We're almost finished July and as yet there are still no new J.D. Salinger books being released! I heard they'd be released by 2020. Get a move on you slow pokes! Before everybody who wants to read anything new by the man is dead. We're assured by Salinger's son, who whets fans' appetites with promises of more news of the Glass family and even Holden Caulfield, yet for a decade has obdurately left us with the extant stories, that he is working "as fast as he freaking can." Not a chip off the proverbial block. If he'd said, "as fast as he Goddamn can," he'd have been more convincing.
Short of world war, global catastrophe or Jesus' return, the long awaited release of a half century of my favourite author's writing should prove to be the most significant event in the latter half of my life. And like most major events in my life, it has been tantalizingly delayed. Read into that what you like.
Imagine if J.K. Rowling wrote the first Harry Potter, maybe the first two, then waited 50 years to finish the series. Choose an author: Tolkien just wrote "The Hobbit;" George R.R. Martin just wrote "A Song of Ice and Fire;" Stephen King just wrote "Carrie," "Salem's Lot" and "The Shining;" Tom Robbins only wrote "Another Roadside Attraction;" what if Shakespeare only wrote "Taming of the Shrew" and a couple of "Henries?" … and then spent 50 years writing in seclusion keeping us in excruciating suspense? Well that's just how I roll, folks. You should know that about me by now. I happened to choose as my favourite author, the most frustrating bastard a fella could possibly have chosen. Thanks for that Jerry!
Oh, how can I stay mad at old J.D.? Given all his eccentricities as a person, not the least of which was his reclusiveness, a trait I have termed in my own life "leave-me-aloneliness," he has written one HELLUVA first act! I have an endless list of questions about what lies ahead! But that, I gotta believe, is the method to all Salinger's madness. Some authors, like John Kennedy Toole, Byron, Keats, Shelley, Sylvia Plath, Jack Kerouac, Emily Bronte may have died before their greatest works were written. So they're dead. There's no way of knowing. There's a satisfactory finality in that. It's a bit frustrating but whatareyagonnado?
With Salinger, his greatest work may have existed unpublished for 50 years! FITTY YEARS! It's WORSE than if he had died! I could have enjoyed it for fifty years. Well, the world could have. I wouldn't have discovered it till college but a good thirty years of my favourite book could have been denied me already! In this way it will almost be a relief if when all of his new/old stuff is released, it absolutely stinks, but I am almost positive it won't. I think he was just rounding into top form when he "went away." Why do I think this? There is so much the average person doesn't know about the few writings of this Prospero with a pen! I don't want to get myself all worked up only to have to wait another year, but it's so hot today, I could anonymously drink Tom Collins' with the family of the bride my brother just left at the altar. < Probably the funniest of Salingers' short stories in which Buddy, Seymour Glass' brother, and sole representative of his family to make it to his wedding, invites infuriated members of his would-be wife's family to his apartment for drinks after they learn that Seymour got cold feet. (In the end Seymour and Muriel elope only to have Seymour blow his head off on his honeymoon after a girl from his hotel pretends to see a rare bananafish Seymour had made up) There is just so MUCH! So with nothing better to do, on a day unfit for man or bananafish, I suppose I'll catch you up a bit if you'll allow me. Beware lest you too become an unsatisfied fan held hostage by his family.
I suppose we should start with "Catcher." Everybody knows "Catcher in the Rye" and thinks since it is so well known, it's the best thing he ever wrote and the best he ever will. You're not a true fan if you do. If you are, you'll understand that this novel is just an aside, a mere footnote, a book written by the second best writer in the Glass family, Buddy Glass. Much like his hero and contemporary, who he met, shared "Catcher" with and received rave reviews from, Ernest Hemingway, Salinger's short stories are his strong suit. I didn't even like Hemingway's books. Being intentionally wooden does not translate to "macho" or cleverly stylistic in my opinion. Many, including Salinger, would disagree. But I DID like Hemingway's short stories. And I include "The Old Man And The Sea" as just a long short story. The aforementioned "Raise High The Roof Beams Carpenters" was also a long short story. Call it a novella if it makes you more comfortable, but both these guys were aces at the short story!
Most of us know the shady reports of several killers, most notably Mark David Chapman, who assassinated John Lennon then read directly from the book during his hearing. Robert John Bardo, Lee Harvey Oswald, and John Hinkley (HEY a guy with only two names!) who either murdered or attempted to murder Rebecca Schaeffer, JFK, and Ronald Reagan respectively, have also been linked to the book. Ironically its largely overlooked theme of finding joy (Phoebe, Holden's sister) amidst the suffering of life make this book less doom and gloom than people think. But it probably needs to be tempered with the knowledge of some eastern philosophy that the BEST writer, nay poet, nay SEER of the Glass family, Seymour (who really does see more) exudes. In short, don't read "Catcher" till you've read "Nine Stories" "Seymour an Intro," "Roofbeams," "Franny and Zooey" and "Hapworth 16 1924." And there are several more stories that are harder to access that might shed some light on the whole story. For instance, I sincerely hope that the short story only available at the Princeton library entitled, "The Last and Best of the Peter Pans," a story about Vincent Caulfield, Holden's older brother, discovering that his mother had hidden his draft card is included in the new writings. He's angry but his mother mentions brother Kenneth who has already been killed in the war. Holden is briefly mentioned and there is a reference to babies crawling off a cliff. The mother was trying to protect her child. The title, "Catcher in the Rye" is from an old negro spiritual that goes, "When a body catch a body runnin' through the rye." And it's about kids running through grain higher than their heads toward a cliff, but they can't see. They need a "Catcher."
Ah ha! See how it all starts to come together? In this body of work, you are constantly feeling like a detective trying to piece the story together. Like, for instance, the part about Seymour being kicked off the radio show, "It's a Wise Child," for saying the Gettysburg Address was basically dishonest. He contended that 51,112 men were casualties at Gettysburg and "if someone had to speak at the anniversary of the event, he should simply have come forward and shaken his fist at his audience and then walked off-that is, if the speaker were an absolutely honest man." I am, however, quite certain John Wilkes Booth (why do so many assassins have three names?) did NOT read "Catcher in the Rye." But could this have contributed to the other killers' interpretation of Salinger's writing that triggered their murder attempts? Again, ah ha!
I got interested in Salinger by reading "Nine Stories" in high school. It is the best way to start your J.D. Salinger journey. I have three times given my copy of "Nine Stories" away. It is a book that SHOULD be given away if my reading of it is accurate. Like Waker, one of the Glass twins, gives away his expensive, brand new bike. His twin brother Walt, the college boyfriend of Eloise Wengler, was described in "Uncle Wiggily In Connecticut," (from Nine Stories) as the sweetest, funniest man she ever knew. Walt was killed in WWII. Waker spent WWII in a conscientious objector camp and went on to become a Carthusian Monk.
In another story, the narrator, Buddy Glass, goes to a college in Montreal to teach art by correspondence. He overstates his qualifications in his resume and changes his name from John Smith to John De Daumier Smith claiming family relation to Picasso. There are two spiritual epiphanies in the story, a common theme in Salinger, linking banal things like bedpans and shoe lifts to visions of God. I was the only one in my class to put forth a conjecture that John DeDaumier Smith might be J.D. Salinger (same initials) and that Buddy (this is commonly believed/known) represents J.D. Salinger in the Glass family. Hence, Buddy (JDS) was the author of "Catcher in the Rye." This is suggested in "Seymour an Introduction." He considers himself a phony like DeDaumier Smith. Probably one of the reasons behind the seclusion.
Webb Gallagher (Buddy) Glass is the author, narrator, and protagonist in some of the short stories. "Teddy," from "Nine Stories," is probably his best. Sometimes more than one at the same time. As such, I expect a buttload of new stuff from Buddy when and if this treasure trove of new JDS material is released. I consider him to be the translator for Seymour. Sometimes Seymour is on another level and can't be understood by any but those who know him best. Like the story with the wedding party in which, after a few Tom Collins' Buddy proceeds to tear the guests a new one (except for the ever agreeable short old man who is funnier than any Shakespearean comedic plant) for their ignorant disparaging of such a great man. I sometimes feel I need Buddy as a translator. He admits many times in his writing to be regrettably down-to-earth in comparison to his other-worldly brother, but it's that which makes him more loveable. Perhaps this is a modesty in Salinger that few experienced from the man himself.
And Seymour! The greatest of all Salinger characters by far! Holden just might, MIGHT, be in the top 5 in my opinion. Only because, as Seymour advises Buddy while teaching him to shoot marbles, he's aiming too much. In other literary advice he says that Buddy needs to write more from his heart. This, ostensibly, is what Salinger loved in Hemingway and what he tried to make "Catcher" a largely unsuccessful attempt at. So now that you know it was written by Buddy, a good, but not evanescent artist, you know "Catcher in the Rye" was written intentionally second rate. Which is why, way back at the start, I said you need to know more about Salinger if you consider "Catcher" his best work.
I've heard, and of course there is no way to verify this, but, I've heard there may be an appearance made by Seymour in these new writings FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE! How can I NOT get excited about that? Not like "Hapworth," a bit of a contrived letter from camp from a guy who despised letter writing, written by Seymour and posthumously discovered by Buddy, there may be some kind of story related by the now dead Seymour! Not sure how but I bet Salinger could have done it in a not-too-suspend-your-disbelief kind of way. Like maybe telepathy between Buddy and Seymour? Buddy learns to meditate? They touch upon a meditative state of "satori" or that state of pure consciousness that is to be with God before He said, "Let there be light." The family are all versed in world religion and mysticism. In Everything really. They began training early. In "Raise High the Roof Beam" we see Franny says she remembers Seymour reading a Taoist allegory to her while she was an infant. This allegory, parenthetically, I retold from memory as my speech at my best friend Gilbert's wedding. It's about judging horseflesh so I'm not sure how flattering his wife Jeanne considered it, but to this day I know no man more worthy a judge of seeing beyond the surface and looking to the heart of someone. That was the message of the allegory.
So you see why I'm excited. I've read everything I can from Salinger and I've seen wisdom, action, mysticism, religion, politics, personal relationships, inciteful social observation, the list goes on. This is why Salinger is my favourite. And this is why I am champing at the bit to read 50 years more of his work! It could contain almost anything. Or maybe they (not so disappointingly) just find some other lost writings of Seymour the eldest. The sage. The seer. Why oh why are they withholding this from me???
Well there, I've gone and done it. I've gotten too excited. Now I'll have to re-re-read some Salinger to calm me down. Over the years I've found re-re-re reading his stuff to be soothing. Succor in times of trouble. lol Again, maybe this was his purpose. Some writings are meant to be read more than once. I would absolutely qualify almost everything Salinger wrote as re-reading necessity. Which is why I'm going to finish up this post and do some re-reading.
Contrary to several highly unstable individuals, I always feel comforted when I read J.D. I hope you, my readers, can come to an understanding of him that is similar. This will probably prepare you for the greatest reading of your lives! If it ever gets out there!
Patience Grasshopper. The new stories will arrive when the time is right.
What? Seymour? Who said that? Old Kung Fu guy?
I want to tell you more but I fear I have said too much. Go now, Grasshoppers and read of the Great Oracle Jerome David Salinger. I challenge thee.
Tuesday, July 23, 2019
Monday, July 1, 2019
Canada Night In Korea
Well another June come and gone. That's one less hot, muggy, Korean summer month to go. So that's nice. July first was a Monday this year so I really couldn't go hog wild for Canada Day but I thought at least there'd be some place in Itaewon putting on an event taking advantage of patriotic Canucks to sell their overpriced food and beer. Maybe even poutine. But only found one place in Hae Bong Chon that I am not familiar with and it would have required a trip into Seoul, most likely an overnight stay and a trip back. I'm less and less likely to take a chance like that these days for whatever reason, old age, anti-socialism, I dunno, so I stayed in, flashed up an old hockey game on YouTube from back when Canada was still a good place for me to work and live and I had a few beers.
I watched game 5 in a series between Boston and Montreal from 1978! I remember that series clearly! I was living with my grandparents that year. In the summer I had taken so many thousands of shots on my Christmas present hockey net from the cement slab path between my grandparents' front and back doors that I had become quite adept at patching holes in that net. I wore the fuzz right off a few dozen tennis balls so they were just black rubber. And I probably bought a superblade a month for my Koho shaft. And needless to say I had developed an absolutely wicked shot! Particularly my snapshot. I took pride in that.
Then winter came and I tried my best to teach myself how to skate. I had the skates but needed to find some frozen water. I found a patch in the back yard creek that bordered my grandparents' property and the neighbours', but it was only just long enough to get two strides. I was not yet good at stopping so I practiced right leg first stopping. I tried a few left leg stops too once in a while, but with little success. The school I went to, John Knox Memorial Christian School, had a rink between it and the church next door. Kids could use it at recess and sometimes after school. I went to Stockaders, a kind of boyscouty sorta thing, in the church one day a week and afterwards, while waiting to get picked up and driven home, I strapped on the blades and practiced. But my grandparents lived on Hamilton Mountain and the school/church was way down in Fruitland, so I couldn't use it often.
