The Doppelganger Effect

Vice.com - The Extreme Right Is Increasingly Organized, Globalized and Winning ...


The Doppelganger Effect

(ghostly double or counterpart of a living person.)

... makes me wonder where MP Michael Cooper goes when he's not in the House.

Check out the main page of MP Michael Cooper's website and see the big Canadian flag behind his head. I could just as easily see any of these, judging from the body language that accompanies his strident accusations.

Here's a bit of his background and biases, but not anywhere near all of it, though strongly hinted at by his extreme disrespect toward fellow MP Faisal Khan Surias. We might see more if the Cons manage to get elected thanks to the burgeoning, anti-everything, especially Islam, Christian Far Right.

I can't help wondering how Scheer is going to handle Cooper's inevitable anti-Islam sentiments during the election, considering that a sizeable number of Muslim-Canadians have voted Conservative in the past. Here is a very revealing article on the state of things regarding getting out the Muslim vote:

ClarionProject: Canadian Conservative Party Rejects Muslim Reformer

• “If conservatives don’t have the spine to ‘allow’ candidacy of pro-Western Muslims while Islamists run roughshod on the Left …We. Are. Doomed.”

It seems Scheer is hoping to attract Muslims who voted Liberal but are disappointed with Trudeau. Which could explain why he got so nervous when Michael Cooper sounded off at a Muslim MP.

Scheer's troublesome little friend Michael has a diverting way with words, especially in his first speech in Parliament.

Don't be fooled by how he began what he called his "maiden speech" in the House. That's strangely old-fashioned (not to mention hackneyed and sexist) for one so young. He also begins a sentence with "Indeed" and phrases like rolling up his sleeves and saying,"last but not least" before he heads into just generally trashing the Liberals and predicting no good to come from them. (I fully expected him to say, "Without further ado".)

He also took "great umbrage", a term I first heard from an old-fashioned, hell-fire evangelist.

In fact, Cooper didn't roll up his sleeves, he buttoned down, put a posy in his lapel, and preached like Billy Sunday "the old, old doctrine of damnation". 

It wasn't long before he pointed an outraged finger at Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould:

CBCVideo: Michael Cooper ask Jody Wilson-Raybould to show him some judges
 
He somehow equated her trip to Morocco with not appointing enough Alberta judges, his own website flatly stating she had gallivanted off on the tax payers' ticket instead of doing her job:

MichaelCooperMP: Appointment of Just One Judge Proves Liberals Are Paying Lip Service to Filling Judicial Vacancies

• She should be ashamed of herself. While she enjoys her taxpayer funded trip to Morocco, Conservatives will continue to hold her to account,”

As with Billy Sunday, the facts were no deterrent, but here's JWR's report of the trip:

Canada.ca: Minister Wilson-Raybould attends justice conference in Morocco

• “I was pleased to attend the inaugural International Justice Conference in Morocco.  It is clear that Canada is viewed as a global leader in ensuring judicial independence, diversity and the rule of law.  We all benefit when nations come together to share best practices.”
• More than 40 ministers of justice attended the inaugural conference being hosted by the Kingdom of Morocco.  
• In 2016, bilateral trade between Canada and Morocco totaled over $767.0 million in sectors such as agriculture, education, aerospace, tourism, and mining.

Even if she enjoyed herself, it's not as if she spent Christmas with the Aga Khan (which by the way, although inappropriately funded, reportedly did not cost the taxpayer a cent).

Apparently, it's not at all out of character for Cooper to be grossly insulting:

CBCVideo: Tory MP disparaged 'goat herder cultures' in law school ...

Poor Michael has completely lost recall of that occasion, but feels he didn't say anything derogatory about those "goat herder cultures".  Still, he's taking 'all necessary legal measures' to counter the accusation.

I wonder what he considers "necessary" in cases of amnesia. I hope he doesn't opt for a polygraph test;  the RCMP has lost its own credibility over those. Besides, they and their machines aren't equipped to detect gross racism -- or indigenous genocide, for that matter.

NationalObserver: RCMP’s secretive truth squad uses questionable science to ferret out lies

• ...the RCMP conducted more than 4,000 polygraph tests in 2018 alone, according to the Mounties themselves — mostly to screen applicants for security clearance, but for witnesses and suspects in criminal cases as well.
• It’s all part of the work of the Truth Verification Section, a little-known unit of the federal policing service which seeks to ferret out lies in suspected criminals and would-be spies.

Omigawd: look at the title of that RCMP department!

ENotes.com: In the book 1984, what was the main role of the Ministry of Truth?

• As with the names of the other ministries in Oceania, the name Ministry of Truth means the opposite of what it says. If the Ministry of Love is the place of torture and hate, the Ministry of Truth is where lies are manufactured.

Limping on:

It seems that, beneath that slicked-back hair, suit, tie and boutonniere, MP Michael Cooper may well be a determined Extreme Right Christian, a phenomenon growing by leaps and bounds. One can only hope they truly are living in their own "last days".

BCHumanist: The Rise of the Christian Right in Canada

• Christian right groups have influenced politics for years, since Stephen Harper’s years as prime minister to Doug Ford’s victory ...They will likely vote for Andrew Scheer’s Conservatives in next year’s federal election.​

Image: Inside Quebec's far right: Radical groups push extreme message
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