I support local churches, temples and mosque's in the name of Humanity, not their religion

Monday Morning Rant
June 20, 2022

There is having a belief, and there is being totally sucked in by one's belief. 

As I grew, I read more widely, and learned from other cultures. I slowly became more and more distant from Christianity simply because it does not hold up under scientific, or even rational, scrutiny. There are a few other "incidents" that need not be brought up here.

And to date, there has been no evidence that cannot be proven or substantiated definitely because the Christian Bible is nothing but a series of stories passed on thru Generations, mostly by uneducated and illiterate folks until some time much later, some scribe hears the story and decided to write about what they heard. 

Most likely having absolutely no relation to the original story.

This is called "Story Bias", even if you are a good storyteller (and most people at least try to be) you play down the stuff that’s boring or not salient, and you play up the parts that are interesting or important. So if you’re at all biased about what meets those definitions, you will naturally distort the story, at least according to an “objective” observer.  Happens even in Journalism. 

But in Religious Tomes? 

C'mon. Hardly the epitome of real investigative journalism.  

 

Heck, depending on the translation matrix, the Bible says different things in different languages.  Will becomes May. Or becomes And. A becomes The. Some radically change meanings. Talk about catering to the masses, eh?

To me, the Bible is sort of like the Grimm's Brothers Readers Digest, but with a giant Deity/Troll demanding compensation for the loss of it's child. 

The Old Testament is a good read, though, if you like Fire 'n Brimstone!

Really, it is all just a fairy tale. (Definition at bottom)

And folks seriously have to get off their high-and-mighty throne. Nothing in the Bible gives anyone power to persecute, falsely entice or incite, or distort facts to fellow citizens, no matter colour, creed or race. 

 

Nowhere does it say to bribe, lie and induce potential recruits by telling lies to bring newcomers into the "fold". But seeing as how even modern military recruiters use this tactic, I guess we just have not learned our lesson.

In the USA, the worlds largest hotbed of Evangelical Christianity Gone Wild (Probably tm'd by some sicko...).  a Republican had this to say about American Christian churches:

• Trump cultism has taken over churches | "There are a number of churches that have basically gone from a house of worship of God to a house of worship of Donald Trump"

Hey, I'm just relaying the news from someone who has their hand on the pulse of their own politics.  But so much for the Separation of Church and State as laid out in their own Constitution!

Let's try some blatant, honest, truth for a change, eh?

So, back off...you nut cases!

[To be clear, many of the smaller religious venue's do wonderful things for many local folks, however, it's beliefs/tenants do not apply to most of the population - Salvation Army is my primary example, Local Church fundraisers, local Mosque fundraisers, Sikh Temple fundraisers also do great work.  

I support them all in the name of Humanity, not some religion!

Still not really clear what Missionaries do in modern times - try to steal "souls" away from other religions? "In one hand, we will teach you how to read and write - on the other hand, we will teach you how to worship OUR God"]

Fairy Tale - Definitions

• A fanciful tale of legendary deeds and critters, usually intended for children;
• The Catholic Bible fits this to a tee!
• A fictitious, highly fanciful story of explanation;
• There is even UFO's in some stories!  Woot!
• A tale or story about fairies.
• Well, what are Angels but tall fairies, huh?

What I think the City of Fort Saskatchewan should do next. [AFLB to May 25th, 2009]

 

I've been thinking lately about our great little City of Fort Saskatchewan., and how we can improve our image, encourage more people to move here and how to foster better relations between the citizens (read as “employers) and City Staff and City Council (Read as (employees).

Every time either the City Council or City Staff comes up with an idea, they spend tens of thousands of dollars to present their case to the citizens of the City. How much of the public bothers to actually attend City Council meetings? How many attend any of the “Open Houses” that are staged to “enlighten” Joey and Jenelle Public about the proposals and requirements, effects and affects of such proposals - if come to fruition – will have on the average citizen.

We need to look at several things. What is my (and our) goal? To save the City of Fort Saskatchewan a lot of money, right? What's my next goal? To enable better communications to and between the public, the City Council and Staff and the citizens of this City. This will get a lot more done in a lot less time and at a lot less expense.

How can we all – City staff, Council and Public – meet together at any given time to all view any proposals, the status of such proposals, remarks about these proposals, any other relative information (costs, contractor's bids and costs, then City staff discussions and/or justifications with going with certain contractors) and so on. Can any proposal increase the potential to create a new environment of “transparency” to the public? Will this also tend to hold City staff and Council to a more responsible and responsive standard. The answer, dear Joe and Jane Public to all the above is... Yes, actually, it is ALL quite easily done!

OK, So how to we do all this? Well honestly, it actually IS quite easy and inexpensive, but the real cost is the “willingness” to make it happen. Most likely, this will save the City tens of thousands of dollars, if not hundreds of thousands of OUR dollars – and encourage much, much more participation by Joe and Jane Public in City Activities and the Decision Making Processes the Council is always requesting...

Here is THE plan:

1.The City of Fort Saskatchewan convert all current and future documents, “Office Suites” and perhaps many other applications to the International “Open Standards” and “Open Source” packages now either being considered or used by many countries simply for cost savings and ease of access by literally everyone;

2.Identify opportunities to distribute more information to the public by enlarging the City's Corporate Website;

3.Index and Publish ALL it's data to the Internet using the above mentioned open standards, interfaces and formats;

4.Develop a plan to digitize and distribute all archival data, including all documents and images, to the public – This can be done in conjunction with the local Museum;

5.Ensure the data being supplied to the City by Third-parties such as contractors, developers and consultants are unlicensed in one of the open standards formats and not copyrighted unless other legal considerations make this not possible, and;

6.License any Software developed by the City of Fort Saskatchewan so that they can be used by other municipalities, businesses and the public without restriction.

Other cities such as Washington D.C., San Francisco, Toronto and Vancouver are also going in this direction simply as it makes business sense, saves a lot of money, and gives businesses more data to better provide services to the general population, and the local public can then make more aware decisions.

What I would like to see.

The whole idea is to make the City more accessible to the public. This WILL save lots of money! For example, City Council meetings can be captured by a web-enabled camera and posted and indexed to the City's Website for all to access, so the public can actually see which decisions were made and how such decisions were presented to be made. People then become more enfranchised to become a part of the decision-making process and then make it a point to attend meetings to perhaps become part of this process. 

This is light-years ahead of a “digest” format by some newspaper reporter. If the public is indeed talking about some decision or policy, it will be easy to access and view the original reason and rationale for any decisions and/or policy changes by the Council, or by City Staff. The Public soon learns that if they want any changes, they can interact with the City Council at these meetings, affect decisions, and perhaps offer other potentials, making the whole system work better, and at a lower cost simply by being transparent to the Public!

Other documents that do not need to respect security and privacy issues can be made public in this forum as well. The City works for it's citizens, and there is little requirement to keep any or all discussions hidden/secret; The City must provide the public with access to such data, and in a format that the average citizen can access at home, in a timely and transparent manner at no cost to them.

So, what have we done? Saved tens of thousands annually in Licensing costs for Microsoft Office or other licensed software, and instead, downloaded and installed a free and comparable Office Suite such as “Open Office”, an Internationally known and respected Free Office Suite that does the same as Microsoft's Office software. The US Government is considering swapping over to Open Office as it would save umpteen million$ in licensing fee's alone!

Open Office is a free, open-source multinational, multi-language suite that can open any MS Office documents, and then save them with minimal format changes into an Open Standard document, or even save them an Adobe PDF file as well.

We will have improved transparency within City Government, cut costs and enabled people to use the data to create new useful products, including commercial ones.

The City Council has to remember that it is our taxes that has paid for this data to be collected in the first place! Why can we not view it when we want?

Another little thing that can (and should) be made available for the public is to view what is being collected by any of the City's many Traffic Camera's simply by splitting the feed to the City's Website and a simple page with an “Open-Source” video viewer, so anyone can log on using any browser, and see what any camera is currently viewing, including the camera in Council Chambers. Most Cities, like Edmonton, have such a page, and I encourage the Fort to do the same.

If Fort Saskatchewan wants to attract more businesses and residents, it needs to take up the mantle of a responsible, transparent and modern City that knows how to adapt with the times, respect our security and privacy while still being able to provide the best information access and government transparency only available (or being considered) in the “Huge City” market. 

I think we should be doing such changes NOW while any start-up costs to implement such a policy is negligible and easily recoverable, instead of waiting until the City is much larger, before any such change-over is much more expensive, more difficult to implement and actually a much larger project to make backwards compatible as well. 

Now is also the time to bring forward and implement such a proposal, as costs in this “recession” have come tumbling down, and implementation of such a proposal will cost much less than it will in a vibrant booming economy such as we had only 1 year ago.

Now is the time to do this!

The City of Vancouver just recently endorsed the same principle of making its data open and accessible to everyone where possible, adopting open standards for that data and considering open source software when replacing existing applications and software, possibly saving millions of dollars each year.

