Politics

[Tubby’s Canteen]

I totally agree. My great uncle fought at the second battle of Ypres. Canada has a long and proud military history that was being rebuilt under Harper. Trudeau has been an absolute disaster. It’s hard to believe that so much damage could be done so quickly.

The precedent was there from the first Trudeau he was just carrying on the tradition.

 

[OxfordTheCat]

Are you saying Canada is going to get remotely serious about their military capacity? So more than 4 subs and 200 fixed wing aircrafts? A troop force that will someday exceed that of Guatemala? I think that is awesome and I hope that happens posthaste. You have the resources to do so, I truly hope the political motivation also materializes.

Less than 80 years ago, Canada was an unquestioned military force, at that time you had the 4th largest troop force in the world, I would love for our northern neighbor get back to that point.

strategically makes little to no sense, Trump says some crazy stuff, so your reaction is to do business exactly with the people you are afraid the US won't protect you from.

We haven't required a substantial military, and to have built and maintained one, especially post-1991, would have been a colossal waste of resources. Now that Russia is actively on its adventure in Ukraine, times changing.

We don't and haven't required US protection from anyone - presumably without the US we'd have pictures of Ho Chi Minh, Noriega, or Saddam Hussein on our money?

In reality, the only credible threat to our sovereignty is and ever has been the US. And that relationship is souring. Will be an interesting four years.

 

[Altitude sickness]

Another valuable show from Shawn. Some uncomfortable perhaps disturbing truths.

 

[John Wasmuth]

True or not, don’t know but don’t doubt it at all:
Bank records never lie. Let’s see when the mainstream media will admit to this like COVID and the Hunter Biden laptop.

Kash Patel CONFIRMS Judge Juan Merchan should have never been assigned to Donald Trump’s case

Kash Patel “I'm calling for the subpoenas to be issued to Judge Merchan’s Daughter's company who made $15+ million dollars from the illicit information pouring out of her father's courtroom.

- I wanna know the bank records because money doesn't lie.
- I wanna know how deep it is and how much of it went to the family and how much of it is going to the family after this false conviction.
- Then we need to investigate the FEC actual violations that this judge and his family conducted.

Judge Juan Merchan should never have been overseeing this trial to begin with because of the illicit campaign money that was flowing through there and the unconstitutional due process violations are only the beginning.

That’s not all, here’s more reasons why he should have NEVER been assigned Donald Trump’s case from The Older Millennial:

‘For these type of cases, the way it's supposed to work is that there is a panel of 24 judges, and they are all put in rotation and randomly assigned these types of cases. Judge Merchan is not on that panel. That's because he's not a judge. He's an acting judge.

The only way he could have caught this case was to be specifically assigned to it. There was no chance of him being randomly

According to the left and the Department of Justice, Judge Merchan was not only randomly selected to be the judge in this trial, but he was also randomly selected to be the judge in the Trump Organization case, and he was randomly selected to be the judge in the Steve Bannon case.

Judge Merchan, a judge that is not in the pool of 24 judges that is supposed to catch these cases, a judge that is not an actual judge, but an acting judge caught all 3 Trump related cases randomly. This is a judge who gives heavily to an organization very plainly named Stop Trump, and a judge whose daughter makes tens of millions of dollars every year promoting Democrats.

Insane corruption

 

[YancyW]

We haven't required a substantial military, and to have built and maintained one, especially post-1991, would have been a colossal waste of resources. Now that Russia is actively on its adventure in Ukraine, times changing.

We don't and haven't required US protection from anyone - presumably without the US we'd have pictures of Ho Chi Minh, Noriega, or Saddam Hussein on our money?

In reality, the only credible threat to our sovereignty is and ever has been the US. And that relationship is souring. Will be an interesting

Wow! You share a 3000 mile border with your only threat and you have a military smaller than some of that country’s national guards? Clearly it would not have been a waste of resources, the barbarians are at the gate!

 

[Altitude sickness]

After watching the full video I posted above.

Hopefully the SecDef demotes and forces this guy out of the Navy.

 

[Tubby’s Canteen]

We haven't required a substantial military, and to have built and maintained one, especially post-1991, would have been a colossal waste of resources. Now that Russia is actively on its adventure in Ukraine, times changing.

We don't and haven't required US protection from anyone - presumably without the US we'd have pictures of Ho Chi Minh, Noriega, or Saddam Hussein on our money?

In reality, the only credible threat to our sovereignty is and ever has been the US. And that relationship is souring. Will be an interesting four years.

I have to respectfully disagree with you on Canadas need for a military. Every country should field enough military to defend their sovereignty. As @WAB is fond of saying were I king for a day I’d have Irving’s shipyard in Halifax and Davies shipyard in Quebec both start laying the keel for carriers. I’d build two task forces around those carriers and deploy one on either coast. Of corse we’d need cruisers and destroyers to support them along with our frigates. Supply ships of our own would be helpful as well along with modern aircraft to launch from said carriers.

 

[deewayne2003]

He won by 1.5%? Don’t think that is a landslide!

When you throw in every swing state, it’s the biggest landslide in 40 years and a wider margin than his last victory over Hillary.

In 2020 the cry was “Anything is better than Trump!”…. And look how that worked out.

One can only imagine what it would have been if the Democrats hadn’t dethroned Biden.

 

[steve white]

I can tell from an european perspective. Lots of american foods are right down illegal overhere because the america food industry are putting things in the food products that are illegal overhere. The american food industry can almost do what they want because the Food & Drug administration are mysteriously permissive towards the foodindustry. The food and Drug lobby of the US have succeded. To put this on the line american comming overehere describes the foods overhere so much cleaner(better). Americans who have been stationed overhere have even said there were certain medications they didn`t need anymore after awhile.

Before I was married I had rented a house by a farmer family. The farmer described the american company Monsanto as a hostile greedy company who owned a strong lobby to force traditional american farmers to use GMO seeds. Those who didn`t was squeezed to submission. This was back 30 years ago. I don`t how things are today. But the story with Monsanto tell if there are big money envolved everyhting is allowed. The authorities that was suppose to be the watchdog have been bought(or forced) to look the other way. But in general the american consumer protection agency doesn`t really have a strong political mandate in the US. Never mind GMO was found toxic for humans and nature....hey we are making money right now so who cares consequenses later on?.

When this written the european farmers today are the most subsidized folks here in EU. Its right down crazy how much support they recieve from EU. With american spectators on there is no fair trade. Its China No2. With the exeption of very few organic farmers who refuse to recieve "social benefits" from EU the entire farming industry would go bust without money from EU. Many people and me included wants to let the freeforces set the pace and remove all subsidizing. I don`t think any other business overhere recieve "social benefits" overhere. Here its boom & bust which its suppose to be.

In regards to american car import. The american cars doesn`t meet the regulative requirements in the EU. When this said we actually see Hellcats, Mustangs and a very few Corvettes overhere(mostly summer). But I haven`t seen an american build van, familycar or SUV in years and years.

Well, now you've opened a can of worms. Farmers should not be able to do just whatever they want with regard to glyphosate. Consuming it can cause gut permeability all by its self with no other factors involved--with mammoth cascading health problems. Anything GMO to provide "self pesticide" affects the gut biome negatively. Sorry Monsanto. So yeah, lots of informed people are saying no to the influence of the SAD, sad American diet. It's about the only one that will kill you worldwide. I too know people who have lived elsewhere and gotten off all their meds.

Farming is also not free from corruption, like any other industry. Met a large farmer from Iowa on vacation in Puerto Rico. Mentioned to him a fellow I knew of who leased salt marsh in south Texas at 2 cents and acre--so he could "plant" wheat on it, and then not harvest it. The subsidy that year paid you to plant but not harvest. So he raked in 600K from the gooberment. The farmer just laughed and said "yeah, that's what we call farming the insurance." Sad. But he then doubled down, saying "Lots of folks get their lawyers to put things in all their kids names, so they get about half a million each from time to time,"

 

[Alistair]

Well, now you've opened a can of worms. Farmers should not be able to do just whatever they want with regard to glyphosate. Consuming it can cause gut permeability all by its self with no other factors involved--with mammoth cascading health problems. Anything GMO to provide "self pesticide" affects the gut biome negatively. Sorry Monsanto. So yeah, lots of informed people are saying no to the influence of the SAD, sad American diet. It's about the only one that will kill you worldwide. I too know people who have lived elsewhere and gotten off all their meds.

