As you may have gathered Ms Soapbox is still under the weather. I’ve realized that what I miss the most about not writing is not getting your comments. Consequently I’d like to open the Soapbox to you. I’d be interested in your thoughts on all the crazy things that have been happening lately. Please let me know what’s on your mind.
Susan
Susan on the Soapbox 
I hope you’re feeling better soon. It’s just disgusting how Smith is blaming the Libs and NDP for their “inflammatory “ language especially in light of who she and Polievre have aligned with.
Teresa: thank you for your comment. I’ve been under the weather and didn’t see it until today, but I agree with you 100%.
Susan: I think Naheed Nenshi will easily finish off Danielle Smith. She won’t be able to outsmart him. Her policies are becoming more and more costly, counterproductive, detrimental, and undemocratic. Undoing all of that will be quite challenging.
Dwayne: it’s going to be a very interesting contest between Smith and Nenshi. The UCP is hammering Nenshi hard and we’re 3 years out from an election. I think they’re worried. And they should be.
A true example of “the pot calling the kettle black”. It would be laughable if it wasn’t so juvenile and true. And think of the abhorrent treatment of Dr Hinshaw who was personally and professionally harmed by the UCP. This is one of the worst examples of how Smith treats people.
Dawn: I agree. The political scientist Jared Wesley nailed it when he said “Political parties can be dangerous to democracy. It’s not undemocratic to call them out on it. In fact, it’s an obligation. Calling them authoritarian does not incite violence.”
Sorry to hear you’re not feeling well, Susan
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Thanks John. This has been one devil of a cold (or something)!
Susan: I’m off to get something for my birthday. I really enjoy your blogs. I’ll share some more music that I also have in my collection. This is a John Sebastian composition, from 1967, when he was with The Lovin’ Spoonful. It is Darlin’ Be Home Soon. Hope you feel better, as soon as possible.
Thank you Dwayne for this sweet song. I hope you had a wonderful birthday!
Susan: My birthday was great. John Sebastian wrote many great songs, as a member of The Lovin’ Spoonful, including Do You Believe In Magic, Summer In The City, and the track I just shared. His last hit was as a solo artist in 1976, when he did the theme song for the TV show, Welcome Back Kotter.
Dwayne: thanks for this lovely song. I hope you had a wonderful birthday!
Susan: Here is my next song pick. This is an instrumental track from the Jimmy Page era Yardbirds. He was in the group, after Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton. This is called White Summer. Jimmy Page adapted it from an Irish folk song (his mother has Irish ancestry). This was recorded and released in 1967. Another track from The Summer Of Love. This is also in my music collection. After The Yardbirds broke up in 1968, Jimmy Page formed Led Zeppelin.
Dwayne, this was brilliant. The Irish element comes through loud and clear. Thank you!
Susan: Here is my next song pick. This is a Bob Dylan composition, called I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight. It was recorded and released in 1967. This is also in my music collection, and showcases Bob Dylan’s foray into country music, which he would do on his 1969 album, Nashville Skyline. I did see Bob Dylan live in 1990.
Dwayne: I smiled at your use of the “foray.” Seems to me Dylan forayed all over the place in his illustrious career.
Good for you for having a chance to see him. I’ll say it again, you’ve seen many of the greats!
So sorry to hear you are still under the weather, Susan. We really hope you can shake this soon and get back on your feet. Listen to these wonderful songs and hope they make you feel better!
Thanks Liane. These delightful songs did make me feel better. They’re a reminder that there are many wonderful things out there in the wide world and we must do our best to protect them.
I guess Smith must have looked back on her past comments fanning partisan rage and felt they opened her up to criticism post Trump shooting. Thinking the best defense was to go on the offense … She went on the attack so now any criticism of her policies can be characterized as “dangerous” and she can push the narrative that it’s those violent socialists who are out of control. But I was sure gob smacked when I saw professional rage farmer Daniel Smith complaining about our out of control politicians.
Dan, I was talking to a friend today who said she feels like we’re living in a bizarro world where everything we thought we knew has been turned upside down. I’m sure the assassination attempt on Trump by a registered Republican set Smith’s head spinning and she came out with her classic upside down, it’s your fault, not mine, response. But we see through them. We always have.
