Creating a three-ring circus?

Yesterday I read another media demand for the Trudeau government to undertake another "public inquiry" and I'm afraid this is getting to be too much. 

First, the drumbeat to investigate foreign interference - especially by China -- in Canadian elections has become so loud it drowned out Governor-General Johnson's May report. 

Next, there was the substack article Paul Wells published last week describing the extreme pressure to hold a public inquiry into Canada's COVID pandemic response -- even though the apparent source of this pressure (as The Globe and Mail also flagged today) was only a batch of articles in the British Medical Journal finding fault with our COVID policies in spite of our relatively higher vaccination rates and lower death rates.  

And finally, last night, I read about how we maybe will need to have a public inquiry into the sexual abuse of young athletes in Canadian sport organizations because too many of these organizations failed the children they were supposed to be training.

But I have my doubts that Canada is really going to set up three public inquiries at once

Looking at the recent history of public inquiries in Canada, there seems to be a range of justifications for them. Some -- like the Rouleau inquiry last winter into the Emergencies Act declaration in 2022 -- are required by legislation, so the government of the day doesn't have any latitude about terms of reference or scheduling. Others - like the Portapique Massacre inquiry in 2021 - seemed to be set up to hold authority to account for failing to protect people without actually finding fault.  And still others -- like the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 2009-2015 -- are a way to focus on complex issues and create public concensus for action.

All of these were useful exercises, I guess.  

But I'm not sure how useful it would be to create a three-ring circus right now. 

Because after the drumbeat to set up these inquiries, undoubtedly we would start hearing complaints from the Opposition parties and the media about how stupid they all are, and how the Trudeau govenment is just trying to deflect attention and delay action, and so on and so on.

Sigh.

So let's look at the rationales.  

Look up! Look way up!

Starting in the evening of July 30, until dawn July 31, may be the best chance to catch a glimpse of the Southern Delta Aquariids meteor shower, as long as the moon doesn't get in the way. This Smithsonian photo shows the Aquariids over Mount St. Helen's (photo by Diana Robinson Photography via Getty Images)

Carlyn Kranking at the Smithsonian magazine writes: 

Earth is currently traveling through multiple clouds of dusty comet debris, bringing a higher-than-usual amount of meteors to the night sky. When these fragments of rock and metal enter the atmosphere, the air around them heats up, creating a blazing glow visible from the ground. The Delta Aquariids coincide with a few other meteor showers, such as the famous Perseids, that promise to impress spectators for weeks to come. 

Also, the Perseids are starting now and peaking later in August, while the less impressive Alpha Capricornids are happening now as well.

If this kind of stuff interests you, you can sync your google calendar to the New York Times Space Calendar (gift link).

Keeping up with Canadian Security Stuff

One of the things that Twitter used to do -- though sometimes neither thoroughly nor well -- was to let everyone keep up with things in a general way. 

For example, we used to be able to scan relevant news and views about relevant issues, without needing to read a PhD-level 5,000-word articles. 

These days, we're on our own. 

One of Canada's recent topic areas is national security -- the main news recently has been about Chinese interference in elections, but we've also had news stories and leaks or whistleblowing about how our national security system is working. 

 And honestly, I have to admit, I just can't keep up with it. 

That's why I am so glad that I discovered Wesley Wark's National Security and Intellegence Newsletter. This month he has posted about a batch of issues that probably didn't make the news anywhere else: 

Q and A with Vincent Rigby, former NSIA 

..."it comes down to the lack of a National Security (NS) culture in Canadian government, including around intelligence. Canadians just don’t take NS seriously, despite the dangerous security environment in which we find ourselves and all the events of the last two years (Afghanistan, Ukraine, the freedom convoy, foreign interference). Our major Allies seem to get it, but we don’t. Producing a strategy, creating a cabinet committee on NS, strengthening intelligence coordination at the centre, or being more transparent through public threat assessments and other similar measures, would put us on the same level as our allies. "...

