Your middle-of-the-week muddle ...
Who won the election last night?
It is hard to say with all of this voter fraud:
BREAKING: Wisconsin has more votes than people who are registered to vote.
— {{David H}} (@daveyboy103) November 4, 2020
Total number of registered voters: 3,129,000
Total number of votes cast:
3,239,920
not a joke https://t.co/bYoDWrZSDj
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The latest plot twist comes from Arizona, which had reportedly counted 95%+ of its votes. NYT notes that "due to an error in an Edison Research data feed of results ... the actual estimate is that 86% of the vote has been counted."
— Jeff Dufour (@dcdufour) November 4, 2020
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AZ update: apparently the use of sharpie pens in gop precincts is causing ballots to be invalidated. Could be huge numbers of mostly Trump supporters. More to come
— Matt Schlapp (@mschlapp) November 4, 2020
Why, none of this sounds suspicious at all.
(Merci)
Vaguely related -
... says Justin's little b!#ch:
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh has been the only leader to weigh in on the U.S. campaign. On Tuesday, he said he hopes Trump is defeated.
“It is a moral imperative that we have to speak out and say that what he has done in his presidency is wrong,” he said. “I think it would be better for the world if Trump loses and I hope he loses.”
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Canada’s diplomats will be ready to help Canadians living south of the border if there’s trouble in the United States after election day, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said Tuesday.
“It is absolutely a responsibility of our government to be there for Canadians outside our country, and we will be there for them, too,” Freeland said.
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For Canada, the implications of the American election will be mixed. Biden promised to cancel the long-suffering Keystone XL pipeline and his green policies would be harmful to our energy sector. Alberta and Saskatchewan would be hammered, but the entire country would be damaged.
Trump’s tax and regulatory policies restrained the Liberal government from its worst instincts. Higher Democratic taxes and tougher green regulations would provide finance minister Chrystia Freeland scope to do the same here, with negative implications for our competitiveness, productivity and capital attraction.
Canada was battered by Trump’s protectionism. The Democrats might outdo him, but without the bluster, braggadocio and threats. The softwood lumber dispute will still fester. Either way, get used to American First policies, even if Biden’s rhetoric would be less threatening. Our ability to impose taxes and regulatory restrictions on the social media giants could by kiboshed by a Democratic administration beholden to Facebook, Google and Twitter, which were helpful to its re-election.
Somewhat related - voter fatigue in this country proves that even sheep tire of corruption and incompetence and get apathetic:
MPs on the House affairs committee yesterday expressed alarm over low voter turnout in two provincial elections. Trends may see future campaigns decided by as few as a third of voters, said one MP: “It would be a tragedy.”
In other news, the Vichy government in Canada insists that its obvious support for censorship was misinterpreted and that it really does support free speech even though it is going to police the Internet:
The prime minister's comments come in response to multiple attacks in France over reprinted caricatures of the prophet Muhammad, which is considered blasphemous by Muslims.
"World leaders have been standing with President Macron and defending free speech. Why hasn't this prime minister?" O'Toole said.
Trudeau replied he "unequivocally" condemned the terrorist attacks in France, as well as around the world.
"We stand with the French people," he said.
(Sidebar: except when you don't, Petain Trudeau.)
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Lest there was any room for confusion about the prime minister’s free speech credentials, he reinforced the point in English. “Our journalists, our artists have an important challenge function in our society and we need to leave them free to do their work. I have always believed that and I’ve always said it.”
At least he had the decency to look sheepish.
Because, of course, that’s not what he has always said.
Those with prodigious memories will recall it was last Friday that the prime minister said something quite different.
When he was asked at last week’s press conference whether we should be able to laugh at religion or make fun of the Muslim prophet, Trudeau defended freedom of expression but said there are limits on those freedoms. “We do not have the right to shout ‘fire!’ in a movie theatre crowded with people,” he said. In a pluralistic, diverse society, people have to be aware of the impact of their words and actions, particularly on groups that experience discrimination, he added.
In the aftermath of the beheading of French teacher Samuel Paty for showing his class some Charlie Hebdo cartoons that caricatured the Prophet Muhammad, it was a response that discounted the barbarity of the assault on Western values such as freedom of thought.
It smacked of Trudeau’s rather academic reaction to the Boston Marathon bombing seven years ago, when, after the new Liberal leader had mused about the “root causes” behind the attack, prime minister, Stephen Harper, accused him of “committing sociology.”
On Monday, Quebec Premier Francois Legault made it known he “totally disagreed” with Trudeau’s equivocation on freedom of expression, despite his own government’s stance on the wearing of religious symbols by teachers and civil servants in its own secularism law.
Instead, Legault backed French President Emmanuel Macron, who has vocally supported the right to make fun of religion.
On his Facebook page on Tuesday, the Quebec premier revealed that he received a call from Macron, thanking him for his support in defending freedom of expression, a posting all the more delicious because it is clear that Trudeau did not get one.
It appears the prime minister’s sociological musings did not resonate with Canadian voters either, given the course correction on Tuesday.
(Sidebar: it wasn't a "course correction". He folded like the coward that he is.)
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Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault yesterday introduced first-ever federal regulation of the internet, specifically streaming video services like Netflix and Disney Plus. Cabinet dropped a January 29 proposal to control digital news publishers under the Broadcasting Act: “Do we try and change everything under the sun?”
It's just money:
Parliament’s budget watchdog has called out the Trudeau government for not providing information on billions of dollars in planned federal spending.
The parliamentary budget office made clear its concerns about the Liberals’ spending secrecy in two separate reports released Wednesday.
The first accused the government of having failed to provide detailed information in its recent request to Parliament for $79 billion in added spending authority.
While the government says most of the money is intended for COVID-19 relief, the PBO suggested Parliament was hamstrung in its ability to oversee government spending because of the Liberals’ secrecy.
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The Canada Revenue Agency last night would not comment on MPs’ complaints auditors have targeted small businesses drawing pandemic relief benefits. The Commons votes today on a motion to suspend audits for at least seven months: “Stop treating small business owners like tax cheaters."
Defunding the police will only minimise their ability to tackle crime.
Instead, take money from their pensions. That should fix things:
Quebec City police say it wasn’t necessary to issue a mass public alert during the Halloween night stabbing rampage that left two dead and five injured.
Insp. André Turcotte said Wednesday the force felt it had the situation well under control last weekend.
Police tweeted at 11:57 p.m. Saturday, warning citizens of multiple victims, of a suspect in medieval clothing and ordering people to stay away from the crime scene in Old Quebec.
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