Michael Hardner

@TreeBeard I just read up on it. They did used to donate food directly, now they sell the food, send the money overseas and buy food on the other side. I had to read up on it. I stand corrected.

The organization I cited was formed by Christian Western farmers, so it stands to reason.

And that's just agriculture. There's mining also ⛏️.. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02255189.2023.2184330 Okay but somebody got those millions....

https://www.international.gc.ca/world-monde/issues_development-enjeux_developpement/response_conflict-reponse_conflits/foodgrains_bank-banque_grains.aspx?lang=eng Food Grange charity is able to leverage donations to receive up to $25 million a year https://foodgrainsbank.ca/about-us/partnership-with-the-government-of-canada/

Tens of millions of so-called foreign aid go directly to Western Farmers.

It was cited in the end...

Go to bed Elon...

https://www.google.com/search?q="some+interstitial+state+betwixt+the+third+and+first+worlds%2C+a+sort+of+adolescence+one+grows+through."&oq="some+interstitial+state+betwixt+the+third+and+first+worlds%2C+a+sort+of+adolescence+one+grows+through."&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOdIBCDEwNjRqMGo3qAIAsAIA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8 Well seems like THREE substacks used that phrase. Let's give her a chance to cite/explain...

1. Ha. Says you. Anyway, keep your opinion and hold it tight ❤️ 2. I'm not going to pick apart your definition but a lot of 2nd world nations are solid in their own culture, beliefs and traditions including no democracy, concentration of power etc. So maybe they think THEY'RE first world IDK. 3. I'll look it up. 4. Yeah, lots of people talk about it. It was racist 10 years ago, no more. But if you are conflating higher numbers with loss of culture, you have to at least acknowledge that it's difficult to pin down the "cause" of culture decline. Lots of locals buy into decadent culture too. 5. I like the analogy. 6. I mean, no doubt I can be snarky and sarcastic... I don't expect anyone to forgive that but if I see a post that interests me I try to say so and that's not sarcastic. Ok thanks for the chat. Stop coming on to me, I said.

Not speaking from experience here, I swear... but I imagine that LICKING your own BUTT would be an activity that would make you HIGHLY CONSCIOUS of yourself in that particular way. Random second thought: anyone chime in if they can speak to this, thanks for taking my call...

Yeah, I don't know them very well as I have them on IGNORE. See if you can get an acknowledgement of the error from them on that. What is the breakdown on that though ? I don't trust budget summary news from either side, personally.

First of all, calling me a leftie is offensive because I am, and identify as conservative. If you can't take an innocent question and suggestion without lashing out like a feral tabby then that's ok... I'll move on. Let me try again though, because I was intrigued by your post: can you come up with a simple phrase to generally characterize what each of these mean TO YOU ? That way, I can follow you into your thinking and we can discuss your ideas, what is causing the current situation and where it's going etc. I'm not arguing, I'm asking. I'm not going to dispute your definitions I just want to understand them. If you want me to use MY definitions (your last sentence) I would maybe start with sometime that they call the Freedom Index. I'd use your "3 Worlds" model against Freedom Indices ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_freedom_indices#:~:text=The Index of Economic Freedom,series in political science research. ) So any country that is mostly free, in terms of Economic, Political and Press Freedom is 1st world. Mostly Unfree in those terms is 3rd world and the rest as 2nd world. I would also quibble with some of these listed on that Wiki page like China, Egypt, and a few others... Your post seems to centre on how '1st world' countries decline, but you're mistaken in describing the '2nd world' in terms of places that have declined. Some have never really done better than 2nd world and others (Thailand, Fiji, Liberia it looks like) are on their way up. Liberia elected an American president a few years back and is seeing improvements in infrastructure and education for example. For them, the 2nd world is for sure NOT 'the worst of all worlds'. They're building their way to the first world, as are China and Egypt. This is, to me, the crux of what you are trying to say: " The high trust, high function wealthy west is a small place. Left to itself, it’s incredibly resilient internally and against external threats and stressors. It’s been a flourishing first world experiment in human elevation and progress. But it has little in the way of internal immune system and its systems require high trust to be high function." So it seems like you're most interested in what has gone wrong to bring forward this threat of decline. And you're saying it's the decline of "trust". I agree with you on that, that such decline is a decisive factor in things starting to not work properly. But what is the cause of said decline ? I usually fault cultural changes like that with major social changes and technological changes, which themselves can have deeper causes. To me, it's relative wealth and technology. Our spectacle-based consumer society has adopted a materialistic view, thanks to a wealthy economy and consumer tech. That pushes us away from important traditions, values which reflect cross-cultural humanistic touchstones that bind us to each other and make life meaningful. What do you think? It's not that bad... also I think she wrote it.

I read the op again, when I remembered that there is a fallacy about foreign aid. Sure enough it's there in the op, that dollars are shipped out of the country. As we saw with usaid, it's actually goods that are shipped, and the dollars go to domestic suppliers such as Farmers, manufacturers and so on. So that's something we need to State up front

Well, I don't know about the definitions you have provided... are they yours ? Because these terms were in use in the thick of the cold war and described, in somewhat simple terms, the wealthy "west" including Japan as 1st world, the utterly poor as in Africa, India etc. as 3rd and everyone else as 2nd. See - my definitions are pretty succinct. Can you do that ? Then maybe we can discuss...

I never hear people in Toronto say anything negative about any other part of Canada. It's weird that people think that.

You said we're wealthy in response to the question "Why doesn't Canada get foreign aid?" The standard pivot is to come back with a different point and simply drag the conversation into a never-ending change of direction. It's not a progressive chat, ie. you're no longer going anywhere. You're just playing ping pong with someone who won't concede a point IMO.

No ? By some measures they are: -Advocating for big corporate subsidies and special treatment under trade deals etc. -Acceptance that capitalism is a central foundation for our economy -Anti-nationalization If you forget that the NDP is moving right, then you do odd things like singing Barry Manilow songs while sleepwalking, thinking Dr. Pepper tastes good and believing that the Democrats are 'left'.

Nobody here cheered Trudeau when he cut foreign spending as I recall... I guess the moral is 'read the room '? https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-oecd-report-urges-canada-to-increase-spending-on-foreign-aid/

But he's not the important one here. He's just reposting what the Bishops said?

Just to be clear: you're calling the New York State Bishops lefties?

No other point of view required I guess. So why has DOGE been fired? Where are the Trillions in savings? Oh well...

New Zealand ? 🤔

I'm going back to ignore on this one. Please tell me if he provides a substantive response to my critique of his mathematics

While I admit to being flippant, and showing attitude towards you... it was you who stated that you could impose your will on First Nations peoples because they're "only" five percent of the population. So I showed you a little paradox in your thinking, admittedly with some derogatory wit. And now you're getting all haughty. Oh well...

I'm sorry that my math vexes you. Try not to be a grumpy bear, though, now that you proper realize your minority status in all of our minds. Let's just live with it and listen to each other hm ?