The Liberal nomination in the riding of Saint-Laurent, was supposed to be for Yolanda James, the star candidate, former MNA and cabinet minister in the provincial government. She was all but appointed to run for that riding, considered to be one of safest in Canada for Liberals. The Liberal organization practically decreed that James should get it, heavily lobbying people to vote for her. In fact, they turned down long serving St-Laurent borough mayor Alan DeSousa who was blocked for reasons unknown by the party from also running. Conspiracy theorists claiming that he was blocked in order to let James take the seat. It was not long before we heard the painfully repetitive cry of “Shame” without any hint of the schadenfreude underlying the pointed finger. All the while their own hypocrisy is left to slide away. The liberals say they have changed but look the pundits cry, they have not changed at all. Same old back room dealing and same old roughshod over the local people to impose their big bad will on them. Except? For people who are in the news business should they not read the actual facts? Alan DeSousa was blocked, no reason given. How about he was one of the long term mayors that worked around all the corruption in Montreal and did nothing about it? How about the party was trying to distance itself from that same old legacy of being surrounded by the “Sponsorship Scandal” which it could not if even a hint or smell of corruption came with DeSousa? Or could it be they just don’t want to take on his baggage so they let him down gently with a polite but firm, “No thanks.” As for the process; let democracy be the judge is the new policy. Last time I checked, free speech was part of that so called Democracy. So the party saying, “James is a great person who will do you proud if you select her as your representative for your riding;” is very much a long way from parachuting her into the riding without holding a vote. James showing her class when she tweeted her congratulations to the winner. The very same person elected by the riding itself. Same old? Same old democracy speaking perhaps? There is shame to be had here but it is merely the shadow of talking heads mired in a past best left behind by all concerned. Oh and the lady who won? Emmanuella Lambropoulos, a 26-year-old high school teacher who now has a new career and considering how safe her seat is, she may be in politics for a very long while. Good for her. She won by going door to door and rallying the people to her side. She also just happens to live in her riding that she will represent. Who would have thought when the Liberal party said things have changed that they would let some unknown political novice be elected into one of their fortresses. Unheard of. Indeed, even unthinkable. And this act of direct democracy in action is being called shameful? Same old Liberals? Hip hip hooray! Let’s have more of this “Old Song and Dance” again. And let the people decide who they want to represent them. Oh wait, the Liberals already have in this riding. More power to them all! People power.

