Moonbox

It silly hyperbole, and there's no discussion to be had around his bogeyman exaggerated conjurations. He's literally asking whether we want farm-raised, beef-fed huntin' and hockey lovin' manly men in our military, vs prancing drama queens - as if this is the binary choice we're faced with. and yet we can't find recruits, and only around 10% of the makeup of the CF is composed of minorities despite them representing something like 40% of the population, or women who make up 50% of the population but only 15% of the forces. Diversity in the forces is necessary to reflect our constantly changing demographics. I can just imagine how eager all of the minorities, women and young people are going to be to join who read about or saw Michel Maisonneuve natter his culture war BS. Fortunately hardly anyone is actually talking about it or cares. As Army Guy said, this speech will be forgotten for what it was in short order - completely irrelevant.

I don't have to believe the US military to also not believe anything coming out of the Kremlin. Yes, "inderpendernt" sources - blogs, reddit, telegram, news sites where "journalists" don't post their real names and provide fake bios etc. ?

Right. Biolabs. Those aren't the same things as bioweapon labs. Unless you live way out in rural BF nowhere, YOU probably live close to a "biolab". My sister works at "a biolab". My friend works down the road at a "biolab" at the university. Biolabs are everywhere. The article you linked made a point of refuting your the BS you're trying to parrot from the Kremlin, but such are your abilities to warp reality around you that all you can offer, "of COURSE they deny it". ?

Nope. There's really not much point in me trying to debate your fanciful conjurations of purple-haired, tutu-wearing gender-benders invading the military ranks with their "attention seeking". Those aren't serious adult thoughts and aren't worth responding to.

Did you read the article and what it said? ?

That story had been run by the MSM for years before 2020. The fact that the MSM didn't push it to the forefront in the midst of the presidential election doesn't mean as much as you think, considering how many dumb things Donald Trump had been doing and saying. 50 high ranking intelligence officials indicated that something wasn't smelly about Hunter Biden and Burisma? Show me that. You're right, and it made them look dumb, but it's no different than the swings and misses from the talking heads on the other side, like the birther conspiracy, stolen elections or anything that guys like Tucker Carlson have to say. Calling Ukraine a hostile foreign dictatorship is...weird.

Yes, this is very true. It is not without cost. If we don't reverse course, our credit ratings will drop, our ability to service our debt will diminish and we'll be forced to pay higher interest rates which will make it even harder. There will come a time where we only have three options: 1) Raise Taxes 2) Gut public spending 3) Allow the currency to inflate #3 is not happening yet. The BoC isn't inflating away anything and that's why we've seen interest rates spike. If we wait too long to fix things, however, 1 and 2 might no longer be viable options on their own and we'll end up in the crappy situation where we have to. These are failed economics that the BoC is trying to steer us away from. They've been warning about debt and speculative housing bubbles etc since 2018, but nobody really listened, content to meander blissfully into the bursting and then blame the BoC after the fact for their own mistakes.

No. You seem to have a bad habit of taking what I say, and then turning it into a straw man you can more easily argue with. I didn't say we "should always disregard" our military professionals (old guard or new). I was trying to explain that rigid old school thinking often turns out wrong and sometimes disastrous, and therefore we should question appeals (like yours) towards "centuries of tradition" when they don't make a lot of sense in today's reality. Yes. Let's do that. That would be nice. I thought you were actually going to try to make a serious argument on why these specific things were problematic. Instead, you conjured up a buffoonish caricature that doesn't exist and argued against that instead. This is such small-minded garbage that's it's not even worth responding to. I'm dumber for having read it, but I'll cut my losses here.

That's probably a good point. Other states with high immigrant populations also suffer lower literacy rates (see New York, New Jersey and California). That doesn't make the OP any more reasonable, but it's a solid point nonetheless.

Do you agree that price affects how much gasoline people use? If so (and you should, because it does), the carbon and gas taxes are having an effect on our behavior. That they're not having enough of an effect is a fair argument, but that's the dumb nature of this problem. We all want to do our part for the environment, but only as long as it doesn't really cost us much. If you remember Stephane Dion, perhaps you can recall how things go when someone tries to show "leadership" on climate change. So again, you're complaining that we're not doing enough to fight climate change, but then criticizing the few things we are doing. You can't choose your lane. For the record, I do support pipeline expansion and infrastructure etc, and that might be one of the few things from Maisonneuve's speech that wasn't complete BS, aside from the fact that it didn't really have much to do with the military.

I've told you many times before. It's perfectly reasonable to criticize Justin's overspending. He's a bad fiscal manager this was true long before COVID. Money doesn't come out of thin air, and we'll have to pay the price at some point. His policy has been to kick the can down the road and it will mean future governments will have to pay off his debt. As far as inflation goes, up until 2022 it wasn't a problem despite Trudeau's overspending. Even today, with inflation at 40 year highs, most of that can be attributed to post COVID supply/demand problems and commodity price volatility. The skyrocketing interest rates we've seen this year are meant to counteract the inflationary effect of monetary/quant stimulus and keep this within the 1-3% mandate. That part they've (so far) managed reasonably well. The rest of our inflation problem is mostly global supply oriented and something the whole world is dealing with. The BoC and Trudeau have no influence over it. That doesn't mean that Trudeau's easy money policies are free. The higher interest rates we're paying now and into the future can at least in part be blamed on him, and should conceptually be viewed as a form of tax on Canadian pocketbooks. Even this this a gross oversimplification that ignores a lot of other factors in play, but the point is that nobody is saying Trudeau's spending doesn't lead to negative outcomes.

Nobody said it has no effect. Money doesn't come from thin air, and today's higher interest rates can partially be blamed on Trudeau's spending. Whether he spent blew a hole in the budget or not, inflation is a global phenomenon. Is this sinking in? Are you aware that global inflation doubled this year? I've pointed it out to you now something like...a half dozen times?

The made-up germ labs. The straw-man Nazis. Even the Russians on the front lines aren't drinking the Kool-Aid like you are. ?

The Bank of Canada does have influence on inflation, particularly as it respects to the money supply. It does not have influence over global commodity prices, nor the inflation that causes. If they'd not doubled the interest rates over the last 12 months, inflation would not only be higher but probably also accelerating. Nobody said they have no control over inflation. They just don't have control over global markets, geopolitics or other major outside factors that can also drive it. No central bank has complete control over inflation, nor do they even try to. Like any job or profession, you spend your time and energy on the things you CAN control, and you adapt and make do with circumstances outside of that.

and the fact that Putin's behavior, rationale and messaging directly parallels the actual Nazi's in the 1930's is lost on you. ?

and yet plenty of their peers and/or seniors disagree with them. As a soldier yourself (and I imagine a student of military history), you are likely aware of all of the times going back millennia that stubborn military tradition and inflexibility has led to dysfunction or outright disaster. From the Legions mauling the Phalanx, to the Cavalry mauling the Legions all the way to the outdated pitched assaults of WW1 and beyond, we have too many examples of the Old Guard leading their armies to disaster to point to decades or centuries of established tradition as unquestionable. If you can put forth a reasonable argument on why petty things like hair color, beards or uniform flexibility actually cause real problems, rather than silly and made-up ones, perhaps I'll listen. In your case, you've obviously not even read the new rules. If you had, you wouldn't worry about bright hair being spotted by enemies in combat, that piercings will get infected or that beards will end up lice-ridden. All of the new rules make allowances only to the extent that they do not negatively effect operational or safety standards. Rest easy, because you're not going to see rainbow-haired dandies with jangly earings and long dirty wizard beards in operational environments. and yet they're fighting both effectively and impressively, aren't they?

You're arguing it both ways. On one hand, the carbon tax is hurting our prosperity, or as your "esteemed" general Maisonneuve would say "sacrificing ourselves on the altar of climate change", but on the other hand you're arguing it's not enough to make a difference. Choose your lane.

No, but then that's a horrible analogy. Nobody's asking you to consume your voting ballot. Depressed/suppressed voter turnout doesn't send as much of a message as you'd think. Just Trudeau, I'm sure, is thrilled by how many conspiracy theorists that hate him decide not voting is the best option, or that far-right protest-votes go to Maxime Bernier.

Who's arguing that Russia isn't destroying Ukraine's power grid? Even the Ukrainians are saying they are ?. That's all Vladimir Putin seems to have left though. He can't beat the Ukrainian army, so he'll lob drones and missiles at infrastructure knowing the Ukrainians won't retaliate, and pray that the EU (who just designated Russia a terror state) and the US/Canada etc get bored of subsidizing his downfall.

Because they can only control the things they can control, and they cannot control global supply chains or prevent them from falling part. They have little/no influence on the price of gas. They have little/no influence on global commodity prices. They have zero influence on the weather, and thereby little influence over food input prices when there are droughts etc. I'm pretty sure I've already explained this to you, but inflation is a global phenomenon. Blaming the Bank of Canada for today's inflation problem would be like us blaming the army for a storm surge flooding Halifax and swamping the city. The army's job is to keep Canada safe, so would we say they're not very good at their jobs if people died in the flooding? Blaming the Bank of Canada for short-term global inflation spikes is similarly absurd. The numbers are right there for you to look at, and they prove the fallacy of your narrative.

That's an interesting take on my statement. Here I was trying to tell that not all of the folks at the gala were tone-deaf dinosaurs, and you're now challenging me on that! ? How do we know they got a standing ovation though? Who were they? I need names if you're going to convince people what really happened..... ? The General's job is to just disagree on these things? That's what she and her office are set up to do? Oof. What's actually embarrassing is that our officers are getting themselves worked up because someone's uniform or hair might not perfectly conform. These things are so important in a combat zone. It's a wonder the Ukrainians, with their beards and ad-hoc assembled kits are able to manage to put up a fight.

and yet our gas consumption continues to decline on a per capita basis. Nobody said high prices are due only to carbon taxes. Carbon taxes are meant to make gas more expensive and redistribute that income. It does influence behavior, just like price increases on any other thing does. Whether it's having a sufficient effect to be worth doing is something you could question or analyze, but I suspect you've not run any of these numbers, have you? I guess I could just call him an ignorant preacher then? A close-minded fundamentalist? Is that better?

It's mostly over my head too. That was my education as well, and I've spent the last decade or so in the industry. I do, however, know enough about it to understand that Justinflation, or Bidinflation is goofy nonsense, and I do speak to the experts who do understand what's going on. It's multiple textbooks and courses to get even a foundational level of knowledge. We're talking PhD-level education and/or work experience to be able to usefully contribute to these topics.

BoC interest rate is the overnight rate, and not the rate that banks are lending money out to people and businesses. The other consideration is that most of today's unusual inflation is global supply-driven and raising domestic interest rates doesn't solve this largely temporary problem. You don't have to admit it. You've already proven it. Go ahead and tell us how the "compromised" BoC has caused global inflation to double in 2022. I'll wait. ?

Okay. You're not very good at it. Keep trying I guess. ?