Don't Come A-Knockin' When The Guard Dog's A-Rockin'

One has to hand it to the Americans. They seem endlessly inventive when it comes to devising new ways to inflict mayhem. However, while the following is legal in 48 states, I am sorry to inform those who love to embrace new technology that this stand-in for Fido would likely run afoul of our laws in Canada.

The company lists possible applications of the new robot as "wildfire control and prevention," "agricultural management," "ecological conservation," "snow and ice removal," and "entertainment and SFX." But most of all, it sets things on fire in a variety of real-world scenarios.

And therein lies the rub. Entertain and SFX? I shudder to contemplate the implications, especially in stand your ground states. 

More On Ulmar Zameer

H/t Graeme MacKay 

Yesterday's post highlighted the rush to judgement many people embraced when Ulmar Zameer was charged with murdering a police officer. People like Doug Ford, John Tory and Patrick Brown condemned the fact that he was granted bail. A publication ban prevented the reasons for the bail from being published, but anyone could have gone down to court to find out why bail was granted. Justice Malloy had declared the evidence very weak, and hence the bail.

But populism has its own reasons, and it is generally more politically profitable to stoke the fires of rage and bitterness than to be reasonable. Witness PP's meteoric rise in the federal polls.

Nonetheless, public opinion is variable, and there were many, including me, very much relieved that Zameer has finally achieved justice, often a rare occurrence in this fractured world. Of those who stoked the fires, many are demanding accountability.

Congratulations to Justice Anne Malloy. She analyzed the evidence in the complex Umar Zameer case thoroughly. She instructed the jury in a clear and concise manner. Through her efforts, the jury came to logical conclusions and acquitted. To top it off, Justice Malloy had the good grace to apologize to Zameer and his family on behalf of the public for the ordeal through which they had been put. She demonstrated a fine example of how justice should be administered. Truly a class act.

Bill Howes, Toronto

My faith in the Canadian justice system has been restored. Notwithstanding the deep hurt suffered by the family of Toronto police Const. Jeffrey Northrup, it is clear this was none other than a tragic accident. What we need to now see is an apology from those politicians — Premier Doug Ford, and former Toronto mayor John Tory and Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown — who so quickly and publicly assumed Umar Zameer’s guilt without knowing the full facts of the case. 

Jack Fearnall, Owen Sound

John Tory states all we can do from this experience is “learn.” Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown completely avoids the issue, Premier Doug Ford, as usual, remains silent. Not one has the decency to admit their error and apologize. But there is something each of us can do, donate to the Zameer GoFundMe program. Money cannot bring back all that the Zameer family has lost, but it can help erase the enormous financial burden. It can also reinforce the fact that Canadians actually do care.

Keith Perrott, Toronto 

Given how Mr. Ford has recently been demanding judges who will bring down the hammer on those those accused of serious crimes, a reader offers this thought:

First, I would like to address the profound need for public apologies to Umar Zameer from Premier Doug Ford, former Toronto Mayor John Tory and Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown for their unfounded accusations when he was released on bail. This should be front page and detail what they said so that the public is aware. As Zameer’s lawyer, Nader Hasan pointed out, we expect more of public officials than their stoking of hatred and tribalism when they pretend to know the facts and we, the public, do not. 

Related to Ford’s words in this case, is his desire to fill the judiciary with his “like-minded” judges whom he believes will “get tough” as their first priority, rather than seek a fair and just trial based on the facts and reasonable truths, as we observed in this trial.

We, the public, need to challenge, along with those of the legal professions, Ford’s efforts to undermine our judiciary, one of the foundations of democracy. And, reflecting on what Zameer said after the trial, we want to be able to say, in the future, that we are a fair and just country, for all. 

I wish the Zameer family peace going forward.

Penny Sartor, Toronto 

Look Before You Speak

It is obviously just human nature to sometimes react with outrage and certitude when confronted with something that seems to beggar common sense. We have likely all experienced such a response at one time or another. The recent acquittal of Ulmar Zameer, charged with murdering a police officer, is an object lesson in caution.

You will likely recall that when the charge was brought down in 2021, prominent politicians like John Tory, Patrick Brown and Doug Ford reacted with very public disgust and outrage over the granting of bail to Zameer. It seemed inexplicable to many that a man charged with first degree murder of a police officer should not be vegetating in jail until his trial. The problem was that the judge had placed a publication ban on the reason bail was granted.

While Tory has expressed some regret over his comments, neither Brown nor Ford (the later not known for either introspection or humility) have spoken a word. At least the judge in the trial, Justice Anne Malloy, expressed her apologies for the costly ordeal that the Zameer family underwent. 

While apologies might seem a mere pro forma gesture, I suspect it can do a great deal to help assuage the trauma of the family and rehabilitate Zameer's reputation; the charges led to the losss of his job, his house, and his freedom (house arrest pending trial).

Referring to Justice Malloy's apology, Andre Phillips writes that Tory, Brown and Ford should do the same:

Those politicians ought to do at least that much. They ought to apologize to Zameer for getting it so wrong and stoking public hostility toward someone who was ultimately found to be no more than a participant in a tragic series of mistakes.

They should have known better. They were clearly pandering to public opinion, which was understandably outraged by the death of an on-duty police officer. In the absence of any actual evidence about what happened that day in the parking garage under Toronto City Hall, it was all too tempting to play the “jail, not bail” card.

Two of them (Tory and Brown) are lawyers. They should have been particularly sensitive to the importance of the presumption of innocence — the foundation of our system of criminal law. It’s also the underlying reason why people charged with crimes have a presumptive right to bail in most circumstances.

It’s not a matter of “coddling criminals,” as grandstanding politicians often claim these days. It’s a basic principle that people shouldn’t be deprived of their freedom until it’s proven in a court of law that they actually committed a crime.

And there was another factor at work in the entire ordeal, say Phillips.

 All these leaders whipped up public opinion against an innocent man. The fact that Zameer is from Pakistan made it worse, exposing him to xenophobic hatred. The system eventually worked, but no thanks to politicians and others who jumped to conclusions before the facts were in.

They — and the rest of us — should learn some lessons from that. The first is: when you don’t really know what happened, just shut up. 

On that I'll end, with just one more note. A Go Fund Me Campaign exists for those wishing to help the Zameer family defray their legal costs.

They Sing As One.

Quite predictably, the rich have reacted with great bitterness to the new budget, in particular the part requiring them to pay more tax on capital gains that exceed $250 thousand. To hear their tune, sung in unison, financial Armageddon is upon the country.

A chorus of Canadian entrepreneurs and investors is blasting the federal government's budget for expanding a tax on the rich. They say it will lead to brain drain and further degrade Canada's already poor productivity.

In the 2024 budget unveiled Tuesday, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said the government would increase the inclusion rate of the capital gains tax from 50 per cent to 67 per cent for businesses and trusts, generating an estimated $19 billion in new revenue.

Capital gains are the profits that individuals or businesses make from selling an asset — like a stock or a second home. Individuals are subject to the new changes on any profits over $250,000.

The government estimates that the changes would impact 40,000 individuals (or 0.13 per cent of Canadians in any given year) and 307,000 companies in Canada.

In my view, this timid attempt by the federal government to look like they are holding the moneyed to account is little more than political theatre, designed to help distract from Mr. Trudeau's long-time love and admiration for financial titans. But even a bit of performative politics is too much for so many. 

Despite the fact that the changes affect almost no one, 

some members of the business community say that expanding the taxable amount will devastate productivity, investment and entrepreneurship in Canada, and might even compel some of the country's talent and startups to take their business elsewhere.

Not all agree with this assessment.

 Lindsay Tedds, an associate economics professor at Carleton University, said the tax change is one of the most misunderstood parts of the federal budget — and that its impact on the country's talent has been overstated.

"This is not a major innovation-biting tax change treatment," Tedds said. "In fact, when you talk to real grassroots entrepreneurs that are setting up businesses, tax rates do not come into their decision."

As for productivity, Tedds said Canadians might see improvements in the long run "to the degree that some of our productivity problems are driven by stresses like housing affordability, access to child care, things like that."

However, don't expect such sober analysis to fork much lightning with the hysterical. Indeed, even doctors have been infected with this particular virus:

Family doctor David Edward-Ooi Poon said, “If the government intended to tax physicians after we were pushed to the edge during the pandemic, this shows doctors, particularly young ones, that our work is not valued, that if we work harder we should be taxed more,” said Poon. “Many of my colleagues are considering moving to the U.S. or other countries where physicians make more, or lowering their hours to reduce the tax burden. For our strained health-care system to improve, I would hope that physician retention is a priority.”

