Posts Tagged ‘ blog ’

Ethics, morality, common sense “don’t faze” the Fords

Posted on December 13th, 2013 Comments Off on Ethics, morality, common sense “don’t faze” the Fords

See, when I make headlines like the one above, I always get the feeling that new readers are going to immediately dismiss the accompanying posts simply because the headlines sound made-up. At the very least, they sound like hyperbole or some sort of truth-bending. The other option is that I’m just pulling the readers’ legs.

And yet, not only is the one-liner accurate, as is usually the case with the Fords, it actually doesn’t go nearly far enough.

The ethics thing comes straight from the mouth and hand of reprobascious Doug Ford who marched into a social housing project in his ward with a wad of cash and started peeling off $20 bills to hand out to residents. Such actions obviously prove, as they have since day one, that Rob and Doug are just two average guys like the rest of us — not the rich, privileged, “elite”, corrupt, greezee-haired, gold-chained mobster politicians that their “enemies” are (which basically encompasses everyone at this point). Obviously.

doug ford gangster

This obvious vote-buying isn’t a problem, apparently, since an election has not yet been called. But even if we were in an election period and something could be done (which it wouldn’t), it’s clear that there would be no consequences to the belligerent Ford reign. And, of course, it wouldn’t be Ford (either one, really), if he didn’t defend his vileness while simultaneously letting the world know what he thinks of morals and ethics:

It’s my choice [to grease palms]. He [Councillor Gord Perks] can think all the ethics he wants. It doesn’t even faze me.

The very same can be said of brother Rob who, as you may recall, is facing a libel suit for alleging that Toronto Star reporter Daniel Dale is a pedophile, a claim made for no apparent reason in a now-missing Vision TV interview with fellow loquacious loser Conrad Black (Vision, part of rich media barron Moses Znaimer’s ZoomerMedia, is also being sued for the same reason). There’s absolutely no proof that I know of to back Ford’s claim — in fact, plenty to the contrary showing that Rob Ford is, as he always was, a lying, immoral, violent, crack-smoking jerkhole.

But, you know, he wouldn’t be Robbie if he didn’t stand by his bizarre off-the-cuff slander time and time again; and, of course, it wouldn’t be Doug if he didn’t defend his brother’s unconscionable bullshit the whole way.

Filed under: B Sides, Patrick Bay, Pictures

Rob Ford takes questions

Posted on December 10th, 2013 3 Comments

From the stills below, you’d hardly think that Robbie was being as belligerent as he was being in his presser defense of his statements made in Conrad Black’s interview on Monday night. There’s a part in the interview in which Ford not so subtly claims that Star reporter Daniel Dale is a pedophile who was skulking around behind the Ford house roughly a year and a half ago to snap pictures of his kids in their home.

I’ve taken the liberty of adding some captions for posterity.

heated-ford-conference-1-small
“…motherfucker…”

heated-ford-conference-2-small
“Look, I already told you, dickweed…”

heated-ford-conference-3-small
“…kiss my ass.”

heated-ford-conference-5-small
“And if all y’all don’t like it…”

heated-ford-conference-4-small
“…y’all can go fuck yourselves.”

heated-ford-conference-6-small
“Uh.”

heated-ford-conference-7-small
“Holy shit…”

heated-ford-conference-8-small
“…is it getting hot in here?”

Filed under: B Sides, Patrick Bay, Pictures

OLG breaks own rules, sets the stage for privacy invasions in awarding $50 million prize

Posted on December 7th, 2013 Comments Off on OLG breaks own rules, sets the stage for privacy invasions in awarding $50 million prize

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.

Filed under: B Sides, Patrick Bay

Stephen Harper’s Canada: Shut up and obey

Posted on December 6th, 2013 Comments Off on Stephen Harper’s Canada: Shut up and obey

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.

Filed under: B Sides, Patrick Bay

Is Robbie using again?

Posted on November 29th, 2013 6 Comments

I don’t watch Bill O’Reilly. At all. Couldn’t even tell you what network he’s on.  And to be honest, lately I’ve kinda been tuning out of the Rob Ford Show anyway, regardless of where it happens to pitch its tent — it’s tiring hearing the unending drone of repetitive, mind-numbing bullshit he’s clearly convinced himself will make his lies true.

O’Reilly’s interview, however, caught my eye because it looks very much like Robbie has been dabbling in a little pixie dust/crystal again:

Filed under: Dispatches, Patrick Bay, Videos

Rob Ford campaign bio

Posted on November 25th, 2013 Comments Off on Rob Ford campaign bio

From Rob Ford’s archived 2010 election site:

Rob Ford is a lifelong resident of Toronto. The son of a former MPP, the late Doug Ford, Rob grew up with community service in his blood. Elected in 2000 as the Councilor representing Ward 2 in North Etobicoke, Rob has become one of the hardest working councilors in the city. His focus on ensuring transparency and accountability in public spending, setting an example for excellence in customer service, and his passion for making sure tax dollars are spent on the things people and families need most has marked him as a leader on council.

Prior to being elected, Rob spent 10 years building a family business into a multi-million dollar North American enterprise serving that now employs over 200 people with locations in Etobicoke, Chicago and New Jersey. Their clients include many of North America’s largest and most recognized brands.

Rob’s passion for promoting the positive development of youth and his own experience in playing high school and university-level football was the foundation for his efforts to bring football back to high schools in Toronto. He recognized that team sports, such as football, can provide a catalyst that helps engage at-risk youth, teaches teamwork and leadership skills, and provides a positive environment for teens to develop as healthy, productive citizens. In 2002, Rob founded the highly successful Eagles football program at Don Bosco Catholic Secondary School in North Etobicoke where he remains as head coach of the Junior and Senior teams. To expand the benefit of this program to all youth in the city, Rob established the Rob Ford Football Foundation which has raised more than $100,000 to purchase equipment and establish football programs at high schools across Toronto.

Rob remains an active supporter of numerous community organizations and charities, including the Salvation Army Red Shield Appeal, Terry Fox Foundation, Heart and Stroke Foundation, Toronto Board of Trade and the Toronto West Rotary Club. Rob also donates each year to numerous charitable organizations and events.

Rob and his wife Renata live in north Etobicoke with their daughter Stephanie and son Douglas.

Campaign Address

245 Dixon Road
Toronto, Ontario
M9P 3T4

Phone: 416.628.8576
rob@robfordformayor.ca

Online campaign donation site: https://www.beanstream.com/scripts/payment/payment.asp?merchant_id=117580704

ford_photo

Filed under: Dispatches, Patrick Bay, Pictures

The writing on the wall

Posted on November 20th, 2013 Comments Off on The writing on the wall

Some uniquely Canadian sentiments from recent anti-Ford protests at Nathan Phillips Square:

rob_wall_2_small rob_wall_3_small

And the pièce de résistance:

rob_wall_small

Filed under: Patrick Bay, Pictures

The bottom line

Posted on November 20th, 2013 3 Comments

Under Rob Ford:

 “This is the path the Fords have chosen, and it is clearly working!”
I Hate the War on Mayor Rob Ford

Filed under: Dispatches, Patrick Bay

RoFoDoFo Show Numero Dos no mo also

Posted on November 19th, 2013 Comments Off on RoFoDoFo Show Numero Dos no mo also
RoFoDoFo Show ("The City") on Newstalk1010:
Gone too early on November 8, 2013
RoFoDoFo Show ("Ford Nation") on Sun News Network:
Taken after just one tragic episode on November 19, 2013
Filed under: Dispatches, Patrick Bay

Rob’s terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day

Posted on November 18th, 2013 1 Comment

News of Rob Ford’s demotion by City Council was swift and brutal, as was the Ford brothers’ on-the-spot retribution against heckling citizens in the gallery.

On his way to punch out the boisterous audience, Rob managed to bowl over Councillor Pam McConnell before joining brother Doug in exchanging unpleasantries with the public. Or maybe it was after. Not sure it matters.

Very few people stand behind the mayor and his brother at this point, mostly for fear of getting hit in the face, but also because it’s kinda tough to defend the increasingly nutty behaviour of the two.

Only fellow Twitterer @Jedimasterbator offered what I see as some reasonable explanations:

In Rob Ford’s defense:

  1. Women and kids ARE easier to knock down.
  2. No kids at City Hall.
  3. Newton’s Laws of Motion.
  4. Mondays.
Filed under: Dispatches, Patrick Bay