Sorry to disappoint you, but it is not Might Mouse who will save the day, if only we listen. It is Barney Frankie the dinosaur, with a timely message regarding our pending extinction.
I have to confess, the following left me, not with any sense of optimism but rather deep despair. Is our last best hope to avert climate disaster an animated reptile whose warning, despite its juvenile nature, is addressed to adults?
The infantilization of our species continues apace.
That is the impassioned cry of a young lady as she confronts West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin leaving a corporate donor lunch.
BREAKING: Abby, 20, confronts
on his fossil fuel corruption on his way out of a corporate donor luncheon on hunger strike day 
.
Abby can stand up to Manchin, why can’t @POTUS ?
Watch and RT if you agree 
As the reinvention of the Ontario Progressive Conservatives continues as we move closer to next June's election, yet another reminder about the man behind the curtain.
Although I am not a big fan of his novels, Don Winslow has been releasing some really interesting videos on Twitter. This is one of them:
With an election in Ontario next June, Doug Ford has been trying to rebrand himself, somewhat unsuccessfully given his unusual capacity for stepping in it. Nonetheless, a little reminder from Patrick Corrigan serves to highlight Dougie's true nature and the values he really embraces.
In one of his most significant works, Death of the Liberal Class, Chris Hedges argues that the traditional bulwarks against corporate power no longer fulfill that role. He asserts
that the liberal class has failed to confront the rise of the corporate state and argues that the five parts of the liberal establishment--the press, liberal religious institutions, unions, universities, and the Democratic Party--are more concerned with status and privilege than justice and progress.
While I did not completely agree with everything he said in the book, the author did offer some pretty compelling illustrations to support his thesis. Today, Rick Salutin offers a similar view as he looks at the Democratic Party in the U.S., arguing that people like Joe Manchin are not the real reason that Joe Biden's progressive agenda is being impeded.
For 80 years, efforts to stifle even minimally “progressive” measures like universal public health care have been led not by individuals like Manchin but by the party establishment — including Biden himself for the last five decades. Come tiptoe through a few of the weeds on this with me.
•FDR’s New Deal of the 1930s genuinely moved the U.S. leftward with its social programs. By 1944, when he was preparing to run for a fourth term, the party bosses pressured him to replace his vice-president, the left-wing Henry Wallace, with a typical “party machine” Democrat, Harry Truman. Wallace ran against Truman as the Progressive Party candidate in 1948 and lost.
•In the 1960s, president Lyndon Johnson could’ve completed FDR’s New Deal agenda by finally confronting the racism issues that Roosevelt ducked. But Johnson was destroyed instead by another U.S. dilemma, its imperialist impulse, embodied in the Vietnam War. He flinched, backed the war and chose not to run for re-election. The party elites then beat back anti-war candidates for president and nominated a pro-war Democrat, Hubert Humphrey, who was defeated by Republican Richard Nixon.
•In the 1980s, Arkansas Democratic governor Bill Clinton lost a re-election bid and concluded he’d been seen as too “progressive”; he became pro-death penalty and anti-welfare. He was elected president in 1992 with the same approach. He put his wife Hillary in charge of health-care reform. They refused to even consider a universal public program. Their project died inelegantly.
•Barack Obama was seen as progressive when elected in 2008. But in his first crisis, the financial crash of that year, he bailed out banks and did nothing for people who lost their homes. He was absorbed into the party establishment.
•In 2016, independent “socialist” senator Bernie Sanders ran for nominee against Hillary Clinton, surprising even himself with how well he did. In 2020 he ran again and held a clear lead, when the Clinton-Obama forces joined to defeat him in the South Carolina primary. Sanders graciously supported Biden for president in the hope of moving the party’s agenda leftward. He succeeded.
There were many progressives sufficiently motivated to run for the party, such as Alexandria Ocasio- Cortez, resulting in the defeat of a number of conservative stalwarts and subsequently helping to form Biden's current agenda, an agenda that looks increasingly at risk.
They continue to take on a party elite that has struggled against serious social change, going back to the years just after the New Deal and the Cold War’s onset.
