Watched the Jody Wilson-Raybould hearing from Ottawa for a spell this evening. I think PM Fluffy's days are numbered. JWR exudes a confidence and sincerity that Justin has long lost, especially the sincerity part. Justin's hypocrisy has been exposed for all the land to see. The PM who is all about keeping politics out of the judicial system when he's doing gopher work for Donald Trump (in the Huawei case) has no qualms at all about arm-twisting his Justice minister in the SNC-Lavalin affair.
I think Trudeau should resign. The Liberal Party should have a leadership convention, which JWR could readily win, and then they'd have a chance in October. Otherwise, they're screwed.
And we'd be screwed too, because do you really think things have a snowball's chance in hell of improving under a PM Scheer?
Nope!
Ideally, we'd have a party to the left of the Liberals with a little more appeal than what we see there, but I'm not hopeful.
As for those DPA laws, how is it conceivably a "reason" to have them just because the US and UK have them? Oh, because we need to be "competitive." In the US especially, big corporations routinely get the DPA treatment time and again. It's clearly not a deterrent to corporate malfeasance.
I would suggest it's not intended to be. What it is, is a corporate get-out-of-jail-free card. Not for the company or the shareholders, but for the executives caught dealing dirty. Canada's DPA was sneaked into law in the back pages of last year's budget omnibus bill explicitly for the benefit of SNC. If we were really that concerned about the "rule of law," that should never have happened.
Interesting to look back and see what former SNC Chair Gwyn Morgan had to say when the poop was starting to hit the fan for the company back in 2013. Gwyn had absolutely no idea! I'm guessing he'd be all for the DPA. Gwyn's not a guy who believes in government regulation. We should just cross our fingers and hope the greedbags who cut ethical corners, take integrity shortcuts, and skirt the law somehow develop an honest corporate culture.
Really?
Wednesday, February 27, 2019
Tuesday, February 26, 2019
Orwell lives!
I see where Chrystia Freeland's never-ending Vixen of Virtue tour is scheduling a "Press Freedom Summit" in London this summer, but I'm not sure why. After all, Canada ranks 18th world-wide in press freedoms, according to Reporters Without Borders, while the UK ranks 40th. Isn't that a bit like Angola and Cuba co-hosting a World Hockey Summit?
I've a hunch that as we lurch towards our autumn election the media will be ramping up the booga-booga about Russian meddling. Maybe our recently announced Critical Election Protocol Group can get some pointers on sniffing out Ruskie monkey business from the pros at Britain's "Integrity Initiative."
Unfortunately, when you get to their website you find a message saying all content has been removed pending an investigation into data theft that was intended to undermine their work in defending the free world from disinformation.
The good news is that their stolen stuff is now readily available on Russian websites RT and Sputnik! Sure makes for some interesting reading. The guardians of democracy seem to be long on initiative but dangerously short on integrity. They've been busy beavers planting their chosen "experts" (Bill Browder tops one such list) in major media across all platforms and smearing the government's political enemies!
In short, it's basically an anti-Russian propaganda outfit, funded by the British government and NATO, and one thing it certainly is not about is press freedom.
Saturday, February 23, 2019
Where's Chrystia when you need her?
Wake up, Chrystia Freeland! There's a couple of Saudi gals stuck in Hong Kong who desperately need your help!
Reem and Rawan would dearly love to join Rahaf Mohammed as brave new Canadians!
And let's not stop there... there must be thousands, nay, tens of thousands of young Saudi women chafing under the oppressive yoke of their fundamentalist culture.
Maybe even millions!
And let's not stop with Saudi Arabia... or with pissed off teenage girls. Surely there must be some young lads out there who are unhappy with their lot in life and would seize the opportunity to become brave new Canadians.
I say, bring them in!
Alas, I fear that the value of future photo-ops drops precipitously with each brave new Canadian, and therefore Chrystia has only a limited number of brave-new-Canadian cards in her deck.
Reem and Rawan would dearly love to join Rahaf Mohammed as brave new Canadians!
And let's not stop there... there must be thousands, nay, tens of thousands of young Saudi women chafing under the oppressive yoke of their fundamentalist culture.
Maybe even millions!
And let's not stop with Saudi Arabia... or with pissed off teenage girls. Surely there must be some young lads out there who are unhappy with their lot in life and would seize the opportunity to become brave new Canadians.
I say, bring them in!
Alas, I fear that the value of future photo-ops drops precipitously with each brave new Canadian, and therefore Chrystia has only a limited number of brave-new-Canadian cards in her deck.
Thursday, February 21, 2019
Bald eagles at the bird feeder
We keep a couple of bird feeding stations here at Falling Downs. They're quite popular over the winter months, attracting a lot of little stuff that can't be bothered to fly south; chickadees, swallows, sparrows, woodpeckers... but that's nothing compared to what a guy down the road gets at his bird feeder.
Here's a picture from a couple years back.
Bald eagles aren't going to bother with suet and sunflower seeds. Buddy says the secret to attracting the big birds is... animal guts! He's one of the few people locally still running an old-school trap-line, which provides him an ample supply.
He says they're particularly partial to coyote guts.
Here's a picture from a couple years back.
Bald eagles aren't going to bother with suet and sunflower seeds. Buddy says the secret to attracting the big birds is... animal guts! He's one of the few people locally still running an old-school trap-line, which provides him an ample supply.
He says they're particularly partial to coyote guts.
Wednesday, February 20, 2019
Too big to fail and too big for #MeToo
I see where Roger Waters is taking some flack for his stand on the faux "benefit concert" Richard Branson is putting on for the benefit of the coup plotters in Venezuela.
What's astonishing is how the apologists for Branson are claiming he's a totally apolitical guy motivated only by his concerns for the long-suffering people of Venezuela...
Would that be this Richard Branson?
Oh lookie! It's Branson and Barry just goofing around!
And here's Ricky with Hillsie...
... and RB with the FIRST black president...
And just so you know, Sir Richard is totally bipartisan!
