ninthant

I feel you on that. I’ve been on a bit of a tear myself, spilling thousands of words on this site and Reddit and Bluesky in various posts and comments.

Many of us are not informed well enough to really understand if the negativity surrounding the F35 is accurate. There’s a lot of technicality and conflicting information and biases that a layperson kinda gets lost in it.

To be honest you paint a compelling picture and I’m inclined to believe it, especially as this has been described as a wasteful failure for quite some time by many sources.

But the neat thing is that now it doesn’t even matter because even if the damn thing was fantastic we don’t want it anyhow. You don’t let your biggest national security threat supply you arms. That’s just stupid.

So yeah you’re probably right. But either way we decline.

This is super cool. And you’ve inspired this Canadian to start moving more payments to Interac. Love the message and I’m on board.

My suggestion to accompany this with policy is not an alternative to taking personal action, but complementary.

One piece of constructive feedback on the artwork— it might be helpful to stress the positive aspect front and centre. For example lead with Interac with a maple leaf, and the American systems in lower prominence by having them 2/3 sized and positioned below.

Please don’t misconstrue my feedback in your mind as an attempt to distract or demoralize you through bike-shedding or anything like that. You’re doing great stuff and it’s inspiring.

You’re correct that it’s a monopoly, but the point I’m trying to make is that because of the network effect the monopoly will be difficult to unseat without accompanying policy.

I have a Hyundai EV and I love it. It’s a fantastic vehicle.

But also, the Chinese EVs are extremely cheap relative to these. If they are trustworthy or safe or good is open to interpretation but they have been extremely popular in Australia for example.

My concern is that we’re antagonizing a potential trade ally to protect a domestic industry which feels to me like it cannot thrive in the medium and long-term. It relies too much on the Americans and they have been unreliable and chaotic which is bad for an integrated production system.

I’m on board for this but this proposal is up against a familiar devil: the network effect.

Shops support Visa and Mastercard because customers use them, customers use them because shops support them. This creates a powerful network that is extremely difficult for an upstart to unseat.

So while it’s a good idea to encourage people to take individual action on this — and you’re doing a great job doing so, and I’m taking it to heart for my own actions — we also need to accompany this with a policy solution to help overcome the network effect.

They will choose the cheapest option which should generally be Interac.

I expect the authoritarian posturing and nationalism will be successful inside America as the world unites against them. And that any further hopes they have of opposition will be strangled by increasing anti-democratic measures as time goes on. That’s the playbook that has been successful elsewhere and I see no basis for believing in American exceptionalism here.

Will be extremely happy to be wrong on this, but I can’t see a world where waiting until 2028 works out for Democrats.

That’s super cool. I’d absolutely spend extra for Montreal bananas.

My home province of BC has been doing pretty good at growing stuff in hothouses, I’ve even routinely buying local lettuce and peppers and mushrooms from big stores like Costco even before the boycott started.

So we can do this. It will take some time to ramp up and getting imports from allies will help with us this transition period and beyond.

This is an extremely good point. Perhaps I should have addressed this in my ~~rant~~ opinion piece, because it's absolutely true. I've been confused by the Green Party's whiplash and underwhelmed by the federal NDP's muted approach.

I will admit that I have enjoyed seeing Singh getting sharper in his criticism in recent months, and wish we could have seen more of that for the past years. He is saying things that need to be said, and I commend him for that. But I imagine a world where Charlie Angus won in 2017 and that feels like a better world than this one.

I hope out of the ashes of all this we can get someone on the left we deserve too. Call me naive but I have this intangible gut feeling that we will? That if Singh resigns, the current mood is such that we have a chance of getting someone really inspiring to take charge of the left going forward? I sincerely hope we do.

I'm hopeful that he will be! It will be a difficult time and we really do need the best right now.

I know it sounds like hyperbole but the thought really does make me want to cry, especially as he's ramped up so effectively in recent months.