All hail our beloved Führeress! Or..."Through Fear and Greed".

 

 

Some of us are old enough to remember the cold war, even if we didn't understand it.  My first day in school was in 1966, so I missed out on the majority of silliness that was two big bears that couldn't decide in which forest to go for a shit.

Right after High School, I immediately joined the Canadian Armed Forces, with the intent to learn a trade, get out after a couple years and then strike out on my own with my newly trained job skills.

But fate has a way of changing things. I will not get into the psychological side, the rough-housing side, the crazy antics side and the "make it work, no matter what you do" attitude. 

We Canadians were famous in NATO to be given a task for which we may not have the proper equipment, but thanks to the many, many professional scroungers in the Quarter Masters Guild, and the many Tyro scroungers that kept all the smaller units relative to the Brigade Commander.  We made it work.  No matter what.

I want to believe that no laws were broken, although knowing the type of people I mentioned in the paragraph above, there is always a way to negotiate for almost anything in the NATO Catalogue.  And trust me, that Catalogue is tremendously huge, covering every nut and bolt in the Canadian Armed Forces Inventory. Nuts to F-18''s, and it's ancillary kit too, I suppose.

So, we made it work.  Often, this skill was honestly mentioned in Evaluation Reports, usually in the form of "ensured his detachment was fully kitted out and ready for battle despite the lack of serviceable equipment...." vein of blathering.  We all know what they did.  Some of us hated him (he got my shovel...) and some of us loved him (he got a shovel for me...).  

 

 

  

 

Through Fear and Greed.

They tell folks that IF they don't get elected, the other (major) party will blow the budget every year.  Will make all scooter illegal.  Will demand all animals be inserted with tracking devices.  And on and on.  Spread the Fear.

Greed.  Say everyone is getting a Tax Break, but they don't.  Only the top 5% get a tax break.  In fact, as soon as the UCP took office the first time, they immediately gave away $3 Billion to Petroleum Energy Companies, and are now trying to push through an Annual $20 Billion to these same companies, to help with "oilfield cleanups" they say, clean up all the abandoned pumpjack and drilling equipment at private locations and then on the other hand, immediately tender a job for abandoned drilling site cleanups, for a measly One-Time $1 Million dollars.

How fucked up is that?

Then, after Ottawa offers money to Provincial Towns, the Premier then steps in and says "No, you will have to go through US from now on to get money to towns and Cities". (See below for more details).

Talk about a control freak, eh?  Wait, it gets better. They are passing a bill, Bill 21, that will consolidate at-will provincial powers to override their municipal counterparts where they may be "at cross purposes" with the province.

Then there was Bill 18 - which blocks municipalities, health-care agencies, post-secondary researchers, and other public bodies from receiving federal funds without the Province's permission. (See?!)

Control.  Fear and Control of anything that can support the Greed.

Remember I mentioned about City/Town elected officials now having a Political Party connection?  This is yet another one.  There are probably more to come, but the bottom line is that the UCP wants to concentrate power, all power, in the offices of the UCP at the Legislature, which I'm sure will eventually be called the Reichstag.

The latest I just read about?  Ottawa is offering a Dental Plan for Parents with children under the age of 18, and Seniors over the age of 65 (dammit - gotta wait 2 more years!)

But our glorious Leader, Premier "Is She Freeking Serious" Daniel Smith once again puts her foot down and says,  "Uh uhhhhh, not in this Province".

Remember I said a lot in the past that the UCP wants to drag Alberta back to the 1950's?  I've read their "Conservative Party White Paper" written by a religious hack, with the aim to turn Alberta into Texas/Florida-North. 

And it has already started.

Look at the schools.  School curriculum's have been adjusted to remove and include historical facts.  In fact, much of the "new" information is either not true or totally out of context.  The previous UCP Premiere, Mr. San Fran Cisco himself - Jason Kenny - who often physically protested the Gay lifestyles in that famous city (where he went to a Religious Uni).  

