cannuck

My problem with going cashless is that it takes to the extreme the ability of banksters to charge whatever they want to your account, each transaction, or for access to the system. Just a socialism fails due to the greed of those granted privilege, capitalism has deteriorated greatly because we have granted virtually unlimited privilege for financial institutions to have an unregulated orgy of greed - with we peons as the ultimate victims. Also: what I find doubly alarming is that consumers/taxpayers do not seem to realize that increasing the money supply in ANY form is increasing the debt to the taxpayers to make good on the value of whatever the chosen marker might be. We let the Casino Capitalist side of finance redistribute TRILLION$$ into their world of synthetic instruments through this privilege of unregulated (and often unknown) financial activity.

It is every bit as "Canadian" as GM or Ford is "American" or Volkswagen is "German". Just think Ford, Durant, Stronach.

But, no one company moreso that Magna - that is very international and very Canadian (although now traded NYSE as well as TSE).

The largest independent supplier of automotive sub-assemblies (to the world, I believe) is...wait for it...Canadian (Stronach). In spite of the massive difference in population the automobile trade is much more in balance, as it is at the OEM and tier 1 supplier level, not consumer only.

irrelevant amounts compared with what we sell to and buy from the US. Latest numbers I could easily find were for 2012, not that much different today I expect. Table 26 Major goods trading partners, 2010 Exports Imports Trade balance $ millions Total 404,834 413,833 -8,999 United States 296,672 259,953 36,719 Japan 9,717 10,067 -351 United Kingdom 16,986 9,561 7,425 Other European Union countries 19,476 30,788 -11,313 Other OECD countries 17,908 29,013 -11,105 Other countries 44,076 74,451 -30,375 Note: Balance of payments basis. Source: Statistics Canada, CANSIM table 228-0003.

Because we don't sell diddly squat to Uganda or China. We share an economy with an elephant that is 10x our size and by far our dominant markeplace. That is reality.

Hmmm. Let me see: the US industry is where that vast majority of cars and trucks are made and sold on this continent, and those we make are exported in great quantities into that market. So we - a deficit financed nation that depends on exports for the preciously small value added component of our resources are supposed to create a complete new set of rules different from our primary market? Why? Just so we can employ more left-leaning (and voting) bureaucrats? Or just because you think our taxes are not high enough and we are doing too much export business now?

If we spent as much time, money and effort solving the problems of sick care instead of naval gazing over metrics, politics and the rest of the BS, we might not be in such bad shape. BTW: for reference - my niece's Mother-in-law died this week in the waiting line. Since she is an OBG (and her husband a DDS), pretty much tells you that not even being "inside" the system can solve your family's sick care problems.

To show you just how dogmatic the current federal socialist party is about sick care, you will notice Phillpot attacking Saskatchewan's simple solution to MRI wait times. We allow a private MRI to be done by a private, fee-for-service clinic, and in exchange, the clinic must provide one matching MRI for free to the public waiting line. Simple, effective, cost the taxpayer nothing - but SAVES the taxpayer an amount equal to every private MRI performed. On top of that: does what the federal idiots can not seem to do - dramatically reduces wait times for EVERYONE. What seems to be well beyond Phillpot and Trudeau's obviously limited intellectual capacity is that all of those people who are freely choosing to buy private MRI services are going to do this anyhow. If they can not do it at home, they will go to AB or MN or wherever else they can find a free country to support with their $$$$. I suppose it is in honour the JT's idol's death this week that they are now attacking everything and anything that Castro would not have approved.

