Helter-Skelter

[@realAzhyaAryola]

Have you guys checked out Britannica in place of Wikipedia?

[Anonymous]

Have you guys checked out Britannica in place of Wikipedia?

No, I haven't, but I will....thank you.

 ac_smile

[Anonymous]

Korea's democracy is emotional, but the Taiwanese have Koreans beat.



Fists – and pig guts – of fury



TAIPEI — Legislators from Taiwan's main opposition Kuomintang (KMT) party threw pig guts and exchanged punches with other lawmakers in parliament Friday as they tried to stop the premier taking questions, in a bitter dispute over easing U.S. pork imports.



President Tsai Ing-wen announced in August that the government would, from Jan. 1, allow imports of U.S. pork containing ractopamine, an additive that enhances leanness, but is banned in the European Union and China, as well as U.S. beef more than 30 months old.



While welcomed in Washington, and removing a roadblock to a long-sought-after U.S. free trade deal for Taiwan, the KMT strongly opposed the decision, tapping into public concern about food safety after several high-profile scandals in recent years.



Since the latest session of parliament began in mid-September, the KMT has protested against the pork decision by blocking Premier Su Tseng-chang from delivering regular reports and taking questions by occupying the podium where he speaks.



Fed up with the paralysis, the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) decided they were going to ensure Su could speak Friday, and formed a protective barrier around him as he made his way in, as KMT lawmakers blew whistles, held banners and sounded air horns. As Su began speaking, KMT lawmakers threw buckets of pig guts.

[Anonymous]

Trump Doubles Down on Need to Roll Back Legal Protections for Tech Companies



President Donald Trump this week renewed his calls to curtail legal protections for internet companies amid allegations of censorship and selective policing of user content.



"For purposes of National Security, Section 230 must be immediately terminated!!!" Trump wrote on Twitter.



The president has been vocal over the need to limit or repeal legal liability protections under Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act for companies that have engaged in censoring or political conduct. Big tech companies such as Facebook and Twitter have been repeatedly criticized for acting as publishers instead of online platforms for third-party content.



Section 230 largely exempts online platforms from liability for content posted by their users, although they can be held liable for content that violates anti-sex trafficking or intellectual property laws.



The law allows companies to block or screen content "in good faith" if they consider it "obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, excessively violent, harassing, or otherwise objectionable." The protections, however, weren't intended to apply to services that act more like publishers than online platforms, Attorney General William Barr said in a speech in May.



Earlier this month, lawmakers confronted Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg over allegations of censorship and suppression of information on their platforms during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.



In one exchange, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) questioned Dorsey over Twitter's labeling of posts related to the Nov. 3 election. Dorsey admitted that he was not an expert on voter fraud but defended his company's warning labels.



"We're simply linking to a broader conversation so that people have more information," Dorsey said.



"No you're not. You put up a page saying, quote, 'voter fraud of any kind is exceedingly rare in the United States.' That's not linking to a broader conversation, that's taking a disputed policy position, and you're a publisher when you're doing that. You're entitled to take a policy position, but you don't get to pretend you're not a publisher and get a special benefit under Section 230 as a result," Cruz replied.



Leading up to and after the election, Twitter ramped up its policing of posts by the president and other users over claims of voter fraud. In a Nov. 12 update, the social media company said it had applied labels, warnings, and other restrictions to about 300,000 posts from Oct. 27 to Nov. 11 for content that they say are "disputed and potentially misleading. This number represents about 0.2 percent of all U.S. election-related posts published in that time period.



Many of Trump's posts that argue the existence of voter fraud have been labeled with "This claim about election fraud is disputed." For example, Twitter labeled Trump's Nov. 22 post that stated: "In certain swing states, there were more votes than people who voted, and in big numbers. Does that not really matter? Stopping Poll Watchers, voting for unsuspecting people, fake ballots and so much more. Such egregious conduct. We will win!"



The Justice Department (DOJ) urged lawmakers to consider taking up proposals to update section 230 back in October when Twitter began suppressing a series of exposés by the New York Post about the alleged business dealings of Hunter Biden, son of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.



"The events of recent days have made reform even more urgent," Assistant Attorney General Stephen E. Boyd wrote in the letter (pdf) obtained by media outlets. "Today's large online platforms hold tremendous power over the information and views available to the American people. It is therefore critical that they be honest and transparent with users about how they use that power. And when they are not, it is critical that they can be held accountable."



The department had introduced a set of proposals that would curtail broad legal protections for online platforms in an effort to push tech companies to address illicit material while moderating content responsibly.



