I have a couple o’ blogs in the pipe but the points of them have not yet been realized so they await the proper unfolding of the universe before posting. And, here’s a plot-twist, we may also have found Sal’s next boat….so the potential news feed (still in the pipe) is full but just basically on hold.
So, for filler: Politics!! Woohoo!!
As all seven readers know, I am a Greenie. And, coming from my own basic morals, principles and values, I am also a bit of a lefty, often referred to as a Pinko. So, I am a Pinko Greenie.
But I quit the Green party of Canada and BC about a year ago…kinda…I stopped giving them donations and let my membership lapse. Many months ago the party was doing what they always do (soliciting for money but not advice, input or direction) and I stopped giving because, to my mind, they were too small-minded, did too little and acted too much like a spoiled-brat clique of high school kids. Worse, they seemed to have lost their main focus – saving the planet – and instead seemed preoccupied with racism, feminism and politically-correct nonsense like the ongoing Israeli Palestinian conflict.
Do not MISINTERPRET that last sentence. Racism is bad. Feminism is good and Jews and Arabs are complicated. I know all that. But, to my mind, climate change and planet destruction is immensely more important than the latest First World issues-of-the-day. More to the point, the Green Party of Canada has very little (if any) clout or credibility in any area of the greater political dialogue and, if they have any, it is only on issues of the environment.
I have been disenchanted with the party for a long time for all those reasons and more. But, to be fair, if you are going to complain, you have to be able (willing, anyway) to run for office and make things better. Complaining is not the same thing as doing. So, I decided to throw my hat in the ring and try to do better. I was gonna run for the North Island (and I was gonna refuse a salary and a pension in the unlikely event that I won). I submitted my application. And I got a call……
The Greenie I spoke to was very pleasant and laughed at my jokes (one of my main criteria for judging people). But my Greenie was also honest and told me in NOT-so-many words that the party was really looking for, ideally, Indigenous women or, at the very least women of colour. If I was LGBQT+ that might work, too…….but, like, an older, straight, white guy? Really?
Again, to that Greenie’s credit, they went through with the interview and thought that my views on the big topics (environment, climate change, planet, sustainability, alternative energy, etc.) were truly in line with the stated goals of the Green Party but, well, I did not have a hope in hell because they are so focused on other issues (genitals and skin colour).
“If my views align with those of the party, why would the party not align with me? Is it because the party has relinquished their stated and founding principles for more politically correct ones? And, can you explain to me why the party, like the NDP, have adopted a blatant sexist and racist bias by essentially shunning old, white males?”
“Well, we like to think of it as giving a platform to the underprivileged who do not have a voice otherwise.”
“Uhm…….Annamie Paul is black, female, Jewish and a lawyer. She’s the party leader. She has a lot of platforms. Ex-leader, Liz May, is an ex-American, ex-Conservative, lawyer and, of course, female. She has the Order of Canada and is the longest running female leader of a Canadian political party. She, too, has platforms. Don’t you think there is room in the party for an old, fat, white guy who has only a blog? I mean…if a party is to represent the people, don’t old, white males count as people anymore?”
I decided to reread the Green Party of Canada’s Constitution and it’s current political platform. I noted that the party was started in 1983 by a white, male physician who was conventionally married and had children to go along with a lengthy resume of real accomplishments in community, health and politics. Seems Dr. Hancock was OK then….but would not be OK now. The Greens would not allow Hancock to run today.
I mention all this because we should try to remember that political parties, for all their vaunted philosophies, ideals and propaganda are still current collections of limited-view people who are more oriented in the past than they are to the future. They are as fallible as any of us. They carry biases and prejudices. They are often ignorant of the issues facing the common citizen simply because they are so often ‘professionals’ and NOT poor, sick, marginalized or alone. And too many are lawyers (not that there is anything wrong that). Maybe a few plumbers, cleaners, waitresses and lumberjacks might help?
