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Just Like That
When Mark Carney called for three by elections earlier this week, the riding of Terrebonne, in Quebec, suddenly became ground zero. Until April 13, the day of the by elections, Terrebonne was going to be the centre of the universe. The liberals needed three seats to get a majority government. Two of the seats in the by elections are liberal safe ridings. Terrebonne would be the decider as to whether the liberals got a majority or not.
Just like that, Terrebonne is no longer relevant. In a shocker, Lori Idlout, the NDP member from Nunavut announced that she was crossing over to the liberal side of the floor. Her crossover reduces the liberal magic number for majority to two seats, which they will get on April 13.
With all that is happening in Iran right now, this is not getting the major air play that it should be getting. But Canadian history has been altered with this one move. Prior to last night’s crossover, if the liberals had lost Terrebonne, Pierre Poilievre, would have been the key player in how Parliament played out over the next few months. He could’ve blocked any liberal legislation thus either frustrating, liberals, or forcing liberals into another general election. Or at the same time he could have played along with the liberals, knowing that his popularity is at a low and that any federal election call would’ve resulted in a strong liberal majority.
As it is, once April 13 occurs, PP loses relevance. The liberals will have a majority, albeit only a one seat majority.
Since the liberals were reelected last April 28, four members of parliament have crossed over to the liberals. Three from the conservative side and one now from the NDP, two completely opposite ends of the spectrum. Mark Carney is obviously a master negotiator to have convinced four members of Parliament to come over to his side. This bodes well for Canada as he negotiates with world leaders,
That’s all I have for today.
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No Class
A number of years ago, Fox News and republican lackeys went nuts when President Barack Obama wore a tan suit to an event. How dare he do that?
When you go to a sporting event, just before the national anthem is sung, you will hear the PA announcer ask the crowd to stand up if they are able, and please remove their hats for the singing of the national anthem. Over the weekend, there was a ceremony, commemorating the return of the six US service members who had been killed during the war with Iran. As the image shows above Donald Trump was wearing a ball cap.
Fox News knew that this would start a crap storm of controversy so they switched videos to a previous ceremony a couple of years back showing a hatless Donald Trump.
Fox later apologized for this
“We regret the error and apologize for the incorrect footage.”
They claimed that a staffer used the wrong video, in error. Yeah sure.
As one news person stated,
“If any other network did this it would be a huge scandal, Fox would lead the chorus of criticisms and faux-outrage, and people would lose their jobs.”
This entire thing smells. Trump has no class whatsoever. Fox News has no class whatsoever either.
That’s all I got to say for today.
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Not Going As Planned
Remember when Donald Trump formed the board of peace. How is that going right now? Remember when Donald Trump said he would not get involved in forever wars. How is that one going right now?
Remember when Donald Trump said there is no way there would be boots on the ground in Iran? Well, he has changed his tune on that one hasn’t he?
Iran has nothing to lose right now. They are saying if they are going to pay they are going to make the rest of the world pay also. Their new supreme leader is the son of the old supreme leader. Same mentality. Same hatred of the west. The strait of Hormuz has been effectively shut down. And with it 1/3 of the world‘s oil supply has been cut down. Oil is over $100 a barrel today. As I do this chirp, the Dow Jones has fallen another 600 points and now is under 47,000. I guess Pam Bondi can’t use the Dow is at 50,000 line anymore.
What is Trump‘s goal today? It keeps changing on a daily basis. If it is regime change, bombing Iran is not going to do it. If he actually sends troops into Iran, Trump is done for. The scary part then is that Trump will be like Iran in that he has nothing to lose.
What a great way to start the week.
That’s all I have for today.
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By Elections
Mark Carney has set April 13 to be the day that three by elections will be held. Two of those elections are to replace liberal members, Chrystia Freeland and Bill Blair, who have both gone on to greener pastors. The third election is for a seat in Quebec, where the Bloc Québécois candidate had won the election. A recount was held with the liberal candidate, winning by one vote. Then it turned out that one ballot had inappropriately not been counted. Had it been counted it would have resulted in a dead heat. So a new election was called for.
Currently, the liberals are three seats, short of a majority. If they win, all three by elections, they will have a majority government. It will be a very slim majority, but it will still be a majority. Two of the seats are safe liberal seats. So it all comes down to the Quebec seat. That riding, Terrebonne, will have a lot of high profile guest appearances over the next month.
Deep down, Pierre Poilievre (PP) might be hoping that the liberals take all three seats. If the liberals fall one seat short of a majority, Mark Carney might be tempted to call a federal election to get that majority. Right now, Mark Carney is flying high in approval ratings while PP is underwater with a negative approval rating of about 15 points. A federal election at this time could result in a massive liberal majority.
The clock is ticking, with only 35 days until the by elections.
That is all I have for today.
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Time For A Change
Tonight, is the night, for most of us, where we will be losing an hour sleep. Pets across most of the country will be wondering why they are being fed an hour earlier tomorrow. Churches will be much quieter tomorrow morning with attendees still trying to wake up.
Clocks will be leaping forward one hour tonight. Meaning one hour less sleep one hour less time counting sheep.
This will all be happening in Newfoundland, as well, only a half hour later.
But provinces and many states south of us are saying enough is enough. Keep the clock at the same time all year-round. The Yukon has already done this keeping daylight savings time all year through. Saskatchewan also has the same time all year through. Though I’m not sure if that is mountain daylight time or central standard time. Or is it the other way around?
Now British Columbia has declared that they will stay on daylight time throughout the year. This means longer daylight hours in winter evenings, but later morning sunrises
Where I am, the sun sets near 11 o’clock in the summertime and rises near 9 o’clock in the morning midwinter. If we were to stay on daylight savings time all of the year through it would be dark midwinter until 10 in the morning.
There have been arguments every year since I was a little kid as to whether we should be on daylight savings time all year through or standard time all the way through the year. I think one thing we can all agree on is let’s just keep it at one time throughout the year no more clock changes.
That’s all I have for today. My chirp will probably be an hour later tomorrow. Or is that an hour earlier?
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Dog Revenge
Well, Kristi Noem is done as head of homeland security. She had such a perfect record too. Let’s see. She called with Renee Good and Alex Pretti. domestic terrorists. Those statements were blatantly false. She pretty well screwed up the ICE incursion in Minnesota. This is what democrat senator Tina Smith, of Minnesota, said about her.
“Firing Kristi Noem will not bring back Alex Pretti. It will not bring back Renee Good. It will not make Minnesota whole again after the horror and devastation wrought upon us by Operation Metro Surge.”
She single-handedly changed America’s views on the deportation of illegal immigrants.
She had a $220 million ad campaign promoting herself which got her in hot water with Donald Trump. Elizabeth Warren Democrat, senator for Massachusetts, commented,
“So let me get this straight: Trump fired Noem after she lied about spending over $200 million of taxpayer dollars on ads promoting herself. But he wouldn’t lift a finger after two Americans were killed by her federal agents?”
Noem, got a pilot fired for misplacing her blanket, when she switched planes. She allegedly had an affair with Republican sleazebag Cory Lewandowski. At a Senate hearing last week, she got blasted by members on both sides of the aisle for the issues above and for other issues such as poor emergency responses to disasters under FEMA.
Yes, she is the lady who shot her dog because the dog was behaving badly. The dog was a 14 month old puppy.
The latest job report shows that the US lost 92,000 jobs in February. If she had been let go a few days ago, the total would be 92,001.
Hopefully Pam Bondi’s next.
That’s all I have for today.
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Not Easy
Mark Carney, in Australia, on his invest in Canada tour, made the understatement of the year, by saying that it is not easy dealing with Donald Trump. No freaking kidding.
Here is a couple of statements he made with regard to dealing with Donald
“Elected twice, he would say elected three times. He does.”
“You’ve got to choose your words — one chooses language for the audience, that’s true in any circumstance, and so careful in terms of the language you use with him.”
Carney adds that anything you say in public, with regard to Trump, you have to make sure that the facts back it up.
The first quote above is amazing. Trump is so delusional that he refuses to accept the fact that he lost the election in 2020. This is the person that the world has to deal with.
Trump basically has the temperament of a spoiled little child who insist on always getting his way. He will never admit that he is wrong. He will never apologize. He will never accept the fact that he lost in anything. He demands loyalty without giving any. He treats women like possessions.
Yet this man is president of one of the most powerful nations on earth. He is currently waging war in a Middle East tinderbox.
Mark Carney is not saying this for himself. He is saying this for the entire world. It is not easy dealing with Donald.
That is all I have for today.
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Mark’s Tight Rope Act
Mark Carney is continuing his invest in Canada tour and is currently in Australia. With Iran, he is doing a tight rope act trying to please everybody.
He is supporting Trump’s attack on Iran, for now. But it has limits. He gave the following reason for his support.
“We took a position because we view the nuclear threat and the export of terrorism of Iran over decades as one of the gravest threats to international peace and security.”
He then threw in a but.
“In that limited sense we supported that aspect. That is not a blank cheque. That is not us participating. That is not us asking for something in exchange for that [support]. That is a just a straight up position.”
Mark Carney then went back to his Davos theme, in that he is simply accepting the world as it is and not as he wishes it to be.
Many in the conservative party were initially attacking him. How could he support an attack where a number of civilians have died? They were claiming that he had failed as a leader. Carney’s clarification should quell those complaints.
Mark Carney is basically distancing himself from what happens from here. It all depends on how Trump carries out the war. All Carney has done is say that he supports the reason why the attack had to happen.
If only America had a leader like Mark Carney. But unfortunately, they don’t.
That’s all I have for today.
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Trouble Days
Donald, how is the whole Iran thingy working out for you. When you started off this whole thing, at the beginning of the weekend together with Netanyahu, I thought you had a plan in place. Boy was I naïve.
The idea was sound. Get rid of the regime, or so I thought. Destabilizing the country, Iran I mean not the US and eliminating funding and weapons to the proxies such as Hezbollah and Hamas.
Now it comes out that you had no plan and no goal either apparently. Your team are stepping over themselves identifying why the attacks began. The reasons range from eliminating the regime, eliminating nuclear capability. I thought you did that with the attack a number of months ago. You also came out with a lie that Iran was six days away from developing a nuclear bomb. You also came up with a lie that Iran was close to having the capability of firing missiles at the US homeland.
Yesterday you came up with a whopper of a lie. That Iran wanted to talk to you now. Iran pretty well said that was a lie and now you’re saying that you’re not gonna talk to Iran. Which is it?
Old videos of you were coming out which are not making you look good. There’s a video of you back in 2011 saying that Obama was gonna attack Iran because he is a lousy negotiator. Also, Donald, do you remember when you said there’s no way that the US would have boots on the ground. Now you’re saying you are not ruling it out. Holy Iraq, Batman.
Donald only you are capable of snatching defeat out of the jaws of victory. I had hopes for you on this one, Donald, I really did. Iran has struck back at a number of places. The Dow Jones is tanking this morning, down 1100 as I chirp this. Gas prices are up. Also, Israel is sending forces into southern Lebanon. Steve Bannon must be so proud of you right now. You know how he likes to shake things up. Well, things are pretty shaken up.
I guess you didn’t also plan on the fact that your own MAGA base is upset with you for attacking Iran. You know with this whole America first thing and all.
One more thing, Donald. The whole Epstein thing is still around. Have a nice day Donald. I wonder what fresh hell tomorrow will bring.
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Another Monday
Just another typical Monday. CNN website headline ‘ war spirals in the Middle East’. The Dow is down 300. Three US military aircraft shot down by accident. An Iranian minister asking what the justification for the bombings were. Oil prices spiking. Hezbollah attacking Israel.
Members on both sides on the political aisle, saying that Trump should’ve gone to Congress to get authorization to go to war. That one puzzles me. The surprise attack did kill close to 50 Iranian leaders who had gathered together on Saturday. Now if Trump had gone to Congress first, this would’ve been public. These leaders would never have gotten together the way they did because they would’ve had advanced warning. But that is just me.
More good news. Trump says that this could last for a month. Washington is now saying that regime change is not the goal of this war. But at the same time, Trump is telling the Iranian people to rise up and get rid of this regime.
Trump insist that Iran was six days away from having a nuclear weapon. We all know that’s not true. One bit of good news is that Putin does not appear to want to get involved in any military sort of way.
To top it all off, the Epstein files are out there and still waiting. Cue the musical theme to Jaws.
My chirps will be shorter this week and most likely just as disjointed as today given that I am in a house with two grandkids and three dogs, and they all want me to play.
That’s all I have for today.
Bird's Chirp
So I don't have to put it on Facebook anymore….