BeaverFever

We’ve already established you don’t know what the word “communist” mentioned. But Trump fawned all over Xi when they met, not as much as he fawned over Putin but as much as one could expect him to do for a non-white. Trump loves dictators.

Canadian warships depart for Indo-Pacific region | CTV News The Canadian military is delivering on its promise to increase the number of warships deployed annually to the Indo-Pacific region from two ships to three, starting this summer. Royal Canadian Navy frigates HMCS Ottawa and HMCS Vancouver left Canadian Forces Base Esquimalt, west of Victoria, on Monday. The ships will be accompanied by naval supply vessel Asterix and a pair of Royal Canadian Air Force Cyclone helicopters on their nearly five-month deployment. Former defence minister Anita Anand announced in June that Canada would enhance its presence in the Indo-Pacific region with the deployment of one additional warship annually to the region under Operation Horizon, which replaces the longstanding Operation Projection. The deployment follows the March deployment of HMCS Montreal to the Indo-Pacific region from Halifax, marking the first time a Canadian warship was deployed to the Indo-Pacific region from the East Coast. HMCS Montreal is due to return to Halifax in September. Last fall, the federal government announced it was investing nearly $2.3 billion over five years to forge closer ties with countries in the region as part of its Indo-Pacific strategy. The funding included $493 million to bolster Canada's naval presence by deploying a third frigate and increasing participation in regional military exercises. "The Indo-Pacific region is vital to global security, and its importance will only increase in the coming years," National Defence Minister Bill Blair said in a statement Monday. "Through our Indo-Pacific strategy, Canada is significantly increasing its military presence in the region to support a free, open, and inclusive Indo-Pacific where international rules prevail." Each naval frigate carries a crew of approximately 240 personnel, while the Asterix carries a crew of about 150 civilian and military personnel. The ships are expected to participate in a series of bilateral and multinational exercises, with HMCS Ottawa operating in Southeast Asia while HMCS Vancouver focuses on Northeast Asia. HMCS Vancouver will also contribute to the longstanding Operation Neon, Canada's contribution to United Nations sanctions enforcement and monitoring activities against North Korea. https://vancouverisland.ctvnews.ca/canadian-warships-depart-for-indo-pacific-operation-fulfilling-promise-to-increase-naval-presence-in-region-1.6518853

I don’t disagree with any of what you’ve said. But China the country is a “communist” economic system (actually I believe socialist is the correct academic term as “communism” is the name for the ideal stateless utopia that has never existed anywhere), even if the its leaders are corrupt and not true believers

That metaphor is a myth - the frog always jumps out.

1) bad link in your post 2) I never said Salon wasn’t a left of centre outlet. However the articles were written by a highly educated former REPUBLICAN US Congressional Aide for nearly 3 decades and he offers a well argued opinion on conservatism. He also has plenty of bad things to say about Democrats and the corruptness of US politics in general, BTW he’s not a partisan shill. You can read his bio here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Lofgren

Well by that logic all 8billion+ people in the world are capitalist and there is nothing else. Not even close.

I don’t dismiss her, some remember some don’t. Wouldn’t shock me if it were true. No They make appointments ahead of time or just show up and personal VIP which means they’re not trying on lingerie in a stall next to joe lunch bucket. According to the allegations, he took Carroll to the lingerie dept on the 6th floor which was virtually, they were flirting, she agreed to model lingerie for him in one of the change rooms and that’s when he assaulted her. Funny how Trumps defence for every sexual assault allegation hes faced over the years is always “she’s ugly, she’s not my type” instead of “I would never do something like that”. That in itself is telling n

