Today's News: Moving on from Biden?

As the days pass after Biden's disastrous debate, I'm reading more stories from people I respect, saying that Biden needs to withdraw from the presidential race. 

For a time after the debate, I dithered about this. But the problem as I see it now is this: Trump is a terrible person, and Biden is a great one. But Biden's awful debate performance demonstrated that he isn't able to rise to the occasion anymore, he has apparently lost the ability to lead, to be a president. Americans have never voted for a leader they consider weak, and the way things are going, Biden will not only lose himself, he will drag down the whole ticket with him:

The narrow current conversation about how Biden polled right after the debate obscures a much broader, much more relevant conversation about the next four months. Every Biden glitch, every misstep, every senior moment will spur another news cycle, more leaks, more recriminations.

— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) June 30, 2024

Then again..

"The president may be too old to fill his function in his next term" is a worry Americans had about Reagan, Eisenhower, FDR, and so on. It's comfortable to talk about.

"The would-be president tried to seize power in a coup once and wants to try again" - is not so comfortable.

— David Frum (@davidfrum) July 2, 2024

Today's news: Hooray for Pride Parades!

The happiest photos ever taken in Canada are from our Pride parades!

Here are photos of Toronto's Pride Parade today:

As usual, Trudeau was there!

🇨🇦🏳️‍🌈I STAND WITH TRUDEAU🏳️‍🌈🇨🇦
Happy Pride Canada
🇨🇦#Trudeau2025🇨🇦 pic.twitter.com/Q4nl0BzW1I

— BKBelton (@bk_belton) June 30, 2024

Animal Crackers!

A Dog at the Museum, by Tom Mosser

It's been one of those weeks, eh ... the Liberals lose the by-election, the Oilers lose the cup, Joe Biden loses the debate. 

So here's some funny to go on with, for the weekend:

Dog got skills..🐕🐾🛹🤯 pic.twitter.com/4r7vGzeQkh

— 𝕐o̴g̴ (@Yoda4ever) June 26, 2024

Friends come in all shapes and sizes..🦍🐾🐕😍 pic.twitter.com/wS48pgx2yK

— 𝕐o̴g̴ (@Yoda4ever) June 23, 2024

This is Éowyn. She taught herself sign language after living with her deaf human. 14/10 pic.twitter.com/JYPcoLVOKE

— WeRateDogs (@dog_rates) June 27, 2024

i think this is some sort of secret handshake
(bdeli34 IG) pic.twitter.com/2N8yUgRk6p

— theworldofdog (@theworldofdog) June 26, 2024

He owns the car now.. 😅 pic.twitter.com/E2HP6WyZYG

— Mirthful Moments (@moment_mirthful) June 26, 2024

A woman gave a hungry fox food and he came back with friends 🥹❤️pic.twitter.com/a46FgZ0jW5

— The Random Guy (@RandomTheGuy_) June 22, 2024

Happy Saturday: from Reggie Jackson to Indigenous Peoples Day; from "shark!" to Dark Brandon; some great moments in Twitter; animal crackers; & some beautiful threads to enjoy

Reggie Jackson describes the racism he had to endure when playing ball:

👉🏽 “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” – James Baldwin

— Coach Julio (@FitnessFoundry) June 21, 2024

For National Indigenous Peoples Day:

It is National Indigenous Peoples Day, so enjoy this thread of Indigenous leaders and activists from our history!

Elsie Knott (1922-1995) In 1954, she became the 1st woman to serve as the Chief of a First Nation following changes to the Indian Act three years earlier

🧵1/19 pic.twitter.com/c2npfh1JTP

— Craig Baird - Canadian History Ehx (@CraigBaird) June 21, 2024

American politics:

A lot of you all would’ve absolutely hated the Civil Rights Movement had you lived through it, and it shows.

— Kevin Saucedo-Broach (@kevsaucebro) April 26, 2024

I think during the presidential debate, Biden should just yell...SHARK!

