I see where Boeing just sold a $25b bond issue.
Who in their right mind would subscribe to a bond issued by a company that for all intents and purposes has been deep-sixed by the greed and stupidity of a management clique that has vastly enriched themselves while running the company into the ground?
But wait a minute. All those bond-buyers are going to turn around and sell those bonds to Larry Fink, to whom the entire operation of the US economy has been outsourced.
Looks to me like there's an infinite lifeline for the corrupt and incompetent greedbags in the corner offices, and the rest of us can fight for the hind teat.
Thursday, April 30, 2020
Some thoughts on coronavirus conspiracy theories
It's been evident for some time that anyone not buying the government approved covid narrative is automatically dismissed as a "conspiracy theorist" in our corporate media.
The official view is that we should all huddle in our hovels and wait for Gates and friends to come up with a vaccine. Killing the global economy is a small price to pay.
While there may be much about the global economy that deserves to die, it's helpful to remember that it's still the economy where-from the vast majority of the populace draws their bread and butter. Killing it is serious business, very serious.
I don't have a horse in this race. Thanks to a lifetime spent in heavily unionized workplaces, and living in a country that has had single-payer public health care all my adult life, my income hasn't skipped a beat. That makes me very lucky and also very grateful.
The first time I was moved to comment on the corona crisis was at the end of January, when the CBC had already been hyping it as the top story on its hourly newscasts for a week. That was six weeks before Canada had its first corona casualty. I found that odd.
From the beginning it struck me that the hype was deliberately orchestrated. Nothing I've seen since has changed my mind.
I watched the video of the two doctors in California, the video that YouTube removed to protect us from disinformation and the subsequent impure thoughts. I found their presentation highly logical.
I've read numerous articles debunking them. Much of the debunking was along the lines of "they're Trump supporters, so they're obviously full of shit." I don't know whether they are Trump supporters or not, but that shouldn't be the point here.
The Off-Guardian website has been featuring various corona-skeptics for a few weeks now. After former Rockefeller University biostatistician Dr. Knut Wittkowski came out challenging the official corona narrative, they didn't waste any time doing their best to disavow him.
That's a little late and a little lame. Rockefeller University is a serious place. On a per capita basis it's got more Nobel laureates associated with it than any university in the world. You don't get to be the boss biostatistician in the joint for twenty years unless you really know your shit.
It's interesting to see what's happening in Canada right now. The federal government is more or less staying the course on the original script. We're hunkering down and waiting for the vaccine. The provinces on the other hand, which are arguably closer to the populace, are front-running the feds all over the place. At least four of them are mooting the partial lifting of lockdowns in the next week.
Same in the US. The federal government (and no, that's not the president) is waiting for the magic bullet, while state governors both Dem and GOP are chomping at the bit to open things up.
Meanwhile, both countries have exponentially increased their deficits in corona bailouts. That's something the little people get to pay off via austerity budgets for the next several generations.
As I've said from the beginning, this pandemic has always been about a lot more than a virus.
The official view is that we should all huddle in our hovels and wait for Gates and friends to come up with a vaccine. Killing the global economy is a small price to pay.
While there may be much about the global economy that deserves to die, it's helpful to remember that it's still the economy where-from the vast majority of the populace draws their bread and butter. Killing it is serious business, very serious.
I don't have a horse in this race. Thanks to a lifetime spent in heavily unionized workplaces, and living in a country that has had single-payer public health care all my adult life, my income hasn't skipped a beat. That makes me very lucky and also very grateful.
The first time I was moved to comment on the corona crisis was at the end of January, when the CBC had already been hyping it as the top story on its hourly newscasts for a week. That was six weeks before Canada had its first corona casualty. I found that odd.
From the beginning it struck me that the hype was deliberately orchestrated. Nothing I've seen since has changed my mind.
I watched the video of the two doctors in California, the video that YouTube removed to protect us from disinformation and the subsequent impure thoughts. I found their presentation highly logical.
I've read numerous articles debunking them. Much of the debunking was along the lines of "they're Trump supporters, so they're obviously full of shit." I don't know whether they are Trump supporters or not, but that shouldn't be the point here.
The Off-Guardian website has been featuring various corona-skeptics for a few weeks now. After former Rockefeller University biostatistician Dr. Knut Wittkowski came out challenging the official corona narrative, they didn't waste any time doing their best to disavow him.
That's a little late and a little lame. Rockefeller University is a serious place. On a per capita basis it's got more Nobel laureates associated with it than any university in the world. You don't get to be the boss biostatistician in the joint for twenty years unless you really know your shit.
It's interesting to see what's happening in Canada right now. The federal government is more or less staying the course on the original script. We're hunkering down and waiting for the vaccine. The provinces on the other hand, which are arguably closer to the populace, are front-running the feds all over the place. At least four of them are mooting the partial lifting of lockdowns in the next week.
Same in the US. The federal government (and no, that's not the president) is waiting for the magic bullet, while state governors both Dem and GOP are chomping at the bit to open things up.
Meanwhile, both countries have exponentially increased their deficits in corona bailouts. That's something the little people get to pay off via austerity budgets for the next several generations.
As I've said from the beginning, this pandemic has always been about a lot more than a virus.
Wednesday, April 29, 2020
The principle of the thing: stop being stupid
If you're expecting one of my superbly-crafted political rants, you might as well stop reading now. This post is about cars.
I've been in the habit, ever since I got this place with the 100 acre yard, to just park the old car behind the barn when I get a new one.
They're always trying to rip you off with what they offer you in trade-in value. I always figured the day would come when I had the time to do what little needed doing so I could sell that car they just offered me $2K on a trade for $4K.
They're not gonna screw me like that!
Well, the day has come where I have the time, and I'm starting to have second thoughts about my approach to things.
For starters, vehicles today are not the same as the vehicles of my youth. The first cars I owned were built in the 50's and 60's. When you opened the hood you could make sense of things. If, for some reason, things weren't working, a person of average intelligence could usually deduce what it was that needed repair.
Here's an underhood view of a modern vehicle:
What the hell is that? There's an acre of plastic before you even see the engine!
At least in this particular vehicle, you can find the battery. I had a major embarrassment a couple of years ago when I couldn't find the battery under the hood of my Pontiac Torment.
I was visiting Cedar Hill Park, where we like to take the hounds for a swim. There'd been a couple living in their car there that summer, and this particular Sunday morning Buddy waves me over and asks me if I can give him a boost. Their battery has run down.
No sweat, pal! I even had a set of jumper cables aboard. So I nose the Torment in front of their Ford Taurus and pop the hood. There is absolutely no sign of a battery anywhere. I start unbolting all this plastic shit and my first two guesses still didn't reveal a battery. At that point I figured, hey, I'm not gonna take my car apart to help a guy who can't start his car. At least mine's still running...
And it still runs today, even though it hasn't been on the road for three or four years now. The major issue is it developed a serious gas leak. I just gotta get it up on ramps and find out exactly where that leak is coming from... someday when I have time.
Parked right next to it is the Sub I got to replace the Torment. I was going through a phase where I imagined I could save money by nursing along used cars. Pay cash up front and then deal with the repairs as they come along, and you'll never be burdened with monthly payments!
It's embarrassing to admit, but those two vehicles alone represent a cash outlay of about $20K over the last eight years or so. For that money I could have bought a new Corolla eight years ago and in all likelihood I'd have another eight years of trouble-free motoring ahead of me.
Instead, I've got these various fix-it projects around the place, and since I've become a guy who squanders an entire day to adjust a bicycle seat, that could take years.
Not only that, but I do not relish the interactions with the hustlers who offer you $400 for the car you're asking $4,000 for. That's just aggravating.
So I'm thinking, maybe it's time to call the wreckers. Get this shit out of here so I can focus on the things I want to do.
I've been in the habit, ever since I got this place with the 100 acre yard, to just park the old car behind the barn when I get a new one.
They're always trying to rip you off with what they offer you in trade-in value. I always figured the day would come when I had the time to do what little needed doing so I could sell that car they just offered me $2K on a trade for $4K.
They're not gonna screw me like that!
Well, the day has come where I have the time, and I'm starting to have second thoughts about my approach to things.
For starters, vehicles today are not the same as the vehicles of my youth. The first cars I owned were built in the 50's and 60's. When you opened the hood you could make sense of things. If, for some reason, things weren't working, a person of average intelligence could usually deduce what it was that needed repair.
Here's an underhood view of a modern vehicle:
What the hell is that? There's an acre of plastic before you even see the engine!
At least in this particular vehicle, you can find the battery. I had a major embarrassment a couple of years ago when I couldn't find the battery under the hood of my Pontiac Torment.
I was visiting Cedar Hill Park, where we like to take the hounds for a swim. There'd been a couple living in their car there that summer, and this particular Sunday morning Buddy waves me over and asks me if I can give him a boost. Their battery has run down.
No sweat, pal! I even had a set of jumper cables aboard. So I nose the Torment in front of their Ford Taurus and pop the hood. There is absolutely no sign of a battery anywhere. I start unbolting all this plastic shit and my first two guesses still didn't reveal a battery. At that point I figured, hey, I'm not gonna take my car apart to help a guy who can't start his car. At least mine's still running...
And it still runs today, even though it hasn't been on the road for three or four years now. The major issue is it developed a serious gas leak. I just gotta get it up on ramps and find out exactly where that leak is coming from... someday when I have time.
Parked right next to it is the Sub I got to replace the Torment. I was going through a phase where I imagined I could save money by nursing along used cars. Pay cash up front and then deal with the repairs as they come along, and you'll never be burdened with monthly payments!
It's embarrassing to admit, but those two vehicles alone represent a cash outlay of about $20K over the last eight years or so. For that money I could have bought a new Corolla eight years ago and in all likelihood I'd have another eight years of trouble-free motoring ahead of me.
Instead, I've got these various fix-it projects around the place, and since I've become a guy who squanders an entire day to adjust a bicycle seat, that could take years.
Not only that, but I do not relish the interactions with the hustlers who offer you $400 for the car you're asking $4,000 for. That's just aggravating.
