- Donald Trump's legal and financial troubles continue. New York's Attorney General, Letitia James, is not shy about her willingness to start seizing assets if he doesn't come up with the $350 million in cash needed to cover the fine resulting from the civil fraud verdict. Since much of his fortune is tied up in real estate rather than liquid assets, this is a very real possibility. For his part, Trump seems to be trying to evade liability by changing his business address to one in Florida.
- At the opening of the Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) in Washington, yet another Trump booster, one Jack Posobiec, said the quiet part out loud by vowing to overthrow democracy.
- The man convicted of driving his truck into a Muslim family in London, killing four of them, has been sentenced to life imprisonment with no chance of parole for 25 years. The judge also ruled that his crime constituted an act of terrorism, although the latter is largely symbolic, as is the concurrent life sentence given for the attempted murder of the fifth victim.
- The city's draft budget is winning plaudits from some activists for prioritizing trees over new roads, a sentiment I agree with. Less positive is the decision of city council to reject the motion from Councillors Matt Allard and Cindy Gilroy calling for all city staff, as well as employees of city contractors, to be paid a living wage by next year.
- It's sometimes said that ad hominem attacks (a direct attack on the person rather than their position or argument) used to be frowned on in politics. I'm not sure how much of this is true and how much is looking at the past through rose coloured glasses, but there's no doubt that it's rampant today. A couple of recent examples come from David Parker, founder of Take Back Alberta, who recently tweeted "The fact that a man as grotesque as [former Calgary mayor Naheed] Nenshi ever won 'sexiest man of the year' in Calgary (let alone four years in a row); tells you everything you need to know about the mainstream media in Calgary." Then he had a go at provincial NDP leadership candidate Sarah Hoffman in even worse fashion. The Take Back Alberta folks, of course, are following the lead of the likes of Donald Trump, and unfortunately this sort of thing works with the kind of rabble they're trying to rouse.
- Following recent legislation in Florida making it easier to get books removed from schools for "inappropriate" content, some activists have targeted the Bible (which, after all, contains plenty of stuff that many folks wouldn't consider child friendly - incest, torture, genocide, and the like). In response, legislators are planning to charge fees for complaints by people who don't have kids in the school system.
- A Catholic priest in Slovenia has been accused of sexual misconduct; among his sins, he is alleged to have pressured nuns into watching porn and then participating in a threesome with him. I don't think that's what most people have in mind when they think of the phrase "Holy Trinity".
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