The Orange Juice Double-Down Rebellion.

TakeThatMsBryant

SouthAmericanSunshineVille


From today's Guardian:

Donald Trump has announced he is ending trade talks with Canada, one of its largest trading partners, accusing it of imposing unfair taxes on US technology companies in a “direct and blatant attack on our country”...

{snip}

...The US has been negotiating a trade deal with Canada, one of its top two global trading partners, for months. Mark Carney, Canada’s prime minister, met Trump at the G7 summit of world leaders in Alberta earlier this month...

Why would anyone bother to negotiate in good faith with or, for that matter, sign anything with that man?



.

Highway Patrolman (B Springsteen Cover)

BarracksNumberEight
NotObamaVille


If you have a certain musical inclination the algorithm has likely already served you up the trailer for the Springsteenian biopic about the making of the album Nebraska, which sits between the turn of the River and the bombast of of Born In The USA.

Will I go and see it?

Not entirely sure, although, as Bigger E. put it, at least T. Chalamet was already burned on the Dylan movie so at least we get the guy from the Bear instead.

Here's a cover of the tune from the album about the patrolman working up near the Canadian border and his wayward brother...

________
Otis Gibbs talks about the apparent long lost electric version of Nebraska while feeding the squirrels...Here.

.

My Morning Ride...Nonsensical Graffiti.

SomewhatPhysical
ButNeitherAHouseNorHolyVille


Taken at 16th and MacDonald in near western Lotusland.

And, unless I'm missing something, it would appear that the graffiti makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.


_______
Subheader?...This!


.

The Shape Of Things To Come?

Where'sCurveball

ChalabiPartDeuxVille

From this morning's Jerusalem Post:

As fighting between Israel and Iran continues, more analysts are raising the possibility that the war will lead to regime change and bring an end to the Islamic Republic. Many have raised the possibility that exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi will lead a new Iran, and Pahlavi himself told the Iranian people on Tuesday that he has a plan in place for a 100-day transitional period to follow the fall of the regime...

Now.

The above quoted piece is not the kind of thing that is so far being seriously bandied about in the pages of the New York Times and/or the Wall Street Journal.

After all, according to today's version of the Trump regime, the most recent US'ian bombing mission was about weapons of mass nuclear destruction, not regime change:

US secretary of state Marco Rubio spoke on Fox News, saying that the US “is not looking for war in Iran”.

He added that the “world is safer and more stable than it was 24 hours ago” and that if Iran retaliates, “It’ll be the worst mistake they’ve ever made.”

Rubio also said that regime change in Iran is not the US’s goal...

However, if the bots start chattering cacophonously while super-fine neanderconnish-type folks like, say, Paul Wolfowitz are simultaneously given airtime on cable TV and the good Mr. Pahlavi suddenly pops up on a Sunday show or two followed by wall-to-wall coverage on Fox News?

Well, if that happens, I reckon that it will only be a matter of time before the Sulzberger family gives the green light to the Friedmans and the Brookses in their stable to have at it.

And who wins then?


_____
Emptywheel said something pretty darned prescient on Friday while speaking with Nicole Sandler, "You can't make a military parade as sexy as going to war".

Subheader?....This....And don't think we don't see the good Mr. Bremer lurking at the back of that photo.

Tip of the Toque to an Anonomouse commenting at the last post that got me to thinking about how things went down in 2003....I mean, what's next...Billmon starts posting again?

.

The PNAC Devolution.

Where's

WolfieVille


Shorter Driftglass:

“...As you know, you go to war with the Army you have. They’re not the Army you might want or wish to have at a later time...”

Donald Rumsfeld, 2004.

“...You’ve got to go to war with the president you have..."

William Kristol, 2025

Meanwhile, the president the neocon mob currently has has shortened the Friedman Unit from six months to two weeks.

Imagine that!

_____

Acronym in the header?...This.

.

Bruno Gerussi's (Real) Medallion.

Where'sRelicWhenYou
NeedHimVille



A few weeks ago e. and her friend (i.e. not her sister) E. took me to a show at the Vogue theatre.

I got there a few minutes ahead of them and thus got to stand around on Granville Street in Downtown Lotusland watching the river flow for awhile

I found the plaque, above, in an eddy in the stream.

****

So...

Who did we go see?

Why it was Sharon Van Etten, someone whose all three of have liked for a while now for a bunch of different reasons.

Van Etten is a little like Neil Young used to be.