The answer to the question in the thread topic is never. The psychology that motivates his followers is beyond reason As former congressman-turned political writer noted in a recent article: …For every crackpot influencer, religious fraud or political charlatan, there must be dozens, if not hundreds, of devoted American followers. We cannot be certain what makes them tick, but the work of Canadian psychologist Robert Altemeyer is highly suggestive. He posits a distinctive human trait he calls the right-wing authoritarian personality and describes it this way: … https://www.salon.com/2023/08/05/why-america-is-going-backward-being-the-richest-nation-in-history-isnt-enough/ And another goodie on conservatism: … However much modern theorists have elaborated upon the ideas inherent in conservatism during the two centuries since Maistre, they all seem to me to boil down to three simple points: A desire for hierarchy and human inequality. This belief derives from the medieval religious notion of the Great Chain of Being, whereby there is a place for everybody and everybody must know his place. It justifies economic exploitation and denial of political rights. Conservative writers propagandize on its behalf with a straw-man argument: Any gain in equality costs society an equal or greater loss in freedom; egalitarianism is the mere soulless equality of the gulag, where we cannot own property and must share toothbrushes. This sentiment pops up consistently in the works of American conservative theorists, from Buckley's "Unless you have freedom to be unequal, there is no such thing as freedom," to David Brooks' hankering for rule by a wise elite. American-style laissez-faire economics and libertarianism are largely based on this idea. The only acceptable society is based on Christianity. Never mind the establishment clause of the First Amendment; conservatives will forever try to smuggle in more and more official endorsement of religion until the United States is effectively a theocracy. The rationale is that some sort of divine or transcendental dispensation is the sole basis for a just temporal order. Translated into the bumper-sticker mentality of American Christian fundamentalism, that means that if people don't believe in God, there's nothing to stop them from running amok and killing people. This thesis would have been news to medieval crusaders, the Holy Inquisition, Francisco Franco's Falangists or the Russian Archbishop Kyrill, who has blessed Putin's invasion of Ukraine and the resulting carnage. We must obey tradition. For some unexplained reason, our ancestors were infinitely wiser than us, and apparently they get a vote on present affairs. To paraphrase Edmund Burke, if we're going to have democracy, let's extend it to the dead. Scratch someone who fancies himself an educated conservative and you will often find a person who reveres the past; unfortunately they leave out details like slavery, witch burning and childbed fever. Many psychologists consider this mentality to be a cognitive bias in brain function, but whatever its source, the political utility of the attitude is obvious: Utopia only exists in an ever-receding past, progress is impossible, and future generations shall profess bygone superstitions. And tradition, in this case, means the folkways of a specific, favored culture, thus denying the universality of the human spirit. The idea is well expressed by Buckley's statement that conservatives must "stand athwart history yelling 'stop.'" Joseph de Maistre was "a fierce absolutist, a furious theocrat, an intransigent legitimist ... always and everywhere the champion of the hardest, narrowest and most inflexible dogmatism." All the essential points of the present conservative mind. One can grasp that the three precepts dovetail together in that they all rely on dogmatic assertion, denial of a scientific or empirical basis of reality and reactionary nostalgia. They are also pretty thin gruel for founding an intellectual tradition: there are simply too many departments of knowledge, for instance, much of science, that must be declared off limits to prevent them from tainting the party line. This is why conservatives habitually retreat into mysticism, gut feelings and the wisdom of our fathers when the facts are against them. It is more accurate to say that conservatism is a counter-intellectual activity that sometimes employs the trappings of intellectual discourse... https://www.salon.com/2023/07/01/theres-no-such-thing-as-a-conservative-intellectual--only-apologists-for-right-wing-power/

Putin has always been a capitalist albeit an extremely corrupt and kleptocratic one. Xi is communist but has figured out how to use capitalist means to further the communist cause. Both have learned how to appropriate the loyalty of western capitalists in the process because western capitalists are only loyal to money amd nothing else We haven’t become communist in any way shape or form

So while Anand reportedly fiercely fought Cabinet for CAF budget increases when she was MND and has a notable reputation as a thorough and efficient manager and problem solver, now she’s been placed on the other side of the fence and has been ordered to swing the axe at the other departments. I wonder what’s in store for the CAF.

And right on cue… Cabinet ministers given Oct. 2 deadline to cut $15-billion from spending plans Federal cabinet ministers have been given an Oct. 2 deadline to come up with specific cuts as part of an effort to shave about $15-billion from existing spending plans, according to a letter obtained by The Globe and Mail. New Treasury Board President Anita Anand delivered the deadline in writing to her cabinet colleagues, meaning many ministers in new roles only have a few weeks to find cuts that were first promised in the 2023 budget. …Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s decision to shift Ms. Anand from the defence portfolio to the Treasury Board was one of the main surprises of last month’s substantial cabinet shuffle. While some observers viewed the move as a demotion, Ms. Anand has said in recent media interviews that she is taking on an important role in the government’s core economic team.… https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-federal-cabinet-internal-savings/

Wrong, neither is communist. So you DON’T know ehat communism is And the tyrannical dictator Putin is the darling of the Right but he is no communist.

He will also defect to Russia first chance he gets

Lol Keep standing in front of that elephant and pretending it’s a mouse. “Its grey and has a tail, those are the only facts that matter!”

Lol you don’t even know what “communist” means. You’re just a child repeating insults you don’t understand. BTW they’ve only been making “I survived a fascist takeover” shirts, ever since Trump LOST the election.

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Well no not being able to recall details decades later is not really “evidence” and certainly not more substantial than this Putin puppet’s long track record of lies, scams and perjury. The fact that she’s now sitting in Putin’s lap pretty much proves she’s a liar. And when you’re a billionaire like Trump you get your run of the store you don’t stand in line and shop with the common folk

You previously said you grew up with housekeepers and a white picket fence and a dad who coached little league. What’s the deal? Also some of the most virulent anti-poor people are the ones who used to be poor and escaped due to exceptional skill, exceptional opportunity or exceptional luck and now hold everyone else in contempt for not doing the same. It’s like a survivor of the Titanic resenting the people who drowned and saying “well I was able to get in a lifeboat which proves anyone could have if they just tried hard enough. The people who died have nobody to blame but their own laziness and poor character”

No only a brainwashed cult follower like yourself would think that a member of your cult is somehow exempt from general common sense that pointing a loaded firearm at law enforcement officers after publicly vowing to kill said law enforcement officers the next time he sees them wouldn’t result in them getting shot.

Only because of the US and western support which you are criticizing. Had the west not intervened the Russian flag would have been flying over Kyiv for the past year and a half

Boy you are thick To repeat Look there is no scenario where pointing a loaded gun at law enforcement after previously threatening to kill them doesn’t put your life in danger. You are being unreasonable only because he’s a Republican who threatened to kill Biden. If he had been a Democrat making these threats against Trump or a Muslims making these threats against Americans you wouldn’t be making any of your ridiculous arguments.

Dude Robertson was initially let off with a warning when he first started making his assassination threats. He responded by escalating his threats with detailed specifics of how and when he would carry out the assassinations, complete with photos of the weapons and camouflage outfits in his possession that he planned to use, and by also threatening to kill any agents if they returned. He then made good on his threat by pointing a loaded gun at agents when they did in fact return. Look there is no scenario where pointing a loaded gun at law enforcement after previously threatening to kill them doesn’t put your life in danger. You are being unreasonable only because he’s a Republican who threatened to kill Biden. If he had been a Democrat making these threats against Trump or a Muslims making these threats against Americans you wouldn’t be making any of your ridiculous arguments.

Preventing Putin’s Napoleonic conquest of Eastern Europe is in everyone’s interest including USA.

Exactly supports my argument. You think the rich are the world’s downtrodden and abused and the working class have it to easy Clearly by the fact that they are rich, they benefit from the economic arrangement. Rich people’s taxes are in practice simply investments that pay them generous returns, allowing them to become rich and stay rich in the first place. A wealthy businessman can’t survive in a third world country full of starving peasants, he needs to live in a country where society produces so many educated people that his business can hire the skills it needs at the lowest possible wage, where the general population has enough money to buy the goods and services it sells, where the laws and publicly-funded legal system and the government entities who enforce them are honest and robust enough to allow businesses to transact with reasonable confidence amd with recourse when needed, and where the rich people themselves can sleep at night and conduct their affairs without worrying about being targeted in a revolution, civil war, general lawlessness, etc Which is all the world’s rich people didn’t emigrate to Somalia or Haiti or even Cayman Islands generations ago.

“Making life miserable” for low-income families by taxing the rich, providing access to healthcare and education, student loan forgiveness. How awful! Don’t they know the way to improve working people’s lives is to help the rich get richer and live above the law while the plebes learn “build character” with “tough love” that takes away basic public services, worker’s rights and a livable income while subjecting them to poisoned air and water, ultra-aggressive policing, and harsh criminal penalties for minor offences? Trump is a blatant criminal and a dumb one at that, he’s getting what he deserves. But don’t worry the first transitional leader to fascism is always a bit of a klutz. The transitional leader’s job is just to break down norms and dismantle the guardrails of democracy. The NEXT guy who replaces Trump will be far more sinister and insidious and won’t a blundering buffoon like Trump was. This is why ever since Trump showed up there’s been long debate over whether he’s more accurately described as a fascist or a pre-fascist.