SpankyMcFarland

Has there ever been a worse forest fire season at this point in the year? https://www.politico.com/news/2023/07/06/canada-fire-season-00104959 I have no particular interest in this subject but I can assure the skeptics here that they would encounter much more, let’s call it, trenchant debate on other sites where people seriously pursue the science of climate change.

The Americans should have left Afghanistan at least a decade before they did but it was just so politically difficult to admit nothing more could be done and call it a day. All credit to Biden and Trump for finally doing it.

Scientists are seriously talented people. They’ve often given up the possibility more lucrative careers and they’re focused on getting things right. Persuading them all to join a conspiracy against the truth would be lot more more difficult than people seem to imagine.

I recall a vigorous debate in scientific journals. China comes out poorly whichever theory is correct BTW and was none too keen on foreigners investigating its wet market practices either.

There’s an entire field of science, paleoclimatology, devoted to estimating global temperatures before thermometers were used. The results show that, of course, climate has always varied but that something dramatically different has happened over the last few centuries. https://repolitics.com/forums/topic/45327-climate-change/page/7/#comment-1615264

Science produces explanations to explain the evidence collected and then tests those hypotheses. Even in labs such evidence is never perfect. On an ongoing global problem like climate change the observational data will always be flawed. If we wait until we are much more confident about this, how much damage could be done in the meantime? Let’s bear in mind that if things go really sideways and positive feedback loops kick in, we don’t have another planet to fly off to. Thus it seems prudent to pay attention to the imperfect evidence gathered so far given the risks involved in ignoring it. Is that a rhetorical question? At the best of times, all governments are ponderous beasts responding to a myriad of priorities. Change is extremely difficult. Look at the problems JT has in doing anything on this file in Canada. China’s leader can focus a great deal of national energy on his glorious place in history. Why would he care about something as trivial as the welfare of the world?

That’s more anecdote than strong evidence. Scientists viciously attacking each other means nothing in itself. They’re always doing that, mostly behind closed doors. Newton attacked Leibniz but they were both correct about calculus. Cite what you are talking about and show how it casts doubt on the theory of AGW. The experts on this topic nearly all seem to be on one side of this argument in their peer-reviewed scientific papers which tells me something. Unless compelling evidence emerges to the contrary, I’m going to stay with the consensus.

There you go with your MSM ‘facts’ again.

So the PhDs flocked to Trump? I did not know that. Can you provide a link to confirm this surprising association between high levels of education and a burning love for the MAGA brand?

Brexit was an act of provincial English nationalism which also won in Wales probably due to the large number of English expats there. It was beaten in Scotland, Northern Ireland and London and is much less popular now than it was. Anyone who complains Alberta isn’t listened to in Ottawa should be able to identify with the plight of Scotland and NI here. Moderately-sized nation-states struggle to go it alone these days. None but the very biggest should even consider it and even they volunteer to belong to all sorts of agreements that restrict their sovereignty. OK, they were ‘number one’ on some measures well over a century ago. WWI, let alone the rematch, should have dispelled any delusions on that score. Time to wake up and get real. Putin was a supporter of Brexit for obvious reasons. He and China want Europe disunited and weak.

They’re not great countries. Wandering off the beaten path to explore the unknown wouldn’t be wise in any of them. Three are oppressive police states. The fourth, Nigeria, is a very dodgy place to visit these days. By contrast, in Canada I don’t fear the state or its people. It’s a good feeling.

Same here. It’s not an issue I encounter regularly otherwise.

DeSantis is trying to prove he’s more bigoted than Trump, but if he wins the nomination he will have lost many traditional Republican voters in the process, especially better educated women, and Independents too. The base alone just isn’t big enough to compete with Democrats these days.

Over three years later the injury worries continue: https://www.tsn.ca/tennis/video/andreescu-will-play-through-pain-at-wimbledon-determined-to-improve-on-grass~2719263

In both countries PMs and their unelected advisers have become far more powerful. What model of direct democracy would you propose we follow?

I see Brexit mainly as a massive distraction. British politicians have been mesmerized by this issue for years at the expense of real problems that need to be addressed.

Well, ‘not as bad as people might think’ was hardly how Brexit was sold by its boosters. There were ‘sunlit uplands’ promised. https://www.theneweuropean.co.uk/the-brexit-freedoms-bill-announcement-and-boris-johnson/ And oodles of cash for the NHS. What a joke. Not surprisingly, support for Brexit has taken a dive, especially among younger voters: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/ng-interactive/2023/jan/30/changing-attitudes-to-brexit-three-years-on The costs were obvious. Vast amounts of law and regulation would have to be changed and years of tedious negotiations with trade partners entered into. We’ll see about any potential benefits down the road. Beyond London, Britain has profound long-term economic problems it needs to address. Whether the UK in its current form survives Brexit remains to be seen.

Britain has paid a big price for leaving the EU. For a start, it has instantly become another Canada, trying to negotiate bilateral trade deals with big beasts like the US and the EU from a position of weakness. The sort of additional trouble one should not volunteer for.

You’re comparing Trudeau with Hitler? That’s why this site is ignored by so many.

Brexit Britain is inherently unstable. The likelihood of an immediate break-up will be reduced if Labour win the next UK election but a virulent strain of English nationalism has been unleashed that is difficult to live with.

Chechnya remains a nightmare for investigative journalists: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jul/04/attackers-break-russian-journalists-fingers-and-stab-human-rights-lawyer-in-chechnya

B’y, we’ll say some gay Canadian prayers for you.

That is so completely deranged. The thought of you in a school is frightening.

Russia, a country with first-world education and fourth-world life expectancy:

The news from the front is mixed and we should prepare ourselves for setbacks in the offensive. Russian advances have been reported by Ukraine: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2023/7/2/russia-ukraine-live-moscow-launches-drone-attacks-on-kyiv Long-term the Russians are headed for disaster. As the US found out the hard way in both Vietnam and Afghanistan, more territory means more problems.