Fire & Flood

Andrew Scheer federal Conservative leader claims the federal government’s carbon tax isn’t a plan to lower emissions. It’s a plan to raise taxes. (Liberals claim it is a tax on pollution)

“This spring, Conservatives will present Canadians with a real environmental plan that will lower global emissions without making Canadians pay more,” he says.

Asked about his plan, Scheer told reporters on Monday that a “real plan” to tackle emissions is needed, more than a carbon tax. (Liberals claim it is a tax on pollution)

“Our plan as I mentioned will be unveiled with plenty of time for Canadians to analyze it,” Scheer said, not picking up on the news of the latest record breaking floods in Quebec and Ontario and New Brunswick…perhaps missing the news of recent past catastrophic forest fires in BC & Alberta…there’s so much to cram in that clouds a person’s science challenged judgement… not to mention the recent report from the federal government’s Canada’s Changing Climate Report that reveals Canada’s climate is warming twice as fast as global average.

Take your time boys! Science is sometimes difficult!

Who Are These Women Anyway…

Jody Wilson-Raybould and Jane Philpott have appeared for the first time together on April 24 and spoken publicly since their joint scrum in the foyer of the House of Commons the day after their ouster from the Liberal caucus, two months into the SNC-Lavalin scandal.
Both appeared to deliver a joint address called: “From denial to recognition: the challenges of Indigenous justice in Canada.”at the First Nations Provincial Justice Forum in Vancouver.

Jody Wilson-Raybould “The history of Crown-Indigenous relations in this country includes a history of the rule of law not being respected. Indeed, one of the main reasons for the urgent need for justice and reconciliation today is that in the history of our country we have not always upheld foundational values such as the rule of law in our relations with Indigenous peoples.”

Jane Philpott said there is a serious clash of cultures… one of the lessons she’s taking away from it all is that, “Ottawa is not entirely ready for people who approach leadership and responsibility from different world views.”

Between Periods

Capitalism in Crisis

Capitalism in crisis: Court Painter worries about the survival of the system that made him rich

Calgary/Inglewood-Alberta. — A perfect Alberta day. The sun was shining, a gentle breeze was blowing a tumbleweed down the alley and at a nearby Tim Hortons ,amongst the enraged Albertans relaxing with their morning coffee, Press Attache A Hardon MacKay accepted a double double from the filthy rich Court Painter as they discussed an uncomfortable subject: the growing unpopularity of him as a rich artist and his ever expanding mega studio business.

Court Painter, after a quick costume change,shown with his feet up on the chair, let out a nervous snort. He is on his third start-up studio and well on his way to being one of the wealthiest artists in Inglewood, if not Calgary.

“Realizing people hate your guts has some value,” he joked. .. with a bull’s eye spit…. in a spittoon …..across the room!

For decades Court Painter has hailed himself a best example of the art business elite as Angry Alberta’s salvation. The bitumen might be gridlocked, the electorate angry and divided but Court Painter with his entrepreneurial, brand conscious innovative ways seemed to promise a relatively pain-free way out of the mess. His algorithm managed studio produces an endless series of portrait products that keep the political and celebrity economy churning and the gross cultural product climbing. His philanthropic efforts ( although few), were aimed at fixing some of the province’s most vexing art production problems. Government’s art granting role was to stay out of the way except for tax relief and capital infusions for his ever expanding studio enterprises.

Court Painter pictured with international acquaintance playing gin rummy

Now that consensus is shattering. For the first time in a while, Court Painter’s version of capitalism’s future is a subject of debate among artist competitors and a source of growing angst for the local art business elite. In places such as the oil executive hot tubs and lawyers art filled offices, there is a sense that Court Painter’s kind of capitalism that made the local art scene an economic envy is responsible for the growing inequality and anger that is tearing the latte lapping hipster, digital native and hobby communities apart.

Court Painter with international business partner

Less successful painters and creatives feel locked out of the local art economic future and Court Painter’s dominance and brand recognition make him an easy target for those looking for someone to blame.

“What about me?” a voice joining the conversation mournfully interjected. The voice belonging to a local artist and crank CC (Name available upon request).

As a recent advocate for democratic art socialism CC railed against “the handful of filthy rich artists” who “control the economic and political life of this city,” and who disproportionately live in Court Painter’s neighbourhood .

