Political Posts

[Gregmal]

7 minutes ago, gfp said:

I don't know if this is the right thread for this or not but I just got of the phone with a friend in Victoria and boy oh boy is Canada united in this US boycott - like generational damage.  Not pissed over tariffs per se, but over the annexation talk, which is so pointless because there isn't even a negotiating point to causing that damage.  It's just a non-starter that only harms the relationship.

 

"At least five people I know have sold their properties in the US.  And everyone I know has cancelled some or all of their US travel."

 

Could be super positive for Canada long term because to talk to this friend, the country hasn't been this united behind something in recent memory, if ever.

 

https://www.reddit.com/r/BuyCanadian/?share_id=BHZKc2ob9FToLNsRUYfn0&utm_content=1&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_source=share&utm_term=1

 

 

I was just in Montreal with family and the liquors stores all had boycotted the products, while still having massive Jack Daniels or Bulleit banners in the storefront. The good bars though still have JD, Woodford, Blantons and now they just charge extra because it's even more novelty. I did not though, see any Bud on tap anywhere...Molson and Coors everywhere including the Bell Centre. 

 

These things come and go, and like Disney, Target, Bud Light, are probably worth evaluating in terms of their lasting impact and duration because there's probably ways to make money off it. 

[John Hjorth]

53 minutes ago, Gregmal said:

The thing is, Sanjeev leans left, and it’s fine. You call em like you see em, all good. Some bias is natural. Overall he’s done a good job. But shit like quoting how most of the complaints are about certain posters or topics when this site overwhelmingly leans left is laughable. Stepping back, you can clearly see the number mismatch. ...

 

Sanjeev [ @Parsad ] can naturally reply for him self about his political observation. Here I'll just say I personally think you have misunderstood him.

 

There exists a difference between being left leaning, and being willing give away your own a** to whoom next to you, who may be in need of so. It's in the genes and the upbringing, and the Life!

 

The complaints / reports  here on CofB&F to Sanjeev are about bad form discussion strategies and techniques , - name calling and such! -A  few Americans here on CofB&F [never you Greg , @Gregmal ] from time time post stuff here on CofB&F that is considered rude by non-American CofB&F members. And we should all know to do better!

 

The greatest common denominator [culturally] needs to be the ultimate minimum of board behavior here on CofB&F, if CofB&F long term shall stay global, so we welcome everyone on the planet!

[james22]

28 minutes ago, John Hjorth said:

A  few Americans here on CofB&F [never you Greg , @Gregmal ] from time time post stuff here on CofB&F that is considered rude by non-American CofB&F members. And we should all know to do better!

 

Things is, some things shared (for example: Americans just don't think much about non-Americans) is taken as rude rather than as fact. 

 

Understanding that might help non-Americans judge the likelihood of America reversing course if they share their hurt feelings (not likely).

 

Would it be better to pretend that wasn't the case? No.

 

Better to not take offense when none intended.

[Gregmal]

59 minutes ago, John Hjorth said:

 

Sanjeev [ @Parsad ] can naturally reply for him self about his political observation. Here I'll just say I personally think you have misunderstood him.

 

There exists a difference between being left leaning, and being willing give away your own a** to whoom next to you, who may be in need of so. It's in the genes and the upbringing, and the Life!

 

The complaints / reports  here on CofB&F to Sanjeev are about bad form discussion strategies and techniques , - name calling and such! -A  few Americans here on CofB&F [never you Greg , @Gregmal ] from time time post stuff here on CofB&F that is considered rude by non-American CofB&F members. And we should all know to do better!

 

The greatest common denominator [culturally] needs to be the ultimate minimum of board behavior here on CofB&F, if CofB&F long term shall stay global, so we welcome everyone on the planet!

The thing is, I fully respect the fact that it’s Sanjeevs site and he can do whatever he wants. I just disagree with the presentation of “even” being, more complaints about conservative posters…again duh…look at the numbers and stuff like oh you cried about woke Target(after Target stock declined like 40% in a matter of months directly because of the antics) or Disney(which is like one of the worst performing large cap one blue chip companies you can find)…and claiming that’s equivalent to all the emo whining on these sorta threads. 
 

Bud Light same thing…they took a direct action that destroyed some of their brand power and resulted in the stock price being punished….idiotic and I’d feel no different if it was NYT saying where going neutral like WAPO and then seeing their stock get cut in half…moronic. Same as Musk putting Tesla in danger by going to work for Trump….Id be furious as a shareholder and as I said in the thread at probably peak Musk mania, an investment opportunity arose and that was to go short.
 

