AYanker76

I think you're all onto something. Identify any significant problem plaguing American society: Increasing educational gap between peers in other industrialized, democratic country; Drastically increased wealth disparity; Racial disparities in every aspect of life; Mass disillusionment with outdated, ineffective political systems that respond to the needs or corps, but not constituents... Have any of these gotten significantly better under any administration in the past two decades? The rate of decline has slowed in some cases, but the decline continues. The Republican party's prostration before Trump's naked demagoguery has made them the most pressing threat to American Democracy, but declawing them wouldn't solve America's problems at all. These problems exist absent any political party.

I always find this kind of bravado entertaining. You're extremely misinformed about American demographics & modern 21st century warfare. The areas that voted for Biden make up the majority of American GDP, and I assure you that its denizens have sufficient economy, technological resources, academic knowledge and armament to resist in the unlikely scenario that a hoard of rural Bubba's with commercial AR15s declare open season on American progressivism. But if it would make you feel better to move here and buy your own AR15, we can arrange to swap papers. I'll even let you have one of my ARs -- but just one.

...-HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Up yours Vladimir! --------------- Also, my language test results came back, and I'm still coming to your country to live and finding a nice Canadian gal. You can't keep me out.

WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

What?? Prosecute Trump after he's lost? I've seen worms with more backbone than every Democrat in government combined! It's their ineptitude and unwillingness to use their power to challenge Trump that we find ourselves in this situation to begin with! ? It is *not* a foregone conclusion that Dur Orange Fuhrer will lose. It's the same arrogance that cost them the election last time.

Also, what the **** does "various eventualities" mean? https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/america-votes/canada-prepping-for-various-eventualities-of-u-s-election-pm-trudeau-1.5138109 I'm sooooooooo angry right now, about all of this. This country has been haunted by the petulant hatred of farmers and fools, and I am so *sick* of being mired in this crap ?. It balked on its chance to end this once and for all--the Southern ideologies should've been crushed in Reconstruction, or Sherman should've finished burning them right out of existence in 1865.

Taxme, will you please shut up? You spit on the graves of everyone this pandemic has killed. There are so many people here just like you who'd only wished to live to regret their foolishness and selfishness after getting infected. If you can't abstain from from a keyboard, then take a nice trip to a bar down South here and rid those of us who actually want to survive of your stupidity.

You're willfully ignorant. For the same crimes, police are more likely to stop, arrest and use force against black people despite them being a significantly smaller segment of the population. Multiple studies of several municipalities, including Ferguson, show that whites are more likely to possess contraband during a police stop, yet blacks are more likely to be stopped, searched and arrested for it. For the same crimes, blacks receive harsher sentencing and are more likely to receive the death penalty. Blacks are more likely to be shot and killed by police, whether armed or unarmed. The data is there, you just refuse to see it. And yes, Canada has its share of problems. You guys seem to have some *real* issues with indigenous people--Canadians seem to hate them in the same way that Americans hate blacks--but you are much less violent people. All the same, your statement is motivating to continue to relentlessly beat racism and racists out of public policy and out of society. This must not be tolerated that we may have a future without this kind of inequity. More importantly, I don't want my children to live in a world where jackboots can kill them for looking at them sideways. If you want to live in a place like that, you should look at residency in Russia and China.

What is your objective evidence for this?

I made the reasonable connection that concepts are related; as government overreach, surveillance and authoritarianism goes up, personal safety often declines -- at least, if you're one to disagree with the government. I think you really need only turn on the news to get a glimpse of what I'm talking about...

I understand that you feel have been let down by your leaders. In no way is Canada perfect, nor is the U.S. all bad. However, please also understand that "better" and "worse" are in relation to where one is, and I will be happier there. When it boils down to it, the issue is safety. Violence against people has become to normalized in the U.S., and that has taken its toll on our capacity for humanity.

No, I'm not trolling. The last time I checked, your military expenditures were a fraction of ours. You're probably right. 2nd amendment activists here are always blathering on about how guns stave off governmental oppression, blah blah. The fact is that, with such militarized, brutal police forces and a heavily entrenched system of surveillance, AR15's wouldn't be very effective. You have no power to stop me from doing anything. I'll bring what is allowed by Canadian law.

He is correct. It is called eminent domain. Here is the letter, here is an example of how it has actually been used. I am originally from another state, where this practice was very common. As in the example, typically it was a local government acting in concert with corporate interests to seize homes of residents who were often low-income, minority or elderly.

