Globe and Mail advises parents to install trampolines on condo balconies for their children

There's a lot of hysterical nonsense in today's Globe and Mail, most of which concerns the US election, "the most consequential since 1864," according to contributor and New Yorker stalwart Adam Gopnik. 

What's so consequential about it? 

Whether Trump or Biden prevails on Nov. 3, the American people can be assured of remaining the only modern society without public heath-care. They can be assured of the continued emaciation of the middle and working classes. Income inequality will continue to rage out of control. Military spending will continue to rise, employment precarity will increase, and the homeless crisis will get worse.

In short, the world will continue to be a bed of roses for the billionaires and their minions, while the rest of us double down on the fight for the hind teat.

So why do Gopnik and the other never-Trumpers featured in the Globe's opinion section find this election so important? Because it's the last best chance to turn back the clock to the pre-Trump golden age of the American Empire, when the USA unambiguously led the Nations of Virtue in the battle for freedom and human rights against the forces of darkness; China, Iran, Russia, and the handful of failed states who bob in their wake.

In other words, they're pining for the good old days; Hiroshima, Korea, Viet Nam, Laos, Cambodia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria... the glory days when American might determined what was right.

Yessiree, it would be tough to top the foolishness in the opinion pages, but Mathew Hague pulls it off on page p3. The sub-head of his story, on coping with kids in your condo apartment in the time of covid, caught my eye; "climbing walls in bedrooms, foldaway desks with chalkboard, and trampolines on balconies... how some are making the most of their condos for their kids."

I'm not always a big fan of "expert opinion," but I'm willing to bet that 100% of pediatricians would not recommend putting a trampoline on your high-rise balcony for your children.

In this case, I'm with the experts.

TRUMP TREASON REVEALED!!!

And it wasn't the Mueller investigation that revealed it; it was the Entous investigation.

Adam Entous, formerly of the Washington Post and the WSJ, has a fifteen page expose in the June 18 issue of The New Yorker detailing the Trump team's collusion with several foreign powers. Seems that Mueller's been looking at the wrong foreign power. His year and a half investigation has thus far served up some woefully thin gruel from which to make a case for Russian meddling in America's sacred democracy.

Instead of Russia, it seems he should have focused on Saudi Arabia, UAE, and, especially, Israel. Entous' investigation reveals collusion between agents of those foreign powers and the Trump team virtually 24/7 throughout the lead-up to the 2016 election. This collusion occurred at the highest levels, including between the future President and the heads of state of these foreign entities.

Entous' story has been out for well over a month now, so I'm surprised there's been no outrage in our major media about this foreign meddling. Surely somebody's going to be calling for sanctions on these rogue states any day now!

Change

I've always been a reader.

Got my start reading the funnies in the Guelph Daily Mercury in the late fifties.

Eventually got to the two Pauls, de Man and Feyerabend. I especially liked Feyerabend.

In the popular rendering of working class folks, we're a bunch of semi-literate yobs. There's an element of truth to that.

But there's always been a strong community of readers among us.

Like Johnny, who managed to get through most of the Globe and Mail crossword puzzle every day for thirty years. At work.

Or Andy, the pipefitter at Irving's shipyard in Saint John who happened to hold a degree in German Literature.

Or Dudley, who worked the pipe-bender at Kearney National during the week and partied with Johnny Wayne and Frank Shuster on the weekend.

I'm still reading. Mostly I read stuff on my laptop these days, but I still indulge the luxury of the printed page from time to time. Like when the internet goes down.

Which is why I happened to pick up a copy of The New Yorker this evening and read about the legacy of the Sackler family. That legacy includes hundreds of thousands of opiod OD deaths and hundreds of millions in philanthropic gifts.

The two are intimately related.

That's the second time in a month I've read a mainstream take-down of the Sacklers.

And the mainstream has been busier than I could ever have imagined dismantling the legacy of Weinstein and his myriad fellow travellers.

Who ever imagined such a thing?

What's next?

A New Yorker critique of US foreign policy?

A NYT disavowal of capitalism?

A WaPo editorial slamming the occupation of the West Bank?


We are on the cusp of great changes.

Hold on to your hat... and keep reading.