We should be next! We have the potential to set the National Standard for all Cities of Small and Medium sizes! Let the Big Cities do it their way. We can implement it faster, go further, for less money all the while getting more return out of our tax dollars.

I believe Fort Saskatchewan residents are more "connected" to the world via the Internet than any other "average large town or small city", and we should take advantage of this while we can!

I must acknowledge the help of CBC News to research this subject.

---

UPDATE 26 May, 2009

I am reading the Washington Post today (yes, I do read newspapers from around the world - online!), and there is a nice article with the following headline: Open-Government Tools Unveiled by White House.

What they have done as of today, is started implementing the Policy President Obama committed his government towards developing "Transparency Policies". So, today, Phase One of a Three Phase process included the tools towards developing these policies.

These tools allow citizens, government employees, officials, and pretty much anyone with an interest in developing transparency policies, to brainstorm, discuss and then help draft the guidelines. So if President Obama can do it, why can't Fort Saskatchewan do it???

That's just the way I see it...

Is it the really the Americans fault the Taliban are taking over Pakistan [AFLB] Jun 12, 2009

 From BBC News

 

I was reading my BBC news online as I normally do before going to bed each night, as it is then fresh off the press their time, and I get the latest scoop on Global News before our Canadian News Agencies even think about printing it, usually ending up in the next day's papers - not tomorrows - the next days.

Anyways, the link I've given above, is to a BBC News article about how screwed up Pakistan is dealing with the Taliban. Here is my take on one comment another reader said about not only the article, but the situation in Pakistan in whole:

I feel that the US owes Pakistan as they have simply pushed the Taliban from Afghanistan to Pakistan. They kept pushing them back and back and eventually, they came in. The US has passed their problems onto a weak nation.
Z, UK

I've been keenly following what is happening in Pakistan only because many of my friends and colleagues are serving with the Canadian Army in Afghanistan. We are there by invitation of the Afghan government, not the Americans, and not by any other agency. But, while we were there to help Afghans rebuild a better life, we also had to protect not only ourselves, but the very people whose lives we came to help rebuild.

We Canadians, military and civilians along with the Americans, British and many other countries experts, agencies and military's, are trying to help Afghani's build a better life. We are building new schools, water supplies, sewage plants, roads and other basic infrastructures wrecked by decades of war and poor administration of previous governments or religious agencies. You NEVER hear about all the good that is going on because no one dies while doing this kind of work. At least they are not routinely shot, blown up, taken hostage, eyes gutted, bombed, sniped or attacked by a drone. That kind of work does not make for "sexy" news.

 

Wars, incursions, raping, stabbings, bombing, IED's, civilians killed as "collateral damage", no matter which side did it. Convoys attacked, Generals Sacked, Drones shooting missiles, North Koreans smuggling missiles, fighting the Taliban, taking over Pakistan.

 

That is what News Editors and Columnists like to write about. That is what Network TV says draws the audience. Build a school? Nothing. Boring. Waste of time, no one will watch.

 

Taliban bombs the same school on opening day - with all the female students in it? Now, that's news.

And now we've hit a new low...

To blame the latest incursions of the Taliban into Pakistan on the soldiers and countries that are trying to HELP Afghanistan is nothing but a cheap shot meant to distract from the real problem.

 

If the Pakistani government and Military commanders had been doing their jobs in the first place; If they had been concentrating on what was necessary and not what was traditionally done; Then, they would all have seen the writing on the walls and perhaps gotten off their collective butts and started patrolling the appropriate borders, stopping the Taliban from wandering unchecked into Pakistan for R&R, then attacking convoys, then through inaction, allowing the Taliban enough leeway to actually take over and control a whole district and impose their brand of twisted Sharia law.

 

What amazes me even more, is that the Pakistani President pushed this constitutional amendment to allow this "dual legal system" to happen, even though it was clearly against the Pakistani Constitution. And the ones who really should have stood up and said no - they just sat back and said nothing.

    Don't blame us. Look inwards. You'll be surprised what you will find. Laziness,  corruption, self-absorption, perhaps even a lot of infiltration by Taliban members, and if not, perhaps a lot of people in power who are being blackmailed by the Taliban into doing "nothing". It's just to obvious to us looking in from the outside. 

Just don't expect us to come in and clean up your mess. You made it. You clean it up. You've earned NO respect from me, nor several others, I dare say.

I am just calling it the way I see it.

 

Below are comments on how some of the other readers see it...

