Somewhere, there's an algorithm with your name on it. Happy New Year!

That “somewhere” is in the billionaire-owned cloud where the internet keeps its secrets. Those clouds just keep on getting bigger as the tailing ponds of unlimited data-mining accumulate. Processing all that data will demand an exponential increase in electric power generation. Guess the billion or so people on the planet without access to electricity are out of luck. You know what happens when demand gets too far ahead of supply. And the demands of Big Data will take precedence over the needs of peasants in Bangladesh. After all, they need to fine-tune that algo with your name on it. Happy New Year!

Holocaust survivors condemn Israel's genocide in Gaza

It’s hard to follow the news these days without being constantly reminded that there is an unprecedented eruption of antisemitism around the world. This spike in Jew-hate began shortly after Netanyahu and Gallant announced their intention to withhold food, water, and fuel from the human animals in Gaza, and ramped up further after the ICJ found “plausible genocide” in the IDF’s tactics. Nobody wants to be labelled an antisemite, so we bite our tongues and avert our eyes. That’s why I was cheered to happen across this story today, originally published at Mondoweiss, but only after the erstwhile champion of free speech and human rights, The Guardian, refused to publish it. Ten Holocaust survivors condemn Israel’s Gaza genocide Mondoweiss Below is a letter signed by ten Holocaust survivors condemning the genocide in Gaza and the misuse of antisemitism accusations by politicians. The co-founder of Human Rights Watch, Aryeh Neier, has recently said that Israel is engaged in genocide in Gaza. He’s also said that using accusations of antisemitism to attack Israel’s critics “debases the whole concept of antisemitism.” As Holocaust survivors, we are writing to agree wholeheartedly with Professor Neier — who himself only survived the Holocaust by escaping Nazi Germany as a child in 1939. At a recent Holocaust memorial, Netanyahu declared: “We’ll defeat our genocidal enemies. Never again is now!” Meanwhile, at another memorial, Biden warned of a “ferocious surge of antisemitism” on college campuses. In our opinion, to use the memory of the Holocaust like this to justify either genocide in Gaza or repression on college campuses is a complete insult to the memory of the Holocaust. The dehumanization of Palestinians, describing them as “human animals,” the killing of tens of thousands of civilians, indiscriminate bombing, the destruction of universities and hospitals, and the use of mass starvation — these are clearly stages of ethnic cleansing and genocide. They cannot be defended any more than sending weapons to commit this genocide or refusing funding to UNRWA. With no better arguments, our politicians have resorted to misusing the memory of the Holocaust while claiming that protesting against Israeli genocide is somehow antisemitic. As Holocaust survivors, we have no special authority on the Middle East but we do know about antisemitism. It’s simply wrong to claim that it’s antisemitic to oppose Israeli genocide. It’s also wrong to claim that calling for equal rights for Jews and Arabs “from the river to the sea” is antisemitic. As Holocaust survivors, we are just a few individuals but we want to add our voices to the growing global movement to demand a permanent ceasefire, an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, and for the West to stop arming and supporting genocide. Signatories Jacques Bude (Brussels Belgium), survived in hiding in Belgium, parents killed in Auschwitz.Marione Ingram (Washington DC), survived in hiding in Nazi Germany.Stephen Kapos (London UK), survived the Budapest ghetto.H. Richard Leuchtag (Houston TX), escaped Germany in 1938.Rene Lichtman (Southfield MI), survived in hiding in France.Adam Policzer (Vancouver BC), survived in hiding in Hungary.Lillian Rosengarten (Cold Spring NY), escaped Germany in 1936.Suzanne Ross (New York), escaped Nazi-occupied Belgium Suzanne Berliner Weiss (Toronto Ont.), survived in hiding in France, mother killed in Auschwitz.Ervin Somogyi (Oakland, CA), survivor from Hungary.