Susan: When a gunman entered into the city hall of Edmonton, earlier this year, Danielle Smith was hush about it. Had it been a mayor who wasn’t a former Liberal cabinet minister, Danielle Smith wouldn’t be silent on it. The gunman started shooting, and anyone in that building could have been hurt or killed, including citizens, and the municipal politicians. Her priorities were fixated on a speaking engagement with Tucker Carlson. Danielle Smith is very intent on turning Alberta into another American state. Conservatives from the past have acknowledged that the ideals and policies of Danielle Smith are harmful if they are implemented. One of them, Thomas Lukaszuk, even doubted that what Danielle Smith has done, could even be reversed.
Where to begin …
I received a text “Trump was shot” and I felt immediate relief that he was gone.
Not gone of course but the stress that he induces !!
I have dealt with a few psychopaths – Completely willing to tell me whatever they thought I wanted to hear,but Trump’s influence is so global and wacky
This note could go on forever so I will just wish you a quick recovery
Hazen you’re comment re: psychopaths rings true. Like Trump, they’re cunning and have no scruples so they can do whatever they want and we stand on the sidelines, gobsmacked. Unfortunately the damage Trump can inflict far exceeds what they can do.
I hope you are feeling well soon.
Thank you Public Servant. I’ve talked to quite a few people over the last few weeks. It’s amazing how prevalent this thing (whatever it is) is.
Susan: Here is my final song pick. This is a composition from Hoagie Carmichael and Stuart Gorell, called Georgia On My Mind. Ray Charles is doing this song live with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, in 1981. I also have his music in my collection.
Dwayne: that was the perfect piece for a sweltering hot day like today. I didn’t realize the Edmonton Symphony brought in so many wonderful, world class, musicians Thanks for sharing.
🫂♥️🧡💜 MENTAL HEALTH ||| You may be struggling to understand how a shooting could occur and why such a terrible thing would happen. There may never be satisfactory answers to these questions. We do know, though, that it is typical for people to experience a variety of emotions following such a traumatic event. These feelings can include shock, sorrow, numbness, fear, anger, disillusionment, grief, and others. You may find that you have trouble sleeping, concentrating, eating, or remembering even simple tasks. This is common and should pass after a while. – © APA https://www.apa.org/topics/gun-violence-crime/mass-shooting …
Leo: Thank you for the reminder that we should all take care of ourselves. So many of us were shocked and bewildered by the attack on Trump. Perhaps because the attack came from his own camp. Such is the life of an autocrat who leads by fear not hope.
I find it ironic that Trump who supports the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms will not permit anyone to be armed at his rallies, and that he hires people to kill anyone who exposed arms.
I also find it ironic that Republicans in Florida who purportedly support life and liberty have prohibited the passing of laws that would protect workers rights to adequate fluid and rest in extreme heat conditions.
Here’s another irony for you. I was watching CBC News coverage of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee Sunday night, and the reporter — Katie Simpson — was talking about the already tight level of security at the convention venue being increased even more. But outside the security perimeter, ordinary people are visibly armed: Wisconsin is an “open carry” state. Want to talk about a situation being “whacko”, that’s it.
Jerrymacgp: That’s the really interesting thing about American gun culture. Politicians won’t let you carry firearms into a political rally, but it’s OK to carry one into the Dairy Queen. I guess they’re OK with people getting shot as long as it isn’t them.
David, I was unaware of that ghastly Florida law. How utterly inhumane. I read a quote a while ago from someone deeply involved in a group like the Heritage Society. They said the world is divided into two kinds of people. Those who ride and those who are made to be ridden. The riders don’t have compassion for the donkey. They just ride and ride until the donkey drops dead at their feet and then they replace it with another one.
Susan I hope you feel better soon, missing your insights but happy you reached out to connect with your followers. Take care of yourself. 💕
Thank you Karen, I wanted to give the Soapbox community a heads up.
Mr. “If I’m not elected there will be blood in the streets” s’ fan club (‘lil pp le pire, and dani ) blaming progressives” incendiary language for where we’re at has been good for a belly laugh.
trump invoking the blessing of God as the only thing that saved him was pretty funny too
and how did I miss this?
https://thetyee.ca/Analysis/2024/07/15/Enshittification-Everything/
Lungta mtn, thanks for this link. One of the best articles I have read in some time, simply because I think it describes perfectly much of the behaviour of human society, as driven by the forces of capitalism and corporate greed. This sentence in particular caught my attention because it reminded me of something that has formed somewhat of a touchstone for me for most of my life: “What was once promised to be a miracle breakthrough that will liberate humanity cannot escape the entropy of enshittification.”
