Harper launches the last of his flying monkeys?

Harper's Master Plan had so much promise.  After his well deserved defeat, Harper would retire as leader so he could work his magic as Chair of the International Democratic Union. He needed a caretaker leader for his Franken-Party  Hopefully , someone so anodyne, the Conservatives could wait out an election cycle.  Then Harper's right hand man could assume the mantle after earning his spurs as Premier of Alberta.

So, we ended up with "Harper With A Smile" (TM).  Scheer was pushed out essentially for being the loser we all knew he is.  K-Man has been exposed as so toxic that even Albertans are wising up to him.  So much for Plan A.

Kenny a non-starter.  Same with Ford.  Other acolytes are immediately seen as too toxic.  Red Tory gophers keep popping their heads out of their burrows and need to be whacked down.  What is a master strategist to do.

K-Man was his master warrior.  Harper's farm system is pretty thin.  Not much scoring talent in the minors.  What is he to do?

Desperate times call for desperate measures.  As a result, we see Pierre Polievre floated as a candidate.  Really?  If Scheer wilted under scrutiny what will happen to this weasel.  If this is the Conservative's best and brightest, Trudeau will be PM until he can collect CPP.Recommend this Post

Scheer's expenses fiasco is a many faceted embarrassment for the Conservatives

The lifeblood of the Conservative is fleecing all of the senior citizens across the country $20 at a time.  They extort this money by ginning up fake stories to rile up those with a predilection to outrage.  For this to continue, they must have faith that the money is being wisely spent to attack the evil Liberals and bring about the nirvana of a hard right government.  Everything must be and seen to be above board.

Harper, for the most part, deftly handled this requirement.  Scheer on the other hand...Yikes.  This might have been the final straw.  Perhaps it only accelerated an eventual reckoning at the convention.  Concern that he may have inappropriately accessed $900,000 in funds donated  by granny?  Scheer lays bare the myth of the ethical Conservative.

But what does this say about the managerial competence of the senior Conservative leadership.  That is supposed to be their calling card with both the donator class and the corporate world.  That Scheer might have misappropriated $900k of party funds shows a shocking ly poor level of governance.  And who is on the board of the Conservative Fund?  Stephen Harper.  The managerial genius some Conservatives desperately pine for.allowed this to happen.  Not a good look on Harper.

All in all, this is the Conservatives in a nutshell.Recommend this Post

Sisyphus had nothing on the Conservatives

Rather than learn from the heavy hints from the people, the Harper Party is doomed to repeat the mistakes of history.

• Preston Manning: Led a small claque of western based socially conservative splinter group that was going nowhere until the Mulroney Progressive Conservatives collapsed.  Even with the prostrate PCs, the Reformers could only form an opposition.  Never a government.
• Stockwell Day: Rename the party to Canadian Alliance.  New leader.  Same old homophobic, misogynistic anti-social program policies.  Same old electoral failure
• Stephen Harper: Merge the party and rename it.  New leader.  Same old discredited policies with less traction than bald All Season tires on black ice.  Added a few even worse ones.  Managed to scrape out two minorities governments with the help of RCMP intervention and In and Out money laundering.  Turfed after one thin majority government.
• Andrew Scheer:  "Harper with a smile".  Remember that one.  Notwithstanding constant attacks from a biased media based on manufactured scandals, all this poltroon could offer was the same old ideas as out of touch with Canadians as Preston Manning was.  Homophobia, misogyny, bad fiscal platform.  Harper's tax cuts.  Electoral result ?  Failure.

And who is being floated a leader?  Erin O' Toole.  Jason Kenney, Rona Ambrose.  The pundits will try to talk some life into these retreads in an attempt to sell some papers but a party led by any of these chips off the Conservative Block will soon be sussed out for what they are.   Here is an example of how bad these candidates would be:  They make Peter McKay seem plausible

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My Hot Takes on the NATO Hot Mike

A few thoughts I haven't seen raised elsewhere.

• Trump had it coming.
• It was immature and unprofessional for Macron, Johnston, Princess Anne and Trudeau to joke about Trump, no matter how horrific his press conferences that day were.
• Could anyone imagine Andrew Scheer being as welcome as Trudeau was in that group?  For all his failings, Trudeau is seen in the international arena as a good representative for Canada.
• Heads of State are human after all and do tend to make jest at buffoons in their midst. Stephen Harper was often mocked at international events.  Who could forget the comments when he missed a group photo because he was in the bathroom?  Or the snickers when he wagged his fingers at Putin.
• In some ways this sort of behaviour could be categorized as bullying and perhaps that is the most egregious part of this example.

Recommend this Post

The UCP Government at the 1/8 Pole

So we have just passed the 6 month mark of far-right government here in Wild Rose Country.  A majority number of Albertans elected a self-proclaimed superhero as premier.  (Should his costume, incorporating a blue sweater of course, read K-Man or J-Boy?  We shall use both to cover our bases).

How are things working out so far?  Well, in no particular order, a small sampling:

• the UCP government wants to resurrect the unworkable Firewall Letter.  Including an Alberta Provincial Police.  The only part to look forward from this part of the boondoggle is the opportunity to refer to the new police force as Kenney's Keystone Kops.  (The Ontario Provincial Police shoulder patches read O. P. P.  Alberta's could read K. K. K.).  I expect J-Boy wouldn't mind that so long as his KKK proves inept at investigating illegal campaign tactics and financing.
• An increased deficit with reduced services.  The New Conservatism economic expertise strikes again.  Then again, K-Man's economics mentor was Super Steve.
• For the former head of the Canadian Taxpayer's Federation, J-Boy is pretty adept at wanton spending of public money.  A total of $51,000 spent on travel in private jets and first class airfares and posh accommodations for Kenney's buddy.  And that is just what has been uncovered so far.  Who among us could ever have suspected hypocrisy was one of K-Man's superpowers?
• Further to good governance issues, they created a the Alberta Inquisition under a private, rather than a Crown corporation, to avoid FOIA inquiries.  $30 Million with no effective oversight.  What could possibly go wrong?
• People are just beginning to realize the impacts of the politically delayed budget.  Should Calgary cancel the Green Line, the new arena or both?

To be fair they have proven their competence in a number of areas:

• The unconstitutionality of a number of proposed laws and edicts will create a lot of lawyerly employment
• The introduction of back-door anti-abortion legislation ("Conscience Rights") was particularly well handled, if transparent.

From afar, it might seem pretty bleak for Progressives in Alberta and, by extension, Canada.  But take heart.  Doug Ford's popularity fell hard once Ontarians realized how bad the current Progressive Conservative policies are.  J-Boy has further to fall.  Honeymoons end.  K-Man is a great campaigner but a poor manager.  And the train wrecks will continue to pile up.

Recommend this Post

A Couple Of Suggestions To Help Kickstart The New Minority Government

Making this Parliament work will require the Liberals will need to find common ground with the Bloc, NDP and Greens.  This will require the development of trust among all of the parties as they look to find common ground.

Baby steps.  Baby steps.  What can they all agree on.

I propose they announce their intention to reinstate the per vote subsidy to political parties and eliminate the fixed election date law.  Both of these anti-democratic measures were instituted by the greatest anti-democrat Canada has ever suffered through.  Reverse these measures because they are bad and do it right away so the anger raised by the Conservative Perpetual Outrage Machine will dissipate before the next election.Recommend this Post

Winners and Losers From The Election

Greens?  NDP? Liberals?  Pshaw.  That low hanging fruit I will leave for the paid pundits to harvest.  Here is the Constant Vigilance list of Winners and Losers.

Winners:

• Canada: We did not elect a bigoted homophobic anti-LGBTQ2 government with a ridiculous and unworkable platform
• Jason Kenney: His plan to replace Scheer and run for PM is unfolding as he hoped.  I expect Canada will reject him and the last of the Harperites will be gone.
• Alberta:  Although the UCP has plenty of tools in its box to take over, seeing Kenney take his act to Ottawa will be a win.
• Andrew Scheer: He doesn't have to pretend to be a leader anymore.  He can step down and collect his pension.  Perhaps he can ask Trudeau to appoint him as ambassador to the Vatican.

Losers:

• Misinformation and fake news:  This page from the Republican playbook didn't deliver.  A couple more failures and they will have to consider policies that people like.
• Jody Wilson-Raybould: As someone who craves to be at the centre of attention, the life of an independent MP will be lonely.  She will probably be inclined to vote with the Liberals most of the time.  As a final indignity, she might very well ask to rejoin the Liberals in exchange for a Cabinet seat.  That is, of course, if details about the fake SNC-Lavalin scandals leak out that put her in a bad light.
• Alberta: The Cons take Alberta for granted.  The other parties give it a low priority because of the slim odds of making gains.  Alberta could have tried something different by electing Liberals and being a power broker in the new government.  But the victimization syndrome is strong in Alberta so we prefer to whine about separating.
• The Underminer: His client lost.  The Liberals have already shown him the back door.  The Greens found him toxic.  Details about the failed SNC-Lavalin play might tarnish him as much or more as St J.

Recommend this Post

Anyone Else Want To Start An Aggregator Of Progressive Minded Bloggers?

I know that there is an eponymous version of this but it happily includes an know Conservative operative on its blog roll so perhaps it has lost its way.Recommend this Post

It Is Easy To Diagnose The Provenance Of The Poison

I am listening to the Sunday Edition whereon Michael Enright was wondering how it came to be that Trudeau needed to wear a bullet proof vest at a rally.  Once again, people who cover current events as a profession have a hard time understanding things.

The decay in our politics can be laid directly at the feet of one party.  The Harper Party is the only party to have been convicted of election fraud.  And beyond the In and Out Scandal they avoided prosecution for Poutinegate by throwing Michael Sona under the big blue bus.  Only the Harper Party hired a consultant to perform a hit job on a rival party.

Only the Harper Party had an ad where a Puffin pooped on Dion.  Only the Harper Party had bullet holes surrounding the Opposition Leaders.

All parties spin the facts.  Only the Harper Party has been shown to be promulgating false stories about Justin Trudeau.  Only the Harper Party leader has been shown to be a serial liar.

This morning's news included a story about  Harper Party supporters chanting "Lock Him Up".

The tactics used by these creeps will continue to expand and get worse until they lose elections as a result and they realize a new approach is needed.

But in the meantime, please don't pretend that you can't see what the Harper Party is doing.  Or that both sides do it.Recommend this Post

"The Operative"

The operative was terminated for being a lousy tactician, and for self-promotion. That’s who the Greens and the Cons relied on: a self-promoting lousy operative. What an election.

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The Point about Pointing Out Scheer's Lies

It has been shown ad nauseum that Scheer is a serial liar.  His party has been exposed as operating dirty tricks against another party.  And will it be any surprise if the Buffalo Chronicles hit pieces were paid for by the Cons?

This odious behaviour can be explained in the context of whipping up their base.  Perhaps their private polling shows a less close race than do the public ones.  I don't know and that isn't the point.

The point is: If he will be so blithe with the truth in an effort to get elected, what will he do to stay in power?  What lies will he tell to move forward with anti-abortion and anti-abortion legislation and policies.

The public polls are close.  Backers of the purity parties, who have never had to leaven their policies with reality are reveling in the chance for their preferred party to hold the balance of power in Parliament.

Trudeau and the Liberals are far from perfect but have overall done a good job.  From an article I highlighted yesterday:

But the cross-party consensus that Trudeau is slight and phony doesn’t survive even a cursory examination of his record. An independent assessment by two dozen Canadian academics found that Trudeau has kept 92 percent of his campaign promises, fully or partially, the most by any Canadian government in 35 years. He is measurably, demonstrably the most sincere and effective prime minister in living memory. He is the rare case of a man whose virtue-signaling has distracted from his real virtues.

I'm not overly stressed by what the purity party people decide to do.  I will be away and voted weeks ago.  The PPP will do what they do.  And the people will have spoken.  I just hope they don't sow bad seeds.Recommend this Post

File This Under "Well d'uh"

So it turns I was correct that one of The Underminer's clients is the Conservative Party  Definitely vindicates my stand that by defending his position on it's blogroll, Progressive Bloggers lost the legitimacy to refer to itself as Progressive.  And my decision to leave that site.

The article is behind a paywall but my trusty old BlackBerry seems to be able to access the article so I can confirm that:

• The Dizzy Group began working for the decidedly non-progressive Cons no later than March of this year
• The Underminer was not asked so he did not have to neither confirm or deny that he has worked on other projects for the decidedly non-progressive Cons
• The Underminer (a self-styled Canadian version of Karl Rove/Donald Segretti) is lousy at his job.  The Twitter account set up to destroy the (just as despicable as the Cons) People's Party has a total of 69 followers.  Looks like his campaign caught a virus rather than going viral

It will be interesting to see how Progressive Bloggers handles this news.  Perhaps it is time for a new aggregator for progressive blogs.Recommend this Post

A Further Compendium of Why Scheer Is Unqualified to be PM

Here is a listing of recent headlines in which a series of exports slam The Underminer's BFF:

• Mayors Hate Him
• John Tory sees ‘shortcomings’ in Andrew Scheer’s policies for cities
• Vancouver mayor says Scheer government would be ‘worse than Stephen Harper’

• His deficit plan sucks
• Eliminating the Deficit Won’t be so Easy Mr. Scheer
• Conservative platform gets a failing grade, Liberal’s barely passes on poverty and health: report
• History suggests Andrew Scheer’s interprovincial free-trade promise is destined to fail

A Conservative friendly media has hidden just how big a loser this guy is.  If he were to squueze out a minority, he will be exposed as a fraud pretty quickly.Recommend this Post

The Woke WIll Always Break Your Heart

An interesting article by Stephen Manche in The Atlantic on Trudeau and his lessened sheen.  It ties in somewhat with the Aaron Wherry article on the Obama endorsement.


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Andrew Scheer: Just as advertized

This bozo proved himself to be a useless tool when he was unjustifiably made Speaker my Harper.  He demonstrated then that he knew and cared little for Parliamentary tradition and rules.  He is showing the the stripes on this skunk haven't changed with this statement: Scheer says party with most seats should have 'right' to form government

How can this joker attract the votes of any but the most vehement racists and anti-abortionists?

Recommend this Post

What Cath From Can said

Why I am voting voted for Trudeau Recommend this Post

An Optimistic Explanation For All of the Conservative Hate

To be clear, this only refers to the recent spate of hate that I enumerated in yesterday's post.

It all ties into the Conservative Get Out The Vote strategy.  And perhaps they are concerned about the final week.

The polls might suggest the Conservatives are running neck-and-neck with the Liberals, but it’s hard to know for sure without the numbers, said a longtime Conservative organizer in Ontario, also given anonymity to speak about internal matters.
“My gut feeling is that the polls are giving us a false sense that we are more competitive than we are,” the organizer said.

There is more in the article and the subtext is clear.  The Conservatives be worried that they won't get the turn out they need and are looking to motivate their base.

And how do you motivate the Conservative base?  Turn up the hate.  It might turn off the humans among us but it sure gets their base motivated.

The 7 day forecast is calling for elevated hate storms.  With the frequent risk of Underminer screeds showers.

Best to run to the cover of the only progressive party capable of forming government.Recommend this Post

A Sampling of Today's National Newswatch Headlines

These are currently on National Newswatch:

• Trudeau wears bulletproof vest after security threat delays campaign rally
• Truth Tracker: Conservative ads falsely say Liberals will legalize all drugs

Scheer defended the ads on Saturday

•  Corporation fined $18K for funnelling money into ‘kamikaze’ UCP leadership campaign
• CBC sues the Conservative party over copyright, ‘moral rights’ of journalists
• Conservative plan would cut $35.4B to balance books
• The ‘excessively violent’ election ad, paid for by the Manning Centre

But he acknowledged the ads do not reflect the personal style of founder Preston Manning, the former Reform Party leader.
“Preston Manning’s more deliberative approach to politics, I think that died 20, 30 years ago in this country,” Lanigan said. “The nature of where we’re headed now is far removed from the more deliberative discussions we were having in the 1990s. How we move policy in this country and other western countries has changed dramatically over the last 20 years. I’m not saying I like it.”

In other words, winning is more important than any kind of ethics.  Preston Manning is someone who I once respected for his apparent integrity although I disagreed with him on policy.  His silence on the recent stories is very telling.

And so it goes.  The people in aggregate have a certain wisdom when elections come around.  I ma concerned that the collective wisdom is being oveerun this time by a party willing people with no integrity and are willing to tell any lie to serve their masters.Recommend this Post

What if Trump were impeached..

And Pence wasn't chased out of town at the same time?  And although opposed by ~65% Scheer is elected PM because half of those opposed to Scheer couldn't bring themselves to vote for the only realistic alternative because they are too pure of thought.Recommend this Post

The Underminer won't read or reference this

ANd it is likely that you or most others won't either.  But for those who are hard of thinking, here is an explanation of St. Jody d'Narcissia's taped conversation.Recommend this Post

Another Columnist Calls For Electing Liberals in Calgary

I don't know, maybe she reads the blog but Chantal Hebert is essentially saying the same thing as I did yesterday.Recommend this Post

Calgary Herald Columnist Implicitly Endorses Liberal Majority

Here in Calgary, Don Braid is the most faithful of Conservative water carriers.  And he strongly supports the TMX pipeline.  So while he might not realize it yet (logic not being a strong underpinning of his opinions) his recent column The final, lethal pipeline threat — a Liberal minority is a call for Calgarians to elect Liberals.

He is right in many ways:

1. Current polls indicate a minority government is likely
2. A minority government led by either the Liberals or Conservatives could not get the support of the NDP or Greens for pipelines
3. There does not appear to be a path for a Conservative majority
4. A Liberal minority will retreat from support for TMX.  This flip-flop would in some ways represent the will of the people.

It follows that the immense support for the Conservatives in Alberta will not get the pipeline built.  The inescapable conclusion is that the best way for Alberta to get oil to tidewater is to elect a substantial number of Liberals led by a Trudeau.

Quebec is very adroit at electing MPs who will care for their interests.  Will Albertans?

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On Trudeau's past embarassments

When the Black Face Fiasco( broke I decided it would be best to process my thoughts on the matter and let the facts trickle out.  But not so long enough for The Underminer to stop using this as another means to carry out his vendetta against the Trudeaus.  Because that will never happen.).

So my thoughts on the main actors (for what they are worth):

• Trudeau: It was a stupid thing to do for someone who is in the public eye, even back then.  The Arabian Nights party was just after his father passed away.  I can't help but wonder how PET might have counselled him regarding the wisdom of blackface.  That being said, I believe a person can evolve in their sensitivities and grow in maturity.  Some allowance should be made for personal development or we are all doomed by our past.
• Singh: The only party leader with a real experience with racism.  SIngh brought the problems with racism in Canada into a sharp focus.  He has gained stature with his principled agreement to meet Trudeau and accept his apology in private in a setting as non-political as possible.
• May:  Pretty much a bystander but she gets credit for saying that the Justin Trudeau she nows now is hard to classify as a racist.
• Scheer: He remains a hypocritcal, anti-abortion homphobe and wannabe cryptofascist false populist.  A bit abbreviated but this does the job.
• Bernier:  Same as Scheer but at least he is open about it.
• Media:  Pretty much gleeful at this opportunity to display their pro-Conservative bias and their envy that he is Justin and they are not.

Will this change my vote?  No.  I believe Trudeau has matured and sincerely regrets his actions.  But he will always have a bit of the doofus about him.  And that is the hingepoint.  I am not supporting the Liberals because of Trudeaumania v 2.0.  If anything I was drawn to the party by the principled intelligent leadership of Stephane Dion.  I am supporting the Liberals because it is the best option.  There are only 2 contenders in this race.  One is flawed but has genuine progressive intent.  The other would send Canada into the far right firestorm the most of rest of the world is subject to.

No political party or political leader is perfect and we are governed by very flawed people.

Recommend this Post

When it comes to taking the piss out of the Underminer

This makes me jealous.Recommend this Post

Andrew Scheer is the most courageous politician in the History of Canada

Maybe even the world.

When faced with evidence that a large cohort of his candidates are some reprehensible combination of homophobes, racists and other unacceptable traits, Scheer does not cave into pressure to have these horrible people removed as candidates.  No!  Never!  He says that as long as they apologize, then they can remain as candidates.  That they are all right with him.

But to be a true hero, one must be consistent in bravely holding the same principled stand in support of the bigoted homophobes in the Conservative Party.  And this is why, Andrew Scheer is a truly courageous man.  Tjis is not the first time he has summoned up true courage in the face of the outrage these bigots who "snuck" through the Conservative Party have created.  He has shown such courage in the past.  For that his recent bravery must be applauded all the more so.

Scheer heroically set the stage for yesterday's defense of his party's racism for not yielding the the calls for Michael Cooper to be kicked out of caucys for being an unrepentant racist and nut job.  To be truly heroic, one must show a repetitive and consistent willingness to stand for what one believes in.

Mr Scheer and his party stand for racism and homophobia.  Mr Scheer has shown himself to be unwilling to bend to outrage over these views.  He deserves our respect for his courage.

Does he deserve our vote?  Of course not.  Several soldiers in the Wehrmacht acted bravely during World War II.  But they were doing so for the wrong side of history.Recommend this Post

Bernier foregoes tragedy, goes straight to farce

Summary of Bozo Generated Headlines from various place around the Globe

BoJo takes over in the UK.  (Soon to be less United due to Scotland leaving?):

"Scotland did not vote for Brexit, or for the current Tory government - and certainly not for Boris Johnson as prime minister. All of this underlines the need for Scotland to have the right to determine our own future, in line with the democratic wishes of all those who live here."

While definitely not a bozo, Congressional hearings yesterday reinforce that the hero of alt-right fascist losers was definitely exonerated by Mueller.

And in the Land of the Home, the COnservative Party leader brave enough to wear his racism on his sleeve dreams small.  If his hero wants a border wall, he will settle for nothing less than a border fence!Recommend this Post

How Toronto Saved Civilization?

Thomas Cahill in How the Irish Saved Civilization outlined his thesis on how Irish priests preserved civilization from hordes of barbarians.  Cahill saw Ireland as the last bastion of the western world.

Fast forwarding to 2019 and erudite people are concerned how the false populism Putin was able to leverage to bring Trump to power in the USA  is spreading around the globe.  Bolsonaro, Duterte, Erdugan gave Putin reason to state that liberal democracy is on the retreat around the world. 

Canada, under the Trudeau government was seen as a bulwark against this trend.  Pot legalizing, medical assistance in dying, immigrant welcoming happy Canada was a reason to believe the fight against the dying of the light was possible.

But here in Canada, the election of Ford, and, right here in Alberta, the even more awful Kenney government gave reason to worry about the implications of the short lived lead in the polls by the federal Cons.

Recent polling has indicated that the people are waking up to the false promises of the New Right.  And the Liberals have taken charge in "Fortress Toronto" and are likely to retain power after the general election this Fall.  Preserving Canada as an oasis against the tempests afflicting the outside world.

So, work with me on this one...If Canada remains a refuge for liberal democracy and if that is due to the outcome in Toronto, it follows that the world will owe T. O. a huge debt when Trump et al. are swept away by an inevitable fresh tide of enlightenment.  Toronto might just save civilization.

It won't be any kind of compensation for not being able to win a Cup but it will be some compensation I suppose..

.


Recommend this Post

If the Cons hiring The Underminer seemed messed up

How effed up are the Greens that they thought this was a good idea.  Welcome to the real world Green Party.Recommend this Post

No more Progressive Bloggers

It appears that the protest ! Are no longer required since this. Blog is no longer on the blogroll.  They weren't able to muster the courtesy to reply to my request but whatever.

Might see lower traffic but that is a small sacrifice for the upside of not being associated with the Underminer

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!!Because racism, homophobia and sexism is all the Conservatives have left to offer!

