They Indict Themselves

A wealth of words, many of them scathing and acrimonious, have been written about Donald Trump and those who continue to support him; I have nothing to add except an indisputable observation: one of the ties that bind them is their refusal/inability to confront reality.

That fact is on full display in this short video about some disciples eagerly awaiting their master's upcoming Tulsa rally:

Heroes No More

The more things change, the more they stay the same, eh? Things like corporate greed, for example.

The public was much heartened when grocery store magnates granted pay boosts to front-line line workers as an acknowledgement of the risks they were facing during the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. However, that corporate 'largess' has now ended.

Despite soaring first-quarter profits ... Loblaw Companies Ltd. president Sarah Davis said stores and distribution centres are experiencing a “new normal,” now that COVID-related safeguards have been in place for several months.

“With this stability and with economies reopening we have decided the time is right to transition out of our temporary pay premium,” Davis said in the note.

The Metro, Sobeys and Walmart chains are following suit in this retrenchment, a retrenchment that seems especially cruel given that Covid-19 is by no means conquered, and an effective treatment continues to elude the world. In other words, those same front-line workers lauded as heroes but a short time ago continue to be at risk as they perform their crucial work.

The Toronto Star expresses its disappointment in people like Galen Weston by reminding us of his words when he enacted the wage premium:

“Supermarkets and pharmacies are performing well ... And the leaders in our business wanted to make sure that a significant portion of that benefit would go straight into the pockets of the incredible people on the front line.”

Loblaw Companies Ltd. saw its first-quarter profits soar to $240 million, compared to $198 million in the same quarter last year. No doubt expenses have increased because of COVID-19 safeguards, but it’s hard to fathom how these stores are no longer benefiting financially, as Loblaw claims.

Star readers also weigh in on this shameful reversal. Herb Alexander of Thornhill writes:

Galen Weston is quoted as saying now “is the right time to end the temporary pay premium we introduced at the beginning of the pandemic.”

I wonder which information source led Weston to this conclusion. I just checked; COVID will be not be ending soon.

So it seems this is not the time to be pulling money out of the pocket of his staff, who continue to make him richer by working on the front lines in his stores.

Weston, said to be the scion of the third-richest family in Canada, is quoted as saying he “would support any government effort to establish a living wage.”

This tells me two things about Galen Weston: First, he concedes that he is currently not paying a living wage. Second, he will only pay a living wage if government forces him to.

And Wesley Turner of St. Catharines, Ont. offers this:

Major grocery chains Metro, Loblaws and Walmart, in the early days of the pandemic, awarded their hard-pressed employees an extra $2 per hour to continue working in what were dangerous conditions.

Their work inevitably exposed them to many possible sources of infection from COVID-19, and workers who had to use public transportation faced even more sources of infection.

They were frequently described as “heroes” for maintaining an essential service, providing food and other necessities to all.

So have they ceased to be “heroes?” Has the danger of catching COVID-19 ended? Are all safe to travel and work in grocery stores?

It would seem so in the eyes of their employers who can now lower labour costs and gain more profits. It looks like this increase in wages was no more than a gesture, motivated not by generosity, but by fear that employees would not come to work at the risk of their lives.

That danger remains and so should the wage increase. Indeed, a permanent wage increase would show that those companies really do value their “heroic” employees.

The response to the Covid-19 pandemic has offered many moments when the best of human nature has shone forth. However, the actions of Galen Weston and his fellow-travellers are also a stark reminder that only rarely do the better angels of our nature prevail in the corporate world.

What Manner Of Man Is This?

The short answer is that he is not a man at all. A man, as opposed to a raging narcissist/sociopath, would never do what Donald Trump is planning as he gets ready to put tens of thousands of his loyalists at risk at his upcoming Tulsa ego-fest.

Note the series of lies and boasts that issue from the demented one's mouth in the following:



None of this is surprising, but I still find myself puzzled over how Trump's disciples steadfastly refuse to take the true measure of this monster.

Strange Fruit

H/t Michael De Adder

Those who say the police are just doing their job are just not paying attention.

