Political Posts

[Spekulatius]

7 hours ago, Libs said:

I was surprised to find this.

 

CDN vs U.S. GDP / per capita was ~equal in ~2011/2012 at around $52,000.

 

Now we have a huge gap.

 

Canada $54,000 (as of 12/2024; barely changed in ~14 years!)

U.S. : $86,000

 

https://countryeconomy.com/countries/compare/canada/usa?sc=XE34

 

So the last decade and a half has seen a huge gap open up. 

 

Off the top of my head, I would list higher taxes and regulation holding back Canada; and the U.S. benefitting from higher productivity but also massive stimulus

(hence the US higher proportional deficits / debt -  US per capita federal debt $34,000 V Canada $22,000.)

 

What do our Canadian friends think about this? 

 

I guess that's why the unemployment rate is so much higher up north (6.9% vs 4.3% in the U.S.)

 

There would be massive unrest in the U.S. if GDP stagnated for this long. 

I think the change in USD/CDN exchange rate explains part (but not all of it). The USD/CDN  exchange rate has changed by about 30% over the

last 10 years.

[Parsad]

39 minutes ago, Dalal.Holdings said:

 

Again...there is a missing party here. Europe could simply step in and say "Thank you for your help, Donald. We'll take it from here and back Ukraine in its fight"...but strangely that is not really something that is being proposed by Ursula, Friedrich, Emmanuel, or Kier...

 

So why is the U.S. backstopping Israel?  The Middle East didn't come in and say, "Thank you for your help, Donald.  We'll take it from here and back Israel in its fight"?  

 

The U.S. has no problem writing a blank check for Israel with no direct economic gain from Israel...so why is Ukraine thrown to the wolves?  Cheers!

[Spooky]

1 hour ago, TB said:

Fed, US GDP in Q3 is expected to be 4.2% and many expecting the growth to hit up to 5% next year.

5% GDP growth seems …. quite ambitious.

[Dalal.Holdings]

11 minutes ago, Parsad said:

 

So why is the U.S. backstopping Israel?  The Middle East didn't come in and say, "Thank you for your help, Donald.  We'll take it from here and back Israel in its fight"?  

 

The U.S. has no problem writing a blank check for Israel with no direct economic gain from Israel...so why is Ukraine thrown to the wolves?  Cheers!

 

I really don’t know what to say to this as it makes no sense to me.

[Marco Van Basten]

1 hour ago, Parsad said:

 

So why is the U.S. backstopping Israel?  The Middle East didn't come in and say, "Thank you for your help, Donald.  We'll take it from here and back Israel in its fight"?  

 

The U.S. has no problem writing a blank check for Israel with no direct economic gain from Israel...so why is Ukraine thrown to the wolves?  Cheers!

Because as the German chancellor stated, Israel is doing the dirty work for the rest of us.  (Like killing Hezbollah chief of staff today who had a $5MM price on his head from the US government.)  Hezbollah, Hamas and Iran are an existential threat to the West, Russia is not.  (Yes, Putin is a horrible human being, and US and Europeans along with Ukrainian disaspora should have provided funds to hire a million trained mercenaries from Nepal, etc... to defeat him, but that is a separate issue.)

Edited November 24, 2025 by Marco Van Basten

[Spekulatius]

18 minutes ago, Parsad said:

 

So why is the U.S. backstopping Israel?  The Middle East didn't come in and say, "Thank you for your help, Donald.  We'll take it from here and back Israel in its fight"?  

 

The U.S. has no problem writing a blank check for Israel with no direct economic gain from Israel...so why is Ukraine thrown to the wolves?  Cheers!

Simple, Israel had tremendous success with their strikes on Iran so he decided to be part of the action and co tribute what Israel could not - the bunker buster. This was at very limited risk for the USA. He thinks Israel’s are the winners.

 

He regards Ukraine as the loser and Russia as a winner in this conflict . He said this years ago . He does not like backing a loser in his eyes, that’s why he isn’t backing Ukraine and gravitating towards Russia.

 

Putin and Trump are aligned in terms of how they believe in Power rather than any underlying moral framework. The problem with that is that Autocrats tend to leave nothing durable behind.

