Analysis by LettersToTheBeast

October 2, 2019

 

You know you’re getting somewhere when the sworn enemy of you and your followers is calling you dangerous. Apparently, this never occurred to a typist at The Toronto Star.

Shree Paradkar is The Star’s resident Race and Gender Columnist. How Paradkar has managed to survive the Star’s continuing budget cuts is unclear. Perhaps that title alone, Race and Gender Columnist, is the equivalent of holding a cross in front of Dracula every time a round of layoffs is announced.

 

Let’s go through this one-by-one.

Who draws the line in the sand between crazy and credible and who decides who is allowed to cross it?

Simple, Honey. The voters. Not you. Not the corporate media. Not the corporations who own the media. Not the politicians. If a politician goes too far, the voters will take care of that. You still haven’t gotten over yourself with Donald Trump and are likely to suffer a psychotic episode upon his inevitable re-election and FULL SERVICE of his second term.

People with power and people with power.

You, uh, mean, yourselves?

On Monday, Toronto Star journalists learned along with our online readers that People’s Party of Canada Leader Maxime Bernier was, like other leaders, invited for a chat with the editorial board, and it was to take place the next day.

Oh, my God! An opposing viewpoint! Unapproved speech! Quick! Everyone to the nearest Safe Space! Red Alert!

Bernier was the man who was once the Foreign Affairs Minister who had to quit over a national security compromise after he left a secret document at the home of a girlfriend.

Yeah, the man was a dumb ass. But that was over 11 years ago. Get over it and move on. This is 2019.

 

Then he was the chief contender to the leadership of the Conservative Party which he lost by a razor-thin margin.

 

Sounds like a lot of mainstream, regular Canadians liked this guy. But you would dismiss them because they were Conservatives. As for the “man” who beat Bernier, Andrew Scheer…well, in the opinion of your humble correspondent, this kid is as dumb as a box of rocks. 

Now he’s the man who heads a party linked through its supporters to far-right bigots, white supremacists, and even a neo-Nazi as a founding member (since removed).

I was wondering when she was going to get around to “the far right”, “bigots,” “white supremacists and “neo-Nazis.” She doesn’t offer a single bit of proof, just, as Rush Limbaugh calls, a “drive-by smear.” Here in the United States, anyone to the right of Alexandria Occasional Cortex qualifies as right-wing extremist, racist, white supremacist, etc.

Perhaps not wishing to get sued, Paradkar is referring to Shaun Walker. Putting aside the fact that she is merely repeating unproven allegations from her compatriots in the corporate media, the fact is Walker (the alleged “neo-Nazi”) was removed from the People’s Party. By her own acknowledgment he was removed. So what is her problem?

Bernier is open about his views on multiculturalism — it should be banned as a policy. He demands that immigrants “integrate” — with whom? The “west” (read: white). He seeks a Canadian values test for new immigrants (add ominous music and “sharia law” here). Refugees — we can’t save the world, so let’s do very little. Climate change — not an emergency. (All quotations here are mine.)

Absolutely it should be banned as official government policy. The government has no business bringing people into the country, and then encouraging them to bring their language, and eventually their problems, with them.  The fact is, the former governing Liberal Party, tried allow some “communities” to enforce Sharia law. We caught them, we stared them down, and they wisely backed down.

Female MPPs’ concerns delay sharia decision

The Ontario government delayed responding to a report recommending that Muslims in the province be allowed to use sharia tribunals to settle family disputes after its women’s caucus voiced concerns, sources say.

The 17 Liberal MPPs who make up the women’s caucus urged the government this year to go slowly in deciding whether to permit Islamic law to be used in Ontario family arbitration cases.

The government was planning to respond last spring to the report by former Attorney-General Marion Boyd, who recommended that the province let Muslim tribunals apply Islamic law — known as sharia — in marital and inheritance disputes, provided both parties go into the process voluntarily and all decisions can be appealed in the courts.

But in response to concerns expressed by the women’s caucus, Attorney-General Michael Bryant decided to take more time studying the matter, government sources said.

—By Michael Valpy and Karen Howlett

Toronto Globe and Mail, September 8, 2005

View a .pdf copy here Female MPPs’ concerns delay sharia decision – The Globe and Mail

Bernier will also be platformed by the CBC next week. 

Interesting word choice: Platforming. Paradkar would have her corporate media whorespondents give opposing viewpoints the same treatment her friends at Facebook, Twitter, Apple and YouTube give to conservatives. Here in the United States, we call it the Alex Jones treatment (and your humble correspondent is no fan of Jones, just to be clear, but I am fan of The First Amendment). Back in Canada, let’s call it the Faith Goldy treatment. And Shree, honey, you really should pat yourselves on the back for how you went to the mat to censor Faith. Now, you’re just pissed off because you can’t give Bernier the same treatment.

What exactly does Paradkar mean, anyway, when she complains Bernier will be “platformed by the CBC next week?” Are they giving him a job? Is he going to read the news? Oh, he’s going to be in a debate. Well, we can’t have that. We liberals are the natural governing party. We are correct on everything. It is not open for debate. If you disagree with us, you belong in jail. Listen, Shree, seriously. You’ve got to stop hanging out with David Suzuki.

Of course many journalists of colour — there are not that many of us in the newsroom — felt let down by our employers’ decision. It stopped us in our tracks, forcing us to change gears from the regular demands of the job. We didn’t have the luxury of shrugging or rolling our eyes. Many of us had deadlines, yet we had to take on the emotionally exhausting task of organizing and speaking up to explain to our management why this impacted us so viscerally.

Oh, you poor thing. Having to live in the real world, subjected to us peons and philistines. And I don’t know what the make-up of coloureds (hey, your word, honey) vs. whites are in your typing pool, but here in Realville, people are hired and retained based on qualifications, merit and experience. Identity politics don’t work here and you can be damned sure you and your colleagues would have been out on their asses at least 15 years ago if the Toronto Star were actually a viable, operating concern. It is only because it is backed up by a multi-billion-dollar corporation that is willing to lose millions of dollars annually just to have the power of the press that you have the luxury of telling your dozens of readers how much you hate Whitey.

When I go into work tomorrow, I’m going to “speak up” to my boss and tell him how the hedge fund who owns us and their ill-advised policies are impacting me so viscerally. I’ll let you know how that goes. 

Columnists have wide latitude to express their opinions. This is my privilege. It means I don’t feel professionally compromised when I voice an opinion. Indeed, it is my job to do so. But my colleagues who spoke up are not in the same position. Would voicing their protest risk their reputations? Be seen not as a demand for justice but a lack of that much-vaunted objectivity? Their positions are made more precarious by many of them being at entry-level ranks.

Is Paradkar seriously telling us the same editorializing that occurs in a piece labeled “opinion” is not found in purportedly-objective news reporting? She’s kidding, right? Editorializing from the newsroom went into overdrive the day Donald Trump came down that escalator. 

 

If one of Paradkar’s colleagues in the newsroom REALLY wanted to get into trouble, he or she could start by writing one, some or all of the following sentences:

There was no evidence, not even a hint, of any “collusion” between Donald Trump, the Trump campaign, or the Trump family and the government of Russia.

The charges leveled by Democrats of illegal acts of Trump, his campaign and family are merely projection by the Democratic Party and the Clintons of real crimes, some bordering on treason, committed by themselves. 

Hillary Clinton. Uranium One.

Hunter Biden received $50,000 per month from a Ukranian oligarch for doing absolutely nothing. His father, Joe Biden, then the vice-president, bragged of getting a Ukranian prosecutor fired for investigating Hunter. 

Israel meddles in American politics.

Donald Trump is popular amongst working Americans. His derision is confined to small pockets of the coastal United States, mainly New York City, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco and Los Angeles, as well as Chicago.

San Diego and Miami have Republican mayors.

Hillary Clinton is a liar and a fraud. 

The Clinton foundation has stolen billions of dollars and, among other things, cheated the entire nation of Haiti.

Okay, Shree. Let’s see where that little expression of free-speech rebellion would get one of your colleagues. But just keep on “reporting” on President Trump that way you people have been, and you’ll do just fine. Well, until the newspaper goes out of business. But seriously, what are the odds of that happening?

 

 

 

“Would we do this with a flat-earther?” one of my colleagues asked our editor-in-chief in an email the evening before the chat.

This is a common Democrat talking point, apparently imported for use in Canada. They disagree with the man. So he must be a flat-earther. Or thinks the moon landing was a hoax. Usual nonsense when they have nothing of substance to offer. The global warming types are actually quite fond of this. Next….

At the Star, the newsroom is separate from the editorial board (which means the decision to invite or disinvite Bernier wasn’t the editor’s to make). From a reader perspective that’s a distinction without a difference. Stories from both the board and the newsroom appear on the same platforms and editors of both ultimately report to the same publisher.

Platforming does not defeat ideas. If there is anything U.S. President Donald Trump is a shining example of, it is the danger of free-speech arguments that validate hate speech, and the failure of the concept of “sunlight as a great disinfectant” of bad ideas.

Another Democrat talking point. “Hate Speech.” I.e. speech (read ideas or policies) the left hates. They can never point to shred of evidence that President Trump has ever said anything racist in his life. He has pointed to bad acts by citizens of other countries. And he has been correct. That’s not racist. That’s fact. Reality. 

It’s actually rather funny that Paradkar should bring up the “danger” of free speech. Because the Toronto Star actually ran an op-ed piece opposing free speech and dismissing it as an American ideal which had no place in Canada.

Inciting violence is where Canadian law draws the line on free expression. As Kevin Metcalf of Canadian Journalists for Free Expression points out, absolute free speech is an American concept. Metcalf’s suggestion is not merely his private opinion: it is a legal fact. According to Section 1 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, free expression in Canada, like all other Charter rights, is limited by “such reasonable limits prescribed by law as can be demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society.” The question we should be asking is where those reasonable limits lie.

—Darko Prodanovic and Essa Abdool-Kareem, The Toronto Star, August 8, 2017

The only problem is that expressing any idea that runs contrary to approved liberal thought is guaranteed to incite violence. Violence on the part of the antiFA types.

So we have the irony here of a newspaper writer (three, in fact) opposing free speech.  Absolutely un-flippin’-believable. 

All platforming does is legitimize the speaker. And when that speaker is polished or perceived by the audience as authentic, the platform elevates their stature.

 

Well, yeah! And if the audience has two brain cells to rub together, that audience will instantly research what that candidate has to say. And if he makes sense to a lot of people, you know what? He’s going to get elected. Coverage of Donald Trump has and still is 98 per cent negative. Yet he was elected. And continues to serve, despite The Left’s best efforts. That, right there should demonstrate just how little corporate media has on our lives. And it should set off alarm bells for advertisers. If the corporate media can’t even tell us whom to vote for (or against), what possible hope to you think it has of convincing us to buy your hamburger? Or coffee table? Or psychoactive drug? Or pick-up truck? 

In his conversation with the Star’s editorial board, Bernier denied his ideology was anti-Muslim. He said things like, “I’m not against diversity, I’m against more and more and more diversity.” He fended off in the softest terms his churlish attack on 16-year-old climate change activist Greta Thunberg in which he called her “mentally unstable,” saying on Tuesday: “First of all two days after that I tweeted and said she is a courageous girl … Other people were bringing in the discussion her health and I did that and that was a mistake.”

But she IS mentally unstable. However, despite that, she is just as polished and just as telegenic as Nayirah al-Sabah, the (then) 15-year-old-girl who sold us the tale about babies and incubators back on October 10, 1990. Millions of lives and trillions of dollars have been wasted ever since. We’re not falling for this crap any longer and if Paradkar and her liberal elitist ilk don’t like that, she can pound sand.

The event was open to anyone in the newsroom. We know how these discussions unfold. This is why many of us journalists of colour decided not to participate in any capacity — neither to question Bernier nor to work behind the scenes to produce the live video.

“Journalists of colour…” More identity politics.

“…decided not to participate in any capacity…work behind the scenes to produce the live video.” Where I come from (Canada), we call that insubordination. 

You know, a thought occurs. Maybe the next time an unapproved voice comes into the newsroom, The Star should just outsource the work and cut Paradkar’s union drones out of the action. In fact, what even needs to be “produced?” Just put up a webcam or a cellphone and put it out on The Star’s corporate Facebook and YouTube feeds.  Provided of course the dateless wonders down in San Jose and San Francisco don’t censor it exactly because it is unapproved.

We know that racism is instituted with or without Bernier. We work despite it. Racism exists among “mainstream” politicians — it exists in the structures and policies and institutions around us. But we didn’t want to be part of a discussion that Bernier could, and did, frame in “agree to disagree” terms. Bernier’s ideologies are not abstract level ideas for us, not mere disagreements that can be debated in a civilized fashion. “Let’s debate, then have a drink, old chap.” They have real-world consequences.

Yes, what a racists, intolerant world we live in here. The third world trash is fighting to get into the United States, Britain and – to a much lesser extent – Canada. The waiting list to immigrate to the U.S. is decades long, in some instances. But yet, we are racist. Racist Americans elected a black man as president. Twice. 

Hey, Paradkar, tell us about the caste system in India. Then get back to us about racism in your little world in Canada. Tell us about liberal icon Margaret Sanger setting up Planned Parenthood so she could perfect racial purity. Tell us about millions of black babies being slaughtered in the womb every year. Tell us about abortion clinics in every black neighborhood in the United States, funded by white liberal elitists, then get back to us about racism. 

And here’s another great idea. Paradkar, please tell us how beautifully women are treated in Muslim countries. Tell us about how highly educated women are in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Somalia. Tell us about all the female doctors and even the female politicians. Tell us what happens to a woman who “gets out of line” in Saudi Arabia.

I’m not afraid to say it. Thank CHRIST I live in the United States. Thank CHRIST I live in a civilized WESTERN country. What happened to Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) when the “whites” were kicked out? What’s happening to South Africa now? Why are all the illegal aliens coming north to the United States when there is a whole, Spanish-speaking continent to their south? We must be doing something right. And, last but not least, thank CHRIST I live in a country where I won’t be hunted down by some low-life Canadian “human rights” tribunal for saying what I just said.

Just for the record, I happen to live in an almost-exclusively black neighborhood in Orlando, Florida. My wife and I get along just fine with our neighbors and we sure as hell don’t need troublemakers coming in and screwing things up for us. Our neighborhood has nice, well kept lawns with newer-model cars. As the houses are being remodeled and re-built – and most now have – the bars are coming down. And I can guaran-damn-tee you none of us will let social agitators come in to cause trouble. 

Black unemployment rate falls to a record low

Florida Unemployment Rate Holds Steady

September 23, 2019

TALLAHASSEE (CBSMiami/NSF) – Florida’s unemployment rate held at 3.3 percent in August — and was down slightly from a year ago, according to numbers released Friday by the state Department of Economic Opportunity.

The Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford area held at 3.2 percent, followed by the Gainesville area, at 3.3 percent. The state’s overall unemployment rate is seasonally adjusted, while the regional rates are not.

 

Any Questions?

This is us, our children, our fathers and mothers and sisters and brothers being threatened by people who feel emboldened by Bernier’s rhetoric, whether or not he intends it. The non-Muslims among us may not be the primary targets — but there is no scope for complacence; the laser pointer swings fast.

Fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers. Ooooh, boy. Ooops. Oooh, mxxxxx. Your friends in the “trans” community aren’t going to like that one. But good on you for employing the emotional family symbolism, even if you are vehemently opposed to the very concept. 

The laser pointer swings fast.” What the hell are you talking about?

We’ve seen time and again individual white supremacists attacking Sikhs and Hindus, mistaking them for being Muslim. We have seen hate crimes against Black people. We know what Bernier followers — the Soldiers of Odin and PEGIDA, for instance — say about our skin colours, our cultures. We know that while he says he isn’t racist (and touts the meaningless idea of having people of colour in his party as proof), his words continue to be a clarion call to those seeking to bridge the far-right and the “mainstream.” (And if he truly believes they don’t represent his views, he might find it worth reflecting upon why they’re so attracted to his party.)

“…white supremacists attacking Sikhs and Hindus, mistaking them for being Muslim.” Perhaps she could cite a single instance. There isn’t one.

“Hate crimes against Black (capital ‘B’ of course) people.” What sort of crimes is she referring to? Back in 2001…well, I can’t top the CBC for coverage, so here goes…

Minister apologizes for cross burning remarks

Hedy Fry has apologized to the people of Prince George, B.C. The Minister of State for Multiculturalism caused a storm in the House of Commons on Wednesday when she said racist cross burnings take place on lawns in the city.

Opposition MPs demanded a retraction, an apology even a resignation from Fry. On Thursday, they got a retraction and an apology but no resignation.

On Wednesday, Fry said, “Mr. Speaker, we can just go to British Columbia, in Prince George, where crosses are being burned on lawns as we speak.”

MP Richard Harris represents the riding of Prince George-Bulkley Valley. He’s lived in Prince George for 40 years. He was astonished at the reference.

“I believe that it is revolting that this minister would cast such vicious and mean-spirited aspersions on the people of Prince George, British Columbia,” said Harris.

Jay Hill’s B.C. riding also includes part of Prince George. “It can’t be substantiated. There were no crosses being burned and certainly not as she spoke in the House of Commons.”

Fry originally stuck to her guns. She returned to the House later Wednesday afternoon to amend her comments to say “recently” rather than “as we speak.”

—CBC, March 22, 2001

Listen, Shree, just a word of advice. Hate crime hoaxes don’t count as hate crimes. A Muslim girl who cuts off her own hair and says a dirty, rotten honky did it because he hates Muslims doesn’t count as a hate crime. Rabbis spraypainting swastikas on their synagoges don’t count as hate crimes. Jewish kids knocking over headstones of Jewish deceased don’t count as hate crimes.

And you know what else doesn’t count as a hate crime? Pointing out the criminal element in “minority” communities. 

Even among those of us who want to “integrate” (in other words, adhere to standards of whiteness, not Indigeneity), we can change our clothes, we can change our lifestyles, we can change our accents.

We cannot peel off our skins.

Here in the United States, immigrants were expected to integrate into American society for over two hundred years. The world sent its best workers to Ellis Island. They may have been poor, but as long as the men had strong backs that could earn him enough to support his family, he was in. And was his family. So long as they were all healthy. And contrary to popular belief, immigrants were rarely held for more than a day at Ellis Island. The place just wasn’t big enough.

Okay. Enough history. America was the melting pot. Canada promoted multiculturalism and “diversity” apparently for no better reason that it gave Pierre Trudeau another means of distinguishing “Canadian culture” from American culture. That really plays big in Liberal circles. 

With regards to the purported demand that Paradkar “peel off (her skin).” 

And this is just a minor example. But recent past governors of Louisiana and South Carolina – two southern states that Canadians love to ridicule as redneck backwaters – were both Indian American. Indian. As in, uh, India. And…you’re really going to hate this, Shree…they are both Republicans.

By platforming Bernier, all the Star and other media do is further bridge the gap between the far-right and the mainstream. Are these the Canadian values we are proud of?

Ah, yes. Canadian values. What are “Canadian values?” Well, basically look up any Liberal Party of Canada policy manual. You’ve got to love paying taxes. You’ve got to hate Americans. That’s a big one. You have to enjoy paying four times as much for your poultry and dairy products as your American friends. And twice as much for your gas. If a Republican is president, you have to absolutely HATE him. And if that Republican president is named Trump, then that irrational hatred should consume your every waking – and sleeping – day.

What else? Let’s see. You have to enjoy being disarmed because only those dastardly Americans would even think about defending their own homes. If someone breaks into your home, merely smile at the intruder, walk out into the street and dutifully wait for the police. They’ll be along eventually.

Another big Canadian value is you have to not only be opposed to free speech, as Paradkar is, but must be a proponent of compelled speech. For example, our friends in the disoriented community demand your show your reverence for them by your supporting the homosexual education of your five year old. And if your little boy thinks he’s a little girl (or vice versa), then you are to encourage it. And demand medical funding to make it official.

And speaking of medical, that’s another big Canadian value. Canada’s endless free health care system. Not like those Americans who die in the streets. 

And Let’s not forget. As part of our Canadian values, we must worship the CBC and cherish the stories it tells us of one another, from coast to coast to coast. And Peter Mansbridge truly is a national treasure. 

Canada! We’re Number Two! We’re Number Two!

Did I get ’em all?

Ooops, forgot one. Toronto sucks. Hatred of Toronto is Canadian Value Number One. 

Soorrreee.

Shree Paradkar, a columnist covering issues around race and gender, is the 2018-2019 recipient of the Atkinson Fellowship in Public Policy. She is based in Toronto. Follow her on Twitter: @ShreeParadkar

Even her description at the end deserves comment. Years ago, The Star, in addition to identifying a particular writer as a recipient of the Atkinson Fellowship, would describe the fellowship’s aim to “advance traditional liberal journalism.”

From “The Atkinson at 30”

In 1995, when called upon to review the first years of the Atkinson Fellowship, John Honderich (then Toronto Star publisher) specifically addressed the fellowship’s aims in relation to the “Atkinson Principles.” “While the fellowship selection committee was charged with looking for proposals that fit within the tradition of liberal journalism, the committee was not limited to only those subjects dealt with by Atkinson,” he wrote in a report. “In other words, we felt we had to be relevant in our choice. Consequently, most of the winning entries reflect modern-day concerns rather than traditional ‘liberal’ topics.”

It kills your humble correspondent to admit this, but in the Honderich days, Liberal as it was – it was and is known as The Red Star – it had credible journalism and at least put on the pretense of offering objectivity. Those days are long past. 

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I don’t know what Shree Paradkar and the rest of her fellow whorespondents and presstitutes in the corporate media – and the liberal universe in general – are going to do when President Trump is re-elected.

I know what I would like to see happen.

I wonder if hundreds of millions of liberal heads around the world exploding all at once on the evening of Tuesday, November 3, 2020, would have any effect on global warming?

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Your humble correspondent’s absentee-ballot vote for Alex Taylor, the People’s Party of Canada candidate in Niagara Falls, Ontario

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DMCA: Editorial Response

 

Unfortunately, our good friends at WKMG-Channel 6 in Orlando were unable to obtain a picture (at least as of air-time) of Mr. Gomez in his middle-school or high-school graduation garb.

 

LettersToTheBeast speculates that this is all a complete misunderstanding. It’s obviously a frame-up by the poh-leeesss.

 

https://www.clickorlando.com/news/orlando-teen-lured-delivery-drivers-to-be-robbed-investigators-say

 

 

Analysis by LettersToTheBeast

Never let the facts get in the way of a good story. Especially if you are a publicly-funded state broadcaster with an endless supply of cash.

The CBC’s Makda Ghebreslassie (gezundheit! — LTB)  recently reported on the arrest of a woman for speeding and driving with an Ontario driver’s license in Georgia.

According to the CBC’s initial claims, 27-year-old Emily Nield was arrested after being stopped for speeding in Cook County, Georgia. The report claimed the officer did not recognize the validity of her Ontario driver’s license.

 

Spectacular. Isn’t it? Well, not quite. Read a little further down and we find out Nield actually claimed to be a resident of Tennessee.

Nield also claimed she was told she would be held until June 12. Uhhh, not quite.

 

The best part of the whole tale was how police refused accept the “documents” held in her cellphone.

Those documents (driver’s licenses, Nexus cards, passports, etc) are issued for a reason. They have security features embedded. They have RFID fields. Doubtless in Emily Nield’s universe, perfection won’t be achieved until we’re all waving our phones in each others faces. Sadly, Honey, we’re not there yet.  Although your humble correspondent would love to keep a digitized copy of a $100 bill on his cellphone and merely wave Ben Franklin’s smiling face around to fulfill his daily needs.

Nield whined how she would no longer be able to check “no” on the box asking “have you ever been arrested…” on job applications and other forms. County Solicitor Matthew Bennett undertook to expunge any record of this arrest from her record. And, had Nield kept her mouth shut instead of screaming like a stuck pig to the CBC and anyone else who would listen to her, nobody would have known. But now a simple Google search by any prospective employer will regale them with the tale of her arrest in Georgia.

Nield also claimed: “They kept saying ‘You’re now in the system. Any crime that’s going to be committed, your fingerprints are going to be searched,…I never committed a crime.”

Uh, you have a Nexus card, Sweetie. You provided your fingerprints when you were interviewed for that card. You’re already in the system.

As usual, reporting from other media sources tended to be somewhat more insightful.

http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/news/state/georgia/article210710284.html

Yeahhh. You’re not a U.S. citizen. You’re driving with an Ontario driver’s license. You claim to live in Tennessee. And you are stopped for speeding in Georgia. At some point this probably won’t end well.

Emily Nield is 27-years-old. She has a brand new master’s degree in geology (boy, the headhunters will be tripping all over themselves to recruit her with those skills!). She has probably already taken a picture of that degree and put it on her phone. However, from the sensational reporting, one would think she was a 17-year-old school girl. According to reports, she is from Kleinburg, Ontario.

Well, there you have it. She’s from Ontario. She is used to blowing past police cars at 130 kilometers per hour on the 401 and the officer doesn’t even put down his coffee. So she’s driving along at 87 miles per hour (140 kilometers per hour) in a 70 miles per hour (113 kilometers per hour) zone and all is well with the world. At least, Emily Neild’s world.

Here in Florida, you can blow past a state trooper at Warp Speed, with a smashed windshield, your front and rear ends packed in, and perhaps both sides of your car, too. While typing away on your cellphone and driving with your knees. And the officer won’t even stir. But apparently, up in Georgia, they are somewhat more strict about enforcing the basic traffic laws.

The CBC reports that I-75 is used by Canadians as a travel route between Florida and Canada. On any given day, there are thousands of Ontario plates somewhere on I-75 between Michigan and Florida. A very small number of those cars are going to be pulled over for speeding. And not one of those drivers will be arrested. They will get their citation and be sent on their way.

One last thing, Emily: You might want to print out a copy of your I-94 and carry it along with your passport and Tennessee driver’s license from now on. The actual copies, not pictures on your cellphone. Just for good measure, join the CAA or AAA, as well. Those membership cards are good for roadside bail.

And for Kryssakes…

 

Your humble correspondent is the last one to defend the police. But come on, use some common sense. If you don’t want trouble, don’t go looking for trouble. And don’t hit the hornet’s nest with your rake.

Given the number of contradictions in Nield’s account, none of her claims can be believed. If she is telling the truth however, a freedom of information request for the the body cam, cruiser and jail house videos would make for a very lucrative lawsuit.

 

 

 

Analysis by LettersToTheBeast

 

http://www.cnn.com/2017/09/14/opinions/nursing-home-deaths-show-the-risks-of-being-old-in-florida-vox/index.html

 

 

 

(CNN)During the first 20 days of August 2003, almost 15,000 elderly French citizens died as a heat wave hovered over that country. Temperatures had risen only 7.2 degrees Fahrenheit over their usual seasonal averages.

 

Read down three paragraphs, where the quack concedes and defeats his own argument.

This week eight residents of a single Florida nursing home with its power knocked out from Hurricane Irma died within hours of each other. Indeed, the elderly are often the first victims in extreme weather events.

It is time we reconsider the wisdom of caring for people who are the most sensitive to the changing climate in homes that are situated at the very epicenter of the change.

Here’s an example of “climate change” in Florida, as witnessed on January 19, 1977 (Orlando Sentinel). 

 

Florida possesses about 200,000 nursing and assisted living facility beds, befitting a state with the highest percentage of elderly residents in the nation. These homes are air conditioned, unlike what we saw in France in 2003 (a situation that’s since been corrected).

 

Nice way of burying a rebuttal to your own argument a few paragraphs up, Doc. You forgot to mention that in Florida, people don’t abandon their obligations, drop everything (and everyone) and run off on vacation for eight weeks every year. It wasn’t just a matter of old people being left to bake in the heat in Paris 14 years ago; Their caregivers and even their own family abandoned them en-masse so they could head out on two-months’ government-subsidized holidays. See, that’s what you get when you have a national of civil servants. 

But air conditioning only works when you’ve got electrical power, the first public utility to falter in a hurricane like Irma.

 

It is probably fair to say that The Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills charged several thousand dollars per month for its services. Is it possible that management could have installed a couple of industrial generators (hopefully elevated, to avoid them being flooded out as happened in Fukushima, Japan). yet still managed to eek out a meager profit?

No question, facility managers should have evacuated their residents as soon as it became apparent Florida Power and Light wasn’t on the way to fix the damaged transformer supplying their AC system, something their own electrician couldn’t fix. No question, they should have had a backup generator ready to keep their AC running in such an event.

 

So, yeah, I guess they really SHOULD have had a back-up generator. Doesn’t this turn the premise of the sawbone’s argument on it’s head? This has gone from a global warming (sorry, sorry, sorry….CLIMATE CHANGE) story to tale of gross criminal negligence? Even homicide?

And any facility can only compensate so much for the fundamental flaws of Florida’s infrastructure, which includes a lot of vulnerable above-ground lines.

 

See above.

Florida Power and Light works with state and local officials to identify key facilities where it must keep the power running at all costs — places like Memorial Regional Hospital, down the street from the nursing facility where the eight died. Does FPL have the ability to prioritize power restoration to every facility providing care for vulnerable people across the 35 Florida counties it serves? Probably not.

 

Was this the first power failure the nursing home has ever experienced? Has there ever been a power failure in Florida outside of hurricane conditions? Has the power ever failed during bright sunshine? Has an automobile ever crashed into a light pole or transformer and disabled power to the neighborhood?

The Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills wasn’t on that list, and FPL’s press releases make clear: “We prioritize restoring power to critical facilities, such as hospitals, police and fire stations, communication facilities, water treatment plants, transportation providers and shelters.” Not mentioned: nursing homes.

 

So our friends at the Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills were so deluded as to think the power would always be on and that public utilities and government would never fail them? Are they really that stupid? 

As we age, our nervous systems falter. It’s one reason so many older people suffer serious injuries in falls; they’re not as quick to react to a loss of balance, and if they tumble, lack the automatic protective response of swinging arms out just in time. Those are often injuries that can lead to nursing home care.

Our autonomic nervous system, which also declines with age, is responsible for controlling things like the dilation and constriction of blood vessels feeding your skin. Dilating those blood vessels is an essential way we release the heat building up in our bodies. The problem holds true even if you’re outwardly as fit and lean as a younger person. Someone who’s 75 has anywhere from 25% to 50% less blood flow to their skin than someone who’s 30.

 

Yeah, yeah, Doc. We get it. You’re the smartest man in the room. 

The older we are, the easier heat will overtake us. This is one of the effects of aging we can’t seem to avoid.

That’s why whenever I used to drive my mother around, I would crack the window open a bit when I left her in the car. 

Why then do so many of us, as we age, choose to live in a place that’s hot?

 

How’s this for starters, Bones?

 

Everyone knows Florida’s a great place in the winter, but with AC it’s a great place in the summer, too. That AC is critical to the entire South. I’m from Alabama, but the hottest summers of my life were the ones I spent living in Boston.

Friends and co-workers there couldn’t believe it, but Southerners like myself have come to expect, as a sign of civilization, an arctic blast when opening any door. You don’t get that in Massachusetts, even in the places that claim to be air conditioned. What makes Tuscaloosa, Alabama, habitable makes it possible to age in place in Hollywood, Florida, too.

 

Nobody in Taxachusetts or New York ever complain about lack of air conditioning in Summer? Okay. Whatever you say, Doc. After a series of catastrophic failures on Chicago’s “El” (rapid transit) system after a snowstorm, mayor Richard M. Daley explained to a gaggle of reporters how the trains were ill-suited to snowy conditions. A WGN reporter asked, “Who buys trains in Chicago that don’t work in the winter?” to which Mayor Daley responded, “The same people who buy buses without air conditioning in the summer.”

Floridians alone can’t be blamed for their state’s current predicament of over-construction and environmental vulnerability. Florida is all of us: it’s populated mostly by people from out of state, and if you don’t live there now don’t tell me you haven’t thought about it.

 

In the interest of fair disclosure, your humble correspondent, aged 47,  moved to Orlando from Niagara Falls in search of global warming. But if all that over-construction and environmental vulnerability really are getting to you, may we suggest Buffalo, Detroit or Shelby, Montana as safe spaces. And, as former New York mayor Mike Bloomberg pointed out, there’s plenty of cheap real estate in Buffalo. 

The state is the nation’s playground, too, to the extent that 1.4 million Florida jobs depend on rolling out the welcome mat.

That’s why Florida drivers are so terrible. Especially in Miami and Orlando. 

It’s no wonder so many Americans choose to stay.

Ahem. Not just Americans. 

Millions of Americans transition into the ranks of the elderly year after year; 81 million Americans will be over 65 in the year 2050.

 

Some 68% of Americans over 65 ultimately need physical help whether from their families or in assisted living or nursing facilities.

 

Well, as long as we are content to leave them in old folks’ homes here in America, or abandon them and take off on holiday as our French friends do, it looks like they’re S.O.L. Surely you must have some drug for them, Doc? All those commercials on your Cartoon News Network with the pleasant sounding female for the first 59 seconds and the fast-talking guy at the end who says, “SideEffectsMayIncludeDeath!)” Gotta be something there for the oldsters?  

 

What percentage of Americans should we be encouraging into Florida nursing facilities for their later years? The state didn’t have the infrastructure to handle Irma in 2017. What’s going to fundamentally change that will make it withstand coming storms? Are we really going to rebuild it that much better, enough so that every facility providing care, not just major hospitals, can withstand Category 4 and 5 winds?

 

What percentage? You mean you don’t know? As for the “infrastructure” how many nursing homes had similar incidents? I mean, this storm was so catastrophic you must have had a dozen, two dozen deaths at every old folks’ home in Florida? Right, Doc? Unless…what if all of those other homes – and there must be hundreds of them across the state – actually had the back-up power systems they were Hollywood Hills was supposed to have in the first place? 

 

As for major storms, up until the very afternoon of the storm, CNN and their greenscreen actors were telling this storm was going to hit Key West (which it did) and then move up the Gulf coast and make landfall again at Tampa. Hollywood and Miami are on the Atlantic coast. Oopsey doodle. 

Florida’s elder care is everybody’s problem. Between Medicare and Medicaid, federal funds cover the majority of the nation’s nursing home costs, including those in the Sunshine State.

 

Yeah. Thank your god America has the greatest health care system on the entire planet. Right, Doc? I wonder what they do in those uncivilized, third-world holes like Canada, France (oops, scratch that, we already know what they do in France), England, Japan, Australia, etc do when it comes to elder care and public health overall. 

Should we be paying the same rates for such care in areas of the country that are the most vulnerable to climate change, and thus, imperiling the safety of their residents? It’s time we consider, as a national priority, gradually shifting federal long-term care funds toward areas of the country (even areas of Florida) where we have the infrastructure we need and the ability to maintain it.

 

I actually agree with you, Doc. At least on the “shifting priorities” part. I’d start with The Pentagon and the CIA and work our way down from there. And don’t forget the TSA. As for “imperiling the safety” of residents, where is an elderly person better off? In Miami, Boca Raton or Los Angeles where you have occasional challenges of hurricanes, wildfires and earthquakes (in the case of L.A.)? Or New York City, Buffalo or Minot where we can be guaranteed that at least four months out of every year, our older loved ones will be house-bound and risk freezing to death just stepping outside the let the dog out. 

 

Get back to me when you get an answer on that, Doctor Vox. 

 

You know what else, Doc? Maybe it’s time to shift the priorities of the health care industry, too. Maybe a trip to the emergency room doesn’t have to cost thousands of dollars. Maybe health insurance doesn’t have to cost nearly a thousand dollars a month (or more). Maybe drugs – regardless of how “innovative” don’t have to cost ten times in this country as they do in Canada. Maybe network news doesn’t need to be sponsored by sweet-sounding women pleading with us to run to our doctors asking us if cancer is right for us (apologies to Mike Adams, the Health Ranger). 

 

Whaddya think, Doc?

 

DMCA: Editorial Response

Analysis by LettersToTheBeast

On Thursday, June 22, 2017, our good friends at that bastion of journalism, the Orlando Sentinel, joined its corporate media colleagues in The City Beautiful in pliantly gushing about the Transportation Security Administration’s tour of the Orlando Airport and the various unseen security measures “behind the scenes.”

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/os-tsa-security-gizmo-demo-20170621-story.html

After the tour, ace reporter Kevin Spear typed out his press release and thus his work for the day was done. The typist’s work was published in Friday’s edition for dozens of Orlandoans to see.

Sadly, while the media was hard at work in the basement of MCO, 22-year-old Alexander Shae Johnson was also plugging away upstairs at his checkpoint. According to fellow Sentinel stenographer David “Dave” Harris, Johnson, a TSA security guard, was caught stealing cash from a passenger’s bag. While a complicit security guard distracted the female passenger with a “pat-down” (i.e. sexual assault), Johnson went into her (the passenger’s) bag and helped himself to the cash.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/breaking-news/os-alexander-johnson-tsa-agent-arrested-20170623-story.html

It clearly wasn’t the passenger’s first rodeo and she had the presence of mind to inventory her bag before she left the security-theater checkpoint. Her cash was gone. By a remarkable co-incidence, a large amount of cash just happened to be bulging out of our hero’s shirt.

Alex claimed the money was his. Someone checked the security video and, lo and behold, he was caught in the act. Alex was turned over to the Orlando Police. And fired (pending his mandatory union grievance hearing and inevitable reversal to suspension with pay, of course; after all, this was obviously Alex’s first offense.)

The Transportation Security Administration would do well to make more of an effort to recruit its security guards from the neighborhoods of Doctor Philips, Winter Park and Clermont and minimize recruits from Pine Hills, Carver Shores and Tangelo Park. Or the entire city of Orlando, for that matter.

See, this is why your humble correspondent takes Amtrak.

 

Orlando Airport’s Terminal B on June 20, 2017. (LettersToTheBeast)

 

LettersToTheBeast readers are, of course, welcome and encouraged to read the corporate media articles for themselves. However, be warned. The Orlando Sentinel’s website is even more poorly written, scripted and coded than even the Cartoon News Network. The various Facebook, Twitter and Google plug-ins, combined with the forced video, popovers, and gawd only knows how much adware, spyware and malware make the Sentinel’s site practically useless.  Apparently, none of the dateless wonder’s from the Sentinel’s I.T. department has ever had the thought occur to them to try loading their own website from outside the confines of their downtown three-story.

And just a friendly reminder, the gangbangers, child molesters, McDonald’s rejects and other assorted perverts and misfits who proudly don the blue latex gloves have never intercepted a single terrorist (save for Henry Kissinger, and they let him continue on to Toronto). Nor have they prevented a single act of “terrorism.”

https://www.thestar.com/news/queenspark/2017/02/02/civil-servants-pay-boost-defended-by-treasury-board-president.html

Elizabeth “Liz” Sandals  is the Member of Provincial Parliament from the Ontario city of Guelph. She also holds the position of president of the treasury board. Her job is to run the Ontario bureaucracy. And like most liberals, Lizard’s colors came shining through this week when she dismissed the qualifications of transit patrons to run a business.

 

The Ontario civil service has been under a five-year wage freeze, which is scheduled to be thawed this coming Spring. With that in mind, Sandals was ready to reward her most favorite cronies with massive pay increases. CEOs and other high-ranking bureaucrats at state agencies such as Ontario Power Generation, the provincial power utility and GO (Government of Ontario) Transit, a bus and train operator, were in line to see six-figure pay increases.

Ontarians live under crippling electricity rates which have increased by nearly three-quarters in just the past five years under the Liberal regime. Even the smallest apartment can cost hundreds every month just to keep warm and keep the lights on. And the government just slapped a carbon tax on electricity consumers. And then there is Ontario’s – and Canada’s – legendary confiscatory taxation.

 

Premier Kathleen Wynne defended the high salaries, using the classic meme of attracting and retaining the highest quality people.

 

GO Transit / Metrolinx CEO Bruce McQuaig, who now takes in C$361,000 annually, was expecting a raise of C$118,000.

 

When questioned about raises for top bureaucrats while Ontarians struggled to pay their electric bills and sat in delayed GO Trains, Sandals bristled. “Most of the people sitting on the GO Train probably don’t have high level nuclear qualifications or business qualifications to run a multi-billion dollar corporation.”

Sandals would probably be surprised to learn that the Pickering Nuclear Generating Station is served by a local transit bus which is timed to connect with the GO Train. And that bus service is run for the convenience of power plant employees. So it is probably fair to say that a good number of those plant workers are indeed riding the train to work.

As for the corporate workers, it is obvious Liz has never set foot on a GO Train, or a GO bus for that matter. Since its inception, GO has gone out of its way to be an attractive public transport option. They operate modern vehicles and relentlessly enforce the concept of customer service on their staff. A monthly fare for even the shortest ride can cost hundreds of dollars monthly.

Sandals’ constituents in Guelph who ride the GO Train into lucrative jobs in Toronto every day pay nearly $300 per month to GO Transit. Riding GO is an expensive proposition and  one can assume those passengers are making good coin at their jobs. Trains are 10-12 cars long, and each car holds about 150 seats, plus standing. During rush hour, each and every one of those 1,500+ seats, plus every square foot of standing room, is filled. And those trains run every 15 minutes or better on some lines. Most of those passengers are wearing suits or blouses. Most of GO’s passengers – whether on the train or on the bus – are well-heeled and GO management knows this. Management refers to them as “choice passengers.” They have the option to drive their own cars (yes, GO passengers own cars, too). But they choose to take the train or the bus. And between canceled and delayed trains and broken down, brand-new, $1-million buses double-decker buses, GO’s passengers put up with a helluvalot for their hard-earned money.

Somebody with Liz’s ear had better inform her we are talking about GO Transit here, not the Detroit Department of Transportation. Perhaps Premier Wynne can tell Liz this. On her way out the door.

 

In a single sentence, Liz Sandals dismissed GO Transit as a social service and relegated their passengers to lowly peons. Apparently, the only people worthy of Sandals’ esteem are those riding into their downtown Toronto jobs in chauffer-driven limousines. Like herself.

 

The late Jim Flaherty, former federal finance minister, was also a regular GO Train patron.

 

LettersToTheBeast thanks Mrs. Sandals for her insightful and revealing commentary on the ruling class’s contempt for the average voter.

 

Now get in your train, shut up and pay your taxes and electric bills. And vote Liberal. Early and often.

 

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lsandals.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org

 (519) 836-4190

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Your humble correspondent sent this electric letter to Missus Wynne:

February 4, 2017

Mrs. Kathleen Wynne

Premier of the Province of Ontario

Legislative Building

Queen’s Park

Toronto, Ontario

M7A 1A1

e-mail: kwynee.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org

Fax 1-416-425-0350

Dear Mrs. Wynne:

As a Canadian, a voter, and most importantly a taxpayer in the province of Ontario, I am writing to express my highest condemnation for the behavior of your president of the treasury board, Elizabeth “Liz” Sandals and her mocking of GO Transit patrons.

Putting aside the hundreds of dollars each of the 130,000 passengers are paying each day (9/10 of those riding the train), and putting aside her ridiculing the very people who likely voted for your regime, and further putting aside the higher incomes of most GO Transit passengers and their corresponding confiscatory taxation, it comes down to this: Your woman just attacked your own customers. The customers, I might add, who endure two-hour train rides from Kitchener into Toronto (plus delays, of course). That creature needs to be ridden out of town. On a rail.

It’s as if the CEO of General Motors deliberately set out to kill the mostly-young consumers of the Chevrolet Cobalt by installing a deadly ignition system. Or Mark Zuckerberg, the C.E.O. of Facebook, called his customers a bunch of dumb-(fornicators). Oh, wait, those two actually happened.

The unmitigated nerve of that woman, Missus Sandals, to defend the extraordinary pay increases to senior mandarins by mocking the intelligence of business skills of patrons of your own railway…beyond the pale is not even the word. I don’t have the words in my polite vocabulary to express what happened.

And Missus Sandals’s defense of her remarks? “It doesn’t reflect my views.” Come on, really? That is so classic, so liberal. Every politician (most liberals) say that after they’ve been caught. I’ve got another phrase Missus Sandals better familiarize herself with: “I have decided to spend more time with my family.”

Absolutely disgusting.

Mrs. Wynne, you had better fire that woman immediately. You can’t do anything about her seat in your club at Queen’s Park. But you can remove her from cabinet and even from the Liberal caucus. I’m sure even on an M.P.P.’s salary alone, she won’t have to resort to riding with the unwashed masses on the GO Train. But dealing with traffic, driving her own car, with no chauffeur sounds like it could be a real eye-opener for her.

As a conservative-minded voter, I have absolutely had it with parties of all stripes. I can’t believe I’m saying this: I voted for the stinking N.D.P. last time around because they were the least incompetent and the least corrupt. That’s a pretty stupid way to run a government. For the past 15 years, your party has mistaken the voters’ condemnation of the incompetence and ineptitude of three (now four) Tory leaders as an endorsement of your party’s high taxation, higher spending ways. You have similarly mistaken the voters as countenancing your corruption and your own incompetence and ineptitude.

While I plan to not be around to see the results for myself, let alone to have to live with them, hopefully the next election will convince the voters of Ontario that maybe this Patrick Brown guy is actually less corrupt, less incompetent and less inept than your regime. And he and his party will be swept into office with a majority. When voters start electing children who have never gone to school, as the good people of Grimsby did, you have to conclude they (i.e. “we”) are at the end of our collective rope.

Between commercials featuring Missus Sandals and her insulting and condescending remarks about public transport patrons, the slogan for the Progressive Conservative Party in the next election ought to be “Lock her up.”

In closing, when the taxpayers of Ontario (which I hope to cease being very soon), are theoretically on the hook for twice the money owed by the federal government of Russia, the good people of the GO Train need take no lessons from you, Missus Sandals, or anybody else in your regime.

Between the corruption, the arrogance, the condescension, the waste, the debt, the electric bills, the confiscatory taxation and, yes, the GO Train fares, I don’t think you fools realize just how angry people are.

Resign. All of you.

Yours sincerely,

…

p.s. You, Missus Sandals and your fellow Queen’s Park critters do realize you are not our bosses. And we don’t work for you? Don’t you? Maybe I’d better call U.P.S. and send all of you some cake.

---

 

Any resemblance between Lizard Sandals and…

Christine Lagarde (aka Mrs. Frog), the head I.M.F-er

is one helluva coincidence.

---

 

 

The reporting tells us six people have been killed and 19 wounded. According to the Quebec Provincial Police, two suspects were taken into custody. Their identities have not been released. The only information being reported about them is they may have attended Laval University. And they had “Quebec accents.” And they may belong to a right-wing group. The fact that they were captured (captured so soon?) and the fact so little information is being released suggests much of the narrative about this event is still in play.

 

No mention, of course, that Quebec is the most gun-restricted province in Canada. Which is saying a lot in a country owned lock, stock and barrel by the gun-grabbers. When former prime minister Stephen Harper and his Conservative government voted to abolish the long-gun registry and destroy its contents (a program for which he voted, along with the then-governing Liberals in 1995), the province of Quebec sued – and won – the right to maintain the registry’s database of Quebecers.

 

Needless to say, the disconnect between a mass-shooting, and its having taken place in a gun-free zone (i.e. Quebec and Canada) will be not only glossed over, it will be totally dismissed.

 

 

 

Assuming the popular narrative of this shooting is that the two honkies were seeking revenge for the murderous ISIS, it will turn out to be more additions to the body-count in the U.S.- and israeli- government-sponsored war of terror. There are a lot of fools out there who have fallen for this nonsense.

 

LettersToTheBeast maintains hope that President Trump will figure out who is behind ISIS, al-qaeda and the other terror actors. And he will be very angry.

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https://letterstothebeast.com/2016/07/19/bobby-powellwe-wont-show-it-on-this-network-fox-anchor-exposes-networks-coverup-of-mccains-terrorist-ties/

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https://letterstothebeast.com/2016/08/15/canadian-would-be-suicide-bomber-aaron-driver-was-he-another-patsy-in-the-making/

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https://letterstothebeast.com/2014/10/10/the-next-time-a-big-ka-boom-happens-im-not-looking-at-tehran-or-damascus-im-looking-at-tel-aviv-and-langley/

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We suspect Donald Trump is going to be in for a real eye-opener when he finally meets face-to-face with Vladimir Putin. The war of terror truly will be exposed as a hoax and a fraud. When that happens, a lot of people will have a lot to lose.

 

The military industrial complex will be in for the single-most disastrous collapse since 1989.

 

Bring it on.

 

And for those of you so inclined, please think good thoughts for President Trump. May he stay out of small aircraft, convertibles, hotel kitchens and motel balconies. And somebody, please show him a DVD of Gandhi. And fast forward to the end.

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UPDATE:

 

The Quebec Provincial Police announced they had arrested only one man and charged him with six counts of murder and using a restricted firearm.

 

27-year-old Alexandre Bissonnette worked as a clerk at Hema-Quebec, the provincial blood donation agency. As usual, there was no explanation as to where he got the gun or the ammunition. In Canada, you need a permit to not only purchase a gun, but to purchase ammunition for it as well. And you need a special permit beyond that to purchase restricted guns (and ammunition). And needless to say, those permits are very difficult to come by.

 

Funny how bad guys in the most restrictive gun zones (Quebec, France, Brussels, etc) never seem to have any difficulty getting their hands on all the firepower and ammo they need. LettersToTheBeast is awaiting an explanation from Canada’s chief gun-grabber, Wendy Cukier, on how all this could have happened despite despite all of the legislation making Canada such a gun-free paradise.

 

While corporate media could not explain who put the gun into Bissonnette’s hands, they were helpful in pointing out that he was a supporter of the policies of Donald Trump and Marine LePen, he was opposed to radical feminism and multiculturalism and he rejected organized religion.

 

Bissonnette was a student of political science and anthropology at nearby Laval University.

 

Corporate media failed to speculate on what anti-depressants, SSRIs or other prescription medications Mr. Bissonnette may have been taking.

Unfortunately, the Orlando Sentinel replaced the text of the original story with updated versions, effectively memory-holing the original article. At the same time, they left the original comments in place. This gave the appearance that early commenters to the original story were oblivious to information in the now-updated story. Dishonest, for sure. But this is the corporate media we’re talking about.

 

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One commenter also (sarcastically) called for a ban on white Canadian men from the United States.

Camrose teacher expresses frustration in humorous video about ticket

By Scott Stevenson, CBC News Posted: Jan 27, 2017 5:24 PM MT

A Camrose man is ticked about his ticket — a $465 traffic violation issued by Edmonton police — for having a cracked driver’s licence.

Dave Balay admits he’s guilty of having a small crack in his licence. But he doesn’t think the penalty fits the crime.

He was returning home from visiting a friend Wednesday evening when he was pulled over on Anthony Henday Drive.

“I saw the police lights come on behind, and so I thought I’d pull over to the side to give them room to pass,” Balay said. “Because I wasn’t doing anything untoward.

“But then the police, of course, pulled in behind me.”

One of the officers told Balay they’d had a tip about a swerving car that matched the description of his Honda Accord. Balay, 52, said he wasn’t worried because he doesn’t drink.

He gave the officer his driver’s licence, registration and insurance card.

---

In fairness, this story (and story being the operative word here) was featured in every corporate media outlet across the country, not just Canada’s state news agency. An man received a ticket for having a “cracked license.” This isn’t just CBC bullshit. It’s corporate media bullshit.

Balay says he was pulled over by officers of the Edmonton Police Department on suspicion of impaired driving. Apparently, police had received complaints of a car matching Balay’s description of a swerving car. Balay claimed he was “visiting a friend” but denied having been drinking.

The officers used their discretion and declined to give Balay a citation for the driving offenses, which would have resulted in C$543, six demerit points plus an enormous insurance surcharge. It’s only until you get down to the 16th and 17th paragraphs that you get a reality check from the Edmonton Police: Balay caught a break. The officers had reasonable grounds to lay a charge of careless driving, but given the circumstances (they didn’t necessarily see the driving for themselves) used a more obscure charge. Balay got a lesser fine, no points, and hopefully no insurance surcharge.

LettersToTheBeast is no fan of police workers, however Balay should have shaken the officer’s hand, said, “yes, sir, yes, sir, three bags full, sir,” counted his blessings and mail in the fine. But he decided to get his 15 minutes of fame on Facebook instead.

Balay vows to fight the fine. He says he will go to jail rather than pay it (keep in mind, you can’t be imprisoned in Canada for unpaid traffic fines). He claims to be an unemployed substitute school teacher.  He hopes to “reason with the prosecutor.” Given his behavior up until this point, Balay is in for a big surprise. The prosecutor will likely charge him with the original, underlying careless driving offense. And add the mutilated license charge on top of that. So Balay will be out well over $1,000. Plus his six points. Plus his insurance surcharge.

A merciful justice of the peace will obviously take Balay’s underemployment situation into account and put him on a payment plan that works for him.

As previously noted, LettersToTheBeast has been critical of police workers. The criticism is well-founded. However, the story implies that the officer who issued the original citation was a rookie. We certainly hope this won’t turn him into a jerk for the rest of his career and that, in the future, people who deserve a break at the side of the road will still get one. We need more good cops who use the brains their god gave them, and their own good common sense.

LettersToTheBeast also encourages parents in the Edmonton area to monitor their childrens’ education. If a David Balay happens to show up on their student timetables, we encourage you to demand their children be pulled out of his class. He is no example of honesty, character and straightforwardness.

As for Mr. Balay, now that you have had your 15 minutes, shut up. Pay the ticket. And drive safely.

And as the officer said, “Have a nice day.”

Now, what was that the CBC and the rest of the corporate media were saying about “fake news” again?

Naturally, the state broadcaster disabled comments.