Monday has come and gone. My Nuggets and Avalanche are in the playoffs, and my beloved Red Sox are already behind the Yankees. So, it is officially spring. I’m speeding down the road to the last chapters of my latest book, and my other work keeps me busy. I try every day to find something good.
Sometimes, it’s just the 5-year-old next door ringing my doorbell (I always know it’s him because I can’t see him at the window…yet) asking if we can take the dogs for a walk. Which, of course, we do. How could I refuse both his sweet request and my puppies’ soulful eyes begging for an adventure?
But like all of you, there is a darkness in the background that I cannot escape. I do my best to look after those around me who I can have a direct effect on – I live in a richly cultured neighborhood – I try to be a good neighbor. I worry.
Another week has begun, and we are left to ponder how best to address the dire situation we are in. I cannot stress enough how much you need to take care of yourself first, so you have the energy to take care of others when called upon.
***
Speaking of wonderful neighbors, one of our jackals shared this on FB, and I thought it was worth a share here.
Mar 12, 2025220,926 views • Mar 12, 2025Dear Canada, I felt compelled to make something. To stick up for, and to honour. To show our strength, beauty, genius, empathy, light and heart. I spent the past few weeks in my free time piecing this together. It’s a love letter, made with deep gratitude for the people and places of this beautiful land. Vive le Canada 🇨🇦 ❤️ ✌️ 💪
Here is the aforementioned giant crew:
Jasper got a new jacket for winter this year because the cold weather was making him stressed – I think he may have been left outside in the cold during the before times. The jacket was enough that he was comfortable playing outside again.
This is a totally open thread…
War for Ukraine Day 1,145: Russia Continues to Escalate Its Genocidal Strikes on Ukrainian Targets While Trump Repeats Putin’s Misinformation & Agitprop
Redshift
Aww, the jacket is adorable!
Chetan Murthy
That’s beautiful! It made me tear up a little, but in a good way!
Rusty
The first summer (1991) after I met the woman who became my wife, we spent a month driving along the Gaspe in Quebec, then across New Brunswick, up Nova Scotia, and took a ferry to Newfoundland, and even made it to Labrador for one night. We camped most of the way. Our oldest went to college at McGill University, giving us an excuse to enjoy Montreal for 4 years. Those and many other trips north have left me with a love for Canadians and their beautiful country. Trump being so abusive toward them is despicable.
Aziz, light!
I was in Canada this morning. Drove up from Portland yesterday to buy a travel trailer. BC is beautiful, as it says right on their license plates. My impression is that most Canadians are genuinely nice people with solid values based on caring for one another and it’s painful to consider how callously they are being treated. Saw a lot of maple leaf flags being flown above homes with the words “Strong and Free” on the bottom. Challenge accepted, that’s what those words mean. For the time being, we don’t deserve to regard them as our friends.
Melancholy Jaques
@Rusty:
That sounds like a most excellent romance, Rusty.
eclare
Planning to do my taxes tomorrow, but the IRS declared the entire state a disaster area so now I have til Nov. 3, so if I don’t, no biggie.
The entire state being declared a disaster is due to Helene in the East and rain/wind/tornados in the Middle and West. Here in Memphis we got at least a foot (some areas got more) of rain in four days.
Chetan Murthy
Many of our (so-called) countrymen don’t deserve to regard them as their friends, for sure. But I would say that I do regard Canadians as my friends, and contrariwise, I don’t regard these moral imbeciles who voted for Trump as my countrymen.
eclare
@Rusty:
I’ve only been to Montreal, which was many years ago, but I loved it. A good friend of mine who lives in NC bought a place way up north on an island a few years ago. Her son is in high school in NC. Once he’s in college, she and her husband are out.
Jay
@Aziz, light!:
Aside from Government buildings, one would almost never see Canadian Flags flying, okay, Sports Hockey aside, and Canada Day.
All 22 cranes doing construction around me, have Canadian Flags flying, The construction side across the street has 28.
