Just plain nastiness

There is plenty of anger in the public these days

As I tried to narrow down what I wanted to write about today, I realized that all the subjects boiled down to anger and rage and intolerance and just plain old nastiness.

Although we saw lots of well-thought-out arguments against the Nova Scotia Power’s wish to punish the green folks who put solar panels on their properties or wanted to do so, we also heard from some real nasties out there. I was angry, I admit that.

Then we saw that bunch in Ottawa who don’t seem to understand how our version of democracy works. Taking over government along with the Governor General for 90 days so they can stop all the contraCOVID protocols isn’t the way we do things here. My concern is about the folks behind this blockade. The ones pulling the strings and trying to raise a lot of money are the even scarier ones, in my books.

They feel remarkably like those Tea Party people down in the U.S. The tactics feel familiar. They even have their own Steve Bannon in the person of Tamara Lich, who is the “organizer” of that demonstration in Ottawa. She resigned from the Maverick Party in the West in order to organize the trucker event. She went from the Wexit group (see Brexit) to the Wild Rose Party to the Maverick Party. She was one of the organizers of the now infamous GoFundMe campaign to “help” the truckers.

The anger that Premier

Tim Houston has felt here prompted him to issue a directive under the Emergency Management Act aimed at prohibiting those protesting against COVID-19 measures from blocking the TransCanada Highway near the New Brunswick border.

The anger that permeates to American newscasts these days is scary for someone who lives so close to that country. Those Trump supporters – both the elected ones and the regular people – are jaw-dropping.

There are the anti-vaxxers too. They are angry because they don’t want to be told to get a vaccine shot, to wear a mask, or to practise social distancing.

There are some very angry people trying to get their money back from that QuadrigaCX cryptocurrency boondoggle.

There are battles going on in mid-Africa that involve hatred and there has been a battle going on in the southeast of Ukraine that we didn’t hear too much about and, of course, the possible imminent war between Russia and Ukraine and NATO.

And, as if all that was not enough, there is a bit of a tussle going on in Florida between residents and the peacock population. I kid you not. Here is a bit of an item from The Associated Press: “Peacocks could be on the outs in some South Florida neighbourhoods after the Miami-Dade commission agreed to loosen a law protecting the birds.”

“Mating season is when we get the most complaints. They get very aggressive,” said sponsor Raquel Regalado, whose district includes neighbourhoods in Coral Gables and

Miami, where peacocks roam freely. “They lay their eggs, they build their nests, they peck the cars.”

The story went onto say, “Neighbours often clash over the peacocks. Some love the colourful birds while others complain of droppings, noise and the damage they cause by roosting on cars or houses.”

It would seem that a major intervention or very large class in anger management is in order. I know there are other instances I could speak of here, even local spats and ugly disagreements, but I think I will try to steer clear of those, snarl a bit about the weather, grumble about this Time of COVID, and watch the Winter Olympics.

Onwards.