Toronto Star — Nothing prepares a fella for a Star article like this:

Justin Trudeau has forsaken sunny ways for petulance and gloom

WTH?

Check again: Yup it's the Toronto Star — a trusty division of Canada's liberal left.

It begins:

"Whatever happened to Justin Trudeau’s sunny ways? Ten days into a campaign whose timing was of his own choosing, the Liberal leader’s main rivals all look like they are having a better time on the hustings than he is. Polls suggest that indeed they are."

Geez. All they had was "sunny ways."

... And later,

"There is a petulance to the Liberal leader’s tone ..."

Apparently, it takes six years for petulance to sink in for some.

Liberalvision CTV.com — After breathlessly reporting endlessly on the recent rash of Wuhan Virus outbreaks...

FoxNews.com — Sometimes it's best to just take a walk. Other times, it's best to tell the Taliban to, well, let's let Rep Dan Crenshaw (R) say it: Story's headline: "Dan Crenshaw issues blistering response to Taliban's demand all US troops leave by Aug. 31". Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R) said it more, well, Mitch McConnell-y: "The Taliban should not be allowed to tell us how long we are there to get our personnel out. That's our decision, not theirs." Not an F to be found.

Here's one reason for the difference in language: While McConnel has never fought in battle, Dan Crenshaw served as a Navy SEAL for a decade, achieving the rank of Lieutenant Commander. After being wounded in the Helmand Province of Afghanistan in 2012, he lost his right eye and required surgery to save the vision in his left. He earned two Bronze Star Medals, one with Valor, the Purple Heart, and the Navy Commendation Medal with Valor. Retiring from the military in 2016, Crenshaw earned a Master of Public Administration from Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government in 2017.

Had McConnell done any of that, or lost any of his body parts fighting in a brutal war, he might well be more inclined to say to the Taliban, "go f*** yourselves."

National Post — Colby Cosh rounds up the latest election poll numbers and finds a shocker: the young-uns aged 18 to 34 are favoring — if barely and if reluctantly — "Conservative" Erin O'Toole over their hairy airhead girlcrush, "Liberal" Justin Trudeau (scare quotes are mine).

If you were hoping for a Conservative victory, Cosh lets you down in the first sentence: "Is it too soon to declare that the country is in the grip of Toolemania? Well, I’ll disappoint you: it is."  Gosh, thanks for that headline then: "Is Canada on the verge of Toolemania?"

The apparent problem in making that final declaration of "Toolemania" (please let's find another sobriquet) seems to be women, as is the usual problem for any conservative (or pretend conservative) movement. And Conservative women (and especially actual conservative women), you can't blame men for that. This is all on you. You women need to get other women on board. Men can't do that, and if I understand correctly, you wouldn't have it if they could. I thought you had leaders amongst you.

National Post — Rex Murphy nails it as usual when talking today about Justin Trudeau and his callousness, his vacuousness, and his increasingly evident shallowness. This passage uses other such words, more nicely arranged:

"Taking all this, and so much more, into consideration, if one steps back a bit, the motivation for this election is clear: Ego, arrogance, hunger for applause and intellectual idleness."

"Hunger for applause" is half the problem today in politics and just about everywhere else in modern life. I see it amongst almost all politicians today because they don't know any better, or I might even venture to say they simply aren't any better. But objectively speaking, it is most pronounced — I dare say "systemic" —among Liberals and the NDP leadership. We should boo them all just to show them. Boo everything they ever say.

Good morning voters!

Boo!

I have a hunger — we have a real, serious need — for someone who can rise above that, and shun the applause in favor of seriousness, and doing the right thing.

Trudeau Liberal Land Of Lies & Misinformation — The people and the party that wants to regulate your free speech and create a new Soviet-style state police for the internet to crush all "misinformation" and erase all the nasty things that their opponents say that hurts their feelz, has been caught lying and spreading misinformation about people they hate — all in their effort to lie and cheat their way into power (and in so doing, they reveal that they think you're total morons). Vote Liberal! 

And to top it off, even their state-owned CBC division had to write it up as a news story, since the matter began on Twitter instead of the state-owned CBC, and thus more than 14 people actually saw it, which forced their hand. Which is hilarious.

The tweet says it all. It's not simple "misinformation," it's an outright, bold-faced, cheap-ass, lie. They even sort of doubled-down on what they knew full-well was a lie, by using the verbiage "He responded unequivocally: yes." He did exactly the opposite. He equivocated, vastly. He said the opposite of what the Liberals are lying about here. It's really quite an astonishing disgrace.

Axiom of the day: Whatever the left accuses you of, they are the ones actually doing it, and twice as bad as you think.

Daily Wire — Some people just lovvvve the mask mandates — in California and any other place they can still find one. But you just can't justify your mask love, and conversly your hatred  of those deplorable freedom lovers, by saying "screw your freedom," and think nobody's going to say, "No, actually, screw you." Because actually, freedom is everything. Everything. Daily Wire writes:

"As The Daily Wire previously reported, the former California governor said, “Screw your freedom,” when he was asked in a CNN interview about Americans concerned that mask requirements infringe on personal liberties."

That gave one of his employers, a company called REDCON1 - a sports fitness outfit, the freedom to fire his ass. (Actually, they always had that freedom anyway — it's America.)

"This stance didn’t sit well with REDCON1 founder Aaron Singerman, who announced in a press release that his company is cutting all ties with Schwarzenegger because the former governor’s views on freedom don’t align with American values.

"“Making the public declaration, ‘screw your freedoms,’ is dangerous and anti-America,” the release said [bold emphasis theirs]. “REDCON1 is a patriotic pro-freedom brand and community. We support everyone’s individual freedoms.” ..."

I love it. And P.S., Arnold, don't be back. That would make our day.

Twitter (ugh) — A point I also made once... from Canada where we've been "literally Jim Crow" since, well, since voting started in Canada and right through to today. Who wants to tell Joe Biden and the D gang? And Coke? And MLB? Ban Jim Crow Canada (after you ban New York)!

Honorable mention: someone tweeted this meme which only barely gets to the point inasmuch as it ignores the salient fact that O'Toole is personally pro-choice:

...And this related tweet, which makes a better point:

Globe and Mail — There is little I dislike more than those who think of themselves as above the fray and smarter than the rest of us. To wit, this guy is super smart and knew it all along, but "Canada and the U.S. must learn from the Afghanistan debacle": In fact, SOME Canadians learned a long time ago from this debacle... which hadn't even happened yet: Martin admitted so in his piece, but I guess it wouldn't fit into the headline! Conservative PM Stephen Harper was quite right, way back when, as Martin wrote, “We’re not going to win this war just by staying,” then-prime minister Stephen Harper told U.S. journalist Fareed Zakaria in a 2009 interview. “In fact, my own judgment, quite frankly, is that we are not going to ever defeat the insurgency.” 

For actual good reading on this "debacle," read both Michael Tracy and Glen Greenwald, both on Substack.

State-owned CBC.ca — The Conservatives are being reported on by the state-owned CBC, which means watch out! And yet it's shockingly neutral. They don't call the Conservatives "the Cons" (the word "Conservative" appears 24 times in the report, showing you they CAN do it if they try!), and they didn't include a photo of their leader Erin O'Toole looking like a total doofus, or "angry," or "racist," or anything! They did (rightly) point out his ever-changing platform, as revealed in "the Cons'" official election platform: "During the Conservative leadership race, O'Toole promised to privatize and "defund" the TV and online division of CBC ... In the platform document, however, O'Toole said a government led by him would instead "review the mandate of CBC English television, CBC News Network and CBC English online" and "assess the viability of refocusing the service on a public interest model like that of PBS in the U.S., ensuring that it no longer competes with private Canadian broadcasters and digital providers." Sounds like another con, actually.