Random Thoughts.....What Are You Thinking?

The reason we "play world police" is to make sure we have that first world cushy life

If we didn't china would, I don't think anyone wants that. Someone will, and as reprehensible as it is, better us than them.

You want to be the inmates, or the guards. There is no third option.

Ukraines gotten so much of my tax dollars that I'm paying $6 for a head of slug infested lettuce and $1.60 per litre ($4.52 per gallon) of gas.

Sorry, but I dont give a ***about Ukraine. (I know its more complex then that and other factors are at play such as my dumbass govt implementing carbon taxes that do nothing)

Unfortunately, the location of Ukraine means they are inherently less important for the US....

If Ukraine is taken it is NATO that will face the frontline pressure, not the US. So logically, I can see why Americans voted this way.

I agree that from a moral perspective, democracy is the most humanly system to live in because it serves for the benefits of the majority.

And the fact that the US is choosing to give up on democratic allies for money is not a good direction for the humanity imo.

Any complaints about "my tax dollars" that doesn't start with interest payments made by us is not a complaint about money, its a complaint that uses money as the vehicle to *** about one's morality.

You are not going to feel the 2 cent difference in a head of lettuce if the US is helping Ukraine or not- you just don't want to spend American money and lives on another nation's freedom. Fair enough, just say it.

Tax rate and inflation are 2 different things though.....

Using tax money on military only means other things get less budget I think. Inflation happens because there are too much money in the market, or the lack of raw material supply.

Canada's tax rate is on a pretty high end but it isn't Ukraine's fault really. It is social democracy's fault.

And part of the inflation happened in 2022 is because the US printed too much money during COVID crisis.

Trump is pro-Tariff. So incoming more inflations.

This ideological argument is predicated on the idea that Ukraine's freedom is actually the best thing for Ukrainians. Given the state of the country, the amount of lives already lost, the amount of families separated, and the overall situation atm.. I am not convinced that is the case. From what I can see, the people benefitting most from keeping Ukraine's current government in place are the spooks who installed it in the first place and the oligarchs profiteering off of our donations.

Pretty sure the Ukrainian lower to middle class would have rather let Russia take over their government and continued life as normal. The alternative hasn't been too hot for them.

But, just to cover my bases, I don't want to spend American money and lives on another nation's freedom. While we're at it, I don't want to spend American money and lives helping Israel expand their borders, either.

extremely valid points that I wish we could talk about openly more often without fear of namecalling. Having grown up in a little place called Lima, Ohio that's one of 2 places that produce M1 Tanks in the United States, another point I always like to bring to light is "how much of our choices to assist other nations in their warfare is based in our Military Industrial Complex, and the economy dependent on it?"

Well of course we will. It's pretty much impossible for us not to. Whatever the conservative party has rebranded to this time (should have stuck with CCRAP) basically rolls up everything right of center into one huge party, leaving the liberals, NDP, green party all to split the left-of-center vote. We need some kind of checks and balances to keep parties from aggregating and getting that bloated or we'll be down to a two-party system in a few more election cycles ourselves.

If we don't hit a one-party system first, I don't get great vibes from this Poillevre guy.

https://www.canada.ca/en/department-national-defence/news/2024/10/canada-announces-new-military-assistance-for-ukraine.html


We are a country of over 40 million (less if you remove all the "asylum seekers" and "students" that have come in the last few years, none of which who pay taxes but thats another story), and thats whats been given to JUST Ukraine.

If we have this much money to give away to other countries, then we are paying too much in taxes.

^ this, not that I am Ukrainian or really know much about any of it.

My dance instructor is Ukrainian and she voted for trump at all chances, during the biden v trump election her family back home was hoping for trump to win otherwise they feared a war... now whether that election truly lead to the outcome or not IDK but I can say some Ukrainian people were hoping for a trump victory.

Also she was so excited a while back when she finally took her test to become a US citizen, painted her nails with little American flag her excitement was so adorable :D, something I think a lot of born citizens really take for granted.

This is definitely the perspective of people who was borned with democracy, lol.

You have democracy today because your ancestors fought for it. My ancestors fought for it too, and millions of lives were lost in order to accomplish democracy. That's why we can enjoy democracy today. We pretty much all live to understand the fact that if we aren't willing to sacrifice lives, then no democracy for our future generations.

Free democracy just doesn't happen.

Hence I don't agree that "give up democracy for our lives" is universally the best choice for everyone. Maybe you prefer it that way, not plenty of other people who don't have democracy and must fight for that.

^ all this.


I'm quite ok believing we've hit a point in the western world where maybe we need some real hell for a few years to wake us up to how good everything has been for damn near a century- and yes I'll even include WW2 in the "good".

Yes you are, way before Ukrainian war.

Like I said, social democracy countries are known for having very high tax rate. And Canada is social democracy.

If you don't like tax, you need to vote to remove social democracy system, not blame everything on Ukraine.

Not wrong, except its gotten worse.

Money leaving the country impacts the economy.

Democracy is a manufactured ideal that exists solely to give rulers the perception of public backing. Look at the election we had yesterday, is that the shining example of what the world should look up to? Kamala took no part in the primary process, Trump took no part in the debates or discourse, and most citizens were unhappy with both. Both have so much corporate money behind them that any meaningful change was unlikely under either candidate.

You think Ukrainians' lives have been better since we backed the 2014 coup and installed a western-friendly regime? What tangible benefits have their people seen, a perception that they are being ruled by someone they selected? Lot of good that does when your son died at war, your daughter was shipped off to europe to try to make a living as a prostitute, and your home town is a warzone that will never have the quality of life it used to have.

Democracy might be a better system than most, but the idea that it's worth completely giving up your life for is exactly the sort of brainwashing that religion has used to stoke so many wars in the past. It's also only temporary, over time all democratic societies become autocracies, and the level of technology present in today's world accelerates this.

So, hold up your glorious stars and stripes, make a symbol for the world. Ukraine is a shell of it's former self, but if they all continue to sacrifice, they can retain hope that they will be able to once again select between the best of the corporate puppets that were able to raise enough funding to advertise their campaigns effectively. Not right now though, they can't afford to hold an election right now, democracy is at stake.

Feels like his name should be Panko

He was really bad at first. "When Trudeau's out of power, the problems will fix themselves" was his go-to answer. Thats not a solution bud. He's gotten a lot better, actually coming up with solutions, although its not really a tall task considering how horrible of a job Trudeau and his team of idiots have been doing the last few years.

My only fear would be him becoming Danielle Smith at a federal level cuz my god has she *** over Alberta

Those who properly defend Democracy as a system never do so saying that its some great savior- they argue it simply is the best of a bunch of bad systems, and as far as I see we've yet to make anything better. Again, not saying its great, just saying its not the other things.

Politics is fundamentally about how the wealth/resources are distributed. In a none democracy country wealth are generally being controlled by a few people like government officials. The leader and a few of his vore members, and the army etc. that's it.

In democracy countries, there are more people who can participate in wealth distribution. Even if you don't like the voting results the results probably still benefits you one way or another.

You critize corporate money for controlling democracy, except even corporate money still presents the benefits of the majority in our economy system.

How many jobs did big companies like google or apple created for people? Hundred thousands? How much tax money that they paid for your welfare and pension? How many people hold a share of Amazon or Microsoft in their 401k accounts so they can retire?

I would argue that if a big company invest in a policy that benefits them, it fundamentally benefit more average people than any non-democry system ever could. Because big company makes money=their employees makes money and people with a 401k account also makes money. That's already a lot of people benefiting from it.

So big company paying for politics in democracy is a non-issue to me. I don't want wealth distribution being controlled by minority government officials in a none democracy system. But I am perfectly fine with big companies controlling wealth. If a big company is winning the capitalism game I'll just buy their stocks and make money with them, problem solved.

What has she done recently? I dont keep up with the AB scene anymore, but I remember she caved to the demands of the Flames owner about footing the bill for the new arena, that wasnt very wise. That only crossed my path because hockey news.

If I name myself trump and rename bumba Harris - Think I will win tonight?

Or maybe, some people already experienced what it's like to live in a non-democracy country that they are willing to give up their lives to escape from such hell as an illegal migrants.

That's how illegal migrants died on the sea.

Look, you don't feel like sacrificing life for democracy because you already have them. So you can't imagine why other people are willing to sacrifice their life for it.

But they did, this is objective fact. See how many illegal migrants died on the sea every year.

Obviously there gonna be a reason, isn't it?

Why would they risk their lives for democracy? Maybe it is something to think about.

They didn't die for democracy, they died for the perception of a better life in the US. The US is a democracy, but that does not mean democracy is the driving force. The driving force is clearly a perception of economic success and social support.

Costa Rica scores higher than USA on v-dem democracy index. The illegals aren't scrambling to get there. Other countries such as Jamaica, Barbados, Brazil are only marginally lower than USA. Illegals don't care to go there either. It's not democracy, it's prosperity.

...Something that the war in Ukraine has completely destroyed.

Right, and a functional democracy IS path to prosperity. It ensures wealth gets distributed in a way that benefits the majority. And it ensures the governments don't make inefficient decisions that brings down economy in order to please a few government officials.

One example is China lockdown. It's objectively a bad economy decision and yet Chinese government chose to do it for political gains of a few government officials. Unable to respond to change of situation, which caused serious economy problems until they realized their mistakes.

In a democracy countries, you would never see a government do things like that. People would go on streets and tell the government is doing it wrong. Hence a democracy government actually respond to such problems faster.

You think America can accomplish the prosperity that it has without democracy? I think not.

name sounds familiar, I think she writes those spicy novels

Qatar and UAE are both more prosperous than the US, and have generally better quality of life, and neither are democracies. This feels like red herring fallacy, there is not inherent correlation between democracy and prosperity.

yeah, I'm sure the women who have to live under male guardianship in the UAE think its a better quality of life.

Your comments are coming across as extremely privileged.

Quality of life index generally measures purchasing power, safety, health care access, cost of living, property price to income, commute time, pollution, and climate. It does not measure social justice. The quality of life indexes are published lists, not my opinion, and these countries have ranked highly on them in recent years.

I'm pretty privileged, yea.