Harper’s latest foray into his proud Canadian vision is the negotiation of the Trans-Pacific Partnership which, although it will affect all Canadians, is being kept secret  until it’s signed and imposed on us. Proponents of the TPP state that it’s customary to engage in secrecy, which means they don’t want people budding into what is by all rights all of our business — Harper clearly agrees with this proposition.

It’s bad enough that Canadian citizens are being purposefully kept from even knowing about these major, global negotiations, but it seems to court treason when it’s revealed that Harper is signing away Canadian constitutional authority and sovereignty to foreign global interests. He is, quite literally, negotiating a handover of Canada’s legal authority, all while excluding Canadians from the entire process.

Does that seem like a bit of a problem to anyone?

Under Stephen Harper, organizations like WikiLeaks are considered terrorist organizations because they regularly reveal the unsavoury actions and intentions of our corrupt “leaders”, like the recent TPP Intellectual Property provisions leak. While the hard-of-thinking are lulled by increasingly stupid rhetoric, Harper and his cadre continue on their way to creating a fully-fledged corporate dictatorship in Canada.

Examplars of “elite” privilege and law-breaking such as Rob Ford are a startling wake-up call to anyone who believed that the rule of law, or even common sense,  would keep such obvious criminality and immorality in check. To the contrary, we see that the organizations tasked to protect the rule of law and Canadians in general, are engaged in protecting a well-connected and well-protected cabal which often acts against Canadians and the interests of Canada.

To those wondering why, unlike any other citizen, Rob Ford hasn’t been arrested after all the shit he’s done, admitted to and even insisted that he be arrested for, there’s a simple answer: it might set a precedent. Politicians would prefer to keep their dealings behind closed doors than have them spill out into public, but when they do they’re left to their own devices. Kind of like brawls in sports. When big money’s involved, the law is often just suspended and doesn’t apply. Rest assured, however, that the law applies to the rest of us 24/7.

That’s it…I’ve had it. I’m calling a spade a spade and the federal Conservatives exactly what they are: criminal scumbags hell bent on destroying any vestige of what it means to be Canadian. For that we all owe Prime Minister Harper and his band of merry assholes a big old FUCK YOU!!

In case you haven’t been following our majority government’s shameful and downright criminal actions, or worse, if you voted for them, please pull your head out of your ass and educate yourself on why they are, and I’m not exagrating, trying to make Canada into something like a Stasi state or like something under Stalin. That goes double for Harper’s little pruned buddy Vic Toews and other Public Safety Ministers who have had an unwavering and constant record of dictatorial, freedom-quashing pronouncements under their belts. Here’s just a smattering:

Lawful Access – The charge for this bill, lead by non other than Toews, seeks to give police access to all your online records without warrant or justification. In other words, and quite literally, if there’s a cop who wants to snoop into what you’re doing, they can do it with absolutely no reason (not even a suspicion of a crime), directly in contravention of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Along with being given unrestricted access to your online activities, Lawful Access also allows police to install snooping devices on Internet Service Provider’s hardware so they can listen in on all your online conversations, completely against the highest law of the land, and against your very fundamental Canadian Rights. The Conservatives have shot down any debate on the subject, refused repeatedly to try to explain their asinine “but it’s for child porn” explanations in person which have been proven to not only be an outright lie, but have literally not a single police case to back up the claims. To add insult to injury, fuckwad Toews used a recent child porn ring bust involving hundreds of arrests as an example of how police aren’t able to do their jobs properly, and if you argue with that, you must be a pedophile too. Shit you not.

Torture – Canada used to be a place where you could come and be free of arbitrary government arrest, torture, and intimidation. Harper’s “Canadian values”, apparently, are contrary to this. Vic Toews recently popped his ugly head up and announced that the government is reversing its position on torture, ignoring even just the simple fact that it’s proven to not be effective in exacting accurate information, saying that not only is torture a-okay, we can even do it in Canada (but only against terrorists like environmental groups, so it’s okay). Of course, this once again goes against the Charter of Rights and Freedom, demonstrating that the Tories’ real targets aren’t pedophiles, terrorists, or online scammers — it’s you and your rights.

Mandatory sentences – The Conservative so-called Tackling Violent Crime which created mandatory sentences for a variety of crimes was, in a recent show of sanity, slapped down by a Toronto judge as “abhorrent” and completely unconstitutional in a case involving some guy goofing off in front of a webcam with a gun. He would’ve gotten three years in jail for that under Harper’s rule if the judge didn’t abide by the Constitution and Charter of Rights like she’s supposed to. Yet repeatedly and brazenly going against the highest law of Canada, apparently, doesn’t make the conservative government criminals for some reason. Only you and I are subject, it seems.

Unreported crime / super prisons – This was a project started in the days of Peter van Loan and Stockwell Day, Toews’ predecessors, showing how this is a long term plan by the Conservative government to destroy Canadians’ freedoms, once again without so much as a thread of real-world evidence to back up their claims. This particular gem centered around the government’s incessant push to build massive new prisons in order to prepare for all the “unreported” crime that’s happening out there. Mainstream presstitutes have tried to placate the public by pointing to the General Social Survey as being the likely source of this asinine argument, but failed entirely to ask why people didn’t report crimes; like, maybe, they didn’t think they were important enough. The Feds disagree and want you in prison, even if the “victim” doesn’t. It’s interesting to point out that the General Social Survey also includes many quality of life questions (how your life could be better), most of which go completely ignored by the federal government. No, they’re not in the business of making life better for citizens, they’re in the business of propping up mega-corporations against all opposition, all the while ensuring common, mostly law-abiding and generally innocuous citizens like you and me are made into abject criminals under their draconian laws. Let’s not forget the bullshit of the G20 (protesting in a designated protest zone? How dare they?!), which was operated under Harper’s auspices, which to this day is actively preventing and perverting the course of justice (but at least no one really innocent was affected, so it’s okay).

