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Strong Language and Action

I am sick to death of every country thinking Canada is a whipping post and our illustrious leader, PM Photo Op, sits by and does nothing, but smile for the cameras. We look like a joke on the foreign policy stage and that is a direct result of our Liberal Governments inability or more likely unwillingness to call BS out when BS occurs.

This has been evidenced by PM Photo Ops lack of action on a number of fronts when Canada was put into question by other world leaders. Every time he said nothing and did nothing more worried about offending someone by making a politically incorrect statement and as a result Canada looks like a joke.

Let’s start with Saudi Arabia, and back in 2018 when then foreign affairs minister Chrystia Freeland tweeted support for Saudi’s who had been imprisoned by them for questioning Islam and the Saudi’s human rights record ( They still execute by crucifixion or beheading those who question Islam or practice “witchcraft”…. Not at all 15^th century thinking ). This started a row involving Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman(MBS) and he recalled students studying here, pulled investment and generally was throwing a temper tantrum that anyone would question his authority. What did we do in response? We did nothing, because Canada has a $14 billion military contract with Saudi to supply them with Armored Personnel Carriers.

In October of 2018 MBS ordered the execution of a Washington Post Journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi embassy in Turkey, where after killing him he was dismembered for disposal by a hit team sent there specifically to get him. What did we do? Suspended sales to Saudi Arabia to conduct a review of the arms deal and terms of payments as the Saudi’s were behind $1.8 billion in payments. The review was done by 2019 and the Carriers are back being delivered, in fact arms sales to Saudi have increased. This despite the fact that Saudi Arabia has an abysmal Human Rights record and Canada has provisions about selling arms to countries with poor human rights as stated by Foreign Minister Francois Champagne,

“Under our law, Canadian goods cannot be exported where there is a substantial risk that they would be used to commit or to facilitate serious violations of international humanitarian law, international human-rights law or serious acts of gender-based violence,”

Seems hypocritical of our government and it sure seems they like to turned a blind eye instead of saying to MBS when he threw his tantrum,” Too bad I guess Canadian Students will fill those University spots and our military could use the Carriers. Also will someone please tell me why we buy Oil from Saudi Arabia when we have the largest confirmed reserves in the world, yeah, no more importing Saudi Oil.” Did PM Photo Op take any stance in defense of Canada? Nope not a word did nothing.

Then of course there is China, Meng Wanzhou, CFO of Chinese telecomm giant Huawei and the two Michaels, Spavor and Kovrig. Meng lived in a luxury $13 million dollar Vancouver estate, while the two Michaels were in prison on bogus charges in retaliation for her detention. The Chinese deny that the two are related, yet when Meng is released and flies home the Communist Party of China releases the two Michaels. Then everyone tries to deflect that the releases were not tied to one another. The US has tried to say it was pressure put on Beijing for the two Michaels and the Chinese Communist Party (CPC) under Xi said they were released due to health concerns. How stupid do politicians think we all are that we would believe this line of total unmitigated bullshit, the public knows the two Michaels were held as bargaining chips.

Now I read from Global News that Trudeau is still debating to allow Huawei to be part of the 5G network in Canada. The same Huawei that Meng was CFO for and the reason for this whole box of crap. PM Photo Op when asked about allowing Huawei to be part of the 5G network said this,

 “We continue to weigh and look at the different options, but we will no doubt be making announcements within the comings weeks.”

What the F@#$!@!#@%RT  you total Moth@#$% @@% are you talking about. The answer is NO!!!, they are not in the running, not a chance. If he can’t see that the Chinese Communist Party(CPC) directly intervened and retaliated when Meng was detained, showing a very strong connection not to mention that under Chinese law the CPC can gain access to the systems of any Chinese Company including Huawei. Oh so the CPC could then by accessing Huawei access the info of Canadians through the 5G network. I don’t think it wise to have them participate. Further to this, our Pacific allies, Australia, US, UK and New Zealand are not allowing Huawei to participate in their 5G due to security concerns like I just outlined.

On top of this, PM Photo Op tip toes around China Canada trade policy and hopefully he never plans to look at a free trade agreement with them ever again like in 2017, as I guarantee that would be a disaster for all Canadians. Now that I have said it, he will probably push it through. Again as I wrote in my blog titled, China, the current trade deal is so lopsided in China’s favor I doubt they would ever want to renegotiate it and why would they.

Then of course the final point I will raise about PM Photo Op not standing up and demanding direct action by the Pope with regards to the residential school crisis. Trudeau should be calling out the Pope’s failure and of the Catholic Church and demand an apology for what the Priests and Nuns did to the indigenous children in their care for decades. Time for Justin to stand up and say it, either you come meet with Canada’s indigenous leaders and survivors and apologize or Canada will start legal proceedings to seize all Catholic Property in Canada as retribution to those who suffered. Personally I think the government on behalf of the survivors and families of the lost children should start a class action and the Pope can keep his apology right up his you know where.

It pisses me off that this is how our leader is. At times you have to take the gloves off and say enough. Our illustrious Leader looks on the world stage like when Daniel Sedin was a punching bag to Brad Marchand during game 6 of the Stanley Cup finals. Trudeau keeps looking for someone to call a penalty as he keeps getting punched in the face by World leaders.

Swollen Balls!

OMFG people quit listening to your social media feeds as a source for news or even the truth. The internet like so many things started out innocuously as a novel way for scientists and engineers to converse information, but has now morphed beyond what anyone could have seen.

When I mean morphed I mean it became a conduit of not only information and fact, but soon of alternative facts and fiction, all under the guise of “opinion” and freedom of speech. I am okay with opinion, hell I write a blog full of it, and I support free speech and people should be able to express their opinions without censorship. However, I draw the line on people expressing their opinions when those opinions are racist, homophobic, misogynistic or when the opinion is blatantly expressing a false narrative.

