The Moonwalk

Moronic decisions from your public officials come in various flavours Ones that cost you money (separate traffic signals for bicycles), ones that cause you grief, (closing an intersection with no plan for redirecting traffic) and things that can change your very way of living. One thing for sure, if you wish to stop the juggernaut that is the process city councils use to make life altering decisions ... you need to get to the party early! Here is how it usually goes:

• Some public servant gets a not so bright idea, or ...
• Some CEO starts writing campaign donation cheques for lawn signs, radio and TV ads in order to get the politicians' ear for his pet project. Then ...
• A committee is formed and they make a recommendation to city council
• Council issues a permit, or makes a by-law change and some corporation starts spending money on their latest evil plan

If you come to this sort of a party after the corporations start spending money, you have almost zero chance of getting a course correction. They will just send in the clowns, I mean lawyers. That is what has happened to the fine folks of Richardson, Texas. Amazon received permission to start delivering packages to this Guelph-sized town via airborne drone and they have a distribution centre right on the south edge of town. Now we all have heard that this technology was coming and to be honest, it sounded pretty cool. Some cute little machine comes humming in and plops your replacement toaster just in time to save your breakfast plans for your in-laws. The reality is decidedly not cool. These drones are not like that cute little thing that your nephew got for Christmas last year. The latest Amazon model (MK30) is the size of a riding lawnmower, except louder. Six engines spin at up to 10,000 RPM and it weighs in at 84 pounds. Maximum payload is 5 pounds (so forget that toaster). The FAA mandates they do not fly more than 400 feet in the air but the lower the better (to conserve battery life). 220 feet is the average in Richardson. They have 120 units in service and on the weekends, they never stop ... except for battery swaps. The people living near the distribution centre have them screaming in and out all day ... everyday. People on the major flight paths have a steady stream going back and forth over their homes. If you live next door or a few doors from a delivery location, you will know it. When it delivers a package to your neighbour, you have to turn your TV up to hear dialogue, all the dogs in the neighbourhood go crazy and the cat is cowering under the cedar chest.

Sidebar - I take a certain amount of pride in calling the AI data center issue long before it got into the public consciousness. I had a head start (as I know a little bit about data centre infrastructure). In this case, I know a little bit about what is liable to drive a homeowner crazy. Especially a curmudgeonly senior. Or someone walking their dog down a nature trail. Or some MILF sunbathing in her backyard. (Honest, I was on the roof of my shed with binoculars to remove leaves!)

The AI data centre issue proves that public outcry can move politicians to the other side of any fence. Our elected officials at all levels are doing "A Micheal Jackson" on this issue just as hard as they can. And it's too late if the AI project near your home has broken ground. They are nearly impossible to stop. Having said that, getting one approved these days, is becoming pretty tough.

On the drone front, Amazon is having a very successful rollout. There are past most of the issues with the technology (from their standpoint) and they are planning 500 new sites next year. Is your town on their list? You might want to call your councillor, your MPP, your MP? If you wait until the the first one buzzes down your street .... it will be too late! My MP is doing a town hall in Guelph on the 14th. I plan to be there.

European Union - Associate Member

No one is really sure what that means, as the concept is brand new. One thing for sure, Poilievre is against it. How is that possible if no details have been hashed out? The CPC won't let that stop them. They immediately consulted with their "book of lies" and marched out some of their favourite talking points:

• Carney is going to make us the 28th state of the EU
• Canadian tax dollars will now go straight to Brussels
• We will now have open borders managed by George Soros

It was all so very predictable. Poor Pee Pee. So, let's go back to January:

Carney had four great lines in his now famous speech at Davos on the 20th. It had that nice punchy section in the middle that worked well in the ten second sound bite world all of us now live in. While he never mentions the U.S. by name, he talked about "middle powers" needing to band together to protect themselves from the superpowers who seem to believe:

• Tariffs can function as leverage against treaty allies on unrelated issues
• Financial infrastructure serves as coercion where the U.S. dollar-based payment systems are throttled overnight as punishment
• Supply chains become vulnerabilities as their inherent efficiencies can be interrupted for geopolitical purposes
• Integration becomes a lie when it becomes the source of your subordination

It was bad enough when he said it last winter, but last week, Ursula von der Leyen (president of the EU) quoted the same four lines with all of Europe listening and Carney sitting twenty feet away. Then she listed the free trade deals that the EU had recently negotiated and invited Carney to access those deals by bringing Canada into the EU as the its' first "Associate Member". Carney jumps up, gives her a big sloppy kiss and returns to his seat after enduring a thunderous standing ovation from the assembly! I wonder how that played in the oval office? It didn't take long to find out.

