Sunday Funday: It's all hat and no cattle for Stampede Week!

Prime Ministers and PM wannabees always go to the Calgary Stampede.
And the Conservative ones always seem to figure out some way to embarrass themselves -- usually, its something to do with their cowboy hats.
The only time The Beaverton ever ranked Stephen Harper as Number One was when they did an article in 2023 ranking Canadian politicians for looking stupid in cowboy hats:

The Beaverton writes:

The dumbest of them all. We uploaded a vertical photo so you could take in the entirety of Stephen’s leather daddy look. If the country ever needed any proof that Harper, despite being an Alberta MP, was actually a nerd from the Toronto suburbs, this photo gave it to them. 

Poilievre is continuing now in that Conservative tradition. 

For July 4, the Statue of Liberty as metaphor "You can't be forever blessed"

I have never seen the Statue of Liberty in person and now I never will, because going to New York is not going to be happening anymore. 

But for Americans, Lady Liberty exerts a powerful force of symbol and aspiration. Now, as the United States sinks deeper into anti-democratic authoritarianism every day, I have collected a number of cartoons using the Statue to illustrate America's angst and despair. So it seems appropriate, on this July 4 of Trump 47, to post them tonight:

Some good reads: from Paul Wells, David Legree, Adam Olsen, Stephen Marche, Jim Coyle plus a Poilievre catchup and a vanishing Lego Homer

Just to entertain everybody while we wait for the apocalypse, here are some recent articles I liked: 

From Paul Wells' Substack:

I wrote about a national competition for Canadian portrait art that’s been going for 20 years, about the new book that tells its story, and about top-down versus bottom-up cultural policy. Story features spectacular illustrations.

- Paul Wells

Read on Substack

From David Legree at IPolitics:

New from me: An exclusive interview with David Suzuki, who talked about reaching the conclusion that humanity has failed in the fight against climate change, and why communities should start preparing for more destructive natural disasters #cdnpoli #cdnenviro www.ipolitics.ca/2025/07/02/i...

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— Davis Legree (@davislegree.bsky.social) July 2, 2025 at 12:55 PM

Talking about Canada Day

Some good articles and posts tonight about Canada and our Canada Day:  

Paul Hunter / CBC News

He made the decision on impulse, but it sparked a movement. Mike Myers on elbows up
'We can love Americans and not want to be Americans,' actor tells CBC's Paul Hunter
For all in Canada who happened to be watching Saturday Night Live, that March night was an unforgettable moment.
Mike Myers, the one-time SNLer who'd performed in the opening skit as a chainsaw-wielding Elon Musk, stood onstage with the rest of the cast at the end of the show as they all waved goodnight.
Then he did it.
As millions watched, the Toronto-born Myers opened his jacket to reveal a black T-shirt underneath bearing that red-and-white maple leaf flag and the phrase "CANADA IS NOT FOR SALE."
He then flexed his arm in the air, pointed at it and mouthed the words "elbows up," an old-time hockey term meant to signify punishing one's opponent. It happened as U.S. President Donald Trump's antagonistic threats to annex Canada were reaching their apex.
"It was just, 'Leave us alone,'" Myers told CBC News, explaining the shirt. "We love Americans. But we can love Americans and not want to be Americans, you know what I mean?"
The message was Myers's salute to everyone watching back home. Revealing it on live television was a spur-of-the-moment decision, he tells CBC News in his first on-camera interview about that night. He says he had no idea it would catch fire — let alone spark a wave of Canadian patriotism not seen in decades...

Today's News: Celebrating Canada Day, and making a silk purse

It only feels like its been a decade since July 1 2024, doesn't it? Time for some celebration:

      

Sunday Funday: Laughing at Trump wanting a Nobel Peace Prize, a beaver shows us how to cut down a tree; other jokes and funny posts, and Animal Crackers

Nobel Peace Prize? For Trump? Oh my:

 Donald Trump wanting a Nobel Peace Prize is like Jeffrey Dahmer wanting a Vegetarian of the Year award.

