Well, it keeps on coming

[sabotabby]

 ACAB and all that, but Brad Blair, deputy OPP commissioner, did do a very ethical thing in blowing the whistle on Drug Fraud's appointment of his completely unqualified buddy to the top cop job in the province.

So Ford fired him.

I'd appreciate that these dudes don't even bother hiding the appearance of corruption. They just sneer, "whatcha gonna do about it?" Except that there is very little any of us can do about it, short of measures most citizens are not willing to take.

Meanwhile, the rats continue to leave the sinking ship. I continue to boggle that Trudeau, who must have had the slickest road to power of any leader who was not born into a literal hereditary monarchy, managed to fuck up so spectacularly in such a short time. It's truly incredible.

And I read stories like this one, about a BC teacher who was fired from a publicly funded Christian school for moving in with her boyfriend, and think that it's the future of my profession. If I even still have a job after the budget comes down. I don't think the fear has even properly hit me yet.

They can do anything to us. Anything at all.

Comments

[dewline]

Yeah. This is me shivering over here in Ottawa...

[sabotabby]

Sometimes I think about it and I can’t breathe.

[kore]

It's like Drug Fraud is related to Trumpty or something. WTFFFFFFFF.

continue to boggle that Trudeau, who must have had the slickest road to power of any leader who was not born into a literal hereditary monarchy, managed to fuck up so spectacularly in such a short time

He went from shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in ONE generation? (He's not even in shirtsleeves. He's shirtless.)

[sabotabby]

(He's not even in shirtsleeves. He's shirtless.)

And mindbogglingly, it didn't work to boost his popularity!

[moon_custafer]

Some guys behind on the bus were discussing this – their attitude seemed be that all politics are corrupt as a matter of course, but that they had less respect for politicians who are fool enough to get caught. One guy then said “It’s like Humphrey Bogart said in Casablanca “I don’t care about politics, I just run a bar.*” I’m pretty sure the point of that movie is that Rick eventually gives up his cynicism, shoots Major Strasser and goes off to join the Resistance, so… hope for this guy yet?

*While trying to look up the bit he was remembering I came across Rotten Tomatoes’ quotes page for Casablanca, which, I guess, accepts submitted quotes and doesn’t control for redundancies. The best submission was the one which just lists a bunch of lines in one surreal exchange:

Rick Blaine: Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world she walks into mine.
Ilsa: Play it Sam, let me hear 'As Time Goes By'.
Sam: [to Illsa] You're no good for him, you're bad luck.
Rick Blaine: They grab Ugarte and she walks in. Well, that’s the way it goes, one in one out.
Capt. Louis Renault: Realizing the importance of the case, my men are rounding up twice the usual number of suspects.
Carl Headwaiter: The second largest? That wouldn't impress Rick. The leading banker in Amsterdam is now the pastry chef in our kitchen.

[sabotabby]

As cliché as it may be, still the greatest fucking movie of all time, and for good reason. Because as much as we love Rick the cynic, idealism and resistance in the face of evil win the day. I think it probably forms the basis of both the kind of narratives and characters I bond with in fiction but also my IRL worldview.

[moon_custafer]

I think I mentioned finding a Casablanca fic on AO3 that ships Ilsa and Victor, which is rather refreshing.

[sabotabby]

I ship Ilsa and Victor. And Rick and Louis. And Ilsa and Rick. They can all be poly after the war. But as someone who despises love triangles, this is not a choice between two boys but a choice between two life paths, and she chooses the right one.

This is making me watch it again.

[notasupervillain]

I saw the news about Jane leaving and I thought you'd have Opinions.

It's occurred to me that our Feminist Prime Minister has managed to damage, attempt to damage or to alienate mostly female Cabinet Ministers. I vote they all form a new party, like is happening in the UK with the Jewish MPs + MPs who don't think anti-Semiticsm is cool. I still think Christina should lead it, but if Dew wants Jody, they can have a really fast leadership race.

The whole thing is really scary. You're a cat and I'm convinced you'll land on your feet, one way or another. But there are a lot of rabbits and hedgehogs in the world and they don't fall well, so we need government that doesn't drop them for lulz. And there are children, who need a decent education if they're gonna get by in the world.

[sabotabby]

Christa Freeland as PM scares the everloving shit out of me. As I've put it before, it's not her fault that her granddad was a fascist, but it is her fault that she's comfortable to cozy up to them.

Of course my hope is that the ones I somewhat respect, in particular people like Jody and Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, defect to the NDP and make it viable. But that kind of thing never happens.

I probably have enough savings to get me by if it's four years. If it's longer—well. I've been out of the real job market for awhile. And that's assuming that I don't get sick again.

[notasupervillain]

I knew Christina had fascist family, but I didn't realize she was personally cool with it. There goes that pipe dream.

I don't hold anyone's family's beliefs against them, given that I don't identify as an evangelical Christian, a Lubavitch Jew or a second-wave feminist.

If this job market holds, the unemployment rate is all right and so employers will have to look at transferable skills. My private terror is that some idiot in the UK or USA is gonna cause a global recession, and we'll all be out of work.

I am not good at cheering people up, apparently.

[sabotabby]

I woke up at 4 am with a panic attack around these lines.

Despite a lower unemployment rate than before, almost everyone I know is struggling and hustling to get by. People my age who find themselves out of work are unemployed for years. And I'm terrible at self-promotion.