So I'm thinking, maybe it's time to call the wreckers. Get this shit out of here so I can focus on the things I want to do.
Tuesday, April 28, 2020
We're all waiting to see what "the end of the world as we know it" will look like
I'm a realist. I figure it's gonna look a lot like the old world looked like, but worse.
The haves will have more, and the rest will be a little more up against it.
Other than that, at least for the haves, things will move along.
Certainly, some industries are unlikely to recover. Mass tourism, for example. Cruise ships and all-inconclusive resort holidays. That's not an industry that's essential to the survival of humanity. In fact, we'd do well to be rid of it.
We need to rethink some aspects of our global supply chains as well. How important is it to me to buy tomatoes from South America in February? There are a lot of good sound reasons why we shouldn't bail out some industries, such as airlines and oil companies.
If there were a broad-based sense of revolutionary zeal visible anywhere, maybe we could use this moment to raise the bar a little. Let's seriously think about the unthinkable; single payer health care, universal basic income, the demilitarisation of the economy...
Alas, I'm not detecting anything near revolutionary zeal anywhere. The narrative managers are doing a great job of keeping that from happening.
The haves will have more, and the rest will be a little more up against it.
Other than that, at least for the haves, things will move along.
Certainly, some industries are unlikely to recover. Mass tourism, for example. Cruise ships and all-inconclusive resort holidays. That's not an industry that's essential to the survival of humanity. In fact, we'd do well to be rid of it.
We need to rethink some aspects of our global supply chains as well. How important is it to me to buy tomatoes from South America in February? There are a lot of good sound reasons why we shouldn't bail out some industries, such as airlines and oil companies.
If there were a broad-based sense of revolutionary zeal visible anywhere, maybe we could use this moment to raise the bar a little. Let's seriously think about the unthinkable; single payer health care, universal basic income, the demilitarisation of the economy...
Alas, I'm not detecting anything near revolutionary zeal anywhere. The narrative managers are doing a great job of keeping that from happening.
Saturday, April 25, 2020
The family home
In this age of pestilence we are rightfully shining a light on our eldercare infrastructure. After all, that's where the current plague is finding its most bountiful harvest.
The brown folks who buy up all the suburban McMansions in Brampton and Markham have the right idea. They are buying family homes. "Family" means the entire family. Three and often four generations of one family under the same roof is the norm.
What's so bad about that? From child care to elder care you've just solved a whole lot of problems. And the savings generated by keeping nai nai in the house instead of a five thousand a month retirement home will cover the cost of bringing in PSW care when the time comes, no problem.
Us smart Western folks gave up that kind of backwardness generations ago. It's so much more convenient and modern to warehouse our elders in "long term care homes."
The brown folks who buy up all the suburban McMansions in Brampton and Markham have the right idea. They are buying family homes. "Family" means the entire family. Three and often four generations of one family under the same roof is the norm.
What's so bad about that? From child care to elder care you've just solved a whole lot of problems. And the savings generated by keeping nai nai in the house instead of a five thousand a month retirement home will cover the cost of bringing in PSW care when the time comes, no problem.
Us smart Western folks gave up that kind of backwardness generations ago. It's so much more convenient and modern to warehouse our elders in "long term care homes."
Canada ramps up propaganda war on Yellow Peril
Front page headline at the Globe and Mail today; "Flattery and foot dragging: China's influence over the WHO under scrutiny."
It's obvious we're climbing aboard the "blame China" game the Yanks have set in motion to distract their citizens from their completely inept response to the current situation. Who could have seen that coming?
Alas, the actual story doesn't quite live up to the billing, but at least they managed to put it right next to a story throwing shade on WHO boss Tedros Ghebreyesus. Apparently he's a guy way too comfy with authoritarian regimes, don't you know!
And that's the critical divide, is it not? We here in the Nations of Virtue celebrate human rights and democracy and stuff, whereas our enemies are always going around undercutting us at every turn, especially the Russians and the Chinese and the Iranians, dastardly authoritarian human-rights-hating regimes each and every one.
Yesterday the Globe treated us to an opinion piece by Campbell Clark which rather creatively tied together the two Michaels, Covid, and the Hong Kong "democracy activists" into a cohesive anti-China rant.
Yes yes, of course... the two Michaels. Not Campbell Clark nor anyone else appearing in the Globe is permitted to say the obvious; China wouldn't have nicked the two Michaels if we hadn't kidnapped Meng Wanzhou first.
As for those HK activists, unless you're a dyed in the wool America firster, the sight of those youthful demonstrators waving the stars and stripes and the Union Jack as they rage against their government is both absurd and ludicrous.
Which brings us to Charles Burton's opinion piece in the G&M on Thursday. Burton had a career in the diplomatic corps and is now semi-retired with a part-time job at the prestigious Brock University, always a third or fourth choice for folks who couldn't get into Western or Queens. Charlie's got his shorts in a twist over "Beijings coronaviris bungling..."
Ottawa's coronavirus bungling, Washington's coronavirus bungling, any coronaviris bungling anywhere in the world, is all due to the dirty rotten commie bungling that happened in Beijing, and the absurd and ludicrous attempts by Beijing to dodge the blame are, well, absurd and ludicrous!
Meanwhile, PM Justin has appointed Dr. David Naylor as head of a new federal task force charged with getting to the bottom of our Covid-19 crisis. A glance at Dr. Naylor's CV reveals that this is a guy who made his reputation in the corridors of power, not in the research lab. His first public comment after his appointment was to lambaste China for setting our battle against this virus back by two to three weeks due to their deceitful conniving in keeping the truth from us.
So what are we to make of this? Obviously, we have to snuggle in tighter with our "allies," first and foremost of which is that absurd and ludicrous faux democracy just south of us.
Well, maybe, but I for one would prefer to cut the commies a little slack, and be a little more skeptical about the agenda Ottawa and "our allies" are pushing right now.
It's obvious we're climbing aboard the "blame China" game the Yanks have set in motion to distract their citizens from their completely inept response to the current situation. Who could have seen that coming?
Alas, the actual story doesn't quite live up to the billing, but at least they managed to put it right next to a story throwing shade on WHO boss Tedros Ghebreyesus. Apparently he's a guy way too comfy with authoritarian regimes, don't you know!
And that's the critical divide, is it not? We here in the Nations of Virtue celebrate human rights and democracy and stuff, whereas our enemies are always going around undercutting us at every turn, especially the Russians and the Chinese and the Iranians, dastardly authoritarian human-rights-hating regimes each and every one.
Yesterday the Globe treated us to an opinion piece by Campbell Clark which rather creatively tied together the two Michaels, Covid, and the Hong Kong "democracy activists" into a cohesive anti-China rant.
Yes yes, of course... the two Michaels. Not Campbell Clark nor anyone else appearing in the Globe is permitted to say the obvious; China wouldn't have nicked the two Michaels if we hadn't kidnapped Meng Wanzhou first.
As for those HK activists, unless you're a dyed in the wool America firster, the sight of those youthful demonstrators waving the stars and stripes and the Union Jack as they rage against their government is both absurd and ludicrous.
Which brings us to Charles Burton's opinion piece in the G&M on Thursday. Burton had a career in the diplomatic corps and is now semi-retired with a part-time job at the prestigious Brock University, always a third or fourth choice for folks who couldn't get into Western or Queens. Charlie's got his shorts in a twist over "Beijings coronaviris bungling..."
Ottawa's coronavirus bungling, Washington's coronavirus bungling, any coronaviris bungling anywhere in the world, is all due to the dirty rotten commie bungling that happened in Beijing, and the absurd and ludicrous attempts by Beijing to dodge the blame are, well, absurd and ludicrous!
Meanwhile, PM Justin has appointed Dr. David Naylor as head of a new federal task force charged with getting to the bottom of our Covid-19 crisis. A glance at Dr. Naylor's CV reveals that this is a guy who made his reputation in the corridors of power, not in the research lab. His first public comment after his appointment was to lambaste China for setting our battle against this virus back by two to three weeks due to their deceitful conniving in keeping the truth from us.
So what are we to make of this? Obviously, we have to snuggle in tighter with our "allies," first and foremost of which is that absurd and ludicrous faux democracy just south of us.
Well, maybe, but I for one would prefer to cut the commies a little slack, and be a little more skeptical about the agenda Ottawa and "our allies" are pushing right now.
Friday, April 24, 2020
Home town proud
Owen Sound Police Make Three Arrests In Three Hours
Owen Sound | by Claire McCormackA man who allegedly urinated on some elevator controls was the first of three men arrested Thursday afternoon.
Owen Sound police were busy Thursday afternoon making three separate arrests in the span of three hours.
Police say on April 22nd they began an investigation after a report of someone having urinated on the controls of an elevator, causing it to break down.
They say on April 23rd, they identified the suspect and arrested a 30 year old man at 3:15 that afternoon. When they did so, they say they found drugs on him including meth and fentanyl.
Charges against him include two drug possession for the purpose of trafficking charges, mischief under $5000 and four counts of failing to comply with probation.
Meanwhile, a couple of hours later, at about 5:30 p.m. police also arrested a man for altering a prescription. Officers attended a local pharmacy and arrested a 19-year-old man for with uttering a forged document. They say he had received a prescription for a non-narcotic drug and altered it into an oxycodone prescription.
Police say they were called when the pharmacist became suspicious and contacted the doctor confirming the prescription had been altered.
About half an hour later, just after 6 p.m. officers responded to a single vehicle collision into a building in a downtown parking lot. Police say they quickly learned the lone vehicle was the same one from a traffic complaint a short time earlier.
They say those complaints were about a vehicle travelling at a slow speed with articles falling of the vehicle including a gas can and items being thrown from the vehicle.
According to police, witnesses said the vehicle was driving in circles when the driver fell out and was dragged by the seat belt before coming to rest against the building.
Police say the 57-year-old man received some minor scrapes. He was arrested and charged with dangerous driving and drug impaired driving.
His licence is suspended for 90 days and his vehicle is impounded for 7 days.
His licence is suspended for 90 days and his vehicle is impounded for 7 days.
_____________________
It's easy enough to have a cheap laugh at the expense of our home-town losers.
After all, who gets all fucked up on drugs and has their car doing donuts in a parking lot while they're hanging out the door, being dragged along by their seatbelt...
That's no laughing matter; that's a cry for help.
Why I'm not totally enamoured with Billy-Bob's Chainsaw Repair
When I got the Stihl out of the garage a few weeks ago, I gave a few pulls on the cord, and without so much as a burp or a hiccup coming back, I recklessly decided that I needed to take her in for a spring tune-up at Billy-Bob's Chainsaw Repair
Billy-Bob (not his real name) used to work at a place downtown that sold and serviced chainsaws. They didn't sell the Stihl brand, but they serviced them. When the business went tits-up, BB set up a wee home business in the garage behind his house.
That's the kind of entrepreneurialism I'd want to support - the local guy setting out on his own.
My first foray into BB's business was when I bought a couple of saw chains there. They were so fucking useless that I switched back to the old one after cutting down one tree.
In fairness to BB, that particular tree was an Ironwood. They call them that for a reason. Take down an Ironwood in the dark and you'll see sparks coming off your saw.
Still, you want a new saw chain to last more than one tree.
So I gave BB the benefit of the doubt and delivered the Stihl for her spring tune-up.
That in itself was quite an ordeal. BB is not quite an "essential service" but not quite out of business either.
He has to holler at me from twenty feet away, "Sorry I gotta ask you, but have you been out of the country in the last two weeks?"
Oh fuck off!
Anyway, BB gave my Stihl the spring tune-up.
My wallet's been lightened to the tune of a hundred and fifty bucks. I take my beloved Stihl home.
I've got work to do. I pull on that cord.
Nothing.
I pull it again...
And again and again and again, without so much as a hiccup or a burp.
After about two dozen pulls over the course of the afternoon, I finally get a hiccup.
Then a cough...
On the next pull, my beautiful Stihl roars to life!
What bothers me is that if I'd had that much perseverance on the first go-round, I could have saved myself a hundred and fifty bucks.
Billy-Bob (not his real name) used to work at a place downtown that sold and serviced chainsaws. They didn't sell the Stihl brand, but they serviced them. When the business went tits-up, BB set up a wee home business in the garage behind his house.
That's the kind of entrepreneurialism I'd want to support - the local guy setting out on his own.
My first foray into BB's business was when I bought a couple of saw chains there. They were so fucking useless that I switched back to the old one after cutting down one tree.
In fairness to BB, that particular tree was an Ironwood. They call them that for a reason. Take down an Ironwood in the dark and you'll see sparks coming off your saw.
Still, you want a new saw chain to last more than one tree.
So I gave BB the benefit of the doubt and delivered the Stihl for her spring tune-up.
That in itself was quite an ordeal. BB is not quite an "essential service" but not quite out of business either.
He has to holler at me from twenty feet away, "Sorry I gotta ask you, but have you been out of the country in the last two weeks?"
Oh fuck off!
Anyway, BB gave my Stihl the spring tune-up.
My wallet's been lightened to the tune of a hundred and fifty bucks. I take my beloved Stihl home.
I've got work to do. I pull on that cord.
Nothing.
I pull it again...
And again and again and again, without so much as a hiccup or a burp.
After about two dozen pulls over the course of the afternoon, I finally get a hiccup.
Then a cough...
On the next pull, my beautiful Stihl roars to life!
What bothers me is that if I'd had that much perseverance on the first go-round, I could have saved myself a hundred and fifty bucks.
Wednesday, April 22, 2020
In praise of ethnic jokes
Things to beware of in life:
- a Jew with a law degree
- an Italian with a hard-on
- an Irishman with a jug of whiskey
- a German in a uniform
And so forth... that's what passed for humour back in the day. Yet the Jews and the Italians and the Irish and the Germans more or less got over themselves and life went on.
In the modern era, the era of Political Correctitude, this is no longer the case.
If you repeated the above "joke" in polite company today you'd be a pariah. No more fancy dinner parties for you!
That's due to the triumph of the phenomenon known as "identity politics."
Identity politics and its conjoined twin, political correctitude, are the invention of the ruling class. It's a handy way of getting the plebes to go for one another's throats instead of the throats of their common foe.
And when you look around and think about it, it's obviously very effective.
That's how the ruling elite have engineered a Trump v Biden race for the most powerful office in the world. One way or the other, you're gonna lose, and the ruling elites win!
Why you're not reading Dieters Blog
A couple of months back, when my old pal Robert and his wife, "the Dean" (because she briefly held the post of Dean of Arts and Humanities at a prestigious university till they found out she was on a first name basis with the likes of me) graciously opened their home in my hour of need, we came up with the idea that a name change on this blog would goose the numbers.
The results aren't promising. That post garnered a grand total of twelve views on Blogger and a mere three at Before It's News.
So I guess I'll stick to Neumann's Blog/The View From Falling Downs.
But it did seem like a good idea at the time.
And by the way, Robert and Dean, that generous gift certificate from the finest deli in town will be in the mail as soon as this coronageddon business dies down... if they can last that long.
The results aren't promising. That post garnered a grand total of twelve views on Blogger and a mere three at Before It's News.
So I guess I'll stick to Neumann's Blog/The View From Falling Downs.
But it did seem like a good idea at the time.
And by the way, Robert and Dean, that generous gift certificate from the finest deli in town will be in the mail as soon as this coronageddon business dies down... if they can last that long.
Tuesday, April 21, 2020
The genius of America's deep state propagandists
Divide and conquer.
Due to my being an old guy with too much free time on his hands, I find myself spending hours every day with my face stuck on various news sites. After a couple of hours on the big US news platforms you come away with the impression that America is on the cusp of civil war.
On Fox News, the Dems are radical leftists just itching to spring communism on the Land of the Free.
On CNN and MSNBC, the only people clamouring to return to work are Trumpentards who have been duped by Koch Brothers astroturf fronts into wanting their jobs back.
The Dems and the GOP were first tagged as "two wings of the same bird of prey" well over a hundred years ago. It was true then, and it's just as true now.
Are there any substantive policy differences between the two parties?
Both are 100% committed to American Exceptionalism uber alles.
One thing Trump, Schumer, Pelosi, and Biden can agree on is blank cheque support for Israel.
Another is unlimited funding for America's "security" apparatus.
None will ever betray their billionaire backers by bringing forward health care for all, a liveable minimum wage, affordable housing initiatives, and pensions that will allow a dignified retirement for every worker.
Nor has either wing of that bird of prey ever made any serious effort to curtail the use of tax havens that permit their billionaire funders to avoid billions of dollars in taxes.
Between them, they have conspired to offer a free ride to the ultra rich while saddling regular folks with the bill.
Meanwhile, at ground level, the threat of open warfare between rival factions of otherwise ordinary Americans looms large.
Divide and conquer.
Like I said; genius!
Due to my being an old guy with too much free time on his hands, I find myself spending hours every day with my face stuck on various news sites. After a couple of hours on the big US news platforms you come away with the impression that America is on the cusp of civil war.
On Fox News, the Dems are radical leftists just itching to spring communism on the Land of the Free.
On CNN and MSNBC, the only people clamouring to return to work are Trumpentards who have been duped by Koch Brothers astroturf fronts into wanting their jobs back.
The Dems and the GOP were first tagged as "two wings of the same bird of prey" well over a hundred years ago. It was true then, and it's just as true now.
Are there any substantive policy differences between the two parties?
Both are 100% committed to American Exceptionalism uber alles.
One thing Trump, Schumer, Pelosi, and Biden can agree on is blank cheque support for Israel.
Another is unlimited funding for America's "security" apparatus.
None will ever betray their billionaire backers by bringing forward health care for all, a liveable minimum wage, affordable housing initiatives, and pensions that will allow a dignified retirement for every worker.
Nor has either wing of that bird of prey ever made any serious effort to curtail the use of tax havens that permit their billionaire funders to avoid billions of dollars in taxes.
Between them, they have conspired to offer a free ride to the ultra rich while saddling regular folks with the bill.
Meanwhile, at ground level, the threat of open warfare between rival factions of otherwise ordinary Americans looms large.
Divide and conquer.
Like I said; genius!
Canada's new PPE supply chain flunks first test
Just eight days ago the CBC was regaling us with a yarn about how Canada was "building our own supply chain for PPE." I thought at the time building "our" supply chain in China was perhaps not the most sensible course of action.
Today it was revealed that the cargo jets sent to pick up the output from "our" supply chain returned to Canada empty.
Hate to say I told ya so, but here you go.
Maybe Dominic Barton thought he had enough shlep with the commies to pull this off, but after we kidnapped Meng Wanzhou and the Chinese kidnapped the two Michaels in retaliation, it was obvious that some hostage trading needed to happen before we considered China as the place for "our" PPE supply chain.
You'd think this would have occurred to the guy who spent years as the global boss of international business consultancy McKinsey and Company.
Today it was revealed that the cargo jets sent to pick up the output from "our" supply chain returned to Canada empty.
Hate to say I told ya so, but here you go.
Maybe Dominic Barton thought he had enough shlep with the commies to pull this off, but after we kidnapped Meng Wanzhou and the Chinese kidnapped the two Michaels in retaliation, it was obvious that some hostage trading needed to happen before we considered China as the place for "our" PPE supply chain.
You'd think this would have occurred to the guy who spent years as the global boss of international business consultancy McKinsey and Company.
The view from my front porch this morning
That's the lawn I raked last week. Or maybe the week before... it's so hard to keep track. You can hear the frogs in the marsh across the road, which is somewhat of an incongruity with snow on the ground. Environment Canada tells me we're due another 24 hours of sporadic snowfall with winds of up to 80kph.
Spring has sprung!
Monday, April 20, 2020
Best thing about COVID-19
It's knocked that hectoring harpy, Greta Thunberg, off the front page for a couple of months.
