best of 2023

 Buffy Sainte-Marie is Italian.  jfc

best of 2021 and 2022

 Nothing but wildfires, floods, a pandemic and a new war.

best of 2020

Where to begin

• zoonotic diseases
• lethal foreign policy - Qasem Soleimani (Jan), Mohsen Fakhrizadeh (Nov)
• UIA Flight PS752 - see above
  
• Wortman massacre - Portapique & Colchester County Nova Scotia (Apr)
• morale-crushing Snowbirds crash - Kamloops BC (May)
• Canadian military report - dire conditions in Ontario seniors homes (May)
• wildfires - Australia, California/Oregon/Washington
  
• Beirut economic collapse & explosion (Aug)

It's Only August - albawawa.com

• US embassy, Jerusalem - Trump "moved the capital of Israel to Jerusalem" for "the evangelicals," lagging 4yrs behind John Baird (Oct)
• Israeli government collapse, again (Dec)
• new strain covid-19
• Alberta government's shoddy "reports" for health, curriculum, post-secondary, municipal spending, Allan inquiry,...)
  

virulent minister

In what world does a health minister stalk doctors? In Tyler Shandro's fortis et liber wexit world. Because the wisest, most prudent thing to do during a pandemic is to bilk and antagonize the good folks who look after us in our public health system and just be a weirdo.

Ministerial rating: 0/5

Alberta environment minister suspends environment

Minister of Environment, Jason Nixon (Mar 31 order), waives environmental reporting amid covid-19 pandemic. He says complying would be a "hardship" for companies, even though billions and billions of dollars and perks have flowed to O&G of late.

Full article: National Observer

This is the minister who promised no public or Crown land would be sold. This is the minister who helped ram a 2020-21 budget **with a $58/barrel oil price and no sudden-onset global pandemic** which a) unrevised is bad budgeting and b) propels nursing job and health care cuts. 

This is the person who in 2011 signed a one-year (threatening? let's kill the bitch? poaching? trespassing?) peace bond.

 

Ministerial rating: 0/5

best of 2019: Alberta forbidden words

UCP provincial government orders public schools to remove the word "public" from their names. Education minister: Adriana LaGrange, Aug15 by ministerial order. 

Lagrange is the Kenney leadership Red Deer pro-life stacker (special guest: hapner). See also Jason Kenney's 2016 interview with Ezra Levant.

Lagrange only was "simplifying naming conventions," along the lines of other "simple" things like UCP firing Elections Commissioner (Bill 22, "only merging" with Elections Alberta).

 

Ministerial rating: 0/5

best of 2018: USA forbidden words

The Trump admin's 7 deadly sins banned words at the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) are:
vulnerable
diversity
entitlement
transgender
fetus
evidence-based

science-based

HONOURABLE MENTION: A Republican dead pimp is elected in Nevada! Roger Stone called Dennis Hof the Trump of Pahrump. Trump's grandfather made a family nest egg peddling booze, food and women in Bennett BC. Very inspirational!

Dennis Hof in 2013

In other news, a Snopes report on the dentist (that shot Cecil a rare black-maned lion in 2015) and  Trump's newly-formed wildlife conservation council. In 2017, Cecil's son Xanda also was killed by a trophy hunter in Zimbabwe.

best of 2017 - Bonus!

Saskatchewan MP Gerry Ritz resigned in 2017. A highlight was his tweet about polls. He served Battlefords—Lloydminster from 1997 as Reform, then Alliance and CPC post-merger (2004) member.

Fascinating! The world tilts every 40-50 years and polls freeze.

In other science news, Stephen Hawking passed (1942-2018). His ashes will be interred in Westminster Abbey near Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin.

Unicorns in London

After the DC trip, former Rebel Media corporate director and Conservative Party campaign manager, Hamish Marshall, is guiding his new little unicorn to London, England on a trade mission. Marshall's wife used to be Rob Anders' roommate (comments).

Who else has gone to London? Just Murray Edwards in 2016. In addition to business interests in NHL's Calgary Flames, local resorts, being WestJet's 4th largest shareholder, yachting vacations with Rona Ambrose, Imperial Metals (Mt Polley BC disaster), Magellan Aerospace Corp., Canadian Natural Resources, director of Ensign Energy Services during stock option backdating suit in 2004 ($4M settlement), ... wait, where was I? ... 

Oh right, Rob Anders.

Oklahoma City 1994: Republican Jim Inhofe campaign. At a news conference in Oklahoma City, McCurdy called a worker who wore a Pinocchio nose at a debate Wednesday "a paid political thug" who had broken campaign laws. He said the Inhofe campaign was resorting to Watergate-style dirty tricks. 