Sir Richard even makes time for some of the wannabees!
Justin: I love your hair man!
Sir RB: You're looking very fine as well, my good man!
---------
For a guy who is totally apolitical, Sir Richard sure sucks a lot of political ass!
What's astonishing is how the apologists for Branson are claiming he's a totally apolitical guy motivated only by his concerns for the long-suffering people of Venezuela...
Would that be this Richard Branson?
Oh lookie! It's Branson and Barry just goofing around!
And here's Ricky with Hillsie...
... and RB with the FIRST black president...
And just so you know, Sir Richard is totally bipartisan!
Sir Richard even makes time for some of the wannabees!
Justin: I love your hair man!
Sir RB: You're looking very fine as well, my good man!
---------
For a guy who is totally apolitical, Sir Richard sure sucks a lot of political ass!
Revisiting the genius of the pot-addled hillbilly in the age of political correctitude
I thought this quite clever when I wrote it almost five years ago.
Still do! In fact, if anything, it's ageing rather well!
Still do! In fact, if anything, it's ageing rather well!
Sunday, February 17, 2019
Kap scores again
I see where Colin Kaepernick has won his beef with the NFL.
He's now cashed out twice since he realized his career was fading and he started up that political shit.
Once with that Nike advert, and how droll is that? The company world-renowned for exploiting sweatshop labour is endorsing a guy trying to make a statement for human rights?!
And now with the NFL payout, and you can be sure there's been one.
What I'm not so sure of is that claim Kraft wants him on the Pats... that's just somebody screwing with us. There's a lot of young guns out there who can cut Kap's grass without breaking a sweat.
Of course, when Kap leads the Pats to another Super Bowl next year, I'll be singing a different tune...
As for politicising sport, as noxious as it is, don't blame Kaepernick. It's the owners who politicised football, NASCAR, the NBA, and everything else. As I've said before, we'll know things are a-changin' when a bunch of white dudes driving in the Daytona 500 take a knee for the national anthem.
He's now cashed out twice since he realized his career was fading and he started up that political shit.
Once with that Nike advert, and how droll is that? The company world-renowned for exploiting sweatshop labour is endorsing a guy trying to make a statement for human rights?!
And now with the NFL payout, and you can be sure there's been one.
What I'm not so sure of is that claim Kraft wants him on the Pats... that's just somebody screwing with us. There's a lot of young guns out there who can cut Kap's grass without breaking a sweat.
Of course, when Kap leads the Pats to another Super Bowl next year, I'll be singing a different tune...
As for politicising sport, as noxious as it is, don't blame Kaepernick. It's the owners who politicised football, NASCAR, the NBA, and everything else. As I've said before, we'll know things are a-changin' when a bunch of white dudes driving in the Daytona 500 take a knee for the national anthem.
Sally spins Afghanistan
Afghanistan under US occupation has been very very good for Sally Armstrong's career. Her writing about the country has vaulted her into the top ranks of "Afghanistan experts," those privileged voices entrusted to explain to us what's really going on over there. Her explanatory career has garnered her honorary degrees and an Order of Canada.
Ms. Armstrong has a lengthy feature in yesterday's Globe and Mail bemoaning the imminent US troop withdrawal. After 18 years of occupation, thousands of US lives lost, hundreds of thousands of Afghan lives lost, and a bill that runs into the trillions, Trump's ill-advised capitulation threatens all the gains made by women in Afghanistan!
I have no doubt at all that some Afghan women have prospered under the US occupation. Like the Toronto-born 27 year old Afghan woman who finds herself Communications Director for "elected" President Ashraf Ghani. Armstrong makes much of the fact that the "elected" President has been sidelined by the current negotiations between the US and the Taliban. The reason he is sidelined is because all concerned (ie the US, the Taliban, and everybody at that recent summit in Russia) are fully cognisant of the fact that Ghani is a US installed cipher, or "stooge," if you will.
Here's the lowdown on that 2014 election as reported in the New York Times. Not even a hint of voter fraud in Armstrong's numerous references to that election.
Reading Armstrong's story one gets the impression that the Taliban are an occupying power, and the US Marines are some sort of benevolent feminist militia in the country. No Sally; the Americans are the occupiers - "Taliban" is what we call the Afghans fighting to end the occupation.
One also gets the distinct impression that Afghan history started in 1996, the year Sally first began reporting from there. Afghanistan, or at least its women, have made great progress since the US invasion of 2001. And compared to 1996, that's probably true.
But Afghanistan did have a history before 1996. The Afghan refugees that my family sponsored to Canada were a part of that pre-Taliban history. Mom and Dad were both university professors in Kabul during that prehistoric era. Alas, the government of Afghanistan at the time was a little too chummy with the commies in Soviet Russia next door, so it became America's mission to rid Afghanistan of its secular government and support whatever warlords or religious nutters were willing to take it on.
If the status of women in Afghanistan was ever a concern for the Virtuous West, we should have left well enough alone from the get-go. Instead, we did all we could to destabilize that secular government, and eventually it was the Talibs who successfully filled the power vacuum.
Here's a different slant on the Afghanistan story, by Mathew Hoh, who first encountered the country as a US Marine.
My suggestion for a balanced news diet is that the reader engage both stories and then make up their own mind.
Ms. Armstrong has a lengthy feature in yesterday's Globe and Mail bemoaning the imminent US troop withdrawal. After 18 years of occupation, thousands of US lives lost, hundreds of thousands of Afghan lives lost, and a bill that runs into the trillions, Trump's ill-advised capitulation threatens all the gains made by women in Afghanistan!
I have no doubt at all that some Afghan women have prospered under the US occupation. Like the Toronto-born 27 year old Afghan woman who finds herself Communications Director for "elected" President Ashraf Ghani. Armstrong makes much of the fact that the "elected" President has been sidelined by the current negotiations between the US and the Taliban. The reason he is sidelined is because all concerned (ie the US, the Taliban, and everybody at that recent summit in Russia) are fully cognisant of the fact that Ghani is a US installed cipher, or "stooge," if you will.
