Trump takes the Democracy Circus to the next level

You have to admit Trump’s cabinet picks have created a whole new side-show in the Democracy Circus! Doctor Oz? Get outta here! Looks to me like I might have been on to something when I pegged the election as a referendum on wokery. Well before the election, a slew of big-name corporations were back-tracking on their DEI commitments. Progressive icon OAC quietly retreated from her pronoun policy. MSNBC Trump-haters, Joe and his sidekick, the daughter of the grand neocon chessmaster, got an audience with Trump at Mar-a-Lago, and came away convinced Hitler isn’t such a bad guy after all. We live in interesting times… let’s pray to God we survive them!

Globe & Mail once again bullshitting us about Ukraine disaster

One of the top knobs at the Globe brain trust offers a masterpiece of revisionist history in his Saturday op-ed; Toxic myths about Ukraine are poisoning its future. Here are the toxic myths, or “three malicious fictions about 2014,” as Doug Saunders puts it. There was a coup in 2014 The coup involved NATO The United States and its officials interfered You need to read the whole thing yourself to fully appreciate Doug’s nuanced grasp of geopolitics, but here’s his concluding paragraph, just to give you a taste; Talk of Ukraine joining NATO, and of significant Western support, didn’t really begin until after Mr. Putin’s second invasion in 2022. A decade ago, the Americans and NATO both wanted to stay away from Ukraine. Far from the “Western expansion” fictions, the fate of Ukraine was left to Ukrainians. Oddly enough, NATO itself contradicts Doug’s nonsense. Check out Relations with Ukraine on their website. Here’s a quote; In response to Ukraine’s aspirations for NATO membership, Allies agreed at the 2008 Bucharest Summit that Ukraine will become a member of NATO. According to Doug, 2008 was the year NATO made it “clear they did not want Kyiv in the alliance!” I don’t want to rush to judgement, but it looks like the Globe is publishing bullshit again. Here’s the text of my letter to the editor. To: Letters The historical record reveals Mr. Saunders' "three malicious fictions" are themselves toxic myths.  Saunders claims that the infamous Nuland-Pyatt recordings, widely interpreted as America choosing the next government, was made after Yanukovych "stepped down," and was merely "expressing her wish that more democratic candidates would prevail -as one would hope any diplomat would." In fact, the tape was released on February 4th, Yanukovych "stepped down" on February 21st, and the candidate favored by Nuland and Pyatt was president by the end of the month. Nuland also claimed in 2014 that the US had invested over $5 billion in "promoting democracy" in Ukraine since 1991. The claim that "talk of joining NATO didn't really begin until 2022" is equally spurious. The Globe and Mail archives reveal an abundance of stories and op-eds that focused on exactly that, going back at least as far as the early days of the Harper government. It is relentless American interference(with the enthusiastic support of Canada) in the internal politics of Ukraine that has poisoned its future. Dieter Neumann

Maybe Israel is committing genocide after all?

The following is an op-ed from the Israeli news platform Haaretz on 12 November. The writer concludes that yes, Israel is unequivocally guilty of genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza. I find it ironic that this article could never be published in any major Canadian news site because it would be condemned as antisemitic hate speech. *********** Maybe Israel is committing genocide after all? People tend to believe that in order to commit genocide, you have to murder an entire nation. Well, no. You don't have to try so hard. You can earn the designation more easily. Raphael Lemkin, who coined the term "genocide," worked tirelessly to have it recognized as a crime under international law and given special status. Thanks in no small part to his efforts, an international convention was drawn up designed to fight genocide and to punish its perpetrators and their abettors. The treaty also includes a list of what acts a state or people must commit to be considered perpetrators of genocide. Article 2 of the convention lists five acts that make up the definition of genocide. In order to determine whether or not Israel is committing genocide, it's worthwhile examining all five criteria and see how many of them Israel is committing in the Gaza Strip. Here they are, word for word. Article 2a: "Killing members of the group." No problem. We easily meet the criteria for this section. Although the convention does not specify a required number of dead, 43,000 is surely enough. You can put a checkmark on this one. Article 2b: "Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group." Who would ever deny that we have successfully met the requirements of this section as well. We have bombed day and night; hundreds of limbs have been amputated; we ruined the lives of tens of thousands of children and their parents; we have torn them apart with bodily and mental injuries. Definitely put a checkmark. Article 2c: "Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part." The hunger and thirst, delays in humanitarian aid, endless torture and deportation from place to place, the systematic destruction of residential areas, houses of prayer, schools, thousands of people buried under the rubble, the employment of demolition contractors to flatten the city of Rafah (partial list). More than enough to meet the requirements section 3. I am proud to check it off. 4: "Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group." The destruction of almost all of Gaza's hospitals including delivery rooms, emergency rooms, neonatal and maternity wards, preventing shipments of medical equipment, killing medical personnel... Is there any doubt that Israel would look favorably upon the crash of the Palestinian birthrate in Gaza? Put a checkmark with honors. 5: "Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group." Finally, something that Israel has not done. A pity. Maybe taking some children out of the hell we created for them would have saved their lives. But it doesn't get a checkmark. Of the five criteria for genocide, we have performed four exemplarily. That's a fine score. Especially when the execution of one of the five sections, it doesn't matter which one, is enough to be considered a perpetrator. Bravo. Warning: Feigning innocence will not be admissible as a defense. No one will believe that we did all this in good faith, or purely for reasons of self-defense. Nor will public displays of misery and weeping be of any use this time. And above all, it is not worth relying as we do on the Holocaust as a defense. It may provoke comparisons. The treaty, by the way, also refers to those who incite genocide and those who conspire to commit it, and states that they will be punished. In other words, all ministers and members of the coalition. As far as I'm concerned, issuing international arrest warrants for everyone is enough. Their forced respite from roaming abroad at the public expense, due to the very possible threat of arrest, would be a more bitter punishment than death. How nice.

