The Atcheson blocade that wasn't!

This post has prompted Kenny to bring in his new anti-protest bill.  We may become a third world country yet.

How many blockades have you seen on TV with 100% of the faces covered? Answer None. Aitcheson crossing west of Edmonton has not seen train traffic in a week or more because of troubles up the line. Then, out of the blue, a batch of masked wonders dragged some pallets to the site and was promptly challenged by the RCMP enabling Kenny a happy dance and crappy legislation.

I'm saying it was Kenny's war room at work again. They supplied the "protesters" in no man's land and there were no arrests so no names.
My guess is they were paid 1000.00 each to pull this stunt off in view of cameras. Another bit of theatre by Kenny.

Education: Conservative Style.

Looking at Alberta's history under Conservatives they cut the funding for universities back to 1958 levels. They have never recovered. This drives tuition up so it is out of reach for most Albertans, not just some.

They took the advice they could not grow "big business" because they could not graduate enough degrees. That is what brought that about.

Next phase was to cut support for university entrance cutting advanced algebra and calculus from the courses. So, extra money had to be spent on our family and others to get the necessary touting in place so our kids could move ahead.

The high school councillors were telling kids who hit the local education wall they would make better nurses than doctors. This happened to my girl.

Next to having Dummed down the High School courses they started the same thing Kenny is doing now. Fund schools based on their academic standing. Schools to get the money put a smart kid in with a group of 4 average or less. The other three sat on their tails while the bright ones carried the load and did the homework. Anything to get the averages up! But they weren't finished yet.

They reduced the high school mark requirements for trade schools. They dropped them from 80% down to 60% and generations were graduated that couldn't sign their name properly. I warned people about the LDS education system and why they should stay clear of it.

Yet, the same thing is going on under the Kenny Kingdom. Parents should get very involved in their kids' education and the system.

The travesty didn't end there! Alberta put out adds throughout the US and around the world for managers (degree jobs) and these people were hired directly into Canada with little or no background checks.

And, people who supported your kind of thinking ruled the day.

Thoughts on modern computers.

The computer I use and probably you too, is built on about a 32nm  technology.  That is 32 billionths of a meter for each segment in the chip and, advance technologies have allowed the stacking of several layers of this architecture. 

A few months ago, 15nm and 4nm architecture came out  That is 4 billionths of a meter in size for each segment on the chip.  That is the size of 2 atoms and is preferable because of the wavelength available to work in them. aka Microwave.  Heat control becomes imperative.  Each of these segments has an off-on switch and a small capacitor to switch it.

The speed of a computer is measured as propagation delay; the amount of time it takes a capacitor to discharge from 100% to 60%.  That makes the smaller 4nm technology lighting fast!

AI has been around for years but the technology wasn't there to use it.  AI programs took up too much space in proportion to the operating system and programs.  Not so with 4nm multi-stacked layers.

Now there is lots of room for AI to function and at lightning speeds.  AI is used on Facebook, Ipolitic, Google and Microsoft and for the most part, we love it.

What happens however when a multilayer block of memory makes a solid hard disk which is super fast?  Well, if you are into trading BitCoin or other cyber currency and you are using an older computer with a spin drive in it you have lost before you start.

Massive solid drives are called "Threadrippers", couple this with AI to do your actual shopping, buying and selling and you may have a chance at coming out with your skin.  However, to deal in that Arena with a machine like I have would be foolish.

Food for thought!

The modern G5 networks will be made with 15nm and 4 nm technology.  They are highly addressable.  There are two main companies, Huawei who are well established as the principal network provider in BC and doing well in Alberta (Telus)  They have no record of interfering in Elections.  The second, Bell Media was invited into Canada by Stephen Harper and meddled in our elections to a point they installed a slate of Conservative governments across Canada.

The Liberal Government is buying into a project to protect us from all kinds of interference which we have already experienced.  That is their investment into the TD Banks program to tighten and control security.  You can see why Law Enforcement would have an interest in this.

And, on our future shelf.  It is now possible to stream elections single file!  The space they take is infinitesimally tiny space and is called a qbit and the application is building our new super-computers, soon to be available on your desktop.

coronavirus outbreak

This may be far deadlier than first thought!  Research shows snakes the origin.