When dealing with the American election, people are struggling to define the so call economic model that presently exists within the USA. They have called it with such vague descriptors as corporate capitalism, or crony capitalism, but they have thus far failed to grasp the exact nature of this system. They keep reaching for new explanations, when a perfectly good one lies hidden in plain sight, but not from the present, it comes from the past. What other economic system exists where 1% holds 99% of the wealth? Where the religious leaders tell people that this is the divine plan and they should simple hope for better in the afterlife. Where the class one is born to, marks the person for life. This system was called Feudalism. It very much has returned to the land of the free, home of the brave called these United States.
The American case has some specific modern twists. The first leg of this tripod comes from Russian refuge Ayn Rand, for whom we refer to in philosophy as among the groups of irrationals. She has an extensive body of work where she posits that greed is the only good. So long as I am looking out for number one, the rest will follow. The second leg of our tripod is the Protestant system of “Election”, (To be among those elected by Christ.) Not be confused with anything to do with voting. By this we call to mind, that God has ordained people to be the elect, into his grace. Those who have an automatic ticket into heaven, no matter what they do on Earth, they have been elected or chosen to everlasting life. So no matter how much harm, misery or suffering they cause, they have their place reserved for them in the paradise to come. This takes a load off the mind from worrying about what is to come. This also applies to corporations and their fiduciary responsibility to maximise profit no matter the social consequences. So long as they follow the mandates of cooperate election, to maximise profits, they can do no wrong. Lead by executives who also lack any sense of morality, for they are “Elect” of God, the combination is a single minded focus that destroys as many lives as needed to maximise the bottom line for the company and share holders. The last pillar comes from the social aspect of race, specifically that the so called “White Race” which in this doctrine is seen as superior to the again, so called “Black and / or Brown Races.” Selfish greed, elect by God and superior to all people, whatever could go wrong with such a combination? All three aspects tend to be different iterations of the same sort policy goals that the so called capitalistic market place in the USA endorses. I got mine and to hell with you. In this case, literally, to hell with you.
Breaking each aspect down further, we begin with the notion of greed. In Adam Smith ideal economy there is the trickledown theory. The rich can only consume so much wealth and thus in their exuberance, they allow plenty to pass down to enrich the lower classes. Sadly, this is based on the notion that goods and services expire, they break or wear out or in the case of food, spoils. When this happens there is a constant need for replacement so that the lower class that produces the goods and services consumed by the upper class, are then enriched in the making or selling such goods to those in the upper class. This is not the case of modern economy where ideas mean more. They have no time limit or expiration date. By this we call to mind stocks, bonds and other assets that are not tangible, immoveable things. A joint stock company may own immovable’s, like manufacturing plants, buildings, furniture. But the stocks in that corporation are nothing but pieces of paper, on in this computer age, dots on the screen. This is a mental construct of ownership of any given company. The owner of stock need not replace or repair it, as stock will not wear out, or break down. The ownership is constant and so too is the income from profits. They simple accept the wealth and benefits from ownership including unlimited future earnings that are taxed lower than income, as this wealth is seen as privileged wealth that creates jobs. If only this was still the case today. Thus the wealthy are able to amass greater and greater control in their hands while not having to spend any of that capital to maintain their so called “Property”. Whereas a rich person might spend some or very little of their money, they literally are taking the wealth and freezing it away from the economy as they purchase more and more stocks and bonds. A poor person, needing all their money to pay bills and survive, commonly seen as living paycheque to paycheque, dispense all the case they have and are often forced to borrow more money be it on credit from credit cards or worse Payday Loan shops. This in turn creates record profits for both industries that are in this vicious loop, and ultimately returned to rich people. A rich person given a dollar would ignore it as they have many more. A poor person would spend that money as they have none of their own.
Therefore, in order to spur the economy, create new jobs, and grow the country itself, the tax burden must be returned to the wealthy, who simply are not using their wealth, in order to transfer the tax burden from the lower and middle class who will in turn spend this money adding to the economy. What blocks this is the greed of the rich who wish to hold on to what they own. Note that I did not call this selfish, as it might be in some cases, but it might not be as well. We all hate paying taxes. We all hate unfairness and we all hate to be singled out. But when the top 1% of 1% of the American people earn as much as the bottom 20%, it is not a time for increasing tax breaks for the rich or reducing their income tax. When corporations pay a tax rate lower than a poor person existing at the poverty line, there is something wrong with this picture. Sadly, the American dream is purchased and sold to those same rich people. There is no will to assist the poor or the middle class. There is however, a lot of incentive to help the rich donator class, as they will give money to future elections, jobs, and other perks to impress people into enacting legislation that will benefit themselves and only themselves. Because they are the elites. The poor are those cursed by God, coloured people or simple those who are too weak to be selfish in their own right.
Where there is no justice, there can be no peace. This lesson was learned in Europe in the 19th century as the lower class would rise up in rebellion and try to over throw the existing order, and execute the wealthy oppressors. In time, it became clear to the wealthy they might be elected by God, but they might want to live to a ripe old age to not rush to meet their maker, rather than be left swinging on the apple tree in their yard. At some point, the overwhelming majority of people who make up the lower and middle class will turn to violence and they will enact their vengeance. Wake up before it is too late. Make social justice your rallying cry! Not self enrichment, lacking empathy to all who are not as lucky as you. Stocks are made of paper. They burn just as well as factories do, as well as rich people hanging from their gallows. The only question left before us is this, how will America solve its problems? By accord, or by the sword? Time will answer this.

In the distant but cold lands of Quebec, Professor Andrew Potter of McGill University wrote an article for Maclean’s Magazine;(Article be here)  where he all but toss the province under a bus. In it he claimed; “Quebec is an almost pathologically alienated and low-trust society, deficient in many of the most basic forms of social capital that other Canadians take for granted.” His evidence steams from the recent storm where hundreds of people where caught in traffic pile up on a major highway during a very nasty storm. Other evidence includes; “We’re talking here about a place where some restaurants offer you two bills: one for if you’re paying cash and another if you’re paying by a more traceable mechanism.” (Note the editorial change “Due to an editing error, a reference in an earlier version of this piece noted that “every restaurant” offered two bills. We have clarified this to say “some restaurants will offer you two bills.”) And let us not forget: “Since 2014, municipal police across the province have worn pink, yellow, and red clownish camo pants as a protest against provincial pension reforms. They have also plastered their cruisers with stickers demanding “libre nego”—”free negotiations”—and in many cases the stickers actually cover up the police service logo.” By way of conclusion, he writes; “And then a serious winter storm hits, and there is social breakdown at every stage. In the end, a few truckers refuse to let the towers move them off the highway, and there’s no one in charge to force them to move. The road is blocked, hundreds of cars are abandoned, and some people spend the entire night in their cars, out of gas with no one coming to help. Forget bowling alone. In this instance, Quebecers were freezing, alone.” With respect Professor, I would suggest sticking with things you know, like that fantasy quidditch league you are in, or making up thing for Maclean’s magazine to yet again slander Quebec.

