I am Groot

Technically our immigration system does not give preference to anyone. As I wrote earlier, we do not try to recruit people who would make the best immigrants. We simply take what walks in the door. A minority must meet set criteria but we aren't very good at validating their paperwork to ensure they do. Quebec does work at it somewhat, which is why they get so many applicants from France. But English Canada and its literati seem infected with a kind of utopian marxist belief that all people's are equal and even trying to screen anyone for compatibility would be racist or something.

Which Star Trek culture? The Klingons? The Vulcans? The Andorians? The Romulans?

Roosevelt was a war hero who led his men into battle. Trump had bone spurs. Roosevelt wrote a number of books. Trump hasn't even read any books. Roosevelt was a hunter and conservationist. Trump's idea of the wilds is the trees on a golf course. Roosevelt fought against corruption. Trump was and is corrupt. I think you're mistaken.

Well, it rebutted your points. Which is something you seem incapable of doing to mine.

How could you if you feel no loyalty to Canada? Which you have repeatedly stated.

There is so much cliché in the above it's hard to know where to start. Just to start, in Canada, big business has been on the Liberal bandwagon for decades. For a variety of reasons the Liberals are usually in power and the corporations and rich like to be in with the powerful. Harper didn't have any corporate buddies. And according to the parliamentary budget officer Harper's tax policy helped push down inequality. As for the rest, raising the retirement rate to 67 for CPP was what world economists recommended in light of an aging population. The CD Howe said it would be extremely helpful in keeping the economy moving in an era of an aging population. Trudeau 'taking care of everyone' I translate to "borrowed lots and lots of money". Yes, and now with interest rates rising the debt is going to start eating away at the government's revenues and we'll all suffer for it. But Trudeau will be happily sunning himself down south with the Aga Khan so won't care. Dentistry? No one has problems finding a family dentist. No one has to wait months to see an oral surgeon. Almost everyone has dental benefits from their employer, even those who work at Walmart. Those on welfare and the working poor get basic dental benefits from their municipality or their province. We don't need the federal government coming in and mucking it up.

It's difficult to determine the abilities or lack of abilities of Trudeau's cabinet since none of them appear to have any power to make their own decisions or set their own policy - or answer questions without the answers being supplied by the PMO. I suspect, merely based on some of the dumb things they've said by accident, that a number of them are poor performers. But overall, they're nobodies, a herd of sheep who go where herded, say what they're told, and do what they're instructed. That being the case it really doesn't matter what genitals or skin colour they have. So Trudeau is maximizing his virtue points.

The orange Jesús talks a lot of about things he has very little understanding of: like business, the economy and government. It's hardly surprising he'd know nothing about our immigration system. It's not surprising you know little about it either. The government does not really try to inform the public about anything it does much less immigration. About half our immigrants are family class. There is no merit system for them. Of those who come in as skilled only about one third to one quarter of them have to pass the merit system. The rest in that category are actually their immediate family members. I don't at all question them bringing them in, of course. But if you see a figure that says something like 100k come in under the skilled category you have to realize that only a fraction of that are the actual applicants.

Perhaps their governments haven't spent the last two generations trying to crush any hint or history of their British past like ours has. Indians, by and large, are hard, industrious workers and strive to get ahead by learning more. That doesn't mean I'm blind to the problems of not screening out the baduns.

Says who? Says Trudeau? Do you believe everything Trudeau says? Don't answer. I know you don't. So why believe this? Where is the evidence? Where are the sweeping and intensive government studies which have been done to support the need for doubling our immigration numbers? There are none. Trudeau is talking out of his ass. Oh yes, why without doubling immigration it was estimated our population would drop to only 50 million people by 2100. Wait, what? Or we could try balancing the budget for a change. Seriously? What do you think the response would be if we passed out applications in Ukraine? Spain and Greece have unemployment rates of over 12% Italy is over 8%. I bet a lot of Russians would like to come here, too. Some do, some don't. The unemployment rate among the young is astonishing compared to ours. Sweden's is twice what ours is. Spain and Greece are three times ours. Hey, maybe some bright, just graduated Japanese or South Korean girl would like to get away from the stifling misogyny of their homelands and work abroad? But we don't recruit. We make no attempt as a country to go to other nations and recruit people who might do well here, like tradesmen or health care workers. We leave it strictly to chance.

I'm not entirely certain there is something in the air here which robs people of their religious beliefs. I realize we are a largely secular culture but we still have the likes of Hassidic Jews who dress like they're in medieval times and have medieval beliefs. Not everyone progresses with the times. No, they aren't bombing or killing people but if you explore their beliefs and behaviour it's... not nice. It's often fairly easy to catch people in lies, especially religious people who really do have a feeling of disgust at many of our western beliefs. Mind you, so do I at times. But it's a matter of degree and hostility. Put them before a panel. See how they respond to male questioners vs females. I've read in some areas here some Indian and Muslim immigrant men do not like taking orders or instructions from women. See how they react to being questioned by one.

All of Islam does. You will not find any major Islamic scholars or clerics who have different interpretations. This is mainstream stuff. That does not mean everyone who goes to mosque is ever likely to kill a blasphemer any more than Christians who go to church every Sunday are going to follow through on all their book says. Some will, some won't. Both Christian and Islamic books say bad things. The difference is the Christian clerics explain their bad things in different ways and don't suggest anyone take them seriously. Please don't try to tell me what I want you to believe. I do not care what you believe. I don't know teenage muslim girls its true but there is a high school up the road and it certainly has teenage Muslim girls in it. I know this because whenever I pass there are lots of them wearing headscarves and none in short skirts. The little Muslim girls on my street who can't be more than nine are also in headscarves. Yes, certainly. But as I said, it is not merely fundamentalists who believe apostates and blasphemers should be killed. It is the majority of Muslims in nearly every Muslim nation. If I don't understand your silly ideas perhaps its because you are a poor communicator. Or perhaps they really are just silly. That's an interesting response. Rather than answering the question you insult me for asking it. Am I not permitted to question your statements? Do you believe everything you write is so far beyond what mere mortals espouse that it is impertinence to doubt it? Your hostility towards the questioning of your views is an interesting parallel with a discussion of religious fanaticism.

Given how long it took Christians to lose their more unpleasant beliefs that does not inspire confidence. Certainly it won't happen in my lifetime while we continue to bring in people without screening for such views. Or any views. We don't screen for racism either, or misogyny or just crass stupidity. Why do we not have every applicant interviewed so that at the end the screener can say "This guy is a blithering idiot" and stamp REJECT on his application?

Not a lot happened in residential schools that did not happen in regular boarding schools. The very idea of adult sexual abuse of children was a foreign notion to most people. We ignored it up until about the 1990s. Much of what is in the air about residential schools is exaggerated by our liberal culture of self-loathing. For example, there was no requirement to go until 1920. And by 1950 90% of native kids were attending day schools on their reserves. So we're basically talking about a 30 year period. Almost all of the deaths at schools came from diseases we didn't understand and couldn't cure. The same diseases swept through native reserves and white cities.

The polls done by Pew research of Muslim opinion do not inspire confidence. Call it what you will, the opinion of Muslims around the world on issues like killing apostates or blasphemers are inimical to free speech, thought and expression. I'm not too fond of the new militarism being seen from some of the Hindus in India either, for that matter. I don't like people willing to commit violence on behalf of their religion. I especially don't like them coming to live here. See Leicester for why that's a bad idea.

What culture do you believe is better or even comparable to western culture?

I tire of these silly ideas. Do you think immigrants are coming here to develop the arctic tundra? Do you imagine they're settling down in the midst of the boreal forests with axes to build farms? They're coming to a few major cities and making them more crowded. Lose the 'undeveloped silliness'. Nor is there any evidence nor has the government ever bothered to present any that immigration has improved our economy. Making it bigger, note, does not suggest it is in any way better. India's economy is bigger. Is it better? Are its people living in luxury? Canada's economy is backsliding compared to all the rest of the industrialized world, in spite of (because of?) masses of immigrants. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/commentary/article-why-canadas-economic-growth-is-expected-to-be-dead-last-among-advanced/

Why? Islam asks (demands) more of its adherents than western Christianity. It still espouses medieval social beliefs on women, gays, jews, etc. It's teachings are unrelieved by any sense of modernity and continue to inspire countless acts of violence around the world. It is a religion which teaches hostility to others and a brutal and violent intolerance. You don't have to be a wild-eyed far right winger to think that. Just ask Sam Harris. Is he a Nazi?

I've always been a fan of science fiction. Many such novels depict the future as a place with a small number of intelligent, hard working people and a huge population of non-working people who sit in their apartments watching the future equivalent of tv, munching junk food and living off their monthly stipends from government. Since their votes always go to whoever promises them the most free stuff their corrupt government is perpetually on the edge of bankruptcy. I wonder, as AI grows more powerful and eventually eliminates all unskilled and much skilled labor whether we're headed for such a future. The list of tasks AI will likely take over includes all retail and most hospitality jobs, most driving jobs, including taxis, buses, trains and truck drivers, most construction jobs, including heavy equipment operators, and most military combat roles. It will also drastically cut down on the need for skilled professionals like accountants and lawyers. Entertainment could eventually see computer generated actors and actresses, starting with the porn industry (there goes my fantasy job). What are we going to do with all those people who used to perform such jobs? They're not all going to be computer experts. Most won't have the desire, temperament or ability. Will they sit in their boxy apartments watching fake porn on their giant wall screens and not caring about the world?

In a sense, the senate is also gerrymandered to the benefit of Republicans. This is because the size of the state's population is immaterial. All states get 2 seats. And there are more small population, more rural states than there are large population urban states. This is to the benefit of Republicans who are much stronger among rural voters. California has 2 senators even though they have more people than Kentucky, Oregon, Oklahoma, Utah, Iowa, Nevada, Arkansas, Mississippi, Kansas, Nebraska, Idaho, West Virginia, New Hampshire, Montana, South Dakota, North Dakota, Alaska and Wyoming combined. But the latter states have 36 senators. This was as it was designed by the founding fathers but I doubt they had any idea of just how wide the population variance was going to get in the future. Nor are the senate and house equal. It is the senate which must approve judges. Since Republicans usually control the senate this explains why 6 of 9 judges are Republican. It is the senate which must approve all senior appointments to government, too, including cabinet ministers.

It's hard to factor in imaginary influences now that Walt Disney is dead.

All I know is that there is no shortage of dentists in this country. No one has trouble getting a family dentist. No one has trouble getting an appointment. If you need dental surgery it happens pretty quickly and efficiently. Compare that to the rest of the healthcare system. Most people have dental care benefits from their employer. Those on welfare or the poor generally get basic dental care from their province or municipality. We don't need the federal government doing to dental care what they did to healthcare.

Symbols do matter. The monarchy is a touchstone to our past, an intrinsic part of our national history, traditions and institutions since before we even were a country. Quebecers deeply value their culture but do not appear to have any respect for other cultures. Indeed, Trudeau, a son of Quebec, proudly stated the rest of Canada had no culture, had no 'core identity'. If that is so then, to use one of his favorite phrases, it is because of cultural genocide practiced on English Canada by him, his father, the Liberal party and other Quebecers in Ottawa determined to make English Canada so bland and inoffensive to French Canada it might perhaps make them feel more comfortable here. To those ends they have done their utmost to eliminate all of English Canada's historical touchstones, with the monarchy and RCMP being about all that's left. They changed the constitution, the flag, the anthem, our national holiday, and national institutions like the Royal Mail Canada. I suspect getting rid of the Royal Canadian Navy and Royal Canadian Air Force were part of the reasons they combined the military into the blandly named "Canadian Armed Forces". Even immigration was changed to, in Pierre Trudeau's words, soften the borders between English and French Canada, by bringing in a lot of people from elsewhere who would identify with neither. Of course, Quebec was soon given control over who immigrated there to 'protect their culture'. English Canada was given no such power. France is the third biggest source of immigrants to Quebec. The UK is not even in the top ten for Canada. The monarchy was the only institution they haven't yet figured out a way to eliminate without too much blowback. And there would be. Opening the constitution would be a pandora's box, largely because Quebec would then make multiple demands for even more powers, even more separation within confederation. The West would also have many demands. No one is dumb enough to open that can of worms when the benefits would be so minor.

A sad lesson for us all. The world will go on after we die. The radio will talk about traffic at rush hour. People will crowd into hockey arenas or baseball fields and enjoy themselves. Children will play. People will laugh, sing, dance, make love, and not care that we are gone.

To quote the outgoing Republican governor of Maryland on the man nominated to succeed him: whoever wrote the above sounds like a wackadoodle.