Peter MacKay's departure sends shockwaves through Harper's Conservative party. It also signals the final schism between the Progressives and the Conservatives that were merged about 80years ago. It also signals the final victory of the the movement begun by Preston Manning and his Reform Party which sought to usurp the more moderate Conservatives into leaving for other parties. Its brand is now pure. It not only merged with the old Progressive Conservatives
It should be noted that over the past two decades that the Reform Movement begun its serial rebrandings to take over the Conservative trademark, the Liberal Party and yes the New Democratic Party(NDP) have moved far to their version of their right wing. They are internally more Conservative.
Although on opposite sides of the political frame the path of the NDP and Conservatives are almost identical. Both were founded on, or at least in major part the foundation of Western political reform movements. The NDP were founded on an alliance of the socialist CCF party and dissaffected Big "L" Liberals.
The stumbling Conservative movement in the Dirty Thirties merged with the Conservative half of the Progressive Party movement into the Progressive Conservative(PC). The merger of the Canadian Alliance (rebranded Reform Party) and old PCs in 2003 reflected two sides of the same coin. In each case the mainstream political hounds melded with the reform movements to gain their brand, and after a period of time expelled those reformers.
In the early 1970's, the NDP expelled Jame's Laxar Waffle which was a sub party conclave of upset socialists within that party that were pushing back the internal policy movement away from socialist leanings. Today's NDP is not a socialist organization. It is the Liberal rump that departed with Hazen Argue in the 1960s that dominates that party.
Similarly, although procedurally different the departure of MacKay symbolically defines the departure of the reform movement known as the Progressives, from the Harper ruled Conservatives. Whether this effects the ultimate result in the next October election is open to question. That election is still a long time away in politics. What can be said is that the century old political reform movements of the CCF and Progressives are now dead and buried with few young champions. Torches are not always past, sometimes they just burn out.
Sunday, May 31, 2015
Unda Der Vater, Da Deep Dirty Vater
Here's the situation. Aging public works that needs expensive rehabilitation and soon. Toronto's agony seems a lesson best not forgotten. Its all about the Gardiner Expressway. This is a major expressway, built in the 1950's which due to inadequate taxpayer funding regarding ongoing maintenance has aged far faster than the original plan.
Studies state that commuters face a delay of ten minutes on each one way travel during the work week days if the Gardiner disappears. The network of media and political punditicles use the term "Gridlock" to describe the resulting traffic jams. Indeed, one of the biggest vote grabbers for politicians involves the promise of reducing gridlock.
The problem involves the positively obvious fact that there are simply too many automobiles on the city infrastructure. Easily 9 out of 10 rush hour cars carry only a single human. As soon as public works builds a solution such as the Gardiner Expressway, it seems to fill up very fast and just as fast as when there was no solution.
Over the years, various solutions have been tried or encouraged. The first of these seems the most logical is public transit where instead of one person, one vehicle a larger single vehicle carries close to 100 people. Logic dictates that in doing this, one vehicle reduces one hundred. Or in the case of a subway or mass transit train, two thousand or more people which translates into the potential elimination of 1999 cars. In North America, this strategy has been an ongoing failure. The reason is that public transportation is a popular way to travel as long as its the other guy on the system.
The second major strategy to eliminate "gridlock" has been staggered working hours. This is a brilliant concept on paper. Presently people seem to get to work between 0800 and 0930hrs and depart between 1600 and 1800hrs, this puts a large number of people onto the mass transit beyond its capacity. And its not cost effective to build expensive public transit to the ideal rush hour capacity.
The staggered working hours though defy any reality. The reason one goes to work at such a time aims at being working with employees or other companies at work during that time also. Economic activity depends on efficient co-ordinated immediate contact transactions. Trade and commerce is a human activity. Staggering hours looks good on paper but defies simple humanity. Its a pointless commercial gimmick.
Since people maintain an addictive relationship with their cars, any action weaning them is doomed to failure. Each one of those adults votes. Forced removal from their cars, is a form of political suicide in a democracy. Heavens above witness the lack of willingness of political leaders to sacrifice their well paid careers for the self interest of the community or nation.
That's the basic transportation dilemma confronting Toronto City Council. Ironically though the people want to stay in their cars, as taxpayers they don't want to fund it to the point sufficient to maintain that facility.
