Booting Out The Occupiers

Life goes on. Three weeks of occupation and siege by a pack of misinformed nutbars and alt-right white nationalists in trucks and pick up trucks, harassment of residents, desecration of monuments, shut down of a city core and many of its businesses, persistent tension, demands that were at time sounding like sedition, and the glaring noise of truck horns (especially that insufferable asshole (or assholes) whose truck horn sounds like a train whistle) have come to an end in Ottawa. 

I posted about it earlier in the month when I was at a really bad point.

The "freedom convoy" as they called themselves, a hostile pack of fools in trucks and pick ups came into Ottawa at the end of January and took possession of the city core. They were organized by white supremacists and western separatists like Tamara Lich and Pat King- vile, despicable, repugnant excuses for human beings- and they had the gall to call themselves patriots and heroes and to say they were fighting for the country. They were angry about mandates in the fight about Covid- the vast majority of which are provincial in nature, and which are gradually coming to an end anyway. They were angry about the prime minister- which is a generational thing, since their daddies hated his daddy back in the day. They were just plain angry. And dumb. Really, really dumb.

That first weekend, Confederate flags and the swastika were seen. Trumpist slogans, adapted or otherwise (including the "Let's Go Brandon" nonsense and "Make Canada Proud Again"), were seen throughout the occupation. As a resident of the downtown, it infuriated me. Days on end without decent sleep because of goddamned idiots honking their horns at any and all hours. Yes, we were under siege by a hostile force, occupying our city and painting themselves as being in the right, all while being led around like the puppets they are by fucking scum like King and Lich- not to mention those who were funding the whole enterprise.

They called themselves peaceful protesters. Peaceful protests aren't like this. Peaceful protesters come, say their piece, and go. They don't hold a city hostage. Nor do their members tote symbols of hate or display signs calling for the deaths of a prime minister or others. Nor do they call for a government to be overthrown, a party abolished from existence, or democracy to be subverted. Those were all things coming our way from the "freedom convoy."

Freedom. A word they defiled, because their concept of freedom is and always was freedom from responsibility. Something I said in my previous post and stand by. They desecrate the country by claiming to be fighting for freedom. You want to look at those who fought for freedom and their country and the betterment of the world? 

Heroes and patriots don't go hand in hand with white nationalists and those who want to separate from the country. No, these people are not heroes, patriots, or freedom fighters. They're gullible rubes, misguided idiots, and yes... some of them are hate mongering bigots who wholeheartedly agree with the white nationalists who strung them along. 

They occupied our city. Residents reported frequent harassment and bad behaviour. Nerves were frayed. The cops seemed to stand by and effectively do nothing. The mayor fretted and did nothing. The police chief (former) seemed to think they'd just go away on their own accord. 

But no, they didn't. Because they had their mission: end the mandates, to hell with science, doctors, facts, reason, logic. In short: stupid.

They screamed bloody murder about their demands to meet with the prime minister. Why should he have? A protest that's illegal in the first place, demanding irrational things like the resignation of the PM or the overthrow of the government in general? 

These are not the sort of people any political leader should meet with.

In the last days of the occupation, I took some shots downtown. I tried to make a point to not engage any of these people after the early days of the occupation. Throughout the occupation I'd come to hate them. To the point where homicide felt justifiable. If I was having such dark thoughts, it would not surprise me if others felt the same way. 

The city resisted in its own way. People started photographing trucks and posting them online, including at a site called Convoy Traitors. Negative reviews were left at company websites. Insurance companies were informed that truckers were engaged in this nonsense. Senior citizens trapped at home were assisted by neighbours in getting groceries. A class action lawsuit was started by residents of the downtown core against the organizers and the movement as a whole. An injunction was made banning the trucks from honking their horns for a few days- and subsequently ignored. GoFundMe froze the efforts to fund the occupation- rightly understanding that this had turned into criminal actions. Posters and stickers went up on street poles expressing a common opinion.

