Today's News: Finally!

Well, finally. 

Somebody in the White House seems to have taken charge of the abortion issue -- maybe Harris, maybe Becerra, maybe Biden himself -- and this is actually getting DONE!

Biden to Dobbs critics: “Keep protesting. Keep making your point. It’s critically important. We can do a lot of things to accommodate the rights of women. In the meantime, fundamentally, the only way to change this is to have a national law that reinstates Roe v Wade.” (WH pool)

— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) July 10, 2022

Under the law, no matter where you live, women have the right to emergency care — including abortion care. In no uncertain terms, HHS will enforce this. pic.twitter.com/anf9KdySYP

— Secretary Xavier Becerra (@SecBecerra) July 11, 2022

BREAKING: President Biden just announced that Medicare facilities will be required to perform abortions that save the mother’s life *regardless of state law*

This decision will save lives. So grateful for @POTUS's leadership.

— Ariel Kelley (@ArielKelley) July 11, 2022

Biden administration says hospitals must provide abortions in emergencies: The Biden administration on Monday said federal law allows women access to abortion in emergency situations, even in states that recently banned the procedure. via NBCNews https://t.co/IlBEPM6P2Q

— Jeffrey Levin 🇺🇦 (@jilevin) July 12, 2022

And so what if somebody sues - OF COURSE somebody will sue, and it will go all the way to SCOTUS because that's the chaos that the Court should have realized it would instigate when it made its awful decision. 

Then the less-rabid justices could narrow the Dobbs decision, if Roberts can persuade Kavanaugh or Gorsuch to go along with him. 

Other impacts:

My story today: How the GOP crackdown on abortion could upend red/blue state competition for jobs & businesses

Harder now for CEOs to treat red-state social policy as a sideshow

“I’ve spoken to C.E.O.s who are rethinking those states,” says @SecRaimondohttps://t.co/SaNi8Epe04

— Alex Burns (@alexburnsNYT) July 11, 2022

The Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe is beginning to effect college enrollement in red states, as more and more female students are rethinking their applications in states that block their right to abortion.

Good!

— Jon Cooper (@joncoopertweets) July 11, 2022

BREAKING: A California doctor proposes a "floating abortion clinic" in the Gulf of Mexico aboard a ship in federal waters, outside the reach of Republican-controlled state laws. RT IF YOU SUPPORT THIS IDEA!

— Occupy Democrats (@OccupyDemocrats) July 11, 2022

Texas is threatening employers with $100K fines if they assist employees in seeking out-of-state reproductive health care. I'm sure that they and the other red states will do everything possible to ensure forced births or penalize Women seeking this care.

— Hondo Resists ☮️ 💔🌻 I stand with Ukraine! 🌻 (@HondoResists) July 11, 2022

In Nova Scotia with appropriately sloganed coffee mug... pic.twitter.com/PnKmeyCY2F

— Margaret E. Atwood (@MargaretAtwood) July 11, 2022

Today's News: Ukraine update

Here is some recent news from Ukraine:

While the famine is growing around the world, harvests in occupied by Russia Kherson region are burning all the time. Reported by the media and the local residents pic.twitter.com/95UnIDaZOt

— Iuliia Mendel (@IuliiaMendel) July 9, 2022

Farmers across Ukraine are increasingly feeling the financial strain of Russia’s Black Sea blockade, and the sector’s economic collapse is affecting food security across the world.

Ukraine accounted for 10 percent of global wheat exports in 2021. https://t.co/5Uu98KGoWl

— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) July 8, 2022

Here is a significant update from Phillips O'Brien about Ukraine troop strength and the intention to take back the south.

The most important point is that the Ukrainian defence minister @oleksiireznikov isn making it very clear that the Ukrainians actually have many 100,000s of soldiers that they can deploy into the fight than the Russians. Says a million here... pic.twitter.com/nQ61jvhnDK

— Phillips P. OBrien (@PhillipsPOBrien) July 11, 2022

Now, we have the Ukr changing tone, preparing the population for the army to go on the offensive in the south (Zelensky yesterday), and saying that the army is very large and getting better equipped and trained. https://t.co/oRf28qiepN

— Phillips P. OBrien (@PhillipsPOBrien) July 11, 2022

Worth noting that Ukrainian armed forces are prominently tweeting this story. https://t.co/CmGF3GEWGh

— Phillips P. OBrien (@PhillipsPOBrien) July 11, 2022

Also, this:

Ukrainians being very open telling civilians to get out of the Kherson area. https://t.co/HYpdDXXqvz

— Phillips P. OBrien (@PhillipsPOBrien) July 9, 2022

I am amazed at this courage:

#Lithuania has expanded restrictions on the transit of goods through its territory to #Kaliningrad, Reuters reports.