Democracy is dead, but the show must go on

Well, the Orange Ogre pulled it off. Against all odds, or at least against the expectations of the punditocracy and their favorite pollsters, he done kicked the crazed cackler to the curb. This has of course greatly agitated the “Trump is Hitler” crowd, who apparently are all getting their affairs in order so they can migrate to Canada. Democracy is dead, after all… wonder what they’re gonna think about Democracy once they realize they’ll have a choice between PP and Fluffy! Ya! You thought your democracy sucks! Today a good friend sent me this video that’s going around on her Facebook feed. That’s none other than future president Donny J singing on stage at the 2005 Emmy Awards! How soon we forget! What is Facebook doing, normalizing a guy they hated only a week ago? Democracy may be dead, but the show must go on!

What Canada Post could have been

Once again Canada Post is in the headlines. Contract time with CUPW, so we get the predictable sob-fest about how Canada Post loses gazillions of dollars every day and therefore can’t afford to pay its workers a living wage. Over the decades that we’ve been watching the never-ending death-spiral, I think the government missed a couple of key opportunities to make Canada Post into something far more relevant. Canada Post has a mandate to provide mail service to every community in the country. That’s a high bar, and an expensive one. The government-appointed CEO has a different mandate; cut costs. That conflict in mandates led to some hilarious moments. Deepak Chopra was CEO when “Community mailboxes” were being brought in as a cost-cutting measure. Instead of having mail delivered to your door, you could walk to wherever Canada Post planted your community mailbox. That might be half a block away or ten blocks away. Needless to say, this initiative was way more popular with Deepak’s political bosses than with his customers. Nevertheless, Deepak claimed he was inundated with calls from grateful seniors, delighted to be given a reason to walk a few blocks and get some exercise! But I digress. What were those opportunities that might have changed the trajectory of Canada Post? In the first place, in the course of bringing postal service to every community in the land, why could Canada Post not have also provided banking services to all those places too? It’s a well established fact that smaller, out-of-the way communities in rural Canada lack adequate banking. It’s an equally well established fact that poor neighborhoods lack banking facilities. Of course they do! How is a bank gonna make a buck in a poor neighborhood? Instead, the “banking” has been replaced by predatory cheque-cashing joints. Pairing mail service with banking services is hardly a new idea, it’s been the norm in many countries for decades. Secondly, consider the totally inept way legal cannabis was rolled out. In my opinion, the entire exercise was a massive boondoggle designed to throw the biz to Bay Street. Why could they not have made Post Offices the official pot retailers? After all, there’s already a Post Office (and bank) in every community! Once you’ve got the Post Office, bank, and pot dispensary, you’ve got the makings of a community hub! That would have worked wonders for community cohesion. Alas, that would have required political will on a scale not seen since we build a trans-continental railroad. Those days are gone. People who had vision and could get things done have long since given way to management apparatchiks like Deepak Chopra, who are fully convinced that providing shittier service at a lower cost is something to celebrate. After all, that’s the key to their annual bonus and their next promotion.

Move over Uncle Sam; here comes Dudley Do-Right

Globe and Mail star pontificator Doug Saunders had an alarming op-ed in the paper today. Given that the ignorant masses in the USA have just elected a fascist president, the Free and Democratic World obviously needs fresh leadership, and it’s time for us Canadians “and our allies” to step up. Yessiree, the future of democracy depends on us! And our allies… You know; Germany, France, UK… Looks to me like our allies are all having existential crises. Olaf the liver sausage’s government just collapsed. Macron is barely hanging on, mainly via procedural chicanery, and the UK, of all the Nations of Virtue, is clearly winning the race to failed-state status. Which leaves us Canadians to shoulder the burden of leadership of the Free and Democratic World. Doug admits that’s gonna be expensive. But he assures us it’s a worthwhile endeavor. After all, there is nothing more important than ramping up our military capability so we can fight those evil-doers who threaten the Free and Democratic World. Like Russian and China and Iran and North Korea… Yup, we and our allies have no greater challenge than whupping the bad guys on the battlefield! So full speed ahead on hundreds of billions in spending on F-35s and warships and rockets and missiles and bombs! Ya, we’ll have to make some sacrifices, but health care, education, and housing aren’t worth shit if you don’t have Freedom.

Democracy Theater lays an egg

You have to feel for those folks gathered at Howard on the evening of the 5th, imagining they were there for Kamala’s victory party. They were pumped to celebrate the victory of Democracy over Fascism. Diversity over white supremacy. Compassion and empathy over boorish self interest… Alas, it was not to be. Even though Kamala had more billionaires on her team (over eighty, as opposed to a mere four dozen or so for Trump), Trump had the biggest billionaire of all in his corner. Elon. Isn’t it odd that our deep-state-adjacent media can’t acknowledge that no billionaire is more deep-state-adjacent than Elon Musk? No! We’re supposed to believe he’s some sort of rogue actor posing a threat to our “democratic norms!” As if! And here’s another oddity. If you take a tour of foreign, ie non-Western news platforms, they all talk about this crazy conspiracy theory that there’s a genocide going on in Gaza. We in the Nations of Virtue, thanks to our free press, are fully aware that what the antisemites call “genocide” is just Israel defending itself. And it’s obviously true, because how else could Kamala, with her 83 billionaire backers, and Trump with his 50 or so, and the Billionaire of Billionaires, Elon himself, all come to the same conclusion?