-TSS-

Trump is certainly beatable, of course he is, but not by any of the lunatics the Democrats are putting forward. No chance! What has happened to the Democrats? When did they become insane?

I don't think secession from the union is a very popular policy in any US-state unlike in a couple of Canadian provinces.

I think the reason which has kept the USA together is that it is a superpower. If the USA disintegrated to 50 separate independent countries all of them would be in some way worse off than what they are now and none of them alone could be a superpower. There is no such a case in Canada. In Canada you can speculate that if all the Canadian provinces became independent countries that some of them would be far worse off than they are now but some would be better off.

The problem with federations which lack a genuine sense of togetherness or cohesion and have been formed as a marriage of convenience is all the members of such federations count their pennies very strictly as to how much they put in and how much they get back or do they get value for their money and that once some members of such federations feel that the deal is no longer advantageous for them they really lose the will to be part of such a federation.

Speaking of federations, I wonder if instead of having 15 different Spanish-speaking countries in South- and Central-America there would be some huge Estados Unidos Hispanicos or something of the sorts. Would that be more succesful than the current arrangement of having various countries which have huge cultural differences but have the Spanish language in common.

I understand completely. We in Finland have people who say that we should have a points based-system on immigration like Canada does. On the other hand, Finland is not Canada so why would anyone who would get high points in such a system choose to come to a country in the middle of nowhere where the weather is depressing 8 months a year? None of those scoring high points in the Canadian system come here. We get Iraqis and Afghans instead.

Countries based on immigration having strict laws on immigration? Why not? Nobody said the world should be fair.

WTF? I was saying that we must accept our citizens back because they are our citizens even though almost none of them should be our citizens. If we refuse to allow our citizens back we have very little credibility complaining that Iraq or Afghanistan don't allow their deported citizens back. The main lesson is: Don't give citizenship to anyone outside Europe or North-America.

Unfortunately, if you are a citizen and one day turn up at the border of the country you are a citizen of you must be let in. However, it doesn't mean that you should be fetched at the expense of the tax-payers if you can't manage on your own to turn up at the border of the country you are a citizen of. I prefer a more long-sighted approach to the issue. Namely, many third world countries refuse to accept their own deported citizens. Most notably Iraq and Afghanistan. If we don't accept our rotten apples back why should the countries with which the issue is far more urgent?

For some reason people think that if Putin is overthrown he would be replaced by some nice liberal. However, do you remember Zhirinovsky? He is probably too old now but there are a lot of like-minded people in Russia.

I see. I still haven't figured out what the purpose of the Commonwealth even is if it doesn't grant rights or privileges to the citizens of the member-countries. IWith the controversial immigration I was thinking about the news that most of the property-market in the western parts of Canada have been taken over by the Chinese mega-rich tycoons.

How much of the immigration into Canada is due to Canada belonging to the British Commonwealth meaning immigration from fellow-Commonwealth countries such as Nigeria, Pakistan, India, Uganda to name just four but there are many others? The most controversial immigration to Canada has lately been from China and China is not in the Commonwealth.

Putin visited Finland today and now there is that effing helicopter making the noise seeing him home.

Is there going to be any serious primaries within the Republicans against Trump? Usually even incumbent Presidents have had to face some village-idiots challenging them in primaries but unlike in 1980 when Ted Kennedy challenged Carter there has never been any serious threat to an incumbent President from his own party.

I always cheer for the traditional teams. I don't like these new desert or palm-tree teams.

The news told that when the Toronto Raptors won the NBA-championship whole Canada was celebrating. Somehow I just don't believe it. I don't think people in Vancouver or elsewhere in the west could have given two hoots about some basketball-team a 4h flight away.

Greenland has terrible problems with alcoholism, suicides and other social problems but yet not as bad as Nunavut or the problems of the Australian aborigals. I think the Greenlanders are best off under the Danish wing until they are ready for independence.

Denmark and Greenland were not happy with Trump's suggestion that the USA would buy Greenland; a bit in the same as as they bought Alaska. I can't blame them. Besides, very condescending towards the Greenlanders. However, even though the idea was never good to begin with let's pause for a thought about it. You in Canada have a similar Inuit area in the north. It has been studied that the Inuits in Greenland under the Danish system are better off than the Inuits living in Canada. Imagine if the Greenlanders who are used to the Danish welfare-system all of a sudden had to cope with a US-system. Besides, even though Trump is rich he isn't that rich that he could afford to buy entire countries.

Didn't China promise to guarantee Hong Kong to keep its system at least until 2047? Not that some such promise really would count for anything but Still.

The genie is out of the bottle when the USA and guns is concerned. If there ever is a president Kamala Harris, or something similar, declaring that guns will be collected from people you would soon realise that the talk of a second civil-war isn't tin-foil hat talk at all.

Here in Finland many people, including me as well, think Russia should return the area they stole from Finland, namely Karelia. However, the likelihood of that happening is close to zero. If Russia doesn't give away some remote islands with which it does nothing is it going to give away a buffer-zone next to a metropolis?

BTW, is there any use for you Canadians to belong to the Commonwealth? You have the queen of England as your head of state. But are there any benefits such as favorable trade-deals attached in belonging to the Commonwealth or is it just a nostalgia-club. For countries such as Pakistan or Bangladesh to name just two belonging to the Commonwealth is something they would never give up.

Trump is such a controversial person that if the Democrats had a level-headed candidate Trump could be beaten. If Mondale or Dukakis were today's politicians they could beat Trump but not the bunch the Dems have on offer at the moment.

If and when Trump gets re-elected it is not even because people would be satisfied with him but because the alternative is far worse. Two too old men one of whom is a creep, two women one of whom thinks she is an indian. Elections are always won on the centre-ground while keeping hold of your core-supporters on either side of the political spectrum.

The entertaining feature about Trump is that he is like an elephant in a china-shop saying things which everyone knows are true but it is somehow considered inappropriate to say them aloud like the recent thing about Baltimore. Btw, years ago Bernie Sanders said about Baltimore that it is like a third world city. Now following Trump's comments he is along those condemning him. I wonder has Sanders become demented and he doesn't remember what he has said before.