Why I'm Voting For Sarah Blyth (And Giving Her Money)

Skateboard
UberAlles


There's this guy, Sam Quinones, who used to write for the LA Times awhile back.

Since then he's done good in the way I always wished Oscar Zeta Acosta had kept on doing after I first read not Fear and Loathing but, instead, ....This.

Anyway, one of the good things Mr. Quinones has done is write a book called 'Dreamland' wherein he describes his travels through Midwestern American states of both mind and reality to give witness (and insight) to the greed-driven opioid crisis that is wiping out entire towns there.

Which, tangentially at least, brings me to Sarah Blyth, who is someone I liked as a Parks Commissioner awhile back and who is now running as an independent for Vancouver Council.

What has she been doing in the interim?

Well, all kinds of stuff helping our fellow citizens who need our help most.

Stuff like this, according to Travis Lupick in the GStraight:

Last September (2016), a trio of women pitched a tent facing into a back alley near the intersection of Columbia Street and East Hastings. They set up a couple of tables there with a basket of clean needles and a supply of naloxone, a drug that’s used to reverse the effects of an opioid overdose.

Sarah Blyth, Ann Livingston, and Chris Ewart called it the Overdose Prevention Society. Since the arrival of fentanyl, there had been a lot of overdoses in that alley. And so in potential violation of Canada’s Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, they created a relatively safe space where people could inject drugs and where, in the event of an overdose, there would be someone there to revive them.

Three months later, B.C. health minister Terry Lake issued a ministerial order that instructed health authorities across the province to establish sites for drug users just like the tent that the Overdose Prevention Society pitched in that Downtown Eastside alley.

“I woke up yesterday at 4 o’clock in the morning and was thinking about the pop-up tent,” Lake told the Straight in an interview that month. “So we pulled the team together quickly, Vancouver Coastal had some plans in place. And so we just expedited everything.”

Within a week, there were more than 15 overdose-prevention sites operating in cities throughout B.C. Since then, staff at those locations have reversed hundreds of overdoses. No one has died at any of the sites...


A progressive trouble maker that can get things done and turn around someone like Terry Lake for the good of all?

Gosh.

That sure is someone I want in my city's council chambers.

OK?

****

Now.

Getting back to that very troubled state of mind that Mr. Quinones, who's more bloggorific stuff shows up occasionally on the left sidebar by the way....

Here's a wee bit of a 'book-on-tape' on that subject written by the always steady Craig Finn:




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Mr. Finn comes to town next Friday night, Oct 19th...Turns out that's election eve 'round here...
You can hear Ms. Blyth, in her own words, in long form, on Mo Amir's podcast...Here.


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The Keef Report....The Paltry.

Link

A hate-on for a suggestion to discuss things that likely matter to a whole lot of supporters of a particular political party?

Willful ignorance of massive shifts in popular support in recent provincial elections across Canuckistan?

Or, perhaps...

Just a late night weekend time stampish thing?


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Previous Keef Reports can be found....Here.


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The Keef Report...Not Standing With Her (Anymore).

NoMoreSwagTo
GetVille


Hey!

Look what the Keef dragged in...

And good on the Keef for pushing back on yet another inanity from our former (once not) premier.

But...

How different might things be 'round here right now if the good Mr. Baldrey had been willing to make a call like this in, say, 2011?


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Need background?....It's here.


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Time Keeps On Slippin'...

MakingTheRESP
PayVille


Spent the evening putting the bike rack and the Thule box on the car.

Because this weekend we're packing up and taking littler e. across the water to her dorm room at that school on the ring road.

While we may listen to a little Steve Miller in the car, that is one guy I do not cover.

Well.

Except for that one time.

Kinda/Sorta (but only after messing with Zimmerguthrieman, Ti Jean and WZevon first  - in a tunnel, in just two minutes, thirteen).


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That Private School Thing.

AllTheWelfareForTheWealthy
ThatFitsVille


Melissa Benn recently wrote a long, and very interesting treatise in the Guardian in which she argued the case for 'abolishing private schools in Britain:

...Now, more than ever, there is a strong moral and political argument in support of integration. At a time of growing divides and damaging inequality, we urgently need public institutions that bring the nation together, not further separate and divide us. For many in the UK, the idea of a unified education system to which all subscribe is too great a leap of the imagination, too daring a proposition – and yet the benefits of a common schooling could be immense...

Heckfire.

Here in British Columbia I would be very happy if we could just bring ourselves to stop subsidizing so-called 'elite' private schools with public money.

OK?


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Tip O' The Toque to Paul Willcocks for doing the heavy lifting awhile back on this one in the pixels of The Tyee.


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Now That The World Is On Fire...

...How Much Can NASA Say?

NASA satellites can identify 'thermal bands' that detect actively burning fires the world over as shown above, in red, from Wednesday, August 22nd.

Which led to a post from the fine folks at the American aeronautics and space administration titled 'A World On Fire' that was published Thursday.

The text of the post, overall, is both explanatory and careful.

For example, that mass of solid red in Africa is predominantly due to agricultural burning. In Brazil it is a combination of agricultural and wildfires.

As we know, in much of North America (and Chile) all those red dots are wildfires that are being driven by, surprise!, low humidity, high winds and extreme temperatures.

But what about Australia?

Well, here things got a little interesting, not so much with the explanation, which is that they are bushfires, but in the explanation which likely has certain members of the Trumpublican administration seeing red:

"...As the climate continues to change and areas become hotter and drier, more and more extreme bushfires will break out across the entire Australian continent..."

Gosh 'climate' and 'change' in the same sentence explaining how the so-called 'new normal' of today is very likely not the status quo of tomorrow.

Imagine that.



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Tip 'O the Toque to the Mound of Sound at 'The Disaffected Liberal'.
Post-script....The whackadoodle and me (sic) got up early and headed to the edge of the big muddy at the break of almost dawn in an effort to beat the coming rain...We were not successful, which turned out to be fantastic indeed...The only member of the gang that was not impressed was the beach guitar, but she'll be just fine once we clean up the keys and change the strings...Maybe by late November in the run-up to this year's Advent Jukebox.


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The Anti-Whaling Conspiracy....

ModelModelWho'sGotTheModel
VancouverVille


Who'd a thunk it.

The Casino-Industrial-Complex in downtown Lotusland, which was made possible, at least in part, by the 'man-of-many-hats' as well as he who called 'deal breaker', lo those many GordCo, Inc. years ago, is allegedly losing money hand-over-fist.

Intrepid document deep-diver Bob Mackin has the story. Here is his lede:

The new casino and hotel complex beside B.C. Place Stadium is struggling as its first anniversary approaches.

A report to shareholders by Dundee Corporation, which holds 35% of the company that operates Parq, said the so-called urban resort lost a whopping $80.8 million during the first six months of 2018.

“The initial ramp up of operations has been slower than anticipated due to a number of factors, including the regulatory cost and business impact of new anti-money laundering regulations applicable to casinos in British Columbia, which were implemented in December 2017,” said Dundee’s June 30 report....


Did you see what I saw (and bolded), above?

Looks like some of the money men are actually blaming new 'regulations' that mean that they must now instruct their staff not to accept anonymous hockey bags full of twenties, etc. for their misfortune.

Do these people have no shame?

And/or sense of decency?

Sheesh.


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The Fixer 1, Double Plus Ungood.

BirtherismUberAlles
TabloidVille


Well, well, well...

It looks like the good Mr. Michael Cohen did some side-fixing with the good folks at the so-called 'Corporation 1'.

From the AP's latest under Jeff Horwitz' byline:

...In 2010, at Cohen’s urging, the National Enquirer began promoting a potential Trump presidential candidacy, referring readers to a pro-Trump website Cohen helped create. With Cohen’s involvement, the publication began questioning President Barack Obama’s birthplace and American citizenship in print, an effort that Trump promoted for several years, former staffers said...


Very lawyerly of him I reckon.


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Interestingly, the quote, abvove, was pulled by the AP story posted by 'Talking Points Memo'...In more CorpMediaish type organs like, say, this one, they tend not to be running this part of piece...Gosh...I wonder why?



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Individual 1.

AllYourUnidictedCoConspirators
'R'HimVille


From today's guilty plea by Mr. Donald Trump's former fixer Mr. Michael Cohen:

...From in or about 2007 through in or about January 2017, MICHAEL COHEN, the defendant, was an attorney and employee of a Manhattan-based real estate company (the “Company”). COHEN held the title of “Executive Vice President” and “Special Counsel” to the owner of the Company (“Individual-1”)...

Gosh.

That sure is some individual that individual '1'.

OK?

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Tip 'O The Toque to the best darned ConFraudUS analyzer anywhere...emptywheel.


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There Is A Town...

AllRoadsLeadTo
NeilVille

...In North California-Oh.

There is this tiny little town on the northern California coast called Point Arena.

Located between the monied hordes of Sea Ranch to the south and the artists of Mendocino to the north it is a place out of time.

And we love it.

This year we were there for both Canada Day and 4th of July so that we could celebrate both with our good friends F. and L.

The latter involved a morning parade of hippy veterans (see above) and an afternoon BBQ of burgers and blues bands.

A few days later Bigger E. and I headed to the local bar for open mic night.

But, as so often happens in Pt. Arena posted start times are not real times.

So, with an hour or so to kill, we headed down mainstreet to the General Store for a coffee or some such thing.

Lars, the proprietor, was there at the door waiting for us and he insisted that we come in and play a few songs for his wife Kelly.

As so often happens E., who that particular evening was playing her dumpster find mandolin, soon stole the hearts of just about everyone in the place, including a little girl whose tourist mom initially wanted absolutely nothing to do with us as well as three middle-aged bike travellers from Tampa Florida.

As the sun set and fog began to roll in we strolled back up the street to the bar for the regularly scheduled musical festivities. Soon after Lars, Kelly and one of the biker guys came through the front door to join us.

There were a few regulars in the place that we recognized from the last time we were there two years ago, including a young guitar wizard named Jason. There was also a big whack of really excellent local musicians we hadn't run into before, one of whom was a retired travelling pastor who led a wicked trio that blew everybody's socks off.

For our set E. insisted that we start with one of my so-called 'originals', so I told the entire bar about this a bit of wordplay written by a mill worker anarchist poet that we know from back home that I spackled over with a wee bit of Neil-ish melody to produce the tune 'Dope City Blues' a while back.

A little later, when everybody had loosened up and the really fantastic open-mic show runner named Steve had already run home to get his own superfine mando for E. to play, things evolved into a rousing, rollicking jam session that included an extended bit with E. and Jason riffing off of something that started out as a Lucinda Williams tune that soon moved into the stratosphere to a place where I couldn't keep up, what with my cowboy chords repertoire and all.

So I just sat back and enjoyed the whole scene and the entire soundscape.

Immensely.

****

Not soon thereafter Janey the bartender said it was time to go so we headed out into the dark and the quiet of late night Highway 1 and started off on the winding cliff-side drive down to the even smaller town of Gualala where we were staying.

And by the time we got there it was like the whole thing had been a dream.

Except for the fact Jason's exclamatory words, shouted just before closing time, that we should 'Make this a tradition! Exactly two years from now!' were still ringing in our ears.

I think we just might take him up on it.

OK?





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