If Abuse Of Power Were An Impeachable Offense In Canada We Wouldn’t Have Any Politicians Left In Office
As Americans try to decide if the President of the United States committed an abuse of power, and we are not suggesting he did, Canadians are in awe of an 18th century system of checks and balances that has the power to kick the chief executive of the country out of office, since we do not have anything resembling the American political system. On the contrary, we have a system of elected dictatorships that have the outer appearance of democracies. Our Prime Minister is immensely more powerful and autocratic than the U.S. President. So are the premiers of the provinces, in some ways more powerful than the federal government. Not to mention municipal governments, the lairs of political abuse.
Canada’s Politicians Abuse Power On A Regular Basis
From the city councils to the provincial and federal governments Canada’s politicians abuse their power on a regular basis, with no formal checks or balances to keep them in line. Unlike the founding fathers of the United States who wanted an insurance against tyranny and colonialism, our constitution was drafted by the elitist government of the world’s foremost colonial power. While our pseudo-democracy was shaped somewhat by the political evolution of Great Britain, we are not half as democratic as the country that spawned Canada.
Candidus Maximus
Trump’s Foreign Policy Challenges Mounting Around the World
Military.com: The Canadian Press
WASHINGTON — New North Korea missile tests. A trade standoff with China. Fresh nuclear tensions with Iran.
President Donald Trump’s foreign policy challenges are mounting around the world, showing the limits of his self-touted ability to make a deal and perhaps the difficulty of focusing primarily on domestic concerns for his “America first” administration.
They’re also forcing him into some contorted positions, for example, backing regime change in Venezuela without any displays of force and saying he’s open to talks with Iran while dispatching an aircraft carrier and bombers to the Middle East.
Staring down high-stakes diplomacy around the world, Trump says his efforts are working.
“We’ve made a decisive break from the failed foreign policy establishment that sacrificed our sovereignty, surrendered our jobs and tied us down to endless foreign wars,” he told supporters at a rally in Florida. “In everything we do, we are now putting America first.”
U.S. Democrats’ New “Secret” Weapon To Impeach President Trump:
If All Else Fails, Fart A Big Fart
U.S. Congressman’s Fart Compared To Kaiser Wilhelm’s Big Bertha
The British Take On An Historic Event
There’s no denying that Brits make great historians. They try to make us understand with flowery language how seemingly small events have produced big results that changed history for the whole of mankind. I’m a Lord Kinross fan myself. It’s only fitting then, that a Brit with a twisted upper lip happens on the scene when an historic big bang takes place, such as the impeachment of President Trump and the U.S. Democrats’ new weapon, The Big Fart, modeled after German Emperor Kaiser Wilhelm’s Big Bertha. When the Kaiser decided that World War I was not going the way he intended, he ordered the production of Big Bertha, the biggest and loudest gun the world had ever seen. Big Bertha made a lot of noise and struck terror into the hearts of the Allies, but it did not win the war for the Germans. Piers Morgan, the venerable British sceptic a l’excellence, reminds us once again that it’s not the noise you make, stupid…Good Morning to you too, Britain. We love ya…
Candidus Maximus
November 24, 2019
President Trump Tries To Clean Up Middle East Mess Created By Bush and Obama
How Do You Unscramble An Egg ?
It’s Time For U.S. To Get Out of the Middle East
There are a couple of indisputable facts about U.S. Middle East Foreign Policy. The mess you have seen in the Middle East within the past decade was created by President George W. Bush’s unjustified and illegitimate invasion of Iraq. Canadian writer-journalist Linda McQuaig claimed the bloody invasion was all about oil in her book “It’s The Crude, Dude.” Iraq invasion was exacerbated by President Obama’s premature withdrawal of U.S. troops without stabilizing the ethnic and political mess, which created ISIS as the Sunni Arab backlash. The main target of the so-called Caliphate were the Kurds and other ethnic and religious groups that radical Sunni Arabs saw as a threat to their own existence. The U.S. intervened to stop the massacres. How does that qualify as a national security threat to the United States? It does not, except as an excuse to intervene in the Middle East.
President Obama did not stop there, deciding to “bring democracy” under the so-called Arab Spring to Syria and Libya, causing the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people in the Middle East and North Africa. Both Syria and Libya are such a mess, that it’s impossible to tell which combatants are fighting for what or for whom. Obama’s last mistake was arming Syria’s Kurdish militia, which Turkey claims is closely associated with the PKK. Recognized by the U.S. as a terrorist organisation, PKK has been fighting the Turkish government for decades to establish an independent Kurdish state in Eastern Turkey. This civil war is said to have caused the deaths of some more than 30,000 civilians, most of whom Kurds that did not want to join its ranks. Obama Administration’s duplicity has pushed Turkey into a closer relationship with Russia. If Turkey is NATO’s southeastern flank, this raises the question of why the U.S. has betrayed its most important ally in the Middle East by arming a group that poses an existential threat to the country. It’s obvious that until President Trump came along U.S. Foreign Policy was based on the hypocritical double standard of “As long as terrorists fire on others and not on Americans, they can be our friends and allies.”
President Trump has promised to his people that he will extract the U.S. from pointless tribal wars on the other side of the globe that has cost America thousands of lives and trillions of taxpayer money, money that can be used for Americans’ own prosperity. Against the backdrop of Obama Administration’s duplicitous and ill-advised Middle East Policy he announced abruptly two weeks ago the withdrawal of U.S. troops that stood as a buffer between the Turkish army and Syrian Kurdish militia. He said “We cannot be part of endless tribal wars in the Middle East” pointing out that the U.S. did not have a commitment to protect the Kurds against Turkey indefinitely. This precipitated a sudden Turkish military incursion to create a buffer zone in Northern Syria, resulting in civilian casualties and the displacement of tens of thousands of Kurdish civilians. This is another example, that whatever you do in that region to solve a problem can create a bigger and worse problem. There comes Russia, to relieve the U.S. of that burden, and ironically, to patrol the safety of NATO’s southeastern border.