- The Mouthy Renegade Writer

Read on Substack

Yeah, this is the way I feel too:

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Pride Month wrap-up: happiness and history

There were some great photos from Saskatoon's Pride Parade last weekend:

(All photos by Sherri Solomko)

Sherri Solomko / SaskToday.ca

Pride not prejudice theme of 2025 Saskatoon Pride Parade
Saskatoon's Pride Parade marked it's 24th year of celebrating community, identity and achievements....
The downtown parade capped off Pride Week events in Saskatoon and showcased a powerful display of unity, diversity and visibility.
This year’s event marked the 24th year of the parade, held in conjunction with other Pride events in the Bridge City. More than 150 parade entries kept hundreds along the parade route entertained with a joyful display of floats, costumes, music and walkers.

Today in Elbows Up! Comments and posts about Quebec, sports MVPs, the ICE gestapo, Canadian deal-making, Carney diplomacy, American rallies, and a new book

Canada hasn't had to do as much "Elbows Up!" cheering lately as we did last winter -- we are rapidly getting used to the new reality of not travelling to the US, not buying US products, and laughing at the Orange Buffoon as often as we can.

But I think July may be challenging -- Carney is finished with the G7 and NATO meetings, he has made agreements with European countries for trade and defense. Trump's tariff deadlines are approaching, though who knows whether anything Trump says actually means anything now.
I have been seeing a few posts and comments relating to Elbows Up so I thought I would share them.

First - even in Quebec!

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Some comments on the passing scene: the US is destroying university research; NATO is buttering up Trump; Carney is winning military hearts & minds; and Americans are fighting ICE gestapo

I'm seeing random stuff all over tonight, so here's a few of my comments on the passing scene. 

First, the destruction of academic and scientific research in the United States continues. I just do not understand why they are so angry and what they think will happen now:

Journalists keep asking me, baffled, “What’s the Trump administration really trying to do to the science agencies?” So I say “They are trying to destroy them. Cut off their funding, ruin their facilities, harass their staff into leaving.” It’s not reform, and it never was. It’s destruction.

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— Derek Lowe (@dereklowe.bsky.social) June 24, 2025 at 4:34 PM

One thing to emphasize strongly is that funding to science is like oxygen to the brain. Temporarily restricting oxygen flow for ten minutes (while you figure your shit out) is going to have the same outcome as shutting oxygen off permanently. We are close to the ten minute mark.

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— Harmit Malik (@harmitmalik.bsky.social) June 25, 2025 at 9:46 AM

This administration's goal is to destroy US science and to do it quickly *40% cut for NIH funding * 50% cut in National Science Foundation funding * Virtual elimination of funding for climate and environmental research * Attacks on elite universities Science is so woke www.npr.org/2025/04/18/n...

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— Laurie Loves Data (@laurelann.bsky.social) June 21, 2025 at 5:02 AM

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Today's News: Carney's CNN interview, Poilievre's parade bust, Trump's F-bomb

Carney:

Amanpour calls Carney "the Trump whisperer". Really good, substantive interview. #cdnpoli youtu.be/l8gWyt4wZjc?...

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— Steve Valeriote (@stevev68.bsky.social) June 24, 2025 at 1:24 PM

I'm seeing more online progressives saying "Fuck Carney" now because....I don't really know why exactly...

I guess they think some of his legislation isn't perfect but Trudeau's wasn't either. 

And some of Carney's recent statements about Trump and Netanyahu haven't been as critical as they would have liked. Yeah, I know.  For example, he didn't use the CNN interview to bash anyone. 

But one thing to remember about Carney is this: he demands respect. And he gives respect too -- he respects the offices of Prime Ministers and Presidents regardless of whether he dislikes the person in it or disagrees with what they are doing. You could see that respect in the CNN interview too, where he gives the Trump administration the benefit of the doubt and doesn't take pointless cheap shots.