Let’s look at the scourge of today, Covid and how social media is driving the decisions for many to not get vaccinated. A lot of those who are anti-vaccine get their information from social media posts that purport that the vaccine will change your DNA (100% false), a tracking device will be in the vaccine to monitor you (A technical impossibility, sorry Bill Gates), this is a hoax by government to remove freedoms and make us socialists (Do you even know what socialisms is?).

Many of these people further believe that scientists can’t be trusted because the scientists got masks wrong at the start. Yes that is true but as the scientists learned more about the virus and they realized it is transmitted by air and not through contact they changed their information and brought in the use of masks. It was the correct thing to do and wearing masks has helped prevent transmission. Just look at the Flu season last year. In Canada in 2019 nearly 7,000 people died from the flu (18.4 people per 100,000). Last year in Canada we had one yes I said one person across the whole country died from the flu. So guess what, masks work to prevent spread, the evidence is there, the scientists are right. Besides can someone please explain to me what the big deal is about wearing a mask in public spaces? Talk about your first world problems.

People doubting and ignoring the science preferring too believe random unqualified and unhinged individuals on Social media who promote ingesting bleach or Horse De-wormer (Ivermectin) as the cure to Covid are truly a bunch of TWOT’s. A TWOT is anyone who is so closed minded they would rather burn at the stake than change their stance on vaccines and science, no matter how strong the supporting evidence. Yet when any of them get Covid, they go to the hospital for treatments and care that was developed by …..Science!

So why do TWOTs rely on social media to set their opinion. First, they all are looking mostly for a narrative that fits their perceived ideas. People tend to seek out that which supports their position first and for many the reliability of the source is not as important. They want to hear their position being validated by someone and the internet is the perfect place to find that validation because of a lack of any oversight.

Let’s look at a real life example. Nicki Minaj, who is a rap artist and posted on Twitter, which she has 23 million followers, that she was not getting the vaccine till she does more research because and I am paraphrasing “a friend of mines cousin in Trinidad got vaccinated and now he is impotent and his balls are swollen”. Really, a friend of hers cousin, well if that is not irrefutable proof not to get vaccinated I don’t know what is. Holy Fu&*#ng Sh#t more research? I doubt she has done any but her narrative is now what people who oppose the vaccine are going to glam onto and pass all over the internet, the story of Nicki Minaj’s cousins friend massively swollen balls. To combat this narrative the government of Trinidad and Tobago came out and reported that this was false. In fact the health minister and his staff spent and entire day checking to see if there have been any reported cases of swollen testicles or impotence from the Vaccine either in the country or worldwide. The answer was no. The White House now is planning a meeting with Ms Minaj to address her concerns about the vaccine.

Ms. Minaj’s status as not only a celebrity but as an influencer will have an effect on her followers who are hesitant and the Anti-Vax movement will add this to their pure Guano protests ignoring the fact that this is proven false, I can even see the sign:

COVUD CAUASS
IMPEDINSE
AN HUEG BALS !

To all you influencers out there, Shut the F up. Unless you are a virologist or an infectious disease expert, not a rap artist (and I am using artist in the most liberal sense I can) keep your opinions and hear say of other peoples balls to yourself, especially during a health emergency.

If I were to give a nickname to the three major party leaders together, that would be it to describe
Trudeau, O’Toole and Singh. It also would be the way I would describe all three of their plans, or should I
say lack thereof.

The fact is none deserve to lead this country as none really has a vision. Trudeau’s vision is for us to move forward, but I ask to where? Where do you want to lead the country? The man has had six years
to move the country forward and I for one have seen little progress. Promises of infrastructure, daycare, etc has all been promised by Trudeau, he did so the last election he called, but he fails to really
implement anything except the politically expedient like his Bullshit gun legislation. Trudeau expects us to trust in what he says he is going to deliver, even though he rarely delivers.

Then there is Erin O’Toole and his squad of yes men brown nosing evangelical conservatives that includes my MP, the ever useless Mark Strahl and of course pulling the strings from behind, the ever
present right wing market stooge and former PM, Stephen Harper. The conservatives under O’Toole seem lost, not sure about their position on Gun Control or Climate Change for example. O’Toole saying one thing and the party saying the other. WTF? Get on message Tool.

Jagmeet Singh seems like a decent individual but then he states policies that sound like he wants to transform the economic structure of this country to pure socialism. While a great sound bite to the masses what does he mean by he is going to tax the ultra rich? Are you talking about taxing at such a level that the rich and the companies they control will want to relocate away from Canada or no longer invest? What is ultra rich to begin with and how is just taxing them going to solve the problems facing
people today?

Now there are two other party leaders but I don’t respect either, and one in particular I don’t even think should be running in this election. Of course I am speaking about the Bloc Quebecois and leader Yves Blanchet. The Bloc is a separatist threatening party who really does not give a shit about anyone outside their province. In fact in their platform the Bloc refer to Quebec as a nation with the goal of the self- determination, in other words to become its own country…..yeah and don’t let the door hit you on the way out and no the rest of Canada will no longer pay any more transfer payments to you sniveling whining losers (the French surrendered to the British in 1763 and formally ceded Canada including Quebec to Britain) and we won’t be bailing out Quebec business…bye bye Bombardier.

The other major party leader is Green party leader Annamie Paul, whose platform is long in ideas and totally void of how to achieve it and no idea as too how to pay for anything.

So when we all look at our choices, the pickings are really slim as not one party really has a vision for Canada. Oh they all want to address income inequality, the rich to pay their fair share, to end racism, support reconciliation and address climate change …..yadda yadda yadda. Lots of social issues but all of them are short on the nuts and bolts of what needs to be done to achieve this. Most notably today, we need to mandate vaccines to stop Covid and we need to stop placating this pseudo American narrative that individual rights are being violated. Do any of these Leaders call it like it needs to be said? No, not a one because they are all a bunch of political hacks, afraid they might offend that one voter. Can you all
please grow a pair?

Seriously, we need leadership not populist policy based on the political risk. We need leadership who calls it as it is and is not afraid of wrinkling a few brows by doing what is in the best interest of Canadians and the country. None of these candidates do this nor do any of the parties.