Many years ago I found myself seated in a university level Thermodynamics class, not because of any abiding love of thermodynamics but because it was a requirement of the curriculum in which I was enrolled, when the professor made the following statement: “The Second Law of Thermodynamics basically states that ‘Everything tends toward entropy'”. Fortunately I was awake when he said this and, even more surprisingly, I was alert enough to realize that this statement had applications outside of the realm of thermodynamics, specifically in the area of human behaviour. From that day onward, whenever things in my life seemed to slip a little further into chaos and the world around me became a little less stable I would remind myself that ‘Everything tends toward entropy’. It helped me to deal with whatever the circumstance was, even if it didn’t help me understand it any better. Going forward though, in the context of the daily erosion of our society and quality of life, I’ve now resolved to remind myself that ‘Everything results from enshittification’ as I feel it’s the perfect word to describe the process of systematically maximizing profit at the expense of humans and, well, everything else that isn’t money.
Guy – very intersting that both of us got a bit fascinated with both priciples and I have to say that the seconf law of termodynamics does not seem to apply to our society at all. The enshitification seems way more in tune with how bad we can get.
Carlos: it certainly feels that way, doesn’t it.
Thank you for somehow change something on WordPress that allowed me to post for the very first time in at least a week
Carlos, I don’t know what was going on with WordPress earlier, but it wouldn’t let me comment on my own blog and I’m the administrator for Pete’s sake. Very frustrating but I’m glad it sorted itself out. Thanks for perservering!
Guy and Lungta mtn: I prefer your explanations to the one that’s been rolling around in my mind lately. When I was feeling particularly ill I’d binge watch whatever popped up on Netflix or one of those streaming channels. I ended up watching The Peripheral, a time travel story set in the near and more distant future. The premise was the people in the future tested things in other timelines. These things would go awry and that timeline would be destroyed in a “jackpot” event. The near future timeline (us) destroyed itself through climate change, pestilence and domestic terrorism. All too familiar for my liking.
Susan: the next time you feel the urge to binge watch something I can strongly recommend a show called ‘Billions’ if you haven’t already seen it. My wife and I have been bingeing it lately and we think it’s excellent. Full of believable characters who are all flawed. Strong writing and acting. I know it’s a TV show, but if you’ve ever wondered why the stock market behaves as it does or why our society slips further out of control all the time (aside from entropy 😉 ) this offers, for me at least, an accurate reflection of real life. We’re not actually governed by politicians, we’re controlled by billionaires.
As an example close to home, Calgary’s new skating rink where the millionaire players of billionaire owners plan to continue their fruitless pursuit of glory (or fruitful pursuit of money depending on how you look at it) will be constructed at an estimated cost of $926.4M, $853M of which is coming up front from the taxpayers of Calgary. Many of those taxpayers won’t be able to afford to, or even want to, attend a game once the building is complete but they may, at the moment, be affected by the ongoing failure of the water supply infrastructure for which the maintenance has obviously been neglected. I wonder how they are feeling after this recent announcement? I know how I feel about it and I don’t even live in Calgary. Crap like this is simply unsustainable. It’s time for change.
Lungta mtn: You mentioned The Chosen One saying God saved him (he also took some credit for turning his head away from the crow to read the teleprompter…I can’t remember if that was God too). Anyway, I used to think it was the politicians who were the problem, now I’m beginning to believe it’s the idiots who’ll believe anything.
And thanks for the Nikiforuk article. It blew me away.
oh boy, soooo much on my mind. Like others I am frightened about the recent attempt on CITIZEN Trump, as I fear he will become a ‘living martyr’ for the MAGA cause. Implications of Project 2025 qill shake the world.
I listened to Danielle smith’s disingenuous pontifications about how she only speaks about policy and facts; that the left leaning side of the aisle are the ones uttering dangerous rhetoric. Good grief, it only takes a moment to ‘Google’ comments like ‘put him in your cross hairs’ in reference to the federal Environment minister.
and don’t get me started on the Mouthpiece for the Opposition, P.P. Who cannot come out with any sane policy on anything. He only knows how to criticize the Liberals, and has no original thoughts for Conservative policy.
