Please Allow Us To (Not) Introduce Ourselves...

What'sPuzzlin'You
IsTheNatureOfTheirGameVille


Back in the dark arts electoral days of the Harper regime, the Conservative Reform Alliance Party (i.e. 'CRAP') was notorious for no-shows at all-candidate meetings.

And now, the Stealth-Cons are back!

In B.C. the most notorious avoider of public scrutiny appears to be one Mr Aaron Gunn, as chronicled by Andrea Bennett in the Tyee:

It’s a packed house at the federal all-candidates meeting in Powell River, with one very notable absence: Conservative candidate Aaron Gunn...

{snip}

After news reporting in early April resurfaced Gunn’s 2019 and 2021 social media posts denying that Canada participated in a genocide against Indigenous Peoples, he’s skipped all-candidates meetings and skirted more public appearances in favour of private and registration-only events...

Farther down island, Cindy Harnett of the Times-Colonist asked Stealth-Con Cathie Ounsted why she isn't showing up for all-candidate meetings in the riding of Saanich and the Islands:

...Ounsted said Tuesday the Conservative party would prefer that its candidates not participate in all-candidates forums, and while it’s not her preference, she needs to abide by the rules of the party, which means she will not attend an all-candidates meeting hosted by the North Saanich Residents Association at the Saanich Peninsula Presbyterian Church from 7 to 9 p.m. on Wednesday...

Gosh.

A Jenni Byrne-led campaign telling its candidates to avoid public scrutiny, en masse?

Whou'd-a-thunk it!


_______
LauraK of 'WMTC', who lives in the riding the good Mr. Gunn is running in, has more to say...Much more.




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Mr. Manning's Separatist Fearmongering Is Not New.

HeTalkedAboutUnbucklingThatOldBibleBelt
AndLightedOutForSomeDesertTownVille


By now you may have heard about, or perhaps even read, Preston Manning's screed that was published in the Globe (and no longer Empire) Mail earlier this month about how a vote for Mark Carney in the upcoming federal election will be a vote for separatism.

Here's just a wee bit:

...(L)arge numbers of Westerners simply will not stand for another four years of Liberal government, no matter who leads it. The support for Western secession is therefore growing, unabated and even fuelled by Liberal promises to reverse many of their previous positions. Such promises of expediency simply don’t ring true in the West. Who, except the most politically naive, would believe Mark Carney’s promises to reverse the Liberal positions on everything from east-west pipelines to identity politics and climate change, when standing behind him is a cabinet of 23 MPs who, just a month ago, were advocating for the very opposite and have done so for years?

The bottom-up support for Western secession – another one of those populist movements that central Canada has never anticipated or understood – is currently centred on Alberta and Saskatchewan. But it has the potential to spread to most of B.C., Manitoba and the adjacent territories depending on how it is organized and led...

The thing is, this is not the first time that the West's original 'Grievance Angel'* has used this tactic.

Case in point, here are the sage words of the good Mr. Manning in the run-up to the 2019 federal election:

The founder of what was the Reform Party of Canada is concerned that a pervasive level of alienation could leave the country more divided after next month's federal election.

Preston Manning, who channelled western alienation into the creation of the Reform party in 1987, told the Canadian Club of Calgary that there is a lot of anger across the country.

"Western alienation, fuelled by the downturn in the energy sector and political resistance to the free movement of petroleum across provincial boundaries to tidewater and world markets, is reviving western separatism, particularly in Saskatchewan and Alberta," Manning, 77, said Wednesday (September 25th, 2019).

"Separatist sentiment is also reviving in Quebec. The Bloc Quebecois is doing better this election than last time. And if the federal courts declare Bill 21 to be unconstitutional, then they're going to have another uprising in Quebec on that basis."...

Surprised?


_____
* With apologies to Emmylou Harris and the late Gram Parsons...
Speaking of Harris and Parsons, the cosmic ear worm in the subheader and the word play used to generate the mockumentous moniker for  malevolent Mr. Manning is...This!
As for the image at the top of the post.. The billboard  popped up at the side of Alberta's busiest North/South highway back in February...Here's an explainer that also contains info about the very fine group of separatist proponents that paid for it .

.

One More Reason?

DeRegulateAndSelfRegulate

TillTheCowsComeHomeVille


One more reason to stay north of the 49th parallel?

Leah Douglas of Reuters has the story:

The Food and Drug Administration is suspending a quality control program for testing of fluid milk and other dairy products due to reduced capacity in its food safety and nutrition division, according to an internal email seen by Reuters.

