RIP Rob Ford

The think tank here at Falling Downs had a lot of fun at Rob Ford's expense, but I'd like to think that overall, it was good well-intentioned fun. While I don't think he had much in the way of political accomplishments to boast about (that was pretty much limited to turning modestly paying trash collector jobs into poorly paying privatized trash collector jobs), he certainly carried himself with an admirable I-do-what-I-do swagger.

We don't have to live in Toronto, thank God, but we listen regularly to Toronto traffic reports, just so we can remember why we should keep thanking God. But we get there every couple of months to meet up with the Juniors and sometimes the old Jewish relations who can't make it up here anymore, so we're somewhat familiar with the place, but we're not intimately acquainted by any stretch.

That's why we relied on the Toronto media for our Ford Nation info, especially the faux liberal Toronto Star. Ford Nation was, the way I understood it, a bunch of backward looking white racists pining for the good old days of Toronto the Good.

The good and white. Wasn't hardly a day where I wouldn't pick up the Star and read all about Ford's misogyny and racism and alcoholism and addictions and misogyny and racism etc. In fact, the Star bent the boundaries of journalistic integrity on a regular basis with reportage that amounted to fat-shaming and general character assassination. They still somewhat lamely claim that paying money for "gotcha" videos was a public service, as opposed to a black eye for journalism.

So I was a bit taken aback when I viewed a little bit of the funeral today. Seems that women and non-white folks were extremely well represented. What did they see in the man that the Toronto Star missed?

Anyway, this is about Rob Ford, not the sorry state of journalism today. All respect, Mr. Ford, and condolences to your loved ones. Thanks for being you.

More foolishness about "Russian aggression"

I see where the US taxpayer is going to cough up a few more billions so that the guardians of global freedoms at the Pentagon can increase America's military capabilities in Eastern Europe. After all, you never know which of those Eastern European statelets Putin might want to annex next, do you?

Here's the part that I don't get. According to the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, last year Russia spent 51 billions on defence. The USA spent 600 billions. That's what, over a thousand percent differential in defence spending? And WE have to spend more because even though we're outspending Putin by a factor of ten, we still feel threatened?

Really?

And that's not the whole story; Russia is just one country. The USA has a gang, a veritable pack of allies known as NATO. According to NATO's own documents (scroll to p 5), their aggregate defence spending was over 900 billions in 2015!

Fifty billion for the Ruskies... 900 billion for our team, and we're still scared of Putin?

Anybody else smell something fishy here? Obviously, this kind of spending discrepancy can only be the result of endless arm-twisting, lobbying, and fear-mongering by our vaunted military-industrial complex.

It's time to call the bullshit.

Trump figures he can get along with Putin. I say give him a chance. If it looks like it's gonna work out, I say scale back the US defence budget so it's oh, maybe only 100% bigger than Russia's. That should free up about half a trillion per year to address healthcare, education, and infrastructure. Hell, there'll be such a labour shortage in America we'll have to let all the black and hispanic doobie-dealers out of prison to take the jobs! They'll be able to buy houses, send their kids to the free universities... Christ almighty, happy days are just around the corner!

Is the jig just about up for the wily Erdogan?

How ironic that on the very day that Erdogan wings his way to America, America advises her nationals to get the fuck out of Turkey.

Even more ominously, Israel just did the same thing.

This does not bode well for NATO ally Turkey. Obviously, the double-dealing Erdogan's shit is about to hit the fan of public exposure.

Not to mention crippling blow-back.

How convenient that he is out of the country at the moment!

Wily Erdogan flies to US to mend fences with Fethullah Gulen

If you've been paying attention at all, you'll know that everything that's gone off the rails in the Islamic Republic of Turkey for the past ten or fifteen years has been masterminded by the double-wily Fethullah Gulen and his extra-wily band of Gulenists.

Popular uprisings against grossly corrupt real estate projects? A Gulenist plot!

ISIS terror attacks in Turkey? A Gulenist plot!

PKK terror attacks in Turkey? A Gulenist plot!

Erdogan family members exposed up to their necks in the ISIS stolen oil trade? A Gulenist plot!

Mainstream Turkish journos questioning Erdogan's disastrous decisions? A Gulenist plot!

