The Government's not at home

Image from: MROnline: Sweezy on the rise of fascism
In recent times, fascist movements have emerged around the world. They have mobilized thousands of people around racist, reactionary ideas, and in some cases have directly won political power. ... Besides Brazil, fascist politics have taken hold in the United States, Britain, Hungary, Poland, and other parts of Europe.


Believe it or not, the government - as described at election time - is not at home.

Don't call us; we'll call you ... maybe.

Wouldn't it be fun to turn the tables? Video: Trump calls George Costanza but "Believe it or Not George Isn't at Home"

Thought I'd start right off with a chuckle because from here on in there's nothing but godoffal, from erroneous doom and gloom predictions to dangerous societal trends that appear all too real.

Reason.com: When Earth Day Predictions Go Predictably Wrong
It’s time to stop freaking out about humanity's imminent demise.

• ... in 1969, Stanford University biologist Paul Ehrlich wrote that "Most of the people who are going to die in the greatest cataclysm in the history of man have already been born." He added that by 1975, "some experts feel that food shortages will have escalated the present level of world hunger and starvation into famines of unbelievable proportions." In 1970, he revised his prediction for the worse to warn us, as Perry writes, that "between 1980 and 1989, some 4 billion people, including 65 million Americans, would perish in the 'Great Die-Off.'"
• In 1972, a group known as the Club of Rome made similarly apocalyptic predictions.
• The Earth's atoms may be fixed, but the possible combinations of those atoms are infinite. What matters, then, is not the physical limits of our planet, but human freedom to experiment and reimagine the use of resources that we have.

Okay, one more guffaw before it gets really scary ...
Video: Gloom, despair and agony on me (If it weren't for bad luck, we'd have no luck at all.)

We may well have worse things to worry about than over-population (which, if the surface were lightly scratched might well reveal racism) and the trumpeted threat of "climate change" that's already on schedule to lighten everyone's pockets.

Here's something really sad ...

Reason.com: "Attack on Jewish-Owned Restaurant Is Hate Crime Hoax, Cops Say

• "We found evidence of a crime. It just wasn't a hate crime."
• Winnipeg police now believe the hate crime was a hoax staged by the Jewish owners of the BerMax Caffe. All three were arrested and charged with "public mischief," which is the Canadian equivalent of misleading police investigators.
• The Berents deserve every opportunity to prove their innocence, and should be treated as such unless the authorities make a compelling case. But this development serves as yet another reminder for the public to take hate crime news with a grain of salt.

If the Berents are indeed guilty, one has to wonder why they didn't consider the possibility they would end up trivializing hate crimes. I'd have to think that maybe it's time the holocaust story was moved on from and attempts were made to live in the present. What's happening to people of a number of religious persuasions and races does not bode well. There have been far-right uprisings in Canada in the past, and the future doesn't look so good either.

TheLink: This Isn’t the First Rise of the Far-Right in Canada

• Looking at the return of “mainstream’’ fascism today, it’s a wonder we learn anything at all.
• “It wasn’t all golden for the anti-fascist movements, however. As Canada battled against fascism overseas, the anti-fascist organizations it was home to were outlawed as well.”

Take a look at what's happening in Quebec at this very moment at the hands of a strongly right-leaning government that feels it has a right to dictate rather than serve:

TheLink: Protests Against Bill 21 Continue as Legault Tells Students to Find Other Jobs

• Students Sat Outside the Minister of Immigration, Diversity and Inclusion’s Office to Denounce Controversial Secularism Bill
• Bill 21 ... would prohibit workers in the public sector like police, judges, and teachers, from wearing religious symbols at work. The government hopes to pass the bill by June 15. 
• Faeze Memarbashi came to Quebec from Iran in 2012. “I expected to see freedom,” she said at Friday’s protest against Bill 21. “Because of this law we are thinking of moving. This is not a place to live.”
• Damian Kube, a first-year Dawson student, said his kippah makes him think twice about studying law at McGill. “If I wanted to become state attorney, or judge, I would be prevented from doing so,” he said.

As much as I personally would prefer that people ceased wearing their religion as fashion statements, I am very much in favour of their absolute right to do so -- but it's obvious that xenophobia has taken hold in Quebec (and elsewhere).  The Quebec legislation is a strong indication that the "Christian Right" has made serious inroads into Quebec society, and it does not bode well for the survival of what we like to call "democracy" in "the true north strong and 'free'".

If this is the way things are going, when I die I hope there's no such thing as reincarnation, because I don't want to be around for when this trend is entrenched. It seems it's the countries that cry freedom the loudest that are leading the way to societal erosion, affecting youth and paving the way toward a cold, heartless future.

Here's a nice little horror essay from Ireland that nevertheless makes a strong point about the political culture developing in the so-called democracies:

"TheArticle": To keep our children away from death cults and knife crime, we must instill in them a culture of belonging

• Culture has huge impact on any organisation, school or company. It also changes society, our expectations of the future and of ourselves. But when we vote for political parties, we tend to only look at strategies and policies and find it hard to look beyond these to the type of culture that would be generated by the beliefs of a party’s political leader.
• Leaders matter: their beliefs and values matter. Culture sets the tone of a political party and by implication, the country, if that party is in power.

Believe it or not, the homeland we sing about in our anthems isn't answering the phone. It's still blithely misreading the public, attempting to tell them only what it's assumed they want to hear.

Did you know the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP) that was supposed to be dead has reportedly risen from its very shallow grave?  Of course not; this is just one of the things our government has involved us in when it hoped we weren't paying attention.

MROnline: They’re at it again: selling the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement

• The agreement includes provisions that require harmonization and thus a reduction in food safety standards, force governments to negotiate new standards with industry representatives, set deadlines for import checks, require that new standards be based on scientific principles, and that safety standards be applied “only to the extent necessary to achieve the appropriate level of protection” and “not [be] more trade restrictive than required.”

Did you vote for that?  I thought not.