Of course, like every other leader now, Carney also knows the only way to deal with Trump is to treat him like the 5-year-old son of your new boss — give him treats and bouncy castles and make him think you are just delighted to play with him.

Basically, I agree with The Oakleafs:

Compare and contrast: Trump's bombastic stupidity vs. Carney's smooth effectiveness

First, here's Trump. How stupid is this?

The night the Iran bombing was announced, this is what I posted:

I suspect Trump bombed Iran tonight because his military parade was a bust & the G7 leaders laughed at him & Fox News' Jessica Tarlov ridiculed his "two weeks" post. "I'll show them!"

— Cathie from Canada🍁 (@cathiecanada.bsky.social) June 21, 2025 at 11:46 PM

Not only that, but Trump was also jealous of how Fox News was covering Israel:
Heather Cox Richardson / Letters from an American

June 23, 2025
In a timeline of Trump’s decision to drop 12 of the reportedly 20 Massive Ordnance Penetrator bombs the U.S. military possessed on Iran, New York Times reporters confirmed what Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo judged from the beginning: Trump wanted in on the optics of what seemed to be Israel’s successful strikes against Iran.
Andrew Perez and Asawin Suebsaeng of Rolling Stone reported conversations with administration officials who confirmed there was no new intelligence to suggest Iran was on the brink of producing nuclear weapons.
Mark Mazzetti, Jonathan Swan, Maggie Haberman, Eric Schmitt, and Helene Cooper reported yesterday in the New York Times that Trump had warned Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu against striking Iran but changed his mind after seeing how Israel’s military action was “playing” on television. The reporters write: “The president was closely monitoring Fox News, which was airing wall-to-wall praise of Israel’s military operation and featuring guests urging Mr. Trump to get more involved.”
Trump began to hint he had been part of the operation, and military advisors began to draw up plans for a strike. According to the reporters, by June 17—three days after his military parade had fizzled and more than 5 million Americans had turned out to protest his administration—Trump had decided to bomb Iran.
Rather than keeping the mission quiet, Trump issued increasingly aggressive social media posts appearing to hint at a strike....

Sunday Funday: funny posts, some interesting stuff, more Trump Watch, and Animal Crackers (with a goofy camel, too)

I usually save most of my funny clips and posts for Saturday night, to make a funny post for people to read on Sunday.
Tonight everyone is doing hot takes on Trump's decision to bomb the nuclear sites in Iran -- but we don't know yet how Iran will respond, what Russia will do, how Hezbollah will react, whether Iran will close the Persian Gulf shipping, how Israel can continue to survive as a country, and so on and so forth, so its difficult to predict what will happen. 

Except to confirm that Trump and Netanyahu, each for their own selfish and short-sighted reasons, have pushed the entire Middle East beyond politics and into history now. 

I suspect Trump only did it now just because his military parade was a bust and the G7 leaders laughed at him and Fox News' Jessica Tarlov ridiculed his "two weeks" post and "I'll show them!"

So, on with the funny stuff:

This kind of exchange is why I still enjoy Twitter:

🥱 Took you long enough…a person could die waiting on your sequel schedule! 😉 https://t.co/7pmcx9Rh6P

— William Shatner (@WilliamShatner) June 16, 2025

The funny side of the news

I'm seeing some funny posts tonight about recent news stories so I wanted to share. 

It looks like the G7 may have had an uninvited guest:

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Today's News: Cons step on a rake in Alberta; Updates on Jerome Powell, Trump's decline, Los Angeles, and ICE Gestapo, plus America #KneesUp

Just a few updates today -- 

Canadian unity 🇨🇦💪🏻 https://t.co/Jb8ZqG0zR4

— Laura Babcock 🇨🇦 (@LauraBabcock) June 18, 2025

How NOT to win Alberta hearts and minds
Talk about stepping on a rake! The Conservative campaign manager Jenni Byrne apparently hates Carney so much she posted this after the Edmonton Oilers lost yesterday -- why did she think this would somehow troll Carney by laughing at his support for Canada's team?  

