The guy with nuclear weapons starts standing outside your house, holding a boom box above his head and then you hear "In your eyes....:"
Tim voted and his Riding flipped Liberal. On a local Reddit page, somebody said that the Conservative MP Michelle Ferreri was the Marjorie Taylor Greene of Canada.
I was really hoping for a majority Liberal Government. Maybe still possible. A few Ridings haven't finished counting. Looks like Liberals lost some ground to the Conservatives and gained from them elsewhere, but the NDP just collapsed.
New Brunswick went Blue (Tory) in a couple of spots. Absolutely thrilled that Poilievre lost his own riding.
I would love to hear from Canadian commenters about what they think the Bloc Québécois's role will be.
My sense about Pollievre's Riding is that it is more urban and less farmland than it once was, people are thrilled that Trudeau was gone. People in Ottawa really hated the Maple MAGA convoy a few years ago, and Pollievre was supportive.
Trump's mental condition has not significantly deteriorated. He was always a dumb, dishonest, crazy fuck, and if anything, his actions this term show that he continues to make progress in learning how to manipulate the levers of power.
I realize there is some comfort in thinking that the American people didn't deliberately select someone this degenerate, or that his current behavior suggests that there is something new that has gone wrong in his brain, but I don't think that belief is supported by evidence.
I don't think anything has abruptly changed since November, no. I think this is exactly who we elected. I do think it was severely under-reported in November how much his brain is broken.
That's because rich people are cruel assholes and the people who own media.
As I read it, it seems that Libs will be a minority government, but will only need (the greatly diminished) NDP to get there? If they needed to include Bloc, would that have been a whole thing?
The man is 78! Of course he's declined mentally.
5: And WHCA really put that in sharp focus with their 2025 awards just announced. Overall top award to fuckhead Maureen Dow-alum* Alex Thompson. From the award citation: After the debate, Thompson was the first to report that Biden was at his best from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. -- a stunning revelation.
*They are a plague on journalism--several at the NYT sucking MAGA dick, and Thompson and Ashely Parker late of WaPo now at The Atlantic,\.
Maybe India or Pakistan will use nukes before Trump?
9: And not even the most fucked up award, that was "THE AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN PRESIDENTIAL NEWS COVERAGE UNDER DEADLINE PRESSURE."
The writeup:
Madhani and Miller caught the White House press office trying to alter the official account of history -- the White House transcript of Biden's use of the word "garbage" to describe supporters of Donald Trump. On deadline, Madhani and Miller captured the conflict between federal workers who document the president's words for posterity and political appointees trying to protect their boss."
It was a stupid fuckup by the White House, (and stupid of Biden even to weigh in at all, much less in such an awkward way) but the whole thing was garbage media people helpfully framing the thing in Republican-friendly terms. For the award language to baldly state "the White House transcript of Biden's use of the word "garbage" to describe supporters of Donald Trump." is pretty fucking telling. What bold truth tellers, those fucking scabrous lying shitheels think they are. And the coverage itself from AP was garbage. See here.
Deeply revealing; they are all just slightly less stupid Chris Cillizzas.
Someone posted on Bluesky:
First they came for the Communists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the journalists
and I did not speak out
because I did not really have a problem with that, actually.
In fact
I still have to hand it to them on that one.
I rewatched Season 1 of The Trailer Park Boys late last night as a tribute to Canadians.
13 TPB is great. I'm watching Bon Cop, Bad Cop for the same reason.
Absolutely thrilled that Poilievre lost his own riding.
I'm curious if any would-be-PM in a parliamentary system has ever lost while their party won a majority (or enough to lead a coalition).
3,15: Yes I think his Carleton Riding is somewhat analogous to a place like Loudon County in northern VA. Going Lib/Dem as both educational realignment happens nationwide, and the place itself becomes more populated with capitol-linked suburbanites.
Definitely a candidate for the scenario in 15.
The thing about that poem is that it always gave me the impression that all you had to do was speak up! speak out! when they came for the other people, and the coming-for-people would cease.
But it turns out no one gives a shit how much I run my yapper, they're still coming for the people they want to come for.
15: H.H. Asquith lost his seat in 1918, and according to Wikipedia was indeed leading the Liberal Party in that election, but they expected to lose that year, just didn't expect it to be quite as bad.
He kept leadership of the Liberal Party while relinquishing Leader of the Opposition status, but got the latter back in 1920 when he won a seat elsewhere.
In 2011, Michael Ignatieff, leading the Liberals in Canada, lost his own riding. In that same election the NDP moved up to #2 party and afterwards they led the opposition. Ignatieff retired from politics.
A good thing to do with free time in Canada would be to hike the Great Divide Trail.
First they came for the socialists, and I spoke out and it didn't matter because Republicans are suicidal greed maniacs who won't impeach Trump.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I spoke out and it didn't matter because Republicans are willing to destroy everything to go down as the people holding the flag when the game ended.
