Canadian Prime Minister on Trump: He's Number One

[DoomYoshi]

https://www.nationalnewswatch.com/2020/ ... irst-pm-2/

We used to have it decades ago, but we no longer have it. Countries like the United States, Germany and the U.K. do have domestic pharmaceutical facilities, which is why they're obviously going to prioritize helping their citizens first."

[rdsrds2120]

*opens article
*CTRL+F "Trump"
* no results

On the serious side though, this could be interpreted as a bit of a finger wag towards lax development of emergency public goods in other developed countries (i.e., facilities maintained to be ready to respond to a pandemic). Most countries have more/less committed to a market solution for pharmaceuticals, importing them from the countries mentioned and not really manufacturing them themselves. This isn't inherently bad for day-to-day stuff (there are other reasons it might be bad, thought), but it does mean that in situations of abrupt scarcity when American, U.K., German etc exports aren't an option for something extremely time sensitive, seemingly arbitrary parts of the world suffer for some otherwise preventable amount of time.

[DoomYoshi]

*opens article
*CTRL+F "Trump"
* no results

On the serious side though, this could be interpreted as a bit of a finger wag towards lax development of emergency public goods in other developed countries (i.e., facilities maintained to be ready to respond to a pandemic). Most countries have more/less committed to a market solution for pharmaceuticals, importing them from the countries mentioned and not really manufacturing them themselves. This isn't inherently bad for day-to-day stuff (there are other reasons it might be bad, thought), but it does mean that in situations of abrupt scarcity when American, U.K., German etc exports aren't an option for something extremely time sensitive, seemingly arbitrary parts of the world suffer for some otherwise preventable amount of time.

It's also our approach to food, gasoline, clothing, pretty much everything else.

[2dimes]

This has been happening since Defenbaker told them to cut up the Arrows. I keep lecturing people not to let our dairy industry suffer for the sake of cheap cheese but get told, "You can't tell me not to shop at Walmart." No, I guess I can't.

[DoomYoshi]

This has been happening since Defenbaker told them to cut up the Arrows. I keep lecturing people not to let our dairy industry suffer for the sake of cheap cheese but get told, "You can't tell me not to shop at Walmart." No, I guess I can't.

The thing is that we have never made good cheese in Canada. It's not an industry that exists in this country.

Our current protectionism is the worst possible way to do things. All the small neighborhood dairy farms are now closed since we went to the quota system. Now only the millionaire milk mafiosa are milking it and bilking us. They purposely mark up the price of cheese just because they can get away with it. When there is a 300% tariff, that means you can still have a 200% mark up without any chance for honest competition.

I buy all my meat and vegetables locally. I only get citrus and bananas imported because they do not grow here.

I also buy cheese from Europe because there are thousands of varieties of cheese, but a criminally negligent 100 or so varieties made in Canada. If every family in Canada had their own cheese recipe, it might be worth switching.

It is a basic and fundamental human right to have a different type of cheese every day of the year for an entire decade.

[2dimes]

So, anyone can buy some cows, make cheese and mark it up 200% but then they get killed?

[DoomYoshi]

So, anyone can buy some cows, make cheese and mark it up 200% but then they get killed?

No you can't do that on many levels. First you have to start as an associate. Then, if the capo likes you - you can become a made man after a few years. Then you can buy some cows.

[mookiemcgee]

So, anyone can buy some cows, make cheese and mark it up 200% but then they get killed?

killed by taxes?

[2dimes]

So, anyone can buy some cows, make cheese and mark it up 200% but then they get killed?

killed by taxes?

I asked that because of this.

millionaire milk mafiosa

DY claims you can't even get dairy cows.

I have read some similar complaints elsewhere on the Internet. What they call "Canada" seems different from where I live. Though there does seem to be laws against raw cheese sales here and some imported cheese can be pretty expensive.

I feel like I watched a show where some guys told Anthony Bourdain about eating illegal raw cheese.

I don't think I understand.

I had pretty good cheese in France but nothing that made me angry or even very upset because I couldn't get it here.

Maybe I need to go to a specific place to try a particular cheese I have never experienced. Then again I am probably much better off enjoying common melted Canadian cheese.

[mookiemcgee]

So, anyone can buy some cows, make cheese and mark it up 200% but then they get killed?

killed by taxes?

