Tag Archives: politics

CLASSIC LABOUR DAY WISDOM

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MONDAY 4:30 PM

Labour Day Weekend - the end of summer, not hockey season yet, so it must be CFL football season. The Blue Jays are out and the Flames are heading to China for pre-season? And today, the Stampeders take on the Eskimos. I'm in - but first a few opinionated comments from your favourite scribe:Labour Day Weekend – the end of summer, not hockey season yet, so it must be CFL football season. The Blue Jays are out and the Flames are heading to China for pre-season? And today, the Stampeders managed to squeak out a win over the Eskimos. Now that the business of a holiday Monday is taken care of – a few opinionated comments from your favourite scribe:

SATURDAY 3 PM

Please note the Canadian spelling of “labour.” That may play into my attempt at wisdom this weekend. I am addicted! Yes, addicted to news, information, press releases by people, or events that I am interested in, and Flipboard feeds. I am also incredibly skeptical – no surprise to those who are close to me, I’m sure. So, I just finished reading yet another editorial about the NAFTA negotiations that are currently going on, or not going on, between Mexico, Canada and the US. Trump, as usual is being an asshole, Trudeau is trying to be all things to all people, and the Mexican president is only in office a few more months and his successor is a left wing, free trade skeptic. What a crew! How did we ever get to this situation where it appears that the 3 stooges would have more credibility in this very important negotiation for all 3 countries. I am starting to think that if the other parties are not interested in a win-win-win deal (and we know Trump isn’t) then maybe we should have the balls to walk away and wait until sanity returns to the white house (no it sure isn’t in caps anymore).

SUNDAY 6 AM

Funny how time changes things. The rage that I felt yesterday about all things political seems to have calmed down this morning. Perhaps that is because it is still dark outside. I’m not sure how much longer the rage free zone will last but for now I can enjoy reading a new novel by Wilbur Smith, ASSEIGAI. If you like BIG adventure, he’s your guy. I’ve been an avid fan for more than 35 years.

We watched a movie last night, that was recommended by our friends G and N, on Netflix called, “The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.” It was quite good and much more enjoyable with the closed captioning on, which I mentioned in a recent post. 

MONDAY 4 AM

We now get to what is really keeping me awake this night – pipelines. It is naive to think that we can somehow clean up the planet by locking in the world’s second largest deposit of oil. The human race is still totally reliant on oil for everything from transportation, to food, to clothing, to heating, and most things technological including the device you are reading this on. I agree that environmental assessments are appropriate as we determine the feasibility of any large scale project but why does this seem to only apply to the oil industry? How about the impact made by wind farms, solar panel arrays, housing, tourism, agriculture, manufacturing, medicine and more.

The fact is, oil production in Canada is one of the most ethical, environmentally safe, human rights responsible, regulated, wealth sharing, democratically controlled operations in the world. Every single corner and every single resident of Canada shares in the benefits created by the oil industry through corporate and personal taxes and reinvested profits. If we are going to research and experiment with alternative sources of energy, where will the money come from to finance it if we shut down one of the country’s biggest wealth generators?

In addition to studying and revealing the negative impacts of various energy projects, we need to bring some balance to the process. Why are we not looking at the positive social and economic aspects and making these part of the process. This would allow us to look at a balanced discussion and reach a decision with all of the risks factored in including the cost of NOT going forward.

In the meantime, we still need oil to make our world work so why do we continue to buy it from regimes that are misogynistic, corrupt, terror sponsoring and totalitarian instead of accessing it from our own back yard? The court’s rejection of the Kinder Morgan pipeline project made me angry at first but I wonder if this could be a gift horse in disguise. Perhaps Alberta and Saskatchewan should begin to build some world class refineries and begin shipping higher value product instead of raw materials.

TECH LOVE

In my never ending battle with technology, I have done something stupid again. Amazon is transitioning the availability and management of hard copy books from Create Space to Kindle Direct Publishing and I thought I would get a jump start on the process. In the act of changing, I also decided to change the cover on my West Coast Trail book and discovered that I needed to change the book size and have the cover rejigged, etc. Needless to say, my book is not available until I have done a whole bunch of things and that won’t happen until next month. So, for you fans who insist on buying another copy of that bestseller in paperback, sorry. I should mention however, that it is still available in digital format everywhere.

