Sunday, November 03, 2024

All Gone To Look For America.



WeHaveNeverHitchhikedTo
SaginawVille


I have a confession to make.

Which is that I have something in common with Elon Musk.

Because, like Mr. Musk, I went to the United States on a student(ish) visa back in the go-go 1990's.

According to a trio of investigative journalists at the Washington Post, Musk ignored a major stipulation of his visa and never actually went to school, in this case graduate school in Palo Alto. Instead, Mr. Musk helped start a company called Global Link, which later became Zip2. Initially, pre-universal search engine, the company sold businesses a service that would give them an online presence. In 1999, just before the first the dot-com bubble burst, Zip2 was gobbled up by Compaq for 300 million dollars. At that time, the immigrant from South Africa, who was not, to the best of anyone's knowledge, eating the pets of Silicon Valley, made a cool 22 million.

I went to America on the reverse brain-drain ticket, which was a J-1 visa designed to lure STEM-types trainees to the country, many of whom stay legally afterward. I was a post-doctoral fellow at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory which is perched above the University of California campus about half-way up the East Bay Hills. Initially, I was involved in a kind of public/private scientific partnership with a now famous pharmaceutical company that survived the bursting of the first biotech bubbles back in the 1980's. I worked feverishly on the project when I first got to the new lab in Berkeley and everything was set to really get rolling after a big Friday afternoon meeting about six months into my tenure. The following Monday my boss got a call from the company saying that they had decided to go 'in a different direction' and the project was dead. So much for curiosity-driven research.

In the end, the science part of my time as a post-doc worked out well enough that I got a few serious job offers, the best of which was to return to Lotusland, which we did a few years before Mr. Musk cashed in for the first time. 

Just as, and perhaps more, importantly than the science stuff, the life thing really worked out well when C. and I lived in Berkeley. It was a truly exciting place to be at the time and we made many wonderful friends. We also had the first of our two wonderful kids, then tiny, now Bigger, E., and we  came to love America and it all it can, and quite often does, stand for.

Here's hoping all of that has a chance to continue.

For America, I mean, come Tuesday...



______
While I was really, really steamed at the time, it turned out to be a stroke of luck that the original post-doc project was killed by the company...Why?....Because it never would have worked...We were chasing after something in the soups produced by tumour cells that doesn't exist!...And just in case you might be, for some crazy reason, remotely interested in what we're chasing these days there's...This.
Image at the top of the post...At the infamous UC Berkeley Sather Gate with the two E's on a visit back to town a bunch of years after we left for home.



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Thursday, October 31, 2024

Falcon's Ghosts Haunt Rustadville.




From Rob Shaw, breaking away from the herd while writing for Glacier Media:

...In Richmond-Steveston, the Conservatives refused United candidate Jackie Lee. He went on to garner 2,354 votes as an independent, undercutting the less-impressive Conservative candidate Michelle Mollineaux and handing the riding to the NDP’s Kelly Greene by 484 votes.

Same thing in Vernon-Lumby, where United candidate Kevin Acton, the mayor of Lumby, pulled in 4,266 votes, knee-capping Conservative Dennis Giesbrecht and giving the riding to the NDP’s Harwinder Sandhu by 477 votes...


Now, of course, it was Mr. Rustad and his minions who rejected Kevin Falcon's ghosts of the Soccer Party past who, if they had been taken on in those two ridings, could have flipped the entire election result.

So, what does the good Mr. Rustad have to say about it all?

Here's more from Mr. Shaw's piece...

...“There was a lot of people that were dissatisfied (with Falcon’s decision) and wanted to carry on with the fight,” said Rustad. “It's unfortunate.”...


Unfortunate, indeed, for the denizens of grammar-challenged Rustadville.

As for the rest of us?

I beg to differ.


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Tuesday, October 29, 2024

In British Columbia 45% Wins, And Wins Often.



NoLeaderNoProblem
1952Ville



If you have been perusing British Columbia's punditland since Election Day you will have often read about how poorly David Eby did and how lucky he is to still be Premier.

Case in point, the following from Rob Shaw writing in various and sundry Glacier Media print organs:

Imagine attending your own funeral when suddenly — miraculously and inexplicably — you jolt back upright amongst the living. That’s a bit like being a BC New Democrat these days. The party lost its majority government on election day, faced the prospect of either being out of office entirely or grovelling to the two BC Greens for votes, and then abruptly regained its lifeline in Monday’s final count process to emerge with its majority intact...

{snip}

 ...More than half the voters did not support Eby or the BC NDP in the election. He lost numerous ridings and cabinet ministers. The province is badly divided after a brutal election. Is he the premier to bridge the growing gap between rural and urban B.C.?...


But did Eby really do so poorly with voters, overall, compared to previous BC NDP winners?

Well.

Rather than just prattling on with further fuzzy and thoroughly non-productive pundit parrot talk, why don't we have a look at the actual  numbers...

1972 - Dave Barrett's NDP wins a solid majority with 39% of the popular vote. WAC Bennett's Socred's lost when they only garnered 31% of the vote due, at least part, to the siphoning of 19% by David Anderson's Liberals.

1991 - Mike Harcourt's NDP wins an overwhelming majority with 41% of the popular vote. Rita Johnson's Socred's reach the end of the road when they get only 24% thanks in large part to the 33% garnered by Gordon Wilson's Liberals.

1996 - Glen Clark's NDP wins a close one, with a majority, due to the efficiency of the Dipper's 39% of the popular vote. Gordon Campbell's re-branded Liberals garner 42% of the vote and lose, given that Jack Weisberger's one-hit Reform wonder likely swiped more of their 9% share of the vote from the Liberals than Gordon Wilson's flash-in-the-pan PDA swiped from the NDP to garner their measly 6% vote share.

2017 - John Horgan's NDP forms a minority government with 40% of the popular vote together with Andrew Weaver's Greens, who hit their high water mark at 17%. Christy Clark's Liberals, who actually won the most seats, were ultimately the big losers despite the fact that they also garnered 40% of the vote.

2020 - The big one. Horgan 2.0 wins a massive, Harcourt-like NDP majority with 48% of the popular vote. Andrew Wilkinson's Liberals garner 34% and Furstenau's Greens slide slightly to 15%.

2024 - David Eby's NDP wins his squeaker majority with 45% of the popular vote. John Rustad's Conservatives lose with 43% of the vote as Furstenau's Greens wither down to 8%.


My point?

David Eby just won a greater share of the popular vote than any other BC NDP premier in history except for John Horgan 2.0.

As for the crack, bolded above, from Mr. Shaw about how poorly Eby did because 'more than half' of British Columbians did not support him?

If you go all the way back to 1952 only one BC Premier, ever, won a majority of the popular vote.

And that was Gordon Campbell in the most unusual, and exceptional, clock-cleaning that was 2001

To be absolutely clear here, this includes Wacky Bennett, who did not top 50% in any of his six majority wins in a row that spanned from 1953 to 1969.

Interestingly, in every single one of his victories, and that includes his party's pre-majority minority win in 1952, Wacky was greatly assisted by vote splitting, most often due to a significant percentage of folks pulling the lever for the Liberals.

So...

Stick that in your puffed-up pundit pipe and smoke it!



______
It turns out that,
in that 1952 election, the Socreds formed their minority government, with 30% of the vote, when they made WAC their leader AFTER the election. Just imagine how different this province might be today if the CCF, then led by Harold Winch, pictured above, third from right, who won 34% of the vote, had not been ambushed by Liberal leader 'Boss' Johnson's preferential vote machinations that year.


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Monday, October 28, 2024

Under The 'O'...Number 47.

ThisAin'tNoBingo
ThisAin'tNoFoolingAroundVille


From Elections BC, Monday at 6:00 pm:




And it looks like Chad Skelton's modelling was correct.

Because...

In the end the flipper was Surrey - Guildford:



There will likely be judicial recount in S-Guild as well as in Kelowna Centre where the Con lead is now down to 38 votes. Mr. Skelton also called that one correctly as coming close but not quite flipping.


______
There are no longer any issues
in the initially concerning ridings of Juan de Fuca and Surrey-Centre where both Dippers pulled away nicely during the mail-in and absentee counting.
Mangled Earworm in the subheader?....Most definitely...This!


.


The French, They Have A Different Word For Everything.

 


French lessons?

But what about all that time spent at the Sorbonne?


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Sunday, October 27, 2024

On A Sunday Morning Sidewalk...


Ain'tNoRoadsLikeScholarly
RhodesVille


A few notes for this weepy Sunday morning coming down...

Data guy, whose work I miss in the Vancouver Sun, Chad Skelton, has been tracking the rate of change in the close ridings in the BC Election so far. He presents a cogent case that none of the ridings where the NDP has a slight lead will flip Con. Conversely, he does think that Surrey Guildford, but not Kelowna Centre will change from blue to red....4.5 Stars.

Speaking of the Vancouver Sun....Vaughn Palmer blames Sonia Furstenau for sticking by her principles and not playing footsie with John Rustad because, apparently, it will prevent her from gaining leverage over David Eby. What's worse, the Dean of the Legislative Press Gallery, with an assist from current BC Conservative supporter Andrew Weaver, blames Furstenau, who was not the leader at the time, for doing the same thing in 2017.... 0.5 Stars.

It's very difficult for anyone who has been following election updates, even official Elections BC updates, on social media feeds not to notice that the whackaloons are already starting to bleat about voting machines, unreasonable delays, phone-assisted voting,  'late' votes and Brinks trucks, et cetera....Negative Eleventy Billion Stars.


_____
Earworm
 at the top of the post?...This!
Want more on Mr. Kristofferson, including the genesis for his biggest hit?...This.
And why not just call the post the title of the song?....Because, Driftglass.



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Saturday, October 26, 2024

Will The Orange Stay The New Green?

BC Election Count Update....Early Sat Afternoon, October 26th...

_______

Saturday at 4pm...Update at bottom of post
_______

So.

It looks like those mail-in ballots are swinging, hard, toward the NDP.

The two seats they were ahead by a whisker in,  Juan de Luca and Surrey Centre,  are now looking a little more comfortable (the former has gone from 20 ahead to 106 in the lead; the latter has gone from 96 ahead to 162).

That would leave things at Dipper 46, Con 45, Green 2 (you need 47 for a majority, plus you need a speaker which would make commenter Trailblazer's suggestion of one of the two Greeniacs becoming the speaker a realistic possibility).

But...

The gap has closed considerably in Surrey Guildford where the election night Con lead of 102 is now down to 14.

And, get this, Castanet is reporting that the relatively close Kelowna Centre (Con by 148 on election night) has 800+ mail-in & absentees still to count. If that flips orange....Well?

Next Elections BC  update should come soon, maybe even later this afternoon... 


______
Elections BC
explains the process they are using - which should conclude Monday....Here.
Meanwhile...While we're still looking back at last week's election here in Lotusland, the good Doctor has gone east and is already working on the next one.
And, just in case you thought the 49th parallel was protecting us from such codswallop, Mr. Musk's algorithm is amplifying the braying of the whackaloons re: election rigging.
Update, 4pm Saturday Oct 26th...JDF, Dipper by 106...Surrey Centre, Dipper by 178...Surrey Guildford, Con now only up by 12...Kelowna Centre Con lead shrunk to 72...Elections BC says that mail-in ballot counting is continuing and the next update is scheduled for tomorrow/Sunday at 1pm.


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Friday, October 25, 2024

We Don't Need No Stinking Endorsements!


AmazonStateOfMind
NotTheRiverVille



From Sewell Chan, writing in the venerable Columbia Journalism Review yesterday:

On Friday, the Washington Post’s publisher, Will Lewis, announced that the paper would no longer make endorsements for president—after its journalists had already drafted an endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris. The decision was made by Jeff Bezos, the paper’s owner...


For the record, the same thing just happened at the Los Angeles Times.

Ian Bassin and Maximillian Potter, also writing in the CJR, have dubbed this type of cowardly hedging of bets as 'anticipatory obedience' from such titans of the US'ian (formerly) free press.


______
Image at the top of the post...Extreme weather fuelled drought in the Amazon basin.


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Wednesday, October 23, 2024

This Speaker Thing...


It'sAll
InTheChairVille


So.

You've probably heard all the blurble and gurgle about this speaker thing on the TeeVee and in the public prints without having the situation actually spelled out in terms of the, you know, basic math of the thing.

Essentially, you need 47 plus 1 (for the speaker) to rule the province of British Columbia. So with the Dippers currently at 46, total,  they would still be fine if they made a deal with the 2 Greeniacs.

But if the Dippers lose one of the recounts going on in either Juan de Fuca (NDP up by 20*) or Surrey Centre (NDP up by 96), they would lose that majority and, to rule, would have to find Darryl Plecas 2.0 from the other side to act as speaker which could be tough given the vice grip of the Whackaloons on the Conservative party.

And then there is the 'worst case scenario', explained by Cindy Harnett in the Times Colonist with an assist from political scientist David Black:

...If the worst case for the NDP happens next week and they lose two seats in the recounts, the NDP would fall to 44 (or 46 with Green support) and the Conservatives would bump up to 47 but because they would have to produce a Speaker they’d be back down to 46...

Can you imagine any Dipper flipping in that worst case?

Me neither.


_____
*I assume that the JDF lead has shrunk
from Saturday night's 23 to 20 today given that Elections BC is now indicating that the 100% of the ballot boxes (rather than Saturday night's 99.77%) have been reported.
Something else interesting from Ms. Harnett's piece is that she quotes Adam Olsen as saying that Sonia Furstenau can play any part she wishes to with the Greens moving forward...

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Sunday, October 20, 2024

Is Orange The New Green...Again?


EveryVote
CountsVille

_____

Update: Monday morning...In the original post written Sunday morning below, I mention two ridings, Juan De Fuca (Dipper up by 23) and Surrey-Guildford (Con up by 102) where things could still change...I had missed one, Surrey Centre (Dipper up by 96)...That changes the analysis a little because, in the unlikely event that those two orange seats were to go Con we would be in real base-bent crazy town territory...I'm starting to hold my breath again.
____


There are now 93 provincial ridings in British Columbia.

Which means that you need 47 to form government.

As you can see from the screenshot, taken this morning from the Elections BC website, the Dippers and the Cons both fall just short.

Which, of course, means that, if things stay the same, the Greens will hold the balance of power.

Of course, that was also the case in 2017 when John Horgan and Andrew Weaver made their deal that, in my opinion at least, gave us a pretty darned good government.

Could the same thing happen again?

Well, luckily, given his recent comments in support of the climate change denier Mr. Rustad, Mr. Weaver no longer leads the provincial Greens.

But the big question is - who will actually lead the Greeniacs going forward?

Will it be Sonia Furstenau, who lost her race, not in Cowichan, but instead in Beacon Hill?

It's going to be interesting to see what happens there, given the potential for both the power and the glory, not to mention good policy, down the road.

And it looks like the Greens and Mr. Eby might have a little time to sort things out because, as you can see from the image above there are still 0.23% of the votes to count. This small sliver represents out of district votes and mail-in ballots which, apparently, will take about a week to collect, collate and count.

Do those votes matter?

Potentially, yes, but it is unlikely.

By my reading the two ridings that could flip are Surrey-Guilford, where the Con is currently up by 102, and Juan de Fuca, where the Dipper is up by just 23.

So.

Let's say, worse case scenario, the Cons hold Surrey-G and the Dippers lose JDF...That would make it 46 Cons (not enough to win) vs. the Dippers 45 (enough to hold on if they make a deal with Greens to go to 47).

Thus, I for one am now able to exhale and almost relax while we wait for the final numbers to be posted by Elections BC next Saturday.

_____
One of the big surprises
was the Greens winning handily in the fully vote split riding of West Van Sea-to-Sky...That, I think, is ironic given how the riding that GordCo's development bund built, may very well have saved us...Somewhere, I'm pretty sure the ghost of Rafe Mair has a little smile on his face this morning.


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Saturday, October 19, 2024

This Band Could(n't) Be Their Life (Anymore)

MayAllTheirNickelsBe
DoubledVille


Those who stop by here once in awhile may know that I've been hooked on the music of Japandroids, the sometimes shambolic Lotuslandian duo, for quite awhile now.

The basis of the hooking is pretty straightforward, barb-free and clean.

I listen to their stuff and/or use my digital whiz-bang cheater amp to generate cheesy takes on their most iconic riff because doing such things makes me feel like a kid again.

And when I was a kid I always hated it when my favourite bands broke up - usually for the most squalid and/or saddest of reasons.

But now Brian King and David Prowse have just put out their latest album and simultaneously called it quits, the latter for the best of reasons.

Essentially, they both know that they have lives to live and that doing it with their band behind them is their best chance to do just that.

I'm not sure that I could have handled that explanation when I was twenty-five but now that I am (this very day to be precise) sixty-five, their decision makes me very, very happy indeed.

Selah.


______
Earworm 
in the header?...This!
As for the Bookworm?...Well, begrudgingly due to the faintest whiff of the co-optation (that's the snotty 'No  Sellouts!' kid in me coming out again)...This!



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Thursday, October 17, 2024

Doing That Thing You (Used To) Do...


NoHorseRace
NoSaneWashVille


From Marcy Wheeler's post on questions put to Mr. Trump by folks in the audience at a Unavision TeeVee Town Hall yesterday:

...Six minutes in, a man named Jorge Velázquez took the mic (after Trump offered a smarmy compliment him on his hair, which is the kind of beautiful thick mane that Trump covets). Velázquez described that he used to pick strawberries and broccoli and asked, if Trump deports everyone he wants, who will do that work and how much will food prices go up. ...

{snip}

...Trump immediately said he was the best thing to happen to farmers. He seemed to suggest he would bring back the bracero [temporary foreign worker] program (since Elon Musk has begun paying Trump’s bills, Trump has been pushing to greatly expand legal immigration). But he ultimately didn’t answer the question. It was an unresponsive answer to a question that every person who imagines themselves a journalist should be asking.

That wasn’t the only challenging question Trump dodged. After 25 minutes, José Saralegui asked Trump why he lied about the Haitians in Springfield. After 33 minutes, Ramiro González, a Republican who has dropped his registration in the party, invited Trump to win back his support by explaining his inaction on January 6. Trump not only offered the platitudes he always does, lied about his supporters bringing guns, and used the first person plural to align himself with the mob (which may end up being useful to Jack Smith), but he did not answer the question. By that point, a number of the viewers in the audience had a hostile body language to Trump. After 40 minutes, Jesús González asked Trump to explain his gun control policy to victims of school shootings. After 43 minutes, Carlos Aguilera asked Trump if he still considered climate change a hoax...

[stuff in square brackets, above, mine]


Gosh.

As Ms. Wheeler points out, aren't those the kinds of questions that actual journalists used to ask?



______
Earworm
in the header?....The Own Eee Ders!




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Monday, October 14, 2024

The Season For Training And Camping Is Now Officially Over.


WhenWestWas
EastVille


Given that this year's edition of the Canuckleheads appear, at least for the moment, to be playing like a brand new expansion team...




Wasn't that something?

And, despite the fact that he was only 34 at the time, isn't it amazing to realize that O. J. Kurtenbach still looks like he's your Dad in that video.

As for the big Irishman, Pat Quinn....Don't forget that he was at the time little more than a Maple Laff's cast-off who's main claim to fame was knocking Bobby Orr out cold with a vicious 'shelbow' in the 1969 playoffs.

Ahhhh...

The old days.

When the boards were clean and you could take the whole family, and maybe the kid down the street as well, to the game without skipping an entire mortgage payment.

Imagine that!



.

Sunday, October 13, 2024

My Afternoon Ride.


EastOfEden
AlmostSookeVille



We made the trip over to the People's Republic of South Van Isle, again, for Thanksgiving with eleventy billion running maniacs.

It was a full ferry on a flip-flop-infested Friday night. But all went smoothly.

Additionally, all went pretty much as well as it could go with our grown-up kids getting together with their cousins on both sides of the family, in shifts, through the weekend.

As for me, I took a bit of break Saturday afternoon and rode out to Matheson Lake.

The idyll was it, news on the dead tree page included.

Monday will be crazy times on the trip back across the Salish Sea I reckon.

Selah.



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Wednesday, October 02, 2024

No Official Role.


CircumentingThe
SixVille


Courtesy Marcy Wheeler, the following is the entire first paragraph from special prosecutor Jack Smith's (Anti) Immunity Brief in the case of The United States of America v. Donald Trump.



Very strong, straightforward language.

Essentially, Smith has cut out the White House/official business ties to make it clear that Mr. Trump acted culpably as a private person/candidate with 'no official role' in the election fraud case. 

This was necessary given the Supreme Court's 6-3 ruling that US'ian Presidents are immune from prosecution when they engage in official acts.

Importantly, it was the (non-supreme) judge in the case who unsealed portions of Mr. Smith's brief in redacted form.

This could get most interesting as folks work to figure out who all the redacted co-conspirators are. Ms. Wheeler, who really, really pays attention to this stuff, has already thrown the first pitch in that particular name game.



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Sunday, September 29, 2024

The Savvy Comes To Lotusland.


KierensLewisAndCamp
TheyAreMostDecidedlyNotVille



Jay Rosen, a media watcher down south, began to decry the emergence of 'The Cult Of Savviness' in the US'ian world of political journalism more than a decade ago:

...(M)ost of the people who report on politics aren’t trying to advance an ideology. But I think they have an ideology, a belief system that holds their world together and tells them what to report about. It’s not left, or right, or center, really. It’s trickier than that. The name I’ve given to the ideology of our political press is savviness.

In politics, our journalists believe, it is better to be savvy than it is to be honest or correct on the facts. It’s better to be savvy than it is to be just, good, fair, decent, strictly lawful, civilized, sincere, thoughtful or humane. Savviness is what journalists admire in others. Savvy is what they themselves dearly wish to be. (And to be unsavvy is far worse than being wrong.)

Savviness is that quality of being shrewd, practical, hyper-informed, perceptive, ironic, “with it,” and unsentimental in all things political. And what is the truest mark of savviness? Winning, of course! Or knowing who the winners are...


Well.

Just in case you missed it, the latest wave of the cult of the savvy has arrived in Lotusland.

It has washed up on our shores in the form of a podcast called 'Hotel Pacifico' that it is currently being hosted by a couple of old, apparently now out of the game but likely still very much plugged-in, pols from each side of the Lotuslandian political divide, Mike McDonald and Geoff Meggs. They are joined by former corpmedia journo turned Comms runner for one of Vancouver's biggest foundations, Kate Hammer.

I decided to give it a regular listen during the election campaign thinking I might learn something about what the two big sides are really about, what they really want to do, and how and why they are doing the things they are doing during the current campaign.

After all, these are insiders who know what's really what, right?

And, because they are no longer being reigned in by the bridle and bit of their political machines, they'll give us the straight goods and take a real chance by telling us what they really think, right?

Wrong.

Because, except for one interesting episode on battleground ridings with Richard Zussman, mostly notable for the zingers that Zussman hurled at McDonald for his past electoral campaign state(r)gies, it has pretty much been nothing but paper-thin wafers of minutiae wrapped around huge, glop-laden bangers stuffed to bursting with the savvy.

Which is fine, as far as it goes, I guess.

Until, of course, the savvy swells and swells until it finally explodes in everyone's faces to little apparent chagrin and, instead, much laughter.

G. Meggs: So, Kory was challenging BC United to die with dignity. On a scale of zero to ten how did he do?

K. Hammer: (through the giggles) How much dignity was there?

K. Teneycke: Zero being, you know, 'your corpse being dragged through the streets behind a chariot' and ten being 'a respectful funeral', I'll give him about a four.

M. McDonald: That's generous.

K. Teneycke: Ya. I don't know. Umm. Ya. It's ahh, it was ultimately, ahh, a made sort of action.


Instead of actually asking the noted Conservative insider, Mr. Teneycke, what he meant when he said that the political killing of the Soccer Party was a  'made sort of action', and why, the local folks immediately made jokes about how it it was 'more like a murder' and that it 'was more like a pillow' that did the deed. This led the suddenly off-the-hook Teneycke to further joke that, because it happened in B.C., it was likely done with 'a giant syringe of opioids'.

Gosh.

With quips like that there is really no need for 'Air Quotes', eh?

Zero stars.


_____
Subheader ghost in the machine?....This!


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Tuesday, September 24, 2024

What, He Worry?



AllHisRowdy
FriendsVille


In case you missed it, it looks like Kevin Falcon's demolition of the B.C. Soccer Party is going to cost you and yours money.

The following is from a report by Karin Larsen published by the CBC last week before the writ came down:

Taxpayers could be bailing out B.C. United for upwards of a million dollars for the severance owed to 25 of the party's caucus employees who are about to lose their jobs.

The Official Opposition party brought the request to the Legislative Assembly Management Committee (LAMC) on Monday because it doesn't have enough money to cover the severances.

A motion to "authorize" and "facilitate" the severance packages was passed by the committee after in-camera discussion. Committee member and government House leader Ravi Kahlon told CBC News the price tag will be over a million dollars...


So.

Should the Mr. Falcon have foreseen this significant consequence of his action and built this expense into the deal he made with the honourable Mr. Rustad?

Of course he should have:

...LAMC and Green Party member Adam Olsen said whatever money is left in B.C. United caucus and non-returning MLA constituency coffers will be used for the severances first. Only then will additional dollars from the legislative assembly budget kick in.

"This was [LAMC] doing our business and this was us recognizing that all this funding comes from the legislature anyway," said Olsen. "This is something Kevin Falcon probably should have dealt with before shutting down operations."...


And, even if Mr. Rustad had not ponied up, it's not like Mr. Falcon does not have friends with deep pockets.

After all, he once raised big money, in just one night, for that noted paragon of good sense and good government that I'm sure all of those former Soccer Party centrist voters could get behind, Maxime Bernier.


______
And don't get me wrong...These folks, some of whom apparently worked for the previous iteration of the Soccer Party for as much as two decades, should receive their severance...It's just somewhat surprising that Mr. Falcon seems not to have thought of/taken care of these long term loyalists before he pushed the self-destruct button.


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Sunday, September 22, 2024

Sunday Set...Harvest, With Or Without Moon.


HeirOfThe
LoomsVille



I wrote this awhile back:

Just before she passed away, in 2001, my Grandma E., who always liked to tell people, especially real doctors, that her grandson was also a 'doctor', asked me if I was ever going to finish going to school.

At the time I'd already been holding down a 'real' academic job long enough that I also had tenure.

Which meant that I was a lifer.

So I smiled and told her no - I was going to go to school until I retired, maybe longer.

Not sure what she thought about that...


The point?

Well, September, and the start of school, is always the real New Year for me.

And this particular New Year has been an extra busy one as I've picked up an extra course this term. Of course that has threatened to cut into time spent in the lab but  I've done my best to make sure it doesn't which means, well, time.

Of course, September is also harvest time, as the image at the top of the post, which is just a small portion of C's tomato bounty this year.

Which brings us to this month's Sunday Set.

It consists of a couple of tunes from Uncle Neil, one from Alex Chilton and Chris Bell (it's not the one with September in the title), and a wee bit of Gord's Gold just to make sure we keep up with can-con-on-the-interwebz bonafides.

Why that last one from Mr. Lightfoot, really?

Because the cold winds of November will be here soon enough.

OK?




______
My Dad always hated the start of school when he was a kid because it ruined the party...His birthday is September 4th.
And, for the record, I'm not a real doctor...Also, I never force the kids I work with to use that moniker...It's dumb, especially given that everything I learned about teaching I actually learned while working at summer camp...As for the other stuff?...Well, just like a decent welder, auto-mechanic, or tugboat driver, I had a good long apprenticeship that has served me well.