!This post appears on Progressive Bloggers under protest for as long as that site allows The Underminer to actively promote the electoral fortunes of the the Conservative Party on that site!

Now this is how to not bury the lede.  The opening line of the article: Don't read into darker-skinned Trudeau image, Conservatives insist says it all.

The federal Conservative Party says a social media graphic that depicts Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as a dark-skinned oil worker is the result of a standard filter applied to many of their photos — not racism.

In other words, every attack ad the Conservative Party produces uses a filter designed to make the targets appear to be people of colour.  The only feasible alternative to the current government is openly racist.  The sexism and homophobia (is LGBTQ-ism a better term?) is also on open display.

To recap the last few weeks in Con-land:

• The aren't going to balance the budget as quickly as they originally promised.  Given the strength of the economy, they have nothing to differentiate them from the current government
• They (claim they) are not going to repeal the legalization of pot.  Bye -bye anti-pot vote, no matter how insignificant that might be
• The Con environmental Con plan has been rejected by even the most ardent anti-Trudeau critics.  They have forfeited whatever green vote they were hoping for
• The claims that the Liberals are anti-oil industry aren't backed up by the facts.  The line of BS the Cons are pushing won't help them since they already have the Prairies locked up.
• People that get to know Scheer don't like him. (h/t Montreal Simon).  They aren't going to ride the personal popularity of the leader to victory

All they have left is an appeal to the haters.  As with Albertans who voted UCP, if you vote Conservative you own the racism.

Recommend this Post

!Little PiPo is eager to jump very high!

!Posts from this blog appear on Progressive Bloggers under protest for as long as they continue to host The Underminer.  Providing a podium for someone working to elect the Conservatives is hardly progressive!

My previous post discussed David Climenhaga's observation of how Conservatives are channeling Republican tactics.  If there was any doubt, along comes the weaseliest of weasels to prove the point.

On the downside, it speaks to what will likely be a very disturbing election campaign.  On the upside, this baseless criticism might point to Conservative concern about their prospects.  If they were confident they would win, would they not speak of the integrity of our democratic institutions?Recommend this Post

!How High Should I Jump, Sir?!

!If this post appears on Progressive Bloggers it is under protest for as long as the Underminer remains on the blog roll!

I couldn't quite put my finger on the weirdness of Senator Batters Bozo eruption last week.  But David Climenhaga puts all 8 fingers, two thumbs and ten toes on it.  Forget stories about Scheer taking orders from Harper.  Harper is just the intermediary.

The new and de-improved Conservatives take their orders from the Republicans.  As did Harper.  As did Day and those before them.

While this is disconcerting, and I say this as someone who despises Trump, the American President was able to carry out his role in the American tragedy.  Will Andrew Who be able to sufficiently emulate Trump in 5 months?  Especially in a Parliamentary system?

The Conservatives tried to ape Republican strategy for a decade under Harper and all it could achieve was a very slim majority.

Let us hope that, as with anytime we try to emulate a trend in the US, it is a pale northern imitation that we get.Recommend this Post

!The Two Sides of the Deficit Coin!

!For as long as the Underminer remains on Progressive Bloggers, posts on that site appear under protest!

A few thoughts on  Scheer's* floppiest of flips in that a Con government would need 5 years to balance the budget rather than his earlier commitment to a two year hack and slash.

It displays either a jaw dropping display of economic incompetence or political cynicism or both.  Evidence points to the latter.

Given the fixed election law foisted on us by the Great and Powerful Oz, a Con government would last at most four years.  That means anyone foolish enough to vote for him based on this deficit plan would be signing up for a two election commitment.

Doug Ford is already so toxic that the ghosting is well underway 5 months out.  All Liberal messaging should take care to drop the word “Progressive” when referring to the Ontario government.

Aaron Wherry is very eager to proclaim that this announcement hobbies the Liberals by taking away the budget slashing boogeyman meme.  That is a laudable effort to claim all news is good news for the Cons.

Another view is that the deficit was the only economic mallet the Cons could have wielded in the arena in which they need to pick up seats.  What economic argument can they make in the 905? Overall, things are pretty good in that battleground. They have essentially ceded the economy to Trudeau.

Sheep has, by his own volition removed the fiscal pole from his lean-to.  Is the remaining coalition of white supremacists, Trudeau haters, carbon tax opponents and other fringe groups enough to edge him over the line to a majority government?  Or will he be forced to resign on election night and let Kenney have a go?

*Android autocorrect Scheer's to Sheep's.  Tee Hee

Recommend this Post

!Lament for my BlackBerry Passport!

!if this appears on Progressive Bloggers it is under protest!

With the upcoming demise of the BlackBerry 10 operating system, I finally bit the bullet and switched to an Android phone.  OMG I miss my Passport.

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!On reticent Harper cabinet members!

! This post appears on Progressive Bloggers under protest!

Even John Ibbitson admits the government,s hands are clean in the Norman case.

All it took was for one of Harper, Kennedy, O' Toole or MacKay to make a phone call and this would all have been over before it started.

Instead these “honourable“ men didn't make the call.  This allowed bottom feeders like The Undermined to sow innuendo about the behaviour of the PMO.  And the fine upstanding lawyer who got Gomeshi off implied there was witness coaching and other illegalities.  She knew of the exculpatory information in late 2018.  Why didn't this get revealed before mid 2019?

Surely preventing the suffering of an innocent man was at the forefront of their concerns.

Surely they didn't push the mute button in an attempt to gin up a pre-election embarrassment for the Liberals?

Recommend this Post

Removal request has been resubmitted

I was on vacation for a week and hadn't posted since my request to be removed from ProgBlogs.  Now that I am back I published a new post this morning and noticed that it popped up on ProgBlogs. I expect this may seem like prevarication on my part.

I remain committed to not being associated with a political consultant using a progressive aggregator to promulgate transparent voter suppression techniques.  I do not want whatever few readers I have to think that I in any way support this.

Scott mentioned earlier this week that he was preoccupied over the last few weeks and I expect my request slipped through the cracks.  I have resubmitted my request.