Be warned. Both of these videos are hard to watch:

This is Fucking nuts! How is this even a reasonable thing to do by police. This was murder. https://t.co/HxKHVOhnaB

— Rick Barnes (@queerthoughts) June 15, 2020

And lest we feel smug in thinking that violent, corrupt and racially-biased policing is just an American blight, Clyde McDonald of Bracebridge, Ont. sets us straight:

Heartbroken and conflicted: Canada’s Black police officers open up about George Floyd’s death and anti-racism protests, June 7

Sorry, I am not buying the “Ninety-nine per cent … are good men and women police officers” and the “few bad apples” excuses.

The ninety-nine per cent continually protect the bad apples, so they are accomplices, and just as guilty as the bad apples.

Officer Cartright says he is being pulled in both directions.

Why?

There is only right and wrong.

There is nothing to wrestle with.

The Toronto Police are a disgrace. Phone video showed Consts. Piara Dhaliwal and Akin Gul lied about Abdi Sheik-Qasim’s arrest. Toronto Const. Robert Warrener had “deliberately fabricated” the drug transaction — “inexcusable deceptive conduct” in a case against Pankaj Bedi. The Star has had many, many other articles on corrupt police officers, most of whom are still employed by the force.

Despite all of the scandals and shootings, Toronto Police Association President Mike McCormack has never met a bad officer.

McCormack defends them …, even when there is irrefutable video evidence.

He does not recognize that keeping bad officers on the force tarnishes the reputation of all of the other officers.

If the ninety-nine per cent truly wanted to protect their reputations, they would vote McCormack out of office.

It is their own reputations that are at stake, and they should be proactive in wanting the bad apples removed.

The fact that they actually protect and defend the bad apples speaks volumes about these supposed “good men and women police officers.”

You can criticize the Americans all you want, but when they have bad cops caught on video, they fire them.

With A Humble Heart

These past many weeks have been difficult ones. We have been largely confined to our homes; social ties we have nurtured for years are under stress, if for no other reason than our inability to be in the presence of those we love and care about. Compounding our sense of helplessness, the racial ructions in the United States have confronted us with some unpleasant but oft-ignored truths. The public spectacle of George Floyd's murder caused deep anguish for all right-thinking people.

The fact that his murder was a spectacle made it easy to feel horror, outrage, and deep sadness. The hard part will be sustaining those reactions and demanding that constructive, structural changes be implemented. In that, we all have a role to play, and that role begins not with the shedding of more tears, but educating ourselves deeply about the daily truths people of color and other minorities confront.

And that takes work, and it takes commitment. In some of my forthcoming posts, I would like to share some of the things I have watched and some of the things I have read that may help bring us closer to a real understanding of, even some empathy for, the daily lives of others. I tried to do that recently in a post about black parents having "the talk' with their kids, as well as a followup post about former Argo player Orlando Bowen and his traumatic encounter with Peel undercover cops back in 2004. As well, I reposted on the murder of Emmett Till.

Below is something culled from NBC Nightly News. If you advance to the 18-minute mark, you will see a story about ow systemic racism affects both the physical and mental health of its victims, many of whom are collateral ones.



It would be both supremely arrogant and supremely naive to suggest that my small efforts can make a difference in the larger scheme of things. The real lesson here, for me, is to approach the learning with a humble heart, fully acknowledging that as a white person, I can never truly know what it is to be in the skin of another, but to make every effort to understand, to bear witness, and to support changes that will improve people's lives everywhere.

Putting Things Into Perspective

Few people do it as well as Robert Reich. And there are lessons here for Canada as well:

I don't know who needs to hear this, but refusing to disclose the corporations receiving $500,000,000,000 in taxpayer-funded bailouts is the real looting in America. pic.twitter.com/jg5kkDSGUh

— Robert Reich (@RBReich) June 12, 2020

A Free Lesson

Something for the discerning amongst us:
H/t Linwood Barclay

This is how it’s done. https://t.co/NT0haqXu5x

— Linwood Barclay (@linwood_barclay) June 11, 2020