Excited Delirium

And probably a good collection of people that Andrew Scheer, Jason Kenney and other oil schmucks suck up to …

This article offers up an incredible snapshot of the billions of dollars in the US and elsewhere that are being pumped into climate denial.

From the report,

Clarifying the institutional dynamics of the CCCM can aid our understanding of how anthropogenic climate change has been turned into a controversy rather than a scientific fact in the U.S. [and the rest of the world].

Ultimately, the climate denial movement is being funded by billionaires.

Long before Greta Thunberg, folks like George Monbiot were helping us understand the urgency of the climate crisis that we have created. In a recent article, he clearly identifies how global corporations have been very effective at making us day-to-day paycheque to paycheque sheeple think we can take actions at the individual level.

We need to pivot our shame and frustration to a well of anger and frustration that will effectively end the free ride that the world’s most wealthy are enjoying at our – and our planet’s – expense.

We need to give these billionaires an opportunity to live up to their name: THE BILL.

Wow. Half way through the election and people seem to be at two polar ranges of opinion: dull and uninteresting and crazy, over-the-top updates that seem almost unreal.

Holders of Trudeau’s ‘blackface’ pictures and video waited until very fortuitous moments to release them to the public. Justin Trudeau apologized quickly. The country moved on with more important matters.

But Scheer … holy shit, is he ever sitting on a landmine of mess that any political candidate should be ashamed of.

Let’s recap some of the news to date:

• He has lied about being an insurance broker and may find himself in trouble with Saskatchewan regulators for saying he’s something he’s not.
• Only today we learned that he’s a dual citizen. This really isn’t a big deal … UNLESS you’re a Conservative and you made a big deal about Michael Ignatieff doing something admirable like going to Harvard or Stephane Dion having a dual citizenship. And ruining their careers in the process. All that said, apparently he never brought it up because ‘he’s never been asked about it‘.
• Scheer has promised that he won’t bring up abortion, but he has yet to confirm what would happen if other candidates from presenting independent bills that would criminalize choice in Canada.
• After avoiding the biggest general protests across the globe last Friday, Andrew Scheer announced his plans to turn Canada into one of the world’s largest producers of dirty, carbon-loaded bitumen by promising to build pipelines from sea to sea to sea.
• Despite having similar situations in the past where he used reprehensible language against the LGBTQ community, Scheer refuses to apologize.
• Little is said about his work for Larry Spencer, a known anti-gay Conservative who would have this choice of partnership outlawed.
• Opus Dei follower? Who knows, but International Socialists and Montreal Simon helped us at least identify that there’s a connection
• Want to talk about racist connections? Faith Goldy, Ezra Levant and manhy others don’t seem to come up often. I wonder why.

Let’s focus on the revelation about him being a dual citizen. TODAY.

Despite his lack of honesty and failure to disclose, he had this to say about Governor General Michaelle Jean:

“I have a few quick questions for anyone who thinks that Michaëlle Jean is a good choice to be our next GG,” Scheer wrote. “What are her qualifications? What experience does she have that would assist her to carry out her duties as our head of state, including the potential to be a referee in a minority government situation?”

He also asked his constituents if they felt it was appropriate for Jean to maintain her French passport. “Would it bother you if instead of French citizenship, she held U.S. citizenship?” Scheer asked.

What else do we have to ask for the real Andrew Scheer to stand up?

This smug person may be your next Prime Minister. Are you OK with that?

Sure, Trudeau did some awful things.

And then he acted like an adult and apologized.

Scheer has made a number of reprehensible statements and has yet to apologize. Is he hiding something? As Montreal Simon suggests, did he spend too much time doing a deep dive with control maniacs Opus Dei?

We found out yesterday that Andrew Scheer has been lying about his background and experience in the insurance industry. He was never a registered broker and yet his resume and profile information announce that he was.

According to Saskatchewan law (Insurance Act),

no person shall hold himself out as an agent —or as a salesman of an agent— unless he is the holder of a subsisting licence under this act, … Every person who contravenes any provision of this act is guilty of an offence.

Andrew Scheer is being dishonest with his resume info.

Now he also seems to have broken the law.

The big question: WHY? Why lie about something so mundane? Are you trying to pretend you’re something you’re not?

Thank you to The Walrus for running this story about Andrew Scheer’s racist cabal of supporters. We are reminded about Hamish Marshall,

a corporate director of the Rebel and a long-time Ezra Levant ally. Marshall’s newest gig, announced this week, is campaign manager for the federal Conservative Party. Andrew Scheer bestowed the honour on Marshall after Marshall helped propel the Saskatchewan MP to the position of leader for the second-place party this summer.

But Scheer is already being dogged with questions about the appropriateness of tapping a man so close to the Rebel’s death star. When the questions popped up again this week, Scheer had a less-than-confident answer.

“I didn’t ask Hamish about every client he had,” Scheer said in response to a question from the Globe and Mail. “He has a variety of clients. He’s a small-business owner himself, and I asked him to do a job and he helped me out on my campaign.”

Andrew Scheer: surrounding yourself with known racists is only going to backfire on you.

Canadians: take note. Being mad at the Liberals for some of the issues fueled mostly by right-wing media like the National Post is fair, but voting for Scheer when we all know his skeletons in the closet are alive and well makes me wonder if we’re qualified to vote.

“As long as someone takes responsibility for what they’ve said, and addresses the fact that in 2019 some things that may have been said in the past are inappropriate today, that if anything that they’ve ever said in the past caused any type of hurt or disrespect to one community or another and have apologized for that, I accept that,” Scheer said to reporters during an overnight flight on his campaign plane from Ottawa to Vancouver. 

What do I REALLY want to know from all of this?

• Why were the pictures not released in 2001? (I know why … Justin Trudeau wasn’t perceived as being a threat)
• Why were they released just now and not even shortly after he was elected?
• MOST IMPORTANT QUESTION: Who released this? What’s their agenda? Why did they sit on this for so long?

These are the ‘gotcha’ politics and questions that I’d like to see play out in the coming weeks. These are REAL questions that matter and if we fail to address them, we fail our democracy.