Tuesday, July 30, 2024

Today's News: from Biden passing the torch, to Olympic success, to Weird Trump, to White Dudes for Harris



Moving on to the Olympics, we see Canada doing great today. 

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Thursday, July 25, 2024

Today's News: Terrible news that Jasper is on fire


Terrible news tonight from Jasper National Park - multiple buildings in the town of Jasper are burning.. 
We always loved visiting Jasper -- it was almost as scenic as Banff, but without the crowding and the touristy kitsch (or at least, not as much). 
It was a easier drive too, from Saskatoon, especially after most of it was twinned. 
Whenever we drove to Vancouver, we usually took the easier Edmonton route, with its long and lazy valleys instead of twisting through the Calgary to Kamloops route. 
I cannot imagine how frightening and terrible it would be to get told to evacuate at 10 pm, then drive all night to get to safety. 
Such outstanding courage those people are showing us all.
...Parks Canada says firefighters continue to battle to save as many structures as possible in the Jasper townsite.
“Today has been an exceptionally difficult day for Jasperites, incident personnel and everyone who loves Jasper,” said the agency.
Crews working to save homes, businesses and critical infrastructure will be supported by “many more” structural firefighters en route to the community.
...Jasper is under attack by fires from the north and south, and the town’s 5,000 residents -- along with 20,000 park visitors -- have already left.
The northern fire was spotted five kilometres from Jasper earlier Wednesday.
The southern fire had been reported eight kilometres distant from the town, but Katie Ellsworth, with Parks Canada, said strong wind gusts swooping in behind it sent it racing.
Everything that could go wrong earlier Wednesday did go wrong.
Fire perimeters changed minute by minute.
Ellsworth said bucketing efforts by helicopter failed.
Crews using heavy equipment to build fireguards couldn’t complete the work before having to pull back for safety.
Water bombers couldn’t help due to dangerous flying conditions.
A last-ditch effort to use controlled burns to reroute the fire to natural barriers like Highway 16 and the Athabasca River failed due to “unfavourable conditions.”
The hope was that up to 20 mm of rain, forecast to begin falling in the area later Wednesday night, would bring some relief.
Alberta Forestry Minister Todd Loewen has asked the Canadian Armed Forces for help.
"We are requesting firefighting resources, aerial support to move wildfire crews and equipment and more," Loewen wrote on the social media platform X.


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Monday, July 22, 2024

Farewell to Biden; Hello to Kamala

https://x.com/TerryMosher1/status/1815119625895747862

Biden was one of the best presidents America has had but I expect Kamala will be even better. 
Tonight, social media is full of great tweets and stories about Biden, about Kamala, about Democrats. And there was definitely a tone of relief tonight that things are settled.
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Friday, July 19, 2024

Today's update: That rascally Biden!


Today it seems people are realizing the Biden-Must-Go campaign could be retitled as "Elitist Dems and Fat Cats v. Biden" - yes, Biden stumbles over his words, but his ideas and goals are clear and admirable. 
AOC speaks: And Bernie: Both of them understand that unions and workers have never had as good a president as Biden: Amazing pushback from MAGA over this tweet: And this is also the truth:
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Today's News: Trump babbles while Biden burns


I didn't watch it - apparently a good decision - but here are some comments about the Trump speech at the Republican Convention last night:
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Sunday, July 14, 2024

Weekend Funny Stuff and Animal Crackers


We need a break before plunging into the fresh hell of next week. 

First, some funny stuff:
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Tuesday, July 09, 2024

Today's News: Save the Last Dance For Me

 
So some Democrats may still be flirting on the dance floor, but Biden is telling them all to save the last dance for him. 
Josh Marshall describes the media frenzy around Biden and whether he will withdraw from the nomination:
...For the second half of last week I was basically certain that Joe Biden would be forced to end his candidacy and that it was simply a matter of time before he did so. Then, starting Saturday, things seemed to shift. These things work in waves. For any politician the best way to avoid being forced to resign ...is simply not to resign. It’s one of those truisms that contains more depth and nuance than one at first realizes.
One of the reasons for that shift was simply that Biden was still there. He’s still running and still the nominee. We’re in the midst of a level of feeding frenzy I’ve only seen twice as a political observer — the first week of the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal in 1998 and the one that ended Al Franken’s career in the Senate in 2018. The Washington press corps and national political press overwhelmingly and vociferously want to force Biden out of the race. I don’t say that in the sense of bias, per se — it’s not even necessarily at the level of intentionality. It’s more at the level of crowd behavior. It’s just how these feeding frenzies work. What do foxes think they’re doing when they rip through a hen house? For the DC press, this is all mixed in with ego and a sense of vindication. But again, it’s just how feeding frenzies work. But at a certain point, the feeding frenzy has been churning for days and Biden’s still running and there’s some element of a wave cresting. Like, hey we’ve been telling you all the reasons why Biden has to withdraw from the race for days but he’s still running and okay, well, maybe not — or, like, we can’t keep up this 100 yard dash forever. It’s just a cresting pattern.
At the same time I think there were the first hints of a realization that this has been overwhelmingly a conversation among media and political elites without much focus or knowledge about anything average voters are thinking or doing....
As the days go by and as Biden holds fast, the tide is turning. 
At No More Mister Nice Blog, Steve M writes
...It's striking that his poll numbers have dropped only slightly since the debate -- he trailed Trump in FiveThirtyEight's poll average by 0.2 on debate day, and trails by 2.2 now. FiveThirtyEight's forecast has Biden winning in 49 simulations out of 100. And Morning Consult's polling shows Biden gaining ground in swing states.
...When people ask about Donald Trump's baffling popularity, one frequent answer is that voters look at him and think, "He fights." I wonder whether Biden's refusal to step aside is being seen by some Democratic voters as a "He fights" moment. That might explain the polls that show only slight slippage, or even an improvement, in Biden's standing.
I think this battle is effectively over. I just hope that Biden's renewed fighting spirit doesn't dissipate once his would-be dumpers have retreated. I hope he stays invigorated, and pivots to fighting Trump with the spirit he's showing in fighting his intraparty doubters.
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Wednesday, July 03, 2024

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: Then again..
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Sunday, June 30, 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!
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Saturday, June 29, 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:
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Saturday, 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: For National Indigenous Peoples Day: American politics:
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Thursday, 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:
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Tuesday, June 18, 2024

Today's News: Heatwave!


This summer's first heat wave is here.
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Wednesday, June 12, 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:
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Wednesday, June 05, 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!
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