Monday, October 21, 2024

Funnies and Long Threads: from King Charles to airplane seats; from hurricane stories to Bob Dylan


Let's start with some funnies:
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Sunday, October 20, 2024

Did anybody have "Big Dick Envy" on their Trump Bingo Card?


Trump just can't hold it back anymore:
Big dick envy:
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Friday, October 18, 2024

Comedy tonight: Poilievre lettuce-watch, plus some funny stuff about Trump, Harris, birds, art, dogs, dope, and being old


The Poilievre lettice watch begins: Hey, really folks, it was only a little light treason...
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Thursday, October 17, 2024

Having some fun now! Trudeau at the PIFI hearing, and Harris on Fox News


First, Trudeau testified at the Public Inquiry into Foreign Interference hearings today. 
Trudeau was supposed to be embarassed, bumbling, and exposed by this inquiry - but instead, it was Poilievre who found himself stumbling -- unfit to lead because he won't, or can't, get a high-enough security clearance for CSIS briefings. 
Reminded me a lot of this old skiing cartoo - stunned Poilievre doesn't know what hit him, while competent Trudeau continues on his merry way:
Also an excellent summary tonight from Wesley Wark A National Security PM? One more word on the PM’s testimony before PIFI
...He was forthright in stating that he was astonished to learn, for the first time through CSIS evidence presented to the Inquiry, about a liberal Parliamentarian who had been targeted by FI. He said he should have been alerted but also claimed that the changes that have made to the dissemination of intelligence would guarantee that if these events had happened in the present he would have been informed.
But then the PM turned to how best to ensure that all political parties were aware of foreign interference. He expressed some reservations about a policy of briefing Parliamentarians using intelligence information. But he extolled the value of bringing all opposition party leaders into the secret tent so that they could be made aware of intelligence on foreign interference threats targeting Canadians and their parties. This requires opposition leaders to be security cleared to a high level so that they can receive classified briefings. Jagmeet Singh for the NDP and Elizabeth May for the Greens have taken this step. Yves-Francois Blanchet for the Bloc said he would, but appears not to have followed through. The PM said he regarded this approach as non-partisan in nature. Knowledge raises all boats.
But then the PM went on to unleash a fierce attack on the Conservative Party leader, Pierre Poilievre, for his refusal to obtain a security clearance. He called this decision by Poilievre “bewildering,” “lacking in common sense,” and “irresponsible.” He stated later in cross-examination that Poilievre lacked seriousness about national security and appeared unconcerned that his own leadership race may have been impacted by foreign interference. There was a to and fro with the counsel for the Conservative Party on this. It got juicy. I think Trudeau won that one on points.
This was both an electioneering moment and a legacy moment. The PM positioning himself as best placed to defend the country’s national security and deliver policies and actions in the national interest. ...

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Wednesday, October 16, 2024

Today's News: Quick Takes on Trudeau, Poilievre, the House of Commons, Harris, Trump, the US Election, and Brexit


Just a few Quick Takes - some stuff  worth reading tonight:

Trudeau
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Tuesday, October 15, 2024

Today's News: Extraordinary warning about threats from India


Well, I was going to put up a light-hearted post tonight about Thanksgiving - cartoons, nice stories, etc. 
But then this happened: The Toronto Star article gives us a blow-by-blow of how Canada tried to inform India about its findings: Inside Canada’s struggle to engage with the Modi government — and why it ended with the expulsion of six Indian diplomats RCMP alleges that Indian diplomats and consular officials in Canada are tied to murders, violence, intimidation and threats against Canadians.
...The two countries each expelled six diplomats as the Mounties disclosed their suspicions in a news conference after efforts by top Canadian officials, in Washington and Singapore, failed over the past week to resolve an impasse in their investigations.
RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme told reporters that the situation required immediate public disclosure in an effort to disrupt what is going on.
...So far, Duheme said, eight people have been charged in Canada with homicides — although he refused to specify the number of Canadian deaths or the time frame involved.
And 22 individuals stand charged with extortion, or acts of intimidation, coercion, threats and harassment that Canadian authorities now see as likely connected to agents acting at the Indian government’s direction. Police have given warnings to 13 Canadians since last September that they are potential targets of Indian agents. Some have received multiple threats, and they have been on the rise in recent weeks, police say.
More explosive is the allegation that Indian government officials posted in Canada are “directly” linked to the violence.
...things ramped up in earnest about six weeks ago.
The RCMP had by then determined a pattern in a series of investigations in a number of cities across Canada, the sources said: it appeared Indian diplomats and consular officials in Canada were conveying information about the movements and activities of certain Canadians back to Indian intelligence officials in India’s external intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing, known as RAW.
According to the sources, speaking confidentially in order to discuss Canada’s findings, that information appeared to be then conveyed to a criminal gang in India, whose leader Lawrence Bishnoi is in Indian prison custody but uncharged, and in turn passed on to individuals in Canada who police allege are “agents of India” acting to intimidate, threaten and even kill Canadians.
The prime minister, Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly and Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc told reporters on Monday that the primary targets of the interference have been Sikh Canadians, but said the threats went beyond that community to include other South Asian Canadians. All three said they have shared the information with counterparts in the “Five Eyes” intelligence alliance that includes the U.S., U.K., Australia and New Zealand....
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Monday, October 14, 2024

Today's News: Freaking Out about the Presidential Polls

 
https://www.270towin.com/mp

Three weeks to go and the Presidential polls are freaking everyone out:
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Saturday, October 12, 2024

Today's News: Oh for f**ks sake, why would Trudeau step down NOW?


