SpankyMcFarland

It looks like we will be seeing this more often in future.

Don't underestimate hom sap. Yes, climate is always changing but not like this. The decades to come will serve as a sanity test, separating those denialists who can recognize their error from the unfortunates requiring medical care.

The answer is yes.

The US is now telling India and China where they can and can’t buy their oil. That will be a problem for both countries, especially India which has a good relationship with Iran.

The first time I landed on one of those I thought we had missed the runway.

I prefer the HoC debates to those of Canada’s equivalent. Leaving aside the Brexit madness, the quality of debate is higher over there. Have a listen to their Question Time. As you say, Britain is a representative democracy where parliament is supreme. The referendum was merely a plebiscite. Mrs. Thatcher roundly denounced the last referendum on EU-esque membership, not least for the precedent it created. On another front, the EU27, a free association of member states, is heartily sick of Brexit and want to move on ASAP as there are many other pressing matters to deal with. There is little desire to keep the UK in the EU any more.

Good news on the wobbly plane front: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/air-canada-max-8s-grounded-july-1-1.5062354

Canada and the US were suspiciously slow to take action here. I’m particularly disappointed in Garneau who should have known better. Now we’re told that a software patch might be ready as early as April which don’t impress me much considering I see Max8 on a ticket I have for that month.

It’s harder than you think. The work is too.

Do you really need to see all the swearing and personal animosities that happen in every PM’s team?

I think politicians have to able to speak with complete candour behind closed doors and that won’t happen if their words can be broadcast.

If you were to monitor pols like that, the business would be outsourced to someone not on camera and all you’d see would be mind-numbing platitudes.

Are you advocating for the 24/7 surveillance of politicians? Unlike fishermen, they’re never off work really. I suspect this would make the frank discussions necessary to make political sausage all but impossible.

Here’s some follow-up on that case. The medical board has allowed the doctor to start practising again with restrictions. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/brendan-hollohan-long-pond-medical-clinic-vikings-1.4425116

Could you expand on that?

Butts performed well, of course, but dragging jobs into the argument was a fundamental mistake. Pressuring the AG on a case is either right or wrong on its own merits. How many jobs are involved should be irrelevant. It looks like JT will survive this crisis. What a pity to lose two good ministers, especially Philpott. I wouldn’t mind seeing her running the place one day but I doubt if that will ever happen.

Philpott is a major loss, a highly competent minister. JT’s position may start to crumble if he loses another big name.

Be careful, lads.

Different situations. Although Norway has remained a member of the single market and has a close relationship with the EU, there are still problems on its border with Sweden. https://www.politico.eu/article/brexit-ireland-border-customs-norway-sweden/ The Irish border could be much more contentious. May seems to want (hard to tell these days) to take the UK out of the single market. If her incompetence leads to a no-deal crash-out, the Irish border will become a huge issue and the DUP will rue the day they supported her.

Do you have any evidence for that allegation?

Sorry, I meant that in DRC and the US the presidential election is a one-off event with multiple candidates, unlike France and many other countries which have a two-round system. In general, this means that if no candidate gets a majority of votes in the first round then there is a run-off election between the two candidates with the highest number of votes. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-round_system Thus marginal candidates are out of the running in the second round and can’t split the vote. I suspect we will see more of these third, fourth and n’th party candidates in the US. The other problem stateside is the Electoral College with its basis in a (generally) winner-take-all, state-by-state system rather than a simple, national vote. Republican candidates are tending to get a smaller proportion of the popular vote over time so the only way they can win is by getting all the Electoral College votes in a sufficient number of smaller states to overcome that disadvantage. It also means that candidates ignore states where the outcome is already decided like California and concentrate on the ‘battleground’ states.

Our relationship with KSA shows how important the Bordens are to us. We’ll tolerate damn near anything from a country that buys our stuff. The Chinese will be taking note.

No, but we can at least have an open debate about it. Iran’s adventures in various ME trouble spots need to be assessed separately. In Syria, they have made a convenient pact with a secular tyrant. It is true that some of the rebels are more hostile to us than the man himself but I still don’t think we can overlook Assad’s horrible crimes. On the other hand, in Yemen, they are certainly no worse than the Saudis and in Bahrain they are on the side of the oppressed people of that country against a Sunni ruler who lacks legitimacy.

I suspect most Iranians would vote tomorrow to bring all their combatants home from Syria in the highly unlikely event they were ever consulted on the topic. Iran faces serious threats within from regional unrest, unemployment, corruption, drug addiction, drought etc. It cannot afford wars of choice, particularly ones as disgraceful as this.

Given the way society is going, I suspect the presidential vote will be diluted by multiple other party candidates, making the US more like the DRC than France in this regard. Along with the current effect of the Electoral College, this is probably good news for Republicans and white nationalists In winning elections as a minority of the popular vote.