Cold weather made Canada unique

In yet another lame attempt to fan the embers of Canadian patriotism, the Globe trots out Stephen Marche to speculate on the hows and whys of the alleged resurgence of nationalist fervor in this fair land. Seems we've been uniquely conditioned by Mother Nature to defy Uncle Sam due to our cold weather. That somehow made us stubborn... which is apparently a great asset in these turbulent times. Not sure I follow Stephen's logic. When 90% of Canada's population lives within 100 miles of the USA, it can't be that much colder. In fact, at least a dozen cities in northern states have colder winters than Canada's biggest city. It therefore stands to reason we can't be that much more stubborn. According to Marche, Canada's defiance is an inspiration around the democratic world. Carney is moving Canada closer to Europe, where the key E-3 allies are all keen for war with Russia. Yup, that would be a wise tie-in! As for Canada's alleged galvanizing of others to stand against Trump, that's not something I've ever read in the foreign press. Seems mostly a fantasy entertained by "journalists" at CBC and the Globe & Mail. What I wish they would do is more actual journalism. That might reveal we're not quite as anti-Trump as we pretend. How many stories have you read about the $4 billions in contracts with US defence contractors Carney has approved just in the past few months? Couple of billion for General Dynamics and a couple billion more for Lockheed Martin, but it's OK 'cause they hate Trump as much as Canada does!

We Canadians are desperate to be seen as "World Leaders"

Let me illustrate my case via a few quotes from a CBC story about an allegedly Canadian company scooping up a couple hundred millions more in tax-payer cash. Here's Evan Solomon, Minister of Wishful Thinking; "This is absolutely a great day for Canada, for Xanadu, and for science around the world. It shows what Canada can do best. We build!" We do? The only thing Xanadu is actually building is an HQ and manufacturing facility in a former Campbells Soup plant in Toronto that required nearly a billion $$ in taxpayer money. Evan's got more; "We are not just going to make a bet on solving the biggest problems in the world, and being the best in the world... We're going to do it big, fearlessly!" Oh ya! We build! Fearlessly! Evan goes on to bloviate about Canadian leadership and how we are securing our sovereignty. And here's some happy news; it's not just Canadian taxpayers shovelling money into Xanadu's coffers, it's the US Department of War and the US Air Force Reseach Laboratory. That almost seems a contradiction of our alleged pivot away from Uncle Sam. Not sure how that can be a positive for our sovereignty. What the CBC story never actually spells out is this supposed Canadian success story is already under American control. Australian founder Christian Weedbrook took his Xanadu public a few months ago. He kept a 15% share to himself and a couple of Canadian venture cap funds rolled their slice over at the IPO, but as of today, when our tax-payer-funded propaganda network is braying about this "Canadian" success story, a dozen US based investment funds own the rest. That's who we're subsidizing with our tax dollars!

The slow lane

I live in two worlds. One is the world I see on my computer screen. It's hard to take your eyes off that world, because we live in very interesting times. As a life-long cheerleader for the demise of The Empire, I recognize the import of this moment. Regardless of what you hear on Fox News, The Empire is in dissaray. We are witnessing the dissolution of Empire in record time. It typically takes decades or even centuries for a sclerotic failing Empire to collapse. Donny J seems determined to "git-r-dun" in one term! The other world is the one I see from the stoop. It's a different world, a world I'm trying to spend more time in. That's a challenge because wi-fi is excellent on the stoop. Willpower! Ya, as if! But I'm happy to report I spent a good four or five hours out there today sans laptop! In an entire afternoon out in the fresh air I saw a dozen cars, two dozen pickups, and a couple tractors go by. Plus, some logging trucks. There's a guy down the way harvesting his woodlot. Gets me wondering if my 20 acres of woodlot might yield a new Kubota with heated cab and snowblower. But I digress. Things aren't looking all that great for Western Civ in general, and as far as I can see, there is essentially zero leadership in the "Free World." The Eurotwats want to be ready for war with Russia by 2030, because... I don't know... freedom and democracy I suppose. Anyway, as Carney scours the world for new trading partners, none of the computer-screen drama impacts my daily routine, and it's hard to imagine it ever will. Mind you I am within the 160km danger zone the experts have designated around Bruce Nuclear. If Putin hits that puppy I just gotta hope there's nor-westers blowing that day instead of sou-westerlies. Anyway, life goes on, and I pretty much stick to the slow lane, at least if I can't just walk there. At this point, "life goes on" is in itself a declaration of victory! I know I've been whining about health challenges, but SHUT UP ALREADY!!! So long as one can eat and shit... don't worry... be happy!

Doo-doo rising; what's next for the deranged occupant of the Offal Orifice

OMG did you see what autocomplete just did? I swear I wrote "Oval Office," and look how it came out?! Maybe the AI apps that are always looking over your shoulder these days are smarter than I thought! Anyway, it's getting all-too-obvious that Donny J is well down the Alzheimer Highway. In fact, I'm pretty sure he was in that convoy of black SUVs that passed me at very high speed not too long ago. Lake America? I mean... the level of imbecility on display here is off the charts! It's obviously playing on his mind double-plus big-time that the Towelheads 'o Terror have embarrassed the greatest military the world has ever seen! I'm surprised there isn't more alarm afoot re the obvious cognitive impairment of the leader of the Free World. Given all the headwinds bearing down on the flailing and failing American Empire at this moment, the Commander-in-Chief finds the time for a juvenile PR stunt to rename Lake Ontario!? It's hard to see happy endings emerging from the disaster Trump and Bibi triggered with their war. Sometimes Karma just gotta run her course.

