Billy

@billyidles.bsky.social

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Vancouver. Local Politics. Less Local Politics. Tech stuff.

Despite his criticism of Parliament, Douglas supported Canadian involvement in the Second World War. Although CCF party leader J.S. Woodsworth was a staunch pacifist, Douglas was not. "If you accept the completely absolutist position of the pacifist, then you are saying that you are prepared to allow someone else who has no such scruples to destroy all the values you've built up," he said.
Svend Robinson @svendrobinson.bsky.social Bullshit Charlie. Avi is speaking for many of us who are appalled at Carney's massive increase in military spending. Politics is about priorities...health care, environment, fighting inequality. Not bombs. Canada should be an independent voice for peace and global justice, outside NATO.
The 2025 conference also had a combative exchange. At one point, lan Bremmer, the founder of Eurasia Group, was on stage with Eric Schmidt, the former Google CEO. Shopify founder Tobi Lütke - arguably Canada's most successful tech entrepreneur and one of the country's wealthiest people, who had attended the conference multiple times - felt the need to tell Mr. Bremmer that he was talking too much and that he wanted to hear more from Mr. Schmidt as a company builder. Some people felt it was disrespectful, particularly as Mr. Bremmer was an invited VIP. Mr. Lütke was not invited back this year. Asked about the exchange, Mr. Lütke said in a text, "I can confirm that I said this and meant it." He added: "The dock is a conference where 90iq leaders go to use terms they heard 100iq people say to impress 80iq people. I went a few times to read them the riot act on where Canada is headed if they keep up the NPC act because sometimes taking very low percentage change swings is worth it if the stakes are high."
Douthat: You don't think it's reasonable for a proud Canadian to look at that image and say, at the very least, that the U.S. is trying to vassalize us?
Billy Bookcase instruction manual
Under the original terms, Canada was set to collect the bridge tolls until its construction costs were recouped, after which the revenues would be split evenly. Michigan and Canada are to share ownership of the structure. That deal is not being amended, but the Canadians are agreeing to effectively strike a side-deal with the Americans to reallocate some of the initial toll revenue, some of the officials said.
A railing next to a crossing button, badly bent, barely attached to the sidewalk.
Sanna Marin
A woman at a protest holds a sign that says “This would be like when Geri Halliwell overestimated her viability as a sol artist and left the Spice Girls”
The third Telus facility is expected to come online in 2029 at 150 West Georgia St. (formerly 720 Beatty St.), situated at the prominent southeast corner of the intersection of Beatty Street and West Georgia Street in downtown Vancouver - right next to BC Place Stadium. It will be purpose-built directly on top of Creative Energy's expanded and upgraded district energy steam plant that critically provides the bulk hot water and steam heating needs for about 50 million sq. ft. of building floor area in over 200 customer buildings across the downtown Vancouver peninsula, with this service supported by 14 km of underground steam distribution pipes.
Blaming all Israelis for the actions of Netanyahu is as senseless as blaming all Americans for the actions of Trump.
BILLY. Reborn as BILLY. We switched out the nails to help you assemble and disassemble our storage hero over and over again
[most viscerally personally unpleasant person you've ever met] i'm going to lead a mass movement of the workers
The strongest protective factor for long COVID symptoms in this study was vaccination prior to presentation with acute COVID-19. Patients who were vaccinated had a threefold reduced risk of long COVID symptoms.
History Awards Norovirus outbreak Employment rights See also References External links
Mute text screen in in bluesky muting “chapo”
On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog
Map 10 Number of eligible school-aged children and proportion who attended a French-language school, Alberta, 2021 49,735 eligible school-aged children Alberta 49.6% attended a French-language school * Canada outside Quebec 452,110 64.7% eligible school-aged attended a French- children language school Number Notes: This map shows census subdivisions (CSDs) where 30 or more eligible school-aged children (born between 2003 and 2015) lived in 2021, at least 10 of whom could conduct a conversation in French. This map also shows which of these CSDs had at least one French-language school. Sources: Statistics Canada, Census of Population, 2021. Open Database of Educational Facilities, 2022. Lethbridge Medicine Hat
California Gov. Gavin Newsom drew applause at the World Economic Forum in Davos Thursday with a heated denunciation of President Donald Trump — but also rejected the growing Davos consensus that Trump represents a permanent breach in the American-led global order. Newsom spoke a day after Trump grudgingly backed off threats to seize Greenland, and two days after the Canadian Prime Minister captivated the global forum by declaring that US allies needed to acknowledge a permanent "rupture" in the global systems and begin hedging their bets by deeper engagement with China. "These relationships are in dormancy. They're not dead," Newsom told me in a Thursday morning interview. "I don't use those binary terms. Don't fall prey to that. That's a bit hyperbolic."
PROPAGANDHI A Speculative Fiction A new iron curtain drawn across the 49th parallel. Cut all diplomatic ties as we expel all American dignitaries and issue a nation-wide travel advisory for any others left inside. Nowhere to run. Nowhere to hide. The burned out shells of south-bound traffic lay strewn along a cold stretch of would-be interstate. Still visible below their charred remains: Pax Americana plates. Your stupid fucking laser-pucks™ were just the start. And while you may stand six full cubits and a span, we got a shepherd's sling and five stones in our hand and the battle of 1812 lives in our hearts. We don't care if we're destroyed. We'll never capitulate. We'll take the whole fucking world down with us in flames. Just a speculative fiction. No cause for alarm. We got a good 15 years left 'til the United We Stand murals on West Broadway finally fade and we wave good-bye to such sad, childish refrains. Replaced with other stupid lullabies like you can have my guns when you pry them from my cold dead hands. Just a speculative fiction. No cause for alarm.
Still of a TikTok ad featuring a white man Joseph Bovino, Esq. Canadians Can Relocate to the United States and Run a Business Here with an E2 Visa Are you a Canadian who dreams of relocating to the United States and running your ow... more
Just say "residential schools" to a Canadian. Instant ST*U. theres's no shortage of comebacks for the EU. Keep talking about it, but don't act like you've got clean hands.
"This response to our own allies for sending a small number of troops to Greenland for training is bad for America, bad for American businesses, and bad for America's allies," Tillis wrote in a post on the social platform X. "It's great for [Russian President Vladimir] Putin, [Chinese President Xi Jinping] and other adversaries who want to see NATO divided." "The fact that a small handful of 'advisors' are actively pushing for coercive action to seize territory of an ally is beyond stupid," Tillis continued. "It hurts the legacy of President Trump and undercuts all the work he has done to strengthen the NATO alliance over the years."
Here's an explanation everyone can understand, and the one Canada should have started with - tough. You didn't qualify? Tough. You're upset about that? Tough. You believe you are owed a spot in the Olympics because you really want one? Double tough. On one level, this is the reality of Canada's changed relationship with the U.S. We used to be friends, but now we can't be invited to the same parties without it causing a problem. For us, at least. Take sports out of it. Why would any Canadian be looking to help out any American right now? You want to play by friend rules? Then you should try being friends. If we're not friends, we're not doing you any more solids. Go ask Russia to give you a hand.
A bus stop. In the power box where there is normally an ad is a photo of a man yawning.
i'll just note that canada was on the cusp of electing their very own trump and autocracy/ fascism is expanding all around us. so although it's true that american voters are dumbasses, other countries' voters should probably look inward...
Connecting these dots, a plausible scenario for U.S. application of military force against Canada to seize our oil resources goes something like this. An independence referendum in Alberta - during which separatists receive a huge infusion of grey MAGA money - sees a majority vote to remain part of Canada, but with 30 per cent or more voting for sep-aration. Mr. Trump declares the result is "fake" and that actual support for separation was "well over" 50 per cent. Alberta separatists then appeal to the U.S. for help, claiming various kinds of oppression. The U.S. moves troops to the northern Montana border and tells the rest of Canada that Alberta must be allowed to join America as the "51st state."
