Tracker

Now, who could have possibly been able to see that coming?

'No doubt' Canada now in 4th wave of COVID-19 as cases spike across much of the country There is growing concern about a fourth wave of COVID-19 as cases start to climb again across much of Canada, with the increase being overwhelmingly driven by unvaccinated people in western provinces. With COVID-19 cases rising in multiple provinces after a summer lull, more signs point to Canada entering an expected fourth wave of the pandemic — one which could be dramatically different from earlier surges, thanks to rising vaccination rates, but not entirely pain-free. The country's seven-day average for new daily cases is now close to 1,300 — an increase of nearly 60 per cent over the previous week, with cases ticking back up mainly in B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario and Quebec. "We're absolutely in the fourth wave," said Dr. Peter Juni, who is the scientific director of Ontario's COVID-19 Science Advisory Table. "There's no doubt about that." But unlike previous waves, which overwhelmed various hospital systems and led to catastrophic death in long-term care facilities, there is hope this spike won't be quite so dire. High vaccination uptake across the country has changed the game: Roughly 60 per cent of Canadians are now fully vaccinated, and research continues to show leading vaccines offer high levels of protection from serious illness, even against the fast-spreading delta variant. "We can effectively have more cases in our population without having as severe an impact on our health-care system," explained Ashleigh Tuite, an epidemiologist with the University of Toronto's Dalla Lana School of Public Health. "But that doesn't mean that we're out of the woods." Multiple experts who spoke to CBC News stressed the need to keep precautions like mask-wearing in place to avoid the worst of what this wave could bring, while also striving to ensure as many Canadians as possible get their shots. "The point is we can't go back to normal," said Juni. "Because we continue to have a challenge with the large proportion of people who remain unvaccinated." (You may notice that he did not use the word "idiots" instead of "people".)

.......and beyond.....

Lawsuit says OAN touted a 'mathematician' to call the election rigged — but he's really a swing set installer One week after Joe Biden was sworn in as President One America News (OAN) aired a segment featuring a man they introduced as an "expert mathematician" who claimed to have uncovered evidence of election rigging and that Donald Trump actually won re-election. That man, according to a lawsuit filed by Dominion Voting Systems Tuesday against the far right wing media outlet, is not an expert mathematician, but a swing set installer and convicted drug dealer. Back on January 27 OAN hosted Ed Solomon, "who claimed to have found evidence within precinct-level reporting that the election was rigged by an algorithm," VICE reports. "The basis of Solomon's claim is that he found several precincts throughout the country reporting exactly the same results at various times throughout the vote tabulation process." OAN host Christina Bobb asked Solomon what the statistical probability of such an occurrence might be. "You can use the binomial probability formula, and the chance of that event happening is one over ten to an exponent so large there's not enough stars in the universe—there's not enough atoms in the universe to explain the number. It can't happen naturally," Solomon replied. Lawsuit says OAN touted a 'mathematician' to call the election rigged — but he's really a swing set installer - Alternet.org

It may be time for God to hit the "reset" button. It's apparently happened before, and will probably happen again.

You don't put all your cards on the table until the hand is called.

Not that difficult to fix, but it would require time, patience and money.

And they have managed to convince Ashton Kucher, Mia Kunis and Jake Gyulenhal to follow their personal hygiene rules.

