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The whole point of budding dictators is to get the voters to believe that the whole system is corrupt- both sides and that their vote does not matter. This makes the transition to fascism almost seamless. Democracy is more fragile than most believe.

This will make no difference in the opinions of antivaxxers but.....

The provincial PCs seem to think that Manitobans are mushrooms- they feed us bullshit, keep us in the dark and expect us to thrive.

That the Supreme Court can deliberate in secret on their "Shadow docket" and issue rulings without public scrutiny or debate illustrates how screwed up the American "justice" system is.

There are good reasons for not vaccinating their workers: it costs money, they would have to take time away from work to be jabbed and, last but not least, they are easily replaceable.

And in other US-politic related news, the nutbar segment of the GOP is attacking Disney for opposing Florida's "Don't say gay" policies, as well as attacking Oreo for displaying diversity in advertising, and apparently the current nominee for the SCOTUS for being (in their eyes) pro-pedophilia. Crazier and crazier.

Unfortunately, media is now driven, not by rational wishes of most viewers to hear reasoned, truthful reports supported by facts and science, but by competing for viewers who will not only watch, but also support extreme beliefs by buying the advertised products. It seems to be a direct parallel to evangelical parishioners who not only flock to the newest, sexiest church which is loudly proclaiming old wine in new bottles but will support these financially to the point where they will take our loans, In this way, these followers exert a disproportionate influence on both society and policy.

Former Teen Idol Bobby Rydell Dies At 79 Bobby Rydell, one of the biggest teen idols in the pre-Beatles era of rock ‘n’ roll, has died just weeks before his 80th birthday. Rydell, whose most famous songs include “Volare,” “Swinging School,” and “Wild One,” died Tuesday, according to numerous outlets. The cause of death was pneumonia, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. Rydell’s wife, Linda Hoffman, was by his side at Jefferson Hospital when he died. Born Robert Louis Ridarelli, Rydell took to music at a young age and was performing in nightclubs in the Philly/South Jersey area when he was 7, according to Variety. The singer's hits included “Volare,” “Swinging School,” and “Wild One," and he inspired the name of the high school in "Grease." After changing his name, Rydell tried to make it in show business as a singer and drummer. One of his early bands, Rocco and the Saints, featured another future teen idol, Frankie Avalon, on trumpet.

No matter how often it is repeated or by how many, BS is BS.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene Condemned For One Of Her Vilest Tweets Yet The extremist Republican's attack on three colleagues was beyond the pale to many critics on Twitter. Conspiracy theory-endorsing Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) faced fierce backlash on Monday for a vile attack on three fellow Republicans. Greene used her congressional account to tweet the baseless accusation that GOP Sens. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Susan Collins (Maine) and Mitt Romney (Utah) are “pro-pedophile” because they said will vote to confirm Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court. During Jackson’s Senate confirmation hearings, GOP lawmakers falsely accused Brown of being lenient in cases involving photos of child sexual abuse. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/marjorie-taylor-greene-republicans-vile-tweet_n_624bf8e4e4b0d8266ab091dd

(The Troglodytes are in power in Oklahoma) Oklahoma House Sends Aggressive Abortion Ban To Governor OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — The Oklahoma House gave final legislative approval on Tuesday to a bill that would make performing an abortion a felony, punishable by up to 10 years in prison. With little discussion and no debate, the Republican-controlled House voted 70-14 to send the bill to Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt, who has previously said he’d sign any anti-abortion bill that comes to his desk. The bill is one of several anti-abortion measures still alive in Oklahoma’s Legislature this year, part of a trend of GOP-led states passing aggressive anti-abortion legislation as the conservative U.S. Supreme Court is considering ratcheting back abortion rights that have been in place for nearly 50 years. The Oklahoma bill, which passed the Senate last year, makes an exception only for an abortion performed to save the life of the mother, said GOP state Rep. Jim Olsen, of Roland, who sponsored the bill. Under the bill, a person convicted of performing an abortion would face up to 10 years in prison and a $100,000 fine. “The penalties are for the doctor, not for the woman,” Olsen said. Similar anti-abortion bills approved by the Oklahoma Legislature in recent years have been stopped by the courts as unconstitutional.

One of these times, they are gonna succeed in screwing up the oldest football league in the world. At that point, I'm done with the CFL.

And Gaetz should stay away from hookers, particularly underage ones.

As regards the allegations against Hillary Clinton, the sheer number of investigations by the GOP-dominated Congress (I believe 9 in all) turned up zero evidence that she had done anything wrong apart from poor judgement regarding her use of non-government cellphones and emails. But as the propaganda officer of Nazi Germany said, if you repeat a lie often enough and loudly enough, people will start to believe it, and the sexist bias against her was and is staggering- really pathological.