Norman Rockwell guy standing up in town hall
Sickos meme
A chart of the Gartner, taken from Wikipedia
Have you ever tried to learn rollerblading?
A bookstore shelf with a sign saying “If you like (left arrow) we think you’ll love (right arrow) To the left is Hillbilly Elegy, by JD Vance, to the right is We Were Eight Years in Power, by Ta-Nehisi Coates.
A bumper sticker on the back of a white pickup truck that reads “PLEASE GOD LET THERE BE ANOTHER OIL BOOM. I PROMISE TO NOT PISS IT AWAY THE SECOND TIME.”
The stair car, from Arrested Development.
A New Yorker cartoon, with a person in a diving suit in a room full of people in office wear, captioned with “Christ, what an asshole!”
"I feel like there's just something really refreshing about a person who is not one of these polished, political test tube babies who's been practicing their Obama impression since they were eight years old," Shawn Vulliez, COPE's co-chair, said. "One of the things that is amazing is just seeing how much [this victory] meant to people, not just here in the city, but from elsewhere. When you stand up and fight against mayors like Ken Sim and the billionaires who back him. I've been brought to tears multiple times seeing what this win meant to people. You feel so inspired to keep up the fight and push to win," Vulliez said.
Sean Orr’s Bluesky profile with a big banner from his campaign that says “Fight for Housing”
The intent as interpreted by some media was to distract police forces from the security zone so that other protesters could break in, but police maintained their blockades, protecting the fence.
29th and Boundary, screenshot from Google maps.
What is History? E.H. Carr
Email from “Canada’s NDP” Subject: 🙌H-O-T T-O V-O-T-E🙌
Hitter and Goebbels were the first relativizers of the Holocaust, the first purveyors of false equivalence. "Concentration camps were not invented in Germany," Hitler said in 1941. "It is the English who are their inventors, using this institution to gradually break the backs of other nations." The British had operated camps in South Africa, the Nazis pointed out. Party propagandists similarly highlighted the sufferings of Native Americans and Stalin's slaughter in the Soviet Union. In 1943, Goebbels triumphantly broadcast news of the Katyn Forest massacre, in the course of which the Soviet secret police killed more than twenty thousand Poles. (Goebbels wanted to show footage of the mass graves, but generals overruled him.) Nazi sympathizers carry on this project today, alternately denying the Holocaust and explaining it away.
A Facebook post in a group called “Simpsons Lover” asking who a character in a jigsaw puzzle is. There is a picture of a jigsaw puzzle full of Simpsons characters with a little alien guy circled. Below are AI suggested discussion topics including - Is Jigsaw a character from the Simpsons - Jigsaw puzzle piece names - Jigsaw’s role in Simpson’s episodes
The pacific terminus of the trans Canada highway in Tofino, BC
"You know when you touch the stove, once you get burnt, you don't touch that stove again," he said. "We're going to make sure that we follow through with what we said we were going to do until we get a deal. We're going to add more tariffs."
Freeland told Maher that she's "received the memo" about voters being fed up with bothersome and largely symbolic policies like Ottawa's new bylaws limiting vehicle idling.
In the section outlining plans to return Downtown Eastside residents to their home communities, the second draft refers to the struggle of people who are disconnected from prior support networks. But the October memo obtained by The Globe specifically referenced Indigenous people under a section entitled "Re-unification roundtable with First Nations, Métis and other Indigenous groups." The paper notes "many members of the Indigenous community have expressed a desire to live in their home Nations. "Some local Nations are open to welcoming their members return to the community. Re-unification is a meaningful step forward toward reconciliation."
Populism, to me, is not a right-wing phenomenon. It is a type of politics that recognizes that there's a small elite which is screwing everybody else. I call that [having a critique of] capitalism. The right wing calls that the "woke mob," but we don't mean the same things at all. It's the same diagnosis. I think that on the left, we have a correct structural diagnosis of why butter is $10 and rents are unhinged in the city, and we know and we have solutions about what to do about them, and they speak to a vision of government that actually confronts power rather than serving it.
The head crushing guy from Kids in the Hall