When it comes to the Biden administration's EV fiasco, vice-president Kamala Harris will have much to answer for — if the media ever gets around to asking.
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in May 2023. Photo by Joe Biden. Wikimedia Commons.
July 2024 - "Once the ongoing effort by the legacy media to reinvent presumptive Democratic nominee Kamala Harris as a dynamic leader and competent campaigner passes, we will presumably enter the part of the presidential race in which we actually examine her real record on the key issues. When — or if — that time ever arrives, the vice president will have a lot to explain where energy policy is concerned.... Today, I will address Harris’s advocacy for electric vehicles and buses, and the expanding bloodbath it has helped to create.
"Let’s begin with a speech Harris delivered in Brandywine, Maryland on December 13, 2021 ... to an audience including Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, assorted Maryland officeholders, and workers at the Brandywine Highway Maintenance Facility.... [T]he vice president delivered a ringing endorsement of electric vehicles and her administration’s plans to try to subsidize them into automotive market dominance. ''The pollution from vehicles powered by fossil fuels has long harmed the health of communities around our country,' Harris said.
But there is a solution to this problem.... That means manufacturing millions of electric cars, trucks, and buses right here in our country. That means outfitting thousands of EV — electric vehicle — repair garages, just like this one. And it means installing a national network of EV chargers.
"That speech took place after congress had enacted the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act containing more than $200 billion in clean energy subsidies. Congress passed the Orwellian-named Inflation Reduction Act and its $369 billion in similar subsidies eight months later.
"How has all that worked out for America three years down the road?... [E]very pure play EV maker in the U.S. is now either in bankruptcy or teetering on the brink. Ford reported ... that its EV division, Ford Model e, lost about $50,000 per unit sold during the second quarter, and that was the best quarterly result the company has reported in over a year. Even Tesla ... started the year with a pair of disappointing quarterly results amid rapidly slowing consumer demand for electric vehicles.
"The Biden-Harris dreams of subsidizing a national fleet of high-speed EV chargers into existence has also come up a crapper. The Washington Post and others reported in April that Granholm’s Energy Department has invested a whopping $7.5 billion to install 5,000 such charging stations around the country but had only managed to activate 7 to that point.
"Harris also endorsed a $5 billion EPA-managed program included in the Infrastructure law to fund the adoption of battery electric buses for targeted school systems around the country.... EPA has released two tranches of federal grants totaling $1.9 billion, but to disappointing results. Of the 389 school districts targeted by the grants, just 23 have reported successful acquisition of a total of 60 buses that have been placed into service. But another 50 of those districts have since withdrawn from consideration by the program....
"IRA subsidies for EV city buses have created perhaps the worst set of boondoggles of all. The electric buses are so costly, require such high maintenance and have such limited charging ranges that even extremely liberal cities like Austin, Texas and Jackson, Wyoming have quit trying to change over their fleets. The 2023 bankruptcy of heavily subsidized Proterra, the biggest EV bus maker, hasn’t helped.
"It is hard to identify any aspect of the Biden-Harris suite of EV-related policies that can honestly be called a success. As her party’s apparent nominee, Harris will have much to answer for — that is, if the media ever gets around to asking the relevant questions."
Thousands of Pennsylvania voters were sent text messages telling them falsely that they had already voted. A spokesman for the PAC that sent the texts has apologized and blamed the misinformation on a "copy editing mistake."
October 28, 2024 - "Thousands of Pennsylvania voters received a text message this weekend that falsely claimed that they had already voted in the Nov. 5 election. 'Records show you voted,' the text read, linking them to an official Pennsylvania website with information about polling places and early voting.
"But the message did not come from an official government resource or a well-known get-out-the-vote advocacy group. Instead, it was signed by 'AllVote,' a self-proclaimed voter-mobilization program that election officials have repeatedly flagged as a scam to be avoided and ignored.
"If 'AllVote' sounds familiar, the name has been linked to other confusion-sowing text campaigns in the lead-up to the election. Montgomery County officials in August warned voters about 'AllVote.com' that was texting registered voters and falsely claiming that they were not registered to vote — part of a scam to 'capture personal, sensitive information from voters in an attempt to exploit them later on,' election commissioners said. Election officials in Arizona and North Carolina raised concerns about text campaigns from an organization with the same name in recent months.
"On Monday, however, a representative from AllVote insisted that it was a misunderstanding. Charlotte Clymer, a contracted spokesperson for AllVote, sent The Inquirer an apologetic statement, describing the texts as a well-intended reminder-turned-disastrous mistake, thanks to a typo committed by staffers.... The organization would not say how many voters were sent the erroneous text.
"The original message was intended to inform Pennsylvania voters that they had cast ballots in 2022 and to direct them toward a verified link to explore their voting options. But 'in 2022' was left out of the script, which led to widespread confusion, the statement said. 'In the heat of the campaign season, workers working long hours simply made a copy-editing mistake,' the statement read.
"A follow-up text was sent to voters who received the initial text message, informing them of the error. But those who replied 'STOP' to the initial message — or marked the sender as spam — may not have received the follow-up, and the organization acknowledged the damage done. 'We deeply apologize for this error, which we understand caused significant confusion, especially amongst voters who have not voted yet but were told they had,' the organization said....
"Clymer described AllVote as 'funded by progressive donors aiming to increase voting participation' but declined to provide details about the group’s backers. A political action committee with that name was registered this year. Yet little public information is available about AllVote, and its website lists no founder or staffers. Clymer said the organization does not disclose its backers for fear of being targeted by the far-right."
The sole donor of a PAC spending $1.5 million on ads for Chase Oliver in Pennsylvania is a dark money group owned by a law partner of Harris campaign attotney Marc Elias.
October 25, 2024 - "A dark money group linked to Kamala Harris campaign attorney Marc Elias is boosting the Libertarian Party’s presidential candidate through a series of YouTube ads in battleground states, an apparent ploy to pull conservative votes away from Donald Trump.
"Civic Truth Action, a super PAC launched in July, has spent more than $1.5 million on ads supporting Libertarian candidate Chase Oliver, according to campaign finance disclosures released this week. The group is airing dozens of YouTube ads in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Nevada touting Oliver as a 'true conservative' who will 'abolish income taxes' and 'dismantle the nanny state,' according to the company’s ad database....
"Civic Truth Action isn’t funded by a group of small-government activists. Its sole backer—a dark money outfit called Evidence for Impact—has contributed $4,350,000 to Civic Truth Action since September, according to campaign finance records. Little is known about Evidence for Impact, but records obtained by the Washington Free Beacon show that its "beneficial owner" is Ezra Reese, an attorney at the Democratic elections firm Elias Law Group.
"Marc Elias, who opened the firm in 2022, serves as a top lawyer for the Harris campaign.... As an attorney for the Clinton campaign in 2016, Elias commissioned the infamous Steele dossier, which falsely accused Donald Trump of colluding with Russia.... It is unclear whether the Harris campaign has any direct involvement in Evidence for Impact or the Civic Truth Action ad campaign. It is also unclear who has funded Evidence for Impact, which registered in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 2.
"The advertisement campaign would seemingly help Harris in battleground states she sees as crucial to winning the White House. Harris has faced scrutiny in Pennsylvania over her calls to ban fracking and has hemorrhaged support among Michigan’s Arab and Muslim voters over the administration’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war.
