The headline may spawn furor among some and affirmative surprise among others. I’m going to spell out one particular fact for those wooed by the press’ coverage of Calgary’s laid off white collar oil and gas workers. These proud people have been paid more than everyone else in every other sector possessing similar non-industry specific skill sets. Hence; one might rationalize that a cyclical premium was built into their higher salaries. Guess what? That down cycle came during 2015 and 2016. If you worked in this sector and were laid off and drove a Mercedes, I bet you forgot to prognosticate the possibility of a downturn when salivating over the chrome wheels, glitzy dashboard, and heated seats at the dealership. Perhaps, you own a house in Mount Royal while similarly hard working individuals with no less of an aptitude for learning work in the transportation industry and live in Martindale. You see, workers in other sectors empathize with your plight but they have also been witness to announcements of your extravagance and penchant for lavish Christmas parties and Stampede functions. They’ve occasionally heard you reference working in “oil and gas” in what could be perceived as an elitist manner. Of course, you’ve espoused capitalist sentiment from a right winged political philosophy but now you’ve been afforded special consideration from the Employment Insurance fund whereby small business owners may be faced with the consequential increased payroll costs associated. We want to see you get back to work if you haven’t changed sectors by now. We want to see you win and hopefully carry yourselves with a modicum of humility having gone through a reality check.
Pleasant Surprise From The Press
Evidence of lethargy in journalism was witnessed in the latest U.S. election campaign. The Washington establishment was either ambivalent or oblivious to the plight of marginalized factory workers in the rust belt States. Lest it be said that the sentiment surrounding these shut down towns may have deserved more journalistic attention. Lately it seems a road rage incident will make front page news but a decade doubling of violence rates in Canadian prisons is muted due to some perceived notion that an editorialist may believe Canadians’ tolerance for the statistic to be acceptable. What Donald Trump has espoused as bias in the media may more aptly be described as mere arrogance.
When the news should be reported at face value with a semblance of organized hierarchy in terms of relevance, I’m afraid that the media has lost its way in the context of a populous deemed impressionable by commercial interests and media promulgated opinion. I don’t know how many times I’ve responded responsibly via comment over at editorials published by a Postmedia only to see my comment nixed seemingly because my opinion differed from that of the author. On the one hand they provide a commenting platform for readers and on the other they overtly breach their industry creed of “freedom of expression”.
However; yesterday while running an errand, I stumble upon a coin box filled with editions of the Epoch Times. Pleasantly, I’ve garnered a favourable first impression and renewed hope that independent journalism is not yet down for the count. Society does transform but not necessarily positively with adherence to a group which conveniently has access to your mind.
On Line Mainstream News Brief User Guide
Let’s start with the worst. MSNBC apparently thinks you are illiterate and hence is only providing videos for you to watch. I suppose it’s all in an effort to get you connected with Lawrence O’Donnell and Rachel Maddow and tilted to the left.
Postmedia (Calgary Herald and Vancouver Sun among others) have finally figured out that you are deleting your cookies in an effort to circumvent their effort to get you to subscribe. Now they just throw up a subscription box overlay preventing you from viewing an article. The Globe and Mail is now doing the same thing. For some reason, Postmedia’s National Post still seems reasonably accessible. This is their right and it is also your right to determine if you pay enough already through your monthly internet access and viewership of their advertisements. Although their subscription rates are palatable, where does the nickel and diming stop? Does the whole internet universe deserve access to your email address? Should you decide to treat yourself to one subscription, would you then be denying yourself access to alternate editorials with differing opinions….thereby narrowing your lens of seeing the world?
The Washington Post and NY Times also eventually want your subscription dollar as does the LA Times and Boston Globe. The Calgary Sun will get you a $0.99 rate but “conditions will apply”. You may be as unenthused as I about researching the qualifiers and exclusions.
As for CNN, if you are looking for links on topics such as the top ten photos famous people don’t want you to see, this is the news site for you.
In lieu of the above, in Canada I find ctvnews.ca and your taxpayer subsidized cbc.ca the places which best cut through the crap without even the occasional spam box thrust upon your inquisitive eyes. Reuters remains user friendly but surprisingly their content is leaner than what we would expect from such a large news organization.
Subject to edit based on future experience with aforesaid and / or other on line news outlets.
Election Looming
Harry Reid believes the FBI is holding back on a Russia – Trump alliance of sorts and Democrat campaign Chief John Podesta wants to cast fault with FBI Director James Comey for acting his conscience in revealing new information relevant to the country’s national security. There’s lots of finger pointing to go around with the newest email revelation but the huge fault rests with the electorate which installed delegates assigned to nominating these two highly flawed candidates for the presidency of the United States. With eight days until the election, every fatigued player of this political tempest including voters needs to stand tall on election day and muster a best effort in determining which one of these two characters can practically carry out an agenda for the true betterment of a society. It’s now up to the individual to administer democracy absent from a strong political foundation traditionally presented by the country’s two main parties.
These are dark days for democracy will pass because cool heads will prevail when a new office of the President comes to power. Fortunately, there will be stronger apolitical civil servants in the wings eager to execute a mandate.
Of great concern to the U.S. is the embattled monetary system and marginalization of the poor. Just today, there is unrest in penitentiaries due to perceived enslavement of the incarcerated. The administration of justice on the streets is an issue as is gun violence. Elitists in Washington have been blind to the plight of the poor. Irrespective of the mudslinging during this political season, this illumination should be considered a positive. Whoever wins this election is going to need to rebuild some form of trust from the unfortunate position of lacking political capital. Immediate attention will be drawn to demanding international matters while attending to systemic problems of debt, legacy debt, and hopelessness among a large population of African American people. Legislative cooperation in Washington has been poor during the Obama Administration. A lot needs to get figured out all at once. Hopefully some White Knight with a conciliatory tone emerges whom has yet to step forth on a Sunday news segment.
The Girl On The Train
I’m in disagreement with the parade of reviewers who were bored with this flick, The Girl On The Train. I thought Emily Blunt’s performance as a drunk traipsing suburban train tracks was stellar. The opening scene’s suggestion that she had a mere fascination in the lives of others proved to be an understatement. I was enthralled by her depth of obsession into the lives of characters cast into her old neighborhood and the consequence that eavesdropping from a train car would play upon unfolding events. Her despair was gripping. I thought the pulse and flow of the movie moved in parallel to the plot as it developed and as a suspense mystery it needn’t have demonstrated the flash and effects of an action adventure. There was eeriness to scenes typical of what one would expect given the story line. Two particular plot twists could have been better developed or omitted. Not a film for the young ‘uns but you may be transfixed for a time.