Good discussion so far, but there is one thing missing on the coal front. The genre of truly mindless tree hugging seems to need some incredibly simplistic theme to carry on their war against common sense. It has been consistent: all nuke = bad, all pipelines = bad, all coal = bad - when in reality, the associated technologies have most of the answers to accomplish for real much of what this misguided mindset thinks will come from bottling unicorn farts. Let's start with the real elephant in the corner of the room. Most of these so-called "green" technologies are all centered around continuing to live exactly as we do - wasting energy, resources, our future at an astounding, and totally unsustainable rate. Part of it is population based, and a good bit more is based upon the expectation of each emerging economy to be just like the developed nations who set the pace of waste and excess. Each newly developing economy - China now, India tomorrow and Africa next week - will duplicate exactly what we did (rape and pillage resources in a filthy mess of low-tech emissions). Until we gain the sense to deal with these issues, the rest is not that important - it is only going to delay the inevitable. So, if we keep on down this road of trashing the technologies we know to cling to some that are very tenuous at best, we will trash the economies that have to work well to be able to afford the real solutions that MUST be found. We can't waste our opportunity to avoid the inevitable instead of just delaying it. It is not about using nuclear power, petroleum resources or transporting them in the safest way possible (i.e. pipelines), it is in HOW we use these resources and how much of them we continue to use. Nuclear tech is in the process of commercializing technologies that will cut spent fuel down more than 100 fold and operate fail-safe. Clean coal technologies already exist, but hardly anyone actually uses them. Just as we have dropped automobile emissions dramatically, we can cause the same to happen from coal fired plants by simply requiring the emissions to meet regulatory standards that will need full blown CCT. The CO2 side is easy - sequestration. BTW: if you ever wonder why Brad Wall is so much in Trudeau's face over this carbon tax thing, there is really only ONE coal plant in the world that is using every available clean coal technology - and it is Saskpower's Boundary Dam retrofit. Yes, it has cost a great deal of money, and no, it is not yet fully operational - but no project that is breaking this much new ground ever gets built without some complications. The thing is, when you realize how many new coal fired plants are being built around the world, if you want to have any real environmental impact, you/we need to spend our time, money and vision on solving the problems that are real and current, not tilting at windmills (sorry for the alternate energy joke, but it was irresistible). In the megawatt + wind turbine business, for instance, Canada is not even a bit player. But, we (and I mean the "we" in Saskatchewan) are ideally positioned to lead the world in CCT technology - since this is the first place with the balls to put the cash on the line to do it full scale. Let the countries that have the cash or who are willing to bankrupt their grandchildren's future chase down the holy grail of alternatives. We need to use a bit of common sense and just take advantage of the reality that is right before us and solve the problems that fit into the current reality of the infrastructure we have.

Since this cartoon character from Reality TV is now the titular head of the largest economy and military force on Earth, I think about 7 billion people care. Regarding Air Force One: I believe that ANY aircraft occupied by the President uses the call sign AF1, so it is conceivable that his own airplane, left as a civilian bizjet could indeed BE AF1 on some occasions, just as are several military rotorcraft now..

You are kidding, right? Or do you not consider Syria, Iraq and Iran part of the Middle East (and I understand if you are geographically challenged)? The war for the resource $$ of EEC between the Saudis and Russia is also a huge part of what is going on there (and in the rest of the petro world).

Had a very busy summer, so haven't been able to check in. Besides, I was having so much fun watching reality TV bid for the Whitehouse, there wasn't much time for much of anything else. Now, I will start out by stating that there is no doubt in my mind that Donald Trump is an a$$hole, and an arrogant one at that, but the last thing I would accuse him of being is stupid. After all, he just showed the entire world how a single a-hole could tie the news media of the world to his bow and play them like a fiddle. He did much of this by saying the same things we hear in locker rooms, pubs, cars, etc. from a huge portion of the US (and other) population. It may shock the pants off of the politically correct around the world, but they are simply is NOT who the vast majority of the people emmulate. They COULD, however, identify with Trump - even though he is a billionaire developer, not a blue collar worker. To slap the intellectually challenged talking heads around is one thing, but to school the entirety of the Uniparty, now that is something else. They were all so busy listening to each other, they completely missed what is actually going on on Main Street throughout the USA. The only economic recovery has been on Wall Street, not in the real world. Only Bernie Sanders really got that part, and I am not sure Trump sees it that way, but he certainly read the people far better than any other candidate. What will a Trump USA be like? Well, IF (and this is a big if) he can tackle the abuse that the US has inflicted upon itself by participating in trade that is very one-sided, that could at least start the ball rolling to put Americans back to work (the ones who actually create wealth, not the coastal, dependent populations in their academic ivory towers, government offices and public housing). I doubt he can put much of a dent in some of the largest schools of parasites (world of finance, army of ambulance chasers, business of sick care, etc.) but at least some of them are trembling in their boots. Not sure how he can expect to deliver much in the line of promises on the heels of an administration that ran up more debt in 8 short years than the rest of all governments in the total history of the USA combined, but let's see if he can hire the smarts to pull that off. Reality is that the US can not afford to continue doing what it has been doing for the last 30 years. Someone has to actually go to work and MAKE some money, instead of just shuffling it back and fourth to play silly games. On the foreign policy side: Even Putin will have to stop and think twice. He has had the luxury of a weak-kneed administration for quite some time now, and with a very loose cannon at the helm, I hope he will think twice about continuing to rub the US nose into the middle eastern crap pile he has created (with a little help from the US, I might add). I have trouble with anyone who has not created any wealth (as a developer, casino guy, etc. Trump has not) but the rest of the US economy does not necessarily see him through my rather idealistic and rose coloured glasses. I sat up watching all election night, laughing my arse off. BUT: within three days, my WY office reported that the semis were lined up along the Interstate moving the materials to put the patch back to work. Even job postings for major service companies started to appear in spite of no real change in resource pricing. It is going to be an interesting next four years, for sure. I wish Mr. Trump and the people of the USA the very best (and I mean that sincerely). Too bad we have a half-wit at the helm North of 49 that will pretty much lock us out of any opportunities the US may present.

I am puzzled by the racism thing: we are all descended from the same "race" as I understand it. Evolution selected varying skin colours for adaptation reasons, I suspect related to geography more than anything else. While I am descended (referring to the last, brief thousand or so years) mostly from Northern European tribes, as is my wife, our children are entitled to a treaty number. I don't believe I have ANY Arabic lineage, but the two most beautiful women I have ever seen are 100% SE of the Mediterranean. While I might culturally believe that we all have some kind of reproductive preference for our own race, the big lump in my jeans tells me otherwise.

This is an astute observation, and I think one that is lost on most pundits. If this is true (and I suspect it has some accuracy) of not just deligates, but voters in general, they may well be what it takes to push The Donald into the Whitehouse. That would be far better for the US than BIllary continuing the policies that are leaving the country going nowhere, and if this voting block can bring some pressure to bear, open debate as to what Wall Street does that is so bad for the economy and investment climate in the US and indeed the world.

No, Wall Street is doing just fine. Main Street is pretty much screwed. You obviously don't live there or own any business there. As per hyperinflation: it remains pent up as long as the Greenback enjoys defacto hegemony. So many other central banks are full of $$ from US trade and even then denominate their securities and commodities in USD that at every sign of slippage, they have to jump in and buy, buy, buy or risk wiping out their own net worth. Keep in mind China is very busy at building a shiny new currency that will ultimately trump (now THAT's a Yankee Doodle Dandy word, eh!?) the Greenback.

Yeah, I took a bit of the license with "all that is left", but reality is that the US is NOT improving its output, China came from out of nowhere and in two decades ate our lunch, and India is poised to take their place. The US will never be what it was (as in not only on top of the heap, but a mile ahead of any other competing nation) even with what miracle The Donald thinks he can pull off, since the rest of the world has done a much better job of modernizing their industry.

and, during all of that time the US had a business economy that produced things. The ONLY way you can create wealth is by adding value to a resource or delivering a service required to do so. EVERYTHING else is merely wealth re-distribution, and that is all that is left in the US - Casino Capitalism re-distributing money from the equities table to the derivatives table with a roll of the dice at the commodities table in between. On the other side of the coin: over a hundred trillion in entitlement obligations that are and will continue forever to be unfunded. The measley $5 trillion (in today's dollars) for WWII was a bargain - especially when you realized all of those $$$ were used to bomb the US competitors in trade into rubble - leaving the field clear for the next 20 years for the US to win, win, win at trade (even if they didn't do so well with those pesky little "police actions" in Korea and Vietnam). The Obama idea of just printing more cash works just fine until all of the pent-up inflationary forces are released. Just remember the Weimar Republic and you get a pretty good picture of the Clinton Republic as it would play out on the current course of policy. Trump, for all of his considerable imperfections, is the best bet the Yanks have today of ever changing direction. They are circling around in the bottom of the toilet right now - and one would be a fool not to recognize that.