As of today, cement, timber, alcohol and alcohol-based industrial chemicals are banned, a #Lithuanian customs official said. pic.twitter.com/DcS5dP5ve2

— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) July 11, 2022

Weekend updates

An historic day of remembrance for Canada's WWI soldiers in the No. 2 Construction Battalion

Members of the battalion served with distinction in the First World War but faced anti-Black racism. https://t.co/qVmFcJYmdI

— CBC News (@CBCNews) July 10, 2022

This battalion of 500+ men worked mainly in the forests and lumber mills of France to provide the wood slats etc needed for trenches, construction, and so forth, and they also trained in infantry.

Today, the Government of Canada is apologizing for the treatment of No. 2 Construction Battalion: a segregated Canadian military unit, formed amid racist policies in the First World War. 🧵 #BLM pic.twitter.com/AVCg1pTXgC

— Library and Archives Canada (@LibraryArchives) July 9, 2022

We’re pleased to offer a webinar about No. 2 Construction Battalion and those who served in it. Learn to explore military service files, war diaries and other historical records. https://t.co/dzzLq7WPQe pic.twitter.com/7JuD9Sc3oi

— Library and Archives Canada (@LibraryArchives) July 8, 2022

Rejected by recruiters, they fought to fight for a Canada that treated them less than equal.

They served and returned to face the same discrimination.

Remember No. 2 Construction Battalion. pic.twitter.com/JKQqyk9R0p

— Canadian Forces in 🇺🇸 (@CAFinUS) July 9, 2022

"We cannot ever let what happened to No. 2 Construction Battalion happen again," Trudeau said. "And we cannot let the service of any member of our forces ever be overlooked and forgotten." #Cdnpoli pic.twitter.com/5TYSVO2qJ8

— Jaro Giesbrecht 🇨🇦🇸🇰 (@JaroGiesbrecht) July 9, 2022

This is the Legacy Shadow Quilt, a quilt created to perpetuate the memory of those who served with the No. 2 Construction Battalion. It will be displayed as part of the events surrounding the Canadian government’s official apology to those who served with the Battalion pic.twitter.com/YI0j2uP6BG

— Canadian War Museum (@CanWarMuseum) July 9, 2022

Thankful to join with community, descendants and LG Mirasty at the Regina Armoury hosted by the Saskatchewan African Canadian Heritage Museum and the Regina Rifles to observe the long overdue apology of the Government of Canada to No. 2 Construction Battalion. pic.twitter.com/79n11YWg6t

— Trent Wotherspoon (@WotherspoonT) July 9, 2022

Today's news: Nelson moments

 

Today seemed to be a day of "Nelson" moments. 

There was that day-long Rogers outage:

Having Rogers internet down all day meant spending the day talking with family. They seem like nice people. 🤣

— KNugent4118🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦 (@knugent4118) July 8, 2022

I can't grasp the scale of how bad this is at Rogers. This is an unprecedented disaster. Been down now for over 12 hours and they still don't know why.

And they have really smart engineers working there. I know, I've worked with them.

— Catelli 2.0 🚣🚴🏕 (@Catelli2Oh) July 8, 2022

You start a simple kitchen reno. And then next thing you know you're jacking up the house and rebuilding the foundation from the footings up.

There is no "just put the wall back up and hide the mess we found"

— Catelli 2.0 🚣🚴🏕 (@Catelli2Oh) July 8, 2022

They appear to have turned their router off and back on again.

— David Cochrane (@DavidWCochrane) July 9, 2022

And that story about SCOTUS justice Brett Kavanaugh being chased out of Morton's by protestors:

The Morton's restaurant chain opened in 1978 and is therefore not "deeply rooted in the nation's history and traditions."

— Lawrence Glickman (@LarryGlickman) July 8, 2022

Yup, you have to articulate the right at the most specific level you can so that you can find that the right doesn’t exist. There is no fundamental “right to eat at Morton’s in DC on a Thursday night without leaving through the back due to protestors”

— Defend the Truth and Defeat the Lies (@fitzador) July 8, 2022

On the other hand, they could argue that the right of powerful white men to ruin other people’s lives and expect to not face even the mildest of consequences is very much “deeply rooted in the nation’s history in tradition”

— Jacob Harris (@harrisj) July 8, 2022

What did Brett Kavanaugh and his right wing Supreme Court pals think their lives would be like after they criminally assaulted 200,000,000 American women? Did they think people would just smile at them in restaurants? Also goodbye Mortons for aggressively taking Kavanaugh’s side.

— Palmer Report (@PalmerReport) July 8, 2022

It doesn't matter if protesters interrupt his meal because Brett Kavanaugh believes dinner begins at reservation

— Frank Lesser (@sadmonsters) July 8, 2022

All six of the SCOTUS majority are too arrogant and stupid to understand that they will never eat an unspat-in restaurant meal for the rest of their lives.