Sinclair Lewis is quoted as saying," When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross"

Top Florida faith adviser dismissed after sexual assault history revealed A member of the Florida Governor’s Faith and Community-Based Initiative was recently dismissed from his role as a deacon of Clearwater’s Calvary Church after it was revealed he had a history of sexual misconduct when he was a teacher. Rev. Willy Rice told his congregation in a video that the deacon was stepping down over a past that involved “sexual sin that could also be described as abusive,” Religion News Service reports. “It did not involve criminal charges, and he has never been identified by law as a sexual offender,” Rice also said. “Religion News Service has confirmed that the former deacon is Jeff Ford, the executive director of Man Up and Go, a Christian nonprofit in the U.S. and overseas whose Authentic Masculinity Program ‘teaches men how to be protectors of and providers for their families,’ according to the biography of Ford posted on the website of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. According to that website, Ford is a member of the state’s Faith-Based and Community-Based Advisory Council.” In 2005, the Tampa Bay Times newspaper reported that Jeffrey Charles Ford, a 27-year-old coach and teacher at J.W. Mitchell High School, resigned after admitting to having sex with an 18-year-old student. Ford’s bio on the Florida Governor’s website calls Man Up and Go “a global non-profit organization that inspires men to fight for the fatherless as Jesus commands. The organization aims to break the cycle of generational fatherlessness,” and operates “in Uganda, Ethiopia, and the Dominican Republic.” https://www.alternet.org/2022/04/top-florida-faith-adviser-dismissed/

These people are smart enough to demand and get a seven-figure retainer in advance.

The lesser of two weasels?

Garland's reputation is that he is brilliant, but methodical and Trump is a very big fish that he is trying to land. Trump will have the best lawyers that money can buy, so the case against him has to be airtight. Moreover, having Trump and his abettors in the docket just before and during the pending mid-term elections would not harm the Democrats' election chances at all. It ought to be quite a spectacle.

(This Doesn't quite fit here, but interesting nonetheless) More than half of all American waterways are 'impaired by pollution': study A recent study commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Clean Water Act’s passage shows exactly how the U.S. is failing its commitment to eliminating pollution in the country’s navigable waterways, defined by the EPA as “the waters of the United States, including the territorial seas.” The report by the nonprofit Environmental Integrity Project, titled “The Clean Water Act: Promises Half Kept at the Half-Century Mark,” delves into the millions of miles of rivers, streams, and creeks; millions of acres of lakes, ponds, and reservoirs; and thousands of square miles of bays, estuaries, and harbors that have been assessed based on the most recent Integrated Waters Report submitted to the EPA. Much of these waters are considered “impaired with pollution,” which means they fail “to meet standards for swimming and recreation, aquatic life, fish consumption, or as drinking water sources.” Of the 1,426,619 miles of rivers, streams, and creeks that have been assessed, 725,856 miles are considered impaired with pollution, accounting for 51%. More than half of the 20,432,238 acres of lakes, ponds, and reservoirs assessed similarly are considered impaired with pollution. Bays, estuaries, and harbors fared better, with about a quarter of the 76,555 square miles assessed considered impaired with pollution.

Putin Was Incensed Russian Troops Weren't Welcomed With Flowers In Ukraine, Says Oligarch. He went "insane," said Mikhail Khodorkovsky, one-time CEO of Russian oil giant Yukos. Russian President Vladimir Putin was so out of touch with reality when he launched the Ukraine invasion that he was incensed his troops weren’t welcomed with flowers, an exiled Russian oligarch revealed Sunday. “At first he wanted to change the power in Kyiv ... and was expecting that this would be met with flowers thrown in the streets by Ukrainian people,” Mikhail Khodorkovsky, onetime CEO of Russian oil giant Yukos, said on CNN. But when Ukrainians fought back as the invasion was launched, Putin went “insane,” said Khodorkovsky, an outspoken Putin critic who spent nine years in a Russian prison. “The fact that the people in Kharkiv [also failed to] meet him with flowers, it not only just angered him, I really think it drove him literally insane. That’s when he started bombing Kharkiv and Kyiv,” Khodorkovsky said. Former Russian Deputy Energy Minister Vladimir Milov told CNN on Saturday that the surprising war in Ukraine has “devastated” top officials in the Kremlin and that many “Russian elites” may lose faith in Putin. That’s risky for Putin, who could be forced from power in a matter of months, he warned. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/mikhail-khodorkovsky-putin-ukraine-troop-flowers_n_624a29c5e4b0587dee6aff1f