Saturday, September 21, 2024

Happy Saturday! Canadianisms, strange graveyards, animal crackers, and more!


As the weeks wear by, propelling us toward a crucial election in the United States and, increasingly likely, in Canada too, I find myself grasping occasionally at something less intense -- funny, even. Hope nobody minds the break:
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Friday, September 20, 2024

Today's news: Canada's intelligence priorities

Yes, as a matter of fact, Canada does have priorities for intelligence - why did you ask?

Tonight's newsletter from Wesley Wark flags the recent announcement: Intelligence Priorites, secret no more!(after 60 years) He writes a fascinating article, well worth reading in full, but here's an excerpt:
...if we are asking—why now?—and looking for the exact prompt for publication of the intelligence priorities, it was undoubtedly the foreign interference inquiry (PIFI) and related attention to questions about how effectively the government has responded to national security threats. The Government already stole some thunder from PIFI by introducing legislation, Bill C-70, to counter foreign interference in May 2024, immediately following the publication of the Inquiry’s Initial report. The legislation progressed at lightspeed through Parliament and received royal assent on June 20. Publishing intelligence priorities and pushing foreign interference to the top of the list, is another instance of trying to get ahead of the Inquiry.
But if there are some political games being played around timing, the longer-term implications are significant. It will be difficult for any future government to backtrack from this initiative...
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Thursday, September 19, 2024

Mainly, we duck and cover....


From 2016 to 2020, Canada survived Trump by ducking a lot - Trudeau managed to save NAFTA mostly, we didn't get pulled into any American wars, we quietly helped out the refugees who found their way across the border, and only once was Trudeau caught laughing at Trump. 
But it was tense, and you could almost feel the relief in 2020 when Covid gave Canada a reason to stop Americans at the border -- both tourists and the 82nd Airborne, whichever came first. 
But now, here we go again --  
Jeff Tiedrich posts this video and writes elderly golfer blithers about a giant faucet in Canada it’s so easy to solve the world’s problems when you have no fucking clue what you’re talking about 
 ...it’s so easy to solve the world’s problems when you have no fucking clue what you’re talking about.
 there’s no doubt that years ago, some hapless administrator at the Commerce Department was explaining to Donny all about California’s complex system of rivers, aqueducts and reservoirs — and at some point along the way, described water management as “think of it as a big faucet.” but whoever that was forgot about the part where Donny is a fucking idiot who has no idea what metaphors are. so in Donny’s mind, there’s a literal faucet in — I don’t know, Canada maybe — and it’s huge, and it takes an entire day to turn. 
and of course, Donny knows more about water management than all the water managers, so he’s got the solution to no one else is smart enough to come up with: just turn that big fucker in the other direction — and then sit back as all the big, strong water managers, their massive arms (because you need big muscles to turn that goddamn enormous faucet) tanned and glistening in the golden California sunshine, come up to Donny with tears of gratitude in their eyes, saying sir! sir! ‘just turn it in the other direction.’ we turned the shit out of it, sir, and now California has all the water it needs! sir, how do you do it? 
seriously, if someone in your own family started blithering about a “big faucet in Canada,” you’d be all come on, grandpa, we’re going for a ride and you’d bundle the old duffer off to a good memory-care facility, post haste. 
I think that was the same press interview, at his California golf course, where Trump talked about how great it was to see Hawaii in the distance -- and he was talking about Catalina Island.
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Wednesday, September 18, 2024

Today's News: Trudeau v Poilievre - is it time to put up or shut up?

