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BFF No More
Interesting image above of a lively looking Mark Carney, and Donald Trump on the verge of falling asleep
That US and Canada have been best friends forever it seemed. I remember when I was a kid, Canadians had a bit of a jealousy complex, over the US. They were what we wanted to be. This was the time of Kennedy and Pearson, and later on Ronald Reagan and Brian Mulrooney singing Irish eyes together.
Things have changed, dramatically in the last 15 or so months. We here in Canada are seeking and making trade agreements with many other countries so that we could be less dependent on US trade. Trump has consistently threatened us, saying that we should be the 51st state. Depending on what happens here in Alberta on the referendum, a portion of Canada could end up being a 51st state
It’s not that we dislike America, because I’m sure most of us have American friends. But we do not like how America’s being run, and the direction it is taking under the current Republican president house and Senate, especially the Republican president, that being Donald Trump
Many years ago, I was at a health conference in Winnipeg. The keynote speaker was Rex Murphy. He was talking about our universal healthcare system. He pointed out how our system reflected our Canadian mentality of ‘ having your back’. The US, under Trump, seems to idolize individuality over community.
One day, Canada and US will probably have a better relationship than what it is currently now. But it will never, ever, be like it was before.
That’s all I have for today.
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Slap In The Face
A couple of weeks ago, Donald Trump stated that he would be suing his IRS for $10 billion due to the release of tax information. For most people that was a bridge too far. Another thing to hurt his party in the November midterms
Would Donald come to his senses? He just announced that he would be dropping that lawsuit. Rather, he is asking for $1.73 billion to be allocated to those people who were wronged and unfairly targeted by the Biden administration.
Now here comes the crazy part. These people would include the January 6 rioters. Including those people who crapped on the floor of the Capitol, who erected a gallows on the front lawn, chanting ‘ hang Mike Pence’, who injured 140 police officers, who wrecked the Capitol and who forced over 400 house members and 100 Senate members to go into hiding, in fear of their lives.
If this does not make your stomach turn, nothing will. I honestly do not have anything to add to that other than this is not gonna help the Republicans in the November midterms.
That’s all I have for today.
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Much Ado But
Trump and XI just concluded their two days of meetings. While both sides expressed friendship and a need to establish and maintain good relations, not much else came out of these meetings.
Trump said that China would no longer send armaments to Iran, but would not do much more than that. Trump gave a pressor on Air Force
One, when the plane left China. He again reiterated somewhat angrily after being challenged by the press that Iran has been destroyed military and that the US is blocking the strait. This is kind of a case of locking the barn door with the horses still in the barn and a fire going on in the barn. Bottom line is the strait is still closed and gas prices are gonna continue going up.
Trump announced that discussions were held on trade and agreements will be coming up, but nothing more than that other than an agreement for China to purchase a number of Boeing planes.
China did threaten the US on the handling of Taiwan, saying that conflict could occur if the handling was done in the wrong way. America had agreed to sell billions of dollars of weapons to Taiwan. When Trump was asked whether that sale would go through, Trump said he has not decided.
It would be unfair to say that Trump is coming home with his tail between his legs. But it is true to say that his strong man image has taken another blow.
That’s all I have for today.
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What Now Danielle?
Things are rapidly heating up in my part of the world right now. At least something is heating up because it’s freezing cold out here.
An Alberta court judge made two decisions yesterday putting the entire separatist referendum question in limbo. The first decision overturned Elections Alberta’s decision to approve the separatist petition revolving around the question. The judge also determined that Elections Alberta failed to take into account an earlier judicial decision that separation would violate indigenous treaty rights.
Danielle Smith immediately responded saying that the judge’s decision was incorrect and anti-democratic. She added,
We think that today’s decision by the court will deny opportunity to well over 300,000 Albertans to have their petition verified by Elections Alberta.”
Danielle, you seem to forget that the forever Canadian group got over 460,000 signatures on a question asking whether Alberta should stay in Canada..
Allan Adam, chief of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation, challenged Smith
“If you want to show true leadership, you want to show grit, here’s an opportunity for Premier Smith and Canada, along with the First Nations, to sit down and start building this country and start developing some of the resources.”
Mitch Sylvestre, leader of the Stay Free Alberta, separatist group, believes that Smith has no choice, but to have the referendum
“I honestly believe that she will give us the vote and I really don’t believe that any government in her position could do anything else.”
We are in mid May. Even though it’s quite cold out here right now it is predicted to be a hot summer weatherwise. Things are also heating up on the separation question. There’s going to be a lot of inflammatory rhetoric floating about over the next few months, mostly from the separatist side and unfortunately by Danielle Smith and her own UCP party.
Albertans, who want to stay in Canada, and whether Danielle likes it or not, represent the majority of Albertans, want Mark Carney and his team Canada teammates to start getting involved now. They want to strike back at all the misinformation being spread by the separatists. However, it might be wise to still lay back a bit and watch the separatists go down in flames due to unforced errors like the leaking of voters information.
That’s all I have for today.
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Who Will Lead Way
Mark, Mr. Carney, sir, I guess you have been hearing what’s been going on, in Alberta. There’s some kind of separatist thingy going on. If things go Danielle Smith’s way, there will be a question, developed by the separatists, that will be put up to a referendum vote later this year.
Now this is all screwed up. Because the forever Canadian group developed their own question, got a lot more signatures than the separatist group, only to have that question languish in the Alberta legislature. Even more bizarre is that these separatists, got a hold of confidential information of 2.9 million Alberta voters and leaked that information out to the public.
Things are getting dirty out here Mark and we need you to put on your Captain Canada hat just like the federalist did back in the Quebec referendum days.
Mark, we Canada first Albertans realize that you cannot do this by yourself. Who are you going to get to help you? I guess it won’t be the Bloc Québécois. That would be kind of ironic. How about Pierre Poilievre? Then again, maybe not. He probably would hurt the cause. I don’t even know who the NDP leader is so…
I’m sure you could get some of the provincial leaders to help. Doug Ford, Wab Kinew, and David Eby.
You know, Mark, I bet you even Jason Kenney would give a helping hand. He got burnt by the separatists, if you don’t know. They leaked out his confidential information. That would be a kick in the pants to Danielle Smith. A former UCP premier fighting on behalf of Canada. That would be wild. Also, of course, Alberta First Nations, will be there to help you out. They believe this whole separation thing is illegal to begin with.
So, Mark, I know you got a lot of things on your plate right now like getting Canada less dependent on the US and it’s lunatic president, and all. But this is kind of a biggie too.
That’s all I have for today.
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Which One Is It?
Art Buchwald was a humorist who had columns in over 500 newspapers back in his heyday. He also wrote a number books. A short story in one of those books was about a kindergarten class in the Soviet Union in the 1960s. The kids were being taught that the premier of the USSR was a great person. He was good. He was fantastic. Then the teacher was called to the door by the principal, and was told that the premier had died and had been replaced by new premier
She went back to her class and asked whether the former premier wasgood or bad. The kids all replied that he was great he was fantastic. And the teacher sternly told them that the former premier was bad and evil to the state
There’s a bit of that happening now these days. Do you remember when MTG was, to liberals, one of the most hated women in the world. Then all of a sudden she’s one of the most loved. Now the same thing seems to be happening with Jason Kenney, the former premier of Alberta. Liberals could not stand him. And now he’s doing a Captain Canada routine. He is urging federalists to get involved in the separation push in Alberta.
“Federalists need to start kicking it into gear here. I think we’ve allowed the separatists to almost completely dominate the debate on the process for the past year.”
“A large number of Albertans have concluded this is an opportunity to send a message to get leverage — to replicate Quebec’s knife to the throat strategy, and I say to them be careful for what you ask for.”
Liberals are also feeling sympathetic towards Kenney, after he was victimized by the Centurion project with his confidential information being leaked out
What is going on here? MTG and now Jason Kinney seen as the good guys? Who next? Donald Trump and Pierre Poilievre? I don’t know if my left leaning heart could handle that.
That’s all I have for today.
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Closed
Well, this is another fine mess you’ve gotten us into Donald. Iran came back with its response to your peace proposal, and it was not to your liking at all.
So here we are, more than 60 days into this, let’s call it what it is, war and the Strait it’s still closed. Oil prices are skyrocketing again. The Dow Jones is doing its own thing. I think the Dow is like you and is in denial. We are not even basically at the same place we were when you started this thing. The regime in Iran is even more hardline than the one you eliminated on the first day of this war. And the Strait is closed.
You’re heading to China tomorrow and like the old Lucy show ‘ you got a lot of splaining to do’, when you get there.
You really don’t know what to do, do you Donald? You don’t really want to attack Iran because that’s gonna get you deeper into this. And questions have to be raised as to how much military hardware you used and how much you have left. Is it possible you don’t have enough military hardware to sustain an attack on Iran? Inquisitive minds want to know.
Donald, what have you done? Not much will be happening this week because you’ll be in China. Gas prices will get closer to that five dollar mark. Your popularity will sink even lower. It sucks to be you, today, Donald. It really does.
That is all I have for today.
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Iran Responds
Last week, I did a chirp about Trump sending the US’ latest peace proposal to Iran. A 14 point one page MOU. The administration stated that they expected a response to the proposal at any time. That was Thursday. Then Friday. No response. Then Saturday. No response. Trump squirming.
Media are now reporting that Iran has provided its response. Details of the response, as of early Sunday morning, are still not known.
I’m not a betting person, but I will wager that come tomorrow, the Strait of Hormuz will still be closed and gas prices will continue with their climb up to the five dollar mark in the states
It took over 400 days for Iran to release the US Embassy hostages back in 1980. It took two years for Iran and the US to negotiate the Obama nuclear deal. Iran knows how to do this. Trump does not.
That’s all I have for today.
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Billion Dollar Boondoggle
Donald, isn’t this self glorification thing getting a bit too much? It seems you’re putting your name on everything such as the Kennedy center. How is that going by the way? You want to put up an arch in Washington, an arch very similar to the one that the Nazis put up in Berlin.
You remember when you said that you were going to build that ballroom and was all going to be privately funded? So now you’re asking for $1 billion from the taxpayers to pay for security for the freaking thing.
“Due in part to the recent assassination attempt on President Trump at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, the proposal would provide the United States Secret Service with the resources they need to fully and completely harden the White House complex, in addition to the many other critical missions for the USSS.”
Donald, even members of your own party are shaking their heads in frustration over this. You do realize there are midterms coming up in November don’t you? You do realize that this boondoggle will be an election issue, don’t you? Donald, I would suggest that you are a bit out of touch with reality.
There are more important things to focus on such as this whatever you want to call it with Iran. Gas prices are getting close to dreaded five dollar mark. There was a time when it was called the dreaded four dollar mark. Remember that? Good times, eh.
What’s that you say? You want the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool to be painted over, from gray to blue? You want it done by July 4? What is that? You gave a no bid contract to a friend and it will cost $6.9 million, for the job to be done?
Oh Donald!!!!!!
That’s all I have for today. I have a headache coming on.
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Separation Blues
The UCP and the Alberta separatist movement have been rocked back on their heels, the past few days. Thankfully, more Albertans and Canadians are taking note of this
This mess first started when the Centurion project, a separatist group, illegally accessed and displayed confidential information of nearly 3,000,000 Alberta voters, during a meeting. As per an NDP spokesman,
“This meeting provided training to volunteers on how to use the separatists’ project database that is at the centre of this data breach of three million Albertans’ electoral data.”
During the meeting, the confidential information of former UCP premier, Jason Kenney, was displayed as an example of how to use the database. It further came out that two UCP staff members, President Rob Smith, and, caucus director Arundeep Sandhu attended the meeting. Danielle Smith, when questioned on this said she was not aware of this. Definitely a bad look for her.
As a result, the RCMP is now investigating, the matter. Furthermore, Jason Kenney is in the process of initiating legal action against the Centurion project
The separatist movement recently presented to the Alberta legislature a petition with a question on separation, for referendum. The petition reportedly has 300,000 signatures. There is a rumour going around that a number of these signatures were forged based on the voting list that the Centurion project had illegally accessed
Yesterday, Elections Alberta sent cease and desist letters to 23 people who had been provided the list of Alberta voter names and a further 450 letters to people who had accessed the database. Also, Tim Hoven, a separatist activist, and a member of the Centurion project has stepped down as president of the Rocky Mountain House, and district Chamber of Commerce.
As I mentioned, the RCMP is investigating the Centurion project’s illegal access to the voting list as it is still early days. It is likely that more people will get ensnared in this scandal, including cabinet members of the UCP and perhaps Danielle Smith herself.
That’s all I have for today.
Bird's Chirp
So I don't have to put it on Facebook anymore….