Have any of these candidates really said what their strategy for foreign policy will be going forth? Say China, for example, the country with giant bamboo trade sticks up everyone’s ass. What is any of them going to do to get the two Michaels out and what to do with Hauweii execute Meng Wanzhaou? I would like to see a leader who applies the same tactics as the Chinese and throw her ass in Prison. Given she works for a tech company and has vast resources at her disposal (she’s rich), I think she is a flight risk, so
revoke her bond and welcome her to cell block C till the issue is resolved or say screw it, drive her to the border and give her to the US, enough of her already. So in summary we have a bunch of political parties and only one has any sort of vision and that is the
Bloc, who only cares about Quebec and screw the rest of you….but keep the transfer payments coming. The rest have no real idea about the economy and how they will achieve things and when they do open their mouths reality is missing. The conservatives for example feel they can balance the budget in a few years but all this is based on Canada having an annual growth rate greater than 3%. According to economic data from the past 50 years, Canada’s annual growth rate has averaged only 0.75%, Mr. O’Toole is being optimistic to the point of being delusional in his forecasts or is smoking way too much weed.

We live in a great country, not perfect but the only way we can improve everyone’s standing in this country is to have politicians that are less concerned about the sound bite and more about developing sound economic and social policies that benefit all Canadians. Why bring in additional taxes on the Ultra Rich or Speculators or Companies or Individuals when you don’t have a fiscal plan. Why enact taxation without a plan as too what social and economic programs will benefit Canadians as a whole. I can’t
stand taxation that goes into just general revenue, because that money is always used for political skullduggery. I am pissed right off that these are the choices we have to lead this country. No visions, no plans, no ideas, Dumb, Dumber and Dumbest….god help us all.

PS. I watched the debate, well 67 minutes of it that I will never get back and it was nothing but Bullshit from the five leaders and as expected no visions, no plans and no ideas, beyond catch phrases and yadda yadda yadda over one another. The debate confirmed my opinion that our country’s leadership choices are between Dumb, Dumber or Dumbest or their close cousins Moron or Clueless. Good fucking grief Charlie Brown, we are all doomed!!!!

I am sick and tired of our political leaders trying to exploit the on-going pandemic as a justification to go to the polls to gain power in legislatures and now the House of Commons. It is of either shear ignorance or arrogance for PM Photo Op to call an election, an election that was called seeking a liberal majority based on the performance during the Covid crisis.

What pure fallacy to think that based on performance to date that somehow PM Photo Op and his band of merry eunuchs deserve a majority. We are not even done with this pandemic and yet our PM thinks his job to date earns him and the Liberals a majority for five years? What does he think we are all stupid? No seriously at times I think he and the Liberal elite think that. I also believe that of other party leaders, that they have an inherent belief that Canadians are stupid or at least naïve about the realities of today.

So let’s address the question of, has PM Photo Op and his band of merry eunuchs done a great job of managing the pandemic? I think when you look at it overall as I have it looks like they did deal with some aspects very well and the messaging about masks and vaccines has been pretty consistent. The roll out of money to business and individuals was not consistent or well performed. Billions was paid out in Covid benefits to people and companies that did not qualify. Some that got benefits had income from sources like RRIF’s pensions, etc, who were retired but the government still gave many benefits, costing billions more. The fiscal response was similar to dropping bags of money out of a helicopter. Some will fall on the intended target, but much more was scattered wildly about. To me this was a fiscal fail by PM Photo Op and his gang of eunuchs.

Now we are not even out of this pandemic and we have no idea as too when this will ever happen, cases are up and so are hospitalizations but Liberal arrogance thinks based on performance to date, let’s call an election.

This is a country with lots of issues not just Covid and the response to other issues has been anemic at best. Consider other issues that also need to be addressed: the Opioid crisis, homelessness, education, health care, military defense, indigenous issues, climate change, the economy and of course Afghanistan just to name a few of the issues we still face on a daily basis.

What about these issues and why is nothing concrete being done here on any of these? Really ask yourself, when is the last time any of these were properly addressed? PM Photo Op said that he can campaign and deal with the crisis in Afghanistan, while I maintain he does not have the ability to handle more than one thing at a time. Months ago, the U.S. said it was pulling out by May 1 and then this deadline was extended to August 31. So until the recent fall of Afghanistan in 11 days this month, we see the Canadian government caught almost off guard, like they never expected anything to happen. What were they thinking leaving this to the last minute and now it looks like a total cluster f@#$K in the way this was handled. So on this, I give PM Photo Op and his merry eunuchs a fail.
So rather than go through each point in exhaustive detail, I will just point them out and how I think the government has handled it.

1. Opioid Crisis; Fail, they still have not figured out how to deal with it even though other countries like Portugal have a good road map as too how to fix it.
2. Homelessness. Fail, all talk about new housing but little comes about except by provinces and cities, the Feds are very absent.
3. Climate Change; Pass but barely as they have made no real plans as too how to cut CO2 other than the Carbon tax.
4. Health Care; Pass, but the focus on Covid is still to the expense of everything else.
5. Economy; Fail due to the handling of Covid benefits and gross overspending and no plan to get people off benefits and back to work.
6. China and foreign policy. PM Photo Op is a wimp. Does not stand up to dictators as he should. The stereo typical Canadian always apologizing but when it comes to foreign policy our country lacks leadership to stand up and play hardball when needed, hence why two Canadians are being held in China and nothing has been done.

Again this is not an exhaustive list of all that our government has done successfully or failed, but it gives an idea as too the arrogance to call an election given how much has been and has not been accomplished since the last election (October 2019). An election that will cost it is estimated nearly $600 million dollars, again WTF PM Photo Op?

I don’t like elections being called during times like we are going through right now, given this is not being done as the result of a confidence motion or election deadline, this is motivated by politics and the need for recognition by PM Photo OP. While Covid has been a focus, this focus has been really at the expense of everything else that government is suppose to be managing.

Finally I think it in really poor taste to be having an election, with Fires ravaging BC. Towns have been destroyed (Lytton), many more families have lost their homes and then many more are living at evacuation shelters.

