Billy
@billyidles.bsky.social
Vancouver. Local Politics. Less Local Politics. Tech stuff.
The Democratic governor of Michigan agrees with the Republican president that they should use tariffs to steal manufacturing jobs from Canadians. She just thinks they should still have access to cheap Canadian lumber to build homes while they do it. This isn’t actually a policy option.
November 17, 2025 at 5:00 PM
The Democratic governor of Michigan agrees with the Republican president that they should use tariffs to steal manufacturing jobs from Canadians. She just thinks they should still have access to cheap Canadian lumber to build homes while they do it. This isn’t actually a policy option.
Reposted by Billy
This resident is objecting to the new Lime scooter station because - not a joke - it's "ruining her view."
This is what we're up against when we push for more micromobility.
vancouversun.com/news/east-va...
This is what we're up against when we push for more micromobility.
vancouversun.com/news/east-va...
'We had no recourse': East Vancouver residents object to new e-scooter docking stations
During its first phase in Vancouver, Lime introduced e-scooters and docking stations in the Hastings-Sunrise and Grandview-Woodland areas.
vancouversun.com
November 16, 2025 at 8:49 PM
This resident is objecting to the new Lime scooter station because - not a joke - it's "ruining her view."
This is what we're up against when we push for more micromobility.
vancouversun.com/news/east-va...
This is what we're up against when we push for more micromobility.
vancouversun.com/news/east-va...
Reposted by Billy
It is certainly interesting that the politician who frames himself as the most conservative is obsessed with regulating what people sell and where they live
bsky.app/profile/pwal...
bsky.app/profile/pwal...
The very idea that a politician thinks they should be able to create a prescribed list of approved items for sale really highlights how unhinged local politics is.
November 13, 2025 at 8:48 PM
It is certainly interesting that the politician who frames himself as the most conservative is obsessed with regulating what people sell and where they live
bsky.app/profile/pwal...
bsky.app/profile/pwal...
Reposted by Billy
1/ NEW: We identified 20 people who attended a white nationalist conference and, despite their efforts to keep it secret, caught another 30 people on film to identify in the future. Several MMA/combat sports instructors were discovered and their gyms have cut ties.
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Everybody Attending White Nationalist Conference Caught on Film
Advertised near-exclusively in white nationalist online spaces, promotional social media posts for the event include symbolism popular with neo-Nazis, including the kolovrat sun wheel and a table with...
www.antihate.ca
November 10, 2025 at 12:46 PM
1/ NEW: We identified 20 people who attended a white nationalist conference and, despite their efforts to keep it secret, caught another 30 people on film to identify in the future. Several MMA/combat sports instructors were discovered and their gyms have cut ties.
🧵👇
🧵👇
Reposted by Billy
Wait do I have it correct that Joyce Carol Oates said Musk was a shell of a man with no joy in his life and he totally saw it and said "No I'm not" and now he's searching the titles of different movies he likes and replying "great movie"
November 10, 2025 at 6:55 PM
Wait do I have it correct that Joyce Carol Oates said Musk was a shell of a man with no joy in his life and he totally saw it and said "No I'm not" and now he's searching the titles of different movies he likes and replying "great movie"
Reposted by Billy
I will never forgive the cranks, quacks and charlatans who have brought god-damn measles back in this country
Canada is grappling with a “large, multi-jurisdictional outbreak of measles” that began in October last year.
globalnews.ca/news/1151951...
globalnews.ca/news/1151951...
Canada loses measles elimination status after outbreaks - National | Globalnews.ca
The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) has notified the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) that Canada no longer holds measles elimination status.
globalnews.ca
November 10, 2025 at 4:03 PM
I will never forgive the cranks, quacks and charlatans who have brought god-damn measles back in this country
Reposted by Billy
the canada understander: has logged on
November 10, 2025 at 3:27 AM
the canada understander: has logged on
I took this photo in a bookstore in 2018, just because I thought it was such a wild juxtaposition. Feels worse coming across it in my photos now.
November 8, 2025 at 6:59 AM
I took this photo in a bookstore in 2018, just because I thought it was such a wild juxtaposition. Feels worse coming across it in my photos now.
Reposted by Billy
We’re already seeing the collaboration of institutions and individuals being reframed as a fear or season of mass fervor and I really want us to remember they chose this.
I helped make a film, out this week, called “Rovina’s Choice,” about the deaths this man without conscience or accountability has caused — already 600,000, ⅔ of them children.
November 7, 2025 at 2:40 AM
We’re already seeing the collaboration of institutions and individuals being reframed as a fear or season of mass fervor and I really want us to remember they chose this.
Reposted by Billy
The opposition to solar farms from rural communities is entirely cultural, not economic and certainly not ecological.
Most of the opposition in U.S. is coming from rural communities who see farm land converted solar. That ground going fallow has ecosystem impacts. We could make better use of urban spaces like parking decks/lots, etc….
November 7, 2025 at 12:48 AM
The opposition to solar farms from rural communities is entirely cultural, not economic and certainly not ecological.
In practise, the whole project of Sim’s government has been a transfer of wealth into the hands of police officers. No wonder they put their thumb on the scale to get him elected!
What the heck! So while City of Vancouver is proposing huge cuts to most departments, all the accommodate Sim's zero % property tax gimmick, the police budget is nonetheless to go up 10% in a single year?!
vancouversun.com/opinion/colu...
vancouversun.com/opinion/colu...
Leaked memo says Vancouver's 'back to basics' budget will mean slashing 400 jobs
Draft budget contemplates cuts in 12 of 20 areas, and spending freezes in two. Five departments will get spending boosts. Read more.
vancouversun.com
November 6, 2025 at 6:04 PM
In practise, the whole project of Sim’s government has been a transfer of wealth into the hands of police officers. No wonder they put their thumb on the scale to get him elected!
Reposted by Billy
Change in Headline
November 6, 2025 at 1:40 PM
Change in Headline
The basic rule of united front politics is you have to want to beat the enemy more than you want to control the coalition. You can’t trust liberals who hate leftists more than they hate conservatives. You can’t trust leftists who hate liberals more than they hate conservatives.
November 5, 2025 at 8:01 PM
The basic rule of united front politics is you have to want to beat the enemy more than you want to control the coalition. You can’t trust liberals who hate leftists more than they hate conservatives. You can’t trust leftists who hate liberals more than they hate conservatives.
Just for context this was a quote post of Mary Gillis comparing Mamdani to the Anjali Appudurai campaign. She blocked me for this (which is fine and totally her prerogative).
The thing about this is that her campaign did very much break the rules and the argument for why they shouldn’t apply was basically that the rules shouldn’t apply to you if you are virtuous and the underdog.
November 5, 2025 at 7:10 AM
Just for context this was a quote post of Mary Gillis comparing Mamdani to the Anjali Appudurai campaign. She blocked me for this (which is fine and totally her prerogative).
The thing about this is that her campaign did very much break the rules and the argument for why they shouldn’t apply was basically that the rules shouldn’t apply to you if you are virtuous and the underdog.
November 5, 2025 at 6:33 AM
The thing about this is that her campaign did very much break the rules and the argument for why they shouldn’t apply was basically that the rules shouldn’t apply to you if you are virtuous and the underdog.
At pretty much any protest against the war in Iraq someone would hand you a leaflet about project for a new American century. This was treated as a conspiracy theory but it is largely true that the Iraq war happened because right wing think tanks wanted it.
November 4, 2025 at 4:51 PM
At pretty much any protest against the war in Iraq someone would hand you a leaflet about project for a new American century. This was treated as a conspiracy theory but it is largely true that the Iraq war happened because right wing think tanks wanted it.
I think the basic reason for this is we can’t afford them but by fucking up immigration the US has likely staunched the brain drain for us at least.
Still fairly surprised other countries didn't try harder to poach scientists from the US. Was sort of a golden window that doesn't come often
November 3, 2025 at 6:02 PM
I think the basic reason for this is we can’t afford them but by fucking up immigration the US has likely staunched the brain drain for us at least.
Orson Welles? From Transformers?
Julia Louis-Dreyfus? From Thunderbolts?
William Shatner? From Boston Legal?
November 3, 2025 at 3:12 AM
Orson Welles? From Transformers?
Reposted by Billy
Front room, #1 to #2:
-I just got an email from the big bookstore downtown.
-You bought something?
-No, it's free. I just have pick it up!
-A free book? From which bookstore?
-The one that looks like the coliseum.
-You mean the public library?
-I guess that's what SOME people call it.
-I just got an email from the big bookstore downtown.
-You bought something?
-No, it's free. I just have pick it up!
-A free book? From which bookstore?
-The one that looks like the coliseum.
-You mean the public library?
-I guess that's what SOME people call it.
November 2, 2025 at 11:41 PM
Front room, #1 to #2:
-I just got an email from the big bookstore downtown.
-You bought something?
-No, it's free. I just have pick it up!
-A free book? From which bookstore?
-The one that looks like the coliseum.
-You mean the public library?
-I guess that's what SOME people call it.
-I just got an email from the big bookstore downtown.
-You bought something?
-No, it's free. I just have pick it up!
-A free book? From which bookstore?
-The one that looks like the coliseum.
-You mean the public library?
-I guess that's what SOME people call it.
Reposted by Billy
The hierarchy of controls in this article is excellent!
November 2, 2025 at 10:26 PM
The hierarchy of controls in this article is excellent!
We really need to price water appropriately if we want people to use less of it. This is very simple economics, and a lot of industrial uses could use a lot less if it mattered to their bottom line.
“At $2.25 per million litres, B.C.’s industrial water rate is the lowest in Canada, far below the $54 to $179 charged by other provinces”
www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
As water dries up in northeast B.C., some want industry paying more to pump the precious resource | CBC News
Environmental groups are calling on the B.C. government to raise industrial water rates as drought deepens and demand for freshwater rises in some areas of the province.
www.cbc.ca
November 2, 2025 at 7:01 PM
We really need to price water appropriately if we want people to use less of it. This is very simple economics, and a lot of industrial uses could use a lot less if it mattered to their bottom line.
I am not sure whether this is true or not but I will say every Vancouver Canadians game I’ve been to has been a really great time.
More Canadian cities should have MLB teams honestly. Like Montreal should get one back, and Vancouver, Calgary, Ottawa can easily support a franchise.
November 2, 2025 at 5:04 AM
I am not sure whether this is true or not but I will say every Vancouver Canadians game I’ve been to has been a really great time.
Reposted by Billy
Reposted by Billy
Our 249-year-old system -- two-party presidentialism -- has sometimes worked in spite of itself due to favorable conditions, un-codified norms, & a few periodic fixes.
That run is clearly over. I argue below that we need a multiparty democracy with the legislature supreme and a limited executive.
That run is clearly over. I argue below that we need a multiparty democracy with the legislature supreme and a limited executive.
“We cannot go back to anything approaching the old constitutional order, which already had been in a long, terminal decline.” www.liberalcurrents.com/the-american...
The American Presidency Can Never Be Trusted Again
It’s time for multiparty democracy and a limited executive.
www.liberalcurrents.com
November 1, 2025 at 6:09 PM
Our 249-year-old system -- two-party presidentialism -- has sometimes worked in spite of itself due to favorable conditions, un-codified norms, & a few periodic fixes.
That run is clearly over. I argue below that we need a multiparty democracy with the legislature supreme and a limited executive.
That run is clearly over. I argue below that we need a multiparty democracy with the legislature supreme and a limited executive.