Tracker

A prefrontal lobotomy is mandatory for CPC members of parliament before they take their seats.

'Convoy' protesting COVID mandates in Lansing MI leads to embarrassing outcome A convoy of right-wing protesters pushing back against COVID-19 mitigation mandates while supporting election fraud falsehoods recently suffered an embarrassing turnout, according to Detroit Metro Times. On Sunday, February 20, a group of protesters met up for an event dubbed the “Lansing Freedom Convoy.” They’d called for “‘all our good men’ to park their cars in downtown Lansing and demand ‘honest elections,’ ‘a voter-run audit and canvass’ and for police to ‘arrest and charge all criminals in government, media and medicine.’” While the event was expected to draw a substantial number of right-wing supporters, Detroit Metro Times reports that only 10 people showed up for the event. The latest disappointment follows the group's demonstration earlier this month at the Ambassador Bridge and other infrastructure crossings. The highly-publicized protest was also supported by dozens of Republican lawmakers and a number of Republican gubernatorial candidates, including former Detroit Police Chief James Craig. The demonstration threatened to impact Super Bowl weekend.

D.C. Truck Convoy Organizer’s Plan Sputters Like a Busted Engine At first, ardently MAGA trucker Bob Bolus vowed that his makeshift “freedom convoy” making a beeline from Scranton, Pennsylvania to D.C. this week would “choke” the nation’s capital like a boa constrictor in protest of vaccine mandates. But on Wednesday, when his overhyped convoy turned out to be a piddly procession of one, Bolus backtracked, telling The Daily Beast that his plans have changed and he will not attempt to interfere with traffic. “We’re not putting a chokehold on D.C. today,” the Pennsylvania-based trucker told The Daily Beast by phone shortly after noon, before quickly getting his hopes up again about one day disrupting Beltway traffic: “Not to say that it wouldn’t happen in the very near future. It’s just going to be an idea of what’s to come.” This particular wing of the convoy movement was originally slated to arrive in the D.C. metro area around noon, with the hopes of causing a gridlock blockade like the Canadian anti-vaccine mandate trucker demonstration that caused chaos in Ottawa until it was dispersed by police. Earlier this week, the Pentagon approved the use of nearly 700 National Guard personnel to assist local authorities with the possibility of multiple convoys blocking up the D.C. area. But now, as Bolus confessed to The Daily Beast, his tiny convoy will just “peacefully” sit in Beltway traffic and not attempt to cause any such backup. “We’re going to go with the flow. Today we’re going to go with the flow of traffic,” a defeated Bolus told the Beast. “If they go at two miles an hour, we will be at two miles an hour.” D.C. Truck Convoy Organizer Bob Bolus’ Plan Sputters Like a Busted Engine (thedailybeast.com)

Found mostly in their bars.

Trump may have been unwittingly comparing Putin to himself.

You did not have the right to have an attorney present during any questioning.

COVID "long-haulers" may have finally found relief in inexpensive, over-the-counter drugs. Small studies suggest over-the-counter antihistamines can relieve long COVID symptoms Two women have recovered from post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection (PASC), a condition more commonly known as long COVID — and researchers believe that inexpensive, over-the-counter antihistamines were the reason. The news comes from a report published this month in The Journal for Nurse Practitioners which describes the recovery of two middle-aged women who, by chance, found that antihistamines greatly improved their daily functions after suffering from long Covid. The research will be welcomed by sufferers of long COVID, of which there are many. Up to 10 percent of those who contract COVID-19 have long-term symptoms long after the virus has cleared their body, according to University of Alabama researchers. The United States population has had a cumulative 78 million cases of COVID-19, meaning around 8 million Americans have long Covid symptoms long after the virus has cleared their system. Long Covid sufferers experience all kinds of different symptoms, though the most common include brain fog, psychiatric disorders, loss of taste and smell, fatigue and lack of energy. Long Covid appears to affect children and adults in equal measure. In this latest study, both women who recovered from long Covid took over-the-counter antihistamines for different reasons aside from their COVID-19 symptoms. The first woman had an allergy to dairy which was triggered by eating cheese. Prior to her January 2020 COVID-19 infection, she was healthy and active; after, she could no longer tolerate exercise, had prolonged chest pain, headaches, brain fog, fatigue, and a rash. The morning after she took an antihistamine for her dairy allergy, she noticed considerable relief in her fatigue and ability to concentrate. But in the next 72 hours, when she wasn't taking an antihistamine, her fatigue and brain fog returned. The woman self-administered diphenhydramine and observed an improvement in symptoms once again. Over the next six months, she noticed many of her other symptoms — like the rashes — were improving as well. Now, she reports she's back to 90 percent of her pre-infection functioning ability, including exercising 1 to 2 hours 5 to 6 times a week. The second woman, who was similarly active and healthy prior to COVID-19, likely contracted COVID-19 from her child who was unwell with COVID-19 symptoms. While a PCR test came back negative at first for COVID-19, she was clinically diagnosed when she developed chills, shortness of breath, chest pain , and a fever. At first, her symptoms persisted for three months. During the course of this time, she also suffered from Covid toe, abdominal pain, and rashes. Nearly 13 months after the onset of the infection, she substituted her usual allergy medication with diphenhydramine. The next morning, she also noticed a significant relief in her fatigue and brain fog. Since then, she has been taking 25 milligrams of diphenhydramine at night and 180 milligrams of fexofenadine in the morning and is back to exercising and feeling better. Both fexofenadine and diphenhydramine are common over-the-counter anti-histamine drugs.

Disagree. Most Russians do not winter abroad or buy expensive toys, or even much foreign consumer goods as they are too poor. The oligarchs have lost hundreds of millions in devaluation.

I checked just now and the Ruble is down 14%.

Don't know if this is the best place to put this, if you want to get past a paywall: put " HTTPS://12FT.10/" before your URL and you're in.

Russian oligarcs need Europe and North America to silo their money away and actually travel to those places to enjoy it. Russian currency fluctuates wildly, and any armed conflict or threat of same will depress the ruble's value. The Russian economy is heavily dependent on petroleum/gas exports, mostly to Europe, and if the western nations (Europe, really) get their act together and build that pipleline from the Caucaus to Europe, the Russian economy and ruble will crater. Putin's actions ought to spur that on.

Not to mention national free healthcare, workers' compensation, portable pensions, subsidized daycare for qualifying parents, environmental standards, workplace safety regulations, food and drug standards, etc etc. This is too easy.

I was one of those who were at the Legislature protesting the implementation of the War Measures Act bcause I saw no justification for such a draconian move. In retrospect, the protests were valid and the mayor of Calgary used it as an excuse for police there to round up and detain for days without charge everyone who was seen as a "hippie".

The CPC is condoning the protesters by word and silence, the BQ is mostly on the government side but quiet, the CPP is cheerleading the jackholes, and the NDP is somewhat reluctantly supporting the govermment. To me, it looks like the message the CPC is taking out of all this is that if you shout inflamatory crap, even if its all BS, loud enough, you can raise your profile to look like a political option. I trust the vast majority of Candians to see through all this and remember it next election. In other good news: Ottawa convoy protest organizer Tamara Lich denied bail Freedom Convoy organizer Tamara Lich appears in front of a judge for a bail hearing on Feb. 19, 2022, which was put over to Tuesday. Lich, from Medicine Hat, Alta., was charged last Thursday with counselling to commit mischief in connection with the Ottawa protests. (Lauren Foster-MacLeod/CBC) Tamara Lich, a major organizer of the so-called Freedom Convoy, was denied bail Tuesday morning in Ottawa. Lich, the Alberta woman behind a now-halted GoFundMe campaign that raised over $10 million to support the protest in Ottawa, was arrested and charged Thursday with counselling to commit mischief. Before her arrest, she told journalists she wasn't concerned about being arrested, didn't think the protest was illegal and also said her bank account was frozen. On Tuesday, the judge said she was not convinced Lich would go home, stay there and stop her alleged counselling. "This community has already been impacted enough by some of the criminal activity and blockades you took part in and even led," said Ontario Superior Court Justice Julie Bourgeois. "You have had plenty of opportunity to remove yourself and even others from this criminal activity but obstinately chose not to and persistently counselled others not to either. "In Canada, every citizen can certainly disagree with and protest against government decisions but it needs to be done in a democratic fashion in abidance with the laws that have been established democratically."

This all goes back a few years to the Ammon Bundy who, along with other like-minded idiots defied federal law by taking his cattle to graze on park lands. Due to a weak federal response, they occupied park buildings and garnered support from Fox News, and the GOP and showed that if you do something illegal while screaming loudly that your rights are being violated is a good way to get your way. Meanwhile, in the USA: ‘Twisted’ Conservatives Feel Trudeau Is More Evil Than Putin If you want to understand someone’s values or worldview, take a look at who (and what) provokes outrage and who (and what) evokes sympathy. The cognitive dissonance inherent in much of the American right can make such an examination problematic. That’s because some of the most prominent voices on the right today view Vladimir Putin as a misunderstood victim. Meanwhile, they cast Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as an authoritarian strongman. Consider the message of right-wing commentator Candace Owens, who recently tweeted: “STOP talking about Russia. Send American troops to Canada to deal with the tyrannical reign of Justin Trudeau Castro. He has fundamentally declared himself dictator and is waging war on innocent Canadian protesters and those who have supported them financially.” Dictator? (Hardly.) Innocent protesters? (This only makes sense if you also believe the Jan. 6 rioters were harmless tourists.) Or consider Fox News host Tucker Carlson, my friend (though we disagree profoundly on politics) and former boss. Carlson isn’t outraged over what is happening to Ukraine, but found time last week to bash “strongman” Trudeau as “the dictator of Canada,” while saying that “Canada canceled democracy…” There’s also Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who says Trudeau has gone “full dictator.” And J.D. Vance (celebrated author and Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate in Ohio) who recently declared that he “doesn’t really care what happens to Ukraine.” American Conservatives are Wrong to Rip Into Justin Trudeau While Giving Vladimir Putin a Free Pass (thedailybeast.com)

FYI: Putin has formally recognized the occupied two areas of Ukraine as part of Russia, and now this is his pretext to send in uniformed military to solidify possession. The reality is that these areas have been occupied by un-uniformed Russian troops for months under the guise of these being "separatists". The only question what kind of response (if any) the rest of the world will give. The partition of Ukraine and occupation of these parts was always Putin's endgame. He expects that there will be a lot of hand-wringing but the rest of the world will be relieved enough that all-out war has been avaoided that they will do essentially token protests.