MyPillow Guy Frantically Vows to ‘Stay Up Here’ for 72 Hours Straight: ‘There’s No Breaks!’ Trump-boosting pillow magnate Mike Lindell erupted on Tuesday over the mere mention of a lunch break during the opening hours of his three-day “cyber symposium” on supposed election fraud, yelling that there are “no breaks” and vowing to stay up on stage for “72 hours.” Moments later, however, the MyPillow CEO shuffled off, ceding the stage to one of his purported cyber experts. It was merely one of several head-scratching and cringeworthy moments that occurred during the early portion of the MAGA fantasy camp. Lindell has relentlessly pushed baseless claims that voting machines stole the election from former President Donald Trump, and he has spent the past few weeks promoting the symposium as a world-changing event that would finally reveal irrefutable proof of a rigged 2020 presidential vote. (Lindell, of course, has made similar claims about his election fraud “documentaries” that never provided any actual evidence of corrupt voting machines or widespread voter fraud.) The pillow mogul’s campaign to gain attention for his South Dakota-based event included a disastrous CNN interview, in which reporter Drew Griffin debunked Lindell’s claims and called his evidence “proof of nothing.” At one point, the reporter told Lindell he may be the “victim of a scam.” Furthermore, an enraged Lindell pulled all of his ads from Fox News—where he spent $50 million on commercials last year—because the right-leaning network wouldn’t run a promo for his symposium. Ready to show the world that Trump should still be president (he has previously said the Supreme Court would vote 9-0 to reinstate Trump after viewing his “data packages”), Lindell’s event got off to an inevitably rocky start on Tuesday morning: Despite a billed kickoff at 9 a.m. local time, Lindell claimed his website was “hacked,” causing the event’s livestream to be delayed. While struggling to get the event online (it was also aired live on fringe pro-Trump channel One America News) Lindell raged against voting software company Dominion, who had just filed defamation lawsuits against OAN and Newsmax for peddling bogus election fraud claims about the firm’s machines. “Guess what? After today, you better melt down those machines and use them for prison bars,” shouted Lindell, who has also been sued by Dominion. “And if you're out there now, you should turn yourself in!” Former Trump chief strategist Steve Bannon—whose War Room Pandemic podcast broadcasted live from the symposium—also suggested Dominion’s lawsuit was filed in order to “kneecap” OAN and Newsmax and intimidate them from airing the event. “Look, there’s no conspiracy. We’re not conspiracists but there’s no coincidences,” he said. Finally, after the symposium officially got underway, Lindell spent much of his time raging against not just the usual media targets, including reporters from this very outlet, but also Fox News. “Shame on you, Fox! They’re disgusting that they haven’t talked about this election!” Lindell exclaimed. “At least we know where CNN and all these terrible outlets come from, but at least they attack, and then we can at least get the word out!” At one point, while seated at a center-stage table with his so-called experts, Lindell was informed that the event was about to break for a pre-planned lunch, prompting the MyPillow boss to blow up. “So we’re not going on a break. Put up that movie again. Run that movie again. There’s no breaks,” he huffed. “We’re streaming 72 hours! Live-streaming, around the world. This never stops!” He continued, gesturing towards the crowd: “You guys can go eat. That’s fine, but I ain’t eating! I’m staying up here for 72 hours before they ruin our signal!” When an announcer told the audience that “lunch is now available in the back hallway,” Lindell once again demanded that a movie be aired, adding that a featured guest would be giving a presentation. Yet, despite his promise to “stay up here for 72 hours,” Lindell left the stage a few minutes later. MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell Vows to ‘Stay Up Here’ for 72 Hours Straight, Says There’s No Breaks!’ (thedailybeast.com)

This had been predicter for some time. Pallister could only pretend to be competent for so long and now he will take the bullet while the rest of the PCs hope that the smell will leave with him. No doubt there is a golden parachute waiting for him.

Follow the money: It sure looks as if Jan. 6 was planned and funded by oligarchs in the shadows Donald Trump and his allies and followers were involved in a conspiracy against American democracy, the Constitution, the general welfare and the rule of law. Trump may have been president by title, but not in spirit or through his actions. At almost every opportunity he betrayed the presidential oath and worked to undermine the United States and its interests. The examples are legion: Trump was elected with the help of a hostile foreign power and appeared to do its leader's bidding throughout his presidency. Trump engaged in acts of democide against the American people through sabotage and willful neglect in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Trump is directly and indirectly responsible for the deaths of more than 600,000 people in America. He was impeached twice — something unprecedented in American history — for crimes against democracy and the Constitution. Donald Trump was grossly corrupt as president, using the office to enrich himself, his family and his political allies. Trump and his regime debased America's democracy and political culture, elevating neofascism and white supremacy in an attempt to create a new form of apartheid. The damage Trumpism caused to American society has created a full-blown political and social crisis. Matters are so dire that many observers, including President Biden, have described the Age of Trump and beyond as the greatest threat to American democracy since the Civil War. Of course there were also the events of Jan. 6, with Donald Trump's coup attempt and his followers' lethal attack on the Capitol. What new information have we learned? Trump's coup attempt came much closer to succeeding than was known even several weeks ago. The coup attempt was not "amateurish" or a joke. Trump and his allies' attempts to overthrow American democracy were entirely in earnest. Trump's followers who overran the Capitol should not be described as a "mob." At least some of them were organized, dedicated and well-financed, as well as zealously loyal. The danger that Trump would invoke martial law and declare himself president for life after his defeat by Joe Biden was so great that the country's senior military leaders were preparing to stop him. Last week it was revealed that Jeffrey Clark, a Trump loyalist within the Justice Department, attempted to pressure acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen to declare that there were "irregularities" in the votes in key battleground states such as Georgia, where Trump had narrowly lost to Biden. On CNN's "State of the Union" last weekend, Sen. **** Durbin, D-Ill., who chairs the Judiciary Committee, said that testimony from Rosen and another Justice Department official had "lifted the lid on 'frightening' maneuverings at the department after November's election." Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., told CNN's Manu Raju he was struck by "how close the country came to total catastrophe" in the last days of Trump's presidency. According to CNN, Clark "drafted a letter that he asked Rosen to send to Georgia state legislators to say they should convene to examine irregularities in the election." The New York Times has reported that Clark's letter suggested the Georgia legislature should void Biden's victory in the state, while falsely claiming the Justice Department was investigating allegations of fraud. Follow the money: It sure looks as if Jan. 6 was planned and funded by oligarchs in the shadows - Alternet.org

McKnight looked to have all kinds of potential. As bad as it is to lose a starter, sometimes a star emerges.

I think it has become far more generalized than that- they are so rigid in their ideations that they will eagerly accept anything, no matter how outrageous or stupid, so long as it confirms their belief system.

Andrew Cuomo Announces He’ll ‘Step Aside’ Because ‘I Love New York’ MSNBC Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo finally announced his resignation on Tuesday amid a spiraling sexual-harassment scandal. After initially resisting calls for him to quit following New York State Attorney General Letitia James’ devastating report last week detailing 11 instances of sexual misconduct, Cuomo claimed he was leaving his post in order to save New Yorkers a long and ugly political fight. “New York tough means New York loving. And I love New York. And I love you. And everything I have ever done has been motivated by that love,” Cuomo said, while insisting he believed he’d never “crossed the line with anyone” sexually. “I think that, given the circumstances, the best way I can help now is if I step aside and let government get back to governing, and therefore, that’s what I’ll do,” he added, saying that his resignation would be effective in 14 days. He went on to say Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul would take over, making her the first female governor in New York state history.