Let’s unpack this snowbound snow job and see just what happened. In a recent nasty snowstorm, Quebec was hit with huge amounts of snow, some place 70 cm worth and very high winds 140 kmph, which is a gale force range. So very nasty weather. It happens up here every winter. In this year’s case it was also a perfect storm for government. Or more specifically, the traffic department. While the finger point is going on, it is clear the Transport minister and his department failed miserable to deal with this situation, but the problems can be spread around. Two trucks where stopped by the weather on a highway in Montreal. The tow truck arrived and the tow was declined. Why? If the trucker approve the tow, they have to pay, a fee of 2000$ was mentioned. That a lot of money for a guy making less than a 1000$ gross a week, if that. So what normally happens is Transport Quebec calls in the Provincial Police. They arrive, see there is a danger and order the tow. Since the police ordered the tow, the company pays for it not the driver. And everyone is happy. The QPP, as they are called, never showed up. The tow never happened, and the cars piled up. Now then where is the “Low trust” part of the argument? The truck drivers trusted the police to order the tow. Transport Quebec trusted the police to show up. The Police trusted that Transport Quebec would call them if there was a problem.  But it gets better. The people stuck in cars began to call 911 to get help and were referred to the QPP. However, when it was notified at the city level that there was an emergency, because the fire department was called in to rescue people, the city sprang into action to help and assist those people. Through it all, where did most people stay? In their cars trusting one another to help, waiting, trusting that the state would come to help them, and trusting that they were safer waiting then risking the blizzard. Strange reaction for a bunch of low trusting people. Speaking of those police in clown costumes, it seems they were trusted to help as well. The police seemingly trust the population to not hold it against them they wear different coloured pants because they are protesting government contracts. Why, it seems that the police are also trusting in their Charter Rights to bring grievances to the government demanding redress in a peace manner, if but a riot of colours. In the end, the people were right, help did come, after all it was not the apocalypse. It was only a traffic jam on the highway in a snow storm. Both happen all too frequently in Montreal.

As for “Harry’s” effort to bring in “Facts” (TM), Please note the trade mark for these “Fact” (TM), so not to be confused with alt facts or the more boring, plain and simple, normal facts. Potter writes; “Quebec isn’t just at the lower end of a relatively narrow spectrum: rather, most of the country is bunched up, with Quebec as a significant outlier.” To which any researcher would ask the pertinent question of; “So what, outliers happen?” There is a reason we do focus on outlier. We do not even consider them as part of the study. We report them and move on. For any number of reasons from poor translation, remember Quebec is French, to cultural shifts to simply bad sampling. In statistical research you expect there to be outliers, you do not make your research findings based on them. Sorry no points for Huff(ing) and Puff(ing).

My last point is to a much wider issue. What exactly is MacLean’s problem with Quebec? Seems to me they try to sell as many copies on the back of a scandalous Quebec. No matter how wrong an opinion, how insulting or how wrong head they are, they never yet fail to print an article insulting Quebec. Only now armed with a Quisling, he teaches at McGill, and McGill is in Quebec so he knows… As they pat themselves on the back for having done due diligence. Except they failed to be diligent or give the commentary its due, rather overdue, past due, and that it is really a Do-Do.

“Andrew Potter has resigned as director of McGill University’s Institute for the Study of Canada, two days after writing a controversial Maclean’s column…” (Link)

This was his dream job? Insulting people, make false assertions and soiling the reputation of 6 million plus province? Cause we all eat at restaurants that give two bills? Professor Potter’s next job will be with the American White House where he will investigate the Bowling Green Massacre, The Swedish Massacre; how the audience vanish at Trump inauguration, even though Sean Spicer say’s it is the largest so it must be true, and he will be backing up Kelly Ann Conway by showing us how our microwaves can be turned into cameras that will spy in you. On second thought, best stick to the fantasy quidditch league, I hear tell you have Viktor Krum in your draft.