This political abuse and exploitation is a throwback to the days when PM Photo Ops Father ran the country with no concern or regard for the country and the situation, just contempt and fuddle duddle.

Woke is a term that many of us have come to hear and understand but have any of you heard of the term TWOT? It’s the new term for people who lack Critical Thinking skills to evaluate information, preferring to subscribe to a narrative that is not based on any facts, but one that is convenient to their beliefs of conspiracy and often a deep state.

TWOT describes as a person who will not approach subjects on social issues, economics or politics with an open mind and whose arguments are lacking in fact but long on fiction. These individuals are literally a total waste of time (TWOT) to change their minds on certain subjects, holding onto beliefs of a narrative based on convenience rather than truth.

Here is the beauty of TWOT, it applies to everyone, not too Conservatives, or Socialists; Catholics or Jews, Wealthy or Poor, Male or Female it does not matter. To be a TWOT, means you have a narrow focus, you are bigoted about other opinions and literally would rather burn in hell than admit your views were wrong or change your stance on a subject.

I joined a U.S. political discussion website because honestly, Canadian politics is so boring. The Canadian media gets hung up on issues like the WE charity last year and PM Photo OP and his Finance Minister Morneau, getting caught up in a scandal that amounted to a few hundred thousand dollars. Really? In the U.S. you have Trump, Rudy, BLM, Fox News, the big lie, two impeachments and an insurrection amongst all kinds of other issues. US Politics is truly the mother lode of dysfunctional reality entertainment and a cornucopia of people who truly are a TWOT.

One person on this political website, Dave, and I spar with all the time as he is very pro-Trump. His discussions revolve around how Biden and democrats stole the election, the left are socialists to bring and end to our way of life, America will never be the same, Hilary Clinton is the devil…okay we have agreement there, but you see where he goes. So of course I challenge him because that is what I enjoy, a lively debate. The unfortunate thing is Dave never presents any evidence, much like the entire Trump camp. I have brought forth evidence, legal cases, DOJ, Intelligence community etc, because I do practice doing my research before I speak. Dave’s response is always either a deflection or anecdotal in nature from someone else’s facebook account, never does it have any of what I would call hard evidence. Even today as I write this Dave has responded to my facts about the steal, courts and other evidence with the Russia Hoax, Hilary’s emails and the poster boy of why you should never do drugs, my pillow founder Mike Lindell and how he is under attack. Yes to the tune of $1.6 billion by Dominion Voting machines for defamation of the company from his totally unsubstantiated claims of election fraud through these machines. Lindell just hosted a cyber security conference about the fraud and his own cyber experts at the end called his evidence nothing but a Turd, yet Lindell still promotes the steal and Donald Trump will be anointed President. Mike Lindell, you are a TWOT!

Dave’s narrative has been going on for months. Be it the capital riots and his claim there were no weapons, to the steal and over to socialism. Every discussion ends the same, Dave will not ever show me any proof. He cannot point me to a stat, article or document that clearly proves his position. At best I get exaggeration and conjecture that is soon replaced with deflection and gas lighting; he is the definition of a TWOT when it comes to issues political in nature.

Dave is not the only person I engage with that is a TWOT, anti-Vaxxers often are the same. Even when given the mathematical reality that they have about a 1000 times greater chance of dying from Covid than to the Vaccines, they still will not change their minds. It is truly becoming a pandemic in itself in our overall society, that people even when faced with the truth will chose the narrative they like rather than take an open minded approach. It is like they believe it is a sign of weakness to change ones stance or opinion but I think it really shows growth in an individual, a positive virtue and one of strength.

In America being a TWOT has become more common place as people argue about masks for instance as a violation of their rights and that the scientists keep changing their minds. Well throughout North America, we have car seat belt laws to protect everyone in the car, is this not a violation of one’s right to be hurled out the windshield of their automobile in an accident and to die or be left with permanent injuries? A person’s individual rights to do something end when it will have adverse affects on the lives and freedoms of others. Those leaders and influencers on the right that call out conspiracy and hoax, reiterating the narrative based on ‘alternative facts” are not only a group of TWOTs, but are dangerous in their misinformation.

Now this is not too say that Canada has not got it’s fair share of people who are a TWOT on subjects. I have run into those who have a belief that Vaccinations from Covid will change their DNA, Covid is a hoax, Antifa was behind the Capital insurrection, 911 was an inside job and the list goes on. A lot of conspiracy and anti sentiment that comes into Canada filters up from the U.S. and we lap it up, because it fits also the narrative of many Canadians and what they want to believe goes on in Canada.

There just comes a time where I don’t have the patience for those who define what a TWOT is by their lack of logical or Critical Thinking on subjects that are socially and economically important in nature. I will always try, when I come across someone who listens to hyperbole and takes it as gospel, to to get them to just look at the facts and data, but when it becomes exhaustive and apparent that even if god himself told them they are missing the forest through the trees, then I just call it like I see it, the person is a TWOT.

There are days (I am sitting in my car and moving at a dead stop), when thoughts come across my mind like: “who are all these morons who cannot see the clear and present problem here?” “How can anyone with any direct authority look at this situation and think, ‘yeah this is fine, I don’t know what everyone is talking about? We don’t need to do a thing.’”

These individuals literally have no clue how this problem has needed to be addressed since the 1980’s and why do they have no comprehension of the problem? Those who are in a position to do something simply ignore it because it does not impact them in their ability to work, travel, or commercial endeavors or provide political benefit.

Yes what I am talking about is Highway One. The highway that morphs into a parking lot at some point most days, anywhere from 232nd street in Langley to Hope, in both directions might I add. Our politicians and bureaucrats live in Victoria, not the Lower Mainland and Fraser Valley. Most of them only go through the Valley when on holidays. I doubt many have experienced the joy and wonderment of being stuck in 39 degree heat on a highway built in 1961 when the population of all of BC was 1.6 million. Today the population of the Lower Mainland and Fraser Valley alone is 3.1 million and the BC population is 5.2 million.

