Spent the afternoon hiking with the hounds. The Bruce Trail folks bought the neighbour's place last year, and they've blazed some fresh trails through that property that hook up with the trail that already runs up the escarpment along the Cole Sideroad. It was a beautiful sunny afternoon when we set out, and getting dark when we arrived home.
I've hiked that area numerous times over the years, long before they put in an official trail. They've cleared a path through the Hawthornes that have taken over the meadows on your way up the escarpment.
The escarpment trail itself is somewhat challenging. It's not for the first time hiker, nor is it for fourteen year old dogs. While you don't have to do any actual rock-climbing, it gets pretty dicey at points.
So I get back home and click on the news and... guess who's back?
Tony Clement! Yup, the veteran right-winger, alum of both the Mean Mike Harris cabinet and the Harper gang, figures the country needs more public service from him. You'll recall that Tony disappeared into the mists of opprobrium when it was revealed that the esteemed Tory member was revealing pictures of his member to certain of his Instagram followers not that long ago.
Well, I say welcome back Tony! We've all made mistakes...
Hell, if Louis C.K. deserves another chance, so do you.
Showing posts with label Tony Clement. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tony Clement. Show all posts
Saturday, January 5, 2019
Tuesday, July 12, 2016
This is journalism?
Kevin O'Leary is a moron.
But he's a moron who is very well paid for playing a successful investor on TV. Because he's a moron who understands the ins and outs of celebrity culture, he has managed to build a facade of credibility around his imaginary financial acumen.
Kevin had a great run of luck back in the '80's, when the digital era was in its infancy. A top notch flim-flam artist could go a long way on very little other than flim-flam back in the day, and there is no doubt that Kevin has always been a really great salesman.
In fact, if I were selling air conditioners in the Arctic, I'd want Kevin to head up my sales team.
But, there's the world 'o sales and flim-flam and reality TV... and then there's the real world.
The Globe and Mail, Canada's newspaper of record, ostensibly operates in the real world. Today they've got a fawning story about Kevin on A3. Yup, a mere three pages in we've got a third of a page dedicated to Kevin thinking out loud.
Unpaid intern Laura Stone has never before been this close to the front page, so I imagine she is thrilled. It's not clear from the story if she actually talked to Kevin or if she relied on press releases from his PR firm. In any event, Kevin is boldly staking his claim to the front ranks of the Conservative Party leadership battle... on the basis of exactly nothing other than his thinking out loud.
And what a sad indictment of Canadian news media that is.
The Globe reports that the mighty O'Leary has summoned Tony Clement to his Muskoka cottage to discuss the future of the Dominion and maybe have a guitar jam. What the fuck? Check it out on A3 of today's paper, folks.
I couldn't believe it either!... he is just like the Godfather; he "invites" those leadership wannabees to his dock where maybe he's gonna make an offer they can't refuse, or maybe they're just gonna sit on the dock and play their guitars, because that's how we do politics in Canada?
We're treated to this level of imbecility by page three? Does no one appreciate the fact that I paid three dollars and fifteen cents to read this newspaper?
The more you dig into Kevin's alleged business prowess the more you wonder why he is not in jail. Here's a brief synopsis of O'Leary's business career.
I'm guessing Laura Stone didn't dig that far and just wrote her story around Kevin's latest press release.
That's journalism in the modern era.
But he's a moron who is very well paid for playing a successful investor on TV. Because he's a moron who understands the ins and outs of celebrity culture, he has managed to build a facade of credibility around his imaginary financial acumen.
Kevin had a great run of luck back in the '80's, when the digital era was in its infancy. A top notch flim-flam artist could go a long way on very little other than flim-flam back in the day, and there is no doubt that Kevin has always been a really great salesman.
In fact, if I were selling air conditioners in the Arctic, I'd want Kevin to head up my sales team.
But, there's the world 'o sales and flim-flam and reality TV... and then there's the real world.
The Globe and Mail, Canada's newspaper of record, ostensibly operates in the real world. Today they've got a fawning story about Kevin on A3. Yup, a mere three pages in we've got a third of a page dedicated to Kevin thinking out loud.
