mapleleafrag-blog

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To call these impeachment hearings a circus is an insult to circuses everywhere.

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Think. The same people who gave us Pearl Harbour, Vietnam, 911 and "It's a slam dunk!" are the same people who demand that we fire the President because he does not agree with them. I wish his predecessors had disagreed with them more often. We would all be better off, richer and a lot of good people still alive.

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Just when I thought that the elite takes care of its own, there is a move afoot in the UK to tax frequent flyers and their air miles. Apparently, this will be yet another of the myriad ways they wish to devise to torment us into fighting climate change. Now, I cannot think of a person more likely to be a card carrying member of the elite of any country than a frequent flyer. With a program like that, we'll see soon enough how much that type of person, who almost always screams the loudest at those of us that are not adequately Woke to Climate Change, is willing to cough up to support their principles. I'm guessing their pals in Parliament (who also tend to fly a lot last time I checked) will find some workaround so that we privates in their War against Civilization as we know it will, once more, take up the Generals' burden of conscience. I'm guessing a kind of "Gold Carbon Bomb Pass Card" that can only be bought for the price of a Tesla.

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She called Letwin an "Insurance Policy" (against just what) and expressed her regret that the PM did not put the Deal up for a vote yesterday as he would have found that there is a "fragile but sincere coalition" in support of it. She must think that our intellect and maturity are too fragile to recognize her perfidy when we see it or she's insulting our intelligence. Certainly, words like sincere out of the mouth of someone like her (the one who stormed out of cabinet because of prorogation and the chance of no deal when she signed on to Cabinet promising to support the PM's pledge to get out Deal or No Deal) should taste like ash.

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Tesla - A Lifelong Investment

The replacement battery for a Tesla is...$32000.00!

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It did not occur to Mr. James that plenty of spiritual, physical and financial damage is done to not only the people of Hong Kong (who also buy his and the NBA's goods) but to the poor benighted people of Chinese by the boil on humanity called "the Chinese State" without the oral intervention of a basketball team executive. But it is apparently good for the soul to "shut up and dribble".

Enes Kanter, a Turkish player for the Boston Celtics, knows a little about oppression. He hasn't been able to see his family for 10 years, his relatives cannot get jobs and his "homeland" tried to kidnap him in Indonesia. His advice to his NBA colleagues - "Freedom is not free". Mr. Kanter also helpfully reminds us that, occasionally, even athletes can inform us about current events.

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A friend of mine pointed out that, in 1972, the Stanfield Tories lost barely to the Trudeau Liberal Government because of the rise of the youth vote. Even without reckoning for the new 18-20 cadre, the youth vote rose almost 8%. In an election that was determined by a handful of ridings, this had to have told. And this Golden Age of young voting continued throughout the 70's and early 80's (and the Grits won 3 of 4 votes then). But it collapsed in the 1984 election when the Mulroney PC's won their first landslide since 1958.

Then, after the Harper Tories finally won a tory majority for the first time since 1988 in 2011, the Liberals roared back from being Third to majority government in 2015. The youth vote soared almost 20% at the same time. The key fact - only half of the 4 million vote increase in the Liberal bag must have come from the other parties. The other half came from voters who had not voted in 2011. Almost certainly young Trudeaumaniacs. (meanwhile, incredibly, the Tory vote was not even 300000 less tha in 20011 but they lost 80 seats!)

My friend's point, if the very personal Trudeau scandals and especially the Blackface scandal turns these voters off enough, they may vote for  a PC alternative like the sgtrangely competent seeming and nice looking Singh or just stay home. If they do, it's not only curtains for the Trudeau Liberals but Scheer may be able to measure the curtains for 4 years in 24 Sussex (if it's ever ready to live in again).

