A New Year's gift to all dear Chesstalkers!

[Bob Armstrong]

In 2024, our dear Donald was booed when he spoke at a conference of the Libertarian Party of USA.

Your position, Dilip, ALMOST rehabilitates you!

Bob A

[Pargat Perrer]

Do nothing which is of no use. - Miyamoto Musashi

In about twenty or thirty years, or perhaps as soon as tomorrow, we will know the absolute truth, or not, because you will be dead very likely along with me. I have more important things to attend to than arguing with you in these remaining years. You are a troll who enjoys arguing. I enjoy arguing as well but it is not a particularly useful trait. The time is better spent learning things which are of use.

Right .... like how to fool SOME of the people SOME of the time ....

and yes, you and I and everyone here will share a proverbial "beer" on the other side and chuckle over these exchanges that we planned in advance ....

[Pargat Perrer]

You are absolutely right, Vlad. Even when the absolute truth is revealed, PP the nasty troll will insult the revealer, twist what has been revealed to call it all nonsense, and keep on saying that everyone besides him is a piece of sh.t, a hypocrite, etc. etc.

and there goes DIlip the rat again, scurrying to the nearest supporter, in this case VD, to avoid answering the tough questions about his Libertarian nonsense ... having confused everyone by equating the outcome of competition with the actual competition itself ... and since he can't justify the equation ... DUH .... he scurries away like the frightened rat he is ....

[Fred Harvey]

and there goes DIlip the rat again, scurrying to the nearest supporter, in this case VD, to avoid answering the tough questions about his Libertarian nonsense ... having confused everyone by equating the outcome of competition with the actual competition itself ... and since he can't justify the equation ... DUH .... he scurries away like the frightened rat he is ....

[Vlad Drkulec]

Hey Dilip,

I like Fareed Zakaria, so thank you for linking to a reliable source.
To quote him regarding the political shift in 2024.

“Voters feel taxed, regulated, bossed around, and intimidated by left of centre politicians for decades, but the results are bad and getting worse.”

Ouch, quite an indictment. But let’s explore that a little.

Governments were rocked by the 2008 financial crisis (caused by a lack of regulations), then the COVID crisis in 2020 (caused by?), increasing effects of climate change, and numerous wars and conflicts with the resulting human migration. The incumbent governments will always take the blame, and so they did.

The 2008 financial crisis was caused by the policies of the Democratic party which granted mortgages to people who had no business taking on such obligations. When Bush tried to fix the problem before it blew up in everyone's face, he was stymied by the Democrats. There was a surprisingly accurate Saturday Night Live skit about the whole thing which was taken down later because Saturday Night Live morphed into a wing of the Democrat party.

The Covid crisis had nothing to do with climate change which is a luxury the world will soon have to jettison. The Covid crisis was likely caused by U.S. funded gain of function research in a facility poorly equipped to do that type of research after Obama rightly banned that research in the U.S.

[QUOTE]

But is a shift to the right temporary or more long term?

Trump is not right or left. He is expedient. He is a danger to all sides but a danger that also represents an opportunity. Trump has America's best interests in mind but he does not necessarily have Canada's best interests in mind. Whoever becomes prime minister in the next few months and year will have their work cut out for them.

I hope democracy will be maintained and the voters will get that choice every few years. Now the US is a special case. Trump has said he wants to be a dictator, joking or not, the signs are there that he does mean it. We will see.

I repeat my earlier question: Trump has promised his MAGA working class base to reverse inflation, more manufacturing jobs, lower interest rates, better health care, higher wages, no more wars, elimination of the national debt, and more. If he really means is, great. Or was it all just empty election promises? Or will he instead choose an agenda more favourable to his new billionaire friends?

Just asking!

There is no agenda more favourable to the billionaire class than the Green New Deal which is currently about to be DOA.

[Bob Gillanders]

So, now I see Trump is posting fake maps where US includes all of Canada.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrPQ...%3ATheNational

We are told to laugh it off, he isn't really serious, just a negotiating tool.

But here is the danger. I think we can all agree there are many very gullible Americans. If their President tells them something (and yes, some of them believe Trump is already President), they will believe it, no matter how ridiculous. Propaganda matters. Is there anything we can do? Yes.

Summon the US ambassador to Parliament Hill. Demand a written apology for the fake map. Then we publish that apology and embarrass Trump.
If no apology, then send the ambassador packing.

