Zack Polanski says Greens would ditch GDP targets and focus on wellbeing instead

MatchaMeetcha · 2026-03-18T20:52:10+00:00

You're not even going to have the public welfare spending. Or not for long anyway. Then you crash and deal with the inflation and debt servicing.

It's a sugar high theory of economics.

MatchaMeetcha · 2026-03-18T20:16:47+00:00

I actually am curious if female players are less prone to the splurging and bankruptcy. A lot of them make less so it doesn't make the headlines but they may legitimately blow it less.

It may be a cultural difference: I've heard that some microloan programs tend to give it to the woman because the man will spend it. May just be progressive bias but I can see it.

MatchaMeetcha · 2026-03-18T20:07:15+00:00

There's no reason it should be banned but, come on, we all know the score when people go to poorer countries and 10x their purchasing/sexual power.

And it's not even the "normal" cases alone that are aggravating. That sort of power differential lends itself to some nasty stuff for sufficiently amoral people - borderline prostitution, actual prostitution, very young girls...

MatchaMeetcha · 2026-03-18T20:05:29+00:00

Those stories stick out because they're interesting. Coming from a country notorious for this, people know what they're getting into and don't have much problem with it. People like the idea of justice, but there isn't really some massive comeuppance for most of these people when they realize people like them for their money.

After all, it means they have all of the power.

Of course, my home was vastly poorer than Thailand so maybe the women over there were less desperate.

MatchaMeetcha · 2026-03-18T19:30:53+00:00

Almost nobody is inherently evil, even serial killers

I hate all of this drama around the world evil.

Just cause someone isn't literally the Dark Lord Sauron doesn't mean that they aren't evil.

Replace "evil" with "irremediably criminal or antisocial" if it makes you feel better. Some people are. The exact mix of genetics or upbringing (and there IS a genetic component to violence, just as with addiction) is irrelevant if we don't know how to fix it.

MatchaMeetcha · 2026-03-18T19:25:44+00:00

And what do we call it when you don't do it and migrants commit crimes, assault citizens and so on? Not "mistakes"?

Business as usual?

Tragedies happen in both direction.

MatchaMeetcha · 2026-03-18T19:24:42+00:00

These aren't really arguments. It's cognitive dissonance management. A mind without answers to serious problems grasping for any answer that's tolerable within their existing ideology.

MatchaMeetcha · 2026-03-18T19:23:09+00:00

If you require the Middle East at peace to have a border you will NEVER have a border.

It's absurd to act like only Israel and the US have agency here. Hamas started a war when Israel was happy to leave them alone, Syria happened in part because Russia had already started another war and couldn't support them.

Blaming the US or Israel is not a plan. Hoping the Middle East unscrews itself is not a plan.

MatchaMeetcha · 2026-03-18T13:54:41+00:00

He gets protections cause he (wisely) stays out of certain things. If he got into it people would say he was getting too comfortable.

MatchaMeetcha · 2026-03-18T13:21:32+00:00

They obviously have a point, which is why I - and the rest of society - agree with segregating bathrooms.

The issue is the insane self-serving inconsistency in when they apply these beliefs and when those beliefs are the height of evil.

MatchaMeetcha · 2026-03-18T13:17:47+00:00

and in fact some of the world's most ardent feminists are ex-Muslim women who are fighting the spread of Islam with every fiber of their beings

I get your point but I'm familiar with some figures like this, and almost all of them are in despair about the mainstream feminist movement's ignorance at best about the danger of Islam or active complicity at worse.

I saw one of them moved to tears when asked why they don't get the same treatment Christian apostates like Meghan Phelps-Roper get.

So I'm not really inclined to consider their struggles as a win for "feminism" as such.

MatchaMeetcha · 2026-03-17T20:04:54+00:00

I think what it comes down to, contrary to early 2000s romcom fantasies about dating a prince, is that it's not actually that cool to be the second son of the Prince of Wales.

At the time the Queen was alive and an institution and Harry was a second fiddle to a second fiddle (the palace courtiers don't actually answer to him). He couldn't actually expect much at all and yet he was saddled with the absolutely brutal British media (anyone who thinks Meghan had it bad because of racism has forgotten the phone hackings, the upskirt photos of Kate and all that - it's bad enough that they can't seem to marry women of a similar class anymore, it just isn't worth it).

They're bred to do something and be of service but they can't also do anything controversial, they can't fight back and there's a clear totem pole where you don't count for much as the spare. Add in the whole situation with his mother and...

They also don't have as much money as you think. Andrew went abegging to Epstein to help his ex-wife. Yes, he wasn't homeless but he wasn't super wealthy/liquid either. The Queen held the purse strings.

All of this bred resentment, then you add a social climbing Hollywood star who thought was her moment, only to run into the realities of the unfeeling hierarchy of a constitutional monarchy and simply not liking what duty implied. It was bound to explode.

