[Skuj]

Oh. So that's her.

The DOJ appealed. To a bench full of other Trumpy judges.

[Skuj]

Well, today in Canada The Cons will crown Pierre Polievre.

I made a bet regarding the number of times he says "free" or "freedom" in his victory speech: I'm going with 9 times.

And he may very well be the new PM in 2025. Trumpism is alive and well in Canada. It can happen here.

[The Soup Nazi]

From Paste:

Why We Should All Be Like Anthony Bourdain Refusing to Toast the Queen

[!@#$%!]

Originally Posted by Skuj

Well, today in Canada The Cons will crown Pierre Polievre.

I made a bet regarding the number of times he says "free" or "freedom" in his victory speech: I'm going with 9 times.

And he may very well be the new PM in 2025. Trumpism is alive and well in Canada. It can happen here.

dude, do you have a king?

and if so (lol) could he some day cockblock your trumpy if he attempted to trump your constitution? because that could be a huge plus.

Originally Posted by The Soup Nazi

From Paste:

Why We Should All Be Like Anthony Bourdain Refusing to Toast the Queen

i dont need a suicidal celebrity to tell me that... at some point we should stop holding up the man as an example. i mean, he had many endearing traits but he was not someone we should imitate by default... but sure lol i already refused the monarchy (if i ever had such an opportunity)

i mean, seriously, "the" queen--who cares? sorry england i dont share your fee-fees. but as in the case of spain during the tejerazo, some tv figurehead could at times come handy...

i AM curious about aussies and canadians though. like, claire didnt say "the queen of england" but "THE queen." as if it were the only one. but anyway, hm, curious about all this commonwealth stuff which is so alien to me (i tried reading wikipedia about these matters but the text was a bit dull).

[The Soup Nazi]

Sweden looks like the next MAGA-like casualty. (Sweden! Jesus Fuck...)

https://apnews.com/article/nato-elec...dda25802e980b9

[!@#$%!]

bernie leading a leftist revolt in the senate against a manchin deal with schumer to ease fossil fuel permitting.

i think it's a bad move in the current energy scarce environment, and right before the election. classic democrat circular firing squad...

yes yes, of course we need to get off fossil fuels, but like st augustine, not just yet...

[Skuj]

Shoot me, but I like the idea of The Monarchy. Maybe Charles will also say no to pot smoking FBI agents? And yes, perhaps when we in Canada go full Trumpy in 2025, Charlie might be able to construct some kind of guardrails. We don't need a Jan 6th here.

[The Soup Nazi]

Originally Posted by Skuj

Shoot me, but I like the idea of The Monarchy.

That's when I reach for my revolver.

 

Charles isn't gonna do shit except killing foxes just for the fuck of it.

[!@#$%!]

Originally Posted by Skuj

Shoot me, but I like the idea of The Monarchy. Maybe Charles will also say no to pot smoking FBI agents? And yes, perhaps when we in Canada go full Trumpy in 2025, Charlie might be able to construct some kind of guardrails. We don't need a Jan 6th here.

right, that's what i've been saying. while i despise the idea of the aristocracy and the divine right of kings etc etc, having some sort of constitutional safeguard could prove handy in case of clusterfuck. i mean, for example, i do not like manure, but sometimes in the field i have to burn some to keep mosquitoes away, hahahah. call me a cynic, but whatever works, i say.

so, please explain if you don't mind, is charles the 3rd your actual boss? i mean you're in the royal canadian air force... this is all very strange to me. i've been watching "yes, minister" and learning in a most amusing way about how the british civil service works, but i don't know how it is with you guys. i've lived in republics of various kinds all my life, and a constitutional monarchy is an extremely alien concept to me. i seriously can't wrap my head around it...

