Help!...

...I've Fallen In A Bottomless  'Springsteen-At-The-Bottom-Line-In-1975'  Pit And I Can't Get Out.

Seriously.

This show is from Aug 17th, 1975 which was a week before the Born To Run's release and a couple of months before all that Time/Newsweek nonsense:

But....

There were ten of the things.

Two shows per night for five straight nights, none less than two hours long.

And the full audio is available on the Youtubes for four of them.

That's more than a full hour of the various versions of Kitty's Back's alone.


_________
I've been listening to them pretty much all day while I read and rank fellowship applications...Somebody's gotta do it...OK?


.

What Did The Minster Know And When Did He Know It?

TheMinistersAreShockedToLearnThatThereAreWhalesOperatingInTheir
EstablishmentsVille


Sam Cooper's pre-Blockbuster money laundering piece for the Postmedia prints began like this:

In October 2015, former B.C. finance minister Mike de Jong wrote to the B.C. Lottery Corp. and warned that for B.C. casinos “large and suspicious transactions remain prevalent,” Postmedia has learned.

At that time, de Jong also directed BCLC board chair Bud Smith to “enhance customer due diligence to mitigate the risk of money laundering” in B.C. casinos, according to information cited in a May 2017 government letter to BCLC CEO Jim Lightbody...


Which, immediately had me wondering...

Why?

Or, more specifically, why did a fine longstanding BCL ministerial fellow like Mr. de Jong, a man who hated to write down anything about anything, suddenly up and leave this blazing paper trail behind the 'risk of money laundering' at the most excellent and upstanding gambling establishments that he and his had overseen for almost fifteen years?

Especially given that Rich Coleman had cleared the decks and facilitated the blooming of this type of behaviour (the unchecked potential for money laundering, not the letter writing) way back in 2009 when he, Mr. Coleman, axed the integrated illegal gambling enforcement team.

Well...

Mr. Cooper, again in that blockbuster minus one piece, appeared to answer this 'why' question in the very next sentence:

...The direction from de Jong in 2015 came after B.C. casino operators reported about $177 million in suspicious cash entering their casinos in 2014, government documents show...


So all is explained, right?

Except, then I got to thinking....

2014 to October 2015 is a pretty long time for a Minister concerned with whales and massive wads of unexplained cash to write a sternly worded letter that showed up again in another letter from a longstanding BCL government-appointed apparatchik right 'round election time in the spring of 2017.

All of which brings me to Mr. Cooper's main blockbuster piece, published yesterday, in which he revealed a longstanding investigation by the Horsemen into entire schools of whales washing up on our shores with massive wads of unexplained cash that they think just might be linked to the laundering of drug money.

Here is the lede from Mr. Cooper's blockbuster:

On Oct. 15, 2015, a Mountie burst through the front door of an office in Richmond, carrying a battering ram and with a rifle slung on his back. The door swung shut behind him, locking him inside. He was in the lobby of Silver International Investment, a high-end money transfer business, surrounded by bulletproof glass...


Gosh.

October of 2015.

Hmmmmm...

It's almost like the good Minister at the time might have learned about something in the fall of 2015 about what the RCMP was up to that could have set him and his to worrying about how they could reduce the risk that there just might be subsequent accusations of BCL government complicity in whales and wads of (potentially) illegal cash and all that when all this came to light.

As a result, if that were the case, is it possible that sternly worded letter writing that left a paper trail suddenly ensued.

Regardless all these questions, I think any reasonable person who has been paying attention must now be wondering...

Why the heckfire didn't Mr. de Jong get out his pen in 2014 when he was first 'warned' about the whales and the wads of cash by the fine gambling establishments concerned?

Which means we're back to that original question once again.

Why?

(along with the what's and the whens and the who's and the where's and all that)


_______
In case you missed it, Laila Yuile has chronicled the consequences of Mr. Coleman's axe work for some time now.
Mr. Cooper's follow-up blockbuster plus one piece is....Here.


.

This Just In...The VSun's Mr. Shaw Is Shocked...

...To Learn That The People Who Worked For Jed Bartlet Actually Worked For Jed Bartlet.

TheWestBeneathYourWings
IsNotNecessarilySorkinVille

From Mr. Shaw's piece published earlier this week:

...The government’s ministerial assistant and communications jobs are littered with young New Democrats, former Alberta NDP staff, former federal NDP staff, 11 former NDP constituency assistants and at least six former Vision Vancouver staffers — including the party’s previous digital director and manager of youth engagement. Executive director Stepan Vdovine quit in August to work as an NDP assistant. Former Vision parks board chair Niki Sharma, a lawyer, was also hired to a similar job.

The new ministerial assistants also include Caelie Frampton, an NDP digital campaigner in the 2017 election; Sarena Talbot, an NDP field organizer; Lori Ann Winstanley, a veteran NDP campaigner who most recently worked at the MoveUp union; and Christian Romulo Avendano, a canvasser and fundraiser for the party during byelections in 2016. The salaries range between $72,000 and $94,500 for senior assistants...


Hmmmmm....

Is it possible that the good Mr. Shaw actually thinks that all those HarperCons that were hired by the Wizards of Clarklandia were non-partisans?

Of course, Mr. Shaw's real angle is the hypocrisy.

There is a slight point there - but it was more often the upper management cronification that was the issue for the Dippers in Opposition rather than ministerial staffers, etc.


______
And as for the '27 percent' thing in Mr. Shaw's piece that Kathy Tomlinson of the Globe stepped in on the Twittmachine?...Well, that came not from Mr. Shaw himself, but instead, unchecked in the Postmedia prints, from the Truth Truck guy.


.

Some Things You Do For Money...

The(Musical)KidsAre
AlrightVille


...And, well, some things you just do...

_______
This is a Mountain Goats/John Darnielle tune that has long figured in the Three Buskateers'  (non video division) setlist...Nowadays, I like to slide it into a 20 minute medley in E major that includes the Frames' 'Red Chord', the traditional 'Parting Glass', Mic Chistopher's 'Hey Day', and a Nevilleish Brothers' version of 'Bid You Goodnight'...Go Figure.

They Knew...

AllYourLaunderings
'RUsVille


I have to admit it.

I was disappointed by Sam Cooper's first Postmedia piece on all that suspicious cash that had washed up at the base of Bridgeport Station.

But, as for Mr. Cooper's latest, published late today/Monday?

Well that is something else entirely. Here is his lede:

In October 2015, former B.C. finance minister Mike de Jong wrote to the B.C. Lottery Corp. and warned that for B.C. casinos “large and suspicious transactions remain prevalent,” Postmedia has learned.

At that time, de Jong also directed BCLC board chair Bud Smith to “enhance customer due diligence to mitigate the risk of money laundering” in B.C. casinos, according to information cited in a May 2017 government letter to BCLC CEO Jim Lightbody.

The direction from de Jong in 2015 came after B.C. casino operators reported about $177 million in suspicious cash entering their casinos in 2014, government documents show.

“Despite the introduction and promotion of non-cash alternatives in gaming facilities through earlier phases of the anti-money laundering strategy; I am advised that large and suspicious cash transactions remain prevalent. This situation must be addressed,” de Jong’s October 1, 2015 letter to BCLC states.

The information — revealed in documents obtained by Postmedia after a freedom of information request — raises questions about why serious internal concerns about the laundering of proceeds of crime in B.C. casinos were only released last week by the B.C. government, and whether a dangerous problem was allowed to fester for too long...


And don't forget, it was the BC Liberal government and the then Minister responsible, Mr. Rich Coleman, that dismantled the integrated illegal gambling enforcement team that could have curtailed this way back in...

...2009.

Yes.

You read that right.

2009.


_______
It's important to remember that, despite what Postmedia would like you to think (based on editorialish-type insertions into their reporter's copy, that it was Bob Mackin that first broke this story. 
Also, I find it interesting that so few proMedia members are going back to 2009, a time when a whole lotta BCL crony-assisted Casino Industrial Complexification was getting set to go down under the cover of what would become a $500 million bit of magic carpet in the sky....Kind of reminscent of the fine Club members that refuse(d) to connect the dots on big money donations and downstream decisions favourable to said donors.


.

Who's Backing The BC Liberal's New High Wattage Leadership Candidate?

PayNoAttentionToThatMan
BehindTheCurtainVille


It's a question we asked back when the stage whispers began to wail.

Specifically....

Which wizards, exactly, are backing Dianne Watts?

We figured it might be the usual 'progressive' suspects.

Mikey Mike, in the puffertudinousiest-most corner of thePostmedia prints, confirmed last night that, indeed, it is:

...Powerful Liberal party insider Patrick Kinsella is on her side. Seasoned strategist Norman Stowe is her campaign manager. She will be introduced on Sunday by former Liberal cabinet minister Olga Illich and Surrey city councillor Tom Gill...


And don't forget, this bunch likes to hedge its bets.

Which means you should not be surprised if they have proxies back another horse.

OK?


______
But, have no fear, not everything is same-old-same-old in the newly white-washed land of GordCo v-2.0, because...Wait for it...Yellow!


.

More Important Than Football, Either Real Or Fantasy-Based.

InTheEndStatsMean
NothingVille


The following is from Mr. Doug Baldwin, who is a wide receiver for the Seattle Seahawks football team:

It seems to me that no reasonable person with an ounce of empathy and/or sympathy for the plight of his or her fellow citizens could possibly argue with that.

OK?


.

Magnanimous Is...

EastOfSouthEdenest
BoxedCompassVille


Dan Wilson, songwriter-for-hire, once co-wrote a hit with Nasville mainliner Dierks Bentley called 'Home' that was recorded by the latter.

At the time, Jason Isbell took great offense saying that Wilson and Bentley had ripped off a tune of his called 'In A Razor Town'.

