Rob Ford balked noticeably at being told that he would have to pay his own court costs in the conflict of interest case, which he says he won “fair and square”.

Although he reserved his harshest, most thoughtful criticism for the proposals that Metrolinx recently put out in order to fund transit in Toronto, he nonetheless believes that he was wronged in being forced to pay his own way after “winning” the appeals to the case — one out of four appeals, or 25% of the total to be exact (after completely losing the original case).

But this is Rob Ford, after all, who believes that 25% qualifies as an overwhelming “win”, or that a 47% voting result is a “majority” during an election, etc.

Ford is probably also upset that those opposing him are working for free (assholes!), essentially leaving him the only one footing the bill for his own crimes, which the appeal judges once again reiterated were very real and very wrong, hence the loss of most of the appeals.

The funny thing is that this is exactly what Ford and his idiot supporters outright demand — it’s everyone for themselves, and cut and slash and privatize and fuck everyone in the process because money should be in the pockets of the rich, corrupt, and openly criminal. This is Ford’s raison d’etre incarnate; but, of course, because it’s being done to Rob and not by him, it’s completely wrong! That’s  the new neo-Con, money-trumps-everything, buried-in-hypocrisy-and-lies-and-corruption Canada.

Clayton Ruby offered an insightful and absolutely correct analysis of the situation: “Mayor Ford’s costs request was, once again, scuppered by Mayor Ford.” The term “karmic retribution” would also be very appropriate — now the universe just needs more  of it.

May 2006 – Toronto Hydro says get ready for another 20% hike increase in order to deal with “aging infrastructure”.

August 2007 – Toronto Hydro demands a 6.3% rate hike to deal with “aging infrastructure”.

March 2007 – Toronto Hydro seeks a rate hike of 6.3% to deal with losses incurred due to a loss in revenue because of a promotion to encourage customers to use less electricity (how inept are these people?!).

July 2008 – Toronto Hydro announces a rate drop because:

Hydro explains it managed to get the Ontario Energy Board to agree to some rate guarantees over a number of years, allowing the utility to ensure it will have enough money to refurbish its system and hire new employees to replace those who are retiring.

Hydro says it’s the first time the OEB has ever given them a multi-year approval. That agreement is part of what’s allowing them to plan for the future – and lower your costs in the present, at least for now.

August 2009 – Toronto Hydro applies for another rate hike to accommodate renewable energy and to deal with “aging infrastructure”.

April 2010 – Hydro plans another 15% rate hike to deal with “aging infrastructure”.

July 2010 – Hydro is successfully sued for illegally overcharging customers. Settlement says that if Hydro makes a mistake in repaying customers (wrong amount, wrong date, cheque never sent or received), they’re completely off the hook and the case is settled (i.e. the law says it’s okay for them to lie in order to weasel out of their obligations).

September 2010 – Hydro seeks rate increase of 4 to 5% to deal with “aging infrastructure”.

November 2010 – Hydro says prepare for rates to jump by almost 50% in order to deal with “aging infrastructure”.

March 2011 – Toronto Hydro posts record profits, directly as a result of rate increases.

November 2011 – Rate price increase after two years of increases amounting to 41% in order to deal with “aging infrastructure”.

January 2012 – Toronto Hydro demands yet another rate hike, threatening to fire all employees (except highly paid executives), and plunge the city into darkness in order to deal with “aging infrastructure”. The energy board rejects the plea, saying Hydro is essentially full of crap.

March 2013 – Toronto Hydro threatens more blackouts unless they’re allowed to gauge customers under the “aging infrastructure” excuse again.

April 2013 – Toronto Hydro raises rates again in order to deal with “aging infrastructure”. The Energy Board welcomes the January 2012 plan with open arms. Toronto now has the highest electricity rates in North America.

The fact that these numbers, and the excuses behind them, are so widely varied and apparently completely ineffectual  should be a direct indication of the open lies of Toronto Hydro. Their ongoing 5-year plan, a dismal failure since at least 2006 (if you believe them), to fix “aging infrastructure” seems to include only more and more rate increases, threats, and equipment failures / excuses.

Rates have risen by roughly 60% over the past 5 years, and Toronto Hydro is still running around fixing equipment failures that they continue to claim they can’t fix because they don’t have enough money. And because they’re a monopoly being propped up by political ignorance and corruption, your only choice is to refuse to pay this criminal tax.

Thank goodness Rob Ford is on the case!

I don’t mean to make light of threats, and if this whole thing turns out to be genuine I certainly hope that Mammoliti gets assistance tout suite. I make no light of my dislike for the man’s political flaccidness,  but even if I think he’s bordering on criminality, I always hearken to what we’ve all been told is “proper procedure”. In other words, police (doing their job properly), a court of law (applying the law equally), etc. Or is this Utopian idealism now?

But don’t you find it odd that, if this is actually true, Mammoliti’s assertion that Executek International is holding on to some possibly dangerous (for him), evidence seems kind of the wrong way to go?

Perhaps Executek is dispatching shadowy goons to neutralize the source of the attack  — computer and phone tampering, as well as a “threatening letter” — but you’d think you’d double up and get local PD on it too, no? Seemed okay for the mayor.

Executek says cops will be contacted “when appropriate.”

Private police force. Neat.

There’s a reason I chuckle and shake my head whenever “lefties” are described as pot-smoking hippy communists who haven’t done an honest day of work in their life and subsist solely off the government tit.

That reason is evident in all of the so-called “lefty” machinations against Ford, Harper, etc., -which have been ongoing and quite forceful for some time. I think it’s fair to include the Occupy protesters somewhere in the midst of this, as are the numerous court cases, protests, and other actions that are seeking to redress the wrong brought about by the “right”. I mean, that’s a shitload of work and effort to go through for a bunch of shiftless stoners, isn’t it?

In fact, it could easily be argued that the lazy “left” has put way more effort into getting their way in politics than the “right” which, at this point, has managed to put on a showing of maybe 20 people to support Ford’s subway plans in Scarborough (and that was a while ago). Of course, that demonstration was in support of the mayor so it was just and correct; anything that questions or stands in opposition is, naturally, evil, wrong, and must be outlawed at any cost (because that, according to the “right” is democracy).

In the meantime, the “left” continues its efforts in a way that proves that it’s in fact the “right” who are the lazy, shiftless armchair critics who wouldn’t lift a pinky to save their grandmother if it meant having to miss a second of their favourite nighttime television program. I would invite the “right” to argue this point, but recent history demonstrates quite clearly that, at the very least, they couldn’t be bothered to engage in anything but childish name-calling.

Consider, for example, the somewhat recent conflict of interest case against Rob Ford. Even though the mayor (I hesitate to use that term), was spanked for his actions, his inability or unwillingness to do anything differently (another prime “right” quality), has him repeating the same offenses immediately after being told they’re wrong. In the meantime, Paul Magder and Clayton Ruby, the people who proved without a shadow of a doubt that what Rob Ford did, and continues to do, was wrong, are now taking the case to the Supreme Court of Canada.

The law, after all, is quite clear, and if it hadn’t been for the technicality on which Rob Ford squeaked by, he would no longer be in City Hall. Magder and Ruby are spending time, energy, and some might argue money, in order to ensure that everyone is equally held to account (this after years of trying to do the same). On the other side , in juxtaposition, we have an admitted ignoramus who wouldn’t expend the energy to learn how to write his own name.

According to the same “right”, the people working hard on a daily basis, sacrificing, demonstrating, being vocal and getting out there to demonstrate (or whatever), are the lazy ones, and the people making a mockery out of anything we would call government through their stupidity and inaction (then covering it up by ensuring no one can see their itinerary), lashing out against anyone trying to hold them to account, and making not-so-subtle slurs and insults from the comfort of their armchairs, are the “hard workers”.

I’m sure this will continue to be the trend. The blubbery “right” seems to be going on the alternate definition of the word (as in being correct), and that definition alone is enough to convince them that whatever slurs, insults, lies, falsehoods, coverups, and other crap coming out of the mouths of their leader must be accepted verbatim, without question, and certainly without any critical thought. That would, after all, require a little bit of effort.

I suppose I needn’t dwell on this incredible bit of hypocrisy. Regardless of what I say, Magder and Ruby are still toiling away pretty much pro bono to ensure that no one, especially people with more power, are able to openly and brazenly abuse that power (I’m sure that hidden and cowardly abuse is also be unacceptable). The “right”, on the other hand, continue to exemplify the laziest of armchair criticism, comfortable in their 47% “majority” (looking up the meaning of that word must take too much effort), and clearly believe that a dictatorship (again, a word they just can’t be bothered to learn), is just fine as long as they identify themselves as being on its side.

And it’s this one fact that I try to impress on anyone who feels like Ford’s side, however you want to identify it, is winning. He just has well-connected and corrupt friends, the same sort of sleazeball associations one might find in immensely corrupt and debased juridictions like Ford’s favourite, Chicago — a mob town top to bottom. We’ve seen that it’s people like Ford and his supporters who are the lazy and ignorant ones (Ford even came right out and said as much), so it’s only a matter of time until this system of corruption and stupidity comes crashing down. Whether’s it’s going to be an emboldened Ford committing some crime that even his supporters abhor (frankly, I’m not sure what that would be), or justice and democracy do win out in the end through concerted, long-term “lefty” efforts, the man and his cadre are going to go down in a spectacular way. My only hope is that it happens sooner rather than later.

All those people who feel sorry for poor, voiceless, ganged-upon mayor Ford should consider that both he and his puppet-master / brother have a weekly radio show on Newstalk 1010 where they regularly cross the line on both taste and legality. They only allow callers who toe their line, and unrepentantly take the opportunity to openly insult and denigrate both fellow councillors and any citizens who disagree with the mayor’s “agenda”.

“This is what happens from a person that has never run a business in their entire lives,” Ford jabbed on-air in typical manner at Stintz after discovering that the contract for the concessions in the TTC (the candy / magazine stands, fast-food outlets, etc.), were sole-sourced. That means that no one else competed (or had a chance to compete), for the bid.

To be fair, sole-sourced contracts are something Ford raged about (along with Asians, gays, cyclists, pedestrians, etc.), and I think it could be successfully argued that they’re generally not a good idea. And perhaps Ford could’ve prevented it, or at least brought it to light before any contract was signed, but of course he couldn’t do that because His Lardness was too fucking busy coaching his high school football team to actually do his job.

Ford had missed countless meetings on numerous topics, including many that Stintz had requested prior to the deal. In fact, the deal was on the mayor’s desk since October 2012, completely ignored and unchallenged because Fordo can’t be bothered to do his job. That’s at least 4 months that he failed to perform his duties. That’s four months where he openly lied to the citizenry, claiming he was saving the city money, running the best administration the city’s ever seen, etc., when in reality he was fucking off early every day (or simply not showing up), to go coach his team.

And this from a man that claims that City Hall should be run like a business. Really, Robbie? If this was a business, your ass would have been fired a long time ago!

But Ford is a rich, entitled, rude career politician who’s built up a reputation of abusing power, deceit, hatred, insults, deflection and blame. This is why so many people are out for his head — Miller never faced this many lawsuits, and I’m going to guess it’s because he actually tried to do his job.

Now that the Municipal Conflict of Interest Act has basically been tossed to the curb (after really only one test run — Ford is the only mayor corrupt enough for it so far), the citizens of Toronto have no options. No options to impeach or otherwise remove Ford for his complete and abject failure to both do and be able to do his job (I can’t imagine what job he’d be suitable for, to be honest). Toronto is now set up to see a run of the worst, divisive, ineffective, and just plain stupid administration we’ve ever seen, voted in by a whopping 25% “majority” of Torontonians.

Ford will continue to fail to fulfill his campaign promises, insult the people he demands to lord over (i.e. everyone), skip work to go play, ignore laws and rules, ignore his duties, and just generally stay the deep-down dickhead that he is. After all, what’s to hold him to account on any of it?

I know I’ve written about that hateful little troll, Toronto Sun’s Sue-Ann Levy, before, but now that the one man that could make her forget she’s gay (Rob Ford), has gotten off on a technicality, she is in full-on murder-everyone-who-doesn’t agree-with-you mode.

No, it’s not a “right” or “left” thing, Conservative versus Liberal thing (how did all the “Commies” suddenly become Liberals anyways?!), it’s an asshole versus reasonable human being thing. I mean, if she’s so hot for gambling and prostitutes and all the other crap Ford wants to swaddle the city with, why doesn’t she walk on down to the nearest street corner and spread that musty cavern of hers? Oh, right, it’s because she would have to do what she demands that everyone else do.

Because, you know, there is simply no other way for the government to make money, despite the offensive deposition Ford put everyone through while he was (we can only guess), snorting coke in some back room and completely ignoring everyone’s ideas. I know the coke thing is a rumour, but I’ve had enough experience with drugs to see that this is probably the case — the sweating, the holier-than-thou attitude, the confrontationalism, the ruddy face, etc. Chances of Rob snorting: very high.

Just to be clear, just because he may do drugs wouldn’t necessarily make Rob an awful person (except that he is), but I’m pretty damn sure he should not be holding office under the influence, driving under the influence, etc.

And the “technicality” term being tossed around? People like Levy love to use that word when describing how the mayor snubbed his nose at all the rules and laws of our city multiple times, or how he directly, knowingly, and willfully voted on something directly and monetarily affecting him. Those are “technicalities”, but the fact that Toronto Council wasn’t supposed to have imposed a punishment (hence the loss of the entire case), is not a technicality, that’s JUSTICE!

That’s also precisely how murderers, rapists, and drug dealers get away with it — legal technicalities are a criminal’s best friend.

But, you know, Levy’s just fine with that. People shouldn’t be held to account. Whoring out your daughters is a wonderful future for them. Getting into drinking and gambling, why, that’s practically next to godliness. Shouldn’t be surprising then that this creature passing for a woman would now be chastising Councillor Ana Bailao for her drunken driving charge, right? After all, drinking and gambling is precisely what we want in this town, so anyone who does it should immediately lose their job. (I’m sorry if this is twisting your brain — this is a Ford-lover we’re talking about here)

I happen to agree somewhat, drinking and driving is bad. Somewhat worse than, say, Ford driving while reading, or threatening the lives of passengers on a streetcar by plowing past its open doors, but the Ford-supporter hypocrisy is flying its true, shit-brown colours by defending Ford’s complete lack of regret and remorse (not even a hint of apology or a thought to changing his ways). Bailao drank and drove, potentially endangering many people on the road…the guillotine for her! Ford drove distractedly and dangerously an multiple occasions, unapologetically and directly endangering people on and off the road…oh, he just made a mistake; let’s use tax money and get him a driver!

And this is pretty much the Ford / Harper / etc. camp philosophy in a nutshell. It’s a philosophy that turns on others with the most outrageous slanders, hatred, and vitriol — remember Ford / Cherry’s inaugural speech? Of course, if you call them so much as “silly” they’ll call for your public hanging. They openly and gleefully promote vice, crime, selfishness, greed, money money money, me me me, to the exception of everything else, push on with bullheaded ideas despite any planning or consultation, and are basically oblivious to anything but their own whiny needs. And none of these characteristics are incongruous — these are just simply vile, offensive, pin-headed people. If you want to be nice, “petulant adult-children” works too.

The really sad part is that these people are so blind to basic human concepts like faith, charity, love, and kindness, that they’re willing to forfeit their entire family’s future on a momentary status gain. It’s all about feeding the overly swollen ego — me, me, me! And for some reason, they think that in the groups of selfish, uncaring, self-loving aggressors they move in, that they’re going to achieve some sort of universal love and acceptance from everyone by beating them down, insulting them, and making their lives miserable.

It’s really not that complicated…

Psychopathy: is a personality disorder that has been variously characterized by shallow emotions (including reduced fear, a lack of empathy, and stress tolerance), coldheartedness, egocentricity, superficial charm, manipulativeness, irresponsibility, impulsivity, criminality, antisocial behavior, a lack of remorse, and a parasitic lifestyle.

“Can you believe those teachers?! Some of them are making more than one-hundred thousand dollars a year! What criminals!”

Those are the words that a family member blurted out a couple of weeks ago, perhaps in an attempt to bait me, but in any event completely unexpectedly and forcefully.

“What do you mean?”, I asked.

She went on determined to teach me what criminal scum schoolteachers and their unions are, asking me repeatedly if I’d read Bill 115 (her own interpretation coming from a newspaper), and demanding that I answer her on the spot.

“Do they start off making that much?”, I asked incredulously.

“No, they start at forty-thousand, but because of the union they’re guaranteed a pay increase of two percent every two years!”

She was steamrolling over the entire conversation at the time so I didn’t get a chance to do the math, but I did know that historically the rate of inflation was 2% so such a measure would simply keep teachers from slipping into poverty.

My interlocutor wasn’t having such arguments. “No one else gets pay increases, why should they!”

“So you’re complaining that because everyone in the private sector’s getting screwed, people who have the ability to be represented and demand better pay should be fired?”, I retorted, having heard such nonsense many times in the past.

“That’s not true!”, she replied. “These people take tax money, your money and my money, and they’re getting ridiculous salaries. Everyone else is paying for them!”

At this point I wish I’d had the opportunity to do some basic math for her since she clearly hadn’t done it herself, but she was complaining that teachers, having come out of school with thousands in debt, would be paid roughly $19 an hour (increased by an astronomical $0.38 per hour every two years or so).

“How much did dad make?”, I followed up, thinking back to my father who worked for the city and who retired after a couple of decades making considerably more. I wasn’t even going to bring up the fact that teachers are taxpayers too — that old Fordite mentality.

“Well, more, obviously,” she replied,” but he was doing a real job. All these people do is babysit children.”

I’d spent some time teaching kids too. She hadn’t even come near a school for anything more than parents’ night. So of course she demanded that this is exactly what goes on in the classroom, that I’m completely wrong (and ignorant, just for good measure), they’re all completely wrong, and we’re all getting royally ripped off by the teachers and the unions. (She also loves Ford and Harper, if that helps to explain things).

After an hour of back-and-forth, we finally managed to reach the consensus that those responsible are mostly in government, unions can be a good thing (which took many recounting of my own experiences with private industry abuses), and that maybe people could be paid a wage that allows them to both live and pay off their debts (though this took a lot — Conservatives abhor this idea and expend a lot of effort in quashing it).

When I finally hung up I got to thinking whether or not the teachers would even be launching an illegal strike to meet their demands, so deemed by Premiere McGuinty and the Ontario Labour Relations Board. Then I remembered this little gem from the Charter of Rights and Freedoms (right near the top):

Fundamental Freedoms

2. Everyone has the following fundamental freedoms:

• (a) freedom of conscience and religion;
• (b) freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication;
• (c) freedom of peaceful assembly; and
• (d) freedom of association.

So according to the highest law of the land, expressing your demands, peacefully assembling, etc. — basically everything a strike is about — are FULLY PROTECTED UNDER LAW.

The really sad thing is that no newspaper anywhere in the province has bothered to bring up the fact that the tyrannical government of Ontario, along with the OLRB, are the ones acting illegally. They are ignoring federal laws and instead simply saying  that they’re going to take these incredibly unlawful actions. And then to impose a contract on the teachers while telling them to get back to work — what the fuck is that?

And if you speak out about something so blatantly obvious, something so simple that a child can see it, you’re branded a conspiracy kook who should be spending time in solitary confinement with a tin foil hat.

Certainly that’s the high horse on which my family member rode in on – summarily dismissing such obvious signs of a tyrannical dictatorship because, clearly, people in positions of power have NEVER abused it, and because a “newspaper” sporting half naked women, ads for hookers, and more advertising and pictures than words, told her that’s how things are.

Perhaps the most bizarre takeaway from the conversation was my family member’s insistence that I need to read Bill 115 because it’s so gloriously correct, but all of the plethora of documents by and from the government, on their website, showing their criminality, malfeasance, and generally nefarious and outright evil plans for the future, are all blatant lies and complete fabrications.

In other words, Bill 115 must be true because it agrees with what she was told, and all of the other documents are a straight up lie because they’re just too unpleasant. You know — if you don’t see it, it doesn’t exist — kind of thing.

I remember asking my family member how she thought all of the other evil governments of the past and present managed to take a hold. After all, it’s a safe bet to say that most citizens would not choose to live under such conditions.

I was met with a deafening silence.

“Yeah,” I replied, “that’s exactly how it happens.”

Just when you think you’ve seen every form of stupidity that Rob Ford can muster …

Yesterday, for example, Rob Ford voted against the new city budget. Well, technically, not the whole budget, just the part that he himself had put in there!

Yeah, that’s not a typo — Ford actually voted against a part of the city’s budget that he pushed to get have included. The specific part in question has to do with the 2% property tax increase that, if you recall, he vehemently “guaranteed” year after year would be completely eliminated (just one of the many of Rob’s boldfaced, ignorance-laced, and denigratory lies).

Of course, being Ford, he reneged on that little campaign promise almost as soon as he was done telling pinkos where they can stuff it, but he kept on maintaining that he was doing everything he could to keep it at reasonable levels. Those ended up being exactly what they were prior to when he took office, so in effect Rob Ford has managed to completely fail on this end.

Just like his much-vaunted lies about all of the gravy at City Hall that never materialized, Ford has once again flown his true colours as an unabashed liar, and a bumbling buffoon of an unabashed liar at that. I mean, if this last-minute vote against his own measure is some sort of half-assed attempt to control the “optics” of his awful mayoralty (unsurprisingly, despite what the Toronto Sun says, with the help of useful idiot monkeys like Giorgio Mammoliti), he must be depending on citizen’s abject ignorance of what he’s been up to as late as last week, or he’s depending on them being so thick as to believe the crap he’s pushing.

Then again, this is Ford Nation we’re talking about here, the same small group of knuckle-dragging troglodytes who claim that black is white, up is down, “gravy” is everywhere at City Hall, Ford saves the city money (instead of costing everyone money), Toronto taxpayers is a group that only includes them (hence they are the only ones with the right to an opinion), and so on and so on. No, I wasn’t joking when I called them severely mentally ill — how else could you keep swallowing Ford’s blatant and fetid shit all this time and continue to call it candy?

It’s still making the rounds!

Rob Ford was taken out on a technicality! He never should’ve been tossed out since the original decision forcing him to repay was invalid!

And so on.

Let’s pick this apart. It won’t take too long, it’s very simple!

1. Voting to let yourself off the hook for something is the very definition of “conflict of interest”. Had Miller put a motion before City Council to appoint himself Fuhrer of Toronto, and then voted on it, would that be considered a conflict of interest? Unlikely as that may sound, it would be within his power to do so, and yet it can easily be argued that it doesn’t involve any money. But I guess if you’re a Fordite, that kind of thing would’ve been perfectly fine — just so long as Miller didn’t make any money off of it. Thumbs up, Ford supporters; brilliant logic!
2. Let’s say that the decision forcing Rob to repay the money was in fact beyond the pale of City Council — if that’s the case, what’s to stop any councillor from abusing their office at any time? Let’s say Adam Vaughan decided that he would support the destruction of the Gardiner Expressway in exchange for donations to his personal  charity. That’s called “influence peddling”, and it’s exactly what Ford did. But guess what, Vaughan didn’t get any of the money, it went to his own charity, so once again it’s all perfectly fine and above board, right? Or is it only wrong if someone who isn’t Ford does it? Can’t have it both ways!
   Furthermore, if Fordo believed that this was completely out of the Council’s jurisdiction, why did he completely validate it all by not only “explaining” how important it was for him to abuse his position as mayor, but also vote on it? By the same logic, any Fordite approached by anyone claiming to be a cop on the street should immediately submit to anything that the “officer” says, because after all, that’s how you insist that your mayor behaves. Then, once you’re in the back of the unmarked van, complain about how fucking stupid you were to have trusted the “cop” in the first place — just like Rob Ford.
3. Maybe the mayor didn’t know that Council wasn’t able to make such rules? Maybe he didn’t read the handbook? Maybe he claimed complete ignorance of anything associated with his position? How about all of the above? But that’s okay — why would we need a mayor that knows how to do the job? It’s just like business: we should entrust the operation to someone who admits to complete incompetence and ignorance.
   Once again, bravo on your logic, Fordites!

And Ford should be allowed to continue to be mayor in the face of all of this? Anyone who supports this position supports all of the above: incompetence, lies, naivete, brazen self-indulgence, ignorance, and corruption — none of which Ford denied.

I’m getting sick of repeating these simple facts, but the media are pumping out so much blatant misinformation, misdirection, and just plain bullshit, we need to keep repeating it for them.

Nice … and slow … and simple.

http://www.torontosun.com/2012/11/30/toronto-mayor-rob-ford-eligible-to-run-in-byelection