In my continuing effort to keep things light even on the eve of a possible THIRD WORLD WAR, I am going to do a ‘dog-and-puppy’ show for a paragraph or two. The next bit is about Gus and Daisy and then a bit about the GIANT DOOFUS we have as a prime minister. But first the dogs.
Gus and Daisy are now 15 weeks old. They are handful of fun, energy, poop and learning. Armfuls, actually. Gus is about 33 pounds and, by the time I finish this sentence, he could be 34. Daisy is lighter and a more ‘feminine’ 28 or 29 pounds but she is growing equally as fast. They are healthy and very, very good.
Both dogs know their names. They do not always do as you request but at least they look at you when called. It used to be that calling ‘Gus!’ would get two heads lifting, calling ‘Daisy’ would achieve the same results. They seemed to think they were either/or. But lately, only the dog called looks up. That’s progress. Sal says, “That’s a better response than I get from you!”
But puppydom is kinda getting to us. A bit. Sal does more work, of course, but I am the Alpha Male after all, and I relish the role of white, male privilege I enjoy over puppies and squirrels. Dogs still respect men. What a breath of fresh air! Mind you, respect does not translate into obedience but we are working on it.
At 9:00 pm when the dogs go one last time to empty their bladders, Sal’s usually effective efforts to get them off their cushions and outside into the icy North winds, often are met with resistance. They are sleepy and lumpy at that time. She’ll then pick one up and take it outside as it slumps heavily in her arms and then, when she turns to get the other, the first one instantly finds enough energy to run back into the house. Because of my immensity and generally grouchy demeanor, they just come when I take them. Last night was an easy walk-in-the-dark to the mossy backyard and they both came perfectly but, of course, did not pee. Like I said, respect doesn’t necessarily translate into obedience or results. Still, they are only 15 weeks old. They are doing very well.
And now to those not doing as well as our Bernedoodle pups. Our top Doofus, Trudeau, made a point of stating that ‘we cannot risk going to war with Russia’. Of course, he was referring to NATO going to war because Canada cannot risk going to war with the Maldives. We keep our submarines dry and our helicopters on the ground! We sink warships to make artificial reefs and we can’t seem to buy fighter planes despite shopping for something like 30 years.
And the stupid part is not that we do not want to get into WW3 – that part is smart. But, when you state your own limitations, your resolve to NOT engage, that only encourages an aggressor. The one thing Putin had to worry about was somehow drawing NATO into the fight but Trudeau, bless his drama-teacher heart, had to make it clear that Putin could have his way with any non-NATO country and we would all stand by. No wonder Sweden and Finland decided to immediately apply to NATO for membership. Trudeau just gave tacit permission for Putin’s aggression anywhere NOT NATO. What a dickhead!
And this is not just my take. Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian president voiced the same feelings. “If you (NATO) do not declare the air above Ukraine as a no-fly zone, you are, effectively, giving Putin permission to kill us!”
Bullies will be bullies. We all know that. And contrary to popular belief, bullies ain’t weak or cowardly. Bullies usually bring some ‘tough’ to the table. The only thing that deters bullies in the least is to present a possible resistance and a possible resistance that is ready to be implemented imminently. In other words, bullies measure the air, the vibes and, if they only see fear, they are emboldened. If they sense even possible resistance, they have some doubts. Doubts cause hesitation. Hesitation is rooted in fear, their fear. Put more simply, when facing a bully, surrendering-in-advance is not advised. Surrendering out loud, in public, in front of the bully is just plain stupid.
Ukraine will likely fall. And the world, NATO, the EU, USA, G-7 and FOX News and Facebook will talk. And talk and talk and talk. And maybe talking is all we can do. We have leaders like Trudeau, after all. But the bully will have been successful and the bully will be emboldened. We can expect to see the bully to show up again.
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Carrying the dogs out at 9pm to pee will not be possible in a few months I guess at the pace they are gaining weight! But I think you have some nice progress after 15 weeks! Your place must be “dog heaven”, lots of room to wander,explore, play and lots of attention and food as cherry on the cake. I found out very quickly that our dogs only listens to me when there is food involved. As soon as I come near the fridge, he is very attentive, he listens, sits when I ask him to sit, even does some tricks. But once there is no food in the area, he simply does as he pleases, so listening is very low on his list.
As far as Trudeau is concerned, that is a really stupid move! Indeed, the biggest mistake you can make when facing a bully is to show that you are afraid. Generally, the bully will NOT show any compassion for you! It would be not so smart for NATO to get involved, because no one really wants WW3, but at least you can make very clear where the “do not cross” line is. It wont help Ukraine, but at least you make it very clear where the line is.
One thing I was positively surprised about, is that finally all European countries are on the same page. There are talks again about a European army, there is unity in the decisions about economical embargo’s (even if we are hurting ourselves right now with prices of oil and gas booming).
And even firm talks are being initiated about (finally) becoming more independent from Russian oil and gas. A similar program has been initiated in Europe about our own semiconductor production to become less dependent from China.
Unfortunately, it took a war in Ukraine to finally gets things moving in Europe (and not only the blablabla). I have never seen such quick actions and decisions as the last 2 weeks. And everything is back on the table (nuclear power plants, even coal fired plants to become independent of Russia)
So hopefully, Putin will back down, and Europe (and NATO) will take a stand and become hopefully a force to be reckoned with (both military and economically)
Hell, we might even invite Canada to become a member of the EU!
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Joining the EU would be good for us. For you? Maybe not so much. Mind you, we have wheat. We have water. We have lots of space in which to roam. But we are led by doofuses and dummkopfs.
Yeah, this place is truly a dog heaven but a heaven for dogs is still a heaven for humans who feel the pull of nature and living a healthy life. The dogs and we are all very, very lucky. And, as you know, I highly recommend it.
The thing about Putin is that he ‘different’. He thinks differently, he acts differently, he is mostly alone in his own world and he is surrounded by sycophants (The Trump way of being). That makes for easy decision making but not necessarily GOOD decision making. This invasion was bad decision making. Russia will suffer. Ukraine, sadly, will suffer more but to the Russian victor will go very little and the victor will have lost decades of cautiously-built relations with the world. Putin put the evil and isolation/rejection back in Russia.
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Trudeau’s inept military musings are genetic.
His father loathed the military and did everything in his power as PM to neuter them ( my dog segway ).
Papa Trudeau hated spending money on the military when there was a Katimavik project to fund.
Our only saving grace is the Russians pay more attention to the leader of the Maldives than an irrelevant, second generation, second rate ……..Trudeau….
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Trudeau also manifests so much hubris and conceit that he is embarking on a ‘tour’ of European nations for ‘talks’ with ‘leaders’. The truth is that he and Sophie want a vacation and pretending to be a statesman is his cover. I bet he doesn’t get past the doorman security. Why the hell would any European leader wanna talk to Justin that a text message can’t handle? And what’s he gonna say, “Hey! Ya wanna buy some little-used submarines?” Wadda dick!
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When do you have elections? and is there a better alternative to Trudeau (I sure hope there is). In Europe, we seem to lack “good” politicians, people with a vision that are not afraid to take difficult decisions baseb on a long term vision. maybe we have to ask Zelinski to emigrate to Europe or Canada when he loses the war
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Our elections come roughly every four years. But you are right, we have no real choices. So-called democracy actually allows the parties all the real choosing power. Some private club with a politically generic ‘name’ brand picks all the politicians who will run.
A really good person who might be a great leader but who is not a party member and ardent sycophant, has no chance democratically. The party won’t pick that person to run. Ergo, we only have a choice amongst three or four real parties and, historically, it has always been between just two. The other parties are always also-rans.
The perennial ‘winners’ come from the LIBERALs (not anymore liberal than anyone else but they GOT the name). Or the CONSERVATIVES (definitely not conservative in any way whatsoever). Bigoted, corrupt, inept, discriminatory and corporate-backed, they can’t very well call themselves what they are – the ‘Canadian Corruption Party’. Neither can the Liberals call themselves the ‘Elitist Spoiled Brat Party’. Sadly, the GREENS should now be called the Politically Correct, Issue-of-the-day Party. And, since I am saying it, there is very little NEW about the NEW DEMOCRATIC PARTY. But Same ol’, same ol’ Party doesn’t have much of a ring to it. If you have a choice of two, you have no choice. If you don’t like one, you HAVE to pick the other. We have a choice amongst four but, in essence and style, they are all much the same. They are usually lawyers. They have money. They worked their way up the party ranks, not community-measured ranks and they adhere to the ‘go-along-to-get-along’ rule and work hard only to get re-elected. A real leader has a vision and works hard to realize that vision whether people follow and assist or not. A real leader speaks the truth and let’s the chips fall where they may. A real leader puts the people ahead of the party. What kinda party wants that?
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A real leader like Dave Barrett in 1972, that would do for me.
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So basically you have the same problem as almost every Western and “democratic” country, no choice at all…
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Succinctly put.
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