Pentagon’s Anti-Turkish Bias, Sack Incident
And Kurdish Love Affair
One of the notable aspects of the U.S. Iraq invasion was Turkey’s refusal to grant passage to the invasion forces through Turkey’s northern border with Iraq, which caused a lot of resentment by the Pentagon, Bush Administration, and members of U.S. Congress. In July 2003 U.S. troops raided a Turkish army observation post in Northern Iraq. They placed sacks on the heads of Turkish soldiers to humiliate them and took them away for incarceration. This Sack Incident has caused a lot of friction between the two allies and is still not forgotten by the Turkish military. On the other hand, the Kurds of Iraq and later Syria proved to be obedient servants of the Pentagon that don’t even talk back to their masters. Two weeks ago President Trump called Turkish President Erdogan and dashed the Kurds’ hopes of carving an independent state out of Syria. President Trump has a realistic understanding of the realities of the Middle East. He realizes that it’s not in America’s best interest to further alienate Turkey and “throw an ally into Russia’s lap.” Kurds learned the tragic lesson that they were quite dispensable after their usefulness, and their American pie love affair, had run out.
Canada: The Hypocritical Mouse That Roared
About 3 days into the Turkish military operation, comically named “Peace Spring”, Canada announced sanctions against Turkey by stopping military sales to that country. Pundits said “What military sales? Water pistols?”. Not many people knew that Canada sold some electronic equipment to Turkey for military use. It’s a well-known fact that Saudi Arabia has caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands in Yemen, but that Canada’s government has resisted calls to stop $16 billion worth of arms sales to that country.
Candidus Maximus
October 25, 2019
President Trump Scores Better Marks Than Predecessors In Foreign Policy
It’s now obvious that President Trump is not a war-monger like his predecessors George W. Bush and, yes, Barack Obama. George Bush shook the Middle East down to its foundations and opened a can of worms that may never be disposed of in our lifetimes. As far as U.S. national interests are concerned, invasion of Iraq was a mistake of the greatest historical magnitude. Why Obama? First, he withdrew U.S. forces prematurely before the region stabilized. He was responsible for the creation of ISIS. Secondly, his attack on Libya leading to the assassination of Qaddafi created a new quagmire in North Africa that is nowhere near settlement. It was a new opportunity for ISIS to exploit. We will not go into the mistakes he made with respect to Syria, which President Trump reluctantly inherited.
Despite his tough talk and bravado President Trump obviously dislikes war and open conflict. He’d like to think of himself as the deal maker. We love some of his words like “rocketman”. Fortunately for the world he’s into doing business, not raining death and destruction in the name of an ideology. Whether he got a good deal or not from North Korea, it remains to be seen, North Korea does not seem to be the imminent existential threat to the United States and the Westworld that it used to be. As for his friendship with Russia and President Putin, it is a good thing as he repeatedly said many times. There’s nothing so dangerous to the existence of mankind as the possibility of a nuclear conflict between Russia and the United States. The President has an amazing ability to transform enemies into friends, although many would argue for the opposite.
As Canadians, of course, we’d like to be wined and dined and showered with roses by Americans as their best friends or maybe even lovers playing hard to get. President Trump definitely was a cold shower after the love affair with Barack Obama. Ask Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland who, I have no doubt, was on the brink of tears during NAFTA negotiations. What we have to remember is that President of the United States squarely represents American interests, not ours. His job is to get as much as possible while giving us as little as possible. What surprised us was how the Americans let us off so lightly with respect to our ugly dairy cartel that milks us dry every day. This brings us to the Chinese.
What most Americans fail to understand, including senators and congressmen, is that tariffs are actually intended as taxes on a foreign country to restrict their exports to this country, in this case the U.S. It’s true that the tariffs will be paid by Americans if they decide to buy in spite of tariffs. The chances are, they will stop buying if the tariffs make the goods too expensive. The problem is, and most U.S. legislators fail to see this, China has become the number one supplier to the United States thanks to government support and subsidies that make the production of almost everything dirt cheap. This is another word for dumping in foreign trade parlance. With thousands of U.S. companies making their products in China, United States has become too dependent on Chinese products. Strategically this is not in the best U.S. interests, since this fact has also empowered China to emerge as an economic, political and military rival to the United States. Hence, President Trump’s strategy to curb Chinese influence…
September 19, 2019
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California just passed the nation’s strictest (Internet) net neutrality law
CNN News
California will soon have the country’s strictest net neutrality protections, thanks to a bill that Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law Sunday. The law could serve as a blueprint for other states, set California up for a clash with the federal government — and possibly draw a lawsuit from major internet providers.
The bill was approved by lawmakers in early September, but it had been unclear if Brown would veto or approve the comprehensive measure, even though it had broad support from state Democrats.
Under the law, internet service providers will not be allowed to block or slow specific types of content or applications, or charge apps or companies fees for faster access to customers.
California is the third state to pass its own net neutrality regulations, following Washington and Oregon. However, it is the first to match the thorough level of protections that had been provided by the Obama-era federal net neutrality regulations repealed by the Federal Communications Commission in June. At least some other states are expected to model future net neutrality laws on California’s.