Now, Mr. Wilson has recorded his own version of Home.

And Mr. Isbell has noticed. In a good way.

Here's the relevant bit from the Minneapolis Star Tribune piece linked to in Isbell's tweet, above:

...This single (Bentley's recording of 'Home') went to No. 1 on Billboard’s country singles chart in 2012, giving Wilson his mainstream Nashville credentials. However, it also gained attention when alt-country star Jason Isbell publicly accused its writers of plagiarizing it from one of his songs, “In a Razor Town.”

Wilson: “I quickly learned that the country writers in Nashville don’t want somebody from Minnesota to come down and write a stone-cold country hit. They want you to bring your own vibe to the party. Once I learned that, I learned I could just be myself in those country sessions. I was able to do that with Dierks, where I could be myself and just write a rock song, and he could be himself in between styles. I was very attracted to working with Dierks because of his hybridized styles.”

“I was really bummed Jason thought we plagiarized him. I think we might’ve plagiarized the same old folk songs that Jason also plagiarized. If you think about all the songs that have similar melodies, it would be a very big list. I had never listened to Jason at that time, and I’m pretty sure my collaborators had never listened to him, either. It really tainted my ability to appreciate Jason Isbell for quite a while, which was also a drag, because I was really into his next couple albums.”...


The thing is, at the time Mr. Isbell, while revered in certain circles, was not yet an alt-country star because, well....Mr. Isbell explains it, straight-up, himself:

Gosh.

Imagine that.

Someone admitting they were wrong on the Interwebz.

****

Regardless all this, to my mind, Isbell's pre-Southeastern 'Razor Town' is a helluva tune:

_____
And just in case you've been hankering for a good chunk of post-SE Isbell....This.


.

The De-Cronification Chronicles (ctd)....All Your Money Launderings 'R Us.

TheCasinoIndustrialComplexIs
EverywhereVille


This just in, from Bob Mackin at the Breaker:

A 2016 report to British Columbia’s Gaming Policy and Enforcement Branch said gamblers from China used underground banks to bring large volumes of potentially dirty money to play at River Rock Casino Resort in Richmond.

The anti-money laundering report was commissioned by the previous BC Liberal government and dated July 26, 2016, but not released until Sept. 22 by the NDP government.

MNP was hired in September 2015 after the Gaming Policy and Enforcement Branch compiled a document that identified $13.5 million in $20 bills were accepted at River Rock in July 2015. That is 675,000 $20 bills.

Information provided to MNP indicated that unsourced cash from unknown persons or persons believed to be connected to illicit activity “was dropped off at the casino or just off casino property for patrons at unusual times, generally late at night.”...


Gosh.

Why wasn't the report released last year (i.e. before the election)?

And, perhaps more to the point why, exactly, did the then minister responsible, Mr. Rich Coleman, disband  the 'Integrated Illegal Gaming Enforcement Team', whose job it was to root this kind of stuff out, back in, wait for it...

...2009.

Hmmmmm....

Is it possible that the fine folks then running, and running with, the good ship GordCo, circa 2009, were clearing the decks for a gigantic expansion of the Casino Industrial Complex at the time that was tied to the stitching together of a $500 million dollar (plus) bit of flying magic carpet?


.

The Ghost Of The Hammer...

AllFriendsAreAMan's
BestVille


Mr. Beer 'n Hockey had an early morning visitor recently:

I woke
Ten minutes
Before the
F'ing alarm.

I sensed
There was
Someone in
The room.

It was
A ghost,
The Hammer
Making sure

We were safe.

****

I, too, had been thinking of the Hammer recently when I came across the tab of the chords we layered over the words of Mr. Beer that he wrote upon his best friend's passing awhile ago now.

The result of that collaboration was the following...




_____
Personally, don't know what I'll do when the Whackadoodle, who's now in her 10th year is no longer around to take down to the river's mouth and such.
And MCG....If you're out there send me a note - you had a songification idea that I promised to follow through on, but have now forgotten about.


.

Nevermind The Candidate...

....Who Are The Backers?

From the ink- and pixel dust- stained fingertips of Bob Mackin:

Dianne Watts will throw her hat in the BC Liberal leadership ring on Sunday at 1 p.m.

theBreaker has obtained a copy of an invitation to join Watts for “a special event and announcement” at the Sheraton Guildford Hotel...



The real question, to my mind at least, is who, exactly, will be pushing this candidate from behind the wizards' big curtain?

Personally, I'd be pretty willing to take short odds on those wild 'progressive' boys.

(and don't forget, sometimes they like to back two horses at once).


.

BC Liberal AG Critic Says New NDP Donation Rules Unfair To Rich People.

WhenMillionsBecame
BillionsVille


....Because they give too much power to people that don't have big wads of cash to bundle.

Or some such thing:

..."They've arbitrarily chosen a figure of $1,200 for the amount that is the cap for donations (instead of the $5,000 individual spending cap in the BCL's/Mr. Wilkinson's sham-of-shamsickleish 'bill'), and clearly that will suit their interests, there's no rationale for it other than it suits the interests of the NDP."...


Meanwhile, as Norm Farrell point out on the Twittmachine...

SourceLink/IntegrityBC.

And yet, Mikey-Mike says says we, the people, will almost certainly make Horgan et al. pay for the per voter party subsidy portion of the campaign finance reform bill.

Gosh.

Like the way Mr. Smyth et al. made sure the voters penalized the previous gov't leader for things like monies shovelled off the back of wind farmy proximal podia and/or spent on bogus Bollywood bonanzas in purely unregulated, party-targeted, 100% publicly-paid for days gone by?

Sheesh.



_______
On the subsidy thingy....Credit where credit is due department...Rob Shaw's VSun piece is solid and well-contextualized (the comments, not so much).
For the record, nobody dug into the proximal podia money shovelling by the previous Premier more than Merv Adey (both the post and the discussion in the comments are fantastic)....


.

The De-Cronification Chronicles (Vol. 2)....They're Shocked!

IsThereGamblingGoingOn
InHereVille

Well, whadd'ya know...

The fine, fine folks at the trough, errrrrrrr, Advantage BC are shocked!

Shocked, I tell you, to learn that their public money firehose is being shut-off:

Our staff and Board of Directors are shocked and disappointed by the introduction of legislation to cancel the International Business Activity (IBA) Program.

While we are still working to prevent the cancellation of the program, the AdvantageBC Board is eager for the organization to continue to fulfill its overall mandate of promoting British Columbia as a desirable place to locate international business. The IBA Program is an important tool in the toolkit; however, AdvantageBC’s work is broader than the IBA Program. Regardless of the future of the IBA Program, we will continue our work to attract the attention of companies and investors around the world...


So.

What, exactly, has Advantage BC done for us for our money?

Well, as Dan Levin of the NY Times pointed out back in early May...

...Participating companies have created few jobs, according to government figures, while more than 140 million Canadian dollars have been doled out in (BC provincial) tax refunds since 2008, when the initiative was expanded (by the BC Liberal government).

The incentives operate under a cloak of secrecy that is unusual for similar efforts in Canada and the United States, critics say. The province (of BC) will not name the companies that get the breaks. The only information available about them is on the website of a nonprofit that promotes the program.

“This is essentially a temporary foreign-worker program for the rich, with secret government subsidies for multinational corporations,” said Dermod Travis, the executive director of IntegrityBC, a nonpartisan political watchdog group based in Victoria, the provincial capital. “The government is selling B.C. as a tax haven for the global elite to park investment here, but not have to contribute.”...


And just how 'successful' was the program?

Super, super-duper, uber-alles successful.

Not:

...At one point, the tax breaks were projected to create more than 13,000 jobs in British Columbia. According to ministry figures, though, fewer than 300 have been created as a result of the program, and possibly as few as 122...



So, feel free to keep-on-keepin'-on fullfilling that overall mandate of yours Advantage BC'ers.

Just as long as you do it on yours and/or your patrons' (i.e. not the peoples') dime.

Because we've got better things to do with our money.

OK?



_________
You may recall the tizzy that Mr. Levin's report set off amongst local  Club members given that an outsider came to Lotusland, dug around a little, and then wrote a(nother) big story about something that everybody already knew about but couldn't be bothered tell the rubes about a week before the election and all...
Tip-O'-The-Toque to Integrity BC for heads up on super fine 'blog post' from A-BC...

.

The De-Cronification Chronicles (Vol. 1)...

WhyShouldThePublicPayFor
PrivateProfitsVille


The dismantling of the BC Liberal perpetual chronification machine has begun.

And, in my opinion at least, one of the most egregious and malevolent flywheels in this machine is the guaranteed, locked-in contracts that have been handed out to our fine province's 'Independent Power Producers' (IPP's).

The new government has taken the first steps to ending this, as reported earlier this week by Andrew Macleod in the Tyee:

Buried in the British Columbia budget update this week was a major change for independent power producers who sell electricity to BC Hydro.

According to the utility’s service plan, it will cut payments to the private power producers as existing contracts expire.

BC Hydro will be “renewing contracts with independent power producers at prices less than what they are currently paid, recognizing that those producers have typically recovered most of their capital costs over their original contract terms.”

It will also be “reviewing the Standing Offer Program to reflect the declining costs of new power technology,” according to its service plan...

{snip}

The Standing Offer Program, which has suspended new applications according to an Aug. 18 update on BC Hydro’s website, paid between $102.06 and $111.56 per megawatt-hour in 2016. Some of the earlier contracts paid as much as $120 per megawatt-hour, which is significantly more than BC Hydro’s normal cost to produce power, Black said.

According to a BC Hydro spokesperson, power produced using the utility’s heritage assets costs around $32 per megawatt-hour...

