Israel braces for fresh round of Islamic terror

Here's a fact you might want to ponder, at least if you're keen on peace in the Middle East.

Half the Palestinian population in greater Israel is under twenty years of age.

In their lifetimes, what has PLO/PA done for them?

If they are in Gaza, what has Hamas done for them?

Palestinians under both Hamas and the PA have known nothing but humiliation.

Along comes ISIL, Islamic State, with a promise of restoring Palestinian pride.

Driven out of Syria and Iraq after wreaking immense havoc, these toxic fundamentalists, with whom the IDF played footsie while they were on our side in Syria, seem to have a foothold in greater Israel today.

This can only get much worse before it gets better.

White Privilege in action- Canada 2022

The other day, the local high school celebrated the arrival of the first refugee student from the Ukraine war. The front office even played the Ukrainian national anthem in their honour during the morning announcements! 

Truly a warm welcome!

The Ukraine war began February 24th of this year.

Among the folks listening to the morning announcements were several who have been involved in efforts to bring Afghan refugees to Canada. The Afghan war ended, for Canada, in 2014. It ended for good six months before the Ukraine war started.

These folks have been struggling to bring Afghan refugees to Canada for years. 

They're still working on it.

Afghan refugees are brown and Muslim.

Ukrainian refugees are white and Christian.

That's what "white privilege" looks like, especially when your Deputy PM, aka Fluffy's brain, is a Ukrainian nationalist.

How much fear can you take before your brain explodes?

As you've probably noticed, it's been one catastrophe after another out there in that big old world, at least according to the merchants of fear. Let's take a deep dive into the pit of doom and suss out just how screwed we really are. The major calamities, in no particular order:

• Covid. Unlike what some science-denying politicians have been telling you, covid was never over. In fact, it's back, and bigger than ever! Guess we should have listened to that expert on CBC who's been warning us the vax rate for five-year-olds wasn't nearly high enough! For God's sake, kids, put those masks back on before you kill Granny! 
• Disinformation. It's everywhere! Putin's troll armies are spreading the stuff faster than British Intelligence and the CIA can set the record straight. Lucky for us, Big Tech experts are on the job sealing the last leaks in the protective berm designed to keep you safe. Now that Chris Hedges is erased from YouTube, we're almost there.
• Democracy. It was the French sociologist Michel Crozier who first isolated the crisis of democracy in '75 or so, proving for the first time that sociologists could add anything to the storehouse of human knowledge. Mark Twain actually foreshadowed many of his findings 100 years before, but he wasn't a sociologist. 
• Dictatorship. We who are fortunate enough to live in the free world are constantly threatened by dictators. We are led by the greatest democracy of all time, which also has the greatest military of all time, so it is inevitable that we will prevail. I wouldn't worry about this calamity too much.
• Ukraine. This timely crisis encapsulates several of the previous calamities. Contrary to Putin's disinformation, the real reason he attacked his peaceful democratic neighbour was because it was a peaceful democratic neighbour. The longer Russians saw all that peaceful prosperity going on next door, the more they hated Putin. He attacked to save his regime!
• Energy. The agents of disinfo want to scare you into thinking there's an energy crisis. Rubbish! The German people are fully prepared to put on sweaters once Putin turns their heating gas off. A small price to pay to stand with free and democratic Ukraine!
• Financial. The Gloomy Gustovs and the Nervous Nellies would have you believe all of the above will lead to a financial crisis. Impossible! The United States Dollar is the most beloved currency in the world, and the US can legally print as many as they need. It is technically impossible to ever have a financial crisis in the US!
• Climate. Last but not least, let's consider the supposed "climate crisis." Like all these other calamities, this one too is highly exaggerated. Hate to break the news, but Greta Looney Tunesberg didn't even finish high school, never mind becoming a scientist, so why should we listen to her? Besides, by the time the worst comes to pass, Elon Musk's space colonies should ready for move-in!

So relax! Nothing to fear but fear itself! We lucky folks in the free and democratic world got nothing but sunny days ahead!

Metal Shop Girls

In the late 90's the road of life shat me out at the front of a shop class at the local high school.

I'd hated high school myself, but in the fullness of time I came to the realization that steady day shift and summer off might not be a bad gig.

So I became a welding teacher.

You didn't see a lot of girls in the shop classes those days. But they might hang around because their boyfriend was in the class.

What bothered me was, a few years after high school, the girls would be working at Tim Hortons for min wage, and the guys would be at Bruce Power making fifty bucks an hour.

So I figured I needed a sales pitch to get them in the course.

You don't need a penis to be a welder.

By the second year about a quarter of the class were girls. 

They were tough bitches. And, the one thing I least expected, they talked to me.

And I don't mean about the welding lesson. For some reason, a lot of these gals seemed to think I needed to know when they missed their period, etc.

Then it occurred to me, they just need somebody who will listen to them.

I'm not their boyfriend, I'm not their dad; I might be the only dude in their world safe to tell stuff.

I'm really having trouble with my dad. I wanna get a tattoo, and he's gonna kill me...

I ponder this.

What's the tattoo gonna be?

Oh, I want a butterfly. I've got it picked out at Zap's tattoo shop downtown.

I ponder that...

So where you puttin' the tattoo?

She turns around and pats her left butt-cheek. I ponder that.

How often does your dad see your ass?

Long story short, I inadvertently solved a problem in this young woman's life, just by applying a little common sense.

I've got hundreds of stories like that, which is a gift even more precious than the Teacher's Pension Plan.

Thanks!

Will Smith and Chris Rock release statement condemning Black on Black violence

Actually, they have not, in fact, released any such statement.

But they should.

What kind of example did Will Smith set for the thousands of young Black kids who want to grow up to be just like him.

Wait a minute...

Are there Black kids who want to be just like him? Or just like Chris Rock?

Aren't those guys superstars mostly on account of their white audience?

Would any Black performer today want to become a superstar because he/she appealed to a white audience?

HELL YA!!!

Another thing that sucks about getting old; every time you hear water running, you have to pee

If I run the tap to clean up a few dishes, it's guaranteed that if there's more than two dishes I gotta take a bathroom break before I'm done.

And it's not just water.

I can't stop at the self-serve gas station without being overcome with an enormous urge for an immediate wizz.

But here's the crazy thing.

Just last week I filled up at the PetroCan on the east side. I was heading to Guelph. I figured I'd pop into the Timmies up the way to use the facility.

That's two minutes away. Wonder be, by the time I got there, I didn't have to go!

In fact, I got all the way down to the Wellington Road 6 turn-off, an hour away, before I actually had to pull off the road.

Which makes me think it's safe to defer the call of nature a bit as long as you have something else to focus on. 

And if you wet your car seat, don't blame me.

You obviously weren't focusing hard enough.

Guy with pee-pee troubles knocks Ukraine out of top slot on CBC News

Had to scroll past over a dozen stories on the CBC News home page before reading the word “Ukraine” this morning. That included four stories on Indigenous meetings with the Pope, $10/day daycare, the Taliban, Will Smith’s assault on Chris Rock, Dune, Canadian soccer, Prairie droughts, and the sad story of a poor schmuck who can’t afford the medical supplies he needs to urinate properly.

Only then is there any mention of Ukraine!

At least for once I can’t accuse the CBC of blindly following the MSM herd; BBC, CNN, MSNBC, and Fox all continue to lead with the Ukraine story. Not sure if this puts CBC ahead of the curve or behind it, but it’s a pleasant surprise for anyone suffering Zelensky fatigue.

Speaking of which, here’s an informative backgrounder to the Zelensky PR campaign. It’s certainly been effective, but perhaps a little too over-the-top for its own good. How many times do we need to watch Zelensky beg and browbeat his NATO betters for “support” when NATO has clearly demonstrated there is no stomach for such a step within the alliance?

