The Return of Stuff Happens, week 27: The right moves; Spicer quits, comics cry.

Well, that was decisive.

The Wildrose and the Progressive Conservatives — the Hatfields and the McCoys of Alberta politics — agreed to a merger on Saturday. And it wasn’t even close.

Rank-and-file members of both parties voted in shocking numbers in favour of the merger of the two conservative parties. Remarkably (or suspiciously, if you’re that kind of person), the margins on the yes side were identical: 95% in favour. This couldn’t have gone much better for the two parties. The Wildrose set a high bar for a merger (75% had to be in favour), and they soared over it. The PCs needed a simple majority, and they blew past that.

The Wildrose, as you may recall, was formed by disgruntled PCs who didn’t think the Conservatives were conservative enough. They’ve never gotten along, but when Wildrose leader Danielle Smith crossed over to the PCs, with most of her caucus, in 2014, the animosity level went off the charts. So how did two parties with a deep history of mistrust come to unite?

It’s simple, really. They might distrust each other, but they both hate the NDP. The hatred for the NDP simply overwhelmed the dislike and distrust of the other side, and they decided for the good of their parties (and, as they see it, the good of the province), to end all the feudin’ and fussin’. The United Conservative Party, as the new entity will be cumbersomely known, will now choose a leader, which will certainly be a dogfight between Wildrose leader Brian Jean and Kenney.

There’s no way to paint this but as anything but bad news for the NDP. There is a tremendous, deep rooted dislike for the NDP and its ‘What, Me Worry?’ economic policies. While the NDP has its core of fanatical followers, overall support for the party is a mile wide and an inch deep. Thousands of Albertans voted NDP to simply get rid of the PCs because there was no solid alternative, and would love nothing more than to send their MLA back to working behind the counter at Starbucks. But it’s not a done deal. Everything now depends on who the new party chooses as its leader, and just how far right the new entity will go. Albertans, I believe, are economic conservatives but generally progressive on social issues.  If the UPC can avoid the whack-a-doodle conservative eruptions that plagued the Wildrose (a major challenge), and not threaten to eviscerate public services like education and health care, they can relegate the NDP to being a one-term wonder (as in, ‘I wonder why we ever voted for these idiots?’).

The next election isn’t until 2019, so it would be a fool’s game to make any predictions. The only thing we know is that Alberta politics just got a whole lot more interesting.

The Week in Donald

Donald Trump sat down the the Failing New York Times for an Oval Office interview this week. The Times published a partial transcript of the interview. Just for fun, here’s some of the interview. I wish I could say I was making up any of this, but I’m not. It’s all for real.

TRUMP: Hi fellas, how you doing?

BAKER: Good. Good. How was your lunch [with Republican senators]?

TRUMP: It was good. We are very close. It’s a tough — you know, health care. Look, Hillary Clinton worked eight years in the White House with her husband as president and having majorities and couldn’t get it done. Smart people, tough people — couldn’t get it done. Obama worked so hard. They had 60 in the Senate. They had big majorities and had the White House. I mean, ended up giving away the state of Nebraska. They owned the state of Nebraska. Right. Gave it away. Their best senator did one of the greatest deals in the history of politics. What happened to him?

(Who knows what happened to him… whoever he is?)

 

HABERMAN: [In Paris], I don’t think I’ve seen you look like you were enjoying yourself that much since the convention, really.

TRUMP: I have had the best reviews on foreign land. So I go to Poland and make a speech. Enemies of mine in the media, enemies of mine are saying it was the greatest speech ever made on foreign soil by a president. I’m saying, man, they cover [garbled]. You saw the reviews I got on that speech. Poland was beautiful and wonderful, and the reception was incredible.

(I guess Reagan’s “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall,” and Kennedy’s “Ich bin ein Berliner” speeches have dropped a couple of notches.)

Speaking about French President Emmanuel Macron:

 TRUMP: He’s a great guy. Smart. Strong. Loves holding my hand.

HABERMAN: I’ve noticed.

TRUMP: People don’t realize he loves holding my hand. And that’s good, as far as that goes …  I mean, really. He’s a very good person. And a tough guy, but look, he has to be. I think he is going to be a terrific president of France. But he does love holding my hand.

(Macron was probably thinking: “Je ne peux pas croire a quel point sa main est petite”, which means “I can’t believe how small his hand is.”)

TRUMP: Ah, they’ve asked me. What was interesting — so, when Macron asked, I said: “Do you think it’s a good thing for me to go to Paris? I just ended the Paris Accord last week. Is this a good thing?” He said, “They love you in France.” 

(I think Macron was confusing Donald Trump with Jerry Lewis.)

TRUMP: We had dinner at the Eiffel Tower, and the bottom of the Eiffel Tower looked like they could have never had a bigger celebration ever in the history of the Eiffel Tower. I mean, there were thousands and thousands of people, ’cause they heard we were having dinner.

(No doubt a much bigger crowd than when Paris was liberated in WWII.)

Sad. Just sad. Almost as sad as Trump, apparently, discussing who he can pardon. Reports indicate that he was asking for legal advice if he could pardon his pinhead son Don Jr. – and even himself. It’s not the least bit suspicious, is it, that a guy would be inquiring about pardons before being charged with anything, is it?

 

Tragedy in the comedy world

Late night TV comics were in mourning this week the news came down that White House press secretary Sean Spicer had resigned.

Spicer was so bad at his job, you could almost feel sorry for the guy. From the first day he appeared, under Trump’s orders, to declare that Trump’s inauguration crowd was the largest crowd to ever watch an inauguration (“Period!”), Spicer has been a laughing stock and a media star. His daily press briefings were ratings gold for the news networks, which may be why Trump kept him around for as long as he did.

In honour of Spicy, please enjoy this collection of his greatest hits. We may never see his like again.

Scandal rocks Governor-General!

Oh! My! God! Did you hear the news? Governor-General David Johnston touched the Queen!

On Thursday, the National Post chose to trumpet the shocking news that the retiring GG violated protocol by briefly putting his hand on the Queen. This stunning event was deemed worthy of front page coverage in the National Post section of the Edmonton Journal, with a giant photo and a screaming headline.

When will this country grow up?

A story that should have been relegated to brief blurb inside the paper (if it merited coverage at all) was deemed to be the top story of the day. Is the National Post run by idiots, or by former Fleet Street hacks … or are they the same thing?

Still with the Governor-General — the appendix of the Canadian body politic — the appointment of Julie Payette to the pointless post was met with praise initially, until some modest snooping by the media found the former astronaut was briefly charged with assault (charge was dropped, never went to trial and was expunged from the record) and was involved in a fatal car crash (not her fault). This briefly became an issue, until it faded as fast as interest in the new governor-general.

RIP

John Heard, 71, best known as the dad from the Home Alone movies, and in dozens of roles since… Kenny Shields, 69, lead singer of the Canadian rock band Streetheart … Chester Bennington, 41, lead singer of the band Linkin Park … Martin Landau, 89, Oscar-winning actor (he played Bela Lugosi in the film Ed Wood). He first rose to fame in the old Mission: Impossible TV show as the disguise specialist Rollin Hand. His career bottomed out in 1981 when he appeared in The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan’s Island, but he rebounded with three Oscar nominations and multiple Emmy nominations.

The Return of Stuff Happens, week 26: Greasy haired man caught with pants on fire.

The Donald Trump presidency has stumbled from one self-created crisis to another in the six months (is THAT ALL??) since he was inaugurated. Somehow, he has managed to brush them all away, predominantly because a new crisis/scandal/shocker has overwhelmed the previous crisis/scandal/shocker. But this past week there was a new development, involving Donald Trump Jr., that may in time mark the beginning of the end of the Trump presidency.

The New York Times (sorry, that should be the “failing New York Times”) revealed that Trump Jr., who looks like every greasy-haired villain from every 1980s teen movie, met with a Russian attorney who promised to dish the dirt on Hillary Clinton. Trumps senior and junior, and everybody associated with the Trump presidency, have all repeatedly denied any sort of connection with the Russians during the campaign, but the Times uncovered emails that were so explicit, that even Trump couldn’t lie his way out of it.

A British music publicist, who looks like every fat, creepy music publicist from every 1980s teen movie, connected with Donnie Jr. with news that a lawyer with Kremlin connections wanted to give him some classified dirt on Clinton. “I love it”, Junior exulted in an email. Trump summoned his silent and creepy brother-in-law and White House jackass-of-all-trades Jared Kushner, and then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort, to attend the meeting with the Ruskie. When the Times told Trump they knew about the meeting, he came up with some story that the meeting was about Russian adoption. When the Times told him they were going to release his emails, disproving his poorly crafted lie, Trump Jr. released the emails himself in an effort to look “transparent”. True enough. The guy is transparently a liar.

Trump apologists are saying that digging up dirt on an opponent is business as usual in politics, and that is correct. But accepting dirt from a foreign national — particularly from a country that is an enemy of the country — is certainly NOT business as usual (imagine if Trump has met with an Iranian, or a Iraqi). Trump says nothing came of it, so what’s the big deal? Well, it’s a very big deal. Collusion, lying, possible criminal activity. Yes, very big deals.

No matter how many times Trump tries to put a finger in the dike, a new leak pops up. The Trump While House will soon be underwater.

In sports news …

I don’t normally write about sports, but there was an event in the Canadian Football League this week that bears mentioning.

The league runs a contest with the Safeway grocery chain called Touchdown to Win, which awards a $25,000 home theatre package to a contest entrant if one kickoff is returned for touchdown, and a million dollars if a second kickoff is returned for a touchdown in the same game.

Well, it happened … and then it didn’t.

A Winnipeg woman named Karen Kuldys had already won the home theatre package after the Toronto Argonauts returned a kickoff for a touchdown during their game against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. An Argo returned a second kickoff for a touchdown, making Karen Kuldys a very happy and much richer woman – for about 10 seconds.

There was a penalty on the play, and the TD was called back. Fair enough, right? Rules are rules. But the penalty call was egregiously terrible in every way. By the rule book, the penalty call itself was wrong. Worse yet, the incorrect penalty was called a good 10 yards behind the player (who was just a few yards away from the end zone), and had no impact on the play. The erroneous call costs the Argos the game, and Karen a cool million dollars.

The CFL has reached out to poor (or at least, poorer) Karen, providing her with a VIP trip to the Grey Cup and other trinkets. If this had happened to me, I would swear off the CFL forever. The little league that wouldn’t die continues to ignore its biggest problem, the shocking incompetence of its officials. A referee should never be the focus of attention after a game, but in the CFL it’s a weekly occurrence.

CFL, I love ya … but you’re killing me.

I was assaulted at Commonwealth Stadium

OK, not in the strictly legal sense. But in another way, attending the Eskimo game on Friday was an assault on the senses.

The Eskimos have made a play for younger fans and their short attention spans and need to be distracted at all times. It’s almost as if the game is secondary (and with the frenzy over the ludicrously huge 50/50 jackpot – which topped out at $438,000 for the winner – plenty of spectators missed out on large parts of the game waiting in line for a ticket). At every break in the action, a DJ blasts rap or hip hop (I don’t know the difference; it’s all bad) at such volume that speaking to the person right next to you is a chore. (When did rap become the standard background music for sporting events? It has become the Muzak of sports.) During TV commercial breaks, there’s some sort of contest with a fan, also at max volume. Fans are endlessly ordered to scream and yell for the home squad. Every Eskimo first down is treated by the PA announcer like a game winning touchdown in the Grey Cup. (“That’s another Eskimo FIRST DOWWWWNNNNN!!!” Hey, I know. I’m right there watching.) There is, quite literally, not a moment of anything resembling silence. It’s exhausting. By the time I got home, I just wanted to sit in a quiet room to decompress.

Eskimo crowds have been getting smaller over the last few years. The Eskimos have made a very loud play for younger fans, but in doing so they may be alienating their older fans. Maybe they’re the ones staying away.

RIP

George A. Romero, 77, who changed the horror genre with his groundbreaking Night of the Living Dead cult classic in 1968. … Liu Xiaobo, 61, Chinese writer and human rights activist, Nobel Peace Prize laureate. He died of multiple organ failure in prison, where he has been languishing for years for daring to challenge the Communist regime. This is the country that we’re so eager to do business with.

The Return of Stuff Happens, week 25: Khadr’s big payday a big pain for Trudeau

I’ve always found the Omar Khadr story infuriating.

That $10 million smile.

Khadr is, of course, the Canadian-born former child soldier (just 15 at the time) who was forced to join al-Queda by his despicable parents. His upbringing could be described as child abuse. His father was a pal of Osama bin Laden, and the family spent a lot of time in Pakistan and Afghanistan. One of his brothers told the CBC: “We are an al-Qaeda family”. A nice ‘thank you’ to Canada for taking them in.

