The St. Valentine's Day Health Research Massacre.

ReleaseThe

QuackenVille

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was confirmed as the Trump Administration's Health and Human Services director on Thursday, February 13th.

On Friday February 14th, the following happened, as reported by the pre-eminent US'ian science publication 'Science':

President Donald Trump’s administration today moved to fire 5200 workers at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), using supervisors across the vast agency to warn probationary employees that they would soon receive termination notices. It also fired the director and much of the staff of the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), a $1.5 billion agency created 3 years ago to fund high-risk, high-payoff research.

The move came on the first full day in office of HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who had promised to eliminate hundreds of jobs at federal health agencies “on Day 1.”

At the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), where institute directors were hastily summoned to a meeting this morning to alert them of the imminent firings, some 1500 employees were initially scheduled to be let go; at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) the number was 1269...

And, in addition to the generalized gutting of such agencies, there is also the surgical carving up of targeted initiatives:

...At CDC, many of the 50 or so members of the first year class of the Epidemic Intelligence Service—the agency’s prestigious “disease detective” training program for young epidemiologists—were notified they would be terminated. Three division directors in the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, a key front in pandemic prevention, were also on a list of targeted employees...

Clinician scientist David Gorski, who writes at 'Science-Based Medicine', had this to say about the latter:

...It’s almost as though RFK Jr. is trying other make us less prepared for another pandemic. No, strike that. He is, just because he hates what the CDC said about COVID-19, nonpharmaceutical interventions (e.g., masks, social distancing, business closures) to slow the spread of the virus, and, above all, vaccines...

Up here in Canuckistan there is a strain of science geek gallows humour going around about all the outstanding young American talent we will soon be recruiting to the Great White North. Personally, I am not laughing.


_____
No word yet as to whether Science, the magazine, has been banned from White House, CDC and/or NIH press conferences due to a lack of knee bending...Sound far-fetched?....Well, it turns out that the Associated Press has already been banned from Air Force One and the Oval Office for refusing to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico, which was first named thusly in the mid-16th century, some 200 years before the American revolution.


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There's No Reason To Do This Song Here.

FortyEightIsNotFifty
1977Ville


For various and sundry reasons, I will not likely be watching the SNL 50 year cash-in-aversary. Regardless, I am betting that Elvis Costello's first appearance on the show back in December of 1977 will be one of the highlighted bits.

What was so special about the former Declan MacManus' first appearance in LorneVille all those years ago?

Well, the record company had pushed him to do 'Watching The Detectives', which he and the Attractions started. However, a few bars in Costello suddenly stopped the proceedings and shouted:

'I'm sorry ladies and gentlemen, but there's no reason to do this song here.'

The band, which was only booked on the show because Malcom McLaren screwed up the Sex Pistols' visa applications, then immediately launched into the much more up-tempo 'Radio Radio'.

This turn of events sent Mr. Michaels into a tizzy given that it messed with the show's timing. Feet were stomped, things were shouted and Costello was apparently banned from the show forever.

But.

This bit of snot-nosed behaviour actually served Mr. Costello well and the entire thing became quite infamous, so much so that Mr. Michaels, who never met a bit of infamy, self-generated or not, that he didn't attempt to exploit, later recycled the incident when Costello suddenly cut in on a Beastie Boys performance to sing about old timey British rules about what could, and could not, be played on the long wave.

Anyway, in an oddly irony-free twist of fate, it turns out that, whenever things go really wrong at one of his shows, Weird Al Yancovic, will suddenly halt the proceedings, shout out Mr. Costello's immortal words and, well, you guessed it...

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Democracy, Sort Of.

AllThePresident's

HeMenVille


If you need to step back from the the onslaught and are looking for perspective on what is going on down south, the piece to read a piece in Foreign Policy titled 'The Path to American Authoritarianism' by academics Steven Levitsky and Lucan Way.


Essentially, Levitsky and Way predict that the United States is well on its way down a path they call 'competitive authoritarianism' which will ultimately lead to democracy of a sort:

...U.S. democracy will likely break down during the second Trump administration, in the sense that it will cease to meet standard criteria for liberal democracy: full adult suffrage, free and fair elections, and broad protection of civil liberties.

