SpankyMcFarland

Most of us aren’t equipped to lead countries but Trump had the opposite qualifications. Like many narcissists he just can’t empathize with other people, a serious shortcoming in a plague.

He did not manage Covid well at all and set a terrible example by promoting treatments with no validity. One thing the US certainly doesn’t need is more tax breaks for the very rich. https://www.brookings.edu/articles/the-middle-class-needs-a-tax-cut-trump-didnt-give-it-to-them/

I guess my point is that the issue of absent fathers involves two adult actors rather than one. I’m not disputing what Charles Murray and Co. have said about contemporary male fecklessness but that’s not the whole story. If a man doesn’t bring a big surplus to the family table, his long-term position in that household will be uncertain. Something I didn’t take on board until quite late in life, thankfully not from personal experience: women often draw a clear distinction between fatherhood and cohabitation these days. They are still attracted to the hunter-type for sexual encounters but when considering a live-in partner a lot of calculation, much of it unconscious, is involved to figure out who is really worth the trouble. A guy may think he is leaving entirely of his own accord and may not see for quite a while afterwards (or ever) that there wasn’t exactly much protest or grief about his departure. While men often see themselves as the CEOs of a family, women own the company.

If re-elected Trump has made it very clear he will destroy American democracy. Incredibly, there are millions who go along with this.

Do you deny anything I have said there?

What sort of person is fooled by Trump? While not remotely convincing as a Republican, he is a completely genuine perv. And yet some Christians manage to ignore all that.

And you desire leadership from a vulgar fraudster like Trump: disastrous businessman, perhaps the worst in US history for anyone who lent him money or did work for him; accomplished salesman, given what an absolute loser he was; brilliant criminal, still at large despite a lifetime of offences in plain sight.

Is that a type of calorie-free bread?

Slavering hordes? I never meet anybody who talks like that. Actually, as a foreigner myself I like to think we don’t have a particular problem with excess saliva. If Trump wins we’ll all have far bigger worries than whether Canada stays in NATO or not. The US as we know it may be doomed and with it freedom here, there and everywhere. In the near future, please God Trumpless, I’d say Americans will be a lot more interested in our ability to better control wildfires and the smoke therefrom than in GDP percentages on military spending. I see all humans as innately savage. Each generation must struggle against the beast within, which is why liberal democracy is such a fragile, rare and unlikely phenomenon in human history. To paraphrase, it is ours if we can keep it. Yes, there’s an enemy or two coming over the hill but he’s also inside the house already.

As has been pointed out above, it’s a complex matter to understand in terms of cause and effect. It’s probably both. Richer women with children tend to have partners. In addition, I notice many writers on the right seem to underestimate the role of female agency in this matter and the mercenary side to the female psyche, so well captured in the opening lines of Pride and Prejudice and in the whole of Austen’s fiction for that matter: Humorous songs often contain serious truths: It’s more obvious than ever that many women don’t like living with men and now they have a choice. Beyond all the fuzzy romantic stuff, what really matters in a prospective male partner is how much time and money he will commit to a family in the future. If he hasn’t got a steady job with clear prospects, is he really worth putting up with? There’s an extensive literature on how the status of chronically unemployed married men falls within the family unit. As female income rises, the proportion of men who make a lot more than women declines. I’m afraid the percentage of bachelors considered eligible by this criterion will continue to shrink.

China is the long-term threat to freedom in the world but Russia remains dangerous. Given the disastrous course of the war, it may turn it into a much bigger North Korea - an economically useless Chinese client state that nevertheless poses a serious danger to the West.

This character defends Victor bloody Orbán as well as Trump pre-coup. He’s not middle of the road by any stretch of the imagination. On how Canada is regarded, I’d say it generally isn’t outside North America. People elsewhere have a very vague idea of the country and it rarely pops up in local news.

The opinion of some obscure British right-winger is hardly the world. What should we think of a country that wasted years on a hare-brained project like Brexit? BTW you’d be better off putting that quoted stuff from Murray in a format with quotes that clearly indicates where it comes from. It may be obvious to most people here but I need all the guidance I can get to show me who is talking.

Paying attention doesn’t mean slavishly following. However, when an issue becomes the settled will of the people over time then it should not be simply ignored.

I think politicians should pay attention to public opinion in a democracy.

Wait a minute b’y, not so fast, hold your horses there and go easy on the uppercase typing. This is not a digital situation, eg, perfection or catastrophe. There’s a large grey zone of could do better in between that we will always be in. Yes, we certainly have problems (and I support a private sector BTW), but we’re not Haiti yet in my humble opinion. A bit of perspective is called for.

And errors don’t happen in the US or Europe? You guys need to get out more and learn a little gratitude.

Just spell out the changes you want in the legislation. I don’t think we disagree that much in this matter actually.

We have problems which I have highlighted in the past but to call it a complete disaster is hyperbole. People are receiving life saving treatment every day in this country and the progress made on, say, lung cancer has been nothing short of miraculous.

Again to the conservatives here: has Poilievre promised to get rid of MAID completely if he gets the chance? If not, why not?

People have much the same criticisms of health care for the dying in the UK as we have here. There are always going to be shortcomings in how very sick people are treated. I don’t see it as a legitimate argument against MAID here. All I’m arguing for is some sort of MAID to be available for the worst cases. That’s it.

A simple question: should Canada have assisted suicide? Yes or no. The details beyond that are a completely different debate about which we can have many opinions.

So is Poilievre going to ban it completely if he gets in? Is that a promise?

Assisted suicide is coming in Britain. Look at the polls. People are tired of having to break the law at home or travel to Switzerland to get what they want. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/aug/28/two-thirds-of-britons-support-legalising-assisted-dying-poll-shows?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

As far as I can see, most of those links are about how our system was implemented, not whether one should exist under the conditions I defined. We are going to keep MAID. There is no doubt about that.