So.

How much have IPP's gouged out of our backs so far, mostly for no real good reason at all?

Well...

As Norm Farrell has pointed out over and over and over again.

It is is billions.

With a 'B'. 

OK?


.

Six Times...

SixteenYearsOfMajorityRuleAnd
13MillionInTheBankVille


From the 'Everything I Did Then Does Not Matter Now' file:

Quilchena Uber Alles, indeed.

Sheesh.


______
Six is the number of times the BC Liberal government of Mr. Wilkinson and friends crushed campaign reform bills while they were in the MAJORITY.

.

One Helluva An Epitaph.

TheyMetInARecordStoreInStPaulMinnesotaIn
1978Ville


Grant Hart, half of the brains and heart and fury behind Husker Du, has died.

Here is how he explained why he never wanted/allowed a reunion of the band in an interview with Brad Cohan of the Village Voice in 2012:

...I’ve always lived with the doctrine of Patti Smith: “I don’t fuck much with the past but I fuck plenty with the future.” I tend to like that philosophy...

Hard to argue with that.

But pretty tough to follow.


______
Bob Mould's tribute to Hart, on the book of faces, is....Here.
Dan Epstein's take is...Here.


.

Will Railgate Never Die?

990YearsIsALongLongLongTime
TheGoldenEra'sTailIsEvenLongerTailVille


From Justin McElroy via the MoCo:


A legal dispute between West Vancouver and CN Rail over a popular seawall is heading to a tribunal.

The Canadian Transportation Agency will be holding public hearings during an ongoing lawsuit between the two bodies concerning the public's right to access the Centennial Seawalk.

"The fundamental question is whether or not the areas where the seawalk crosses into CN's right-of-way should be what the law calls approved crossings," said Scott Streiner, Canadian Transportation Agency CEO.

"We have many crossing cases, but the specific nature of this case is a little unusual."

CN Rail filed a lawsuit in B.C. Supreme Court on Feb. 17. The company terminated its lease with the municipality earlier this year, and is now seeking compensation of $3.7 million per year in rent for public use of the seawalk between 19th Street and 24th Street, which is on railroad land.

The District of West Vancouver had been offering $12,500 a year, indexed for inflation. The seawall was built in the 1960s, but CN Rail leased the right-of-way from the B.C. government after they purchased B.C. Rail...


Yes.

You did, indeed, read that last part correctly. The cronies have come home to roost on a public seawall built in the 1960's (i.e. 40 years before they made their deal GordCo, Inc).

And they want $3.7 million for that roost, now fully 50 years after the fact.

Sheesh.


_______
I'm pretty sure that NVG will have much more to say about this soon...


.

And So It Begins (Kinda/Sorta/Almost)...

IfOnlyTheWholeWorldUsedPostIt
NotesVille


An account of the beginning, from Chris Young's Canadian Press report:

Toronto - Two top political aides to former Ontario premier Dalton McGuinty pleaded not guilty Monday to charges over the destruction of internal emails about the Liberal government's costly cancellation of two gas plants...


And then, just as suddenly, it stopped:

...Foreshadowing what is expected to be a bitterly fought case, the long-awaited trial of David Livingston and his deputy Laura Miller finally began with an attack on the prosecution over the information it had provided the defence, leading to a week-long delay in hearing evidence...


Stay tuned.



.

A New Sunday Pastime...

NeitherTheLeague
NorTheShieldVille


For those (few) of you have been wondering...

I'll get back to putting together new 'Sunday Sets', I promise.

Once the damnable grants are done (soon!).

In the meantime, another DIY kid who, together with her musical friends, knocks me out:

You can watch/listen to Reina del Cid's regular 'Sunday Morning' offerings, and there are bushels full of them....Here.


______
You can help Ms. del Cid make her music....Here.
Speaking of DIY kids...Had a great time watching my own, Bigger E, along with her friend S., doing their thing at 'The'Chickpea', a newly happening spot in Lotusland Central on Main in the high 20's, last night...


.

Will All Of Small Paul's Riding Association Chickens Soon Come Home To Roost?

TheMemoryOfMyMemoryIs
MyMemory'sFriendVille


Couldn't help but notice the following most interesting passage in Laurence Martin's latest Globe piece on internecine political party wars:

...There followed on the Liberal Party side the Jean Chrétien and Paul Martin wars. Mr. Chrétien won two majorities, whereupon the insurrection of Martin rebels began. He won a third, only to see his antagonists gather in greater numbers and force him out. There's a book coming out on Mr. Chrétien next month by Bob Plamondon called The Shawinigan Fox. It has revelations, which I've read, about the feud. Warning to the Martin crowd: Duck!...


Gosh.

Whatever could that be all about 'inssurection of the Martin rebels' thing possibly be about?

Hmmmm....

I seem to remember something.

Something from 2007...

Something written by a by-then-already-blogging proMedia guy named Paul Willcocks.

