To my American cousins; I understand why half of you are angry and disappointed…

by | Nov 17, 2024 | news

To my American cousins;

I understand why half of you are angry and disappointed. I understand why despite the sins, misdemeanours, criminal and subversive behaviors/actions and policy threat-statements that define Mr. T that you voted him into office again.

After the election, it’s become clear that the claim of a stolen 2020 election is false and has always been false. Otherwise, why didn’t the democrats ‘steal’ it again? If they did so once, they should have been able to do it again. I wonder why the Democrats did not claim the same thing about this election for their candidate?

Even with the curious stamina in believing that the apparatus of government (federal and state) were ‘weaponized’ against Mr. T, there must be at least one of these behaviours that is an accurate description of what kind of person he is and what he wants. People should take his explicit statements as accurate about where he will take your nation.

I understand, because the same social movements that have and are electing such persons have been and still are potent throughout the world.

The question is, why? There are many reasons. The world-wide events of the pandemic and the subsequent (yes they’re connected) massive rise in costs causing inflation are part of the dis-ease many of us feel. But these are not the work of a single person, party, administration or government. Nor are they the direct policies of some cabal that want to cause such turmoil from which they can benefit. These recent developments are world-wide phenomena, caused by world-wide actions of entire nations, the economic whirlwind of money, war and other factors. They are outside the grasp and creation of anyone. Though, when they occur, some benefit more than others. They are not you and me.

It is history that holds the key to explaining what you and many all over the world feel. Something has gone wrong, or ‘off’ for a generation or three, for at least 45 years. In that period, the drumbeat for a ‘free market’ and the attraction to thrust libertarian principles into public policy, promoted by persons outside and inside governments over the world, enabled a deeper incursion onto modern democratic ground. Those who have most benefited have run away with the ball. That was the era of Thatcher (UK) and Reagan. The latter once said, “government is not the solution to our problems; it is the problem.“

Drawing on the ideology of libertarianism and the fantasy of a “free market,” these leaders spearheaded globalization. This means getting rid of extra costs and taxes on goods traded between countries, so that all countries can compete fairly. On paper, markets, unbound from any one country (or company in a sector), having an unfair advantage -based on rules agreed to by all participants through non-coercive debate- is not a bad idea, if it were fair. What you were not told is that ‘free markets’ are never free nor fair for all parties. Someone always pays outsized costs or suffers from them. A few others benefit from outsized gains.

Globalization helped bring millions of people around the world (e.g. Vietnam, Brazil, India, China and Indonesia) out of poverty, increasing opportunities for jobs/careers and wealth.

However, the economic uplift of the many elsewhere than here (US, Europe, Canada) had a flattening effect upon our wages and jobs. Globalization energized the capitalist purpose, which is to reduce costs. Companies for whom it was cost-worthy packed up their goods and factories and went where tax rates and wages were lower than in their countries of origin. Jobs moved offshore because capitalists did what capitalists do. This, in turn, resulted in the disproportionate capture of mountains of wealth by the few against the many, all over the world.

These global elites used an updated set of techno-auto-bureau-cratic principles to create their own nation (non-country), with no loyalties to anyone but themselves. They share a narcissistic loyalty; to themselves and their money. They have a vast army of enablers who admire and want what they have. These include lawyers, accountants, bankers, the minor wealthy (like $10 million -plus perks- a year bank CEOs), sycophants, pundits, opportunists (even hair dressers and dentists!) and politicians. If the enablers cannot have mountains of money, they worship the new technocratic elite gods so they can gain hills of money.

They, in part, generated their wealth by their own cleverness in taking advantage of opportunities as they arose. However, they also continued to benefit from abundant subsidies and lower taxes from governments under the influences of admiration and/or threats to keep them from slipping away to some other country with even lower taxes, standards and subsidies.

They won’t tell you this, but capitalism has benefited from the largesse of governments (e.g., your money) for years. Two examples. Billionaire-of-the-moment, Elon Musk, acquired lucrative contracts (your money) with your federal government. The second example: in 2009-2010 governments bailed the bankers for the financial crisis that almost bottomed out the world financial structure, caused by their greed, of whom not a one went to jail for their avaricious betting on flimsy financial instruments. Others knew what was happening and cashed in by betting against the housing market.

So, yes, socialism (public money – yours- from governments around the world) saved capitalism. These economic elites maintain, and have always maintained, that they accumulated their vast fortunes on their own and see government taxation as an act of theft.

It is a persistent lie that governments steal from the wealthy. It was and is these elites and their enablers who, through subsidies and taxes (your money) who are guilty of theft. Taxes are what you pay so that you live in a civilized society. By stealing from you, the elites of every political stripe are making your society uncivilized (that is, lower on the non-egalitarian scale).

It’s understandable that you’re furious. You have been treated unfairly. The entertainer, speaking in short words and phrases, thinks of you as suckers, and you can only react with emotion, unable to articulate why you feel this way.

It is not a special group of elites whom, lemming-like, you blame because Mr. T blames them (e.g., party democrats). This set of global elites, without loyalty to a party, government, country, or religion – except their own, despises the herd, the rest of humanity.

Both republican and democrat governments have given enormous tax breaks to the few. Those breaks have to be paid for somehow. That means gutting spending for education, health care and social goods upon which some citizens below a certain income depend. It has been both types of governments who sent your children as soldiers over the world to die. And for what? To maintain their way of life.

Remember Mr. T’s ‘drain the swamp,’ comment in 2016? He was referring to the gators he didn’t like, but then he brought in his own T-brand gators and repopulated the swamp. The same sort of elites have screwed you; the minor and the ultra wealthy (plus all their hangers-on). And you are about to be re-screwed.

