Manifest Destiny's Child Mind.

HockeyIsNoLongerOurTopUS'ianExport

CanuckistanmikitaVille


From the transcript of Mr. Trump's appearance on NBC's Meet The Press, yesterday:

..."We’re subsidizing Canada to the tune over $100 billion a year. We’re subsidizing Mexico for almost $300 billion. We shouldn’t be — why are we subsidizing these countries? If we’re going to subsidize them, let them become a state."...


Of course, as you may have already guessed, it appears that Mr. Trump wrongly assumes that an export trade surplus is a subsidy.

And our top subsidy...errrrrr...trade export to his fine country?

Oil.

Gosh. 

I wonder what the super fine folks currently running the Albertalands think of these latest developments?


______
It is very likely almost certain that, beyond tariffs, Mr. Trump has no current plans to push annexation forward at this time...After all, developing such plans would actually take work and coordination...However, Trump's statement yesterday certainly puts the lie to claims that his first raising such annexation during his meeting with Mr. Trudeau a week or so ago was just a joke in the multilateral machine.


.

The Currency Of The Swiftie.

WorkingForTheManEveryNight
AndNotDayVille


A certain busker I know did very well, indeed, during the Grey Cup Sunday just past.

So much so that, at the end of the night, the guitar case was filled to bursting with all manner of bills, many of which ended in zeros.

All of which totalled up to something approaching the second of the four words in the title of what some consider to be Wes Anderson's best Hungarian movie.

So.

Given all that, I, for one, have been very keen to see how things go during the Swiftian invasion of downtown Lotusland this weekend.

Alas, the take from the first of three nights that will finally end the interminable Eras Tour was much reduced compared to that generated by those who revere a game with just three downs and the ghost of Annis Stukus.

Why?

Well, one credible hypothesis put forward by said busker is that, unlike Grey Cup fans, the Swifties were not bombed out of their minds when they exited the venue and poured into the train station.

It also turns out that a great many of the Ms. Swift's fans prefer to spread joy and harmony by dropping friendship bracelets into the proverbial hat rather than cold, hard cash.

Go figure.

_____

Earworm in the subheader?...The transit cops in the station where the busker was working last night said that they hoped to see her again tonight as they think her singing helps calm the madding crowd...Which brings us, of course, to...This!

.

The Gzowski Method, Man.

YourMornings
HisSidesVille

How much of (Peter) Gzowski’s interest in people is an act? 

“I would say none,” he replies. “Some people would say a lot. A certain amount of feigning has to be involved, but if you feign long enough, anything eventually becomes interesting.”

Dave Cameron, 'The Dark Side of Saint Peter'

Ryerson Review Of Journalism, 1997

Invoking the methodological secrets of long gone CBC radio morning man Peter Gzowski?

What am I on about this time?

Well.

All is explained in the SongPod below (words first this time, followed by an old Tom Waits cover at the end)...

______

Word worm in the header?...It's a rip-off of the title of an early John Irving book...Although, to be completely honest, I argued with myself for quite some time about whether or not the comma in my version belonged.

For those interested,  here's a bit of an oral history of the lives and shortish intertwined times of Tom Waits, Rickie Lee Jones and Chuck E. Weiss.


.

Florida Man Dines With Bilingual Guy.

JupiterIsNotAPlanet

InThisStateOfAffairsVille


Sheesh:

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP), Nov 29th, 4:50pm EST — Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has flown to Florida to meet with President-elect Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago club after Trump threatened to impose sweeping tariffs on Canadian products.

A person familiar with the matter said Trudeau will have dinner with Trump. The official was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter and spoke on condition of anonymity...

By now there are at least eleventy billion hot takes out there on what Mr. Trump's tariff threats actually mean.

And if any puffed-up pro-media pundit pretends that they know what will happen, their mouth is very likely filled to bursting with mouldy lima beans because no one, including he who originally 'truthed' it, has any idea what the ultimate outcome will be.

But one thing we do know for sure, based purely on past performance....

The US'ian president re-elect loves any and all fawning he receives in the wake of a good punching down against those he perceives to be in a position of weakness. 

Which is precisely what he will get tonight, regardless the grade of rubber in the chicken simmering in the Mar-a-Lago kitchen.

Because, just by flying south, Mr. Trudeau has painted white spots all over his back, sans antlers.

****

Having said all that, I will offer a take on why Mr. Trump went full metal tariff-a-palooza on Canada and Mexico in the first place.

Which is that it was an exercise in deflector spike spin jamming against a tiger that could really bite in a future trade war.

Put another way...

Who's talking about China now? 

.

Sunday SongPod - Stolen Car (BSpringsteen Cover)

IntoThe

DarknessVille


This time it's Springsteen's 'Stolen Car', a tune that he says was the bridge from 'The River' sessions to what would become 'Nebraska'.

And yes, just in case the E's were wondering, there is a Phoebe Bridger's cover.

****

After the warbling is done I briefly discuss my concerns with Central Lotusland's 'Broadway Plan'. 

Brian Palmquist and City Hall Watch have more on that subject here and here.

Slouching Towards Fascism?

PollingThemselvesTo
Entropy'sInevitableEndVille


Well.

Mr. Gaetz is gone.

So.

Maybe that 59% is thinking everything is gonna be alright after all?


_______

Rip off in the header?...Just in case you haven't read it recently, Ms. Dideon's piece on the aimless delusions of a number of the denizens of  Haight Ashbury in the summer of 1967 can be found...Here.


.

It's All About The Base - BC Conservative Shadow Cabinet

It's just a part Mr. Rustad's Dreamy Team, above.

Which has me wondering...

Can dogs whistle parental rights and sports into one unified (non-existent) portfolio's merry base-filled tune to rule them all?

The culture war loving base, I mean.



.

They Can No Longer Pretend.

TheEasternEdgeOf

TheMediterraneanSeaVille



Today, November 20th, 2024, one of the 15 members of the UN Security Council vetoed a permanent ceasefire and hostage release resolution in Gaza.

That one member was the United States.

Therefore, it is clear that the Biden Administration, which is now completely free of the bounds of electoral uncertainty, can no longer pretend that it is committed to having the killing stop and the hostages released.

According the Guardian, U.S. deputy ambassador to the U.N.  Robert Wood says it's all about the 'compromise language' put forward by the U.K. that didn't make it into the resolution that resulted in the veto:

...“We regret that the council could have incorporated compromise language the UK put forward to bridge the existing gaps ... With that language, this resolution should have been adopted,” Wood, the US envoy, said following the vote...

But here's the thing.

The U.K., which, like the U.S., is a permanent member of the Security Council, ultimately voted in favour of the resolution.

.

Ballistic Clones Of Cy.

TheOldsYellingAt
(FastMoving)CloudsVille


Look.

It was pretty darned windy last night as, as Keith noted, the barometric pressure changed abruptly.

Trees did come down and power was lost.

But why, suddenly, must we all become 'fraidy cats because of something dubbed by the hype-makers as a 'bomb cyclone'.

After all, wasn't this really just a pretty good winter storm that, as of the moment (i.e. Wednesday lunchtime), has pretty much blown itself out?

Heckfire.

Even the BBC had to go all the way to Seattle to find a tragic fatality. Although, to be fair, we're not sure if they also went to Nanaimo to check on the status of e.a.f.'s roof.

Meanwhile...

As can be seen in the image above, it appears that GarFish got to the power line trail before me this morning and used the mechanical scissors on his E-bike to clear the way.

Selah.



.

My (Late) Morning Ride.

Hogan'sHeroes
PatchesVille


There was a lot of snow on the mountains over in that slanted, northern-most part of Lotusland this morning, presumably dropped by last night's storm that also washed the flotsam and jetsam of the Grey Cup revelry into False Creek down at sea level.

Unfortunately, because I had to rush down into the bowels of the hospital-industrial complex first thing this morning for a thesis defense, I didn't get a picture of those mountains (although I'm sure NVG was walking all over them!).

Later, as the noon o'clock hour approached, I was riding my way up onto the pointy grey plateau and what did I see in the shadows but little patches of the white stuff, one of which is pictured above.

Winter, such as it is in these parts, is on us my friends.

And what would be the point of this little F-Troop-listed 'Blog of the Olds' if we didn't discuss the obviousities of the weather occasionally.

OK?

________

Subheader?...Pretty much every time LeBeau, Newkirk and/or Carter, etc.,  popped the lid on a tunnel and poked their heads out before heading off into town to do pretty much whatever they wanted there would always be little snowy patches, just like the one shown above, scattered about on the ground...Apparently, it was always just about, but not quite, winter at Stalag 13.

.

Pure Joy On A Sunday.

This was filmed on Hollywood Boulevard in 1964.

Watch it right through till the end - you won't be sorry. 

For littler e., the part you will dig starts at 2 minutes 50 seconds.



______
The guy who made this, John Harris, used to get his young friends together on weekends, when they weren't engaged in their day jobs,  to make little movies like this... One of Ms. Garr's day jobs at the time was background dancing in crappy Elvis movies...Like Ms. Garr, Mr. Harris, who later moved to the Monterey Peninsula and became a movie theatre impresario, also died recently.

One can only wonder if Ms. Garr had a premonition about the 'Guaranty Building' whose front door she slams forcefully at the beginning of the video...Why?...Because much later it would become part of L. Ronnie Hubbard's posthumous. real estate empire.

.

He's A Sawmill Worker For F*ck's Sakes.

ThinkI'llPickUpThePhone
AndBuyYouOneToCallYourOwnVille


Go read Beer on Horgan.

Now.



.

Crap.

 

I sure am glad to hear that, in the end, he got back to Victoria where he belonged to be with all of those who meant the most to him.

****

More, later, including a story of how the then young Horgan once good naturally called this not particularly proficient lacrosse player 'Chicken Legs' a very long Braefoot/Stevenson double park time ago.

(it's a descriptor that's still pretty much true, by the way, no matter how much bike riding I do)

.

Their Own Reality.

TheAftermathCtd

RealityInterruptedVille


The above is from the fine folks at Ipsos via Mike the fellow biologist:

I bring it up in the here and now to give reader E.E. their due regarding their take on how things got this way:

...Blame it on a decaying American educational system and 40 years of Reganomics, and the decline of the middle class, especially in the USA...

E.E.'s comment is backed by a quote from way back in 2002 that was never quite confirmed to have come from Bush the Younger's chief propagandist Mr. Karl Rove:

"(W)hen we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality -- judiciously, as you will -- we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do"

The point?

They, meaning all manner of Republicans, not just the Trumpian manosphereisterians of the moment, started building this thing that that destroys people's ability to view reality for what it actually is a long, long time ago.

OK?


_______

And, yes, I did go to that very fine ear worm in the kicker, above.


.

The Revenge Of The Yutes!

TheAftermathCtd
YouthIsWastedOnTheWrongPeopleSometimesVille

It turns out that it's not just the olds hooked on Rupert Murdoch's propaganda channel, or worse, who are the entire problem.

And/or suburban soccer moms.

What it's all about this time, Alfie?

The youth:

I mean, just look at those shifts. 

And while young men shifted 28 points to Trump since 2020, young women moved 14 points that way as well.

It's got me wondering if, perhaps, this has less to do with Mr. Rogan's podcast and more to do with the Covid generation getting its revenge on the world.

________

Subheader's ear(ish) worm?...This!


.