I share this for information purposes and as a warning to people about scammers.

I received a call from “Officer Paul Smith” of the Canadian Revenue Agency. He got that far into his script before I hung up on him! How rude you might say! So why did I hang up on him? It’s a provincial Holiday, so anyone calling from the government would not be calling here and never on a holiday. Second with my last name being French, they automatically assume I am French speaking and always speak to me in French not English. This officer called in English because he can only speak English. Our Governments are usually bilingual speaking both English and French. Lastly, this is an old scam. CRA only communicated by letter and email but never by a phone call. They are too easy to scam people.

This old con is where Scammers try to warn you about your impending doom, court cases, seizures and arrest should you not send them money instantly. And it must be sent now or they cannot help you with this problem and then bad things will happen to you. Being today is a Provincial holiday it would be very hard to find a place that is open to send money by Western Union. But again scammers don’t know this as they are not even calling from the same country. They can pick up the money from Western Union anywhere in the world. CRA works by checks, bank drafts and gives you many weeks to pay any such bill, as does any western government. Scammers need you to run quickly in a panic and not think of it in any other way then presented. For it you did stop to think about it you would very much reconsider giving money over Western Union. I was watching something on the Large Hadron Collider and that is much more fun to watch than play with this jerk. So I just hung up on him. And yes I do know I am a geek watch such TV, your point being?

Ok, so a little while later the phone just rang again. It was from the same idiot “Officer Paul Smith” of the Canadian Revenue Agency only with a different voice. But the same name. The name is written into their script. If you can believe that. (Face palm) I said very loudly, “It’s a scam, it’s a scam!” The guy kept reading from his script as if that might mean something. So this is over and done with right? Wrong. I get a third and final call only this time it is not “Officer Paul Smith” of the Canadian Revenue Agency; it is an auto dialer with a recorded message from Canadian Revenue Agency telling me I have a problem that must be resolved by sending money yadda yadda yadda. I got online send all three numbers to the CRTC web site to complain about such scammers. It is a shame we do not have a way to contact police about such numbers. I once tried to do that with Bell and they have no way to block calls either. Worse, to report a crime you have to leave a name address and contact number as well as an email address online. I just want to report the crime, not get involved.

Anyways, if contacted by “Officer Paul Smith” of the Canadian Revenue Agency, just hang up the phone.

I was told with sincerity, after Australia confiscated all their guns, the crime rate soared for personal violence such as rape and murder. No gun to protect yourself and other people means that only criminals will have guns and the public at large is in danger for those animals. The thought occurred to me, that if there were no more guns then there would be no guns for a criminal to steal and then turn on people, so I explored the stats to find out that…  dramatic pause clearly stolen from Monty Python “The Adventures of Ralph Mellish”… And nothing happened. Seriously, nothing happened. No spike in crime, No pile of dead bodies. Nothing. Could the same happen in the USA? Well why not study the matter. Oh wait. Sorry, The NRA allied with politicians to legally restrict all funding for anyone study gun crime and or gun violence. Why would they do that for? Well so they can pass off anecdotal evidence as their version of scientific fact. Gun owners are a single issue voter. Just tell them anything about guns that they feel is a threat and they will go nuts.

So what limited research we do have shows a lot of things but most of it bad news. So is there a correlation between gun laws and a lower crime rate? No. Why? Not all gun laws are equal. Just cause there is a law does not make it a good law, an effective law or an enforced law. So a straight count of the number of laws gives no clear indication. What about a reading of the law? Would that help the matter? No. That would allow in subjective criteria to play a role. What you see as being harsh, I see as lenient. In fact, we could list any number of possible criteria and they would all fail due to the same flaw of being subjective. All except one. There is a direct correlation in the number of guns around and their use. Make sense. If you do not have a gun, you cannot use a gun.  For the most part, usage of guns is a crime of passion. Whether it is to harm yourself or others, any time to reflect would drastically give different result. That would, in turn lower violence in all forms. Simply put, to lower gun violence and thus the number of mass shootings, simply make it harder and harder to the point of restricting gun ownership. The key problem being the NRA effectively targets anyone who dares stand up to them. Or at least they proclaim themselves to be that powerful. Imagine this, if 40 years ago the tobacco industry was able to outlaw research into smoking. Where would we be today? Everyone is smoking and people dropping dead from cancer and no one knowing why. Leading to perhaps the most incredible of conclusions; the tobacco industry is more ethical then the gun industry. How incredible is that? That or the gun lobby was smarter then tobacco in any case in their lobbying efforts. In America, it is so nice to know that people are being slaughtered in the name of gun industry profits. 90% of Americans want some greater form of background checks. The NRA says no. Thus the politicians say no. Best of all? You cannot sue a gun manufacturer for their actions in selling a gun as it is a legal product. So sayeth the congress, bought and paid for by the NRA.