Given my seniority, until they completely abolish public schools and unions, the more likely scenario is that I end up moving schools twice a year. I've had it really easy, but let's face it, I have myriad health issues and I'm barely holding it together on the lowest difficulty setting.

[notasupervillain]

Tabby, nothing in your life is the lowest difficulty setting.

[sabotabby]

Aww, thanks. But I'm white, I own a house, I have a good social network and one family member that I still talk to, seniority, and a unionized job in walking distance from my house. Sure, I've got chronic pain and my brain and/or spine tries to kill me every so often, but I've had it so much worse in the past and almost everyone I know has far greater challenges than I do.

[notasupervillain]

You're always concerned about people beyond yourself, so you're comparing yourself to the worst-case. But you're a non-straight Jewish woman with mental illness and chronic pain. Like, you don't count as the 1%. Just because some people have it worse doesn't mean you're denied the opportunity to raise a fist to the sky and curse at God.

(Since Charlottesville, I've considered myself white-passing. I used to think I was white, but I guess I was naive.)

[sabotabby]

Same. But I pass in Toronto, for now.

I'd never refuse myself the opportunity to raise a fist to the sky and curse at God; that's the only upside to mortality, when you think about it.

[smhwpf]

like is happening in the UK with the Jewish MPs + MPs who don't think anti-Semiticsm is cool.

That is an extremely tendentious characterisation of the TIG. They are pro-austerity Neoliberal centrists. Most of them are also very pro-Israel, and at least one is very pro-Saudi. One of them, Luciana Berger, was indeed the victim of anti-semitic abuse, which is appalling (though it's not clear how much of this was from Labour Party members; of the 6 people convicted of this, not one of them is a party member, and 4 of them are from the far right).

The vast majority of Labour MPs, including Jeremy Corbyn, do not think Antisemitism is cool. However, there is disagreement as to what constitutes antisemitism, namely that a large proportion of the Labour right regard Anti-Zionism as antisemitism, which would make sabotabby an antisemite, among others.

I also think the whole anti-semitism issue, which has some real roots to it, is being deliberately blown out of all proportions as a way for the right to try to regain control of the party from the left, which they are doing because they can't actually win the argument on policy grounds.

[notasupervillain]

I'm not a journalist, so I'm gonna link to some newspaper articles that sum up how I feel, and why I, as a person of Jewish ancestry who has utter contempt for Israel, will not vote for Labour under Corbyn's leadership again (I have before) without some dramatic changes.

https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2018/07/jeremy-corbyn-and-anti-semitism-there-anything-left-say

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/mar/04/labour-antisemitism-party-left-bigotry

https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/staggers/2018/05/i-was-jewish-labour-councillor-barnet-and-i-warned-jeremy-corbyn-what-was

[smhwpf]

Likewise as a person of Jewish ancestry, I respectfully disagree.

I think Jeremy Corbyn has been too slow to recognise the problem and to respond to antisemitism, but I don't think he's remotely an antisemite, having been fighting fascism, racism, and antisemitism for decades. He probably did need educating on how antisemitism can manifest itself in not immediately obvious ways (like using "Zionist" as a term of abuse, rather than as a specific ideological term). He has been spending quite a lot of time (including a Seder) with Jewdas, a radical (religious) Jewish group in Britain, who in fact did the anti-antisemitism training at the place I work, so hopefully that's helping. But it seems to me that even though Labour is now moving considerably more strongly on antisemitism, Corbyn's opponents will never be satisfied, and every disagreement about minutiae of process are being blown up into proof that Corbyn is a vile raving antisemite.

There is a problem in the Labour party and left wing politics generally, both of a small minority of people who do use antisemitic tropes, but - as one of the articles you linked to suggests - a much larger issue of defensiveness, tribalism, and hostile and abusive treatment of anyone who voices an unpopular opinion. Which is wrong, but not something for which Corbyn or his supporters are particularly to blame, it's a wider problem of the culture of left-wing politics.

[notasupervillain]

Thing is, I want to be convinced. I want to vote Labour. I don't like Corbyn, but that's okay - Labour is my natural home and he's not the worst leader whose party I voted for.

But every time I talk to Labour activists, they respond with telling me that my opinion on him is wrong. He's not an anti-Semite. I don't care. I see anti-Semites being permitted to stay in the party. Was it last week that someone said that the party is too apologic about anti-Semiticsm and Labour members cheered? That MP is still in the party.

I don't give a fuck what's in Corbyn's heart, or what his intentions are. I want to see him act. Act quickly and decisively to renounce anti-Semites and embrace Jews (not Zionists). He can be pure as the driven snow but until he starts making systemic changes to his party, I'm out.

I agree about the left eating its own and outrage culture being a problem - but this is separate from that. The existence of outrage culture doesn't stop some things from being outrageous.

[gingicat]

I’m sorry.

[sabotabby]

It could be worse. At least I have savings. But it's going to be hell on earth for everyone else.

[mistersmearcase]

I don't know when the era of "we're not even going to pretend" started or intensified so much in politics. God knows it's bad here.

[sabotabby]

Part of me really appreciates the SNC-Lavalin scandal because I think that scandal and embarrassment are very healthy things in politics. But the other part of me is terrified because the other guys have no sense of shame.

We've been on a downward trajectory since the 80s. I really think that I'm going to see the death of liberal democracy in my lifetime (I can't remember if I've done my whole rant on it here yet). I have many critiques of liberal democracy but I'd hate to see something worse replace it.