Single women. That's right, single women. According to Jesse Watters, the only way to combat such an insidious threat is for those ladies to get married, where, presumably, they will fall into line with the natural (or God-ordained) hierarchy.
'We need these ladies to get married' 
— Fox News' Jesse Watters is BIG MAD that single women made waves voting for Democrats during the midterms.
Having taught for 30 years, I had my fair share of classroom experiences, both good and bad, as is the norm in a long career. Fortunately, most of the students I interacted with over those years were good and earnest, eager enough to benefit from educational opportunities as they anticipated their futures.
Invariably, however, there were those classes that housed one or two students whose purpose for attendance was somewhat opaque; clearly, educational achievement was not their priority; disruption took precedence, resulting in severe compromise to the atmosphere and quality of learning. They were, to use the colloquialism, bad apples.
Similarly, today one is confronted with many examples of the minority trying to dictate the terms under which society operates. The 'Freedom' Convoy against Covid masking and restrictions readily comes to mind, its participants so passionate about protecting our freedoms that they held Ottawa hostage for three weeks. Perhaps their boundless energy came from the fact that they had been marshaling their reserves for just that moment, their prior efforts in fighting for freedom apparently non-existent. No doubt, they believed themselves agents of history.
Although the Ottawa occupation is long over, the disordered thinking that led to it is not. Consider, for example, the question of returning to mask mandates. The evidence is compelling that such a mandate is needed. Children's hospitals are being overwhelmed, and the all the signs point to a complete collapse as the flu and RSV cases mount, this in addition to the ongoing Covid cases our medical facilities have to contend with.
Despite all of the evidence supporting the use of masks to limit the spread of disease, no public official expresses any willingness to reintroduce mandates. Indeed, that reluctance flies in the face of polling results indicating that the majority of Canadians would support a return to mandates.
The poll conducted for CTV News found seven in 10 Canadians said they would support the return of face masks mandates to some extent. Fifty-two per cent said they would support the return of such mandates, 17 per cent said they would "somewhat support" them, while 22 per cent would be against them. Eight per cent would be "somewhat" opposed to the idea.
Here in Ontario, such a result does not sway Dr. Kieran Moore, our mislabelled chief medical officer of health, nor his political master, the often-hapless premier, Doug Ford.
Premier Doug Ford said Wednesday that Ontarians are welcome to wear masks, but there is no recommendation for widespread mandatory masking at this time from Dr. Kieran Moore, the chief medical officer of health.
Moore told the Star in a recent interview that he is “strongly recommending” those at risk of severe illness from the three viruses to mask indoors but says he is reluctant to install a mandate.
Instead, he wants people to remember the “basic layers of protection” of staying home when sick, masking in indoor settings, wearing a mask while recovering from a respiratory illness. and good hand hygiene.
Once again, our overlords seem quite willing to cede to the wishes of the minority. In my classroom days, I, too, tried to reason with the disruptive elements I faced, with predictable lack of results. The stakes, a positive classroom environment in which learning took precedence over disruption by the minority, were high enough then, but they are so much higher now.
People's lives are at stake, but those whose job it is to protect all of us quail before the minority. That is not leadership. That is capitulation.
Premier Ford’s decision to withdraw Bill 28, and go back to the bargaining table shows the kind of things that can happen when you stand up to a bully.
“I pity that man who wants a coat so cheap that the man or woman who produces the cloth shall starve in the process.” This quotation, by former U.S. president Benjamin Harrison, was posted on the wall of the union office where I once worked.
It makes me wonder: how cheap does the Ford government want to make our educational system?
Trampling the rights of the lowest paid is not only deplorable, but devastating to our society.
Who wants to live, work and do business in a province that disrespects and under values its education and health care professionals?
Ontarians want and deserve better.
Nobody loves a bully.
The development lobby gets approval to build Highway 413, at a cost of $8.2 billion amid disagreement about its utility.
More than $1 billion a year in annual licence fees is given away as an election goody.
Ongoing green energy projects were scrapped mid-development at a cost of $230 million, amid a growing climate-crisis. The lowest paid education workers (70 per cent women), earning less than $40,000 a year, get offered a salary increase of 1.5 per cent, or, in some cases, 2.5 per cent..
Any trained nurse (more than 90 per cent women), with a salary capped at one per cent, could have easily and far more effectively triaged these competing priorities, so that the educational chaos spread across the Star’s recent front pages could have been avoided.
I just watched Doug Ford's news conference, prompted no doubt by the fury people feel in Ontario over his government's heavy-handed use of the Notwithstanding Clause to try to break CUPE's strike. Replete with inaccuracies and lies, Ford tried to present a conciliatory tone, but hyperbole such as the province facing bankruptcy if they cede to CUPE's demands undermined that tone. One does not easily forget, for example, the surrendering of over $1 billion in licence and toll fees and other measures to deplete the treasury.
Apparently, people are starting to wake up.
Here is Sid Seixiero's take on the debacle:
WATCH:
shares his thoughts on Premier Ford's announcement that the province is willing to rescind Bill 28 if CUPE agrees to show similar "gesture of good faith" - by ending the walkout and getting kids back to school.
UPDATE: CUPE will end the strike upon the Ford government's written promise to rescind Bill 28.
Such seems to be happening in Ontario, now in the midst of an education labour disruption that could have been so easily avoided, had our rulers not been consumed with their own arrogance.
A new Abacus poll reveals some interesting statistics:
... 62 per cent of respondents blame the provincial government for schools closing after thousands of education workers, including education assistants, custodians and librarians, walked off the job Friday. Meanwhile, 38 per cent point the finger at the workers.
Sixty-eight per cent of parents of school-aged children believe the Ford government bears the most responsibility, the survey found, while 71 per cent of respondents want the province to negotiate a "fair deal" with education workers, rather than continue with its current strategy.
Laura Walton, president of CUPE's Ontario School Boards' Council of Unions, said the results of the poll show Ontarians support the education workers in their job action.
"This poll confirms what we already knew: that the majority of people support education workers, that they see through the Ford government's lies about working for workers and students, that they know $39,000 isn't enough, and that they believe workers' rights to freely bargain and strike if necessary must always be protected," Walton said in a statement.
"Seven out of 10 Ontarians want the government to negotiate a fair deal. That starts with repealing Bill 28, an unjust law which Ontarians know is like giving a schoolyard bully a sledgehammer."
Meanwhile, both sides are now appearing before the Ontario Labour Relations Board, the government seeking a declaration of an illegal strike, CUPE arguing against that designation. Perhaps the desperation of the Ford cabal is reflected in the chief argument of its legal brainstrust:
Ferina Murji said strikes are prohibited in the midst of any contract, not just one that was ratified by union membership.
"A collective agreement is a collective agreement is a collective agreement," she said.
If one believed in the power of pithy sayings, one might be able to sum up the current imbroglio this way:
The Ford 'Progressive' Conservative government: not here for you.
Watching the American news this week in the leadup to their mid-terms, I was struck by the dichotomy between Democratic leaders and candidates and their Republican counterparts. On the one hand, you have people like Joe Biden and Barrack Obama trying to appeal to reason in their stumping, and on the other hand you have the Republicans blowing loudly and incessantly into their dog whistles (Crime! Immigration! Inflation!!!), appealing to the prejudices and passions of their people.
It is two polarities appealing to two different planets. Platonic ideals are not exactly vehicles of galvanization.
Fortunately, Politics Girl has the antidote: some 'reasoned passion'. Be advised, however, that her language in this video may not be to everyone's taste.
Stop saying the Democrats are going to lose. It’s lazy, defeatist bullshit not at all based in truth.
... what the Ford government is either too arrogant or too stupid to get:
H/t Brittlestar
I imagine only those who favour government by a cadre of contemptible clowns are content right now.
UPDATE: Here's another expression of disdain for our diminished-capacity politicos:
"I'm angry."
@sid_seixeiro shares his thoughts as thousands of CUPE education workers prepare to walk off the job today.
