Tuesday, October 10, 2017

Trudeau, Trump, and the Ghastly Margaret Wente



As you may know, Justin Trudeau is going to meet with Donald Trump this week to fight for the future of NAFTA.

And try to hold back a tidal wave of protectionism. 

And since hundreds of thousands of jobs in this country hang in the balance, you might expect that most Canadians would wish him luck.

But no, many Cons and other Trudeau haters are hoping he fails.

As does the snooty reactionary Margaret "Marie Antoinette" Wente.



Whose Thanksgiving column reeks of turkey shit and treason. 

The best intentions often go awry. Bad things happen to good people. Sometimes you're the windshield, and sometimes you're the bug. These days, Justin Trudeau must be feeling like the bug.

For not only does that broken down scribbler compare the prime minister to a bug. Or distort the Liberal plan to make our tax system fairer.

The Liberals are looking pitifully out of touch. Bill Morneau, the Finance Minister, was shocked to discover that his small-business tax reforms – meant to rein in the overly entitled, income-sprinkling, dividend-hoarding fat cats – had thrown vast numbers of constituents into a towering rage. The victims weren't all fat cats, either. Some were farm families or female doctors with large debts and young children.

And swallow the Con artist Andrew Scheer's phony tax scam...



Hook, line, and sinker. 

The benefits of income sprinkling are concentrated among Canada’s richest families In fact, the top 20% of families by income level capture 91% of the tax benefit from income sprinkling, according to data from Statistics Canada tax modelling software.

Male-headed families are much more likely to benefit from income sprinkling than female-headed ones. Of the 117,000 families that could be seeing a net benefit from small-business income splitting, only around 2,000 of them are headed by women.


Not only does she make Trudeau's plan to legalize marijuana sound like an episode of Reefer Madness.

Marijuana law reform was supposed to be another easy win. But it too could be more trouble than it's worth.

It's also dawning on the public that legalization has problems of its own. A sizable black market will still exist. The number of young users, including heavy-duty users intent on frying their brain cells, will likely go up. So will the number of stoned drivers.


As only an old snooty boozing Con could.



I’m not overly invested in the marijuana debate. My friends and I all smoked pot when we were young, but hardly any of us bother any more. In my circle, the drugs of choice are martinis and Chardonnay. Frankly, we consider stoners déclassé.

Who should be given a breathalyzer test before she writes her crappy columns.

But what's worse is the way she seems to relish the thought that Trump could wreck our country, and ruin Trudeau's long weekend.

Oh, well. Things could be worse. What if the U.S. slaps a punitive tariff on Bombardier and gives our major industries a heart attack? What if some crazy president threatens to rip up NAFTA? Things like that would really ruin a prime minister's long weekend. Fortunately, they'll never happen.

While demonstrating her abominable ignorance.

But then of course, she can't plagiarize EVERYTHING. 



And while I recognize that the Con media is in desperate shape, and that Wente will do anything to save her job.

And I mean ANYTHING...



I can't spend my life wondering when will that serial plagiarist and ugly Trudeau hater finally be fired?

Or hit the windscreen like a bug...



*SPLAT*

But yes, please, in the name of human decency, in the name of Canada.

The sooner she goes.

The sooner the better....

25 comments:

Willy said...

Being old I am trying to ajust to what is for me the new era of political correctness and I think that you, Simonhave crossed the line with one of your pics and disparaged the important role of professional escorts.

Steve said...

Both the Globe and the National Post are just hate Trudeau info.

Anonymous said...

It is well known Simon is a misogynistic jerk. He should be removed from progressive bloggers immediately.

Willy said...

Dear Anon

This new PC thing is more difficult that I thought it would be, but here goes.

In one comment you made two factual errors and stated a ridiculous opinion.

In the old days I would of just typed, fuck off.

lagatta à montréal said...

Wente was born in 1950 (but seems much older). Don't those people ever retire?

Willy, I've seen too much of the dark side of the sex trade to be as sanguine about "professional escorts" as you are, but it is true that comparing Wente to a sex worker is insulting to the sex worker.

