Maybe if we can just all be there for each other
Kay?
PS: It's up to all of us to kick the shit out of this life while we're still here.
The dead wouldn't have it any other way, wot?
Monday, November 07, 2022
Sunday, September 20, 2020
Worries and worts
"We'll inherit the Earth, but we don't want it!"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZkXQMfZi34
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zD7TxGTPsV4
"Thought the eighties were bad enough..."
"Free speach got stolen by a pack of thieves...
"Silence is death"
The voices of dissent
Tuesday, March 03, 2020
It's the Econom... I mean, Senate, Stupid!
For my younger audience, note that the 1992 Bill Clinton campaign was driven by the message: It's the Economy, Stupid! (internally only).
So...
Super Tuesday results are coming in and I see three things:
1) Being unjustly targeted by Trump is turning out to be a very good thing for Joe Biden.
2) Being a candidate with long coattails to help Senate races is a good thing for Joe Biden.
3) Being a better candidate for President is useless now that we know the silly 'merican republic can somehow lurch along for three-plus years with a knob that is exponentially more DOOFUS than POTUS in charge of the executive branch (not unlike some big-ass U.S. corporations I have had the misadventure of working for, I might add).
There are something like a hundred amazingly progressive pieces of legislation the Democratic Party controlled House of Representatives has passed (least of which, Impeachment of Preznit Donald J. Trump) that the Rethuglican Senate Majority Leader fucker (and I use that term graciously) Mitch McConnell, palpateenishly relishes stonewalling in his chamber. I have a friend who is a very very smart and very very good man, thinking very very hard about urban ecology and doing very very good things with this knowledge to help society not collapse.
He is an American who today lives in Portland, OR, and was in Montreal for a year, and will soon return for good (hopefully) if no asteroids destroy us on or about the 29th of April, 2020.
While I have incredibly good instincts about Canadian politics at times, my take on the shit south of this border is way wobblier, which was proven in 2018 when I sadly told my friend that I predicted BOTH houses of Congress would surely turn to the control of the Dems (huzzahs all around)!
Not so, he thought, knowing far better than I the peccadilloes of the individual races and their respective states where they were being fought. I was struck by his sadness about the matter. It came from a man with a heart that cares deeply about far more than his own kin, who understood the bigger picture, and the SCOTUS appointments, and the many other federal judge appointments, that would all hinge upon the control of the United States Senate. There have been many. The good people at wikipedia have made a comprehensive list. These judges make a myriad of judgments, and you can be damned sure they aren't going to come down on the side of the people who don't pull the Rethuglicans' strings (very, very, rich people, of course, and no others).
I have since learned that something like 70% of Senate power is in the hands of voters from rural areas, due to the two Senators per state allocation, coupled with extremely high population differences between individual states. I feel this may have made sense in 1776, when 13 states came together to form a union, as they put it. But in contemporary USA, it creates a huge imbalance of influence; unlike us in Canada, where our Senate is an upper body with much less say-so on matters that matter. I daresay our Canadian parliamentary system has better built-in bulwarks (imperfect, I admit) against such oligarchical control manifesting itself.
What we lack is a federation that can protect provinces from despotic premieres like Ford in Ontario, Kenney in Alberta, and Legault here in Québec, from fucking us over, since the provinces control so much more of what affects our daily existence, such as Health, Education, and Natural Resources. But that is a topic for another day.
Back to my point: Elizabeth Warren, in an earlier USA, would be a gobsmackingly perfect and unbeatable candidate, looking at her knowledge, policies and political talents. But when it's the Senate, Stupid, a guy like Joe Biden - who has been a Senator for a bazillion years, and who presided over it as Vice-President for eight of the last eleven years - is your obvious man if your Big Strategy is to wrest control of that most powerful chamber from the Rethuglicans.
Democracy is what brought this about. The best of all imperfect modes of government. May they actually have an honest election come November. This Canadian is doubtful, and morosely so.
- 30 -
So...
Super Tuesday results are coming in and I see three things:
1) Being unjustly targeted by Trump is turning out to be a very good thing for Joe Biden.
2) Being a candidate with long coattails to help Senate races is a good thing for Joe Biden.
3) Being a better candidate for President is useless now that we know the silly 'merican republic can somehow lurch along for three-plus years with a knob that is exponentially more DOOFUS than POTUS in charge of the executive branch (not unlike some big-ass U.S. corporations I have had the misadventure of working for, I might add).
There are something like a hundred amazingly progressive pieces of legislation the Democratic Party controlled House of Representatives has passed (least of which, Impeachment of Preznit Donald J. Trump) that the Rethuglican Senate Majority Leader fucker (and I use that term graciously) Mitch McConnell, palpateenishly relishes stonewalling in his chamber. I have a friend who is a very very smart and very very good man, thinking very very hard about urban ecology and doing very very good things with this knowledge to help society not collapse.
He is an American who today lives in Portland, OR, and was in Montreal for a year, and will soon return for good (hopefully) if no asteroids destroy us on or about the 29th of April, 2020.
While I have incredibly good instincts about Canadian politics at times, my take on the shit south of this border is way wobblier, which was proven in 2018 when I sadly told my friend that I predicted BOTH houses of Congress would surely turn to the control of the Dems (huzzahs all around)!
Not so, he thought, knowing far better than I the peccadilloes of the individual races and their respective states where they were being fought. I was struck by his sadness about the matter. It came from a man with a heart that cares deeply about far more than his own kin, who understood the bigger picture, and the SCOTUS appointments, and the many other federal judge appointments, that would all hinge upon the control of the United States Senate. There have been many. The good people at wikipedia have made a comprehensive list. These judges make a myriad of judgments, and you can be damned sure they aren't going to come down on the side of the people who don't pull the Rethuglicans' strings (very, very, rich people, of course, and no others).
I have since learned that something like 70% of Senate power is in the hands of voters from rural areas, due to the two Senators per state allocation, coupled with extremely high population differences between individual states. I feel this may have made sense in 1776, when 13 states came together to form a union, as they put it. But in contemporary USA, it creates a huge imbalance of influence; unlike us in Canada, where our Senate is an upper body with much less say-so on matters that matter. I daresay our Canadian parliamentary system has better built-in bulwarks (imperfect, I admit) against such oligarchical control manifesting itself.
What we lack is a federation that can protect provinces from despotic premieres like Ford in Ontario, Kenney in Alberta, and Legault here in Québec, from fucking us over, since the provinces control so much more of what affects our daily existence, such as Health, Education, and Natural Resources. But that is a topic for another day.
Back to my point: Elizabeth Warren, in an earlier USA, would be a gobsmackingly perfect and unbeatable candidate, looking at her knowledge, policies and political talents. But when it's the Senate, Stupid, a guy like Joe Biden - who has been a Senator for a bazillion years, and who presided over it as Vice-President for eight of the last eleven years - is your obvious man if your Big Strategy is to wrest control of that most powerful chamber from the Rethuglicans.
Democracy is what brought this about. The best of all imperfect modes of government. May they actually have an honest election come November. This Canadian is doubtful, and morosely so.
- 30 -
Friday, December 06, 2019
30 years ago but never to be forgotten
Geneviève Bergeron (1968-1989)
Hélène Colgan (1966-1989)
Nathalie Croteau (1966-1989)
Barbara Daigneault (1967-1989)
Anne-Marie Edward (1968-1989)
Maud Haviernick (1960-1989)
Maryse Laganière (1964-1989)
Maryse Leclair (1966-1989)
Anne-Marie Lemay (1967-1989)
Sonia Pelletier (1961-1989)
Michèle Richard (1968-1989)
Annie St-Arneault (1966-1989)
Annie Turcotte (1969-1989)
Barbara Klucznik-Widajewicz (1958-1989)
May they rest in eternal peace. And may they ever remind us of the need to eradicate violence against women, and indeed, hate in general.
- 30 -
Hélène Colgan (1966-1989)
Nathalie Croteau (1966-1989)
Barbara Daigneault (1967-1989)
Anne-Marie Edward (1968-1989)
Maud Haviernick (1960-1989)
Maryse Laganière (1964-1989)
Maryse Leclair (1966-1989)
Anne-Marie Lemay (1967-1989)
Sonia Pelletier (1961-1989)
Michèle Richard (1968-1989)
Annie St-Arneault (1966-1989)
Annie Turcotte (1969-1989)
Barbara Klucznik-Widajewicz (1958-1989)
May they rest in eternal peace. And may they ever remind us of the need to eradicate violence against women, and indeed, hate in general.
- 30 -
Wednesday, October 16, 2019
This Andrew Scheer guy is not a good guy
All day, Liberal candidates, such as Marc Garneau, have been tweeting and re-tweeting a little snippet of Canadian political history that really underscores Andrew Scheer's deep disrespect for this country and its most valued institutions:
https://twitter.com/MarcGarneau/status/1184468914123751424?s=20
https://twitter.com/i/status/1184468914123751424
https://twitter.com/MarcGarneau/status/1184468914123751424?s=20 https://twitter.com/MarcGarneau/status/1184468914123751424?s=20https://twitter.com/MarcGarneau/status/1184468914123751424?s=20
from Wikipedia.org:
"O Canada" (French: Ô Canada) is the national anthem of Canada. The song was originally commissioned by Lieutenant Governor of Quebec Théodore Robitaille for the 1880 Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day ceremony; Calixa Lavallée composed the music, after which, words were written by the poet and judge Sir Adolphe-Basile Routhier. The original lyrics were in French; an English translation was published in 1906.[1] Multiple English versions ensued, with Robert Stanley Weir's version in 1908 gaining the most popularity, eventually serving as the basis for the official lyrics enacted by Parliament.[1] Weir's lyrics have been revised three times, most recently when An Act to amend the National Anthem Act (gender) was enacted in 2018.[2] The French lyrics remain unaltered. "O Canada" had served as a de facto national anthem since 1939, officially becoming the country's national anthem in 1980 when Canada's National Anthem Act received royal assent and became effective on July 1 as part of that year's Dominion Day (today's Canada Day) celebrations...