Farming is also not free from corruption, like any other industry. Met a large farmer from Iowa on vacation in Puerto Rico. Mentioned to him a fellow I knew of who leased salt marsh in south Texas at 2 cents and acre--so he could "plant" wheat on it, and then not harvest it. The subsidy that year paid you to plant but not harvest. So he raked in 600K from the gooberment. The farmer just laughed and said "yeah, that's what we call farming the insurance." Sad. But he then doubled down, saying "Lots of folks get their lawyers to put things in all their kids names, so they get about half a million each from time to time,"

A couple of points of clarification on the 'US food is dreadful' discussion. TL;DR, it kind of is.

GMO is just as legal in Europe as it is in the US. What is different is consumer attitudes, especially historical consumer attitudes.

The EU consumer has always been deeply suspicious of GMO, so products labelled with 'contains GMO' historically did poorly. Hence those products, whilst available, are not common in that market. Why use an ingredient that whilst marginally cheaper and offering some benefits, loses you competitive advantage?

The US consumer, historically at least, does not care. The same label of 'contains GMO' does not influence purchase intent nearly as much, so why NOT use the cheaper ingredient? Especially as US labeling regs are a lot more lax on requiring that label in the first place...

As a result, GMO got prevalent enough that there are classes of foodstuffs in the US where it is virtually impossible to source non-GMO options at scale, even if businesses wanted to. Corn derived anything, for instance. Plus consumers still don't really care to nearly the same degree.

I have differing opinions to you on if GMO is 'universally bad' or 'universally unhealthy' and to be honest, based on the data I have seen in my career I have no objection to it, but that is the background as to why the US uses them a lot more.

As for why the US diet is so disappointing?

There are many other instances where the US agricultural and food lobby has succeeded, where in Europe they failed. Propylene glycol in flavors for instance. In both the EU and the US this is a recognized carcinogen. Both apply limits on use rate. In Europe, the limit is 0.1% or 1000ppm. In the US, it is 5%, or 50,000ppm. Cheap 'n' tasty US foods as a result, but at a cost of increased cancer risk.

Same for FD&C colors. Recognized carcinogens, banned in Europe in the 90's. Still in use in the US, although it looks like a 2025 ban is coming. Almost universally still in use, especially in foods marketed to children. Gives US products that vibrant 'pop' of color very cheaply, but is it worth it?

Or there's the use of artifical flavors. US regulations are incredibly lax on this topic compared to the EU, or even Canada. You don't even have to label them as such in many instances.

Then there's the taste preference part of the equation. The US (and Canadian) consumer LOVES 'sweet' in a way that no other consumer I've developed products for does. Every single thing I move into this continent (or anything I develop for this market), we do the consumer testing and it's always the same comment; 'It's not sweet enough'. It doesn't matter how much sugar I put in my formulations, I have never, ever seen a 'just about right' attribute for sweetness score 'too much', or even 'about right'. There is no such thing as 'too sweet' for the US consumer.

Historically, that meant a diet absolutely loaded with sugar, which meant obesity. That lead into a diet loaded with high fructose corn syrup, as that's just as sweet, but even cheaper. That lead to even more obesity, and diabetes, and colon cancer.

These days it means a huge reliance on stevia, or sucralose, or Ace K, or monkfruit, or erythritol, or whichever high intensity sweetener is in vogue. The jury is out on if that's an 'improvement' and I haven't seen enough data either way to have a firm opinion. But US consumers once again aren't that educated on the topic. The level of knowledge is growing, but the US lags Europe by about 10-20 years.

I think that this sugar preference is a trained response lead by the historical food industry in the US. Foods loaded with sugar have better shelf life, which makes distribution easier and reduces losses. Plus, it makes bland food taste good on the cheap.

But it also means that standard food items such as US bread, are as sweet as most European doughnuts. In fact, under EU regs, US white bread would be classified as 'cake'. Of course, standard supermarket bread in Europe goes moldy in about 3-5 days. In the US, it lasts 2+ weeks...

 

[Mort Hill]

