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SpankyMcFarland

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Everything posted by SpankyMcFarland

  1. SpankyMcFarland
    The Kuril Islands are only strategically important if Russia remains a war economy with an impoverished population.
  2. SpankyMcFarland
    They're not spoiling for a fight - I'm sure they've already wargamed the grim scenarios if shooting does start - but they are desperate to end the global sanctions that are crippling their economy and they have to make the US pay a price for imposing these by risking a war they know Trump does not want.
  3. SpankyMcFarland
    The nice orange man has decided not to kill ten million people. What a gent. He also offered to mediate in the Kashmir dispute which must have been well received in New Delhi. Foreign leaders need to have Mike Pence coaching them the week before they meet the Big Man so they can practice not screaming when the gibbberish starts.
  4. SpankyMcFarland
    I'd be thinking the scope for tourism on the Kurils is modest https://eugene.kaspersky.com/2014/09/10/kuril-islands-vacations-climate/ The islands mean a lot more to the Japanese than they do to the Russians. If Putin was interested in making Russia more prosperous, he'd be getting what he could for them. Selling that real estate would be much less hazardous for Russian security than Chinese investment in Siberia.
  5. SpankyMcFarland
    I think I am being real here. Her behaviour was outlandish by any standard. This wasn’t an argument that got a little heated.
  6. SpankyMcFarland
    It never ceases to amaze me how competent those astronauts were and how calm they managed to sound as they faced numerous glitches and the distinct possibility of death.
  7. SpankyMcFarland
    Maybe Trump should go back to his mother’s birthplace on the isle of Lewis, if they’d have him.
  8. SpankyMcFarland
    Australia is a good country to compare ourselves to - similar size, culture and population. Places like Switzerland may be more difficult to emulate for many reasons. We need a mixed system of public and private care. One good thing is that CIHI is providing a lot more data on where we need to catch up.
  9. SpankyMcFarland
    The British may be dragged into this conflict if they are not careful. The Yanks would really like some accidental Western allies to make this resemble a group effort.
  10. SpankyMcFarland
    I’d rather the PM, any PM, stayed quiet on Canada Day.
  11. SpankyMcFarland
    More trouble for Mr. Ford:
  12. SpankyMcFarland
    Sisi is already worse than either. Morsi brought about his own downfall with authoritarian policies but the West should have protested the overthrow of Egypt's first democratically elected leader more vehemently.
  13. SpankyMcFarland
    Being the only NBA basketball team in the country, the Raptors became Canada’s team in that final. Basketball looks like it’s in the way up in Canada, unlike hockey. The franchise system does have some good aspects but the worst thing about it is that it rewards mediocrity. The Leafs owners can turn out a useless team every year and still have an asset worth more than a billion.
  14. SpankyMcFarland
    Here is some good news from Turkey for a change: Justice, equality, love, that’s more like it - Radical Love to be exact.
  15. SpankyMcFarland
    I would assume that Iran attacked the tankers. The mullahs have a very weak hand to play. Their economy is being destroyed by sanctions and they face an armada a few miles off their coast. But there’s no way they can meekly surrender to the neocons and accept grossly humiliating terms from America, of all countries. Their only hope is in challenging Trump with escalating incidents and see if he really wants to start a war that could doom his re-election chances. Perhaps he would then be willing to negotiate some minor change to the status quo that would let both sides claim victory.
  16. SpankyMcFarland
    What would you suggest? Scheer’s proposal isn’t serious at all. It’s merely window dressing, designed to give a fig leaf to Conservative candidates in the next election so they can say their party has a plan before they run away. Even National Post columnists can see through it:
  17. SpankyMcFarland
    To my surprise, NP columnist John Ivison reviewed Scheer’s ‘plan’ fairly caustically. Here’s a line he quoted from Edmund Burke:
  18. SpankyMcFarland
    I like Power and Politics and the local news. Our media’s problems are faced by nearly any small country (in population) next to a much larger one that speaks the same language.
  19. SpankyMcFarland
    Good to see Canadians demonstrating in support of Hong Kong. The Chinese Communist Party poses the most serious challenge to freedom in the world and it looks like things are going to get worse for some time to come.
  20. SpankyMcFarland
    I have difficulty believing that guys like this don’t understand anything about physics:
  21. SpankyMcFarland
    That was one factor. It will be interesting to see if they can sustain their trajectory.
  22. SpankyMcFarland
    I don’t think beating Canada in this particular race is something to crow about.
  23. SpankyMcFarland
    I suspect Canada will continue on its current course until the Americans are hit with a series of climatic catastrophes. Once they have to change tack, they’ll make us do the same thing.
  24. SpankyMcFarland
    Britain’s reduction in CO2 emissions goes back quite a while: https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-why-the-uks-co2-emissions-have-fallen-38-since-1990
  25. SpankyMcFarland
    Well, we’ll just have to wait and see how they do.
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