"There are no regulations governing the performance of "O Canada", leaving citizens to exercise their best judgment. When it is performed at an event, traditional etiquette is to either start or end the ceremonies with the anthem, including situations when other anthems are played and for the audience to stand during the performance."
When Liberal MP Mauril Bélanger perished on August 15, 2016, his modest bill to de-gender the lyrics of the english version was still two years from seeing Royal Assent, held up on Scheer's say-so by the Conservatives in the Senate. But at least the Right Honourable Mauril Bélanger lived to see his bill pass third reading, wherein Andrew Scheer pointedly (and uniquely) stayed seated while all his fellow Parliamentarians stood and sang the anthem's newly female-inclusive lyrics.
(Again, from wikipedia.org):
"On May 6, 2016, consideration of Bélanger's bill to make the national anthem gender neutral was blocked when Conservative MPs used up the hour of debate time and refused consent to two motions backed by both the Liberals and the NDP to extend debate and allow time to hold a vote to send the bill to committee.[13][14] As Bélanger's health was deteriorating, Liberal MP Greg Fergus described the Conservative's procedural delay tactics as an attempt to prevent Bélanger from seeing the bill passed, while Conservative MPs insisted that they were debating an important issue and had followed parliamentary procedure.[13][14] Fellow Liberal MP Linda Lapointe gave up her timeslot for private member's business on May 30 to allow Bélanger's bill to be heard and go to a vote for it to be sent to committee the following day.[15] In June 2016, the bill passed its third reading with a vote of 225 to 74 in the House of Commons.[16] In July 2017, the bill was in its third, and final, reading in the Senate;[17] the bill was passed on January 31, 2018 and received royal assent on February 7, 2018 to change "in all thy sons command" to "in all of us command", after Bélanger had already died."
I wonder how many other Canadians feel a little sick to their stomach to see Scheer's churlish, petty behaviour in this moment. It has been haunting me all day.
I hope this anti-Canadian dipshit does not become our Prime Minister next week. It would be a horror story of Trumpian proportions.
- 30 -
https://twitter.com/MarcGarneau/status/1184468914123751424?s=20
https://twitter.com/i/status/1184468914123751424
https://twitter.com/MarcGarneau/status/1184468914123751424?s=20 https://twitter.com/MarcGarneau/status/1184468914123751424?s=20https://twitter.com/MarcGarneau/status/1184468914123751424?s=20
from Wikipedia.org:
"O Canada" (French: Ô Canada) is the national anthem of Canada. The song was originally commissioned by Lieutenant Governor of Quebec Théodore Robitaille for the 1880 Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day ceremony; Calixa Lavallée composed the music, after which, words were written by the poet and judge Sir Adolphe-Basile Routhier. The original lyrics were in French; an English translation was published in 1906.[1] Multiple English versions ensued, with Robert Stanley Weir's version in 1908 gaining the most popularity, eventually serving as the basis for the official lyrics enacted by Parliament.[1] Weir's lyrics have been revised three times, most recently when An Act to amend the National Anthem Act (gender) was enacted in 2018.[2] The French lyrics remain unaltered. "O Canada" had served as a de facto national anthem since 1939, officially becoming the country's national anthem in 1980 when Canada's National Anthem Act received royal assent and became effective on July 1 as part of that year's Dominion Day (today's Canada Day) celebrations...
"There are no regulations governing the performance of "O Canada", leaving citizens to exercise their best judgment. When it is performed at an event, traditional etiquette is to either start or end the ceremonies with the anthem, including situations when other anthems are played and for the audience to stand during the performance."
When Liberal MP Mauril Bélanger perished on August 15, 2016, his modest bill to de-gender the lyrics of the english version was still two years from seeing Royal Assent, held up on Scheer's say-so by the Conservatives in the Senate. But at least the Right Honourable Mauril Bélanger lived to see his bill pass third reading, wherein Andrew Scheer pointedly (and uniquely) stayed seated while all his fellow Parliamentarians stood and sang the anthem's newly female-inclusive lyrics.
(Again, from wikipedia.org):
"On May 6, 2016, consideration of Bélanger's bill to make the national anthem gender neutral was blocked when Conservative MPs used up the hour of debate time and refused consent to two motions backed by both the Liberals and the NDP to extend debate and allow time to hold a vote to send the bill to committee.[13][14] As Bélanger's health was deteriorating, Liberal MP Greg Fergus described the Conservative's procedural delay tactics as an attempt to prevent Bélanger from seeing the bill passed, while Conservative MPs insisted that they were debating an important issue and had followed parliamentary procedure.[13][14] Fellow Liberal MP Linda Lapointe gave up her timeslot for private member's business on May 30 to allow Bélanger's bill to be heard and go to a vote for it to be sent to committee the following day.[15] In June 2016, the bill passed its third reading with a vote of 225 to 74 in the House of Commons.[16] In July 2017, the bill was in its third, and final, reading in the Senate;[17] the bill was passed on January 31, 2018 and received royal assent on February 7, 2018 to change "in all thy sons command" to "in all of us command", after Bélanger had already died."
