Republicans, Conservatives were Democrats.

And the Liberals were Conservatives? This was back when everyone was balancing the budget, so that adds. The Republicans of the day were respectable establishment types as well, very different from the fascist nonsense that it’s become.

The rest I kind of need to argue with a bit.

Immigrants will mostly be right of the status quo because there’s more reason to leave a right wing society than a left wing.

More-or-less true, although I’d tie both back to undereducation and underdevelopment. But that’s not new.

You can see that in the last election as boomers overwhelmingly voted Liberal while people under 34 voted Conservative.

Young people disproportionately voted NDP or Green, which ate into the Liberal share. Although they were all fairly split, as the chart shows.

You also see this reflected in policy as the further right you go the more immigration the party calls for.

Except this is almost never true anymore. Even PP has tried to raise a stink over immigrants, despite being in a country that’s 98% immigrant and unlike the US kind of knows it.

I hope you’re right, but what’s going on in the US isn’t normal or with modern precedent, and I’m pretty sure it’s same thing.

Although, Reform was before my time, so I don’t have a super great sense of what that was like.

The only difference between now and 20 years ago is the voters.

I mean, that’s always true isn’t it? You could even make a similar observation about history’s non-democracies. The culture changes, people who remember whatever thing age out, and that changes what’s politically possible.

Ah, I see. Never mind.

Walled gardens are most of the problem, and they’re only getting more walled over time as companies move from expanding their platform to exploiting it for returns. CloudFlare is kind of an exception, as it’s still giving away a lot of free services. Once it starts being evil it’s going to really suck.

Closed-down hardware is the biggest emerging threat. You can leave the proprietary software ecosystem if you want, but a SoC is DIY-resistant.

The surveillance is more of a surprise tool for when shit gets really ugly. Which is super bad, but not directly about the internet.

X to doubt.

Sure, another leader in another time would be cooked. He’s the beginning of MAGA coming up here and hollowing out the conservative party, though. Something something shoot someone on fifth avenue and still be voted for.

Now, I suppose I can’t see inside the party and don’t know who’s coming to the convention, but I’m certain there’s a sizeable faction that sees this all as evidence they need to double down more, so I’d say odds are in his favour.

There is no other fifth gen option available to NATO.

I’m nitpicking a bit, but like you mentioned, China and Russia have limitations. I don’t really buy that the J-20 is on the same level, and the Russian thing is an actual joke. So, “to anyone”.

The Gripen is one of the best choices out there, and it does have a lot of stealth and EWAR capabilities that other fighters lack

EWAR sure, but it’s totally unstealthy AFAIK. Survivability would depend on hitting something, landing in a field and getting back onto a truck before a counterattack can arrive. Which works for SAM units and artillery, I guess.

Which, maybe we should just invest in SAM units and sensors, honestly, if we’re worried about a hostile US. I’m guessing it’s a lot more cost effective, and would be nearly as effective early in a defencive conflict. The other medium-term option would be a jailbroken F-35 of some kind, but that’s only possible once the alliance is well and truly dead. All the physical parts are available from somewhere else.

There is a lot of very similar vibes between the Canadian and German government, I’ve noticed. They even both love faxes the same.

I mean, it’s recommended to. Diversification, right?

But that’s besides the point. I’m just not sure what you mean by shareholders here. They really come in those two types: individuals, and funds that issue their own shares which you can then buy. If you’re fine with individuals holding shares, I don’t really see why you’d have a problem with the funds.

Depends on the source. Some older lady I met? Yeah, there’s a high probability they just believe everything in their feed. Bellingcat, on the other hand, is going to make absolutely sure.

Relevant XKCD.

Basically, we’re going to go back to the days assessing likely truth by how much you trust the source. Unfakeable photographic evidence was the irreplaceable thing, and it was nice to have for a while, but it’s definitely not the first time we’ve been without it. AI slop isn’t fundamentally different from human made tall tales.

To a degree I’ve already made the shift, and tend to click more on websites I’m familiar with, while I used to just go by relevance.

I was expecting the “it was about money” thing to be a hot take. Nope, everyone here noticed it too.

There’s nothing similar stealth-wise, either, at least for that kind of aircraft.

It’s a really really good plane, like you’d expect from however many trillions spent in project money. It’s just that the Americans control the software running on it.

Generally they’re by type of good, IIRC. So, a grocery store can still sell eating apples, but not computers or phones called that.

I mean, the King’s English is technically a dialect too. It’s just the one on top.

I’m guessing you could take French as well, regardless of where you’re going, right? Language equality is serious business.

Yes, unnecessary documentation is very our style. And no guarantee you won’t have to do it again for some other entity. Somehow we’re still one of the easiest destinations to immigrate to.

Like an Alberta separatist party? Seriously?

I only buy mint-type candies. Junior mints until the trade war; something local now.

I need something to crush sweets cravings, but I also want to limit how much I’m actually going to eat. With the strong flavour, I find those work pretty well.

Is there as much fibre in a web as a silkworm cocoon, though?

Hmm. I wonder. It can’t be just humans, right? Why not spiders?

I thought it was output that was the bottleneck.