Although this bit was published in BC Business; the passage I'm thinking of goes like this:

....The most infamous episode saw the Martin forces take over the riding association of MP and Chrétien supporter Herb Dhaliwal in 2002, while Dhaliwal was out of the country and his wife was dying of cancer. The takeover not only locked up delegate support for Martin; it killed Dhaliwal’s chances of running again. He blames (David) Basi and others on Marissen’s team, complaining of questionable mass sign-ups of instant Liberals. The riding association swelled from 250 to almost 3,400 members during the campaign to get rid of Dhaliwal. Liberal insider and Chrétien loyalist Warren Kinsella called it the worst kind of political thuggery, grim enough to make him consider quitting the party. “It always seemed rough, a take-no-prisoners knee-cap approach. It’s a B.C. style,” says political scientist Norman Ruff. Marissen’s organizational skills helped shape the battles, he adds. “He conducted politics like a military campaign.” But Ruff agrees that the federal Liberal party was a comfortable, closed club in the province. (“If it was a club, it was a small one,” adds a Liberal strategist who watched the battles from outside the province.) Marissen downplays the conflicts. But Christy Clark, no slouch at politics, is blunter. “Does anybody think that politics is just about being nice all the time? Politics is about winning,” she says. “In politics, in order for somebody to win, somebody has to lose. When winning requires you to be tough, that’s the style Mark will adopt.” But only when he has to, Clark adds...


Duck, indeed.

But only when you have to, of course.



________
Tip O' The Toque to Owen Gray for the heads up on the Martin (Lawrence, not Small Paul) piece.
Initially, I thought of using a 'TheBoyz Are Back In Town! sub-heading for this post, but ultimately decided that might be a little too on the nose....And besides, I didn't want to have to deal with the Earworm fallout....Ooooops....Which always brings to (my) mind (anyway) that part in 'Once' where the buskers tell the guy that they 'only play Lizzy'...
And my apologies, sincerely, to any and all Anon-O-Mice who become cranky upon landing here...'Tis something I will do my best to correct in the future...

.

Mr. Coleman's Six Minute Flip-Flop....

SpeakerInducedWhiplash
44To41Ville


From the Twittmachine feed of the Globe's Mike Hager...

This, at 10:03 am this morning:

Followed by this, at 10:09 am:

****

Personally, I don't get why folks like the good Mr. Coleman aren't more upset with the fact that it was Ms. Clark who let the DipperGreen coalition off the BCLiberal-built faux constitutional petard in the first place.

If you get my drift.


_______
And then, of course, there's....This.



.

How The Smear Machine Works...

TheyKeepOnPushingEnvelopes
ForAReasonVille


Because I haven't paying really close attention to goings on down south recently, I couldn't quite figure out where all the bile and vitriol that is constantly being directed at George Soros is coming from.

Eric Alterman, in his latest piece in the Nation, explains.

Here is his lede and a little bit more:

On August 31, convicted felon and right-wing provocateur Dinesh D’Souza tweeted that he thought it would be “interesting to see” the liberal financier and philanthropist George Soros “extradited to Israel & tried for his complicity in Nazi atrocities against Jews.”

As he hawks his most recent book, The Big Lie—ironically, a near-perfect description of its contents, which claim to reveal the Nazi roots of the American left—D’Souza has tweeted countless versions of this particular big lie. With childish faux cleverness, he refers to Soros as “Hitler’s collection boy” and claims that Soros “literally worked for Hitler.” Right-wing talk-radio shows, websites, and even a Republican gubernatorial candidate from Pennsylvania have parroted lines from his anti-Soros campaign.

D’Souza told a right-wing talk-show host that he was “delighted to uncover” Soros’s history. But, as with almost every alleged discovery made by pro-Trump partisans, it is not only factually false and morally reprehensible; it is also old news. The charge has already been made by such far-right luminaries as Glenn Beck, David Horowitz, Ann Coulter, Alex Jones, and Tony Blankley (who retracted it after I asked him to back it up). Perhaps most shamefully of all, former New Republic owner and editor Marty Peretz smeared Soros, calling him “a young cog in the Hitlerite wheel.”...

{snip}

...D’Souza thinks that “former Nazi collaborator George Soros should be investigated as a sponsor of domestic terrorism” for his alleged sponsorship of antifa. Neither Soros nor his foundations support antifa in any way, but never mind that: At last count, more than 138,000 idiots had signed a petition at whitehouse.gov demanding that President Trump “declare George Soros a terrorist and seize all of his related organizations’ assets under RICO and NDAA law.”...


See how the rabid envelop pushing gives cover to ever more maintreamish folks such that soon, Poof!, a big lie starts to become conventional wisdom that can be used to catapault even bigger lies into the public consciousness?

All of which is a clear illustration why we here north of the 49th parallel should give no quarter (or attention, or media space/legitmacy) whatsoever to demonstrable liars and/or propagandists, no matter how rebellious, or otherwise, they might paint themselves to be.

OK?



