Friday, May 20, 2022

Soldiers of Ukraine

I have been struck by the number of outstanding photos I am seeing of the brave soldiers fighting for Ukraine. I have been collecting these now for more than a month, and tonight I thought I would post some of the best:

Here are members of the Ukrainian Territorial Defense Forces hold Easter cakes near the trenches, outside Kyiv on April 23.


Tyler Hicks/The New York Times
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Thursday, May 19, 2022

Today's News: Ha ha

 
Sorry, I just can't help myself. 
It's truly a Nelson moment today. Jason Kenny has resigned as Alberta premier and as party leader. Charles Adler tried for years to tell Alberta the truth about Kenny and maybe now they have finally learned: And this may be right, also: And there may be some truth to this:
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Wednesday, May 18, 2022

Marking #IDAHOBT2022

Almost two decades ago, the International Day Against Homphobia, Transphobia and Biphobia was set May 17 -- it has become a celebration around the world of Two Spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer community. The only thing I am sorry about, is that our society still needs such a "day" to highlight 2SLGBTQ people and to call out the prejudice against them which we still deal with around the world. Here are some tweets from this year's Day:
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Tuesday, May 17, 2022

Today's News: Odds and ends

Just a batch of somewhat-random tweets tonight, sorted into some topic areas. 

  Ontario Election:
I didn't watch the debate but I saw a few funny tweets coming out of it: I am hopeful that Del Duca is going to keep on rising in the polls, hopefully this debate will help. 

Ukraine: What a photo:
The Battle of Mariupole is over:
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Monday, May 16, 2022

Today's News: We need to remember the ones we have lost

Canada just passed a terrible milestone.
More than 40,000 Canadians have now died of COVID. Globe and Mail health reporter Andre 
Picard writes: 
More than 90 per cent of pandemic deaths in Canada have been in people older than 60 .... 
There is no doubt that elders, especially those with chronic health conditions, or living in long-term care, are at far greater risk. In recent weeks, we’ve again seen a steady increase in outbreaks, and deaths, in long-term care facilities. 
But let’s please stop with the too-often-uttered ageist nonsense: “They were going to die anyhow.”
Deaths from cancer, heart disease, COPD, diabetes and other things that routinely kill elders have not dropped one iota. 
The tens of thousands of COVID-19 deaths are on top of that – additional years of life lost.
Governments have largely stopped collecting and publishing data. But the hospitalizations and deaths won’t stop just because we avert our gaze. 
 Avert? Yes, that's exactly what we are doing.

Today I saw some incredible statistics about how many extra Saskatchewan deaths we have had 
in the last two years:
Dr. Ogieglo notes that in addition to Covid deaths, people have been dying earlier of other 
conditions. Here are some additional figures:
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Sunday, May 15, 2022

Today's News: the tide is turning in Ukraine

Just a short posting tonight, but it appears that the tide in Ukraine is turning: Yesterday Markos described this battle here: Russia's river crossing debacle is beyond belief. I think Russia is starting to get worried. Then today we got this news: Today Markos writes:
 ...Battle of the Izyum Salient - Russian telegram claims five Ukrainian brigades are moving in on Izyum from the north, looking to directly cut off supply lines to the bulk of the Russian forces in the salient... a Ukrainian brigade is around 1,600 troops and 200 armored vehicles. If these reports are correct, we’re talking about 1,000 armored vehicles, and a metric buttload of artillery, raining on Russian positions....if Ukraine is crossing the Donets to attack Izyum’s supply lines, then this seems like a logical place to do so: 

...with Russia already at its limits, Ukraine is taking direct aim at the largest concentration of Russian forces in Ukraine. 
Guys, 20-25% of Russia’s entire Army is in that pocket. 
Something big is happening. 
I mean big, as in war-altering.. Ukraine is going straight for the jugular instead.

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Saturday, May 14, 2022

Saturday stuff: funny, with a side of dogs too

This is priceless shade, too:
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Today's News: We like short shorts


Here's the cover photo of 2010 book about the SlutWalk Movement -- just thought I should help out that Ottawa school trying to "measure" the shorts and skirts of its female students today.
Maybe if they used this photo as their guide, then their female students would know exactly what their school thinks of them.
And maybe the next time the students protest, just set up a bouncy castle to keep the police away too.
This is how it started: Then this happened: Ottawa Police later sent out a pious set of tweets about how a student from another school was sort of arrested for trespassing and its not our fault anyway. 
But Ottawa was not impressed - the people of Ottawa have NOT forgiven or forgotten how badly their police force let them down just four months ago:
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Friday, May 13, 2022

Today's News: But did the rocks actually hit you?

I can't help it. 
I am comparing the sympathetic media reaction today toward Singh, after a few jerks screamed curses at him as he was moving toward his vehicle after a campaign event, with the cynical media reaction last September toward Trudeau, when there was a whole crowd of screaming jerks and one of them actually threw a handful of rocks at Trudeau as he was moving toward his campaign bus. 
So today we're hearing about how upset Singh was because of the screaming. 
But Trudeau was required to justify whether he had "really" been hit by the rocks or not. 
The contrast is absolutely bizarre: Yes, and  remember that "friendly sausage-maker":
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Thursday, May 12, 2022

Today's News: Sad Trombone Sound

I guess expecting Canadian Conservative voters to listen to an actual DEBATE is just too much to ask of the Youngs today, not to mention really B-O-R-I-N-G, man! 
Paul Wells describes how uninformative this debate was:
What is it about the last two years that made the Conservative Party of Canada’s Leadership Election Organizing Committee decide Canadians are yearning for shorter conversations about sillier questions?
Who surveyed the issue landscape that will face Justin Trudeau on Thursday and would face his successor — war in Europe, inflation, labour shortages, stark conflict between climate targets and natural-resource export imperatives, long-cheated and still-difficult Indigenous reconciliation, exiting from COVID — and thought, “Keep the answers short. We want time to hear them out on what’s on their playlists”? 
As a mechanism for allowing Canadians to weight the judgment of six people, one of whom might, after all, be the next prime minister, the evening was a write-off. ...
Alberta Politics' David Climenhaga suggests a reason for why the format was so ridiculous: 
...they might as well have been asked to debate “Apples are nicer than oranges,” or “Spicy food is better.” 
The format of the debate – which was like nothing they’d ever seen before, all the professional commentators kept agreeing – was designed to be entertaining without being revealing. 
That is to say, the time for answers was so short that none of the candidates could get into trouble. 
If they did start to say something that might fire a torpedo below the waterline of HMS Tory – which is listing hard to starboard these days – the real moderator, Tom Clark, was there to step in and shut them up. 
By the time they got to any potentially dangerous topics, or anything resembling real debate, it was in the second hour, when anyone who needed to be paying attention had either fallen asleep like your blogger, or started nervously doom-scrolling through Twitter. 
 Before that we had quick snappers. Like, if you could have dinner with a dead person, who would it be? Seriously, people, I’m not making this up! ... 
Here are some of the tweets about this event. First, the actual Sad Trombone Sound:

Now the commentary: Apparently, yes...
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Wednesday, May 11, 2022

Today's News: Reality bites

First, this:
 
Such good news and a great game. Our son says that four out of five times, the team that wins Game 5 also wins the series! 

On to today's news: 
There seem to be more people all the time who think that if they don't like society they can just create their own - here's an interesting observation:
The difference between the "reality-based community" and the "make your own adventure" community was identified in an October 17, 2004 New York Times article by Ron Suskind titled "Faith, Certainty and the Presidency of George W. Bush". 
Suskind didn't identify his source but it was likely Bush strategist Karl Rove. describing how the Bush - Cheney administration thought they could invade Iraq and "win" just because the US was a Superpower On A Mission From God: 
  The aide said that guys like me were "in what we call the reality-based community," which he defined as people who "believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality." ... "That's not the way the world really works anymore," he continued. "We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors ... and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do. 
It was chilling to read this at the time, and realize that the Bush administration didn't see any limits in what it could do. 
But eventually, reality bites.
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Tuesday, May 10, 2022

Today's News: The stupid, it burns!


Evan Scrimshaw sent out a newsletter tonight talking about Skippy and the Conservative so-called "debate" last week and its worth quoting from: 
 ... It's a busted ideology and a party infected by more than just bad opinions but stupidity at its core. 
To save Canadian conservatism, you first have to be willing to have an honest conversation about its main ill. It’s not the pro-lifers or the social conservatives or the fact that the debate last week was impolite and loud. 
 Conservatism’s real ill in Canada is that it’s so fucking stupid. And until they fix that, they’re done for.
Here's the kind of quality governance that Canada is getting from Conservative MPs these days:
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Monday, May 09, 2022

Today's news: One of those days

Yes, it was Mother's Day. And lots of political tweets that relate: I am SO GLAD Margaret Atwood is speaking out: I also looked for recent editorial cartoons about the re-criminalizing abortion in the US -- the ones I found weren't particularly funny, because its no laughing matter.  But here's a few that I liked: 
(Washington Post)




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Sunday, May 08, 2022

Today's news: Just some weekend stuff

No particular theme today - so let's get going! 

Too late, Candice - that ship has sailed:
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Saturday, May 07, 2022

Today's News: Children of Ukraine

Mother's Day is coming up so here are some photos I have been collecting showing some of the children in Ukraine: Here is a beautiful photo of children playing with bubbles, in central Lviv on April 7:
Mauricio Lima for The New York Times 


This is Hassan, a brave 11-year-old boy who journeyed a thousand kilometres in March by himself to get to his family in Slovakia - his mother had to remain in southeast Ukraine to look after his grandmother who cannot travel, but she sent Hassan to safety.
Finally, this sweet little angel child. I don't know where this photo was taken but I first saw it in early March:

Here's an unusual follow-up: And of course, from the Oval Office:
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