The next morning, Pepto Abysmal called the proposal "laughable" and "a hostile act" in the same sentence. Make up your mind fatso? Either it's a joke or it's dangerous (for you). Which is it? He then threatening the EU with new tariffs .. which kind of proves the point? Unlike the U.S., Carney cannot simply sign an executive order and every sycophant in sight drops to their knees. Our Prime Minister and his team will have to hammer out every single detail, draft legislation, debate it in the house and then, have a vote. I suspect when it comes down to their actual recorded votes, members from all parties are going to want to be recorded as standing on the right side of history. Maybe the EU will want some of that cold rolled steel that those laid off Stelco workers used to make for the U.S.?

Our Optimum Week

Still quiet around our place but the inevitable fall pickling season is upon us. I did so much last year, I think I can skip some of regulars, so this year, perhaps just beets? I'm sold out of those. And hot peppers from my new garden. I've tried two of those Spice Tailor kits for Indian food, and they are time savers, I can cook better from scratch and still swear by the Pataks stuff to form a base. Pretty good flyer and offers. Check out the turkey deal at No Frills? I gave you a normal list but there are items that you can stock up on now if you are entertaining a herd on Thanksgiving. You know the sales are going to shrivel and die on the week when they know they got you! I saved a recipe for "the best turkey gravy" but it will have to wait. My word counter and a buddy (SM) are telling me to heel!. About an eight minute read seems to be the pain point for most of you, so , I will try and stay below that number. Here is your list:

We Are Watching

Reacher (Season Four) on Prime - The writers of these screenplays have long taken the view that their protagonists can simply murder criminals, leave the bodies in a puddle and walk away with no ramifications. It's sort of like when Tie Fighter in Star Wars make that great roar as they go by, even though there is no air (and therefore no sound) in space. We take it as a sort of poetic licence. My only problem with the Reacher franchise is that they have extended these rights to police officers and federal agents. He can break arms or legs, stab them, concuss them, murder them and no one really seems to care? They harass him all the time for no reason, but when he snuffs one of them ... ho hum. For a guy who wants to stay "beneath the radar", there is certainly a trail of bodies to follow? It's all good harmless fun and this season is a notch above last year.

The Buds on Sportsnet - OK, I am going to rant for a moment. MLB made some very smart rules changes to ensure that games complete in a timely manner. Once they got all of that in place, they immediately found new and horrifying ways to make the coverage window last longer by filling it up with brutally banal programming. The Buck Martinez induction in the friggin Hall of Excellence was the worst example from last year. No one cares! They talked about it like it was the first moon landing for a month! Then the game start was delayed for an hour?They don't want the broadcasts to be shorter? That would limit how many minutes of commercials they can book? They just want baseball compressed so they can trim the coverage into a neat window. The other source of aggravation are the Rogers commercials. Micheal Cera is personable and having the Blue Jays players doing a bit of comedy was genius. But there are about three commercials. If you are a fan, you were sick of them in May. We watched most games. That's 25 Rogers commercials per game, 162 games. You don't have to do the math, I did it for you. We have watched the same (feels like) three commercials over four thousand times! A fellow retired banker (RP) and I plot which medieval torture would be appropriate for those responsible.

... and finally

I do not think the commercial density is as high for hockey as it is for baseball. We would probably watch the final couple of rounds of baseball playoffs, but if Rogers remains the principal sponsor, the price may be just too high?

Three minutes into the new hockey season, on the very first commercial break, Micheal Cera appears on our screen with Gavin McKenna (a hockey player) ... doing a Rogers commercial! "Oh no" says SWMBO. "Hell no", says Mitchie.

Mitch & Maddie