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All of this is also why I think it is critical to sustain a 'no prop is good prop'  motto even if said prop is being flung by the side you identify with....


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Does The Klout Klub Have A New Mission?

AllYourInfluences'R
UsVille


From the investigatory mind (and Twittmachine feed) of Bob Mackin:

Gosh.

Was wondering where Mr. Marissen might re-surface after he disappeared from the #BCPoli tidepool a few weeks ago.

Mr. Mackin further explains in his piece...

The liberal-conservative (civic NPA) party with the monogrammed grape logo meets tonight at the Italian Cultural Centre to nominate a candidate for the by-election caused when Vision Coun. Geoff Meggs skedaddled to a $195,000-a-year job as NDP Premier John Horgan’s chief of staff...

{snip}

...The race is (Hector) Bremner’s to win, but not because of any policy magic. Bremner has a team that can stack nomination votes and raise money faster and better than anyone in this race, and maybe even in the province. It is not known how much is in Bremner’s kitty, but his crew went on a membership spree in and around the Ross Street Sikh Temple. A typical strategy employed provincially and federally to much controversy.

Bremner is vice-president at veteran BC Liberal backroomer Norman Stowe’s Pace Group and has Mark Marissen and Mike Wilson in his backroom. Marissen is the ex-husband of ex-Premier Christy Clark and was on the inner-circle of the party’s disastrous 2017 campaign...


Well, if at first you don't succeed...



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The Keef Report....Ire, Matey! (sic)

HaveMemory
WillTravelVille


First, a note from the coiffuraltory doppelganger of the new Dipper Education Minister Rob Fleming....

Link

Next, at the risk of raising the ire of the Keef, the following are the fabulous bleatings of 'former' Transportation/ICBC Minister, BC Liberal MLA, Mr. Todd Stone, as reported by Greg Fry of CFJC:

Shameful.

The reaction of Kamloops - South Thompson Liberal MLA Todd Stone to the NDP's decision to hike ICBC rates.

Yesterday, B.C. Attorney General David Eby confirmed ICBC is asking the provincial utilties commission to raise rates by 6. 4 per cent this year to cover losses totalling over $500 million last year. Eby said optional rates will also rise noting the average driver will see a blended increase of eight per cent.

"I think it's very disappointing," said Stone. "The vast majority of motorists in this province have both the basic and the optional insurance coverages and they're going to pay an additional $130 more now because of this decision the NDP has taken."

He said the move to hike rates comes on the heels of "an array of intitiatives the BC Liberal government implemented the last four years to keep rates as low as possible."

Those initiatives included cracking down on fraud, targeting distracted driving, implementing a new IT system (which he says saved ICBC $90 million) and reducing management and salaries by 50 per cent...

Gosh.

Don't know about you, but I sure was surprised that the good Mr. Stone did not mention the following, as reported by many last fall, including the VSun's Rob Shaw:

...The government has taken $1.2 billion in profits from the optional insurance side of ICBC’s business since 2010, when it changed the law to allow itself to siphon money from the corporation and use it for general revenue...

Surprise!


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And, as mentioned yesterday, despite the kerfuffle on the Twittmachine, I think we should actually give Mr. Baldrey a break re: the Fleming hair thing, because it really does look like he was joking (note the Keefly re-tweet)...


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My Morning Ride...

KidsKidsEverywhere
BeCarefulOfThemVille


Not sure about you, but for my money, despite the fact that it had absolutely nothing to do with moon and star aligning, that red sun rising this morning was much more impressive than the recent eclipse thingy.

And then, wonder of wonders, I felt a few drops of water land as I cleared the Shaughnessy hump and glided down into the Valley. At first I thought it was just errant spray drifting over from the high pressure boulevard (and pavement) watering contraptions that festoon the edges of mansion town but, given that the drops persisted until past Macdonald, I ultimately concluded that they had to be coming from the sky.

Climbing the hill to outer west Cremeville I couldn't help but notice that there sure are a lot of houses for sale. Must be trying to make good on their $4 million, plus, nest eggs before the change.


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Had a real post all set to go for this morning on what white racists do when the commercial gene companies hire tell them that their blood is not as pure as they would like...But then the folks at the MoCo's "The Current" beat me to the punch...Not sure how I feel about finding out that I sometimes think like a CBC producer...Anyway, if you're interested, Eric Boodman  has a good piece up on the subject at STAT News.
Regarding the subheader....Be very careful of the kids everywhere as they bingle and bongle to and from red brick places of learning once again... And, if you ride a bike anywhere between 8:30am and 9:00am weekdays between now and late June, be especially careful of the parental units who drive like crazy people up and down residential streets within an eight block radius of any elementary school.
Finally, regarding a recent Keefism wherein the good Mr. Baldrey made fun, sort of, of Dipper ed min RFleming for not combing his hair....I think we have to give the Keef the benefit of the doubt on this one because I'm pretty sure he was joking...


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Apropos Of Everything...