Salutin, however, is not particularly optimistic that the old guard will cede their power willingly. He draws upon an example from Buffalo, where a self-described democratic socialist, 39-year-old Black nurse India Walton, won the mayoral nomination against the four-term Democratic mayor. The election is next week.
The establishment response was to try and get the former mayor on the ballot anyway, and then to have the position of mayor itself eliminated. Last week, the party chair for the state announced they won’t support her, just as they wouldn’t support David Duke — the longtime KKK leader — if he won a primary in nearby Rochester. These are people who’d rather lose an election than lose control of “their” party, and they often get their wish.
Sadly, it would seem that "serving the people" is just another example of empty rhetoric instead of words approximating reality.
Ever resistant to climate change mitigation measures, 'Democrat' Joe Manchin has succeeded in scuttling most of Joe Biden's ambitious plans for the environment. It now appears Biden will reduce his $3.5 trillion plan to a $2 trillion one, sacrificing vital components that would be immensely beneficial to the environment.
A key holdout on Biden’s proposals, conservative Sen. Joe Manchin from coal-state West Virginia, has made clear he opposes the president's initial Clean Energy Performance Plan, which would have the government impose penalties on electric utilities that fail to meet clean energy benchmarks and provide financial rewards to those that do — in line with Biden’s goal of achieving 80% “clean electricity” by 2030.
One might think that Manchin's obstructionism comes from the fact that he represents a coal-mining state. However, in a short video writer Don Winslow produced for Twitter, it is evident that the truth is more sinister than that.
EXPLOSIVE NEW VIDEO! #JoeManchinSenatorForSale
is blocking Joe Biden's agenda. We found so much vile and provable corruption in Manchin's life and his families life that we could not fit it all into one video. So this is just Part 1.
These revelations of massive conflicts of interests perhaps will come as no surprise to seasoned political observers for whom the endemic corruption of U.S. politics is a given. That being said, it is outrageous that egregious greed can stop initiatives that the entire world could benefit from.
He is an American who gets it:
Dallas Mavericks and Shark Tank star Mark Cuban was asked on a sports talk show why he is one of the few owners requiring fans at his games to be vaccinated or show negative test. He gives a fantastic answer on his strong stance on the vaccine.
Can a society that regards books as threats survive? I have my serious doubts, doubts you may share after becoming acquainted with the following story, yet another nail in the coffin of the empire known as America.
This tale comes from Southlake, Texas, where many are concerned about the ability of books to make people think, feel and, God forbid, possibly act.
The debate in Southlake over which books should be allowed in schools is part of a broader national movement led by parents opposed to lessons on racism, history and LGBTQ issues that some conservatives have falsely branded as critical race theory. A group of Southlake parents has been fighting for more than a year to block new diversity and inclusion programs at Carroll, one of the top-ranked school districts in Texas.
Late last year, one of those parents complained when her daughter brought home a copy of “This Book Is Anti-Racist” by Tiffany Jewell from her fourth grade teacher’s class library. The mother also complained about how the teacher responded to her concerns.
Carroll administrators investigated and decided against disciplining the teacher. But last week, on Oct. 4, the Carroll school board voted 3-2 to overturn the district’s decision and formally reprimanded the teacher, setting off unease among Carroll teachers who said they fear the board won’t protect them if a parent complains about a book in their class.
The following news clip revolves around a benighted administrator with Southlake's Carroll Independent School District, Gina Peddy, urging teachers to provide balancing material for 'controversial issues' involving racism and the like; she provoked outrage when she said that if they are teaching about the Holocaust, they should also offer students access to a book from an “opposing” perspective.
Now that the U.S. has announced its land borders will be open to vaccinated Canadians sometime in November, many, especially snowbirds, are exultant. There are, however, numerous reasons to temper that enthusiasm, including the poor rate of full vaccination south of us (only 57%), the ever-present threat of violence, and the other perennial American pandemic, hatred and racism, the latter of which I shall turn to in a moment.
Edward Keenan suggests the need for caution in his column today. He cites Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland on non-essential travel:
“I’m going to quote Eileen de Villa, the Toronto Public Health officer, who offered some really good advice,” Freeland said. “She said, ‘Just try to do the things you need to do, and maybe hold back on doing the things you just want to do.’ And I think, if you just keep doing that a few more weeks, Canada can really fully put COVID behind us.