That's almost worth it!
That's almost worth it!
The sky has fallen; West Texas Intermediate at -$25/bbl
This means, at least in theory, they'll pay you $25million to take a supertanker worth of WTI crude off their hands.
The sky has fallen because there's no place left to put the stuff. Brent crude is still above water for the simple reason that European storage capacity isn't maxed out yet.
That's one reason there's lots of big dogs rooting for the folks who are clamouring for the re-opening of the American economy. No doubt, behind the scenes, the big producers and traders are clamouring as well, but the optics are a lot better when it's Jane and Joe Lunchpail protesting the lock-down on the evening news, not billionaire oil traders.
Barring a prompt re-opening, the only other option is to begin shutting down production and refining capacity. That too costs a lot of money.
Some wise guys with a bit of financing behind them should get their hands on a few orphan wells. There's lots of them out there and if you play your cards right, you'll be paid to take them off the books of some bankruptcy trustee in Texas.
Pump the -$25/bbl crude into those old wells, wait out the current supply glut, and you'll be golden!
The sky has fallen because there's no place left to put the stuff. Brent crude is still above water for the simple reason that European storage capacity isn't maxed out yet.
That's one reason there's lots of big dogs rooting for the folks who are clamouring for the re-opening of the American economy. No doubt, behind the scenes, the big producers and traders are clamouring as well, but the optics are a lot better when it's Jane and Joe Lunchpail protesting the lock-down on the evening news, not billionaire oil traders.
Barring a prompt re-opening, the only other option is to begin shutting down production and refining capacity. That too costs a lot of money.
Some wise guys with a bit of financing behind them should get their hands on a few orphan wells. There's lots of them out there and if you play your cards right, you'll be paid to take them off the books of some bankruptcy trustee in Texas.
Pump the -$25/bbl crude into those old wells, wait out the current supply glut, and you'll be golden!
Sunday, April 19, 2020
It's high time the God-fearing USAF bombed a little decency into those Godless commies
The anti-China rhetoric in US media is downright scary. We're in high Yellow Peril dudgeon!
If nothing else, this artificial hate campaign serves to take the eye off the unseemly haste with which America's ruling elite stuffed their pockets at the public trough under the guise of "helping the people."
Oh, they're helping "the people" alright...
At least their own people. The rich.
I was walking old Boomer on the Kinch Sideroad this morning. It's one of those country non-roads that's been subject to "no maintenance" signage since the Kinch family moved away thirty years ago or so. Their old house is slowly collapsing on itself.
There's a big old Dodge 4X4 coming the other way. I respectfully step six feet off the road to allow it to pass. Instead of passing, the driver stops and rolls down the window. It's a couple, maybe late fifties, early sixties, and the first words out of the driver's mouth were, "we're really bored!"
No shit, pal!
Anyway, we had a nice chat about hunting and fishing in the neighbourhood. The last thing he said as he was pulling away was, "I'm thinking maybe we went a little overboard on this Covid stuff."
Indeed, but that's not something you're allowed to say in polite company these days.
If you're getting a little bored with your own coronavacation, here's some recreational reading for you. I haven't vetted every last detail, but as far as I can tell, those experts and their quotes are real.
https://swprs.org/a-swiss-doctor-on-covid-19/
Stay safe, stay sane.
If nothing else, this artificial hate campaign serves to take the eye off the unseemly haste with which America's ruling elite stuffed their pockets at the public trough under the guise of "helping the people."
Oh, they're helping "the people" alright...
At least their own people. The rich.
I was walking old Boomer on the Kinch Sideroad this morning. It's one of those country non-roads that's been subject to "no maintenance" signage since the Kinch family moved away thirty years ago or so. Their old house is slowly collapsing on itself.
There's a big old Dodge 4X4 coming the other way. I respectfully step six feet off the road to allow it to pass. Instead of passing, the driver stops and rolls down the window. It's a couple, maybe late fifties, early sixties, and the first words out of the driver's mouth were, "we're really bored!"
No shit, pal!
Anyway, we had a nice chat about hunting and fishing in the neighbourhood. The last thing he said as he was pulling away was, "I'm thinking maybe we went a little overboard on this Covid stuff."
Indeed, but that's not something you're allowed to say in polite company these days.
If you're getting a little bored with your own coronavacation, here's some recreational reading for you. I haven't vetted every last detail, but as far as I can tell, those experts and their quotes are real.
https://swprs.org/a-swiss-doctor-on-covid-19/
Stay safe, stay sane.
Saturday, April 18, 2020
More lock-down hi-jinx from Senility Acres
Boomer, the 14yo rottie-shepherd, isn't up to the full five k anymore, so I've been strategizing as to how I might compensate for the loss of exercise. I need the daily 5k for my physical and mental health.
There's a bicycle in the garage that we got Junior when he was maybe eleven or twelve. By the time he moved out he had long outgrown the bike. It's too small for me too, but I'm thinking, if I raise the seat up six inches or so, maybe it would do for bike rides around the local back roads. Shouldn't take more than ten minutes.
So I dig out the bike. Looks like there'll be two half-inch wrenches required, one to turn the nut and one to hold the head. This should be a snap. After all, I know for a fact I have multiple half-inch wrenches and sockets around the place.
I've had a life-long struggle putting tools away after I use them. When I was younger this wasn't so much of a problem. To find this or that, all you had to do was recall the last time you used this or that, and problem solved!
This system doesn't work that great anymore. What happens when you can't remember when you last used this or that? In this case, I was specifically looking for a half-inch combination wrench, a half-inch socket, and a ratchet, and I'd be good to go on adjusting the bicycle seat.
The socket was right in the case where it's supposed to be.
I found the wrench I needed about fifteen minutes later. After checking the basement, the woodshed, the Subaru, and the tractor, it turned up in the old pickup.
But I couldn't find a ratchet. Oh, I could find a quarter and a half-inch, but I needed a three-eight for this particular socket. I checked again everywhere I'd already checked.
Nothing. I've invested 45 minutes in looking for this ratchet.
Time for Plan B. Instead of using the ratchet on that nut I'll use the slip-joint pliers. That's when I realise the head of the bolt is welded to the frame and I never needed anything more than the half-inch wrench to begin with.
Seat adjusted, I'm now gonna put a little air in the tires. They're not flat, they just need to be firmed up a bit. Luckily, I found my air compressor right away!
Unfortunately, I had run over my three-prong extension cord with the lawnmower last summer, so I had to move the compressor to the plug, which turned into a twenty minute operation because it was packed in behind the snowblower and the lawnmower.
I finally plug it in. Nothing happens. I spend another ten minutes dinking around, looking for an on-off switch I may have inadvertently shut off. Normally it's always fired up as soon as I plug it in. I do some more sleuthing. Maybe the plug is defective? The ground plug was partially melted, but it's always worked on the extension cord.
Get the other three-prong extension cord out of the basement. Still nothing.
Then it occurs to me that maybe a breaker went and the outlet is dead. There's a panel right in the garage that I put in when I had the welding outlet installed. Son of a gun, I flipped all the breakers on and off, and that old compressor was humming away in no time!
Pumped up those tires and took the bike for a spin.
Nope, this won't work. Raising the seat didn't make the bicycle any bigger.
Good to know.
All in, that ten minute job took pretty much all day.
That's how we're weathering the lock-down here at Senility Acres.
There's a bicycle in the garage that we got Junior when he was maybe eleven or twelve. By the time he moved out he had long outgrown the bike. It's too small for me too, but I'm thinking, if I raise the seat up six inches or so, maybe it would do for bike rides around the local back roads. Shouldn't take more than ten minutes.
So I dig out the bike. Looks like there'll be two half-inch wrenches required, one to turn the nut and one to hold the head. This should be a snap. After all, I know for a fact I have multiple half-inch wrenches and sockets around the place.
I've had a life-long struggle putting tools away after I use them. When I was younger this wasn't so much of a problem. To find this or that, all you had to do was recall the last time you used this or that, and problem solved!
This system doesn't work that great anymore. What happens when you can't remember when you last used this or that? In this case, I was specifically looking for a half-inch combination wrench, a half-inch socket, and a ratchet, and I'd be good to go on adjusting the bicycle seat.
The socket was right in the case where it's supposed to be.
I found the wrench I needed about fifteen minutes later. After checking the basement, the woodshed, the Subaru, and the tractor, it turned up in the old pickup.
But I couldn't find a ratchet. Oh, I could find a quarter and a half-inch, but I needed a three-eight for this particular socket. I checked again everywhere I'd already checked.
Nothing. I've invested 45 minutes in looking for this ratchet.
Time for Plan B. Instead of using the ratchet on that nut I'll use the slip-joint pliers. That's when I realise the head of the bolt is welded to the frame and I never needed anything more than the half-inch wrench to begin with.
Seat adjusted, I'm now gonna put a little air in the tires. They're not flat, they just need to be firmed up a bit. Luckily, I found my air compressor right away!
Unfortunately, I had run over my three-prong extension cord with the lawnmower last summer, so I had to move the compressor to the plug, which turned into a twenty minute operation because it was packed in behind the snowblower and the lawnmower.
I finally plug it in. Nothing happens. I spend another ten minutes dinking around, looking for an on-off switch I may have inadvertently shut off. Normally it's always fired up as soon as I plug it in. I do some more sleuthing. Maybe the plug is defective? The ground plug was partially melted, but it's always worked on the extension cord.
Get the other three-prong extension cord out of the basement. Still nothing.
Then it occurs to me that maybe a breaker went and the outlet is dead. There's a panel right in the garage that I put in when I had the welding outlet installed. Son of a gun, I flipped all the breakers on and off, and that old compressor was humming away in no time!
Pumped up those tires and took the bike for a spin.
Nope, this won't work. Raising the seat didn't make the bicycle any bigger.
Good to know.
All in, that ten minute job took pretty much all day.
That's how we're weathering the lock-down here at Senility Acres.
Friday, April 17, 2020
Masked in Kemble
Kemble is the nearest "urban centre" to Falling Downs.