— Auntie Smartassy (@AuntSassyAss) June 20, 2024

Random Roundup: trying to kibosh the capital gains tax; trying to debunk misinformation; jousting over "likes"; hearing Dr. Fauci's story; and laughing at Trump

Some interesting factoids and articles recently: 

First, some comments on how Canada's rich people are trying to kibosh the Liberal plan to increase tax rates on capital gain profits:

Why is the debate about the capital gains inclusion rate so deranged?
Because associations of very rich people have paid think tanks and foundation to operate a constant non-stop misinformation campaign about tax policy for 50+ years aimed at lowering their own tax rates. (1/3)

— Drew Yewchuk (@DrewYewchuk) June 19, 2024

It would be hard to overstate how successful this misinformation campaign has been. A huge number of North Americans believe a pack of lies are eternal truths of economics, and Alberta’s premier spent nearly her entire career working for such think thanks and foundations. (3/3)

— Drew Yewchuk (@DrewYewchuk) June 19, 2024

It's just incredible. In poll after poll, going back decades, there is majority support (usually in the 75-80% range) for making the rich pay more, but the minute you try to do it, the Conservatives swing into action and manage to convince Joe Q Public that he'll be paying more.

— 𝙲𝙹𝚃𝙾 🇨🇦 🏳️‍🌈 (@CJ_Toronto) June 19, 2024

So what you are saying, Robyn, is that a lot of Canadians are misinformed. Someone has been telling them the sky is falling when it isn't, right? Pity we don't have any journalists who could be keeping Canadians better informed.

— Dr Norlaine Thomas (She/Her) (@Norlaine) June 19, 2024

Today's News: Heatwave!

This summer's first heat wave is here.

Over 135 million people are facing a dangerous heat wave this week with the AccuWeather RealFeel Temperatures occasionally approaching the 100-degree mark. https://t.co/9aZ2r7LycJ pic.twitter.com/9QndnUU6IC

— AccuWeather (@accuweather) June 17, 2024

Today's News: About the Foreign Interference Scandal, from May, Wark, Smith, and Scrimshaw

So I've been sort of following the NSICORP (National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians) report revelations about foreign interference in Canadian politics, except there really hadn't been any, nothing concrete at any rate, about exactly who did what and to whom.

Until this happened:

https://t.co/jN71L25Yxt

— National Newswatch (@natnewswatch) June 11, 2024

@ElizabethMay says the media firestorm steaming from the NSICOP is "overblown." She says the person (on p.26 of public report) is a FORMER MP who wittingly participated should be prosecuted. She says there is no list of disloyal MPs. 1/2

— Althia Raj (@althiaraj) June 11, 2024

May says fewer than 5 MPs are named in the report.
She starts to talk talking about the Senate, but stops herself and says, no, she is just talking about people in the HoC. None of the MPs, the low number, she suggests, could be described as witting participants.

— Althia Raj (@althiaraj) June 11, 2024

The few MPs mentioned were unknowingly helped, maybe they should have asked who was paying for busloads of people showing up to nomination contests, May says, but that's not uncommon in Canadian politics (notes interference in federal PC race in '83).

— Althia Raj (@althiaraj) June 11, 2024

May says she was also surprised to see FI in the media in the form of undisclosed sponsored content.

— Althia Raj (@althiaraj) June 11, 2024

80th anniversary of D-Day: "We will remember them"

Too much going on this week to do a longer post, but here's some interesting stuff about D-Day and the 80th anniversary.  

First, posted above is the Veterans Affairs video commemorating the 80th anniversary - "We will remember them".

Next, check out historian Craig Baird's Canada on D-Day podcast:

,,,The Canadian troops had managed to push farther inland than any other force on D-Day, but only one Canadian unit made their objectives.

Regardless, the first line of German defences were completely smashed.

One Canadian journalist said,

“The German dead were littered over the dunes, by the gun positions. By them, lay Canadians in bloodstained battledress, in the sand and in the grass, on the wire and by the concrete forts. They had lived a few minutes of the victory they had made. That was all.”

In the mayhem of Normandy, progress was made...

Plus, Baird has a great story about James Doohan, who played Scotty on Star Trek!

Today in 1944, 14,000 Canadian landed at Juno Beach on D-Day. There were also 110 Canadian ships, 10,000 sailors & 15 RCAF squadrons in the assault.
On D-Day, 1,076 Canadians will be casualties, of whom 359 are killed. By Aug. 30, there will be 18,700 casualties. pic.twitter.com/W1ifiYMqdl

— Craig Baird - Canadian History Ehx (@CraigBaird) June 6, 2023

Today in 1920, James Doohan aka Scotty, was born in Vancouver. This is his story!

After moving to Sarnia, Doohan enlisted with the Royal Canadian Artillery in 1939.
During the Second World War, he stormed Juno Beach on D-Day, where he shot two snipers.

🧵1/3 pic.twitter.com/xxAaoJVHiI

— Craig Baird - Canadian History Ehx (@CraigBaird) March 3, 2023

In 1966, he gained the role of Montgomery Scott on Star Trek. He chose the name to honour his grandfather & the character became a fan favourite. Along with building the role of Scotty, he also helped develop the Klingon & Vulcan languages.
He passed away on July 20, 2005.

🧵3/3 pic.twitter.com/i46eZ2JyAO

— Craig Baird - Canadian History Ehx (@CraigBaird) March 3, 2023

Guilty X 34 = two solitudes in America

In Canada in the 1940s, we were experiencing what we described as Two Solitudes  between our French-speaking and English-speaking peoples:

...two peoples within one nation, each with its own legend and ideas of what a nation should be. ...the chasm between French and English communities growing deeper. ...a perceived lack of communication between English- and French-speaking Canadians.

We worked through several confusing, divisive, sometimes painful decades filled with questions about whether our Confederation could ever work for the whole country -- the Quiet Revolution in Quebec, the FLQ crisis, the Quebec referenda, the founding of parties like the Parti Quebecois and the Bloc Quebecois, stupid arguments against bilingualism, idiotic complaints about French on cornflake boxes and other excuses for periodic spasms of western alienation, etc. etc -- it is part of Canadian history and culture.

Today, I think we are seeing the same dynamic happening between progressives and right-wingers in the United States, with Trump as their personification. The MAGA true believers and their media enablers seem to have created their own world and they are determined to live in it, regardless of how delusional they are.

Today's Trump verdict is a case in point.

And on the lighter side!

This is one of those weeks for me personally -- so here's some funny stuff to lighten the mood:

First, some Poilievre makeup jokes:

What’s the difference between the Trudeau Foundation and the Poilievre Foundation?

The Trudeau foundation gives scholarships and encourages academic research, Poilievre’s foundation just leaves stains on his collars.

Does this guy have the makeup of a true Prime Minister? ;) pic.twitter.com/jE1cr8DQIZ

— Matt Grier (@MattGrierMusic) May 23, 2024

Pee Pee pic.twitter.com/sEAKPYuvri

— Brent Whiteside (@brent_whiteside) May 20, 2024

Next, haven't we all done this?

One of our boys’ daycare workers described “girl looking” as “I know I put it away
somewhere, but where?” and “boy looking” as “looking right at it and not seeing it”

— Lee Iverson (@leeiverson) May 14, 2024

Great threads: from sculptures to libraries, from Curb Your Enthusiasm to Cow 88, from TikTok to Kermit (NEW: update on Cow 88)

Here are some fascinating threads I have seen recently on Twitter - click to see all of the posts: 

Amazing sculptures:

2. Melancholy, a sculpture created by Albert Gyorgy, portrays the void that grief leaves us with.

"We may look as if we carry on with our lives as before. We may even have times of joy and happiness. Everything may seem normal. But this emptiness is how we all feel… all the… pic.twitter.com/mriA1t8ttX

— James Lucas (@JamesLucasIT) May 16, 2024

Into the long weekend: mosquitos and Poilievre and polls, oh my

Ahh, summer is starting at last!

MOSQUITOES! pic.twitter.com/wvHI7RLein

— Brittlestar (@brittlestar) May 17, 2024

Moving on to something even more biting, I think Pierre Poilievre is now finding there is a downside to being up 20 points in the polls -- people actually expect to hear something sensible from him sometimes, not the usual anti-Trudeau deflection three-word-slogan talking points. 

Some examples: 

In the Globe and Mail, Shannon Proudfoot describes why it matters that Pierre Poilievre pretends all the media is against him and refuses to even try to answer press questions: Pierre Poilievre is pretending he doesn’t know how his job works because it makes it easier

...Mr. Poilievre has spent the past two years energetically insisting that any journalist who asks him a spiky question is enacting some greasy partisan agenda. There are entire swaths of the media that he’s been training the public to see as #JustinJourno grifters....

...What he’s doing is insulating himself from any future unwelcome questions or scandals that might surface. And he’s teaching the receptive public to automatically distrust anyone critical of him. That means Mr. Poilievre doesn’t even have to be there to yell at some annoying reporter, because he’s already set the table for people to discount them.