Not in musical substance or style but instead in the way she has to keep reinventing herself to move forward.

As such, most of her set was, to my mind at least, a somewhat bizarre simulacrum of Gary Numan and his synthesizers forever stranded on the set of the movie Cabaret.

It was interesting, but it sure was a long way from the earlier cosmic cowboy(ish) tunes of Ms. Van Etten's early period.

Here is a cover of one such tune...

______

Header explained?....These guys.

Ms. Van Etten talks about the writing of the tune...Here.

.

Announcing The Occupation.

WillThePeopleBe

AwokenVille


I was listening to one of my favourite podcasts the other day. It's by two smart guys who are politically aware but who mostly talk about other things that pique their interest.

Things like bird calls, geo guesser, guitar pedals, the difference(s) between lakes and ponds, and the world's most awesome skylines.

Anyway, this week, one of the pair, who lives in Los Angeles, mentioned how, except for occasional snippets on the news, he wasn't even aware of the ICE/National Guard/US Marine activities in his city.

Again, this is coming from someone who is very politically aware.

Which is why the incident with with US Senator Alex Padilla really matters.

And not just because of the outrageous actions of overzealous uniformed officers who led the senator away, forced him to the ground, and hand-cuffed him.

But because the resulting hullaballoo has ensured that everyone has also now heard the following statement by a senate-confirmed member of Mr. Trump's cabinet about the situation in Los Angeles:

"...We are staying here to liberate the city from the socialists and the burdensome leadership that this governor and that this mayor have placed on this country and what they have tried to insert into the city..."

In other words, this particular cabinet member was announcing that the Trump administration was using the military to occupy a city where the explicit, stated goal is to destroy that city's democratically elected government.

And now every American, not just the fine folks who watch FOX News, knows of that statement thanks to Mr. Padilla.

Which means that every American also now knows that the Trump administration is an autocracy.

Of course...

Whether every American understands what they now know is, unfortunately, another matter.

.

As Long As There Are Stars Above You.

MoreThanJustPendletones

AndHamburgerStandsNowVille

Brian Wilson has died.

Ben Sisario has an excellent omnibus obituary up at The New York Times (web archive link):

..“Being called a musical genius was a cross to bear,” he (Wilson) told Rolling Stone in 1988. “Genius is a big word. But if you have to live up to something, you might as well live up to that.”...

Indeed.


_______
Earworm in the header?...This.


.

Who Goes MAGA?

They'reOutThereHavingFun

InTheWarmCaliforniaSunVille

Who goes MAGA?

"...Sometimes I think there are direct biological factors at work—a type of education, feeding, and physical training which has produced a new kind of human being with an imbalance in his nature. He has been fed vitamins and filled with energies that are beyond the capacity of his intellect to discipline. He has been treated to forms of education which have released him from inhibitions. His body is vigorous. His mind is childish. His soul has been almost completely neglected..."

The passage above is from a famous essay that was written by Dorothy Thompson.

In August of 1941.

Given the timing of the piece, Ms. Thompson was writing about the joiners, enablers and go-along-to-get-alongers of a different, but not entirely ideologically dissimilar, group that was also identified by a four letter acronym.

In other words, at present there is nothing truly new happening under the Southern California sun.


______

Subheader earworm?....This.

.

The Fifty-Five Percent That ABC Vancouver Is Not Really Into.

OurPollingSays
ABCVille


From a 2023 Daily Hive piece by Kenneth Chan that itself was based on a Metro Vancouver Regional District report released that same year:

..(I)n 2021, there were 305,335 households in Vancouver, including 138,845 ownership households (45%) and 166,490 renter households (55%)...

So.

What does ABC Vancouver think they should do for renters who have, say, difficulty with their landlords?

Absolutely nothing according to a piece by Jen Schuermann who covers city hall for Rogers:

Vancouver city council has decided against bringing back an agency designed to protect renters.

Coun. Lucy Maloney’s motion to bring back the Renter Office was voted down on Wednesday.

Established in 2018, the Renter Office provided information and assistance to tenants about their rights.

In 2023, however, ABC Vancouver voted to defund the office, despite city staff recommending that the service be continued...

Quelle surprise!

.

But Can He Catch A Football?

Zap!

You'reFrozenVille


It seems that a lot of folks on the progressive side of the ledger and/or Althia Raj of the Star are aghast that Mark Carney is playing footsie with our oiligarchs while introducing an omnibus 'strong borders' bill.

But what did they/we expect?

After all, as Eric Scrimshaw has pointed out, we progressives made our choice when we elected a progressive conservative/pink tory to keep the whackaloons from gaining power.

Given that, it makes perfect sense, from a hard-nosed realpolitik point of view, for Carney to cut two of the stoutest whackaloonian legs out from under them while at the same time doing what's right for stability and the business environment.

Heckfire.

If noted pink tory from days of yore Robert Stanfield hadn't dropped that football on the tarmac in North Bay Ontario in 1974 it wouldn't be a stretch to suggest that he would have espoused similarly themed pre-millennial policies back in the day.



______
It turns out that the roll of film shot by Canadian Press photographer Doug Ball that day in 1974 had a number of shots of Mr. Stanfield catching the ball as well...It was the Globe and Mail that chose the dropsie shot for its front page, a decision that many folks figure caused Stanfield's demise and electoral loss to Trudeau senior that year.

Subheader?...This was a phrase Pierre Trudeau used to deride Stanfield's call for wage and price controls during the 1974 election campaign. Of course, the following year Trudeau instituted both.



.

Is That A Large Language Model In Your Pants...

...Or Are You Just Happy To See (And Deceive) Me?

From the lede of a comprehensive and extremely well sourced piece by Emily Kennard and Margaret Manto published in the non-profit 'NOTUS':

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says his “Make America Healthy Again” Commission report harnesses “gold-standard” science, citing more than 500 studies and other sources to back up its claims. Those citations, though, are rife with errors, from broken links to misstated conclusions. Seven of the cited sources don’t appear to exist at all...

From the abstract of an actual peer-reviewed paper by William Walters and Esther Isabelle Wilder published in the Nature journal 'Scientific Reports':

Although chatbots such as ChatGPT can facilitate cost-effective text generation and editing, factually incorrect responses (hallucinations) limit their utility. This study evaluates one particular type of hallucination: fabricated bibliographic citations that do not represent actual scholarly works. We used ChatGPT-3.5 and ChatGPT-4 to produce short literature reviews on 42 multidisciplinary topics, compiling data on the 636 bibliographic citations (references) found in the 84 papers. We then searched multiple databases and websites to determine the prevalence of fabricated citations, to identify errors in the citations to non-fabricated papers, and to evaluate adherence to APA citation format. Within this set of documents, 55% of the GPT-3.5 citations but just 18% of the GPT-4 citations are fabricated....

In other words, if it looks like AI slop and smells like AI slop it very likely is AI slop.

As for the folks that cooked and are pushing the slop as truth?

They refuse so far to say either way according to quotes obtained by Dani Blum and Maggie Astor of the New York Times:

...Asked at a news conference on Thursday whether the report had relied on A.I., the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, deferred to the Department of Health and Human Services. Emily Hilliard, a spokeswoman for the department, did not answer a question about the source of the fabricated references and downplayed them as “minor citation and formatting errors.”...

Cue Mr. Morrison...


.

Woo, All The Way Down.

Lysenkoism
UberAlles Ville


From the fine folks at Politico (who, as a result of this piece, will likely be compelled to re-start the sanewashing by this time tomorrow):

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. threatened to stop government scientists from publishing their work in major medical journals on a podcast Tuesday as part of his escalating war on institutions he says are influenced by pharmaceutical companies.

Speaking on the “Ultimate Human” podcast, Kennedy said the New England Journal of Medicine, the Journal of the American Medical Association and The Lancet, three of the most influential medical journals in the world, were “corrupt”...

I mean, honestly, if this was six months ago I would think that the good Mr. Kennedy is just trolling us.

But it turns out that the latest threat from Mr. Kennedy is actually much worse than just preventing scientists from publishing in certain places.

...“Unless those journals change dramatically, we are going to stop NIH scientists from publishing in them and we’re going to create our own journals in-house”...

Why is forcing people to publish in 'in-house' journals worse than keeping them publishing in top-flight, peer-reviewed journals?

Because such in-house 'journals' are nothing more than prop shops that are driven by the opposite of rigorously generated and analyzed data.

And, as we noted a few weeks ago, Mr. Kennedy's minions have already built one of those:

A new journal co-founded by President Donald Trump’s pick to direct the National Institutes of Health (NIH) says it will “promote open and transparent scientific discourse” but is drawing controversy within mere days of its launch...

