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That applies to the Soviet Union as far back as approximately the end of WW II. More of the same, which is why I probably come across as insufficiently excited about these things. There were probably many more people sympathetic in a multitude of ways more directly to the USSR in the early...

Depends. Any region of Canada that allowed itself to depend on and exploit the structure of EI is a relative "failure", and it's a cultural problem if that became a mode of thinking for any sizeable fraction of the residents. Provinces make their own choices about the entitlements and the...

Sure. In a few more years there will be a presidential election, and Trump will not be a candidate let alone the victor. If the Democrats manage to nominate someone sober (who could probably not be any of the candidates currently amusing the prediction markets), they will most likely win...

I don't believe all nations do. I believe there are a lot of cultural impediments. I believe a lot of the people who get into high positions are driven by ideologies that are sub-optimal, and are (even worse) driven by an impulse to impose their sub-optimal ideologies on others. Lots of...

To paraphrase Churchill, the USA does capitalism imperfectly, but not as imperfectly as pretty much everyone else. The closest countries to the ideal have a lot of advantages. Describing "this administration" as somehow being more cozy than its predecessors is an amusing idea.

Everything up to this point is just decoration, because after all the excuse-making we are left with... ...with or without another parting shot at exhortations to do better using the USA as a milestone - a self-crippling exercise, because that's the benchmark to aim for. We have to do better...

What they're doing is sometimes called "crony capitalism", but it isn't capitalism. Borrowing the word doesn't change the fact that it's something else which, with its flaws, is not evidence to support some kind of denunciation of capitalism.

Underpay and overpay are meaningless words without a cost measure, and the only mechanism we have for reliably measuring cost in a way that favours efficient allocation of resources is market pricing. Without putting all employees in the same market pricing situation, we almost can't know which...

A country really depends on its top 10% of achievers (it might only be about 5%) to keep it moving forward. Canada has one problem for being next door to the USA and having to compete with it, and then another kind of problem with the tranche of Canadians who think the problem can be ignored.

This is one of the reasons Canada fails. Misplaced arrogance about some kind of imagined superiorities.

See above. Fascism or any other kind of authoritarianism is not descending on the USA; almost all the bickering is at root a matter of policy choices, particularly policy changes that cut off government teats. Trump's administration has overturned a lot of rice bowls.

It matters. The groups receiving foreign money probably don't care as much as those not receiving foreign money. I'm not really sure about how the anti-American left - the people who basically go on record about what a rotten country they think the USA is, and how they want to tear parts of it...

And, apparently, failed. The country is still there, in one piece. So the next question is, who is funding the DSA?

Democrats poll well in TX senate race and fall short. Film at 11.

Trade and the future of CUSMA isn't just in Trump's hands. Some people still think there's too much latitude for Chinese products to find their way into goods manufactured/assembled in Canada and Mexico and consequently enter the US enjoying the advantages of the trade deal. Their objections...

The point is that if Trump thinks a trade balance has a win side ("surplus") and a loss side ("deficit"), he is taking the wrong position. Countries with trade deficits (US trade surplus) are the ones he should be going after, because being on the "deficit" side is theoretically the place to be.

If Australia had a trade deficit, it would be in a position of advantage, provided also that it were possible to treat bilateral trade deficits as meaningful in a trading world (it is not really possible). One way or another, goods and services have to move bidirectionally in order to satisfy...

Such bellicose sentiments. I suppose there's an easy fix for Russia - enter a partnership with Iran to threaten Hormuz traffic.

The point is that the weaknesses of the elected politicians are not a flaw of the professional armed services or their equipment and materiel.

The less-than-exquisite arsenal still counts. There's no rule or provision for confining the US to exquisite-systems-only in a confrontation.