Human rights — Under the Conservative government, the concept of Human Rights is more or less a joke (see above), and the office of the federal Human Rights Tribunal which is bleeding staff like a stuck pig because of harassment and derision, the very ideals they’re supposed to be defending, is the very personification of the Conservative’s attitudes on the subject. And that is, fuck you, you have no rights, now cough up all your cash so we can toss your ass in jail for whatever damn reason we like.

ACTA — While the internet and public at large have expressed their seething disgust with acts like the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), Protect IP Act (PIPA), or Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), even managing to get the US federal government to back down, our own government signed up to ACTA months ago with glee and without discussion. In the United States, ACTA (created by the private, for-profit movie and record industries), was snuck in under the noses of the American people by making it top secret so that they wouldn’t be allowed to know what laws are being imposed on them. Sure sounds like it’s in the best interest of citizens, doesn’t it?

Anti-democracy — This is something that Toronto’s Rob Ford is learning all too well: you’re not the fucking king and you don’t get to just make pronouncements and have them carried out. Someone needs to step up and slap Harper upside the head and say the same thing. In fact, someone should place him under citizens arrest and have some charges placed against him (conspiring to deprive anyone of their constitutional rights is a direct crime!) Yet the federal government continues on their merry way, telling everyone there will be no discussion on anything, and fuck you, Stephen Harper has proclaimed it so. Say what you will about democracies, but there is absolutely no doubt that the Harper government is standing directly in opposition to their very concept.

And that, without doubt, makes Conservatives and their ilk supporters, directly and publicly, of dictatorship, tyranny, and oppression. This is the very same historical narrative that Hitler used to put Germany under his thumb, and the echoes of Mao and Stalin aren’t far behind. It’s not about left or right politics, it’s about simple Canadian freedoms which we all though we had inalienably enshrined in our Constitution and Charter of Rights, and which Harper is directly attacking over and over again, and with no basis in evidence, fact, law, or even common sense.

Note that on top of being just a few example of the outrageous, egregious, illegal, dictatorial, oppressive, and audacious bullshit that the Conservatives are pushing out these days, millions have been wasted to write these things up, pass them through the proper channels, and have them enacted. Not only are your rights being stripped away wholesale, you’re paying for it!

If you’re a staunch Conservative and still manage to support your scumbag government after reading some of these tidbits, I invite you to pick up a history book on something like the Nazis to see how people who support regimes like the Harper government end up. You can’t even say “but I was just following orders” at the end of it because you’re zealously behind it, and in that case, you’re no friend of mine.

Even if you’re ambivalent about all of this (meaning you don’t think it’ll affect you), ask yourself exactly how the Conservative government has made your life better. Are your taxes lower? Are you finding it easier to find a job? Is it easier to start or run a new business? Is your old age security safe?All of the programs and rhetoric being pushed by the feds are only helping to destroy all of these assistance programs.  I mean, it’s all happening so saying that the Conservatives are not directly responsible for this (with a majority and many years in power), is a very nasty type of self-delusion. No, they’re not helping you, they’re not even leaving you alone, they are directly and purposefully making your life more difficult and miserable even if you completely ignore everything else. Or maybe you’re of the belief that your children’s lives should be worse than yours?

And if any of this disturbs you, please spread the word and let’s start to put the screws on this government. They keep passing increasingly illegal laws but because they have a majority, they don’t give a shit. But as we all know, ignorance of the law is no excuse, and being out and out criminal assholes even less.

Even if you don’t smoke pot yourself, chances are pretty good that you know someone who does. As a result, you’ll probably also have experienced what marijuana does to people, and you’ve probably noticed that it lacks the nasty side-effects of other, legal medications.

It’s interesting to note, in fact, that it’s been primarily governments and scientists who have been spreading many of the lies and misinformation about the topic, with police eager to support these well known perjuries in order to bump up their drug enforcement budgets.

It’s not surprising to learn that the “authorities” openly lie and deceive the public like this, so I can’t help but wonder what changed behind the scenes that so many politicians are now coming forward and admitting to the occasional puff or two.

It started with Justin Trudeau and Kathleen Wynne, both of who gave the standard “I tried it a long time ago and didn’t like it” response. Rob Ford, stunningly and especially considering the whole crack thing, went way beyond this and admitted to blazing “a lot”.

In the meantime, tea-totaling Stephen Harper openly lied to millions of Canadians by claiming that, because Trudeau admitted to smoking pot, he was promoting it to children. Of course, this is not even close to the truth. Harper has embraced misleading the public in pretty much the same way that his cadre of underlings have done … even down to the same bullshit invocation of children.

Harper claimed that Justin’s “actions speak for themselves”. True. Harper’s actions also speak for themselves, and they describe a horrific, lying, slandering, murdering sociopath who should be behind bars. The man is a criminal and he proves it a little more every time he opens his mouth.