Look into their cold dead eyes of any killer and know this person needs to be put underground. That is why we have the death penalty, as a punishment for evil doers so they will never be able to do this again. So I would put to you this simple fact, death is an escape from any punishment that a killer may face. We are adding and abetting them in said escape. They don’t care if they live or if they die. They don’t care for your rules or societies concerns. They simply don’t care. So we kill them and make us feel safer. Our prison system is supposed to be about reform. Well when dead you can deform, not reform. To reform, you must suffer. To suffer you must feel. To feel when you are dead inside is only possible with time, lots of time. The days grow weary upon the soul. Time passes endless and yet ceases not when the four walls close in on you. In maximum security, you only had time. Time to sit; time to wait and time to regret. In 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, Timothy McVeigh went to his death penalty smiling. After all, it was 168 to 1 with his death. He escaped punishment. All the state did was to take his life. Today some 22 years later, is he was still alive, he would be in the same cell, with the same walls, the same view, and same 1 hour of isolated outdoors he had the day before and the day before that. Now, if he had been left alive, he would be alone. Long since forgotten. Virtually ignored by all. And yet his mind would have all the time in the world to think of what he did. To think of what he accomplished in his slaughter of how many babies in that day care? There were 19 baby angels murdered by him. If no one else, they might have sparked a message in his heart. They might have invaded his dreams at night. They might have tormented him as his ‘reward’, punishment to any other way of thinking. Scrooge changed over night with but three ghosts. How many nights and how many of the 168 ghost would have haunted his nights? For this, we shall never know.
In 1972 at the Munich Olympics’, Palestinian terrorist captured and killed 11 athletes. In the end three terrorist lived to tell their tale. While open to debate, they still fear the wraith of the Jewish State upon them. MOSSAD still hunts for them. Hunt being the right word. Now to be caught they having lived 45 years, they will die with much to lose and many more to regret their passing. When someone has death in their eyes, like those terrorists, or any child soldier they are dead within. You cannot hurt them or harm them. You cannot punish or reform. All you can do is kill them. With the passage of time, and the growing shadows of years, that death turns to life, and the fear of death creeps in with days. Then and only then, does time become the punishment itself. What waits upon the other side, if anything? Will it be seen as in favour of the slaughter of innocent? Or will it lead to an eternal torment and punishment to last all of the ages. We shall never know on this side of the vale, but rushing killers to the other side is not the answer. Let them live. Let them learn to fear that final trip. Let them know regret for their actions and finally let them understand the cruelest of all punishments is not to kill them, but to let them live in a cell for the rest of their days.

