Fireball Pacific

An individual who strives to be informed and entertained, occasionally at the same time. In exchange he promises to try his best to be respectful.

[Laura Babcock 🇨🇦 @LauraBabcock]

Not even solutions. Necessary Bandaids to stem the bleeding and blinders so rest of society doesn’t have to see its collective failure to care.

[Y Disassembler @loomdoop]

🎯

[Dr. Allison Wiltz @queenie4rmnola]

You’re angry at protestors and not the conditions that produced the protest. You lost the plot.

[David Rider @dmrider]

Curious on the different approaches (of federal Conservatives but others too) on mandatory addiction treatment vs mandatory vaccinations, when it comes to societal public health promotion

[Will Murray @MurraWil]

Watching people like Chris d'Entremont and Scott Aitchison do media thoughtfully and intelligently while still being loyal Conservatives shows how misguided the CPC media strategy has been the last few years. A standing ovation from the Comments section isn't a path to victory.

[Mark Hancock @MarkHancockCUPE]

Canada is still recovering from the damage the Liberal austerity budgets of the mid-90s inflicted on health care, housing & EI. We need strong @NDP representation in Parliament to protect our public services and our social safety net. My op-ed in @TheSpec
https://t.co/X4DadULXC2

[Jim Stanford @JimboStanford]

Certain partisans have been citing Canada's performance on per capita GDP as evidence of a supposed 'lost decade' and economic mismanagement. In @IRPP Policy Options, I deconstruct this arbitrary and misleading statistic, in two parts. #cdnecon #cdnpoli /2

[Ben Perrin @profbenperrin]

Why is @PierrePoilievre importing failed U.S. policies to Canada?

"Three Strikes" laws are a discredited American criminal justice policy from the 1990s that INCREASE homicides, while failing to reduce crime.

Research shows: "It is likely that the laws increase homicides because a few criminals, fearing the enhanced penalties, murder victims and witnesses to limit resistance and identification.

"With a state‐level multiple‐time‐series design, we find that the laws are associated with 10–12 percent more homicides in the short run and 23–29 percent in the long run. The impact occurs in almost all 24 states with three‐strikes laws.

Furthermore, there is little evidence that the laws have any compensating crime reduction impact through deterrence or incapacitation."

Source: Marvell & Moody, "The Lethal Effects of Three‐Strikes Laws" 30(1) 2001 Journal of Legal Studies
https://t.co/KAJpcyFV41

[Neil Stone @DrNeilStone]

This nails it

Brandolini's Law of BS

Takes seconds to state garbage
Takes much longer to debunk it

And everyone remembers the nonsense rather than the debunking

[Organizermemes @OrganizerMemes]

Someone on tiktok pointed out theres more kids in Texas with measles than trans college athletes in all of America.

Guess which they want you focused on?

[guyfelicella🇨🇦🍁 @guyfelicella]

I don’t agree with Mark on much, but he’s right this time.

Even what should be the biggest deterrent of all — A HIGH RISK OF DEATH — hasn’t reduced demand for unregulated drugs. And if there’s a demand, organized crime will meet it.

More enforcement, more secure borders, more prison sentences (even life sentences) doesn't stop it.

But why is demand so high?

It's ....
Poverty.
Trauma.
Homelessness.
Unemployment.
Low wages.
Unaffordability.
Etc.

👆 fix these, and you can fix the drug crisis.

[Christo Aivalis 🌹🍊 @christoaivalis]

My unpopular opinion is that Sales taxes are excellent taxes from a pragmatic perspective.

There's a reason countries with far better equality use them more heavily. Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, and Iceland all have 24-25% Sales Tax

We Just need to ramp up the rebates

[Luke Savage @LukewSavage]

Now that Trudeau has resigned, I look forward to 8 or so weeks of the most irritating people in the country asserting that the problem was his compulsively centrist government "moving too far to the left"

[Jeet Heer @HeerJeet]

Very good thread which clarifies that 2020 Dem victory rested on harnessing antisystem voters, who stayed home in 2024.

[Neil Stone @DrNeilStone]

Remember iron lungs for polio?

No me neither.

Because vaccines work

[big_pedestrian @big_pedestrian]

The current approach to road safety is to design a system where everyone has to drive everywhere all the time, optimize it for speed and volume, then pray no one is too drunk, high, old, young, exhausted, sleepy, bereaved, enraged, sick, distracted or disabled to drive safely.

[Jennifer Keesmaat @jen_keesmaat]

Here’s a wild dilemma, as @MikePMoffatt points out: Slowing immigration and the crack down on foreign students might freeze Ontario rents in 2025. Politicians will cheer, pat themselves on the back, and claim they’ve “solved” the housing crisis. But this is a mirage.

Ontario’s population is still surging, and we’ve got the highest share of under-35s living with their parents anywhere in Canada. Meanwhile, housing starts have fallen off a cliff. The real problem? We’ve punted the housing crisis further down the field, not fixed it. Anticipate soaring rents, this decade.

https://t.co/Dnf6iYKZTP

[Grant Certiorari @GrantCertiorari]

There is such a thing as being too poor to work.

You need a permanent address for a job. A place to shower. Professional clothing. If you have kids, childcare. Reliable transportation.

We need to expand, not shrink social safety nets and give those struggling a boost.