Trade Wars: The Stupid Continues

On Friday night, Audrey and I made a rare appearance at a house party:

It was good time, in part because we knew what side of this nonsensical referendum the other guests would be on, even though there was little talk of it. Seeing Gord Downie's final performance while chit chatting friends and strangers was moving and bittersweet, and it is hard to believe it happened a decade ago.

There was, I think, a little talk about the recent trade talks and the threat of 50% tariffs by the Orange Menace, but early Friday evening, following a three-day pause in the implementation of said tariffs, it seemed like a deal was within reach.

The next day it wasn't.

The deal was scrapped, reportedly after Commerce Secretary and Trump minion Howard Lutnick swooped in at the eleventh hour with new conditions, including:

• the ending of supply management for Canadian dairy (lol - no)
• cessation of French language labelling requirements on goods sold in Canada (ah, non)
• the right of approval for Canadian trade deals made with other countries (seriously, what the eff?)

So Prime Minister Mark Carney told our team to pack up and head home, and announced a number of things, including our own retaliatory tariffs, which other US officials have previously 'warned Canada against doing' (again, what the actual eff?).

Now I am not a Carney die-hard because, well, he is a filthy rich banker pushing some questionable legislation at times, but there is no questioning he is the right guy to have at the wheel at this moment in time, with you-know-who still stinking up the Oval Office another couple of years. Carney is objectively a smart, smart dude, particularly in regards to Economics, but more importantly, I think he honestly does have the best interests of an independent and united Canada in mind.

Any single one of those three items Nutlick brought to the table at the eleventh hour were deal-breakers, so if you think there was never any real intention of doing a deal, well, there are plenty of folks who agree with you. 

His speech regarding the breakdown in negotiations include describing the USA signature as "written in pencil," a poignant way to describe a country or at least an administration acting outside of the CUSMA agreement their own guy created in 2020. I prefer Wab Kinew's assertion that "you can't make a good deal with bad people."

And obviously this whole situation is unfortunate for a number of reason, not the least of which is this: no one 'wins' in a trade war.

But when Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy goes on camera with the fascist lickspittles at Fox News and lets a stream of abject lies pour out of his cakehole without any pushback, it underscores how far our relationship with our closest neighbout and (still) largest trading partner has fallen.

According to Duffy, Careny wiull have to come back to the table because Canada "doesn't have a military," and lives (ungratefully, I imagine) under US protection, in addition to having "record high euthanasia rates."

I'm not going to debate a guy about the morality of medical assistance in dying when he lives in a country where 14% of the population has over $1000 in medical debt and a cancer diagnosis can wipe out generational wealth even if you have insurance - our countries clearly have different priorities and I prefer ours.

But to have a US cabinet member ignore our military after 158 Canadian Armed Forces member died in Afghanistan following 9/11, to say nothing of fighting shoulder to shoulder in two world wars that they were late to the party for? 

Unforgivable.

And I mean, I really shouldn't be surprised - this same selective amnesia came into play when Canada opted out of going into Iraq for DEseRt sToRm Too: This Time It's Familial, so either we are ungrateful fair-weather friends or the other side's idea of loyalty is of the "but what have you done for me lately" variety.

So, yeah, out here, past the hundredth meridian (where the great plains begin), the elbows are going up even higher in this household, and across much of the country. Will I miss bourbon? You bet. But there are great alternatives closer to home.

The Economist described Carney's approach as "defiance," an objectionable characterization in my eyes since it implies that Trump/ the USA are to be obeyed under most circumstances, which I clearly refute. But if you go with Merriam-Webster's second definition: "Resist or withstand: To be completely unaffected by or able to hold out against an attempt or force," I am somewhat mollified.

Because these attacks have done more to unite Canada than anything outside the Olympics, and that makes us considerably more formidable. The French language exclusion item has even driven the CBC's French learning app, Mauril, to #2 on the educational apps chart!

And historically, Canada has tended to emerge from these situations largely intact, eventually, as Tod Maffin outlines here:

Canada vs. USA: The Trade War America Always Loses (History Proves It)

To sum up then: trade wars are as dumb as hatchet fights: they injure both parties and it is difficult, bordering on impossible, to clearly determine a 'winner.'

But on the other hand, dropping the hatchet or turning your back on someone still holding onto theirs might be even dumber. So what do we need right now?

"Courage - my word"

- Gordon Downie / Gordon Sinclair / Johnny Fay / Paul Langlois / Robert Baker (The Tragically Hip)

A Lay for Our Time?

Hammertheft and all the world bereft
Of reason and of right overnight
Left between a tyrant's temper mean
And treason and betrayal, cold and stale
Hue and cry, I can't sit idly by
We're hostages to greed, intercede

Even as viking legends go, the Lay of Thrym (Þrymskviða)is pretty wild. 

Thor's legendary hammer Mjölnir (crusher) goes missing, his half-brother Loki investigates the theft. The giant king Thrym brags that he has buried the hammer 8 leagues deep, and will only relinquish it if the goddess Freyja agrees to be his bride. 

Freyja unsurprisingly (and angrily) refuses this offer, so instead a scheme is devised wherein Thor will dress like Freyja and go to Thrym's hall in her place until the hammer can be recovered. Undercover work is not the thunder-god's forte however, leaving Loki to explain that Freyja's devouring multiple whole animals and three casks of mead is because she hasn't eaten in eight days due to travel and excitement. The fiery eyes Thrym sees when he lifts 'her' veil? Well, she hasn't slept either, has she?

By the time Thrym orders Mjölnir brought to the hall to sanctify the marriage, Thor is beyond ready to reveal himself. Grasping the hammer with both hands as it is placed on his lap by the duped jotun, he slays many of them, including the giant king himself (at least in the Danish version).

All you have is illgotten gain
You stand only for your own
Any man may throw you off the throne
Seat will not be set for thee
At the league of free nations

May this mark the end of your reign
Let the lay of Thrym be heard
Leave no tyrant out there undeterred
Thunderstruck theocracy
This theodicy heathen
In the end the giant was slain

My first encounter with this tale was not through my most common channels for Norse mythology: Dungeons & Dragons or the Walt Simonson run on The Mighty Thor comic. No, my exposure came courtesy of a viking metal band called Týr from the Faroe Islands, as both the title and closing track of their 2011 album.

The album itself is intriguing, being a response to the Arab Spring, as told by here by songwriter Heri Joensen:

I was inspired by the events of the Arab Spring. I am a very positive person...well maybe not totally positive, but definitely optimistic. And I was hoping for a better outcome. I found the story about a Tunisian guy who set himself on fire quite moving and it inspired me to write the song ‘Flames Of The Free’. So it’s mostly taken from those events but I drew parallels between mythology and present day events. You have Thor who tries to get his hammer back from the Giant Thrym, symbolising people from contemporary society trying to get their rights back from dictators who took them away from them.