Then they came for the Jews, and I spoke out and it didn't matter because Republicans are actively enabling Trump to do these things, instead of impeaching him.
Then they came for me, which is weird because they could have gotten me in multiple categories already but whatever, and obviously the Republicans just kept driving the car off the cliff.
Yeah. Poetry is not an infallible strategy guide.
18: I'm not sure those match the scenario I was thinking of, which I might have not described well. I'm wondering if a would-be PM lost out on being PM because they lost their seat, but their party won and had to go looking for a new PM.
First they came for congress, and I spoke up for them, but they didn't impeach Trump over that so they're certainly not going to impeach him for going after anyone else.
Although I guess Carney wasn't even in Parliament when he became PM.
The poem hits a little different in the context of Niemöller's actual history: He wasn't an opponent of the regime who was too inhibited to speak out until it was too late but a supporter of the regime as long as it only targeted people he didn't like. The poem is both a sincere mea culpa for his previous views and a subtle way of deflecting attention from them.
Did they actually come for him at the end? Or is he just making a point?
I think people get confused about this because they confuse him with Bonhöffer, who really was a principled opponent of the Nazis from early on and was killed for it.
26: They did, which made him reconsider his previous support but obviously it was too late then.
Also, it isn't a poem. It's just often typeset in a way that makes it look like a poem.
14 Hostie de calice de tabernac that was excellent!
Hilarious and highly recommended, especially if you are an aficionado of Quebecois profanity.
5: My claim is that nothing has much* changed in the last eight years.
Suppose Trump had never said this before, and came out and said it today about John McCain:
He's a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren't captured, okay? I hate to tell you. ... He's a war hero because he was captured, okay?
This is not some weird stumble on his part. This is how he's talked for a long time. This is a guy who claimed for years that Barack Obama was born in Kenya. I haven't heard anyone articulate the distinction between how he was then and how he is now.
On the other hand, I think there's a pretty clear difference between how he was in 2015 vs., say, 1990. The dilemma with Trump has always been, if he went senile, how would we know?
*I mean, "much" is doing some work there, but not much.
17: Right. In the real world, that poem goes "First they came for the Communists, and then they came for me because I spoke up ..."
heebie@20: For sure the G(r)OPers are 100% behind Trump. But to blame them alone is wrong.
There are too many Dems who are afraid of open confrontation with him, too. I remember reading
that before the Civil War, the governor of the Montana (? maybe it was a different territory) territory
openly defied the Fugitive Slave Act, instructing his men to arrest any slave-catcher they found in
their jurisdiction. Nothing like that has happened: Dem officials are supine, and all the YT videos
on Earth don't change that.
Gov. GoodHair Mk II Newsom could order state police to arrest and hold without bail any Federal agent
who detains a CA resident without affording them due process. He hasn't done squat. Just talked about
how CA has the back of its residents, and they'll file lawsuits.
None of these people understand that "the law" doesn't matter anymore, that what matters is force and
power.
12 points out a genuine dilemma faced by the Democrats. They get screwed by the media, but at the same time, undermining the media is a real problem. The New York Times sucks, but it also represents the best of the mainstream media.
The Stormcrow critique of the NYT et al is entirely appropriate and correct, but I don't think a Democrat with national ambitions can echo that view -- although I'll admit I'd kind of like to see Pritzger, for example, try it.
25 and 28 is very interesting, I had no idea. From wikipedia, his big break with the party (who he'd voter for several times) was persecution of ethnically Jewish people who had converted to Lutheranism.
The whole Khan of the Great Plains thing hits just right for me, and I find it hilarious. That said, if horsehair banners become a Thing, I will happily hoist one at any Pritzker rallies I might attend.
36: I don't understand the reference.
I might have not described well
No, you did, I just assumed you were asking about Pollievre-like scenarios and my brain substituted that for part of your post.
37: People have been calling Pritzer that. I don't think it's a reference to anything (could be wrong), just self-aware bombast that reinforced itself.
169 seats projected final. Minority govt.
The person apparently responsible for the meme.
https://www.ft.com/content/b4d4e25e-24b3-475a-b127-5ca7ddcdc68c
"We are once again at one of those hinge moments of history," Carney told jubilant supporters at a victory rally in Ottawa. "Our old relationship with the US, one based on steady integration, is over." The "American betrayal" was a tragedy, Carney said, "but it is also our new reality". "America wants our land, our resources, our water, our country. These are not idle threats."
I was at Pritzker's speech the other night. It was a refreshing change from all the speeches that came before it - milquetoast NH dems patting each other on the back.
In addition to calling for street protests, he laid out a strong pro-immigrant message, which it sure would be nice if other dems were willing to do.
44 is great, but Pritzker's not going to be acceptable to the left as a candidate any more than Harris or Biden were. https://news.wttw.com/2024/02/01/pritzker-disappointed-chicago-s-gaza-cease-fire-resolution-says-it-ll-have-no-impact
But seriously, North American reprobates: do your nations' schools teach you that thousands of workaday Americans heard "Let's get some guns and go steal Ontario!" and thought that was a perfectly great idea?
