Critical Perspectives and Reflections

BILL LEE October 29, 2020   I came across an interesting analysis of the relationship of Trump and his base recently. It sought to explain why Trump, against any sort of reason, would continue to rant and rave about locking people up, fomenting racial animosity among the alt-right gangs, pandering to the right wing so-called Christian fundamentalists, denying the Pandemic and climate change denial. Essentially the theory suggests that rather than Trump manipulating the members of his base into accepting his absurd farrago of anger and twaddle, it is Trump, with his pitifully weak ego and sub-standard intelligence, who is in bondage to the. In effect it is his need for affirmation that locks him into being a one trick pony whose only trick is to spew out venomous excrement to feed a demand for “punishment” of institutions and people who the base members feel are responsible for their lack of sense of self worth and agency. But can we venture a bit deeper, or wider. Is it possible th...

WAYNE JOHNSTON October, 23, 2020 Ok the last debate in this interminable this USA Presidential election cycle is done. Of course, everyone is asking who won? Naturally the political spin doctors are weaving their various webs of obfuscation and deflection. (The former US Senator Rick Santorum, who seemed to have watched a debate in a different universe was working particularly hard on CNN.) But I suppose that the Republican spin specialists are breathing a sigh of relief. The Donald didn’t go his typical full-blown bat shit crazy, like in the last debate. That said, Trump’s bar was set pretty low. Ok he didn’t act too nutty but he basically said the same stuff as he does every day, just less angry and unhinged than the last debate or in some of his cult rallies. So, I guess he was better... However, his fib metre was through the roof. To quote one fact checker. “With Trump it’s like being Lucile Ball in the candy factory scenei”. What lie to pick when there are so many? He didn’t offer...

BILL LEE October 21, 2020 The brutality, violent bullying and terrorism perpetrated by the Whitestream gangs that have been attacking the property and persons of the Mic Mog lobster Fishermen in Nova Scotia demonstrate, one more time, how colonial advantage is taken as a holy birthright by significant sectors of the Canadian population. The attackers are acting as though the Supreme Court’s decision in favour of the Mic Mog and Maliseet right to fish for a modest living never happenedi. They are attempting to cloak their violence and destruction with the pretense of environmental concern when it is nothing but the usual attempt to maintain their advantage over their Indigenous neighboursii. As well, we can observe this colonial and illegal action (threatening violence, violence itself and arson) for advantage being affirmed, protected and enforced by our national police force. In this we see the long-honoured mission of the force to maintain the right of the colonizer t...

WAYNE JOHNSON October 1, 2020 You could not have watched that debate  and be proud of president   - Anderson Cooper   Well wasn’t that Presidential debate a sh#t show, then again it had to be expected with Donald J. Trump on the stage. I am quite sure Trump did well with his base, aka cult. But that’s it. He showed zero leadership tonight. Rather what he demonstrated was “loudership”. In a thread I read on Facebook, someone said Trump showed dominance and confidence. This is hardly accurate; in fact, I would argue he demonstrated exactly the opposite. He appeared as a loudmouthed bully, who knew he was tanking and simply indulged his own frustration and anger. I’m not sure what some folks think being a leader entails, but I can’t believe most think that bullying dominance is really an admirable trait. He acted, for most of the evening, merely as a noisy, obnoxious and self-centred tyrant, but not one with ideas or real control. Confidence, not arrogance, is most cer...

KIMBERLY IANAROi   September 22, 2020 A person doesn’t need a whole lot of training, like the training, the Don’s niece, clinical psychologist Mary Trump, PhD. (2020) has for example, to figure that the President of the United States is a very disturbed individual, an insecure narcissist with a very large mean streak. I am not a psychiatrist or psychologist. I am a nurse with critical care, addiction and mental health specialties. I've been screaming this for years. The man is a malignant, narcissistic sociopath with features of borderline personality disorder. As such, holding the power of the presidency of the USA, he is the most dangerous, devious, sly, clever, (I did not say smart, I said sly and clever, very different qualities) underhanded creature on the planet. Think the likes of Ted Bundy, Jeffery Dalhmer, Pol Pot, Stalin, Hitler, Mao, etc, etc, etc, on steroids. And this is a man, who can't stand any perceived slight or criticism or disagreement from his insane view o...