My thinking is the people in China dealing with the "wet markets" because they don't have refrigeration probably have the best immune systems in the world and yet, this bug got past them which again, tell me it is a bug by itself and we are nowhere near finished with it.

A Conservative spin on the Avro Aero

A good story retold with fillers   There was not a fleet of Avro Aeros made.  There was indeed a single porotype and, it was the only supersonic aircraft in the world.

John Diefenbaker ordered the prototype destroyed and all the designs were given to the US forever killing the chances of a Canadian Aero Industry.   The article shows pictures, good pictures of the Aero and different aspects of building it.   The link in this paragraph shows a 1/3 model flying as Americans demonstrate their "ownership"

It remains, however, Diefenbaker was a traitor in every sense of the word.  The story put out by this Global media is simply that of a spin doctor in an attempt to clear  Diefenbaker's name.

A good read and view of photos.

This Albertan regards ‘Western alienation’ as manipulation by local elites

By Alvin FinkelContributor

Thu., Dec. 19, 2019timer3 min. read

Ask 10 Albertans why our province cratered into recession in 1982 and nine will likely blame Pierre Trudeau’s National Energy Program. In fact, an international economic recession sank oil prices, making further oilsands development impractical. But intertwined elites of oil interests, conservative parties, and conservative media inculcated the Big Lie that “the Ottawa government” authored “our” recession.

Many big lies underlie today’s “Western alienation.” Once based on legitimate grievances, Prairie complaints have always been manipulated by regional elites to disguise internal problems as creations of “Easterners.” That allows elites to absolve themselves regarding local poverty.

This “Western alienation” shtick allows Alberta Premier Jason Kenney to distract Albertans from the massive destruction of public services and unions coupled with a surreptitious economic and political policy shift. Having failed to attract new, private investments for fossil fuels, he is raiding public sector pensions and demanding provincial control over the Canada Pension Plan in Alberta to expand funds available for petroleum investments.

Kenney wages war on two fronts — against the federal government and Canadian environmentalists on one hand, and public employees and their pensions on the other. The two wars have the common aim of reviving Alberta’s main industry as awareness of the destructiveness of fossil fuels suppresses demand.

One big lie is that equalization policies are turning Alberta into a poverty-stricken wasteland. StatsCan figures for 2017 show Alberta GDP per capita is 25 per cent greater than the Canadian pre-tax average. Our poor are as poor as any other province’s poor. But that’s because our politicians, with the partial exception of Rachel Notley’s NDP government, haven’t given a rat’s ass about the poor, not because the federal government has fleeced us.

We have no sales tax. If we had Quebec’s 10 per cent sales tax, we would have large surpluses today rather than the deficit that Kenney blames on the NDP and the federal government. Kenney is exacerbating Alberta’s revenue problem by abandoning the carbon tax and decreasing corporate taxes from 12 per cent to 8 per cent. That has pleased oil companies but most have announced that they will invest this gift outside Alberta.

A related big lie is that Alberta’s public spending is unsustainable. Kenney plans to reduce the proportion of Alberta’s GDP that goes to provincial services to 13.8 per cent by 2022-23, replicating 1997-98, when Klein’s cuts had been fully absorbed. The Royal Bank reports that per capita government expenses in Alberta in 2018-19 represented 16.3 per cent of GDP. It was 24.2 per cent in Quebec, 19.7 per cent in British Columbia, and 18.8 per cent in Ontario. Alberta does spend more dollars on public wages than other provinces, but that is because wages across the board are much higher.

Kenney is distracting Albertans from his gutting of services by putting an array of supposed enemies of Alberta on trial. They include environmentalists, the federal government, the Quebec and British Columbia governments, banks unwilling to lend money to oil investors, and European politicians who have allegedly been brainwashed by green leftists.

He has established a $30 million war room to expose an alleged conspiracy by foreign-funded environmentalists to strand Alberta oil through lack of pipelines. He has also established a “Fair Deal” panel meant to limit Alberta’s relations with the rest of Canada by provincializing the Canada Pension Plan, firing the RCMP, and taking control over firearms legislation.

Kenney’s cuts have reduced his popularity in opinion polls. While public servants reacted with shock when Ralph Klein made his lightning cuts, the Alberta trade union movement has done much over the years to prepare its members for the possibility of a “reKlein” government.

