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Thinking along the lines of this, I suppose

Made a comment at The Disaffected Lib . Reposted here for personal archival purposes, as I may build upon some of the themes within. _____ Historically, people like Trump tend to be empire's second-to-last leaders. Leaders who lead their nations into stagnant and ruinous policies. Think Brezhnev. Mehmed V. It's generally a series of unfortunate coincidences that lead to their installments, and it's usually a series of blundering events they create leading to their empire's decline. Well, helping to lead to their empire's decline. The political atmosphere which foster these sorts of leaders helps, too. Trump crawled fully formed out of a membrane which was vomited onto the floor in the United States during the end of Age of Reagan. I really can't say it was inevitable that Trump would win election in the USA, but it was inevitable that someone much like Trump eventually would. It's down to the momentum of history, I suppose, that it happened.

I agree with Weaver

Personality politics emerge as pipeline dispute pits Alberta against B.C. "For Ms. Notley to tell British Columbia that somehow chasing the 20th century is the way for our future is not a good sign for her and her economy in Alberta," Weaver said. "Frankly, I think she should get with the program and embrace the 21st century as well." I've gotta agree with this. The tar sands have become a money pit, an economic black hole from which Canada needs to try escaping before they take down the entire economy. Back in 2009, Canada was spending $30 billion a year in subsidies so that the tar sands could generate a mere $10 billion in profit. That's, frankly, insane. That was when the price of crude was well over $100 per barrel. With prices falling dramatically to below $50 per barrel, that $10 billion in profit dried up rather quickly. And whatever profit was being generated fell just as much as the price of oil, which means Canada's now probably spendin

The 2017 BC provincial Election

The BC NDP almost broke through. It's another BC Liberal government, but only with the cooperation of the Green Party. If I had any say with the BC NDP, I'd counsel them that this is an opportunity rather than a setback. The BC NDP almost outright won. Just a few more seats. Just a few more. Furthermore, I'd counsel the BC NDP to put enormous pressure onto the BC Liberals/Green alliance. Offer nothing but poison pills to them. Push bills such as outright shutting down Site C and Kinder Morgen. Test the environmental bonafides of the Greens. See if they backpeddle on their claims to being an environmental political party simply to keep their alliance with the BC Liberals alive. Offer the Greens absolutely nothing but yes or no choices. And make sure that the BC electorate knows what happens if it goes the way of the BC NDP. Also, craft opposition bills to that are popular with the BC electorate that the BC Liberals have historically have had nothing to do with

U.S. imposes preliminary duties up to 24% on 'subsidized' Canadian softwood lumber

CBC News Well, what to make of this? Hopefully our feckles.... fearless provincial government saw this coming, and prepared in some manner. Hopefully there's some monies stashed away for this eventuality. This was telegraphed ages ago, so if the BC government had never prepared for this, then we're dealing with a relatively inept government. But we're not, right?

Marine Le Pen Is What Happens When You Try to Meet Racism in the Middle

The Intercept I'll have to disagree with this article's premise (which is its title). It was never immigration. Immigration is a... satellite interest. On election day, few are thinking about that. And the few that are, are already probably voting National Front (or other such parties). No, the failure lies in the governance of the previous governments, overall. Extreme candidates and parties are only ever looked toward by the populace when governments fail. And that's what's been happening in France for years, now. Growing unemployment rates can do that to a nation. Unemployment leads to downward pressure destroying any sense of calm in people, because jobs are people's identities, nowadays. You don't have a job? You're pretty much garbage in society, then. And when extreme parties begin attacking the government on a stupid front like immigration, then people start listening, even though that premise is utterly wrong on many different levels. Immigrants

Justin Trudeau A 'Stunning Hypocrite,' Top Environmentalist Says

The Huffington Post Canada Some pretty harsh words. And accurate, too. What is the point of more pipelines? Their effect on the Canadian economy seems negligible, at best. At worst, they're sinkholes, employing some, but draining time, money, and manpower from other industries that'd be of more benefit to the Canadian economy as a whole. At some point, the Canadian government's simply going to have to give up on the tar sands. They're a money pit. Canada's days as an oil-producing nation are long over. There's more money being spent on the tar sands then Canada's recouping, now. And the days when barrels of oil were selling at or over $100 per barrel are never coming back.

