@CdnCurmudgeon@mastodon.social
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CdnCurmudgeon

@CdnCurmudgeon@mastodon.social

Unrepentant socialist, ERB & Godzilla fan, semi-retired writer & editor, ukulele player, aficionado of tequila, Chaucer, Machiavelli, Shakespeare, Stoics, Homer, scifi, trilobites, Horace, & Wodehouse. Pro-science, pro-vaccine, avid reader, skeptic, bread baker & pasta maker, anti-creationist. Tax the rich! #NeverVoteConservative

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gutenberg_org, to books
@gutenberg_org@mastodon.social avatar

"Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy. Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend."

Animal Farm, a beast fable in the form of a satirical allegorical novella, by George Orwell, was first published in England in 1945.

Orwell initially encountered difficulty getting the manuscript published, largely due to fears that the book might upset the alliance between Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union. via @wikipedia

CdnCurmudgeon,
@CdnCurmudgeon@mastodon.social avatar

@gutenberg_org @wikipedia I recently started reading this book in Scots. I had read it in English, of course, a couple of times, but it's entertaining to work through the Scots version.

CdnCurmudgeon, to random
@CdnCurmudgeon@mastodon.social avatar

PoiLIEvre actually wrote this on Xitter:

"Trudeau’s media are desperate to stop his continued downfall. Today, CBC’s news service CP wrote a hit piece on me because I dared criticize the World Economic Forum..."

CP is NOT CBC's news service. CP is owned by Torstar, Globe and Mail & La Presse. NOT the CBC.

PoiLIEVre is as uneducated about Canadian media as he is about everything else.... he is the LEAST competent politician in Canada.

#NeverVoteConservative

CdnCurmudgeon, to random
@CdnCurmudgeon@mastodon.social avatar

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/auditor-general-greenbelt-lobbying-1.6934275
One of the most stunning revelations contained in Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk's explosive report into Ontario's controversial Greenbelt land swap was how a small number of real estate developers were able to use their access to a high-level government staffer to have protected land — some of which was recently purchased — opened up for housing development.

Ford's blatant corruption and cronyism are destroying our province.
#NeverVoteConservative

ryanhoulihan, to random
@ryanhoulihan@mastodon.social avatar

Are men okay

CdnCurmudgeon,
@CdnCurmudgeon@mastodon.social avatar

@ryanhoulihan Clearly becoming a billionaire reduces your IQ and maturity levels.

VeryBadLlama, to random
@VeryBadLlama@mas.to avatar

fellas is it gay to see the road

CdnCurmudgeon,
@CdnCurmudgeon@mastodon.social avatar

@VeryBadLlama CONservatives are so easily triggered. They're now losing their soothers over street lighting.

stevesilberman, to random
@stevesilberman@newsie.social avatar

3-year-old migrant child being trafficked by prominent GOP sociopath TX governor Abbott dies on bus to Chicago. https://www.kxan.com/news/texas/migrant-child-dies-on-border-bus-in-texas/

CdnCurmudgeon,
@CdnCurmudgeon@mastodon.social avatar

@stevesilberman

Alternate headline: Sociopathic Repugnican Governor's immigrant-trafficking scheme kills child being exported to Chicago.

taylorlorenz, to random
@taylorlorenz@mastodon.social avatar

People are so mad at me for promoting my YouTube, but if there’s one thing I’ve learned it’s that you have to diversify when it comes to platforms.

Also, I’m really proud of the videos I’ve been putting out there and have a lot of big plans for my channel! Sorry for telling u guys about it constantly, but it’s a big focus for me and I have been working hard on my videos!! https://youtube.com/@TaylorLorenz

CdnCurmudgeon,
@CdnCurmudgeon@mastodon.social avatar

@taylorlorenz Done. Thanks.

davidho, to random
@davidho@mastodon.world avatar

It's not fashionable to talk about consuming less as a climate solution because our economy is based on selling us crap that no one needs.

CdnCurmudgeon,
@CdnCurmudgeon@mastodon.social avatar

@davidho I was bemused to see an electric kettle at the local Canadian Tire - most selling for $40-$75 CAD - priced at $250. I wanted to ask a staff person if this would boil my water any better than the $40 one.

CdnCurmudgeon, to random
@CdnCurmudgeon@mastodon.social avatar

https://www.scotslanguage.com/articles/node/id/904
Mercury is cryed efter the Roman god Mercurius that haed tred an troke as his parteeclar haunling. But he wis equate wi the Greek god Hermes - the messenger o the ither gods – an sae a swith traiveller. Mercury is the planet that bides nearest til oor Sun and taks jist shy o 88 Yird days tae wheech roond, makkin it the fastest planet in oor Sun Gird. This is whit wey it is cryed efter the Roman god.