Increasingly, Albertans are questioning the claim that federal policies restrain Alberta, as opposed to a changing world economic order created by the climate crisis. Many feel more alienated from our premier and Big Oil than from Ottawa.

The Notley government took initiatives to diversify Alberta’s economy that Kenney has killed. But we had a glimpse of a way forward and federal-provincial co-operation to get that back on track would make more sense than a phoney war against the federal government.

Kenny's meetings with the Alberta Insurance industry

After saying they were going to reduce auto insurance they decided to hit another industry under stress; that of the Condo owner.   They are talking a 50,000 dollar deductible on Condo claims and an opportunity to buy insurance to cover whatever the individual's portion is.   A new insurance product.  It is so easy to hate these guys! Keep in mind we still carry a 30% Premium on our home and condo insurance courtesy of High River and Fort McMurray.

The Conservatives have always had an incestuous relationship with the Insurance Companies.  Ralph Klein and Jim Prentice both enjoyed a 3% of gross revenues of the insurance industry as a kick-back into the Conservative coffers.

Kenny is following Klein’s patterns; this we know for sure!  You can expect your insurance rates to go up 3% plus.

 

The insurance industry meets on a regular basis with the Conservatives.  One outstanding example of this relationship is High River annual flooding.  People were encouraged to buy more insurance after every annual flood.  Notley took the sensible tact and changed the course of the river.

We still have 30% on our insurance premiums to make up for the last major flood down there.

You can expect no different from Kenny.   If anything our rates are overcharged by  30%  now.

-----------------
Well, folks; looks like I saved you several hundred dollars!   The Conservatives now claiming they are researching ways to reduce your car insurance.  As if!

Conservative blunders causing much dissent - This from Disqus.

S'funny, Karl, I was thinking the same thing, only I came to a completely different conclusion. It's time to excise the cancer of CHP/Reform from the Body Conservative. I think they've just about had long enough in the wilderness to realize that it's not serving them to retain anybody with even a whiff of brimstone and scripture about them. The Night of the Long Knives and all that, you know; re-enactments of the Crucifixion in about 150 ridings across the country.

Regardless of the accidental alignment of parts of Conservative policy platforms with the theocratic maunderings of Presto's Reform party, there is a little-to-no symbiosis between the thinking of either group.

Old-style conservativism valued heritage and tradition certainly but tempered that with an organic symbiosis of every individual in society, one with the other; that valued the contributions of each, while acknowledging the interdependence of each on the other so as to create a more perfect society. This is the root of conservative thinking that rejects the "nanny-state" so often (wrongly) assigned to liberals and Liberals. It's a valuable concept and one that bears serious debate in all our major national policy disagreements. Conservatism also highly respected and valued authority, both of people and institutions, which makes puzzling the call of the last couple of decades to reject the authority of Parliament as well as that of the judiciary, perhaps the key-value differentiating us from both "lower animals" and other less evolved nations on the planet. Yes, I'm kidding, but only partly.

CHP/Reform.... nay, call it what it is: Theocracy - is a poorly-organized and inconsistent set of beliefs about the way the world works based on texts from a number of ancient religions, most of which conflict with each other, especially around how society should be organized, resources apportioned, and justice performed. While claiming heritage as a value, in truth the only heritage claimed is a recent Judeo-Christian interpretation arising some 250 years ago that empowered the evangelical church to engage in civil rule, mandate conformity, and establish justice based on masculine notions of tribal pride. This interpretation carries no weight among those who own a red-letter Bible as its various precepts conflict with every single one of the quotations of Jesus.

Yet somehow this set of beliefs has come to be the dominant consensus among those who claim the theocratic authority to be supreme in the land. The organic symbiosis valued by Conservatives is entirely missing in such a society - conformity of thought word and deed is expected in every respect, and "interdependence" is pretty much restricted to depending on the sky god instead of your neighbour. That's not to negate the many acts of charity performed by evangelicals - in many ways, they strive to live out personal examples of selfless sacrifice, but these are not mostly sponsored by their churches, which remain country clubs for them and their kids, to hide away from impure society. More to the point, evangelicals also promote an unhealthy disrespect for authority, in particular, Parliament and the judiciary, and their foul utterances have unleashed venomous disrespect among ordinary Canadians who do not even share their beliefs, but see their rejection of authority as one without personal cost and emotionally satisfying to boot.

