was there some shady force aiding sanders in the primaries?

yeah, i think there was. at least at first.

and, was sanders aware of it?

to some extent, but perhaps not clearly.

i don't know what happened, in the end. maybe bernie tricked me along with everybody else - although i'm hard to trick. trump didn't trick me. obama didn't trick me. trudeau didn't trick me, either. maybe sanders got me when the rest couldn't....

maybe, they decided that supporting him was a bad idea, after all - because he seemed as willing to play them as they were to play him. maybe he seemed to understand the game, and it freaked them out. i'm leaning there.

but, it never crossed my mind that this shady force was russian, nor do i think that it was, looking back. and, i'm keyed into russian media and russian narratives. i'd see it if it was there.

the deep state hates hillary clinton. i can only say that so many times....but nobody wants to see the obvious.

apparently, when mccartney found out about carol kaye, it broke his naive heart.

brian wilson was a hack.

this is his ghost writer.

and, i'll say it: tommy douglas' skeletons are a lot more frightening than pearson's.

i would have voted for the latter, and i think history defends the point.

pearson was without a question the best prime minister we've ever had; while we should be honest and critical where necessary, the left should be trying to build on what he left us, which is a legitimately strong starting point, and not trying to tear that legacy down.

i think engler is generally a little too hard on pearson, who wasn't jesus, but did articulate a vision worth striving for.

he's right about may being a problem, though.

https://www.counterpunch.org/2016/08/12/canadian-greens-vs-us-greens/

in terms of informing voting decisions, i'm far more upset about what they're doing in eastern europe.

there's no way i'm voting for legalizing heroin. but, i'd like to hear the greens speak out against arming nazis in ukraine, and against placing troops in the baltic.

to be clear: i'm not denying that trudeau may be seen as being weak on foreign policy.

i'd agree that his foreign policy has been pretty amateurish, and in truth more of an extension of harper's than a return to liberal principles.

but, this is the same error that clinton made: she ran on foreign policy, despite polls making it clear that foreign policy is simply not a ballot question to americans.

(and, as a hard leftist, i preferred what trump said on foreign policy, anyways.)

when people sit down to vote, the question of whether trudeau is making the country look good or bad to indians is simply not going to be top of mind, or middle of mind, or even bottom of mind.

nobody is going to care at all.

he could build a shrine to vishnu in his office, for all i care, so long as he does something substantial on the climate, between now and then - and, if he doesn't, it's not likely i'll support him, even if the indians love him, after all.

and, i'm more concerned about what our indians think of him - which is currently not very much.

the abacus poll may seem relatively reasonable upon first glance, but don't let that distract you from the fact that they are not doing scientific polling, and should essentially be ignored by serious observers.

if the poll is picking something up, it's by accident.

nor would there be any reason to draw a causal relationship between trudeau's trip to india - which nobody actually cares about besides the tory media - and any decrease in support, given that there are plenty of better reasons to see his support slip. if he was trying to stop movement to the ndp, such a thing is beyond rational deconstruction, and it's not going to stop something that was never going to happen in the first place.

it's like lisa's rock that keeps away lions.

the actual movement in the poll is to the greens and not the conservatives or ndp, which would suggest that the movement (if real, by accident) is due to distaste over trudeau's lack of a serious policy on climate change. and, it may be partially connected to the mulroneyesque bait and switch in the budget, which appears to be putting funding into conservation at the expense of transition.

but, i'm going to vote for variation.

don't expect the national post to skip a good yarn, though.

just typical tory media nonsense...

http://nationalpost.com/news/politics/john-ivison-trudeaus-blunder-filled-india-trip-sinks-liberals-in-the-polls

again: throw away that pseudo-scientific claptrap you call "business literature" or "negotiation theory" and watch the dawkins video.

trump is not being a "tough negotiator".

he's being a parasite.

defect.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1jprgh

on the other hand, his mom might have the most useful advice in the world, right now.

call your mom, justin.

you know, i wasn't alive in the 70s, let alone old enough to be following politics, and the historical literature i've read has only cursorily examined the trudeau-sinclair "marriage", but i have to wonder just how long people sat and wondered....

when is she just going to get up and walk out?

he's more like his mother every day, isn't he?

and, then, let's sue the fuck out of him until he's gone.

let's make canada the divorce that trump really remembers and truly regrets.

and, trump will call us at all hours of the morning.

i've changed.

bullshit.

hang up that phone.

block that number.

this, too, shall pass.

let's a sign a statement of solidarity with melania, instead - and get up and walk away together.

when people talk to you the way that trump has spoken to us, you need to get up and walk away.

we should not remain a part of this abusive relationship.

not for one second longer....

friends do not give each other ultimatums.

and, canada should not be the fool that cannot identify it's friends - and is then taken advantage of for it.

i would have no patience in these "negotiating tactics", or see any reason why we need to suffer such idiocy.

i'd tell the dipshit to take a fucking hike.

no.

there can be no "conditions" on exemptions for steel and aluminium.

we have a free trade agreement.

and, trump is just wasting everybody's time in acting out, like a child having a temper tantrum.

when children act out, you need to correct their behaviour.

nafta is a farce. end it. now.

we can re-enter negotiations for a bilateral agreement with the next president, on the condition that it is actually a free trade agreement.

in the mean time, let's start shipping oil to china.

what i said after the election was that all the liberals need to do to win the next five elections is carry through on their campaign promises, and avoid looking like harper-lite.

oops.

so, if the real reason that trudeau won is that people rejected mulcair the same way they rejected ignatieff, does that mean singh comes in and save the day?

no.

he's not what anybody wants, either.

again: this is going to be a strange cycle, and nobody dare predict the outcome at this point. the only thing i'm predicting is disturbingly low turnout - like, the low turnout will be a major news story, kind of thing. the lowest turnout anybody's ever seen...

but, the demographics are changing, because the conservative base is dying. where low turnout once guaranteed a conservative win, today it's just a flag for unpredictability.

it could be anything from a conservative minority to a breakthrough for the greens to a return of the bloc.....

this is the first evidence that i've got this thing.

http://dsdfghghfsdflgkfgkja.blogspot.ca/2015/08/it-was-leading-question-on-tpp.html

i loved loved loved loved loved loved jim carrey for a few years, at a certain age.

i don't talk about him much.

but he's actually probably my biggest influence.

it wasn't just jim carrey  it was robin williams. it was bill murray. that kind of character actor that can do drama as well or better than comedy - i always drew a lot of inspiration from that.

not that i ever wanted to be an actor; or, at least, not formally. i saw that more as an optimal way to actually live, to actually exist.

because it's the drama that makes life worthwhile, and the comedy that makes the drama manageable.

it's more fun when nobody is sure if you're acting.

maybe, one day, we will have a final sacrifice.

that's something worth being hopeful about.

until then, some kind of mourning is a part of life.

blame god, or something.

i don't fucking know.

maybe we could genetically engineer ourselves to photosynthesize.

i think i'd be happy as a flower.