Sunday, March 31, 2024

Random Round-up: from the Sask Easter Bunny, to the Trudeau Liberals, the RCMP, Boeing, the eclipse, and even wigs

For Easter, here is the Craig Baird Saskatchewan Easter Bunny:

I recently found several good articles that are worth sharing: 
Evan Scrimshaw pleads with the Trudeau Liberals to smarten up --Jurisdiction's False Sanctimony and stop pretending they can get reelected by blaming provincial Conservative premiers:
...I want this government to be re-elected. Not all that many people seem to be agreeing with me. They were down 18% in Abacus over the weekend, there’s been polls with them in third place in Quebec in recent times, and the Tories just copped a 19 point swing in Durham. Every time we think the bottom has been hit there’s a new low, and the only thing that keeps this government from falling to fourth place in seats is the NDP is led by the human equivalent of using a croissant as a dildo.
For all the spilled ink about the media’s role in all of this, at the end of the day that’s not an answer to making this better for the government it’s just an answer to feeling better when the government get fucked. You know what’s going to feel even worse than your smug certainty about how everybody voting for Poilievre is stupider than you? When Pierre Poilievre wins 250 seats and we have to spend the 2025-29 Parliament arguing about whether the Liberal Party should bother to exist.
... I want the Liberals to focus on solutions and not just handwaving away responsibility. I want a Liberal government, and if that’s not possible I want as many Liberal MPs so that a Poilievre government can be as short as possible. But yelling about the media would make me more popular, because we definitely have our priorities straight.
The left have to decide whether they want to win elections and save the Liberal Party from its current malaise or whether they want to lose safe in the comfort of smug sanctimony. Denying reality ends in a Conservative landslide.

Tuesday, March 26, 2024

We're all bridge experts now, aren't we?

Here is a fascinating analysis of the Baltimore bridge disaster, by someone who actually does know a lot about ships and bridges:
   
 My bet is they will get some shipping lanes cleared within two weeks -- the Army Corps of Engineers already has a thousand experts working on it, and it wouldn't surprise me if vessels from Halifax to Sao Paulo are already on their way to Baltimore to help tow the girders out of the way and dredge that channel deeper.
Meanwhile, here's some of the day's less crazy commentary:
 
Post by @stonekettle
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Post by @stonekettle
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The Wire producer David Simon spent the day lambasting various idiots who blamed the disaster on everything from immigrants to vaccines. His twitter feed is pretty funny: Here's some more:

Sunday, March 24, 2024

Canada is re-thinking Mulroney today. And maybe Poilievre, too

Canada is buzzing about Brian Mulroney's funeral -- so many profound, moving and memorable moments: 
But life goes on, as Pierre Poilievre is going to find out -- he seemed to think the Mulroney funeral should be just another campaign stop, and Canada is not impressed: PP, you won't get a second chance to make a first impression on Canada. Everybody found you appalling:

Wednesday, March 20, 2024

Trending tonight: #ScrapTheCrap and #22Minutes

[With thanks to Journo Dale Smith.]

So today Pierre Poilievre was getting lots of media attention due to his ridiculous "threat" of a non-confidence motion -- did he think the NDP would actually want to fight an election this spring? 
Not. 

Sunday, March 17, 2024

Has America finally reached its gag limit with Trump?


I try to ignore just about everything Trump babbles. 
But tonight he is quoted by activist and former Labour Secretary Robert Reich in a post titled Trump is out of his mind, and desperate
At a rally today outside the Dayton International Airport in Vandalia, Ohio, Trump warned that “if I don’t get elected, it’s going to be a blood bath … for the country.”
He also warned that if he didn’t win, “I don’t think you’re going to have another election, or certainly not an election that’s meaningful.”
In the rest of the speech he repeated his false claims that the 2020 election was stolen, which have been utterly discredited.
He praised the people serving sentences in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol — calling them “hostages” and “unbelievable patriots,” commending their spirit, and promising to help them if elected in November.
He cast migrants as threats to American citizens — claiming without evidence that other countries were emptying their prisons of “young people” and sending them across the border. “I don’t know if you call them ‘people,’ in some cases,” he said. “They’re not people, in my opinion.” He later referred to them as “animals.”
Trump is clearly desperate. He knows that his future freedom and his fortune both depend on winning in November. He has no qualms about turning Americans against Americans to achieve this goal. Apparently he is even willing to fuel violence, a second civil war.
Wow! 
And finally -- FINALLY -- that "bloodbath" remark seems to have triggered America's gag reflex. 
I'm seeing tweets and columns about it all over.