I'd love to do an essay on this, but I'm must here to respond to your article, Karl - a good one - as it's incomplete. Social conservatism, as you've defined it, includes the theocratic as well as the conservative. Let social conservatives be free to choose to march in pride parades or not as they feel led, and let the theocratic conservatives be free to rail against those who march in them.... but for God's sake, let them do it from separate bedrooms in the house of our nation!

John Clark zalm •
I had still, another re-read of your essay and, again find it excellent. I'm going to repost on https://albertathedetails.b... The US Republicans moved into Canada under the name of the UFA in 1909. Charters etc. from the US have simply renamed from American to Canadian or Canada. Recently, Kenny tried to justify some of his moves as being in Convention with Conservative standards set down in 1909.

Conservatives and our failed education system.

I listened today to CBC radio program which interviewed a number of young men between the ages generally of 18 to 26 years who were out of work and couldn't find work even though they were aggressively looking.

During the Klein years, Alberta took independent advise that said they would not grow "big" industry because they couldn't graduate enough people!

To counter this perceived threat they dummed down the school system and cut funding to the universities but, it didn't end there.  High school took the hardest hit.  Really dummed down and no support is given for university entrance.  My kids tried to take calculus but were told there is no one in our local school who knew how to teach it.

But, it went further.  Trade schools dropped their entrance requirements to 70% graduation mark to get into a trade school.  Girls who aspired to become physicians were told by the councillor they would be better off if they looked towards nursing!

Some of these young people today were complaining they were not properly prepared for the world, others, now restricted to broken career choice. 

Meanwhile, the Conservatives put out adds all over the world, heavier in the US than other places for degree positions.   They deliberately robbed Alberta kids of their futures.  There are some 17000 unemployed now and the Conservatives appear to be doing the same thing all over again!

82 million dollar waste on Northern Gateway Pipeline.

Your pension funds are at risk again.  AIMCo is not arm's length away from the Conservative Government.  All the oil we can produce and sell can be handled through the Transmountain Expansion route.  They are 85% booked now, leaving 15% for spontaneous shippers which is required under the law.

This is all about Kenny in his nut job way being in your face to the federal Government and common knowledge.

The Saudi have reduced their oil outputs as has the USA.  Kenny is setting up for a pipeline contest in the next election, the fight for pension returns.  The Trans Mountain expansion vis the Northern gateway.   The former is CPP the latter is Alberta Pension funds.  This is criminal!

Time to assassinate this crew, starting at the top.  Their secret (private oil company) is in a position to cut shipping though the Trans Mountain and direct it through the northern gateway.  All in all an act of spite!

My thoughts on pension resolve and AIMCO

I was impressed with the Nurses to protest outside the Legislature and listened with interest to the Government response.  They basically blew you off!

I think it is time for the Nurses and Teachers and Government workers to talk together with an insight to resolve.  How?

Agree to give these turkeys a weeks notice then all of you, walk off the job and stay away through all the threats that will surely come until the Pensions are put back to where they were!  

It is the only thing Kenny's crew will respond to!  Go for it!

The Conservative Power Corridor - Not!

There is no national unity problem only some noisy Conservatives trying to break up the country. And, as far as the energy corridor is concerned it is more of their BS. Montreal and points east get their oil by bulk tanker at a fraction of the cost of a pipeline!

On the other hand, PQ has a surplus of hydroelectricity. They have a cap and trade deal with California worth billions now but California is planning on shutting down their two coal-burning plants by 2022 meaning they won't be putting the coin into cap and trade they will be looking for a return.

This falls in line with PQ suggestion that western Canada enter into cap and trade deals with them and they will forget about equalization payments. A scam running every which way.

Alberta's power is owned by the cities, Indirect taxation if you like. But, it delivered at a reasonable price. Cities are in no position to buy PQ power!

Kenny setting up AMCo for another theft!

Today it was announced the Government pension funds would be moved away from safety into AIMCo which is anything but arms-length from the Government. 

