Wednesday, October 25, 2017

Bill Morneau and the Monstrous Assault of the Con Media



For weeks Bill Morneau has been under an all out assault by the Cons and the Con media.

For having made a couple of rookie political mistakes, the decent Morneau has been smeared as a crook by scumbags like Pierre Poilievre.

Even though there is absolutely no evidence that he has done anything wrong.

And even though he is presiding over the greatest economic recovery in modern Canadian history. 

Still the Con media is going ape shit over him.



Still demanding their pound of flesh, in the worst feeding frenzy and act of mass bullying I have ever seen.

Where a major economic story, one affecting millions of people, is reduced to a pathetic gotcha game.

So Catherine Cullen, the very mediocre host of the Con Broadcasting Corporation's Power and Politics show, somehow feels she has the right to jump all over Morneau... 



Asking the same question over and over again about balancing the budget which could have been copied from the Con's book of talking points.

Even though the deficit is shrinking rapidly, and the Liberals have made it clear they wish to continue to help low income families. With the same kind of programs that have made Canada's economy the strongest in the G7.

Before going on to grill Morneau like a criminal about when he was going to put his money in a blind trust even though he has already agreed to do that... 



In a manner that was so rude, Cullen should have been fired as soon as the show was over.

And if that wasn't bad enough then there was Aaron Wherry, who was once a journalist, turning what should have been a serious political analysis into a joke.

Where he let Pierre Poilievre get away with this one...



"Mr. Speaker, moments ago, the finance minister had the audacity to say that families like his are not getting any benefit cheques in Canada," Pierre Poilievre said when Morneau had finished, the Conservative finance critic barely concealing a smile. "This from the finance minister who only days ago we learned has been taking $65,000 dividend cheques from a company that he regulates."

Even though under the Con regime, Morneau's family would have been allowed to collect those benefit cheques. So the joke was on Poilievre. Wherry looked like an idiot.

And of course while this circus was going on, the Postmedia stooges like John Ivison and Andrew Coyne were sawing away trying to collect their Paul Godfrey dollars...



Or competing with each other to be allowed to keep their jobs, by seeing who could smear Morneau the most.

Even though making a villain out of a decent man like Morneau is just plain wrong.

I am not a friend of Bill Morneau. Never met him. And what I have seen of him from a distance suggests he is an inept politician. But the media and opposition gang-up on him in recent days has given me an uneasy feeling.

Yes, Morneau should have voluntarily put his financial assets into a blind trust when he was first appointed as finance minister rather than be embarrassed into it two years later. 

But the ethics commissioner said he didn’t have to. Those are the rules. Essentially, then, he is being pilloried for following the rules.

Which makes those ghastly members of the Con media look like screaming jackals.

Especially since none of those losers was talking about stories like this one.

Or this one.

So a story about a petty scandal gets more play than the takeover of the country's opposition party by alt right extremists...



And all I can say is that our shabby Con media has finally reached the point of no return. This isn't journalism, it's naked propaganda.

I have no idea why this is happening, or why they are debasing themselves in such a manner.

Is it because they live in a such a small town like Ottawa, and they all hang out together, and inhale their own farts?

Is it some party game to see who can smear a minister or a prime minister more, and claim the credit for bringing down a government?

Or is it that their crumbling media organizations are being propped up by powerful corporate interests, and those hogs expect their shabby scribblers to do their bidding... 



Who knows? And at this point who really cares?

All I know is that the Con media has stopped representing most of the people of this country, and are acting like they were some kind of parallel government,

And enough is ENOUGH.

The time has come to organize massive boycotts, and hit them where it hurts.

Send them the message: this is Canada not CONADA.

Give them a chance to correct their course.

And send those who can't or won't to the bottom...



19 comments:

Anonymous said...

They are mad because Joly refused to bail them out. Good post, Simon.

the salamander said...

.. well Simon..
after two years, one might assume Trudeau Morneau et al might have a firmer grip on the 'optics' of governance.. if not the nuts n bolts of it all..