CdnCurmudgeon, to random
@CdnCurmudgeon@mastodon.social avatar

CTV News calling out PoiLIEvre's flagrant lies. Good for them.

w7voa, to random
@w7voa@journa.host avatar

"Gov. DeSantis’ threat to ‘start slitting throats’ of federal employees is dangerous, disgusting, disgraceful, and disqualifying,” says AFGE President Everett Kelly. “No federal employee should face death threats from anyone, least of all from someone seeking to lead the U.S. government.” https://www.govexec.com/management/2023/08/desantis-vows-start-slitting-throats-federal-workers-day-one-presidency/389093/

CdnCurmudgeon,
@CdnCurmudgeon@mastodon.social avatar

@w7voa I get "Internal Server Error
The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request."

gutenberg_org, to books
@gutenberg_org@mastodon.social avatar

"The drama's done. Why then here does any one step forth? — Because one did survive the wreck. "
Moby-Dick: or, the Whale (1851)

Herman Melville was born #OTD in 1819. Among his best-known works are Moby-Dick (1851); Typee (1846), a romanticized account of his experiences in Polynesia; and Billy Budd, Sailor, a posthumously published novella. via @wikipedia

Books by Herman Melville at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/9

#books #literature

Title page of the first edition of Moby-Dick, 1851. Source: Beinecke Library
Moby Dick, as illustrated in a 1902 edition. Illustration of the final chase of Moby-Dick. I. W. Taber - Moby Dick - edition: Charles Scribner's Sons, New York

CdnCurmudgeon,
@CdnCurmudgeon@mastodon.social avatar

@gutenberg_org It's also available here:
https://www.mobydickbigread.com/

CdnCurmudgeon, to random
@CdnCurmudgeon@mastodon.social avatar

https://www.blogto.com/city/2023/07/olivia-chow-police/
So the police, with a $1 billion budget are blaming Toronto's new mayor of only 12 days in office for the rising crime that THEY have not been able to stop? And they never called out Rob Ford or John Tory?
You think maybe racism or misogyny is a factor in the police? Me, too...
#NeverVoteConservative

TheWarOnCars, to random
@TheWarOnCars@mastodon.social avatar

"All this dysfunction shows that D.C. has drifted away from the dictum of every driver’s ed instructor — that driving is a privilege and not a right. Correcting that imbalance will take political will."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/07/28/dc-traffic-enforcement-fines-speed-cameras-points/

CdnCurmudgeon,
@CdnCurmudgeon@mastodon.social avatar

@TheWarOnCars This is true everywhere; too many cities have planning departments mired in 1950s' pro-vehicle thinking. My own home (a small town) still thinks making everything better for cars rather than people is the best way to grow. How can we change that sort of atavistic thinking?

CdnCurmudgeon, to random
@CdnCurmudgeon@mastodon.social avatar

#NeverVoteConservative

image/jpeg

CdnCurmudgeon, to random
@CdnCurmudgeon@mastodon.social avatar

Under 8 years of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (2015-2023):
2016 — $3.2 Billion Surplus
2018 — $3.1 Billion Surplus
2021 — $3.58 Billion Surplus
2022 — $5.3 Billion Surplus
2023 — $1.5 Billion Surplus

Under PM Harper, 8 consecutive deficits, 2 recessions, and ZERO confirmed surpluses in 9 years (2006-2015)! #Poilievre wants to take our economy back to the Harper era!

This is why the better educated a Canadian is the more they support Trudeau!
#NeverVoteConservative

CdnCurmudgeon,
@CdnCurmudgeon@mastodon.social avatar

@johnefrancis I agree the money should always be put into services and infrastructure and not saved. However, often surpluses are not planned. They often mean the government spent less than budgeted on a particular service because other factors intervened. Or inflation drove up prices which created an unexpected surplus of taxes.
It can also mean the government isn't running a deficit, as the CONs always do.

adamconover, to random
@adamconover@mastodon.social avatar

Going to try posting on Mastodon more.

CdnCurmudgeon,
@CdnCurmudgeon@mastodon.social avatar

@adamconover I usually copy posts from FB and the app-formerly-know-as-Twitter, so help populate Mastodon with posts, especially Canadian news and content.