Disappointing but not surprising to see the Liberals lose that Quebec by-election yesterday. 
I saw some commentary online to the effect that now Trudeau will just HAVE to resign. 
But today, Trudeau is basically telling Poilievre, Singh and Blanchet "time to put up or shut up":
...the Liberals offered the Conservative Official Opposition the first chance at presenting a motion of non-confidence in the House of Commons, despite the Liberals’ loss Monday of a key south Montreal seat, the Star has learned.
The Conservatives have been informed by the Liberal House leader they will get a day to set the parliamentary agenda on Tuesday, Sept. 24, with a vote the following day, Wednesday, Sept. 25. At that time, Conservatives and their Leader Pierre Poilievre, who has vowed to trigger an election at the earliest opportunity, could call for the defeat of the Trudeau government.
If they succeed in winning the support of the Bloc Québécois and the NDP, a non-confidence motion could pass, triggering the fall of the government. Defiant, Trudeau is willing to test the resolve of the NDP and the Bloc to go to a general election — a prospect which the Bloc has downplayed....the Liberals are confident neither the NDP nor the Bloc want to go to the polls....
This point is also worth noting: From last week, here is a fascinating Toronto Star piece from Colin Horgan, a former speechwriter for Trudeau - Justin Trudeau is trapped in the internet of the past. Is Pierre Poilievre doomed to join him?
... In recent years, the social internet has become more right-wing and, at the same time, darker, angrier, and more confusing. It’s a tone that more Canadians are seeing reflected now in their own political sphere and that Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre has adopted to boost his populist message. But weeks from the U.S. election, and with a Canadian vote possible at any time, we sit astride a tonal edge — a divide made even more striking during the closing arguments of Tuesday’s presidential debate, when Harris appealed to the “the aspirations, the dreams, the hopes, the ambitions of the American people” and Donald Trump called the United States “a failing nation … in serious decline” that is “being laughed at all over the world.”
Harris’s capture of the positive online discourse suggests that this upbeat, hopeful vibe — the likes of which we haven’t seen online in a decade — might once again be ascendant, and not just in the U.S. If it bears out, it could mean Poilievre’s online gambit, and his entire messaging strategy, is riskier than it looks...
...The Conservative leader is the first politician in Canada to successfully harness the attitude of the contemporary internet right. Since taking the helm as head of the official opposition, he has wantonly but effectively pushed the limits of credulity in his social posts, posting misleading crime figures, declaring Canada “broken”, and sneering at the media. Even his promises of larger paycheques and easier home ownership come in the same aggressive tone.
...He looks and sounds like a YouTube bro selling drop-shipping schemes from a luxury condo — taking no lessons but endlessly teaching them. Yet, it works for him...
Poilievre appears wholly unprepared for any sustained growth in the kind of positivity Harris’s campaign has created....For now, Poilievre is beating Trudeau soundly by most any metric, his boastful bravado matched perfectly with the brash online realm he’s successfully leveraged against Trudeau. But, like Trump, he risks overreaching and being too online for his own good. While it’s unlikely he’d ever admit he could learn something from the prime minister, Trudeau knows a thing or two about vibes, and how they shift. And the vibes will change again — maybe sooner than we think. When they do, Poilievre may get a lesson in the true nature of the online hustle.
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Tuesday, September 17, 2024

Animal Crackers


Just a few great animal posts I have seen recently:
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Monday, September 16, 2024

Today's Roundup: Sunday's Vance Interview From Hell


I'll bet Vance never thought the leopards would eat HIS face...      
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Sunday, September 15, 2024

Crazy stupid racist crap

Absolute craziness in the United States now:

First they came for the pregnant women And I did not speak out Because I was not a pregnant woman Then they came for the Haitian immigrants And I did not speak out Because I was not a Haitian imigramt ... Then they came for me And there was no one left To speak out for me

— 123xyz.bsky.social (@123xyz.bsky.social) September 14, 2024 at 9:42 PM

one of the reasons I think it is important that Trump loses big is that I want even the monsters pushing this stuff to believe it’s bad tactics there needs to be a political price for stochastic terrorism and it needs to be high

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— Micah (@rincewind.run) September 14, 2024 at 7:29 PM

Klan: “Trump wants us to attack and exterminate these filthy racial minorities” NYT: “Trump Expresses Concerns About the Financial Cost of Demographic Change”

— Kevin M. Kruse (@kevinmkruse.bsky.social) September 14, 2024 at 5:37 PM
Here's some good news: On a side note, in Canada, 179,000 people report Haitian ancestry, as per the 2021 census. Notable Haitian Canadians include Governor General Michaelle Jean, Canadian Parliamentary Poet Laureate Marie-Célie Agnant, and Olympic gold medal runner Bruny Surin.
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Saturday, September 14, 2024

Today's News: #ETTD



Back in 2016, Rick Wilson invented the hashtag #ETTD (Everything Trump Touches Dies) - and he is absolutely right. Every single time.

Every new Trump favorite has that wild eyed look in their eyes for a few days like they’ll be different from all the others he used up and threw away. And you can see it go out of their eyes, photo by photo. It’s speeding up too. Vance is already in shadow. RFK too. Loomer is next.

— Alexander Chee (@alexanderchee.bsky.social) September 13, 2024 at 6:19 PM
Now Trump has America's entire immigration system in his crosshairs:

over and over, Trump has said that he will try to deport 20 million immigrants he means it, Vance means it, Stephen Miller means it, the whole vile fascist apparatus means it this is a dry run of the language and the lies they will use to justify it and all of the violent horrors it entails

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— Micah (@rincewind.run) September 13, 2024 at 1:07 PM
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Friday, September 13, 2024

Today's News: What does Singh think he is doing?


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Thursday, September 12, 2024

Long Threads: More things I didn't know


There is one thing that I still love about Twitter and other social media -- how interesting people are still publishing interesting "long threads" where I learn about a new corner of the world, a new fascination, a new knowledge. 
Here are a few I have collected recently -- I am posting these in a longer form than I did previously, because apparently people who aren't on X can no longer follow its threads (thanks, Elon!) 
Anyway, here goes: 
First of all, Merriam Webster held a "word" contest over the last several weeks, and here are the winners: Terrible Maps is an hilarious follow. Here's one:
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Wednesday, September 11, 2024

Today's News: Hooray for Harris!


A triumph! At last! 
The Harris message of a positive, forward-looking, united America really resonated at tonight's debate. 
And Trump just looked like the tired, befuddled old man he really is. 
Here are some zingers about the debate:
Post by @briantylercohen
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I really thought this would be the line of the night: “Donald Trump was fired by 81 million people, and he’s clearly having a hard time processing that.” Eclipsed by "concept of a plan."

