I am Groot

I was having lunch with a friend the other day when she got a text that her roommate had tested positive for covid. After she'd finished eating she put on a mask - just in case - as a courtesy to others until she could do an antigen test. Nothing wrong with wearing a mask for a purpose.

I identify as a tree. Are you disputing that?

Trump's former White House lawyer. “I think this original indictment was engineered to last 1,000 years and now this superseding indictment will last an antiquity,” Cobb said during an interview with CNN's Erin Burnett Thursday night. “This is such a tight case, the evidence is so overwhelming," he added. https://www.axios.com/2023/07/28/trump-classified-documents-evidence-ty-cobb Also, his former loyal attorney general After a 37-count criminal indictment against Donald Trump was unsealed Friday, Trump’s former Attorney General Bill Barr said there is trouble ahead for the 2024 Republican presidential hopeful. “If even half of it is true, then he’s toast,” Barr told “Fox News Sunday.” “It’s a very detailed indictment, and it’s very, very damning. And this idea of presenting Trump as a victim here, a victim of a witch hunt, is ridiculous.” https://www.cnbc.com/2023/06/11/trump-indictment-is-very-very-damning-his-former-attorney-general-says.html

I'm not voting for you.

Ok. You're kind of bozo, aren't you?

I understand that. If you want to help them go ahead. Just don't ask me to contribute. I have people closer to home I'm helping.

Republicans rejected conservatism years ago. They've been floundering around screaming at people over hot button issues for years and now have a messiah to lead them into the promised land of guilt free criminality.

Do I have a personal choice over any of this?

From what I hear of the food banks in this town very few of the people who go there are white. That's not a commentary on white supremacy or any garbage like that. But aside from natives few non-white people were born in Canada. How many of the people who go there are temporary foreign workers, foreign students, asylum seekers, or immigrants, all of whom have found a way to get free stuff?

If we had referendums on government policy initiatives how many would ever get passed? We don't get to vote on these things. We vote on a basket of stuff which is topped with gooey whipped cream and chocolate that is meant to convey how caring and understanding an individual party is. The Liberals have been good at the topping, and people have been herded into scooping it up out of fear the evil conservatives will take it away.

Let's say my instinctive sense of tribalism and my conservative sense of responsibility tells me they're making their own bed and should be responsible for pulling themselves out of it. Not that there's anything we can do about it anyway. There's one climate and they're busily making it worse. Nothing I can do about that.

Perhaps you could call Charles up and tell him to put me in charge here, and perhaps loan me the use of the Grenadier Guards to enforce my will.

The Conference Board of Canada puts the cost of Trudeau's net zero at $1.7 trillion. The Royal Bank puts it at $2 trillion. If we as a society have to devote that much money to something that is basically useless to us, the economy or anyone else, that is most definitely going to reduce our standard of living and our ability to pay for things like remediation projects, not to mention healthcare. I would also like to paraphrase a column I read somewhere talking about the view of some that Canada should act all noble and go it alone despite the fact those responsible for the vast majority of CO2 emissions are continuing to increase theirs without regard to global warming. "Canada invaded Europe in concert with our allies on D-Day. But what the climate activists are suggesting is even though our allies refuse we should invade Normandy alone. And even though such a move is doomed to failure we'll serve as a noble inspiration to prod others into action." I'm not willing to see us suffer to possibly provide 'inspiration'. Better them than us.

Let me suggest an alternative. Slash temporary workers, foreign students and immigrants. Presto, housing prices plummet! The Bank of Canada no longer has to keep raising rates but can lower them instead, spurring more investment and profits for business! Businesses that can no longer count on cheap foreign labour have to raise their wages and benefits! With the fall in housing prices and increased wages more young people can afford a proper place to live and then have kids. "Or here's an idea. Let's radically cut back on temporary foreign workers except in the agricultural industry." You missed this part...