Unpaid intern Laura Stone has never before been this close to the front page, so I imagine she is thrilled. It's not clear from the story if she actually talked to Kevin or if she relied on press releases from his PR firm. In any event, Kevin is boldly staking his claim to the front ranks of the Conservative Party leadership battle... on the basis of exactly nothing other than his thinking out loud.
And what a sad indictment of Canadian news media that is.
The Globe reports that the mighty O'Leary has summoned Tony Clement to his Muskoka cottage to discuss the future of the Dominion and maybe have a guitar jam. What the fuck? Check it out on A3 of today's paper, folks.
I couldn't believe it either!... he is just like the Godfather; he "invites" those leadership wannabees to his dock where maybe he's gonna make an offer they can't refuse, or maybe they're just gonna sit on the dock and play their guitars, because that's how we do politics in Canada?
We're treated to this level of imbecility by page three? Does no one appreciate the fact that I paid three dollars and fifteen cents to read this newspaper?
The more you dig into Kevin's alleged business prowess the more you wonder why he is not in jail. Here's a brief synopsis of O'Leary's business career.
I'm guessing Laura Stone didn't dig that far and just wrote her story around Kevin's latest press release.
That's journalism in the modern era.
Sunday, February 9, 2014
Skinning the union fat-cats
There's a title bound to catch the eye of the right-to-work-for-less crowd. Those folks love to hate unions, and especially union bosses.
Virtually all of those folks would be far better off it they had a union, but that is a matter for another day. For now we'll content ourselves with looking in on Tony Clement's war on Canadian public servants.
Anti-union propaganda, dreamt up in corporate boardrooms and right-wing think tanks and then promulgated uncritically and with great vigour by our mainstream media, usually begins with vast over-estimates of the actual wages of those union members in question. For example, all those mollycoddled UAW /CAW members who almost destroyed the North American auto industry were making $60 or $70 or $120 per hour, depending on where you read about them. Floating these bogus numbers into the public realm has a purpose; to arouse the hostility of those who make less.
The reality is of course much different; even before the post-collapse shakedown of autoworkers across North America, hourly wages for line workers were barely $30. Now they're in the teens. But, thanks to ubiquitous anti-union propaganda, most people you ask still think autoworkers are highly paid.
And that floating of bogus numbers is the strategy that Clement uses at every opportunity in his war on Canada's public service. Oh lookee, the average public employee makes $114,000 per year! Nothing like that headline to raise the rancour of the vast majority of private sector employees who make less.
Then, not quite as splashy as that first headline, another one comes out that purports to set the record straight; it's not $114,000 after all, it's barely $70,000.
A little more time passes and some fringe website that nobody reads will report that the actual median annual income of unionized public workers is less that $50k, but by then the damage is done. Everybody knows that public sector workers are greedy, lazy, incompetent, and overpaid.
Recently Mr. Clement, boss of the Treasury Board and therefore responsible for government spending, has thrust public workers sick-days into the spotlight. Those overpaid lazy public servants are not just greedy and incompetent, they are also scamming their sick benefits AT THE EXPENSE OF HARDWORKING CANADIAN TAXPAYERS!!!
Last year Tony made lots of headlines with his claim that public sector workers take at least five more sick days a year than private sector workers. That of course was only made possible by their union bosses who protected these shirkers from the realities of the real world. Tony had those union bosses and their multitudes of muzzled minions squarely in his sites. He was gonna cut those union bigwigs down to size, and bring those public sector sick benefits into line with the non-existant ones in the private sector.
Turns out there was a fly in Tony's ointment; empirical evidence that reveals Tony's numbers were bullshit from the beginning. Seems that public servant sick days are comparable to private sector sick days. So much for divide and conquer...
Tony was quick to re-spin his war on lazy union workers and their corrupt union bosses. A couple of days ago he was cutting them down to size. Listen to what he is quoted as saying in today's Sunday Star (P A2); "We have employees who run out of their sick days and then go on employment insurance to pay their bills. I don't think that's a good system for them. In fact, I think it's an immoral system."