— Randy Cauthen (@Joe_Bourgeois) July 8, 2022

And Tamara Lich is back in jail:

I'm reading angry tweets that Lich is a martyr -- but honestly, what did she think would happen after she breached her bail conditions? Her lawyers did her no favours.

I find it hilarious that Tamara Lich's lawyers awarded her some bs "freedom award" that ended up causing her to lose her freedoms. Good job JCCF! #cdnpoli #FreeDumbConvoy

— Rob Gill (@vote4robgill) July 8, 2022

We have now entered the glorious “Find Out” phase.

I bet she’s pissed her little attempted martyrdom didn’t get the goobers worked up enough to overthrow the Commie Nazi tyrant Trudeau. 😂🤣😂https://t.co/irmv1TDheI

— Jay Gamble (@DrJayDrNo) July 8, 2022

And Elon Musk wants to pull out of the Twitter deal.

You know, I always believed  that the only reason Musk wanted Twitter was because he had promised to reinstate Trump, but then it got too complicated and Musk never actually wanted to work that hard.

Elon Musk has announced he is not going to buy Twitter as he needs more time to stay at home with his families.

— Gene Spafford (@TheRealSpaf) July 8, 2022

BREAKING: Elon Musk has terminated his deal to buy Twitter, which is shocking because I didn’t think he knew how to pull out of anything.

— Jo 🌻 (@JoJoFromJerz) July 8, 2022

Today's News: Looking for their soul

First up, some comment about what has happened to the soul of the Conservative party in Canada:

The leadership of the CPC is still theoretically up for grabs, but the battle for its soul is over -- and the anti-vaxxers have won. #cdnpoli https://t.co/Txl0pNSu46

— Max Fawcett 🇨🇦 (@maxfawcett) July 7, 2022

Ottawa journalist Rachel Gilmore had a major article on Global News today - How close is too close to the far-right? Why some experts are worried about Canada’s MPs. 

She is writing about Conservative support for the Convoy, particularly from Poilievre, and how this can legitimize the far-right in Canada. As we see the United States careening toward a fascist white supremacy ditch, it gives me hope to see Canadian media stepping up and taking seriously the risk of white supremacy in Canadian politics.

Gilmore says: 

It’s unclear why Poilievre “felt that he needed to” meet with Topp, said Stephanie Carvin, a former CSIS analyst who now teaches at Carleton University.

“But it definitely was a choice with consequences,” she said — including, potentially, emboldening and legitimizing the more extreme views among the convoy’s supporters. 

...experts are starting to worry about the influence politicians could have in legitimizing extreme ideas.

 “They seem to be playing this culture war knowingly,” said Evan Balgord, executive director of the Canadian Anti-Hate Network, in an interview with Global News. 

For Balgord, what Poilievre chose to do on June 30 “wasn’t a surprise.” 

“He was positioning himself to earn the support of the far-right in his leadership race.” 

Gilmore has been doing an extraordinary job in covering Canada's far right - for example, this tweet:

I was looking over videos I took during the Canada Day convoy protest and came across this one.

The man I spoke to very politely told me that he’s not sure Trudeau was democratically elected.

There is zero evidence to back up this claim. pic.twitter.com/N8x4lKvugg

— Rachel Gilmore (@atRachelGilmore) July 6, 2022

Finally we see a journalist used the definite description --"zero evidence" -- instead of mealy-mouthed bafflegab. 

She is hitting a nerve, too -- here's Poilievre's hysterical reaction to her article:

Poilievre's team sent this to me on Tuesday in response to my request for comment.

It read like a press release then.

I guess it *was* a press release.

Here are the questions I asked, which - instead of answering - he replied to by calling me "unprofessional."

1/5 https://t.co/ZjVsgKH5Y9

— Rachel Gilmore (@atRachelGilmore) July 7, 2022

Scrimshaw notes how incredibly stupid and thin-skinned it was for Poilievre to issue this press release:

But why this press release matters is that the Poilievre team just tipped their hands about a very important point – they can get blown off message incredibly easily. 

A TV interview with Evan Solomon got Poilievre to confirm he’d fire the Governor of the Bank Of Canada, and now an article about Convoy ties to the far right has Poilievre invoking Trudeau’s Blackface (I’ll leave it to your imagination how those two things happened). 

It’s genuinely thin-skinned bullshit, but even more than it being thin-skinned, it’s just not a good trait in a political leader to have the political equivalent of Tourette’s Syndrome, to quote the post-Sorkin West Wing. 

Swinging at every pitch in politics is a disaster, because sometimes the right move is to avoid the trap, and this pattern of behaviour from Poilievre and his team is evidence that he doesn’t have that tool in his arsenal. 

He is as addicted to the news cycle and the Twitter likes and the Facebook views that he has to pump out this shit daily, but the problem is, sometimes you don’t have to make news. Sometimes, it’s better to sit one out, and just leave an unfriendly article alone. 

