Notices by M. Grégoire (mpjgregoire@mastodon.club), page 44

@ink_slinger Sometimes states and their organs *are* involved in terrorism. Libya, for instance, back in the 1980s, or Pakistan. I have no specific opinion about the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, though certainly Iran does support Hizbollah.

What this really shows is that the US is using its economic power and other influence to squeeze Iran. Might end up in war, might not. Hostility is mutual -- didn't Iran capture British sailors a few years ago?

@wion I've read that (US) polls show people make less of an idol of democracy these days, particularly Millennials.

FWIW, I believe it's healthy to see the flaws of different systems, as well as their virtues. And I also support the Westminster system, though not all the practices we have on Canada.

@wion Dr. Suzuki proposes government by random citizens, like juries or ancient Athens. What's the word for that system of government?

@lpmanchettes L'état du Québec est un créature de la loi canadienne (pas de la loi du gouvernement fédéral, bien-sûr) et ses limites et pouvoirs sont définis par cette loi.

Si on ne parle pas de la loi, mais des droits moraux, les autochtones ont un meilleur titre au grand nord que les personnes habitant environ le St-Laurent.

Dans un cas de sécession, le Québec serait divisible.

#qcpol

@keithzg The Liberals have fallen in the polls, and PM Trudeau has a net negative approval rating is at -18%. But people don't laugh when he claims he did nothing wrong; he's muddied the water about whether interfering in a prosecution is legitimate.

#canpol

"No, the real scandal is the determined — and, it would appear, largely successful — campaign on the part of the prime minister and his officials to normalize their conduct: as if monkeying around with criminal prosecutions was all part of the usual give and take of cabinet government[...]"

Andrew Coyne | National Post
https://nationalpost.com/opinion/andrew-coyne-the-real-scandal-in-the-lavalin-affair-is-trudeaus-attempts-to-pretend-its-not-a-scandal

#canpol

@thor @fribbledom
"The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity."
-- W.B. Yeats

The intellectual history is intriguing, but overall this sort of thing lowers my confidence in the possibility of meaningful communication. How can we build anything complicated together when the tools are squirming and changing in our hands?

Maybe the only language of truth is mathematics.

#Babel

"[S]pectators are left to simply marvel at the awesomely protean quality of human language, which will always include terms like neoliberal whose definition will change so much over time that it will be difficult to pinpoint what single concept they refer to at all."

#JohnMcWhorter #TheAtlantic

When People Were Proud to Call Themselves ‘Neoliberal’ - The Atlantic
https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/05/history-of-neoliberal-meaning/528276/

#neoliberal
#uspol