{snippety}

...The journal, which has already published eight articles on topics including COVID-19 vaccine trials and mask mandates, eschews several aspects of traditional publishing. It lacks a subscription paywall, posts peer reviews alongside published articles, and pays reviewers for their work. But other researchers have criticized the journal’s exclusivity and lack of quality control. Only members of a newly formed body, the Academy of Public Health, can submit articles, and all submitted articles are published...

Honestly.

If this happens, it will be the final nail in the coffin of the American biomedical research enterprise, an enterprise that has driven truly innovative science, world-wide, for far longer than I have been in the business.

And, just to be clear, I have been in the business for a very long time.

OK?

_____

Lysenkoism?...This!


.

Making Honesty Not Pay.

TheNewNewDeal
ScamAroundAndFindOutVille


From a piece by Ana Swanson and Lazaro Game in The New York Times (web archive link):

As President Trump’s tariffs have ratcheted up in recent months, so have the mysterious solicitations some U.S. companies have received, offering them ways to avoid the taxes...

{snippety)

 ...Leslie Jordan, an apparel manufacturer who has been in business for nearly four decades, said fraudulent schemes were becoming “rampant” in her industry, with companies offering her and other importers clearly illegal ways to bypass tariffs...

{snippety doodle dandy}

...Ms. Jordan said the tariffs had encouraged “opportunist cheaters in both China and the United States” and put “many honest companies at a competitive disadvantage.”...

So.

What ultimately happens when every aspect of an economy becomes a scam all the way down, from top to bottom?



.

Eastbound And Down...In The Scientific Bunker Again.

PeerReviewIsADishBestServed
FaceToFaceVille


Had to climb into the cigar tube, again, yesterday to head into the Eastern time zone.

Which meant that, this morning, given the time change, it was up at 4:00 am Pacific time to head down into the hotel basement bunker with fifteen other science geeks so that we can metaphorically bash each about the head as a prelude rank ordering a passel of grant applications from our fellow geeks.

The thing is, when I'm lying in bed at night in these places trying to get to sleep by 9:00 pm Pacific/Midnight local time after having already suffered through an entire day of all that stinks about riding the cigar tube on the cheap these days, I invariably come to the conclusion that I'm too old for this stuff.

But then, once we get in the bunker and the bashing/discussions begin all those science geek nerve endings get tickled such that, before you know it, the excitement begins all over again.

Why?

Because there really is a whole lot of really good stuff being done by lots of folks working in the life sciences these days - and these grants are filled to bursting with their newest/freshest ideas. It's a chance to have our best and brightest try to convince you that they can dent the universe which is something that never gets old.

OK?

_____

Why cigar tubing on the cheap?...Well, what do you want health charity donor dollars to be spent on - research or a little more leg room for a fine fellow like myself?

Subheader?...Since COVID this kind of thing is most often still done online...That, in my opinion, is sub-optimal as, over the two to three days that these things usually take, the collective attention often wanes online and the best decisions are not made.


.

Is Something Happening Here?

He'sBeenUnderOurSkin
ForMoreThanEightYearsVille


Something seems to be happening here.

But is it the right thing?

First, there was the news that Mr. Carney has rescinded a number of the retaliatory tariffs on US'ian goods coming into Canada.

And then we heard that Carney let Mr. Trump know that we'd be kinda/sorta/maybe happy to be a part of the so-called Golden Dome.

Now, after the latest US'ian Ambassador started making noises about how we could have the lowest of the low of all the tariffs in all of the liberated lands, Mr. Carney let on that tariffs were discussed when he met with a bipartisan(ish) herd of Congress Critters, today, in Ottawa.

Imagine that!



______
Of course,  the howler monkeys are gonna howl...But isn't this the thing we actually elected Carney to do?...I reckon the proof might be in the coming G7 summit pudding that will be baked in the Albertalands in mid-June.

Heckfire - I'd even be willing to take reasonably short odds that Carney will push for some sort of Resolution Dogs-type announcement in the days before the G7 meeting commences for all kinds of reasons, including the anti-successionist deflector spike-spin that would ensue for the duration...

And I would not discount that bipartisanish thing...This is something that Carney is doing that Mr. Trump is incapable of doing, except for the tragi-comic, non-congressional case of Gretchen Whitmer...Why does this matter?...Because those US'ian midterms are out there now, lurking, just over the horizon.

Good Ol' Cross Border Can-Con Earworm in the subheader?...This!

.

The Enshittoscene Is Here.

BeforeNavigatorThereWas
MosaicVille


Cory Doctorow explains all in his new four part CBC podcast.

