Nick Hanauer identifies the cart and the horse…

In his video that the TED series wouldn’t air as being ‘too political’, the venture capitalist Nick Hanauer points out the fallacy in the argument that the wealthy are ‘job creators’ and that taxing them provides hurts the economy. He argues that jobs are in fact the last thing a business invests in, and it will only do so when demand in the product or service provided make it absolutely necessary. He goes on to argue that high taxes are in ultimately better for business, as they provide for a wealthier and healthier middle class, which in the long run is the consumer base most businesses require.

In short, Henry Ford was right and modern ‘capitalists’ like Grover Norquist and Mitt Romney are not. Take the five minutes and fifty seconds to watch the video. It’s worth it.

One step forward…

…

Metro Transit is cutting evening ferry service. The last boat leaving Halifax in the evenings will now depart at 10:30 p.m. instead of 11:45 p.m.

This is insane. Dartmouthians who want to go out for an evening in downtown Halifax (for instance to Neptune, to a comedy club, to any bar not named Celtic Corner) and Haligonians who want an evening in downtown Dartmouth (to visit the famous KevvyD, for a concert/show at Alderney Landing, or to go to a bar named Celtic Corner) are shit out of luck. Or will need to designate a driver and waste a bunch of gas.

The Sunday ferry service will also start later in the morning. I guess downtown Dartmouth is getting a bit too vibrant? People moving to condos there is a problem, so council wants to discourage that? I’m baffled by this short-sighted decision.

Paving the path on Barrington! Yay city!

My morning commute (cycling) takes me along a gravel path that runs parallel to Barrington Street, starting at the MacDonald Bridge and ending at the end of the navy dockyard. I talked to a friendly contractor working on what I thought was a simple grading and extension project, and it turns out that they are paving that path. Yay!

The end of one career and the start of the next…

“The second point is that all monies have been recovered. The taxpayers are not on the hook for a single dime. That is exactly how our government should act in the circumstances.”

The article linked to this quote is about a Conservative staffer to minister Christian Paradis by the name of Richard Walker. The quick story – said staffer goes on a bit of a vacation in Las Vegas using his government credit card and doesn’t pay the bill for five months. He gets caught, makes a payment and then moves on to his new position of  ‘disgraced former staffer’.

Now go back and re-read the last sentance in the quote above:

That is exactly how our government should act in such circumstances.

Yes, our government should hide criminal activity, protect its staffers until they are caught, and then quietly hope this all goes away before the electorate connects this to our new and improved definition of “accountability”.

Any money on Dick Walker (I’m so childish) re-appearing as someone’s campaign director in a year or so?

Kony 2012

From Wikipedia:

“Joseph Rao Kony (born 1961 in Odek, Uganda) is a Ugandan guerrilla group leader, head of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), a group engaged in a violent campaign to establish theocratic government based on the Ten Commandments throughout Uganda. The LRA say that God has sent spirits to communicate this mission directly to Kony.
Directed by Kony, the LRA has earned a reputation for its actions against the people of several countries, including northern Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan and Sudan. It has abducted and forced an estimated 66,000 children to fight for them, and has also forced the internal displacement of over 2,000,000 people since its rebellion began in 1986. As a result, in 2005 Kony was indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court at the Hague, but has succeeded in evading capture since.”

This monster must be stopped. Now. Watch this – it is worth a half hour of your time.

Democracy, for some, is an exercise in hoodwinking voters

Disgusting:

Elections Canada has traced fraudulent phone calls made during the federal election to an Edmonton voice-broadcast company that worked for the Conservative Party across the country.

While the agency investigates, aided by the RCMP, the Conservatives are conducting an internal probe. A party lawyer is interviewing campaign workers to find who was behind the deceptive “robocalls.”

Elections Canada launched its investigation after it was inundated with complaints about election day calls in Guelph, Ont., one of 18 ridings across the country where voters were targeted by harassing or deceptive phone messages in an apparent effort to discourage Liberal supporters from voting.

A Citizen-Postmedia investigation has found calls misdirecting voters were also reported in ridings across the country: Kitchener-Waterloo, Kitchener-Conestaga, London-West, Parkdale-High Park, Winnipeg South Centre and Sydney-Victoria. It is possible that they were caused by robo-dialing errors.

Liberal supporters in a dozen ridings, mostly in Ontario, reported mysterious harassing calls, often late in the evening or early in the morning, where rude callers from a phone bank pretended to be working for the Liberals. The calls seem to have been an attempt to alienate Liberal voters in ridings where the Liberals and Conservatives seemed to be in close contests.

I guess when you are shooting for a majority with polls that indicate you may still be in minority territory, anything goes. I predict that these illegal calls, clearly an orchestrated campaign across several ridings, will lead to a slap on the wrist and exactly one (1) low-level staffer or volunteer being underbussed. I also have to ask: is it common for one party to have the membership list(s) for the other parties? These illegal phone calls were specifically targetting Liberal supporters in what pollsters thought would be close Con/Lib ridings.

PS – Sorry about linking to the National Pest, but they seem to have the best information available. Kudos to Stephen Maher and Glen McGregor. Maybe Andrew Coyne’s editorial presence is doing some good over there?

The Urban Transit Blues

I was made aware a few days ago that HRM is enduring a transit strike – a few people I know don’t own vehicles and have some level of dependence on mass transit to get to work, which makes it particularly painful. Even with its limitations, it was, in my opinion, better than nothing. In fact, one of the things I miss most about le Homestead is the commute by ferry every day. I have read with appreciation the adaptations undertaken by my fellow ‘Koggers, who are by far the most resourceful folk I’ve ever shared a series of electronic impulses with.

Compare and contrast that with the efforts of our Mayor here in T’ranna, Rob Ford, who, like many politicians, is eager to bury his mistakes; unfortunately, he seems to be confused as to what that means – the battle is on between the supporters of Ford’s vision of GTA transit, which is more subways, and the majority of council, which supports light rail (LRT). The issue in Ford’s mind seems to concentrate on the feelings of burning hatred the residents of the ‘burbs, like Scarborough, feel for the downtown ‘Path’-dwelling Morlocks of the inner city. Notwithstanding the problem of opposing communities is actually a result of Ford clumsily playing one faction off against the other, which, to the eyes of an outsider (like myself, for instance) appears to be the only way he could get elected in the first place.

Now, this is just my opinion, mind you, but I travel to Scarborough quite frequently (most weekends), and it is a combination of subway and LRT travel. Of the two, I vastly prefer subways – fast and unaffected by weather. If, however, the choice is between more LRT to service outlying areas and fewer new subway lines, the economy tends to tilt the balance toward the ‘bang for the buck’ option. As the author of the linked article points out, the city centre isn’t exactly thriving from a mass transit perspective; I’ve taken the St. Clair streetcar several times, and I quite like it, but it is unaffected by the frequent delays experienced by the downtown routes. It is the peril of sharing the roads with thousands of cranky drivers during the interminable rush hours. The battles between neighbourhoods is illusory and purely political in nature.

The System is All. Long Live the System.

Love it or hate it, a robust transit system is a necessity for a thriving urban area. Even those who grumbled at the increase in transit rates in January just gritted their teeth and paid more because they know there is no viable alternative. Surely if we remove the artificially-created volatility we can make some progress in creating a system that works for everyone. If leadership is the problem, I have a feeling that this situation is temporary. VERY temporary.

Ok, is it weird that I have a favorite subway stop? This is "Museum", under the ROM.

In the meantime, good luck to my commuting friends in the HRM!!