Elbows up and fingers crossed; how Carney might sort of maybe teach Trump a bit of a lesson... maybe

Yup, Ottawa be talkin' some serious shit. Not to mention Ontario Big Boss Doug Ford, who has challenged Donny J himself to an arm rassle! Oh, it's a never-ending shit-show, is it not? We have of course had innumerable reminders that Canada's fate hangs in the balance... The sheer idiocy of virtually anything that comes out of our Defence Dept defies belief, but you'll never see CBC ask any serious questions, such as what's the logic behind commissioning a multi-billion $$$ fleet of warships that will be destined for Davey Jones' locker upon meeting the first Chinese drone swarm. All we ever hear is how we gotta spend a shitload of money to "stand with our allies." Isn't it well past time to take a good hard look at what our allies are all about? We still cling to the fiction that we're the "good guys." Our big allies are all-in for Greater Israel. They're all-in for war with Russia. Soon, according to the NATO cheerleaders. Meanwhile, no matter where you look, you'll see public services are drastically underfunded, and that's before our myriad fresh spending commitments kick in. We are way down the wrong road, the road to certain disaster. War with Russia and China? That's stupid enough on the face of it, but even sillier is the conceit that we, "The West," "The Nations of Virtue," will somehow prevail. Best wishes to elbows up and fingers crossed, but I think we're doomed.

A history of cannabis consumption

Let me start with a couple of caveats off the top. In the first place, I know nothing about the history of cannabis consumption other than what I read in High Times, so I know archeologists have found cannabis residue on hookas buried with Egyptian royalty 5,000 years ago, but who knows? What I actually know about the history of cannabas didn't kick in till the 1970s. And that brings up my second caveat; my experience of cannabis takes flight (good one, eh?!) from a kinda lame baseline; the 5% THC weed we were smoking in the seventies. To be honest, I stuck with the low-octane stuff for the next fifty years, mainly because that's what I grew in my weed patch. At some point maybe 5 or 10 years ago... or probably closer to twenty now that I do the math, I moved to smoking my weed out of a vape instead of twisting 'em up. In hindsight, that was the thin edge of the wedge that's gonna launch you down the slippery slope. The PAX vapes I settled on after a little experimentation ran 200 bucks and in every case lasted within a few weeks more or less of two years, right around the time the warranty expired. Finally I spring an extra hundred for the PAX 3 model because it has the life-time warranty. It lasts an extra year, and of course to cash in on the warranty, you would have had to do proof-of-purchase paperwork when you bought it. Ya right! Anyway, the PAX vapes still required loading loose bud into a tiny space with my fat fingers and shaky hands. That wasn't getting any easier, and then a few years ago I had a wee close call while germinating my spring crop. Long story mercifully short, there was an incident involving the gas fireplace and (hitherto unknown to me) flammable seed trays, after which I concluded, fuck this; growing 70s-style weed isn't worth burning your house down. That's aound the time I began experimenting with the pre-filled vapes that come with cannabis oil instead of bud. In texture, taste, and viscosity it strikes me as the modern version of honey oil. Remember that shit? That was $500 for a 5g vial back when you could buy a bag of weed for twenty bucks! Which brings me to my current situation. A year and a half ago I got the CHF diagnosis, ie your heart is fucked. Just a couple weeks ago I got the complimentary COPD diagnosis, ie your lungs are fucked too. So you can see where they've totally triggered maximum paranoia in a schmuck who is predisposed to it to begin with! I'll sit on the stoop sucking on the honey oil vape for an hour, hoping to cope, and then be alarmed by the fact I'm having trouble standing up! OMG, it's my heart! OMG, it's my lungs! Ya, maybe...

Doug Ford challenges Trump to sumo cage match on White House lawn

The Ontario preem really got his dander up over Mafia Don's latest tarrif tricks. He was pretty much in hold-my-coat-while-I-kick-his-ass mode. The trouble with Doug is he's too much like Donald; quick to take umbrage and even quicker to fire back with ill-considered nonsense, in Doug's case, how we're gonna ratchet up the pain dial on the Americans and wait Trump out. Here's the problem. At the present moment the American Empire is being grieviously humiliated by the fact it is on the losing side of both the wars it largely instigated. The odds of either of those disasters being salvaged grow more remote by the day. Trump is absolutely desperate to beat the shit out of somebody, and if Russia and Iran are out of reach, Canada may do in a pinch. Maybe not what he pictured in the history books, but better than nothing. Probably a few keeners already floating thesis proposals re "how under President Donald J Trump's heroic and divinely inspired leadership we were able to ensure that Canada would never develop a nuclear weapon." Don't laugh... stranger things have happened; according to all 18 US intel agencies, Iran wasn't developing one either, and look what happened to them! Anyway, I would advise Doug to turn down down the volume on his bombast. As a country, Canada is all soft underbelly with no hard shell in sight. It's time we stopped pretending otherwise.

Canada celebrates 14 years of tough new sanctions on Iran with tough new sanctions on Iran

You'd almost think that at some point the relevant experts might detect a degree of futility in our strategy, but apparently we're not there yet. Check out this post from 2012.********** Tuesday, January 31, 2012 What's so tough about Canada's tough new sanctions on Iran? We've already seen the standard fare: blocking bank accounts in Canada held by bigwigs in the Revolutionary Guards. Number of Canadian bank accounts ever held by bigwigs in the Revolutionary Guards? Zero. So the sanctions announced by Foreign Minister John Baird today are going to hit the towellers where it hurts. The new sanctions will include the following: Total ban on oil exports to Iran. While it's true that nobody actually wants Canada's dirty oil, at least we know the Iranians aren't going to get their grubby nuclear-weapon-seeking hands on it. Total ban on maple syrup. That'll teach the towel-heads. No more of the good stuff on your morning pancakes. You'll have to settle for that Aunt Jemima faux syrup that our less committed American neighbors still make available. Complete ban on pork exports to Iran. Good luck finding a BLT or a pulled pork sandwich in Tehran after this. Ban on export of Celine Dionne CD's. What are you going to play at your weddings now, People of the Towel? Total ban on Canadian nuclear technology. That's a grey area. We gave all our Canadian nuclear technology away to India and Pakistan to enable their nuclear weapons programs. If the Iranians can't get it from us they can always get it from them. Leaf's season tickets will no longer be sold to known members of the Revolutionary Guards. I think when they have a chance to mull that over the Iranians will see we're not kidding around. We are the Canadians. We punch above our weight all the time and we mean business. We don't cut and run, unless it becomes politically expedient for us to do so. So shape up, you Iranians. You don't want to risk an even tougher round of sanctions from the biggest hypocrites in the world. ********** So here we are a decade and a half down the road, across a half dozen foreign ministers from both parties, and we've doubled-down on a failed strategy even since Israel and the US launched their criminal war. If Carney was a little more a thinking man instead of banker to the oligarchy he might want to take a fresh look at this. In fact, now that the deranged occupant of the White House has turned on us, Canada needs new friends to avoid isolation - just like Iran does! Maybe we can work something out with the Ayatollahs!

Carney has Trump by the balls -threatens to cut 4 million bbls per day oil exports

Oh ya! Canada rules! Elbows up up and away! We gonna teach Trump a lesson! Taking 4 million barrels per day off the market will totally show Mafia Don we have serious cards to play... wait a minute... all that Canadian oil actually belongs to foreign entities and not to Carneys Canada... oh well, my mistake I guess... there goes our strategy for winning the tariff war. Sorry.

Jason Arday proves my point; you can bullshit education or sociology, but you can't bullshit welding

Far as I know, Jason never spent any time on the floor of a welding shop. He was cut out for bigger things, obviously. That's a shame, because there's a profound lesson in engaging with the authentic, with the shit you can't bullshit. In a fab shop, if the trailer hitch you welded onto the back of a five-ton truck falls off, you're not gonna talk your way outta that with some post-modernist baffle-gab about absence being the highest form of presence! No, you'll a) be unemployed, and b) depending on how many died when the trailer detached from the truck and took out a school bus, be facing a lengthy prison term. Pity the poor sods who were denied the opportunity to engage with what's real. Whether you're prepping a meal or baking a pie or building a house or installing a trailer hitch, IT MATTERS! I spent 25 years in the classroom and took at least two dozen soc courses for my undergrad, and while both soc and ed are prime fields where bullshit can take you a long way, Sociology of Education is a bullshitter's Nirvana! It's a double dose of unaccountability! I mean, you can interrogate intersectionality till the cows come home, and if you get it all wrong nobody will ever notice!

What happens to journalism when narrative detaches from reality?

I watched a great podcast today that addressed that Q in some detail. Retired US military guy Danny Davis had retired Brit spook and diplomat Alastair Crooke on, and they spent an hour dissing the Empire that once provided their paycheques. They covered in some detail the Trump regime's ongoing campaign to pursue policies completely divorced from on-the-ground realities. The American Empire is bleeding out in the Middle East and it is bleeding out in Ukraine, and there's no strategy in sight that promises anything other than more bleeding. Yes, for Russia and Iran, but ultimately, for America too. Our legacy media still push the absurd notion that a Ukrainian victory is just around the corner. I can't imagine what corner that might be. There was a time just weeks into this war when a peace deal was just around the corner, but then Boris showed up with "NATO is 100% behind you with whatever it takes for as long as it takes." Ukraine has been taking the dirty end ever since and there's been no sign NATO ever had either the guns or the balls to fight, although they are planning some new factories that might begin to address NATO deficiencies in... oh ten or twenty years or so? Yet legacy media platforms keep pushing for more war. That's an embarrassment to the profession of jounalism. Just today Doug Saunders informed me that Zelly may in fact be the reincarnation of Winston Churchill, but, like Winston, he's a really shitty leader on the domestic side. Sure, so that's the guy to follow if you're keen for more war? How is that still attached to reality? Doug asserts that Zelly's election in 2019 was the "permanent end to far-right politics in Ukraine." Huh? Within two weeks of Zelly's win the far-right had overturned his election platform 100% and consolidated their grip on power. I'm sure Dopey Doug understands this as well as I do, but his paycheque depends on hewing to the approved narrative long after it's completely detached from reality. At the end of the war, hopefully there will be some accountability for the hordes of Western politicians who kept pushing for more war. NATO reparations for Ukraine after our war-mongering destroyed their country is the least we owe Ukraine.