Here's the lowdown on that 2014 election as reported in the New York Times. Not even a hint of voter fraud in Armstrong's numerous references to that election.
Reading Armstrong's story one gets the impression that the Taliban are an occupying power, and the US Marines are some sort of benevolent feminist militia in the country. No Sally; the Americans are the occupiers - "Taliban" is what we call the Afghans fighting to end the occupation.
One also gets the distinct impression that Afghan history started in 1996, the year Sally first began reporting from there. Afghanistan, or at least its women, have made great progress since the US invasion of 2001. And compared to 1996, that's probably true.
But Afghanistan did have a history before 1996. The Afghan refugees that my family sponsored to Canada were a part of that pre-Taliban history. Mom and Dad were both university professors in Kabul during that prehistoric era. Alas, the government of Afghanistan at the time was a little too chummy with the commies in Soviet Russia next door, so it became America's mission to rid Afghanistan of its secular government and support whatever warlords or religious nutters were willing to take it on.
If the status of women in Afghanistan was ever a concern for the Virtuous West, we should have left well enough alone from the get-go. Instead, we did all we could to destabilize that secular government, and eventually it was the Talibs who successfully filled the power vacuum.
Here's a different slant on the Afghanistan story, by Mathew Hoh, who first encountered the country as a US Marine.
My suggestion for a balanced news diet is that the reader engage both stories and then make up their own mind.
Saturday, February 16, 2019
Justin, Jagmeet, and Jody; fixing Canada's politics in three easy steps
Step One: Jagmeet's had a year and a half to create some buzz around the party he took over from Angry Tom. Nothing has happened. Clearly the party needs fresh leadership, a fact that will become even more clear if he fails to win Burnaby South.
Step Two: Draft the most popular politician in Canada, former Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould, to be the next NDP leader.
Step Three: Elect Jody as PM in October. The vast majority of the populace is beyond fed-up with Justin's over-the-top virtue signalling and the content-free grandstanding of his faux feminist rhetoric. Yes Justin, we need more feminist bitumen pipelines to meet our climate change obligations... now please go away, and take that photo-op junkie Freeland with you!
Step Two: Draft the most popular politician in Canada, former Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould, to be the next NDP leader.
Step Three: Elect Jody as PM in October. The vast majority of the populace is beyond fed-up with Justin's over-the-top virtue signalling and the content-free grandstanding of his faux feminist rhetoric. Yes Justin, we need more feminist bitumen pipelines to meet our climate change obligations... now please go away, and take that photo-op junkie Freeland with you!
Thursday, February 14, 2019
Postmodern Feminism and a whole lotta Rosie
I thought I was onto something there, and then I packed the vaporizer with some of that stuff I got from Kipling the last time we had breakfast at the Teviotdale Truck Stop.
So I kinda lost my train of thought.
But I do recall that I was well down the path of our bold young Dems threatening to bring down the Democratic Party, and perhaps re-introducing democracy to an America that has long lost it.
Maybe.
Then there's this.
Happy St. Valentine's Day!
So I kinda lost my train of thought.
But I do recall that I was well down the path of our bold young Dems threatening to bring down the Democratic Party, and perhaps re-introducing democracy to an America that has long lost it.
Maybe.
Then there's this.
Happy St. Valentine's Day!
EU to set up HQ2 in Poland
Because Brussels is way too closely identified with the "old" Europe, whereas Poland represents the fresh young face of democracy in the Old World.
Just ask Donald Tusk. Tusk is President of the European Council, after all, and his musings have some schlepp. How a retrograde Polish right winger ever reached that office is a mystery to me; something akin to making Doug Ford Sec General of the UN. The reason the current anti-Iran "summit" is unfolding in Poland is because none of the core European nations of "Old Europe" want to encourage more Yankee-Doodle diddling in their affairs.
But Poland wants to host a US military base, and they want to call it Fort Trump.
So the anti-Iran summit happens. The highlights? We're seeing great strides in rapprochement between the only democracy in the Middle East and the almost-but-not-quite democracy of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
And the mastermind behind this rapprochement is none other than Jared Kushner, the power behind the throne in Washington, if you believe the latest stories coming out of DC.
By golly... I think I see a Nobel Prize in young Jared's future!
Just ask Donald Tusk. Tusk is President of the European Council, after all, and his musings have some schlepp. How a retrograde Polish right winger ever reached that office is a mystery to me; something akin to making Doug Ford Sec General of the UN. The reason the current anti-Iran "summit" is unfolding in Poland is because none of the core European nations of "Old Europe" want to encourage more Yankee-Doodle diddling in their affairs.
But Poland wants to host a US military base, and they want to call it Fort Trump.
So the anti-Iran summit happens. The highlights? We're seeing great strides in rapprochement between the only democracy in the Middle East and the almost-but-not-quite democracy of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
And the mastermind behind this rapprochement is none other than Jared Kushner, the power behind the throne in Washington, if you believe the latest stories coming out of DC.
By golly... I think I see a Nobel Prize in young Jared's future!
Billionaire train keep a rollin'... how's things going for you?
I was reading where Jeff Bezos' Amazon paid zero federal tax last year and claimed a $129 million tax refund for its troubles...
Nice work if you can get it!
But I'm guessing you can't. Hell, I can't even figure out how to get to paying zero taxes; forget about that refund!
Elsewhere on Planet Jeff I see where the much ballyhooed Amazon HQ2 that sparked a real estate speculation frenzy in Queens has been pulled. Seems the local graffiti crowd was having way too much fun at Jeff's expense.
That's not a biggie for Bezos. He can just dial up the old all-against-all sweepstakes again and go for a second round of having desperate cities outbid each other to bribe his trillion-dollar non-tax-paying behemoth to favour THEIR town with the new HQ2.
That means Toronto still has a chance!
Nice work if you can get it!
But I'm guessing you can't. Hell, I can't even figure out how to get to paying zero taxes; forget about that refund!
Elsewhere on Planet Jeff I see where the much ballyhooed Amazon HQ2 that sparked a real estate speculation frenzy in Queens has been pulled. Seems the local graffiti crowd was having way too much fun at Jeff's expense.
That's not a biggie for Bezos. He can just dial up the old all-against-all sweepstakes again and go for a second round of having desperate cities outbid each other to bribe his trillion-dollar non-tax-paying behemoth to favour THEIR town with the new HQ2.
That means Toronto still has a chance!
Tuesday, February 12, 2019
Justin Trudeau and the limits of virtue-signalling
Since being elected in 2015, Justin Trudeau has led a government committed to signalling, non-stop, its support for the loftiest ideals right across the spectrum of governance. They have been busy posing as the patrons of human rights, native rights, refugee rights, children's rights, LGBTQ rights, women's reproductive rights... nowhere on the planet is there a higher concentration of virtuous politicians than in Ottawa.
Some of this virtue-signalling raises eyebrows in certain circles. It's great to want to support the democratic rights of the Venezuelan people, for example, but when we're doing this in concert with the extreme right-wing governments of Argentina, Brazil, Guatemala, and Honduras, countries where our human rights wish list would receive exceedingly short shrift, you have to wonder what's really going on. Are we really advocating for human and democratic rights in Venezuela, or are we, wittingly or unwittingly, pushing forward a regime change agenda cooked up in Washington? There's been a growing suspicion that all this frenetic virtue-signalling is designed to cloak a somewhat darker reality behind the scenes.
The Wilson-Raybould affair reveals that there's been stormy times in the back corridors of this Sunny Days government. Seems the PM, who is all about "the rule of law" when it comes to political pressure in the Huawei case, isn't afraid to apply a little political pressure when it comes to saving the bacon of Canadian conglomerate SNC-Lavalin. According to revelations first exposed by the Globe and Mail last week, the PMO leaned heavily on Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould to ensure a happy ending for that company's bribery and corruption scandal.
Ms. Wilson-Raybould was of course a feather in the cap of the Sunny Ways reconciliation initiative. Not only was she smart and competent, she was Native to boot!... look at us, we're so virtuous we put a Native woman in one of the most important cabinet posts! Not only is this a virtual bases-loaded homer in the virtue-signalling game, it serves to draw the eye away from the fact that this entire "reconciliation" gambit is more about optics than substance. Potable water, habitable housing, and equitable education funding are way too complicated, but hey, check out how forward looking we are!
Alas, Ms. Wilson-Raybould is turning out to be way more than a hang-around-the-fort power groupie. She has actual principles! Today, as she took the extraordinary step of resigning from Trudeau's cabinet altogether, the Union of BC Indian Chiefs has publicly lambasted the Trudeau government over its "racist and sexist" treatment of her.
So much for reconciliation.
Some of this virtue-signalling raises eyebrows in certain circles. It's great to want to support the democratic rights of the Venezuelan people, for example, but when we're doing this in concert with the extreme right-wing governments of Argentina, Brazil, Guatemala, and Honduras, countries where our human rights wish list would receive exceedingly short shrift, you have to wonder what's really going on. Are we really advocating for human and democratic rights in Venezuela, or are we, wittingly or unwittingly, pushing forward a regime change agenda cooked up in Washington? There's been a growing suspicion that all this frenetic virtue-signalling is designed to cloak a somewhat darker reality behind the scenes.
The Wilson-Raybould affair reveals that there's been stormy times in the back corridors of this Sunny Days government. Seems the PM, who is all about "the rule of law" when it comes to political pressure in the Huawei case, isn't afraid to apply a little political pressure when it comes to saving the bacon of Canadian conglomerate SNC-Lavalin. According to revelations first exposed by the Globe and Mail last week, the PMO leaned heavily on Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould to ensure a happy ending for that company's bribery and corruption scandal.
Ms. Wilson-Raybould was of course a feather in the cap of the Sunny Ways reconciliation initiative. Not only was she smart and competent, she was Native to boot!... look at us, we're so virtuous we put a Native woman in one of the most important cabinet posts! Not only is this a virtual bases-loaded homer in the virtue-signalling game, it serves to draw the eye away from the fact that this entire "reconciliation" gambit is more about optics than substance. Potable water, habitable housing, and equitable education funding are way too complicated, but hey, check out how forward looking we are!
Alas, Ms. Wilson-Raybould is turning out to be way more than a hang-around-the-fort power groupie. She has actual principles! Today, as she took the extraordinary step of resigning from Trudeau's cabinet altogether, the Union of BC Indian Chiefs has publicly lambasted the Trudeau government over its "racist and sexist" treatment of her.
So much for reconciliation.
Saturday, February 9, 2019
Mainstream media and the Ministry of Truth
With the latest tweaks to the Google algorithms that decide who might or might not happen upon this blog, I think my regular readership has dwindled down to Mum, Dad, my old pals Kipling, Robert, and Iris, and Ken from BC. A blog that for several years had three to four thousand looks per month struggles to attract two dozen per day.
Why?
I don't think the problem is the quality of the writing. Hell no! In fact, this blog is pure poetry compared to a lot of stuff out there!
No, I think it's more about content... and there is no denying that a lot of stuff here falls afoul of the parameters set out by the freshly minted "Critical Election Incident Protocol Group," also known as the Ministry of Truth.
Those are the folks charged with making sure the general public doesn't get exposed to "fake news." What is fake news? It's anything that doesn't jibe with official Western ideology as promulgated by NATO, the Atlantic Council, and "mainstream" media.
Let me walk you through today's Globe and Mail to provide a few examples of this phenomenon.
The Globe and Mail remains, pretensions of PostMaster Paul Godfrey aside, Canada's "newspaper of record." The front page today is the first of a five page nothingburger about Bad Vlad's "seizure" of Crimea. A couple of thousand words into the story, Mark MacKinnon acknowledges that "most Crimeans did, and do, favour union with Russia."