One day shortly after Christmas I took a long walk (which is redundant on Hamilton Mountain. EVERYTHING was a long walk away!) to the radio tower down the road just past Rosie's farm. I was in grade 6 and Rosie was a few grades ahead of me but I still went over to her place for a visit now and then. Her family had a real farm with animals and crops so it was interesting. My grandparents didn't really farm any more.
I tied my skate laces together so I could throw them over one shoulder. I took my good, curved blade, wooden stick that I'd received for Christmas, and a smaller, cheaper, straight bladed one that I had bought just in case. I put a few stocking stuffer pucks and hockey tape into my pockets and started walking. I couldn't shoot pucks at my net because the netting would just break. Besides, the net was too awkward and heavy to bring on this long a journey. I'd say it was close to an hour's walk.
At the radio tower, where there was a puddle of swampy, standing rainwater that had frozen over. It was much larger than a hockey rink although in sections cattail stalks and thick, wild grass made for bad skating. There was a nice sized clear spot in the middle though and when I arrived there was a man skating on it. He was a smooth skater and he could raise a puck with his slap shot. Both were things I hadn't mastered by that time. So I joined him and we took some shots at a wooden section of fence or old door that was sticking through the ice. It was roughly the size of a hockey net and though it was not perfectly rectangular, it was a good enough target for us. I think it might have been set in the ice for this very purpose because there was another one on the other side of the ice and there were so many skate marks on the ice I knew they couldn't all have been made by just this one man.
The man offered some advice for me on how to get my speed on my shot by getting more flex on my stick. He told me I needed to practice crossover turns and stopping both ways. He also showed me how to raise a slap shot. My slap shot was not as hard or saucer-like as his, but it was the first time I had raised the puck with anything but my wrist shot. So it was a great day for me.
It turned out that this guy was my grandparents' next door neighbour. I hadn't recognized him! They had come over a few times during the summer of the year I lived with my grandparents, to give them some of their homemade wine and I think once to borrow a tool from my Grampa, but I didn't really talk to them much. I was probably busy taking shots on my net, practicing handstands or high jump, or maybe raking the grass. Grampa always cut it with his prized riding mower.
Later that winter, or really, closer to that spring, I was invited over to his house to watch the Canadiens vs. the Bruins at the neighbours' place. He turned out to be a really great guy! I cheered for the Canadiens and he cheered for the Bruins. But that just made for some good, manly trash talking. And his wife brought down really great snacks! We were watching on the basement TV. I remember all that, though I don't remember their names. I think I watched that whole series next door. If I remember correctly, and I do cuz I Googled it, the Canadiens won it. It was a tremendous series! I thought it was Lafleur, but, no, it was Mario Tremblay with the series winner.
The game I watched on Canada Day was game 5. Boston had won two home games and so had Montreal. This was in the Montreal Forum and Dick Irvin and Danny Galavan were announcing with guest colour man Chico Resch. There were commercials too! So very, very few, but there were commercials. Some for Molson Light. (4.5%) Remember that song? Molson Light has got heart, miles and miles and miles of heart. If yer gonna brew a beer with great taste, there's only one place to start. Molson Light has got heart. Course you're right to try a light beer. But it's gotta have the heart. If it doesn't have the flavour, then you're beat right from the start - there's nothin' to it but to brew it - You gotta have taste to put a smile upon your face... and on it goes. I wonder who wrote that. There were ads for the Commonwealth Games in Edmonton that year. North Star running shoes. Oh how I dreamed of owning a pair of North Stars! Some for the wonderful Ford Pinto (ha ha ha). One with a mustachioed man speaking to a bottle of Canada Dry he just pulled out of a creek, "Canada Dry, I was ready for you!" Molson Export Ale - Keeps on tasting great. Then there was one for... are you ready for this?... Molson Brador! I totally forgot about that! And Molson Diamond Lager? I've NEVER heard of THAT! Do you remember? Member? Member? Possibly the best commercial though was for a BJ Thomas album. Record or 8 track. Available at Dominion, Towers and participating Mac's stores!
Larry Big Bird Robinson did his best impression of Bobby Orr that game. The Habs were getting outshot badly in the first when he took it upon himself to just rush the length of the ice and put one in. A beauty! Then he did an Orrian spin move to shake a checker and open some ice to pass to Mondou for the second goal. He got robbed of another assist too. Dave Newell and Leon Stickle had their hands full with the Canadians out ahead of the Don Cherry coached Bruins and sure enough there was a brawl when the game was out of reach. Good old time hockey in the good old days!
I had watched Boston vs. Toronto earlier in the week too. I'm into watching old hockey games on YouTube these days. I usually miss hockey during the summer. 1968 Boston vs. Toronto. Bobby Orr's Rookie year. What a game! While watching I took notes on how different the game was back then. These are 32 of the things I noticed. I'm sure there were other differences too.
1. No helmets. 2. Cheevers had a mask but Johnny Bower didn't. And Cheevers got hit in the face by a stick that game too! 3. LOOOOOOOOOOOOONG shifts! Orr made an end to end rush at least a minute into a shift, then stayed out for another minute after that! These days you won't ever GET a minute into a shift and if you go to the other end, you're gassed, get off! 4. Guys chewing gum not chewing their mouthguards. Nobody HAD mouthguards. Course, nobody had TEETH to guard either. 5. No ads on the boards. Nothing. Blank. White.
The above picture is absolutely shameful!
6. Cheevers came out to the left face-off dot one time to play the puck and another time he almost got to the blue line! 7. Tube skates. Of course there were many equipment differences but this was the most noticeable to me. Apart from the lack of head protection.
8. Two cameras. Some plays you had to take the word of the announcer for what was happening because the cameramen didn't catch it. That announcer? Foster Hewitt. 9. No organ at Maple Leaf Gardens! It was eerily quiet! There was one guy incessantly shouting "Bobby Orrrrrrrrr…" but otherwise just noise for close calls and goals. 10. Few, if any, shifts on the fly! Only changes during breaks in play.
11. Two guys threatening to fight came at each other with their sticks raised like they were going to carve each other's heads up! 12. Goals from the blue line no big deal. A couple or 3 in this game. 13. Goalies rarely off their feet. 14. Three officials. 15. Play called immediately when a player freezes the puck along the boards.
16. I didn't notice a single one-timer and NOOObody played their off wing. 17. Touch icing; Cheevers shot puck into crow resulting in no penalty; two line pass called. 18. Stick handling was abysmal! 19. Perfect ice surface. Not a bad bounce to be seen. 20. Not a single, solitary broken stick.
21. Extra netting in the net. 22. No giant score clock. 23. Fourth lines rarely used. Probably as a result of the long shifts. 24. Minimal play in front of the net. 25. This game was tied... and it just ended!
26. Players much lower on the bench and closer to the boards. Again most likely due to the lack of shifting on the fly. 27. Very few instant replays. 28. No names on jerseys, only numbers. 29. No high numbers. 30. Bell (fire alarm) to end periods.
31. Very solid boards with no give to them. 32. Low glass. 33. No netting above the glass.
Our great game really has changed over the years! I like some of the changes and dislike others. But I have to say watching the old games makes me nostalgic for the old Canada. Like our game, our country has changed over the years too. Some of the changes have been good, but unfortunately I feel like the majority have been bad. Or do I concentrate on only the good things in the past and forget the bad things? I think it says an awful lot that I had to watch hockey on Canada Day while living in Korea and drinking Korean beer. No, I really think the changes have largely been for the worse. In BOTH cases the worst changes have been in favour of capitalism, commercialism and greed.
I really hope my country smartens up so I can one day live there again! As they say, in the old days there were empires run by emperors and kingdoms run by kings. Now we have countries run by ----- I just don't think it has to be that way. So on this Canada Day I raise a mug of foreign beer whilst in a foreign country and say, "Here's to Canada! May the people sack up soon and get it back to the better country that it used to be!"
I watched game 5 in a series between Boston and Montreal from 1978! I remember that series clearly! I was living with my grandparents that year. In the summer I had taken so many thousands of shots on my Christmas present hockey net from the cement slab path between my grandparents' front and back doors that I had become quite adept at patching holes in that net. I wore the fuzz right off a few dozen tennis balls so they were just black rubber. And I probably bought a superblade a month for my Koho shaft. And needless to say I had developed an absolutely wicked shot! Particularly my snapshot. I took pride in that.
Then winter came and I tried my best to teach myself how to skate. I had the skates but needed to find some frozen water. I found a patch in the back yard creek that bordered my grandparents' property and the neighbours', but it was only just long enough to get two strides. I was not yet good at stopping so I practiced right leg first stopping. I tried a few left leg stops too once in a while, but with little success. The school I went to, John Knox Memorial Christian School, had a rink between it and the church next door. Kids could use it at recess and sometimes after school. I went to Stockaders, a kind of boyscouty sorta thing, in the church one day a week and afterwards, while waiting to get picked up and driven home, I strapped on the blades and practiced. But my grandparents lived on Hamilton Mountain and the school/church was way down in Fruitland, so I couldn't use it often.
One day shortly after Christmas I took a long walk (which is redundant on Hamilton Mountain. EVERYTHING was a long walk away!) to the radio tower down the road just past Rosie's farm. I was in grade 6 and Rosie was a few grades ahead of me but I still went over to her place for a visit now and then. Her family had a real farm with animals and crops so it was interesting. My grandparents didn't really farm any more.
I tied my skate laces together so I could throw them over one shoulder. I took my good, curved blade, wooden stick that I'd received for Christmas, and a smaller, cheaper, straight bladed one that I had bought just in case. I put a few stocking stuffer pucks and hockey tape into my pockets and started walking. I couldn't shoot pucks at my net because the netting would just break. Besides, the net was too awkward and heavy to bring on this long a journey. I'd say it was close to an hour's walk.
At the radio tower, where there was a puddle of swampy, standing rainwater that had frozen over. It was much larger than a hockey rink although in sections cattail stalks and thick, wild grass made for bad skating. There was a nice sized clear spot in the middle though and when I arrived there was a man skating on it. He was a smooth skater and he could raise a puck with his slap shot. Both were things I hadn't mastered by that time. So I joined him and we took some shots at a wooden section of fence or old door that was sticking through the ice. It was roughly the size of a hockey net and though it was not perfectly rectangular, it was a good enough target for us. I think it might have been set in the ice for this very purpose because there was another one on the other side of the ice and there were so many skate marks on the ice I knew they couldn't all have been made by just this one man.
The man offered some advice for me on how to get my speed on my shot by getting more flex on my stick. He told me I needed to practice crossover turns and stopping both ways. He also showed me how to raise a slap shot. My slap shot was not as hard or saucer-like as his, but it was the first time I had raised the puck with anything but my wrist shot. So it was a great day for me.
It turned out that this guy was my grandparents' next door neighbour. I hadn't recognized him! They had come over a few times during the summer of the year I lived with my grandparents, to give them some of their homemade wine and I think once to borrow a tool from my Grampa, but I didn't really talk to them much. I was probably busy taking shots on my net, practicing handstands or high jump, or maybe raking the grass. Grampa always cut it with his prized riding mower.
Later that winter, or really, closer to that spring, I was invited over to his house to watch the Canadiens vs. the Bruins at the neighbours' place. He turned out to be a really great guy! I cheered for the Canadiens and he cheered for the Bruins. But that just made for some good, manly trash talking. And his wife brought down really great snacks! We were watching on the basement TV. I remember all that, though I don't remember their names. I think I watched that whole series next door. If I remember correctly, and I do cuz I Googled it, the Canadiens won it. It was a tremendous series! I thought it was Lafleur, but, no, it was Mario Tremblay with the series winner.
The game I watched on Canada Day was game 5. Boston had won two home games and so had Montreal. This was in the Montreal Forum and Dick Irvin and Danny Galavan were announcing with guest colour man Chico Resch. There were commercials too! So very, very few, but there were commercials. Some for Molson Light. (4.5%) Remember that song? Molson Light has got heart, miles and miles and miles of heart. If yer gonna brew a beer with great taste, there's only one place to start. Molson Light has got heart. Course you're right to try a light beer. But it's gotta have the heart. If it doesn't have the flavour, then you're beat right from the start - there's nothin' to it but to brew it - You gotta have taste to put a smile upon your face... and on it goes. I wonder who wrote that. There were ads for the Commonwealth Games in Edmonton that year. North Star running shoes. Oh how I dreamed of owning a pair of North Stars! Some for the wonderful Ford Pinto (ha ha ha). One with a mustachioed man speaking to a bottle of Canada Dry he just pulled out of a creek, "Canada Dry, I was ready for you!" Molson Export Ale - Keeps on tasting great. Then there was one for... are you ready for this?... Molson Brador! I totally forgot about that! And Molson Diamond Lager? I've NEVER heard of THAT! Do you remember? Member? Member? Possibly the best commercial though was for a BJ Thomas album. Record or 8 track. Available at Dominion, Towers and participating Mac's stores!
Larry Big Bird Robinson did his best impression of Bobby Orr that game. The Habs were getting outshot badly in the first when he took it upon himself to just rush the length of the ice and put one in. A beauty! Then he did an Orrian spin move to shake a checker and open some ice to pass to Mondou for the second goal. He got robbed of another assist too. Dave Newell and Leon Stickle had their hands full with the Canadians out ahead of the Don Cherry coached Bruins and sure enough there was a brawl when the game was out of reach. Good old time hockey in the good old days!
