why I joined the Liberal Party of Canada

On March 30, 2015March 30, 2015 By Rick McIn economics, ethics, governmentLeave a comment

To Joan Crockatt, my current Member of Parliament:

Hello Joan,

I will be actively campaigning in your riding against the Conservative Party in the upcoming election.

Born in Calgary, a fiscal conservative, still I cannot support your military mission in Iraq. It’s a waste of money. And will likely backfire, making Canada a more prominent target for any Canadian extremist or kook. It’s making me and my family less safe, not more.

Scholars Pape and Feldman:

… more than 2,100 documented cases of suicide bombings from 1980 to 2009 and concluded that most of the perpetrators were acting in response to U.S. intervention in the Middle East. …

The Canadian military should be Peace Keepers.

My other main issue is online privacy. I’m almost certainly going to be strongly against the coming omnibus public safety bill (Bill C-51). The NSA has proven that method doesn’t work. It’s not at all the best way to find terrorists in Canada.

Rick McCharles
Sarcee Meadows, Glamorgan

P.S.

I do like your work for women’s rights, by the way. But not enough to offset my disgust with your Party bombing and shooting innocent women and children in the Middle East.

Sergeant Andrew Joseph Doiron was killed by friendly fire in Iraq

___

Joan Crockatt did not reply. Not even a form letter.
___

So I bought a $10 Liberal Party membership.

Justin Trudeau:

We will not be supporting the government’s efforts to deepen this combat mission and expand it into Syria.

Speech by Justin Trudeau on the government’s motion to extend the combat mission in Iraq and expand into Syria

I’m hoping the Liberal candidate will be my Mayor’s chief of staff, Chima Nkemdirim.

I’ve written the NDP Party, as well, asking why I should vote for them instead of the Liberals.

Mulcair says NDP would pull Canadian troops from Iraq mission

rich getting richer, the poor poorer

On February 26, 2015February 24, 2015 By Rick McIn economics, education, ethics, GOP USA, governmentLeave a comment

Why is that?

Many of the rich (Cheap-Labor Conservatives) like “cheap labour”.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Though former U.S. Secretary of Labor Robert Reich overstates a bit, his key points are true.

Click PLAY or watch a trailer for Robert Reich’s documentary on YouTube. Inequality for All.

I can’t see why any poor or under-employed person should vote for the Republican Party. The American Tea Party hates the poor. Despises any program that gives one dollar to the poor. Yet wants to waste hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars in the Middle East.

I’m still trying to find a national American politician who’s a true fiscal conservative.

Films for Action – The Cheap-Labor Conservatives’ “Dirty Secret”: They Don’t Really Like Prosperity

hateful fear mongers

On February 24, 2015February 23, 2015 By Rick McIn bad news, economics, ethics, GOP USA, government, product complaints, things getting worseLeave a comment

FOX National News is the worst.

They care only for ratings. If you don’t like FOX News (unfair and unbalanced), boycott.

Smith & Wesson NEARLY did the right thing

On January 30, 2015January 26, 2015 By Rick McIn economics, ethics, firearms, government, product complaints1 Comment

In the late ’90s, Smith & Wesson was facing a major lawsuit filed by cities and states that blamed the company for rampant gun violence. The company stood to lose millions.

So in 2000, under pressure from the Clinton administration, Smith & Wesson’s chief executive, Ed Schultz, made a fateful decision — and raised the ire of the powerful National Rifle Association and its supporters. …

Click PLAY or see what happened next on YouTube.

On 11 May 2001, Saf-T-Hammer Corporation acquired Smith & Wesson Corp. from Tomkins plc for US$15 million, a fraction of the US$112 million originally paid by Tomkins. Saf-T-Hammer assumed US$30 million in debt, bringing the total purchase price to US$45 million …

In December 2014, Smith & Wesson Holding announced it was paying $130.5 million for Battenfeld Technologies, a Columbia, Missouri-based designer and distributor of hunting and shooting accessories. The company made the acquisition with the eventual intent to merge all its existing Smith & Wesson, M&P and Thompson Center Arms accessories into a single division

wikipedia

NRA’s Wayne LaPierre – CHICKENS are coming for your guns!!!

On January 29, 2015January 29, 2015 By Rick McIn economics, ethics, firearms, GOP USA, government, things getting worse5 Comments

Wayne LaPierre is an extremist.

I’m pissed when he says things like this:

We know, in the world that surrounds us, there are terrorists and home invaders and drug cartels and car-jackers and knock-out gamers and rapers, haters, campus killers, airport killers, shopping-mall killers, road-rage killers, and killers who scheme to destroy our country with massive storms of violence against our power grids, or vicious waves of chemicals or disease that could collapse the society that sustains us all. …

~~He lies.~~ He exaggerates.

He ~~lies~~ exaggerates I assume, to help increase sales of firearms. He exaggerates for money.

I can’t imagine any other reason to overstate the way he does.

LaPierre’s central message: Owning a gun is the solution. The world is a scary place. There are bad guys everywhere threatening you and your family, and the only thing they’re afraid of is a gun in your hands.

Tragically, a record number of Americans subscribe to some version of this mythology, with 63 percent (67 percent of men polled and 58 percent of women) believing that guns truly do make them safer. The public’s confidence in firearms, however, is woefully misguided: The evidence overwhelmingly shows that guns leave everybody less safe, including their owners. …

The Myth of the Good Guy With a Gun

Politico – The Myth Behind Defensive Gun Ownership

The NRA is wrong: Owning a gun is far more likely to harm you than protect you.

I agree with LaPierre on a couple of things. He supports:

• Increasing funds for a stricter and more efficient mental health system, and reform of civil commitment laws to facilitate institutionalization of the mentally ill when necessary.

• Creating a computerized universal mental health registry of those adjudicated to be incompetent to help limit gun sales to the mentally ill.

It’s deflection, I’m assuming. Taking those positions makes no sense relative to his other positions.

He’s totally against the government regulating firearms, even though they are dangerous. (More ~~Americans~~ American children and youth are now killed by weapons than motor vehicle accidents.) … But totally for the government regulating mental health. Because the mentally ill are dangerous. 🙂

• Two Decades of Paranoid Pronouncements by the NRA’s Wayne LaPierre

• Gun Deaths Versus Car Deaths

• American Gun Deaths to Exceed Traffic Fatalities by 2015

Citizens United should be overruled

On January 28, 2015January 25, 2015 By Rick McIn economics, ethics, GOP USA, government, product complaints, things getting worseLeave a comment

Chief Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg:

If there was one decision I would overrule, it would be Citizens United.

I think the notion that we have all the democracy that money can buy strays … far from what our democracy is supposed to be. …

New Republic

Citizens United was a terrible ruling. Most people asked to think about the issue for 10 seconds conclude that it’s a bad idea.

An ABC–Washington Post poll conducted February 4–8, 2010, showed that 80% of those surveyed opposed (and 65% strongly opposed) the Citizens United ruling, which the poll described as saying “corporations and unions can spend as much money as they want to help political candidates win elections“.

wikipedia – criticisms of Citizen’s United

So why do so many politicians, especially Republicans, support Citizens United?

Because they can only get elected with money handed them by corporate lobbyists.

I don’t see how U.S. politicians can get out of this trap. They must sell their souls to corporations in order to get elected. 😦

Presidents Koch are pissed

On January 26, 2015January 24, 2015 By Rick McIn economics, ethics, GOP USA, government, things getting worseLeave a comment

David and Charles Koch are pissed. They orchestrated the spending of a lot of money to influence the American government. Yet Romney lost.

Americans for Prosperity, the most prominent arm of the Koch brothers’ organization, put Republican lawmakers on notice …

Tim Phillips, president of AFP, said at a Washington press conference that congressional Republicans “failed miserably” a decade ago, especially on cutting the federal budget. “They’ve been given a second chance by the American people,” he said, “and we’re going to hold them accountable. …

NPR – Conservative Koch Brothers’ Group Puts Congressional GOP On Notice

The Presidents Koch agenda covers three areas:

1. taxes including repeal of the estate or death tax

2. energy headlined by a call to build the Keystone XL pipeline

3. health care, which includes repealing the Affordable Care Act

I’m slightly in favour of Keystone. But I’m against unelected rich guys having so much influence on legislation. In backrooms I have no doubt they discuss which politicians can be bought. And which are a bad investment.

That’s what the term “accountable” means. 😦

The Koch brothers invested $400 million because they expected to get far more than $400 million back. You cannot trust them.

___

The Koch’s “labyrinthine network of political groups — none of which reveal the names of their donors — showed that the coalition raised more than $400 million during the 2012 election.”

Utah reduced homelessness by 72%

On January 21, 2015January 19, 2015 By Rick McIn economics, ethics, good news, government, product endorsements, things getting betterLeave a comment

If you’ve traveled around the States, you know that homelessness is conspicuous in the richest nation of the World.

That’s always surprised me.

But Utah’s turned that around in a surprising way.

Republican State Gives Free Houses to Moochers, Cuts Homelessness by 74 Percent

The state is giving homeless people homes. It’s a solution that might sound too simple, but it’s working. The program, called “Housing First”, has origins in New York. Utah started its own pilot of the program in 2005 with 17 people. The state took them off the street and put them into housing for twenty-two months. After the state saw that all 17 people remained housed and stable during that time, the project was expanded. …

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

VIDEO: Utah Gives Homes To The Homeless As Arctic Temperatures Bring Suffering

Housing First, which is distinct and separate from “rapid re-housing”, is a relatively recent innovation in human service programs and social policy regarding treatment of the homeless and is an alternative to a system of emergency shelter/transitional housing progressions.

Rather than moving homeless individuals through different “levels” of housing, known as the Continuum of Care, whereby each level moves them closer to “independent housing” (for example: from the streets to a public shelter, and from a public shelter to a transitional housing program, and from there to their own apartment in the community) Housing First moves the homeless individual or household immediately from the streets or homeless shelters into their own apartments.

Housing First approaches are based on the concept that a homeless individual or household’s first and primary need is to obtain stable housing, and that other issues that may affect the household can and should be addressed once housing is obtained. …

Thanks Dean.

terrorism rarely works

On January 14, 2015January 14, 2015 By Rick McIn economics, ethics, government, Islam, things getting worseLeave a comment

The right wing media in 2015 is demonizing all Muslims. Rupert #RupertsFault Murdoch, FOX News boss, for example.

It reminds me of the days when Americans demonized the Ruskies. All Russians were evil in the 1970s, you may recall. But I was a gymnast. Russian gymnasts and coaches were my heroes.

Today Muslims are the Ruskies. A few fanatics were furious with a French satirical paper. And lashed out.

How did that work out for the terrorist cause?

Huge demand for new Charlie Hebdo edition one week after attack

Here’s the cover of the next edition.

I’d never heard of Charlie Hebdo. Now almost everyone has heard of the stupid publication. 😦

Muslims around the world are worse off, not better.

the world IS getting better

On January 7, 2015January 2, 2015 By Rick McIn climate change, economics, education, ethics, firearms, food, good news, government, happiness, health & fitness, internet, things getting betterLeave a comment

More people are going to school for longer

Access to the internet is increasing

Solar power is getting cheaper

Beer consumption going up ??? 🙂

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.