Time for every pol who promised "whatever it takes for as long as it takes" to get their cowardly lying butts to Kyiv and witness their folly

The last great erruption of breatheless PR bullshit from the NATO crowd happened during the Ankara summit. From the Baltics to the Iberian penninsula, every foreign minister and every head of state had the same message: UKRAINE HAS TURNED THE TIDE!!! That was six weeks ago. For several days our legacy media ran multiple news stories and op-eds celebrating the miracle... and then Ukraine dropped out of the news cycle again. Beginning the day before the NATO summit, and continuuing till today, Russia has carried out the most sustained missile and drone attacks of the war, completely under the radar of Western media! Thousands of missiles and tens of thousands of drones have absolute freedom in the skies. Ukraine could sure use some air defence, but NATO's cupboard is bare. Whatever it takes, unless we don't have it, I guess! Too bad we didn't spell that out a little sooner, before we goaded the hapless Zelly into a war Ukraine was expected to lose by the very "allies" provoking and promoting it. This would be the perfect time for all those empty suits who spent the last five years making empty promises to Ukraine to man up and personally stand with Ukraine, not metaphorically; I mean shoulder to shoulder with Ukrainians who haven't left the bomb shelters for a month. At the very least, you owe them an apology. In the long run, they should get reparations from the NATO cowards who foisted this war on them.

Small-town mainstreet vignette

Dateline Walkerton; up-market sedan pulls into parking space on main drag. Well-dressed up-market female person disembarks driver's door and opens back door to reveal rather roly-poly boy-child who appears to be playing a game on his device. She waits. She waits some more. She is a very patient mom. She stands on the sidewalk with the back door open while the future video game world champion tries to beat the ending boss. Eventually he must have reached some sort of conclusion, because after a good five minutes of mom standing on the sidewalk, he gathered up his gear, and a set of headphones hitherto not a factor, and exited the car. He couldn't have been older than seven or eight. Whatever happened to parents acting like parents?

A country drive

Had occassion to take a tour the other day down Walkerton way. Don't see those roads much anymore. For a couple years around the turn of the century I saw them every day, because me and my old pal Jimmy used to carpool from Walkerton to our teaching jobs in Owen Sound. County roads and Townlines and Concession roads all the way through an hour's worth of rolling hills and pastoral vistas. If you absolutely must have a job that requires commuting, a commute that calms your nerves and soothes your senses is the one you want. I was on my way to lunch with another old friend, a guy who makes his living ferrying ultra-lethal military-related goodies back and forth across the border. That obviously requires the absolutely highest levels of security clearances. I've known this dude since we were teens, and how he got that is a complete mystery to me. Suffice it to say if he makes a habit of lunching with the pot-addled anti-semitic hillbilly communist, he might not get the next one! Back in the day there was a lot of local excitement about a new furniture plant going in at Chesley, roughly the half-way point in that commute. Durham Furniture, a high-quality manufacturer that's been around since the 1800s, was investing $38 millions in a brand-new state-of-the-art factory. Many of our students were hired. Within two years they went tits-up. I've heard China's entry into the WTO destroyed our fine-furniture industry, but that could just be Yellow Peril propaganda for all I know. Unfortunately Jimmy didn't last all that long after our commuting days. He succumbed to cancer just a few years later. Oddly enough, his younger brother died of the same cancer just a few years after that. Both of them had apprenticed into the machine trades. A few years later there was a class action launched against 3M and Dupont on behalf of all the millwrights, machinists, tool & die guys and mechanics who died young because they'd spent years absorbing toxic chemicals through their skin as part of their jobs. Don't know if they ever got any compensation. So I spend a two hour+ lunch with Buddy, and holy moly, does this guy have some insights into the trucking biz. He's been around it for over 50 years and has seen the changes. The main change is the composition of the workforce. Used to be mostly whites and a few blacks in Canada, and closer to a black-white-Latino mix once you crossed the border. In fact, JB Hunt, a major American trucking concern, had its HQ just around the corner from the Arkansas State Penetentiary and was famous for providing employment opportunities to ex-cons who had paid their debt to society. Now it's 90% guys with turbans on both sides of the border! But that's not always a bad thing. Carrying guns and ammo across the border requires literally binders worth of paperwork. It involves an absolutely incognito truck stripped, for obvious reasons, of all comm tech, and scanned for tracking devices every time it's loaded. The company that employs Buddy tried to dump him back when he balked at the covid shot. Turns out it really helps to know your way around those binders if you hope to get through customs in a timely manner. He gradually got most of his job back as the clamour over covid died down. He claims it's routine to be waiting with a dozen or two dozen drivers in the US Customs holding area to clear their paperwork, and being the only white guy in the room. For some obscure reason, it's apparently quicker for a white guy to get through US Customs than for a brown dude with a turban. After lunch I mosied up what is generally known as the Elora Road, which terminates in Southampton, just west of Saugeen Indian Reservation #29. Gotta drop into my favorite pot shop and reload! I've only ever bought anything at a gov pot shop once, and across the board your gonna save probably 75% by shopping at the rez. Over the years, quite a few kids from Saugeen First Nation came through my classroom. In my 25 years of watching the education system circle the drain, one of the very few bright spots is we're now seeing Indigenous boys in high school much more. It was rare in 1995. By the time I retired, it was normal, and they were often among my best students. And let me point out that had far more to do with culture change in their community than with anything the ed system did. So, I got home with a full belly and four fresh vapes, 2 indica and 2 hybrid. My final observation has to do with this region's fast-fading reputation as Ontario's cattle country. There are actually more cattle than ever, but you don't see nearly as many. That's because what you see a lot more of is feedlots. A guy up the road put one in a year ago. Six million bucks for a 600 head barn where they stand in front of a giant automated feed trough and do nothing but eat and shit 24/7 until they hit the abattoir. I drive by the place twice a day and have never seen a cow. I guess that's farming today. I'm pleased to rent my pastures to a old-school father-son team who believe in cattle roaming the meadows, eating grass, and providing me cow-views from every window! That's worth a lot in my world. Sadly, they and their herd are endangered species.