I had watched Boston vs. Toronto earlier in the week too. I'm into watching old hockey games on YouTube these days. I usually miss hockey during the summer. 1968 Boston vs. Toronto. Bobby Orr's Rookie year. What a game! While watching I took notes on how different the game was back then. These are 32 of the things I noticed. I'm sure there were other differences too.
1. No helmets. 2. Cheevers had a mask but Johnny Bower didn't. And Cheevers got hit in the face by a stick that game too! 3. LOOOOOOOOOOOOONG shifts! Orr made an end to end rush at least a minute into a shift, then stayed out for another minute after that! These days you won't ever GET a minute into a shift and if you go to the other end, you're gassed, get off! 4. Guys chewing gum not chewing their mouthguards. Nobody HAD mouthguards. Course, nobody had TEETH to guard either. 5. No ads on the boards. Nothing. Blank. White.
6. Cheevers came out to the left face-off dot one time to play the puck and another time he almost got to the blue line! 7. Tube skates. Of course there were many equipment differences but this was the most noticeable to me. Apart from the lack of head protection.
15 years old
8. Two cameras. Some plays you had to take the word of the announcer for what was happening because the cameramen didn't catch it. That announcer? Foster Hewitt. 9. No organ at Maple Leaf Gardens! It was eerily quiet! There was one guy incessantly shouting "Bobby Orrrrrrrrr…" but otherwise just noise for close calls and goals. 10. Few, if any, shifts on the fly! Only changes during breaks in play.
11. Two guys threatening to fight came at each other with their sticks raised like they were going to carve each other's heads up! 12. Goals from the blue line no big deal. A couple or 3 in this game. 13. Goalies rarely off their feet. 14. Three officials. 15. Play called immediately when a player freezes the puck along the boards.
16. I didn't notice a single one-timer and NOOObody played their off wing. 17. Touch icing; Cheevers shot puck into crow resulting in no penalty; two line pass called. 18. Stick handling was abysmal! 19. Perfect ice surface. Not a bad bounce to be seen. 20. Not a single, solitary broken stick.
21. Extra netting in the net. 22. No giant score clock. 23. Fourth lines rarely used. Probably as a result of the long shifts. 24. Minimal play in front of the net. 25. This game was tied... and it just ended!
26. Players much lower on the bench and closer to the boards. Again most likely due to the lack of shifting on the fly. 27. Very few instant replays. 28. No names on jerseys, only numbers. 29. No high numbers. 30. Bell (fire alarm) to end periods.
31. Very solid boards with no give to them. 32. Low glass. 33. No netting above the glass.
Our great game really has changed over the years! I like some of the changes and dislike others. But I have to say watching the old games makes me nostalgic for the old Canada. Like our game, our country has changed over the years too. Some of the changes have been good, but unfortunately I feel like the majority have been bad. Or do I concentrate on only the good things in the past and forget the bad things? I think it says an awful lot that I had to watch hockey on Canada Day while living in Korea and drinking Korean beer. No, I really think the changes have largely been for the worse. In BOTH cases the worst changes have been in favour of capitalism, commercialism and greed.
I really hope my country smartens up so I can one day live there again! As they say, in the old days there were empires run by emperors and kingdoms run by kings. Now we have countries run by ----- I just don't think it has to be that way. So on this Canada Day I raise a mug of foreign beer whilst in a foreign country and say, "Here's to Canada! May the people sack up soon and get it back to the better country that it used to be!"
Sunday, June 30, 2019
Remember That 700 Billion We Gave You?
I recently heard Bernie Sanders propose an end to all student loan debt in the U.S. and it got my mind a-whirring. Amongst the cries of socialism from the right and the instant shot in the arm, not to say adrenalin shot directly to the heart, this would be to the American economy (not the one Trump trumps on and on about that is doing so well for the rich, the REAL economy that is sucking for everyone BUT the rich) the main source of that a-whirring in my mind was a possible chance to make up for the most colossal of missed opportunities in history by the American public back in and around the stock market meltdown of 2008.
You all know what I'm making extremely complex sentences about... sort of. The 700 billion dollar bank bailout. Remember that? Well by some accounts it has continued since and has reached the staggering total of 29 trillion dollars, not the MEASLEY 700 bill. you poor suckers thought you had forcibly given to the banks. But think about that sentence for a moment and you will see the monumental missed opportunity of which I write. No? Okay I'll help you: concentrate on the words "bank," then "give," then "forcibly," then "poor suckers." Did that help? Okay if the penny still hasn't dropped, I'll just have to do something a bank would never do and GIVE IT TO YOU. Still? Nothing? Good Lord if you haven't gotten it by now you almost deserve the ass rape you are getting from your banks/government!
Rhetorical question: When was the last time a bank gave anything to anybody? It's rhetorical because the answer is known by everyone. Banks give nothing to anyone. That's what makes them banks! They use the word "give" when they arrange loans for people, businesses, countries, but that word loses more of its meaning in direct proportion to the amount of interest and frustration the banks enjoy subjecting customers to. So why, taxpayers of the United States, why would you even consider giving your money to the banks?
Now I know there were a lot of carefully chosen words that might have mislead you back in 2008 like calling the situation a "state of emergency" and calling the banks "too big to fail" and calling your money "the country" or "America," but you should have been able to see that it wasn't THE COUNTRY helping the desperately needed banks get out of hard times they had innocently fallen upon, it was your crooked government helping the highly unnecessary banks by generously GIVING them huge piles of YOUR MONEY! It's been 11 years so for those of you who haven't come to that realization as yet, please stop reading and go back to your colouring books. For the rest of you, all is not lost. There may be a way to right a wrong yet.
When I went to university, a bank in Canada okayed 5000 dollars a year for me to attend at the pleasure of the good people of Canada. I know what you're thinking, but, no, it was not a bank giving me anything. We just established that they never do that. It was the taxpayers of Canada, through an unnecessary bank, granting a poor kid some dough to better himself through education. Now here's just one of many reasons why I call banks useless: in my second year, the bank took it upon itself to reverse the decision of the taxpayers, not to mention the amount, and LOAN me $3700 instead of GRANT me the $5000. And they broke this news to me 3/4 of the way through my school year. I had already taken around 3700 of emergency loans from my school by that point so all I could do was pay them back, quit, and fail the entire year. Yes, I was given money through the bank, then the bank changed its mind and turned that gift into a loan. Banks DO that! Why can't people? Can you guess where I'm going from here?
The way I see it, the people of the United States still have a chance, albeit retroactively, to treat the banks in the same shabby manner they have treated every one of us over the years! It's time to inform them that that 700 billion back in '08 wasn't actually a gift, but a loan, and it's now time to talk terms.
OH PLEASE let me be the one who writes the letter to the banks! Or maybe a phone call...
Ahem, Ah heh heh heh hem!!! The following should be read in the voice of Lilly Tomlin's telephone operator, Ernestine.
One ringy dingy. Two ringy dingies. A gracious good afternoon! Ha-have I reached to party to whom I am speaking? Mi-Mister Banks? Lovely! Good afternoon Mr. Banks, my name is Ernestine and I'm with the Bank of the United States Taxpayer. We are going to need you to go ahead and set up an account with us today. I beg your par - Oh I assure you, Mr. Banks I'm deadly serious! As serious as a Wall Street heart attack! (snort)
D- Do you remember that 700 billion dollars we gave you back in 2008? Well, given financial unforeseen flowery words baloney sandwich humminah humminah, (snort) we have seen fit to retract that offer, which is a right we reserve parallel to that which you have exercised upon us, and recalibrate our relationship as loaner/borrower rather than benefactor/beneficiary.
In order to effectively achieve this as well as facilitate principle and/or interest payments, we will need to set up a retroactive account for you at the Bank of the United States Taxpayers. In order for you to start your account with our bank, or as we like to say, "get you BUSTed," (oh hee hee snort) there are a few things we will require you to do.
First and certainly foreleast (snort) the future is upon us and you must register with us online. In order to do this you will need to access our webpage, www.bust.com . After closing all the pornographic popups, click on the "new account" icon and you will be prompted to create a password. This password must be changed every month and must contain the correct number of characters, numbers, symbols, fonts, colours and letter sizes that we randomize on a weekly basis. It will also require you to answer exactly one of 10 personally chosen verification questions upon each login... for your safety and convenience. If we notice inconsistencies such as access from a new device, your account will be frozen. In fact, if there are any irregularities, and (snort) there will be, your account will promptly be frozen for a minimum of one week and there is nothing you can do on this website. Emailing us or contacting us online is entirely possible, but will not result in any change to your account and/or account information/specifications. This is once again done for your safety and convenience. (hee hee snort I love saying that!)
Here is my favourite part: A telephone must be linked to your new account. In case of any problems, short of visiting every American taxpayer and talking with them person to person, this will be the only means of possibly solving account trouble. Just dial our toll free number, during OUR business hours 1-800-2855-7448, that's 1-800 BULLSHIT (oh snort) Some additional phone charges may apply and this number is not set up to answer calls from mobile phones.
Your call will answered just as soon as one of our very busy answering machines is able to get to it. You better plan for a 30-40 minute delay just so we know you're not a bot. If you manage to stay on the line that long, you will be subjected to a series of telephonically gymnastical questions regarding the nature or your account difficulties. Just press the number of the option that most closely relates to the issue you're having and that should only take another 30-40 quick and easy minutes to allow us to pinpoint the exact nature of your trouble. Or not. (snort) Next you will be helped by one of our live operators... after a 30-40 minute wait... for your safety and convenience.
Now, let us establish the details of our loan, shall we, Mr. Banks? Firstly, it has come to our attention that the circumstances necessitating the original and all following loans have all been the result of extremely irresponsible behaviour on your part. Oh no, Mi- Mister Banks, no need to worry, this only qualifies you for our usury rate of interest for high risk clients. I beg your pardon? Did I say, "usury?" Oh (snort) silly me, I must have made up a word! I meant "usual," of course. Now then, 700 billion with our highest rate of interest compounded monthly... carry the trillion....
There is also the matter of 11 years of borrowing without establishing an account with BUST. Borrowing on a balance of zero naturally constitutes some hefty overdrafts, good golly some HEFTY overdrafts (snort) which will be applied to the principle. That's million gojillion carry the two...
And this is also with the understanding that there will be a monthly service charge. Our people don't work for free! (snort) seven infinity carry the zeroes...
Now then, after careful calculation, we have arrived at our very first payment. You must eliminate all student loan debt in the country. What's that you ask? Will that settle your outstanding debt with BUST? Oh gosh no! (snort) That'll just catch you up on your interest!
Come again? What did you say? You refuse to pay? Oh dear, oh dear. Well you may feel free to exercise that option Mr. Veedle, excuse me, I mean Mr. Banks. But rest assured you will be provided no further funding from the Bank of the United States Taxpayers if you forfeit more than 3 payments in a - wha - what's that you say? Bankruptcy? Oh! (snort) You ARE a funny one, Mr. Banks. Much like the student loans that you provided to students, the future of our country, with no forgiveness through insolvency or bankruptcy, Mi-Mister Banks, you'll be paying this loan till New York become Old York (snort!) Whe - when may we expect payment?
Excu - excuse me? Lawyers? Lawsuits? Oh, clearly you don't understand, Mr. Banks. We at the Bank of the United States Taxpayer are not subject to city, state or federal laws. We are omnipotent. Yes, that's potent with an omni in front of it. (snort) At least we are when we're pissed off enough! Now whe-when may we expect payment?
I see. Oh, Mr. Banks, we're sorry you've chosen this option. We won't send any large, burly men to your door to collect. We will simply withhold funding to all your future leverage takeovers, loans to small, oil rich countries, and military actions. And if you still refuse to pay we wi - what's that Mr. Banks? You agree to our terms? You'll pay the first installment in 2020 when Bernie Sanders becomes president? Well that's just fine!
It was a pleasure doing business with you Mr. Banks. We will expect your payment and look forward to your successful repayment of your debt to us in full. Have a lovely afternoon! Buhbye.
You all know what I'm making extremely complex sentences about... sort of. The 700 billion dollar bank bailout. Remember that? Well by some accounts it has continued since and has reached the staggering total of 29 trillion dollars, not the MEASLEY 700 bill. you poor suckers thought you had forcibly given to the banks. But think about that sentence for a moment and you will see the monumental missed opportunity of which I write. No? Okay I'll help you: concentrate on the words "bank," then "give," then "forcibly," then "poor suckers." Did that help? Okay if the penny still hasn't dropped, I'll just have to do something a bank would never do and GIVE IT TO YOU. Still? Nothing? Good Lord if you haven't gotten it by now you almost deserve the ass rape you are getting from your banks/government!
Rhetorical question: When was the last time a bank gave anything to anybody? It's rhetorical because the answer is known by everyone. Banks give nothing to anyone. That's what makes them banks! They use the word "give" when they arrange loans for people, businesses, countries, but that word loses more of its meaning in direct proportion to the amount of interest and frustration the banks enjoy subjecting customers to. So why, taxpayers of the United States, why would you even consider giving your money to the banks?