The key medical authority in her government, Health Minister Patty Hajdu, said over the weekend that Canadians should travel to the U.S. only when it’s “absolutely necessary,” specifically warning against going to some U.S. states where COVID-19 is “very, very out of control.”
But as I suggested above, there are other reasons to avoid unnecessary travel to the U.S., including its twin plagues of violence and racism. It is the latter I will examine next, and I have to warn you, it gets ugly.
There is a man named Michael Slawson who has been exposed on Twitter for what he really is, and what follows is somewhat hard to watch:
H/t Danesh and Michael McIt also appears that Slawson has an unhealthy interest in young girls:
I am happy to report that Slawson's Twitter account has been suspended. I am sure I'm but one of hundreds who lodged a complaint about him, so can hardly take credit for his removal. And one would be foolish to think that there are not countless others like him still spewing their hatred on various social media platforms.
My admiration and respect go out to Danesh and Michael Mc for exposing this dangerous malefactor whose hatred and perversion is but one of the many reasons I cannot see myself ever returning to the United States.
This particular meme has been around for awhile now. If you haven't seen it, I think you will agree that it is particularly germane to the times in which we live.
A little something for those Canadians who pine for the re-opening of the border to Amerika.
Rarely have I seen such a sterling expression of commitment and leadership:
I like to regularly post letters-to-the-editor that hit targets concisely and precisely. The following meet those criteria.
On the subject of the Pandora Papers, her is what one writer thinks:
As I tried to suggest in my post the other day, rich people really are different from us, and people like Justin Trudeau, part of that rarified group, have no desire to really disrupt their status quo.
While it might seem reductionist, in my view that fact goes a long way toward explaining the inability of the Canada Revenue Agency to recoup taxes that have been sheltered in off-shore havens. If you believe that the CRA acts without political interference, you need only remember how Harper sicced them on non-profits that were active on environmental issues, often embarrassing the prime minister in the process. The same thing is happening under the Liberal administration; it is just taking a different form.
And people are noticing the CRA's apparent impotence:
Five years, 200 audits, zero charges, Oct. 5
Aside from hearing how the wealthy continue to evade paying taxes in this country, what is even more infuriating is reading about how the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) does very little to recoup this money or charge these people for this kind of criminal activity … all the while charging hundreds, even thousands of dollars in penalties and fees to small businesses or average citizens for filing our taxes late or not making our payments on time.
Heidi Bigl is not the only one. Writes Terry Glavin:
As for Canada’s diligence in capturing tax revenue — it’s not much to boast about. It was only after the ICIJ’s Panama Papers bombshell in 2016 that the CRA dropped a court fight intended to prevent the Parliamentary Budget Officer from releasing estimates on how much the treasury was being effectively bilked out of revenue by individuals and corporations resorting to secret offshore accounts. That was just one minor impact the Panama Papers had on government policies worldwide, but Canada remains a laggard in corporate transparency.
And the same laxity seems to apply to money-laundering:
For years, Transparency International Canada has been campaigning against what it calls “snow-washing,” a kind of money-laundering that allows foreign investors to hide dubiously sourced capital in Canadian assets, notably real estate. It was only earlier this year that the federal government promised to introduce a searchable “beneficial ownership” registry in the House of Commons.
The adverse impacts of snow-washing in real estate is most noticeable in British Columbia, where a provincial expert panel reckoned in 2018 that in that year alone, money-launderers had sunk $5.3 billion into real estate investments, mostly in Metro Vancouver. It’s a racket that’s been going on for years, causing dramatic distortions in the city’s house prices, and it has spurred B.C. to introduce a beneficial ownership registry of its own.
The promise of a federal registry to identify the real owners of corporations investing in Canada was made in the Liberal budget that was introduced in the House of Commons last April. The registry is supposed to come into effect within five years. But a federal election has since come and gone. So will Ottawa finally act to clean up Canada’s reputation and start collecting taxes on the super-rich with the same rigour the CRA applies to the rest of us?
We’ll see.