Kemble is 25 houses, a post office, and a church.
Kemble isn't all that far from the "middle of nowhere" you've all heard about.
Today I saw a guy out for a walk in Kemble, wearing a face-mask.
Get the fuck outta here!
He was obviously visiting from somewhere else.
Kemble is 25 houses, a post office, and a church.
Kemble isn't all that far from the "middle of nowhere" you've all heard about.
Today I saw a guy out for a walk in Kemble, wearing a face-mask.
Get the fuck outta here!
He was obviously visiting from somewhere else.
A subtle change in tone
When I roll out of bed in the morning and fire up the laptop, my first stop is CBC news. They've been doing yeoman's work spreading coronageddon hysteria since late January.
Today I thought I detected a subtle change in tone. The top story was Will it really take 'weeks' to ease physical distancing? Maybe not.
Huh? Maybe not?
Is CBC throwing shade on their own scaremongering?
In the next story, a world-renowned critical care specialist suggests that we've been killing COVID-19 patients with overuse of ventilators. That story's been floating around on Putin's alt-news websites for a while, but now that it's on a "legitimate" news site, I guess it must be true.
Last week's "experts" are so last week.
All we've been hearing ventilator-wise for months is how desperately short of these machines we are. Ford, Dyson, Linamar, Tesla, and others stepped up to promise tens of thousands of new ventilators... oh wait; maybe we don't need them after all!
I recall Clark McDaniel explaining experts to me 35 years ago... "an x is an unknown quantity, and a spurt is a drip under pressure."
But now we've got a new expert with more expertise...
I suspect this is the thin edge of the wedge in the coming tsunami of mainstream media climb-downs as reality overtakes the apocalyptic scenario we've been marinating in for months now.
Today I thought I detected a subtle change in tone. The top story was Will it really take 'weeks' to ease physical distancing? Maybe not.
Huh? Maybe not?
Is CBC throwing shade on their own scaremongering?
In the next story, a world-renowned critical care specialist suggests that we've been killing COVID-19 patients with overuse of ventilators. That story's been floating around on Putin's alt-news websites for a while, but now that it's on a "legitimate" news site, I guess it must be true.
Last week's "experts" are so last week.
All we've been hearing ventilator-wise for months is how desperately short of these machines we are. Ford, Dyson, Linamar, Tesla, and others stepped up to promise tens of thousands of new ventilators... oh wait; maybe we don't need them after all!
I recall Clark McDaniel explaining experts to me 35 years ago... "an x is an unknown quantity, and a spurt is a drip under pressure."
But now we've got a new expert with more expertise...
I suspect this is the thin edge of the wedge in the coming tsunami of mainstream media climb-downs as reality overtakes the apocalyptic scenario we've been marinating in for months now.
Monday, April 13, 2020
3P democracy meets 5G internet: a match made in Hell
Our democracies, for those of us favoured by fortune to live in the Nations of Virtue, are already Public-Private-Partnerships. Private money buys public servants, who ensure that the interests of their moneyed patrons are looked after. This is commonly known as "rule of law."
The private (although always heavily subsidized by the public purse) tech giants and telecoms are partners with government in all manner of mass surveillance and data harvesting projects.
It's the 3P governments and their billionaire handlers who are clamouring for 5G internet. For regular folks, 5G is gonna let you download Netflix way quicker. So instead of twenty seconds gone from your life that you'll never get back, it's only gonna be two seconds.
I'm not saying that's nothing, but it wouldn't merit spending trillions on global 5G infrastructure. And while I'm sure there's some legit rocket scientists and nuclear physicists who will use 5G to invent new kinds of math, they're not the intended beneficiaries of the new wave either.
No, the push for 5G is coming from the other two Ps in that 3P partnership. The private side naturally wants to know everything about everybody all the time. That's called "data," which happens to be the coin of the realm these days.
With 5G, they really will know everything about everybody all the time!
And guess who else would like to know everything about everybody all the time? The "public" part of your 3P; your government.
Just today we're treated to a news story about how Google and Apple are working with governments to make real-time tracking of cellphones a reality. For your own good of course, because that's how we can do contact tracing of anyone who might have COVID.
That could be anybody! With 5G, that won't be a problem, because then they really will be able to track everyone in real time. Not only that, there'll be cloud archives of where everyone has ever been from now until the end of time!
I don't see any real need for this technology from the perspective of a regular citizen. I'm a little disturbed by how reports of 5G radiation causing brain tumours in lab rats are routinely discounted by our media, but you have to remember, our media belong to the very billionaire class that wants this stuff in the first place, so no surprise there.
In our Western democracies, the only real discussion around 5G is whether Huawei should be part of it. They're the Chinese outfit that's given the Chinese government world-leading capabilities for spying on all their citizens all the time.
That's the one thing the leaders of our democracies really envy about the Chinese Communist Party.
The private (although always heavily subsidized by the public purse) tech giants and telecoms are partners with government in all manner of mass surveillance and data harvesting projects.
It's the 3P governments and their billionaire handlers who are clamouring for 5G internet. For regular folks, 5G is gonna let you download Netflix way quicker. So instead of twenty seconds gone from your life that you'll never get back, it's only gonna be two seconds.
I'm not saying that's nothing, but it wouldn't merit spending trillions on global 5G infrastructure. And while I'm sure there's some legit rocket scientists and nuclear physicists who will use 5G to invent new kinds of math, they're not the intended beneficiaries of the new wave either.
No, the push for 5G is coming from the other two Ps in that 3P partnership. The private side naturally wants to know everything about everybody all the time. That's called "data," which happens to be the coin of the realm these days.
With 5G, they really will know everything about everybody all the time!
And guess who else would like to know everything about everybody all the time? The "public" part of your 3P; your government.
Just today we're treated to a news story about how Google and Apple are working with governments to make real-time tracking of cellphones a reality. For your own good of course, because that's how we can do contact tracing of anyone who might have COVID.
That could be anybody! With 5G, that won't be a problem, because then they really will be able to track everyone in real time. Not only that, there'll be cloud archives of where everyone has ever been from now until the end of time!
I don't see any real need for this technology from the perspective of a regular citizen. I'm a little disturbed by how reports of 5G radiation causing brain tumours in lab rats are routinely discounted by our media, but you have to remember, our media belong to the very billionaire class that wants this stuff in the first place, so no surprise there.
In our Western democracies, the only real discussion around 5G is whether Huawei should be part of it. They're the Chinese outfit that's given the Chinese government world-leading capabilities for spying on all their citizens all the time.
That's the one thing the leaders of our democracies really envy about the Chinese Communist Party.
Is this the time to choose dependence on China?
This headline at CBC is a head-scratcher; Canada building its own PPE supply chain in China.
It's a good news/bad news story. Canada is doing something. That's good! Building our own pipeline for personal protective equipment. Even better! The pandemic has proven that we can't rely on others for essential safety gear.
All good except for one thing; Canada's very own supply chain is in China!
Sorry, I don't get how it's "our" supply chain if it's in China. C'mon CBC, trot out some experts to explain this to the befuddled masses.
A more honest headline would be, "Canada negotiating with China for access to desperately needed personal protective equipment," but that doesn't sound nearly as bold as declaring that Canada is "building" something.
I'm no expert, but it seems obvious that a sovereign nation would want self-sufficiency in essential emergency supplies, and therefore the supply chain needs to be on our soil, not in China.
It's a good news/bad news story. Canada is doing something. That's good! Building our own pipeline for personal protective equipment. Even better! The pandemic has proven that we can't rely on others for essential safety gear.
All good except for one thing; Canada's very own supply chain is in China!
Sorry, I don't get how it's "our" supply chain if it's in China. C'mon CBC, trot out some experts to explain this to the befuddled masses.
A more honest headline would be, "Canada negotiating with China for access to desperately needed personal protective equipment," but that doesn't sound nearly as bold as declaring that Canada is "building" something.
I'm no expert, but it seems obvious that a sovereign nation would want self-sufficiency in essential emergency supplies, and therefore the supply chain needs to be on our soil, not in China.
Sunday, April 12, 2020
Easter in a time of pestilence
That's a catchy title, but it's also a little ho-hum when you think about it. There's always pestilence somewhere all the time, including at Easter.
How does this pestilence compare to the one that held Easter hostage from 1939 to 1945?
Nevertheless, we're hoping by next Easter we can get together with family again. By then we'll likely have a better handle on exactly what the current pestilence is all about. My hunch is that we're going through something that Naomi Klein will be analysing in the sequel to "The Shock Doctrine."
Which is not to say that coronavirus is fake. It's obviously very real, and has done a lot of damage.
A year from now we'll have a sense of whether the virus justified the actions we've taken to fight it. The global economy isn't shut down, yet, but the damage has been massive. By next Easter we'll know if the cure was worse than the disease, or not.
That global economy everybody is worried about hasn't exactly been in great shape, wildly over-exuberant share prices notwithstanding. For over forty years, as the ranks of the billionaires inexorably expand, the lived lives of the vast majority have been deteriorating. That's got to end somewhere, and the billionaires know it.
That's why they're stuffing their pockets to the tune of trillions in government handouts, which the little people will get to pay off through taxes and austerity for the next hundred years.
That's why we need to take this opportunity to look around, and rather than aim for "normal," consider what might be possible.
After all, this time of year is all about new beginnings.
Happy Easter!
How does this pestilence compare to the one that held Easter hostage from 1939 to 1945?
Nevertheless, we're hoping by next Easter we can get together with family again. By then we'll likely have a better handle on exactly what the current pestilence is all about. My hunch is that we're going through something that Naomi Klein will be analysing in the sequel to "The Shock Doctrine."
Which is not to say that coronavirus is fake. It's obviously very real, and has done a lot of damage.
A year from now we'll have a sense of whether the virus justified the actions we've taken to fight it. The global economy isn't shut down, yet, but the damage has been massive. By next Easter we'll know if the cure was worse than the disease, or not.