I wonder how many other Canadians feel a little sick to their stomach to see Scheer's churlish, petty behaviour in this moment. It has been haunting me all day.
I hope this anti-Canadian dipshit does not become our Prime Minister next week. It would be a horror story of Trumpian proportions.
- 30 -
Sunday, October 06, 2019
10-18-2019 UPDATE: Scott wrote to his Green Party candidate
*** 10-18-2019 UPDATE: after waiting 12 days for a response from Mr. Daniel Green, (also after having voted in the advance polls for his Liberal opponent, Rachel Bendayan - oh well) today, at 3:10 pm, I received the following response:
--
info@greenparty.ca
So... I guess I wasn't wrong at all, was I? How can anyone know how their MP would vote on any issue before them, given this canned response from the Party HQ?
*** END of 10-18-2019 UPDATE (original post below) ***
Given the nature of the Green Party of Canada, and their leader's stance that all votes will not be whipped, I decided that I would reach out to my local GPC candidate, Daniel Green, to understand his own positions:
Hello Randboro,
Thank you for your email.
We at the Green Party of Canada understand that you were troubled by a recent story on the Green Party of Canada’s stance on abortion.
Rest assured it is, and has always been, the Green Party of Canada’s policy that all women must have timely access to safe, legal abortions.
Although the Leader does not have the power to whip votes, all Green Party Members of Parliament must endorse the Green Party’s values, including a firm support of a woman’s right to choose. There is zero chance an elected representative of our party will ever reopen the abortion debate.
We vet all candidates to ensure they agree the abortion debate is closed in Canada. Any who disagree are not allowed to run.
We hope that we can continue to count on your support.
Best,
Kat Lorimer
Thank you for your email.
We at the Green Party of Canada understand that you were troubled by a recent story on the Green Party of Canada’s stance on abortion.
Rest assured it is, and has always been, the Green Party of Canada’s policy that all women must have timely access to safe, legal abortions.
Although the Leader does not have the power to whip votes, all Green Party Members of Parliament must endorse the Green Party’s values, including a firm support of a woman’s right to choose. There is zero chance an elected representative of our party will ever reopen the abortion debate.
We vet all candidates to ensure they agree the abortion debate is closed in Canada. Any who disagree are not allowed to run.
We hope that we can continue to count on your support.
Best,
Kat Lorimer
--
info@greenparty.ca
So... I guess I wasn't wrong at all, was I? How can anyone know how their MP would vote on any issue before them, given this canned response from the Party HQ?
*** END of 10-18-2019 UPDATE (original post below) ***
Given the nature of the Green Party of Canada, and their leader's stance that all votes will not be whipped, I decided that I would reach out to my local GPC candidate, Daniel Green, to understand his own positions:
Mr. Green,
As
a committed humanitarian and former GPC financial officer for the
riding of Papineau, (but mostly because of my devotion to the
continuance of life on this planet) I voted for you in the recent
by-election and was pleased to see you came in a strong third.
I did not know then about your party's position on not whipping votes.
That said, I feel the Green party platform is insufficient for me to
determine whether or not my vote should go to you again on the 19th of
October. I find your bonafides on environmental issues to be
substantial, however it behooves me to ensure your stances on other
contentious issues would not leave me crestfallen should you come to
represent me and the others in Outremont riding in the HoC.
For
this reason, when Justin Trudeau speaks clearly about women's right to
choose on the decision of abortion, I rest confident that your rival,
Ms. Bendayan, will not let me down. When he speaks about any other
policy, I feel confident in voting for my Liberal candidate, even if the
policies they put forth today are less than the climate crisis demands.
Because they give me confidence they will be what they portend to be,
as a government. As of now, they have my vote.
Am I wrong?
Sincerely,
Scott Murray
Friday, October 04, 2019
Top Ten Other Things Andrew Scheer Didn't Lie About, But Was Never Asked
"I've never tried to hide that (I am a dual US-Canadian citizen)," he said in a scrum with reporters in Halifax. "I've never been asked about it by Canadians. My father has always been open about where he comes from. I haven't been asked about it."--Andrew Scheer10. Being a vampire.
9. Didn't wear underwear as House Speaker. Not even once!
8. Still waiting for that peach fuzz to break out into an actual beard.
7. Has promised Faith Goldy's firstborn to a little man known for spinning straw into gold, who also came up with enough last minute votes to magically give him the CPC leadership!
6. Underwent conversion therapy to seem human-like to Earthlings.
5. Likes to do his toenails with manly black polish - just like Gene Simmons!
4. Forever pestering buddy Jim Vallance to jam out a song he wrote called Summer of 2003
3. As Prime Minister, plans to create a ministry of Reminding Folks he was Down With Brexit Before It Was Cool.
2. Likes to call various world leaders out of the blue to request they investigate Donald Trump's political rivals, offering saskatoon berry jam for the favour.