Now I know there were a lot of carefully chosen words that might have mislead you back in 2008 like calling the situation a "state of emergency" and calling the banks "too big to fail" and calling your money "the country" or "America," but you should have been able to see that it wasn't THE COUNTRY helping the desperately needed banks get out of hard times they had innocently fallen upon, it was your crooked government helping the highly unnecessary banks by generously GIVING them huge piles of YOUR MONEY! It's been 11 years so for those of you who haven't come to that realization as yet, please stop reading and go back to your colouring books. For the rest of you, all is not lost. There may be a way to right a wrong yet.
When I went to university, a bank in Canada okayed 5000 dollars a year for me to attend at the pleasure of the good people of Canada. I know what you're thinking, but, no, it was not a bank giving me anything. We just established that they never do that. It was the taxpayers of Canada, through an unnecessary bank, granting a poor kid some dough to better himself through education. Now here's just one of many reasons why I call banks useless: in my second year, the bank took it upon itself to reverse the decision of the taxpayers, not to mention the amount, and LOAN me $3700 instead of GRANT me the $5000. And they broke this news to me 3/4 of the way through my school year. I had already taken around 3700 of emergency loans from my school by that point so all I could do was pay them back, quit, and fail the entire year. Yes, I was given money through the bank, then the bank changed its mind and turned that gift into a loan. Banks DO that! Why can't people? Can you guess where I'm going from here?
The way I see it, the people of the United States still have a chance, albeit retroactively, to treat the banks in the same shabby manner they have treated every one of us over the years! It's time to inform them that that 700 billion back in '08 wasn't actually a gift, but a loan, and it's now time to talk terms.
OH PLEASE let me be the one who writes the letter to the banks! Or maybe a phone call...
Ahem, Ah heh heh heh hem!!! The following should be read in the voice of Lilly Tomlin's telephone operator, Ernestine.
One ringy dingy. Two ringy dingies. A gracious good afternoon! Ha-have I reached to party to whom I am speaking? Mi-Mister Banks? Lovely! Good afternoon Mr. Banks, my name is Ernestine and I'm with the Bank of the United States Taxpayer. We are going to need you to go ahead and set up an account with us today. I beg your par - Oh I assure you, Mr. Banks I'm deadly serious! As serious as a Wall Street heart attack! (snort)
D- Do you remember that 700 billion dollars we gave you back in 2008? Well, given financial unforeseen flowery words baloney sandwich humminah humminah, (snort) we have seen fit to retract that offer, which is a right we reserve parallel to that which you have exercised upon us, and recalibrate our relationship as loaner/borrower rather than benefactor/beneficiary.
In order to effectively achieve this as well as facilitate principle and/or interest payments, we will need to set up a retroactive account for you at the Bank of the United States Taxpayers. In order for you to start your account with our bank, or as we like to say, "get you BUSTed," (oh hee hee snort) there are a few things we will require you to do.
First and certainly foreleast (snort) the future is upon us and you must register with us online. In order to do this you will need to access our webpage, www.bust.com . After closing all the pornographic popups, click on the "new account" icon and you will be prompted to create a password. This password must be changed every month and must contain the correct number of characters, numbers, symbols, fonts, colours and letter sizes that we randomize on a weekly basis. It will also require you to answer exactly one of 10 personally chosen verification questions upon each login... for your safety and convenience. If we notice inconsistencies such as access from a new device, your account will be frozen. In fact, if there are any irregularities, and (snort) there will be, your account will promptly be frozen for a minimum of one week and there is nothing you can do on this website. Emailing us or contacting us online is entirely possible, but will not result in any change to your account and/or account information/specifications. This is once again done for your safety and convenience. (hee hee snort I love saying that!)
Here is my favourite part: A telephone must be linked to your new account. In case of any problems, short of visiting every American taxpayer and talking with them person to person, this will be the only means of possibly solving account trouble. Just dial our toll free number, during OUR business hours 1-800-2855-7448, that's 1-800 BULLSHIT (oh snort) Some additional phone charges may apply and this number is not set up to answer calls from mobile phones.
Your call will answered just as soon as one of our very busy answering machines is able to get to it. You better plan for a 30-40 minute delay just so we know you're not a bot. If you manage to stay on the line that long, you will be subjected to a series of telephonically gymnastical questions regarding the nature or your account difficulties. Just press the number of the option that most closely relates to the issue you're having and that should only take another 30-40 quick and easy minutes to allow us to pinpoint the exact nature of your trouble. Or not. (snort) Next you will be helped by one of our live operators... after a 30-40 minute wait... for your safety and convenience.
Now, let us establish the details of our loan, shall we, Mr. Banks? Firstly, it has come to our attention that the circumstances necessitating the original and all following loans have all been the result of extremely irresponsible behaviour on your part. Oh no, Mi- Mister Banks, no need to worry, this only qualifies you for our usury rate of interest for high risk clients. I beg your pardon? Did I say, "usury?" Oh (snort) silly me, I must have made up a word! I meant "usual," of course. Now then, 700 billion with our highest rate of interest compounded monthly... carry the trillion....
There is also the matter of 11 years of borrowing without establishing an account with BUST. Borrowing on a balance of zero naturally constitutes some hefty overdrafts, good golly some HEFTY overdrafts (snort) which will be applied to the principle. That's million gojillion carry the two...
And this is also with the understanding that there will be a monthly service charge. Our people don't work for free! (snort) seven infinity carry the zeroes...
Now then, after careful calculation, we have arrived at our very first payment. You must eliminate all student loan debt in the country. What's that you ask? Will that settle your outstanding debt with BUST? Oh gosh no! (snort) That'll just catch you up on your interest!
Come again? What did you say? You refuse to pay? Oh dear, oh dear. Well you may feel free to exercise that option Mr. Veedle, excuse me, I mean Mr. Banks. But rest assured you will be provided no further funding from the Bank of the United States Taxpayers if you forfeit more than 3 payments in a - wha - what's that you say? Bankruptcy? Oh! (snort) You ARE a funny one, Mr. Banks. Much like the student loans that you provided to students, the future of our country, with no forgiveness through insolvency or bankruptcy, Mi-Mister Banks, you'll be paying this loan till New York become Old York (snort!) Whe - when may we expect payment?
Excu - excuse me? Lawyers? Lawsuits? Oh, clearly you don't understand, Mr. Banks. We at the Bank of the United States Taxpayer are not subject to city, state or federal laws. We are omnipotent. Yes, that's potent with an omni in front of it. (snort) At least we are when we're pissed off enough! Now whe-when may we expect payment?
I see. Oh, Mr. Banks, we're sorry you've chosen this option. We won't send any large, burly men to your door to collect. We will simply withhold funding to all your future leverage takeovers, loans to small, oil rich countries, and military actions. And if you still refuse to pay we wi - what's that Mr. Banks? You agree to our terms? You'll pay the first installment in 2020 when Bernie Sanders becomes president? Well that's just fine!
It was a pleasure doing business with you Mr. Banks. We will expect your payment and look forward to your successful repayment of your debt to us in full. Have a lovely afternoon! Buhbye.
Friday, June 21, 2019
I Might Not Finish This Post Before A War Breaks Out
Did you read the title? If you didn't, read it now. I'll wait. Okay, now what country came to mind when you read that? Did anyone NOT think of the U.S. of A? America FUCK YEAH!!!
I've done some reading and some of my friends have done some reading and I've read their reading and so on and so forth, and the upshot of it all seems to be the U.S. is going to war with Iran. Or they're doing their level best to anyway. I'm not talking about Uncle Traveling Bolton who's had a hard on for Iran for years. Oh okay, here's Uncle Traveling Matt from Fraggle Rock and John Bolton side by side:
Or at least on top of each other. The blog regularly shuffles my abilities. I don't know why. Today I can't put pics side by side. Inneresting.
I'm talking about TLC. And that doesn't mean Tender Loving Care either. Quite the opposite! Au contraire mes amis! Although, you could say the Trump Leadership Council DO show a lot of Love and Care for legal Tender. It's pretty much ALL they Care about. Where did I hear tell of such a group of repugnant capitalists run amok? Why, in Rolling Stone Magazine of course! Props to my bud Jack Large for posting it before I read it. You gotta check this out! Please read it!
I dunno who Andy Kroll is but he's going to win a Pulitzer if he keeps this up! To me this is WORSE than Watergate! FAR worse than Monica Lewinsky! And in my opinion, what we already know about Trump is more impeachable than Nixon and Clinton combined! What the fuck will it take to get this assclown bum-rushed out of the White House? Hopefully not much more than this. The last paragraph is particularly chilling:
"Whatever happens in 2020, Trump’s all-out assault on regulations will long outlive his presidency, whether it’s four or eight years. At a time when the climate crisis threatens the future of humanity, Trump and his corporate backers have taken the country in the opposite direction. 'This administration’s agenda was set well before Trump was elected,' says Brune of the Sierra Club. 'Just about any safeguard to protect the country’s air, water and climate is up for sale. And if it makes Trump’s polluter friends happy, that’s what he’s promised to do and what he’s going to do.'"
Laws were "up for sale!" Making new ones and erasing old ones. And Trump has really done that, hasn't he? He had to be stopped by a judge from re-opening offshore drilling; he has promised to bring back coal; plans to open up private land for fracking; he has aggressively rolled back environmental rules; he wants to totally scrap Obama's clean power plan; provided MASSIVE tax breaks to oil companies so that many paid zero; issued executive orders to speed up gas and oil pipelines; and these and many more, were just favours he's done for the "energy" members of the TLC. The hardest group on the environment.
However, my money is on this group of far right extremists destroying the human race with war before they pollute us all into extinction. Stephen Moore, dubbed the far right's go-to economist was at the inaugural meeting of the TLC in 2016, the year this madness started, and he said the members were not conventional Republicans, but far right maverick businessmen. Moore himself wants to get rid of child labour laws so kids can start working at 11 or 12 and he thinks women shouldn't participate in sports... unless they're hot. Are these the type of 100-dollar-bill cigar lighting, back slapping, pussy grabbing, Mother cheating, greed is good, amoral monsters that we all kinda reckoned Trump was going to for advice and getting advice from? Are these his Mar-a-Lago men who consider Trump a minor league wannabe but like his hound-like loyalty and will take all the free rounds of golf, and all the presidential favours, he will give them in hopes of joining their boys club? Well now we have a LIST! We can find out.
In keeping with the coming out of the super rich who seem decreasingly concerned with hiding their corruption, I guess Andy Kroll just asked some of the people who were at that meeting and they proudly gave him a list! 48 names FFS! We know the members of the shadow cabinet! This is huge! UUUUUge even! If Trump were a football coach, this is his playbook!
And as if to conveniently drive this point home, no sooner was this list published than Trump got rid of his Secretary of Defense, Patrick Shanahan, and replaced him with Mark Esper. Now there's talking about Shanahan failing some sort of vetting procedure but he went on record saying that the U.S. needs to use diplomacy and deterrence not war in dealing with Iran. So he got turfed. And in comes Mark Esper the chief lobbyist for Raytheon. That's a 27 billion dollar ('18) weapons and warfare company. Do you suppose 2019 will be more than 27 billion if they somehow got a Secretary of Defense who was sympathetic to their needs? That's not a big leap of logic to make.
And pretty much simultaneously, HEY, whatdoyaknow? an act of aggression by Iran! An "unprovoked" act of aggression. Well we should know by now if we're paying attention, "unprovoked" is U.S. militaryspeak for "provoked."
U.S. military: "We were just flying a few inches from Iranian air space, andthenalittlebitover, then just flying innocently really, really, really close to Iranian air space, andthenalittlebitover, and we might have been playing some harmless voice messages, likefuckyoudeathtoallahandflight655, and suddenly, completely unprovoked, our passengerless drone got blown out of the sky by the evil Iranians! Nothing to do but declare war. Our hands are tied."
You know, I bet Raytheon MAKES those drones! Now they gotta make the U.S. military another one. Already Esper is cashing in!
I read that the war was already declared by Trump and strikes were planned but for some reason cancelled.
If you actually think all of this is mere coincidence, then go to the bottom of that Rolling Stone article and check out the list. Right there, fifth under the "Aerospace and Defense" group is Dr. Mark Esper, Vice President, government relations, Raytheon.
I don't think it'll be long before this war gets underway, congressional approval or not. It'd be awfully nice if he got impeached before it happened... wouldn't it?
I've done some reading and some of my friends have done some reading and I've read their reading and so on and so forth, and the upshot of it all seems to be the U.S. is going to war with Iran. Or they're doing their level best to anyway. I'm not talking about Uncle Traveling Bolton who's had a hard on for Iran for years. Oh okay, here's Uncle Traveling Matt from Fraggle Rock and John Bolton side by side:
Or at least on top of each other. The blog regularly shuffles my abilities. I don't know why. Today I can't put pics side by side. Inneresting.
I'm talking about TLC. And that doesn't mean Tender Loving Care either. Quite the opposite! Au contraire mes amis! Although, you could say the Trump Leadership Council DO show a lot of Love and Care for legal Tender. It's pretty much ALL they Care about. Where did I hear tell of such a group of repugnant capitalists run amok? Why, in Rolling Stone Magazine of course! Props to my bud Jack Large for posting it before I read it. You gotta check this out! Please read it!