Gee, I don’t think it takes a degree in Advanced Mathematics to figure out that a 60 year old two lane highway, the only main artery connecting the rest of BC and lower mainland, is probably being stretched to its frickin limit.

Yet what do those in Power continue to do? Ignore it; until they are forced to do something to give the appearance of fixing the problem for the media drop. How do they approach the problem? They look for an expensive and ineffectual way to band aid the problem. As proof I submit the variable speed corridor that was installed between Abbotsford and Chilliwack at a cost of over $25 million dollars. Each one of those Variable Speed signs cost and average $1 million and there are 23 of them.

I agree with the signs for winter, to be able to slow traffic down in poor conditions, makes sense. However, this was sold as a way to manage traffic flow all year round but no one follows the signs with few exceptions, so everyone is still trying to get to whatever destination they seek as fast as possible. I know this as I have been on the Highway where the sign says 80 km/h and everyone is still doing over 100. Further to this, explain to me if you have a long weekend in the summer and all the additional holiday traffic as a result, how does it makes any sense to slow traffic down? From what I have seen, this investment in signs has done little to fix the limitations of the Highway.

Speaking of signs, the government spent $25 million on 23 variable corridor signs in the Fraser Valley, but I bet there are not 20 signs from Chilliwack to Vancouver that tell drivers to get out of the fast lane and let others pass. I personally love getting stuck behind someone driving 90 in the fast lane oblivious to the fact they have a kilometer of cars backed up behind them….dah dah dah(Actually when I am behind them I flash the high beams and the occasional horn, makes me feel better and wakes them the frick up).

Anyways, those in power fail to realize the highways problem as there chief concern is protecting government finances from frivolous expenditures like improved infrastructure that can move goods, services and people more quickly and efficiently and thus making the economy more profitable and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

So what got me so fired up about this issue? In the last few weeks I have had to travel on the Highway on a few occasions and without exception all my trips have had delays due to the traffic on the highway. On one return trip from Langley I got caught in an issue at 232nd, to only get stuck in another at 264th and then just for shits and giggles one more at Mt Lehman. It added over an hour and 15 minutes to what should have been a 45 minute trip. Oh yeah I was running HOT!!!!

It is ridiculous and absurd for the government of BC to keep delaying what has to be done. They will argue they don’t have the money. Well then go to the Federal government, after all it is a national highway, and get them to help pay for it. On gasoline there is a $.10 per liter Federal excise tax that is to help pay for roads bridges etc. In BC on Gasoline the Federal government collects over $600 million a year and from the Carbon Tax the BC government collects nearly $1 billion per year. Where does all this money really go? That’s right, general revenue and from there to where the government can use those funds for political advantage while motorists sit, the same motorists who pay the taxes in the first place.

The last Federal government announcement to improve the Highway was back in 2019 where they pledged $185 million to 6 projects on Highway One, unfortunately not one dollar for the problem here, but for projects in Langley and Salmon Arm areas. Wow $185 million and in that time to complete the project the Feds will collect about $2.8 billion in excise taxes on gas and the BC government will collect nearly $5 billion in Carbon tax from fuel sales. Greedy Fkr’s all, while we schmucks bake in the heat on a highway that moonlights as a parking lot.

So what needs to be done? Well in my opinion it is pretty clear cut; expand the highway to three lanes plus an HOV lane. Build it now and build it bigger all the way to Hope as that is where traffic splits between the Hope-Princeton, Fraser Canyon and Coquihalla Highways. Easier said than done you might say and you are right to get things done you need to motivate the politicians and for that I have a cunning plan…..

To get all the politicians and decision makers really motivated, we get both the NDP and Libera leaders in the legislature, add in PM Photo Op and his gang, place them in black vans without any working AC or windows on a hot summer Friday afternoon of a long weekend and have them drive from Vancouver to Hope and back and see if that motivates them to get the frickin highway fixed.
I for one am pissed off having to negotiate that parking lot and paying the enormous taxes on fuel at all levels of government. It is time our politicians started applying a little logic and common sense and do the much needed highway improvement that has been ignored for the past 20 years.

Update on China In my China blog I talked about how China has taken advantage of Most Favored Nation status to keep tariff’s low for them as a “developing economy”. China was recently hit with anti-dumping tariffs on furniture sent to Canada. A few Canadian furniture manufacturers took their case that China was aggressively dumping to the government and a tariff was leveled against Chinese imports(295%). Dumping is essentially selling products in the market at reduced costs and undercutting domestic manufacturing in order to gain market share. Excellent I thought and about time but it took a group of Canadian Manufacturers to point this out about China’s trade practices, but at least the Canadian government did something to protect Canadian industry. Now only 5,412 more items listed in the trade agreement for the Canadian government to impose realistic and meaningful duties on.

Even though the U.S. and Canada are going through another Covid wave due to the Delta variant and the U.S. is lagging way behind Canada in vaccinations, our illustrious leader, PM Photo Op, has decided to open our borders to full vaccinated Americans starting August 9^th. 

WTF? U.S. Covid numbers are going through the roof, and we are opening the border? I do understand and sympathize with the needs of the Tourism and Hospitality Industry to get back to business and that means U.S. tourists now and Europeans in September, but with so many still not fully vaccinated here, why open the borders? Get us to Herd Immunity and then do it, is that really a hard concept and is that not what all the science says we need to do to get back to normal?  

What further pisses me off so much is we announced the opening of the Border to fully vaccinated Americans on July 19 expecting the U.S. to do similar about their side of the border. Instead everyone got blindsided by the Biden administration and the border remains closed to fully vaccinated Canadians. Their reasoning is that currently the risk too high given low vaccination rates and the Delta variant to open the border to fully vaccinated Canadians. In other words the U.S. is having a raging spread of Covid and their population is not doing what it needs and getting vaccinated( as of July 28, 2021 49.8 % of Americans are fully vaccinated vs. 57.6% of Canadians) .