NSICOP Reports 

The annual report from the National Security and intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians was tabled in Parliament on July 19. There was no one home to receive it. MPs and Senators are enjoying their summer recess and will not return to the Hill again until the end of September. A stealth release of this important committee’s report is in no one’s interest...

The RCMP makes some national security arrests 

The RCMP have made some intriguing national security arrests recently. One involved terrorism offences. A second was based on charges laid under the Security of Information Act dealing with foreign interference. Both cases have unique features and are the product of long -run and, presumably, complex investigations. 

Hot Potatoes for New Ministers 

For anyone interested in the government’s handling of national security issues, the biggest news coming out of today’s Cabinet shuffle is the replacement of the much besieged Marco Mendicino as Public Safety Minister by Dominic LeBlanc. Next in line as big news is the move of Bill Blair from a minor Cabinet post (Emergency Preparedness) to Defence, replacing Anita Anand. Melanie Joly stays as Foreign Minister. This is the big three trio of Ministers with responsibilities for security and intelligence. 

And now for a NSC 

As an addendum to news about the Cabinet shuffle, PMO is also announcing that the PM will create a National Security council-style Cabinet committee on national security and intelligence.

Here's a little more detail about the NSC:

This is very much a welcome, and long overdue, reform to Canada's national security architecture. The current system is ad hoc and reactive; Cabinet will now finally be able to hold more focused, forward-looking debates on national security. https://t.co/iQnkWa8ng0

— Thomas Juneau (@thomasjuneau) July 26, 2023

Other newsletters which occasionally discuss Canadian security issues: 

Routine Proceedings by Dale Smith - parliamentary issues including security

Bug-eyed and Shameless by Justin Ling - includes coverage about far-right Convoy stuff

Phillips's Newsletter by Phillips P. O'Brien - particularly about NATO and the Ukraine War

Opinion column roundup: From Trudeau to Barbenheimer to masculinity to climate change polling to the King of Spain

In spite of being late in July, there will be lots of news this week, particularly with the cabinet shuffle coming up. 

But I have also been learning some new stuff this week by reading some good columns - here's a selection:

First, even though Canadian pollsters keep producing convoluted stats about how Trudeau's government is past its best-before date, Trudeau just keeps on keeping on. At Scrimshaw Unscripted, Evan Scrimshaw writes about the Liberals' Lingering Longevity:

...Poilievre might have gone too early – that he might have been better off from the position of doing well while in the leadership had he waited a decade – is very real, because right now, he’s not ready. Allowing his candidate in Portage Lisgar to use a photo of Max Bernier at Pride as an attack, posing for a photo with the Straight Pride Guy, going to the East Coast to talk about gun rights the weekend before a suburban byelection, accusing Justin Trudeau of conspiring with China to commit treason … at some point we have to face the reality of his fundamental unseriousness.

[The Trudeau government] isn’t an unambiguously good government that is guaranteed a win on its merits, but that doesn’t matter if the opposition’s shit. Election are choices, not referendums, and Poilievre ... makes the electorate’s choice for them. ...

At the end of the day, the Liberals are where they’ve often been in this country’s history – in office, and likely about to stay there, not on the merits of their term but because the Opposition has not hit the threshold at which this country overcomes its inertia against toppling Liberal governments. Unless we see a lot of people taking their chance to leave soon – and we won’t – then the idea that this Liberal government is dying should make its way to a graveyard, and usher in a proper understanding of reality. 

Moving on, over at The Present Age, Parker Molloy writes 'Barbenheimer' Takes On the Online Rage Machine and Wins:

It’s been interesting to watch as the same outrage merchants who led the unhinged attacks on Target and Bud Light for the *gasp* scandalous decision to… hire a trans woman (BL) and sell some super generic Pride merch, have struggled to land hits on Barbenheimer....

Watching as professional crybabies like Ben Shapiro tried to get people to boycott “Barbie” because one of the actresses in the film (Hari Nef, who played Doctor Barbie) is trans, and seeing that has absolutely no effect on the film’s success demonstrates that the Bud Light and Target controversies and capitulations only became big deals because Bud Light and Target responded to the outrage as though it were genuine. It was not.

Had Bud Light and Target told the outraged weirdos to pound sand, they’d have avoided the mess, but in the rush to appease the far right, they handed Shapiro and the rest of his Daily Wire goons wins they thought they could use to reshape culture around their own bigoted and exclusionary beliefs. ...

Anyway, I hope that businesses around the country (and world, for that matter) realize that if you ignore these far-right goons or tell them to screw off, members of the Daily Wire’s hate machine will be the ones who come away looking foolish, as Shapiro has in his post-viewing tantrums.

Today's News: Grievances on parade

In a post about Poilieve's Shack of Seclusion, Evan Scrimshaw writes about why some people seem to absolutely HATE! Trudeau:

...It’s a movement of people who have been radicalized for various reasons – the importation of American culture wars, the general fact that the right has been losing the war for hearts and mind in recent decades, and COVID, which was a deeply traumatic event for a lot of people. We’ve never reckoned with the damage done, and even if you think draconian measures were required, there was a price for it. And it’s a movement that Poilievre has gone to great lengths to endure himself to.

It's an angry movement because for a lot of people, the world makes less sense now than it ever has before....

Poilievre has positioned himself as the leader of this movement, a movement that has overinflated the responsibility that the Prime Minister has on this country and therefore has pinned all their grievances, real or imagined, on him. It’s a movement that’s diffuse on specific grievances but united on their contempt for the one man...

More of that grievance was on display when Trudeau made a brief stop in Belleville, Ontario this week:

This is frightening & sickening. People with Trump signs shouting antisemitic slurs at the Prime Minister. This is what happens when antisemitism & hate become normalized and it can happen anywhere. In Canada too. Every political leader needs to speak out against this. https://t.co/grOG7Yj9Oy

— Anthony Housefather (@AHousefather) July 21, 2023

Obnoxious, yelling man attempting to threaten our PM.

What does Trudeau do? Notices the child in the crush and squats down to talk to them, face to face.

THAT is a leader. https://t.co/O7dDbTo3on

— Wendy Jackman (@WenJackwoman) July 21, 2023

It's too damn hot!

In the last 48 hours:

Rome beat its all time temperature record by a whole two degrees Celsius.

China beat its all time temperature record by almost two degrees Celsius.

Death Valley narrowly missed the highest temperature ever recorded on Earth.

And there's more to come... pic.twitter.com/0F7nYHvQWE

— Dr. Lucky Tran (@luckytran) July 18, 2023

At Garbage Day, Ryan Broderick writes: The New Culture War Issue Will Literally Just Be Ignoring How Hot It Is 

I suppose it shouldn’t shock me that right-wing influencers are acting like extreme heat isn’t actually that extreme. It’s sort of the entire philosophy behind climate change denial. 

But I guess I just assumed that if the weather became extreme enough, at the very least, we could all agree that it was, in fact, extreme. 

 About three years ago, Atlantic writer Charlie Warzel tweeted something that has always stuck with me. In regards to the then still-emerging coronavirus outbreak, Warzel wrote, “The coronavirus scenario I can’t stop thinking about is the one where we simply get used to all the dying. There’s a national precedent: America’s response to gun violence.” He was, of course, right about that. 

But I think he inadvertently summed up America’s national response to pretty much every large-scale systemic crisis we’re bound to face going forward. The weather’s going to keep getting worse and the right-wing media ecosystem will downplay or outright deny it, and, more often than not, they’ll find ways to tie the acknowledgement of it to definitions of masculinity. 

And just like the folks who thought they could ride out the pandemic without a vaccine or masks because they were tough, only to end up on ventilators, so too will a lot of folks get hurt trying to man up and ignore the rising temperatures. 

