Canada

Idiots abound and Abroad

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Two things in the news are bothering me.
Only two?
Well only two to speak of today… and a bonus fact at the end.

First, Trump went to China and was not met by the leader by his vice. No one said anything and the visit occurred normally. When Obama arrived, the mobile ladder was “broken.” So, Obama had to leave the plane by the back door. Neither President understood exactly what happened. The western press does not understand the Chinese culture so they said nothing. And the Chinese Press did not have to say anything, as everyone understood this loss of “Face.” It’s a form of prestige or cultural currency. In both cases, both Presidents were treated as lesser being, humiliated by Ji and made to look like fools to the people of China by this diminishment of their positions. And best of all, being clueless they smiled and walked right on in.

Trump, for all his idiocy has one goal in mind. To leave a lasting mark on the USA to say for future generations he was there. And I am here to tell you, he already has. He has destroyed American trade, American respect and the world order all for his own vanity and senility. The USA has lost the world order and no matter who they elect to replace Trump, that is never coming back. From Canadian trade diversification, to Europe boldly saying “no” to all companies American. To wit, or twit as we speak of what Trump has done. Using his power on over reach, he had Mastercard and Visa block the credit cards of all members of the world court. Though they deny this, I tend to believe the guy who has to carry cash and letter from the court Justices. EU has ordered that a new system based in Europe be created to avoid Visa or Mastercard.

They froze the world courts documents and emails by revoking their licenses. This trapping all data inside the American web. So Europe is switching to software created from Linux and wholly owned by Europe. This means a loss at minimum in the billions of dollars for Silicon Valley. The American made Tesla was called the worst car to own after only 4 years with its failure rate higher at 4 years then every other brand at 10 years. No wonder sales are down 45% across the board for Elon.

The war in Iran, long overdue. Trump has been working his way to have the courage to invade. He tore up the Obama deal just because it had the name Obama on it. He bombed Iran just cause the Israelis wanted him to. So now they are shutting down oil production. The result? Worldwide switch to alternative energy. Even in the USA there are more people employed in alternative energy then in oil and coal. Cuba under the oil block aid from the USA is undergoing the fastest conversion ever seen anywhere in the world going from fossil energy to Sun and wind energy. As they have no other choice in the matter, the ships are brining in as much as they can carry to set up Geo-thermic, Wind and Solar powered arrays to power the country. Think of all those birds Trump is killing. For someone doing his best to push fossil fuel, he is single-handedly the biggest pusher to go green. One of the biggest benefits is in Canada. For example Aluminum. Ours, made in Quebec with good old Hydro electricity is called green and by buying it from us, It passes European taxes to make things greener. Sure it may cost more for purchase but with the lower taxes for being green, it makes things cheaper.


With the high tariffs, so many contracts were cancelled, so new contracts with Europe popped up. Now American companies want to get back a semblance of normal but those contract they tore up? Sorry Charlie, get in line. Oil? Segway to our next topic, can now be shipped east. Asia used to get oil from the Persian Gulf, has had to look East for supplies. They are wandering around with cash in hand to buy anything we will sell them, and they are paying market rate. Not the discounts we were selling to the Americans before but market rates. Alberta is going to have a banner year of surplus as everyone wants their oil, as much or all of it as they can get. Trump can tariff all the Canadian oil he wants to. Americans, ordinary people, pay that. Asian will pay more for it anyway, and they will even come and get it. All in all, Trump will certainly go down as the worst President in history. And that is a fitting tribute to his legacy!

Next, speaking oil riches, let talk Alberta. The separatist movement was just kicked out of the running by the court. Premier Danielle Smith said she would use the “Notwithstanding” clause to reverse the court. But this “card” is the “UNO reverse” for all things legal. Tell me you don’t know what you are talking about without telling me you don’t know what you are talking about. The Notwithstanding clause? It applies to a limited number of rights like the right to freely practice religion or sexual orientation. It does not apply to every legal ruling. Likewise, it does not override Treaties or obligations. And those were not considered in this whole separatist project. Not only that, but it does not make a magic wand and change all the bad things those nasty radical judge do like upholding the law. But being clueless on the public stage is one of her gifts to the world. How embarrassing to be a citizen in Alberta.

