Path: news.eternal-september.org!eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Paul S Person Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written Subject: Re: (ReacTor) Five Futures Where the US Ended Not With a Bang But a Whimper Date: Mon, 23 Jun 2025 08:24:47 -0700 Organization: A noiseless patient Spider Lines: 48 Message-ID: References: <1017etg$2f0$1@reader1.panix.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Injection-Date: Mon, 23 Jun 2025 17:24:48 +0200 (CEST) Injection-Info: dont-email.me; posting-host="f5378f4035881865b18a530508cdb68d"; logging-data="1419613"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX18d3R9+rskh/o+FOQ/y0HUBT9zr1u+1Qw4=" User-Agent: ForteAgent/8.00.32.1272 Cancel-Lock: sha1:tzoZkpCDHFaWtXwRHTcKXN/1SWU= On Mon, 23 Jun 2025 01:39:22 -0700, The Horny Goat wrote: >On Wed, 28 May 2025 16:50:56 -0000 (UTC), jdnicoll@panix.com (James >Nicoll) wrote: > >>That's not even getting into how Quebec would react as French gets >>bumped down from second language to third, after Spanish.=20 > >Which practically speaking is why the proposition is so absurd. > >BC and AB combined have a considerably larger population than Quebec >yet considerably fewer seats in Parliament AND the constitutional >amending formula prevents any constitutional amendments that Quebec or >the Maritime provinces object to no matter how lopsided the population >gets. Can't remember whether it was the premier of NS or NB who said >something to the effect of "the present amending formula works quite >well for us - why would we consent to change it?' > >Thus BC and AB are under represented in BOTH houses of Parliament and >the amending formula prevents any changes - forever. Is it any wonder >why people in BC and AB feel like second class citizens in their own >country? > >Now all Canadian provinces (except PEI) have a larger population than >the smallest US state but only ON, QC, BC, AB have more than 4 million >people which by US state standards is small. > >Bottom line is if Donald Trump made his "51st state joke" once and >never repeated it Canadians would have forgotten it by now - but he >didn't and in so doing drove US-Canada relations to the lowest point >in 50+ years. > >The hell of it is that in 2024, Trump really WAS a better candidate >than Harris (much less Biden given his mental state in 2024) which >says more about Harris than Trump. > >It's not the first time a political leader has been less than >completely 'compos mentis' - and Winston Churchill (even though in his >prime was a much better Prime Minister than Biden ever was as >President) at the end of his last term of office was in much worse >shape than Biden. World Wars do take their toll, even on men at the top of the pyramid. --=20 "Here lies the Tuscan poet Aretino, Who evil spoke of everyone but God, Giving as his excuse, 'I never knew him.'"