These are investment things. Totally different than the angry cash barks and bearish doom TDS stuff.

[Castanza]

1 hour ago, John Hjorth said:

 

Sanjeev [ @Parsad ] can naturally reply for him self about his political observation. Here I'll just say I personally think you have misunderstood him.

 

There exists a difference between being left leaning, and being willing give away your own a** to whoom next to you, who may be in need of so. It's in the genes and the upbringing, and the Life!

 

The complaints / reports  here on CofB&F to Sanjeev are about bad form discussion strategies and techniques , - name calling and such! -A  few Americans here on CofB&F [never you Greg , @Gregmal ] from time time post stuff here on CofB&F that is considered rude by non-American CofB&F members. And we should all know to do better!

 

The greatest common denominator [culturally] needs to be the ultimate minimum of board behavior here on CofB&F, if CofB&F long term shall stay global, so we welcome everyone on the planet!

Plenty of mudslinging going around from all parties….I’ve read plenty of “cheeseburger eating obese American” comments the last few days. Including from Parsad himself. If you can dish it you should take it. But I’ve seen unprovoked comments from both sides of the “aisle.” Thats just the environment we are in and after all this is an anonymous forum. 
 

We’re all children at heart
 

 

[Spekulatius]

Doge and cyber insecurity:

https://www.bankinfosecurity.com/whistleblower-complaint-exposes-doge-cybersecurity-failures-a-28046
 

Disabling logging. Logins from Russia with valid passwords? Using external scraping tools… sound pretty bad to me. We may have all been hacked.

[Spekulatius]

5 hours ago, gfp said:

I don't know if this is the right thread for this or not but I just got of the phone with a friend in Victoria and boy oh boy is Canada united in this US boycott - like generational damage.  Not pissed over tariffs per se, but over the annexation talk, which is so pointless because there isn't even a negotiating point to causing that damage.  It's just a non-starter that only harms the relationship.

 

"At least five people I know have sold their properties in the US.  And everyone I know has cancelled some or all of their US travel."

 

Could be super positive for Canada long term because to talk to this friend, the country hasn't been this united behind something in recent memory, if ever.

 

https://www.reddit.com/r/BuyCanadian/?share_id=BHZKc2ob9FToLNsRUYfn0&utm_content=1&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_source=share&utm_term=1

 

I am not Canadian but I like Canada. Canada and the USA are not the same. It’s like a bit of an Europeanized version of the USA that polishes offsome rough edges. I remember that we once drove back from BC into Washington state via a rural road. It was a beautiful Barrett landscape  until all of a sudden until we hit the border booth. Right after the border booth, the landscape turned into a junkyard with rusty Whirlpool washing machines just casually dumped next to the road, tires, bud cans strewn al over the place. Wellcome back to the USA. We laughed at each other.

 

In any case, the country had a lot of things going for it and some glaring mostly man made issues as well. Hopefully with the county coming together, they can do better on the future and keep their identity.

[Spekulatius]

He is just making up stuff now:

[Gregmal]

6 minutes ago, Spekulatius said:

He is just making up stuff now:

Tariffs, look I have no clue or way to verify. Gas? Yea. Groceries? Seeing price rollbacks everywhere especially on the shitty processed food and soda stuff. My homeowners insurance in FL went down last month. 
 

We re barely a few months in already, so too early to tell, but I’d hardly jump to conclusions. 

[Dinar]

6 minutes ago, Gregmal said:

Tariffs, look I have no clue or way to verify. Gas? Yea. Groceries? Seeing price rollbacks everywhere especially on the shitty processed food and soda stuff. My homeowners insurance in FL went down last month. 
 

We re barely a few months in already, so too early to tell, but I’d hardly jump to conclusions. 

Car insurance is also coming down, although that has nothing to do with Trump, and tariffs will probably raise it.  He should have mentioned illegal immigration, at least in NYC, working class is celebrating the end of illegal immigration.  

[Gregmal]

17 minutes ago, Dinar said:

Car insurance is also coming down, although that has nothing to do with Trump, and tariffs will probably raise it.  He should have mentioned illegal immigration, at least in NYC, working class is celebrating the end of illegal immigration.  

Yup, but again, the “new COBF”….Trump Lying! ZOMG!

 

Objective view…

Gas prices…sure, credit where it’s due

Grocery? Too early to tell, probably was already happening 

Insurance…too early 

Illegal Immigration…yea that’s undeniable

 

[SharperDingaan]

6 hours ago, gfp said:

I don't know if this is the right thread for this or not but I just got of the phone with a friend in Victoria and boy oh boy is Canada united in this US boycott - like generational damage.  Not pissed over tariffs per se, but over the annexation talk, which is so pointless because there isn't even a negotiating point to causing that damage.  It's just a non-starter that only harms the relationship.

 

"At least five people I know have sold their properties in the US.  And everyone I know has cancelled some or all of their US travel."

 

Could be super positive for Canada long term because to talk to this friend, the country hasn't been this united behind something in recent memory, if ever.

 

https://www.reddit.com/r/BuyCanadian/?share_id=BHZKc2ob9FToLNsRUYfn0&utm_content=1&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_source=share&utm_term=1

 

 

 

Canada just had its English language political debate last night, following the French language debate the night before. The election itself is in two weeks.

 

Prior to the election being called the conservative party was ahead of its liberal rival by 25%, immediately prior to the debates, the conservative party was 10% behind its liberal rival. The difference is the resignation of Trudeau, and Trumps tarrifs and threats of annexation. That 35% swing is historic, and a measure of just united Canada currently is.

 

Summer airline travel to the US is down 70%, and a great many snow birds are now actively looking at wintering in either Mexico or the Caribbean versus the US. The US being felt so uncomfortable, that many now refuse to either overfly US airspace or even use a US port. 

 

Canadians are the polite ones ... 

 

SD

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 19, 2025 by SharperDingaan

[Spekulatius]

8 hours ago, John Hjorth said:

Reuters [April 18^th 2025] : US will abandon Ukraine peace push if no progress 'within a matter of days,' Rubio says.

 

- - - o 0 o - - -

 

The message also confirmed by POTUS verbally from the White House. [Yellow tie! - Easter!]

 

Personally, I've the whole time considered this initative by POTUS noble. I also think it's about time to drag a line in the sand, meaning now or not. *BS* needs to be called.

 

The striding parties can't continue to drag this out any longer for this madness to continue.. I just hope there will be made an example of procedural harm to the presumptuous party stalling the process.

 

I have absolutely no idea about what the check-out of USA from the process eventually may bring, if that happens, for Ukraine, for Russia and in the end for whole Europe. It's just a disaster, calamity, taking a turn into something worse, much worse.

 

It's just extremely frustrating to think about. *sigh* 

 

- - - o 0 o - - -

 

Happy Easter to all CofB&F members and families ! 

Ukraine war may just move into the too hard pile. Trump initially  claimed that the war would end before he even took office but I guess that didn’t happen. Now Putin is dragging his feet on any even initial ceasefire talks because he seas himself in a favorable position due to slow gains on territory and the US going soft on him. He also got another 160k in new recruits for his meat waves that sure are going to occur ins summer. I think he wants to see if they can do something on the frontlines.

[Spekulatius]

Gasoline prices have been going up, despite lower crude prices. I was wondering why but I think part of it is the Canadian tariffs on crude.

I don’t see a trend with grocery prices and some are seasonal so will be hard to tell. I guess NY can soon celebrate much few tourists for sure.

 

[Paarslaars]

8 hours ago, Gregmal said:

I was just in Montreal with family and the liquors stores all had boycotted the products, while still having massive Jack Daniels or Bulleit banners in the storefront. The good bars though still have JD, Woodford, Blantons and now they just charge extra because it's even more novelty. I did not though, see any Bud on tap anywhere...Molson and Coors everywhere including the Bell Centre. 

No Bud just means it's a Quality bar man.

 

Never understood how people can drink 'beers' like Bud light or Heineken, it's basically water...

[SharperDingaan]

9 hours ago, Spekulatius said:

Gasoline prices have been going up, despite lower crude prices. I was wondering why but I think part of it is the Canadian tariffs on crude.

I don’t see a trend with grocery prices and some are seasonal so will be hard to tell. I guess NY can soon celebrate much few tourists for sure.

 

 

The carbon tax on fuels was removed April 1. Approx 17c/liter on gasoline and 24c/liter on diesel. For day to day driving, a saving of roughly $1,000 -$1,500 per year depending upon how much you use. Additional savings on oil/gas used for heating and cooking.

