• Jean Knight’s recent passing reminds us of her great perennial classic hit that continues to nail…

Click video link to watch Ms. Knight strut her stuff!

Click video link to watch recent interview with Elon ‘Mr. Big Stuff’ Musk.

Court Painter & Mr. Big Stuff with portrait of Jean Knight

Oh and then there is this climate related story nailing the super rich

• https://www.ctvnews.ca/climate-and-environment/top-1-per-cent-wealthiest-responsible-for-same-amount-of-carbon-emissions-as-bottom-66-per-cent-1.6652001

Source: CTV News November 20/23

Excerpted from article:

Top 1 per cent wealthiest responsible for same amount of carbon emissions as bottom 66 per cent

The excesses of extreme wealth can mean a huge climate toll. The report cited 2022 research from Greenpeace which found that European private jets emitted a total of 5.3 million tonnes of CO2 between 2020 and 2023.

The big problem, the data shows, is where billionaires invest their money.

“According to Oxfam data, the share of billionaire investments that were invested in polluting industries was double that of the average investor, and these investments accounted for 50 per cent to 70 per cent of the emissions from the super-rich.”

“We can’t simplify the problem by only looking at a handful of countries, we really have to look at the super rich as a group, regardless of where they live, and hold them accountable for the impact they’re having,” Ian Thomson, Policy Manager at Oxfam Canada, said.

According to the Oxfam report, a tax of around 60 per cent on the incomes of the super-rich globally would cut the carbon equivalent to more than the total 2019 emissions of the U.K., and could raise US$6.4 trillion in the process, which could be reinvested into renewable energy and a transition away from fossil fuels.

Solutions for climate can also be solutions for justice and equity, and by tackling climate change we can create a better and safer and more just world .

We lack a comprehensive understanding of how OpenAI develops its technology, including the specifics of Sam Altman’s guidance on future, more potent generations. This became evident when Reuters and The Information reported that, before Altman’s dismissal, several staff researchers had expressed concerns about a purportedly risky breakthrough. The focal point of the issue was an algorithm known as Q* (pronounced “Q-star”), which purportedly demonstrated the capability to solve certain grade-school-level math problems it hadn’t encountered previously. While this may seem unremarkable, some researchers within the company reportedly saw it as an early indication of the algorithm enhancing its reasoning abilities—essentially, using logic to address novel problems. Spearheaded by OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, this technical breakthrough prompted concerns among some staff members that the company lacked adequate safeguards for the commercialization of such advanced AI models.

Researchers consider math a frontier in generative AI development, and Q* stands at the forefront of this progress.

We are in for a wild ride folks.

Court Painter suggested to his Press Attache and canvas stretcher, A Hardon MacKay, that with this ominous news during wartime, he should select some images from Court Painter’s upcoming coffee table book of greatest hits which remains in a state of suspended publication because of a math problem.(don’t ask…)

The term “going sideways” is believed to have its roots in the military, where it likely originated to characterize a situation deviating from the planned course or escalating into chaos. Additionally, it may have found usage in aviation to depict a plane losing control. Despite its uncertain origin, the phrase has permeated various social contexts, capturing the essence of unpredictability and the whims of fate.

It should be explained that the Court Painter archives has numerous undelivered and unpaid for paintings of Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland and because she is feeling the political heat lately the brilliant decision was made to recycle selected images that once depicted all things balanced and upright in the Liberal world and turn them sideways!

“I suspect Freeland’s delivery of her economic and fiscal update will be one of the most important political moments of the last five years. Nobody really has any idea what the minister’s statement will say. She is the champion of activist government on odd-numbered days and of mighty fiscal restraint on even. She will be sure of some new direction on Tuesday, and I suppose it’s a toss-up whether she will even remember by Friday what that direction was supposed to be. The good news, as we were reminded in Halifax,( Halifax International Security Forum) is that Canada is close to being the least of the world’s problems. The bad news is that it also seems determined to become the least of the world’s remedies.”

Source: Paul Wells Substack Nov 20/23 Things worth fighting for PAUL WELLS

Once Upon A Time in the Realm of Albertastan

written with assistance of CP’s favourite contract ghost writer Chatterley Gonad Persnickety Thunderbun (ChatGPT)

His fanciful Lord Manning & Princess Danielle

Once Upon A Time in the Realm of Albertastan

In the days of yore, when the shadows of uncertainty and pestilence loomed over the Realm of Albertastan, wherein His Lord Manning, erstwhile leader of the Reform Party, did undertake an endeavour commissioned by the noble Albertastan government headed by Princess Danielle. And herein there exists a curious tale. This narrative unfolds in two parts, as if penned by a sagacious scribe with a penchant for foresight.

