The Yellow Vests of Canada. Aren't they ADORABLE?

I know, I know. Maybe I'm getting too old for this shit. Maybe I found another hobby. Who knows?

But I just couldn't not share the wit and wisdom to be found in this -- hey! Who said "paranoid fever swamp?" I'll thank you not to finish my sentences for me, and -- hey! Who said "wannabe MAGAheads?" That's just rude!

Patriotic Canadians™, top to bottom, they are. Ask them about George Soros next.

@JohnTory and the curse of right-wing governance | #TOpoli #cdnpoli

A noxious confluence of events.

In Toronto, the Gardiner East kerfuffle. And the police culture's turgid and shameful insistence on continuing the practice of carding, despite all the evidence that it's useless, counterproductive, alienating, and a grotesque manifestation of systemic racism.

In Ottawa, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's report on this country's shameful treatment of native people.

We pretty much know what we're going to get from the festering, vindictive, authoritarian Harpoid regime. That it's resisting a fair accounting and hedging over control of resources is no surprise. Nor is its Aboriginal Affairs Minister's literal refusal to stand up at the presentation of the report. Not much left to say about this putrescent government and its contempt for ... well, pretty much everything and everybody except international investors, ideological fellow travellers, and tar-sands diggers.

No, let's keep this a tad closer to home for now. Let's talk about the smooth-talking suit in the mayor's office, and how wrong he is on two of the most pressing issues in Toronto's civic life.

Remember when John Tory used to make sense? (It did happen, and not all that long ago. Like when he was with the Civic Action Alliance.) Isn't that what we were hoping for when he succeeded the Fuckhead Brothers? Whatever happened to that guy, anyway? Was he just saying whatever to get elected, or was there something more insidious at work (geez, can you maybe telegraph things a little more? - ed.)?

Let's run down the signs, shall we? Lines up with the forces of reaction on carding, in the face of pressure from thousands across the city and political spectrum.

Oblivious to injustice, to marginalization, to entrenched and systemic racism. White privilege? Never heard of it.

Lip service. Photo ops. Hollow gestures.

Equivocation on the obvious need to take down the east section of the Gardiner Expressway, all for the sake of a handful of entitled motorists. Hey John, here's a thought: Greatest good for the greatest number? Isn't that what public institutions are supposed to pursue?

Tone-deaf platitudes in defence of privilege.

No overarching conception of the public good.

Wrong on more civic issues than you can shake a recorded vote at.

Yup. Now where have we seen this before? Yeah, yeah, maybe some smart-ass tried to caricature John Tory as Rob Ford with manners, and while that may be good for a cheap laugh, there's a lot more to it.

And before we go down the dead-end road of binary liberal vs. conservative thinking, let's resolve to respect the meanings of words. Words matter. Language matters. Definitions matter.

This isn't conservatism. Conservatives have their faults, but this kind of clueless arrogance isn't a mark of conservatism so much as atavistic entitlement, ignorance, and shallow expediency. It's the product of years of insulation, privilege, and growing ever more out of touch.

And it’s not about fouling public discourse with a flood of lies and bullshit either — the bullshit from Gardiner East "hybrid" proponents being a case in point.

No. This is the inevitable toxic effect of the right-wing approach to (mis)government. Whether it’s drunken oafish crackheads, blue-blooded corporate patricians, or malevolent wingnut-welfare operators, the intent and effect are the same — progressive enfeeblement of government, debasement of language, and reducing the efficacy of public institutions.

We can do better than this.

Don't like carding? @TPSboard, @TorontoPolice, @TPAca team up for a giant F.U. | #TOpoli

Aw, come on, you old sourpuss! Can it really be that bad?

Well, maybe. He smiles nicely for the camera.

What's that? I'm being mean, you say? Unfair, even? Because you just know people so deeply invested in a toxic and dysfunctional status quo will happily hand the top job over to a guy who's going to fix it!

As some schmuck once argued:

... we're talking about an ingrained culture that's been setting in and putrefying for decades, if not centuries. Anyone perceived as an enemy ... gets targeted and slimed. And anyone who wants to function and rise within that culture has to buy into its intrinsic values, no matter how sociopathic or dysfunctional.

"Civilian oversight." Right. I'll just be over in the corner, throwing up.