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What I'd like to ask the parodist and SNL Wannabe, Adam Schiff, Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee (and therefore a walking oxymoron) is: what is the difference between Trump's call and Biden's call with the Ukraine? For, if DT's was a "mafia shakedown", as Schiff suggests, Biden's was the horse's head in the bed (and by his own bragging publicly stated admissions of as long as THREE years ago!).

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And, just 2 weeks before the election and the day of the Great Debate, while we contemplate whether Donald Trump could call up Scheer... to the Marines, we ask ourselves just what do we care about. Now, there are almost certainly some out there who care that Andrew Scheer could be denied entry to the US if he renounces his citizenship. But I have a feeling that Nick Nanos, in polling the issues, did not list resume-padding, citizenship status for PM's or minstrelsy fetishes with the other issues he wished to offer for our prioritization.

But, he did "find" that no less than 22%, the biggest single number, of the populus that can vote and is conscious chose Climate Change as its top concern. Now this is interesting. I did not read the poll that is repeatedly cited. I do not know what issues were set along side it. For instance were economic issues divided, as they so often are, into Taxes, the Budget or Public Finances, "the Economy", Jobs and/or Pipelines? But, it would also be impressive if this was the performance of Climate Change even if "the Environment" was another choice in the same poll.

What is even more interesting is that, even if the other issues were perfectly balanced in their presentation, the number is so low. Think about it. A minister of the crown ergo the PM, the UN and Greta Thunberg not to mention almost the entire elite of the country, including the objective Press have not only been telling us for since Gore won his Oscar that Climate Change is an "emergency" and that we face "mass extinction" or at least something called "catastrophic" effects in 12 years but also that we are Climate nazis if we dare to think otherwise, and the number is barely twice that of the usual Green Party support in a given poll. Shouldn't it be 92%? How can this be? What does it all really mean?

First, I suspect that, much like with Trump, Ford, CAQ, Brexit and other causes, candidates and parties we are not supposed to be allowed by our betters to even muse about supporting, we are shy about admitting that we do not care about climate change as much as, say, our kid's grade 10 Science teacher does. Recall that, when you are answering a poll, you may suspect dubiously that the person on the other line may report you to the Climate Change Big Brother HotLine. But, you DO know that your family and friends, who are sitting at the dining room table down the hall, can hear you. Bake in an effect like that and, before you know it, Climate Change is falling below Hockey equipment credits in priority.

Second, it is likely that a large proportion of the people who are reporting this answer are either people who are too young to vote or too old to care. If you're young, you are definitely more likely to care about something that your favourite rap artist says will kill you in 12 years but you're also still least likely to vote. In any case, in a slight digression, I point out that, 12 years from now, when those ex-youths are un- or underemployed because we adopted the ruinous economic policies demanded by Thunberg, Paris and Company to combat climate change, they may care much less about it.

The other group that I suspect is oversampled in the 22% are senior citizens. When you have your mortgage paid off, a good pension and no kids to worry about, what else is there to fixate on? And, if the balloon goes up in 12 years for the economy and society as we know it because we decided to adopt UN policies and eradicate whole sectors of the economy (including electricity for God's sake!), well, the senior will have made his bones and can buy a dynamo to keep warm by themselves or they'll be dead and so, prioritize the heck out of that new fangled climate change. They do vote and vote most often, but does anyone believe that they are less likely, say, to vote to protect their OAS being means tested than they are to put solar panels on our BBQ's?

And that brings me to the most important point of all: people do not care. At least, normal people who are not in politics, not in a relevant government ministry of Environmental Harmony, Light and Brotherhood, not in the overwhelmingly Green Press or not in a field, career or profession (or interest group) that cares about this stuff. Does anyone believe for example that Esso cares, despite its late advertising protestations? Seriously, I would like to get a hold of Nanos and ask him, when (aside from people from the young, the old and the groups mentioned) have you ever seen or heard someone come up to you and say or write - "Please, Nick, you've got to use your clout and influence as a big pollster and save us all from Climate Change!" More likely, if he had visited Fort MacMurray lately, he might be literally accosted by people desperately pleading with him to poll how people would prioritize climate change if their job was jeopardized by action on it. If he had visited Kashechewan, he might be questioned as to when getting natives clean water will be offered to Canadians as a priority choice. If he had visited Halifax, he might be asked by the locals if his poll will ever ask the people if they want a navy on the sea and not just on paper. But not a lot of people in any of these communities, and many more, will cite CC as their, ahem, burning priority. 

I invite Mr. Nanos to selfie those CC unicorn voters and prove me wrong. But, in the meantime, our Orwellian devotion to a cult of faith in something no one has seen despite repeatedly been told it was going to happen (Great Pumpkin anyone?) by our elites and indulged in by our elites is why many feel that  politicians are not listening to them but are listening to their unelected gurus or powerful friends instead. The damage done to and neglect of their real priorities is creating not only anger but an old Canadian danger that has reared its ugly head and threatens us all - disunity and separatism. Many good people of good will and good faith simply do not have the same faith in CC as its disciples in the elite but do believe their leaders are ignoring their real concerns. When will Nanos and the rest ask for their opinions on that in depth?

BTW - One is reminded of the climactic (not climatic) moment in the recent BBC drama on the Brexit Referendum Campaign when a voter being "focus grouped" by the Remain campaign manager  says tearfully,"No one listens to me, no one sees me, no one cares about what I think!" Thus, the winning motto of the Leave Campaign - "Take back control!". It is exactly the slogan that would have swept the country if any one party had had the nerve to adopt it.

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Recently a writer for the UK Spectator asked in the title of her article,"Does Norway have a Far Right Problem?" Now, we can first ask out loud whether the question she poses is one anyone needed the answer to (in other words, who cares about Norway in general). Then we might ask why there are not legions of articles about whether the UK has a Far LEFT problem, or the US for that matter. This is especially in light of the ever more crazed neo Marxism the most senior figures in both the Democratic and Labour parties spew on a routine basis. Mostly these are far left things that most of their leadership would not have countenanced being said by even a junior member or been caught dead saying only a few years ago.

The Labour Party Conference still underway seemed to veritably crib notes from Stalin and Lenin and took all of its cues on how to organize a modern economy from the proven disastrous policies of the 1970's. It is not only stupid but potentially dangerous when these people are just a few strategic votes away from 10 Downing. In fact, I would like to trade -  please give me a "far right" government in London and, in return, I will be delighted to give Oslo Labour and the Democrats' far left vision.

EU PHEW! - Jean Claude Junckers (yes that's really his name and he IS a LUXembourger) said that he thinks it was a mistake for Europe NOT to intervene in the UK Brexit Referendum. How deluded and arrogant. I wish that they had. Then the vote would have been 80 to 20, not 52-48.

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Insurgent GOP candidate for president former Governor of Massachusetts William Weld just suggested Trump should be found guilty of treason and executed (yes he suggested the death penalty). All I can say is those guilty of capital offences in Mass. during Weld's term can thank God that the death penalty had already been abolished there then! Has he gone mad? Really this has to take the cake in terms of Trump Derangement Syndrome.

 BTW, have you ever noticed that guys like this (King RINO's) always claim they're the "moderates" then usually reserve their worst vitriol for members of their own party? If Trump deserves the death penalty for threatening a Ukrainian minister so as to get them to investigate Biden's son's sleazy business practices there, then Biden, his son and Obama should get drawn and quartered for looting the Ukraine, bullying the country's leaders into NOT investigating said looting and oh BTW, letting the Ukraine be sliced and diced by the Russians while not giving Kiev even a blanket to protect themselves.

If this reptilian Deep State gossip is "whistleblowing", it just gave a bad name to whistleblowing and whistleblowers everywhere. And, silly naive me, I thought in my worst nightmare, as so many Trump haters hoped in their fondest dreams, that DT had actually promised something nice to Putin over the Ukraine. Now we know that whistleblowing isn't just for corruption and illegality. It's for silly Trump haters who have now managed once again to make their target look pretty good again. If I was really a conspiracy theorist, I could have sworn Trump leaked this himself.