Oct 2017: Rumour was that Rob Anders wore a tuxedo to the UCP leadership victory party. Former snack pack members include Ezra Levant and Jason Kenney.

White History Month

PREVIOUSLY, I thought July should be White History Month in Canada. After some consideration I'm leaning toward December. Its appellation: Settler Month, Colonist Month, British Month (Dec 11 is the Anniversary of the Statute of Westminster), Pepe Month, Scots Month, Ubermensch Month, White Nationalist Month, White Supremist Month, EU White Nationalist Month, Kill a Socialist Month, Jesus Month, White Jesus Month, not-Arab Month, Crusades Month, Gentile Month, Not-Black History Month, Neo-Nazi Month, Pioneer Month, White South Africa Month, White Identity Month, Not-Muslim Month, Ethnic Nationalist Month.

These are just some ideas. The drawback for Jesus Month in December is that Orthodox celebrations are in January. Maybe Jerusalem could have 2 months instead.

In any case, these are the availabilities:

JAN
FEB Black History Month
MAR
APR
MAY Asian Heritage Month
JUN National Aboriginal History Month
JUL
AUG
SEP
OCT
NOV
DEC

Update: Nick Kouvalis

A conservative political strategist and a Hamilton activist have each been fined $50 for trespassing at a Burlington Kelseys after an incident in September. (cbc.ca) To Coulton Boushie and friends, joy rides aren't equal. Warren Kinsella will defend you.

daffodil lament

RIP Dolores O'Riordan. 💔 It's the same old theme since 1916. Electric Blue Eyes. Domine, Domine, Deus. Domine, Adiuva Me. Domine, Domine, Deus. The Rebels. Just 46.

Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We? 1993
No Need to Argue 1994
To the Faithful Departed 1996
Bury the Hatchet 1999
Wake Up and Smell the Coffee 2001
[Are You Listening? 2007 - solo]
[No Baggage 2009 - solo]
Roses 2012
Something Else 2017
Go your own way, Europe2 (from Fleetwood Mac, Rumours 1977)

What a bad run. Off the top of my head—
Whitney
Leonard Cohen
David Bowie
Tom Petty
Lemmy, Motörhead
Chris Cornell, Soundgarden
Prince
Chester Bennington, Linkin Park
Gordon Downie, The Tragically Hip
Walter Becker, Steely Dan
Eddie Clarke, Motörhead
Lou Reed
Dolores O'Riordan, The Cranberries
and
Alan Rickman
Mel Hurtig

squirrel in rafters!

MP for Simcoe-Grey spies a squirrel?

What in the motherfuck of a terrible video is going on. Theories about the slow ponderous wandering gaze, awkward pauses and stupid sighs include:

Kellie Leitch is drunk, or an alien, or in a bizarre fever dream."Full of strange pauses and odd angles."

Leitch's campaign manager, Nick Kouvalis, resigned in Feb 2017 before the video's March release, some sort of controversy about cuck or rehab. He also was "the former senior political strategist for the late Toronto mayor Rob Ford and for the current Toronto Mayor John Tory" (CBC, 2 Feb 2017), as well as Christy Clark in B.C. (Toronto Star, 3 Feb 2017). He plead guilty to drunk driving in May 2016.

Mr Kouvalis and Sarah Warry-Poljansk, some sort of PC nominee, were charged with B&E in Burlington, Ont. Their lawyers have a meeting with the Crown at 2pm, 14 Feb 2018 at the Milton court house. (See update, Mar 2.)

UPDATE #2: MP for Simcoe-Grey, Kellie Leitch, announced in late Jan 2018 she will not seek re-election in 2019. In Feb 2018, Elections Canada records showed Rebel Media both 1) covered Leitch's leadership campaign in some sort of capacity as a news agency and 2) received payment for social media services in the amount of $56,500.

Two days before Leitch cut Rebel Media two cheques worth $22,600 in February 2017, Leitch was featured in an exclusive “one-on-one” with Rebel Media “BC Bureau Chief” Christopher Wilson.

And more: 

Kouvalis’ Campaign Research and Campaign Support received $351,345 between July 2016 and August 2017 from the Leitch campaign, alone amounting to one-quarter of Leitch’s entire $1.3 million worth of campaign expenses.

Kouvalis’ companies also earned over $200,000 following his resignation as Leitch's campaign manager. Donors to the leadership campaign include some sort of Canadian CEOs.

phoenix boondoggle

Rona Ambrose resigned in July as MP for Sturgeon River-Parkland. She was replaced (a) in an October 23 byelection by a 26 year-old Proud Boy, Dane Lloyd, and (b) as leader of the Conservative Party of Canada by a guy with dimples.