The song came up on my power metal playlist ("The Riddle of Steel") the other day while walking Canéla. I am always drawn in by the slow intro and transition to one of the best horse-gallop drum rhythms I know of (even if, in truth, I suppose they should be goat-gallops), but this time the lyrics really got me thinking about current events and the rise of autocracy.

I mean, in the end, what is less credible: a giant believing the thunder god in drag is actually a winsome goddess, or watching the U.S. President deploy national guard and police around the deflecting reflecting pool in Washington to distract people from both his multiple mentions in the Epstein files as well as paying $300B in reparations for a needless war in Iran?

Hammer home to any despots dome
That tales of tyranny end with me

And it's not like we are particularly better off here in Alberta, where our increasingly despotic premier and her ditchbilly base cheer on the use of the notwithstanding clause to send teachers back to work and watch a needless and expensive referendum on immigration and separation get promoted, all while her party adds a $14 per solar panel "recycling fee" to help prop up her 'former' oil and gas patrons.

Hue and cry, I can't sit idly by
We're hostages to greed, intercede

Sigh.

It can be disheartening, sure. I am grateful that Canadian democracy has been largely spared the ravages of U.S. decisions like Citizens United in 2010 that equated money with speech and corporate limits from corporate campaign donations, but we are still subjected to waves of misinformation from foreign YouTube channels and bot farms.

Even so, more and more people are expressing concern and even anger at this malfeasance and bad faith governing, and I feel that only is a positive change inevitable (at some point!), I know in my heart that when the pendulum swings back the other way, it could end us taking us all somewhere positive for an even longer term. 

The unthinkable alternative is a lifetime spent under the thumb of increasingly authoritarian regimes, but even then I know that nothing endures forever. We have to have hope!

In the end the giant was slain

[Lay of Thrym lyric video]

Alberta 2024: Corruption, Incompetence, or Both?

(CAUTION: Politics incoming!)

My province is a shambles.

Our premier, Danielle Smith, barely managed to secure a majority until after six rounds of balloting at the UCP leadership race in 2022, and was elected with a reduced majority in May 2023 after ousting Jason Kenney. Now, supported by an increasingly bold band of angry cranks and right-wing reactionaries, her government somehow feels entitled to make increasingly deranged changes.

She decided last year to somehow find efficiencies in our health care by disassembling Alberta Health Services into four separate entities. If creating barriers and silos to create efficiency in an organization considered a global leader in integrated health care only six years ago seems counter-intuitive to you, rest assured, you are not alone. And learning recently that a 41-year-old man died of cancer before ever being referred to an oncologist really felt like an alarm bell going off.

Since then, Smith or her party has:

• announced (officially) an official policy on pronoun usage in schools
• announced (at a party meeting) that the Alberta Sheriffs will become the new provincial police force, despite 78% of Albertans wanting to maintain the RCMP
• has announced (at a party meeting again- not publicly) the transfer of some hospital authority from AHS to faith-based provider Covenant Health, which will prohibit those hospitals from offering reproductive health options as well as end-of-life choices such as MAID
• had her husband, a restaurant owner, attend confidential internal government discussions about a high-proposed high-speed rail link between Calgary and Banff
• has appointed Clownvoy lawyer Brendan Miller, who you may remember was actually ejected from the Emergencies Act inquiry for interrupting testimony, to the Law Enforcement Review Board
• mused to supporters about moving provincial services and ministries out of the major cities and into rural areas
• denied there is any wrongdoing or conflict arising from her, her staff, and her ministers accepting luxury skybox tickets to Stanley Cup playoff games from major donors, industry bigwigs, and the supplier of the Turkish tylenot she bought

(image by Michael Nabert for his Medium article)

It is quite the flurry of activity, which most observers attribute to her upcoming leadership review and the growing discontent of the far-right element of a party sliding further to the right every week. This element, largely represented by David Parker and the wanna-be MAGAs of the north, Take Back Alberta, also includes everything from rural small-c conservatives looking for a better deal to straight up separatists who see an Alberta police force, pension and bill of rights as steps along the path to eventual independence.

In the middle are a lot of scared, low-information people susceptible to misinformation and terribly fearful of creeping socialism, sharia law, the gay agenda, the woke mind virus et cetera.

But I can't believe they will continue to support a party that appears to be doing everything they can to cripple public healthcare in this province.

Breaking AHS up into four new agencies with more overhead, management and intersecting bureaucracies should be an offense to any thinking adult, let alone a government that actually passed "red tape reduction" legislation.

Emergency room closures are becoming a regular occurrence in this province, especially in rural areas. Staffing issues (caused by hiring freezes, caused by AHS's new government appointed leadership) means existing front line care providers are burning out like cheap Christmas bulbs while accredited nurses can't find full-time positions anywhere in the province. Meanwhile, other provinces like B.C. are scooping them up in droves.

A cynical person might suggest that the UCP aren't actually trying to fix public health care delivery at all, but are hamstringing it and delivering the death of a thousand cuts so it can collapse and be replaced by a for-profit system. Why else would Premier Smith suggest that AHS has a virtual 'monopoly' on health care? Whey would she offer the notion that "competition and fear" will provide better health services for Albertans?

Whether it is willful negligence or merely deep-seated incompetence, the UCP have shown an inability to deliver health care, something Premier Smith assured supporters she would sort out in the first 90 days of her premiership, which started 692 days ago as I write this.

And criminally mishandling health care delivery is only one of the above-bulleted axes many Albertans have to grind. It is a level of nincompoopery and corruption that belongs in a backwater or banana republic and not the home of the increasingly elusive "Alberta advantage."

Worst of all, it is three years until the next election, which the shady gits have already pushed from the previous 'fixed election date' in May until October so as not to coincide with wildfire season. Which, hey, at least makes sense, what with the UCP being the ones who cut the funding for wildfire-fighting the year before Jasper nearly burned to the ground.

What will be left of this province in October of 2027? Will the premier still be Danielle Smith or an even more selfish ideologue? Will she have succeeded into moving everyone onto vouchers for health care, schooling, pensions and who knows what else? Will the Wexiters and separatists, libertarians and Objectivists still be pulling her strings, or she theirs?

Or will something else happen in the meantime?

Someone raised the fascinating point the other day that it would only take six members crossing the floor to bring this government down. How intriguing...