Ben Burd said...

put your fucking name to it and this post might be taken seriously

Anonymous said...

And people say the Liberals/Democrats are the party of "elites." Who the hell writes a column referring to marijuana users (or "stoners" as she says) as "déclassé"? Cirrhosis of the liver isn't especially glamorous either, Mags. Neither is the fact that marijuana prohibitions are based largely in racism against First Nations, Hispanics and blacks. Marijuana is medicine; it has been for millennia, and even if used recreationally, Prohibition against alcohol worked about as well.

As for "bumps in the road" with cannabis legalization, this is an entirely new frontier for a major first-world economy to undertake, and a brave one to be sure. (Especially with a downstairs neighbor that's content to let opioid manufacturers reap the profits of death just so their KKKeebler Elf can continue throwing "stoners" in the privately-run prisons he has in his stock portfolio -- but predominantly black and brown ones.) I can almost guarantee that the initial rumblings of Canada's national healthcare system didn't go 100% smoothly either. Heck, look at England where they almost abandoned the N.H.S. due to the struggles they had rebuilding after the war, and particularly after an unexpectedly bad winter. Attlee got turfed, but Churchill knew a good thing when he saw one. These things take time to smooth out the rough edges, and nothing happens overnight. No one in England would give up their N.H.S. today just like no one in the U.S. is willing to give up Social Security. A decade from now everyone will be wondering what all the fuss was about. It's just a plant.

I hope whatever toilet-paper publication this Canadian equivalent of boozy, floozy Peggy Noonan writes for is taken about as seriously in Canada as the National Enquirer is in America. Then again, maybe not -- our electorate isn't exactly what you might call an enlightened species; after all, far too many Americans trust their "friends" Boris and Natasha on Facebook to report the "truth" about their cheese-flavored messiah and the lying, crooked Hillbama "deep state."

I guarantee you that if you ran a poll of the 33% of Trump diehards -- the deplorable turd -- asking them various questions about Canada (Rick Mercer really should bring back that sketch), they'd say that Justin Trudeau is a wealth-redistributing communist, the illegitimate son of Fidel Castro, a "pot-snorting" drug addict, Obama's HIV+ gay lover, and a French surrender-monkey hockey player who won't stand up for the national anthem. This Margaret Wente person is pandering to the deplorable basket case equivalents on your side of the Orange Curtain. It's all about the base, about the base, fuddle-duddle. "Sad!"

Anonymous said...

@lagatta -- age is nothing but a number, and most importantly a state of mind and heart. Trudeau is 45, yet remarkably youthful and forward-thinking like someone twenty years younger. He is Kennedy-esque in so many ways. Scheer, meanwhile, is 38 going on 83. Dotard, as we all know, is 71 going on the terrible twos. He needs a teething ring for his dentures, a pacifier to quiet his shrill screams, and a regular change of diaper every time he soils the white Klan sheet covering his wrinkled behind. And I say that with sincerest apologies to any civilized, well-behaved toddlers or progressive-minded octogenarians who may have been offended by comparisons to Dotard and Scheer.

This past summer, Justin Trudeau posted a picture to his Facebook account of 3-year-old Hadrien playing a game on dad's iPhone while sitting at dad's desk (which also happens to be grandpa's). He seems like a sweet little boy, fortunate enough to be brought up by loving and well-adjusted parents who genuinely care about him. Hadrien could do governance-by-Twitter infinitely better than Dotard ever could. But Justin very wisely wouldn't put his youngest son in the unenviable position of having to manage a free-range daycare with a population of 330 million. Dad is having a difficult enough time as reform-school principal keeping the roughly 10 million con-voting troublemakers -- and the bullies they follow along with -- in indefinite Saturday detention. Not to mention he's got to keep watch over the aforementioned free-range daycare classroom next door, that no longer has any adults in charge.

Anonymous said...

Haha. One could say the same about pigs being insulted by comparisons to Trump, and insects being insulted by comparisons to Ms. Wente. Or Jeff Goldblum being insulted by Ms. Wente being likened to a fly-human hybrid.

