Kevin O'Leary, the guy who got famous playing a successful investor on Dragons Den, was musing aloud on CBC recently about how he might be the right fit for the leadership of the Conservative Party now that Big Steve has been put out to pasture.
The unilingual O'Leary immediately set out to showcase his political acumen by picking a fight with NDP premier of Alberta Rachel Notley. She and her neophyte lefties simply aren't the right people to manage Alberta's resources, he informed us. These are tough times, and tough times demand tax cuts on the oil industry, not tax hikes. She should resign, he said, and if she did, he would personally invest a million dollars to revive Alberta's energy industry.
Notley promptly rejoindered that the last time affluent businessmen fanned the flames of her demise she was elected premier a few days later!
Here's a headline from the Financial Post, five months before Notley was elected; Almost $60 billion in Canadian projects in peril as collapse in oil investment echoes the dark days of 1999.
$60 billion! And O'Leary's gonna turn around the Alberta economy by investing one million on the condition that Notley quits?
What kind of a moron is this guy?
At the time that headline was written, Alberta and its resources had been managed by right-wing parties for 80 years. Notley inherited an empty cupboard, not to mention a depleted sovereign wealth fund and a collapsed global commodities market.
Pinning the current mess on the NDP after eight decades of right-wing mismanagement is certainly a gutsy launch for the political career of Canada's next right-wing leader!
Saturday, January 16, 2016
Friday, January 15, 2016
It's time for Europe's Muslim leadership to police their own
Hard on the heels of the Cologne New Year's Eve scandal comes news that the nearby city of Bornheim has banned migrants from the public baths. Why? Apparently there's a certain cohort of dimwitted young males who truly believe that women in swim-suits who allow the eyes of strangers to alight on their bodies are making themselves available.
This requires a stronger response than having the local social workers ask them to stop being naughty. If you read up on early immigrant communities in America it's common to find instances of self-policing. If you were a youthful idiot bringing shame to the Irish/Polish/Italian community in Boston or New York or Philadelphia, it was only a matter of time before powerful forces within your own community would knock on your door and tell you to smarten up. Bring more shame to your community, and those forces would be knocking on more than your door.
It worked. One of the historical verities of immigrant assimilation in America is the fact that immigrant communities wanted the respect of the broader society. Those among them whose behavior undermined that respect were given some assistance to see the error of their ways, and failing that, they were weeded out.
By their own.
That needs to start happening in places like Bornheim and Cologne.
This requires a stronger response than having the local social workers ask them to stop being naughty. If you read up on early immigrant communities in America it's common to find instances of self-policing. If you were a youthful idiot bringing shame to the Irish/Polish/Italian community in Boston or New York or Philadelphia, it was only a matter of time before powerful forces within your own community would knock on your door and tell you to smarten up. Bring more shame to your community, and those forces would be knocking on more than your door.
It worked. One of the historical verities of immigrant assimilation in America is the fact that immigrant communities wanted the respect of the broader society. Those among them whose behavior undermined that respect were given some assistance to see the error of their ways, and failing that, they were weeded out.
By their own.
That needs to start happening in places like Bornheim and Cologne.
Thursday, January 14, 2016
Why Kevin O'Leary is not Canada's Donald Trump
Michael Den Tandt is a local boy who made good. He's one of the few professional journalists still drawing a paycheque from that floundering colossus, SunPostMedia, the media empire that just keeps giving back to the hedgies who bought its corporate debt for pennies on the dollar a few years back. Most of what you read in Postmedia properties these days is courtesy of unpaid interns, but Den Tandt is the real deal, and his opinion pieces play coast to coast and are generally worth a look.
Folks who follow this stuff will know that Kevin O'Leary was thinking out loud the other day about throwing his hat into the ring to replace Big Steve in the big chair at Canada's Conservative Party. Today Den Tandt offers an enthusiastic endorsement of O'Leary's delusions of grandeur.
I think Michael's got it right that O'Leary is not Trump, even though they superficially have that same "blow-hard" persona. Where I think he's got it wrong is in how they're different. True, O'Leary has yet to disgrace himself with xenophobic clap-trap geared to the prejudices of the baying masses. Instead, he is a man of principles.
And that's the problem. His principles are the tried, tested, and manifestly failed pillars of the Thatcher era; welfare state too generous, unions too powerful, government too big, and taxes too high. We can only bring back prosperity by slashing and burning and cutting taxes.
It's a recipe that hasn't worked since the Thatcher era, and there's no reason to think it will work with just a little more slashing, burning, etc.
So while Trump fill stadiums with his rancid appeals to emotion, it's hard to imagine O'Leary doing the same with his appeals for more austerity.
Not only that, but what really makes Trump important is that he threatens the very foundations of America's sclerotic two-party system. He's the only candidate telling the public that the system is broken. O'Leary leading the Conservative Party would be a more engaging personality bringing you four or five more years of Big Steve.
And who needs that?
Folks who follow this stuff will know that Kevin O'Leary was thinking out loud the other day about throwing his hat into the ring to replace Big Steve in the big chair at Canada's Conservative Party. Today Den Tandt offers an enthusiastic endorsement of O'Leary's delusions of grandeur.
I think Michael's got it right that O'Leary is not Trump, even though they superficially have that same "blow-hard" persona. Where I think he's got it wrong is in how they're different. True, O'Leary has yet to disgrace himself with xenophobic clap-trap geared to the prejudices of the baying masses. Instead, he is a man of principles.
And that's the problem. His principles are the tried, tested, and manifestly failed pillars of the Thatcher era; welfare state too generous, unions too powerful, government too big, and taxes too high. We can only bring back prosperity by slashing and burning and cutting taxes.
It's a recipe that hasn't worked since the Thatcher era, and there's no reason to think it will work with just a little more slashing, burning, etc.
So while Trump fill stadiums with his rancid appeals to emotion, it's hard to imagine O'Leary doing the same with his appeals for more austerity.
Not only that, but what really makes Trump important is that he threatens the very foundations of America's sclerotic two-party system. He's the only candidate telling the public that the system is broken. O'Leary leading the Conservative Party would be a more engaging personality bringing you four or five more years of Big Steve.
And who needs that?
Turkey unleashes massive barrage of tank and artillery fire on ISIS
I see where Turkey PM Ahmet Davutoglu is doing a little chest-thumping over those 200 ISIS baddies his guys have dispatched in the past 48 hours. This is apparently pay-back for that terror-bombing in Istanbul's tourist quarter the other day.
Really?
Is Davutoglu admitting that Turkey knew the locations of 500 ISIS encampments all along, but has done absolutely nothing about them until now? That would seem to support the school of thought that believes the Turks have been mentoring and coddling the "Islamic State" all along...
Sounds like a massive barrage of bullshit to me.
Really?
Is Davutoglu admitting that Turkey knew the locations of 500 ISIS encampments all along, but has done absolutely nothing about them until now? That would seem to support the school of thought that believes the Turks have been mentoring and coddling the "Islamic State" all along...
Sounds like a massive barrage of bullshit to me.
Monday, January 11, 2016
Delay, deny, and let 'em die...
For the think tank here at Falling Downs, one of the more odious Harperite deceptions was how they loved to wrap themselves in the flag and pose as super-patriots while at the same time stabbing the rank and file vets of the Canadian Forces in the back.
We certainly weren't the only folks to notice. Former Canadian Forces Sergeant David MacLeod had a book out last year, A Dirty Little Skirmish, that gave the lie to that fake Harperite patriotism.
Now there's another book coming out, authored by Colonel Pat Stogran, former 'Veterans' Ombudsman,' appointed by Harper himself to look out for the interests of Canadian Forces veterans; Rude Awakening;the Government's secret war against veterans.
Big Steve must have figured Colonel Stogran was going to be sufficiently dazzled by the prospect of hanging with the big dogs that he'd forget all about his fellow veterans.
That was obviously a gross underestimation of Colonel Stogran.
We certainly weren't the only folks to notice. Former Canadian Forces Sergeant David MacLeod had a book out last year, A Dirty Little Skirmish, that gave the lie to that fake Harperite patriotism.
Now there's another book coming out, authored by Colonel Pat Stogran, former 'Veterans' Ombudsman,' appointed by Harper himself to look out for the interests of Canadian Forces veterans; Rude Awakening;the Government's secret war against veterans.
Big Steve must have figured Colonel Stogran was going to be sufficiently dazzled by the prospect of hanging with the big dogs that he'd forget all about his fellow veterans.
That was obviously a gross underestimation of Colonel Stogran.
Saturday, January 9, 2016
Small farming in the 21st century
Back a few lifetimes ago, I was eyeballing a failed "estate development" a couple miles north of Guelph. Some wannabe developer had done all the dirty work and had all the approvals for an estate subdivision carved out of Wellington County farmlands.
Twenty-five "estate lots" on fifty acres of prime agricultural real estate. Our wannabe developer had enough money to rough in the road and build the model home; the one he lived in.
That's where things stalled out.
So after a couple of years of no takers on these estate lots, the entire development came up for sale, which is when my squinty eye appraised the possibilities. I figured let's rethink this "estate" shit and market this as a "market gardening" opportunity. After all, it's sitting on prime Ontario agricultural land. Instead of 4000 sq. ft. McMansions, we'll promote this project as an ideal location for a modest home, plus an acre or two of prime black soil.
A market gardening subdivision!
Drew up a business plan. Presented it to a few of my colleagues in the business. Presented it to my dear daddy, who had been in the business forever. Presented it to my friends at the bank I owed a million dollars to...
They unanimously agreed that I was obviously fucked in the head.
Fast forward thirty years or so. I'm having lunch with one of these kids who are the new face of farming. While she may have a P. Eng. in her back pocket, she lives and breathes organic farming. She tells me she just ordered her seeds for the coming year; a thousand bucks.
So what kind of a return do you figure you'll see on that thousand dollars?
Around forty grand.
How big is your garden?
I've scaled back this year; I'm down to one acre.
She's scaled back this year because she's so pregnant I was half expecting she'd calve right there in our booth at the Teviotdale Truck Stop.
Thankfully she didn't. But she is the face of small farming going forward. There's a generation of really smart and well-educated young people who have a passion for growing stuff. They want nothing to do with big agro-chem.
They are the future!
Which proves yet again that I wasn't a failure; I was merely ahead of my time.
Twenty-five "estate lots" on fifty acres of prime agricultural real estate. Our wannabe developer had enough money to rough in the road and build the model home; the one he lived in.
That's where things stalled out.
So after a couple of years of no takers on these estate lots, the entire development came up for sale, which is when my squinty eye appraised the possibilities. I figured let's rethink this "estate" shit and market this as a "market gardening" opportunity. After all, it's sitting on prime Ontario agricultural land. Instead of 4000 sq. ft. McMansions, we'll promote this project as an ideal location for a modest home, plus an acre or two of prime black soil.
A market gardening subdivision!
Drew up a business plan. Presented it to a few of my colleagues in the business. Presented it to my dear daddy, who had been in the business forever. Presented it to my friends at the bank I owed a million dollars to...
They unanimously agreed that I was obviously fucked in the head.
Fast forward thirty years or so. I'm having lunch with one of these kids who are the new face of farming. While she may have a P. Eng. in her back pocket, she lives and breathes organic farming. She tells me she just ordered her seeds for the coming year; a thousand bucks.
So what kind of a return do you figure you'll see on that thousand dollars?
Around forty grand.
How big is your garden?
I've scaled back this year; I'm down to one acre.
She's scaled back this year because she's so pregnant I was half expecting she'd calve right there in our booth at the Teviotdale Truck Stop.
Thankfully she didn't. But she is the face of small farming going forward. There's a generation of really smart and well-educated young people who have a passion for growing stuff. They want nothing to do with big agro-chem.
They are the future!
Which proves yet again that I wasn't a failure; I was merely ahead of my time.
Friday, January 8, 2016
Shucking and jiving our way to a new foreign policy
No matter how toxic Canada's foreign policy was in the Baird-Harper era, it had one redeeming feature; it was predictable.
Saudi Arabia was good.
Israel was even better.
Iran was Satan-on-Earth...
With POTHEAD at the helm, all that stability is in flux.
We were outraged at that mass execution in Saudi Arabia the other day, but just blink, and you're seeing this story. Yup, we should be strengthening our ties with Saudi Arabia!
Meanwhile, after a stink-up about children finding themselves on the terrorist no-fly list, Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale comes out with the news that airlines will no longer have to vet anyone under 18 years of age.
Which sounds really great! After all, we're inviting in a shitload of folks from all those Islamic countries we and our allies have been bombing, and if we were to deny their children airplane rides... heck, they wouldn't even be able to get here in the first place!
And then you read something like this.
Oopsie! A fourteen year old can be a suicide bomber?... Guess Ralph Goodale could be a little bereft of actual facts, eh?
Oh, it's a mess alright...
But the think tank here at Falling Downs has a suggestion.
Maybe if we stopped bombing the Muslim nations, they'd stop screwing with us?
Give it some thought, Mr. POTHEAD.
Saudi Arabia was good.
Israel was even better.
Iran was Satan-on-Earth...
With POTHEAD at the helm, all that stability is in flux.
We were outraged at that mass execution in Saudi Arabia the other day, but just blink, and you're seeing this story. Yup, we should be strengthening our ties with Saudi Arabia!
Meanwhile, after a stink-up about children finding themselves on the terrorist no-fly list, Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale comes out with the news that airlines will no longer have to vet anyone under 18 years of age.
Which sounds really great! After all, we're inviting in a shitload of folks from all those Islamic countries we and our allies have been bombing, and if we were to deny their children airplane rides... heck, they wouldn't even be able to get here in the first place!
And then you read something like this.
Oopsie! A fourteen year old can be a suicide bomber?... Guess Ralph Goodale could be a little bereft of actual facts, eh?
Oh, it's a mess alright...
But the think tank here at Falling Downs has a suggestion.
Maybe if we stopped bombing the Muslim nations, they'd stop screwing with us?
Give it some thought, Mr. POTHEAD.
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