To believe those in financially advantageous positions, it is never a good time to increase taxes. In good times, they say that success is being punished. In bad times, they say that kicking someone when they are down will only exacerbate problems.

Meanwhile, for those in actual need of government assistance, well, they should just learn to pick themselves up by their bootstraps (a physical impossibility, when you think about it) and stop bothering the rest of us.

Some things never seem to change.

Perhaps They'll Ease Their Pain With A Free Cup Of Coffee?

Well, Tim Horton's has done it again - disappointed their customers. Of course, that's nothing new, but I'm not referring here to the mediocre coffee that is inexplicably a national icon. Nor am I referencing their disturbing and bizarre forays into food innovations they have no business experimenting with. There is something off-putting for example, about offering flatbread pizzas alongside their downsized donuts and paltry breakfast wraps. But maybe that's just me.

What is indisputable, however, is that the best this multi-billion-dollar operation can do when it screws up is to offer a mere oops. This has happened yet again with their much hyped and cruel annual Rrroll Up The Rim to Win contest.

A technical error by Tim Hortons led coffee drinkers across Canada to falsely believe they had won a $55,000 boat as part of the franchise's Roll Up To Win promotion.

It's unclear how many people were impacted, but the chain told CBC Hamilton in an email it was an "unfortunate error" and some customers were sent an email with incorrect information.

 Darren Stewart-Jones of Hamilton said he opened an email on Wednesday morning from Tim Hortons that recapped all the prizes he won this year and it included one he didn't recognize: a 2024 Tracker Targa 18 WT boat and trailer, which retails for $39,995 US (about $55,000 Cdn) — the only one available to participants.

"I thought, 'Wow, this could be really awesome,'" Stewart-Jones told CBC News in a phone interview.

But his initial burst of excitement turned into questions as he scrolled through his emails to find out when he'd won the boat. 

After learning others had also received such an email, he began to suspect his good fortune was not what it seemed.

And he was right, as Tim Horton's facilely and callously pointed out: 

Tim Hortons sent customers an email with instructions to "disregard" the recap email they received, saying "technical errors" may have allowed for some prizes they didn't win to end up in the recap email.

"We apologize for the frustration this has caused and for not living up to our high standards of providing an exceptional guest experience," read the letter, which Tim Hortons shared with CBC. 

Shamefully, this is not the first time 'technical problems' have hobbled the emporium.

Just over a year ago, the Tim Hortons app mistakenly informed users they'd won $10,000.

Chris Rivett,  another 'winner' from Edmonton, is considering all of his options.

Rivet said he has filed a complaint with the Competition Bureau of Canada and is considering filing a lawsuit.

On Wednesday afternoon, a Facebook group formed with over 200 people expressing outrage about the mistake and threatening to file lawsuits.

"NOPE. Not taking this as an answer!! Two words: CLASS ACTION," read a post from Christiane Marie.

Will the fine print under contest rules insulate Tim Horton's from legal retribution? Perhaps. But in the  court of public opinion, they are already on trial and it looks like a guilty plea is pending. 

One hopes that the coffee giant won't add insult to injury by offering a free cup of coffee to the winners/losers of this latest fiasco.

 

 

More About Doug The Slug

In my previous post, I wrote rather scathingly of Doug Ford and his refusal to put back into the building code a requirement for new home builds to have a plug built in to facilitate EV chargers. To clarify any confusion left by that post, the extra $500 charge to new homes would have been for the infrastructure, not the actual charger.  Unfortunately Ford, who takes his direction from developers, refused at their behest this simple requirement, disingenuously citing his desire to make life more affordable for Ontarians burdened by his benighted 'leadership.

Toronto Star readers, a generally perceptive group, were quick to point out the error of Doug's ways:

Setting homes up for EVs makes sense

Ford government won’t make electric vehicle chargers mandatory in new homes despite championing EV industry, April 11

The Ford government’s position on the inclusion of roughed-in wiring for EV charging stations in new homes is disingenuous and short-sighted. An additional $500 cost will not deter the buyer of a new home, with average costs approaching $1 million in major markets. It is literally a tiny percentage of the overall cost, and will be amortized over 25-30 years. In comparison, pre-wiring during construction would eliminate over half the cost of installing an EV charging station. It seems obvious that our government is happy to spend our money to entice EV component manufacturers, but totally unwilling to assist Ontarians in future-proofing their new homes, to reduce our carbon footprint and lessen the impact of our changing climate. Did past governments argue the same way against requiring electric dryer circuits in the building and electrical codes?

Doug Lewis, Clarington, Ont.

The Ontario Conservatives won’t make house builders install plugs for electric cars. Putting another plug in a million dollar house would have little or no effect on the price of the house. Builders put in plugs for microwaves, stoves, clothes dryers, et cetera. Putting in one more plug for an electric car charger is not a big deal. It becomes a bigger deal if the plug has to be installed once the house is built. The homeowner still has to buy a charger to plug into the plug but at least the house is not ripped apart to install the plug. Like many of the Ford government’s policies, this call does not make any sense.

Wolfe Erlichman, Godfrey, Ont.

Doug Ford's illogic and hypocrisy are manifest. The question, however, is whether enough of the electorate notices or even cares.

The Curse Of News Literacy

There are some days I almost wish I weren't a newspaper reader. That way I wouldn't be confronted  daily with the world's stupidity and perhaps not constantly haunted by a jaundiced view of humanity.

In my previous post I wrote at some length about the buffoonery that defines the Doug Ford government here in Ontario; while I briefly return to that subject now, I shall also take a look at my disappointment over Jagmeet Singh's recent pronouncements. Just bear with me, if you are so inclined.

First, a peek at our Pavlovian premier, Mr. Ford. The previous government, under Kathleen Wynne, mandated charging plugs for all new house and condo builds in 2018. Mr. Ford, in 2019, stripped that provision out of the building code. Despite his heavily investing in EV battery plants for Ontario, he will not reverse that decision.

... after lobbying from developers who said the plugs added $500 to the cost of a new house, Ford stripped them from the code. He also ended rebates of up to $14,000 for buyers of EVs and scrapped chargers from GO Transit stations and other public locations.

Why, when EV investment is so important to the Ontario economy, would he continue to hang tough?

Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Paul Calandra, who tabled legislation modernizing the building code on Wednesday, warned that keeping new home costs low is more important than mandating EV chargers.

“Look, I think homeowners can make that decision on their own. If you’re wanting to buy a EV, we encourage you to do it — that’s why we’re making massive investments in that,” Calandra told reporters at Queen’s Park.

“But if that’s something that you want to do, then the homeowner themselves can undertake that. We want to keep costs of building new homes down,” he said.

The price of installing an EV charger in an existing home can be between $1,000 and $3,000 — much more than putting one in during construction.

 Green Leader Mike Schreiner said the Tories “are ideologically opposed to building the infrastructure we need for electric vehicles” and that has economic consequences.

“Is Ford Motor Company delaying the building of their plant and retooling their plant in Oakville because they know we don’t have the infrastructure in Ontario to facilitate the adoption of electric vehicles?” said Schreiner.

I leave you to draw your own conclusions as to the 'soundness' of the government's 'thinking'. 

Things are not much better on the federal scene. I must confess to my surprise and disappointment with NDP leader Jagment Singh, who now seems to be waffling on the carbon levy and thereby succumbing to the siren call of populism.

The federal New Democrats no longer believe a consumer carbon price is necessary to fight climate change, Jagmeet Singh suggested Thursday.

The new position, which appears to break with the NDP’s previous support for the policy, was outlined in a speech Singh delivered at the Broadbent Institute’s annual policy conference in Ottawa on Thursday. In it, he distanced his party from the federal Liberals’ flagship climate policy, which has drawn criticism from across the country as the levy and its accompanying rebates increased this April.

Singh condemned the approaches of both Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre to the climate crisis, and said tackling it “can’t be done by letting working families bear the cost of climate change while big polluters make bigger and bigger profits.”

Sadly, this move lends legitimacy to the prattle of PP and the provincial premiers, who seem to speak as one in denouncing the levy as a burden on all of us, despite the fact that most come out ahead with the feds' quarterly rebate checks. 

I will give Singh credit for one assertion, however.

Referring to a March report that concluded industrial carbon pricing systems were far more effective than the consumer levy on fuel, Singh told reporters that the New Democrats “want more attention on the policies that are the biggest drivers of lowering emissions,” such as the industrial price on pollution and methane regulations. 

