@newtboy,

A company cancelling a multi-billion dollar project means multi-billion dollars not spent on the work of the project, that many jobs out of the economy. Exactly the same as a car manufacturer shutting down for a week, by your logic nothing was lost, the company just stopped spending money for a couple days...

I only support the groups right to protest, and not to illegally block roads or borders. I stand by my wish is for their prompt arrest when illegal blocking roads, borders or places of business.

That said, I believe it also wrong of me to fail to point out that our federal government has continually refused to act as I would wish in promptly shutting down illegal blockades. This is the very first instance were they've shown any interest in a prompt police enforced end, and they've in fact jump much further to invoking a declaration of national emergency so they can also target protesters bank accounts directly and without court orders.

An analogy would be someone that supports arresting people for possession of marijuana. The government then proceeds to only selectively enforce that law, say only acting to make arrests when people are a particular creed or color. It's perfectly consistent to believe the government arrests are wrong and unfair, and to NOT support them, while at the same time still believing the idea of the rule applied fairly being a good idea.

One side is about what I think the line for protest should be:
-I believe the right to protest should be independent of creed or belief, and should only be restricted when actions taken are illegal.(Ideally illegal being defined as impeding on freedoms of others)

By that, the convoy blockade of border or streets should have led to immediate arrests.

In the eye of fairness though, the last two years have already seen at a minimum 3 major protests, that included illegal blockades of work sites and railways and those were ALL allowed to run for weeks and in 2 cases months. The government of the day even tripped over themselves to message their support for the overall causes of the protestors.

In that light, it's wrong to simply ignore the fact that the first protest that is likely to vote conservative is the ONLY one where the government immediately condemns everything about them and feels compelled to intervene urgently.

Churches were literally burning last summer, and our PM's public statements spent most of their time sympathizing with the anger before pleading that burning churches isn't helpful. Where'd all that compassion for folks that you disagree with go when it meant a small number of downtown Ottawa business shutdown and horns honking go. Now our PM invokes terrorizing of the populace.

Trudeau's actions have been distressingly similar to Trump's as the division in our country grows, he's using his words to reach out to the extreme end of his side of the aisle, while tossing gasoline and vitriol onto his opposition. It's making things worse in the worst possible way when we need leaders uniting instead of stoking further division.

@newtboy,

Finally we're talking about my Canada .

I'm agreed with calling 90% of what the convoy and truckers are protesting as being misguided, ill informed or flat out wrong. That however shouldn't be what the right to protest is based upon.

The extent of the protestors illegal activity seems to have been blocking of roadways and borders. Which in Canada isn't exactly new:
-Blockading of roads to logging work sites to "protect old growth forest"
-Blockading of roads pipeline construction sites
-Blockading of transportation highways and railroads

In the past 2 years alone, those various sites have seen blockades ranging from weeks to months. In virtually every single one of those instances the Liberal government went out to meet and negotiate with the protestors while allowing them to continue for weeks to months. In one of the biggest protests Trudeau himself went to meet with the groups in person. Trudeau has a video of himself praising the farmer convoy and blockades in India, declaring his government will always defend the right of groups to protest.(those groups blocked multiple border crossings)

This time though, Trudeau started out with insulting, ridiculing and belittling the protestors. Within the first day of the protests, politicians and our national news corp in CBC were demanding an immediate end to the protests.

The protests that have seen comparable zero violence to the protests in the US in support of Floyd(which I support), where condemned repeatedly by the CBC and Trudeau as terrorizing the populace and inciting violence. For reference, Trudeau remained steadfast in support of the Floyd protestors right to protest.

The federal government essentially tried insults and ridicule to try and end this protest though, and when that didn't work they invoked a national emergency measures act that requires both:
-A threat to Canada's sovereignty
-A threat that can not be addressed by any other laws or means

The government then proceeded to empower themselves to not merely arrest protestors, but to freeze/seize the bank accounts of anyone considered to be supporting the protest, with no court oversight required.

The difference in how protestors are treated based upon what it is they are protesting is alarming and should be a red flag for anyone and everyone.