But, even given all of above, the good news here in Lethbridge is that the spring rain and snow filled our reservoirs. We have water! And I can hardly wait for Neheed Nenshi to gain a seat so that his voice can be heard as the official Leader of the Opposition.
Hope that you feel better soon!
Sheila, the US seems to be going down in flames. Not only did they bring it upon themselves, many of them still think the US is the beacon of democracy. I heard a Republican strategist on the radio the other day say Trump was not a danger to democracy (hello 2025??) and he’d take American democracy over Canada’s democracy any day. They live on another planet. Too bad we happen to live next door.
Thanks for this opportunity Susan. In the past few weeks we’ve been thinking about water………and researching the situation on the actual ground. So far, the news isn’t that good….ground water is receding….even after a downpour rain the earth doesnt’ seem to have absorbed as much as it should………and the weeds are going crazy like no season before in our garden.
We work on policy at the constituency level, and so our research does lead somewhere. Thinking about water and the future we face as the planet warms, crazy ideas for strip mining our eastern slopes continue to be supported by you know who, and potable water is poisoned, perhaps forever, with each fracked well and in situ bitumen mine….is a bit daunting.
But we all should be thinking about it. A little lake to the west of Calgary, where we swam with our grandkids during covid, is now a slough. Some authority let cattle graze and drink there. We were shocked last summer on a day trip to see the puddle that cattle had left.
So getting smarter about water use and preservation seems to be a necessity now. We need to use, and waste, less. But we also need to question economic drivers of the Alberta Advantage, if those drivers are depleting the hydrological cycle we all depend on.
Get better soon. We miss you and your posts.
noklebym: You’re absolutely right. Calgary’s recent experience with the water main breakage shows us how vulnerable we are (and continue to be) and that’s assuming there is sufficient water to keep the system full in the first place. Too many people assume that since we live next to the Rockies we’ll have an endless supply. They seem to forget the impact of climate change and industries like mining which reduce or poison our supply. Both here and in the US. If we’re not careful, one day we’ll be fighting with the US and other jurisdictions to have enough water on hand to survive. If/when we reach that point, no one will be fussing about not being able to water their lawns.
We’ve learned some scary….and interesting things since we started researching water…….for one thing, according to Andrew Nikeforuk, Alberta only has 2% of Canada’s potable water supply……….though I guess Danielle could make a good case for BC and Ontario actually owing us 50 % of their water.
Every frack and in situ drill poisons many liters of that……so we may be Canada’s ‘economic engine’….but they’d better be willing to consider equalization payments that bring us the H2O we’re going to need in the future.
It’s only fair….
Also the US has noe become the number one producer of oil due to their total unregulated used of fracking. We all know what fracking does to underground water and how much water it uses.
When the water wars begin we could very well be taken over by the US.
As well our leaders here continue wanting to increase population by the thousands every year when we are already having troubles as it is. Of course their idea is that only God knows our reality not scientists.
We just continue full speed without brakes and we all know the wall is getting closer and closer.
Susan: Peter Lougheed, who happened to have common sense, even admitted that water will be more important than oil and gas. The water we have would be coveted.
Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Minnesota have an abundance of lakes. Somebody will want that water.
Lake Athabasca is far too polluted to use that water. Technically, the Great Lakes are inland seas, and the water in them is very polluted to use.
I also knew someone from Africa. They also told me about the extreme importance of water.
In the early 1970s, there was a film produced, called Death Of A Delta. It showed the adverse affects of the approval of a hydroelectric dam in British Columbia, on the affects of the water supply in the Lake Athabasca area of Alberta. Peter Lougheed wasn’t premier yet, and the longstanding Social Credit Party wasn’t interested in dealing with the matter. Peter Lougheed was asked to see for himself what was happening up in the area. The hydroelectric dam, in British Columbia, which I believe was approved and completed in the late 1960s, affected the First Nations and Metis communities, who were hunting, trapping and fishing in the Lake Athabasca area of Alberta.
After Peter Lougheed became premier, the film was released. I recall reading that.
That is like throwing the Barn Door Wide Open, You just never know what will walk in.