@JohnToryTO: Veering hard right? Stepping into the asshole vacuum? WTF? | #TOpoli

Look, I'll be the first to acknowledge: this makes no sense on first review.

The guy's cruising. He's managed to define the comfortable centre, make himself the default anti-Ford candidate, and take advantage of Olivia Chow's miscalculations and bad positioning. All he has to do is not fuck himself up again, and he's got some very serious help to keep from doing just that.

And then Friday:

• Opens the Queers Against Israeli Apartheid / Pride thing again, only to have it blow up in his face.
• Thinks "some of my best friends are gay" constitutes effective damage control.
• Blows off the Globe.
• FUs @Goldsbie, both directly and indirectly.

So what the fuck is going on? Can only speculate: now that Olivia's started playing to her strengths, finally, he's afraid of losing support on the left, so he veers hard right in an attempt to milk what's left of Ford Nation before Brother Dumbfuck starts campaigning in earnest?

Maybe the latest numbers are prompting this, who knows, but really, John? You think you need people like this? Maybe it isn't a series of gaffes. Maybe this is a well-thought out strategic move that we mere mortals aren't smart enough to understand.

Let's see if we can follow the calculation here. He's ready to risk losing people who are basically progressive but willing to hold their noses and support him because Olivia's been running a shitty campaign and he's become the default "only one who can beat Ford" candidate. And he's willing to throw them away because he needs some of the stupidest, most deluded people in the world -- aka "Ford Nation?" You know, the people who think he's a closet Liberal in bed with Kathleen Wynne?

Or is there a simpler answer?

Internetz? Anyone?

Related posts:

• Just how fucking stupid are Ford supporters, anyway? | #TOpoli
• Mayor Stupid on transit: Clueless doesn't begin to describe it | #TOpoli @JoshMatlow

Maybe we could have an @OntarioPCParty online butthurt form, just to save time | #onpoli

Well, I guess when you're reduced to using whiny 21-year-olds for staff, this is what you get.

Not only lashing out at others for their own fuckups, but doubling down on the stupidity and ignorance. I know, easy targets, but hey, if they're going to leave the evidence there for anyone to come along and use ...

#TOpoli Dipshit of the Day: @TrusteeSam Sotiropoulos, grubby little homophobe

I know, I know. Been a while. Excuse the shit out of me for having a life.

Anyway, anyone following #TOpoli knows what Mayor Stupid and Brother Dumbfuck have been up to recently. It's not as if they matter to the city's governance any more, given that Toronto Council has done the only sensible thing and neutered them, but unfortunately the verbal vomit continues to stream unabated from their pieholes to be licked up by their drooling base.

To wit: consider Mayor Stupid's *cough* subtle wink *cough* to the remaining homophobes still polluting the gene pool. He's never gone to a Pride parade, he says, and he's not going to change. Whoop de do. Not even bothering to lie about going to the cottage any more. (Probably unique for the Fords, whose default setting is to bullshit no matter what the subject matter.) And, with the unique predictability of flies landing on shit, along comes Brother Dumbfuck to insist that the Ford boys aren't homophobes — they just get all icky at the sight of "buck naked men."

And if that's not clear enough, witness Rob Ford's hissy fit about the Pride flag at City Hall's ceremonial flagpole. It shouldn't replace the Canadian flag, he sputters (it didn't). It's about patriotism and supporting the athletes, he says. Yeah, sure, Rob. I mean, dozens of other flags have adorned the ceremonial flagpole, but only when the rainbow flag goes up does Mayor Stupid object and pretend it’s all about the Canadian flag. Right.

So why are we wasting oxygen and electrons on this pathetic civic cancer? Well, could it possibly be that it's part of his "brain trust's" re-election strategy? You know, get the bigots and mouth-breathers all het up about the Ho-Mo-Sekshuals and Les-Beens? Again, no great insight there.

Enter TDSB Trustee Sam Sotiropoulos. True, not that many people pay attention to school trustees, at least not to the same extent that they watch city council. Well, Sammie's decided he wants to change all that, so he's been popping off about his own obsession with buck naked men. (Maybe he and Dougie need to get a room or something. God knows they spend enough time thinking about it.)

https://twitter.com/kristynwongtam/status/432758606283292672

Well, not surprisingly, Sambo's been called out for this and other stupidities. This is a guy who makes policy about education, mind. And his response — surprise! — has been to play the victim card, and insist that people are trying to stifle his freedom of speech, and bullying him, and being all "homosexist" and everything.