I enjoy reading this thread, but it reminds me of disagreements between me and my wife of 37 years. Argument can be about anything. We both start out calmly sharing facts about each point of view, say to eat in or go out. At some point out of nowhere, the exchange deteriorates into emotion. Then past events or future projections are brought into the conversation. We both see the argument heading down a rabbit hole but argument be damned, we forge ahead because one of us is going to “win”. Then the personal barbs are escalated to the point where we are neither eating in nor going out. We are physically going to starve to prove our respective points, and so while each of us just wants to eat, neither will because that will admit defeat on something that in the end made little difference, but meant both receiving food and sustenance. My only point to this example is when facts remain facts, or opinions remain opinions, or feelings remain feelings, it is civil because we each own our perception of facts, opinions or feelings. I am me, and she is her, and I am not her nor her me. Keep things to the civil and higher road and don’t digress into trying to tell me “how” I should view the facts, feel, or think. If the high road does not convince the other party to change their point of view, then agree to disagree and move on. As my wife loving used to tell me when our kids were smaller(30 years ago), no amount of threatening to whip them will convince them not to hit their younger sibling. That’s a paradox, as it only made “me” feel better to whip my son’s while shouting “ do not hit your brother”. Age has allowed me to see her wisdom, just as it has to understand human nature, climbing the ladder in an argument, and when to fold my hand even though I hold a pair of aces. Just my 2 cents and worth about as much only if you value pennies or copper.

 

[sestoppelman]

The latest on a pet peeve of mine... I was right all along, they flew them in on the pretext of relieving pressure on border crossings, then claimed illegal crossing were down, duh, if you fly them in instead!

They now admit, that most of this was fraud ridden baloney, most of the so called vetting was a joke, and the whole thing was part of the Biden scam to flood the country with illegals.

We find out more everyday just how crooked the Biden admin really was. The worst ever!

MSN

 

[PHOENIX PHIL]

We haven't required a substantial military, and to have built and maintained one, especially post-1991, would have been a colossal waste of resources. Now that Russia is actively on its adventure in Ukraine, times changing.

Well yah of course, especially with the USA keeping it's military readiness so that it can respond immediately to a threat and give you the time required to manage threats in a reactive versus preventive manner.

Good grief man, you've just made the case for Trump demanding the other NATO countries uphold their defense spending to agreed upon levels.

 

[SaintPanzer]

Every Canadian spent over 7000$ more in your county last year than Americans spent in Canada. The numbers don’t lie you just choose to ignore them a country of 40 million trades within 63 billion of a country with 300 million more people. Try to find a better trade partner we’ll wait.

OK, I'll play silly games.

I mean, I can't even find a hockey stick anymore that says "Made In Canada", so that's part of the reason I'm not spending much money in Canada anymore.

I grew up on the border. I used to see a lot of Ontario license plates in the mall parking lot. A sales tax plus a Goods and Services Tax (GST), now combined into a Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) in the 15% range may have something to do with that. Couple the high taxes with the fact that 90% of the population lives within 100 miles of the border, and that may explain why a lot of people shop a bit further south.

Of course those economic numbers include mass production products... But just as one example, while a lot of potash seems to head south, while Honda Canada makes the Civic and the CR-V, things like the Odyssey, Passport, Pilot and Ridgeline are made in Alabama. That may skew the numbers a bit. In Toyota land, the RAV4 and its Lexus equivalent seem to be assembled in Canada, but the engines seem to have a bit more of a southern accent as well.

Yet none of my CCM or Bauer gear have made in Canada labels anymore.

Oh, and while we're on the subject, I don't choose to pay much attention to comments regarding authoritarianism from a place that suspends the Charter of Rights and Freedoms based on the "emergency" of a bunch of truckers just wanting to do their job after it became obvious that a pandemic was mostly burned out, and not really the problem it was sold as in the first place. And it seems like maybe making China the preferred trading partner might be a permanent reminder of a temporary feeling (apologies to Jimmy Buffett). At least that's what I learned from most of my travels in Africa.

 

[Wheels]

Australia upset about "Trump's blatant foreign interference" in stopping funding of $600 million to Australian Universities. The obtuseness is mind blowing.

"The federal government must push back on the Trump administration's blatant foreign interference in our independent research in the strongest possible terms," NTEU president Alison Barnes said.

https://www.skynews.com.au/australia-news/prime-minister-urged-to-call-emergency-meeting-after-trump-administration-cuts-funding-to-seven-australian-universities/news-story/2849b3274db1cc6a1774b1991106b6da

 

[CJW]

We don't and haven't required US protection from anyone - presumably without the US we'd have pictures of Ho Chi Minh, Noriega, or Saddam Hussein on our money?

Well you had Castro Jr. as PM so there's that.

 

[Tubby’s Canteen]

OK, I'll play silly games.

I mean, I can't even find a hockey stick anymore that says "Made In Canada", so that's part of the reason I'm not spending much money in Canada anymore.

I grew up on the border. I used to see a lot of Ontario license plates in the mall parking lot. A sales tax plus a Goods and Services Tax (GST), now combined into a Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) in the 15% range may have something to do with that. Couple the high taxes with the fact that 90% of the population lives within 100 miles of the border, and that may explain why a lot of people shop a bit further south.

Of course those economic numbers include mass production products... But just as one example, while a lot of potash seems to head south, while Honda Canada makes the Civic and the CR-V, things like the Odyssey, Passport, Pilot and Ridgeline are made in Alabama. That may skew the numbers a bit. In Toyota land, the RAV4 and its Lexus equivalent seem to be assembled in Canada, but the engines seem to have a bit more of a southern accent as well.

Yet none of my CCM or Bauer gear have made in Canada labels anymore.

Oh, and while we're on the subject, I don't choose to pay much attention to comments regarding authoritarianism from a place that suspends the Charter of Rights and Freedoms based on the "emergency" of a bunch of truckers just wanting to do their job after it became obvious that a pandemic was mostly burned out, and not really the problem it was sold as in the first place. And it seems like maybe making China the preferred trading partner might be a permanent reminder of a temporary feeling (apologies to Jimmy Buffett). At least that's what I learned from most of my travels in Africa.

I don’t follow your argument I was addressing the supposed trade deficit and provided numbers. If you work the numbers out per capita every Canadian out spends every American by 7000 in the others respective country. Meaning 7000 more of my dollars went into boosting your economy than you returned. If Americans matched Canadians dollar for dollar in cross boarder spending the trade deficit would be 2.38 trillion more annually. So essentially it comes down to trump being pissed we have a smaller population. For some reason trump thinks it’s logical for a population of 40 million to match the spending of a population of 340 million. The fact that we only have a 63billion trade deficit should be impressive.

Those numbers are not based on peoples cross boarder shopping habits there based on import export in trade. I’m not sure your argument has any real bearing. I simply took the same numbers of import/export used to find the trade deficit and then divided it by the respective population of each country to find the per capita.

As for the authoritarian comments I’ll direct you back to Oxford the cat I believe he is the one who made the come your referencing or perhaps Brian. I’ve spoken out about our liberal government in the past and still have no love for them. The last couple years my father could work at all he drove truck, I had friends involved in that protest all be it in a iroc not a truck. The majority of truckers we know were/are log haulers.

 

[Scott CWO]

We haven't required a substantial military, and to have built and maintained one, especially post-1991, would have been a colossal waste of resources. Now that Russia is actively on its adventure in Ukraine, times changing.

We don't and haven't required US protection from anyone - presumably without the US we'd have pictures of Ho Chi Minh, Noriega, or Saddam Hussein on our money?

In reality, the only credible threat to our sovereignty is and ever has been the US. And that relationship is souring. Will be an interesting four years.

The USA convinced Russia to sell us Alaska and leave the Far North. That’s why you’ve been protected.

As for conservative Americans, we would gladly accept Alberta, the Yukon, Nunavut, Saskatchewan, Newfoundland, Labrador and most of BC as new states but I, for one, wouldn’t offer statehood to most of Quebec or Ontario so I guess you’re okay! Lol.

 

[Tubby’s Canteen]

The USA convinced Russia to sell us Alaska and leave the Far North. That’s why you’ve been protected.

As for conservative Americans, we would gladly accept Alberta, the Yukon, Nunavut, Saskatchewan, Newfoundland, Labrador and most of BC as new states but I, for one, wouldn’t offer statehood to most of Quebec or Ontario so I guess you’re okay! Lol.

Convinced Russia to sell? In the aftermath of the Crimean war the czar was looking to recoup some capital to work with and off load and otherwise undefendable territory. I’ll grant you America is defending the barring sea but that is in your own interest as or more than Canadas your defending your own resource rich territory.

 

[LivingTheDream]

reality, the only credible threat to our sovereignty is and ever has been the US. And that relationship is souring. Will be an interesting

I might be naive but I don't see that scenario at all. I would be much more concerned about China as being a threat to Canada. But I am not Canadian and not sure what information you guys get.

I did read an article sometime ago, that Canada in their war game planning considered a US Civil War with the West Coast joining Canada. I think that was in 2020. How much of that is actually real, I will never know but found it interesting.

For what it is worth and this is just my opinion, we have a lot of retired or about to retire people who have a lot of time to think about worse case scenarios. It seems to me when dealing with Private Equity boards the oldest guys usually have the most extreme worst case scenario questions. I think most people are just trying to live their lives and provide for their families, there is a bunch of noise but very little actual action.