For reference, while these protests were going on, a pipeline worksite in BC that has been continually shut down by protests for the last several years was attacked in the night by a mob wielding machetes and axes. The workers and security were chased off and millions in damages were done to the site afterwards. Trudeau didn't feel the need to even address the incident though because he was to busy villianizing the convoy. The CBC media buried the incident under local BC news, and downplayed it as an 'alleged' incident, despite RCMP having responded and even having had an officer injured in the incident. CBC also emphasized there wasn't any verified connection to the ongoing protests against the pipeline...

When you look at the narrative, despite my disagreeing with the vast majority of what the convoy is wanting to say, I am disgusted by the attempt to remove their right to say it and everyone wanting to support a strong democracy with the right protest should feel the same.

My "accident avoidance system" is not driving into low opaque grey-orange zero-visibility clouds on icy roads...

When I was 15 riding my motorcycle on the road, I almost got ran over. My best estimate is that I miss getting ran over by 1/10 of a second. I did get banged up.

The guy was 92 and sued for damages. Went to arbitration and his layer showed but the guy had died from being old. The case was dismissed.

I still ride but this is always in my mind. It did change the way I ride.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_traffic-related_death_rate surprised me at first:

Indonesia: 15.3 road deaths/100,000 inhabitants/year
Bangladesh: 13.6 road deaths/100,000 inhabitants/year

However:

Indonesia: 36.7 road deaths/100,000 motor vehicles/year
Bangladesh: 1020.6 road deaths/100,000 motor vehicles/year

A dollar has value if you can buy shit for a dollar.

Gold likewise has no exchange value if you cant exchange it for goods and services. Its rare and chemically stable and good for memorial coins, has many technical uses and looks cute, but otherwise it hardly matters what symbol for money you choose. There is 200 years of experience with fiat money and gold and silver standards and fiat money has been better, not just usually better or better in some scenario, universally better.

Symbolic money is practical and facilitates quicker turn around prevents deflation makes speculative runs on currency harder and smoothes the economic bumps in the road in general.

GDP is just a metric. Not a bad one but not the actual goal.

USofA is teh most developed. Should have used growing. Deflation in an economy that is growing kills growth.

Restarting countries not only get to ignore their debts, they immediatelly start borrowing again.

The only countries that dont borrow are countries no-one will lend to and countries so rich in some silly resource they can float high in the international currency system without borrowing. Borrowing is good for bussiness.

What is outrageous idiotic bullshit? Believing pegging the value of your paper note to some hoarded luxury makes it a better representation of the mean value of goods and services bought and sold? I could do without gold except for the jacks on my audio cables (just kidding). It does not matter what I exchange for food and gas, if it gets me food and gas, its good money.

Money is what you can pay taxes with. Do they take gold?

If you insist your dollar has the value of some weight of gold how does that influence the willingness of someone else to sell you shit? Unless they specifically intend to buy gold at a fixed price they dont care. They are going to use your dolar to buy some other shit from someone else. So if you take the actual currency out of the equation, when you decide on buying and selling shit you are intuitively comparing that decision with all the other decisions about buying and sellin that you know of. The currency is just a good way to count the measure of usefullness of a product or service and compare among many. Pebbles, bottletops, dollars, gold, pearls, all just a number.

A dollar could be backed by gold or it could not, this has zero impact on the transactions made. What matters is how many transactions are made, at what value, and how much money is available to the entire marketplace in a given period of time. Transactions quickly pass the ability of a gold standard to keep up. If you want a gold standard you have to slow transactions down because you dont have the money for them.

This is why markets need some regulation, otherwise someone might sell the universe twice and then default on one. But a gold standard, at least the type of gold standard I believe was talked about in this thread as a miracle cure, would be too limiting.

I mean not if I had a tank escort clearing the road for us.
I did off road desert racing for years, driving >75 mph through silt clouds so thick I couldn’t see my hood, but those drivers are nuts!

I was in downtown Toronto when this happened... middle of afternoon power drops and I left work... was closest thing to a zombie movie I've ever experienced... luckily I was close to freeway and was on the road so quickly... but looking down off the Gardiner Expressway I could see the city surface streets were just completely packed with cars and electric streetcars blocking up all the uncontrolled intersections... no one could get to the freeway and it was just me driving up there... then later when I had to go back downtown at night to find someone, the freeways had cars that had run out of gas scattered along the sides the whole way there.. unreal.

No, because I don’t think I should get to do business in America for free while the destitute pay taxes. It’s immoral and unethical. Period.

As a state government, it’s my duty to see that everyone gets equal treatment. Most states refused to give Musk tax free status.
Much like saying you can rent a room in your poor parents house, or you can stay there for free and just watch them struggle to eat and keep the lights on while you save up for your third Ferrari. I say it’s immoral to not pay them rent, you say it’s dumb to not take advantage.

Tx tax for Musk is 0%. Like saying if you can pay for service or get it and not pay, wouldn’t you walk away from your bill?

Austin has become a total shit show since Musk showed up. They REALLY could have used those taxes for uncountable things, starting with massive homelessness to police to crumbled roads to electrical and water systems that don’t quit in the cold….

No, if I were Musk, I would not do the same. I like America and don’t see it as a piggy bank to rob, Musk not so much? He would jump to China if they paid him enough, and you would cheer.

The real bob stood up.

You aren’t for assistance for the homeless, you insist you should get the same handout, for the same period of time, despite having no need. You just erased the positive comment above I think someone else made using your account.

You know 1/2 or more would use it up early, then need assistance later.

The “strings” are things like prove you applied to at least one job per day AND do community service until you’re employed. Barriers to getting your shit together and, for many, barriers to applying.

Who gets to determine who qualifies as disabled?

Republicans ARE assholes and you have chronic dependence already in the form of tax breaks (to the point of zero taxes) for their businesses, massive corporate welfare outpacing personal welfare exponentially, use of public services despite not paying for them (roads, ports, police, etc).
If you use ANYTHING the government provides but don’t pay taxes (or minimal taxes equating to 5-10%) you are chronically dependent on government welfare. That describes every Republican business owner I’ve ever known, not one wanted to pay a dime to keep his nation healthy if they could possibly avoid it.

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The FAA is up there with the TSA, DHS and the NSA as far as TLAs you should NEVER piss-off.

I got pulled over by DHS while I was driving through North Cascades National Park a few years ago. They weren't even marked trucks. One pulled ahead of me, the second one was right on my rear bumper and the "PULL OVER NOW!" was like the voice of God.

I was going camping and they made me pull every fucking thing out of my Subie. Then they went through it all. They confiscated my two pre-rolls and my pipe ("you're on Federal land"), then they called "backup". I sat on the side of the road at Newhalem for about two hours while they dug through all my stuff like a half-dozen times and kept asking me the same stupid-ass questions ("why are you here", "do you know anyone in this area?", "have you ever been arrested for a crime in the US or abroad?") over and over. People where driving by and looking at me and my wife like we were the whitest ISIS fighters ever.

They gave me the ol' "You're free to go" and drove off.

Fuckers took my dope!!

Poor Bob.
Every case of voter fraud found I’ve heard of was committed by a Republican bar one, a Democrat who’s husband died but she cast his vote anyway….for Trump. That’s 399 Republican cases, one semi-Democrat….or as you say, both sides….good people on both sides. 🤦‍♂️

Yes, I’ve had enough Republican voter fraud, schemes from single fraudulent votes to ballot harvesting and changing to schemes to throw out millions of votes based on Republican lies and false claims. Voter ID doesn’t address any of the fraud that actually happens.

Remember Trump’s national commission looking at voter fraud, the voting integrity commission….from 2017!? Remember how it quietly disappeared because they couldn’t find ANY fraud? Back then Trump said he would make certain there wasn’t any fraud going forward….what happened? That seemed vitally important to you people. Did he just forget? Did he fail miserably? Or did he make up the fraud fraud because his ego can’t accept that he lost in a historic landslide?