In other words, there's no actual story here. You can call the Crimean referendum a "sham" all you want, but once you've acknowledged that the overwhelming majority of Crimeans prefer being part of Russia to remaining part of Ukraine, there is no point in pursing this line of reasoning.
Elizabeth Renzetti's service to objective journalism I've already dealt with, in a post that has garnered a grand total of one page view several hours after it was published.
In the "opinion" section, we've got Mr. Renzetti, Canada's answer to Thomas Friedman, giving over his entire column to Bill Browder's paranoid fantasies. Apparently Bill is disappointed that Canada has failed to take a leadership role in his campaign to slander Putin and glorify himself. We've done much, but we coulda done more!
Here's how Doug characterizes Browder's wholesale looting of the post-Soviet Russian economy; "Bill Browder... became very wealthy running an investment fund that profited from Russia's awkward postcommunist transition."
I guess that's one way of putting it.
Not only did Browder make himself very wealthy on the backs of the impoverished Russian populace, he has been gifted with a CIA-supplied magic wand that opens up editorial board rooms of newspapers of record throughout the "free" world!
So, in this new era of post-truth Truths, you can bet that the fantasies of a Bill Browder will meet the truthiness criteria of the "Critical Election Incident Protocol Group" with flying colours, whereas any dissenting opinions will be well and truly buried.
Why?
I don't think the problem is the quality of the writing. Hell no! In fact, this blog is pure poetry compared to a lot of stuff out there!
No, I think it's more about content... and there is no denying that a lot of stuff here falls afoul of the parameters set out by the freshly minted "Critical Election Incident Protocol Group," also known as the Ministry of Truth.
Those are the folks charged with making sure the general public doesn't get exposed to "fake news." What is fake news? It's anything that doesn't jibe with official Western ideology as promulgated by NATO, the Atlantic Council, and "mainstream" media.
Let me walk you through today's Globe and Mail to provide a few examples of this phenomenon.
The Globe and Mail remains, pretensions of PostMaster Paul Godfrey aside, Canada's "newspaper of record." The front page today is the first of a five page nothingburger about Bad Vlad's "seizure" of Crimea. A couple of thousand words into the story, Mark MacKinnon acknowledges that "most Crimeans did, and do, favour union with Russia."
In other words, there's no actual story here. You can call the Crimean referendum a "sham" all you want, but once you've acknowledged that the overwhelming majority of Crimeans prefer being part of Russia to remaining part of Ukraine, there is no point in pursing this line of reasoning.
Elizabeth Renzetti's service to objective journalism I've already dealt with, in a post that has garnered a grand total of one page view several hours after it was published.
In the "opinion" section, we've got Mr. Renzetti, Canada's answer to Thomas Friedman, giving over his entire column to Bill Browder's paranoid fantasies. Apparently Bill is disappointed that Canada has failed to take a leadership role in his campaign to slander Putin and glorify himself. We've done much, but we coulda done more!
Here's how Doug characterizes Browder's wholesale looting of the post-Soviet Russian economy; "Bill Browder... became very wealthy running an investment fund that profited from Russia's awkward postcommunist transition."
I guess that's one way of putting it.
Not only did Browder make himself very wealthy on the backs of the impoverished Russian populace, he has been gifted with a CIA-supplied magic wand that opens up editorial board rooms of newspapers of record throughout the "free" world!
So, in this new era of post-truth Truths, you can bet that the fantasies of a Bill Browder will meet the truthiness criteria of the "Critical Election Incident Protocol Group" with flying colours, whereas any dissenting opinions will be well and truly buried.
Elizabeth Renzetti delivers tutorial in shoddy journalism
Fifty years ago, when Nancy Pelosi was already clawing her way into the upper reaches of the Democratic National Committee, the Democratic Party was known as the party of civil rights. By 2016, it was instead known as the party of Wall Street, and Nancy Pelosi is now the most powerful woman in America.
That's why it's hard to square her actual history of connivance with money and power with the portrait painted in Renzetti's editorial in today's Globe and Mail, where Pelosi is rendered an icon of progressivism.
Renzetti seems aware of the cognitive dissonance echoing through her article. The "progressive members of her own party (i.e. the DSA contingent) think she's part of the old guard..."
That's because she most assuredly is a member of the old guard! Who could think otherwise?
Yet, "they fall into line behind her when she demands it." She is "terrifying to her opponents, both Republicans and rebellious members of her own party" (i.e. the DSA contingent).
The most interesting question in US politics at the moment is how long will it take for the true progressives to either mute their progressivism, or get terrorized out of the party. My hunch is that the old guard will effectively muzzle them... forget the wealth tax, forget public health care, forget free post-secondary education; focus instead on symbolic gestures like clapping back at Trump!
That's "resistance," Pelosi style!
Renzetti also gets a shot at a book review this week, giving us the low-down on former NYT executive editor Jill Abramson's tell-all, "Merchants of Truth."
Alas, the biggest story around this title for the past week has been a plagiarism scandal! Seems the esteemed NYT alum who penned "Merchants of Truth" especially likes lifting the work of students at Toronto's own Ryerson Journalism School!
That's the kind of dishonesty that empowers those who want to paint the journalism profession with the "fake news" label. The fact that Renzetti can pen a two thousand word book review without so much as a single line acknowledging the plagiarism controversy strikes me as a little... dishonest.
That's why it's hard to square her actual history of connivance with money and power with the portrait painted in Renzetti's editorial in today's Globe and Mail, where Pelosi is rendered an icon of progressivism.
Renzetti seems aware of the cognitive dissonance echoing through her article. The "progressive members of her own party (i.e. the DSA contingent) think she's part of the old guard..."
That's because she most assuredly is a member of the old guard! Who could think otherwise?
Yet, "they fall into line behind her when she demands it." She is "terrifying to her opponents, both Republicans and rebellious members of her own party" (i.e. the DSA contingent).