Enjoy your Sunday.  I am off to shovel.  Both snow and some of our new Premier's BS.Recommend this Post

Top 10 Positive Outcomes of A Liberal re-election

In the Spirit of Late Night with David Letterman, the Top 10 reasons to see the Liberals re-elected.

10. A government guided by progressive principles can continue its work.  As imperfect as it may be, it is the best option we have.
9. The "But her emails" north non-scandal will be done.  As will the JWR and JP.  The whole matter will only be referred to when PoliSci profs want to add a bit of levity to their lectures.
8.  The budget will continue to move into surplus.
7. The Scheer Cons are a Big Lean-To Party based on appealing to homophobes, fundamentalists, racists and corporatists. 
6.  It will be another lesson for the Cons that Republican tactics don't work here.  They aren't very smart so they might have to learn this lesson a few more times.
5.  We won't have to remove our flags from our backpacks.
4.Andy Bot will have to resign.  And Harper Proxy Leader v. 1 will be done.
3.  Jason Kenney will assume the mantle as HPL v. 2 under the delusion that his one trick pony act of pitting Canadians against each other will work federally.
2. The defeat of HPL v. 2 by Trudeau in 2023 will flush the last vestige of Harperism down the drain.  Because like any other B-movie monster, it will arise, zombie-like, if we don't completely defeat it.

And the best outcome of a Trudeau victory in 2019: The Conservatives will do a post-mortem on hiring The Underminer as part of their election team and decide the Dandelion Group is a weed to be pulled from their dismal garden.  Having been previously rejected by the Liberals he will be branded as a loser and disappear from the scene.  That alone will be a great outcome.Recommend this Post

You are judged by the company you keep

I first discovered Progressive Bloggers during visits to Daily Kos during George W Bush's first term.  I noticed these interesting comments with a tag line referencing Prog Blogs as a progressive Canadian viewpoint. 

So I went there.  It was invigorating.  Impolitical and The Galloping Beaver were early favourites.  I started a blog, joined ProgBlogs and started typing.  It was a very cathartic way to survive the Harper years. 

My posting schedule became more erratic with time.  A divorce, job demands in an industry spiraling downwards and other priorities took precedence.  But I always clicked on the PB link to see what was up because I remained implacably opposed to the right wing insanity that was arising across the globe and the Canadian Contagion in particular.

I earlier expressed how having The Underminer on the blog roll was a contradiction to the stated goals of the website.  It is Scott Tribe's website and it is his right to allow the Underminer to continue to use his platform as a vehicle to elect a Conservative government.  But I choose to not be associated with a website that has a blog that advertises for Doug Ford, gushes over Andrew Scheer and continues to try and inflate the false scandal.

I have asked to be removed from the blog roll effective April 30.  I will continue to blog but will not be available through Prog Blogs.  There might be fewer visits but this has never been about clicks for me.

I would like to thank Scott for setting Prog Blogs up and allowing me to join the roster.  And any visitors to the website that paid me the courtesy of reading my posts.  It was fun while it lasted.Recommend this Post

Reality 1, Jason's Amazing Monocolour Dream Sweater 0

During the recent campaign our Premier-Elect made all sorts of ridiculous promises to the gullible.  He is the one who will get the pipelines built.  He will bring back jobs that are gone forever.  He will eliminate the deficit (by increasing it first).  All of these are impossible for a mere mortal.  But not Jason.

If he is so omnipotent, why couldn't he insure the Flames could protect a 2 goal lead with < 4 minutes left.  All Jason had to do was put on his magic sweater and make it so.

But the reality is that the Flames aren't as good as the regular season led us to believe (and I had no idea MacKinnon was so good).  There is nothing Jason and his Amazing Monocolour Dream Seweater (JahAMCDS) could have done about it.  But it happened on his watch so he has to wear it (no the sewater, the loss).

Just like there is not much he will be able to do, no matter how much he blusters, about the problems facing Alberta.Recommend this Post

Take a moment to pity the future of Jason Kenney

So the people of Alberta have exorcised their anger by electing a government led by a homophobic, white nationalist, probably corrupt BS artist who has spent years stoking their anger.  I feel for their anger.  Not all of it is misplaced.  A lot of this was beyond the control of anyone person.  But everyone comes to regret decisions made in anger.

And thus was the election campaign.  Albertans, many of whom have been unemployed for years, reached out to a false populist.  JK (Why do so many disingenuous people disrupting our politics have the initials that start with J?  JK, JWR, JP).  There was so much anger JK could get away with a kamikaze campaign, he could promote racist candidates.  He could say the most inane garbage and people would still support him because he soaked in their resentment.

But when he is unable to turn around the realities of the current oil industry.   When he takes the deficit higher.  When the lunacy of his promise to cut off oil to BC comes home to roost.  When the idiocy of his "If you want a new regulation, you have to tell me which regulations you want to cut" plan comes into effect.  When the cuts to pay pay for tax breaks to the wealthy start to really bite, the back lash will be hard.  The anger will be looking for a target.  And he will be the one with his head over the trench parapet.

And it will look good on him.  Alberta is a place of immense beauty.  But not tonight.


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For Diversity of Opinion. Against Undermining

I read in the comments on Willy's post and mine from yesterday that others besides the Underminer should be delisted from Progressive Bloggers because what are seen as opinions that are over the top.  Particularly if they are critical of the government.

I want to be clear.  While I often disagree with others on ProgBlogs, I read their blogs to try to keep an open mind.  Case in point, I am unapologetic about having worked as a geologist in the oil industry for my entire career.  So I am often a mix of amused and frustrated in what to me is the expression of uninformed opinion regarding the energy sector and my home town.  Long may they be welcome to express away.  I revel in their right to be wrong (at least they are wrong imho).

The Underminer is an entirely different case.  His blog website is blatantly part of a campaign to unseat an imperfect but progressively intentioned government and replace it with a regressive one.  The blog website is an extension of his business.  That mission of blog website should make its presence on Progressive Bloggers anathema.Recommend this Post

Just Another Good Willy Loman Point

Willy asks: Why is The Underminer still on Progressive Bloggers.  (I have decided to post on this blog to add additional points.  Please read his post as well.).  Scott Tribe replies that ProgBlogs is not a Liberal aggregator and has full intentions of sticking to its eponymous mission.  All very respectful and Canadian.  But this isn't a question of whether or not all readers of Progressive Bloggers are Liberals.

