Political Discussions

@silvermouse said:

Canada is forging a “new strategic partnership” with China, its second-biggest trading partner, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Friday during what he called a “historic” trip to Beijing. That includes a break with the United States on tariffs, which have hit both the Canadian and Chinese economies.

Hey Edward, just wondering if the ev cars going to Canada are doing well, or ev cars at all up there. The oil has me wondering, think we get quite a bit from them.

Military's changed a lot since I was in, but hey, I guess these new guys need support, too.

@silvermouse said:

@edz said:

@silvermouse said:

Canada is forging a “new strategic partnership” with China, its second-biggest trading partner, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Friday during what he called a “historic” trip to Beijing. That includes a break with the United States on tariffs, which have hit both the Canadian and Chinese economies.

Hey Edward, just wondering if the ev cars going to Canada are doing well, or ev cars at all up there. The oil has me wondering, think we get quite a bit from them.

ev sales in Canada are rising, about 15% of new car sales now, largely SUVs and Teslas. I don't think Canada has been importing them from China yet, but looks like it will start to do so. The government had a program to ease the cost to consumers but it ran out of money.

USA refineries are pretty excited about the Venezuelan oil, so Canada may be seeing a drop on demand from the states soon.

Northern provinces are buying much fewer evs, probably due to lack of charging stations and the extreme cold. Sales are strongest in BC which has a more temperate climate.

That's sort of what I thought. Although I honestly didn't think the ev sales would be that good up there, have no doubt you are correct though. All that being said, it doesn't seem as if this should affect us.

Wonder what effect this will have on the parts they make for car companies here?

I'm not sure why trump wants Greenland so badly. We already have a military base there, don't we?

There's also the fact that with the polar cap ice melting the Russians have been pushing boats through the northern route. I believe that the thinking is that we don't want Russia any closer to us than they already are. Not everyone in the world shares our fascination with touchy-feely Koom-bah-ya politics.

@Amos_Umwhat said:
There's also the fact that with the polar cap ice melting the Russians have been pushing boats through the northern route. I believe that the thinking is that we don't want Russia any closer to us than they already are. Not everyone in the world shares our fascination with touchy-feely Koom-bah-ya politics.

To show how small Greenland is compared to the rest of the Pole/Arctic

@Amos_Umwhat said:
So, twice the size of Alaska. Very helpful, thanks.

You got me curious.

Greenland = 836,330 sq. mi.
Alaska = 665,384 sq. mi.

So, Greenland is only 25% larger.

Alaska was Seward's Folly, Greenland is Trump's Folly.

Mods please 🙏🏼 delete this thread.

@TRayB said:

@Amos_Umwhat said:
So, twice the size of Alaska. Very helpful, thanks.

You got me curious.

Greenland = 836,330 sq. mi.
Alaska = 665,384 sq. mi.

So, Greenland is only 25% larger.

Alaska was Seward's Folly, Greenland is Trump's Folly.

I think we've come out alright on Sewards folly.

Thank you.

@TRayB said:
Here is a worthwhile read on the significance of Greenland geopolitically.

https://www.diplomacyandlaw.com/post/the-geopolitical-significance-of-greenland

I read almost half of that. I figured that the authors fired all of their big bullets up front. Bottom line is that it's big and it's close to North America.

All of the nonsense about early warning and listening posts is just that. Nonsense. We could put listening posts and early warning dragnets all over that Island without buying it.

The reason that we don't is because the next fight is likely in the South China Sea. Russia thinks that they're the big bad State college of Europe, and they can't beat their community college neighbors next door. Russia is dead. Just got to keep them from firing off their nukes. As long as Putin doesn't feel threatened, he'll keep his finger off the trigger. And as long as he keeps his finger off the trigger, we will make sure he stays in power. It's a symbiotic relationship.

In short, buying Greenland is something that we can't afford. Annexing and having Europe shorting the dollar is something that we also can't afford. Do what we've been doing for 50 years. I've been to Thule. It's a hole and expensive. We don't need more expensive holes.

If we do, rent space on the ice sheet and do the things we need to do on the cheap.

The cost of ice went down, didn't it?

@Itsfine said:

@edz said:
As far as Russia being dead, is it true that they have a large influx of folks moving into the country. Many from Canada, and other areas like Denmark since the costs are lower, esp. for farms? Just wondering what we can afford, buying Alaska was not a great idea in many folks eyes.

Alaska was 2 pennies an acre. Even adjusting for inflation, that's 44 cents today. If you can get Greenland for that, go for it.

Price per acre is one way of looking at it, value per acre is another. As a northern beekeeper I understand the value of taking bees south for the winter. Not saying it is a good, bad, or realistic thing with Greenland, just trying to look at all sides.

@Itsfine said:

@edz said:

@Itsfine said:

@edz said:
As far as Russia being dead, is it true that they have a large influx of folks moving into the country. Many from Canada, and other areas like Denmark since the costs are lower, esp. for farms? Just wondering what we can afford, buying Alaska was not a great idea in many folks eyes.

Alaska was 2 pennies an acre. Even adjusting for inflation, that's 44 cents today. If you can get Greenland for that, go for it.

Price per acre is one way of looking at it, value per acre is another. As a northern beekeeper I understand the value of taking bees south for the winter. Not saying it is a good, bad, or realistic thing with Greenland, just trying to look at all sides.

Sure. I guess I was answering the question about what we can afford. We can afford 44 cents an acre. Can we afford 44 dollars an acre? 4400 an acre? Sure. Money isn't real anyways.

That is a good question since we came off the gold standard.