---

"I'm a Pakistani and the vast majority of Pakistanis support the Taliban because they are fighting for a noble cause. The people don't support the government because it is corrupt from the top to the bottom. They don't support the army because the army doesn't care about anyone else. They don't support the West because they are the invaders."
Faris, Azad Kashmir

"How is that an army of 18,000 - fully equipped and trained - could not fight only about 1,000 Taliban thugs? The math is not right. Something fishy stinks though."
AK Swati, Swat, Pakistan

---

 

So, what do you think? Am I wrong? No matter, this is just how I see it.

 

Trying to compare Liars to Honest folks, and I'm getting a headache - I really should lie down.

 Its Monday, 30 May, 2022 as I write this.

The truth about Dogs and Cats (and politicians)  

Lies and Truths constantly come out for most events happening around the world.  We know what is happening in the Ukraine, and expect about 80% of what we hear from Mainstream Media to be the Truth.  Digital/Online reporting, mostly from "Citizen Reporters" both inside and outside Russia, drops down to about 50 - 60%. Fox news?  Hmm, I'm guessing somewhere in the 30-25% range.

Statistically speaking.

And that is only from Europe.  I cannot even start to try to find accurate statistics for Canada and the USA.  Canada's statistics mostly come from Stats Can, a government agency, as well as several other private agencies they may "hire" for social outreach.

There are even "for profit" statistic agencies, for example, that constantly poll radio listeners, TV viewers, political opinions, and topics from Women in leadership issues to Native Rights to National, Provincial and Municipal and County issues. And other "for profit" agencies that compensate their interviewee's either with cash, prizes or gifts from Media Advertisers.

Typically, this is fed "upstream" gathing more momentum as other Agencies add to the database or just parrot what they have heard, gaining prominence and recognition until folks figure that the reported facts are the real facts.  I do know that these agencies pride themselves on their accuracy by constantly overseeing data collection to ensure fair and impartial data collection, colation, mesauging and sorting out what the data actually means.  Their livelihood depends upon these two distinction: Honesty and Integrity.

Of course this is difficult to attain when only a small sample size is acquired.

Results may not perfect because emotions can still get involved, and when that happens, a fact stop being a fact.

Statistics for MSM typically come from smaller companies hired by an Agency, or duplicate and assess Government generated statistics.

So really, it's all a matter of interpretation, isn't it?  We all know that a nugget of information is expected to at least have a kernal of truth, and the larger the kernal, the stronger the truth. This is MY definition, after reading about 20 websites worth of reports of these kinds.

I'm not lying!

Funny thing - Lies do not need any kernal of truth to be a lie, or a fact, factoid or nugget of information.  It's so much easier to not have to prove truth if one can lie about the "kernal" of their lie.

Take the GOP.  They will take a nugget of truth, twist and mutilate and present it as a lie, or a "new" truth, with no real substantiation to either of those nuggets.  They make this lie come to life by repeating it often and usually as loud as possible.  More on this later.

ETA: March, 2024:  Sorry folks, but I just needed to interject a new study about this very topic.

In a research paper, the investigators had 6 folks volunteer for a simple yes/no survey, but held in a peculiar manner.

►First, they took 5 people aside, and asked them, in confidence, to always vote against their natural responses.  No. Matter. What.

Okay, 5 undercover folks and one innocent gentleman. (Middle aged, apparently)

►They sat the 6 study targets in a circle facing each other, holding on their laps small signs with either Yes or No neatly printed upon the face.

►Here is where the fun starts.  A voice will ask a question: What is the sky blue?  Immediately, 5 cards come up with "No", and one "Yes".

This continues on for an hour each day for just a couple days, and the participants are not allowed to talk to each other when not at the testing facility.

►A few days later, the questions begin, and the frustrated individual who is always at odds with the other 5 participants suddenly begins to answer questions in the same manner as the other 5 "undercover" participants.

Sociologists, psychiatrists and other behavioural researchers are stunned.  They repeat with another group.

Same result.

This phenomenon is tightly based upon the human need to believe, to be part of a group no matter the consequences.  Even despite their own beliefs.
Researchers have said that this is the same effect that is happening to Conservative voters in the USA - be told long enough, and loud enough fake facts, and folks will see other folks saying "Hell Yeah!", and shortly after, will exhibit the same responses despite knowing deep inside the truth. 

Why?  The need to Belong.  To Believe. Even without proof.  Listen, if all the world's Religions can do this with their congregations, why cannot Trump do the same with his constituents?

It is ethical?  Hell no.
Is it moral?  Double hell no.
But it's a great tool to control the masses.

Dems go to skool

The Democrats in the past 5 years have learned a lesson, and when stating facts, try hard to draw direct lines to proven kernels of truth, many of them so irrefutable that any rational person would understand this.