I am not much of a joiner, politically, but I (and many others it seems) have signed up for AB Resistance. They describe themselves as "...a non-partisan grassroots movement listening to Albertans of all political stripes who are worried about the damage the UCP is doing to Alberta. We want to do something about it." Hey, me too!

Maybe this group can find the last six UCP backbenchers with a conscience and convince them to change sides - a real long shot in a government with the largest cabinet in  decades, if not Alberta history (small government - snort). 

Regardless of whatever approach AB Resistance end up taking, waiting to vote three years from now is not an option for me, and neither is just carping about the situation to like-minded folks. This gamble doesn't even cost me a stamp, and if you have similar concerns, maybe give them a look and let's see what happens.

It should be clear to everyone paying attention that Alberta can't continue like this - and shouldn't have to.

AB = Abjectly Bewildered

What a gong show my home province is becoming.

I mean, yeah, we have always had our fair share (and a bit) of small-minded folks with big mouths, and the friction between those who want smaller government and less taxes versus those who think paying a little more to give people a hand up is a worthy societal investment has maybe been a little more discernible here, sure. 

But in the past few weeks, the provincial UCP government has taken a really weird and hard turn towards authoritarianism that is becoming really troubling.

First they introduced Bill 18, which will require provinical authorization for federal grant funding to reach university researchers, to ensure compatiblity with "Allberta priorities."

Then Bill 20, which will not only introduce political parties to municipal elections, but gives the provincial government the ability to amend or suspend municipal bylaws and even remove councillors if they deem them unworthy!

Oh, but don't worry they tell us, only Edmonton and Calgary elections will have political parties (for now). Surely this will placate the 70% of Albertans who have made it clearly known they want their local politics non-partisan.

And while there is no direct UCP involvement that I am aware of, I can't help but feel that the police behind this weekend's violent clearing out of student encampments at the Universities of Calgary and Alberta may have the same leather-clad glove on the end of their respective leashes as well.

These were students, protesting what they feel is their institutions' participation in genocide in Palestine. They demanded the university cut ties with Israeli academic institutions and pull all investments from companies that operate in the country - similar to what student protest demanded for apartheid South Africa 30-odd years ago.

For their temerity, they were tear-gassed and driven off with batons. Meanwhile on the QEII highway though, if you want to occupy a rest stop with your white nationalist pals, just hoist up an "Axe the Tax" flag so the RCMP know whose side you're on, and you will be left in peace. Just like the border blockade down in Coutts last year, right up until word slipped out about a plan some participants had to "off the pigs."

What do you do for an encore, my home province for nearly five decades now?

What's that? You're gonna let the Take Back Alberta crowd now sock-puppeting the UCP board advise on health policy and pressure changes to vaccination rules? What the actual hell? It is not bad enough that measles is amking a comeback due to this anti-science quackery, now a Calgary riding association is hosting anti-vaxx celebrities too?

Oh, and apparently our sitting government can now have a 4.5 yr mandate now, pushing the next "fixed" election date 6 months down the road from May to Octoberso it doesn't face too much intereference from wildfire evacuation notices. 

Give me strength. 

It is really bothersome, and moderately terrifying and I am tired of pretending this creeping fascism is just business as usual. And I used to love living here! Now I find myself daydreaming and yearning that the blimps in Blade Runner were real, and that a new life awaits me on the offworld colonies.

Sigh. Hell of a birthday blog, isn't it?

Putin One Over On us

 Growing up in the '80s meant a lot of us spent a lot of our time fearing the Russians. Despite besting them in a legendary hockey series in 1972, we still recoiled from their repressive and isolationist society, their aggressive military posturing, their rumoured intelligence gatherers (i.e. spies) and of course, their missiles.

Even the popular culture of the day made the Soviet Union an uncompromising, intimidating heavy. From the occupation forces targeting the teenage resistance fighters in Red Dawn to the menacing bulk of Ivan Dragon in Rocky IV, the message was clear: there were two primary ideologies on the globe, and they did not play nicely with others.

Then suddenly while I was in college - pop! The wall goes down and the Soviet Union dissolves into its component parts. Pink Floyd played a concert featuring "The Wall" in Potsdamer Platz, right where the widest strip of the death zone used to be, and we all breathed a sigh of relief that all that brinksmanship was behind us!

Three decades later, the brinksmanship is back, and it feels worse than it ever did in the 80s.

On the plus side, Ukraine is still holding on, stubbornly, defiantly, maintaining control of their capital and huge swaths of the west of their country as well. Sanctions are in the process of hobbling Russia's economy, and aid and donations for Ukraine are flowing in from across much of the globe. Less positively, The advancement hasn't actually stopped, just slowed down, we are racing headline into a massive humanitarian crisis in besieged Mariupol, and direct conflict between Russia and NATO has a growing sense of inevitability.

And why?

Because one man wished it so: Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin.

An ex-KGB officer who became president of Russia less than a decade after entering politics, and has run the show in that country ever since. Hijacking elections, intimidating and poisoning political opponents, and re-jigging the constitution to ensure he can effectively remain President-for-life.

Many people ascribe his desire to bring Ukraine into his domain the way he annexed Crimea in 2014 as a means of restoring the former glory and greater sphere of influence held by the former Soviet Union, whose demise he still mourns, but I fear it is worse than that.

I fear it is vanity. 

The moment I became most afraid of Putin was not when he left the presidency to become prime minister for four years, before returning once again to the presidency. It wasn't when I discovered he was a legitimate Red spy and a black belt in judo. 

No, it was when I saw him score an unbelievable number of staged goals in a hockey game against professional Russian athletes, players half-heartedly chipping at the puck when he had it and lifting their goalie pads to ensure his shots became goals whenever possible. Less than 90 days ago he 'scored' seven goals as part of an 18-7 rout of the opposing team, while troops and tanks were filing up on the Ukrainian border for "military exercises." (Also, please note how the National Post makes no effort whatsoever to indicate what a sham this allegedly athletic contest is.) 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Xg9r2B4-do

The first time I saw this, it troubled me deeply and on many levels. 

This man is vain, I thought, tragically, emptily vain.

And he doesn't care who he has to co-opt in order to serve that vanity.

And he has enough power to make other people do things they wouldn't ordinarily consider, like athletes throwing a game, or looking like dupes in doing so.

And worst of all, I can't tell if Putin is deluded enough to believe he really is that good, or just cynical enough not to care if many people know how fake his prowess actually is.

He trots this all-star game nonsense out almost once a year, stoking the fires of his legendary manhood and toughness and pumping up his ego in the same way as his legendary bare-chested horseback riding photo ops.

