Canada

[goldenvalley]

Feb 15, 2022 23:14:35 GMT LFC said:

Feb 15, 2022 21:43:38 GMT pnwguy said:

It sounds much like the No Police Zone that evolved in Seattle during summer protests after the Floyd killing.  Of course RW media and politicians were decrying this "lawless anarchy" for weeks.  Funny how they are quiet now.

It's even worse than being quiet. I just put this up on the Faux News thread. Hannity is saying if "confronted" they might "defend themselves." The violent fascism is just blatant at this point.

They'll just say turn about is fair play and they're better at this kind of protesting than the wimpy Left wingers are.  'Cause after all, "law and order" was only a club to beat the Left wing up with, not an actual principle.  

[LFC]

Double posting this because it's important to know about the exportation of fascism by Americans into other countries in context. Our fascists are still pissed, still stupid, still hate democracy, and still support overthrowing governments they don't like.

It’s hardly a surprise: More than half of the funds donated on at least one crowd-funding website raising money for protesters involved in the Canadian anti-vax trucker demonstrations came from U.S. donors.

The “Christian” crowd-sourced fundraising website GiveSendGo, which is similar to its more mainstream rival GoFundMe, was hacked on Sunday night, reportedly illegally, revealing new information about supporters of the anti-vax trucker cause.

[LFC]

And because the entire blockade situation isn't absurd enough...

Far-right MyPillow hobgoblin, 2020 election hoaxer, and wannabe coup leader Mike Lindell’s shipment of 12,000 pillows to the anti-vax “Freedom Convoy” blocking U.S.-Canada border crossings and clogging the streets of Ottawa seems to have been denied entry at the border. To save face, or possibly just sell more pillows, he’s rambling about how the payload will be delivered via helicopter bombardment instead.

Lindell announced on Sunday his intent to dispatch thousands of pillows to the “brave truckers” in the convoy, saying the entire company was now dedicated to fabricating them. According to Insider, however, as of Wednesday night, Lindell said that company trucks carrying 12,000 pillows had yet to clear the Canadian border as they had not secured a “final permit.” The Right Side Broadcasting Network posted a video to Rumble, a dumping ground for various bits of right-wing propaganda, showing a large MyPillow truck that appeared to be stuck at a border crossing from Minnesota to Canada. The National Post reported that a Canadian government source said that border officials had separately stopped Lindell and a videographer from entering Canada at the Port Huron-Sarnia border crossing, as well as a MyPillow truck at the Ambassador Bridge heading to Windsor.

Lindell, the source told the National Post, was stopped because he is unvaccinated. The truck was a self-defeating endeavor, as the guy driving it apparently couldn’t get through the border because he didn’t meet the vaccination requirements that the convoy is protesting. The Freedom Convoy’s original goal, at least before it broadened to include every form of right-wing outrage porn under the sun, was to defeat a mandate that all commercial truckers entering Canada from the U.S. either show proof of vaccination or agree to quarantine. Those requirements are still in effect, and on Monday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked Emergency Act powers that among other things gave the government increased powers to restrict public assembly, travel, and material and financial support for the convoy. In lieu of any kind of evidence the pillows are reaching their destination, Lindell has cooked up some spiel about helicopters.

According to the Daily Beast, Lindell claimed in an interview on Wednesday night that the 12,000 pillows will be dropped from aircraft with “little parachutes” (adding “make sure you put that part in, or it could be dangerous”). He continued, “I can not give the location out, and it is no joke! I just confirmed with them [the helicopter company], and yes, this is the plan. We have the helicopter confirmed, but we are moving the time up to 11 am.”

Mr. Pillowhead tried to say the airdrop was a joke.

This is, however, all beside the point, as there is and has never been any indication Operation: Dumbass Drop exists. On Thursday, Lindell posted an article to his Telegram channel claiming it was a clever troll: “Despite knowing that their reporting would be the standard far-left dribble, [Lindell] decided to give [the Daily Beast] a comment. It was so over-the-top outrageous that it was clearly satire, but they printed it anyway.” This is, however, all beside the point, as there is and has never been any indication Operation: Dumbass Drop exists. On Thursday, Lindell posted an article to his Telegram channel claiming it was a clever troll: “Despite knowing that their reporting would be the standard far-left dribble, [Lindell] decided to give [the Daily Beast] a comment. It was so over-the-top outrageous that it was clearly satire, but they printed it anyway.”

It’s not totally clear whether Lindell is capable of understanding the first key element of his mutually parasitic relationship with the media, in which he is the butt of the joke in every article written about him. But he clearly understands step two, hocking pillows to MAGA rubes. Much of the rest of his channel is discount codes promising 60%+ savings on MyPillow products.