That said, under 400 possible cases nation wide, barely any in person frauds at all, none capable of changing the outcome of any elections (well, there actually was a mayoral race I read was overturned because of one fraudulent vote scheme by one candidate, but that wasn’t in person and the system caught it) …that is absolutely not a reason to disenfranchise millions of voters (I remind you that’s exactly what Republicans called for when you lost in 2020…just throw out any votes in areas where you claimed an individual fraud, invariably areas where Democrats won). It’s not a reason to put up road blocks that disenfranchise millions by putting poll taxes and hurdles in place.

I support a voter ID, if the ID is free and obtainable by anyone regardless of their documentation….but that makes it worthless. If the ID costs money, that’s a poll tax, and illegal. If the requirements to get the ID cost money, that’s a poll tax and out. If the affluent can obtain the ID easily, but the indigent have to spend a day or more in line to get one, no. Issue free national ID to everyone, including homeless, then it’s not too much of an obstacle. I think voting should be an obligation for every citizen over 18…I’ve never skipped an election even though I rarely like who I can vote for.

I point out that a voter ID law would do almost nothing to combat any fraud, because in person fraud isn’t the issue. Falsely claiming fraud is the issue. Republicans trying to defraud the system with fraudulent electors is a problem. Republicans harvesting mail in ballots from the elderly and filling them in for Republican candidates is a problem. Voter ID doesn’t address these problems, the real election fraud issues with real consequences, instead they target the poor with clear intent to dissuade them from exercising their rights, effectively blocking millions of votes from fear one invalid vote might be cast. That is the intent, and the result…not election security, but massive vote denials of a targeted population.

How about imagining requiring a firearm ID, required to buy, own, or possess a firearm, with fees, renewal fees, and documentation requirements to obtain….oh wait, I don’t have to, someone in congress suggested it (in the 90’s I think) and the right lost it’s fucking mind over the draconian government trampling their rights…but similar requirements to vote, sure, that’s fine because the ID they already have is acceptable….fuck the rights of people who don’t have a drivers license.
In person voter fraud is not an issue, voter ID solves a problem that doesn’t exist and creates a major problem for millions….intentionally.

His ratings are crappy largely because he’s not doing enough, not because of what he’s done. He needs to replace Garland with someone willing to prosecute sedition against representatives and ex presidents. They’re in the shitter because 35% (you) automatically disapprove simply because he’s not Trump, and 35% disapprove because he’s not replacing Trump era policy enough. I’m in the latter category, as are most people I know, but we understand that without congress functioning there’s little he can do, and Republicans have the practical majority even though they’re the minority on paper. Keep killing off right wingers and maybe that will change this year, but I’m not holding my breath.

Lol. Failed economy? Sorry, Trump is the one who gave us a negative GDP, tens of millions unemployed, and an unmitigated pandemic with a cadre of morons unwilling to believe in it or take any safety measures to combat it. My portfolio lost 8-10% over 4 years under Trump, it gained over 30% in one year under Biden. If that’s failing, keep failing! GDP near -3% in 2020…+4% 2021…predicted to be 9% 2022. -3%!!! And you want to talk economy?! You fucktard.
Inflation….Trump printed 1/3 of every dollar circulating! That’s what causes inflation, you devalue the dollar when you print more. The market takes time to react….there’s going to be more coming to pay for Trump’s spending spree. Dumbass.
Covid! You’ve got to be fucking kidding me! Covid is a right wing (Trump) caused issue, made much worse by far right insanity of denial and conspiracy, and now nearly all hospitalization and death is anti vaxers, who are nearly all far right nutters that followed Trump’s “lead” and who’s heads exploded when he recently told them to get vaccinated. Look at “leftist” countries like New Zealand to compare a leftist government’s response results. (52 deaths). Moron.

Trump’s tax rates didn’t improve unemployment rates, or the economy. They didn’t trickle down. Growth went negative under those cuts, unemployment went to double digits! Debt and deficit went into orbit, rising faster than ever by miles….but that didn’t matter one whit to you when it was Republican debt and deficit, a much worse Republican economy, and insanely higher Republican unemployment rates. Idiot.

Holy fuck. Talk about ignoring reality. What color is the sky in your world? Is the ocean in the air with fish swimming overhead there?!