In dangerous times: What do you say? What do you do?

— 07.15.2016 09:01 AM

Hours after last night’s horror in Nice, France, I don’t know what to say or do. 

I’m just a guy with a web site and a newspaper column. I don’t have any power and I don’t have much in the way of influence, either. What can I do to stop the sort of relentless, genocidal cult that murders innocents almost every week – in Paris, Brussels, San Bernardino, Baghdad, Dahka, Orlando, Kabul, Jakarta and on and on and on?

Last night didn’t make me feel afraid – it made me feel powerless. I want to do something to help stop it. But what?

In a democracy, there are two things we can do, perhaps. Ensure we elect leaders who are informed about this horrible new kind of war – and have a plan to deal with it. Secondly, we – as citizens – need to refuse to do the very things the terrorists seek most of all: prejudice, isolationism, autocracy, fear. We must do the opposite. 

A few hours before Nice, I wrote the following for next week’s Hill Times and Troy Media. Maybe it’s relevant, this morning after. 

Prior to becoming Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau was the most pacifistic leader his party had seen in a generation. He mocked our military effort against the Islamic State, likening it to “trying to whip out our CF-18s and show how big they are.” He promised to withdraw from the international coalition fighting the IS. He refused to acknowledge that the IS was engaged in genocide on a massive scale.

This, despite the fact that the United Nations had provided convincing proof that IS was, indeed, engaged in genocide. This, despite the fact that that IS had revealed itself to be a well-funded, well-organized malevolent cult – a murderous force arguably unlike any since Hitler’s regime. This, despite the fact that IS itself had proudly documented beheadings, crucifixions, mass rapes, enslavements, torture, and the murder of Canadian citizens. 

This, too, despite the historical fact that it was the Liberal Party of Canada that had deployed Canadian Forces in the fight against the aforementioned Hitler regime in World War II – and, later, sent our troops overseas to prevent genocide in Bosnia, and to contain terror in Afghanistan. This, despite the fact Trudeau’s anti-combat rhetoric had alienated many, many senior Liberals – like Irwin Cotler, and Bob Rae, Lloyd Axworthy, Romeo Dallaire (and much-lesser Grits, like this writer, who decided against running under the Liberal banner as a result).

That’s the most critical part. I end the column, however, doing something else entirely – by paying tribute to Trudeau. I point out that the man he was before the election is not the same man he is after it. 

He has become increasingly tough and resolute, and he clearly now recognizes the homicidal threat we collectively face. He has been transformed, I think, by the terrible events of the past few months. 

There isn’t much I feel I can do on my own, this morning. But I am proud, at least, to say that Justin Trudeau is my Prime Minister in these dangerous times. 


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Rosie DiManno: when news writers make the news

— 07.14.2016 07:48 AM

So.

No one – particularly those delighting in it – knows the full story. Innocent before proven guilty, etc. Beyond a reasonable doubt, too. All that.

That said, and more generally, it certainly appears there may be a problem in the newsroom at the Toronto Star. It’s not a new thing, either: I saw it up close with a friend, years ago. Unlike what I suspect will happen in DiManno’s case, the friend was treated like garbage, something to be disposed of.

Anyway. Whatever the facts are in the DiManno (anticipated) prosecution, one thing is for certain: their just-announced probe into the newsroom “culture” is probably a waste of money.

Here’s my recommendation, free of charge, One Yonge:

Start behaving.


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Hitlerite Your Ward News writer charged with attempted murder

— 07.13.2016 04:29 PM

Check this out:

A woman who once claimed to be Paul Bernardo’s biggest fan is back behind bars after allegedly slashing a guard’s throat at the U.S. Consulate in downtown Toronto. 

Michelle Erstikaitis, 36, who was deemed a dangerous offender five years ago, appeared in a College Park courtroom Tuesday looking dishevelled and ranting about wanting “a refugee lawyer” to handle her case. 

She is charged with attempted murder, aggravated assault and carrying a concealed weapon.
Completely missing from the story: Erstikaitis has been writing crap promoting white supremacy and Naziism for Your Ward News, the hate rag some of us wanted Canada Post to stop delivering (and eventually did). 

Is there a potential for violence coming from this neo-Nazi gang? Of course. And, I’m pleased to note, police are now actively investigating those involved with it.

Enjoy your notoriety while you can, Hitler fan “Doctor” Sears. The fun and games are very shortly coming to an end, you pathetic loser. 


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What was David Cameron humming? The EDM mix

— 07.12.2016 09:23 AM

We now know, thanks to the NME and an inventive Brit:

 

Which naturally reminded me of this gem from our big win 2011, via Nick “Genius” Nelson (and some war room guy):

[Ed.: Apologies for the ginormous sizing of the first vid, BTW – Twitter embed code apparently don’t let you adjust sizing to something remotely normal.]


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Daisy is tops!

— 07.12.2016 07:50 AM

So sayeth NBC:

Perhaps the most famous political ad of all time, this early television spot ran on air just once but generated enough media coverage to become a real factor in the 1964 presidential election. President Lyndon Johnson, who had been elevated to Commander in Chief after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, was seeking voters’ stamp of approval on his own presidency. In the run up to the general election, the Democratic Party had split over his embrace of civil rights legislation, among other issues. But Republicans nominated conservative Senator Barry Goldwater after a bitter primary that pitted the establishment of the party against the conservative wing. And while Goldwater’s hard line anti-Soviet rhetoric and his language of “extremism in the defense of liberty” made him a hero to a budding conservative movement, it also gave Johnson an opening to use this stark and blunt ad to help him easily win the general election in November.

Reading that, you will perhaps agree with my view that Democrats need to do in 2016 what they did in 1964 – and kick the living shit out of Donald Trump, who makes Goldwater look like a (now-finally-onside) Bernie Sanders.

Why was Daisy so effective?  Here’s a (emphasis added) snippet from my book, Fight The Right:

In his book The Responsive Chord, Schwartz suggests that “Daisy” was effective because it stirred up powerful, unarticulated emotions among those who saw the spot. It went deep, deep into the collective psyche of Americans, and spoke to values. “The best political commercials are similar to Rorschach patterns,” he writes. “They do not tell the viewer anything. They surface his feelings and provide a context for him to express those feelings.”

The point of “Daisy,” he explains, is not merely to develop a communications strategy, or to try and get one’s message across. Those are ad agency clichés that don’t begin to capture what Schwartz wanted to achieve. What the best messaging – values messaging – does is begin with messages that already have resonance in a person’s emotional makeup. Values that are already there. The objective, he says, is not simply to order one’s words in a beguiling way, or to invoke the word “values” without every fully understanding what it means. It can’t be emphasized enough: with values messaging, the objective is to stir up deeply felt feelings that are now (and likely have always been) present in a person’s deepest psyche.

Ipso facto, Trump: even his most hardcore supporters have some deep-down, deeply-held misgivings about the guy.  Find out what those are, surface them, and beat the bilious bastard to Hell with ’em.

That’s how Daisy won, and how Clinton will win, too.

 


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