That itself is an indictment on the US.

Also, that is less than half of those in military service. Many of them, regardless of their income level, get radicalized towards white nationalism due to the culture of the institution.

Don’t get me wrong there are good people that have served and I don’t doubt that the US government has taken advantage of their desperation.

But normalization of a culture that portrays a black colleague as a slave or downplays sexual assualt is unacceptable in my view (regardless of tax bracket).

You have to be below a subaverage intelligence level to join, not dissimilar to law enforcement, CBP or ICE so this is not at all surprising.

Wait, were we thinking the capitalist engine runs on truth?

When your only incentive is profit, everything becomes a means to that end, unless you are somehow held accountable by a check or balance in the system.

American Eagle would claim Canadian roots now if they thought they could get away with it.

Republicans certainly have no intention of meaningfully addressing the deficit and they never have. Their appetite to drive the deficit up to fund tax cuts for the rich has only grown since Reagan.

The fact that this was blocked is mildly surprising at best. It means very little when we know all they’re looking for is to cut funding for key public services even further.

The US’ credit rating has already been dropped from triple A with the deficit being cited as a key reason.

The goal is to cut funding and services as fast as possible to accelerate the process of returning to feudalistic times. One where you and I fight over ‘limited’ resources due to artificial scarcity while they live lavishly in their palaces.

Definitely true for both and the natural consequence of hyperindividualism. In the case of boys, it seems that a few too many are turning to the manosphere for mentorship which is particularly concerning.

Does it bother him when you don’t respond? I don’t know this boys particular circumstances but Western culture has a mentorship crisis when it comes to young boys and men, generally speaking.

You shouldn’t have to do anything that makes you uncomfortable but, as an introvert myself, I have come to learn that kinship sometimes means doing your own thing in the presence of others. This is really important to children since they want to feel like they’re part of something bigger.

If he’s not expecting a response to everything and you’re OK with just being together I’d advocate for that. You may find it to be healthy for both of you. Depends on your specific circumstances though.

He can fly it from his library. At least the taxpayer won’t be on the hook for the maintenance costs at the point (I hope?).

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeremybogaisky/2025/05/14/qatar-747-trump/

The royals have failed to sell the plane, which was put on the market in 2020, according to an archived listing. Giving it away could save Qatar’s rulers a big chunk of change on maintenance and storage costs, aviation experts told Forbes. Making Trump happy would be an added bonus.

When the plane was bought in 2012, its list price was $367 million, not including the interior, which took three years to complete and likely cost tens of millions of dollars.

The 2020 sales brochure noted that the plane was due for a landing gear overhaul in 2024 and a 12-year check in 2027. A check in which the airplane and engines are taken apart, typically carried out every six to 12 years, can take months to complete and cost millions of dollars.

The plane would need to be stripped down and swept for bugs. Then, unless the administration is willing to accept the risks of lighter security, it would need to be built up to the Air Force’s requirements to serve as an airborne command center, with encrypted communications systems, shielding to protect the electronics from the effects of a nuclear blast and defenses against missiles.

It would take at least five years starting again from scratch, Aboulafia estimates, unless security requirements were relaxed.

Briefly, Qatar has been trying to offload this plane since 2020 but the market is extremely illiquid since its a massive gas guzzler and everyone is moving towards smaller, leaner air travel. Boeing has a couple planes intended to be for Air Force One in the pipeline but Trump is frustrated that they will be delayed to 2028. Cue Qatar seeing the opportunity curry favor with Trump by giving away their outdated junk (which they can’t find a buyer for) which costs millions in storage and maintenance fees.

Reddit was always like this.

Now they’ve made ads indistinguishable from posts.

The discourse is generally low quality, divisive and likely bot driven.

Every woman I know has felt pressured to look a certain way by our dominant capitalistic world view. With the emergence of social media and influencer culture, men are starting to feel this pressure affect them too.

Its very hard to make someone stop believing that something objectively apparent doesn’t matter. Its less about whether it matters to you and more about how she feels others perceive what she perceives to be a flaw.

Telling her that it doesn’t matter to you is totally fair. Telling her it doesn’t matter to anyone would not be entirely true - yes, our culture can be that superficial.

There are, after all, entire industries that count on us to impart such insecurity onto our daughters so that they spend on beauty products their whole lives and keep that revenue engine churning.

My suggestion would be to reassure her that it doesn’t matter to you but to also see if you can have a broader conversation on the social pressures she has experienced related to her appearance and how it has impacted her life. You may have had similar experiences to share. This will brinf you closer, remembering that true confidence comes from strong relationships built on a foundation of mutual trust.

Off all people he should know that the UK is in ass-kiss damage control mode since Brexit. He was literally one of the people they called to fix it.

He seems to have more faith in the UK holding its ground morally than King Charles or Kier Starmer does.

AOC and Sanders are legit. I agree with you on establishment democrats though.

Absolute trash tier journalism that does not even try to explain why use of agencies for staffing in both the US and Canadian hospitals has increased.

Hospitals offer an absolutely terrible compensation package to nurses and even doctors in some cases (for hours worked) and have generally become profoundly dysfunctional.

For many nurses, pay was capped or went down during COVID (until a recent pay increase due to backlash in Ontario) and the reality of working as hospital staff was ‘hey sorry ____ called sick can you take care of double the patients with no increase in compensation while bringing immense potential harm to your patients and causing you incredible moral and physical burn out?’

So people went to agencies that pay better but most importantly are flexible. You can certainly get a crap assignment while being an agency worker but your agreement may just be a few weeks and you can leave and choose to never return if an institution is mismanaged.

As a healthcare worker, hitching your wagon to one horse (or hospital) is a risky proposition these days since so many are mismanaged and underfunded. I’d rather have the flexibility to jump ship than stay somewhere only to become miserable and suicidal (which many healthcare workers struggle with)

In short, agencies are a symptom of a bigger problem. You can ban them (lol) but good luck finding people to take care of patients if you do.

I would take it a step further with indigineous teachings that those with great power use it for the greater good, do not dismiss the central role of women in communities and respects the sanctity of all that is living, human and non-human.

To me, that is a good person and I believe that every person has the potential to be good.

Complex geopolitics at play.

Both Alberta and Saskatchewan hold key natural resources (oil and potash).

Both are essentially land locked and are unsustainable as soverign nations being surrounded by the US and Canada.

If either seceded from Canada, the most likely outcome is annexation by or willingly joining the US, which would be problematic for Canadian sovereignty as a whole.

I’m all for Alberta’s self determination but Canada cannot and will not allow allow this to happen.

If Albertans don’t like that, I fully support them seeking asylum / refugee status in the US.

Recent polling by Angus Reid shows that major opposition from First Nations (as secession violates their treaty rights) either would not effect Albertans/Saskatchewanians opinion on leaving or would make them more likely to want to leave

https://angusreid.org/referendum-alberta-saskatchewan-smith-moe/

America has been on that path for sometime. It’s voting public has been unstable (in terms of lacking the efficacy to choose a stable and reliable government) for nearly a decade now.

The one and only time I’ve done consulting for a pharmaceutical company, I was presented with an AI generated ad for a drug. They kept asking what I liked about the image and the only acceptable response was how are you all finding ways to make medicine more impersonable than it already is

Exclusionary and traditionalist politics are gaining steam in Australia as they are in the rest of the Western world. This election was no doubt a good outcome but, just like in Canada and the US, support for conservatism and far right politics is growing among young Australian men. This will become problematic in the next 10 to 15 years as historically this demographic inherits control of the institutions.