Setting The Record Straight

Robert Reich is one of America's true heroes. He seems indefatigable in his efforts to educate the American public as a counter to the lies and distortions of Donald Trump. Given the prodigious challenges involved in bringing people toward the light, I have no idea where he gets either his resolve or his energy.

The following is but one example of his work:

Trump's vile attacks against immigrants are as dumb as they are racist and xenophobic. The truth is new immigrants strengthen our communities, contribute to the economy and pay billions in taxes. We must not allow Trump's bigotry to go unchallenged. pic.twitter.com/0LzN8UIjXR

— Robert Reich (@RBReich) May 17, 2018

See Doug. See Doug Run.

Bullies, con artists and cowards all have something in common: they live in fear that they will be exposed for what they are - weak, manipulative people who try to mask their massive inadequacies through bluster, empty rhetoric and false bravado. That Doug Ford, leader of the Ontario PCs, seems to epitomize these traits is becoming increasingly evident to those who care to open their eyes rather than respond like the Pavlovian dogs his kind prefer.

How else to explain the muzzle that has apparently been placed on so many PC candidates in the run up to June 7?

More than 20 PC candidates have skipped debates since the beginning of the provincial election campaign, a trend that recalls similar absenteeism among federal Conservative candidates under Stephen Harper. Candidates from other Ontario parties, meanwhile, have been far more likely to show up.

Consider these few examples of candidate muzzling/cowardice:

Meredith Cartwright, the Toronto Centre candidate who hired actors to pose as Ford supporters at a leadership debate, was a no-show at an all-candidates’ meeting in Corktown on Tuesday that was attended by the Liberal, NDP and Green party candidates ... She has not spoken publicly since the crowd-for-hire controversy erupted.

PC candidates skipped four separate debates held this week in Scarborough, including Gary Ellis in Scarborough Southwest, who claimed a long-standing prior commitment; Sarah Mallo in East York; Christine Hogarth in Etobicoke-Lakeshore and Vijay Thanigasalam in Scarborough Rouge-Park, who cancelled the day of the event, according to an organizer.

Four out of five PC candidates did not participate in public debates held by the Brampton Board of Trade on May 11, and three of them cancelled on the same day.

What does party central have to say about these no-shows?

Ford spokesperson Melissa Lantsman declined to confirm or deny.

“We work with candidates to ensure they are effective in their voter outreach, be it phone calls, door knocking or debates,” she said.

If you would like a fuller sense that the PCs are fearful and in hiding, check out PressPrgress, which details 23 MIA PC candidates.

This kind of shielding of candidates from the voters is nothing new, of course. Along with limited access to the leader, it is the same cowardly tactic employed under Stephen Harper, whose contempt for the press was legendary.

It is a contempt that does not sit well with the tenets of democracy:

This is not how our parliamentary democracy is supposed to work, says Duff Conacher, director of Democracy Watch. “Any campaign that tries to control access and control the message is a campaign that is hurting the voters’ right to choose the person they really want to represent them,” he said.

Doug Ford wants you. He is, after all, for the people. Of course he is, as long as they are kept ignorant about anything that might challenge his overblown rhetoric and his increasingly tattered credibility.

Setting The Record Straight

In theory, this primer should cut through climate-change denialism. In practice, of course, it will do no such thing. Conspiracy theories, junk science and muddled thinking, after all, are so much easier to spout.

Your Neo-liberal Government At Work

Included in the Trudeau sellout is the following:

- Prepared to indemnify the project from any financial loss;

-Is willing to offer this financial security to any company who wants to build the pipeline, should Kinder Morgan back out;

-and, the financial backing must be fair, and beneficial to Canadians.

"If Kinder Morgan isn’t interested in building the project we think plenty of investors would be interested in taking on this project, especially knowing that the federal government believes it is in the best interest of Canadians and is willing to provide indemnity to make sure that it gets done," Morneau said, noting that he is “confident” an agreement will be made.

If you aren't outraged yet, I suggest you check your vital signs.

In Case You Were Wondering

Can Anyone Imagine Such A Speech In Our House Of Commons?

There must be an independent investigation of the Gaza massacre, and those responsible must be held to account. My Commons statement today: pic.twitter.com/ig7c3bXg0j

— Emily Thornberry (@EmilyThornberry) May 15, 2018

In a similar vein, this seems an appropriate description of the atrocity:

GENEVA (Reuters) - Israel’s use of force against protesters at the Gaza border fence is akin to “an eye for an eyelash” and may amount to a war crime, Michael Lynk, the U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory said in a statement on Tuesday.

“This blatant excessive use of force by Israel – an eye for an eyelash – must end, and there must be true accountability for those in military and political command who have ordered or allowed this force to be once again employed at the Gaza fence,” said Lynk, an independent expert who reports to the U.N. Human Rights Council.

Trudeau and the gang can whistle all they want past the graveyard that Gaza is quickly becoming, but his cowardly lack of leadership is being duly noted.