Friday, March 15, 2024

The Golden Calf and the Three Little Pigs


In America, Trump is the Golden Calf - because he has no philosophy or morals or principles himself, he can only reflect the hatreds and prejudices of his worshipers. And they love him for it.
Here in Canada, we're dealing with out own fairy tale. Poilievre's three-word solutions --Ax the Tax, Build the Homes -- and his frothing hatred of Trudeau makes him a kindred spirit to people who want shouting and slogans and fist-raising rallys but who don't know what his slogans actually mean. 
Mulroney knew the real Poilievre, as does Kim Campbell
Now his MPs are following in his footsteps:

#Kate-Gate: maybe she just exited, pursued by a bear



Oh, wouldn't you know that the Kate Middleton story is now so big it just had to become "Kate-Gate"! Washington Post columnist Alexandra Petri has a whole list of possibilities [gift link] -- from turning into a giant bug, to stepping into a mysterious wardrobe, to falling down a rabbit hole, or just "exited, pursued by a bear" (ie, she left William). 
The late night TV talk shows are getting into the swing of things too:

Sunday, March 10, 2024

"Say....what????" moments -- with Campbell, Middleton, Moe, and LA

Several "Say....what????" moments tonight: 

First, Kim Campbell called Pierre Poilievre a liar and a hatemonger. Wow! And on a side note, isn't this the truth?

Friday, March 08, 2024

Wow, wasn't that a great State Of The Union?


Dark Brandon was in the House tonight! The Republican response from their Senator Kitchen Barbie was long and lurid - especially the way-too detailed gang rape anecdote with her whispery, overly-dramatic voice:

Sunday, March 03, 2024

More great stuff -- from #snowmageddon to dogs to Amish barn-raising



We got a huge dump of snow this weekend - its #Snowmageddon2024 -and our street is now impassable. So we'll be cocooning at home for the next several days:
Let's continue with some dogs, bruh!
Post by @thecompletefacts
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Wednesday, February 28, 2024

Here's some great stuff - from the solar system to dogs, bruh!


Amazing!

Friday, February 23, 2024

Poilievre wants Canadian Porn Constables -- our new CPC!



Sorry for the lack of posts this week -- my laptop was in the shop. 
But tonight I'm back to it again, and just in time! 
Because it was one of those weeks when Christ, what an asshole! should have been trending. 
I don't know why Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) leader Pierre Poilievre decided to turn his focus away from actual election issues -- housing, consumer prices -- and toward culture war craziness like transgender bathroom usage and starting a federal Jerk-Off registration agency. But he is getting horselaughs across the country.
I think we should call this the new CPC - Canadian Porn Constables: Even media who smile and nod when someone is lambasting Trudeau are mystified by Poilievre's new porn policing ID idea: Evan Scrimshaw, Poilievre's Graphic Gambit a Needless Gamble
... On a week that started with Justin Trudeau standing beside David Eby announcing a big Federal support for a provincial housebuilding program, the end of the week is focused on showing ID to watch porn and what bathroom trans people can use because the Tory leader wants us focused on that. As a matter of motivating the Liberals and getting them back in gear, this has helped. As a matter of potentially reinvigorating the PPC, Poilievre has given them an issue. 
...Poilievre is taking the Tories off of an economic message that has worked for them into culture war fights there’s no guarantee they can win. And that’s a stupid thing to do when you could cruise control to the government benches. ...Going on flights of bigotry about trans bathrooms...is just an excuse to those who are thinking about voting for Poilievre but don’t like it to come home....The porn flight of fancy is even dumber, because it’s a massive encroachment of civil liberties that threatens to give Max Bernier a defining issue at the next election,...