There is some hypocrisy in the fact the U.S. keeps their borders closed to prevent spread from Canadians, but at the same time feel it is okay with Americans travelling to Canada and potentially spreading Covid. I was under the impression from PM Photo Op’s news conferences that it was a coordinated effort by both countries as to opening the border that is how officials made it sound. Former U.S. Ambassador to Canada Bruce Heyman, described that Canada would not have announced its loosening of border measures if the U.S. had been uncomfortable with it. Really?

One concern I have with opening the borders is with proof of vaccination. The government has set up a website that guides the process for proving vaccination and these requirements can be found at https://travel.gc.ca/travel-covid/travel-restrictions/covid-vaccinated-travellers-entering-canada#proof.  When reading through them and what is required for proof, like a receipt, pdf, jpeg for instance, it seems to me that people might not always be honest about their status. Even here with the little paper record that I got when I got vaccinated it has a date and someone’s scribble on it, is not really official proof. I would not really consider that proof and in my opinion if Vaccination proof is not something official from government or regulatory health body then can’t rely on it? Is it possible for an unvaccinated person to falsify to gain entry? Yes, looking at what Canada will accept as proof and no mention of verification?

In one of the reasons the U.S. decided to keep the border closed was the fact of there is no procedure or method to confirm if a person from Canada or the EU has been full vaccinated. You mean that the U.S. is taking a common sense approach and wants some form of official vaccination form, not some hand written card signed by anyone? That only makes perfect sense.

Entrants must do a test 72 hours prior to entry but imagine someone unvaccinated, manages to upload falsified vaccinations records, does the test and passes, but just prior to entry gets the delta variant or gets the variant up here and spreads it all over while travelling Canada. I realize this is probably the worst case scenario, but there is an old saying, “plan for the worst, hope for the best”.

I strongly believe that Canada, the UK and EU all came under some pressure from the U.S. administration and their respective Travel and Hospitality sectors to open travel for Americans and I believe PM Photo Op and cabinet knew the U.S. was not going to reciprocate. The U.K. opened it’s borders to U.S. travelers who are fully vaccinated, but did not do that for Canada, yet Canada has a higher vaccination rate. So is the decision being made based on science or is it being decided at a more political level. I would think it is more that latter.

Our PM and his advisors are still muddling through the process and a lot of the time like in this case, their logic seems rather illogical. Again they are politicizing the Virus, ignoring the science and by doing so are prolonging that which so many of us are sick of.

Note: No blog till August 13^th taking a holiday.

The amount of disinformation that people are putting out about Covid vaccines should in my opinion be considered a crime. If a person is willingly and knowingly spreading disinformation that can result in serious illness or death of a person, then they should be charged with reckless endangerment or similar at a minimum. I am more than sick of this virus. I hate hearing it on the news, I hate the politicization of it, I hate the economic effects now and long term. Quite frankly this pisses me off that people are propagating anti-vaccination as it drags the virus on and on and on…..when I and everyone I know wants it dead!!!

I don’t even know why any of these antivaxxers say what they say other than to promote their own products and profit from this. Two prominent antivaxxers are Joseph Mercola and Sayer Ji, both of whom continue to claim that supplements and a natural medicine is the way to prevent Covid. Surprising both have businesses that market these supplements and natural medicines to their audience as the only true protection from Covid. Mercola has been a guest of famous conspiracy theorist Alex Jones on InfoWars, promoting his anti vaccination theories and shilling his products. He made the claim that more people will die from the vaccine than the disease.

So let’s address that bit of misinformation that more people will die from the vaccine than the disease. In Canada as of the end of April approximately 24,000 Canadians had died out of 1.2 million cases of Covid-19 and 50 people had died of an adverse reaction to the vaccine out over 16 million people who had received the vaccine. Of people vaccinated 4,300 have had adverse reactions and in 750 of those cases the reaction was serious. These are statistically low numbers but it is not an absolute. Life has risks associated with it, taking flying for example. It is very safe statistically, however, it is not an absolute and sometimes planes crash but we all still fly and take the risk, including all the antivaxxers I know that love Mexican vacations.

Every business and economics article that I have read says the key to going forward is to vaccinate everyone in order to kill the virus. The business and financial sector knows this and need this to get back to business at full speed. Business and the markets hate the idea of another round of shutdowns and for many small businesses that have managed to endure this, they may not if shuttered again. Forbes magazine to combat mistruth about mRNA vaccines altering ones DNA and why it cannot happen published this article. (January 11, 2021, Victoria Foster: Covid-19 Vaccines Can’t Alter Your DNA, Here’s Why).

In simplistic form, mRNA stands for Messenger Ribonucleic Acid, and is the way our DNA, which stands for Deoxyribonucleic Acid, gives instructions to our cells as to the proteins to make to protect us from a virus. DNA is two long chains intertwined where as mRNA is a single strand of a small part of DNA. The mRNA is made in the nucleus of a cell where DNA resides. The mRNA then travels to the main part of the cell to give it the instructions. Hence the m in mRNA is messenger, relaying the instructions of our DNA, not the other way around.

So what an mRNA vaccine does is give instructions to the cells that make up our bodies to make these proteins to defend against the Covid-19 virus. The mRNA vaccines have been very effective at over 80 % plus effective against the new Delta Variant and reducing serious illness if infected with Covid by 96%. According to the US Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy, 99.5% of those dying in hospital from Covid are unvaccinated. Reports from the CDC have shown 97% of those in hospital due to Covid are unvaccinated. Mortality rates appear to be similar as to other variants, around 2%, helped with improved treatments and medications, since the start of the pandemic.

So let’s now turn to the Delta Variant. When science refers to a variant, this is a mutation of the virus from its previous form. In the case of Covid-19 the main variants are Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta, with the latter the most prevalent. The Delta variant is over 50% more transmissible than the Alpha variant and one study identified that those who are unvaccinated and infected with the Delta variant are twice as likely to need hospitalization, than those infected with the Alpha variant. The Delta is approximately 400% more transmissible amongst people than the original virus in Wuhan China. This according to data in a July 8, 2021 article in Fortune Magazine discussing increased transmissibility with each mutation.