Khadr was captured (and seriously wounded) in a fight in Afghanistan which killed an American soldier and gravely wounded another. Despite his age, Khadr was sent to the notorious Gitmo prison, and held for years after all other prisoners from other countries were returned to their homes. Khadr was subjected to brutal interrogation (without a lawyer) that amounted to torture, eventually confessing to throwing a grenade that resulted in the soldier’s death. (He later recanted the confession.)

There is no doubt that the Canadian government was complicit in violating Khadr’s rights. The Supreme Court said so, twice. And taking into account the fact he was only 15, legally a child soldier, there’s no doubt in my mind that Khadr was handled in a disgraceful manner by the government. Remember, had Khadr been charged with murder in Canada, as a 15-year-old he might have been charged as a juvenile, and there would have been a publication ban on his name.

Khadr’s lawyers sued the government for $20 million, a fanciful figure they certainly just pulled out of thin air. The Trudeau government this week settled for $10.5, and an apology. This is where things go off the rails.

Trudeau will carry the can for this, even though of all the politicians involved in this shameful episode, he is the least culpable. Khadr was captured and interrogated during the Jean Chretien/Paul Martin years, and he was deliberately kept in Gitmo, and demonized out of all proportion (the word “heinous” was used repeatedly) by Stephen Harper, for naked political reasons. Trudeau, in fact, is just cleaning up the mess left by previous governments; the Trudeau government had no choice but to respond to the suit, which was launched well before Trudeau took power.

Khadr and his lawyers saw a big payday in the offing with the suit, and it worked. Khadr deserves some compensation for this treatment post-capture, but $10.5 million?The figure seems to me to be grossly inflated; would a jury have given Khadr $10.5 million? Somehow, I doubt it, but the government’s lawyers clearly felt they could lose more in a trial, so they settled. Khadr now says he just wants to get on with his life, which is great. But if he really just wanted to put the whole thing behind him, why sue? The right thing to do would have been to drop the lawsuit, fade into the background and go on with his life, which most Canadians seemed willing to go along with. But the suit, and the $10.5 million, changes the equation. Now there is plenty of outrage over the settlement, and I’m not surprised. I hate the fact that Khadr (and his lawyers) are cashing a big cheque, but the government(s) messed up badly, for political reasons, and someone has to pay.

Turns out, it’s us.

Justin Trudeau, Superstar

The bloom may be off Justin Trudeau’s rose here in the Great White North, but clearly the prettiest PM is still hot stuff overseas.

Trudeau is travelling again, this time at the G12 summit. He stopped first in Dublin, where some members of the press swooned like love-sick school girls.

Columnist Jane Last wrote (apparently not tongue in cheek) “the Canadian prime minister appears to be, well, the perfect man.

“He makes politics look glamorous – and anybody standing next to him, basks in his glow.”  If that wasn’t enough, she wrote that Trudeau “is the kind of guy everyone wants to hang out with.”

He has charmed the socks off other world leaders. Donald Trump said Trudeau is doing “a spectacular job. Everybody loves him and they love him for a reason. So congratulations on the job you are doing.” As Donald Trump himself would say: FAKE NEWS!

But wait, there’s more.

“For the Canadians, you are all so lucky to have this man as prime minister. He has brought an incredible breath of fresh air, directness, commitment to the issues,” gushed World Bank President Jim Yong Kim. Indian President Narendra Modi praised Trudeau’s interventions during a discussion on terrorism saying, “I’d also like to express my happiness in your interventions in the sessions we just had. The wavelength was the same, yours and mine.” And as the only youngster in the group, he was called upon to help figure out how to use their headsets and microphones during the summit. “Just ask Justin, Justin can show you,” German chancellor Angela Merkel told the leaders.

The Irish columnist may think Trudeau is a guy everybody wants to hang with, but there are a lot of people in Alberta who would just like to hang Trudeau, not hang out with him, after he forgot to mention Alberta in his Canada Day shout out to all the provinces. He immediately corrected himself, and apologized, but the damage had been done and a lot of Alberta trolls (and politicians, of course) immediately went into full umbrage mode. The only people who should be really angry are Alberta’s Liberal MPs – Randy Boissonault, Darshan Kang, Kent Hehr and Amarjeet Sohi.

 

The Return of Stuff Happens, week 24: Enough Canada already … eh?

I am now, officially, Canada’d out.

Canada celebrated the 150th anniversary of Confederation on Saturday with an orgy of government-sponsored patriotism. Now, I’m as patriotic as the next person, but I feel like I’ve OD’d in the most Canadian way … on maple syrup.

Even that joke is too Canadian for me today. Sorry.

Oops, there’s another one. The ‘sorry’ trope. Sick of that one, too, and I’m not sorry I wrote that. Oh, and the headline of this blog, with the ‘eh?’ reference? Can we just lay that one to rest today? I can go days, weeks, or months without ever hearing anyone say ‘eh’.  It’s kinda sad, and at least partially true, that can’t we find something a little more distinctive that whatever the hell ‘eh?’ is? And nobody says ‘aboot’, Ever.

And the maple leaf? I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen a maple tree. I just looked up a publication online called the Guide to Common Native Trees and Shrubs of Alberta, and maples weren’t even on the list.

Tolerant? Don’t want to hear that word for a while. Inclusive? Sick of it.

Now that it’s over, can we go back to being modest and self-effacing? It looks so much better on us.

For a different take, one I wrote before I overdosed on Canadiana, feel free to read my column in Prime Times, the monthly newspaper for seniors that I edit.

I try to be a good person, and look what happens

Have you heard of the Canada Revenue Agency scam? Here’s the way it goes.

You get a phone call from someone who claims to be an agent of the Canada Revenue Agency. The “agent” tells you, in no uncertain terms, that you have an outstanding tax balance that absolutely MUST be paid immediately, or there will be dire consequences. It’s all a scam, of course, to sucker unsuspecting (often elderly) people out of their money. The last time this scam was run, it was found to have originated out of a call centre in India, and a lot of people were arrested, and the calls stopped.

Well, it’s back. I got a recorded message this week, which is promptly hung up on. Then I got another call, but this one was left a recorded message from “Officer Craig Williamson” (I think, ‘Craig’s accent was very weird for a guy named ‘Craig Williamson’) threatening me with dire circumstances if I didn’t return his call.  Incredibly, ‘Crais’ left a number for me to call. Ha! Got you, you slimy bastard. So I went online to find the number to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre. I called the number (1-888-495-8501) … and the phone service was out of order.

Out of order? What kind of phone service is out of order in the 21st century? So, I thought I would go to their online service and write a complaint. Not so fast. I needed a GC Key number, whatever that is. I had to create an account, which I tried to do, but the user name and password restrictions were so needlessly complex, I gave up in frustration.

Well done, Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre! And keep up the scum sucking work, ‘Officer Craig’.

The bar is now on the ground

So, what was The Donald up to this week?

The tweeting twit president took aim at the hosts of an MSNBC morning news show, Morning Joe, in a twitter attack that was so person and abusive, even members of his own party were shocked and literally begging for him to stop.

Writing about hosts hosts Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough, Trump tweeted: “I heard poorly rated Morning Joe speaks badly of me (don’t watch anymore). Then how come low I.Q. Crazy Mika, along with Psycho Joe, came..to Mar-a-Lago 3 nights in a row around New Year’s Eve, and insisted on joining me. She was bleeding badly from a face-lift. I said no!”

Good lord.  A Republican representative, Adam Kinzinger of Illinois told CNN’s “New Day” Friday “that’s a tweet that’s not even becoming of a city councilman.”

The New York Daily New front page from Friday. Perfect.

This is beneath the dignity of a president, even from a president who would have to look up the word dignity in a dictionary.

On Saturday, Trump came close to apologizing. See if you can spot the apology.

“Crazy Joe Scarborough and dumb as a rock Mika are not bad people, but their low rated show is dominated by their NBC bosses. Too bad!”

See the apology? They are “not bad people”. Just crazy and dumb as a rock… but not bad people. Just the way all Mexicans are rapists and drug dealers, but “some” are good people.

Trump wasn’t done yet. On Sunday, he posted a 28 second video using footage from his appearance on Wrestlemania with the CNN logo superimposed on Vince McMahon’s head, slamming McMahon/CNN to the ground. Wait, there’s more. The video was apparently created by a Reddit user named (ready?) HanAssholeSolo. This story resulted in one of the funniest lines I’ve read in a long time, from the Daily Beast website: “HanAssholeSolo did not immediately respond to a request for comment.”

Can you take one more bit of Trump? On Saturday, he met with Buzz Aldrin, the second man in the moon, for some sort of signing ceremony. The official transcript of the comments — and this is true — went like this.

ALDRIN: Infinity and beyond. (Laughter)

THE PRESIDENT: This is infinity here. It could be infinity. We really don’t know. But it could be. It has to be something — but it could be infinity, right? Okay. (Applause)

So long, Peter Mansbridge

Peter Mansbridge, anchor of the CBC’s creatively titled national newscast, The National, has retired. He got quite a lot of media coverage, most of it laudatory and deserved. Mansbridge has been good at his job for a long time … but does anybody really care about The National any more?

The National is in terrible shape. A formless blob, populated by barely competent reporters and talking heads. It still gets an average audience of about a million, but it trails the equally terrible CTV National News by a wide margin.  My guess is the audience for both broadcasts is made up of people over 60 getting ready for bed.

Still, the CBC must continue with The National, and it has already announced that it will have THREE anchors. Why three? Well … diversity? Inclusion? Yep, those word again.

So, who will anchor The National? We don’t know yet, but it’s certainly NOT going to be a white male. Ian Hanomansing is, I think, almost a lock. He’s very good at his job, and an immigrant (born in Trinidad and Tobago). After that, my guess is two women. One will be a woman of colour (the perfect candidate would be an indigenous woman). If they can do it, the CBC would love to have a transgender woman … that would cover all the inclusion bases quite nicely.

RIP

Dave Semenko, 59, who, as an Edmonton Oiler, made sure that NOBODY laid a glove on Wayne Gretzky. He was an enforcer who rarely fought, so fearsome was his reputation. A fan favourite and beloved by his fellow players … Smith Hart, 68, oldest member of the famed Hart family of wrestling fame … Michael Bond, 91, author of the Paddington Bear children’s book series.

 

The Return of Stuff Happens, week 23: Bill Cosby wants to share his secrets

The other day, my son told me that Bill Cosby, comedy icon and professional predator, was going to start instructing men on how to avoid accusations of sexual assault. I scoffed at the notion.

“Scoff,” I said. “That’s clearly fake news.”

Well, is my face red. The story is true. One of Cosby’s representatives told an Alabama TV station that Cosby is planning a series of town hall meetings this summer to educate people, including young athletes and married men, on how to avoid accusations of sexual assault.

Well, if anybody should know, it would be him.

As for his hung jury trial last week, accounts differ on what went on in the deliberations. One juror said it was a fifty-fifty split, another said it was 10-2 to convict. One of the jurors was quoted as saying: “Whatever the man did, he has already paid his price, paid, suffered. A case that was settled in ’05 and we had to bring it up in ’17”

I don’t know if there’s any point in sending Cosby to court again. He’s Teflon. Even if some jury somewhere somehow shakes off the residual love for America’s dad, they are not going to want to send a nearly blind old man to prison. Maybe that one juror is right; his career is ruined, his reputation is ruined, his earning power is now zero. For an entertainer, there may be worse things than prison.

Speaking of Teflon …

This week, a special congressional election was held in Georgia to replace a Republican who is now in Trump’s cabinet. The Democrats had high hopes that they could pull off the upset. After all, Trump is a disaster, right? Worst president ever, agreed? A moron, an imbecile, a threat to world peace. Surely, at some point, Americans would want to send a message to Trump that they are fed up and embarrassed with their leader.

The battle was turned out to be the most expensive House of Representatives race ever, with about $36 million spent. The result? The Republicans win, again, as they have in four special elections since Trump won. One Democrat moaned after the vote “Our brand is worse than Trump’s”.

Meanwhile, Trump admitted this week that he did not record any conversations with fired FBI director James Comey. Trump had hinted, rather broadly, that he had, and poor Sean Spicer danced around answering tape-or-no-tape questions for weeks.

And one last bit on Trump. For a fun-filled read, check out the New York Times list of every lie Trump has told. Get yourself a cup of coffee and settle in. It’s a long read. 

Have you heard? The federal NDP is having a leadership race.

Don’t feel badly if you were unaware. Nobody outside of true NDP believers knows it is happening.

I have no idea who is going to win, and neither do I care. But a quote from one of the candidates, Niki Ashton, caught my eye and tells me everything I need to know about the current state of the NDP.