Imagine what this looks like three years from now when – if current polls hold – Mr. Poilievre will be prime minister and perched atop a stout majority in the House of Commons.

Spending issues, policy choices, dumb programs, stinky e-mails, ugly behaviour from public officials – why, to poke at any of it is to be part of the conspiracy. To deny this, or to insist these are valid questions that the public deserves answers to? That’s what bought-and-paid-for stooges would say...

Today's News: Trump makes cowards of them all.

The more I see of the Congressional Republicans, the more they remind me of The Sopranos.

And anyone who doesn't fall into line gets sent to the Gulag.

The cowardice is appalling.

George Carlin put it best in 1988: "These are the people who are against street crime. They want to put street criminals in jail to make life safer for the business criminals!" https://t.co/OibIWkwofR

— Matt Ortega (@MattOrtega) May 15, 2024

Why isn't all of America pointing and laughing at these guys?

Another authoritarian marker- identical dress. I remember when Ba'th Party officials used to groom their mustaches so they would match Saddam's.@RadioFreeTom @ruthbenghiat @Timodc https://t.co/4GtSd6gYnR

— Bryan Fichter (@BFichter) May 14, 2024

People are losing respect for our system of justice because a Speaker of the House stands outside a courthouse to falsely denigrate it.

If you have no respect for the rule of law, Mr. Speaker,

At least have some self-respect. https://t.co/GOqjZ8Bj8w

— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) May 14, 2024

Because the speaker of the house serves at the pleasure of Donald Trump criminal defendant https://t.co/hRBrzGrkYg

— Molly Jong-Fast (@MollyJongFast) May 14, 2024

This is the guy they're supporting:

They were literally yelling “hang Mike Pence”. Trump is reported to have said, “Well, maybe he should be hung.”
His apologists will say that never would have happened, but if they’d found him, it very well may have. He was happy to let others do his dirty work, as always.

— CoPag (@CDub1974NC) May 14, 2024

And by the way, the New York Times also owes America an apology for acting as Trump's steno:

NYT gonna run 6 dozen articles on Biden's age to try and cover for the fact that Cohen directly described Maggie Haberman as a stenographer for Trump https://t.co/2ayuqSiAXm

— James Drippens (@ShamebyJames) May 14, 2024

More writings about the Israel-Hamas War: Biden's dream, IDF goals, casualty statistics, Israel divestment

I have seen several recent useful posts and comments about the Israel-Hamas War so I wanted to share them.

First, an interesting analysis from Dan Rather about Biden's Big Dream For The Middle East:

...why did Hamas attack [on Oct 7] seemingly out of the blue after years of, if not peace, then detente, in the Middle East? Perhaps because of a “grand diplomatic bargain” or “mega-deal” being negotiated among the United States, Saudi Arabia, and Israel — a deal that would include normalization of relations between Tel Aviv and Riyadh. Yes, the Biden administration had been quietly working on this deal for months, and Iran-backed Hamas reportedly wanted to blow it up. The ambitious agreement has far-reaching and game-changing implications.

... “Five leaders in the Arab community were prepared to help rebuild Gaza, prepared to help transition to a two-state solution,” Biden told CNN.

If Biden can hammer out an agreement with Saudi Arabia and Israel, it could be a diplomatic masterstroke that has many upsides: forging a pathway for Israel and the Palestinians to live as neighbors, improving Arab-Jewish relations in the region, reducing Iran’s power, perhaps appeasing voters at home, and finally bringing peace. The president is dreaming big. And in the Middle East, dreams die hard. Will this dream have a different ending?

Happy Mother's Day and other comedy bits

I liked this New Yorker cartoon -- says it all. 

I also saw this thread on X and yes, I could appreciate this sentiment:

Anyone who has ever worked in food service knows Mother’s Day brunch is the worst shift of the year. People are such assholes about everything which is so funny because - my guy, your mom can wait 10 more minutes, she’s used to disappointment - she had you.

— sheologian (@sheologian) May 11, 2024

Another constituency heard from:

The Monday after Mother’s Day used to be the busiest day at Family Court for temporary protective orders ..glad I’m retired.

— 🌻Debra Montanaro🌻 (@montanaro_debra) May 11, 2024