 Mr. Kenny actually had a mention of his "Famous Uncle or Grandfather" who played a banjo or guitar or some damned thing that does not mean a damned thing, but it was put into Alberta's Historical Curriculum anyways. He was apparently "famous" enough that school children needed to learn about him.

Never heard of him. How fucked up is that?

But this is just one of many weird changes to school curriculum's in our Province.  Most teachers are against these changes, but they really do not carry the power in this case.  

So they lose.  

The children lose. 

And we lose.

As soon as they even mention Religion being taught in Public Schools, I WILL be protesting in front of the Legislature! An institute dedicated to thoughtful learning is no place to teach Fairy Tales as being real and we must follow what the Fairy Tale tells us to do.

Listen - everyone has their own story about Politics, and I try NOT to talk with others I am not familiar with about these things because I found some of the most intelligent folks still voting for the UCP because... they are not the NDP.  Why?

Because of all the Fear and Greed the UCP has spread throughout the Province.  Based upon their White Paper -  which was once online, but now mysteriously disappeared - the UCP has a built-in intelligence agency in each and every city, town and village in the Province. 

The Catholic Church.

Again, how fucked up is that?

Our hospital (Healthcare) situation is even more dire.  Bed closures, kitchen closures, resulting in poorer food quality, because in a city of more then 1 million people, there is just ONE kitchen to supply food to ALL the Hospitals in the city.

How fucked up is that?

Firing many middle managers in the Healthcare system physically beheaded the entire system by taking out a huge fount of knowledge, practical and learned. Suddenly, senior managers are swamped with this extra paperwork, or some poor intern or nurse will get saddled with these tasks as a secondary duty to their main jobs.  With no increase in pay, of course.

This will bolster the UCP's plan to make all medical care Private, and get rid of all Public Health Care Institutes/Agencies.  Yup, like the USA!

Wow. And check this out!

Now the UCP wants every little city and town and berg to be allowed to host political parties in their little elections.  So a person running for mayor of a town can say that he is a follower of (insert NDP, UCP, Libs, whatever), OR they can elect to not have a political leaning.

This is a tricky issue.  IF, for example, a city councilor gets elected on a UCP platform, with funding from the Provincial UCP coffers, then the non-aligned person running for the same seat has absolutely NO chance of out-advertising a party-backed candidate.

Then comes the payback.  If the town council wants to vote on a very large topic, what's to say that the Provincial Party tells "their" city councilor that this is what they want, and to change minds on the council to reflect the party's endgame.

And the final nail in this Trifecta of Control Measures the UCP is implementing, there is, of course, Bill 20.

Now Bill 20 "...reaches deep into the governance of municipalities, offering sweeping powers to Cabinet to remove Councillors and change or repeal bylaws".

How fucked up is that?

So, it's all about control.  And how do the Conservatives maintain this control with the population? 

 

Through Fear and Greed.

And they plan on utilizing this convenient link in much the same way the Greek Orthodox Church in Russia influenced the Kremlin Leadership to invade the Ukraine - to bring them back into the "Greek Orthodox" mold.  I'm not fear mongering - I read a pretty darned good Russian/Ukrainian reporter team article about the year leading up to the invasion.  A lot of Bishops and Cardinals seemed to visit the Kremlin. And a lot of money flowed back.  And forth - apparently.  A bid to sew confusion?  

 I'll see if I can find that Russian Article talking about how the war all came about.  It was very eye-opening, and if you watch Video of the Russian Leadership Elite, there will almost always be a Church Leader in with the "Politicians" in the Kremlin.

Try it.

However until I can find a copy of that White Paper (I thought I downloaded a PDF, so need a huge hard drive(s) search!), I am going off my poor memory for details, but I tell ya, it opened my eyes. 

What the UCP has planned for Alberta is not good for any non-Conservatives.

Get ready to move...