Farmer Diaries

 Obviously, this is an impossible question to answer.  Some would say that the January 6, attack on the Capitol was the first nail in the coffin of democracy.  Recently, several studies have shown that nearly 40% of Americans believe that a strong president is more important than democracy.  The same percentage that believes that "White America is under threat".  There is a smaller percentage of the population 30% who believe that violence is acceptable.  Many Americans perceive democracy as a non-event as politics is a non-event.  They have seen the US government attempt to set up democracies in the Middle East (no not really but still) and they "see" the economy of Russia and China thriving -- again not really but with low information, voters will believe almost anything, that fits their social anxieties, and what the talking heads tell them So it could happen, but:  Civil wars don't start by chance, they are engineered and it's hard to see what...

So when the sale of cannabis was made legal in Quebec, the government decided that all cannabis products would be sold via government-owned stores -- why they could not have a small space in 1,000 liquor stores is beyond me...still. So the government of Quebec created a new store infrastructure that includes 27 stores.  In early May 2022, the workers of 22 of these stores went on strike for higher pay, equal to what other government workers were getting when working in the Quebec Government-owned liquor stores. They've been on strike for two months, no negotiations are taking place, and more Quebecers didn't notice because most cannabis buyers continue to use their old "illegal" network. Funny!

 He's not the first, but AMLO's blatant lies about the impact of USMCA on his energy objective of making PEMEX and CFE the only energy players in the country.   He's a moron not because he is certain to lose, he's a moron because it's ENTIRELY AMLO's fault that the energy sector was included in the USMCA. Canada and the US energy sectors have been fully integrated for decades.  The USMCA adds nothing to the Canada/USA ties in the sector.   No, this is a self-inflicted wound.   His latest is the most brazen way to increase corruption; there will be new "secret rules" for private enterprises to participate in his new green energy initiative, and these secret rules will be determined by government officials.  I cannot think of a more perfect way to ensure that foreign participants bribe officials. It doesn't matter anyway, there is such a shortage of solar panels, batteries and other systems that companies will focus on other more promising mark...

 When AMLO took power in December 2018 he announced three projects and the cancellation of a fourth;   1) Build a new refinery in Dos Bocas to process oil into gasoline (cost US$ 2 6 8   18 billion) 2) Build a new airport in Mexico City that would cost US$ 5 billion 3) Build a tourist train in the Yucatan that would cost US$ 3 8 11.3 20 billion and 4) Cancel the building of the "private" Texcoco Mexico City airport (it would cost nothing to cancel since it's private), which was built during the term of the previous administration Well, almost 4 years on and the results have been less than what was advertised! 1) Dos Bocas total cost so far is near US$ 8   18 billion and although inaugurated by the President a few weeks ago (July 2022) the plant will not be able to process any oil for at least 18 months.  In addition, no pipeline has been planned (or built) to link the new refinery to the country's oil network (at least another billion in cost)....

 Many moons ago, with colleagues, we were sitting in the office of the president of CFE to discuss the new energy market.  These guys were all engineers, bright as hell but knew next to nothing about finance, markets and how they operate.  The then government of Pena Nieto had given CFE the mandate to create the electricity market. The presentation started with the usual introduction, and we quickly move to some important but obvious topics; the market size and what it could do for CFE and its planning.  The first thing we told CFE is that the market's price discovery would give deep insight into local, regional and national power demand trends that are almost better than anything else available.  This was true in Spain and in the US, the second thing we mentioned is that this was a relatively small pricing market with 240,000 daily markets.  The third thing we mentioned is that a large part of the domestic (Mexican) oil and gas market could eventually be r...

 Headline:   "British Columbia Man blames Air Canada for luggage delay!" What's wrong with this headline -- its easy, Air Canada aside from taking your luggage when you check in has zero input on how the luggage is processed.  In fact, airlines pay a per passenger fee for use of terminal, baggage handling and other important service to CATSA which manages virtually all Canadian airports. When the pandemic hit in 2020 the airlines cut employment but in early 2021 airlines such as Air Canada started hiring back laid-off workers.  I don't have the most recent figures but Air Canada in particular grew its payroll by nearly 80% from 16,000 in January 2021 to nearly 27,000 in January 2022.  Lets leave WestJet aside for a minute but I understand that they did the same thing, with number of employees. What did the airport do during that time?  Very little, they saw that AC and WJ were bringing workers back, they saw that both airlines were adding back aircraft that...

