Sunday, June 12, 2022

Today's News: Remembering what happened

Revisionism about the convoy insurrection:
Remember Canada 5 months ago? The Convoy Insurrection destroying Ottawa's downtown, border blockades messing up trade, protestors fanning out across the country to block nurses and doctors from going into hospitals, thousands of counter-protestors risking street fights, a spreading contagion of trucker blockades all over.  It was madness and it needed to stop. 
The Emergencies Act was what did it. 
So now here we are 5 months later. And we are seeing bad-faith attempts to gaslight Canadians, to establish a revisionist history that minimizes the emergency we were facing, that pretends everybody was acting all calm and reasonable and willing to compromise, that denies the seriousness and the danger Canada was in.  The last refuge of a scoundrel is when the media starts talking about optics -- because they cannot identify any actual malfeasance or misconduct, because Trudeau and Mendicino didn't actually do anything wrong. 
So before I get into today's tweets, I just wanted to post a few photos from last February -- remember these? 
I must admit that until I hunted these photos down, I myself had forgotten about some of the more bizarre happenings around the convoy insurrection - case in point, the protests at hospitals - how stupid was that?








Sunshiny has a great tweet thread today that reminds all of us what was going on over three weeks in January and February: 

Here are some of Sunshiny's tweets, remembering the awful details: And here's what happened today in Ottawa: 
And can you imagine Pierre Poillivere "taking charge" in a moment of national crisis? Tonight Evan Scrimshaw takes on the question of whether Poilievre's success is inevitable. His answer - no: 
...How is Skippy going to win the suburbs if he doesn’t give a clear declaration that he will extend the child care deals? How does he avoid losing votes to his right if he does that 
...the Trudeau Premiership has been a response to three crises – Brexit, Trump, and COVID. As the world has needed leadership the most – as the States and the UK have shrunk from the global stage, weakened and rife with internal divisions that occupy all their time, Canada has had to survive. Getting out of the Trump Presidency intact – with NATO and NAFTA mostly how Obama left them – was a success, and it took tact to pull off. The Liberals have done the big things right, and the idea that there will be some huge appetite to get rid of them just because they’ve hit an arbitrary length of time in office is absurd. 
...this consensus that Poilievre is some shoe-in completely avoids the question of Poilievre’s own agency in winning or losing the next election. His stances he’s taking matter, the things he says matters, the way he talks matters – because the next election is a choice, not a coronation. 
The notion that Skippy is on cruise control to Rideau Hall is so absurd as to be barely worth discussing, but within the context of the current political moment, it’s hard to see his opening.
 ...I just don’t see how Bitcoin and vax freedom is a winning message for suburban parents. 
Jan 6 investigation:
Moving to the United States, here are some more comments on the Jan 6 investigation:
No wonder Republicans in Congress wanted Trump to issue pardons before he left office:
Ukraine update:
The struggle is real, though Ukraine is carrying on:



From the Department of Fuck Around and Find Out:
Yesterday I linked to a Huffington Post article from May describing the far-right attempt to take over Idaho. And today this happened:
The Associated Press reports:
Based on evidence collected and documents, authorities found that the group was planning to riot in several areas of downtown, not just the park, White said. 
Police found riot gear, one smoke grenade, shin guards and shields inside the van, White said. They wore arm patches and logos on their hats that identified them as members of Patriot Front, he said.
Police learned about the U-Haul from a tipster, who reported that “it looked like a little army was loading up into the vehicle” in the parking lot of a hotel, White said. 
Officials spotted the truck soon after and pulled it over, he said. 
...Those arrested came from at least 11 states, including Washington, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Colorado, South Dakota, Illinois, Wyoming, Virginia, and Arkansas, White said. Only one was from Idaho, he said. 
The truck was stopped near where the North Idaho Pride Alliance was holding the Coeur d’Alene Pride in the Park event. ...  Patriot Front is described by the Southern Poverty Law Center as “a white nationalist hate group” that formed after the deadly “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017.
More funny stuff today: Two beautiful stories: Tweet of the day:
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)