The toxic stupidity of Canada's American Empire Loyalists

You know who I’m talking about. They occupy the strategic heights in PolySci departments across the land. They bombard us daily with op-eds across legacy media about how essential it is for we dullards to wake up and smell the Russian coffee Putin is brewing for us. Yup, Bad Vlad is gearing up to give the Free World a nuclear-strength coffee enema the likes of which we can’t even imagine! That’s why we Canadians must buck up and spend hundreds of billions of dollars so we can once again stand tall among our allies in the Free World. Yes, it’s true we face some budget challenges… We can’t afford to house our burgeoning unhoused population. We can’t afford to train the doctors and nurses we need to maintain a robust health care system. We can’t afford post-secondary institutions without exploiting hundreds of thousands of foreign students with extortionate tuition fees. But all of those frills count for nothing if our allies can’t depend on us. After all, what’s the point of housing, health care, and education if we don’t have Freedom and Democracy? And, according to the experts, that’s exactly what’s at stake if we don’t stand up to Putin (and China and Iran and everybody else on Uncle Sam’s shit list) NOW! Consider this prime example of pro-NATO propaganda; Here's how Canada can meet NATO's 2% target. Massie and Lagassie posit that one way we can effortlessly ramp up military spending is to simply super-size our current equipment orders. For instance, our F-35 purchase of 88 fighter jets is 50 less than the 138 we ordered almost half a century ago. Shouldn’t we be going bigger instead of smaller? No wonder our allies sneer at our weakness. They can’t afford housing or health care either, but at least they’ve got their priorities straight! That’s why we should go big. Let’s order 188 F-35s! That’ll show we’re serious players in the global war of democracy vs. autocracy. It would also go a long way in erasing the shame associated with fielding military fleets that, according to Massie and Lagasse, struggle with maintaining 50% serviceability rates. In other words, we are a laughing stock because only half our gear is ready for action at any given time. Or would it? Google “serviceability of F-35 fleet” and see what comes up. This “cutting edge” jet fighter platform has been flying since 2006. It’s never seen combat unless you count bombing runs over Gaza. The only way they’ve ever met or surpassed 50% serviceability is by fiddling their stats. They don’t count planes waiting for software and hardware upgrades - that’s now hundreds of new F-35s parked in the Arizona desert waiting. Definitely not ready for action! Overall fleet-wide serviceability is around 30%! And we’re not even considering the current debate among experts about whether manned combat aircraft are obsolete, the cavalry horses of the 21st century. By all means, let’s heed the siren call of our American Empire Loyalists. Let’s bankrupt the nation so we can stand with our allies… we’ll be standing in the rain beside some Latvian airstrip, waiting for our planes, when the only ones that show up are Russian. But at least we’ll be standing with our allies.

Fixing the recruitment crisis in the Canadian Armed Forces

As anyone minimally acquainted with current events will know, Canada is struggling mightily to attract fresh recruits to its military. A couple of years ago the powers that be updated the CAF dress code to appeal to modern youth. Henceforth, male and female recruits would no longer be restricted to choosing their kit from the male or female catalogue. After all, who’s to say a male warrior is any less a warrior if he wears a skirt? Look at the Scots with their reputation for grit and valour. Don’t tell me a kilt is not a skirt! As well, creative hair treatments and face tattoos would henceforth be a path to promotion, whereas they had formerly been a path to dishonourable discharge. Alas, that didn’t work either. The staffing crisis continues. Today I happened upon an op-ed in the Globe about how Canada can reach its NATO spending targets. As you know, we run a multi-billion annual deficit in our military spending. The authors, a couple of “Laurentian Elite” types, American Empire Loyalists to the core, put forth a four-point plan to boost our military spending to mollify the incoming US president, Mafia Don. Mafia Don is already mooting a new and improved NATO spending extortion rate of 5% instead of 2%. Most of that Globe op-ed is the expected pro-Empire hogwash, but they actually had one really good idea. Canada can meet that spending target by increasing salaries for the CAF! I did a little internet research, and discovered the base salary for a new recruit to the CAF is a tad over $36,000 per year. That works out pretty close to the current Ontario minimum wage of $18 per hour. The drive-thru at the local McDonalds has a sign; help wanted; $19hr. There you go; you can risk your life to defend freedom and democracy and Canadian sovereignty for 18 bucks an hour, or you can stay home and flip burgers for 19. Clearly, those apologists for Empire are on to something! Lets double the pay scale at the CAF! That would solve the recruitment crisis in no time! If Mafia Don raises the extortion rate to 5%, we can double the pay rate again, and increase the size of the Forces. If we play this right, we’ll be able to meet Trumps spending targets without adding a single F-35 or attack submarine to our arsenal. Instead, we’d be investing in Canadians!

Bruno's Christmas miracle

Our traditional family Christmas celebration isn’t what it used to be. It used to be a get-together on Christmas eve, for a jumbo Christmas dinner and a gift exchange. Between the dinner and the gifts, somebody, once in awhile it was me, would read the Christmas story out of the bible, and we’d sing a few Christmas carols. That was the norm for about sixty years. Alas, everybody gets older and everything falls apart. The Patriarch is in a retirement home. The Matriarch no longer wants to spend three months baking Lindzen Tortes for five kids and nine grandchildren. While the sibs all want to keep a tradition alive, we’re mostly pensioners now, and things aren’t what they used to be. The elder grand-kids are well into their forties. There’s great grand-kids closing in on their ‘20s… everybody’s getting older! Who saw that coming! So the last few years we’ve been getting together for the big X-mas shindig a week or two before Christmas. This year it was on the 21st. By the time Christmas day rolled around, Christmas was over. The Farm Manager and I spent the day binge-watching Maine Cabin Masters, which I must say is at least as much fun as watching one of those Jimmy Stewart “Christmas classics.” Between a quart of eggnog and a micky of rum, I was feeling pretty joy-to-the-worldish by eight-o’clock. Chase and Ashley were doing their magic ( rebuilding a waterfront cabin from the studs out and the foundation up with a budget of $30 thou, which would cost 300 thou here), my trusty mastiff on the couch beside me. That’s when the FM made a move to visit the loo. That’s when Big-face Bruno leapt off the couch to keep his vow to NEVER let her go to the bathroom alone. That’s when he landed on the hardwood floor and his back legs splayed out 180 degrees… and he couldn’t get up. Talk about buzz-kill. We tried moving him. I wrapped a scarf around his hind end, hoping he’d be mobile if at least I could move his back end for him. No luck. It’s Christmas day. There’s no vet open anywhere. Maybe in the morning we could find a vet clinic open for emergencies. I fell into a fitful high-anxiety sleep knowing we’d have to face some ugly realities in the morning. The FM stayed downstairs with Bruno. I woke up around six this morning, dreading what this day would bring. A disabled mastiff isn’t something you can fluff over. Your not gonna tuck him under your arm and take him with you. I attended to my morning ablutions with a heavy heart. Twenty minutes later I find the FM under the covers and Bruno on his blanket at the foot of our bed. I knew immediately that good stuff was going on, because no way could she have carried him up the stairs! Looks like Bruno pulled a muscle with that slip on the hardwood. He stayed off his gimpy hind leg for a few hours, and is 100% a day later. That’s our Christmas miracle.

