I'm so angry with the U.S. and Chinese governments right now!

[GO-NAD!]

A funny as well as an informative opinion piece!

No doubt there have been previous presidents and high ranking politicians (of both parties) that where racist, but as you wrote they where not as open and blatant about it as Trump, while they cynically played the race card.

In my opinion, Trump goes far further with his open racism as well as inciting his own base with it where they now are chanting "Send her back" with his approval, and words have consequences. I wonder when a Trump supporter tries to murder one of the four female coloured members of the House that Trump has attacked with his racist tweets.

It's hard to be shocked by much anymore, but hearing thousands of people yell "Send her back!" in unison made my jaw drop.

 

[highfigh]

I'm onboard with simplifying tax laws. Even for individual taxpayers, the difference between when I started working and now, is dramatic. It used to be pretty straightforward - not anymore. If I needed to call the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) multiple times with the same question, I could get a different answer each time, depending on who you speak with.

And, the more complicated tax laws are for corporations, the more opportunities there are to game them.

That's "the cap", referring to the cap on income subject to FICA tax. For 2019 it's $132,900. I'm not convinced that raising the cap would help the program, because benefits would go up too for higher income people. I just haven't seen the math; maybe raising the cap would benefit the program.

While it would be unfair to those who pay more, using a different scale for their max payout would help. As it is, there's no guarantee that the person will live long enough to receive whet they paid in and assuming similar life expectancy (for the sake of discussion), the program will retain more than it could have before- some do, some don't. This is based on Congress leaving the trust alone and not looking at it as an entitlement, of course.

 

[panteragstk]

It's hard to be shocked by much anymore, but hearing thousands of people yell "Send her back!" in unison made my jaw drop.

Group mentality is very much a thing. I'm willing to bet those people individually think differently than when they're in a rally type situation. It's easy to get sucked into that sort of thing and come out thinking "wait a minute".

 

[highfigh]

Group mentality is very much a thing. I'm willing to bet those people individually think differently than when they're in a rally type situation. It's easy to get sucked into that sort of thing and come out thinking "wait a minute".

I 'herd' that.

 

[GO-NAD!]

So, it's been a year and how has Meng Wanzhou been coping with house arrest? Just fine, apparently:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/meng-wanzhou-arrest-anniversary-blog-post-1.5380500

Meanwhile, the two Canadians arrested (read: kidnapped) in retaliation are still sitting in dank Chinese cells as prisoners (read: hostages).

As I stated in a previous post, I'm over my initial anger, but that doesn't mean I've forgotten about these guys. They are facing another Christmas away from their families, with no end in sight to their predicament.

We've - the west, that is, not just Canada - become so dependant on Chinese products, that we have very little leverage over the Chinese government.

So, what can the west do - in the big picture sense - about facing down the Chinese regime and their belligerent behaviour?

 

[highfigh]

So, it's been a year and how has Meng Wanzhou been coping with house arrest? Just fine, apparently:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/meng-wanzhou-arrest-anniversary-blog-post-1.5380500

Meanwhile, the two Canadians arrested (read: kidnapped) in retaliation are still sitting in dank Chinese cells as prisoners (read: hostages).

As I stated in a previous post, I'm over my initial anger, but that doesn't mean I've forgotten about these guys. They are facing another Christmas away from their families, with no end in sight to their predicament.

We've - the west, that is, not just Canada - become so dependant on Chinese products, that we have very little leverage over the Chinese government.

So, what can the west do - in the big picture sense - about facing down the Chinese regime and their belligerent behaviour?

Suck it up and stop buying so much crap, save for better goods and start buying things that were made closer to home.

 

[GO-NAD!]

Suck it up and stop buying so much crap, save for better goods and start buying things that were made closer to home.

While I don't disagree with your suggestion, there isn't much that isn't made in China, or contain Chinese-made components.

