RIP Marlon. you was good.

Here is what Paul Martin - with the essential help of the corporate press in Canada - is going to be doing for the next few months: making himself and the Libs look REAL good - seeing that there are a couple of fairly high-profile "punishments" for the "adscam scandal", pumping a bunch of billions very publicly into health care through some arrangement with the premiers, making no commitment on Bush's Star Wars (a safe move as it looks as if ol George ain't gonna be around for Christmas in Washington HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA - not that that's especially good news or anything, Kerry won't be much of an improvement, although he can probably talk better... - but they can put the formal agreement off until after the next Canadian election, and the 5-year "mandate" during which Canadian dictators do as they please), and stonewalling furiously (behind the scenes, not publicly!!!) on Layton's demands for a PR referendum (with the full help of the corporate press demonizing PR, as in the piece I mention later). Then sometime next year he can call another election, when the Lib war chest has been fully restocked but certainly not the NDPs - get his majority, and THEN we go to Star Wars (Kerry will push this just as much as Bush, as they are both being pushed behind the scenes by the military-industrial-media establishment, the people who really run the US) and biometric ID cards and privatised medicine and becoming the 51st State in everything but name only (the US don't want to have to look after us, they just want our stuff). Basically like that - details may vary HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA (the Cons?? well - I figure that even the Bay St mandarins have sussed out that Canadians are just not ready to bet on that pony yet (they just had their best ever opportunity, and barely 4 million out of over 30 million people in Canada fell for their line and voted for them...)(yea I know that 10% of the 30 mil are under the age of 10, but let's not get too picky..), and they're scared shitless that they'll wake up if the Libs don't start looking a bit better and go to their only remaining home, the NDP - and THAT nightmare they do NOT want to have to deal with - far better to keep the Libs, for them, I figure....)

So - what we gotta do between now and the next election, if anyone gives a fuck about saving the country, which I think about all of 5% of us do, in realistic terms - those of us who care have to start working together - all the people like Layton's NDP and what's left of the CAP if they survive, NGOs like Maude's Council of Canadians, Friends of the CBC, the Sierra Club, etc and etc, and individuals like Mel Hurtig, Paul Hellyer, David Orchard, David Suzuki - all the groups and people who have been opposing the Bay St government of Canada have to start working together to save this country.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA - I was going to ramble on about that, but why bother? It ain't never gonna happen. Like I said last time - not with a bang, but a whimper. Some of us will not be going gentle into that good night - but then we've never gone gently anywhere HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA - the rest, well, I expect they'll be sitting there watching their tvs when the lights go out, or the knock comes on the door, or they go to the hospital someday and can't get in anymore, whatever - lots of ways to go.

Shit. I wasn't supposed to get depressed until the end HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAA

- I gotta check into this - how much creativity and progress are we stifling by forcing everyone into this regime of "start work at 8 am and finish at 5" or whatever??? - I know for myself, I just get rolling later in the evening - and how many times have I cut something that was going well off because "it was time to eat" or "gotta get to bed so I can get up for work" or something???? A LOTTTTTTT would be my guess. The artists have always told the assembly-liners to take a hike, but I think we're still wasting a whole lot of talent. Of course, that don't really matter to the corporate mind - as I have seen time and time and time again, the first and most important quality of a good corporate worker is simply the willingness to do what you are told. Creativity is WAY down the list. People like me, who are real short on spending our time doing make-work stuff and "doing what we are told" are virtually unemployable in the corporate world. Thank (god) HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA - sure be nice to have a LITTLE bit of money sometimes - but if the tradeoff is my brain, I'll do without for awhile longer HAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

Got so wrapped up in thinking about how the Bloc got three times as many seats as the NDP with three-quarters of the vote last time (that ain't a misprint - I can do numbers - check the figures yourself) that I didn't look further - but it's hard to imagine a system LESS democratic than the one we are operating under - Harper's Repugnantcons got less than twice as many votes as the NDP, but over FIVE times the number of seats!!! - and the Libs got about two and a half times the number of votes and over SEVEN times the number of seats!!!! Think on that - TOGETHER, these right-wing parties have the support of well under half of Canadians of voting age - even with a full-court press by the Canadian media. Check the letter in a minute.

- and not a freakin word in the media, outside of one or two articles saying that that crazy guy Layton is still going to try for this weird sort of leftie notion called "proportional representation" or something, whatever the hell that means - the system they have in countries like Italy, you know, where they get Pizza Parliaments all the time and nobody can govern effectively ..... HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA our GREAT FREE CANADIAN UNBIASED MEDIA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA all in favor of the GREAT FREE WONDERFUL CANADIAN DEMOCRACY HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAA

(Rabble had a bit from Fair Vote Canada - What we said is not what we got - "... The NDP, rather than 19 seats would have had about 48. The Greens, rather than no seats, would have had about 12 seats. ... However, Gordon emphasised that had a fair voting system been used, many people would have voted differently and voter turnout would likely have been higher...")

- speaking of media - here's about the truest thing I've read in years on the state of the media - SHOVELING COAL FOR SATAN Christopher Hitchens collects check from Microsoft, calls Moore a coward By Matt Taibbi (good enough to save - RM archive copy) - don't let the title fool you - it starts with this Hitchens guy, but then gets into a very hard-hitting commentary of the US media - about 99% of which would apply to the Canadian media - sure we have a few pretty good people, mainly in the Star, but mainly as commentators, and even in the Star the standards of "journalism" leave a hell of a lot to be desired - and then towards the other end of the spectrum, where most of the media tend to congregate, we have the garbage called the National Pispot, which has since the day it began set new standards for printing propaganda and crap and trying to pass it off as "news".

- "...If journalists had courage, they would form unions and refuse to work for any company that made decisions about editorial content based on the bottom line, on profit..." - sure - and what's life like under the Aspers in Canada?????

Geezus - I read this and then literally shook my head to make sure I wasn't dreaming - something that a 3-year old might have written concerning the state of the world according to the lies he'd been told and how Santa was going to fix it all when the tooth fairy brought his dime that night - or whatever the tooth fairy brings these days. A complete fantasy - and yet passed off in the country's leading corporate newspaper as some sort of intelligent commentary - by a writer who "...a former adviser to federal trade ministers, is now head of investment issues for the World Trade Organization..." !!!!!!! - Voters: democracy's downside - Unable to resolve our own contradictions, we scapegoat politicians, says former federal adviser by one John Hancock (RM archive copy). Given this guys position it is just not credible to pretend he actually believes the shit he is peddling so, in good Holmesian detection, we are left with only the probability that he is lying, trying to convince Canadians that this sort of stuff actually reflects reality.

I was so amazed and incensed that rather than gibbering away here for a few lines I decided to write another letter to add to the Unpublished Letters file (see how confidently I predict that!!!! - but we KNOW that there is no way the Globe is going to publish anything that blows their cherished fantasies (or necessary illusions as others have put it - take your pick) THAT far out of the water. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA)

Dear Globe,
RE: Voters: democracy's downside Unable to resolve our own contradictions, we scapegoat politicians, says former federal adviser JOHN HANCOCK, Friday, July 2, 2004

One hardly knows where to begin in formulating a response to this amazing piece - the whole commentary from beginning to end is completely nonsensical, a fantasy unrelated to reality worthy of the Brothers Grimm based on either intentional dissembling and misdirection or a completely out-of-touch interpretation of what is happening in Canada and the world, the odd statement of fact therein being then interpreted as if through some Aliconian looking glass by a shifty-eyed, hookah-smoking creepy-crawly trying to sell me some beachfront property on Baffin Island or something.

Well, since one must begin somewhere, let's start at the beginning, where Mr. Hancock lays the foundation of hallucinatory, disconnected-from-reality ramblings for what is to follow.

" At a time when voters have never had more power, better government, greater prosperity and progress, rarely have they been less satisfied..." states Mr. Hancock.

Hahahaha! I cannot help but laugh upon reading this! Straight out of Dickens! "That young Twist has never been so well fed - I can't understand why he is constantly complaining!"

Well really?!?!? - one says in wonderment! - "more power"?? - how so?!?! One asks puzzledly - when Canadians constantly get governments who have received perhaps 25% support of the voting age population, either provincially or federally, and which governments then proceed to enact laws and undertake activities that most voters disagree with - more power?!?!?! I know I am in agreement with many others when I say I have never felt like I had LESS power invested in "my" governments! (well, I realise belatedly - I suppose that 25% feels quite happy! - they certainly have "more power" than the rest of us!)

- and "better government"?? - better than what, one naturally wonders! - better perhaps than Attila the Hun, better certainly than George Bush's New Republican Fascists - but that hardly suffices! - Oliver Twist was undoubtedly better off than some also - but that does not mean his gruel was sufficient! But more relevantly, is our government, which is better than George Bush's, better than past Canadian governments, which one might assume contextually Mr. Hancock is referring to? We have had good governments in Canada, from the first - Sir John A - to the most recent "real" Canadian PM Pierre Trudeau, who were REAL Canadians working to make Canada better for Canadians, and undertaking programs and initiatives such as unemployment insurance, the Canada Health Act, OAP, expanded opportunities for education, improved infrastructure, honest and efficient bureaucracies to carry out OUR national business, etc and etc, which made the lives of average Canadians pretty unarguably better and more secure - but not now, when, for the last 20 years, we have had governments which were intent on destroying the country in one way or another, both through removing these "social programs" that gave us some security, gutting the bureaucracy and replacing its leaders with party hacks whose main goal was reducing services or funnelling money to party supporters, and also doing their best to remove our independence and turning us - and our wealth - over to American control, first through Mulroney's "Canada is for sale" government, through Chretien's NAFTA, and our current sort-of leader's determination to "forge closer ties with America" - when most of us already feel that the American government already has FAR too much influence on Canadian decisions. "Better" government??? I cannot imagine where Mr. Hancock is getting his info! Better for who???? - NOT mr and ms average Canadian!

And "greater prosperity and progress"?? Really??!! - 30 years ago, and prior, almost all families in Canada could support themselves in a reasonable way for their times on the earnings of one person working, own their own modest home, and even be accumulating some savings for retirement - now it takes two people working just to get by, and savings have never been so low. That's "prosperity and progress"??? - and the average debt of Canadian families has been constantly rising through the neocon decades, until now the average Canadian debt is more than the average annual income - their "prosperity and progress" has never been in greater jeopardy, with many if not most of these families no more than a couple of missed paychecks from destitution and being kicked out of their heavily mortgaged homes!!! "prosperity and progress"???? What world is Mr. Hancock living in??? Perhaps the Bay St Towers world or the Rosedale enclaves - the richest 2 or 3% of Canadians are certainly far better off with their lower taxes and globalisation - but it is simply fantastical to believe that their prosperity is "trickling down" - the money flow has been all the other way for the last couple of decades.

At least your Mr. Hancock got the last part right - "rarely have Canadians been less satisfied" - perhaps if he understood a bit better the things I have referred to in the first three comments, and following, he might understand this last a bit better, and be less puzzled.

Our Mr. Hancock however is far from finished with his fantasy - he carries on: "Our problem isn't a lack of democratic choice. .... In politics, as in economics, the consumer is king...."

Well - yes and no. Our problem indeed is not one of "choice" - we do have considerable choice in politics, although the efforts of the corporate press to marginalize anyone whose ideas they do not care to support might be worthy of some examination regarding this "choice" - but we also have an electoral system wherein we are not given what we have chosen, but very often the direct opposite, which can lead to considerable dissatisfaction. The recent election for example - Paul Martin will be leading the government with the approval of some 20% of eligible voters who voted for his party. Yes, this is a minority government - but in the last three elections which the Libs won (plus the prior one which Mulroney "won" with the same sort of numbers) they had strong majorities with the support of about 25% of the electorate! We were given the FTA in 1988 - against the wishes of a clear majority of Canadians who cared enough to vote, through a voting system that denied them their choice - the FTA which initiated very severe and radical changes to our country - against the wishes of most of us. So Mr. Hancock's "choice" is of little value, if we cannot have what we have chosen!

"..the consumer is king"?? - not in politics! - the voting system is the kingmaker!

"Nor do we want different policies...."

??????? What country has Mr. Hancock been inhabiting??? I don't know whether to laugh in disbelief or pinch myself to see if I am awake!!

EVERYBODY wants different policies!!! The rightwing neocons, led by the Fraser Institute and National Post and Asper papers and most others, think paying any taxes at all is too onerous for them, and want to reduce them more and more and more - hand in hand with their lower taxes, they think that using taxes to support a national health care system is not something we can afford and want most of it privatised - and they also think that we need to get fully involved in their REALLY crazy rightwing cousins in the US's policies about strutting around the world like macho cowboys bombing and terrorizing everyone they don't like - while those of us occupying more sane ground want some serious policy changes in terms of looking after both people (i.e. restoring our health care system to its former health and improving it a la the Romanov report rather than lower taxes lower taxes lower taxes) and the environment through such things as Kyoto, and getting rid of or at least seriously changing "trade" treaties like NAFTA that prevent our government from passing laws that "impact" on the profits of American corps producing dangerous toxicants and what not to protect the land we live on. Far from "everyone being happy" with the current policies of the government, there aren't that many policies of the governments of the last 20 years that anyone is happy with - which is, of course, the inevitable result of trying to please the wealthy people who actually run the country while pretending to be doing things for the good of the people of the country in general - the few rich want certain things such as lower taxes, and the many average people want certain things that require those tax dollars, and never the twain shall meet.

"... Who is against medicare, cultural diversity or immigration?..." !!!!! - hahahaha!!!! - where has Mr. Hancock been living that he has not heard of the "New Cons", formerly CRAP, Alliance, Reform - they're against all of these things and more!!!!

"Labels differ, but we're all liberals now. .... Why? Because that's what voters want."

My my my - now that's a statement worthy of the Great Dissembler himself, whoever that was (maybe the position is open and Mr. Hancock is looking for the award - one should warn him, though, there is a GREAT deal of competition in the Canadian media alone for this honour... ).

Voters might indeed WANT small-l, centrist liberal government type policies, and that might be what the major parties promise and pretend they are going to get to try to get elected - but the day after the election, no matter who has won from Mulroney to Chretien to Campbell to McGuinty, the promises fall by the wayside like the falling leaves in a fall storm - and out comes the real agenda, the far-right neocon program of privatisation, 3P, deregulation, globalisation, Americanization, corporatisation - lower taxes, slashed spending for We the People, government policies directed to increased profits for corporations and investors at the expense of average people, more "trade" agreements that are really Charters of Rights for multi-national corporations and Capital, more money for police and soldiers and guns and bombs and less for hospitals and schools and doctors and things to look after we the people rather than control us when we protest what is happening to our stolen country, and so on - it's been the pattern in Canada for 20 years now, and THAT is why Canadians are "dissatisfied" - and if all this is unclear to Mr. Hancock, he has little business running around calling himself an "analyst" for anyone.

It's not a mystery, Mr. Hancock - I cannot speak for all Canadians any more than you can, but for myself, I am sick of the lies and the deceit, the implementation of the neocon agenda which I am and have been for years completely opposed to. And I am sick of the fact that this neocon agenda has been imposed against the will of most of us - like those others, I am sick of voting for one thing and getting something else entirely. I am sick of the Canadian media, such as the paper in which your fantasy appeared, trying to convince me day after week after year after year that your program is what I want, when it is not, that it is "good" for me, when it very obviously is not, that it is somehow inevitable, which again, it most definitely is not, and that the "dissatisfaction" which you note is somehow the fault of my own uncontrolled desires, or unrealistic expectations, when in fact it is due to reasons such as I have stated above.

I want a Canada that works for We the People of Canada, not huge multinational corporations and their "investors" and banks and Capital. I want "trade" treaties that focus on fair trade for the great majority of people and workers in all countries, not profits for wealthy investors and banks. I want a voting system that puts the people I vote for into power in Ottawa, not this rigged system that has been giving us all 25% "majority" governments that keep doing things I and most Canadians do not want done. And I want more control of my "representatives", so when they start acting directly against my good, and breaking the promises they made to me during the election campaign, selling out to corporate lobbyists or promises of perks from the PMO, they don't get a free ride for 5 years of country-wrecking, but can be gotten rid of.

And most of all I want a media in this country that quits trying to pass off fantasies like yours as reality, and starts giving Canadians the truth for a change, about what you and your neocons have been doing to my country and the rest of the world for the last 30 years.

While I'm at it - why not peace on earth too?? hahahaha

(c'est moi! c'est moi!! hahahahaha)


- another piece in the Globe the same day - man, these guys are terrified that Real Democracy might start to rear its ugly head around here, I tell you! - hasn't been such concern since the 70s and the Crisis of Democracy of the Trilateral Commission - there's going to be a push for the next few months to see that we get back in the fucking box from whence we are trying to escape, I think! - this bit by Simpson on PR is just complete trashing, not to mention complete trash - Proportional representation: a permanent Bloc effect - a litany of lies and bullshit - I really wanted to do a long letter on it, but realised it would be even more of a waste of time than the Hancock one - something like this, Simpson, who is pretty high in the Elite minion-establishment and been supporting them for years, is quite obviously spinning and dissembling and even lying intentionally, to try and hammer this PR idea back into the box - they are absolutely terrified of PR, and the loss of power that would almost certainly entail for the Bay St people - at the very least, their plots and schemes would be a LOT more difficult to carry out, with People's Representatives having a chance to have some say in the National Parliament - hard to say for sure, but I expect most of the 40% of Canadians not voting would be happy enough to return to the flock or the ballot box if they felt their votes were actually going to result in somebody they wanted elected, getting elected, and those who were spooked into voting "strategically" to stop Harper could find better places to park their votes - man, wouldn't it be just so RAD to be able to vote for something you actually supported!!!!!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!!! Then again, I believe in a lot of odd things. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

- couple of good movies with the dindin this week- School of Rock and Mona Lisa Smile - now, if you've seen them, you're probably thinking WHAT????? - they are a bit different in many ways - but the underlying message of both is the same - conventional society is a rat trap, and you have to get outside it somehow if you want to have a real life - great inspiring stuff - but again it's the mythology of modern society!!!! - I don't recall EVER seeing any teachers like these in my school days - I WAS constantly trying to break out of the box, and ALL I EVER got was "SHUT UP AND GET A HAIRCUT AND QUIT SKIPPING SCHOOL AND DO AS YOU ARE FUCKING TOLD!!!!!" (well, without you know HAHAHAHAHAHAA) - but seriously - the very LAST thing I ever got in any part of my school years was any kind of encouragement to get outside the box, to DARE to be non-conventional just a bit - just a constant stream for 13 years of DON'T THINK DO AS YOU'RE TOLD YOU CANNOT HAVE ANY AMBITION BEYOND BEING A COG TAKING ORDERS BLA BLA BLA BLA!!! - on and on and on. Yeaaaaaa NDHS HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!!! I ESCAPED ANYWAY YOU FUCKERS HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

good movies though. Not great - not quite up to Dead Poet's Society, for instance, or maybe the Sidney Poitier classic To Sir With Love, a couple of the great films of the genre - but good.

Now if we could just make it all come true some day.....

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA

- a sign of hope - even though you see sweet fuck all about it in the CORPORATE press - there are all kinds of people not only aware of what is going on here, but trying to do something about it - and NOW - NOW!!! - with this Internet - they can speak to others, others all over the world, not just within the limited range of their ability to personally meet with people in their own area as limited by their small bank accounts (pretty much all of us on the SANE side of things have small bank accounts, for some odd reason....) -

Ahhhh well - it is a small sign of hope, since rather than reading REAL stuff on the net, the masses are still addicted to that colourful but vapid box they watch 4-5-6+++ hours every day, which turns their brains into mush at an early age - but it is still hope, and that is enough to go on - has to be, it's all we got.

For now anyway.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA - ah, another beer and another day is done.

One day closer to either sanity or the end.

Any bets??????????

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA