I'll spare you the left leaning rant about omnibus bills and neo-liberal facists but I'd be grateful if someone could take this dubya clone off our hands. Does next October work for anyone?
Sorry, but I really can't really see anything "neo-liberal" about giving more power to a tax-collecting agency. Really, a bit of a misused political pejorative.
We've actually had a similar relationship between the IRS and the FBI in the States since back in the 20s. It is how Al Capone, the notorious Chicago mafioso, was eventually arrested and imprisoned.
It sucks that Canada's tax man is up to no good, but considering the recent scandals involving the IRS I'd say your revenue service isn't as bad as ours just yet.
Sorry, but I really can't really see anything "neo-liberal" about giving more power to a tax-collecting agency. Really, a bit of a misused political pejorative.
Depends, if they target tax avoidance of large corps & multi-nationals it's not neo-liberal, if they don't it is.
So after the LibSpill, Toxic Tony remains. I can't tell you how happy this make me, not because I'm a Lib but because while he's still there the Libs are going to get an absolute kicking. *Grabs Popcorn & Settles in to watch the car crash, in slo-mo, over & over & over*
I'll spare you the left leaning rant about omnibus bills and neo-liberal facists but I'd be grateful if someone could take this dubya clone off our hands. Does next October work for anyone?
Yea not going to happen. The carbon tax Trudeau has proposed will ensure that.
meagloth that was some time ago (it was serious (I mean, the people was offended and they attacked him... Not a serious political thing in any way) but not relevant in any, since nobody died xD), besides it's nothing compared with what happened now (a public prosecutor was going to present accusations about the president and part of her party of idiots because of an alliance with some terrorist from Iran and because of covering some attacks on the AMIA and other things by part of some crazies from Iran, but he got killed by agents of the government).
Apparently your government is claiming it was the protesters who killed him. Which to me seems about as likely as a zombified Elvis killing him.
Yeah, you're right. Here there were already a lot of attack by zombie Elvis.
BTW, when they found him dead they've say he had committed suicide Bloody liars.
Sorry, but I really can't really see anything "neo-liberal" about giving more power to a tax-collecting agency. Really, a bit of a misused political pejorative.
We've actually had a similar relationship between the IRS and the FBI in the States since back in the 20s. It is how Al Capone, the notorious Chicago mafioso, was eventually arrested and imprisoned.
It sucks that Canada's tax man is up to no good, but considering the recent scandals involving the IRS I'd say your revenue service isn't as bad as ours just yet.
The term was used quickly and without reference. In replace of a clumsy attempt on my part I'll leave this: 'Neo-liberalism : trickle-down, deregulating, deunionizing, globalizing free market privatization of government.'
"When Stephen Harper was studying under the "Calgary school" in the 80's, he became so enamored with the neo-liberalism of Austrian philosopher Friedrich von Hayek - guru to Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan, the Chicago boys, the IMF, and the WTO - it formed the basis of his 1991 political economics thesis." http://creekside1.blogspot.ca/2014/10/harperism-from-harper-and-hayek-to-koch.html
I read somewhere about that Capone connection. I can only hope for the best of results but I'm a bit of a pessimist when it comes to politics/politicians. Our CRA has already been enlisted to strong-arm/censor non-profits with 'opinions' running counter to our little king.
The CRA is one of the most poorly managed government agencies in Canada. I won't even bother to back this up with any www links. It's frustrating how inept and over funded this agency is. It really sounds like we have just given birth to a cousin of your IRS. The family resemblance does not surprise me in the least.
I just disagree with the way the world is going. Our collective priorities are depressingly misplaced.
Sorry, but I really can't really see anything "neo-liberal" about giving more power to a tax-collecting agency. Really, a bit of a misused political pejorative.
Depends, if they target tax avoidance of large corps & multi-nationals it's not neo-liberal, if they don't it is.
ugh .....
something about both hands and a map comes to mind
I'll spare you the left leaning rant about omnibus bills and neo-liberal facists but I'd be grateful if someone could take this dubya clone off our hands. Does next October work for anyone?