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Saturday, September 21, 2024

I Read The News Today, Oh Boy...


WritDropping
TimeVille



...And decided to go read Mr.  Dr. Beer 'N Hockey instead:

...No government in Canada (Manitoba is still catching up after the recent 7 year rule of a f*cked up Conservative government very much like BC's own Conservatives) got us through the Covid years better. This is notable because emergencies are when governments are supposed to shine yet rarely do so.

Despite the enormous challenges faced over the past four years our province has continued to excel. The outlook for housing, healthcare, the environment, community safety, employment, affordability and more all look promising. The Taylor Swift Free Press trusts David Eby to continue to fulfill that promise and deliver more of what British Columbians need in the next four years...


Fire away!


_____
Today's
ear worm in the sub-header is a bit of stretch, although it does have tangential relevance to one of our most difficult problems that will not be solved by throwing harm reduction out with the bath water...Beer, as is his want, goes for something a little more traditional from the Bard of Barking.


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Tuesday, September 10, 2024

My Morning Ride.



ForgetItJake
It'sSoccerTownVille



The image above was taken at 25th and Oak in Central Lotusland this morning, Sept 10, 2024.

And you thought we were done with him and his?

Ha!

BC United says it will run a select number of candidates in the Oct. 19 election after suspending its province-wide campaign to support the B.C. Conservative Party.

The number of candidates and their names or ridings have not yet been announced.

The move is intended to ensure BC United remains a registered political party with Elections B.C., executive director Lindsay Cote said in a letter to members on Friday.

On Aug. 28, BC United Leader Kevin Falcon suspended the ­party’s campaign and released his candidates; many of them learned about the decision from the media.

The “gut-wrenching” decision was made to defeat the NDP and secure “a free-enterprise ­victory” in the provincial ­election, said Cote, adding the move did not “fold our party or erase our organization.”

By running some candidates, BC United will later be able to have a thorough discussion with its membership about the future of the party, she said. “If there is a desire within our membership to rebuild the party, and a plausible path to do so, we want to be in a position to act on this,” said Cote...


_____
The pull quote, above, is the lede from a story by Cindy Harnett, who has been doing good work following the twists and turns of the Soccer Party's recent machinations, in last Saturday's Times-Colonist.
Of course, Marky Mark thinks this is all a conspiracy to keep the true and good liberals of British Columbia (i.e. those who willingly got into bed with the Campbelleros and jumped at the chance to be a  part of Clarklandia for fifteen years straight) down ...Or some such thing.
Earworm in the sub-header?...This.


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Sunday, September 08, 2024

Founders v. Stooges?


Where'sMo
Ville


By now you may have heard about the story of the Russians from the no-longer-so-venerable Kremlin propaganda pusher called 'RT' that used an American 'media' front....errrr....'outlet' to funnel millions of dollars to YouTube influencers with pre-existing anti-Ukranian views who are now claiming that they were innocent stooges in the enterprise.

But what of the founders who set up and ran Tenet Media, the outlet/front that allegedly funnelled the millions into the open gullets of the innocent stooges?

Well, here's a bit of their story, courtesy of Jonathan Montpetit and Aloysious Wong of the CBC:

...The media outlet was unnamed in the indictment (from the US DoJ), but it was clear from details within that the charges referred to Tenet Media, founded in 2023 by the Canadian influencer known as Lauren Chen and her husband, Liam Donovan...

{snip}

...Neither Chen, Donovan nor (Canadian influencer Lauren) Southern are the subject of criminal charges, and none are named in the indictment.

But the allegations have jeopardized their standing within right-wing circles.

Chen has already been fired from another conservative website, Glenn Beck's The Blaze. Her YouTube channel, which had more than 572,000 subscribers, was terminated on Thursday. And her bio page on the website for Turning Point USA, a pro-Trump campus activist group, has been deleted.

YouTube also removed Tenet Media's channel on Thursday, saying "it violated our community guidelines."...


So. 

Did the Founders, Ms. Chen and/or Mr Donovan, know that they were acting as an RT front for the funnelling of Kremlin-Kash to the Stooges?

Well...

Emptywheel thinks that, despite the claims to the contrary that are (very likely) sure to come, there is evidence, based on past, pre-Ukranian invasion performance, that this just may be the case:


... As the indictment describes, before the invasion of Ukraine, Chen got paid directly from RT...And Donovan got paid by RT and Ruptly until later than that: May 2022...

{snip}

...So Chen and Donovan used to work directly for RT, and then just about the time of the Ukrainian invasion, set up shop in the US (by starting Tenet media), allegedly participating in a ruse by which they hid the Russian source of their funding...

{snippety}

...Chen set up this business such that she’d be subject to the laws of and some tax burdens in both Canada and the US. She did that at precisely the moment where the impending invasion of Ukraine made such issues more sensitive. And since then, she has done things that provide some evidence that she’s in on the ruse: that she knows she’s evading some laws or regimes by using corporate and financial cut-outs.

Those things likely provide enough to make her US accounts subject to probable cause warrants...


This could get really interesting if the warrants start to fly and the stooges start flipping.

Assuming they haven't already.

Started flipping I mean.


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Monday, September 02, 2024

A Reminder Of What This Holiday Is All About.


WorkingForThe
UnionVille


I honestly can't remember how I stumbled across Ellen Bloom's blog many years ago.

Especially because it is decidedly apolitical. Essentially, Ellen roam's Los Angeles and takes pictures. When she's not doing that she digs up historical pictures and vignettes. Or she tells stories about her family and its history.