I suggest you place some boundaries on the comments.
Why? I find all the comments so far very reasonable.
Thorsten: I agree. We have a good bunch on this site..
Dave, we seem to be doing OK so far. Also I have the ability to trash a comment if it goes over the line.
Get well soon! I am at a point where I do not want to read the news: however I want to be current. I see that friends are not interested in discussing anything that is negative – politics, the state of Health Care, the insane acts of our politicians (at all level ), world events or anything remotely negative news. The people I speak of are educated, smart. I guess some could say the reporting could be fake news, biased news.
Anyways, it seems like my concerns are not validated. Am I alone here? Do I have peers out there?
Louise
Louise, you’re not alone. You’ve described how many of us have been feeling lately. It’s as if it’s too much and for our own mental health we need to step back. But like you I want to know what’s going. How can we push back if we ignore the (would be) autocrats as they’re building the foundation of their glorious new world. I understand the concern about fake news. To guard against that I subscribe to posts by people like ABLawg and Jared Wesley. They require more of the reader, but at least you can trust the source.
Take care, my friend.
Susan
ð MORAL COURAGE ||| Want a fair hearing for your beef with politicians? Then here’s the dirty little secret about resorting to violence: It doesn’t work. Violence incites reactions, not responses. Which means the intended message of such violence will be drowned out in the noise of panic, condemnation, or retaliation.
ð To get a fair hearing from any leader, first give a fair hearing to their supporters. Listening makes you credible — as long as you’re listening to learn rather than to win. In the aftermath of this weekend, let’s remember: Disagreeing with each other’s ideas does not have to mean denying each other’s humanity. â © The Moral Courage Project ð
Leo: thank you for this important message. While I agree that resorting to violence is never the right solution. I do struggle with how to “give a fair hearing to [the politician’s] supporters” Foe example, some of Donald Trump’s supporters believe he’s The Chosen One sent to earth by God to make America great again. I suspect that an attempt at dialogue with this subset of supporters will be a one-sided exercise.
*J** “Dementus” *as I call him, should have had his mental faculties and ethical-moral compass checked long time ago amiga – the man is despicable, and I hope he loses in an a categorical way, and the country start – in time – some level of reconciling with the misguided souls that have fallen into his RP and the Tea Party cult. What this piece points to, and that most reasonable people are willing to sit down and listen|talk with those of opposite political or partisan views. The task for civil society and its leaders (such as you) is to create the conditions to make that happen, ongoing – whether it’s in the States, Canada and beyond …
Leo: well said. I must say that I;m a little more hopeful now that Kamala Harris has replaced Biden.
I have lots in my mind but this latest one by Danieel Smith just flatenned my sense of what is fair and real.
I found this article that is a pretty good read
https://pressprogress.ca/7-times-alberta-premier-danielle-smith-embraced-extreme-inflammatory-or-dangerous-rhetoric/
Carlos: as I read those ridiculous comments made by our premier I was reminded of the testimony of one of the Coutts defendants who said the reason he was wearing body armour and carrying a prohibited firearm was not to attack the RCMP but rather in case he had to hightail it into the mountains or someone tried to inject him with the covid vaccine. Good grief.
Yes these people think that we are as idiot as they are. Remember the dog ate my homework.
I am curious to see if Danielle Smith breaks the silence about the fire in Jasper. Not a word. She cannot say climate change. In the meantime there are unconfirmed news that Jasper Place Lodge is no longer. Unreal. I think my days of visiting Jasper Park are now gone. I would hope they would close the park for a while.
With all the extreme climate events happening around the world and especially in North America we need to shout out more about
the very real cost of climate change and the need to stop using fossil fuels
Lil selby
Lilly most people are concerned about what is happening but as you can see our top leaders met in Halifax this week and there was not any reporting about it. If they did discuss it must have been in the last 5 minutes of the last day.
It is way more important that the BC wine is sold to Albertans and that we accelerate the increase in military spending so we stay on the right side of our American cousins.
Lilly Anne Selby: Your comment reminded me of the recent news stories reporting that the big oil companies are getting ready to evacuate most of their staff out of the oil sands in order to avoid being burned to a crisp by the forest fires. There’s a certain irony in that. Or maybe it’s willful blindness. .
