Wolves on the Wing

The question is whether is the end of the beginning of the Trump Presidency, or the beginning of the end of the United States of America.

I'm on the fence here on that one.

I've been to Georgia (the US state, not the former Soviet republic) and I thought it was a nice looking place. That being said I can't honestly say that I think the vote there was free and fair. Having someone be able to oversee their own election is the definition of conflict of interest, and the amount of voter suppression he was able to achieve probably was the deciding factor of that election. Add in voting machines that ran out of power and a lack of a paper trail to verify and you get a result more be-fitting a banana republic than a functional democracy.

Oh well, at least now maybe a serious look at Cheeto Mussolini's taxes, collusion with the Russians, and general corruption can occur. It sure wasn't going to happen with the GOP controlling it.

Ultimately though that's not what really worries me. Sure I worry about the GOP stripping my nephews of their citizenship, or deciding to open fire on asylum seekers, or some other cruel atrocity but its not my focus. What worries me is what steps is Canada taking to disentangle us from the US when a straw finally snaps the camel back of civilized society? We have deeply intertwined economies, shared electrical infrastructure, a large relatively open border and numerous other vulnerabilities that we need to address now. We need to address them because I think its now inevitable that something is going to happen. I don't know what it will be that sets off major conflict in the US in the next few years but when it happens I want us to be able to handle large amounts of gun carrying refugees seeking to escape armed conflict safely and humanely. I want us to have a power grid that can survive riots destroying power plants in Great Lake states. And I want us to have a diversified economy that can allow us to better weather future US economic attacks.

What can I say? I'm neither surprised nor heartened by the results of the US midterms. It's still a dangerously divided country south of me, full of guns and possessing nukes. Optimism and hope isn't going to keep Canada safe if we don't plan for when things go bad.



And in the world of sports my NHL team may still be a raging dumpster fire but at least the entire team seems to burning it down together. So, Go Sens Go? I guess? :-(

First off, Happy Canada Day to all my fellow Canadians! 151 Years of the True North, Strong and Free! May you enjoy some solid fun today and tomorrow. :-)

Second off, to our friendly neighbours to the south, the Non-Trumpist Americans. Yeah those $13 billion dollars worth of tariffs we imposed in retaliation is not something I'm happy about but hey, we were attacked by an enemy determined to hurt us. When Trump stops his we can stop ours. Sorry that it hurts everyone needlessly though but we can't let Trump push us around. Appeasement never works against dictators.

And third off, for the Trumpists. Please tell the orange buffoon in charge not to bother sending us Canadians well wishes he clearly couldn't have written himself. After how he's treated us, other allies, and his fellow Americans his message affirming the shared values we hold was a laughable farce. He despises the values Canadians have lived and died for and I for one would prefer it if he just didn't bother to try to disguise his contempt for us.

Any way since its a holiday lets get some tuneage going here! I rather like this video for today's theme, actually. Here is some Kim Mitchell with "Patio Lanterns"!

It's time to turn off the news for a while.

It's all relative. People in countries where there is political instability, armed conflict, failed institutions and food insecurity might still look at the US as a step upwards, both for themselves and their children. People in countries like Norway, where there is better education, infrastructure, healthcare, and political stability would look at moving to the US as a step backwards, especially for their children.

Really President Trump you authored the Art of the Deal but you can't figure out that people look to trade up, not down? Honestly I'm surprised that such a stable genius as yourself didn't know that.

Vegas looks like a war zone. I have no words. :(

First off my condolences to the victims and best wishes for their recovery. While its true I'd never consider voting for a single one of them and actively resist their politics coming to Canada noone, NOONE, deserves to be shot. Liberal democracy and Western civilization hold that we use ballots and not bullets. Regardless of politics and party affliations thats how it is and how it has to stay. Period.

Secondly, I'm glad the police stopped the man and while I don't wish anyone to be killed in the long run I am perfectly fine with mass shooters being immediately terminated with lethal force. If you're armed and shooting people to death then you can immediately surrender to the police or be killed by them.

Third the political temperature in the US has got to come down a bit and quickly. And the party that needs to act on this is...the Republicans. Now hear me out because I'm not looking to blame victims here. As I said in the first paragraph they did not deserve to be shot by a domestic terrorist from the left side of the spectrum. That being said the last decade especially has seen a lot of angry and hateful right wing rhetoric from many different sources, some of which are from groups that espouse or support very frightening views. With Donald Trump taking power those groups feel empowered to say and in some cases do things that threaten people and threatened people eventually lash back.

