How about a Bernie-Tulsi ticket?
The think tank here at Falling Downs likes the look of that. Between Bernie's small "s" socialism and Tulsi's anti-war stance, a change in the Oval Office could conceivably mean an actual change in how things work in America.
Any Clintonite or Clinton-lite Dem ticket practically gifts Trump the White House for the next four years. Remember, Trump got his first four because so many American voters are well past disgusted with the billionaire-owned media and political establishment.
Just imagine; those trillions wasted in wars that make the world hate America, could instead be invested in making America great again!
Tuesday, October 22, 2019
Four more years of Fluffy
Or maybe not... coalition governments have a tendency to die a premature death.
I'm guessing that having to coordinate policy with the NDP will put the brakes on Mr. Trudeau's authoritarian tendencies, which would be good for the country but won't sit well with Trudeau. He'll ditch that coalition the moment he thinks he can win a majority.
That would be a mistake. This campaign has elevated the profile of Scheer from non-entity to contender. In fact, he won the popular vote. A credible performance in the months ahead would boost his chances next time round. I'm sure Justin would rather share the power pie with Jag than see Scheer gorf down the whole thing.
Hopefully, we will now tone down our enthusiasm for regime change in Venezuela. Our "leadership" of the Lima Group is an embarrassment to Canada and a stain on her reputation. Although a lot of Liberals share that view, the Trudeau-Freeland team has successfully throttled them. That won't be so easy now that Justin will have to keep at least one eye on his coalition partners, and that's where anti-Lima Group sentiment in parliament has been most frequently voiced.
If I were Jagmeet, I'd make shuffling Chrystia out of Foreign Affairs a precondition for any coalition agreement.
I'm guessing that having to coordinate policy with the NDP will put the brakes on Mr. Trudeau's authoritarian tendencies, which would be good for the country but won't sit well with Trudeau. He'll ditch that coalition the moment he thinks he can win a majority.
That would be a mistake. This campaign has elevated the profile of Scheer from non-entity to contender. In fact, he won the popular vote. A credible performance in the months ahead would boost his chances next time round. I'm sure Justin would rather share the power pie with Jag than see Scheer gorf down the whole thing.
Hopefully, we will now tone down our enthusiasm for regime change in Venezuela. Our "leadership" of the Lima Group is an embarrassment to Canada and a stain on her reputation. Although a lot of Liberals share that view, the Trudeau-Freeland team has successfully throttled them. That won't be so easy now that Justin will have to keep at least one eye on his coalition partners, and that's where anti-Lima Group sentiment in parliament has been most frequently voiced.
If I were Jagmeet, I'd make shuffling Chrystia out of Foreign Affairs a precondition for any coalition agreement.
Monday, October 21, 2019
Thuggy's Guns
That's a gun store located in the back of an auto-body shop not too far from Jane and Finch.
When Mayor Tory pontificates on the topic of a handgun ban, putting Thuggy and his ilk out of business is what he's talking about.
Yup, Thuggy is just one of many gun purveyors selling handguns to teenage gangstas, no questions asked.
It's high time the City/Province/Ottawa put the thuggish and ethically challenged handgun retailers out of business....
Bring on the handgun ban!
The only problem in this scenario is that Thuggy's Guns is 100% fictional. There are no gun stores anywhere in the country selling any kind of guns, let alone handguns, with no questions asked. Not to middle aged businessmen, and certainly not to teen ganstas.
But promising a handgun ban is a vote-getter.
If you're looking for a hard dose of reality to squelch the squawking for more gun control, don't hold your breath.
When Mayor Tory pontificates on the topic of a handgun ban, putting Thuggy and his ilk out of business is what he's talking about.
Yup, Thuggy is just one of many gun purveyors selling handguns to teenage gangstas, no questions asked.
It's high time the City/Province/Ottawa put the thuggish and ethically challenged handgun retailers out of business....
Bring on the handgun ban!
The only problem in this scenario is that Thuggy's Guns is 100% fictional. There are no gun stores anywhere in the country selling any kind of guns, let alone handguns, with no questions asked. Not to middle aged businessmen, and certainly not to teen ganstas.
But promising a handgun ban is a vote-getter.