This sums up where we are iat . The US stink permeates to our governments. Danielle Smith and PP are as bad as US counter parts
“This constant lying is not aimed at making the people believe a lie, but at ensuring that no one believes anything anymore.
A people that can no longer distinguish between truth and lies cannot distinguish between right and wrong. And such a people, deprived of the power to think and judge, is, without knowing and willing it, completely subjected to the rule of lies.
With such a people, you can do whatever you want.”
—Hannah Arendt, German historian and philosopher (1906–1975)
Smart Hannah Arendt – what a depressing world we became and how do we even explain our kids and grand kids what a pickle we will leave them to solve. No solid society structure or mind frame can be developed from lies and propaganda. The last time this was tried we had the Second World War. Now it is not even possible to contemplate the consequences of all this global lunacy.
bjtrottier: thanks for the Arendt quote. She was a brilliant political thinker and sadly her thoughts on the origins of totalitarianism are more timely now than ever.
The GOP circus is finally over. It is hard to witness the pathetic and mediocre political culture in the US these days. Canada of course cannot stay behind and soon Poilievre and his team will be outdoing them. That is the new conservatism with their leader Harper calling Victor Orban a true democrat. I wonder why the rest of the EU is so stupid they do not understand Harper’s philosophy?
Who does? Manning maybe or our genius Danielle Smith? She is surprised we call her dangerous!! OMG she is not just dangerous she is nuts.
I do not know how to express the hypocrasy, the lies and the total brain freeze the US has been able to develop in 2024. It is scary to see how the forces of misinformation and greed and a factless society has been able to accomplish.
I am quite certain that it is a case to question what is happening to us? How did they manage to go from the richest country on Earth to the dummest hands down. From what I saw in several GOP Conference videos BIMBOS are actually not a joke anymore.
Did anyone have any doubts that she would defend this?
It is in their blood and their beliefs. What is the problem to accept gifts from the person that arranged the 80 million dollar children painkillers fiasco. The medicine was not even all provided. It is ok of course, we are all brothers and sisters in the high rollers lifestyles of our political elites. It may not sound good at my peon level but hey Danielle Smith is more than ok with all of this garbage and so are her TAKE BACK ALBERTA blood suckers.
https://edmontonjournal.com/news/politics/alberta-premier-oilers-playoff-tickets
Well, now you have something in common with the President of the United States: benched by COVID. Hopefully you fully recover soon.
Gotta say, though, this past weekend’s developments in US politics are fascinating. The last sitting President to announce he would not seek re-election was Lyndon B Johnson – LBJ – in March 1968. That was over the Vietnam War and the fallout from the Tet Offensive, which was a tactical military defeat for the Vietcong and the NVA but nevertheless a strategic victory, because it demonstrated to Americans the futility and brutality of that conflict.
President Johnson did very poorly in the early Democratic primaries, held not long after Tet, with anti-war candidate Eugene McCarthy finishing a very close second with 42% of the vote behind Johnson’s 49% in New Hampshire. Soon afterwards, Robert F Kennedy, brother of the late President JFK, entered the race for the Democratic Party nomination.
On March 31st, Johnson went on national TV to speak to the country about the progress of the war, and in his peroration said, “I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my Party for another term as your President”. Kennedy went on to win more primaries and earn the 2nd highest number of convention delegates up to that point when, on June 5th, 1968 at 12:10 a.m., in a Los Angeles hotel kitchen, he was assassinated by a 24-year-old Palestinian from Jerusalem named Sirhan Sirhan. This assassination was only a scant two months after that of Dr Martin Luther King Jr, in Memphis on April 4th. I had just turned nine when RFK was killed, and my parents watched the evening news assiduously; all of this left a deep impression on me even at that young age.
It was a bad year for political assassinations and violence. The 1968 Democratic National Convention was held in Chicago that August, and was marred by a huge protest that degenerated into a riot – largely instigated by police and the National Guard. Oh, and this year? The Democratic National Convention is once again being held in Chicago, for the first time since 1968. Who was it that said, history doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes?
Jerrymacgp: Yes, this has been an amazing few days. I was so relieved that Biden decided to step down. Harris hit the ground running. It looks like she’s been able to reach out to groups of voters (like Black women) who had disengaged. Now the Democrats have a fighting chance of taking the White House.
