— Feature, Musings —05.28.2023 01:27 AM
— Feature, Musings —05.28.2023 01:27 AM
Thumbs up to Militarie Gun, Scowl and Superviolet. Disagree with Mraz that Jane’s Addiction is punk. Alternative Rock. Agree with him that it doesn’t matter much who is leading the country. Why I told people to calm down about T. One small example that democrats strongly disagree with me on but anyone who thinks Gore would not have gone into Iraq is naive.
Martin,
W went into Iraq for only one purpose and needed a pretext, legitimate or otherwise: WMD. The purpose was to avenge the assassination attempt that Saddam made on his father, HW Bush, after the U.S. kicked Iraq out of Kuwait.
Ronald, that doesn’t change my point.
Martin,
It depends. Would have Gore fabricated a war just to avenge an assassination attempt on a former president? Personally, I doubt that very much.
Don’t get me wrong. I didn’t start bawling when Saddam Hussein got to swing but Iraq was all about family revenge and nothing but that.
Chrétien got it. Harper, not so much.
Ronald, again, you are missing my(and Mraz’s) point. It would not have mattered what Gore thought. And someone like you from Quebec should know better than to tout the party line on Chretien and the war. He and our UN ambassador believed there were weapons and we were all set to go in. Literally. Tawdry Quebec politics entered into the picture because of the 2003 election and that was why he didn’t go in. So let’s not all pat ourselves on the back as to why we didn’t go in. The standing O in the House when the announcement was made was actually kind of disgusting given that our most important ally was about to send their boys to die. Jane Stewart got all defensive about that when I pointed that out to her that day.
Iraq over Paul Martin signing us up for Kandahar?
I would have taken Iraq.
Douglas,
The Taliban did harbour bin Laden and al-Qaeda. So Afghanistan was the only correct choice.
Had something to do with the oil, don’t you think?
Chretien mentioned this in his memoir. Apparently W told him he needed to “manage the blood lust of the American people” after 9/11. Well… a year and a half had passed between 9/11 and the invasion of Iraq. They wanted pound for pound. Destruction for destruction. Against anyone with an Arab name. There were other ways of managing American blood lust. Managing American blood lust should have been explored more thoroughly IMHO.
Oh and I do think the pension is an issue for the 2019 cohort. Actually, forget the pension. Even MPs with no extra duties make over 500.00 A DAY. Call it at least 600.00 if you count benefits. Their health plan is gold plated so that is probably low. I don’t imagine that there are many who could make even half of that in the private sector. So every day they survive is a big win. And, yes, Harper did reform their pension entitlement but that just took it from very gold plated to gold plated. I don’t have a lot of sympathy for them when they say that they pay half of the pension now when it is coming off gross pay of 189,500. And don’t get me wrong, they should be paid well if we want to attract the best and the brightest but that clearly isn’t working.
The best and brightest aren’t always charismatic attention seekers. A lot of shy, unassuming people would be good representatives, but they never run because they detest the attention, rather than crave it.
CV – 100% agree!
Martin,
When was the last time that the best and the brightest voluntarily made their way to Ottawa? To ask the question is to answer it.
There are a few: best and the brightest who voluntarily made their way to Ottawa.
One of them is Nate Erskine-Smith, who had enough of our Prime Minister and the PMO, and who would rather take a stab at leading the lowly Ontario Liberal Party.
Johnston pointed out a number of flaws, and he outlined that foreign interference is an issue. his point was that the version coming from media isn’t informed by the big picture of intelligence available, in secret, so it’s a version distorted from the truth. It’s only informed by the leaks that are misleading in that they omit huge swaths of intelligence that isn’t available to the public. Not that there isn’t an issue, just that it isn’t specific to one party, like the leaks suggest, and the narrative we get from the opposition is flawed because it isn’t informed by the big picture. An important reason to avoid a public inquiry, he suggested, is that it could jeopardize sources – it could put at risk the assets we depend on to gather intelligence.
Davey and Justin are both proven liars facilitated by Frankie. Neither you(or Scot) have yet to remark on the evidence of same. Sorry, but there might be some stuff of interest in that report if it were from a credible person, but it’s not.
I don’t follow why anyone would bother to read the report. And I’m usually the kind of nerd who reads stuff like that. Are we also interested in the recipe for KFC? Do we care about the process for toasting tobacco for use in cigarettes? We know there are secrets… ooooh… BIG SECRETS… ahhh… But we also all know the product is ridiculous and unhealthy.
Curious – I’m not sure if you appreciate the level to which Johnston has permanently degraded himself. He should never be interviewed, hired, appointed again… not even as a judge for a bikini contest in Fredericton, until he has given a full throated, explicit public apology for his disgraceful conduct. It’s over for him. There is no room in Canada for Johnston to ever be taken seriously again until he retracts / resigns / demonstrates some serious act of contrition for even taking the post in the first place.
Give it up Curious. Now Davey is apparently refusing to testify at PROC after the Liberals spent three hours arguing last week about when he should show up and the Libs were smugly defending all efforts to get him there quicker by saying he had agreed to testify. Again-who is lying. Now these people will say that we mustn’t subpoena An Important Person like Davey. It is just not done. I think he has figured out what Brock will subject him to and he has chickened out.
Correction to this. It was the Public Accounts Committee although that is a distinction without a difference. They want to discuss his connections to the Trudeau Foundation. Alex Pierson and Tom Korski.
https://dcs.megaphone.fm/CORU2713680517.mp3?key=2902741f4866a57b03ce0c5254c0d135&request_event_id=017d8609-9f6f-4bdf-8e92-0ebf90b7137b
Johnstons point was that there is interference, but it’s directed towards people, or parties that are critical of China. It isn’t specific to a party, and everybody who criticizes China is at risk. It’s also alarming that there are foreign police stations, and pressure placed on the diaspora community is palpable. So sure, there’s a problem, but it’s not specific to a party, and the solution requires multi-party cooperation. The conservatives aren’t interested in any kind of cooperation, surely not the kind that leads to safeguards and solutions – they just want a show trial.
What did Justin do about Chinese interference?
Nothing.
What did Justin do about Chinese police stations in Canada?
He helped finance them.
Curious V,
No one is buying this line. This is nothing more than a cover up to save Trudeau’s ass. Everyone already knows that. Plain and simple. Short and sweet.
Warren,
If Trump could come out of nowhere and win, any of the others could theoretically win. Watch Trump legal steady erosion on the JelloGibraltarTM. The Republicans can’t win without independents who are the biggest political group. Will they really go back to Trump in a general? I think not.
My view is that neither Trump nor Biden will ultimately be the nominee. No one agrees with me. Now as to DeSantis, he’s no longer the obvious choice if Trump falters, due to Trump’s legal jeopardy.
Ronald,
I quietly concur. It will be neither Biden (for health reasons) nor Trump (for legal reasons).
So who will it be?
JM
Mraz,
My intuition is normally as good as the Titanic’s binoculars (they were missing on that fateful night) but it tells me that this job is already far too stressful and health depleting for Biden. I fear he’ll die in office like FDR. If so, that means Harris.
On the Republican side, ironically I think of a Democrat: remember the Bill Clinton breakout. It didn’t happen in five minutes. Now, as to who: if it’s Kamala, I’d run Sununu for cross-over appeal.
Warren,
Pierre Poilièvre: it’s all about the steady imprint of his fingerprints on canvas. Like you said, he should already been running away with this race against the TrudeauDisasterTM but quite clearly he isn’t. It’s all about the political fingerprints: one day, a good day with good positioning; one day a bad day with bad positioning. The trend needs to be steady to win and particularly so to win big. It hasn’t been entirely steady so far.
Is Bonnie Crombie related to Erin O’Toole? Just asking.
Warren,
Who looks the most stupid if the NDP wins? LOL.
China’s interference is Canada’s thermonuclear (hydrogen) bomb explosion. No need to say more. One way or another, it will blow away Mr.StupidTM and his minions in the next election.
Bonnie Crombie has spent her time as Mississauga mayor systematically segregating the young, the working class, and new immigrants from her city through grotesque NIMBY policies intended to enrich old white people without them having to work for it. Great OLP leader if the party has decided to forfeit the <40 cohort.
Those are the voters that elect Justin too.
Pedant,
Is there any way that we could get the TrudeauDopesTM to draft her for future leader? LOL.
Justin not in the House again today. Can’t dodge this forever.
Warren,
Tomorrow will tell the tale re: the NDP’s motion: if TeamCorruptionTM suddenly magically reschedules the opposition day, that will tell you all you need to know about HimselfTM’s personal involvement. In short, he’s in it all the way up to his lying neck and everyone already knows it. Have fun tomorrow, hypocrites!
Good podcast.
Would like to have heard more about OLP Leadership and too bad that was cut off. That race is way more interesting than meets the eye IMHO.
Maybe next time.
W’s mom’s take on JT is 100% accurate and represent the problem from day one. About 1/3 of the population are convinced he can’t be wrong about anything… because he looks so cute. This isn’t a mean comment, this is the reality of modern politics in Canada. He’s the archetype mimbo dumbass from high-school who everyone pretended to like because they had rich parents and threw the best parties. But you’d never depend on that guy when it counted.
Chow is way ahead for one reason and one reason alone. Voters are tuned out and fed up with elections. The mushy middle folks have figure out she is winning and jumped on that band wagon. That’s it. That’s all. People like to imagine they are on the winning / overwhelming side and hope that their person will just make it all go away.
If MH loses the mayor race – and she surely will – well that’s interesting…. I’ve been thinking her candidacy was partly based on the idea that either Crombie or N.E.S. was going to be immediately parachuted into Scarborough as a natural safe riding for a leader. I was guessing that would be the price for Liberal organization / sign lists etc. throughout Toronto for MH. So now OLP leadership plans are completely f#%ked up as usual.
JT would not pass the fox hole test for a whole pile of reasons. It is laughable to even consider the question.
How many offices have you worked in? Good looking women get all the breaks, they get promoted, and that amplifies in media. The media always rewards people for their good looks, irrespective of party stripe. For men, amongst men, it’s often times to their detriment that they’re good looking – Rank and file men usually hold good looking men in disdain
What is your point? It is the Toronto women that keep voting him in.
David Johnston tells the G&M he has more work to do… Really… Is he tying balloon animals at the next Caucus retreat?!
Jagmeet Singh is huffing, puffing, and chirping, but Trudeau and now Johnston are laughing at him with total contempt.
https://www.blacklocks.ca/johnston-refusing-to-testify/
Peter-that headline was a bit misleading and I fell for it-see above. Trying to get people to subscribe I guess.
Martin
I read your post above, and don’t see what’s misleading about the Blacklock’s post.
Johnston was refusing to appear. Has he since changed his mind and is now agreeing to testify.
Of course if he does testify, there’s no guarantee he’ll actually answer questions.
Peter-When I read the headline, I thought he was refusing to appear at PROC. Too many acronyms. It was the PAC. I texted someone on the committee when I saw that and he knew nothing about it but was certainly relieved when he learned it was not true. The way the Liberals huffed and puffed about his eventual willing co-operation at that three hour PROC meeting, a refusal would have been quite the story. But, you are right, when he gets cross-examined about his lies about his relationship with Davey, the Libs will say we shouldn’t treat an “Important Person” that way or he will refuse to answer or continue to lie.
Who is paying the bill for Dave’s hiring of Navigator?