Random citizens questioning the divinity of the wily Erdogan? A Gulenist plot!

German media mocking the Emperor? A Gulenist plot!...

Truth is, the reason the wily Erdogan needs a thousand room palace is because every one of those rooms is full of filing cabinets over-flowing with files on the multitudinous Gulenist plots!

That's why Erdogan will take a few hours out of his busy schedule being snubbed by Obama to pop over to the Poconos and have a sit-down with the Caliph of the Gulenites.

But, sorry to say, it's way too little and much too late.

Has America become an idiotocracy?

Not completely.

My relations in New Jersey still seem pretty sharp. And if they're telling the truth they didn't ever vote for CC anyway. And I know for a fact they would never be on the Trump bandwagon.

So what's a proud New Jersey liberal gonna do at this stage of the game?

I'm hoping they've got the gazongas to vote for Bernie.

When the GOP aristocracy is suggesting a vote for Hillary (see Bill Kristol et al) is preferable to a vote for the guy who is winning the GOP race, it's more than obvious that any true "democrat" can only vote for Mr. Sanders.

Oh, these are trying times!

Travails of a pot-addled hillbilly

First off, let's celebrate the fact that I'm merely a pot-addled hillbilly.

Not a crack-addled or meth-addled hillbilly.

The pot-addled hillbilly takes a dim view of those other addictions.

The dear Lord above put pot down here on His good green earth for a reason.  The weed 'o wisdom just sprouts up in the fields of Jamaica and Mexico and the lower mainland of BC and the temperate forests of Washington and Oregon and northern California.

It's not like you have to cook it up in your bathtub.

With battery acid as an ingredient.

That's the difference between good drugs and bad drugs.

And that's why I'm a little leery of those folks who just want to willy-nilly legalize everything.

On the other hand, what's to be gained by criminalizing meth addiction? From what I hear, there's been a ton of really normal folks fall into this rut. Meth, crack, Fentanyl, heroin... the folks formerly known as middle class have taken to drugs big time now that their futures have been eclipsed by various "free trade" deals that have impoverished them.

That's probably why those folks are turning to Donald and Bernie big time.

Their politicians have failed them.

As for me, fuck, I struggle to differentiate between a meme and a trope, but at least I can tell a decent spliff when I burn one...

Guess it wasn't her day to die

Due to my interest in the great Waco Biker Ambush & Coverup, I've become a regular reader of the Waco Trib website. While the coverup continues, at least for now, one of the lead characters in that scandal, Sergeant Patrick "Pinocchio" Swanton, makes regular appearances in the Trib in his capacity as spokesman for the Waco PD.

That's how I happened upon the story of Brittney Garrett, who was driving her Toyota Tundra while simultaneously texting on her phone, and whoopsie!...

 Waco police Sgt. W. Patrick Swanton said officers were called about 11:55 p.m. Wednesday to a single-vehicle crash in the westbound lanes of State Highway 6 at the Twin Bridges, where they found a heavily damaged 2015 Toyota Tundra straddling the inside guardrail.

Officers could not find the driver or any other occupants and presumed the driver, later identified as Brittney Ann Garrett, may have fallen into the water.

“The report says that she was distracted by her cellphone, looked down at her cellphone and ran into the sidewall, on the driver’s side . . . hit the guardrail, rode up that guardrail and it apparently caused the driver’s side door to be torn off and cause a hole through the floorboard,” Swanton said. “She was ejected from the vehicle, through the hole created in the floorboard, and into the lake below.”

Officers began to call for a water rescue and helicopter assistance to light the lake before they found Garrett on the shore at Speegleville Park. She swam about 150 to 200 yards to reach land, Swanton said.

There are a few lessons to take away from Brittney's adventure. First off, don't text and drive.

Two, if you do text and drive, don't do it in a Toyota. A Ford, Dodge, or GMC pickup can mess with guardrails and survive. A Toyota gets ripped wide open and poops its passengers into the raging waters sixty feet below.

Finally, Brittney's fabulous adventure is proof yet again that if your number ain't up in this great lottery 'o life, not even the most brazen act of stupidity is gonna send you to a premature reward.

Congratulations Brittney!