Government has no business in the bank accounts of Canadians

[blackbird]

This is an interesting article by Conrad Black on the over-reach of government.  Governments seem to believe they have the right to intrude on everyone's personal lives and business.  

Conrad Black: Government has no business in the bank accounts of the nation (msn.com)

These are Marxist-oriented politicians who have no respect for individual rights and freedoms.

[West]

Sounds like a thread I started awhile back about the disgusting Russiophobia in this country. 

Stealing money because of their passport doesn't make you virtuous 

[Zeitgeist]

If the central bank gets a digital currency and the digital passports are linked to it, along with government look-fors like state health programs (we already have digital vaccine passports), well that’s a true social credit totalitarian system a la China.

What’s especially reckless about our government’s moves on freezing Russia’s access to Swift and other financial punishments is that they’re forcing Russia to form new economic and monetary pacts with far more people than we have in Europe and North America.  It will also force individuals to seek cryptocurrencies that evade totalitarian government control.

The BRIC countries (which are the vast majority of the world’s population) are going to set up a financial system with Russia.  If our government and banks are seen to be too manipulative of world affairs, too highly ideological (especially woke, green, Marxist), and intrusive into people’s privacy (e.g. freezing accounts for political beliefs), where will that leave us?  

Edited April 9, 2022 by Zeitgeist

[WestCanMan]

I always had my doubts about crypto-currency, but we all just all found out that digital currency = no currency for dissidents in the modern era.

The people who had their accounts frozen here weren't even remotely close to being considered terrorists or violent criminals, they were just reasonable people supporting a reasonable & peaceful protest.

To say that the government's attacks on Canadians went too far is a gross understatement. 

[WestCanMan]

From the article:

Quote

The imposition of sanctions on Russia is being cited as an excuse for another massive assault on the remaining tatters of the privacy of the people of the entire politically organized world. Officially, we are all urged to acquiesce to public revelations of every conceivable connection we may have to assets of any kind that may be connected to Russian oligarchs, but this is the pretext for a thickening of the gigantic cloud of self-righteous officious smugness that has turned routine banking into the financial equivalent of compulsively frequent colonoscopies. 

What if the same standard was applied to Bush, Rumsfeld, Cheney etc?

Digital currency is for the birds. 

We talked to our financial advisor the other day and he said that a lot of people are buying silver and gold now, to hold personally. We know a few people doing that ourselves.

That's what drug dealers used to do when they were afraid of having their accounts seized. They'd bury gold because it doesn't rust or anything. Crazy times. 

[Zeitgeist]

1 hour ago, WestCanMan said:

From the article:

What if the same standard was applied to Bush, Rumsfeld, Cheney etc?

Digital currency is for the birds. 

We talked to our financial advisor the other day and he said that a lot of people are buying silver and gold now, to hold personally. We know a few people doing that ourselves.

That's what drug dealers used to do when they were afraid of having their accounts seized. They'd bury gold because it doesn't rust or anything. Crazy times. 

When millions of citizens start buying gold it says there’s a lack of confidence in stocks and/or bonds and/or currencies and/or governments.  It derives from perceptions of unfairness, mismanagement, and volatility.  Our governments keep overspending, forcing higher interest rates that add to the high and climbing cost of living.  What’s safe?   Real estate?   Maybe for now until that asset bubble bursts.  Cash savings?   Not when interest rates are below inflation rates and your bank account could be seized because you attend a government protest or express views deemed “unacceptable”.

[eyeball]

8 hours ago, blackbird said:

This is an interesting article by Conrad Black on the over-reach of government.  Governments seem to believe they have the right to intrude on everyone's personal lives and business.  

Conrad Black: Government has no business in the bank accounts of the nation (msn.com)

These are Marxist-oriented politicians who have no respect for individual rights and freedoms.

This from the white collar criminal who was sent to jail on the basis and strength of video evidence catching him in the act of evading accountability.  The government of course, should have eyes on all the accounts of people with Conrad Black's wealth and ugly disposition towards accountability.  It is with the greatest irony that Conrad Black shamelessly bases his accusations of over-reach against the very low-hanging fruit of ordinary Canadians on the plight of poor hard-done by Russian oligarchs, who one presumes are as deserving of exemption from oversight as us and of course Black himself.