Coming to how that effects the Gardiner Expressway. Any option is the best solution. Something does have to be done. Recognize one thing. That Expressway serves mostly people who do not pay city taxes, who live outside the borders of Toronto.
Two unnerving facts emerge from this controversy. First, I believe that all the budget estimates for any version of the project are way too low. History has proved that 4 out of 5 city projects have overrun the original budgets.
Read a number, a project estimate that is given, then automatically double it. If the hybrid solution that the present mayor wants suggests that it is going to cost $900M, its really going to cost $1.8B. The Spadina transit way, the St. Clair transit way, the trackage down Leslie to the new streetcar barns, the York University subway extension, Harbourfront rehabilitation, ... without exception all these projects have been grievously afflicted by gargantuan cost overruns.
The second unsettling facet of all the Gardiner, Don Valley Parkway reconstruction projects do not include the redirection of the mouth of the Don River. The sharp diversion of the Don immediately below the interchange lends to flooding in every heavy rain. Straightening out the flow channel or eliminating the ninety degree dogleg with a curving shape. Without including the redirection of the Don channel then the future designs of the Don Valley Parkway will continue to be flooded every heavy rain. Reconstructing the Gardiner, gives the opportunity to solve the traffic flow and the water flow. Ignoring the Don River problem will prove more costly for both projects if they continue to be segregated.
Studies state that commuters face a delay of ten minutes on each one way travel during the work week days if the Gardiner disappears. The network of media and political punditicles use the term "Gridlock" to describe the resulting traffic jams. Indeed, one of the biggest vote grabbers for politicians involves the promise of reducing gridlock.
The problem involves the positively obvious fact that there are simply too many automobiles on the city infrastructure. Easily 9 out of 10 rush hour cars carry only a single human. As soon as public works builds a solution such as the Gardiner Expressway, it seems to fill up very fast and just as fast as when there was no solution.
Over the years, various solutions have been tried or encouraged. The first of these seems the most logical is public transit where instead of one person, one vehicle a larger single vehicle carries close to 100 people. Logic dictates that in doing this, one vehicle reduces one hundred. Or in the case of a subway or mass transit train, two thousand or more people which translates into the potential elimination of 1999 cars. In North America, this strategy has been an ongoing failure. The reason is that public transportation is a popular way to travel as long as its the other guy on the system.
The second major strategy to eliminate "gridlock" has been staggered working hours. This is a brilliant concept on paper. Presently people seem to get to work between 0800 and 0930hrs and depart between 1600 and 1800hrs, this puts a large number of people onto the mass transit beyond its capacity. And its not cost effective to build expensive public transit to the ideal rush hour capacity.
The staggered working hours though defy any reality. The reason one goes to work at such a time aims at being working with employees or other companies at work during that time also. Economic activity depends on efficient co-ordinated immediate contact transactions. Trade and commerce is a human activity. Staggering hours looks good on paper but defies simple humanity. Its a pointless commercial gimmick.
Since people maintain an addictive relationship with their cars, any action weaning them is doomed to failure. Each one of those adults votes. Forced removal from their cars, is a form of political suicide in a democracy. Heavens above witness the lack of willingness of political leaders to sacrifice their well paid careers for the self interest of the community or nation.
That's the basic transportation dilemma confronting Toronto City Council. Ironically though the people want to stay in their cars, as taxpayers they don't want to fund it to the point sufficient to maintain that facility.
Coming to how that effects the Gardiner Expressway. Any option is the best solution. Something does have to be done. Recognize one thing. That Expressway serves mostly people who do not pay city taxes, who live outside the borders of Toronto.
Two unnerving facts emerge from this controversy. First, I believe that all the budget estimates for any version of the project are way too low. History has proved that 4 out of 5 city projects have overrun the original budgets.
Read a number, a project estimate that is given, then automatically double it. If the hybrid solution that the present mayor wants suggests that it is going to cost $900M, its really going to cost $1.8B. The Spadina transit way, the St. Clair transit way, the trackage down Leslie to the new streetcar barns, the York University subway extension, Harbourfront rehabilitation, ... without exception all these projects have been grievously afflicted by gargantuan cost overruns.