There is ample evidence that the blog website in question has progressive viewpoints only so far as they contribute to his bank account.  As several commenters on Willy's post point out, the political operative in question is almost certainly working for non-progressive clients.  The Underminer is likely using his status as a contributor to  Progressive Bloggers as a platform to discourage progressives from voting.

Back before the redesign of his blog website it was a lot easier to search the back catalogue of  blog website posts.  If that was still possible one could track his change from "I'm going to run as a Liberal in the next election" after the Harper majority to the Scheer maniac we see today.    Other posts record his anger at not being employed by the new regime in their war room.   And when they won?  KaBoom.

For all of the Trudeau Liberal's faults, they are demonstrably more progressive than the Conservatives.  Allowing an agent provocateur a platform to actively discourage Liberals from voting should be antithetical to the concept of Progressive Bloggers.

"Scheer looked Prime Ministerial"?  How was his URL not deleted at that point?Recommend this Post

Wilson-Raybould rejects criticisms she may have helped Conservatives win the next election

So quoth the current headline on National Newswatch.

She rejects criticism because St. Jody is above criticism.  She is perfect and everything is someone else's fault.  Narcissist much?

Meanwhile on Progressive Bloggers, the Conservative Party's mole (how about we call this person the Underminer?) has a post up gushing over how Opie looked very Prime Ministerial this afternoon.  Was this more or less Prime Ministerial when he stood with Faith Goldy.  Or when he stood with the Yellow Vest mob?  Or when he wouldn't acknowledge that the victims in Christ church were Muslim until he was forced to. 

Don't know how much the Underminer is getting paid by the Cons but it can't possibly be enough.


(I never said I wouldn't do screen grabs. 😀)Recommend this Post

The Fake Scandal as a B Movie Monster

Many a mediocre Sci-Fi plot involves a monster that feeds off negative emotions.  If only the poor humans could resist the temptation to look in go down those stairs.  To open that book they were warned not to read.  To look in that closet (scarier yet, you might find Harper in there).

Lots of blood and guts are spilled.  But if you don't look, the monster recedes.  Not totally.  The spectre is still there to be re-awoken in the sequel.  Cue the credits.

This current fake scandal is much the same.  The media will only keep this farce going if it generates clicks.  If you want the nightmare to end don't feed the monster.  Deny it the oxygen.  Don't click on articles about the fake heroines.  If a "Progressive" Blogger (my bad, it isn't a blog.  It is a website) has a scurrilous heading on his blog website post promising explosive details, just scroll on past.  Let him and the other hagiographers at Maclean's, the National Post and the other publications with a political agenda wither on the vine.  Don't boost their revenue by clicking on that story.

Let the story fade into a bad memory.

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What would you do if you were the Conservatives?

You are faced with a real problem.  You have elected a dorky overly-religious leader prone to associating with white supremacists.  A disaffected leadership candidate has formed a splinter party.  The governing party has a popular leader that most people like to be associated with.  And their policies are generally popular.  The popularity polling indicates you do have is notoriously inefficient.  And the government's performance is even worse for you.  A strong economy.  Success standing up to Putin's President.  Worst of all, they are on track to get a pipeline built in the heart of your support.

You need a plan.  An election is looming and you are going to lose.  What do you do?  Your favourite trick is to suppress the vote.  Create outrage over a fake scandal and discourage Liberal voters from turning out.  It worked for a similarly creepy and unpopular Leader a decade ago.  But what scandal?

And then out of nowhere, you find out that an ambitious pair of senior Cabinet ministers are out to inflict petty revenge on the Prime Minister for a bruised ego.  Is the scandal risible? (h/t Montreal Simon)?  No matter.

Quick.  Round up the Conservative minded pundits!  Roll out the coordinated attack!  What is that you say?  We can even have a political strategist who hasn't worked for the Liberal party in nigh on a decade or more help led the attack from within Progressive Bloggers?  Why, this might just work!

Prepare the tax cuts!  Find which minorities to target next.  Hurry!  It is hard to stop these bozos from erupting!

Sounds like a plan is coming together.  But, the Leader is still a dweeb.  The government is still doing a good job.  And the Terrible Twins will start to fade into their well deserved obscurity.  Campaigns matter.  A week is a long time in politics.  and there are still 20 plus weeks to go.Recommend this Post

Who made the call?

This Political Potshots post nicely captures some obvious concerns about the ethics of the "Noble One"' taping her phone conversation with Michael Wernick.  As does this one by Excited Delirium.

To have recorded the call was egregiously unethical.  Did she initiate the phone conversation that she inappropriately and unethically record?  If she so, that exponentially increases her wrongdoing.Recommend this Post

Are JWR/JP and friends familiar with the story of the Cambridge 5?

So JWR has shown herself to be an unethical as well as an incompetent MoJaAG.  I expect JWR/JP, their co-conspirators and useful idiots in the Opposition parties, media and political consulting firms are enjoying the blowback against the government.

But their joy will be short lived.  Cunning though those involved might be, gaming this whole plan out isn't their strong suit (e.g. having an anti-budget filibuster in which they ingeniously voted to provide the Liberals with an entire election's worth of attack ads).  Eventually, even Andrew Scheer will realize that if the Terrible Twins will connive and plot against the person who brought them into government and installed them in plum Cabinet posts they will do the same to him.  Political consultants who praise the unethical recording of phone calls will wonder if St. Jody has been doing the same to them.  Most of the writers at MacLean's and the Globe and Mail will start to wonder if the are part of the plot or will the One Born to Be Noble One (or some other undemocratic hogwash title) toss them under the next convenient bus.

Once Philby, Burgess, Maclean et al. defected to Moscow they discovered they were not Colonels in the KGB.  The KGB didn't trust anyone who was so disloyal.  The traitors live's were sad and lonely.  They read the London papers.  They subsisted on a minimum stipend and allowance of Lea & Perrins.  But they were pariahs in the Soviet Union.  This is the fate of JWR/JP.

