Thoughts

It’s a bit embarrassing to admit it, but the thought of the US attacking Canada is something that’s been on my mind for the first time in my life.

Not that I think we are in any immediate threat, there will be a lot of other significant moves to make one truly frightened nevertheless the 51st state rhetoric echoes in my mind as the USA kidnapped the president of Venezuela and his wife yesterday, killing dozens, or perhaps hundreds, in this special military operation which the legal implications under US and international law are not immediately clear.

There’s no denying Maduro is a bad actor and the Venezuelan people deserve better, but how this is shaking out has me worried.

I also wonder what my Canadian born US citizen cousins make of it.1 If nothing else, the lack of congressional oversight is certainly worrisome.

  1. I haven’t asked them.[]

Three Seconds Everyday 2025

The 2025 edition of our Three Seconds Everyday video is up. This year I didn’t render out a one second version, but it’s surprisingly watchable at double speed, if you don’t mind the audio.

I have to thank Andrea for picking up a few of the days that I happened to miss.

Top 10 Posts of 2025

Happy new year! Here are my most view posts of 2025:1

Stairway to Heaven Backwards Full Lyrics: 8,297
Secret Hitler – Print and Play: 6,210
Laughing Wild — by Christopher Durang: 4,120
Home page / Archives: 2,960
Laughing Wild — by Christopher Durang: 891
Apple Photos – How to view all unnamed faces – Solved: 887
About Me: 399
Backmasking Info: 395
Frequently Asked Questions: 231
Tab Cola Commercial: 225

  1. Previous year-end statistics for 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, and 2010.[]

Editorial on Neudorf’s Recall

Though I missed this last week, Darcy Logan has some good questions for Nathan Neudorf in his editorial on the fake recall.

If this is a fake process, they have now been denied their democratic agency by duplicitous and dishonest individuals. Nathan Neudorf publicly stated that “I’m not actively involved in my own recall.” This seems like a feeble equivocation. Were you passively involved, or were you aware it was going to happen before stepping back for plausible deniability?

Nathan Neudorf needs to answer two questions: Were you aware that someone was going to launch a spurious recall? Were any of your staff involved, and if so, how?

The Great Recall Caper

The Great Recall Caper thumbnail

I’ve been working on this video for the past few days.

From my video description:

On November 25, 2025, Lethbridge-East got an active recall petition campaign for Nathan Neudorf, but not everything is as it appears. Follow the unraveling of a real life conspiracy in this short explainer video.

As far as how I feel about the whole thing, it’s disappointing but I think that a fake recall might be more politically poisonous to Neudorf than our actual recall would have been.

I know this isn’t much of a consolation to folks that wanted to help but if you’re one of those people, consider signing up to help with the Alberta Funds Public Schools or the coal mining petition1.

  1. put forth by Corb Lund.[]

Genny Steed and the Fake Recall

I played a part in handing out the pieces, but this guy put them together:

https://recallfan44.substack.com/p/867-53oh-my

[I]f you’re going to do shifty things, don’t brag about it to friends, because eventually someone is going to say something in passing, and there’s no way to put that toothpaste back in the tube.

Yesterday, I was emailing back and forth with another person who has also been investigating this situation, and received some very interesting information:

The rumour is (and this is just a rumour — I have no idea the reputation of the people spreading it) that she approached Ryan Tanner because she is friends with him and he doesn’t have a Facebook account. I’m looking into the rumour more asking around to try and find the person that said it.

Needless to say, we found what we were looking for.

Update: It turns out that Ryan Tanner has a Facebook account–it’s just one that is dormant/private. It has only one public facing post since it was started in 2007.

All I want for Christmas

I’ve been hearing some concerning rumours about a former politician, someone the media hasn’t mentioned in this context yet, who might be behind the phony recall, but I’m waiting for some more evidence before I post about it here.

In the meantime, this editorial by Scott Sakatch in the Lethbridge Herald declares that he believes there is no way it’s a legitimate petition.

Update: This reddit thread shows what people think about this injustice.

Neudorf Recall Mystery Deepens

The Lethbridge Herald has published the story, Neudorf recall mystery deepens, which details the story of a mysterious man who claims he got a call from Neudorf’s office to take the paperwork to willing canvassers for the petition.1

Shortly after 8 a.m., said Apperloo, a man walked in carrying a stack of papers. The man said he was “Mike” and apologized for being late, adding that he came from the west side.

According to legislation, canvassers involved in a provincial recall campaign must have lived in the electoral division for a minimum of three months prior to volunteering.

At the time, however, Apperloo didn’t think anything of it and proceeded to fill out an application.

While she was doing that, Phillips walked into the restaurant and introduced herself to Mike. She had experience with the Forever Canadian petition and had some questions for Mike, including who Ryan Tanner was.

Phillips told the Herald that Mike claimed he didn’t know who Ryan Tanner was, or how a recall petition worked.

There are so many red flags in this story that I’m still in disbelief that we have all the details.

After Phillips left, Apperloo had a brief conversation with Mike, who admitted he was unfamiliar with the recall process.

“I said I was kind of surprised there weren’t more people here because I know people wanted to sign and then he says, ‘I don’t even really know what all of this is about.’”

Apperloo said she explained the process to him, then asked where he got the forms if he’d never met Tanner. Mike replied that he’d got them from Nathan Neudorf’s office.

“He said, ‘well, Sariah gave me a call’ and I said ‘Sariah, like Nathan Neudorf’s office manager?’ and he says, ‘yeah, she gave me a call to come bring these papers down to you.’”

Confused, Apperloo said she asked Mike why Neudorf would be in on his own recall, then had to further explain recalls to him.

Some friends of friends tell me they were there that morning and talked to the mysterious Mike.

“[He] was coincidentally at Timmy’s that morning and chatted with Barb Phillips. At some point, [he] talked with this ‘Mike’ and he did get his last name [‘Richey’].”2.

Who is this Mike Richey? I want to meet him because I’ve got questions!

Update: It has been confirmed that this is the same Mike Richey.

  1. Previously[]
  2. Originally spelled as Ritchie in the email I received[]