The second unsettling facet of all the Gardiner, Don Valley Parkway reconstruction projects do not include the redirection of the mouth of the Don River. The sharp diversion of the Don immediately below the interchange lends to flooding in every heavy rain. Straightening out the flow channel or eliminating the ninety degree dogleg with a curving shape. Without including the redirection of the Don channel then the future designs of the Don Valley Parkway will continue to be flooded every heavy rain. Reconstructing the Gardiner, gives the opportunity to solve the traffic flow and the water flow. Ignoring the Don River problem will prove more costly for both projects if they continue to be segregated.
Sunday mourning humor and phone communications
Due to the lack of any comedy shows on Sunday mornings, the Fox News planked some thoughtless, self absorbed fool, to anchor their Sunday morning programming. They are egregiously pro-Republican neo-Conservative. And they highlight just how screwed up modern right wing Conservatives are. Its a feel good program. They are so stupid anything and everything they say makes me look spectacularly intelligent.
Observation
This segment of the political spectrum are gung-ho about applying blanket unfocused electronic surveillance to deter terrorism. The Conservatives are all for the spending of money on trying to do that. It looks good on paper. Just how cost effective it is, can be and should be questioned.
It makes intelligence agencies lazy, however that's a sidebar issue. Every time that there is a large failure of intelligence gathering, there has been a previous period where that particular intelligence service has lived a period wholly dependent on electronic fact gathering. Everything owns some sort of side bar.
Paradoxically, the Conservative types also dive into an Olympic sized pool of liquid apoplexy when they find out that blanket includes them. They are outraged. In the future, Conservatives should change the law determining the coverage of the blanket. Anyone who voted Conservative should be exempt from that blanket coverage because it is an invasion of the privacy of the good.
Observation
This segment of the political spectrum are gung-ho about applying blanket unfocused electronic surveillance to deter terrorism. The Conservatives are all for the spending of money on trying to do that. It looks good on paper. Just how cost effective it is, can be and should be questioned.
It makes intelligence agencies lazy, however that's a sidebar issue. Every time that there is a large failure of intelligence gathering, there has been a previous period where that particular intelligence service has lived a period wholly dependent on electronic fact gathering. Everything owns some sort of side bar.
Paradoxically, the Conservative types also dive into an Olympic sized pool of liquid apoplexy when they find out that blanket includes them. They are outraged. In the future, Conservatives should change the law determining the coverage of the blanket. Anyone who voted Conservative should be exempt from that blanket coverage because it is an invasion of the privacy of the good.
Wednesday, May 13, 2015
FA Day two: Withdrawal continues
Day two. No Face Book for two whole days. Handling it rather well. Unfortunately no one else in the group FA (FaceBookies Anonymosity).
The entire compulsion is to write snappy comments. Tweeter sucks. It only allows a maximum 140 characters. What's with that. The brown streak on a run of toilet paper stretches longer than that.
Ol Buddy. He, from the looks of it the only one I got left out of the whole schmozilane sequence of events. Old Buddy relayed by email that yes indeed that CNN had said that FaceBook was selecting those who supported Omar Khadr furiously got turfed from the service.
The excuse was that by supporting Khadr I supported terrorism. Nothing of the kind. I supported strongly the idea that he was shot in the back, imprisoned wrongly because according to the United Nations that poor guy, another Canadian citizen, was at the time a Child Soldier.
Some guy from Detroit, with a fake identity decided to counteract that statement by calling me a moron. So first I told him that it was an internal Canadian issue and Americans weren't welcome and that he was a racist goof.
I was going by his profile picture where he conveyed an image of being a Christian Crusader. Crusaders being positively anti-Islamic. Its very hypocritical to promote the suppression of antisemitism which I encourage, and on the other hand be anti-Islamic. I worked for employers from both cultures and both were okay to work for. Except one. He wanted someone to marry his daughter. There were three of us and the boss kept the one who tried to date his daughter. Really strange.
The reality is so distant from the libelous myths that one group says about another. And the fundamentalist Christians chime in about how ruthless Islam is. They tend. No. Christians forget the brutal regimes of the Inquisition, the suppression of the Cathars, and the massacre of the Templars. There was only one St. Francis of Assisi.
If Khadr was from a well off old world British family Canada and its leadership would fall over themselves to give the poor kid another chance. But his skin is brown, his dad was a jihadist, and he was pressed into Al Qaeda as a child soldier. Regardless, if true I believe that FaceBook is working for the American Government in its campaign to make this one young man the poster boy for all the American problems.
