So, this was the week it was all supposed to come to a head.
The coup against Justin Trudeau. Was this going to be Caesar in the Senate without the blood? Who would play Brutus? Would there be a new leader by week’s end?
Nope. It was just another week of Liberals at times pretending to govern, while also knifing each other. All this while the puffed-up Conservatives laughed from across the aisle as they dream of driving up to the Hill in a cabinet minister’s limo.
So, what did these last few days actually mean? Let’s get a few viewpoints starting with this analysis from the CBC’s Aaron Wherry:
Trudeau and the Liberals are burning time on themselves that they can't afford to waste Read >
Another of the masters of the Ottawa based media house is Susan Delacourt of the Toronto Star.
She’s been watching Liberal leader Trudeau since his first day on the job and her political experience goes back a couple of decades before that. So, her take is one to always consider:
🔒 Opinion: Justin Trudeau has faced his internal critics. Here's what he'll do next. Read >
To the US now.
One word is getting thrown around a lot these days, even though many people don’t really know what it means. The word is fascist.
So, The Buzz is here to clear up any misunderstandings, thanks to former Clinton Labour Secretary Robert Reich and his Substack this week. Reich dug up this quote from former US Vice President (for FDR) Henry Wallace. Here’s what Wallace said in April of 1944, and I think you will find it quite revealing about what was happening then and what some fear is happening now:
“A fascist is one whose lust for money or power is combined with such an intensity of intolerance toward those of other races, parties, classes, religions, cultures, regions, or nations as to make him ruthless in his use of deceit or violence to attain his ends.…
The American fascist would prefer not to use violence. His method is to poison the channels of public information. With a fascist the problem is never how best to present the truth to the public but how best to use the news to deceive the public into giving the fascist and his group more money or more power…
It has been claimed at times that our modern age of technology facilitates dictatorship. What we must understand is that the industries, processes, and inventions created by modern science can be used either to subjugate or liberate. The choice is up to us…
The American fascists are most easily recognized by their deliberate perversion of truth and fact. Their newspapers and propaganda carefully cultivate every fissure of disunity, every crack in the common front against fascism. They use every opportunity to impugn democracy. They use isolationism as a slogan to conceal their own selfish imperialism. They claim to be superpatriots, but they would destroy every liberty guaranteed by the Constitution. They demand free enterprise but are the spokesmen for monopoly and vested interests…
Still another danger is represented by those who, paying lip service to democracy and the common welfare, in their insatiable greed for money and the power which money gives, do not hesitate surreptitiously to evade the laws designed to safeguard the public from monopolistic extortion…
Monopolists who fear competition and who distrust democracy because it stands for equal opportunity would like to secure their position against small and energetic enterprise. In an effort to eliminate the possibility of any rival growing up, some monopolists would sacrifice democracy itself…
Their final objective toward which all their deceit is directed is to capture political power so that, using the power of the state and the power of the market simultaneously, they may keep the common man in eternal subjection.”
Amazing, eh?
What Vice President Henry Wallace knew about American fascism and can tell us about Trump Read >
The countdown continues, just ten days now until Americans mark their ballots.
Ten days until one of two things happens.
The first woman to be elected US President will see Kamala Harris standing before the world; or the twice impeached, thirty-four times indicted, convicted sexual abuser, Donald Trump will dance his way on stage to grab the crown, again.
If Trump wins, his parade of Republican lapdogs will drop to their knees for the man who’s made it pretty clear he wants to be the first great American dictator. But if he loses, watch how fast the knives come out. I predict that the theme will become, “it’s time to move on” and we’ll see it on election night if the outcome is clear.
But we’re not there yet, not by a long shot. So where are we? As we so often do, even though we caution everyone about them, we turn to the polls. But even then, with dozens of polls available, there is no consistency in the results.
With a week and a half to go, here’s one way to look at the pollapalooza out there:
Can we trust the polls on Harris vs Trump — and how do they work? Read >
Sometimes it’s almost hilarious to listen to Trump sycophants try to deflect the criticism levelled at their guy.
And sometimes, well sometimes, maybe it’s not so funny. You might have to think this one through a bit before you draw some conclusions.
The writer is a Republican Senator who is seen as reasonable even though he’s always out front propping up Donald Trump. And he sure does this week in Newsweek with this piece that targets Justin Trudeau:
Opinion: Trudeau — Not Trump — Is the Greatest Threat to NATO Read >
When I spent a few moments a couple of years ago with Charles he was a Prince
It was at Queen’s Park in Toronto, and we exchanged a few words about his experience doing a weather report for the BBC. He was funny and self-deprecating, and we all had a few laughs. Then he was off to smile and banter with the sparse crowd that had come out to see him outside the building.
This was always going to be tough for Charles. No matter how you look at it he’s not his mother and the monarchy he was about to inherit wouldn’t at all be like hers was. And that has been proven the case on the few foreign trips he’s taken since gaining the crown as King. The latest, to Australia this past week, was a significant bump in the royal road.
Sarah Laing wrote this for the Toronto Star about what happened when King Charles went down under.
🔒 Opinion: King Charles went to Australia and all he got were snubs and protests. Read >
If Iceland can become a tourist haven, and it has, why not Greenland?
So goes the thinking by the tour operators in Nuuk, and United Airlines agrees. What is Nuuk you ask? Well, it’s the capital of Greenland and has a population of just over 17,000. It’s the most populous community on what is a huge island that is an autonomous territory in the Kingdom of Denmark. But you knew that already, right? Of course you did, as it’s our neighbour, our closest neighbour after the U.S. (Okay, St. Pierre et Miquelon is pretty close, too).
Anyway, get to the point Peter. Greenland is gorgeous and about to become, says its tiny business community, a tourist option for those looking for something new. The Wall Street Journal seems to like the idea:
🔒Greenland Is Gorgeous and Uncrowded. Now Here Come the Americans. Read >
Now this may be the most important story you read today.
At least for your own health. This is a great tip – just don’t fall over trying it out:
