The problem with the current program is that we did a “half Portugal” where we stopped with enforcement because it was cheaper, and also didn’t put in funding for support and treatment because because they (the goverment) thought is was cheaper.

The problem with this, knowing that our government is cheap. They’ll talk about enforcement, but will be super cheap about it. I’d actually be more worried about this endeavour if I thought they were going to fund it adequately.

“Thunderdome except it’s billionaires” would solve so many problems.

Don’t worry, he’ll build it, make it a toll highway, and sell the rights to a foreign company for 99 years. It’ll all work out, just trust me, bro!

Do you think that if they did, they’d care?

This is just another example of Ford’s retail politics.

From the guy who brought you “buck a beer” and handing out twenties when he was running for CPC leader.

This is regrettably true, and driving a lot of the red meat for “tough on crime” talk from right-wing politicians.

Our saving grace is that being tough on crime takes effort and money, and the CPC is just as cheap and lazy as the LPC. They’ll just talk tougher and do nothing, as compared to the Liberals smiling and waving flags…and doing nothing.

There’s a political concept south of the border called IOKIYAR (It’s okay if you are a Republican).

The same is at play here: Corruption and nepotism? It’s okay if you’re a conservative. Wasting public funds? Okay if you’re a conservative? Drawing a pension? Being a shameless hypocrite? You get the idea.

One of the nice things about Costco is that, because you scan your membership when you buy, they’ll know if you bought these and you’ll get a personal letter very shortly.

I’m not a fan of Canadian grocery in general, but they’re the best by a wiiiiiiide margin.

Compared to almost anyone.

Canada rolled over and allowed the one sector it had any hope in–resource extraction–to be sold off to foreign investors, first from government control and then from domestic hands. Then it allowed rampant consolidation in the “captive” industries it does have (telecomm, food). Other countries did the same, but Canada rolled over faster and harder than any other western nation.

Now we’re at the stage where our primary industry is skimming the cream off of the housing market. After that, what? Strip-mining south Asian immigrants for value? Whoops, we’re already doing that, too.

It’s a sad tale of governments, Liberal or Conservative, selling everything not nailed down in hopes that the magical market fairy would make it better, and then steadfastly refusing to do anything at all, sacrificing current donors’ profits for everyone’s future. Everyone saw this as an issue at least as far back as 1995, but no one was willing to admit that the Reagan/Thatcher (and in our case, Mulroney and Chretien) era of neoliberalism would eventually present a bill. So it was more tax cuts, more service cuts, more selling assets, more emphasis on cash hoarding and more disincentives for investing in business.

Well, they are owned by the richest family in Canada.

What will happen is that eventually people will die.

What needs to happen is that rich people need to start dying. Does that sound like an incitement to violence? Sure does! Why? Because right now the rich don’t feel scared enough to make do with less.

We’ve heard of MAGA, but I think we need MRAA: make the rich afraid again.

Unemployed young people who despair for the future.

That always works out well.

In the 1980s, faced with a crisis of their own making, Harley went crying to Ronald Reagan for tariffs on imported bikes. Reagan, free-market champion that he was, obliged.

This resulted in

• Harley getting a handicap, allowing them to keep doing what they were doing, selling uncompetitive and overpriced bikes and just prolonging the inevitable.
• Because Harley didn’t have to try nor evolve, and because their bikes were overpriced and uncompetitive, their international sales, which were never great, dried up.
• Honda et al, because they were at a cost disadvantage, had to make a better product for the same money, which they did. Basically every standard and cruiser product Yamaha, Kawasaki, Suzuki and especially Honda made rubbed Harley’s nose in it, notably the Gold Wing.
• Because Harley didn’t have to try, while the JDM makes had to try extra hard and everything cost more, the motorcycle market as a whole collapsed
• Again, because Harleys were not competitive but were anachronistic and could get away with it because of Mama Reagan, what few bikes did sell to new riders weren’t Harleys, and Harley didn’t bother to try new things, missing out on the adventure-bike boom and losing at least two generations of street-bike riders.

Basically, it set Harley up for failure and nutured mediocrity.

Tariffs, if they don’t come with government pressure on the industry being protected, are basically corporate welfare that helps in the short term but results in long-term pain.

EVs will be similar. Protecting the North American industry in the short term isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it would require the American and Canadian government to bust the balls of Ford, GM and Stellantis, as well as the domestic-produced imports: you get the tariffs and you get tax breaks, but in turn you have three years to produce a cheap, capable EV or, eg, we’ll make it happen without you.

Our governments won’t do this because they’re neoliberal chickenshits who lost their spine forty years ago.

The result will be EVs that are too expensive, sold to the most profitable niche domestically, with collapsing sales abroad. Which is what we have now, and it will get worse if we insulate lazy OEMs from market pressure.

China’s hands are not clean, but one thing they have done is invest in the long term. The North American OEMs resolutely refuse to do that, and tariffs would make that situation worse.

That’s not at all a bad idea; it certainly avoids Harley Davidson syndrome, which is what we’re looking down the tubes of right now.

The first two (labour and quality control) aren’t really what affect the MSRP. Labour makes a difference, but it’ materials cost that really drives price, and QA isn’t really the differentiator you might think.

But that last one–government support–that makes a massive difference. China has been, and continues to be, very strategic throughout the entire supply chain, from security raw materials at low cost, to building transport and energy infrastructure, to setting up hub-and-spoke centres for OEMs and suppliers, to securing a labour force. Non-Chinese OEMs, and especially Americans that depend on tax rebates little else, can’t compete.

It wouldn’t hurt the American and Canadian governments to twist the arm of industry and get them to think a little more long-term. They won’t, of course, because of neoliberal capture, but they could.

He’s going to get his wish as leftists sit the next one out.

All eyes are going to be on Harris, if she wins. That’ll set the tone: will it be more rainbow-painted wealth extraction, or are they going to try to actually help people who don’t have millions of dollars already.

Again, it’s “Don’t quote the troll”. Some of us learned this in Usenet in the 1990s.

Saying “This is bullshit” or “You’re weird” without engaging with their ideas stops the contagion from spreading.

It is, though. Studies in disinformation have proven this. This is why right-wing bullshitters are so eager to engage in debate: just getting the chance to show up and be refuted in a legitmate setting, like a major newspaper, gives them an audience for the ideas and credibility, that their position is one worthy of refute.

This is how we got the alt-right in 2015: by taking neo-Nazis seriously.

This is what the media doesn’t understand, and why fact-checkers are getting–correctly–rolled on social media. Every time you bring up one of these lies, even to fact check it–especially to fact-check it–you give it credibility.

This is why the Harris/Walz campaign’s tactic of ridicule is working so well. Instead of saying “No, you’re wrong about XXX because YYYY and ZZZZ”, they’re saying “What is wrong with you? You’re weird.” The latter doesn’t give the lie any oxygen.

Aren’t most trucks equipped with interlocks that prevent travelling at speed when the bed isn’t fully lowered?

It’s not embarrassing that they’re Nazis.

It’s probably embarrassing because they were brought over at the behest of powerful people who would rather it not be know than they patronized Nazis for political or monetary gain.

Werner von Braun was difficult enough, but you could make the case that they needed to keep him and scientists like him out of Soviet control. This is was probably just people that the Laurentian elite played wet towel tag with at Upper Canada College.