After the initial wave of U.S. and Israeli attacks, videos circulated showing the aftermath of an airstrike that struck a girls’ elementary school in southern Iran, including harrowing images of families screaming and searching through the rubble of the collapsed building. According to state-run IRNA news outlet, the attack on a girls’ elementary school in Minab, a city in southern Iran, killed at least 60 students. Many more students were reportedly trapped beneath the debris; approximately 170 girls were inside the school at the time.

Within hours of bombs hitting cities across Iran, Tehran unleashed a series of ballistic missile and drone strikes aimed at Israel and U.S. military facilities across the Persian Gulf, as well as in Jordan. Iran targeted U.S. assets in Qatar, the UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain, Syria, Jordan, and Iraq.

Source: Drop Site News Feb 28/26

‘Acts of War Unauthorized by Congress’: Thomas Massie (R) Condemns Trump’s Iran Strikes.Massie labeled the strikes unauthorized acts of war and pushed war powers legislation to block escalation. Rand Paul (R)questioned both the constitutional authority and the strategic wisdom of expanding hostilities without Congress.

An unprovoked attempt at regime change in collaboration with Israel, with no legal foundation, launched in the midst of diplomatic efforts to avert conflict, and with minimal consultation with Congress or the American public.

In violation of International law UN Charter Article 2(4): The fundamental rule prohibiting the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state

Canada backs U.S. 

“Canada supports the United States acting to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and to prevent its regime from further threatening international peace and security,” reads a joint statement from Prime Minister Mark Carney and Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand. 

Canada believes the Islamic Republic of Iran is the “principal source of instability and terror throughout the Middle East.” 

The letter also highlights the 256 Iranian entities and 222 individuals whom Canada has levied already sanctions against. It also mentions Israel, which joined the U.S. in its attack – “Canada reaffirms Israel’s right to defend itself and to ensure the security of its people.”

Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre also said he supports the U.S., Israel, and allied countries across the region to “defend their sovereignty and dismantle the clerical military dictatorship of Iran,” he wrote on X.

Source CTV News Feb 28/26

BLAH BLAH BLAH

Ireland Makes Basic Income Program for Artists Permanent

After a successful pilot, artists will be paid hundreds of euros weekly over three years.

The Irish government will give 2,000 artists unrestricted weekly stipends, following a successful three-year basic income pilot program.

“Ireland can become a world leader through this unique scheme that ultimately benefits the whole of society through supporting our continued artistic excellence on the world stage,” the NCFA committee said.

Source: Hyperallergic Feb 24/26

MEANWHILE:

Arts and culture in Nova Scotia left reeling from ‘unprecedented’ cuts by provincial government.

Nova Scotia Premier Houston initiates major cuts to the province’s arts & culture sectors.

Nearly half of all Nova Scotia Museum sites closed.

Of 287 cuts, more than 70 are in the Department of Communities, Culture, Tourism and Heritage. They include an end to the Publishers Assistance Program, which paid out $700,000 a year, the Artists in Communities program ($203,000), and the Arts Nova Scotia Artists in Schools program ($135,000). 

Operating grants to arts organizations were cut by 30%, and the Community Assistance Program for museums goes from $100,000 to $50,000.

Source: Halifax Examiner Feb 25/26

In a series of the most starkly gripping images of political madness in decades, Too Mad to Fail delivers disciplined visual renderings of the epochal political figure who reliably brings the world to the brink.

Through unprecedented access to the subject, Court Painter re-creates the full drama and turmoil of President 47’s State of the Union speechifying, turbulent emotions, revealing eye catching graphic statements of the two mad-lite accomplices flanking him on both sides and how—motivated as often by ego and greed as by fear, self-preservation, and long-windedness—

the most powerful man in politics commandeered two hours of the airwaves to highlight ‘ violent pornographic riffing and luxuriating in gory details of brutal events’ while demonstrating his iron fisted grasp of madness, the teleprompter, and the podium.

Court Painter with ‘Too Mad to Fail”.

Premier Danielle Smith delivering nine referendum questions to Albertans.

Click link for Paul Wells article

https://open.substack.com/pub/paulwells/p/danielle-smiths-nine-questions?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

Excerpted from the Paul Wells article:

I don’t see how Smith’s announcement yesterday fixes the problems she professes to be concerned about, more than ordinary politics would. I don’t see how her nine frivolous referendums will much affect the one existential referendum she’s done nothing to forestall. I don’t think her government would implement a Yes vote in that secession referendum. I think the question is moot because I don’t believe there’ll be a Yes vote.

Pandora’s Box :a process that generates many complicated problems as the result of unwise interference in something.

Original image source thanks to Dante Gabriel Rossetti‘s painting of Pandora holding the box, 1871

The White House has suggested that the Smithsonian Institution’s National Portrait Gallery (NPG) create a dedicated section to display multiple images of US president Donald Trump, expanding beyond the single official portrait traditionally shown during a sitting president’s term. To further this idea a visit to Court Painter’s Calgary portrait studio was undertaken by the acting chief of protocol at the State Department.Upon completing that visit and in discussions with President Trump, the decision was made to have Court Painter also create a new portrait that encapsulates his 45th and 47th presidential terms.

Officials noted that the president regularly receives unsolicited portraits from Court Painter and suggested that a curated selection could be exhibited within the NPG. Contacted by The Art Newspaper, spokespeople for the Smithsonian and NPG declined to comment; before a formal proposal has been submitted, sources close to the institution told The New York Times. A spokesperson for the White House said the president receives “an unprecedented amount of beautiful portraits from Court Painter’s studio” and that it is important these works be “showcased throughout the halls of our Nation’s Capital”.

The following images are just a sampling of Court Painter portraits that sensitively curated could be showcased throughout the halls of the U.S. Capital.

Court Painter seen with a blank canvas in anticipation of the new President Donald J Trump commission.He refused to comment on it’s diminutive scale.

Edmonton MP Jeneroux leaves Conservatives, crosses floor to join Liberals

Veteran Edmonton MP Matt Jeneroux is crossing the floor from the Opposition Conservative Party to join Prime Minister Mark Carney’s governing Liberals. Carney said Jeneroux will take on a role as a special advisor on economic and security partnerships.

Canadian prime minister Mark Carney has told residents of Tumbler Ridge that the country is “with you, and we will always be with you”, during a candlelight vigil for the eight victims of a mass shooting that has shattered the small mining town.

The prime minister, holding hands with opposition leader Pierre Poilievre and indigenous Governor General Mary Simon , flanked by First Nations chiefs and local officials; paid tribute to the families enduring the loss of loved ones, after the shooting at a local school that has become one of the most deadly attacks in Canadian history.

“Today, there are no Conservatives. There are no Liberals, New Democrats, Greens or Bloc Quebecois” said Poilievre. “We are all just mothers and fathers. We all watch our kids going to school, expecting them to come back to us”.

All federal leaders were in attendance at the invitation of prime minister Carney.

Poilievre commended Carney for his “tremendous grace” and the two leaders joined hands as an Indigenous leader sang a prayer outside the town hall.

Rep.Ro Khanna (D-CA) 

Excerpted remarks from House of Representatives, February 10/26

Why are we in a country where there is no elite accountability for people who do the most heinous things?

We need to ask ourselves:

Are we in America going to have elite accountability? Are we going to call on rich and powerful people who broke the law or cavorted with a pedophile, a convicted pedophile? Are we going to call them to account? Are we going to have prosecutions for billionaires who went to this island and either raped underage girls or saw underage girls being raped and didn’t say anything? Are we going to have investigations?

I’ll tell you what this is about. It’s not just about the 1,200 survivors. It’s about two tiers of justice in America. It’s people who can accumulate wealth and power and don’t have to care about the rest of America, who have destroyed so much of this country. Income inequality is at a 60-year high. Workers’ salaries are less than they have been for 75 years as a part of GDP. Somehow, this country seems to be working for the rich and powerful, but it’s not working for ordinary working-class Americans. I say enough. It’s time to begin with accountability for the Epstein class. Hold them in front of Congress—those people who visited the island or did business with Epstein after he was a convicted pedophile. Investigate them, prosecute them, and let’s return to democratic accountability in the United States of America. Let’s return to one system of justice in the U.S. of America. Let’s return to a place where every American has a stake in this country.

Click link for The Maple article

https://www.readthemaple.com/top-paid-ceos-made-more-in-33-hours-than-workers-will-in-2026

Top-Paid CEOs Made More In 33 Hours Than Workers Will In 2026

A new CCPA report found Canada is increasingly a country of exorbitant wealth alongside persistent poverty.

By 9:23 a.m. on January 2 Canada’s 100 highest-paid CEOs had already made what the average worker will make all year

Court Painter is seen pretending he is the rich CEP (Chief Executive Painter) of the Court Painter Studio Enterprise Ltd.

The reality of Court Painter’s story is rather sad. Though he aspires to find monetary riches in the daily slog of producing paintings that often depict the assholes and dilemmas of our time, his second job as an entertainer and social gadfly is marginally more lucrative than his studio practice.

Court Painter seen in full rhythm as entertainer for hire!

A Contrast Between Artists’ Compensation and That of the Top Dogs

In 2024 the Cultural Human Resources Council (CHRC) commissioned Hill Strategies Research to conduct a survey of affordability and working conditions in the careers of artists and other cultural workers.

So as not to leave the impression that Court Painter and his Press Attaché, AHM, are destitute delinquents adrift in the studio of life, we leave you with two recent images of highly successful practitioners of the art of survival.

The Alberta Prosperity Project’s mission is to empower the Alberta government to restructure Alberta’s relationship with Canada by mobilizing public support for a referendum on sovereignty with the intention to become besties with the USA.

Recently Alberta lawyer Jeffrey Rath led an APP delegation to Washington, D.C. to pitch the Trump administration on Alberta statehood.”Think of this as leverage towards Sovereignty.”

Mr. Rath is seen offering Alberta Premier Danielle Smith a special Apple with a Flag on Top.

Tempted Premier?