Black cites the lack of evidence of oligarch influence and alleged capacity to get Canadians to snow-wash their ill gotten gains to make his case which flies in the face of the most serious aspects of the allegations; that Canada's government is lax and even worse when it comes to intruding into this filthy disgraceful activity.

Quote

The capacity of government to detect money-laundering practices falls within the CPI’s purview, but one shudders to think what Canada’s score would be if Ottawa allowed the degree of public scrutiny that would be needed to effectively expose the rackets that move money into Canada on behalf of big-time gangsters, police-state apparatchiks and oligarchs and kleptocrats from Belarus to Beijing.

https://nationalpost.com/opinion/terry-glavin-canadas-rankings-in-the-corruption-perceptions-index-have-plummeted-under-trudeau

The real issue here is the under-reach of ordinary Canadians and above all else ordinary Canadians who identify as right-wing conservatives when it comes to making our governments more accountable about who they target and more to the point who they don't target with their 'over-reach'.

WTF is the matter with you people. You seem to go out of your way to make it as easy as possible for the ridiculously powerful and wealthy to get even more wealthy and powerful. How? By reducing transparency and accountability and of course shitting all over the left at every opportunity.

That said...look at the name at the end of the link I provided.  Why you people and the people you would elect carry so much water for this particular POS by remaining so silent about this particular issue at this particular time is beyond dystopian.

WTF IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?

Edited April 10, 2022 by eyeball

[West]

11 minutes ago, eyeball said:

This from the white collar criminal who was sent to jail on the basis and strength of video evidence catching him in the act of evading accountability.  The government of course, should have eyes on all the accounts of people with Conrad Black's wealth and ugly disposition towards accountability.  It is with the greatest irony that Conrad Black shamelessly bases his accusations of over-reach against the very low-hanging fruit of ordinary Canadians on the plight of poor hard-done by Russian oligarchs, who one presumes are as deserving of exemption from oversight as us and of course Black himself.

Black cites the lack of evidence of oligarch influence and alleged capacity to get Canadians to snow-wash their ill gotten gains to make his case which flies in the face of the most serious aspects of the allegations; that Canada's government is lax and even worse when it comes to intruding into this filthy disgraceful activity.

The real issue here is the under-reach of ordinary Canadians and above all else ordinary Canadians who identify as right-wing conservatives when it comes to making our governments more accountable about who they target and more to the point who they don't target with their 'over-reach'.

WTF is the matter with you people. You seem to go out of your way to make it as easy as possible for the ridiculously powerful and wealthy to get even more wealthy and powerful. How? By reducing transparency and accountability and of course shitting all over the left at every opportunity.

That said...look at the name at the end of the link I provided.  Why you people and the people you would elect carry so much water for this particular POS by remaining so silent about this particular issue at this particular time is beyond dystopian.  Its just downright fucking retarded.

WTF IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?

Our concern is targeting people based on political affiliation. This totally goes against any democratic principals. 

Unfortunately what we are seeing now are a bunch of politically driven witch hunts.

[eyeball]

5 minutes ago, West said:

Our concern is targeting people based on political affiliation. This totally goes against any democratic principals. 

Unfortunately what we are seeing now are a bunch of politically driven witch hunts.

Yeah, well I can't imagine anything that would put a stop to that faster than you people targeting the politicians you would elect to represent you for ignoring this issue I've attached to your concern.

Without it your concern is beyond laughable - it should actually be bringing Canadians to tears.

Edited April 10, 2022 by eyeball

[eyeball]

Quote

The capacity of government to detect money-laundering practices falls within the CPI’s purview, but one shudders to think what Canada’s score would be if Ottawa allowed the degree of public scrutiny that would be needed to effectively expose the rackets that move money into Canada on behalf of big-time gangsters, police-state apparatchiks and oligarchs and kleptocrats from Belarus to Beijing.

https://nationalpost.com/opinion/terry-glavin-canadas-rankings-in-the-corruption-perceptions-index-have-plummeted-under-trudeau

Blunting this capacity is what Conrad Black wants most - and its shocking to me that ordinary Canadians of any political persuasion would want that too.

