Tracker

Jesus H. Christ was a quarterback? For Calgary?

The announcement probably means his salary will be cut, but he will have the exclusive right to all the empties in and around Mosaic stadium.

As an aside which will make not a whit of difference to foaming-mouth brigade in Ottawa, the president of the Manitoba Trucking Association stated yesterday that some 90% of his members were fully vaccinated and see no problem with the jab. When you consider that the truckers who do not have to cross borders are not required to be tested or vaccinated (except maybe by their employers) that means well over 90% of international truckers are fully vaccinated, A friend who hauls from western Canada to Texas and a bit of the eastern US, and he says that virtually all of his colleagues from other lines see this vaccination and testing as minor inconvenience. Yet the sycophants out there continue to portray the protesters as representing most, if not all truckers. Incidentally, the morons blocking ports of entry are beginning to draw the ire of sane truckers, whose income depends on their getting their loads to the recipients on time. If this goes on much longer, one of the blockers is going to sustain a brain injury, but it will be hard to tell the effect on them.

There is and always has been, except for a brief honeymoon, a power struggle between the (relatively) sane traditional Conservatives and the nutso Reform Party members and it was always destined to end badly. He has been trying to ride two horses headed in two different directions and here he is. He will probably be actually relieved to leave, even if he is driven out. Dignity does have associated costs. The "broken down" person in Ottawa would be Erin O'Toole, would it not?

(Just when you think the idiots couldn't display their stupidity any further, here is one who believes God instigates rape and approves_) GOP gubernatorial candidate says women should be forced to carry pregnancies to term because the fetus 'may be the next president' A Republican candidate for governor of Michigan is being highly criticized for comments he made around his desire to implement a Texas-style vigilante abortion ban, even for victims of rape. Chiropractor Garrett Soldano, who has no experience in government, says he wants to “defend DNA” by forcing women who have suffered the horrific experience of rape to carry the fetus and give birth to their rapist’s child. “They don’t know that little baby inside them may be the next president, may be the next person who changes humanity,” Soldano said on a podcast in January, as The Washington Post reports Tuesday. After relaying a story of a woman who was “gang-raped by five guys,” Soldano, one of the top Republican contenders, said: “What we must start to focus on is not only to defend the DNA when it’s created, but however how about we start inspiring women in the culture to let them understand and know how heroic they are,” to give birth after being raped. “God put them in this moment,” he added. “We must always, always protect that DNA and allow it to have a voice.” On his campaign website, Soldano says he is the author of “God’s True Law, a parent’s guide to raising successful children.” He has been permanently banned from YouTube. GOP gubernatorial candidate says women should be forced to carry pregnancies to term because the fetus 'may be the next president' - Alternet.org

One in 10 Americans say they're OK with violence now against government: poll The poll found Republicans more likely (71 per cent) versus Democrats (62 per cent) to say violent protest is justified right now against the federal government.© Provided by National Post The poll found Republicans more likely (71 per cent) versus Democrats (62 per cent) to say violent protest is justified right now against the federal government. Nearly a quarter (23 per cent) of Americans say it’s sometimes OK to use violence against the government — and 1 in 10 say violence is justified “right now.” The COVID States Project, a team effort by researchers at Northeastern, Harvard, Rutgers and Northwestern universities, has been polling Americans since April 2020 to determine their feelings about COVID. Having recently become aware of the growing number of “armed protests, threats, and violence against government officials following mask mandates, COVID-19 related closures, and the 2020 election (including, most notably, the deadly Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol),” the team instead focused their latest survey on respondents’ feelings about the violence. Rather than their typical questions, such as whether one mask filters better than another and what they think of vaccine mandate, this time the authors asked 23,000 people across the country whether it is “ever justifiable to engage in violent protest against the government.” Nearly 1 in 4 said violence was either “definitely” or “probably” justifiable, and the answer was not dependent on political leanings — responses were equally balanced between liberals and conservatives. As astonishing as that result may seem, project co-director David Lazer told NPR.org it shouldn’t be — that it may actually be a result of the way American history is taught. “You know, we begin with the American Revolution against an illegitimate government and so we are, in a sense, taught from grade school that it is at some points in history justifiable to engage in violent protest,” he said. Donald Trump’s bid to keep Capitol riot records secret spurned by U.S. Supreme Court Is democracy dying? After hopeful end to 20th Century, the institution withers worldwide Of the 1 in 10 Americans who said violence is justified right now, Republicans and ideological conservatives were most likely to respond that way, the report found. Among Republican men, the response was nearly 1 in 5. Sixty-two per cent say violent protest right now is definitely not justified. Two-thirds of those who believe violent protest is justified say the federal government is an appropriate target, while about one-third say it’s state government. Local government was seen as an appropriate target by 21 per cent. Republicans are more likely (71 per cent) versus Democrats’ (62 per cent) to say violent protest is justified right now against the federal government. Violence against their state’s government right now is approved by more Democrats (43 per cent) than Republicans (26 per cent). Independents logged the highest approval at 38 per cent. Of those who believe violent protest against government is justified right now, 37 per cent of Republican respondents said violence is justified when their state is controlled by a Democratic governor than the 18 per cent who say it’s OK against one from their own party. Rioters surround the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.© Amanda Voisard Rioters surround the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. The Project’s findings have been seen in other survey as well. NPR noted that a University of Chicago poll found almost 1 in 10 Americans believed the use of force was justified to restore Donald Trump to the presidency after he lost. And in December, The Washington Post and University of Maryland together found that 1 in 3 Americans think violence against the government is sometimes justified. The number of Americans who support violent political protests has doubled over the last decade, Rachel Kleinfeld, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told NPR. (She was not involved in the survey.) Kleinfeld believes there need to be repercussions, not just for those who would go so far as to storm the Capitol, but for those who threaten election workers, school boards and the like — “the warp and weft of our democratic system.” Men, younger Americans and ideologues (liberals and conservatives) are more likely than women, older Americans and ideological moderates to say it is “definitely” or “probably” justified to ever engage in violent protest against the government. A 12 percentage point gender gap appeared in the results. Just 17 per cent of women, compared with 29 per cent of men, said violent protest is “definitely” or “probably” ever justifiable. The 5 per cent gender gap separating men (13 per cent) and women (8 per cent) on whether it is currently justified to violently protest against the government compared with an 11 point gap for whether it is ever justified. Supporters of then-President Donald Trump fight with riot police outside the Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021 in Washington, D.C.© ROBERTO SCHMIDT / AFP Supporters of then-President Donald Trump fight with riot police outside the Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021 in Washington, D.C. Younger Americans (ages 18 to 29) were more likely to say violent protest is justifiable, with nearly 2 in 5 (36 per cent) agreeing it is “definitely” or “probably” justified to protest violently. This compares with 23 per cent of 30 to 49-year-olds, 18 per cent of 50-to-64-year-olds, and 14 per cent of those 65 and older. While there was a 22 percentage point gap between the youngest and oldest Americans in whether it is ever justified to protest violently, that gap shrinks to just 11 percentage points in whether violent protest is justified right now (16 per cent of 18-29-year-olds say yes versus 5 per cent of seniors). Views on the justifiability of violence did not differ significantly by race, the poll found. Republicans are only four points more likely than Democrats to say that violence is justifiable. Republican men and Independent men posted a 32 per cent approval for violence ever being justifiable, while Democratic men logged 23 per cent. A significantly smaller portion of the latter group said violence was justifiable right now. Trump supporters invade the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021.© Roberto Schmidt/AFP via Getty Images Trump supporters invade the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021. NPR notes that some researchers, who weren’t involved in conducting the survey, worry that the findings may overstate American support for political violence. Sean Westwood, a professor of government at Dartmouth College, is attempting to correct for survey errors in measurement that come about when people are questioned about political violence. “When trying to measure violence, there’s this tendency to try to be as general as possible to try and capture as much support as possible,” Westwood told NPR. And people who are indifferent — who haven’t thought much about political violence or protests — may randomly pick between the options, which could lead to an over-counting of people who support political violence, he said. One in 10 Americans say they're OK with violence now against government: poll (msn.com)

Trump: Pence Should Be Investigated for Not Reversing My Election Loss Former President Donald Trump has urged congressional Jan. 6 investigators to open up a probe against his former vice president, Mike Pence, over his refusal to help Trump overturn the 2020 election result. Pence and Trump haven’t been on speaking terms since last year, when the then-VP went against Trump’s orders and fulfilled his duty to certify Joe Biden’s election victory in Congress. But their relationship plumbed new depths Tuesday, when Trump released a statement saying that Pence should be under investigation for not reversing the 2020 election result. In a furious statement posted by Trump spokeswoman Liz Harrington on Tuesday, the former president once against attacked the House committee investigating the Capitol riot, and said the panel should be focusing on Pence and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, rather than himself. The ex-president wrote: “The Unselect Committee should be investigating why Nancy Pelosi did such a poor job of overseeing security and why Mike Pence did not send back the votes for recertification or approval, in that it has now been shown that he clearly had the right to do so!” Trump Says Pence Should Be Investigated for Not Reversing His Election Loss (thedailybeast.com)

Bomb Threats Reported At Historically Black Colleges For Second Day Campuses were shut down and classes moved to remote learning following the latest wave of threats taking place on the first day of Black History Month. Howard University in Washington, D.C., is pictured. The historically Black university, founded in 1867, was the target of bomb threats this week. For the second day in a row, historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) were the target of bomb threats across the country, with this latest wave coming on the first day of Black History Month. Campuses were shut down and classes moved to remote learning following the threats impacting more than a dozen schools as of Tuesday morning. Bomb Threats Reported At Historically Black Colleges For Second Day | HuffPost Latest News (Just 'Muricans being 'Muricans)

Our best hope lies in the decent, concerned politicians both presenting a united front against the neo-Nazi movement and vigorously prosecuting any and all who commit or advocate violence. The American example unfolding now is a frightening demonstration of how badly things can go. All that is necessary for evil to triumph is that good people remain silent.

Probably, and that will relegate the PCs to the back benches for another 5 years, and his replacement will experience the same fate. I am surprised that he lasted this long.

Gov. Ron DeSantis' press secretary's sickening tweet denies Nazi protest Ever since a racist, washed-up reality tv show host was able to exploit racial and cultural tensions by hoodwinking millions of uninformed working-class whites into thinking he gave a damn about them, our country has descended into a cauldron of hate and antisemitism. Case in point, a neo-Nazi rally took place in the open in Orlando, Florida, on Saturday in which radical white nationalists waved Nazi flags and shouted anti-Semitic and anti-Black slogans, including the"Jew is the devil" and "Jews rape children and drink their blood." This type of radical anti-Semitism has been on the rise ever since Trump usurped the oval office in 2016 and, worse yet, only seems to be metastasizing now that he's gone. And while any sane and decent human in the public sector would vociferously condemn this disgusting and naked anti-Semitism, white nationalists are pretty much Republicans voting base these days. Case in point, Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis' Press Secretary Christina Pushaw appeared to question whether the obvious nazi rally was actually being put on by Nazis. Allow me to repeat that for those of you who may be bleeding from the eyes, a public official doubted photos and videos of white nationalists in nazi uniforms were actual nazis. In a since-deleted tweet, Press Secretary Christina Pushaw responded to Twitter outrage over an Orlando Nazi demonstration by asking, “Do we even know they’re Nazis?” Gov. Ron DeSantis' press secretary's sickening tweet denies Nazi protest - Alternet.org

Conservative caucus revolt triggers vote on Erin O'Toole's leadership John Paul Tasker · CBC News · Posted: Jan 31, 2022 8:31 PM ET | Last Updated: 1 hour ago Conservative Leader Erin O'Toole is facing an internal revolt and some members of his caucus are prepared to trigger a vote on his future as early as Wednesday, sources told CBC News. MPs opposed to O'Toole's leadership have collected enough signatures — 35 have signed on to the effort so far — to hold a secret ballot to decide his fate, sources said. A vote by 50 per cent plus one of the 119 sitting Conservative MPs calling on O'Toole to step down would force him to make way for an interim leader immediately. Conservative post-election report says O'Toole was 'over-managed' during the campaign. Sources tell CBC News that O'Toole's caucus opponents believe they have the necessary votes, with at least 60 MPs agreeing that he has to go.

The same fanatical mindsets as the parishioners of fundamentalist churches who keep getting milked and even are urged to take out loans to give more to the church.

Yes, money talks but if Lawler thinks he will have the same degree of success in BC and here, he will be badly disappointed. That porous O-line will will be having whatever QB they have running for his life and not concentrating on his reads or checkdowns. The lack of a credible running game will only make that worse. Reilly, even last year, was much, much better than any QB they can scare up, and he really struggled.

Nothing stopping the Lions from cutting him- its been done before. Unless the Lions are printing their own money, I cannot see how they can avoid dumping salary. The Argos are gonna get what they are paying for. Bethel-Thompson might a good backup but that's all.

I think there are few of these who believe they are or will ever be in the majority- all they want is the power to disrupt the will of those they disagree with and change things to what they see fit. After all, if God is with you, why would you care about democracy, the law or other trivial things? BTW: The federal government should seize the $4 million they are using as a war chest as it is being used to fuel disorder and civil disobedience. If the yahoos are not having their their keep in Ottawa paid for, they will likely fade away into the obscurity they deserve.