Yea not going to happen. The carbon tax Trudeau has proposed will ensure that.
Even a minority government would staunch some of the bleeding.
The term was used quickly and without reference. In replace of a clumsy attempt on my part I'll leave this: 'Neo-liberalism : trickle-down, deregulating, deunionizing, globalizing free market privatization of government.'
"When Stephen Harper was studying under the "Calgary school" in the 80's, he became so enamored with the neo-liberalism of Austrian philosopher Friedrich von Hayek - guru to Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan, the Chicago boys, the IMF, and the WTO - it formed the basis of his 1991 political economics thesis." http://creekside1.blogspot.ca/2014/10/harperism-from-harper-and-hayek-to-koch.html
No, I completely understand. My problem was the term being paired with fascism, which is pretty much the exact opposite (though Pinochet tried his best). Putting fascism in front of it is just a way to denigrate the philosophy just like when a right-leaning person calling one who leans moderately left a "communist".
I'd classify myself as a "classical liberal" and Hayek was a great influence (though not as much as Friedman). As a person who supports (in a broad sense) globalization, deregulation and free markets I just don't see the insistence of people pairing such a philosophy with fascism other than to use it as a pejorative.
"Neo-liberal fascism" is an oxymoron... free markets are by nature anti-authoritarian and globalization requires a breaking down of ethnic and cultural barriers that fascism fees off of. I don't know of a single classical liberal or modern American-style libertarian economist who agrees with protectionism to prop up national corporations or who supports a nativist approach to immigration, two of the most basic tenets of fascism.
Really, fascism in practice is far more akin to socialism but replaces inter-class struggle with inter-racial tensions or nationalistic conflicts between states and ethnic groups as the gung-ho driving force.
My view is that in political discourse, where people often come in with pre-concieved notions about those who disagree with them (usually that the other side is Bad People who take their positions based on self-centered ulterior motives rather than philosophical belief) words are extremely important and people should be careful when they try to describe the views of someone they disagree with. Not every leftist is Stalin and not every conservative is Hitler the same way that not everyone who takes a drink is an alcoholic. Misrepresentation is the cause of way too much conflict in politics.
Sorry, but I really can't really see anything "neo-liberal" about giving more power to a tax-collecting agency. Really, a bit of a misused political pejorative.
Depends, if they target tax avoidance of large corps & multi-nationals it's not neo-liberal, if they don't it is.
ugh .....
something about both hands and a map comes to mind
I'll spare you the left leaning rant about omnibus bills and neo-liberal facists but I'd be grateful if someone could take this dubya clone off our hands. Does next October work for anyone?
Something tells me you'll regret those words come 2016 and you have the real dubya clone:
Son of a former prime minister No leadership qualities Always having his foot in his mouth No foreign affairs experience or policies The budget will balance itself
train wreck, but with great hair, Trudeau being puppetted by people who you don't even know the names of because they call all the shots behind the scene.
But fear the Conservatives and anything they do because they are the boogey men out to get you.
The term was used quickly and without reference. In replace of a clumsy attempt on my part I'll leave this: 'Neo-liberalism : trickle-down, deregulating, deunionizing, globalizing free market privatization of government.'
"When Stephen Harper was studying under the "Calgary school" in the 80's, he became so enamored with the neo-liberalism of Austrian philosopher Friedrich von Hayek - guru to Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan, the Chicago boys, the IMF, and the WTO - it formed the basis of his 1991 political economics thesis." http://creekside1.blogspot.ca/2014/10/harperism-from-harper-and-hayek-to-koch.html
"Neo-liberal fascism" is an oxymoron... free markets are by nature anti-authoritarian and globalization requires a breaking down of ethnic and cultural barriers that fascism fees off of. I don't know of a single classical liberal or modern American-style libertarian economist who agrees with protectionism to prop up national corporations or who supports a nativist approach to immigration, two of the most basic tenets of fascism.
Thanks for this.
The term fascist was certainly meant to be pejorative - maybe 'authoritarian' might be more accurate. He definitely is worthy of some sort of thuggish description.