And I don't have a lot of time for American politician Marco Rubio, but he made the chilling Putin even scarier when he suggested the Russian autocrat's motivations may be tied to an increased sense of mortality, since, at 69, he is only 2-3 years away from the average lifespan of a Russian male. (The World Bank puts it at 73.08, but still.)

Despite his embracing of the more conservative angles of the Russian Orthodox church, I am not confident that Vladimir Putin believes in any sort of afterlife. Even if he does, it is even money on whether he knows he is going to hell and doesn't care, or honestly believes that ginning up a story about Nazis oppressing Russian speakers in eastern Ukraine legitimizes his invasion of a sovereign state and will mitigate the growing list of war crimes he is accumulating, permitting him entry past the pearly gates.

The most likely scenario is that he simply doesn't care at all, and that combination of apathy and atavism, when backed by nuclear arms, makes me extremely uncomfortable. NATO's goal of staying out of direct conflict with Russia's armed forces makes even more sense when the very real prospect of nuclear war is not only on the table but actively being cited by the belligerent party.

And you tell me what's worse: this madman from St. Petersburg, or his apologists in the U.S. Republican party? Tucker Carlson of Fox News is a regular feature on Russian television (by request of the Kremlin, no less!) and has no problem describing Ukraine as being "not a real country" to his audience of bigoted Trumpites. Politician Tulsi Gabbard is only too happy to amplify Russian claims about biolabs in Ukraine researching weapons, when their neighbour to the east is actually the one in violation of the Biological Weapons Convention.

It is difficult to see any sort of constructive resolution to the war in Ukraine. Even if Russia sorts out its logistical failings and manages to drive the elected government out of Kyiv and install some sort of governor or puppet, there will be no easy way to effectively subdue the inevitable insurgency. Even if Putin were to recognize the sunk cost fallacy of his current operations and pull back across the border tomorrow, the demolition will take decades to fix. And regardless of all else, the sanctions and isolation facing Russia will put a deep and abiding discomfort upon the entire country for years. 

Perhaps the best hope is the one most sensible people are reluctant to mention: that at some point enough Russians are going to realize the true cost of this war (which they cannot call a war in Russia) in both precious lives and worthless rubles, driven by the vanity of one man desperately clinging to both power and glory, is too much for any country to pay, even one as old and as proud as Russia.

Perhaps with this ill-conceived (and apparently fictitiously presented) invasion of Ukraine, Putin has, at last, bitten off more than he can chew.

Erasure of History, Repeating

 A recent article in The Guardian about mounting opposition to a sitting president contained a number of chillingly familiar elements:

"...political firebrands and white supremacists eagerly fanned the paranoia of socialism, global conspiracies and threats from within the country.”

“A divided country and […] emboldened powerful enemies made the plot to overthrow him seem plausible. With restless uncertainty, volatile protests and ominous threats, America’s right wing was inspired to form its own paramilitary organizations. Militias sprung up throughout the land, their self-described “patriots” chanting: “This is despotism! This is tyranny!”

"'...if they had been able to maintain secrecy, the plot certainly might very well have succeeded … When times are desperate and people are frustrated, anything could happen.’”

Interestingly, this is not about Trump supporters in opposition to Joe Biden, but powerful financiers and industrialists in 1933 who sought to overthrow newly elected president Franklin D. Roosevelt in a coup.

This supposed "Wall Street Putsch" is eerily analogous to much of the current situation in the U.S., and I was shocked to read about this brazen attempt to undermine democracy. How had I never heard of this before, especially in the last year?

Despite being orchestrated by the rich and powerful, there were plenty of people at the grassroots level opposed to FDR, and who unironically emulated the methods and appearance of overseas fascists like Hitler's and Mussolini's brown- and blackshirts. The leader of the Silver Shirts mounted a presidential bid in 1936, and would have installed himself as a despot called "the Chief" as opposed to il Duce or der Fuehrer. 

The American Liberty League's $30M plan was to organize half-a-million disgruntled veterans under a charismatic leader, arm them with rifles provided by Remington Arms and remove Roosevelt and his cabinet by force. Thankfully they picked the wrong man for the leadership role - retired Marine General Smedley Butler, a Congressional Medal of Honor recipient. Butler instead reported this perfidy to J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI, and Hoover alerted FDR.

The fact that the coup was prevented is a worthy enough story, but the fact that none of the wealthy or powerful organizers were prosecuted or even named in the final report is absolutely astonishing, and a little disappointing. There are suggestions that FDR let them off the hook in exchange for dropping their opposition to his New Deal policies.

Like the burning of Black Wall Street in Tulsa in 1921, the Non-Coup of 1933 is probably something a lot of people would prefer most of us to forget (something that had largely happened with the former example until the release of HBO's Watchmen in 2019) but in light of the events in Washington a year ago, I can't help but feel this is a disservice for those of us who favour the rule of law.

With the mid-term elections coming at the end of this year, and possibly setting up a return of You-Know-Who for another run at the White House in 2024, I am really hoping there are more pronounced consequences for those who either abused their powers or neglected their responsibilities on Jan. 6, 2021. The recent addition of sedition charges to prominent members of the Oath Keepers organization is encouraging, but by no means am I counting on there being much in the way of comeuppance, particularly for those in the upper echelons.

Meanwhile, commentators even here in Canada like Stephen Marche are discussing the risk to democracy in the U.S. and the possibility of a non-democratic government taking power in 2024 or beyond. 

Was the 1933 Business Plot a credible threat? Could it have succeeded? Probably not, by most accounts, but it is difficult to say with any certainty. What if Gen. Butler had been an eager accomplice, instead of a patriotic informant?

Would someone trying again today, but with greater support, decentralized communications and an even more disaffected strip of the public have a better shot as success? And what if they were attempting to perform their machinations from within the government, aided by willing accomplices within the Senate or House of Representatives? 

And might punitive measures taken back then have given pause to those determined to erode democracy in the present day?

It is chilling to consider just how much history, and precisely which parts, might actually be repeating.

(Propellorheads - History Repeating)

A Nickel's Worth of...What, Exactly?

The advance polls open tomorrow for Edmonton's municipal elections, and I am in a quandary regarding the selection for mayor. I know who I want to vote for, but I am worried about vote-splitting allowing a less-desirable candidate to waltz in. 

I was in a similar predicament in 2004 and voted my heart in that election, giving Stephen Mandel the win over incumbent Bill Smith and Robert Noce. The former I had viewed as a tired status quo, while the latter had displayed a number of weasely tendencies over their campaign. I considered voting strategically to keep a weasel out of the office, but was dissuaded by a timely column from the Journal's municipal affairs columnist (and later councillor) Scott McKeen.

At that time, I chose optimism over pragmatism, and maybe I should again - I have less than no interest in having Mike Nickel as my mayor.

Portrait by Tim Mikula

Nickel has a well-deserved reputation as an outspoken city councillor, and whose blunt and confrontational manner has seen him brought to council's attention on multiple code of conduct violations but has escaped censure every time as this requires 9 council votes. Marketing reports (described in the article linked above) show how many voters see Nickel as “says no,” “an I-told-you-so guy,” “frustrated” and “irritable,” now of which are flattering and all of which are easy to ascribe to him.

He is a hard-working and experienced campaigner, and there is no question he is winning the battle of the yard signs, at least from my perspective here on the North side. I saw him canvassing door-to-door a couple of weeks back, and hoped he would come to my step so I could speak my mind, despite my general aversion to confrontation.

He did not, but here is what I hoped I would have said to him:

Mr. Nickel, a part of me is sad you are not running for council again, as I think these bodies work best when they represent a multiplicity of perspectives. I think it is good to have someone on council who can always be counted on to ask, "but what is that going to cost?" and "where is the benefit to this?"

But a good mayor has to build a consensus out of those perspectives, and I have seen absolutely no demonstration that you possess any diplomatic inclinations whatsoever. You bad-mouth city staff and administrators and even endorse council candidates against incumbent councillors that you may end up having to work with! I can't decide if this is naked opportunism ar just short-sightedness, but neither of these endear you to me as a candidate.

If I add that to your frankly bullying and harassing ways on social media, I can't help but think you would be a bad choice for mayor.

I mean, who knows how far I would have gotten before he realized there is no way to get my vote and he walked off, at which point I might have added, "Is this the kind of interaction I can expect if you do win? To walk away from opinions you don't agree with?"

In the end, though, this discourse remains a fantasy, and my difficult choice for mayor remains.

My two favoured candidates are both former councillors (I would have a hard time voting in a mayor with no council experience). I have been a fan of Kim Krushell from her tenure of council from 2005-2013, particularly her standing up to the Kingsway Business Association (and all their money) and their dogged determination to keep the municipal airport open. 

She had my vote until former Trudeau cabinet minister Amarjeet Sohi announced his candidacy four months later. I like Sohi; prior to his council term, he was a city bus driver, and this working-class perspective is often left out of elected office. And his name recognition gives him a serious edge over Krushell, out of the public eye for almost a decade now. - in fact, a Leger poll in late July gave Sohi a significant lead, but at that time, 43% of those polled were undecided. 

A friend in the know also tells me that a private poll now shows Nickel ahead of Sohi.

So these are the horns of the dilemma on which I find myself - if my primary goal in this election is to keep the least desirable candidate imaginable out of the mayor's seat, do I:

i) vote my heart and hope many others do the same, risking splitting the vote and giving Nickel an easier path to victory, or

ii) vote strategically for the early frontrunner since I feel they would also be a good mayor?

My optimism is struggling to overcome my pragmatism, and more than anything else, I dearly wish we had preferential balloting for municipal elections.

As it sits, please feel free to share your opinions about my decision either in the comments or with me directly; at least the election isn't until October 18 so I have time to decide, if not a methodology for doing so!

Fear and Voting: U.S. Election 2020

Honestly, the last thing I want to do right now is blog about politics, but the situation in the U.S. weighs on my mind.

As I write this, it has been five days since the U.S. election, three days since Joe Biden edged out a lead over Donald Trump, and one day since Associated Press and most of the networks called the election in Biden's favour. Pressure has been mounting on Trump to concede, which he is not obligated to do, and that's good, since he shows absolutely no signs of doing so.

Instead, Trump continues to proclaim himself victorious despite losing both the electoral colleges and popular vote. Worse than this, he continually beats the drum about mailed ballots being illegal or ineligible to be counted if they arrive after election day, even though 20 states have specific legislation permitting this. 

I understand why Trump is doing this - he is desperate to avoid being a loser.

And not just a loser, but one of only four sitting presidents to lose an incumbency in the last hundred years or so. And not only that, but he faces a very real risk of prosecution in both criminal and civil court once he loses the immunity of his office.

No, given what we know of Trump's mindset, and his binary worldview of winners and losers, his actions are tragically consistent.  

There are two things I don't understand, though. The first is why so many people are enabling Trump, and willing to baldly lie in vain hopes of somehow hanging on to the presidency. Surely their attachment to this rancid gravy train cannot be so compelling as to make them think that courts will listen to their baseless conspiracy theories or tales of a stolen election without a single shred of meaning full evidence?

The second thing I don't understand is this: what happens next?

There is already talk of Republican legislatures not being bound to the results of a "suspect" election, so that their faithless electors (that is the actual term) should be allowed to nominate whichever candidate they like.

Thanks to Trump's lies, many Americans are losing faith in their own brand of democracy, and his most loyal supporters are saying they will never accept Biden as their president.

To say nothing of the tragedy that nearly half the population is all right with their leader being a proven liar as well as a corrupt, racist, sex offender, or that his popularity with his base remains high enough that he will probably pepper the remainder of his lame-duck presidency with so-called "Recount Rallies."

To be honest, the whole situation reminds me a little of the story of The Judgement of Solomon. This is the one where he stops two women arguing which of them is a baby's mother, and suggests cutting it in two so they can each have half. One woman quickly relents, unwilling to see the baby slain, allowing Solomon to declare that she is clearly the baby's mother, in a magnificent display of the type of wisdom associated with him.

Being a fan of such parables, I have always appreciated the tale, but did not know there was another, more political, layer to it until reading Larry Gonick's brilliant "Cartoon History of the Universe." He explains it thusly:

It's not just me, right? The parallels here are not solely my imagination? Trump, like Solomon, cares not a whit for restoring any sense of unity to his country. He and his enablers are happy to see truck convoys of rabid MAGA cultists interfering with the campaign busses of his opponent, and actively encourage his followers to "carefully watch" the polls and to surround ballot counting centres with protestors.

I'm not necessarily saying he could spark off a new civil war - oh, hell, I suppose I am at that, and there are a lot of people itching to make it happen too (like the Boogaloo Bois). But even if it doesn't get to that extreme, with so many people encouraged to reject the results of the election, President-elect Joe Biden faces an even more divided (and threatened) country than Roosevelt did when he took office in '33. 

It has been a long wait for this election, now a long wait for final results, then probably a long wait to for the outcomes of umpteen court challenges. Even if the election itself isn't somehow completely undermined, this will undoubtedly be followed by a long wait to see what Trump actually does to either aid or inhibit an orderly and peaceful transfer of power.

And if he leaves, will it finally be over?

Not on your life, chum.

Trump's 88 million Twitter followers will still follow his guidance, and their monolithic presence will continue to influence the Republican party for years to come. No doubt they will continue to attend his rallies and stoke his ego even though he is not in office.

And there is no reason to believe he won't run again in 2024.

Normally my curiosity compels me to stay connected and see what happens next. With this election, I am fast reaching the point where I just want to hit the snooze alarm until inauguration day.

They Aren't Coming, They're Already Here

As Canadians, I think it is safe to say that we have tempered any jealousy we might feel towards our neighbours to the south with a certain degree of, well, smugness.

Sure, the U.S. might have an immensely powerful military and a gigantic economy, and are the only nation to put a man on the moon, but we can look over the tops of our spectacles at things like gun violence and a lack of affordable health care, cluck our tongues and say, "It's not like that could happen here." But sometimes we can hurt our arm patting ourselves on the back and kid ourselves that we don't have problems with things like racism in Canada, and that a populism born of intolerance could never happen here, and that is simply not true.

First of all, while we may not have had the institutionalized racism against blacks that the U.S. has had to grapple with, our country's government, aided by churches, participated in the attempted cultural genocide of our indigenous peoples, and we are only now beginning to come to grips with that.

Secondly, let's not forget that we've had our own share of intolerant and racist crackpots in Canada. Skinheads still march regularly in Edmonton and Calgary, and it doesn't feel like all that long ago that Terry Long tried to establish a compound for the Aryan Nations in nearby Caroline, Alberta, and burned a cross in Provost, Ku Klux Klan-style.

Third, and most importantly, there are plenty of people among us who long for the cultural homogeneity of days long past. People who look at those who have different-coloured skin (or maybe they worship differently, or love differently, whatever) and wishes those people were somewhere else. 

Earlier this week, the Edmonton Journal reported that posters had gone up downtown calling out 'anti-white propaganda'. They made claims like "It's only racist when white people do it" and told white supremacist sympathizers they are not alone.

Now, it's one thing to anonymously put up ugly monochromatic flyers with uglier ideas on them, but in the comments section of the article, I was astonished at just how much sympathy people were laying out for these notions; a complete embracing of reverse racism, anti-white sentiment, a wholesale rejection of the notion of white privilege, and scorn and admonishment for the 'social justice warriors' and 'libtards' who expressed indignation. And while a lot of the most inflammatory comments came from the fake profiles of anonymous trolls, many of these sentiments came out of everyday people's Facebook accounts.

So let's not kid ourselves: intolerance and racism are alive and well in our home and native land, and apparently nursing a great deal of discontent just below the surface.

And you have to think that some of those people are feeling pretty emboldened by the recent presidential election.

I was somewhat relieved when President-elect Trump actually did repudiate the 'alt-right' movement that had celebrated his unprecedented rise to power, but neither that, nor the fact that he has a Jewish son-in-law ("So automatically he can't be anti-Semitic!"), will make up for the fact that he is making Steve Bannon, the head of Breitbart News and a major figure in that movement, a White House counselor.

Nor will it change the fact that racist leaders like David Duke (former KKK Grand Wizard) and websites like Stormfront have been exalting Trump's victory like it was their own. At an alt-right symposium in D.C., Richard Spencer repeated his call for a 50 year moratorium on immigration, quoted Adolf Hitler in the original German, and was presented a bouquet of stiff-armed salutes by guileless whites chanting "Heil victory!"

So, yeah, there is cause for concern.

One of the most unfortunate side-effects of the recent election, to my mind, has been the evacuation of the middle ground in political discourse. The resultant polarization and lack of incentive to reach across the aisle has left the U.S. more divided than at any time except the Civil War. 

Most harmful is this pernicious idea that trying to reach common ground with one's political opponents is not only fruitless, but some degree of ideological heresy as well. I'm not saying you are going to change a white nationalists mind with some clever rhetoric, but the GOP vote was not a monolith. More than any other election, this one really was about voting against your least favourite candidate, or in Trump's case, for nostalgia, as a survey showed that 70% of his supporters thought the U.S. was better off in the 1950s. Which, I suppose, is pretty difficult to dispute, IF you are a straight, white, Christian, male; for everyone else, maybe not so much.

Less than a percentage point separated the Left from the Right in this election, and I'm sorry, I'm not ready to believe that every single person who voted for Trump is a racist, misogynist, backwards-thinking monster, any more than I believe that those who voted for Hillary are blinkered, socialist idealists, unwilling to examine her many serious flaws as a leader. If you don't start persuading some people on the other side to change their minds with good arguments, then all the "I-told-you-so"s in the world are not going to do you a whit of good in 4 years' time.

Meanwhile, north of the 49th, there is a different sound. "But we're Canada!" I hear you cry, "We're tolerant and inclusive and progressive! We're the mosaic, not the melting pot! We've even started taking steps towards reconciling with the aboriginal cultures we tried to destroy! That kind of populist swell could never happen here!"

Boy, I hope you're right.

But in the meantime, Conservative Party leadership hopeful Kellie Leitch has called Trump's poll-defying victory “an exciting message that needs to be delivered in Canada as well.” She would also like to see screening of immigrants and refugees for 'anti-Canadian values', similar to Trump's desire for 'extreme vetting' of potential newcomers of the Muslim faith.

At McMaster University, first posters went up promoting an alt-right website, followed by response posters decrying fascism and calling the alt-right neo-Nazis, before being removed by the administration.

Across the board, there is an ongoing debate about whether it is wise to allow a racist or quasi-racist, anti-Semitic or crypto-anti-Semitic movement with so much overlap to white separatists, white nationalists and full-on white supremacists to re-brand itself as the 'alt-right'. Some news organizations are simply referring to them as 'white nationalists' now, but a columnist for the Guardian has a blunter approach: see a Nazi, say a Nazi. 

From the same article as the previous comments:

But regardless of what we call them, they are here They have never not been here, but now they are getting ready to exert themselves. The most vocal of them have started making themselves heard in Facebook posts and news forums, and they advance a polemic that should be an anathema to most Canadians. 

This week, the first issue of the new Steve Rogers: Captain America comic dropped into the Marvel Unlimited app on my iPad. In it, they do a deft job of showing just how easy it is to sway people when times are tough, and humanize the thralls of HYDRA so capable of doing inhuman deeds at the behest of their masters. 

They spend a few pages showing how one young man goes from crime, to prison, to a halfway house and then laid off and falling prey to addiction before he is invited by another ex-con to hear a charismatic speaker.

The speaker, of course, turns out to be The Red Skull, Captain America's foremost nemesis, but he is not there to extoll the virtues of fascism, or offer glory in the service of one of the Marvel Universe's most prominent and fearful terrorist groups. He is there to express sympathy for these men who no longer find themselves at the pinnacle of American success and culture the way they once did. 

He seductively comforts them with appeals to their baser natures, wrapped in what feels like rational arguments.

And in the end, by absolving them from blame, giving them first a scapegoat and then a means of combating them, HYDRA gains another disciple.

Despite being entertainment, this comic book chilled my blood as much as nearly anything I read in the news this week. Steve Rogers: Captain America was originally published six months ago, and written well before that, but in depicting the ways in which ruthless manipulators can exploit malaise and dread and convert it into terrible action, I really felt like it captured a lot of the zeitgeist going around right now.

Six months ago, I think we would have been far more shocked to see flyers talking about anti-white racism posted downtown, or others telling turban wearers to go back to their own countries hanging in our province's largest campus.  

But now, following Brexit, following Trump's victory, looking at comments meant to dissuade us from sticking up for one another, it all feels chillingly familiar.

And it is a reminder that those who disagree with us, even vehemently, they believe they are doing the right thing, just as you and I do. There is something in their backstory that makes their current actions, as disagreeable as they might be, completely rational and reasonable to them. Take Steve Rogers' mother, for instance:

Try to remember that, in the end, given the right circumstances, practically anyone may be swayed to extremist thinking.

Anyone.

What can we do about it? Refute it wherever you find it. Speak up, even if it means making people uncomfortable. Don't browbeat, don't dismiss, don't assume, but firmly ask, "What do you mean by that?" 

Remind people that we really weren't better off 60 years ago. That, unless your heritage is indigenous Canadian, we all came here by immigration. People who believe white privilege isn't a real thing most likely haven't had it explained well enough to them (spoiler alert: even white privilege doesn't automatically make you a racist). 

Don't dump on them, win them over. Remind them that human purity is as mythical as the unicorn, and that diversity makes us stronger, even if it might make us uncomfortable to begin with.

And most especially, when you are talking to your friends and associates in the U.S., have some sympathy for them. Their country is balanced on a knife-edge of division right now, and facing an uncertain future.

Across the world, populism and xenophobia are making their marks on the democratic process, but if we can see them coming in time, we may yet dodge a bullet here in Canada.

Is This It?

Back in 2010, I read and reviewed a book by Chris Hedges called "Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle". It's an insightful but depressing read which does no hold out an abundance of hope for the future of western society.

The crux of Hedges' argument, as summarized by his publishers, is that

...we now live in two societies: One, the minority, functions in a print-based, literate world, that can cope with complexity and can separate illusion from truth. The other, a growing majority, is retreating from a reality-based world into one of false certainty and magic. In this “other society,” serious film and theatre, as well as newspapers and books, are being pushed to the margins.

When I stumbled back across this pint the other day, it chilled my blood a little bit to think of Empire of Illusion in the context of the U.S. Presidential elections, which blessedly draw to a close tonight.

This was the year both major parties saw 'outsider candidates' make a plausible run at becoming the nominee for President, Bernie Sanders on the left and Donald Trump on the right. Both appealed to their respective bases on a platform of significant change, but in the end, Democrats rejected Sanders, ostensibly because of the inability of a self-described socialist to win. There were some hurt feelings, but Democrats have mostly filed in behind Hilary Clinton.

Trump, on the other hand, has brought divisiveness to new levels across the country and within his own party. Using blatant demagoguery and populism while catering to the worst instincts of largely uneducated and underemployed white males, he still, astonishingly, has about a 1 in 3 chance of becoming the most powerful man in the world before sunrise tomorrow.

Did Hedges foresee an event like this causing an existential crisis in the U.S.? From my review:

The speculative future he draws where some form of crisis, either real or imagined, results in a large portion of the American working class turning to elements of the conservative right to validate their victimization, re-affirm their uncontested right to success and happiness regardless of effort or ability and mete out appropriate revenge for the mess they were complicit in creating, and you may not be quite so dismissive of the next Sarah Palin news article you come across.

Even if Trump doesn't win (which is both statistically more likely and also the result that a large proportion of the world outside America is fervently hoping for), the drama is unlikely to end. He and his supporters have repeatedly cried that the system is rigged and voter fraud is rampant (neither of which bears up under scrutiny), and have threatened to challenge the results of the election. The number of armed American militias and 'Three-percenter patriot' groups' have proliferated over the last 8 years, and are fully prepared, possibly even anxious, to take up arms in the event of whatever sort of civil unrest they find compelling.

Trump himself, in the third debate, refused to say if he would concede on election night to ensure an orderly transition of power, the bedrock of the American democracy, smirking instead and saying he would keep us "in suspense". 

One way or the other, tonight's election results will present a significant turning point in the history of the world's remaining superpower, the real question for me is whether it is the end of the beginning, or the beginning of the end.

Every empire ends; in some ways, it is what they are created to do. The best you can hope for if you are present when the wheel goes round is a modicum of order and cooperation during the transition. In truth though, I am already anxious about what we might be facing four years hence.

Worse Than Trump?

As I write this, it is (checks watch) 15 minutes until the start of the second presidential debate between Hilary Clinton and Donald Trump. The bingo cards are printed, drinks for the drinking game are standing by. Since Friday, all anyone can talk about is the leaked footage featuring Trump describing how his fame and wealth enable him to approach, including married women, not only in an aggressive manner but in a way that is essentially sexual assault.

What followed was a simultaneous dogpile from the left (and a lot of folks in the middle) and immediate repudiation of Trump by dozens of down-ticket Republicans who have apparently only now realized what a boat anchor he is to their political careers.

Tonight's debate is expected to contain a number of deflections from Trump onto Secretary Clinton's husband, who, it turns out, is not only comparably famous, but also has a lot to answer for from an alarming number of women. In anticipation of this, Trump held a press conference with many of Mr. Clinton's accusers less than two hours before the debate. We will have to wait and see if this strategy  helps Trump in any way beyond reinforcing his already rabid base, but the smart money says otherwise.

But let me refocus on someone else and their response to Friday's video for a moment: UK Independence Party Leader and Brexit architect Nigel Farage. Farage was quoted as saying,

"Look, this is alpha male boasting. It's the kind of thing, if we are being honest, that men do. They sit around and have a drink and they talk like this.

"By the way, quite a lot of women say things amongst themselves that they would not want to see on Fox News, or the front page of a newspaper. I'm not pretending it's good - it's ugly, it is ugly."