To my mind, the Greens have gone off the rails. Well intentioned, perhaps. But still dumber than dirt. I cannot vote for them anymore – at least not in their present form. As the earth currently burns at record heat levels in the US Midwest, loses it’s temperature regulating ice mass and razes the forests of oxygen-producing trees while filling the seas with plastic, the one voice for survival of the species (Greens) have lost their way.
Our Off the Grid Home 
Dave.
I thought you knew by now..
White, English speaking men aren’t allowed to have an opinion about anything.
As for politics.
Pffft.
How far Left can we go before everyone in Canada is on Universal Basic Income and smoking legal dope.
Taxes are so….yesterday.
This country is damned.
Don’t believe me?
Google “Qanon Queen of Canada” and see how many followers this lunatic has rounded up…
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Ramona Didulo has 200,000 followers. A Philippine-Canadian who dresses male and is a Q-Anon nut bar of the highest rank claims to be the Canadian Queen and Commander in Chief of the Great White North. She is an anti-vaxxer and an advocate for executing health care workers. That loon would pass the initial criteria for the Green Party selection committee. I am NOT crazy and I know that she would not get very far but, if you want a woman of colour who is somehow ‘challenged’ and a member of a sexual preference minority, she fits. I think, at the very least, she would find a few soulmates in the party.
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Two thumbs up for the recruiting practices of the increasingly irrelevant Green Party of Canada…..
Our lack of crops and the increasingly horrendous price increases for everything due to record droughts ( US Midwest this year) will drive the worlds population to accept Climate Change….
Not a bunch of university indoctrinated Bachelor of Zero degree monkeys that see politics as an easy way to earn a living.
The Libs and the Cons are being dragged kicking and screaming into the “green” thoughtspace with (hopefully) none of the ridiculous social awareness horseshit that goes with it.
I dont care if a politician is gay…in this day and age…its irrelevant.
Shut they hell up about your sexual preference and balance the goddamn budget.
Truth be known, I’d say a good percentage of former politicians swung both ways.
But they didnt discuss their personal preferences in public.
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If ‘gayness’ hadn’t been closeted and hidden from view forever then this weirded out over reaction to ‘correcting’ the truth-about-sex wouldn’t have been required. And I get that. Correction noted and accepted. However, that queer is now long out of the closet and has been since Liberace. Let it go. It’s not only old news, it suggests that the gay person thinks of nothing else. I do not think that is necessarily true but, face it, if you grew up obsessed with your ‘difference’ what else are you bringing to the table?
What I am saying is that sexuality is NOT a political issue. Not anymore. The common weal is and always should be the number one political issue. If you are black, white, beige, gay, straight or confused, if you are tall, short fat or thin, your job as a rep for your constituents is to work for YOUR CONSTITUENTS. That is the job! Put your skin tone, height, weight or sexual orientation – at the very least – at the end of your priority list!
And why wouldn’t an intelligent, fair-thinking, straight, white male be capable of representing every constituent even if the constituent was different? Aren’t we assuming that a darker, gay, Indigenous female can make that leap and act well for all the white guys, too? If they can, why can’t I act as well for them?
To be fair, I do not GET all the differences as much as those who are different but I try. And, if I am a bit challenged at times, wouldn’t it also be true that a gay, coloured, female, Jewish, handicapped, Asperger’s sufferer in a wheel-chair would also be a bit challenged to understand the old, white, fat guy? I mean: we have to stretch to understand the ‘other’ but that does not mean the ‘other’ does not have to stretch to understand those who are the ‘same as me’….right?
But do they? Does Annamie Paul understand the old, fat, white guy? Is she even trying to? I do not think she or the Green party is.
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I’m afraid that I am with you on this one, Dave.
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Thanks, Tracy, but do not be afraid to agree or disagree with me altho the fear, it seems, is in agreeing with me this time! But I understand. I would be very cautious about agreeing with the likes of me too many times….this kinda thinking could be contagious. At the very least you are more likely to get GOMs.