Perhaps the Cambridge 5 realized their folly.  Their fate was still the same.  Do the Mean Girls realize theirs?  At this point, I couldn't care less.Recommend this Post

Maybe JT's sin was throwing good money after bad.

Perhaps it can be traced back to the whole non-egalitarian "Woman born pf noble people" hogwash.  It could be the whole SNC-Lavalin canard Jody Wilson-Raybould (JWR) instigated.  Regardless of the source of the leak, her unprecedented recommendations for a new Chief Justice for the SCC seemed very much at odds with a progressive Liberal government.

While I think the source must be carefully considered, this editorial raises concerns.  And what about her callous disregard of an innocent man's appeal for justice.  Title Minister of Justice is not intended to be used ironically.

Oh.  And her refusal to do her job?

I am all for equity for people of equal ability.  But perhaps Trudeau's biggest sin was installed an incompetent into one of the most important posts in Cabinet to reach a self-imposed artificial limit. Perhaps he then went to extraordinary limits to accommodate an incompetent MOJAG and is now paying the price. If the Cabinet had been unbalanced by more person, it would still have been a step forward.  And it will still have been 2015.

But it seems right now that Trudeau now has the strangest of political metaphors.  He has two people inside his tent and they are both pissing in.Recommend this Post

What is the JWR/JP et al. game plan?

Three leading pundits agree.  This isn't a scandal based on a principled stand in defence of the rule of law.  The SNC-Lavalin "Scandal" is just an attempted palace coup.  To channel Yoda, Trudeau will will tamp this fire out or he will not.  There is no try.  A key rule of the Westminster system is that if the Prime Minister cannot maintain the confidence of a majority of the house, he must step down.

But what are JWR/JP (and possibly disaffected former Liberal strategists) playing at?  They must have a plan.

But what is it?  Pulling a Doug Ford and replacing the leader just before an election?  Hurting the Liberals so they lose?  But only lose enough so that Scheer forms a short lived minority?  Then a snap Liberal leadership contest where St Jody is coronated and takes down the Conservatives?   Huzzah!  Huzzah!

Perhaps one of these fever dreams scenarios have possessed the Princesses of Principle.  If so, they should read more Burns.  Because such plans gang aft agley.  What if they underestimate the damage done to the Liberal chances in October?  What if Andrew Scheer wins a four year term to run ruin the country because of these shenanigans?

JWR might feel she has the right to lead because she is "born noble" (or some other anti-democratic claptrap).  But noblesse oblige.  How does this game justify the risk of a government that would be detrimental to the First Nations as a whole?Recommend this Post

Something rotten in the state of #puglaas

So far the JWR scandal is about "She said, He said".  Except there are two Hes saying she is misconstruing events.  Wait, is there a third person providing evidence that JWR is not being entirely straightforward?

Why, in 4 hours of testimony did JWR not mention this request from the PCO and her decision to spike it?  This refusal to perform her duty to provide legal advice to cabinet and the PCO is evidence that JWR was not listening to reasonable arguments.

If this is the case, then the question becomes "Why?".  Why did she not entertain other points of view?  Why did she refuse the input of someone of the stature of Beverley McLaughlin?  Why did she make her unshakable decision so quickly?

Was it a manifestation of delusions of absolute competence?  Was it a sign of intransigence?  Is still just plain stubborn?  Were there other reasons for her refusal to listen and her, likely, steps to undermine the government?

Got to hand it to Harper, at least the multitudinous scandals surrounding his government were much more transparent.  Duffy/Wright made sense from the get-go.Recommend this Post

Is this the most Liberal of scandals? or Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose

The SNC-Lavalin "scandal" is certainly the top story in the news these days.  Even if it is the contention of the central figure, Jody Wilson-Raybould (the former Attorney-General, probable source of the leak to the Globe and Mail etc), that nothing illegal occurred.

Why all the fuss?  That is still unclear.  But this does all follow a theme manifested in past Liberal governments.  When they are firmly in government and faced with a weak leader of the Conservative Party, the Liberals revert to Natural Governing Party mode.  The underlings get restless and the knives come out for the current leader.

A sample from recent times:

• John Turner tried to undermine Pierre Trudeau and was banished from cabinet
• Jean Chretien was determined to wrest the leadership from Turner
• Paul Martin forced Chretien into an early retirement

So did a JWR faction within the Liberal party see Justin Trudeau as vulnerable and seek to supplant him?  The weakness of the Conservative leader is certainly evident.  Is this all part of a Blue Liberal revolt?  Are one time Liberal strategists with an axe to grind due to their exclusion from the 2015 campaign leading the charge?

I have no idea.  But it makes as much sense as the swirl of nebulous bumpf currently in the news cycle.  But if it ends up costing the Liberals the next election and allowing the crypto-racists of the Conservative party to take over, the people planning any palace coups will have a lot to answer for.

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Why should Canada be immune?

I am just finishing up The Plot to Destroy Democracy by Malcolm Nance.  In addition to being a compendium of the evidence of Russian meddling into the 2016 United States election, this book catalogues the success of Russian efforts to infiltrate conservative movements throughout the western democracies.  The pattern consists of keying on veiled (and unveiled) claims white supremacy, evangelical religiosity, distrust of liberalism and hated of immigration to bring these groups into an orbit dominated by Vladimer Putin.

France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Spain.  It is a long list.  But no mention of Canada.  Both the Conservative Party of Canada and the People's Party of Canada have displayed the traits associated with Putin's fellow travellers.  Maxime Bernier's one degree of separation from organized crime should never be wholly discounted.

So why no mention of Canada?  Is that because our conservative parties are incorruptible?  Are we small potatoes to be scooped up when the bigger spuds have been julienned and deep fried?  Perhaps Putin, understanding our hockey superiority, knows the Bear always loses against Canada when it matters.

Or have the links been more well hidden?  I don't know the answer.  I have read vague warnings about the need for the protection of our elections from cyber-meddling.  But nothing more ominous about the parties and conservative groups themselves.  Perhaps the stories will soon come out.  I have no answers but, as with all other things, while Canada is a great country it is still affected by the goings on in the world at large.Recommend this Post