What if they had a news network called Spinco?

Ya, I know what you’re thinking; the Geriatric Ranter, given as he is to paranoia and conspiracy theories, sparked a fattie and came up with some mildly amusing speculations. But no! There’s actually a whole gaggle of ivy leaguers embedded in greed-bag hedge-funds who are doing this right now! It all goes back to the Comcast takeover of NBC Universal. The combined company was one of the bigs in global media. Alas, shit happens and times change, and big brand news titles aren’t what they used to be. Although Rachel Maddow, Queen of Prog News, still makes 25 million a year to be determinedly, proudly, and ostentatiously wrong about almost everything, the MBAs at the top of the mainstream media food chain plan to ditch most of their news properties. They’re spinning them off to a subsidiary they’re calling "Spinco." There’s something refreshingly honest about that!

Trudeau, the self-proclaimed "feminist," leaves a trail of battered women in his political wake

The Globe and Mail is all over it; folks are beginning to question Justin’s “feminist” bona fides. The special irony in this is, just three days ago. he drew massive attention to himself by mocking Americans for having elected Donald Trump over a woman. Twice! And now the woman who was variously known as Agent Frida, Justin’s brain, or the Ukrainian ambassador, has had enough. While I’m generally no fan of Agent Frida, I’ll tip my cap to her for turning her back on the little twerp. It’s embarrassing enough that we have to live with this government; it even more embarrassing when Fox News and BBC splash our suffering all over the world. From Jakarta to Mumbai to Shanghai people are scratching their heads, asking “what happened to Canada?” I think, at this point, Fluffy’s goose is pretty much cooked. Mind you, he did show us his authoritarian side with that Emergency Powers hanky panky, so you never know. What is most disturbing is I see nothing on the political horizon that would be much of an improvement. The Greens have no relevance at all, the other three parties are Original Neolib, Neolib Light, and Neolib Extra Strength. So why bother voting? The Neolibs have it in the bag regardless, and we’ll keep wobbling down the same path. The homeless population will continue to grow, governments will continue to study the problem, military spending must grow so we can stand with our allies in defending our values, and we must all tighten our belts for the sake of freedom and human rights. This will of course entail some cutbacks in some of the bells and whistles we’ve become used to. Like health care and education, just to pick a couple out of the air. But, if we truly believe in Democracy, if we are patriotic Canadians, we will rise to the occasion, and make the sacrifices we have to make, just as our forefathers did in Passchendaele over 100 years ago… Or not!

Will your hourly wage buy a case of beer?

Here’s something well worth reading. Charles Hugh-Smith makes a convincing case against the common mantra that “we’ve never had it so good.” How many times have you heard that? That writer is a serious pundit, whereas I’m just the pot-addled hillbilly blogger, but I have made similar observations, using different metrics. Can I buy an ounce of weed with my hourly pay? Or a carton of smokes? Or a case of beer? To be honest, I’m a pensioner with the good fortune to actually have a pension. The “hourly wage” thing does not apply. Frankly, there was never a time in my working life that an hour’s pay bought an ounce of weed. Maybe a quarter ounce at best. But a carton of smokes or a case of beer? Absolutely! Today a case of 24 tall cans runs sixty bucks or more. The tobacco addicts not patronizing the smoke shops at their local Indian reservation are spending well over a hundred for a carton! So Mr. Smith is 100% on the money. After 75 years of capitalist prosperity, only the rich can afford to indulge the basic vices.

MSM believes you're retarded

They being legacy media, and crap being the shit they fob off as “news.” They’re telling me there’s a struggle for freedom and democracy going on in Georgia (the country, not the state, although there’ve been some issues in the state too). Georgia, being a former Soviet state, is a prime target for meddling from the usual suspects in Washington. Recently, the government passed a law requiring foreign funded entities, like all the NGOs funded by Endowment for Democracy and USAID, to register as foreign agents. This is alleged to be the result of Russian interference in Georgia, because Russia passed similar measure a few years ago. Needless to say, all those entities in Georgia bankrolled by the West immediately took to the streets in outrage! Looking at this from Canada, it’s quite ironic; our media have spent the past couple of years blowing up that “China is meddling in our democracy” nothingburger into an urgent plea for a foreign agent registry… just like Russia! Just like Georgia! And just like that font of Freedom and Democracy south of us has had in place since 1938! But in the world ‘o whoppers mainstream news has become, that’s nothing. How about that al-Jolani chappie who just made Syria safe for democracy and Pride parades. Check out his Wikipedia page. We’ve been hunting down this savage terrorist for pretty much as long as we’ve been fighting the Global War on Terror. He has cycled through Al Qaeda, Al Nusra, and ISIS before emerging as… the savior of Syria?! REALLY??? Do they really think we’re that retarded? Anyway, trouble in Ukraine or Georgia or Syria is incidental compared to the tribulations currently being endured by the long-suffering Chosen People over there in the Holy Land. The Greatest Leader Since Moses has told us repeatedly that his war on Gaza is the front line in the war of Civilization against Barbarism. Wait a minute… how is it possible that the guy leading the fight for civilization is wanted for war crimes? I’ve watched enough Al Jazeera in the last 14 months to know the civilization he’s fighting for, using the tools of mass starvation and indiscriminate bombing of women and children, isn’t a civilization I want to be a part of. Barbarism can’t be any worse than that. Nevertheless, the smart folks who decide what’s on your news will no doubt continue to blame “Russian disinformation” for the fact they have lost all credibility.

