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 Luca (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 Luca, 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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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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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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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!

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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.

And 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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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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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.

Just like it did on Friday's episode with Kory Teneycke:

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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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.


.

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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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.

.

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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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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Not One Penny.

MakeAmericaChildhoodDiseased

AgainVille

"I will not give one penny (of federal funds) to any school that has a vaccine mandate..." 

Donald Trump, May 15, 2024.

“There’s been no commitments. But, you know, I met with President Trump, with family, with his closest advisers, and we just made a general commitment that we are going to work together."

Robert F Kennedy Jr, August 25, 2024.

****

Now.

Setting aside the poor grammar and the bizarre double-minty-fresh-in-the-same-breath speak that would cause a super fine fellow like Mr. Kennedy to state that a 'general' commitment is actually 'no' commitment for the moment...

Does this mean that Josh Marshall is right to conclude that Mr. Trump and his MACDA acolytes are  running on the Pro-Polio/Tetanus ticket?

My only additional comment is that Mr. Marshall appears to have forgotten to mention the whooping cough - loving wing of the party.

Meanwhile, over in Horsey-McHorse-Face Race Land, ABC News asks:

"How much momentum will RFK Jr.'s endorsement give Trump?"

Good grief.

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An Expert In A Field Not Quite Dead.

FootlooseAndFancy

FreeVille


Saturdays, the Whackadoodle-II and I usually head out early to find a body of water for her to frolic in somewhere.

But this morning I used the crummy (but good for wildfire prevention!) weather here in Lotusland as an excuse for sleeping in a little.

And then I had a bit of trouble getting going.

Luckily, Ben Sinclair's Tour Diary popped up on the left sidebar and I spent a little time reading about 'The Beths'  recent day spent in Boise Idaho that included the backing of their big blue bus and its trailer around multiple tight corners, the soldering of Craig's list-acquired mic cables, park exploring, the post-show cross loading of gear into a Subaru station wagon, burritos, and all manner of being young New Zealanders run amok in America (for example, sometimes they play cricket with a home made bat while on the actual bus).

Next I went full metal para-social and watched the gang wake-up and frolic the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle a few days ago. This was followed by a spate of Tubian queue making in advance of listening to the latest from the band's road show:



The tune above is, as Sonny Bono and Townes once said, a medley of The Beth's hit, singular, called 'Expert in a Dying Field'. This particular video version is from a show yesterday in, of all places, Ogden Utah.

Okay...

Now that I'm all revved up, I've got to put the fun stuff away because the time has come to re-learn a little histology, which is, essentially, the microscopic study of tissues using old fashioned blue and pink stains that underpins much of classical pathology. Pathology is a field that is rapidly changing, what with all the high throughput, multiplex imaging and spatial genomics that is blossoming at the moment.

Nonetheless, histology is not quite dead because, before you do all the fancy stuff that helps to improve the precision of pathologic diagnosis and prognosis (i.e. naming the problem and making an educated guess at the likely outcome), you need to know what the tissue concerned looks like prior to getting messed up.

Long story short, back when I was a gradual student I became a pretty good histologist who could pick out a single antibody producing plasma cell swimming in a sea of dermal collagen based on its blue clock face nucleus or Paneth cells filled to bursting with little pink antimicrobial granules located deep within an intestinal crypt.

Unfortunately, those skills have waned significantly in the intervening decades. However, all that degradation must now be reversed because this fall I've agreed to help out passing along such skills to a passel of budding young health professionals.

Which means that, given that I'm not writing a grant at the moment,  I've got to buckle down and hit the books on the shelf over my left shoulder and/or the online atlases to make sure that I can tell the difference between cardiac and skeletal muscle cells before Labour Day. 

What fun!


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Image at the top of the post?...The W-II dipping her toes into Englishmen's River last Saturday morning over on the People's Republic of VanIsle...I'll take her to beach tomorrow morning...Promise!

And, for the record...I have no idea what the most colourful, and somewhat disturbing,  Cleveland Dam Ghost Walkers are all about over at NVG's place...

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The Soccer Party's Concern Troll Conductor-In-Chief.

