In other news, Justin Trudeau is going to be Prime Minister for 142 years.

The #CPCldr race is:

— Warren Kinsella (@kinsellawarren) January 4, 2017

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Check out this whopper:

No one thing killed blogging in Canada. Twitter played a role. Much of the old blogosphere energy now gets expended on Tweets. The structure of the Internet changed, too. Between maybe 2003 and 2009, when blogging was huge, the Internet was more about websites. Today it’s all about platforms like Facebook and YouTube.

Blogging still exists. Many of the biggest names from that era endure. Some — Jaime Weinman, Colby Cosh, Chris Selley — migrated into the old media world. Others, like Dan “Calgary Grit” Arnold, became players in the real political sphere (Arnold is director of research and advertising for the Liberal Party of Canada). But blogging itself no longer enjoys the dominance it once had.

The full steaming pile is here. And what a load of bollocks it is. I’m not going to cite a single statistic or fact, sayeth he, I’m not going to do any actual research. I’m just going to say “blogging is dead.” And it will be therefore true. 

Except, you know, it isn’t.  It just isn’t true.  My pal Raymi the Minx has been at it for almost two decades, and hasn’t let up. So too Big City Lib, for years. Jordon Cooper out West. Scott Tribe. Anti-Racist Canada. Torontoist, Daily Kos down South, and on and on. All have substantial audiences. All are on the blogroll, just to the left, Post guy.

Oh: and the words you now squint at, on a bluish screen somewhere? The ones found on this Non-Blog? They’re seen by three and a half million people a year. How’s that factoid, Post fellow? That’s more people than read many of your columnists, I’d wager. And this little project – now in its 17th year – makes a not-insubstantial amount of dough, too. It’s a media platform that is pretty profitable, unlike…well, you know.

But forget about all that. Forget about it. Here’s one fact.

A few years ago, a newspaper editor-in-chief came to see me. He said he wanted me to write for his newspaper as a columnist. Why, I asked. “Because we are blown away by the size of your audience,” he said. “It’s more than most of our columnists.”

The name of the newspaper?

The National Post. 

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…to kill off ethics oversight, and gut democracy.

U.S. House Republicans vote to gut independent ethics office against wishes of top GOP leaders

WASHINGTON — House Republicans on Monday voted to eviscerate the Office of Congressional Ethics, the independent body created in 2008 to investigate allegations of misconduct by lawmakers after several bribery and corruption scandals sent members to prison.

The ethics change, which prompted an outcry from Democrats and government watchdog groups, is part of a rules package that the full House will vote on Tuesday. The package also includes a means for Republican leaders to punish lawmakers if there is a repeat of the Democratic sit-in last summer over gun control.

Some of us suggested 2017 would be much worse than 2016, as you will recall. Didn’t think it would get this bad this fast, however.

Oh, and Trump has decided to fight North Korea’s ICBMs via Twitter.

Great. Terrific.

UPDATE: They’ve done whiplash-inducing about-face, here.  But Trump continues to ramp up against China and North Korea, here.

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Its principal, when not snorting leftover California corn flake off the floor of a Montessori somewhere in Ottawa, deeply resents happiness in others. So I offer this yet again, worried as I am that it will cause him to have a debilitating stroke, because he is so old. That would be super sad. 

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In today’s New York Times, first of 2017. A good start. 

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From Bjorn (and me) to all of you!

 

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This picture was taken in Kennebunkport, by the by. When the Unpresident takes over, this sort of gathering of Leftie foreigners will be outlawed. 

To commenters and regulars: Happy New Year revels, tonight. Don’t drink and drive, please. See you on the other side. 

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It wasn’t all bad. Daisy celebrated ten years with amazing clients and colleagues, I got a big new book deal, SFH was back with a new record on the way, the kids all achieved great things at school, everyone was healthy – and we got to work for a presidential candidate who was experienced, competent, decent, brave and principled. It was such an honour to volunteer for Hillary Clinton (who got three million more votes, by the way). 

But make no mistake: I believe the election of the Unpresident will affect everyone, and not for the good. Chaos, corruption, cruelty: all of those things (and war, and more) await us in 2017. It will be bad. It will be very bad. 

Since the first week of November, I have pinballed between horror and despair. And, for the first time in my life, I actually fear for the future that awaits my kids. That all may seem too pessimistic, but it’s what I truly feel. 

I hope I’m wrong. But I don’t think I am. 

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Given the number of Ontario Liberal fundraising requests we’ve been getting in recent months – given the advantages of incumbency, and given the fact that the rule changes were developed by the Ontario Liberals themselves – this was just a shocker:

Money was supposed to be the one problem they didn’t have! 

Now, I stress: I am not involved with the OLP in any way, shape or form, but if I were asked for advice about what to do…I wouldn’t have an answer. These fundraising numbers, plus the poll numbers, seem insurmountable. 

Herle and Co. are telling everyone not to worry, I hear. But if I were them?

I’d worry. 

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As you may recall, a neo-Nazi rag started publishing in my neighbourhood. Canada Post distributed it. 

Our local councillor, Mary Margaret McMahon, said ignore it and it’ll go away.

It didn’t. It got bigger. It started reaching more people – hundreds of thousands. My wife and other citizens started organizing against the haters. 

The federal minister responsible, Judy Foote, got involved. She didn’t stick her head in the sand like McMahon, and she took tough action against the haters. It worked. 

When a leader opposes hate, as this New York Times story shows, it matters. It has an impact. But when a “leader” is indifferent to hate, they are complicit in it. 

Here’s an important bit from the story, quoting the Sourhern Poverty Law Centre:

Elected officials at the state and city level, as well as members of the community, can help fight hate and harassment by speaking out in support of immigrants and others who are vulnerable, she said. Law enforcement needs to take hate crimes seriously and investigate them aggressively.

Ms. Beirich said that because Mr. Trump’s campaign and election have brought such a jump in hate crimes, she felt he had a duty to denounce them much more vigorously than he has. George W. Bush’s address at a mosque six days after 9/11, in which he said, “Islam is peace,” had a big effect on anti-Muslim harassment. President-elect Trump needs to do more than make a few comments in interviews, she said. “What we need is real leadership on his part to tamp this down.”

Raising your voice against hate works. 

Silence doesn’t. 

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