Celebrating the Idiot Savant, from Jimi Hendrix to Jason Arday

Turns out that some idiot savants are more savants than idiots. Take Hendrix. I mean, he may have been a druggie goofball who held his guitar upside down, but to this day knowledgable commentators peg him as one of the greatest rock guitarists of all time. Then there's the Idiot Savants who prove themselves idiots. In spite of a massive PR campaign intended to hide the obvious; that from the beginning of his meteoric rise Dr Arday proved himself on the idiot side of the ledger. I can assure you there are no knowledgable commentators anywhere who imagine... that Jason is the Jimi Hendrix of... sociology? Which in no way absolves the powers that be from responsibility for the Arday debacle. And it is abundantly clear that it's Cambridge admin pushing DEI policies that put this guy in peril to begin with.

Johnny Hirtle and the 500hp Super Bee

Johnny, may he rest in peace, bought a 1969 Dodge Super Bee at Weiland Motors in Kitchener. They were strictly used cars then, and it was a few years before they got the Ford franchise, so the Bee had a few miles on it already. She was a box-stock stripper with column shift Torqueflite, bench seats, and the 335hp 383. Didn't take long to grenade that motor, given the extravagant smoke shows that erupted all over town. Johnny had a conundrum; rebuild that motor or swap in something new. He found a '68 Road Runner for sale that had been heavily modified for drag racing, hence the 500hp. The problem was that motors built for drag racing are designed to absolutely peak out at a quarter mile, whereas a stock Bee geared for the street is just getting warmed up at the quarter mile mark. In addition to even more spectacular smoke shows, we now got stories about "burying the speedometer." Given that the Super Bee speedo goes to 150mph, I found that rather alarming. Fortunately, the lifespan of that race motor was even shorter than that of the original, which probably extended the lifespans for a few of us, including Joachim himself. Johnny/Joachim took a decidedly mellow turn after that. Couple of years later, he was tooling around in an Econoline van. By then a ride with Johnny was still an adventure, because you never knew if it was gonna be three hours or three days, but at least you were reasonably confident you'd eventually arrive alive!

American Empire awaits final curtain

Just watched a ten minute segment on Fox where General Keane was 'splainin' to Larry Kudlow how, in spite of appearances to the contrary, the USA is in fact in full control of Hormuz. For ten minutes they danced around the very obvious fly in the ointment, to wit, the fact that four months into a four day war, the mightiest military the world has ever seen has proven incapable of achieving any of the goals it proclaimed when they started this war. In normal parlance, that's known as "losing." But not at Fox News. No, the extended pause in US attacks is 100% due to Donald's humanitarian bent. He just wants to make sure he gave the terrorist thugs every last chance before he unleashes hell etc. The truly sad (and might I add dangerous) fact is more Americans get their news from Fox than anywhere else, and I can't imagine they're likely to change the chanel to CNN or Al Jazeera for a second opinion. What will it take before reality sets in?... I figure $12/gallon diesel should do it!

Winter's coming and I got nothing but fear and loathing

And that's a radical departure from my usual winter announcement, which typically comes late November or early December, to the effect that, by golly, looks like winter's back... who knew? Yup, the advent of winter reliably takes me by surprise every year. But here's why things have changed. Last winter was an unexpectedly stiff one, as in way cold and way too much snow. Turned out I was completely unprepared, and it was only the kind intervention of my neighbours John Deere and Massey Ferguson, together with their snowblowers, that got me through. Never again! So I've been keeping an eye out for reliable and affordable snow-clearing tech. I saw a nearly new Suzuki quad with a blade for a whisker under 10k. At least that would give me a 4-wheeler when I'm not clearing snow, but it's not what you need when you get an overnight dump of four feet or more, which is known to happen in these parts. So I've been thinking maybe it makes some sense to have the old Ford 4000 diesel refurbished. It's a 53hp unit from about 50 or 60 years ago, and I have a snowblower for it. But I haven't had a diesel since my VW died, what, 15 years ago? I therefore know nothing about diesels and besides, between my shaky hands and fat fingers I struggle to pick up a wrench, let alone turn one. So this job gotta be farmed out, but whereto? As fate would have it, a few of the kids who went through my shop class went on to become all sorts of trades, including diesel mechanics. I happened to run into one of them at a funeral last week. He works at an iron ore mine on Baffin Island, which is somewhere nearby Santa's place. The company flies him up and back for a three-week rotation, and when he's home he wants to spend time with his three teen boys, not with my derelict tractor. Fortunately, he was able to provide the name of a classmate, who had just left a prominent farm equipment dealership and opened his own biz. Perfect! He'll be looking for work! A few days later I drop by the kids place. The kid is now a middle aged man with a family. There's a float dropping off a hydraulic Skyjack unit as I pull up. There's two or three tractors lining either side of the drive to his shop, and there's a massive high-hoe in the middle of all this stretching out its arms to the sky! Ya... I'm pretty sure Jeff ain't looking for work! Anyway, I'm happy the kids are kicking ass. They seem to have survived my tutelage just fine! But winters coming...