Russian Trolls Spread Wild Lie That COVID Vax Turns People Into Chimps. A Russian marketing firm used “Planet of the Apes” memes to try and discredit Western-made COVID-19 vaccines. Russian trolls have been using Planet of the Apes memes in a vain attempt to convince vaccine skeptics that the AstraZeneca vaccine will turn them into chimpanzees. That’s the conclusion of a new report from Facebook, which found that a Russian marketing agency subsidiary, Fazze, operated dozens of fake Facebook and Instagram accounts as part of disinformation campaign targeting western-made vaccines. The report builds off previous reporting on the same network by The Daily Beast. Facebook officials said they found 65 Facebook accounts and 243 Instagram accounts linked to the effort, which targeted users in India, Latin America, and the United States. Fazze timed its disinformation campaigns to coincide with periods when regulatory authorities in various countries were considering expedited approval for Western vaccines, according to Facebook. The first wave of the company’s disinformation campaign began in late 2020 and targeted the AstraZeneca vaccine and its use in India. Fazze troll accounts harvested from account farms in Bangladesh and Pakistan pivoted off the fact that the AstraZeneca vaccine uses a harmless virus found in chimpanzees to claim that the jab would turn recipients into chimps themselves. The trolls took screenshots from the 1960s sci-fi classic Planet of the Apes showing ape guards manhandling Charlton Heston, captioned with “AstraZeneca's vaccine is safe! Yesterday we took the vaccine ourselves.” As part of their campaign, trolls linked out to Change.org petitions which tried to anchor the wild claims about chimpanzee transformation to out-of-context quotes from AstraZeneca company officials reported in legitimate news outlets. The disinformation campaign “fell flat and it gained almost no traction across the internet," Ben Nimmo, Facebook’s global information operations threat intelligence chief, told reporters. The top performing post by Fazze’s network garnered only five likes and attracted ridicule from fellow Facebook users who heckled sock puppets with epithets like “google expert.” The campaign was also “spammy and sloppy,” according to Nimmo, blasting hundreds of automated posts out and leading operators to mix Portuguese-language hashtags intended for Brazilian audiences on top of Hindi-language memes aimed at India. Russian Trolls Spread Wild Lie That COVID Vax Turns People Into Chimps (thedailybeast.com) (For many Republicans and right-wingers, this would be redundant)

I was not impressed by Bailey during the last game. He is gonna have to do a lot better to stay around.

The gun violence in the US rose by some 50% during the Trump regime and has escalated again during the COVID crisis. Houston must feel relieved to have his wife and kids here and safe. winnipeg is not perfect but, thank God, we do not to fear this sort of thing every day like many Americans.

There's a real election security breach case — focused on a Trump-loving county clerk's office: report Writing for The Bulwark this Monday, Tim Miller says that there's finally a credible investigation into voting machine tampering, and it's not being initiated by Donald Trump's allies. Miller cited a recent report from The Daily Sentinel, detailing how the Mesa County Clerk and Recorder's Office in Colorado is under investigation by the Secretary of State's Office over a "breach in security" in its election system. "Secretary of State Jena Griswold released an order at 10:15 a.m. today calling on Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters to supply surveillance videos and documents showing how the breach occurred, and how security information ended up on a social media post," the Sentinel reports. "If Peters can't show proper chain of custody for that security information, which involves certain passwords that are eyes-only for state and county election workers who have passed background checks, all of the county's election systems could be immediately decertified, meaning the county would be on the hook for an expensive refit of all of its machines." As Miller points out, Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters is fervent Trump supporter "who appears to have executed a self-own of historic proportion." Last week, QAnon conspiracists shared a video claiming a "whistleblower" provided alleged evidence that Dominion voting machines are connected to the internet -- a claim that is a necessary element for voter fraud conspiracy theories. In the video, the alleged whistleblower included an image of their election system's BIOS password, and in doing so "they stepped on a pretty large rake – because the password in the video was unique, which allowed the Colorado Secretary of State's office to identify which county the leak came from and during which meeting it was recorded," Miller writes. "It turns out the election hacker was not Antifa or a Hugo Chavez apparition but a real live human in the office of Mesa County Clerk and Recorder Tina Peters," writes Miller. There's a real election security breach case — focused on a Trump-loving county clerk's office: report - Alternet.org

He ought to be able to learn when to drop back and when to make palys with his legs.

Five syllables here. Seven more syllables here. Are you happy now?

If Reilly, Bo-Levi and Nichols are all gibbled up, this is bad news for their respective fans as well as the CFL. Gonna be some hard to watch games.

Which came first- the chicken or the egg?