Glen X

Engineering, Transit Systems, and Technology Applications for real life.

[Ron Butler @ronmortgageguy]

High Speed Rail Is An Unbelievable Waste Of Money: It Makes No Sense In Canada

$90 To $175 BILLION for nothing

I know some people love High Speed Trains

In Europe & Asia everyone who uses them thinks: Fantastic! Canada needs these

But No: Not Sensible here

It's Math

2/

[Andrew Hughes @aj_hugs]

Autonomous delivery e-bikes:

> 25x cheaper than autonomous car
> 6x speed and throughput increase over sidewalk robots
> favorable vehicle classification for regulatory / insurance
> extremely low emissions

[Glen X @Glengineer2]

@MIHomeYGK Rideau st closed

[DataRepublican (small r) @DataRepublican]

I was researching exactly that this morning. So, let me make the devil's advocate argument as I understand it, and why the NGO and DC elite class are fighting to hard to keep the current system.

One-way free trade functions economically in the same way open borders do. Yes, both hollow out the domestic working class: manufacturing jobs vanish just as illegal immigration erodes wages and job availability. But in return, cheap goods and services flood in, lowering consumer prices.

These lower prices become the mechanism by which a different kind of economy is built, one optimized for high-level abstraction. Think: professional services, finance, tech, and elite-tier automated manufacturing. The bet is that the U.S. can climb the value chain while letting lower-tier production happen elsewhere.

Tariffs imposed by other countries aren't seen as a threat. In fact, they're framed as "shooting themselves in their foot." Because, these countries are anchoring themselves to low-margin industries, while the U.S. orients toward capital-intensive, post-industrial domains.

This is why globalists aggressively defend the current trade regime. We keep our markets open, even when others don't, because that asymmetry accelerates the shift to a high-abstraction economy.

But the cost is real: it’s a structural wealth transfer from the poor and middle class to the rich, who benefit from global capital flows and the cheap labor and goods that make their post-industrial economy run. It also creates obvious security and defense threats (e.g., our dependency on Taiwan).

[Glen X @Glengineer2]

@RealAlbanianPat Looks like Bombay. Nice breed

[Brian Decoded - Alpha Efficiency.™ @briandecoded]

2. Investing in Tax Liens:

He discusses and defends investing in 16% tax liens.

This is complex and unsuitable for inexperienced investors and the average person.

[Bill Ackman @BillAckman]

It should be illegal for the U.S. government (using taxpayer funds) to fund NGOs to do work that the government is not permitted to do directly.

[Bill Ackman @BillAckman]

Imagine if all bills were required to be footnoted with references to which Congressman added a provision to a bill. We could then see from whence the pork comes.

The way it has historically been done, there is no cost to being behind a particularly egregious piece of pork. With this change, there would be a cost to even proposing government waste.

[Glen X @Glengineer2]

@RealAlbanianPat Kingston and the Islands

[Brian Lilley @brianlilley]

Under current Liberal Party of Canada rules, if Trudeau resigned tomorrow and the party had a leadership race then the more than 3 million temporary residents, like international students, could vote for Liberal leader and help pick our next PM.
And the Liberals think it’s fine.

[Chris Selley @cselley]

NATIONAL PHARMACARE: <doesn't exist for 157 years>

NDP/LIBERALS: "We have a framework for a discussion about national pharmacare, with no price tag, subject of course to provincial buy-in."

MEDIA: "Will Pierre Poilievre destroy Canadian pharmacare?"

[Tablesalt 🇨🇦🇺🇸 @Tablesalt13]

Some fun facts about the Canadian Federal budget:

-The deficit Canada runs doesn't even cover its interest payment. Canada is negatively amortizing using a line of credit to make the minimums.

-Canadians sent the government $457 billion dollars in 2023, and $126 billion was evaporated by "operating expenses", the remainder was dispersed.

- This year, interest payable will likely be almost as much as "elderly benefits"

[Brian Lilley @brianlilley]

We are about to start spending more than 10% of total government spending on the interest charges on the debt in Canada. Interest payments on the debt already exceed 10% of program spending.
That squeezes out spending on programs people actually need. Irresponsible. #cdnpoli

[Strong Towns @StrongTowns]

For the first time, the Federal Highway Administration is acknowledging what a stroad is, and by extension, what a street and road are. That's huge!

[Glen X @Glengineer2]

@boehmerB Just went through Pearson on porter airlines and it was fine. This seems to be an @AirCanada problem

[Christopher Adlam @cadlam]

Some interesting observations born of a conversation with @TomHess_ and @ScottLuft this morning.

- Ontario's wind fleet has been in the double digits for >24hrs, currently at 35MW of 5,000MW.

- It's hot in Ontario. Hydro output is low, not a good year for hydro.

- Ontario is EXPORTING to Quebec. Quebec is also importing from New York.

- It's overcast, solar is at about 50% of capacity.

So, what is being run to send power to Quebec and make up for low hydro, totally absent wind and low solar? Gas of course.

@ONcleanair would have you believe that Ontario can just shut off not only our #nuclear capacity, which is currently producing 61% of Ontario's electricity, but also our gas capacity, which is currently providing 17% of our electricity and assisting neighbouring jurisdictions. This is dangerous fantasy.

If Ontario wants to reduce gas usage, the only alternative source we have the resources to expand, the one that's delivering right now, is #nuclear.

#CANDU #Pickering2075 @fordnation @ToddSmithPC @PBethlenfalvy

[Name Redacted @NameRedacted247]

1. Google currently employs at least 165 people, in high-ranking positions, from the Intelligence Community.

Google’s Trust & Safety team is managed by 3 ex-CIA agents, who control “misinfo & hate speech.”

Here’s the breakdown:
CIA-27
FBI-52
NSA-30
DHS-50
ODNI-6

Thread🧵

[Bill Ackman @BillAckman]

Put aside any preconceived notions about @RobertKennedyJr and listen to this @joerogan podcast https://t.co/yd9BpCTN8F with an open mind. One of the most powerful and mind opening interviews that I have ever heard.

My uninformed impression of RFK pre-interview was of an anti-vaxxer, wacko, conspiracy theorist. Three hours later, I am intrigued to learn more.

I have been told by people who meet me for the first time that they had a vastly different perception of me from what they had read or seen in the media. I am similarly guilty of falling for consensus media narratives about people or situations that I haven't had the time to examine empirically despite my efforts to avoid this trap.

I am going to be even more disciplined about accepting the conventional wisdom without completing my own independent empirical assessment. I encourage you to do the same.

A detailed and sourced fact check of this podcast would be an important contribution to the public dialogue if anyone is so inspired.

[Glen X @Glengineer2]

@OccTranspo Darouze's argument to vote against was something wild. Would vote against waiving potential future tax on a hotel because they didn't spend current funds on unnecessary road widening to an airport parkway.

[Adam Zivo @AdamZivo]

The CBC’s coverage of the China interference scandal has often been questionable and partisan. Though its unsurprising that the organization has chosen to act, yet again, as the Liberals’ state-funded PR wing, its recent decision to platform an apologist for Beijing’s genocide against the Uyghurs is a new low.

https://t.co/i2OhS8Qh5F