The difference between Chinese billionaires and American billionaires

In China, the billionaires function at the pleasure of the state. If and when their interests are deemed incompatible with the interests of the state, bad shit happens. Check out this story from the Wall Street Journal; China hands death sentence to hedge-fund manager. 

In America, on the other hand, government functions at the pleasure of the billionaires. When is the last time you heard about a corrupt "asset manager" getting a death sentence in the USA?

The next time will be the first time. 

Who do you trust more, communists or billionaires?

The American way of forever war, circa 2021

The Nations of Virtue, led as always by the USA, have lost Afghanistan.

What happens now?

Right off the top, the most sycophantic of Uncle Sam's acolytes will join in calling for sanctions against the Taliban. Women and girls and human rights, and all that good stuff. 

The fact that the most vulnerable in Afghanistan, especially women and girls, will bear the brunt of sanctions is not a topic discussed in Western media.

The strategy of using sanctions to brutalise societies we can't defeat militarily has become standard operating procedure for the Nations of Virtue. Wreck a country, and when the locals push you out, clobber them with economic strangulation.

And if at all possible, keep arming and funding whatever rump opposition still opposes the victors. This is crucial for American interests, because when it comes to foreign policy, American interests are determined by the needs of the armaments industry and AIPAC.

Not a policy conducive to a bright future for America or anyone else, in my estimation.

 

Canada's shame

Here's a couple of stories from non-Canuck media that hint we may not be the punch-above-our-weight powerhouse we've been led to believe.

Apparently the leader of that indispensable ally we strive to suck up to the most, Mr. Biden, was too busy last week to answer Justin's phone calls. So instead, PM Fluffy called up Hillary Clinton for guidance. Perhaps not so bad - there's plenty of rumours out there that she's the one pulling Joe's strings anyway, so why not go straight to the top?

At least our military was finally able to get a plane-load of 188 collaborators out of Kabul. That's our first flight out. All our allies have managed multiple flights. The US has done at least seventeen before we did our first.

And what up with only 188 passengers on that C-17, when there's tens of thousands of Afghans desperate to get out? Check out this headline from Air Force Magazine; Kabul evacuation flight sets C-17 record with 823 aboard. 

Well, turns out there's only seat-belts for 188...

Ain't that so Canadian!

Could Biden be worse than Trump?

The American cable news networks have rallied round the banner of American Exceptionalism. MSNBC still fobs most of the blame for the Afghanistan surrender onto Trump, although they're not as keen on Sleepy Joe as they were a week ago.

CNN seems undecided. Their man Joe ain't quite the man they thought he was. They're about 50/50 in assigning blame.

Fox, the semi-official mouthpiece of all things Republican, now has all the proof they need that Biden's been a dementia-riddled husk all along.

But all of them agree that this gigantic sloppy turd the Talibs just left on their exceptionalist carpet has ruined the reputation of the Exceptional Nation everywhere and for all time.

Another boffo stock tip from the pot-addled hillbilly

A few weeks before the BRP (DOO on the TSX) IPO I offered my opinion that the company didn't have much of a future, and equated it with dog poo. 

Wrong again! Not as embarrassingly wrong as I was about Apple, but eight years later DOO is trading approx 400% above issue price. Wish I had more dogshit like that in my portfolio!

BRP has been a fascinating covid story. The stock collapsed at the onset of the pandemic, losing three quarters of its value in the first weeks of the lock-down, and closing below the issue price for the first time in years. That made sense at the time. Who cares about snowmobiles and PWCs in the midst of a deadly pandemic?

Another wrong call! Turns out more people than ever before cared, and BRP ran out of inventory in all categories.

Proving yet again it's not easy making accurate predictions, especially about the future!

Sleepy Joe reads his best speech ever

Especially liked "the buck stops here" bit. While not original, it's at least a faint acknowledgement that the President of the USA is responsible for something.

Not the actual loss of the twenty year war, though; that's on the Afghans themselves. After all we did for them, the feckless cowards just wouldn't stand up to the Taliban. Framed this way, Joe's point is valid; why should Americans fight and die for a country that won't stand up for itself?

This is where Americans miss the mark. The Afghan military understood that they were expected to fight and die, not for their country, but for a corrupt government imposed on them by an occupying power. Far from being feckless cowards, Afghans fought the occupying power for twenty years, and finally prevailed against a coalition of the mightiest Western militaries ever assembled.

Framed that way, the events of the past few days represent a great triumph for Afghanistan. The feckless cowards are the ones who cut and ran.

Bruno Report; plus sundry insights into country living

When we first got Bruno, I felt compelled to provide an update every couple weeks on how he's adapting to his new home. Once it was clear he was transitioning successfully, I didn't have much to write about anymore.

This remains our reality. The lazy mastiff has indeed made a very successful transition. He is extremely at ease in his new home. As I type these words, I can feel his snoring vibrate the floorboards in this 100 year old double-brick farmhouse after he's put himself to bed upstairs. 

And is he ever lazy.

He showed plenty of get-up-and-go last winter. I could do 5k walks with him, no problem. He'd dash through the snow and then flop on his back and slide down the hill.

Now that we've got summer weather, he flops on his back and just lies there.

The Farm Manager has prior experience with mastiffs. She told me you should never walk a mastiff farther than you can carry it home. She got that right!

We had occasion to visit the big city on the weekend for a family get-together. Since it takes us four hours to get there, the hosts took pity on us and let us spend the night. We had the opportunity to spend an evening on an urban stoop.

It was Saturday night. We were in a leafy suburb, but we had something we don't have here at Falling Downs - next door neighbours.

Here at the farm the nearest next door neighbour is a quarter mile away. In the city, they're five feet away. If they want to party to Kool & The Gang at 11:00 o'clock on a Saturday night, your options are limited. 

You can be the asshole who calls in a noise complaint.

Or you can make the best of the situation, and just enjoy your Saturday night.

Which we did, but I gotta say, it was great to get home!