For example:

Swiss made - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

"...a watch is considered Swiss if its movement is Swiss, if the movement has been assembled in the Swiss region, its final inspection occurred in Switzerland, and at least 60% of manufacturing costs are domestic.[3] Besides the Swiss made requirements, watches may carry the Swiss movement ("Swiss Movt") marker if at least half of the assembled parts are of Swiss manufacture.[3]"

A significant number of Swiss watch components are actually made in China. When western companies started investing in China, I think there was a mistaken belief that a natural by-product would be a gradual democratization of China. All that really happened was an enabling of the regime to maintain and, indeed, tighten control of the country. They are using our money against us.

 

[Audio-A]

Anyone who thinks "socialist extremists" are going to get the reins on government is so thoroughly cocooned in a bubble that no amount of reasoning or fact citing is going to persuade them of anything. Anyone who thinks that civil war and armageddon are imminent is well beyond the rational discussion. You are trying to have an level-headed discussion with the guy on the street corner waving a sign around that says "THE END IS NIGH!" and is rambling about eschatological gibberish. By the way, you will have had a very different experience of the Obama presidency than this person, or anyone else in the right wing bubble, so referring to the Obama administration as 'not so bad' will note jibe with this person's experience. He is going to say that Obama is a tyrant who tried to being in as many illegal immigrants as possible to vote for democrats. He will think Obama tried to turn preschoolers gay. He will think that Obama tried to seize all of American's firearms so that they will be helpless to resist when Obama has ISIS comes to invade and occupy the USA, so that they can take all of the white women and sell them into slavery.

In other words, this person has already set off more than enough red flags to suggest that arguing with them is a futile endeavor.

But hey, maybe I am wrong.

Seems to look that way now huh? Troll!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Audio-A]

Personally, I'd rather see him voted out of office in 2020 than impeached.
If he gets impeached there may be a cloud of "deep state lynch squad" conspiracy theories among his base.

However, I think it is a mistake to say anything about the likelihood of impeachment until the results of the investigation have been completed. Generally, it seems the Dems currently have no expectation/desire to impeach, but depending on the revelations of the investigation, their hand may be more or less forced. Or we may come to realize Trump really is under the control (blackmail) of the Kremlin. If so, he would unquestionably be impeached. Certainly, his pull-out from Syria against Mattis's advice is alarming and begs the question of why he would do it. When Putin said Trump made the right decision, it may have been a reference to Trump yielding to Putin's objective.
I hope Trump is not so compromised to the Russians as that, but if Putin had it as an objective to get some compromising videos of Trump when he was in Russia, I don't see it as a difficult task - just make some attractive prostitutes available and have hidden cameras in his room!

Sorry


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[highfigh]

The press is what it is; better to have one than the idea that you and your boy drumpf are advocating of banning the press and operating in the darkness the old republican guard has become...paranoid, scared and relatively stupid. Yes, immigrants, especially the original european ones, nearly killed off the whole new world with their infectious diseases....sometimes what goes around comes around? For crime all I have to do is look to the white house....biggest criminal ever as president.

You would refer the kind of media in China or Russia?

HE'S NOT MY EFFING BOY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's not relatively stupid, it's stupid. Your example of the killing off of the new world is true and I have always hoped that anyone who knowingly did that suffered for it, greatly.

 

[3db]

So, it's been a year and how has Meng Wanzhou been coping with house arrest? Just fine, apparently:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/meng-wanzhou-arrest-anniversary-blog-post-1.5380500

Meanwhile, the two Canadians arrested (read: kidnapped) in retaliation are still sitting in dank Chinese cells as prisoners (read: hostages).

As I stated in a previous post, I'm over my initial anger, but that doesn't mean I've forgotten about these guys. They are facing another Christmas away from their families, with no end in sight to their predicament.

We've - the west, that is, not just Canada - become so dependant on Chinese products, that we have very little leverage over the Chinese government.

So, what can the west do - in the big picture sense - about facing down the Chinese regime and their belligerent behaviour?

Blame that on " shareholder value" and that whole GD mindset.

 

[GO-NAD!]