But not to be out done, hold my beer. The separatists have taken the electoral list for the entire province and put the entire thing on the dark web. That means every single adult who is eligible to vote in Alberta will for the rest of their lives have the worry of ID fraud. All the necessary information use to validate their voting eligibility is on the dark web and that can be used to scam banks, or any other company out of millions, or billions. And the hits will keep on coming for generations.

But wait! The leader of one the fringe groups is refusing to hand over basic information like donor lists and how much money he has gotten from whom to fund his separatist drive. Seems he does not want to name the unnamed billionaire who has been paying him to do this. The same billionaire paying people in the Netherlands to make ads, videos twitter postings etc advocating for separation. The only line drawn so far was to give the local idiot a 500 billion dollar credit line. See if he had asked for something small say 50 million, he might have gotten it and been able to take out millions before they noticed the scam.
Oh, and rumour is this local guy won’t be around much longer. He got his Green card so he is off to the USA.

As one author said on net, if he were to have written any of this, no one would have bought his books as this it just too beyond the fringe.

And lastly, the bonus fact. The polling for the liberals has Carney however near the 50% range. Including 7 seats in Alberta. Imagine that.

Hockey time? Are you serious?

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Only in Canada would they change the debate time for a national election due to a Hockey game. Tell me again how serious we should be taking this election? This merely proves one thing, what a silly country we are to begin with. A Hockey game? Bien Oui c’est la jeu du Canada!

We might have a trade war to fight, dealing with crushing tarifs. There is western Alienation, pipeline question, and a million other issues to deal with but…. Come on, Montreal might clinch a play off spot. This election thing is over on the 28th, but we could be watching hockey until June before the playoffs are over. Get your priorities straight. A leadership debate or a play off spot?

Oh and, 1/3 of the country has already decided who they will vote for. The next 1/3 will do so this weekend just before Friday’s early voting. The last 1/3 will wait for election day. So like come on, its a near play off spot, Not a play off, not a series final for the Cup, nope, just an ordinary regular season game that Montreal might, and then again might not, win a play off spot.


So by all means, move the debate earlier. We may be in the middle of election, it may carry significant ramifications but hey, do you mind, I am watching a Hockey game.

Did I meantion, what a silly country we live in yet?

Oh and while I am ranting, You may recall that the stock market crashed last week?
You may also recall, if you are a finance nerd that the bond market also crashed.

That is not supposed to happy at the same time. You take money from the market and put it in the other market such that one drops as you take money out and the other rises as you put that money into the other….

Except it did not. How did that happen again?

Well, there is a rumour, and try proving someone made this type of phone call to international bankers, such that as they were selling off stock, it might not be wise to put money into an American bond market. In fact, it might be better to sell American stock and bonds at the same time.

Now, if only we had someone who ran a Canadian political party and worked extensively in internation affairs, such as running not just the bank of Canada but the bank of England. As opposed to a smarmy idiot who’s only job beside being a professional politician was a paper route?

Someone who can crash the American bond market with a few calls and someone who will toss your newspaper into the bushes…

My, my, my, my. So hard to decide who I am voting for…

State of Canadian Elections to come this year

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I think the key here is to look at the news

Trudeau in Ukraine today

Trudeau to chair G7

Trudeau stands up to Trump

If he had not already said he would step down, I think he would run again.

All of these headlines and what do we hear from Pierre Poutine? He gets glowing reviews on right wing blogs, Jordan Peterson, thinks he is great. Trump loves the man. In other words he is talking to the choir not the  Canadian public.

Next in the news, NDP is falling in the polls. They may not even be ready to fight a snap election in March, and we are going to the polls in April or early May. Jagmeet is even lower in the polls then his party, rip up agreements and see what it gets you…  I like the man but his politics suck. As the liberals head to more centrist positions, the NDP should rush to fill the gap only they are getting no bounce.  People who normally support the NDP are going bipolar, either to the right and the conservatives or to the liberals. Those that go right will fall back to the liberals anyway. Note that the poll was straight numbers and did not include the hidden Liberal advantage. They normally get higher returns when people actually vote then what people will say they will vote for. To an alarming degree this could amount to 3-4 percent of the vote total. So, a tie in the poll, would in fact, say the liberals are leading with Carney as the head.

As much as I like Jagmeet and equally as much as I dislike Poilievre, I would still vote liberal today. The NDP has never missed a chance to miss their chance. The Jack Layton, orange wave was not something anyone said was coming. It just happened.  Pierre Poutine is a slimy person. He comes off as used car salesman only one, used car salesmen know give them a bad name. Have you listened to his interviews with creepy right wing news outlets? He get Trump like fawning with Trump-like questions. Yet tell them how unreliable mainstream journalists are?  I think that is a good way to win the vote. Going to the extreme right wing and telling them talking points they only dream about but have no traction in the middle of the road might work in American politics, but will it work in Canada? We are better educated and better informed then an average American. Talking to the right-wing media leaves a bad taste in my mouth and people who are not ideologically bound to his type of smarm. Now that the election is coming due people who normally do not follow politics, start to watch. With the threats from Trump, people are concerned to see what is happening. They see a clear difference between Trudeau and Mr. Poutine. That usually shows up in the polls at first then in the vote count later. 

The NDP is dropping

The Conservatives peaked too soon and are now in free fall in the polls. They dropped 10 points just on Trudeau stepping down. And another 10 with Trump’s threats. It is all fun and games to vote in the right wing lunatic to “own” the libs. But when it is your @$$ on the line, with Trump’s many threats. The people think first about protecting what is theirs and leave “ownings” to another  day.

Canada is not for sale? Or is it?

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Donald Trump wants Canada to be the 51st state. When told Canada is not for sale, he persists. Everything is for sale at the right price. Reminding me of an Aslin joke during the NAFTA free trade debate years ago. You see MacDonald protecting a female Canada conservatively dressed, saying “Canada is not for sale!” The middle panel is Laurier protecting another female personification of Canada saying the same thing. The third and last panel, you see Brian Mulroney dressed as a pimp, slappy the girls’ ass, dressed in a mini skirt and heavy makeup. Saying to her, “get busy!”
Or perhaps this joke would explain the matter, a man says to a woman if she will sleep with him for $10.
“Certainly not.”
“Well would you sleep with me for a million dollars?”
“I might,” she agrees.
“Well, what about for $50?”
“What kind of girl do you think I am sir?”
“We have already determined that, we are merely haggling over the price…”

So The Donald want to secure a legacy for posterity. He wants to add his name to the largest territorial grab in US history by acquiring Canada. So, since everything is for sale, in his mind, we are just arguing the price.

Fine. Let’s argue the price.
1) Canada is 10 provinces and 3 territories. All of which would need to be states. As well, the national capital region around Ottawa, (So far from Heaven so close to Hull.) would need to make a newly minted American State! And since it would be unfair for Ottawa to get it without Washington DC, the Donald would need to add 15 stars on his flag.
2) Since we have universal Health care up here, we would need that to be added to their bill of rights that Health care is a right and must be paid for by the state. All 65 states.
3) Since we regulate fire arms very heavily up here, they would need to rewrite their 2nd amendment to remove that right to wife beating “bare arms” (sic)
That would be the changes required before we can even start to negotiate.
Once you put this out to The Donald, you sit back and wait. Every time he makes reference to Canada becoming the 51 state, simply say 51-65 state! So we can send 30 new Democratic Senators and near tell 56 House members to Washington! Since even the most Canadian right-winger have more in common with Democrats then Republicans, the House, and Senate would swing to the Dems like forever.
Or you can reply to his so-called “Offer”, that is good he has agreed to begin the repeal of the 2nd amendment.
Make the price too high and hold out for him to pony up. We have left room for further price increases if he ever could meet just those 3 demands to START negotiations with him.
See, Donald Trump is a bully. He has shown the American experiment to have failed. The rules for law and order do not work there. The rules of impeachment or having a high court, to begin with, are clearly not working. So merely saying “no,” is not sufficient. However, let’s not forget the cheap sycophantic response by Danielle Smith to rush to kneel before him. Or the opportunistic “call an election to deal with this threat” Doug Ford.
At the end of the say, just make the price too high. The Donald, despite advanced senility, understands the concept of the price being too high.

And on that subject, Donald Trump thinks people in other countries pay his tariff and not his own people. That inflation will rise uncontrollable and the economic issues that would arise with a 25% tariff! Yet, for all that. He keeps saying it. Why? Because he does not understand a single word you are saying. The price of eggs goes up? When do you think he went to buy eggs? Ever? His new byte coin had over 33 billion dollars invested in it, virtually overnight? How many eggs can you buy with a billion here and a billion there? How much inflation will erode the spending power of 33 billion? When you work out the answers to those questions, then you will see just how corrupt he is and how trying to appeal to his reason won’t work.