This is going to be one heck of a ride!
Danielle Smith is asking help from the Federal Government – I would give her a finger. I would respond the Federal Government does not want to interfere in Provincial matters. We are so lucky that there are still people in this country that have common sense, otherwise we would now be trapped in Jasper.
Idiots.
The show continues this time the episode is called Jasper Town.
Danielle Smith crying (it seems to be) trying to contain what she called the Magic of Jasper. Just a few months back were trying to force coal mines within the park.
Wants to double the production of oil that is causing these disasters.
Guy I never doubted that we do not have a democracy and that our voting system is managed by billionaires and lately idiots. The billionaires are starting to pack and leave so that we get the rest to clean up and deal with. Slash and Burn and we are already on the burn part of the equation.
This is what they now call the Inshitification of Alberta.
Carlos, when I first heard about Danielle Smith ‘fighting back tears’ as she described the destruction in Jasper my first thought was ‘Someone must have told her that the Trans Mountain Pipeline was damaged.’ The woman has shown no empathy or concern for average citizens or really anyone outside of her group of cronies and supporters that I have ever seen and I’m certain that yesterday’s presser was nothing more than a performance staged for public consumption.
It’s becoming more apparent every day now that climate change has the potential to make the earth uninhabitable for humans and if it does then it will be the instrument of our demise, but the root cause of that demise will be the unchecked greed that drives the human activities that promote climate change. The socioeconomic model that we have embraced prioritizes money over everything, including life, and there is only one way for that to end unless we change our behaviour. Danielle Smith and those who support and enable her are strictly ideologically opposed to any such change because they have learned to manipulate the status quo to serve themselves and they are not about to give up on that any time soon. That makes them a danger to the rest of us as long as they remain in power and the world continues to burn around us.
Guy I agree with you 100%.
The greatest problem to me is that we created this idea that we are dealing with this people in a respectful manner.
These people first of all do not respect us at all. Secondly a lot of this gang of Take back Alberta are people tha function always in bully fashion. They have no problem at all using any means to get what they want. So if we think we are going to accomplish anything in this province by being nice to them we are in deep trouble.
They have half the population but we are the other half and I for one am not going to be nice to any of them. So the choice is ours. We have to start demanding the truth and demand facts in everything they do and say. If we do not, they will laugh all the way to the bank and put on shows like this Magic of Jasper garbage. This woman is dangerous and so is all of her caucus. I noticed that she got bothered with people calling her dangerous. So that is what she will get from me every single time I refer to her. I wished our pathetic journalists would confront her way more than they do. What are they afraid of? She lies and she is dangerous period.
CROCODILE TEARS – she should resign after making cuts to the firefighting budget.
The crying was for the money the government will not make out of tourism in Jasper that is all. She can impress the world but she will not those of us who know who she really is.
If she has any decency left in her just resign and let those that have a brain run the province.
Carlos: If that wasn’t acting, I don’t know what is.
Dwayne – I have some people telling me that this is a cruel comment. To be honest I do not care because what is cruel is what this UCP mafia is doing to our standards in this province and is now thinking on lowering taxes just to create more problems.
Albertans will be happy to make a bit more a month but wait for the consequences. This province is being run with the crumbs we get in what they call royalties. Once we have another bust the deficit will jump to 10 to 20 billion dollars because we are living in a cloud of an empty glass.
We should be living and paying our bills with taxes and save our oil money for future investments for our province. First of all we should stop giving our resources away for nothing. The royalties on those resources belong to all Albertans and should be used to give ourselves a better future for our kids and grand kids. They should not be used to make Oil companies fatter and laughing all the way to the bank. Instead we leaving the responsibility of cleaning up what no one has the guts to take on. Our governments are so entrenched and captured by big oil that they forgot completely who they are working for. Not surprising when we allow our premier to be a oil lobbyist. Only in Alberta we are smart enough to think that this woman cares at all about us.
I repeat and have no doubts that those hicups and breathing heavy and blowing air and all the rest of the show means absolutely nothing.
Of course that to fix this province we first need a real government that believes in reality and not conspiracy theories.
Like I said before, she can cheat most people outside the province and even her big fans here, but not me or people like me. She can go to hell and I will be happy when that day comes.
Carlos: This is the only way that I can respond to your reply to me.
