Tracker

The survivalists will probably be the ones who will ride out the looming crisis the best, and that, if you think about it, is very very frightening.

'Goodfellas' Actor Ray Liotta Dead At 67 Actor Ray Liotta, best known for his roles in “Field of Dreams” and “Goodfellas,” has died at the age of 67, according to reports Thursday. The actor was filming a movie called “Dangerous Waters” in the Dominican Republic when he died in his sleep. No foul play is suspected, Deadline and TMZ first reported.

Canadian National Security Begins Preparations for the Threat of American Instability Conservative commentator George Will once said that Canada is internationally known for its “exceptional” common sense. So it should be no surprise that at the same time many of us are nervously looking around at each other, sensing an increasingly hostile and volatile country, Canada is beginning to plan ahead to protect itself… from us, or – more accurately, the threats that arise out of our situation. A brief summary from CBC News: “The United States is and will remain our closest ally, but it could also become a source of threat and instability,” says a newly published report written by a task force of former national security advisers, former Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) directors, ex-deputy ministers, former ambassadors and academics. Members of the group have advised both Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and former prime minister Stephen Harper. And, of course, the Canadians didn’t feel any need to “both sides” this despite the fact that Canada itself has a relatively small far-right movement itself, pointing fingers directly at Trump, Fox News, and the lack of faith in democratic institutions. Indeed, cooperation between Canada’s small but increasingly hostile far-Right and the more established, mature, and powerful American movement is one of the very top concerns. If the far-Right (which is increasingly just “the Right”) begins organizing violent campaigns in the U.S., the Canadian report believes there will be spillover to Canada. The Canadian security experts pointed at the trucker convoy as a tangible example of a foreign threat, though non-traditional in that it didn’t spring from government action: “This may not have represented foreign interference in the conventional sense, since it was not the result of actions of a foreign government. But it did represent, arguably, a greater threat to Canadian democracy than the actions of any state other than the United States,” the report says. “It will be a significant challenge for our national security and intelligence agencies to monitor this threat, since it emanates from the same country that is by far our greatest source of intelligence.” Their report also notes that it is damned hard to coordinate with the U.S. government when the United States’ polarization is so strong that the American security official on the other end of the line may be sympathetic to the Right’s campaign. Additionally, given that the two countries share a lot of infrastructure (electric grids, water systems, etc.) there are worries that a purely American attack will necessarily spill over, impacting Canada. Notably absent from the report? What to do if the border becomes flooded with Americans seeking refuge start crossing the border, legally or illegally. How can we know it’s a concern if it’s not in the report? Because many of us with dual citizenship already have our plans set for the first time we run into a giant intersection taken over by vigilante neighborhood “security patrols,” we’re taking our loved ones and rushing back to a relatively sane and sustainable democracy. And plenty of Americans will remember a vacation or business done in Canada and the different social environment. If we’ve thought about it, they’ve thought about it. But, they’re damn sure not going to lay out any hint as to what they’re planning or even acknowledge they’re planning for a potential crisis to an international public that may be the very people they’ll need to sort out, people returning home versus people wanting to join forces. They are, after all, internationally renowned for common sense.

Sooooo... we have to equip our receivers with big rubber buckets and get them to stand still during the plays?

Truth is, time stalks us all, and as we age, we are not only more susceptible to injury, we take longer to heal.

Americans are much more Catholic in their hatred- they hate blacks, browns, Asians, progressives, gays, transgendereds, environmentalists, uppity women and civil servants to name but a few.

Rep. Paul Gosar Spreads Lie About Texas Shooter In Hateful Since-Deleted Tweet Extremist Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Arizona) deleted a disturbing and offensive tweet Tuesday that falsely claimed the gunman who killed more than 20 people at a Texas school was a “transsexual leftist illegal alien.” The lawmaker wrote the message in response to a Twitter user who wondered if the shooter was a member of the far-right, “the kind of trash that” Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Gosar “travel to speak to?” before deleting their tweet.

Yes, but that is ignored because it does not fit with the American myth.