I think the caricatures are fitting. After all, perhaps Ms. Wente is one of those A.I. sexbots people are always talking about. A Stepford automaton like KellyAnne Conway or any of the brainwashed blondes at Fox News, parroting whatever incoherent scripts she's been programmed to spit out. Put a quarter into the coin-operated doll and get a two-bit loonie in return. Now that's a return on investment!

David said...

Simon wrote: "As you may know, Justin Trudeau is going to meet with Donald Trump this week to fight for the future of NAFTA."

Last week I attended Joyce Nelson’s insightful talk “Beyond Banksters” based on her 2016 book, already in its third printing. My understanding is every Member of Parliament has received a copy. In her talk she mentioned the Bank of Canada, Justin Trudeau, Bill Morneau, Chrystia Freeland, the NAFTA negotiations, closing tax loopholes, etc.

I have recommended to Jesse Brown (Canadaland podcast) that Joyce would be an excellent guest to interview.

http://www.canadalandshow.com/podcasts/

I don’t imagine Joyce will ever been sought out by the corporate Postmedia folks, business reporters/journalists at CBC, CTV, or Global, or even Canadian magazines such as Maclean’s or The Walrus. Too controversial!

In her talk, Joyce reviewed the 12 aspects of neo-liberal economics (aka trickle-down economics) and said most neo-liberals are conservatives.

Neo-liberal economics (1973 to the present):

1. Deregulation
2. Open borders for capital
3. Small government/big state
4. Tax cuts for big business
5. Austerity budgets
6. Union busting
7. Privatization
8. Free trade deals
9. Tax havens
10. No limits to growth
11. Central bank "independence"
12. Privatization of the money-creation function. (This may be the most important of the 12 aspects)

Joyce is the author of five previous books, and has taught at Queen’s University and the University of Victoria, and lives in Toronto. She has also created 23 hours of radio documentary for CBC Ideas, all of which have been re-broadcast by popular demand. On three occasions her articles have been selected by Project Censored Canada (now NewsWatch Canada) https://www.nationalnewswatch.com
for their Top Ten “significant but under-reported” stories of the year.

Her followup book “Bypassing Dystopia" will be published in January 2018.

See also:

Beyond Banksters: Resisting the New Feudalism
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qm6JihBCnhc

https://watershedsentinel.ca/beyond-banksters/

http://theindependent.ca/2017/01/06/book-review-beyond-banksters-by-joyce-nelson/

http://commonsensecanadian.ca/book-review-beyond-banksters-resisting-new-feudalism/

http://www.joycenelson.ca

https://canadians.org/blog/ed-finn-reviews-beyond-banksters-joyce-nelson

https://www.policyalternatives.ca/authors/joyce-nelson

Anonymous said...

10:23 - You do realize Wente openly bragged about sleeping with one of her university Profs when she was a student in one of her columns.

mr perfect

Anonymous said...

I haven't read Wente in years, and despite the link I'm not about to start. She tries so desperately to troll people into clicking on her pieces that it's really quite pathetic. Don't take the bait, Simon. She's the Faith Goldy of gramp's generation.

Simon said...

Hi Willy...let me assure you that the last thing I would want to do is put down real sex workers, for whom I have a lot of respect, and have always defended their right to work without been harassed by the police, or mistreated in any way. However, Wente is an amateur or a freelancer, who will do anything for money, to please her corporate bosses. She seeks neither to inform nor explain, but just chooses controversial subjects to whip up those who read her shallow articles, and earn her cheap click bait points. It's pathetic and she really should retire...

Simon said...

hi Steve...I don't think anybody can deny that. Not with the way Paul Godfrey's National Post endorsed the Cons with a front page ad. And not with the way the Globe urged us to reject Harper but keep the Cons, as if that was possible in a parliamentary democracy...