In the antecedent chapter, predating His Lord Manning’s coronation as the head of Albertastan’s esteemed Public Health Emergencies Governance Review Panel in the year 2023, there existed a tome of fantastical nature. A year hence, ere Premier Princess Danielle bestowed upon him the mantle of pandemic scrutiny, His Lord Manning, in his creative ardor, did inscribe a whimsical fable upon the topic du jour. Lo and behold, the contents of this fanciful opus traversed a terrain akin to the corporeal realm that awaited its revelation.

The tangible manifestation of His Lord Manning’s sagacity materialized in the form of a genuine Albertastan coin funded panel report, replete with the imprimatur of Princess Danielle’s government and a generous allocation of two million in the coin of the realm for research and support. Verily, they did bequeath unto him the fetters of reality, yet the conclusions drawn bore an uncanny resemblance to the ethereal musings of his prior imaginings.

Behold, the convergence of reality and fancy, wherein the ink stained quill of His Lord Manning did dance betwixt the realms of the tangible and the imagined, leaving an indelible mark upon the chronicles of governance and pandemic ponderings alike, wherein as well a suggested governance weaponized roadmap for future leaders of the conservative persuasion.

Yes dear reader, the conclusions drawn from his Albertastan coin funded inquiry mirrored those conjured in the ethereal tapestry of his imaginative foray; a resounding echo of his prior imaginings resonated with an eerie harmony throughout the realm.

And to all a good night!

Court Painter with ‘Albertastan Teamwork”

Big payday for fiction writer

CLICK LINK for ARTICLE

Go to article

Preston Manning’s fiction made real in his Alberta pandemic report

Reform Party founder wrote imaginary post-COVID review, then repeated ideas for actual government panel

Jason Markusoff · CBC News · Posted: Nov 22, 2023 9:04 PM AST | Last Updated: November 22

Conservative Leader in Senate Senator Don Plett

From a Court Painter post of October 29.2020

Conservative Senate Leader Don Plett voiced support for U.S. President Donald Trump’s re-election during debate in the Red Chamber.

Plett, a past president of the Conservative Party, said he’s hoping Republican senators are re-elected to a majority position in the U.S. Senate when all the votes are in next Tuesday, Nov. 3.2020

Don Plett’s portrait being delivered to the Trump International Hotel

Should we be surprised that Conservative Senator Don Plett is attracted to bully tactics ?

ARTICLE: CBC News · Posted: Nov 22, 2023

Senators say they have been bullied, harassed by Conservatives over carbon tax exemption bill | CBC News

Three Independent senators say they were bullied by Conservative Leader Don Plett in the Red Chamber after a member of their group moved to put off debate on a controversial bill that would exempt farmers from certain provisions of Ottawa’s carbon tax regime.

Court Painter with Bully diptych

Excerpted from article

When Independent Sen. Bernadette Clement  moved to put off further debate on the legislation on Nov. 9, Plett rose to speak to her, Saint-Germain and Sen Chantal Petitclerc, the Independent group’s “chair of deliberations.” They engaged in a heated exchange.

Independent Senators Group (ISG) LeaderSaint-Germain said Plett “violently” threw his earpiece and “stood before Sen. Clement and me as we sat at our desks, yelling and berating us for proposing this routine motion that would see debate resume the following week.”

She said Plett “pointed fingers” at another ISG member, Sen. Lucie Moncion, and suggested he would block work she’s doing on the Senate’s human resource subcommittee.

She said another Conservative, Sen. Michael MacDonald, called Independent Senators Group members “fascists” during the ruckus.

fraught /frôt/

adjective

1.  (of a situation or course of action) filled with or likely to result in (something undesirable) 
2. Similar: full of, filled with, swarming with, rife with ,thick with, bristling with, charged with, loaded with
3.  causing or affected by anxiety or stress: tense, trying, difficult, distressing, tricky, emotionally charged

Court Painter has found his journey into abstraction has led to a chimerical arena of non objectivity on this quixotic mission of making the world go away and getting it off his shoulders.

back·lash

/ˈbakˌlaSH/

1.  a strong and adverse reaction by a large number of people, especially to a social or political development.”a public backlash against …
2. Similar:adverse reaction/response/counteraction/counter-blast/comeback/recoil/retaliation/reprisal/repercussions/reverberations /fallout/backwash
3.  recoil arising between parts of a mechanism.