BC Liberals campaign ads

I've gotta say, they don't seem very effective. They pale in comparison the BC NDP's. For one, whose bright idea was it to have Christy Clark address the audience, and then speak about commitment and principles? All she's done is make herself a target. If  it were up to me, I'd make certain the BC NDP ad with the $300,000 attack on it was played every other commercial break that the BC Liberals were using the Christy Clark monologues on. I'd juxtapose these ads as often as possible, just to hammer that point home. $300,000. Christy Clark. $300,000. Christy Clark. And the BC Liberal attack ad going after John Horgan's record with the BC NDP governments in the nineties is a bit weak. Well, more than a bit weak. It's probably ineffectual. I have mostly good memories of the nineties. Things seemed better, then. There weren't many jobs, but it's easy enough to blame NAFTA for that. The BC NDP did the best they could with the hand they were dealt,

Climate change causes glacial river in Yukon to change direction

CBC News This is interesting. A little concerning, too. But it's so far north from where I live that its impact probably won't be felt here. But, what about around here? What is happening around here that we're not witnessing? The behind-the-scenes events that we should be anticipating but aren't? Can we predict what can happen as our climate changes around us? For instance, consider the climate around here. It's relatively temperate: four seasons. Snow in winter, sun in summer. Spring and Autumn are comfortable. However, last year, our climate was off, to say the least. We had arctic conditions for a brief period of time during the winter, and coastal conditions during the summer. Just strange, out of character developments that this area's never seen before. Should we expect this to continue, or were these one-off developments that were so far out of the norm that they can't possibly happen again? It'd be nice to have answers.

The BC NDP

I'll be honest. I was impressed by the BC NDP's election ads. Seeing them during prime-time, too, was a huge change from the previous election. The "Bought and Paid for" commercials? Simply gold. I've seen some announcements that I like, too, which is promising. Scrapping interest on student loans, raising taxes on the highest earners. I'd like to hear stronger pronouncements in other areas, though. Education, green technology, poverty. But I'm still willing to work with them.

Nearly 2 in 3 homeowners won't sell because of how much it costs to buy again: CIBC

CBC News And we begin entering the end game when it comes to the housing market bubble. "Fifty-four per cent said they don't think prices will drop and will keep rising forever." Er, that's an alarming statistic. Nothing is infinite in a market. At some point in the future, a million dollar home will become worthless. And then rebound to its natural price. And a great many people are going to lose a whole lot of (fictional) net worth. At this point, it's any year now. Perhaps it's any month now.

Putin Derangement Syndrome Arrives

Matt Tabbi Hopefully, some calm and reason returns to the USA, soon. Probably not, but it's not vain to hope for it. In the end, though, it's probably better to prepare for worse things to come. Things will get worse before they get better, sometimes.

Ideology Precedes Policy Which Determines Outcomes

Ian Welsh Had a thought, yesterday, while reading that Ian Welsh post: jobs create jobs. Neo-liberals have things ass-backwards. They believe finance creates jobs. But that's actually not true. Finance creates finance, but it doesn't necessarily create jobs. In society, industry has more value than finance, but because of how things are, finance controls industry. Well, there's a lot to think about. There's probably already been someone who's done some thinking along these lines.

The Deep State Goes to War with President-Elect, Using Unverified Claims, as Democrats Cheer

The Intercept, by Glenn Greenwald People are losing their damn minds over Donald Trump. People I respected are going insane over his election win. My take over his election win is, fuck Donald Trump. He was a beatable candidate. It was the Democrats' fault for losing an infinitely winnable election when they nominated a loser like Hilary Clinton. It should've been obvious a mile away that she was fully capable of losing that election, and handily at that. She barely beat a tepid old man like Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primary, and she had to cheat at that. Seriously, who are we kidding here? We need to look at things, both realistically and pragmatically. We can't be jumping at shadows and conspiracy theories, simply because they match up with what we hope to be true. Beat him in an old school way. Next election, nominate a decent candidate with a bit of charisma, and who has workable policies. No more backroom nominations. And stop relying on the damn spooks. Ther