CONSERVATIVES in Canada? That's a laugh. Red Tories might as well be part of the Yankee Uniparty, as any semblance of conservatism is long dead there, never existed here. And, NO - fundamentalist religious fruitcakes are not conservatives, they are just right wing idiots. The last actual conservative cabinet member here was Erik Nielsen - and just remember what happened to him when he went after the bureaucrats, waste and mismanagement. In Ottawa, mismanagement is seen as Miss Management, the insperational and aspirational poster on ever bureaucrat's locker door. Watch old re-runs of "yes Minister" if you wish to learn how we run government here. I think they call this the "British Parliamentary System" or something like that.

The meltdown will come when they can no longer sustain $19 trillion in debt and growing. It is a failed state - but one with a huge credit card - since the central bank can just try to print their way out of trouble with little fear of mass inflation (due to Greenback hegemony)

I, too was hoping for a Sanders win, which would have made it tough to endorse Trump. If you tell me you built a factory, and from that factory, you built widgets, you have my respect. BUT: when you brag about building yet another blood and scum sucking office tower, you have created nothing of any value, in fact you have devalued your country. Wall Street and the mass of useless tits in the speculative game of Casino Capitalism are the problem, not the solution. BUT: since it is between a genuine business guy (even though I disagree with his "product") a lying (******* *****), I'll be glad to give The Donald my nod (can't vote, Canadian citizen, but all of our employees can and WILL be voting the Trump. You see, we produce things.

You can rest assured that I don't confuse compressive with tensile loading. The fallacy is that bonded rebar will carry tensile loads, and that is only true for pre-stressed tendons (or of course unbonded post tensioned tendons) before they cause tensile failure of the concrete (which they will, 100% guaranteed). They only carry tensile loads of a failed structure. Intelligent tensile re-enforcement relies on bonded tendons with Young's modulus that does not result in the tensile strain load being routed through the concrete, without such great affinity to corrode in a flash (and place concrete matrix in tension when it exfoliates as well as creating a corrosion cell to accelerate failure of the entire tendon) and has similar co-efficient of thermal expansion.

Sunny Ways is just doing what he is constitutionally permitted to do. If you don't want jurists from the left, don't elect governments from the left. If you want some kind of judiciary that is focused on the law instead of the perceived intent as interpreted today, change the various acts under which appointments are made - or far better - change our political system to be representative instead of partisan.

I don't care how much PC crap an arts course spins, what is important is that the student learn enough about the thought process to be able to evaluate the material presented and either accept or reject it based upon understanding the concepts. When a student (the vast majority) arrives for the purpose of graduating instead of learning, their minds are sufficiently closed to be able to swallow the BS without question. What was the point of this "universal education" if they don't learn to learn, evaluate, analyse? It is not just the institution, but the culture we have created that worships ignorance without question - in fact celebrates it (notice: I said that without once mentioning religion or stick-and-ball sports? - proud of my restraint). Want a perfect example? How incredibly ignorant would one have to be to design and build infrastructure in a manner that 100% guarantees that it will fail prematurely? Well, civil engineers are just those ignorami. They spend four years playing bridge and getting stoned only to take away without question the moronic practice of placing steel rebar into concrete - thus causing premature failure of virtually ever bridge, edifice, etc. built over the last century or so. Had they been taught to think, one quick recollection of high school history would make it dawn on them that intelligently designed concrete structures have been standing just fine for more than two millenia.

Uh...the first settlers followed the receding glaciers over 15,000 years ago. Nordic settlers predated froggy by quite a bit. By your standard, our official second language should be Inuktitut.