And he's bringing the receipts:

...The thesis of the series – and indeed, of my life's work – is that the internet didn't turn to shit because of the "great forces of history," or "network effects," or "returns to scale." Rather, the Great Enshittening is the result of specific policy choices, made in living memory, by named individuals, who were warned at the time that this would happen, and they did it anyway. These wreckers are the largely forgotten authors of our misery, and they mingle with impunity in polite society, never fearing that someone might be sizing them up for a pitchfork...

Give it a listen.



.

Just Say No, Emphatically, To Codswallop.

TravelsWithMy(Wife's)

DogVille


Unlike Beer, I did not get up early this morning to listen to a far away soccer game on the wireless.

Instead, it was down to the river's end with the Whackadoodle II for me.

On our way home, while doing my darnedest to get the new hybrid down to 5 litres per 100 km, we listened to the most recent Front Burner podcast from the CBC.

It was about Canada's measles problem which, by official case counts at least, is actually worse than the entire United States, just in Ontario.

Host Jayme Poisson and health reporter Jennifer Yoon discussed the critical issue of declining vaccination rates with sensitivity and nuance before getting down to the crux of the public health matter - the ability of families to request exemptions such that their children can attend public school unvaccinated.

They even spoke to the Globe's Andre Picard, who has been very clear about the lack of a either a mainstream religious or philosophical basis for allowing such exemptions.

So far so good, right?

Then they played a clip of Ontario premier Doug Ford responding thusly to a reporter asking if childhood vaccinations should be mandatory for school attendance:

"...It's a good point, but how do you force someone? Do you grab their kid and start jabbing them with a needle?..."

And how did Poisson and Yoon respond to this codswallop after they had just explained that mandatory vaccinations for school attendance would work to both increase vaccination rates and prevent communicable disease spread in schools?

Did they state uneqivocally that Mr. Ford was obfuscating and risking making a dangerous communicable childhood disease that was deemed eradicated in Canada almost thirty years ago endemic once again?

Of course not.

Instead, they skated  and only tangentially discussed how there is a political element to all of this stuff.

Sheesh.

****

In retrospect, perhaps I listened to the wrong public broadcaster's offerings this morning.

The thing is that, unlike Beer, I don't actually give a hoot-in-heckfire about the fortunes of West Ham United.

Although, I must confess that I kind of like the idea of watching a soccer game in the forest of Nottingham while dodging the dastardly deeds of the sheriff.

Or some such thing.

_____

Hey!...I just realized how Beer's dog of yore got her name!

As for the subheader...The WII came along after the WI passed at the beginning of Covid...The WII really is C's dog, not mine.

.

The Lunchtime View Outside My Office Window.

ShadesOfTheSinging
DetectiveVille


When it gets to this time of year, when everything in Lotusland is so lush and green, I find it hard to even conceive of how barren the foliage will be six months from now.

As for the rain that has arrived just in time for the long weekend?

Well, more rain today equals fewer fires tomorrow.

Hopefully.


_______
Subheader?...This, from Dennis Potter's masterpiece brought to lush and green cinematic life.



.

More Horsemen.

MitchellHaldemanErlichmanAndColson
NoDeanVille

This follows on this morning's post about the current rider of Pestilence.

Regarding the image above...

More Horsemen, different Apocalypse.

Of course, all four of those fine pear-shaped fellows pictured above went to jail for the things they did in the name of a certain US'ian president.

If you get my historically directed drift.

______

Of course, John Dean, pencilled in by Nixon to be the goatman of this particular apocalypse, spent a little time in the hoosegow as well, but by then his conscience was relatively clear.

.

PZ's Revelation.

TheyWereGivenAllTheFoodsOfVanity

AndBitTheDustScreamingInsanityVille


Further to the subject of yesterday's post about he who swims among the coliforms, noted biology blogger and educator PZ Myers has had a wee revelation:

"...The man is an absolute legend. He’s bathing in effluent and eating rotting road kill; of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, he’d be Pestilence. And he’s in charge of American health!..."

Cue the band.



.

Germs Are Just A Theory, Not A Fact.

Bacteria
SchmacteriaVille

From the US'ian who is, apparently, in charge of health, humans and services of some kind:

****

From the part of the US'ian National Park Service that has not yet been DOGE'd:

...Stay safe while enjoying Rock Creek Park! Swimming and wading are not allowed due to high bacteria levels.