Without going into detail, there are plenty of flops n failures emanating from the Trudeau camp. By sticking with election promises that appear to be fables.. young middle age Justin.. and his coterie of Ministers.. who I actually like n respect are painting themselves with bullseyes for the creepy likes of Polievre, Scheer etc.. and the various provincial war rooms of Patrick Brown, Jason Kenney etc.

I keep being reminded of the difference between a 'victim' & a 'volunteer' .. and currently would say Trudeau is letting volunteers (Ministers) take a hit.. We all know Ex PM Harper gave not a shit in such cases.. Ministers were lumped in under the Harper/Novak 'school of economic genius' .. and expected to perform.. hence the bizzare reign of Vic Toews or Peter Kent.. or sack of hammers Peter McKay..

For Justin to fall into this dead end.. ? Huge mistake..
If a Minister (senior public servant) is failing..
show them the door & award them
a back bench seat in 'our' Parliament..

jrkrideau said...

Oh, but the Libs really should have set a time for a balanced budget. The Cons did and while they overshot a bit they had a balanced budget just before the end. Of course they did it with financial shenanigans that a Panamanian bank would have admired, underfunding everything from scientific research to giving the army enough money that it could buy enough gas to go on maneuvers.

Anonymous said...

And let's not forget Harper's stock market "prowess" where he sold our GM stocks at a multi-million dollar loss just so he could say he balanced the books. How's that for a sickening example of party over country?
JD

Anonymous said...

Looks like the Grits have struck a bigly yuge nerve -- the bottom line -- and the mad hornet's nest is coming after them. Heaven forbid they actually balance a budget and actually help people by doing so, instead of slashing or privatizing essential public services services and selling off the country to the highest bidder so these hogs can keep their treasure chests intact. This is the way it always goes: cons screw up, liberals have to clean up. You can't explain that.

If these yellow-journalism hacks at Compost Media and the Conservative Büllsh!t Corporation don't want to live in a fair and progressive country with a growing economy, let them pack their bags and move south of the border. They can go write delusional fan fiction about Hillary and Obama for Breitbart and InfoWars, and fawning propaganda about Dear Leader for Russia Today and the Trump Fox News Channel. At least Morneau doesn't violate whatever Canada's equivalent of the Emoluments Clause is, by inviting Russians to his golf course in Florida or trying to get U.N. diplomats to stay overnight in his many, many terrific hotels in New York.

Good on Trudeau and Morneau for doing the right thing -- and thank goodness for the last remaining vestiges of honest reporting and commentary in small bloggers and outlets like Simon here, the Tyee and iPolitics. The rest of them aren't worth five minutes of airtime or the birdcage liner they're printed on.

Anonymous said...

I think living a town like Ottawa helps explain why the so-called journalists swim around like a school of fish, and can be whipped up into feeding frenzy by a certain story. A journalism school needs to study the way the tax story was covered, because it may be our first case of fake news.

Anonymous said...

As annoying as the attacks on Morneau are getting, I believe the MSM are making a huge mistake by continually giving oxygen to whatever comes out of the mouth of the petulant little snot Poilievre and others. They are on the road to irrelevance and that suits me just fine.
Instead of focusing on our booming economy and why it's booming, they opt to write columns more befitting a Con newsletter. They have become a pathetic excuse for balanced journalism and if it doesn't change soon, the Cons wont have to rely on hiring the Russians to help rig the election, our MSM will do it for them for free.
JD

Anonymous said...

The way the Con media covered the tax reform story is a perfect example of fake news. They confused the issue, they ran Con lies, they made the whole issue about Morneau rather than about tax fairness. Trump and his minions couldn't have done a better job. Unless the MSM are kneecapped they will help Scheer steal the next election.

Anonymous said...

Catherine Cullen's interview with Morneau was disgraceful. As you pointed out she kept repeating the same question over and over again. We should start by boycotting Power and Politics unless they clean up their act, and Cullen is fired!