They tore down my childhood home to put up a McDonalds

We lived there from when I was a toddler till I was on the cusp of adolescence. It was a two-storey pile of yellow bricks my folks bought around ‘58, the first house they were able to buy after getting off the boat at Pier 21. They rented the upstairs to Mom’s brother and his family. It was across the traintracks from the railroad station. Sometimes in summer the railroad men would hop the fence, throw a blanket on our lawn, and spend their lunch hour playing cards. It came with two acres, which included a small barn and a couple of chicken coops. My parents were able to recreate the peasant lifestyle they’d known in Prussia before they were evacuated to refugee camps in Denmark in the dying months of the war. We had a couple of cows for milk and cream, pigs, and eggs from the chickens until they were layed out, at which time they found their way into the roasting pan. Mom would whack their heads off with an axe, causing me to learn early on where the expression “running around like chickens with their heads cut off” comes from. The rest of the process was a family activity. I didn’t know what the pigs were for until Dad and a couple of uncles slaughtered one right there in the barnyard. It was a large beast, and not at all copacetic with their plans. The sight of these guys chasing a pig around the yard with sledge-hammers and axes wasn’t something children needed to see, but at least we knew where our food came from. The place was a bit of a fixer-upper. The first project was indoor plumbing and a septic bed, but not until we’d spent the first winter with a hand-pump and an outhouse. Mom and my grandmother used to keep amazing gardens. From kohlrabi to carrots to beets to peas to potatoes, they had it all going on. There was even a pear tree, and to this day I recall what a thrill it was to open a jar of pears in the dead of winter. When I heard the sad news that we were moving, I made a map of that garden, hoping to recreate it somewhere else sometime in the future. It’s never happened, and by now I’ve lost that map… Another dream bites the dust! To bulldoze that house, with its rich history, and pave over those gardens, to put up a fast food restaurant, is utter sacrilege. If you happen by the Elora McDonalds and see an elderly gentleman parked in the back corner, eating pickled beets out of a jar, with tears streaming down his face… I figure that’s about where my room used to be. Feel free to say hello.

Your money or your life, or both; health care in America

The murder of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson has ignited a whole lot of debate everywhere. I had some driving to do today, and I generally keep the CBC on the car radio. Elamin Abdelmahmoud’s half hour show “Commotion” came on. The producers have upped their game since that program debuted. I found the first few episodes way woke and too Toronto-centric. Today, Elamin had top-shelf writers on, from Vox and Rolling Stone, and they had some insightful observations about media response to Luigi’s first shot in the new class war. They danced around the conundrum all writers in mainstream media are facing. The internet is saturated with thumbs-up emojis on the matter, yet nobody on any mainstream platform is gonna go there. Getting a slot on CBC or Rolling Stone or Vox is way too big a prize. Nobody’s going to screw up their career by being honest about how they really feel about Luigi and Brian. They did mange to foreground a salient point in spite of that; if health insurance is such a major issue for Americans, why was it almost totally absent from the recent election campaign? They know why, they just can’t talk about it. Kamala had over 80 billionaire donors behind her campaign. Trump had about 50. Billionaires in America enjoy gold-plated health care. It’s not an issue for them. Therefore, it’s not an election issue. That’s the way the cookie crumbles when you’ve sold your democracy to the highest bidder.

