My Weekend Rides.

OfMichell'sAndFarms

AlmostIslandViewVille


On Friday afternoon I swooped down to the river and crossed over under the Canada Line tracks to Bridgeport, 10 km, to put the bike on the front of the bus to Tsawsassen. Once safe on the Republic of SouthVanIsle it was 29 km in to Town and Country (or whatever the heckfire stupid name it is called now) on the Lochside Trail before the Westward turn and another 11 km out to my Dad's house on the Galloping Goose.

Saturday, it was 15 km each way into Victoria proper and back to spend an afternoon looking at slides and stuff with a fellow science geek.

Then Sunday it was Friday in reverse, which included a mad dash off the Spirit ship to the bus because, suddenly, with the nice weather, there was a whole passel of fellow cyclists looking for one of those coveted two slots on the rack at the front of the double decker back to Bridgeport.

Total for the weekend - 130 km, all mostly enjoyable except for the fact that the ride on Lochside was into a reasonably stiff breeze both ways.

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On the return bus ride I talked to a nice lady, not quite as old as me, who had a sleek little e-bike that she could easily hoist onto the rack....I lifted it - about 30 lbs with the battery out and in her pack for the trip. So, as the knees start to give up the ghost completely over the next couple of years I just might take GarFish's and my brother's advice and succumb to the battery assist...But not quite yet!



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Hard Currency Skyway Power Play.

SpreadYourTinyWingsAnd
Don'tFlyAwayVille


You may have read/heard the headline/topline that fewer Canadians are flying to the US.

The thing is, the change in the numbers is truly astonishing:

Apparently, the numbers from Europe have not yet fallen like this.

But when they do?



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Tip 'O The Toque to OG blogger Ian Welsh for the heads-up on this one and the trenchant analysis about how turns like this, which are starting to pile up, fast, are driving US'ian isolationism that will inevitably lead to economic hardship for all those south of the artificial line who do not own spaceships.


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Not All Politics Are Local.

LandOfTheGreen

HomeOfTheBraveVille


These days, not all politics are local for officials of a certain fasci-type variety.

The following if from the lede of a piece by Ellie Quinlan Houghtaling writing in the New Republic:

...U.S. representatives were reportedly seen knocking door-to-door in Nuuk, Greenland’s capital, to ascertain just how Vance’s visit to the Nordic island would be received. The answer? Not well.

“The Americans’ charm offensive mission has failed,” reported TV 2 correspondent Jesper Steinmetz, adding that locals have completely cold-shouldered the Vance family’s prospective visit.

American representatives were seen walking around the city, canvassing residents to see if people would be interested in a visit from the vice president’s wife.

 “They’ve gotten no, no, no, no, no, every single time,” Steinmetz said....

Gosh.

It's almost as if the entirety of Greenland is now singing a certain Amy Winehouse song.

In unison.

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That's The Way The Cookie Dough Bounces.

Well, well, well....Whadd'ya know:

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So. 

What does this mean in terms of the actual politics (as opposed to Cookie Dough Mike giving J. Byrne et al., double middle digits way, way, way up).

Well, if Mr de Jong significantly cuts into the Con vote and peels away a chunk of low info former BC Liberal types...

...Dr. Beer might be jumping' for joy as he hits the phones again.

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Cookie Dough Mike?...From the ol' days...This!


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The Woo Has Consequences.

OneMan'sWoo

IsAnotherKid'sLiverDamageVille

From The New York Times, by way of Digby:

Doctors in West Texas are seeing measles patients whose illnesses have been complicated by an alternative therapy endorsed by vaccine skeptics, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health secretary.

Parents in the region have increasingly turned to unproven treatments to protect their children, many of whom are unvaccinated, against the virus. Local doctors say they have now treated a handful of children who were given so much vitamin A — which Kennedy has promoted as a near-miraculous cure for measles — that they showed signs of liver damage...

And, for the amoral braintrust who elevated him to a position of public health power, if Bobby the Younger can invoke a war on processed foods as a way to peel a few percentage points off the previously skeptical suburban Mom vote, well...

It will all be worth it.



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Apologies, there isn't an archived page up of the original NYT story yet...




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Where Will All The Sequences Go?

There'sMoneyInThemThere
GenesVille


The 'holding' company, 23 and Me has filed for bankruptcy.

So, what does it mean for all those folks who were bamboozled into paying the company for the right to give the the very same company their gene sequences and all kinds of other personal information?

Well...

This is end stage capitalism at the edge of a certain valley which means the company holding all that very personal sequen-info 'hopes' that it will remain private and secure.

Joe Hernandez of NPR has that part of the story:

...In its bankruptcy FAQ, the company said it hopes to "secure a partner who shares in its commitment to customer data privacy."...

Interestingly, California's AG, is less hopeful, perhaps because he understands what can happen when the highest bidder ultimately takes control of a holding company:

...California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a consumer alert last week that residents should "consider invoking their rights and directing 23andMe to delete their data and destroy any samples of genetic material" the company has...

Imagine that!



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Image at the top of the post is from a really insightful piece in The Conversation by Ignacio Cofone on the implications of all that was lost by millions of people when the holdings of the company were breached in the fall of 2023.



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Door Closes, Firmly, For Local Opportunist...

 

Link

Who'dA
ThunkItVille

Interesting.

Here's what the fine folks at the Hill Times said based upon their reading the tea leaves/whispers of anonymous sources last week:

...According to Liberal sources who spoke to The Hill Times last week, if Clark decides to run as a federal Liberal, party officials are considering three potential B.C. ridings for her: Fleetwood-Port Kells, Vancouver Quadra, and Vancouver South. These seats have opened up following announcements from incumbents Ken Hardie, Joyce Murray, and Harjit Sajjan that they will not seek re-election.

Senior Liberals are encouraging the former premier to run in Fleetwood-Port Kells, as the other two ridings are considered safe. The Liberals comfortably won the riding—which encompasses parts of Surrey and Greater Vancouver—in the last three elections. It was previously held by Conservative Nina Grewal from 2004 to 2015...

Gosh.

Does this latest development mean that, in the end, the Carneyiacks didn't offer up a safe seat to the good Ms. Clark?

It sure will be interesting to see if anyone with the initials MM did any polling in and around Fleetwood-Port Kells don'cha think?


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Regardless the true driver of this latest development, the ultimate outcome means that reader EE was right, dare I say it....'Again'.



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Hard Times In New York Town (B Dylan Cover)

IfYouGotALottaMoneyYouCanMakeYourselfMerry
IfYouOnlyGotANickleIt'sTheStatenIslandFerryVille


Why?

Because I agree with Bigger E. that 'A Complete Unknown' is not good.

For example, what I was looking for was actual insight on how Dylan went from straight-up mimicking Guthrie to re-working 'Down On Penny's Farm' to come up with this particular tune to generating the magnificent artistry that soon followed...

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Here's more on the re-working of the traditional 'Down on Penny's Farm', for  'New York Town and, later, in a very different way, for 'Maggies Farm'...

And here's Janet Maslin's review of Elijah Wood's book that James Mangold used as the framework to make the movie...Interestingly, Ms. Maslin gets closer to the bones of the thing in a few hundred words than Mr. Mangold did with his two hour and twenty minute movie.


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Danielle Smith's March Madness Surprise.

WhatMe

AskAForeignPowerToInterfereWithOurElectionVille

A couple of weeks ago, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith was interviewed by the very fine ultra-far right US'ian media outlet 'Breitbart News Saturday'.

And, thanks to the digging of Courtney Theriault,  who fronts a terrestrial radio talk show for the folks at Corus in Edmonton, we now know that Ms. Smith said that she has spoken to the 'Administration' and has asked them to 'put things on pause' until Canada puts the 'best person' in place as PM.

To wit, word salad and all:

"...Pierre Poilievre is the name of the Canadian conservative party leader and he was miles ahead of, uhhhh, Justin Trudeau but because of the, ahhhhh, of what we see as unjust and unfair tariffs it's actually caused an increase in support for the liberals...And so that's what I fear is that the longer this dispute goes on politicians posture and it seems to be benefitting the liberals right now...So I would hope that we could put things on pause is what I have told (presumably Trump) Administration officials...Let's just put things on pause so we can get through an election...Let's have the best person at the table make the argument for how they would deal with (unintelligable)...And I think that's Pierre Polievre..."

But, wait...

That's not all!

Ms. Smith then goes on to tell her Breibartian handler, errr...interlocutor, about how 'in sync' Mr. Polievere would be with Mr. Trump's 'new direction' for America:

"...I would say on balance the, uhhhh, the perspective that Pierre would bring would be very much in sync, I think, with the new direction in America and I think we'd have a really great relationship for the period of time they're both in (presumably office)..."

Gosh.

The reincarnation of a boy band running North America as a single, synchronized far right unit.

Imagine that!

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Image at the top of the post...Ms. Smith with Mr. Trump and potential new boy band manager Kevin O'Leary at Mar-a-Lago in January.

Stephen Maher has more, in the Star, on the story...This includes speculation on how and why Mr. Trump suddenly started spouting off about how he would rather deal with Canadian Liberals than Canadian Cons....Ya, sure thing.

Stuff in brackets in the quotes above is mine.

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Are We All Zelensky Now?

ThreeWeeksOfVeryBadPoker

CanuckistanMikitaVille

The first hand of the 'game':

“Don’t tell us what we’re going to feel,” he (Trump) said, raising his voice. “You’re not in a good position. You don’t have the cards right now.”

“I’m not playing cards,” Mr. Zelensky replied. “I’m very serious, Mr. President. I’m the president in a war.”

February 21, 2025

The nine thousand four hundred seventy-eighth hand of the 'game':

"...Canada are tough traders and I want to tell you, they are tough traders (Trump said). They trade very top. You know, the expression I use is some people don’t have the cards. I use that expression of the week and a half ago, right? Somebody was negotiating the didn’t have the cards now I think is saying he wants to do it. I think we will have a big deal on that very special something and we have to do a deal on that..."

March 21, 2025

I'm honestly not sure that the good Mr. Trump realizes that, just like Mr. Zelensky, we too are not playing cards.

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And, yes, I see all that word salad in quote number 2 and I raise you eleventy billion on it becoming significantly more pronounced by Good Friday...

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Fascism, Authoritarianism And Dictatorships - Defined And Illustrated.

 

Ruth Ben-Ghiat is a professor of History and Italian Studies at New York University.

She knows a dictator when she sees one, and she explains what fascism is, with specific historical and contemporary examples, in the excellent question and answer video, above.

Ms. Ben-Ghiat also has a really good substack/blog.

Here is a bit from a recent post:

...Trump has worked hard for a decade now to encourage moral collapse among Americans. In 2016, two months after he boasted, "I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn't lose any voters, OK?" Trump raised the issue of changing collective behavior to favor violence and cruelty. "Part of the problem...is nobody wants to hurt each other anymore," he said when security guards treated protesters at a campaign rally too politely for his tastes.

The strongman’s goal is always to make his collaborators descend to his level, and Trump realized that “giving permission” to Republicans to be their worse selves was key to his domestication of the party. He made Republican elites complicit in his criminal efforts to overturn the 2020 election, and then shocked them into submission on Jan. 6 by targeting them for physical harm...

Her stuff is very well worth a follow and I will get it, and a number of other new blogs/sources up on the crawl soon - it's just a bit of a pain these days as I have to dig into the creaky old blogger code to do it.

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Green(land) Eggs And Ham?

WouldYouLikeThemHereOr

ThereVille


Given its demise many times over since January 20th, it is not entirely clear if the following, from Reuters, illustrates the resuscitation of irony:

The United States has asked Denmark and other European nations if they can export eggs as Americans face surging egg prices, the Nordic country’s egg association said on Friday.

The request from the US Department of Agriculture coincides with a raft of new US tariffs on countries, including in Europe, and the threat of more.

Donald Trump has also threatened economic sanctions unless Denmark hands over control of Greenland to the US, and said this week that he thought the US would eventually annex it – despite its status as an autonomous territory of Denmark, a member of the European Union...

It is also not clear if the current crop of US'ian Sam-I-Ams are planning to pummel the Danes with a ham-fisted reciprocal tariff on pork.

Or some such thing.




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Waste, Fraud And Abuse...In Canada?

OneCountry'sSubsidy
IsAnotherCEO'sLifebloodVille


On Friday January 10th of this year, the Federal government of Canada announced that the subsidy or 'incentives' for zero emission vehicle (iZEV) purchases were going to end when the remaining $72 million ran out at the end of March of this year, whichever came first:

...The iZEV Program was scheduled to pause on March 31, 2025, or once all the available funding has been accessed by Canadians.  Canadians will benefit from incentives until Program funds are exhausted...

So.

Guess what happened over the weekend that followed?

Marco Chown Ovid of the Toronto Star has that story:

...(A) single Tesla dealership in Quebec City claimed nearly $20 million in public subsidies by saying it sold more than 4,000 electric vehicles over a single weekend...

{snip}

...Four Tesla dealerships stand out for their timely salesmanship — two in Toronto, one in Vancouver and one in Quebec City. They went from selling several dozen cars per day to as many as 2,500 electric vehicles on the Saturday before the public funding ran dry, according to the data.

Together, the four Tesla dealerships declared sales of 8,600 EVs and were able to claim more than $43 million in rebates over the weekend of Jan. 10-12 — gobbling up more than half of the $71.8 million in program funding that had been remaining on Friday morning.

By Monday, the government informed all dealerships nationwide that its funds had been exhausted and the iZEV rebate program was over....

Imagine that!


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The link to the Transport Canada statistics that the Star used to generate the graph at the top of the post is...Here.

Please note: This is not the same as the BC government's recent decision to stop subsidies for installing Tesla chargers.

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My Morning Ride...Spring Is Springing.

GigTimeForTheBlossoms
NoFlyersRequiredVille


Forget all that Christmas stuff.

Because...

This really is the most wonderful time of the year.

And, besides, we're on our way to summer!


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Subheader?...That's an old saying between me and Bigger E as first exemplified by the wit and wisdom of Mike Watt, as in: "There are gigs and there are flyers and everything that aint a gig, that’s a flyer to get people to the gig."...


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Real Waste, Fraud And Abuse?

CreditWhereCredit

MayNotAlwaysBeDueVille


The following is a description of what Mr. Musk's faux war US'ian government programs looks like on the ground in a purple(ish) state:

The State Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services received a letter from the United States Department of Agriculture earlier this month stating it will no longer receive funding for the Local Food Purchase Assistance Program. The nonprofit Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina is one of seven food banks that receives funding through federal programs like this one.

“Our portion of that would have been $2 million,” said Amy Beros, the nonprofit’s CEO. “But statewide, it's an $11 million impact for the food banks across North Carolina.

She said the $2 million in federal funds the nonprofit would have received would go directly to farmers for the purchase of fresh food that’s then distributed across the 34 counties they serve...

Now.

The following is a description of how much money Mr. Musk's car company has made on the basis of a government program that makes it possible for legacy car companies to keep on pumping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere:

...The electric automaker earned $10.7 billion from selling credits created by government climate programs — a total that accounted for a third of Tesla’s profits over the last decade, according to an analysis of securities filings by POLITICO’s E&E News. In the first nine months of 2024, some 43 percent of its net income came from those credits, which Tesla sold to rival carmakers after exceeding climate mandates in California and elsewhere...

So.

Which one is a description of real waste, fraud and abuse?


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Back in the before times (i.e. during the last US'ian presidential campaign), I tried to figure out why Mr. Trump had such a massive hate-on for electric vehicles, which was somewhat surprising given the fact that Mr. Musk had become his biggest financial backer...In the end I decided it was just red meat for the base...But consider this - How profitable will Tesla be if Mr. Trump doesn't keep the legacy American car companies producing gas guzzlers that require them to keep sending billions Mr. Musk's way?

And then, of course, there is the elephant in Mr. Musk's government regulatory room...Subsidies.

Link to the chart at the top of the post is...Here.


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