That global economy everybody is worried about hasn't exactly been in great shape, wildly over-exuberant share prices notwithstanding. For over forty years, as the ranks of the billionaires inexorably expand, the lived lives of the vast majority have been deteriorating. That's got to end somewhere, and the billionaires know it.
That's why they're stuffing their pockets to the tune of trillions in government handouts, which the little people will get to pay off through taxes and austerity for the next hundred years.
That's why we need to take this opportunity to look around, and rather than aim for "normal," consider what might be possible.
After all, this time of year is all about new beginnings.
Happy Easter!
Saturday, April 11, 2020
Isolate with me
Hate to admit, but this isolation thing is working out not too badly.
The Farm Manager is coming out of grief mode and is starting to cook again!
That can only be a happy thing. Today for breakfast I had steel-cut oat porridge with blueberries and maple syrup.
I'm not even sure what "steel-cut" means. I guess they have to cut the oats with something. What are the other oats cut with that aren't cut with steel?
Anyway, "steel-cut" seems to imply you've got superior oats. I don't know; I just eat the stuff.
Then for lunch I had a feast of left-overs from the Good Friday/ Seder dinner we had last night. Brussel sprouts with bacon (the bacon being from the non-seder side) and baby roasted potatoes.
Spent a few hours in the fresh air this afternoon. Got the chainsaw back from Billy-Bob's Chainsaw Repair in town, and it's running like a charm.
Took down a clump of dead elms out by the road. Things were proceeding to plan till I got to the last elm. Cut the notch in the north side of the trunk to ensure she'd fall to the north, away from the road. Made the back cut, and whoopsie, all of a sudden my saw is stuck and that forty footer is threatening to fall on the road!
No matter how many dead elms you've dropped, there's always gonna be one to come along and play a trick on you. This particular trick wouldn't have been particularly funny. Not that there's a lot of traffic on our road, and even less in these days of pestilence, but just before I finally coaxed Mr. Elm Tree to fall in the right direction, some hapless goober came tooling along on a Ultra-Glide, who had no idea that the odds of him passing by my house and living to tell the tale were 50/50 at that exact moment.
But here we are. Goober made it home safely, or at least past my house safely, and I lived to enjoy a fabulous feed of Easter Pie that we got from the farm market on the next concession.
That's how we're rockin' the lock-down at Falling Downs.
The Farm Manager is coming out of grief mode and is starting to cook again!
That can only be a happy thing. Today for breakfast I had steel-cut oat porridge with blueberries and maple syrup.
I'm not even sure what "steel-cut" means. I guess they have to cut the oats with something. What are the other oats cut with that aren't cut with steel?
Anyway, "steel-cut" seems to imply you've got superior oats. I don't know; I just eat the stuff.
Then for lunch I had a feast of left-overs from the Good Friday/ Seder dinner we had last night. Brussel sprouts with bacon (the bacon being from the non-seder side) and baby roasted potatoes.
Spent a few hours in the fresh air this afternoon. Got the chainsaw back from Billy-Bob's Chainsaw Repair in town, and it's running like a charm.
Took down a clump of dead elms out by the road. Things were proceeding to plan till I got to the last elm. Cut the notch in the north side of the trunk to ensure she'd fall to the north, away from the road. Made the back cut, and whoopsie, all of a sudden my saw is stuck and that forty footer is threatening to fall on the road!
No matter how many dead elms you've dropped, there's always gonna be one to come along and play a trick on you. This particular trick wouldn't have been particularly funny. Not that there's a lot of traffic on our road, and even less in these days of pestilence, but just before I finally coaxed Mr. Elm Tree to fall in the right direction, some hapless goober came tooling along on a Ultra-Glide, who had no idea that the odds of him passing by my house and living to tell the tale were 50/50 at that exact moment.
But here we are. Goober made it home safely, or at least past my house safely, and I lived to enjoy a fabulous feed of Easter Pie that we got from the farm market on the next concession.
That's how we're rockin' the lock-down at Falling Downs.
If our front-line PSWs are so important, why do they still get poverty wages?
We've been hearing all sorts of platitudes about our wonderful front-line health care professionals.
The three hundred thousand a year MDs.
The hundred thousand a year RNs.
And the PSWs who have to stitch three part-time gigs together to make thirty-five thousand a year.
What's wrong with this picture?
It's the PSWs who are charged with the most intimate level of care of our elderly. They're the ones who do the tube-feeding and change the adult diapers. They're the one's who bathe dear old granddad and wipe his drool and wipe his ass.
If there's a contagious disease to be caught, it's the PSWs who are gonna catch it first.
For fifteen bucks an hour.
The three hundred thousand a year MDs.
The hundred thousand a year RNs.
And the PSWs who have to stitch three part-time gigs together to make thirty-five thousand a year.
What's wrong with this picture?
It's the PSWs who are charged with the most intimate level of care of our elderly. They're the ones who do the tube-feeding and change the adult diapers. They're the one's who bathe dear old granddad and wipe his drool and wipe his ass.
If there's a contagious disease to be caught, it's the PSWs who are gonna catch it first.
For fifteen bucks an hour.
Friday, April 10, 2020
Neo-nazi terror boss busted
Seems like every other day some obscure government intelligence outfit is warning us about the threat of extreme-right terror groups seeking to undermine our democracy and hijack our freedoms. Well, the long arm of the law has broken up one of these shadowy threats.
The "Feuer Krieg Division," or FKD for short, was an international amalgam of internet-radicalized far-right extremists, commanded by a battle-hardened boss who went by the internet handle "Commander."
Commander was revving up his minions, estimated to number in the low dozens worldwide, to make bombs, organize terror-training camps, and plot a terror attack on London.
Commander was doing all this from the comfort of his parents' home in Estonia. Commander is thirteen years old.
I guess you could say the FKD is fkd now!
The "Feuer Krieg Division," or FKD for short, was an international amalgam of internet-radicalized far-right extremists, commanded by a battle-hardened boss who went by the internet handle "Commander."
Commander was revving up his minions, estimated to number in the low dozens worldwide, to make bombs, organize terror-training camps, and plot a terror attack on London.
Commander was doing all this from the comfort of his parents' home in Estonia. Commander is thirteen years old.
I guess you could say the FKD is fkd now!
Thursday, April 9, 2020
The message I'm getting from Rideau Cottage
Not sure you've noticed, but I've moderated my mockery of world leaders recently. I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt for the time being.
I've been tuning in to PM Trudeau's morning presser on his front porch ever since self-isolation put him there. We're well aware that his two weeks are long over, but apparently the polling numbers are looking good, so the paymasters are gonna go with it a little longer... oops, there I go getting all cynical again.
The morning theatre has taken on a predictable pattern. First come the latest worrying, alarming, staggering, or sometimes even devastating revelations. Unemployment might be 5% or 85%. Two thousand could die or maybe 200,000. We might come out of this in two months. Or maybe it'll be two years. Or maybe this is the new normal...
Uncertainty breeds anxiety.
Then there's the other message stream. We're all in this together. Know that the government has got your back. We're gonna get through this... but you have to follow instructions. You have to do as you're told. It is essential that you do your part, or there will be severe penalties for those who flout the greater good. It's up to you.
After months of relentless fear mongering on every news channel, we all crave security.
I've been tuning in to PM Trudeau's morning presser on his front porch ever since self-isolation put him there. We're well aware that his two weeks are long over, but apparently the polling numbers are looking good, so the paymasters are gonna go with it a little longer... oops, there I go getting all cynical again.
The morning theatre has taken on a predictable pattern. First come the latest worrying, alarming, staggering, or sometimes even devastating revelations. Unemployment might be 5% or 85%. Two thousand could die or maybe 200,000. We might come out of this in two months. Or maybe it'll be two years. Or maybe this is the new normal...
Uncertainty breeds anxiety.
Then there's the other message stream. We're all in this together. Know that the government has got your back. We're gonna get through this... but you have to follow instructions. You have to do as you're told. It is essential that you do your part, or there will be severe penalties for those who flout the greater good. It's up to you.
After months of relentless fear mongering on every news channel, we all crave security.
Wednesday, April 8, 2020
Running from Chicago to Baku
To self isolate, no doubt. After all, Baku is the capital of Azerbaijan, where they've had a mere eight COVID-19 deaths thus far. They must be closing in on fifty million in the States by now. And Baku has McDonalds and wi-fi and stuff, so it just might be that cosy hidey-hole where a well-heeled Yank can chill for a few months.
These musings were triggered by a vapour trail that appeared in our skies about five this afternoon. The day started out a little nasty here; overcast, a cool wind, and the threat of rain. By mid-afternoon things had cleared up, and I found a sunny spot out of the wind where I could get a little vitamin D on my arms.
That's when I noticed the vapour trail. It was one of those south-to-north flights that are typically heading somewhere in Europe. I check it out on FlightTracker, and found I'm watching flight AZG784 on route from Chicago to Baku, Azerbaijan!
My first thought right after wtf, was the above scenario. Then I looked up the carrier, Silkway West Airlines. Check out their Wikipedia page. Hmm... private cargo carrier based in Baku, planes registered in Bermuda, serving anywhere the US Army has a base... that's got the familiar CIA smell radiating off it like crazy!
Where's Bruce Cockburn when you need him?
These musings were triggered by a vapour trail that appeared in our skies about five this afternoon. The day started out a little nasty here; overcast, a cool wind, and the threat of rain. By mid-afternoon things had cleared up, and I found a sunny spot out of the wind where I could get a little vitamin D on my arms.
That's when I noticed the vapour trail. It was one of those south-to-north flights that are typically heading somewhere in Europe. I check it out on FlightTracker, and found I'm watching flight AZG784 on route from Chicago to Baku, Azerbaijan!
My first thought right after wtf, was the above scenario. Then I looked up the carrier, Silkway West Airlines. Check out their Wikipedia page. Hmm... private cargo carrier based in Baku, planes registered in Bermuda, serving anywhere the US Army has a base... that's got the familiar CIA smell radiating off it like crazy!
Where's Bruce Cockburn when you need him?
Crop circles reveal Larry Fink is the Messiah
We haven't noticed much in the way of crop circle activity in the fields around Falling Downs in recent years. At various times past, these unreliable oracles have fingered Justin Beiber, Tony Blair, and Moshe Feiglin as either the Messiah or the anti-Christ, and it's hard to remember which was which.
With Larry it's a little more clear cut. Larry has been single-handedly bailing out the US government for over ten years by managing trillions in toxic assets on its behalf.
Where did the government get all those toxic assets, you ask? Why, from the banksters and the Wall Street greedbags themselves!
If I'm interpreting this news story correctly, there has emerged a virtuous feedback loop between the Federal Reserve and the US Treasury, a feedback loop facilitated and managed by Larry himself!
So if you're wondering what's propping up the US dollar, a currency that should be utterly worthless according to any conventional metric known to economic man, thank Larry Fink.
With Larry it's a little more clear cut. Larry has been single-handedly bailing out the US government for over ten years by managing trillions in toxic assets on its behalf.
Where did the government get all those toxic assets, you ask? Why, from the banksters and the Wall Street greedbags themselves!
If I'm interpreting this news story correctly, there has emerged a virtuous feedback loop between the Federal Reserve and the US Treasury, a feedback loop facilitated and managed by Larry himself!
So if you're wondering what's propping up the US dollar, a currency that should be utterly worthless according to any conventional metric known to economic man, thank Larry Fink.
What you're missing while mesmerised by corona bologna
Looks like the US Treasury has just been privatized, while all of us were pre-occupied with maintaining the decreed social distance from our friends and loved ones.
By the way, what's up with that six feet of separation nonsense, when the evidence shows the virus can travel 27 feet? And even that seems dubious; I ripped forth a series of sneezes this morning that scared the crap out of the pets and would have sprayed at least fifty feet had I not responsibly covered up.
It's reassuring to see our politicians in front of the cameras every day reminding us what a great job they are doing keeping us safe. Unemployed and broke, maybe, but hey, safety first!
Speaking of politicians, it's sad to see Bernie throw in the towel, just as The Virus is winding up to give his campaign a potentially game-changing endorsement.
Buck up, fellow citizens; it's always darkest before the dawn...
By the way, what's up with that six feet of separation nonsense, when the evidence shows the virus can travel 27 feet? And even that seems dubious; I ripped forth a series of sneezes this morning that scared the crap out of the pets and would have sprayed at least fifty feet had I not responsibly covered up.
It's reassuring to see our politicians in front of the cameras every day reminding us what a great job they are doing keeping us safe. Unemployed and broke, maybe, but hey, safety first!
Speaking of politicians, it's sad to see Bernie throw in the towel, just as The Virus is winding up to give his campaign a potentially game-changing endorsement.
Buck up, fellow citizens; it's always darkest before the dawn...
Tuesday, April 7, 2020
Let's not go back to "normal"
After a few weeks of self-isolation, everyone I know is getting nostalgic for what used to be. We all want things to go back to normal.
That's understandable, but let's think that through. Was normal all that great?
Not for the homeless, it wasn't. Not for the working poor. Not for the unemployed. Not for recent graduates driving Uber to pay off their student loans. Not for those with inadequate or no health care. Not for those facing retirement without pensions...
That adds up to quite a lot of people for whom going back to normal doesn't have a whole lot of appeal.
If we were to return to our normal way of running the economy, the recent explosion of stimulus and bailouts will require austerity for decades. "Normal" will be worse than ever for the disadvantaged.
Surely we can do better than that.
That's understandable, but let's think that through. Was normal all that great?
Not for the homeless, it wasn't. Not for the working poor. Not for the unemployed. Not for recent graduates driving Uber to pay off their student loans. Not for those with inadequate or no health care. Not for those facing retirement without pensions...
That adds up to quite a lot of people for whom going back to normal doesn't have a whole lot of appeal.
If we were to return to our normal way of running the economy, the recent explosion of stimulus and bailouts will require austerity for decades. "Normal" will be worse than ever for the disadvantaged.
Surely we can do better than that.
Sunday, April 5, 2020
We're all lab rats now
Something about this pandemic makes me feel like I'm part of a giant psychology experiment.
Maybe there's a bunker deep beneath DC where there's hundreds of social scientists watching computer monitors. They time the delivery of the latest mortality stats. They track the compliance rate for every new limitation they impose. In real time, of course!
When California tried to shut down gun stores, the bunker boys calculated that the resistance level would quickly pass the obedience level, and let the folks in charge know it. Suddenly, gun shops became an essential service.
Likewise, when the government of Prince Edward Island closed the liquor stores, they too became an essential service practically overnight.
Social science is as much art as science. The top social scientists spend their entire careers finessing different strategies to improve the rats' compliance stats. Sometimes they have to take a step back. Then its just a matter of time. With a little tweaking of the hysteria-inducing news channels, they'll soon enough take two or even three steps forward again.
The social scientists work at the behest of the Public-Private-Partnership the rats still think of as their government. They do get to vote every four years, don't they?
True enough, but does that matter?
Maybe there's a bunker deep beneath DC where there's hundreds of social scientists watching computer monitors. They time the delivery of the latest mortality stats. They track the compliance rate for every new limitation they impose. In real time, of course!
When California tried to shut down gun stores, the bunker boys calculated that the resistance level would quickly pass the obedience level, and let the folks in charge know it. Suddenly, gun shops became an essential service.
Likewise, when the government of Prince Edward Island closed the liquor stores, they too became an essential service practically overnight.
Social science is as much art as science. The top social scientists spend their entire careers finessing different strategies to improve the rats' compliance stats. Sometimes they have to take a step back. Then its just a matter of time. With a little tweaking of the hysteria-inducing news channels, they'll soon enough take two or even three steps forward again.
The social scientists work at the behest of the Public-Private-Partnership the rats still think of as their government. They do get to vote every four years, don't they?
True enough, but does that matter?
The truth is more important now than ever
I look forward to my New York Times International Weekly, which is included at no extra charge with my Sunday Star. It gives country bumpkins like me a chance to view true world-class journalism, unlike the crap those hacks in Toronto shovel out. I also have a hunch that recycling NYT copy is way cheaper than paying their own writers for original work.
In this era of truth being more important than ever, it's surprising how much truth the Times' world-class journos forget to include in their stories. Ruth Maclean reports on the conflict in Mali, and totally forgets to mention said conflict was unleashed when the USA destroyed Libya.
Julie Turkewitz reports on the heart-breaking plight of children in Venezuela. It truly is heart-breaking, but in a half-page story, there is nary a mention of the devastating sanctions the US has imposed on the country.
Alissa Rubin informs us that these are the "worst days ever for Iraqis." The poor sods are getting it from all sides. Collapsed oil prices, a collapsed economy, collapse upon collapse, and the ever-present meddling of the Iranians behind it all. If any of Iraq's travails had anything whatsoever to do with the USA's destruction and continued occupation of the country, you'd never know it from Rubin's story.
For an outfit that coined the slogan "The truth is more important than ever," that's a pretty slovenly performance.
In this era of truth being more important than ever, it's surprising how much truth the Times' world-class journos forget to include in their stories. Ruth Maclean reports on the conflict in Mali, and totally forgets to mention said conflict was unleashed when the USA destroyed Libya.
Julie Turkewitz reports on the heart-breaking plight of children in Venezuela. It truly is heart-breaking, but in a half-page story, there is nary a mention of the devastating sanctions the US has imposed on the country.
Alissa Rubin informs us that these are the "worst days ever for Iraqis." The poor sods are getting it from all sides. Collapsed oil prices, a collapsed economy, collapse upon collapse, and the ever-present meddling of the Iranians behind it all. If any of Iraq's travails had anything whatsoever to do with the USA's destruction and continued occupation of the country, you'd never know it from Rubin's story.
For an outfit that coined the slogan "The truth is more important than ever," that's a pretty slovenly performance.
Of bullsh*t and bamboozlement
Trust the CBC to bring you a truly horrifying headline; The pandemic numbers out of Ontario are horrifying...
That's a headline designed to ramp up the anxiety level of everyone already suffering the mental health pressures of three weeks of self-isolation.
Ah, but it turns out the story isn't about "pandemic numbers out of Ontario," but rather, the pandemic projections out of Doug Ford's news briefing Friday. Yes, some folks have crunched some numbers, and depending on myriad unknown and unknowable variables, Ontario could (ie might or might not) have 1,600 coronavirus deaths by the end of this month, and could have 3,000 to 15,000 within the next two years.
Yes, I suppose those numbers are within the realm of possibility, but they are entirely speculative. Wouldn't a more accurate headline be, "Some pandemic projections out of Ontario are horrifying."
Let's consider actual pandemic numbers by the only number that counts, the death toll. The "new cases" numbers that are foregrounded constantly are a function of how much testing has been done and nothing else. The CBC's own coronavirustracker tells me that as of two minutes ago, the Ontario death toll attributed to COVID-19 stands at 135.
We know over 80% of deaths are among the elderly with underlying conditions such as COPD, pneumonia, etc., and we have no way of knowing how many died of coronavirus as opposed to with coronavirus. Worst case scenario; at best, no more than a few dozen healthy Ontarions have been felled by this "pandemic" thus far, out of a population of fifteen million.
In response, our government has jammed a big fat panic stick into the spokes of an $800B economy.
How does that make any sense?
That's a headline designed to ramp up the anxiety level of everyone already suffering the mental health pressures of three weeks of self-isolation.
Ah, but it turns out the story isn't about "pandemic numbers out of Ontario," but rather, the pandemic projections out of Doug Ford's news briefing Friday. Yes, some folks have crunched some numbers, and depending on myriad unknown and unknowable variables, Ontario could (ie might or might not) have 1,600 coronavirus deaths by the end of this month, and could have 3,000 to 15,000 within the next two years.
Yes, I suppose those numbers are within the realm of possibility, but they are entirely speculative. Wouldn't a more accurate headline be, "Some pandemic projections out of Ontario are horrifying."
