I’m not sure if the significance of the travelling at Christmas is well understood.

Kenney is thumbing his nose at Albertans.

This is no ordinary thumbing. He’s basically letting Albertans know that he and his MLAs will do as they please and there will be no consequences.

This is when following policy is helpful.

In March 2020 when Dr. Hinshaw closed schools down, Kenney was furious. He couldn’t reverse the order without seriously damaging his credibility & revealing his true nature. So he did the next best thing. He gave himself absolute power.
And, since it was during a pandemic, barely anyone noticed.

The powers he bequeathed upon himself and his political party are only in effect when a Public Health Emergency is invoked. Kenney invoked a Public Health Emergency in late November 2020.
The CMOH no longer has free reign to order public health orders and she no longer reports to the Deputy Minister of Health. She reports directly to the Minister of Health, who is guided by the premier in his decision making.
The other change was the addition of absolute power for the premier and ministers of cabinet, to repeal, amend or create ANY legislation, whether it has anything to do with the emergency or not.
Kenney & all Cabinet Ministers can do whatever they want to change any & all laws governing Alberta. They don’t have to run it by opposition. They can fast track it through the legislature & reach royal assent in days for new legislation & mere hours for amendments or repeals.
I realize many believe I overreact and use incendiary language to get a rise out of readers. And I’m willing to admit, I have used embellishment sparingly to admonish con behaviour.

This is not one of those occasions.
Absolute power means there are no checks and balances. It means the people in power can do whatever they want and there is nothing we the public can do about it.
We can complain, yell and scream, try to use the courts, the Lieutenant Governor, appeal to the federal government, even attempt a physical protest.

There is nothing stopping Kenney and UCP from enacting, changing and removing any law, including human rights legislation.
They don’t even have to inform the public immediately. When they get around to it is now legal.
So when the premier & his cabinet of miscreants who blatantly flout the law, public health orders & common decency in general by jet setting off on vacation tell you there will be no consequences, Kenney’s informing the public that he’s a dictator & there’s nothing we can do.
That explains Rick Bell and JCCF complaining about this power when it was legislated and currently, when it’s being exercised. In their own twisted and ridiculous political theatre, Kenney has Rick Bell tell the public he’s in charge.
How many think Kenney’s goose is cooked? How many realize there is zero any citizen can do to seek justice for the extreme disrespect and the abundant contempt displayed by UCP cabinet and political aids over Christmas?
Why? Because Kenney invoked a Public Health Emergency in late November 2020. Activating his absolute power. An emergency that he created by refusing to permit public health measures to mitigate transmission of covid.
In other words, Kenney enabled his own power grab by refusing to do his job appropriately.

Kenney’s decisions are directly responsible for covid becoming pervasive throughout the province and over 1000 people dying thus far.
The payoff for him? Unlimited power to do what he wants with limited resistance until covid emergency in Alberta is called off.

With schedule of fall administration of vaccines for the general population, that gives Kenney a full year of unfettered power.
So what has he done? Approved coal strip mining, plans to give away parks, permitted anti mask protests to spread the virus. And thumbed his nose by showing up late to every news conference.

He just made himself king of Alberta & I’m sure he’s feeling smug, not worried.
When I said this government was fascist, I meant fascist.

Not rigid and authoritarian. Not somewhat like an autocracy. I meant fascist.

But people don’t want to acknowledge and accept that UCP is not a regular political party.
It’s less scary and easier to swallow if people continue to delude themselves with the belief that Kenney is incompetent or inept. He isn’t.

Strategically, he’s several steps ahead of the vast majority of the public.
He’s given himself unlimited power, controls the levers for life and death of Albertans, and can offer whatever excuse he wants as the reason why he can do whatever he wants whenever he wants, however he wants. And all the public can do is get angry.
We can’t protest without severe health risks. We can’t hold Kenney or his MLAs accountable until there is an election. And we can’t prevent any deaths and illness.

We are being ruled, not governed.
Still think he’s an idiot? He’s playing the public like a guitar and he’s playing his favourite song.

This is how fascism works. It’s not like he’s going to blatantly announce that he’s installing a fascist regime. The public will eventually figure it out they have no power.
I’m asking you to figure it out now. Instead of 2 years from now when another fixed election is held. And shockingly UCP wins again.

Kenney is not an idiot. If you judge him using your standards, he seems like one. But he has his own agenda. And his own standards.
Did anyone come back early from vacation? I doubt it.

How about 14 days of quarantine? Anyone being asked to wait out their 14 days in isolation without pay? Highly doubtful.

Kenney didn’t just act weird on Friday.
He just told the whole damn country to fuck off. He will do what he wants and there’s nothing anyone but Trudeau can do about it.

So will Trudeau intervene with the Emergency Act. Nope. Not bad enough yet.

Now do you recognize it’s fascism?
@threadreaderapp please compile

More from Sunshiny AKA Cassandra

As we wait for the transition of power from despot to democrat, Facebook (Zuckerberg) has taken it upon itself to aid in the obstruction of that power transfer, facilitation of an insurrection narrative and disregard for the will of the American electorate.