 

https://www.canada.ca/en/department-finance/news/2025/03/removing-the-consumer-carbon-price-effective-april-1-2025.html

 

https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/carbon-tax-ending-1.7498279

 

SD

 

 

 

Edited April 19, 2025 by SharperDingaan

[Castanza]

9 hours ago, Spekulatius said:

I am not Canadian but I like Canada. Canada and the USA are not the same. It’s like a bit of an Europeanized version of the USA that polishes offsome rough edges. I remember that we once drove back from BC into Washington state via a rural road. It was a beautiful Barrett landscape  until all of a sudden until we hit the border booth. Right after the border booth, the landscape turned into a junkyard with rusty Whirlpool washing machines just casually dumped next to the road, tires, bud cans strewn al over the place. Wellcome back to the USA. We laughed at each other.

 

In any case, the country had a lot of things going for it and some glaring mostly man made issues as well. Hopefully with the county coming together, they can do better on the future and keep their identity.

I go to Canada quite a bit and the people really are not that different. The more coffee shops, bars and common man places you visit the more you see it. Definitely agree on the slightly Europeanized version of Americans. Outside of some of the major cities in Canada there isn’t much difference in “looks”. I think there are a lot of similar issues in Canada that you find in the US (infra, junky small towns/cities) . But it’s less in your face due to the small scale of the population. Imo much of Canada (if you ignore major pop centers) is very similar to the MidWest in the US (where I lived for 7 years). Overall solid place to visit and good people. I will say food kind of sucks there though lol nobody ever says “let’s order Canadian tonight.” Poutine is eh… 

[beerbaron]

8 hours ago, Gregmal said:

Yup, but again, the “new COBF”….Trump Lying! ZOMG!

 

Objective view…

Gas prices…sure, credit where it’s due

Grocery? Too early to tell, probably was already happening 

Insurance…too early 

Illegal Immigration…yea that’s undeniable

 

 

As you know, policies take time to effect. Short term is usually noise. In the interest on seperating signal vs noise and learn, i suggest we revisit those metrics in 365 days.

 

Here are the metrics i propose:

Core inflation. Base is 2.5%

 

Gas prices. Base is WTI crude. Jan 20th base +-10 % for volatility. Aka anything within that range is noise. Below, we can give some credit.

 

You want to adjust the metrics?

[cwericb]

 

FYI.......

 

"In March 2025, nearly 900,000 fewer Canadians traveled to the United States compared to the same month the previous year. This significant decline is attributed to escalating political tensions, including U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs and controversial remarks about Canada, which have led to a widespread boycott of U.S. travel among Canadians. Consequently, U.S. tourism-dependent regions are facing substantial economic losses, with estimates suggesting a $2.1 billion shortfall in spending and the potential loss of 14,000 jobs. "

[Castanza]

12 minutes ago, cwericb said:

 

FYI.......

 

"In March 2025, nearly 900,000 fewer Canadians traveled to the United States compared to the same month the previous year. This significant decline is attributed to escalating political tensions, including U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs and controversial remarks about Canada, which have led to a widespread boycott of U.S. travel among Canadians. Consequently, U.S. tourism-dependent regions are facing substantial economic losses, with estimates suggesting a $2.1 billion shortfall in spending and the potential loss of 14,000 jobs. "

Oof, honestly good for Canada though. They could use some growth in the private sector. Way too many people working for government up there. 

[cwericb]

7 minutes ago, Castanza said:

Oof, honestly good for Canada though. They could use some growth in the private sector. Way too many people working for government up there. 

 

Yup.

[Spekulatius]

@SharperDingaan Is the resurgence of the liberal party a good or a bad thing for Canada though? After all, they deserve a lot of blame for Canada lagging behind. Poilievre seems less polished than Carney but perhaps he and his party have more substance?

I would be inclined to think that change is better than assuming that the same party who caused the problem can solve it now after exchanging a few people on top.

 

Canada really needs to expand their trade to the EU. It is in a way and ideal partner fo the EU as it supplements many thing (energy, resources, some agricultural goods) that the EU needs. I could also see more trade with Mexico directly than with the US as a hub and spoke in between.

Edited April 19, 2025 by Spekulatius

[cwericb]

Seems to be a lot of love between Canada and Mexico these days as the US isolates itself from the rest of the world.

[Xerxes]

 

 

Pretty good interview the two times Master of Coin. 

 

[Dalal.Holdings]

https://www.wsj.com/world/india/india-us-trade-china-tariff-war-602e5b83?st=ZmfPVg&reflink=article_copyURL_share

 

Quote

The first trade war helped India rise—and Trump’s second one could be transformative, said Josh Foulger, the head of Zetwerk’s electronics business.

 

This is the kind of thing that needs to happen. If China insists on being an authoritarian power that refuses to operate fairly, the U.S. needs to diversify its supply chains toward friendlier nations