And here we go:

🚨NEWS: Amid record-breaking heat, Republicans are introducing legislation to block any president from declaring a climate emergency.

Fossil fuel donors funneled more than $5 million to the bill sponsors — and some of the lawmakers are oil/gas investors. https://t.co/l5p4GblIS0

— David Sirota (@davidsirota) July 19, 2023

Sock it to me!

A lot of people don't know as well that the young man makes a pair with Trudeau on them. With Justin's permission. Liberals need to start talking about these things. If Justin won't brag, we should.

— Lonney Butler (@ButlerLonney) July 16, 2023

Trudeau gets hammered day after day, across Canada, for everything from Port of Vancouver trucker policies (which were actually introduced by Harper) to Lac-Mégantic land expropriation. 

But he keeps on just being Trudeau, wearing his funny socks. 

Maybe that's what drives some people nuts -- that their hatred doesn't faze him.

Here is the latest -- a video of Trudeau sitting with some guy in Calgary, patiently explaining the complexity of federal-provincial education jurisdiction, right-wing conspiracy theories, and the importance of supporting LBGT rights while respecting Muslim parents: 

 "Its not a buffet...we will stand up for everybody's rights." 

This is a clip of what Trudeau said -- just ignore the right wing media commentary:

Watch Trudeau’s mind at work here. It’s not just his message. It’s his courage of his convictions. Of OUR convictions. Canadian convictions… in our Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The best in the free world. #Cdnpoli #HumanRights #CharterOfRights #Ableg https://t.co/lwCt4Zk5zJ

— Paul Stewart II (@PaulStewartII) July 14, 2023

"The memories will be so thick, they'll have to brush them away from their faces..."

 

Sad news this week - both the LA Times and the New York Times are making radical changes to reduce their sports coverage.

Between this and the LA Times eliminating agate and box scores etc. what’s the point anymore? Those are two places we always pointed to as the top of the mountain in the industry and they’re husks now. Don’t be a sportswriter, kids. Do literally anything else with your life. https://t.co/Y3wMmPXOHJ

— Tom Bragg (@TomBraggSports) July 10, 2023

At Defector, Ray Ratto writes The Slow Hemorrhage of the American Sports Desk:

Across the country, papers are cutting back their last deadlines to pre-dinner hours so that the annoyance of night sporting events and their coverage can be eliminated, and the new enemy of profitability is the people who used to fill those pages.

If reducing drag is the heart of efficiency, the Times is the first to give in to the logical extension of this philosophy. If one could be sure The Athletic would actually broaden the Times' coverage, then this move might be defensible journalistically, but The Athletic has never been about reimagining anything. It just tried to out-newspaper newspapers, making writers hope their beats wouldn't suck so that they might get enough clicks to sell enough subscriptions to imagine themselves central to the business. And making the talent worry about the business is always a dangerous strategy, because it allows the business people to fail and blame it on someone other than themselves.

....nobody will remember the business thugs who did today's deed because they thrive in the anonymity of the best hitmen. They might remember some of the people they read and enjoyed and learned from, but that's not what a newspaper is anymore. It's just another way to explain late-stage capitalism: eating the people who do the work and replacing them with fewer and cheaper ones.

Pictured: LA Times Sports editors takes their 'new layout highlights (and) best, most ambitious sports journalism' out for a spin. pic.twitter.com/H23VFEBjkU

— gprowler (@gprowler) July 10, 2023

This is why I love sports:

Joey Batts' bat flip, when he hits the go-ahead three-run shot in ALDS Game 5https://t.co/piLO0IYFzC via @YouTube

— Cathie from Canada 🇨🇦 😷🏳️‍🌈 (@CathieCanada) July 12, 2023

Read the whole thread - its great. 

Roundup: Hot and bothered

The news from all over is challenging this week. First up, I think I'm very glad I don't live in the southern US - hotter than Hades this week.

