Excited Delirium

Stories about Excited Delirium, the Shock Economy and a little fiction here and there.

Category Archives: progressive

Mainstream Media is Dead (aka “My Print Days Are Over”)

In the world of media (and me being someone who’s involved with the media world), today is a big day for me.

I officially (and personally) have come to the conclusion that traditional mainstream media is dead.

Of course, if it’s not dead, it’s dying because it’s something that lay-people like me simply can’t afford to buy any more.

TV died for me nearly 10 years ago.  I couldn’t handle paying nearly $100 per month on crap, so I canceled our cable subscription (and I recommend you terminate your cable subscription as well.  In fact, we should start ‘cut the cord’ parties around the country).  Since then, we get most of our entertainment via rentals, the web and other means.

I hung on to print for some reason.  I haven’t bought a copy of the Globe for years and I’ve never bought the Sun or other junk related to the Sun chain.

That said, every weekend, I used to buy the Saturday and Sunday editions of the Toronto Star.  This was a few years ago and it was part of my routine.   Then, the Star raised their Saturday price to $3.50 per copy and I stopped buying it, keeping my weekend reading to Sunday only.

This morning, I walked the dog over to my regular Sunday Star box and imagine my surprise when the price of the paper had increase 67% to $2.50 per copy from $1.50.  In absolute terms, it’s not much, but I didn’t have enough change, so I turned around empty handed and started this blog post.  Once I’m done, I’ll cruise through Progressive Bloggers and a few other sites to satiate my Sunday routine.

By there’s a bigger thing happening here, isn’t there.  Mainstream media is dead to me.

It’s now no longer possible for them to spoon-feed their BS agenda via their mouth-piece and I’m feeling all the better for it.  In fact, as I think things through, I remind myself that no trees had to die today on my account so that I could skim through the entertainment or op-ed pages.

And I’m 42.  What’s happening with the kids who are half my age?  Sure, some are getting MuchMusic via their parent’s cable subscription, but my bet is that they’re starting to disappear even more rapidly from the pulse of mainstream into the wild world of web-based media.

The people who are twice my age or even one generation older are scared.  They own all of this junk and they’re no longer getting the regular residual income that they used to.  Sun taking a dive into specialty TV clearly shows that the management knows nothing about the future of media in this country or elsewhere.  They’ll waste millions trying to shout at an empty audience and we’ll all be the better for it because it’ll bring the Sun down sooner than we ever could have hoped.

Unfortunately, as they fail, they’ll run to the government with their palms wide open begging for billions and not mere millions.  The waste will be phenomenal and we will have to obstruct it and oppose it at any juncture.

For progressives to have a stake in any of this future, we have to capitalize on the volumes of traffic that they’re getting with their sites.  We have to start thinking about how we’re at the top of a massive opportunity to start guiding the conversation – and the body politic – in a direction that makes sense for all people and even the planet.

Rants need to be researched, diatribes will have to become discourse, but we have a chance to make this happen.

Some outlets are already on their way:

Huffington Post

The Tyee

Rabble

Media Coop (The Dominion)

Progressive Bloggers

The Real News Network

What other sites or aggregators do you know of that I can post on this blog or in future articles about the future of progressive media?

It Ain’t Dying, It Be Dead

It’s appropriate that The Progressive Economics Forum posted their article “Is Social Democracy Dying, Part I?” on Halloween.

I would, however, suggest a couple of tweaks to their delivery:  are progressive ideals dying and are they actually dead?

The reality is that the Tea Partiers and those few thousands of people who hide their desire for theocratic hegemony and racism under the shield of eliminating waste and getting rid of ‘big government’ are a small number, but they’re now calling the shots.

Their friends in high media places are giving this ‘rebellion’ substantially more air-time than it warrants and it’s helping to generate more mass than it ever should have.

Never before have progressive ideals looked like they were going to be completely washed away by fanaticism and blind selfish greed.