AllOurNineHundredNinetyYearLeases

'RHimAndHisVille


From Kevin Falcon's fingertips straight to Elon Musk's bot-infested pixel factory:

But, as the CorpMedia story that Mr. Falcon himself links to above makes clear, this is/was more than a 'strike'.

It is/was, at least in part, a lockout:

An end to a countrywide rail stoppage may be in sight, but riders of British Columbia's West Coast Express are facing at least one more day without the service.

The federal government on Thursday asked for binding arbitration in the dispute involving the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference union, Canadian National Railway Co., and Canadian Pacific Kansas City Ltd.

CN said soon after that it had ended its lockout of workers and CPKC said it was preparing to resume operations after the two railways' first-ever simultaneous stoppage...

Which means that, in the case of CN Rail, it was the employer who drove the stoppage on, presumably, former BC Rail rails using, again presumably, former BC Rail rolling stock.

And as for that long ago BC Rail sale/not sale deal to CN Rail... 

The following is from a December 2004 report by the intrepid Mr. (now Professor) Sean Holman quizzing the then pre-Soccer Party Attorney General (and future 'there was no prior inducement' proponent), Geoff Plant, about what the charging of then pre-Soccer Party aide Mr. David Basi was really all about:

Attorney General Plant: I don't know a whole lot really about what's happened today other than the information that I received a copy of an hour or so ago..... And the question of how this relates to various aspects of B.C. Rail and the CN Rail partnership is a question that is more appropriately directed to (Transportation Minister) Kevin Falcon.

Media: Will Kevin Falcon be made available today?

Attorney General Plant: I'm not responsible for Kevin's whereabouts.

Imagine that!


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Tip O' The Toque to Bob Fedderly for bringing this to our attention on the bot-infested pixel factory.

And, yes, as I seem to be saying more and more often these days...I do have archives...And I'm going use them!


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Vaccines For The Fall.

ThisIsAPublicService
AnnouncementVille


This is a snark-free/serious/no-fooling post to follow-up on today's earlier snarkoleptic bit on how bad it would be if RFK Jr were to become the US'ian Director of Health and Human Services

****

Katelyn Jetelina is an epidemiologist who does a great job of explaining all things public health so that there rest of of us can understand what is really going on.

She's got a great explainer up right now regarding the vaccines that will be available this fall for the Flu, COVID-19 and RSV.

It's a really great, informative post that summarizes the pros and cons on the various vaccines and provides informed suggestions on when to get them.

Here, for Bigger E who has been asking a non-epidemiologist about this (i.e. her Dad), is a quick summary on when to get the latest batch of COVID 19 shots:

If you were recently infected, wait 4-6 months. It doesn’t hurt if you get it earlier, but some research shows that waiting allows our antibody factories to update more effectively.

If you were not recently infected, the timing is a tough call. Either get it now—we are in the middle of a huge infection wave—or wait to increase protection against the winter wave (which may be closer to November). I will be getting mine when it becomes available.

I'm pretty sure that most of us olds here in Lotusland have been timed to get the next C-19 shot in the early fall (estimated by counting back six months to those spring shots most of us were offered). 

The upshot, as per Dr. Jetelina, is the following:

...There are some nuances for those looking for ultimate protection, but in the end, the best vaccine is the one you get!...

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Earworm in the sub-header?....This!

Image at the top of the post...Taken directly from Dr. Jetelina's post who is happy to have her work disseminated far and wide.



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Make America Childhood Diseased Again.

BeetsBearsAndBattlestarCraptaculars

SnarkVille


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

According to ABC News at least, it looks like America's favourite failson is getting ready to drop out of his run in the Horsey McHorseface race that was originally financed by the billionare class so that he would suck votes away from then Dem candidate Super-Old Guy. This, it is alleged by the very same ABC News, will allow the good Mr. Kennedy to endorse the only remaining horse in the race who is also against the use of vaccines to improve the collective public health:

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is planning to drop out of the presidential race by the end of this week, sources familiar with the decision tell ABC News.