Lots of news today about how a group of unnamed Liberal back-benchers are supposedly organizing to get Trudeau to resign as party leader. 
Yeah, sure -- whose bright idea was that?
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will face mounting pressure from his caucus this week to step down from the leadership of the Liberal party.
A group of backbench MPs, primarily from Atlantic Canada and southwestern Ontario, are in discussions to formally release an ask for the prime minister to consider the future of the Liberal party in making a decision about whether to stay at the helm of it....
CTV News spoke to 24 Liberal MPs Friday, about half of whom said they were aware of a so-called letter circulating but had not put their name to it. Half a dozen of the MPs said they had heard "about 30 people are signing it" but had not seen the signatures themselves. Three MPs told us they could only speak for themselves but would support the prime minister re-considering his bid to lead the party into the next election and another three MPs said it was "news" to them the letter existed.
Each MP requested anonymity out of concern of reprisal for speaking out. Many told CTV News the Prime Minister's Office has taken a harder line on MPs leaking to the press as of late.
The media were just delighted as they rushed to "break" this story but really, come on folks -- there is no reason at all for Trudeau to "step down" right now, not just before the US election, 3 weeks away. But there is all the reason in the world for him to stay the course until he sees what will be happening to our largest trading partner.
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Friday, October 11, 2024

Imaginary News


We have all heard now about Fake News - see also Truthiness, Alternative Facts, and Mis-information. Now, we're hearing "imaginary news" --

We’ve all become desensitized, but it’s amazing how at this point the Trump campaign rests entirely on denouncing things that aren’t happening — a imaginary bad economy, imaginary runaway crime and now an imaginary failure of Biden and Harris to respond to natural disaster

— Paul Krugman (@pkrugman.bsky.social) September 30, 2024 at 3:37 PM
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And Trump just keeps on lying:
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Thursday, October 10, 2024

Interviews with Harris and Walz

Harris and Waltz are doing media all over this week (except tne New York Times and Politico, and boy are they pissed!) 

Anyway, here are some good clips: 

From Howard Stern:
From Colbert:

"They know how to pronounce my name!" -- rockstar reception tonight for Kamala Harris on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert

[image or embed]

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.bsky.social) October 8, 2024 at 11:00 PM
Even the band is excited!
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Wednesday, October 09, 2024

Now there's something you don't see every day!


Some odds and sods and bizarre news: 

Oh, yeah -- I forgot What people will remember from Bob Woodward's newest book:
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Tuesday, October 08, 2024

Evacuating Eden


...They, hand in hand, with wandering steps and slow,
Through Eden took their solitary way.
- John Milton, Paradise Lost
I was going to do a post tonight on the Harris and Walz interviews, but the situation with Hurricane Milton is just too dire. Those poor people -- how many thousands are having to leave the homes they love, their own Eden?

Here are some of the tweets I saw tonight about this disaster:
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Monday, October 07, 2024

Today's News: Truanons and Nuremberg 2.0 and understanding the damn question

So on Saturday this happened:
Of course, Reid had to withdraw his tweet -- he "didn't realize" he had been suckered by a doctored Trudeau video. 
I guess jumping to conclusions based on lies is the kind of thoughtful decision-making Canadians can expect from esteemed business leaders now?
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Sunday, October 06, 2024

Long Reads: The rise of stupidity; The analytic failures of the Russia-Ukraine War; and how presidential polls are always wrong


Last night I posted some long threads; tonight, I have several interesting "long reads" on topics I have frequently discussed on this blog:
   
The Stupid, It Burns!
Substack writer Black Cloud Six writes The New Normal: Living in the Age of Stupidity
Black Cloud describes this as "perhaps the most critical issue of our generation: the rise of stupidity."
He continues:
... Unfortunately, the entry of Donald Trump into the US political arena accelerated the tendency to accept all opinions—no matter how ridiculous or grounded in conspiracy—as being equal. Social media has magnified this tendency, as bizarre opinions and theories find validation among like-minded groups. How else can we explain the resurgence of Flat Earth conspiracies, chemtrails, "gang stalkers," and, most consequentially, anti-vaccine rhetoric?
...The last six months have shown just how fast this tendency is spreading. In what other reality could a major candidate’s claim that immigrants were eating pets not be disqualifying? Recently, the Premier of Alberta promised to "look into" chemtrails and raised questions with the US Department of Defense. That this is a fringe, lunatic conspiracy theory didn’t seem to matter. After all, aren’t all opinions valid? This trend has real-world consequences, which became evident when the province announced amendments to its Bill of Rights, which included overt anti-vaccine rhetoric. In virtually every sphere, conspiracies, falsehoods, and outright lies have entered mainstream discourse.
That traditional media gives a pass to such views and helps platform them isn’t helping. Conduct that would have been utterly disqualifying 20 years ago is now "normal," and views that would never have been discussed in public are now being mainstreamed. There may be eye-rolling when discussing flat earthers or the idea that migrants are eating pets, but it's not a lie if large numbers of people believe it, right? After all, it's the media's duty to entertain diverse voices and share both sides, even when one side is clearly ludicrous. The problem is that accepting such views has real-world consequences, as the folks in Springfield, Ohio, or those dealing with the latest whooping cough outbreak can tell you.
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Saturday, October 05, 2024

Long threads: best baseball announcers, North Carolina angels, hopeful happenings, boys will be boys, and some really big things


Here are some long threads that I liked. 
This is a lengthy post because I am including many of the tweets from these threads -- a reader told me once that people who aren't on X anymore aren't allowed to read their posts now. 

So first up, with the baseball post-season underway, here is a long thread about great baseball moments as described by great baseball commentators - such masters at creating verbal pictures. And at the best in my time was, of course, Vin Scully.
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