"Civic Truth Action is using a 'microtargeting' strategy to push many of the advertisements to men between 18 and 34 years old, a demographic seen as more sympathetic to libertarian views. That’s the case with a Civic Truth Action ad entitled 'Screw ‘Em,' which the group has directed at men in Pennsylvania between the ages of 18 and 34. 'The media says voting for the person who will eliminate income taxes and protect freedoms is a waste. You know what I say? Screw ‘em, I’m voting for Chase Oliver,' the ad narrator says.
"Civic Truth Action has ties to another Democratic group. It paid $80,000 to Civic Truth Coalition for 'production research' on Oct. 16, according to campaign disclosures. Civic Truth Coalition has given $430,000 in recent months to Retire Career Politicians, a super PAC funded by members of Bill Gates’s family, and Sixteen Thirty Fund, a prominent liberal dark money group.... Christopher Koob, who is listed as treasurer for Civic Truth Action, has worked on the finance teams at the Democratic National Committee and Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, according to his biography.
"Civic Truth Action, the Harris campaign, and Elias Law Group did not respond to requests for comment."
Great Barrington Declaration co-author Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, an outspoken opponent of coercive public health measures and controls on scientific speech, has been awarded the 2024 Robert J. Zimmer Medal for Intellectual Freedom by the American Academy of Sciences and Letters.
October 24, 2024 - "Stanford University’s Jay Bhattacharya was awarded the Zimmer Medal, and Brian Conrad was awarded a 2024 Barry Prize, by the American Academy of Sciences and Letters (the Academy). The Zimmer Medal, which honors outstanding courage in the defense of intellectual freedom, was awarded to Sir Salman Rushdie last year.... The awards were conferred last night by Academy President Donald W. Landry of Columbia University and Board Chair Sanjeev R. Kulkarni of Princeton University in a ceremony at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C....
"'Last year we were delighted to honor Sir Salman Rushdie alongside other top minds of our time, and this year we are delighted to honor Jay Bhattacharya and a wonderful group of outstanding scholars,' said Academy President Dr. Donald Landry, M.D., Ph.D., who is also the Hamilton Southworth Professor of Medicine at Columbia University.
"'Like other academies, we honor intellectual excellence, but our Academy is distinguished by a special accent on intellectual courage. All our new members this year reflect the independence of mind we strive to honor.'
"The Robert J. Zimmer Medal for Intellectual Freedom is presented annually to a public thinker who displays extraordinary courage in the exercise of intellectual freedom. The award is named in honor of the late University of Chicago President, who led the creation of the Chicago Principles, the gold standard of academic freedom that has been adopted by 110 colleges and universities.
"In 2023, the inaugural Zimmer Medal was awarded to Sir Salman Rushdie, in recognition of his extraordinary leadership in the struggle for human freedom....
"Jay Bhattacharya is a professor of health policy at Stanford University and a research associate at the National Bureau of Economics Research. He directs Stanford’s Center for Demography and Economics of Health and Aging. His research focuses on the health and well-being of vulnerable populations, with a particular emphasis on the role of government programs, biomedical innovation, and economics. His recent research focuses on the epidemiology of COVID-19 as well as an evaluation of policy responses to the epidemic. His broader research interests encompass the implications of population aging for future population health and medical spending in developed countries, the measurement of physician performance tied to physician payment by insurers, and the role played by biomedical innovation on health. He holds an MD and a PhD in economics, both earned at Stanford University....
"The American Academy of Sciences and Letters promotes scholarship and honors outstanding achievement in the arts, sciences, and learned professions. It encourages the fruitful exchange of ideas within academia and society at large by sponsoring occasions for scholarly interaction and providing platforms for the presentation and dissemination of scholarship in the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, mathematics, and engineering. An independent 501(c)(3) non-partisan organization, it offers public programming, supports promising young scholars, and promotes traditional liberal arts ideals and standards of intellectual excellence."
October 24, 2024 - "Last night, three people who know they're not going to be president but are running for the office anyway took the stage in Los Angeles for a spirited third-party debate. At the debate hosted by Free and Equal, Libertarian Party nominee Chase Oliver, Green Party candidate Jill Stein, and Randal Terry of the Constitution Party argued about whether the government should get much smaller, much larger, or be totally reoriented toward Judeo-Christian values....
"Oliver did an admirable job laying out the basics of libertarianism and then applying them to individual cases. 'If you're not harming other people with your behavior, your behavior is perfectly acceptable and should not be regulated by the government or any other entity,' he said last night, arguing that we should eliminate zoning laws to make housing affordable, cut spending, sell federal land to bring down the debt, and stay out of foreign wars.
"The other two candidates offered some fresh perspectives that were at least interesting to hear, even if they are not all necessarily advisable. Terry argued we should build a wall on the northern border to keep the Canadians out, drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to pay off the national debt, and eat raw broccoli to cure cancer.
"Stein said building a wall on the southern border wouldn't stop drugs getting in ... but would devastate wildlife and natural ecosystems along the U.S.–Mexico border. She also perceptively argued we're stumbling into a wider war in the Middle East without any real acknowledgment or discussion.... The Libertarian nominee actively agreed with Stein that we should cut off foreign aid to Israel and nodded along to Terry's stirring anti–property tax rants....
"With all that said, there were plenty of boring, awful, and false mainstream ideas that did get thrown around too. Stein repeatedly argued that we could balance the federal budget by taxing the rich, cutting military spending, and passing Medicare for All. She called for emergency rent control and vacancy taxes to bring down the costs of housing. She said we could end mass illegal immigration by lifting sanctions on the socialist economies of Venezuela and Cuba.... Terry dusted off the old Mitt Romney idea that millions of illegal immigrants could be made to 'self-deport' if we made life miserable enough for them. His closing statement also ended with a call for the total destruction of the Democratic Party....
"The silver lining of Terry and Stein aping Republican and Democratic talking points is it reinforced the notion that the Libertarian Party is the only real third party. Oliver wasn't representing a more extreme version of either mainstream party. He was presenting a unique message and a unique vision of government. It's a shame more mainstream audiences likely won't hear it."
Free speech is a top concern of U.S. voters in 2024. But a majority of both Republicans and Democrats lack confidence in the other party to protect their free speech, while a majority of independents lack confidence in both those parties.
October 24, 2024 - "A new poll from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression finds that free speech is a critical issue for most Americans in the 2024 presidential election, topping other hot button issues like health care, immigration, crime, and guns.
"FIRE’s poll, conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago, asked 1,022 Americans how important a host of issues were in the context of the upcoming election. The top answer was inflation, with 68% saying increasing costs was 'very important' and 91% calling it at least 'somewhat important.' But the next top answer was free speech, with 63% calling it 'very important' and 90% saying it was at least 'somewhat important'....
"Americans from both parties view free speech as a significant issue, with 91% of Republicans and 90% of Democrats agreeing it’s at least 'somewhat important'.... Republicans were more likely to rate it 'very important” (70% vs. 60%), and they were more likely to respond that they were somewhat concerned about their ability to speak freely in the U.S. today (63% vs. 42%). Republicans were also more likely o respond that they speak less freely today than four years ago (46% vs. 21%).
"Assessments of the two major political parties’ free speech bonafides were mixed, but slightly positive. A majority of Americans also expressed confidence that Republicans (51%) and Democrats (56%) will protect their free speech rights in office. A little under half (45%) said Democrats support free speech either a 'great deal' or 'quite a lot' while 28% answered 'very little' or 'not at all,' compared to 42% and 31% respectively for Republicans.
