Canada's new "sovereign wealth fund" lacks key ingredient - wealth!

In theory, a sovereign wealth fund husbands a country's financial surplus for a future rainy day. The problem with the Canada Strong fund Carney just announced is that, lacking any financial surplus whatsoever, the entirety of the $25 billions in seed money has to be borrowed. Poilievre is correct when he says it would more appropriately be called a "sovereign debt fund." This continues Carney's string of headline-grabbing announcements which don't withstand a second glance, let alone close scrutiny. Carney gifted us the Major Projects Office, the mandate of which is to announce major projects, not to build them. He's gifted us a new Defence Investment Agency, stacked atop the existing bureaucracy, because everybody knows the Canadian Forces procurement challenges are due to a lack of management personnel. And don't forget Build Canada Homes. That new bureaucracy was intended to build new housing at scale, but actual housing starts are either stagnant or in decline since the inititive made big headlines almost a year ago. Maybe Mark can't find the necessary trades... oh-oh... here comes the next wave of TFWs!

Lithuania can teach us how to stand up to bullies

That's according to Murray Brewster, the CBC's military affairs expert. According to Murray, the speed at which the Baltic statelet ditched cheap Russian pipeline gas for far more expensive American LNG was an inspiration to the whole of the Free World! I don't know about that. Anytime a government makes a political decision that will immiserate their people, is that really the sort of "courage" we should emmulate? Beyond that, the comparison of our countries seems a little forced. Since independence, Lithuania has lost 40% of its population,which wasn't even the population of Toronto to begin with. Canada has gained 50% in the same time. GDP per capita is almost double in Canada. Lithuania is clearly a nation in decline, sputtering listlessly towards extinction. Canada's birthrate, one of the lowest in the world, makes us an "ultra-low fertility" country. Lithuania's birthrate is even lower! The other bully Lithuania has put in their place is China. While it's true China got a liitle huffy back in 2021 after the Lithuanians allowed a Taiwan "embassy" to open in Vilnius, that tiff seems to have passed. Here's a quote from Google AI; "while trade plunged dramatically in 2022, recent 2026 data shows Chinese exports to Lithuania surging by 98%." While Brewster doesn't spell it out explicitly, the bully we're concerned about today is the country both Lithuania and Canada looked to for protection and leadership until Trump unleashed his tariff rampage a year ago. Here's a thought; instead of joining forces with pipsqueak non-entities like the Vilnius regime, how about both our counries join up with Xi and Putin to put an end to Washington's global terror campaign.

American Empire facing multiple vortices of doom

You have to give credit to Bibi and Trump; they've succeeded in leading two nuke-equipped nations to defeat by a non-nuke nation! It's hilarious to watch Pistol Pete Hegseth, aka "Greasy Pete," standing in front of TV cameras claiming one victory after another. Every victory so glorious the entirety of human history has never seen anything like it... Ya... or maybe not. I gotta say, from my perspective, looks to me like the towelheads have got Uncle Sam over the proverbial barrel- the barrel of oil, that is. Not only are they giving Team Trump the finger re: his various ever-changing demands, they're still shipping boat-loads of oil out the allegedly-blockaded Persian Gulf. And when they let foreign ships through, it's only after they've paid a juicy toll in something other than USD. There goes the petrodollar! American cred in the military sphere has already gone for a shit. In the first place, US tech is distinctly over-priced and underwhelming. Billion-dollar AD systems taken out by a drone swarm that doesn't amount to $100k. I'm no expert, but that doesn't strike me as a formula to win a war. And our "Israeli Allies" have truly become the albatross around America's neck. They obviously can't get anything serious done on their own. They've been waging total war against Hamas for the better part of three years and everybody knows Hamas is nowhere near defeated. Even their genocide requires non-stop American support. Americans are turning away from Israel's war crimes like never before.

