Trudeau, Castro, condolences and memory

— 11.27.2016 12:09 PM


So:

  1. The Canadian Prime Minister praised Castro in a statement a twenty-something wrote and no one  really looked at before it went out
  2. The (mainly conservative and Conservative) Internet went totally apeshit
  3. The Canadian Prime Minister walked it back, a bit, and the conservative types said the original sin would live in infamy forever 

It won’t. Nothing does, anymore. We tender as evidence: Donald J. Trump. 

Trump is a racist, sexist crook with fascist inclinations. But he also understands the popular consciousness better than anyone who has ever lived. 

He knows we have a national memory of five minutes, and he knows that every new outrage – no matter how outrageous – will be forgotten by tomorrow. 

Gone. Poof. It’s a memory. Overtaken by Kanye being led away to a padded room, or a video of a kitten sitting on a Roomba. Gone. 

He also knows that people have a really low opinion of politicians. So, when a politician does something stupid – like, say, praising a dictator who murdered and repressed his own people (Trudeau on Castro, Thatcher/Reagan on Botha) – well, no one cares nearly as much as the chattering classes do. 

Regular folks already think politicians are stupid and/or corrupt, and they aren’t therefore surprised when a politician says or does something that is stupid and/or corrupt. 

Welcome to the new era. Every chord has been played before, everyone knows it, and no one will stop humming the tune. 


Comments (38)

Castro

— 11.26.2016 10:08 AM

Summarized brilliantly by the paper that could do it best, the Miami Herald:



Comments (63)

It’s Forum. But, holy crap. Also, change chosen.

— 11.25.2016 08:14 AM

So:

Approval of Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne and her government is so low the Progressive Conservatives are in supermajority territory, a new poll shows.
The Tories would snap up 70 of the 107 seats at Queen’s Park if an election were imminent, the Forum Research phone survey of 1,184 people shows. The NDP would become the official opposition with 26 seats and the Liberals would hold just 11.

The whole nasty thing is here.

So, three things. 

One, it’s Forum. They’re the ones who said there’d be a Parti Québécois majority, a BC NDP majority, a Wildrose majority, and…you get the picture. 

Two, it’s a poll. Every single poll in the U.S. Presidential campaign got the outcome wrong, for weeks. Polls aren’t very reliable, these days. 

Three, it’s Ontario. In 2003, 2007 and 2011 and 2014, polls said the PCs would win. They didn’t. 

That all said, the Ontario Liberals – with whom, I wish to emphasize to the court, I have not been involved with for many years, Your Honour – obviously need to make some changes. 

This poll isn’t what they call an outlier. It’s reflective of other polls, internal and otherwise, in recent months. If it isn’t true, it’s probably pretty close to being true. 

It also reflects what folks at Queen’s Park – in all parties – are muttering in the corridors of near-power: 13 years on top is a long time. And: a variety of political chickens have now come home to roost – Hydro, pocketbook concerns (like, say, tolls), the most-recent ethical imbroglio, the shine coming off the Liberal brand as the Trudeau honeymoon fades, etc. etc. That kind of stuff. 

But the big one, the one that is hardest to overcome? Change. With Brexit, with Trump, “change” is just about impossible to beat, these days. At a certain point, the people just want it, you know? They want it. 

That all said, I will leave you with this: I possess a poll that says something totally different. It shows the Ontario Liberal Party – as a brand – is still the winning one. It shows the Libs can win again. 

But it also shows it wins only if it changes. 

Cue Ziggy Stardust.




Comments (24)

If they put a toll on political bullshit, they’d make way more money

— 11.24.2016 08:37 AM

So, this:

Toronto Mayor John Tory is set to endorse a controversial introduction of road tolls on the Gardiner Expressway and Don Valley Parkway to raise $300 million a year for his cash-starved government, the Star has learned. Tory is expected to make the daring declaration in a luncheon speech shortly after the Thursday release of city staff reports recommending highway tolling, along with other so-called revenue tools including a new tax on hotel stays.

Reminded me of this:

screen-shot-2016-11-24-at-8-17-57-am

I came up with www.millerhighwayrobbery.ca in 2003, when I was helping out on John Tory’s first mayoral campaign.  He thought it was a great idea, back then.  And, once elected, Miller refused to go ahead with tolls on the DVP or Gardiner.  So I guess we won that debate.

Anyway.  I like John a lot.  And I’m sure he’ll have focus-grouped talking points ready to go on this truly whiplash-inducing flip-flop – circumstances have changed, I’m not afraid to admit when I was wrong, less than a cup of coffee a day, the alternative is the apocalypse, look at me I’m finally being decisive about something, blah blah blah – and I’m sure he’ll have some cyclists who’ll buy it, hook, line and sinker.

So, I’ll leave it to other folks to get really, really pissed off about this (and there’ll be plenty of those folks, believe me).  Me, I will simply say that (a) www.ToryHighwayRobbery.ca plus (b) the fact that SmartTrack is never, ever, ever going to happen may well lead to something else entirely in 2010.

Something like this.


Comments (13)

Donald über Alles: the Trump virus spreads to Calgary

— 11.22.2016 04:54 PM

Blood and Honour is a thirty-year-old neo-Nazi organization that started in the U.K., and was founded by Ian Stuart Donaldson of Skrewdriver. Combat 18, meanwhile, is a mainly skinhead organization that has been responsible for murders and assaults targeting non-whites around the globe (the “18” is the numbers of he alphabet representing AH – Adolf Hitler).

This recruitment sticker was spotted at the Lions Park LRT this morning in Calgary, a few blocks from where I lived during law school.

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Comments (14)