The breakdown of democracy in the United States will not give rise to a classic dictatorship in which elections are a sham and the opposition is locked up, exiled, or killed. Even in a worst-case scenario, Trump will not be able to rewrite the Constitution or overturn the constitutional order. He will be constrained by independent judges, federalism, the country’s professionalized military, and high barriers to constitutional reform. There will be elections in 2028, and Republicans could lose them.

But authoritarianism does not require the destruction of the constitutional order. What lies ahead is not fascist or single-party dictatorship but competitive authoritarianism—a system in which parties compete in elections but the incumbent’s abuse of power tilts the playing field against the opposition. Most autocracies that have emerged since the end of the Cold War fall into this category, including Alberto Fujimori’s Peru, Hugo Chávez’s Venezuela, and contemporary El Salvador, Hungary, India, Tunisia, and Turkey. 

Under competitive authoritarianism, the formal architecture of democracy, including multiparty elections, remains intact. Opposition forces are legal and aboveground, and they contest seriously for power. Elections are often fiercely contested battles in which incumbents have to sweat it out. And once in a while, incumbents lose, as they did in Malaysia in 2018 and in Poland in 2023. But the system is not democratic, because incumbents rig the game by deploying the machinery of government to attack opponents and co-opt critics. Competition is real but unfair...

And how and why would this happen?

Well, essentially, the weaponization of the state would force many to give in:

...Although Trump’s critics won’t be jailed, exiled, or banned from politics, the heightened cost of public opposition will lead many of them to retreat to the political sidelines. In the face of FBI investigations, tax audits, congressional hearings, lawsuits, online harassment, or the prospect of losing business opportunities, many people who would normally oppose the government may conclude that it simply is not worth the risk or effort.

This process of self-sidelining may not attract much public attention, but it can be highly consequential. Facing looming investigations, promising politicians—Republicans and Democrats alike—leave public life. CEOs seeking government contracts, tariff waivers, or favorable antitrust rulings stop contributing to Democratic candidates, funding civil rights or democracy initiatives, and investing in independent media. News outlets whose owners worry about lawsuits or government harassment rein in their investigative teams and their most aggressive reporters. Editors engage in self-censorship, softening headlines and opting not to run stories critical of the government. And university leaders fearing government investigations, funding cuts, or punitive endowment taxes crack down on campus protest, remove or demote outspoken professors, and remain silent in the face of growing authoritarianism...

Gosh.

I'm not sure that last part even needs an insightful academic crystal ball to illuminate the future given that it already appears to be happening.

Regardless, Levitsky's and Way's piece is well worth reading in its entirety, and bookmarking for posterity if and when CanuckiStanMikitaVille starts to take on all the finest characteristics of, say, the current Hungarian regime



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How Fast Is The Broadway Plan Proceeding?

MatureRentals
A-Go-Go?Ville


How fast is the 'Broadway Plan' to increase density proceeding in Central Lotusland's Kitsilano?

According to Brian Palmquist it is proceeding super-fast:

• A year ago there were 10 Broadway Plan new high-rise projects in East Kits—today there are 25 new high-rise projects “in the pipeline” between Burrard and Vine Streets, 1st and 16th Avenues—that’s one additional per month.

• Meanwhile the city’s official tracking advises 12 projects are in the pipeline—their definition of what to include is way less than the reality on the ground.1

• Those 25 projects will involve demoviction of 13 existing mature rental buildings—that’s one affordable “mature” rental building gone for each pair of new projects.

• The 25 projects total 3,821 homes2. At the city’s (and others’) standard of 2.2 persons per home on average, that means more than 8,400 new residents in East Kits—admittedly that excludes the populations demovicted from the 13 mature rental buildings, unknown because the city does not track that number (why not? you may ask).

• “Only” four projects have had their rezoning approved to date, for a total of 795 housing units, 20% of which (159 units) are supposed to be “below market” rentals. The good news is that of these four, only one, 1960 West 7th Ave, involves destruction of an existing mature rental building. One down, 12 to go.

• There are still no plans for additional schools, community centres or park space.

It's that last bullet point that disturbs me most.



