The right choice

The Liberals have a habit of putting things off when it comes to purchasing new aircraft. They did it with the Cormorant for Canada's Search and Rescue operations. It cost taxpayers tens of millions of dollars extra. 

Canada did it again with the decision to purchase the F35. Twelve years ago, the cost would have been $19 billion. Now it will cost many billions more. The Harper government was choosing the F35. The Liberals did not like that and promised never to buy the F35. 

Now a group of non-partisan experts have decided the F35 is the best for Canada. The Liberals now agree. Interesting to see the flip flop.

Still I have to say that it is the right decision. To purchase any other plane at this time would be rolling back the clock. Harper's government made the right choice in the first place. Glad to see the Liberals have accepted that. 

Think

So have you heard a good rumour lately? Something about the pandemic ticked you off? Or you read that the government is doing something unbelievable.  Maybe the truckers have won a big lawsuit and they are growing in popularity around the world. 

And then just when you think it's all fake, you find that somebody you trust has retweeted the message or posted it to their own social media. Well then it must be true eh. Not so.

A group of journalists and online experts have determined that Russian troll factories are spewing out disinformation at an alarming rate. And in Canada, because we are not on buddy-buddy terms with Vladimir Putin, we are in the line of fire for the trolling that is being put on all of our social media platforms.

The worst thing I find is that many of the so called news stories are showing up on fake news platforms deliberately masquerading as real news sites.

Imagine you're sitting down for a meal in a restaurant and a new server shows up with your food and said oh, here is a complimentary entree and free drinks. 

Can't believe how many people are falling for the fake stuff.

Think before you accept anything.

Watching airplanes near Ukraine

 It is interesting to watch Flightradar24, an aviation website. It shows where airplanes are flying in real time. This morning I was watching flight callsign Jake12,  a KC135 tanker plane flying a racetrack style circuit over Romania, right next door to the Black Sea and Ukraine. The plane is registered to the United States Air Force and is certainly providing air refueling services for other aircraft -- most likely military planes -- that are flying with their transponders turned off. That means they cannot be seen on the flightradar website. 

Also this morning, I was watching a US Army Beech RC-12, which is a signals intelligence spyplane, flying over Lithuania, off the northwest coast of Belarus. The flight callsign was Yank03, no secrets there as to who this plane belongs to.  It was also flying a circuit back and forth, to pick up any electronic radio signals.

Hoping for brighter days

So today I confess I complained with some of my co-workers about the price of gasoline. I shouldn't have. I am sure it is going to get worse. But then I figured if that is all I have to complain about, I am really not doing too badly.

I had to send off a note of condolence to a friend whose mother died last week. That is always difficult for families to go through.

Of course, I am thinking about the poor people of Ukraine who are dealing with a mad man from Russia trying to destroy their country. 

Those poor people are suddenly losing everything they hold dear, but they are also hungry, thirsty, cold and in danger.

I feel badly for younger people. We have done everything we can to make life easier for young people, just because we love them and want to see them enjoy things more. 

Then we get a pandemic. Then we get a war. 

For younger people who have never had any suffering of any sort, this is all terribly unfair. 

I wish I had answers.