[Parsad]

Just one of the dramatic policy changes coming with Carney:

 

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/carney-declares-end-canadas-feminist-175316793.html

 

He's much more of a centrist, rather than the far more left-leaning Trudeau.  Cheers!

[Jaygo]

Canada is really a basket case right now and the regression of the country of 2010 to now is a really sad example of poor or treasonous governance fucking a place up. I fully hate the Liberals and MC seems like a well articulated prick but I remain hopeful for him to prove me wrong and my fellow Canadian's futures.

 

That rant over with. The GDP thing is pretty interesting but you can lie with statistics and I think GDP is a terrible measure to use comparing our countries. A few easy examples. 

 

Natural disasters: the USA has almost twice the annual spend per year per capita that Canada has just fixing stuff that got wrecked by natural disasters. Just ask home depot, who sited a low disaster year as taking 3% off their sales this year. Any fool can see replacing a broken window today that was not broken yesterday does not translate into a higher standard of living. 

 

Yall Expensive!! Consumer shit is expensive as hell compared to global costs. Lululemon sells their stuff for the same dollar for dollar price in the US and Canada but the US currency is on average 30% stronger so if girl buys some pants in the USA it counts as 30% more GDP than if she buys in Canada. Its a Very flawed metric. 

 

War. What is it good for? GDP apparently. The USA swings the biggest hammer globally and while your roads and bridges crumble your jets flying over the football games are  awesome. Military expenditures count as GDP and when some Talban fighter in Afghanistan has his $ 500.00  hut blown up by your $ 500,000.00 worth of ordinance it counts as GDP. Does spending millions to destroy thousands seem like a good way to compare two countries economic output? Nope, maybe Canada need more foreign interventions.

 

All of these metrics like GDP need to be really looked at with scepticism because most people will find they don't square. But yes we are really shooting ourselves in the foot lately, maybe next election eh!

[Jaygo]

16 minutes ago, Parsad said:

Just one of the dramatic policy changes coming with Carney:

 

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/carney-declares-end-canadas-feminist-175316793.html

 

He's much more of a centrist, rather than the far more left-leaning Trudeau.  Cheers!

 

I hope you are right. I'm not sure its good enough but so far the steps are in the right direction mostly. The carbon neutral data centre thing did give me recollections of the happy and hopeless Trudeau years.

[SharperDingaan]

Thing is ..... Trudeau has left the building, and it is pretty clear that the doors are now wide open and a gale is blowing through. It's a new world, history isn't representative, and long overdue change is just getting started.

 

While change creates fear, it also creates opportunity; and it is primarily the young that will most benefit. There are few better places to be if you're willing to grab the brass ring, and build .... versus simply trade bits of paper.

 

There's a reason why the major projects office is attracting the next dollar a year men in droves. All good.

 

SD

 

 

Edited November 24, 2025 by SharperDingaan

[Parsad]

Keystone Kash...damn his girlfriend is hot!  Cheers!

 

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/keystone-kash-explodes-swat-team-150614698.html

[John Hjorth]

 

Only in your wildest wet dreams!

 

Latest printed edition of The Economist dated 22^nd November 2025 has US present GDP growth LTM at 2.1 %, last quarter at 3.8 percent annualized, expected GDP growth whole 2025 at 1.9%, take the forecast for what it is, a forecast. Consumer prices up 3.0 % LTM,  forecast whole 2025 2.8 %, unemployment rate by now at  4.3 %, current account balance and budget balance  totally down the drain at minus 4.0 % and minus 5.9 %, respectively.

 

All signs in the stars of this going to become good, very good! The best is yet to come! Mar a Lago accord, USD reserve currency and all stuff like like that. Just wait and see!

[John Hjorth]

10 hours ago, Parsad said:

John, Vancouver Island is one of the most spectacular habitats in the entire world.  If most of my family wasn't on the mainland in Vancouver, I would easily live on Vancouver Island.  Absolutely beautiful and lovely...every day is heaven there! 