Overseas the weather is no better. This video falls into the Holy Shit! category:

🔴 INFO - #Espagne : #Inondations massives après de fortes #pluies à #Saragosse hier. #flood #flooding pic.twitter.com/JXxZQ3g3sM

— FranceNews24 (@FranceNews24) July 7, 2023

According to the Weather Channel coverage, nobody died.

Absolutely brilliant. Person approaches flood in little Red car, sees identical little red car floating, driver continues believing this will not affect them. Sums up people's views on climate change perfectly. https://t.co/flmhAIPQZm

— Jon (@Jontafkasi) July 9, 2023

Weekend funny stuff: from Monty Python to Mary Simon; and dogs of course

First, I haven't seen one of these funny twisted Threads for a long time -- its when someone asks a "question" on twitter and everyone replies with the wrong answers:

Folks, listen, this has been bothering me all day. I’m trying to remember a sketch and I can’t figure out who did it.

Here’s the set-up: a guy walks into an office and asks for an argument, which he pays the pretty lady for, then he argues with a guy. Funny!

Anyone seen this?

— Gail Simone 💙💛 (@GailSimone) July 3, 2023

A bunch of people took her seriously at first -- of course, she's talking about the Argument Clinic in Monty Python - but then everyone caught on and started posting this kind of stuff:

That wasn't a "sketch." It was an episode of the Twilight Zone. The argument ended up being over a cookbook or something.

— Michael G. @deepwatermike@mastodon.social Bazemore (@deepwatermike) July 3, 2023

It was at a poker game, with guys arguing over the lyrics to Blinded By the Light. It was performed by The Bert Fershners on their show, The State, with Stephen Colbert and Paul Dinello. It aired on HBO.

— John Dortmunder (@prolly_knott) July 3, 2023

Pretty sure it’s the opening sketch for ‘The West Wing’

— PersephoneC 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈 (@PersephoneC) July 3, 2023

Can't finish without posting the real sketch:  

"I am down to be common. Bring home the chill. Yo. "

In a desperate attempt to try to demonstrate relevancy as a prospective Prime Minister, Pierre Poilievre is adopting sun glasses and t-shirts to give himself a new look -- Canadian commentators are giving #PoilievreMakeover about as much respect as it deserves:

As you can see, not only am I not wearing my prescription glasses anymore, but like many of the common people do, I am also sporting a very casual blazer over a T-shirt look along with this brand new pair of Joe Fresh sunnies. I am down to be common. Bring home the chill. Yo. pic.twitter.com/WFPv1E4Q84

— Barney Panofsky's Best Intentions (@mynamesnotgordy) July 1, 2023

What's interesting about Pierre Poilievre's makeover is that he's managed to make himself look older than he looked before.

— Ann Bibby (@anniegirl1138) June 30, 2023

I’m not sure this makeover is working. #poilievre pic.twitter.com/CUZTlgguWT

— Canteach (@canteach) June 30, 2023

Isn’t the Poilievre makeover just an admission he’s an odious asshole? @CPC_HQ is telling us all how unlikeable this guy is and their desperation to change his drag on their electoral chances. They will hide him during the campaign too, just watch. #cdnpoli

— Steve V 🍁 IAMCANADIAN 🍁 (@FarAndWide) June 30, 2023

I recall when the CPC Party photoshopped pictures of Erin O'Toole to make him appear "fit" when he was in freefall. Now they have given Pierre Poilievre a makeover and voice change. They are not a serious political party and do not have anything to offer.

— Tom Whittaker (@whittakertp) June 30, 2023

The problem with Poilievre's makeover is that it's not addressing his main deficit.

Justin isn't conventionally handsome, nor was his father. He has charisma, as his father had. Different thing entirely.

Diefenbaker, though no matinée idol, also had it. Poilievre never will.

— James Christian Parsons (@Dred_Tory) June 30, 2023

Happy Canada Day!