How many more people do you think saw the Global article at the core of this fight after his press release? Giving oxygen to this story is an insane idea if you’re Poilievre.

Nevertheless, she persisted. Here is a follow-up story tonight:

Um, this is...massive?

James Topp's arrival in Ottawa -- which Pierre Poilievre joined him for -- appears to have been, at least in part, organized by someone affiliated with Diagolon.

Yikes.

Yikes. Yikes. Yikes. https://t.co/3X5phqRNX0

— Rachel Gilmore (@atRachelGilmore) July 7, 2022

Undoubtedly, there is additional stuff to come on this story.

Walking on the funny side

First, the latest from Jolly Old England:

Imagine the Titanic refusing to admit that the iceberg won.

— Kathleen Donohoe (@KathleenDonohoe) July 6, 2022

The commentary is heavily implying that Larry the Cat is about to resign. pic.twitter.com/MwURn7setH

— Scott Bryan (@scottygb) July 6, 2022

https://t.co/zZA13BMDEM

— Grace Delanoy (@begraced) July 6, 2022

The best, the most, the greatest:

My wife just said "if you hate everyone, you should eat something, and if you think everyone hates you, you should go to sleep" and I don't think I've heard a better life hack

— Norman the PhDM (@metadoxy) July 3, 2022

The Supreme Court's overruling of 50 years of rights was the most arrogant misreading of history and law that you could ever find. https://t.co/kkVXP9Ujj0

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) June 30, 2022

This is the greatest headline of our times (via @guardian) pic.twitter.com/ZMqgpRIe7I

— dan nguyen (@dancow) July 3, 2022

Today's news: Comments on the passing scene

Its been a crazy day, eh? 

Patrick Brown is out:

So arrogant he doesn't even show up to debate other #CPC hopefuls, this after likely eliminating Patrick Brown. @PierrePoilievre so confident he's got the #CPC Leadership, he is skipping the Calgary leadership debate, will attend party with Brett Wilson.https://t.co/SbrOV0jZMc

— Jaro Giesbrecht 🇨🇦🇸🇰 (@JaroGiesbrecht) July 6, 2022

Patrick Brown is out of the running for the CPC leadership. The CPC wants PP. That's fine. The Liberals and NDP want to run against PP too. https://t.co/44Pbl3isLp

— Unbranded (@Unbranded63) July 6, 2022

Scrimshaw writes: 

...this is probably good for the Tory Party in terms of general election posture in 3 years, because with Brown out of the race, it basically stops Poilievre from having to continue his tack right. 

It’s now not the case that he has anything resembling a threat to the leadership, and if he’s smart, he can tone back the negativity and the anger and start a more fulsome pivot to the centre, which will enable him to avoid any more quotes or moves in the leadership that end up fucking him in the General. 

Wise advice, which is why I wouldn't expect Poilievre to follow it -- he'll say something stupid again soon.

Ha. Didn't know Coyne was now a comedian. https://t.co/ao8DGuROfU

— Saskboy from Saskatchewan (@saskboy) July 6, 2022

And here's the morning "media take":

"not since Erin O'Toole have we seen such a visionary leader." https://t.co/McwFG5gkxQ

— Jonathon Van Maren (@JVanMaren) July 6, 2022

Today's News: Declare victory and leave

If former Sask premier Brad Wall had ever bothered to learn French, he could have been a Conservative prime minister. He had the persona of a golden boy and the Toronto suburbs might have voted for him. 

But as it turned out, just as well he stayed in Swift Current. 

The news came out today that he had been advising the Convoy back in February. He basically told them they weren't going to get the Liberals to resign, so they should just declare victory and leave, with their bank accounts and reputations (relatively) intact. 

It was good advice from an experienced politician who knew when a battle wasn't going to be won. So of course the Convoy didn't follow it. 

Ultimately their leaders went to jail, their so-called "movement" was discredited with the thousands of credulous people who had supported it, they lost all their money, and they were chased out of the border crossings and away from Ottawa after Trudeau commandeered the tow trucks.

Phone dump shows Wall suggested convoy "declare a victory of sorts" over mandate rollbacks and give money to charities. He also proposed a headline for a press release. https://t.co/DWvsOitOCc pic.twitter.com/x1MMNZrn1L

— Glen McGregor (@glen_mcgregor) July 4, 2022

Sounds like coordination to me https://t.co/NP9wuNvcnR

— Devin's Red Hat (@DevinShat) July 5, 2022

This is the fellow Brad Wall gave advice to on how to successfully cause mayhem on the streets of Ottawa during the convoy. Real stand-up guy. https://t.co/31UK7T7d58

— Eric Bell (@eric_bellMB) July 4, 2022

Saskatchewan is furious:

Today's News: Weekend updates

Conservative leadership update:

Maybe Poilievre has hired a new PR firm not staffed by 12-year-olds. 