"In charge were then-public works minister Rona Ambrose (now interim Conservative leader) and Tony Clement, former president of the treasury board. Neither has expressed any remorse for the fiasco. The Conservatives eliminated 700 payroll jobs in dozens of departments, mainly in Ottawa, and created..."  -The Globe and Mail, 26 Feb 2017 

Rona Ambrose and her boyfriend had many Stornoway expenses for a temp job. Stornoway shouldn't be a residence for interim leaders. Then yachting with billionaire Murray Edwards from Jan 3-14 (and writing ethics commissioner about it on Jan 12), while freaking out about Justin Trudeau's vacation. 

Murray Edwards moved to London in 2016. His business interests include the Calgary Flames, Canadian Natural Resources Ltd., Magellan Aerospace Corp., Imperial Metals Corp., and Resorts of the Canadian Rockies.

best of 2017

NAUGHTY AND NICE

Naughty

In January, Sheila Gunn Reid's camera (?) was 'punched in the face'. She did not, as far as I  know, issue a clarification, unless that happened in court. 'You just hit me in the face.'

June: It did not happen in court. TskTsk, bearing false witness. Five million protesters worldwide at a Saturday Jan. 21 Women's March and there's was one incident and it happened to be an Alberta provocateur, her 'bodyguard,' a shady fake news outlet, one luthier, then a network of neoWeimar retweeters. Bounty hunting and death threats ensued.

The link on that tweet http://bit.ly/2jjtgTr goes here: http://podblanc.guru/index.html. The account itself @STOPSYTGENOCIDE was gone shortly thereafter (neo-Nazi Paul Craig Cobb? Location, North Dakota). The account was harassing one @stonekettle.

It would appear that de-escalation efforts are what happened, when organizers ushered Mr Bews away and no face was punched. The spouse of Canada's former PM, Laureen Harper, didn't see it that way and lobbed a big cocktail into SGR's molotov mob fire.

Neo-nazi Richard Spencer however did get punched in the face the day before the Women's March. Journalist Ben Jacobs also got punched in the face by a Republican candidate while reporting on the Montana congressional election in May.

Nice

Gallery Furniture stores became shelters for Texas flood evacuees and Guardsmen in August.

Texas National Guard troops rest between
shifts of rescuing people in flood

bluenose boondoggle

Design date, 1937. (Wikipedia)

Conservatives are a crappy gift that keeps giving. The Bluenose II project is 'now five years behind schedule and $12.5 million over budget.' It gets worse. The contract signed in 2009 by MHPM carried no fines or penalties for delays. Cheques just flowed.

Yes, federal infrastructure stimulus.

In summer 2016, MHPM changed its name to Colliers Project Leaders (CPL). Former PMSH joined Colliers board of directors in September. Franklin Holtforster is still president. Stephen Vaslet is still vice-president in Halifax.

Article: http://thechronicleherald.ca/novascotia/1427520-bluenose-boondoggle-the-gold-plated-management-contract


On a side note -
Alex Colville did the 1967 centennial 10-cent Mackerel and the one-cent Dove.

strange parallels

There is something oddly familar about Rob Ford as the 'mayor of heaven' and the glory of Mr Chris Christie.

In 2012, a tax-exempt "social welfare organization" called Committee for Our Children's Future, CCF, ran a series of TV ads telling America that Governor Christie has performed more miracles in New Jersey than Jesus did with loaves and fish. link

uncut.uk

Protest placards in the UK re austerity measures

ANNUAL COST PER PERSON IN UK

Public Forests: 30p each
Libraries: £21 each
Bank bailout: £31,250 each
Bank Bailout cost: £1 Trillion
Vodafone's unpaid tax bill: £6 Billion
Cuts to welfare: £7 Billion

UK Uncut, the new protest group against austerity measures in the UK

"We spent billions bailing out RBS, yet now the government are cutting our services," said Rosa Brown, 42, from UK Uncut. "They are letting RBS get away with the mistakes they caused and rewarding themselves with massive bonuses but punishing us."... US Uncut groups have sprung up from New York to Hawaii in the last three weeks and activists will demonstrate against government cuts and corporate tax avoidance in more than 50 cities on Saturday.

"UK Uncut inspires US groups to attack cuts and tax avoidance," Friday 25 February 2011, guardian.co.uk

best of 2016

Canada doesn't have solitary confinement, because luckily it's called administrative segregation.

Adam Capay has spent 1,560 days in solitary.
www.macleans.ca

• In the hole for 52 months.
• Youth justice system.

shooting an elephant

Zimbabwe 2012.

Donald Trump Jr. posing with an elephant tail.