The law defines treason thusly:

…[a]…citizen’s actions to help a foreign governmentoverthrow, make waragainst, or seriously injure the [parent nation].

Under Canada’s definition, this only extends to helping out a country with which Canada is at war with … like Afghanistan (a recent example demonstrates that this does not have to be the case) . That alone is enough to prove that Stephen Harper is a traitor to Canada and must be arrested for treason immediately.

If that definition isn’t enough for you, though, how about selling out Canada to foreign ownership, completely disregarding every Canadian safeguard against doing business with oppressive foreign regimes? (All clearly documented in case you had a doubt)

Maybe the fact that Harper is doing double duty and actively destroying the Canadian economy and pushing skilled workers in every industry into poverty and out onto the streets, while handing over our country to foreign interests, is enough to convince you?

Maybe it bothers you that the illegitimate Harper government constantly and openly lies about what’s happening and covers up,  muzzles, and would gleefully have arrested  anyone and anything that questions him or his corporate owners (clearly predominantly foreign)?

How about the fact that, while simultaneously opening the doors to offensive governments that shit all over human rights, Harper is doing his hardest to strip away any social programs and assistance that Canadians have to ensure that we are beholden to our foreign new masters?

The whole kit and kaboodle is called insourcing, and all the cool kids are doing it these days.

And if it sounds like a form of foreign economic invasion, well, if it croaks like a frog…

After almost a decade in power, all of the “but it’s for Canada!” lines are just so much open deception. Of course he isn’t doing it for Canada! Harper doesn’t give a shit about you, me, or this rotten country he wants to hand over to the highest bidder as soon as possible.

And under “austerity“, all of our money is handed over whether we agree with it or not.

If all of this – the working to directly destroy Canada and hand it over to other countries – isn’t treason, I don’t know what is.

Stephen Harper, and most of his treasonous cabinet, must be arrested and tried right now. His actions are anti-Canadian and transparent.

Not long ago I was accused of being brainwashed because I follow politics. I tried to get more information about my alleged brainwashing from my interlocutor and was bluntly told that I never used to follow politics, so why now?

This person also reads (or at least used to read), TCL, so really would’ve been fairly familiar with how long I’d been following politics; and when I look back through my old posts I realize it’s been for a lot longer than I’d been “brainwashed” for. In fact, the only real thing that’s changed is that I’ve become critical, begun to dig a lot deeper, and think about things a lot more thoroughly.

In other words, I’m “brainwashed” because I now think and express myself a lot more freely.

Uh-huh.

I have regular discussions about politics with this person and am often confronted with their obstinate support of the Harper government. This, at least in part, is one of the reasons I’ve been so vocal (if the word can be applied to writing), about my criticisms of the numerous ways that he and his gang are trying to destroy freedom in Canada.

By “freedom” I’m not alluding to some vague notions of self-expression (though that is certainly true), I’m talking about simple physical freedoms like being able to walk down the street without fear of arbitrary arrest, or being free to express simple opinions and truths without having the government crack down on you, harass you, or spy on you secretly.

This same person, the one who accused me of being brainwashed, came from a repressive communist country where such things were a regular thing, so I assumed that this kind of thing wouldn’t sit well with them. Yet when faced with stark evidence like Bill C-38 or Bill C-11, and expecting at least a modicum of thought, some skepticism, maybe a willingness to dig a bit deeper, even if just to prove me wrong, I instead got derision.

The best retort they can muster is to call me dumb (and brainwashed), and to demand to know why such things concern me.

The real question is, why don’t they concern you?! (And I’m brainwashed)

It’s not tough to imagine, then, with people willing to live with their eyes and ears covered like this, that Harper continues on his merry way to making Canada a massive repressive regime within which citizens are expected to cower in fear and dare not speak ill of the government lest they be “disappeared” into some dark dungeon, indefinitely, with no trial, judge, or jury. The same citizens are actually fully supporting such moves, and they sure don’t want to hear how such things could possibly be bad (even if they’ve lived through such terrors themselves). Heck, why would you even need evidence at that point?

If you’re still paying attention, though, there is still some hope.

To start off with, it’s interesting to compare Harper’s latest bit of despotic maneuvering, Bill S-7, with America’s NDAA.

In the US, the NDAA (innocuously disguised as a recurring military funding bill), includes a variety of passages that allow for the indefinite detention of American citizens (in fact, anyone at all), without trial, in military Gulags not unlike Guantanamo Bay. With Bill C-38, Harper has allowed the US to legally waltz across the border with complete impunity and “remove” people at any time they wish.

Not to be outdone, of course, the Harper government is introducing Bill S-7, the “Combating Terrorism Act” (the catch-all term for everything and anything designed to separate you from your rights and freedoms these days), which has many of the same features as the NDAA. Here are some highlights to expect should this thing make it through:

• People may be put under “preventive arrest” for up to three days.
• The “preventive arrest” may be due to an alleged association with a “terrorist” (which may include everything from environmentalists to anyone critical of the government), alleged knowledge of a “terrorist” or their dealings, or — my favourite — being suspected of future involvement with terrorists.
• As with all good Kafkaesque schemes, those arrested are not allowed to know the details of their arrest or know any of the evidence against them.
• Those arrested must stand before an “investigative hearing”.
• A judge can jail those arrested for up to year if they don’t enter into recognizance, which is a fancy term for a conditional release — you have to appear regularly before a court, may have to wear a tracking device, etc.
• Such arrests can occur without any charges being laid. In other words, they don’t really even need a good reason, just that something didn’t seem right about the person.
• Any evidence that is used against the arrested person (which, of course, they are not allowed to know anything about), can be obtained from foreign sources or through torture.
• These changes would become part of the Criminal Code of Canada — everyone would be subject to them.

It’s interesting to see how the October 23rd vote on this bill went down: unanimously voted in by both Conservatives and Liberals. I’m sure I’ve stated my belief more than once that they’re now essentially one and the same apparatus (McGuinty’s latest escapades also illustrate this quite well). Literally anyone outside of these two parties voted against it.

It’s also worthwhile to read the discussion at the second reading of the bill, even just to get a sense of the basically blasé, done-deal rhetoric that proponents could muster (when they could be bothered to speak on such trivial matters at all) — oh, and don’t forget 9/11!

To me it seems self-evident that anyone and everyone should be at least slightly concerned about such laws and, moreover, the types of government that would be continuously bringing them forward. The only way to avoid concern is to be completely oblivious to everything when presented with it, to deny reality when it’s staring you in the face, and to sing the praises of our glorious leader even as he’s setting up mega-prisons and the means to fill them with anyone who doesn’t toe the line.

But I guess I’m just brainwashed.

It’s either that or this is yet another excuse to cut and slash and force people into abject poverty while handing over billions to banker buddies and wealthy mega-corporations. Either way, it’s a future of indentured servitude and some pretty bad times under the name of “austerity”.

I mean, how many more times are we going to hear the same bullshit coming out of the government about how they need to cut services and “tighten belts” (exactly like their municipal lick-boots like the Ford stooges), but that eventually we’ll make it out of our financial morass, only to discover that, OH NO! THINGS ARE NOW WAY WORSE THAN EVER! Oh, but this time around, we’ll for sure balance books by the next election (and just to make sure, we’ll fraudulently steal more time at the helm).

There are still idiots out there who believe that what’s happening in Greece (and, at this point, the rest of Europe and pretty much everywhere else), is the result of laziness, or unionization, or other complete and utter nonsense, but it’s getting hard to find people who keep buying the same crap over and over again in the face of blatant lies, theft, open criminality, and every other type of scumbaggery imaginable.

The only explanation for still believing anything that Harper and his criminal buddies dole out is to simply and boldly ignore reality and the regular headlines of massive bank corruption, or to not be able to see the painfully obvious when it’s publicly announced that those same banks are now running much of Europe (and directly responsible for the rape and pillage of the nations under their control). How stupid do you have to be?

Is it any wonder that Harper is so ardently trying to keep anyone from looking into how he manages your tax money? And you can be sure that the money, or savings, or whatever you want to call it, isn’t going to help you.

Take, for example, the “controversial” Multiple Sclerosis Liberation Therapy that the Harper government just killed. In case you’re not familiar with it, it’s a fairly simple, painless day surgery that many MS patients have found helps them to lead much better lives.

It’s fairly risk-free if done by a trained professional; it involves widening a vein in the neck with a tiny balloon (via a vein in the leg and using only local anesthetic), not unlike a riskier procedure regularly done in high-blood-pressure arteries for heart attack patients (done every single day here in Canada). The most expensive and time-consuming part of Liberation is actually the MRI that’s done to assess the patient.

All the doubters out there (many of whom have a direct interest in keeping MS patients at the status quo), have put out a great campaign to convince everyone that the procedure is incredibly risky, not bothering to mention that the risk comes from the people and places where the procedure is currently being done — the kinds of places they maintain you need various inoculations just to visit. And, statistically, you’re much more likely to have “complications” from government-approved medicine like yearly flu vaccinations.

These are the same people who advise patients that things like diet, proper rest, exercise, and lifestyle really don’t matter and that treatments like chemotherapy should be first and foremost (shit you not!) I’m speaking from personal experiences with one of Toronto’s top MS doctors here, straight from his mouth to my shocked ears.

Just because you may not know anyone with MS, however, doesn’t mean that Harper’s deceit won’t affect you. Consider that what his government rejected was simply a study to see if the Liberation Procedure even works; not to implement it, train people on it, etc.

Consider also that a typical Liberation treatment has to be done maybe once every couple of years or so (sometimes not even that), at a cost of about $10,000, while current drug treatments like Copaxone or newer ones like Tysabri (which are still not well understood or studied!), can cost upwards of $100,000 per year — and that doesn’t take into consideration the cost of medical professionals like nurses to administer the IV drugs (plus facilities for them), additional testing like regular blood work, or extra complications like PML, possible birth defects, etc.

The costs, any way you want to tally them, are way too high to be justified.

You know, maybe Liberation isn’t a good answer, but you’d think that being cheaper, easier, much less dangerous, and seemingly quite helpful, it would be worth a look. But no, Harper is working hard to make sure that you’re as dependent as possible for less effective, more expensive, and more dangerous treatments, whenever and wherever possible.

And you’re paying for it! Yup, your tax money is being used for back-asswards, experimental, extremely expensive, and in many cases quite dangerous treatments that do not have any additional benefits for MS patients except to keep their conditions from worsening. I suspect that most people would agree that this makes sense as a last resort, not as a first and only one.

And that’s just what I happen to know because of Sarah and mine’s experience with the medical community and the government. If the amount of willful, known, clear and apparent waste, squandering, and criminal behaviour were ever exposed, I full expect our society would easily revert back to the days of the French revolution. I, for one, would not mind a few heads rolling — I’ll take figuratively, so long as commensurate jail terms are included.

There are still people out there who believe, despite all evidence to the contrary, that Stephen Harper and his greasy conservative cronies like Rob Ford are good for the economy — that they solve the economic messes left behind by their predecessors and, through tough budget cuts and austerity, will reverse the course of those freewheeling pinkos that left the holes under which we struggle.

Except it’s not true.

It’s not even close to true.

In fact, it’s the exact opposite of the truth — Harper and Ford directly caused the budgetary deficits they calculate today, either through deception or through massive amounts of irresponsible spending. Everything they accuse their opponents of doing is precisely what they themselves are doing. And they’re two-faced, deceptive assholes about it to boot.

In the case of Ford, his term started with a hefty $350 million surplus left over by David Miller. Oh, you didn’t know? Well, you wouldn’t if you bought into Ford’s lies and didn’t bother to read any news at the time. A year after taking office, Ford was running a $774 million deficit and blaming it on his predecessor. Ford’s administration has managed to cut the losses he created to yet another surplus totaling $90 million, and it’s expected to be about the same as that left by Miller when he left by the end of this year.

In other words, Ford’s “deficit” was a complete and utter lie he used to justify his ravenous cuts to city infrastructure and his attacks on unions and public services.

With the case of Harper, the situation is a bit worse. In the Prime Minister’s case, what started as a $12 billion surplus left over by a stingy Paul Martin has now been deflated to a $33.4 billion deficit last year. At present, that deficit is running at $23.5 billion and is expected to grow before year’s end. But just like Ford, Harper is using the crisis he created to cut jobs, services, and any semblance of what makes Canada great.

Let’s be clear about what’s happening here: both Ford and Harper directly, willfully, and purposefully created economic crises in order to push through their destructive agendas on the Canadian population; everything from social programs to old age benefits to employment.

These so-called “leaders” are straight up criminal scammers who won’t rest until they’ve subjugated the populace to the whims of their corporate masters (no doubt they, like banker crony Tony Blair, will benefit from their collusion).

The mega-banks that, through fractional reserve banking, create money out of thin air (this is no exaggeration), to lend out to governments who play ball, which in turn tax citizens and subject them to austerity in order to pay back these made up loans. Did you know that that same money could’ve been borrowed from the Bank of Canada at 0% interest? Seems sensible, then, to borrow that cash from banks at a much higher rate of interest while giving them the legal authority to lend out money they don’t even have (how else do you lend out $1000 when you only have $50?).

Doesn’t it?

Yet this is precisely the program that both Harper and Ford subscribe to, at one level or another.

See, if you and I started lending out money we didn’t have and then expected to be paid back — with interest — we would be jailed for fraud. When the Prime Minister and his buddies do it, it’s represented by their scumbag compatriots as just the best thing for Canada since sliced bread. Oh, and by the way, the taxpayer will be responsible for all debts by the Canadian government. And if you don’t like you debt bondage, it’s off to jail for you!

What a sick sick joke.

What’s to be done?

I truly believe that if change must be made, it must be extra-systemic. While I like to believe that the system is not irredeemable, much like the other “isms” that bowed to Capitalism, I’m sure that with this entire system as well as the underlying misnomer of democracy, neither of which are either the US (a Constitutional Republic), or Canada (a Constitutional Monarchy), we are finally seeing the flaws in its utopian vision. Just like the other isms, our system is susceptible to infiltration by corruption, and I truly believe we have reached the saturation point.

Again, not sure if Wikipedia is the best source for this but if one looks at the various analyses of the Fall of Rome, we find some startling parallels:

• Loss of civic virtue  — A contentious idea but one that with a lot of modern weight.
• Decline of military might due to influx of mercenaries — A concept that’s not so outrageous.
• Rome was declining from day one — Those watching can probably point to a similar pattern both yesterday and today (with similar results).
• Unsound economic policies — That seems to be self-evident.
• Depletion of local resources — Also another self-evident point.
• Endless wars — Getting there.
• Disease — There are stark correlations between poverty and increasing disease. And there’s plenty of poverty. I’m sure you can do the math.
• Environmental degradation — Many people are convinced that we’re well into this one.
• Lead poisoning — There’s some debate about how much lead pipes contributed to the problem, but few people since the ancient Romans believed that ingesting lead was a good idea.
• Barbarian invasions — We have seen some incursions that would fall into this category. In a similar way, the modern-day “Barbarians” are being made synonymous with evil (I’m pretty sure the Barbarians didn’t see themselves that way).

Did I miss anything? Probably, but this seems sufficient to make my point. And this oft-heard refrain is not uncommon, so it’s not as if I’m alone in this, but the usual adjunct is “yeah, but what can we do?”

Well, for starters, let’s cross violence off the list right away. In fact, let’s also take out extortion, intimidation, threats, abduction, imprisonment, corporal punishment, fraud, destruction, theft, covert manipulation, deception, fear, and hypocrisy. These are the tools of government & friends, and the only logical conclusion must be to reject them wholly (especially with that hypocrisy bit).

Violence used in self-defense is probably the only time I would relent, and then only when applied in quid pro quo fashion. This is not in any way illegal under any current laws, though all levels of the regime have adopted the stance that if it’s defense against them, that’s a crime. And so, defending yourself against open aggression by the state is a de facto crime (they certainly aren’t going to be held responsible!)

Not sure if slapping my tormentors upside the head would qualify under these categories, but at least it’s safe to say that it probably wouldn’t change anything. In fact, maybe that’s how they got that way in the first place. It’d feel good though…

Voting is a bad joke and, in fact, some people argue that participating in it is itself a sort of crime. The argument: by choosing the winning candidate, you are forcing others who did not vote in the same way to support your socio-economic-political views via the unchecked extortion of the state. By voting for a non-winner, you are implicitly condoning this extortion (though this is never explicitly true). And even winning candidates often embark on courses of action that are not part of their stated agenda, thereby directly violating their contract with their supporters.

And how are elections kept “fair”? Oh yeah, the government maintains an exclusive monopoly in dictating the results to you (the same government openly committing fraud to maintain their power). If elections are merely the switching up of one figurehead for another, which appears to be the very case (frauds come from one supposed side as easily as the other, etc.), then it’s reasonable to conclude that sticking your little piece of paper into a flimsy and easily tampered-with cardboard box is a waste of time (even if just to mark the ballot in protest).

Further, this idea can be extended to representative voting systems where leaders like Harper and Obama are, in fact, voted in by a vast minority of voters, if at all. Instead, candidates are party-elected leaders, and these leaders are then the titular heads of government. How many people actually, directly voted for Harper and Obama? Were they even actually on the ballot somewhere? (I think they have their own ridings so probably yes, but still…)

So voted in by a majority they were not. Not in any real sense. Rob Ford’s “majority” was 47% of voters (25% of Toronto). Harper achieved a complete, unchallengeable “majority” of 40%. Obama won by a very slim 51%, but was actually chosen by the Electoral College and not directly by voters, similar to Harper. Really, only Rob was actually directly voted in, but reliably by only 25% of Toronto’s citizens.

And much like Rob Ford, the obvious crimes perpetrated by the excluded class go unpunished because of the systemic collusion I keep pointing out. So politics is also not really a solution — it’s a big part of the problem. As are the courts, cops, and many of the people mindlessly (or otherwise) pushing oppression on the masses. Not all, of course, but it seems that these days there are far too many.

So I have to conclude that working within the system is a losing proposition. Not that I want to dissuade anyone from trying to implement positive systemic changes, I just don’t see much chance for success.

Even under optimistic conditions, the system will barely satisfy the needs of any single group as it seeks to balance conflicting interests. Those interests needn’t be in conflict if they were relegated to individual communities, so it’s accurate to say that government is the source of conflict and inequality. And that’s if you don’t ascribe any nefarious aspects to it.

So what is to be done?

I think the answer can be summed up in one word: individualism

Now let’s be very clear about this because there have been many infamous cases of “individualists”  or “sovereign citizens” in the news — widely discussed and regurgitated to remind you of what happens when individuals take matters into their own hands. And I admit, some bad stuff can happen. But compared to the rare lone gunman (one out of how many tens or hundreds of millions?), the government is far more destructive and murderous, so individualism wins by sheer virtue of the numbers.

Simply put, I don’t buy the government-created line of thinking that has us all turning into murderous, criminal brutes the moment that government stops intervening. I just don’t see it. In fact, I see the state as being the primary instigator of violence in most cases (no wonder that we have no domestic police murder statistics).

Whatever individuals decide on, however, is ultimately their choice. I can even understand the feeling that violence may be the only choice. But just because a bunch of be-suited liars decree that it’s now okay to kill and torture in order to support their corrupt junta doesn’t make it any less murder and torture, whether your name is Stephen Harper, Barack Obama, or Elliot Rogers.

Note that individualism doesn’t mean no government, it means voluntary government. It doesn’t mean no police, it means a direct voluntary contract between an individual and the police. Anarchy, despite the incessant attempts to pollute its original meaning, doesn’t mean chaos, it means individual choice, freedom, and responsibility. Community and individualism need not be mutually exclusive.

Individualism begins right where you are now — with you. It begins with a solemn oath to yourself that you will no longer willingly support the corrupt, murderous regime of the state. Doing so with a clear conscience requires an extended oath rejecting violence, extortion, intimidation, etc. In my view, any action taken on such a basis, with due consideration for the rights of your fellow man, is justified and right. The corrupt courts, bleating politicians, and thuggish police can stuff their disgusting laws and declarations back to the last days of Rome where they below — I know I’m not hurting anyone or doing anything wrong!

Individualism requires you to be brave in the face of the machine. It requires you to know that you are not a criminal, no matter what the system’s laws demand. It requires you to know that you don’t willingly harm or defraud your fellow man because you respect their sovereignty in the same way that you expect yours to be (but are also subject to repercussions when that sovereignty is violated). It requires you to know, above all else, that the corrupt state does not grant you these freedoms — you are born with them and anyone who tries to take them away from you without your consent are criminals. By extension, the fact that the Canadian government ensnared without consent the population of Canada (Did you ever consent to be taxed? Were you assigned your SIN before your age of majority? etc.), absolutely makes them criminals — one and all. Those involved in the periphery are accessories, just as with any standard crime. If that doesn’t sit well, there’s also the War Crimes angle, the massive defrauding angle, etc.

I know for a fact that TCL, and perhaps other outlets, are being monitored. Most likely by government organizations working together with private “reputation management” firms.

That’s okay — it’s a public blog! So why is it so wrong for the government to scour these pages when, really, anyone can openly do so? Because:

1. I know they’re not doing it for good or beneficial reasons (i.e. the only possible purpose to collect this is to use it against me or someone else).
2. They’re using my (and your) tax money to do so, and they’re doing it without our consent.

That’s why government surveillance of public sites is equally as despicable — we all know full well they are not doing it to benefit us (and are lying to us about it). Plus, there’s all the illegal stuff they’re doing for our “benefit” too.

I’m particularly conscious of the technological aspects of this because I’m a longtime developer, now software architect (a title I recently acquired), something that I like to believe stems from reasonable competence and experience (20-ish years, give or take). I also run a meager Google Plus group tracking the implications of technology as progressing or regressing individual freedoms. I don’t comment much, just post links and let the context tell the story — and that story is usually bleak and dark. All that stuff I rant about, like the fact that we’re heading for an Orwellian nightmare, that’s based on years of deeper-than-average research in a field in which I specialize. If my qualifications don’t match up to your liking, there are plenty of voices out there in an ever growing chorus saying the same things; you don’t need to believe just me.

But I do hope that you believe me because in among the darkness of systemic oppression I can see slivers of blinding light. The walls are showing cracks, the armour exhibits chinks, and through these cavities I can see a way through. I’m sure that it’s not the only way (getting bogged down by a dogged ideology is not productive), but there is something  — some things, actually — that can be done.

If you’re religiously inclined, this is probably the part where God steps in. If you’re all scientific-like, ditto.

Shall I explain?

It’s not surprising that Kathryn Jones, the alleged winner of a recent $50 million lottery prize, wouldn’t be pressing for an investigation into her highly “unusual” winnings. I wouldn’t either, but given the circumstances, I also wouldn’t be surprised.

If you’re familiar with the story, you’ll recall that the Ontario Lottery Gaming corporation, instead of rolling an unclaimed $50 million from 2012 into future prizes, decided to track down and declare the winner, a woman who had no idea she’d won. In fact, she had no ticket and no tangible evidence that she had bought the ticket — one of two that the OLG had reminded Ontarians was about to expire. According to the OLG’s own rules, here’s what should’ve happened:

MANDATORY: To claim a prize of $1,000 or more, you must complete a Lottery Prize Claim Declaration Form. This applies to both single and group play wins.

…

OLG requires that you write or print your name on your lottery ticket before a retailer can check it. This is for your own protection. Signing the ticket is an easy way to identify it as yours. And that makes it difficult for someone else to claim your prize if your ticket is a winner. It also helps protect you if you were ever to lose it. Retailers cannot validate tickets that are not signed.

To claim a larger prize, the OLG demands that you put your name on a ticket before handing it over to a retailer for verification, which makes sense. However, in the case of this bizarre $50 million win, not only was a signature not needed, the ticket itself wasn’t even required, neither was a claim or even the knowledge of prize winner herself.

To counter this, the OLG has claimed that it was able to go through video security footage, credit card details, and other information to prove that Kathryn had indeed won the ticket, after which they contacted her to let her know she’d won. While I don’t doubt that these were solid identifiers, the rest of the details are beyond disconcerting.

First of all, it’s incredibly suspicious that the OLG would decide of their own volition to arbitrarily choose solely this one woman to track down while leaving literally all other lottery winners to their own devices. Keep in mind that Kathryn’s $50 million prize was one of two unclaimed ones for the same period, and nothing was done about the other prize. Any claim that this was done in the name of fairness is verifiable nonsense.

Second, and perhaps worse, is the fact that the OLG — again without any prior prodding — decided to seize security camera footage and credit / debit card records from the lottery retailer under the false pretense (see above) that they were trying to maintain fairness in the gaming system.

Gathering video security footage from gaming locations is iffy enough — most are corner stores where many people don’t even approach the lottery kiosk let alone play — but the Ontario Lottery and Gaming corporation should have absolutely NO access to citizen’s private data — unless of course that citizen approaches them claiming to have won something. Yet in this case, without a warrant, court order, judicial oversight, etc., the OLG has managed to gather the personal data of unknown numbers’ of customers, security footage of private premises, etc.

While the organization takes up to a decade to use the very same technology to investigate issues of fraud and have never awarded a prize like this (even while many are concurrently unclaimed), we are led to believe that this breach of Canadians’ privacy is fantastic news because one of us might just have won (doesn’t matter if you don’t pay the fool’s tax). You may remember that similar arguments were made by Vic Toews, then Harper’s “Public Safety Minister”, spy-state architect, and top apologist; according to Vic, the government needs to spy on everyone at all times in order to protect the children (and if you don’t agree, it’s obviously because you side with the pedophiles).

There’s a section on the OLG’s site where they describe when, where, how, and what types of personal data they gather:

We may collect personal information from you in person, over the telephone, by mail, fax or through the internet.

In general, we collect customer personal information to provide service, to promote our products and services and to operate a responsible gaming business in accordance with legal requirements.

