August1991

So, Herbie, you were born around 1995. You're now in your mid-twenties. Vancouver. ===== Have you ever faced the choice of a high-end Asian hotel with Business floors? Have you ever flown business class with an early flight? Late in the day, it's different.

American politics? Ford correctly did not put Nixon behind bars. (As he said, "I'm a Ford, not a Lincoln.")

In Quebec, we have increasingly a parallel system - like in Europe. Private/public. It works.

DEI ideology has nothing to do with it. ==== Ontario? Canada's entire health-care system has problems. It sorta works if you know someone in the system. It sorta works if you are poor, and have time to wait. Our health system is Soviet. ---- Worse - our health system wastes the talents of good doctors/nurses doing nonsense, filling out forms.

In the 1910s, I am not blaming ordinary people for the cataclysm of 1914. But three generations later? Maybe.

Bush Jnr, on 11 Sep 2001, was clueless - and flew in 747 to wherever the experts told him to go. ====== Trudeau Snr, in Jun 1968, waved away the experts. Trump raised his fist at Butler, PA. Churchill showed his two fingers.

I had the choice - like Tom Mulcair - to become a citizen of another foreign country: have two passports. Like Smallwood, I chose Canada. I want only one passport, one citizenship.

At present, the market is high - going higher. Day traders are riding a wave. ====== Bubbles rise then collapse - panics. The Big Short? No one can predict when. I reckon that AI (artificial intelligence) is a bubble. (Note: Apple has not invested much.) Crypto is a classic ponzi scheme: there's no there there. ==== Bush Jnr was president in the midst of such. Obama first took office in the storm: like FDR. What will Trump do when the bubble collapses?

Before you think that I'm a whacko Bill O'Reilly/Jehovah Witness about evil in the world: -Between 1815 and 1914, Europe had a structure of peace -as Kissinger/Trudeau Snr thought -Since 1989, we no longer have a world structure of peace -as Mearsheimer says

We all did the same recently, with Covid. Billions of people trusted..... IMHO, the period of early 1910s is similar to our current times. ==== Modern Dictators: Lenin, Mao, Hitler. They were are all a result of the collapse of the civilised world in Summer 1914.

Disagree. In July 1914, the European elite people could have easily stopped the war. As many others (from Kennedy to Trump), I wonder too why the European elite didn't? ==== I reckon that at the time, 1914, everyone had forgotten what war was. No European remembered the Napoleonic Wars - three generations before, the age of a great-grandfather. And they believed it would be a short war. In August 1914, they all said that they would be home by Christmas.

In May 1914, the world was civilised. Ordinary people were living better. Then, in the Summer 1914, the elite utterly, totally screwed everything up. And for the next thirty years, until 1945 - hundreds of millions of ordinary people died; everyone alive today was affected. Make no mistake: World War II was a direct result of World War I. Hitler? If Europe had avoided war in summer 1914, there would have been no Nazi regime, no holocaust. ==== Rather than think about dictators. I think we should think about 1914.

Cold pizza in a box? Breakfast? You are young American. ======= Fridge counters full? Stuffed? Cupboards with weird bottles? a) Asian/Russian lived through the war b) Hoarder

Nixon liked to travel, and talk to foreign leaders - even retired ones. I know that Nixon was in Montreal in the early 1990s. Trudeau Snr bought a wonderful place in Montreal; he invited different people to eat with him. After leaving office, did Nixon and Trudeau Snr ever meet?

WTF? According to you, in 2014, Russia "invaded" Ukraine and Russia "occupied" Crimea. Our own PM Harper still claims such. ===== Spanky, We live in a different world - multi-polar, with guys like Trump.

Disagree. All Slavic people are stubborn. Here's the difference: North Slavs (Russians, Lithuanians, Poles etc) are cold, distant. South Slavs (Serbians, Bulgarians, Macedonians etc) are warm, close. Stubborn? Maybe it's the language of Slavic people.

This is the problem, LinkSoul. The dividends. ==== I suspect that you are a young, day-trader feeling smart, riding on a recent bull market. I'm an old buy-hold investor. I've lived through several bears. As Buffett said, you know who is skinny dipping when the tide goes out.

I do not have US dividend stocks (or such US ETFs) in my TFSA. Trump is correct. Why can't I buy European ETFs? In euros?

In my experience, people who can sing well also have a good accent in a foreign language. Armenians are wonderful interpreters. The Armenian language has many difficult sounds. ==== Henry Kissinger had a deep voice, and a strong German accent in English. But he mastered English grammar!

Good actors are better than most of us - his accent is American (but he speaks good French):

Mark Carney's support is a mile wide and an inch thick. Canadians are fearful now; they want a good leader. Someone who will get Canada through difficult waters.

suds, well said, In one of my local ATMs in Montreal, I can withdraw US dollars - the Benjamins. In Asia recently (Vietnam/Laos?), at an ATM, I received US dollars - paper. Foreign banks hold US dollars for many reasons. It is a reserve currency.

Years ago, I tried to negotiate with Russians. (I was part of a delegation of Canadians giving them something as part of the 1990 whatever...) Russians, Ukrainians, Slavs - whatever. The Canadian taxpayers were giving them a gift..... Nightmare. ===== Russians/Ukrainians/Slavs are stubborn people. They never forget.

When you defeated the Soviets, in the 1990s, you Americans became carpet-baggers. Yankees. Putin and Xi are the reaction. ===== We now live in a multi-polar world.