Julie 🇫🇮🇪🇺🏳️‍⚧️

Newt Gingrich is still kicking around. He doesn't seem to have any qualms about Trump.

When Trump is gone, Johnson will say he's never even heard of him

And when you get down on the local level, it's pretty much a free-for-all and the parties are eager to recruit any ol' randos to run for election (2/2)

Canada seems to have the worst of both worlds. In Finland we have a multi-party system and party discipline, but it's not nearly as strict as Canada. The party leaders try to keep everyone in line, but dissent still happens and they even explicitly allow free votes on some issues (1/2)

Being an American means being able to buy 37 pencils and 37 dolls. Never back down.

You're thinking of the Schengen area. What I proposed is basically how Ireland and Cyprus work. They're part of the EU, but not the Schengen area. So to get into them you have to go through border checks, but EU citizens can live, work, study, retire, vote in local elections there, etc.

You could have border checks and still allow Americans and Canadians to live across the border without a visa

I see the Vancouver police don't consider it an act of terrorism. I assume there's no apparent motive then? Just a lone twisted individual

Jreg's worst nightmare

"Wow, what a soulless materialist... all you care about is cheap goods!"

Former Ben Shapiro protégé

By the mid 19th century American judges had become so incredibly corrupt that judicial elections were introduced in many states. And they did work for a while in choosing better judges. But then political parties realized they could game that system as well.

*golden shower

You could say it's similar for Canada. It's clear that if you're voting Liberal this year, you're voting Mark Carney for PM.

Maybe not a "pure" 2-party system but there have only been Liberal and Conservative governments and Canada doesn't do coalitions.

You can think it's good or bad, but I was just talking about how it's seen in practice. Technically the EC chooses the 🇺🇸 pres, but no-one sees it like that.

Because 🇨🇦 has a 2-party system and a powerful PM, the leaders are more important than in 🇪🇺 where we have multi-party systems and weaker PMs.

That's not really "choosing the Prime Minister" though. That's more like "we don't like you, so we're having a new election".

Also, I wouldn't compare Canadian leader-centric democracy to European more party-centric democracy because the political systems and cultures are different.

I would pay for a book full of those!

"Now let's set the record straight. There's no argument over the choice between peace and war, but there's only one guaranteed way you can have peace—and you can have it in the next second—surrender."

– Ronald Reagan

Love the travel videos no matter where you go!

Well 'Bulwark' is a part of a ship, so there's at least that

NL is the abbreviation for the Netherlands. And you put the pictures / the place names the wrong way around.

Just admit you needed an excuse to post a foot pic

Taiwan has gay marriage as well

What's also interesting is that he's right-wing

$799.99 per second

He said "we're taking it back"

Why? Thy.

And it wouldn't even be just one state. It'd be 10 states, most of which would be blue.

You don't have to toss aside private insurance to achieve good healthcare. The Netherlands and Switzerland both operate 99% on private insurance. The difference is that insurance and healthcare prices overall are more tightly regulated than in the US, and the 'individual mandate' is strict.

Most countries with birthright citizenship are in the Americas. Most countries in the world don't have it, or have it with certain qualifications. The only way to become a citizen by birth in these countries is to be born to a citizen of that country.