And the Number One Other Thing Andrew Scheer Didn't Lie About, But Was Never Asked:
1. Has been secretly meeting with Jason Kenney for years in a totally normal and extremely heterosexual way, just to chit-chat and play rock, paper, scissors, okay?! Jeesh, you guys!!
- 30 -
Thursday, September 26, 2019
Montreal: March for Climate Action 09-27-2019
When I hear Greta Thunberg damning the world at the UN...
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/video/2019/sep/23/greta-thunberg-to-world-leaders-how-dare-you-you-have-stolen-my-dreams-and-my-childhood-video
...I am reminded of exactly where I was when I wrote No Healing:
https://soundcloud.com/randboro/no-healing-rough-draft
Lyrics:
Messing around
Digging up tarpits
And we'll burn it all away
Mining that gold
Exporting asbestos
Trade the future for today
We don't know why
But I've got a feeling
It could be a long time
Before we start the healing
Frack that shale
Strip that mountain
Extract it all away
Drain all brains
With the freshwater
Rape the future for today's gain
And I've got a feeling
It'll be a lifetime
Before we staunch the bleeding
Hiding your crimes
Building more prisons
Disregard the scientists
Mute all truths
Reason is treason
Ruled by ideology
And I know I've
Got a sickening feeling
Could be a long time
And there won't be no healing
They are expecting 300,000 in the streets of Montreal tomorrow. Hope to see you there.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/video/2019/sep/23/greta-thunberg-to-world-leaders-how-dare-you-you-have-stolen-my-dreams-and-my-childhood-video
...I am reminded of exactly where I was when I wrote No Healing:
https://soundcloud.com/randboro/no-healing-rough-draft
Lyrics:
Messing around
Digging up tarpits
And we'll burn it all away
Mining that gold
Exporting asbestos
Trade the future for today
We don't know why
But I've got a feeling
It could be a long time
Before we start the healing
Frack that shale
Strip that mountain
Extract it all away
Drain all brains
With the freshwater
Rape the future for today's gain
And I've got a feeling
It'll be a lifetime
Before we staunch the bleeding
Hiding your crimes
Building more prisons
Disregard the scientists
Mute all truths
Reason is treason
Ruled by ideology
And I know I've
Got a sickening feeling
Could be a long time
And there won't be no healing
They are expecting 300,000 in the streets of Montreal tomorrow. Hope to see you there.
Wednesday, September 04, 2019
Bollocks, Bollocks, and... what else? Ah yes, more BOLLOCKS
They are lying to you. Deliberately. Methodically. They use a playbook that was written by a maniac who believed so strongly in his own accidentally assigned tribal genome that he fatally poisoned his entire brood to prove his horrifically misguided point.
That is the usual end-game for the fools who look no further than skin colour or tribe.
Dear readers,
Once upon a time, there was a thing we called bandwidth.
It was limited, and precious. You had to own a segment of it, and it was doled out by the CRTC.
If you rated...
If you could prove yourself worthy to the
Public Body
Responsible to the Elected Representatives
Owing their authority
To a free and fair Democratic vote of their
Constituents
(You and Me)
That
Gave
Them
the Power
to Decide
If
Those
Who
Wanted this bandwidth
To persuade other constituents with
Merited it
Based upon their commitment
To the Betterment of the audience by broadcasting important and
Truthful information
Over these channels
Given to them
In Trust
By The People
To ensure faithful communication of
True
Facts
And of opinion
Based on
True
Facts
Nowadays
We can all publish
Whatever rubbish
We wish
Not unlike the American homicidal maniac (TM)
Holding onto his 2nd Amendment rights
In God We Trust
American you say??
Why yes, because these platforms are
All.
AMERICAN:
(ABC = Google + this blog on blogger, and the notoriously easy to push stupid crap anyone made up youtube)
(Twitter)
(Facebook + Instagram)
MEANWHILE
Here in Canada, we created this thing called the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council, but that does not have the slightest bearing on any crap we have from social media sites like those I mentioned above.
So we are impoverished of fact-based, multi-sourced information if we fail to go to the sources that abide by those standards.
Please, with a federal election on the horizon, avail yourselves not so much of:
- blogs such as mine...
- whatever BS you find in your FB newsfeed (or other social media "viral" crap)
and go here, where there are controls in place:
cbc.ca
globalnews.ca
CTVnews.ca
thestar.com
lapresse.ca
and anyone else beholden to Standards that you may call BULLSHIT on and expect a level of fact-checking decency
Now, don't expect them to get it all right all the time. Journalism is an art of imperfect humans, mind.
But do try to not get pulled in by the shit-spewers inspired by the likes of Goebbels.
It does you ill.
As it does us all
Good day, and peace and good (critical) reading to you all.
