Recent Comments

1. about 3 hours ago on Pearls Before Swine

   . . . and, in fairness, the ability to come to the ’States to pay for an operation rather than wait multiple months for a spot on the Canadian NHS schedule.

2. about 3 hours ago on Prickly City

   (CONT)

   Indeed, federal government spending since Trump took office is actually higher than it’s been in recent years.

   Finally, it appears that the strength and stability of American democracy have also meant that lawmakers somehow cannot really believe that the U.S. is falling into authoritarianism. Today, in a 51–49 vote, all but two Republican senators voted to confirm Kash Patel as director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Senators Susan Collins (R-ME) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) voted with all the Democrats and Independents to oppose Patel’s confirmation. In a 2023 book, Patel published a list of more than 50 current or former U.S. officials that he claims are members of the “deep state” and are a “dangerous threat to democracy.” Opponents worry he will use the FBI to target those and other people he thinks are insufficiently loyal to Trump.

   The reason Americans created the government that the Trump administration is now dismantling was that in the 1930s, they knew very well the dangers of authoritarianism. On February 20, 1939, in honor of President George Washington’s birthday, Nazis held a rally at New York City’s Madison Square Garden. More than 20,000 people showed up for the “true Americanism” event, which was held on a stage that featured a huge portrait of Washington in his Continental Army uniform flanked by swastikas.

   Just two years later, Americans went to war against fascism.

   Over the next century they worked to build a liberal order, one that had strong scientific and political guardrails.

   Heather Cox Richardson (edited)

3. about 4 hours ago on Prickly City

   Since Trump took office just a month ago, cuts to government spending have also hit Republican voters hard, and those hits look to be continuing. In June 2024, Ella Nilsen and Renée Rigdon of CNN reported that nearly 78% of the announced investments from the Inflation Reduction Act in initiatives that address climate change went to Republican congressional districts. Today the Financial Times noted that House Republicans are in the position of cutting the law that brought more than $130 billion to their districts.

   Now Republicans are talking about cutting Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and supplemental food programs, although Republican-dominated counties rely on those programs more than Democratic-dominated counties do. Yesterday, on the Fox News Channel, Trump’s commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, praised the Department of Government Efficiency because it was “going to cut a trillion dollars of waste, fraud, and abuse.” Lutnick told personality Jesse Watters, “You know Social Security is wrong, you know Medicare and Medicaid is wrong, so he’s going to cut one trillion.”

   The administration and the Department of Government Efficiency insist they are getting rid of “massive waste, fraud, and abuse” that they claim has lurked in the government for decades; House speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said that Congress has not been able to make those cuts in the past because “the deep state has hidden it from us.”

   In fact, neither the administration nor DOGE has produced evidence for their claims of cutting waste. Instead, fact-checkers have pointed out so many errors and exaggerations in their claims that observers are questioning what they’re really doing. Former Maryland governor Martin O’Malley, who ran the Social Security Administration under Biden, told Jane C. Timm of NBC News: “There’s unelected people that are being given powers to go through and rummage through our personal data for reasons that nobody can quite figure out yet. It’s not for efficiency.”(CONT)

4. about 16 hours ago on La Cucaracha

   A Canadian perspective (from the Times-Colonist):

   Stream the G7 meetings so those two (US & Russia) can watch

   Canada will be hosting the 51st G7 summit, to be held June 15-17 in Kananaskis, Alberta.

   Donald Trump wants Russia to be invited back into the group. In March 2023, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Putin over alleged war crimes in Ukraine.

   All of the G7/G8 countries recognize the ICC except the U.S. and Russia.

   Trump is a convicted felon and inadmissible to Canada under our laws. Maybe Vladimir Putin could travel to Mar-a-Lago and the meeting can be streamed for Trump and Putin.

   Wayne Cox

   Saanichton

   (bold face mine)

5. about 16 hours ago on La Cucaracha

   Perhaps his mohel was a bit too aggressive – that Manischewitz Concord Grape has a heck of a kick, but you must drink 85 glasses of it – and so sweet you’ll go into hyperglycemia – not to mention ketoacidosis – after the first 6.

   Otherwise, he, and the Orange Obesity suffer(ed) from weepipi syndrome.

6. about 16 hours ago on Prickly City

   A Canadian perspective (from the Times-Colonist):

   Stream the G7 meetings so those two (US & Russia) can watch

   Canada will be hosting the 51st G7 summit, to be held June 15-17 in Kananaskis, Alberta.

   Donald Trump wants Russia to be invited back into the group. In March 2023, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Putin over alleged war crimes in Ukraine.

   All of the G7/G8 countries recognize the ICC except the U.S. and Russia.

   Trump is a convicted felon and inadmissible to Canada under our laws. Maybe Vladimir Putin could travel to Mar-a-Lago and the meeting can be streamed for Trump and Putin.

   Wayne Cox

   Saanichton

   (bold face mine)

7. 1 day ago on Prickly City

   Assuming we survive the next four years, it seems Donald Trump has done most everyone in the English-speaking world a huge favour.

   It’s now possible to use a single label that encompasses and replaces the myriad of commonly-used judgmental, derogatory labels.

   When someone does or suggests something most people think goes against the grain of what society accepts as normal and good, we no longer have to tell them they are stupid, dumb, moronic, irrational, greedy, obsessed, arrogant or breaking wind in public.

   We can save time and avoid confusion by telling them they’re being a Trump. Everyone will know exactly what we are talking about.

   Well, almost everyone. Conservatives are an exception.

   BTW, WTF are they “conserving”?

8. 4 days ago on La Cucaracha

   . . . and air traffic controllers.

9. 4 days ago on La Cucaracha

   Musk’s four-year-old son is still FAR more mature than Benedict Donald.

10. 4 days ago on La Cucaracha

    I understand that, after Mush has concluded the decimating of the United States government, he’ll be mounting an effort to purchase and expand UBER into aviation, using his recently developed pilotless, solar-equipped, battery-operated airplanes.

    Yes, you will soon be able to utilize your smartphone to schedule private flights.

    Think of it, you’ll be able to fly from New York to Miami on sunny days for only $45 (and 4,096 “AA” sized batteries if it’s cloudy).

    I’m told that eventual expansion will be named: FUBAR, and former Boeing CEO Dennis “You SAID you wanted a window seat – here’s one in your lap” Muilenburg will lead this effort.