USA spends billions creating terrorism, and then spends trillions fighting terrorism

Thank goodness most of that spending ends up in the coffers of US military contractors! Otherwise it would be easily seen as a complete waste of US taxpayers’ money. It’s American policy that has created all our great “terrorist” enemies; Al Qaeda, al Nusra, ISIS. The events of the past couple of weeks have made that more obvious. Of course, maybe our favoured ISIS/Al Qaeda/ al Nusra bumboy who we just put in charge of Syria really did have a road-to-Damascus moment! I’m skeptical. In fact, I was skeptical ten years ago. From the archives: Thursday, June 25, 2015 Al Qaeda is just a Pentagon fabrication And therefore, al Qaeda's slightly-more-sinister brothers in terror, the Qaeda offspring known variously as al-Nusra, ISIL, ISIS, and Islamic State, can safely be deemed Pentagon spawn too.The think tank here at Falling Downs had our suspicions way back in '11, when it became obvious that those "Libyan rebels" NATO was continuously driving forward were nothing more or less than particularly lazy and particularly drug-addled al Qaeda "terrorists."Once we had facilitated their triumph over the evil Gaddafi, it was on to greater triumphs!That's why the US and her eager minions in the Gulf have been busy helping al Qaeda and its manifold mutations bring freedom to Syria for the last four years!When you step back and think about it, back far enough so that your head is at least briefly clear of the propaganda smog, you can see the win-win here.Fabricate an enemy and arm them to the teeth.Bomb them to ratshit.Arm them to the teeth again.... repeat cycle.It's been going on for years now.

Canada to lead world in building icebreaking ships

No, I’m not under the influence of powerful hallucinogens… I’m merely quoting from a speech made by FM Joly on the occasion of announcing our new Arctic policy. I can’t say what she’s been smoking, but it’s obviously incredibly potent. The so-called ICE Pact isn’t something you hold against your head after falling off the stoop. It’s a US initiative to build icebreakers in collaboration with Canada and Finland. Why these two? Because we’re NATO partners. Of the three countries, only Finland has a track record of building icebreakers that come in reasonably close to schedules and budgets. US shipyards, like Canada’s, are notorious for blowing through timelines and budgets. Check out this sad take from Construction Physics on why America can’t build ships. Canada is only included in the ICE Pact because we are the nominal owner of more Arctic coastline than anyone other than Russia, and the entire rationale for this program is to thwart Russian and Chinese ambitions. Just so you know, Russia has by far the biggest icebreaker fleet in the world. Not only that, but its commie pals have by far the most shipbuilding capacity in the world. Between them, they are and will remain the top dogs in polar navigation. People like Joly who know less than nothing, are therefore prone to making such asinine pronouncements. The chances of Canada becoming an icebreaker construction powerhouse, ever, do not exist anywhere other than in the imaginations of Joly’s speechwriters.

Canada decides; obsolete USA war toys or public housing?

Had breakfast this morning at a joint called “Pur and Simple” in the western grasslands-cum-big-box-lands of Stone Road, in the south end of Guelph. Their marketing people put an umlaut over the “u” just to let you know they’re serious. They are. They deliver a seriously good breakfast at seriously good value. Our party of five filled up on everything from standard bacon ‘n eggs to exotic omelets, and got outta there for around a hundred bucks. Bruno’s take-out container was so brim-full we couldn’t close the lid. South Guelph looks crazy prosperous. The big box parking lots are hopping. You’d be hard-pressed to find a new single family detached for under a million. Two-bed condos go for 800. After breakfast, we headed out of town on the laughably misnamed “Hanlon Expressway,” an “expressway” brought to a full stop by strategically places stoplights every two or three miles. In the drive up to Woodlawn Road, we passed a tent encampment every other mile or so. This has been the coldest week of the year, with wind-chill temps at -30C. That’s seriously cold. How do you imagine the folks in those ubiquitous tent encampments are faring out? Not as well as Bruno, I’m sure. Ottawa abandoned public housing over thirty years ago. Those tent hamlets are the chickens coming home to roost. We’ve no money for housing and a myriad other social policies. Yet we are non-stop exhorted, if not outright extorted, to spend more more more on weapons. In fact, the Trump 2.0 admin is threating to bump the extortion premium to 5% of GDP, up from 2%, which we were sorta thinking we might hit in ‘32. Our leaders in Ottawa have supposedly committed to a fleet of 88 F-35 fighter jets at a cost of $100 million apiece. That’s bizarre, especially since recent history has proven fighter jets obsolete. The future of arial warfare belongs to drones and missiles. I think no such deal has been definitively inked. Rather, these are stories floated as test balloons. Do Canadians really have the stomach to buy billions upon billions of Lockheed Martin war toys, when their fellow citizens are languishing in unheated tents alongside the highway in the dead of winter? I’m hoping not. $100 million can put up a lot of housing. Given that governments have lots of land and control the approval process, there’s no reason we couldn’t be putting shovels in the ground yesterday. There’s local builders putting up decent rentals at $250 per foot (I’m looking at you, Barry!) Build generous 1000 ft units people would want to live in, and you’re at 4 units per million, or 400 per F-35. Given that the F-35 is one of the greatest embarrassments in the history of US military procurement, wouldn’t it be wise to hold back on this contract, and invest in housing instead?