Premier Ford buys private jet to get closer to common folks

Here's a true fact; 90% of Ontario's voters live within a 3 hour SUV ride of Queen's Park. But Doug Ford needs a private jet, presumably to hit the population centres beyond the reach of a government Cadillac Escalade and the inevitable escort of several dozen black Tahoes and Suburbans, not to mention the OPP air fleet that keeps watch over Doug from above. Like Thunder Bay for example. That's a fourteen hour drive from Queen's Park on a good day. Give the man a private jet already! The voters in Thunder Bay will be thrilled to see him. The biggest problems in that city over recent history revolve around the toxic drug crisis, homelessness, police corruption, and, obviously related, the rapidly emerging crisis of Indigenous alienation. Everybody gonna be thrilled to see Dougie flying in on his new airplane! A huge part of the rationale offered by Team Ford revolved around his need to travel to the USA. After all, he just did a round trip to Texas on a leased private jet... Seems to me you can boil this controversy down to the age-old question of leasing vs. buying. I must say, the 30m price tag looks like a goodly discount on the 120 or so for a brand new one. And it was only lightly used in its previous life in South America, where it was owned by a little old lady who only used it for regular runs from Bogota to a small church near an obsure airstrip in Arizona every Sunday.

Is this the right time for a Republican Christian and a Hindu Democrat to join forces and launch a third party in US politics?

I'm talking about Ro and MTG of course. It's seemed for some time, and especially during Trump's spas-fest over Easter weekend, that multitudes of once-reliable Trumpies would vote against Trump at their next opportunity, and that, failing a viable 3rd party, that protest vote would, by default, go to the Dems. What a terrible waste of a historic moment that would be. As much as I like Jill Stein, the Greens lack the national profile to upset the two-party apple-cart. That's why I did a double-take when I read reports that former Trumpie Marjorie Taylor-Greene and lefty-Dem Ro Khanna were cooking up some sort of populist-oriented collaboration. MTG went ballistic against Trump when he did his 180 on the Epstein files. Ro has displeased the DNC establishment for daring to question its slavish adherence to Israeli policy positions. So I don't know if this is the right time, but it just might be the last best time we'll ever get! Go Ro! Go Marj!

Has the Stable Genius gone insane?

I saw a podcast today wherein Jeffrey Sachs made a strong case that 47 has slipped his moorings. I have maximum respect for Sachs. He spent his entire career in the service of Empire, in the highest reaches of academia and the bureaucracy. It's gotta take a lot of courage to turn your back on that Empire and begin proselytizing against it. It's not so much that I think Sachs is mistaken, but I think he's too quick to skip over a possibly more plausible explanation. I too have more than once pondered the "fucked in the head" narrative, and while it's compelling enough, what about this theory; that all the crazy talk is first and foremost intended to move markets. Trump has unprecedented power to move markets, he knows it, and everything we know about Donnie J, Mafia Don, or The Donald tells us he's not the kinda guy to let such an opportunity slip by. My theory, purely speculative of course, is there are Trump operatives planted in select tax havens all over the world, feeding billions of dollars through derivative trades buried under many layers of anonymity. Donny can literally pull a complete whopper out his ass and every bourse and exchange around the world groans under the stress of all the wild swings in trading he just triggered. Since those Trump insiders in Guernsey or the Cayman Islands know what's coming, they must be making utterly eye-watering profits! The point is, maybe Trump is just a stupid old man heading down the Alzheimer Highway. Maybe. Or maybe he's the most spectacularly successful grifter of all time?

Just when you thought things couldn't get any more nutso-kookoo...

...Mafia Don pulls yet another surprise from his ample arse! How about a blockade on your blockade, you dastardly Towelheads! Oh ya! We gonna teach 'em a lesson... USA USA USA!!! In case you have yet to notice, we're all living in Crazytown now. That dude in the White House is absolutely just begging for the 25th solution. I mean, how much more demented, deranged, and flat-out fucked-in-the-head would you have to be before that kicks in? As near as I can tell, the USA-Israel war on Iran ain't going all that great. Nor is Israel's war on Lebanon. Nor is Israel's war on Hamas. Remember that? After two and a half years of total war on Hamas, trapped as they are in a sealed-off enclave barely the size of Brampton, the vaunted IDF has yet to come anywhere near defeating them. Bear in mind that Israel could not carry out any of its seven front wars without 100% support from Uncle Sam. It's looking more and more likely that Israel could lose every one of those fronts. Then what?