The suspension is another disruption to the nation's food safety programs after the termination and departure of 20,000 employees of the Department of Health and Human Services, which includes the FDA, as part of President Donald Trump's effort to shrink the federal workforce...

{snip}

...Effective Monday, the agency suspended its proficiency testing program for Grade "A" raw milk and finished products, according to the email sent in the morning from the FDA's Division of Dairy Safety and addressed to "Network Laboratories."

Grade "A" milk, or fluid milk, meets the highest sanitary standards.

The testing program was suspended because FDA's Moffett Center Proficiency Testing Laboratory, part of its division overseeing food safety, "is no longer able to provide laboratory support for proficiency testing and data analysis," the email said...

As Erik Loomis over at LGM notes, there is a reason milk and dairy products are rigorously regulated and tested in the States given the history of bacterial blooms and the use of formaldehyde to contain them in the previous guilded times of the 19th century.

Sheesh.


______
Truth be told, this latest development reminds me a little bit of the days when we, up here, had a government/regime that favoured self-regulation by the titans of the 'bacterial-blooms-in-the-meat-cutters' industry.


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Which Currency Is Winning?

SomeAssetsAreBetterOthers
VladVille


In fairness, the Trump-driven decline of the greenback is not the only key here.

Mr. Putin is also winning this battle based on sky-high internal interest rates.

Meanwhile, Mr. Trump is now making noises about firing his Fed chair because said chair has so far refused to cut rates as the inflationary train rushes into the station.



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Tower Of Song (L. Cohen Cover)

AcheInThePlacesThatAye

UsedToPlayVille

Why this tune at this time?

Because, to riff off that old Michael Timmins lyric...

These days, more often than not, we olds have to work around how we feel when we're aching in those places mentioned in the sub-header.

Or some such thing...

_____

The story of the taking of the photo of the 'Tower of Len' at the top of the post is...Here.

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Resurrection Pol.

TheKloutKlubRidesAgain

KindaSortaMaybeVille


After the big 'unveiling' on Thursday we still don't know whose bag of money is paying for the attempted resurrection of British Columbia's Soccer Party.

Which, at this point at least, isn't too surprising.

However, we do know at least one the pols behind the curtain.

From Katie DeRosa's CBC piece:

..."We're here today because Kevin Falcon still refuses to resign as leader," said Kareem Allam, a political strategist with Richardson Strategy Group.

Allam worked on Falcon's leadership campaign in 2022, but publicly backed the B.C. NDP during October's provincial election.

He said the anger many still feel for the way Falcon unilaterally threw in the towel could be channeled into "momentum and energy that can drive into the centrist party."...

So.

I guess Mr. Allam deserves a few points for doing the right thing after Mr. Falcon sold out to the Whackaloons and refused to let go of the desiccated reins of GordCo 4.0.

But don't go making like Robin Zander and start humming 'We're all alright! We're all alright!" just yet.

Because Mr. Allam also ran the horses for Ken Sim's big politically expedient ABC win last time out in the CoV and then became the Sim Admin's chief of staff during its first 100 days. 

And those of us living here know how that has turned out.


_____

Klout Klub?...Well, after all, we're talking about a potential GordCo 5.0 here...And then there is the fact that, when he went 'rogue' after Mr. Falcon's Whackaloonery, Mr. Allam invoked the names of ....wait for it...Mark Marissen and Diamond Isinger as being involved in the 'political realignment' when he spoke to Olamide Olaniyan of the Tyee last fall.

For more on the good Mr. Allam's M.O. as a pol, including his, and I'm quoting here, 'deliberately provocative' approach to demographics, check out Bob Mackin's excellent 2023 piece.


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Soccer Party Resurrected?

InTheMiddleOfTheRoad
YouSeeTheDarndestThings


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

In a year, Karin Kirkpatrick has gone from political retirement to registered leader of a brand-new provincial party.

This week, CentreBC was listed as a registered political party, with Kirkpatrick listed as its leader.

“My team and I are pleased to see Elections BC has officially listed CentreBC as a registered political party here in British Columbia,” said Kirkpatrick, former West Vancouver-Capilano MLA with BC United (formerly BC Liberals)...

Now, how about details?

Apparently there are none for the moment but there is going to be a big launch party later this week.

Allegedly.

Personally, I'd like to know who and/or what entity would front the money for such a thing.


_____
Earworm in the Subheader?....This!
Pull quote is the lede of a story by Nick Laba of Glacier News.



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Vancouver Civic Bye-Bye Round-Up.

FifteenPercentTurnoutIsHigh?
WhoKnewVille


There was a by-election in the City of Vancouver on Saturday for two vacated councillor seats.

The results were very clearly progressive as Sean Orr of COPE and Lucy Maloney of One City won going away, garnering twice as many votes as the next candidate on the ladder, Colleen Hardwick of TEAM.

Of course, this is being viewed as a repudiation of Mr. Sims and his ABC colleagues by the CorpMedia coverage, such as it is.

Doubly interestingly, it looks like it was actually tenants flexing their muscle as the rights of those folks were a big part of both Mr. Orr's and Ms. Maloney's campaign.

Interestingly, it does not appear to have been a vote against the Broadway plan because, if it had been, Ms. Hardwick and her running mate from Team, Mr. Abbott would have done much better.



______
The turnout was higher than expected which resulted in long lines at polling stations across the city...In our family of four everyone, all of whom voted separately at different stations, had to wait more than an hour...The underestimation of  the number of polling stations and polling staff required led to a public apology from the city manager...Despite all that, I'm happy to report that the staff at the Kensington Community Ctr.  processed us very quickly,  efficiently and good-naturedly late in the afternoon on Saturday, nine hours into the process (which, given the volume meant they must have been absolutely exhausted when the polls finally closed at 8 pm).



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Vancouver Civic By-Election Today...

OurMillionDollarBaby
1936Ville

There's a by-election for two city councillor seats in Vancouver today 8:00 am to 8:00 pm.

The candidates are listed here.

Dan Fumano's VSun profile of the party-aligned candidates is here.

You can vote at any community centre in the city - the map is here.

If you voted in the last election, you are automatically registered or you can register on the spot.

It's easiest if you bring two pieces of ID, one with a picture on it.



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Subheader explained?....This.

Image at the top of the post by Leonard Frank from the City of Vancouver Archives.



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HST Fridays....If I Had Any Money I'd Invest It In The Stock Market.

TheStockMarketDerbyIs

DecadentAndDepravedVille

...Money is a good thing to have in these twisted times. Even Richard Nixon is hungry for it. Only a few days before the (Kentucky) Derby he said, "If I had any money I'd invest it in the stock market." And the market, meanwhile, continued its grim slide...

Hunter Thompson, Scanlan's Monthly, June 1970.

****

...Trump is crashing the stock market...This month...But he’s doing it on purpose...

Falsehood-riddled video promoted by DJ Trump, April, 2025.

______

Image at the top of the post by the incomparable artistic sidekick and witness to the origins of Gonzo journalism, Ralph Steadman.

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Headline Of The Week...

HowThePressCanEffectivelyDealWith

LiarsVille


The following is from an opinion piece by Matthew Harper in STAT News:

...“There are adverse events from the (measles) vaccine,” (Robert F.) Kennedy (Jr.) said in a March 11 interview with Fox’s Sean Hannity. “It does cause deaths every year. It causes — it causes all the illnesses that measles itself causes, encephalitis and blindness, et cetera. And so people ought to be able to make that choice for themselves.”

The Infectious Disease Society of America says there have been “no deaths related to the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine in healthy individuals.” (Since the 1970s, the measles vaccine has been given in a combination shot with mumps and rubella to minimize the number of injections kids get.)...

And the headline above the piece?

This:

RFK Jr. says measles vaccine routinely causes deaths. That’s not true.

A good one, no?




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Nevermind The US'ian Hopium...The Numbers That Matter Have Not Budged.

It's(NotJust)The

EconomyStupidVille

If you stop by a place like this with any regularity whatsoever, I would hope that you are the type of person who likes to pay attention factually verifiable news.

And if that's the case, it is very likely that you understand that, based on numerous criteria, things have not gone well for the Trump administration since the presidential inauguration.

And, given all that, if you are also of a progressive bent you may susceptible to the punditry of a certain class of opinion maker (and/or James Carville) that says US'ian public opinion is finally starting to turn away from Mr. Trump, for real.

And while I agree with reader Grant G. that you can find numbers in certain polling subcategories, especially the economic ones, that might give you some hope that such a turn is actually happening, it remains the fact that the numbers that really count have not moved one iota since last November.

To wit:

Now.

If you have bothered to read this far you may be screaming at the screen that we should ignore the numbers above because they were generated a couple of weeks ago in the burned out, fact-challenged bloviating backwater that is Mr. Murdoch's TeeVee neighbourhood.

Except.

This:

Personally, I find this to be very scary because it suggests that things will have to get so bad that the overwhelming majority of US'ian's feel real pain before a meaningful turn finally comes.

And, regardless how high we Canuckistanians put our elbows in the air, if that happens, we too will be reaching for the extra strength painkillers.



______
And don't start yelling in the comments about the big swing that happened in those congressional special elections in Florida because, given the turnout and the fact that only people like us (i.e. people who are actually paying attention) vote in those things, they mean nothing...As for the Wisconsin Supreme Court election result? well, that might be Musk rather than Trump specific...
On second thought, feel free to yell in the comments...I don't mind.



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My Weekend Rides.

OfMichell'sAndFarms

AlmostIslandViewVille


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

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

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

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

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



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Hard Currency Skyway Power Play.

SpreadYourTinyWingsAnd
Don'tFlyAwayVille


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

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

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

But when they do?



______

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


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Not All Politics Are Local.

LandOfTheGreen

HomeOfTheBraveVille


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

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

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

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

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

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

Gosh.

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

In unison.

.

That's The Way The Cookie Dough Bounces.

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

****

So. 

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

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

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

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


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The Woo Has Consequences.

OneMan'sWoo

IsAnotherKid'sLiverDamageVille

From The New York Times, by way of Digby:

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

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

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

It will all be worth it.



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




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Where Will All The Sequences Go?

There'sMoneyInThemThere
GenesVille


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

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

Well...

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

Joe Hernandez of NPR has that part of the story:

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

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

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

Imagine that!



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



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Door Closes, Firmly, For Local Opportunist...

 

Link

Who'dA
ThunkItVille

Interesting.

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

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

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

Gosh.

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

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


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



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Hard Times In New York Town (B Dylan Cover)

IfYouGotALottaMoneyYouCanMakeYourselfMerry
IfYouOnlyGotANickleIt'sTheStatenIslandFerryVille


Why?

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

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

________

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

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


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Danielle Smith's March Madness Surprise.

WhatMe

AskAForeignPowerToInterfereWithOurElectionVille

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

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

To wit, word salad and all:

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

But, wait...

That's not all!

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

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

Gosh.

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

Imagine that!

______

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

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

Stuff in brackets in the quotes above is mine.

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Are We All Zelensky Now?

ThreeWeeksOfVeryBadPoker

CanuckistanMikitaVille

The first hand of the 'game':

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

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

February 21, 2025

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

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

March 21, 2025

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

_______

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

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Fascism, Authoritarianism And Dictatorships - Defined And Illustrated.

 

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

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

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

Here is a bit from a recent post:

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

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

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

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Green(land) Eggs And Ham?

WouldYouLikeThemHereOr

ThereVille


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

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

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

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

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

Or some such thing.




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Waste, Fraud And Abuse...In Canada?

OneCountry'sSubsidy
IsAnotherCEO'sLifebloodVille


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

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

So.

Guess what happened over the weekend that followed?

Marco Chown Ovid of the Toronto Star has that story:

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

{snip}

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

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

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

Imagine that!


______

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

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

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My Morning Ride...Spring Is Springing.

GigTimeForTheBlossoms
NoFlyersRequiredVille


Forget all that Christmas stuff.

Because...

This really is the most wonderful time of the year.

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


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


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Real Waste, Fraud And Abuse?

CreditWhereCredit

MayNotAlwaysBeDueVille


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

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

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

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

Now.

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

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

So.

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


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

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

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


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Go Read Jody Paterson's Latest Right Now...

 

She's got an idea about how to move things forward and change the public's view of the toxic drug epidemic.

And it's a good one.

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HST Friday's....The Final Sin.

AtThe

HelmVille


The Docktor:

"In a world of thieves, the only final sin is stupidity."

Hunter Thompson, Fear And Loathing, The First Part, 1971.

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The Reality:

A radical makeover at the US department of justice has seen key drives to fight corruption hamstrung in ways that could benefit US businesses operating abroad and foreign kleptocrats, including some Russian oligarchs...

{snip}

 ...(New US'ian Attorney General Pam) Bondi moved fast on her first day to issue a directive ending “Task Force KleptoCapture”, which had targeted Russian oligarchs with Kremlin links since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, with some notable results.

Last year, the department announced the taskforce had charged more than 70 individuals for “violating international sanctions and export controls levied against Russia”, and some, such as Russian oil and metals multibillionaire Viktor Vekselberg, had their yachts seized...

 Peter Stone, The Guardian, March 10, 2015

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Image at the top of the post?...Thompson on the trail of big fish, cardiovascular nirvana and Lono, circa 1981.


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Nice Fingerprints You Got There...

...It Sure Would Be A Shame If We Didn't 'Document' Them.

From the Bloomberg news organ thingy:

President Donald Trump’s administration is preparing a new travel rule that could force Canadians planning to stay in the country for more than 30 days to register their information with the US government and submit to fingerprinting.

The draft rule, which is set to take effect April 11, expands requirements for registration and fingerprinting of foreign nationals who cross the US-Canada land border and stay in the US longer for more than a month. Affected people would have to create an account with US Citizenship and Immigration Services and schedule an appointment for fingerprinting as part of a background check....


Can't lie...

Am starting to re-think upcoming vacation plans with our very good, and distinctly left-leaning, US'ian friends south of the 49th this summer.

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Does The Opportunist Have Her Foot In Carney's Door?

WillTheWordSaladSpin
AgainVille

From Shannon Paterson of CTV:

When Justin Trudeau announced he would step down as Liberal Leader, former B.C. premier Christy Clark seriously considered throwing her hat in the ring for the federal leadership race.

It was her lack of fluency in French that ultimately led her to bow out, and Mark Carney won the vote in a landslide.

With a new leader in place, Clark is now considering running as a federal Liberal in B.C. in the next election.

“I really believe in this party,” said Clark.

“I believe in Mark Carney, and I believe in what we need to do to grow our country’s economy and lessen our dependance on the United States. So I am seriously thinking about running in this election to support the Liberal Party.”...

Given the cageyness of Ms. Clark so far, and the fact that Marky Mark is not yet crowing at the break of dawn, it would appear that the deal for something bigger than a back bench slot has not yet been done.


But still...


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To be clear, however, MM was present at the Liberal vote thingy doing his thing, so there's that...
Evan Scrimshaw thinks that this would be a good development re: a big tent for Carney....I'm not sure the pragmatic Mr. Scrimshaw understands the massive holes this particular pole would poke in the left coast portion of said tent's big top...


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HST Fridays...Is The Upwardly Mobile Hog Now In The Tunnel?

WhenTheGoingGetsTough

TheSwineBeginToScatterVille



That was then:

...In a nation run by swine, all pigs are upward-mobile and the rest of us are f*cked until we can put our acts together: not necessarily to win, but mainly to keep from losing completely...

Hunter Thompson, The Great Shark Hunt, 1979 (but first written in 1971)

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This is now:

Elon Musk is telling Republican lawmakers in private meetings that he is not to blame for the mass firings of federal workers that are causing uproar across the country, while Donald Trump reportedly told his cabinet secretaries on Thursday that they are ultimately in charge of hiring and firings at their agencies – not billionaire aide Musk...

The Guardian, March 6, 2025

That is all.

At least for the moment.

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Image at the top of the post is from longtime HST collaborator Ralph Steadman's illustrated version of Orwell's book about animals on, presumably, a non-tariff laden farm.




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You Have Not Read This One Here Before, But...

NoMorePucks

ToGiveVille


You have not read this one here before*, but good for Mr. Trudeau.

Why?

Because, in the wake of Donald Trump's latest announcement that he will delay the imposition of some his tariffs, Trudeau has responded thusly, as reported by JP Tasker of the CBC:

...Speaking to reporters at a news conference earlier Thursday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Canada will hold firm and push ahead with retaliatory tariffs and other measures until Trump backs off entirely.

"Our goal is to get all tariffs removed," he said...

Put another way, sovereignty matters when it comes to standing up to transnational bullies.

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*At least not recently.



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HST Fridays...That Was Then, This Is Now.

WhenTheGoingGetsWeird
TheWeirdTurnProPutinVille


The then, on the eve of the US'ian invasion of Iraq in 2003:

We're the Nazis in this game, and I don't like it. I'm embarrassed and I'm pissed off. Yeah. I mean to say something and I think a lot of people in this country agree with me.'

Hunter S. Thompson, January 2003
Interview with Mary Suma, KDNK Radio, Roaring Fork Colorado
Reprinted In Text Form In: Ancient Gonzo Wisdom by Anita Thompson

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The now, courtesy OG Iraq anti-war blogger Digby:

Not in a good way, indeed.

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