I have done so frequently on this topic. Which is why I know what we're doing now is a waste of time. The climate is a giant beast of a thing, and like a fully loaded supertanker it doesn't change course quickly or easily. Generally, it takes forty years for most of what we do to show up as any significant change (volcanos and nuclear wars excepted). So it'll be forty years AFTER we start reducing CO2 emissions before anything improves. But we're not going to reduce emissions anytime soon. The Chinese and Indians aren't even trying. And hundreds of coal plants are going up around the world. So let's be generous and say maybe we can start reducing emissions in maybe thirty years. Maybe. That would mean nothing noticeable with the climate till 2100. Do you really think the technology of that time is going to resemble ours in any way? I'm fairly sure we'll have fusion power, for example, within the next thirty years or so. That will be a game changer for fossil fuel use as an energy source. Technology and not taxes will take care of this. So you want us to beggar ourselves helping the young people in places like India and China and Indonesia while their governments continue to frantically put up coal plants? Not me.

Trudeau wants to almost triple our population. The Century Initiative plan he has adopted will put over 33 million people into the GTA, where the population is currently about 8 million. Ottawa's 1 million population is to grow to 4 million. If we're going to put all those people into our cities those cities have to grow out, not just up.

Or here's an idea. Let's radically cut back on temporary foreign workers except in the agricultural industry. Let's radically cut back foreign students, and let's cut immigration. Suddenly, we'd have well over a million fewer people here and all those cheap apartments could be used by Canadians.

I'm of the opinion that reporters shouldn't link every single weather event to climate change. Climate change is happening but climate doesn't change from year to year. It follows a long-term trend. We don't have a lot of fires this year as opposed to last year due to climate change. What's more, these scaremongering articles and baseless predictions are designed to frighten people into supporting climate change initiatives that quite frankly, are all but useless. They have also managed to frighten increasing numbers of people, notably younger ones, into believing the world is going to end during their lifetimes and that everyone is either going to die in massive floods or burn to death in the tremendous blast-furnace heat. Greta isn't the only young person driven halfway loony by these beliefs. Yet the IPCC doesn't predict any such thing. In fact, for northern hemisphere countries there'll be only minor disruptions, and by and large they (we) have the economic, organizational, and technological abilities to adapt to those disruptions, be it with stronger building codes, flood control, and irrigation systems. Unless, of course, we're driven into poverty by moronic policies like Trudeau's net zero - which the Royal bank says will cost Canada $2 trillion. And I'm not surprised climate activists disagree with Lomborg and will use any means, fair or foul to discredit him. I don't believe everything he says but at this point I believe almost nothing these people have to say. And they're the ones doing the 'fact checking'. And seriously, did you think the Guardian was going to provide an unbiased profile for this guy?

God, our media sucks so much ass. They love scaring people and doomsaying. And this summer has been great for that, with the major media wallowing in pictures nad stories of forest fires and predicting the whole country will soon be burned to a crisp unless we stop using plastic straws and pay more for carbon taxes. But climate doesn't change much from year to year. The reason there are so many more fires in Canada this year than last is not climate change. It's more likely the effect of El Nino. Forest fires have actually been declining across the world over the past decade. But clickwhore media breathlessly informs us that every fire, every flood, every storm is due to climate change. And that allows dummies like Trudeau to gather in the low intellect crowd's votes to support his insane, two trillion dollar net zero programs. https://nationalpost.com/opinion/fear-mongering-over-forest-fires-and-climate-change-isnt-rooted-in-reality

Really? There's plenty of land within the existing GTA to quadruple its population? Maybe if everyone lives in 60-story buildings. But people want more space. They want a backyard, even if it's a little one, so they can put junior out there to enjoy the sun.

Meh. It's a tiny percentage of the greenbelt. And the greenbelt is going to be paved over soon anyway. According to the Century Initiative Trudeau has clearly adopted Toronto's population is to grow to over 33 million due to immigration by the turn of the century. Only Trudeau is bringing in people so fast and furiously that will probably happen by 2050. If you're going to grow the GTA from 8 to 33 million the greenbelt will have to go.

Didn't think he'd make it out of July...