Google "Kendzior NYT" and you'll find a link to a Kendzior tweet that beseeches the reader to cancel their subscription to the New York Times.
Why? Apparently the paper has become an open sewer of white supremacist doggerel, overflowing with Nazi propaganda and pro-Trump PR.
Who knew?!... I guess we all owe her a debt of gratitude for pointing this out to us! As an alternative to the Times, she suggests we read the Washington Post instead. Presumably you'll find less pro-Trump PR there.
Not that I'd ever noticed any in the NYT. In fact, I've found their A-list op-ed prognosticators to be reliably anti-Trump.
Has Kendzior come unglued?
Maybe, but my hunch is there's something else behind such egregious foolishness. It's really tough making a go of it financially as an independent journalist. Every click counts, and there's a shit-load of competition out there. To scale up your brand you either have to come up with some genuine insights and noteworthy scoops, or fade into the background.
Kendzior's work is devoid of scoops and thin on insights, so she relies instead on cranking up the hysteria dial. Labelling the NYT a "white supremacist paper" pretty much puts that dial at eleven. Hard to know where she's gonna go from here!
Guess I'll have to follow her to find out... oh my gosh - I've fallen into her trap!
Wednesday, January 31, 2018
Tuesday, January 30, 2018
Conan O'Brien proves Haiti not a sh!thole
It's a thing now - high priced US celebrities go to Haiti for a few days and a few photo-ops to prove that far from being a shithole, Haiti is in fact a lovely getaway with pristine beaches, stunning vistas, and photogenic schoolgirls...
Hmm... Cuba has all that and so much more. Free education and health care. A GDP per person ten times that of Haiti. Life expectancy fifteen years greater.
Here's another difference; Haiti gets American "aid." Cuba gets American sanctions. In spite of that, few would deny that Cubans enjoy a vastly superior quality of life.
A mere sixty miles of ocean separate these two Caribbean states. One has enjoyed a socialist mode of governance for over half a century. The other has had its elected leader removed by Uncle Sam and friends any time he starts mouthing vaguely socialist rhetoric.
This contrast raises a couple of intriguing questions:
Frankly, I think they'd both be better off if Uncle Sam stayed home and worked at fixing America's problems instead.
Hmm... Cuba has all that and so much more. Free education and health care. A GDP per person ten times that of Haiti. Life expectancy fifteen years greater.
Here's another difference; Haiti gets American "aid." Cuba gets American sanctions. In spite of that, few would deny that Cubans enjoy a vastly superior quality of life.
A mere sixty miles of ocean separate these two Caribbean states. One has enjoyed a socialist mode of governance for over half a century. The other has had its elected leader removed by Uncle Sam and friends any time he starts mouthing vaguely socialist rhetoric.
This contrast raises a couple of intriguing questions:
- what might Cuba's economy look like absent US sanctions?
- what might Haiti look like absent US interference?
Frankly, I think they'd both be better off if Uncle Sam stayed home and worked at fixing America's problems instead.
Monday, January 29, 2018
How do you know when your dog has dementia?
Is that even a thing, doggie dementia?
I'm a little concerned about Boomer, our old girl. Lately she's taken to barking a lot. She barks at stuff that doesn't appear to be there, so far as I can see.
Then again, she could be going a little blind.
Her barking will of course get the others to barking, whereupon we find ourselves in the middle of a cacophonous barkfest.
Most unpleasant.
I'm a little concerned about Boomer, our old girl. Lately she's taken to barking a lot. She barks at stuff that doesn't appear to be there, so far as I can see.
Then again, she could be going a little blind.
Her barking will of course get the others to barking, whereupon we find ourselves in the middle of a cacophonous barkfest.
Most unpleasant.
Saturday, January 27, 2018
Great American bullshitters
You're looking at two of the greatest right there. Two Donalds. One white and one black. The white one has more in common with King than he has with any working class white trash.
The black one has more in common with Trump than he has with any random black kid from the hood.
Donald and Donald...
Only in America!
My favourite Don King anecdote goes like this; King was hustling some boxing promoter over something when the guy turned a little irate.
I can make a phone call and you'll be arrested within the hour, he says.
King rejoinders with; I can make a phone call and you'll be dead in fifteen minutes.
Apparently they were able to come to a mutually beneficial arrangement after that exchange.
Only in America!
Sticking it to the Ayatollahs
ACTIONS NOT WORDS screams the all caps headline on page O3 of today's Globe and Mail. It's the only story in the entire paper with an all caps headline, so it must be very important.
The gist of the piece is that Canada must do more to bring freedom and democracy to Iran, where a "freedom movement" erupted into widespread street demos in December. The caption under the picture informs us that "Iranian protesters chant slogans at a rally in Tehran, on Dec. 30."
That was my first chuckle. Those may well be Iranians chanting slogans, but they're carrying placards bearing the likeness of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Some doofus photo editor used a picture of a pro-government rally to illustrate an anti-government screed!
The authors of the piece should set off some alarms if you were expecting an honest opinion piece on the state of freedom and democracy in Iran. Nazanin Afshin-Jam Mackay, we are told, "is a long-time Iran human rights activist." She is also the wife of former Defence Minister Peter "Pinocchio" Mackay. If you follow her "activism" you'll be well aware it consists mostly of pining for the good old days of Iran's liberal democracy that prevailed from 1953 right up until the Ayatollahs came along and wrecked everything in 1979.
Her co-author is Shuvaloy Majumdar, whose last headline in a Canadian paper came after Trump announced the US embassy move to Jerusalem in December. Majumdar thought that a jolly good idea and argued that Canada should follow the American example, just to, you know, promote peace and human rights in the Middle East.
Majumdar turned up in Harper's inner circle after spending a few years in Afghanistan, spreading freedom and democratic goodness on behalf of the "International Republican Institute," one of the numerous US government "Non Government Organizations" charged with meddling in the politics of other countries. He was the mastermind behind Baird's decision to sever diplomatic relations with Tehran in 2012, a self-defeating exercise in idiocy unmatched in recent diplomatic history.