As you can probably can tell I'm only a disgruntled neophyte with internet access so the 'education' is appreciated.
Sorry, but I really can't really see anything "neo-liberal" about giving more power to a tax-collecting agency. Really, a bit of a misused political pejorative.
Depends, if they target tax avoidance of large corps & multi-nationals it's not neo-liberal, if they don't it is.
ugh .....
something about both hands and a map comes to mind
Your point being?
With the amount of banking details leaked over the past year it shouldn't be that difficult to find the big dodgers.
My cynical nature immediately suspects a lack of political will to be perfectly honest.
Sorry, but I really can't really see anything "neo-liberal" about giving more power to a tax-collecting agency. Really, a bit of a misused political pejorative.
Depends, if they target tax avoidance of large corps & multi-nationals it's not neo-liberal, if they don't it is.
ugh .....
something about both hands and a map comes to mind
Your point being?
With the amount of banking details leaked over the past year it shouldn't be that difficult to find the big dodgers.
My cynical nature immediately suspects a lack of political will to be perfectly honest.
Cynical? Entirely understandable I'd say. Of course there isn't any will, it means biting the hand that feeds them!
I'll spare you the left leaning rant about omnibus bills and neo-liberal facists but I'd be grateful if someone could take this dubya clone off our hands. Does next October work for anyone?
Something tells me you'll regret those words come 2016 and you have the real dubya clone:
Son of a former prime minister No leadership qualities Always having his foot in his mouth No foreign affairs experience or policies The budget will balance itself
train wreck, but with great hair, Trudeau being puppetted by people who you don't even know the names of because they call all the shots behind the scene.
But fear the Conservatives and anything they do because they are the boogey men out to get you.
I'm unsure who I'm voting for. The first past the post system is broken imo so I might just HAVE to vote liberal this October. We won't see proportional representation this time around but maybe we can hope for next time.
In the end, no matter who wins, we are all voting for the same party politics - no matter how young, old, experienced or idyllistic the candidate.
Ranked ballots or even proportional representation... we need to get rid of first past the post. -_- Strategic voting has to go.
I wish we had nothing but independents running, because voters would be forced to learn about the candidates and no candidate would be forced to vote along party lines or follow a party creed or the boys in short pants. But there's no way you can outlaw parties -- or the people who vote for party flags and not for the candidates themselves.
On the other hand at a municipal level Toronto (where I live) doesn't have parties and voters still don't bother to learn about candidates, so I doubt the results would be much different (regardless of the level of government). For instance 37/44 city councillors in Toronto ran again in the last election. 36 of those 37 were re-elected (even Rob Ford won his old council seat back). This also happened when voter turnout was unusually high (at least by modern Canadian standards).
That said we really do need ranked balloting. It really just seems like the most fair approach. However, I doubt parties will ever agree to it (they have everything to lose and nothing to gain from it).
I agree wholeheartedly with the words of Alexander Stub, the Prime Minister of Finland:
"If the ceasefire will not hold, then we have to leave all the illusions about the fact that the Russian Federation has the opportunity to be part of the international brotherhood engaged in international rules, and we will bow down to the frozen relations between the West and Russia for the foreseeable future. No one wants."
I just hope Putin won't **ck this up. This seems like the last wagon of hope.
I just don't understand what Putin thinks he can accomplish in Ukraine. He's already ruined Russia's reputation for several years to come. He says one thing and does the other. I mean I don't think anybody believes that Russian forces aren't involved in Ukraine. The rebels would never have that kind of firepower. As a Finn I'm seriously concerned about the recent development and I would vote for Finland to join Nato if such a vote was held.
Baha, well the feeling in South Africa is .. complex?
Pres Zuma did his state ot nation thing last night, which was disrupted, and the opposition MPs were removed by police. Also the state media agency had blocked cell phone signals into the building, so this video had to be uploaded after the reporter left parliament. Which all seems like the work of a super-incompetent police state.
