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I can't believe conservatives still support the Donald given some of his recent quotes

I don't think he has mainstream support, just the fringe. With a race as fragmented as the republican nomination one it's easy to get in the lead with little support...isn't he only at 15-20%?

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"It's not a rest for me, it's a rest for the weights." - Dom Mazzetti

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Yeah, he's around 20% and currently blotting out all other news. Probably as people get to know the other candidates and others drop out, someone will eventually pass him. It will be interesting to watch the debate Thursday...

"Fight for what you believe in, and believe in what you're fighting for." Can games be art?

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My blog here if you want to check out my Times articles and other writings! I always appreciate comments/feedback.

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Thinking that every candidate would do the same things if they became president is an incredibly cynical and simplistic view.

He did say "roughly" the same

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"It's not a rest for me, it's a rest for the weights." - Dom Mazzetti

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Well with the Canadian elections being launched, I know I'm not voting for Harper. He ruined our economy and had so many scandals. We just don't have good candidates. I think the better one would be Trudeau because he has some of the same plans as Harper but not going against democracy like Harper is doing. Mulcair would just cost taxpayers way more than we already pay.

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Bernie 2016

 

The republican party this past 8 years or so has proven that it is nothing more than anti-intellectualism.

 

-compared food stamps to feeding animals at a zoo

-refers to minorities in racist ways. Consistently.

-texas wants to REMOVE THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR FROM TEXTBOOKS BECAUSE IT CHALLENGES AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALLY

-donald trump is being taken seriously

-they wine about the problems THEY caused in the congressional assembly

-still vastly deny global climate crisis

 

 

Any more you want me to list?

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Anyone who likes tacos is incapable of logic.

Anyone who likes logic is incapable of tacos.

 

PSA: SaqPrets is an Estonian Dude

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Well with the Canadian elections being launched, I know I'm not voting for Harper.

He ruined our economy

No he didn't.

 

and had so many scandals.

I can think of, uh...one? A couple rogue senators breaking spending rules? As far as scandals go, that's about the least scandalous one possible.

 

We just don't have good candidates. I think the better one would be Trudeau because he has some of the same plans as Harper but not going against democracy like Harper is doing. Mulcair would just cost taxpayers way more than we already pay.

From a taxation/economic perspective Trudeau's plans will cost just as much as Mulcair's, if not more. Also bear in mind that it's easy to claim he (Trudeau) will have open government; but his behaviour with whipped votes and nominations doesn't look promising in that regard. I'd be very surprised if he ended up being significantly more open than Harper.

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"It's not a rest for me, it's a rest for the weights." - Dom Mazzetti

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I love that Gengar Hat  :wub:

 

I don't really feel qualified to talk about Libya, but I'll happily point you to Scott Taylor if you like: http://thechronicleherald.ca/opinion/1302940-on-target-consequences-of-western-intervention-mount

 

I use the term 'failed state' because Libya has no functional government, and has been in a state of civil war constantly since NATO pulled out. We helped topple the government, then said good luck and sprinted out of that country for celebratory high fives back home, and we've never looked back.

 

By Bravado, I mean the Anti Russian Rhetoric. We're...in a place where the only people who have a moral high ground to stand on are the countries that have been minding their own business. I don't see anything more moral about NATO countries affecting regime changes (that always seem to come back to haunt us sooner or later) than there is with Russia absconding with part of Ukraine.

 

There is...very little I can really say about Environment Canada. That's actually a part of the problem. What I can say is that in all branches of Government, no effort has been made to retain technical expertise, and we now rely on people who aren't qualified to do their jobs to make the right decisions, and/or hire expensive consultants to make decisions for them. This is always an issue to a certain degree when politicians clash with their science underlings, but the Federal Government is quickly running out of people who can even tell them they're wrong.