Where are the stories about successful peace-driven initiatives?  Where are the stories about the Me to We kids who are helping shape the ideals of thousands of young citizens?  Where are the stories about co-ops and other unique economic models (note: when I did a search on “ALBA”, all that came up was Jessica Alba), either here or around the globe to offer up optimism and hope that we’re actually moving in the right direction?

Progressive economic ideals and social democracy are dying because we’re letting them die.  We’re exhausted and we’re giving in to the very forces that will eventually take everything from us.

Are you ready for that?

We need an equivalent to the Tea Party that’s bubbling up in the US to counter this movement.  We need a progressive movement that will focus on educating and informing the public.  We need it now, or we’ll lose everything.

Does (a Conservative) Canada Suck?

Answer:  hell, yes.

Maybe Canadians will finally get the message that Conservative politics are mean, nasty, dirty and cruel politics and that we deserve the embarrassment that we got today when Stephen Harper’s plea for a security council seat was denied by the UN.  (I know … as a technicality, the Cons withdrew to save face, but the reality is that we lost the bid).

Maybe we shouldn’t have been acting like petty dictators, both towards our own people or towards other countries.

Maybe we need an unbiased and non-religious approach with people like the Palestinians who are now facing genocide at the hands of Israeli greed.

Maybe we should get our heads out of our asses and start to try to make a difference again.

Maybe, just maybe, we should get back to our roots with the UN and support the f-in institution instead of try to destroy it.

Hopefully this is the tipping point.  Steve has failed the country and we need to remind him of that at every turn.

The rest of the world has told us that a Conservative Canada sucks.

Now Canadians need a chance to make the same decision.

No, wait.  We demand the right to vote these losers out of office.

Will Municipal Incumbents Be Punished by Federal Largesse?

I’ve been running through some thoughts lately as I see the circus-like scenarios materialize with cities like Toronto and London as the municipal election approaches in Ontario.

In many cases, it seems like incumbents are going to pay the cost of the ‘Canadian Economic Action Plan’, particularly any of those that may not have been the most ‘frugal’ with their budgeting over the last four years.

People are making wild promises like no tax increases (to win over the minds of people that don’t want to pay for road closures any more), limited terms (so that they can avoid the repercussions of slashing budgets to make up for the halt on tax increases) and making general statements that they can eliminate largesse all-the-while balancing budgets (ultimately making promises they won’t be able to keep just so they can get into office).

While I’m not a professional politician, I am a voter and I’m calling bullshit on all of it.  They’re lying if they’re saying that they have a vision to invest and make their city better all-the-while slashing the heart out of municipal spending and not raising taxes.

These people are actors, not professionals.  They’re trying to manipulate the rage that individuals feel when they see the complete and utter waste that’s been directed by the federal government with the Action Plan.

They’ll put incumbents on the spot and demand to know what kind of investments were made in their area during the past four years.  The answer will be nothing but a bunch of shitty roads that will fall apart in five years.  We don’t have the vision and we weren’t given the flexibility to do anything otherwise.

This is the unfortunate reality of the situation.  The incumbents aren’t offering much to voters.  Where are the hospitals or new schools?  No budget.  Where are the investments in new digital infrastructure?  Not on the plan.  We need manufacturing jobs today not knowledge jobs tomorrow!

As you can tell, I’m conflicted with the situation and I’m expecting that a lot of cities will pay a hefty price for the Action Plan, mainly in terms of ideological shift.

The ‘old boys’ will be back in town and Canada will take a shift to the right that will punish us all.

Progressive voices need to start shouting and not whispering if we’re going to survive these local elections.

The End of the Internet As We Know It

As we progressives are well aware, THEY own the media which, in large part, includes access points to the Internet.

“They” being folks like Rupert Murdoch (Fox, NewsCorp), the Asper clan (once CanWest), the Peladeaus (Quebecor, Sun Media) and so on.

These stories, however, paint a very real portrait of things to come.

It’s bad enough that bloggers are posed to be considered the world’s biggest threat to economic and democratic stability since the Lenin years (aka ‘blogging terrorists’).

Now, we’re going to be shunted into the halls of oblivion, never to be seen or heard from as long as the douches at Microsoft and other corporations have their way.

Here are some sample stories to digest:

This map shows us just how few companies and organizations hold their fingers on the ‘delete’ button, threatening any act of dissent.

Folks, we have to get very serious about what the Internet means to us.

Battles like Net Neutrality and access are just the tip of the iceberg and are actually meaningless and miss the point.

The real point is that we have to get ready to start building our own public internet or THEY will take it away from us.

If only we could get George Soros to start investing in real infrastructure.  That would be COOL!

Armageddon Factor: A Must Read

I picked up “The Armageddon Factor” by Marci McDonald several months ago, shortly after it hit the book racks.

For those who are interested in Canadian politics, this is a must read.

McDonald explores many ideas in this book and the central theme that I drew out of her meticulous work is the idea that Canada is being run by a very small group of nihilists and self-righteous Christian propaganda experts.

Besides that, I came to three conclusions as I put the book down:

  1. It seems the Harper Conservatives could care less about legislation.
  2. Progressives are fucked.
  3. Canadians are as blind to Harper as the Jedi were to Palpatine / Darth Sidious.

It Seems The Harper Conservatives Could Care Less About Legislation

In reading this text and observing current events, I now see that Stephen Harper could care less about moving Canada in any direction when it comes to legislation.  Time and time again, the Conservatives have ruined their owned agenda and progress by proroguing government or timing actions so that it would be impossible to make them come to fruition before the end of a session.

All they really seem to want to do is maintain their hold on power while they pack little baby chirping Cons into the halls of federal offices, be they the halls of the Public Service, various commissions, the Senate, any level of judicial positions, all non-government organizations that are funded by the government and so on.

Even if a new progressive wave of political and media authorities get elected into office, the battles will last for decades as they do what they can to push Conservatives out of work and office.  It will prove to be a holy administrative terror that few will be able to erode.

To make matters worse, the media has not held the Conservatives to task on this mediocre legislative program, which means they’re either lazy or in cahoots.

Progressives Are Fucked

I’m sorry, but I have no other way to explain this nicely.

Another more polite way to suggest my opinion is to reflect on the fact that most progressives – by nature or definition of who they are and what they believe in, myself included – are not quite the ‘A-type’ when it comes to personality.

We don’t run newspaper chains, television stations or tight political campaigns.

We run on emotion, reaction and, in many cases, panic.

There is rarely a plan.  There is rarely a vision.  We fall for smokescreens and fail to see the big picture.

We need to learn from the lessons that Marci McDonald clearly spells out in the Armageddon Factor.

Case after case, she clearly identifies the driving interest, the tactics used to gain momentum and the key players involved and how they got things to the point of being some of the most influential organizations in Canada and the rest of North America.

Conservative ‘values’ are tied in to nearly every component of every day life that everyone (including progressives) is influenced by, including the media, judges, education, our communications infrastructure (you can’t have the Internet without selling out to Bell, Telus or Rogers), the military, foreign affairs, the UN and other institutions that affect our day-to-day activities.

Conservatives leverage the fragmentation that exists in every single progressive camp.  They belittle the bickering that goes on and on and on, while they push forward with single messages and memes that dazzle the general public.

If progressives are ever going to get anywhere in this country, we need to start a process of wearing down every politician in this country from the municipal level right up to the Senate.  We need a checklist and/or inventory of people that are available to cross-pollinate educational and investment opportunities.  We desperately need our own media that will tell the general population the truth about Canadian politics and the poison that Stephen Harper brings to the Hill.

Canadians Are Blind

Seriously.  While watching Star Wars III – the one Anakin becomes Darth Vader – the analogy seemed perfect.  For some reason, Canadians have completely blinded themselves to the reality that Stephen Harper and the Conservatives have only one thing in mind when it comes to Canada:  endless domination, despite their smaller numbers.  And that’s just the starting point.

As I’ve already suggested, most of the cause of this blindness is due to taking media messages at face value, but it’s also related to a very consistent and carefully crafted spin job that comes from the PMO every single day.

Apathy is Comfort – Action is Danger

How do we emerge from the mess that surrounds us?

Neither the Liberals nor the NDP have proven that they are capable of referring to a wider base of Canadian citizens to select their leader, nor do they effectively leverage today’s technology to develop a platform or array of positions that all Canadians want to support.

Our institutions have failed us as well and we need to build our own tools, again leveraging today’s technology.  It has to come from the ground up, preferably with our infrastructure.  If not, we’re just riding on the backs of people that will sting us to death when we’re not looking.  We have all kinds of online tools, like wikis, social tools and other platforms but even with aggregators like Progressive Bloggers, we still only seem to capture the hearts and ideas of the passionate and not the average citizen.

Since progressive-minded people represent the majority of Canada’s population, how do we create a tsunami wave of ideology that our politicians simply can’t ignore?

Jack’s Jump the Shark Moment

I’m calling it:  Jack Layton has jumped the shark.

OK … maybe many others have called it earlier (if even by a few days), but there’s no going back from the mess that Jack Layton has created for himself and I’m going to pile on to that point of view.

Suggesting that the NDP can’t be blamed for the death of the gun registry is akin to saying that your heart doesn’t help your blood flow.

For those of you looking for a solution to the Gun Registry situation, Scott Tribe posts a compromise recommendation for Jack and Michael to consider.

layton-harp-guns584

However, I am concerned that Jack will continue to play games with Stevie as opposed to creating real solutions that all Canadians will be proud of.

The image above reminds us that Jack Layton has been working to keep Stephen Harper in power for some time, not just as a result of the gun registry, but ever since he got bluffed by Stephen Harper into making a grab for a few more seats in 2006 and helped defeat Paul Martin’s Liberal government.

(NOTE:  For the record, I am not a Liberal or an NDPer.  I’m lost as far as who I would trust to earn my vote.)

As Jack Layton or members of the NDP continue to prop up the Conservatives, it’s becoming more and more apparent that the ‘socialists’ are just henchmen for the Cons.

Failing to differentiate the NDP from the most right-wing organization in Canada is a massive error and will cost the NDP dearly, both in terms of financial and voter support.  Their efforts to find concession will result in the Liberals being seen as Canada’s only progressive option.

Jack Layton needs to stop looking at the Liberals like they’re competition.  Jack Layton needs to start developing a plan for getting rid of the Conservatives, including concerted marketing effort across all opposition parties (including the Green Party) to remind Canadians that coalitions, even including separatists, are OK.

Jack and Michael need to work together to defeat the Conservatives at every turn before the DNA of this country is turned to mush (although it may be too late for that).  They should figure out every possible political angle they can to maximize the number of seats that they can get in the next election, including the removal of candidates in key ridings.

If Jack fails on this, the urban population will dump the dippers in droves and the NDP will be caput.

If the NDP survives this, there should be a leadership review for the NDP, but we know that will be pointless because the NDP is run by the unions and individual members will be shut out.

As such, the NDP is done as a party in Canada.

The Liberals know it and they’re distancing themselves in a big way from the NDP politically and likely in the polls as well.

All of this brings us back to why Stephen Harper will be in control for a very long time.  The Liberals and NDP refuse to play nice and bring the government down.  They are sworn enemies and will do anything to avoid concession, including returning democracy to Canadians.

Because Jack and Mikey won’t be able to play nice, we’ll all be screwed by Stevie.

Steve is Stuck in the 50s

I figured it out.  Canada has its own version of a very uncool, very unpopular Austin Powers.  In fact, I need to correct myself:  we have a version of Dr. Evil (I wish I was good at doing image mockups, but I think you get where I’m going with this).

Stephen Harper has found a time machine and has dropped the entire nation of Canada in the 1950s.

You don’t believe me?

  • The Cold War is still going on.  The evil Ruskies are everywhere.  (Is our PM really trying to pick a fight with Russia?  Really?  Does he think we’re all that stupid?  Don’t answer … we are.)
  • Everyone is white and Canada belongs to ‘Europeans’.
  • McCarthyism is in full swing.  Fear and reprisal are everywhere.  No one can be trusted.  Arrests of ‘terrorists’ are constant, ongoing and ubiquitous.  We will fill jails with those that oppose us.
  • Roads and the auto industry are the only things worth saving in this country, but it’s too bad those damn unions are gumming things up.
  • There is no “Internet”.  It’s just print and TV and our friends in those media universes will help us ‘shape’ our messages to Canadians (just like our friend Goebbels did in the 30s and 40s!)
  • We fold the map of time and our political landscape follows Dief the Chief and no one else.  The Liberal domination from the 1960s onwards never happened.
  • Women are supposed to be bare-foot and pregnant in the kitchen (or publicly humiliated when they act up a bit).
  • GOD is the only religion, dammit.  Everything else is magic and witchcraft (and should be punishable by death, a la Sun editorials).

In the progressive world and for most others, we know this isn’t true, but Stevie and his 15-20% of Canada’s population as minions are stuck in the 50s.

What can we do to move forward?

How do we end Canada’s pain?

Merger Madness: Should the Liberals Just Disband?

Amid the talk of merging two extremely inconsistent parties, I have another suggestion:  the Liberals should consider disbanding.

Hear me out …

The Liberals have been on a downward swing for a number of years, arguably decades.

The leadership through the 1990s was either self-indulgent or slashed at federal budgets more than any tight-fisted socon ever would.

In today’s state, they’ve failed to differentiate themselves when it comes to policy.  They either side with the Conservatives or they have nothing.

Their current leader is a putz.  Just because he’s sitting low in the polls doesn’t mean it’s time to take a break when it comes to breaking up the potentially devastating pile of steaming turd called the 2010/2011 fiscal budget and omnibus bill.  You could have supported the budget, but you didn’t have to eat all of the crap that came with it.

In fact, we are dealing with the most corrupt and irresponsible government Canada has ever seen and both the Liberals and the NDP are enabling them to exist.

Their legacy has faded into a waft of self-delusion and aristocracy.  There was nothing democratic about the crowning of Sir Michael.  There was no effort to engage Canadians in the process.  There was only an effort to disengage from someone who was actually a really decent Parliamentarian (Dion).

Of course, from a party perspective, are there other options?  Are the NDP under Jack Layton any better?  Brad Lavigne argues that they’ve done substantially well and he’s correct.  The only problem is that Jack is busy selling off his union card in exchange for a Canadian Taxpayer’s Federation subscription, doing everything he can to keep the current socon crowd afloat.

I’m frustrated because my options have run out.  You could argue there’s the Pirate Party or the yellow socons called the Green Party.  Realistically, neither of these are realistic choices.

All I want to do is defeat the Conservatives.

So … suggestions?

Progressive Platform: Tax Policy, I

Author’s Note:

I’ve decided that I’m going to air my suggestions about what I’d like to see in a progressive platform.

I believe that the space defined as ‘progressive’ voters is WIDE open in this country, as neither the Liberals or NDP seem capable of claiming this vital territory and owning it.

Regardless, I’ve become party agnostic.  Neither the Liberals or NDP cater to my interests, but by posting my thoughts on what a progressive platform should look like, maybe both of them will snatch snippets of it, making me (and presumable all of us) better off and happier.

Progressive Platform:  Tax Policy, I

Don’t Raise Taxes (Yet), but Reduce Deductions

Much of the economic platform of the Conservative Party of Canada relies on tax cuts, reducing the size of government and a philosophy that in the kindest of words would be ‘regressive’.

Tax cuts offer no benefit to those who have lower incomes or who don’t own a business.  Tax cuts don’t benefit the Jane and Joe Six-Pack that punch the clock at Wal-Mart.  Tax cuts don’t return the money that we’ve spent at Wal-Mart and just act to enrich other treasuries around the globe.

Tax cuts bring nothing to our economy.

Of course, the Conservative ‘platform’ is also in conflict with what we’re seeing as a reality:  massive and unprecedented spending;  mortgaging the future of our economy, environment and society by slashing public services for those who can’t afford to sustain themselves; and, of course, making the assumption that consumption is a bottomless pit that will save us all economically (and politically for the Cons).

Pushing an economic platform that blindly slashes at taxes and social infrastructure ignores the reality of our current global crisis, most of which is rooted in over-consumption.

Having just finished my annual taxes, the wounds are still deep, but the inspiration has been catapulted to a new level.

Tax Shaping, Not Tax Cuts (or Increases)

I recommend a very simple approach to tax policy that I call ‘Tax Shaping”.

Instead of worrying about which taxes we’d raise, a progressive platform would slowly eliminate specific deductions that do nothing but encourage over-indulgence with our expenses.

We would shape taxes to reflect the policy directions that we want to encourage.

Let’s think about deductions related to your car, something that’s allowed for all businesses, including small businesses, but not individuals.

Here are just a few expenses related to cars and transportation that are deductible as a business:

  • Gas.  Gas and most other car-related expenses are not deductible by individual taxpayers, so why we make it deductible for businesses does not make for solid social and progressive policy.
  • Regular car payments, including interest on car payments and leases
  • Insurance
  • Maintenance and repairs
  • License and registration fees
  • Etc.

In 2009, these expenses wound up being about 15% of my overall deductions.  I believe that there are more than a million businesses registered in this country and altering the tax structure in this respect would like result in billions of dollars per year in new revenue for the federal coffers.

Please note that I know I’m a hypocrite, but I’m also an economic animal:  I make these deductions because I can.

If they were not deductible, and other forms of transportation were, like bus and rail passes, I’d change my economic behaviour to favour those options.

Or if we proceeded with this kind of tax shaping, me and only myself would be responsible for bearing the cost of putting another car on the road, something that our planet really can’t sustain any more.

Tax Shaping Example #2: Entertainment

When you start picking apart the deductions that we’ve made available to the business world, it becomes really easy to identify ways that we can encourage specific directions in economic decision making without implementing policy as a government.

The second obvious example is the deduction related to “Meals and Entertainment”.  How many claims have been made with strip clubs or other ‘suspicious vendors’ as a significant line item?

How many people have submitted bottles of wine bought at the LCBO and claimed that they were related to a party for an employee, only to tuck them away in their cellar?

Or the deduction of season’s tickets with a hockey team or baseball team that might be used a few times and that rarely actually lead to new business being struck.

This time, I’m happy to say that I’m not guilty of any of these activities, but I know people who flaunt these angles related to “Meals and Entertainment” and it has to end.
Once “Meals and Entertainment” becomes less of a priority from the perspective of a business deduction, perhaps they’ll become less of a priority for society at large.

The simplest approach is to reduce what people can claim on an annual basis in the process of earning income.

Other Examples

Looking at the tax code, it’s easy to come up with other examples of deductions that could be shaped to reflect a progressive platform:

  • Subscriptions and memberships:  this category is similar to Meals and Entertainment, but includes stuff like conferences and seminars that are grossly over-inflated in price and value.
  • Interest on loans.  This one is debatable and vast financial models have been created to justify some leverage that comes from borrowing.
  • Travel.  In an age of digital communications and Skype calls, do we really need to hop on a plane when a client calls or can we encourage a lower frequency of jet-setting?

Summary: Tax Policy, I

The act of discouraging certain consumption patterns has tremendously positive implications with our societal and economic structure.

By making certain activities less attractive because we’re forced to treat them differently financially, we will make better choices.

More energy will be devoted to building a car that will last for 20 years, but will also go 1,000 km on a single litre of gas.  Such tactics will shatter demand for fuel and force an explosion in demand for renewable energies.

Of course, there’s the whole other side of this discussion that I haven’t even begun to dive into:  deductions that are perceived to be GOOD for our economy, environment and society at large.

If you have ideas or suggestions, please post them in the comments.

Thanks!
Liam.