More recently, Twitter appeared to begin restricting content related to legal challenges against the 2020 general election results. Earlier this week, Twitter users began noticing that the platform prevented users from posting lawyer Sidney Powell's website defendingtherepublic.org, which includes links to her lawsuits filed in Michigan and Georgia, alleging significant election fraud. Twitter did not respond to The Epoch Times' request to comment at the time.



On Friday, the company appeared to have unblocked users from posting the link.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/trump-doubles-down-on-need-to-roll-back-legal-protections-for-tech-companies_3596257.html?utm_source=newsnoe&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=breaking-2020-11-28-3">https://www.theepochtimes.com/trump-dou ... 20-11-28-3">https://www.theepochtimes.com/trump-doubles-down-on-need-to-roll-back-legal-protections-for-tech-companies_3596257.html?utm_source=newsnoe&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=breaking-2020-11-28-3

[Anonymous]

Alberta spoiled it's citiizens, particulary it's civil service for decades. They were flush with resource cash and they spread the wealth around. No province has contributed more per capita ot this country than our second most Western province. But, if Ontario can become a have not province, so can Alberta.



The magnitude of this for all of Canada is enormous. We will be forced to face some hard choices in the future. I believe Erin O'Toole will be PM in 2023 and he will be hated for taking away all the toys that Trudeau bought on a maxxed out credit card.



By Licia Corbella of Sun News Media



Bad news travels fast

Prospect of Alberta becoming 'have-not' province bodes ill for rest of Canada



CALGARY — Alberta is on the verge of becoming a have-not province, and that has negative implications not just here but for all of Canada, a new report reveals.



In short, Canada's goose has officially stopped laying golden eggs and the whole country is going to feel the effect.



A new report, titled The Great Convergence: Measuring the Fiscal Capacity Gap Between 'Have' and 'HaveNot' Provinces, shows that if trend lines continue, Alberta could soon start receiving equalization payments after being the largest contributor to the program for decades.



You don't have to be an economist to know that doesn't bode well for all Canadians.



The Fraser Institute report, written by Ben Eisen and Milagros Palacios, is, as Eisen said during a telephone interview, "a bad news story.



"It's perfectly reasonable to read this report and feel unsettled — to worry," said Eisen.



The report measures the fiscal capacity of provinces — which, in short, means the ability of each province to raise its own revenues to pay for public services — and that capacity is at the core of the federal equalization program, which is designed to allow all provinces to provide high-quality public services regardless of their financial means.



"The collapse in Alberta's fiscal capacity has been remarkable and is likely to produce historic results," states the report, pointing out that since 2007-08, the gap has shrunk from 92.8 per cent to four per cent.



"We estimate that the resource revenue collapse this fiscal year 2020-21 will essentially complete the process of Alberta's fiscal capacity convergence with the rest of Canada. We estimate per-person fiscal capacity in Alberta for 2020-21 will be $9,189. This is almost identical to the per-person fiscal capacity in the rest of Canada ($8,832)."



That means for the first time in 53 years, Alberta will be bumped out of top spot.



"We estimate that Alberta will lose its spot as having the highest per capita fiscal capacity in Canada for the first time since the modern notion of fiscal capacity was developed in 1967," states the report, which predicts that British Columbia will take Alberta's place, followed by Saskatchewan, with Alberta falling into third place.



"Alberta's deficit has been over $6 billion every year since 2015, while multiple analyses show that the province's current policy bundle of low taxes and high spending is fiscally unsustainable given reasonable assumptions about future demographic and economic conditions."



[size=150]Alberta's per capita program spending is higher than other provinces and that's going to have to change, says University of Calgary economics professor, Ron Kneebone.

[/size]

He points out that Alberta's oil and gas industry decline led to many high-paying jobs disappearing, which has damaged many other sectors of the economy since those workers are no longer spending as much money.



"It's like a snowballing effect. As the oil and gas industry slows, and continues to shrink even further, that snowball is going to grow larger and larger, wiping out much of our fiscal capacity," says Kneebone.



"The government is going to have to make some really hard decisions ... it's tough to talk about these things during a pandemic, but we continue to have a healthcare sector that is eating up 50 per cent of tax revenue," Kneebone says, and if we don't get that under control, less and less money will be available for other vital programs like education. Those are really tough decisions."



[size=150]As Alberta Finance Minister Travis Toews said last year, "We can no longer spend like we're the rich kids on the block because, quite frankly, we're not anymore." [/size]This report proves that. Indeed, Premier Jason Kenney's unpopular changes to physician compensation during the COVID19 pandemic appear less dissonant now, though no more popular.