Most of the time, at private residences, you would see the old Dominion Flag flying, rural areas, letting you know that they were an old white racist.
When I worked at Comtech, Ragh, (Raghinder) used to love when I pulled into the parking lot with my Canadian flag flying. Lifted Boy’s truck with all the toys, and she knew it wasn’t Redneck central.
With her parents permission, I took her to her first Pride Parade.
Gloria DryGarden
I got turned over into fierceness on the other thread, maybe i got mad. so I went to blue sky, wrote some poem things. Scroll by if it’s not your thing:
________
Poetry as a necessary rinse cycle.
Someone said this ‘merican darkness is somehow permanent.
I refuse
I cancel
I unsubscribe.
Writhing with resistance
I call upon goodness and humanity
the new light triad.
we stand with deep roots
we weave strength between us
Give joy and flowers
delight.
Fight
__________
A shorter version:
Rinse away darkness
Stand tall. Root deep. Sing out strong.
Grow and hold light; fight
Build a nest, create kindness
Believe it: Clear voices speak
Jay
@eclare:
And no FEMA, what is that?,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Gloria DryGarden
One more
1
When the gloom of pessimism
Drapes it’s shawl around you,
heavier than fog,
Light a candle.
When depression tries to wash you down river
Swim hard,
Stay afloat
Reach for shore
live.
2
When your person tells you they are sick,
Or troubled
Let them know they matter,
That you see them.
If an action can be taken, and you are called
Take it.
Meanwhile send thoughts of healing and loving kindness
To the whole world
sentient ai from the future
I’ve thought of getting an estimate for a custom flag (there’s a shop near me) that is Canadian but replaces the maple leaf with the Ukrainian tryzub, since they’re similar ish
eclare
@Jay:
Luckily we didn’t need FEMA here, just waterlogged. Memphis is on bluffs overlooking the Mississippi River, if it floods, it floods AR.
Going to take decades for places to recover from Helene, if they ever do.
eclare
@sentient ai from the future:
Had to Google, that is one cool trident!
prostratedragon
The dogs make a fine assemblage.
SpaceUnit
Glad the Nuggets and Avalanche are doing good. But Stan Kroenke can go blow a goat.
frosty
The Canada love letter was beautiful. We were in the Canadian Rockies last summer (OTR to come). I want to go back. If Border Security doesn’t want to let me back, oh well.
sentient ai from the future
I am going to go via public transit tomorrow morning to the ICE detention center near me and walk the perimeter chanting his name.
I am preparing the people around my child’s care for my potential absence.
I don’t know where this ends, I just know I need to be a witness, I need to say his and their names in the presence of power, regardless of the consequence.
My child, my brilliant adorable transgender child, needs to see me doing that work.
NotMax
@Jay
Let’s hear it for the Canadian pale!
;)
Ramalama
@sentient ai from the future: are you going alone?
Viva BrisVegas
It looks like the Canadian election on April 28th is proceeding to a satisfactory result (knock wood). Carney should send Trump a thank you note for torpedoing the chances of the skunk Poilievre.
We have our own election 5 days later on May 3rd (always on a Saturday). The campaign started with chances for the Labor Party (more centre than left) and our own Liberal Party (pack of Trumpy right wing shitheads) about 50/50.
The good news is that the more Trump is reported on in news, the more support falls away from the Liberals. The odds are probably now about 70/30 and trending better for Labor the more of Trump that people see.
The campaign ads have now picked up on this and are flooding TV with spots tying the Liberals and their leader to Trump. The Liberals are coming back with cost of living crap, but it doesn’t seem to be convincing.
It’s still a long from the finishing post for both elections, but if I were a betting man I wouldn’t be putting money on either set of conservatives.
prostratedragon
Some tracking resources:
Near the end of the thread is a link to to the spreadsheet data.
YY_Sima Qian
I hope Harvard stands firm:
Pete Downunder
@Viva BrisVegas: I’ll be working shifts at the prepoll next two weeks for the Greens in The Gap. Perhaps an Aussie meetup? The front pagers have my email.
prostratedragon
Griffey Jr. is embarking on a second career: sports photography.