Stay out of the water to protect streambanks, plants and animals and keep you and your family (including pets!) safe from illness.

Rock Creek has high levels of bacteria and other infectious pathogens that make swimming, wading, and other contact with the water a hazard to human (and pet) health. Please protect yourself and your pooches by staying on trails and out of the creek. All District waterways are subject to a swim ban - this means wading, too!...

I guess if you believe in the 'theory' that germs don't make you sick then 'facts' about germs don't really matter.

Right?

.

What Makes Ira Run.

StuffToStickInYour

EarsVille


Sam Fregoso gets to the heart of the matter in a long form interview with Ira Glass, the guy behind 'This American Life' which has been going for 30 years now.

They talk about the before times, how much Glass' approach to story telling is driven by Roland Barthes, the making of stuff, and why Glass hasn't stopped yet.

The making of stuff, I mean.

It's a very good Sunday listen, either before or after you listen to this week's edition of TAL.


______
Video at the top of the post is by a guy named Cole Lindbergh whom Glass interviewed in 2011 and saw a lot of himself in him. At the time, Lindbergh was an almost, but not quite yet, aged-out 'games director' at a US'ian midwestern, mid-market amusement park who constantly had to figure out ways to motivate his young charges...The video shows the games team that sold the most tickets on 'prize day' getting a prize of their own - the chance to throw their boss in the lake.
A lot of Canadian folks, including perhaps my own kids, may have forgotten that the Summer Vacation episode of the TAL (#443) had a fantasmagorical act three from former WireTap heavyweight Jonathan Goldstein.

And good news!....After being immolated in the great Gimlet/Spotify podcast war of 2023, Goldstein's Heavyweight is all set to come back on Pushkin...Allegedly.

Finally, because, despite my best effort to prevent it,  the YouTube algorithm got to me again, it's....Howard Chakowicz on Montreal Smoked Meats.



.

You've Been To The Doctor...Do You Know Where Chart Data Are?

De-IdentificationRe-Indentification

AI-A-Go-GoVille


From a report by Alison Northcott of the CBC:

Going to the doctor can involve sharing your most personal information, including details about your health, medical history and prescriptions.

It all ends up in your medical record — but a new study by researchers at Women's College Hospital in Toronto found that in some cases, private companies are accessing parts of that data and selling it to pharmaceutical companies...

{snip}

...Through a series of 19 interviews, the researchers concluded "chains of for-profit primary care clinics, physicians, commercial data brokers and pharmaceutical companies ... work together to convert patient medical records into commercial assets."

{snippety doo-dah}

...(Lead author Dr. Cheryl) Spithoff and her colleagues identified two different models. In one, a private clinic sells data to an outside company, with personal information like names and birth dates removed. The company then offers to sell or analyze that de-identified information for its clients in the pharmaceutical industry.

In the other model, the clinic is a subsidiary of the company collecting the data, giving that company even more direct access to patient information...

The real issue here as all these data are rapidly becoming digitized is the lack of regulation, not to mention consent.

Oh, and of course, privatized delivery plays a role as well.


______
The actual paper, published in JAMA Network Open, is here.



.

What's A Little (Park) Land Swap Among Friends?

ParksBoard?
WeDon'tNeedNoStinkingParksBoard!Ville


I'm pretty sure Dr. Beer is not going to be happy about this one, as reported by Bob Mackin a few weeks ago:

The Whitecaps’ ownership confirmed in an early evening statement on April 4 that they are “currently in discussion with the City of Vancouver regarding the construction of a stadium at the PNE fairgrounds site.”

A source told theBreaker.news that the two parties have a memorandum of understanding to explore building a soccer-specific stadium at Hastings Racecourse...

{snip}

...The Hastings Racecourse land could be transferred to the Whitecaps’ new owner, who would be responsible for financing the stadium project...

Apparently, this is being done to help convince a new buyer to take the Whitecaps off the hands of Greg Kerfoot and friends who have seen the value of the club rise from $30 million when he bought it in 2002 to an estimated $470 million today.

Which begs the question, why, as Andy Yang has asked, should we, the citizens of Vancouver, be subsidizing the playthings of billionaires?

Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim's answer to that question is the following:

“What we’re going to focus on here is the fact that the Whitecaps might leave the region. And so we’ll look at everything … we will do whatever we can, within our power, that makes sense for the residents of Vancouver to keep the team in the region.”

