Tuesday, October 04, 2022

Today's News: Playing nuclear chicken?

Well, this is terrifying, isn't it? It sounds like Russia is getting set to try to play a game of Nuclear Chicken with Ukraine and the west: Oh, I really hope the Telegraph is wrong and these guys are right: Given how poorly they have done everything else in this war, if Russia does try to play nuclear chicken with the West then it likely won't work out very well for Russia. But as Ukraine wins back more and more of its territory, Putin will be increasingly desperate: Canada's decision to support NATO membership for Ukraine surprised me, because in the past it seemed that NATO had always backed away from provoking Putin too much. 
But maybe now the West is realizing that mollifying Putin is no longer an option so so we might as well take it to him: Fukuyama is making a prediction: This was true yesterday, but may no longer be true now:
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Monday, October 03, 2022

Today's News: Winter is Coming

First tonight, what the heck is going on in Britain? 
The  new Truss government seems determined to destroy the British economy in the name of some looney libertarian conservative craziness, while the British people are facing horrific heating bills and mortgage bills this winter. This is the same kind of so-called BS "freedom" that Poilievre talks about - yeah, the freedom to underpay people, to cheat customers, to discriminate, to fire staff without cause, etc. 
I thought these tweets made some good points, too:
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Sunday, October 02, 2022

Today's News: The Indomitable Spirit of the Maritimes and Newfoundland

The news has moved on so much in the last week that we haven't been seeing as much recently about the Hurricane Fiona recovery on the east coast. 
But it has been terrible for them this last week, and it continues to be difficult - this recovery will take a long time and the feeling of abandonment is growing. 
Here are some tweets and writings I found tonight, and I am truly in awe with the indomitable spirit shown by these Canadians during such an awful time: Ian writes: 
 As I write this, seven days after the Hurricane, nearly half the Island has no power, many have no water, and reports indicate that no Red Cross money has been distributed. 
The promises from the Federal Government to “match donations to the Red Cross” ring like a bad joke in the ears of those needing services. People were in a position before the Hurricane in which they weren’t sure they could afford rent. The latest rent hike on the Island came just this past week, and in spite of basic utilites having collapsed, people are already receiving notices of climbing rent. 
....The anger in Prince Edward Island right now is very real. While Canada is going on with its life, as it should, PEI feels abandoned.
And why, seven days after the hurricane, has no money from the Red Cross been distributed yet? PEIslanders have an indominable spirit! From musician Tara MacLean's facebook page, here is a beautiful article about what the Dunes meant to PEI:
   
On Sunday, Tara and others are organizing a sing-along in downtown Charlottetown:
Moving on to Nova Scotia: And to Newfoundland: The Cons just can't resist trying to score political points out of people's agony, can they? And this guy calls himself a journalist: But it is true that we will be getting more of these storms because of climate change:
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Saturday, October 01, 2022

Today's News: Honouring Truth and Reconciliation Day

A wave of orange shirts filled Saskatoon as people walked from CUMFI to Victoria Park during the Rock Your Roots Walk for Reconciliation on National Truth and Reconciliation day in Saskatoon, Sask. on Sept. 30, 2022. PHOTO BY MICHELLE BERG /Saskatoon StarPhoenix

At the end of the book The Christmas Carol, Dickins wrote a line about about honouring Christmas every day of the year. When I was thinking today about Truth and Reconciliation Day, I think this is what we need to remember and commit to doing: 
I will honour Truth and Reconciliation in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach. 

But also, this: From last night's football game -
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Friday, September 30, 2022

Today's News: Orange Shirt Day


https://beyond.ubc.ca/orange-shirt-day/

Sept 30 is the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, also called Orange Shirt Day - for settlers, it is a day for thoughtfulness, remembrance, acknowledgement of wrongdoing, apology, and promise to do better.
Here are some tweets and stories to share. 
At first I thought, is this tweet for real? But yes, it is, and really, its great: Here is the background to the Orange Shirt:
Orange Shirt Day is a legacy of the St. Joseph Mission residential school commemoration event held in Williams Lake in the spring of 2013. 
 It grew out of Phyllis’s account of losing her shiny new orange shirt on her first day of school at the Mission, and it has become an opportunity to keep the discussion on all aspects of residential schools happening annually.
I went to the Mission for one school year in 1973/1974. 
I had just turned 6 years old. I lived with my grandmother on the Dog Creek reserve. We never had very much money, but somehow my granny managed to buy me a new outfit to go to the Mission school. 
I remember going to Robinson’s store and picking out a shiny orange shirt. It had string laced up in front, and was so bright and exciting – just like I felt to be going to school! 
When I got to the Mission, they stripped me, and took away my clothes, including the orange shirt! I never wore it again. I didn’t understand why they wouldn’t give it back to me, it was mine! 
The color orange has always reminded me of that and how my feelings didn’t matter, how no one cared and how I felt like I was worth nothing. 
All of us little children were crying and no one cared. 
 I was 13 years old and in grade 8 when my son Jeremy was born. Because my grandmother and mother both attended residential school for 10 years each, I never knew what a parent was supposed to be like.
With the help of my aunt, Agness Jack, I was able to raise my son and have him know me as his mother.
I went to a treatment centre for healing when I was 27 and have been on this healing journey since then.
I finally get it, that the feeling of worthlessness and insignificance, ingrained in me from my first day at the mission, affected the way I lived my life for many years. 
Even now, when I know nothing could be further than the truth, I still sometimes feel that I don’t matter. Even with all the work I’ve done! 
I am honored to be able to tell my story so that others may benefit and understand, and maybe other survivors will feel comfortable enough to share their stories. 
 Today... Phyllis Webstad is Northern Secwpemc (Shuswap) from the Stswecem’c Xgat’tem First Nation (Canoe Creek Indian Band). She comes from mixed Secwepemc and Irish/French heritage, was born in Dog Creek, and lives in Williams Lake, BC. 
Today, Phyllis is married, has one son, a stepson and five grandchildren. She is the Founder and Ambassador of the Orange Shirt Society, and tours the country telling her story and raising awareness about the impacts of the residential school system.

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Wednesday, September 28, 2022

Great stuff

Today, here's some of the interesting stuff I bookmarked recently:

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/visualized-the-worlds-population-at-8-billion/

This is fascinating - its a visual representation of the world population and the webpage also has much more detail about specific continents.

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Tuesday, September 27, 2022

Today's News: "But I never thought leopards would eat MY face!"

The original tweet, from 2015: It has mostly been used for Brexit and for Trump -- when the people who voted for Brexit and for Trump because they wanted to "own the libs" later found that they themselves were badly treated by the policies that they thought would only hurt the libs. And now Pierre Poilievre has finally joined the leopard club:
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Monday, September 26, 2022

Behold, a pale horse


"And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. " Revelations 6:7-8 

I'm thinking tonight of the Ukraine Russia War -- once again, history is "galloping riderless across the landscape" with no direction and no control. The possibility of nuclear war has reared its ugly head, and we don't know whether it will happen or not.   
With Ukraine's recent success in pushing back Russian occupation, Putin seems terrified that Ukraine is winning. So he is doubling down - mobilizing more Russian soldiers, setting up sham referenda to create a phony pretext to claim that Occupied Ukraine belongs to Russia, and threatening a nuclear response if the Ukraine military continues fighting to liberate this so-called "Russian" territory. I expect Putin also thinks he can frighten Europe and NATO into forcing Ukraine to agree to a ceasefire. 
NATO and European leaders are having none of it.
Here is the bottom line: And this is terrible. When this war is over, it will take years to recover.
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Sunday, September 25, 2022

If you thought Covid was "over", think again


Seen in a tweet!

What I cannot understand is why so many people think Covid is "over", though thousands are still getting it and dying from it around the world. 
We have our next booster booked now - scheduled for early October, it will be our Moderna bivalent shot and I hope it will last us until spring, when we will likely need another booster. 
I know everybody is tired of Covid now - I certainly am. We're all sick to death of it, so to speak. 
I still mourn for the Before Times - life the way we lived it before March 2020. 
But the world isn't about my delicate fee-fees. The Now Times are about staying alive and healthy, and keeping our family alive and well too, and to that extent I can even appreciate renewing my focus on what is really important and letting trivialities slip away.
Maybe someday we will be able to talk about the After Times. But in the meantime we will just keep on masking and getting boosters until the world is vaccinated and they figure out how to treat Long Covid. 
I have been collecting a few interesting Covid tweets over the last few weeks:
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Today's news: Ferocious Fiona

It's been a terrible night and day in Atlantic Canada as they grapple with that bitch Fiona: But what impresses me most right now is how Canadians are all wanting to help: Absolutely - outstanding! And here's the ridiculous story of the day. So for some reason, Fisheries and Oceans Canada thought today would be a good day to remind people about the rule against picking up a washed-up lobster on a beach: Twitter rocked with laughter: Twitter concluded that eating a dead lobster wouldn't be very healthy anyway. But then someone worried about all the seagulls that will show up to feast on the dead beach lobsters, and it went downhill from there. Anyway, finally Fisheries and Oceans deleted it: So only this remained:
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Saturday, September 24, 2022

From the Bookmarks

Well, the great Roger Federer played his last match today - it wasn't "one for the ages" but it was pretty nice, a doubles with Nadal at the Laver Cup in London. 
I didn't get into watching tennis until just a few years ago, when we got a big-screen TV and then our son explained to me how the game was scored - the score is what dictates a lot of the player strategy.
Anyway, I really enjoy tennis now and particularly watching the GOATs like Serena and Federer: Here's a terrific essay about what tennis can mean to a fan - it includes a video summary of the 2017 Aussie Open final, likely one of the greatest tennis matches ever played, when Federer and Nadal fought it out for 5 incredible sets. Some funny tweets:
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Friday, September 23, 2022

Today's News: It's going to be a marathon, not a sprint

Philip Evergood 'The Dance Marathon'

This marathon will be exhausting.
Pierre Poilievre hasn't even been Conservative leader for two weeks yet. By the time the 2025 election finally arrives, we're all going to be as shell-shocked and tired as those marathon dancers in Evergood's 1935 painting.
So here's what happened this week.
On Monday we heard all about how Trudeau had been caught singing when he was in London for the funeral.  Of course, the Conservatives were shocked -- SHOCKED - to find that singing had been going on. 
They talked about it all day Tuesday, and then on Wednesday this happened:
Alberta Conservative MP Garnett Genius was trying to parody Bohemian Rapsody lyrics while he raked the Liberals over the coals, because that's the music Trudeau was singing in London. 
 And all we can conclude about Genius's skill as a lyricist is, don't quit your day job. 
 Even Michelle Rempel-Garner was not impressed: So anyway, then freelance press gallery journalist Dale Smith tweeted this: Now, you young whippersnappers won't remember, but there was an incredible Sydney Pollack movie from 1969 starring Jane Fonda about a dance marathon titled "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?" and  this phrase became part of our culture. 
So this may have been the reference alluded to in the tweet.
But when the Conservatives saw it -- bring out more fainting couches and begin the pearl clutching!
The tweet itself wasn't ratioed, but suddenly Smith found himself accused of issuing threats to an MP and the monkeys began to fly: 
The Press Gallery produced a mealy-mouthed statement that sort-of supported Smith, but with a tone of "oh darn now we have to defend a journalist AGAIN!" -- because remember the Akin affair was just last week:
 


Some journalists were not impressed with the press gallery statement: Others appeared to think the statement was "well-worded" - harumph! harumph! And speaking of mealy-mouthed, here's Genius' response to Coyne: Of course, there actually are some larger issues going on:
Today, Smith talked about the rage-farming problem in his Routine Proceedings newsletter: 
...The point here is that this is how the intimidation game is played, and why they think that journalists are uniquely vulnerable. 
If you are critical about anyone on their team, they declare that you are biased, even though you are critical about every team. 
They howl and moan, in the hopes that you either apologise and retract, and then they know that you’re weak, and that they can silence you through these kinds of tactics. 
It’s partially why so many journalists have resorted to scrupulously both-sidesing all of their lies—because they screamed and moaned about being treated unfairly, and insisting that they were “insulted” when they were called out for their blatant falsehoods, and yes, this has absolutely happened—until those reporters and their editors stop calling them out, and instead, just both-sides what is said. 
Both-sidesing in turn allows them to lie with impunity, because they know they won’t be called out for it, lest they begin this cycle again. 
And now, our political discourse is completely fucked as a result. 
So no, I’m not going to let Scheer or Ballingall intimidate me, and their winged monkeys don’t scare me. 
Now Genius has asked for the Speaker to revoke Smith's press gallery credentials and Smith told CBC he will be refraining from further comments himself until that ruling has been made.
And whatever results, regardless of whether Smith ultimately apologizes or not, the whole contretemps will have a chilling effect on the press gallery.
And Poilievre hasn't even been leader for two weeks!
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Thursday, September 22, 2022

Today's News: Conspiracy Theories

Does anyone still remember that 1997 Mel Gibson - Julia Roberts movie Conspiracy Theory?
   
It was supposed to be just a thriller - comedy. 
Turns out, it was also predicting the crazy now in too much of our society. 
So maybe this is how Conspiracy Theories get started: Here's another one:
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Wednesday, September 21, 2022

Today's News: "It's still real. It's still terrifying. It's still hard"

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-saskatchewan-stabbing-victims/ 

Beautiful illustration from The Globe and Mail, by Chippewa/Potawatomi artist Chief Lady Bird ๐Ÿฆ… แ…แ‘ฎแ’ชแ‘ซแงแฑแ“€แข

Inquests were just announced into the massacre of Sept. 4: The Queen's funeral distracted Canada over the last week from the continuing events related to James Smith Cree Nation and the massacre.  A major Canadian Press story today provides an update to how James Smith Cree Nation residents have been managing their grief.
 “It’s still real. It’s still terrifying. It’s still hard,” Stonestand said. 
“A lot of hurt you can feel in this community. A lot of it. Wherever you go. And people have no trust, but they’re trying to come out.” 
Residents attend cultural events, sweat ceremonies and feasts wearing “James Smith Strong” T-shirts. The sacred fire that serves as a spiritual doorway for the dead still dances. 
.... While the community looks to shed the darkness that hovered over it on Sept. 4 and restore order with traditional ceremonies and plates full of bannock, they still await answers. 
Moostoos said the First Nation has requested a timeline of the stabbings from RCMP, without the gory details, to help them heal. 
He said there’s no use speculating what happened or why, as it only leads to more rumours. 
 “Right now we’re knocked down,” Moostoos said. “But we will get back up and we’ll get back up with pride when our community comes together.” 
This Phil Tank Star-Phoenix column from last week talks about the questions that remain and whether an Indigenous police force would have made a difference: 
 Would an Indigenous police service have prevented the Sept. 4 tragedy that rocked the nation and shocked the world? There’s no way to say. 
But it seems possible that a more robust Indigenous policing presence may well have been able to locate mass murder suspect Myles Sanderson, a serial violent offender who was deemed “unlawfully at large” in May, prior to the murder spree. 
Given Indigenous people’s historic mistrust of the RCMP — with many good reasons, some as recent as the police force’s actions after the 2016 shooting death of Colten Boushie — this seems a logical step.
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Tuesday, September 20, 2022

Today's News: #ISingWithTrudeau

So today the Queen was laid to rest in a beautiful ceremony -- here are a few of the tweets I flagged about the most-watched funeral in world history: Meghan McCaine is getting ratioed for this idiotic remark: And this explains a lot, doesn't it:
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