But the GOP have learned some lessons as well - from the Russians; Scream louder, harder and more often.  

Eventually, folks will start to think "Hey, no one is refuting this, so there must be at least a nugget of truth in this, so I should support this "new" truth.

THAT, dear friends is how the US Republicans work, and in Canada the major parties.

Might makes right.  Not the Truth.  Not Atheism. Not LGBTQ+2.  Might.  And guns.  Lots of Guns.  All blessed by God Above!

Politics really should not rely upon an unverifiable storybook that portends to go back 5 or 7,000 years to the beginning of ALL time, even though it really appears to energise these Conservatives. 

Sigh.  So much for the separation of the Church and State, eh?

But I digress.  I'm have several suggestions for some additional reading, all the way from 2013 up to 2021.  Various sources and various reporters and media outlets.  But instead, I am going to collate statistics into a more readable version to highlight the various "truths" out there.  

I try to include links to the original documents so you may read what I had looked up if you really want.

And I would ask you to note that even though I utilize many different sites for the data, they all seem to mesh together when taken as a whole.  That makes a near-statistical truth, being that it is more likely to be truthful, than a made up, or a blatant lie.

I admit I stayed away from any "Alt.*" websites, as I have no idea how much credence I can attach to whatever fact they throw out for each issue.

So here comes the data!

Put on yer thinking cap!

According to Salon, whom reported from Politifact, the GOP has a 91x higher conviction rate than the Democrats.  Yeah, I thought this was wild, but other sources tempered this down to a more agreed-upon number of about 31x.  Thirty-one Times higher conviction rate.  Not bad, eh?  [are you fuggin' kidding?]

Think about it - that's a whole classroom and their 1 teacher!  So, lets break it down, ok?

        1970 - 2017

        Criminal Convictions:

• Dems - 1
• GOP  - 91

        Indictments:

• Dems - 3
• GOP  - 124

        

        Prison Sentences

• Dems - 1
• GOP  - 14

OK, so all this tells us is that the GOP appear to have a much higher tendency towards lying and criminal activity or, they are just horrible at lying and criminal activity.  You choose.

Eisenhower appears to be about the only President not to be "connected" to any criminal enterprise, or associated to known criminal elements.  [Hey, ever hear about Warren Harding?]

President Harding was a Republican President, considered the most beloved of all Presidents.  Until he died.  Then scandal after scandal crept out of the woodwork.  Even an illicit affair!  Gasp!

Yeah, yeah yah, in the Trump Era, there is no such thing as an "illicit affair" as long as you have deep pockets.

 

So, I mean, if you cannot trust the most beloved of all Presidents, who can you trust?

Well, let's look at the "Party statement truth or lie ratio's" up to 2013, Okay?
(I'm sure there are more recent numbers...will look later...)

        False or lies - a 3-1 margin

• DEM - 11%
• GOP - 32%

        Mostly or Entirely True - twice as truthful, actually.

• DEM - 54%
• GOP  - 18%

        False Claims in 2013 from Benghazi fallout, IRS and Associated Press.    Both are guilty!

• DEM - 32%
• GOP  - 60%

Obviously you can see that the Dem's are not total Angels - however this index does not take into consideration the size of the lie, nor the size of the kernel of truth.  [So we can sit back and ponder that for a while.]

Thankfully, any data here is NOT from the Trump Administration as that would blow the curve out of the water!  And it still continues to this date?  May 2022, Trump is still touting lies at the NRA convention, still wants to jail Crooked Hillary [investigated to death and no indictable criminal offenses found] and how Russia is such a great friend to him and HIS party.  

Oh?  Right. Sorry.

That last one is dead-on the Truth!  Trump is still supporting his friend, President-for-life Putin, even after invading the Ukraine!

The Truth about Lying

The Democratic party in 2021 realized that they were being raked over the coals because their "Truth" may not contain enough truth to satisfy most Liberals, and perhaps some were only referred or twisted truths, so the Dems have now tightened up their research to ensure that any statements they make can be directly related to not just a nugget of truth, but preferably Uncontested Truths.  If unable, then they will utilize several other similar truths to state one's case to the public.  Blatant lying is to be avoided at all costs.

Pointing out blatant lies has become the new sport for President Biden's Press Secretary, Jan Psaki, who seemingly is always ready to counter any "alt" media's attempt to trip-up either the President, his staff or even Ms. Psaki herself.  

In all the briefing's that I have watched her chair, she has yet to fall into any trap to entice lying.  In fact, she appears to take great joy in pointing out the absurdity of the question given responding with hard evidence and facts to, in my own words, put the stupid reporter in his spot, but with dignity and truthful answers.

