I am interested in respectful discussions, but for those who are unable to discuss respectfully and who use abusive language, insults and/or ad hominems should expect to be immediately blocked with no further exchange.

Alberta Secession 101.

This is going to be a game changer for small independent grocers and food processors. $1 billion in infrastructure. $750 million earmarked for year round greenhouse production. Conservatives and retail giants are going to hate this. I’m loving it. 💪🇨🇦

Cesur bir anne, çiftliğine giren dağ kaplanına attığı tekme ile keçisini kurtarıyor! 💪

*BRITISH WRITER PENS THE BEST DESCRIPTION OF TRUMP* Someone asked "Why do some British people not like Donald Trump?" Nate White, an articulate and witty writer from England wrote the following response: A few things spring to mind. Trump lacks certain qualities which the British traditionally esteem. For instance, he has no class, no charm, no coolness, no credibility, no compassion, no wit, no warmth, no wisdom, no subtlety, no sensitivity, no self-awareness, no humility, no honour and no grace – all qualities, funnily enough, with which his predecessor Mr. Obama was generously blessed. So for us, the stark contrast does rather throw Trump's limitations into embarrassingly sharp relief. Plus, we like a laugh. And while Trump may be laughable, he has never once said anything wry, witty or even faintly amusing – not once, ever. I don't say that rhetorically, I mean it quite literally: not once, not ever. And that fact is particularly disturbing to the British sensibility – for us, to lack humour is almost inhuman. But with Trump, it's a fact. He doesn't even seem to understand what a joke is – his idea of a joke is a crass comment, an illiterate insult, a casual act of cruelty. Trump is a troll. And like all trolls, he is never funny and he never laughs; he only crows or jeers. And scarily, he doesn't just talk in crude, witless insults – he actually thinks in them. His mind is a simple bot-like algorithm of petty prejudices and knee-jerk nastiness. There is never any under-layer of irony, complexity, nuance or depth. It's all surface. Some Americans might see this as refreshingly upfront. Well, we don't. We see it as having no inner world, no soul. And in Britain we traditionally side with David, not Goliath. All our heroes are plucky underdogs: Robin Hood, Dick Whittington, Oliver Twist. Trump is neither plucky, nor an underdog. He is the exact opposite of that. He's not even a spoiled rich-boy, or a greedy fat-cat. He's more a fat white slug. A Jabba the Hutt of privilege. And worse, he is that most unforgivable of all things to the British: a bully. That is, except when he is among bullies; then he suddenly transforms into a snivelling sidekick instead. There are unspoken rules to this stuff – the Queensberry rules of basic decency – and he breaks them all. He punches downwards – which a gentleman should, would, could never do – and every blow he aims is below the belt. He particularly likes to kick the vulnerable or voiceless or female – and he kicks them when they are down. So the fact that a significant minority – perhaps a third – of Americans look at what he does, listen to what he says, and then think 'Yeah, he seems like my kind of guy' is a matter of some confusion and no little distress to British people, given that: • Americans are supposed to be nicer than us, and most are. • You don't need a particularly keen eye for detail to spot a few flaws in the man. This last point is what especially confuses and dismays British people, and many other people too; his faults seem pretty bloody hard to miss. After all, it's impossible to read a single tweet, or hear him speak a sentence or two, without staring deep into the abyss. He turns being artless into an art form; he is a Picasso of pettiness; a Shakespeare of shit. His faults are fractal: even his flaws have flaws, and so on ad infinitum. God knows there have always been stupid people in the world, and plenty of nasty people too. But rarely has stupidity been so nasty, or nastiness so stupid. He makes Nixon look trustworthy and George W look smart. In fact, if Frankenstein decided to make a monster assembled entirely from human flaws – he would make a Trump.

Two years out. Let’s check in on the Republic of Alberta. The loonie is gone. They’re running on a managed float tied loosely to the USD because their own currency tanked the moment bond markets realized a landlocked petro state with no navy, no central bank infrastructure, and one export corridor controlled by a foreign country isn’t exactly a AAA credit risk. Speaking of credit ratings. Alberta left Confederation carrying its share of federal debt, somewhere in the neighbourhood of $100 billion CAD depending on the separation terms, plus its own provincial debt on top of that. New country, no credit history, commodity dependent revenue, and an active constitutional dispute with Indigenous nations over land title. Moody’s and S&P were not kind. Junk adjacent ratings mean Alberta is borrowing at rates that would make a payday loan blush. Every point of interest above what they’d have paid as a Canadian province is money not going to schools, hospitals, or the infrastructure they need to not be completely at the mercy of two foreign governments for market access. That pipeline to the coast they were promised? Still a negotiation. BC didn’t suddenly become generous just because Alberta left Confederation. If anything, BC is enjoying the leverage. Every barrel heading west now comes with a transit fee and a smile. The Americans? They love it. A weakened, isolated Alberta is a dependent Alberta. Trump-era energy policy already treated Canadian oil as a bargaining chip. Now there’s no Ottawa to push back. It’s just Calgary and Washington, and Calgary is not winning that negotiation. Indigenous nations holding unceded territory under Treaties 6, 7, and 8 did not recognize the separation. Why would they? Their treaty relationship is with the Crown, not the province. That legal fight is ongoing, expensive, and has already frozen development on a significant chunk of the province. Equalization is gone, sure. So is the fiscal stabilization program. So is federal infrastructure money. So is CPP portability for the 40% of Albertans who weren’t born there and are quietly updating their resumes. Danielle Smith is still talking. Nobody’s really listening anymore. Two years out, the people who sold this dream are either in government collecting a paycheque or on X telling you it just needs more time. It always just needs more time.

Champ…. “This isn’t the Canada I grew up in”? You grew up in the 1930s, old man That Canada banned Chinese immigration, denied vote by race, ran residential schools & sterilized the ‘unfit’ in Alberta until 1972 It changed because it got better Which part do you miss?

RT @Cliffor18175753: I beg the rest of Canada to understand that the Alberta Separatists are a tiny minority of losers and schmucks despise…

Unfortunately, I think we'll see a lot this. Including the lifeless NDP, Canada's progressives will view Quebec separatism as "classy separatism" and Alberta separatism as "hillbilly separatism".

Two Canadian flags. The separatists trying to steal them but both will forever be Canadian flags, One National, One for the Canadian Province of Alberta. If Separatists want a flag for their movement, let them be creative and create one of their own rather than steal ours.

Thank you @WabKinew Too few have the backbone to call out @ABDanielleSmith lies. From a grateful Albertan.

HOLY CRAP Trump actually accomplished a miracle. Here is what he got out of Iran: - Reduce its stockpile of enriched uranium by about 98% - Limit uranium enrichment to 3.67% purity (far below weapons-grade) - Cut the number of installed centrifuges by roughly two-thirds - Only enrich uranium at one declared site (Natanz) - Stop enrichment activities at Fordow and convert it into a research facility - Redesign the Arak heavy-water reactor so it could not easily produce weapons-grade plutonium - Ship out or dilute excess enriched uranium Allow extensive inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Permit continuous monitoring of nuclear facilities and supply chains - Accept “snap” inspections under expanded monitoring rules - Avoid building new heavy-water reactors for years - Stay within strict limits on uranium stockpile size and centrifuge development for set periods ranging from 10–25 years Ooops, sorry! That was the JCPOA that Obama signed with Iran, only to have him tear it up, kill 140 kids, get hundreds of Americans injured, 13 killed, and gas prices to surge 50%.