Thursday, February 15, 2024

Today's News: A Nelson moment for Canadian Press

via GIPHY

So Canadian Press did their research. 
As Poilievre launched into attacking Trudeau for giving Bell Media a $40 million fee reduction in spite of firing journalists across the country, the Canadian Press found out this reduction was actually a Conservative idea. 
Ha ha!
Conservative and NDP MPs backed a 2022 amendment to the Online Streaming Act, opposed by the governing Liberals, that allowed Canada’s private broadcasters to save about $120 million a year in regulatory fees.
Bell’s share of those savings was $40 million — the precise total of annual operating losses the broadcaster’s parent, BCE Inc., cited when it slashed 4,800 jobs last week.
But Poilievre is now blaming Justin Trudeau for those cuts, calling on the prime minister to claw back some of his government’s federal grants to media companies.
...The June 2022 motion, introduced by Conservative MP John Nater, passed with the support of New Democrat and Bloc QuΓ©bΓ©cois MPs on the House of Commons heritage committee without debate.
The motion sought to amend the Liberals' update to broadcasting law, the Online Streaming Act, so that it would abolish certain licensing fees....

Friday, February 09, 2024

Today's News: Speculatively smearing Biden


In nine months, we will know whether Biden and the Democrats can win the American election. 
Though in 2020 Biden won the popular vote by millions, he only won the Electoral College distribution by less than 100,000 votes. Now we're into 2024, and this race is going to be a shitshow every step of the way. 
Trump the Orange Felon is desperate to get Biden impeached somehow. And he desperately wants to get Biden charged with some crime. 
So today Special Counsel Robert Hur at the US Justice Department issued an awful report on the so-called Biden document scandal. Even though Hur couldn't charge Biden after Biden reported that government documents from 2009-2016 were found in his garage, that didn't stop Hur from smearing Biden anyway by blue-skying about how maybe Biden could play the age card to a hypothetical jury in a hypothetical courtroom if - speaking speculatively you know - Biden actually were to be charged with a hypothetical crime. 
Over at Balloon Juice, John Cole summarizes it:
 ...the Justice Department has provided the media and Republicans with a both sides defense on documents to use in their fluffery of Trump, with a bonus dig at Biden’s mental health. So that’s fucking awesome. I remain very concerned about the Fall election. It’s clear that it does not matter how well things are going or anything concrete, a lot of people just want to burn shit to the ground and a lot of people just want to carry out their vengeance porn on the poor and minorities and those different than them. 
Some other comments here: Apparently Biden's meeting with the prosecutor came the day after the Hamas Massacre in Israel -- seems to me Biden might well have been a little distracted that day, with, you know, the possibility of war in the Middle East and all... At Talking Points Memo, Josh Marshall writes
...this is another example of the universal rule: Republican special counsels are chosen to investigate Democrats. And Republican special counsels are chosen to investigate Republicans. It may not have been a great idea for Merrick Garland to have a two-time Trump appointee investigate Joe Biden. But here we are. Robert Hur totally slimed Biden with these gratuitous comments about his mental acuity and memory, referring to him as a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.” Even if you assume they are the product of a good faith evaluation they are still wildly inappropriate. 
DOJ guidelines make clear that if you’re not bringing charges you don’t bash the subject of the investigation in your announcement (a la James Comey). 
You certainly aren’t supposed to affirmatively attempt to demean the subject of the investigation with clearly political attacks that aren’t even related to what you’re investigating. Hur might as well have called him “Fake News Joe Biden.” It’s really that transparent and that bad.
Finally, this:

Wednesday, February 07, 2024

Today's News: Is Poilievre actually Mr. Roboto?


I thought yesterday's clip of Poilievre being interviewed by several reporters was very strange. 
Now, the questions from the reporters were odd too -- they seemed incredibly intimidated by Poilievre, fumbling and mumbling, their voices trembling as they tentatively asked questions. 
But what I really thought was bizarre was Poilievre's Robot-like answers -- he kept repeating his lines like a mantra - "Axe the tax, build the homes, fix the budget, stop the crime, ..." and he kept repeating his Trudeau smears word-for-word "crime wave across the country, 2 million people using food banks". It sounded like he has carefully memorized four lines of attack and has to just keep repeating them over and over, on some kind of bizarre endless loop. So now I'm wondering, is Pierre Poilievre actually just a robot?
He even looks a little like Mr. Roboto too, doesn't he? 
In his tweet about this clip, Charles Adler asks 
Is this slogan salad what the CPC leader misidentifies as common sense? Before wasting your time filling the reply box with the same tedious labels, listen to Poilievre's words and ask whether you have any friends in the real world who ghoulishly & foolishly speak like bots.