He released a video today that conservatives actually liked.  As for me, it worried me -- it doubles down on the Conservative "freedom" meme which actually means "be as prejudiced as you want, we won't stop you". 

Some see through it:

Take Back your Freedom. "Reclaim what has always been yours." It's Cdn #MAGA - Pining for the Canada of the "good old days" when the wood in the video was used to build barns. Brace yourself for more messaging that rubs the tummies of "old stock Canadians" - making others cringe. https://t.co/ASNbMmwSVt

— Charles Adler (@charlesadler) July 4, 2022

Some do not:

This message of "freedom" is a powerful one, even though what it actually means is letting Canadians be racist and sexist, underpay workers, operate unsafe factories, fire teachers, & dismantle any other "state interference" that actually gives us all real freedom.

— Cathie from Canada 🇨🇦 😷🏳️‍🌈 (@CathieCanada) July 3, 2022

Basically, its all just more Poilievre BS:

Pierre Poilievre is a dendrophiliac.

— Dean from Winnipeg (@Dean_Winnipeg) July 4, 2022

And his little stroll with the the so called “convoy” boys yesterday fell pretty flat & he cancelled some speech he was due to give.

— Janice D🇨🇦🐾 (@janbear105) July 3, 2022

Can we make sure that meme includes the white nationalist he was having a chat with while on a stroll? I don’t want anyone to forget about that. https://t.co/c9f1Mx7qpR

— Lisa Kirbie (@lisakirbie) July 4, 2022

Meanwhile, Trudeau-bashing continues apace, especially from Jean Charest's campaign manager who has a book to shill and gets a National Post column to do it:

“Woke”. I find it remarkable that the power brokers and wordsmen have successfully convinced millions of stupid people that being aware, knowledgeable, educated and fair is shameful and evil and that ignorance is godly. Genesis. Same old story.

— Rogue Chimp (@roguechimp99) July 3, 2022

Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it

A few days ago, Margaret Atwood put out a tweet (now it has 140,000 "likes") about how America turned itself into The Handmaid's Tail world because people couldn't get over high gas prices.

 And in response I posted one of the "But Her Emails" memes, this one based on McCarthy's post-apocalyptic nightmare The Road, because it struck me how similar these two concepts were, that people will vote against the important things if they get distracted by trivial issues.

pic.twitter.com/F6M0hdnO3c

— Cathie from Canada 🇨🇦 😷🏳️‍🌈 (@CathieCanada) June 30, 2022

And now my little tweet has about 800 "likes" which amazes me, and it also got a few comments of its own. 

But here's what surprised me: a number of the comments obviously did not understand the "but her emails" meme at all.

I had assumed everybody would remember the "but her emails" line came from 2016, when Republicans egged on the American media to make a big stupid hairy deal about Hillary Clinton using a personal email server for some of her Secretary of State emails. Because of this nonsensical "scandal", a few thousand voters decided her judgement was too risky so they just had to vote for Trump instead -- such a corrupt and incompetent man that America suddenly risked nuclear or climate destruction. Thus the "But Her Emails" meme was born.

But I realize now that some people have already forgotten all about this, so the "But her emails" line doesn't mean anything to them. 

Americans have a tendency to deify their presidents anyway, but when I hear people talking about how "Americans elected Trump" I want to remind them that only a few thousand votes swung the Electoral College and Hillary actually won overall by 3 million votes. (Of course, this works in reverse, too -- Biden also won overall by millions, but he needed a few thousand votes in key swing states that gave him the Electoral College win.) 

This is why I think Democrats are absolutely right to worry about America forgetting about the terrible January 6 Insurrection and how Trump was responsible for it -- this convenient amnesia happening already, or at least it was happening until the J6 Committee started holding their hearings in prime time and telling the Jan 6 story in such a clear and compelling way.

Because those who forget history are doomed to repeat it - and people need to remember what a terrible president Trump is, how the people around him are terrible also, but how easy it is to let trivialities affect the vote.

I am hoping that support for Trump is starting to crack:

So the defense of Trump is two-pronged: he’s fat and he’s dumb. Remarkable. pic.twitter.com/kWbUtD0Ojl

— Jort-Michel Connard 🐘 (@torriangray) June 30, 2022

But he knows it:

Are you maybe starting to understand why it's important to indict this fucking guy NOW?

If he declares his intention to run for another term, the DOJ will not prosecute him because it'll appear "politically motivated" and he will not only get away with it, he'll get reelected. https://t.co/Ssjts6052X

— Stonekettle (@Stonekettle) July 2, 2022

Canada Day Part Deux

Here, I think, is the last and best word on the Convoy, from Scrimshaw tonight: 

"The Convoy’s a disgrace. It’s also a walking advertisement for hatred, bigotry, and indifference towards your fellow man, all things that Conservatives usually strive to avoid looking like."
Me on Convoy 2.0 and the future of CPChttps://t.co/mu3NeQtOJ3

— Evan Scrimshaw (@EScrimshaw) July 2, 2022

Scrimshaw writes:

...Convoy 2.0 was neither small enough to be safely ignored nor big enough to constitute a true populist movement, and this is where the Conservative Party, and the broader conservative movement, is stuck.

