Tracker

And its not as if the Fraser Institute has ever parroted the right-wing agenda.

Or auspicious?

You may wish to consider Comwave or an IPTV package.

And yet, the healthiest economies along with the lowest violent crime rates and the highest public satisfaction (Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Germany, Holland etc have thr highest corporate and personal income taxes and tightly regulated industries are....gasp... socialist. Every time the minimum wage or wages in general rise, there are dire predictions of economic doom. And yet, they never seem to come to pass.

It probably all comes down to Margaret Thatcher's attitude about her slashing services and supports for the poor, disabled and mentally ill. When questioned about how she could conscience grinding the less fortunate, she said," F..k them. They don't vote anyways."

The concept was the assumption that the very wealthy would be magnanimous and shower the poorer. The reality is that damned few wealthy choose to do that. The wealthy buy bigger yachts, more spacious homes, more expensive vehicles and use the money to build gated communities or even buy whole islands and always have. Democratic governments are supposed to create and sustain dynamic balances between all the competing social forces and strata. Another nice theory.

For fans of John Oliver, here is this week's look at American politics:

That otta slow down the Rider passing game.

Not the proper context. Ronnie Raygun was given this adage so as to justify making the rich richer on the assumption that there would be the infamous "Trickle Down Theory" which was instantly rephrased to "Tinkle Down Theory"- a very apt description of the Reagan era. Under his administration, the S&L debacle and the Enron catastrophe happened.

Price of gas in France A thief in Paris planned to steal some paintings from the Louvre. After careful planning, he got past security, stole the paintings, and made it safely to his van. However, he was captured only two blocks away when his van ran out of gas. When asked how he could mastermind such a crime and then make such an obvious error, he replied, "Monsieur, that is the reason I stole the paintings--- I had no Monet To buy Degas To make the Van Gogh." See if you have De Gaulle to send this on. to someone else. I sent i on because I figured I had nothing Toulouse .

Poop happens.

Good in theory but ain't gonna happen. There's no way to rule out stupidity.

You are living in the stone age.

Thank God for PVRs.

If memory serves, Pipkin has a rep of being resistant to coaching and going off script. Not sure if that would be a good fit for O'Shea.

Reilly earned every dollar and I wouldn't want to be him when he hits 60 years old. He is not going to have a single body part that will not hurt.

Russia is sending as much resources into the Donetsk region as they can, even WW2 equipment and untrained/undertrained troops trying to overwhelm Ukrainian defences with sheer numbers. They are also sending any missiles they can find because they can launch those from hundreds of kms away. The rush is to seize land and dig in before the bulk of game-changing western weaponry arrives.

Yu get what you pay for.

And Eli Tui has disappeared under the surface with hardly a ripple.

'Methodical' Merrick Garland 'fears no person' — and he's coming for Trump: legal scholar Like other forms of fascism, authoritarianism and reactionary politics, Donald Trump's so-called movement is a symptom of deeper problems in society, not the cause. Trumpism is not a boil that can be lanced, thereby ending the infection. It's more like a tumor growing from the bones. It's not exactly true that the Republican Party was conquered or "taken over" by the Trump movement, as many observers still perceive it. The seeds of Trumpism were planted in Republican soil decades ago, and found it a hospitable environment. It's more accurate to perceive Trumpism as the next evolutionary (or, more properly, devolutionary) stage of the Republican Party and the overall conservative movement. It's where right-wing politics were going in America, whether leading conservatives understood that or not. https://www.alternet.org/2022/05/merrick-garland-2657413761/

Basically a pyramid scheme with extra steps.

Architect of Trump election theft attempt is recruiting an army of conspiracy-fueled poll workers: report With the midterm election just months away and Donald Trump still eyeing a third presidential run in 2024, the New York Times is reporting that one of the architects of the former president's attempt to throw out the results of his 2020 loss is currently working on recruiting conspiracy-minded poll workers and watchers that have state election officials fearful of future chaos and disruption. According to the report, attorney Cleta Mitchell who rose to fame as a participant on Trump's infamous phone call to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger where the former president demanded the Georgia Republican "find" 11,780 votes, is working with the Election Integrity Network which has financial ties to Trump's still-thriving political operation. As the Times' Alexandra Berzon writes, Mitchell has been busy traveling the country and meeting with far-right activists, instructing them on how to get deeply involved with the election process in their states, putting them in a position to challenge election results and disrupt certification of the votes. According to Berzon, no position at the state level is considered too small by Mitchell, who recently told over 150 conservatives in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, "We are taking the lessons we learned in 2020 and we are going forward to make sure they never happen again.” Pointing out that Mitchell was a participant in multiple lawsuits by Trump to challenge election results at the state level -- none of which succeeded -- Berzon writes that she is undeterred as her conspiracy theories are debunked and that she has the financial backing of several conservative groups. "In seminars around the country, Ms. Mitchell is marshaling volunteers to stake out election offices, file information requests, monitor voting, work at polling places and keep detailed records of their work," the Times report states, adding that an examination of her efforts reveals " a loose network of influential groups and fringe figures." Her supporters "include election deniers as well as mainstream organizations such as the Heritage Foundation’s political affiliate, Tea Party Patriots and the R.N.C., which has participated in Ms. Mitchell’s seminars. The effort, called the Election Integrity Network, is a project of the Conservative Partnership Institute, a right-wing think tank with close ties and financial backing from Mr. Trump’s political operation." .alternet.org/2022/05/poll-workers/

Ronnie Hawkins, Key Figure in Canadian Rock and Mentor of The Band, Dies at 87 -Getty Ronnie Hawkins, known by some as “the father of Canadian rock ‘n’ roll,” died on Sunday morning. He was 87. Hawkins’ wife, Wanda, confirmed his death after an undisclosed illness. An Arkansas native, Hawkins was known for having an eye for talent and credited with inspiring much of the Canadian rock ‘n’ roll scene. In the 1950s, he went on a Canadian tour and later moved to Canada, recognizing that he could have a greater impact in a country where rock was in its fledgling form. There, Hawkins formed a group of backup musicians that later became known as The Band, who eventually played with Bob Dylan and became iconic in their own right. The Band invited Hawkins, who went on to mentor more Canadian musicians, on stage for their final show in 1976, with the scene featured in Martin Scorsese’s documentary The Last Waltz. When The Band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, guitarist Robbie Robertson said: “We should thank Ronnie Hawkins in being so instrumental in us coming together and for teaching us the ‘code of the road,’ so to speak.”