And Mr. T? The election is over and the people he is putting in various posts are a different gator but with the same desires: money, power and misperceived desire or revenge. Betting you wouldn’t look too close at his hands as he moved the shells, the showman had beguiled you. And if you say you are a Christian and agree with Kennedy that, ‘God has given me Trump’, then you have exchanged your trust and loyalty from He whom you call Lord for a human trickster, an idol and have therefore become apostate.

When the elite speak of ‘free’ (markets) and ‘freedom’ and ‘our way of life’, and ‘taxes’ and ‘money’, they are not talking about your freedom, taxes, money or security. They are talking about theirs. By shouting those words, you are not helping yourselves, but the very people who use your emotion behind those words to manipulate you. These are libertarians. From the 1970s to the present, their goal has been to dismantle government, democracy itself.

After the 9/11 attack, then President Bush spoke at an invitation-only banquet for the elite. He said, “some call you the ‘haves’; I call you the ‘have-mores’.” These people (not all of them), republicans and democrats, despise the middle and lower class.

The T brand is making this analysis clear in real time. Shuttering the dept of education? Punching the teeth out of the IRS? Turning the EPA into a sheep pen? Getting rid of anyone in the DOD that showed spine and opposed Mr. T’s previous regime? A new AG whose chief goal is to wreak vengeance on Mr. T’s (and his own) enemies, turning the justice system into a private concern? By ‘private’ means that you, as one of the herd, cannot depend upon absolute principles of democracy; the rule of law and the separation of powers. Even thinking the Constitution can be ‘ended’ and Mr. T ignoring the Constitution by already thinking he can run for a third term?

Whom do you think these anti-democratic, anti-legal, above all else, anti-American goals will benefit? If you are reading this, it won’t be you.

By not voting for this reality, you are already resisting. Those who voted for this reality should consider that the cult and gods of money, fame and entertainment are responsible for it. In case you wake up feeling like you have a hangover after an emotional party and doubt your actions, seek a lawful means to resist through the Constitution and the rule of law.

So, for the next four years, every six months, check your personal economic pulse. Is your wallet or purse getting lighter and you haven’t even opened them? Are you still paying too much for goods and services you cannot afford now? Have you received a reduced Social Security payment? Have your taxes come down? And by how much in comparison with the elite? Is there more violence, as there was in Mr. T’s first regime? Is there more misogyny? Do you feel more or less secure?

If not, then weep for yourselves and your children. Then, when the unpleasant and shameful truth of Mr. T’s lies is revealed, and while everyone is responsible for what they do, remember that you were deceived once more. But it was not your fault.

conservative tropes: high on emotion and personal infective, low on reason and facts

by | Oct 23, 2024 | news

 The National Post published on October 20, 2024 an opinion piece entitled, The NDP fought dirty. I wish John Rustad had fought back. http://Amy Hamm: The NDP fought dirty. I wish John Rustad had fought back.The author, Amy Hamm, like so many pundits these days, spent a great deal of effort and energy crafting assertions that come from pure emotion, with little reason or facts to back up the assertions.

What the author got right was John Rustad’s lack of interest in women’s sexual health. It will be interesting to see if he reveals himself to be, dare it be said?, progressive on the matter or a dinosaur.

Moving on: once we push our way through the thicket of creative but sterile statements the author has seven assertions from which the emotions arise: homelessness, housing, harm reduction, crime, the economy, children’s minds, and divisive identity politics.

Every one of these comes with adjectives that are unproven and purely the opinion of the author. Where are her facts, interviews with persons affected, papers etc?

We are:

1) ‘tired of rampant homelessness’

I’m certain most jurisdictions across Canada and around the world are ‘tired’ of the phenomenon because every province and many countries are struggling with the issue. Because it is a world-wide phenomenon, it seems there are a) underlying causes that are universal and b) using the term ‘rampant’ in order to excoriate the current party in government for the problem is a simple appeal to emotion and not facts. As such, the comment is useless as a starting point for dialogue to find ways to minimize the crisis and help the citizens who are trapped in homelessness. I am particular concerned that the opinion may include, or at least encourage unfounded negative judgments of homeless citizens.

2) ‘unaffordable housing’

Yes, this is a major problem. However, it too is a problem all across Canada and around the world. Blaming one leader and one party is simplistic.

3) ‘harm reduction failures’

Of which failures is the author writing? She does not identify which ‘failures’ she has in mind. However, perhaps she has in mind the recent decision by the BC Government to try decriminalization of small amount sof cocaine, and then reminded that decision. For whatever reason, it did not ‘work’. But before it is called a ‘failure’ let’s ask the question about why it didn’t work and then ask what can be done to address the issue. 

4). ’public crime and disorder’

Please. This is a tiresome trope in the conservative play book. Usually it gets Brough out of a bag of hackneyed verbal toys to pull on peoples emotions, with the assumption that crime is a out of control and the sky is falling. Do pundits belief the trope or are they too lazy to get the facts? The fact are the following. 

Questions not considered: What crime? Non-severe or severe? Adult or youth? In all of BC or in some towns and cities? Drugs, theft, white collar? Property and what kind? Civil or criminal? Etc. Crime as a whole in BC and in Canada is decreasing. “In 2022, BC’s police-reported crime rate (excluding traffic) decreased by 1.6%, from 74.8 to 73.7 offences per 1,000 population.” In 2021 there were in BC 15.3 violent crimes/1000 persons while in 2022, that rate was 15.3. The property crime rate in 2021 was 42.2/1000 and in 2022 it was 41.9. And Canada is ranked #1 for 2024 as the safest country in the world. So much for this antique trope.

5) ’a health-care system on the brink of collapse’

This is another (part-) trope. It is unnecessarily dramatic to state that the health system is ‘on the brink’. In fact, pundits in Canada having been saying this for years, usually in an effort to scare citizens and then move us to a point where we will allow more significant privatization into the health system. It is also dramatic to state the phrase as if only BC’ s heath care system is threatened. Provinces have been constantly advocating to Ottawa for more funding and recently had some. There are, however, key improvements that can be made, without allowing for an expansion of for-profit health measures. Criticize Ottawa and the provinces on true data instead of wasting energy and breath on irrelevant emotional drama, another example of trying to scare people.