Ashton, apparently an MP, described herself as (get ready) “an intersectional eco-feminist”.

And no, I have no idea what that means. And neither do I care.

Fire update

The horrendous high-rise fire in London is still making news. It appears that the fire started in, of all things, a refrigerator. But that’s not the worst of it. The government collected 34 samples of cladding (external panels used to insulate buildings and improve appearance) similar to that used on the Grenfell Tower, and they all failed combustibility tests. The unsafe cladding has been found in 17 different locations around the country. In north London, 600 residents of a tower were told to leave the building as a precaution.

 

 

 

The Return of Stuff Happens, week 22: Sears Days are numbered

Good news from the retail front — there’s going to be a giant sale at Sears Canada in the near future.

Bad news from the job front — a lot of Sears Canada employees are going to be looking for work.

The retailer (sorry, that should be struggling retailer) admitted this week that its very future is in doubt. Its sales are falling through the floor, it can’t pay its debts, and nobody wants to lend it money. Or, in the parlance of Sears itself: “Based on management’s current assessment, cash and forecasted cash flows from operations are not expected to be sufficient to meet obligations due over the next 12 months … Accordingly, such conditions raise significant doubt as to the company’s ability to continue as a going concern.”

In plain English, they’re screwed.

This is hardly a surprise. Sears has always been the plain Jane sister in the department store family. The Hudson’s Bay (which announced last week that it is laying off 2,000 employees, which is shocking in that I didn’t think the Bay had 2,000 employees) has always had the dominant position in Canada.  Canadian Tire does a better job of selling hard goods. Walmart has the cheap market cornered. Sears essentially has no identity. It’s not a fashion outlet (the Bay is better at that, and Simons from Quebec is making inroads across the country). It’s not, well, anything. A Sears store is a sea a beige. The end of Sears, which is all but certain, will be another giant sized headache for shopping malls across the country, many of which are still struggling to find a replacement for the failed Target experiment. Perilous times in the retail trade indeed.

Inferno

It looked like something from a 1980s disaster movie; indeed, I heard one TV news report rather shamefully call it a “towering inferno”.

A low-income apartment high rise in London went up in a shocking blaze this week. At first, the death toll seemed remarkably low, just 11. As the week went on, the numbers — and the public anger — rose and rose. As of Sunday, the death toll is now 58.

How could this happen in the 21st century? The impact of this will be more substantial than any recent terrorist attack in London,as  it has been revealed that the landlord may have used substandard cladding in a recent renovation. Tenants, many of them immigrants at the lower end of the economic spectrum, are enraged, as it looks more and more like there is one safety standard for the lower classes, and another one entirely for the upper class.

American justice

A hung jury was declared in the first of probably many trials for Bill Cosby (once America’s dad and now America’s pervert) on sexual assault charges. The jury deliberated for days and could not come to a unanimous conclusion. Don’t ask me how they came to that conclusion. Also in the U.S., the St. Paul cop who shot a black man named Philando Castile, while his girlfriend live streamed the event, was found not guilty of manslaughter.  The Cosby case and the Castile case illustrate the obvious once again — getting a conviction against a cop or a celebrity in the U.S. is near impossible.

Oh, babies!

Let’s say you’re pregnant in Alberta right now. If so, congrats! And let’s assume you want to name the baby, which is probably a good idea. If you were having a baby right now, would you want to name the child Liam, or Benjamin, or Lucas? Of if its a girl, anything ending with an A (Olivia, Emma, Sophia, Ava, Amelia)? You might want to, but unless you want your precious little bundle to go through their school years as “Liam with glasses” or “fat Olivia” or any other unfortunate nickname, then don’t do it. Once again, the same names appeared on the list of most popular Alberta baby names released this week. There will be literally thousands of little Liams and Emmas and Abigails and Olivers (Seriously? Oliver?) in Alberta schools. Pity the poor teacher of the future. A piece of advice to future parents. Clip and save the list of most popular baby names, and ignore them all. Go with something unusual, like, say, Maurice.

On the other hand, maybe Oliver’s not so bad.

RIP

Don Matthews, 77, the most successful coach in CFL history. Matthews had a hand in 10 Grey Cup champions, five as an assistant coach, five more as a head coach. A controversial figure, his coaching philosophy can be summed up with this Matthews quote: “Coaching is a dictatorship, and I’m the head dick.” Here’s an excellent bio from Sportsnet.  … Helmut Kohl, 87, former German chancellor who led the reunification of Germany …  Stephen Furst, 62, who played  Flounder in the film Animal House … John G. Avildsen, 81, Oscar winner who directed the first Rocky movie, as well as The Karate Kid … Richard Tougas, 73, my oldest brother. Don’t ever let anyone tell you that life is fair. Richard – ‘Tougie’ to his family members – was one of those people who took excellent care of his health. He walked for miles almost every day, was a non-smoker, social drinker, hardly had an ounce of unnecessary body fat. He should have lived to be 83 or 93 or 103, but his kidneys went bad on him. He was in line for a transplant, but then he got serious liver problems, likely from a rare medical condition called Hereditary Hemorrhagic Telangiectasia (HHT), a genetic disorder of the blood vessels that causes difficult to control bleeding.  The kidney and liver problems conspired to turn a robust healthy man into a shell of his former self. Yep, life is not fair. He was a good brother, a good man with many, many friends, a wife of some 50 years, Kathy, and two children, Michael and Nicole.

The world needs more people like Tougie, not fewer.

The Return of Stuff Happens, week 21: Alberta’s legal disgrace

This week we heard one of those stories that just makes you shake your head (if it hasn’t already lowered in shame) and wonder how this kind of thing can happen.

Here’s the shocking story. An Aboriginal woman (there is a publication ban on her name, a typically Canadian thing to do, especially galling in that the woman is now dead) was severely beaten and raped by a local scumbag. During the preliminary hearing where she had to testify about what happened, she was somewhat incoherent in her answers, and sometimes belligerent. (The judge at one point called her by the accused’s name, which is enough to make anyone angry.) So, did the Crown attorney suggest she take a day off, or perhaps get her some help? No, it was her brilliant idea to send her to remand (that’s jail, by the way) because was a “flight risk”. The judge, incredibly, agreed, so off to jail for the victim. Yes, JAIL for the VICTIM. She spent five nights in remand, and more insults were to come. When she was taken to court, she was transported in the same van with the scumbag who attacked her! But wait, there’s more … she was taken into court in leg irons and handcuffs. Like a dangerous criminal.

How could this happen? How was there not one single person in the chain of command who said, ‘Whoa, this isn’t right’? I’m not one of those people who sees racism in every event, but to me there is no doubt that this would never have happened to a nice, middle class white woman. The government has apologized profusely and honestly, but that’s not enough. People should be fired for this. But they won’t. That’s not the way the legal system in this province works. Once you get a government job, no matter how egregiously you screw up, you’re set for life.

Utterly shameful.

The Comey Show is a hit

All of Washington stopped to watch the testimony of fired FBI director James Comey. I won’t go over the testimony here, because you’ve probably heard every last word of it by now. The takeaway is that Comey was invited to a private dinner with Donald Trump, and Trump said so many worrisome things that Comey made copious notes about the meeting immediately after the dinner. Comey had never done that before, in any meeting with anyone, including two other presidents. Comey says Trump asked him to go easy on the Russian investigation, without directly ordering him to. Comey said Trump lied about some things, and Trump retaliated by calling Comey a liar. Trump hinted in a tweet after the news broke that Comedy “had better hope that there are no TAPES” of the conversation. When Trump was asked by a reporter if he was hinting that there were tapes, he said: “I’m not hinting anything.  I’ll tell you about it over a very short period of time….Oh, you’re going to be very disappointed when you hear the answer. Don’t worry.”

Huh? What does ANY of that mean? I agree with Comey, who told the committee “Lordy, I hope there are tapes.”

Trump’s base, made up of mostly incredibly stupid people, will no doubt side with him. The rest of the world, I’m sure, will see Comey as being truthful, and why not? His testimony was rock solid, completely honest and forthright. Trump can’t put together a fully truthful sentence. There was no bombshell that would have destroyed the Trump presidency, but the chances of Trump surviving four years grows less and less remote every day.

Theresa May’s boo-boo

British Prime Minister Theresa May rolled the dice in calling an election almost three years ahead of the scheduled date, and it backfired. Not completely, but enough to likely cripple her political career. May’s Conservatives went into the election with a healthy majority, and only called the election to get an even healthier majority, supposedly to strengthen the British position on Brexit talks. She also calculated that Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn was entirely unelectable, leading to what was supposed to be a historic electoral rout (I read a story when the election was called that speculated if the Labour Party would even survive the election).

So, how’s that turn out, Theresa? Turns out May was a worse campaigner than anyone expected (she turned down televised debates), and Corbyn captured the youth vote in a Bernie Sanders-like way.  When the votes were tallied (which is such a slow process in England, I suspect they use Morse code to relay the results), the Conservatives were in a minority (or as they call it, hung) parliament, and have to depend on the support of a small third party to stay in power.

British politics is notoriously cutthroat. Unlike here, where a party leader is virtually unmovable, a British caucus can oust a leader. Hell, they did it with Margaret Thatcher. May’s days as leader of Britain, after this fiasco of her own making, can probably be measured in weeks, if not days. You can expect another election in Britain within six months, a year tops. This past election, by the way, was the country’s fourth major vote in as many years.

RIP

Adam West, 88, the only true Batman (TV series from 1966-68), a serious actor who kept his tongue firmly in cheek during the campy, hilarious Batman TV series fondly remembered by people like me. Batman was, in its own way, one of the great comedies of the 1960s. … Sam Panopoulous, 83, the Greece-born Canadian restaurant owner who created the Hawaiian pizza at his pizza shop in Chatham, Ont. in 1962.

The Return of Stuff Happens, week 20: RIP, USA

Donald Trump, the Leader of the Free World crown, officially relinquished the title on Thursday when he announced that the U.S. – the second-biggest polluter in the world –would withdraw from the Paris Climate Change Accord. In stepping aside from the Leadership of the Free World position, the U.S. has now thrown its lot in with the only other countries in the entire world — Syria (which is barely a functioning country) and Nicaragua — which are not part of the accord. This makes sense, in a way. The U.S. and Syria – both led by despots, and in chaos – have a lot in common.

The reaction from around the world was universally negative. The reaction from inside the U.S. was almost as negative (minus Republican toadies); even mega-corporations came out against Trump’s decision, and important states (California and New York) denounced it. Trump’s reasoning for pulling out of the accord (whose modest goal is saving mankind from disaster) essentially boils down to this: he made the promise in the election campaign. End of discussion.

Maureen Dowd, the New York Times columnist, put it this way:

“America is living through a fractured fairy tale, in the grip of a lonely and uninformed mad king, an arrogant and naive princeling, a comely but complicit blond princess and a dyspeptic, dystopian troll (Steve Bannon) under the bridge.”

The U.S. now now little more than a supplier of entertainment to the world, appropriately led by a clown. Sad.

Terror in Britain … and more from Trump

A terrorist attack in London on Saturday has left seven people dead, including a Canadian. A van ran down people on London Bridge, while other terrorists stabbed people at a nearby night spot. This is the third attack in Britain three months; why Britain should be the target of so much violence is unclear. The mayor of London,  Sadiq Khan, condemned the attacks in the usual language, adding the public should remain “calm and vigilant”. Trump, of course, read this wrong. Instead of keeping his mouth shut (or his fingers taped together), Trump criticized the mayor, tweeting: “At least 7 dead and 48 wounded in terror attack and Mayor of London says there is ‘no reason to be alarmed!’ ”

Can Pence do the job? Nope.

With the Trump presidency hurtling towards the abyss, eyes are increasingly turning to Vice President Mike Pence. Can he do the job? Well, he looks the part. Pence looks like the kind of actor central casting sends over when they need someone to play the president, preferably one who is saved from assassination by, oh, I don’t know, Gerard Butler?

Would he be any better? Well, a chimp would be better, but Pence has little credibility. Consider this line, from the introduction he gave to Trump before his Paris announcement:  “With gratitude for his leadership, and admiration for his unwavering commitment to the American people, it is my high honour and distinct privilege to introduce President Donald Trump.”

Who says that kind of thing with a straight face? Incredible … sorry, that should be not credible.

And one last Trump bit

Trump gave more evidence that he is unstable with a post-midnight tweet that said, and I quote correctly, “Despite the constant negative covete” — and then it ended. Asked to explain, press secretary Sean Spicer said “The president and a small group of people know exactly what he meant.”

I hope that small group of people includes a psychiatrist.

Bad news from B.C.

Normally, the provincial election in B.C. is of little interest here in the People’s Republic of Alberta. But an announcement this week could have a direct impact on the next provincial election here.

On the Left Coast, the NDP and the Green Party have agreed to join forces to form the next government. The two parties will have one seat more than the incumbent Liberals. Premier Christie Clark, however, said she would attempt to form a government, which, as the party with the largest number of seats (43 to the NDPs 41), they have a right to do.

So why does this matter here? The NDP and the Greens are united in opposition to the Kinder Morgan pipeline, and will do everything they can to prevent what they have no constitutional right to stop. So, if the NDP/Green alliance lasts (which could last a week, a month, or a year) anti-pipeline parties are in control. Rachel Notley’s NDP is a big supporter of the pipeline (exactly the opposite what she would have been has they been in the old opposition NDP, but no matter). If BC throws up huge walls to the pipeline, Albertans will be pointing to the provincial NDP and wondering how they can’t get a pipeline built with their fellow travellers in charge. In the meantime, the provincial government continues to soften up the public. This week, the government announced $20 million for playgrounds in Alberta. This from a government that has to borrow money to keep the lights on. Makes perfect sense.

St. Patrick’s Gay

As if any further evidence that the world is a topsy-turvy place, get this.

Ireland, the most Catholic country outside of the Vatican, is about to have it’s youngest ever prime minister at only age 38. He is the son of an Indian immigrant. And he’s gay.

His name is Leo Varadkar, and he was chosen on Friday by the Fine Gael party to be its leader, and therefore the head of the centre-right governing coalition. He succeeds Enda Kenny, who is apparently a guy (you never know with those Irish names).

Meanwhile, Britain elects a new government on Thursday, with terrorist attacks still fresh in the minds of voters. Conservative leader Theresa May, who called the snap election in the belief she would win in a walk, is now in a race that is apparently so tight, she could actually lose it.

RIP

Manuel Noreiga, 83, former dictator of Panama, ousted by the U.S.

 

The Return of Stuff Happens, week 19: Will there be ‘Scheer madness’?

At long last, the federal Conservatives have a new leader … and it’s NOT Maxime ‘Mad Max’ Bernier, who would have been the first deeply libertarian leader of a major Canadian political party.

After a vote counting process that was only slightly less difficult to understand than watching Game of Thrones midway through a season (the only thing I know about Game of Thrones is that everybody is either killing somebody, or having sex with them), Andrew Scheer emerged the winner, with a razor-thin 51% of the vote to Bernier’s 49%.

Isn’t he adorable?

A Canadian Press story on Scheer called him ‘apple cheeked’, and it’s hard to argue with that description, even if it’s painfully dated.  Look at the guy… isn’t he just kind of adorable? While Justin Trudeau looks like the kind of most girls would want to marry, Scheer looks like the kind of guy most girls end up with.

 

He’s only 38, born in Ottawa, now an MP for a Regina riding. He’s won his riding six straight times, and for a while he was

Children of the Corn

Speaker of the House. He’s fluently bilingual. So far, so good; a little East, a little West, a lot English and a little French. He has a nice family, even if it appears that he has indoctrinated them into the Saskatchewan Roughrider cult (see photo at right). Scheer is probably the best of a bad to awful lot, and certainly the safest. Bernier, a libertarian with a heavy French accent, was unelectable. The party dodged a huge bullet when Kevin O’Leary dropped out. The reptilian Kelly Leitch only managed about 7%, a pathetic number for someone who got so much publicity for her ‘Canadian values’ campaign. The rest were forgettable or regrettable.

So, what do we know about Scheer’s policies? I can sum it up this way: he doesn’t mind being called “Stephen Harper with a smile”.

Oh oh.

We’ve seen this horror show before

There is a numbing familiarity to these things now. They follow the same sad, pitiful pattern. And we know we’re going to see it repeated somewhere else, sometime soon.

On Monday, a suicide bomber blew himself up as fans were leaving Manchester Arena in Manchester, England, following a concert by American pop tart Ariana Grande. There were about 21,000 people inside, predominantly female, predominately young, with a number of parents (fingers firmly in ears, no doubt) along to watch over their daughters.

After the suicide bomber did his foul deed, the familiar terrorist attack/reaction process began. Confused initial reports. Social media video. Death toll numbers rising (the first account was nine, by night’s end it was 22). Social media nitwits begin spreading false stories. The Twitterverse is filled with oh so sincere statements from people with no connection to the event, all solemnly pledging to send their “thoughts and prayers” to the victims, an expression so overused, so automatic, that it has lost any meaning it might have ever had. Politicians denounce the “cowardly” act (Donald Trump called the terrorist a “loser”, his version of the worst thing you can possibly say about a person). There was the usual pledge that “the resolve of (name of community) will not be shaken”. Police swoop in and arrest all sorts of people who days before were not considered to be arrest-worthy. Wall-to-wall media coverage for three or four days, with plenty of commentary how this level of cruelty ups the bar on terrorism, etc. By Saturday, the story has pretty much disappeared from the news.

We await the next terrorist outrage.

This week in Donald Trump…

Too much to cover here, so let’s just look at the highlights:

• Trump attended his first NATO meeting, and criticized all the other countries for not paying their fair share;

• Melania was twice seen refusing to hold hands with Trump (hey, would you?);

• he pushed aside another NATO leader to get to the front of a photo op;

• he shook hands with French President Macron so vigorously, it looked like a scene from that Sylvester Stallone movie Over the Top, the one about professional arm wrestling (Macron said “My handshake with him was not innocent. We need to show that we won’t make small concessions, even symbolic ones, while not overhyping things either.”);

• Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, top advisor and perfect face of corporate evil, is being looked at by the FBI for his role in the Russian scandal, AND a report says he wanted a direct, personal line to the Kremlin.

By my count, the impeachment clock is set at about 10 months.

 

RIP

Roger Moore, 89, the most debonair and most British of the James Bonds (he played Bond seven times), who also had the misfortune of being in some of the worst James Bond movie moments (he dressed as a clown — a clown! — in Octopussy, and went into space in the dreadful Moonraker. His last bond film was A View to a Kill, and the then 57-year old admitted he “was only about 400 years too old for the part.” … Gregg Allman, 69, a member of the Allman Brothers Band and one of the founders of ‘Southern Rock’  (“Ramblin’ Man”, “Midnight Rider”)  … Bill White, 77, longtime NHL defenceman and member of Team Canada ’72.

The Return of Stuff Happens, week 18: Will the right unite; the ‘I’ word is spoken.