Who knows, I guess it seemed like a good idea at the time. 

The X post is now deleted, but the stench lingers on.

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Jenni Byrne should focus on winning elections and not winning Twitter and the fact that she thought clowning on Carney and the Oilers tonight did anything other than make her look like a bitch explains why the CPC lost an unlosable election

— Evan Scrimshaw (@EScrimshaw) June 18, 2025

The fact that Pierre Poilievre’s number one advisor mocks Edmonton Oilers fans just as Pierre is about to run in a byelection in Alberta is completely astounding.

— Mark Marissen 🇨🇦 🇳🇱 (@marissenmark) June 18, 2025

Meanwhile, this is the tweet about the Oilers that Carney sent out:

Proud of the Oilers' grit. Proud of the guys for getting us to this moment. Heads high. Next year. #LetsGoOilers

— Mark Carney (@MarkJCarney) June 18, 2025

War between America and Iran? "Avoid history at all costs. History is too big, too abstract, too dangerous."

They're doing it again.

It sounds like Trump is going to get the United States involved in another damn war in the Middle East.

Heard the same thing going from 3 to 2 pic.twitter.com/8yHK5Wpeql

— Nancy Just Nancy (@NancyJustNancy) June 19, 2025

It took Netanyahu 29 years, but he finally found an American president who was itching to go to war with him against Iran. https://t.co/BmIAftzPgV

— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) June 18, 2025

Watch @Timodc on the Israel-Iran conflict: "There's one thing I do know, I wish that a genocidal maniac was not leading Iran and that a corrupt, indiscriminate, prime minister was not leading Israel and that a fucking moron was not leading our country." pic.twitter.com/uDTL5xaklJ

— The Bulwark (@BulwarkOnline) June 18, 2025

Journalist Gary Kamiya wrote this article for Salon magazine in 2003, two weeks before the US invasion of Iraq. 

It remains eerily prescient today: 

Gary Kamiya / Salon March 11, 2003 

Sleepwalking toward Baghdad 

As the sand runs out on peace, America drifts alone toward a strange and unjustified war. 

 ... we have gone from being in a political moment to a historical one.
I use the words somewhat eccentrically, to distinguish between events that are simple enough to be fully explicable ("political") and those that are too complex to be defined ("historical"). The war against Afghanistan took place in what I am calling the political realm: It had a clear, limited and achievable goal, one understood by all -- and widely supported around the world. The impending war against Iraq, on the other hand, is a historical event. It cannot be explained or defined. When it comes, it will simply exist, with the opacity of history. Its outcome is not foreseeable.
The distinction also has a moral dimension. To exist in history is to have passed beyond the pieties and slogans of the political. History is tragic: politics is not. History is glorious. It is also fatal.
The two great competing ideologies of the 20th century, fascism and communism, were both self-consciously historical movements. As Czeslaw Milosz brilliantly noted in his classic study "The Captive Mind," it was precisely the abstraction of communism, its claim to have attained the summit of morality and to have incorporated into itself all possible contradictions, that made it so meticulously horrifying. In similar fashion, fascism contained a kind of blankness at its core: the self-glorifying violence of the state simultaneously concealed and revealed the emptiness of its founding concept, the national tribe.
The lesson every government should have learned from the bloody 20th century, one written in blood across the tortured soil of old, very old Europe, is very simple: Avoid history at all costs. History is too big, too abstract, too dangerous. Avoid men with Big Ideas -- especially stupid men with Big Ideas. Take care of politics: let history take care of itself. In a word, don't play God.
George Bush is a deeply religious man, and he deeply believes in the God-given mission of the United States to shed light -- Auden's "affirming flame" -- upon the world. But as we wait for the bombs to fall, we can only pray that he does not release darkness.

(Painting is Paul Nash, Landscape from a Dream)