Up a stump with Donald Trump

Remember when USA-Israel unleashed a surprise attack on Iran last year, in the midst of alleged peace talks, which utterly obliterated Iran's nuclear program and military? Remember when USA-Israel unleashed another surprise attack this past February, again against the background of more fake peace talks, murdering the Supreme Leader and much of his extended family, and once again totally obliterating Iran's military? Remember when Mafia Don told the world that he personally would appoint the next Supreme Leader? Well, all of that and oh-so-much-more is already down ye olde memory hole. In fact, USA-Israel has since February obliterated the entirety of Iran's military-industrial complex several more times, to the point they have exhausted their ammo and are now awaiting Iranian retaliation. How such a thing is even conceivable after their non-stop obliteration over many months should raise a few questions, the paramount one being just how brazenly over-the-top the Trump regime's nonstop cavalcade of bullshit would have to get before the American people realize it's time to change the channel.

CBC wants you to know 51st state status a tempting option

Just check out their home page right now. Top headline... Oh my God millions of jobs and trillions of dollars will be gone if our fabulous free trade agreement collapses... what to do what to do... well by golly wouldn't it be great to short-circuit all that nasty trade war shit and just be friends? Frankly, by accepting Trumps offer of statehood, we're just making official what's been de-facto reality at least since John Diefenbaker axed the Avro Arrow. We're looking at a most impressive record of Canadian politicians currying favour in DC while pretending not to. Elbows up and all that silly shit! Obviously the unspoken message that screams out is we gotta save trillions of jobs and millions of... oh, whatever! Just a few stories later we read that over 29,000 Canadians have petitioned our government to kick out the US ambassador. I can certainly think of reasons to do that, but defying the deranged occupant of the White House's threats to annex Canada wouldn't be one of them. Contrasting "threats to annex" to the kidnapping or murder of a head of state makes us look a wee bit unserious. It's hard to get revved up about petty side-shows when we're 100% silent on America's role in the Gaza genocide and we support the unprovoked and illegal war on Iran.

Pot-addled pinko blogger beats Toby Lutke to the nitty-gritty by 12 years!

Yup, it's a true fact, that. Well, except it wasn't actually me who beat the Shopify guy to the insight that poor people are superfluous in a proper democracy, it was California hedgie billionaire Tom Perkins. Being a recovered socialist, I immediately posted the following to the web, where perhaps several dozen people may have noticed.********************** neumann's blog Saturday, February 15, 2014 Three cheers for Tom Perkins! Tom Perkins attracted more than a little ridicule a couple weeks ago with his assertion that the super-rich like him are being persecuted in contemporary America just like Jews were persecuted in Nazi Germany. Hold on a minute. Maybe Tom is the canary in the proverbial coalmine. Maybe some of us are just too blind with envy to see what is really happening. Already we see the super-rich being barred from the boards of directors of major corporations. None of the big banks will any longer be publicly associated with billionaires. They are increasingly shunned even by the very media they own! Rumours abound of private jets ferrying planeloads of billionaires to secret camps deep in the woods. We are told these camps are for "economic summits." Of course they are... just like the Jews of Europe were attending "economic summits" at Belsen and Auschwitz. And what of the future for our beleaguered billionaires? Will enough survive these dark days to achieve, someday, a homeland of their own? Luckily, Tom has an idea that may nip this tide of anti-oligarchism in the bud. The fatal flaw in democracy has always been that a lot of lazy stupid people have this so-called "right to vote." This manifestly unfair feature of US democracy has lead us straight to the current crisis of billionaire-bashing. If Tom's net worth is the equivalent of the combined net worth of 150 million poor Americans, why should they get 150 million votes while he gets one? Tom's plan is brilliant in its simplicity. Every dollar paid in tax would entitle the payer to one vote. That way Tom will no longer be punished for working a million times harder than a million lazy stupid poor people. This plan would also increase government revenue by incentivising many billionaires to pay taxes for the first time! So enough with the ridicule already. Let's give Tom's plans a chance! **************** Don't know what to say... either Toby was scrolling through my blog again and found something he liked, or (probably more likely) he happened to be sharing quality time with Tom at Davos or Aspen recently!

Gonzo hypocrisy; zero journalism

The crap that's showing up on CBC of late is beyond fake news, beyond ridiculous, and beyond even a caricature of actual "news." Here's what I believe lies at the root of the problem. As an occupation, the journalism profession has been shrinking for decades. Since the 1980s something like three-quarters of all mainstream journo jobs have disappeared, the kind of jobs with real salaries, benefits, and career paths. While the jobs disappeared, university journalism programs kept pumping out fresh grads - into a zero jobs economy. That's where the government decided taxing Google and Meta would raise the money required to provide at least temp employment to all these budding journalists. And here we are. A news environment dominated entirely by press releases from activist groups, think tanks, corporations, and govt spokepersons. Where's the "journalism?" Whatever happened to "afflicting the comfortable and comforting the afflicted?" Whatever happened to "speaking truth to power?" I'll tell you what happened. When you come out of Carleton or TMU or any of the others with that shiny new degree, or, God forbid, even a Masters and $100k in student loans, what are you gonna do in that bullshit fake job? Speak truth to power? No way! You'll do everything you can to get a pat on the head and get noticed by power, because the only possible hope you have of ever paying down your student loans and having a life is if you get into a rare paying slot at the Globe or the CBC, and "truth to power" ain't gonna take you very far up that road!