Anyhow, the administrators ignored the fact that the commentator simply called me a moron. Instead I believe, because I was an advocate for the civil rights that Khadr was entitled to, the rights every Canadian citizen is entitled to, some racist prick working for FaceBook in Palo Alto decided to block access to FaceBook and closed my account.
FaceBook dislikes free speech as much as any other bunch of racist hypocrites.
Hooray.
The entire compulsion is to write snappy comments. Tweeter sucks. It only allows a maximum 140 characters. What's with that. The brown streak on a run of toilet paper stretches longer than that.
Ol Buddy. He, from the looks of it the only one I got left out of the whole schmozilane sequence of events. Old Buddy relayed by email that yes indeed that CNN had said that FaceBook was selecting those who supported Omar Khadr furiously got turfed from the service.
The excuse was that by supporting Khadr I supported terrorism. Nothing of the kind. I supported strongly the idea that he was shot in the back, imprisoned wrongly because according to the United Nations that poor guy, another Canadian citizen, was at the time a Child Soldier.
Some guy from Detroit, with a fake identity decided to counteract that statement by calling me a moron. So first I told him that it was an internal Canadian issue and Americans weren't welcome and that he was a racist goof.
I was going by his profile picture where he conveyed an image of being a Christian Crusader. Crusaders being positively anti-Islamic. Its very hypocritical to promote the suppression of antisemitism which I encourage, and on the other hand be anti-Islamic. I worked for employers from both cultures and both were okay to work for. Except one. He wanted someone to marry his daughter. There were three of us and the boss kept the one who tried to date his daughter. Really strange.
The reality is so distant from the libelous myths that one group says about another. And the fundamentalist Christians chime in about how ruthless Islam is. They tend. No. Christians forget the brutal regimes of the Inquisition, the suppression of the Cathars, and the massacre of the Templars. There was only one St. Francis of Assisi.
If Khadr was from a well off old world British family Canada and its leadership would fall over themselves to give the poor kid another chance. But his skin is brown, his dad was a jihadist, and he was pressed into Al Qaeda as a child soldier. Regardless, if true I believe that FaceBook is working for the American Government in its campaign to make this one young man the poster boy for all the American problems.
Anyhow, the administrators ignored the fact that the commentator simply called me a moron. Instead I believe, because I was an advocate for the civil rights that Khadr was entitled to, the rights every Canadian citizen is entitled to, some racist prick working for FaceBook in Palo Alto decided to block access to FaceBook and closed my account.
FaceBook dislikes free speech as much as any other bunch of racist hypocrites.
Hooray.
Monday, May 11, 2015
Facebook: the World 'Cordin' to Zuck the F'ck
Four years ago, I almost got knocked off FaceBook. This morning the same thing happened. Some obscure Palo Alto cyber gnome sent me an alert to say that a comment had been deleted. The problem was that I didn't know exactly which.
One sore point was where some Yankee from Detroit weighed in on Khadr. The guys avatar painted him a Christian Crusader. His retort was to simply call me a moron. Okay, but substantiate it.
Here's what I found in all the attacks on Omar Khadr's release. First, without exception they are ignorant people, usually Conservatives or American Republicans and their entire comments involve name calling and catch phrases. Face facts, Americans are a racist culture, white and black inclusive. However they want to apply their racism north of the border and will block off any view that seems effectively anti-American. FaceBook after all serves the USA globally and that's the working reality.
He just called names. I looked at his FaceBook page. One I told him that the Omar Khadr affair was an internal Canadian affair, then I checked his FaceBook Page which carried the Crusader or an anti-islamic shield, I then called him a racist goof. Well perhaps the FaceBook adjudicator, another American racist residing in Palo Alto California, decided to ban or in their lovely phrase "Deactivate your Account." Which they did.
But FaceBook censorship is the biggest bully of all. It deletes or criticizes comments according to charges from someone or anyone with no ample effort to request a defense from the accused. For one thing I don't know if I am out of line. Without referring to the actual comment, its hard to define whether a person exceeded some limit. Americans take offence very easily. Its a very low bar.