If you're looking for a hard dose of reality to squelch the squawking for more gun control, don't hold your breath.
Sunday, October 20, 2019
Getting in front of Zelensky
There's a reason Ukrainian voters voted overwhelmingly for political neophyte Volodymyr Zelensky this year; they're sick of the status quo. They saw in Zelensky hope for both a winding down of the conflict in the east, and a long-promised clean-up of Ukraine's famously corrupt political culture.
According to a feature story by Sarah Lawrynuik in the Toronto Sunday Star today, six months in, the natives are once again getting restless. Now they're afraid Zelensky will "capitulate" to Putin.
Lawrynuik's sources include a couple of disgruntled ex-pats who were "forced" out of Crimea, a few "patriots" who volunteered to fight in Donbas, and a couple of people with very close ties to foreign NGOs that have been meddling in Ukraine since well before the US-sponsored "Revolution of Dignity." There's not a whiff of "balance" to be found in the story.
A glance at a map and a passing acquaintance with Russia-Ukraine history would suggest that Russia has far more legitimate interests in Ukraine than does the US. This point of view is of course not shared by Washington, which continues to shower "pro-democracy activists" in Ukraine with lavish funding from the National Endowment for Democracy.
Their motto; "supporting freedom around the world," needs to be a little more specific. What freedoms are they supporting? The freedom of grifters like Biden and Trump to meddle in Ukraine's affairs? Lawrynuik recycles the three-year-old story of the alleged Surkov emails, reassuring us they "were judged to be authentic by the Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Lab."
Well duh! What else would we expect from NATO's propaganda arm?
"Military consultant" Glen Grant gets quoted a lot. He's a former UK army guy who's been making mischief in Eastern Europe on behalf of NATO for years. Last year he published an essay in the Western-sponsored Kyiv Post titled How Ukraine can build an army to beat Putin.
Those are the voices from Ukraine that the Toronto Star editorial board sees fit to represent to us what is happening in Ukraine. They're exclusively voices that want to push Zelensky towards further conflict with Russia.
That's not why 73% of Ukrainian voters made him their president. Western war-mongers need to shut up, butt out, and let him do his job.
According to a feature story by Sarah Lawrynuik in the Toronto Sunday Star today, six months in, the natives are once again getting restless. Now they're afraid Zelensky will "capitulate" to Putin.
Lawrynuik's sources include a couple of disgruntled ex-pats who were "forced" out of Crimea, a few "patriots" who volunteered to fight in Donbas, and a couple of people with very close ties to foreign NGOs that have been meddling in Ukraine since well before the US-sponsored "Revolution of Dignity." There's not a whiff of "balance" to be found in the story.
A glance at a map and a passing acquaintance with Russia-Ukraine history would suggest that Russia has far more legitimate interests in Ukraine than does the US. This point of view is of course not shared by Washington, which continues to shower "pro-democracy activists" in Ukraine with lavish funding from the National Endowment for Democracy.
Their motto; "supporting freedom around the world," needs to be a little more specific. What freedoms are they supporting? The freedom of grifters like Biden and Trump to meddle in Ukraine's affairs? Lawrynuik recycles the three-year-old story of the alleged Surkov emails, reassuring us they "were judged to be authentic by the Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Lab."
Well duh! What else would we expect from NATO's propaganda arm?
"Military consultant" Glen Grant gets quoted a lot. He's a former UK army guy who's been making mischief in Eastern Europe on behalf of NATO for years. Last year he published an essay in the Western-sponsored Kyiv Post titled How Ukraine can build an army to beat Putin.
Those are the voices from Ukraine that the Toronto Star editorial board sees fit to represent to us what is happening in Ukraine. They're exclusively voices that want to push Zelensky towards further conflict with Russia.
That's not why 73% of Ukrainian voters made him their president. Western war-mongers need to shut up, butt out, and let him do his job.
Friday, October 18, 2019
RIP Sonny
Sonny wasn't a close personal friend. He was barely an acquaintance. But he was one hell of an interesting guy.
Sometimes life affords you the opportunity to make connections with people with whom you don't have much in common. Sonny was one of those.
Sonny was an Argentinian with impeccable political connections in the country. Back in the "dirty war" era his name came up on a People's Revolutionary Army hit list. As a dyed-in-the-wool pacifist, I'm not for hit lists, but I have to admit that my sympathies were more with the ERP than with the folks on their list.
I first met Sonny in the '80s. In addition to being a card-carrying member of Argentina's landed aristocracy, he was also a dedicated public servant, and it was in that capacity that he made occasional visits to Canada, where it turned out we had mutual friends.
He was a bit of an eccentric. Back home on his latifundia, he wore a revolver on his belt and drove a '20's era Model T Ford that his father had bought new. When that car came up for sale a few years ago I briefly toyed with the idea of flying down to Argentina and driving the car back to Canada.
On sober second thought, after outlining my possible homeward bound routes on a map, I reluctantly came to the conclusion that there were far too many places along the way where the locals would be happy enough to shoot the gringo in the head and steal the car.
That was the end of that.
One thing we had in common was a robust contempt for political correctitude. Sonny was exceptionally well-travelled (at the expense of his perpetually bankrupt state), and his vacation pictures always included scantily clad young women frolicking in the fore-ground of his touristy holiday pics. When questioned on this happy coincidence, Sonny would reply, "What? You thought I was a homo?"
I hadn't seen Sonny for a few years, and I knew he was crowding 90, when I recently bumped into one of our mutual acquaintances.
"How's Sonny doing these days?"
"He's dead."
"Oh shit! I was looking forward to having a pint with him..."
"Not anytime soon, I hope," came the reply.
Me too.
RIP, Sonny.
Sometimes life affords you the opportunity to make connections with people with whom you don't have much in common. Sonny was one of those.
Sonny was an Argentinian with impeccable political connections in the country. Back in the "dirty war" era his name came up on a People's Revolutionary Army hit list. As a dyed-in-the-wool pacifist, I'm not for hit lists, but I have to admit that my sympathies were more with the ERP than with the folks on their list.
I first met Sonny in the '80s. In addition to being a card-carrying member of Argentina's landed aristocracy, he was also a dedicated public servant, and it was in that capacity that he made occasional visits to Canada, where it turned out we had mutual friends.
He was a bit of an eccentric. Back home on his latifundia, he wore a revolver on his belt and drove a '20's era Model T Ford that his father had bought new. When that car came up for sale a few years ago I briefly toyed with the idea of flying down to Argentina and driving the car back to Canada.
On sober second thought, after outlining my possible homeward bound routes on a map, I reluctantly came to the conclusion that there were far too many places along the way where the locals would be happy enough to shoot the gringo in the head and steal the car.
That was the end of that.
One thing we had in common was a robust contempt for political correctitude. Sonny was exceptionally well-travelled (at the expense of his perpetually bankrupt state), and his vacation pictures always included scantily clad young women frolicking in the fore-ground of his touristy holiday pics. When questioned on this happy coincidence, Sonny would reply, "What? You thought I was a homo?"
I hadn't seen Sonny for a few years, and I knew he was crowding 90, when I recently bumped into one of our mutual acquaintances.
"How's Sonny doing these days?"
"He's dead."
"Oh shit! I was looking forward to having a pint with him..."
"Not anytime soon, I hope," came the reply.
Me too.
RIP, Sonny.
Thursday, October 17, 2019
A tip of the cap to CanadaLand
Back in September I had a bit of a rant when the Globe and Mail provided me with a special Kielburger section to the paper, without mentioning it was paid advertising. (Paid in one way or another.)
I wrote an indignant letter to the ed, and another one to the public editor, fully apprising them of my indignation. These efforts went nowhere.
I couldn't believe that I'm the only one who smells fish in the Kielburger creation myth, and so I googled "Kielburger critics."
Low and behold, these guys came up.
That's the first I ever heard of CanadaLand, which tells you something about how dialled in I am on what's happening in resistance culture. They were ranting about the Globe's Kielburger collaborations years before I even noticed them!
Anyway, I think I'll let them carry the ball. I can't afford to get sued.
I wrote an indignant letter to the ed, and another one to the public editor, fully apprising them of my indignation. These efforts went nowhere.
I couldn't believe that I'm the only one who smells fish in the Kielburger creation myth, and so I googled "Kielburger critics."
Low and behold, these guys came up.
That's the first I ever heard of CanadaLand, which tells you something about how dialled in I am on what's happening in resistance culture. They were ranting about the Globe's Kielburger collaborations years before I even noticed them!
Anyway, I think I'll let them carry the ball. I can't afford to get sued.
Wednesday, October 16, 2019
The American Empire is crumbling before our eyes
There's a reason the billionaire-owned "free press" works so hard to denigrate so-called alternative news sites.
Take a look at this analysis of current events in Syria from Moon of Alabama. I find that far more informative than the stuff I've been reading at The Guardian, CNN, Fox, and the rest of the reputable sources.
No, all the reputable sources seem to be aligned with the view of the Deep State wings of both the Democratic and Republican parties; that pulling US troops out of a country they were illegally occupying is a grave affront to American values.
Unfortunately, the view that America has an inalienable right to wreck other countries, whether by bombs or economic warfare, has become an inherent American value. There is a rising tide of outrage in the political establishment, duly fanned by the billionaire-owned news industry, aimed at what is portrayed as Trump's capitulation to Putin.
Ending wars is not good news for those who profit from them. You can understand why they're pissed off.
That's what America has become; the plaything of billionaires who have bought the political and media infrastructure, and who can force through policies that reflect their own priorities, while running roughshod over the interests of 99% of the population.
Point is, America is retreating because the policies that put them in Syria, and in Iraq and Afghanistan, have failed. Think that through. These policies have been failing for some time. America simply doesn't have the ability to follow through on all the imperialist adventures dreamed up by the Washington establishment.
US foreign policy has limped from failure to failure for the past fifty years. That foreign policy has been largely in the hands of the same crowd who have profited mightily from making America the world's number one weapons peddler.
Eventually, saner people will have to prevail, if this is not to end very badly for all of us. About the only place in the American political spectrum where I see any sign of sanity is on the left flank of the Democrats. You've got at least half a dozen people there who are not afraid to use the word "socialism" in public. That's not a development I ever expected to see in my lifetime.
Maybe we'll see other things we never expected to see, like foreign military bases closed, foreign entanglements (like telling other countries who their next leader will be) disavowed, universal health care, a living minimum wage, affordable housing for all...
Hey, America just might become great again!
Take a look at this analysis of current events in Syria from Moon of Alabama. I find that far more informative than the stuff I've been reading at The Guardian, CNN, Fox, and the rest of the reputable sources.
No, all the reputable sources seem to be aligned with the view of the Deep State wings of both the Democratic and Republican parties; that pulling US troops out of a country they were illegally occupying is a grave affront to American values.
Unfortunately, the view that America has an inalienable right to wreck other countries, whether by bombs or economic warfare, has become an inherent American value. There is a rising tide of outrage in the political establishment, duly fanned by the billionaire-owned news industry, aimed at what is portrayed as Trump's capitulation to Putin.
Ending wars is not good news for those who profit from them. You can understand why they're pissed off.
That's what America has become; the plaything of billionaires who have bought the political and media infrastructure, and who can force through policies that reflect their own priorities, while running roughshod over the interests of 99% of the population.
Point is, America is retreating because the policies that put them in Syria, and in Iraq and Afghanistan, have failed. Think that through. These policies have been failing for some time. America simply doesn't have the ability to follow through on all the imperialist adventures dreamed up by the Washington establishment.
US foreign policy has limped from failure to failure for the past fifty years. That foreign policy has been largely in the hands of the same crowd who have profited mightily from making America the world's number one weapons peddler.
Eventually, saner people will have to prevail, if this is not to end very badly for all of us. About the only place in the American political spectrum where I see any sign of sanity is on the left flank of the Democrats. You've got at least half a dozen people there who are not afraid to use the word "socialism" in public. That's not a development I ever expected to see in my lifetime.
Maybe we'll see other things we never expected to see, like foreign military bases closed, foreign entanglements (like telling other countries who their next leader will be) disavowed, universal health care, a living minimum wage, affordable housing for all...
Hey, America just might become great again!
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