I would suggest that’s not about “stomach” or any highfalutin concerns about setting precedents. After all, NATO has long set precedents in coming to the aid of non-member states by “closing the skies” over Serbia, Libya, and Afghanistan. The reason there’s no relief for Ukraine is that the serious people at the Pentagon have zero confidence in their capacity to do so. Far better not to make that any more obvious than it already is.

Meanwhile, Al Jazeera featured a ten minute interview with Kosovo’s President Vjosa Osmani this morning, wherein she lobbied hard for NATO membership for her country. According to her, NATO membership for Albania, Montenegro, and North Macedonia “brought stability to the region.”

It did?

For God’s sake, Madame President, look around you!

Just ignore that mushroom cloud; the show must go on

I see where those nasty Houti rebels in Yemen have sparked up some serious fireworks at an Aramco oil storage facility near Jeddah. That's where the Saudi Formula One race is supposed to happen tomorrow.

F-1 is a multi-billion dollar international media spectacle. Countries actually pay big bucks to F-1 for the privilege of hosting a race. It's not about the race, it's about the PR.

Those dastardly Houtis, supported by the evil ayatollahs in Iran, have attempted to pee on the party with this cowardly attack.

Just imagine the PR coup they'd have pulled off if they could get the Saudi Grand Prix cancelled!

Since the fireball over those blazing storage tanks was visible to the drivers doing practice laps for Sunday's race, there was some reticence in the ranks. 

After an emergency drivers' meeting, where it was explained to the drivers who butters their bread, it was agreed.

The show must go on!

Canada's Globe and Mail now serving its readers "truth sandwiches"

Globe & Mail “Public Editor” Sylvia Stead shares some insights today on how professional journalists combat disinformation.

Apparently this is quite a struggle, especially in the current news environment, dominated by one V Putin, who is a serial liar, perhaps even as bad as Trump.

How do we know Putin is a liar?

“When a country claims to invade another nation, with a Jewish president, for the purpose of de-nazification, it’s pretty clear they are lying.”

That’s it, that’s all you need to know! I was hoping for something a little more sophisticated. The long and sordid history of Ukrainian ultra-nationalism and its nazi sympathies can’t be brushed aside with such a trite remark.

But that’s all we get, even though most Globe readers are well aware that a president doesn’t necessarily wield much actual power, the Trump presidency being a prime example.

Then there are the Globe’s reporters on the ground in Ukraine, up to eight at a time! Funny how they never manage to get close enough to the action to provide any evidence of all that heroic resistance pushing the invaders back.

There are also the “trusted wire services,” of which there are two with global reach in the English speaking world. One is the Associated Press, owned by a consortium of US media companies, every one of which worships at the altar of American Exceptionalism.

The other is Reuters, owned by the same hereditary peer in the British House of Lords who happens to own the Globe! He also belongs to the same church as the other guys.

So yes, you can obviously count on getting nothing but the unvarnished truth from those “trusted wire services!”

By this point I’m starting to second guess my life-long assumption that The Globe and Mail is a serious newspaper. Then comes the clincher;

“Another technique to expose lies is using a “truth sandwich,” in which you first share the truth of what is happening, then describe the lie, returning finally to the truth.”

Really? 

We're a whisker away from nuclear annihilation and this moron wants to talk juvenile witticisms?

Sounds to me like the G&M is trying to grow their pre-teen readership.

How else can you explain such idiocy?

This is the intellectual level of our "thought leaders."

We are fucked.

Sleepy Joe goes to Warsaw; Zelensky goes to Doha

Check out Sleepy Joe's inspirational speech as he boosts the morale of our Polish allies in this clip from Fox News. Note the WTF expressions on the faces of the Polish delegation as they try to make sense of the rambling inanities!

Shared values, blah blah blah... Anybody who thinks our European allies don't sense America's weakness is deluding themselves.

Sadly for them, that realization only highlights their own weakness. Remember, it was the Poles who were quick to pass the hot potato right back to Washington when the Americans had the bright idea that Poland should deliver a fleet of mothballed and obsolete MIG-21 fighter jets to Ukraine.

Nevertheless, the leader of the free world appears to have secured an agreement to wean the EU from dependence on Russian energy, and make it dependent on US energy instead. That's what passes for a win in the current context.

Will this deprive Russia of much-needed income to pursue its war agenda, as we are told? Not so long as most of the world, including putative US allies like India, Indonesia, and Pakistan (which collectively hold almost one quarter of the world's population) are not participating in the US led economic sanctions of all things Russian.

What is more likely is that global trade is increasingly destined to occur outside the US dollar, which in the long run is a greater threat to American power than any hypersonic missile.

Meanwhile, Zelensky's Global Zoom Tour landed at the Doha Energy Forum. His hosts listened politely, acknowledged Ukraine's thirst for justice, and then started talking about the Palestinian people's seven decades long quest for justice to be done!

If nothing else, that's a timely reminder that Ukraine isn't the only tragedy unfolding in the world.

It don't take but a few minutes to understand each other

Eric Clapton and Chuck Berry had it right way back when.

Check it out.

That's some cool shit.

It probably couldn't happen today.

First of all, we definitely need to cancel that racist shitbag Keith Richards. Have you ever listened close to Brown Sugar?

Seriously?

And obviously, same goes for the rest of that gang of white supremacists commonly known as the Rolling Stones.

Sure, letting a Black dude take Wyman's place looks good.

But does Darryl Jones get his legit share of the gate like Bill woulda got? 

Just asking.

Anyway, that's mostly bullshit. Point is, music is music.

It brings people together.

War Pigs

When War Pigs came out, fifty-two years ago, I was a teenage wanker working at John’s Supertest on Waterloo Ave in Guelph.

Generals gathered in their masses
Just like witches at black masses
Evil minds that plot destruction
Sorcerer of death's construction

In the fields, the bodies burning
As the war machine keeps turning
Death and hatred to mankind
Poisoning their brainwashed minds
Oh lord, yeah!

Politicians hide themselves away
They only started the war
Why should they go out to fight?
They leave that role to the poor, yeah

Time will tell on their power minds
Making war just for fun
Treating people just like pawns in chess
Wait till their judgement day comes, yeah!

Now in darkness, world stops turning
Ashes where their bodies burning
No more war pigs have the power
Hand of God has struck the hour

Day of judgement, God is calling
On their knees, the war pigs crawling
Begging mercy for their sins
Satan laughing, spreads his wings
Oh lord, yeah!

Fifty-two years later, it’s still the same generals plotting our destruction, and the politicians moving the chess pieces are still hiding themselves away.

Everything old is new again.

When people could disagree but still be friends

The Farm Manager was just taking me down her memory lane, where she was growing up on a leafy street in a two-story red brick a couple blocks away from the main street of Owen Sound.

She recalls a time when, during election season, there were a variety of campaign signs on her block. Not every house sported a sign, but they were much more prevalent then. You'd see PC, Liberal, and NDP signs cheek to jowl. 

Yet the neighbourhood was in no way torn asunder by varying political affiliations. Neighbours were friends with neighbours, whatever the the signs might have suggested. They socialized and minded one another's children. 

The neighbourhoods in those days had a different kind of diversity. The FM recalls they were the only Jewish family on the block. Her Dad had a clothing store and furrier business in the downtown. Other downtown merchants lived in the neighbourhood too. 

There was also the doctor across the road, and the electrician who worked at RBW next door. That's a big league printing plant that used to do everything from Readers Digest to Time magazine. Now they mostly do advertising flyers.

Indeed! 

Doctors, lawyers, furriers, merchants, factory guys, all lived on the same street!

Their kids went to the same schools and befriended one another.

In spite of the differing lawn signs, they'd all show up at the neighbourhood summer BBQ and get along.

Those days are gone.

Biden warns Americans his Russia sanctions will cause food shortage in US

That'll teach the Rooskies a lesson!

And if they don't smarten up, we'll tighten up those sanctions, and cause even more hunger in America!

I'd like to think I'm just making shit up, as I sometimes do, but no. 

This is an actual story on America's most patriotic news channel. 