"But Americans’ assessment of the two major parties were sharply polarized by their political affiliation: 77% of Democrats say they believe the Democrats support free speech 'a great deal' or 'quite a lot,' and 91% are at least 'somewhat' confident they would protect their free speech rights. 75% of Republicans say they believe the Republicans support free speech 'a great deal' or 'quite a lot,' and 85% express high confidence they would protect their free speech rights.
"But 53% of Republicans think Democrats support free speech 'very little,' or 'not at all,' and 50% of Democrats say the same of Republicans. 77% of Republicans and 72% of Democrats also reported they are either “not too” or “not at all” confident the opposing party will protect their free speech.
"Self-described Independents gave low marks to both parties in roughly equal measure. A supermajority reported low or no confidence that Democrats (62%) and Republicans (61%) would protect their free speech. Only 23% said Democrats support free speech 'a great deal' or 'quite a lot,' and only 28% said the same of Republicans....
"The FIRE/NORC survey was conducted October 11-14, 2024, using NORC’s AmeriSpeak® probability-based panel, and sampled 1,022 Americans. The overall margin of error for the survey is +/- 4.18%.
"The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to defending and sustaining the individual rights of all Americans to free speech and free thought — the most essential qualities of liberty. FIRE educates Americans about the importance of these inalienable rights, promotes a culture of respect for these rights, and provides the means to preserve them."
A committee reviewing Canada's Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) program has reported on an Ontario man who was euthanized for "post-vaccination syndrome."
October 24, 2024 - "An Ontario man in his late 40s with a history of mental illness died by euthanasia after his assisted death assessors decided that the most reasonable explanation for his physical decline was a post COVID-19 'vaccination syndrome'.... The term is controversial — Canada’s current vaccine reporting system for adverse events doesn’t include 'post-vaccine syndrome' — and multiple specialists consulted before his death couldn’t agree on a diagnosis, raising questions as to whether the man’s condition met the criteria for an 'irremediable,' meaning a hopeless, incurable condition.
"The anonymized case is one of several highlighted in a series of reports issued by a 16-member MAID death review committee struck by Ontario’s chief coroner’s office in January. Identified as 'Mr. A,' the man experienced 'suffering and functional decline” following three vaccinations for SARS-CoV-2. He also suffered from depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and personality disorders, and, “while navigating his physical symptoms,” was twice admitted to hospital, once involuntarily, with thoughts of suicide.
"'Amongst his multiple specialists, no unifying diagnosis was confirmed,' according to the report. However, his MAID assessors 'opined that the most reasonable diagnosis for Mr. A’s clinical presentation (severe functional decline) was a post-vaccine syndrome, in keeping with chronic fatigue syndrome.' There were no 'pathological findings' at a post-mortem that could identify any underlying physiological diagnosis, though people’s experiences can’t be discounted just because medicine can’t find what’s wrong with them....
"Details in the reports are limited. A spokesperson from the coroner’s office said members of the MAID death review committee cannot discuss particulars about cases mentioned due to confidentiality and respect for the families involved. According to their report, 'only a small number of MAID deaths in Ontario have identified concerns,' and the deaths selected 'are chosen for the ability to generate discussion, thought and considerations for practice improvement'....
"Rare conditions can occur after vaccination that can have 'life-altering consequences,' said McMaster University immunologist Dawn Bowdish. Serious vaccine side effects generally appear within two weeks after the first, and more rarely, second dose of a vaccine, she said....
"A chronic post-vaccine syndrome remains controversial. A rapid review paper prepared by WorkSafeBC, a worker’s compensation company, found no published data supporting the development of chronic fatigue syndrome post mRNA COVID vaccination.
"However, in a preprint study published last year that had not yet gone through peer-review, 241 adults who responded to an online survey reported ongoing symptoms after a COVID vaccination, such as excessive fatigue, brain fog and pain, numbness and tingling in different parts of the body. Most received mRNA vaccines. Led by doctors at the Yale School of Medicine, the researchers cautioned that vaccines against COVID 'have saved many lives,' and that the symptoms could be unrelated to the shots, occurring by chance. However, the clustering of symptoms within the first one to 18 days from vaccination 'suggests a potential relationship,' they reported.
"The study had limitations, including that people self-reported symptoms. Bowdish said she does not want to discount people’s experiences, but that with self-reported data 'it’s impossible to validate that they were vaccinated,' and infection with COVID can cause similar lingering symptoms, she said."
The Democracy Fund has convinced an Ontario court to reopen the cases of five Amish fined for crossing the Canada-U.S. border without using the Trudeau government's controversial ArriveCan app.
October 09, 2024 - ""The Democracy Fund (TDF) has successfully reopened a number of ArriveCan tickets for five Amish clients. These individuals received tickets in 2021 and 2022 for allegedly failing to complete the ArriveCan app but had not received any notification of court dates or convictions, leading to outstanding fines being sent to collections and, in some cases, liens placed against their family farms.
"These individuals, due to their faith, avoid modern technology. They do not use any form of electricity and have little to no experience using a telephone, much less navigating an app on a modern smartphone.
"TDF recently filed documents with the court seeking to have these tickets reopened. The court has now granted this request, which will allow the clients to receive a Notice of Trial and, eventually, set a trial date. Adam Blake-Gallipeau, Senior Litigation Counsel at TDF, remarked{:}
It was clear that these clients did not receive adequate information regarding their tickets. The Amish are a vulnerable religious minority and have limited engagement with modern legal systems. In cases where their properties have liens registered on title, it makes it difficult to obtain loans or to transfer farms to the next generation. We are pleased that the tickets have been reopened and look forward to arguing our case in court.
"TDF lawyers will now request and review disclosure, engage with Crown counsel, and, if necessary, proceed to trial. Although this is an initial victory, the real work of having these tick[:ets stayed, withdrawn or resolved at trial now begins. TDF has a number of additional Amish clients who require help and have since learned that there may be other Amish communities impacted by outstanding liens and fines. We're committed to advocating for the rights of the Amish and ensuring they receive fair treatment.
"If you'd like to support the Amish community in their fight, please consider making a tax-deductible donation on this page.
"Founded in 2021, The Democracy Fund (TDF) is a Canadian charity dedicated to constitutional rights, advancing education, and relieving poverty. TDF promotes constitutional rights through litigation and public education and supports an access to justice initiative for Canadians whose civil liberties have been infringed by government lockdowns and other public policy responses to the pandemic."
October 16, 2024 - "Conservative opposition leader Pierre Poilievre wasted no time calling out the prime minister for claiming it’s the Conservatives who are acting on behalf of foreign governments.... Trudeau testified under oath Wednesday that the Conservatives either are complicit in or vulnerable to foreign interference.
"Within an hour after reports of Trudeau’s accusations were published, Poilievre issued a statement saying that Trudeau is lying and if he wants to support his baseless claim, he should 'release the names of all MPs that have collaborated with foreign interference. But he won't, because Justin Trudeau is doing what he always does. He is lying,' wrote Poilievre, asserting his theory the prime minister lied to 'distract from a Liberal caucus revolt against his leadership and revelations he knowingly allowed Beijing to interfere and help him win two elections.'
"The Tory leader said he was briefed on October 14 by Nathalie Drouin, national security and intelligence advisor to the Prime Minister, David Morrison, deputy minister of foreign affairs at Global Affairs Canada and CSIS Director Daniel Rogers on foreign interference from India — under the CSIS Act, which allows any Canadian citizen to be privy to 'specific risks of foreign interference without forcing them into sworn secrecy or controlling what they say.'
"Poilievre slammed Katie Telford, Trudeau’s chief-of-staff, for making the case during the China Inquiry Tuesday that receiving a secret briefing would 'prevent a recipient from using the information in any manner'.... 'Furthermore,' wrote Poilievre, 'my chief of staff has recently received classified briefings from the government. At no time has the government told me or my chief-of-staff of any current or former Conservative parliamentarian or candidate knowingly participating in foreign interference. If Justin Trudeau has evidence to the contrary, he should share it with the public ... but he won't, because he is making it up.'"
October 21, 2024 - "Canadian psychologist Dr. Jordan Peterson has been peppering Prime Minister Justin Trudeau with tweets calling for him to produce evidence to substantiate his claims about Russian media. While testifying Wednesday at the Commission on Foreign Interference, Trudeau alleged Peterson, along with American journalist Tucker Carlson, received funding from Russian media. He provided no evidence to substantiate his claims....
"Peterson last week said he was considering launching a defamation lawsuit against the prime minister. Over the weekend — in addition to trolling Trudeau by generating AI images of himself wearing Russian hats — Peterson told the prime minister he is about to add to his pile of ongoing troubles....
"'Hey Justin! I know you have your troubles at the moment,' wrote Peterson on Twitter ('X'). 'And I am soon going to add a lot more. I promise you. But for now, WHERE IS YOUR EVIDENCE? Or do you think it's OK to lie about me shamelessly while essentially testifying. Even though I am working tirelessly to uncover the very interference you are not bright or competent enough to identify or understand?'”
During sworn testimony to Canada's foreign interference inquiry last week, Prime Minister Trudeau dropped a couple of bombshells: (1) unnamed Conservative MPs or Senators are inovlved in foreign interference for unnamed countries; (2) Toronto psychologist and internet personality Jordan Peterson is being funded by Russian state broadcaster Russia Today.
October 16, 2024 - "In astonishing testimony before the foreign interference inquiry Wednesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that he has the names of Conservative parliamentarians who are involved in foreign interference. Trudeau told the inquiry that he instructed the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) to warn Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre in order to protect the party's integrity.
"'I have the names of a number of parliamentarians, former parliamentarians and/or candidates in the Conservative Party of Canada who are engaged, or at high risk of, or for whom there is clear intelligence around foreign interference,' he said. 'And I have directed CSIS and others to try and inform the Conservative Party leader to be warned and armed, to be able to make decisions that protect the integrity of that party, of its members, from activities around foreign interference.' The term 'parliamentarian' can refer to senators or members of the House of Commons.
"Later, under questioning by Nando De Luca, lawyer for the Conservative Party, Trudeau said the names of Liberal parliamentarians and individuals from other parties are also on the list of parliamentarians."
October 18, 2024 - "As Canada’s Foreign Interference Commission continues its inquiry into other countries’ involvement in its democratic processes, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau gave evidence under oath on Wednesday (16 October) which saw him name right-wing commentators Jordan Peterson and Tucker Carlson as media figures funded by Russian state media.
"Set up in September 2023, the Public Inquiry into Foreign Interference in Federal Electoral Processes and Democratic Institutions has already published an initial report in which it named China as a 'main perpetrator of foreign interference' against Canada. The May report also pointed to Russia, India, Pakistan and Iran as 'possible foreign interference actors' but said of Russia that it is 'likely not currently a significant foreign interference threat' to Canada’s federal elections.... The inquiry has now turned its attention to the capacity of federal bodies to 'detect, deter and counter' foreign interference, which explains PM Trudeau being asked to give evidence.
"During his cross-examination by lawyer Guillaume Sirois ... Trudeau was shown multiple headlines from Russia Today – a broadcaster funded by the Russian state – relating to the ‘Freedom Convoy’ protests of 2022 concerning Covid vaccine requirements placed on Canadian long-haul truck drivers.
"Following this, Trudeau commented: 'We have seen that anti-vaxx messages during the convoy and pandemic were amplified by Russian propaganda, especially in the media of the right.... As I’ve said, we’ve recently seen that RT is currently funding bloggers and other personalities of the right such as Jordan Peterson - other names that are well-known are Tucker Carlson, as well - in order to amplify messages that are destabilising democracies.'”
The global Covid response was destructive to public trust, economic vitality, citizen health, free speech, literacy, religious and travel freedom, elite credibility, demographic longevity, and more. Five years later, the postwar neo-liberal world order itself seems to be in danger.
October 20, 2024 - "The global Covid response was the turning point in public trust, economic vitality, citizen health, free speech, literacy, religious and travel freedom, elite credibility, demographic longevity, and so much more. Now five years following the initial spread of the virus that provoked the largest-scale despotisms of our lives, something else seems to be biting the dust: the postwar neoliberal consensus itself.
"The world as we knew it only a decade ago is on fire, precisely as Henry Kissinger warned in one of his last published articles. Nations are erecting new trade barriers and dealing with citizen uprisings like we’ve never seen before, some peaceful, some violent, and most that could go either way. On the other side of this upheaval lies the answer to the great question: what does political revolution look like in advanced industrial economies with democratic institutions? We are in the process of finding out.
"Let’s take a quick march through modern history through the lens of US-China relations. From the time of China’s opening in the 1980s to the election of Donald Trump in 2016, the volume of trade imports from China only grew, decade after decade. It was the most conspicuous sign of a general trajectory toward globalism that began following the Second World War and accelerated with the end of the Cold War. Tariffs and trade barriers fell ever more, as dollars as the world reserve currency filled the coffers of world central banks. The US was the global source of liquidity that made it all possible.
"It came at a huge cost, however, as the US through the decades lost its manufacturing advantages in dozens of industries that once defined the American commercial experience. Watches and clocks, pianos, furniture, textiles, clothing, steel, tools, shipbuilding, toys, household appliances, home electronics, and semiconductors all left US shores while other industries are on the rocks, most especially cars. Today, the much-celebrated 'green energy' industries seem fated to be outcompeted as well. These industries came to be largely replaced by debt-financed financial products, the explosion of the government-backed medical sector, information systems, entertainment, and government-funded education, while the primary exports of the US became debt and petroleum products.
"Many forces combined to sweep Donald Trump into office in 2016 but resentment against the internationalization of manufacturing was high among them. As financialization replaced domestic manufacturing, and class mobility stagnated, a political alignment took shape in the US that stunned the elites. Trump got busy on his pet issue, namely erecting trade barriers against countries with whom the US was running trade deficits, primarily China.
"By 2018, and in response to new tariffs, the volume of trade with China took its first huge hit, reversing not only a 40-year trajectory of growth but also dealing the first the biggest blow against the 70-year postwar consensus of the neo-liberal world. Trump was doing it largely on his own initiative and against the wishes of many generations of statesmen, diplomats, academics, and corporate elites.
"Then something happened to reverse the reversal. That something was the Covid response.... Trade with China soared. Within a matter of weeks, Americans were wearing Chinese-made synthetic coverings on their faces, having their noses stuck with Chinese-made swabs, and being tended to by nurses and doctors wearing Chinese-made scrubs.
The chart on China’s trade volume looks like this. You can observe the long rise, the dramatic fall from 2018, and the reversal in the volume of PPE purchases following the lockdowns and Kushner’s interventions. The reversal did not last long as trade relations broke down and new trade blocs were born.
"The irony, then, is a salient one: the aborted attempt to restart the neo-liberal order, if that is what it was, occurred in the midst of a global bout of totalitarian controls and restrictions. To what extent were the Covid lockdowns deployed in service of resisting Trump’s decoupling agenda? We have no answers to that question but observing the pattern does leave room for speculation.
"Regardless, the trends of 70 years came to be reversed, landing the US in new times, described by the Wall Street Journal in the event of a Trump victory in 2024:
If it turns out that the tariff on China is 60% and the rest of the world is 10%, the U.S.’ average tariff, weighted by the value of imports, would leap to 17% from 2.3% in 2023, and 1.5% in 2016, according to Evercore ISI, an investment bank. That would be the highest since the Great Depression, after Congress passed the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act (1932), which triggered a global surge in trade barriers. U.S. tariffs would go from among the lowest to highest among major economies. If other countries retaliated, the rise in global trade barriers would have no modern precedent.
"Talk of the Smoot-Hawley tariff really does plunge us into the wayback machine. Back in those days, trade policy in the US followed the US Constitution (Article I, Section 8). The original system granted Congress the power to regulate commerce with foreign nations, among other powers. This was intended to keep trade policy within the legislative branch to ensure democratic accountability. As a result, Congress responded to the economic/financial crisis by imposing huge barriers against imports. The Depression worsened.
"It was a widely accepted belief among many in elite circles that the 1932 tariffs were a factor in the deepening of the economic downturn. Two years later, efforts began to transfer trade authority to the executive so that the legislature would never do something so stupid again. The theory was that the president would be more likely to pursue a free-trade, low-tariff policy. That generation never imagined that the US would elect a president who would use his power to do the opposite.
"In the waning days of the Second World War, a group of extremely smart and well-intended diplomats, statesmen, and intellectuals worked to secure the peace in the aftermath of the wreckage in Europe and around the world. They all agreed that a priority in the postwar world was to institutionalize economic cooperation as broadly as possible, under the theory that nations that are dependent on each other for their material well-being were less likely to go to war against each other.
"Thus was born what came to be called the neo-liberal order. It consisted of democratic nations with limited welfare states cooperating in trading relationships with ever-lower barriers between states. In particular, the tariff was deprecated as a means of fiscal support and industrial protection. New agreements and institutions were founded to be the administrators of the new system: GATT, IMF, World Bank, and the UN.
"The neo-liberal order was never liberal in the traditional sense. It was managed from the outset by states under US dominance. The architecture was always more fragile than it appeared to be. The Bretton Woods agreement of 1944, tightened through the decades, involved nascent institutions of global banking and included a US-managed monetary system that broke down in 1971 and was replaced by a fiat-dollar system. The flaw in both systems had a similar root. They established global money but retained national fiscal and regulatory systems, which thereby disabled the specie-flow mechanisms that smoothed and balanced trade in the 19th century.
"One of the consequences was the manufacturing losses mentioned above, which coincided with a growing public perception that the institutions of government and finance were operating without transparency and citizen participation. The ballooning of the security state after 9-11 and the stunning bailouts of Wall Street after 2008 reinforced the point and set the stage for a populist revolt. The lockdowns – disproportionately benefitting elites – plus the burning of cities with the riots of the summer of 2020, the vaccine mandates, and combined with the onset of a migrant crisis, reinforced the point.
"In the US, the panic and frenzy all surround Trump but that leaves unexplained why almost every Western country is dealing with the same dynamic. Today the core political fight in the world today concerns nation-states and the populist movements driving them versus the kind of globalism that brought a worldwide response to the virus as well as the worldwide migrant crisis. Both efforts failed spectacularly, most especially the attempt to vaccinate the entire population with a shot that is only defended today by manufacturers and those in their pay.
"The problem of migration plus pandemic planning are only two of the latest data points but they both suggest an ominous reality of which many people in the world are newly aware. The nation-states that have dominated the political landscape since the Renaissance, and even back in some cases to the ancient world, had given way to a form of government we can call globalism. It doesn’t refer only to trade across borders. It is about political control, away from citizens in countries toward something else that citizens cannot control or influence.
"From the time of the Treaty of Westphalia, signed in 1648, the idea of state sovereignty prevailed in politics. Not every nation needed the same policies. They would respect differences toward the goal of peace. This involved permitting religious diversity among nation-states, a concession that led to an unfolding of freedom in other ways. All governance came to be organized around geographically restricted zones of control. The juridical boundaries restrained power.
"The idea of consent gradually came to dominate political affairs from the 18th through the 19th century until after the Great War which dismantled the last of the multinational empires. That left us with one model: the nation-state in which citizens exercised ultimate sovereignty over the regimes under which they live. The system worked but not everyone has been happy with it.
"Some of the most high-status intellectuals for centuries have dreamed of global government as a solution to the diversity of policies of nation-states. It’s the go-to idea for scientists and ethicists who are so convinced of the correctness of their ideas that they dream up some worldwide imposition of their favored solution. Humanity has by and large been wise enough not to attempt such a thing beyond military alliances and mechanisms to improve trade flows.
"Despite the failure of global management last century, in the 21st century, we’ve seen the intensification of the power of globalist institutions. The World Health Organization (WHO) effectively scripted the pandemic response for the world. Globalist foundations and NGOs seem to be heavily involved in the migrant crisis. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank, created as nascent institutions for a global system of money and finance, are exercising outsized influence on monetary and financial policy. The World Trade Organization (WTO) is working to diminish the power of the nation-state over trade policies.
"Then there is the United Nations. I happened to be in New York City a few weeks ago when the United Nations met.... The attendees were not only statesmen from all over the world but also the biggest financial firms and media outfits, along with representatives of the largest universities and nonprofits. All of these forces seem to be coalescing at once, as if they all want to be part of the future. And that future is one of global governance wherein the nation-state is eventually reduced to pure cosmetics with no operational power.
"The impression I had while there was that the experience of everyone in town that day, all swarming around the big United Nations meeting, was one of deep separation of their world from the world of the rest of us. They are 'bubble people.' Their friends, source of financing, social groupings, career aspirations, and major influence are detached not only from normal people but from the nation-state itself. The fashionable attitude among them all is to regard the nation-state and its history of meaning as passe, fictional, and rather embarrassing.
"Entrenched globalism of the sort that operates in the 21st century represents a shift against and repudiation of half a millennium of the way governance has worked in practice. The United States was initially established as a country of localized democracies that only came together under a loose confederation. The Articles of Confederation created no central government but rather deferred to the former colonies to set up (or continue) their own structures of governance. When the Constitution came along, it created a careful equilibrium of checks and balances to restrain the national state while preserving the rights of the states. The idea here was not to overthrow citizen control over the nation-state but institutionalize it.
"All these years later, most people in most nations, the United States especially, believe that they should have final say over the structure of the regime. This is the essence of the democratic ideal, and not as an end in itself but as a guarantor of freedom, which is the principle that drives the rest. Freedom is inseparable from citizen control of government. When that link and that relationship are shattered, freedom itself is gravely damaged.