Sources tell ABC News that Kennedy plans to endorse Donald Trump -- but when asked directly by ABC News if he will be endorsing the former president, Kennedy said, "I will not confirm or deny that."...

Rumour has it that Mr. Kennedy has been angling for the Director of Health and Human Services job in a second Trump administration as part of the 'deal'.

We are pretty sure that poliovirus particles hidden under the seat cushions (and in wading pools) everywhere are rejoicing.

_____
As an aside...Don't you just love it when 'major' media outlets use unnamed sources as the basis for both of the first two paragraphs in a their 'blockbuster' ledes...As US'ian flyover country's top liberal blogger/podcaster, Driftglass, wrote recently...."Critiquing the media these days is like fishing at a fish farm. With dynamite." 

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My Morning Ride.

Chlorophyll
GoneVille

Jeez.

Didn't summer just start, like, yesterday?

The image above, with all those leaves on the ground under darkened skies, was from my ride in this morning, early, because...

Today was my first lecture of the 'fall'.

Sure hope those budding young health professionals who were forced to listen to my gibberish for an hour or so understood what a big deal it is for me to get respectable by changing out of (long/baggy) bike shorts into pants....In August!



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Memes Of The Very Weird, ctd...

Estrogen-FreeWomen
WhatAreTheyGoodForVille


The Vanceing continues, as noted by Bess Levin writing in Vanity Fair:

...In a 2020 podcast interview discussing the benefits of grandparents in children’s lives, (US'ian Republican VP Candidate JD) Vance agrees when the host says, “That’s the whole purpose of the postmenopausal female.” But wait, the incredibly creepy takes don’t stop there! Later, while recounting that his wife’s mother lived with them for a year after the birth of their first son, Vance does not object to the host declaring that that is “this weird, unadvertised feature of marrying an Indian woman.” (Vance’s wife, Usha Vance, is of Indian descent.).

Noting that his mother-in-law is a biology professor and took a yearlong sabbatical to help out, Vance says, “it’s just one of these things that…this is what you do.”...

As for the unacknowledged elitism being trumpeted there...Well, that's pretty darned elegiac of him don't you think?

Sheesh.

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More Receipts From The Pre-Soccer Party's Tax Cut Party In 2001.

WhatOnceWasLostHasNowBeen
FoundVille


Yesterday we noted that former pre-Soccer Party member George Abbott took current Soccer Party leader Kevin Falcon and his then fellow Campbellerians to task for their massive tax cut in 2001 that is now being reprised twenty-three years later:

...“Although the tax cut was undoubtedly popular among many British Columbians, few fully understood the fiscal repercussions that would follow,” Abbott wrote. “Cautionary advice was dismissed and tax cuts quickly translated into a $4.4-billion deficit and deep expenditure reductions for ministries other than health, education and advanced education.”...

Mr. Falcon does not agree with Mr. Abbott's summary of events, as noted by Andrew MacLeod in The Tyee:

...“I disagree completely with the greatest respect to my friend George,” Falcon said. “The evidence showed we had the fastest growing economy in the country (after the 2001 tax cut)...

Well, actually,  no:

Progress Board, you ask? 

Is it a left wing thinky thing designed to tank the pre-Soccer Party party and its policies?

Well, also no, as noted by Paul Willcocks in days gone by:

...(Gordon) Campbell asked a group of business leaders — David Emerson was the first chair, Jimmy Pattison was on board — to set measurable goals for the province, report on progress each year and offer advice on critical issues.

The boards out six important areas — economic growth, standard of living, jobs, the environment, health outcomes and social conditions. Then it identified key indicators that could be used to measure how well the province was doing each year, things like exports per capita and birth weights and educational achievement...

{snippety doo-dah}

...It’s been a useful exercise. Citizens, and government, can see what is and isn’t working. The spin by government and opposition can be replaced by facts...

Imagine that - the current Soccer Party leader hoisted with the pre-Soccer Party's own petard!



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And, once again....I have archives and I'm going to use them!...And, just to be clear, I would be happy to summarize year-over-year Progress Board reports but, unfortunately, although not surprisingly, the board and its works were disappeared by the Wizards of Clarklandia almost immediately after they seized power.

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