The view from Olympus can be dizzying, and it is a great height to fall from. Hubris and nemesis, anyone?
If you saw yesterday's post, you might want to go back to it for some updates. The tale is not quite as straightforward as originally reported, but, I think, still quite indicative of the fraught society known as America.
…especially a man like restauranteur Jody Pendleton, who so loves his freedom that he exercised it by firing all of the staff from his four eateries who have been vaccinated against Covid-19.
UPDATE:
Well, the story now gets a tad murky. According to Jody, this was all a joke, an attempt at satire. But is that all there is to this tale?
One thing emerging from this imbroglio is certain: in the corrupted currents of American society, all things are possible.
Justin Trudeau has rightly earned severe criticism for his holiday in Tofino on National Truth and Reconciliation Day. However, in my view there is another very important story here as well, one that imparts a lesson we would all do well to bear in mind, especially in light of the new revelations made in the Pandora Papers.
My contention is a simple one. When you have friends in high places, when you associate and identify with them, you are likely to handle them with especially soft kid gloves and certainly be wary of offending them by tax measures that may capture a scintilla of their wealth.
What does any of this have to do with our prime minister? Justin Trudeau is of the financial elite, and those he considers friends breathe the same rarified air as he does. One remembers his ill-fated holiday on the private island of close family friend, the Agha Khan. Then there was his impassioned defence of his good friend and major fundraiser Edgar Bronfman over his unsavoury involvement in an offshore scheme. As well, although perhaps a minor example, consider where he stayed during his B.C. sojourn, an abode called Surfer's Paradise, which is currently on the market with an asking price of $18,750,000. While I do not know what rental he paid for the house, it would likely be beyond the budget of most.
Does the fact that Trudeau can afford such an indulgence impugn his leadership? Of course not. But it is yet another reminder that the truly wealthy are different from the rest of us, and that the filter of wealth is often an impediment to being in touch with the rest of us or seeing us on the same level of humanity as they are. In other words, empathy is compromised, one of the subjects Chelsea Fagan addresses in her video, 6 Secrets I Learned Working For Rich People, which I recommend you view as time permits.
Accompanying the video are some very useful links to articles she cites in the video:Articles on rich people and empathy can be accessed here, here, and here.
An article on rich people and philanthropy can be accessed here.
Now, it would clearly be an offence to the ideal of critical thinking to suggest that any of this directly indicts the sensibilities of Mr. Trudeau. But, as they say, actions (or in this case inactions) speak louder than words, something I shall return to in a moment.
I am thinking anew of the financial elites in light of the release of The Pandora Papers, a kind of successor to the Panama and Paradise Papers, all of which reveal the off-shore dodges the rich use to avoid paying their fair share of taxes. Those using these tax avoidance measures range from world leaders to prominent Canadians, and it is estimated that there is more than $14 trillion squirrelled away by the entitled.
Now, I am not suggesting for a moment that Mr. Trudeau or any of his family makes use of such havens. However, as I expressed in a series of posts in 2017, I am concerned that his identification and affiliation with the truly wealthy has prevented any meaningful reforms that would close the loopholes that allow for such selfish behaviour. Particularly damning is the fact that since the 2016 release of the Panama Papers, which showed the magnitude of off-shore tax-avoidance havens, not one Canadian has been charged, and it appears no money has been recovered. This stands in sharp contrast to his campaign avowals in 2015 to close such loopholes. And in the 2021 campaign, he made similar promises which, even if some were to be enacted, would result in mere tinkering around the edges and would do nothing to advance lofty goals such as pharmacare and $10 a day childcare.
Mr. Trudeau is very well-known for talking a good game. His rhetoric even soars at times. But it is absolutely essential that Canadians demand more than words if we are ever to become the country that history shows us we are capable of becoming.
To borrow from Ben Jonson's accolade about Shakespeare, George Carlin was "not of an age, but for all time." A man not afraid to shake the tree of complacency, he saw things that so many of us either don't see or are afraid to acknowledge.
Yesterday, he was trending on Twitter. Here are but a few of his cogent and acerbic observations.
And perhaps most pointedly relevant for the times we are currently living in:
