News roundup, 26 Nov 2025

- A competition held by Canada's defense department in 2021 found that Lockheed Martin's F-35 had substantially better combat capabilities than Saab's Gripen; the superiority is based on the F-35's "greater stealth and ability to integrate information from various military assets". It's worth noting, though, that stealth in particular is far more important for an aircraft's offensive capabilities than its defensive ones, and all this presupposes that we're still friendly enough with the Americans that they don't remotely disable them or something.

- Another special election is being held next month, to fill a vacant congressional seat in Tennessee. While the district has been reliably Republican of late (Trump outpolled Harris by 22% in the district last year) the race is now seen as competitive, with the possibility of an upset. Whether this will pan out as hoped is another question, though.

- Organizers of a pro-Palestinian conference that was shut down by authorities in Berlin last year are suing the state. Hundreds of police in riot gear had swarmed the venue and pulled the plug to ensure that speeches at the event could not be heard or livestreamed; the state defends this on the grounds that they "predicted" that criminal statements would be made by presenters.

- Violence on Winnipeg Transit buses increased by 281% between 2018 and 2024, the sharpest increase seen among Canadian cities that specifically track this kind of thing. The biggest category of such crimes is common assault, but it also includes a substantial number of more serious cases involving weapons and/or bodily harm.

- University of Winnipeg president Todd Mondor has left office, apparently having been removed by the Board of Regents. He had been appointed in 2022 for what was supposed to be a five year term. The chair of the board is denying suggestions that this was connected to a whistleblower complaint alleging misconduct.

- A fire at a Hong Kong high-rise complex has killed at least four people, including a firefighter, and injured at least five; there are reports that numerous other people are still unaccounted for. The spread of the fire has been attributed to bamboo scaffolding used by maintenance workers.

- An executive with Campbell's is on leave after reportedly mocking the people who eat the company's products, calling the soup "shit for fucking poor people". Not going to win any marketing prizes like that...

News roundup, 6 Aug 2025

- A car slammed into several vehicles waiting at a red light in Winnipeg's West End on Monday, injuring several people. A dashcam video of the crash may be found here; I do hope the driver's text was important.

- Mark Carney is not in a hurry to impose retaliatory tariffs on the US, and has even expressed openness to lifting some existing tariffs if it would be beneficial to Canadian industry. The government has, however, promised over a billion dollars to support the beleaguered softwood lumber industry.

- The union representing Manitoba's nurses will be voting this week on whether or not to discourage their members from taking jobs at the province's largest hospital due to safety concerns. If the union does vote to "greylist" Health Sciences Centre, the listing will remain until certain conditions are met, including security measures to keep the public out of the facility's tunnels and an alert system to warn staff and patients about security incidents in a timely manner.

- A man walked into a courtroom in Wapekeka First Nation in northern Ontario and pulled out a knife; he was shot to death by police. 

- The number of missiles launched by Russia against Ukraine has more than doubled since Donald Trump's inauguration.

- Manitoba's cabinet has dismissed appeals against the issuing of a license for a mine near Bernic Lake near Nopiming Provincial Park. The government says that the concerns raised had already been addressed during the environmental assessment process, but critics are skeptical. The mine is expected to produce tantalum, cesium, and lithium.

- The union representing Air Canada's flight attendants has overwhelmingly voted to strike if an agreement isn't reached by the 16th of August.

- The body of a man who went missing 28 years ago has been recovered from a glacier in Pakistan's Kohistan region. He had apparently fallen down a crevasse during a snowstorm, and recent melting allowed his remains to be found.

- Today is the 80th anniversary of the first use of a nuclear weapon in warfare. As those with first-hand memories of the bombing of Hiroshima are dying off, efforts are being made to ensure that their accounts are not forgotten.

News roundup, 10 June 2025

- California is taking the Trump regime to court over their unilateral decision to deploy the National Guard against protesters. Governor Gavin Newsom argues that it is "illegal and immoral" for the federal government to take such a measure without consulting the governor of the state in question. And a second journalist has been shot with a rubber bullet while covering the protests.

- Israeli authorities have deported Greta Thunberg and several other activists who were captured from a vessel delivering aid to Gaza. Several others from the same boat are contesting their deportation, and have been detained pending a hearing. The Israelis seem also to be continuing their policy of shooting people lining up for aid, which is not a good look.

- In addition to the infant who died of measles after being infected in utero, five other newborns in southern Ontario have been infected in the same manner.

- The Manitoba government is urging people to avoid non-essential travel in order to keep hotel rooms free for evacuees, whose numbers have now reached 21,000 people. This currently falls short of being an actual order, though.

- Winnipeg Transit is considering upgrading the shields that protect bus drivers from unruly passengers. Currently, they do not completely enclose the driver, making attacks still possible if a bit more difficult. A full upgrade of the fleet could be costly, but it seems more than worthwhile, and the Amalgamated Transit Union, which represents drivers, agrees.

- Mark Carney is promising to meet NATO's military spending target of 2% of GDP by next March. 

- Researchers at Anthropic, an AI startup, are predicting that white-collar jobs are going to go into serious decline, with more than half of entry-level office jobs disappearing. Others predict that it won't be the entry-level jobs that take the worst hit; those jobs tend to be lower pay, and new graduates with knowledge of AI should do OK, while people who have been in their jobs for a long time (especially if not unionized) might be more vulnerable.

- The Trump regime has issued an executive order lifting the longstanding ban on civilian overland supersonic flights. One company claims to have broken the sound barrier (just barely mind you, at Mach 1.1) without making a boom that was audible on the ground - but this is a small experimental aircraft that will need to be scaled up considerably in order to be economical, so there's no guarantee that the production aircraft will be tolerably quiet. And let's not get started on the potential emissions. But here's the thing - I don't think that there's any reason Canada should have to endure potential sonic booms over our own territory, as would be the case for, say, flights from the Midwest to New England or from the east coast to Asia. What if we simply refused to allow such flights over our territory?

- A school shooting in the Austrian city of Graz has killed eight people, including the perpetrator, and injured several more. 

News roundup, 29 Oct 2024

- The BC NDP appears to have the narrowest of majorities after the absentee ballots were counted in the hotly contested constituency of Surrey-Guildford. However, because their margin of victory was only 27 votes (less than 1/500 of the total votes cast) a judicial recount is automatic. Meanwhile Saskatchewan premier Scott Moe has secured a majority in yesterday's election in that province.

- Several incidents have occurred recently in the US in which ballot drop boxes were set on fire - most recently a couple of cases in the Portland metro area (one in Portland proper, the other in Vancouver, Washington). A superficially similar sounding case in Phoenix is being blamed on someone who set fire to a mailbox in order to get locked up so he'd have somewhere to stay and was thus apparently not politically motivated.

- The two back to back hurricanes that hit Florida earlier this month are motivating some voters, though it remains to be seen if it will be enough to turn the state blue. A promising sign is that young and first-time voters are voting early in large numbers compared to previous years.

- New research on human ability to withstand heat has concluded that the "wet bulb temperature" above which the human body gains more heat from the environment than it loses is more like 31°C, rather than the 35°C that was previously assumed to be the limit. If the global temperature average exceeds 2°C above preindustrial levels, significant parts of sub-Saharan Africa, India, and even China could see mass deaths in heat waves. Note that the 31°C limit is for normal healthy adults; for the elderly the limit could be as low as 22°C.

- The decision by Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos to overrule the paper's editorial board and not endorse any candidate has led to a significant backlash, with over a quarter of a million people (representing about 8% of subscribers) cancelling their subscriptions since the announcement.

- There have definitely been some unsettling attacks in Winnipeg in the last few days. From the university student attacked in her dorm room, to a daylight carjacking in which the victim was hit with her own car, to robbery with a machete, to attacking someone with a machete for the hell of it, or doing the same with a BB gun, we've seen rather a lot of nastiness of late - and, more worrisome, seemingly random nastiness.

Religious extremists arrested in Michigan terrorist plot

And guess which religion this time? Hint -- it's not Islam:

Nine members of the Christian militia group Hutaree have been indicted on multiple charges involving an alleged plot to attack police, including seditious conspiracy and attempted use of weapons of mass destruction, the U.S. Attorney in Michigan announced this morning.

"Six Michigan residents, along with two residents of Ohio and a resident of Indiana, were indicted by a federal grand jury in Detroit on charges of seditious conspiracy, attempted use of weapons of mass destruction, teaching the use of explosive materials, and possessing a firearm during a crime of violence," according to the government's press release, which you can read in full below.

Source (h/t Blaque). It should be noted that the "weapons of mass destruction" referred to are "Improvised Explosive Devices with Explosively Formed Projectiles", which seems bit of a stretch (it's a far cry from nuclear or biological weapons). Still, this is serious business, and requires serious action on the part of the authorities.

