Enjoy those winter driving blues, Parker

 My nephew Parker is about to set out on his first cross-country solo drive. Good on ya, kid! I repost this "Winter Blues" missive from a few years ago in your honour!

Winter Blues

Back when I toiled in the Budd plant in Kitchener there was a shorthand used to refer to your co-workers.

We worked among Rastamen and Polskies and Ukes and Newfs and Frenchies and Krauts.

Every Portugese guy was known as Goose or Magellan or Vasco de Gamma.

One night after second shift let out we headed for the all-night liquor store in Stratford. A couple of home boys and a couple of Rastas in Frenchy's Javelin, with Frenchy driving.

I don't know to this day whether there actually was an all-night liquor store in Stratford, but we almost died trying to find out.

I do recall there was a 24 hour beer store in Toronto. We did make it there one night.

But Frenchy's Javelin ended up in the ditch on its roof that winter night, with five thirsty guys just getting thirstier.

Winter blues.

There's something about winter that makes desperation more desperate.

Me and Kipling headed out west to make our fortune in the dead of one winter. Went in the ditch 50 miles east of Winnipeg. Went in the ditch at a high rate of speed while I was both napping and driving simultaneously. 

Winter blues.

If you're watching this at home, kids, don't drive and nap simultaneously.

It's not a happy thing.

There was a Neil Young song popular at the time that glorified going to Alberta. I think most of us were just going to Alberta because Neil Young had sung a song about it...

Years later me and Terry ran out to Calgary in the dead of winter. Lost a wheel bearing somewhere around Bumfuck Manitoba in the middle of the night when it was -40 degrees outside.

You can't fix a wheel bearing without going outside.

-40 is really fucking cold!

Winter blues.

Winter adventures.

The Kid still swears that the best day of his life, and he's had an awful pile of great ones, was the day I picked him up at the hospital in Vegreville, in the dead of winter, and we toured all the way into the foothills and beyond, all the way to Mount Robson, him with his bottle of pills and me with my case of beer, and we ended up in Edmonton totally fucked up and just in time for a Triumph concert.

In the dead of winter.

Winter blues.

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Happy trails, Parker!

China threatens to "poke out eyes" of Uncle Sam's chorus girls

Well, here's some nasty trash talk from the Yellow Peril!

Seems the commies have their knickers in a twist over this joint statement released yesterday by the foreign ministers of the US and their toadies in the "Five Eyes" club. That's a mighty impressive finger wag on freedom of speech, coming from a cartel of America's most obsequious ass-kissers. The Five Eyes are devoted to free speech so long as it's aimed at the enemies of Empire. If, perchance, free speech is wielded by the likes of Julian Assange, these stalwarts of free speech and rule of law don't hesitate to run roughshod over the law to stifle freedom of speech.

You'd think the junior members of the Five Eyes club would take a moment to survey the battleground they are preparing. They are hitching their little me-too wagons to the exceptional, indispensable nation, the nation that hasn't won a war since 1945 in spite of having started so many (ok,ok... they whupped Grenada fair and square).

What could go wrong?

Will Biden claw back Trump's lavish gifts to Israel?

It's hard to make a case for Trump having made America "great" again over these past four years, but there is no question he has made Israel greater than ever (not to be confused with more secure than ever).

From moving the embassy, to ceding the Golan to Israel, to greenlighting unlimited settlement on the occupied territories, to the "Deal of the Century," to ditching the Iran deal, to dispatching Soleimani, to the Abraham Accords, the last four years have been truly golden for Israel's extremist ruling coalition.

And the happy days aren't over yet. Just yesterday, America's Jesus-loving Secretary of State promised Netanyahu that the US would henceforth get tough on the legions of American Jew-haters who try to disguise their antisemitism as "legitimate" criticism of Israel's seventy-plus years of genocidal anti-Palestinian policies. Furthermore, rumours abound that Trump is toying with a parting gift for his fan club in the Knesset; a direct military attack on Iran.

Does any serious person imagine that Biden finds Trump's pro-Israel moves objectionable?

No. Unquestioning Israel boosterism is Washington's most successful example of bipartisanship.

Unfortunately, while this blind allegiance to the Likudniks has been good for the ruling clique in the Holy Land, it's not, in the long run, good for Israel or for peace in the region. Many times we have heard top IDF boffins speculate aloud about how many hundreds of thousands of missiles Hezbollah has squirrelled away in the hills of southern Lebanon. A direct attack on Iran would in short order provide some clarity on this question... but by then it will be too late to matter.

In the long term, the most serious existential threat to Israel comes from their Christian Zionist cheerleaders in Washington.

The last four years were about Russiagate - will the next four be about Hunter's laptop?

The swells who own the global information infrastructure have done a great job making Hunter's laptop disappear from the news cycle - for three weeks. It would be folly to assume it will stay buried. Once the euphoria of Papa Joe's victory wears off, as it inevitably must, Hunter's laptop and the secrets thereof will be discovered anew. 

In the meantime, it's intriguing to see that every story in the Globe and Mail or on CBC about Trump's challenge to the election results contains multiple warnings that his allegations lack any shred of evidence. I don't recall any such warnings when they were regaling us with Russiagate yarns for four years running.

There's a disturbing trend afoot to "other" the 73 million Americans who voted for Trump. That's ten million more than voted for Trump four years ago. Not only that, but the greatest racist of all time also increased his share of Black and Hispanic votes, presumably because black and brown voters truly aren't smart enough to know a racist demagogue when they see one.

The narrative being spun is that since Trump is a lying racist moron, only racist morons would support him. The first guest on CBC's "The Current" on Nov 4 informed me that the election was a referendum on white supremacy. If that's the case, might as well toss the fake healing and reconciliation out the window now...

Send the racist white trash back to Europe where it came from!

Latest numbers reveal lethality of COVID-19 down exponentially from first wave

When we compare covid case counts between the first and second waves of the pandemic, the (first wave) seven day moving average peaked at 1754 during the first week of May. Today it's at 4554.

While daily case numbers are up over 250%, daily deaths have dropped from a first wave seven day moving average peak of 176, to 58 today, a drop of 67% in absolute numbers.

Put another way, the case fatality rate has plunged from .1 during the first wave, to .01 today. That would seem to undermine the scary headlines about alarm bells and runaway trains we're treated to every day by those whose mission it is to frighten the populace.

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For readers who want to double-check my math, (which is a good idea), I get the stats here and here.

If Trump had half a brain

 If Trump had half a brain he'd get the hell out of that White House and give Joe a "all the best" pat on the back on the way out.

Let Joe take the fall for the next million covid deaths.

Let Joe deal with the fallout when Israel attacks Iran.

Let Joe rise to the occasion as various vassal states in Africa and the Middle East and the Balkans break into open conflict with one another. Let Joe explain why America typically sells arms to all sides. (But don't worry, the F-35 we sell Israel is not the F-35 we sell the Arabs...)

If Trump had half a brain, he'd bow out gracefully now, and bide his time. 

2024 is closer than you think. 

Rising water level wipes out walking trail on Georgian Bay

 Check this out. The broken pavement in foreground is the trail where I used to walk the hounds every morning. The bench is half buried in beach detritus. If this continues the Best Western will become a boat-in destination!