______
Image at the top of the post?...A 3D projection of the potential ultimate BWay Plan build out (white towers are in the pipeline; grey towers are possible/potential) looking East from Vine St by Stephen Bohus who uses the moniker 'digitalmonkblog' over at CityHallWatch...Here's his latest post on the proposed twenty story towers just west of Arbutus on 6th avenue.

From reader Eye in the comments: ..."The reason there are still no plans for additional schools, community centres or park space, is that there is no money for it. As predicted, the Broadway subway is acting as a major black hole sucking every available dollar to fund this massive pork barrel project."...

.

Then They Came For The Science Geeks...

IWonderAboutItAsMuchAsI

RegretItVille

You know that old ode to complicity, and all that it can and will wreak, that was written as a post-WWII confessional by German pastor Martin Niemoller:

First they came for the Communists 

And I did not speak out

Because I was not a Communist 

Then they came for the Socialists 

And I did not speak out

Because I was not a Socialist

Then they came for the trade unionists 

And I did not speak out

Because I was not a trade unionist 

Then they came for the Jews

And I did not speak out

Because I was not a Jew

Then they came for me

And there was no one left

To speak out for me.

Well.

It would appear that down south at the moment, the big players in the science geek game have decided that they will not speak out for them and theirs as reported by Joel Achenbach and Carolyn Johnson in The Washington Post:

...Some of the nation’s largest professional scientific and medical associations are still trying to decide how best to respond to the Trump administration’s aggressive intervention. Major research universities have been similarly cautious in their responses. The generally muted reaction, according to leaders in the research community, is partly due to the rapid pace of the executive orders, the vague nature of their wording and the judicial interventions...

To which I say hogwash.

Instead, I am of the opinion that it is a fear of retribution (including losses in big money funding) that is cowing these fine folks.

Look.

These are dangerous times.

And acquiescing in advance is not going to make things any less so.


______

Subheader?...This.

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The Farrell Manifesto.

NormNot
WillVille


Norm Farrell is concerned that our fragile democracy is currently at risk in Canada.

As such, Norm thinks we should consider the following:

• Public funding of election campaigns;
• Rewards for voting and penalties for not voting;
• Training for politicians that emphasizes their first duty is to the public, not the party;
• Implement term limits;
• Strict accountability for politicians and senior public servants;
• Limit the power of unelected bureaucrats and institutions;
• Reduce or end the influence of paid lobbyists and special interest groups;
• Increase transparency in all functions of government and government agencies;
• Address economic disparities to create a more equitable society;
• Protect marginalized groups and ensure their participation in democratic processes;
• Limit the influence of those who consciously spread disinformation;
• Take regular advice from citizen forums involving people selected at random.

Personally, I reckon it is hard to argue against any of Norm's suggestions.

Regarding the lobbying thing, I've seen how insidious/corrosive that can be, up close.

Awhile back I was doing some science geek volunteering for a health charity that does really good work for many constituencies. When I noticed that they used a lobbyist I asked why and was informed that this was the only way they could consistently get in front of, not just elected officials, but also the politically appointed bureaucrats that run things. Essentially, it was that arms race thing that we also see with political donations wherein even good actors are afraid not to play the game for fear of being shut out of the system.



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Hopium Over Ottawa?

PollieOllieOxen

FreeVille

Fed Lib firebrand Evan Scrimshaw took a lot of heat for his long time insistence that big changes, including a leader change, had to happen to protect the party from an electoral massacre.

And now, well, Mr. Scrimshaw just can't help but say 'I told you so':

...In late September, I did a podcast about Ontario, but at the end I teed off on the Federal circumstances, and the fact that there was no sense of urgency despite the fact that the Liberals had just lost a second safe seat Byelection weeks before. It was obviously an exaggeration - I was not, in a literal sense, the only person trying to get Trudeau to resign, but it wasn’t much of one. That my motives and my loyalty to country were so routinely maligned by those defending the PM was infuriating, because all of this came from a sincere belief that the Liberal Party unburdened by Trudeau would be at least in somewhat fighting shape. And I have been completely vindicated, with today’s Pallas release reaffirming again that this is a tight race...

And what is this vindication born of a one-off poll from an a polling outfit called Pallas all about this time Alfie?

This:

So.

Is this a real trend or just hopium for desperate Laurentianistas everywhere?


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Making Infectious Disease Great Again...On Purpose.

StopAllTheScience

InSectionsVille

The confirmation hearings for Bobby the Younger are scheduled to take place later this week.

And yet, the following, as noted by Anil Oza at STAT News, has already happened:

A flurry of scientific gatherings and panels across federal science agencies were canceled on Wednesday, at a time of heightened sensitivity about how the Trump administration will shift the agencies’ policies and day-to-day affairs.

Several meetings of National Institutes of Health (NIH) study sections, which review applications for fellowships and grants, were canceled without being rescheduled, according to agency notices reviewed by STAT. 

A Feb. 20-21 meeting of the National Vaccine Advisory Committee, a panel that advises the leadership of the Department of Health and Human Services on vaccine policy, was also canceled. So was a meeting of the Presidential Advisory Council for Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria that was scheduled for Jan. 28 and 29...

The point is, they don't even need to install Mr. Kennedy as their codswallop spewing figurehead because the extremists are already at the helm.


_____
While the immediately scary stuff here is the halting of the vaccine and antibiotic resistance advisory committees, in the American NIH biomedical research system 'study sections' are, essentially, the same as grant panels in the much smaller Canadian CIHR system. These study sections are where the real hard-nosed biomedical discovery funding decisions are made by scientists, not bureaucrats. Thus, the fact that the extremists are also cancelling US NIH study section meetings is really worrisome as it could be a spanner chucked in the gears of the world's biggest evidence-based, scientifically driven biomedical research engine. And we already know how threatened the extremists are by evidence and science.


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What Does Joe Rogan Have In Common With L. Ron Hubbard?

YouTreatedTheirCountry
ToAFlakeOfYourLifeVille


What does Joe Rogan have in common with L. Ron Hubbard?

Well, it would appear that Mr. Rogan's podcast thingy is a place where uber-thetans of a certain narcissitimilitudinous nature who were never nurtured go to get, well...

Clear.

That is all.


______

Earworm in the subheader?.... This!


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Saved By The Francophone Canadian Bell!

AllThingsOldFrenchAreNotNecessarily
NewFrenchAgainVille


So.

It would appear that, according to her press release at least, Christy Clark's lousy french is a major reason that she has decided not to run for the leadership of the Canadian Liberal Party:

...While we have come a long way, in a short time, there is simply not enough time to mount asuccessful campaign and for me to effectively connect with Francophone Canadians in their
language. I have worked hard at improving my French but it’s not where it needs to be, today...

Ignoring that use of the collective noun for the moment, one can only wonder if, perhaps, all that time Ms. Clark spent working hard might have been more effective if she had actually spent it Francophone Canada rather than, you know, France:

However, fortunately (or unfortunately depending on your point of view), Ms. Clark has also assured us that this press release is  not a 'you won't have Nixon....errrr...Clark to kick around anymore' kind of a statement because:

..Friends, I will continue to fight for Liberal candidates and am deeply thankful for the outpouring of support I have received from the grassroots over the past week.

We will meet again...

Oh boy.


_______
Of course, as we have noted before, last summer was not the first time that Ms. Clark worked hard on something that may or may have not been learning french while in France.

All snark aside, if Ms. Clark were to run for the Fed Libs in the next election, is there any riding in Lotusland, Coastal Division, that she could actually win?


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Career Opportunitist, The One Who Always Knocks.

SheDon'tWannaMakeTea

AtTheCBCVille

Nevermind the con-party membership thing for the moment.

Instead, let's consider where Ms. Christy Clark was and what was she doing when she endorsed Jean Charest for the Conservative Party of Canada leadership in August of 2022.

The following is from a piece by Lindsay Campbell in iPolitics at from that time:

...At a conference held on Thursday (in Edmonton) by the centre-right organization Centre Ice Conservatives, Clark spoke about how there’s a need for a centrist party that’s willing to unite the country and listen to the opinions of all Canadians...

