Tracker

Apparently, the protesters at the Lege have had new reinforcements added today. Getting them out of there is becoming more difficult by the day.

The National ComPost has deteriorated into a right-wing echo chamber, and Rex Murphy is a perfect fit. In related news, four of the Coutts mob have been charged with attempted murder. Apparently these were actively planning to kill RCMP officers, presumably to spark a violent uprising. In other related news, CBC News and the New York Times have reported that the Ottawa police have been very friendly with the protesters. And a total of 7 Canadian Armed Forces personnel are in the process of being discharged for making public statements in support of the convoy. There is a report that a retired RCMP officer once in charge of security for the Prime Ministers helped plan the Ottawa occupation.

Report: Russian Skater Had 3 Different Drugs In System When She Failed Test ZHANGJIAKOU, China (AP) — Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva listed two legal substances used to improve heart function on an anti-doping control form she filled out before her drug case at the Olympics erupted, according to documents submitted in her case. The World Anti-Doping Agency filed a brief in the Valieva case stating that the existence of L-carnitine and Hypoxen, though both legal, undercuts the argument that a banned substance, trimetazidine, might have entered the skater’s system accidentally. Hypoxen, a drug designed to increase oxygen flow to the heart, was a substance the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency recently tried, without success, to get placed on the banned list. L-carnitine, another oxygen-boosting performance enhancer, is banned if injected above certain thresholds. The supplement was the focal point of the doping case involving track coach Alberto Salazar. Combining those with 2.1 nanograms of trimetazidine, the drug found in Valieva’s system after a Dec. 25 test, is “an indication that something more serious is going on,” USADA CEO Travis Tygart said. “You use all of that to increase performance,” he said. “It totally undermines the credibility” of Valieva’s defense. Report: Russian Skater Had 3 Different Drugs In System When She Failed Test | HuffPost null

Fox News descended into utter insanity on Wednesday Today has been a wild one over in Fox News propaganda land, even by their standards. This morning, anchor Jesse Watters urged the United States to annex Canada to save it from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, whom Watters suggested is a communist. And he was serious. “We have to finish the wall and build a fresh one in the north if this keeps up. Or we could just liberate the Canadians from their dictatorship,” said Watters. “It’s not like America hasn’t done that before. There’s room for a few more stars on the flag.” Good luck with that. Fox News descended into utter insanity on Wednesday - Alternet.org

I believe that Argentina has a history of welcoming people of his ilk.

You are disregarding the phallic sympbolism of guns so dear to those males who are not generously endowed. Its called compensation.

Who is better has yet to be proven. With a decent O-line, receivers and coaching, Prokop may well turn out to be more productive.

If they want to put some excitement into the olympics , put intersections in the luge and downhill skiing events.

6 COVID-related deaths in the last 24 hours in Manitoba, and the Tories are loosening restrictions. Brilliant.

The Free Press is reporting that, contrary to her public statement yesterday decrying the implementation of the Emergency Measures Act, three days previously, Heather Stefanson sent PM Justin Trudeau a letter begging for assistance. Nothing to see here. Move along now, Same old stories- lying Tories.

Ottawa residents respond to anti-vax truckers with a song about gay cowboys Anti-vaccine truckers from the "Freedom Convoy" in Ottawa, Canada on February 12, 2022, Wikimedia Commons In Ottawa, Canada’s capital city, a convoy of anti-vax truckers have been protesting against the Canadian government’s COVID-19 vaccine requirement for truckers reentering Canada from the United States — and many Ottawa residents have grown impatient with the traffic jams and gridlock they have created. Some of those Ottawa residents, according to LGBTQ Nation’s Bil Browning, have responded by “using an explicit heavy metal song about gay cowboys having sex to overpower the group’s communications and broadcast it to anyone listening.” The song is “Ram Ranch,” a 2012 recording by Canadian rocker Grant MacDonald. “Ram Ranch,” Browning reports, “is being blasted over several Zellow channels dedicated to the convoy.”

An object lesson for pro athletes: no matter how talented you think you are, you still have to prove yourself every game. With all the politicization and interference in the games and drug testing, its hard to believe any of this stuff and even harder to care.

America's popularity among democracies has been low and sinking for a couple of decades now as evidenced by the reduced number of people from those countries wanting to visit or move there.