Court Painter has retreated into abstraction in an attempt to make the world go away…

Court Painter welcomes many visitors to his studio and recently a writer from New York dropped in…a Ms. Fran Lebowitz who is known for her love of travel not, occasionally listening intently to other’s opinions, not leaving her apartment, partaking of an occasional smoke and eyeballing the visual arts. She asked and was granted her wish to view the many paintings from the studio storage racks and picked her favourite.

Court Painter’s “Self portrait in frame with standing self portrait‘ was chosen and is also a favourite of Court Painter’s because it features as the main subject …wait for it…Court Painter!

Tim Bousquet

Thanks for terrific article by TIM BOUSQUET Halifax Examiner Nov 9/23 (Please subscribe)

The Homelessness Industry is booming, and there’s big money in it

• https://www.halifaxexaminer.ca/morning-file/the-homelessness-industry-is-booming-and-theres-big-money-in-it/#N1

Composite of tents & City Hall

Excerpted from the article

‘In record numbers, people can’t find a place to live. But the homelessness industry is booming.

By the “homelessness industry” I mean the army of non-profits, consultants, data collectors, government bureaucrats, policy wonks, and academics whose stated goal is to “end homelessness” but who have utterly failed. And the more the homelessness industry fails, the more it succeeds. There’s big money to be made by failing to end homelessness.

But instead of the straightforward solution of building some damn housing, we’ve built this Rube Goldberg machine of market incentives, tax rebates, grants to non-profits, means testing, bonus density, ever-shifting definitions of “affordable housing” that time out after a couple of decades in any event, and a caring industry created to address the result and not the cause.

Focusing on the Rube Goldberg machinations of the homelessness industry instead of on just building some damn housing already is exactly the distracting rhetoric needed to prevent the government from spending the substantial amount of real money to honestly address the housing shortage.’

\

Court Painter with portrait of Tim Bousquet

Court Painter with recent urban painting

So an American media stupor star and political influencer will visit the Great Dominion for lunch (Calgary to be precise on January 26/24) ,and in attendance will be the darling of the international right, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith .

Court Painter reminds everyone in this excitement, that Mothertucker Carlson  a vocal supporter of last year’s “Freedom Convoy” movement and a white nationalist suggested invading the Great Dominion to liberate it from the democratically elected MP Justin Trudeau who also happens to be prime minister selected by the ruling Liberal Party.(it’s the Canadian way)

Anyway morbidly rich fanboy of Premier Smith, W Brett Wilson will have a Q & A with the Mothertucker after his remarks and is expected to wet his pants during the discussion.

Premier Danielle Smith will then have her Q & A with the Mothertucker and anticipation is running high that these two 21 century stale breath of air heads , will reveal wondrous plans to liberate the Great Dominion from you know who!

Tucker Carlson Calls For USA to Invade Canada: ‘Why Don’t We Liberate It?’

By Aidan McLaughlin Jan 27th, 2023, 10:17 am   MEDIAite

Fox News host Tucker Carlson called on the United States to invade Canada in baffling comments during an interview Thursday.

In an interview with Hillsdale College professor David Azerrad, a Canadian, Carlson brought up the “authoritarian government” of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and its response to the 2022 trucker protest in which opponents of vaccine mandates blockaded the streets of Ottawa.

“I’m completely in favor of a Bay of Pigs operation to liberate that country,” Carlson said. “Why should we stand back and let our biggest trading partner, the country with which we share the longest border — and actually, I’ll just say, a great country, I love Canada, I’ve always loved Canada because of its natural beauty — why should we let it become Cuba?”

He proposed that the invasion of Canada would be a better use of America’s military might than supporting Ukraine in its fight against the Russian invasion.

“Why don’t we liberate it?” Carlson asked. “We’re spending all this money to liberate Ukraine from the Russians, why are we not sending an armed force north to liberate Canada from Trudeau?”

If you thought Carlson was joking, think again. At the end of his proposal, he added: “And, I mean it.”