I dunno who Andy Kroll is but he's going to win a Pulitzer if he keeps this up! To me this is WORSE than Watergate! FAR worse than Monica Lewinsky! And in my opinion, what we already know about Trump is more impeachable than Nixon and Clinton combined! What the fuck will it take to get this assclown bum-rushed out of the White House? Hopefully not much more than this. The last paragraph is particularly chilling:
"Whatever happens in 2020, Trump’s all-out assault on regulations will long outlive his presidency, whether it’s four or eight years. At a time when the climate crisis threatens the future of humanity, Trump and his corporate backers have taken the country in the opposite direction. 'This administration’s agenda was set well before Trump was elected,' says Brune of the Sierra Club. 'Just about any safeguard to protect the country’s air, water and climate is up for sale. And if it makes Trump’s polluter friends happy, that’s what he’s promised to do and what he’s going to do.'"
Laws were "up for sale!" Making new ones and erasing old ones. And Trump has really done that, hasn't he? He had to be stopped by a judge from re-opening offshore drilling; he has promised to bring back coal; plans to open up private land for fracking; he has aggressively rolled back environmental rules; he wants to totally scrap Obama's clean power plan; provided MASSIVE tax breaks to oil companies so that many paid zero; issued executive orders to speed up gas and oil pipelines; and these and many more, were just favours he's done for the "energy" members of the TLC. The hardest group on the environment.
However, my money is on this group of far right extremists destroying the human race with war before they pollute us all into extinction. Stephen Moore, dubbed the far right's go-to economist was at the inaugural meeting of the TLC in 2016, the year this madness started, and he said the members were not conventional Republicans, but far right maverick businessmen. Moore himself wants to get rid of child labour laws so kids can start working at 11 or 12 and he thinks women shouldn't participate in sports... unless they're hot. Are these the type of 100-dollar-bill cigar lighting, back slapping, pussy grabbing, Mother cheating, greed is good, amoral monsters that we all kinda reckoned Trump was going to for advice and getting advice from? Are these his Mar-a-Lago men who consider Trump a minor league wannabe but like his hound-like loyalty and will take all the free rounds of golf, and all the presidential favours, he will give them in hopes of joining their boys club? Well now we have a LIST! We can find out.
In keeping with the coming out of the super rich who seem decreasingly concerned with hiding their corruption, I guess Andy Kroll just asked some of the people who were at that meeting and they proudly gave him a list! 48 names FFS! We know the members of the shadow cabinet! This is huge! UUUUUge even! If Trump were a football coach, this is his playbook!
And as if to conveniently drive this point home, no sooner was this list published than Trump got rid of his Secretary of Defense, Patrick Shanahan, and replaced him with Mark Esper. Now there's talking about Shanahan failing some sort of vetting procedure but he went on record saying that the U.S. needs to use diplomacy and deterrence not war in dealing with Iran. So he got turfed. And in comes Mark Esper the chief lobbyist for Raytheon. That's a 27 billion dollar ('18) weapons and warfare company. Do you suppose 2019 will be more than 27 billion if they somehow got a Secretary of Defense who was sympathetic to their needs? That's not a big leap of logic to make.
And pretty much simultaneously, HEY, whatdoyaknow? an act of aggression by Iran! An "unprovoked" act of aggression. Well we should know by now if we're paying attention, "unprovoked" is U.S. militaryspeak for "provoked."
U.S. military: "We were just flying a few inches from Iranian air space, andthenalittlebitover, then just flying innocently really, really, really close to Iranian air space, andthenalittlebitover, and we might have been playing some harmless voice messages, likefuckyoudeathtoallahandflight655, and suddenly, completely unprovoked, our passengerless drone got blown out of the sky by the evil Iranians! Nothing to do but declare war. Our hands are tied."
You know, I bet Raytheon MAKES those drones! Now they gotta make the U.S. military another one. Already Esper is cashing in!
I read that the war was already declared by Trump and strikes were planned but for some reason cancelled.
If you actually think all of this is mere coincidence, then go to the bottom of that Rolling Stone article and check out the list. Right there, fifth under the "Aerospace and Defense" group is Dr. Mark Esper, Vice President, government relations, Raytheon.
I don't think it'll be long before this war gets underway, congressional approval or not. It'd be awfully nice if he got impeached before it happened... wouldn't it?
Thursday, June 20, 2019
Carrot is a Peach!
Well it's been a year and a half since I returned to Korea for the Winter Games and ended up staying for the summer drudgery. Yes, I've just signed on with Carrot for work until mid December. And this means I'm working all summer AGAIN!
I figure I should update you on my recent adventures into the dank, sweaty wilds of Korea. Some things are the same, some different. I could show you some pictures of the native women I took but they weren't developed. It's okay, I'll take some more in a couple years. An old Groucho Marx joke. Sure wouldn't get away with that nowadays! Not even in Korea! Which is one of the things that has changed the most. The Me Too movement has caught on. The recent gay pride parade had fewer protestors than ever. Koreans are getting more worldly and woke all the time. As for the ESL industry, in some ways, like ESL teachers' salaries, it's a virtual time capsule of the way things were as far back as 1997 when I first arrived. In other ways, like the price for an hour of ESL teaching, things have greatly advanced! The one word explanation for that - middlemen. Recruiters and ESL businesses, like Carrot, who find teachers and people who want teachers then hook them up have insinuated themselves into an ESL environment where they weren't needed and have created few if any advantages for the student, lots of disadvantages for the teachers and soaked up 100% of the rise in ESL rates.
A little ditty about what it's like to work for one of these uber-hagwons: I may not have shared this because I was worried about my job, but I think now I'm in the clear. Nobody from work reads my blog. And the 5 people who do won't tell them. If you look at their webpage, you can see some pretty impressive clients where Carrot Global has loads of teachers teaching executives one-on-one like I'm presently doing at SKhynix. Press the "more" icon and the list gets even MORE impressive. These are all ESL jobs that in 1997 companies like Mcdonald's, 3M, Lotte, Doosan, Hyundai, Samsung, GM, Starbucks, Nike, LG, Korean Air, and so on and so forth, could have easily advertised and a guy like me could have easily found, applied for and landed. No extra expense required for the company, no extra hassles for the teacher, and cheaper for the customer. But since the government has required Master's degrees or F visas for people to teach at these businesses (or more accurately, they have started cracking down on foreigners without Masters' or F visas who are teaching for them) a Korean entrepreneur was needed to see the viable niche of a Korean company, run by Korean people, making extra money from Korean clients, to hire foreigners without Masters', and sometimes without F visas, to work for THEM and then illegally put them to work for clients like Mcdonald's, 3M, Doosan, Hyundai, Samsung.....
The contract I signed had a false address, false workplace, false hours, false dates and left out some pretty important details. Standard for a Korean ESL contract. All I did was make sure it included in it that I would receive reimbursement for my Japanese visa run (which, if you'll remember, was a month and a half late) and severance pay. It only took Carrot 8 months to pay me the visa run pay that I was promised before I started work June first of 2018, and I still haven't received my severance pay even though my first contract finished three weeks ago. But I trust they will pay me. THIS is one area Carrot is good. Not prompt or timely, but they pay.
At any rate, the contract mentioned that there would be some "content" expected from the teachers. We all contributed some of our own lessons between June and December and I didn't mind that. I didn't like the texts enough to use them much so I used a lot of my own material. Also, I contributed a couple lessons for the textbook for the final quarter of the year. I was not informed until the last minute that I would be partially responsible for providing the texts for the next year. That's 4 texts with 25 lessons each. 100 lessons. I was to go into Seoul, to the offices of Carrot Global, sit at a computer that they would provide (the ones Carrot provided in our office are all SHYTE) and bang away for 8 hours a day producing lessons. It takes at least an hour and a half to get to the office from where I lived at the time so that's 3 hours of wasted commute time every day plus 8 hours at a desk. There's no wonder I wasn't informed of this at contract time or at any time after until it was time to do it!
But I was not game. I had my own internet, my own computer and I could see no reason why I couldn't just stay at home and do it. I talked to my supervisor and he said I had to do it or I could just not work for the whole month. We had a long telephone conversation at the beginning of which he said he'd ask his superior if I could work from home and at the end of which he said that he had told me 100 times that he'd already asked his superior and he said that I couldn't work from home. I told him many reasons why it would be better for everybody if I did but I was called a trouble maker and a complainer for doing so. I even told my supervisor I had a medical reason why I couldn't do it. That was ignored or not believed. See at the time I was unable to go more than an hour without rushing to the toilet. I've since found that that was caused by diabetes, but at the time, you can see how two 90 minute commutes a day that were entirely unnecessary were just not gonna happen for me. I also told him that I could whip up a lesson in half an hour on my own computer with which I was very comfortable. No way could I do that with one of the Carrot computers! And after our phone call was finished, I did exactly that. The lesson was entitled "Why Working From Home is More Than Just a Trend." Trends was one of three topics we had to use. Hilariously, the lesson appears in the Q2 textbook, the one we're using now and I tell my students this story before I teach it.
In the lesson it talks about how people who work from home are more productive, less stressed, better rested, they call in sick less, quit less, don't commute so save fuel and reduce traffic, save the company real estate costs (like offices and computers), it's the wave of the future with automation coming, technology is making it easier and easier, most people would be willing to sacrifice something like wages to work from home, and a few other things, most of which I had brought up in the conversation with the supervisor and were taken as "trouble-making" or "complaining." I didn't even include that I could do the work in my underwear, listening to music and drinking beer! Which I fucking DID!
I thought about it for a few days, applied for a few kids' camps, found one that wanted me, then told my supervisor I'll just not work for the whole month. But requested a letter of release so I could teach at a kids English camp during that time. I had already booked 7 days off during this time because a) I suspected some double-cross like this was up and b) I wanted more than one day off for Christmas/New Year's. So I actually had two weekends in there and ended up with 11 days off. I only had to work 3 days from Dec. 15-17, then had my 11 days off including Christmas, then had to work the last week of the year. But I said, "Nah, just give me the whole month off."
The next day I got a call from HR. A girl named Heather I think. She said they needed me to do the book. I couldn't have the whole month off. But I told her that my supervisor had told me I could. She said he shouldn't have told me that. So I said he's telling me things that are against company policy? That was downplayed. I said to her that I already had a camp that wanted me. So she launches into how it is illegal for them to give me a full month off on an E-2 visa or some crap like that. I calmly said that we both know my whole job is illegal so let's not pretend that's the reason why you want me to go into the office. She agreed. I said it's because the supervisor doesn't want me to. But I don't want to cancel on the camp. Let's see if we can both do something we don't want to do and make this work. So she immediately suggested I work from home. They never had a problem with that nor were they asked by my supervisor if I could. So we agreed. Also I told them I had made a doctor's appointment so I could only work 2 1/2 days of the first three. All was agreed.
I was expected to do 3 or 4 lessons a day. In my 2.5 days I did something like 16 or 17 and everybody was super impressed! So much so that the other teachers were told that THEY could stay at home and make THEIR lessons too! They did and were very productive. In the second week I did some online travel curriculum. 20 lessons in the week. Every day I finished by noon.
I was told by one of my students here that Carrot charged him 85,000 won per lesson. That's pretty close to 100 bucks Canadian. I don't know how much SKhynix pays but it's probably up there. I have 13 students. If ONLY my students used my lessons that'd be 22,000 bucks I earned for Carrot. But there are several teachers here using my lessons. They may also be included in the textbooks for other locations. To say nothing of my travel curriculum! And don't forget the other lessons I've used and Carrot claimed as my "content." I might have made the company enough to pay my yearly salary many times over for all I know. Plus I dragged my supervisor kicking and screaming into the advent of making these texts from home that will save the company untold amounts of money and hassle! He's probably going to take credit for that at the next supervisor's meeting too. Add to that a year of never being late or absent and getting superior evaluations from students. Not only that but other than my supervisor, I am the only person in the office or teaching staff that has been here over a year. Second in seniority in under a year! So when it came time to negotiate a new contract I felt I should get some recognition.
"Same salary," I was told. I replied, "Will I get severance?" They had to wait a couple weeks to give me that answer. Nope. So I would actually be making considerably less than last contract since severance is 1/12 of your salary extra. I was able to negotiate a little higher salary but no severance. And now that I have to pay rent on the apartment, yeah, I'll be making less. An E-2 contract requires the employer to provide acceptable accommodation. I'm not so sure the dorms I was in qualified. Three guys to a room, no stove or washing machine. No I'm certain I did Carrot a favour putting up with those accommodations for the full year. Did they offer to pay for even part of my rent? No. And I've since discovered that they DO pay rent for at least one of the other teachers! WITHOUT an E-2 visa!
But I made the mistake of getting the apartment before signing the new contract. And since I still haven't yet totally solidified my next 6 months at immigration, they are still trying to get more out of me. Offering me new classes ON THE WEEKEND. I got news of a new class today, THAT STARTED TODAY. In the absolute worst slot in my schedule. But I taught the class and changed the time. I certainly won't tell anyone I did that!