Industrial carbon pricing systems would be a reference to such protocols as cap and trade. Yes, the very same system that Doug Ford dismantled when he came to power, a move that led to Trudeau imposing the carbon levy on all of us. Interestingly, even as Mr. Ford and others rail against the levy, no one seems to have any interest in bringing back cap and trade. Why not? You would have to ask Mr. Ford and his friends in high places for the answer.

I also don't have a direct answer as to why the electorate cannot make the journey from A to B and connect the dots that would show the arrant hypocrisy of people like Ford when they indulge in the political theatre of fed-bashing.

Hence my jaundiced view of humanity.

Small Minds And Big Power

It will probably come as no surprise to regular readers of this blog that I have a rather low opinion of our species. There are too many small-minded people thinking they are the smartest people in the room, reflecting the classic Dunning-Krueger effect. Nothing can be done about this reality, as they seem wholly incapable of taking any semblance of instruction.

The real problem, however, is when politicians target that audience for their political support. We see it, of course, in the U.S. as Don Trump cultivates his MAGA morons. Unfortunately, the problem also occurs closer to home. We see it in PP's simplistic aphorisms like "spike the hike' and "axe the tax", his answer to climate change mitigation efforts. And here in Ontario, Doug Ford has no doubt provided sociologists and political analysts all manner of fodder when it comes to populism. Indeed, he has made an art out of promulgating the picayune.

Ford, our very own arrested development premier, has made a virtue out of small-minded policies at the expense of constructive, long-term ideas. As you know, thanks to his 'magnanimity', we no longer have to pay licence plate renewal fees, at an annual expense to revenues of $1.2 billion. Add to that the ongoing gas tax 'holiday', and you are left with a substantial gap in the provincial treasury. And perhaps you have heard of Ford's latest scheme to force the LCBO to bring back paper bags to spare the expense of having to buy a reusable one if you have forgotten yours at home, all in the name of making life more affordable.

One of the problems when you concentrate on the 'needs' of the 'little guy' is that you think you can fool everyone and ignore those who want real intelligence in decision-making. Take, for example, his latest scheme. Because his government is woefully behind in the goal of building 1.5 million homes by 2031, Ford's solution is to count the rooms in Long-Term Care homes and dormitories. 

It's an idea being met with ridicule in the legislature. Rob Ferguson writes:

“What are they going to count next … jail cells?” New Democrat Leader Marit Stiles said Tuesday as she criticized Ford for fighting fourplexes as a way to improve the housing supply.   

Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Paul Calandra — who on Wednesday will announce new measures to “cut red tape and help municipalities build” — pushed back at critics with his own argument.

“Obviously, student housing is very important,” he said.

“Every time we build new housing, or a college or university campus builds new housing, that is more housing that is available in the community. I don’t think that’s a very difficult concept to follow.”

Why such transparent fraud?

To meet its 1.5-million target, the province needs to build an average of 150,000 new homes annually.

But the last two years, the actual numbers were well below that, with 109,111 in 2023 and 80,300 in 2022. Soaring interest rates and higher building costs driven by inflation were factors.

 Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie, a former three-term mayor of Mississauga, accused the government of “trying to prop up their numbers with dorms and retirement units because they’re not meeting their (housing) targets.”

“It’s misleading, and it’s just a shell game,” she told a news conference at Queen’s Park. 

“You can’t even have a microwave in a dorm room. My goodness, that is not a home,” Stiles said in an exchange with Calandra in the legislature’s daily question period.

 Green Leader Mike Schreiner mused whether the government might go further.

“At this point, the government is going to start counting tents,” he quipped.  

Stiles's, Crombie's and Schreiner's objections are based on an assumption that the electorate is not stupid. That is likely a miscalculation on their part. In any event, people who know things, read papers and keep up with events are clearly not the target audience the Ford government has in its sights. Quite the opposite, in fact.

 

On This Eclipse Day

The crazed populist and evangelical set is trumpeting today's eclipse as yet another indicator of the end times.  Marjorie Taylor Greene, never one to pass up an opportunity to display her moronic mentality, had this to say:

... the firebrand Republican congresswoman raised eyebrows with a tweet: "God is sending America strong signs to repent," she warned ominously, in a post alternately praised and mocked. "Earthquakes and eclipses and many more things to come."

However, here is a more realistic apocalyptic warning that all should heed:

UPDATED: "The Trumpiest Story Of All Time"?

Maybe. Maybe not, since there is still more time until the end of time. Nonetheless, the following story does seem to suggest that there is no end to the unbridled gall of Don Trump and, undoubtedly, it will probably be fully supported by the MAGA crowd who, we are told, are heavily invested in the stock of his company, which is currently cratering.