Other oil-producing provinces — Saskatchewan and Newfoundland and Labrador — will also likely face additional fiscal pressures due to the decline in oil and gas prices.



"If you told me it was gonna happen I wouldn't have believed you," said Eisen. "Where Alberta has gone from having fiscal capacity that was about twice as high per person as the rest of the country to having only a four per cent advantage over the rest of the country, it's just a huge fundamental change."



In 2007-08, Alberta had the "highest fiscal capacity in Canada ($16,743) — a per-person fiscal capacity that was nearly three times that of the lowest province, P.E.I. ($5,744), states the report.



"The possibility of Alberta becoming an equalization recipient province in the medium term — which would have been unthinkable five or 10 years ago — now looms as an entirely plausible future scenario."



What will this mean? Currently, five provinces benefit from equalization — Quebec, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and P.E.I.



"In all of these provinces, equalization represents a significant share of revenue. In 2018-19, this share ranged from a low of 10.2 per cent of all revenue in Quebec to 19.3 per cent in New Brunswick.



"The great convergence could therefore have significant implications for the size of equalization grants to these provinces," as they would have to share more of the equalization pie.



This happened in the late 2000s and early 2010s when Ontario became eligible for equalization payments for 10 consecutive years.



"Per-person payments to the province were low, but because of the size of the province, Ontario briefly became the second-largest recipient of equalization grants in Canada in nominal dollars, behind only Quebec," says the report.



The report adds that what once seemed "far-fetched" is now possible — all 10 provinces becoming havenot provinces under the equalization formula.



Meanwhile, the federal government released its fiscal update this week announcing a $381.6-billion deficit, with plans of spending $100 billion in extra tax dollars without any specific goals. Pity our young people who will be saddled with these debts.



The great fiscal reckoning facing this country has gotten much worse because Canada's goose has stopped laying golden eggs, not just because of low oil prices but because of federal government policies and decisions that have sickened the goose.

[Anonymous]

First of all, I want Alberta to fail, and it's failing. I want Canada to fail and it is failing.



Argentina is a country blessed with great mineral wealth and it used to have among the highest living standards in the world post WW2. Bad policy combine with unsustainable spending turned it into an economic basket case. That almost happened to Canada in the early eighties under Pierre Trudeau. It took fifteen years and two governments, but sanity returned to this country.



It's deja vu. Even more unsustainable spending that 40 years ago, even more disastrous resource policy than 4 decades ago. And the opposition parties, namely the NDP, want an even faster race to the bottom. The Tories who are the government in waiting are also pro Paris accord, are offering third world Canada lite. They don't want to reverse the suicidal policies of the current federal government like Chretien/Martin did in the 90's. The current federal Tories have no balls.



This is a very wealthy nation, blessed with amazing natural resource wealth. The wealth for most people is tied up in their homes. Eventually our locked-n resource wealth will translate into collapsed real estate and Canadians will be as broke as their provincial and federal governments, but with higher tax bills. Canada needs a decade or two in the economic penalty box before sanity returns. We have far less rope to hang ourselves this time around, so it's coming.



My husband and I have portable skills and we will leave Canada as expatriates, probably Singapore within a decade. I feel bad for Canadians who will know what the Greeks felt. However, it's necessary to get your collective heads out of the UN controlled unicorn clouds. Grow up Canadians.

[Anonymous]

First of all, I want Alberta to fail, and it's failing. I want Canada to fail and it is failing.



Argentina is a country blessed with great mineral wealth and it used to have among the highest living standards in the world post WW2. Bad policy combine with unsustainable spending turned it into an economic basket case. That almost happened to Canada in the early eighties under Pierre Trudeau. It took fifteen years and two governments, but sanity returned to this country.



It's deja vu. Even more unsustainable spending that 40 years ago, even more disastrous resource policy than 4 decades ago. And the opposition parties, namely the NDP, want an even faster race to the bottom. The Tories who are the government in waiting are also pro Paris accord, are offering third world Canada lite. They don't want to reverse the suicidal policies of the current federal government like Chretien/Martin did in the 90's. The current federal Tories have no balls.



This is a very wealthy nation, blessed with amazing natural resource wealth. The wealth for most people is tied up in their homes. Eventually our locked-n resource wealth will translate into collapsed real estate and Canadians will be as broke as their provincial and federal governments, but with higher tax bills. Canada needs a decade or two in the economic penalty box before sanity returns. We have far less rope to hang ourselves this time around, so it's coming.



My husband and I have portable skills and we will leave Canada as expatriates, probably Singapore within a decade. I feel bad for Canadians who will know what the Greeks felt. However, it's necessary to get your collective heads out of the UN controlled unicorn clouds. Grow up Canadians.

Little Ms Sunshine.

[Anonymous]

First of all, I want Alberta to fail, and it's failing. I want Canada to fail and it is failing.



Argentina is a country blessed with great mineral wealth and it used to have among the highest living standards in the world post WW2. Bad policy combine with unsustainable spending turned it into an economic basket case. That almost happened to Canada in the early eighties under Pierre Trudeau. It took fifteen years and two governments, but sanity returned to this country.



It's deja vu. Even more unsustainable spending that 40 years ago, even more disastrous resource policy than 4 decades ago. And the opposition parties, namely the NDP, want an even faster race to the bottom. The Tories who are the government in waiting are also pro Paris accord, are offering third world Canada lite. They don't want to reverse the suicidal policies of the current federal government like Chretien/Martin did in the 90's. The current federal Tories have no balls.



This is a very wealthy nation, blessed with amazing natural resource wealth. The wealth for most people is tied up in their homes. Eventually our locked-n resource wealth will translate into collapsed real estate and Canadians will be as broke as their provincial and federal governments, but with higher tax bills. Canada needs a decade or two in the economic penalty box before sanity returns. We have far less rope to hang ourselves this time around, so it's coming.



My husband and I have portable skills and we will leave Canada as expatriates, probably Singapore within a decade. I feel bad for Canadians who will know what the Greeks felt. However, it's necessary to get your collective heads out of the UN controlled unicorn clouds. Grow up Canadians.

My husband has the skills to go abroad, but I don't..



We'll have to make the best of it.

[Anonymous]

There is no need for the CBC at all anymore. Sell it and end all media subsidies.



From Sun News Media



CBC's growing irrelevancy

Mother Corp little more than the propaganda arm of the Trudeau Liberals



It's time to wind down the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.



My preference would be if the federal government axed the whole thing — English and French services, radio and TV.



No one is watching, especially English television. And the corporation isn't even making much of an effort to provide local news coverage any longer.



Funded by taxpayers



So what's the point of forcing taxpayers to pump $1.3 billion annually into a broadcaster with ratings that are falling like a stone?



Mother Corp used to boast it was "the way Canadians speak to one another." No doubt when CBC staff get together on Zoom for strategy meetings, they still repeat such myths.



But with under half a million viewers for most of its live news and public affairs programs, the CBC is at best how less than 2% of Canadians speak to each other.



You can't be a vital conduit in the national conversation if no one is listening or watching.



In English Canada, the CBC has increasingly become a network that caters to very narrow tastes and slanted world views.



Last winter, when the Corporation announced it was cancelling local, dinnertime newscasts in favour of a single, consolidated, national cast — a move executives referred to as "pooling resources" — its 27 stations nationwide had a combined suppertime audience of less than 320,000.



That's an average of fewer than 12,000 viewers per city for the CBC's version of local news.



Local Global and CTV affiliates routinely pull in 125,000 to 250,000 viewers per city.



The king is CFTO, CTV's Toronto station, which has nearly a million and a half viewers for its 6 p.m. news program.



The CBC National newscast in the late evenings isn't much better.



Until COVID turned us all into news junkies, it was not unheard of for the National to have only around 450,000 tuned in. The national news on CTV routinely brought in roughly three times that many. During the pandemic, CBC National has climbed to 600,000 viewers many nights. Still, CTV has climbed, too, to 1.7 million. Speaking in Parliament this week, Quebec Sen. Leo Housakos said, "The role of government is to fill voids, not to take taxpayers' money and put it into make-work projects that clearly, when you look at the ratings and the ad revenue, Canadian taxpayers and the Canadian public don't take to."



Sen. Marc Gold, the government representative in the Senate, promised he would raise Housakos' concerns with the government.



But you know that's going nowhere.



So long as the CBC faithfully performs its duty as the propaganda arm of the Liberal Party of Canada, particularly during elections, the Trudeau government will never review the corporation's mandate nor trim its $1.3-billion annual taxpayer subsidy.



Budget boost



Indeed, the Trudeau government has increased the CBC's budget by more than $150 million since coming to office in 2015 – not quite 15% — even as ratings have continued to plummet.



Between elections, the CBC occasionally does some fine work holding the Trudeau government to account. The WE Charity scandal and the prime minister's many incidents of blackface are fine examples.



But the instant the writs are dropped, CBC types seem to link arms around their man. Scandal coverage then disappears until the Liberals are safely back in office.



With more than 70 satellite radio music channels available in Canada, plus a half-dozen major music- streaming platforms, over 40 Canadian cable channels and several video streaming services such as Amazon and Prime, it's hard to imagine a taste or niche that isn't being served by the private sector.



If Canada ever needed the CBC, it no longer does.



It's true we at Postmedia accept subsidies, too — about $ 8 to $ 10 million a year.



I'd get rid of those, as well.

[Anonymous]

A malaria vaccine is entering it's final human trial.

[Anonymous]

There is no need for the CBC at all anymore. Sell it and end all media subsidies.



From Sun News Media



CBC's growing irrelevancy

Mother Corp little more than the propaganda arm of the Trudeau Liberals



It's time to wind down the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.



My preference would be if the federal government axed the whole thing — English and French services, radio and TV.



No one is watching, especially English television. And the corporation isn't even making much of an effort to provide local news coverage any longer.



Funded by taxpayers



So what's the point of forcing taxpayers to pump $1.3 billion annually into a broadcaster with ratings that are falling like a stone?



Mother Corp used to boast it was "the way Canadians speak to one another." No doubt when CBC staff get together on Zoom for strategy meetings, they still repeat such myths.



But with under half a million viewers for most of its live news and public affairs programs, the CBC is at best how less than 2% of Canadians speak to each other.



You can't be a vital conduit in the national conversation if no one is listening or watching.



In English Canada, the CBC has increasingly become a network that caters to very narrow tastes and slanted world views.



Last winter, when the Corporation announced it was cancelling local, dinnertime newscasts in favour of a single, consolidated, national cast — a move executives referred to as "pooling resources" — its 27 stations nationwide had a combined suppertime audience of less than 320,000.



That's an average of fewer than 12,000 viewers per city for the CBC's version of local news.



Local Global and CTV affiliates routinely pull in 125,000 to 250,000 viewers per city.



The king is CFTO, CTV's Toronto station, which has nearly a million and a half viewers for its 6 p.m. news program.



The CBC National newscast in the late evenings isn't much better.



Until COVID turned us all into news junkies, it was not unheard of for the National to have only around 450,000 tuned in. The national news on CTV routinely brought in roughly three times that many. During the pandemic, CBC National has climbed to 600,000 viewers many nights. Still, CTV has climbed, too, to 1.7 million. Speaking in Parliament this week, Quebec Sen. Leo Housakos said, "The role of government is to fill voids, not to take taxpayers' money and put it into make-work projects that clearly, when you look at the ratings and the ad revenue, Canadian taxpayers and the Canadian public don't take to."



Sen. Marc Gold, the government representative in the Senate, promised he would raise Housakos' concerns with the government.



But you know that's going nowhere.



So long as the CBC faithfully performs its duty as the propaganda arm of the Liberal Party of Canada, particularly during elections, the Trudeau government will never review the corporation's mandate nor trim its $1.3-billion annual taxpayer subsidy.



Budget boost



Indeed, the Trudeau government has increased the CBC's budget by more than $150 million since coming to office in 2015 – not quite 15% — even as ratings have continued to plummet.



Between elections, the CBC occasionally does some fine work holding the Trudeau government to account. The WE Charity scandal and the prime minister's many incidents of blackface are fine examples.



But the instant the writs are dropped, CBC types seem to link arms around their man. Scandal coverage then disappears until the Liberals are safely back in office.



With more than 70 satellite radio music channels available in Canada, plus a half-dozen major music- streaming platforms, over 40 Canadian cable channels and several video streaming services such as Amazon and Prime, it's hard to imagine a taste or niche that isn't being served by the private sector.



If Canada ever needed the CBC, it no longer does.



It's true we at Postmedia accept subsidies, too — about $ 8 to $ 10 million a year.



I'd get rid of those, as well.

CBC has garbage programming.

[Odinson]

I was thinking of buying a new phone.



But this phone works perfectly well.





What do you do with your old phone?

[Anonymous]

I was thinking of buying a new phone.



But this phone works perfectly well.





What do you do with your old phone?

Throw it out, take it to a recycling depot. What else would you do with an old phone.

[@realAzhyaAryola]

I was thinking of buying a new phone.



But this phone works perfectly well.





What do you do with your old phone?

Throw it out, take it to a recycling depot. What else would you do with an old phone.

Unfortunately, we live in a world of the Have and the Have Nots. Before you toss it, please search online for charitable organizations in your area that will accept your old phone. There are people who will be able to use it. Our trash is another man's treasure, sad but true.

[@realAzhyaAryola]

Does everyone here believe that China is our greatest threat?