News, horror and outrage from the last two weeks
I assume my Facebook friends have resigned themselves to the way I use Mark Zuckerberg’s trouble-making, fact-annihilating, Trump-electing social media platform. In a typical week, they’ll get a couple of dozen shares of unwanted, overly-political news stories/opinion columns and pile of stupid memes. I pad this grand performance with daily pictures of pet snakes posed on my head and face and, if my Facebook Friends are lucky, an unprintable rant about whatever right-wing crap blew-out my brain-circuits that day. I’m not bringing this up for any reason. Just saying. /Stephen Whitworth
Conservative Jackasses Blast Trudeau Over Castro Comments
The Nov. 25 death of 90-year-old Cuban revolutionary Fidel Castro was the end of a political epoch. The country’s leader from 1959 to 2006 was a legendary figure who’d survived CIA assassination attempts and decades of American embargo while basking in a degree of tolerance from many other Western countries, whose citizens enjoyed vacations on the island nation as well as those fantastic cigars.
One of Castro’s fans was the late Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, so it shouldn’t have come as a surprise to anyone when his son, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, offered kind words for those mourning the late dictator.
“Fidel Castro was a larger than life leader who served his people for almost half a century,” said Trudeau in a statement. “A legendary revolutionary and orator, Mr. Castro made significant improvements to the education and healthcare of his island nation.
The prime minister continued: “While a controversial figure, both Mr. Castro’s supporters and detractors recognized his tremendous dedication and love for the Cuban people, who had a deep and lasting affection for “el Comandante”.”
Not surprisingly, some Conservatives and their supporters slammed the PM for praising a dead dictator. Thanks to them, I woke up on Sunday, Nov. 27, to a CBC news report about how Trudeau was a big poo-head who supports dictators, and promptly had an epic Facebook meltdown. As a holiday gift to those readers who encourage me to drag this newspaper deeper into the gutter, here is my slightly-edited (for clarity, not language) rant:
“Great to wake up and hear on the news that Canada’s Conservative politicians are being shitty, rude, hypocritical, grandstanding loudmouths on Castro’s death. These assholes aspire to gracious relations with dictators the world over if there’s a buck to be made by their corporate pals but they’ll never pass up a chance to deliver self-serving, dog-whistling messages that appeal to the worst instincts of their political base. This opportunistic moral purity from politicians who were on “the wrong side of history” (as they’re saying about Trudeau’s statement) on LGBT rights and who currently are vowing to shut down Canada’s public media, advocating bizarre values tests from immigrants, and celebrating the election of a vicious demagogue south of the border, is sickening. They are absolute fuckers.”
Merry Christmas!
U.S. Army Corp Of Engineers Nixes Dakota Access Pipeline
See above. What a beautiful development in the amazing story of the Standing Rock water protectors. It’ll be interesting to see what sneaky shit the pipeline pimps trot out after, ugh, President Trump is sworn in.
