“Call me Stephen Harper with a smile” Andrew Scheer In this lesson, I am not going to be the one who explains Andrew Scheer. I am going to let the people with whom Andrew Scheer chooses to surround himself define him. In life, the true test of a person’s character
Continue readingTag: social media
Democracy Under Fire: The Echo Chamber….
Is ‘Social Media an asset or an intrusive addiction? Is the ability to instantly access this stream of unfiltered information an asset or simply spreading misinformation? As someone who could be said to be addicted to the internet but is not ‘on’ any ‘social media’ I have mixed feelings about
Continue readingPolitical Potshots: Podcasting – My First Ever Appearance
You can listen here Where do I get my pundit card? Sidebar: does that pundit card automatically make me histrionic as Rachel Curran, or do I have to work up to that level of utter lunacy and out-of-touchedness? The amazing people at the Canadia Podcast brought me on air today
Continue readingPolitical Potshots: Andrew MacDougall: The Haze Runner
If you observe politics long enough, you will witness moments of pure political amnesia. Its almost as if the commentator/pundit forgets their own past in a moment of faux moral outrage meant to generate clicks, or set up their next serving of revisionist political pablum in Maclean’s, or the National
Continue readingPolitical Potshots: Introducing Political-Potshots.com (And Now For Something Completely Different)
I am so absolutely excited and proud to launch my very own website, Political Potshots! It is less a culmination of a lifelong dream, and more a step into the the future. I have been writing blogs on various formats about politics for years, but I have never felt this
Continue readingPolitical Potshots: How To Fix Canadian News Media, The Neil Before Zod Method.
Take any media bailout money and use it to fully fund the CBC, especially CBC News. This will take the CBC out of the advertising market, giving a bigger piece of the advertising pie to the other news and media organizations. Take the CBC out of direct competition with other
Continue readingPolitical Potshots: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation And The Astroturf Lawnmower
Astroturfing is the practice of masking the sponsors of a message or organization (e.g., political, advertising, religious or public relations) to make it appear as though it originates from and is supported by grassroots participants. Doesn’t that sound like it was written for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation? Given Canadian media’s reliance
Continue readingAlberta Politics: A little homily for churchgoers: Thou shalt do no tweeting from thy pew!
Preachers of many faiths wonder if anyone in their congregations ever pays attention to what they have to say. That complaint was common in clerical circles long before everybody had a direct line to the Internet, instead of God, right in their pocket or purse. Could social media be about
Continue readingPolitical Potshots: Rempelsputin: An Experiment In Political Thinskinnedness
Ra ra RempelsputinLover of the Twitter BlockThere was a cat with really thin skin… When I was relatively new to Twitter there was a urban legend that I heard about on Canadian political Twitter about a politician who would block anyone for any reason. Michelle Rempel, a newish Calgary MP,
Continue readingAlberta Politics: UCP leader’s tweet fumbles response to Islamophobic group’s harassment of worshipers at Edmonton mosque
Perhaps United Conservative Party Leader Jason Kenney needs to engage someone new to compose his tweets for him. Mr. Kenney is a bright guy, so I’m assuming for reasons that will soon become apparent he doesn’t come up with his own contributions to Twitter, the antisocial medium. Last fall, when
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Duffy 2.0? Ottawa lawyer’s allegations about then-MP Jason Kenney’s expenses sets off Internet tempest
Allegations about United Conservative Party Leader Jason Kenney’s Calgary domestic and travel arrangements during the years he was the Conservative MP for Calgary Midnapore circulating on social media over the weekend had turned into a full-blown Internet tempest by last night. Parliamentary expenditure reports and flight records as well as
Continue readingThe Maple Monarchists - Blog: Mutual Respec- Oh Shiny!
The Queen’s annual Christmas message has been released.It covered several topics but a big one was the need for mutualrespect between people and the corrosive effect tribalism can have. It talked about the good the Commonwealth Games doin bringing diverse peoples together to emphasize sharedvalues. It even included a small
Continue readingThe Maple Monarchists - Blog: Culprits Behind Recent Monarchist Group Vandalism Identified and Dealt With
The recent case of a monarchist group on Facebook beingthe victim of hacking has been solved. In a statement postedto their page by the admins they state that three members have been removed from the group. Their names are Ms.Stazija Zikanovic (former admin), Mr. Nićifor Damjanović(former admin), & Mr. Duje Jerkovic. Ms. Stazija Zikanovic
Continue readingThe Maple Monarchists - Blog: Monarchist Group Hacked On Facebook Soldiers On
On December 13th the MonarchistsFacebook page was the victim ofvandalism after an Admin’s accountwas compromised. The attack lastedfrom 6AM EST until 8AM EST. During that time group members along with their posts weredeleted at a rate of 10 members per minute. The culprit didstop to take a breather between 6:30 and
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Alberta separation: Are Russian bots messing with our province, or just homegrown right-wing agitators?
Are Russian bots behind the recent busy social media campaign to persuade Albertans they want to separate from Canada, a la Brexit? Or is this just the work of right-wing Canadian agitators using well-tested digital agitprop techniques to undermine the Liberal Government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau? You can’t rule
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Afternoon Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Anna Bawden reports on new research from the Health Foundation showing the multiple ways in which young people face the burden of growing economic inequality. And Owen Jones points out that working-class children have borne the brunt of the UK’s financial crisis and
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: A Sendup That Cuts To The Bone
Marie at A Puff of Absurdity recently posted on the dysfunction, debasement and corrosiveness that social media has wrought in human relationships. The following seems like an apt complement to her post: Recommend this Post
Continue readingThings Are Good: 30 Minutes of FOMO a Day
We’ve heard that spending too much time on social media is detrimental to our mental health, and every year more evidence confirms that. Simply put, too much time Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. makes us feel bad. But how much time is too much time? It seems that 30 minutes is
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Brexit Redux: Looking back at Jason Kenney’s strange comments when the U.K. shot itself in both feet
Back in June 2016, hours after Britons had narrowly voted to leave the European Union, a lot of Albertans scratched their heads at Jason Kenney’s bizarre Brexit commentary on social media. At the time, Mr. Kenney was still drawing a paycheque as the Conservative MP for Calgary Midnapore. He was
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Lake of Fire Update: Stuff is still hitting the fan, and it may not be lava!
Well a certain kind of stuff has certainly hit the fan since it was reported here and elsewhere that John Carpay, the well-known social conservative warrior, had dipped his toe into Alberta’s always-dangerous Lake of Fire. Since the story broke over the long weekend, Mr. Carpay and his old comrade
Continue reading