Luigi Mangione is the Robin Hood of the 21st century

So a dude pissed off at how big med gets away with fucking everyday people, takes the plunge into direct action. That’s officially known as first degree murder. Generally speaking, the masses do not approve of murder, especially premeditated in the first degree. But by golly, it looks like the masses are willing to cut you some slack if you murder the CEO of a corporate entity that has gorged on the suffering of ordinary people. Luigi Mangione just became a superhero of the resistance to predatory capitalism. That should be a wake-up call to predatory capitalists. Luigi is everywhere.

War vibes

When FM Joly introduced Canada’s new and improved Arctic Foreign Policy, her preamble provided the rationale. Russian aggression. That’s right! Make no mistake; Putin is bent on world domination. He’s not going to stop at Ukraine. No! After Ukraine, all of Europe is in his cross-hairs. Once his army has made it to the English Channel, his greedy imperialist gaze will turn north, to what used to be the Canadian Arctic, now the North American Arctic, or just the “American Arctic” for short. That’s why we have to be ready. Let’s unpack this. In three years, Russia’s invasion has captured about 20% of Ukraine. Simple arithmetic says it’ll be another 12 years to make it to the Polish border. We’re in 2036 now. Then, the 84 year old Putin, assuming he’s still in the big chair, will have to fight his way through Poland and Germany. No offence to the Ukrainians, but I figure if it took Putin 15 years to subdue Ukraine, Poland and Germany will take at least 30 years each. Then he’s gonna set his sites on Canada’s… I mean America’s Arctic. That brings us to 2096. Putin is 144 years old. I figure by then our new fleet of warships, first announced in 2008, will be mostly if not fully operational. So bring it on, Putin! We’re not afraid of you!

Moderate rebels take Syria - Democracy and Pride parades coming soon!

Finally! There’s a whole lotta gloatin’ goin’ on today in certain circles. Washington, the Pentagon, Langley… What I’ve read at the JPost today is a little more nuanced. Yes, it’s a happy day in some ways, but… and there’s the rub. While it’s good that Assad has been vanquished, the Israelis know the “moderate rebels” better than anyone. Remember a few years ago when Canada rescued about 100 of those brave Syrian White Helmets that were trapped by Assad’s forces? Chrystia Freeland was even honored as an “Honorary White Helmet” by the White Helmets themselves! The White Helmets were first responders who worked exclusively in rebel held areas of Syria. That’s because they were rebels! And how moderate were those rebels? Moderate enough for Canada, but not nearly moderate enough for Israel. Although those humanitarian White Helmets escaped Syria via Israel, Israel was adamant that not a single one remain there. That’s because they know the truth, and the truth is, today’s moderate rebels are just the latest rebranding of the ISIS head-choppers and the Al Qaeda terrorists who allegedly brought down the twin towers. To my complete shock, CNN aired an interview with the HTS (latest acronym after AQ and ISIS for the usual head-choppers) leader that actually broached this subject! The CNN interviewer quizzed al-Julani on his remarkable path from terrorist Al Qaeda operative to ISIS leader to moderate rebel leader celebrated by CNN. It’s a stunning exercise in narrative management and well worth a look. She even brought up the fact that HTS is listed as a terrorist entity by the USA and its vassals, and brought up the $10 million bounty the FBI has on him. We’re supposed to believe all his terrorist activity was just youthful indiscretions, the Islamic fundamentalist version of an Amish kid out on their “rumspringa.” Sure… What we know for sure is Israel is now rid of Assad, and instead, has a collection of Islamic fundamentalist whackos next door. Good luck with that!

Canada to give Canadian Arctic to Trump in return for privilege of becoming 51st state

There’s a certain apprehension when our dimwitted foreign minister unveils a project she’s been “working on for a year.” And here is the result of her long year of intellectual labour. I’ll give you the nitty-gritty, the Coles Notes version, if you will; the Canadian Arctic has been rebranded the North American Arctic! WTF, you say? Calm down… the rebranding just reflects the reality that the previous nomenclature missed, ie that the north coast of the North American land mass is actually the north coast of (and here’s another joly Jolyism) something I’d never heard of before; the North American Homeland! Homeland? That’s another one of those trigger words, like motherland or fatherland, that unleash a powerful urge to break out in goose-stepping around the kitchen table. Really? Of course, this is all because of our pending show-down with Russia and China. Working more closely with our allies, especially the USA, will be essential going forward. To that end, we’re gonna appoint an Arctic Ambassador, who will be an indigenous resident. That’s a bummer of a diplomatic appointment. I mean, it’s not exactly like being posted to London or Paris or New York, is it? I suppose the bright spot is it won’t cost nine million to build an igloo for the official residence. That’s it in a nut-shell. We’re still Canada, but our former Arctic is now the North American Arctic. And we’re now part of a Homeland. Is it just my paranoia, or does anyone else find it suspicious they drop this on us just a week after Fluffy’s pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago, where Trump suggested we’d make a fine 51st state?