QasimRashid, to random
@QasimRashid@mastodon.social avatar

Exactly 14 years ago today—on July 24, 2009—the minimum wage was set at $7.25 while top 1% were worth $5T. Today, billionaire wealth is $45T+, meanwhile the min wage is still $7.25.

This is what generational wage theft looks like. Pay workers. Tax billionaires. #RaiseTheWage

CdnCurmudgeon,
@CdnCurmudgeon@mastodon.social avatar

@QasimRashid That's in the USA. The minimum wage in Canada is at least double in most provinces and federally is $16.65 per hour. But even that is barely a liveable wage.

helenczerski, to philosophy

Is the whole Twitter disaster really just a philosophical experiment, along the lines of the Ship of Theseus thought experiment? If you replace all the bits, is it still the same thing? “Twitter: Elon Musk says he wants to change company’s bird logo” #philosophy #birdsite https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/jul/23/twitter-elon-musk-says-he-wants-to-change-companys-bird-logo?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

CdnCurmudgeon,
@CdnCurmudgeon@mastodon.social avatar

@helenczerski Perhaps it's more like the Stultifera navis (aka the Ship of Fools). But unlike Brant in the original, Musk seems to exhort his followers to be immoral: to assert their political ideology through abusive, racist, gaslighting, and lying behaviour.

petergleick, to random

A climate history thread. 🧵🚨

In my new book, THE THREE AGES OF WATER, I document the consequences of climate change for water resources. Some additional early history, not in the book, might be of interest. In 1979, the US Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs held a...symposium "Carbon Dioxide Accumulation in the Atmosphere..."
Among the conclusions of some of the witnesses?
"Man, through the burning of carbon-based fuels, is setting in motion a series of events that...

CdnCurmudgeon,
@CdnCurmudgeon@mastodon.social avatar

@petergleick I'm interested in reading this book (I worked for a provincial water association), but hope it's not merely about the USA, and extends to other nations and their policies.

randahl, to italy
@randahl@mastodon.social avatar

Italians elected the ultra far right prime minister Giorgia Meloni in September, and now #Italy has started deleting mothers from the birth certificates of the children of lesbian couples.
Because that is what is important in Italy in 2023 — not solving the rising poverty or improving the youth unemployment rate of 20.4 percent — but harassing gay families.
https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2023/07/21/europe/italy-lesbian-couples-birth-certificates-scli-intl/index.html

CdnCurmudgeon,
@CdnCurmudgeon@mastodon.social avatar

@randahl This is what happens when people vote CONservative.
#NeverVoteConservative

QasimRashid, to random
@QasimRashid@mastodon.social avatar

Alabama lawmakers refuse to create 2nd majority-Black congressional district in defiance of SCOTUS

Florida schools teaching that slavery was beneficial to Black people

Texas troops pushing brown migrant kids into the Rio Grande to drown them

Two thoughts from all this and more.

  1. White supremacy is thriving in GOP. It’s a feature, not a bug.

  2. GOP was never about law and order—they were always about advancing racism, and their defiance of their own right wing court is further proof.

CdnCurmudgeon,
@CdnCurmudgeon@mastodon.social avatar

@QasimRashid Repugnicans have become the Party of Trump, and he embraces the extremists, the fascists, the neo-Nazis, the bigots, the racists, and all the other scum of the earth.

jayrosen_nyu, to journalism

Amazing story. Have you followed it?

Texas A&M announces a new journalism dean. She's black and she's qualified— and an alum of the school! Ex-New York Times too.

They announce her appointment in a splashy event.

Dark forces of reaction mobilize.

The offer is watered down to one year, with no tenure. She says no way, and withdraws. National news is made. It's negative. And today, the president of A&M resigns!

https://www.texastribune.org/2023/07/21/tamu-president-resign-journalism/

https://www.texastribune.org/2023/07/11/texas-a-m-kathleen-mcelroy-journalism/

CdnCurmudgeon,
@CdnCurmudgeon@mastodon.social avatar

@jayrosen_nyu Interesting story, thanks. Not surprised that MAGA Repugnicans lost their soothers over a qualified black woman getting the job, especially in Texas. It's a Talibangelist state, like Florida.

CdnCurmudgeon, to random
@CdnCurmudgeon@mastodon.social avatar

https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2023-07-21/temperature-heat-lawn-grass-fertilizer-weed-killer-climate
It gets worse. One of the key impacts of using synthetic pesticides and fertilizers is an increase in nitrous oxide production. The greenhouse gas impact of N2O is 300 times more powerful than carbon dioxide’s. Additionally, nitrous oxide attacks the ozone layer, our key defense against the sun’s ultraviolet rays.

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