Notices by M. Grégoire (mpjgregoire@mastodon.club), page 60

Don't we Canadians love being validated by the *NY Times* and other outsiders...

Culture Shock for French in Quebec: ‘We Smoke Cigarettes, They Smoke Pot’ - The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/19/world/canada/montreal-quebec-french-in-canada.html

#France #Québec
#ColonialMentality

"What does it mean to say you hold an opinion out of a desire to protect a given group when members of that group say, in polling, they don’t require your protection on that particular issue?

"The broader problem here is that progressive political elites have a bit of a class problem." -- Jesse Singal

The Risk Of Progressives Talking Over Marginalized Communities
https://jessesingal.substack.com/p/the-risk-of-progressives-talking

#uspol #woke #elites

The management style of Justin Trudeau:

“The meetings he attends as Prime Minister are not business meetings. Rather, they are centred on relationship building and ensuring that all parties are moving forward together. Specific issues or details are worked out before, subsequently or independently of any meeting he attends.” -- Mary Dawson, ethics commissioner

Via Paul Wells
https://www.macleans.ca/politics/ottawa/gerald-butts-if-thy-right-hand-offend-thee-pluck-it-out/

"Although the United States benefits from ludicrously cheap interest rates on its treasury bills, in 2019 it will spend $383 billion just to service its debt. By 2023, interest payments are expected to be larger even than the U.S. defence budget. Even now, $383 billion dwarfs the entire federal budget of Canada."

The utterly unbelievable scale of U.S. debt right now | National Post
https://nationalpost.com/news/the-utterly-unbelievable-scale-of-u-s-debt-right-now

#WhatCouldGoWrong #debt

@js290 @hhardy01
Well, a militarist is generally in favour of committing acts of war. But that doesn't necessarily make him anti-liberal or anti-democratic in domestic affairs, which are key elements of #fascism.

From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Totalitarianism
"According to Benito Mussolini, this system politicizes everything spiritual and human: 'Everything within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state.'"

@js290 @hhardy01
Yes, Pat Buchanan is generally considered a paleocon.

Why do you say that Sen. McCain was a fascist? A militarist, sure, but a fascist?

@hhardy01
With respect, the US Chamber of Commerce and Sen. John McCain are mainstream US conservatives; Bill Kristol is considered a neo-conservative; and Admiral McRaven doesn't seem to be obviously liberal or conservative [0]. Classifying them as paleoconservative is imprecise.

[0] Based on his Wikipedia page.

@hhardy01 Could you please name some names? Who counts as a #paleoconservative these days?

@hhardy01
Ah, so even if the UK decided to let in trucks freely, the trucks wouldn't be able to get back into the customs union without tariffs/inspection/etc. Yes, that would be a problem.

Of course the EU doesn't want to make things easy for exiting states, but it seems eminently possible to have some sort of temporary arrangement.

If there are serious problems, will people in the UK blame the EU or their own leaders?

@hhardy01
Let me hasten to add that I haven't followed #brexit very closely, so I'm probably missing something important.

(And of course exports from the UK to the EU would suddenly face tariffs.)

@hhardy01
I don't see any feasible way to square the circle about Northern Ireland in the short term [0].

But with regard to commerce in general, is it really so dire? In the absence of a deal, won't the UK just continue to buy things from the EU? It's entirely up to the UK to impose import tariffs or restrictions, and the EU has no export tariffs, right?

#brexit

[0] Long-term, it might be possible to negotiate a UK-EU free trade agreement, but that could take a decade.