Canadian politics? Who cares?!?

All the legacy news platforms across the land are fully in the grip of Chicken Little syndrome. OMG OUR DEMOCRACY IS UNDER ATTACK FROM ALL SIDES!!! We need a Churchill of our own, a bold leader who can lead us out of the valley of death, or if not “death,” at least a crisis of confidence. Seems there’s not many Canadians left who imagine Justin will ever be our Churchill. Fluffy himself, perhaps, but beyond that, he doesn’t seem to have a lot of popular support. The hurricane of hoo-ha hit level five when Agent Frida resigned as finance minister and deputy PM. I’ll go with the name the Russians gave her, because they know her better than we do. For over a week Canadian media have made this the biggest story in the world. And it’s rightfully a big story. After all, who didn’t enjoy the spectacle of our faux-feminist poseur-in-chief getting a well-timed and even more well-deserved kick in nuts? But the biggest story in the world? Bigger than the ongoing mass murder in Gaza, 100% facilitated by the American Empire? Bigger than Syria being handed over to folks we called blood-thirsty terrorists until the day before yesterday? Bigger than Israel’s non-stop attacks on Syria since that handover? Bigger than NATO/USA’s disastrous Ukraine policy, that has exposed the crass hypocrisy and abject incompetence of Western elites? They’ve elevated our political soap opera over multiple world events that portend a sea change in the global order. Yes, there is a struggle between the “democracies” and the “autocracies.” The “democratic” bloc claims to be the good guys. Human rights and democracy and all that. In the “democracies,” the state functions at the pleasure of the billionaires. In the “autocracies,” the billionaires function at the pleasure of the state. Fact is, Canada’s politics don’t mean much in the real world. Whether it’s Neolib Fluffy, Neolib Lite Singh, or Neolib Extra-strength Poilievre, everybody everywhere knows we’re a trusted toady of the American Empire. The Empire of Billionaires. But buck up, folks! There is hope! There was a much-hyped by election in BC in the midst of this crisis, which the anti-Fluffy faction won in a landslide. Our media foregrounded the landslide and soft-pedalled the more important back story. Voter turnout in that by election was fifteen percent! That’s right! Fully 85% of the electorate couldn’t be bothered to exercise their franchise. What does that say about our democracy?

What if they had a news network called Spinco?

Ya, I know what you’re thinking; the Geriatric Ranter, given as he is to paranoia and conspiracy theories, sparked a fattie and came up with some mildly amusing speculations. But no! There’s actually a whole gaggle of ivy leaguers embedded in greed-bag hedge-funds who are doing this right now! It all goes back to the Comcast takeover of NBC Universal. The combined company was one of the bigs in global media. Alas, shit happens and times change, and big brand news titles aren’t what they used to be. Although Rachel Maddow, Queen of Prog News, still makes 25 million a year to be determinedly, proudly, and ostentatiously wrong about almost everything, the MBAs at the top of the mainstream media food chain plan to ditch most of their news properties. They’re spinning them off to a subsidiary they’re calling "Spinco." There’s something refreshingly honest about that!

Trudeau, the self-proclaimed "feminist," leaves a trail of battered women in his political wake

The Globe and Mail is all over it; folks are beginning to question Justin’s “feminist” bona fides. The special irony in this is, just three days ago. he drew massive attention to himself by mocking Americans for having elected Donald Trump over a woman. Twice! And now the woman who was variously known as Agent Frida, Justin’s brain, or the Ukrainian ambassador, has had enough. While I’m generally no fan of Agent Frida, I’ll tip my cap to her for turning her back on the little twerp. It’s embarrassing enough that we have to live with this government; it even more embarrassing when Fox News and BBC splash our suffering all over the world. From Jakarta to Mumbai to Shanghai people are scratching their heads, asking “what happened to Canada?” I think, at this point, Fluffy’s goose is pretty much cooked. Mind you, he did show us his authoritarian side with that Emergency Powers hanky panky, so you never know. What is most disturbing is I see nothing on the political horizon that would be much of an improvement. The Greens have no relevance at all, the other three parties are Original Neolib, Neolib Light, and Neolib Extra Strength. So why bother voting? The Neolibs have it in the bag regardless, and we’ll keep wobbling down the same path. The homeless population will continue to grow, governments will continue to study the problem, military spending must grow so we can stand with our allies in defending our values, and we must all tighten our belts for the sake of freedom and human rights. This will of course entail some cutbacks in some of the bells and whistles we’ve become used to. Like health care and education, just to pick a couple out of the air. But, if we truly believe in Democracy, if we are patriotic Canadians, we will rise to the occasion, and make the sacrifices we have to make, just as our forefathers did in Passchendaele over 100 years ago… Or not!

