"One should doubtless keep an open mind...though open at both ends, like the food pipe, and have a capacity for excretion as well as intake." -- Northrop Frye, 'The Great Code'
... he is an illustration of a problem and not its cause. Trump is not the
swamp: he is the creature emerging from it. For however ridiculous and
appalling his candidacy may be, it is no worse and no more ridiculous
and appalling than the whole pattern of American politics at this time.
... Is his candidacy more lunatic than the idea of a third President Bush or a second President Clinton?
... Is he more manipulative than President “you can keep you doctor, you can
keep you plan” Obama? Is he less venal or arrogant than Hillary ...? ... Is he less repellent than false and theatrical rape hoaxes that have beleaguered American campuses from Duke to Columbia?
... Is anything Trump has said more staggering or depressing than the idea
that in egalitarian America, a couple of small-time business owners can
get fined $135,000 for not baking a cake? ...
... it is not Trump who should bear the responsibility for his success. It
is the practice of politics itself and the political class (which
includes, more and more, the news media) that has for so long abandoned
honest representation of ideas, facing difficult issues with real
language, which has so professionalized campaigns and elections that the
sound of a human voice saying something it actually means is so rare.
...
Are Canadian politics any less dysfunctional than America's? Would Trump be any worse for America than Trudeau or Mulcair for Canada?
Canada under Stephen Harper’s Conservative government has just regained its title as the most reputable nation in the world. According to the Reputation Institute’s annual report, Canada remains at
the top of a 55-nation list for perceived trust, admiration and
respect, based on a survey of 48,000 people around the world.
... few media picked it up. Instead, the Canadian media complex is in the
grip of Harper Derangement Frenzy (HDF), which is an upgrade to
hurricane status from Harper Derangement Syndrome ...
... [Canada's] international standing has never been stronger. Even the
government’s global carbon strategy, portrayed by many as a national
embarrassment, looks good to many other nations. As the table below
suggests, Canada remains at the top of the world.
Good show Canada! (Well, at least progressives will think so.)
Two weeks ago, Todd Paglia, executive director of U.S.-based radical
environmental organization ForestEthics, sent a letter of warning to
Richard Garneau, CEO of Montreal-based Resolute Forest Products.
In his reply Mr. Garneau told Paglia and his ENGO, ForestEthics [quite a name for an extortionist!],to shove off, saying among many other things:
"... The fact is, Mr. Paglia, we both know that ForestEthics has been campaigning against Resolute for years – even while you have pretended to be an abiding member of the CBFA. Your most recent letter, which follows your letter of December 5, 2014, with its inaccurate allegations and threats and intimidation, is not new; it is merelya continuation of the bully tactics you have used with us from the start. ...
... I am struggling to understand precisely what kind of protection you believe the CBFA has granted us under these circumstances. ForestEthics has been in violation of both the spirit and letter of the CBFA for years. Perhaps I should have called you out sooner ..."
Rare courage:
... Rarely if ever has a corporate executive dared to call an ENGO shakedown
what it is.Richard Garneau is thus almost unique among executives. In a corporate world dripping with bogus “business ethics,” Garneau, a
quiet and modest man who lives the Boreal, has demonstrated some true
moral backbone, refusing to bow to what he sees as lies and
intimidation.
Media complicity or cowardice or both?
You’d think that the Canadian media – given to celebration of local
exceptionality in any way, shape or form – would be keen to report on
Garneau. But he is exceptional in an area where the media almost never
dares to tread, either because it is part of the radical environmental
crusade itself, or because it too is scared.
All posts on Resolute Forest Products' battles with the radical ENGOs.
The verdict is due on October 6, 2015 and has huge implications for Elliott's personal freedom and for free speech in general. Any "criminality" here is that of the complainants and the legal system for participating in prosecuting this clearly bogus case.
Jane Fonda's net worth, US $120 million - and a giant carbon footprint:
Same old, same old. Pushing 78 years old and still trashing the West and boosting its enemies. She'll be doing it till she dies, and continuing from Hell.
Environmentalists often talk about people whose lives are ruined by man-made global warming. But they never mention the lives that are devastated by misguided climate change policy. ...
"Ten years ago would you have ever thought that Canada's best premier, best economy and clearest advocate for free enterprise would be from Saskatchewan, and that the most anti-oil socialist premier would be from Alberta??
"It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their consciences." -- C. S. Lewis
