Whole 'nother Story - February

As the expression goes, I feel seen.

Should the Conservative Party of Canada shoot itself in the foot or the head?

https://nationalpost.com/news/politics/coronation-or-actual-race-strategists-divided-over-whether-to-hand-poilievre-the-conservative-leadership

Special thanks to my esteemed colleagues at the National Post for the funniest thing I've read all week. I imagine the Liberal Party's campaign team is enjoying the their version of a post-coitus cigarette at the prospect of running against the human equivalent of that yappy chihuahua that barks anytime cats come on the TV screen and pisses on the floor if you turn the volume up past about three. Pierre  "Skippy" Poilievre has all the dignity, gravitas and charisma of the chihuahua your mailman has to kick aside daily because it won't stop barking and trying to nip his ankles. Justin Trudeau's kids could beat him up and take his lunch money. The only logical explanation for this is that someone in the CPC brain trust looked at a TV and realized that The Big Bang Theory was a popular program and therefore, people would vote for a Sheldon Cooper imitator - even if he wan't a genius and good at heart in the end.

(actual photo of Pierre Poilievere watching children die from Covid-19)

As much as I would love to see Skippy behind the wheel of the CPC, my real wish (unlike Pierre, whose one true wish is to someday become a real boy) is that Michelle Rempel ( R-Calgary-Tulsa) takes over as leader of the CPC. Sure, she is essential a box of Merlot with a blonde wig on top, but just think of the entertainment value. She is pretty much Cecily Strong's impression of Judge Janine Piro with an occasional "eh" thrown in.

Where can I buy a "just watch me" T-shirt?

Trudeau: Yeah, well there's a lot of bleeding hearts around who just don't like to see people with helmets and guns. All I can say is, go on and bleed, but it's more important to keep law and order in this society than to be worried about weak-kneed people who don't like the looks of a soldier's helmet.

Ralfe: At any cost? How far would you go with that? How far would you extend that?

Trudeau: Well, just watch me.

Ralfe: At reducing civil liberties? To that extent?

Trudeau: To what extent?

Ralfe: Well, if you extend this and you say, ok, you're going to do anything to protect them, does this include wire-tapping, reducing other civil liberties in some way?

Trudeau: Yes, I think the society must take every means at its disposal to defend itself against the emergence of a parallel power which defies the elected power in this country and I think that goes to any distance. So long as there is a power in here which is challenging the elected representative of the people I think that power must be stopped and I think it's only, I repeat, weak-kneed bleeding hearts who are afraid to take these measures.

Mr. Climenhaga is correct, as usual.

 

https://albertapolitics.ca/2022/02/occupation-of-canadas-national-capital-by-a-lawless-mob-must-end-forthwith/

update:

It has been suggested by no less than Ottawa's chief of police that he may need the assistance of the military to send the protestors packing, which is a bit rich since most reports seem to indicate the Ottawa cops haven't done anything except help truckers back their rigs into parking spaces since this whole thing started.
I'm all for calling out the Royal Canadian Regiment from Petawawa and having them practice a little counter-insurgency, preferably with extreme predjudice and live ammo. I'm sure the far right would love to have their pawns turned into martyr that they can fundraise off forever, but I promise you that if the army is called out, we will not have this problem again for a long time. Quebec's separatist movement may have survived the War Measures Act, but the FLQ definitely did not. 

Getting rid of a foreign-funded terrorist group occupying the national capital is exactly what the military is for. Are we going to wait for these dingalings to start kidnapping cabinet ministers?

That said, there is a lot the average pissed off Ottawa resident could do. Nothing says "Welcome to our nation's capital, now go the hell home" like a spray-painted truck windshield or door lock keyholes filled with epoxy. Did you know that with the help of a little gasoline truck tires are flammable? Apparently the police have been told to do nothing until further notice, so it isn't like they are going to arrest anyone slashing tires. And those tires are expensive, maybe Rebel News can do a fundraiser or something.