The most interesting question in US politics at the moment is how long will it take for the true progressives to either mute their progressivism, or get terrorized out of the party. My hunch is that the old guard will effectively muzzle them... forget the wealth tax, forget public health care, forget free post-secondary education; focus instead on symbolic gestures like clapping back at Trump!
That's "resistance," Pelosi style!
Renzetti also gets a shot at a book review this week, giving us the low-down on former NYT executive editor Jill Abramson's tell-all, "Merchants of Truth."
Alas, the biggest story around this title for the past week has been a plagiarism scandal! Seems the esteemed NYT alum who penned "Merchants of Truth" especially likes lifting the work of students at Toronto's own Ryerson Journalism School!
That's the kind of dishonesty that empowers those who want to paint the journalism profession with the "fake news" label. The fact that Renzetti can pen a two thousand word book review without so much as a single line acknowledging the plagiarism controversy strikes me as a little... dishonest.
Friday, February 8, 2019
Bezos exposes Pecker
They'll be talking about this at J-schools throughout the English speaking world for at least the next fifty years!
Wednesday, February 6, 2019
Those "nice" Canadians always looking for excuse to brawl
You know the stereotype. Us Canucks are too nice, too polite, too reserved...
Really?
Check out this trifecta of news stories that seem to undercut the stereotype. Here's a story about an old-school bench clearing hockey brawl out in Nova Scotia last weekend between a couple of University hockey teams.
Still on the hockey theme, it's not just the hockey players who get into it; it's the "hockey parents" too! Here's a bunch of grown adults mixing it up in the parking lot after their young 'uns mixed it up on the ice.
And just to prove us Canucks can get our dander up about more than hockey, how about this headline; "Bingo brawl at nursing home prompts OPP response."
Too nice?
Too polite?
Too reserved?...
Kiss my icicle-encrusted ass! Canadians will drop the gloves over damned near anything!
I'm just thankful we've got some meaningful gun laws around here, otherwise any one of these stories could have got seriously out of control!
Really?
Check out this trifecta of news stories that seem to undercut the stereotype. Here's a story about an old-school bench clearing hockey brawl out in Nova Scotia last weekend between a couple of University hockey teams.
Still on the hockey theme, it's not just the hockey players who get into it; it's the "hockey parents" too! Here's a bunch of grown adults mixing it up in the parking lot after their young 'uns mixed it up on the ice.
And just to prove us Canucks can get our dander up about more than hockey, how about this headline; "Bingo brawl at nursing home prompts OPP response."
Too nice?
Too polite?
Too reserved?...
Kiss my icicle-encrusted ass! Canadians will drop the gloves over damned near anything!
I'm just thankful we've got some meaningful gun laws around here, otherwise any one of these stories could have got seriously out of control!
Monday, February 4, 2019
Fluffy's false equivalencies
That PM Sunny Daze is one slippery little goober, ain't he? In fact, he's so brazen about it that even the pot-addled hillbilly up here in the backwoods can spot this ruse.
Remember when he was apologizing for that unfortunate MS St. Louis business not too long ago? Did you notice that crafty segue into anti-BDS polemics?
That's a false equivalence. Trudeau is apologizing because we did the wrong thing eighty years ago, yet he's associating our swinery and cowardice with the BDS campaign that's trying to do the right thing today.
Then just the other day I heard him defend our support for the coup in Venezuela by comparing Maduro to Pinochet. Hmm... toss that one over in your mind for a moment.
Allende: elected president of Chile,
Pinochet: US stooge installed after democracy restored,
Maduro: elected president of Venezuela,
Guaido: US stooge about to be installed, and then democracy will have been restored.
No, Justin, you're not on the side of Allende by supporting Guaido over Maduro.
Now, I don't go out of my way looking for stories about the adventures of PM Sunny Daze, and I just happened upon these exemplars of deceit in the course of getting my daily news fix. He could be pulling this stuff multiple times every day... maybe even every time he sees a news camera and a microphone!
Here's an idea. The money-losing Toronto Star has had an official Trump fib-tracker living large in Washington DC for a couple years now. Is that because it's really important for Canadians to know how often Donny J tells a whopper?
The think tank here at Falling Downs figures that Fluffy's sly deceptions are of far more import to Canadians. Why can't the Star use their dwindling resources for the benefit of their readers, pull Danny Dale out of DC, and put him in charge of exposing Trudeau's untruths instead?
Remember when he was apologizing for that unfortunate MS St. Louis business not too long ago? Did you notice that crafty segue into anti-BDS polemics?
That's a false equivalence. Trudeau is apologizing because we did the wrong thing eighty years ago, yet he's associating our swinery and cowardice with the BDS campaign that's trying to do the right thing today.
Then just the other day I heard him defend our support for the coup in Venezuela by comparing Maduro to Pinochet. Hmm... toss that one over in your mind for a moment.
Allende: elected president of Chile,
Pinochet: US stooge installed after democracy restored,
Maduro: elected president of Venezuela,
Guaido: US stooge about to be installed, and then democracy will have been restored.
No, Justin, you're not on the side of Allende by supporting Guaido over Maduro.
Now, I don't go out of my way looking for stories about the adventures of PM Sunny Daze, and I just happened upon these exemplars of deceit in the course of getting my daily news fix. He could be pulling this stuff multiple times every day... maybe even every time he sees a news camera and a microphone!
Here's an idea. The money-losing Toronto Star has had an official Trump fib-tracker living large in Washington DC for a couple years now. Is that because it's really important for Canadians to know how often Donny J tells a whopper?
The think tank here at Falling Downs figures that Fluffy's sly deceptions are of far more import to Canadians. Why can't the Star use their dwindling resources for the benefit of their readers, pull Danny Dale out of DC, and put him in charge of exposing Trudeau's untruths instead?
Saturday, February 2, 2019
Close call at Falling Downs
Preem Doug was in the 'hood today, lending the prestige of his office to the Wiarton Willie Festival. That's a scam cooked up by a few locals as an excuse for a good piss-up in the middle of winter. Not that we really need excuses around here.
Willie's big day dawned for me at 6 a.m. when the sputtering and coughing and clanking of the water-pipes roused me out of a deep slumber... it took a moment to register what was going on, and suddenly I sat bolt upright... OH MY GOD THE PIPES ARE FROZE!!!
We've taken some pains to avoid such a situation after a close call last winter, but I didn't see any particular threat when I turned in last night. After all, the temp wasn't supposed to drop any lower than -15, and we'd had days of -20 before last year's scare. As a precaution we'd left a tap running, on the theory that running water can't freeze.
But there's no water coming out any taps anywhere. Getting a plumber in on the weekend is gonna cost double what it costs during the week, and that's pretty much an arm and a leg, and that's if you can even find one.
I hustled downstairs and fired up a kerosene heater by the water tank in the basement. Then I began my trouble-shooting.
Longish story short, after two trips into town to visit the hardware store, and a survey of relevant YouTube DIY vids, by one o'clock we had running water again!
Whew!
I don't understand why more kids aren't going into the trades. What I did in six or seven hours would have taken a professional an hour and a half, max, and they would have walked away with three or four hundred bucks, easy. That's if they were honest. They could easily have done a lot of unnecessary stuff and dinged me for a couple thousand, and I'd have been none the wiser. After all, you need your water!
But no, kids take bullshit degrees, run up tens of thousands in student loans, and then find themselves working in fast food. Go figure!
As for Doug and Willie, I assume the locals gave Doug a warm Bruce County welcome. He was up here with one of the local PC guys (that's "Progressive Conservative," not Politically Correct, by the way, although progressive conservative strikes me as somewhat of an oxymoron.) Up here we generally vote for somebody who can claim a bit of farm cred. You'll never get elected unless you've reached deep into a cow's hind end and pulled out a calf.
As for Willie, he claims we're due for an early spring. Like the politicians, Willie usually gets it wrong, but what the hell...
Willie Weekend is a damned good excuse for a party!
Willie's big day dawned for me at 6 a.m. when the sputtering and coughing and clanking of the water-pipes roused me out of a deep slumber... it took a moment to register what was going on, and suddenly I sat bolt upright... OH MY GOD THE PIPES ARE FROZE!!!
We've taken some pains to avoid such a situation after a close call last winter, but I didn't see any particular threat when I turned in last night. After all, the temp wasn't supposed to drop any lower than -15, and we'd had days of -20 before last year's scare. As a precaution we'd left a tap running, on the theory that running water can't freeze.
But there's no water coming out any taps anywhere. Getting a plumber in on the weekend is gonna cost double what it costs during the week, and that's pretty much an arm and a leg, and that's if you can even find one.
I hustled downstairs and fired up a kerosene heater by the water tank in the basement. Then I began my trouble-shooting.
Longish story short, after two trips into town to visit the hardware store, and a survey of relevant YouTube DIY vids, by one o'clock we had running water again!
Whew!
I don't understand why more kids aren't going into the trades. What I did in six or seven hours would have taken a professional an hour and a half, max, and they would have walked away with three or four hundred bucks, easy. That's if they were honest. They could easily have done a lot of unnecessary stuff and dinged me for a couple thousand, and I'd have been none the wiser. After all, you need your water!
But no, kids take bullshit degrees, run up tens of thousands in student loans, and then find themselves working in fast food. Go figure!
As for Doug and Willie, I assume the locals gave Doug a warm Bruce County welcome. He was up here with one of the local PC guys (that's "Progressive Conservative," not Politically Correct, by the way, although progressive conservative strikes me as somewhat of an oxymoron.) Up here we generally vote for somebody who can claim a bit of farm cred. You'll never get elected unless you've reached deep into a cow's hind end and pulled out a calf.
As for Willie, he claims we're due for an early spring. Like the politicians, Willie usually gets it wrong, but what the hell...
Willie Weekend is a damned good excuse for a party!
Doug's world
Doug Saunders has quite the wagon-load of wishful thinking on view in my Globe and Mail today. The headline gives it away; "Canada almost saved Venezuela - until Washington crashed the party."
That's right! Canada has been working really hard behind the scenes to restore democracy in Venezuela, and we nearly pulled it off, but then "one man walked into the room, late to the party, and began shouting his support."
That man would be Donald Trump, of course, the know-nothing imbecile currently in the White House. Fearing that the deft diplomacy of Chrystia Freeland would knock him off the top of the news cycle for a few minutes, Trump elbowed his way into a situation that was none of his business, and wrecked all our hard work.
So there you have it. A peaceful transition was within reach, with perhaps a Nobel Peace Prize nomination for Chrystia following soon after...
Hard to know where to begin. First of all, Trump isn't exactly late to the party. America's regime change strategy (also known as "restoring democracy," per the time-honoured US tradition we have seen applied in Iran, Guatemala, Chile, Brazil, Haiti, Honduras, among others) vis-a-vis Venezuela dates back to the election of Chavez twenty years ago.
In the interval, the US has funded many opposition initiatives in Venezuela, to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars through agencies such as the National Endowment for Democracy. The "party" going on in Venezuela is pretty much Uncle Sam's party. It's Chrystia and Justin who arrived late.
Secondly, why no mention of US sanctions? I have no doubt that corruption and ineptitude have played a significant role in creating the current mess, but surely many years of US-led sanctions deserve some credit. Doug carefully avoids any mention of the recent Alfred de Zayas UN report on the impact of those sanctions.
Speaking of corruption and ineptitude, Canadians need to take a good hard look at our bedfellows in the "Lima Group." We've tossed our lot in with the likes of Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Brazil, Colombia, Argentina... any of which could give Venezuela a run for its money in the corruption department. By the way, it's worth noting that the new government in Mexico has been distancing itself from the Lima Group, an act of Trump defiance, which is the exact opposite of what Justin and Chrystia are doing.
Finally, given that Doug's column bears little or no resemblance to the actual political history of US-Venezuela relations over the past two decades, what do you suppose would be the point in writing it?
I see two objectives.
