Why I got fired from my coaching job

Way back in the day before the day, I was briefly the playing coach of an industrial league hockey team. Now that we don’t have industry anymore, this level of hockey is known as “beer league.” The reason I volunteered to “coach” was because taking on that responsibility meant you didn’t have to pitch in for ice fees, a saving of maybe five bucks a week at the time. Don’t laugh - that got you a case of beer in those days. While there was no actual coaching involved, beer league athletes being generally immune to coaching of any kind, the position did entail some responsibilities. A decent coach was expected to coral enough sponsorship to at least get a set of hockey sweaters and maybe a subsidized box of beer for the locker room on game day. So I went and chatted up Lino of Lino’s Fruits and Vegetables fame. Lino’s was a local institution and the go-to place for the freshest of fresh fruits and vegetables. Lino agreed to sponsor our team! A couple of weeks later I drag a big cardboard box into the locker room to debut the new jerseys. I got a team set in Oakland Seals colours, which was maybe not the best choice. Shoulda gone with the old reliable blue and white. But what really doomed it was the lettering on the back. “Lino’s Fruits and Vegetables.” Bags of umbrage were taken, to put it mildly. The sporting world is a somewhat macho space. It’s OK to be Sharks or Devils, but nobody wants to be known as Fruits or Vegetables. Funny thing is, today you’d be applauded for championing marginalized communities!

Banana Handlers on strike

I was reading about the strike at Metro. 27 stores are on strike in the Toronto area. Apparently the workers want a bigger slice of Metro's record profits. Just for fun, I googled "Collective Agreement between Unifor Local 414 and Metro." According to the contract that came up, which may not be the most recent, the start rate per Appendix A was 17.25/hr as of 2019. That's probably not a bad starting wage for a know-nothing kid out of high-school. Then I got into the job categories. There's Metro employees making a half-decent buck. Fork-lift operators at 26.96/hr. Reciever at 27.04. Senior stationary engineer at 27.41. At the apex of the wage scale are the Banana Handlers, clocking in at 27.54/hr. And that's as of 2019! They're probably over thirty bucks an hour by now. There's gotta be a lot of banana handlers out there working for less. Who knew?

More evidence Canada no longer a reliable ally of American Empire

Looks like the “world community” (USA and me-too states) has convinced the government of Kenya to go where all other US flunkies fear to tread; Haiti. That Jimmy BBQ dude and his G-9 hombres have put the fear into every other candidate for the job of bringing peace and stability to Haiti, including Canada. If you recall, that issue was on the agenda when Big Sleepy visited with Fluffy back in March. Joe was hoping Justin would pick up the torch in the battle to restore peace and democracy in Haiti, which has gone seriously off the rails since the last time we restored their democracy. Justin was initially keen, but when he found out Jimmy BBQ’s crew had guns and might shoot back, he demurred, and wisely so. After all, Canada is known far and wide as the country that brings a parliamentary commission to a gunfight. Rule of law, don’t you know! Kenya, not so much. They bring guns to the gunfight. Their security forces just spent a few days knocking sense into folks protesting a doubling of the fuel tax. Sure, a couple of dozen protesters died, but that’s a small price to pay for law and order. Besides, during the last big wave of protests, thousands died, so relatively speaking, Kenya has evolved into a peaceable nation. That’s why they’re the perfect candidate for the Haiti mission. Besides, the Western Liberal Democracies are going to feel better if it’s black Kenyan peace-keepers gunning down the black Haitian protesters.

CBC needs to get over its obsession with Donald Trump

I clicked onto CBC News website just after 7pm. I'd had a pleasant couple of hours chatting with the Farm Manager and playing with the dog. Time to catch up with what's happening in the world. The first five stories were all about Trump. Really? Apparently he has some new legal difficulties... this is news? In Canada? Why? I guess it's mainly because top knob Brodie Fenlon and his Merry Band of Wokesters still see a pay-off in invoking the Trump brand. He's an easy punching bag for lazy journalists. Hey Brodie; just a thought, but how about some Canadian stories? I profoundly resent having to subsidize a government-funded news site determined to import US political drama to my screen.

Tip for Liberal Party- forget the cabinet, ditch the doofuss

Overall I'd have to say that cabinet shuffle was something of a nothing-burger. Change for the sake of change. Bill Blair in Defence is certainly a feather in his cap, but a different face mouthing the same script written in Washington isn't a change at all. Lametti is no loss. He's the legal genius who opined that mandatory sentences for gun crimes should be waived if the perp was from a disadvantaged community. Don't know anything about his replacement, but dropping a newbie into a serious post like that smacks of typical Trudeau virtue signalling. Applaud now! Pay later! To my mind the choice of guest speaker at their recent convention tells you everything you need to know about the Liberal Party. Hillary Clinton. If a washed-up corrupt hack like Hillary is who you bring in to motivate the troops, you're screwed. But that's the best Team Fluffy could come up with. The main problem with Team Fluffy is Fluffy, a PM who manages to embarrass us on the world stage virtually every time they let him out of Ottawa. From his multiple foreign cringe tours where he likes to play dress-up, to his self-righteous posturing over human rights everywhere, to his repeated declarations of uniquivocal support for Ukraine when he knows we got nothing, to blowing smoke up NATO's ass over our commitment to the alliance, to making plain his enthusiasm for totalitarian measures with his abuse of the Emergency Act, our PM has been a disappointment. Fix that now. Worry about a new cabinet later.

America's fake democracy theatre goes to outer space

These are tough times for the Exceptional Nation. The Americans are set upon from all sides. Look at the big picture. Vietnam didn’t end well. Neither did Iraq or Afghanistan. And now Uncle Sam and his NATO fan club are embarrassing themselves with their proxy war on Russia in Ukraine. Things are no better on the home front. Half the population wants to kill the other half. It’s the eternal battle betwixt good and evil. Between the rockers and the mods. Between left and right, black and white, gay and straight, Jets and Sharks, Outlaws and Hells Angels and blah blah blah. It’s tribalism at its best, promoted by the usual suspects, and it’s tearing America apart… Oh My God! Look up there! Could that be an alien spaceship!? So, as the country goes down the shitter, Congress is… investigating UFOs?

More signs US influence is fading

This week 17 African heads of state will sit down with Russian president Putin. They'll discuss topics of mutual interest, no doubt including the Ukraine war. The African nations trotted out a peace plan for the war about a month ago. That was dismissed in Western media as a fool's errand because the Africans fell short of demanding Russia vacate all Ukrainian territory, including Crimea. In fact no African nation thus far has joined America's call to cease and desist trading with Russia. We are led to believe that Ukrainian grain exports are essential to preventing famine in Africa. In reality, virtually all grain exports over the past year went to rich countries, mostly as cattle feed. That's why Africa doesn't buy the bullshit that Putin is starving them. It'll be an interesting meeting. Isolated Russia is non-stop engaged with high-level meetings with countries around the world. Mainwhile, America's top diplomat, Foreign Secretary Antony Blinken, is in Tonga (population 125,000) bragging up the new US embassy building and the partnership with Tonga to contain China. While Russia forges alliances with Africa (population 1,250,000,000), America forges alliances with Tonga.