Will your hourly wage buy a case of beer?

Here’s something well worth reading. Charles Hugh-Smith makes a convincing case against the common mantra that “we’ve never had it so good.” How many times have you heard that? That writer is a serious pundit, whereas I’m just the pot-addled hillbilly blogger, but I have made similar observations, using different metrics. Can I buy an ounce of weed with my hourly pay? Or a carton of smokes? Or a case of beer? To be honest, I’m a pensioner with the good fortune to actually have a pension. The “hourly wage” thing does not apply. Frankly, there was never a time in my working life that an hour’s pay bought an ounce of weed. Maybe a quarter ounce at best. But a carton of smokes or a case of beer? Absolutely! Today a case of 24 tall cans runs sixty bucks or more. The tobacco addicts not patronizing the smoke shops at their local Indian reservation are spending well over a hundred for a carton! So Mr. Smith is 100% on the money. After 75 years of capitalist prosperity, only the rich can afford to indulge the basic vices.

MSM believes you're retarded

They being legacy media, and crap being the shit they fob off as “news.” They’re telling me there’s a struggle for freedom and democracy going on in Georgia (the country, not the state, although there’ve been some issues in the state too). Georgia, being a former Soviet state, is a prime target for meddling from the usual suspects in Washington. Recently, the government passed a law requiring foreign funded entities, like all the NGOs funded by Endowment for Democracy and USAID, to register as foreign agents. This is alleged to be the result of Russian interference in Georgia, because Russia passed similar measure a few years ago. Needless to say, all those entities in Georgia bankrolled by the West immediately took to the streets in outrage! Looking at this from Canada, it’s quite ironic; our media have spent the past couple of years blowing up that “China is meddling in our democracy” nothingburger into an urgent plea for a foreign agent registry… just like Russia! Just like Georgia! And just like that font of Freedom and Democracy south of us has had in place since 1938! But in the world ‘o whoppers mainstream news has become, that’s nothing. How about that al-Jolani chappie who just made Syria safe for democracy and Pride parades. Check out his Wikipedia page. We’ve been hunting down this savage terrorist for pretty much as long as we’ve been fighting the Global War on Terror. He has cycled through Al Qaeda, Al Nusra, and ISIS before emerging as… the savior of Syria?! REALLY??? Do they really think we’re that retarded? Anyway, trouble in Ukraine or Georgia or Syria is incidental compared to the tribulations currently being endured by the long-suffering Chosen People over there in the Holy Land. The Greatest Leader Since Moses has told us repeatedly that his war on Gaza is the front line in the war of Civilization against Barbarism. Wait a minute… how is it possible that the guy leading the fight for civilization is wanted for war crimes? I’ve watched enough Al Jazeera in the last 14 months to know the civilization he’s fighting for, using the tools of mass starvation and indiscriminate bombing of women and children, isn’t a civilization I want to be a part of. Barbarism can’t be any worse than that. Nevertheless, the smart folks who decide what’s on your news will no doubt continue to blame “Russian disinformation” for the fact they have lost all credibility.

They tore down my childhood home to put up a McDonalds

We lived there from when I was a toddler till I was on the cusp of adolescence. It was a two-storey pile of yellow bricks my folks bought around ‘58, the first house they were able to buy after getting off the boat at Pier 21. They rented the upstairs to Mom’s brother and his family. It was across the traintracks from the railroad station. Sometimes in summer the railroad men would hop the fence, throw a blanket on our lawn, and spend their lunch hour playing cards. It came with two acres, which included a small barn and a couple of chicken coops. My parents were able to recreate the peasant lifestyle they’d known in Prussia before they were evacuated to refugee camps in Denmark in the dying months of the war. We had a couple of cows for milk and cream, pigs, and eggs from the chickens until they were layed out, at which time they found their way into the roasting pan. Mom would whack their heads off with an axe, causing me to learn early on where the expression “running around like chickens with their heads cut off” comes from. The rest of the process was a family activity. I didn’t know what the pigs were for until Dad and a couple of uncles slaughtered one right there in the barnyard. It was a large beast, and not at all copacetic with their plans. The sight of these guys chasing a pig around the yard with sledge-hammers and axes wasn’t something children needed to see, but at least we knew where our food came from. The place was a bit of a fixer-upper. The first project was indoor plumbing and a septic bed, but not until we’d spent the first winter with a hand-pump and an outhouse. Mom and my grandmother used to keep amazing gardens. From kohlrabi to carrots to beets to peas to potatoes, they had it all going on. There was even a pear tree, and to this day I recall what a thrill it was to open a jar of pears in the dead of winter. When I heard the sad news that we were moving, I made a map of that garden, hoping to recreate it somewhere else sometime in the future. It’s never happened, and by now I’ve lost that map… Another dream bites the dust! To bulldoze that house, with its rich history, and pave over those gardens, to put up a fast food restaurant, is utter sacrilege. If you happen by the Elora McDonalds and see an elderly gentleman parked in the back corner, eating pickled beets out of a jar, with tears streaming down his face… I figure that’s about where my room used to be. Feel free to say hello.

