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Tuesday, December 27, 2011

The Ten Pat Martin Rants of the Holiday Season. F' You Capitalism or...I am Mad as Hell and I am NOT Going to Take it Anymore!!!

Written and posted originally on Facebook over 13 days..my left wing ode to the Holiday Season...Thanks Pat!

In honour of the 45 minutes that Pat Martin actually used to say what I suspect he and much of of his caucus actually think but are terrified to normally say...I have instituted my countdown of ten Fuck Offs over ten days to the system that are inspired by Martin's outburst...and Pat...let me say to you that if you are really mad, maybe you should cut the Rusty Anchor of Capitalism...it has been far more harmful to democracy and society than the socialism you ranted about at the convention!

FUCK OFF#10 Child Poverty is a Fucking National Disgrace!

Quoting (loosely!!!) the suddenly angry Pat Martin...Fuck you Conservative assholes and eat my shorts. Say what you want about the supposed laziness of the poor (what a joke given the golf course circle jerks of the rich) but even if you buy into this total horseshit how does this morally or ethically include children? How is it morally right to condemn over a million Canadian children to poverty through no fault of their own. How can this human disgrace  be justified?

How can you say we have experienced "economic growth" between 1995 and now when child poverty has INCREASED in this period? What kind of "growth" is that?

What form of eugenics, quasi-Social Darwinist bullshit or simple self-centred nonsense leads you to think that it is OK for your kid to freeload off of whatever little you did to succeed while you condemn or look down on those on welfare, social assistance and working people? Why should your kid be given, through no effort of their own, whatever you have, while the children of others have no such starting point? How is this equality of opportunity?

I guess your kids must be superior.

Well, I say it is time for all kids to be on an equal footing and I say that what exists now, unopposed by any major party in a real way is neo-feudalism and is a total fucking mockery of what equality of opportunity was meant to be!

And I think it is time that all the parties in Canada, including the NDP in its provincial governments, actually live up to the 1989 farce that we would end child poverty by 2000...it was a social democratic lie then and it is a hollow joke now.

Fuck Off #9: Really...union workers are overpaid?

Hardly a day goes by that I don't hear someone complaining about... "overpaid" union workers. "I wish I made that kind of money!". "Why should they get well paid for driving a bus?" Well you can make that kind of money...try to form a UNION... or at least support them! And why the fuck shouldn't they be "well-paid"? Unions benefit you, even if you are not in one. It is not the fault of mail workers, bus drivers, teachers, auto workers, or other unionists that your salary sucks and you have no benefits...it is the fault of YOUR BOSS!

Then you get the absurd musings of the sociopath Hudak that he is going to somehow impose a public sector wage freeze in a province where he lost the election. How are you going to pull that off Tim? Are you and your buddies from the Sun newsroom going to reenact the March on Rome?

So is the person who drives your bus or cleans city toilets overpaid if they get, say, $25 an hour + benefits assuming a 40 hour work week? Well if you think so, why not first direct your anger at the assholes in the link below...the top of which made $11,642.81 an hour... your anger at union workers does nothing but pad his fucking bank account!

http://www.vancouversun.com/Photos+salaries+Canada/4646295/story.html

FUCK OFF #8 We ARE the 15%

Our culture, as the First World, is the most rapacious and predatory culture in the history of the world. We are literally destroying it to subsidize unsustainable and self-indulgent lifestyles. 15% percent of the world's population consumes 80% of its resources. The electronic "toys" we take for granted, including the one I am writing this on, are made in the most appaling conditions in the Third World. Think Steve Jobs was a great man...check out where Apple products are made and how the workers are treated...it might leave a bad taste in the mouth.

We have gotten very used to drawing a line between work and home...we have gotten good at thinking only in our own context as if the global community does not exist...we have gotten very good at justifying anti-environmental stupidity (such as, I hate to say, lifting the HST on the home energy bills in Rosedale...or even Parkdale...don't lift the tax...tax CONSUMPTION) and thinking that because we are not part of the 1% here in Canada we are not part of the problem.

But we ARE part of the problem. It may be hard to avoid but is essential to recognize. The way we live, the way we play, the way we heat our homes and drive alone in our cars, the way we buy cheap products at Wall Mart, McDonalds, Starbucks..or even at our own local small businesses, is all done on the backs of the workers of the Third World and is an unacceptable system that cannot and will not last.

We have to start thinking differently now...and realizing that we cannot expect the rest of the world to prop us up forever.

Fuck Off#7: Update to terrified suburban people who watch local news too much...THERE IS NO CRIME CRISIS IN CANADA...!!!!

You know sometimes I can wake up, turn on the news to hear some conservative idiot ranting about crime and the new horseshit legislation the Tories are bringing in to help build the police state that they long for, and I think, holy shit...time travel is possible and I am back in Miami in 1984 and Crockett & Tubbs are about to fucking walk in in white suits, smoking Lucky Strikes to "take out the trash" and lecture some sub-committee about the need for bigger guns!

News bulletin assholes...the CRIME RATE HAS GONE DOWN! It is lower than it has been since 1973. The Crime Severity Index, which measures (amazingly) the severity of crime, has reached its lowest point since 1998.

But reality doesn't matter when you have an agenda...what was it Hitler said about the bigger the lie? This all started in earnest with the stampede that led even those on the so-called left to join in on the crime fighting bully pulpit and buy into the media distortion of the "year of the gun" in Toronto and it was more than slightly alarming to see "left" politicians echoing what was a right-wing war cry with a very strong racial undercurrent...but its votes that matter, right?

And when you give a little you get the Tory omnibus bill...it is a direct line...talking macho tough on crime only ever helps the right.

But...even worse...when confronted with actual crime statistics the Tories and their media defenders simply say the stats are wrong...that crime is actually, despite all evidence, much higher than that...but why be surprised...this is the same group of idiots that have caucus members who have denied evolution and have insisted that climate change isn't happening because it would hurt Alberta's economy if it was.

They are obviously trustworthy!

Crime is well down without these expensive and cruel laws. They have been done & they have FAILED...US programmes show that tougher laws and bigger jails do no good and much harm, that mandatory minimums are ridiculous and have terrible unintended consequences, including judge & jury nullification, and that fighting poverty is the way to fight crime. And as to harsher drug sentences...really? Now, could we move on to real issues.

Fuck Off #6 Being a Creationist, and a bunch of other silly things, is not a legitimate opinion...it is JUST FUCKING STUPID!

Democracy is a forum in which all expressions of non-hate based opinion are allowed. This does not, however, mean that they are legitimate...a distinction that our media and others have trouble mastering.

Creationism is NOT a legitimate point of view. It is fucking idiotic. It is exactly as stupid as believing in a flat-Earth or a Ptolemaic solar system. There is NO evidence for it and a MOUNTAIN of evidence against it. Even the former Hitler Youther atop the great fossil that is the Catholic Church acknowledges evolution. You know who doesn't? Morons.

The Creationists have used the media's supposed objectivity to get attention where none is deserved. Why are members of the Flat Earth Society not allowed on the mainstream news...we all know why, because what they are saying is as dumb as the conversation at a Rob Ford family dinner. As is creationism. That a bunch of evangelical fascists purport to believe in it does not change how fucking stupid it is.

Could I pause to point out that they do not deny that dinosaurs, for example, existed...they claim they lived with people and became extinct...4,000 years ago! They even give pictures to their kids of humans using dinosaurs to pull carts. Why? Because obviously the evidence shows they are full of shit...but they have to explain their theory somehow...right? The whole consruct is so ridiculous that it is truly hard to imagine what level of intellectual denial you have to be on to adhere to this.

But I don't want to only call out these anti-social jackasses...also dangerous are other science denying delusions like...those opposed to inoculations of children, crystal healers, ghost believers, climate change deniers, psychics, tarot card users, diviners, people who think the world is ending in December 2012....and so many more. It is all a bunch of bullshit...and the anti-science basis...even the outright anger towards science, plays into a profoundly reactionary anti-modernism.

But whatever, they have a right to their "opinion" such as it is...but remember that most of the time there is someone making lots of money off of this nonsense or who is using it for a political purpose. It is complete rubbish ...and on some level I suspect everyone involved knows that.

However, if, for whatever reason, going to someone down the street in a dimly lit room to be told, after handing over your $50, that someone still loves you from "beyond" is your thing...fine...but let's leave superstition for personal lives and not public policy or real political discourse...

Fuck Off #5: There is no such thing as "sexism" against men and there is no such thing as "racism" against white people.

This is one of my favourites. Men & white people, and their sycophants claiming reverse discrimination. "Ads make fun of men but they would never make fun of women", "white people are discriminated against for certain jobs", "Why is it ok to make jokes about white people but not Blacks/Asians/Natives/Jews...", etc...

BULLSHIT. This is PURE AND UTTER, TOTAL AND ABSOLUTE BULLSHIT. It is completely false on every level.

I could point out that everyone of the above statements is false already. Ads constantly demean, objectify and make women look stupid. So do TV shows, comedians, magazines, right-wing politicians, etc. The notion that "only" white males are "targets" anymore is a fucking farce. The people complaining about "white people" jokes...and I have yet to hear any that were actually nasty in any meaningful way, know full well that REALLY offensive and racist water cooler jokes are a dime a dozen. And white people are NOT discriminated against for any jobs. They just seem to often think they are entitled to them.

But that is not the key point. The key point is that sexism against men and racism against whites in the present social and political context is NOT POSSIBLE in anything other than an entirely incidental way.

Racism and sexism are SYSTEMIC problems that have existed for centuries and that represent a fundamental and encompassing oppression against which millions have sacrificed to fight for justice and equality. These oppressions have claimed literally hundreds-of-millions of victims and continue to degrade and demean and condemn people globally and in Canada to lives of injustice. They are manifested every single day in the ways in which women and people-of-colour continue to endure SYSTEMIC discrimination and SYSTEMIC inequality. The occasional joke that makes fun of white people (if these jokes even exist) or the occasional instance where, in one isolated case, the opposite of the norm may have been true changes nothing.

In many cases where men do suffer, and they do, it is as a result of patriarchy itself. Patriarchy does, indeed, oppress men in a certain sense as a result of its relentless and very narrow definition of what a "man" is and what "male" sexuality should be, and these views are deeply tied to homophobia. But that oppression and suffering is a corollary of patriarchy itself and can only be overcome by accepting its root causes and realizing that the way forward is its ultimate defeat.

As a civilization where racism and sexism were part of the founding principles of North America, and were, indeed, built into its initial laws and constitutions, to deny the breadth and depth of their reach is simply a convenient lie. The continuing stains of racism and sexism taint our discourse now and will, sadly, for a long time. The idea that whites or men in Canada face reverse sexism and racism that inhibits their ability to succeed is ridiculous, manifestly and provably false and just plain offensive and pathetic. And it is a part of the broader assault and propaganda campaign to make the dis-empowered, and many men and white people are, think that it is not a result of capitalism, but rather it is the fault of fellow workers, of women or of people-of-colour, and that fighting against the rights of these groups will preserve what little are left of their own.

It won't.

Fuck Off #4 Tax "Relief" is NO Relief at All

You have to hand it to those clever neo-liberal ideologues...they have managed to get all political parties, the media and most people on board the "tax relief" train. To one degree or another, they all kneel at the alter of this ultimate false god.

Unless you are in a very small tax bracket at the very pinnacle of our very steep income pyramid, tax relief is no relief at all. 100% the opposite in fact. Know why we can't "afford" universal day care: tax relief. Know why the frauds at city hall can claim a fiscal crisis where none exists and cut your programmes to the bone: tax relief. Know why our school programmes are not as good as they used to be, why our roads and bridges are falling apart, why all those kids programmes that used to be free are now either gone or charge fees, why public transit exists at levels way below what is required, why if you lose your job you can't count on any real long term government help, why health care is in "crisis", why it seems, despite unprecedented economic "growth" over the last 25 years, we are asked OVER-AND-OVER again to make sacrifices to keep the wealthy wealthy and big business afloat...TAX RELIEF. That is why...period full stop!

The massive income tax cuts of the 90's are the chickens that have come home to roost and they are DIRECTLY why our governments cannot "afford" to do the things that need to be done. For the VAST majority of citizens the money that they have received through this "relief" does not even remotely compare to the services and social cohesion and opportunity that they have lost as a result of it.

Lets point to an obvious example of the idiocy of the "tax relief" mantra and how it has coloured the thinking of all the parties; the ONDP's programme to benefit the "pocketbooks" of "working families" through tax breaks to small business and lifting the HST on home heating. Hey, just a thought, but don't you think free daycare and free pharmacare, for example, would help their stretched pocket books a whole lot more? Maybe just a little bit more?

And how would we pay for such things...maybe by reversing all this so-called tax relief!!! And not just on the wealthy alone. Like collective insurance programmes at work, middle-class and working-class citizens will get more out when needed than they pay in, never mind all the other social benefits, such as not having the stress of being a paycheck away from destitution hanging over your head. Tax cuts for most income brackets must be stopped and, indeed, in many cases reversed.

Tax relief is the greatest snake oil salesperson political trick of all time...it promised to deliver financial aid and stability and, for virtually everyone it delivered the EXACT opposite.

So, while so many on the so-called left appear mystified at the causes of the remarkable growth of social inequality and social insecurity since the 1980's, they should get their heads out the sand...one of the basic reasons is simple, that is when Tax Relief began!

Fuck Off #3: Our Banks are "A" Fucking OK

Remember when Occupy Toronto started and the media had all the strutting...... imbecilic peacocks of the business commentary community (the worst form of life on Earth, they are not actually rich...they just make a living kissing the asses of the rich...wow guys, why not cheer for the fucking Yankees or applaud the Death Star as a necessary step to profitability for the Empire) spouting off with a bunch of horseshit about "The people in New York may have a point but our banking sector is just fine. It is not like the USA"

Fucking right! Our banking sector is indeed just fine. While YOU are being asked to take cuts to your transit, social programmes, reason to live, union job security, etc...the banks in Canada are DOING JUST FUCKING FINE. A++++ in fact!!! :)

Lets take a look at the latest Stats from our friends at the Glib and Stale (a review of the ten most profitable companies in Canada):



1) RBC $5 Billion plus in profits...up 35%



2) TD Bank $4.5 Billion plus...up 49%



3) Bank of Nova Scotia $4 Billion plus...up 20%



7) BMO $2.5 Billion plus...up 57%



8) CIBC $2 Billion plus...up 109%

Hey, don't you feel better now! The banks are in Canada ARE DOING GREAT!!!!

They have made so much profit off of you that they have more money than most provincial governments. That is WONDERFUL!!! The system is working perfectly here. No need for protests.

How did they do this...well off of your savings and farcically lax Canadian bank fee laws...but why worry...no need to fret if the banks are making billions. Stay home, content with no daycare, no transit, no job security, no rights as workers, no real hope of a socially just future...and be happy as yet again you are asked to "sacrifice" more...it is all OK because OUR BANKS ARE DOING JUST FINE!!!!

Fuck Off#2 Last Night I Had the Strangest Socialist Dream

So, last night I had the strangest dream...it was just like those bank ads about how "if you don't want to pay bank fees..." or something. Anyway I was, in my dream, lying in bed, heart racing, the weight of one terrible question pressing down on me..."How, given all of the media bias and the overwhelming power of the forces of capital, can we fight for socialism?"...and then appearing at the door with a near heavenly glow behind was my daughter and she said "hey old man...if you want to fight for socialism...fight for socialism."

Let's cut the bullshit. Capitalism is not working. It has survived only due to massive government intervention and the creation of socialism for the wealthy. It cannot survive in any other way. All of the rubbish from Milton Friedman or Ayn Rand is a proven total pile of crap.

But, with capitalism clearly bankrupt and its very logic obviously shown to be false after 2008, where are the socialists? While I admire Occupy it highlighted problems not solutions. And the NDP...really? Has anyone bothered to check out its provincial governments lately...never mind the farcical programmes they ran on in Ontario and federally?

The greatest crisis to hit capitalism since the 1930's came and the NDP proposed tax cuts for small business and talked a lot about fiscal responsibility. Fuckin' A!!!!

So...how can we fight for a socialist platform and a socialist vision of society? Well we could start by actually doing it! Sometimes the journey from point A to B is really that simple. If capitalism is not working...say so. If we need a new socialist economy and vision...say so. Don't campaign or work for a platform where the best they can do is eliminating ambulance fees...or hold endless discussions about how to best fight for what you want to fight for or how best to campaign and run candidates for socialism while not actually campaigning or running candidates for socialism.

The NDP is not a socialist party. Over the last forty years, from the Waffle to the NPI to the utter futility of "entryist" groups today, these efforts have seen the NDP go further and further to the RIGHT, no more so than under the leadership of Jack Layton, Andrea Horwath and the basically Liberal governments in Manitoba and Nova Scotia. The "real" Liberals have lost any trace, other than as an echo, of Social Democracy and the Just Society and are little more than the last stand quasi-progressive rump of the upper middle class, and the Greens have no coherent vision of any meaning at all.

Frankly, fighting for a "platform" that you do not really believe in, advocating for it on the doorstep, running for it in elections, and trying to use it in the hope that somehow by doing this you will advance socialism is just plain stupid. The essential logic is not at all different than the old Liberal refrain that you will get "real results" by voting Liberal instead of "wasting" your vote. In a sense they were right. Once you accept the premises of capitalism why not vote Liberal? They are obviously better than the Tories and if the NDP is not even remotely advocating for a socialist society, why not back the winning horse if winning is what it is all about? And now that the NDP has risen why not vote NDP? If what you want is reformist capitalism then they are the best of the "progressive" lot, federally, no doubt. (provincially in Ontario and elsewhere, I am not so sure.) The CAW has bought into this, and NOW Magazine and the Toronto Star buy the logic, so why not you? The advocates for Capitalism with a Human Face can't all be wrong.

BUT...if you want to vote for a socialist agenda and political platform, if you want to advocate and run in elections in opposition to capitalism itself, then DO SO and try to build a party in your area and federally that will. Otherwise, just admit that that is not what you are interested in at all because you will never build a socialist electoral agenda advocating for any of the mainstream "progressive" parties that exist today, and while you may get to booze it up over "victories" they will be victories that will not fundamentally change anything in a socialist sense and that are a tacit or outright endorsement of the basic ideas and logics of the capitalist system. And...like Kaiser Soze...socialism as an idea will simply disappear from popular discourse other than as an insult.

Updated ending:
 http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/michael-laxer/2012/12/happy-xmas-war-not-over

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