Baud
@prostratedragon:
That’s cool.
YY_Sima Qian
Well, it has come to this:
dc
Why aren’t all these countries suing the US at the WTO? Remember all the protests around the WTO meetings? What good is it if it can’t even protect the neoliberal world order it was made for?
YY_Sima Qian
It is just pouring for Boeing:
Torrey
@Gloria DryGarden:
Thank you for these. I can’t speak for anyone else, but these are exactly what I needed right now.
Liminal Owl
@Torrey: You speak for me as well. Thank you, Gloria.
prostratedragon
The lab coats and doctoral robes came out yesterday: Hands Off Our University at Columbia
Princess
Trump’s aggression and 51st state nonsense was a needed kick in the pants for Canada and Canadians. We’re focused on the things that we have in common, not just on what divides us. Canadian flags are selling out in Quebec. Things like the video Tamara posted (and I’m curious how much of it the non-Canadians can identify) help. Someone like Poilievre cannot thrive in that environment.
Liminal Owl
@YY_Sima Qian: Yes. And someone on bsky (whom I can’t find now) reported that MIT has followed Harvard’s lead.
Inspiration penguins!
Princess
@prostratedragon: “Dozens.” Not enough. It should be all of them. I’m tbh appalled by the silence I see from my academic colleagues about the steady takeover of American universities.
Jack Canuck
@Viva BrisVegas:
Sure hope you’re right about the Australian election, but it’s looking hopeful right now. Dutton and his crowd can’t seem to make a convincing argument to distinguish themselves from the American fascists, and that doesn’t seem to be working for them. Would be nice if I could vote for the winning side in my first chance to vote down here!
Princess
Hey, whatever happened to TBone? I just realized I haven’t seen her post anything for days.
Baud
@Princess:
She got a time out and decided to stay away. Last I heard, she was at mistermix’s blog.
Gloria DryGarden
@Torrey:
@Liminal Owl:
you’re welcome. I’m glad.
Princess
@Baud: Ah okay. There was a period when I think I wasn’t reading comments here, not for any particular reason, and I think a lot of stuff went down then that I missed.
Baud
@Princess:
I missed it too. Found out about a week later.
YY_Sima Qian
The rain just pours for Boeing:
Geminid
There was news from New York City’s mayoral race yesterday. From Politico:
Three polling outfits released polls in late March showing Cuomo wigh a big lead over Queens Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani. Emerson showed Cuomo at 38%, a gain of 5 percent since February; and Mamdani at 10%. Data for Progress had Cuomo at 39% and Mamdani at 15%; and the Homan Grpup showed Cuomo at 41% and Mamdani at 21%.
Other candidates were in single digits; one poll showed Mayor Eric Adams at 11% but since then Dams dropped out of the Democratic primary and will run as an Independent.
The primary will use Ranked-choice voting. Data for Progress presented respondents with a Ranked-choice ballot and found that when all 5 rankings were allocated, Cuomo beat Mamdani 70 to 30 percent.
The primary will be held June 24. That’s a ways off, and in 2021 Andrew Yang led in late March. One difference this year is that unlike Yang and Eric Adams, who barely won the primary, Andrew Cuomo is a well known poltical figure with a record of most of two terms as governor.
Baud
@Geminid:
I know a lot of people would like Trump to be succeeded by a progressive, but my guess is the NYC situation (assuming it holds) is the more likely outcome. It’s not like the rest of the country is more progressive than NYC.
Anyway
Keanu is Canadian???!! I was aware of most of the others and also aware of the huge number of Canadians in the entertainment industry but that one snuck up on me.
Princess
@Baud: The problem in NYC and in NY as a whole tbh is that some of it is very very progressive to the point of disliking the Dems, and the rest is not progressive at all. I truly think the state could go red because of that split. Look who they’ve foisted on the rest of the country. Anyway, they’re not as mainstream progressive as, say, Chicago and Illinois are.