Former President Donald Trump's fledgling media business is losing its sheen among investors a week after going public, with a sharp reversal in the company's stock price lopping $4 billion off its value.

Shares of Trump Media & Technology Group, whose primary asset is the Truth Social platform, tumbled 21% on Monday, closing at $48.66, or below its opening price last Monday of $49.90 per share. It also represents a 39% plunge from the stock's high of $79.38 on March 26

Mr. T's reaction? Sue:

Donald Trump is suing two co-founders of Trump Media, claiming they should lose their shares of the company for mismanaging his social media site.

 In the lawsuit, filed on 24 March in Florida state court, lawyers for the former president say Mr Moss and Mr Litinsky were in charge of Trump Media & Technology Group's daily operations, but "failed spectacularly at every turn".

Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG) is the parent company of Truth Social. 

"They made a series of reckless and wasteful decisions at a critical time that caused significant damage to TMTG and a decline in the stock price of its merger partner," Mr Trump's lawyers wrote in the filing.

All of which is standard operating procedure for the tattered Titan. Famous for his refusal to pay bills, often turning that refusal into lawsuits against contractors, painters etc., the inflamed Orange One doubtlessly thinks it will work again in his life-long practice of refusing to accept responsibility for anything. 

However, I shall leave it to MSNBC to set the record straight on this latest outburst of toddlerism:

It is said that Americans like their politics simple. At any rate, they now have a simpleton, however malicious, leading the charge.

UPDATE: This seems timely:

 

Truly, Irredeemably Bad

I take this blog seriously. In it, I try to offer informed aggregation and commentary, and hope that I am never needlessly cruel or uncouth. However, in order to make the point that American politics has clearly entered a new phase in its embrace of the theatre of the absurd, I must depart somewhat from those guidelines.

This morning I was reading, as I always do, The Star's Vinay Menon. A very entertaining columnist, he writes with wit and verve, often capturing the absurdities of life. In his latest piece, he writes about Don Trump's daughter-in-law, Lara. (Yes, the same Lara who recently became co-chair of the Republican National Committee (RNC) and instituted loyalty oaths for prospective employees, thus making the Trump takeover and makeover of the Republican Party complete.) 

Not surprisingly for a family that cultivates delusional thinking, Ms. Trump now fancies herself a songstress, belting out tunes to promote her father-in-law's 'vision' for America.  I therefore offer two of them for your consideration, although I strongly advise listening only to a few seconds of each to confirm how execrably tuneless the woman is. (My wife threatened severe retribution if I played any more than that.)

Just one more thing: in clicking on the following, you are accepting the disclaimer that I cannot be held liable for any psychic or aural damage you may suffer from your exposure to Ms. Trump's stylings.

Just in case you think the woman was having a bad studio session, here is one more for your abbreviated consideration:

I Am At A Loss For Words

 Some days, I truly despair, and words fail me.

“He’s definitely been chosen by God,” said Marie Zere, a commercial real estate broker from Long Island who attended the Conservative Political Action Conference in February outside Washington, D.C. “He’s still surviving even though all these people are coming after him, and I don’t know how else to explain that other than divine intervention.”

You can read the entire sad story here.

And if that's not enough, consider this from Graeme MacKay:

UPDATED: The Hits Keep Coming

No doubt the PP crowd on the West Coast is all abuzz over the fact that they will soon enjoy his presence as part of his Axe The Tax tour.

No word yet as to whether will be musical accompaniment, but Michael de Adder has some 'sound' ideas in that regard:

UPDATE: The redoubtable Moudakis adds more pungent, poignant spice to PP's shenanigans:

I'm Sure It Is All Very Innocent

 On the 'contradictory' relationship PP has with corporate lobbyists:

H/t trapdinawrpool.bsky.social

For Your Consideration

In a time when reflexive rather than reflective responses are elicited by some of our politicians, a little food for thought from Patrick Corrigan. Axe the tax, spike the hike, bring it home and other such mindless slogans may never be quite the same again.

The High Price Of Populism

In this age of economic deprivation for so many, it is understandable that people seek relief wherever they can find it. Some do without, some shop at discount stores, some take second jobs. Unfortunately, some embrace whomever seems to be offering a helping hand. 

