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

wow. You're ok basically saying "yeah, UAE is pretty shitty socially, but at least you're RICH".

The problems we have are not because of elections as long as this mentality is the primary one shared across our species.

Context, dude. Afania tried to state that the US could not have been prosperous without democracy. Those countries are pretty clear indicators that you can be prosperous without democracy. I didn't tell you to pack your bags and move there.

Election got you worked up?

Ultimately pushing to have the ability to get rid of mayors and councillors and replace them with her own picks and lackeys.
Keeps cycling back and waffling on making Alberta take out their chunk of what's been paid into CPP and doing whatever she sees fit with it. It's something she ran with early on, got push back like you're not touching peoples' retirement money. Then brings it up again like "But... what if?"
She just had her approval at 91.5% during her leadership review, that was limited to only paying members and excluded ones who've spoken out against her like "Sorry, room is full, you can't come in."

actually no- the comments that you made that worked me up would have done so 10 years ago.

The UAE is still a moral trash dumpster, that doesn't change no matter who's the president here.

This would be relevant if I was arguing that the UAE is the ideal every country should aim for.

I am arguing that countries can prosper without democracy. I am not stating anything regarding their morality, and I'm pretty sure their laws regarding women aren't some secret key to their success either.

And what if they don't have any natural resources? Will they be equally prosperous?

I came from a place without natural resources at all, and we didn't have democracy back then. I know how it was like: strong social hierarchy between the ruling class and non ruling class. If you critize government you go to jail.

Your opinions sounds like grass is greener on the other side of the fence because you don't like where you live, not because you have actual experience living in a non-democracy country.

Not sure the relevance here. If you're defaulting to blaming natural resources, surely you realize the US has some of the most natural resources in the world. Thus, the US would probably be prosperous whether or not it's a democracy, and we'd still have illegal immigrants who want to be here to share in that prosperity.

You're not making a very coherent argument, could you break it down step by step? Feels like you're 5 degrees away from your original point and defending tangental ideas now.

Of course they can, ANY country can prosper if they win the oil lottery.

What if a country has none of that? What if they faced the situation that very little wealth must gets distributed more carefully? Who gets to decide who gets the resources in that country?

There are plenty of cases to argue why democracy is the better system in that regard.

Gondek hasnt exactly been a stellar mayor in Calgary lol

My argument has been pretty simple. A democratic government respond to people's problem better and distribute wealth in a way that more people wanted. It benefits more people.

The only supporting evidence I've seen for this is that immigrants want to move to the USA, which as you've admitted, is primarily because of it's prosperity.

In Ukraine's case, this also has to be weighed against the hundreds of thousands of deaths, destroyed terrain, social upheaval they are currently paying for a (likely short-lived) democracy.

I'm surprised "safety" was listed there for quality of life, but I guess that only means safety for the voting males.

Because safety for women is a very different story in that environment.

It's the freedom of the future generations being weighed against deaths.

Also honestly, since you are an American, who already has freedom and prosperity, why do you feel like making decisions for them?


Edit: you can make decision for your money of course, but saying one value is greater than another for other people is a different thing.

They see the prosperity and the freedom of the US, and they want the same.

Or would you argue that surrender to work for Putin, who can easily sacrifice millions of Russian men for his war, is the better deal between the two?

Even if Ukrainian surrender and give up, and become part of the Russia, next time when Russia wants to start another war against NATO it is Ukrainian children who will be the one fighting and dying for Russia too.

How is that any better?

I think there is a middle ground here.

I understand we live in a global economy and this means we need to function with a global mindset, but I can’t help but be a bit frustrated seeing billions pumped overseas while my friends and family that lost their homes and livelihoods due to Helene are given table scraps. I understand it’s not a simple thing and there are a lot of moving parts but it still seems wrong that we are giving more to these other countries when our own citizens and taxpayers are left SOL

Not limited to just big cities though. Province wide wants it stated like “Hey, I’m Richy running for the mayor of Devon. Politically I’m more centre than the extreme right or left.” She’s pushing for the ability to be like “I know you were voted in, that’s cute. But please welcome your new mayor, Jimmy McRightwing.” God forbid she realized our little town has a hospital lol

And I am arguing that just "prosper" isn't good enough.

It's only good enough if people get to decide how the money is used, and if they and their future generation gets to decide who to fight for.

I am not okay with some random oil king gets most of the money without people's approval nor some random dictator sending my family to war because they feel like it.

And you need democracy to make such decisions.

That $425 million to Ukraine in mid-October after telling American citizens that are still recovering from Helene "you can get $750, its all we can afford" was absolutely disrespectful.

Oh *** me, that was such a damned joke.

It was laughable because what was needed at that specific point wasn't money, because what were we were going to do with it? The banks were shut down, the gas stations were empty or shut down, the local food distribution warehouse was washed away and our grocery stores were shut down, meanwhile folks had no running water, no road access, no food, no power, no internet, and people couldn't get anywhere. Most couldn't even get online to claim it (and I was denied as were several others I knew). Eventually the US gov't assistance started trickling in (it was more focused up north of us, but folks here were still having trouble), but even when I saw that was a thing, it was kindof a joke even forgetting the amount. What was really needed were an army of fuel, water, and food trucks, which eventually trickled in but it took a while, because even if it was $750,000, what the hell were we gonna do with it? There was nowhere to spend it and more immediate needs to survive were required in the early days when they announced it. I live south of Asheville about 30 min and I never did see any government deliveries of any of this, everything was from private individuals or organizations.

In the longer span after the dust settled, yea, majorly frustrating amount. I think the intent was to take the dent out of the loss of food but in the end it's such a miniscule amount, my Dad's gonna be out 15-20k between things FEMA and his insurance won't cover, at least he didn't have flood damage. I know several folks who are having to crowdfund repairing their house and the amount offered from FEMA was an absolute joke. That's for the people who can even still live here, some lost their jobs entirely because the building was gone and had to move, a problem that seems to be escalating.

It's not that they've been doing nothing, a lot of S&R, emergency, etc help came in the days that followed, FEMA has temporary RVs for folks to live in and is doing what they can, but I think it's absolutely pisspoor that we're sending billions in relief overseas when our own citizens had to make water runs down the mountain, local food trucks were donating thousands of meals each to provide food, and individuals are planting their RVs in places for people to live in meanwhile many are still living in tents because their houses were washed away and there is nowhere else, that's if they haven't had to move.

So like I said, I get the complexity of these issues, but seeing the amounts announced while in the midst of this was just...frustrating.

Some would argue that your statement defends the position of "give less to the government to start with, and there will be more for neighbors to take care of each other like was the first help to reach Appalachia".

I'm not saying its an excuse for governmental systems that abandon their citizenry, and the vast majority of Americans don't realize what true neighbors are like those parts of the country have vs who lives across the hall in your building; I am saying that I believe the vast majority of Americans these days want government answers because that means they don't have to deal face-to-face with people.

On food:

I have eaten rabbit, deer, octopus, frog legs, and snails. I do not consider kangaroo odd at all. I consider lobster, shrimp, and crayfish odd but have eaten them all. I draw the line at raw oysters, cooked is fine. In the mid century Alpo made whale meat dog food, I have bought it for my dog.

On Ukraine:

It isn't Iraq. We do not ship pallets of $100 bills to Ukraine as we did to Iraq. (A black hawk helicopter holds two pallets of $100s BTW.) We ship them older weapons and ammo and make new stuff for our stockpile. I would rather Ukraine burn that stuff up in a war than us. The money stays here, the stuff goes there. We didn't install their government BTW.

After Ukraine falls to Russia its on to Moldavia then Poland. The Donald will pull us out of NATO just to please his real dad, Putin.

On FEMA and the hurricanes:

This is the kind of waste that our waste reduction czar, Elon, will cut so it can be better handled by private enterprise.

We distribute our wealth to billionaires, not the common people. The mid century was really a golden age, I know, it was my childhood and youth. Look up the tax structure we had then.

There has been unrelenting class war in America since 1972. The coupon clipping class won.

And where does the money to get the new shinies come from?