{snip}

...Clark, a keynote speaker for the conference, told attendees that as politicians move toward the fringes, Centre Ice Conservatives are part of “a special kind of activism” to preserve a middle political path and “bring Canada back together.”...

And what is Ms. Clark's 'special kind of activism' bit all about?

Well.

...Though Clark said politicians, in general, don’t know how to have constructive dialogue and listen to opposing views, she specifically put (Justin) Trudeau on blast for the way he approached the convoy protests and people opposed to vaccines...

Aaahhh...

Now I get it, it's all about that third way(ish), anti-woke, compassionate centrist conservatism.

Or some such thing.

****

In addition to agreeing to be their keynote speaker Ms. Clark doubled down and became a member of the Centre Ice Conservative's 'advisory council'.

But then, about a year later in the fall of 2023, when those same fine folks first dropped the term conservative from their moniker and then turned themselves into a brand new soccer ball-free national political party called 'Canadian Future', Ms. Clark lost all courage of any actual convictions she originally had (or did not have) and was nowhere to be found.

Natasha Bulowski of the National Observer had that story at the time:

...Canadian Future will be headed by a national council with a representative from each province and territory and it intends to hold a founding convention in 2024. The Centre Ice Canadians sports a team webpage that includes former Conservative MP Peter Kent and former Conservative Senate leader Marjory LeBreton. Former B.C. premier Christy Clark was once listed on the organization’s advisory council but is no longer there and did not return a request for comment...

So, what changed such that, suddenly, Ms. Clark was once again a life long Liberal?

I reckon it just might have something to do with Ms. Clark's oft-demonstrated penchant for being a career opportunist of the highest order.

Otherwise known as being, essentially, the anti-Strummer...

______

And who started up this centrist conservative thingy in the first place?...Why, none other than a guy who was once a BC Liberal bagman and Falconator backer named Rick Peterson who later went all in with the pre-Rustadian BC Cons. 

And yes, Mrs. Griffiths, the spelling mistake in the header was on purpose.


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What Lesson Learned, Exactly?

Lessons?WeDon'tNeedNoStinkingLessons!

PoliticalExpediencyVille


In retrospect, it looks like, perhaps, Marky Mark had a premonition (and/or an mp3 file) that set him to thinking that something was coming down the tracks Thursday:

Because, low and behold, on Friday the CBC published a wee-bit of a fact checking piece base on Ms. Clark's soon to be released national radio interview on 'The House' in which the subject of her consorting with the Conservative Party of Canada came up:

Former B.C. premier Christy Clark — who is considering running for the federal Liberal leadership — is denying that she was previously a member of the Conservative Party, despite past comments where she said otherwise...

{snip}

"I never got a membership and I never got a ballot," Clark told host Catherine Cullen in an interview airing Saturday.

"I came out and I supported Jean Charest and the reason I did this is simple: I thought it was vitally important that we stopped Pierre Poilievre."...

{snip}

..."I never got a membership and I never got a ballot," Clark told host Catherine Cullen in an interview airing Saturday.

A spokesperson for the Conservative Party refuted Clark's claims, saying they have records of Clark's membership from the 2022 leadership race.

"Christy Clark purchased a Conservative Party membership through Jean Charest's leadership campaign. That membership is no longer active," Sarah Fischer, the party's director of communications, said in an email.

When asked about Fischer's statement, Clark pushed back and insisted she had never been a member.

"Why don't they come out and show my membership or my ballot? They never sent me any of those — although I wouldn't put it past them to manufacture one of them," Clark told Cullen.

Following Clark's interview on The House, the Conservative Party provided a screenshot of a membership database that suggests Clark had membership from June 2022 to June 2023.

Clark's comments to CBC News also contradict what she had said during the time of the Conservative leadership contest...

And how did the good Ms. Clark respond?

Well.

Just as those of us who have been paying attention for the last twenty years, plus, might have predicted...

Shite, happens, indeed.

The real question, now is, what lesson did the good Ms. Clark learn, exactly?


(and please note that Ms. Clark, in the vTweet above, did not admit either that she had been a Conservative Party of Canada member or that she lied about it, multiple times, during and after a national radio interview about if and why she 'might' run for the leadership of the Liberal Party of Canada)


______
Tip 'O The Toque to reader Graham for the heads-up on all this yesterday afternoon....

You can, if you wish to subject yourself to it, listen to the part of the national radio interview concerned...Here...But don't complain that we did not warn you about exposing your auditory system to fingernails slowly sliding on down a blackboard for the one minute and twenty-five seconds concerned...
Post to follow?...Where, exactly, was Ms. Clark, and what was she doing, when she jumped on the Charest train back in oh so long ago 2022?

.

Sycophants on Speed Dial.

SmartLessIs
NotJustAPodcastVille


Alec Lazenby of postmedia has a piece up wherein a goodly number of  Christy Clark's former 'colleagues' extol her virtues as the potential leader of the federal Liberals.

It's a provincial story, in the classic sense, and it's really not worth the pixel ink that it's printed on.

But still, I couldn't lay off this bit:

“I think she certainly has the potential to be a dark horse in the race,” said Stephen Smart, general manager of Hill & Knowlton Western Canada and a former press secretary to Clark.

“I really think those who might dismiss her in this race out of the gate really do so at their own peril. She builds great teams around her. She has the potential to really get people on-board. She has been a member of the Liberal Party of Canada for a very long time.”

Ahhh yes...

The good Mr. Smart, the former political reporter who once ignored the conflicty position he put his employer at the time, the CBC, in, given his relationship with one of the members of Ms. Clark's team back in the day. This conflictyness was pointed out by the likes of Norm Farrell, was confirmed by the CBC's then ombudsman Kirk LaPointe, and was ultimately railed against by the likes of Keith Baldrey and other local corpMedia members and practitioners.

And then there was, once he became a full-time member of Ms. Clarks 'team', the time that Ms. Smart shut out legitimate reporters while ensuring that Ms. Clark got face time with the friendlies, all so as to make sure substance never got in way of a good old-fashioned carpool karaoke.

And, just to prove that the synergistic sycophancy never ends, please note that Ms. Smart now works for Hill and Knowlton, the big-time super-fine PR firm.

Gosh.

Now that I think of it.

Would it be unreasonable to wonder if  Mr. Smart's current employment status had anything whatsoever to do with Mr. Lazenby's story being placed in the pages of Postmedia print organs in the the first place?

______

And ya, I still have archives and I'm going keep using them!

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Liberal Leadership Race...Last Place Horses Jockey For Position.

AndThey're
OffVille


Remember that race card from Robert 'Send Me All Your Leaks!' Fife that had the two so-called outsiders, Mark Carney and Christy Clark, at the bottom of the odds list?

Well, Evan Scrimshaw has weighed in and he thinks that Ms. Clark has the edge:

...The difference between Carney and, say, Christy Clark - both nominal “outsider” candidates - is that everybody in the party knows Clark can do the basic things of both governing and campaigning well. There is little confidence in Carney, and his Globe op-ed has gone over like a bucket of warm piss - raising more questions about his instincts...

Gosh.

Did Marky Mark get to the good Mr. Scrimshaw?


_____
All snark aside, we should probably give Mr. Scrimshaw a wee bit of a break...After all, he is an Ontarian who probably gets a good proportion of his takes on BC politics from the likes of Ron Obvious.



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Fifeing Towards Ottawa?

Kloutish

KlubbingVille


From deep within the bowels of the FifeMaster Flash's leak-laden account of Justin Trudeau's apparent coming resignation in Sunday's online version of the Globe and (nolongerEmpire) Mail:

...Liberal candidates who are possible leadership contenders: Ms. Freeland, Mr. LeBlanc, former housing minister Sean Fraser, Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly, Innovation Minister François-Philippe Champagne, Transport Minister Anita Anand, former central banker Mark Carney and former B.C. premier Christy Clark...

The behind-the-red-curtain machinations of Marky Mark aside, could it be all that marvellous Sorbonne-assisted french that catapulted Ms. Clark up on to the bottom rung of Mr. Fife's illustrious ladder?

______

Leak-laden?...Well, given that there were five anonymous sources underpinning the Fife Master's story, how else to describe it?
Klout Klub?...This!


.