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A Deeply Fractured US

I first noticed them last year. https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/centre-ice-conservatives-poilievre-analysis-wherry-1.6549953

Since then, they seem to have exchanged the "Conservatives" in their title for "Canadians". Probably sells better, but still "centre-right".

Yeah, they want to attract disaffected liberal voters as well.
 
Both. I've made no bones about the fact that I'm centrist-right. I have problems with my own party which has been catering to an extreme right element which frankly disgusts me

What extreme right policies or practices are you seeing from the CPC?
 
What extreme right policies or practices are you seeing from the CPC?
None actually for the CPC as it stands.

The CPC has a relatively innocuous Policy Declaration and the leadership struggles to keep it that way.

At every convention, however, there are pushes from the fringe to change a number of the social policies. Essentially they concern the big three: a woman's right to chose; homosexuality as not having marital or family status; and religious exemptions to allow discrimination.

These are generally pushed through motions to amend the Policy Declaration and some of these have only been narrowly defeated.

More and more changes are happening at the grass roots level to vote in, at the riding level, MP and executive candidates who are socially conservative rather than fiscal conservatives. It's a long game that is being played. I think much of what was behind O'Toole's demise that he campaigned hard right but ended up leading as a moderate. It's somewhat similar to the social conservatism movement in the US.

Right now out of 115 CPC MPs, 80 (or 70%) are anti-choice.

My own MP is a poster child for the Campaign for Life Coalition. Here are her answers to the basic questions.

1. Do you believe life begins at conception (fertilization)?Yes
2. Are there any circumstances under which you believe a woman should have access to abortion?No
3. If elected, would you vote in favour of a law to protect all unborn children from the time of conception (fertilization) onward?Yes
4. If elected, will you vote to pass laws protecting people from euthanasia and assisted-suicide, and vote to reject laws that would expand euthanasia and assisted-suicide?Yes

If you want to know what I think is wrong with social conservatism then visit the CLC website. Pretty much everything they advocate for I oppose.

I'm a long, long, long term PC member and actually joined my local CPC riding association to pull the influence away from that but found myself amongst a rural group who had their own agenda. I quit and indirectly spoiled my next ballot by voting Green ( I refuse to not vote and I'll be damned before I vote Liberal or NDP).

The CPC centrists have long courted the social conservatists to prevent another Reform Party split. Unfortunately in doing so they have given up their soul and are in fact losing (have lost?) control of their party.

🍻
 
Meanwhile, back in America:

I can't find the reference but - a few days ago I saw an article declaring that the US establishment, by siding with Ukraine and the eastern Europeans was turning the US of A into a frontline state.

I guess US operations over the last 80 years, the whole Cold War thing, and Big and Little Diomede (Sarah Palin was right), kind of escaped the attention of some folks.
 
Putting this here because the article makes a plausible claim which might also apply in Canada.

America Is Headed Toward Collapse (The Atlantic)

[Add: problem at the landing page, but a fast cancellation of the "Reload/Cancel" button seems to allow the text to remain]

"We found that the precise mix of events that leads to crisis varies, but two drivers of instability loom large. The first is popular immiseration—when the economic fortunes of broad swaths of a population decline. The second, and more significant, is elite overproduction—when a society produces too many superrich and ultra-educated people, and not enough elite positions to satisfy their ambitions."
 
"We found that the precise mix of events that leads to crisis varies, but two drivers of instability loom large. The first is popular immiseration—when the economic fortunes of broad swaths of a population decline. The second, and more significant, is elite overproduction—when a society produces too many superrich and ultra-educated people, and not enough elite positions to satisfy their ambitions."

Russia: “Hey, hey, hey! We patented that!”
 
Abandoning Ukraine to defeat and surrender may result in ‘peace’ the same way Poland was ‘peaceful’ in 1940-1944, but that’s not a ‘peace deal’. Trump’s made it clear he would roll over and abase America to Putin on the issue of Ukraine’s independent existence. He may consider that ‘a deal’, but it isn’t one with Ukraine present at the table.
To be fair, Afghanistan literally wasn't invited to sit at the table while the Doha Accords were being negotiated & finalized between the US & the Taliban... (Not a single representative from the Afghan Government was invited or present during the talks)

So that last sentence of yours may be a lot more literal than intended... 😉
 
Putting this here because the article makes a plausible claim which might also apply in Canada.

America Is Headed Toward Collapse (The Atlantic)

[Add: problem at the landing page, but a fast cancellation of the "Reload/Cancel" button seems to allow the text to remain]

"We found that the precise mix of events that leads to crisis varies, but two drivers of instability loom large. The first is popular immiseration—when the economic fortunes of broad swaths of a population decline. The second, and more significant, is elite overproduction—when a society produces too many superrich and ultra-educated people, and not enough elite positions to satisfy their ambitions."
Peter Turchin has some interesting ideas if you want to look into it more

 
The tweet doesn't have the article or whatever it's based on. Care to share a link?
There are a few hundred.
Basically Trump is on tape admitting to violating the espionage act in several parts.

Here is one example

 
With the 2024 presidential race looming, experts say Twitter's inaction toward election lies spreding on its platform threatens democracy.

Many such claims have thrived on Twitter in the week since former President Donald Trump spent much of a CNN town hall digging in on his lie that the 2020 election was "rigged" agaisnt him. There has been no visible attempt to correct those claims.




 
There are a few hundred.
Basically Trump is on tape admitting to violating the espionage act in several parts.

Here is one example


The grand jury in that investigation hasn’t met in a while but apparently are being convened again this week. That could mean different things, potentially including new witness testimony or subpoenas.