 

Victoria used to be one of the few places where palm trees could survive the winters.  With global warming, a good part of Vancouver and Victoria can now have palm trees.  And yes, there are parts even where you can grow olive trees like Osoyoos which is close to Kelowna.  Cheers!

 

Sanjeev [ @Parsad ]

 

Who knows what that totally crazy idea of mine may bring, if that particular event may appear here? Honestly, I don't really have any idea of how I personally in situ would react to such an event here! All I did back then at about last Chrismas was hedging my personal situation in advance of such event incurring, I really don't want to 'loose' her, all while she is really not 'mine', and she never will be! I simply coulden't stand any longer not to discuss it with her openly, sincere and honestly.

 

I may end up staying put, or leaving and come back again shortly after leaving, because I can't get it to work for me in a satisfactory way, before the war ends, if possible at that particular point in time, going cold on it, I'll figure it out any way, eventually!

 

Stay young and flexible by mind and mindset, not by birth certificate!

 

If it eventyally may work out, I'll perhaps just buy one more bed for the room and invite her over, perhaps it may even end up we're both staying there or somewhere around that, because we like it, ending up liquidating all our earthly belongings here, including our home! - Who knows!? -The idea of living asset light with much more stocks has a certain appeal to me! [almost @Viking style!?] 

Edited November 24, 2025 by John Hjorth

[Spekulatius]

4 hours ago, John Hjorth said:

 

Sanjeev [ @Parsad ]

 

Who knows what that totally crazy idea of mine may bring, if that particular event may appear here? Honestly, I don't really have any idea of how I personally in situ would react to such an event here! All I did back then at about last Chrismas was hedging my personal situation in advance of such event incurring, I really don't want to 'loose' her, all while she is really not 'mine', and she never will be! I simply coulden't stand any longer not to discuss it with her openly, sincere and honestly.

 

I may end up staying put, or leaving and come back again shortly after leaving, because I can't get it to work for me in a satisfactory way, before the war ends, if possible at that particular point in time, going cold on it, I'll figure it out any way, eventually!

 

Stay young and flexible by mind and mindset, not by birth certificate!

 

If it eventyally may work out, I'll perhaps just buy one more bed for the room and invite her over, perhaps it may even end up we're both staying there or somewhere around that, because we like it, ending up liquidating all our earthly belongings here, including our home! - Who knows!? -The idea of living asset light with much more stocks has a certain appeal to me! [almost @Viking style!?] 

Yes, Vikings were living asset light and always on the move. When they needed something, they just raided it and disappeared into the vastness of the oceans before the situation became untenable due to pushback from the locals. Make sure you have a glorious death and go to Valhalla’s before dying of old age.

 

Maybe there is even an investing angle to this

[73 Reds]

11 hours ago, Parsad said:

 

So why is the U.S. backstopping Israel?  The Middle East didn't come in and say, "Thank you for your help, Donald.  We'll take it from here and back Israel in its fight"?  

 

The U.S. has no problem writing a blank check for Israel with no direct economic gain from Israel...so why is Ukraine thrown to the wolves?  Cheers!

What about the fact that we (America) have large business interests in Israel.  We also share common values and Israel has provided the only sense of stability in an otherwise rogue region.  I could go on but why bother?  

[Sweet]

12 hours ago, Parsad said:

 

So why is the U.S. backstopping Israel?  The Middle East didn't come in and say, "Thank you for your help, Donald.  We'll take it from here and back Israel in its fight"?  

 

The U.S. has no problem writing a blank check for Israel with no direct economic gain from Israel...so why is Ukraine thrown to the wolves?  Cheers!

Pretty much.

 

1 hour ago, 73 Reds said:

What about the fact that we (America) have large business interests in Israel.  We also share common values and Israel has provided the only sense of stability in an otherwise rogue region.  I could go on but why bother?  

Economic ties with Israel are not that big or important.

 

His wife is married to a Jew, and he has a personal animus against Ukraine dating back to Hunter Biden.

 

Plus as Spek says Trump doesn’t like ‘losers’.

 

I would generally be for most of Trumps policies but his views on Ukraine out of kilter with Americas historic support for democracies.

[Spooky]

7 hours ago, John Hjorth said:

 

Only in your wildest wet dreams!

