Tuesday, December 17, 2019

What Jason Kenney and the UCP fear most

When I started Canadian Trends 8 years ago I created a set of personal rules to govern myself and my work. These rules also extend to my Twitter. These rules are in place for one reason only, to facilitate the work. If I break my personal rules regarding my work then by extension my work would become tarnished and would be prone to attack. The work has to stand on it's own.

Much like Alberta's "war room", I don't want to give my strategy away, because my own offensive against the government's propaganda could then potentially be countered. I believe now that my strategy may be slightly more effective than I had anticipated and I have my own metrics to gauge this success.

I can give you some examples of the more overt rules. As I said these are personal, not like a mission statement. The biggest of which is this blog does not accept any money what-so-ever from anyone for anything. No ads. No payments. No donations. My work has no ties to anything political, I'm just your regular senior software engineer. I have no agenda behind what I write other than to write it because I'm pissed and I'm not even pissed for me. I'm pissed for everyone. I'm especially pissed for the future.

Another rule was to post under my real name. This was a risk given how "out there" some of my stuff is but I felt it was worth the risk as it preemptively defused any sort of "doxxing scandal". The objective is always to keep the focus on the work. It's not about me, and can't be made to be about me, if I have no horses in any races.

My writing style is another deliberate choice. As there are no copyrights on any of the work on this site. You all own it. The style prevents plagiarizing in mainstream media but does not prevent lifting the ideas and rewriting them. I'm not a journalist, I'm an underground political commentator and it's important I stay that way, for the sake of the purity of the work.

And last but not least, post first-moderate later, commenting. I always welcome debate, and ideas. Please challenge my ideas and add to the conversation (just please ensure you're differentiating between where I'm stating facts and making forecasts, I can defend the facts I use - only time can defend my forecasts).

The messenger is always an easier surface of attack than the message.

My message, for Alberta at this current time, is a need to build bridges. To understand the manipulation being used against us and to counter it, effectively. Albertans are being pitted against each other and this is being done on purpose! I've Twitter-friended a number of conservative leaning folks in the past few weeks now. We're not agreeing on everything, and we don't have to, but the war in this small group is over. The war is what Jason Kenney's legitimacy rests on and so the 'war on Albertans' is the best surface of attack. Take away his wars and what does he have left?

Jason Kenney's biggest fear is that the war between Albertans ends. Of this I am nearly 100% certain now.

This isn't a partisan thing either, for those of you saying "BUT YOUR SITE SAYS NON-PARTISAN" in shouty face. My question for those people is, what brand of conservatism includes state run corporate welfare industry propaganda centres? Whatever the fuck this is it sure as hell isn't conservatism. From my perspective the brand of the government doesn't matter, anyway, I'm fighting a sitting government and actual actions not party gossip. If the NDP had dedicated $30 million per year to propagandize us, correct us, etc I would have been just as pissed. Fuck your political party, this blog is about actions, issues, and motives, and it's always been so.

In the past few weeks since I started writing again and began my guerrilla offense against the fuckwad UCP and their ministry of truth I've gotten a lot more attention than I had expected. Most of it has been pretty good, overall. A certain troll lately has popped up repeatedly though that some in the "blogosphere" might be familiar with. Patrick Ross.

Now, this next bit that I'm going to post has absolutely nothing to do with my post. This is just so if Ross does come to enjoy reading my perspective on political events he has a little reminder where his perspective has lead him before.

/// Begin: fuck you
As it is, Patrick Ross is currently a 33-year-old (UPDATE: now 34-year-old) undischarged bankrupt university dropout, living at home with his parents and looking at 14 years of being an undischarged bankrupt, followed by six (maybe seven, I can never remember which) more years of being a discharged bankrupt. Quite simply, for someone who considers himself the smartest and baddest motherfucker on the Intertoobz, Patrick Ross is looking at dealing with the consequences of his malicious defamation of me, civil judgment and subsequent personal bankruptcy until he is well into his fifties. But that's not the sad part of this. 
The truly sad part of this is that I have been assured by my lawyer that, while Patrick Ross is undoubtedly crowing about how clever he is at having his appeal postpone his legal obligation to start making payments, it has also prevented the 14-year payment clock from even starting to tick. In other words, while Patrick dawdles on what to do regarding his appeal, all he is accomplishing is pushing the consequences of his bankruptcy, day by day, further into his old age. 
It is precisely for that reason that I instructed my Saskatchewan lawyer that under no circumstances is she to expend any time or effort to track down Patrick Ross or push to have his appeal brought before the court. No, I have instructed her to take his file and put it in a back drawer somewhere, and leave it there. Because, to be frank, I can survive quite nicely without that $200/month, and if Patrick Ross wants to languish as an undischarged bankrupt for the rest of his life, I have no problem with that and he has my blessing. 
So here endeth the story. I'm getting on with my life (which involves travelling the world, eating well and drinking really good gin), my lawyer is stuffing the Patrick Ross file into a box, and Patrick is free to spend the rest of his days living in his parents' basement, tweeting about pro wrestling and which upcoming Marvel Comics Avenger movie he looks forward to the most, stocking shelves at the Lloydminster lumber store he works at, and getting used to living without a credit card or a credit record of any kind, never being able to get a bank loan or a mortgage. And if he's happy to be there, I'm happy to leave him there.
Let there be no doubt, Patrick Ross is a liar that engages in defamation and has been caught before and instead of facing the consequences has decided to live a life of meaningless bankruptcy, and for some strange reason does this on behalf of Conservative political parties. Why? I have no fucking idea.

