So…..a couple of more Republicans have figured out that the “Big Beautiful Bill” isn’t so beautiful. In the back of my mind upon learning that that Senate needed amendments in order to pass it, I pontificated that this could be just the opportunity for particular conscience driven House members to step up. The one name being floated as a flipper is Thomas Massie from Kentucky. The Republican hold outs stand at five into the very early hours of Thurs July 3rd. The interesting context is the timing in which Elon Musk has made a dramatic post indicating the establishment of a new party if this thing passes. Moreover, if these Republicans stand their ground in principle on subsequent legislative efforts, there would be a substantive mark finally driven on the idiot’s grip on power. Some fluttering from nightmare’s REM state tonight. Massie has an interesting background and doesn’t appear to be the quivering sort. A quote of from him tonight “There’s no reason to bankrupt the country because you want to go shoot off some fireworks.” An amusing adjunct…..I guess during the Senate’s negotiated amendments, a provision was included to restrict poker player losses at 90 per cent and ironically the World Series of Poker’s “Main Event” just got underway.
Category Archives: Politics
Uncivil Civil Society Canada Vs U.S.A.
In Canada, we do not execute people. It’s a barbaric act in contradiction to the essence of our human soul. We protect our citizens from such heinous individuals and we pay a price in treasure to ensure no future acts by such perpetrators unfold. This system of protection absent of execution not only protects our person physically but also our collective consciousness as a civil being of higher order.
Canada is not perfect. Aberrant beings arise and are not always managed in ways to perfectly protect from their deeds. There are occasions where offenders repeat when they should never have been given an opportunity. Work needs to be done during stages of growth and development. We need to not turn away but to engage when witnessing conduct unbecoming of healthy contributing citizens. Teachers need empowerment. Households require two parent families. Social service agencies require funding and programming. Citizens should be incentivized to help given that there has been failure and indifference.
Turning a blind eye to deviance is indifferent and akin to sanctioning the “firing squad”. If we want to make better citizens and prevent heinous crime and murder, we must fixate on the earliest signs of distress expressed by a young person and show them love and belongingness and paths forward for fulfilling lives. A society needs a mechanism for this in a digital world absent of from emotional connectedness.
On April 11th, 2025 the State of South Carolina put to death a man named Mikal Mahdi by firing squad. Global News has reported the execution as botched despite what was estimated to be the method with the least probability of producing a problem with protocol. Witnesses watched a man with a bag over his head scream out, flex his arms and gasp intensely for 80 seconds before expiring limp. A legal system had determined his fate 19 years prior yet had kept him waiting in a jail cell whereby he apparently without rehabilitative resources had attempted yet another murder but this time of a penitentiary employee. The legal system sought clemency up until the last remaining minutes (not hours) of gunfire.
Was Mikal Mahdi possessed with the devil from birth or was there a cause and effect element to an erratic childhood, a family afflicted with alcoholism, a depressive disorder, and a self-esteem problem which had been identified but not necessarily addressed? His father had struggled with work so Mikal was sent to live with his Aunt at one point. While incarcerated he had spent 75 days in solitary confinement from the ages 14 to 17 and another 8 months of solitary confinement at the age of 21.
The death of Mikal Mahdi was the fifth execution by firing squad in the United States since 1976. On January 25, 1996 Billie Bailey died of hanging sanctioned by the State of Delaware. Gas chambers, electrocution, lethal injection, and nitrogen hypoxia remain as alternatives for States still implementing this form of “justice”. Although not referenced as a feature whereby Canadian society distinguishes itself from the U.S. during the tumultuous first 100 days of the Trump Presidency, this one goes without saying.
Analysis of Canadian Conservative Loss 2025
A person needs to start at the state of the political landscape before the election of Donald Trump to fully understand the scale of Conservative decline within such a short time frame. Pollsters had the Conservatives up by 20 plus percentage points bolstered by the hugely unpopular Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Trudeau’s arrogance and fixation on ideology far removed from the every day struggles of Canadians made the prospect of a liberal return to power simply untenable. Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre had been very effective during COVID of holding the liberals to account on policy while spelling out contrasts in policy. It became clear that Poilievre was a serious man of intellect building momentum toward victory.
However; the November 2024 election of Donald Trump changed everything. Suddenly, there was a requirement to build policy around a Canadian response to U.S. tariffs and articulate a message of how Canada would protect its sovereignty around innuendo from the White House that Canada should become the United States’ fifty-first state. Enter Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and Fox News’ favourite guest Kevin O’Leary. Suddenly this dynamic duo was going to negotiate on behalf of Canadians in Trump’s private residence prior to Trump’s inauguration during a leadership vacuum federally given the resignation of Prime Minister Trudeau. Canadians outside Alberta were aghast.
Ironically, Trudeau’s finest hour of Prime Minister was articulating a response to the infamous White House meeting between Trump, Vance, and Zelensky asking viewers to “make sense” of what transpired. Poilievre was nowhere to be seen because he had forgotten where so many Canadians get their news – the CBC. You see…he decided that he wasn’t going to show up and play on a taxpayer subsidized news organization out of principle. Older Canadians not tuned into “social media” or political rally hype were left perplexed. Repulsed by Trump….these steadfast voters became concerned that Poilievre may have had some semblance of affinity toward Trump like policy and even outright fear that there was an ear to fifty first state rhetoric.
Poilievre had one last opportunity to use the word “Trump” in order to help Canadians understand the Conservative platform toward the new division between the nations at the English election debate but failed. While Mark Carney referenced Trump as the theme of his closing remarks, Poilievre finished with a reference to himself of how he rose from a modest background insinuating that others could do it too in the spirit of hard work amidst a climate of conservative policy.
Finally, advanced election polls were already open and the Conservative were yet to unwield their platform officially highlighted by a whopping 15 per cent tax cut. Imagine what those advanced voters must have thought afterward? Were the Conservatives grasping at straws?
The Canadian English Campaign Debate 2025
Although there were four present there, it was mostly a showdown between Carney and Poilievre. Mr. Singh was rather annoying and unstatesmanlike with his interruptions. Mr. Blanchet was out of step with a preponderance of Quebec’s interests over Canadians as a whole. If one election cycle could defrock the Bloc…let it be this one.
Mr. Singh did him and his party no favors with this performance. In fact, he didn’t seem to be as intellectually engaged on issues of substance which may have compelled him to sling the occasional unsolicited barb to score points that were beyond his reach.
There is no denying the intelligence of Pierre Poilievre but the trouble with his smarts is that in this age of Trump….the visceral from a leader is far more important. We’ve been down this road before in Canadian elections whereby the Conservatives have all the momentum but then seem to sputter when it counts the most – right before election day. Whether it’s a foot in the mouth or a failure to take a swing at the pitch down the pipe…the Conservatives have a problem closing.
Carney defended and kept composure. It was evidently apparent that he possesses the capacity to listen. Poilievre was effective at communicating his positions around industry, the housing crisis, and crime. Carney coyly reminded Poilievre on the conservative record on gun control. There was much agreement on Ukraine but few specifics on how to deal with the plight of Palestinian people.
Carney couldn’t muster an answer on the question of concealing disclosure of his personal assets which leads one to believe that there may be a real conflict despite him meeting ethics rules. His positions around “clean energy” are fuelling speculation.
The elephant in the room was Donald Trump and the only one on the stage who seriously engineered commentary on Trump’s presence was Carney and he did so directly during closing remarks. Carney told you the truth of Trump’s desire for Canada’s resources, it’s land, and it’s people and he gave you a message of defiance toward Trump’s covetousness of Canada. This message has been complemented by handshakes of both France’s President and the U.K’s Prime Minister. In his closing remark, Carney gave you the chance to believe him or not about his conviction around protecting Canadian’s interests from what has grown quickly from a perceived threat to a real threat.
Home run hitters produce the imagery of a water melon when the pitcher’s fast ball loses the heat in and around the sixth inning and the projectile sits there right in the middle of the strike zone looking to be launched into the bleachers. Pierre Poilievre in all his intelligence right close to an election decided not to go on CBC and emphatically denounce the rhetoric of Donald Trump. He looked at the melon stunned like a deer in the headlights. Then almost as if hiding from him again despite the shadow’s succinctness haunting that Montreal debate stage…Mr. Poilievre with a chance for one last swing with his last at bat took the strike and instead emotionally mused about his rise to leadership from modest means.
Ambivalence Must Now Be Shown The Door
You grew up in a household which taught values. You learned them and you now hold them dear. You also use them on a daily basis but you’ve seldom been tasked to deploy them within your macro social environment. Now is the time for that.
You see…not everyone is as blessed as you. Some had not been blessed with a functioning household infused with integrity. Some folks now peer through a dark lens void from the loving canvas of a warm home. Cynicism has overtaken some of them so that their judgment has become clouded with apathy. Some have come to trust no one. Imagine that!
You cannot allow the cynicism to develop into policy like it has recently in the United States of America. You cannot rationalize complicity and succumb to the lowest common denominator of life. You cannot exempt yourself from expression because of fear. You must speak. You must now express those values which have brought you abundance in spirit and peace in your heart. Help others come to know that covetousness and greed imperil and that love conquers all.