However their bar allowing comments against Islamic people, or anyone with Liberal affiliation seems very high. Conservatives can call people names and make racist comments without fear on FaceBook. About three years ago I complained about a Conservative American making a racist comment on a topic that was definitely not according to the Conservative world that Zuckerboy is trying to instill but the only reply was that this wasn't racist, nor offensive. It was a really bad judgement.
But here is the second problem, I am not sure. Here's why. About six months before the last federal election, a couple hundred of Conservative volunteers and sometimes paid cyber operatives activate phony FaceBook accounts and begin trashing anything that isn't Conservative. The last time I ran afoul of the Facebook censor, in fact everytime, was when I took after those phony critics. With practice, over the years I've got quite good at coming back at their blatant lies and slanderous nicknames. For every Lieberals they puked up, I countered with a Con-Troll. Yes I invented that nickname.
Here is the problem, Liberal thinking peoples don't gang up like the Conservative bullies do. Over time they have learned to gang up on other posters that defend their positions opposite of their conservative views. If a person proves effective they gang up to complain about that person and have them banned despite the fact that most of their identities are phony. FaceBook never cancels those phony accounts. Any Liberal accounts they ban or deactivate without a second thought.
So going into the next election remember one thing... FaceBook permits Con-Trolls not their liberal critics. Anything that goes through FaceBook should be considered with a severe conservative bias.
That is the problem, FaceBook doesn't quite tell you. Its a feudal empire with Zuck the F'ck as emperor. Any judgement they render is always done by secret deliberation. So you can't tell whether one went over a line or this is just another political gambit by the Conservative Party cyber hitmen secreted over the internet.
One sore point was where some Yankee from Detroit weighed in on Khadr. The guys avatar painted him a Christian Crusader. His retort was to simply call me a moron. Okay, but substantiate it.
Here's what I found in all the attacks on Omar Khadr's release. First, without exception they are ignorant people, usually Conservatives or American Republicans and their entire comments involve name calling and catch phrases. Face facts, Americans are a racist culture, white and black inclusive. However they want to apply their racism north of the border and will block off any view that seems effectively anti-American. FaceBook after all serves the USA globally and that's the working reality.
He just called names. I looked at his FaceBook page. One I told him that the Omar Khadr affair was an internal Canadian affair, then I checked his FaceBook Page which carried the Crusader or an anti-islamic shield, I then called him a racist goof. Well perhaps the FaceBook adjudicator, another American racist residing in Palo Alto California, decided to ban or in their lovely phrase "Deactivate your Account." Which they did.
But FaceBook censorship is the biggest bully of all. It deletes or criticizes comments according to charges from someone or anyone with no ample effort to request a defense from the accused. For one thing I don't know if I am out of line. Without referring to the actual comment, its hard to define whether a person exceeded some limit. Americans take offence very easily. Its a very low bar.
However their bar allowing comments against Islamic people, or anyone with Liberal affiliation seems very high. Conservatives can call people names and make racist comments without fear on FaceBook. About three years ago I complained about a Conservative American making a racist comment on a topic that was definitely not according to the Conservative world that Zuckerboy is trying to instill but the only reply was that this wasn't racist, nor offensive. It was a really bad judgement.
But here is the second problem, I am not sure. Here's why. About six months before the last federal election, a couple hundred of Conservative volunteers and sometimes paid cyber operatives activate phony FaceBook accounts and begin trashing anything that isn't Conservative. The last time I ran afoul of the Facebook censor, in fact everytime, was when I took after those phony critics. With practice, over the years I've got quite good at coming back at their blatant lies and slanderous nicknames. For every Lieberals they puked up, I countered with a Con-Troll. Yes I invented that nickname.
Here is the problem, Liberal thinking peoples don't gang up like the Conservative bullies do. Over time they have learned to gang up on other posters that defend their positions opposite of their conservative views. If a person proves effective they gang up to complain about that person and have them banned despite the fact that most of their identities are phony. FaceBook never cancels those phony accounts. Any Liberal accounts they ban or deactivate without a second thought.
So going into the next election remember one thing... FaceBook permits Con-Trolls not their liberal critics. Anything that goes through FaceBook should be considered with a severe conservative bias.
That is the problem, FaceBook doesn't quite tell you. Its a feudal empire with Zuck the F'ck as emperor. Any judgement they render is always done by secret deliberation. So you can't tell whether one went over a line or this is just another political gambit by the Conservative Party cyber hitmen secreted over the internet.
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