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It is a pity that political parties have rejected their own programs and they all seem to follow the same “flat” programs. They all jump on the same train and are only interested in the polls it seems. The Green Party used to support mainly green causes, the liberals supported the business people and so on. These days, I don’t even know any more what party to choose! They all “turn with the wind”. And whenever a small party pops up with “real” ideas, they remain too small (in Belgium a party needs to obtain 5% of the votes to be allowed to govern). And you are right Dave, us “white folks” are not interesting enough any more for any party. We should be chosen and elected for what we stand for, not because we belong to any minority
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I cannot honestly say that I suffer in any way. I am relatively healthy, happy and living in heaven with an angel. Plus I am far away from the reigning madness that is society today. But I know discrimination when I see it. And I am seeing it in extreme political correctness.
Is some PC-ness a necessary ‘adjustment’ for ‘white/privileged society’ to endure having discriminated against people of colour in the past (and, of course, some idiots still do that today)? Probably. Maybe. OK. Some.
But if we had to pay a penance of sorts (which I believe has been the case now for a few decades) shouldn’t we all by now be sufficiently aware of the historic wrongs, accepted the legislated ‘rights’ and simply move things along normally as if we were all the same?
I am not trying to sweep wrongs under the carpet but, let’s be blunt: your average young (50 and under?) white guy never interned First Nations in Residential schools. Nor did he persecute Jews or string up blacks while wearing a KKK outfit. Your average young white guy is no longer as patronizing or contemptuous of women either. Just about every man under sixty has learned all-too-well to report to female bosses, supervisors and political leaders all the live-long day. Hell, the young guys don’t even whistle at pretty girls or hold doors open for folks anymore. The white boys have learned to behave differently. As Virginia Slim once so famously said, “You’ve come a long way, baby!” (1968 ad slogan).
Political parties, like generals, just keep on fighting the LAST war over and over again. That was how they got to where they are and they like it there. So, repeat until forced to change is the recipe for them. But they are increasingly irrelevant. Today, the vast majority of men and women are all discriminated against by inequality of wealth. Less than 1% (the rich) are controlling 99% of the population.
Chantal Hebert (journalist) lamented the whining of Annamie Paul as that of a feminist who blames men for everything they do not like while, at the same time claiming to be equal or superior. She said Paul was embarrassing real feminists. And I agree.
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Spot on. Haha. GOM? Grumpy old man? You should quit while you’re ahead, Dave. You made me think some more on this subject. More likely, the Greens party hack that gave you the feedback was trying to let you down gently (sic). Their researchers probably investigated your blog and ….. Well, you know how political opponents and their news hounds take every view expressed out of context and so they didn’t want to be in the receiving end of that.
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Perhaps. But I think not. The Green ‘hack’ keeps wanting to ‘go for a drink’ when I am ‘next in town’. Attracted? I doubt it. But the hack laughed and chuckled a lot….I honestly think they were just telling it like it was. And that ‘telling’ was in line with my own experiences with the Greens. They were ‘clique-y’. They excliuded. They were ‘immature’. I love the philosophy but not the vehicle.
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You’re a sassy man Dave. Who could blame her. PS. I am a happily married woman so not flirting.
Yeah, the vehicle can be an issue here too. Grumpy old white pinko greenies care about the planet too. Maybe you could campaign for the Greens. I often think their campaign strategies let them down.
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I agree with everyone’s comments.
Side note.
The FLAG OF CANADA is flying at Half mast for all the aboriginal kids.
We are cancelling “Canada Day” because of Canada’s “genocidal” history
I noticed tonight all the Rainbow flags in front of the Provincial Legislature were flying “top mast”…???
Another Segway…?.
Down in the US…. in Portland Oregon.
ALL the Riot Police have resigned.
Why?
Because one of their members was charged with assault after the endless Black Lives Matter anarchy last Fall.