I'm still here. I live in Nevada, by the way. Ordinarily, I'd commend you for your vigilance to the massive and successful Russian campaign to stoke division between U.S. and it's allies. However, continuing to passively-aggressively accuse me of being a Russian troll come to sow discord on a low-traffic forum with a handful of posts is unlikely, somewhat irrational and above all, incorrect. I like Canadians, because I feel that, except for the ones who live in mystical land called Alberta, you folks are generally not crazy and relatively human. My primary goal right now is to get there so that I can live my life in peace without having to constantly worry about crossing paths with some angry, armed sociopath that the U.S. is producing at never-before-seen rates. As soon as the IELTS testing centers reopen, I'll take my English exam and my application will be on its way.

Hi Mike, To borrow a quote from a childhood book of mine, "A stranger is just a friend you haven't met." I do believe Putin is a thug--I didn't mention him explicitly, because I felt it goes without saying. However, you make my point for me--Russia is a permanent member of the security council & has unilateral veto authority. Why does a nation led by a "thug" have such power in an organization dedicated to the peace and stability of the world? The design of the UN is flawed. It requires the consensus of nations that routinely spit in the face of what it aims to do. What did it do while U.S. & British interventionism armed genocidal gangs and staged coups in four continents during the Cold War? What did it do while Russia's war in Chechnya killed thousands? What about China's Uyghurs concentration camps? How about the unilateral US invasion of Iraq and civilian casualties? They issue reports and weak condemnations, but they have no power to stop these things. Even where its most powerful nations are not directly responsible, the UN has done little to curb human rights disasters. Armed UN troops on the ground in Rwanda literally kicked their feet up while one of history's fastest genocides happened around them with machetes. Israeli apartheid in Palestine has been happening for decades now. They've done nothing to stop the Rohingya massacre. One of the few successes they can point to is eventually getting peace in the Balkans, but that has prompted (understandable) criticism that it's really just a European organization that doesn't care about anything outside of its own back yard. Russia and China are often trotted out as examples for dysfunctional, authoritarian societies--which, in my opinion, they are. However, pointing to them too often risks averting the light from our own failures. I do not wish the U.N. to be gone; I wish it to be better. It needs to be redesigned...and given some teeth. That will only come when member states are willing to confront each other with real economic and/or military consequences when they violate international human rights standards. P.S. To Canada's credit, one of the few in the UN who wanted to move on the Hutus before they could murder hundreds of thousands was your own native General Dellaire (hero!). The U.N. held him back and let the mass slaughter happen, but I respect the man for trying.

Hello, nice to meet you all. I have been executing a plan to obtain my Canadian permanent residency and flee the states. Recent events in the U.S. have accelerated these plans dramatically. I am pressed to leave for the following reasons: Steady replacement of democratic civil authority & adoption of permanent wartime powers in the name of security. Transition of U.S. civil police to paramilitary force in arms. Increasing use of sweeping surveillance at the federal and civil level. Increased use of surveillance to target critics of police, the wealthy and government officials. Retaliation against journalists who expose war crimes & HR violations, and general hostility to a free & democratic press by federal officials & citizens. Inability/unwillingness of legal systems to redress or punish illegalities & human rights violations committed by the government and wealthy individuals. Embrace of theocratic lawmaking. Increasingly authoritarian posture in children's education, including increased use of criminal punishment for juvenile behavior or general non-complicity with acceptable views. General fear that a (possibly) impending financial collapse could amplify the aforementioned violence and inhumanity to Hunger Games-like levels. My goal is to get to a more democratic society and to sever myself from the jurisdiction of the U.S. government entirely, which I believe to be violent, unjust and decadent, at large. It has always been in the back of my mind that Canada may not be far enough, as the U.S. has always been a latent military threat to Canada. More importantly, the American populace is so large and so armed, that I question whether Canadian authorities would be able to control spillover from any destabilizing geopolitical events in the U.S. Were such a thing to happen, you can be sure that the volatility that plagues American society would be shortly in tow. While I commend you all for taking action to make your society safer & less prone to the mass shootings that are normalized, weekly events here, I think banning assault weapons will also exacerbate this imbalance. While reading a history article about U.S. military contingencies to invade Canada during WWII, I saw that American military officials did note and respect that the well-armed Canadian populace could put up a spirited resistance. Do Canadians take such a scenario seriously, and are contingencies for securing the Canadian border regularly updated?

I mostly agree with this. I feel like the UN is a failure in the image of its predecessor, LoN. It has failed to confront genocides, illegal international aggression by its members, blatant human rights violations (why is Donald Rumsfeld still a free man) and worldwide inequalities. It has emboldened bad actors and ripened this world for its current predicament--circumstances which, in the early 20th century, plunged the world into depression, authoritarianism, populism and war. Trump is a symptom of a larger disease. Just like his ilk in Brazil, India, Turkey and Hungary, we will continue to see more of these thugs until they face some coordinated, international consequence.