I asked that because of this.

millionaire milk mafiosa

DY claims you can't even get dairy cows.

I have read some similar complaints elsewhere on the Internet. What they call "Canada" seems different from where I live. Though there does seem to be laws against raw cheese sales here and some imported cheese can be pretty expensive.

I feel like I watched a show where some guys told Anthony Bourdain about eating illegal raw cheese.

I don't think I understand.

I had pretty good cheese in France but nothing that made me angry or even very upset because I couldn't get it here.

Maybe I need to go to a specific place to try a particular cheese I have never experienced. Then again I am probably much better off enjoying common melted Canadian cheese.

Maybe Trump and his tarrifs should run for Canadian prime minister, seems like that is all the rage up north.

[DoomYoshi]

You could buy a cow, especially a beef cow. But if you buy a dairy cow, you can't actually do anything with it. First you need to buy "quota". You buy this from other dairy farmers. Then you get paid for all your milk up to your quota level for the year. You aren't allowed to be independent (although you might be allowed to feed your own family you can not under any circumstance feed your neighbor). I realize this might not stop the Hutterites or whatever, but that's what the system looks like for the rest of us.

Also, in the United States and Canada, eating raw cheese (a.k.a. unpasteurized cheese) is illegal. This is hilarious since technically Mozzarella refers to that type of cheese, so Mozzarella is illegal in the United States. Yet "Mozzarella" is also the number one cheese by sales in the United States. This is why Donald Trump is a good president. He perfectly encapsulates the American penchance for being devoid of any connection, however tenuous, to reality.

[Dukasaur]

Also, in the United States and Canada, eating raw cheese (a.k.a. unpasteurized cheese) is illegal.

Just a Point of Information, it's not the eating that's illegal, it's the selling.

I think you can eat it as long as you make it yourself.

Interestingly, that also describes beer and wine. I wonder if we could have "Ferment Your Own" cheese emporia, like the Brew Your Own beer houses.

[2dimes]

Doom, you know there are reasons for pasteurization, yeah?

I understand you might wish to get a certain flavour in unpasteurized cheese, but stores can't even provide clean lettuce anymore.

You expect them to sell unpasteurized cheese that won't be loaded with harmful bacteria?

People still need to be told over and over again it's a good idea to wash your hands.

[DoomYoshi]

Doom, you know there are reasons for pasteurization, yeah?

I understand you might wish to get a certain flavour in unpasteurized cheese, but stores can't even provide clean lettuce anymore.

You expect them to sell unpasteurized cheese that won't be loaded with harmful bacteria?

People still need to be told over and over again it's a good idea to wash your hands.

Yes the reason is industrialized farming has made food have such questionable provenance so that you can no longer trust it. This is exasperated by the quota system. That system forces you to be a low bidder to get the government contract, but it also forces you to be a high bidder since it is an auction where you are competing against other farmers. What this results in is extremely narrow margins where small farms and any farm which would like to ensure humane treatment of animals is effectively illegal.

Also, since all the milk is bought and shipped to a single refinery, even if your milk is perfect, one cannot ensure that other milk is not contaminated.

In Italy or France where unpasteurized cheese is common, a farmer might make a few batches so even if there is a bad batch, only a handful of families will get sick. Here in America, where they only want mass-production, such a system would be impossible.

Somehow it's possible for cows in over-populated and polluted Europe to produce good milk, but it's impossible for us to do it here?

[mookiemcgee]

I thought you were canadian? (here in america???)

[DoomYoshi]

I thought you were canadian? (here in america???)

As in North America...

[2dimes]

Tough to argue farming is not the best here. I'm all for moving to southern France.

[mookiemcgee]

I thought you were canadian? (here in america???)

As in North America...

Gotcha, so this is all trump's fault because of this USMCA trade deal he spearheaded.

[DoomYoshi]

I thought you were canadian? (here in america???)

As in North America...

Gotcha, so this is all trump's fault because of this USMCA trade deal he spearheaded.

Not really. The CUSMA, like NAFTA before it does not include cheese or dairy products.

[mookiemcgee]

I thought you were canadian? (here in america???)

As in North America...

Gotcha, so this is all trump's fault because of this USMCA trade deal he spearheaded.

