Nah. Instead, in Poilievre’s case — and some others —it’s a dim view of reality.

Reality is an inconvenience to these fucks.

I don’t want people who lie, grift, and con to be in power anywhere. Especially mean-spirited, divisive, angry little boys like PP and 45/47.

It’s been said: “Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.” ~ Frank Wilhoit (Ohio)

Accountability is for the poors. The powerful, the change-agents of history, move beyond accountability. Or, so they practice. Every so often, one falls from grace; another rides rough-shod over sensibility; a third is investigated, tried, convicted, forgotten, then released to wither and die in obscurity. Often, people forget.

I lived in Seoul for 3 years. 청계천 is one of the happiest places of my memory.

Magneto’s power set could be very useful and easy to manage. Magnets can certainly be made stronger and weaker. He/I would need to build up to any dangerous level of magnetic power, so meditation before sleep would be clutch. Bullet-proof, flight, what amounts to telekinesis, and the ability to manifest any metallic object is fairly incredible, yet unobtrusive.

Also, Forge’s power set would be pretty nice to have. Can engineer, build, fix, and invent literally anything. Solve any technological problem at will. The photocopier would never be broken. Wait, does anyone still use a photocopier? The only thing that’d be annoying is becoming everyone’s IT department.

Jamie Madrox is also a great contender. Instant dupes of myself at will (and, yes, magically, they come with clothes).

These are my answers.

Panic.

Panic that I’ve overslept; that I’ll be late and this will be the first and last straw; that I’ve lost my job; lost my house; that I’ve relegated my family to an existence at the fringes of society subsisting on canned beans, dandelions, and wild greens; that losing every shred of self-respect and all prospects of any improvement in my life.

Yep, panic is a pretty solid motivator.

Listened to a whole podcast about this with the Paradise Fire. Great reporting, a documentary approach.

Fittingly, this episode of 99% invisible is amid a 6-episode stretch on climate.

L’appel du vide!

Read Chomsky’s Understanding Power (2002) and Manufacturing Consent (1988). It’s been an oligarchy since at least the 1980s. It’s Reagan’s fault. Jimmy Carter — rest in power —was the last, best hope for the kind of America that humanity wanted.

Read the Fred J. Cook’s The Warfare State (1962).

President Dwight D. Eisenhower was right about the Military-Industrial complex. It used to just be weapons, technology, energy, and heavy industries. The associated industries have metastasized to include entertainment, finance, housing, and education.

How annoying is it to have idiotic anti-intellectuals running nuclear superpowers?

Except Harper. He got in with a minority. Fucked around a little, prorogued parliament under threat of a coalition that would have shifted him into the minority, won that election with a majority, then fucked around even more for 5 years.

Then, he got voted out.

Pwah-lie-every was Harper’s protégé. Expect every shenanigan there is.

Socrates.

This man upheld his right to think his own thoughts and to go where the evidence led him. He stood trial and was sentenced to death.

Now, the most powerful people do not think, have zero principles, disregard evidence, and would gladly have others die to secure their power.

USA: 25

Iran: 883? (I’ve seen numbers between 743 and 798)

China: unkown

Saudi Arabia: 330

Singapore: 9

Bottom line, though, is ANY executions are repugnant.

That the Xanatos gambit is what I now expect from all good villains. Any villain worth their salt has a way to defeat the hero — even captured, killed, or frustrated.

Nobody panics when things go “according to plan.” Even if the plan is horrifying! If, tomorrow, I tell the press that, like, an aid worker will get shot, or a truckload of humanitarians will be blown up, nobody panics, because it’s all “part of the plan”. But when I say that one little old CEO will die, well then everyone loses their minds!

It’s pretty much what it says on the tin, “Harry Potter meets Hunger Games.”… but with dragons as the main characters. The storytelling is good. The characters are tangible, well-developed, and relatable. There are three arcs, the first about wartime, the second is post-war, and the final arc — (which I’ve not started — appears to be about the Undiscovered Country. Reading it as an adult, it’s easy to blitz through. There are fights, stabbings, broken necks, decapitations, and torture. None of it described in visceral gruesome detail, but more as a statement of fact. The stakes feel real. There is also magic, betrayal, surprise, and reconciliation. It’s pretty good stuff.

Target audience, grades 3 to 8 says Scholastic. My little reader is a little younger than that, and he’s obsessed. He still likes Captain Underpants, and he’s starting to get into Pokémon. This feeds the need he has for dragons.

There are also two TV shows. A pretty solid Canadian production from the late '90s called La Femme Nikita, and an early '10s CW series (I’ve never seen it) starring Maggie Q. I also just found out there is also a 1991 Hong Kong remake of the film called Black Cat and a 1999 Bollywood remake called Kartoos.

All this to say that Luc Besson’s original film is an actual treasure trove. And, perhaps, that Peta Wilson played Nikita really well. Better than Bridget Fonda IMHO.

I’m taking a break from catching up with my son’s reading of Wings of Fire. I’m about to start book eight, Escaping Peril

During this break from the grade school fantasy, I’m currently reading The Future of Another Timeline by Annalee Newitz. It was a random choice for me, served up by the algorithm and a few filters on Libby.

Not sure if I’m going to see this one through to the end as 10 more Wings of Fire Books beckon.

As for a recommendation, the last two “5 out of 5” books I read were, The Message and The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates. The latter title, his first novel, is just as accessible as his articles and his latest reflection on America and her role in world affairs, the former title.

December 23, 1995: On a wooden basement staircase, in an empty house, with no heat, with my dog. My parents lost the house. All our stuff had been moved out. Our nervous dog wouldn’t settle. I couldn’t leave him. That was the last night I slept in the house where I grew up.

December 1998: On a basement floor near Ottawa. At least it was carpeted. Hammered after some party near a college. In the night, some angel draped a blanket over me. Best feeling of my life to that point. Some guy’s sister was kind to us.

May 2009: Coober Pedy, Australia. Slept in a hostel that was in a mine. Slept underground in a room with bunk beds and no windows. It was weird. Felt like a bomb shelter.

December 2011: Wadi Rum, Jordan. Slept outside under the stars on a sleeping mat on a rock of biblical proportion. The guy in the tent next to ours was snoring. Loudly. My partner couldn’t take it. We dragged our mattresses out onto a rock 300 m from camp. I reasoned — scorpions were less likely to find us. Coulda been wrong. Still here to tell the tale.

I’ve slept in some weird places.

That RTJ video is one of the few I’ve loved since it released.

Then, I discovered Kendrick Lamar had made a video for Alright. Wow.

2015. I didn’t see it until 2018.

Prolly should read The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue.

Not the same, but, some similar elements.

According to Article 27 of the Rome Statute, all wanted persons are equal before the court, including heads of a state or government. No immunities under international law may bar the court from exercising its jurisdiction.

“No international court has ever found that a head of state or high ranking individual has immunity before it, and Article 27 was meant to codify that principle,” [says] “Leila Sadat, a leading expert on immunities and former ICC special advisor on crimes against humanity[.]”

The immunity loophole found in Article 98 (1), according to the judgement, must be read in context and interpreted in a manner that is consistent with the object and purpose of the Rome Statute, meaning that it should not be read to carve out an exception to Article 27’s clear provisions.

… the reference to state immunity under Article 98 (1) is related to the immunity of a state and its property, not its leaders or officials.