Here in Ontario, that 'helping' hand comes from populist politicians, most notably our own Will Loman ("Be well-liked and you will never want"), Doug Ford. Like the salesman he was through his Deco Labels business, which he still owns, Ford has never lost his appetite for public approval. And that propensity is leading all of us down a very dark economic road.

The province's latest budget, unveiled the other day, projects a tripling of the deficit to $9.8 billion, piling on top of the current debt of almost $400 billion. The government argues that it necessary to keep spending in these economically challenging times and making life more affordable for people.

And therein lies the rub. While the deficit and debt continue to grow, our populist premier is surrendering huge sources of revenue via an extension of the gas tax reduction, the ongoing elimination of auto plate renewal charges, massive subsidies to keep the price of hydro lower, and having the public pick up the tab for developers' charges, at the same time giving below-inflation increases to vital services like health care, education, etc.

Not everyone is fooled by this fiscal sleight-of-hand. Certainly, Toronto Star readers are not. Here are two of their letters

Perhaps if the Doug Ford government hadn't been so enthusiastic about shredding long-term stable revenue streams it wouldn't be in the deficit position it now finds itself. Since 2018 the province has lost approximately $1 billion a year each from the cancellation of the greenhouse gas cap and trade program, the elimination of vehicle licensing fees and reductions in the provincial gasoline tax. To this has to be added the billions in provincial revenues that are now having to be diverted to municipalities to pay for infrastructure needed to support housing, making up for the development charge revenues that were lost through Bill 23 — the infamous Building More Homes Faster Act. Then there is the ongoing $7 billion annual diversion of revenues to artificially lower hydro rates and hide the actual costs of nuclear refurbishments. In the longer term the costs of financing the government's "get it done" megaprojects, many of which, like the Highway 413, the Bradford Bypass and Pickering B nuclear refurbishment, have been previously assessed as uneconomic, unnecessary and destructive, has to be considered as well, in a context of increased interest rates. Beyond the long-term environmental and climate consequences of these choices, different decisions would have left the province far better positioned to make needed investments in areas like education and health care.

Mark S. Winfield, Toronto

Gas tax cut diminished government revenues 

The Ford government could handily have trimmed its deficit in this latest budget by cancelling its gas tax cut. By the government’s own admission, this tax cut has diminished government revenues by $2.1 billion over the past two and a half years. Might not all that money have been more helpful providing affordable housing, supporting public transit, and fixing our overburdened health-care system?

Kenneth Oppel, Toronto

For people like Doug Ford, life and politics are but a shell game, one that fools far too many people far too often. But in the end, we all wind up paying a very steep price.

Donald Trump: Can I Get a Big Amen?

From the theatre of the absurd comes Donald Trump's latest scam. He will be getting royalties from this special edition Bible. Truly, we are in The End Times.

A Kevin O'Leary Takedown

John Stewart - love the guy. Kevin O'Leary - detest the guy. Blowhards have always rubbed me the wrong way. Happily, the two diametrically opposed personages are together in the following video. Spoiler alert: John Stewart wins as he exposes O'Leary's venality and hypocrisy, traits that seem endemic amongst "his kind."

The History American Politicians Try To Keep Hidden

I have done a great deal of reading in the past couple of years on The Civil War, slavery, Reconstruction, the Jim Crow laws that followed it,  Black Codes, and the mythology of The Lost Cause. An obvious and irrefutable conclusion to be drawn is that America is a racist country with a racist history, a history that many American states (most egregiously Florida) would deny both white and Black citizens access to.

Of course, not everyone has either the time or the inclination to study the atrocities that were the foundation of the American economy, atrocities that served well both the plantation owners and the industries in the North that utilized their chief crop, cotton. But as the saying goes, one picture is worth a thousand words, and a brief video many times that. The following offers an effective and moving depiction of the ugliness of racism.

If you would like to see an extended version of this report, please click here.

Mr. Mulroney's Legacy

Willy Loman - Death of A Salesman

Brian Mulroney - Late Canadian Salesman

In a previous post, I discussed what I considered to be one of the shortcomings of the late prime minister, Brian Mulroney: his essential shallowness. But it is the damage many say he did to this country thanks, in part, to his fawning admiration of America and American corporations, that he may be best remembered for.

Amidst the many encomiums that have followed Mulroney's demise, two columnists write critically about what his unseemly trait led to: the original free trade deal with our neighbours to the south. Our delusional Willy Loman surrogate, Brian Mulroney, thought of it as one of the highlights of his life, but those columnists beg to differ.

