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Canada signs on to U.S.-led renewal of war on drugs
Canada was rebuked on Monday by a group of world leaders and experts on drug policy for endorsing a Trump-led declaration renewing the "war on drugs" and for passing up a critical moment to provide global leadership on drug regulation.
The Trudeau government's decision to sign on to the declaration, released by the White House on the sidelines of U.S. President Donald Trump's first attendance at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, contradicts Ottawa's previous skepticism of Washington's drugs war at home and abroad, and comes just weeks before cannabis legalization in Canada.
Former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark said she believed that both Canada and Mexico − which also signed the declaration even though president-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has repeatedly said that the "war on drugs" has failed and he will pursue new policy − likely have signed on reluctantly, held hostage by the North American free-trade agreement talks in Washington, over which a critical deadline looms.
Countries that signed the "Global Call to Action on the World Drug Problem" were promised an invitation for their leader to attend a kick-off event with Mr. Trump in New York. The statement was not drafted in the usual multilateral process of a declaration from the UN and the wording was presented as non-negotiable. One hundred and thirty countries signed but 63 did not; the dissenters include major U.S. allies such as Germany, Norway and Spain.
Previously: Canada Becomes the Second Nation to Legalize Cannabis
Related: WP says Marijuana Legalization Makes World a Better Place
(Score: 1, Troll) by realDonaldTrump on Monday October 01 2018, @05:30AM (15 children)
There is no political necessity to keep Canada in the new NAFTA deal. If we don’t make a fair deal for the U.S. after decades of abuse, Canada will be out. Congress should not interfere w/ these negotiations or I will simply terminate NAFTA entirely & we will be far better off. FAR better. Remember, NAFTA was one of the WORST Trade Deals ever made. The U.S. lost thousands of businesses and MILLIONS of jobs. We were far better off before NAFTA -- should never have been signed. Even the Vat Tax was not accounted for. We make new deal or go back to pre-NAFTA!
And by the way, I honor the right of every nation -- even Canada -- to pursue own customs, beliefs and traditions. The United States will not tell you how to live or work or worship. We only ask that you honor our sovereign rights in return.
Unfortunately Justin from Canada has been very dishonest & weak. Lots of false statements from this guy. He's charging massive Tariffs to our U.S. farmers. Fair Trade is now to be called Fool Trade if it is not Reciprocal. According to a Canada release, they make almost 100 Billion Dollars in Trade with U.S. (guess they were bragging and got caught!). Minimum is 17B. Tax Dairy from us at 270% -- INCREDIBLE. Flooding our markets with steel and aluminum. So many of our steel mills & aluminum smelters shut down. Big threat to our National Security. Then Justin acts hurt when called out! He put a tremendous tax on our Quiche. On the Quiche we sell to Canada.
I think Canada is a foe, what they do to us in trade. Now, you wouldn't think of Canada, but they're a foe. I think that getting along with Canada is a good thing. But it's possible we won't. And that's OK. We're getting stronger and stronger, militarily. It was my great honor to sign the National Defense Authorization Act, beautiful ceremony at Fort Drump with the Apache helicopter. That's $717 billion for my military. Including a nice raise for my troops. A 2.6% raise for my great, and very brave, soldiers. We're giving America's warfighters the firepower they need to win any contest. And we're doing Space Force. Our adversaries are weaponizing space. They want to jam transmissions. We'll be catching them very shortly, believe me!!!
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 01 2018, @02:59PM (14 children)
I know you're just a fucking troll, but you'll read this anyway, so here goes:
A country which owns 50% of the entire world's wealth, with only 5% of the population, claiming that it has been somehow "taken advantage of" by the rest of the world is not only obcenely ludicrous, it is unbelievably and disgustingly arrogant.
(Score: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 01 2018, @04:17PM (12 children)
Why is that ludicrous? Sounds like the same argument people make about the high percentage of jewish people in positions of wealth and power...
Are you impying that just because some group is more successful than others they must be running a scam? Why cant it be that the US has social and economic policies that encourage accumulation of wealth moreso than found elsewhere? Policies that other countries *choose* not to follow and even call the US backward, etc for?
