lightcastle

With the coordinated shut down of many US Occupy sites, and the eviction notices in Toronto and the shut down of OccupyRegina, how long before there's a coordinated shut down here? Harper really does have US-envy and we already know from G-20 that he loves his security state schtick. I'm sure it seems deeply unfair to him that he can't organize a nation-wide crack down like happened down south. So will he indulge himself, or has the movement gotten enough traction in the political class to blunt his desires? And if he does coordinate a police crack down, will he completely forget to include Quebec? I could see that happening.

As most of you know, I am not a big fan of conservative politicians like Barack Obama, and am happy to see people attack their policies. But even if I didn't know Rick Perry was not just conservative, but some kind of wacky theocracy-loving authoritarian, I would STILL know I shouldn't vote for him just based on the ridiculous action-movie bombast of this campaign video.

Most of you have already seen it, but Senator Roy MacDonald (R-Saratoga) had a little something to say about why he has decided to vote for marriage equality.

"You get to the point where you evolve in your life where everything isn't black and white, good and bad, and you try to do the right thing. You might not like that. You might be very cynical about that. Well, fuck it, I don't care what you think. I'm trying to do the right thing. I'm tired of Republican-Democrat politics. They can take the job and shove it. I come from a blue-collar background. I'm trying to do the right thing, and that's where I'm going with this."

Due to a discussion last night, a poll (my account won't actually let me make polls):

Unions:

A) should be abolished because they were always terrible.
B) served their purpose and now should be broken up.
C) should only be allowed in industries where they are needed.
D) wouldn't be needed if we had decent work-labour laws.
E) are fine the way they are
F) should be reformed

Canada turned solidly to the left today, which handed the right a majority government. Such is the nature of the beast.

The next few years are going to be painful, since we will be following Europe and the USA down the path of "austerity" and giving as much money to rich people as possible while dismantling the social safety net.

The upside? The Bloc experiment may be over for good. Quebec decided they want to actually be part of the discussion at the Federal level. (I do expect the PQ to win the next provincial election because of this.) Also, the Liberals "squishy center" of "not as bad as the Conservatives" approach was rejected. I think many of the Con wins in Ontario were nothing more than Lib seats where people voted Grit out of almost reflexive habit of the Libs being the "serious" party and the NDP never winning. People want someone actually making the effort and doing the work.

Sadly, as in the US, the danger of rejecting the "not as bad as the other guys" party is handing power over to "the other guys who are that bad".

Will this new balance hold? Only time will tell. How much damage will Canada suffer in the meantime? Lots. I hope our general culture is strong enough to not turn back on abortion and same sex marriage and maybe healthcare. I think any support for the arts is probably gone.

Still, I can't help but feel some real hope in the fact people went out on the limb of changing the tune and trying to forge a better future instead of just standing still because at least then things wouldn't immediately get worse.

(Edit: Yes, that last paragraph is kind of word salad. Yes, it was on purpose. Yes, you're right in that it didn't work. Basically, that people took the risk instead of buying the "but the Right is so much worse" makes me happy and gives some hope for the future - even if the immediate result is more pain.)

So I am getting told by people who have been scrutineers that spoilt and blank ballots are tallied separately and *blank* ballots are officially considered protest "none of the above" ballots.

I have never heard of this. (Indeed, the whole edible ballot society thing depends on there is no way to cast a protest vote.)

I am trying to dig through elections canada to find some verification here. If there IS an official protest ballot option, I want to know about it. (Even if I have no intention to do so right now.)

and I won't see where it finally bends to.

Nonetheless, it has been odd to have been involved in two recent elections that involve a surge of enthusiasm that things might change. The stakes aren't as high in Canada, but I also think there is more chance for something actually positive to come of it.

This blog and its projections don't mean much to my friends in the USA, but it is a sign of what may be a historic change. That orange slice? That's the New Democratic Party. That's a social democrat party, you might even say socialist in bent. Actual socialism, not "socialism" as defined by the Republican party. The NDP have been around for a long time. They often finish third or fourth nationally. Sometimes even lower.