This is all because, despite making the company a ton of money, making the supervisor look good, providing lots of lessons the students like and making things generally better around here, the supervisor hates me because I'm a "complainer" and a "trouble-maker."
THAT'S what it's like working for one of these places.
Having said that, it's been pretty good. I've socked away more than ever before, the workload is pretty low and I like my students. No marking or assignments. Yet. If Carrot gets the next contract, I'm ready to sign on for another year too! I'll work here till they boot me out. If that's scotch in that proverbial glass, it's a double, right? How's that for lowered expectations? Remember that old Mad TV staple?
You know, there are probably lots of good things you could say about this lady! She likes sucking on things. Not an expensive dinner date. Easy to buy gifts for. She's a peach!
I figure I should update you on my recent adventures into the dank, sweaty wilds of Korea. Some things are the same, some different. I could show you some pictures of the native women I took but they weren't developed. It's okay, I'll take some more in a couple years. An old Groucho Marx joke. Sure wouldn't get away with that nowadays! Not even in Korea! Which is one of the things that has changed the most. The Me Too movement has caught on. The recent gay pride parade had fewer protestors than ever. Koreans are getting more worldly and woke all the time. As for the ESL industry, in some ways, like ESL teachers' salaries, it's a virtual time capsule of the way things were as far back as 1997 when I first arrived. In other ways, like the price for an hour of ESL teaching, things have greatly advanced! The one word explanation for that - middlemen. Recruiters and ESL businesses, like Carrot, who find teachers and people who want teachers then hook them up have insinuated themselves into an ESL environment where they weren't needed and have created few if any advantages for the student, lots of disadvantages for the teachers and soaked up 100% of the rise in ESL rates.
A little ditty about what it's like to work for one of these uber-hagwons: I may not have shared this because I was worried about my job, but I think now I'm in the clear. Nobody from work reads my blog. And the 5 people who do won't tell them. If you look at their webpage, you can see some pretty impressive clients where Carrot Global has loads of teachers teaching executives one-on-one like I'm presently doing at SKhynix. Press the "more" icon and the list gets even MORE impressive. These are all ESL jobs that in 1997 companies like Mcdonald's, 3M, Lotte, Doosan, Hyundai, Samsung, GM, Starbucks, Nike, LG, Korean Air, and so on and so forth, could have easily advertised and a guy like me could have easily found, applied for and landed. No extra expense required for the company, no extra hassles for the teacher, and cheaper for the customer. But since the government has required Master's degrees or F visas for people to teach at these businesses (or more accurately, they have started cracking down on foreigners without Masters' or F visas who are teaching for them) a Korean entrepreneur was needed to see the viable niche of a Korean company, run by Korean people, making extra money from Korean clients, to hire foreigners without Masters', and sometimes without F visas, to work for THEM and then illegally put them to work for clients like Mcdonald's, 3M, Doosan, Hyundai, Samsung.....
The contract I signed had a false address, false workplace, false hours, false dates and left out some pretty important details. Standard for a Korean ESL contract. All I did was make sure it included in it that I would receive reimbursement for my Japanese visa run (which, if you'll remember, was a month and a half late) and severance pay. It only took Carrot 8 months to pay me the visa run pay that I was promised before I started work June first of 2018, and I still haven't received my severance pay even though my first contract finished three weeks ago. But I trust they will pay me. THIS is one area Carrot is good. Not prompt or timely, but they pay.
At any rate, the contract mentioned that there would be some "content" expected from the teachers. We all contributed some of our own lessons between June and December and I didn't mind that. I didn't like the texts enough to use them much so I used a lot of my own material. Also, I contributed a couple lessons for the textbook for the final quarter of the year. I was not informed until the last minute that I would be partially responsible for providing the texts for the next year. That's 4 texts with 25 lessons each. 100 lessons. I was to go into Seoul, to the offices of Carrot Global, sit at a computer that they would provide (the ones Carrot provided in our office are all SHYTE) and bang away for 8 hours a day producing lessons. It takes at least an hour and a half to get to the office from where I lived at the time so that's 3 hours of wasted commute time every day plus 8 hours at a desk. There's no wonder I wasn't informed of this at contract time or at any time after until it was time to do it!
But I was not game. I had my own internet, my own computer and I could see no reason why I couldn't just stay at home and do it. I talked to my supervisor and he said I had to do it or I could just not work for the whole month. We had a long telephone conversation at the beginning of which he said he'd ask his superior if I could work from home and at the end of which he said that he had told me 100 times that he'd already asked his superior and he said that I couldn't work from home. I told him many reasons why it would be better for everybody if I did but I was called a trouble maker and a complainer for doing so. I even told my supervisor I had a medical reason why I couldn't do it. That was ignored or not believed. See at the time I was unable to go more than an hour without rushing to the toilet. I've since found that that was caused by diabetes, but at the time, you can see how two 90 minute commutes a day that were entirely unnecessary were just not gonna happen for me. I also told him that I could whip up a lesson in half an hour on my own computer with which I was very comfortable. No way could I do that with one of the Carrot computers! And after our phone call was finished, I did exactly that. The lesson was entitled "Why Working From Home is More Than Just a Trend." Trends was one of three topics we had to use. Hilariously, the lesson appears in the Q2 textbook, the one we're using now and I tell my students this story before I teach it.
In the lesson it talks about how people who work from home are more productive, less stressed, better rested, they call in sick less, quit less, don't commute so save fuel and reduce traffic, save the company real estate costs (like offices and computers), it's the wave of the future with automation coming, technology is making it easier and easier, most people would be willing to sacrifice something like wages to work from home, and a few other things, most of which I had brought up in the conversation with the supervisor and were taken as "trouble-making" or "complaining." I didn't even include that I could do the work in my underwear, listening to music and drinking beer! Which I fucking DID!
I thought about it for a few days, applied for a few kids' camps, found one that wanted me, then told my supervisor I'll just not work for the whole month. But requested a letter of release so I could teach at a kids English camp during that time. I had already booked 7 days off during this time because a) I suspected some double-cross like this was up and b) I wanted more than one day off for Christmas/New Year's. So I actually had two weekends in there and ended up with 11 days off. I only had to work 3 days from Dec. 15-17, then had my 11 days off including Christmas, then had to work the last week of the year. But I said, "Nah, just give me the whole month off."
The next day I got a call from HR. A girl named Heather I think. She said they needed me to do the book. I couldn't have the whole month off. But I told her that my supervisor had told me I could. She said he shouldn't have told me that. So I said he's telling me things that are against company policy? That was downplayed. I said to her that I already had a camp that wanted me. So she launches into how it is illegal for them to give me a full month off on an E-2 visa or some crap like that. I calmly said that we both know my whole job is illegal so let's not pretend that's the reason why you want me to go into the office. She agreed. I said it's because the supervisor doesn't want me to. But I don't want to cancel on the camp. Let's see if we can both do something we don't want to do and make this work. So she immediately suggested I work from home. They never had a problem with that nor were they asked by my supervisor if I could. So we agreed. Also I told them I had made a doctor's appointment so I could only work 2 1/2 days of the first three. All was agreed.
I was expected to do 3 or 4 lessons a day. In my 2.5 days I did something like 16 or 17 and everybody was super impressed! So much so that the other teachers were told that THEY could stay at home and make THEIR lessons too! They did and were very productive. In the second week I did some online travel curriculum. 20 lessons in the week. Every day I finished by noon.
I was told by one of my students here that Carrot charged him 85,000 won per lesson. That's pretty close to 100 bucks Canadian. I don't know how much SKhynix pays but it's probably up there. I have 13 students. If ONLY my students used my lessons that'd be 22,000 bucks I earned for Carrot. But there are several teachers here using my lessons. They may also be included in the textbooks for other locations. To say nothing of my travel curriculum! And don't forget the other lessons I've used and Carrot claimed as my "content." I might have made the company enough to pay my yearly salary many times over for all I know. Plus I dragged my supervisor kicking and screaming into the advent of making these texts from home that will save the company untold amounts of money and hassle! He's probably going to take credit for that at the next supervisor's meeting too. Add to that a year of never being late or absent and getting superior evaluations from students. Not only that but other than my supervisor, I am the only person in the office or teaching staff that has been here over a year. Second in seniority in under a year! So when it came time to negotiate a new contract I felt I should get some recognition.
"Same salary," I was told. I replied, "Will I get severance?" They had to wait a couple weeks to give me that answer. Nope. So I would actually be making considerably less than last contract since severance is 1/12 of your salary extra. I was able to negotiate a little higher salary but no severance. And now that I have to pay rent on the apartment, yeah, I'll be making less. An E-2 contract requires the employer to provide acceptable accommodation. I'm not so sure the dorms I was in qualified. Three guys to a room, no stove or washing machine. No I'm certain I did Carrot a favour putting up with those accommodations for the full year. Did they offer to pay for even part of my rent? No. And I've since discovered that they DO pay rent for at least one of the other teachers! WITHOUT an E-2 visa!
But I made the mistake of getting the apartment before signing the new contract. And since I still haven't yet totally solidified my next 6 months at immigration, they are still trying to get more out of me. Offering me new classes ON THE WEEKEND. I got news of a new class today, THAT STARTED TODAY. In the absolute worst slot in my schedule. But I taught the class and changed the time. I certainly won't tell anyone I did that!
This is all because, despite making the company a ton of money, making the supervisor look good, providing lots of lessons the students like and making things generally better around here, the supervisor hates me because I'm a "complainer" and a "trouble-maker."
THAT'S what it's like working for one of these places.
Having said that, it's been pretty good. I've socked away more than ever before, the workload is pretty low and I like my students. No marking or assignments. Yet. If Carrot gets the next contract, I'm ready to sign on for another year too! I'll work here till they boot me out. If that's scotch in that proverbial glass, it's a double, right? How's that for lowered expectations? Remember that old Mad TV staple?
You know, there are probably lots of good things you could say about this lady! She likes sucking on things. Not an expensive dinner date. Easy to buy gifts for. She's a peach!
Saturday, May 4, 2019
Two Kinds of Socialism
It's been a while. This is because I'm trying to figure out Venezuela. And that has not been easy!
The reasons I've been studying Venezuela are varied. It is in the news a lot recently and along with its heart-breaking tragedy, the story of Venezuela includes a lot of lessons that can be applied to other countries. It is of great interest to me for the sheer extremities of riches to rags that have few equals in history. Hyperinflation is fascinating! Today a banana costs what a house would have cost 15 years ago! People don't count money any more, they weigh it! What once was the richest nation in the continent, as recently as the 80's, is now a nation in economic and political upheaval so great it is causing a mass exodus of people into neighbouring countries. What the frig happened in Venezuela and how did it happen so fast?!?!
I guess a secondary reason for my efforts has been the ever vigilant fearmongers who wish to blame Venezuela's downfall on socialism in order to convince voters in their respective countries that people like Bernie Sanders and Alex Ocasio Cortez or any other people who voluntarily associate themselves with the evils of socialism will just do to their countries what Chavez and Maduro did to Venezuela. Saying socialism was the main problem with these guys, as you will hopefully see, is a bit like saying Donald Trump's Christianity is HIS main problem. If either of these two dudes knew any more about socialism than Trump knows about Christianity, they didn't show evidence of it. It was a means to an end, nothing more. Bernie Sanders and A.O.C. are not Castro or Mao or Hugo Chavez. Get over your shameless selves! The comparison is hilarious! Can you see Sanders in a military uniform or AOC smoking a cigar? Well... maybe the second one... Actually scratch that, I CAN see that and it's an oddly sexy image in a political Clintonian sort of way. Oh yeah... ANYwhozits….
For those who don't have the time or inclination to read all the details, here's a vid that covers most of the recent stuff.
80% of the country hates its current president. Well, there's even debate about that. Should he really even be called the president? He only got elected in 2013 after Hugo Chavez's death by a slim 1.6% margin. And soon after the economy went into a freefall caused primarily by (some say strategically) reduced oil prices, but not helped by Nicolas Maduro's policies whatsoever. Conversely, Chavez became president in 1998, right before oil prices spiked from $25-$160 per barrel between '99 and '08. No wonder he was so beloved! At any rate, in 2018 Maduro got re-elected for 6 more years in a sham election in which many opposition candidates were barred from running. Others were jailed or fled for fear of jail or worse. Many consider the leader of the National Assembly during the time of the unfair election to be the legitimate prez. That's Juan Guaido. Many countries including the U.S. and Canada support Guaido's claim. China and Russia still like Maduro. None would even give half a crap if Venezuela didn't have the largest oil reserves in the world.
In 2015, Maduro felt threatened by a 2/3 majority against him in the Supreme Court and a fairly elected National Assembly. So he stocked the supreme court with his cronies. Sounds familiar doesn't it? Then he stripped the national assembly of its powers in 2016. This resulted in massive protests so in 2017 he just replaced the national assembly with the National Constituent Assembly. Again stock it with cronies, allow them to re-write laws and kiss his ass. You can see why the NC Ass is not recognized and why so many people hate this dude.
In 2004 while oil prices were still high, Chavez used oil money to provide food subsidies and improve education and health care. Since 82% of the population of Venezuela were poor, they loved him for this. THIS is the socialism people equate with him. But he didn't do it because he loved the people of his country. If he really loved them, he wouldn't be keeping all their county's bounty for the other 18%. Which, of course, included him. He did it to get re-elected. And it worked like a charm.
