab land in Area C will gradually be annexed, the euphemisms employed to obscure this fact doing terrible violence to the English language in the process, and as few Arab voters as possible will be absorbed into Israel.

As a near atheist, I’m reduced to something like prayer when I think of human overpopulation. It’s a terrifying problem. One possible way out is female empowerment. If women can control their age at marriage and fertility, then we have some hope of handing on a half-decent planet to future generations. In one Nigerian state, the median age at marriage is 14 at the moment and for the whole of Niger it’s 15.7 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_age_at_first_marriage Something tells me the girls involved have little say in the matter.

Schools are fully entitled to enforce a dress code that’s stricter than the minimum legally permitted. Below the age of consent and majority, young people, especially girls, should be directed in ways that help them cope with the flood of messages from peers and media that can lead them into poor choices. Soon, as adults in Canada and the UK, they will be free to make up their own minds, which is as it should be in every country, but they deserve to be equipped with the best tools to do so. An appropriate dress code is a small but significant part of this process.

Yourself and Erdogan should move to Niger where this target is being exceeded at the moment with impressive results. Try and imagine a world where we all did this and you will see a vista of starvation, war, the mass extinction of other species, climate change in overdrive and so on. We don’t need more people on this precious, little planet - our only home.

Is there any evidence for that at all? I’d say the opposite is true. And distrust of the rich is hardly confined to Liberal voters.

Didn’t you just tell us that this thread was about Trudeau and Morneau and not about the rich versus very rich debate?

Does anyone really believe Morneau got into politics to make money selling shares? Like many rich people getting into this game, he made mistakes but I think we should take an indulgent view of this if we want more like him taking on high office. Otherwise we are into the politics of envy and I thought Conservatives were against that.

Just started Lincoln in the Bardo.

Looks like NL is going to get tougher on the overprescribing of opioids: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/new-prescription-monitoring-program-john-haggie-1.4402880 Doctors are going to be in a tight spot, especially the poor buggers who’ve just acquired an existing practice only to find a shed load of addicts therein. However, it is one step in the right direction.

Australia and NZ are good countries to compare ourselves with, given their sparse density of population, health issues among indigenous people and a similar cultural history. All international comparisons that get us away from the North American paradigm are healthy. Longer term, our system will have to develop a larger private sector.

Not really. Stat-wise we are not Somalia yet. Google ‘patient lying in agony’ even just in English and you’ll see many non-Canadian stories.

It’s not third world standard, of course. Hyperbole there.

Says it all about this site. Where do I hand in my mea culpa?

Not everyone who disagrees with you is a Marxist.