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.

______
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!


.

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?

.

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?

.

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.


______
Subheader?...Pineapples!


.

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

****

...(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.

______
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!



.

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!



_______
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...



.

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!




.

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.




.

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.


.

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.



.

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.

.

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.


.

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.



.

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).



.

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.



______
Subheader explained?....This.

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



.

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.

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

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

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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.



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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.

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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?



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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.

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That's The Way The Cookie Dough Bounces.

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

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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.

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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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