i just want to remind mr carney that, while capitalist analyses of venezuela as being wealthy and safe in the 80s are outside of the realm of facts (venezuela was one of the most dangerous and corrupt places in the world in the bad old days of unrestrained capitalism, with a murder rate that makes dc look like ottawa), it took a turn near the end of chavez towards a very bad economic policy that included pricing itself out of the market to sell oil to the united states, destroying it's substantive agriculture sector and embracing the disastrous policy of "socialism in one country", which you'd probably rather refer to via it's nazi name of autarky. this trio of bad decisions worked to undo the positive components of bolivarianism, including it's focus on grassroots democracy and it's legitimate progress in redistributing wealth from the country's obscenely rich to it's desperately poor. the middle class might have tolerated the wealth redistribution, otherwise, but it couldn't deal with the social changes. chavez' successor could not break the impasse and probably didn't legitimately want to. and he sleeps in a cell in new york, now, as outrageously illegal as that is.

canada might want to make an effort not to repeat those mistakes.

it's going to cost a lot to redevelop the oil industry in venezuela and it's not going to pose a threat to canada for a while still. but trump got what he wanted, which was a massive pile of oil. and we may even find he leaves us alone for a bit.

it's not clear why he thinks stealing something is better than buying it. i don't imagine he intends to sell it. i don't expect his successor will have the same views.

if mr carney would like to retaliate to the lake ontario renaming, i have a suggested new map of north america:

in terms of quebec politics, i would prefer the pq to the caq and not support the quebec liberals. 

the liberals need to do something about that upstart conservative party if they want to get back into power. but the caq is also eating into the pq vote. the return of spectrum politics to quebec and the breaking of the nationalist-federalist spectrum is healthy for quebec society, but it hasn't resulted in a traditional spectrum. the quebec liberals are still very right-wing, and i'd rather vote for the pq.

high tariffs on imported palm oil and palm oil products to protect the health of canadians and the domestic rape seed industry would be an appropriate use of tariffs that i would politically support.

i have carefully sorted through everything and the margarine appears to be the only food item that's been infected with the palm oil virus to this point. 

i'm blaming arabs and i'm not wrong but i should extrapolate. this garbage is mostly grown in the east indies, but is native to africa. the movement of the palm genome is one of the agricultural effects of arabic colonialism, and the item is a staple in arabic diets, but it's not from arabia, it's from africa. you'll note that the east indies is a muslim region, today, although it was historically hindu, buddhist and animist (like essentially all of africa). so, the historic market for palm oil is arabs and people consuming arabic culture diets. palm and coconut oil are hugely responsible for the high obesity levels in arabic societies, which are the only societies in the world with higher obesity rates than the united states.

however, palm fat has in recent years also become popular as a replacement for trans fat, which is rightfully banned almost everywhere today, and in the process has become very cheap as a result of the economies of scale in fast food. the result is that it's finding it's way into other supply chains as a replacement for other products. 

in the case of margarine, palm oil has almost completely replaced sunflower oil industry-wide and this has had a negative effect on taste and texture. there are other changes in the product and i will admit that i may be over-attributing the shift to the palm oil, but the increases in saturated fat, decreases in vitamin e and more butter-like taste and appearance in the walmart margarine, and similar changes industry wide (including in the irresistible food basic house brand and the lactantia/olivina brand i use to buy before i noticed the decrease in vitamin e on the label in one and then the other, and just said "fuck it" and started buying the cheaper walmart brand) have made margarine a food product that i no longer feel is acceptable as a standard part of my diet. it's the change in taste and texture to a more buttery taste and less olive-y taste that's the last straw for me.

as stated, i'll be moving to a 100% canola-olive oil mix for cooking and to flavour pastas and salads, which is a return to the excellent mix of polyunsaturated fats and the lower amounts of saturated fats that were once standard industry wide in margarine in canada, and to pre-made palm-free and additive-free hummus as a replacement for margarine in sandwiches, toast and other applications where i would have previously spread margarine on bread or toast.

i would encourage health canada to take steps to slow or eliminate the use of palm oil in food before it results in increased obesity rates.

i was able to find a palm-free canola-based hummus with chunks of olives in it, which i'm going to give a try. i also have some palm-free canola-olive cooking oil on order. i'll use the rest of this gross walmart olive oil margarine, which is no longer what it used to be and should change it's description from olive oil margarine to something like "canola-based artificial butter", up on sandwiches and substitute the humus in for the minimal meal for now, and eventually swap the margarine out and the hummus in for anything to do with bread and leave the oil for anything to do with cooking, including cooking bacon and eggs, as well as for flavouring in salads and pastas. 

i have everything on order for the minimum meal except the soy lecithin. most of the items are shelf stable and can be purchased in bulk infrequently.

right. so, the canola replaces the olive oil.

i'd like something with canola and olive oil and without palm oil but it doesn't appear likely.

that said, the hummus in canada tends to have canola oil as the third ingredient (after chick peas and tahini and ahead of lemon and salt) so it's probably ok for omega-3s, even if it doesn't say it on the label. i wish it would.

can i even find olive oil hummus? there's logic in that.

i can't find any margarine without palm oil anywhere and i think i'm consequently going to have to completely remove it altogether. i use it primarily as a cooking oil and have been buying olive oil margarine very intentionally for that reason, and i can easily replace it in that aspect with a palm-free canola/olive mix with or without sunflower, but i also use it on bread for tomato sandwiches, eggs benedict and just for toast and that might be harder to replace.

ironically, one of the few things i can find that's made without palm oil and seems to be healthy overall is hummus and it's starting to look like i'm going to be using humus instead of margarine on toasts and sandwiches. i'd like to find something higher in omega-3s though.

this must be intended for the arab market:

https://www.walmart.ca/en/ip/Becel-Margarine-Unsalted-Sticks/6000198276444

it's inedible poison. if you eat that regularly, it'll make you immensely obese and give you a heart attack before you're 50. it should be banned by health canada.