But it got Baird and Big Steve a pat on the back from Israel's PM Netanyahu, another long-time activist for human-rights in Iran. Funny how so many "human-rights activists" who are tireless advocates for the oppressed in Iran never have a word to say about the human rights of people who live under Israeli occupation. By all accounts, Jews in Iran enjoy far greater freedom and human rights than Palestinians in the West Bank.
Given the authorship, the opinions expressed are pretty much what you'd expect. Us good, them bad. We must therefore help freedom flourish in Iran the way it's flourishing in Iraq and Libya and Afghanistan and all the other beneficiaries of our meddling, and never forget that those Ayatollahs have rendered their country an isolated pariah state.
In fact, more countries have embassies in Iran than in Israel, so we should perhaps take more care in who we label a pariah state.
In fact, more countries have embassies in Iran than in Israel, so we should perhaps take more care in who we label a pariah state.
Ironically, the Mackay - Majumber rant shares page O3 with another opinion piece about the December demonstrations, this one penned by U of T luminaries Farhaan Ladhani, Peter Loewen, and Janice Gross Stein. They actually did some research to measure support for the protests by the Iranian public.
Their conclusion? "We found that support for the protests is thin. Only 27 per cent of respondents agreed that they supported them... "
Hmm... looks like the National Endowment for Democracy and the International Republican Institute and the Open Society folks have lots more work ahead of them before Iran is ripe for the plucking.
Friday, January 26, 2018
What's Al Sharpton thinking in this picture?
Multiple choice question; is it
A) This asshole thinks he can be president?
B) Get me outta here.
C) He's not such a bad guy after all.
D) He just donated a million bucks to my non-profit, so fuck off already...
Hard to know what the Reverend might have been thinking, but it makes for an interesting picture, doesn't it?
Wednesday, January 24, 2018
Dictatorship of the pussy-grabbers
Can I be the only one who suspects that the entire good vs evil schtick that's been going down in DC is, at root... just that?
Schtick?
Think about it. The last couple of years US politics has looked like it's scripted by the same geniuses who brought you reality TV and the WWF.
In the blue corner... give it up for the most experienced, the most competent, the most presidential candidate in history... HILLARY CLINTON!!!
And in the red corner, welcome the one and only, the most evil character we could dream up, the most racist, most nativist, most misogynistic DONALD J TRUMP!!!
Mostly bullshit, if you ask me.
Donny J. and the Clintons go way back. They've palled around since forever. Here's a shot of Trump and Bill Clinton after what looks like a way fun afternoon at the golf course.
Here they're posing with the caddies who carried their bags. Note the Playboy Bunny logo on the shirt of Trump's caddy. Goddamn, that Hugh Hefner did so much to empower women, didn't he? HH was one of the greatest feminists of the 20th century, no doubt about it.
And Bill's squee... I mean caddy, looks like she could be a Russian hooker in her other job, when she's not shlepping Bill's bag. Either that or one of Trump's ex-wives.
These folks are all in on the joke. They've got themselves roles in the greatest reality show ever.
US politics.
But remember, even though these actors will do well for themselves with these roles, the producers are gonna make the real killing!
Schtick?
Think about it. The last couple of years US politics has looked like it's scripted by the same geniuses who brought you reality TV and the WWF.
In the blue corner... give it up for the most experienced, the most competent, the most presidential candidate in history... HILLARY CLINTON!!!
And in the red corner, welcome the one and only, the most evil character we could dream up, the most racist, most nativist, most misogynistic DONALD J TRUMP!!!
Mostly bullshit, if you ask me.
Donny J. and the Clintons go way back. They've palled around since forever. Here's a shot of Trump and Bill Clinton after what looks like a way fun afternoon at the golf course.
Here they're posing with the caddies who carried their bags. Note the Playboy Bunny logo on the shirt of Trump's caddy. Goddamn, that Hugh Hefner did so much to empower women, didn't he? HH was one of the greatest feminists of the 20th century, no doubt about it.
And Bill's squee... I mean caddy, looks like she could be a Russian hooker in her other job, when she's not shlepping Bill's bag. Either that or one of Trump's ex-wives.
These folks are all in on the joke. They've got themselves roles in the greatest reality show ever.
US politics.
But remember, even though these actors will do well for themselves with these roles, the producers are gonna make the real killing!
Tuesday, January 23, 2018
For a 100% income tax
I knew that would get your attention.
A lot of folks forget, or never knew, thanks to the decrepitude of our education system, that back in the fifties, America had a marginal tax rate of over 90%.
America thrived.
Ya, the leadership of the day did a lot of stupid shit, especially on the foreign policy side, but at least from the perspective of a working class schmuck, America was great.
Whether you were local or up from the South or fresh off the boat, jobs were plentiful.
You'd buy a house and have a life, and you never gave a thought to the big picture, where crop after crop of newly minted MBAs were figuring out how to profit from your imminent disembowelment.
At this point, that's all water under the bridge... or bridge under the water.
Point is, this is where we're at.
As gratifying as it may be to see folks marching against Trump, what are they marching towards?
The Democratic Party?
God forbid.
In the interest of bringing wealth inequality back to earth, a graduated income tax should hit 100% eventually. Where you call that is always going to be somewhat arbitrary.
$100,000 a year? No, way too low.
$500,000 a year? A million? Ten million?
How much money do you need to live a decent life as a rich person?
Does it have to be a thousand times more than a poor person lives on?
No, it doesn't.
A lot of folks forget, or never knew, thanks to the decrepitude of our education system, that back in the fifties, America had a marginal tax rate of over 90%.
America thrived.
Ya, the leadership of the day did a lot of stupid shit, especially on the foreign policy side, but at least from the perspective of a working class schmuck, America was great.
Whether you were local or up from the South or fresh off the boat, jobs were plentiful.
You'd buy a house and have a life, and you never gave a thought to the big picture, where crop after crop of newly minted MBAs were figuring out how to profit from your imminent disembowelment.
At this point, that's all water under the bridge... or bridge under the water.
Point is, this is where we're at.
As gratifying as it may be to see folks marching against Trump, what are they marching towards?
