"I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn't lose any voters, OK? … It's, like, incredible." (Donald Trump, January 23, 2016) He could. He practically did. And yeah, he won. Fast forward seven years, and shift scene to Alberta. Danielle Smith has claimed that the unvaccinated are the most discriminated-against group in her lifetime. She’s suggested that cancer patients can do more to stop their cancers before they get to Stage 4. She’s had warm things to say about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
And not enough is said how truly dispiriting this is. It's like a religion and/or Fox News viewers who simply don't care about anything except the solidarity of their group. To call them "low information" is generous; at this point after all the serious blowback, they're obviously as bad as the perpetrators, except maybe dumber. The banality of evil. I don't think any of us really knew how many stupid people there are out there, I mean stupid enough to not even know to come in out of the rain stupid. Sure as hell doesn't make our education system look good.
So 40 odd years of voting for the SAME party is bad enough; that made Albertans look totally tribal but at least that was the PROGRESSIVE Conservatives. Voting for this new rube UCP version drops us even lower to utterly deranged. It's just mortifying to live here.
And the situation with the Oilers is probably firing them up even more because THAT'S their team too.....I mean, there's no difference....
A large part of the problem, and why so many RWNJ leaders seem to be untouchable, is that the press is institutionally paralyzed. The need to be seen as “non-partisan” has them frozen.
Just look at the top two stories right now. The wildfires and the newest round of Smith’s insane comments. The press goes right from covering the crazy comments to treating her seriously on the fire. Sometimes in the same press conference.
And if they really accept that Smith is a compulsively lying nut job, all that becomes impossible. If you really accept she’s nuts you’re no longer able to ask “neutral” questions about her firefighting response. Or about the thousand other routine campaign announcements.
If the press really took her derangement seriously it obliterates all the routine nature of their job. And they have no idea what to do with that.
What I find amazing is that even with knowledge of comments like these, and multiple others, that the TBA group put their resources and people behind Danielle Smith to make her UCP Leader. I can only conclude that TBA group had insight into her past comments and opinions and supported those comments and opinions. Not voting Danielle Smith is a given for me. So is not voting UCP until they exit from the grip of the TBA group. You are known by the people you associate with.
I for one am glad that The current premier is learning a little about Nazism, but I wish it wasn’t from Netflix, and I wish she had some more discernment and better judgement. I wish frankly that she took her job more seriously than if she were a high school student council president.
A family member is permanently vaccine injured because she gave in to the pressure, trusted the pharma industry and took that shot. Afterwards she was vilified and called an anti-vaxxer because of what happened.
With all trust in "public health" gone, we'll never again support a party who doesn't support bodily autonomy, even if the rethoric gets over the line sometimes, sorry.
And to paraphrase another more recent Trump comment from a different context.... "Unfortunately. (Shrug). Or fortunately." Which adverb you apply to the Teflon-ality of Ms Smith I suppose is a matter of perspective.
I can see the correlation with people allowing the government to take on more sweeping and wide ranging powers, removing the normal governmental safeguards, bullying tactics to keep businesses inline, silencing of all questioning... Just because it didn't end up in people being gassed, doesn't mean it wasn't a similar pattern when the Nazis were coming into power.
And not enough is said how truly dispiriting this is. It's like a religion and/or Fox News viewers who simply don't care about anything except the solidarity of their group. To call them "low information" is generous; at this point after all the serious blowback, they're obviously as bad as the perpetrators, except maybe dumber. The banality of evil. I don't think any of us really knew how many stupid people there are out there, I mean stupid enough to not even know to come in out of the rain stupid. Sure as hell doesn't make our education system look good.
So 40 odd years of voting for the SAME party is bad enough; that made Albertans look totally tribal but at least that was the PROGRESSIVE Conservatives. Voting for this new rube UCP version drops us even lower to utterly deranged. It's just mortifying to live here.
And the situation with the Oilers is probably firing them up even more because THAT'S their team too.....I mean, there's no difference....
A large part of the problem, and why so many RWNJ leaders seem to be untouchable, is that the press is institutionally paralyzed. The need to be seen as “non-partisan” has them frozen.
Just look at the top two stories right now. The wildfires and the newest round of Smith’s insane comments. The press goes right from covering the crazy comments to treating her seriously on the fire. Sometimes in the same press conference.
And if they really accept that Smith is a compulsively lying nut job, all that becomes impossible. If you really accept she’s nuts you’re no longer able to ask “neutral” questions about her firefighting response. Or about the thousand other routine campaign announcements.
If the press really took her derangement seriously it obliterates all the routine nature of their job. And they have no idea what to do with that.
What I find amazing is that even with knowledge of comments like these, and multiple others, that the TBA group put their resources and people behind Danielle Smith to make her UCP Leader. I can only conclude that TBA group had insight into her past comments and opinions and supported those comments and opinions. Not voting Danielle Smith is a given for me. So is not voting UCP until they exit from the grip of the TBA group. You are known by the people you associate with.
In the Garden of Beasts
Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin by
Erik Larson, is better than Netflix for explaining Nazism. Please tell Danielle Smith.
I for one am glad that The current premier is learning a little about Nazism, but I wish it wasn’t from Netflix, and I wish she had some more discernment and better judgement. I wish frankly that she took her job more seriously than if she were a high school student council president.
A family member is permanently vaccine injured because she gave in to the pressure, trusted the pharma industry and took that shot. Afterwards she was vilified and called an anti-vaxxer because of what happened.
With all trust in "public health" gone, we'll never again support a party who doesn't support bodily autonomy, even if the rethoric gets over the line sometimes, sorry.
And to paraphrase another more recent Trump comment from a different context.... "Unfortunately. (Shrug). Or fortunately." Which adverb you apply to the Teflon-ality of Ms Smith I suppose is a matter of perspective.
And she looks pretty good confronting the forest fires, ////trump never looked good,
I can see the correlation with people allowing the government to take on more sweeping and wide ranging powers, removing the normal governmental safeguards, bullying tactics to keep businesses inline, silencing of all questioning... Just because it didn't end up in people being gassed, doesn't mean it wasn't a similar pattern when the Nazis were coming into power.