Roy Brander🍁

Am I the only one wondering why they spent 9 years talking about a "pee tape" when the real reason Putin rules over Trump is more likely a "teen girl" tape?
Besides the Miss Teen America dressing-room tour, somehow I missed this:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/mar/14/teen-models-powerful-men-when-donald-trump-hosted-look-of-the-year
Between the two of these, if you can't concoct an accusation WAY better than "birth certificate", to get under the MAGA skin, I can't help you.

2025-07-30 14:58:31 UTC

I get the weird impression that Trump opponents seem to think the Epstein story is about Trump being a perv or pedo.
The GOP doesn't care. They don't care about pastors or coaches; the didn't care that Trump went backstage at Miss Teen America. Just like the don't care about the frauds and cons and rape-proof and criminal convictions.
They only care about pedo stories on Dems. His ONLY betrayal would be protecting DEMS (in order to protect friends).
"Pedo Protector" is your protest sign.

2025-07-26 20:50:47 UTC

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I notice that even insiders are saying "the people at CBS who did this"
...they all get to remain anonymous, so far; how could they possibly be embarrassed, now or at any other time?
There's no accountability if there's anonymity.

2025-07-14 16:18:05 UTC

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It's a sign of "abundance", if you will. It's been going on a long time.
My mother was taught to darn socks in the 1930s, when it was necessary, but when socks became 10x cheaper, relative to income at least, Mom threw out socks with holes the rest of her life. Boomers heard about darning, but very few learned it.
Depending on age, you may never have even heard of it; most have never met anybody who'd know how.
Ending is better than mending socks..now.

2025-07-13 23:03:14 UTC

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We reached "ending is better than mending" some years back.

2025-04-21 03:18:04 UTC

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This is the theme of the famous essay, and then book, by Adam Serwer:
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/10/the-cruelty-is-the-point/572104/
...which notes that pictures of crowds taken at lynchings had thumbs-up, happy faces proud to be there. It's a bonding.

2025-03-23 16:41:59 UTC

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How about "which state"?
CBC today has a story of two musician sisters being harassed at length by Ohio police, and the Ohio police calling the complaint 'hate mongering'.
https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/video/9.6694117
I'm just wondering if we can start mapping which US States have serving MAGA cops actively promoting their politics.

2025-03-23 16:34:16 UTC

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It's awkward when such triggering stories don't come with names or any other specifics.

2025-03-02 17:42:51 UTC

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I don't know how to re-post this over to here, so I'll just repeat:
There's real "Iraq War Energy" on the front page of the Post this morning.
The attitude towards the importance of other countries;
"Zelensky doesn't hold the cards" == "The support of every other country combined is as nothing compared to the USA."
And "...not a smart strategy" was very Iraq-War editorial. Nothing about ILLEGAL or IMMORAL, just "bad strategy".
It's like calling the Mafia a "bad life strategy".
https://cdn.masto.host/urbanistssocial/media_attachments/files/114/094/067/651/733/775/original/5c0a859719539d57.png

2025-02-17 06:00:19 UTC

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I set this up for myself about 10 years back, when we moved to the retirement place, and I had to part with half my books first.
I asked a bespoke furniture company to look at it, and the guy researched up the single-track bronze wheels the page shows. It was ~$10K back then. Utterly worth it.
https://brander.ca/library/

2025-02-13 20:41:21 UTC

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No blacksites, either. Yes, I'm sure;' we aren't that good at keeping secrets.
The logic was the same as guns. You're at greater risk with one in the house. That logic only applies to citizens who can call police.
If there are no police, you actually, I'm sorry, DO need a gun in the house.
And I don't believe the NATO police would die for our NW Territories, if Russian icebreakers showed up on the Arctic shore to start a new lithium mine.

2025-02-13 19:59:31 UTC

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I wrote my MP to ask that we consider a nuclear weapons program.
http://brander.ca/blog/nukes_please.html
...friends and chance encounter people (dentist, etc) are guarded but basically supportive "gotta look at it, at least".
It's the journalists and social media bloggers who write back as if I've gone nuts.
Mind you, that was yesterday, before the Ukrainian concessions, and the direct 51st-state message repeated.
Maybe today I'm not quite so ahead of the wave.

2025-02-10 23:42:29 UTC

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I've been a lefty peacenik anti-militarist all my life, a few weeks ago was griping about the stupid arbitary "2% of GDP" defence budget.
Today, I'm on a soc-med post-fest to promote a Canadian nuclear weapons program. (Preferably by sweetly asking America to sell us bombs or at least tech for defense against "rogue states"! That's the funny part...)
I can't escape the logic: if we can't depend on NATO, we're just Ukraine awaiting invasion. We need nukes.

2025-02-04 17:27:31 UTC

Can we spread the word that, whatever the government response, Canadians will just avoid American purchases and travel until Donald Trump stops speaking disrespectfully of our country.
All the 51st state crap, in particular.
I asked for a "boost" the other day, and was astonished to get responses that re-posted to over 15,000 people.
This is worth asking the same, again.
Just Say NO to America.

2025-02-02 17:05:59 UTC

I can't believe that I have to start this, but I'm not seeing it anywhere else, so I'll just beg readers to boost towards virality:
CANADIANS! Don't Travel To The USA!
The biggest spending you can withhold from them, practically, is your visit. And the most public.
Write your favourite hotel or B&B, tell them you're not coming, and why.
Post on all your social media that you won't be going, beg others to do the same.
All others. In the world.

2025-01-13 20:07:55 UTC

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Signing books elbow-to-elbow with Atwood at the 2013 Edinburgh book fair.
Surprised to see this: Authors are hardly part of an "community" most of the time, it's a solitary profession, and they're easy to avoid.
https://cdn.masto.host/urbanistssocial/media_attachments/files/113/822/842/932/038/877/original/6e0f38f4f2a3a2ed.jpg

2024-10-17 21:15:57 UTC

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https://archive.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/iraq/history/0623strategy.htm
..what were we all doing in 1991 when 170,000 kids died from American bombing of their power plants; the "germ warfare by proxy" of cholera and typhus?
Then there's 100,000 dead in the 2009 conflict in Sri Lanka.
There are, I'm sorry, a lot of terrible stories that almost nobody ever even hears about.
The 1991 story WAS in the WaPo; then it was dropped the next day. And I was shocked to learn of it just a few years ago.

2024-09-09 15:07:40 UTC

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Seriously? They're really pushing to increase birth rates?
By making it possible for one job to support a family??
Wow. What a turnaround.

2024-09-02 00:40:21 UTC

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I went looking for an old Nat.Geog. article that showed Navaho women actually making circuit boards for Fairchild Semiconductor, because they could remember the complex patterns.
But I think that was the 1970s article "The Computer", and what I still have is the 1982 issue on "The Chip", and it contributes this semi-relevant picture.
"Semi", because that's NOT a rug, but a model; it's how they had to review chip designs before you could do CAD zoom-ins.
https://cdn.masto.host/urbanistssocial/media_attachments/files/113/065/169/163/127/973/original/ccaf2ab98ab2fb5e.jpg

2024-08-11 22:34:43 UTC

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The reality of the 1970s is not actually shown by the TV made in those years, because censorious "standards" removed not only the swearing from the language, but most of the smoke from the air.
About 3X as many people smoked back then as are shown in TV of the era.
You'd have to show teen smoking, too. My high school had a smoking room - for the students. In the basement, about 2X the size of a classroom, usually had 40 in it at lunch.
No, I'm not joking. 1976.