Vultures circle as American Empire implodes

In hindsight, it's clear that this long-overdue reckoning could have been avoided had Mafia Don not succumbed to the entreaties of the Prime Minister of Israel and its top spy boss that Iran was ripe fruit, low-hanging enough that DJT himself could get his grubby thieving fingers on it. Oh ya! And go down in history! Oh ya! USA USA USA!!! Well, as all the world can see, Donny J is up a bit of a stump now. Any hopes for November are fading fast. Before The Greatest Leader Since Moses conned the greatest dupe to ever sit in the Oval Office into going to war for Israel, there was a chance Mafia Don might bullshit his way through this. That's all over now. Not only did he go to war for Israel... he lost!

Taco Tuesday

Again! Who coulda seen that coming? Trump really got an unholy ruckus going over Easter Weekend. It started off on a happy enough narrative trail. Mafia Don and Pistol Pete revealed the most complex downed-pilot extraction ever known in all of military history. The world has never seen anything like it, etc. etc... Our dear Lord in heaven gave us an Easter Miracle! Within 24 hours there was ample alt-media spotlight highlighting the fact that the Easter Miracle narrative was in actuality a massive coverup of a critical mission failure. The war that Donald allowed his Zionist minders to talk him into is starting to hurt. Half a billion worth of the best US war toys was scattered across the Iranian desert in this great triumph. The realization that his rep as a military tactician had just gone for a shit caused the Commander in Chief to pen an extra-pissy post on his Truth Social. That only got Tucker Carlson and his gazillions of followers pulling their hair out over Trump dropping f-bombs on Easter Sunday! You can see where things are only going from bad to worse to badder and worser for Trump. That must be around the time he decided to threaten to erase Persian civilization. Yup, yet another Trump ultimatum! He gave Iran 48 hours to capitulate, and then, OH MY GOD AMERICA WOULD UNLEASH HELL LIKE THE WORLD HAS NEVER SEEN BEFORE!!! Ya right... as if this five thousand year old civilization is impressed by a real estate hustler from NYC. But it did convince a large percentage of the undecided that Dear Donald is seriously fucked in the head. But who knows. Well before his deadline, he announced a two-week ceasefire. Taco time again! Persian civilization gets a two-week reprieve! So far I'm not seeing any evidence Iran agreed to that two-week ceasefire. My guess is Trump is keen on this ceasefire because both US and IDF are running out of ammo, and apparently the totally obliterated (at least three or four times over by now) Iranians are not.

$100 billion here and a hundred billion there, pretty soon we're looking at serious money

And not too long after that, we'll be looking at bankruptcy. I gotta say I'm not impressed by Carney. For a supposed financial savant, he's committing Canada to long term spending at levels totally beyond our capacity to pay. This is happening with little or no consultation with the public. All the while, mainstream media do their best to limit discussion. We can debate whether Korean or German subs might best suit our needs, but there's no discussion at all about whether these legacy manned combat systems have any role to play in 21st century warfare. Same goes for warships and fighter jets. What the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East are proving right now is that war ain't what it used to be. Big warships make big targets. The Ukrainian navy has pretty much kept Russia's Black Sea Fleet in drydock for the past four years using cheap unmanned drones. In Israel, and in USA's Gulf bases, Iran has destroyed the most sophisticated air defence systems in the world using cheap unmanned drones. Mark Carney is loading us up with at least $500 billions in obsolete technology that wouldn't survive a one month war with Iran, let alone Russia or China. On the other hand, even while our new armoury becomes a smoking ruin, we'll (or our children and theirs) continue to pay for all this foolishness for at least the next fifty years. That will require massive tax hikes, equally massive spending cuts, or some combination of both. It is high time we had a public debate on what kind of a society we want, and prioritize our spending accordingly.

Trump so far up Bibi's butt we've lost sight of his shoes!

I just watched Trump's speech, which was a mash-up of Likud talking points. The President of the USA proclaimed in public that American forces were prepared to lay down their lives for... Israel? That ain't gonna fly with the America First wing of the Maga crowd. In fact, I don't see it flying even amongst most Dems. This Iran disaster that has consumed America is entirely the work of AIPAC and their minions in DC. It was Team Bibi that convinced their patsy Donny J that the Iran caper was a slam-dunk! And here we are.