 

Latest printed edition of The Economist dated 22^nd November 2025 has US present GDP growth LTM at 2.1 %, last quarter at 3.8 percent annualized, expected GDP growth whole 2025 at 1.9%, take the forecast for what it is, a forecast. Consumer prices up 3.0 % LTM,  forecast whole 2025 2.8 %, unemployment rate by now at  4.3 %, current account balance and budget balance  totally down the drain at minus 4.0 % and minus 5.9 %, respectively.

 

All signs in the stars of this going to become good, very good! The best is yet to come! Mar a Lago accord, USD reserve currency and all stuff like like that. Just wait and see!

 

Exactly John, some magical thinking happening. The reality is that if you strip out data centre activity the US economy is not growing on a nominal basis.

 

There was a pretty interesting article in the FT debating if the US has Dutch Disease related to regulatory capture by the big tech companies: https://www.ft.com/content/95a77bb1-10c5-4dbc-ad8c-213c17131332

 

Edited November 24, 2025 by Spooky

[73 Reds]

15 minutes ago, Sweet said:

Pretty much.

 

Economic ties with Israel are not that big or important.

 

His wife is married to a Jew, and he has a personal animus against Ukraine dating back to Hunter Biden.

 

Plus as Spek says Trump doesn’t like ‘losers’.

 

I would generally be for most of Trumps policies but his views on Ukraine out of kilter with Americas historic support for democracies.

Not so much referring to the Country's ties with Israel but the fact that many of our large public tech companies, drug companies and defense companies, among others have bases in Israel.  Coincidence?  Yet some here would rather believe they are only there for the weather.  

Edited November 24, 2025 by 73 Reds
comma

[cubsfan]

Israel did the world, especially Europe, a huge favor by wiping out Iran's terrorist regime/proxies.  They all know it, but won't say it publicly. Radical Islam has destroyed the Middle East, and has changed Europe forever.

 

Europe can do the world a favor and take care of the Russians or maybe you want the Israelis to do your dirty work.

 

 

[Sweet]

22 minutes ago, 73 Reds said:

Not so much referring to the Country's ties with Israel but the fact that many of our large public tech companies, drug companies and defense companies, among others have bases in Israel.  Coincidence?  Yet some here would rather believe they are only there for the weather.  

Sure, but ultimately that’s just a base of operation.  The US is far more dependent on China economically and they are competitors / adversaries.  

[Spekulatius]

Yeah the data center Capex alone is 1-1.5% of the US GDP  currently. Bigger then the telecom bubble in 2000. If it’s not money well spent look out below for our economy.

[73 Reds]

34 minutes ago, Sweet said:

Sure, but ultimately that’s just a base of operation.  The US is far more dependent on China economically and they are competitors / adversaries.  

Its also a talent pool.  To your point, Israel is the size of the State of New Jersey and while China has a population of 1.5 billion people, Israel's entire population is comparable to that of New York City.

[Gregmal]

It’s surprising how naive everyone is with respect to the relationship. Ukraine was never a real ally. It’s was a “thing” that the Bush/Obama/Biden style politicians played with. It’s main purpose was to antagonize Russia indirectly, with a call option embedded in the expansion of their little NATO/EU club. 

[Marco Van Basten]

2 hours ago, Sweet said:

Pretty much.

 

Economic ties with Israel are not that big or important.

 

His wife is married to a Jew, and he has a personal animus against Ukraine dating back to Hunter Biden.

 

Plus as Spek says Trump doesn’t like ‘losers’.

 

I would generally be for most of Trumps policies but his views on Ukraine out of kilter with Americas historic support for democracies.

You need to do better research.  He has one daughter married to a Jew and another married to an Arab.  

[cubsfan]

1 hour ago, Gregmal said:

It’s surprising how naive everyone is with respect to the relationship. Ukraine was never a real ally. It’s was a “thing” that the Bush/Obama/Biden style politicians played with. It’s main purpose was to antagonize Russia indirectly, with a call option embedded in the expansion of their little NATO/EU club. 

 

Best reality check I've heard for not being involved.