Part of CC’s solution was to do what he has always done, yell at successful art executive A Hardon MacKay and celebrity artist Court Painter (well known as a thoughtful type), under this verbal assault, looked worried that the current path for both his type of art capitalism and Inglewood studio expansion was unsustainable. Boosted by a cryptocurrency spike last year, Court Painter’s net worth had briefly hit $59 billion (this figure was not confirmed since Court Painter is a notorious pathological fibber), making him the fifth-richest artist in the art world before the currency’s value fell.

The confrontation has become known as the Tiraid at Tims

Without an intervention, the concern was that wealth would continue to pile up in Court Painter’s Inglewood studio vault (illustrated) and the anger and rage in the province would be far worse than during the accidental NDP years way back when!

Illustration courtesy of Court Painter Wealth Management

This current anger and rage was best expressed by CC (name available upon request) as he was escorted forcefully from the coffee shop yelling…”Court Painter’s brand of unrestrained capitalism is killing my bottom line.”

Photos of CC being escorted out of Tims :courtesy of TMZ

Good Boy!

Say it isn’t so!

Attributed to Rex Murphy:

It will be a while before Vogue calls on Court Painter again

Sans halo, he now walks the ground like every other face-painter, as pedestrian as the rest of them

Court Painter, amid cheers from his sadly compliant “studio team,” booted portraits of Jody and Jane from the privileged ranks of the Court Painter plethora of political celebrity subject sale items. They have been excised, exiled and ejected. As one always reliably tasteful observer put it — “the boil has been lanced.”

So what does all this mean, now, for Court Painter, who under the more congenial moons of 2015 put much of the world’s press and QE2 in the kind of swoon normally served up only for alumni of Survivor or Lady Gaga epiphanies? Well, it means those days are gone for good.

It’ll be a while before Time or Vogue comes calling again. Or Vanity Fair, oracle of the yuppie woke, teases out such spellbinding headlines as “Let Court Painter in His Long Johns Brighten Your Monday,” followed by the beautiful kite tail of a sub-head “Not all art superheroes wear fig leafs.” Which is shorthand for saying that the “stylishness” component of the Court Painter brand, the meretricious appeal of the artist as celebrity, is done and gone. The charisma of celebrity as opposed to the celebrity of painterly accomplishment or real pigmented achievement, is always a thin halo, and can vanish with a tweet. Once evaporated it never returns.

The charisma of art celebrity … is always a thin halo

He now walks the ground like every other humbled portraitist, as pedestrian as the rest of them.

These are just fragments of the fallout from Court Painter’s studio purge, but they are emblematic. The progressive brand and Court Painter as its most alluring symbol is no longer his to claim. But ever optimistic he quipped “A day without art is like a dog without a bone.”

Love the Smell of CO2 in the Morning

“Smell that? You smell that? CO2, son. Nothing else in the world smells like that. I love the smell of CO2 in the morning. Smells like… Victory. Someday this war on fossil fuel is gonna end…”
I love the smell of napalm in the morning

The original line was spoken by Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore, played by Robert Duvall, in the 1979 film Apocalypse Now.

Road Show Rip Offs

Court Painter is no different from other artists who have got ripped off by the forces of second hand Road Show capitalism!

His Press attache AHM is looking into getting a small percentage of the profit made by these grifters who prey upon the mercantile worth of the body & soul art material that is Court Painter’s raison d’être and stuff like that!

A Nag That Never Goes Away

So… we have the recently introduced Liberal Government omnibus budget bill. This legislation, introduced as one bill, would require 35 separate changes to other pieces of legislation. The practice of omnibus bills is deeply anti-democratic and limits the opportunities of MPs to engage meaningfully with the implications of the individual pieces bundled together.For example this 2019 bill, contains highly contentious new rules to prevent people who have claimed refugee status in another country from making a similar claim in Canada — clearly targeting asylum-seekers at the U.S.-Canada border.

The Liberals were vociferous critics of this method of Legislation under the previous Harper Conservative government and vowed to jettison its practice.

This is the second omnibus bill introduced by the Trudeau government .The first in 2018 contained the provision to allow corporations to negotiate remediation agreements rather than face criminal charges. SNC-Lavalin lobbied hard for the provision and the SNC-Lavalin scandal was a result.

Anyway the ole nag of a Trojan horse has again been brought out of pasture for political expediency!