He Was An Anarchist.

PleaseBuyOur

MerchVille


Mr. Lydon of Rotten Harbour once sang a little ditty under the crash down chords, in or out of tune, of an incorrigible petty thief named Steve Jones called 'Anarchy In The UK' 

In the song Lydon declared that he was an anarchist, among other things.

As for the here and now?

Well...

Come to think of it, the way things are going down in the MAGAtronic Gulch, perhaps Mr. Lydon still is one.

An anarchist, I mean.

In a non-philosophical, non-Godwinian way, of course. Which is something that only Mr. Beer and Hockey can really explain and/or illustrate.

OK?


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Ironically, the best part of 'Anarchy' were the bits where Lydon made fun of all the stupid, self-aggrandizing organizational acronyms screaming for attention at the time...Go figure.

And who'd a thunk, 40 plus years ago, that it would be Mr. Jones that would have both something to say and some staying power.

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A Question For Mr. Wilkinson...

IGETWeHardlyKnewYe
VancouverModelVille


Based on our last post about the nine figure COVID cash bailout for a certain gaming operator whose establishments have been a oft-named feature in revelatory money laundering stories in the public prints, as well as a bit of back and forth over on the Twittmachine, we have a question for the good Mr. Andrew Wilkinson the current leader of the BC Liberal Party:

'What, specifically, have you changed when it comes to the BC Liberal Party's demonstrable pro-money laundering regulatory stance since you became leader?'

****

We sure hope Mr. Wilkinson can take the time to answer the above question and/or any reasonable facsimile thereof.

When he isn't busy trashing NDP candidate Ravi Khalon that is, presumably because Mr. Khalon had the temerity to bring a potential voting irregularity issue to the attention of Elections BC as well as the good Mr. Wilkinson himself.

Presumably...

Ravi Kahlon and Andrew Wilkinson disagree on politics. Kahlon is also one of the kindest, most thoughtful politicians in Victoria. This is nasty and over the top and I’m not sure what voters are looking for in a leader. #bcpoli #bcvotes https://t.co/dsfnXidSf1

— Richard Zussman (@richardzussman) October 1, 2020

 

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Elevator Shaft COVID Cash?

TaxpayerDollarLaundrological

SocietyVille


Now here's something interesting, from Daniel Thompson at the gambling trade site 'Casino Reports':

Gateway Casinos and Entertainment bagged a hefty cheque coming from the Government of Canada and aiming to support its ongoing business. Some CA$200 million is going to be loaned to the casino leader based in British Columbia. The support comes in accordance with the Large Employer Emergency Financing Facility agenda....


Which leads us to wonder...

Will all that cash be delivered in hockey bags?

The following is from a Sam Cooper Postmedia report in 2017:

Criminal charges have been laid against Silver International Investment, a money-transfer business that RCMP allege was involved in money laundering, had ties to underground banking and used suspected drug cash to fund Chinese VIP gamblers in B.C. casinos.

{snip}

...In late August, at a Vancouver conference attended by law enforcement officials, RCMP Insp. Bruce Ward outlined the details of E-Pirate. The investigation started with surveillance of gambling and cash drops at River Rock Casino, documents say, which led to Silver’s cash house, about a 10-minute drive away.

{snippety-two}

Describing a typical cash drop, (RCMP Inspector Bruce) Ward said: “They would put $100,000 into a hockey bag, show up at the casino, and give (the VIP gambler) $100,000 …


And who, exactly, dismantled the illegal gambling enforcement team (IGET) back in 2009 that paved the way for such business as usual practices?

Well.

You know...

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Of course, 'Silver International' has been in the news for other, more deadly, reasons recently.

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BC Election Update...The (Unkown) Ghost In The Horse Race Poll-Making Machinery.

TheNumbersMadeThem
DoItVille

By now you've likely heard about the 'Dipper Madness' numbers from that Ipsos poll commissioned by the fine folks at Global TeeVee:

...A new Ipsos poll conducted for Global News suggests the BC NDP has substantial leads in voter preference and leadership, and in every region in the province.

The NDP has an 18-point lead over the BC Liberals just one week into the campaign, the poll suggests.