 Jim Prentice was busted stealing 7 million dollars from the Government pension funds managed by AIMCo. Not a crime in their minds as they consider the Government staff are overpaid. Then, they lied about it for 6 weeks before capitulating under threat of court to set things right again. 

 It appears to me Kenny is setting up his new banking system.  Union better watch AIMCo like a hawk.

Add to:
This is much worse than I first presented  See:https://www.pionline.com/pension-funds/alberta-proposes-aimco-take-management-teachers-fund

Any fund that allows their money to be sucked up to be used for the provincial finances is being suckered.

There are 20 billion dollars in the combined take-overs.  It is not uncommon for an agency to take a 5% transfer fee in setting it up!

A remote possibility if the Cons should win.

Far different than our provincial elections, the Federal Election was almost honest.  I had my IP blocked by the National, The Global news, The Calgary Herald and the Edmonton Journal all on the last day of campaigning. Scheer must be in trouble.

If a Con government should happen to get in, they would immediately take all the restrictions off Beall Media and their 200 newspapers which, Harper installed into Canada and Trudeau neutered by legislation.  This will leave us under a Conservative umbrella with the media pounding out Conservative BS.  Frankly,  I don't see of any way of getting the Cons out of office again, it, this happens. 

Leaders debate English 2019

Scheer was outstanding in as much as he shouted down his opponents continually. Other than that the typical Conservative name-calling.

Trudeau was just too polite in the face of the onslaught.  He covered 

SNC-Lavalin well enough did what he had to do to save 4600 jobs at risk going through the court system.   Trudeau won on points, Scheer won on shouting down his opponents, crude rude and desperate.  He passed lightly on Bill C69 which the Conservatives are trying to kill as a means to ending the Trans Mountain expansion.  If this happens, we lose 47 billion dollars a year in tax money, part of our CPP investments and the natives will lose their investments.

Francois Blanchet was a welcome surprise.  He gave up a lot of particulars on  PQ.  That province is on Hydro Electricity, the lowest carbon footprint of all.  They stand to make a lot of money in cap and trade deals, which they are doing now with California.

California uses two antiquated coal smokers for their power.   They however have these slated to go out in 2025.  This means their cap and trade deal with PQ won't be paying so well.  So, Mr Blanchet has suggested a cap and trade deal with the rest of Canada as a means of lowering our emissions as a country.  He went so far as to say they would do away with transfer payments if the rest of Canada would put up the cap and trade agreements.

The power company in California owns the coal mines in the Appellations where the fuel comes from. This change to natural gas is troublesome for Trump. 

Elizabeth May  was off on another moon shot with  Jagmeet Singh  on  killing the Trans Mountain Expansion.   They don't seem to recognize if we do not ship our oil into the market place, the US and 10 other nations will do so.   The Expansion is not adding to the climate crisis, in fact, the money from it 47 billion dollars in tax revenue, is needed to produce a green outcome!  Justin Trudeau reminded her of this and was shouted down by May shrilling on about extinctions.

In total the gold star goes to Jagmeet Singh on a quick response and accurate uptakes.

Scheer's US citizenship - not a nothing thing!

Many conservatives have US/Canada joint citizenship!  Harper, Presto Manning, members of the Fraser Institute Kenny.   They all would have to swear the US oath of Allegiance to get US citizenship.

"I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty, of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America"

Conservatives set The US Interests well ahead of Canada's!

Let's get this show back on track! The Global news will keep this party dress-up on the front burner from now until the election! This same media is bought and paid for by the Conservatives!

Front and centre The Conservatives are actively working on killing the Tans mountain Expansion, which, will hurt every pocketbook in Canada! The Conservative Premiers spent two full days making a case for trashing bill C48 and C69 which are designed to kill the project! Trans Mountain Expansion Project, Including 15,000 Jobs and $46.7 Billion in Tax Revenue annually! Gone, as soon as you vote in Conservatives, Our major river emptied!

Take a moment to read the post on these two bills the Conservatives are trying to kill.
This brings me to the #Weatherford Project. It is so named after the company who designed and specked it.
Weatherford is immensely designed to move 2/3rds of the flow of the Peace River to the US border. If Conservatives build, this Canadian's will pay for the build so the US can get cheap water.

The design calls for 4 large diameter pipelines and six pumping stations. Each pumping station to use the electrical power of a city! Kenny is already ramping up an electrical generation in the oil sands.
The Conservatives are again looking after US interests, not Canada's!