The government has inadvertently shown us a hand we would probably never have seen if Black and the sort of scum he represents had anything to say about it - that the government does indeed have the capacity to make the business of criminal's our business and that we can do something about it.

This is a teachable moment. Ignoring it would be an even bigger crime against ourselves.

[WestCanMan]

5 hours ago, Zeitgeist said:

Real estate? 

Real estate has always a great investment, as far as a principle residence is concerned.

There's no other investment where people have put in relatively small amounts of money and gotten so much out of it.

If you buy $50K worth of stocks and they go up by 100% you made $50K, and if you're renting then you still have to pay rent. If you put $50K on a $750K home and it doubles you made $750K. Since the 1950s homes in the lower mainland of BC have doubled every ten years. 

Everybody keeps saying that it can't happen again and it always does.

The vast majority of wealth accumulated by average Canadians is from real estate. 

I agree that investing in Canada isn't such a rock-solid proposition anymore though. If the gov't can randomly freeze people's bank accounts and take away their jobs, what's next? 

[eyeball]

Am I to believe that not one single Conservative vying for leadership and eventually the PM's office would be able to gain any traction whatsoever with their own supporters, never mind most Canadians, by making an issue out of the extent of snow-washing alleged to be occurring on Trudeau's watch?

Again I ask, WTF is wrong with you people?

Edited April 10, 2022 by eyeball

[eyeball]

6 minutes ago, WestCanMan said:

If the gov't can randomly freeze people's bank accounts and take away their jobs, what's next? 

The only reason they can do this is because we let them ignore the best tastiest fruit at the top like Black and his buddies and instead target sour over-ripe low-hangers like dumb-ass truckers and yahoos.

Why are you carrying so much water for Trudeau by putting up with this?  I thought you guys were big on meaningful news stories that are under-reported and kept from Canadians.  There should be a Royal Commission looking into this and it should be front and center in the news just about all the time.

[Zeitgeist]

8 minutes ago, eyeball said:

Am I to believe that not one single Conservative vying for leadership and eventually the PM's office would be able to gain any traction whatsoever with their own supporters, never mind most Canadians, by bring this issue of the extent of snow-washing alleged to be occurring on Trudeau's watch?

Again I ask, WTF is wrong with you people?

Everything we’re talking about illustrates how the entrenched wealthy protect themselves.  I don’t blame them for trying, as long as everyone gets to play by the same rules to achieve what they can, including through the accumulation of wealth, without threat of property seizure.  Free market capitalism is healthy as long as it’s a free market that doesn’t favour anyone based on superficial markers.  We must live in a meritocracy where it pays to be entrepreneurial and creative.  That’s essential to liberty, and liberty is essential.

[eyeball]

Just now, Zeitgeist said:

Everything we’re talking about illustrates how the entrenched wealthy protect themselves.  I don’t blame them for trying, as long as everyone gets to play by the same rules to achieve what they can, including through the accumulation of wealth, without threat of property seizure.  Free market capitalism is healthy as long as it’s a free market that doesn’t favour anyone based on superficial markers.  We must live in a meritocracy where it pays to be entrepreneurial and creative.  That’s essential to liberty, and liberty is essential.

Ah so oligarchs are meritorious and essential to our liberty.

Good to know. 

[eyeball]

3 minutes ago, Zeitgeist said:

Everything we’re talking about illustrates how the entrenched wealthy protect themselves.

No. Everything you’re talking about illustrates how the entrenched wealthy protect themselves - by making them seem just like us, regular, poor, hard-done by folk, exactly like us.

 

[Zeitgeist]

6 minutes ago, eyeball said:

Ah so oligarchs are meritorious and essential to our liberty.

Good to know. 

Where did that come from?   I’m saying the Liberals and NDP are vested interests protecting themselves.  It’s about ensuring that upward mobility remains possible for all, not protecting the powerful at the expense of workers.  Workers from modest backgrounds should be able to get rich.  

Edited April 10, 2022 by Zeitgeist

[eyeball]

1 minute ago, Zeitgeist said:

Where did that come from?   I’m saying the Liberals and NDP are vested interests protecting themselves.

It came in the context of your reply to a post directly focused on oligarchs.

Why are you carrying water for the Liberals by ignoring their alleged protection of oligarch's interests?

WTF is wrong with you?