"The world today is packed with wealthy institutions and individuals that stand in revolt against the ideas of freedom and democracy. They do not like the idea of geographically constrained states with zones of juridical power. They believe they have a global mission and want to empower global institutions against the sovereignty of people living in nation-states.
"They say that there are existential problems that require the overthrow of the nation-state model of governance. They have a list: infectious disease, pandemic threats, climate change, peacekeeping, cybercrime, financial stability, and the threat of instability, and I’m sure there are others on the list that we’ve yet to see. The idea is that these are necessarily worldwide and evade the capacity of the nation-state to deal with them.
"We are all being acculturated to believe that the nation-state is nothing but an anachronism that needs to be supplanted. Keep in mind that this necessarily means treating democracy and freedom as anachronisms too. In practice, the only means by which average people can restrain tyranny and despotism is through voting at the national level. None of us have any influence over the policies of the WHO, World Bank, or IMF, much less over the Gates or Soros Foundations. The way politics is structured in the world today, we are all necessarily disenfranchised in a world governed by global institutions.
"And that is precisely the point: to achieve universal disenfranchisement of average people so that the elites can have a free hand in regulating the planet as they see fit. This is why it becomes supremely urgent for every person who aspires to live in peace and freedom to regain national sovereignty and say no to the transfer of authority to institutions over which citizens have no control.
"Devolving power from the center is the only path by which we can restore the ideals of the great visionaries of the past like Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, and the entire generation of Enlightenment thinkers. In the end, governing institutions must be in citizen control, and pertain to the borders of particular states....
"There are plenty of reasons to regret the collapse of the neo-liberal consensus and a strong rationale to be concerned about the rise of protectionism and high tariffs. And yet what they called 'free trade' (not the simple freedom to buy and sell across borders but rather a state-managed industrial plan) also came at a cost: the transference of sovereignty away from the people in their communities and nations to supranational institutions over which citizens have no control. It did not have to be this way but that is how it was constructed to be.
"For that reason, the neo-liberal consensus built in the postwar period contained the seeds of its own destruction. It was too dependent on the creation of institutions beyond people’s control and too reliant on elite mastery of events. It was already crumbling before the pandemic response but it was the Covid controls, nearly simultaneously imposed all over the world to underscore elite hegemony, that exposed the fist under the velvet glove.
"The populist revolt of today might someday appear as the inevitable unfolding of events when people become newly aware of their own disenfranchisement. Human beings are not content to live in cages. Many of us have long predicted a backlash to the lockdowns and all that was associated with them. The full scale of it none of us could have imagined. The drama of our times is as intense as any of history’s great epochs: the fall of Rome, the Great Schism, the Reformation, the Enlightenment, and the fall of the multinational empires. The only question now is whether this ends like America 1776 or France 1790."
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Four candidates are carrying the Libertarian banner in British Columbia (B.C.) this election. B.C. Libertarian Party (BCLP) leader Alex Joehl is running in Langley-Abbotsford.
What neighbourhood of Langley/Aldergrove/Abbotsford do you live in? Murrayville
How many years have you lived in Langley or Abbotsford? Nine years
Have you held political office in past? No
Profession: Meat department manager at a grocery store
"I’ve lived and worked in Langley since 2015 with my wife and son. Being one of the only Langley-Abbotsford candidate that actually lives in this riding’s boundaries, I know the challenges it faces. Population growth has put upward pressure on housing prices and our hospitals in Langley and Abbotsford struggle to keep up with demand.
"Libertarian principles are ingrained in us before pre-school – Don’t hurt people, don’t take their stuff. I have made it my goal to educate people about our philosophy every opportunity I get, running for MLA twice, MP three times, as well as in local elections.
"I’m proud to be leader of the BC Libertarian Party, who have been advocating for lower taxes, more choice, and real freedom since 1986....
"Langley has long been an attractive destination for its combination of rural areas and a modest urban centre. SkyTrain is coming and with it will bring a spike in demand to the surrounding area. We’ll need more housing, and fast.... Victoria can help Langley by revisiting the Residential Tenancy Act and making it more attractive to build rental housing and be a landlord. There are also layers of requirements that add to the cost of building homes, like the Energy Step Code, which must be paused. Non-arable land within the ALR [Agricultural Land Reserve] should be released....
"[W]hat about those also struggling with addiction? The war on drugs has failed. People should have the opportunity to purchase drugs from reputable businesses, instead of ... toxic street drugs.
"We’ll need to upgrade medical service immediately – Access to a waiting line is not health care. B.C. needs to allow residents to get the best care they can obtain, even if that’s outside the public system. Yes, more doctors and nurses is a no-brainer, but how will we fund it? By cutting the bureaucracy.... Germany has the same doctors per capita as Canada, but less than one-tenth of the administrators."
Four candidates are carrying the Libertarian banner in British Columbia (B.C.) this election. Covid libertarian Robert Johnson is running in Vernon-Lumby.
October 8, 2024 - "A small-government advocate hopes to point out the failings of B.C.’s legacy parties with his campaign for MLA. Robert Johnson, the B.C. Libertarian Party candidate for Vernon-Lumby, was born and raised in Alberta, and moved to Salmon Arm in 2009, where he currently lives and works as a part-time dentist.
“'I’m only running in Vernon because of the ridiculous political system we have where everyone’s worried about vote splitting and stuff, because we’ve got all these conservative and independent candidates running against each other,' Johnson told Vernon Matters.... 'I’m not really trying to win this election, I’m just trying to play the court jester. I could have done that anywhere; it wouldn’t have mattered.'
"Johnson expanded on his view of 'acting the jester.' 'There’s something called "post-truth world," which in my mind is there is no such thing as the truth. You’ve got your truth, I’ve got my truth, your subjective experience is true for you. I don’t want to live like that,' the Libertarian candidate said.
So the court jester is like from the Emperor Has No Clothes, it’s the person that tells the truth to the king, and there’s some quote from somebody that says "If you’re going to tell the truth, you need to make them laugh, otherwise they’ll kill you." So all I’ve been trying to do for the past four and a half year[s] is point out what’s really going on around here, and everyone that’s been doing that has been called names and ostracized and has had their lives destroyed. We’re not going to pretend that didn’t happen.'
"He added he did not agree with the COVID-19 pandemic measures, stating there 'were a lot of things that shouldn’t have been a [topic of] conversation, nevermind something that we actually did.'
"Johnson does not have any political experience, and said he is running to show that 'most Canadians are pretty ignorant when it comes to politics,' and that though he said he described himself as politically ignorant as well, he felt 'it seems to [be] like it doesn’t actually matter which one of these party wins any of these elections, there’s no real meaningful difference in what goes on and things just seem to be getting worse.'
"Johnson, one of just four Libertarian candidates in all of B.C., added he believes the Libertarians to be 'the personal freedom, personal responsibility party' and that individuals 'know better how to live your lives than the government'. He said a Libertarian government would leave people alone to live their lives with minimal red tape and less government interference."
Four candidates are carrying the Libertarian banner in British Columbia (B.C.) this election. Entrepreneur Damyn Tassie, a first-time Libertarian candidate, is running in Surrey - White Rock.