22: They can also hang around long enough and get elected in a more friendly riding by having one of their colleagues step down for them.
20: Is amazing and great.
1: Bloq have acted as official opposition before so they're not like anti-federal gov't. They will make sure that Quebec gets good deals if they agree to pass things. So like equalization payments will not be on the chopping block, increased funding for CBC/Radio Canada possible, maybe more funding for universities. As an East Coaster, they probably benefit us but they will continue the alienation of the West.
they will continue the alienation of the West.
Please say more?
46: I learned about the Fenian Raids in school. Does that count?
48: Oh dear and typing on my phone doesn't make this easier.
Canada has equalization payments that are supposed to keep federal services even across the country. So provinces that bring in more federal taxes (haves) then supplement the poor provinces (havenots). Because Alberta (and to some degree SK) have oil and their provincial gov'ts can't not collect federal taxes (kind of, it's based on what they could raise), they pay. But they think that most of that goes to Ontario and Quebec which are seen as the decision making parts of the country. So the western provinces (kind of because Manitoba is only slightly involved and BC isn't really at all even though they too are a have province), are mad because they pay a bunch but get no say in governing.
Also in terms of numbers - AB has 37 seats for 4.4 million people; Quebec has 78 for 8.6; Ontario 122 for 14.8. The Maritime provinces are slightly overrepresented for their populations (esp PEI) and Alberta and BC slightly underrepresented (but BC is not included in Western alienation)
(FT)
Spain's electricity grid operator has ruled out a cyber attack as the cause of Monday's huge power outage... Prieto said the grid operator had still not identified the cause of the outage but said it followed a collapse in supply from south-west Spain.
So there's a bunch of political rhetoric out west about all of this that has led to Alberta-specific political parties with more than a whiff of Trumpyness/right wing extremism and a bunch of separatism talk. They keep electing social conservatives (as opposed to more fiscal conservatives of back east) to represent them and then get mad much of the rest of Canada doesn't want to follow suit. And the cycle continues.
48: PLEASE BUY MY BOOK
46: I had no memory of this, so I went to my old textbook from AP American History and found one sentence in 1300 pages: "In 1837, a forlorn insurrection in Upper Canada led to the seizure of the American steamboat Caroline by Canadians who set it afire and let it drift over Niagara Falls."
It really was a well-written textbook.
I admit that if I had a stolen steamboat on that stretch of river, I'd do the same. How could you not?
Pritzker's not going to be acceptable to the left as a candidate any more than Harris or Biden were.
If he goes hard after Republicans instead of trying act like one, I think the left can probably forgive him for past shitty opinions about the Israel/Palestine situation. But he would need to demonstrate that he is not currently under Israel's sway, as Chris Van Hollen has done and Corey Booker has not.
Speaking as one of the left, my bigger concern with Pritzker is that he's an inherited billionaire.
So was Batman abs he worked out fine.
57.last he strikes me as the very class traitor we need at this moment, like FDR was for his.
In the webcomic days Kate Beaton did a comic "The Fenian Raids" and then retitled it "The Invasion of Canada" after realizing there are places "Fenian" is more or less a slur.
It was a respected thing for your ancestors to have been when I was growing up.
It really was a well-written textbook.
Was it American Pageant?
I don't remember learning about the 1837 raids until reading about them on my own. But I do remember hearing that "the acquisition of Canada this year will be a mere matter of marching."
We can't be expected to keep track of all of our failed attempts to conquer Canada.
America: A Narrative History by Tindall/Shi.
45: I'm not even sure what "the left" is any more. By one prominent definition, Radical Leftists are people who think it's a bad idea to interrupt the cancer treatment of two-year-old US citizens by deporting them.
The linked story cracked me up.
A divided Chicago City Council on Wednesday approved a non-binding resolution calling for an end to the war between Israel and Hamas
You'd think if they were really committed to peace, the council members would have supported a binding resolution.
A binding resolution to end a war in a different country is probably beyond the capacity of a city council, to be fair.
I think some state should try to make all employees pledge to boycott Israel.
Stupid angle bracket parsing lost some of that comment
I'm just still mad that Arizona made me sign an agreement not to boycott Israel before they would pay me for work I already did.
The State of California and many local governments spent a while trying to divest from states with homophobic laws as much as possible (NC bathroom bill especially, with many follow-ups), also from individual companies involved in building The Wall, but it was mostly abandoned because compliance was really complex and it didn't seem to be influencing anything. But now Pritzker is saying how blue states should boycott El Salvador, so maybe we'll get another round of it.
Gov Abbott noticed the local ceasefire debate. Dumb shit ensues.
I would ride the falls shouting "Fitzcarraldo!"
67: So I read on Standpipe's blog.