Saturday, November 25, 2023

"Conservative' means never having to say you're sorry


The stupid, it burns! 
Yesterday following that awful crash at the Niagara Falls border crossing, somebody in Pierre Poilievre's office was listening to Fox News when they jumped the gun by calling it a terrorist attack and saying it was all Biden's fault. 
Well, here in Canada we can't have that -- it must be all Trudeau's fault! 
So the CPC staff jumped the gun and fed the story to Poilievre. 
Who jumped the gun and called it a terrorist attack. Which turned out to be wrong, it was just a terrible accident. 
But of course, nobody in the Conservative party, including the leader, can ever accept responsibility for any error, no matter how trivial, by just saying "sorry, I made a mistake" or even using the Political Passive Aggressive tense of "a mistake was made". 
So if Poilievre can't blame Trudeau and can't blame the Liberals, he will of course blame the Canadian media. At his Routine Proceedings blog, Dale Smith picks it up from there - Roundup: Trying to falsely blame CTV
At his media availability yesterday, Pierre Poilievre was asked if it was responsible for him to declare the explosion on the Rainbow Bridge in Niagara Falls to be “terrorism” before anything was confirmed. And what did Poilievre do? True to form, he attacked the Canadian Press reporter asking the question (including lying about the substance of the corrections that a recent CP story made to a story about comments he had made), then lied about why he said “terrorism.” Poilievre claimed this was from CTV reports, and tried to get the CP reporter to try and denounce CTV. The problem was that CTV didn’t publish anything before Poilievre began his questions in QP. And what we do know is that Fox News was definitively calling it terrorism, as were several disinformation merchants who pose as journalists over Twitter. But rather than admit that these were his sources, Poilievre lied, continued to lie, and then post the video of him attacking the CP reporter to his followers, because right-wing populism has a huge hard-on/wide-on for putting people in their place (particularly if they’re vulnerable minorities or someone they suffer no repercussions for attacking, like media). 
And then things got stupid online, as Poilievre’s fans and apologists kept trying to “prove” that CTV was still the source, really, relying on screenshots that came from a different time zone. And at least two MPs shared these screenshots before they were called out and deleted them. 
I will say that between these lies, and the ones he has been telling about the Canada-Ukraine trade deal legislation, it seems to finally shaking up some legacy media outlets to actually start calling him out on them. Somewhat. Some outlets are still egregiously both-sidesing the lies, as they always do, but you had Power & Politics host David Cochrane finally interjecting in places saying “That wasn’t true,” or walking through the timeline of lies in the case of yesterday’s attempt to blame CTV. It’s not nearly enough, but it is a start, but we’ll see how long it can actually last. 

Maybe that is happening already:

And I am absolutely disgusted by Poilievre leading the CPC to vote against Ukraine:
Post by @liberalca
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Paul Wells has an interesting analysis out today about Poilievre's antics -- his substack piece is called The Fool Pierre Poilievre knows this is a show. For now it gives him power.
...In Shakespeare, the figure of anarchy who knows more than the other characters is the Fool. The Fool works for the head of a noble household, mostly to distract him. Even schoolchildren get the Fool immediately: He’s smarter than everyone and he says things nobody else dares to. In King Lear he’s shockingly blunt to the king who’s given his kingdom to the wrong daughters. “I am better than thou art now: I am a fool, thou art nothing.”
There’s always room for Fools in a world of cardboard piety and imposed consensus. Poilievre has already come further than the hall monitors could have imagined. His Tarot hand includes cards with the faces of Richard Nixon and Ezra Levant. People who want to make him fit have had a hard time of it.
The thing about the Fool is that he rarely gets to rule.
Wells continues to discuss Poilievre's various ineptitudes:
...Your average press gallery scrum may lack the agility to react when Poilievre pulls out the joy buzzer and the exploding cigars, but that’s because a scrum is an environment of deep ritual. Most of governing is more improvisational. It’s one damned thing after another. Airliners blow up, forests blaze, there’s a premier or mayor or Substacker whose rhythms aren’t leadenly predictable. In its quantum randomness, the real world looks more often like German MEP Christine Anderson’s visit to Canada than it does like the courtly rituals of a scrum. And Poilievre made a lurid hash of Christine Anderson’s visit.....
Returning to the Niagara Falls accident:
...He was trying to be the smartest guy in the room by making a big bet on limited information. Terrorism was a plausible but untested hypothesis, and his only evidence was, by his own repeated assertion, of questionable authority: the people in the teevee. But he went ahead anyway, because whatever you think about Pierre Poilievre, he thinks he’s a damned genius.
Canadians need to think about what kind of a prime minister would this guy be. Wells concludes:
I have come to think of this instinct as Poilievre’s fondness for Crazy Ivans. You get the reference. In The Hunt for Red October, Jack Ryan needs a break so he predicts the Russian sub will suddenly turn to port. It does and he looks like a genius, so his U.S. Navy minders trust him to make more decisions. But he was bluffing. He had no idea which way the sub would turn.
Pierre Poilievre is turning out to be terrible at calling Crazy Ivans. He bought in at the top of crypto. He marvelled at the Alberta model for opioid treatment, at the beginning of the deadliest year for drug fatalities in Alberta history. He clapped for the Nazi like everyone else. This week he was reduced to berating reporters because they were skeptical about reporting.
Part of the Fool’s power is that he understands his limits. Those who don’t find the smirk doesn’t last long.
I think Poilievre would turn out to be our Fawlty Towers Prime Minister:


6 comments:

Cap said...

I don't take Poilievre's word on anything, and it's past time the corporate media stopped playing along with his lies. Remember last year's two-day story of Mustafa from Calgary who had to travel to Ottawa to get a passport in time for his wedding in Cuba? That was a straight-up lie from start to finish. But where was the media follow-up? Why aren't they still asking him about it, especially when he goes on the attack? They really haven't learned the lessons of allowing a stream of lies to go unchallenged.

rumleyfips said...

It's two years to election time. Maybe that's enough for the press court to get tired of being lied to and being treated with contempt.

Peaking too early icanm be worse than not peaking at all.

Chuckstraight said...

What has Tony Clement to say of this?

e.a.f. said...

Good article. Lays out clearly what PP is all about and his lack of capability to be the leader of the opposition or the P.M. He doesn't have the brains or the personality.

Waking up and noting the t.v.. was talking about the Rainbow Bridge, the first thing which went through my mind was, it can't be blown up. That is how our pets go to "heaven". Then it was, why is PP saying???? The pet bridge to heaven was blown up........it was confusing.

Once I thought about coffee life came through more clearly, a bridge back east had blown up and other border crossings were closed just to be careful. Did't think it had been blown up by some sort of terrorist, why would the Leader of the Opposition? If PP were P.M. who knows what he would have done. To be a P.M. you need to gether your facts, consult with your Cabinet, Security/Police, etc. Not PP, he wants his 30 seconds of "fame", just in case.
Some may want to replace Trudeau for whatever reason and they may be correct. However, when I look at PP and his gang Trudeau is better on his worst day than PP is on his best day. PP comes across as a narrow minded bully, who is out of his league.

PP talks about saving money, better government, but every Conservative gov. we've had ran up larger deficiets than their Liberal predeccesors. Can't remmeber any major social programs implemented by federal Conservatives. CPP, Health Care, Dental care, all passed by the federal Liberals with the "assistance" of the NDP.

During Harper's time in office, he announced with great fan fare a tax deduction for the cost of having your child in sports, such as hockey. Great idea if you have the money up front to pay for everything, but if you didn't have the money your kid still couldn't participate. Along comes Trudeau and his new cabinet and passes a program which sends cheques, as in real money to people who need it each month. The money each month improved the lives of many who worked full time, with kids. That is useful, money to buy food, winter cloths, etc for your kids. A tax deduction is useless if you don't have the money to spend up front. It helps out people with money to begin with.

We've seen what Smith is up to in Alberta. Now imagine that on a national basis. A conservative who is into saving tax dollars, spent $75M on Tylonel bought from Turkey and only 5K bottles made it into the pharmacies.

The Conservatives like to think they talk a good game, but not so much nor do they know how to run a government. PP needs to find another job and votes need to get over their complaints about Trudeau. A lot of what is going on in Canada is going on all over other G-7, G20 countries. Housing shortages in England are way up, death of women giving birth and babies--way up. The U.S.A.homelessness, drug addiction, etc.
What we are facing currently is not a Canada problem, its an international problem. The cause, THE TRANSFERANCE of wealth from working people to the 1%ers. After COVID, the 1%ers had even more money and the working class, less. (working class includes middle class, because the middle class also works for employers)
i.e. In Vancouver even those making $100K a year are being evicted because they can't afford the new higher rents. In Richmond, B.C. a small clothing manufacturer has received his rent increase, 78%.
If the Conservatives are eleccted its good to know I can apply to two other cuntries for citizenship, if necessaary.

Carta formal para la escritora de clase 10 said...


This phrase encapsulates the perception that conservative ideologies often prioritize tradition, stability, and continuity over admitting fault or apologizing for actions, emphasizing resilience and steadfastness in their beliefs and decisions.

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esquemadelblog said...

Good article, keep writing