[Skuj]

Originally Posted by !@#$%!

right, that's what i've been saying. while i despise the idea of the aristocracy and the divine right of kings etc etc, having some sort of constitutional safeguard could prove handy in case of clusterfuck. i mean, for example, i do not like manure, but sometimes in the field i have to burn some to keep mosquitoes away, hahahah. call me a cynic, but whatever works, i say.

so, please explain if you don't mind, is charles the 3rd your actual boss? i mean you're in the royal canadian air force... this is all very strange to me. i've been watching "yes, minister" and learning in a most amusing way about how the british civil service works, but i don't know how it is with you guys. i've lived in republics of various kinds all my life, and a constitutional monarchy is an extremely alien concept to me. i seriously can't wrap my head around it...

He is our Head Of State. We have a Governor General, and provincial Lieutenant Governors who represent the monarch. They carry out Constitutional Duties. It's primarily ceremonial stuff, until shit hits the fan. Politics here has a higher level to answer to. Certain rules must be followed. We cannot have a GOP-led clusterfuck here, I hope? I think? I still cannot believe that our new Leader Of The Opposition was handing out timbits to all of those assholes who shut down Ottawa for 3 weeks, and the Cons are apparently overwhelmingly united behind him now. I keep trying to visualize him in charge during the whole pandemic. That might have kept the Queen busy.

I'm pissed off at Charest and others who have lined up behind this Dickhead. Have some balls!!! Quit the party. Actually, the party quit you anyway.

This next few years is going to make me cry, I know it. In the 2025 election, I am going to be asking wtf happened to my beloved country. I may move to Sweden. (Oh...wait....)

I retired from the Airforce, Dude. Now I work in a record shop!! I have finally achieved my dream!!

[!@#$%!]

Originally Posted by Skuj

I retired from the Airforce, Dude. Now I work in a record shop!! I have finally achieved my dream!!

STOP THE PRESSES

best news of the year! congrats!

[The Soup Nazi]

Speaking of clusterfucks. You just put a timebomb up the GQP's ass, Lindsey.

[Skuj]

Originally Posted by The Soup Nazi

Speaking of clusterfucks. You just put a timebomb up the GQP's ass, Lindsey.

I'll never get Lindsey Graham. Every now and then he says something intelligent. But then he completely turns around and does shit like this. You can never figure out which Lindsey Graham will show up.

[The Soup Nazi]

Originally Posted by Skuj

I'll never get Lindsey Graham. Every now and then he says something intelligent. But then he completely turns around and does shit like this. You can never figure out which Lindsey Graham will show up.

The LG that had a molecule of decency is rotting in John McCain's casket.

BTC:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THDN8e9Hgag

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uptbnbjKnEo

And a little Lincoln Project:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsikBkRdXoU

[Skuj]

Well at least one Canadian Con has some balls:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montr...ives-1.6581360

[The Soup Nazi]

As Elizabeth gives way to Charles, realms consider severing ties

When Prince Edward, the youngest son of Queen Elizabeth II, visited Antigua and Barbuda in April, the country’s prime minister told him that the nation, one of 15 in which the British monarch is head of state, wished to “one day” become a republic.

After the queen’s death last week, Prime Minister Gaston Browne revealed a timeline: He plans to hold a referendum on casting off the monarchy “probably” within the next three years.

“This is not an act of hostility,” Browne told ITV News, but a “final step to complete the circle of independence.”

The passing of Elizabeth, a unifying figure more beloved than her son, King Charles III, comes as several Commonwealth realms are reassessing their relationships with the crown.

Leaders across the Commonwealth,anassociation of 56 nations, most of them already republics,expressed sadness over the monarch’s death. But many of those countries, former outposts of the empire, havealso been engaged in a public reckoning over the legacies of colonialism, includingcalls for atonement, reparations and independence.

“The accession of Charles is of course putting this debate front and center: What are we doing with this British, distant, White monarch as our head of state?” said Kate Quinn, an associate professor of Caribbean history at University College London.