To clarify, the ANC majority has mostly degenerated into a corrupt nepotistic bunch of wannabe dictators. The EFF are the ones in red, similarly corrupt wannabe dictators, but they broke away from the ANC youth league because the old farts weren't dying fast enough. The main distinguishing feature is the ANC is probably lawful-aligned while the EFF is best described as chaotic.
The reason for the disruption is because Zuma stole $21M to upgrade his house, and the EFF want him to pay it back.
The ones in white in the video are police. The official opposition party, the DA, best described as lawful capitalist, later staged a walkout to protest the ANC's use of police within parliament. The DA said that while he should indeed pay it back, government as a whole is stealing billions, which is a more pressing problem, which this sideshow is masking.
My feeling on western politics is that it's all a dogshow put on for the masses, by the super-rich. Politicians are paid to play out an insane soap-opera to distract us from the inherent flaws in our economic system. Our entire civilisation's economy is a massive money-making machine designed to make the rich richer.
This differs from my normal view, that if something goes wrong, it's almost never due to the evil machinations of some super-intelligent psychopath. Mostly it's due to incompetence and stupidity.
However, in the case of the super-rich, all you need is to produce the occasional child who's more than usually bright, because they're experienced at manufacturing sadistic psychopathic bullies out of rough clay, so to speak.
As for African politics, there are shades of the capitalist soap-opera going on, but it all feels like a veneer over the real business of petty warlords squabbling over whatever they can steal.
Comments
http://www.wsj.com/articles/nbcs-brian-williams-takes-himself-off-the-air-1423347161
http://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/cra-has-new-mandate-to-fight-crime-by-passing-suspect-info-to-police-1.2226319#ixzz3RBQdRZep
I'll spare you the left leaning rant about omnibus bills and neo-liberal facists but I'd be grateful if someone could take this dubya clone off our hands. Does next October work for anyone?
*The CBC was down for a few minutes so I'll add:
"No judicial warrants required in CRA's new powers"
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/revenue-canada-has-new-powers-to-pass-suspect-criminal-info-to-police-1.2949693
We've actually had a similar relationship between the IRS and the FBI in the States since back in the 20s. It is how Al Capone, the notorious Chicago mafioso, was eventually arrested and imprisoned.
Its fine as long as a warrant is necessary to show that such information is relevant to a particular investigation, but here in the States the IRS has already claimed the "right" to search people's emails without a warrant (http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/04/11/irs-tells-agents-it-can-snoop-on-emails-without-warrant-internal-documents-show/).
It sucks that Canada's tax man is up to no good, but considering the recent scandals involving the IRS I'd say your revenue service isn't as bad as ours just yet.
BTW, when they found him dead they've say he had committed suicide
"When Stephen Harper was studying under the "Calgary school" in the 80's, he became so enamored with the neo-liberalism of Austrian philosopher Friedrich von Hayek - guru to Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan, the Chicago boys, the IMF, and the WTO - it formed the basis of his 1991 political economics thesis."
http://creekside1.blogspot.ca/2014/10/harperism-from-harper-and-hayek-to-koch.html
I read somewhere about that Capone connection. I can only hope for the best of results but I'm a bit of a pessimist when it comes to politics/politicians. Our CRA has already been enlisted to strong-arm/censor non-profits with 'opinions' running counter to our little king.
The CRA is one of the most poorly managed government agencies in Canada. I won't even bother to back this up with any www links. It's frustrating how inept and over funded this agency is. It really sounds like we have just given birth to a cousin of your IRS. The family resemblance does not surprise me in the least.
I just disagree with the way the world is going. Our collective priorities are depressingly misplaced.
regards,
something about both hands and a map comes to mind
I'd classify myself as a "classical liberal" and Hayek was a great influence (though not as much as Friedman). As a person who supports (in a broad sense) globalization, deregulation and free markets I just don't see the insistence of people pairing such a philosophy with fascism other than to use it as a pejorative.