Update:
Canadian Michael Spavor found guilty of spying, sentenced to 11 years in prison by Chinese court | CBC News

As expected, the kangaroo court found him guilty and sentenced him to 11 years - on top of the 2.5 years he's already spent in jail. The other hostage defendant , Michael Kovrig, is still awaiting his guilty verdict...

 

[GO-NAD!]

OMG! I hope this is true!
Huawei's Meng Wanzhou expected to plead guilty today in U.S. court: sources | CBC News

Maybe then - after a sufficient period of time to give the appearance that it is unrelated - China will release the hostages, Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig.

 

[Trell]

OMG! I hope this is true!
Huawei's Meng Wanzhou expected to plead guilty today in U.S. court: sources | CBC News

Maybe then - after a sufficient period of time to give the appearance that it is unrelated - China will release the hostages, Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig.

For the families the claimed release by the Chinese state of hostages is very welcome, and I believe it when you post that they are on Canadian soil, free at last.

Edit: Some hyperbole you may ignore ;-)

 

[Trell]

Another reminder that China is a brutal dictatorship.

Security audit raises severe warnings on Chinese smartphone models

The audit red-flagged Xiaomi and Huawei phones but gave OnePlus a pass.

arstechnica.com

>>>
The Lithuanian National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) recently published a security assessment of three recent-model Chinese-made smartphones—Huawei's P40 5G, Xiaomi's Mi 10T 5G, and OnePlus' 8T 5G. Sufficiently determined US shoppers can find the P40 5G on Amazon and the Mi 10T 5G on Walmart.com—but we will not be providing direct links to those phones, given the results of the NCSC's security audit.

The Xiaomi phone includes software modules specifically designed to leak data to Chinese authorities and to censor media related to topics the Chinese government considers sensitive. The Huawei phone replaces the standard Google Play application store with third-party substitutes the NCSC found to harbor sketchy, potentially malicious repackaging of common applications.
<<<

 

[highfigh]

Another reminder that China is a brutal dictatorship.

Security audit raises severe warnings on Chinese smartphone models

The audit red-flagged Xiaomi and Huawei phones but gave OnePlus a pass.

arstechnica.com

>>>
The Lithuanian National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) recently published a security assessment of three recent-model Chinese-made smartphones—Huawei's P40 5G, Xiaomi's Mi 10T 5G, and OnePlus' 8T 5G. Sufficiently determined US shoppers can find the P40 5G on Amazon and the Mi 10T 5G on Walmart.com—but we will not be providing direct links to those phones, given the results of the NCSC's security audit.

The Xiaomi phone includes software modules specifically designed to leak data to Chinese authorities and to censor media related to topics the Chinese government considers sensitive. The Huawei phone replaces the standard Google Play application store with third-party substitutes the NCSC found to harbor sketchy, potentially malicious repackaging of common applications.
<<<

And yet, nothing substantial (if anything at all) is done to combat it. Oh sure, maybe they send a sternly worded letter threatening them with something that doesn't matter, but this is the kind of crap that comes from granting then 'most favored nation' status and making them the main supplier for so many goods.

From the link, in Clinton's own words, "
Unfortunately, over the past 4 years our Nation spoke with a divided voice when it came to China. Americans were outraged by the killing of prodemocracy demonstrators at Tiananmen Square in June of 1989. Congress was determined to have our Nation's stance toward China reflect our outrage. Yet twice after Congress voted to place conditions on our favorable trade rules toward China, so-called most-favored-nation status, those conditions were vetoed. The annual battles between Congress and the Executive divided our foreign policy and weakened our approach over China.

It is time that a unified American policy recognize both the value of China and the values of America. Starting today, the United States will speak with one voice on China policy. We no longer have an executive branch policy and a congressional policy. We have an American policy."

Statement on Most-Favored-Nation Trade Status for China | The American Presidency Project

www.presidency.ucsb.edu

OK, fine- we had an American policy, even after terrible human cost in many ways. Remember their 'One Child' policy and the quota for male children? That, the Tiananmen Square incident and other policies and actions should have caused the US to include conditions in the agreement.