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In the cheap House of Cards episode that is the Speaker's impeachment, while we all join her in "prayer" for President Trump, I have a question. If no one is above the law is her justification for commencing impeachment proceedings (or whatever it is she thinks she's really doing) against Trump, just how did she vote in 1998 on Clinton's impeachment? He was found liable by a special counsel for no less than 11 criminal offences, many against the administration of justice, including perjury. Now I cannot think of a single offence more injurious to the Rule of Law is for the Chief Magistrate who has sworn to uphold the laws of the United States than to lie under oath. He was comprehensively found guilty of doing this and several other counts at the impeachment trial (and by the judge in Clinton's civil trial more times than she admitted she could count). But,. as one GOP trial manager pointed out, the Senate set a new standard for impeachment by acquitting him nevertheless by a majority in a GOP held senate.

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Recently, the little darling attacked people who have "fairy tales of perpetual economic growth". How ironic it is then that, without that growth, we will never be able to clean up the real pollution that still dirties even the Western industrialized world, let alone save it from even the smallest real or unreal effects of Climate Change. Beside, for me, the fairy tale of prosperity (the Swedish Dream?) is always to be preferred to the Bogeyman, "Send you to bed without supper" Apocalyptic visions she is spoonfed. Although, instead of giving her a 15M$ carbon fibre yacht with a backup diesel engine to traipse around the world in peddling her nihilist propaganda, I might have sent her off to study economics and science (not to mention the 5th Commandment) AFTER, just this once, at least Threatening to send her to bed without supper and giving her an impossibly long list of chores (call it my own little parental Project Fear.).

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I seem to remember a president promising a foreign leader on an open mike on VIDEO that, once his reelection was over, he would give that foreign leader and his notorious puppeteer (HINT: they write in cyrillics) everything they wanted. Where was the "whistleblower" complaint on that? Boy, the CIA and the NSA really must hate DT! BTW, where does one of those spooks get off monitoring the confidential conversation of a POTUS with a foreign leader anyway? Leak Inc. continues apparently unabated and still unpunished.

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As I try to get over the schadenfreude of watching Justin stew in his own PC Virtuous juices, I move on to the aftermath. In their way, both of the other "main party" leaders get it wrong. Better, for instance, that Scheer had been Big, had tried to sympathize a little. The one valuable word in his peroration was "disappointment". Yes, indeed. Like a schoolmaster with a boy who threw erasers at detention. But, making it sound like a war crime had been committed on video by the PM. No. Overkill. Let the People fill in the blanks and you look like the avuncular "disappointed" mild and sage one who is so sad at Trudeau's hitting the hurdles. "But for the grace of God go I NOT having worn a brownshirt at a Halloween Party, Prince Harry," or some such. We all make mistakes. It could have been a great chance for the Cherub to look, well, like a Statesman. But, like the Palestinian negotiator (warning: PC snowflake zone!), he never misses an opportunity to miss an opportunity.

 And as for Mr. Singh, I can sympathize though not empathize, of course, with his shout out to kids like him who endure racist behaviour daily (as he suggests happens) and his cry for us to reach out to people different from us (although I'm not sure how someone living in, say,.Marmora would necessarily do that, although, I notice Yarker's convenience store is owned by Chinese Canadians and downtown Tamworth by an East Asian Canadian lady). However, isn't there a message that both he and Scheer might have given to all of us who grew weary these past 4 years or longer being lectured to by the Apologizer-in-Chief about how decrepit we are?