Simon said...

hi anon 10:23...Lordy, who taught you the word "misogynistic?" And never mind if you don't know what it means, do you realized what you've done? You have just proved that if you give a monkey a typewriter, and enough time, it could eventually write the complete works of Shakespeare. Congratulations, have a banana on me, and then go back to your typewriter, or your tree. Me Simon, you Cheetah... ;)

Simon said...

hi lagatta...you're right, as I told Willy, I have nothing against sex workers. And I apologize for insulting them. But Wente spends half her time attacking and mocking feminists. And the picture I used to make that graphic is one of Ann Coulter, so you can how easy it is to make a mistake... ;)

Simon said...

hi Ben...I have put my name to it. I am Simon, and I've been blogging for more than 11 years, so most people who read my posts know who I am, and that I never take anything too seriously. I thought I made some serious points, and I can't see how giving you my full name, serial number, and home address, will give them any more weight. So please Ben, get a grip on yourself and lighten up...

Anonymous said...

Hahaha Simon I actually screamed at the pic of Wente as a prostitute. Well done haha.

Simon said...

hi anon...I'm not kidding about Wente being a pompous bore. I believe she was born with a silver spoon in her mouth somewhere in the United States. And never fails to let anybody she meets know that this rube country doesn't deserve her. I have unfortunately seen her in action at a couple of artsy events, where I went for the free food. And she is such a boring snoot, I had to remember to keep breathing. If she was just boring I'd ignore her, but she seems determined to become as reactionary as the oil pimp Rex Murphy, so I intend to stay on her case until the day she is fired or retires...

Simon said...

hi anon...yes, I probably should try to ignore her, but as I explained above she makes that really hard. And to be fair, I feel the same way about Faith Goldy... :)

Simon said...

Hi David...Joyce Nelson sounds like a very interesting person, and the kind of stuff she writes seems custom made for the time we live in. If the corporate media wants to appear relevant instead of out of it, they should run her material. But they won't because they only run stuff from the same old right-wingers. There was an article in the Guardian today complaining about the same thing happening in Britain, so we are not alone...

Simon said...

Hi Willy...thanks for that. I suppose I can sometimes be a bit of a jerk, who isn't? But never misogynistic. But then you should have seen all the other things that Con moron called me in other comments, before I deleted them. Compared to them "misogynistic" is practically a compliment....

Simon said...

Hi Mr Perfect...I did not know that about Wente, but now that I do I am going to have to take some shock treatment to try to forget it... ;)

P.S. are you sure she didn't steal that story from somebody?

e.a.f. said...

poor old Wente, she really ought to go or went off some where. Trudeau feeling like a bug. Doubtful. Seems pretty happy with his family, his job, his life. Nice socks too.

Yes some are quacking loudly that some of their tax breaks might disappear but there are far fewer of them than those who Trudeau's government send cheques to each month so they can feed their kids.

The income splitting that some people are doing to avoid taxes isn't what the majority of Canadians are in favour of. Yes, a lot of Doctors are under paid and they sure are in B.C. They get approx. $26 per "visit" when a patient comes in to see a G.P. That needs to change. Specialists on the other hand, make money hand over fist. Then there are those who own walk in clinics and they're making a ton of money also. In come splitting for farm owners isn't something non farm owners are going to be O.K. with. Now if they want to reduce the taxes on farmers when the farm has to be inherited by a son or daughter, I'm O.K. with that, but the splitting of the income, not so much. More and more of these farms aren't farms but rather agribusiness and that is a long, long way from family farms.

As much as Wente and the Cons are very unhappy with Trudeau, I'd suggest most who voted for him are still just fine with him. Come to think of it our economy is growing.

David said...

Chelsea Manning barred from entering Canada (Sept. 25/17)
http://www.canadianprogressiveworld.com/2017/09/25/chelsea-manning-barred-entering-canada/

In a development that will most certainly strengthen the view that the government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will do anything to appease the Trump administration, Canadian immigration authorities just barred Chelsea Manning from entering Canada. Manning, one of the most prominent whistleblowers in the world today, announced the ban in a letter posted to Twitter earlier today.

[snip]