RIP the Conservative Party of Canada

It appears the Truck Nuts are about to get a lesson in unintended consequences. While they roll around Ottawa, honking their air horns, demanding that Trudeau meet with them so that they can hang him for 'treason' and otherwise annoying the populace - they have handed the Liberal government a gift to last.

In their aping of the Trump and Qanon crazies they see on Fox News and Facebook postings about how drinking bleach will cure COVID, these dingalings have managed to scare the vast majority of sensible voters away from the conservative movement for at least a generation, a job the Conservative Party of Canada has now entered the final stages of  completing. The right-wing loonies in the truck convoy protest have managed to embolden the crazies in the CPC to the point where they have now pushed out Erin O'Toole, who, while a terrible leader and an idiot, was not a right-wing nut job. 

Granted, O'Toole was a feckless non-entity, but he didn't scare away the "reasonable" conservative voter and, more importantly, the corporate donors. No large corporation is going to want to do business with religious fanatics and neonazis, it would be a PR disaster. Those people have always been a part of the conservative movement, but the more mainstream so-called country club conservatives ran the party and kept the crazies out of the spotlight and away from anywhere they could do much damage. Now, the lunatics have taken over the asylum.

The end result is that Justin Trudeau will be prime minister for as long as he wants the job and the Conservative Party of Canada, whether led by a returning Max Bernier or some other knucklehead like Pierre Pollievere or Candace Bergen is going to be reduced to a smoking crater.

From the Land of Living Skies and dead brains

There's dumb, and then there is People's Party of Candidate racist anti-vax dumb.

Notorious meathead Mark Friesen, despite having a case of COVID so severe that he had to be airlifted from Saskatchewan to Ontario due to overflowing intensive care units in Saskatchewan hospital, and despite being so sick he lost nearly  60 pounds, still thinks vaccinations are a bad idea. Boy oh boy, the PPC sure can pick them. 

Friesen would like to taking part in the big truck convoy and all, but he is still too sick. 

In the words of Strother Martin's character in Cool Hand Luke: "Some  men you just can't reach."

Meanwhile, while the province's eminently qualified and sensible top medical officer of public health says it is too early to start lifting restrictions, half-bright failed farmer and notorious drunk driver Premier Scott Moe is all for just giving up and letting COVID run its course.

 

 

 

Let Freedumb reign (and send me all your money)!

Well, now this was inevitable: gofundme withholding $4.5 million in "protest convoy" funds raised through site until plan presented

From the story:

"We require that fundraisers be transparent about the flow of funds and have a clear plan for how those funds will be spent. In this case, we are in touch with the organizer to verify that information," Rachel Hollis, a spokeswoman for the crowdfunding platform, said in an email.

"Funds will be safely held until the organizer is able to provide the documentation to our team about how funds will be properly distributed."

As of Tuesday afternoon, funds were raised from 58,300 donors, according to the GoFundMe page of the "Freedom Convoy."

Tamara Lich, who is also secretary of the fledgling Western separatist Maverick Party, launched the campaign on Jan. 14. It states that the money will go toward fuel as well as food and lodgings for big-riggers taking part.

********************************

 Conservative politicians smelling cash in the water, naturally want to latch onto this like lampreys. Some, like the odious Ontario MPP Randy Hillier (a man so ignorant that Doug Ford kicked him out of the Ontario PCs) and  fascist grifter Mad Max Bernier, see a group of not-too-bright easily-led rubes who will, if not get them elected, at least keep them on the conservative gravy train. Others, like Canadian Conservative Party leader Erin O'Toole or Doug Ford, fearing the electoral leverage this gaggle of idiots might have, are afraid to tell the drooling crowd of horse dewormer enthusiasts that water is wet, the sky is blue and Covid can kill you. After all, Mad Max got five per cent of the vote nationally in the last election and came second in the CPC leadership race.

More dangerously, other, even more nefarious extremist groups - separatists, racists, neo-nazis and other charmers - are using COVID and vaccination resistance as a wedge issue to pull people to their side with "clever" rhetoric like "well if you can't believe the media and science and establishment about COVID, what else are they lying to you about? Can they prove it isn't conspiracy to steal your jobs/fluoridate the water/sell your children into sex slavery by the Blacks/Jews/Arabs/Communists/Chinese/Space Aliens?"

We've seen in the U.S. over the last five or six years what happens when you angry up the stupids for years with ridiculous lies. You get Donald Trump holding the reins of power and angry mobs of armed morons storming the seat of government.

The amazing part is the political cowardice on the part of so-called "sensible mainstream" conservatives. Over 80% of Canadians are vaccinated and very quickly running out of patience with those who are not. 

From the National Post:

More than one in four Canadians support jail time for the unvaccinated, poll finds

Now, given the National Post's obsession with hating Justin Trudeau tendency to sound sympathetic to anyone who hates the Liberal government, one wonders whether this story is simply intended to appeal to the conservative sense of entitlement and victimhood to amp up their hatred for liberals of any kind who want to tell them that the laws passed by a duly elected government need to be enforced no matter how much they want to run around yelling "Justin Trudeau is not the boss of me!" "Freedom! But at the same time, any kind of poll I've seen suggests there is declining sympathy for those who think they can drive drunk because it is "my car and my taxes pay for this road!" reckless endanger other people because they don't like being inconvenienced.

 One is strongly reminded of John Stuart Mill's famous comment on conservatism and stupidity:

“Conservatives are not necessarily stupid, but most stupid people are conservatives...
I never meant to say that the Conservatives are generally stupid. I meant to say that stupid people are generally Conservative. I believe that is so obviously and universally admitted a principle that I hardly think any gentleman will deny it. Suppose any party, in addition to whatever share it may possess of the ability of the community, has nearly the whole of its stupidity, that party must, by the law of its constitution, be the stupidest party; and I do not see why honorable gentlemen should see that position as at all offensive to them, for it ensures their being always an extremely powerful party . . . There is so much dense, solid force in sheer stupidity, that any body of able men with that force pressing behind them may ensure victory in many a struggle, and many a victory the Conservative party has gained through that power."

if Townes can't break your heart, nothing can - because you are a goddamned robot

"Foxes say henhouse security 'goes too far, ' call for cutbacks

I am so heartily sick of editing stories about how local business owners feel that the public health regulation "go to far" or that the plan to allow such "essential" services as gyms and cinemas is "too timid."

I get that they are out of pocket for the rent on their businesses, but as has been pointed out for a the last two years - we are in the middle of a pandemic. The COVID-19 virus doesn't care if you are behind in your rent, it doesn't care if you are bored of staying home or don't like online classes. Opening things back up while the omicron wave is still evident is beyond reckless. Every single wave of this goddamn virus has been the result of governments giving in to whinging commercial interests who are more worried about their bottom line than stopping a plague. 

I am also heartily sick and fucking tired of editing stories about how developers would love to build thousands of affordable homes in Ontario if only the government would get rid of all the "red tape and bureaucracy" that has been holding them back for a decade. That "red tape" consists of things like making sure they aren't building on toxic waste dumps, that the basements won't flood every year because they are building on a flood plain, basic urban planning and zoning so that future residents are stuck wondering why there is a fertilizer plant or a strip bar across the street from their "affordable"  $950,000 3,000 square foot mini mansion or $500,000  luxury condo that was build on what used to be the agricultural Greenbelt in Ontario until Dougie Ford took over and started parceling out what used to be farmland to his campaign contributors. 

Fuck these people. If you live in Ontario, make sure you get out and vote for whomever can beat the Conservative candidate in your riding. 

Racism of the past

I watched a terrific old western tonight on Prime Video. The Unforgiven, starring Burt Lancaster and Audrey Hepburn, directed by John Huston. And by terrific, I mean terrifically racist. The main plot point in that Audrey Hepburn, who everybody thinks is white, is actually a Kiowa Indian - a bonda fide redskin Injun - quel horroreux!!!

The most appalling point of the movie being that after the white saviors have rallied around to fight off the wicked white racists that won't accept the Indian girl raised white, they defend at gunpoint and with little regard for life (they shoot one Kiowa making a peaceful approach just to make sure they are being taken seriously) the notion that she should ever be seen as a Kiowa, as if this would be the end of the world. 

Times change, and thank God for that. This movie, like many others made in it's day, would be about ten minutes long if set in 2022. 

Imagine if you will, the script for "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" in 2022:

Kate Hepburn: Well, our daughter is  bringing her fiance to dinner tonight

Spencer Tracy: Swell, what's he like

Hepburn: Well, he's a bit old for her...oh and he's a handsome doctor and he's black

Tracey: how much older?

As much as I appreciate the anti-racist sentiment in some of these movies from the '60s they seem a little self congratulatory sometimes for what today passes as basic decent behaviour, which I suppose is progress of a sort.

Accomodating the unvaccinated

Conservative leader Erin O'Toole thinks the 87 percent of Canadians who are vaccinated should make allowances and accomodate the tiny minority of selfish shitheads who refuse to be vaccinated. 

I agree. 

I think the government of Canada should supply each of them with one of these:

Will this plague ever end?

Probably not. Not if people continue to be obsessed with complaining about personal inconvenience instead of looking at the bigger picture. I am so sick of reading stories in the papers I edit about people complaining that they are tired of lockdowns and just want to go out for dinner or to a concert. We all want that, but it isn't safe or practical right now. 

I get that people want to see their friends and family for the holidays. That people want to celebrate weddings and graduations and gather for funerals.

I know having schools closed and extra curricular activities cancelled is tough for kids. I understand the mental health strains related to isolation for everyone. Really, I do.

But you know what would be worse for children's mental health? Coughing their lungs out on a ventilator in the ICU, or knowing that they had sent Grandma or their teacher to hospital because they spread the virus.

I understand that small businesses, especially in the service industry - restaurants, movie theatres, bars etc. - are really struggling and many are going to go under. But avoiding necessary lockdowns until it is too late and lifting them too early is only prolonging the problem and doing more damage. 

There have been more than 30,000 deaths in Canada due to COVID so far. It isn't the sniffles.

And I would heartily support a federal law mandating that people who refuse to be vaccinated without a damn good medical excuse be required to put in one unmasked shift a week cleaning up in hospital ICUs until they either get fully vaccinated, die of the virus or the pandemic ends. Anti-vax idiots and the craven politicians who cater to them are a big part of the reason we are still in this mess.

Ho Ho Ho Hollywood

Christmas movies have been a thing since there have been movies. Some, like the 1951 version of A Christmas Carol starring Alastair Sim or Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life are must-watch classic every year, along with such TV favourites as The Grinch Who Stole Christmas (Unbeatable narration by Boris Karloff) or A Charlie Brown Christmas with that great music by Vince Guaraldi. Then there is the stuff churned out assembly line style at the Hallmark Channel. 

Hallmark is releasing 40+ Christmas movies this season. I know they are the cinematic equivalent of a Harlequin Romance novel - formulaic, predictable, saccharine, cheesy and about as realistic as your average Fast and Furious movie - but they clearly know their niche market to churn out so much product, confident that it will be consumed.

I made the mistake of looking up "Christmas movies" on Rogers cable the other day in an effort to find out when I could record National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation and was amazed to find over 300 listings, the vast majority of which were Hallmark Christmas movies. The interface doesn't just list titles, it shows a graphic for each movie - generally some kind of promotional poster. Even the posters for the Hallmark movies have a strict formula. There must be some kind of Christmas ornament, probably some snow, with the female lead in red and the male lead in a green sweater. This colour scheme is occasionally reversed if the female lead is a redhead. The female lead stands in front of the male lead or they are embracing or mock glaring at each other with arms crossed. Bonus points if they can include a cute dog.

I found this random plot generator and it is absolutely spot on. This one practically writes the pitch for you.

For example:

"Faith Jenkins, a high-powered human resources professional (played by Lacey Chabert) returns to her small town of Wooden Reindeer Junction for one last time as her aging parents are selling the family home.

Faith, fresh from a breakup with her real estate developer fiancé, soon runs into Flint Smith, her old high school flame she lost touch with when she moved to the big city. The unlikely pair are thrown together to organize the town’s famous Christmas race, the Stuffing Trot, and Faith soon realizes she is developing feelings for Flint.

Surrounded by her family and a new love, Faith imagines leaving her big-city life behind for good. But while they plan the Stuffing Trot, she accidentally discovers that the gravestone of the town’s first mayor, Nicholas Claus, is missing. When she confides in Velma, the mailwoman who always knows the town gossip, she learns that Flint was seen in the graveyard late one night.

Faith is worried that her new love interest might be an antique-hunter looking to cash in on the famous gravestone. But thanks to the advice of Velma, Faith learns that Flint sent the gravestone out for a much needed repair to boost local tourism.

Can Faith learn to love again and pull off the Stuffing Trot in time for Christmas?"

 

Me, I'll stick with Alastair Sim and Jimmy Stewart

Merry Christmas

The Reichstag Fire of the War on Christmas?

It's only class war when it looks like we might hit back

  “The law, in its majestic equality, forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal loaves of bread"

-Anatole France 

 

We are constantly reminded that Canada is a wealthy country. And it is a very wealthy country, one of the richest economies in the world.

During the first year of the  COVID-19 pandemic, Canadian billionaires increased their wealth by $78 billion. That's about $2,000 for every man, woman and child in Canada.

 Canada is a rich country.

Canadians, not so much.

• 1 in 7 (or 4.9 million) people in Canada live in poverty.
• Poverty costs Canada billions of dollars annually.
• Precarious employment has increased by nearly 50% over the past two decades.
• Between 1980 and 2005, the average earnings among the least wealthy Canadians fell by 20%.
• Over the past 25 years, Canada’s population has increased by 30% and yet annual national investment in housing has decreased by 46%.
• In Canada, 1.3 million children live in conditions of poverty (that’s 1 in 5).
• 1 in 2 Status First Nations children lives in poverty.
• More than one-third of food bank users across Canada were children in 2016.
• About 1 in 7 of those using shelters in Canada are children.

"But, but, but" - we regularly hear the politicians (especially the conservatives) sputter- "taxation is theft! Private property rights are sacred! Corporations grow the economy! A rising tide lifts all boats!"

"Taxing the rich is simplistic slogan, not a realistic policy" says the think tank funded by wealthy corporations and individuals. 

"Really, a flat tax would more fair to everyone, don't you think?" says the newspaper op-ed provided for free from the 'Taxpayers Watchdog Group' with 12 members and apparently unlimited funding from, well golly gee, who knows? 

"Won't someone think of the poor, poor, job-providing oil companies? Prices went down, so they can't afford to clean up their old wells. We must help them, for the sake of the environment" says the politician whose campaign is funded by...well, never mind. "And we the people should buy them a pipeline that goes through someone else's land, whether those anti-progress tree-huggers and spoiled natives like it or not. I am not a racist, but gosh, we GAVE those people reservations and tried to educate them in special schools, what more do they want?"

"Sure, large parts of the country have been rendered uninhabitable by the resource extraction sector from which all money flows, but some hippies drove nails into some trees so they couldn't be cut down this one time, so both sides are just as bad." writes the distinguished pundit. "Yes, we all know there are homeless people begging on every other street corner, but if those dammed dirty commies ever got elected, there would be people panhandling on EVERY corner. And besides, who really needs whales anymore? Harumph! We just have to accept that the world is changing!"

Why don't you get a side gig driving for Uber or delivering food? Why haven't you started a business on the internet? Have you considered blockchain currency speculation? Why aren't you flipping your house? Whatever happened to the spirit of entrepreneurship that made this country great? I guess your generation is just afraid of hard work...

We are in the midst of another Gilded Age, where wealth is worshiped and there are no poor, just people who aren't working hard enough to get rich yet. 

I am old enough to remember when food banks started to open. Prior to that, there were soup kitchens in bigger cities and private charities like the Salvation Army that have always helped the poor, but when food banks started to open in the 1980s everyone assumed they would be a temporary measure. When the food bank in Picton, Ontario, opened in the early 1990's I can remember a letter to the editor (who was me) published in the local paper suggesting it be named the Brian Mulroney Commemorative Food Bank.  

The current skyrocketing prices in housing in most cities have put home ownership out of reach for most younger people. And home ownership has long been the cornerstone of building transferable generational wealth in North America. Baby boomers bought houses in their 20s and most in the middle class were able to put away a little money for their retirement. My cohort of Gen-Xers couldn't afford houses until we were in our 30s or 40s and we are counting on selling them to pay for our retirement, because an awful lot of us haven't been able to put much aside. People of my children's generation who don't inherit a house from their parents or strike it rich will likely be renting for the rest of their lives. There are corporations planning for this already and buying up houses as fast as they can.

Another pillar of economic advancement has always been higher education. Get a degree and you can get a good job and make more money, right? That was true through the 20th century, especially in the three decades after World War Two, when a university education was the most accessible and affordable it has ever been. In the 60's and 70's you could pay for a university education and support yourself on a part-time minimum wage job. You weren't living in luxury, but you could get an apartment and keep groceries in the fridge and pay your tuition. This became harder in the 80's, just like buying a house did. 

Today, you will not find many people graduating university without student loans. Most universities in Canada are public institutions, funded in part by the state, but tuition rates keep going up and schools are struggling to stay afloat, with most bringing in more and more foreign students (who pay much higher tuitions) to help pay the bills. The pandemic has thrown a monkey wrench into that approach for some school. The Ontario government recently allowed Laurentian University in Sudbury to nearly go bankrupt and it is unlikely to be the only school facing a similar situation. And a degree is no longer a ticket to the upper middle class like it once was. Most tradesmen make as much as someone with the arts degree required for a white collar job these days and don't start out with tens of thousands in student debt.

I am not some wild-eyed Maoist. I believe in free enterprise and people being entitled to the fruits of  their labour. I'm not in favour of doing away with capitalism or lending money at interest. I'm not suggesting we bring back the guillotine or start packing off anyone whose hands aren't calloused to a labour camp, but our current situation is not sustainable. Far too many people are falling farther and farther behind. 

The people who control the money are making decisions based on reaping short term profits that will have negative consequences for decades. Government is too busy pandering to large corporations, the wealthy and those who think they will be wealthy someday to even consider any kind of serious effort at breaking up large interests that hold a near monopoly. 

We had a scandal in Canada over huge grocery chains fixing the price of bread. But the Weston-owned chains gave out a few gift cards, so no harm, no foul, right? The ghosts of 19th century robber barons are sitting up in their tombs saying "price fixing on bread? Shit, now that is some evil genius. How come we didn't think of that?"

Jesus said "The poor you will always have with you." (John 12:8) but he didn't think that was a good thing. He was referring to a passage from the Torah - what Jesus fans refer to as the Old Testament.

“If among you, one of your brothers should become poor, in any of your towns within your land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother, but you shall open your hand to him and lend him sufficient for his need, whatever it may be...For the poor you will always have with you in the land. Therefore I command you, ‘You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land.’" 

(Not to get all theological and scriptural on you, but I am the REV. Paperboy for reasons.)

The direction our society is headed cannot be allowed to continue. There either has to be a redistribution of wealth through taxation overseen by the government or we are going to see pitchfork and torch wielding mobs gathering in front of gated communities across North America. Throw in the long-term effects of climate change on agriculture (and thus food prices) and things could get very, very bad. Like Khmer Rouge Russian Revolution Mad Max level bad. People need to stop voting against their own interest just because they've been taught to think they will one day be wealthy. Governments need to stop kowtowing to money for short term political gain. We all need to smarten up. And soon.

"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable"

-John F. Kennedy

End times in British Columbia

It must seem like Armageddon has arrived on Canada's west coast. After last week's flooding and landslides, the province is now facing more heavy weather. If you can help, donate here https://www.gofundme.com/f/qkwr3t-a-cause-we-care-about-needs-help?utm_source=customer&utm_medium=copy_link_all&utm_campaign=m_pd+share-sheet

Moe ministers, Moe problems

Reading a story like this one https://leaderpost.com/news/saskatchewan/toddler-with-spina-bifida-another-lesson-for-health-minister naturally horrifies me as a parent and a human being -- No parent should ever have to read the phrases "Blake’s most recent brain surgery was in May. She has a shunt in her head that could fail at any time." about their toddler.

As someone who works in media and watches politics closely, it is also sort of horrific to see the response of the Saskatchewan Party and their health minister, which today basically consisted of - and I'm paraphrasing here for the sake of brevity - "harumph, shrug, well we are trying to prioritize cases, reviews are being done, harumph, very concerned, shrug, goddamn socialists, harumph" and exit, stage far-right. It is as if communications for Health Minister Paul Merriman are being handled by Montgomery Burns' less-talented twin brother. And it isn't like he suddenly got blindsided by this mother and her child just showing up at the Legislature in Regina - the opposition NDP have been bringing in someone nearly every day for over a week to confront Merriman over the government's completely inept handling of the covid pandemic. Earlier in the week it was a 25-year-old who needs a kidney transplant and can't even get the on the list due to covid overwhelming the province's health care system.

And calling it inept is being polite. When the senior public health doctor in your province breaks down in tears at press conference, as chief medical health officer Dr. Saqib Shahab did earlier this year, it is not a sign that things are going well. Intensive care wards have been overwhelmed this autumn, with patients being airlifted by the military to Ontario and army medical personnel being sent in to try to ease the shortage of critical care staff, especially nurses -- and they are already talking about a fifth wave after Christmas

 Saskatchewan has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the country, with vaccination rates in some rural areas barely topping 50 per cent. Watching the provincial government there trying to handle a pandemic that many of their supporters don't believe exists has been like watching a couple of especially clumsy moose attempt to compete in Olympic pairs figure skating. It would be hilarious if you didn't know it was all going to end with them sliding in the crowd and trampling a lot of people into pulp. 

Premier Scott Moe has exhibited a level of cluelessness that makes Jason Kenney and even Doug Ford look nearly competent. This was the province that hosted Mad Max Bernier's election night party with the far-right People's Party of Canada which was notable for the number of maskless idiots who got together in a hotel ballroom to infect each other and congratulate themselves on winning zero seats in the most recent federal election and earning about a dozen people very expensive tickets for violating public health rules. And while he has spoke in favour of vaccines and masks, those are undeniably Scott Moe's people

Obviously, it is hard for the Saskatchewan Party to stand on their record in dealing with covid, but sending the health minister out day after day to grope and flail in public is not helping. Former premier Brad Wall wasn't particularly savvy or clever, but he looks like the second coming of Winston Churchill compared to Brad Moe right now. Which is good for Brad Wall, since he appears to mostly be keeping his powder dry and stoking the anti-Trudeau bonfire out west until the federal conservatives kick the hapless Erin O'Toole to the curb. Moe, on the other hand, is looking more and more like the best thing that has happened to the NDP in Saskatchewan since Tommy Douglas. 

NDP leader Ryan Meili - a physician - has been working over Merriman and Moe like Muhammad Ali in his prime coming up against a blind drunk one-legged Klansman. I don't have much sympathy for losing side in the beatdown, but it is a little bit cringe-worthy to see someone get punched in the nuts over and over again, even metaphorically.

Moe is currently holding a flaming paper bag full of dogshit, useless cabinet ministers and crazy antivaxxers and doesn't seem to know whether to ruin his shoes stomping the flames out or let the fire spread to the whole house. The worrying part for the people of Saskatchewan is than no one around him seems to have the sense to tell him to take Merriman out for a swim in Wascana Lake with a couple of cinderblocks and start listening to actual doctors instead of conspiracy-mongers, Jesus freaks and right-wing grifters.

It's not easy being blue

With apologies to Frank Oz, whom I'm sure smells good and has a light touch.

This made me laugh a lot

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/04/17/cookie-monster-on-the-dole

even more than this did

 Now, if I can just find a video of Beaker singing "Long Way Home" or "Old '55" my day will be worthwhile.

And the horse you rode in on...and it's mother, too

I've been off work for a a couple of days due to an eye injury (scratched cornea, if you -like my employer - feel you must know) but I will be back in the news trenches tonight. Not because I am fully recovered - I am not - but because my employer has decided it requires a "doctor"s note" if I am going to take any more time off. 

When, and not "if', I get the name of the genius in "Human Resources'  (I am not a "resource" I am a human being) that has decided that I need the permission of my personal physician, homeroom teacher or mommy to come to work, we will have a "full and frank discussion" about who signed which contract that exchanges my labour and expertise for a salary. (Helpful hint for those in the "human resources" department - it was me that signed that contract, not my doctor, not my homeroom teacher and certainly not my mother - she's way smarter than that, and believe me when i tell you, you couldn't afford to hire her at half of what she would be worth).

The notion that I need provide some sort of proof that I have a reason not to come to work is insulting, patronizing, demeaning and just plain dumb.

My employer and I have a contract. I work, they pay. If my inability to work becomes an issue, then I would not expect to continue that contract. If however, I decide I am unable to work on a given day due to illness or injury, our contract says I still get paid up to a point. That point is considerably further away than three days. And more importantly, the decision is mine, not my doctor's or your lawyer's or my mother's or even your imaginary parent's or Conrad Fucking Black's. Mine. I own my own labour, you fuckers just rent it.

When I allow you to. 

I don't need to show you a note or a badge ("Badges? We don't got no badges...I don't got to show you no stinking' badges!") or a permission slip from my scoutmaster or the head prefect. I decide whether to sell you my labour today. You can decide if you want to pay for it or not, but you don't get to demand a note from my physician if I decide to withhold that labour for a couple of days, the decision about whether I will work is mine, and mine alone.

I get it, you have beans to count and beans need to counted. But I am not a bean and just because you pay me, it doesn't mean you own me or get to make decisions for me about whether I am able to work or not. You are entitled to notification that I can or cannot fulfill my previous agreed upon duties, but you don't get to ask me to supply a third opinion. 

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I'm watching Casablanca for the elevntry-seventh time and I'm reminded of the profound conversation I had with my unilingual Japanese father-in-law in which we agreed that Ingrid Bergman in 1942 was the the second most beautiful woman in the world. 

We differed, only slightly, over who was the most beautiful, but in time he conceded I might be right, but that her mother was a very close second. I stand by my pick.

 

For the record, I have no idea who that skinny, brown-haired goateed kid is, but GODDAMN, that is the nee-plus ultra of what we talk about when we talk about beautiful women. 

And sometimes, even after more than 20 years of my bullshit, she even makes coffee in the morning. Clearly, I was born lucky.

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I've been laid up with an eye injury for a few days and this has been stuck in my head. I'm not sure which version is better. But it is absolutely better than last week when I had the opening lines of Springsteen's Atlantic City stuck in my head.

https://youtu.be/hdyscH9TsnA

https://youtu.be/tpeIePQpSuU