The argument, apparently, is that if you sweetheart the deal into the stratosphere the new billionaire (which the way things often go as these gambits play out may turn out to be the same billionaire) will take pity on us once they've got what they want and keep the team in Lotusland.

In the meantime, a big chunk of a public park will be gone forever and there is no guarantee that either the CondoKings or the CasinoCorps (or both) won't move in for the duration.


______
CityHallWatch has more....Much more.

As for the state of play amongst the real Whitecaps fans these days....Tim Bray walked (and stood) among the Southsiders recently and had a heckuva time. 


.

Pretzel Logic Factory (Just) East Of The Rockies Adds Extra Shift...

ACornerOfTheConfederationRiven

ByDuplicitousDuncesVille


From David Climenhaga's excellent 'Alberta Politics' blog:

RED DEER – Alberta Premier Danielle Smith called a news conference yesterday to tell the impertinent journalists who showed up why, as a strong believer in Canadian Confederation, she intends to do whatever she can to ensure her province’s loony separatists get to have a secession referendum as soon as possible...

Apparently, Ms. Smith also did not appreciate it when Doug Ford tried to hand her a logic straightening tool:

...Ms. Smith likewise wasn’t pleased yesterday when Ontario Premier Doug Ford, also a Conservative, reminded her that “we have to stay united … this is about Canada, this isn’t about Ontario or Alberta.” Ms. Smith waspishly suggested he stay in his lane. “I don’t tell him how he should run his province, and I would hope that he doesn’t tell me how I should run mine,” she sniffed during her presser...

Imagine that!


_______

Image at the top of the post?...The cover art of an early printing of John Toole Kennedy's 'A Confederacy of Dunces' a book for which the movie has yet to be made...Interestingly, however, based on the likeness above,  the good confederationist John Candy once passed on the lead role.


.

Stalinism Lives!....In Oklahoma?

EvenIannuciCouldn'tDirect

ThisFarceVille


From Snopes:

Claim:

Oklahoma instituted updated academic standards in 2025 requiring schools to teach high school students that widespread fraud impacted the outcome of the 2020 U.S. presidential election.

Rating: True.

Oklahoma's new social studies standards for high school students, which take effect in the 2025-2026 school year, do, in fact, require students to learn about so-called "discrepancies" in the 2020 election. The updated guidelines list examples for these discrepancies, all of which are theories not based in evidence — and many of which Snopes has independently debunked. Thus, we rate this claim true.

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The Oklahoman has more on the sycophantic real politic politickity tic-tocking of the thing.
Image at the top of the post?...From an NPR piece on Stalin''s real actual victims amidst neoStalinism rising in Russia, circa 2019.

Subheader?...This!


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The Five Nevers Of Mark Carney's Land.

AreWeAllJamesMatthewBerrie
NowVille


Leyland Cecco of the Guardian, summing up Mr. Carney's first visit to the land down under as our PM:

...Trump said it would be “beautiful” to merge the two countries, saying the prospect “would really be a wonderful marriage”.

Carney, drawing on Trump’s pride in real estate dealings, reminded the president that in the industry, “there are some places that are never for sale”.

“That’s true,” said Trump.

“Having met with the owners of Canada over the course of the campaign ... it’s not for sale,” said Carney. “Won’t be for sale, ever.”

Later in the meeting, Trump brought up the idea again, telling Carney and the assembled media: “I say, never say never.”

“Never, never, never, never, never,” Carney appeared to say quietly...

Mr. Trump went on to say that there is nothing Mr. Carney and/or his negotiators can do about the tariffs, at least for the moment, because, 'that's just the way it is'.

Jeebuz!

What fresh heckfire is this that we are living in anyway...

An old Bruce Hornsby song?

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It's Not Just The Economy, Stupid.

WhatWouldBantingAndBest(AndMacleodAndCollip)
DoVille


In addition to our economy, we here in Canada might want to consider utilizing Trumpian fear mongering as a lever to help us diversify all kinds of things.

Including our prescription drug supply.

Heckfire, we could start with insulin which, in case you missed it, we actually discovered.

Colleen Fuller, writing at for the CCPA explains why - the following is her lede:

Insulin was discovered by four Canadians, who famously sold the patent for $1 each to the University of Toronto—enabling the public manufacture of the new miracle drug for people with diabetes. That was in 1921, and for 65 years insulin was produced in Canada at a publicly owned laboratory—Connaught Laboratories—and distributed across the country at prices near the cost of production.

In 1972, the University of Toronto sold Connaught to the federal government. By the 1980s it had grown to become a major supplier of medicines and vaccines, and Canadians had one of the lowest overall drug bills among developed nations. That all changed when the Conservatives were elected in 1984.

In his first budget speech, Michael Wilson, the new finance minister, announced that “Crown Corporations with a commercial value but no ongoing public policy purpose will be sold.” That included Connaught, which was privatized a year later and bought by what is now Sanofi, based in Paris. Ten years later, Canada was no longer producing a single drop of insulin...

And why can't we just fall back on the three multinationals that have pretty much cornered the insulin market?

For all the usual reasons of purely profit-driven capriciousness.

Here's just one example from Ms. Fuller's piece:

...Canada, where about 640,000 people rely on insulin, is also vulnerable to corporate decision-making and the lack of a more interventionist national regulator. Between 1995 and 2006, Novo and Lilly withdrew over 30 different types of insulin from Canada, most of them from animal sources. In 2003, the House of Commons Standing Committee on Health conducted two days of hearings on the issue after hundreds of people from across the country demanded the government intervene. Alarmed officials at Health Canada acknowledged that a subset of people with diabetes were unable to safely use any kind of human or analogue insulin and must have access to animal-sourced products. Some among these experience serious autoimmune reactions and their lives are at stake.

In the glare of ongoing publicity, the federal government arranged for an Indian manufacturer, Wockhardt, to supply Canada with animal insulin from its manufacturing facility in Wales. But in March the company announced it will no longer be providing insulin to Canadians who need it, leaving this vulnerable population at high risk...

So.

Let's start making our own insulin so that we can take care of our citizenry while raising our heads even higher when super-fine Trumpinistas like Mr. Howard Lutnick call us socialists for doing so.

OK?

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Extremism Upside Down Cake.

FibonacciNumberSpiralDown
AndDownAndDownAndDownVille

Link

And, just to be clear, both Mr. Vance and Mr. Musk publicly pumped the extremist AfD in the German election just past.


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Subheader?...Pineapples!


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HST Fridays...Twisted In The Rigging.

WeLiveInATrailerAtTheEdge

OfTownVille


"He was a swine of a man and a jabbering dupe of a president. Nixon was so crooked that he needed servants to help him screw his pants on every morning..."

Hunter Thompson, 'He Was A Crook', June 1994

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...(Trump) did a grunting impression of a female weightlifter as he criticized the participation of transgender women in sports. He bragged about how tech moguls have warmed up to him, saying, “They all hated me in my first term, and now they’re kissing my ass.”

And he falsely claimed that the 2020 election, which he lost, was “rigged.”

The Associated Press, 'Trump Offers Advice To University of Alabama Graduates', May 2025.

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Image at the top of the post?....Mr. Nixon and Mr. Trump get together to discuss the Middle East at a Houston after-party, sans Tracy Jordan, in 1989.

Earworm in the subheader?...This!



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For Just A Moment There Last Night...

NotAllTheBedfellowsNeedBeStrangely

GreenVille

The map above is the current state of play as of Tuesday morning at 8:00 am Pacific.

But...

For a short time last night the Liberals were stuck on 164 and the Dippers had seven.

Which, given that 172 is a majority, meant that for a moment there Lizzie May actually held the balance of power.

Imagine that!



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And, coming back to reality...While all the punditry can talk about is the Dipper collapse, even if the guy I voted for, Don Davies, was to lose his 0.7% lead in Vancouver Kingsway, the individual NDP  survivors will very likely have more power now than they had in the last parliament given how the numbers are shaking out..

And, even more real,  in real politck terms at least,  is how much this Dipper 'collapse'  demonstrates that the progressive vote can make rational decisions when the whackaloons are at the threshold backed with a lunatic's tariff goonery.

And, of course, most real, at least in schadenfreude terms, is what happened in  'NoMoreConvoysInOurBackyardVille' (a.,k.a. Carelton).

Map at the top of the post is from the TorStar election tracking site...I found that one much more reliable and faster to update than either the one at Elections Canada or at  the CBC...



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My Morning Ride...Blossom Blizzard!

ThisAin'tNo
DQVille


Have fun seeing your neighbours while voting everyone.

And be nice to your poll worker.

The nice young woman at poll #66 in Vancouver Kingsway was fantastically efficient.

And I really dig the fact that the little piece of folded paper with the pencil 'X' goes into a cardboard box to be counted!




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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!


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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?


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* 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 .

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