CAN WE MAKE A BIGGER MESS...YOU BETCHA, YES

If Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "TIMES CHANGE AND LIFE": 

14:54
Someone took the fall for that disaster by losing their job. I don't know if it was specifically because of the Joint-Ops project or not, but more should have lost their jobs because of it. If this were a private project, it would have never happened. In fact they would have probably never bought the land. Government projects are always run this way, and each and every time, we hear that "moving forward" they have learned from these mistakes. They may or may not fire someone (usually not) and move on to the next disaster project. The words "accountability", "transparency" are just words used during election time. Once sworn in to office, these words don't exist. 
Posted by Anonymous to  Our Town and Its Business at 28 February 2018 at 14:02

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If it was a private corporation, those responsible would never have been employed in that capacity. 

Or the outfit would have been bankrupt eight years before. If a new venture ,it would never have 

gotten  off the ground. 

The truth is ,what happened, was anticipated by the minority. The majority ruled.  The set-up suited two Councils and Mayors just fine. That appointment was deliberate by the former Mayor. We needed to replace the head of public works. That was her doing too. The current Mayor chose to interpret concern expressed for the town's  interest as attempted micro-management. 

Actual cost of the joint facility  is still not known. Nor how the contract awarded ,at the price quoted,for the specifications cited, could be so out of whack. Analysis required  by the rules should have revealed the awful truth.

Financial control throughout the project is required. 

He who must be heeded,must be appointed by Bylaw, by provincial statute. The previous administration without a competition, which is also required by statute, made the choice over a coffee in a dougnut shop. That also sat well with the current Chief Magistrate. 

No rule requires public projects be catastrophic. But the risk is always there. The broth has too many cooks. The election process guarantees a lack of experience among decision-makers is certainly a definite maybe. 

Every sign indicates current decision-makers, with their background of screwing up mightily, is headed 

in the same direction with the Library Square project. 

Those Councillors,  new to The Council Of Fateful Decision On The Joint Facility, have had their moment in the sun and a chance to shine. 

Last week , Canada's  Prince Prime Minister, hob- nobbing with Maharajahs, dazzled  in jewel-toned, embroidered silk from head to ghostly white bare feet with the Taj Mahal  in the background ,at the end of a disastrous foreign tour .

Reference in a news cast pointed to extreme youth of everyone in the Prime Minister's office,without a pick of experience between them, diplomatic or otherwise,for planning such a trip. It showed. My God, how it showed. 

 

It also cost millions in the multiples. 

Jesus, Mary and Joseph...grant us peace. Though we surely don't deserve it.  

TIMES CHANGE AND LIFE

I watched a documentary of Billy Wilder's career as a film- maker. His movies were in the habit of winning Oscars. He was said to be a stickler for detail. Right down to the style of the knot of a character's tie. 

It was interesting to watch.The ending stayed with me because I relate to it and I don't think I'm alone.  

Wilder lived long and although demand for his movies faded, he kept apparently kept working for the last fifteen or twenty years of his life. 

Christmas 2016, my girls gave me a subscription to Netflix. I hardly used it. I found no movie I wanted to watch. I told Heather I thought it might be my age. "No, it's not that mother" she said. 

Robyn and Kari, her girls, had  enjoyed a movie  and laughed so much they insisted the parents go 

see it, So they did . Five minutes after it started Heather turned to look at Andy. He was asleep. 

Our consensus was most movies are not made for adults any more. 

I was reminded of a story my mother told.  Movies were the magic in their lives.They thought nothing 

of coming out of one picture house and going into another on the same evening. They lived through silent movies, movies with sound, black and white movies ,coloured movies  ,3D , Disney movies, and whatever else was offered. They saw and enjoyed  it all. 

They never got used to life without movies. My mother and Aunt Jean were sisters ,of an age, and best friends. 

My grandmother and three other sisters were equally close. On cold.wet,blustery nights they would troop out of the house together,two by two, arm in arm. 

My grandfather ,who lived in a house of women, and  seldom heard to speak,, would shake his head and say " silly weemin"  leaving a comfortable hoose with a cosy fire, to challenge the elements for sic a thing as a movie. 

And it was a challenge ,every step into the wind was a battle, slanting rain seeped in every opening,

Shoes had to be enclosed in rubber boots . Umbrellas would not hold up against the wind. It was not unusual for an umbrella to be blown out of your hand. 

