In addition to the blatant corruption of the Ford cabal, my other ongoing obsession is with all that Donald Trump represents for a rapidly-declining Amerika.
Here, John Kelly, his former chief of staff, confirms things we already know about the morally-diseased wannabe dictator who, by the way, recently opined that shoplifters should be shot.
Were it not for the global influence of Amerika, I would happily sit by as it destroys itself. But that's not the way things work, eh?
The uproar over the Greenbelt theft has died down to a seething anger, despite Doug Ford's promise to restore it. There is ongoing anger over the fact that he lied to us, anger over his apology for having made "a mistake," anger that he was willing to overlook the environmental depredation that his theft would have enabled, anger over his clumsy attempt to reward wealthy developers, and anger over the still extant Bill 23, which, among other things, saddles municipalities with the development charges formerly paid by those rich developers.
People know that Ford will do anything he can get away with. He has lost their trust. And, as the following letters attest, they intend on never letting go of the lessons learned about the nature of this government.
Doug Ford cancels controversial $8.28-billion Greenbelt land swap: ‘It was a mistake,’ Sept. 21Some of you, especially if you live outside of Ontario, are likely tired of hearing about the Greenbelt Scandal. Since I reside in the province, its tentacles of corruption continue to both rivet and repel me.
Global News political reporter Colin D'Mello has been providing consistently good coverage of Ford's follies and corruption. His most recent report sheds further light on the cesspool that is this government's ongoing legacy. If you watch to the end of this brief video, you will learn of Ford's admission to the Integrity Commissioner about meeting with developer Silvio De Gasperis regarding the proposed Highway 413, after which land was removed from the Greenbelt.
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Make no mistake about it: I am absolutely delighted that the Ford cabal has, albeit quite belatedly, seen the light and is restoring the pilfered Greenbelt lands. But, like puppies receiving scraps from the table of a master who regularly abuses us, are we supposed to submissively wag our tails, lick his hand and forget the fear and revulsion he has regularly inspired in us?
Not a chance.
I watched Ford's self-serving mea culpa yesterday. It had all the trappings of a PR event engineered by that famous crisis-management firm, Navigator. When all seems lost, people like Brian Mulroney and Michael Bryant have turned to them to try to spin things into a positive outcome. Judging by yesterday's performance, if Navigator was involved, they have missed their mark by a wide margin.
To hear Ford tell it, he has been humbled by the backlash, and apologizes to all who held him to account. However, according to his alternate-reality version of events, he did it all because of the crisis in housing, and sometimes in a crisis, one acts too quickly. But his heart, of course, was always in the right place.
Here is a brief clip of Ford's climb-down; I especially enjoy the physical (symbolic?) distance his cabinet embraces, and their stoic looks remind me of people that have been chowing down only to find something very unpleasant in their sandwich spread.
Mr. Ford, in his address, talks about earning back the trust of Ontarians. My own sense is that ship has sailed, but then, I am often wrong in my prognostications. And I do hope I am wrong in my fear that now that the theft has been reversed, the RCMP will conclude there is no need for a criminal investigation. While it might be more palatable to those in the national police force who would rather not ruffle feathers, to come to such a conclusion would only compound an ongoing erosion of faith in our public institutions.
Ford has done much damage over the past year. He has shown that corruption within his 'government' thrives; he has increased public cynicism, and he has made many recoil in abject disgust that such criminality runs rampant in Canada's largest province.
But some good has come out of it as well, primarily in the reminder to an abused public that sometimes, if we don't lose sight of a goal too precious to surrender, we can effect change.
Well done to everyone who has been a part of this victory!
... didn't stay in Vegas. Consequently, another one bites the dust. Dean Blundell explains all:
The corruption obviously runs deep, and it runs from the top down. Doug the Slug is holding another news conference this afternoon. Given how deep the premier is in to the developers, expect only the usual misdirections, pontifications, evasions, self-serving justifications and NO reversal on the Greenbelt crime.
In other words, ANYTHING BUT THE TRUTH.