Excuse me, but we're way past retarded here...

Meanwhile, from what I've been hearing, Russia is totally self sufficient in foodstuffs. Nobody gonna skip dinner in Russia on account of US sanctions!

But Americans gotta tighten their belts?...

Of course!

Buck up, America!

Victory is at hand!

Bruno Report: our mastiff guard dog has adjusted well

That's him, guarding his half of the couch, the big half.

Other than that, he doesn't do much. He's a bit of a disappointment in terms of being a walking companion. For many years I had two or even three hounds along for my daily 5k up the side-road. Once in awhile Bella, who lives half-way up that side-road, would join us, making it a four-dog-pack!

After we said good-bye to Boomer, last of the old guard, what I missed most was not having a dog for company, especially on my walk.

Enter Bruno.

He wasn't too bad the first winter. Then when the weather got warm, he seemed to lose interest.

The Farm Manager, who fancies herself something of a mastiff whisperer, told me it's because they don't like the hot weather. Then the cool weather came back, and guess what?

Bruno's enthusiasm for our walk didn't!

I figure that first winter was a fluke. He was still trying to please.

But that was then.

This is now (refer to picture above).

Now we try to please him.

He likes to hang out with his buds at the dog park. Not too long, of course, because 15 minutes of serious romping pretty much tuckers the Big Boy out.

That sets up his daily nap. By "daily," I mean a nap that lasts all day. Interrupted only when he hears me open the fridge.

So that's your Bruno update for now. In case he ever does anything again, I'll let you know. 

Ukraine border guards block escape for trans women, told to stay and fight like men

A few weeks ago a CBC team on the ground in western Ukraine discovered racism among Ukrainian border guards. Apparently they were prioritising the evacuation of white Ukrainians over non-white non-Ukrainians.

Well, it gets worse, if such a thing can be imagined.

Not only are those border guards racist, they are trans-phobic to boot!

As Ukrainian women and their children flee the country at the rate of a million per week, trans women are denied passage, and instead forced to endure micro-aggressions and humiliations before being told to go home and fight for their country.

This is a vivid demonstration of how culturally backward Ukraine is. The reprehensible lack of sensitivity around gender identity is truly appalling for a society we supposedly stand with. The archaic idea that having a dick makes you a dude, long debunked in more progressive societies, still has a grip on the minds of these primitives.

Here’s a brief history of pride parades in Ukraine. Participants are typically vastly outnumbered by the phalanx of policemen lining both sides of the parade route to protect them from their fellow citizens.

Shared values? Not so much.

New! Improved! And not worth a pinch of you-know-what!

Popped into the Indian River liquor store today to grab a six-pak of Busch Light. For many years they've come shrink-wrapped in plastic. That worked very well. Never had a problem picking one up or carrying it to the checkout. 

Well, perhaps it's another manifestation of that restless human urge to fix stuff that ain't broke, but today there was an entire pallet of Busch in the beer aisle, and every last six-pak was wearing a little cardboard cap. No more shrink-wrap. I search in vain for something that might be a hand-grip. Finally I grab it by the brim of the cap and proceed to the checkout. One by one they fall to the floor. There's only two still attached to the cardboard by the time I get there.

One of the escapees springs a leak on impact, showering the beer aisle with its contents. The lovely Korean woman who runs the joint is in a tizzy. She abandons her post and comes running with a mop. She's apologetic as hell. I'm even more apologetic. I offer to do the mopping so she can get back to the other customers, to no avail.

She insists, which is kind of her. It's not her fault, after all.

My hunch is blame most likely belongs to some millennial keener, armed with a fresh business degree and out to make a name for himself. A half cent saved on packaging across however many billions of six-paks Busch sells in a year will no doubt earn him a tidy bonus and a promotion, baffled consumers and harried shop-keepers be damned.

That's progress for you!

 

How I learned to trust the CIA

I’ve been a fan of the CIA’s World Factbook for a long time. I think their stats on everything from GDP per capita to live births per 100k are as reliable as anything out there. I think the CIA is pretty solid in the data end of things. It’s everywhere else they screw it up.

But that’s likely to change going forward. Check out this CIA website for kids!

Gives ya hope for the future, don’t it!?

But I digress. I happened to be rooting around on the CIA Factbook website, and I found some stats on mobile phone use in various countries. I was surprised to see Ukraine, the poorest country in Europe, enjoyed higher cell-phone penetration than many more prosperous European countries like Germany, Sweden, Denmark… well, most of them, actually.

So in a country where everybody can be a citizen journalist, why is there such a dearth of footage from all the resistance that is allegedly going on in Ukraine?

And it really makes me wonder about this story at CBC right now. Look past the spiffy “Press” kit and you’ve got a couple of guys with cell phones. When any of the really dramatic shit they talk about goes down, their cell batteries happen to be down.

Does their story pass even the most cursory sniff test?

Not in my world.

As I’ve said before, what’s going on here has little to do with Ukraine, which just happens to be the battleground the American Empire has chosen to stage its Waterloo.

Right now, Western “unity” is unravelling even faster than Ukrainians are fleeing their country. We keep ramping up sanctions because that’s all we’ve got.

While the woke militaries of the West were refining their pronoun protocols, the Russians were refining their hypersonic missile technology.

Between that, and the fact those sanctions are destroying the dollar economy as even allies are negotiating work-arounds, it’s over.

Which explains the desperation of the hysterical reporting found across Western media.

They know it’s over too.

Greatest own-goal of all time!

Watching the sunlight sparkle on Indian Creek

I've been trying to spend less time with my face in the laptop.

That's why I found myself on the stoop, breathing deep of our forest air, focusing on every precious breath, and all the usual mindfulness verities.

Every year, with the spring melt, the creek will rise enough that we can see it from the stoop. 

Indian Creek originates at Mary Lake. From there, it trickles into Gowan Lake, and then into a marsh just upstream from me, and from there to the marsh at the north end of Bass Lake, from where it emerges as the Indian River, which meets Georgian Bay across the road from the Indian River liquor store.

That joint is one of my great real estate regrets. It sat there boarded up and for sale for two years. Every day when I drove home I'd say to myself, that'd be a great spot for a LCBO outlet, especially after they moved the only LCBO in Owen Sound from the downtown to the east side.

While I was thinking about it, a lovely Korean couple bought the joint and opened a LCBO outlet. I can't help but think the place is a gold mine. There's an awful lot of folks up Balmy Beach Road and out at Cobble who have ample booze budgets and would much prefer to stop on their way home than to drive across town.

Anyway, it was a beautiful sunny day here, although a little on the cool side. But what was really cool was, with the creek high, you can see the sun sparkle on the water, right from the stoop!

Traditional Inuk staple of Florida oranges becomes prohibitively expensive

Not sure what to make of this CBC story.

Apparently Florida oranges are really expensive north of the Arctic Circle.

No shit!

It's a long way from Florida to the Arctic Circle!

I love the breathless urgency with which they report these CBC scoops. I mean, till the CBC investigative unit got on the story, who even suspected Inuvik might be farther from Florida than Toronto?

That's the calibre of journalism we're getting from the CBC, in return for all that taxpayer money we fork over.

Canadians need to ask themselves; are the billions we pour into CBC worth the contempt they routinely display for the intelligence of ordinary Canadians?

Mick Jagger never gets his due as a harmonica player

Check this out.

That's some quality harp work, my friends!

While I would never in a million years consider myself a musician, I've had some fun times around the camp fire driving the harp alongside kids who are pretty good on the guitar.

There used to be a bar on Macdonell Street in Guelph called "the Chooch." It was hard by the railway station, as you might gather from the name.

My first and only gig as a paid musician occurred in the ante-room while I was waiting for a seat in the main room. I'd pulled out my harp to play along with a few tunes David Wilcox was playing next door.

A dude I vaguely knew as an affiliate of a serious biker gang took up a collection from the fellow patrons in the ante-room, slammed ten bucks in change on the table in front of me, and told me to put the fucking harp away.

So I did.

Thoughts on ageing and death

I've been thinking about Auntie Flo, an octogenarian from the Farm Manager's side who has resided in a nursing home in Toronto for at least the last ten years. 

Cultures with a more humane approach to their elders would have set Auntie Flo adrift on an ice floe long before now. A few favoured keepsakes and a flask of vodka, and off you go! 

Actually, settlers from Finland introduced vodka to the scenario, but even the locals thought that a positive development.

In our allegedly more advanced and progressive culture, we keep our elders technically alive as long as the resources are in place to pay for it. Where the money comes from doesn't matter as long as it keeps coming. In our public nursing homes, it comes from the tax base. Otherwise, it comes from insurance policies or family wealth. The main point is, even if grandpa's quality of life has been sub-zero for the last fifteen years, we won't let him go till we exhausted his finances, whereupon he is permitted a "natural" death, even though he was last able to correctly identify any family member in about '95 or so.

When I first met Aunt Flo she was a loud and proud Jewish broad who never failed to express her opinion, whether you wanted to hear it or not. She hasn't had an opinion, let alone expressed it, for at least ten years. But her mechanicals are sturdy as a horse and could well continue breathing air and pumping blood for another twenty.

Or as long as the money lasts. Frankly, the Flo I once knew would prefer the ice floe.

On my side, a brilliant uncle, a university professor and highly regarded historian, disappeared into the mists of dementia while still in his sixties. Last time I saw him alive, this brilliant man, with whom I was privileged to have shared many hundreds of hours of conversation, was babbling to his teddy bear. I think he would have preferred the ice floe too.

In my youth I had a rather dissolute lifestyle for a spell. My Doctor, EJ Crispin, told me I wouldn't see 30 unless I mended my ways, big time.

So I moderated my ways, at least somewhat, and, were EJ still among us, I would happily send him a progress report.

But you never want to gloat. I still see the number "30" in my dreams, but now I'm not sure if it means I have another 30 years or another 30 seconds.

They say Ernest Hemmingway tried to kill himself by downing a quart of Bourbon every day for the last 25 years of his life, but still needed a shotgun to finish the job.

I remember seeing Kurt Vonnegut on a talk show at 85 years old, smoking a cigarette and threatening to sue the cigarette companies, because they had promised smoking would kill him.

That's not where I'm at. I love life, and life is good! And I hope it remains so for at least another thirty years...

But in the event that things take a turn, I want all concerned to know for sure, and I think most of them already do, that I choose the ice floe over twenty years of senility and asset stripping.

A brief history of Sleepy Joe's warnings to the world

As we all know, America is the undisputed leader of the world.

OK, maybe not the actual "world" world, but the free and democratic world; the "good guys." Being global supremo is a heavy burden. It's a lot like herding cats. It takes a lot of stern warnings to keep a lid on things. Allies and adversaries alike need frequent reminders of who's in charge.

Here's the Biden admin warning its Middle East allies not to play footsie with Bashar al-Assad, the evil dictator of Syria. Result? Assad just wrapped his Middle East Friendship Tour of US allies.

Here's a stern Biden warning to NATO ally Turkey to cease and desist ignoring previous warnings, or else!

Result? Business as usual.

Even before he took the oath of office, Sleepy Joe warned India against buying weapons from Russia. Result? India still buying Russian weapons. Also ignores Biden warning not to buy Russian oil by buying Russian oil.

Here's Biden warning China of consequences for support of Russia. Result? China still supporting Russia.

Here's Biden warning the European allies a year ago that America is back. How's that working out for them?

Iran has of course been thumbing their nose at US warnings since 1979, and life goes on.

And here's the most ominous Biden warning of all, warning Putin against invading Ukraine. Result? Putin invades Ukraine.

I think I'm starting to detect a pattern here. Maybe Sleepy Joe isn't the right guy to be leading the world.

Uncle Sam has a serious credibility deficit, and it's making the world a more dangerous place.

Canada demonstrates yet again it is a serious player on the world stage

Brodie Fenlon's CBC and our Ukrainian ultra-nationalist Deputy PM put their heads together and came up with this stroke of imbecility; Canada's UN mission goes viral with tweet mocking Russia's letter to UN.

My my! Aren't we so terribly clever!

Somebody at Global Affairs marked up an official Russian communique with high-school English teacher style snarky comments, and then tweeted it out to the world!

And it's gone viral!

Apparently, Global Affairs has received props from four minor European countries and "the rest of the world" in this daring display of idiocy.

It will be a shock for most Canadians when they eventually realize the rest of the world has long resented being yoked into the Empire, thanks to our CBCs endless promotion of same.

The article actually cites this juvenile dreck as "contributing to Canada's diplomatic efforts."

If that statement is anywhere in the vicinity of the truth, we are well and truly doomed.

Real estate market goes full retard

There's a townhouse for sale on Neeve Street in Guelph, a ten minute walk from the GO station.

It's on offer for a little under $700k. 

Neeve Street was one of the early addresses my folks had after they got off the boat. That was way before the GO station. It's in what they used to call "the Ward."

That was the heavily immigrant, mostly Italian part of town. That's the part of town where we landed.

Fifteen years after he got off that boat, my father had re-invented himself as a real-estate broker. I took a stab at following in his footsteps, but working for Dad wasn't going to happen.

But I do recall having a look at that townhouse on Neeve... when it was on offer for $19k.

Young, stupid, horny, and drunk...

And riding around in a souped up muscle car. What could go wrong?

Don't know what came over me, but on this warm and sunny afternoon, I found myself  sharing a few memories from my youth with the Farm Manager.

Fortunately for me, we were both safely into middle age when we hooked up almost 18 years ago. The excess testosterone that makes so much mischief in the lives of young men wasn't a factor anymore. 

What triggered my waddle down memory lane was the sounds of a commotion from next door.

Next door is a quarter mile up the hill. Normally, that's a safe distance, but when the breeze is just right, you can eavesdrop on a conversation.

There were a couple of angry male voices shouting at one another in the most aggressive tones imaginable. This went on for quite some time.

At some point, I remarked, "holy shit, in my day, things woulda come to fisticuffs long before now."

That was the on-ramp.

Told her the Igor story, how me and Igor got in a drunken brawl at the Steelworkers Hall in Guelph. 

Met again in the emergency ward at the Guelph General Hospital an hour later. He's sporting a head bandage, and I just got an eye patch.

Sorry about your head, man.

Ya, sorry about your eye, dude.

These days the young guys are stabbing and shooting one another. They never get a chance at second thoughts. 

It's a whole different world.

Then I told her about the skanky girlfriend I had when I returned to high school, age 19, to get those last two credits I needed for a diploma.

When you're 19, skanky isn't necessarily a bad quality in a girlfriend. 

Alas, and thank God, these things do not last. Unfortunately, this particular thing ended in a major drunken brawl in a ditch beside a concession road in Eramosa Township at two in the morning.

I'd acquitted myself quite well, under the circumstances.

A few months later I'm standing in front of legendary Guelph magistrate, "Hangin' Hank" Howitt.

His honour says, "Let me get this straight. You were involved in an altercation with three male attackers, when the woman who filed this charge kicked you in the head?"

"Yes, your honour."

"And when you pushed her away she fell to the ground?"

"Yes, your honour."

That was the end of my trial. The dudes involved wanted nothing to do with it. But you know what they say about a woman scorned.

Insofar that we require a "point" to this story, it is this; if somebody had handed us guns when we were having that punch-out in the ditch, we'd all be dead.

Sunset is heading for the barn

I've been retired a couple years now.

Believe me when I say I've had a lot of time to sit on the stoop and watch the world go by.

Back in my pre-retirement era, I used to see the cows coming up to the barn at sunset.

Now, I notice the sunset itself heading for the barn!

At the summer solstice, the sun sets well to the right of the barn, at least when viewed from my perch on the stoop.

At the winter solstice, it's way over to the left of the barn.

The sunsets are inching closer to the barn every night.

It's been $3,000 in propane got us to this point. 

If they don't stop Putin, it'll be double or triple to get to this point next year.

Yet, life will go on, at least for those of us fortunate enough to live in life-will-go-on zones, as opposed to actual war zones.

But, as the sunsets move a couple degrees closer to the barn every night, and as the war hysteria ramps up on my screens every night, I think I'll just grab my vape and a 6-pak, and head to the barn myself.

No TV and no internet out there.

Lifestyles of the working class

The Teamsters Union master agreements of the late 50s raised the bar for industrial unions like the UAW and the Steelworkers. By the mid-60s the unionized working class had created the middle class.

Before the WWII, being "middle class" meant you had hired help in the house.

By 1970, being middle class meant you had a house in the burbs and two cars and your kids were going to post-secondary, all on the strength of your grade 9 education and your job at US Steel or General Motors.

It was always hilarious to me how the social scientists created the white-collar/blue-collar paradigm, wherein white-collar workers were placed higher in the social hierarchy than the grunts. The reason Oakville Ontario was the highest income postal code in Canada for decades wasn't because of doctors and lawyers and successful entrepreneurs, but because of the Ford assembly plant.

The post-war working class was where most post-war immigrants landed. In the fifties, they mostly came from a Europe that had been decimated by the war. Within three years of getting off the boat at Pier 21, we owned a house. 

Contrast that to the lot of working class immigrants arriving here today. 

It's been a while since we got any from Europe. (Although circumstances in Ukraine could change that.) Instead, they're coming from what we euphemistically refer to as "less-developed" countries. Those are the countries devastated by the legacy of colonialism and the various wars we have inflicted on them, always for their own good, of course.

And guess what? All those quality union jobs that used to await immigrants?

Why, they've all been sent to Mexico or China or elsewhere overseas!

After all, why pay an immigrant thirty bucks an hour to build a GM pickup in Oshawa, when you can just move the entire assembly plant to Mexico, and potential immigrants can stay home and build the same truck for two bucks an hour?

The jobs left for working class immigrants no longer allow the standard of living afforded the immigrants of past generations.

Today, Pier 21 is just a museum.

Today, working class immigrants have a wide range of minimum wage jobs available to them, none of which will provide a living wage, let alone the prospect of achieving financial security.

Unfortunately, they'll never own a home or a car, will never accumulate inter-generational wealth, and are doomed to live a hand-to-mouth existence that the social scientists label "lifestyles of the working poor." 

But don't worry...

Experts at the most prestigious schools have been awarded generous grants to study the matter.

The longer Putin is "bogged down," the more NATO and EU solidarity will crumble

Think that one through.

They've been telling us for two weeks Russia is bogged down, looking for an off-ramp, etc.

Maybe.

On the other hand, the longer the bog-down, the greater the refugee crisis. Poland is already crying enough. Three million in three weeks. What if Putin is bogged down for months?

Perhaps this thought has crossed the minds of Russia's military planners. Perhaps they see no great reason to un-bog until such time as their stated objectives have been achieved, those being demilitarization and denazification.

The demilitarization seems more or less complete. I don't know how they'll measure "denazification." That's one of those stretchy concepts that let's you declare victory whenever you decide.

The fact that escape corridors out of Mariupol are now functioning tells me the Russians are making progress in that department. That's the home base of the fascist Azov Battalion, the most highly motivated fighters in Ukraine. They literally will fight to the death. They will also execute civilians seeking to escape.

After three weeks of the fiercest fighting of the war, are we to assume the Azovs have pushed the Russians back? Maybe.

But I think a reasonable person should also consider the possibility the reverse has happened.

It was interesting which NATO leaders met with Zelensky today. It obviously wasn't a delegation from the serious end of the spectrum. The longer NATO showcases its impotence, the more its credibility wafts away.

They were there as part of a lobbying mission for more NATO support for the war, particularly "closing the skies." The F-35 is the most expensive weapons program in US history, and is foisted on NATO partners across the board. While armchair war fanboys are eagerly awaiting its combat debut, maybe people who know something have good reason to avoid such a confrontation.

As more and more of America's "partners" realize this war could soon move from their back yard to their living-rooms, and the American Empire is powerless to help them, perhaps they will reconsider their allegiance to their naked emperor. 

Do you miss Trump yet?

In hindsight, there was something soothingly predictable about the Trump years.

It didn't seem like it at the time. The ten-foot-high headlines excoriated the Orange Ogre for one calamity after another, day after day after day.

But looking back, none of it amounted to much of a hill of beans. You could pretty much sum it up as Donny J being an obnoxious a-hole.

There was no war in Europe. 

He didn't even start a fresh one anywhere, which surprised me. I thought for sure that was coming after he rubbed out Soleimani.

Plus, he had a high entertainment quotient. Look where ratings are for CNN and MSNBC now that Trump's not carrying them anymore.

Anyway, four years of Mafia Don was plenty, and we figured we'd enjoy four years of peace and quietude with Sleepy Joe snoozing in the wheelhouse.

Well, Holy Mother of God!!!

We're just past the one year mark, and look around!

Gasoline at record high!

Murders at record high!

Inflation at record high... ditto for military budget, budget deficit, etc.

And now, the existential anxiety of wondering what Putin might do next.

For all the uncouth a-holery, it now seems the Trump years were the years of peace and quietude!

The cognitive dissonance in our anti-Russia propaganda

It's truly a challenge trying to suss out what's real and what's not in the fog of war.

Lot's of experts telling us Putin's war is a complete failure. Not only that, he's succeeded in uniting NATO as never before!

Then comes the daily impassioned plea from the heroic Zelensky himself, the guy who's fighting Putin in Ukraine so we don't have to fight him on the Plains of Abraham, begging his NATO masters to "close the sky." 

Zelensky keeps having to up the rhetorical ante, since the hot air support he's gotten so far isn't what he had in mind. Today he issued his gravest warnings thus far. 

If NATO doesn't act fast, it's gonna be too late. Once he's taken Ukraine, Poland is next, etc...

Wait a minute.

If he's hopelessly bogged down before he even takes Kyiv, how is he ever gonna be a threat to Poland and beyond?

Canada gives tip 'o the cap to white privilege

Not often I find myself on the same page as the wokelings at CBC News. Brodie Fenlon's got another excruciating essay on view today making excuses for the pathetic "journalism" he's responsible for. One of the great injustices of the universe is he takes home a decent dollar to write that crap, while I do better journalism on this blog for free.

But I digress. CBC has featured a number of stories contrasting our government's approach to Ukrainian vs. Afghan refugees.

For the brown Muslim refugees, we set a quota, provide oodles of hoops to jump through, and close our embassy in Afghanistan to make that hoop-jumping paper-shuffling all but impossible.

For the white Christian refugees, COME ON IN!!! 

No paperwork! No hoops! Automatic two year work visa at the door!

Hmm...

Hey Brodie, good on you and your team for not letting that slide!

Now if I may make a suggestion.

CBC's news coverage has for three weeks excluded virtually anything from other conflict zones. How are things going in the Afghanistan we once loved so much 158 Canadians died for... I'm not sure what, but let's not forget their sacrifice so readily.

How's things going with Somalia, another shithole where Canada left its mark. Remember that?

We're owed updates on a few other unstable shitholes where we were all-in to help Uncle Sam and our NATO allies restore stability, like Libya, Kosovo, Mali, and other non-white zones.

Zoom out a little from that white-on-white spectacle playing itself out in Ukraine. The news should be about more than stupid white people.

Sanctions force Russian oligarchs to choose between Putin or their super-yachts

My hunch is that the Russian oligarchs who choose their boats over their boss won't be oligarchs much longer.

Putin will strip their Russian assets.

Their buddies in the West will strip them of everything else, including their super-yachts, for the crime of being Russian.

If I'm a Russian oligarch, that's a no-brainer.

What remains unexplained, is why anyone should give a shit about what oligarchs, Russian or otherwise, think or do.

Communicating with your cat

The resident house-cat is maybe 12-14 years old. Originally she was christened "Mew," by one of the kids, when we still had those hanging around the place.

She came from a woman in town, a workmate of the Farm Manager, who was a prosperous and well-educated person, who for some reason didn't believe in having her cats fixed, and therefore had multiple batches of kittens to give away every year.

Having a farm and a big old barn, this person assumed we were delighted to take in her surplus kittens, and over the years we took in at least half a dozen.

We were not delighted.

We had three dogs at the time. One of them had a taste for pussy, so to speak. Mew is the sole survivor.

Anyway, after the last kid left, I re-christened her "Doublewide," because, while I never brought it up with the kid in question, I found the original moniker lacking in any sort of imagination or creativity.

At least "Doublewide" more accurately captured her essence.

She is with us still.

She's still got a touch of PTSD from the first day we brought Bruno into her life. It was at least three months before we saw her again.

But she's pretty much back to normal.

Every time I walk through the kitchen, she shrieks at me. The shrieking all sounds the same, but I know what she means by where she's hollering from.

If she's under the sink behind the water dish, she's saying, "there's too much dog drool and fix it now."

If she's under the sink in front of the water dish, she needs you to give her a sprinkle of tap water for her daily ablutions.

And if she's half way between the sink and the back stairs, she's saying "throw a few treats on the third step from the bottom, thanks!"

In return, this cat, who used to be a first-class mouser, does absolutely nothing.

Other than nap.

It's not about Ukraine; the American Empire is fighting for its survival

Here's something I wrote the day before Russia invaded Ukraine; In a war between serious people and the seriously deluded, the serious people are bound to prevail.

Putin's war is now in it's 15th day. We are told his imagined glorious three day triumph has been shut down, due to the the heroism of the Ukrainian military, and more especially, the heroic resistance of the Ukrainian people.

Claims of Russian failure become ever more strident and extravagant. Ukraine's ambassador at the UN was today rhapsodising about the corpses of thousands of Russian solders rotting in the rubble they died in.

For some reason, no one in the vicinity of any of this heroic resistance ever has a cellphone handy to record and broadcast the heroism of the resistance. The little bit of video evidence of Russian atrocities has been sketchy, to say the least.

Meanwhile, 2.5 million Ukrainians, obviously not true patriots, have smelled the coffee and decided they don't want to be in the middle of Uncle Sam's ritual sacrifice of Ukraine on the altar of American Exceptionalism.

Let's face it - the US Empire wan't looking all that serious anymore. China, Russia, and Iran were openly thumbing their noses. That encouraged a lot of pipsqueak nations like Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela and so on to get uppity.

For the American Empire to remain top dog, a course correction was required.

That's what we're in the midst of now.

So far, it's gone pretty good. NATO allies are rallying round and promising more purchases of armaments from the US defence contractors who fund the myriad think tanks and media operations of the Empire, where US policy is designed and promoted.

But...

This flare-up of solidarity is bound to be a flash in the pan. All Putin has to do is nothing. 

Russian forces can afford to stay "bogged down" for months, if not years. 

Cracks in the so-called alliance get bigger every day. Note the hilarious hot-potato skit that played out when somebody suggested Poland deliver its obsolete Mig-29 jets to Ukraine.

Germany's economy is doomed at current energy prices. With every day that goes by, the Germans too will more and more realize that their best interests are not aligned with the interests of those in Washington to whom they have forfeited their sovereignty. 

Unfortunately for most of my friends and neighbours who get all their information from CBC, BBC, CNN etc, they can't see any of that. I read those too, but I think you gotta balance our propaganda with their propaganda to have any hope of getting near the actual reality of things.

Here's a link to Andrei Martyanov's blog.

He's a Russian expat living in the US. There's a definite pro-Russia slant, but I highly recommend it to balance your consumption of anti-Russian hysteria, promoted 24/7 by our legacy media.

How to tell the difference between a pending fart and a pending shit

The key word here is "pending."

Once the crisis is no longer pending, it's too late.

That's happened to me a couple of times. You think it's all under control, but it isn't.

First time was at the Saint John Hilton. Nice joint. Right on the water.

I'd been having some gas issues, and when I ripped forth a fart in the shower, well...

The other time, I was attending a tobogganing party with my extended family. The toboggan hill was a twenty minute hike through deep snow from the farmhouse where the nearest flush toilet was located.

We had a grand chilli chow-down before we hit the hill. Unfortunately, I had seriously underestimated both the chilli and the distance to that flush toilet, and therefore was forced to exempt myself from the party for a couple of hours while I went home for a quick shower and a change of clothes.

Luckily, I have learned from my errors in judgement.

Don't know if it was the pickled eggs or the pickled beets, or the sauerkraut I had on that Reuben sandwich the other day, but I've been crazy gassy.

I've been dropping stink bombs left right and centre for days...

But tonight, as I was enjoying a breath of fresh air on the stoop, I had a gut feeling that feeling in my gut would turn into more than a fart.

Fortunately, I made it in the house and up the stairs to the flush toilet in the nick of time.

So, when you're wondering what's gonna be what, go with your gut feeling.

   

Map of countries that have imposed sanctions on Russia

We're led to believe by CBC, BBC, CNN, etc that the world is behind America's call for sanctioning Russia over the Ukraine invasion.

Not really. The countries shown in blue are following Uncle Sam's orders.

The rest of the world is not. To wit; no sanctions from the Western hemisphere south of the Rio Grande, none from Africa, the Middle East, or Asia, aside from Singapore and Japan.

The countries in blue represent approx 1/8 of the world's population.

Yet CBC et al never tire of declaring that Russia is becoming totally isolated!

I lifted that map from the Moon of Alabama blog. I highly recommend you read the entire article.

Why is Larry Fink long China and short American Empire?

Read something to that effect at Zerohedge. Maybe Larry knows something we don't?

There's a school of thought out there posits current US policy vis-a-vis Russia so utterly stupid, self-defeating, and suicidal, that it can't possibly be accidental.

They're deliberately trying to crash the US economy, and those of our European satrapies.

That would seem to give some credence to the conspiracy theory the pandemic was intended to do that.

Crash the economy so Klaus and the gang can pull the switch on their "reset."

Alas, that campaign was badly mismanaged, nowhere more so than in America.

War with Russia is Plan B.

Don't know if I buy that.

Maybe America's best and brightest really are that stupid and arrogant.

What happened to all the love we had for those PSWs working in retirement homes and long-term care?

Not long ago, in the early days of the covid panic, the working conditions of PSWs employed in those facilities came under scrutiny.

We were appalled. 

Poverty wages.

An industry-wide practice of providing only part-time work (to avoid having to pay benefits), resulting in workers carrying the virus from one facility to another as they tried to stitch together a living wage from multiple part-time jobs.  

Important people in government and media vowed things would change.

It's time we treated these essential workers with respect!

Benefits!

Sick days!

A living wage!

Two years later, I check out some current PSW jobs available around town. Happy to report there seem to be more full time gigs on offer, although there's still plenty of places hiring part-time only.

So how is the poverty wages thing going?

Here's a posting at the Canada Job Bank for a PSW job at Seasons, reputed to be the priciest retirement joint in town.

Seasons is a for-profit chain that operates 22 "retirement communities" in Alberta and Ontario. According to their website, they won a "Great Place to Work certification in 2021, for the second year in a row."

Seriously?

They're offering fifteen bucks an hour. 

The local McDonalds offers a higher starting wage, no First Aid Certificate, CPR Training, or criminal record check required!

NATO declines request to send F-35 fighters to Ukraine, sends best wishes instead

The prevailing Ukraine war narrative is causing major cognitive dissonance. 

On the one hand, this is the greatest threat to humanity since WWII. A sovereign state in Europe has invaded another sovereign state in Europe, surely a calamity, an outrage, worst thing since Hitler, etc.

On the other, actually fighting the invader is out of the question. Instead, we will crush him with "sanctions from hell."

If you're a fan of Hitler analogies, this would be where you recall how Hitler was stopped dead in his tracks by sanctions, right?

Fact check this; NATO will not interfere because the serious people know their combined military is no match for Russia's military.

Simple as that.

Which makes you wonder if they're effectively deploying their massive military budgets, collectively approx 15X the Russian military budget.

We're told Putin's war is a failure. Russian forces are bogged down. It's becoming a quagmire.

No, it isn't!

Every day Putin is "bogged down" is another day the NATO and EU ramp up the tensions amongst one another. Some of the more independently inclined are realizing the "sanctions from hell" are gonna be way more hellish on their own people than on Russia.

NATO was always USA directed. When it's raison d'etre dissolved in 1991, it should have been too. Instead, it was co-opted as America's foreign legion.

That foreign legion has made much mischief in various weak and defenceless nations in the three decades since.

This is the first time they've met a serious adversary.

That's why they're sending best wishes instead of F-35s

All Putin has to do is stay "bogged down" a few more weeks, and USA-NATO credibility will totally evaporate. The more the price of gas goes up, the less closely we'll stand with Ukraine.

PM Fluffy uses Ukraine crisis presser to brag about how long he's known Her Majesty

Trudeau jetted to London today for a meeting with Boris and the Dutch PM. It was all about getting their ducks in a row and their narratives aligned in the ongoing Ukraine emergency. If the headlines are half-way accurate, this is indeed the gravest global geopolitical crisis in seventy-five years.

Check out how our PM handles the press conference.

He's not answering questions. He's spewing Liberal Party platitudes for benefit of the home audience.

Note how he wows his fan base by switching back and forth between English and French. Frankly, that's not good enough, Justin. I'd assumed you knew by now those aren't our only two founding languages.

Thanks to real-time translation, making comments in French and then saying the same thing in English is completely redundant. There was a Globe & Mail reporter on the scene, so this was Justin playing to the home audience.

Meanwhile, his Dutch counterpart, who apparently thought he was at a serious diplomatic confab, simply spoke English throughout.

For my money, where Justin really showcased his diplomatic savvy was his reminiscence, apropos of exactly nothing, of his 45 year relationship with the Queen...

What?

Get serious, dude!

The day Dad talked to a banana

Back in the day, before everybody had a cellphone in their pocket, my folks had a phone on the kitchen counter.

Next to the phone, they had a fruit bowl.

One night at dinner, the phone rings. Dad gets up from the table, picks up a banana, and says "hello?"

That was at least thirty years ago. We laughed uproariously, but there was also a dark edge.

Has Dad taken the on-ramp to the dementia highway?

The dude is gonna be 90 this year, God bless him!

And all the marbles are still rolling in the right direction.

I bring this up because we've recently been wondering where I am with respect to that on-ramp.

This afternoon me and the Farm Manager settled in front of the TV to binge watch the doc about Janet Jackson. I was never a fan, but I have a new respect for her now.

This went on most of the afternoon, and at some point I felt I needed a snack.

Fixed myself a dish of pickled beets, a pickled egg, and a slab of blue cheese on caraway rye toast.

And what a tasty snack!

But back to the point. I got up to wash up my dish, got to the sink, and realized I forgot to bring the dish.

The other day, I got up from my usual perch in front of the fire, meaning to grab a beer out of the fridge.

On the way to the fridge, I thought maybe I'll step out for a breath of fresh air before I get the beer.

I was back on the couch before I remembered I forgot the beer.

So I get up again. Bruno is by the kitchen door with his throw-toy. I figure I'll just step out and entertain him a bit. The Big Boy makes me laugh out loud multiple times per day.

It's the least I can do.

Fifteen minutes later, I take my place in front of the fire again...

Oh, for fucks sakes!

Still no beer!

I don't know what that means for the long term. 

Plenty of dementia on Mom's side.

None on Dad's side.

Another reason I just want to be like you, Dad!

You know you jumped the shark when Ovie is getting death threats because of Putin's war

The Washington Capitals now provide a security detail for Alex Ovechkin, one of the greatest NHL stars of all time. 

Vladimir Putin is the president of Russia. Ten days ago he ordered his military into another sovereign nation, considered an act of war. Putin should be held accountable.

What does that have to do with hockey players, opera singers, symphony conductors, F-1 drivers, or disabled kids at the para-Olympics?

Does anybody imagine Putin consults Ovie on matters of Russia's foreign policy?

Our hypocrisy stinks.

When have we ever held baseball players from Cuba or Venezuela to account for Castro or Maduro? Or elite Chinese classical musicians for the human rights abuses of the Chinese government?

In 2015, Saudi Arabia launched a war on Yemen, with the full connivance of the nations now condemning “Russian aggression.” It is a war that continues to this day, with estimated civilian casualties north of 300,000.

In 2018, Saudi government operatives murdered and dismembered the journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi embassy in Istanbul. UK/USA support for the illegal war on Yemen didn’t skip a beat.

Three years later the Saudi’s were allowed to buy a football club in England’s Premier League.

Most disturbing, this unhinged anti-Russia hate is actively promoted by our media overlords.

Cathal Kelly uses his bully pulpit at the Globe & Mail to demand Russian NHLer’s “pick a side.”

Facebook lets the fascist Azov Battalion out of their hate-group ban.

Why? 

Certainly not to lower the temperature.

Putin should be held accountable.

Beyond that, we in the collective “West,” who long ago squandered any claim we may once have had on the moral high ground, should be ashamed of the hate campaign we are waging on Russians.

Ukrainian granny knocks Russian drone out of sky with jar of pickles

It must be true. The Farm Manager read it on Facebook.

When I'm rooting around on the internet, looking up background on stuff I might write about, I often see Facebook as a corporate partner or sponsor of this or that fact-checking initiative, think tank, peace institute, war college, community event, foundation... etc.

Facebook is everywhere. At this very moment a neighbour just posted he's tapping the maple trees. 

That's the insidious thing about Facebook. 

I know my neighbour. I know he taps the maple trees every spring. His social media post can and will be confirmed by my next walk up the side-road. 

Same with a lot of other local stuff folks put on Facebook. It's generally true. We know that because you can drive by the posters house and see the tree that fell over in the wind storm. 

That's how we get comfy-cozy with a corporate behemoth that does not necessarily have our best interests at heart. 

Once you trust Facebook with the local things you know are true, the idea that an elderly woman in Ukraine knocked a Russian military drone out of the sky by hurling a jar of pickles at it, seems plausible.

It's a feel-good story, if nothing else.

Behind the feel-good story is the stark reality that Facebook has enormous influence in shaping public opinion. 

We should pay a little more attention to how that enormous influence is being deployed.

Daily Mail becomes first Western media to tell the truth about Ukraine War: Putin has won

Check it out.

Nobody can accuse the Daily Mail of being pro Putin.

Yet here we are; a major mouthpiece for Empire is second guessing Empire.

As the reality of what’s actually happening in Ukraine begins to overflow the protective berms of media narrative control, we’ll be seeing many more media climb-downs in the days ahead.

My guess is that the prevailing narrative will linger longer in Canada than anywhere else. After all, we’re proud to house the largest Ukrainian diaspora anywhere in the world.

Unfortunately, that diaspora is shot through with what are euphemistically referred to as “ultranationalists.” From Putin’s point of view, these are the “Nazis” he is talking about when he talks about the denazification of Ukraine.

They revere the leader of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, Stefan Bandera. Every year on Bandera's birthday, they parade around in torchlight processions displaying nazi regalia.

Bandera’s OUN rounded up and murdered tens of thousands of Jews, Poles, Roma, and others during the Nazi occupation of Ukraine during WWII.

Their banner is the the black and red flag Chrystia Freeland was proudly holding in a recent (quickly deleted) tweet.

The wokelings at CBC, who a few weeks ago were tripping over themselves trying to link a confederate flag at the Ottawa truckers’ protest to fascism, are now twisting themselves into pretzels as they try to explain away their support of actual nazis.

The uber-woke Brodie Fenlon will soon enough have to answer this wake-up call.

The hills are alive with the sound of... snowmobiles?

A top of the line sled runs twenty grand or better. In these parts, you're lucky to get six weeks of open trails. Needless to say, the sledders will be out in force those six weeks.

There's nothing like having a wonderful nature hike out in the woods. The true believers call that "forest bathing."

I'll be hiking down the Kinch side-road, breathing deeply of the pure forest air, focusing on living every single moment to the full, letting go of pressures and making peace with long-standing anxieties...

And then a parade of twenty sleds blasts by, because the Kinch side-road becomes an official snowmobile trail every winter.

Don't get me wrong. I've always been a big fan of loud machines that go fast. They're not nearly as loud as they used to be, and they don't stink as much either.

But still, it tends to ruin the forest bath.

In praise of double standards

Thank goodness we in the West enjoy the blessings of a free press and unfettered TV news coverage. Unlike in Russia, where the benighted masses have access only to state propaganda, we are privy to the truth.

And the truth can be ugly, as the 24/7 saturation coverage of Putin’s war in Ukraine makes plain. Who can even imagine the sub-human barbarity of killing civilians, even women, children, and most shockingly, babies! If there was ever any doubt who are the good guys and who are the bad guys in this world, is has been definitively put to rest for all time.

The people of Afghanistan must be relieved they spent twenty years occupied by USA/NATO, and not the barbaric Russians. We don’t talk about civilian deaths (100,000+) because, as Stalin once said, when you cut down a forest there’ll be a few wood chips. “Collateral damage,” we call it.

Last we heard, and we’ll hear nothing more while Putin hogs the news cycle, is after the good guys left, we seized Afghanistan’s gold and cash reserves from UK and USA banks. Afghan civilians, women, children, and yes, even babies, face certain starvation.

The ongoing Saudi war on Yemen, aided and abetted by UK/USA, has some collateral damage too. (100,000 +)

The carnage continues in Iraq, where US troops remain on the ground two years after the democratically elected government demanded they leave. (200,000+ civilian deaths)

Let’s not forget Syria (350,000 + civilian deaths) in a “civil war” that wouldn’t have lasted a month without the lavish support of the Nations of Virtue. American forces remain on the ground protecting Syrian petroleum resources from Syria.

So let’s not forget who is good and who is evil. NATO officially announced today that Ukraine can stop waiting for actual military support, because this war has nothing to do with it. After engineering the 2014 coup, after 30 years of vague promises of EU and NATO membership, after coddling and encouraging the most belligerent and reactionary elements recklessly and relentlessly for many years, the long-sought disaster unfolding today is not our problem.

That’s how we roll, here in the Nations of Virtue!

Canada rushes elite DEI training unit to Ukraine

The decision to dispatch a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion training team was made in an emergency cabinet meeting yesterday. 

The move comes after CBC revealed that Black African students seeking to flee the war had been assaulted with micro-aggressions by Ukrainian border guards.

Obina Ojigbo, of York University's Centre for Social Justice, said that their resident training team would hitch a ride with the next Canadian Forces flight to Poland, and make their way to the border from there. 

"It is completely unacceptable that Black Africans are treated as second-class citizens in Ukraine just because they are Black. White supremacy has no place in Ukraine," she said.

**Breaking News**

CBC has just announced that both Justin and Chrystia called Zelensky and enquired about the scandal. He reassured them that the alleged racist border guards are not Ukrainian, but are in fact Russians in Ukrainian uniforms. The training mission has been halted pending further clarification.

The reset that's coming isn't the one Klaus and the gang had in mind

For two years, the experts in the media told us which experts in science and medicine were the right experts to advise the expert political advisers so that there could be a consensus of experts who were qualified to dictate how we non-experts would live our lives.

For decades, the top experts from the top schools have been forging US foreign policy. These experts are unaccountable, because they are unelected technocrats, and they are experts.

You're not an expert. 

I'm not an expert either, but let me explain something to the experts.

We non-experts have pretty much had it up to here with you experts.

There is more and more evidence that the science and medical experts who were deplatformed, ostracised, and cast out of the temple by the media gate-keepers, largely had it right (see Gupta, Kulldorff et al), and the experts who were trotted out to promote and amplify bullshit every day for two years, largely had it wrong.

All those experts at State and the Pentagon who spent the last fifty years formulating America's foreign policy have done a bang-up job too, have they not? Look around!

The technocrat-expert Schwabbies have played their hand.

The non-experts are calling their bluff.

Biden claims 120 million Americans in rehab

I'm listening to the State of the Union Address. At the moment, Joe is talking about Beau's brain cancer. Pretty sure that's the first reference to brain cancer in a SOTU.

Now he's gonna eliminate cancer.

Are there really that many Yanks in rehab?

Oh my God, he's talking about the "citadel of our democracy..."

Holy shit, he's gonna save democracy!...

How many cliches can you lay end-to-end and still call it a speech, rather than a cliche warehouse?

I feel so sorry for Americans. Most of the ones I know are decent, solid, people.

I'm surprised there's not more of them in rehab.

Multiple hit squads gunning for Zelensky

Zelensky became president of Ukraine for the same reason Trump became president of USA; brand recognition thanks to their TV careers. Both of them found out in short order that being "president" didn't actually mean you wielded power. 

Zelensky, and Ukraine in general, has been used as bear bait by its masters in the West. Now that the bear has charged, Zelensky is expendable. So is Ukraine, for that matter.

No matter how things end up on the ground, years of prodding the Ukrainian puppets to goad Putin has finally paid off. NATO was desperate to maintain some semblance of relevance in the post-Cold War era. The allies weren't really buying in anymore. Hardly anyone was pulling their 2% of GDP weight. Without NATO the American Empire is basically the US, plus Canada and the Marshall Islands. 

The Germans in particular were getting way too big for their lederhosen. Being the industrial powerhouse of the EU, they thought they were the Big Dog. They bought Putin's authoritarian gas by the pipeline. They even built him a new pipeline!

Obviously, to keep the Germans in the tent, they'd need to be taught a lesson. 

Desperate measures were in order.

Enter Putin.

More specifically, Putin's military entered Ukraine on Thursday. By Sunday, Chancellor Olaf had sholtzed his trousers, and announced an immediate doubling of the defence budget. Not only that, but he also cancelled the new pipeline he had built for Putin's gas!

Those Germans have long memories! When the bear is at the door, cling tight to Uncle Sam.

NATO is Saved!

The American Empire is saved!

Alas, there will be blowback. Not only on Sholtz. There will be festering resentment towards the comedian who allowed himself to be so manipulated by his American masters.

When Zelensky goes to his reward, a German hit squad is a distinct possibility. But they are certainly not the only suspects.

On Feb. 4 the Globe & Mail reported that both PM Fluffy and his brain, Chrystia Freeland, had made phone calls to Zelensky, suggesting it wouldn't be in his interests if he were to follow through on his threat to arrest former president Poroshenko when he returned to Ukraine in mid January. 

Those calls were egregious interference in Ukraine's internal affairs, but Canada has the largest Ukrainian diaspora in the world, and they tack hard right. Their lobby group in Ottawa arguably has more schlep than the Jewish lobby. Not only that, but the Deputy PM is part of that lobby.

Why would they want to save Poroshenko's ass?

Zelensky was a TV star who won an election. Poroshenko is a serious guy, a player, a man who knows the deep state in numerous countries. A man on a first-name basis with all the other corrupt oligarchs in Ukraine and beyond.

In short, a man who can get things done. But before he can do that, Zelensky needs to be done, it you catch my drift.

Zelensky is a marked man. 

Hopefully this brief essay will help point the investigators in the right direction.