i wouldn't expect this to succeed in the long run, but it's worth a try.

if the lebanese can enforce the agreement, great. i wouldn't count on that lasting very long.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2d3gj9ewxo

right.

so, have canadian producers undercut the market by crashing prices and balance it with a government subsidy to local oil producers (i don't like that in general, but...) rather than a retaliatory tariff. the debt will go up, but the price of oil will come down across the board, and that will balance out to no increased revenues by the americans. then, sue them to pay for it.

this will make other markets more attractive than the united states, as well, and production will shift.

if you take that approach, the americans will pay for their own tariffs, in the long run.

https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/trump-would-impose-25-tariffs-oil-mexico-canada-under-trade-plan-sources-say-2024-11-26/

i want to suggest an alternate tactic to retaliatory tariffs, as that is just going to create a recession. the intention of government policy should be to avoid a recession and not to create one.

the way that government can react to avoid a recession is by emulating what it did during covid, by absorbing the costs of tariffs and placing them on the national debt. it would be preferable to allow the bank of canada to print this debt than to allow it to accrue interest via private bond holders. 

the way to recoup this debt would then be to sue the united states for it both at the wto and through the mechanisms erected in nafta specifically to address it. trump will be gone in a few years (he might die in office. it might not take four years.), and we can address the issue with the next president.

canada and the world should consequently be treating trump like the lame duck that he is, under the expectation that he doesn't last four years and that, even if he does, his policies will not last much longer than that.

if the government absorbs tariff costs by collective action with the bank of canada, it should avoid a recession, at the least, and we'll have to figure out what happens next.

drop the platitudes: tariffs are an act of war and this is a declaration of war. we need to treat it as a declaration of war and to use war time economic tactics in response.

canada should also be absolutely clear that it will refuse to meet the nato spending targets and will consider purchasing military hardware from non-nato countries until the tariffs are removed.

it is very foolish for the united states to declare war on china, mexico and canada at the same time, especially if it seeks to win a long war with china, but it's what we have in front of us.

what is ford implying here when he says canada isn't mexico?

that canada deserves special treatment? why?

because (some of) canada is english-speaking? because it used to be mostly white?

hispanics are a substantive part of the american tapestry, and spanish-american colonies make up a tremendous portion of the united states, including the heavily populated states of california, texas and florida. mexico is a larger trade partner with the united states than canada is and trades in actual goods, whereas canada, which is a corrupt petrostate, sells little besides oil and some other raw commodities of marginal importance.

ford's racist comments are actually entirely correct: canada is not as important to the united states as mexico is. we're not in the same category as they are at all. if i can be joan rivers for a minute; canada, you're no mexico. we're the lesser and least important partner in the trilateral agreement, and by a substantive margin.

ford needs to clear his eyes of the racist bullshit and see the truth.

https://www.cp24.com/politics/queens-park/2024/11/26/ford-says-trumps-proposed-25-per-cent-tariff-on-canadian-goods-like-a-family-member-stabbing-you-right-in-the-heart/

i indicated initially that the best tactic was to try to avoid trump as much as possible, but if he's going to target us, it's important that we don't cave or appear weak.

we have our own concerns about border security.

- illegal migrants entering canada from the united states. we should demand that the administration put a stop to this immediately, under threat of economic sanctions.

- guns entering the country from the united states. we should demand that the fbi launch a special task unit to cease all illegal gun trafficking into canada from the united states.

- americans buying up medications in canada. we should pass a law against that, i think.

we should threaten to cut off the flow or dramatically increase the price of oil, if trump doesn't address these concerns.

we should tell the americans we're going to cut off the flow of oil unless they shut down illegal crossings from vermont.

no. as usual, ford's a buffoon.

there's no fentanyl moving from canada into the united states and we're taking in their migrants not vice versa.

we need to tell the americans that we're fed up with their bullshit and that they need to abide by their agreements. if they're not going to negotiate in good faith, if they're not going to be a reliable partner, we're no longer interested; we'll find other markets.

we've walked away from them before and we can do it again.

https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/devastating-ford-warns-of-impact-of-new-tariffs-promised-by-donald-trump-1.7123237

how many americans are obese do you guess?

20%? no way, right?

it's 40%. no shit. almost half the population.

10% are morbidly obese.

and a staggering 75% of americans are overweight.

in canada, 35% are overweight, which is still far too much, but it gets the point across.

i'd like to see some science on this. this strikes me as a bad idea, but i want to know what the realistic prognosis for marginal cases really is.

the general reality is that dieting pills, and even diets, are always short term. you get these people hooked on this stuff, and what are the outcomes? strokes? cancer? kidney and liver failure? 

it's very american to try to cure obesity with drugs, but you have to change. you have to eat better. you have to exercise more.

the only valid use for these drugs is probably for the morbidly obese, and it's just to give them a chance to change. obesity in america is not just widespread, it's profound; americans are not chubby or a little overweight, they're dangerously and grotesquely fat. how do you tell them to exercise when they almost can't? if a drug can give them a chance to get better, that could save their lives, but only as a form of shock therapy and only for a short period of time.

if these drugs just become a way to avoid changing, they're going to lead to their own epidemic of liver failure.

so, where's the science on this?

https://www.thestar.com/news/world/united-states/biden-proposes-medicare-and-medicaid-cover-costly-weight-loss-drugs-for-millions-of-obese-americans/article_5f93f82a-ca22-5423-ae44-772b274dc923.html

i got it cleaned up and reassembled but i can't get it to post. it turns on and the fans just run. i was previously unable to get it to turn on at all, so it is progress, but it's thrown me into basic pc troubleshooting.

i don't have a known good video card to swap in. there's no integrated video. the video card has been funny for a while. the ram has been suspect. so i can't rule anything out.

it's an old nvia pcie x16 card. there's two slots for pcie x16 and only one of them worked. i believe it's because the clip fell off the other slot quite some time ago. now, the clip has fallen off both slots. this is a 32-bit recording pc, so i actually want to avoid wasting limited ram on the video card. i might have to try to downgrade to a pci card or a pcix4 slot. on this computer it doesn't matter, that's fine.

my 98 pc has an agp card in a p3bf with no pcie and there's no agp slot on the p5b. i have two other desktops and neither has a video card. they do have pcie x16 slots.

i can try to put the video card in one of the other pcs to make sure it works. that will at least tell me if the card is broken.

i had to remove the video card to reprogram it, there wasn't really another choice.

i should try reprogramming it again but not this morning. this morning, the main goal was to get my bed back, and i'm consequently a little overdue on a shower.

i have some writing to do this morning so the shower will have to wait until tonight.

if the board can get power i should be able to bring it back still, i think.

the pc speaker doesn't work (the speaker disconnected from the power, which was fragile) but i can try to jimmy it or even finally to resolder it to try to get a beep code at least.

in fact, this board had been misbehaving for quite a while.

i don't know exactly what the point of keying on this machine is, but it has been up and down for years and i have suspected it's been tampered with periodically since i moved in here in 2018. i think the guy that first rented to me in here might have been an undercover cop.

for example, the temperature controls on the board were not working. they are now.

just like brand new.

hopefully, this resolves some of the freeze issues i was dealing with as well.

this is a very capable machine for what it was built for, but it can't be overclocked or controlled remotely, and i've been trying to explain that for years. the device needs to be left alone. this is probably the last time i'm going to be able to bring it back.

did i post this?

https://rog-forum.asus.com/t5/other-motherboards/asus-p5b-premium-vista-issue-i-think-my-creepy-landlord-bricked/td-p/1021410

the board has been sitting on my bed under a sheet for months. i bench tested it tonight and it still works.

it's been sitting for months because i've been trying to redesign this site as an offline archive and every time i'm ready to get back to doing it, the fucking muslim retards drug me again, and i have to spend another three or four months detoxing before i can do anything useful. it's been extremely depressing, and the fucking idiots think they're doing something to help me. one of the disgusting perverts thinks she's going to have sex with me, when the actual truth of the matter is that i'm going to beat her to bloody pulp and flush her corpse down the toilet if she ever gets the chance to lay a finger on me. i would never, ever, touch a disgusting, filthy arab; if any ever tries, i will slaughter them and sacrifice them to odin.

they got me at the end of october somehow. i'm not sure how. i think they drugged my frank's by taking the pins off the front door. i've managed to metabolize it, but i'm still detoxing.

unfortunately, i have to prepare certain things to be able to move and i also want to sleep in my bed again (i've been sleeping on the couch for months).

i'm not going to be able to do anything at all until i move, that's clear, but my recording pc should at least be put together again (after being nicely cleaned up and derusted) within a day or two.

the last time i cleaned it up was in 2013, so i guess it's overdue for a good cleaning. the process i used to push the firmware back down also restored it to factory conditions, so it's as good as a brand new 20 year old windows xp machine.

i need that archived as i'll have to consult it when i can stop wasting my time fighting off these muslim retards and can get back to actually doing something meaningful and productive.

if there's grounds to ban muslims from entering the country, it should be on the basis that only a retard would believe something so stupid at this late a date in history, and that's actually a critique worth taking seriously, and on such crude and verbose terms.

the federal government should take a look at bringing back the national energy program.

it's not like they're ever going to be competitive in alberta.