- 30 -
Saturday, February 02, 2019
The Hate -- Original Song #38
As we approach the sad 30th anniversary of a brutal hate crime that left a stain on my beautiful city, I find to my surprise this song of mine, written many years ago, absent from the history of this blog. No longer. RIP, Joe
Well you know something's been eating me
Concerns something that fell from your mouth last week
I heard you say, "He's one of those"
Made me think of a youth named Joe Rose
They killed him on a bus you see
Along with their humanity
And I doubt this song will change a thing
But maybe I'll feel better if I sing
I don't know why they hate so strong
But it just keeps going on
Rose's dad doesn't understand
He loved his son like any man
But the boy was gay so they hated him
In this city whose motto means live and let live
And it's wrong to think all bird are doves
But those who hate can also love
And if there's one thing I can't trust
It's when you separate folks into them and us
I don't know why they hate so strong
But it just keeps going on
I don't know why they hate so strong
But it just keeps going on
I don't know why they hate so strong
But it just keeps going on
I don't know why they hate so strong
But it's gone on far too long
- 30 -
Well you know something's been eating me
Concerns something that fell from your mouth last week
I heard you say, "He's one of those"
Made me think of a youth named Joe Rose
They killed him on a bus you see
Along with their humanity
And I doubt this song will change a thing
But maybe I'll feel better if I sing
I don't know why they hate so strong
But it just keeps going on
Rose's dad doesn't understand
He loved his son like any man
But the boy was gay so they hated him
In this city whose motto means live and let live
And it's wrong to think all bird are doves
But those who hate can also love
And if there's one thing I can't trust
It's when you separate folks into them and us
I don't know why they hate so strong
But it just keeps going on
I don't know why they hate so strong
But it just keeps going on
I don't know why they hate so strong
But it just keeps going on
I don't know why they hate so strong
But it's gone on far too long
- 30 -
Tuesday, December 04, 2018
My grand-daughter was born December 3, 2018
She will not reach 12, apparently, before life on this planet is doomed to be inhabitable for humanity.
I take that very seriously. As soon as I became a father, that kind of thing started to matter - vibrantly; excruciatingly. Until then, it served as ...what? An excuse for nihilism? Bottoms up!
With my wife, I share a four-cylinder, gas-guzzling SUV, but at least we live in a highly energy-efficient condo in Montreal, heated (and powered) exclusively from renewable hydro-electric power, thanks to Robert Bourassa and other prescient Quebec politicians. We use public transit as much as possible, walk, or use shared services to economize, and understand that our gas costs more if we fill up on the island of Montreal, so we only take the car when we really have to.
And I expect this will be the last internal combustion vehicle we own - and appropriately so. Energy usage will not decline, but here in Quebec, I feel that we really understand that reality as a fundamental concept, alongside the practicality of maximizing our facility to harness whatever renewable energy resources we can access.
I have listened to the voices telling us the oil in Alberta and Saskatchewan will replace higher carbon-footprint coal used in China currently (to manufacture products we buy to assuage our Dollar-store need to consume, consume, consume extra plastics to make our lives more fulfilling - and yes, that rabbit-hole I have plunged myself into on many occasions myself). I call bullshit on that "need" to get the tarsands product to tidewater. Justin Trudeau is nominally championing that in order to (lamely) show he is not like his dad; as if he could somehow square that policy with being on the right side - i.e.: the non-suicidal side.
What to do?
I like JT because he espouses ideals that are high-mindedly progressive towards correction of bias and prejudice generally. But for all our sakes, this is the time to realise there is a bigger, more pressing crisis that requires his leadership. Time to stop playing nice and put his clout to the one issue that merits war-like attention: arresting climate change.
After all, what planet does he presume his kids and mine might inhabit?
- 30 -
I take that very seriously. As soon as I became a father, that kind of thing started to matter - vibrantly; excruciatingly. Until then, it served as ...what? An excuse for nihilism? Bottoms up!
With my wife, I share a four-cylinder, gas-guzzling SUV, but at least we live in a highly energy-efficient condo in Montreal, heated (and powered) exclusively from renewable hydro-electric power, thanks to Robert Bourassa and other prescient Quebec politicians. We use public transit as much as possible, walk, or use shared services to economize, and understand that our gas costs more if we fill up on the island of Montreal, so we only take the car when we really have to.
And I expect this will be the last internal combustion vehicle we own - and appropriately so. Energy usage will not decline, but here in Quebec, I feel that we really understand that reality as a fundamental concept, alongside the practicality of maximizing our facility to harness whatever renewable energy resources we can access.
I have listened to the voices telling us the oil in Alberta and Saskatchewan will replace higher carbon-footprint coal used in China currently (to manufacture products we buy to assuage our Dollar-store need to consume, consume, consume extra plastics to make our lives more fulfilling - and yes, that rabbit-hole I have plunged myself into on many occasions myself). I call bullshit on that "need" to get the tarsands product to tidewater. Justin Trudeau is nominally championing that in order to (lamely) show he is not like his dad; as if he could somehow square that policy with being on the right side - i.e.: the non-suicidal side.
What to do?
I like JT because he espouses ideals that are high-mindedly progressive towards correction of bias and prejudice generally. But for all our sakes, this is the time to realise there is a bigger, more pressing crisis that requires his leadership. Time to stop playing nice and put his clout to the one issue that merits war-like attention: arresting climate change.
After all, what planet does he presume his kids and mine might inhabit?
- 30 -
Thursday, June 28, 2018
Every Canadian should read Bob Rae's column in the Walrus
It is all about Canada-USA relations, and in particular, this uncomforting reality:
"It’s time we understood just how far apart our two countries are and act accordingly"
The whole text is here.
Interestingly, it comes just hours after the publication of this warning for the EU from the Guardian:
EU must 'prepare for worst-case scenarios' under Trump, top official warns
From that article, from European Council president, Donald Tusk:
“More and more people are starting to believe that only strong-handed authority, anti-European and anti-liberal in spirit, with a tendency towards overt authoritarianism, is capable of stopping the wave of illegal migration.”
“If people believe them, that only they can offer an effective solution to the migration crisis, they will also believe anything else they say. The stakes are very high. And time is short.”
Time for all of us to stop ignoring the painful truth. If you're not with Trump, you're not only against Trump,...
you're at war
- 30 -
"It’s time we understood just how far apart our two countries are and act accordingly"
The whole text is here.
Interestingly, it comes just hours after the publication of this warning for the EU from the Guardian:
EU must 'prepare for worst-case scenarios' under Trump, top official warns
From that article, from European Council president, Donald Tusk:
“More and more people are starting to believe that only strong-handed authority, anti-European and anti-liberal in spirit, with a tendency towards overt authoritarianism, is capable of stopping the wave of illegal migration.”
“If people believe them, that only they can offer an effective solution to the migration crisis, they will also believe anything else they say. The stakes are very high. And time is short.”
Time for all of us to stop ignoring the painful truth. If you're not with Trump, you're not only against Trump,...
you're at war
- 30 -
Wednesday, June 20, 2018
Stoke the Fire / Untermenschen (repost)
Stoke the Fire (performed live circa 2011)
Caught in machinations
Beyond your power?
Busy earning a living
You stoke the fire
And you wonder how they
Could let it happen
No time to question
How big is your picture?
Successive generations will be quick to damn us
Maybe they'll understand us
Recipe for murder:
Divide the horror
Give the people a scapegoat
Then point the finger
Gain complicity
Reward efficiency
Give the people procedures
They'll die to please
Perhaps the question to ask is: Does it really matter
Who pulled the trigger
Who filled the gas tanks
Who stoked the fires
That burn us
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Untermenschen
Caught in machinations
Beyond your power?
Busy earning a living
You stoke the fire
And you wonder how they
Could let it happen
No time to question
How big is your picture?
Successive generations will be quick to damn us
Maybe they'll understand us
Recipe for murder:
Divide the horror
Give the people a scapegoat
Then point the finger
Gain complicity
Reward efficiency
Give the people procedures
They'll die to please
Perhaps the question to ask is: Does it really matter
Who pulled the trigger
Who filled the gas tanks
Who stoked the fires
That burn us
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Untermenschen
Monday, June 18, 2018
I'm with Lloyd - the USA is not a safe third country right now
I enjoyed another fantastic Father's Day in the company of my children, but all the while I fought back tears whenever I heard more of the sordid tales of asylum seekers' treatment at the hands of the US Department of Homeland Security. It's full-on psychological torture to the parents and to the kids to whisk them away from the only thread of security they know: one another.
So when a great humanitarian like Lloyd Axworthy has had enough of this to speak out forcefully, I believe all Canadians must listen.
Here is the entirety of his and Allan Rock's opinion piece from The Globe and Mail:
Canada is a huge land. Stinkin' huge. We have ample space, resources, and no reason to turn people away who need refuge. I know we are lucky here. The people whom we welcome are my neighbours and co-workers and children's best friends. They are not at all unlike my ancestors who fled potato famine or religious intolerance or economic destitution just a handful of generations ago. We can always welcome a few more. We are one humanity, and we need to act like it.
- 30 -
So when a great humanitarian like Lloyd Axworthy has had enough of this to speak out forcefully, I believe all Canadians must listen.
Here is the entirety of his and Allan Rock's opinion piece from The Globe and Mail:
Canada and the United States added a new
dimension in 2004 by agreeing to regard each other as, in effect, safe
havens. Each barred asylum-seekers arriving from the other at official
points of entry, reasoning that no credible claim of persecution could
be made in either.
But things have
changed. Donald Trump’s administration’s harsh approach to migrants has
created fear and uncertainty among asylum-seekers in the United States.
Sadly, the United States no longer offers them a safe haven. Beyond
demonizing migrants, Mr. Trump’s appointees have adopted inhumane
practices.
Asylum-seekers are being
detained at astonishing rates in the United States, often in deplorable
conditions. Despite having no criminal record, many are jailed while
their applications for asylum are pending, mostly in private prisons.
Human Rights First reports that three-quarters of asylum-seekers in U.S.
immigration proceedings are detained at some point, compared to 16 per
cent of refugee claimants in Canada. Recent reports about the treatment
of migrant children, in particular, demonstrate just how unsafe the U.S.
immigration system has become: U.S. officials recently admitted that
they “lost track” of nearly 20 per cent of the children formerly in the
custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement.
Despite
this fiasco, Attorney-General Jeff Sessions recently announced a policy
of separating asylum-seekers from their children, some as young as
toddlers. The United Nations calls this an “arbitrary and unlawful
interference in family life, and a serious violation of the rights of
the child.”
Consider Ms. L, an
asylum-seeker who fled the Democratic Republic of the Congo with her
seven-year-old daughter. After they were detained upon arrival in the
United States, Ms. L’s daughter was taken from her and sent to a
facility more than 2,000 miles away. They were jailed across the country
from each other for four months. Ms. L. fled brutality only to have her
daughter taken from her arms by U.S. officials: Who could blame her if,
feeling unsafe, she wanted to cross into Canada to seek protection?
And
those fleeing from the United States to Canada have good reason to fear
harm if the United States returns them to their countries of origin.
The vast majority are from war-torn states with high levels of violence
and human-rights violations. Most are at serious risk of persecution and
torture in their native lands. In fact, more than 50 per cent of the
refugee claims made by persons who enter Canada irregularly are granted.
Some
Canadians have demanded that the “safe third country” prohibition on
entry be extended to cover the entire border, not just official entry
points. But surely that is the wrong approach. It would seal off any
chance to escape for those many who are being mistreated and put at
grave risk of return by a U.S. administration with vastly different
policies from the one we dealt with in 2004.
In our view, a much better solution would
be to suspend the “safe third country” arrangement until conditions in
the United States change. The United States is no longer “safe” for
asylum seekers. And, unlike 2004, we can no longer regard our duty to
them as met simply because they are within U.S. jurisdiction. Just as
our government responded with strength to Mr. Trump’s absurd trade
sanctions, we should make crystal clear that we will not be complicit in
his mistreatment of refugees.
Prime
Minister Justin Trudeau and his government have earned Canada a
well-deserved reputation as a humane refuge for the forcibly displaced.
And Canadians, in communities across the land, have opened their hearts
and their homes to sponsor and support refugees. Let’s make sure that
our policies at the border reflect “the Canadian way” and are worthy of
the values we cherish.
Canada is a huge land. Stinkin' huge. We have ample space, resources, and no reason to turn people away who need refuge. I know we are lucky here. The people whom we welcome are my neighbours and co-workers and children's best friends. They are not at all unlike my ancestors who fled potato famine or religious intolerance or economic destitution just a handful of generations ago. We can always welcome a few more. We are one humanity, and we need to act like it.
- 30 -
Friday, March 30, 2018
Preying on Me - Original Song #37
I was living in the Mile End
Lovely place to find a friend
Course you know no one there
Is just like me
English, French, Greeks
Indigenous and artists
Lots of folks I call the blister-hearted
And that includes the Hasids
They’re always doing lots of prayin'
They gotta do a lot of prayin'
Gotta do a lot of prayin'
For sinners like me
And meanwhile on the internet
Trolls are spinning
Dark dark webs
They’re telling all these scary tales
Once upon a lie
They spread hate to create bigots
Then they churn and circulate all that made-up shit
Like that ain’t what toilets are for
The trolls are doing lots of preyin'
Yeah they’re doing lots of preyin'
They’re out there doing lots of preyin'
On the young and the weak
Now morons out there in the war rooms
Making plans to cloud us in mushrooms
They can't believe they can't play with
All their nuclear toys
They're doing lots of playing
Armageddon games they're playing
And Christ, it never ever stops preying
Preying on me
Now that brings me back to those Hasids
They aren't too caught up in our consumerist greed
And they may not be your creed
But I think they seem to know what we need
We need to do a lotta prayin'
There ain't nothing left but prayin'
I'm really down with all the prayin'
- 30 -
Tuesday, July 25, 2017
Requiem for the Hangover of a Canadian Immigrant - Original Song # 36
Still finding your place
You cheer for the Habs
Watch The Amazing Race
The kids have made friends
Learned some French, ate Subway
But you cannot find work
And you have just four weeks’ grace
Lo and behold
It’s Canada Day
The PM looks lost touring a tipi in the rain
The natives around you
No flags do they wave
Just beers and grilled beef
And a look of disdain
CHORUS
Don’t fly your flag so mighty
So high
Don’t mix bloody Caesars
With ginger and rye
Know that at the root
Of every symbol is some lie
Don’t mix bloody Caesars
With ginger and rye
The cure for your hangover
If you haven’t yet clued-in
Comes from filtered Florida OJ,
Picked by Mexican migrants
Mixed with Brita-filtered water
(Thanks to the Germans)
And a Samsung-brewed coffee
Picked by Indonesian kids
CHORUS
If the Maple Leaf still means
Anything worth a fight
It’s writ ‘tween the lines
Of that Charter of Rights
So don’t hang your patriotism
On a populist rant
On a tax-payer’s gripe
Or an immigrant’s back
- 30 -
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