/// End: fuck you

And so today he decided to attack me. He first began accusing me of being told "by them" (presumably the NDP?) to complain about the propaganda centre, in literal replacement of a defense of it.
I continued to call him out on his lie. Like fuck you, debate my points, debate my opinions, I generally as a rule block no one regardless of how heated a conversation gets. But accusing me of being "told" what to say? Like.. seriously? That Ross would take this line of attack is interesting though, attempting to publicly convince people (and he repeatedly refers to 'we' and the 'people' apparently watching throughout the conversation) that "they" are telling me what to say is protective not of the opposition, or moderates, its a message aimed at protecting the conservative base from me. And that is interesting.

Don't read this, don't look at this, because "they" must be saying it. That he chose this to attempt to attack me by inventing some sort of allegiance between myself and the NDP (like, did he bother to even spend 5 minutes looking at the stuff I write and say?) says to me my line of messaging against the propaganda centre is on target. It's building bridges, it's causing questions to be asked, the political climate is not one of adversarial discussion of party ideologies because the province's problem are not ideological problems. They're real, practical problems that have been decades in the making and of which the only way out is through and anyone who tells you otherwise is lying to you (especially if they fund a propaganda centre to do it), it's as simple as that.

Patrick Ross decided then to do some "investigating". He found, not much, given I don't use Facebook all that often. Ages ago I joined a group called Father's Rights Edmonton. It's one of the few places fathers can go to ask for legal help among men regarding family court and such. In the last few years since the rise of the "alt-right" or "new right", the group has gone a bit off the rails.

Patrick Ross, upon finding this tiny nugget of information, began spinning new conspiracies on the spot. Asking "#ableg" if people in pictures he took from this group and had posted were me, am I the group admin? No... no I'm not, and none of the pictures Patrick Ross posted aside from the one I use in my Twitter profile contain myself in them.

I am not re-posting these tweets here as the father's rights group is a private matter, the tweets contain photos of other people's children and it's about people's personal legal challenges and frankly its none of your fucking business what's going on in there except for those who are in it. He has them up on his Twitter if you're curious.

With that said, the fact he decided to go to such lengths to attempt to defame me in the eyes of the conservative base, speaks volumes. His attempt to whip up a mob did not work, I'm still kicking credibility intact, and I largely thank my personal rules for this.

Attempting to intimidate and defame seems to be the main M.O. of the Kenney government and the cultist followers lately as the "open for business" slogan and that line of messaging has fallen further and further behind.
While their war room attempts to regain some sort of credibility by implying that "the average Joe" investor (who's name is literally Joe) is just idly sitting around reading his morning propaganda centre "investor brief".
Of course the morning Joe reading the "investor brief" ends up being a Lawyer at the Dentons law firm which for those who have forgotten was the sole sourced receiver of the contract for the "public inquiry" into the bullshit Vivian Krause conspiracy theory. Dentons is closely tied to Harper & Associates (of course), and shares an office with them.

The propaganda centre - which lets not forget has disabled all comments on their videos, all feedback on their videos, has no comments or feedback on their articles, and provides no possible way for all of the vague "foreign funded environmentalists" to clarify their own position regarding the falsehoods the propaganda centre based on the work of Vivian Krause continues to say is occurring (and which Global News just let slide, like WTF Global News? You just pander to liars pushing debunked conspiracies now?) - wants newspapers to run their hastily prepared op-eds for "clarifying".
LOL. They can barely control the message in Medicine Hat and they think they're going to convince the world?

Of course not.

We should take note at how interested the war room is in correcting a tiny criticism of it from Medicine Hat. As we discussed in my post Alberta's Great Panderer, the stated purpose for the war room is a lie. It doesn't exist to convince the opposition, it exists to speak to the base. To keep them on board, to give them the impression that something other than a huge transfer of public wealth into private hands is happening. It's tweeting of self validation by getting a Dentons insider lawyer to act like a regular Joe just reading his investor brief wasn't geared at investors, it was geared at the base wondering if investors really are reading the "investor brief".

From what I can see however, the war room is a tactical blunder on the part of the UCP that may end up driving a unifying force rather than a divisive war.

It's a major fear, and a weakness.

I'm on the offensive.



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Richard Fantin is a self-taught software developer who has mostly throughout his career focused on financial applications and high frequency trading. He currently works for CenturyLink

Nazayh Zanidean is a Project Coordinator for a mid-sized construction contractor in Calgary, Alberta. He enjoys writing as a hobby on topics that include foreign policy, international human rights, security and systemic media bias.

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Monday, December 16, 2019

Building bridges when the cause has been hijacked

I remember something my late friend Michael C. Ruppert told us one night in our weekly CollapseNet conference call regarding Alex Jones. "Alex Jones is a liar and a trojan horse and anyone who lays their bed next to his will regret it". This was in regards to a conversation that had been sparked by a new employee that had seen a few of his documentaries and had mentioned something along the lines that in his own way Alex Jones was helping.

Mike was adamant however that Alex Jones would only destroy the truth, not help it. This was in a time long before the Trump / Jones media alliance when Jones was lesser known, the Obama being from Kenya thing hadn't even happened yet, Alex Jones was still producing convincing documentaries about the New World Order.

Mike would often call Jones a liar on air on his show the Lifeboat Hour and dare him to sue him for it. He just wanted the opportunity to expose him in court.

Alex Jones for his part ignored Mike. If you've ever had the chance to listen to Alex Jones during his call in segments (or really any segment) you know he is quite animated and typically goes on the attack instantly. One of Mike's listeners called in to Jones' show one day, asks what he thinks of Mike Ruppert's ideas, Jones cuts him off and responds "Ya I know Mike", and went to the next caller.

So why am I telling you this story now? Because it's the beginning of understanding what's truly needed to bridge the political divide in Canada.

Mike was right, again, the guy was always fucking right. Alex Jones did destroy truth, everything Alex Jones has ever talked about, true or not, is now tarnished with the same brush and at the same time those who haven't had the guts to see thru it yet are being lead further and further away where the cause they're fighting is owned and marketed by the enemies they claim to be against.

If you've been following the Kelly Jones saga with her ex husband you know they've been having legal battles. I read something the other week I found quite interesting.
For Kelly Jones, the support for Trump was a betrayal of the libertarian, free-thinking site she believed InfoWars and Prison Planet had been at the outset.
“They have been reduced to the mouthpiece of the person who is going to go down as the most terrible president and the most destructive force this country’s ever seen—and for what? Because Donald Trump calls Alex on the phone and pats his head?” she said. 
“One of the reasons that I speak out is that I am appalled and actually terrified by the power of my ex-husband and PJW influencing the election and influencing the nation’s politics. 
“I would never believe they could support Donald Trump. He’s a despot. InfoWars was always anti-tyranny, pro-constitution.” 
Within the space of a year, Watson had gone from suggesting Trump was secretly working for the Democrats to becoming a favorite agitator in the Twittersphere of Donald Trump Jr. and his fringe media acolytes. 
Watson’s hoax video alleging that Hillary Clinton may be a drug-addict suffering from an array of serious ailments ranging from syphilis to a brain tumor kickstarted a mainstream news cycle that reached tens if not hundreds of millions of voters.
Let's not forget that Watson was originally right about Trump and the pied piper strategy, before flip flopping, this should be well known fact by now. But it's not, it's knowledge that has been lost in a new vicious Left vs Right where the truth has been covered in a massive array of conflicting narratives and sources.

We are left with the age of Trumpism, and have an even more contorted version of it here in Canada that is geared to suiting our particular political climate with energy production being at the forefront of our version with the globalists supposedly enacting an elaborate plan via networks of NGOs, carbon taxes, etc. to stop Canada from developing it's resources. Instead of InfoWars, we have Rebel Media, which if you didn't know Ezra Levant was on InfoWars recently.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false" -CIA Director William Casey, 1981
I stopped writing this blog because the truth became pointless. Real discussion around the globe is basically dead, critical thinking is dead, rock is dead, and nowhere have I felt this as much as I have in my home of Alberta. The destruction of the truth turning into a war of narratives doesn't just affect those who end up sucked into the void of misinformation, it affects the very ability to bridge the gap between the warring sides.

The warring sides in Alberta are having two very different discussions, discussions that can never meet and find common ground. This war between the people is a deliberate and perfect way to halt any real opposition to the government actions that are serving the interests of no one except the banking elites. A bridge will never be able to built between the sides if either side is outright dismissed.

So the true irony for me is that I've started this blog again, for the same reason I stopped it, because the truth doesn't matter anymore. I've observed first hand the discussion in Alberta devolve and the aggressive war tones build. I've watched as the topics and causes I've written about are hijacked and used by the very system I and so many others have been fighting.

It will be impossible to fight Kenney's messaging without acknowledging the tarnished truths, because the fundamental core of Kenney's fabricated war is built on the ashes of those tarnished truths. Those truths are still out there, being weaponized thru neglect and padded with a web of lies.

R.I.P. Michael C. Ruppert, you always had it right, right from the start.

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Richard Fantin is a self-taught software developer who has mostly throughout his career focused on financial applications and high frequency trading. He currently works for CenturyLink

Nazayh Zanidean is a Project Coordinator for a mid-sized construction contractor in Calgary, Alberta. He enjoys writing as a hobby on topics that include foreign policy, international human rights, security and systemic media bias.

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Wednesday, December 11, 2019

Alberta's "energy war room" officially launches (with a half-assed blog and ratio'd video)

It's finally here! The great $30 million per year energy war room who's name has been politically corrected to the "Canadian Energy Centre" (because all the best propaganda masquerades as something it's not).

They've debuted with a fancy video in which "it just is" features as some sort of argument in the feel good word salad it turned into. It's replete with everything from healthy babies to world joy. At the time of this writing it has 6,289 views, 2.2K dislikes, and 74 likes. I'm guessing the majority of the 74 are the UCP caucus and their staffers much as they all dutifully like and retweet every Canadian Energy Centre tweet. Comments are disabled on the video, of course, as the content can only exist unchallenged in a vacuum much like the "foreign funded environmentalist" theory it was founded upon.

Browsing over to the "Canadian Energy Centre's" shitty website we can find some amazing "stories" that really tell the "truth" about Canadian Energy, like "Alberta father irked by charity group that targets fossil fuel industry". Now there's a headline that is going to move hearts and minds around the world, it effectively dismisses climate change and sits right beside other articles on the site such as "Fighting climate change with Canadian energy". Do they, or don't they believe in climate change? I guess it depends which article you're reading. Which "oil industry truth" do you choose?

The site comes with giant headlines, giant pictures, and giant text, to make up for it's lack of content. It's a tactic that the "Sun" series of papers along with Rebel Media, and other media geared towards "conservative" audiences use. It's the equivalent of seemingly saying a lot without saying anything at all. Few of the statements on the site are sourced. It's not even *good* propaganda.

So congrats Albertans, you're committed now, the war room is aiming to become the face of Alberta's industry and future, and it's a joke. You think investment looks bad now? Just wait.

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Richard Fantin is a self-taught software developer who has mostly throughout his career focused on financial applications and high frequency trading. He currently works for CenturyLink

Nazayh Zanidean is a Project Coordinator for a mid-sized construction contractor in Calgary, Alberta. He enjoys writing as a hobby on topics that include foreign policy, international human rights, security and systemic media bias.

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Alberta's plan for the $2.4B? Helping defunct oil companies circumvent the Supreme Court

Jason Kenney has been working on multiple fronts to do an end run around the Supreme Court ruling in January that companies are obligated to fund orphan well cleanup before paying back creditors.

Recently on Twitter, Matt Wolf - Kenney's main "issue manager" (propagandist) stated regarding Kenney's request from the federal government for a $2.4B "fair deal" handout:
"Job creation programs". Right.

Who does this help? Not the defunct oil companies, which will go bankrupt paying their creditors anyway. It helps.. the banks, which we discussed a bit in the last post. It sure is interesting how all of Jason Kenney's major economic actions lead back to a single beneficiary.

This comes on the heels of statements made by Kenney last month regarding this decision.

Alberta seeks to lessen financial hit of Supreme Court ruling on orphan wells
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney is vowing his government will do "everything" it can to mitigate the impact he says the Supreme Court's Redwater ruling on orphan wells is having on oilpatch investment. 
Insolvency professionals and banks had both warned prior to the decision that such a ruling could decrease the amount of financing available to the oil and gas industry.