6) ’a lacklustre economy’

Canada’s GDP in 2023 was $2140.08 billion $US), the tenth largest in the world. Each Canadian’s share of GDP in that year was $53,372 US dollars/person. British Columbia’s GDP for 2023 was $304 billion (minus inflation), the second highest after Ontario. “Looking back to 2019 before the pandemic, B.C.’s GDP has grown 9.5% [includes of course the effects of the pandemic and the associated inflation phenomenon, another world-wide event] in four years, or by $26 billion in inflation-adjusted dollars.” Canada’s economy suffers from the usual ups and downs of normal financial processes, hardly ‘lacklustre’.

7) ’government behaving as though our children’s minds belong to the state’

I do not understand what the author means by this. Perhaps the phrase would be immediately understood by others who share whatever emotional (again no facts are given) reaction is manifesting itself here. I think the author is concerned about issues around gender identity among children and youth. If so, the fact the author simply shouts out this phrase without facts, or referencing events that point to what is of concern for her or interview enough parents and health professionals and professions in the education system, then it is irresponsible to do so. It may even be harmful to persons directly involved with this matter (children and their parents).

But, let’s look at some facts. In the 2021 Canadian census, approximately .033% of respondents identified themselves as transgender (the first time this category was included). In 2019 one study found that of youth aged 12-17 0.2% were non binary and 0.2% transgender. Governments do not separate children from parents over identity disputes. It is slander to state this as ‘fact’. Children who identify as transgender at a young age retain the affirmed (when young) gender when they reach adulthood. In fact, most children identify their sexual nature by the time they are three years old, and do not change later. In BC, as the gender-diverse youth debate continues, by adults, in some schools their safety is increasingly at risk.

What these facts refute is the assumption that ‘governments are trying to take over the minds of children’ or manipulating them and their parents. There are few true trans-gender young people and adults in society-for that reason alone their rights need to be protected from what seems to be a widespread but thin group of persons who are reacting emotionally to the issues around sexual identity, rather than pointing at facts. What needs to be affirmed is the need to reduce stigma, help transgender and gender-diverse children to become resilient and confident in themselves and also help reduce the anxiety of parents who love them by considering facts. In an interesting and timely article by Andrew Hawthorn, a CBC journalist, he points out another embarrassing, for those who are emotional but not focused on facts, is that children in the past have often been used as a means of pushing back at the development of human rights. If so, this latest surge in emotional ranting without inconvenient facts another example of being on the wrong side of history.

The author says that the NDP government in BC and the Liberals is Ottawa have been engaging I ‘divisive identity politics’ and says no one likes to be called ‘racists, anti-vaxers, bigots, homophobes, and conspiracy theorists.’ This is where -guess what?-facts are necessary. If Mr. Eby and other NDPers describe some of their opponents this way, then it is an opportunity for those so described to stand up and out to say whether the description is accurate. If it is not, then how did Mr. Eby get it wrong? If the descriptions are accurate but someone has changed their opinions, then let those persons so state their, as the author says in another context, ‘come to Jesus moment’ and move on. 

A little twinkle about Mr. Rustad in this respect. He has said frequently that if he becomes premier he will fire Bonnie Henry, the Provincial Health Doctor who helped guide BC through the pandemic. During the pandemic she was threatened: she even had to have bodyguards run with her during a 10K event. So, why does Mr. Rustad think she deserves to be fired? Can it possibly be that Mr. Rustad harbours opinions that have been unearthed by the NDP amongst his colleagues? It should also be noted that Mr. Rustad and the leader of the federal conservatives have done their fair share of bitter emotional mud-slinging and attack. Spare us, please, from further statements of this kind; that only one party and only one leader behaves at times with less decorum that they should, leaving unsaid the facts that their opponents do precisely the same thing. 

A last note: what in the world did the author mean by this phrase: “British Columbians faced a choice: would we allow the perfect to be the enemy of good, and refuse to usher in a new Conservative government?”

 

Endnotes

  1. Amy Hamm: The NDP fought dirty. I wish John Rustad had fought back
  2. Crime Statistics in British Columbia, 2022 (gov.bc.ca)
  3. https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/law-crime-and-justice/criminal-justice/police/publications/statistics/bc-crime-statistics-2022.pdf; Incident-based crime statistics, by detailed violations, police services in British Columbia (statcan.gc.ca)
  4. https://www.cicnews.com/2024/01/canada-ranked-as-worlds-safest-country-for-travel-in-2024-0142569.html#gs.h41q04;https://chaudharylaw.com/canada-ranked-as-the-worlds-safest-country-for-travel-in-2024; https://www.canadim.com/blog/safety-in-canada-five-factors
  5. https://www.canada.ca/en/department-finance/news/2023/06/government-of-canada-delivers-additional-2-billion-canada-health-transfer-payment-to-provinces-and-territories.html
  6. chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.cfpc.ca/CFPC/media/Resources/Health-Policy/HPGR-FP-Reform-Policy-EN.pdf. chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.cfpc.ca/CFPC/media/Resources/Health-Policy/HPGR-FP-Reform-Policy-EN.pdf
  7. https://tradingeconomics.com/canada/gdp. See also, https://www.worlddata.info/america/canadaeconomy.php#:~:text=Worldwide%20gross%20domestic%20product%20in,is%20currently%20at%20rank%2010
  8. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Canada
  9. https://www.worlddata.info/america/canada economy.php#:~:text=Worldwide%20gross%20domestic%20product%20in,is%20currently%20at%20rank%2010
  10. chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/data/statistics/economy/economic-other/gdp_by_industry_2023.pdf
  11. chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/data/statistics/economy/economic-other/gdp_by_industry_2023.pdf
  12. Over 100K people are transgender in Canada, 2021 census shows – National | Globalnews.ca
  13. Gender identity and sexual attraction among Canadian youth: findings from the 2019 Canadian Health Survey on Children and Youth, HPCDP: Vol 43(6), June 2023 – Canada.ca.
  14. PolitiFact | Canadian government doesn’t separate children from parents due to gender identity disputes
  15. Most kids who identify as transgender at a young age retain their affirmed gender, study finds | CBC News
  16. https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/childrens-health/in-depth/children-and-gender-identityart- 20266811#:~:text=Most%20children%20between%20ages%2018,time%20they%20reach%20age%203.
  17. B.C. election: Debate over the rights of gender-diverse youth continues as their school safety declines.
  18. Five Reasons Why Government Should Be Involved in Raising Kids – Ideas Matter; Research | Stigma and Resilience Among Vulnerable Youth Centre (SARAVYC); An affirming approach to caring for transgender and gender-diverse youth | Canadian Paediatric Society
  19. What we talk about when we talk about thinking of the children | CBC News