The message could have gone like this: "I am very sorry about what has happened. We should all be ashamed at what the PM did for he represents us all. We can always be and must do better than this. But...I am not running to be Prime Minister of this country because I think She (is that an acceptable personification anymore?) is a shithole inhabited by racists and bad, selfish, insensitive boobs. Canada is the greatest country in the World precisely because its People are the greatest - World renowned for their fairness, decency and tolerance. What we saw out of Justin Trudeau in that picture is not Canada,  not Canadians and I earnestly hope not Justin Trudeau anymore. Let he who has never been without a racialist thought in their lives cast the first stone and let that be a lesson to the PM and us all. But, I am sick and tired of making apologies for my good People because of the sins of our flawed, very human fathers yesterday or of our occasional wayward hypocrite brothers today." 

Let's get on with the business of Canada without being weighed down by irrelevant, poisonous and destructive "gotcha" moments like this. If Trudeau ends up paying for this with a few points off the Nanos, I won't be crying. God help me that the first thing I said when I heard of this was that it could not have happened to a better guy. Just wish my betters in leadership had understood better than me what a chance this was for not just some political scoring but for national unity and reaffirmation. Will someone please remind me why people like these are trying to lead us? Is it too much to hope that the Bonfire of the Sensitivities (of which Justin was undoubtedly the High Priest and Savonarola) that has strangled free public debate in the West may finally be extinguished here?

The Cheap Version - Or... maybe the leaders could ensure we all watch the next Federal Election Leaders' Debate by, in drag and blackface (except of course the NDP leader), performing their own special one time performance of a review of the best tunes from..."Showboat"!  But with appropriate updates:"Lift that Poll, tote that Scrum, you talks about the Isshahs and you lands in Jail!" Scheer could be the circus' death defying showstopper when, whilst imitating Paul Robeson, he sings Ol' Man River while drinking from a milk carton. Uh, er, ...no. Even I do not want to watch that. Far too honest.

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As I try to get over the schadenfreude of watching Justin stew in his own PC Virtuous juices, I move on to the aftermath. In their way, both of the other "main party" leaders get it wrong. Better, for instance, that Scheer had been Big, had tried to sympathize a little. The one valuable word in his peroration was "disappointment". Yes, indeed. Like a schoolmaster with a boy who threw erasers at detention. But, making it sound like a war crime had been committed on video by the PM. No. Overkill. Let the People fill in the blanks and you look like the avuncular "disappointed" mild and sage one who is so sad at Trudeau's hitting the hurdles. "But for the grace of God go I NOT having worn a brownshirt at a Halloween Party, Prince Harry," or some such. We all make mistakes. It could have been a great chance for the Cherub to look, well, like a Statesman. But, like the Palestinian negotiator (warning: PC snowflake zone!), he never misses an opportunity to miss an opportunity.

And as for Mr. Singh, I can sympathize though not empathize, of course, with his shout out to kids like him who endure racist behaviour daily (as he suggests happens) and his cry for us to reach out to people different from us (although I'm not sure how someone living in, say,.Marmora would necessarily do that, although, I notice Yarker's convenience store is owned by Chinese Canadians and downtown Tamworth by an East Asian Canadian lady). However, isn't there a message that both he and Scheer might have given to all of us who grew weary these past 4 years or longer being lectured to by the Apologizer-in-Chief about how decrepit we are?

The message could have gone like this: "I am very sorry about what has happened. We should all be ashamed at what the PM did for he represents us all. We can always be and must do better than this. But...I am not running to be Prime Minister of this country because I think She (is that an acceptable personification anymore?) is a shithole inhabited by racists and bad, selfish, insensitive boobs. Canada is the greatest country in the World precisely because its People are the greatest - World renowned for their fairness, decency and tolerance. What we saw out of Justin Trudeau in that picture is not Canada,  not Canadians and I earnestly hope not Justin Trudeau anymore. Let he who has never been without a racialist thought in their lives cast the first stone and let that be a lesson to the PM and us all. But, I am sick and tired of making apologies for my good People because of the sins of our flawed, very human fathers yesterday or of our occasional wayward hypocrite brothers today." 