Anti-Vaccine Mandate Trucker Convoy Wants to ‘Choke’ D.C., Organizer Says The trucker convoys planning to head to Washington, D.C. later this week to protest vaccine mandates seek to shut down the Beltway and “choke” the capital city, an organizer of one such convoy said. “I’ll give you an analogy of that of a giant boa constrictor,” explained Bob Bolus, one of the decentralized convoy movement’s organizers, in an interview with Fox 5 DC. “That basically squeezes you, chokes you and it swallows you, and that’s what we’re going to do the D.C.” The owner of a Pennsylvania-based trucking company added: “We will be along the Beltway where the Beltway will be shut down.” While the truck-based protests have yet to materialize in the D.C. area, they ostensibly aim to disrupt the region around President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address next week and mimic the Canadian anti-vaccine mandate convoys that shut down traffic near the U.S.-Canada border until it was dispersed. Anti-Vaccine Mandate Trucker Convoy Wants to ‘Choke’ D.C., Organizer Says (thedailybeast.com)

He had a troubled life, but remained an icon of the possible.

It is obvious that some police not only sympathize with them but actively support them. And most of them are too dim to realize they have been infiltrated by extremists and betrayed. There are those among the protesters who are going to make a lot of money or are hoping to,

Yup

Or that you will hear about. When Ben Johnson was caught using PEDs, there were reliable reports that at least two other gold medal athletes also tested positive for PEDS- one was Lynfors Christie of the UK and Carl Whatisname from the US, but due to politics neither was publicly named. The masking agents have become very sophisticated and effective and will beat the testing regimens far more often than not.

After Beijing Bubble Bursts, Can The IOC Save The Olympics? BEIJING (AP) — Before he got out of town, the great Canadian snowboarder Mark McMorris called the Beijing Games a version of “sports prison.” He was joking — sort of — but his vision wasn’t that far off. The cordoned-off Olympic bubble that folds up when the closing ceremony ends Sunday has produced its usual collage of amazing athletes doing great things. This 17-day journey, however, has been witnessed through a sealed-off looking glass — a lens warped and sterilized by Beijing’s organizing committee with underwriting from the Chinese government. The ultimate sponsor: the International Olympic Committee, which has been under fire for producing Games that, to many, have felt soulless while also being tainted by scandal and political posturing. “I think that sometimes it doesn’t seem like their heart is in the right place,” the outspoken freestyle skier Gus Kenworthy said. “It feels like it’s a greed game. I mean, the Olympics are so incredible. But it’s a TV show.” As the IOC pulls up stakes from Beijing, it has 29 months to hit the reset button and hope for a different, COVID-free and much better vibe when the Summer Games go to Paris. The lingering question is whether, even in a more-welcoming, democratic locale, the Olympic overseers can repair their reputations to the point that people — most notably, the dwindling TV audience and the increasingly alienated throng of athletes — start to enjoy this enterprise again. Some images they’ll have to work to forget: —Tennis player Peng Shuai and IOC President Thomas Bach hanging out together to watch freeskier Eileen Gu’s first gold medal. —The thousands of testers, cloaked head to toe in personal protective gear, shoving swabs down athletes’ throats day after day for their mandatory COVID-19 screenings. —A sobbing Belgian skeleton racer, Kim Meylemans, going to social media to beg for release from quarantine. —And, of course, the Russian doping scandal, all perturbingly encapsulated by the image of 15-year-old figure skater Kamila Valieva crying after her disastrous long program while her coach asked: “Why did you stop fighting?” “For all the wrong reasons,” said Syracuse pop culture professor Robert Thompson, Valieva’s performance last Thursday made for riveting television. “Surprising, weird and hyper-dramatic,” Thompson said. “Yet today, I searched the hallways in vain to find anyone who had seen it, or even heard tell of it. I’ve been paying close attention to the Olympics for 40 years, and never have I seen one surrounded by so much silence, so little buzz.” Through last Tuesday, the Nielsen Company said prime-time viewership on NBC ( which pays the lion’s share of the bills for these Games ) and its streaming service, Peacock, was down 42 percent from a 2018 Games that didn’t do all that well, either.

But well supported.

Jason Kenny, who, like Heather Stefanson, had asked for federal help a few days before the Emergency Act was invoked, has now decided that it is a good use of several million dollars to sue the federal government over the implemantation of that act. In a CBC interview this morning, he said that things were pretty much in hand and there was no need. Now he has added stupidity to cowardice and hypocrisy.