— Steve Saideman (@smsaideman.bsky.social) September 10, 2024 at 9:41 PM
In the post-debate coverage, the universal opinion was that Harris "won" while Trump "lost". But just as the talking heads might have swung into their ritual "but on the other hand" trashing some of Harris' answers, the Taylor Swift endorsement dropped - another win for Harris - and all the media butterflies went flying off to that bright shiny. 
So it was a win all around!
Post by @renee.diresta
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And by the way, if you want to understand what tarrifs are and why Trump does NOT understand what he is talking about, read this thread about how tarrifs presently affect the price of a men's suit:

Some misinformation in today's US presidential debate about who bears the cost of tariffs. So let's talk about how tariffs affect what you pay for a suit. 🧵 (1/20)

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— derek guy (@dieworkwear.bsky.social) September 10, 2024 at 11:23 PM
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Tuesday, September 10, 2024

Today's News: Getting through the next eight weeks




Just eight more interminable weeks until the American election  
I don't know how I will get through it. 
The Harris-Trump debate is tomorrow night, and I suspect its the only one America will get.
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Monday, September 09, 2024

Stories from the Internet: The Great Flamingo Uprising

An occasional series:

From the Tumblr website "Zookeeper Problems" we find this story of the Great Flamingo Uprising of 2010:
In addition to the aviary/jungle exhibit, our zoo has several species of birds that pretty much have the run of the place. They started with a small flock of flamingos and some free-range peacocks that I’m almost certain came from my old piano teacher’s farm. She preferred them to chickens. 
At some point in time they also acquired a pair of white swans (Or as I call them, “hellbirds”) and some ornamental asian duckies to decorate the pond next to the picnic area. Pigeons, crows, assorted ducks and a large number of opportunistic Canada geese moved in on their own.
Now; the ponds that dot the zoo property (I don’t remember how many there are but the one by the picnic area is the only one with swans) were also full of ginormous koi fish, some of whom by now are at least three feet long. 
Sensing an opportunity to cash in on the koi, the zoo put up little vending machines all over the place that dispense handfuls of food pellets. I swear to god the fish can hear the crank turning, and will show up at the nearest railing, blooping expectantly at whoever happens to be standing there and doing their best to appear starving and desperate.
And they weren’t the only ones who learned to associate the sound with the imminent arrival of food. The Canada geese knew a good deal when they saw one, and had long since ceased to migrate anyway. They formed roving gangs of thug-geese and staked out their turf around the vending machines, ready to mug anyone with pocket change. Picture yourself as a small child squaring off with a bird fully prepared to strip search you while standing on your feet and yelling “HWAAAAAKK!!” in your face. It’s traumatizing to you and deeply hilarious to your parents.
Anyway. ...
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Sunday, September 08, 2024

Today's News: They're trying to "Sane-wash" Trump


Aaron Rupar has popularized a new term for how the American media is reporting on Trump -- "Sane-washing" 
Trump's speeches are gibberish -- stream-of-consciousness rambling whines about the 2020 election, interspersed with tariffs, 'Sir' stories, tax cuts, shark stories, 'black' jobs, Hannibal Lecter, post-birth 'abortion', describing concentration camps as a 'housing' policy, saying schools are making children 'trans' and going on and on. 
But this gibberish is being smoothed over and plumped up like a morning pillow by American media. They are constructing news stories that make it seem like Trump is offering the nation a set of normal, reasonable, rational conservative policies. 
It is really just bizarre:
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Saturday, September 07, 2024

Today's News: Tell me lies, tell me sweet little lies....


For years now, we have been told how successful the Canadian right-wing social media influencer pundit critics are. 
They told us during the Convoy how popular these yahoos were -- because look at all the money they raised.  They told us how everybody just hates Trudeau because he's so woke and he doesn't appreciate how Canada has such awful problems and is really broken. They told us how everybody just loves Poilievre's three-word Verb-The-Noun policies and these are just what the country needs.
And we believed it! 
Though we kept on fighting the good fight, we progressive lefties still found ourselves wondering if maybe we actually were just out-of-touch elitists who didn't have a clue about what "real" Canadians really wanted. 
And we wondered if we should just try harder to pay attention to these social media influencer pundit critics, maybe we should start watering down our unpopular lefty ideas so they would like what we were saying.  
Because one thing did seem clear -- that millions and millions of "ordinary" Canadians obviously loved what the Canadian right-wing social media influencer pundit critics were saying, because look how much money these guys are making! Look how many page-views they were getting! Look how many subscribers they had!
This week we found out it was all a lie.
We already knew about a few things, like conservative politicians buying subscriber lists for their social media posts, and bot-farms sending out tweets to support right-wing politicians.  We already knew about Russian hackers trying to distort the news.
But this week we found out that so-called popular right-wing social media influencer pundit critics in Canada and America -- bunches of them, whole channels of them! - were just shills for Russia. 
And well-paid ones at that.  
They were actively trying to undermine democracy and our democratically-elected leaders by lying to us, by creating "content" lies that could be amplified by politicians and also by legitimate media, so that people would believe it.
The Pitchbot gets the tone of this betrayal exactly right:
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