The ongoing live-streamed genocide we're not allowed to talk about

Never again? There’s been a genocide ongoing in Gaza for well over a year. Recall this; In historical first, Israel announces its genocide in advance. Bibi didn’t let me down. They’ve carried out their promised genocide with shocking enthusiasm. There is no hospital or school or mosque or church or “safe zone” that is immune to Israel’s US-supplied F-35s dropping US-supplied bombs. That’s because every single hospital or school or mosque or church is actually built atop a terrorist command post! How convenient! Don’t blame Israel for starving those starving children in Gaza. Israel keeps trying to send oodles of food aid to the starving Palestinians, but those diabolical terrorists keep stealing it… And of course, anyone who dares question that narrative is an antisemite! That accusation is enough to silence criticism in most of the “Western world,” ie the world that, obfuscations and bullshit aside, is enabling this 21st century genocide. It was most gratifying to me to see Jewish anti-genocide activists occupy some real estate in Ottawa for a few hours the other day. Unfortunately, few news outlets bothered to mention these were Jews against Israel’s genocide. Anti-genocide protesters are typically portrayed as “Hamas fans,” antisemites, or just confused millennials. It’s beyond time to hold our media and our politicians to account. There is a genocide going on in front of our eyes. What will we do about it?

Screwing Workers 101

There are a million and one ways to screw workers, but the flat-out best way is to call them “contractors.” The other day I had the CBC on, and there was a learned professor explicating how postal workers are doomed. This was in the context of the current postal strike. When you see a Canada Post vehicle on the road, the all-in costs are about $65/ hr. A FedEx or UPS van is on the road for $45/hr. And the independent contractors delivering your on-line purchases are at $25/hr. I’m thinking, holy shit, those Amazon delivery dudes (while he didn’t say those words, we knew who he was talking about) gotta be working for next to nothing! That’s why they show up in twenty year old Dodge vans with squealing brakes and noisy mufflers. His point was, in a free enterprise economy, the future belongs to the contractors. They have an insurmountable advantage over those corporate employees who drive for UPS and FedEx. Couple of days later, this story shows up in the Globe and Mail, about how ride-share drivers (think Uber, Lyft, and the food apps are no different) make an average net of six bucks an hour. Yup! They’re contractors! Independent businessmen! Minimum wage laws do not apply to independent businessmen! Pity, that… one of the richest companies in the world, owned by one of the richest men in the world, can pay his delivery drivers one third of the official minimum wage because they are contractors!? Get the fuck outta here! It’s an absolute outrage that we continue to allow such a brazen assault on working people.

Small talk at the dog park

I’ve been taking Big Lips Bruno to the dog park almost every day for four years. Bruno is a grey and silver brindle mastiff with floppy ears and a cropped tail. From time to time we’ll meet up with a black and bronze mastiff with cropped ears and a long floppy tail. I’ve never had more than a passing “how ya doin’” with that other mastiff’s dad, until today. He used to deliver his pooch to the dog park in an orange Audi RS3. I was a car guy and I notice stuff like that. In the past week I notice Buddy has been bringing his brindle in a new RS7. That caught my attention. That’s a serious car. Over 600 horsepower out of a 4.0 litre V8. It’ll beat a Dodge Hellcat in a drag race. I’m not somebody who strikes up conversations with strangers, but I couldn’t help myself. “I see you got yourself a new winter-beater.” “Ha ha! No, I traded in the RS3 for its big brother.” So we get to chatting about his 1980 Corvette and my 1973 Trans Am SD, and about how messed up it is that the Germans can get more out of a four litre V8 than the Americans can get out of a supercharged 6.2 litre hemi. He had no idea we were talking about the demise of the American Empire.

Why are so many Canadians too lazy to work?

