ninthant

I would LOVE to see HBC reborn as a costco style membership club that sells good quality Canadian products at reasonable prices, and is incentivized by the membership system to focus on providing customer satisfaction not short-term profits.

I've given up Costco for the boycott, but it hurts so much buying overpriced stuff from the grocery cartels. Imagine if a reborn HBC could fill that role?

These types of claims are incredibly difficult for a layperson to evaluate. There are at least two explanations for charging very little profit as is suggested BYD and similar companies are doing now.

Incumbent monopolists will absolutely use prices to bully competition out of the market so they can enjoy a longer period without pricing pressure later. This has been well documented across many industries. However it's also a normal occurrence where a disrupting upstart will apply a low profit margin or even operate at a loss in order to build market share and achieve higher efficiencies of scale.

I am at least mildly concerned that the Chinese EVs seem better fit the mold of the disrupting upstarts, and not that of the incumbent monopolists. If they are serving a lower-price-point aspect of the EV market that the traditional manufacturers are not filling -- that is a good thing. This is a role that many of the brands now considered mainstream once filled when they were newer to the western markets.

However, your points towards forced labour are absolutely on point. This is a greater issue that affects all trade with China, and it's one that we have largely been ignoring for a long time. Every time we buy something made there with it's unknown providence, we are participating in a system that must be described as evil. I wouldn't want to drive one either.

I apologize for my ignorance then, and appreciate the correction. Lets build upon this foundation, it seems a lot more useful than 88 ludicrously expensive foreign jets supplied by our biggest threat.

But personally I believe the US would descend into civil war before this happens

Which doesn’t mean we shouldn’t prepare for this possibility, starting yesterday.

We can use the money we were pissing away on F35s to create a national corps, who would be trained in the types of guerrilla warfare we’d need in this scenario. And be cross-trained to respond to climate emergencies such as floods and hurricanes and fires. And help build out infrastructure to shore up our east-west corridors and access to the north.

We can see from their Russian masters how an American invasion would take.

They’d try to grab and hold strategic areas and resources, while using missiles and aircraft to cripple the economy and infrastructure and spread fear nationwide.

However, we can remember that the US has tried to invade many other countries and they’ve failed every time. And while we may never have the tanks and aircraft to match them in open warfare, even much poorer countries than Canada were able to successfully repel the American forces.

And in this scenario we’d have a massive untamed border to use to make counter strikes, and would likely get significant military support from allies around the world and in the US as well.

So it would be monumentally devastating on both sides. It would be a catastrophically stupid endeavour. Which doesn’t rule it out, they have extremely stupid people in charge.

But personally I believe the US would descend into civil war before this happens, with “blue” states having suppressed voting rights trying to secede.

When it was just about tariffs I cut back on purchases from American-made goods and from American companies.

But once the seriousness of the sovereignty threat became more apparent I moved that to full scorched earth on my shopping lists. A company like Costco that treats its employees decently well? Nope, even they get the boot. Not just groceries — American media products, household goods, service companies, tech products — as much as I possibly can.

In the end it’s surprising how little they are actually needed.

Only excluded because I wasn’t thinking straight due to blind rage and insomnia.

Sigh… yeah it’s crazy one can have so many reasons and still not even mention that.

It is crazy.

It’s crazy that a serial liar, who defrauds his customers with false marketing claims and naked market manipulation isn’t in jail.

It’s crazy that anyone would spend money on a product one of his companies makes, given how he has shown such extremely poor judgment and discipline.

It’s crazy that someone who defames people trying to help people in need, someone who promotes hate and bullying, someone who would lie about something as petty as pretending to be among the worlds best video gamers — it’s crazy he could have a cult following.

It is crazy that Americans handed this lunatic access to their own social safety net, and crazy that they have dismantled the checks and balances to prevent it despite clear warning signs.

It’s crazy that any single Canadian would purchase a car or service from someone who said that ours is not a real country, and works side by side with the person working to invade our country.

It is crazy that someone who does these treasonous things is allowed to maintain Canadian citizenship, despite no ties to the community.

It’s crazy that a single penny of our taxpayer dollars would go to this man.

It’s crazy that it’s even a topic for discussion.

You’re goddamn right it’s crazy.

Unfortunately haven't, I don't rely on any of my personal domains for email.

I did just re-check to see if the email forwarding was working correctly, and it is -- but if it was failing sporadically I'm not sure I would even notice because my usage of it is so minimal.

For what it's worth, I did need to use their email support once and they were very pleasant and easy to work with.

Canadians had become accustomed to expect special treatment, which in this context means the barest shred of humanity coming through.

I don’t get a vote if Canada gets special treatment by their country or not. If it was up to me, I’d rather that Canadians not get hauled off in chains for making a mistake, but that’s up to Americans and that’s what they chose.

But what I will do is remind Canadians that they aren’t getting special treatment anymore.

Obligatory reminder that “no special treatment” means you get treated like a Haitian or Mexican or Muslim trying to enter the US. Yes, even a white Canadian.

In no way am i blaming the victim here, but we can learn a lesson from her experience: Don’t go.

I moved my domains over to EasyDNS.ca because they are supported by both letsencrypt and acme.sh — happy with their service so far and zero complaints.