Uncategorized – Page 2 – Babel-on-the-Bay

Trump in 2024?

June 8, 2021June 7, 2021 by Peter Lowry

You are not supposed to snicker when a Trump supporter tells you his hero is going to win the presidency in 2024. Nor are you supposed to sound surprised when you are told that the supreme court might just re-instate him as early as this August. The only good news might be that Trump does not sound as committed as some of his followers.

It is possible that Donald Trump is refraining from making any statements about 2024 because he still thinks he can have the 2020 results upended. He is that delusional.

The man might be evil but he is not stupid. His avenues to publicity these days are fewer. He is under suspension from Facebook and banned from Twitter. And he lacks the patience for rebuilding his popularity on the newer versions of social media. If he really is interested in making a run for the 2024 nomination by the Republican Party, he might have to build his case the old-fashioned way. That means a steady stream of crowed halls and speeches and relying on the traditional media for coverage.

He could have been launching the campaign in North Carolina this past weekend when he spoke for an hour and a half to a hall full of republicans. It was as though he was back on the campaign trail. He said nothing new or surprising. It was pure Trump.

The only problem is that whatever success he has in building his case for 2024 will build an equal and opposite reaction from his enemies—of which he has more than a few. The New York prosecutors have convened a grand jury to examine the business dealings of Trump before he got into the White House.

Renewed interest in Trump’s financials will not be as easy to brush aside this time around. We all know the man is a liar and that he constantly whines about losing the 2020 election.

But this is also the man who called for an insurrection on January 6, 2021 and we watched in horror as his ignorant followers stormed the American capitol. Just think of what could have happened if they had a real leader?

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We’re Baaack!

June 5, 2021June 4, 2021 by Peter Lowry

The new look for Babel-on-the-Bay was not intended. Moving an 11-year-old website to a new server proved more difficult than expected. It took some very good computer professionals to get the job done. All I have to say is that we have come a long way from that first DOS computer in the early 1980s.

There were not many incidents in politics worth noting when I was off the air. It comes back to the old adage that all politics is local. The pandemic here in Ontario has been a roller coaster ride. What has been open or closed here in Babel has been a matter of guesswork. The competence of our politicians remains questionable. The bluster of Premier Ford has left citizens confused and angry. All I know is that there are more than 8000 people dead from Covid-19 in Ontario and the disgust many of us feel for those idiots running around without masks saying it’s fake.

But maybe that feeling of anger has therapeutic value. The worst thing we can do is take out our frustrations on those close. By venting on politicians and deniers, we are creating an escape mechanism for that frustration. There is no way of saying what the outcome of both federal and provincial elections will be in the next year. My Ouija board is probably no better than yours but I think there is a sense of change in my electoral district.

Here in Barrie—Springwater—Oro-Medonte, provincial riding, there is no sympathy for that carpetbagger from Severn that Doug Ford dumped on us in the last election. All I know is that there are many of us who despise the job Doug Downey has done as attorney general and will do whatever it takes to see him defeated. Anyone who would work to prevent us from suing incompetent long-term care home owners is not going to get our votes.

And as for the nebbish who represents us in this federal electoral district, whomever he might be, he is in just as much trouble. He can blame it on his party’s lack of leadership, as much as he wants, but we have been paying his expenses and more than $150,000 per year for the past three years and he has done nothing useful.

I won’t say anything about the prime minister at this time but will be paying attention to what he will be doing and saying in the United Kingdom and Europe in the next week and will likely have a few comments.

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“Create your free account.”

May 25, 2021June 4, 2021 by Peter Lowry

Why would that message pop up on your computer? You know, and I know, there is no such thing as free! It little matters whether the message was from Microsoft, Google or Apple. These companies all do it. In this case it was Microsoft. The company is the most arrogant of all computer companies.

I remember years ago at a Microsoft-hosted conference in Seattle and the company was making its pitch to gain control of a new market. There were some 2000 computer people in that vast auditorium but I managed to grab a microphone first. I told the audience the name of my Toronto company and all I added was that while I spoke with a Canadian accent, when it came to Microsoft’s promises, I was from Missouri. The audience had a good laugh at Bill Gates’ company.

If you even think you are calling Microsoft today, you might get one of those small companies licenced to sell Microsoft products and services. They are like Remora fish that attach themselves to larger sharks and whales and reportedly feast on their feces.

What galls me most about the modern Microsoft is that the company still releases product before it is finished. It seems to rely on its customers to encounter, and help fix, the errors in its programs. How often have I wondered what little additions have been added to those updates, they ask you to accept?

Add to that the obvious paranoia of the company. I can get into my bank accounts easier than into a computer. Have you ever counted the number of names and passwords you need to start your computer and even get to the Microsoft Store? It is so bad that you have to keep a book of passwords beside the computer—which defeats the purpose of passwords.

And they all do it. My wife has two I-Pads. One of our grandsons set up the first one for her and figured she would remember the passwords. She didn’t. Neither did he. We took it to Apple and they were no help at all. I had to get her a new I-Pad and she now uses a handy book for all her codes.

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The ignorance of the royals.

May 24, 2021June 4, 2021 by Peter Lowry

The one point that the Netflix series The Crown showed early and clearly was the terrible ignorance of English royalty. It is the lack of street smarts, the inability to draw on experience. And no wonder they find their lives so boring. There is too much they do not know.

We also saw some of that naivete in Prince Harry during that callow interview with Oprah Winfrey. It was not something I would normally bother to watch but I was hoping it would give us a rationale for what he planned to do with his life. There is only so much time can be devoted to be on the ‘A’ list for parties in Los Angeles.

But today is Victoria Day in Canada and I always like to see where the royals are at. The old Duke is gone and his Queen soldiers on. The Prince of Wales and his ‘lovely wife Camilla’ await their turn on the throne while the British odds-makers wonder if the Queen could outlive her eldest son. The betting is that William and Kate might be the saviours of the British royalty for one last jolly go-around.

But they will probably have to do it without the Scots who want to rejoin the European Union and, maybe, without the Northern Irish who like their back door into the European Union through Dublin.

It is generally conceded that Canada no longer needs a governor General. All the chores involved for the GG seem to be well handled by Canada’s Chief Justice.

It seems appropriate for Canada to be celebrating Victoria at this time as it was Victoria who helped saddle us with the awkward and elitist constitution that is so seriously in need of change.

Mind you, when Quebec politicians think they can change the constitution without reference to the rest of Canada, it does not make sense.

I have long been an advocate of an elected constitutional assembly that could work up a new, more practical constitution to present to the Canadian people for ratification. It is the time.

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And he’s Pierre’s son?

May 23, 2021May 26, 2021 by Peter Lowry

Screw you Justin, and the horse you rode in on. You have lost all rights to the name Trudeau. You have belittled and betrayed your father. You have denounced Pierre Trudeau’s legacy. You have pandered to those small-minded, bigoted politicians in Quebec who want to keep their people imprisoned on a French-speaking island.

Justin Trudeau, as prime minister, could have kept his mouth shut. Premier François Legault hardly needed Justin’s support in looking so small. Quebec’s latest demand to be recognized as some sort of nation is unCanadian, unnecessary and uncaring of the people those politicians are there to serve.

The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is there for all Canadians. They are not only rights and freedoms for just some Canadians. They are hardly just rights and freedoms for English-speaking Canadians.

Canada exists as a nation from Sea to Sea. Nobody gets a chunk of this nation to float out into the Atlantic or Pacific Ocean. Separation is not an option. It all belongs to all of us. And we would be damn stupid not to fight for that.

We have tolerated this nation crap from these petty politicians in Quebec for too long. When they felt so brave as to show off their bigotry, many of us lost patience. When I drive across a bridge from Ottawa, Ontario into Gatineau, Quebec, I do not want to become any less of a citizen.

But I am according to those ignorant politicians in Quebec City. As Pierre Trudeau once put it: I have been called worse by better people.

Pierre Trudeau saw a nation that accepted its bilingualism and its tolerance from sea to sea. He thought it ridiculous for Quebec City to defy Canada’s history in preference for one language over the other. Manitoba was wrong a century ago when it tried to banish French and Quebec is wrong to constrain English. Our languages are part of our individual rights. Nobody takes them away from us.

Just because Justin Trudeau has an election coming where he wants Quebec support is no reason to betray English-speaking Canadians.

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Teasing the Tiger.

May 22, 2021May 26, 2021 by Peter Lowry

Our prime minister must realize that U.S. President Joe Biden and his secretary of state might be no more adept at dealing with China than Canada. To ask the president to add the two Michaels to the list of things for the U.S. have to do could be downright silly. The U.S. attitude seems to be to continue to tease the tiger.

And people who know wild animals will tell you there is no deadlier game than to tease a tiger. Joe Biden probably thinks of the bear baiting of Russia through the Cold War that eventually lessened the Russian resistance.

It was the economic pincers that finally brought the USSR out of the Stalinist era. That will not work on China. Economic penalties do not work on the Chinese. These are people mindful of their existence in power because of the Long March. And if you do not understand the Long March, you do not understand modern China.

Any student of Chinese history can tell you that the Long March was not an orderly withdrawal but a rout. The truth was that it saved the communists from total annihilation by the Kuomintang, led by Chiang Kai-shek. There was horrendous loss of life but the Long March was seen as proof of the endurance and rightness of the Chinese Red Army under the leadership of Mao Zedong.

We face that same determination today as was exhibited in the Long March. We saw in the Korean War that the Chinese soldiers are expendable. There are always more where those came from.

Today’s Chinese leadership expects to be treated as equals by American and European politicians and business leaders. In dealing with them, you need to remember that brash North American directness, humour or salesmanship is something they might not understand. There is considerable subtlety to the concept of ‘saving face.’ in dealing with Asian politicians or business people. I have always told sales people dealing with large dollar sales that until you have established a relationship with the Chinese, you should leave your company’s product in your pedler’s sack.

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Caution and concern in a pandemic.

May 19, 2021May 26, 2021 by Peter Lowry

I was laughing the other day when reading a suggestion that we should have a judicial review of our handling of the pandemic. The writer thought it would be helpful for the next pandemic. Sure. Did you note how we all rushed to read the notes from the Spanish Flu pandemic a hundred years ago? I wonder if that writer had taken the time to Google the word ‘epidemiologist’?

Even the study of how humans so generously share diseases with each other requires grounding. Here we are in the third wave of the coronavirus and we are still a little vague on just how we catch it. You would figure that by the time we have seen a disease kill more than three million of us, we would have a better grip on the cause. All the layman has learned, so far, is that it is airborne and you can’t see it.

I think, in this case, we bypassed the epidemiologists and headed right for a vaccine. Any of us with a bit of a background in the science involved were impressed with how fast we got to vaccines. That might have also fed some stupid antivaxxers’ concerns. It could also have been scholarly arguments among the medical community that generated some of those concerns.

There are those of us who pay attention to the lock-down conditions and there were those who scoff at them. Of course, none of us law-abiding citizens are assuming that it will be the scoffers who will soon be at the local hospital. That would be vindictive!

But are Canadians enjoying watching images on the news of Brits, Americans and others going out mask less and in groups? We have had so many stops and goes in the past 14-months, we might just show the politicians who ordered us around so erratically what we think of it in the next election.

And there is always the economic side of this pandemic. It seems in Canada we have made the rich richer and penalized the working poor. Seniors have been thrown a few dollars a couple times, to keep them quiet.

But the Trudeau government has come up with a new economic theory that says if you have money or made money last year, the government will give you more. And if you don’t have money, you obviously don’t need any. You get all this and covid-19 too!

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Sex and the soldier.

May 14, 2021May 26, 2021 by Peter Lowry

There was a gritty movie made years ago about Balkan partisans during the Second World War. These partisans were fighters who attacked German patrols and were hunted in turn by the Germans. A key scene was when a female and male partisan were shot by their comrades for taking a time-out for sex when they were supposed to be on guard duty.

I never saw anything like that during my service in the Canadian air force but it was at a time in the 1950s when the RCAF was rebuilding its women’s division. While they were still not offering women a chance to fly at the time, there was a list of trades open to them.