"Neo-liberal fascism" is an oxymoron... free markets are by nature anti-authoritarian and globalization requires a breaking down of ethnic and cultural barriers that fascism fees off of. I don't know of a single classical liberal or modern American-style libertarian economist who agrees with protectionism to prop up national corporations or who supports a nativist approach to immigration, two of the most basic tenets of fascism.
Really, fascism in practice is far more akin to socialism but replaces inter-class struggle with inter-racial tensions or nationalistic conflicts between states and ethnic groups as the gung-ho driving force.
My view is that in political discourse, where people often come in with pre-concieved notions about those who disagree with them (usually that the other side is Bad People who take their positions based on self-centered ulterior motives rather than philosophical belief) words are extremely important and people should be careful when they try to describe the views of someone they disagree with. Not every leftist is Stalin and not every conservative is Hitler the same way that not everyone who takes a drink is an alcoholic. Misrepresentation is the cause of way too much conflict in politics.
Son of a former prime minister
No leadership qualities
Always having his foot in his mouth
No foreign affairs experience or policies
The budget will balance itself
train wreck, but with great hair, Trudeau being puppetted by people who you don't even know the names of because they call all the shots behind the scene.
But fear the Conservatives and anything they do because they are the boogey men out to get you.
The term fascist was certainly meant to be pejorative - maybe 'authoritarian' might be more accurate. He definitely is worthy of some sort of thuggish description.
As you can probably can tell I'm only a disgruntled neophyte with internet access so the 'education' is appreciated.
cheers!
My cynical nature immediately suspects a lack of political will to be perfectly honest.
Well, I live in Italy. Should I say anything else?
In the end, no matter who wins, we are all voting for the same party politics - no matter how young, old, experienced or idyllistic the candidate.
Yea, I'm disillusioned.
That said we really do need ranked balloting. It really just seems like the most fair approach. However, I doubt parties will ever agree to it (they have everything to lose and nothing to gain from it).
The deal of a ceasefire between Moscow and Kiev has been reached. http://rt.com/news/231643-minsk-summit-ceasefire-reactions/
I agree wholeheartedly with the words of Alexander Stub, the Prime Minister of Finland:
"If the ceasefire will not hold, then we have to leave all the illusions about the fact that the Russian Federation has the opportunity to be part of the international brotherhood engaged in international rules, and we will bow down to the frozen relations between the West and Russia for the foreseeable future. No one wants."
I just hope Putin won't **ck this up. This seems like the last wagon of hope.
Pres Zuma did his state ot nation thing last night, which was disrupted, and the opposition MPs were removed by police. Also the state media agency had blocked cell phone signals into the building, so this video had to be uploaded after the reporter left parliament. Which all seems like the work of a super-incompetent police state.
http://www.enca.com/south-africa/eff-disrupts-sona-ordered-leave-parliament
http://ewn.co.za/2015/02/12/The-extreme-highs-and-lows-of-Sona-2015
To clarify, the ANC majority has mostly degenerated into a corrupt nepotistic bunch of wannabe dictators. The EFF are the ones in red, similarly corrupt wannabe dictators, but they broke away from the ANC youth league because the old farts weren't dying fast enough. The main distinguishing feature is the ANC is probably lawful-aligned while the EFF is best described as chaotic.
The reason for the disruption is because Zuma stole $21M to upgrade his house, and the EFF want him to pay it back.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nkandla_(homestead)
The ones in white in the video are police. The official opposition party, the DA, best described as lawful capitalist, later staged a walkout to protest the ANC's use of police within parliament. The DA said that while he should indeed pay it back, government as a whole is stealing billions, which is a more pressing problem, which this sideshow is masking.
This differs from my normal view, that if something goes wrong, it's almost never due to the evil machinations of some super-intelligent psychopath. Mostly it's due to incompetence and stupidity.
However, in the case of the super-rich, all you need is to produce the occasional child who's more than usually bright, because they're experienced at manufacturing sadistic psychopathic bullies out of rough clay, so to speak.
As for African politics, there are shades of the capitalist soap-opera going on, but it all feels like a veneer over the real business of petty warlords squabbling over whatever they can steal.