The reputation of the Freeland-Trudeau team on the world stage has taken quite a bruising after diplomatic screw-ups with India, China, Saudi Arabia, and the US. The brain-trust guiding Canada's newspaper of record may believe a little turd-polishing is in order, and what better way to signal our virtue than by taking another gratuitous kick at the Orange Ogre.
The truth of the matter is that Canada and the rest of the "Lima Group" satrapys are 100% bent on advancing America's two-decades-long regime-change strategy in Venezuela. Dissing Trump while kissing Uncle Sam's backside is what used to be called hypocrisy... and that's an arena in which Canada truly does punch above its weight.
That's right! Canada has been working really hard behind the scenes to restore democracy in Venezuela, and we nearly pulled it off, but then "one man walked into the room, late to the party, and began shouting his support."
That man would be Donald Trump, of course, the know-nothing imbecile currently in the White House. Fearing that the deft diplomacy of Chrystia Freeland would knock him off the top of the news cycle for a few minutes, Trump elbowed his way into a situation that was none of his business, and wrecked all our hard work.
So there you have it. A peaceful transition was within reach, with perhaps a Nobel Peace Prize nomination for Chrystia following soon after...
Hard to know where to begin. First of all, Trump isn't exactly late to the party. America's regime change strategy (also known as "restoring democracy," per the time-honoured US tradition we have seen applied in Iran, Guatemala, Chile, Brazil, Haiti, Honduras, among others) vis-a-vis Venezuela dates back to the election of Chavez twenty years ago.
In the interval, the US has funded many opposition initiatives in Venezuela, to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars through agencies such as the National Endowment for Democracy. The "party" going on in Venezuela is pretty much Uncle Sam's party. It's Chrystia and Justin who arrived late.
Secondly, why no mention of US sanctions? I have no doubt that corruption and ineptitude have played a significant role in creating the current mess, but surely many years of US-led sanctions deserve some credit. Doug carefully avoids any mention of the recent Alfred de Zayas UN report on the impact of those sanctions.
Speaking of corruption and ineptitude, Canadians need to take a good hard look at our bedfellows in the "Lima Group." We've tossed our lot in with the likes of Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Brazil, Colombia, Argentina... any of which could give Venezuela a run for its money in the corruption department. By the way, it's worth noting that the new government in Mexico has been distancing itself from the Lima Group, an act of Trump defiance, which is the exact opposite of what Justin and Chrystia are doing.
Finally, given that Doug's column bears little or no resemblance to the actual political history of US-Venezuela relations over the past two decades, what do you suppose would be the point in writing it?
I see two objectives.
The reputation of the Freeland-Trudeau team on the world stage has taken quite a bruising after diplomatic screw-ups with India, China, Saudi Arabia, and the US. The brain-trust guiding Canada's newspaper of record may believe a little turd-polishing is in order, and what better way to signal our virtue than by taking another gratuitous kick at the Orange Ogre.
The truth of the matter is that Canada and the rest of the "Lima Group" satrapys are 100% bent on advancing America's two-decades-long regime-change strategy in Venezuela. Dissing Trump while kissing Uncle Sam's backside is what used to be called hypocrisy... and that's an arena in which Canada truly does punch above its weight.
Friday, February 1, 2019
Canada says goodbye to Chinese investors
I used to live in Victoria BC. I found it a beautiful city, and on one of the back burners of my overworked mind it's always been a retirement option for me to consider. That's why I spent a couple hours perusing Victoria real estate adverts today. Kind of a long way from my folks here in Ontario, but other than that, it has an awful lot going for it.
The climate, for example. When I lived there they had their first winter snow in seven years. That's winter snow, not winter storm... and yes, it was probably my fault. But they just don't ever have the nuts-freezing cold snaps that leave snot icicles hanging off your face, if you know what I mean. And after the last week around here, you can see where Victoria might be attractive.
Price wise it's not too bad either. A downtown condo is cheaper than a downtown condo in Guelph, and about half the price of a downtown condo in Toronto. Not that I ever see myself in a downtown condo anywhere, but those numbers are a good gauge of the state of the market.
What I saw today was a lot of stuff for sale, and of the stuff for sale, a lot of adverts let you know that the listing price was well below assessed value. That tells you something.
The something it tells you is that the bloom is off the West Coast real estate rose. If you recall, the unsustainable rise in housing prices over the last few years was largely blamed on Chinese investors. The BC government responded by putting a modest house tax (a HOUSE tax; not a head tax) on those Chinese. That slowed the spiralling market.
But it looks to me like the spectacular own goals that Justin and Chrystia keep scoring have absolutely put the brakes to it.
And I can see why.
On the plus side, if the market slides just a little more, I'll be able to swap my hundred acres here in the Bruce for a modest character home in Oak Bay.
I'd be OK with that.
The climate, for example. When I lived there they had their first winter snow in seven years. That's winter snow, not winter storm... and yes, it was probably my fault. But they just don't ever have the nuts-freezing cold snaps that leave snot icicles hanging off your face, if you know what I mean. And after the last week around here, you can see where Victoria might be attractive.
Price wise it's not too bad either. A downtown condo is cheaper than a downtown condo in Guelph, and about half the price of a downtown condo in Toronto. Not that I ever see myself in a downtown condo anywhere, but those numbers are a good gauge of the state of the market.
What I saw today was a lot of stuff for sale, and of the stuff for sale, a lot of adverts let you know that the listing price was well below assessed value. That tells you something.
The something it tells you is that the bloom is off the West Coast real estate rose. If you recall, the unsustainable rise in housing prices over the last few years was largely blamed on Chinese investors. The BC government responded by putting a modest house tax (a HOUSE tax; not a head tax) on those Chinese. That slowed the spiralling market.
But it looks to me like the spectacular own goals that Justin and Chrystia keep scoring have absolutely put the brakes to it.
And I can see why.
On the plus side, if the market slides just a little more, I'll be able to swap my hundred acres here in the Bruce for a modest character home in Oak Bay.
I'd be OK with that.
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