The Congress personifying the so called Leninist term, that Lenin never used, of being “Useful Idiots” continue to think they are so clever in hiding their actions from the American people of destroying all progressive legislation passed in the Obama years. A useful idiot is someone helping a third party, usually the Soviet Communists, or in todays case Putin’s Russia, to destroy the American dream from within. They think they are using Trump and his team where as Russian is using them for their own ends. Paul Ryan, speaker of the House was astonished to understand that insurance was for those not affected by events to help those that were afflicted by such events. You buy flood insurance as a large body in order to protect the few who are flooded in the rains. Ryan’s astonishment was based solely on never having seen Ayn Rand use the word in any of her nihilistic ramblings rather than his merely being stupid. Insurance? How dare those sick people pay into a system that would entitle them to help when they were struck down and afflicted with disease? Stupidity was the theme of his presentation to the media on his proposed Trump care. It is one thing that we assume you are an idiot, it is another to open your mouth and prove it to be the case. What is amazing in all this, he is consider to be one of the smart republicans and yet has not a clue what the concept of insurance is supposed to mean, supposed to do and supposed to be there for. The health bill is D.O.A., dead on arrival. The left hate it and so does the right, albeit for very different reasons. So much for “Repeal and Replace.” The health care act is merely the tip of the iceberg for the so called right wing trying to undo any and all progressive legislation. What the industrialist money owners want changed is that Obamacare is an additional tax on their greed and need to impoverish all workers from any hope of a long life beside hard work, sweat and toil for their corporate machines. For Trump it is bread and circus. As the small minded run around fighting over the crumbs, he and his small hands are quietly gutting the Department of State, the IRS and any other department they can get rid of. America used to have worldwide influence and some, not much, but some, moral authority in the world at large. No more. And done in with less than a 100 days in office. What a winner he is that small handed guy. The USA has gone from weak leadership under Obama to outright incompetence under Trump, and the only one who does not see it is Donald J. Trump himself. Steve Bannon, his special councillor, think of the movie “The Godfather” for a closer to the real truth portrayed of his job function as “mafia consigliere” to President Donald J Trump. How this man with clear links to right wing extremists is able to sit on the national Security Council boggles the mind. Let along that he is sitting in the same office as the President. His only goal is to remove the USA from the world stage into some neo isolationist camp and let the world fall to pieces. Only to be picked up again by who knows. The wealthy feel they have a puppet as a president, yet are missing the clear comparison to Hitler, who in his day was considered to be an idiot. Was considered to be their puppet and was considered to be under control. Wonder how that worked out for them and the world at large. Not to mention the Jewish populations among other minorities. The sad thing is that Trump has not even tried to hide his displeasure with Mexicans or Muslims, yet when he signs his travel ban people are surprised that he is doing this? The insanity is clear. And no one is going to win, just everyone will be losing.

God save America… because their politicians won’t.

In the environmental front, we have protests over the continuing need for pipelines to transport oil and gas. Simply put, a pipeline make economic sense as it involves no humans to carry the liquid from place to place. So simple and easy. Except, the pipeline breaks and this causes problems of spilled oil. Well there is a simply idea to solve both concerns. The people building any new or future pipeline must agree to a new law. And the law is simple, any environmental damage clean up will ignore the corporate veil such that any front corporations and executives are liable until such amount as the cost to repair and restore the damage is paid for. This way creating front corporations to protect against liabilities, from spills and clean up will be forced up the food chain to the people who are profiting from the pipeline itself, including directors, CEO and all listed managers will be liable for all damages.   The next pipeline to be made will have those assurances built into them. I guarantee you that once this new law is passed there will never be another pipeline built because no matter how they lie about pipeline safety, the people who will suffer are not only those who are directly affected by the spill, but everyone connected to it. Under those conditions, oil and gas will return to being transported the safe way.

As Nero Fiddled, Rome Burned

Now, while Trump tweets, Washington is in flames?

Are we in fact watching the decline and fall of the American Empire? Is the United States of America in its final divide? “A house divided cannot stand,” said Abraham Lincoln, who managed to survive the Civil war. Today, will that same house outlast the cynical partisan divide? Have the house Republicans out distanced any sense of balance, fair play and dived into Hubris that they simply don’t care what Donald Trump says, i.e. The Bowling Green massacre, The Sweden massacre, the alternative facts, The Obama wire tapping.  And the list goes on. Yet at the same time we have Mike Flynn resigning for lying to people about his contact with the Russian ambassador, Jeff Session perjuring himself over the same question to the Senate and multiple people popping up to say they too meet with Russians during and after the election. Is Donald Trump’s administration merely the new Russian front? And what about the sex tape that they Steel file claims is out there of Donald Trump peeing on a bed Obama may have used, all in the best spy footage ever taking by the Russian KGB latest installment as FSB, Federal Security service? And all of this and Trump has been in office for not his 100 days but just over the first 50 days? And just who can forget the inauguration, watched by the largest crowds EVER! EVER! Thus screamed Whitehouse spokesmen Sean Spicer as he flushed any hope of his own credibility down the new paper wire, along with his reputation and the truth by lying in his first press conference with the media. “You can’t handle the Truth”, screamed another equally silly little man named Colonel Jessup in “A Few Good Men.” Sadly who ever might remember such an event clearly was not there. America was built in part on the largest internal economy allowing for the free shipment of goods and services within the borders until now, where congress will be asked to pass legislation for 1 trillion dollars in infrastructure renewal, except it won’t renew anything. It will in fact, sell off the highways and bridges to private interests creating new tariff walls against this free movement. You cannot get there from here, unless you pay, will soon be the norm.

Thankfully, in the houses and in the streets, Americans are angry, pissed even. Those few who hate Obama care but love the Affordable Care Act will soon realize they are one and the same. Well they will realize it once it is gone, repealed and replaced. The red states who voted for Trump are also the states that need Obama care the very most. Burnt once shy twice? We can only wait and see what will happen in next year’s midterm elections. Yet even that is not enough, if the people merely elect blue dog democrats instead of blue dog republicans. They need to find a liberal to rally around. They need to unleash the progressive wing of the party. In short they need to take back the hands of government from those who would drive the country to the brink of disaster. Or surely as the Roman Republic fell, so too will this republic. Not by war and invasion but by greed and stupidity. It is truly time to make America Great again. This starts with the remove of Donald J. Trump from Office that he has stained by his mere presence. The removal of his many cabinet picks with competent people and the overthrow of the Republicans death grip on the Congress. The people need to stand up and be counted for. Or truly Washington is burning to the ground to extinguish the shining beacon of hope for freedom and liberty.

Hi Jeff (Jeff@amazon.com)

Not happy here

My mother wanted some Danielle Steel books

So I help her out, she is not savvy on computers, I quickly open up to amazon.ca and start shopping

Bam right from the start

The search engine was crap

Had search in the category of books for I quote “Danielle Steel in books” in “the category of books”, because anything else gets me a lot of authors whose name are not Danielle steel.  It’s like there are books and there are book-books but to search you really need to search in book-book-books….

So strike one.

But heck we went on. Usually you get good service….

Usually….

Not today

So I want on to search for her books. She likes to read books, so can I eliminate all the rest like hard covers and Kindle. Nope have to look at those because, hey, you have to push them on me. She does not buy them or read them but I guess the search engine feels they have to push that shit on her just in case no means maybe? Can I use the categories to eliminate those options?

Hell no.

No sophisticated enough…

Strike two

Keep on pushing forward to try and find something she wants…

Get her 10 books, mass market, ordered from all over the world… All those different sellers located around the world. Great stuff except for the price. See the price for the books was fine, but the shipping? That was cost 50% of the price of books. In the summary, before you buy is the total shipping price but there is no way to tell who is charging how much for shipping and handling. All I get is a large total. So I searched to eliminate those high costs… and what do I see… a large question mark going guess what? You have to look at the home page for each book otherwise it’s a secret. So I could do that or…

After strike two comes?

You got it!

Strike three you’re out!

Or rather I am.

So I went to Heather’s site called Chapters Indigo

https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/

A nice place.

Friendly, did not try to tell me I had to buy kindle, or anything else for that matter.

I started my search in books for the author and surprise all I got was the author and the books she wrote! And best of all? I could select the format I wanted them in! I then made a few more clicks and wow all I had was mass market books that my mother wanted. Wow and then when I went to order my books, I saw how much I was being charge for each one in shipping and handling. Why that would be zero not 50% of the total price. The books arrive on my door on Wednesday. Your orders would have arrived before April 20 for the distant sellers.

But I’ll go you one further. See Jeff, I went looking to send feedback to the site. You know some weasel form you fill out that no one will bother to read. I found nothing on the site?

Why is that? Cause people are abusing it? Too many people saying they hate the lack of service? I don’t know why, but I do not see a place where I could have sent this.

So strike four? Fourth down? Forced into your own end zone?

Now it was only a small order of 100$ or less, but it was still a hundred bucks I was willing to spend on your company that went to another web site because your search results are crap. Your web site pushes shit like kindle, when I don’t want it and you refuse to accept that as a customer I am out to buy things that I want, not what you want to push at me. See Jeff, I am a simple buyer, I buy things I want, you sell thing that I want. Need meets greed and both come away happy. Can you guess by the tone of this email that *I* am not happy with Amazon? Sorry but next time, I will go to the other sites before you. You want to sell too much, too fast and too pushy. All the while not allowing me the chance to find what I want, how I want it and when I want it. Make it possible for me to buy what *I* want, how *I* want it and understand how much *I* am paying for each item. Not what you want to sell me, kindle, books by anyone other than who I want to search for and I want a simple bill that I don’t have to do 8 million things to review. All on the order review page.

Is that too much to ask that you do the job you set out to do?

Sorry for the rant Jeff. I know Heather wants to thank you for drive traffic to her site. Maybe next time you may want to add to all those other things you are selling some customer service.