Still more right wing madness

It's escalated:

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - A Nashville man says he and his 10-year-old daughter were victims of road rage Thursday afternoon, all because of a political bumper sticker on his car.

Mark Duren told News 2 the incident happened around 4:30p.m., while he was driving on Blair Boulevard, not far from Belmont University.

He said Harry Weisiger gave him the bird and rammed into his vehicle, after noticing an Obama-Biden sticker on his car bumper.

Source. No information on whether the alleged assailant has any direct connection to teabaggers, but I bet he's a fan of the same media that they are, at the very least.

Incidentally, there's an update in the story of the bullet that broke a window at the office of a Republican member of Congress:

Police said a first floor window was struck by a bullet at around 1 a.m. on Tuesday. The building was not occupied, police said. A preliminary investigation determined that a bullet was fired into the air and struck the window at a downward direction, landing about a foot from the window. The bullet had enough force to break the windowpane but not penetrate the window blinds, according to a news release.

From here, via bluicebank in this DailyKos thread. As someone else points out further down that thread, it's really difficult to target a bullet that's fired into the air like that, which makes it much less likely that Cantor's office was targetted. Then, still further down, we find this:

As you say, that's one hell of a shot -- if done with a firearm. I'd like to know if there is powder residue or rifling on the bullet, because this is not so difficult to do with a direct shot from a wrist-rocket.

Actually, the presence of powder residue or rifling might not prove anything either, because it's not too hard to fire a bullet and then pick it up and fire it with a slingshot... and that could conceivably have been done by someone on either side (Dems wanting to send a message, or Repubs wanting to make it look like the Dems were in on the bad behaviour too). More likely than either of those, though, is a stray bullet; that happens a lot in many American cities.

One thing that some people have pointed out is that an awful lot of the teabaggers you see at those rallies are quite old, which reduces the likelyhood of them being at serious risk of becoming violent (James Wenneker von Brunn notwithstanding). However, they're making an active effort to recruit folks who carry guns professionally. The Oath Keepers are soldiers and police officers who have vowed to resist orders that they consider to be unconstitutional, and that could be really dangerous. Think of all the shell-shocked veterans who are coming back from Afghanistan and Iraq; a lot of them are going to be very disgruntled with the government, and they know how to shoot. While a military coup and/or civil war is far from certain, it would be foolish to dismiss the possibility...

The fabric of American society frays further

It's now moved from simple vandalism to potentially life-threatening violence:

The slashing of a gas line at the home of U.S. Rep. Tom Perriello’s brother’s house was a “deliberate act of vandalism” that “could have posed a danger,” Albemarle County officials said today.

On Monday, two conservative Tea Party activists posted the home’s address on the Internet, believing it belonged to the congressman. They urged others to “drop by” the house to “express their thanks” for Perriello’s vote in favor of health care reform.

A day later, Perriello’s brother’s family smelled gas and found that someone had severed a supply hose connecting a liquid petroleum tank to burners on a portable gas grill. The grill was on a deck adjacent to a screened-in porch on the back of the house.

“Investigators believe that this was a deliberate act of vandalism and that the supply hose was intentionally cut,” a statement from Albemarle County said. “While there was no immediate threat to the residence and its occupants, investigators believe the leaking gas could have posed a danger had there been an ignition source nearby.”

The slashing of the propane line was discovered the same day that someone sent the home a “threatening” letter addressed to Rep. Perriello.

From here, via Blaque. And it seems the other side is starting to shoot back... literally:

Eric Cantor of Virginia, the No. 2 Republican in the House, said at a news conference today that someone had fired a bullet through the window of his campaign office this week.

Source, via arthur_sc_king in a comment to another Blaque post. It's only a matter of time before lives are lost, and what then? Maybe it will knock some sense into people, but it could just as easily escalate things further.

The teabaggers declare war

Check this out (h/t liz-marcs in a comment to this post on Blaque's blog):

When the law becomes a deadly tool of tyranny, it is no longer a good thing to be obedient and "law-abiding." It is, in fact, suicidal.

Yet, given the federal mandarins' willful ignorance of our very existence and conviction that we have no opinions that they are bound to respect, is there anything that can be done to prevent civil war?

Yes, there is.

We can emulate the Sons of Liberty of old.

We can break their windows.

These windows are not far away from where you are reading this right now. In virtually every city and county in this land, there is a local headquarters of Pelosi's party -- the Democrat party. These headquarters invariably have windows. When the Sons of Liberty wanted to express their opposition to the actions of the King's ministers, they would gather in front of the homes and offices of his tax-collectors and government officials in Boston or New York and break their windows. Glass was expensive. The King's minions were often the most well-to-do. The Sons of Liberty hit them in their pocketbooks.

This guy is drawing analogies to what the "Sons of Liberty" did in the days leading up to the American War of Independence, but some have pointed out that there's a more recent analogy. And people have been acting -- Blaque, in the same post linked above, has catalogued five instances of such vandalism since the vote, and that may be only the beginning. One Democratic member of Congress has had her family threatened:

The same day a brick crashed through her Niagara Falls office, Rep. Louise Slaughter (D) says her staff discovered an assassination threat aimed at her family members. The Democratic headquarters in Rochester was also targeted.

This is fricking nuts. No doubt they're trying to provoke the authorities into overreacting, so they can escalate their own activities...

The teabaggers show their true colours

I've often used Blaque's Blog of Horrors as a source for this stuff, since being an American he's much more attuned to this stuff than I am (indeed, by the look of things it would be difficult to avoid seeing it). This weekend he (and his regular commenters) have found some dandy examples as the vote on the health care package approaches.

Exhibit A:

This is actually relatively benign as these things go, since the protesters are relatively civil there, but have a look at what happens when they try to answer simple questions about why they're there. It would be amusing if that were all there was. Unfortunately, it gets worse. Exhibit B:

The way they treated that guy is horrible. And this isn't the only example of their true colours coming to the surface, as this HuffPo story shows:

A staffer for Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.) told reporters that Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.) had been spat on by a protestor. Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), a hero of the civil rights movement, was called a 'ni--er.' And Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) was called a "faggot," as protesters shouted at him with deliberately lisp-y screams. Frank, approached in the halls after the president's speech, shrugged off the incident.

But Clyburn was downright incredulous, saying he had not witnessed such treatment since he was leading civil rights protests in South Carolina in the 1960s.

"It was absolutely shocking to me," Clyburn said, in response to a question from the Huffington Post. "Last Monday, this past Monday, I stayed home to meet on the campus of Claflin University where fifty years ago as of last Monday... I led the first demonstrations in South Carolina, the sit-ins... And quite frankly I heard some things today I have not heard since that day. I heard people saying things that I have not heard since March 15, 1960 when I was marching to try and get off the back of the bus."

Just in case you didn't already know that. And check out some of the pics in that story too (particularly the "If Brown can't stop it, Browning can" placard). These people are potentially very dangerous. A commenter on one of the YouTube videos above suggested that if Fox News told them to start killing everyone except white conservatives, a Rwanda-like massacre could result, and I don't think that's so implausible anymore. Especially considering who else is getting involved:

It’s no secret that conservatives have a hard time keeping racism out of their ranks (airwaves), and now it seems it has surfaced in even their grassroots (astro turf) movements. The whole tea party thing (except with representation and a high income bracket this time) is being organized by conservative corporate lobbyists, Freedom Works and Americans for Prosperity, who are no doubt milking this all the way to their billion dollar bank accounts.

If that wasn’t hard enough for real [sic] conservative activists to swallow, they are really going to hate showing up at rallies only to rub elbows with white nationalists. Kris Kobach got the party started in Kansas on April 4th when he hosted a joint tea party/anti-immigrant rally with Billy Gilchrist, Topeka chapter leader for the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps. In 2004 Kansas Republican leader Timothy Burger wrote in response to Kobach’s failed congressional run, “It doesn’t help matters that Kobach was hired by FAIR, widely perceived as a racist anti-immigrant group during the campaign.” But that stinging accusation hasn’t stopped Kobach from working for the John Tanton network ever since, or from dipping his tainted toes into anything that smells ripe for manipulation and publicity.

Blaque has suggested in an earlier post on his blog that lefties (at least in the US) should start buying guns, because the righties already have them. I hate to advocate that, given how arms races generally end up, but if any First World country is headed for civil war, America is probably the prime candidate.

Never forget...

Today is the 20th anniversary of the École Polytechnique massacre in Montreal. Devin Johnson has some comments; I don't have much to add, except that we should all take a moment to remember, and remind ourselves to work for change.