I am Groot

Yes, look at all the character assassination going on against poor Donald Trump! Those Democrats are just mean! “I’m a Never Trump guy.”….“My god, what an idi0t.”…“He is America’s Hitler” J.D. Vance: Current VP Nominee. “The American people deserve to know that President Trump asked me to put him over my oath to the Constitution. … Anyone who puts himself over the Constitution should never be president of the United States.” Mike Pence: Trump’s former vice president, and former Governor of Indiana. “In our nation’s 248-year history, there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump,” Cheney said in a statement. “He tried to steal the last election using lies and violence to keep himself in power after the voters had rejected him. He can never be trusted with power again." Dick Cheney: Former GOP Vice President. In a recent interview with HBO’s “Real Time With Bill Maher,” Esper repeated a warning that Trump is “a threat to democracy” and added, “I think there’s a lot to be concerned about.” …. “I think he’s unfit for office. … He puts himself before country. His actions are all about him and not about the country. And then, of course, I believe he has integrity and character issues as well. “ Mark Esper: his second secretary of defense. “We can stand by the policies, but at this point we cannot stand by the man.” …“ Fundamentally, a second Trump term could mean the end of American democracy as we know it, and I don’t say that lightly” former Trump White House communications director Alyssa Farah Griffin “Someone who engaged in that kind of bullying about a process that is fundamental to our system and to our self-government shouldn’t be anywhere near the Oval Office.” Bill Barr: his second attorney general “A person that has nothing but contempt for our democratic institutions, our Constitution, and the rule of law. There is nothing more that can be said. God help us.” “I think that Donald Trump is the most grave threat we will face to our democracy in our lifetime, and potentially in American history.” Cassidy Hutchison: Trump’s former Chief of staff’s aide. “Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people – does not even pretend to try. Instead he tries to divide us.” … "The Nazi slogan for destroying us...was 'Divide and Conquer.' Our American answer is 'In Union there is Strength.' We must summon that unity to surmount this crisis” James Mattis: Trump’s secretary of defense “We don’t take an oath to a wannabe dictator. We take an oath to the Constitution and we take an oath to the idea that is America – and we’re willing to die to protect it.” Mark Miley: Trump’s chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. (Note that Trump later suggested the death penalty for Miley) “I believe (foreign leaders) think he is a laughing fool.”…"Trump is unfit to be president, he really cares only about retribution for himself, and it will consume much of a second term," John Bolton: Trump’s third national security adviser. “(Trump’s) understanding of global events, his understanding of global history, his understanding of US history was really limited. It’s really hard to have a conversation with someone who doesn’t even understand the concept for why we’re talking about this.” Rex Tillerson: Trump’s first Secretary of State. “He’s indicted because of his outrageous conduct” … “There’s no other, of the 200 million Americans he spoke about, who illegally retained classified national secrets after being asked politely, quietly and professionally for 18 months to voluntarily turn them back over after he left the White House” … “Donald Trump should not be prevented from being President by any court. He should be prevented from being President of the United States by the voters of this country.” Chris Christie: Trump’s presidential transition vice chairman. We saw the absence of leadership, really anti-leadership, and what that can do to our country.” HR McMaster: his second National Security Adviser “I thought that he did do a lot of good during his four years. I think that his actions on January 6 and the lead-up to it, the way that he’s acted in the aftermath, and his continuation of pushing this lie that the election is stolen has made him wholly unfit to hold office ever again.” Sarah Mathew’s: trump’s former deputy press secretary “Republicans that vote for Donald Trump would doom the country to a dark and dangerous future” Mitt Romney: Former GOP senator and former GOP presidential nominee. "An American president does not lead the Free World by congratulating dictators on winning sham elections” …. “The damage inflicted by President Trump's naiveté, egotism, false equivalence, and sympathy for autocrats is difficult to calculate” John McCain: former GOP senator, former GOP presidential nominee, and war hero. "The mob was fed lies. They were provoked by the president and other powerful people, and they tried to use fear and violence to stop a specific proceeding ... which they did not like…there is ‘no question’ that Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of that day." Mitch McConnell: Republican senate majority leader under Trump. “The Jan. 6 insurrection made me sick and was a terrible moment in our history that taints the image of the United States around the world. This sends a signal to the world that we're no different … It was a terrible moment in our history. And it's gonna be a part of our history”. George W Bush: former Republican president “He(Trump) lies practically every word that comes out of his mouth, and in a pattern that I think is straight out of a psychology textbook, his response is to accuse everybody else of lying.”… “Whatever lie he’s telling, at that minute he believes it, but the man is utterly amoral” Ted Cruz: GOP Senator and former GOP presidential hopeful. "Tonight, I say this to my Republican colleagues who are defending the indefensible: There will come a day when Donald Trump is gone, but your dishonor will remain," Liz Cheney: GOP senator, and daughter of former GOP vice president. “ He is Unhinged and diminished”… “we can’t have someone else that we question(Trump), whether they’re mentally fit to do this.” … Asked if she thought that Trump would follow the Constitution were he to win reelection, Haley responded: “I don’t know. I don’t—I don’t know…. I mean…you always want to think someone will, but I don’t know” …. Trump “showed that with that kind of disrespect( for the military), he’s not qualified to be the president of the United States, because I don’t trust him to protect them” Nikki Haley: Former Trump ambassador to the United Nations, former Governor of North Carolina, and 2024 GOP presidential hopeful. “I quit because I think he failed at being the president when we needed him to be that.” Mark Mulvaney: Trump’s former chief of staff “He is THE domestic terrorist of the 21st century.” Anthony Sacaramucci: former Trump communications director. “At a particular point the events were such that it was impossible for me to continue(serving under Trump), given my personal values and my philosophy” Elaine Chao: Trump’s secretary of transportation. "Georgia's elections are secure. The winner here in November will reflect the will of the people. History has taught us this type of message doesn't sell well here in Georgia, sir." Brad Raffensperger: Georgia Secretary of State (one of the heavily contested states in 2020) “The president bears responsibility for Wednesday’s attack on Congress by mob rioters,” McCarthy said on the House floor. “He should have immediately denounced the mob when he saw what was unfolding. These facts require immediate action by President Trump.” …“I have had it with this guy” Kevin McCarthy: former Trump Speaker of the house. “What he’s good at is destroying things,” …“He’s the undisputed world champion of that. He could easily destroy us if we play it wrong.”…“I hate him passionately, Tucker Carlson: former Fox News personality fired for costing the company almost a billion dollars by defaming election software companies following the 2020 election. “Trump insisting on the election being stolen and convincing 25 percent of Americans was a huge disservice to the country. Pretty much a crime. Inevitable it blew up Jan. 6th. Best we don’t mention his name unless essential and certainly don’t support him” Rupert Murdock: Owner of Fox News “I have something to say to those of us in the political middle. You don’t owe a damn thing to that political party. In particular you don’t owe anything to a party that is out of touch, and hell bent on taking our country backwards; and by all means you owe no displaced loyalty to a candidate that is morally and ethically bankrupt… Please join me in putting country over party, and stopping Donald Trump. Protecting the rule of law, protecting democracy, and protecting this great country” - John Giles: Republican Mayor of Mesa Arizona.

Trump only fired people on reality TV. In real life he never had the balls to fire anyone himself. He had others do the dirty work preferably when the person being fired was far away.

This is silly. There is a huge ignorance about politics across the political divide. Most people have very little interest in politics in between elections, and not all that much when elections come around. Are Russians and others trying to influence opinion in order to sow division within Canada and other Western countries? Of course. As are the Chinese. But if you think it's only aimed at the right wing you're awfully naive. The Left is being encouraged to hate every bit as much as the right is I've always wondered how much of our present climate hysteria is the result of focused, constant efforts by our enemies like Russia and China to push alarmism in order to damage Western economies. How many hundreds of billions are Western countries spending on defense every year that could have been spent on defense, or measures to ameliorate poverty, or just not taxed and left in peoples pockets? And how much of the divisive DEI antiracism bullshit that has engulfed Western countries, esp the Anglosphere, being pushed and driven by our enemies without as much as our enemies within?

And their spouses, and the spouses of foreign workers, as well.

Whenever the media talk about temporary foreign workers they refer to the TFW program. But the IMP is much bigger, growing much faster, doesn't require any kind of effort to hire locally, and let's employers pay foreign workers less than they would have to pay Canadians. A labour leader is frustrated Canadians know almost nothing about the vast International Mobility Program (IMP). He's afraid bosses want it that way. https://archive.is/YuPKI

This isn't MSNBC. It's CNBC, and they run straight-line business and economic news. They often have Republican senators and congressmen on to interview. They do Democrats too but I'd say they lean a little to the Right. The problem with cutting is they don't want to cut things like farm subsidies and the military, and it's too unpopular to cut pensions and medicare. What did they cut to fund their last big tax cut? Pretty much nothing.