The virus does not care for whom you are, your religion or your political views. It only wants to survive and so to do that more efficiently it mutates in order to gain a better hand on the human body and immune system. Having an mRNA vaccine is like in Star Trek when Kirk gives an order to get the shields up to protect the Enterprise before the Klingons fire. Same with the mRNA, it tells the cells to produce the proteins to protect the body and immune system before the Virus attacks.

Mutations are the reason we need the world vaccinated or what will happen is the virus will continue to mutate to survive and that could mean a lot of different things. If it becomes more transmissible and greater numbers of people are infected around the world deaths may increase, especially in developing countries. A new mutation could occur that current vaccines cannot protect against putting the entire world back to square one again. F@$#@ NO! is my answer to that, I have had enough of Covid.

This brings me to antivaxxers who believe it is their right to choose to be vaccinated or not and no one is going to tell them what to do with their bodies. Wow does that not echo what women have said about their rights and abortion…..but that is a different blog …..someday…..maybe….

I agree, everyone has a right to choose, but when you choose there should be a consequence for the wrong decision. I was discussing this with someone I know who is not getting vaccinated. He felt it was his right not to be vaccinated. Ok, fair enough and I took this point. So if you don’t get vaccinated and end up in the hospital, will you pay the cost of your care because I don’t think as a taxpayer I should be funding tens of thousands in care and treatment when you could have prevented it by taking a shot?

His response was that this is Canada and it will never occur because we don’t penalize people about choices. Look at smokers, we don’t make them pay if they get lung cancer. He was right, but here is the difference, smokers pay an enormous amount of tax on cigarettes every year. Depending on the area a person could be paying $10 or more per package of cigarettes in tax. If a person smokes one pack a day, every year they are paying over $3,600 in additional taxes for their sin of smoking. Various governments have also sued cigarette makers and have been successful in recouping billions for misleading the public about the dangers of smoking. So to say smokers don’t pay in our system is technically wrong.

My point about this is as a Canadian citizen I believe in a persons rights to choose. I as a Canadian Taxpayer do not believe that I should be financially responsible to help pay a persons medical bills when a shot is available that would have prevented it. I think it is almost hypocritical of people who chant the mantra the state is not going to tell them what to do, but if they get Covid they will expect the state to step in and save them, WTF?

Social media is rife with misinformation designed around providing a narrative that proliferates a fear and mistrust of individuals, government, political parties, corporations and alike. These narratives, that are Anti – Vaccination, play directly at the public’s fears as too why they do not have to get vaccinated, like the vaccine will alter your DNA, when science has demonstrated this cannot happen. Further what we see attached too much of the Anti Vaccination propaganda is designed with a profit motive like in the cases of Joseph Mercola and Sayer Ji.

I am sick and tired of Covid. I hate it on the news, I hate how it has affected my community, and I hate how it has affected my life. I too want all my personal freedoms back. The only way that is going to happen is if we reach herd immunity and the only way to get there quickly and effectively is by vaccinations. So suck it up buttercup, roll up that sleeve and get your vaccine!

I am sick to frickin death of the Environmental ignorance that goes on when it comes to Electric Vehicles. This ignorance of the facts revolves around what I call the tail pipe argument. That because Electric Vehicles have no tail pipe emissions they are what is best for the environment and to help with climate change. I do believe very strongly that we ALL should be trying to reduce our carbon footprint. I do also believe that the Electric Car at present is not the best transportation solution, because actually it has a very high carbon footprint and is not necessarily good for the environment.

First, the Carbon footprint of an Electric car is not zero. It produces zero carbon when running, absolutely, but the inputs to build and run the vehicle are all based on carbon production. Every ounce of plastic that goes into a TESLA, from moldings to bumpers to dashboards, are made of Plastics which comes from Oil. This is part of Oil’s flexibility through use of Oil’s carbon chain, it used in everything from plastics to Coffee Mate and why we will not eliminate oil entirely as no alternatives exist at present to replace Oil’s flexibility of use.

How do you charge the batteries of an Electric Vehicle? Most people would say, “plug it into the wall idiot”. I do get that, but my question goes to, where does the electricity come from out of the wall? Is it from Hydro Electric (Dams), Coal or Natural Gas Generation, Diesel or other Fossil Fuels? As all of these have a Carbon footprint and Coal is about the worst. Not only do you have to burn a lot of coal to generate power, but once it is burnt it reduces to what is called Slag and this is nasty toxic stuff. It is full of all the impurities and residue from burning coal and there are mountains of this in the Eastern US States. In 2020 the US burned 477 million tons of Coal to produce 10% of its total energy consumption according to the US Energy Information Agency(EIA), about 21% of the electrical production in the US.

In the US as a whole, 61% of US electricity is generated by Coal or Natural Gas. The remaining 39% is from Hydro Electric, Nuclear, Wind and Solar. The point about all this is having an electric car and plugging it in does not remove you from the tail pipe. The fact is, if you are in the US and own a TESLA or any electric car, to power your car, you very well might be still burning fossil fuels depending where you live.

Even Hydro Electric, Nuclear, Wind and Solar have inherent problems with them that are not environmentally friendly. Hydro Electric requires flooding massive areas of land to build a reservoir wiping out vast areas of the eco system, both plant and animal life. For Solar you need large areas for solar panels in order to generate electricity on a commercial scale same with Wind. Then there are the inherent problems with Solar and Wind that you need Mother Nature to cooperate and the lack of ability to store power generated.
Nuclear is the best option if you people want clean energy, but after Chernobyl and Fukushima, not too many people want a nuclear reactor in their backyard because of the potential economic and ecological consequences.

Here is another issue that is never mentioned in the discussion of Electric Vehicles and their Carbon footprint, the mining of Lithium. This mineral is used to produce Lithium Ion batteries, which are used to power everything from cell phones to lap tops to TESLAs. Again, there are a number of issues with the use of Lithium. First, as the world produces more electric vehicles, more batteries will be needed. That translates to more mining which means heavy equipment burning more fossil fuels to mine for Lithium. Then there is the mining itself, stripping of the land and the effects on wildlife and the tailings from the mining operation to separate the lithium.