It is very easy now to be come despondent and cynical about the social culture of Canada right now, but these idiots comprise probably less than a tenth of one percent. However they are very vocal and the media and some politicians and popular figures have given them a profile completely out of proportion to their numbers and purported popularity. The politicians have been divided and hesitant in their responses as have been the police, and that has compounded the problem. The net message the protesters have taken out of this is that whenever they do not get what they want, even if illegal and outrageous, they can repeat these behaviours and escalate if they choose to with little or no consequence. Bullies rarely respond to negotiation- they see that as an admission of weakness and renew their demands.

Firearms seized from peaceful, misunderstood demonstrators at Coutts, Alberta. The Ottawa police chief has said that he has no doubts that some of the protestors there are armed.

And still won nothing.

Alec Baldwin Sued By Family Of 'Rust' Cinematographer Killed On Set LOS ANGELES (AP) — The family of a cinematographer shot and killed on the set of the film “Rust” is suing Alec Baldwin and the movie’s producers for wrongful death, their attorneys said Tuesday. Lawyers for the family of Halyna Hutchins announced the lawsuit filed in New Mexico in the name of Hutchins’ husband, Matthew Hutchins, and their son, Andros, at a Los Angeles news conference. At least three other lawsuits have been filed over the shooting, but this is the first directly tied to one of the two people shot. The “reckless conduct and cost-cutting measures” of Baldwin and the film’s producers “led to the death of Halyna Hutchins,” attorney Brian Pannish said.

Russian Skater Kamila Valieva In Olympics Doping Scandal Blames Grandfather's Medication BEIJING (AP) — Worn out after a grueling doping hearing, Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva said she was happy nonetheless after being allowed to skate Tuesday in the women’s short program at the Beijing Olympics. The 15-year-old Valieva is the overwhelming favorite for the gold medal alongside Russian teammates Alexandra Trusova and Anna Shcherbakova, who are aiming for the first sweep by any nation of the women’s Olympic podium. Valieva was cleared to skate even though she failed a drug test taken Dec. 25, the result only emerging last week, after her two brilliant performances in the team competition helped win gold for the Russian team. The Court of Arbitration for Sport gave her a favorable decision Monday in part because she is a minor, known as a “protected person,” and is subject to different rules from an adult athlete. Lawyers for Valieva also “brought some doubts about her guilt,” veteran IOC member Denis Oswald said Tuesday, with their possible explanation of accidental rather than deliberate doping with the heart medication trimetazidine. “Her argument was this contamination which happened with a product her grandfather was taking,” Oswald, a Swiss lawyer who prosecuted previous Russian doping cases, told reporters. Russian Skater Kamila Valieva In Olympics Doping Scandal Blames Grandfather's Medication | HuffPost null (What- Russians doping? Has to be an innocent mistake)

For some, leadership is finding a parade and getting in front of it. Can't have your cake and eat it too, Petey.

I would think that Mazars will be falling all over themselves to provide the IRS will everything they could possibly want. Anything to avoid being implicated.

America contiues to revert to the Dark Ages. I assume that burning at the stake would be the next logical step.

That is not too far a stretch in tort law. If you provide say, a baseball bat to someone apt to do damage with that bat, you do bear culpability. In the US, which is not a perfect precedent, Remington firearms was forced to pay out $75 million to the victims and families of the Sandy Hook slaughter.

CBC is reporting that 1200 Manitobans have donated to the protesters. It seems to me that if you fund a movement, you should also be financially liable for any damages the protesters do.

I fear this will end the criminal prosecution against Randy Andy. It still amazes and saddens me about how, in the US, money salves all wounds and how few go to prison. A commentary on American society, i guess.

Part of the bizarreness about the whole Coutts/Emerson situations is that if the 16 armed and armoured felons were in any other circumstances other than representing the nutbar fringe of the right-wing base of the two governments, not only would the premiers be screaming for federal government help, they would be also demanding that the police go in with guns blazing. The current responses are cowardly and hypocritical. I have been in protests at the Lege in the 70's against Candian involvement in Viet Nam and other issues, and there were lots of police around but they were given no reason to come at us, apart from some (in retrospect) fairly mild insults at them. The lack of condemnation from our premier made the protesters feel like they were and are being given tacit support. And with good reason.