In other words, the Social Media monopoly Facebook commands globally has gone full fascist in an attempt to preserve the corrupt and criminal hold on power by Republicans and Trump Administration.

Aiding and abetting a coup d’état.

As if there weren’t enough other reasons to dismantle Facebook’s monopoly, Zuckerberg is playing his cards and revealing clearly that Cambridge Analytica election interference was not just a onetime anomaly, but is now a feature of Facebook’s business model.

Megalomaniac Marc has now revealed the true colours of Fascist Facebook.

Facebook is a weapon to manipulate the masses. A tool to carry out disinformation campaigns with impunity.

And the response of the left... is to delete their Facebook account.

As if the deletion of a Facebook account will do anything. It might send a message that your virtues are principled, your morality superior. But it enables the weapon to be continued to gaslight and manipulate the electorate.

An inherent flaw in the left’s critical thinking.
This is one of the most important threads I’ve read in the last year. Maybe more.

@PaulDoroshenko hits the ball out of the park!

This is exactly what we need to do.

And remember, Harper stacked public service with loyalists. RCMP, judiciary, senate, government departments.


We need Denazification in Canada too!

There can be no tolerance for intolerance.

Many are opining about free speech. In Canada we have freedom of expression and it comes with some caveats. Harmful hate speech is not free.

We have been inundated with hate speech for decades.

It must stop. We must remove the fascists from power and eradicate the platforms they use to build support.

I’ve taught both my children by age 9 what fascism is and what it looks like. I can be done.

School based education is a must to nullify hatred.

But what about the adults? First we remove the ability to indoctrinate through the internet. Mainstream media needs to be purged of nazi sympathizers. And the internet needs regulation. Because some people cannot be trusted to refrain from hate speech.

You got a problem with restrictions on speech, take a look at the US where any form of speech is free. Lying, disinformation, promotion of hatred and psychological manipulation propaganda. And the result is January 6, 2021 attempted “patriot” insurrection.
This was exactly what I was about to write a thread warning about.

A change in leadership in the US at the executive level does not alter the Republican Senators and Congress representatives. A few of whom are implicated in January 6, 2020 insurrection.


There will be a strong urge to forget the danger and the corruption.

After a long period of extended fear, terror and daily assaults on political and social norms, many will want to forget and move forward.

But we cannot take our eyes off those out to dismantle democracy.

Those breathing a sigh of relief, tomorrow this all resumes again in the US. It’s only temporarily paused in the US and correspondingly in Canada.

The urge to move on is strong. Resist it. Celebrate victories and achievements, but DO NOT walk away and forget.

Canadian conservative politicians are tightly connected to many of the Republican traitors who attacked the Capitol Jan 6.

None of them are going to give up. They’ll regroup. They’ll reorganize.

In the mean time, we are all required to stay alert. There is much to do.

The far right has let their agenda be known. They want to end democracy in US and in Canada. That goal is not off the table.

They will continue to pursue this agenda.

Yesterday 12 National Guard members were removed from service.
A lot of people are trying to figure out what UCP means by putting this biblical quote out into the twitter verse at Christmas.

Many have piped up with commentary and criticized the mix of religion and politics. A convention long held in Canada.


The quote is often repeated at Christmas. “A child is born...” makes reference to the birth of Jesus. Makes sense.

But what does it mean?

Christians (and other religious observers with their religious texts) have made an art form out of interpreting what passages mean.

To those most radically devout (some might say zealously faithful), hidden divine meanings are gleaned from “correctly” reading the bible.

That’s what Dominionists believe. That god himself wrote the bible. Through inspiration of the actual authors, & only they can interpret.

And thus, the “inerrant“ bible serves as a strict road map to save ones soul.

Many devout Christians view the passage as a prophecy made centuries before the birth of Christ. A promise made by god through one of his prophets. Jews interpret the passage very differently.

The Anglican Priest is (obviously) correct about this being supersessionism, and a form of Anti-Semitism.

Troublesome as it is for a Canadian provincial govt to be tweeting out Anti-Semitic propaganda, that’s not the only meaning this passage has for Dominionist Christians.

More from Government

Which metric is a better predictor of the severity of the fall surge in US states?

1) Margin of Democrat victory in Nov 2020 election
or
2) % infected through Sep 1, 2020

Can you guess which plot is which?


The left plot is based on the % infected through Sep 1, 2020. You can see that there is very little correlation with the % infected since Sep 1.

However, there is a *strong* correlation when using the margin of Biden's victory (right).

Infections % from
https://t.co/WcXlfxv3Ah.


This is the strongest single variable I've seen in being able to explain the severity of this most recent wave in each state.

Not past infections / existing immunity, population density, racial makeup, latitude / weather / humidity, etc.

But political lean.

One can argue that states that lean Democrat are more likely to implement restrictions/mandates.

This is valid, so we test this by using the Government Stringency Index made by @UniofOxford.

We also see a correlation, but it's weaker (R^2=0.36 vs 0.50).

https://t.co/BxBBKwW6ta


To avoid look-ahead bias/confounding variables, here is the same analysis but using 2016 margin of victory as the predictor. Similar results.

This basically says that 2016 election results is a better predictor of the severity of the fall wave than intervention levels in 2020!

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