That's Tony Clement, champion of the Canadian public servant!
Virtually all of those folks would be far better off it they had a union, but that is a matter for another day. For now we'll content ourselves with looking in on Tony Clement's war on Canadian public servants.
Anti-union propaganda, dreamt up in corporate boardrooms and right-wing think tanks and then promulgated uncritically and with great vigour by our mainstream media, usually begins with vast over-estimates of the actual wages of those union members in question. For example, all those mollycoddled UAW /CAW members who almost destroyed the North American auto industry were making $60 or $70 or $120 per hour, depending on where you read about them. Floating these bogus numbers into the public realm has a purpose; to arouse the hostility of those who make less.
The reality is of course much different; even before the post-collapse shakedown of autoworkers across North America, hourly wages for line workers were barely $30. Now they're in the teens. But, thanks to ubiquitous anti-union propaganda, most people you ask still think autoworkers are highly paid.
And that floating of bogus numbers is the strategy that Clement uses at every opportunity in his war on Canada's public service. Oh lookee, the average public employee makes $114,000 per year! Nothing like that headline to raise the rancour of the vast majority of private sector employees who make less.
Then, not quite as splashy as that first headline, another one comes out that purports to set the record straight; it's not $114,000 after all, it's barely $70,000.
A little more time passes and some fringe website that nobody reads will report that the actual median annual income of unionized public workers is less that $50k, but by then the damage is done. Everybody knows that public sector workers are greedy, lazy, incompetent, and overpaid.
Recently Mr. Clement, boss of the Treasury Board and therefore responsible for government spending, has thrust public workers sick-days into the spotlight. Those overpaid lazy public servants are not just greedy and incompetent, they are also scamming their sick benefits AT THE EXPENSE OF HARDWORKING CANADIAN TAXPAYERS!!!
Last year Tony made lots of headlines with his claim that public sector workers take at least five more sick days a year than private sector workers. That of course was only made possible by their union bosses who protected these shirkers from the realities of the real world. Tony had those union bosses and their multitudes of muzzled minions squarely in his sites. He was gonna cut those union bigwigs down to size, and bring those public sector sick benefits into line with the non-existant ones in the private sector.
Turns out there was a fly in Tony's ointment; empirical evidence that reveals Tony's numbers were bullshit from the beginning. Seems that public servant sick days are comparable to private sector sick days. So much for divide and conquer...
Tony was quick to re-spin his war on lazy union workers and their corrupt union bosses. A couple of days ago he was cutting them down to size. Listen to what he is quoted as saying in today's Sunday Star (P A2); "We have employees who run out of their sick days and then go on employment insurance to pay their bills. I don't think that's a good system for them. In fact, I think it's an immoral system."
That's Tony Clement, champion of the Canadian public servant!
Monday, June 10, 2013
Harper surrounded by sleaze, will crack down hard on $20/hr peons in the public service
Sanctimonious Steve sure isn't smelling all that great these days.
From the illegal electronic snooping to the serial fiscal abuse and outright fraud of his hand-picked Senate appointees, Big Steve is up against the ropes...
To say nothing of that fellow Steve made responsible for overseeing all that illegal spying, put in the job by Harper himself and then absconding with untold millions in Schmiergeld.
But let's not underestimate the man. He is after all a firm believer of the "punching above my weight" doctrine.
That's the one wherein you evoke the " Canada always punches above it's weight" mantra whenever you are trying to justify some morally dubious stunt on the world stage.
So just as the Tory ship is filling up with dirty water, Steve's brain trust finds the perfect scapegoat.
The Harper gang will rebuild their brand as guardians of the public purse on the backs of public servants across the land!
Did you know those people get BANKABLE SICK DAYS!!!!
I know!
It's like the last thirty years of Reaganomics and NAFTA and the entire neo-liberal manure wagon just passed them by!
By God, Big Steve has a point. Why should those molly-coddled civil servants get sick days when I don't?
From the illegal electronic snooping to the serial fiscal abuse and outright fraud of his hand-picked Senate appointees, Big Steve is up against the ropes...
To say nothing of that fellow Steve made responsible for overseeing all that illegal spying, put in the job by Harper himself and then absconding with untold millions in Schmiergeld.
But let's not underestimate the man. He is after all a firm believer of the "punching above my weight" doctrine.
That's the one wherein you evoke the " Canada always punches above it's weight" mantra whenever you are trying to justify some morally dubious stunt on the world stage.
So just as the Tory ship is filling up with dirty water, Steve's brain trust finds the perfect scapegoat.
The Harper gang will rebuild their brand as guardians of the public purse on the backs of public servants across the land!
Did you know those people get BANKABLE SICK DAYS!!!!
I know!
It's like the last thirty years of Reaganomics and NAFTA and the entire neo-liberal manure wagon just passed them by!
By God, Big Steve has a point. Why should those molly-coddled civil servants get sick days when I don't?
Harper gang lowers boom on public servants
Treasury Board President Tony Clement today announced that his government intends to get tough on public servants.
For starters, he wants to end the lavish 15 sick days per year that most public servants are contractually entitled to. According to Tony, work rules in the public service haven't changed since the 1970's.
That's a telling statement. Mr. Clement is acknowledging that they haven't improved since the 1970's.
Private sector workers have in the interim had the rug pulled out from under them, a process that began in the 1970's but was greatly hastened by the introduction of NAFTA. Workers of a certain age will remember the sales job.
In fact, "jobs jobs jobs" was Mulroney's mantra as he campaigned for "free trade." American money, Canadian resources, and Mexican labour would make a world-beating combo that would raise all boats in a veritable tsunami of prosperity!
Even the dullest shop-hand had misgivings about that. Not hard to see where it would be a bonanza for the American money and the Mexican labour, but what about the rest of us? That's where Mulroney expertly appealed to the worst instincts of the public; our inherent racism.
You see, the Mexicans were just getting the crap jobs. US and Canadian workers would flock to the coming wave of clean and lucrative high-tech jobs that the stupid brown people couldn't do if they wanted to.
The bosses got their free trade agreement and it didn't take long to see that the joke was on the workers. That's why private sector wages in North America have been going backwards for thirty years, and will continue to do so until we have wage parity with our Mexican free trade partners.
And the beauty of this reality is that it permits politicians like Tony Clement to argue that public sector wages and benefits have to be determined by prevailing private sector standards, which are in turn determined by what an impoverished Mexican is willing to work for!
It's a great system for the bosses and the owners and their politicians.
Not that great for the rest of us.
For starters, he wants to end the lavish 15 sick days per year that most public servants are contractually entitled to. According to Tony, work rules in the public service haven't changed since the 1970's.
That's a telling statement. Mr. Clement is acknowledging that they haven't improved since the 1970's.
Private sector workers have in the interim had the rug pulled out from under them, a process that began in the 1970's but was greatly hastened by the introduction of NAFTA. Workers of a certain age will remember the sales job.
In fact, "jobs jobs jobs" was Mulroney's mantra as he campaigned for "free trade." American money, Canadian resources, and Mexican labour would make a world-beating combo that would raise all boats in a veritable tsunami of prosperity!
Even the dullest shop-hand had misgivings about that. Not hard to see where it would be a bonanza for the American money and the Mexican labour, but what about the rest of us? That's where Mulroney expertly appealed to the worst instincts of the public; our inherent racism.
You see, the Mexicans were just getting the crap jobs. US and Canadian workers would flock to the coming wave of clean and lucrative high-tech jobs that the stupid brown people couldn't do if they wanted to.
The bosses got their free trade agreement and it didn't take long to see that the joke was on the workers. That's why private sector wages in North America have been going backwards for thirty years, and will continue to do so until we have wage parity with our Mexican free trade partners.
And the beauty of this reality is that it permits politicians like Tony Clement to argue that public sector wages and benefits have to be determined by prevailing private sector standards, which are in turn determined by what an impoverished Mexican is willing to work for!
It's a great system for the bosses and the owners and their politicians.
Not that great for the rest of us.
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