Your money or your life, or both; health care in America

The murder of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson has ignited a whole lot of debate everywhere. I had some driving to do today, and I generally keep the CBC on the car radio. Elamin Abdelmahmoud’s half hour show “Commotion” came on. The producers have upped their game since that program debuted. I found the first few episodes way woke and too Toronto-centric. Today, Elamin had top-shelf writers on, from Vox and Rolling Stone, and they had some insightful observations about media response to Luigi’s first shot in the new class war. They danced around the conundrum all writers in mainstream media are facing. The internet is saturated with thumbs-up emojis on the matter, yet nobody on any mainstream platform is gonna go there. Getting a slot on CBC or Rolling Stone or Vox is way too big a prize. Nobody’s going to screw up their career by being honest about how they really feel about Luigi and Brian. They did mange to foreground a salient point in spite of that; if health insurance is such a major issue for Americans, why was it almost totally absent from the recent election campaign? They know why, they just can’t talk about it. Kamala had over 80 billionaire donors behind her campaign. Trump had about 50. Billionaires in America enjoy gold-plated health care. It’s not an issue for them. Therefore, it’s not an election issue. That’s the way the cookie crumbles when you’ve sold your democracy to the highest bidder.

Luigi Mangione is the Robin Hood of the 21st century

So a dude pissed off at how big med gets away with fucking everyday people, takes the plunge into direct action. That’s officially known as first degree murder. Generally speaking, the masses do not approve of murder, especially premeditated in the first degree. But by golly, it looks like the masses are willing to cut you some slack if you murder the CEO of a corporate entity that has gorged on the suffering of ordinary people. Luigi Mangione just became a superhero of the resistance to predatory capitalism. That should be a wake-up call to predatory capitalists. Luigi is everywhere.

War vibes

When FM Joly introduced Canada’s new and improved Arctic Foreign Policy, her preamble provided the rationale. Russian aggression. That’s right! Make no mistake; Putin is bent on world domination. He’s not going to stop at Ukraine. No! After Ukraine, all of Europe is in his cross-hairs. Once his army has made it to the English Channel, his greedy imperialist gaze will turn north, to what used to be the Canadian Arctic, now the North American Arctic, or just the “American Arctic” for short. That’s why we have to be ready. Let’s unpack this. In three years, Russia’s invasion has captured about 20% of Ukraine. Simple arithmetic says it’ll be another 12 years to make it to the Polish border. We’re in 2036 now. Then, the 84 year old Putin, assuming he’s still in the big chair, will have to fight his way through Poland and Germany. No offence to the Ukrainians, but I figure if it took Putin 15 years to subdue Ukraine, Poland and Germany will take at least 30 years each. Then he’s gonna set his sites on Canada’s… I mean America’s Arctic. That brings us to 2096. Putin is 144 years old. I figure by then our new fleet of warships, first announced in 2008, will be mostly if not fully operational. So bring it on, Putin! We’re not afraid of you!

Moderate rebels take Syria - Democracy and Pride parades coming soon!

Finally! There’s a whole lotta gloatin’ goin’ on today in certain circles. Washington, the Pentagon, Langley… What I’ve read at the JPost today is a little more nuanced. Yes, it’s a happy day in some ways, but… and there’s the rub. While it’s good that Assad has been vanquished, the Israelis know the “moderate rebels” better than anyone. Remember a few years ago when Canada rescued about 100 of those brave Syrian White Helmets that were trapped by Assad’s forces? Chrystia Freeland was even honored as an “Honorary White Helmet” by the White Helmets themselves! The White Helmets were first responders who worked exclusively in rebel held areas of Syria. That’s because they were rebels! And how moderate were those rebels? Moderate enough for Canada, but not nearly moderate enough for Israel. Although those humanitarian White Helmets escaped Syria via Israel, Israel was adamant that not a single one remain there. That’s because they know the truth, and the truth is, today’s moderate rebels are just the latest rebranding of the ISIS head-choppers and the Al Qaeda terrorists who allegedly brought down the twin towers. To my complete shock, CNN aired an interview with the HTS (latest acronym after AQ and ISIS for the usual head-choppers) leader that actually broached this subject! The CNN interviewer quizzed al-Julani on his remarkable path from terrorist Al Qaeda operative to ISIS leader to moderate rebel leader celebrated by CNN. It’s a stunning exercise in narrative management and well worth a look. She even brought up the fact that HTS is listed as a terrorist entity by the USA and its vassals, and brought up the $10 million bounty the FBI has on him. We’re supposed to believe all his terrorist activity was just youthful indiscretions, the Islamic fundamentalist version of an Amish kid out on their “rumspringa.” Sure… What we know for sure is Israel is now rid of Assad, and instead, has a collection of Islamic fundamentalist whackos next door. Good luck with that!