There was an ancient little charabanc of a red bus that waited at the corner. It moved off, on the hour, 

allseats taken,aisle full of standing passengers ,more squeezing in at every stop to unload in the centre of town with passengers dispersing in the direction of four picture houses. 

Years later,when my mother and Jean were the only two survivors ,they went one night to the only picture house left . The movie showing was notorious. The ticket seller wouldn't sell them tickets. She earnestly assured   them they would not like the picture. 

They were two small ,round ,white haired figures in hats  and gloves, carrying handbags. They demanded tickets. After further badinage,they were finally allowed in to see the adult movie. They wouldbe in their seventies

The ticket seller was right. But not for the reason she thought.They wanted to see the movie. 

It was all that was offered and they had to satisfy their craving. 

Movies aren't the only degradation of our time. My mother's was the last generation before televisio. Before all forms of communication and movie-making were deliberately ground to a colourless paste with flavour of the month added. 

A world where Billy Wilder's excellence is redundant. 

America elects a President like the one they have .

Children are shot in numbers in their classrooms to keep a lucrative industry lucrative.

And they  who claim the moral high ground , fight to preserve the right to own the machines that murder their children.

Their main claim to fame is military might. 

It's not the whole picture but it's the one they show to the world. 

ROUND AND ROUND ...THE MONKEY CHASED THE WEASEL

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "THE LATEST CONTROVERSY": 

You are definitely not the only one. We have rot in all levels of government. Evelyn...how the heck do we get out of this mess? 
Posted by Anonymous to  Our Town and Its Business at 20 February 2018 at 22:16

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I'm not sure rot is recognized and even less sure a mess is acknowledged.

I've been contributing to a new site that consumes much of my interest .The focus is the town where 

I was born. It's so old ,its beginnings are lost in the mists of antiquity.  My early neighbourhood  was demolished in the 1960s with devastating impact. Only photos remain.

Now demolition is again being contemplated. 

The site prints pictures of old streets and buildings no longer existing  and it invites  memories. I have much to share about how life was lived in my time. Memory serves me well. 

It takes little to trigger the flow but a lot more to turn it off. It feels like travel in time but a tough slog 

at best. 

Organizing thoughts into writing is a tricky process. Stories tends to take itheir own direction. New angles present. .. often new discovery.  When I start the dig I have no idea how deep it will go or how many pieces will emerge and how the puzzle will complete. 

My mother was born in 1902 and died in 1992. She was the fifth child of parents married in mid 1890s.Their first child was born in 1897 and killed at the Dardanelles in 1917. 

I lived in my grandparents house from the time I was eight. My early experience is an amalgam of my 

mother's, my grandparent's and my own.The span of that time is one hundred and fifty years. 

Knowing is one thing. . Writing another. Reading is still another entirely. Without knowing how different life was  a hundred and fifty years ago, no sense can be made of it. 

Telling the story , the events and consequences therefrom is but half the task.

A  movie called "Kidnapped" hit the screen  fifty years ago. Two children found a baby untended 

and decided to keep it.They were found guilty of kidnapping. Their granite hard Highlandgrandfather (John Laurie) walked the miles home from the trial to his farm in Nova Scotia with his boots hung  around his neck by the laces. The understanding being, he was shamed by his grandchildren. 

No such thing. He was just saving the leather. Where he came from, boots needed to last a long time, so they were only worn for special occasions. Those  making the movie out of the story would have no way of knowing. So they guessed They guessed wrong. The audience would not know that. 

People don't learn from experience of the past. History became an optional study in Ontario High Schools thirty years ago. Even before Wikipedia obviated  the need. 

Technology obviates the need for cursive writing and spelling. 

And Facebook commentary gives us a sense of the new literacy or lack thereoff. 

People no longer know what they don't know. 

It's not rot .

It's just plain, bloody,appalling circa 2017, ignorance.

Cost of education has never been higher.

Value  has never been less. 

There's no sign the generation in charge recognize a mess. 

Politicians are picked  but not for substance. 

THE LATEST CONTROVERSY

On a Sunday newscast , we learned Prime Minister Trudeau was informed of accusations of extremism against four Sikh members of his cabinet .

The Prime Mknister is on a trade and culture visit to India. He is accompanied by six cabinet ministers, four of them Sikh Indian or Indian Sikhs . Another dozen Indian MPs will join him on the trip. 

