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Politics. The feel in your country.

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  • TakisMegasTakisMegas Member Posts: 835

    As stated above by @elminster and @deltago , I think cutting Toronto's city council to 25 is a good thing.
    As stated by Ford, LA has fewer and is a much bigger city.

    I do not like the pre lying factors that is bringing on this decision. This is Vendetta politics. Ford and his late brother had many enemies when they where at Toronto city hall, now he is trying to settle old scores with his new found Provincial powers. There are a lot of assholes and thieves at Toronto city hall to cull but I don't think this is being done with the City's best interests at heart.

    deltago
  • semiticgoddesssemiticgoddess Member Posts: 14,903
    @WarChiefZeke: That seems like a very narrow way of defining it. We know that Putin wanted Trump to be president; Putin explicitly said so in a press conference recently. We know that Putin intervened; we have a lengthy official report explaining how he did. We know that Trump does things that Putin wants him to; posters above have listed examples.

    You seem to be asking for an extremely specific example: a secret message, issued by Putin's office, containing a certain order, sent directly to Trump, while Trump was in office, which resulted in Trump following that order, an order which Trump previously would not have done otherwise. It seems like an arbitrary degree of complexity.
    ThacoBellsmeagolheart
  • WarChiefZekeWarChiefZeke Member Posts: 2,651
    edited July 2018

    @WarChiefZeke: That seems like a very narrow way of defining it. We know that Putin wanted Trump to be president; Putin explicitly said so in a press conference recently. We know that Putin intervened; we have a lengthy official report explaining how he did. We know that Trump does things that Putin wants him to; posters above have listed examples.

    You seem to be asking for an extremely specific example: a secret message, issued by Putin's office, containing a certain order, sent directly to Trump, while Trump was in office, which resulted in Trump following that order, an order which Trump previously would not have done otherwise. It seems like an arbitrary degree of complexity.

    It simply is not the case that I am asking for some written or verbal contract, all I am arguing for is for the principle that if someone was going to do/ would have done something anyway, and stated as much years ago, that really can't be considered evidence of being influenced. And if they say they will discuss something but don't do it, that can't be considered evidence they are being controlled or manipulated or have influence over them either, quite the opposite.

    So we are basically left with sanctions, and joining NATO to which I have to say...is that it? Trump doesn't even want to be part of NATO so I doubt he cares and I am not particularly commited to sanctions which often only hurt ordinary people anyway. Assuming again, its all true, and that was the tradeoff for exposing the internal corruption being concealed, I see very little substance for the overblown rhetoric.

    Since we *don't* have any actual evidence on Trump in the manner you suggest and we can go only by assuming motives by what we see in the geopolitical sphere, the case doesn't hold up. There are just as many counterweights to what evidence can be created and the innate conjectural nature of this sort of motive seeking simply demands more than the relatively balanced stance on Russia we see. We are not conceding to their wrongdoings, nor their biggest interests, but neither are we overtly hostile. That seems sensible, if anything.
  • Grond0Grond0 Member Posts: 7,305
    I don't think most people are saying that Trump is definitely acting directly on behalf of Russia. I certainly wouldn't rule out that possibility, but I agree there's not the evidence to confirm it at the moment. However, there's plenty of evidence that Russia intervened on behalf of Trump and, as others have said, it's not hard to understand why Russia might have wished to do so.

    If Trump was as disinterested as you suggest his nationalist and isolationist tendencies would surely have led him to condemn in the strongest terms any foreign interference in the US. I would say that the fact he hasn't done that in relation to Russia - and has worked so hard to prevent investigations and action against that interference is compelling evidence that Trump is being influenced in some way. That influence may simply be Trump's perception that it's in his own best interest to allow Russia to continue to interfere, but even if that is all that's going on that's still pretty damning behavior by someone that's taken the Presidential oath.
    semiticgoddessThacoBell
  • deltagodeltago Member Posts: 7,811
    @BallpointMan’s first three points still stand and cannot be easily dismissed.

    I’ll add another. Trump’s over all friendliness to Russia and Putin is a stark contrast to what I will call critical complaints about the rest of the world. Why is Russia the one country or region Trump does not harp on? He has attacked Canada, Mexico, The EU, the G7, Japan, both Koreas, China, Iran, Great Britian, NATO, to name a few but hasn’t said one critical thing about Russia or its policies. Why?
    ThacoBellsmeagolheart
  • BallpointManBallpointMan Member Posts: 1,659

    I agree with very little of your points, @BallpointMan. Fully half of his actions you cite as evidence the Russians are influencing him, such as his antagonism towards the EU, wishing to pull out of military conflicts, and his "America First" nationalist ideology, can be explained by his own political beliefs, plainly stated on the campaign trail, and can be explained entirely on that basis alone. There is no reason, for those issues, to even assume Russia is a factor without evidence.


    I mean - this is exactly the point.

    Was there election meddling by Russia? The US intelligence has said there was

    Did Russia aim to benefit one of the candidates in particular? Yep - Putin himself has said he wanted Trump to win.

    Has Trump said and done a variety of things that are beneficial to Russia? Mmhmm. See the bullet list I already provided. None of which you really refuted. Even if Trump was saying "America First" type things 5 years ago. Putin took Russian state sponsored action to help Trump get elected because Trump has a record of wanting things that are beneficial to Putin.

    That's what you asked for - The benefits to Russia that Putin wanted.


    For all the talk of Trump being Putin's puppet, I still have yet seen a plausible set of policy benefits Russia has gained for their alleged Game of Thrones style control of the White House. Assuming this tangled web is all true, their handful of twitter bots and facebook ads, as well as providing the public with access to important information, tipped the election for Trump, and in return they gain...close to nothing.