Canada to give Canadian Arctic to Trump in return for privilege of becoming 51st state

There’s a certain apprehension when our dimwitted foreign minister unveils a project she’s been “working on for a year.” And here is the result of her long year of intellectual labour. I’ll give you the nitty-gritty, the Coles Notes version, if you will; the Canadian Arctic has been rebranded the North American Arctic! WTF, you say? Calm down… the rebranding just reflects the reality that the previous nomenclature missed, ie that the north coast of the North American land mass is actually the north coast of (and here’s another joly Jolyism) something I’d never heard of before; the North American Homeland! Homeland? That’s another one of those trigger words, like motherland or fatherland, that unleash a powerful urge to break out in goose-stepping around the kitchen table. Really? Of course, this is all because of our pending show-down with Russia and China. Working more closely with our allies, especially the USA, will be essential going forward. To that end, we’re gonna appoint an Arctic Ambassador, who will be an indigenous resident. That’s a bummer of a diplomatic appointment. I mean, it’s not exactly like being posted to London or Paris or New York, is it? I suppose the bright spot is it won’t cost nine million to build an igloo for the official residence. That’s it in a nut-shell. We’re still Canada, but our former Arctic is now the North American Arctic. And we’re now part of a Homeland. Is it just my paranoia, or does anyone else find it suspicious they drop this on us just a week after Fluffy’s pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago, where Trump suggested we’d make a fine 51st state?

The ongoing live-streamed genocide we're not allowed to talk about

Never again? There’s been a genocide ongoing in Gaza for well over a year. Recall this; In historical first, Israel announces its genocide in advance. Bibi didn’t let me down. They’ve carried out their promised genocide with shocking enthusiasm. There is no hospital or school or mosque or church or “safe zone” that is immune to Israel’s US-supplied F-35s dropping US-supplied bombs. That’s because every single hospital or school or mosque or church is actually built atop a terrorist command post! How convenient! Don’t blame Israel for starving those starving children in Gaza. Israel keeps trying to send oodles of food aid to the starving Palestinians, but those diabolical terrorists keep stealing it… And of course, anyone who dares question that narrative is an antisemite! That accusation is enough to silence criticism in most of the “Western world,” ie the world that, obfuscations and bullshit aside, is enabling this 21st century genocide. It was most gratifying to me to see Jewish anti-genocide activists occupy some real estate in Ottawa for a few hours the other day. Unfortunately, few news outlets bothered to mention these were Jews against Israel’s genocide. Anti-genocide protesters are typically portrayed as “Hamas fans,” antisemites, or just confused millennials. It’s beyond time to hold our media and our politicians to account. There is a genocide going on in front of our eyes. What will we do about it?

Screwing Workers 101

There are a million and one ways to screw workers, but the flat-out best way is to call them “contractors.” The other day I had the CBC on, and there was a learned professor explicating how postal workers are doomed. This was in the context of the current postal strike. When you see a Canada Post vehicle on the road, the all-in costs are about $65/ hr. A FedEx or UPS van is on the road for $45/hr. And the independent contractors delivering your on-line purchases are at $25/hr. I’m thinking, holy shit, those Amazon delivery dudes (while he didn’t say those words, we knew who he was talking about) gotta be working for next to nothing! That’s why they show up in twenty year old Dodge vans with squealing brakes and noisy mufflers. His point was, in a free enterprise economy, the future belongs to the contractors. They have an insurmountable advantage over those corporate employees who drive for UPS and FedEx. Couple of days later, this story shows up in the Globe and Mail, about how ride-share drivers (think Uber, Lyft, and the food apps are no different) make an average net of six bucks an hour. Yup! They’re contractors! Independent businessmen! Minimum wage laws do not apply to independent businessmen! Pity, that… one of the richest companies in the world, owned by one of the richest men in the world, can pay his delivery drivers one third of the official minimum wage because they are contractors!? Get the fuck outta here! It’s an absolute outrage that we continue to allow such a brazen assault on working people.

Small talk at the dog park

I’ve been taking Big Lips Bruno to the dog park almost every day for four years. Bruno is a grey and silver brindle mastiff with floppy ears and a cropped tail. From time to time we’ll meet up with a black and bronze mastiff with cropped ears and a long floppy tail. I’ve never had more than a passing “how ya doin’” with that other mastiff’s dad, until today. He used to deliver his pooch to the dog park in an orange Audi RS3. I was a car guy and I notice stuff like that. In the past week I notice Buddy has been bringing his brindle in a new RS7. That caught my attention. That’s a serious car. Over 600 horsepower out of a 4.0 litre V8. It’ll beat a Dodge Hellcat in a drag race. I’m not somebody who strikes up conversations with strangers, but I couldn’t help myself. “I see you got yourself a new winter-beater.” “Ha ha! No, I traded in the RS3 for its big brother.” So we get to chatting about his 1980 Corvette and my 1973 Trans Am SD, and about how messed up it is that the Germans can get more out of a four litre V8 than the Americans can get out of a supercharged 6.2 litre hemi. He had no idea we were talking about the demise of the American Empire.