Deep sigh.

For starters, this isn't a free-speech issue. There is no right not to be criticized. You don’t get to silence people who disagree with you. You can say whatever you like, but if you say stupid and hateful things, you don’t get a free pass. Calling you on your ignorance isn't censorship. Let's move on.

Sammie then doubles down and bleats that he's against ALL forms of discrimination, and what about the poor white kids of Canadian descent?

Oh, dear. Here's where it gets a little, you know, "nuanced." (Protip to Sambo: don't go looking that up on Urban Dictionary. It'll just bring you more grief.)

To insist, as Sammyboy disingenuously does, that all forms of discrimination and exclusion are equal, and have an identical impact and merit equal condemnation, is to ignore decades — centuries, even — wherein gay people have been marginalized, victimized, attacked and even murdered by straight people. Or wherein people of colour have been marginalized, excluded, exploited and lynched by the dominant class — i.e., straight white males. It’s the height of ignorance, and a well-established far-right trick, to get the oppressors to see themselves as victims.

And his obtuse and wilful disregard for these historical truths can’t help but raise questions about his motives (not to mention his role as an educational official, but we’ll leave that alone for the moment). What, exactly, is he trying to accomplish by repeatedly braying about naked men at Pride parades, if not to sound the same homophobic dog whistle recently slobbered on by the fuckhead brothers? Not to mention singling out the only openly gay member of Toronto Council for this bullshit?

Sam is a nobody. And he’ll continue to be a nobody, regardless of what happens at the next election. The lesson here is, as we’ve seen, another illustration of the toxic Ford effect, and a consistent poisoning of public discourse. With their transparent nod to the knuckledraggers and their desperate and pathetic attempts to rally the drooling remnants of their base, the fuckhead brothers have given an implicit licence to other bottom feeders to come out of the woodwork and ooze their hatred and ignorance all over everything. And that’s the most insulting and dehumanizing thing of all — that our LGBT friends have to listen to this shit All Over Again.

Related posts:

• Just how fucking stupid are Ford supporters, anyway? | #TOpoli
• Via @cityslikr: #Fordfest, integrity, and the slow but steady fouling of the public sphere | #TOpoli
• Mayor Stupid on the Danzig shootings

Another #AssholeCop protected by the #BlueWall | #TOpoli @TorontoPolice @TPSDetBangild @DeputySloly

But hey, I could be wrong. Whaddaya say, @TorontoPolice Tweeter dudes? Yeah, Jeff Bangild and Tim Burrows and Tony Vella and Peter Sloly, I'm looking at you. Should be pretty easy to out this worthless piece of shit, no?

I mean, you don't want the whole force to be condemned over the actions of a few bad apples, do you?

After all, don't cops make a big deal of it when witnesses don't come forward?

And it's not as if this asshole's buddies would suddenly go deaf, dumb and blind or anything, is it?

Because God knows, if the rest of you just look the other way when scumbags like this do their thing, then how are you any better than they are? And you wouldn't want people getting the idea you just cover for the bullying pigs in your midst, or that your dysfunctional organizational culture enables this kind of crap or anything, would you?

Well, you do like to go on about how important it is for you to rebuild your relationship with the community and earn our trust. I'm sure you'll do the right thing. And monkeys will fly out of my ass.

Related posts:

• Tell us again how the police are our friends ...
• Two years later, no accountability for #policebrutality at the #G20
• Couple more guys who are a real credit to the badge | @TorontoPolice #G20
• Another opportunity for the healing power of public scorn | @TorontoPolice #G20
• The Blue Wall is a threat to public safety
• Police accountability in Toronto | #G20
• How's that "building relations" thing going, @TorontoPolice Tweeter guy?

Mayor Stupid on transit: Clueless doesn't begin to describe it | #TOpoli @JoshMatlow

Just in case there was any doubt left, this makes it obvious: he doesn't have a fucking clue what he's talking about.



This is your boy, Ford Asspimple. Even with help from Nunziata and Berardinetti, he still can't get his facts straight or stay on message. That council is actually debating this again is enough to make me wanna barf.