Not really. The CUSMA, like NAFTA before it does not include cheese or dairy products.

First of all, if you call it CUSMA instead of USMCA one more time Saxi's head might explode.

I've been hearing for 4 years how CUSMA is NOTHING like NAFTA and that's why we had to re-name it and pretend it was different... are you saying my government lied to me?

I can prove to you it's different...

For instance, when i ship my Canadian friends illegal french cheese, I used to have to fill out a CCI (Canadian Customs Invoice -https://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/publication ... es/ci1.pdf ), and once a year a NAFTA form (Certificate of Origin). Now I have to fill out a CCI, and once a year a fill out a CUSMA form - https://www.omnitrans.com/wp-content/up ... _CUSMA.xls

See, two totally different things!

Why do you guys agree to these things? https://www.international.gc.ca/trade-c ... x?lang=eng
I mean after reading that I totally see where you are coming from, you guys have agreed to basically f*ck over any cheese producer that isn't extremely large if they want access to international sales.

If you made cheese and sold it locally only at like a farmers market direct to consumer... totally illegal? Who would enforce that, tax dept?

[DoomYoshi]

I thought you were canadian? (here in america???)

As in North America...

Gotcha, so this is all trump's fault because of this USMCA trade deal he spearheaded.

Not really. The CUSMA, like NAFTA before it does not include cheese or dairy products.

First of all, if you call it CUSMA instead of USMCA one more time Saxi's head might explode.

I've been hearing for 4 years how CUSMA is NOTHING like NAFTA and that's why we had to re-name it and pretend it was different... are you saying my government lied to me?

There are a lot of differences. But not on cheese. It's the one thing that is true of all Canadian trade agreements.

Why do you guys agree to these things? https://www.international.gc.ca/trade-c ... x?lang=eng
I mean after reading that I totally see where you are coming from, you guys have agreed to basically f*ck over any cheese producer that isn't extremely large if they want access to international sales.

If you made cheese and sold it locally only at like a farmers market direct to consumer... totally illegal? Who would enforce that, tax dept?

Well you would need to buy the milk from the governmental approved milk producers. If you had your own cows, and then decided to make your own cheese factory, somebody would shut you down. Probably Agriculture Canada.

[2dimes]

There are a few reasons I don't agree with Doom's open market cheese concept.

For one, most dairy farms in the USA use Monsanto hormones that are still illegal in Canada, they often feel they have to use hormones in order to increase volume enough to compete.

Add in trying to run a small shop within 50 miles of the new and improved Wal-Mart* super center.

It's going to be a hard no for me thanks.

So you end up with.

• Me who won't go to Walmart*.
• Doom who supports Walmart* but hates the tariff.
• A couple others.
• Guys in Quebec that will buy and sell illegal raw cheese.
• Most of the population that shop for the least expensive cheese they can find regardless of what's in it. If you can offer them cheese from China with low enough toxicity at a price of 9 cents less that's the cheese they're buying.

Yes I know there are a percentage of organic farms on US soil. Some fairly large cheese makers such as Tillamook in Oregan for example source organic dairy. Doom, Dukasaur and betiko probably think their cheese is trash but I like it.

Lacking the busted laws Doom is complaining about which were meant to protect the little guys and in some cases our health and the cows, but then get exploited by what appears to be syndicates in Ontario.

Huge corporation owned farms often move in and exploit the cows with their methods to maximize production.

Why do you guys agree to these things?

It almost never matters if even a fair number of people disagree with things. The process to reverse anything really bad is overwhelming.

In Alberta we never had an add at the cash register sales tax. There were some hidden sales taxes but a price tag was what you paid,

Eventually the federal government introduced the Goods and Services Tax known as GST.

Even better, sometimes the way it is charged it will occur during wholesale to a distributor, then again wholesale to the store then again when the consumer buys the item. Yeah it's great, not only is the government collecting 5% more than once, it collects 5% on the layers or GST they collected.

Simplified example, manufacturer sells product to distributor for $100 + GST = $105.
The store is not going to pay that they are going to add five bucks to the final price and then I will be paying the entire $5.25 more tax in addition to the profit margin mark up plus GST on the entire final price. Yay.



* That is a swear word in my opinion.