There are 1.3 million Indians resident in Canada  . We assume the number includes children.

The thought occurs; how many Scots from Scotland are Canadian residents. How many 

are members of Trudeau's cabinet? 

Well why can't I ask that question? It seems relevant to me. 

A tour of three sites was scheduled in the tour, guided by the same government official who accuses Canadian cabinet ministers of extremism and favouring separation in India.

Now it is stated Trudeau will not meet with that official. 

Looks like he doesn't wanna talk abaht it.  

Compare that to his immediate expulsion from caucus of Liberal MPs accused by women MPs of another party of inappropriate ,sexually inclined ,comments. The Prime Minister claims  zero tolerance for some obnoxious conduct but not all. 

Sikh extremists were the personal bodyguard of Indira Gandhi .They assassinated the Indian Prime Minister. I think she was the third Prime Minister of India after Pandit Nehru.that'sgoing back a year 

or fifty. 

Vancouver Sikh extremists put a bomb on a jumbo jet flying to India with hundreds of Indian family members , from infants to elderly. The plane blew up over the Atlantic with no survivors. All they found

were baby shoes and a toy or two. 

Sikhs from Brampton helped Patrick Brown win the Conservative leadership with thousands of phoney memberships and financial contributions. Then sued  because they didn't get an Ottawa nomination. 

I know of a young Canadian mother in an abusive relationship.Husband abandoned the family in

Vancouver.  Sikh landlord evicted them  from their home because  he had leased to a man. 

But the Prime Minister doesn't want to hear allegations against Sikhs, let alone believe them. 

Now then...am I the only one who sees something  skewed in this picture? 

YES SIR....THAT'S MY BABY

Anonymous  has left a new comment on your post "NOTHING IS WHAT IT SEEMS": 

"I don't agree a General is similar to the job of a senior executive in a private corporation. It is certainly not the same as Chief of Staff in the Office of this President. "

You've done none of these three jobs so you cannot comment on what is the same or different.  

Posted by Anonymous to  Our Town and Its Business at 12 February 2018 at 13:13

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Is that so. 

Three responses to the above: 

1.  I did not make the initial statement . I challenged it

2.  How do you know which, if any, or all of the three jobs I might have done? Why do you think you can speak with authority  on my life experience.

3.   I've never been a Pope , a Queen ,or a President but I most certainly am competent to comment 

on any and all of those jobs. 

I know how Franklin Delano Rooseveldt handled the job of President. What he did right and what he did not. He brought America through the Great Depression and was taken in by Joseph Stalin ...

which kept Europe in a state of ferment for forty years after him and the war ended.

He cheated on Eleanor with his secretary. 

Harry Truman ,a haberdasher.  succeeded him. He brought war with Japan to an abrupt end with the worst act of warfare in human history. He ordered nuclear bombs dropped on Hiroshimo and Nagasaki. His daughter Margaret played piano. 

Dwight Eisenhower, played a lot of golf. As president. As a General,he withdrew troops

from the Italian campaign so that General De Gaulle could enter Paris before the French Underground. The Italian campaign lasted three more years with hundreds of thousands of extra lives lost on all sides. 

Eisenhower had an on-going affair with his army driver .She was a she.

John F Kennedy was assassinated before he could make a difference. His dalliance with women was an ill-kept secret. He's an icon. 

Lyndon Johnson was responsible for expanding the  Vietnam war which  everybody would like to forget. He signed the Civil Rights Act and the Voters Rights Act. He is said to have been the most skillful president. 

He had a relationship outside his marriage. 

Richard Nixon we all know about. He was impeached and had  to resign. 

Gerald Ford followed Nixon and pardoned him. 

Then Presidents Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George Bush Senior, Bill Clinton ,George Bush Junior and Barack Obama .

I have read miles of news accounts, biographies and watched the passing parade of leaders in 

a variety of countries . I've seen former colonial countries struggle to leave and the U.S. race  to intervene in the affairs of other nations . At untold expense and loss of young lives.

And now I am watching the grand experiment in American Democracy crashing to an ugly end,with 

a General and a CEO in charge,no President in sight and no obvious effort to save it. 

Ye sir, I do believe I have a right to comment. 

GET REAL

Upper Canada Mall has more than adequate washroom facilities. I've used them and never seen dirty, wet floors any time I've been there. Quite the opposite. 

The last time I travelled to Ottawa on the 401 ,the disabled washrooms had been updated and 

certainly improved. I don't think Ontario, needs to take a back seat to any other area  for clean, adequate facilities. 

I often see groups of disabled in wheelchairs, with attendants , at Upper Canada Mall and think 

that's a nice outing for people otherwise confined and it  reflects a caring community. 

This morning a petition is circulating to compel Upper Canada to provide a  washroom facility adequate 

to accommodate a changing bench, a lift and room for two attendants. 

The alternative, they say,  is lying on a dirty wet floor between a garbage can waiting to be emptied and a toilet. 

If that were true , I don't see that as an option. I am shocked  it would be considered. I think anyone who subjects a disabled person to those conditions should have their authority challenged. I am appalled.

As to changing the Building Code to require Upper Canada Mall to provide a facility such as described,

the same lack of judgement applies. 

A Building Code is a rigid document. 

Aurora had  a Fabricland once. It was a franchise. 

It doesn't exist any more. 

The toilet  was for staff. It was not in the public area. Accessible through a narrow path between 

rolls of fabric and other stock. 

A mother with a child demanded access. It was not practical. A complaint was lodged with the town bylaw office. It resulted in an order to provide public washrooms . Which was entirely impractical.

Pressure  was maintained, resulting in the business closing. 

Neither the mother nor the child ,nor the sewing community ,nor the Town of Aurora benefitted 

from what was an entirely unreasonable demand in the particular circumstances. 

If the mother had not complained ,the bylaw officer would not have been involved. Without interference, the franchise would have carried on providing a service. 

But the Building Code allowed the order. No judgement was exercised. 

I will not be signing a petition to require Upper Canada Mall to provide a facility such as described 

for people so severely disabled as to need space for a changing bench, a lift and room for two 

attendants. It's not realistic. 

Businesses are facing challenges. 80,000 jobs were lost in Ontario in January. Many of them would

be from Sear's closing. People in public office need to pay attention to these things. 

NOTHING IS WHAT IT SEEMS

...Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "KEEPING UP WITH KELLY": 

Perhaps if you looked up his resume you could get answers to your questions. 

Kelly was a General in the USMC. If nothing else, he would have the experience of running an organization of thousands of individuals. Similar to that of a senior executive of a corporation.  

Posted by Anonymous to  Our Town and Its Business at 9 February 2018 at 08:31

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I didn't need to look up  his resume to know the General was an officer in the military. It goes

without saying , he had experience organizing thousands of personnel. 

I doubt my questions would be answered  in Wikipedia. 

I don't agree a General is  similar to the job of a senior executive in a private corporation. It is certainly

not the same as Chief of  Staff in the Office of this President. 

Nothing is the same as Chief of Staff in that Office. 

Furthermore , Chief of Staff in a madhouse is nothing like the same as Chief of Staff to any previous president. 

But without a doubt ,General Steele will end up going the same way as his predecessor. 

In that way,he will not be different . 

As long as people like him can be found to carry the can for the Ogre in the Oval Office, we will continue to talk about the errors and omissions of  Chief of Staff. 

Here's  something else  you might think about; the law may have given women all the rights of men 

 to serve in the military. They can wear the uniform. Achieve senior rank. Carry a weapon.

Engage in battle. They can die in combat.

They will never be accepted by men in the army. 

They will always be at risk of sexual harassment ,sexual assault  and rape.

 No law or penalty or political correctness will ever change that. 

When he was a General, John Steele was not the face of change and he obviously that hasn't 

changed  in his current role. 

KEEPING UP WITH KELLY

When General Kelly was appointed, the media were unanimously positive. I'm not sure why. What credentials does a General in his seventies bring to the job?

 Like ...how many battles did  he win ? 

How many enemy casualties? 

How many of his own men died over the course of his career? 

How many cities destroyed,civilian deaths, children, mothers,fathers,grandparents?

People just like us. 

How many battles lost? What good accomplished?

I know his son was killed in Afghanistan. It's sad ,as is anyone else's loss.

 

It's not an experience likely to be shared with his boss. 

How long since he had a boss or answered to anyone ?

When John Kelly sought  the job, no-one suggested he might be a kindred spirit with the lying, swindling,lecher in the Oval Office. That he himself might share the profanity . 

And yet....why not? Why wouldn't the obvious make sense ?

Why would anyone with judgement not recognize degradation and futility in the association?

Well now the truth emerges. This week  the General suggested Dreamers might be "too lazy to get

off their asses" . Hardly an empathetic choice of words from a man in his position. 

For the last forty-eight hours, non-stop chatter has been about a wife abuser, without security clearance,in a sensitive position. Kelly's reaction  to evidence of spousal abuse was a dead 

giveaway.

The jargon on CNN is "crisis of character " which " could have been avoided" 

In that nest of invertebrates, how could it be avoided ? 

Why would anyone expect anything different? 

The only question left is how much worse can it get ?

EVERYBODY'S A CRITIC

LI watch a lot of "Yes to the Dress " and "My 600 lb. Life" . Not that either particularly interest or entertain but  because both are one click removed from CNN. I frequently need a quick get away..

I can no longer watch or listen to that oozing ,unctuous voice. As soon as I hear " the "latest insert"

I click the switch. It's a good thing I'm not sharing the TV.

Moments  ago I clicked back to hear  Erin Turner chuckling appreciatively over another insane claim to marvelous. Erin herself Is not a long watch. Her voice twangs ,questions are off-point and watching   her rock back and forth in mirth at something seriously disquieting  is seriously disturbing. Don 

Lemon had a similar twinkle of merriment  until the LB.M.G. community came under attack. 

Erin  is a talking head. There's little substance there and she is not alone. 

Maybe a steady diet of political news can warp one's perspective. It likely does the same for those whose job it is, to read  and analyse the news.  

I read the New York Times, courtesy of a friend, and that helps balance things a bit. But much 

of CNN  is repeat of NYT. At any given time, my view may be skewed but we depend on what 

we see,hear, and read and in the end, we must weigh the content and exercise judgement.

We know more about Caroline Mulrooney, She, who would be leader. She has four beautiful children. That's a plus. She has lived in Toronto several years. She has the nomination in York/Simcoe for the  next election. Once she sat beside Doug Ford at a dinner. He said he'd never met her and she'd lived in New York for the last twenty years. 

Two things ...she obviously made litle impression at the dinner and York /Simcoe is not a 

Toronto Riding. John Tory couldn't win in a sure thing  and in fact Conservatives lost the safe bet. 

John Tory is doing a thorough,conscientious job as Mayor of Toronto . Depending on the 

competition , he should be re-elected. Doug Ford says he won't run .John Tory has had a 

friendly  relationship with the Fords. They will likely help each other . That would give Ford an

edge in the GTA. 

It's really not clear why Caroline thinks politics are easy. 

INTERESTING HEADLINES

The week-end was interesting. Declarations  for the Conservative leadership and scandalous revelations about thousands of bogus memberships . Patrick Brown claimed to have sold most 

and probably received the phoney votes. As messy nominations evolved, a Sikh organisation from Brampton claimed credit for membership increases and a substantial financial contribution to Brown's campaign fund. 

Brown is no longer leader . But not for the  reasons above. 

The interim leader states he has "to root out the rot from the core "of the party. He didn't identify the  "rot". Now it has been revealed . Thousands of names on the membership list are not people. Seven 

or eight names at different addresses do not exist. 

That's not good. 

Time is short. . Cleaning up the mess  will be tricky... Disposing of it even trickier. 

Enter Caroline Mulrooney to save the day. Ontario has had enough of the old guard she says,...

 time for new blood.  

Might be a little too new or  a tad less than fresh.

Doug Ford says he knows nothing  about her because she's been working in New York for the last twenty years. 

Caroline is  a lawyer. Like her father. Y'all remember Brian Mulrooney. The guy with the Gucchi shoe collection . Introduced the federal sale tax and swanned off amid scandalous rumours.

He signed N.A.F.T.A. and  left the rest of us to watch manufacturing industries drift away,never

to return , while he sang  Irish Eyes  along with Ronald Reagan. 

Y'all remember Caroline's wedding...like a Princess  of the Realm.

Caroline must be bored with life in Manhattan. Or maybe she plans to commute. Or alternately , it's

a new start to her own life she's seeking. 

She has never held elected office. Might be fun. 

Poor little rich girl. 

Steve Paikin is being investigated following allegations.