Tuesday 8 February 2022

A Day With The Flu Trux Klan In Toronto


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So I went out & covered the Toronto Trailerban protest today & took photos of the registration numbers of most of the trucks in case they should be needed in that future class action lawsuit which I had planned be to pass on although to be honest it was pretty tame. Unlike in Ottawa where there have been documented threats, assaults, vandalism, smashed windows, and at least really scary arson attempt. I mean except for the guy who was arrested for throwing literal shit. At any rate I'll post them here and you can decide if you want to business with them.

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First unlike Ottawa the cops here did an effective job of funneling them away from any place like Hospital Row, Queen's Park & City Hall leaving them confined to a few blocks on Bloor from Bay to Spadina and on Queen from Spadina to University and that's really it.

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Also I don't know about Ottawa or Calgary but downtown Toronto is basically a confusing warren of narrow one way streets. Because Fuck You and your stupid truck that's why.

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Seriously; People have broken down in tears trying to navigate or find parking downtown so if the Trailerban thought they were going to roar up & down the streets blaring their horns they were in for a rude awakening.

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Apparently some of them also thought they could get around the cops by using the Gardiner Expressway. Tee-Hee. I hope you brought a lunch Jethro.

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This is why we ride the subway you goobers. Also we have streetcars. And as the Ford Bros found out when they tried to scrap them we love our streetcars. We especially enjoy watching you get stuck behind one. Also Fuck You again.

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All this means that I saw dozens of trucks, not hundreds and certainly not thousands. There were also a lot of SUV's & pickups and hundreds of people on foot who had to park their cars a dozen blocks away where I saw them. Enjoy the hike to Bloor.

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Seriously we have bigger traffic jams during the FIFA World Cup Finals and we're not even in that. There was also a moderately large rally behind Queen's Park, but I've seen bigger turnout for Pride Week. Also tougher looking cowboys.

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Later I headed down to Queen st where there were maybe a dozen more trucks & few dozen vans etc. One guy blocked a truck for several minutes giving it the finger while it blared a super loud foghorn. Seriously it was deafening and I've seen Motorhead.

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Then I walked over to City Hall where I was expecting another protest and...nothing. Just the usual crowd happily using the ice rink. Not a sign in sight. Zero. Nada.

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Next I strolled over to Dundas Square. There's literally always somebody protesting something at Dundas Square right? All I found was a single bored security guard. Pathetic. I don't think these people are from around here.

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These People Aren't from around here pt2; Pronouncing the second "T" in Toronto. I knew it! Fucking tourists.

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These People Aren't from around here pt3; Overheard at the Royal Ontario Museum; "I think this is where they have the dinosaurs". To be fair he wasn't wrong.

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Also outside the ROM; A dude yelling through a bullhorn that he has God & that's why he don't need no stinking vaccines. I should ask him about the dinosaurs. I bet he has some thoughts.

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Bloor st; A line of trucks blaring horns along with an SUV with a dinky Beep-Beep horn. Hold-Renfrew's doorman yells out; "Get a louder horn loser!" Welcome to Toronto BTW.

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Bay & Bloor; Trucks blocking the intersection so a twenty-something girl crosses the street by scampering UNDER the trailer. I actually yelled & reached out to grab her because even though she's a fucking moron and probably a terrible person that was damn dangerous.

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I mean unless you think God gives you natural immunity from being crushed to death under the wheels of an idling semi. JFC I can't handle these fucking people.

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I saw at least two rental trucks. So now we're just gonna rent a truck to join a "trucker" protest? Posers.

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Kensington Market; Is easily the most left wing neighbourhood in Toronto, full of old school anarchist punks, vegan hippies, reggae shops and Chinese markets. Virtually impossible to drive through at the best of times so the residents put up barricades like it's "Les Miserables" or something. I mean assuming the ones in "Les Mis" were festooned with signs saying “Honk If You Have A Tiny Dick”, I haven't actually seen it. So some Trailerbanners got out and held a march through the street to be greeted by jeers. Honestly I’m surprised they got off so easy, even Nazi skinheads stay clear of the place. I was expecting eggs at least.

Random dude wearing a brand spanking new Infowars jacket. Dress for excess amIright?

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Oh and don't have a truck? Just make your own out of a cardboard box and wear it down the street. That's cute.

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Got to admit they put some work into that giant sheep on a flatbed. What are they going to do with it once they're done though? I'm picturing some sort of Wicker Man deal.

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Clearly they have given some thought to messaging, I saw no Nazi or Confederate flags this time, although there were US flags, Gadsen flags & Trump flags because "Patriots".

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What we do have is lots of vaccines = Communism type signs comparing Trudeau to Mao and Ceausescu and calling him a murderer. And some Holocaust signs & Yellow Stars. Nice to see the classics.

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We also have a guy with a sign blaming vaccines on a Jewish Cabal. Because we certainly can't have a "Freedom Rally" without some old school conspiracy hate. Note this is not my pic but I did see him on Bloor.

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He called himself Greg from New Brunswick and he's since been indentified;

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I'd call this confirmation;

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Also a truck with an Albanian flag. Yes I'm sure you have some deep thoughts about how Trudeau is just like Enver Hoxha. Sigh. These people are so exhausting.

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What is this hippie shit?

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Folks; I think he's on to me. Can he even cover up like that? What am I saying, what even are rules anyway?

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Another one covering up. Does your boss know you're doing this instead of being at work?

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BTW; Truckers bragging about a supportive tweet from Elon Musk, a billionaire trying to market a technology that assuming it worked would put them out of work, is peak 21st century populism.

