August1991

Gaza will be divided.

Our federal Supreme Court works sometimes. This decision surprised me.

Montreal and Quebec are civilised places because we have the tax laws that Trump wants for all Americans. -I know that this is radical, but until Trump, I had never heard of SALT -to me Trump, is a buffoon Yet it is obvious that the US federal government needs to collect a value added tax.

Montreal would become like Portland Oregon - a city that I recently visited. Empty. ===== In Canada, we pay various taxes: - school tax (depending on religion) - property tax (if you own) - provincial income tax - federal income tax - GST (on each purchase) In Canada, none of these taxes are deductible from the other.

Disagree. IMHO, Kurds, Armenians? - We Canadians live in peace. We in Canada have a federal state with two federal languages - but no official culture. ==== When it matters, we Canadians show up.

The world of von Neuman and Einstein no longer exists. I mean, the civilised, multi-cultural world of their life. Why did this civilised Europe collapse/implode in August 1914?

blackbird, I agree. I am not Jewish. But many successful Jewish people grew up in the 1950s - despite the loss of a father - or mother. They were raised by someone else (adopted), or by an aunt or uncle.

I too like Thomas Sowell. ==== I happen to know many kids - thinking in the past - who grew up in single-mother families, and the kids turned out fine. Correlation is not causation.

Spill.

Michael, The world does not lack children. It lacks educated children. === Our planet can support several billion more - and if, by chance, one of those is a Euler, a Newton, a Einstein...

I'm not American. But how does the US 16th Amendment forbid a federal sales tax?

Mulroney did the GST in his second term. ==== You Americans need a federal VAT. Trump is the kind of politician to do it.

I suspect that it will be similar - without the rapes. Russians wanted to make plain to Germans that if you do that, we do this.

Army Guy, We need a new world structure of peace.

Turks and Kurds? Not my problem. We Canadians, trust me, should have nothing to do with anything to do with Kurds. They - Kurds - are the most stubborn people on the planet. ==== Russians are stubborn. Slavs in general. Russians survived under two centuries of Mongols. Bulgarians under several centuries of Turks. ===== But Armenians. And Kurds.

How these various people, Icelanders or Newfoundlanders, have managed over the years - I can only imagine. But I suspect that they live better now - not because of more people - they live better because of trade and new technology. They are not better off because there are more people among them. That's a fool's errand. ===== For centuries, whether 100,000 or 500,000, these places are sustainable.

They are not anomalies. But fair enough... I was wrong. Iceland had only a population of some 70,000 in 1700 And according to Google, about the same in 1900 - some 80,000.

Iceland has had a population of some 300,000 for several centuries. The island of Newfoundland had a population of some 200,000 in 1900. To me, this is the definition of sustainable.

Should people in Russia be able to see someone's Facebook page in Ukraine? There are people in Egypt and Lebanon who use email to talk to people in Israel. Should we stop this?

Should we forbid all contact between individuals in Gaza/Palestine and Israel? How far does this idea of an embargo extend?

In Canada, we can't deduct provincial and property taxes from our federal taxes. Trump changed your tax law to make it like Canada. I was astonished to learn that before Trump, people in California could deduct their State/Property Taxes from federal taxes. In Montreal, imagine what would happen if the city and province could say: your local taxes are deductible from federal taxes. Trump abolished this. For Canadians: this is SALT. (Search on Google.)

Mulroney had the courage to impose such a federal tax. Moreover, he made the tax visible. ==== To solve your fiscal problems, you Americans will soon impose a federal consumption tax, VAT, GST. If the Democrats impose it, it will be like in Europe: hidden in the price. If the Republicans do it, it will be like in Canada: complicated.

Islam is not a threat to the West - any more than the revolts of 1848 were a threat to the peace of the 19th century. On this, I agree with Obama. Let cooler heads prevail.

Truman, Kennedy, Johnson (guys in Vietnam), Nixon and ultimately Reagan/Thatcher defeated the Soviets. At the time, the Soviet/Marxists were a threat to the world. ==== Since 1990, the US/Washington has decided it has the power to control the world. This is destabilizing We need a new structure of peace.

In my opinion, NATO no longer needs to exist. Turkey should be free to do what it wants. === We need a new structure of peace in this world. IMHO, it must be realistic, multi-polar. This current Washington idea of "regime-change" is destabilizing.