 Last Friday, the President of Mexico inaugurated the  Dos Bocas, a refinery that is being built in his home state.  This is a gasoline-only refinery, the rest of the petrol will be distilled elsewhere.  In fact, for the foreseeable future oil, will be distilled elsewhere because the main contractor to the project, FONATUR, the government's own department has recognized that the facilities will not be able to process any oil for at least 18 months.  In "Mexican" that means within the next five years! It gets worse because there is no pipeline that goes to that refinery. None have been built and none are planned, I guess everything will be delivered by trucks! I am reasonably certain that by the middle of 2023, AMLO, the president of Mexico will inaugurate the Maya train, which will not be completed for several years.  Both projects, two of the three that the President announced at the beginning of his term are severely over budget.  The Maya train's bu...

 It may sound bizarre, even weird still one has to wonder if this current situation is not exactly what Americans want...mass shootings every day, sometimes twice a day is maybe the outcome that most Americans seem to want. It's not like the rest of the world cannot show them how to avoid them! I am now convinced that this is what Americans want, it's part of their freedom (except in the bedroom, but that's another topic).  Sur most Americans are against guns, but not ready to actively do something about it, rather it's something to say to a pollster:  "I am against gun violence"  Sounds good and costs nothing, after all, I'm against puppy mills but I am not ready to do anything about it!  Maybe not exactly the same but close to. Those many who are pro-guns will find any reason, independently how far-fetched to show that all the mass shootings are faked (false flag) and are there to remove their guns (all evidence to the contrary).  The press is now lookin...

 On Monday, July 4th America saw its 309th mass shooting of 2022.  Yes in the first 180 days of 2022 America saw a total of 309 mass shootings.  How terrible? inevitable yes that too.  There is a cost to America's unfettered love for guns, there has to be a cost to the "harshness" of the country.  No, it's a sure thing that America is on the road to implosion.  How many Americans must die for a false interpretation of the second amendment, which talks about a "well-organized militia" and not "Davie wants to shoot pew pews all day long" after some unknown and unresolved grievance? In a sense, we watch in awe how America can be amazing and at the same time are appalled by its wantonness.  that is the reality of America we love it, we fear it, and we hate it all at once.

 Every other day more revelations on the action of the President and of the United States become more incredible.  One thing, so far there is no direct evidence implicating Trump, but he's really close and behind a lot of the events, to say that "Mike Pence deserves it" when the demonstrators were chanting "Hang Pence" tells you only the Trump is at best a Sociopath and at worse a psychopath. One thing for certain is that between November 4th and January 20th the American Republic came close to ending, and its almost certain that the GOP, when they retake power, after the mid term elections will do almost anything to hide their activities, especially the likes of Jordan and certain other.  Now what emerged is that several members of Congress had visitors prior to the events of the 6th of January and they were actively taking pictures...which is illegal in the Capitol. Now all this could be nothing but so far it seems that there was a high level of preparedness a...

During Thursday’s hearings, host Tucker Carlson broadcast an hour-long, commercial-free discussion of alternative interpretations of the deadly riot, including that it had been instigated by FBI agents. Yes because that's the right's view of the world, deadly shooting -- never happened its the deepfake state that is creating these events to get our guns.  The fun loving peaceful demonstation of Jan 6th...well ok some people may have died but they are all FBI/CIA plants and everyone arrested so far is a CIA/FBI plant. That's the game, deny reality because it doesn't conform with your world view  Images can be faked, there was no riot it was fixed ahead of time. HOW do you create a national discussion when such a large precentage of the audience denies reality. Yesterday Mike Pence said that Biden was the biggest ever liar!  Far worse than Trump...go figure why Pence is still supporting Trump is beyond understanding. The denial of reality will have serious consequence wit...

 Why not I do have things to say