SpankyMcFarland

We’ll have to agree to disagree on amelioration. That doesn’t mean any further delay on adaptation. All major political parties have to agree now to move ASAP to save what we can of our forests. These fires will only get worse.

It is possible to tackle the megafires themselves and the fundamental cause of such megafires simultaneously. I’m as least as anxious as anybody on the right to direct our national resources to saving what we can of our forests.

OK, I think we are both arguing for more spending and action on wildfires. No sensible person believes a carbon tax on its own will sort out our wildfire problem. I am merely pointing out that we cannot know how bad this problem will get, humility in the face of our ignorance being the prudent position to take, and whether we will be able to stop a dramatic escalation in its extent. However, we should do everything in our power to stop such a leap.

The big national story of 2023, what looks like our worst wildfire season in Canadian history, is receiving rather fitful attention on this forum. Across the country, forest fires are adding alarmingly to our greenhouse gas emission bill. Another problem: the new megafires are often too intense to fight with current technology: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/26/opinion/climate-canada-wildfires-emissions.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare In wildfires we are looking at one of the many positive feedback loops that may take man-made climate change out of human control.

Well, he did make it work for 18 years. I doubt we’ll be asking him to do that for Canada. A lot of older people have been through a divorce personally or in their family at this stage. Some get divorced late in life. It’s a commonplace thing now.

Divorce isn’t the scandal it used to be. As a bona fide celeb couple, their split will generate a lot of attention. I don’t think it will be a major factor in the next election unless some related stories of a salacious type emerge that reflect poorly upon him.

Long-term the war is a disaster for Russia. The more Ukrainian land it takes, the bigger the problem it will have. Excluded from Europe, it must bring its begging bowl to China and accept whatever harsh conditions are offered. This is what happens when you let a not very bright ex-spy run your country into the ground for more than twenty years.

The top 20% of income earners are mostly people who can’t afford an army of lawyers, accountants and other minions to hide their wealth. When you start looking inside the top 1% by assets rather than income, the seriously rich, you will find elaborate ‘tax vehicles’, meetings with politicians and even boutique changes in the law to reduce their tax burden. I would like to see stronger enforcement of our existing laws rather than any further attempt to increase the tax on high-income earners who are sitting ducks for this kind of thing. The tax law should be followed no matter the cost. As it is, the government has to hide shameful deals with tax outlaws to save its blushes: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/kpmg-isle-of-man-taxes-house-commons-finance-committee-1.6047111 Things don’t seem to have changed very much in the interim. Here’s a report from two years ago. https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/kpmg-isle-man-tax-shelter-shell-companies-1.6014745

Stalin was many things. Psychotic wasn’t one of them. And these charges are in no way frivolous.

It’s truly sad. How can people not see what Trump is? Politics is merely a means to power and money for him.

NYC was always too much for me on my visits. Driving the Long Island Expressway was a nightmare. Unlike the song, I noticed that out in Flushing it is very much a city that sleeps and early too. Some of the train stations were utterly deserted by the time I got back from Manhattan. Everyone was knackered and preparing for another early morning in the rat race.

It’s also exacerbated by planning and zoning restrictions preventing greater density of housing. However, there are some signs that nimbyism may have peaked down there: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/28/opinion/new-york-housing-crisis.html

Isn’t that the problem in many Democratic cities, though? I know it’s a side effect of success, and rampant nimbyism that politicians are terrified to take on, but sky high house prices are helping to drive out even well off people from the likes of NYC. https://www.cnbc.com/2022/10/07/rich-young-professionals-fleeing-california-and-new-york.html If you don’t stop this you’ll end up with a hollowed out city of the poor, the mega-rich and accidental millionaire boomers who’ve done nothing more than sit in their corduroys while their assets inflate. I’m currently watching a series about a particularly nasty example of racial nimbyism in Yonkers way back when, Show Me a Hero: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Show_Me_a_Hero

The US shouldn’t have invaded Iraq - a terrible mistake by a country traumatized by 9/11. Russia’s invasion is justified by pre-WWI imperialist thinking. Putin is stuck in a time warp, talking about a military assault from Europe that exists only in his head. The real threat to his rotten regime is a free Ukraine - the example of East Slavs right next door embracing democracy and the rule of law. That is what he can’t stand.

There’s the rub. We could see an abrupt escalation in global temperatures causing the deaths of millions and there will still be a debate here about whether man-made climate change is real.

The basic problem PP has is this: left-wing extremists have scary ideas; right-wing extremists are scary people. The hostility in their rhetoric is much more personal. This is why JT will constantly look to highlight such angry loopers in Tory ranks.

For decades, one relentless trend in our country has been the gathering of power in the hands of the PMO. Parliament and the Cabinet are becoming a sideshow.

Is killing the CBC your solution to everything? In the greater scheme of things it’s neither here nor there. And in 1967, countries like the UK, Germany, France and Japan were still recovering from the catastrophe of WWII which barely touched us - not a good year to start this comparison.,

75 seems a reasonable age limit and 25 years more than enough time in any parliament. America has so many constitutional problems that are coming home to roost. Incumbents in the US have a huge advantage and there seems to be no appetite to primary people who are clearly too old for the job. Fortunately, the political parties in many other democracies carry a healthy dose of ageism. Any 70+ candidate for the Lib or Con leadership in Canada would stand no chance now and rightly so. People of that age, even when mentally sound, have difficulty understanding the nuances of contemporary life.

I would regard that as a separate issue. We had a fair bit of it in the past before Harper in both parties. Few successful British PMs were tossed overboard before Brexit screwed everything up. Blair had done a long stint, perhaps longer than he had promised to do, before Brown replaced him. What I am talking about is the real command structure in the country where many key decisions are no longer taken by Cabinet. The British have similar concerns. My basic point is that these changes were not started in Canada by Justin Trudeau. Australia is a special case in recent years - although recall the long rule of John Howard. The intraparty feuding has become counter-productive. It’s also easier to remove a prime minister there than in Canada.

They are a minimum and not nearly enough. The Cabinet and cross-party committees should not be rubber stamps for the ruling party leader - there’s an obvious authoritarian tinge to that. PT’s charisma marked a turning point in this problem and not in a good way. As the creator of modern Canada, he did great work for the rule of law outside parliament but I don’t think he strengthened the voices of individual MPs within it. These days they are mostly a waste of space between elections.

What I see in Canada at the moment is the replacement of local news by Kardashianesque rubbish from the US and the interminable UK royal family soap opera production line. I don’t see anything good coming from the end of the CBC. Things are bad enough already.

Yes. I would just like to see additional checks on prime ministerial power from ministers and MPs. Let’s improve our system.

The concentration of power in the hands of unelected minions of the PM is a trend neither recent nor confined to Canada. It’s one of the flaws of the British system in the media age that no country has managed to fix yet. However, the shuffle does tell us something about what issues the government considers important - the economy and housing, no surprises there in an election run-up - and who are the rising stars. I’d say Fraser and Anand. Well, for all his faults JT is not deranged. Unlike the other guy.

I must say the Americans pursue these white collar cases with unusual rigour.