Aug 18, 2023 07:17 AM
Canada mulling ‘game plan’ if U.S. takes far-right, authoritarian shift
https://www.thestar.com/politics/federal...ef594.html
EXCERPTS: Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly says Canada has been considering a “game plan” for how it would respond if the United States takes a far-right, authoritarian shift after next year’s presidential elections. “We are certainly working on scenarios,” Joly said in French during an interview with a Montreal radio station Wednesday.
Joly added that Ottawa’s close political and economic ties to the U.S. means that “we must certainly prepare several scenarios.” She suggested Canada has a game plan in mind but wouldn’t get into details.
[...] Trump is again running for the Republican nomination in next November’s election, and has promised “retribution” against his opponents and civil servants.
University of Ottawa national-security professor Thomas Juneau said many Canadians might find it far-fetched to talk about Washington falling drastically out of step with Canada.
But there has been an extreme rise in global volatility in recent years, he said in a Thursday interview. “What would have been extremely far-fetched scenarios maybe 10 years ago, today are not impossible anymore,” he said.
Juneau said Canada could face the prospect of political refugees, economic protectionism in one of the largest trading relationships in the world and a shock to Ottawa’s reliance on the U.S. for intelligence-sharing and scientific co-operation.
Those factors don’t include missile defence and military protection. “If an increasingly authoritarian U.S. is increasingly unilateral and dismissive of traditional alliances like NATO or arrangements like Norad, how does that damage our security?” Juneau asked.
He said another question would be around American intervention in Canadian democratic processes. Already, far-right politicians in the U.S. voiced support for the “Freedom Convoy” protests in 2022... (MORE - missing details)
Wake up, America: Our climate policies are a catastrophe in the making
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/resto...the-making
INTRO: In a recent Senate hearing, Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) managed to extract from the deputy energy secretary three critical admissions concerning emissions. One, the United States is currently responsible for only 13% of global carbon emissions, and we cannot control what China , India, or other countries do; two, it will cost an estimated $50 trillion to decarbonize the U.S. by 2050; and three, the feds do not know how many degrees of warming such spending might mitigate, unsurprising given the small fraction of emissions U.S. actions can affect.
We could stop right there because even a scintilla of common sense should cause anyone to be aghast at the enormous costs with only limited and uncertain benefits of our attempts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
But let us pile on in order to leave no doubt that the climate policies being pursued by the current administration (and other strategies advocated by climate zealots) will do little for the Earth’s climate but will create shortages of energy, damage our economy as prices rise, reduce prosperity, and lead to military vulnerability as vast funds are consumed by decarbonization. Thereby, we would gift to China an era of world dominance.
The first grand delusion is that electric vehicles will save the planet. In early August, electric bus maker Proterra filed for bankruptcy , flushing down the toilet $650 million of stockholder money, $6.5 billion of government grants, and $45,000 of subsidies for every bus it did sell. This follows the demise of several other electric vehicle companies... (MORE - details)
https://www.thestar.com/politics/federal...ef594.html
EXCERPTS: Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly says Canada has been considering a “game plan” for how it would respond if the United States takes a far-right, authoritarian shift after next year’s presidential elections. “We are certainly working on scenarios,” Joly said in French during an interview with a Montreal radio station Wednesday.
Joly added that Ottawa’s close political and economic ties to the U.S. means that “we must certainly prepare several scenarios.” She suggested Canada has a game plan in mind but wouldn’t get into details.
[...] Trump is again running for the Republican nomination in next November’s election, and has promised “retribution” against his opponents and civil servants.
University of Ottawa national-security professor Thomas Juneau said many Canadians might find it far-fetched to talk about Washington falling drastically out of step with Canada.
But there has been an extreme rise in global volatility in recent years, he said in a Thursday interview. “What would have been extremely far-fetched scenarios maybe 10 years ago, today are not impossible anymore,” he said.
Juneau said Canada could face the prospect of political refugees, economic protectionism in one of the largest trading relationships in the world and a shock to Ottawa’s reliance on the U.S. for intelligence-sharing and scientific co-operation.
Those factors don’t include missile defence and military protection. “If an increasingly authoritarian U.S. is increasingly unilateral and dismissive of traditional alliances like NATO or arrangements like Norad, how does that damage our security?” Juneau asked.
He said another question would be around American intervention in Canadian democratic processes. Already, far-right politicians in the U.S. voiced support for the “Freedom Convoy” protests in 2022... (MORE - missing details)
Wake up, America: Our climate policies are a catastrophe in the making
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/resto...the-making
INTRO: In a recent Senate hearing, Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) managed to extract from the deputy energy secretary three critical admissions concerning emissions. One, the United States is currently responsible for only 13% of global carbon emissions, and we cannot control what China , India, or other countries do; two, it will cost an estimated $50 trillion to decarbonize the U.S. by 2050; and three, the feds do not know how many degrees of warming such spending might mitigate, unsurprising given the small fraction of emissions U.S. actions can affect.
We could stop right there because even a scintilla of common sense should cause anyone to be aghast at the enormous costs with only limited and uncertain benefits of our attempts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
But let us pile on in order to leave no doubt that the climate policies being pursued by the current administration (and other strategies advocated by climate zealots) will do little for the Earth’s climate but will create shortages of energy, damage our economy as prices rise, reduce prosperity, and lead to military vulnerability as vast funds are consumed by decarbonization. Thereby, we would gift to China an era of world dominance.
The first grand delusion is that electric vehicles will save the planet. In early August, electric bus maker Proterra filed for bankruptcy , flushing down the toilet $650 million of stockholder money, $6.5 billion of government grants, and $45,000 of subsidies for every bus it did sell. This follows the demise of several other electric vehicle companies... (MORE - details)