November 11, 2012

It takes decades and generations

to build the kind of high quality manufacturing infrastructure that the US (and Canada ) have/had. It takes decades and generations to create a skilled working class with good paying jobs and humane labor standards. Yet it takes only the swipe of a pen to sell it all off for a quick buck, lining the pockets of a few.

And once its gone, it is assumed that it is too impractical or expensive to rebuild it all.

November 9, 2012

Occupy's message is more relevent now than ever.

Lets hope that the 'fiscal cliff' doesn't produce a grand bargain that hurts the most vulnerable, or keeps wasting money on a bloated military, and subsidizing big business.

Climate change was right up in everyone's face last week with hurricane Sandy; might be good time to kill the Keystone pipeline for good, and examine public infrastructure, and investment into alternative energy sources too.

Marijuana got legalized in 2 states, maybe its time to examine the costly war on drugs. Soon it'll be cabinet shuffling time, so its a perfect opportunity to get rid of the incompetent Eric Holder. Maybe its time to give homeland security a bit of a haircut too (The police have enough urban-tanks).

Its also a good time to protect and ensure a free and public internet, so that citizen journalists can continue to capture '47% moments' and continue to do the job that the mainstream media doesn't.

Now that Obama is reelected, and some progressive Dems will reinforce congress, now is the time to push for promises to be kept, and bold initiatives to be introduced towards the future sustainability of people, not corporate interests.

November 9, 2012

Lets hear it for citizen journalism!

Fact is: if not for this employee taking the risks of filming and releasing this amateur clip, the election might have gone differently.

The other fact is that the MSM is incapable and unwilling to investigate or expose anything anymore, in lieu of spewing massaged press releases for 'access', and towing the corporate line for big bucks.

The 47% tape, and coverage of the Arab spring, OWS, police brutality etc further prove that we need citizen journalists, and a free and public internet, more now than ever.

September 30, 2012

Profiles of (marginal) Canadians: Eddie Shack!

When I was a little kid, my favorite hockey player was Eddie Shack (#23). Its not because he was all that great, in fact by the time I became a fan of his, he was already the Joe Shlabotnik of Hockey. The first time I met Eddie was when I was in grade 1, and he came to our school to promote reading. Shack was basically illiterate. He was an apprentice meat cutter who tried out for the OHA on lark, thinking that he didn't have a chance, and would just go back to becoming a butcher. Instead, he won 4 cups with the leafs, and became a fan favorite.

Clear the track, here comes Shack! by the Secrets

Takes out the glass and starts a fight


Picks a fight with the St. Louis Blues and then chickens out


Becomes a spokesperson for just about everything because of his fun character



*just in the mood for some random nostalgia today!

September 27, 2012

Come Nov 7th

Obama will be in the white house, and hopefully more Dems in congress. But the religious right, purveyors of war, Wall street elite and the army of corporate lobbyists aren't about to give up. Casting a ballot is an essential first step in prevent a Republican catastrophe, but thats only the beginning.

Come November 7th, push left. Push HARD left, and keep pushing, so that maybe if we're lucky we'll see something that resembles what used to be the center. On Nov 7 2016, it might be Jeb smiling and waving, so a lot of work must be done before then.

The president and congress (and likely a supreme court pick) must be pushed leftward to address:
the environmental crisis that we are in.
They must be pushed left to restore civil liberties that have been eroded over the last 11 years.
They must be pushed left to create jobs that are sustainable and meaningful.
They must be pushed left to accept that 'market based solutions' and trade agreements are creating an extreme amount of wealth for the very few, and are simply a re-branding of "trickle down" economics.
They must be pushed left to accept that capitalism as we know it is deeply flawed and getting worse, and band aids aren't enough anymore.

As individuals it is incumbent upon each one of us to hold elected representatives feet to the fire. It is also incumbent upon every person to reevaluate whether their worth is calculated by the contents of their wallets, or the contents of their hearts. Every person who has a stake in the future should start realizing the status quo is crashing, and its up to us to decide whether we want to crash and burn, or manage a soft landing.

September 5, 2012

The game is much bigger now.

The stakes are higher, and the whole world is involved. Never before have so many people been able to communicate and organize, and never before has the right to communicate and organize been more important and at risk. If a free and open Internet ever falls to corporate control, then the 1% gain our greatest tool. If civil liberties continue to be curtailed in the guise of 'security', than the 1% will never fear retribution for their corruption.

These rights are bigger than political parties, as are the just grievances of an educated and connected generation that can now discuss corruption, examine propaganda and question the entire system that previous generations were resigned to accept as intrinsically unchangeable. What scares the PTB the most is not that people will temporarily snub the sugar coating, but that they'll realize that what their eating is economic,social and environmental soylent green.

August 28, 2012

without politicizing it, I think you bring up some good points.

We don't have a scarcity problem, we have a distribution problem on this planet. The concept of job was relevant when each person had to contribute mostly physical labour to scrape from the earth a basic existence. We're 100 years past that, but are conditioned to believe that not working = laziness.

And when you stop to consider that many of our jobs are derived from immoral endeavors such as militarism, spying on one another, imprisoning others, swindling, producing junk that uses up natural resources, and trading imaginary numbers through financial markets; most of our jobs are quite unnecessary.

However, I can't imagine what it would take for people to seriously reassess their values and the system as a whole.

August 27, 2012

Classic conservative modus operandi.

Take something that works. Break it. Impose market based "solutions".

step 1 Throw some red meat to your authoritarian base: Pass tougher sentences, and mandatory minimums.
step 2 Be 'fiscally conservative' and close prisons, only to have over crowding in remaining prisons.
step 3 Invite Geo Group to build private for-profit prisons.

http://404systemerror.com/lobbyists-behind-omnibus-crime-bill-aimed-at-privatizing-prisons/

http://404systemerror.com/geo-canada/

June 21, 2012

Some reassuring words from Shlabotnik's Inner Voice

I want you to know you're getting better.
I don't care what everyone's been saying, you're getting better.

They’re the ones who've been getting worse!

And they don't like what you've been doing; understandably.
You think they can watch you strip yourself of one unnecessary thing after another?
Day by day becoming more, so to speak, naked, more free, and not feel the way they do?
- Of course not.

Its painful to get rid of things you don’t need, and they know it.
They wouldn't be saying what they have been saying, if they didn’t want you to stop!
They want you to be the way they are, and to stay that way!
You think they can stand to see you not doing what they’re doing?

Why do you think you are being investigated right now? Hm?
Why do you think you are under maximum security? You know the answer; I don’t have to tell you.

They’re afraid of you.
Its that simple. They’re afraid of you because you’re becoming less and less like them.
I’ll tell you what’s happening to you. You’re becoming closer and closer to the ‘Far Away’, closer to the unknown. Do you think they like that? Not on your life!

So don't get nervous and start asking for help,
that's Exactly what they want you to do.

Make it on your own, the way you've been doing!

And Remember, You’re Getting Better!

Excuse me now, I have to go. I’ll just dissolve right here in front of you. See ya.

**********
ahhhhhhhh, much better now

April 30, 2012

You are correct in that the failure is all around.

I believe it is systemic. We have a had a failure of leadership since the 1980's in both the Conservatives (egregiously) and Liberal (more sublime). And I agree that the NDP failed by not speaking out about the bailout at the time also, because to do so would not have been politically expedient (ie further casting them as the dreaded socialists and weakening their drive towards the centre.)

In the past when great national challenges arose, Canada had the leadership to confront those tasks. Whether through linking the country by rail, and later by the Trans-Canada highway, being early players in nuclear energy and aviation or by confronting the fuel crisis in the 1970's, by creating Petro-Canada. They were bold, risky and visionary steps taken, and were not handouts to the banking industry that we are now beholden to. They were investments to our infrastructure and future generations, not a band-aid solution used to stabilize one bubble only to create a debt nightmare down the road.

Similarly there is great failure of Canadian citizens by being gullible, disinterested and self serving and not demanding both visionary and transparent leadership and also a vibrant antagonistic press. It is deeply disturbing that as you state, "Despite Access to Information requests for the data, the Bank of Canada refuses to release it,". However the Globe and Mail did run a small article about this a few years back, and alternative media did cover the story. The initial $76 billion was not a secret. The established media in this country decided on behalf of Canadians that it was either not important enough, or that Canadians wouldn't/shouldn't care.

As much as I like to skewer the Conservatives, it is true that there is enough blame to go around.