Trump's press secretary - all of them, actually, could not tell a reasonable lie to save their own bloody lives, never mind the Administrations.  Nor could they refute any facts MSM may have posed the Trump Administration during these Press Briefing's  because their lies did not have any concrete nugget of truth to fall back upon.  More often than not, Reporters with the facts were often refused entry to the briefings.

And this is where the only two political parties in the USA obviously differ.  One tries to be truthful, but their policies may be misguided at times, which is understandable as many of their numbers are young, upcoming pol's and are still learning the ropes.

The other party no longer appears to have any policies (thanks to Trump!), and rarely rely on the Truth to back up their statements.  Heck, the GOP loves to smear their competition by lies, innuendo and outright criminal acts.

We do not know the extent of the Trump Administrations' criminal activities, however, we can see that President Trump has utilized his family to extract the maximum amount of currency (and salable information) they can without hiring agencies unknown to them.  Of course, they used all their own trusted "friends" from the USA and others (IE: Russia, Saudi Arabia, etc)

[Unknown agencies may actually be ethical and truthful, and Trump did not want that!]

Recently, we found out that Trumps son-in-law and Mnuchin, I think is his name, took over 50 flights to Saudi Arabia and Israel on the US's dime, ostensibly to set up deals for the USA and friendly military assistance, but have been recently discovered were mostly used to create fake enterprises with Billions set up in their Funds (From the Saudi's), for SIL/Minichen to access.  This has been exposed to be a "payment" system for utilizing their close ties to the President to effect and affect American policies, decisions and monetary payments for "services and products" that never appear to the Public.  Son-in-law Jared did the same with Israel.

Read both of the articles - they are quite eye-opening!

Let's be Comrades, nyet?

We may never know the extent to which the Kremlin snuck into the White House, compromising not only US security, but Canada's and even perhaps NATO's as well, as we utilize commonality in technology for high security communications systems, but can be compromised via fairly quick physical hacks given access from someone in the inside.  Like the President's family and friends and business partners.

So, let's wait until President Biden's (and the Dem's on whole) numbers come out after his first term compared to President Trumps.  Should be interesting, eh?  I'm going to love THAT chart!

Take off, hoser!

We have the Liberals (Left), the Progressive Conservatives (Right, and hardly "progressive"), and the New Democratic Party (Right of Centre, Left of PC's).  There are outliers such as the Green party, the Alberta Party, etc, but...whatever.

So who lies the most in Canada; The Conservatives, the Liberals or the Democrats?

Well first of all, politics in Canada is a vastly different critter than the model our American cousins utilize.  

We don't indict.  We simply ask for a resignation if a member of cabinet is caught with their hands in the cookie jar.  Or lying.  Mostly.  

We did sack a Governor General, I think, but her fault was being caught abusing her staff/allowances/etc.  Not lying, so no free round-trip for her.

But, the average Canadian citizen still expects their representative to tell them the truth, and often times, that is hardly what is received.  Often it is simply an "untruth", in that there is some truth to what they are stating, but they are not revealing the whole truth which could be 180° from the Truth that was actually disclosed to the public.

For example, multiple court cases have absolved politicians who make campaign promises, then do not deliver on them.  To constituents, that is a HUGE lie. 

Look, remember when Peter Mackay stated a $9 billion dollar underestimate for the F35 fighter jets?  He has since admitted he knew back then it would cost closer to $25 billion!  

Punishment?  Pfffft.  Hardly.

So, why do we let Canadian Politicians get away with lying, when they are supposed to be serving us?  Well, basically, because the Canadian Supreme Court (and Provincial Supreme Courts) have constantly upheld a politicians right to lie.  

Huh?

Courting the Courts

According to this lands highest courts, it is considered to be a "Breach of Trust, not of Contract".

Go figger.

So, if you hear someone saying "How can you tell when a politician is lying?  His lips are moving", they are probably Canadian.  Lie first, apologise later.  Oh, so Canadian, eh?

igh.

What we need is a "Truth in Politics Act", which forces parliamentarians to legally disclose truths that need to move Canadian society forward.  Lying is not the way to go about fashioning a giant multi-cultural country, and not suffer consequences.  Perhaps there is some more "modern" method of controlling Politicians?

I really Love this Truth in Politics Act story. "The Four Strands" Yup.  Canada, eh?  It's a funny read, and not too long!

MSM is not chocolate-coated nuts.

Just look at political happenings in each Province.  MSM loves to dig into each political party to expose all the guts, worms and lies living within each party, and some have many more than others. Ontario comes to mind, with handguns, drugs, lines of coke, political partying at all hours, and hand-me-downs to the Premiers friends.

Just to give you a heads up, the party that lies the least, is ...... the NDP party.  Even the Green party lies more than the NDP.  The PC and Libs?  No contest.  They live to lie!

This pretty much holds true Provincially as well as Federally.  Just a Canadian thing, I guess?

Still, Canadian Pol's have made lying an Art form.  When they are lying, they can be telling the truth at the same time.  They're so friggin' good!  The lie could be a truth based upon another lie, for example.  

It only goes down the rabbit-hole from there!

"No wonder then that Elections Canada lists false promises and dishonesty as causal factors in the declining participation of voters (79.4% in 1958 to 68.3% in 2015), particularly among young voters.

If candidates for political office are not going to at least attempt to turn campaign promises into legislation, what is the point of voting at all?" ("Breach of trust, not contract: Why politicians are allowed to lie." By Ken Grafton, Oct 20, 2019 Emphasis is mine)

I mean, we can all forgive small "fibs" and perhaps even some "white lies"  (Lies that protect someone, or some thing).  But politics, Federally, is a vicious game!

Provincially, it's a Circus.  Look at Alberta.  It's the Big Top, 3-Ring Circus of Canada!

Let's go Oilers!

The Alberta PC's screwed up so badly that their party folded like a cheap lawsuit and 2 other Right-Wing parties jumped into the ring in a fusion of Conservatism that went so far Right that they decided to call themselves the "United Conservative Party" or the UCP as they are more generically known.  It's got nothing to do with the United Church, or Manchester United, or United Van Lines. [Thankfully, the Pillow Guy doesn't live here, eh?]

So now, 3 years in, Premier Kenny is in such dire straits that he had to step down as Premier (but remains in office until a new Premier is chosen sometime in the Future, or perhaps the next election).  

The party has screwed up the Province so badly that even the NDP's previous government has been unsurprisingly touted to be much more Ethical and Fiscally-wise  with good policies when compared to the UCP.

And we come full circle back to the NDP's.  In B.C., the NDP's were once hailed as saviours of the province.  Now they are reviled.  In Saskatchewan, same thing.  In Alberta, after the UCP took office from the NDP, that is all they would state - that the NDP failed Alberta.  But the UCP offers no plan how to better serve Alberta.  Instead, the UCP have turned into their greatest hero, the GOP. 

Lets see if these ring some American bells?

• First, the UCP changed the language and content of school curriculum to alternate history, false claims and outright lies.  Included in this are outdated methods, plagiarism and racism, just for a start.
• Teachers are flocking out of the province because of education cuts that hurt everyone from Universities down to Day Care.
• Teachers Union has Pension Fund hijacked and given over to a "friendly to the UCP" Investment Management Corporation.  Those morons are know for "risky" ventures, especially in Oil and Gas, having recently lost over $1.3 Billion in bad investments. Of Alberta's money!
• I wonder if they have tons of $$$ invested in the Russian oil and gas fields, eh?
• Wonder if they are hoping that Ukraine will fall so that their investments go up?
• Then the UCP wants to close down hospitals, Privatizing up to 11,000 Alberta Health Services (AHS) jobs in favour of contracting out to private companies.
• They want to use Tax money to build a new $200 Million PRIVATE Orthopedic surgery facility in Edmonton.  Lobbyists pushing this facility have connections to recently-fired UCP Health Minister Tyler Shandro.
• Reduced the amount given to the severely handicapped and others on the edge of society that depend on living with AISH cheques.
• Actually, they even rolled back the date the cheques will be issued and now handicapped folks cannot pre-purchase bus passes at a much reduced rate, stranding them at home. 
• Cut Wages and Compensation to health-care workers during the Pandemic.  At same time, asked Nurses for a 3% wage rollback!  [The fucking nerve, eh?]
• Then told Nurses and other staff that healthcare for their emotional issues caused by the Pandemic will NOT be covered (Psychological help!).  [Bunch of fucking pricks!]
• Lifted restrictions on Utilities and Insurance companies rates and fees.  
• Vehicle insurance has skyrocketed.  
• Now they want to install a mandatory "No-Fault" insurance framework, which will guarantee skyrocketing profits for those companies and lower payouts or coverage for Albertans.  Does anyone not understand how ICBC totally screwed this up?
• Electricity rates have blown way out of proportion.
• Not related, but gas prices are ridiculous.  The UCP could help with rebates, but so far...chirp chirp.
• The UCP proudly created (or rather, invented) then presented with much brouh-ha-ha the "War Room", with high tech computers and instant data access around the world, just to counter any story or rumors that that make Alberta look bad, even if it is the truth.  
• Cost?  Nearly $100 Million - per year!  And they have yet to make a substantial effort, hell, even a minimal effort, to follow through on their own mandate.  
• The one time they did attempt to utilize their full power and intelligence, they ended up with their collective feet in their own great big gobs!
• Another time, it was Netflix
• I mean, that money could have been used for better medical care, more doctors, nurses and lab techs, more laundry and food service employees, and hell, perhaps even a pay raise for nurses, instead of a 3% rollback on their wages in the middle of a Pandemic!
• But instead, the UCP wanted to lie to sell Alberta to Americans.
• Even the local Marxist website is chiming in with their "How the UCP has destroyed Alberta".
  

Seems the UCP has pissed off pretty much everyone who pays their wages, but we are all sure their friends at Suncor and Cenovus will be quite "generous" with their campaign pledges and other political kickbacks.  

Trickle me Edwin

Sounds a lot like "Trickle-Down-Economics", doesn't it?  

Of course it does!  And we know that TDE Does. Not. Work.  How do we know this?  

Well, let's look at "United for a Fair Economy's website:

•  Cutting the top tax rate does not lead to economic growth.
• Actually, there was a general decline.

• Cutting the top tax rate does not lead to income growth.
• Evidence is inconclusive, therefore, not fully true.

• Cutting the top tax rate does not lead to wage growth.
• Mixed results, but definitely not any more than before.

• Cutting the top tax rate does not lead to job creation.
• Generally?  Nope. 

 I mean, cutting corporate taxes?  The thinking that "Job Creation Tax Cuts" has proven that higher profits do not translate to investment or employment, and this has been proven repeatedly, but folks still believe in this pipe-dream. It's been years since Trickle-Down Economics has been proven ineffective!  The only thing TDE does is encourage corporations to automate their plants and pass on extra profits as dividends to their investors, and million dollar "bonus'" to the Executive staff.

And, of course, the AUPE - Alberta Union of Public Employees have a few things to say about the UCP and their dismal policies.  Heck, they even say so on their own big, glorious and unionized .org website.  "UCP need to deal with current disasters before creating new ones".

That is so comforting, ain't it? [HINT - No it's not!]   Let me jam up some of the top UCP's failures in a nutshell (bullet format, y'know)

• Gave Green Light to open businesses back up again, even though there is no industry-specific pandemic plans for most essential services [and hospitals are still overcrowded].
• Same story for Meat-packing, Postal, Online Retail Warehouses.
• Dismal rating in the handling of employers outbreak record keeping to assist in back-tracing victims. Slowest Province to enable Cell Phone Tracing.  
• Or provide Certificates of Inoculation.
• But still found time to leave the country for Christmas while the rest of Alberta hunkered down in isolation.
• Allowed Cargill (Giant meat packing plant) to remain open with no real protection for workers because, well, money exchanged hands, I'm guessing?  
• This exposed not just the plant, but the whole community to the Pandemic Virus.  
• With almost no representation, minimum wage and regressive employment standards, no sick leave and basic cleaning supplies, those packing-house employees were just Russian Roulette with their lives.  
• So, basically, the owners and investors were gambling with their own workers lives just for a few extra bucks.  
• Super wishy-washy when dealing with Anti-Maskers such as Church Leaders.  A Law is a Law, I say.  Have a problem, take it to court, not the court of public opinion. Police need to be more firm and fair with the application of the law.  As the US Marines are fond of saying "Kill 'em all, let God sort them out", I'd revise that to "Arrest them all, let the Courts sort them out".
• I mean, we have a pretty decent court system - in comparison to other "Democratic" countries where a high-priced lawyer can get most folks off.
• Apparently, the UCP were not interested in those issues as they were too busy, uuuh, not being available to make decisions.

Don't get me started on Anti-vaxxers and Anti-Maskers.  Both, to me, are just entitled folks refusing to give up their hard fought Freedoms and Rights.  Those Ottawa Trucker Convoy folks?  Cut from the same cloth.  

But, really?  

Hard fought?  

Heh. Prove it! [without lying, eh?]

Its the end of the world, as we know it

I think at this point that I'm going to end it all.  

No, not suicide this time, [yeah, as that sucks] but this immense rant that started as a kernel of a thought, has now infected my brain to a point where I want to lie down and pet all my cats for a while.

And perhaps have a little cry.  

Because I live in Alberta.

Where, apparently...