The cops came to see me when I was living in Brighton, England, way back in 1971 when I was only 23 years old … I don’t remember why the cops stopped us but they did, in the middle of the night, and they became suspicious when we told them we were headed for Brighton. Turns out we were traveling in the wrong direction. When we were stopped, we only had tastes of some hash … In the end, my friend didn’t score. All I could get then was grass which cost more in England then than it did in Montreal. My friend managed to score a 1/2 kilo in Amsterdam and got busted with it.
Love to Learn, Learn to Love.
“I really question his fitness to be in this office … maybe he’s looking for a way out … I worry about the nuclear codes”… the cheer-leader President. What a fucker …
Trump lacks impulse control, seems to be vengeful, and any president can start a nuclear war without congressional approval. Congress MUST fix this right away. I mean yesterday …
Regardless of all this it is evident that education goes sadly lacking down there and Betsy deVoss ain’t the one to fix it, not even close … He might like the showmanship, the applause, but he is slow to realize the effect of his words on human behaviour …
About ten days ago, this freaking president had the media talking heads going nuts discussing his use of quotation marks in his tweets re. Obama’s “wiretapping”/wiretapping. He has got us fiddling while Rome burns. Wake up, people. This is one dangerous “hombre”. A truly hateful, disgusting human being, with apologies to more “normal” human beings.
I have been quiet lately, while seething inside, watching Trump attack those around him capriciously, placing the United States’ position internationally as the leader and protector of the free world at risk, and the ultimate fate of the free world along with it.
Take a look at his body of “work” since he announced that he was running for the presidency slightly more than two years ago.
The very first thing that happened was his characterization of Mexican immigrants as “… rapists” and criminals. “I suppose some of them are good people”.
That established a pattern of the racism, mysoginy and bigotry which was omnipresent during his campaign. Whether it was his blatant mocking of a physically challenged reporter with whom he disagreed, the insulting of a mother of a member of the armed forces who had been killed while doing active duty overseas, or his wide-ranging prejudicial proposal to ban Moslem immigration to the United States “until we figure out what the hell has been going on”, Trump has demonstrated a reactionary attitude, one designed partly to feather his own nest along with those of his family and associated hangers-on.
He has gone through people like the KFC to which he appears to be partial.
He’s actually getting fatter, looking worn and a little fatigued. Not nearly as fatigued as I have become with the rhetoric coming out of the WH. Sean Spicer, James Comey, Reince Priebus, the “Mooch” (after ten days as WH Communications Director; replaced by General John Kelly) – all fired. “You’re fired”. Big joke, eh? And let’s not forget Attorney General Jeff Sessions whose job was hanging by a very thin thread two days ago but things seem to have stabilized at least for the moment on that file at least. Apparently John Kelly had a phone conversation with the Attorney General and assured him that his job was safe.
Taking credit for the positive state of the American economy is a dubious proposition. Since the Industrial Revolution, the economy has always worked in cycles of inflation where demand for goods and services is high, and recession where demand for goods declines, resulting in a falling economy, rising unemployment, decreasing rate of GDP growth, increased expenditures by government in a time of declining tax revenue in all spheres, including those encompassing corporate and privately owned businesses, as well as public and private business organizations. 
Government fiscal and monetary policies are designed to minimize the negative effects of economic downturns while managing upturns but only to even things out, making sure that the dips and rises are not as extreme. Governments however have not been able to eliminate the actual cycle itself. Things just happen to be good now. Thank your lucky stars, Donny-boy because if the economy does go into a downturn, just watch what happens. You think that approval levels in the high thirties percent is bad? Just you wait.
Trump is a bigot. His proposed restrictions on, and new qualifications for, legal immigration are just another example of his racist orientation. He’s worse than Don Fucking Cherry, for fuck sake. His proposed Muslim ban fits seemlessly into his attitude which is steeped in incredible bigotry and dangerous prejudice. He was a racist business man and today is a racist president. Only the title has changed but the man remains the same delusional fool.
He will probably see his proposed immigration bill defeated on the floor of the Senate. However just to mention one qualification that Trump’s bill proposes is that immigrants to the United States must be able to speak English. What?
Peace
Thank goodness that Trump is not intelligent enough to understand the trouble he’s in, and in most cases, it’s his own mouth that put him there… These people would defend Trump even if, in Anderson Cooper’s immortal words, Trump took a dump on his desk… “We (Americans) see ourselves as a city on the hill, a stronghold of democracy, looking out for threats that come from abroad. … human nature is such that American democracy must be defended from Americans who would exploit its freedoms to bring about its end.
It has morphed into a game of cat and mouse, of gotcha, of lies upon lies upon lies. This Trump thing is just becoming ridiculous. If it wasn’t so dangerous, it would be amusing. The man is apparently becoming unhinged, retreating into himself, gaining weight and thereby becoming even fatter – his head included – than before. He is out of touch with reality, neurotic to say the least … Everyday there’s more breaking news, all negative from the Trump persepective. It’s like watching a train wreck or a fire.
Texas Passes Bill To Prevent Non-Christians From Adopting Kids
In a previous life :
In the aftermath of Barak Obama’s election victory in 2012.
US President Donald Trump (L) and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shake hands after delivering press statements before an official diner in Jerusalem on May 22, 2017. / AFP PHOTO / MANDEL NGANMANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images
Donald Trump makes the wrong impression at Yad Vashem
By Steve Benen
When American presidents travel abroad, especially for the first time, they make a lasting impression. Yesterday, for example, Donald Trump raised more than a few eyebrows with some inexplicable comments about Israeli intelligence, which he soon after followed up by suggesting Israel isn’t in the Middle East.
Today, Trump visited Yad Vashem, Israel’s principal Holocaust memorial and museum – the American president scheduled a brief visit, that did not include a tour of the museum – and did little to improve upon yesterday’s showing.
President Trump’s message in a guestbook at Israel’s main Holocaust memorial and museum has drawn some ridicule for its failure to demonstrate sensitivity to the atrocities memorialized at the site.
“It is a great honor to be here with all of my friends – so amazing + will never forget!” Trump wrote during his visit to Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, today.
Raoul Wootliff, a reporter for the Times of Israel, posted on Twitter, “He forgot: ‘See you next summer.’”
It wasn’t long before observers started comparing Trump’s “so amazing” message with the one Barack Obama left when he visited the memorial in July 2008.
“I am grateful to Yad Vashem and all of those responsible for this remarkable institution,” Obama’s note in the guest book read. “At a time of great peril and promise, war and strife, we are blessed to have such a powerful reminder of man’s potential for great evil, but also our capacity to rise up from tragedy and remake our world.”
Obama’s message continued: “Let our children come here, and know this history, so that they can add their voices to proclaim ‘never again.’ And may we remember those who perished, not only as victims, but also as individuals who hoped and loved and dreamed like us, and who have become symbols of the human spirit.”
My point isn’t to mock Trump’s obvious limitations, but rather, to emphasize that moments like these make a difference. The fact that Americans elected an inexperienced television personality to the nation’s highest office meant Trump started his presidency with a credibility deficit, especially abroad. Politico last week quoted a German observer who said of the American president, “People here think Trump is a laughingstock.”
With so much ground to make up, Trump has to work to be taken seriously on the international stage. Today made that task more difficult.
President Trump’s first budget proposes killing 66 federal programs, including the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, the National Wildlife Refuge Fund, and NASA’s Office of Education.
This cop was ok – I would have of course liked him more had he not given me a ticket for speeding – he told me that if it had been a younger cop who stopped me, and if this youngster had wanted to put a notch in his belt or wanted to hassle me because he didn’t like my face, he could have arrested me on suspicion of driving under the influence which would have involved a trip back to the nearest detachment which happened to be in Cornwall (about 90 minutes west of Montreal) for sobriety tests in a police car while a tow job would have had to be engaged to get my car back to Cornwall… Putting the whole legalization issue in the hands of an ex-police chief doesn’t seem like the best idea …
So Michael Applebaum, onetime mayor of our fair city who was forced to resign in 2014, has gone to jail. He got a year for soliciting and accepting about $35k in bribes from business people who were applying to get land rezoned for their purposes.
What bothers me is that Applebaum never manned up in the sense of admitting guilt. He, to this very day and regardless of the fact that he intended to be, in this words, “a model prisoner” who would dedicate himself to doing good deeds, has contended that he has been set up and sold out by an assistant who accepted immunity in exchange for testifying against Applebaum. The judge, in handing down the jail sentence plus two years of probation, noted that one aggravating factor in the case was Applebaum’s failure to admit guilt and thereby take responsibility for breaking the law.
I wonder how other convicts will perceive and handle Applebaum. I’m sure that his stated intention to be a model prisoner doesn’t sit well with convicted felons with whom Mr. Applebaum will be forced to do time. Given his son’s statement re. his father’s fragile situation as far as his mental health is concerned, it remains to be seen if we’ll hear any more about Applebaum until his release date comes around.
Speaking of corruption in politics, there’s another mayor in trouble. That’s right, Mayor Denis Corderre, whose ambitious schemes for our fair city include lighting up the Jacques Cartier Bridge, decorating the mountain with over 100 granite tree stumps and the deconstruction/reconstruction of a park named after another of our mayors, the man who argued that the Olympics could no more cost Montrealers tax money than a man could get pregnant, Mayor Jean Drapeau.
Terry Mosher aka Aislin’s famous cartoon below shows an obviously pregnant Drapeau on the phone to the late Dr. Henry Morgentaler, the abortion rights advocate. 
(Btw, I’m sure in some lab facility somewhere at least a few scientists are experimenting with the notion of impregnating a male.) One never knows, but Drapeau’s “prediction” turned out to be totally off base – hence the term the “Big Owe” for our picturesque but still incomplete Olympic Stadium.
Anyway. The plan to renovate Parc Jean Drapeau, it has just come to light, will require the axing of at least 1000 mature trees.
“Picking a fight with a professional hockey player over allegedly anti-francophone on-ice slurs helped score political points for Denis Coderre in the run-up to the 2006 federal (election).
“As a Liberal MP in the dying days of Paul Martin’s brief minority government, Coderre pounced on an episode that occurred during a game between the Montreal Canadiens and the Phoenix Coyotes a month earlier. Coyotes captain Shane Doan was given a misconduct penalty, allegedly because he’d cursed one of the francophone officials as “f—ing French.” Despite Doan denying that he uttered the offending words and being cleared by the National Hockey League, a campaigning Coderre waged a bid against the Alberta-born player representing Canada at the upcoming Turin Games for showing anti-Quebec bias.”
– The Montreal Gazette, April 04, 2017, from an article by Allison Hanes.
Leaving the obvious racist, Doan aside because I don’t see this as being an issue here –
Corderre appears to be up a creek without a paddle after first denying and then admitting that he had indeed received the cheque which he deposited into his bank account and failed to declare as revenue on his income tax return. Further, he lied a second time with some kind of far-out supposed explanation for his first lie, that is his original sin in denying that he received the money in the first place. I believe Corderre’s explanation for this, to be kind, “alternative fact”, was that he had had dental surgery and was a bit woozy and didn’t understand what was being asked of him.
UPAC – Quebec’s Permanent Anti-Corruption Unit – is investigating the whole incident.
Gimme a freaking break, you fucking liar,
Peace out.
Trump’s creating jobs. But at what cost? I guess when you can’t see beyond your nose, you don’t consider the futures of your kids’ kids, and their’s. Ya follow, Donny? Really and truly doubt that.
One of the around 50 (!) Executive Orders Trump put his name to was the one which eases Obama era restrictions on energy exploration. Trump emphasized putting America’s coal miners back to work while on the campaign trail which is what he’s working on at the moment.
Who wants to mine coal in an underground shaft mine anyway. Regardless of Trump’s claims to the contrary, I am convinced that the only time a miner would choose to work in filthy, dangerous conditions characteristic of coal mining today – “clean” coal or not, interesting that Trump repeated that term, clean coal, three or four times during his announcement conference in West Virginia this afternoon – as I was saying, the only time a coal miner would actually choose to mine coal would be the absence of gainful employment in mostly any other field.
Trump has proven time and again that he doesn’t know and/or doesn’t care about economic theory especially when it comes to the importance of specialization in any nation’s economy. What does specialization imply?
Simply this : that nation’s produce what they are most efficient at producing, importing other goods in which their trading “partners” enjoy either Absolute or Competitive advantage. Absolute Advantage exists when Country A produces a good more efficiently and therefore more cheaply than Country B. Country A, for example enjoys Absolute Advantage over Country B in the production of petrochemical products while Country B enjoys an Absolute Advantage over Country A in the manufacture of textiles. In this case, trade theory dictates the following exchange : Country A exports petrochemicals while importing textiles while Country B exports textiles and uses the foreign exchange garnered from this sale to purchase imported petrochemicals from Country A.
Let’s say that Country A enjoys and Absolute Advantage over Country in two products (or more) under discussion. The question then becomes the following :
In which good is Country A “more better”?
For example, let’s say that Canada and Brazil are in a trading relationship for aircraft engines and petroleum. Canada has Absolute Advantage in both of these goods but is “more better” at petroleum since Brazil must import all of its oil needs, not possessing oil resources of it’s own. Therefore Canada has a Competitive Advantage over Brazil in the production of unrefined oil which would necessitate the following transaction :
Canada exports petroleum to and imports sophisticated aircraft engines from Brazil.
Brazil exports aircraft parts to and imports petroleum from Canada.
The problem which arises in the type of economy which Trump envisions for the United States is that, eventually, the U.S.A, which begins wasting economic resources – land, labour, capital – just as soon as it tells Brazil and other nations like Mexico and Canada to take the proverbial hike. This is due to the fact that the Excited States cannot produce certain goods efficiently and therefore is forced to produce them internally regardless because this is the choice made by Trump’s government when it rejects trade in the interests of promoting American jobs.
On that point just made, in the short term producing things it used to instead import will lead to a certain amount of job creation. But for how long?
Not too long for sure as surely as I’m typing this right here now, prices will rise as the U.S. practises import substitution which invariably leads to inflation and consequent unemployment. Trump is most basically borrowing from Peter to pay Paul.
Like I have already said, he doesn’t know and or doesn’t care. He repeats at many opportunities that he is fulfilling his campaign promises which he is doing … and has done, except for his failure to get the American Health Care Act (AHCA) through congress. Think about that for a minute. The Republicans have control of both Houses of Congress – the House of Representatives and
the Senate – as well as the White House and they still didn’t manage to get it done. Trump, no matter whom he shackles with condemnation for the failure whether it be the Democrats, the Freedom Caucus, or Conservative Republicans, saw his “art of the deal” tank, pure and simple. He failed but I wonder if he can even think that, let alone come to grips with it.
There is also the budding scandal regarding Trump and some of his team allegedly colluding with Russaia prior to the election last November, which saw Trump’s “ascendancy”. Nunes’ trip to White House “grounds” after dark – real cloak and dagger stuff – gimme me a bloody break, will ya’ – some time is needed to sort out what happened but this is looking more and more like Watergate although it remains to be seen what laws, if any, have been broken. Watergate started off as a break-in of Democratic offices at Washington, D.C..’s Watergate hotel and ended up with the resignation of a President. Oh, would that something similar happens to Trump.
For those of you worried about Mike Pence
who would assume the presidency in the case of Trump’s resignation, arrest, or any other event which makes it obvious that Trump can no longer continue as President, all I can say is one step at a time.
Peace.
Funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting would be cut to zero, and the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities would be eliminated entirely, the first time any president has proposed such a measure.
The spending outline is what White House Budget Director Mick Mulvaney calls a “hard-power budget,” with spending increases for defense and homeland security at the expense of many other programs in the discretionary budget items.
We asked the following question : “Can we continue to ask a coal miner in West Virginia or a single mom in Detroit to pay for these programs?”
“The answer was no. We can ask them to pay for defense and we will, but we can’t ask them to continue to pay for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.”
In a statement, CPB President and CEO Patricia Harrison said, “There is no viable substitute for federal funding that ensures Americans have universal access to public media’s education and informational programming and services.” She called public media “one of America’s best investments,” costing “approximately $1.35 per citizen per year.”
Courtesy of CANandUSPolitics/posts/
Some comments from Jerry:
Mulvaney’s argument doesn’t compute. Firstly, it seems ridiculous to state that the coal miner and single mom shouldn’t have to pay for Public Broadcasting when the costs is a paltry $1.35 (or thereabouts) per citizen per year.
More importantly, Mulvaney is pissing up a rope when he says that the above-mentioned people will be asked to pay for defense.
It can be argued, though that access to PBS might strengthen and expand the educational and knowledge “quotients” (for lack of a better word) of the average citizen.
It actually behooves Trump and his surrogates to keep the nation as uneducated as possible because it is precisely that lack of education which breeds the ignorance among the population that got Trump elected in the first place. Only a less ignorant and better-informed electorate can make intelligent choices and the military spending increases anticipated by this budget will do nothing to increase the opportunity for this hopefully more enligtened citizenry to emerge at any time soon. As a matter of fact the opposite will happen as Trump continues to sell the Excited States a bill of goods.
Peace Out.
Trump’s Tweet : The opinion of this so-called judge, which essentially takes law-enforcement away from our country, is ridiculous and will be overturned! … it is not the job of the courts to enforce the law. That responsibility rests with the police … What you have to watch is for Trump attempting to usurp power from the other branches. He doesn’t know anything, doesn’t read, watches the news, listens to what people say and then spews shit … The dick-tator would simply tell the judges what to do and the judges wouldn’t have a choice if they valued their jobs or their freedom, or their lives.
… Remember that we in the West view and judge the East and its behaviours, through our western eyes (and v.v). There is definitely an element of cultural imperialism evident in the development of our own psychological environments, the latter conditioned a great deal by the nature of the physical environments we find ourselves in … There are plenty of people who are poor, uneducated, who turn to drugs, gangs, whatever they feel they have to do to survive. Plus with one of the poorest educational systems in the world, these Americans have no way out of the desperate straits they find themselves in … If desperation ever reaches fast full heights, you better learn to defend yourselves and your property because there will be no one around to do this for you … Americans live very devoted and patriotic lives, manipulated into believing that a Gold Star somehow compensates for the loss of a child. It’s not supposed to happen that way. It’s not natural. It should never be seen as normal.
I count some of the Americans I have met, personally, on my travels, or through FB, as some of the finest people with whom I have ever come into contact – kind, generous, and helpful to a lost soul on his trike passing through … When a guy loses a limb in a desert thousands of miles away from home it is tragic. Making the ultimate sacrifice is even more tragic and Gold Star Families are highly respected, as well they should be. Kids killed in the prime of their lives, creating endless sorrow for parents who have lost a child or children, and not to mention the effects of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) which puts some returning veterans into their own private hells, regardless of the fact that your president would call that being weak … Boy, I was actually questioned in NYC as to why I didn’t stand up, remove my cap, and pay homage to that great country of YOURS, prior to a Mets game. My answer could have been that I am handicapped and can’t stand well, or that I don’t stand for any anthem but I chose the truth – I am Canadian.