 

I can try to illustrate this a different way. The new Bluenose II was built by the Nova Scotia Tourism department, which has no engineers on staff, and no experience managing major builds. While having them manage the project isn't ideal, they could have saved a lot of work by at least talking to another department that did have experience with large scale projects, such as the Department of Public Works. Sure, they don't build old wooden sailing ships either, but they have a bunch of engineering staff, some of whom would be familiar with some of the key concepts of the project, and they have more experience than anyone with project management, and probably would have been perfectly happy to loan a couple staff who were familiar with key concepts of the project and had project management experience.

 

Instead, we have a wooden sailing ship project managed by a consulting firm that had no idea what they were doing, and built by someone who has no idea how to make such a ship, which is how we ended up with, for example, a 7 tonne metal rudder (the thing about wooden rudders is that they float, and can be turned by hand). That's the sort of territory we are entering now on the Federal Government, where we are so devoid of expertise that we don't even know the expertise we hire is unqualified for the work we hire them for.

 

Anyway, that's my rant. I mean, I don't even care about fiscal policy at this point (or I would never vote for the "we think money grows on trees" NDP party). I just want a party with a leader who isn't determined to run the entire country himself, and who might compromise with the opposition from time to time, because they probably have the majority of the votes and often have valid things to say.

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I love that Gengar Hat  :wub:

 

I don't really feel qualified to talk about Libya, but I'll happily point you to Scott Taylor if you like: http://thechronicleherald.ca/opinion/1302940-on-target-consequences-of-western-intervention-mount

 

I use the term 'failed state' because Libya has no functional government, and has been in a state of civil war constantly since NATO pulled out. We helped topple the government, then said good luck and sprinted out of that country for celebratory high fives back home, and we've never looked back.

There's no doubt the intervention in Libya failed, at least if the goal was to create a functional government. However, the crux of that article is that brutal dictatorship was somehow a preferred alternative.

 

Meanwhile, Mulcair and Trudeau would have us do the exact same thing with ISIL (and to a lesser extent Afghanistan). You can't have it both ways - simultaneously blaming Harper for not comitting to a long term rebuild in Libya and then blaming him for leaving troops in Afghanistan so long. Not that you've done this personally, but that's the crux of the argument Trudeau and Mulcair have used. Once again, if they were in power, they'd have had to do one of the two possible options, and there are serious disadvantages to both.

 

As such, I don't think this is really a criticism of the Harper government that holds much water.

 

 

By Bravado, I mean the Anti Russian Rhetoric. We're...in a place where the only people who have a moral high ground to stand on are the countries that have been minding their own business. I don't see anything more moral about NATO countries affecting regime changes (that always seem to come back to haunt us sooner or later) than there is with Russia absconding with part of Ukraine.

Morality of foreign intervention aside, there's a clear difference between supporting a democratically elected government that has been invaded by a foreign power, and helping to dispose of a brutal dictator.

 

There is...very little I can really say about Environment Canada. That's actually a part of the problem. What I can say is that in all branches of Government, no effort has been made to retain technical expertise, and we now rely on people who aren't qualified to do their jobs to make the right decisions, and/or hire expensive consultants to make decisions for them. This is always an issue to a certain degree when politicians clash with their science underlings, but the Federal Government is quickly running out of people who can even tell them they're wrong.

I don't disagree, but I contend this is more of a problem inherent in government bureaucracy than anything Harper has any control over (the implication being it is just as likely to continue under any other government).

 

I can try to illustrate this a different way. The new Bluenose II was built by the Nova Scotia Tourism department, which has no engineers on staff, and no experience managing major builds. While having them manage the project isn't ideal, they could have saved a lot of work by at least talking to another department that did have experience with large scale projects, such as the Department of Public Works. Sure, they don't build old wooden sailing ships either, but they have a bunch of engineering staff, some of whom would be familiar with some of the key concepts of the project, and they have more experience than anyone with project management, and probably would have been perfectly happy to loan a couple staff who were familiar with key concepts of the project and had project management experience.

 

Instead, we have a wooden sailing ship project managed by a consulting firm that had no idea what they were doing, and built by someone who has no idea how to make such a ship, which is how we ended up with, for example, a 7 tonne metal rudder (the thing about wooden rudders is that they float, and can be turned by hand). That's the sort of territory we are entering now on the Federal Government, where we are so devoid of expertise that we don't even know the expertise we hire is unqualified for the work we hire them for.

See my point above. Yeah, it's crappy, but is it Harper's fault? (Or the fault of the CPC in general?) Emphatically no.

 

Anyway, that's my rant. I just want a party with a leader who isn't determined to run the entire country himself, and who might compromise with the opposition from time to time, because they probably have the majority of the votes and often have valid things to say.

No majority government is interested in making major concessions to opposition parties. You can vote for another party all you want, but if you're expecting them to act any differently, prepare to be disappointed.

 

I mean, I don't even care about fiscal policy at this point (or I would never vote for the "we think money grows on trees" NDP party).

As much as I can understand why this simplistic point of view is appealing, unfortunately you can't vote for only part of the package. If you vote for the NDP or LPC, you are getting all of their platform.

 

The point is that this kind of fiscal policy has tangible, substantial negative effects. For example, the Ontario Liberal party has been in power in Ontario for a decade, and have managed to rack up a public debt 3x higher than the state of California, with 1/3rd of the population, which simultaneously increasing corporate taxation and regulation, as well as contributing to ridiculously high hydro rates (thanks, aggressive "green energy" policies) that have basically put the final nail in the coffin of manufacturing leaving the province.

 

So what we're left with is a massively ballooning debt with the good jobs that would help pay that debt, in part, having disappearing. Ontario is in a world of hurt, and it's not going to magically fix itself.

 

Anyway, the point of making this comparison is that the LPC holds pretty much identical ideological economic policies as the ontario Libs, and the NDP are even worse. These liberals aren't the Paul Martin/Jean Chretien's of the world, whom I can at least respect for running a pretty tight ship fiscally. A vote for either of these parties, in effect, is a vote for unquestionably damaging economic decisions that will seriously hurt Canada in the long run.

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"It's not a rest for me, it's a rest for the weights." - Dom Mazzetti

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Well with the Canadian elections being launched, I know I'm not voting for Harper.

He ruined our economy

No he didn't.

 

and had so many scandals.

I can think of, uh...one? A couple rogue senators breaking spending rules? As far as scandals go, that's about the least scandalous one possible.

 

We just don't have good candidates. I think the better one would be Trudeau because he has some of the same plans as Harper but not going against democracy like Harper is doing. Mulcair would just cost taxpayers way more than we already pay.

From a taxation/economic perspective Trudeau's plans will cost just as much as Mulcair's, if not more. Also bear in mind that it's easy to claim he (Trudeau) will have open government; but his behaviour with whipped votes and nominations doesn't look promising in that regard. I'd be very surprised if he ended up being significantly more open than Harper.

 

You want scandals?

 

- Election fraud in the last elections, proven true

- 3.1B still unaccounted for (that was supposed to go for anti-terrorism)

- affiliated with fraudulent sentators

- Promised to abolish the Senate but did the oposite, appointing many sentators

- C-51 being looked into by international organisations for being too un-democratic

- Going around the normal process to make new laws so that they can rush the bills into laws

- biggest deficits in Canadian history

- Using tax money for partisan ads, including starting the elections much earlier, it will cost us much more because of the longest election period yet

- Canada (in)Action Plan

 

I could go on..

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- Election fraud in the last elections, proven true

Isolated incident involving two people. Nothing Harper is personally responsible for.

 

- 3.1B still unaccounted for (that was supposed to go for anti-terrorism)

Source?

 

- affiliated with fraudulent sentators

They weren't "fraudulent". They made inappropriate expense claims and have been punished for it, which Harper has supported. Once again, he cannot be held personally responsible for this to any degree. Do you hold Trudeau personally responsible for the two members of his party who allegedly sexually assaulted other MPs?

 

- Promised to abolish the Senate but did the oposite, appointing many sentators

A) I don't recall him actually promising to abolish it. At any rate, he can't do it without support from the provinces.

B) He hasn't appointed senators for two years, and there are many vacancies he could have filled.

 

- C-51 being looked into by international organisations for being too un-democratic

"Government passes legislation" is not a scandal. It may be bad legislation, but it's not a scandal.

 

- Going around the normal process to make new laws so that they can rush the bills into laws

I'm not sure what you're referring to here.

- biggest deficits in Canadian history

A source would be nice, but I'll take your word for it. Bear in mind that he did have to deal with a major recession that was outside of his control, and Canada is generally considered to have weathered that storm better than most of the G8.

 

- Using tax money for partisan ads, including starting the elections much earlier, it will cost us much more because of the longest election period yet

- Canada (in)Action Plan

 

I could go on..

Also not a scandal. These may not be good things, but there's a difference between something that breaks rules and something you don't like. Plus, the other parties are far from immune to spending taxpayer money on partisan purposes (http://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/ndp-mps-ordered-to-repay-office-spending-to-be-denied-expense-claims-1.2392757)

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"It's not a rest for me, it's a rest for the weights." - Dom Mazzetti

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Had my interviews for conversion into full-time here at Google and they did not go nearly as well as I had liked. I somehow forgot to brush up on heaps while preparing for this and my first interview was entirely about them. The second interview went better, but still not as well as I would have liked. it's been a pretty big bummer of a day since that :/ I really like it here and was hoping for full-time. All hope isn't lost as the feedback from the team I've been working with this summer matters too but this is going to set me back a lot. I still have a set of interviews for a product management role as well, but they only accept like 40 people total so I don't want to get my hopes up too high for that. Bleh.

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I don't believe they have the power to actually act on their talking points. During the primaries you have to appeal to the radicals and during the general election all the promises made during the primaries get somehow get forgotten. I'm excited to see the democrats primaries too since the republican ones have been pretty funny already.

 

I know the specifics of Ceaser's civil war but they don't apply. Over the next century the odds of some powerful individual taking the position of emperor was very likely and there are so many ways it could happen. The political and social structure of rome are why its likely. Maybe they elect some guy to be Consul and give him dictator powers which he just keeps. Maybe you have another Ceaser.Maybe some military commander on the fringes of the empire takes a bid for power and wins etc. The fact that power gets so compressed in these societies is why its so likely that at least one already powerful man goes all the way.

I also believe that state behavior is based on social climate but I also firmly believe that the position of US president is almost entirely pointless. In a country run by a dictator (ie: russia and Caesar era Rome) the individual DOES make a load of difference, especially in short term decision making. Theres no beurocratic mess to fight through. You run the country it's YOUR call. America is run by a number of systems and layers of councils and voting. Between the Senate and congress alone instituting any change at all is an exhausting process. This translates to a bland and saturated political stance where truly as a nation, America is not truly switching from democratic to republican just because that particular political party won the election, but is instead perpetually moving toward an inevitability. Gay marriage? That was bound to pass eventually. Would it have happened sooner with a republican as our figure head? Likely not but it still would have happened. Any major change America makes for itself or its influences is inevitable. Changing which party is currently commander in chief on speeds or slows a process in the priority list.

 

All nation states have inevitabilities. But in a state that isn't completely run by a singularity, these inevitabilities take longer and become easier to predict and criticize. Obviously if Obama were the president of North Korea, things would be different there. But its an entirely different nation with an entirely different set of regulations, protocol and political/social climate. So yes, the president does make SOME difference as to who's in charge but its so negligible in the long run (like 10-15 years later) that the overall effects of their presidency would go largely unnoticed. With the exception of people like Reagan who's decision to remove the gold standard (unless that was Nixon, whatever) [bleep]ed the economy so hard its ridiculous. And even that can be chalked to a mistake anyone could have made any number of years later. We cant learn from mistakes we haven't made yet

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Anyone who likes tacos is incapable of logic.

Anyone who likes logic is incapable of tacos.

 

PSA: SaqPrets is an Estonian Dude

Steam: NippleBeardTM

Origin: Brand_New_iPwn

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The Canadian federal election campaign officially begins today, with the Election set for October 19th. As of now I'm leaning towards the Conservatives, but the Liberals could win me back over with a well thought out and costed economic plan.

 

I am leaving my radio and tv off until its over.  Campaigns are a joke.  

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The Canadian federal election campaign officially begins today, with the Election set for October 19th. As of now I'm leaning towards the Conservatives, but the Liberals could win me back over with a well thought out and costed economic plan.

 

I am leaving my radio and tv off until its over.  Campaigns are a joke.

 

I can't blame you. Barring some massive event, my mind is already made up, and I could do without seeing all the propaganda.

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"It's not a rest for me, it's a rest for the weights." - Dom Mazzetti

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The Canadian federal election campaign officially begins today, with the Election set for October 19th. As of now I'm leaning towards the Conservatives, but the Liberals could win me back over with a well thought out and costed economic plan.

 

I am leaving my radio and tv off until its over.  Campaigns are a joke.

 

I can't blame you. Barring some massive event, my mind is already made up, and I could do without seeing all the propaganda.

 

 

Same.  Nothing any of those "men of the people" (HA), could say anything to alter my choice.  They are all the same in that they will promise all these things and then deliver on few of them.  They will all get bought and sold to the highest corporate bidder (if they haven't already) and we as the normal none rich folk will continue to get raked over the coals for as long as  I am alive.  Just how politics work and I have my doubt's that will ever change.  I know the party platforms, I just go with which one I think with beep me in the ass with the least amount of pain.  

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There was an interestng article on the Guardian a few days ago about the capitalistic system. It can't work anymore. In the Western world. Since technology has taken over so much jobs and wealth has gathered to so little people it is bound to collapse.

 

In other news, the weather is absolutely shitty. 30 mm's or over an inch of rain today. And barely above freezing temperatures.

Working with metals barehanded is not fun.

t3aGt.png

 

So I've noticed this thread's regulars all follow similar trends.

 

RPG is constantly dealing with psycho exes.

Muggi reminds us of the joys of polygamy.

Saq is totally oblivious to how much chicks dig him.

I strike out every other week.

Kalphite wages a war against the friend zone.

Randox pretty much stays rational.

Etc, etc

 

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It seems to me that the effect that a single person can have on history can't be underestimated at all. Yeah sure, you could analyze the demographics, the economy, the political climate and all those other things and predict where things will start to unfurl. But after the chaos of transition passes, someone will have the power and who that person is can determine a lot. If someone other than August had grabbed power in Rome, we might not have had a Pax Augusta like we've had now. August was known as a good ruler, and that was part of the reason the Roman state could remain relatively peaceful. Had he been a maniac (and we all know a bunch of those went on to become emperor afterwards), perhaps the state would've remained in a state of unrest, changing the course of history in a pretty significant way.

 

But that's the thing though, you can't know what would've happened if those pivotal people didn't make those pivotal decisions that they've made. For example, Einstein wrote a letter to president Roosevelt in 1939 to warn him about a new nuclear technology that the Germans were tinkering with. This would cause the Americans to look into splitting uranium themselves, leading to the invention of the nuclear bomb. If he hadn't written that letter, who knows what might've happened. The war with Japan might've dragged on for years. Maybe there could've been a genius German scientist who had discovered how to make an atomic bomb before the US did. Then what? Who knows? No one does. But all those things are influenced by the actions of single people, and since it's impossible for us to know what would've happened if someone else was put in their place somehow it seems to me like we can't ignore what they meant for the course of history. 

 

Uh onto how my day went I guess. Worked two shifts today. The evening shift I did was the busiest evening I'd ever seen and we only had 6 employees to deal with the kind of crowd we usually have double the amount of people for. Ended up working a bit longer than usual since it kept being busy till closing time, but I still felt pretty good when I was done work. But then when I wanted to ride my bicycle back home I noticed a pretty significant problem: my steering wheel had literally just disconnected from the rest of my bike. Had to walk home since it was too late to take any buses or anything. Meh. 

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