BILL LEE September 6, 2020 WE LIVE IN INTERESTING TIMESi The 2020 Presidential election is looming in the   USA within three months and it promises to be an  exceptionally nasty as well as an exceptionally important one. It is a time of a world pandemic that is worse in the USA than anywhere else. Refugees in the USA are being treated as dirt, demonized and maid scapegoats for everything from low wages to crime. Trump is supported by increasingly angry xenophobic and believers in conspiracy theories and/or in a fundamentalist blood and guts old testament kind of religion who take every word of the leader as gospel truth and believe nothing else, journalists, academics, generals, medical professionals or science itself. The members of the Senate of the United States seem to be nothing but henchmen to a strong man leader. Increasingly we hear concerns that the regime that Trump is running now, as well as being a criminal enterprise, is also a proto fascist one, and one tha...

  WAYNE JOHNSTON September, 8, 2020   M y friends in the USA, After all the news of the past weeks, I got to thinking the other night, how can the American Republicans be so darned thick. I’m not trying to be rude though perhaps my concern hasn’t been expressed correctly because I really am fearful. I believe that is so important to call your attention to the very real danger you face. So, I thought I would give it a go and here it is. With humility and care, this is my State of the Union message coming to you from the Independent Dutchy of Brooklin, Ontario, Canada. A Perfect Storm   You have the perfect storm occurring in America, not just politically, but economically and socially as well, and it is impacting everyone. It, of course, begins with a President who is simply far out of his depth and is certainly no leader. He couldn’t care less about the folks on the right, his base. He merely uses them like pawns to battle his opponents. This...

Bill Lee August, 21, 2020 If he’s re-elected, he will not only continue this behaviour, but it will vindicate everything he’s done. … And he’ll do more. – Jeffrey Toobin    I believe we have all heard the news that it is election time in the USA. Indeed, the Dems wrapped up their love fest a little while ago and the GOP just finished paying their obsequious adulation with a stunning series of hyperbolic, mendacities and out and out fraudulences in praise of their ‘Dear Leader’, Donald J. Trump. Both parties are now ready for a full-on campaign assault on the the hearts and minds of the voters of the USA. It is an important election, as the above quote from the CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin suggests in an interview with Edward Keenan (2020, IN1 & 4) it is one that could have far reaching consequences, probably greater than the very damaging one that resulted from the surprise result in 2016. One of the interesting dynamics for me in this election is th...

BILL LEE July 15, 2020 There is much concern being expressed, and ink being spilled, on the revelations of the former financial connections of Prime Minister Trudeau and the WE Charity. There are two issues that strike one in all this: first the nature of the WE charity and second the way this kerfuffle is, or should be, highlighting the issue of the connections between corporations and our governments. It has a name, Elite Accommodation. WE and We to Me: Charity and Business First the WE. The WE entity is, notwithstanding its status as an NGO and the fawning praise the Keilbergers, Craig and Mark, receive by the media, part of a capitalist enterprise. The WE charity is closely connected to, indeed intertwined with, the Me to We organization which is a business enterprise. The cosy relationship between the for-profit organization and the charity is one where money flows back and forth with tax breaks for Me to We, for giving money to WE and the buying of services by W...

BILL LEE  June 14, 2020 I have become increasingly uncomfortable with the language that is being used to describe the situation that has evolved between Canadians of Euro-Canadian ancestry and Indigenous people.1 One of the terms that bothers me is reconciliation which suggests we have begun to make up for the many past wrongs done to Indigenous people by our ancestors. I do not think we are nearly in that situation but have written on this in the past.2 The second term that I find problematic is "settler" and this will form the majority of the article to follow. I will end by suggesting that unless we face up to the reality of our colonial status, we can never begin to engage in a strategy to end it.  I suggest that in identifying and discussing the state of Canadian relationships with Indigenous people the term "Colonial class" makes much more sense than that of "settler". True it is a word that is much in vogue and is...