kimmy

Haha suuuuure. The firing had nothing at all to do with the Russia probe! Nothing to do with the subpoenas issued to Michael Flynn a few hours earlier, nothing to do with Comey's promise of grave consequences who leaked info to anyone who leaked information to Rudy Giuliani during the campaign, nothing to do with anything like that! He was no doubt just angry that Comey was mean to Hillary during the election, like he said. Why would anybody believe otherwise! Obviously the firing creates that impression that Trump was trying to impact the investigation. When you do something that looks exactly like a cover-up, you have no business crying afterward that people are accusing you of a cover-up. If Trump wants to avoid the perception that he fired Comey so that he could appoint a yes-man and save his own ass, the answer is obvious. An independent probe. If Trump has nothing to hide, an independent probe seems like the best way to clear his reputation and get rid of all of these questions for good. Why is he (and Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell) so opposed to an independent investigation? -k

I imagine that there's a lot of jealousy out there... it will probably increase in upcoming seasons. But on the bright side Toronto still has the Maple Lea-- oh. Well, there's the Rapt-- uh, ok, how about the Blue J-- uh, that's not going so well either. Well, there's always next year. -k

After 8 years of Fox News and other right-wing news outlets criticizing every aspect of Obama, you're just noticing this now? The same people who once went off the rails because Obama wore a TAN suit (the horror!) now want everybody to ignore the Russia inquiry. (He said that in 2013, not 2017, though.) They used to complain about Obama's "lavish vacations" and that his vacations cost $100 million over 8 years. Now that their champ has spent $20 million in just 4 months on trips to Mar-a-Lago, they don't have anything to say about it. Or the additional millions it's costing to keep Melania and Barron in a separate residence. -k

Nobody, including the BC Green Party, is suggesting that all natural resource industries should be shut down. Many people do think, however that our natural resources industries are not being managed responsibly. A few years ago there was a mining project that would have destroyed an entire lake, as in the lake would not physically exist anymore. The mining company said that destroying the lake was the only financially viable way to mine the area. The BC Liberals did an environmental assessment and shipped it off to the feds for approval. The feds-- this was the Harper government-- said "are you freaking kidding me? This is a disaster!" and rejected the project. The mining company goes back to the drawing board and magically, they discover that there actually is a financially viable way to mine the area without destroying the entire lake. Once again the Liberals rubber stamp it and ship it off to the feds and once again the federal government-- still Harper-- says the new plan is still a disaster that they can't approve. And they're still at it... the BC Liberals and the mining company are trying to find a way to make the project go ahead that bypasses federal approval. How bad is the BC environmental process if even the Harper government was canning stuff that BC approved? How cozy are the Liberals with industry that companies can get this kind of favor? I'm not against using resources responsibly, but I don't want to see irreplaceable things destroyed for the sake of creating a few jobs that will be gone in a few years. -k

So... the White House is trying to convince everybody that they fired Comey because he was mean to Hillary? Also, the memo says that Comey was fired on the recommendation of Jeff Sessions, but Sessions swore to recuse himself from interfering in the Russia inquiry, so it seems as though Sessions has broken that oath. Meanwhile, after spending all last summer complaining that Hillary had been reckless in using a private email server for classified emails, Trump has given a Russian state-photographer a private tour of the White House. SMRT! I'm not sure how that stacks up against letting Mar-a-Lago guests take selfies with "Rick" and the "nuclear football". -k

Yep, pending recounts and so on, we have a minority government. This means that Christy Clark has to keep up her awkward charade of pretending to care about "affordability" for at least a little longer. People are speculating as to whether the Greens can extract some promises from the Liberals or NDP in exchange for forming a coalition. Campaign finance reform? End of first-past-the-post? I expect Clark to give no promises to anybody, and continue as Premier, secure in the knowledge that the opposition will be scared to force another election. -k

Did anybody here expect the Ottawa Senators to be in the final 4? Erik Karlsson is the best hockey player in the world right now. If not him, then it's Pekka Rinne of the Predators. The somewhat unheralded Senators and Predators have breezed into the final four, while the remaining heavyweights-- Pittsburgh, Washington, Anaheim-- go to a game 7. -k

I visited the Firehall Brewery here in Kim Country last weekend! They have some very interesting flavors, in particular the Holy Smoke Stout. http://firehallbrewery.com/ -k

They say they're firing Comey for something that happened last July? And that it had nothing to do with the FBI issuing subpoenas to Michael Flynn associates just a few hours before Comey got axed? HAAAAAHAHAHAHAHA, ok! That seems highly believable! It's obviously long before my time, but people are comparing this to Nixon firing Archibald Cox during the Watergate investigation. -k

Yes, as I said I don't think Rebel Media is "real media". They're political propaganda pretending to be news, much like Breitbart. I think it's sad that real news organizations only picked up the story after Rebel covered it. We saw the same thing in regard to the Cologne New Year's Eve debacle-- the story was blowing up on social media, but the major media outlets only started covering days later after public anger at the media became impossible to ignore. They knowingly sat on the story, made themselves complicit with the police and politicians who tried to keep it quiet, and only came clean after their credibility had already been tarnished. Their failure became a big part of the story. What we see in Canada has been far less dramatic, but follows the same pattern. -k

GREAT SOLUTION!!!! -k

Yes, lots of people used to support things that we now recognize as wrong. But it's pretty unusual to see someone modern-day praising them for their historically-understandable wrongheadedness. "You know, these residential schools, they were a great idea, we should revisit that idea..." -k

Entertaining, but I'm still fascinated as to why Trump thinks that the slavery-supporter that originated the Trail of Tears would have been the right guy to solve the Civil War. -k

Why do you assume it's racism that creates these enclaves? People like to be around people like them. It's comforting, and it's also practical. If you're a Muslim and you're looking for a place to live in Edmonton, you can look in the Millwoods neighborhood and find mosques, and shops selling quality zabiha and halal foods, and lots of people who can speak your language and maybe help you find a job and establish yourself in your new location. -k

I am sure the Deep South will welcome this new wave of northern carpetbaggers with open arms. -k

I think it illustrates the fearful, walk-on-eggshells mentality our media have in addressing Muslims. That argument only works if you consider Rebel Media to be a real media organization, and most people don't. If Stormfront was also posting articles about troubles with Syrian refugees, would you point to Stormfront as an example of media willing to take on this issue? This is one where you can't have it both ways. Most times when people cite Rebel Media here, others just scoff at it as far-right propaganda. Myself included. Well, if it's far-right propaganda you can't cite it as an example of a real media outlet willing to take on this uncomfortable topic. And there's no doubt the Rebel Media is using this issue as propaganda for their own agenda. But underlying this propaganda is actual facts that they've obtained through FOI requests. Why couldn't real media have gone out and obtained the same information using FOI requests? If the real media is ignoring the issue and Rebel Media is the only place to read about it, it makes it look like the real media is trying to hide something, it makes them look scared, or biased. It makes them look untrustworthy. That isn't good. That is bad. And people will look elsewhere. That has fueled the rise of everything from Breitpravda to Alex Jones. Who, aside from Rebel Media, is covering these stories? Can you point me at major media outlets willing to address these? Because I don't consider Rebel Media to be real media, I just consider them alt-right propaganda. As it happens, they are writing about a real issue. Why isn't the mainstream? -k

That's a big assumption. There's no reason to assume that ideological and moral reasons are the primary reasons driving immigration. It's much more likely a search for prosperity and security than a philosophical disagreement. You could adapt as you choose, but ultimately your core belief in the equality of women isn't going to change, is it? I assume that when you say "act on their intolerance" you mean commit violence, but there are acts of intolerance that don't involve violence. The things you teach your children, the things you say in your church or mosque, the policies you vote for. I'm not a fan of Christian fundamentalists either, but we're at a point where that line of thought is dying off in Canada, and I'm not enthusiastic to see it refreshed. I wouldn't be thrilled about a wave of mass immigration from the American Deep South, either, if you're wondering about that. Luckily I don't think that's likely. -k

...and they probably wouldn't have gone to war over slavery either. -k

And the same conversation he clearly says that Andrew Jackson SAW the Civil War. Your cherry-picked quote indicates that he wished that Jackson was president a few years later, and doesn't give any indication that Trump actually understood that Jackson was long dead by then. And clearly he didn't understand that. The guy is, as usual, just talking out of his hat. And what solution do you think Trump imagines Jackson-- a slave-owning dirtbag of a man-- would have had to the Civil War? -k

Let's consider our Syrian refugee coverage of the past couple of years. We frequently get puff-piece "news" stories on the CBC and the major Canadian networks... Syrians arriving in Canada waving Canadian flags, Syrians attend their first hockey game, Syrians build their first snow-man, Syrians join search for missing puppy, that sort of thing. Feel-good stories, and nothing else. No stories about adult Syrian men attending school in the same classrooms as adolescents. No coverage of the sex assault of a 14 year old girl at a school dance by Syrian men. No questioning of whether it was a good idea to put older teens and adults into the same classroom was a smart plan. The only coverage of these less-than-feel-good stories seems to come from Ezra Levant and his crappy "alt-right" website. Ezra didn't make up these stories... they've obtained thousands of pages of school documents through Freedom of Information requests that show these are real issues. But nobody except Ezra is talking about it. Why is that? If the mainstream media is only willing to cover stories about Syrian refugees building snow-men, people will still find out, through social media and through "alt-right" news sources like Ezra Levant. Hiding it doesn't work. If the mainstream media were willing to cover this stuff, maybe there could be a balanced discussion about what schools are doing and whether there is a better way of handling this stuff. If the mainstream media flees from the issue and leaves it to Ezra Levant, we get fear-mongering, sensationalism, and paranoia. Argus recently posted a comment to the effect that "if the Brown-Shirts are the only ones who will promise to protect the border, a lot of people are going to vote for the Brown-Shirts." I think that one could also say that "if Brown-Shirt Media is the only site willing to report the uncomfortable stories about the refugees, more people are going to start reading Brown-Shirt Media." -k

Helping an anti-American political party win the election in South Korea would be just more gravy for Trump? -k

I don't think that very many of our Muslim immigrants are here because they disagree with Muslim morality. I think that most of them are here because they want to escape violence and poverty, or because they believe Canada is a land of comfort and prosperity. I suspect that a desire that terrible sinners be treated with more kindness is actually far down the list of reasons Muslims come to Canada. -k

It's all part of Trump's master plan! He's playing 4-D chess against people who only know how to play checkers! He operates simultaneously in the present, past, and future! He is a great wizard, and Twitter is his magic wand! -k

You spent 8 years bitching and moaning about Obama! I'll believe that when it happens. We'll also see how well Trumpcare works out for anybody aside from the wealthy. And how Trump's upcoming tax reforms workout for anybody aside from the wealthy. And how Trump's Wall Street deregulation works out for anybody aside from the banks. You think these things are going to create a "fired up economy", I think they're going to create a massive gift to the people who need it least, plus a massive increase in the deficit, plus the next financial meltdown. -k