I am, for better or worse, getting to an age where I can remember a time fifty years ago. What I remember is that fifty years ago very few Canadians were too lazy to work. Whether you were a first or a tenth generation Canadian, the prevailing ethos stipulated that if you didn’t have a job, you were looking for one. Even when you took a trip on the pogey train, you knew that was a temporary vacation; you’d be back to the grind soon enough. Most everybody worked. In those days young people worked mainly to get out of their parent’s house and start an independent life. If you were still in mom’s basement at age 25, it was because you were working and saving for a place of your own, not because you were addicted to video games. Today, you can still be in mom’s basement in your 40’s, playing video games, and the world forgives you if you haven’t found a job yet that “agrees” with you. Which is why employers are “forced” to bring in temporary foreign workers. The Globe had a story the other day about the enterprising consultants who get rich off bringing TFWs into the country to do the jobs “Canadians don’t want to do.” The two iconic Canadian brands mentioned as relying on TFWs were Tim Hortons and Canadian Tire. No wonder. I’m a fan of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives Living Wage Project, and I can guarantee you no job filled by TFWs at either of those companies meet the living wage standard. That’s why Canadians don’t want to do them. Those companies need to up their pay, not import foreign workers. But today I happened across this story; Halifax is worried they’ll have a bus driver shortage if their foreign workers can’t get their work permits extended. That didn’t sound right. I dug up the collective agreement between Halifax Transit and the Amalgamated Transit Workers Union, Local 508. I know driving a city bus may not agree with some people. The split shifts are a bitch until you have enough seniority to avoid them, and you’ll no doubt meet your share of obnoxious a-holes, but even the starting wage pretty much meets the CCPA living wage standard, and after three years you’re about $4/hr ahead of it. So why do we need foreign workers to drive city buses in Halifax? I’m aware of the argument that there’s no point because you’ll never afford your own place anyway, so might as well stay in mom’s basement and beat the latest Call of Duty. And a universal basic income would be great because then you could slip mom a little rent money. Pass the Doritos. I don’t buy it. Check out this starter in Dartmouth. Ten percent down and you’re looking at a mortgage of under two grand a month - cheaper than an apartment and well within a bus drivers reach! Sure, it needs a little work, but back in the day we expected our first home to be a fixer-upper. In fact, I’m still living in one today! Local 508 is heading into contract negotiations soon. While I hope they score a decent contract - 25% over four years would be decent, I don’t believe that will end the reliance on foreign workers. Far too many Canadians just can’t be bothered anymore.

Fentanyl is China's revenge for the Opium Wars

I’m guessing the vast majority of Americans know absolutely fuck-all about the Opium Wars. Those wars were imposed on China to force her to permit Chinese citizens access to British opium. Yes, the British Empire ran the global opium empire at the time. China lost those wars, leading to another historical marker 99% of Americans are ignorant of; the century of humiliation. I love a plausible conspiracy theory, and when Donny J fingered China for the fentanyl flood the other day, I thought, holy moly, we got us a good one here! Once, we held the whip, and we humiliated China for 100 years. Apparently, at least according to Trump, it’s China that holds the whip today… I figure we’re in for about another 90 years of humiliation.

The blessings of watching refugee immigrants embracing Canadian values

While I was never a refugee myself, I was an immigrant, and both my parents spent years in refugee camps in Denmark after the WW 2. From what I’ve heard, that was a tough gig. For example, the communal toilets were a trench in the ground with a log laid the length of it. That log was where you parked your butt-cheeks to take a dump. Although the sanitary arrangements may have been primitive in some respects, they were quite forward looking in others. Those were totally inclusive toilet facilities; all ages and all genders used the same trench. What bathroom the trans residents used was a non-issue! And although the refugee camps had barbed-wire and armed guards, they were undoubtedly a soft touch compared to the refugee camps one might find in the Middle East today, where the refugee camps need to be bombed regularly to ferret out the terrorists who can’t help themselves from setting up command posts therein. So I was keen to get to know a refugee family that found their way to our community from there a few years ago. Like all refugees, including my clan, they were extremely grateful to make it to this beautiful, peaceful, polite, and imminently tolerant society. Those are our values, after all. And they were determined to work hard and fit in. They arrived eight or nine years ago, the parents with their five children. They’ve had an arduous road. Here’s an update. The family of seven is now a family of twelve with another one on the way. That’s because the older son married at 19. He and his wife have been very productive. Some of the kids have taken stabs at gainful employment, but nothing seems to stick. That virile eldest worked fast food for a few months, but it didn’t agree with him. Then he took a shot at construction, but that didn’t agree with him either. So here we are. Nobody works and they all live in public housing. The eldest has found the time and money to do his pilgrimage to Mecca, so at least he’s good with his God. Perhaps becoming an Imam would agree with him. But here’s my point. Let’s not blame these refugee immigrants. These people had absolutely no knowledge of sloth or entitlement until they arrived in Canada. They’re merely internalizing Canadian values in the modern era. I’m pleased to report that all of them are polite and tolerant.