[LFC]

[pnwguy]

Maybe Canada can indict Lindell as a foreign terrorist and have him extradited to Ottawa.

[andydp]

Feb 17, 2022 19:35:36 GMT pnwguy said:

Maybe Canada can indict Lindell as a foreign terrorist and have him extradited to Ottawa.

Just to enlighten the populace, the pillows are available at Ocean State Job Lots stores.  I did not even stop to look at what price they were being sold at.  Based on comments I've read: too much.

[indy]

Feb 17, 2022 19:35:36 GMT pnwguy said:

Maybe Canada can indict Lindell as a foreign terrorist and have him extradited to Ottawa.

Throw him in a cell...and make sure to locate a really nasty pillow to keep him company.

[AnBr]

They tried to open up a My Pillow Store in one of the most liberal neighborhoods in this deep blue city. Business was so lousy it shut its doors in less than a month. This is the same neighborhood that "Sammy's Used Cars", a dealer that had been around for decades, went out of business after proudly displaying a tRump sign during the '16 election.

[pnwguy]

Feb 18, 2022 1:10:08 GMT indy said:

Feb 17, 2022 19:35:36 GMT pnwguy said:

Maybe Canada can indict Lindell as a foreign terrorist and have him extradited to Ottawa.

Throw him in a cell...and make sure to locate a really nasty pillow to keep him company.

Or maybe Lindell becomes the pillow, for his cellmate Bubba.

[goldenvalley]

Feb 18, 2022 13:16:04 GMT AnBr said:

They tried to open up a My Pillow Store in one of the most liberal neighborhoods in this deep blue city. Business was so lousy it shut its doors in less than a month. This is the same neighborhood that "Sammy's Used Cars", a dealer that had been around for decades, went out of business after proudly displaying a tRump sign during the '16 election.

When My Pillow ads were everywhere I went to my local Bed Bath and Beyond to feel one.  I don't know what was actually in it, but to the hand it felt like some sort of foam was cubed or shredded up somehow and it was awfully soft.  Not something I would buy.

[AnBr]

[AnBr]

[LFC]

Canada isn't immune to QAnon and there's one particular utter nutter that stirring up trouble.

A QAnon leader whose followers believe she’s the “Queen of Canada” has now set her sights on the United States, urging her followers to enforce her dangerous “decrees” in America.

For people outside of the pro-Trump QAnon conspiracy theory, Romana Didulo is just another Canadian citizen. But for her supporters, she’s a monarch ordained by Q and the American military to rule over Canada and, ultimately, the world. After being endorsed by other QAnon promoters, Didulo managed to amass a following, and is currently touring Canada in a fleet of RVs to meet with her supporters.

Now, though, Didulo’s ambitions seem to have grown. In July, she started telling her more than 60,000 followers on the messaging app Telegram about the establishment of the “Kingdom of America,” handing out royal “titles” to Americans who promised to promote her reign there and appointing a new United States “commander-in-chief,” a man named David Carlson.

While Didulo’s ideas are ridiculous, they’ve already had a real-world effect on Canada. When Didulo told her fans that she had abolished Canada’s income tax, some stopped paying taxes to the Canadian government. Because Didulo issued a “decree” announcing that her supporters could now pay their utility bills with “IOUs” backed by her bogus government, her supporters have started losing electricity and water in their homes.

“They’re literally in the dark,” said Christine Sarteschi, a Chatham University associate professor of social work and criminology who has studied Didulo’s group.

The "above the law" views remind me of the "constitutional sheriffs" who claim they are the ultimate law in their little fiefdoms. These are the kinds of people who will end up killing people.

More seriously, Didulo’s claims that she operates a parallel government to the real Canadian one have put her followers at odds with law enforcement. Last year, she urged her followers to “shoot to kill” COVID-19 vaccine workers. One of Didulo’s followers was arrested after allegedly threatening to shoot up a school where children were receiving vaccines.

Others have followed Didulo’s orders to deliver bogus cease-and-desist notices to Canadian police demanding that they stop enforcing pandemic mandates.

Like the anti-government sovereign citizens movement, which Didulo has borrowed some tactics from, Didulo’s fans seem to think they’re above the law. One follower in Canada tried to avoid being arrested for outstanding warrants by serving a police officer with one of the cease-and-desist notices, only to be immediately arrested. Didulo herself was briefly detained for a mental health evaluation last year.

Even many QAnon observers are puzzled so far about Didulo’s attempts to extend her “kingdom” into the United States. Still, according to Sarteschi, the purported citizens of the “Kingdom of America” and Carlson, a little-known Didulo devotee, both seem to be under her sway.

Read on. She may be nuts but she's really not that far off, and in many cases spot on, with the views of America's far and very dangerous right.