the watcher

One of my winter reads was Chris Hedges " American Fascists, the Christian Right and the War on America " Written in 2006 its a bit dated but still relevant. I wasn't that familiar with Domnionism and Dominionists but his 1st chapter covers it extensively. A couple of quotes: " Dominionism takes its name from Genesis 1:26 -31, in which God gives human beings " dominion" over all creation. This movement, small in number but influential, departs from traditional evangelicalism.........Dominionism seeks to redefine traditional democratic and Christian terms and concepts to fit an ideology that calls on the radical church to take political power. It shares many prominent features with classical fascist movements." " Dominionism, born out of a theology known as Christian reconstructionism, seeks to politicize faith. It has like all fascist movements, a belief in magic along with leadership adoration and a strident call for moral and physical supremecy of a master race, in this case American Christians.

When the biggest discussion about training camp is the depth of the press coverage , that tells me the Bombers are a damn good team going into camp.

The CNN version So how F##ked up does your country have to be to elect people like him and MTG.

I posted that song from his 1st album then listened to the rest of it. while pruning trees. And DAMN ! I I had almost forgot how good it was. It absolutely brilliant. While he had individual songs that matched or perhaps bettered it , the album as a whole was his best. Done simply yet runs the gambit from political commentary to heartbreak. RIP Gord.

Check out his voice here.

I was a huge Lightfoot fan. A brilliant writer and especially in his earlier years a great singer. His very first album was amazing. My son is a huge music fan but was so so on Lightfoot till he listened to it. It converted him. Like the obit says, Icon doesn't do him justice.

When I grew up I thought residential schools were just where indigenous kids went to school. Your damn right we ( including me ) need to be educated about the truth. A few " wasted resources " now can help correct the past or at least our view of it which can help future generations.

There are times when I wish I would get rid of the internet and TV. The written word is so much richer. All that reading , Christian, Buddhist, Taoist....texts and I ended up with a belief system that Iris Dement summed up in a couple of minutes much more eloquently than I ever could.

Back in the early 90s I did a deep, deep dive into religion. I consumed whatever I could about many religions, and the history of those religions. I had ditched my TV and it was pre-internet for me so I had lots of time on my hands lol. One of the things I did was read the Bible from front to back. Like one would read a novel. I found it really changed my perspective. While I no longer consider myself a Christian there is alot of good and positive things that can be taken from the Bible. But to take it word for word as God's rule is impossible. A bit of a deep dive into the history of the Christian church will yield the same results. I don't see any issue with a Christian believing in evolution.

Wide Left said: " One poll may show that, but polls can say a lot of things - like people don't really like either Trudeau or PeePee to any great degree." I am definitely in that group. I can't vote Liberal unless Trudeau removes himself and I can't vote for any party like the Cons that denies climate change led by a little shite that would sell his soul ( and maybe everyone else's) and join forces with what ever moronic movement that will get him elected. So I am limited to 1 party before an election is even called.

In the USA it's the majority. Around %60 if I recall correctly.

Americans always seem to need an enemy. I have a theory that if you are particularly inward looking, believe you are the best, the greatest, the ultimate nation then when the inevitable problems occur that all nations suffer it can only be blamed on subversives or outsiders trying to destroy you. Those in power know this and use it.

The CNP came up in a book I'm reading so I thought I'd read a bit on it. What really struck me about this article and about the CNP in general is how twisted it is that they are the very thing that alot of MAGA supporters think they are fighting against is what they are supporting. https://www.washingtonpost.com/magazine/2021/10/25/god-trump-closed-door-world-council-national-policy/

I found this interesting: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/2/28/russia-ukraine-crisis-in-maps-and-charts-live-news-interactive

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/feb/22/arizona-attorney-general-2020-election-vote-fraud-maricopa-county When a politician/ government official intentionally, knowingly tries to thwart democracy they need to be charged and dealt with harshly. Every time I hear things like this I think of the woman who thought she could vote ( an election official said she could ) despite having been in jail.They slammed her with 5 years in prison

A whole lot of folks wearing folks wearing red hats would give a deep sigh and mumble " Ah,the good old days "

I never said they were equal .No doubt the Republicans are disgusting. But if you remove about 4 items off that list then they are right there. It was the Democrats that instituted mandatory minimum sentencing. The Democrats have been perfectly willing to send their kids to unneeded wars that gain nothing but profits for corps under the guise of overblown patriotism.They had their chance to codify Roe vs Wade and didn't. I could go on. As I said ones a dung hill.The others a steaming rotten dung hill . Granted the latter is now filled with nutbars and lunitics

The trouble with the US is alot of that list could be assigned to the Dems as well. There is no real choice that will change the direction of that country other than lone wolfs like Bernie. It's like a choice between a dung hill and a stinking rotten dunghill. It's still all crap.

Scary sh##t to be honest.

Interesting research https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/feb/09/crazy-interesting-findings-by-australian-researchers-may-reveal-key-to-covid-immunity

My tablet went frigging nuts lol. I actually wanted to say that doesn't excuse what he did in his non hockey life. It should be a reminder that our childhood heros are not what we imagined at the time.

I was a huge Hull and Blackhawks fan as a kid. I was thrilled to death when he came to Winnipeg. He changed hockey by empowering the players. He made the NHL a possibility in Winnipeg. The Hotline changed hockey when it became the basis of the Oiler championship years.His shot has yet to be equaled in my opinion. There are tons of stories about his willingness to sign autographs. Holding up team buses too so.A friend told me of being a kid and standing in a crowded group to get an autograph.Just as he approached an adult kind of shoved him to the side and stuck his paper infront of Bobby. Hull just reached over the guy ,took my friends paper , signed it and moved on without signing the adults paper.

A good opinion piece. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jan/23/system-rigged-inequality-pandemic-despair-super-rich

It's always bothered me that when we look at fixing our issues with our Healthcare system we only think that it's either the American way or ours. There are many different systems in Europe and the rest of the world. We need to do look beyond the Americans when we look for solutions. As far as the cost of systems I haven't looked since covid hit but generally most of Europe like ourselves are in the 10 to 11.5 percent of our GDP to fund our Healthcare systems.The Americans spend a whopping 17+ percent of their GDP on Healthcare. The cost argument never has held water. And as far as results for having their expensive system , we are 12th to 14 in life expectancy. Americans are around 32nd. It's been awhile since I looked at the numbers and it was precovid so I stand to be corrected. My point boils down to there are more answers to fixing our Healthcare issues than the old private or public argument.