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Amidst all the "Fuck Trudeau" flags it's worth mentioning that in the last three elections the Tories won a grand total of zero seats in the entire city and it wasn't even close. These jerks do not speak for us. Here's the Toronto I know; Kensington Market. No trucks here. And Nazi Punks don't dare show up here.

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And here's a Provaxx rally put on by healthcare workers at U of T which somehow the media missed.

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In the interest of fairness I saw no violence and really this was just a mildly annoying Saturday afternoon that most of Toronto could easily ignore like we usually ignore you. Cry harder next time.

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Note; At least one of the Trailerban didn't enjoy their trip to Toronto posting;"We were given the finger and told to fuck off more than we have in our entire lives". They should totally put that in the tourism ads.

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Tuesday 1 February 2022

Of Maus & Men



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The attention given to the banning of "Maus" (which I have and it's brilliant) in Tennesse and hundreds of other books mostly by black & gay writers in the USA has led to some premature and superficial reactions from well meaning liberals. Saying that "Sales for Maus have skyrocketed" may be fun but misses the point that the book is still banned from schools & libraries and if the only way to get it is to buy it then only kids with the money to do so and the motivation to find it will be able to read it. People spending their own $50 to buy a few copies & donating them to the library are no doubt sincere and decent but it doesn't matter if the book becomes banned from said library anyway, which they will. I've been around long enough to remember the "Satanic Panic" against Rock & Rap music and Dungeons & Dragons in the 80's so let me tell you what comes next.

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"TOO DIVISIVE"


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"TOO DIVISIVE"


Once conservatives have banned their (ever growing) list of books from the schools they will target public libraries. They will take over Library Boards & impose their list of banned books, deep budget cuts, staff layoffs & reduced hours. They will claim they're "protecting children" and "cutting waste". This is already happening in the US but we shouldn't forget the Ford Bros attempt to decimate our libraries, they closed the big municipal affairs library downtown on the grounds that "only the elites use it", proposed more cuts and closings and Doug Ford actually complained that Toronto had more libraries than Tim Horton's which is of course total bullshit but that kind of "anti-elite" name calling is very effective. Only a massive public outcry forced them to back down. I testified at one of those all-night hearings and the turn out genuinely impressed and moved jaded journalists. There are more of us than there are of them and we shouldn't forget it just because they are loud and hateful.

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"INSULTING TO DONALD TRUMP & TELLS GIRLS THEY SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF SOUNDING WHITE"


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"MIGHT CAUSE WHITE CHILDREN TO FEEL ASHAMED"


Having established that they are "protecting children" right wing city councilors will naturally claim that they need to do the same with private bookstores mandating that their list of books be removed from shelves where the precious innocent children might see them, starting with stores that are within several blocks of a school then expanding coverage. They will not stop at books and will expand into the comics, music and video games they have always hated. Since today there are far fewer book and music stores to target their job will be easier. Smaller towns may have only one or two such stores while big box stores who could fight back will quickly cave in to high profile pressure campaigns claiming they are selling "child porn".


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"DEPICTS AMERICAN SOLDIERS AS EVIL TERRORISTS"


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"TOO DIVISIVE"


Since the attempts to convict bands like Dead Kennedys, 2 Live Crew, Judas Priest, Dayglo Abortion and Ozzy all failed spectacularly they may not try that official route again (although I wouldn't put it past them) but they will instead use the latest Republican tactic; passing laws which allow private citizens to sue stores, libraries & schools and pick up a $10,000 or more bounty for every banned book they find. Again there are already several states passing such laws. Once passed you have "Concerned Parent Committees" going around to stores and libraries with their list of banned books and threatening to have them shut down if they don't comply and most will. The rest will be dragged into court where even if they win these laws specify say they will not recoup their costs. Independent stores have tiny profit margins as it is.

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"PROMOTES TERRORISM";


The added panic over Critical Race Theory adds another level of paranoia and censorship. Previous censorship panics were ostensibly about juvenile crime & sex (and Satan) but the new anti-CRT laws specifically target anything that could cause white people to feel "discomfort" which has meant that pretty much any account, even clearly factual, about slavery or the Holocaust is fair game. Expect Christians to pile on targeting science books or anything they deem as "occult" as well because they never give up.

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"TOO DIVISIVE"


Libertarians will say; "Big deal; kids can just go on the internet for free" but again this misses the point. The internet is a cesspool of conspiracy theories, disinformation, junk science, scammers, porn, Incels and Nazis and to expect kids to navigate their way through that swamp when frankly most adults clearly can't is a recipe for a more misinformed, radicalized, paranoid and hateful public more easily manipulated by demagogues and grifters which of course is what the right wants. There is still no substitute for a variety of good books provided by people who know the difference.

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"PROMTES PREDJUDICE BASED ON RACE"


These attacks on free speech can not be won by a privileged few buying a few more books nor will they be won online. These are coordinated political attacks and can only be won through political action and that will take years of boring work. Some people will complain about "making this political" but those people are naïve. Everything is political now and you might as well admit it. In the meantime in Canada we need to keep an eye on our own far right, they don't have nearly as much power but that doesn't mean they won't try.

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"TOO DIVISIVE"


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"PROMOTES BLACK LIVES MATTER"


One final note about all those Free Speech Warriors who spent the last decade whining about mythical "Cancel Culture" bans of Dr Suess & Mr Potato Head or college censorship of white men or make believe "shadow bans" or the poor oppressed comedians who can't tell racist jokes anymore; I notice none of you have anything to say once real censorship happens to people you don't like. I see you and I am not surprised.

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"SHOULD BE REPLACED BY THE BIBLE"


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Seriously; The sign is literally true. Don't make me point to the sign.
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