Finally with respect to Lithium Batteries, they are not recyclable. Once they have lived their lifespan of a few years, they are off to the landfill. Not just any landfill, but one for Hazardous Waste specifically, as that is what spent Lithium Ion batteries end up becoming. These dump sites for the batteries are going to become what the slag heap is to coal, a toxic nightmare, but no one pushing electric vehicles talks about this.

Politicians, Lobby Groups, Greenpeace or whomever need to quit this spin about the electric car as the cure to our carbon emissions problems because it is not. The ways that electricity is currently produced along with environmental issues of mining and hazardous waste storage don’t make Electric vehicles in my opinion an effective way to reduce greenhouse gases and protect the environment.

If people want to reduce their greenhouse gases at the tail pipe, then buy a Honda Civic, Toyota Corolla, Mazda 3, for your commute and get rid of the F 4000 Pickup that sucks 4 times the fuel to go the same distance. Owning a Tesla is not the solution, no matter what Elon says.

I am outraged and disgusted by the Catholic Church and the lack of comment from the Vatican about the recent discoveries of Child graves at Residential school sites, run by the Church. While I am outraged and disgusted, I am not surprised as the Catholic Church has a history of violence, abuse and cover ups going back centuries. The Catholic Church is an Organization that has used fear of damnation, fire and brimstone to influence and control its faithful.

Over 1,200 children that we know of found in unmarked graves around residential schools rings to me of someone trying to cover up a crime. This was a crime that went on for decades, where the Canadian government participated in providing children to predators; children who were stripped from their families and community.

Many know of the abuses that have come to light in recent years surrounding the Catholic Church and Priests who were known to be sexual predators of children. How those Priests were not removed, but moved to new locations where they would once again feed off children. Imagine a Residential school full of scared young children; really it is an ideal hunting ground for a Predator. Literally they could act with impunity as no one followed up it appears. If a child died, well they just buried them in an unmarked grave and moved on to the next victim. There was no better place for a sexual predator to act on their urges than a Residential School and it would not surprise me if some Priests took on an assignment at one because of the ease and access to children.

In researching my blog, I wanted to know how many Catholic Priests have gone to jail for sexual abuse of children? According to a 2009 study by John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, only 3% of Priests accused had been convicted and only 2% had received any prison sentence. We are not talking about a couple of hundred priests being accused we are talking that in the US alone there are allegations against nearly 6,700 Priests for child sexual abuse, some that go back decades. We know from survivors of these Residential schools that sexual abuse was occurring and those involved with the abuse did so with relative impunity.

The Catholic Church runs more like a corporation than a church, with holdings, property and investments in the tens of billions. The operating budget for the Catholic Church is estimated at $170 billion per year. The Vatican has its own bank, an investment arm, real estate, bonds, property worldwide, priceless art and the list goes on. So it has always been in their best interest to keep these things hidden and quiet as it can. Pretty hard to do when you have over 6,000 employees being accused of sexual abuse and also when paying settlements totaling hundreds of millions to victims in the US.

So when I see on the news that Catholic Churches are being burnt to the ground I understand it. Since this came to light the Pontiff, his royal exaltedness in a ridiculous hat, the Pope, has not said “Bupkis”. Local Archdiocese have apologized, but nothing from those at the top who in my opinion bare the ultimate responsibility. The Catholic Church had known for years and years of the behavior of many of its Priests and Clergy. Instead of dealing with it, the Church ignored it by covering up incidents and moving those accused to new assignments. Some probably ended up at Residential Schools.

Yet the Catholic Church and the Pontiff will not apologize for their role in the Residential School System and the deaths of thousands of indigenous children. They have tried to avoid paying any reparations to survivors and when asked why no apology from the head guy in the ridiculous hat, the answer from the Church was that Pope Francis “felt he could not personally respond”. What utter BS but I am not surprised as the Catholic Church has always put its own financial and political agenda ahead of serving the people that the all mighty expects them to serve.

This is a Church that for 300 years lead crusades against Muslims and Jews and upon capturing a city, would kill all the inhabitants: men, women and children. Then of course the Papal decree of Pope Innocent VIII who declared witches as real and started burning heretics and “witches” at the stake. Most of these witches were of course women. That whole commandment of thou shalt not kill, was interpreted as more of a suggestion during these times.

Then there were the Inquisitions where the church took upon themselves to condemn everything from, Protestantism, Judaism, blasphemy, immorality, love magic (what?) and anything else the Church could think of, literally. People were tortured till they confessed and if they did not, they were burned at the stake, in short a person accused was F@#$ked!

So here we have an Organization with a long history of violence and abuse that the Canadian government thought would be good to run residential schools, which in itself was a stupid idea. What’s more the Canadian government would pay them to do so.

This whole situation was messed up from the start and doomed given who was running things and their motivations. The Church however must be held accountable even if it happened decades ago. If a company polluted a waterway decades ago under a different President and CEO, they are not off the hook today to clean up the mess they left, so why should the Catholic Church?

Priests and Clergy that participated in the Residential school system need to be investigated and those who are still alive and either covered up or participated in any abuse that occurred need to be held accountable. As for the Catholic Church, the Canadian government should seize assets from the church sufficient to repay every dollar the Canadian Government gave the Catholic Church to run the schools, plus interest. The government should then hand those assets over to the Indigenous communities to help them recover and heal from this tragedy.

Finally, the Canadian government should insist upon the Pope issuing a formal apology to the First Nations of Canada. If he fails to do so, then the Canadian government should level sanctions against all high ranking Catholics at the Vatican, like we would against any foreign national who has acted against the interest of Canada and Canadians.

Let us all be clear. A crime was committed, a cover up occurred and those institutions that were responsible need to be held accountable. Time for PM Photo Op to stand up and demand an apology from the Pope or PM Photo Op should stop pretending to lead this country.