The Winter Up There Must Give People Brain Freeze

[Büge]

I'm a lot more disappointed that council is mostly re-elected incumbent middle-aged white males.

Which was exactly what Doug Ford was banking on when he cut the council from 47 to 25. A smaller council means fewer issues can be brought to the fore, and that the councilors will have more on their plates, thus more conservative decisions will be made.

[Mongrel]

That's too strategical for Premier Stay Puft. Let's call it for what it was: A hatchet job with no further thoughts behind it than revenge.

He hated most of the middle-aged white males too, because they all rightly thought he was trash. The fact that it keeps out minorities was just an accidental bonus. Doesn't seem to have done much to keep out the bleeding heart pinko lib commies though, so I expect he'll still be mad about that.

I'm not sure that fewer councillors will necessarily mean less issues brought up. The council is still allotted the same amount of time they always were. It just means fewer people will be doing the talking. It depends on what sort of delegation system they come up with. It's possible each councillor will have their own ad hoc system (in Frank Grimes' case that probably means ignoring even more people and taking even more bribes).

[WingSounds]

For what it's worth, I think it's best to assume that, at any time, up to 65% of the population can and will support fascism. And no, not because they're nazis, or even lean right; many people can and will support something that is antithetical to them for any number of reasons. Single issue votes, because their family is voting a certain way, effective ads, ennui, innertia.

What with the way the world in general is having a flirt with populism and nationalism, 4% is quite good. Could the results be better? Always. But consider this a reason to cheer, arm up, and continue fighting - to sway people to see reason, to educate, and to persevere.

Back to politics, though, couldn't having the smaller council backfire, if I understand the way delegation sortition works?
I don't know if I'd call Dougie stupid, but I can say that even when he's being cunning, we should also be... uh, let's go with wary of overestimating him and his handlers, as well.

I'm getting echoes of Harper and his 'short term fuck you plans' that ended up backlashing the PC in various local elections. Also also, I really wish that the US had something like Elections Canada.

[Mongrel]

Dougie's staff are almost entirely ex-Harperites. Terrifyingly, they're the ones making the non-insane decisions, like keeping open safe-injection sites. The petty, venal ones are all Dougie, and the ones which are "Conservative policy" (like the freeze on the rest of the planned minimum wage rise), are probably some mixture.

The thing about Premier Stay-Puft is that he's both a dullard and lazy, a person whose previous high-water mark was as the dealer at his high school (he's all but destroyed the family business with his incredibly poor decisions). So, as long as something isn't the target of his petty abuses, he doesn't want to do any work at all. Really, that's the only thing to hope for under his leadershit, which is that he progressively gets lazier and more bored once he's settled his perceived personal scores, and leaves more to the cabinet.

Not that I expect him to give up being a, just that things will slow down a bit. He could just as easily start some kind of legislative war with Toronto though, since pretty much the entire city didn't vote for him.

[WingSounds]

Harperites... Non-insane decisions... Urgh, give me a minute.
One last question, do you think the next general election will see further growth by the NDP, the Liberals, or a further splitting of the vote that allowed Dougie to get dug-in? I feel like another reason this is untenable is that, even if the Conservatives try to blame every single bad decision on him, the premier is the face of the party; and the party is the arm of the premier. One of the reasons I'm very optimistic about local races, even if I'm generally pessimistic about national races in America...

... Is that locally, there is a frenetic anti-Republican energy I haven't seen, ever. I'm still not seeing great youth turnout, but a family of upwardly mobile middle-class types voted D downballot without any encouragement from me; maybe knowing me made the door open, but when I asked 'oh, have you voted' and got a torrent of complaints about Republican mismanagement... Well, it's heartening. At least locally.

Also, though:

Really, that's the only thing to hope for under his leadershit, which is that he progressively gets lazier and more bored once he's settled his perceived personal scores, and leaves more to the cabinet.

Can we make this the scrolling marquee for 2018?

[Mongrel]

I expect Trudeau to win a second term (it will be the first election for both of his opponents), though I don't expect him to cruise to an easy victory as I would have a year ago.

The NDP's in disarray, so barring a stellar election performance from Jagmeet Singh, I figure Trudeau's really only got Andrew Scheer to worry about. The main question will be if Scheer manages to make himself look like a credible alternative, or makes some dumb mistakes - the latter will give Trudeau an easy majority, the former has the potential to possibly reduce him to a minority.