Sure, let's tear up the Master Agreement and bet a billion dollars on this guy. Great idea.

Related posts:

• Just how fucking stupid are Ford supporters, anyway? | #TOpoli
• Via @cityslikr: #Fordfest, integrity, and the slow but steady fouling of the public sphere | #TOpoli
• Mayor Stupid, the Star, and another question | #TOpoli

Just how fucking stupid are Ford supporters, anyway? | #TOpoli

Dipshit's latest performance in the wake of Monday night's rainstorm shouldn't be any surprise. Yeah, we know – the mayor's office is currently occupied by a petulant, incompetent, man-child with no abstract thinking skills, no grasp of the difference between true and false, and a sense of entitlement the size of a Cadillac Escalade. Tell me something I don't know.

Seriously, though – Nenshi comparisons aside, the guy's idea of leadership is to sit in his fucking SUV with the engine running and the A/C cranked while the city staffers he spends his days pissing on actually work to fix things? And then tell everyone else to reduce their power consumption? How can anyone still take this fuckwit seriously, let alone support him?

Nothing new here either, except maybe confirmation that reading the Sun or listening to Jerry Agar makes stupid people even stupider. [*cough* NunziataMinnan-WongDiGiorgioKellyPalacioCrisantiMammo *cough*] This is how what's left of Ford Asspimple thinks:

They don't want to pay taxes to fund the maintenance of public infrastructure, but when it rains and the sewer system overflows, they'll complain about having to waddle through puddles of their own shit.

They don't want to pay taxes to support programs that keep at-risk youth out of trouble, and then they sit and bitch about crime.

They don't want to pay taxes for realistic and affordable public transit, but they'll whine about gridlock and blame it on bike lanes and streetcars.

At this point, anyone who can still support Rob Ford is just as much of a moron as he is, and even if there once was a reason to pretend otherwise, that reason's toast by now. These people are so stupid, shallow, resentful and easily manipulated that they'll swim in their own shit just to spite everyone else. I wouldn't give a fuck, except that they're getting it all over everything, and high-fiving each other at what's probably the greatest accomplishment of what passes for their lives.

Related posts:

• Via @cityslikr: #Fordfest, integrity, and the slow but steady fouling of the public sphere | #TOpoli
• Mayor Stupid plays grabass with @ThomsonTO. Fuckwits rush to excuse it | #TOpoli
• @ThomsonTO fires back at @TOMayorFord. Cue flying-monkey / Sun "reader" attack | #TOpoli

Via @cityslikr: #Fordfest, integrity, and the slow but steady fouling of the public sphere | #TOpoli

Another week, another stinking turd left floating in the pool of public conversation by Team Ford.

This time, it's the gathering of slack-jawed rubes best referred to as Ford Asspimple and the cynical hustlers lining up to herd them at Mayor Stupid and Brother Dumbfuck's annual fuck-the-rules shindig. Only difference this time is that it was in Scarborough.

I doubt anyone has the patience to go through the details, yet again, about it being an illegitimate early campaign event or a misuse of public resources. The Twin Morons obviously don't give a shit, and they've gotten away with everything so far, so why wouldn't they continue? Any attempt to hold them to the same standards as everyone else just plays into their victim narrative and fires up their base, so why bother?

Well, there's a very good reason to bother. Our friend @cityslikr makes a compelling argument over at his place today:

It enables flagrant disregard of any attempt to keep a level playing field for all members of the council and to reduce the influence on city business by unelected outside entities. Allowing the administration to continue conducting its dubious practices in order to not enflame the mayor’s base is as big an affront to democratic oversight as assuming the rules don’t apply to you is.

While I can't argue with him on that, we have to acknowledge that it's not without its complications. Yes, opening up the can of worms will consume energy, attention and oxygen, but really, does that make it OK to just shrug it off? As @cityslikr argues,

it’s inexcusable for the rest of us to shrug it off as part of the game. 

And that's the worst insult: after three years of this shit, we're left with scandal fatigue, cynicism and the temptation to just throw up our hands and ask rhetorically, in the best Tony Soprano fashion, "whaddayagonnado."

There's a larger and more worrisome issue here. It's not just about Team Ford's obvious appeals to stupidity and resentment, divisive agenda, or continual disregard for the rules. Fundamentally, Team Ford's worst crime is in the effect it's had on public conversation itself.