The BC Liberals are next at 33 per cent support, followed by the BC Greens at 12 per cent....

And we agree that they are, indeed, hard to ignore.

Heckfire.

Based on the seemingly insurmountable leads across every demographic as well as in the riding-rich regions of Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland, you can even see how the BC NDP braintrust came to the conclusion that they 'had' to call this fall's snap election if they saw anything even remotely similar in their own internal numbers:

However, there is one Ipsosian number that seems to have escaped serious attention and or scrutiny so far:

...These results exclude the 31% of British Columbians who are undecided or express no preference...

Don't know about you, but that 31 percent sure seems like an awfully big, potentially horse race changing, number depending on which way things break down the backstretch.

So much so that I would not be surprised if the good Mr. Wilkinson were to soon promise a free puppy for every household by Thanksgiving and pumpkins full of gold-plated chocolate bars for everyone to hand-out as tax- and deficit-free trickster treats on Halloween.

Or some such thing.

OK?

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There's something else telling in those Ipsos #'s also, which come from the list of most 'important' issues that voters are apparently/allegedly considering...Climate change and the environment do not even crack the top five, which likely says a thing or three about those things that are lacking in Mr. Horgan's current policy initiatives.

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Special Edition HST Wednesday...The Dangerous Myth Of Objective Journalism.

SoCrookedHeNeedsTheServantsToScrewHisPantsOn
EveryMorningVille

“So much for Objective Journalism. Don't bother to look for it here--not under any byline of mine; or anyone else I can think of. With the possible exception of things like box scores, race results, and stock market tabulations, there is no such thing as Objective Journalism. The phrase itself is a pompous contradiction in terms.”

Hunter S. Thompson

In: Fear And Loathing On The Campaign Trail, 1972.

****

1972 was a long time ago, indeed.

And yet, still, big time American 'journalism', for want of a better word, still clings to the faux concept of objectivity which, in the face of a true danger to the Republic like Donald Trump and his enablers, greatly contributed to the spectacle of last night's first debate, wherein Joe Biden couldn't afford to just sit back and let Fred's son spew his garbage, unabated, for 90 minutes.

Why?

Because if Mr. Biden had done so he would have been found to be pretty much equally at fault, regardless.

Perhaps we should let James Fallows, writing in the Atlantic a few weeks ago,  explain:

...Everyone in journalism has sat through countless discussions of the limits of objectivity. But the power of the impulse still shows up now, in 2020, in several distinctive ways.

One is a habitual, even reflexive presentation of claims or statements that a reporter knows are not of equivalent truthfulness, as if they were....

One is a habitual, even reflexive presentation of claims or statements that a reporter knows are not of equivalent truthfulness, as if they were. (Thus, “false equivalence.”) A stark recent example was an AP story on September 4, with the headline “Dueling Versions of Reality Define 1st Week of Fall Campaign.” It began:

NEW YORK (AP) — On the campaign trail with President Donald Trump, the pandemic is largely over, the economy is roaring back, and murderous mobs are infiltrating America’s suburbs.

With Democrat Joe Biden, the pandemic is raging, the economy isn’t lifting the working class, and systemic racism threatens Black lives across America.

The first week of the fall sprint to Election Day crystallized dizzyingly different versions of reality as the Republican incumbent and his Democratic challenger trekked from Washington and Delaware to Wisconsin and Pennsylvania and back, each man on an urgent mission to sell his particular message to anxious voters.

All the conflicting messages carry at least a sliver of truth, some much more than others .

The “some much more than others” phrase is a way to signal what the reporter certainly knows: that Joe Biden’s claims are within the realm of normal political spin and emphasis, while Trump’s are not true. ...


Gosh.

If only the USian proMedia would stop with their objectified nods and winks and actually tell the public precisely what they actually know to be demonstrably false, religiously without fear of being accused of bias.

It seems that would go a long way to helping America get out of the mess it has gotten itself into.

Even without the muddying of all waters, demonstrably fuzzy-false or otherwise, by the fine folks from the enabler-adjacent Lincoln Project.

If you get my drift.

OK?

_______

Meanwhile, in Portland....

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Just How Smart And Logical Is Mr. Wilkinson, Really?

AllOurRegressiveTaxShifts
WereThemVille

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Update at bottom of post

__________

The above headline was placed above a Canadian Press 'profile' of the good Mr. Wilkinson by Camille Bains.

Now, for the moment at least,  let's leave aside the the fact that those specific descriptors of the current BC Liberal leader, which the Vancouver Sun for some strange (editorial?) reason decided to first cherry pick and then trumpet, came from noted unbiased observer and honest broker, the ol' turdstormer himself, Mr. Bill Bennett. 

Instead, let's have a look at how truly 'smart' and 'logical' Mr. Wilkinson is being when it comes to comes to medical services plan (MSP) premiums.

You remember MSP, premiums, right?

Those were the massive revenues that were generated during the super-fine times of the previous BC Liberal government's regressive tax shift in which massive revenues were gouged from the backs of rank and file British Columbians.

How massive was both the shift and the gouging?

Well, at the end of the super-fine government times of Mr. Wilkinson's party, it was precisely this big, as noted at the time (i.e. 2016) by Paul Willcocks: 

So, with that bit of historical memory mining in mind...

Fast forward to this past weekend when the BC NDP, whose recently dissolved government stopped the gouging, had this to say in the wake of an announcement by leader John Horgan to build a new hospital in Terrace as noted by the CBC's Joel Ballard:

...The NDP sent out a news release to journalists warning that a Liberal government would reinstate monthly premiums for B.C.'s medical services plan (MSP)...

Almost immediately, the good Mr. Wilkinson, showed his historically bereft political 'smarts'  on the Twittmachine:

Now, given this statement by Mr. Wilkinson, you might also think that, if he was being 'logical' and true to his suddenly conjured anti-gouging left-leaning ideological stance, he would also fully support the anti-regressive revenue raising replacement tax that the BC NDP instituted to to help shift the BCL-bloated MSP off of the peoples' collective back.

Well...

Not so much...

...He (Wilkinson) wasn't as direct when it came to making a commitment about the future of the employer health tax despite being pressed by CBC News.

But back in May of 2018, during an interview on CKNW's The Lynda Steele Show, Wilkinson said he would like to get rid of a number of NDP taxes including the employer health tax, which he said " is going to drive up the costs of doing business in B.C. and drive employment out of B.C."...

Imagine that!

______

Full marks to the MoCo's Mr. Ballard for doing a little historical memory mining himself with that last sentence,  quoted, above.

Update, 6pm Monday....Gosh, a funny thing happened as this post was being composed this morning...The logical Mr. Wilkinson put on his smartypants so that he could shout 'Deficits don't matter!'...Or some such Norquistian thing.

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Is It Just A Coincidence That...

ARollingViralTideGathers
NoMossyFibersVille


Is it just a coincidence that the USian schools with the biggest football programs have the largest numbers of COVID cases?

Something tells me that a whole lotta young kids just might not be able to go home for Thanksgiving without endangering their elderly loved ones.

OK?

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'A Different Eye'

NevermindThoseSixteen
YearsVille


BC Liberal leader Andrew Wilkinson was in Maple Ridge yesterday.

Bob Mackin was there to record said leader's words for posterity:

...Wilkinson also referred to the party’s upcoming environmental platform. The former president of the B.C. Mountaineering Club fondly recalled a summer kayaking trip.

“So if you can wait a few days, we’ll be putting together an environmental package that I think will make people smile and make them look at the BC Liberals with a different eye,” Wilkinson said...

Good grief.

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I Once Wrote A Book...

AllTheFiftyCentWords
ThatFitVille


Well, actually, I co-wrote a book with a bunch of folks not long ago.

And, at least according to the photographic evidence, my Dad read it, but probably not for pleasure.

He lives on Vancouver Island.

This is the cuurrent COVID situation there according to the good folks at the BC-CDC:

Unfortunately, given the much, much higher numbers over here in the lower mainland, C. and I just can't to bring ourselves to visit Victoria for Thanksgiving this year, especially if it is only to force Grandpops to endure photo-ops with dusty academic tomes, etc.

I guess, in that sense at least, we are in absolute agreement with our current Prime Minister.

Especially when it comes to visiting somebody in their ninth decade.

So...

It looks like we're going to have to crank-up the Zoom machine, big time, on Thanksgiving weekend.

Maybe one of us can point the laptop camera at the TeeVee.

After all the Seahawks play the Vikings at home that weekend.

OK?

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Ballad Of A Club Adjacent Man.

HeWalksIntoARoom
WithAPoliticalPencilInHisHandVille


In case you missed it, media club adjacent man about South VanIsle Town, Mr. Norman Spector, wrote an open letter to British Columbia Lieutenant Governor Janet Austin last week in which he said:

"...Fundamentally, the CASA ('Confidence And Supply Agreement' between the NDP and Green Party) has brought about a remarkable change in political culture in B.C. — spawning as you have observed “cross-partisan teamwork” that has rarely been seen in this famously polarized province. For this and the other reasons set out above, I respectfully recommend that should Premier Horgan now request that the Legislature be dissolved, you should send him away to think about it..."

Interestingly, that letter  ended up on the front page, above the fold, of the Victoria Times Colonist (see above).

Which begs the question, how did it end up in that coveted bit of print media real estate?

Well, maybe it had something to do with what Mr. Spector wrote in the letter's preamble:

"...I am writing to you as a former Constitutional adviser to the Premier of B.C. and to the Prime Minister of Canada. More recently, I advised Andrew Weaver and the B.C. Green Party, and was present at the table, in negotiations with the B.C. Liberals and B.C. NDP that produced the Confidence and Supply Agreement of 2017, delivered to Government House by Mr. Weaver and John Horgan after it was formally signed by their MLAs..."


Now.

Regarding that last bit, let's leave aside the Mr. Spector's explicit illustration of his vested interest for the moment, and return to the actual history of the thing because, around here, we have a memory and we like to use it. 

The following is from the time of the CASA signing (i.e. the Summer of 2017):

****

Having said all that, how does the good Mr. Spector feel about Ms. Austin's actions now, a week after the publication of his letter?

Well...

Gosh.

I didn't realize that it is Ms. Austin's 'job' to agree to the recommendations of private citizens, especially those able to get said recommendations on the front page of the local newspaper.

Or not.

OK?

______

And why was Mr. Spector waxing derisive about Ms. Austin's job performance in a response to that particular tweet from CBC's 'On The Island' morning drive time radio show?...Honestly, the logic, pretzellated or otherwise, truly escapes me.

There is still a 'Club?'....Darn tootin'.

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Why Is It That...

Pixellation
NationVille


Why is it, exactly, that Ellen Degeneres' head is renting high end real estate in the low resolution version of BC Liberal leader Andrew Wilkinson's Twittmachine feed?

That is all.

(for now)



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There Is (Still) A Club...Part Deux.

AllTheirAccesses
'RThemVille

From Rob Shaw's latest VSun piece, which is a content/specifics/data - lite look at his pick of provincial battleground ridings:

Richmond-Queensborough: Liberal Jas Johal only won this new riding by 300 votes in 2017, despite his high profile as a former Global B.C. reporter. Now, the NDP is throwing everything it has to knock him off — not just because the race is close but also because Johal has proven to be one of the Opposition’s most effective critics.


Gosh.

Can't help but wonder where that most fabulous insight about Mr. Johal's 'effectiveness' came from.

______

Part One of our latest Lotuslandian corpMedia ClubLand series is....Here.

And thanks to Laila for getting us back up on this hobby horse (we think).



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There Is (Still) A Club.

AllTheirAccessIs
ThemVille

Laila, by going against 'Club' convention by actually digging, has learned that the Legislative Press Gallery of British Columbia willingly entered into an agreement with the provincial government to do all their business by phone. 

While this was understandable through the first months of the pandemic it is curious that the highly controlled, limited questioned practice went on right up until this week when suddenly the live pressers were everywhere.

Now, while I can fully understand why the Dippers milked this fully in effort to control the message, why would the Ledge (mostly) Boys have gone along with it for so long.

Well, as Shannon Waters of the independent BC/Politics Today has repeatedly chronicled, the overwhelming majority of those highly controlled and rationed calls on the phone-in's went to the representatives of the big corpMedia outlets:

As you might expect, the Keef himself was not amused by Ms. Waters exhaustive documentation of the bleeding obvious (no ron intended):

In my opinion, what is really offensive is a group of super fine corpMedia Club types going along to get along in an effort to enshrine their goddess-given right to exclusive insider access.

OK?

_________

The pact between the government and the ledgies was so iron-clad that, as Laila further noted, even Bob Mackin had to agree to play by the pact's rules to gain any access to the phone-ins whatsoever.

Just in case you were wondering, our criticism of the Club goes way back.

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Ahead By A (Quarter) Century...

9,129DaysIsA

LongtimeVille

I got an Email from the super big boss at the place where I work the other day.

Usually these things are meant for everyone, and recently they've been all about, as you might expect, online teaching and the like.

But this particular message was personal.

And it had a letter attached.

A letter that congratulated me for working at the very fine public institution concerned for twenty-five years.

Which led me to smack myself upside the top of the head and ask...

Where the heckfire has all that time gone?

****

When we arrived in Vancouver in the summer of 1995, Bigger E. was two years old and littler e. was still a gleam in her Mom's eye.

It was C. who found the first house we lived in, a rough-around-the edges bungalow in Mackenzie Heights on the westside of town that cost us $1,200 a month. Two years later the off-shore owners offered to sell it to us for $255,000. We balked (yes balked!) and moved to a crazy shanty town on the edge of campus that we loved, not for the buildings, but rather for the people. For a good chunk of the next eight years we tried to build a co-op nearby and almost succeeded only to have our hopes dashed by the BC Liberal Party's version of BC Housing.

I've felt terrible ever since because we were the community group that showed GordCo's, Inc.'s money men that it was possible to extricate land from Pacific Spirit Park. The parcel concerned, which we lost to a developer because our fully-financed $12 million dollar plan for 42 families was about a million shy of the hastily assembled competitive sealed bid mark, was a small one. In contrast, the GordCo-jacked parcel that followed was massive and, in my opinion, it tore the heart right out of the park.

Anyway, in the aftermath of the loss we moved to the eastside of town where've been ever since.

The lab moved as well and I like where it is now. The colleagues are great, the students and post-docs are even better, and we're doing some of our best work right there, right now.

It's just weird how fast you go from being the young trouble maker who can, and does, do everything at the lab bench, to the old guy who mostly manages, raises money, dispenses advice, and writes.

Really weird.

OK?

_______

Image at top of the post...The two E's not long ago, all grown up now.

When our former landlords asked us if we wanted to buy that bungalow I truly and honestly thought they were crazy....Of course, the dirt is now worth more than 10 times what they were asking at the time.

Why were we a million shy on the co-op, which was an equity thing, at that total cost to family number ratio?....Because we had a sliding scale plan that would make it possible for everyone concerned to get in on the action regardless their income level...Me, always with the pipe dreams...Would I do it differently with a 2nd chance?...I'm really not sure, to be honest.

Speaking of the Tragically Hip, E. and I have been working on a cover of 'Ahead By A Century'...I've just been unhappy with my playing on it so far....But it's coming.

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Can Anything Be True When Everything Is?

FlingEverything
PropVille

What do lickspittles do when 'their' president and his head of the CDC say precisely the opposite thing about the timing of the roll out of a vaccine against a virus that has killed hundreds of thousands of your fellow citizens?

Why, you, the lickspittle,  go on the TeeVee and tell the citizenry that they're both right.

Martin Pengelly has the story in the Guardian:

....Appearing on CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday, assistant health secretary Adm Brett Giroir said (the CDC's) Dr Redfield was “correct” but offered a less ringing endorsement for (president) Trump, saying: “The president is correct in the segment that he spoke about.”...

{snip}

...Giroir was asked why Trump was “making promises about a vaccine that none of his experts agree with”.

“I think there’s a lot of misunderstanding here,” he said. “And I think everybody is right but they’re talking about different aspects...


Sheesh.

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