While what the residents of Jasper, and everyone else who has been suffering the effects of these wildfires is terrible, Danielle Smith appears to be acting. I’ve seen her do it before, and others have pointed it out.
When over 300 children got very sick, after they came into contact with E-Coli at daycares in the province, due to the UCP’s cutting of red tape, Danielle Smith was acting in front of the cameras. It did not seem like legitimate emotions. Things appeared to be staged. Again, what these children endured is very horrible, but Danielle Smith’s response didn’t seem sincere.
Dwayne who knows when she is sincere other than the FACT she hates the Federal Government because of course they are the brakes to her control freak ideas.
Hi Susan, been away exploring a part of Canada I’ve never been to – Newfoundland. Very much worth doing & despite a month of effort, lots of parts we never got to. Canada is BIG:) Anyway, hope you are feeling better. As for the politics, anyone else see the Don Braid column mentioning that the promised tax cut may occur sooner than expected? Like maybe even within the calendar year? Don’t know if the sudden desire to keep the promise has anything to do with Nenshi as NDP leader or not but interesting nonetheless. As for the disaster in Jasper, sadly that seems to be our new reality. As for the firefighting budget cuts, this is the outcome of those whose rhetoric isn’t supported by facts. Climate change isn’t real, just like Covid was an evil Liberal plot to enslave freedom loving folks by insisting on things like masks. Let’s not even mention the evils of immunization…..
Linda: The Skybox scandal, and an up and coming leadership review for Danielle Smith is what prompted her to implement the personal tax cuts, which were promised in 2023, if the UCP were re-elected that year. Danielle Smith is in panic mode.
She is starting to get caught on her own lies and deceit just like the fake ones before her. She will sooner or later be kicked out just like them. These people have no respect for anyone, insult everyone, lie about everything and they except respect? Not a chance.
They need to go and let people that respect us to go back in there. I have had enough.
Here is the first salvo – of course the ranchers and loggers will be companies run by Shandro and herself and close friends. She is definitely fulll of it.
I do not think the Federal government would be crazy enough to tranfer the responsibility of Jasper to an idiot.
I bet she will now create a war against the Federal government on the Park but accepting responsibility for what happened as part of her total stupidity on climate change will never happen. I am sure she will now insult the Environment Minister and Justin Trudeau and blah blah blah.
We know exactly what would happen to Jasper if we allowed her to take care of this wonderful park. Again she has to keep her hands out of anything that has any value for all of us.
https://albertapolitics.ca/2024/07/danielle-smith-touts-letting-loggers-cut-trees-and-ranchers-graze-cattle-to-help-manage-fire-threat-in-national-parks/
Carlos: This is not a surprising development. Money will not fix the damage that is being inflicted upon this earth.
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Crude-Oil/Texas-Earthquakes-Uncovering-the-Link-to-Oil-and-Gas-Extraction.amp.html
Yes earthquakes and the contamination of whatever is around the injection of chemicals to extract the oil.
They will ignore this for sure. It is just another cost of doing business.
We all know that in the future someone is going to pay the real cost of all of this madness but by that time it will be too late and the people that benefitted from all of this will be gone. Then they will start litigation and blah blah blah and nothing happens. Real justice only comes hard on those of us that do not have any power.
Oh sorry we do have the power to vote – I forgot we are democracies!!
Also on my mind Western ‘Democracies’ point the finger to Venezuela because the Socialist party is a pure dictatorship. We never point the finger when the same applies to fascist or extreme right wing parties.
Also Venezuela is controlled by an extreme left wing party and here we are controlled by a corporate party run by lobbyists. Somehow we accept things in different ways because we allow the vote to be free, but never the control.
Do you feel you live in a democracy? Do you feel you have any say in the way Canada is run? I don’t so just saying. I cannot even vote for the party I want because of the voting sytem.
Let us mature and stop pointing fingers to other nations just because we are rich and entitled. Being rich does not mean freedom or intelligence.
Here is another one. What can you call a government that does this?
I have an answer but I will not say it here.
The damage is forever – mentally CHALLENGED people running a province. That is the result.
https://albertapolitics.ca/2024/08/no-shock-ucp-freeze-on-renewable-electricity-generation-projects-and-resulting-uncertainty-lead-to-deep-chill-on-investments/