 

Dear America. Send us your 2SLGBTQQIA+ people. All of them. We will send you our Conservatives. All of them.
Love,
Canada

— @JohnBeggs (@dbeggs13) July 1, 2023

It’s not every day I get emails from a Canadian International Ambassador asking if they can play my video at their Canada Day celebrations… but it is today. https://t.co/prWwmkwKaa

— Brittlestar (@brittlestar) June 29, 2023

 

Perfect Game

There is nothing in sports like the Perfect Game in Baseball:

27 up. 27 down.

The 24th perfect game in AL/NL history belongs to Domingo Germán. pic.twitter.com/SyUJb0cKm6

— MLB (@MLB) June 29, 2023

A team effort:

Anthony Rizzo saved the perfect game with this play. This guy never gets the real respect he deserves for being as great a first baseman as he is. pic.twitter.com/O96gm2MgEZ

— roseanne ✨ (@hoodierizz) June 29, 2023

Don Larsen to Yogi Berra in 1956
David Wells to Jorge Posada in 1998
David Cone to Joe Girardi in 1999

…and now Domingo German to
Kyle Higashioka in 2023 pic.twitter.com/V8mz0wGl2l

— Talkin' Yanks (@TalkinYanks) June 29, 2023

But actually, German's game was the 25th perfect game in history, not the 24th:

Major League Ball @MLB needs to cancel that bad umpire call and recognize Armando Galarraga's achievement. #GalarragaPerfectGame

— Cathie from Canada 🇨🇦 😷🏳️‍🌈 (@CathieCanada) June 29, 2023

Random moments: from journalism to history to spiders to poetry

First, let me just mention how appalling it is that journalism is joining the gig-economy as more journalists basically have to become independent contractors.

I know, I know - independence, having their own voice, and all that. But as more and more media outlets fail to get enough advertisers or subscribers to survive being owned by rich predators or predatory hedge funds or whatever, and as more and more journalists have to start flogging their own Substacks, people are starting to notice:

Anyone connecting the dots between the simultaneous dismantling of corporate & local media, the scuttling of the digital public square (Twitter, Reddit, Facebook) & the increasing decline of online search tools into ‘sponsored content’ distributors?

— Alison Creekside (@CreeksideAlison) June 28, 2023

More terrific journalists, losing their jobs.... https://t.co/muOa7mco9D

— Laurie Garrett (@Laurie_Garrett) June 28, 2023

Meanwhile, journalism is still being committed somewhere, but just not here:

Not a peep about any of this in Canadian newspapers or electronic media since the pack moved on to passport pics, China smears, convoy hyping and all the rest. Meanwhile, the lawsuit against Canadaland in Toronto grinds on, too. #reckoning https://t.co/TnZcjv5UdB

— Mark Bourrie (@MarkBourrie) June 28, 2023

"SLAPP" by the way, means Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation -- I had to look it up.

So what's the Right Wing up to now? A survey from Poilievre to RFK to Jan 6 to yoga

First, a little Poilievre-bashing, because why not?

I'm a Liberal voter now. Is PMJT perfect in my eyes? NO.

But if the best that you can provide is Pierre Poilievre as an option, Jesus fucking Christ.

Pass.

— Roddy (@RodKahx) June 27, 2023

To Little Peter Popinjay’s horror, right wing UK newspaper lauds Trudeau government’s management of our 🇨🇦economy.
🙂🙂🙂
⁦@PierrePoilievre⁩ #cdnpoli https://t.co/LeF4KKab1L

— David Hamer 🇨🇦🇺🇦🇨🇦 (@DavidHamer_1951) June 27, 2023

Nik Nanos advice to Pierre Poilievre this morning

Go Into Hiding

Everytime he appears on TV - his numbers go down#cdnpoli pic.twitter.com/e41HmIE5HU

— G.T. Lem 林 家 聰 (@gtlem) June 26, 2023

His tactics and tone are terrible but his ethics are the real problem. He appears to have none.

— Pamela Banting, PhD (@PamelaBanting) June 25, 2023