The remaining realms include Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Jamaica. Even before Elizabeth’s death, the debate was raging, particularly in the Caribbean, where a confluence of factors, including the Black Lives Matter movement and recent scandal over Britain’s mistreatment of migrants from the British West Indies after World War II, cast a harsh spotlight on the sins of empire.

 

Last November, Barbados ditched the queen as its head of state and became a republic, swearing in its first president in a ceremony at which Charles condemned the “appalling atrocity of slavery” and praised islanders for forging their new path “with extraordinary fortitude.”

Then there were this year’s royal tours.

Prince William and his wife, Catherine, visiting the Caribbean on behalf of Elizabeth on herPlatinum Jubilee,were met with protests and calls for an apology and reparations for slavery. Photos of the pair riding in the open-top Land Rover that Elizabeth and Prince Philip used in 1962 echoed a colonial past.

In Jamaica, William called slavery “abhorrent,” but stopped short of apologizing. Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness told them the nation would be “moving on” from the monarchy.

(Holnessremembered Elizabeth last week as a “close friend” of Jamaica and said he was praying for the people of Britain “as they grieve the loss of their beloved Queen.” Left unacknowledged: She was Queen of Jamaica, too.)

Other realms in the region have indicated interest in following Barbados’s lead. A constitutional reform commission in Belize is poised to consider, among other topics, whether the Central American nation should declare a republic.

“Within our region, there is a definite push toward bringing home the head of state,” Henry Usher, Belize’s minister of constitutional and political reform, told The Washington Post. “I think it’s important that we can’t be having a head of state that’s living thousands of miles away and is not in tune with what’s happening locally. … The rallying cry in the Caribbean is that the people are sovereign.”

Bahamas Prime Minister Philip Davis told the Nassau Guardian last week that a referendum on becoming a republic is “always on the table.” Pressed for details on the timing, a spokesman told The Post the prime minister was observing 10 days of mourning and declined further comment.

“The voices are getting louder,” Quinn said. “I think we’re in a particular historical moment where a number of factors are coalescing that could create fertile ground for the proposed changes to succeed.”

After Elizabeth’s coronation in 1953, with the sun already setting on the British Empire, she and Philip embarked on a six-month tour of the Commonwealth.

Speaking on Christmas Day from Auckland, New Zealand, she said the Commonwealth was not at all like “the Empires of the past.”

“It is an entirely new conception, built on the highest qualities of the spirit of man: friendship, loyalty and the desire for freedom and peace,” she said.“To that new conception of an equal partnership of nations and races I shall give my heart and soul every day of my life.”

Over the first several decades of her reign, many imperial possessions declared their independence. Several became republics.

But the end of Empire did not bring an end to the consequences of empire. Historians and advocates for reparations say inequities in wealth, education and health care in many realms are rooted in colonialism.

But severing ties with the monarchy can be easier said than done. Nearly every constitutional reform commission in the Caribbean since independence has recommended declaring republics, and leaders in several nations have pledged to do so — but have faced obstacles.

Belize can abolish the monarchy through legislation, as Barbados did,though Usher said the government plans to hold a referendum on reforms from the constitutional review.Other realms have constitutions that require the passage of a referendum — some with a simple majority; others with a supermajority.

Timing also matters.

The Gleaner, Jamaica’s national newspaper, criticized Holness’s government this week for suggesting that a referendum on the subject wouldn’t take place until the next election, in 2025.

“A referendum on any issue relatively close to a general election is likely to morph [into] a plebiscite on the government,” the newspaper editorialized, “rather than a rational pronouncement on the question at hand. That should be avoided.”

In Canada, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau remembered Elizabeth last week as “one of my favorite people in the world.” She was head of state for nearly half of the country’s existence, present at seminal moments in its history. Polls show Canadians have a deep affection for her, but are cooler on Charles.

Charles and his wife, Camilla, were greeted by modest crowds in Ottawa when they visited in May. They also faced calls for an apology over the Crown’s “ongoing failure to fulfill its treaty agreements” with Indigenous peoples.

But while pollsshow declining support for the constitutional monarchy, the bar for declaring a republic is high: It would require a constitutional amendment backed by both houses of Parliament and all 10 provincial legislatures. Trudeau said this week that Canadians are “almost entirely” preoccupied with other issues.

Australia came close to removing the monarch as head of state a quarter-century ago and recently elected a pro-Labor government. But new Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is in no rush to address the divisive issue.

After his election in May, he appointed his country’s first-ever “assistant minister for the republic,” tasked with explaining and expanding support for a referendum on declaring a republic. He has said such a vote would not come until a second term — should he win one.

Since Elizabeth’s death, Albanese has avoided the subject.

“Now is not a time to talk about our system of government,” he told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. on Sunday. “Now is a time for us to pay tribute to the life of Queen Elizabeth.”

In a country known for rule-following, most republicans struck a similar tone. The few officials who went further were immediately lashed.

“I cannot mourn the leader of a racist empire built on stolen lives, land and wealth of colonized peoples,” GreensSenator Mehreen Faruqi tweeted. “We are reminded of the urgency of Treaty with First Nations, justice & reparations for British colonies and becoming a republic.”

Right-wing lawmaker Pauline Hanson called for the Lahore-born Faruqi to “piss off back to Pakistan.”

Eric Abetz, chairman of the Australian Monarchist League, told The Post that Faruqi was “nearly dancing on her majesty’s grave,” and that such comments would backfire in a referendum.

The 1999 referendum failed due to schisms among republicans.

Across the Tasman Sea, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told reporters it was likely that the country would become a republic in her lifetime —she’s 42— butshe didn’t believe it was “on the agenda anytime soon.”

Elizabeth’s death hasn’t yet stirred signs of republican pushes in other Pacific realms.

In the Solomon Islands, the government and opposition leaders issued statements praising the queen. In Papua New Guinea, where Elizabeth was known as “Mama Belong Big Family” and “Missis Kwin,” Prime Minister James Marape’s heartfelt eulogy hinted at difficult times ahead.

“Her Majesty was the anchor that held our country within the Commonwealth,” he wrote.

Left unsaid was what happens to a ship when its moorings snap.

[choc e-Claire]

What a useless piece of shit Albanese is. Says we can't be a republic because of the Queen dying, says we can't do the vote on an Indigenous voice to Parliament this term, says he'll start the anti-corruption group this year then suddenly pushes it forward to next year, says we can't increase welfare because we don't have enough money, says we have to vote through the tax cuts the right-wing ex-government support...

jfc this country.

[The Soup Nazi]

Margarine Traitor Gangrene kicked a gun control activist - and posted the fucking video herself!

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/3...er-kicking-me/

https://twitter.com/RepMTG/status/1570530379550916609

[The Soup Nazi]

Goodbye, USA, you had a good run for a bit:

Republicans in key battleground races refuse to say they will accept results

Of the 19 GOP candidates questioned by The Washington Post, a dozen declined to answer or refused to commit. Democrats overwhelmingly said they would respect the results.

[Skuj]

Originally Posted by The Soup Nazi

Goodbye, USA, you had a good run for a bit:

Republicans in key battleground races refuse to say they will accept results

Of the 19 GOP candidates questioned by The Washington Post, a dozen declined to answer or refused to commit. Democrats overwhelmingly said they would respect the results.

Even Ray Charles could see this one coming. The Big Lie works for them. (But not for the future of USA as a democracy, I agree.) It still boggles my mind that state by state the Repukes are taking charge of election certification, and nobody is doing anything about it! Not Biden. Not the DOJ. Nobody. These assholes are laughing all the way until the next election.

On another note, is it possible that this untra-dick move by Desantis, ie flying/busing immigrants to "democrats", could serve as a turning point for his political fortunes? I'm dreaming, right? It might even help him in that great Trumpy cesspool known as USA today.