    I'll repeat myself: Putin took Russian state sponsored action to help Trump get elected because Trump has a record of wanting things that are beneficial to Putin.

    It doesnt matter if Trump said it 5 years ago or 25 years ago. He demonstrated a value to Russia that Clinton did not. So it was in Russia's interest to see him elected. And they've benefited.
    ThacoBellGrond0
  • deltagodeltago Member Posts: 7,811
    This is a good quote on the whole T.O. fiscal:

    "This kind of announcement isn't based on careful study," Gabriel Eidelman, director of the Urban Policy Lab at the University of Toronto's Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy said of the premier who served a term on Toronto city council. "It's based on his own perceptions of what is working and what isn't working, and his own perceptions of what the effects will be."

    from: https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/will-ontario-s-plan-change-how-toronto-politics-work-a-look-at-the-possible-implications-1.4031309

    And to put it in perspective, Ottawa has 23 Wards with a population of less than a million. T.O. has a population of 2.7M and will only have 2 more councillors. I personally think 47 is too much, but 25 is too little for T.O. size.
    ThacoBellTakisMegaselminster
  • elminsterelminster Member, Developer Posts: 16,315
    edited July 2018
    If you think 47 is too many, before amalgamation Toronto had 106 :D

    https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/torontos-struggle-against-amalgamation/
    TakisMegasdeltago
  • TakisMegasTakisMegas Member Posts: 835
    elminster said:

    If you think 47 is too many, before amalgamation Toronto had 106 :D

    https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/torontos-struggle-against-amalgamation/

    Ahh, the good ol' days.
    elminster
  • jjstraka34jjstraka34 Member Posts: 9,850
    edited July 2018
    The Administration missed ANOTHER court ordered deadline to reunite parents with their children. I honestly can't recall if this is the 3rd or 4th deadline they have missed in the last month, but it hardly seems to matter, as there seems to be no one who is being held accountable for ignoring them anyway. They seem to have just decided to ignore the courts altogether, because they realize this is just another norm that, if you simply choose not to follow it, there are no actual mechanisms in place to enforce it. This is how democracy erodes. The lawyers and agency heads in charge of this need to start being held in contempt of court and jailed until this is resolved. Of course, we know that in reality "law and order" only applies to certain people.
    ThacoBellsemiticgoddesssmeagolheart
  • smeagolheartsmeagolheart Member Posts: 7,963


    Dunno about you but I sure as heck didn't get a 4.1% raise last quarter. Hmm who got richer? Tweren't me.
    ThacoBell
  • The user and all related content has been deleted.
    Grond0smeagolheartThacoBell
  • jjstraka34jjstraka34 Member Posts: 9,850
    edited July 2018
    chimaera said:

    @WarChiefZeke

    Trump's business has been going badly until he started dealing with the Russian oligarchs. The same oligarchs who are under Putin's control. This isn't some elaborate political "game of thrones"; Putin took an opportunity when it presented itself.

    Trump's "general belief in non-interventionism" seems to be limited to confronting Russia, he has no problems going after Iran with ALL CAPSLOCKS on.

    The Iran thing is so troublesome. The prediction immediately after the nuclear deal was blown up was that it would drive Rouhani closer to the hard-liners, and he has at least had to start catering his rhetoric to them because he will look like a fool if he doesn't. Everyone who said never to trust the US now looks like a prophet. In the meantime, Trump is threatening annihilation over Twitter, and Bolton, who has had a hard-on for bombing Iran for a decade, is sitting at his side in regards to national security. At this point, Trump and Bolton seem to be actively manufacturing a crisis that wasn't there before, on purpose, to justify future possible military action.

    The US spends years upon years lecturing the Iranians about becoming more moderate. They make the ultimate gesture in that direction by surrendering their nuclear program and agreeing to strict inspections. And the moment we elect another right-wing leader in this country, we tear the damn thing up, handing the ultimate talking point to the most extreme elements in Iran. Tell me again who the warmongers are. The groundwork has been laid.
    smeagolheartElectricMonksemiticgoddessThacoBell
  • Balrog99Balrog99 Member Posts: 7,367



    Dunno about you but I sure as heck didn't get a 4.1% raise last quarter. Hmm who got richer? Tweren't me.
    I'm sure you got a 5.1% raise in Q2 2014 under Obama though...
  • smeagolheartsmeagolheart Member Posts: 7,963
    edited July 2018
    Balrog99 said:



    Dunno about you but I sure as heck didn't get a 4.1% raise last quarter. Hmm who got richer? Tweren't me.
    I'm sure you got a 5.1% raise in Q2 2014 under Obama though...
    Not at all. I had no idea it happened because
    he didn't go on TV in desperation saying "look at me, I'm the greatest, I did it" either.
    bleusteel
  • SorcererV1ct0rSorcererV1ct0r Member Posts: 2,176
    edited July 2018
    Recently i traveled to Bariloche - Argentina and was gorgeous. The gothic archictecture in a lot of places, a lot of beautiful woman, handmade chocolate, snow, skiing lessons, was amazing. Skiing is much harden than i was thinking.

    I visited "cerro catedral" and "cerro bayo" but only snowed on city on my last day(18 - July - 2018). All other snow days was on mountains.

    Here is a video of a Argentine woman in cerro catedral


    And here is some photos took on my trip

    Boats





    Snow






    Constructions





    I will not post all photos cuz will polute the topic but here is a more complete album > https://imgur.com/a/oy0ngie
    jjstraka34Balrog99
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