SaturdayNight'sAlrightForUkeCover
FightingVille


It's grant writing season.

Which means that I'm an obsessive, absent-minded idiot that is of absolutely no use at all to his family at the moment.

Anyway...

This evening I was banging away on the 'Alternative Approaches' for Aim 3 (something about MAP kinase signaling and annexin2-dependent cell survival) while blasting the music on real speakers instead of the earbuds which is something I can get away with when the lab rats (i.e. the gradual students, not the rodents) aren't around.

And somewhere between 'Clash City Rockers' and a weird live, mandolin-driven version of Steve Earle's 'Copperhead Road' the following popped up on my ridiculously all-over-the-place mess of a Jobsian playlist  that is currently set to alphabetical, by tune...



It's me and Bigger E, above, at the little arrowhead on the left.

Well,  mostly it's E. with her ukulele and me with a bit of guitar and the backgrounded vocal waver.

I can't even remember when we did this. Sounds like a few years ago.

But I really like it, especially the patter at the end.

The tune is a fantastic one by Danny Michel, my favourite live version of which is pasted in from the tubez below.

Selah.

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Sheesh....Given that it's 9:52 on the Saturday night of the last long weekend of the summer maybe this DM tune, which the Google algorithm picked to follow Coalmine, is more appropriate...Time to peddle home.


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Another BC Liberal-Backed Site C Number That Can Be Neither Trusted Nor Verified.

AllTheirYearsOfJobz'R
UsVille

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Update: Here is a link of the astonishing, and empty, response to Bob Mackin's FOI request...Note Hydro's statement about who and what they don't keep 'track' of... Thanks to Mr. Mackin for popping up in the comments...

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And this one does not have a dollar sign in front of it...

Mr. Kyllo is the BC Liberal MLA for the Shushwap.


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How Soon Until The 'Numbers' Say We Will Be Rolling In Dough If We Put Site C To Bed Forever And Ever Ahmet Ertegun?

AllTheirBillions'R
UsVille


Remember all those proMedia outlets who swallowed that $7.3 billion number of Hydro's whole re: the shutdown of Site C?

Well...

Turns out that number is, also according to Hydro, just a little high and outside according to Energetic City:

CORRECTION: A previous version of this story stated that it would cost BC Hydro $7.3 billion to cancel the Site C project. That cost, according to Hydro’s submission to the BCUC, also included the costs to ratepayers of acquiring alternative generating capacity and resources. The cost, according to BC Hydro’s submission, is actually roughly $3 billion...


Now.

Based on the Jessica M-led Clarklandian crown corp's "Get-It-Past-The-Point-Of-No-Return" track record when it comes to predictions and numbers and all that, one has to wonder if shutting the thing down will actually start refilling the public purse sometime round about Christmastime.

Or some such thing.


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A mo' better, snarkolepsy-free analysis of what the real costs are and why can be found in Matt Preprost's Alaska Highway News piece....Here.


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And So It Began...

FifteenYearsIsAVery
LongTimeVille


Bob Mackin has finally, after much CClark regime playing out of the clock, unearthed the cabinet minutes from GordCo, Inc's first 100 days from the summer of 2001.

There's some interesting stuff in there as Uncle Bob has noted over at his place.

However, most of it, at least the portions that haven't been s.14 censored, is banal in the extreme.

Although it was interesting to see when, exactly, the BC Liberal government first started to plan their war on teachers' collective bargaining rights.

With the first tentative 'informative' shot apparently fired by, you guessed it....

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No mention, at least not that I noticed based on a fast (non-ferried) first pass, of the coming BC Rail privatization....Although, as we previously noted, things were already starting to happen on that front by the fall of 2001 a scant few months after BC Rail hired a certain very, very fine fellow (who also just happened to have been the BC Liberal party's campaign co-chair during the 2001 election cycle) to provide it with 'strategic advice' at $6,000 per months for a mere 49 months...Imagine that!
The last link, above, comes from the invaluable historical archives of Sean Holman's now long gone 'Public Eye'...As you might expect, Mr. Holman, who now lives east of the Rockies, already has a link to Mr. Mackin's latest up on his twittmachine feed.


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He's Back......

TheVeryVeryLongTailOfThe
GoldenEraVille


From the press release about a blue/red ribbonish-type thing called the "NAFTA Advisory Council On The Environment"....

...Today (Aug 31/17), the Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Catherine McKenna, announced the creation of the NAFTA Advisory Council on the Environment. The ten-member council brings together prominent Canadians from politics, law, and Indigenous groups. This expert council includes former Quebec premier, Pierre-Marc Johnson; former British Columbia premier, Gordon Campbell; former Saskatchewan cabinet minister, Janice MacKinnon; and Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami President, Natan Obed. The council will advise the Minister as Canada looks to strengthen environmental protections in a modernized NAFTA...


Will the wonder of (progressive vote splitting pre-election gambit carbon tax) wonders never cease?


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