Tipping points? Catalyzing events? Who knows, but……ya really gotta read: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/aug/23/portland-oregon-clashes-protests-proud-boys-antifascist?utm_term=f9ff0b6d1bcd2e302e4c8712d965ae27&utm_campaign=GuardianTodayUS&utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&CMP=GTUS_email
Are the pictures a harbinger of things to come? Are they just reflections of the ‘mood’ since Trump was president? Do Proud Boys battling Antifa in the streets of Portland mean anything? People shooting at each other….well, that is status quo in the USA, really. Police nowhere to be seen? The Mayor exhorting everyone to ‘choose love’. All that in Portland, no less!?
In California, the governor is under a recall campaign and currently the leading opposing candidate is a right-wing, anti-vaxxing, pro-Trump, anti-BLM man by the name of Larry Elder. Good ol’ Larry is black. It is hard to make this crap up. But is it really a portent of things to come or just another California nutty situation?
The Taliban took over Kabul with less violence than the US police inflict on a single black man daring to go for a drive (altho that will likely change over time). And, not surprisingly, our own Montreal police do much the same thing in Canada. https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/montreal-man-files-complaint-against-police-again-after-alleged-driving-while-black-incident-1.5438316. But the police were chastened….will they keep being cruel and stupid or was that just a few aberrant cops in a force of really good folks?
I suppose much of all that can be ignored as ‘just more news’. After all, ignoring all that stuff is what we have done, mostly. It happens. Life is messy. Next thing you know, another school bus goes over another cliff, a flood takes out a town, so does another forest fire, a new pandemic emerges, more politicians fiddle while doing nothing, the water becomes unsafe from contamination, arsenic, oil-spill or nuclear accident……the list is endless. Same ol’, same old?
The real question, for me, is there actually more of it now? Or is this the way it has always been? Are we at a tipping point? Really? Or just carrying on as we have? Or, maybe I am just noticing it more, social media hyping more crap-news, everyone is riding the ‘like and subscribe’ button, lies and spectacle just have more appeal? I really do not know if I am just getting old and ‘fed-up’ or if there is an increase in the madness. Do you?
Here’s what I think: I think life on Earth has always been chaotic and corrupt, dangerous and dumb, ugly and dark. “Life is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short” (Thomas Hobbes). Maybe we can add: ……and, when exploited for perverse reasons, it can also make a buck? (Zuckerberg)
After all, the USA has created a culture around violence, corruption, greed, spectacle and ugly and they are still the wealthiest country in the world. “Coming to a theater near you: Thomas Hobbes in Technicolor and Panavision. Life as you have never seen it before! Starring Kim Kardashian, Donald Trump and the supporting cast from the Taliban together with the Proud Boys. Brought to you by Big Oil, Big Pharma and MIC International (the Military Industrial Complex).
I am saying: most of this horror show may possibly just be more of the same only writ larger by Social Media.
To me, the only REAL story is Climate Change. I’d talk more about that but I really want to go see more of Kim Kardashian’s latest butt pictures. C’mon….!
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Do I detect a little rascism if you have to mention that Larry Elder is black.
that has nothing to do with anything.
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I KNOW you are joking, right? I mentioned it because Larry Elder is against BLM! He does not think Black Lives Matter is a just cause. He thinks black people cause all the crime. He thinks all black fathers are irresponsible. He is a racist! I think it is relevant to mention his colour in this context, don’t you? It would be like encountering a Jew who is anti-Semitic or a misogynistic woman. Of course, there are plenty of Jews against Israel or Woman against the Feminist movement – and, in a way, that is almost commendable in that they are not simply following their cultural script. Obviously, they are thinking for themselves (albeit erroneously). But it is also noteworthy when that happens. Well, it is noteworthy to me. In fact, it is noteworthy to the reporters following Elder.
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Ooooooppssss…I think I went for a well-placed colorful lure…..re-reading ‘John’ reminded me of John-from-Alberta. Zat you, John? Good one! Glad to see you and your anti-liberal ways back on the comment section. Got your vaccine yet? Commenting from the ICU, are ya? Hope you pull through (honest). And I hope your mom keeps your room in the basement for you, too. You are SUCH a rascal, John (but you GOT me. I gotta give you that).
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Totally off subject but
Looks like Prime Minister Trudeau is discovering that …THIS time around he cant rely on Daddy’s name and his own youthful, photogenic appearance.
Seems the tide is turning.
The fat , bald, O’Toole is gaining in the linchpin province of Ontario…
And next week, the pr disaster that is the Afghanistan “evacuation”, will be over and for the next few weeks of the election after that … the world will hear and see the Taliban execute various army interpreters on the internet.
Trudeau buried by his own politically correct, waffling, bureaucrats.
Isn’t it ironic.
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Couldn’t happen to a fake-nicer guy. I would love to see the Libs and Cons in a dead-heat tie and the balance of power going to the lesser-number MPs of the NDP or well…..geez….I guess it has to be the NDP….the Greens are too concerned with the Palestinians and Israel (quite ironic at a time when the climate is coming undone). I really think the NDP are just as moribund and as ‘set-in’-their-ways’ and offer very little in the way of needed change but Canada is better off with a minority government when all the parties are a waste of time.
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$600 million in tax dollars on an election that will get us right back to where we started..
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With luck Trudeau will lose some seats or even O’Toole will get a few more than the Libs. And the NDP will hold the balance of power…..not that genius will result but at least Trudeaus gonads will hurt and maybe drive him out of politics. After all, there are all sorts of theater roles to audition for…….
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