Let's get on with the business of Canada without being weighed down by irrelevant, poisonous and destructive "gotcha" moments like this. If Trudeau ends up paying for this with a few points off the Nanos, I won't be crying. God help me that the first thing I said when I heard of this was that it could not have happened to a better guy. Just wish my betters in leadership had understood better than me what a chance this was for not just some political scoring but for national unity and reaffirmation. Will someone please remind me why people like these are trying to lead us? Is it too much to hope that the Bonfire of the Sensitivities (of which Justin was undoubtedly the High Priest and Savonarola) that has strangled free public debate in the West may finally be extinguished here?

The Cheap Version - Or... maybe the leaders could ensure we all watch the next Federal Election Leaders' Debate by, in drag and blackface (except of course the NDP leader), performing their own special one time performance of a review of the best tunes from..."Showboat"!  But with appropriate updates:"Lift that Poll, tote that Scrum, you talks about the Isshahs and you lands in Jail!" Scheer could be the circus' death defying showstopper when, whilst imitating Paul Robeson, he sings Ol' Man River while drinking from a milk carton. Uh, er, ...no. Even I do not want to watch that. Far too honest.

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Andrew Coyne called the defeat of Johnson a victory for the "power of parliament". Was it a defeat for the Power of Parliament therefore when the same Parliament got elected promising a referendum, or when it passed a referendum bill, or when it passed the Withdrawal Act 500 to 150 (deal or no deal), or when it got elected (82% of it) promising to respect and carry out the results and the Act? Is it the Power of Parliament when the Speaker sets himself up as a tinpot dictator, blatantly takes one side of the most important issue before Parliament, bullies and abuses MP's, including PM's and ministers, who do not agree with him and then overthrows 400 years of Parliamentary precedent against his own officials' advice to let the Opposition hijack the agenda (in a way we would never tolerate here - more on that double standard below)? Finally, where was Coyne on the "Power of Parliament" when Harper prorogued? If he was consistent, bravo, but I'm guessing he still did not suggest Harper be hung publicly for doing it as at least one of the legion of BOJO haters suggested. I would take a deep breath and hold my pen and tongue before allowing myself to be intellectually associated, even remotely, with thugs like Corbyn and Co. whose respect for the flag, the Queen or cricket, let alone the "power of parliament" is notoriously at below zero levels.

In the end, NP is a Never Trumper and Anti-Brexit paper. As Black suggested of the rest of the CP, it, too, lazily and slavishly parrots what the BBC says about the latter and what the NYT and CNN say about the former. I have a parting question: why is Coyne so bound and determined to ally himself with those who would deny the UK the same freedom to trade as we do? What would any self-respecting Canadian say, if one of our elite got up one day and suggested that our monetary, fiscal, fishery, agricultural, immigration, commercial and social policies be dictated to by some commission set up in, say, Philadelphia, LA, Boston or...Dallas? And then had to pay $200M a week for the privilege of being a vassal to Washington? For that is the exact equivalent of what the UK endures in the EU (even without the Euro, although there's no way the peso or the loonie would survive the NAU, er, North American Union?). Why would any thinking conservative (of whom I thought Coyne was one until now) or Canadian wish that on any country let alone so close a friend, cousin and ally to us as the UK?

Well[, I have given up hoping to get the answers to questions I am sure neither Mr. Coyne nor the NP Editorial Board ever asks any more. I am done. BTW, will the NP just admit now that actually being a conservative in their minds is not something for real life and is only for debating societies, if that, so that it doesn't have to pretend to be conservative anymore? I'm sure that it would be far less stressful for both writer and reader. Some of their most vituperous editorials are against Conservative leaders and Governments who actually do conservative things when they get into office. I do not think it is a sad coincidence any more. Someone should certainly tell Wiki to stop calling NP a "conservative newspaper".