The Democratic Party?
God forbid.
In the interest of bringing wealth inequality back to earth, a graduated income tax should hit 100% eventually. Where you call that is always going to be somewhat arbitrary.
$100,000 a year? No, way too low.
$500,000 a year? A million? Ten million?
How much money do you need to live a decent life as a rich person?
Does it have to be a thousand times more than a poor person lives on?
No, it doesn't.
What my hundred mile diet looks like in winter
Truth be told, my hundred mile diet in the winter looks like smoked whitefish and pickled beets.
Not that there's anything wrong with that. I've done a little research on the internet, and apparently both of my winter staples are really really good for me.
The whitefish comes from Howells. The pickled beets come from Sullivan's Butcher Shop, where their motto is "our meat can't be beat."
Hell, I wouldn't even try to beat their meat.
Nevertheless, I had to slip away today while the Farm Manager was otherwise occupied and grab me a Big Mac.
Oh ya!
To hell with a healthy diet; every now and then you just have to gorf down a Big Mac!
If nothing else, it helps you appreciate pickled beets and smoked whitefish.
Not that there's anything wrong with that. I've done a little research on the internet, and apparently both of my winter staples are really really good for me.
The whitefish comes from Howells. The pickled beets come from Sullivan's Butcher Shop, where their motto is "our meat can't be beat."
Hell, I wouldn't even try to beat their meat.
Nevertheless, I had to slip away today while the Farm Manager was otherwise occupied and grab me a Big Mac.
Oh ya!
To hell with a healthy diet; every now and then you just have to gorf down a Big Mac!
If nothing else, it helps you appreciate pickled beets and smoked whitefish.
The not-so-great Alaska earthquake
There was a "severe" earthquake off the Alaska coast this morning. Anywhere from a 7.9 to an 8.2, depending on where you read it and the time of day. That caused a tsunami alert all the way down the west coast of British Columbia, including some of my favourite haunts on Vancouver Island.
A few hours later, the tsunami alert was rescinded... the "tsunami" rolled into Tofino at a full 3 cm above the usual water levels.
Three centimetres?
Kinda reminds me of the tsunami alerts we've been getting non-stop since Dangerous Donald took over the White House a year ago. The sky was gonna fall. Top-drawer prognosticators were proclaiming the demise of The Republic.
The economy would collapse.
A year later, all that's happened is that the Dow Jones is at record heights and even the working class got a few crumbs from the Trump tax reform that was engineered to make the super-rich much richer.
After all, everybody knows that the only problem with the US economy is that rich people don't have enough money. They are the job creators after all, and how are they supposed to create jobs with both hands tied behind their backs by the draconian neo-Marxist taxation regimes favoured by the commies in the Obama cabinet?
Trump is making America great again!
A few hours later, the tsunami alert was rescinded... the "tsunami" rolled into Tofino at a full 3 cm above the usual water levels.
Three centimetres?
Kinda reminds me of the tsunami alerts we've been getting non-stop since Dangerous Donald took over the White House a year ago. The sky was gonna fall. Top-drawer prognosticators were proclaiming the demise of The Republic.
The economy would collapse.
A year later, all that's happened is that the Dow Jones is at record heights and even the working class got a few crumbs from the Trump tax reform that was engineered to make the super-rich much richer.
After all, everybody knows that the only problem with the US economy is that rich people don't have enough money. They are the job creators after all, and how are they supposed to create jobs with both hands tied behind their backs by the draconian neo-Marxist taxation regimes favoured by the commies in the Obama cabinet?
Trump is making America great again!
Saturday, January 20, 2018
#metoo and Mick Jagger
I'm waiting for the next shoe to drop... a call-out of Sir Mick by the #metoo crowd.
Mick is of course one of our cultural icons over the past fifty years or so...
Mick does some cool shit with his band every now and then. He is also a very famous libertine. Is it even conceivable that all of Sir Mick's sexual encounters were fully consensual?
And what does that even mean?
I know for a fact that there's not a bevy of nubile young women waiting outside my door to treat me to a leg-spread. Believe me, I check the porch once in awhile.
Nothing.
Ever.
But I'm not Mick.
We've seen a few Hollywood bigs brought low by this wave of neo-puritanism.
Our rock and roll icons will be next.
After all, what did "consent" mean in 1964?
Mick is of course one of our cultural icons over the past fifty years or so...
Mick does some cool shit with his band every now and then. He is also a very famous libertine. Is it even conceivable that all of Sir Mick's sexual encounters were fully consensual?
And what does that even mean?
I know for a fact that there's not a bevy of nubile young women waiting outside my door to treat me to a leg-spread. Believe me, I check the porch once in awhile.
Nothing.
Ever.
But I'm not Mick.
We've seen a few Hollywood bigs brought low by this wave of neo-puritanism.
Our rock and roll icons will be next.
After all, what did "consent" mean in 1964?
Welcome to Canada, unemployed welders of the world! See you at Roxham Road!
Five years ago I wrote a post decrying Canada's dependence on temp foreign workers.
Temporary foreign workers are a bad idea for a lot of reasons. The program is not fair to those foreign workers, for one thing. Sure, come to Canada and take a job at min wage that any Canadian would insist on $20 an hour to do.
And if your employer happens to be an immigrant-hating racist shit-bag, you're stuck with them for the duration of your foreign worker contract.
The "maximum Canada" crowd would dismiss these outrages as growing pains.
We're still down a shit-load of skilled workers in Canada. Not Justin nor Big Steve before him ever showed any initiative whatsoever in training up Canadian kids to make up the shortfall.
And why would they?
The Temporary Foreign Worker program will bring you all the skilled trades you need.
Let those Canadian kids hone their VR skills in their parents' basements!
Temporary foreign workers are a bad idea for a lot of reasons. The program is not fair to those foreign workers, for one thing. Sure, come to Canada and take a job at min wage that any Canadian would insist on $20 an hour to do.
And if your employer happens to be an immigrant-hating racist shit-bag, you're stuck with them for the duration of your foreign worker contract.
The "maximum Canada" crowd would dismiss these outrages as growing pains.
We're still down a shit-load of skilled workers in Canada. Not Justin nor Big Steve before him ever showed any initiative whatsoever in training up Canadian kids to make up the shortfall.
And why would they?
The Temporary Foreign Worker program will bring you all the skilled trades you need.
Let those Canadian kids hone their VR skills in their parents' basements!
Learning to love those Google algorithms
It's been barely a month since the good patriotic folks at GoogleTwitterFacebook announced that they'd modified their algorithms to weed out seditious anti-American propaganda.
We're fully aware that we're small potatoes here at Falling Downs, but holy shit, we had no idea how small we actually were. And we got way smaller after the big dogs clamped down on "Russian propaganda" and all that shit.
That "Russia stole our election" canard has got to be one of the most odious examples of state propaganda in our time. Unfortunately, the think tank here at Falling Downs has fallen victim to this witch hunt. Thanks to Google's algorithm adjustment, we're down to two or three page views per day instead of two or three hundred.
Apparently there are ways to circumvent the algorithm censorship regime.
Let me try a few of them out:
We're fully aware that we're small potatoes here at Falling Downs, but holy shit, we had no idea how small we actually were. And we got way smaller after the big dogs clamped down on "Russian propaganda" and all that shit.
That "Russia stole our election" canard has got to be one of the most odious examples of state propaganda in our time. Unfortunately, the think tank here at Falling Downs has fallen victim to this witch hunt. Thanks to Google's algorithm adjustment, we're down to two or three page views per day instead of two or three hundred.
Apparently there are ways to circumvent the algorithm censorship regime.
Let me try a few of them out:
- Trump invented lying
- Trump introduced lying to politics
- Trump introduced racism to America
- Trump is just one awful dude
- Trump is the most racist fucking shit-bag white supremacist to ever occupy the White House
- Trump this and Trump that and Trump up the ying yang
That little outburst will, hopefully, restore my viewership to three dozen per day from three. That should get us off the Google never-Trump shit list...
At least until the thought police see this:
Yup, that's Donny J and the right Reverend Al Sharpton in happier times...
Under pressure
Five years ago this month the Farm Manager bought herself an Instant Pot. That made her an "early adaptor" of what's since become the biggest selling kitchen gadget on Amazon.
The gizmo sat in the pantry waiting for its inaugural test drive, and then a couple of months later the Boston Marathon thing happened. That totally put the FM off pressure cookers. It's sat in the pantry, unopened, ever since.
On hearing that tale my pal Mac observed that she should be OK as long as she's not cooking with nails.
On hearing that tale my pal Mac observed that she should be OK as long as she's not cooking with nails.
Anyway, it sat in the pantry for years, unopened. Until today.
First she did up a turn of rice. Took twenty minutes and turned out super fluffy. The best-cooked rice I ever tasted.
Then she took a stab at hard-boiled eggs. We've been helping the local economy by buying eggs from free-ranging hens from one of the neighbours. Hell, if they ranged a little further they could just drop the eggs right in our barn and we wouldn't even have to pay for them!
This arrangement has gifted us an abundance of eggs. I'll whip up a batch of my killer egg salad once a week or so, and we're getting into pickled eggs. If that works out you may find a jar of Farm Manager brand pickled eggs at a farmer's market near you in the near future.
If that's not enough, she then turned out the tastiest chicken vindaloo you can imagine. From into the pot to down the gullet in no more than half an hour. I swear, this gizmo is a genius invention!
It's led to a rethink of our retirement plans. We're gonna give Hoonan the Iranian a run for his money on the food truck scene. Give the FM three or four of these Instant Pots in a food truck and we'll be rocking the Toronto street-food landscape in no time!
Chicken vindaloo on a bun. Lamb vindaloo on a bun. Chilli on a bun. Seafood chowder... on a bun?
We'll have to work out the details, but I think we've got a winning plan here.
Minimum Wage Paradise - live large in Seacow Pond
In what is more or less a paean to the marvels of unbridled immigration, David Parkinson has a multi-page feature in the Globe and Mail today about the economic boom in PEI. The caption to one of the pictures tells us that "...Royal Star Foods has increasingly been forced to rely on temporary foreign workers..."
We know that scenario intimately. Employers are "forced" to hire foreign workers because they offer shit jobs for shit wages, end of story. Pay a decent wage and your labour shortage will disappear, you greedy bastards.
Just to confirm my suspicions, I took a quick trip to Tignish on the Canada Job Bank. Sure enough, Royal Star Foods has a job listing still posted from last October looking for 50 workers for their lobster processing plant. The pay? $12.50 an hour.
That's a full $1.25 an hour above the PEI minimum wage. So maybe they're not the greediest greedbags in the biz, but still... what kind of a life can you live on $12.50 an hour?
Fired up the googlator to do some investigating. The single most debilitating expense for low income workers anywhere in Canada is the cost of housing. The average cost of a single family home nationwide hovers around the half-million mark. How does Seacow Pond stack up?
If you're used to Toronto prices you're in for a shock. Check out this two-bedroom charmer in downtown Tignish with a $34,700 asking price. That's the full price of the house and lot - not the amount of the deposit cheque or the down payment.
In case you don't have the headroom on your Mastercard to buy the place outright, I ran the numbers through the TD mortgage calculator. TD tells me that a $30,000 mortgage at their three year fixed rate of 3.34% is going to run me $152.36.
Per month!
The lobster gig runs roughly April to December. That's more than enough to accumulate the 910 hours of work to qualify for EI for the other three or four months. A typical fisheries worker can easily make $30k/yr. The big banks don't want you spending more than 30% of your annual gross on mortgage and taxes. Looks to me like virtually anybody working, including at minimum wage, can afford to buy their own place in this corner of PEI.
Go east, young man!
We know that scenario intimately. Employers are "forced" to hire foreign workers because they offer shit jobs for shit wages, end of story. Pay a decent wage and your labour shortage will disappear, you greedy bastards.
Just to confirm my suspicions, I took a quick trip to Tignish on the Canada Job Bank. Sure enough, Royal Star Foods has a job listing still posted from last October looking for 50 workers for their lobster processing plant. The pay? $12.50 an hour.
That's a full $1.25 an hour above the PEI minimum wage. So maybe they're not the greediest greedbags in the biz, but still... what kind of a life can you live on $12.50 an hour?
Fired up the googlator to do some investigating. The single most debilitating expense for low income workers anywhere in Canada is the cost of housing. The average cost of a single family home nationwide hovers around the half-million mark. How does Seacow Pond stack up?
If you're used to Toronto prices you're in for a shock. Check out this two-bedroom charmer in downtown Tignish with a $34,700 asking price. That's the full price of the house and lot - not the amount of the deposit cheque or the down payment.
In case you don't have the headroom on your Mastercard to buy the place outright, I ran the numbers through the TD mortgage calculator. TD tells me that a $30,000 mortgage at their three year fixed rate of 3.34% is going to run me $152.36.
Per month!
The lobster gig runs roughly April to December. That's more than enough to accumulate the 910 hours of work to qualify for EI for the other three or four months. A typical fisheries worker can easily make $30k/yr. The big banks don't want you spending more than 30% of your annual gross on mortgage and taxes. Looks to me like virtually anybody working, including at minimum wage, can afford to buy their own place in this corner of PEI.
Go east, young man!
Tuesday, January 16, 2018
Modern living v old school
Modern living is the greatest, is it not?
You can get a whole roast chicken at any of the mega chains for well under ten bucks. What with these damned socialists upping the minimum wage to a luxuriant fifteen plump and rosy-cheeked dollars for every hour of so-called "work," (texting while ignoring customers, which happens all the time these days) the minimum wage crowd can now buy a whole roast chicken for about 45 minutes in the yoke.
A whole roast chicken, paired with a bag of pannini buns from Bunsmaster, and a 4L box of Keller Estates Dry Red, will keep a family of four going for two or three days, easy.
Looks to me like the millennial crowd is pretty close to recapturing the standard of living we (the working class) had in the pre-industrial era. Bread and wine and a roast chicken or locally made sausage on the dinner table.
Remember, this was the pre-industrial era. "Jobs" had yet to be invented. You were a butcher or a baker or a shoemaker and that's what you did and that's who you were.
Thankfully, we've been liberated from all that old school hippy dippy shit. Everything is way more efficient.
Just take that roast chicken, for example. Back in the day, lot's of folks would keep a few chickens. You'd get the eggs for two or three years and then you'd have a roast chicken. That's a stupendously inefficient way of getting your roast chicken.
That roast chicken our newly flush underclass will be chowing down on going forward doesn't come from there, obviously. It comes from the kind of "farms" you'll see if you take a drive up the Elora Road. Just past my alma mater, Ponsonby Public School, you pass about a mile's worth of nondescript agricultural buildings.
Those are chicken factories.
Those chickens will never see a ray of sunshine or eat a blade of grass. They are the epitome of factory to plate dining.
Ya, I can see where you can wring inefficiencies out of things, but how far down that road do you go before you're wringing the soul out of them too?
I think we need to look to the past for our future.
You can get a whole roast chicken at any of the mega chains for well under ten bucks. What with these damned socialists upping the minimum wage to a luxuriant fifteen plump and rosy-cheeked dollars for every hour of so-called "work," (texting while ignoring customers, which happens all the time these days) the minimum wage crowd can now buy a whole roast chicken for about 45 minutes in the yoke.
A whole roast chicken, paired with a bag of pannini buns from Bunsmaster, and a 4L box of Keller Estates Dry Red, will keep a family of four going for two or three days, easy.
Looks to me like the millennial crowd is pretty close to recapturing the standard of living we (the working class) had in the pre-industrial era. Bread and wine and a roast chicken or locally made sausage on the dinner table.
Remember, this was the pre-industrial era. "Jobs" had yet to be invented. You were a butcher or a baker or a shoemaker and that's what you did and that's who you were.
Thankfully, we've been liberated from all that old school hippy dippy shit. Everything is way more efficient.
Just take that roast chicken, for example. Back in the day, lot's of folks would keep a few chickens. You'd get the eggs for two or three years and then you'd have a roast chicken. That's a stupendously inefficient way of getting your roast chicken.
That roast chicken our newly flush underclass will be chowing down on going forward doesn't come from there, obviously. It comes from the kind of "farms" you'll see if you take a drive up the Elora Road. Just past my alma mater, Ponsonby Public School, you pass about a mile's worth of nondescript agricultural buildings.
Those are chicken factories.
Those chickens will never see a ray of sunshine or eat a blade of grass. They are the epitome of factory to plate dining.
Ya, I can see where you can wring inefficiencies out of things, but how far down that road do you go before you're wringing the soul out of them too?
I think we need to look to the past for our future.
Saturday, January 13, 2018
The view from the top of the hill
Interesting contrast in the two stories on the front page of the Globe's Opinion section today. Neocon David Frum gets the top half of the page and uses it to give us a nostalgia bath in America's golden age - the "before Trump" era; ie before Trump started "sabotaging the institutions and agencies that protect the United States and sustain the peace of the world."
Yup, that's what America's been up to; sustaining the peace of the world.
In North Korea from 1950 on.
In Vietnam.
In Laos.
In Cambodia.
In Grenada and Panama and Iraq and Afghanistan and so many other places...
Sustaining the peace in the world?
I marvel at how far one must have one's head up one's arse to make such a statement.
Yanis Varoufakis gets the bottom half of the page for what is essentially a eulogy for the same neoliberal order that brought us all that peace that Frum laments the passing of.
Perhaps they're both right.
Strapped on the snowshoes and made my way to the top of the hill this afternoon, just me and the hounds. Bought a pair of those newfangled metal and plastic jobs at Crappy Tire recently because they were on sale. I was an old-school wood and leather guy till last winter, when I blew a binding on a hike around Bass Lake. Took fifteen minutes to get in and an hour and a half to get out.
From the top of our hill I can see the Meaford Tank Range, aka the "4th Division Training Centre Meaford," a good twenty or thirty miles distant. As much as we revel in being out of harm's way, I can't help but wonder if that might become a target in a worst case scenario.
Another reason to say bye-bye to the NATO gang and forge a future as a neutral nation as far as I'm concerned.
Elsewhere in the Globe you'll find a huge thumbs-up from David Shribman for Frum's latest book. Shribman shows up a lot in the pages of the Globe & Mail these days. I know it's hard times in the newspaper biz, and maybe they don't actually pay a real salary in Pittsburgh any more and he pays his bills with this free-lance stuff we see in the Globe.
According to Shribman, Frum's book is "a masterful diatribe against Trump's presidency." Shribman is another guy who believes America's golden age ended last January. Nothing like fobbing off a book review to someone who is on the same page of the hymnal as the guy whose book you're reviewing.
I enjoyed how he pegs Frum as "Canadian royalty." Interesting to see ourselves through the eyes of an outsider. What is Canadian royalty? Why, you're Canadian royalty when mom was a marquis name at the CBC and your sister is in the senate. Shribman forgot to mention that Papa Frum's mega millions helped that other stuff happen.
But maybe I'm being too cynical. I always had the highest regard for Barbara Frum's journalism, and while Murray Frum may not have invented the strip mall, anybody who can build a fortune out of such a pedestrian concept has my undying respect.
Finally, I have to admit to being alarmed by something Jeremy Freed wrote in what used to be called the "Style" section of the paper before all those high-priced consultants prevailed in the G & M makeover battles. Apparently ugly fashion is in! Yup, serious people who know the latest trends are looking at folks who dress like me and asking "are they really cool or is that just an ugly outfit?"
So if you see an old geezer in baffed out SAS shuffleboard shoes and baggy jeans loitering about the U of T campus, it's just me visiting. Say hello if you want, but trust me; I'm NOT cool.
Once I got them on and properly adjusted, the new snowshoes worked out OK. The problem is it took a good twenty minutes for the "adjustment" part of the process. That's because the plastic bindings are wonderfully pliable in the store at room temperature, but virtually impossible to manipulate in the cold.
I would consider that a major shortcoming in snowshoes.
Yup, that's what America's been up to; sustaining the peace of the world.
In North Korea from 1950 on.
In Vietnam.
In Laos.
In Cambodia.
In Grenada and Panama and Iraq and Afghanistan and so many other places...
Sustaining the peace in the world?
I marvel at how far one must have one's head up one's arse to make such a statement.
Yanis Varoufakis gets the bottom half of the page for what is essentially a eulogy for the same neoliberal order that brought us all that peace that Frum laments the passing of.
Perhaps they're both right.
Strapped on the snowshoes and made my way to the top of the hill this afternoon, just me and the hounds. Bought a pair of those newfangled metal and plastic jobs at Crappy Tire recently because they were on sale. I was an old-school wood and leather guy till last winter, when I blew a binding on a hike around Bass Lake. Took fifteen minutes to get in and an hour and a half to get out.
From the top of our hill I can see the Meaford Tank Range, aka the "4th Division Training Centre Meaford," a good twenty or thirty miles distant. As much as we revel in being out of harm's way, I can't help but wonder if that might become a target in a worst case scenario.
Another reason to say bye-bye to the NATO gang and forge a future as a neutral nation as far as I'm concerned.
Elsewhere in the Globe you'll find a huge thumbs-up from David Shribman for Frum's latest book. Shribman shows up a lot in the pages of the Globe & Mail these days. I know it's hard times in the newspaper biz, and maybe they don't actually pay a real salary in Pittsburgh any more and he pays his bills with this free-lance stuff we see in the Globe.
According to Shribman, Frum's book is "a masterful diatribe against Trump's presidency." Shribman is another guy who believes America's golden age ended last January. Nothing like fobbing off a book review to someone who is on the same page of the hymnal as the guy whose book you're reviewing.
I enjoyed how he pegs Frum as "Canadian royalty." Interesting to see ourselves through the eyes of an outsider. What is Canadian royalty? Why, you're Canadian royalty when mom was a marquis name at the CBC and your sister is in the senate. Shribman forgot to mention that Papa Frum's mega millions helped that other stuff happen.
But maybe I'm being too cynical. I always had the highest regard for Barbara Frum's journalism, and while Murray Frum may not have invented the strip mall, anybody who can build a fortune out of such a pedestrian concept has my undying respect.
Finally, I have to admit to being alarmed by something Jeremy Freed wrote in what used to be called the "Style" section of the paper before all those high-priced consultants prevailed in the G & M makeover battles. Apparently ugly fashion is in! Yup, serious people who know the latest trends are looking at folks who dress like me and asking "are they really cool or is that just an ugly outfit?"
So if you see an old geezer in baffed out SAS shuffleboard shoes and baggy jeans loitering about the U of T campus, it's just me visiting. Say hello if you want, but trust me; I'm NOT cool.
Once I got them on and properly adjusted, the new snowshoes worked out OK. The problem is it took a good twenty minutes for the "adjustment" part of the process. That's because the plastic bindings are wonderfully pliable in the store at room temperature, but virtually impossible to manipulate in the cold.
I would consider that a major shortcoming in snowshoes.
Thursday, January 11, 2018
Trump says "shithole," internet explodes
I see where President Mountain Dew Coma.... oh sorry, I meant President Trump, has referred to the homelands of some of the huddled masses yearning to be free as "shithole" countries.
What's the problem? They are shithole countries.
A more productive discussion might focus on the reasons why those countries are shitholes.
Take Libya for example. Who can doubt that Libya today is a shithole by any metric? But a mere seven or eight years ago Libya was by far the most successful nation state in all of Africa. Who made it the shithole it is today?
Hint; it wasn't the Libyans.
Iraq's pretty much a shithole too, isn't it? Did the Iraqis make their country a shithole, or did they have help from outside?
And Haiti? We've been so busy gifting Haiti freedom and democracy that we've had to remove a democratically elected government not once, but twice over the past quarter century.
We could go down the list of shithole countries one by one and analyse why they are shitholes, and believe me, we'd spend a lot of time discussing American foreign policy.
The irony is that the Exceptional Nation is itself becoming quite a shithole. I've known America first-hand from the sixties right up until they said I had to get a passport to catch a Sabres game. Across those fifty years I met many fine Americans, but it was also plainly obvious that the Exceptional Nation was sliding inexorably towards shitholedom.
Are we there yet?
What's the problem? They are shithole countries.
A more productive discussion might focus on the reasons why those countries are shitholes.
Take Libya for example. Who can doubt that Libya today is a shithole by any metric? But a mere seven or eight years ago Libya was by far the most successful nation state in all of Africa. Who made it the shithole it is today?
Hint; it wasn't the Libyans.
Iraq's pretty much a shithole too, isn't it? Did the Iraqis make their country a shithole, or did they have help from outside?
And Haiti? We've been so busy gifting Haiti freedom and democracy that we've had to remove a democratically elected government not once, but twice over the past quarter century.
We could go down the list of shithole countries one by one and analyse why they are shitholes, and believe me, we'd spend a lot of time discussing American foreign policy.
The irony is that the Exceptional Nation is itself becoming quite a shithole. I've known America first-hand from the sixties right up until they said I had to get a passport to catch a Sabres game. Across those fifty years I met many fine Americans, but it was also plainly obvious that the Exceptional Nation was sliding inexorably towards shitholedom.
Are we there yet?
Oprah 2020
Oprah's speech at the Golden Globes the other night set a million hearts aflutter.
I wouldn't get my hopes up. Not that she couldn't win. If a condo hustler from Manhattan can find his way to the Oval Office, I'm sure Oprah could too.
No, the reason I wouldn't get my hopes up is because after she wins, it's gonna be plenty more same-old same-old. The same old Yankee Oligarchy pushing the same old plutocratic agenda, in other words.
That's pretty much the story with Trump, isn't it? The hyperventilating of the punditocracy aside, has anything really changed with Trump?
Hell no!
Same old rancid exceptionalism.
Same old rampant bullying of the less exceptional nations.
Same old contempt for the working class.
Same-old same-old all across the dial.
But, she's a black woman! Things would HAVE to change...
No they wouldn't. How did things change when America's "democracy" coughed up its first black president? Why would a black woman president be any different?
Don't let her skin tone fool you. Oprah may be a black woman, but she's also a billionaire. As such, she's got way more in common with her fellow billionaires than she does with the minimum wage gals changing the sheets at the Super 8.
As America's first female president, she'll do more for her billionaire friends than she will for those minimum wage workers.
That's democracy in the USA.
I wouldn't get my hopes up. Not that she couldn't win. If a condo hustler from Manhattan can find his way to the Oval Office, I'm sure Oprah could too.
No, the reason I wouldn't get my hopes up is because after she wins, it's gonna be plenty more same-old same-old. The same old Yankee Oligarchy pushing the same old plutocratic agenda, in other words.
That's pretty much the story with Trump, isn't it? The hyperventilating of the punditocracy aside, has anything really changed with Trump?
Hell no!
Same old rancid exceptionalism.
Same old rampant bullying of the less exceptional nations.
Same old contempt for the working class.
Same-old same-old all across the dial.
But, she's a black woman! Things would HAVE to change...
No they wouldn't. How did things change when America's "democracy" coughed up its first black president? Why would a black woman president be any different?
Don't let her skin tone fool you. Oprah may be a black woman, but she's also a billionaire. As such, she's got way more in common with her fellow billionaires than she does with the minimum wage gals changing the sheets at the Super 8.
As America's first female president, she'll do more for her billionaire friends than she will for those minimum wage workers.
That's democracy in the USA.
Tuesday, January 9, 2018
Irving's shipyard has moved to Nova Scotia
Pretty sure it was in New Brunswick when I worked there.
If the folks who make these decisions ever make the decision to push the throttles on the last twenty years of shipbuilding announcements, that Irving yard in Halifax is gonna be a jumpin' place.
And I think things may be stirring.
Been hearing through the grapevine that they're hiring on at the Halifax yard. Irving doesn't even think about hiring unless all the eye's are crossed and all the tees are dotted in the latest cost-plus taxpayer-funded bonanza for Irving and a couple thousand of his shipyard workers.
You'll probably read something about it in your Globe and Mail in a month or two.
In the meanwhile, I think I'll send JD my resume. Ya, I haven't actually done much of anything since the Saint John gig, and I'm half blind and way too shaky to hold a welding whip, but they've made some great medical advances in the last twenty years, and I know for a fact they've got serious health care benefits at Irving Shipyards.
Count me in, byes!
If the folks who make these decisions ever make the decision to push the throttles on the last twenty years of shipbuilding announcements, that Irving yard in Halifax is gonna be a jumpin' place.
And I think things may be stirring.
Been hearing through the grapevine that they're hiring on at the Halifax yard. Irving doesn't even think about hiring unless all the eye's are crossed and all the tees are dotted in the latest cost-plus taxpayer-funded bonanza for Irving and a couple thousand of his shipyard workers.
You'll probably read something about it in your Globe and Mail in a month or two.
In the meanwhile, I think I'll send JD my resume. Ya, I haven't actually done much of anything since the Saint John gig, and I'm half blind and way too shaky to hold a welding whip, but they've made some great medical advances in the last twenty years, and I know for a fact they've got serious health care benefits at Irving Shipyards.
Count me in, byes!
Derek Sanderson's white skates
For a brief shining moment Derek Sanderson was the highest paid professional athlete in the world.
Not too long after, he was a has-been.
But in between this and that, he was my hockey idol.
I don't recall if he actually wore the white skates, but I definitely remember him talking about it. Lacing up a pair of white skates was gonna be a red flag for the opposing team. After all, white skates were girlie skates. Figure skates.
By pulling on a pair of figure skates he was not-so-subtly telling the opposing side that even girls could whup 'em. That would have the effect of discombobulating the other side even before the opening face-off.