Champlain Bridge

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Champlain Bridge
First, one must better understand what passes as political cultural in Quebec. Montreal is an island. Surrounded by the Saint Lawrence river. As such, one must avoid this cleaning water and cross it to arrive in town. There are bridges and tunnels in place to do this. Now for the last generation, Montreal construction has been governed by corruption, collusion and down right theft of taxpayer money in the form of bribery and kick backs, that has been handed to a select gang of criminals. It is said that Montreal infrastructure cost price-wise 20% more and lasts 20% endurance-wise, less than similar infrastructure would cost in Ontario. The problem in part is two fold; first, pay offs, rip offs, political parties and their “Fund-raising” are all paid for out of the taxpayer wallet and billed for already in the price of these construction contracts. The second issue is the lack of competition brought on by the near insurmountable government regulations designed specifically to keep foreign and other construction companies out of province. The simplest of regulated isolationism, can be seen in the demand that all correspondence be in French only. An American company might be able to do the job cheaper but will they invest the time, money or energy to complete all regulatory requirements and do it in a foreign language.
The Champlain Bridge is the busiest expressway in Canada with constant gridlock because it is overused by the population it serves as they head in and out of the island of Montreal. It is nearing its 53th year, having been built and completed in 1962. So it is in need of replacement. Which is expected to cost 4-6 billion dollars. (Due to time and cost overruns, you can expect that price to double.) At the end, what will have happened? They will take a six lane bridge and replaced it with a new six lane bridge. It could not handle the traffic flow before they replaced it, so it will somehow be better able to better handle it when replaced by something better? You have gridlock with 6 lanes, and soon will have more gridlock on a new bridge with the same 6 lanes of span? Is this somehow anything better? Einstein’s definition of insanity is to repeat the same experiment expecting different results. If you are going to spend this amount of money on a new construction using taxpayer’s money in the first place, then charge those same taxpayer’s a toll to cross on that bridge, why not think outside the box and build a bigger bridge that can handle more traffic and thus reduce congestion, serve the needs of taxpayers using it and grant them service for their money?
This topic is rife with possible serious areas that need and demand people’s attention and discussion, like cost oversight, the basic design itself and the question of tolls after. So then, what possibly could ever be more important than these topic? Why the federal government wanted to name the new bridge after local Quebec hockey star Rocket Richard. They were not going to rename the old structure just the new one, causing a hue and cry in the nationalist camp. Champlain, a man none of them even know anything about but he is a historical hero in Quebec, typical, names not substance politics, ignored universal 24/7-365 until some damn federalists tries to put up a new bridge and do not name it the old one. Sort of like, how dare U2 give away for free their new album. What an insult!
This passes for intelligent conversation in certain nationalist circles of Quebec. Ignoring the real issue, to focus yet again on breed and circus that distracts taxpayers from the government’s boondoggle that will for the next 50 years force people into longer lines of commutes into town (Montreal), as the suburbs increase their population density and the bridge simply cannot, and will not handle the car traffic. only now it is by design to not handle this traffic. Yet precisely because it is just built, no one will dare suggest they make a new one to relieve this pressure, for it works as intended. In other words, once the lobster is in the pot, they slowly turn up the heat until supper is done. In this case, the taxpaper who pays the cost to get a substandard build, based a substandard plan, created by substandard conservative government, based on some substandard thinking, aided and abetted by the local nationalist who could not be expected to see any of these issues as problems. After all, the area of Montreal 450 region, a belt around Montreal using the same single phone area code, is not the homes of the Pure Laine literally meaning pure wool, a term referring to the mythical founding Quebec fathers, who are still pure in thought and mind for the Quebec sovereignty movement. While often mistaken for third generation incest survivors who are only slightly deformed, ignoring the extra arm for flag waving no doubt and clear lack of vision or foresight beyond the end of their own noses, so who cares about them anyway.
This is what passes for politics in Quebec. Lots of heat but very little substance, only fit for bug-eyed, bottom dwelling crustaceans also know as Quebec’s taxpayers. Who considering how high and how much they pay in federal and provincial taxes, clearly deserve better.