They are surging. They are making huge gains. The youth vote seems to be rallying behind them. They are rising dramatically in Quebec, where they are cutting into the formerly solid lead of the separatist Bloc Quebecois. (Yes, we in Canada have a formal Federal party dedicated to breaking the country up and seceding from the Union. Yes, Canada is weird. They even formed the official opposition at one point, because Canada.)

Some bank presidents have already started talking about how "market unfriendly" it would be if the NDP finished second. Because Socialism. This is the party that when they polled in shooting distance of first place in the late 80's the New York Times printed a story on whether or not the US should invade if Canada is taken over by a socialist government.

In a way, the whole thing is giving me Obama flashbacks. There's less messianic fervor and Jack Layton (the NDP leader) is actually left wing/progressive (although not a radical or anything), but the whole surge of "maybe we can actually see something happen and have our voices listened to" feels the same. I don't think it will be cynically squandered, but then even the best projections have NDP finishing second, maybe being able to form a coalition government, and what is more likely is just major gains. They won't have the opportunity to disappoint.

But still, the rattling of the cages is a big thing. While no one who was paying attention thought Obama was anything other than a centrist/technocrat, the rhetoric of involvement and the historic nature of electing a black man president rattled the cages a little. (We had a luxury in 2008, since if Clinton had won, the fact of electing a woman to the office would have also rattled the cages. ) The NDP breaking into the upper echelon would be similarly perturbing of the powers that be.

It is heartening in an otherwise dark time. I don't have a lot of faith in the future of the US, and what happens south of the border echoes strongly in Canada. The strong march to abandon decent society and to undo the gains of the New Deal seems unstoppable. But the people who turned out for Obama in 2008, the people turning out for the NDP now, are reminding me that a huge bulk of the population wants real change, and wants to push toward something better. This cracking of the whip hand on the unruly peasants has an element of fear. Crushing the rubes before they find the real enemy is a priority. So maybe there is hope, and maybe things will turn and not fall.

It would be nice to think so.

Given what's going on, have any of the surviving "Best and the Brightest" started crowing about how the US was right to invade Vietnam?

I *adore* the message on this anti tea-party protest sign, but I think it needs a graphic designer to punch it up since it is just text and not very big.


Text reads:

Obama is not a brown-skinned anti-war socialist who gives away free healthcare.

You're thinking of Jesus.

I thought it would take a lot longer for an actual arrest, which is why I hadn't gotten around to posting about the rape/sexual assault charges. Like many people, I think the charges are being politicized - we should be so lucky that Interpol treats rape charges this seriously and with such priority as the normal course of events (Top of the most-wanted list? Really?). That said, I am a both/and kind of guy - the charges are being politicized, but that doesn't meant the charges shouldn't be taken seriously or trivialized.

It's been pretty depressing to watch the Assange supporters jump right into rape-trivializing in various ways though. I've seen the "Assange is our modern Jesus" thing in a local paper. (He is being persecuted by the Empire and his followers will continue his message.) There has been a lot of the "OMG, she's a radical feminist - CLEARLY it was a set up!" I've been told Sweden has a law making it a 2-year prison sentence for sex without a condom, as well as a law called "sex by surprise". (That term was used by Assange's lawyer. I'd like to think it was a translation error, since apparently the term is used in Sweden as slang for rape, just as it is here.) I've seen horror expressed that a man can be arrested on a woman's say so in Sweden. (One article saying it was worse than Iraq under Saddam Hussein. Um, buddy, the cops can arrest you on one person's say so in just about any country in the world. Convicting you is another story, but they sure as hell can arrest you.) There have been the "Assange is a great man, so even if he did do it, he shouldn't turn himself in" statements, which are a little too Polanski-esque for comfort.

Is he guilty? I don't know. The kind of power-tripping assault he's accused of certainly matches what I've seen of his public character and my personal experience with technophile radicals, especially tech/hacker ones, who tend to be pretty contemptuous of women. So I find them very plausible, but that's not a legal judgment. At the same time, I have a healthy distrust of cops and the legal system.

While losing their charismatic front man would hurt Wikileaks' place as the primary outlet for such material, I suspect they will continue without him and I fully expect other groups to adopt the model Wikileaks has been so effective with, or take other approaches to combating government secrecy.