Standing at the Berlin Wall in 1963, President Kennedy said, “Freedom has many difficulties, and democracy is not perfect, but we have never had to put a wall up to keep our people in, to prevent them from leaving us.”
That has changed…
Via Instapundit.
all governments have too much power and all should brought to heel. freedom should not be contingent on any government edict. Canadians have flushed a great deal of their freedom by embracing socialism.
Tax Revolt. It’s that simple.
I intended to simply add to your comments but soon realized it would take me a week to put down the thoughts you brought to mind. Here is my compromise.
I see the main problem currently as something most partisans don’t even want hear about. The parties have too much damn power in our system and they only have incentive to protect or grow that power. Any new politician, no matter how well-intentioned to start, soon learns that they must put party loyalty first if they want to have any kind of political career.
Combine that with ultra-competitive systems that ensure western nations are lurched back and forth between left and right ideologies. There is no incentive for the parties to find common ground then move forward onto addressing the next problem. Instead, it’s arguing left, right, left, right, left, right, rarely moving anywhere except to march us right into the abyss.
Think about it, generally over 1/2 of all our elected MP’s make it their mission in Parliament to see that the sitting government actually fails! Our political systems have morphed into ideological civil wars that have divided and neutered nations and squandered trillions in assets.
This is why I fully support Trump as he spits in the face of a completely enabling media. I hope he gives the Republican elites the finger and still goes Independent if they try to sabotage his run for the leadership.
Ahhh,even a short rant feels good in the morning.
Generals and engineers build countries, politicians and lawyers destroy them.
well said. I’v stated often, even in here , that Harper (or who ever is top dog at the moment) that the prime minister does not just govern those who elected them, but the whole nation, and should govern accordingly. But in here, and on the left side of the political equation, it’s all or nothing. And that is why I always love to point out that those who in here are so often denigrated as Jews, it’s points to the stupidity of the “all or nothing” meme that plays out in so many topics in here. BTW., this has been pointed out by several others in here over time
frs are you reading here111
It’s 2015 – prisons don’t require bars with guards outside of them.
Hi NME666. Thanks for thinking of me. Maybe I’m a little thick this morning, but I’m having trouble understanding what you’re trying to get across. One thing I think I understand correctly is that you’re lamenting the lack of middle ground between the sentiments of those who post on SDA and those of the Progressive lib/left. I’d say, SDA (posters included) does a damn good job of exposing the dangerous ambitions of its political adversaries by neatly showcasing an endless availability of examples. It’s difficult to contemplate compromise when it means capitulating to outright fraud, for instance in the CAGW debate.
Maybe I’m not understanding you fully, but I don’t see the value in bringing attention to your “Jew” hypothesis. Are you suggesting that you use that recurring observation as an innocent prop to emphasize the perils of being partisan? Huh? Am I wrong in suggesting that your intent is to expose a pattern which places blame on a conspiracy perpetuated by an agency whose membership is mandated by race? In the grand scheme, where do Ezra Levant, Dennis Prager, Mark Steyn, Evan Sayet etc etc stand?
I must be missing something.
This act combined with FATCA will result in a lot of expat US citizens taking out dual citizenships. For US people without this option….good luck. Once again, metastasizing government is more interested in revenues than anything else. Im betting taking away passports, like asset forfeiture, will only require accusations not proof. Guilty until proven innocent.
Isn’t it going to be difficult to argue for both restricted travel for Americans with tax issues while simultaneously pushing for open borders and lax ID requirements for Nonamericans?
“There is no incentive for the parties to find common ground then move forward onto addressing the next problem. Instead, it’s arguing left, right, left, right, left, right, rarely moving anywhere except to march us right into the abyss.” Canadian Observer
It has been my Observation that ALL political discord is structured “theater”… It is the general public that must be convinced. The Republicans & Democrats agree on most important issues, but they can’t move forward without backlash from special interest groups….Throw in a few Socialists to muddy the waters & you have chaos… It is the American public that are pissed & impossible to satisfy without strong competent leadership.
The Donald provides a NO-Holds solution for ALL the public angst, the CEO takes the heat and the Congress can get the peoples business done. The Columbia / George Town era principles are done (they are retired, or dead) NO more regime change or nothing… BS… Move it or lose it..
C O we tend to use far too many words to explain that which can be summed up briefly. Socialism is the desire of most Canadians, they want some thing for nothing. Politicians try and build their wee fiefdoms on the backs of others and it is about nothing more than power and money. No one ever has the interest of free Canadians at heart, ever.
The whole problem with the IRS and citizenship is that there might be a million Canadians who have no idea that they are American citizens. When many Americans took Canadian citizenship, they lost their American citizenship because American law did not allow dual citizenship by choice. At some point the law changed and miraculously the US government gave them back citizenship whether they wanted it or not. Part of being an American citizen is the requirement to file an American tax return. It is unlikely most non-American residents would have to pay any tax given exemptions and credit for foreign taxes but the penalty for failure to file is 50% of your assets. The land of the free and the home of the brave.
“No one ever has the interest of free Canadians at heart, ever.”
OWG – I tend to agree with your assertion for the most part. However, I think there might be varying degrees of political insincerity at play here in the Canadian arena. For instance, although the loss by the CPC in October stirred up deep-seated pessimism, I can’t discount the genuineness of PM Harper and many of his colleagues. His emergence on the political scene was borne of a true grass roots movement to hold corruption in Ottawa to account. I believe for the most part Harper was handling his strategy judiciously and although he was unable to please all of us, being a little more hard-nosed was thought not to be the winning plan. Of course that debate remains, but I believe aside from it, he had somewhat of a handle on what thinking Canadians wanted.
I agree in this sense: once you establish a culture in which an increasing majority of people demand something for nothing, the greasy self-serving politicians secure the upper hand going forward.
LC – having dual citizenship doesn’t solve the issue; anyone who is an American citizen is required to file a US tax return reporting their world-wide income as well as certain assets. The only way to avoid this is to renounce citizenship and that’s not so easy. You first have to file several years’ tax returns and have no tax liability before you can renounce.
hmmm. looks like the powers that be have come up with a way to postpone that looming hyperinflation that ALWAYS follows huge unmanageable debt. asset seizure.
and the Republitards were behind it this time?
do remember SDA, next time you vote, pick the candidate likely to do the least damage regardless of ideology.
I still think that the solution for divided government is setting taxation (and government programs available to the individual) according to how you vote. There would be a lot more libertarians and conservatives all of a sudden, when people realize that they’re only playing with their own funds and can no longer access the public purse (for personal gain).
I’m not an expert in this area. The advantage of dual citizenship is that you have two passports. If the US invalidates your US passport because of failure to file or pay taxes then you can still travel on your Canadian or other foreign passport. For US expats living outside the US this would get around the travel bans. Is this correct?