And I agree with your broader point — nationally Dems seem to be shifting right, in the sense of focusing on white men’s needs and feelings. That’s the common denominator of what Whitmer and Newsom are doing imv.
Princess
@Anyway: Keanu is Canadian. A good friend went to high school with him in Toronto.
Geminid
@Baud: I’m interested in the outcome of New Jersey’s Democratic governor primary. I think that’s in June also. I have not seen any recent polls but last I saw, Rep. Mikie Sherrill was picking up some key endorsements. If she wins, the three big election contests of 2025 will feature Andrew Cuomo and two former Blue Dogs* as the Democratic candidates.
* Rep. Sherrill and former Rep. Abigalil Spanberger, who is running unopposed in the Virginia governor’s primary, started out their Congressional careers in 2019 as Blue Dogs; they and four other Blue Dogs left the caucus in January of 2023.
Baud
@Princess:
Fruits of victory for that cohort.
prostratedragon
@Princess: Going back to the Vietnam era I don’t know of “dozens” of faculty, many tenured it seems, rallying for anything.
Geminid
@Geminid: I was glad to see that Abigail Spanberger seems to be leaningin to the gun control issue in her campaign for Virginia governor. In an appearance in Alexandria where she accepted the endorse.ent of Moms Demand Action, Spanberger pledged to sign gun control legislation including a ban on assault-type firearms.
She may get the chance. Democrats will control the state Senate until 2027 at least, and all 100 House of Delegates seats are up this year. Spanberger’s opponent is the lacklustre Winsome Sears, and this ought to be a good opportunity for Dems to expand their 51-49 majority in the House.
Gvg
@Princess: The financial aid community newsletters say that this time around the universities are letting the fight be lead by the professional associations, not individual institutions alone. The press is not reporting it because they don’t even know they exist. There are lawsuits with multiple school sources but not simply university presidents that can be too easily fired. Things like regional accreditation bodies and national faculty associations.
The thing I worry about is public Universities. They are funded by states mostly and they have been the middle class and even lower income hope for a good education. In red states like Florida, I don’t see how they can legally resist a legislatures orders. DeSantis’ has it in for us, and next years budget is a disaster. We are in trouble financially because they chose to put us there. It was foreseen, and a good bit of planning was done, but we will still have hard times. I don’t think we can be a loud voice for freedom, only a quiet whisper of sneaky logic maybe.
Not all states kept as much control of their state universities as Florida. The good side is we kept financially supporting them more than others and stayed relatively cheaper. Since the 90’s we have been rated a bargain comparatively. The down side is the state still has a lot of control and appoints all the regents. Until now very few Governors did much though. DeSantis has been really active and picked all of them. Also got rid of his own if they don’t please him.
Professor Bigfoot
@Anyway: You mean that he’s well known as a really nice, kind-hearted guy who also happens to be John Wick didn’t tip you off? ;)
Professor Bigfoot
@Princess: As it happens, let me say once again that this is exactly what I expect to happen.
White concerns WILL be addressed!
rikyrah
@YY_Sima Qian:
They did
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone 😊😊😊
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
prostratedragon
Cat drinking song from yesterday: “Lotus Blossom,” Kenny Doreham Quartet.
Professor Bigfoot
@Baud: Exactly what I’ve been worried about; because that demographic doesn’t mean any of the rest of us well.
Anyway
@Professor Bigfoot: Yes, he does have that zen quality about him- d’uh me!
Professor Bigfoot
@rikyrah: Guten Morgen, Bonjour, G’dday!
Anyway
@Princess: To repeat – i will forever be disgusted and angered by Sunkist Stalin’s repeated use of 51st state and “Gov” Trudeau – cringe indeed…
sab
@Princess: I was surprised to realize that I had never actually seen any film of Tommy Douglas before this. I had of course heard of him, but had never ecrually heard him.
Jager
My maternal great-grandparents were Canadians. After yesterdat’s shit show in the oval office, I wish Will and Rose had stayed in Toronto.