Simon said...

hi anon...thanks, I'm glad you liked the post, and yes the Postmedia gang are probably furious at Joly for not giving them money so they can attack the Liberals. I certainly hope that Holy sticks to her guns, for I don't want to see the Godfrey gang get one dollar of the taxpayer's money. But what I find bizarre is the way the CBC is joining in this gang bang, since surely they must realize that a Scheer government would be a disaster for them. We live in strange times...

Simon said...

hi salamander...yes, there is no doubt that the Liberals have had a steep learning curve after ten years of the Harper regime. And also no doubt that some ministers are having a harder time than others. But Morneau's "crimes" are really quite petty, and I feel that if he did resign or was fired it would be a victory for those who have slimed him shamelessly. As Ian Urquart said in that Star article, if you attack good people like that only the scum of society will want to work in government, and politics will be dragged even further into the gutter. However, having said that, there is no doubt that the Liberals have to improve their messaging, and hopefully will sharpen their attacks on the Cons...

e.a.f. said...

The assaults on the Minister of Finance will continue until he is gone from office. then the Cons will start on the next cabinet minister, most likely Freeland. There is a strategy at work here. Hopefully Trudeau will ignore it and continue/

Simon said...

hi jrkrideau...I don't see the need to set a rigid deadline for balancing the budget as long as the government is heading in the right direction. The idea of running a deficit was greeted with gasps of horror, but it's the biggest reason Canada is leading the G7. As Britain is demonstrating almost every day, austerity is a path to economic and social disaster...

Simon said...

hi anon...yes, it is a mad hornet's nest, and I truly believe the first clear evidence that the so-called fake news phenomenon has landed in Canada. The way the Cons and the NDP have been smearing people, and making all kinds of false statements, should be seen as a warning about what the next election campaign might look like. Especially now that the Rebel's Hamish Marshall will be running the Con campaign. The independent media and bloggers are going to have to step up their efforts, or we will be in trouble. And the Liberals are going to have to stop playing nice, or they are going to be clobbered. I wish it wasn't so, but I fear that in the current climate nice guys will finish last...

Simon said...

hi anon 3:34...yes, I've expressed that view before, and on several trips to Ottawa I've been struck by the rarified atmosphere in which the parliamentary press gallery operates. And it's not just Ottawa, I've seen the same thing happening at the press gallery in Quebec City. It's all too easy for those journalists to get involved in a feeding frenzy, and start vibrating sympathetically....

Simon said...

hi anon 6:19...yes, I mentioned that a little earlier in this comment thread, and I am worried what might happen during the next election campaign. I fear that too many progressives are becoming too complacent, and we need to sharpen our game, and start striking back at the Cons and their stooges, or we will be playing catch up later...

Simon said...

hi JD...I can only hope you're right, and that most Canadians aren't being fooled by the grotesque Con Poilievre. I admit I can't get an impartial read of the situation, since whoever I see or hear him I feel like throwing something at the TV. Hopefully most Canadians who don't follow politics as closely as you and I do, will ignore Poilevre, will recognize that people like Morneau are being treated unfairly, and give the Trudeau government its due for reviving the moribund economy they inherited from not so Great Economist Leader Harper. Previous experience tells us that when the economy is doing well, opposition attacks tend to bounce off their targets, and look and sound worse than they are. At Nanos they're predicting that this tax ruckus will hurt the Liberals, but I'll have to see it before I believe it...

Simon said...

hi anon...I'm willing to forgive just about anything, but not the kind of rudeness Cullen demonstrated over and over again. I hate it when I see Americans acting like that, and I don't accept that kind of behaviour in Canada. I thought Morneau was extremely polite considering the way Cullen was coming at him like a bat out of hell. But no minister should ever be treated like that...

Simon said...

hi JD...yes, I actually heard some Cons trying to claim that their fallen leader really was a great economist. But the fact is he was an absolute disaster. If he hadn't been forced to stimulate the economy we might still be in a deep depression. His attempts to re-impose austerity all but paralyzed economic growth. And let's not forget that he sold those GM stocks at the worse possible time, and at a loss. So let nobody claim that he knew what he was doing...