For the last three years, Team Ford's been cultivating a sour and enervating cynicism about politics, about citizenship, and about the efficacy of government itself. Amplified by the brayers of the tabloid press and the yellers of talk radio, the current administration has exploited resentments, played up divisions, pissed on the whole notion of being truthful, trumpeted its petulance and inability to build bridges, and turned ignorance, name-calling and stupidity into its standard operating procedure. It's taken a giant crap on the very notion of public life and public service, and in so doing, diminished our own expectations of our government and ourselves as citizens.

I've written before about the toxic effect this bunch has had on public life. Here it is again, in stinking Smell-O-Vision.

Related posts:

• Mayor Stupid, the Star, and another question | #TOpoli
• @cityslikr on Team Ford's bullshit, and our complicity therein | #TOpoli
• Ford's right-wing governance: no vision, no soul, no future

Mayor Stupid, the Star, and another question | #TOpoli

Mr. Ford, your accusation of a vendetta is, to use your word, ridiculous. Toronto is entitled to straight answers to straight questions, and here are a few being asked in your city right now over this holiday weekend:

• Do you understand why this damning videotape requires a proper and thoughtful explanation?
• Have you ever smoked crack cocaine?
• How well do you know the men in the photograph that appeared on Friday’s front page? Did you know the man who was subsequently shot dead?
• Did you refer to Justin Trudeau by a homosexual slur?
• Did you refer to your football team as f------ minorities?
• Will you call for a police investigation into these latest allegations?

So many questions. No real answers.

In what has become a long list of questionable incidents involving your behaviour, does it ever occur to you that you have a problem and it isn’t the Toronto Star?

Source here.


So to sum up: A decades-long record of fuckups, vulgarity, buffoonery, drunkenness, ignorance, racism, homophobia, entitlement, laziness, lawlessness, denials, lies, avoidance, playing the victim, blaming other people, paranoia, and above all, Zero Effort to Take Responsibility For His Own Behaviour. And then we have a substantial proportion of the electorate who excuse, identify with, and enable this, and even see it as evidence of leadership ability.

To paraphrase Michael Cooke: Does it ever occur to you, Toronto, that you have a bigger problem, and it isn't Mayor Crackhead?

Related posts:

• @ThomsonTO fires back at @TOMayorFord. Cue flying-monkey / Sun "reader" attack | #TOpoli
• Mayor Stupid plays grabass with @ThomsonTO. Fuckwits rush to excuse it | #TOpoli
• Mayor Stupid on the Danzig shootings
• The downtown/suburban divide and its fetid offshoots
• Rob Ford's mayoral trajectory | #TOpoli
• Mayor Stupid makes @KeithOlbermann's list ... AGAIN (h/t @OccupyTO)
• @TOMayorFord puts Toronto on @KeithOlbermann 's map
• So Mayor Stupid takes one in the nads on the waterfront ...
• @cityslikr on Team Ford's bullshit, and our complicity therein | #TOpoli
• Team Ford's malignancy: It's not just the Jarvis bike lanes | #TOpoli #bikeTO

Media culpa: Margaret Wente and quotes: Who said that?

Media culpa: Margaret Wente and quotes: Who said that?:

'via Blog this'

Carol Wainio providing more quality control for the Globe. And God love her, because the brain trust on Front Street obviously won't do it.

Related posts:

• Carol Wainio and a couple more Wente-isms: Nothing to see here
• Wente, the Gelber, and the Globe: more quality control from Carol Wainio
• Media culpa: The Globe and Mail: Driving home a point about plagiarism

Anonymous hands @cselley his ass | #Rehtaeh #RapeCulture

"How would you respond to columns like Chris Selley’s in the National Post that say your efforts are not needed?

Wow, you picked a real winner there. Well, no offense to Chris Selley or the National Post, but he seems to insinuate that if the police screw up and a few rapists get off the proper response is “tough shit,” move on to the next case. For that, I think he's a moron. Let's slow down for one second and assume that I did release the names of those rapists... what law am I breaking? I suppose they could sue me for slandering them. Of course, to do that they'd have to prove I was lying.This gets worse: he says we should ignore the photo being spread around the school because it probably happens all time. We can't expect the legal system to punish everyone that's passing around photos of women being raped, now can we? It's “fairly routine adolescent behaviour.” Chris Selley article epitomizes the rape culture. "

'via Blog this'

If there's a better rejoinder to all the handwringers and mansplainers and apologists who caution us against going vigilante and say we should just let the legal process and the justice system do their jobs, I haven't found it yet.

News flash, fuckheads: the justice system screwed the pooch on this. The legal process, the school system, and the police -- all the institutions we charge with keeping young women like Rehtaeh safe -- did sweet fuck-all to protect her.

And the fucking RCMP? Well, they're pretty good at tasering immigrants to death and then lying about it, sitting there with their thumbs up their asses while serial killers prey on women, and/or sexually assaulting their female colleagues and aboriginal prisoners. Serving and protecting young women? Not so shit-hot.

Related posts:

• If the Mounties, whose track record on gender issues is disgusting and grossly incompetent ...
• Tell us again how the police are our friends ...
• Robert Dziekanski, the RCMP, and an anniversary

@ThomsonTO fires back at @TOMayorFord. Cue flying-monkey / Sun "reader" attack | #TOpoli

As my good friend @Cityslikr pointed out earlier today, there's no contortion too painful, no logical leap too implausible, for the boil on Toronto's ass formerly known as Ford Nation. Our guy under attack? Never mind the lies, never mind the ignorance, never mind the sexism, never mind the racism, never mind the homophobia -- just another leftist conspiracy by a bunch of sore-loser special-interest teat-suckers.

So it seems Mayor Stupid suggested on his radio show today that Sarah Thomson might not be playing with a full deck. Well, wasn't that an invitation for a good old-fashioned mud fight, because Sarah's fired back on Facebook. The money quote:

Unlike the Mayor, I do not have a history of lying about my behaviour. Mayor Ford has lied publicly numerous times. He denied the drunken incident where he verbally assaulted a Durham couple during a hockey game but later admitted to it. And During 2010 civic election campaign he denied being arrested for pot possession in Florida and then admitted it and another DUI charge. The Mayor has a history of denial but usually owns up to his mistakes once the facts become overwhelming and I expect that he will eventually own up to this one.

Sigh. This little corner isn't going to come right out and say it, but then really, who needs to? But goddamn if the comments on Sarah's FB note didn't take a wrong-way turn down the road to Sun Commentville. Check these out:

Hoo boy. All the trademarks -- the bad spelling, the non-existent grammar, the spittle-flecked hatred, the stolid, wooden-headed, belligerent ignorance, and the determination to overlook patterns, discount evidence, reject analogies and excuse misbehaviour in their boy while simultaneously rushing to undermine, question and practically lynch anyone who questions him.

As I pointed out to @cityslikr, there's no engaging with these people. They're so wrapped up in their identification with Mayor Stupid that an accusation aimed at him is a personal attack on them. And perhaps they're getting some vicarious kicks out of him getting all fucked up and then pawing at women in public. Maybe they can't get away with it, but it does their hearts good to see Robbie getting away with it ... and with way more.

Well, that's Ford Asspimple for you. Maybe they don't care that the rules don't apply to Mayor Stupid. Maybe they don't care that unlike everyone else, he doesn't have to face any consequences when he breaks them. But come 2014, how well will that play with the adults?

Related posts:

Mayor Stupid plays grabass with @ThomsonTO. Fuckwits rush to excuse it

Mayor Stupid plays grabass with @ThomsonTO. Fuckwits rush to excuse it | #TOpoli

Well, maybe he was so fucked up he thought he was coaching football or something. Football players do that, don't they?

Ed Keenan and Ivor Tossell have already weighed in on this, so not much to add to their analysis, but I have one question for the "Ford Nation" deadheads rushing to the mayor's support:

You think you'd be able to get away with this shit? Yeah, I know the guy's apparently Teflon-coated, and no matter what the left-wing conspiracy throws at him, he manages to skate, but why don't you try pulling some of his shit? You know -- scream drunken obscenities at women at hockey games, flip the bird at women in traffic, call women "wastes of skin," blow off female integrity commissioners and ombudsmen, or grab their asses in public ... and see if you can walk away without a scratch.

All we can do, really, is hunker down and ride out the next year and a half while trying not to be distracted by the daily embarrassments. What else is there to do?

Related posts:

• Just how does Mayor Stupid propose to pay for any kind of public infrastructure?
• Mayor Stupid on the Danzig shootings
• Rob Ford's mayoral trajectory | #TOpoli

Aw, what the hey. Time to play 'Let's hear from another Sun reader' again!

Yeah, well. I hesitate to direct traffic that way by linking to it, but the screen grab's above.

Rest of it continues in the same vein -- sexism, racism, homophobia, and fat-shaming union members, mixed in with the occasional smirking Jack Layton rub-and-tug reference or equally witty and creative reference to Olivia as "chow-chow."

Ah, the Toronto Sun. Not only spewing hatred, ignorance and belligerent stupidity, but providing a home for it from their toothless, badly-tattooed "readers" as well.

Related posts:

• Once again, let's hear from a few Sun readers
• Once again, time to play ... Let's hear from another Sun reader!
• Let's hear from another Sun reader ...

Conflict of interest, Mayor Stupid, and the Globe's stunning incoherence

There was a short-lived meme on Twitter recently, riffing on the Teutonic gift for coining words that have no exact English equivalent, but nevertheless capture meanings beautifully. "Schadenfreude" is one of the best examples. (I'm trying not to indulge at the moment.)

So I'm left wondering whether there's a German expression for times when reprehensible people appear to do the right thing, albeit for questionable reasons and in contexts which make the rightness of their actions suspect.

As we all know by now, Judge Charles Hackland, ruling in the conflict of interest proceedings brought against Rob Ford, has ruled that Mayor Stupid must be removed from office. No surprise at the finding, although there was a fair bit of energy backing the prediction that the court would somehow find a way not to apply the maximum penalty.

However, it's the reaction of our supposed Newspaper of Record^TM that begs further examination. As the pinstriped pamphleteers of Front Street argue:

Mr. Ford didn’t want to play by the rules. Not the ones he didn’t like, anyway, such as those governing conflict of interest.

Well, no argument there, although it's not as if the observation first came to life in the Front Street drawing room over brandy and cigars. Pious and paternalistic, but essentially correct. But it's what comes after that triggers the WTF:

The country’s biggest city gave him a strong mandate to reduce costs and attack what Mr. Ford described as a culture of entitlement at City Hall. He has even had some success.

Um ... what?

[Slim Pickens voice]
Did you say "Attack a Culture of Entitlement?"
[/Slim Pickens voice]

Is there anyone who embodies that more than Mayor Stupid and Brother Dumbfuck? A pair of guys who think they can flout the rules and blow off the consequences whenever they feel like it because … because ... shut the fuck up, OK? Taxpayers taxpayers taxpayers, subways subways subways, mandate, drool, release the trolls.

Let's review: here's a guy who thinks he's entitled to

• Phone Andy Byford and demand to know where his bus is
• Abuse and demean public servants
• Ignore the rules whenever they don't conform to his own sense of what's right
• Demand that city staff fix the road in front of his family business
• Blow off his official responsibilities to go coach football, and use public resources to do it

And that's just off the top of my head.

But let's move on, and compare that to the Globe's support for their charming ideological brethren in Ottawa, and ...

• electoral fraud
• robocalls
• naked attacks on dissent
• instructions for disrupting parliamentary committees
• secret "free-trade" deals
• Mordor
• embarrassment and damage to Canada's international reputation.

These are the people, mind, whom the Globe endorses as a way of "finding new ways to protect Parliament."

Are you fucking kidding me?

(But never mind all that just now -- is there a trend we might not be catching? Like, omigaaaawd ... )

In the continuing train wreck otherwise known as the Wente Clusterfuck, it's easy to lose sight of our National Fishwrap's many other acts of civic and linguistic vandalism. While this little corner isn't fit to polish Carol Wainio's flatware, perhaps this one little bit of paint on the cave wall might merit a footnote.

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Carol Wainio and a couple more Wente-isms: Nothing to see here

Here and here.

Second one even picks apart the correction, or clarification, or whatever the fudging mechanism the Globe's  using is called.

Uh-huh.

Well, I guess if the Sun's betting its saleability on Sue Ann Levy, we shouldn't be that surprised if the corporate meat puppets on Front Street are having similar thoughts.

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• Wente, the Gelber, and the Globe: more quality control from Carol Wainio
• Media culpa: The Globe and Mail: Driving home a point about plagiarism
• Carol Wainio rips Terence Corcoran and Margaret Wente a new one

Wente, the Gelber, and the Globe: more quality control from Carol Wainio

Another persuasive argument from Carol Wainio, who, beyond providing a stellar illustration of the value of independent academia, is making a convincing case for herself as a national treasure.

In her latest post, Prof. Wainio takes issue with the participation of disgraced Globe columnist Margaret Wente on the jury for the Gelber Prize — a supposedly prestigious award presented by the Gelber Foundation and the University of Toronto's Munk School for Global Affairs. With all this academic and financial star power, one would think academic integrity would be a prerequisite for all involved. As Prof. Wainio argues:

Don’t universities take strong public standards against plagiarism?  What would the University of Toronto or The Munk School (partners in the award) do with students who engaged in these practices? 

Having documented repeated instances of, at the very least, sloppy attribution or "originality problems" from Wente, it's entirely in order for Prof. Wainio to be raising such a question. She goes on, however, to compare another column from Wente to recent work from Walter Russell Mead and fellow Globe columnist Gary Mason, and to note Wente's evident "efficiency" in using the same material for two columns two weeks apart.

Well, we can't fault Wente for her embrace of the 3 Rs. But, as Prof. Wainio points out:

Are these as serious as past instances?  No.  But they do reflect a kind of practice, a habit, and dare one say, a kind of entitlement.  Given all that, and what was pretty universally described as the dreadful way Ms. Wente and her editors dealt with the more serious instances, one has to wonder why the Gelber Prize, the University of Toronto and the Munk School chose to rely so heavily on jurors associated with that particular newspaper ...

I've already pointed out the invaluable work Prof. Wainio does in providing the quality control that the senior editors of the Globe apparently refuse to do. It's particularly salient in this case, given both Wente and Mead's professed disdain for the kind of free and independent inquiry supposedly ensured by the institution of academic tenure, but it's even more valuable for the context it provides. Since it's clear that we're not going to get any critical analysis of Wente's, er, "work" from the Globe, Prof. Wainio's observations are essential as a reality check. They give readers the information they need in order to understand what they're getting from Wente.

And moreover, they put a rather jarring spotlight on the ideological and managerial decisions being taken in the executive suites on Front Street. It's not as if the warnings aren't there; while I'm not rushing to embrace the National Putz, Chris Selley raised several questions about the Globe's handling of the Wente scandal and its implications for the Gelber Prize in another essay late last week:

The Globe didn’t seem bothered about being seen to do anything, and I think it wound up leaving a widespread impression that it did nothing ... Maybe some principles are worth bending if sticking to them upsets the official Canadian chattering class hierarchy in which Margaret Wente plays house contrarian.

Nothing new about the smug, oblivious attitude the Globe appears to be taking toward this, or its condescending dismissal of mere "bloggers." It goes hand-in-hand with Wente's cringe-inducing poor-me non-apology in September.

What's left, however, are lingering questions about the Globe's credibility — questions which only grow more insistent the longer the Front Street brain trust tries to pretend they're not there.

(For even better takes on this, please read thwap and Sixth Estate.)

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• Carol Wainio rips Terence Corcoran and Margaret Wente a new one
• This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Newspapers
• The real issue here is that, even after all of the flaccid apologies, the Globe is doubling down on upholding an editorial regime which gives its tacit approval to this sort of behaviour ...
• Did anybody see where Margaret Wente?

Hey, Lone Pine Resources Inc. — sue this

NAFTA challenge launched over Quebec fracking ban - The Globe and Mail: "Energy firm Lone Pine Resources Inc. is taking on Quebec’s fracking moratorium, saying it violates the firm’s rights under the North American free-trade agreement and demanding more than $250-million in compensation."

'via Blog this'


Y'see, that's the great thing about "free trade." We get sued for "lost profits" when we try to protect our drinking water.

And the Chinese deal Harper's pushing? Shhh. It's a secret. Everything about it is a secret. Even Diane Francis is shitting on it, for Chrissakes.

Guy's not only letting foreign corporations fuck us over, he's handing out souvenir bags at the door.

Makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside, doesn't it.

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