AGM

I would say the reason the NDP, the Bloc, and the Green vote has been collapsing is that this is an election where the key ballot question is one of foreign policy, particularly to do with the US. The NDP, the Bloc, and the Greens are all primarily domestic policy parties, so they're not speaking to the ballot question. The Liberals have a leader who does speak to the ballot question, and so do the CPC in that he's largely aligned with the IDU and MAGA. So, it's a two-party race this time. Doesn't mean it will be that way next go around.

As far as I remember, during the BC provincial elections in the fall, Mainstreet consistently indicated the BC United (conservative) party was around 5 points ahead of the NDP in polling.

The others generally showed it to be a dead heat.

In the end, the NDP won a very close race and Mainstreet was shown to be the one overrepresenting conservative vote intentions as compared to the other pollsters.

Not sure what the differences were in their methodology, but it wouldn't surprise me to see the same thing going on here.

Chinese culture has the concept of 'eating bitterness' and it is universal. It's about being able to take the suffering, loss, pain, humiliation, and all the other bitter stuff that life can throw at you, enduring it, and building character, strength, and resilience out of it. It's a virtue. It's a universally admired trait.

North American culture is not great at eating bitterness. The culture here is more about eating sweet, or living the good life, and when people have to eat bitterness, especially those expecting to eat sweet, it is viewed as shameful and castigating rather than normal, and it easily turns a person towards grievance and a sense of injustice that makes them bitter inside instead of resilient and optimistic.

This is why I think men in North America, especially white men, have turned to characters like Jordan Peterson, or in worse cases, Andrew Tate. Jordan Peterson at least tries to help these men develop a sense of responsibility and strength that can be constructive and meaning- making. Guys like Tate, on the other hand, exploit their grievance to make them socially nihilistic. One is obviously much better than the other, but neither is a substitute for having a common social value place upon eating bitterness.

The "manosphere" gives aggrieved, frustrated, disappointed, and angry men stories to help them process their emotions, but they still rely upon self-centered and egotistical tropes like the hero's journey or misogynistic worldviews. These don't address the deeper and more universal reality that none of us (male or female) are heroes from Marvel movies, that deep, painfully-bitter experience is part of the common human journey, and that eating that bitterness with humility and without expectation of any award for being special, is a virtue that helps you develop character.

Borris Johnson, Javier Milei, Donald Trump... 😬

Oddballs don't really have the best track records recently.

You know, people who aren't very bright can usually easily make up for that by just being diligent, such as by reading a bit more before posting. People who aren't very bright and who are committed to ignorance because it confirms their ideological biases have a much harder time figuring things out. I see that's where you're at, so you're not worth interacting with further. Hopefully you overcome that hurdle some day.

Good day.

Actually, I read several more articles about her before I posted that, because I wanted to find out more. She moved to Canada in 2014, she is apparently a PR, and she seems to love Canada. Maybe you should check your xenophobia and read more before you post something.

(https://vancouversun.com/opinion/columnists/douglas-todd-billionaire-owner-of-three-b-c-malls-bares-soul-on-china-scandals-and-her-horrific-upbringing)

From what I read, she moved to Canada more than 10 years ago.

It prevents tariffs on inputs, which lowers costs of goods sold for products sold outside the US. Goods sold into the US would still be tariffed, but if the inputs are largely from China, it would still likely be cheaper to manufacture outside the US, not pay the 125% tariffs on inputs, and deal with the lower tariff rate into the States.

I mean, if your costs on inputs are going to go up from 125% tariffs by being in the US, but you can manufacture somewhere that the US is only charging 10% tariffs, it's a strong incentive to move manufacturing to that low-tariff destination and only face a 10% tariff on what your selling.

What works for any specific company would come down to their own mix of inputs, target markets, and other factors.

The funniest thing about this is, if you're a US manufacturer with a lot of inputs from China and you're selling to a global market, the smartest thing to do now is very likely going to be moving your manufacturing outside of the US.

That was his job application.

All Trump's demands to harden the border security suddenly make sense to me. It was never about fentanyl. It was just for literally everything else after destroying America's trade relations with the world. 😂