Speaking to members of Canada's oil well drilling sector this week, Kenney indicated the decision is having a harmful effect on the sector and that his government is working on addressing it. 
"We also will be focusing in the next few weeks on doing everything we possibly can to mitigate the unintended consequences of the Redwater decision, which has done so much to restrict access to both capital and credit, equity and credit, for this industry," Kenney said.
If the banks can't stomach responsible cleanup then I'm not exactly sure how Alberta can claim it's oil industry is "responsible". But really this isn't about future oil & gas production, this is about the already existing orphan wells the banks will now take losses to cleanup.

Canada must say no to Alberta's begging. This is an end run around our courts, it's an end run around responsibility, it's an end run around honesty. It's flat-out corporate welfare.

If Alberta's oil industry is so fucking profitable and so fucking responsible, prove it, and clean up your mess.

Click here to recommend this post on progressivebloggers.ca and help other people find this information.

Richard Fantin is a self-taught software developer who has mostly throughout his career focused on financial applications and high frequency trading. He currently works for CenturyLink

Nazayh Zanidean is a Project Coordinator for a mid-sized construction contractor in Calgary, Alberta. He enjoys writing as a hobby on topics that include foreign policy, international human rights, security and systemic media bias.

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Thursday, December 5, 2019

Alberta's Great Panderer

Four years ago during the 2015 federal election I suggested that Stephen Harper was basically throwing the election and that Justin Trudeau was the banking elite's favorite and would probably win.
The Conservative Party is a contender but I don't believe Stephen Harper really wants to win. I haven't talked about the Conservatives much in this post and that is for a reason which I will describe here shortly. I anticipate that should the Conservatives not win a majority Stephen Harper will resign his seat and exit politics and probably already has some cushy gig lined up.
Well we now know what that cushy gig was; Stephen Harper went on to create an international investment firm called Harper & Associates and also, in one must imagine his spare time, now chairs an innocent sounding adventure called the International Democrat Union. Along with sitting on the advisory board of Azimuth Capital Management.

Harper's IDU resume reads like a laundry list of U.S. and banker wishes. It's glowing. And then you get to the end.
An ally of the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and other multilateral development institutions, Prime Minister Harper sought to amplify the scale and impact of Canada’s contributions to these institutions by involving the private sector in issue-specific campaigns whenever possible.
Suffice to say Harper is part of the globalist system.

In January Harper gave a private talk to investors about Alberta's troubles, of which the remarks were not made public. However a few things in the report caught my eye.
“The reality is that institutional investors have lost confidence in Canada,” according to the CEO of the oil and gas company. “Harper highlighted a list of things making us uncompetitive and things we have to do to attract investment.”

Anna Tomala, a spokesperson for Harper, declined to comment on the remarks made at the TD conference. TD Securities spokesperson Lynsey Wynberg also declined to comment because the event was closed to the media.
......
"He's not really seen as an oil patch insider and never was,” said investment banker Rick Peterson, who helps lead energy industry advocacy group Suits and Boots and ran for the leadership of the Conservative Party of Canada in 2017, in an email to BNN Bloomberg. He was not in attendance at the TD conference.
He's much more on the investment banker side of things.
Some energy investors hoped to learn more about Harper’s views at a private event in Toronto on Monday, ahead of his trip to Chile for meetings with the International Democratic Union (IDU), which he chairs. 
According to a source who has spent time with Harper in recent months, the negative sentiment around investing in Canada has been echoed to him as he travels around the world for speeches and for work tied to his consulting firm, Harper & Associates.

“He’s been hearing it from other CEOs -- this idea that the cost of doing business in Canada is too high,” according to the source who was not at the TD conference and did not want to be named. “So it wouldn’t be unusual for Harper to express that view privately.”
Suffice to say he and many people around the world are very "invested" in Alberta. But these people have no commitment to Alberta, or our oil & gas, or our people.

So what does this IDU do?
Formed in 1983, the IDU provides a forum in which Parties holding similar beliefs can come together and exchange views on matters of policy and organisational interest, so that they can learn from each other, act together, establish contacts and speak with one strong voice to promote democracy and centre-right policies around the globe. Founder Members of the IDU included Britain’s Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, then US Vice-President George Bush Sr, Paris Mayor and later President of France Jacques Chirac, German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and many other Party Leaders. 
(Ah, yes, George Bush Sr.)
Countries can only develop their full potential if they develop recognising the ideals of liberal democracy, freedom of the individual, and the need for economic growth to be based on individual initiative and free, competitive enterprise economies. The IDU has a clear role in a modern world, where today’s idea in one country is tomorrow’s policy in another. 
Through the IDU, member Parties can exchange policy ideas, assist each other to win the political argument, and to win elections. There are regular meetings of both the full IDU and its Regional Unions and Organisations. The officers of the IDU are elected at Party Leaders’ Meetings which are held every three or four years. 
At IDU Executive Meetings, briefings are given on local and topical issues, as well as consideration given to applicant parties. Apart from Executive Meetings and meetings of IDU’s Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, the IDU holds events such as the Young Leaders Forum, plus undertakes fact-finding missions and election observation. A major event is also held every four years to coincide with the Republican Convention, the last one held in September 2012 in Tampa (Florida). 
The IDU also organises campaigning seminars for politicians and party workers. These involve exchanges of information on campaign technology, fund-raising techniques, opinion polling, advertising and campaign organisation. The IDU plays an essential role in enabling like-minded, centre-right parties to share experiences in order to achieve electoral success.
If it seems like the same strategies are being deployed around the world, it's because they are.

Canadian bankers are pretty worried. They're practically pleading as an article put out yesterday would seem to indicate. It's a usual claptrap of all the talking points until you get to the end:
Why did Dodig speak out? If you assume it was primarily because the federal election was over, think again. More likely, it was because the Trans Mountain delay, the flight of foreign energy firms out of Canada, the loss of $30 billion in investments over the past three years, and the global competitive pressures Canada’s banks face every day are taking their toll on the banks’ ability to meet the expectations Canadians have of them —to continue to grow at a strong pace, to increase their dividends annually, to produce well-paying jobs and to help sustain broader economic development in Canada. 
Cost-cutting is now the mantra across Bay Street, especially in capital markets. CIBC reportedly just let go 15 managing directors from its own capital markets division. Such cuts are becoming common, as is the downdraft in salaries and bonuses. This trend is starting to surface more generally, with the October jobs report showing unexpected losses.
Hmm. I wonder if it's the slowing global economy? But we will get to the coming recession in another post.

PLOT TWIST!

This post isn't actually about Stephen Harper. It's about Jason Kenney, Alberta's Great Panderer, Stephen Harper's friend. Conservatives at the 2019 UCP AGM were greeted with a friendly message from their old pal.


Watch the video in full. Notice the language used, starting with the very first sentence: "For our movement here in Alberta [...]". Take note that he follows the UCP line of war against Ottawa and the NDP and blames them for the problems. We campaigned. We this. We that. The UCP is tied to Harper at the hip, and Harper is tied to the international investment community at the hip (which is feeling pretty sad right now) and chairs the IDU which if you remember from above helps win elections, organize campaigns, help with technology, yadda yadda. One might also conclude that could also involve leadership races, especially for a "friend", but I digress..

It's amazing to me however that the UCP was able to merge, organize, and yield such a strong force in less time than the NDP had been in power including a coordinated online presence.

There's been a lot of speculation about what Jason Kenney is really "up to". At least, based on the chatter I see around and on Twitter. For instance one theory I've heard quite frequently is he is gearing to be PM.

I dismissed this theory instantly. Kenney has been parachuted in here to do exactly what Kenney is doing. If he had had federal ambitions he would have been working at building a federal brand. No he was sent here to be the ultra conservative boy. He bought his cowboy hat, blue pickup, and drove across Alberta pandering to the messages he knew (because they've been molded for years) this province would be susceptible to in the same manor a millionaire metrosexual might sing country music.


His message and his mission are not going to sell across Canada. His dismissive arrogant smug fuckwad attitude isn't going to sell across Canada. His constant lies and refusal to address any problem his government is creating aside from blaming the NDP isn't going to sell across Canada. But they sure as fuck do in Alberta, especially when aided by his pals in Rebel Media where as we discussed in the last post has the cultists convinced that by supporting the UCP they're fighting the globalists and the "attack on Alberta". Keep in mind this is the same Rebel Media Hammish Marshall came from to go on to join the CPC to run their campaign. Harper's other project. Think maybe some people are being manipulated?

Kenney's messaging at this point is war. Everything is war.
"The enemy would no longer be Ottawa". The enemy? Kenney of course never comes out in force with such extreme language, playing it cool, but his messengers sure do and  their supporters eat it up. A constant war footing. One war, on to the next, and the next, and the next. There will not be a point in time where the UCP isn't at war with.. something, during their term. Their legitimacy and support depends on it.

Here's another one, in the National fucking Post no less, by Rex Murphy that Kenney recently did an interview with:
The greatest contribution to Alberta’s downturn, the flight of much of its capital, and the low morale in the industry generally, has been the continuous and furious assault the province, its oil industry, and Fort McMurray in particular, have endured for well over a decade. The globalist international movement of apocalyptic climate change has marked Alberta and its oilsands as its chosen target and symbol. There has never been so concentrated and focused an attack on any industry or project that equals in scale the relentless, propagandist denigration of the Alberta oilsands and the town of Fort McMurray.
There it is again, right in the National fucking Post: "globalist international movement".



Speed creates its own momentum. It also makes it harder for the opponents of reform to obstruct it- Jason Kenney
I also have to assume that when Jason Kenney takes his time it's done on purpose as well. One of Kenney's first acts in office was to grant corporations a tax cut long before his budget or blue ribbon panel. Husky got an immediate return this year from that of $233 million and then turned tail and left. It's not like it was a secret that Husky was reducing spending and putting everything into cash flow and stock buybacks either they had announced this was their plan back in May.. On May 28th in fact... That's the day the corporate tax cut bill was introduced! That's weird.

Stock buybacks are accelerating everywhere.
But why did buybacks just soar to an all time high? After all, isn't it naive and foollish to launch a record stock repurchase program with the S&P at all time highs? Well, no, when the one paying for it is the greatest fool of all - the yield-starved corporate bond investor. Recall that September saw a record monthly corporate bond issuance, with some $434 billion in bonds sold globally, $5 billion more than the previous all time high of March 2017.
Hmm. Helps corporate bond investors huh?

Kenney has been moving a lot of money around in his short time in office, most recently changing the management of teachers pensions to AIMCo along with worker's comp emergency funds and funds managed for AHS. It pretty well doubled the fund whose investments are quite localized.
If AIMCo were to take a greater interest in supporting the province’s fossil fuel industry — something that Kenney has neither endorsed nor ruled out — it would create a “double jeopardy” situation for Alberta retirees, Ambachtsheer said, as both contributions and returns would be dependent on the health of the same industry. 
An enhanced AIMCo would almost certainly also have to address its lack of geographical diversification.
I'll say. Especially given the CPP already relies on oil & gas companies overshooting their climate targets.

It's reasonable to assume exactly where that cash is going to go, the global economy just "recovered" from a liquidity crisis. None of this is going to translate to jobs, that's not where any of this is heading. No where close to the exodus of jobs already begun. Halliburton is closing up shop since starting in Alberta in 1926. 1926. Nearly a fucking century.

Now, one really has to wonder.. why now? Why under Kenney? He just passed the new tax break, we've got a war room, everything is supposed to be improving. Why wouldn't a company with the capital of Halliburton if so upset with the state of Alberta under Notley why wouldn't they leave under Notley? The exodus is a strangely orderly rush for the exits, company after company, one by one. And long after enough time has been given to factor in the UCP's benefits to them.

My belief is the rich know Alberta is toast. It was after all the Harper government that predicted Alberta's oil sector would be weighed down by it's labour, and costs. In effect predicting the layoffs that were yet to come. Today Jason Kenney accused Moody's of "buying into the European political agenda", which to his base may as well just say "globalist agenda". It might sound good to them but I highly doubt it's going to provide much confidence to investors, like isn't that supposedly where his investment banker expert spent $45,000 to drum up some investment? Maybe, just maybe, investor confidence isn't why he's here. Jason Kenney is not working for the people of Alberta, I'll leave you, dear reader, to ponder who he is working for.

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Richard Fantin is a self-taught software developer who has mostly throughout his career focused on financial applications and high frequency trading. He currently works for CenturyLink

Nazayh Zanidean is a Project Coordinator for a mid-sized construction contractor in Calgary, Alberta. He enjoys writing as a hobby on topics that include foreign policy, international human rights, security and systemic media bias.

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Tuesday, December 3, 2019

Hellberta Strikes Back: WEXIT, Wolf, and War Rooms! OH MY!

Canadian Trends has, for the moment, returned. Why? Because I'm an Albertan and the provincial government has effectively declared war on the people. They've declared war on me and anyone else who doesn't think Alberta should bend over for big oil. The current government, formed from the UCP party, is the most insidious group of fuckwads I've ever seen in Alberta. They are taking advantage of an economic mess their prior incarnation left to loot this province for everything it has remaining while standing behind the oil workers that government had left out to dry, and for which the NDP has taken the fall.

It's been over two years since this blog has posted, I'm pretty sure the only readers left are the Russian bots that spam my comments. But I might as well add my voice to the cacophony, where else can one go to read them called fuckwads anyway? (Serious question, answer in the comments).

Albertans, somehow, figured the NDP could not only maintain an economic boom during an oil price bust but also somehow figured they could correct the past mistakes of the 44 year PC dynasty, all while running a surplus budget, in 4 years, from a position of deficits and deflation. Anything less is apparently failure despite a huge series of successes.

