“I am quite sure Canada will perform wonderfully in the next war. Provided it is given at least 10 years advance notice.”
“People of different religions can get along quite well. Provided of course, they are not religious.” – Richard Needham.
“When I ask how old your toddler is, I don’t need to know in actual months – like 27 months. ‘He’s two’ will do just fine. He’s not a cheese. And I don’t really care in the first place” – Bill Maher
“By the time you are 80 years old, you have learned everything. You only have to remember it.” – George Burns
The Page had a spare hundred bucks.
It was actually saved up since the Christmas bills were all paid, because you know, Valentine’s Day was coming last week.
But then we figured, what the heck! Not much happening.
So we bought a bottle of wine and watched Landman episodes. Watching Montana farming and ranching like on Yellowstone, and Texas oilpatch stuff like Landman makes us happy.
Hope you had a good time, too!
Not only on Valentine’s Day, but the whole Family Day long weekend. News reports in next week’s newspaper.
The past year world stock markets have been on a tear. Up.
And so is gold. That’s all a good thing. American presidential election years like last year seem to be always good for investments.
It was actually called an “over priced” market all year long by many experts.
Then, after the election, the same experts said a “shock” is all it will take to send markets down, down, down!
Down big time! As in all of 2024, the market still just keeps going up and up.
Now that Donald Trump is throwing world affairs into tizzies, is this the “shock” those experts said was coming?
In all honesty, haven’t we had enough shocks already the past while? Ukraine war. Gaza. Lebanon. South China Sea. China rattling sabres. Trump tariffs.
What the heck is it going to take to be a real shock?
Greenland’s population of 57,000 people invading Maine?
Then there is the petition in Denmark (of which Greenland is part of and Trump has already said he wants to buy) for Denmark itself buy the state of California.
The buying price is one trillion dollars.
As of last week, it was reported over 200,000 people have signed the petition. Money? Well, the same report says they are considering crowdfunding.
For interest, Canada and California each have about the same population at around 40 million people each.
Economies on websites have Canada sized at about $2.3 trillion per year and California at $4 trillion.
Denmark is about $435 billion. Population of Denmark is six million people.
Are we contributing to the “narcissistic Trump” theory by writing about him?
Maybe. But let’s take one or two steps back and assess the happenings.
It’s no secret the American president was stymied and blockaded both inside and outside of his own party when he tried to move his political agenda forward in his previous office term.
American media at that time spent all day and half of every night constantly roasting him. Then along came Joe Biden and, in an election that everybody seemed to agree was too close to call, Biden won with an amazing 16 million vote edge.
That was with a total vote cast count never seen in previous elections, and was not seen last year in that election. Weird, eh?
This time around, Trump isn’t trying to make friends, or peace, with anybody. He was stabbed in the back enough times during his last presidency and even in the just past election.
It would all be enough to make even the thickest skinned person stay home and lick their wounds. Like several other hard core politicians, Trump stuck it out and made an amazing comeback.
This time around he isn’t waiting for agreement on his policies by all concerned. Right now he has the majority in the House of Representatives (the equivalent of our Canadian Parliament), the Senate (which in Canada is just a retirement home for loyal party toadies of both sides), and of course, the presidency. Same job there as our Canadian prime minister. But in just over 20 months, there is another round of elections in the States.
This means if Trump’s plans are going to make a difference, they have to be made now to see results soon. In just over eight months, serious campaigning for what are called mid-term elections are happening. Trump could lose control of both the Senate and the House of Representatives and all his plans could go out the window.
Yes, it’s a roller coaster ride for us. Probably it’s going to hurt. But he has his ideas and so far, his supporters are with him.
He isn’t making new friends in Canada. And probably losing many old ones. For now anyway. Whether or not we come through this as a better, stronger, more united Canada remains to be seen.
That sure won’t happen with some of the governments, federal and provincial, we’ve had the past 10 years.
Have a great week!