Again please note I am NOT blaming Republicans or saying this is a false flag operation or any other sort of Alex Jones type idiocy. What I am saying is that when you make people afraid by empowering the hateful on your side you also fuel the lunatics and extremists on the other side. While its never to be condoned its not really that unexpected. Lets just hope the Republicans can do enough to bring balance back before more people, on both sides of the aisle, decide to be inspired by this brutality.

And finally, maybe, just maybe the US can finally get some simple, common sense steps for gun control in the states. You don't need handguns and assault rifles everywhere. Background checks should be mandatory and if you have convictions for violence you shouldn't have a gun. The members of the Republican party have never struck me as particularly caring about the suffering the constant gun violence causes its citizens but maybe now that they've experienced such a horrible event there might be some empathy here?

1. If you told me my team would come within a seventh game, sudden death overtime of eliminating the defending champs and going to the Stanley Cup final I'd have called you unforgivably optimistic. Well done on your season, Senators. Well done. :-) And good on you Craig Anderson on your upcoming Bill Masterson Trophy win. If you don't win then call the cops and report the robbery. :-)

2. Are there ANY members of Donald Trump's administration that aren't being investigated by the FBI or skewered by SNL? If I didn't know better I'd think they weren't very good at running the USA. At the risk of acronym overload this whole situation is a SNAFU of epic proportions that is becoming more FUBAR'd by the minute.

Ah for the good old days when a president giving the Russians classified intel from the Israeli's would cause the entire Republican party and its base to have a collective rage aneurysm. I miss you, Obama! :-)

3. The Ontario election is coming up and I'm voting NDP this time. I voted for Kathleen Wynne and the Liberals last time which wasn't a mistake per se in that it helped keep the Conservatives from power but....well, lets just say I held my nose, was proven correct in my concerns, and will vote for the NDP this time as a result. Assuming of course I don't get robo calls from the Conservatives misdirecting me to the wrong polling station so I don't vote. Such mischevious scamps, Conservatives. :-)

And for anyone who wants to ask "Why not just try the Conservatives" I'll just direct you to this article from Maclean's by Scott Gilmore, a Conservative Party of Canada member entitled "Confessions of a Self-Loathing Tory" http://www.macleans.ca/politics/ottawa/confessions-of-a-self-loathing-tory/ that pretty accurately explains why I have given up on ever voting for the Conservatives, at least in their current configuration. It's a good read and articulates the big problems the Right Wing in North America has that prevent it from being palatable to moderate centrist swing voters like me.

4. I read a story about a postal worker who refused to give a comatose woman CPR and considering their reason was "I believed she had fentanyl on her shirt" I don't blame them one bit. After reading about the horror stories, the stats for abuse in my area, and the lethality of fentanyl if I found someone passed out I honestly wouldn't touch them either. I may be for legalization of drugs with proper regulation but when the substance in question is so lethal it can kill people through incidental skin contact then that's well outside the spirit of that concept.

I wish I had an answer but that is one problem that is going to get much worse before it gets better.

5. I wish I had something interesting about me to say but I never do. That's probably never going to change.

Ok. I'll admit that I'm not sure if this is just Sean Spicer being incredibly bad at communicating White House policy or if White House policy is starting to trend towards holocaust denial. Sadly considering Trump's staff both are plausible.

One thing I do know that Mr. Spicer clearly didn't about the difference between Assad and Hitler is this. Assad brings his chemical weapons to his victims in the streets. Hitler brought his victims to his chemical weapons in concentration camps. Whether that is an inconsequential or all important difference the fact remains that Hitler did use them and with a horrifying efficiency Assad can only dream of.

And no, I do not want Mr. Spicer to resign or be forced out. He's the perfect messenger to relay this nightmare's mix of horror and amusement.

Regular readers of my blog have no doubt clued in that I really think Donald Trump is the most glorious joke of national leadership since Emperor Tiberious told his nephew Caligula that he was going to rule after him*. That being said, I have to give him credit for the invaluable legwork he is doing, legwork that will make it so much easier for his neo-nazi successors to finish the job of destroying American democracy.

Face it guys. If you don't have a free press that's able to freely report on government without being retaliated against, maligned, and excluded then you won't have a democracy for much longer. That's how it works.




*Legend has it that when Tiberius told Caligula he would rule after him Caligula asked "Is this a joke, uncle?" to which Tiberious replied "No, but it will be."  I'll leave it to you to decide for yourself if Trump's actions so far fall into the same category. As for me, I had my answer long ago.