Celebrating small victories

There's a story on view at CBC today; " Na-Me-Res opens its doors to a new complex for unhoused men." I guess that's a good-news bad-news story. The good news is they're getting twenty dudes off the street and into proper housing. The bad news is this program is run by an Indigenous charity and is understandably focused on getting their people off the street. What we need to do is replicate this program x1000 and extend it across the country. The one thing I noticed is the program demands 100% abstinence from its former-addict residents. I'm surprised there hasn't been a civil-rights challenge on that. The way things have evolved over recent years makes public inebreation a basic human right. And if your public intoxication, regardless of cause, causes you to defecate in the flowerbeds in front of City Hall, well, everybody gotta shit, so fuck off with your judgementalism! Anyway, while the story headlines a small victory, it mentions in passing that Toronto is decades behind in its affordable housing goals. Now that we've gotta spend gazillions on fighter jets and warships and submarines, we'll be centuries behind!

Large white supremacist meeting shakes residents of Alberta town

That CBC headline caught my eye this morning. The CBC investigative journalism crew really has its finger on the pulse of what's going on in small-town Alberta. Remember a couple of years ago when they had a sudden surge of personal essays on what it's like to be the only Black trans teen in a small prairie town? Well, aside from empathy, there's not much those teens demand of us. Today's expose is an entirely different kettle of fish. We might feel sorry for that loney kid, but we need to be absolutely outraged about these white supremacists who terrorized a small town! The locals were stunned and shellshocked! Except if you actually read the story, they weren't. In fact, apparently nobody in town was even aware this army of 60+ white supremacists had visited until several weeks after the fact, when CBC brought it to their attention. Only then did the alleged "shellshock" set in. According to Grokepedia, the population of that Alberta hamlet is 58. You'd think they'd notice 60+ nazis in their midst, especially when they were waving banners from the overpass over the highway. The cbc quotes the owner of the general store as saying he had no idea. That's where you buy beer in Millarville... we're supposed to believe over five dozen middle-aged racist white goobers, mostly CAF vets, came to town for a week and didn't buy any beer??? We're in get-the-fuck-outta-here territory with that one! Anyway, I see two plausible explanations for this story. Is it possible those small-town Alberta bumpkins are secret fascist symps? The other possibility is that the Canadian Anti-Hate Network, the NGO 100% funded by our federal government, and whose "research" underpins this CBC story, is desperate to have its funding renewed, and is hoping to scare up some scary headlines.

If Chrystia Freeland is out of politics, why is she making speeches in Taiwan promising we'll protect them from Chinese aggression?

I have two observations about Chrystia's moronic interference in Taiwan-China affairs, and I have to say the only thing stupider than her actual speech is the Globe's coverage thereof. If one were completely ignorant of the last 100 years of China's history with the West, you'd think Chrystia was taking a bold stand for freedom and democracy and all that great stuff, just like when she was schlepping the hapless dumbshit Juan Guaido around the world. What she's really doing is working hard to further the Trump regime's mission to destroy the Trudeau-Nixon era's rapprochement with communist China. That is in itself an unfortunate lapse in good judgement. How is it up to the boss of one of the world's most lavishly funded foundations to pronounce on Taiwan-China relations? But here's where it gets really stupid. I mean, she's telling Taiwan to pick a fight with China, and we, meaning the collective West, will be standing shoulder to shoulder with them, yessiree, with whatever it takes for as long as it takes?... How is that working out for Ukraine?

Former Commander-in-Chief of Ukraine Army admits Russia has defeated NATO

Well, there's an oopsie! That's the exact opposite from the message the NATO vassals were singing in unison at the NATO summit in Ankara recently. "Ukraine has turned the tide!" Anybody who put any stock in that piffle needs to look up General Valerii Zaluznhy's address to the assembled Western ambassadors. Zaluznhy is the guy who oversaw the first half of Ukraine's war before being promoted to the post of ambassador to the UK. I think it's safe to assume the General knows whereof he speaks, unlike the myriad "experts" who have been shovelling blatant NATO propagada our way non-stop since at least 1991. Recall that at the dissolution of the Soviet Union Ukraine was by a good margin the most prosperous province. By the time of the Maidan coup, it's GDP per person had shrivelled to a third of Russias. Zaluznhy knows intimately the entire trajectory of post-Soviet Ukraine. Unlike our FM Anita Anand, who declared last week that "Ukraine has turned the tide," the former C in C of the Ukraine Army claims ain't no tide been turned, nor will there be. Not only has Russia destroyed Ukraine's military, its economy, and its industrial infrastructure, it has effectively demilitarized NATO to boot! But don't take my word for it.

Men of a certain age

Now that I'm solidly ensconced in God's waiting room, just waiting for my number to come up, I've developed a keen eye for the tell-tale signs that moment could be drawing nigh. For instance, maybe a month ago or so I had a mishap coming in the front door. My right foot didn't quite negotiate that first step, causing, in no particular order, broken glass, a deep gash on my arm, and a question mark in my mind about how it's possible to miss a step you've successfully negotiated multiple times per day for the last 20 years. I initially put it down to the fact it was late evening and I'd had a coupla pints and a toke... but that's just a regular day, so it didn't add up. Then, just a week or so later, it happened again! Except this time at 7 am. No beer. No tokes. Just a coffee and a cigarette out on the stoop. Once again, righty didn't quite attain the first step, causing a face-plant, a broken cup, and two rolls of paper towels to mop up the coffee. Obviously, I was having an issue with my right foot being reluctant to follow instructions from my brain. So, for the first time since I was maybe two, I've been thinking about every step I take, especially the steps that require lifting righty. That understandably gets you noticing others practicing "deliberative walking," if I may call it that. All my life I've been the kinda guy who chooses to wait in the car while the Farm Manager goes shopping, and all my life that was a pleasant respite when one could watch pretty women coming in and out of the store. Now I'm watching men of a certain age. And holy sh!t, damned near everybody's obviously deeply engaged in making sure that next step lands where it needs to. Praise the Lord! I'm not the only one!