Reflecting on the praise heaped upon the late prime minister, Rick Salutin writes:

The result of his 1988 free trade deal with the U.S. was that good industrial jobs shifted to low wage nations while workers stayed put and rummaged for poorer jobs at home. As manufacturing ‘hollowed out,’ the economy got “financialized,” focusing on money manipulations like mergers among the wealthy players, while workers were marooned in areas like services, retail and eventually, precarious “gigging.” This in turn widened the gap between the rich and the rest, expanding poverty, while the middle classes diminished. The main source of wealth for the majority became their homes, not their jobs, a shakey situation that left the generation now entering the workforce with scant hope of even owning a home.

Mulroney initially opposed free trade when he ran for the leadership of the Progressive Conservative Party, but more powerful interests came to prevail:

The impetus came from corporate headquarters, mostly American, as conveyed through the Reagan administration. We were guinea pigs, as Mulroney went along enthusiastically. What’s strange is that we remain, almost alone, fervent free traders while most others, including the U.S., got off that train a while ago. 

Linda McQuaig has a similarly negative view of Mulroney's legacy, which compromised our values as a nation:

... Canada had a different (vis a vis the U.S.) political tradition, with government playing an important role advancing the public interest through crown corporations and universal social programs.

Canadian business leaders wanted that changed, even though they understood that most Canadians didn’t. In a paper released just before the 1984 election, the CEOs who made up the Business Council on National Issues acknowledged that Canada’s higher social spending reflected “the greater priority that Canadians put on social welfare.”

Canadians would just have to learn to make their social well-being less of a priority, the CEOs had decided.

They had the perfect stooge in Mulroney, the lover of all things American. 

.. Mulroney largely delivered for the business world, introducing far-reaching changes that transformed the Canadian political and economic landscape, partly through his free trade deal with the U.S. that weakened labour and enhanced the rights of business and investors.

Earlier Canadian governments had developed more than 60 crown corporations. Mulroney privatized or began privatizing some key ones, including a national railway, oil company and airline, and completed the privatization of Connaught Labs, a publicly-owned biomedical company that had become one of the world’s leading vaccine producers. 

Canada’s corporate world has thrived in recent decades, which explains much of the elite adulation for Brian Mulroney since his death last month. But the world he ushered in has left many Canadians feeling like the workers he left behind in the snowbanks.

In Death of A Salesman, protagonist Willy Loman preached the cult of personality, believing until almost the end that the man who is well-liked has the world as his oyster. I doubt that Brian Mulroney ever came to understand otherwise.

 

An Update On Stupidity

Just a brief post, but reading The Guardian today, I am reminded that Jesus said, "The poor will always be with you." He could just as easily have said the same about the stupid:

Trump pleads with supporters for cash to help pay soaring legal bills

Former president lashes out at New York attorney general in email urging loyalists to to ‘chip in and stop the witch-hunt’

Donald Trump on Thursday again asked loyal supporters for cash to help him meet mounting legal expenses and keep the “filthy hands” of the New York attorney general off Trump Tower and other properties.

Under the headline “Keep your filthy hands off Trump Tower!” a Trump fundraising email sent to supporters read: “Insane radical Democrat AG Letitia James wants to SEIZE my properties in New York. This includes the iconic Trump Tower.”

The twice-impeached Trump – currently the presumptive Republican presidential nominee – continued: “Democrats think that this will intimidate me. They think that if they take my cash to stifle my campaign, that I’ll GIVE UP!

“But worst of all? They think that YOU will abandon me, and that you will GIVE UP on our country. Here’s one thing they don’t know: WE WILL NEVER SURRENDER!”

On Thursday, on Truth Social, Trump also called Judge Arthur Engeron “crooked” and James, who is Black, “corrupt and racist”, alleging both were involved in “election interference”.

In his fundraising email lamenting the threat to Trump Tower, he said donations would help send “Biden’s corrupt regime … the message … that our patriotic movement CANNOT BE STOPPED!

“So before the day is over, I’m calling on ONE MILLION Pro-Trump patriots to chip in and say, STOP THE WITCH HUNT AGAINST PRESIDENT TRUMP!”

What stirring rhetoric. What an absolute buffoon. What idiots the MAGA cult members are if they swallow Trump's swill.