Former President Donald J. Trump and his Republican allies are using three tactics in a nationwide, state-by-state strategy to control the outcome of future elections. All are on display in Arizona. Tactic #1: Keep voters from voting Arizona's latest voter restriction law will remove an estimated 100,000 eligible voters from its early voting mailing list. It won't begin deleting voters from the list until after the 2024 election. But Republicans have proposed new restrictions that could have a profound impact sooner, including new voter-ID requirements, severe limitations on the use of drive-up voting and ballot drop boxes, and requiring all voting to be in person on Election Day. "We need to get back to 1958-style voting," Arizona State Rep. John Fillmore said, defending his proposals in a committee hearing on Jan. 26, 2022. Ah, the good ol' days of 1958, when Arizona with its large Native American population imposed literacy tests as a prerequisite to voting, and about half of the Navajo voting-age population couldn't pass them. Tactic #2: If the opposing candidate wins the popular vote, disregard It Trump recently told the Pennsylvania GOP, "Sometimes the vote counter is more important than the candidate... We have to get tougher and smarter." He's putting those words into action. In 2020, Secretary of State Katie Hobbs—a Democrat—was Arizona's top "vote counter." Now that she is running for governor, Trump has endorsed state Rep. Mark Finchem to replace her. Finchem addressed Trump's crowd at the "Stop the Steal" rally in Washington, D.C., on January 5, 2021, and attended the January 6 insurrection. Gov. Doug Ducey, who is term-limited, signed the state's official certification of Biden's victory. To replace him, Trump has endorsed former Fox news anchor Kari Lake. She claims falsely that Trump won the election, advocates the imprisonment of Hobbs for unspecified election crimes, and demands that Arizona "decertify" Biden's electoral victory, which is impossible. Republicans in Arizona are also working on a backup plan. They have proposed a law that would empower the state's legislature to "accept or reject the election results." If rejected, any voter could sue to request a new election. Tactic #3: Bogus audits and investigations After Trump lost in Arizona, his allies focused on Maricopa County, which accounted for 60 percent of the state's total. To its credit, the Republican-dominated Maricopa County Board of Supervisors withstood the pressure and certified Biden's 45,000 vote victory. Nevertheless, in March 2021, the state senate's Republican president hired Cyber Ninjas to lead an outside audit of Maricopa County's 2.1 million ballots. The inexperienced firm's owner had touted Trump's election conspiracy theories and provided the ominous voiceover in "The Deep Rig"—a movie claiming that Trump had won the election. The state promised to pay Cyber Ninjas $150,000. Millions more poured in from outside sources, including pro-Trump fundraising groups led by his former national security adviser Michael Flynn, Trump's election conspiracy-peddling lawyer Sidney Powell, and correspondents for the One America News Network. The "audit" became a farce. "It's clearer by the day: The people hired by the Senate are in way over their heads," said the Republican chair of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors in May. "This is not funny; this is dangerous." In June, another Arizona GOP election official blasted the audit as "insane from a competence standpoint." Now every day in Arizona is January 6 - Alternet.org

An acquaintance of ours has been posting on Facebook that these cretins are "doing God's work"...and they are not alone in that ideation.

Moderna Announces Full FDA Approval For Its COVID-19 Vaccine WASHINGTON (AP) — Moderna announced Monday that U.S. health regulators granted full approval to its COVID-19 vaccine, a shot that’s been given to tens of millions of Americans since its emergency authorization over a year ago. The action by the Food and Drug Administration means the agency has completed the same rigorous, time-consuming review of Moderna’s shot as dozens of other long-established vaccines. The decision was bolstered by real-world evidence from the more than 200 million doses administered in the U.S. since the FDA cleared the shot in December 2020. The FDA granted full approval of Pfizer’s vaccine last August. Public health advocates initially hoped the regulatory distinction would boost public confidence in the shots. But there was no discernable bump in vaccinations after the Pfizer approval, which was heavily promoted by President Joe Biden and other federal officials. More than 211 million Americans, or 63% of the total population, are fully vaccinated. About 86 million people have gotten a booster dose. Vaccinations peaked last spring at more than 3 million per day, and now average less than 750,000 per day. The pace of vaccinations briefly spiked following news of the omicron variant in December but has since slowed again. The FDA, like regulators in Europe and elsewhere, initially allowed emergency use of Moderna’s vaccine based on a study that tracked 44,000 people 18 and older for at least two months — the time period when serious side effects typically arise. That’s shorter than the six months of safety data normally required for full approval, so Moderna continued that study. The FDA also kept watch for serious side effects that have proved to be very rare. In the U.S., Moderna is used only by adults. The company said last fall that FDA had delayed deciding whether to clear the shots for 12- to 17-year-olds as it examined a rare risk of heart inflammation seen mostly in young men and teen boys. Johnson & Johnson has not yet applied for full approval of its COVID-19 vaccine. Moderna Announces Full FDA Approval For Its COVID-19 Vaccine | HuffPost Latest News

As part of the protest against Joe Rogan's postings on Spotify, Yoko Ono has threatened to put her recordings on it.

Trump Incriminates Himself In Seditious Conspiracy Targeting Pence Trump admitted in writing to the entire world that he tried to make Mike Pence overturn the 2020 election. Trump railed against changing the Electoral Count Act, but it is the last part of the statement that is damning: Donald J. Trump Incriminates Himself In Seditious Conspiracy Trump is threatened by losing the ability to steal the next election to such a degree that he admitted that the point of all of the pieces of the puzzle the 1/6 attack, the forged election documents, the fake slates of electors, the pressure on swing states to claim fraud were all intended for a singular purpose. The goal was to get Mike Pence to refuse to certify the election. The point has been stated by other people who were part of Trump’s conspiracy, but the man at the top of the plot is admitting that he wanted his vice president to trash democracy and overturn the election for him. Trump admitted the motive for his conspiracy. The 1/6 Committee, the Department of Justice, and any other law enforcement agency, state or federal that might be investigating Trump has a huge piece of the puzzle confirmed. Donald Trump can’t stop talking. His constant need for attention may end up getting him criminally charged for election crimes. Trump Incriminates Himself In Seditious Conspiracy Targeting Pence (politicususa.com)

Yet another step towards an anocracy.

I think it would be very helpful if Trudeau, Singh , the current leader of the Bloc and all the sane premiers and MPs got together and posted a video and audio recording condemning the blockades and related criminal actions along with a commitment to vigorously prosecute everyone who crosses the legal line. A show of solidarity will both reassure the vast majority of Canadians and deter more lemmings from joining in.

There is a Farhan Lalji report that the Lions have offered Lawler 250k on a 2-year contract.

AN AMERICAN VIEW OF THE CANADIAN TRUCKER CONVOY Canada’s Anti-Vax Answer to Jan. 6 Is an Indefinite Blockade of Ottawa OTTAWA—The downtown of Canada’s capital is indefinitely gridlocked, as thousands of vehicles have descended on the city to rage against COVID-19 restrictions. The protest—which some have warned could spiral into Canada’s own version of the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol—was months in the making and culminated in Prime Minister Justin Trudeau being whisked off to a secure location Saturday. Diesel fumes hang over the whole frigid city, and the honking of horns ran from sun-up to midnight. The brigade of disgruntled anti-vaxxers won’t be leaving, they say, anytime soon. The busy streets in front of Canada’s Parliament buildings are now frozen, with a line-up of 18-wheelers, rigs, RVs, trucks, SUVs and cars essentially shutting the downtown core. The protesters have come from all across the country, with some driving more than 2,500 miles to be in Ottawa. The convoy has branded itself as a trucker protest, objecting to COVID-19 vaccine requirements for those who haul goods across the U.S.-Canada border, but in reality it is a rejection of virtually every policy and public health measure put in place to fight the pandemic. Now that thousands, perhaps more than 10,000, protesters have shut down Canada’s capital, they say they want all vaccine requirements quashed and Trudeau removed from office. The cross-country convoy has become a cause célèbre for the international right-wing—from Tucker Carlson to Joe Rogan and even Donald Trump and Don Jr.— as a symbol of resistance against what they see as the tyranny of government vaccine mandates. The blockade is perhaps the most drastic, organized, COVID-19-inspired demonstration the world has yet seen. Its organizers are a Voltron of various political factions: There’s the right-wing nationalist who is vowing to blockade MPs’ homes; the QAnon follower who wants Trudeau tried for treason; the political activist running a $7 million fundraiser, trying desperately to stop GoFundMe from seizing the dough; and a plethora of other characters who have assembled to shut down the capital. Their mix of pseudo-science, grassroots organizing, and a dash of legal mysticism have combined to create a really potent rally cry. More at: Canada’s Anti-Vax Answer to Jan. 6 Is an Indefinite Blockade of Ottawa (thedailybeast.com)