Let's consider actual pandemic numbers by the only number that counts, the death toll. The "new cases" numbers that are foregrounded constantly are a function of how much testing has been done and nothing else. The CBC's own coronavirustracker tells me that as of two minutes ago, the Ontario death toll attributed to COVID-19 stands at 135.
We know over 80% of deaths are among the elderly with underlying conditions such as COPD, pneumonia, etc., and we have no way of knowing how many died of coronavirus as opposed to with coronavirus. Worst case scenario; at best, no more than a few dozen healthy Ontarions have been felled by this "pandemic" thus far, out of a population of fifteen million.
In response, our government has jammed a big fat panic stick into the spokes of an $800B economy.
How does that make any sense?
Saturday, April 4, 2020
Americans display their can-do spirit
Whoever pulled this off deserves a) a place in Hell, and b) an honorary posthumous MBA from Wharton.
Think it through. You get a couple of neighbourhood kids, dress them in lab coats, put up a banner with a red cross on it, and you're good to go!
Folks will be lining up in no time! How long does it take to do a nasal swab? Two minutes? At $250 per, you're making $7,500/hour for as long as the line-up lasts, and given how everybody has been whipped into a hysterical frenzy, that could be weeks!
Let them pay by credit card and you've got all that info too!
Only in America!
Think it through. You get a couple of neighbourhood kids, dress them in lab coats, put up a banner with a red cross on it, and you're good to go!
Folks will be lining up in no time! How long does it take to do a nasal swab? Two minutes? At $250 per, you're making $7,500/hour for as long as the line-up lasts, and given how everybody has been whipped into a hysterical frenzy, that could be weeks!
Let them pay by credit card and you've got all that info too!
Only in America!
Friday, April 3, 2020
It's not capitalism ruining us, it's the dysfunctional tax system
The top marginal tax rate in the US was 90% back in the fifties. That was a happening time for American workers. Unions were strong and the future was bright.
Millionaires were folks just like you and me, except they had more money. They were rich.
Today, anyone who bought a house in Toronto back in the fifties is a millionaire. You're not seriously "rich" till your net worth stretches into the nine number zone.
If capitalism is to survive, we need to do something about the income inequality problem. Going back to a 90% marginal income tax rate would be a good first step.
That in itself would not be enough. Here's some other stuff that the vast majority in any reasonably well-functioning democracy might take a shine to.
Let's shut down the tax havens. Tough luck for Lichtenstein and Jersey and all the rest, but if enabling tax evasion is your main industry, you're not a serious country to begin with.
Let's do away with corporate share buy-backs. If your enterprise is throwing off oodles of surplus cash, invest in your workers and invest in the future, instead of rewarding the corner office nabobs who are focused primarily on their own pay packet.
Let's impose a sales tax on every stock trade, especially the ones those computer algorithms are executing thousands of times per second. That would cut that entire parasitic niche industry off at the knees.
And let's get serious about estate tax. Everybody wants to give their kids a leg up, but giving the Koch boys or a Donald Trump a billion dollar head-start doesn't bode well for the rest of us. Look around you...
All we need to do is put a cap on it. A million apiece would still give your kids a leg up, and you can contribute the rest to the betterment of society.
There's lots more we could do, but that's a good start.
Millionaires were folks just like you and me, except they had more money. They were rich.
Today, anyone who bought a house in Toronto back in the fifties is a millionaire. You're not seriously "rich" till your net worth stretches into the nine number zone.
If capitalism is to survive, we need to do something about the income inequality problem. Going back to a 90% marginal income tax rate would be a good first step.
That in itself would not be enough. Here's some other stuff that the vast majority in any reasonably well-functioning democracy might take a shine to.
Let's shut down the tax havens. Tough luck for Lichtenstein and Jersey and all the rest, but if enabling tax evasion is your main industry, you're not a serious country to begin with.
Let's do away with corporate share buy-backs. If your enterprise is throwing off oodles of surplus cash, invest in your workers and invest in the future, instead of rewarding the corner office nabobs who are focused primarily on their own pay packet.
Let's impose a sales tax on every stock trade, especially the ones those computer algorithms are executing thousands of times per second. That would cut that entire parasitic niche industry off at the knees.
And let's get serious about estate tax. Everybody wants to give their kids a leg up, but giving the Koch boys or a Donald Trump a billion dollar head-start doesn't bode well for the rest of us. Look around you...
All we need to do is put a cap on it. A million apiece would still give your kids a leg up, and you can contribute the rest to the betterment of society.
There's lots more we could do, but that's a good start.
Thursday, April 2, 2020
Has MBS crossed the floor?
In the overall scheme of things, I don't believe that the Kingdom gets the analytical scrutiny it should.
There has been a very radical shift in Saudi politics over the past couple of years. The new guy claims he wants to be a reformer, and he's made a couple of token feints in that direction, specifically around women's rights.
He shook down various members of his own family for multiple billions, which of course anyone taking on corruption in Saudi would have had to do.
He's been courted by everyone from Trump to Putin to Netanyahu.
Once firmly in Uncle Sam's pocket, he's currently working very hard, in cahoots with Bad Vlad, to kill the US shale industry once and for all.
The US has used its bully trump card to coerce OPEC into production drawdowns for years, and then fills the market space with its shale product. That's always been seen as a stab in the back by their Saudi vassals.
Then there is the matter of the Yemen war.
Did the idea for the Yemen war originate in Riyadh? My hunch is that Riyadh, left to its own devices, would readily attain a detente with Tehran. The Yemen war is the child of those who most want to torment Tehran, and they are not in Riyadh, but in London, Washington, and Tel Aviv.
If MBS has indeed crossed over, who could blame him?
There has been a very radical shift in Saudi politics over the past couple of years. The new guy claims he wants to be a reformer, and he's made a couple of token feints in that direction, specifically around women's rights.
He shook down various members of his own family for multiple billions, which of course anyone taking on corruption in Saudi would have had to do.
He's been courted by everyone from Trump to Putin to Netanyahu.
Once firmly in Uncle Sam's pocket, he's currently working very hard, in cahoots with Bad Vlad, to kill the US shale industry once and for all.
The US has used its bully trump card to coerce OPEC into production drawdowns for years, and then fills the market space with its shale product. That's always been seen as a stab in the back by their Saudi vassals.
Then there is the matter of the Yemen war.
Did the idea for the Yemen war originate in Riyadh? My hunch is that Riyadh, left to its own devices, would readily attain a detente with Tehran. The Yemen war is the child of those who most want to torment Tehran, and they are not in Riyadh, but in London, Washington, and Tel Aviv.
If MBS has indeed crossed over, who could blame him?
Canada shocked at double murder of Indigenous hunters
The above headline is on view at the Guardian website this morning.
No, Canadians are not shocked, because it's a story that does not appear to have made the national news horizon. We can't be shocked if the story is hidden from us.
Instead, we are treated to endlessly repetitive scaremongering about COVID-19. Today alone, for example, the CBC News home page provides four separate links to this story; Canadians want to know how bad this could get. Is anyone ready to tell us?
Why does this require four separate links? Couldn't they leave it at one or two, and use the others for some other news that might be going on the the country?
Like the murder of two guys on a moose hunt?
The premise of the headline seems somewhat flawed as well. The CBC has itself been regaling us with wild speculation about "how bad this could get" since late January, six weeks before Canada recorded its first coronavirus death.
Wonder what other news we've been missing?
No, Canadians are not shocked, because it's a story that does not appear to have made the national news horizon. We can't be shocked if the story is hidden from us.
Instead, we are treated to endlessly repetitive scaremongering about COVID-19. Today alone, for example, the CBC News home page provides four separate links to this story; Canadians want to know how bad this could get. Is anyone ready to tell us?
Why does this require four separate links? Couldn't they leave it at one or two, and use the others for some other news that might be going on the the country?
Like the murder of two guys on a moose hunt?
The premise of the headline seems somewhat flawed as well. The CBC has itself been regaling us with wild speculation about "how bad this could get" since late January, six weeks before Canada recorded its first coronavirus death.
Wonder what other news we've been missing?
Wednesday, April 1, 2020
Are we watching the last episode of The American Empire?
Think it'll be a cliffhanger again, like the last couple of season enders? Or are they going over the cliff this time?
America is demonstrating its exceptionalism to the world. Is there any other country on the planet during this pandemic that is running around making threats against other nations?
That's exceptional, all right.
What you're witnessing in DC right now is a panicked oligarchy looting as much as they can. Their media wants you to think that this has something to do with that Wuhan Flu that came along just in the nick of time.
What's got them panicked isn't the virus, it's the collapse of the global oil markets. But they couldn't very well lock down the country and loot the treasury over that.
There was a time when the US dollar was convertible into gold, the "gold standard," as it was known. That was tossed overboard in the Nixon era. Since then, America has used its stranglehold on the global economy, backed up by it's staggering nuclear arsenal, to impose its will on the world.
One of Uncle Sam's most reliable pets, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, has gone rogue, we are told. Perhaps such a thing is plausible.
There's an impressive lot of loose plot strings hanging in the air. It'll be interesting to see how they're tied together at the end.
America is demonstrating its exceptionalism to the world. Is there any other country on the planet during this pandemic that is running around making threats against other nations?
That's exceptional, all right.
What you're witnessing in DC right now is a panicked oligarchy looting as much as they can. Their media wants you to think that this has something to do with that Wuhan Flu that came along just in the nick of time.
What's got them panicked isn't the virus, it's the collapse of the global oil markets. But they couldn't very well lock down the country and loot the treasury over that.
There was a time when the US dollar was convertible into gold, the "gold standard," as it was known. That was tossed overboard in the Nixon era. Since then, America has used its stranglehold on the global economy, backed up by it's staggering nuclear arsenal, to impose its will on the world.
One of Uncle Sam's most reliable pets, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, has gone rogue, we are told. Perhaps such a thing is plausible.
There's an impressive lot of loose plot strings hanging in the air. It'll be interesting to see how they're tied together at the end.
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