Maduro hasn't even tried to pretend like he cares about the people. He just fixes the elections. Again, sound familiar? Of the 18% privileged class, who are the only ones with access to real money/business, the military, who he needs to protect him, are in charge of the food. They make huge money by gauging citizens on this buying it cheaply and selling it at hyperinflated prices. Thus keeping most of the country hungry and broke. By 2018 inflation was such that prices were doubling every 19 days. The N.C. Ass will make up the rest of the 18% given all the plum positions of power and wealth. But it won't last long and the world knows it.
Basing a country on populist government and oil is known as an unsustainable model. It has been speculated that some countries may be lurking in the weeds waiting for Venezuela's collapse in order to apply vulture capitalism to the country in shambles and suck up all its oil. Here's a description of why oil prices fell so drastically in 2014 and the countries you'd expect, U.S. Saudi, China, Russia, Canada, might all be in on this. Much like Syria, a proxy war for natural gas and oil which Russia seems to have won, Venezuela is shaping up to be much the same.
Originally, Hugo Chavez marketed his military takeover of Venezuela as a people's revolt against the corrupt elite: the 18% or whatever it was at the time. Obviously most people wanted the money to be spread around more evenly since they were poor. In this way it was a brand of socialism he was offering. His military and political moves purging government officials who probably WERE corrupt, again, it looked like socialism but wasn't. It was less about helping the people and more about removing potential checks on his authority. They were presented to the public as fighting for freedom with predictable success. This article gives some examples of how instead of getting rid of corruption and greed and sharing the wealth, Chavez just turned the country of Venezuela into a corrupt capitalist corporation. "After running on smashing the corrupt elite, Chavez had merely established his own."
Now, when you read an article such as this, written by a guy from China, comparing the socialism of countries like China, Cuba, and Venezuela, to what Bernie Sanders and Alexandra Ocasio Cortez are offering, can we agree? Apples and bowling balls? But there will be people who fall for this propaganda! Smart people!
The definition of socialism he bases the article on may be the rub. I think the word "control" meaning government checks and balances and other regulatory responsibilities to govern business, as opposed to absolute and total control where the government IS business, seems to be the disconnect. When means of production are kept under control by government, socialism works. When the government has carte blanche, it fails. Presuming Bernie Sanders and AOC are advocating socialist carte blanche shows a clear ignorance of their platforms. But it's a great way to rustle up fear of socialism and/or drum up support for any non-socialist organization. Because people fall for shit like this. They don't want to do their research, they would rather find someone like the writer, who shows some knowledge, and trust that they've done stellar research for them.
Aaron Tao, the author, is an entrepreneur and a wannabe businessman. This could be his capitalist manifesto written with the hopes of joining a firm that will operate exactly like the corporation of Venezuela, screwing poor people to make a few rich. No matter what banner it's done under, it's just as despicable. That's my main point.
His strong hyperbole ventures off into just pure inaccuracy when he says socialism has failed everywhere it's been attempted. Even people like Gloria Alvarez who rails against the same models of socialism, at least admits there are successful models in Scandinavia.
They're talking about two different things and acting like they're agreeing. She's from Guatemala and talks about Venezuela among other countries and the danger of this style of socialism in the world. The dipshit interviewer (who doesn't speak fluent Spanish) desperately tries to bring it back to America again and again. Saying a bureaucrat doesn't know as much about business as a businessman. She separates the two models AGAIN saying if the bureaucrats have absolute power, it's dangerous. Then he talks about how childish it is for people to believe they don't have to earn shit. The people in Gloria's model who are relaxing and not working for their shit are the rich scumbags like Chavez and Castro who she says live like kings. Then taxes. He's talking about raising taxes on business punishing "hard" working Americans and she's talking about how despots and dictators use the people's money to put their cronies in positions of power and wealth.
I like the idea of nothing is free, but it's not the poor, but the rich who have this childish idea. Entitlement it can be called. There are no businessmen left who believe they are good businessmen if they work for everything they get. Sanders/Cortez want to cut into the vast amount of corporate welfare we give to the rich and share it with the hard working regular people who can't make ends meet despite their labours. At the very least make them PAY the taxes they don't pay.
Alvarez says in another video that in Scandinavia, where they have the model Sanders/Cortez want, the reason they're succeeding there is the FREE market. If she'd only follow her own advice: NOTHING IS FREE. This is a phrase people use for their own purposes and that has never been precisely defined. Presumably it involves more privatization and less government involvement in business. You cannot get a situation of less government interference in business than when the government IS the business. That's the dangerous model Alvarez describes in all the countries she mentions. It's not the model in Scandinavia nor is it the model Sanders/Cortez are promoting. Markets NEED rules and they need people to enforce those rules. Otherwise things like the 2008 stock market crash or the 1930's depression happen.
Let's not forget that what FDR did with his New Deal to drag America out of the depression into a few decades of what were the glory days of the U.S. was socialism. Those were the days in Canada too. What both countries have deteriorated into through corporate greed and government lobbying to set up big business as the Hugo Chavezes and the Nicolas Maduros of North America is just as dangerous. What we need is another good shot of socialism to save capitalism once again. Or we could just keep it and enjoy some longer term prosperity.
And if you really believe in the economic miracle in America right now, first of all I'm surprised you've read this far and second of all, it's all a mirage. Trumped up one might say. It's largely based on two things: jobs and the stock market. Jobs are up and unemployment is down. But job quality is down. I've read this about the U.S., I've experienced it personally in Canada. I don't want to hear another person tell me there are plenty of jobs for a guy who wants to work. I KNOW that but I'm looking for the jobs for guys who want to survive, thank you.
And the stock market is something I don't know much about. Never owned stocks. I know it's great right now for people who own stocks. The rich. So goodie for them. But it's not an indication of prosperity for the vast majority of us. And IT seems to be all smoke and mirrors too. It's falsely bolstered stock values as a result of tax cuts and stock buybacks. Wealthy corporations COULD use tax cuts to increase wages to their workers. They just don't. Like Walmart. The Roosevelt Institute in May released a report estimating that Walmart, for example, could boost hourly wages to more than $15 an hour with the $20 billion it was using for a buyback. A separate study from the Roosevelt Institute released in July found that companies spent nearly 60 percent of net profits on buybacks from 2015 to 2017. It estimated that with the money allocated to buybacks, companies such as Lowes, CVS, and Home Depot could give each of their workers a raise of at least $18,000 a year.
The SEC or any regulatory entity has practically no power to do anything about this kind of thing either. Which brings us back to Gloria Alvarez. It seems to me the dangerous socialism she is describing resembles the capitalism at work right now in America and Canada FAR more than the kind of socialism being practiced in Scandinavia. If she looked closely, I think she'd see that it isn't the "free" market that allows these countries to prosper under socialism, it's the proper and strict regulation of it. I'd LOVE to see a round of corrupt bankers thrown in the clink like they did in Iceland. I'd LOVE an education system like Finland! I'd LOVE to see Canada tax America (who gets 99% of our oil) like Norway and contribute it to Canada's pension fund. I'd LOVE to see a day fine system implemented like in Sweden.
Having said all of this, most of these countries don't really consider themselves socialist. They all still like to own things and they do. They have thriving markets, which the capitalists worry about losing along with socialism.
So... now that you know all this, maybe the popularity of the Sanders/Cortez type of socialism isn't based in ignorance. Maybe the opposition to it is.
Just a thought. What do you reckon?
The reasons I've been studying Venezuela are varied. It is in the news a lot recently and along with its heart-breaking tragedy, the story of Venezuela includes a lot of lessons that can be applied to other countries. It is of great interest to me for the sheer extremities of riches to rags that have few equals in history. Hyperinflation is fascinating! Today a banana costs what a house would have cost 15 years ago! People don't count money any more, they weigh it! What once was the richest nation in the continent, as recently as the 80's, is now a nation in economic and political upheaval so great it is causing a mass exodus of people into neighbouring countries. What the frig happened in Venezuela and how did it happen so fast?!?!
I guess a secondary reason for my efforts has been the ever vigilant fearmongers who wish to blame Venezuela's downfall on socialism in order to convince voters in their respective countries that people like Bernie Sanders and Alex Ocasio Cortez or any other people who voluntarily associate themselves with the evils of socialism will just do to their countries what Chavez and Maduro did to Venezuela. Saying socialism was the main problem with these guys, as you will hopefully see, is a bit like saying Donald Trump's Christianity is HIS main problem. If either of these two dudes knew any more about socialism than Trump knows about Christianity, they didn't show evidence of it. It was a means to an end, nothing more. Bernie Sanders and A.O.C. are not Castro or Mao or Hugo Chavez. Get over your shameless selves! The comparison is hilarious! Can you see Sanders in a military uniform or AOC smoking a cigar? Well... maybe the second one... Actually scratch that, I CAN see that and it's an oddly sexy image in a political Clintonian sort of way. Oh yeah... ANYwhozits….
For those who don't have the time or inclination to read all the details, here's a vid that covers most of the recent stuff.
80% of the country hates its current president. Well, there's even debate about that. Should he really even be called the president? He only got elected in 2013 after Hugo Chavez's death by a slim 1.6% margin. And soon after the economy went into a freefall caused primarily by (some say strategically) reduced oil prices, but not helped by Nicolas Maduro's policies whatsoever. Conversely, Chavez became president in 1998, right before oil prices spiked from $25-$160 per barrel between '99 and '08. No wonder he was so beloved! At any rate, in 2018 Maduro got re-elected for 6 more years in a sham election in which many opposition candidates were barred from running. Others were jailed or fled for fear of jail or worse. Many consider the leader of the National Assembly during the time of the unfair election to be the legitimate prez. That's Juan Guaido. Many countries including the U.S. and Canada support Guaido's claim. China and Russia still like Maduro. None would even give half a crap if Venezuela didn't have the largest oil reserves in the world.
In 2015, Maduro felt threatened by a 2/3 majority against him in the Supreme Court and a fairly elected National Assembly. So he stocked the supreme court with his cronies. Sounds familiar doesn't it? Then he stripped the national assembly of its powers in 2016. This resulted in massive protests so in 2017 he just replaced the national assembly with the National Constituent Assembly. Again stock it with cronies, allow them to re-write laws and kiss his ass. You can see why the NC Ass is not recognized and why so many people hate this dude.
In 2004 while oil prices were still high, Chavez used oil money to provide food subsidies and improve education and health care. Since 82% of the population of Venezuela were poor, they loved him for this. THIS is the socialism people equate with him. But he didn't do it because he loved the people of his country. If he really loved them, he wouldn't be keeping all their county's bounty for the other 18%. Which, of course, included him. He did it to get re-elected. And it worked like a charm.
Maduro hasn't even tried to pretend like he cares about the people. He just fixes the elections. Again, sound familiar? Of the 18% privileged class, who are the only ones with access to real money/business, the military, who he needs to protect him, are in charge of the food. They make huge money by gauging citizens on this buying it cheaply and selling it at hyperinflated prices. Thus keeping most of the country hungry and broke. By 2018 inflation was such that prices were doubling every 19 days. The N.C. Ass will make up the rest of the 18% given all the plum positions of power and wealth. But it won't last long and the world knows it.
Basing a country on populist government and oil is known as an unsustainable model. It has been speculated that some countries may be lurking in the weeds waiting for Venezuela's collapse in order to apply vulture capitalism to the country in shambles and suck up all its oil. Here's a description of why oil prices fell so drastically in 2014 and the countries you'd expect, U.S. Saudi, China, Russia, Canada, might all be in on this. Much like Syria, a proxy war for natural gas and oil which Russia seems to have won, Venezuela is shaping up to be much the same.
Originally, Hugo Chavez marketed his military takeover of Venezuela as a people's revolt against the corrupt elite: the 18% or whatever it was at the time. Obviously most people wanted the money to be spread around more evenly since they were poor. In this way it was a brand of socialism he was offering. His military and political moves purging government officials who probably WERE corrupt, again, it looked like socialism but wasn't. It was less about helping the people and more about removing potential checks on his authority. They were presented to the public as fighting for freedom with predictable success. This article gives some examples of how instead of getting rid of corruption and greed and sharing the wealth, Chavez just turned the country of Venezuela into a corrupt capitalist corporation. "After running on smashing the corrupt elite, Chavez had merely established his own."
Now, when you read an article such as this, written by a guy from China, comparing the socialism of countries like China, Cuba, and Venezuela, to what Bernie Sanders and Alexandra Ocasio Cortez are offering, can we agree? Apples and bowling balls? But there will be people who fall for this propaganda! Smart people!
The definition of socialism he bases the article on may be the rub. I think the word "control" meaning government checks and balances and other regulatory responsibilities to govern business, as opposed to absolute and total control where the government IS business, seems to be the disconnect. When means of production are kept under control by government, socialism works. When the government has carte blanche, it fails. Presuming Bernie Sanders and AOC are advocating socialist carte blanche shows a clear ignorance of their platforms. But it's a great way to rustle up fear of socialism and/or drum up support for any non-socialist organization. Because people fall for shit like this. They don't want to do their research, they would rather find someone like the writer, who shows some knowledge, and trust that they've done stellar research for them.
Aaron Tao, the author, is an entrepreneur and a wannabe businessman. This could be his capitalist manifesto written with the hopes of joining a firm that will operate exactly like the corporation of Venezuela, screwing poor people to make a few rich. No matter what banner it's done under, it's just as despicable. That's my main point.
His strong hyperbole ventures off into just pure inaccuracy when he says socialism has failed everywhere it's been attempted. Even people like Gloria Alvarez who rails against the same models of socialism, at least admits there are successful models in Scandinavia.
They're talking about two different things and acting like they're agreeing. She's from Guatemala and talks about Venezuela among other countries and the danger of this style of socialism in the world. The dipshit interviewer (who doesn't speak fluent Spanish) desperately tries to bring it back to America again and again. Saying a bureaucrat doesn't know as much about business as a businessman. She separates the two models AGAIN saying if the bureaucrats have absolute power, it's dangerous. Then he talks about how childish it is for people to believe they don't have to earn shit. The people in Gloria's model who are relaxing and not working for their shit are the rich scumbags like Chavez and Castro who she says live like kings. Then taxes. He's talking about raising taxes on business punishing "hard" working Americans and she's talking about how despots and dictators use the people's money to put their cronies in positions of power and wealth.
I like the idea of nothing is free, but it's not the poor, but the rich who have this childish idea. Entitlement it can be called. There are no businessmen left who believe they are good businessmen if they work for everything they get. Sanders/Cortez want to cut into the vast amount of corporate welfare we give to the rich and share it with the hard working regular people who can't make ends meet despite their labours. At the very least make them PAY the taxes they don't pay.
Alvarez says in another video that in Scandinavia, where they have the model Sanders/Cortez want, the reason they're succeeding there is the FREE market. If she'd only follow her own advice: NOTHING IS FREE. This is a phrase people use for their own purposes and that has never been precisely defined. Presumably it involves more privatization and less government involvement in business. You cannot get a situation of less government interference in business than when the government IS the business. That's the dangerous model Alvarez describes in all the countries she mentions. It's not the model in Scandinavia nor is it the model Sanders/Cortez are promoting. Markets NEED rules and they need people to enforce those rules. Otherwise things like the 2008 stock market crash or the 1930's depression happen.
Let's not forget that what FDR did with his New Deal to drag America out of the depression into a few decades of what were the glory days of the U.S. was socialism. Those were the days in Canada too. What both countries have deteriorated into through corporate greed and government lobbying to set up big business as the Hugo Chavezes and the Nicolas Maduros of North America is just as dangerous. What we need is another good shot of socialism to save capitalism once again. Or we could just keep it and enjoy some longer term prosperity.
And if you really believe in the economic miracle in America right now, first of all I'm surprised you've read this far and second of all, it's all a mirage. Trumped up one might say. It's largely based on two things: jobs and the stock market. Jobs are up and unemployment is down. But job quality is down. I've read this about the U.S., I've experienced it personally in Canada. I don't want to hear another person tell me there are plenty of jobs for a guy who wants to work. I KNOW that but I'm looking for the jobs for guys who want to survive, thank you.
And the stock market is something I don't know much about. Never owned stocks. I know it's great right now for people who own stocks. The rich. So goodie for them. But it's not an indication of prosperity for the vast majority of us. And IT seems to be all smoke and mirrors too. It's falsely bolstered stock values as a result of tax cuts and stock buybacks. Wealthy corporations COULD use tax cuts to increase wages to their workers. They just don't. Like Walmart. The Roosevelt Institute in May released a report estimating that Walmart, for example, could boost hourly wages to more than $15 an hour with the $20 billion it was using for a buyback. A separate study from the Roosevelt Institute released in July found that companies spent nearly 60 percent of net profits on buybacks from 2015 to 2017. It estimated that with the money allocated to buybacks, companies such as Lowes, CVS, and Home Depot could give each of their workers a raise of at least $18,000 a year.
The SEC or any regulatory entity has practically no power to do anything about this kind of thing either. Which brings us back to Gloria Alvarez. It seems to me the dangerous socialism she is describing resembles the capitalism at work right now in America and Canada FAR more than the kind of socialism being practiced in Scandinavia. If she looked closely, I think she'd see that it isn't the "free" market that allows these countries to prosper under socialism, it's the proper and strict regulation of it. I'd LOVE to see a round of corrupt bankers thrown in the clink like they did in Iceland. I'd LOVE an education system like Finland! I'd LOVE to see Canada tax America (who gets 99% of our oil) like Norway and contribute it to Canada's pension fund. I'd LOVE to see a day fine system implemented like in Sweden.
Having said all of this, most of these countries don't really consider themselves socialist. They all still like to own things and they do. They have thriving markets, which the capitalists worry about losing along with socialism.
So... now that you know all this, maybe the popularity of the Sanders/Cortez type of socialism isn't based in ignorance. Maybe the opposition to it is.
Just a thought. What do you reckon?
Tuesday, April 16, 2019
A Crumby Deal for Canada
The Bob Loblaw Law Blog. Comic genius! I love "Arrested Development." The show that also brought us one of the best boat names ever, the Seaward (C-word). Is there a better name for a lawyer than Bob Loblaw? I guess perhaps Blah Blah Blah would be better, but only just.
I've been thinking of Bob recently reading about one of Canada's largest companies. And I don't even know if it's Loblaw or Loblaw's. I rarely saw either being from the west where we got the Real Canadian Superstore, which is owned by Loblaw(s). The reading I've been doing has got me wondering if Loblaw(s) is really Canadian or if that's just a lot of blah blah blah.
Galen Weston is the owner and he's worth a reported (and we all know this means he actually has a lot more in offshore tax shelters in the Cayman Islands or somewhere like that) $13.55 billion dollars making him the second richest Canadian. Loblaw(s) made a reported (ditto) 754 million in profit last year. That seems modest given their reported (ditto) 11 billion dollar revenues per QUARTER year, but it's probably just the number they want us to believe. That's all.
I've been reading about Loblaw(s) lately because they seem to be a really good example of the kind of corporate greed and scumbaggery I've been railing on and on about in this blog, but using mostly American examples. If you think I'm exaggerating about the Cayman Islands comment above, they are, if I'm not mistaken, still embroiled in a 400 million dollar tax fraud case. But that was not the issue that has been bugging me most about Loblaw(s) recently. Hell, it's EXPECTED! I've stated more than once on this blog that in Canada, if you're rich, you just DO this. I admit to possibly only mild overstatement on that account.
Then there's the scandal over Loblaw(s) (or come to think of it, is it "Loblaw's? Who cares?) receiving 12 million loonies of taxpayer money to install some more environmentally friendly refrigeration units in its more than 2300 locations across Canada. The Liberal government has been under fire for throwing money at large corporations and this looks like a good example. Why were they even allowed to apply for this help? Why not give the help to smaller grocery stores? It's what Liberal opponents call "corporate welfare," but as I've explained, my definition differs a bit. I consider corporate welfare to be not just giving corporations money, but allowing them to raise prices so they never have to pay ANY expenses. We'll get to that later.
Environment Minister Catherine McKenna has been defending the decision by saying they got the free dough (ar ar (you'll see why that is almost Arrested Development hilarious a little later)) by basically saying they're big. Getting more efficient refrigeration in Loblawses (?) across Canada would be, she says, the equivalent of removing 50,000 cars from the roads. She also says it only pays 1/4 of the price of the new units and that Low Blows will be paying 36 million out of its own cavernously deep pockets. Well isn't THAT nice? Paying to improve its own stores? A lot of people are upset that the government is paying ANY of the cost at all. Doesn't seem right using our tax dollars to support a crooked corporation, does it? But since Canada is warming at double the global average (she says) there is a need to think big right now.
Then there's the story of Loblaw(s) crying the blues about minimum wage increases, which they SAY will cost them 190 million bucks next year, but we KNOW if we understand simple economics that just the extra money spent by the employees in their 2300 locations across Canada AT Loblaw(s) now that they are earning more, will ease the expense a great deal. Loblaw(s) employees will have more money to spend at Loblaw(s). To say nothing of the snowball effect it would have on the economy. Loblaw(s) would most likely make more money by raising their workers' salaries. And I'm not even going to mention (well I guess I am) the same old question: why the hell aren't they paying their workers more? They can't afford it? Bullshit! Stop your pussyaching and pay your workers for making you filthy rich! Nope. The board voted against it.
But even if a government with balls forces them to pay their workers a living wage, they will do what I have exhaustively explained EVERY corporation does in thoughtless reaction to any perceived expense (and remember, this will more than likely NOT be an expense but a profit for Low Blows) they will raise prices, cut jobs and they're even stating that they will need to resort to automation. Really this will likely just be a convenient excuse for it.
But that's not what's been giving me agita about this corporation lately either. It's bread. A very basic staple of Canada throughout our history. I remember when I was about 11 years old going down about a thousand stairs from our house on 6th Ave. in Nelson (a beautiful city built in the mountains of B.C.) to Super Value and buying loaves of freshly baked, uncut bread 4 for a dollar. That's a quarter a loaf! 25 cents for white or brown. Bread. (same price for everybody) And then I had to walk back UP those thousand stairs smelling one of the best smells in life - freshly baked bread - without gnawing on one of the corners as I walked.
Well times have changed. I don't even know if Super Value exists any more in Canada. No doubt Low Blows took it over or forced it out of business. Part of making the supermarket business more concentrated and less diversified in Canada, which enables the price fixing I'm going to get into now.
Bread rose in price from $1.42 to $3.04 between 2001 and 2015. I was in Canada for only a short time during that period and even I noticed that. Well this was beyond the general inflation of most food products in Canada by about a dollar. So it should have only gone up to $2.04. This doesn't sound very significant, but given the importance of bread, it's downright un-Canadian! In this article they say the cost to a loaf a week consumer would have been $400. I go through about 3 a week and given the dollar extra over 14 years, I calculate it to be more like $2,184 to me. This is not including hamburger or hot dog buns I'm assuming?
Now over 14 years even a couple grand is not noticeable. Even to a struggling Canadian like me! But when you figure it out over 2600 stores with thousands of customers a day, most buying bread, that is a hefty profit! On an important, nay SACRED part of Canadian culture!
Canada began as a Christian culture and Christianity is still the main religion today. To Christians, Jesus is the bread of life. Bread is used in the Bible to mean "food," or "spiritual sustenance" at times. Jesus broke bread with his disciples at the Last Supper, he fed the 5000 with it, the Israelites got manna (bread from heaven) when they were wandering through the wilderness and starving. The Lord's prayer includes daily bread and, of course, bread represents the body of Christ when eaten during the sacrament. It is a major part of Christian, and Canadian culture.
Bread, lechem in Jewish, was synonymous with food in general. In Korea they have a greeting which means, "Did you eat rice today?" Here, rice is as important as bread. It just means, "Are you prospering? Do you have enough money to eat?" That is how bread is in Jewish custom. When baking large amounts of bread still today a portion of it is set aside and burned or buried as a sacrifice to God just as the ancient Jews made in the Temple.
In Islam too "bread" is synonymous with "food." Wasting food or destroying places where it is produced, including oceans and farms, is forbidden. If bread is dropped on the floor, eat it if it is still clean, but if not, feed it to the birds. Don't throw it in the garbage. Muslims try to eat sparingly like Muhammed. Unlike the Chinese, they eat all of their food and try not to leave any leftovers.
Food is central to all cultures and religions and bread is sacred to almost everyone in Canada. It was a low blow for Loblaw(s) to screw the people of Canada by overpricing their bread. Jesus would whip Galen Weston like a Temple money changer if he met him. I have no doubt. But what did the government of Canada do when they found out about this treasonous behaviour? Under the Competition Act, penalties for price-fixing include fines of up to $25 million and imprisonment to a maximum term of 14 years, or both. Nope. They received immunity from criminal prosecution because they admitted guilt. REALLY????
Oh, they're giving out $25 dollar gift cards, but even THEY come with flimflammery. Many think it's nothing compared to the money they got screwed out of over the years. And they're right. Also, you have to register for them, giving address, telephone number, probably email address, information that CAN be sold. AAAANNNNDDDD ( I think you might know what's coming) there's absolutely no doubt, though this article doesn't say it, fucking Lowblows will just offset this card expense with higher prices.
When it comes to the corporations screwing Canadians, and the government just doing nothing about it, we really need to fight our own battles. It'll be easy for me being in Korea, but I'll never shop at Loblaw(s) again. You shouldn't either. I've already boycotted Nestle, which is VERY difficult to do. They're everywhere! And I've heard they're teaming up with Starbucks. Their overpriced coffee won't be too hard to cut out of my life. I guess I'll chuck this Starbucks (or is it Starbuck's? Starbuck?) gift card I got from my employer for my birthday in the garbage. This is the way we need to start fighting this corporate bullshit in Canada! Some people are launching class action lawsuits against Loblaw(s) for the bread thing, but they won't get much, it'll take years and they won't hurt such a rich company. Boycotting them CAN.
Or you can be like those dumbasses who got their cards and said, "Oh goodie! Free groceries!"
sigh...
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