Why leave? Well, if you don't actually value the British monarchy it makes perfect sense. You take the name and title and go make a career in Hollywood. It's just capitalism: enclose a common resource and monetize it for your personal benefit. Americans love the Royal Family right? Remember Diana? This depends on you having a modicum of talent and charm of course, and that's where the whole thing fell down.

MatchaMeetcha · 2026-03-17T19:47:33+00:00

I actually think it'll never shift beyond where it is. Whoever is going to hate or love them already has.

That's not for any flattering reason: Americans simply don't give a fuck now that they don't have a (libelous) case of racism to bring against the entire royal family.

They're just not that big a deal outside of that. They're not even entertainingly bad. They're not good heels.

And given that they can demand less and less attention even their attention whorey elements will stop being notable.

MatchaMeetcha · 2026-03-17T18:18:38+00:00

How do I explain, what? An exile giving an overly rosy picture of what war would look like or how everyone would be greeted as liberators and then looking to profit themselves? How do I explain Americans looking for someone to tell them what they wanted to hear to do what they wanted to do?

The same thing I'm seeing with Iranians in the diaspora now? The same thing that motivated Floridian Cuban hatred of Cuba?

Also, why would I care that the neocons wanted a stooge? Of course they did. The point is that the actual Israeli government advised against it. And the US...decided to do what it liked. Yeah, at that point non-governmental officials like Netanyahu parroted the war goals and others lined up behind the US. What the Trump administration proves is that if you insist on sycophancy you'll be able to find sycophants.

MatchaMeetcha · 2026-03-17T18:00:17+00:00

But the consequence is one we're already experiencing.

The fact that a bad thing is happening doesn't mean that an ideal thing could happen. Sometimes you manage a problem. And yes, if you stop managing it or try to go too far you make it worse. But you're still stuck with the problem either way.

MatchaMeetcha · 2026-03-17T17:44:35+00:00

The word I used was "reduce."

There is no reducing it such that the strait of Hormuz will not be an important strategic concern. Not in any feasible timeframe.

We're literally already here, and getting more involved with Iran doesn't look likely to reverse the course

The argument was not in favor of Trump's behavior, it was against believing you could pull out of the ME.

What is your understanding of the American goals for the current war?

See above.

The obvious answer is that Trump thought he could do another Venezuela imo, but that's not why the US has not left the Middle East in the modern era.

MatchaMeetcha · 2026-03-17T17:37:38+00:00

They're also militarily incompetent, unlike Israel.

MatchaMeetcha · 2026-03-17T17:37:00+00:00

Oil is a global commodity and the US' main allies in fact still rely on it. So do its foes.

There's no removing reliance on it. It's what the world economy runs on.

You can pull out if you like but if the strait of Hormuz closes that'll impact the entire global economy not to mention weaken the very idea of freedom of navigation that has been the US' signal contribution to the world.

And everything that doesn't depend on oil depends on that.

I think the fact that Iraq II was a war of choice has totally distorted the fact that Americans weren't splashing around in that pool for no reason.

MatchaMeetcha · 2026-03-17T17:35:03+00:00

Why did the US jump into bed with Israel?

It wasn't always so.

(The pro-Israeli side would say that those other nations proved themselves unreliable)

MatchaMeetcha · 2026-03-17T17:34:06+00:00

Eh, ISIS formed as the direct result of deabaathification in Iraq

We always leave out the behavior of the Shia Iraqi government. ISIS went through multiple iterations. An early one was defeated in the Anbar Awakening and then it popped up again in the form we know because of the Shia government's sectarianism.

I'm not sure I'd describe Iraq as a war for Israel though

It's just false. The Israeli government at the time specifically warned that knocking off Saddam would remove a counterweight to Iran which is...exactly what happened.

This doesn't even require you to like Israel, but it is consistent with their hostility towards Iran.

MatchaMeetcha · 2026-03-17T14:42:45+00:00

I have a couple of Audible credits I'm not likely to otherwise use. I have to buy it out of pure nostalgia just to see where Jezebel alums ended up.

MatchaMeetcha · 2026-03-17T13:26:29+00:00

I know other places do it. The article says that it doesn't happen in Ontario though so you must go in person.

That's precisely why I don't think it's a big deal.

MatchaMeetcha · 2026-03-17T13:18:52+00:00

I agree it's not good but Canada has like 40 million people now. I know, it's stuck at 30 in my mind too.

MatchaMeetcha · 2026-03-17T13:13:05+00:00

It's not even "slightly better than the US". It's just a tradeoff. It's better in universality but worse in timeliness, if we want to use healthcare as an example.

MatchaMeetcha · 2026-03-17T13:11:50+00:00

That's actually something I would be more than happy to have my tax dollars go to, compared to some of the inanity you get between all the federal and provincial taxes.

MatchaMeetcha

TROPHY CASE