Sunday, August 05, 2018

Doug Ford and the Nightmare In A Beer Garden



It's starting to resemble a nightmare in a beer garden, with Doug Ford already looking like one of the worst Premiers Ontario has ever known.

He has ended the fight against climate change, even as the province is hit by record temperatures. 

He has halved the size of Toronto's City Council without any consultation. He has slashed funding for the poor and the mentally ill.

He is cancelling badly needed school repairs, and threatening the lives of LGBT children as only a coward could. 

But the beast would like you to forget all that and focus instead on this.



His plan to bring back buck a beer.


For he has no money for poor people, but he will subsidize breweries that bring down their prices. 

A source with knowledge of the plan says the Progressive Conservative government is expected to announce Tuesday that it will lower the minimum price of a bottle or can of beer to $1 from $1.25 by the September holiday weekend.

The government is hoping to get brewers on board by launching what it calls a "buck-a-beer challenge" with incentives for those who cut prices to $1, the source said.


And he will encourage Ontarians to booze it up, even if some experts are dubious and wonder what exactly is in his cheap beer...



"I don't think it can be done in 2018 but some brewers may think it can be done and I'd be interested to see what's actually in the product that they're selling at that price," he said. "It can't be very good, let me put it that way."

But the bestial Ford will play politics with the lives of people who use other dangerous drugs...



By wasting time and money on a review of supervised injection sites.

After question period on Thursday, Ontario's health minister was asked about the review her ministry is conducting into supervised injection sites. 

"We want to speak with the experts — those in favour — and there are some people who are against them," Christine Elliott told CBC News. 


"There may be some clinical evidence against it as well; that's why we're conducting the investigation and the review of the evidence."


Even though the evidence was in long ago, and experts say the minister won't find what she is looking for.



That's because there isn't any scientific evidence that shows supervised injection sites are harmful. There is overwhelming evidence in scientific literature that show they do the opposite: they save lives, help prevent infectious diseases and connect those struggling with addiction with the services they need to get help.

More delays will only cost even more lives.



In 2017, 1,200 people died of an overdose in Ontario. In cities like Toronto, the problem is getting dramatically worse: 303 people died from overdoses last year. That's an increase of more than 60 per cent from the previous year, and a roughly 120 per cent increase from 2015.

And Ford's slogan "For the People" will be nothing but a bloody farce.



And for putting his brutish ideology before the lives of so many people, and the basic principles of harm reduction. 

He should charged with mass murder.

And sent to the place where he belongs...



24 comments:

lagatta à montréal said...

You couldn't make this stuff up!

I'm wondering, would it be in bad taste to show clips of his late bro Rob littering beer empties as he was DRIVING, before he went on that day to use harder versions of that and other substances...

I have nothing against hoisting a beer or two, but that was anything but responsible use; it was multiple addiction (polytoxicomanie in French).

And Doug wants beer to be exempt from normal inflationary pressures. Meaning it could contain many dubious ingredients. Many people have died from adulterated bevvies in recent years, in India, in Russia and many other places, as being on a buzz means they ignore warning symptoms...

Jackie Blue said...

In Russia, the people's soma of choice is vodka from the subsidized cartels. In Ontario it's Dope Fiend Doug's 99-cent fermented piss. For teetotaler Trump it's Diet Cokes and Big Macs, all the while his constituents are dropping like flies from opioids and heroin, and his Covfeferate cookie elf wages holy war against a plant. But what do Putin, Trump and Ford all have in common? An incurable addiction to mainlining their own ego, and overpowering or sedating a desperate and apathetic captive audience. "Mr. Tangerine Man."

Lagatta is absolutely right. You can't make this stuff up if you tried. He's like Stupid Marie Antoinette: instead of cake for people who couldn't even afford bread, he snorts LET 'EM DRINK BEER. And he deserves to have his head served up on a (metaphorical) platter just the same. Doug is literally a Family Guy episode where Peter Griffin is given the powers and personality of a buffoonish despot, and Pawtucket Pat the brewery mascot (in real life based on Narragansett Beer) is his deputy or Sheriff of Nottingham. Pity he isn't really just a cartoon character on a screen, as real people are going to get hurt or even killed.

Soylent Beer is FORD DUH PEOPLE!

Anonymous said...

I will never understand how a province like Ontario could trade away the future for cheap beer. But it doesn’t say very much for the people who live there. They are not just killing their province, they’re dragging Canada down as well.

jrkrideau said...

Hi Jackie,
Just to be pedantic, apparently Marie Antoinette did not say that, it was something her mother-in-law said but got attributed to her, probably during the Terror.

The last time we had some creature almost a bad as Doug as PM, Mike Harris, a lot of people died due to his welfare "reforms" as part of his Common Sense Revolution. Doug looks like he is on track to kill even more.
http://euclid.psych.yorku.ca/datavis/gallery/images/commonsenserevolution6.pdf

In some ways the province is still trying to recover from Harris and now we have Ford. Harris, at least, had some good ideas. He f'd up on all of them but he did have them. Doug is just a blundering nasty-tempered idiot.

lagatta à montréal said...

He also seems utterly insensitive about the premature death of his little brother. Rob was addicted to just about every substance known to humankind: alcohol hard and soft, weed, heroin, cocaine, doubtless others, and sadly, FOOD. One of the hardest addictions to break as we cannot live without food, but he never stopped shovelling crap into his mouth and sadly, was morbidly obese on top of all the other stuff.

But for Doug, this is not a human tragedy; it is a business opportunity.

Steve said...

Logically next repeal drunk driving laws, beer does not kill people cars do.
Also in his toolbox of slash and burn seems to be be, its shocking public transit. The Tory smart track may be the victim of a dumb solution. But dont worry he is going to pave over the green belt to speed things up.

Steve said...

actually aside from being a hard core authoritarian who crushes dissent ruthlessly Putin is a best practices kind of guy. I do not understand why the left who sought dente with Russia forever, is not in full beast mode. Oh they needed an excuse to explain how Hillary lost to the Donald. Russia is not now and never was our enemy. They are just another convenient bogyman to be pulled out when necessary.
https://www.ft.com/content/7ea81518-2222-11e8-9a70-08f715791301

jrkrideau said...

I think we have what is known as a dysfunctional family. It may make the Trump family look like the Waltons.

jrkrideau said...

I doubt that cheap beer had any real effect on the election. It probably was a complex combination of the Liberals had been in power too long, Wynne being a target for all kinds of hate, especially on the Hydro cost issue, and general dislike of Toronto "elite". Doug is good at slamming the "elite" even if he is in the 1%, himself.

Some people probably really do believe that there is all kinds of waste in the Gov't that Doug will root out. Having worked in the private and public sectors, let me assure you, Doug is a fool.

Doug is just grandstanding on the $1 beer idiocy. It makes him look almost human and the media gave him free publicity.

Anonymous said...

Thank you Simon for reminding people that if Ford closes down the safe injection sites a lot of lives are going to be lost, and it will be Ford’s fault. If you could have saved hundreds of lives and you didn’t it is mass murder.

e.a.f. said...

if they can make a glass of beer, it will taste like piss. today's consumer wants quality beer and a lot are drinking craft beers. They aren't cheap nor do the owners of these micro breweries want to make "cheap beer". large corporate breweries are competing with the craft breweries and won't be too interested in making "piss". of course if dougie wants to provide alcoholics with more liquor, then he can expect to paying more for their medical care.

ah, dougie is even dumber than his brother the decision to not repair schools is just pure el gordo, his advisor In B.C. little was done to bring the schools up to earthquake code standards. its kept being put off and off. thousands of children would die if there were an earthquake and el gordo and his crew just didn't care. Don't expect much money to be spent on education and expect to see the elimination of teaching assistants. With Gordon Campbell as his advisor, expect things to get a lot worse No funding for health and education, but funding for breweries, well of course. some one might want to check to see how much some the large corporate breweries donated to the P.Cons. Large donations usually means they want something so in this case there could well be "subsidies" for breweries but don't expect it to increase the quality of beer or the prices to actually go down. glasses will simply get smaller. once weed is legal, people will just switch or go to wine

e.a.f. said...

Ford and his advisor Gordon Campbell don't care how many people die if they close safe injection sites. Campbell never cared how many died in B.C. because of his policies and now he is bringing them to Ontario. good luck with all of that. you can expect Ford to announce cuts to health care so parents whose children begin having drug issues wont be able to get any help In B.C. there were approx. 14 beds in our whole province for those types of problems. Mental health care, won't be around. Mass murder, A. 10:26 p.m. trust me ford won't care and neither will his "advisor" Gordon Campbell. I know, I lived through the Campbell years in BC. All Campbell will care about is how much he gets paid. Oh and expect there to be a reduction in corporate taxes

lagatta à montréal said...

Or keep on buying craft beer, which is meant to be savoured, not guzzled. Or good quality cider!

In Germany, extremely strict enforcement of drink-driving laws means that there is also high-quality alcohol-free beer, which can be so refreshing for cyclists as well. But none of this is dirt-cheap.

lagatta à montréal said...

The $1 beer will compound mental health issues for people living on the streets or close to it, as it won't be the only substance they are using.

But please don't forget the disastrous environmental impact. We remember Rob Ford actually dismantling a cycle path! The cheap gas means more idiots will buy huge SUVs or whatever, and pretend they are driving through the unploughed snows of the boreal forest as they commute in the GTA.

Despite our efforts here in Québec with the record number of charging stations for electric cars - and they are used - there are far too many of those monstruosities here. It is fortunate that I'm not a teenager any more, as I'd be in jail for vandalising those murderous, planet-killing machines...

Anonymous said...

I agree. I like imports like Bavaria, Becks, Stella etc. I never drink domestic beer like Molson and Budweiser, yuck! I don't think Doug's buck a beer is going to taste any good but we'll see.

Steve said...

The cheap beer and gas tax cut put Doug over the top. Now he already had the sex talk crazies about 20%. The other 10 came from I like cheap, and 10 from voter fatigue which did not break NDP.

Simon said...

Hi lagatta...I suppose you could make it up, but then it would be a low farce, and the scary thing is that it’s really happening in Canada’s biggest province. How Doug Ford ended up as Premier is a sign of how low this country has fallen. How he can use government money to promote alcohol use is unbelievable. And as for his threat to close down safe injection sites it’s just criminal. Period. Progressives in Canada need to unite, to destroy the Con menace before it destroys our country...

Simon said...

Hi Jackie...Doug Ford’s buck a beer scheme strikes me as something right out of the Trailer Park Boys. And the thought that he thinks he can buy votes with such a redneck scheme is simply grotesque. I always knew the Harper decade damaged this country, but now I wonder if the damage was more than even I had imagined. Many Canadians have become bestial, greedy, and selfish. Thank goodness for the decency of Justin Trudeau, for only him and the rising generation stand between us and the abyss...

Simon said...

Hi jrkrideau...the cheap beer probably didn’t have much effect on the election result, because those it might have impressed were almost certainly planning to vote for him already. But the whole idea of branding a government with cheap beer is so low I wonder where the Ford regime will take us before it is defeated. For those who appeal to the mob are quite capable of leading us to fascism...

Simon said...

Hi Steve...I can see Doug Ford doing just about anything to appeal to the mob he calls his “Ford Nation.” Raising the speed limit, eliminating photo radar, and yes paving the green belt. If Ford lasts a full term without being forced to resign or being arrested, Indon’t think Ontario will ever recover. And the sad part is that it isn’t until he starts closing hospitals that all those old people who voted for him will finally realize they’ve been suckered. But by then it will be too late...

Simon said...

Hi anon...I will never stop reminding people that Ford’s threat to close down safe injection sites could result in the deaths of hundreds of people, and would be tantamount to mass murder. Thousands and thousands of people died thanks to the callousness of the Harper regime, who put their foul ideology before the lives of some of its most vulnerable citizens. Not to raise my voice would be to betray everything I believe in...

Simon said...

Hi e.a.f....luckily I don’t drink, but if I did I would really like to know what kind of “quality” ingredients were going into Drug Ford’s buck a beer. But beyond that what bothers me the most is the sight of a Premier promoting beer drinking in a country that is rife with alcohol abuse, and where binge drinking is the biggest drug problem our young people engage in. I don’t deny drinkers their pleasure, and I enjoy red wine in meat dishes like beef Bourgignon. But alcohol is a potentially dangerous drug, and a Premier shouldn’t be subsidizing or promoting it...

Simon said...

Hi lagatta...yes, Ford’s assault on the projects aimed at fighting climate change and preparing us for a greener future is his worst outrage so far. When I was in Scotland I was impressed by the number of wind turbines all over the place, in the hills and out at sea. Thanks to them Scotland is well on its way to supplying all its energy needs with renewable resources. While here in Ontario, Ford is planning to demolish a wind turbine project that has taken ten years and millions and millions of dollars to build.
It’s madness, and yet another sign of how low this country has fallen...

Steve said...

still not as crazy as filling in the Ellington subway tunnel. Like he could have left it there for the future.