(Score: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 01 2018, @04:59PM (10 children)
Interesting mods here. People disparaging the US based on questionable logic are insightful while those asking for clarification are flamebait.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 01 2018, @05:08PM (9 children)
Because it is a willfully ignorant troll post.
The US has abused its military and economic power to scam other countries. Economic and political hit jobs to ensure that foreign governments remain friendly to US corporate interests. That is not skill, that is not some brilliant societal structure, that is imperialism and it is nothing new.
Sometimes people refuse to even engage with such low level arguments, especially around here where these discussions occur all the time.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 01 2018, @05:27PM (8 children)
And where did it get that power to begin with?
-- This is the type of thought you are going to need to have to go beyond preaching to the choir. Your argument as it stands makes no sense to non-rabid people. The rabid people are irrelevant, since nothing will change their minds anyway.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Azuma Hazuki on Monday October 01 2018, @05:54PM (7 children)
Recently? Well, at the end of World War II, the US economy was the only one not in a complete shambles. This, along with the Marshall Plan, allowed the US to gain a massive cultural foothold across almost all the Western world. The roots of this go back further, of course, to at least the Monroe Doctrine internationally, and arguably to the country's founding and its insistence on genociding the natives and taking their land. Point is, the US got its power through a combination of luck, shrewed diplomacy, and what can at the very least be called genocidal expansion.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 01 2018, @06:00PM (6 children)
And what part of this is being considered the US scamming the other countries by the anon?
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Monday October 01 2018, @06:20PM (5 children)
...are you stupid? When you're the only country with an economy that isn't a total basket case, everyone else will either suffer alone or dance to your tune if they want help. You don't see how establishing a cultural hegemony over more or less the entire Western Hemisphere and then some would allow the kind of "scam" you're talking about?
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 01 2018, @06:32PM (4 children)
Here is the result: Rabid libtard detected, redirecting power from rational argument subsystems to trolling and stealth.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 01 2018, @09:25PM (3 children)
If it needs to be explained to you that the "might makes right" mindset is morally wrong, then you're a perfect example of the prehistoric, animalistic, social-darwinist caveman mentality that human civilization has been trying for centuries to evolve beyond. To people like you, imperialism is a "good thing", the same way "greed is good". You are primitive. You'll eventually go the way of the dinosaurs, and you know it. That's why you hate "leftists" so much, a.k.a. those that will replace you.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 01 2018, @09:47PM (2 children)
Nope, just wanted an answer to my question about how the Marshall plan and US coming out of WWII with limited damage was a scam.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Tuesday October 02 2018, @02:10AM (1 child)
Let me break this down for you in tiny little pieces: the US's luck, and it WAS luck, was not a "scam." The Marshall Plan, however, was a masterful piece of political brinksmanship, notable for being probably the most benign of its kind ever enacted, but still put into place with the aim of essentially turning all Europe into an American vassal (see: NATO). The US is far, far less friendly with other (read: brown) people: witness, as just one example, what was done in Iran in 1953.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 02 2018, @02:43AM
So, the US did not get its advantage due to "scamming" according to you, it was "luck" and "masterful" decisions/behaviors by the elites of that nation.
Great, please explain that to the other AC who claimed it was via scamming or tie that in so we can get back to the original point.
(Score: 2) by dry on Tuesday October 02 2018, @01:56AM
Because it is all bullshit. The free trade agreement between Canada and the USA saw tons of good Canadian jobs go south to the States, increasing stock prices and then the Americans decided to send their jobs south to Mexico in search of profits, and when that wasn't profitable enough, they made China a most favoured trading partner and sent jobs their.
To blame the countries that you bully into unequal trade deals for your captains of industry sending your jobs away is weird to say the least.
And fucking Trump, who can't even pay his fucking debts, and his supporters, to claim that being crooks is strength, well I guess that is the Christian way.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 01 2018, @04:58PM
You can't tag all of the USA 1% just because a lot of 1%ers live there. Let's go back to the definition of 1%er: 1% of the people own 99% of the wealth. If anything the trade wars are 1%ers in each country fighting each other.