[Zeitgeist]

22 minutes ago, eyeball said:

It came in the context of your reply to a post directly focused on oligarchs.

Why are you carrying water for the Liberals by ignoring their alleged protection of oligarch's interests?

WTF is wrong with you?

That’s too general.  First define what you mean by oligarchs.  If you mean people who are incredibly successful, there’s nothing wrong with it and it should be celebrated.  If you mean people who work the system illegally and are backed by government to do so, well no one on here would support that, not in clear significant ways.  You want a society that frees up everyone as much as possible to apply their talents to create wealth, as that benefits everyone.  Sure the state will redistribute some of it as a safety net.  Fair enough.  Just never squelch talent and creativity.  Actually enhance it through smart, simple lessez-faire policy.  

Edited April 10, 2022 by Zeitgeist

[eyeball]

56 minutes ago, Zeitgeist said:

If you mean people who work the system illegally and are backed by government to do so, well no one on here would support that, not in clear significant ways.

Yeah, that's exactly who I mean.  Virtually everyone around here supports it by not investigating it.

I was under the impression after pages and threads and forums full of right-wing outrage that under-reporting and ignoring allegations of government corruption was tacit support for that corruption.

Why am I not seeing reports of Conservative politicians excoriating Trudeau in Parliament for not investigating these allegations?  Are you people seeing this on your trusted news sources?  Given the crickets I'd say obviously not.  Why?

Edited April 10, 2022 by eyeball

[eyeball]

I'd have to say right-wingers may be convincing me that there really is something to their allegations that the media and governments are colluding with dictators to screw us over.  It just never dawned on me that right-wingers might be the worst perpetrators of this.

[eyeball]

Quote

As voters in a democratic society we are responsible for the actions of the governments we empower.  I've suggested outlawing in-camera lobbying to better facilitate the right of Canadians to know what is being discussed in our names behind closed doors where power, influence and wealth mingle. I also think it would do a lot to clean up the misinformation generated by a media that is as in the dark as us and that leaves us divided and inattentive to what's really important not to mention what's actually going on.

Further to the above is not just our right to know but our responsibility to know. In actual fact our responsibility precedes our right.

https://repolitics.com/forums/topic/41862-the-publics-responsibility-to-know/

I really have to question where Canadians think they have the right to weigh in on what the government's business should or shouldn't be when they refuse to take responsibility for it.

 

[Zeitgeist]

11 hours ago, eyeball said:

I really have to question where Canadians think they have the right to weigh in on what the government's business should or shouldn't be when they refuse to take responsibility for it.

 

You’ve been on this in-camera ban for years.  I have mixed feelings about it but ultimately count me out against intrusions into conversations between people in an organization.  Votes in parliament aren’t anonymous, nor is parliamentary debate.  You’re worried about back room deals.  Me too, but there will always be back rooms.   You can’t prevent people from talking and planning.  I’d rather allow that than live in a surveillance state.  There’s a time for being public and not everything private should be up for grabs.  

Edited April 10, 2022 by Zeitgeist

[eyeball]

10 hours ago, Zeitgeist said:

You’ve been on this in-camera ban for years.  I have mixed feelings about it but ultimately can me out against intrusions into conversations between people in an organization.  Votes in parliament aren’t anonymous, nor is parliamentary debate.  You’re worried about back room deals.  Me too, but there will always be back rooms.   You can’t prevent people from talking and planning.  I’d rather allow that than live in a surveillance state.  There’s a time for being public and not everything private should be up for grabs.  

This is a really mangled understanding of what I've been saying. I'm really not that surprised that you don't get it.  

[Dougie93]

10 hours ago, Zeitgeist said:

You’ve been on this in-camera ban for years.  I have mixed feelings about it but ultimately can me out against intrusions into conversations between people in an organization.  Votes in parliament aren’t anonymous, nor is parliamentary debate.  You’re worried about back room deals.  Me too, but there will always be back rooms.   You can’t prevent people from talking and planning.  I’d rather allow that than live in a surveillance state.  There’s a time for being public and not everything private should be up for grabs.  

naked tyranny & totalitarianism renders back room deals superfluous

the conspiracies are in plain sight

the elites now simply use the jackboots to put down any opposition or even dissent