OK, here’s a start: Leaked information on Johnson Administration negotiations in Vietnam in 1968 (before Nixon became president), complicit in genocide in Bangladesh in 1971, intentional targeting of millions of civilians in Cambodia and Laos, assisting Pinochet in overthrow of Chile’s elected government, encouraged Kurds to rebel in Iraq in '75 then threw them under the bus, suppressed warnings about Turkish invasion of Cyprus. Etc.
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Thank you.
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As I have posted before, there are people (including me) who believe Bernie would be a excellent VP choice. You can’t make the case about Trumps taxes–if Bernie has only released one year of his returns.
What is your country of location?
Okay, I can see your point there.
I’m not a lumberjack or a fur trader
And I don’t live in an igloo, or eat blubber, or own a dogsled.
And I don’t know Jimmy, or Sally, or Suzie from Canada,
Although I’m certain they’re really, really nice.
I have a Prime Minister, not a President.
I speak English and (un petit peu de) French, not American,
And I pronounce it “about,” not “a boot.”
I can proudly sew my country’s flag on my backpack.
I believe in peacekeeping, not policing, diversity, not assimilation, and that the beaver is a truly proud and noble animal.
A toque is a hat, a Chesterfield is a couch, and it is pronounced “zed” — not “zee,” “ZED!”
Canada is the world’s second largest landmass,
The First Nation of Hockey
And the best part of North America.
My name is Nim, and I AM CANADIAN!
Thank you.
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Isn’t the Queen more equivalent to the American role of President rather than the Prime Minister?
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Depends on what you’re talking about.
Technically, yes, the Queen could veto a bill or command our armed forces, but she wouldn’t - she has appointed a Governor General to do that.
So, the Governor General acts as Canada’s Head of State, and signs all of the federal bills into law, and is technically the leader of the armed forces.
Of course, if the Governor General decided to exercise any of this power against the will of the elected government, we’d probably, very quickly, have a new Constitution that would remove his (and the Queen’s) ability to do so, so practically, the PM’s in charge.
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I wonder if you’d know. Everyone thought the Queen’s role in the UK was largely ceremonial until a couple years ago under court order, an internal Whitehall pamphlet showed that she and Charles had withheld consent on quite a few bills including one to declare war - a power everyone assumed lay with the Prime Minister.
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I forget that many/most Boingers are quite a bit younger than I am. People of my generation lived with Kissinger for years, so don’t need any books to tell us he is an evil rat bastard, we know it from daily exposure. Even Nixon supporters while Nixon was president would agree with this. Some of the aspects of his perfidity, such as his being the source of the leak from the Johnson bombing decision (he was on the negotiating team), and therefore arguably guilty of treason, wasn’t known until more recently (part of it came out in Nixon’s memoirs, part later).
Clinton’s relationship with him is utterly mysterious to me.
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A lot of Star Wars (1977) was metaphor for what was going on with America in the '60s and '70s. Not because George Lucas was trying to make satire, but just because using things from the real world is easier than making stuff up out of nothing.
For example, the bartender telling the droids, “We don’t serve your kind here.”
And for example, Darth Vader. Was Henry Kissinger. Right down to the creepy deep voice. “And now, princess, we will discuss the location of your hidden rebel base!” was a reference to the shady shit that Kissinger was presumed to be doing in Vietnam when he was over there.
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You can’t make the case about Trump’s taxes if his returns are hiding out with your Goldman-Sachs transcripts.
You can’t make the case about Trump’s lying if you’ve been caught in howlers yourself, such as claiming your daughter was at ground zero during 9-11.
You can’t make the case about Trump’s choice in allies if you continue to praise Kissinger and Reagan.
You can’t make the case that Trump is a monster if you socialize with him.
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Slightly. So far.
I am really glad I didn’t vote for her now, since she is now saying “Bill will fix the economy”.
A person isn’t a plan. And Bill isn’t the Big Dog he once was.
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Clinton’s relationship with him [Kissenger] is utterly mysterious to me.
Because the last of the smoke-filled-rooms.
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Isn’t the Queen more equivalent to the American role of President rather than the Prime Minister?
More like Vice President.
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You believe a lot of off the wall things. How are those pylons treating ya?
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Well, the queen doesn’t directly involve herself in Canada’s affairs but acts through the Governor General - a figurehead appointed by the queen (on advice of the Prime Minister - that is, the Prime Ministry actually chooses them). So you have a person who is technically a representative of the crown who could in theory veto bills (refuse to give them “royal assent”) but they were chosen by Canadians not by the queen. Some legal scholars argue that royal assent can’t even really be withheld. And if it ever was withheld they wouldn’t remain the governor general for long.
The governor general, at best, has the power to delay the passage of a bill for several months while creating a massive public to-do about it and ending their own career. I actually kind of like the system - someone has a veto, but it won’t last long, and they have to be really sure they want to do it.
But that’s just one power of the president. The president is the head of the executive branch of government, as is the prime minister. I have made the president/queen comparison myself, but in reality the whole head-of-state, sign-trade-agreements, appoint-a-cabinet stuff is all prime minister work just like it is president work.
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Semper Fidelis Tyrannosaurus!
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Oh, and other people in the government were vaguely intolerant of his religion!
I forgot about that part.
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Very creative post!
Participating in dialogue with people from diverse ethnic backgrounds and countries is agreeable, interesting and informative.
Diversity Rocks!
Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton will be the democratic presidential nominee, the political math is insurmountable, unavoidable and inevitable for Bernie Sanders.
However, Vice-President Joe Biden is calling for calm and patience, regarding letting the democratic presidential nomination process play itself out.
The vice president also dismissed concerns that Sanders’ attitude has contributed to the disruptive behavior of his supporters, although he urged the Vermont senator to do more to address outbursts like the one from Sanders backers this past weekend at the Nevada Democratic convention.
“Bernie Sanders is a good guy. Let Bernie run the race. There’s nothing wrong with that,” he said.