Professor Bigfoot
@Anyway: I have to stop, take a deep breath, and change my own mental subject about that marigold MF.
I have a relatively enormous vocabulary, and I do not have the words.
Baud
sab
@sab: typo: meant actually not ecruelly.
Anyway
So what are the options apart from Airbus? Is there a homegrown passenger airplane manufacturing sector?
Princess
@Gvg: my understanding from professor friends in Ohio is that the state barely gives them anything and STILL controls everything.
sab
@Princess: They rely to a huge extent on foreign students for the graduate programs in Ohio universities. Next year will be shocking.
schrodingers_cat
Why are people surprised at the utter lawlessness of Orange 2.0. Were they asleep during the first term or on Jan 6 2020 or the last campaign?. Everything he is doing now was broadcast openly. Our media acted as his B team and cheerleaders.
And enough people voted for him that he became President. That’s how a democracy works.
Mostly white people and some of their adjacents decided that Joe Biden fraternized a bit too much with people with more melanin so he had to go. And here we are.
Sleepy Joe, Geriartric Joe, Genocide Joe they were all cover stories to give oneself some plausible deniability.
YY_Sima Qian
@Anyway: There are the COMAC C909 regional jet & the C919 thin body airliner (A320Neo & 737MAX near equivalent) ramping up mass production. Both use a lot of US & European parts & components, originally intended to ease the certifications in the markets. All are produced in JVs in the PRC w/ tech transfer, there are not likely to be disruptions, & the JVs can be nationalized if push really comes to shove. The single exception is the engines for the C919, which is sourced from CFM, a JV between GE & the French Safran, I think manufactured in the US. Not sure if production can be shifted to France. If not, there is the domestic CJ1000A turbofan engines under certification. Changing the engines will require an expedited recertification of the C919, & that will delay induction.
The PRC has not placed any orders to Boeing since Boeing started to fall apart, & Biden escalated the tech war against the PRC, perhaps this is making it official. The fact that the PRC government did not except either civilian aircraft or aircraft engines from the 125% retaliatory tariff on imports from the U.S., suggests that it is confident the situation can be managed.
The PRC is quite capable of manufacturing large military transports, the Y-20A heavy transport (C-17 equivalent) w/ the WS-20 domestic high performance turbofan is in mass production.
TS
@Viva BrisVegas:
I hope you’re right with that – seeing Dutton attempting to smile in the ads is worse than watching him scowling when answering questions from political pundits. I fear I know too many people supportive of Dutton (and trump) so I just keep telling them I am furthest to the left than any person they will ever know & I do not wish to listen to the hate politics of Dutton & trump.
YY_Sima Qian
Is commenting function acting up? Why is my comment under moderation?
PS: never mind.
Professor Bigfoot
@schrodingers_cat:
There is no other through-line to explain the voting behavior of that demographic.
Those few of that demographic who are on the side of the angels have their work cut out for them, because this is how this country works.
Bonne chance, me amís, we are all going to need you to be lucky.
prostratedragon
Josh Marshall:
Most intriguing to me is, looks like there might be a whistleblower.
NutmegAgain
Always good to see your canine crew! They’re just wonderful. And that Canada video was good for some tears. (One of my grandmothers was Canadian.) And of course, the dogs, the Canadian one: Labs, Duck Tolling Retrievers, Eskimo dogs, and my beloved Newfoundlands. Newfies are such Canadian dogs.
Brendan In NC
@Princess: As a former Western NY resident – I do not think that NY as a whole will go red. There are large pockets of Dems around Rochester/Syracuse. The city of Buffalo is blue, despite the rest of Erie County being bright red. And the rest of the red areas are sparsely populated. NYC is the overwhelming reason the state stays blue.
Debbie(aussie)
Sometimes life really sucks! Even when you are geographically so far away, your heart breaks for your fellow friends.
thanks TaMara. The tears are flowing for all who have lost or feel lost.
LOVE IS SO MUCH MORE THAN FEAR!
To all the jackals, wherever you are; I love you and hope that things will get better before they get too much worse. Deb