Off The Air

I got into it with a buddy a few weeks ago about my growing worship of our current Prime Minister. He was vilifying this seeming Liberal love for brown people. Why were our leaders fomenting immigration riots in Toronto and Montreal? And how is it possible for a man to be charged with promoting Christian values in Ottawa? Huh? I responded that we watch CP24 every day from about 11 to 02:30. I know because she switches it to Divorce Court at 02:30 and I run from the room before blood runs out of my ears. I don't recall any reporting on immigration riots in Toronto or Montreal recently? The Taste of the Danforth was on last weekend? And this guy who was charged with promoting Christian values. Was that an indictable offence ? Who slapped the cuffs on? The Ottawa Police Department, an Ontario Provincial Police officer or an RCMP detective (which would indicate whether he was headed to a provincial correctional facility or a federal penitentiary). He promised to send me "the news".

Here's the problem. A funny thing happened to the news over the past three decades. You see, in the days of Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite the contract was that the State cedes corporations access to the airwaves for free and they are allowed to go ahead and make money from advertising. The Howdy Doody Show, I Love Lucy, My Three Sons, etc. Their only obligation is to keep the public informed. Tell folks what is going on at home and around the world. News departments were never expected to generate profits. That was the cost of having access to the airwaves. And we had something called journalistic integrity to keep them in line. In a free society, having the unvarnished truth available to the masses is ground zero for ensuring that our leaders are held to account. It's not the 2nd amendment, the right to bear arms, that keeps them honest. It's the Saturday paper. It's The Sunday Evening News.

In a totalitarian regime, the very first thing they seize conjtrol of, is the message. The first place your goons head off to in their Toyota land cruisers during a coup is the radio and television stations. How many times has Trump used the term FAKE NEWS. It seems to me that FOX "News" is the only network that has had to pay a three quarter of a billion (yes, with a B) dollar fine for lying on air about election fraud? How many networks has Trump threatened with loss of their broadcast licence? How many has he sued?

So last week, Senator Rand Paul used the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee to once again drag 85 year old Anthony Fauci over the coals>. the real purpose was to give his Republican friends multiple opportunities to spout every tin foil hat, barking mad, unhinged, just plain loopy conspiracy theory related to the U.S. COVID response. Here at home, we are seeing the same thing from the leader of the loyal opposition. From politicians in Alberta. From convicted anarchists who want to go to the U.S. to suck on the Breitbart tit while out on bond.

So, I will arm you with with everything you need to "go to war" with your crazy uncle around the dinner table next Thanksgiving / Christmas. I understand that I have rambled on a bit but this part is short and easy to remember.

• COVID was an airborne pathogen that was first identified in the Wuhan province of China. It's probably not a coincidence that the Chinese have an infectious diseases lab right there doing "gain of function" testing on animal viruses. If it got away from them, I'm pretty confident that it was not on purpose. If it was, they would have covered their tracks.
• My guess is that the U.S., Russia, China, Israel, India (and others) all have little bugs tucked away in these labs that are state secrets of the highest order. When China is ready to finally put the U.S. in their place, it might not be aircraft carriers off the coast of North Carolina ... it could be a vials of something nasty into the water outside of Chicago. (Actually, it will be robots, but that is another column).
• COVID was an airborne pathogen transmitted between humans via exhaled aerosols. So ... lockdowns worked. Masks worked. Social distancing worked. And when they were available, vaccines worked. Anyone who says 0r thinks differently has been misinformed or is just plain stupid. Is there any data to support that? These are deaths per week:

• Round numbers that even Rand Paul should be able to understand. The U.S. has three-hundred million people. One million died. Canada has thirty million people. So 100,000 died right? Nope, only 50,000? Put another way, a stricter policy (and voluntary adherence) to lockdowns, masks, social distancing and vaccines cut our per capita mortality rate in half! In Florida, they were partying in bars, while we were hiding under the kitchen table. It made for great television. An extra half a million Americans (mostly seniors in deep red states) died a horrible lonely death. Today, their governor goes around touting how Florida showed Americans how it was done. Yes, 30 year old nephew Jimmy hoisted a few beers gave the finger to the cameras. He also took the bug home to Aunt Jenny. Bye Aunt Jenny. Is there any data to support the theory that America had COVID deaths out of proportion to their population?

Ted Turner (CNN), Roger Ailes (FOX News) and now Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook) have changed our world when they decided that the news was no longer a sacred public trust. It does not matter whether their reporting is fair and balanced. It matters that people click on it. Either with their remotes or with their iPhones. All three are billionaires.

In the spring of 2020, I was at my Dad's funeral. We were joking about shaking hands with our elbows. By the time I returned home, offices were being locked down. Today, the right is furiously trying to re-write history. Don't let them. Facts are facts. Rachel Bedard wrote this in the New York Times. I only wish I could write like this:

Dr. Fauci is a complicated man who has been both elevated and reduced to a symbol. His legacy after a decades-long career at the intersection of science and politics is now defined by incompatible, contested accounts of his pandemic-era impact. There is little hope of resolving that contest any time soon.

Theater, at its most powerful, refracts truth through fiction so its force can be viscerally felt. This hearing was a performance that only entrenched the mistrust that increasingly defines Americans’ relationship to their institutions. Dr. Fauci, the ultimate institutionalist, has become that mistrust’s enduring target.

Read the real news if you can? Otherwise you are going to be spouting things in bars that make people go ... huh?

Our Optimum Week

I made Cilantro Chutney (success), compound butter (fail) and seafood stock (not sure yet) from scratch last week. That and dairy drove me out for groceries but we were pretty well stocked otherwise. The Zehr's flyer is better this week. Redemption at Shoppers. If you preserve or freeze fruit for winter (I do not), peaches and nectarines are suddenly affordable. They have a Dare cookie on sale with Boston Cream filling? And did they really have to put Pop Tarts on sale? I am spineless and weak. Here is your list:

I Am Reading

Like a fiend right now. I think I read four books last week. Letting my fingers and ribs heal is my excuse for spending an extra couple of hours in bed each day. Like I needed an excuse. I have puppies. Reviews to follow.

We Are Watching

His and Hers on Netflix - Surprisingly good. That guy from The Walking Dead who played The Accountants little brother? Great supporting cast as well.
Silo on Apple TV - I don't know if I can watch Season Three after the disaster that was Season Two but I'm giving it a whirl.
Blue Jays on Sportsnet - We continue to cheer on our beleaguered Blue Jays. It's like visiting your buddy in the hospice? You know they are done, but you go anyway, pretending there is a chance. Even people they traded for are going down with injuries. Last night they exploded for five runs in the 8th, so ... hope springs eternal.

... and finally

I spent a lot of July turning two yards of sod filled clay at the end of my driveway into top soil ... by hand, one wheelbarrow load at a time! Scrap from my front yard vegetable garden project and general detris from my backyard multiple trip to the dump. Sorry, The Guelph Waste Resource Innovation Centre. My bad. And I sold two motorcycles. My next project will be completing the conversion of my cook shed to a Man Cave. Tin roof, an insulation upgrade and one wall will be required. I am thinking the three amigos in September? In the meantime, I am left riding this piece of junk until the the snow flies. Sigh!

Mitch & Maddie