But we're not here to dwell on the past, no now we're in the present, where the government has constructed a $30,000,000 per year "war room" free from pesky things like "accountability" to go after Alberta's (read: the oil industries') enemies. This is all being covered for by claiming that there are "foreign special interests" attacking us, based on solely the work of Vivian Krause.

Lying fuckwads.

The Krause Conspiracy (which is how this blog is going to refer to it as here after) is a convenient excuse for job losses that were in the cards years before the NDP, pipeline or no pipeline. The anger was inevitable, the conspiracy directs it away from those responsible: the oil companies and the conservative governments driving the boom which failed to prepare and transition the workers, and on to a vague "globalist agenda" rationalized by the Krause Conspiracy and an obsession with George Soros.

The right-wing in Canada, but particularly the west, has latched on to a heavily distorted version of the globalists, beyond even that pushed by Alex Jones. This seems to be lead by The Rebel in which they name Woodrow Wilson as the "O.G." of the globalists.

I seriously LOLd in my mouth.

Also among the "top globalists" is.. Justin Trudeau. Of course. Omitted from their list is Stephen Harper's Chief of Staff, conveniently, who has actually attended a Bilderberg meeting. So did PC Premier Alison Redford, and Brad Wall. Both unmentioned. This is because in the version of the globalists being pushed by the Rebel and Canada's new right-wing, the globalists are no longer the force behind major banks, and international institutions and energy companies. The globalists are "the left", the UN and the environmental movements. This message is essential to provide justification for the deep green conspiracy, beyond the flimsy surface of the Krause Conspiracy.

Here is an example:

Daniel Summers was the PPC candidate in the 2019 federal election for Edmonton-Manning
I actually like Greta. Do you know why? She called out the infinite growth ponzi scheme:
"You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words. And yet I'm one of the lucky ones. People are suffering. People are dying. Entire ecosystems are collapsing. We are in the beginning of a mass extinction, and all you can talk about is money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth. How dare you!
What's more anti-globalist than pointing out the major fallacy of the entire international monetary charade? The ponzi scheme we put next to the "job creators" on a pedestal above our own survival? Meanwhile we debate and justify why rich people need enough money to buy their own pedo island.

Do the real globalists latch on to causes? Of course they do. Which is why I would watch out for Mark Carney and any proposed solutions coming from the financial institutions. But the hijacking of a cause does not invalidate the cause.

Jason Kenney, whos fuckwad UCP party gave Rebel Media a booth at their AGM, is using the emotional turmoil of the people of Alberta to push these half baked conspiracies and direct the anger away from his government as he implements the agenda. Nothing he is doing, or will do, will provide the average Albertan relief. This is all a setup for the rich to gut what remains before the peasants figure it out. Albertans must be kept in a constant war against, well, anything it seems. Especially each other.

A war between Albertans may be unavoidable though and the seed's planted, The Rebel's (and now the government's) cult followers have for years been instructed that information sourced from outside the sphere of the new right-wing media is all "liberal biased"; which is frankly laughable given the outright activism The Rebel engages in on behalf of Conservative political causes. Increasingly they're becoming isolated within their own echo chamber resulting in a major division in their perception of the world.

This perception has lead to a reincarnation of WEXIT: The idea that Alberta, being at the center of the Krause Conspiracy and hated by the rest of Canada, never getting a "fair deal" in equalization and probably some other nonsense, can possibly separate. The WEXIT platform is a joke (and their website is annoying to navigate), but perception of reality has become so distorted that they actually believe it could work and it's popular enough, being boosted by the usual suspects of course, that it's "mainstream" to discuss (jokingly or not).
And then we have Matt Wolf the government's new $194,253 twitter troll and the endless army of "issue managers" the fuckwads have working for them. Their job in this endeavor is to keep the faith of the base. Their messages are not designed to explain, or convert, they are designed to feed the base what they want: war. They're not stupid, they know blaming the NDP and repeating the same tired lies over and over and over again isn't going to win hearts and minds. It isn't supposed to.

The UCP fuckwads want their base focused on being kings, rather than being free.


Click here to recommend this post on progressivebloggers.ca and help other people find this information.

Richard Fantin is a self-taught software developer who has mostly throughout his career focused on financial applications and high frequency trading. He currently works for CenturyLink

Nazayh Zanidean is a Project Coordinator for a mid-sized construction contractor in Calgary, Alberta. He enjoys writing as a hobby on topics that include foreign policy, international human rights, security and systemic media bias.

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