The Republicans no longer care about prices, deficits or debt. Except when the Democrats are in the White House. I remember when the Republicans used to be conservative - a long time ago now. Even before this offer the Trump economic plan would have increased the debt by five times more than the Democrats' economic plan. https://www.cnbc.com/2024/08/27/trump-harris-budget-deficit-economy-election.html

I have my doubts you ever worked for the government in a civilian capacity, unless it was some isolated regional branch. Yeahh, we are approaching this from different directions. I'm approaching it from the perspective of efficiency and cost and you seem to be totally gripped by resentment and jealousy. I said that the topic was a major issue in the bargaining and strike. I didn't say they got what they wanted. Don't tell me I'm completely wrong when you clearly don't even understand what I wrote.

I happened to sit next to one of the local shop stewards who later became president of the local. Only in some places and only for some. And even those who had the laptop and dock system didn't bring them home every night, just now and then. They also tended to be higher-up people, not the general run-of-the-mill worker. Employees weren't given a choice, generally. They didn't really get much of anything. And their 'raise' was less than the rate of inflation. It's not normal. I thought I had made that clear. They don't have offices to go back to. And why go back to 'norma' if the way things are now is working better? Oh yes they most certainly did. It was one of the main issues. The work in those companies is usually different from the government. And as I pointed out, the government has already closed up 22 office buildings for sale. And on top of that hired a bunch more people. They don't have space for them.

Dude, I was in PSAC. And nobody ever thought twice about the union. Most had no idea who their local president was much less anything else about them.

Sure. But when my whatever anester came here nobody cared if they lived or died. They weren't a burden on the state or anyone else because there were no state services provided to them. But also, their cultural and religious values weren't that far off from everyone else's. None of that is still true. Poor people coming here ARE a burden on the state, and thus on me.

Illegal immigration has been a major problem in the US for decades. It's grown of late due to the internet and cell phones. Now everyone down south can see what life looks like up north. Both here and in Europe.

So let me give my viewpoint as a former PS worker. First, I liked some of the places I worked. One of them, my longest stint, was a great place to work and there wasn't a single day that I woke up and thought "Damn, have to go to work". We were a great group and enjoyed working with and socializing with each other. Everyone ate lunch together, and we all went out somewhere for birthdays. My cubicle was my second home. I had the overhead lights removed and supplied my own lamps. I had a nice radio, a sweater in case it got too cool, a heater under the desk, a special chair that the department paid $1500 for, a little fountain on the desk, posters on the walls, a visitors chair, coat rack, snacks in the drawers (and drugs for headaches and colds), etc. etc. That's not the way things are today. The government, in its wisdom, decided that work from home was the new thing. They encouraged it, then required it, especially during covid. So sure of themselves were they that they started closing down buildings, something like twenty, and readying them for sale. The others, they removed all the cubicles and put in place an open-concept 'hot desk' environment where nobody had a desk. Instead, they have to reserve a desk online, and they can't keep reserving the same one, either. Don't want people to get too comfortable there! There are... problems with this. For some, quite a few of them in fact, talking is what they do all day. Customer service people answering the phone and talking non-stop, for example. Managers and executives in endless meetings, almost all on-line now, many discussing confidential matters. But even managers and executives don't have offices anymore. So I'm sympathetic to the people I know who have to pack everything, including their laptop, take the bus and LRT into work, unpack it all, set up, hope the chair functions, hope they can get things plugged in right, and then just sit there and talk into the microphone and looking at their TEAMS screen the same way they did at home. Especially when they're no longer even sitting with their own groups and managers. You think they can be better supervised? Hey, I tried to manage people once in a directorate where my people were on three different floors. What a pain in the ass that was! Try it with them on ten floors, and where you don't even know where their desk is and have to keep looking because they move around every day! This is a complete screwup and the government is responsible, not the schmucks suffering on that ridiculous mess of an LRT (another complete screwup) to get to and from work. The time wasted in setup and breaking down is a complete loss. And people were already fighting over the better desks and chairs and telling each other to SHHHH! It's just gotten worse. There's no way in hell this is not leading to a productivity loss. And even after the tories start laying people off there won't be enough offices for those remaining. Some departments are now frantically trying to rent space in other buildings. Imbeciles.

Just where did you work? What department/city? I've never worked anywhere that people gave a damn about the union. Most places I went they didn't even know who their local shop steward was. Almost nobody ever went to the union meetings to vote on anything except when contracts came up. Even then the turnout was low.

That was my point. It's not hot weather people are fleeing. It's poverty, crime, and vicious governments.