But yeah, the existing of the alleged audio recording is definitely helpful to prosecutors in establishing knowledge and intent regarding the handling and retention of classified materials / national defense information generally. There’s no word on whether investigators have possession of the specific document Trump refers to in the recording, which has been reported to be plans for a potential military attack on Iran. No idea if that corresponds with any of the materials recovered in the Mar-a-Lago search warrant, or previously by request or subpoena.
 



You know what else threatens democracy? When the MSM openly calls for censorship on social media platforms!

(This is 100% directed towards the various opinions in the links posted, not towards you)


Did he lie during an election in order to help win? He's a politician trying to get elected to the office with the most insidious threats & slithering frienemies this planet has to offer, all vying for the direction of the status quo... ofcourse he did.

And so did the documented sociopath running against him.

It's politics, it's kind of a given...



And no, Twitter shouldn't be responsible for what a politician posts. It isn't Twitter's job to be another node of internet censorship, deciding for the public what is true and what isn't.

The people who post should be responsible for what they post.


If the MSM really wants an even playing field, and wants various foreign news sources labelled as foreign propoganda - it better be prepared for that same label to be applied to them in foreign countries. (And the label of domestic propoganda here?)
 
The grand jury in that investigation hasn’t met in a while but apparently are being convened again this week. That could mean different things, potentially including new witness testimony or subpoenas.

But yeah, the existing of the alleged audio recording is definitely helpful to prosecutors in establishing knowledge and intent regarding the handling and retention of classified materials / national defense information generally. There’s no word on whether investigators have possession of the specific document Trump refers to in the recording, which has been reported to be plans for a potential military attack on Iran. No idea if that corresponds with any of the materials recovered in the Mar-a-Lago search warrant, or previously by request or subpoena.
That would be quite the OPSEC oopsie... (Re Iran)
 
Both. I've made no bones about the fact that I'm centrist-right. I have problems with my own party which has been catering to an extreme right element which frankly disgusts me and I'm quite concerned that the social shift in Canada is, like it has for almost a century, following American trends by a decade or so. The US is deeply polarized politically while much of the population remains centrist. In other words, I believe much of Canada is centrist like me but we're being pulled apart in order to kowtow to the extremist wings like they have in the US.


Before Regan I was generally trending Republican. I'm not sure if Regan actually changed things or whether he was just a marker of a changing trend, but by this point in time it is mostly a bat-shit crazy party.

With that I do not leave the Democrats or Liberal/NDP group alone. I hate the term "Woke" because it used to describe me at a time where I supported (and still do) social liberal policies. I firmly believe that you can believe whatever you want and do whatever you want as long as you do not harm others and that you not demand that everyone else think and be just like you under penalty of law. It's the dictatorial nature of any movement that outrages me. Conservatives and liberals have both gone dictatorial.

The far left "liberal" side of the social continuum has gone from supporting tolerance and acceptance to demanding conformity to their view of what the standards should be. Every day the yardsticks of those standards shift a little further left and have become more extreme and strident. "Woke" has developed into a four letter word. One thing that I detest is that us centrists are now being pushed by both extremist wings to align ourselves with the policies and positions of one end of the spectrum or the other.

There is a desperate need for a political movement that fits well into the centre. There was a time when the difference between Progressive Conservative and Liberal was very narrow and depended more on the quality of the leaders and fiscal policies rather than their extremist views on social policies. Education came from a biased but a generally fair and balanced education system and main-stream media. The extremist factions have subverted both and social media has compounded the problem with a flood of tripe.

There used to be a time when I gave everyone the benefit of the doubt until they demonstrated their stupidity to me. Now I just assume they are stupid until they can prove to me that they are rational. I don't like that.

Rant off.

😖

Your centre.... Or my centre? :D
 
None actually for the CPC as it stands.

The CPC has a relatively innocuous Policy Declaration and the leadership struggles to keep it that way.

At every convention, however, there are pushes from the fringe to change a number of the social policies. Essentially they concern the big three: a woman's right to chose; homosexuality as not having marital or family status; and religious exemptions to allow discrimination.

These are generally pushed through motions to amend the Policy Declaration and some of these have only been narrowly defeated.

More and more changes are happening at the grass roots level to vote in, at the riding level, MP and executive candidates who are socially conservative rather than fiscal conservatives. It's a long game that is being played. I think much of what was behind O'Toole's demise that he campaigned hard right but ended up leading as a moderate. It's somewhat similar to the social conservatism movement in the US.

Right now out of 115 CPC MPs, 80 (or 70%) are anti-choice.

My own MP is a poster child for the Campaign for Life Coalition. Here are her answers to the basic questions.

1. Do you believe life begins at conception (fertilization)?Yes
2. Are there any circumstances under which you believe a woman should have access to abortion?No
3. If elected, would you vote in favour of a law to protect all unborn children from the time of conception (fertilization) onward?Yes
4. If elected, will you vote to pass laws protecting people from euthanasia and assisted-suicide, and vote to reject laws that would expand euthanasia and assisted-suicide?Yes

If you want to know what I think is wrong with social conservatism then visit the CLC website. Pretty much everything they advocate for I oppose.

I'm a long, long, long term PC member and actually joined my local CPC riding association to pull the influence away from that but found myself amongst a rural group who had their own agenda. I quit and indirectly spoiled my next ballot by voting Green ( I refuse to not vote and I'll be damned before I vote Liberal or NDP).

The CPC centrists have long courted the social conservatists to prevent another Reform Party split. Unfortunately in doing so they have given up their soul and are in fact losing (have lost?) control of their party.

🍻

Pushes from the Fringe in all parties are a good thing. It gives people an outlet and reduces the likelihood of revolution.

I like the Fringe being given an airing. Even Commie Dippers and Christian Democrats.
 
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