Kenny was recently on TV opposite an environmental lawyer while jetting around the country. She was Trashing Tarns-Mountain expansion, and he was sitting there, nodding and smiling his approval.

The US does not want us shipping oil our west coast into Indonesia and China! If they are allowed to kill the Trans Mountain Expansion, natives will lose their investments and Canada will miss its venture into the expansion.

Perhaps Scheer is going to win a lottery for Canada? He has to make up for the lost revenue on the pipeline they are trying to cancel; The trans mountain expansion west. 

Canadians Receive A Wide Range of Benefits from the Trans Mountain Expansion Project, Including 15,000 Jobs and $46.7 Billion in Tax Revenue annually!

There is a strong and clear business case supporting the Trans Mountain Expansion Project. Our shippers have made long-term contract commitments ranging from 15 to 20 years that will underpin the cost of construction and the operating costs. The additional capacity offered by the expansion will be used to supply more crude oil and refined products markets in British Columbia and Washington State and to offshore markets in the Asia Pacific. Pipeline design and operations, including emergency response and preparedness for tanker movements, are world-class, providing a safe and reliable supply of petroleum products to the markets served by the Trans Mountain Pipeline.

Two weeks ago, Kenny was on TV sitting with an environmental lawyer nodding and smiling while she trashed the Trans Mountain expansion.

This is more proof that the Conservatives are looking after the US as their priority, not Canada!  They have made no secret they plan on re-writing our constitution!  

There are so many reasons to put a strong Liberal Government back into Canada.!

Things in Alberta Terrible under Kenny.

Unfortunately, despite the long days, the constructive debate and experienced advice from the opposition, the UCP decided to – literally – put in earplugs, hunker down and ignore the storm brewing around them. The Conservatives started off with a public claim Alberta was deeper in the hole than the NDP had stated, but Kenney proved this a lie when the UCP's own numbers showed the province was $2 billion better off on the NDP plan than anticipated.

After lying about the previous government, the UCP – elected on a platform of fiscal responsibility – blew $13.5 billion in ill-advised, ideological moves to give money to corporations (while ignoring small businesses), cancelling the Climate Leadership Plan that brought in $7 billion and shutting down the oil-by-rail deal that would have seen crude reach coastal markets.

They have cancelled programs and investments that put the UCP directly responsible for the loss of up to 30,000 jobs. They have taken food out of children’s mouths by cancelling the school nutrition program, cut salaries for 180,000 public sector employees, and attacked the incomes of our youth – many of them financing themselves – by lowering their minimum wage, a move even Ralph Klein recognized was cruel and unfair.

The Conservatives threw school boards into financial chaos by refusing to set funding for schools before their budgets were due, leading many boards to make cuts and increase class sizes and others to take a gamble that they may overspend, hoping the UCP will follow the NDP's funding plans. They will re-implement a Grade 3 Provincial Achievement test, costing us millions of dollars, despite teachers and evidence saying these tests at that level only hurt the quality of education our children receive.

And, worst of all, just before they took their celebratory bath in Edmonton, the UCP rejected numerous pragmatic compromises from the NDP to amend Bill 8 and ensure that LGBT youth would be protected. The UCP’s actions here represent the first time in Canadian history a government has rolled back legislated rights of the LGBT community – a move even conservative personalities like Charles Adler are disgusted with.

There’s a smell around the UCP and the legislature today, and it’s not the smell of roses.

From <https://www.airdrietoday.com/letters-to-the-editor/ucp-reality-not-so-rosy-for-alberta-1580381>

Kenny's deal on natural gas!

Kenny has said he is upping the price of internal natural gas to 7 dollars per mcf because the gas companies are hurting.

The world market price on natural gas is about 4.50 per mcf up from the long-standing 3.00 per Mcf.

This is a simple tax rip off and the reason Kenny wants natural gas east over the west coast pipeline.

Scheer lies and the inflated carbon tax.

Scheer has been on for months on the extremely high cost of the carbon tax.  Pointedly, Scheer's numbers do not include any refund or rebate figures!  In other words still another outright lie by Andrew Scheer!  Costs? Less than 10% of the numbers he is handing out.