But the ratio of men to women was still as extreme as it is today. In a volunteer military, there are just not enough women joining. And you can well understand the reluctance of the military brass to get involved in the relations between men and women, who are often a long way from home.

I had a couple girl friends from the WDs during my military years. The first gal was a big hit with my mother when I took her to my home in Toronto but the affair waned a bit when she was transferred three provinces away. It was even more strained when she wrote that she was pregnant by some guy at her new base. The hot steamy letters were no longer as tantalizing. After that I was more cautious in relationships among the Women’s Division.

What the brass needs to realize is that being part of the military services rarely constrains the natural urge for sex among men and women. And I would hardly be the only person to object to the solution of the Japanese military in the Second World War, who provided ‘Comfort Women’ to their troops.

But since General Eisenhower reputedly had his bed warmed by his army driver during his time in London during the Second World War, the question always is: Was his superior rank a factor in the relationship?

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Neither Respite, Nor Hospice.

May 9, 2021May 26, 2021 by Peter Lowry

It is called ‘Long-Term Care’ and I have never liked the words. Growing up in Toronto, the words said to me that this was warehousing for people unable to function with the rest of society, through no fault of their own. As president of the Multiple Sclerosis of Canada and head of public education and board member of the International Federation of MS Societies, I was often taken through local long-term care facilities during my visits to other MS societies around the world. It was never fun.

I think I saw every level of multiple sclerosis as well as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). I also had interesting talks with staff and patients in these places.

Surprisingly the most pleasant and best managed of these facilities I remember was near London, England. I was driven there by a lady with the title “Lady.” Her and her husband were patrons of this home and we received a warm welcome from a motherly woman who was addressed as “Matron.” The MS patients I met all knew my driver and we had some very open and frank discussions of the problems and extremes of multiple sclerosis. I already knew at the time, that MS is of high incidence in Great Britain.

But what struck me about this place is that it was not a “facility.” It was “home” to the people I was meeting. Their private rooms were individualized for them. Bright and airy, they reflected the person’s interests. They were all different. There were none of those multiple bed rooms or hospital-like feelings to the accommodations. We had a very interesting and cheerful afternoon. I often wished other places I saw were as pleasant and as thoughtful of the people who were looked after there.

It was not something I ever saw in Canada. I often thought that when the Canadian MS Society had the resources, it might be able to encourage a number of health agencies in Canada to help pay attention to the needs for long-term care in Canada. We could have done some good.

But I was a volunteer president with a demanding job and a young family at the time. My objective was to get multiple sclerosis recognized as a major health concern and get it the millions needed to carry out a growing program of research toward a cure.

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Peering into the abyss.

May 8, 2021May 26, 2021 by Peter Lowry

There is not much we can say for the Internet’s overabundance of time wasters. In early iterations of Facebook and Twitter, I tested the programs and found the idea wanting. You can find the remains of my testing somewhere in that vast realm of garbage. Life is too short to waste any of it on social media.

I will admit though that in this time of not travelling to see distant family, I do appreciate the wife pointing out pictures of new family arrivals and updating pics of wide-spread family and friends, so dearly missed.

But I was horrified the other day when she asked me to take a look at a posting on Facebook of a video clip. It was posted by an acquaintance who should know better. The clip was of a motor-mouthed jerk pretending to be in front of a football play board. The football line-up was supposed to be of covid-19 vaccines versus the human immune system. What he was saying on that Facebook posting was that the vaccines would destroy our immune system. I figured that was all the anti-vaxxers needed.

I have heard from a few anti-vaxxers and, mostly, their arguments have been so stupid as to be laughable. This one is dangerous. This could be in the same category as shouting ‘Fire’ in a crowded theatre. There are people gullible enough to believe something like that. I posted on it that it was crap but he just brushed off my objection. I guess he found it amusing.

It is like some bloggers who think they are reporters. They can give blogs a bad reputation. I was shocked years ago when I found that some bloggers were attempting to get news media accreditation to political events.

Blogs are, at best, an interpretation of events. At least I tell you up front that this is nothing more than a commentary, mostly on politics. I spent many years absorbing and digesting Canadian and American politics. I have travelled back and forth across Canada and the United States and visited many countries around the world. It can give you a perspective that I am willing to share.

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