... the broader conservative movement is hanging together by a thread right now, and the Convoy is but the latest example of it. 

This is not a populist uprising designed to take power back from a tyrannical leader, it’s a fascist attempt to depose a Prime Minister they don’t like that has been normalized – by the press, by Bergen, by Poilievre, and by the press once again – as a movement for “freedom” and over vague shit. It’s a disgrace that it’s being reported this way, but let’s be clear about what this movement really is. It’s antithetical to actual, small c conservatism, because it is about a violation of our most sacred freedom – the freedom to be represented by the government of our choice.

And, of course, The Beaverton:

Pierre Poilievre marches in solidarity with brave part-time soldiers afraid of needles #cdnpoli

— The Beaverton (@TheBeaverton) July 1, 2022

Meanwhile, this is what its all about:

PM @JustinTrudeau: This is your home and today is your day. Happy #CanadaDay, everyone!🇨🇦💖

To those who came here last week, or last month, or last year; to those whose ancestors arrived centuries ago, or millennia ago; to all of the people in Canada: pic.twitter.com/Tyb1WqXHfc

— Jaro Giesbrecht 🇨🇦🇸🇰 (@JaroGiesbrecht) July 2, 2022

Speaking of Canada Day:

Animals in Canada are truly Canadian.
Beaver: Good day eh! Can I trouble you for some Timbits? pic.twitter.com/7UA2CzxFGT

— Stephanie 🇨🇦 (@zombiemom0101) July 1, 2022

pic.twitter.com/n54DbLBfcW

— WhiteJakefromStateFarm (@WJakeStateFarm) July 2, 2022

Like Canada stuff? Follow me for more https://t.co/mIi7OCmtdF

— Ghostface Kryllah (@kryzazzy) July 1, 2022

Canada Day, eh?

CANADA DAY pic.twitter.com/dqGN87Fc1P

— Brittlestar (@brittlestar) June 30, 2022

Love this classic "I Am Canadian" rant! 🇨🇦👍🍁 #IAMCanadian https://t.co/GoXPPde6wZ

— Canuckle (@CanuckleGame) July 1, 2022

Happy Canada Day from Ottawa!
Final rehearsal with my team last night! #CanadaDay #CanadaDay2022 pic.twitter.com/B4vvjLst9k

— Gurdeep Pandher of the Yukon (@GurdeepPandher) July 1, 2022

Happy Canada Day from the west of Ireland. Northwest Passage by the late great Stan Rogers 🇨🇦 pic.twitter.com/0ndCOgcYyM

— Patrick Dexter (@patrickdextervc) July 1, 2022

Happy Canada Day 🇨🇦 to the country of freedom, diversity, kindness, and empathy, the country of welcoming those fleeing persecution and wars, and the country that gave us the second chance when all other countries shut down their borders when we needed a place to call home. ❤️🇨🇦

— Tareq Hadhad (@TareqHadhad) July 1, 2022

Some people choose to walk with seditionists for Canada Day, I chose instead to walk with Tom Hennessy, 100 year old RAF pilot wearing his 80 year old wool uniform, who walked 100 miles to raise money for homeless veterans. If you can please support https://t.co/mkw9Ex6HZC pic.twitter.com/ttCgxJ35OS

— Donna Clark (@PollyEsterTBD) July 1, 2022

Way more people at LeBreton Flats listening & cheering for PMJT during his live Canada Day speech than on Wellington screaming to free Pat King.

1000's more..

— kris meloche (@krismeloche) July 1, 2022

In his Canada Day speech, @JustinTrudeau is taking back the Maple Leaf and the flag from the handful of convoy types elsewhere in the capital today trying to "protest" Canada Day.

— David Akin 🇨🇦 (@davidakin) July 1, 2022

https://t.co/AxdN3aL1iB

— Cathie from Canada 🇨🇦 😷🏳️‍🌈 (@CathieCanada) July 1, 2022

https://t.co/HXlpJqjZqS

— Cathie from Canada 🇨🇦 😷🏳️‍🌈 (@CathieCanada) July 1, 2022

It's nice to hear from the normal majority here on #CanadaDay.

Too much airtime given to the vocal minority most other days. pic.twitter.com/G1wPtTAmQE

— Jason Pugh 🏳️‍🌈 (@TheJasonPugh) July 1, 2022

Finally ... yeah, come to think of it....

I don’t even know myself anymore https://t.co/LDamlzcZuE

— Tamara Hinz (@hinz_tamara) July 1, 2022

Today's News: Catching up

Sorry for missing posting yesterday - my computer was in the shop for a tune-up. 

So let's catch up with the news:

pic.twitter.com/tzvU7MH6rM

— Margaret E. Atwood (@MargaretAtwood) June 30, 2022

Ottawa update:

Pierre Poilievre re-enacts the opening scene from 1977’s Saturday Night Fever, but this time with the Village People. pic.twitter.com/vgnOBuYuOn

— Barney Panofsky's Best Intentions (@mynamesnotgordy) June 30, 2022

As I watch these videos, every now and then someone yells "freedom" and it just echoes into the abyss:

🚨@PierrePoilievre Panders along with fringe and far right veteran James Topp and former Trump advisor Paul Alexander who are headed towards the war memorial in Ottawa. #FreedomConvoy https://t.co/XZRVrtVD6t pic.twitter.com/YS37mYXAZi

— Jaro Giesbrecht 🇨🇦🇸🇰 (@JaroGiesbrecht) June 30, 2022

Pierre Poilievre has the same judgment as a moth that just can’t stay away from a light bulb.

And we know how it ends for the moth.

— Dean from Winnipeg (@Dean_Winnipeg) July 1, 2022

Ottawa Police have tow trucks set up downtown, presumably to quickly remove any cars that don’t follow the no parking/stopping rules that are now in place for many streets in downtown Ottawa #cdnpoli #ottnews pic.twitter.com/rmlA2XewMo

— Mackenzie Gray (@Gray_Mackenzie) June 29, 2022

Rest of Canada, THIS is what Ottawans are dealing with. On our National War Memorial. https://t.co/lFZLepoFRH

— S.P. O’Sullivan (@sposullivan5) June 30, 2022

Yup. Sure looks like someone was caught assaulting and choking a police officer. Freeze frame at 2 secs of the vid.

This is very much an indictable offence. #OttawaPolice #Ottawa pic.twitter.com/VoieXo6P5L

— Ray Lai | 黎志滔 (@raylai_markham) July 1, 2022

Just a bunch of ‘good old boys’, peaceful protestors, law abiding citizens, though.

Poilievre’s people. https://t.co/CqyMTYh0bs

— Scribulatora (@Scribulatora) July 1, 2022

The big test comes tomorrow. There's a rally planned for the front gates of Parliament calling for the arrest and prosecution of Justin Trudeau for treason. Let's hope Topp's followers listen to his advice and stay positive.

— Justin Ling (@Justin_Ling) June 30, 2022

Today's News: From Ketchup to Reverse-OPEC

We probably should've known that presidency would end with ketchup dripping down a wall, but then, Heinz sight is 2020.

— Justin Chang (@JustinCChang) June 28, 2022

The Cassidy Hutchinson testimony at the J6 Committee hearing today showed that Trump's White House was terrified they would all find themselves breaking the law, particularly if Trump had actually joined the mob breaking into the Capitol as he intended to do. 

Former U.S. solicitor general Neal Katyal told the Washington Post “The picture painted today is one of Trump assisting with an insurrection” 

Josh Marshall writes about the impact the J6 Committee hearings are having: 

 ...the hearings become not just an account of what was found but a tool for advancing the investigation. They are already very focused on getting Pat Cipollone to testify. 

We have all gotten used to how much the GOP and official Washington can absorb and normalize about Trump’s conduct and criminal behavior. But in this testimony today I think the committee may have gotten there. 

’m not sure Meadows, Cipollone and others are going to be able to continue refusing to testify. The committee has also increased pressure on the DOJ, though we don’t know just what DOJ already had in the works... 

If the Secret Service had allowed Trump to be driven to the Capitol at the head of his mob, what would have happened then? Would he have gotten out to speak? Would he have tried to go to the floor of the Senate to confront Pence? Maybe flanked by the Q shaman? The mind reels.

— Helen Kennedy 🌻 (@HelenKennedy) June 28, 2022

your reminder that everyone around Donald Trump knew he was a violent gibbering idiot and nobody thought it important to inform the public

— Jeff Tiedrich (@itsJeffTiedrich) June 28, 2022

Former DOJ official Harry Litman is often hyperbolic, but he’s spot on w/these 6 potential criminal charges trump faces for #J6:
1 Obstruction of Justice
2 Defrauding US Govt
3 Destroying US Govt Property
4 Seditious Conspiracy
5 Inciting a Riot
6 Assaulting SecretService Agent pic.twitter.com/CfkspDpx2s

— Kenny BooYah! 🖖🏾 (@KwikWarren) June 28, 2022

Wow. Just wow. What a sorrowful experience, hearing #Hutchinson’s testimony. Tragic. But at least we know the truth. #donaldtrump is nothing but a low life mob boss.

— bettemidler (@BetteMidler) June 29, 2022

Sums it up. #Jan6Justice pic.twitter.com/Pg4JedPBdN

— Nick Knudsen 🇺🇸 (@NickKnudsenUS) June 20, 2022

Had Pence and congress members been killed by the mob, pretty sure martial law was on the table, and not to protect congress. Which way would the military have gone? Allow Trump's coup? or stage a military coup to save the country?

— Kitty Mitchell (@KittyMitchell7) June 20, 2022

This tweet raises an interesting question - what actually happened in the White House AFTER the Jan 6 insurrection was unsuccessful. Here's an argument that for the next two weeks, while Trump was being impeached again, it was the US military that was really running the country:

Arguably, we had TWO coups: Trump's attempted coup, and a de-facto military coup that restored power to civic authorities two weeks later!

— Alex Hazanov (@AlexHazanov) June 28, 2022

Sure, absent unqualified support from the military the attempt was probably doomed to fail, but a coup attempt is still a coup attempt and we were damn lucky they didn’t start killing legislators.

— David $53,000/YEAR Walsh (@DavidAstinWalsh) June 28, 2022

Today's News: Updates

Update from Ukraine: 

Some interesting news today:

Canadian special forces don't deny New York Times report that commandos are in Ukraine https://t.co/LZeQJoVFya

— The Vancouver Sun (@VancouverSun) June 28, 2022

I was reminded of a BBC report I heard early in the war, in March, interviewing a Canadian soldier 

who had been involved in training Ukraine troops since 2015, and she talked about them with such respect for how brave and accomplished they were. 

In this story today, David Pugliese at PostMedia News reports: 

...a few dozen commandos from NATO countries, including Britain, France, Canada and Lithuania, had been working inside Ukraine. The United States withdrew its own 150 military instructors before the war began in February. 

But the New York Times, citing three U.S. officials, reported that special forces from the NATO countries either remained or had gone in and out of Ukraine since then, training and advising Ukrainian troops and providing an on-the-ground conduit for weapons and other aid. 

U.S. special forces have also established a coalition planning cell in Germany to co-ordinate military assistance to Ukrainian commandos and other Ukrainian troops, the New York Times reported. The cell, which has grown to 20 nations, is modelled after a similar structure the U.S. and its NATO allies used in Afghanistan. U.S. Army Secretary Christine E. Wormuth has confirmed the cell provides intelligence and co-ordination for the flow of NATO weapons into Ukraine, allowing such convoys to avoid Russian attacks. 

In other news from Ukraine, Russia is again trying to frighten people by deliberately bombing 

civilians. This is a war crime:

⚡️Update: Death toll of Russian missile attack on Kremenchuk shopping mall rises to 18.

This is a developing story. Follow the latest updates herehttps://t.co/qQTnhCIORg

— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) June 28, 2022

“This shopping centre had the biggest toy store in the city. How could this be a strategic object?” Anger and disbelief in the Ukrainian city of Kremenchuk, as rescuers continue to search for survivors of the Russian attack. ⁦My report from the scene https://t.co/Ni8T0vfBJg pic.twitter.com/MQ2PuE0mSh

— Mark MacKinnon (@markmackinnon) June 28, 2022

ISW- "A Russian missile strike hit a shopping mall in a residential area of Kremenchuk, Poltava Oblast on June 27... The Kremenchuk strike follows a wider intensification of Russian missile strikes against Ukrainian infrastructure and civilian targets in recent days (1/3) pic.twitter.com/NjT4Ttzdez

— OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) June 28, 2022

high-precision weaponry, such attacks that cause substantial collateral civilian damage will likely escalate" (3/3)https://t.co/VDtHtDTiqZ pic.twitter.com/siaJAq9TM7

— OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) June 28, 2022

Elsewhere, Russia is snatching defeat from the jaws of victory -- while Russia is advancing slowly 

in the Donbas, its progress is minor and Russia is incurring huge costs on their military:

NEW: U.S. believes that Ukrainian troops are inflicting significant costs on the Russians in the Donbas despite the retreat from Sieverodonetsk: senior defense official

"The Ukrainians are making them pay for a very small piece of ground," the official said.

— Jack Detsch (@JackDetsch) June 27, 2022

Russian fans have to look at the term “Pyrrhic victory”, two weeks of RU artillery ammo wasted on empty buildings and plants, RU armoured units not engaging the fight for the urban environment leaving alone the RU infantry with worst equipment than the UKR one.

— Ivan Vacca (@IvanVacca3) June 26, 2022

Russia's advances in Ukraine "are dependent almost entirely on the expenditure of vast quantities of ammunition, notably artillery shells, which are being fired at a rate almost no military in the world would be able to sustain for long."@LizSly https://t.co/Ef2HLvnwup

— Dan Lamothe (@DanLamothe) June 27, 2022

Several weeks ago, Markos at Daily Kos described the Russian way of "fighting" wars now: blowing enemy towns to smithereens, then advancing their tanks across the rubble, and calling it a victory. 

But they have conquered nothing except a pile of blasted rocks.