Mr. Campbell’s Exaggerations and Misconceptions

by | Oct 20, 2024 | news

The article by former premier Gordon Campbell (2001-2011) in the Victoria Times Colonist (October 8, 2024). https://www.timescolonist.com/opinion/gordon-campbell-in-this-election-your-vote-will-make-a-difference-9633547  is replete with statements, not arguments. He stated, “Some will say change can’t happen, but they are wrong. Change will happen if we all demand it and vote for it!”(1) That is exactly what was said by the electorate toward his (hybrid) political entity -libertarian(2)/liberal party (‘the hybrids’)- first elected in 2001 and ruled until their defeat in 2016.(3) 

In the article, he made two initial statements that are connected to his legacy. He stated that BC’s 2024 deficit (under the NDP), “…is estimated at another $8 billion. That’s more than the entire K-12 education system cost when the current government took over.” He’s comparing apples to oranges.(4) Singling out one service area and judging it according to a deficit that is related to a bigger animal is a non-sequitur (latin for ‘whopper’).(5)

This first sentence, referencing the deficit, is connected to his promise that there would be no cuts to the education sector; as soon as he got the crown in 2001 he and his party slashed funding for eduction.(6) Aside from saying one thing and doing another, cutting education funding for the next generations of a workforce is at best self-defeating; at worst, it is a sign of ideology driving policy. In fact, such decisions are not ‘common sense’, a phrase that conservatives often use to demonstrate their alleged fitness for office. This type of vague nonsense phrase is bleated without definitions, data or explanatory notes.

Mr. Campbell’s mention of a deficit raises an associated point. Government debt, deficits etc are more complex than Mr. Campbell wants to admit. It’s much simpler to state vague words and cast blame than to back vacuity up with facts. For example, the BC debt per capita (person) in 2001, (the first year the hybrid party was in power) was $8,852. By 2016, the year the hybrids were given liberty from government responsibility, the debt was $13,942. So much for consistency in remarks about deficits by another government. From 2017-2019 the debt/person was kept under $14,000. In 2020 the debt/person was $14,230. In 2024 that debt has reached $19,471.(7)

Why did this happen? Conservative pundits infer the rise in debt level cannot be ascribed alone to the pandemic. On this point they are incorrect.(8) The arrival of the pandemic in Canada was officially noted on January 25, 2020.(9) There is a direct cause and effect because of the decisions of BC’s government (and that of Canada) to help citizens with various financial packages during the crisis. These monies for citizens added to debt and deficit. So what? That is what governments are for: to protect and help their citizens in times of crisis. What would a conservative, neo-conservative or libertarian government have done? 

Most restrictions related to covid were lifted around October 2022. Soon after, the world was swept by a massive upswing in prices which was part of the cause of world-wide inflation or the cost of living. Of this we write later.

The second initial whopper has to do with two statements about current health care in BC. The first is, we have to, “stop wait lists in health care from deteriorating in growing death lists”. This kind of statement serves to heighten emotion and obscure the necessity for substance. In BC’s health system people in a given category who are in worse shape than others are triaged for treatment. The notion that a government would allow a system to exist that creates ‘death lists’ is ridiculous. It is also insulting to the extraordinary health care professionals who keep the system running in a shape where most people get the care they need most of the time when they need it. 

Then Mr. Campbell stated, “the [NDP] government randomly closes emergency wards”. This is false, and inflammatory. It is also hypocritical because his government made numerous cuts to the health care system,(10) and then, when the system began to develop problems, used those problems to argue that Canada’s health care was ‘in crisis’ and needed to be augmented by a ‘cheaper’ alternative; a private system.(11) This assumptive trope,(12) by libertarians certainly, and most conservatives, is that government is always, everywhere and in every jurisdiction inefficient and bloated. The only solution is to let loose the superior intellectual and managerial abilities of the private sector (capitalism without outside oversight).

***

There are three main statements that Mr. Campbell makes that need to be pulled out and apart for facts and veracity. These are crime, taxes and the cost of living.

Crime

Mr. Campbell wrote: “if we want to stop the revolving door in the justice system where dangerous people are put back on the streets; if we want to be able to walk down their streets without fear with their children; if we want to use their parks freely and enjoy their community centres with their kids — we need to vote for change.” Campbell, like most hybrids, is implying that crime is out of control, not just in BC but in Canada. Is this perception accurate? He presents no statistics or purported facts and no argument; merely an emotive, ideological statement.

What crime? Non-severe or severe? Adult or youth? In all of BC or in some towns and cities? Drugs, theft, white collar? Property and what kind? Civil or criminal? Etc. None of this is addressed by Mr. Campbell. There is a reason for such vacuity: it is easier to frighten people than to speak about facts. By frightening citizens a demagogue can get elected where someone who makes arguments is boring and unelectable.

The facts, accessible by any, especially a person who once was premier of this province, are the following. Crime as a whole in BC and in Canada is decreasing. “In 2022, BC’s police-reported crime rate (excluding traffic) decreased by 1.6%, from 74.8 to 73.7 offences per 1,000 population.”(13) Since Mr. Campbell seems most exercised by ‘dangerous persons’ and crime in BC, there are two examples to review. In 2021 there were in BC 15.3 violent crimes/1000 persons while in 2022, that rate was 15.3. The property crime rate in 2021 was 42.2/1000 and in 2022 it was 41.9.(14) So much for that conservative/libertarian trope.

Taxes

In his article he stated, “If voters want lower taxes, if they want more take-home pay, we can do that too.” He makes the statement but doesn’t ask why someone would want taxes lowered. Again, have a look at Mr. Campbell’s history on taxes as a politician.(15) There are three important questions that loom in the background of any talk of tax cuts. 

Tax policy is complex: complexity includes implementation, results, and interpretation after the results. A perfect example of this complex phenomenon is Mr. Campbell’s cuts to taxes in 2001. Let’s review.

a) Which taxes are we examining, who benefits and who is most negatively affected by tax cuts? 

On his first day in office, Mr. Campbell cut personal income tax by 25%, the corporate income tax and then corporate capital taxes. Personal income taxes in BC went from being at the national average to the lowest in Canada.(16) This sounds good, but the effect was to reduce services and to close certain social benefit programs, reconfigure them or hand them to private interests. The lower income a citizen has, the more they are affected by the effects of lower taxes. Higher income citizens benefit most because some social programs they would never need and their income goes up, and their taxes down, because the cuts tend to mean more for their bottom lines. The already wealthy are better off after the cuts than everyone else beneath their earning level. And they buy more exclusive stuff when blood is on the streets.(17) This process is typical of libertarian/conservative-backed political choices.(18)

  1. What is the purpose of taxation? 

To live in a civilized state. I like to pay taxes because I know that I benefit from the services I pay for through my taxes. I also know that some of the taxes I pay for I will never use but others will need them. I am happy to pay for taxes that do both. One’s attitude to paying taxes comes down to a choice between caring about one’s neighbour, about inequity and equity. One way to judge for whom to vote in an election is to ask what is meant by reduction in taxes and get whoever is speaking to state clearly who benefits. As above, tax cuts tend to benefit persons who are already well off and affect less wealthy citizens more negatively. There are always some persons who believe that they have more of a right to build their own personal equity without responsibility and so reduce their participation in social equity.

  1. How is funding for government services replaced, given cuts? 

It isn’t. Sometimes the services are eliminated. As noted above sometimes they are reconfigured, including eliminating unnecessary positions, and sometimes privatized. In other words, some social services are snuffed out without regard to how it affects the citizens who need them or reconfigured so that there are fewer people doing jobs that used to require more employees, thus reducing service levels (e.g. numbers of doctors, nurses or school teachers).

Cost of living

Mr. Campbell stated, “The cost of living is soaring because the government is addicted to taxes, not to performance.” This is another hybridean trope, and a confused one at that. It vaguely sounds like it is logical to put ‘taxes’ and ‘performance’ together in the same sentence, opposite to one another and have it make sense, but this is another whopper. Taxes, as we saw above, are a means for a government to create and maintain social programs that help some citizens some of the time to do more than survive, but to help them live with dignity, maybe even thrive and contribute back to society. To help some citizens in this way, governments need taxes to redistribute some monies to those social programs. Of course, some tax monies are needed for governance, the court system, education, basic maintenance on roads, civil protection, to deter outside aggression, and so on.

What has ‘performance’ to do with cost of living? Performance is the process of accomplishing an action. To be honest, I don’t understand what Mr. Campbell meant when he stated the phrase, so I can only guess. My guess is that as a neo-conservative or libertarian, he meant something like the following. If we reward the performances of (few) people in government who succeed in creating good government policies (with the fewest dollars possible) those divine beings will somehow do so without taxes.

In addition, it is argued by pundits that the recent rise in the cost of living(19)-since 2020- could not possibly have anything to do with inflation. However, the cost of living has not become high just in BC or just in Canada, but over the world, which indicates that it was not the fault of any one government, any one leader, province or country. So, blaming any of these individual entities is another whopper. BC and Canada are essentially in the same position in terms of debt to GDP as most other social democratic countries in Europe. Canada’s debt to GDP is approximately 94.1%.(20)As Eurostat, Statistics Explained (‘an official Eurostat website’) states (with stats and figures), “In the euro area the government debt to GDP ratio decreased from 90.8 % at the end of 2022 to 88.6 % at the end of 2023, and in the EU from 83.4 % to 81.7 %.”(21) It is not surprising that Canada’s debt to GDP is higher because the federal, and provincial, governments used their spending power in 2020(22) to support its citizens during the emergency. Yes, the federal government needs to address this issue, but blaming any government for a deficit in the wake of the massive economic crises is disingenuous. How will a conservative government deal with the debt/deficit? How will their inevitable cuts, if elected, help any Canadians besides the wealthy who can weather such economic storms better than anyone else? 

Yes, the cost of living (COL) has become higher, but the reasons are far more complex than Mr. Campbell states. COL is associated with inflation. Conservative voices will also blame this phenomenon on the ruling party, as if any one entity controls it, bounded by no less than the world, as the events in one part of the world affects all other parts. In the last three years, aside from the pandemic, inflation and the cost of living have been affected by massive shifts in unanticipated, new, weather conditions, the regular ‘forest fire season’, higher prices due to supply chain foul ups, war (especially Russia and its war on Ukraine) consequent rises in insurance rates, gas and oil etc.(23) Yet BC has the lowest debt-to GDP ratio compared to other provinces, something of which Mr. Campbell and other hybrid pundits don’t speak.(24)

While there are many points from which to critique Mr. Campbell’s article and there are more explanations for why he made them, there is one major reason that lies behind, not just Mr. Campbell’s statements or his words and actions when he was premier but lies behind most neocon, conservative, libertarian essays, comments, actions, tropes and motivation. It is a fundamental piece of dogma that any and all taxes are bad in that they restrict ‘freedom’ and steal from the pockets of consumers. 

This is an extraordinary attitude. Freedom is understood to be freedom to make money and spend it in any way I wish, without the demand for taxes. Another characteristic of the hybrids is that one should always pay for the goods or products one buys. Even at the base level of thinking about government and social policy in this way should make sense to anyone who wishes to live in a civil society. To do so means taxes, fairly divided amongst the population. This means adequate or progressive taxation. Persons who think taxes are theft are in fact stealing from others in the society in which they both exist. Otherwise, the impress of inequity, rather than the constant balancing act between the moral considerations of equity and taxes, becomes a defining characteristic of a given society. 

Mr. Campbell’s rant-as-essay in the Times Colonist reveals nothing of such considerations. 

Endnotes

  1. https://www.timescolonist.com/opinion/gordon-campbell-in-this-election-your-vote-will-make-a-difference-9633547.
  2. Libertarians have been around for a long time but in the years of the Reagan-thatcher-Mulroney triumvirate its ideology had a new start. Its adherents are as diverse as any other group about their ideologies. However, libertarians believe that less, or even no, government is better, that taxes are theft and civil and social democratic governments are a threat to ts adherents’ ‘way of life’. Along with that phrase another is ‘freedom’. When such persons use these words, they mean their freedom, their way of life, and their money; not yours or mine.
  3. https://www.sightline.org/2018/11/01/2001-election-fptp-british-columbia-frustrating-story. See also, The Brief and Frustrating Story of the 2001 Election in British Columbia (sightline.org). 
  4. https://www.langleyadvancetimes.com/opinion/editorial-blame-gordon-campbell-for-current-teachers-impasse-2476166.
  5. There are numerous one-liner whoppers from Mr. Campbell: ‘Our health system is in collapse’, ‘the government (NDP) proudly prohibit a BC citizen from getting the same access to health care as a Quebec resident’, ‘temporary trailers at schools for school rooms means parents and children are not welcome’, etc., but we cannot analyze all of them. 
  6. https://thetyee.ca/News/2016/11/10/BC-Teachers-Win-SCC-Battle.
  7. https://www.taxtips.ca/statistics/bc-provincial-debt.htm.
  8. In a February 22, 2024 report, a Fraser Institute the authors claimed, by splitting the difference, that BC debt was 2016-17 was $14,275/person. They split the difference between 2016/2017 to come up with a figure of $14,275 but the accurate figures for each year was lost the same. $13,942/person and 2017, $13,885. The authors then claimed that NDP pundits cannot use the pandemic as an ‘excuse’ for the rise in debt. However, the NDP kept the debt per person under 14,000. The authors were wrong to infer that the pandemic was not in any way for the increase of debt/person. They were also wrong to infer that the next years to 2024 were not also affected by the repercussions of the pandemic and government response to it for the sake of its citizens. See https://www.fraserinstitute.org/blogs/bc-government-projects-massive-debt-accumulation-and-british-columbians-will-pay-the-price. Authors, Tegan Hill and Jake Fuss.
  9. https://www.taxtips.ca/statistics/bc-provincial-debt.htm.
  10. How BC Is Making Fools of Past Health Spending Alarmists | The Tyee; https://thetyee.ca/News/2007/06/08/Bill29Dies/; https://www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca/index.php/briefing-note-gordon-campbell-canadas-arch-health-care-privateer-and-author-of-the-worst-cuts-in-b-c-s-history-september-20-2018; https://www.heu.org/news/media-release/heu-statement-resignation-premier-gordon-campbell; https://www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/opinion/letter-admission-of-campbells-health-care-destruction-better-late-than-never-1588617.
  11. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3378609; https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/private-health-care-taxpayer-money-1.6777470; https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/private-health-care-taxpayer-money-1.6777470.
  12. https://newint.org/features/2015/12/01/private-public-sector; https://www.epsu.org/article/public-and-private-sector-efficiency; https://neweconomics.org/uploads/files/mythbuster-private-sector.pdf. See also; https://www.undp.org/sites/g/files/zskgke326/files/publications/GCPSE_Efficiency.pdf. 
  13. Crime Statistics in British Columbia, 2022 (gov.bc.ca).
  14. https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/law-crime-and-justice/criminal-justice/police/publications/statistics/bc-crime-statistics-2022.pdf; Incident-based crime statistics, by detailed violations, police services in British Columbia (statcan.gc.ca).
  15. Campbell’s deficgis-https://www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca/index.php/briefing-note-gordon-campbell-canadas-arch-health-care-privateer-and-author-of-the-worst-cuts-in-b-c-s-history-september-20-2018.
  16. https://thetyee.ca/News/2013/05/06/BC-Liberals-Tax-Shifts.
  17. https://www.cnbc.com/2022/08/13/ultra-rich-still-shopping-for-luxury-despite-inflation-recession-fears.html;https://visiblealpha.com/blog/luxury-goods-inflation-recession-and-defying-the-odds.
  18. 98 BC Liberal Falsehoods, Boondoggles and Scandals: The Campbell Era 45 | The Tyee; 117 BC Liberal Falsehoods, Boondoggles and Scandals: The Complete List | The Tyee; Gordon Campbell: The Forgotten Man | The Tyee.
  19. See note 6.
  20. Canada’s Debt to GDP Ratio | 2024 | Economic Data | World Economics
  21. https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php. title=Government_finance_statistics#:~:text=In%20the%20euro%20area%20the,3.4%20%25%20to%20%2D3.5%20%25.&text=In%20the%20euro%20area%20the%20government%20debt%20to%20GDP%20ratio,from%2083.4%20%25%20to%2081.7%20%25.
  22. Canada Government Budget (tradingeconomics.com).
  23. Why the price of vegetable oil has spiked more than other food items | CBC NewsA multitude of factors has pushed up food prices. Statistics Canada attributed the rapid increase in grocery prices to weather conditions, higher prices for fertilizer and natural gas and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine; Rising costs, inflation creating affordability concerns for Canadians | CTV News; Inflation: Seven reasons the cost of living is going up around the world (bbc.com).
  24. https://news.gov.bc.ca/releases/2024FIN0036-001472; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_public_debt.

Trump: from protomartyr to messiah in less than six days

by | Jul 21, 2024 | news

Jesus beat him by three days. The protomartyr’s narcissism will gnaw the dry bones of his soul.

Evangelicals in the US are already claiming God saved Trump from death, by a millimetre. One has to ask, why would God do such a thing, when God has not saved 38000 people in Gaza, or the 1000 after Hamas went through the wall, or or or…the list can go on. Either God cares only for a few sanctified people -heralded as such by people- like Trump, or that is not how God operates in the world, or God does not exist. But then, evangelicals and other such persons who are absolute in their beliefs never let a few facts or logic or science interfere with what they claim.

Are we, though, witnessing a new religion rising on earth? Could our descendants in 2,000 years be worshipping the name of Trump (God, how he would love that!)? Would they be taking pilgrimages to sacred real estate? not Jerusalem or Mecca but Trump tower in New York? Would his mother become a new Mary, his children the founders of a new semi-divine dynasty? (God, how insufferable some of them would be.).

If Trump is anointed by the majority as king-president, will everyone have to bow or genuflect when he strolls into a room? Despite Trump’s post near-death experience claim that he will govern for all Americans, if so anointed, his rule will not admit of dissent. A prayer for (to?) Trump be considered more appropriate and meaningful than any prayer to the Deity (him?-her?-It?) self?

An alien visiting from outer space, or from heaven, watching the exuberant adulation poured upon a man, and not even a good man; not a messiah, the job for which a Trump resume does not exist, the alien would go back from whence he or she came, befuddled.

Trump’s own blood will seem to wash him clean, not by that of Jesus, because Trump couldn’t bow to anyone, or convert, or have a kind of Buddha enlightenment experience that could prod him to think of and act for the good of others than himself and his family. His speech after the near-death experience was, again, about him, despite the blather about ‘governing for all Americans’.

Pundits have described Trump’s supporters as ‘followers’. These followers of his remind me of the 1979 movie Life of Brian which was written, not to poke fun at any messiah, deity or prophet but at the human penchant to turn their messiahs, deities and prophets into images of themselves, based upon their own human fears and desires.

Life of Brian is, of course, funny and absurd because the creators of the movie are making fun of how absurd humans can be when they follow those they turn into protomartyrs and kings and false messiahs. There is a scene when Brian is trying to get away from people and hands over a gourd. Someone proclaims it as the saviour’s, making it holy. Since it is a holy object everyone, so the new followers claim, should hold it high in his honour.

As Brian runs away, he loses a shoe (sandal). The chasing people stop at the sandal. Someone picks it up and proclaims that everyone who follows the protomessiah Brian should walk without one sandal and hold the other up. Thus, the first two sects form and the first arguments who is right and who is wrong begin.

But when one sees it played out in the real world, such behavior is absurd but also dangerous. The images of Maga followers/RNC delegates emulating Trump with a bandage on their right ear are funny, at least to those of us who are outside the sacred aura, and absurd, but it is also disturbing. It is so because this sort of behaviour engenders fanaticism.

For secular Republican folk who don’t care what the herd does as long as it continue to buy stuff, obey the new alligators and help the elite increase their wealth and power, the degradation of Christianity to a secular protomartyr/messiah is a useful joke. But for people who profess ‘Jesus as Lord’, and yet adopt the new politico-religious symbol (alongside or above the one whom they call Lord), it is apostasy.

The Church’s standard definition of apostasy defined those who at first believed (assented to) the required list of credal statements, over which the gourds and the sandals fought for centuries. The most famous ‘apostate’ was Julian, the emperor (331-363 ce). This definition of apostate replaced, and nearly snuffed out, what ‘faith’ was in its primal state (e.g. St Paul): trust in Jesus the Jew (the Gentile’s messiah) as Lord. Loyalty to that Person, to no other, demands one loves and has mercy to others, putting asiade or using one’s wealth and power for tohtrs who are not so lucky as you. If a Christiqtn finds himself unable to mainatin loyalty to this Person beyond lou=yalty to another person or a state, then he or she should ceae apsotacy and return to the secular realm. How different a Lord is this than any other human, whether political leader, self-appointed messiah or other-appointed lord.

A word about the worship of mere men (emperors, kings, presidents, or in fact any human): they will kick you to the curb once your usefulness is over, as were the Romans Cicero (106-43 bce) and Seneca (4-65 ce).

Donald trump: the making of a proto-martyr political saint.

by | Jul 17, 2024 | news

Americans love their martyrs. Within a day of the shooting, one of the many photos of Trump being hustled off the stage, one was taken that is so perfect it could have been photo-shopped. He knows when to grab a spotlight, even it was an accident. It is a photo that anoints Donald True as a political saint, a protomartyr. It will become an iconic American image, part of the canon of American myth-making.

The photo will be reused in awe, celebration, and proof of Donald Trump’s salvation by God so that he can do great things, his sins washed away by his own blood. And with the supreme court in effect separating an incumbent from the rule of law makes this man, should the majority of Americans decide, the first sainted King of America in all but name. 

As a whole, the image is reminiscent of another iconic American image; that of American soldiers, raising the American flag on Iwo Jima, on February 23, 1945.  The two photos share the same angles of sight, the flag above and a dramatic event below, indicating the triumph aspiration and glory of American civilization. 

But that glory is dimmed when one knows the post-war story of Ira Hayes, one of those soldiers, an Akimel O’odham Indigenous American.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ira_Hayes

The flag itself in the new iconic photo is waving in the wind against a blue sky, above the fraught scene below, but with a kind of stillness implying an unequivocal certainty that the scene over which it watches will be repeated, but the American destiny will not be denied. This image of the flag raises in the mind the famous line from Francis Scott Key’s poem, written after the a British attack during the war of 1812 and devastation of Fort McHenry. After the smoke and dust had settled and the sun had risen, the proud patriot could say, ‘that our flag was still there’.

In the American founding mythos, that sentence presents the image of a brave and honourable nation, challenged since its beginning by enemies within and without but through which its spirit and God-given mission will prove indomitable and just. But the backstory for this photo is that the sentence above from the poem/song in Key’s third verse is now obscured by what is not included when the poem/song is sung or quoted.

The original lines (https://amhistory.si.edu/starspangledbanner/pdf/ssb_lyrics.pdf) of verse three are these:

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion
A home and a Country should leave us no more?
Their blood has wash’d out their foul footstep’s pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

These verses were a threat aimed at the Colonial Regiment of black persons who fought on the side of the British when the White House was burned and the Fort almost fell.  http://Video: Do You Know the Star-Spangled Banner’s 3rd Verse? | The Nation  (Jeffery Robinson, July 4, 2018)

The secret service. The image of selfless secret service men and women, protecting the protomartyr, is reminiscent of American calls for military service regardless of reason for war or sporadic military violence. The protomartyr draped in both the bodies and the symbolism of their possible sacrifice for one man who embodies the state, the American empire, and its manifest destiny is similar to how the soldiers at Iwo Jima draped themselves over the pole of the flag at its rising.

The Donald Trump image is where he always seeks to be: dead centre of the focus for audience and camera. We see more of the body in this one picture than in the others taken. Trump stands, the right arm fully exposed and raised above the heads of the secret service persons, fist clenched at the end of his right arm straight and proud, his whole chest exposed to view and to danger in defiance against those who would destroy the man and therefore the state.

And the face. The face is blooded, but open, confident. The mouth is formed in a typical Trumpian shape: declarative sentences ready to pour out, boastful, slippery, shadowy. The head is back and slightly lifted, challenging enemies and at the same time worshipping the flag.

The front story of Donald Trump since 2016 will soon become back story.  The scandals, the convictions for various offenses, his personal sins, his use of high office for personal gain, his threats, his impeachments will be washed out of the immediate historical picture and the image of a modern political, if not near-religious, protomartyr will be complete.

How can Joe Biden and the democrats contend against a protomartyr, a near-saint?

 

No bias in media? Pierre Poilievre and myth making

by | Jul 15, 2024 | news

The issue is not whether there is bias or not, but whether a writer or a newspaper or magazine or some site on the web identify their bias. Such overt acknowledgement is more important now than at any time in history because of how quickly a lie or a partial lie in an image or in words can spread.

To that end:  my political bias is that a social democratic state (most countries in Europe, Canada, Australia, etc)  hold as inviolable the division of power (a duly elected government -with oversight by duly elected opposition parties, the judiciary and  the enforcement of the law) and that all citizens are equal and under the rule of law.

Another bias is that all entities-inanimate, corporate entities as well as human citizens- that benefit from a social democratic society must pay an equitable and progressive tax to maintain that society.  Those inanimate-merely law created- entities and human citizens who hide their earnings and cheat on their taxes should be prosecuted until they pay their due taxes and penalties to government.  It is also government’s duty and responsibility for the sake of social stability and fairness to enable such prosecution and closing of loopholes that allow some to pay far less tax than they should. By ‘should’ I do not mean ‘within the tax law’ because this law can be changed and used to enable some to hide and cheat.  By ‘should’ I mean all persons-inanimate and human- should pay enough tax to support society because they benefit (rule of law, safety etc). 

My third bias is that reporters and their employers should publicly note their biases and then make their arguments in the spirit of accuracy and completeness. Many do; I am concerned about the ones that use their bias to promote a person or an idea by means of declarative sentences but no facts or arguments for the same. Such articles proliferate under the sanctity of alleged superior knowledge and wisdom.

On July 11, 2024, Pierre Poilievre gave his first speech to First Nations chiefs. https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/poilievre-to-make-first-in-person-speech-at-assembly-of-first-nations-1.6959511 .

The Victoria Times Colonist in its paper version on July 12 printed a short review of the same, culled from The Canadian Press (author, Ryan Remiorz). The title was ‘Poilievre applauded as he delvers first speech to First Nations Leaders‘.  This version, in words and in the picture that went with it, leads a casual reader to believe that Poilievre’s speech was well received and not controversial.

However, when one turns to the online version, https://www.timescolonist.com/indigenous-news/poilievre-delivers-first-speech-to-afn-leaders-confront-him-about-harpers-legacy-9204764 one notes that the title, content and authors are different. 

The title of the online version was ‘Poilievre delivers first speech to AFN, leaders confront him about Harper’s legacy.’  Poilievre was confronted by some of the chiefs with what he left out of the speech.  There is no room to list them here; read the article.  The authors of this version were Alessia Passafiume and Stephanie Taylor, The Canadian Press.

Why was one version a more accurate representation of what happened than the other?  

The picture used in the paper TC was the same used in the online version. The title for the picture was in essence the title used for the paper version.  The person credited with the picture in the online version was the person credited with the first, and inaccurate, paper version.

The paper version was edited to present a different, and more pleasing, to some, version of Poilievre’s speech and reception than in the online version.  The paper version was either edited in an unthinking and sloppy manner or it was edited with bias.  The rending of a fulsome version of the events down to something that can mislead the incurious reader, if multiplied dozens if not hundreds of times across media, is problematic at best.  It is subversive at worst.