Wow.

You don't have to listen very long to the Trump tapes to hear an insecure weasel of a man seeking approval and validation from, of all people, Access Hollywood host Billy Bush, Trump is an egotistical man-child, a wealthy and entitled idiot so convinced of his own brilliance, he has convinced millions that he is as smart as he says he is, with almost no evidence to back the assertion. We can't expect anything good from him.

But for Farage, a selfish and short-sighted but generally accepted to be sane individual to say that mean everywhere are talking about pushing themselves sexually on women against their will? Unbelievable.

Thankfully people are jumping on these claims: Jake Tapper on CNN did one of the best jobs, pinning Trump surrogate and non-apologist Rudy Giuliani like a bug on a board:

"I have been in locker rooms. I have been a member of a fraternity. I have never heard any man, ever, brag about being able to maul women because they get away with it -- never."

Folks, this is not just talk.

Men, when you hear garbage like this, I hope you are calling it out.

Brexit Strategies and the Post-Factual Democracy

Like a spouse on the morning after a night of heavy drinking, or perhaps a nasty domestic tiff, many Britons are today awakening to the realisation that things are irrevocably different now.

British voters have decided by a thin margin of 52% - 48% to Leave the European Union, an association that has persisted in one form or another since the end of the Second World War, a conflict the likes of which the EU was created specifically to prevent.

A war between Britain and one of the 27 remaining signatories of the Maastricht Treaty doesn't seem any less unlikely today than it did yesterday, but the repercussions and reverberations of the decision to Leave are both pronounced and far-reaching:

• The British pound has dropped below the level it plummeted to during the global meltdown in 2008 to a thirty-year low.
• The world's stock markets are in the turmoil of a sell-off as bankers and investors are caught flat footed by an exit vote after commissioning polls that suggested the Remain vote was in ascendancy.
• London's reputation as a global financial capital is now being called into question as many banks, investment houses and other financial institutions openly contemplate moving to the continent, taking an estimated 40,000 jobs with them.
• British Prime Minister David Cameron, a Remain supporter of questionable effectiveness, has announced he will resign by October, adding a transition of power at best or a power struggle at worst to the current upheaval.
• Residents of Scotland and Northern Ireland both voted overwhelmingly to remain in the EU, but will be dragged out due to voters in England (outside of London at least). Now Scottish independence activists are anticipating yet another referendum on leaving the UK, and Sinn Fein is using Brexit as a possible catalyst for a border vote and the re-unification of Ireland; the Leave victory could potentially lead to the dissolution of the UK.
• Far-right parties in both Netherlands and France are now calling for their own referendums and an opportunity to leave, placing the viability of the EU itself at risk.

Why did it happen? Speculation is easy at this point, but there are many who see the Brexit vote as being entirely preventable, the result of a campaign promise by now-resigning British PM David Cameron. This opening, largely designed to silence the far-right UK Independence Party (UKIP) as well as Eurosceptics within his own party, was effectively exploited by Leave advocate and former London mayor Boris Johnson, presumably as a back door into 10 Downing Street.

The how is a bit trickier, but there are few who will deny that the Leave campaign leveraged not only the appeal of economic independence, but also growing fears against immigration, and some degree of straight-up xenophobia. This is not to say that everyone who voted to Leave is a racist, but when you are being cheered on by groups like UKIP in England and the National Front in France, it's time to re-evaluate your associations. In England at least, there certainly seems to be a direct correlation between casting a vote to Leave, and either being above the age of 50 or living outside of an urban area.

Then there are those who discovered, to their shock and horror, that the 'protest votes' they cast in favour of leaving (but assuming all the while that the 'Remain' side would ultimately triumph) has resulted in a tipping of the scales that will end up with their country actually, you know, leaving.

While the rest of the world has woken up to find things greatly unsettled, Britons have awoken to find nearly everything they own being worth less, and having far fewer opportunities to work and travel without restriction than they did previously. This commenter on the Financial Post website summed it up eloquently:

“A quick note on the first three tragedies. Firstly, it was the working classes who voted for us to leave because they were economically disregarded, and it is they who will suffer the most in the short term. They have merely swapped one distant and unreachable elite for another. Secondly, the younger generation has lost the right to live and work in 27 other countries. We will never know the full extent of the lost opportunities, friendships, marriages and experiences we will be denied. Freedom of movement was taken away by our parents, uncles, and grandparents in a parting blow to a generation that was already drowning in the debts of our predecessors. Thirdly and perhaps most significantly, we now live in a post-factual democracy. When the facts met the myths they were as useless as bullets bouncing off the bodies of aliens in a HG Wells novel. When Michael Gove said, ‘The British people are sick of experts,’ he was right. But can anybody tell me the last time a prevailing culture of anti-intellectualism has led to anything other than bigotry?” — Nicholas

As a Canadian, the Brexit vote concerns me primarily in terms of just how unsettled it leaves Europe, both politically and economically, and the economic repercussions for the entire globe (including revisiting a multitude of trade agreements with the EU that assumed British membership).

An even greater concern for me personally is that possibility that if we are living in a 'post-factual democracy', then a similar scenario could end up playing out in the American presidential election this November.

Both the Leave and the Trump campaigns use hatred and divisiveness to motivate voters to act in their supposed self-interest; to return to a supposed 'glory days' that, except for a privileged few, never actually existed. Trump supporters, borne up by his tough talk and his assurances that he will 'Make America Great Again', are willing to ignore facts like his having no policy knowledge, or that his business successes are grossly overstated.

This pool of boosters has grown over time, taking Trump from being a sideshow, to being a credible spoiler, to being a serious contender and now the presumptive nominee. Throughout this process, a distressing number of people opposed to The Donald have refused to take him seriously; why should they? They have the facts on their sides. He'll drop out of the race any day now.

Annnny day now.

...

But as November draws closer, their laughter has become less derisive and more nervous, as the spectre of an actual Trump presidency becomes more and more discernible every day. His acolytes shrug off proven criticisms, saying he will hire the expertise he needs, run America like a business and negotiate his way to success with America's trading partners as well as its enemies. As he pivots his campaign to undermine trust in Hillary Clinton as a crooked career politician, his legitimacy shows no signs of relenting.

And meanwhile, Trump is heralding the Brexit vote as a 'great thing' and describing the people he's seen as 'going wild' about 'taking their country back'. This, despite currently being in Scotland, which had, in fact, voted overwhelmingly in favour of remaining in the EU.

I'm hoping and praying that on November 9th, our southern neighbours don't find themselves waking up with electoral hangover symptoms or voter's remorse, pondering the consequences of a Trump White House.