FINALLY

A bit of an update for you: I am taking a self-imposed break from social media for a week or two and will not be accessing Facebook, Instagram, my website, et al. While in hiding I will be celebrating, yet another, birthday. Yes, that’s right, I am turning 35 again. Now 35 is my mental age, not to be confused with my maturity level which still hovers around 14. In case you feel so declined or obligated to now wish me a Happy Birthday on Facebook, I’m afraid I won’t be responding, so thank you in advance. Gifts of cash in small unmarked bills are always appreciated – see, I told you – 14!

Now, if I haven’t completely turned you off and you would like to get notified of future musings, then please feel free to fill in your email address and should wisdom strike me, you will receive notification to your inbox. Cheers.

DONALD TRUMP vs KIM JONG UN

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I’m sure getting tired of the ego driven rhetoric coming from these two clowns who pretend to be leaders in this world. My war machine is bigger than your war machine – really? Their egos are being propped up by the world media and other leaders who feel it necessary to comment on this nonsense. I have come to agree with some of the commentary on social media that suggests that these two be dropped on a deserted island to fight it out man to man. There are lots of islands in the Pacific that are vegetation and humanity free due to the nuclear testing that took place in the past. Let’s get something in place and do this immediately before their egos and big mouths create a hell that none of us ( the real people in this world) want.

BOOMER TUNE ALERT

So, here’s the best part of my plan: Trump and Kim-boy will assume that the winner of their manly fight will go on to world domination but, I propose that we don’t send a boat to pick up the winner. That will be our little secret – don’t tell anyone – we’ll leave whoever has the biggest “machine” on the island and forget both of them. We can then get on with the important business of living our lives. Less politicians, less media hype, people first! That’s what we’re good for.

POLITICAL EXHAUSTION

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Is it just me or is anyone else becoming politically exhausted? No matter where I turn these days, it is 24/7 of political commentary, opinion, breaking news, blah, blah, blah. And it is much more than just the latest ranting and raving of Trump and his family, supporters and detractors – it seems to be worldwide – Britain, Canada, Germany, OMG – the Mideast, Philippines, China, Venezuela,  Brexit, EU, trade wars, immigration and terrorism – just to name a few of the politically charged stories that are inundating us. I don’t know if it is age, or the age we live in, but it seems impossible to escape as we see wall to wall videos on YouTube, Facebook and TV news, along with constant news updates on our car radios, newspapers (there are still some left aren’t there?) and virtually every social media opportunity that exists.

Everyone seems to be getting in on the act as politicians of every stripe and intelligence level weigh in on everything they see (whether they have any real ability to effect change or not) and anyone with an audience is compelled to let their opinions be known to their followers. I’m simply getting tired of it – what about you? Social gatherings require us to respond to questions about what we think of this crisis or that. In our own city, just the possibility of building a new hockey arena has become a source of accusations and political invective that is laced with personal accusations and blame – get over it – build the damn arena – there’s enough money to pay for it!

People are turning away from the political arena by the thousands as they tire of the never ending diatribe and become wary, as well as weary, of the constant bickering and accusations, unfounded criticism, and outright hatred foisted upon us as “news.” “Aye, but there’s the rub,” a much bigger danger than exhaustion lurks when we choose to ignore the political unrealities of the day, but first a work from our unsponsors…

BOOMER TUNE ALERT

OK, hands up anyone who doesn’t have a copy of “RUMOURS” by FLEETWOOD MAC in their music collection. I didn’t think so. The eighth highest selling album of all time with over 40 million copies sold, it was released in 1977. The band seemed to be in constant turmoil with members coming and going, romantic relationships on and off, and various members leaving and returning but wow, could they turn out the hits. Rumours sat on top of the Billboard list for over 30 weeks and garnered awards and still commands an incredible amount of play time on stations worldwide.

Lindsey Buckingham leads the way on “Go Your Own Way”  and may seem an apt addition to this post.

Go ahead, listen again and turn it up louder – I can wait.

The real danger of political exhaustion is that intelligent people stop listening. They ignore the posturing and nonsense that surrounds the political arena. Political freedom and democracy are messy, tiresome and full of people who are there only to promote their own agendas. The scary part is that if history teaches us anything, then we cannot afford to ignore what is being done in our name. Smarter people than me have warned that if good men ignore what their leaders are doing, then the leaders easily become demagogues out for their own interests and that becomes something far more complicated and scary than democracy. That is when totalitarianism becomes reality. Stay focused and make these leaders remain transparent and accountable. Read not only the viewpoints that you agree with but the opposition as well – alternate ideas may help pave the way to true freedom and democracy.