We regularly inform you of the specific principal purpose or purposes for which we collect personal information at the time of collection. We often collect personal information:

• To identify you
• To deliver service and improve how we communicate with you
• To administer program and product benefits
• To promote our products and services
• To engage in market research
• To maintain lottery security
• To comply with legal requirements
• To promote responsible gaming
• To receive and respond to inquiries

Examples of the common types of personal information we ask customers to provide are as follows:

• Name
• Address
• Telephone Number
• Date of Birth
• Gender
• E-mail address
• Language preference,
• Transactional data,
• Credit card information
• Video images and photographs
• Signatures
• Customer inquiries Information

Note that nowhere does it state: “we may preemptorily and without your knowledge or consent gather personally identifying information such as your credit or debit card purchases, as well as private video surveillance footage, among other pieces of information, to identify you and track you down (at our random discretion) should you happen to have forgotten you won. We may also gather this information incidentally should we believe you may be associated with a winning, or if you just happen to be in the area of a lottery retailer.”

There’s nothing implied or stated that the OLG can and will do this whenever you play a lottery game, and yet they’re now doing it to both players and bystanders alike. I’m entirely certain that, despite claiming that it’s their policy, all of the other people that entered the same lottery retailer as Kathryn Jones have not been contacted by the OLG in order to be informed that their personal data has been seized for analysis.

Even the cops, at least under current laws (which Stephen Harper is constantly itching to change), must inform the targets of their wiretaps after 90 days that they’re being spied on. But supporters — no doubt the same voraciously ignorant clique that continues to believe that repeat public liar, druggie, criminal, and all-around asshole Rob Ford is a bastion of honesty and virtue — won’t be satisfied until we’re all toiling under absolute subjugation (which is, of course, the height of evil unless it’s being imposed on us by their beloved leader). And all of it, from those exemplifying the very worst in humanity to those who demand that we all bow down to such depravity, all do so under the twisted, deranged, ignorant, sociopathic banner of vast corporate profits and unchecked greed (or as Rob Ford so fondly and lovingly put it, “I don’t care if you’re 2 years old, 20 years old or 200 years old, you’re not going to live for free.”)

In other words, it’s just fine for the OLG to operate like this (and we definitely needn’t be in any way critical), because history has clearly shown that deception and corruption, especially when there are tens of millions of dollars at stake, are never a problem — you and I are the real criminals for having the audacity to claim that we’re human beings with rights to privacy and fairness and believing that we’re entitled to live off the avails of our labours.

The sieve that is Rob Ford’s administration continues to leak the vital fluids of the municipal body of City Hall consisting of staff and fellow councillors. Yes, the analogy is as lousy as Ford’s retention rate.

I’ve lost count as to how many people have decided to stand up against Ford’s petty tyranny, but this time around it’s councillor Paul Ainslie jumping ship from Ford’s executive committee, saying that the blubbery one bullied him and other councillors into making ass-backwards, idiotic decisions based on fantasy, bluster, and lies (a.k.a. Ford “logic”).

The back-breaking final straw came with Ford’s bull-headed insistence on subways for Scarborough, now enacted and thereby sealing the fate of that whole part of the city for decades.

“I think it’s irresponsible of me to go to taxpayers and say ‘here’s a basically free LRT being given to you’ or ‘you can spend a billion plus dollars on a subway that’s going to take 10 or 20 years to build,’” he said. “I don’t think there’s enough planning from the mayor’s office on how to ease gridlock in this city, or public transportation, or just getting people to work.”

Complete lack of planning, entirely made-up facts and arguments, lies, name-calling, law breaking, denigration and attacks and finger-pointing: all in a typical day for Rob Ford and his brother.

Ensuring that his ignorance was on full display, Robbie followed up the vote by saying that downtowners have enough subways and there’s just no reason why anything needs to be done to accommodate an influx of extra commuters (you know, with these new subway lines that he pushed through), into an already at-capacity system.

But Rob Ford, being justifiably emboldened, decided to take it one step further, once again breaching a bunch of laws in the process (he’s already been openly and illegally campaigning for over a year), and following his buddy Stephen Harper’s cue in placing automated calls (a.k.a. robocalls) to Scarborough residents specifically to rat out Ainslie as the only person to vote against subways (and for LRTs).

Of course, the bloated one didn’t bother to mention how he personally voted to increase Scarberians’ property taxes to pay for his bullheaded project, after years of screaming about the evils of any new tax hikes, etc. etc. — directly contrary to his campaign promise, and everything he’s claimed up until very recently. Ford is so dishonest that he managed to flip flop four times on a single motion — actually voting against himself!

This comes shortly on the heels of more political hypocrisy (laced with heaping dollops of ignorance), from the Fords as they rejected a Toronto memorial for Pierre Elliott Trudeau.

Asked about why he supported honouring late NDP leader Jack Layton with a statue on the waterfront, Ford said, “Mr. Layton did a tremendous amount for the city. Pierre Trudeau did not.”

That’s the hypocrisy part…

Contrary to Ford’s assertion, Councillor Peter Milczyn, who seconded the motion, said Trudeau made a significant contribution to Toronto with the creation of Harbourfront Corp. in 1972, which “started opening up the water’s edge.”

“He is one of the great prime ministers the country had; the father of our Constitution and Charter of Rights,” Milczyn said. “He is a person that a lot of people look up to and admire. So I think it’s reasonable that in Canada’s biggest city we would have some kind of commemoration of him.”

He was not surprised that the Ford brothers reject the idea.

“If people want to be hyperpartisan here, they can answer for it,” he said.

For his part, Doug Ford chided Milczyn as he passed him on press row, joking that “he would name his ward after Trudeau if he could.”