None of those individual topics really give me a charge on their own, but I get such a kick out of Ellen's enthusiasm, photographic skills, and charm that I always look forward to her next post.

Today's post, honouring Labour Day, is just a wee bit different. I was particularly struck by this bit:

...I spent over 45 years in the work force. Some of that time was spent as a union member, working at various movie studios throughout Los Angeles. Today, I am reaping the benefits of full-time, corporate employment thanks to the labor movement's accomplishments over the years for equal rights, better working conditions and equal pay. Thank you...


Well said, no?

_____
I just remembered the 'how'....Ukulele Uber Alles!


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Sunday, September 01, 2024

Carnac....errrr...Falcon The Magnificent?


AllHisVistas'R
TheirsVille


Perhaps a better title, regardless whether or not it was bestowed by the ghost of Ed McMahon, would actually be 'Falcon the Omniscient'.

At least according to the good Mr. Falcon himself.

The following is from Cindy Harnett's piece in today's Times-Colonist that we mentioned in an update to yesterday's post:

...Falcon said he has apologized to caucus and staff, saying he would have loved to have had talked beforehand, and ­acknowledged he understood “the anger, the disappointment, sense of betrayal, whatever the emotion is, I totally understand.”

“But what they have to understand from me is that I have a different vista than they all do,” said Falcon. “I see and know way more things than they do.”...


The all seeing and all knowing, indeed.

Interestingly, and perhaps a bit surprisingly, neither Mr. Falcon nor any of his 'aides' has made any mention whatsoever of sealed envelopes in a mayonnaise jar sitting on Funk and Wagnall's porch since noon on Wednesday.


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Saturday, August 31, 2024

Will Mr. Rustad Whack His Whackaloons?


BackroomFever
SchemesVille


________

Sunday morning update at the bottom of the post.
________

Well, well well, whadd'ya know...

According to Rob Shaw at least, writing in the now glacierified Orca media outlet, the Con/Soccer Party deal began when a couple of surrogates got together in a backwaterish-type room:

...It started Sunday, when Caroline Elliott, the United candidate for West Vancouver-Capilano, former party vice president and Falcon’s sister-in-law, reached out by text to Angelo Isidorou, the Conservative party’s executive director. Would he be willing to meet and talk about where things are at, she asked...

{snip)

...Elliott and Isidorou sat down at Browns Socialhouse in North Vancouver’s Lonsdale area for an informal chat Sunday evening — two trusted interlocutors from either side feeling out, over a Guinness, whether there was enough common ground for a formal meeting...


Now, leaving aside the fact that the two bosses lacked to the intestinal fortitude to start the 'talks' themselves for the moment, here's what, again according to the esteemed Mr. Shaw, happened next:

...Tuesday, at 2 p.m., Elliott and United executive director Lindsay Coté gathered in a boardroom in Vancouver with Isidorou and Conservative president Aisha Estey.

The Conservative staffers took the meeting with low expectations. Some of the same people had tried unsuccessfully to broker a deal in May. The failure to do so, had led to three BC United MLAs defecting to the Conservatives...


More lackeys!

Quelle surprise.

But then, if the extremely insightful and plugged-in(able) Mr. Shaw is correct about all tis, things got downright interesting, and just a wee bit Machiavellian:

"...United then offered up its large package of opposition research on controversial views held by Conservative candidates (the party had been planning to release information on a Conservative candidate who believes in the chemtrails conspiracy on Wednesday, but did not) and divulged which Conservative candidates it believes have documented problematic views."...


And, so, did Mr. Rustad take the bait?

According to the exalted Mr. Shaw, who appears to have reached the highest of high points on this story that no other Ledgie Boy has even begun to scale so far, the answer is yes.

...Rustad had for months refused to consider any deal with United where it would require him to dismiss candidates he’d previously recruited and were loyal to his party — even if they ended up being revealed to have extreme views on social policies, science and COVID-19 vaccines.

The question he faced now was, would it be worth compromising on that position, and replace a few candidates with United members, if it meant removing the United party off the board entirely for the Oct. 19 election?

Ultimately, he agreed...


So, no matter how hard super fine folks like, say, Marky Mark, who used to have backroom clout, try to deny that it could happen, it is entirely possible that Mr. Rustad will soon try to jettison the flotsam as he starts to tack back towards the center.

The only problem with such a strategy, which would, of course, welcome any and all deflector media spike spin from very fine 'columnists' who work for previously not-so-secret right-sided prop organs, is that it will be pretty hard for Mr. Rustad to jettison himself.

If you get my (way, way,  rightward) drift.


______
Sunday morning update: Cindy Harnett has a story up at the Times Colonist that confirms the broad strokes of Mr. Shaw's story including the players, the rooms and the handing over of the oppo research...What it does not have is Mr. Rustad taking the bait/agreeing. Instead, Harnett quotes Falcon saying that he got a 'commitment' from Rustad to work in 'good faith' taking Falcon's 'advice' which he could 'choose to ignore'...Oh, ya, and Falcon also conceded that his actions in the days prior to Wednesday's announcement of the big deal may have been viewed 'as perhaps' duplicitous...You think?


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Wednesday, August 28, 2024

Did The Kevinator Do The Deal To Prevent a Klout Klub Takeover?


MakingMachiavelli
BlushVille



Earlier this afternoon we wondered if the Kevinator acted alone when he made the deal with the Whackaloons to blow-up the Soccer Party.

Now, reader Lew E. has brought the following to our attention:



Gosh.

Is it possible that the Klout Klub tried to hijack the whole thing?

Well...

I dunno for sure, but it is clear that Marky Mark is spoiling for a Klout Klub Kat Fight:




Imagine that!