If we just turn the other cheek and laugh, we'll soon have idiots crashing thru the border.

[Bob Armstrong]

Hey Bob G:

At least the USA'ers crashing "our" border could be classed, by Canada, as "undocumented migrants"?

Bob A

[Tom O'Donnell]

Agreed about gullible Americans. For example:

- Fine people on both sides = calling Neo Nazis fine people.
- Drink bleach to fight Covid.
- Biden is sharp as a tack.
- Steele dossier is real.
- Hunter laptop was Russian disinformation.
- Border patrol agents whipped criminal invaders.
- Russia paying bounties for US soldiers in Afghanistan.

And the grandaddy of them all: that January 6th was an attempt to overthrow the US government.

[Vlad Drkulec]

Agreed about gullible Americans. For example:

- Fine people on both sides = calling Neo Nazis fine people.
- Drink bleach to fight Covid.
- Biden is sharp as a tack.
- Steele dossier is real.
- Hunter laptop was Russian disinformation.
- Border patrol agents whipped criminal invaders.
- Russia paying bounties for US soldiers in Afghanistan.

And the grandaddy of them all: that January 6th was an attempt to overthrow the US government.

All of the examples above are good reason why no one trusts the mainstream media and elites any longer. They don't have your best interests at heart. They have an agenda.

Interesting that January 6th figured so prominently in the Democrat strategy against Trump. A recent poll indicated that just 5 percent of Americans were concerned with January 6th. That is all Americans including Democrats. The poll had a margin of error of 4 percent. So it is quite clear that the brain trust at the Democratic party really misread the room.

[Tom O'Donnell]

The first half hour or so they talk about the US government interfering with Facebook to censor people who were skeptical of the Covid vaccine. Also censoring mention of the Hunter Biden laptop. Zuckerberg flat out confirms this.

Bonus, at about 1h 28m mark: "Nothing turns you into a libertarian quicker than Jiu-Jitsu."

Joe Rogan Experience #2255 - Mark Zuckerberg - YouTube

[Bob Gillanders]

Agreed about gullible Americans. For example:

- Fine people on both sides = calling Neo Nazis fine people.
- Drink bleach to fight Covid.
- Biden is sharp as a tack.
- Steele dossier is real.
- Hunter laptop was Russian disinformation.
- Border patrol agents whipped criminal invaders.
- Russia paying bounties for US soldiers in Afghanistan.

And the grandaddy of them all: that January 6th was an attempt to overthrow the US government.

Good morning, Tom. Glad to see we agree on something. Americans are gullible. Of course, my list of examples would be different, but no surprise there. We are all potential victims of propaganda. Dilip likes to troll me that I am naïve and that I just listen to MSM, but nothing is further from the truth.

Maybe we can agree on something else?
This term MSM (mainstream media) is thrown about casually but never really defined. Can we agree that MSM includes CNN, MSNBC, and Fox?

[Bob Armstrong]

Hi Bob G:

I guess we can agree that The REAL News........ is......not..........MSM?

Bob A

[Tom O'Donnell]

Worst are government-funded outlets. Examples: NPR, CBC.

Next are corporate-funded outlets. Examples, MSNBC, Fox, CNN.

In my opinion, if you get the news from any one of these sources, you are getting mostly propaganda disguised as news.

[Peter McKillop]

Worst are government-funded outlets. Examples: NPR, CBC.

Next are corporate-funded outlets. Examples, MSNBC, Fox, CNN.

In my opinion, if you get the news from any one of these sources, you are getting mostly propaganda disguised as news.

How about some examples of news outlets that aren't government-funded or corporate-funded? NPR might be worth a double check (no pun). I think the large majority of their funding comes from non-government sources.

[Tom O'Donnell]

Some things you don't need any outlet. The Trump bleach example just required a person to see the press conference instead of the snippet. I posted before that it was stupid for Trump to start riffing on medical procedures involving disinfecting with light but he definitely did not tell anyone to drink bleach or inject bleach or whatever.

For the rest, it depends on what you are interested in. Different independent outlets have different foci. I don't care about Ukraine/Russia nor Israel/Palestine so I have zero opinion about either of those, for example.

General sources: Aaron Mate, Glenn Greenwald, Matt Taibbi to name three. Examples of centre-left reporters who have a high level of credibility, imo.

It really depends on your specific interests. The internet allows one to choose from a wide variety of sources. YouTube and Twitter have all sorts of people on the ground to report on specific events.