Why are so many Canadians too lazy to work?

I am, for better or worse, getting to an age where I can remember a time fifty years ago. What I remember is that fifty years ago very few Canadians were too lazy to work. Whether you were a first or a tenth generation Canadian, the prevailing ethos stipulated that if you didn’t have a job, you were looking for one. Even when you took a trip on the pogey train, you knew that was a temporary vacation; you’d be back to the grind soon enough. Most everybody worked. In those days young people worked mainly to get out of their parent’s house and start an independent life. If you were still in mom’s basement at age 25, it was because you were working and saving for a place of your own, not because you were addicted to video games. Today, you can still be in mom’s basement in your 40’s, playing video games, and the world forgives you if you haven’t found a job yet that “agrees” with you. Which is why employers are “forced” to bring in temporary foreign workers. The Globe had a story the other day about the enterprising consultants who get rich off bringing TFWs into the country to do the jobs “Canadians don’t want to do.” The two iconic Canadian brands mentioned as relying on TFWs were Tim Hortons and Canadian Tire. No wonder. I’m a fan of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives Living Wage Project, and I can guarantee you no job filled by TFWs at either of those companies meet the living wage standard. That’s why Canadians don’t want to do them. Those companies need to up their pay, not import foreign workers. But today I happened across this story; Halifax is worried they’ll have a bus driver shortage if their foreign workers can’t get their work permits extended. That didn’t sound right. I dug up the collective agreement between Halifax Transit and the Amalgamated Transit Workers Union, Local 508. I know driving a city bus may not agree with some people. The split shifts are a bitch until you have enough seniority to avoid them, and you’ll no doubt meet your share of obnoxious a-holes, but even the starting wage pretty much meets the CCPA living wage standard, and after three years you’re about $4/hr ahead of it. So why do we need foreign workers to drive city buses in Halifax? I’m aware of the argument that there’s no point because you’ll never afford your own place anyway, so might as well stay in mom’s basement and beat the latest Call of Duty. And a universal basic income would be great because then you could slip mom a little rent money. Pass the Doritos. I don’t buy it. Check out this starter in Dartmouth. Ten percent down and you’re looking at a mortgage of under two grand a month - cheaper than an apartment and well within a bus drivers reach! Sure, it needs a little work, but back in the day we expected our first home to be a fixer-upper. In fact, I’m still living in one today! Local 508 is heading into contract negotiations soon. While I hope they score a decent contract - 25% over four years would be decent, I don’t believe that will end the reliance on foreign workers. Far too many Canadians just can’t be bothered anymore.

Fentanyl is China's revenge for the Opium Wars

I’m guessing the vast majority of Americans know absolutely fuck-all about the Opium Wars. Those wars were imposed on China to force her to permit Chinese citizens access to British opium. Yes, the British Empire ran the global opium empire at the time. China lost those wars, leading to another historical marker 99% of Americans are ignorant of; the century of humiliation. I love a plausible conspiracy theory, and when Donny J fingered China for the fentanyl flood the other day, I thought, holy moly, we got us a good one here! Once, we held the whip, and we humiliated China for 100 years. Apparently, at least according to Trump, it’s China that holds the whip today… I figure we’re in for about another 90 years of humiliation.

The blessings of watching refugee immigrants embracing Canadian values

While I was never a refugee myself, I was an immigrant, and both my parents spent years in refugee camps in Denmark after the WW 2. From what I’ve heard, that was a tough gig. For example, the communal toilets were a trench in the ground with a log laid the length of it. That log was where you parked your butt-cheeks to take a dump. Although the sanitary arrangements may have been primitive in some respects, they were quite forward looking in others. Those were totally inclusive toilet facilities; all ages and all genders used the same trench. What bathroom the trans residents used was a non-issue! And although the refugee camps had barbed-wire and armed guards, they were undoubtedly a soft touch compared to the refugee camps one might find in the Middle East today, where the refugee camps need to be bombed regularly to ferret out the terrorists who can’t help themselves from setting up command posts therein. So I was keen to get to know a refugee family that found their way to our community from there a few years ago. Like all refugees, including my clan, they were extremely grateful to make it to this beautiful, peaceful, polite, and imminently tolerant society. Those are our values, after all. And they were determined to work hard and fit in. They arrived eight or nine years ago, the parents with their five children. They’ve had an arduous road. Here’s an update. The family of seven is now a family of twelve with another one on the way. That’s because the older son married at 19. He and his wife have been very productive. Some of the kids have taken stabs at gainful employment, but nothing seems to stick. That virile eldest worked fast food for a few months, but it didn’t agree with him. Then he took a shot at construction, but that didn’t agree with him either. So here we are. Nobody works and they all live in public housing. The eldest has found the time and money to do his pilgrimage to Mecca, so at least he’s good with his God. Perhaps becoming an Imam would agree with him. But here’s my point. Let’s not blame these refugee immigrants. These people had absolutely no knowledge of sloth or entitlement until they arrived in Canada. They’re merely internalizing Canadian values in the modern era. I’m pleased to report that all of them are polite and tolerant.