How Self-Aware Are We, Really?

My cynicism is never far from the surface, but during election campaigns, it is front and centre. For me, those are times in which my faith and belief in my fellow human beings are sorely tested. And believe me, I do not exclude myself in my darker deliberations about our nature.

For the past few days, I have been reflecting upon self-awareness, which evolutionary pathways defines as the following:

Self awareness basically describes a situation where the light of awareness is turned onto ourselves. While awareness is our ability to take note; self-awareness is our ability to take note of ourselves.

When we turn our awareness to shine on ourselves, we may become conscious of a great deal of internal activity. We may notice specific thoughts or thought patterns. We may notice particular emotions or flows of energy. We may awaken to physiological processes happening in our body such as heartbeat, heat, sweating. We may notice intuitions or gut feelings.

Awareness, on the other hand, is this:

Simply put, awareness is our capacity to notice things. We may be aware of the time or aware of a particular situation - we may notice that we are late or that someone is watching us. Being aware of such things means we have taken note of them.

All of which leads me to think that many of us are merely aware, a condition traditionally attributed to lower animal forms. The inability to reflect means there is no possibility of positive change. Only by being able to rise above ourselves and recognize others as important components of existence can anything substantive be accomplished.

Where is this leading to? How about a screed against that thing called "Ford Nation'? Touted by Doug Ford as 'for the people'or 'for the little guy.' they are people to whom the bromide of new efficiencies, tax cuts and better service appeal. They are people who, apparently caught in a solipsistic feedback loop, seek to impose their view of reality on all. How else to explain their rowdy support for people like PC London West candidate Andrew Lawton?

A longtime radio host and blogger whom Ford chose to be the Progressive Conservative candidate in London West, Lawton used his platforms from 2010 to 2015 in ways opponents say disparaged the disabled, homosexuals, Muslims and the mentally infirm, among others.

He now attributes those denigrations to mental illness.

As someone well-familiar with depression, I can tell you that mental illness is not a get-out-of-jail-free card, just as drunkenness is hardly the genesis for racist screeds.

Here are some of the things Lawton said when "he wasn't in his right mind."

-In 2015, Lawton responded to a poll that found homophobia was a concern for London’s gay community, writing on Facebook, “Number of sexual orientation-motivated hate crimes in Canada per year: 185. Number of HIV/AIDS infections from men (who) have sex with men in Canada per year: 1,450. Who is the real enemy?’

-Accused of mocking the deaf on his show in 2015, he tweeted, “I don’t think anyone impacted heard the segment.”

-In a 2010 podcast, when his guest, flame-throwing conservative Ann Coulter, said of censorship, “It’s sad to see ‘retard’ go, but at least we have ‘negro,’ ” Lawton laughed and said, “Yeah. Exactly.”

-A screen grab of an apparent Lawton tweet from October 2011: “An immigrant, a Muslim and a communist walk into a bar. The bartender says ‘Hello Mr. President’”

-A screen grab from an apparent Lawton tweet in November 2011: “I left the Anglican church when they made the decision to allow gay marriage.”

-A screen grab of a Lawton tweet in July 2011: “The official internet code for gay sex is ‘ENTER : ###’ (sound it out)”

There is yet another dandy of a Ford candidate running in Kanata-Carleton, Dr. Merrilee Fullerton:

According to her website, Fullerton is a doctor who stands for “values of responsibility, compassion, integrity and accountability.”

A look at her past writings provides some guidance regarding these values. A tweet in November 2015 pulled out a quote from a story on Islamic radicalism: “Usually it is not the first generation (of refugees or immigrants) that is the most dangerous, it’s the second.”

Before that was a tweet referencing Breitbart News exhorting people to watch a march by thousands of supporters of the anti-Islam group PEGIDA in Dresden, Germany.

Another tweet reads: “the ghetto.” And it goes on to define that as “home to almost 20,000 immigrants, overwhelmingly Muslim, almost half of them jobless.” This tweet, which appears to refer to the Rosengard housing scheme in Sweden, is taken out of context from a story in the Guardian five years prior about a Swedish backlash against immigration.

In others tweets, she rails against a “wear-a-hijab” day in Ottawa in 2016.

Not surprisingly, those endearing tweets by the good doctor no longer exist.

So, to end where I began, there are questions one can ask about voters who are attracted to such candidates:

Do they believe that by electing a Lawton or a Fullerton, they will be advancing anything other than hatred and racism? Are those the values that define them?

Do they believe that having such people in the legislature will somehow send gays scurrying back into the shadows, and that Muslims will be put on notice that they are under suspicion and surveillance and thus be recognized for the 'threat' they pose to all 'good Christians'?

Do they believe electing such miscreants will lead to a new world order that will reflect their 'values'?

Those are but a few questions one could ask of a benighted group of people who do not even seem to be making an effort to achieve true self-awareness.

Of course, to them, any criticism I or others make simply means we are part of the 'elites.' But then again, why would I care what they think?