Sheer genius!
I was so impressed that I looked for a pair of white size 12 hockey skates myself, the better to intimidate the opposition in the second or third tier of industrial league hockey I played at the time.
No luck.
Did find a pair of white hockey gloves though.
If they ever intimidated anyone, I never noticed.
Not too long after, he was a has-been.
But in between this and that, he was my hockey idol.
I don't recall if he actually wore the white skates, but I definitely remember him talking about it. Lacing up a pair of white skates was gonna be a red flag for the opposing team. After all, white skates were girlie skates. Figure skates.
By pulling on a pair of figure skates he was not-so-subtly telling the opposing side that even girls could whup 'em. That would have the effect of discombobulating the other side even before the opening face-off.
Sheer genius!
I was so impressed that I looked for a pair of white size 12 hockey skates myself, the better to intimidate the opposition in the second or third tier of industrial league hockey I played at the time.
No luck.
Did find a pair of white hockey gloves though.
If they ever intimidated anyone, I never noticed.
Sunday, January 7, 2018
Ontario economy in full collapse after minimum wage hike
It is doing no such thing, but you could be forgiven for believing otherwise based on the hysterical stories on view at CBC, Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, National Post and others. After a full week of the new minimum wage, the told-you-so crowd are ecstatic that they can find examples of minimum wage employers cutting back hours and benefits for their workers.
In reality, of course, one week and a few scary stories isn't enough to draw conclusions one way or the other. What this caterwauling obscures is that by not addressing the issue of a liveable minimum wage, we would be legitimizing the perpetual immiseration of the working poor. How is that even remotely justifiable in one of the wealthiest countries in the world?
Never mind justifying it; how can we even contemplate such a thing?
Obviously, if your business model is dependent on keeping your employees toiling in poverty, you've got a profoundly flawed business model.
Case closed.
In reality, of course, one week and a few scary stories isn't enough to draw conclusions one way or the other. What this caterwauling obscures is that by not addressing the issue of a liveable minimum wage, we would be legitimizing the perpetual immiseration of the working poor. How is that even remotely justifiable in one of the wealthiest countries in the world?
Never mind justifying it; how can we even contemplate such a thing?
Obviously, if your business model is dependent on keeping your employees toiling in poverty, you've got a profoundly flawed business model.
Case closed.
Friday, January 5, 2018
Millennials coming home to roost
Our five Juniors, via their networks of friends, workmates, and schoolmates, allow us some insights into how tough it is to be young these days.
And it's really tough. Most of them have post-secondary educations. Most of them got a raise last week when the Ontario minimum wage went to $14/hr. Most of them live in Toronto, where a smallish one bedroom apartment close to public transit runs $1500/month or better.
Meet Mike and Hanna;
They're gonna beat the system. They've given up their apartment near U of T. They kept a building key, though. They'll stay here on weekends, in the igloo they just built in the yard. They'll commute to Toronto and live in a quiet stairwell of their former building during the week to keep their jobs. If they pack away that $1500/month in rent money into a high-interest savings account, they should have saved a down-payment on their own place by the time they're in their forties or fifties.
And the igloo's not a half-bad abode. Beer coolers built right into the walls! I'm thinking of letting them sleep in the house and I'll take the igloo, I like it so much!
And it's really tough. Most of them have post-secondary educations. Most of them got a raise last week when the Ontario minimum wage went to $14/hr. Most of them live in Toronto, where a smallish one bedroom apartment close to public transit runs $1500/month or better.
Meet Mike and Hanna;
They're gonna beat the system. They've given up their apartment near U of T. They kept a building key, though. They'll stay here on weekends, in the igloo they just built in the yard. They'll commute to Toronto and live in a quiet stairwell of their former building during the week to keep their jobs. If they pack away that $1500/month in rent money into a high-interest savings account, they should have saved a down-payment on their own place by the time they're in their forties or fifties.
And the igloo's not a half-bad abode. Beer coolers built right into the walls! I'm thinking of letting them sleep in the house and I'll take the igloo, I like it so much!
RIP Wilmer Nadjiwon
It's been a bleak start to 2018, and I resolved to avoid saying anything about it until I found a story that grabbed my attention. I found it yesterday at the Topnotch.
The proprietors had set up a small shrine in honour of a long-time customer, Wilmer J Nadjiwon. It included a couple of paintings, a small sculpture, and a copy of his book, "Not Wolf Nor Dog." I bought a copy of the book. The woman behind the counter says I should have bought it last week - I could have had it signed.
Ya, I said. Too bad he didn't give us a heads up.
Funny how that works; a guy buys the farm at age ninety-six, and everybody around them is like "where the hell did that come from... we had no idea!"
One reason you had no idea with Mr. Nadjiwon is that he looked a good quarter century younger than his ninety-six years. And what a run he had! From surviving the residential school system to surviving the depression to surviving front line action in WW II with the Canadian Army, Mr. Nadjiwon was a survivor many times over.
But he was so much more than that.
He was an Ojibway elder who devoted his life to the betterment of his people. He was highly respected locally and nationally by Native and non-native alike.
Godspeed, Mr. Nadjiwon; you'll be missed.
The proprietors had set up a small shrine in honour of a long-time customer, Wilmer J Nadjiwon. It included a couple of paintings, a small sculpture, and a copy of his book, "Not Wolf Nor Dog." I bought a copy of the book. The woman behind the counter says I should have bought it last week - I could have had it signed.
Ya, I said. Too bad he didn't give us a heads up.
Funny how that works; a guy buys the farm at age ninety-six, and everybody around them is like "where the hell did that come from... we had no idea!"
One reason you had no idea with Mr. Nadjiwon is that he looked a good quarter century younger than his ninety-six years. And what a run he had! From surviving the residential school system to surviving the depression to surviving front line action in WW II with the Canadian Army, Mr. Nadjiwon was a survivor many times over.
But he was so much more than that.
He was an Ojibway elder who devoted his life to the betterment of his people. He was highly respected locally and nationally by Native and non-native alike.
Godspeed, Mr. Nadjiwon; you'll be missed.
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