_____
Update: Re: The rumoured KK hijacking...Why, exactly, would Marky Mark question/care whether or not the Kevinator has the authority to make like John Candy and blow things up real good on his own?
These super fine folks do know that we're watching what they do and say, right?

.

Is The Kevinator Acting Alone?


AManOfDubious
ConvictionVille


I'm writing this early Thursday afternoon as the news of the BC Liberal party 'folding' is just starting to hit the Wurlitzer.

So, things will likely be a little clearer later in the day after we have heard from both Mr. Falcon and Mr. Rustad, the leader of the far, far right Whackaloon party that appears to have stomped on the corpse of whatever teensy, tiny bit of 'centre' still remained in the now defunct Campbell/Clark-Off Soccer Party.

But here is something interesting that might be worth returning to in the aftermath, from the Canadian Press:

Mike Bernier, who represents Peace River South, said he's been unable to reach BC United Leader Kevin Falcon amid reports the party is folding, while the rival BC Conservative Party says Leader John Rustad will be making a "major statement" about the election at 2:40 p.m.

Bernier said he called the meeting because there's "obviously something going on" but he was unable to say exactly what, and his phone has been "blowing up" with calls from concerned staff and other MLAs....


Hmmm...Does this mean that Mr. Falcon has done the deed/taken the deal from the Whackaloons on his own?

That must be some deal if the early reports are correct that Mr. Falcon has been telling anyone who listen that he will not run in the upcoming election.

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Tuesday, August 27, 2024

The First Rule of Klout Club.


BurrardIsNotAComms
StrategyVille


First, there was this, a couple of months ago, floated in the Star and the Globe:

Former B.C. premier Christy Clark says Prime Minister Justin Trudeau needs to be replaced and suggested MPs begin having private conversations with the Liberal Leader about the party’s electoral prospects if he stays on.

In an interview with The Globe and Mail Thursday, Ms. Clark said Monday’s by-election loss in Toronto-St. Paul’s is a sign for the Prime Minister that the Liberal Party needs a change.

“I think the Leader needs to be replaced,” she said. “I think it’s time for him to move on to other, fairer pastures.”...


Then, last week, there was the following from the local Lotuslandian Global politics guy:


So.

What's going on and why does it appear that the Klout Klub is working so hard to get the CorpMedia to pay attention to Ms. Clark's meandering musings?

Well...

I must admit that I was initially flummoxed.

And then, while riding through the rain last night, I suddenly realized that smart 'n savvy media minder-binder types like Klout Klub man-about-inlet-town Marky Mark just might be trying to convince any and all Big Fed-Red Machine mavens who will listen that Ms. Clark could be the super-duper leadership switcheroo game changer they've been looking for.

Just like, say, Kamala Harris.

Imagine that!


____
The first rule of Klout Klub?....
Always be pushing...Thing is, while that may have worked back in ancient times (i.e. see DION, Stephane), it doesn't appear to have worked out so well more recently for super fine political folks like Hector Bremmer, Michael Lee or, even, the good Mr. Marissen himself...
As for those French lessons alluded to in Mr. Zussman's word salad?...One can only wonder if, perhaps, the former premier took them at the Sorbonne?



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Monday, August 26, 2024

The Latest In 'Objective' Journalism - False Equivalent Fact Checking.


WhenNothingIsTrue
WeAllLoseVille



If you've been paying attention to CorpMedia coverage of the rapidly evolving US'ian presidential election campaign you may have noticed a sudden orgy of fact checking of the trivial.

One of the best examples is the powers that be taking the bait of the Nouveau Richie Rich Ratsf*ckers to wurlitzer and amplify the slightest of quibbles regarding Tim Walz' past statements.

Kevin Drum, by way of Digby, had that story on the weekend:

Let us investigate the vast history of 'lying' by Gov. Tim Walz as alleged by the Trump campaign:

Retired from the National Guard as a command sergeant major...He did rise to the rank of command sergeant major, but upon retirement his rank reverted to master sergeant.

Had children via IVF...Walz almost always refers only to “fertility treatments,” but a couple of times has used the term IVF. In fact he and his wife underwent IUI, commonly referred to as IVF but actually a different, more affordable fertility treatment.

Won an award from the Nebraska Chamber of Commerce (2006)...It was the Junior Chamber of Commerce.

Taught in China for a year through a program at Harvard University (2006)...It was a program affiliated with Harvard.

Earned the title of Nebraska Citizen-Soldier of the Year (1989)...He did indeed earn this award, but so did 51 other people. I’m not sure how this counts even under the strictest definition, but I’m including it for completeness.

Referred one time to “weapons of war, that I carried in war” (2018)...Has admitted this was a misstatement.

Denied he had been drinking when he was pulled over in 1995 for speeding (2006)...Possibly the only serious falsehood, from 18 years ago. However, he corrected the record himself six years ago when he ran for governor.


****

But now, it turns out that there is something even more insidious going down, which is the use of the CorpMedia fact check machine to bury significant historical events.

Mike, our friendly and knowledgeable, fellow biologist is tracking this phenomenon:



Here’s what Trump uttered April 23, 2020:

"And then I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in a minute, one minute. And is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside or almost a cleaning, because you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs. So it’d be interesting to check that."



Mike calls this 'fact checking as gaslighting', which is a good name for a very bad thing.

Personally, I'm of the opinion that this type of thing is likely a water-headed response, at least in part, to the hard slogging of Daniel Dale and its potential to adversely affect the bottom line of places like the venerable New York Times.

Gosh.

What's next, a daily eyeball/click grabbing version of the 'Fact Check Game, Wordleized Edition'?


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