SultanOfSwing

We got back in on Tuesday. No more Monster Munch for me for a while.

Works for me!

dc koop

Misogynist

Racist tendencies

Tweets statements that sound positively paranoid

Whines and snivels to leaders of foreign countries about the US Intelligence Services and "fake" news on CNN

Acts like some swooning 15 year old school girl when he finally gets to meet Putin, says he's "honored" to meet him . Why honored for Chrissakes?
Putin's a killer, a dictator who jails dissidents at the drop of a hat.

It's time Trump started to act Presidential. He's making this country a laughing stock in the eyes of the rest of the world

FlaviusAetius

Hey, this country has been a laughing stock in the eyes of the world for many years before Trump appeared on the world stage.

At least it was fun to see Melania towering over Vladimir while giving him a good firm handshake. [I suppose though, from his point of view, things didn't look too bad at that moment either.] Interestingly, she's more than just a pretty face, being fluent in English, French, German (which she spoke with Vlad during the dinner), Italian, Slovenian and Serbo-Croatian.

Steve_

I think he's the best thing to ever happen to the United States, because he's forced Congress to pull their socks up and I've always been of the opinion that the executive branch is massively overrated, the Constitution puts most of the power in the hands of Congress.

Also I think he represents the last gasp of Nixon's "silent majority". I expect a Democrat will be elected in 2020, so 12 years from now the demographics in the US will have shifted and that will be the end of the traditional white power structure.

If Clinton had won, I think she would have served one term and then been followed by a Republican for two terms who would have kept using the same Nixonion strategy and leading the US up the same blind alley until they got beaten to death by the baby boomers with their Zimmer frames after Medicaid and Medicare finally imploded.

FlaviusAetius

Just curious: are the demographics shifting up there in the Great White North (Vancouver, anyone?) and are we also seeing the end of the traditional white power structure there?

Also, is the approaching demographic end of the "traditional white power structure" something to be celebrated? What would replace it, a Chinese Communist-style, an Islamic, Zimbabwean or Venezuelan power structure? Would any of those make the US and Canada better places in which to live and raise our kids?

dc koop

Changing demographics may be the way of the future for the US but that doesn't mean that the laws, the system of government and the guidance given by the Constitution would change with it.
There would be more brown faces, more Asian faces etc in Congress, the historic identity with Europe a thing of the past but the US and the way of life of Americans would go on much as it is now and continuing to evolve in tandem with the rest of the world as it is also doing now. Trump is just a passing entity. In 20 years from now no one will even remember him.

I cant understand why you would even bring up crap nations such as Venezuela which created it's own current mess and least of all a country like Zimbabwe

Giantaxe

"None of the above".

I do.

FlaviusAetius

Because Steve, sitting comfortably up in the province in which I spent much of my childhood, seemed to be celebrating the end of the so-called white power structure and I'm asking what would replace it. You are much more sanguine than I that our laws and system of government, with its checks and balances on the power of the executive - and our Constitution - will survive a massive demographic change such as is coming to this country. That is not a surety, but a leap of faith that I don't share. What will we evolve toward, in tandem with the rest of the world?

Western Europe appears to be governed by a political elite supported by a super-wealthy elite, the combination of which is impervious to the wishes of the common man. (Just ask the German in the street whether he yearns to become a minority in his own country in 25 years - and whether he believes Western values will live on under Sharia Law) China is ruled with an iron fist by a self-appointed oligarchy. With the exception of a few countries, such as Chile, Uruguay, Costa Rico and Columbia, much of Central and South America are evolving into kleptocracies (as Russia has become) and/or socialist dictatorships (let's hope Brazil and Argentina can straighten themselves out). Most of Africa is in chaos and no one can pretend that the Middle East is a place where human rights are respected. What's left? Canada, Australia, NZ and Japan - and of those, only Canada appears to welcome a multi-culti future.

dc koop

There is gradual demographic change occurring in the US with non-whites of all ethnicities projected to be around 51 percent of the population by 2050. That does not in any way mean a massive change of any sort. Most non-whites have no desire to copy or encourage the cultures of their forefathers beyond the kitchen sink. Many, many non-white immigrants I've come across over many years here make better citizens than the native born Americans, much more knowledgeable of the country's history and how the system of government works. Asians in fact make up a fairly sizeable portion of teaching staff at schools and colleges.

The situation in Europe is different. Neighbourhoods in many large European cities have sizeable populations of disenfranchised citizens or immigrants who feel neither wanted or accepted by the host population. They fail to assimilate because of this. There is also an unreasonable amount of hysteria in Europe when it comes to feeling a threat from immigrants. Their numbers are still very small as a percentage of the overall population. Most of them live in the largest cities. People see them and start thinking they must be everywhere

Steve_

Yes they definitely are, as illustrated in the 2015 Federal election, and the Tories still don't seem to have learned the lesson of it. They engaged in a wide variety of dog whistle politics - proposing a ban on burkhas at citizenship ceremonies (which worked in Québec, it won them a few seats but it massively backfired nationally) and also the provision in the Citizenship Act amendments that allowed the govt. to strip citizenship from dual nationals convicted of terrorist offences.

That led to a lot of immigrants complaining loudly, so loudly that Jason Kenney had to publicly quell alarm spreading among immigrant communities and it lost them a ton of votes.

They're making the same mistake now with Omar Khadr, blathering on about him appeals to their base but immigrants see it differently - because a lot of them are from countries where being disappeared into a secret prison is a real possibility and they're appalled by the Tories defending his treatment at Guantanamo.

You can't win elections with dog whistle politics when 20% of the population is foreign-born and most of them are citizens. Note the Liberals won in a landslide.

A non-white democratic power structure. And absolutely it would be a better place to raise our kids because institutional racism helps no-one in the end.

Steve_

Are you dreaming, it's a hell of a lot more democratic than the US is. In any event they're not (recent) immigrant nations so obviously they are resistant to immigration in a way that Canadians aren't.

Steve_

Important to note though that a lot of white people will always vote for the Democrats, so you don't need an absolute majority for Nixon/Trump-type politics to fade away.

This is why when the Republicans came up with their immigration bill back in 2012 it had a provision to regularize people who were unlawfully present but not naturalize them - because the Republicans assume they're all going to vote Democrat.

Sooner or later they might realize that moving towards the centre might be a better idea. I have a feeling though they will cane this "white people for us" strategy for as long as they possibly can, but it has limits.

morpeth

It may not mean necessarily that the US political structure will change with the demographic changes, but it would be a bit surprising if such significant demographic changes wont have an effect on the overall social and political culture.