When it comes to posh sinecures, absolutely nothing compares to House Marm at Rhodes House

Think about it. If you're a president or prime minister in a liberal democracy, your salary won't amount to more than a few hundred thou. Not only that, but you will be disparaged every day of your life as a lying shitbag. Who needs the aggravation? Ask Mark Carney how much he enjoys playing capo dei capi. On the other hand, as near as I can gather, School Marm at Rhodes House pays around 2 mil per annum. Plus a full staff including chefs, sommeliers, drivers and generic flunkies, not to mention residence in Cecil Rhodes' mansion itself! When's the last time you saw a Rhodes person taking any questions whatsoever from hostile media? Never! And lo and behold, that's where our former deputy PM finds herself today, at what's gotta be the tippy-tip-top of the greasy pole of cushy sinecures that await our Epstein class political operatives.

Fresh new Epstein scandal discovered in Michigan

Ho-hum... another posh private school for the children of folks who think for $80k their kids will escape the depravities of the public ed system, only to have them buggered and abused by Epstein & Company. Here's a quote from Jeffrey Epstein that's worth a momentary ponder:"Many members of the global super-elite have helped me to understand their world and some have become friends." Well, did they ever! And now, thanks to some intrepid investigative journalism at the New York Times by reporter Graham Bowley, even more Epstein Evil has come to light. Here's what got me sniffing the air for the wiff of conspiracy theories. While the above quote could very plausibly be an Epstein original, it actually comes from Chrystia Freeland. Yes, Epstein and Freeland both mixed freely among the global elite, Chrystia as a self-confessed small-time anti-Russia spy and A-list journo (top gun at Reuters), and Jeffrey as the most prolific pedophile and sex trafficker in known history. Oh, and by the way, by far the most consequential spy for Israel since Jonathan Pollard. Jeffrey's and Chrystia's paths must have crossed many times while they inhabited the same milleu. In fact, he variously swindled, promoted, partnered with,mentored,advised, sued, or defrauded many of the name's dropped by Freeland in her bountifully footnoted memoir of that time in her life, yet no reference to Epstein? Maybe after he gets to the bottom of this Michigan outrage, that NYT reporter can look into this. After all, Graham Bowley remains married to Ms. Freeland... maybe they can collaborate! I see a Pulittzer Prize ahead!

How Canada stands up to Donald Trump

This is a reprint of a story first published six years ago. Back then our leader was the one-time high-school drama teacher, the haircut that walks like a man. Today our leader is one-time elite global banker, the urbane technocrat who wowed the world with his defiant Davos speech. The six-year-old piece is fresh as this mornings's news headlines for one reason; our approach to Trump has not changed one iota. Lots of feisty op-eds and political grandstanding, but behind the curtain, strictly business as usual. Its hard to keep your elbows up when your pants are around your ankles.******** neumann's blog Sunday, October 4, 2020 How Canada stands up to Trump Canadians generally and Canadian media in particular have an ingrained antipathy toward Donny J. We are, after all, a sophisticated, educated, and morally superior nation, and Trump is...well, just so darned yucky and gross. Today, Jaime Watt's column in the Sunday Star is titled "Trump is running against democracy." Who can even imagine such a thing! Trump is so yucky and gross he is running against the very democratic ideals that make civilization possible. Star columnist Vinay Menon, meanwhile, advises his (presumably Canadian) readership to "seek out the remarkable healing power of Biden," although evidence that Biden has "healed" much of anything in almost a half century in politics is threadbare at best. While these A-list Canadian pundits are polishing our smug and sanctimonious superiority complex, the Royal Canadian Navy was, for the fourth time in four months, sending a warship through the Taiwan Strait. While Canada is blessed with an abundance of coastlines, none of them are anywhere near China, so it's not as if we're over there "defending our interests." No, what we're doing is "standing with our allies" in a signal to the commies that we're a vital part of the coalition of "liberal democracies" ever anxious to keep the Yellow Peril in check. The leader of the "liberal democracies," also known variously as "the free world," the Nations of Virtue, or simply Uncle Sam's Club, is of course America's Donald J Trump. One could question just how sound America's claim is on either liberalism or democracy, but aside from the ubiquitous Trump bashing, these questions don't come up. It's as if our pundits believe that America was that "shining city on a hill,"right up until January 20, 2017, when the light of freedom was suddenly snuffed. If we all wish hard enough, perhaps it may flicker back to life after November 3rd, when we can once again huddle under Uncle Sam's skirts without embarrassment. In the meantime, our allies UK and US, sail through the Taiwan Strait on a regular basis, and it is imperative that we "stand with our allies," the same "liberal democracies" currently busying themselves with destroying Julian Assange in revenge for exposing their war crimes. Here's the problem; talk is cheap. It costs nothing to write anti-Trump op-eds. On the other hand, it costs hundreds of thousands of dollars per day to sail a Halifax-class RCN frigate through the Taiwan Strait. And our frigate fleet is getting long in the tooth. We need to upgrade the fleet if we are to continue standing with our allies. To that end, Canada is forging ahead with plans to build 15 state-of-the-art frigates at a cost of 45 billions. The lead contractor is US military supplier Lockheed Martin. For all our Trump-bashing and anti-American posturing, it is clear that, virtue-signalling aside, Canada's ruling elite remains as desperate as ever to ingratiate themselves with the Big Dog, regardless of who sits in the Oval Office. They remain American Empire Loyalists to the core.