The chief of police resigned deep into the occupation. He was probably an effective administrator, but out of his depth on this. He no doubt honestly thought that they'd just go away on their own, and had no real plan in place for the alternative. This needed someone in charge with a street cop mentality and an ability to plan a proper response. It also required coordination with the multitude of police agencies who had come in to reinforce the Ottawa Police. An interim chief of police was designated for the job.

The prime minister invoked the rarely used Emergencies Act. Occupiers were warned for several days in advance to depart. Some of them had their kids with them. Not the best of scenarios if you had to employ tear gas. Effectively speaking, these kids were human shields- and will grow up to be as ignorant as their parents, unfortunately. The occupiers had every opportunity to depart on their own. Scum like Pat King told them in person and in his online, fact-deprived addresses, to 'hold the line'. Among his other remarks were threats to the prime minister and other officials.

Late last week you could feel the police presence building in the city. Masses of police on foot in the downtown core. Lots of police cars from multiple jurisdictions making their way around. Word started getting around that the downtown core was ideally to be avoided on the weekend as things were going to start getting underway. Finally the police were doing their jobs. Pat King announced that he was going out to the east coast- a bloody lie, since what he was actually doing was running like the gutless coward he is. The city waited.

And then after days of warning to get out, the police started tightening the perimeter in the core and initiating their operation against the occupiers.

After three weeks.

Multiple arrests and fines. The police moving in strength, yes- but not deadly force. There was a report of an altercation with a police horse and the use of non-lethal weapons- but those were the exception. The local detention centre would no doubt have seen a lot of intake last weekend, and after that point, with the occupiers cleared out, the clean up of the core began with the removal of any remaining trucks that had been idle for weeks.

At some point over the weekend I saw a vile, tear filled video clip put out by Tamara Lich- before she and one of the other organizers got arrested and charged. She dialed back on the threats to the PM. And she had the gall to quote the words of Jesus Christ- effectively trying to elevate herself to that level- in what she was saying. I was beyond disgusted- and bear in mind that I'm not religious. My reaction to it is summed up in a meme I made below: God really needed to send down some lightning her way.

She got arrested. So did Pat King. As of this writing they're both still in custody. Other participants have been released on bail and told not to come back to the city. The truckers involved are facing heavy fines, and no doubt a lot of hard questions from their insurers and the banks who they make payments to for their trucks. In a few months, they'll be on the dole, out of work... and they'll have no one to blame for this stupidity but themselves. And the dirtbag white nationalists who sent them here.

They, and their supporters, have talked about freedom and are using the terms tyranny, dictatorship, fascist, and communist to refer to the government and the PM in general, both during and after the occupation.

Which is dismaying, because as always, those who use those terms online have no real idea what they mean.

If this were tyranny, a show of police strength would have involved lethal force. Police would have put bullets into heads. Children would have been caught in the crossfire. Hundreds of people would be dead. 

No, this was democracy responding to an unlawful protest. One that had held a city hostage for weeks on end. This was democracy responding to a movement that wanted to overturn democracy. 

Freedom involves responsibility. And when you do something incredibly foolish like this, there are consequences.

The words of a former Liberal leader and present representative of the country to the UN speak volumes.

As of this writing the Emergencies Act has been set aside. There are some truckers still in outlying areas- truck stops and farms outside of the city areas. Are they dumb enough to try coming back in? Police still maintain control of the area around Parliament Hill, and their presence in the city is still felt. But last weekend as events unfolded and it became clear that the occupation was being brought to an end, a lot of the tensions lifted.

The wounds remain. A lot of people in the downtown core in particular are going to remember all of this for a long time to come. For me, personally, I will never forget it. Nor will I forgive. Citizens of my own country betrayed that country by occupying my hometown and harassing the residents of that city. One of their goals was the overthrowing of the government. I am disgusted by their behaviour. And I will have no empathy at all over the coming weeks and months as they find themselves back at home, facing bankruptcy because of the catastrophic stupidity of their own actions.

To hell with them.

Putting Up With Bloody Idiots

So how's the last few days been for you?

Mine have been thoroughly unpleasant.

Just a word: lots of coarse language ahead, but it's entirely justified.

On the last Friday of January, a horde of truckers, pick up trucks, and misguided souls started pouring into Ottawa with a truck load of grievances, misinformation, and alt-right foaming rage. They came, started occupying the streets, honking their horns, driving aimlessly all over the city, making a nuisance of themselves. National monuments and statues were disrespected. Some of them are demanding the death of the prime minister. Others are demanding the abolition of the Liberal party. Because abolishing those parties you disagree with... that's democratic. At least in their minds.

In short, the residents of this city were under siege for days on end. By fuckwits proclaiming themselves to be heroes, freedom fighters, and patriots.

I wrote the following on Facebook a week ago, on Monday morning after two nights of little sleep:

To the "freedom convoy": you're not patriots. You're not freedom fighters. You're not heroes. You're angry, misguided narrow minded fucking morons. Your convoy is being supported by a western separatist party. How is going hand in hand with separatists patriotic? So no. You're not patriots.

You came to this city, honking your horns at all hours, driving all over this city. You keep its citizens awake and on edge. You will never convince me that you're anything but angry alt right conspiracy theory anti vax, anti science, anti fact motherfuckers.

I have seen with my own eyes the Confederate flag carried in my city by you. I have heard the fucking goddamned Trumpist slogans from you with my own ears. White supremacists at their worst. In my city.

And you show disrespect to the statue of Terry Fox, and make light of it. You climb all over the War Memorial, and dance on top of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. And you want to paint yourselves as freedom loving patriots?

Freedom also means responsibility.

Do you fucking get that?

Get out of my city. Take your blaring horns and leave.

While you still can.

I've had maybe two hours sleep the last two nights total. Because assholes in pick up trucks are driving through neighbourhoods honking horns at any and all hours.

This city is being held hostage. By motherfuckers who are wearing on our last nerve. How long before we, the citizens of this city, have had our fill of it?

In short, freedom convoy: commit suicide.

And fuck you.

I took three shots of these assholes a short distance from each other. And personally told a couple of them to get out of the city in a thoroughly unpleasant way. I even left an unpleasant review at the place of business for the asshole in the third photo. That particular business is getting a lot of unpleasant Google reviews right about now. Which they deserve. Along with all of the other asshole owner-operators who thought this was a bright idea.

I photographed this sign, posted on a hydro pole; the remark comes from a place of basic sense.

So, what do we have? 

We've got a protest who, when you do a little digging, was actually started by western separatists, white supremacists, and the like. They're the ones pulling the strings behind all of this. We've got a protest that isn't a protest. Because when you occupy streets, harass the citizens of that city, drive all over it honking your horns at any hour of the night, you're not demonstrating. You're occupying. You're terrorizing. 

We've got protesters carrying around Confederate flags- and even a swastika or two. These are facts. I've seen the Confederate flags with my own eyes, and the swastika was spotted on television- defacing a Canadian flag- while an idiot member of parliament from the Conservative party was being interviewed out in the streets. It was also seen in full as one of the flags in Major's Hill Park, a short distance away from Parliament Hill.

Of course the supporters and apologists will never see that. They'll trot out the usual 'liberal Marxist operatives' line. Instead of accepting the reality that white supremacists are among these protesters.

When you're carrying around symbols of hatred- and that's what the Nazi swastika and the Confederate flags are- you're on the wrong side of history. And if you're one of the other protesters and you're not doing something about it, you're on the wrong side of history. And if you're a supporter at home making excuses and trying to explain it all away- you're on the wrong side of history.

What else do we take away from this? A multitude of downtown shops closing up instead of having to deal with the harassment and tension of the current situation. Protesters urinating and defecating on people's properties. Continuous harassment of the public with horns being honked, keeping us awake at nights. Citizens being yelled at by these assholes. Oh, yes. And hassling staff and clients at a homeless shelter, demanding food be given to them instead. 

Yes, read that last part again.

I'd say they should be ashamed of themselves, but clearly that's beyond them.

I mentioned in my Facebook post about screaming at a couple of these guys on that Monday morning. I told them to get out of my city, in extremely unpleasant terms. And I had to walk away. Why?

Because I wanted so much, in that moment, to hurt them. To bash their faces into the side of their trucks. And I can't say I would have been able to stop bashing their faces in.

That's how far this has gone.

I felt homicidal. 

I wanted to kill these two fuckers. I wanted them dead.

But I walked away. At home I felt awful that I could have had that impulse, but there it was. 

I now feel plunged into a deep depression. It's going to take time to work my way out of this one.

The important part is that I didn't follow through on that impulse. Part of that is I refuse to turn any of these fucking scum into martyrs for their goddamned cause. Part of it is that they're not worth it. They're not worth the jail time.

But when the residents of a city are effectively being held hostage by a hostile force who have no regard for anything but their own goddamned misguided world view, tempers are going to get frayed. People will snap. Someone will decide to take the law into their own hands and do what the police won't.

And the frustrating part of this has been that the cops seem to refuse to do anything about it. Yes, I'm sure they're quietly trying to negotiate with these verminous excuses for human beings to convince them to leave. They don't want to escalate the situation. But when you're not protecting the citizens you're sworn to protect, and just asking us to 'be patient' and 'avoid the downtown core' while these assholes continue to not behave peacefully and harass us... all while you do things like pose for selfies with these same assholes....

Well, you've violated the trust of the citizenry.

We won't forget that.

Living in society carries with it certain responsibilities as a citizen. These protesters scream about freedom, but as I've noted, it's freedom from responsibility. That's all they want. It's all about them, and to hell with anyone else. And they don't seem to care that their strings are being pulled by white nationalists who are largely keeping to the shadows, but who are the ones who set this in motion.

If you don't want to be a responsible citizen, fine. Go live on an island. With no infrastructure, power, or source of employment. See how long you last.

I'm tired of Covid. I want this to end. But by doing so in a responsible manner.

By listening to doctors. And science. And fact. And reason. 

All of which the alt-right anti-vaxxer movement seem to hold as obscenities. While they hold tight to their sources of information: angry talk radio hosts, a guy they know on Facebook, and the latest bit of nonsense from the dark web.

I've had as much as I can take of all of it. These people are wretched, awful excuses for human beings. When they're gone, the residents of this city are not going to forgive, or forget. The wounds caused by this run too deep.

We'll remember the police standing by and doing nothing. We'll remember our lame duck mayor fretting and doing nothing. 

But we'll really remember people calling themselves Canadians.... behaving in the most disgusting, repugnant manner, occupying our streets, harassing us, keeping us on edge, and de-legitimizing real protests.

To every last idiot member of the truck convoy protesters, and to their supporters and apologists, I have only three more things to say to you.

Fuck you.

Burn in hell.

God damn you for what you've done.

Maple Flavoured Reefer Madness

Canadians Launch Legal Weed; Stoners Rejoice In Mellow Ways

Ottawa (CP) The long awaited legalization of marijuana- aka weed, aka dope, aka mary jane- in Canada happens today, amid much contention and delay in the political process. A promise of the governing Liberal party, the decision decriminalizes the drug and legalizes its use, essentially treating its use as a regulated health issue instead of a criminal issue. Distribution in the country will vary from community to community- some municipalities are being given the option of opting out entirely of allowing marijuana use in public, while apartment and condo buildings are wrestling with the issue of how much, if any use, can be permitted on their grounds. Recreational users who have long risked arrest are pleased by the news.

“It’s great, man!” Sonny Winthrop, president of the Four Twenty Society told reporters on the last day marijuana was still illegal, smoking a joint in front of Toronto’s Old City Hall, currently a courthouse, where if he’d been doing so three years ago he might have risked an arrest for the infraction. “We’ve been waiting for this for years, man! Years! And now it’s here, and the weed’s legal, man!” He paused, inhaling deep. “Wow, man… that’s like… what was I talking about?”

Whether or not Canadians will be able to cross the border is another question. The administration in Washington, not much of a friend of Canada these days, has made noise lately about not letting cannabis users into the country- perhaps not even those who have stock in cannabis grow-op companies. “It’s unacceptable, y’all,” Attorney General and Keebler Elf refugee Jefferson Beauregard Sessions (R- Confederacy 2.0 Alabama) told reporters after meeting with subordinates at the Justice Department. “The last thing we need in this country, y’all, is visitin’ syrup drinkin’ pot smokin’ stoners comin’ down here bein’ all mellow, y’all! So our big priority right now is buildin’ a wall up on the Canadian border, all of it, and we’re gonna make the stoners pay for it, y’all!”

How that would work out legally speaking is another matter, though legally speaking has never seemed to be a priority in the mind of the Keebler Elf. Regardless if such a law can be passed, many Canadians have made a point of not traveling into the States for the time being. Crowds of users have gathered in public places in the days leading up to legalization, fully aware (at least until they got high) that what they were doing was technically illegal, but no officer would arrest them for it. They’ve been smoking dope en masse as a kind of preliminary celebration, creating a wafting odor of various smells, including the noxious type of weed that smells like a skunk. “I don’t know why people complain about it,” weed aficionado Tobias “Weed” Weeder (yes, that’s his name) remarked while smoking with fellow users. “What’s wrong with skunks, man?”

Legendary stoners Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong, whose comedy routines revolved around marijuana use, have already applied for Canadian citizenship. “I’ll admit, the first winter’s going to be tough,” Marin told reporters from his new home in Toronto. “I mean, I’m used to warmer climates, man. But hey, we’ll have weed to get us through it, man! Maple syrup infused weed. Isn’t that just the best, man? O Cannabis! Our home and native land!”

Not everyone will want to partake, nor are expected to. Rules have been put in place for such matters as impaired driving while under the influence. Certain occupations have designated specific rules that essentially forbidden any use by its members- multiple police agencies. The RCMP have put forth a policy forbidding use by any of its members for nearly a month before a shift, essentially barring any Mountie from ever smoking marijuana. Or weed. Or reefers. Or pot. Or skunk. Or Mary Jane. Or whatever you want to call it.

For a final word on the new era in Canada’s smoking history, reporters gathered at an RCMP detachment in the Alberta foothills, home base for one of the service’s most legendary officers. Inspector Lars Ulrich, the fiercely grouchy Mountie who is often mistaken by entertainment reporters for the drummer of the same name who works with Metallica, looked irritated when he came out of the building and found reporters gathered together for his comment on the issue. Assured by the reporters that they knew full well that he was not that other Lars Ulrich, the Inspector was more at ease, as opposed to more cantankerous. “It’s the law of the land,” he admitted. “Personally speaking, I don’t understand why anyone would want to smoke that crap, but that’s just me. It doesn’t mean the country’s become this sort of lawless wild west where anything goes in terms of the use of cannabis.”

Someone hustled past the rest of the reporters, followed by a cameraman. He had the vacant eyed look of so many in his occupation, and while dressed in a suit and tie, gave the impression that he seemed rather juvenile for what he was wearing. “Lars! Lars! Trey Cooper, Access Hollywood,” he introduced himself. The real reporters backed up, wanting to get out of the way. Cooper was oblivious to the moment, and kept speaking. “What everyone wants to know is…. Will Metallica relocate to Canada now that weed is legal?”

Ulrich sighed, shook his head, and stared at Cooper for a long moment, as if deciding which side of his face he was going to hit first. Then he spoke in that low, gravelly voice that indicated immediate danger. “I am not that Lars Ulrich.”

Cooper seemed befuddled. “Are you sure?”

With that, Ulrich threw his first punch, breaking Cooper’s nose and sending him falling fifteen feet away. Then he began chasing the entertainment reporter. The chase ended with Cooper in the hospital, in a body cast for the next six months.

According to nurses on duty, Cooper keeps saying, “reefer madness” over and over again.

Tempests And Peculiar Names

A certain name in the news made me think of where else that name might be used. Hence we have the following. 

Eye Of The Storm: Ongoing Scandal Has Strange, Unrelated Parallel

Washington (AP) While a deluge of crises hits the White House seemingly every day, from Russian collusion to resignations to threats to affairs with porn stars, it seems overwhelming to take it all in for the public at large. These days there’s not even enough time for one scandal to subside in the news before another one begins.

What has emerged in recent days has been a peculiar parallel to one of those scandals, sharing a single name. Stephanie Clifford, otherwise known as Stormy Daniels, the porn star whose legal dispute with the President and his lawyer over an affair and a payoff is making waves in the corridors of power. Her professional name just happens to be in use somewhere else.

“It’s like this,” a retired career officer with the U.S. Army, speaking on condition of anonymity. “Back in the early nineties- way the hell before Stormy Daniels went into, well, her line of work- things were different. The Cold War was over. The Berlin Wall had fallen. We had kicked Saddam Hussein’s ass out of Kuwait. And just for the record, that bastard had it coming.”

The officer paused before continuing. “It was a fine time to be in the Army. All four branches of our military, the best in the world. But there we were, for decades we had a job to do. Standing off with the Soviets, screwing up in ‘Nam, but all of a sudden, our big bad enemy wasn’t really our big bad enemy anymore. Oh, sure, none of us saw Vladimir Putin coming, but that’s now, not then. Point is, we didn’t know what we’d be doing with ourselves.”

The officer sighed. “So we were bored. And if you’re bored, you find something to do. Maybe if you’re a career officer, you’re spending time on war game scenarios and plotting hypotheticals about what might happen if you ever had to go to war with such and such a nation. I can tell you, at the Pentagon, it’s been standard to have all sorts of those scenarios filed away. I mean, air wars against Switzerland, Mongolia, or Kenya. Beach invasions by Marines on the Bahamas. A ground war against a traitorous NATO ally. Such was the case with a plotted out scenario we devised back in ’93. It was a war game we called Operation Stormy Daniels.”

And what was Operation Stormy Daniels? “The scenario as devised started out with a coup d’etat in Copenhagen. Because who would think of Denmark as the sort of place where you’d find unstable governments? Nobody! So that’s what made it a genius idea for a war games scenario. We had a rogue military officer seize power and execute their rightfully elected government- all hypothetical, you understand, this didn’t actually happen- and that’s the premise. How do we as the world’s biggest military respond to that sort of crisis? We had a bunch of our officers from all the services up to the Pentagon, making recommendations, talking our way through the war game. All it was, sir, was talk. That’s it. Believe me. It’s not like we were ever going to initiate Operation Stormy Daniels.”

The question then- is it mere coincidence that the actress shares the same name as a military war game hidden away in a Pentagon office? “It has to be. I mean, come on. Daniels is a common enough name. Come to think of it, I can’t remember why we called it Daniels. Stormy Dane might have made more sense. Anyway, that’s beside the point. What I’m saying is as far as any of us can tell, she hasn’t had any known contact with military officers. Certainly not the sort who would have been around for the Operation Stormy Daniels war game. So it’s got to be a coincidence.”

Denmark was less than pleased to hear about the hypothetical war game. The Danish ambassador replied in a terse fashion in a statement in Washington. “We have a reputation as one of the happiest people on Earth,” Ambassador Lars Gert Lose told reporters at the embassy. “But rest assured, this sort of scenario, this sort of association… makes us displeased. You do not want to see Danish people displeased.”

Stormy Daniels herself, who’s been busy sparring with the Trump legal team in court on the one hand and giving interviews with reporters on the other, was surprised by the revelation. “What are the odds that my professional name would be the same as a military operation? Oh well, as porn names go, it’s not that out there. It’s not as if they called it Operation Vanna Boinksalot.”

It begs the question. Just how strange are some of the war games and operation names that have been devised by Pentagon planners down through the decades. When asked, our source confirmed there were some odd ones out there. “Operation Carrot Top was a response scenario that was shot down by civilian oversight back in ’72, and with good reason. An Air Force general at the time had this deep seated hatred of red-headed people, and wanted to develop a weapon to rid the planet of the whole lot of them. He’s still locked up in a lunatic asylum to this day, screaming about the soulless gingers.”