Oct 7, 2024 - "The Peace Arch News reached out to all the local candidates in the B.C. provincial election with a questionnaire allowing them to introduce themselves to voters. Candidates were all given the same questions, word counts and deadlines....
Damyn Tassie.
"CANDIDATE: Damyn Tassie, Libertarian
"WHERE DO YOU LIVE? South Surrey
"ONE-SENTENCE BIO.... As an entrepreneur and traveller, I am a first-time candidate who believes strongly in empowering every resident of British Columbia to have full autonomy over their financial and social associations.
"WHY SHOULD YOU BE ELECTED?... I emphasize the importance of being realistic about the present, however, I am also very optimistic about the future. This is why I joined the B.C. Libertarian Party. I hold the view that a centralized authority cannot effectively address all the challenges facing our province, as evidenced by the ongoing difficulties we have experienced in recent years.
"I believe that promoting affordability, personal freedom, and fostering cooperation/competition through free markets can lead to meaningful solutions. This does not imply that we should disregard the need for support for those in our province who require assistance, and it is essential to have measures in place to protect citizens from exploitative business practices. But it is clear that we have reached a point where excessive regulation and taxation are inhibiting our productivity and undermining our ability to cultivate a sustainable economy.
Four candidates are carrying the Libertarian banner in British Columbia (B.C.) this election. Long-time Libertarian Lewis Dahlby, who has stood for the BCLP since the 1980s, is running in Port Coquitlam.
"Lewis Clarke Dahlby was born in Chilliwack B.C. in 1954. He’s married & lives in Port Coquitlam. He has 2 daughters, 28 & 31. He is a landlord & runs a Trucking & Excavating Business.
"Lewis first became a Libertarian in 1979 after watching a 10 part series by Milton Friedman called "Free to Choose". Soon after he tried to get approval to live in a 12 x 68 foot mobile home on his father's 15 acres in Coquitlam. He was denied but went ahead anyway because he believed nobody else should tell him what kind of home he can live in.
"Lewis decided to run for the B.C. Libertarian Party soon after it was formed in 1986. With the late Bill Tomlinson helping to get signatures Lewis just missed getting the nomination because of lack of signatures.
"He then was able to run for the first time in 1988 as the Libertarian candidate for Mission Coquitlam. He has run about a dozen times federally and provincially since then. "
"Lewis believes democracy is a morally valid concept only if you have the consent of every single participant. He also believes that greater overall freedom leads to greater prosperity."
Vancouver-based Samidoun, a charity which raises funds for Palestinian Arab prisoners, has been designated a terrorist entity by the U.S. Treasury and the Trudeau government.
October 15, 2024 - "The government of Canada has designated the pro-Palestinian group Samidoun as a terrorist entity in a joint action with the U.S., both governments announced Tuesday. Samidoun, also known as the Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, has close links with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), both governments said in announcing the move. The PFLP is a listed terrorist entity in Canada, the U.S. and the European Union.
"'Violent extremism, acts of terrorism or terrorist financing have no place in Canadian society or abroad,' Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc said in a news release. He added the listing 'sends a strong message that Canada will not tolerate this type of activity.' The U.S. Treasury Department ... said it's declaring Samidoun 'a sham charity' that serves as an international fundraiser for the PFLP. In a statement, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the move is 'part of our joint work with the U.S. to expose terrorist activities and intercept their financing.'
"Last week, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre urged the Canadian government to 'ban' Samidoun.... Poilievre's calls came on the heels of a Samidoun-organized protest in Vancouver on the one-year anniversary of Hamas's Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel.... In videos of the protest circulated online, an unidentified masked woman led a crowd of hundreds in chants of 'death to Canada, death to the United States and death to Israel,' while some in the group burned Canadian flags. CBC News has not independently verified the videos posted online of the rally, but a CBC journalist who passed by the rally said they clearly heard a speaker chant, "death to Canada, death to the United States."
"Earlier this year, Samidoun's international co-ordinator Charlotte Kates was arrested in a Vancouver hate-crime investigation after she praised the Oct. 7 attack as 'heroic and brave.' Samidoun also posted a statement that called the attack 'a legitimate military operation'....
October 15, 2024 - "That the Government of Canada has declared the Samidoun organization a terrorist entity is welcome news. But one has to ask, what took them so long? And how did they pluck up the courage to do it? After all, it wasn’t exactly a secret that Vancouver-based Samidoun is an international fundraiser for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Along with a plethora of fist-raised anger articles, they’ve had it on their website for at least three years and as we pointed out on Monday, the PLF itself has been designated as a terrorist entity in Canada since 2003....
"It is hard to escape the conclusion that the Trudeau Liberals have until now had no wish to antagonize what they treat as a significant Muslim voting bloc. For example, while the Trudeau government doubtless regards the past year’s vicious antisemitic street demonstrations as regrettable, they have done little to condemn them and less yet to restrain them.... And, when the Liberals finally took action, they did so with it an air of regret, as though they were pushed into it... The Government of Canada statement in which Samidoun was officially listed, speaks of 'acting in concert with the US Treasury Deparment'. Ah there it is, the alibi. “Sorry, the Yanks made us do it'.... It was weak and cowardly and about eight days late....
"As for the voting bloc they're afraid of losing, the Liberals seem to forget that not every Canadian Muslim supports terrorism in general, or Hamas/Hezbollah in particular. Many came here to get away from that sort of thing. Not to put too fine a point on it then, as much as the Jews of Toronto have a legitimate claim on the government's protection, so do Canadian Muslims who are committed to this country and the hope-filled vision that drew them here....
"But here's the thing. How did this come to their attention? I have checked the news feeds. The first reports and the only pictures of these events came from a Western Standard reporter who enterprisingly (and not without some personal risk) got up close and started running his camera. The video evidence of Jarryd Jäeger may be examined here. And so far as we know, that's all there is from any news source.... "[I]f the CBC uses Western Standard video footage, it's likely that there was no other available. And frankly, given the national importance of the event and the consequences we now see — the banning of Samidoun — we're happy to be of assistance to the CBC. (And to the National Post and a dozen other outlets that picked up our story).... .So, a golden attaboy to Western Standard Vancouver reporter Jarryd Jäeger. It's not the first time that good reporting has led to prompt, effective actions out of government. Dedicated as we are to the public good, we don't intend it to be the last."
Almost two years after ordering Dr. Jordan Peterson to undergo social media re-education, the College of Psychologists and Behaviour Analysts of Ontario has not been able to find a social media expert to re-educate him.
October 11, 2024 - "It may amuse all of you who have become somewhat cynical in recent years to hear what has most lately become of my battle with the tyrants of compassion and masters of incompetence at the Ontario College of Psychologists and (more recently) Behaviour Analysts — a recent unnecessary change.... I have been scheduled for an indefinite course of professional education by appointees of that institution for expressing my opinions in a country that apparently no longer considers that acceptable for its professionals (depending, of course, on the opinions). I appealed that decision, to the highest court in the land — a legal entreaty that was rejected as of Aug. 27.
"A few days after that I sent in a request to the powers that be at the college, requesting, in all due humility, the names of the wizards or witches who stood at the ready to re-educate me:... I had been previously provided with a document that listed the 'social media experts' at the ready to perform their magical incantations on my recalcitrant psyche — despite the fact that there is no such profession as 'social media expert'.... One problem remained, and a serious one, indeed, practically speaking: the very lines in the document that contained the identifying information of the experts (names, email addresses, professional standing, and telephone numbers) had been redacted, no doubt to protect their fragile and hoping-to-be anonymous selves against the reactions of the legions of reactionary trolls I would unleash in my indefensible efforts to defend myself.
"A response was soon forthcoming, in written form: due to some (conveniently undescribed) administrative confusion, the names were presently unavailable. The good people at the college were, however — in their great benevolence and wisdom — willing to extend my three-month purgatorial period, perhaps indefinitely (?), while the necessary information was rounded up and provided.
"A few weeks hence their lawyers contacted my lawyers and informed the latter and me that a settlement offer might be possible.... Their first offer was (get this — and I still can’t believe it): 'If Dr. Peterson agrees to resign, we would be willing to forego the legal costs the court ruled he owes us!' That was some two dozen thousands of dollars, a not inconsiderable sum (although a mere pittance in comparison to what their decade-long campaign of harassment and petty torment has cost me — some 25 times that amount in direct legal fees alone, an amount sufficient to bankrupt the typical target of their inquiry, particularly in combination with the devastation of professional income that all-too-often accompanies such inquisition. Thus, their opening gambit was based on the assumptions (1) that I could be bought and (2) that I could be bought cheaply....
"After we dispensed with that offer, ... the truth came so painfully out — and this is the main point of this missive: despite pursuing me for nearly 10 years; despite their endless public proclamations about their readiness to dispense justice upon me; despite their insistence of the mavens of the college that I was in desperate need of pretty much a comprehensive psychic restructuring and public shaming — despite my agreement, private and public, to go ahead with exactly that, in pillories and stock, accepting the tar and chicken feathers — there was not a single available 'social media expert' available at hand to take on the task!
"This could be a consequence of a direct warning I had made in a very public discussion about this matter with my daughter Mikhaila Fuller, posted on my YouTube channel, where I said (with all due and genuine concern for my hypothetical teacher) something approximating: 'Don’t take the job! I will make EVERY BIT OF IT public, and in the most broadly distributed sort of way! Millions of people are hungry to watch me be re-educated, friend and foe alike, popcorn in hand, eating up both the scandal and the snack. In consequence, the life of whomsoever is narcissistic, clueless or ideologically-addled enough to take on the task will never be the same!' I don’t know, of course, if it was that specific warning that did the trick....
"So, that’s where we stand, Canadians.... I will sign off, finally, with this.
"I made the college a fair offer, very publicly.... There was no evidence whatsoever in the consequent approach of the college negotiators to me that they had considered anything I had written.... This is yet more evidence, if evidence is needed, of their essential bad faith and intransigent, punitive, self-righteous bureaucratic stubbornness and blindness. They approached me, instead, with the ultimate in foolishness, compounding their errors.... Then they admitted that they did not have the wherewithal or the ability to undertake administering the very re-education process they have so publicly and continually demanded I submit myself to. God only knows how it will all end. But it certainly appears, as of the current moment, that the much-vaunted and much-moralized-publicly-about re-education efforts of the Ontario College of Psychologists and Behaviour Analysts have been brought to a shuddering and shameful halt, not least because of the utter indefensibility of their own position."
October 13, 2024 - "The censors are losing patience. They have gone from regretting the existence of free speech and gaming the system as best they can to fantasizing about ending it through criminal penalties. You can observe this change in temperament – from frustration to fury to calling for violent solutions – over the last several weeks. And it serves as a reminder: censorship was never the end point. It was always about controlling society’s 'cognitive infrastructure,' which is how we think....
"This week, Fox reporter Peter Doocy was sparring with the White House spokesperson over whether FEMA is funding migrants even as it cannot help American storm survivors. She immediately shot back and called this 'disinformation.' Peter wanted to know what part of his question qualified. Jean-Pierre said it was the whole context of the question and otherwise never said. It was clear to anyone who was watching that the term 'disinformation' means to her nothing other than a premise or fact that is unwelcome and needs to be shut down. This messaging has been further reinforced by a Harris/Walz ad blaming unnamed 'misinformation' from Trump for exacerbating hurricane suffering following Hurricane Helene.
"This exchange came only days after Hillary Clinton suggested criminal penalties for disinformation, else 'they will lose total control.' It’s an odd plural pronoun because, presumably, she is not in control ... unless she regards herself as a proxy for an entire class of rulers.
"Meanwhile, former presidential candidate John Kerry said the existence of free speech is making government impossible. Kamala Harris herself has sworn to 'hold social media accountable' for the 'hate infiltrating their platforms.' And well-connected physician Peter Hotez is calling for Homeland Security and NATO to put an end to debates over vaccines
"You can detect the fury in all their voices, almost as if every post on X or video on Rumble is causing them to lose their minds, to the point that they are just saying it out loud: 'Make them stop.'
"Hurricane Milton seems to have caused the censors to flip out in a violent rage, as people wondered whether and to what extent the government might have something to do with manipulating the weather for political reasons. A writer in the Atlantic explodes: 'I’m running out of ways to explain how bad this is. What’s happening in America today is something darker than a misinformation crisis,' while decrying 'outright conspiracy theorizing and utter nonsense racking up millions of views across the internet.' Catch that? It’s the viewing itself that is the problem, as if people do not have the capacity to think for themselves.
"The old meme of the man staying up late typing because 'someone is wrong on the Internet' applies now to an entire swath of the ruling class. They want freedom out and the stakeholders in control, somehow forcing the whole of the digital age into a version of 1970s television with three channels and 1-800 numbers. The Biden administration even refounded the Internet, replacing the Declaration of Freedom with a new Declaration of the Future....
"So far we’ve only experienced a relatively low-grade version of this compared with what they really want. YouTube accounts have been demonetized and deleted. Facebook posts have been throttled and banned. LinkedIn’s algorithms punish posts that take issue with regime narratives. This has not slowed down in light of litigation but rather continued and intensified.
"The goal is to close up the Internet. They would have done it by now if it were not for the First Amendment, which stands in their way. For now, they will continue to work through university cutouts, third-party providers, phony baloney fact-checkers, pressure on tech firms that provide government services at a price, and other mechanisms to achieve indirectly what they cannot do directly just yet.
"Among the strategies is the political persecution of dissenters. Alex Jones is a bellwether here and his company is being bankrupted. Steve Bannon, the philosopher king of MAGA, has been in jail for the entire election season for having defied a Congressional subpoena on the advice of counsel. The protestors on January 6 have been in prison not for damages caused or trespassing but for landing on the wrong side of the regime.
"Most of us had an intuition that the Covid vaccine mandates themselves were not entirely about health but rather a tactic of exclusion of those who were not fully trusting of authority. This was rather obvious when it came to the military and the medical profession but less apparent within academia where noncompliant students and professors were effectively purged for their refusal to risk their lives for pharma.
"There was an element of malice, too, in the mask mandates. Even though there was zero scientific evidence that a Chinese-made synthetic cloth worn on the face can change epidemiological dynamics, they did serve well as a visible sign to separate believers from unbelievers, and also as a sadistic means of reminding individualists of who is really running the show.
"The final means of censorship is violence against person and property, while the end is to control what you think in service of one-party rule. Major tech companies and major media are wholly complicit in bringing this about. Only a handful of services are stopping this and they are all being targeted by the regime through myriad forms of lawfare....
"[I]t’s the liar more than anyone who has reason to fear free speech."
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