Google it.
A sign of things to come where the police just say, “Screw it?”
While I bitch and moan every time I get a speeding ticket…. and I’m I have no love for the police.
Thank God there are people willing to stand on the “Thin Blue Line” to keep us all from anarchy.
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I do not agree. Basically, I think most cops are trying to do good (at least they started out that way) …but, but, but, they now come from a position that is not only authoritarian, inflexible, bullying and mindless, they are, by nature, just another gang of enforcers (in this case, the so-called Justice system). Your average cop is an ‘us and them’ kinda person. They are NOT inclusive. They are NOT flexible. Humanity is not a high priority – rules are. They do NOT think outside their own box. Admittedly, they are trained that way. They are reinforced in those thoughts by their peers and they ‘think they are right’ because, they have some arbitrary rule on their side and a gun on their hip. But life is different. And LIFE is really different if you are dirt poor, dumb, disconnected, ill, old and/or deviant in some way. The PO-lice want us all to be the ‘same’ and obey. Essentially the police are Orwellian. They are arrogance and bullying personified.
I have some friends who are police. And I applied to be a police officer when I was in my late teens – I was accepted but I turned it down. I have the same genetic code/message in me to ‘keep the peace and help keep the women and children safe.’ I am, by nature, a protector and a provider. I may be no good at it but that is where I come from. I am pretty sure most cops start out that way, too. But the culture, the training, the constant exposure to the ugly side of life separates them. They are NO LONGER ‘one of us’ because of the concentrated toxicity of the people they deal with and the system they are in. In fact, some get so burnt and cynical they can shoot someone dead and then lie about the situation to save themselves.
I would like to support the police but, like Lt. Calley, they have lost their humanity in their uniform. Cops need immediate re-training. HUGELY.
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Sooooo,
You think we would be better off without police?
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I disagree partly with you Dave! We DO need that thin blue line like Noncon says, and we can NOT accept that they cops resign massively! I agree with you that quickly a lot of them are “turned” from their beliefs by the constant uglyness. If today, you start in Belgium as a (young) motivated cop, wanting to protect society, the weak,…..AND you have the misfortune to be assigned to a precinct in a big town (like Brussels), you are exposed every day to the ugliness and toxicity of the young gangsters in the cities. The cops are harrassed constantly, they are challenged, provoked every minute they are on the streets. And WHEN they intervene (justified), these yong guys call their “friends/gangmambers) to start rioting against the police. Whel they start the riots, everything is filmed by dozens of their gangmembers. Then parts of these films are “edited”, so that it seems that police is using excessive/unjustified force and then they are claiming police are racists. I think we have come to a point where we need 2 different kind of cops. 1 being your nice guy “streetcop”, who knows what’s going on in his/her precinct and is there to “serve and protect”. BUT we alo need the “riot”police who shold intervene whenever there are riots and these “youngster/gangmembers” are out on the streets with the si$ole purpose of creating havoc. And then there should be less “mercy” or correctness. In the past (25 years ago), the police use to pick up these kids at riots, take them to the police station, kick their ass (literally) and then sent them back to their parents. At least there was some respect in that time for “the uniform”. But I think we need to act fast or there will be even more anarchy then today. And what then? We all buy sidearms to protect our own homes? So re-training? YES, definitely, but also hard action against these rioters
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Well, I cannot argue with you over a situation you are in and I am not. And there does seem like a trend to gangsterism these days……so, you may be right – especially for Europe. And there is no doubt that it is worse in the USA.
There also may be a chicken-and-egg thing going on? Kids getting hassled for no reason and so they generate disrespect for the cops, the cops crack down harder and a growing resistance develops, real gangs then form and, when the riot police come on the scene, a battle unfolds. Did it start with bad boys, bad boys or did it start with badly trained, quasi-military handling of minor delinquencies and, of course, homelessness, drug addiction and mental illness? Police have been trained to make the suspect submit and behave even if the citizen is deaf, stoned, mental, foreign or of absolutely no threat. They have not been trained to ‘talk their way’ to a solution.
I do know that a riot here is somewhat rare, usually linked to hockey games and/or peaceful protesters being bullied and arrested. Maybe once every two or three or even five years we get a notable ‘disturbance’? And yet, every day, there are cop-stories of unlawful home-entry, shootings, deaths-in-cells and people of colour being handcuffed and the like. Being First Nations on the Prairies is like ‘driving while black’ in the US.
There is no doubt that we have an uncivilized element and a growing criminal presence in a somewhat oppressive but subtle and semi-controlled police state. None of those components of society are doin’ the right thing. And I do not see the police as helping…I see that they are making it worse….I really think they need much, much better training. But I admit, that window of opportunity for effective police reform may be too little, too late nowadays.
Don’t forget Wim, I spent years growing up in the bad parts of town and much of my early adult years working there. There is a ‘lost’ percentage of misfits, mentally ill and marginalized people there and very few of them sympathetic. And, yes, there was violence almost every day. But none of the violence couldn’t have been handled by one, strong, healthy male with some training in empathy and communication (boxing also helps). In over eight years of ‘street’ work I encountered only one who needed to be forced into submission with extreme prejudice. Ironically, the main police station was one block away and, when the ‘perp’ ran away, the police were called and THEY NEVER SHOWED UP. That perp was a huge Mohawk wanted on a Canada-wide warrant for murder. And they never even showed up. Thin blue line? They were knee-deep in blue just a block away.
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Do you not think the police are a reflection of our society? Where have consciences gone? Do we really have a democracy when all decisions come from the PM office? Do our elected MP’s actually vote their conscience or simply toe the line because they will get a great pension after two terms of office. Just too many issues for me to comprehend today.
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Conscience comes from belonging to something…you feel guilty or pleased about your interaction with another in your shared-values community. You might not feel that way if you are suspicious about the ‘other’ or the others are clearly NOT sharing your values . And our society is multi-cultural in a lot of different ways than just immigrants (drug culture, religious culture, rural vs urban culture, the list is endless). Good people try to embrace the ‘other’ but, face it, some ‘others’ are harder to embrace. I have less respect for the heavily addicted, criminal, social-cheaters but I still keep a conscience for them even if I do not fully embrace them. But gangs (cops, religious cults, criminal gangs) purposefully develop limited conscience in their members and actively separate the member from the larger community. The more we separate, the less conscience we share.
I really have to apologize a bit. Here I am sharing my thoughts from a remote island. I, too, have separated.
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Politics is so complicated. Good for you trying to get involved and to bring you environmental focus back to the forefront. Bad on them for not listening. – Margy
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Thanks, Margy. That is what I thought, too. Even the offered rejection of salary and pension was intended to do that. You know? Dedicated Greenie Gives Back Your Tax Dollars! Don’t worry, tho…even had I been elected, the expenses allowance is more than double my income. We would have been fine just living off the more than generous allowance.
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I guess you are right on your comments on my remark. Still…I feel a lot less “safe” now then I did 10 years ago. There have always been places or neighboorhoods to avoid in the bigger cities, but if you stayed away from those neighboorhoods, generally you could feel safe. I was attacked “out of the blue” when I was like 12, I was just sitting at a lake, fishing, minding my own business, when I was attacked by a kid of let’s say 18. It took me a while to get over that and feel safe again. Then I felt safe for like the next 30 years. But lately, to be honest, I am taking classes in self-defence. Because these days, you can get attacked or mugged just by walking on any street in broad daylight. I am not an agressive person by nature, but I think I have the right to protect myself. But a thin blue line on the streets helps me to feel a little safer. And maybe because I am white, I don’t get harrassed or stopped by cops just because of the color of my skin. SO maybe my view on cops is a bit to idealistic. And politics and cops are afraid to act against this rising violence. They even do not dare to intervene any more in certain neighboorhoods, because they will be attacked as soon as they show themselves or be called racists. You know it sometimes goes that far that firemen and ambulances are attacked when there is an accident or fire? Can’t believe where society is heading, there used to be respect for police, medical first response people and firefighters. And politicians for sure will not condemn these acts or take active measures for fear of being called racists. But I know that things will get worse if there is no action taken. When we visited Vancouver two years ago, we stayed at a hotel 10 miles oustide of the city, so we had a rental car that we used to take us downtown. Every day we passed a neighboorhood in Vancouver where drug addicts were camping in a park and sleeping on the streets and dealing drugs in broad daylight . NO blue line to be seen anywhere….it kinda shocked me and we locked the doors and got the hell out of there . And we (I) have a wrong view of Canada I think (you know me by now, drooling whenever I hear/see something about BC or Canada in general). I still associate Canadian police with the RCMP on their horses wearing there nice uniforms. They seemed like “above” us all in a good way. But if Indegenous people are being harrassed everywhere, I might have to change my views on Canadian police 😉
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Courage doing the right thing is a bit easier but it still requires courage sometimes and, if the racist card is being played so as to bully, then a person (white or not) has to have the courage to speak out. I fully understand the desire to NOT engage in that blob of hot tar but, if ignored, it will only get worse. I have dozens of friends-of-colour and they all acknowledge they have the ‘racist’ card ready to play at the drop of a hat. Mind you, I have dozens of liberated women friends, too, and tho they are less willing to use the sexist card, they acknowledge that they have it and they use it. The lesson for all of us is that there is racism, there is sexism but there is also some counters to it and those counters are held by the victims. They will get used.
But knee-jerk or misuse of the counter card is abuse-of-power. Abuse of power is just more abuse. One has to stand up against it. I pretty much always did that (being obnoxious by nature) until I was 55-ish and then I just moved away. So, I am no icon. Nor have I faced all that there is out there. (That neighbourhood park filled with addicts you drove past was my Skid Row working neighbourhood). Still, if a black, female in a wheelchair was abusing her children, it would be an easy call to step up and help the kids knowing fully what kind of nonsense one would hear in the process.
As for our RCMP…..I think they are generally a cut above. The ones I know are.
Their screening, testing and training is way better than municipal cops. But RCMP usually have to move around a lot and that helps keep them be separated from their community so they are often ‘strangers’ in the ‘hood. I think they move them around too much.
The solution? I dunno. But different skin does not make people stupid so it is very likely that the sanity and reason can come from the ‘leaders’ in the ‘other’ community. They need to be convinced that the racist card is now being used for abuse. That might be a hard sell but toning that rhetoric down is necessary. We had an imbecile black MP (she’s still there) who claimed that folks were burning crosses on lawns in the interior. TOTALLY fabricated. Total lie. And this nincompoop had married a rich guy and had beoame a professor at one of our universities. She had never suffered a day in her spoiled-brat life. And yet she played the racist card a lot in the beginning until everyone told her shut the F up. Now she just sits in silence collecting her generous salary. My point: blacks and whites and FNs are not bad. But there is a battle of sorts going on and each side will fight dirty. The key is to stop the fight.
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so that means that the problem of the drug addicts camping in that park has been there for what…decades? And there is no solution for it? It is “tolerated”? That would never happen here, we have had similar problems in parks with fugitives, but if it gets out of hand (like too much violence, theft, drugs,…), then the park is “cleaned up” by the cops (yes, sometimes “manu military”, but only after negotiating with the people in the park for at least a few weeks). Then they are taken to shelters and solutions are trying to be found, only to find out over and over again that the majority of these people simply refuse help or are beyond help. So it “pops up” again in a different park or railroad station a few weeks later. Respect for the work you did at that time, can’t have been easy! I try to “do good” where ever I can, even if a drop on a hot plate won’t do much good…naieve, I know
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