There was a seismic shift in Alberta politics this week. Only time will tell if it’s a real earthquake that brings down two (or maybe three) parties, or whether it just grunts and groans and nothing happens.

On Wednesday, Wildrose party leader Brian Jean and new Progressive Conservative party leader Jason Kenny officially signed a deal to unite the two right-of-centre parties into one entity, tentatively titled the United Conservative Party. If confirmed, it would shut down the Wildrose party, created by disgruntled PCers who thought the party had done too soft, as well as the PC party, which dominated the provincial landscape for more than 40 years. Having one united conservative party, the thinking goes, is the best bet to overthrow the Bolshevicks who fluked their way into power in the last election, sending those accidental NDP MLAs back behind their counters at Starbucks.

Of course, there is no guarantee a United Conservative Party will sweep to power in two years, but it has a lot better chance that either the Wildrose or the PCs would have has separate parties. The NDP won’t admit it, but their election was one of those periodic Alberta voter revolts, where the voters grab at any reasonable alternative to get rid of a government that is past its best-before date. There are hundreds of thousands of Albertans who would choose an hour-long colonoscopy over voting NDP who will flock to a united conservative party.

First, though, the deal has to be ratified by the memberships, and that is not a slam dunk. While the PCs only require a simple majority to approve the deal, the Wildrose has set a much higher mark — 75% approval. That could be tough. The Wildrose is the official opposition, with money in the bank and a likable leader in Jean, even if he has all the charisma of a carp. The PCs are massively in debt, a distant third in the Legislature, still widely hated in many circles, and led by by a ruthless political animal, the deeply unlikable Kenny.

So what’s in it for the Wildrose? Power. Two conservative parties going into the next election is a near guarantee of defeat for both of them; one conservative party has a solid chance at victory.

Assuming the deal goes through, then there will be another leadership contest, certainly pitting Kenny and Jean, and perhaps some others, like wildcard Wildroser Derek Fildebrandt. Some conservatives are drooling over the prospect of Rona Ambrose (the interim federal Conservative leader who stepped away from politics this week) joining the race. It seems unlikely, as she has just taken a job with a U.S. think tank. But if the deal goes through, there will be pressure on Ambrose to join the race. Ambrose leading a united conservative party is Rachel Notley’s worst nightmare.

They’re already talking impeachment

It was inevitable, wasn’t it? We knew it was coming, but maybe not quite this quickly.

I’m talking, of course, of the impeachment of the President of the United States, one Donald J. Trump.

It’s not a certainty, of course. And he can be impeached, and carry on as president. Sounds like something he’d do. But the chances of full impeachment hearings against Trump — who has been president only since January — gets more likely every day.

Last week, following on the heels of his shocking firing of FBI chief James Comey, a memo Comey wrote after talking to Trump was leaked to the Washington Post. The memo quotes Comey as saying that Trump has asked him to end an investigation into former national security advisor (and perjurer) Michael Flynn. If true, this could be construed as obstruction of justice, which is an impeachable offence. (Another report said Trump — who leaked confidential information to the Russians — told the Russian ambassador that Comey was a “nut job”.) Unless there are tape recordings of their conversation — which Trump hinted at darkly in one of his more threatening, Bond-villainesque Tweets — this will be a matter of whom do you believe. Do you believe Comey, a career FBI man with an unblemished record (OK, maybe ONE blemish), or chronic liar and egomaniac Trump? Not a tough call. A special counsel, a former FBI director, has been appointed to oversee the investigation into allegations that the Trump campaign and Russia collaborated to influence the 2016 campaign.

Even Republicans are getting antsy about this ugly mess. John McCain said the scandal is “of Watergate size and scale”. With support for Trump at historic lows (he never even had a post-election honeymoon), other Republicans are likely to distance themselves from the Orange Menace, particularly those facing re-election next year.

Trump is defiant, of course. The told U.S. Coast Guard cadets that he had been “treated worse than any politician in history”. Visitors to the Lincoln memorial in Washington said they were quite sure they heard a voice say, “Um, seriously?”

The not-so great cultural appropriation debate

Are you familiar with the term cultural appropriation? It’s all the rage in elite circles these days.

Susan Scafidi, a law professor at Fordham University, defines cultural appropriation as follows: “Taking intellectual property, traditional knowledge, cultural expressions, or artifacts from someone else’s culture without permission. This can include unauthorized use of another culture’s dance, dress, music, language, folklore, cuisine, traditional medicine, religious symbols, etc.It’s most likely to be harmful when the source community is a minority group that has been oppressed or exploited in other ways or when the object of appropriation is particularly sensitive, e.g. sacred objects.”

This could be a guy wearing dreadlocks, or hipsters at a music festival wearing a native headdress.

In certain circles (writers of books few people read, and writers of poetry that nobody reads) taking a contrary stand on cultural appropriation will cost you your job. Hal Niedzviecki, the editor of Write, the magazine of the Writers’ Union of Canada (there’s such a thing?) wrote “anyone, anywhere, should be encouraged to imagine other peoples, other cultures, other identities,” and jokingly suggested there should be a “cultural expropriation prize” for literature. Cue the uproar! The union immediately issued a grovelling apology, and Niedzviecki resigned.

Later, Jonathan Kay, the editor of The Walrus (there’s such a thing?) wrote an opinion piece in the National Post that defended the right to debate cultural appropriation. Cue the uproar! Kay stepped down as Walrus editor.

And finally, the managing editor of CBC’s The National was reassigned for making “an inappropriate, insensitive and frankly unacceptable tweet” about the appropriation uproar. What did he say that was inappropriate, insensitive and frankly unacceptable? He volunteered to donate $100 to establishing the cultural expropriation prize. Cue the uproar! The ever-PC CBC immediately begged forgiveness.

If cultural appropriate a thing? Sure. Is it something that we can discuss? Apparently not. Deviating from the agreed upon orthodoxy in Canada is now a firing offence.

RIP

Roger Ailes, 77, the villainous genius behind Fox News, a organization that rejected objectivity in favour of rabid pro-Republican conservatism. Without Fox, there would never have been a Donald Trump presidency … Chris Cornell, 52, one of the most respected contemporary lead singers in rock music with his bands Soundgarden and Audioslave …  Brad Grey, 59, chairman of Paramount Pictures for a dozen years who played a pivotal role in the creation of seminal television hits such as The Sopranos .. .

Powers Boothe

Powers Boothe, 68, actor known for playing bad guys in dozens of films and TV shows.