Remember The FBI?

I'm talking about the TV show here. Kinda followed it a bit in the sixties, before I got woke and switched the channel to "The Mod Squad."

Were those guys cool or what?

Nevertheless, The FBI is where the wholesome image of the FBI was fabricated, the image that the Trumpists stand accused of besmirching.

Seriously? Wasn't Hillary doing the same thing just a week before the election? The FBI is politicized today, was then, and in fact it was born politicised. Anybody remotely leftish at any point in the Bureau's existence would have died laughing if they witnessed the current controversy.

The FBI wasn't politicized? Get outta here!

J Edgar Hoover had his hands all over that TV series. He personally approved every actor who played an FBI agent. He and Efrem Zimbalist Jr. consulted on pretty much every episode. Hoover crafted a propaganda masterpiece! For one prime time hour every Sunday night, The FBI gave the FBI an hour of very compelling free advertising.

That show made the agency's reputation for integrity and ethical policing. Apparently there are still folks around who buy the bullshit.

If you're one of them, google FBI history and do some reading.

I assume that the people running the reputation chestnut up the flagpole are well educated and intelligent folks who already know the truth. The news business is in the news business though, not the truth business. They're sometimes reporting facts, but often they're creating the very facts they're reporting on. That pretty much explains the last 30 years of Donald Trump's career, and especially the last couple.

No, the infotainment-industrial complex, big papers, big news providers across all platforms, provide many essential services to the "deep state."

Telling it like it is ain't one of them.

TTC spokesperson Wanda Dunkelwasser explains why TTC no longer hires recent immigrants

Here is her explanation.

Yup, that's all too true and at the same time it's entirely fake news.

But often enough fake news turns out to be truer than true. Here's a very current story about the school-bus driver shortage in the Toronto area.

There is an obvious remedy to this driver shortage - pay the drivers a living wage already!

In Toronto, a unionized cement truck driver delivering concrete to a construction site makes about four times the hourly wage of a school bus driver.

Tells you something about our priorities as a society, doesn't it?

Knowing how things work in Justin's just society, nobody's gonna give the bus drivers a raise. Instead, the bus companies will produce a "labour market analysis" that shows Canada has a grievous shortage of qualified school-bus drivers, and voila, the floodgates will open to thousands of temp foreign workers who have driving experience.

Even if that driving experience consisted of driving twin oxen instead of a V-8.

Celebrating American Culture

Ya, I know...  WTF is "American culture?"

American culture is a lot of things. But generally speaking, when we talk about American culture, we tend to forget about these folks.

That's a video worth watching if you're interested in American culture. The Lake Lanier Poker Run is high culture in the deep South. I didn't see a black face till about the sixteen minute mark, and I think those guys were spectators, not boat pilots.

Didn't see a lot of fat chicks either.

What I saw a lot of is fat middle-aged white dudes and skinny young women and million dollar fast boats.

So what's wrong with that?

Nothing.

There may be a dearth of black faces in this celebration of excess, but let's get real; there's more to owning a million dollar boat than being born white. Otherwise every trailer park honky would have one. Speaking as a honky who is a lot closer to the trailer park than I am to a million dollar boat, I don't find this unreasonable.

Not that I have a problem with the boats. To a certain extent I understand the allure of a fast boat. I get twin 502's in a 32 foot Cigarette. I get four 400R Mercs hanging off the transom of a 40 foot Fountain...

But when I hear these guys talking about sixteen fifty Mercs I gotta admit I don't even know what they're talking about.

So watch that video and celebrate this obscure corner of American culture, where nubile young women flock to middle aged fat dudes and black folks serve drinks.

And remember, this is all for charity. They got 300 boats registered. From what I saw, the average boat was a million bucks and tow vehicles were $100,000 plus. Overall you're probably looking at close to half a billion in hardware in that video.

They're hoping to raise $400,000 for charity...


God bless America!

Phun with Phil

Here's a tip for dog lovers. Having a dog is great. Especially a dog like this.




Phil is just a joy. She loves the heated front seats in the Subaru. Of course she's not allowed anywhere near the front seats when the Farm Manager is riding with us, but when it's just me and the hounds, well, what the hell...

Why would you want to let a heated seat go to waste?

Having two dogs may or may not be even better. Around here we're fond of the two-dog model because when we have to step out, they've got one another for company. These were our two dogs BP, or "before Phil."



Here they are on the shore of Colpoys Bay awaiting the next stick toss.

But don't ever get sucked into having three dogs. Nosiree, three dogs is a dog pack. A dog pack is more than the sum of its parts. A pack develops a pack mind that can have a completely different personality than any of the dogs may have individually. That's why you read those sad stories about the little old lady who was ripped to shreds by her pack of schnauzers.

Individually, each of those dogs loved her.

As a pack, they woke up one day and their pack mentality told them she was the prey.

That's something we hope to avoid here at Falling Downs.

Sarah Kendzior: She Wolf of the Resistance

Google "Kendzior NYT" and you'll find a link to a Kendzior tweet that beseeches the reader to cancel their subscription to the New York Times.

Why? Apparently the paper has become an open sewer of white supremacist doggerel, overflowing with Nazi propaganda and pro-Trump PR.

Who knew?!... I guess we all owe her a debt of gratitude for pointing this out to us! As an alternative to the Times, she suggests we read the Washington Post instead. Presumably you'll find less pro-Trump PR there.

Not that I'd ever noticed any in the NYT. In fact, I've found their A-list op-ed prognosticators to be reliably anti-Trump.

Has Kendzior come unglued?

Maybe, but my hunch is there's something else behind such egregious foolishness. It's really tough making a go of it financially as an independent journalist. Every click counts, and there's a shit-load of competition out there. To scale up your brand you either have to come up with some genuine insights and noteworthy scoops, or fade into the background.

Kendzior's work is devoid of scoops and thin on insights, so she relies instead on cranking up the hysteria dial. Labelling the NYT a "white supremacist paper" pretty much puts that dial at eleven. Hard to know where she's gonna go from here!

Guess I'll have to follow her to find out...  oh my gosh - I've fallen into her trap!

Conan O'Brien proves Haiti not a sh!thole

It's a thing now - high priced US celebrities go to Haiti for a few days and a few photo-ops to prove that far from being a shithole, Haiti is in fact a lovely getaway with pristine beaches, stunning vistas, and photogenic schoolgirls...

Hmm... Cuba has all that and so much more. Free education and health care. A GDP per person ten times that of Haiti. Life expectancy fifteen years greater.

Here's another difference; Haiti gets American "aid." Cuba gets American sanctions. In spite of that, few would deny that Cubans enjoy a vastly superior quality of life.

A mere sixty miles of ocean separate these two Caribbean states. One has enjoyed a socialist mode of governance for over half a century. The other has had its elected leader removed by Uncle Sam and friends any time he starts mouthing vaguely socialist rhetoric.

This contrast raises a couple of intriguing questions:

• what might Cuba's economy look like absent US sanctions? 
• what might Haiti look like absent US interference?  

Frankly, I think they'd both be better off if Uncle Sam stayed home and worked at fixing America's problems instead.

How do you know when your dog has dementia?

Is that even a thing, doggie dementia?

I'm a little concerned about Boomer, our old girl. Lately she's taken to barking a lot. She barks at stuff that doesn't appear to be there, so far as I can see.

Then again, she could be going a little blind.

Her barking will of course get the others to barking, whereupon we find ourselves in the middle of a cacophonous barkfest.

Most unpleasant.