It is a cultural/attitudinal problem that began with the American revolution when the country was born in violence. The colonists were afraid, rightly or wrongly, of a British re-invasion and encouraged all male adults to have firearms and be prepared to use them on short notice. There is good evidence that the colonists were more afraid of losing their slaves than unfair taxation, and that attitude warped public attitudes. The framers of the American constitution placed the primacy of the individual over the common good and when you mix those two values along with a multitude of firearms, it leads to the Munroe Doctrine and Manifest Destiny. Americans are driven by fear of each other and a mythological government overreach. The gun culture is extolled in the male supremacy myth and "might makes right" thinking. They are not "all in this together"- they see themselves as being in a zero-sum game. In order for one to gain, someone or everyone else must lose. If you as an American feel aggrieved, you have the God-given right to avenge yourself by whatever means you choose.

Just another day in America. The Democrats will wring their hands and propose restrictions on firearms in the full knowledge that the NRA and the GOP will stymie any and all restrictions. The GOP and NRA will not disappoint, and adults and children will continue to die. The NRA and GOP will fatten their wallets and clutch at any reason, real or imagined to try to blame Biden, the Democrats, progressives, atheists, fake global warming, immigrants and anyone else their diseased minds can fantasize about. Another step towards the looming American apocalypse.

Who dis?

Southern Baptist scandal: It's no coincidence that anti-abortion churches protect sexual abusers- As with the Catholic church scandal, what ties sexual abuse to anti-choice activism is a belief in male supremacy "Shocking." That's the word being bandied about in both news coverage and social media reactions to a nearly 300-page report released on Sunday that details both extensive sexual abuse within the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) and a thorough effort to cover it up by the denomination's leadership. As Christianity Today bluntly noted, the convention had "a secret list of more than 700 abusive pastors," but "chose to protect the denomination from lawsuits" rather than the victims or potential future victims in the pews. Instead, protecting predators became the norm, and victims of abuse were frequently blamed. One victim, whose abuse started when she was 14, "was forced to apologize in front of the church," but forbidden to name the pastor who had forcibly impregnated her. The situation is, indeed, horrific. It's a minor miracle that this report even happened. Activists have been clamoring for it, but have faced a massive institutional resistance from the leadership of America's largest single Protestant denomination. One cannot help but marvel at the nerve of some Southern Baptist leaders who engaged in the coverup. SBC general counsel Augie Boto, for instance, responded to victims and their allies by accusing them of being part of "a satanic scheme to completely distract us from evangelism." Boto even appeared as a character witness for a Nashville gymnastics coach who was convicted on charges of molesting a 10-year-old girl. But for feminists, none of this is shocking in the slightest. It lacks the element of surprise that the word implies. Not just because this whole situation is a retread of the sex scandals in the Roman Catholic Church, right down to the pattern of reassigning predatory pastors to new churches where they can begin abusing a fresh group of unsuspecting congregants. Like the Catholic Church, the SBC is one of the most virulently anti-choice religious groups in the country. Opposition to reproductive rights and tolerance for sexual abuse go together like peanut butter and jelly. The common thread linking the two, of course, is male supremacy, or, to use an old-fashioned feminist term, patriarchy. As Laurie Penny writes in her new book "Sexual Revolution: Modern Fascism and the Feminist Fightback," it's a culture that's "comfortable letting men get away with sexual violence but determined not to let women get away with consensual sex." Indeed, to say "comfortable" might be an understatement. Sexual violence and anti-choice ideology are rooted in the same tendency to see women (and often children) as objects to be used and discarded by men, who have no rights or autonomy of their own worth respecting. https://www.salon.com/2022/05/23/southern-baptist-scandal-its-no-coincidence-that-anti-abortion-churches-protect-abusers/

Now you know....

No Mercy for the Bombers today.

Not sure what Glen is smoking these days.

The UCP has every reason to squelch any investigation into their internal workings. They have a lot of excrement on their faces from all of the disastrous Kenny administration actions which looked an awful lot like they were setting policy by reading goat entrails. I'm not sure how much lower they can sink in the polls and in the eyes of Albertans, but they seem determined to find out.

It's been a tough couple of years ending in a long, cold and snowy winter and delayed spring. I cannot express how much I have been looking forward to the CFL season as a significant step towards normalcy. CFL teams are not awash with money and from my admittedly quick perusal of the agreement, it seemed to be fair. Neither side was wildly happy about it, which usually means it was a good compromise.