If the NDP REALLY falls apart (i.e. reduced to 20 seats or less), I expect both the Liberals and the Conservatives to pick up seats in Quebec, but the Liberals will almost certainly benefit more than the conservatives will.

Also, though:

Really, that's the only thing to hope for under his leadershit, which is that he progressively gets lazier and more bored once he's settled his perceived personal scores, and leaves more to the cabinet.

Can we make this the scrolling marquee for 2018?

That might be feasible here, but with the current makeup of the US Cabinet (or the British one!)... not so much.

[WingSounds]

I go back and forth on Scheer. I underestimated him during the leadership election, when I genuinely thought Bernier would take control. I don't want to underestimate him again, obviously, but neither do I want to overestimate him. All that being said, he hasn't particularly seemed like a strong anti-Trudeau rallying port, and even if the NDP does a superlative job at bleeding votes towards itself, I feel like the stars need to align for your former scenario.

Anyway, I'm doing what I can to work for a good outcome, since optimism itself does little.
Hard work, sulphurous grumbling, and vegetables; that's the WingSounds way!

[Mongrel]

*only now realizes I referred to both options as "latter"*

DURRHURR I KIN RITE

[WingSounds]

Hey, it happens to all of us. Probably that brain freeze the header talks about.
Plus, my head has been feeling like tapioca recently, so, I probably made... A lot of mistakes I haven't even seen yet.
So it goes!..

[Mongrel]

Mmmm Tapioca... now I want bubble tea...

[WingSounds]

Ahhhhh, I know, right?! I always want bubble tea!..

To be honest, it makes me a little nostalgic, because a very dear friend and I used to get it together all the time. But that doesn't change the fact that it's delicious. Ah, I hope you'll get a chance to go find some...

[Büge]

Mmmm Tapioca... now I want bubble tea...

There's a nice cafe near the Asian grocery where I bought that tub of kimchi!

(also, I bought kimchi)

[WingSounds]

ooooh! I know this isn't the thread, but... Kimchi is the best.
Well, actually, I make my own sauerkraut, though it goes by a different name. And my goal is to one day make humble kvashenaya kapusta that can compete with a new and rich set of flavours! Aha, that's the dream, anyway.

Nice, though. I hope you get to enjoy some, soon!

[Mongrel]

Mmmm Tapioca... now I want bubble tea...

There's a nice cafe near the Asian grocery where I bought that tub of kimchi!

(also, I bought kimchi)

They do a mean bubble tea at the Vietnamese place over on Pape, with the full range of jellied fruit bits and you can get all sorts of quantity variations. But like everything else at that restaurant it's more expensive than it would be at most other Viet places in the city (or Asian places, in the case of just the bubble tea). Price of convenience I suppose...

[WingSounds]

Given that I'm psyched that there's an Impossible Burger within an hour of where I live, I understand that convenience can be really nice, too. I'm fairly austere, so I feel like good food and drink are worth it. My definition of what those are might be a little off, but it is what it is. And sometimes you just want to sit down at a place, watch the people meander, and solemnly ruminate over bubble tea.

[Büge]

WEED SHORTAGE GRIPS NATION

the legal stuff, anyway

[Mongrel]

12 charged as protests over Munk-Bannon debate turn violent.

In the end, the debate was deemed to be a draw, with neither side swaying audience members.

Sums it up really.

What a stupid, pointless, attention-for-attention's-sake affair. NEITHER of those dopes deserves a "platform", except possibly the sort which has a trapdoor in it.

[Mongrel]

This is something which was going on as recently as last year, in case you were thinking this was something happening back in the 50's or whatever.

Every time I think we've started to curtail the worst colonial excesses, some shit like this comes up. Indigenous peoples are the future of this country, but the debts we owe them just seem to get bigger every day because of fuckknuckles like these.

[atog]

This is something which was going on as recently as last year, in case you were thinking this was something happening back in the 50's or whatever.

Every time I think we've started to curtail the worst colonial excesses, some shit like this comes up. Indigenous peoples are the future of this country, but the debts we owe them just seem to get bigger every day because of fuckknuckles like these.

For the confused, the missing piece.

This is some straight up national eugenics shit - apparently it's been going on not just in Saskatoon but also Regina and Winnipeg, feeder hospitals for the crappy northern provincial health network. They provide about 85% of the tertiary care for the numerous Cree, Dene, and Plains Ojibwe towns and settlements in their respective provinces. There are simply no viable alternatives, these institutions have a monopoly, in a sense.

[Mothra]

What in the everloving fuck