Winning from losing.
Donald Trump has had a torrid time of late. A campaign ad with a symbol associated with Nazi prisoner identification, trying to be for law and order and avoiding looking racist, the second set back in the Supreme Court and still trying to prevent “that book” by former Secretary of Defence, John Bolton being published.
The book, which is already having extracts widely published and I believe advance copies have already been obtained by the media, does not look to paint the President in a good light. But, given the last few years, will most people be surprised? It is said that there is no such thing as bad publicity and I would bet that the more effort that is put into preventing publication the better the sales will be and the juicy parts are going to leak out anyway. On the upside for Trump I watched a BBC interview with an analyst who said that all the bad press and negative publicity about the President will actually help with his base vote. Will the base vote be enough in November? We shall see.
The Alberta Fair Deal report is out. To me this looks like, at best, a blueprint for never ending battles with the Federal Government and setting Albertans and Canadians against each other. At worst, I think it’s a blueprint for separation. Referendums for equalisation payments and pensions, set up an Alberta police force and more. Equalisation is a constitutional matter; it could take years to sort that out. A referendum will mean diddly squat. The one thing it might do is distract attention from the record deficit and the record recession/depression, which like it or not, at fault or not, the incumbent government will own forever. Divide and rule, who wrote that?
North Korea is at it again sparked off by propaganda balloons launched from South Korea supposedly. Events here need watching as does the fighting between Indian and Chinese soldiers along the border and, which country is behind the massive hack on Australia?
No column is complete without COVID-19. On the international league table of cases, some nation’s reporting is questionable to say the least, Canada is now sitting at number 18 and, I think over the next few weeks could slip lower. Surprise, surprise, Italy is now reporting that COVID19 was likely circulating in the country in December 2019, France reported similarly. I still think that one of the reasons why our area hasn’t been hit so bad is that the damned virus swept through our community early in the year. A lot of families, including mine, got sick and reported very unusual and severe symptoms that were passed off as flu. I would really, really like to see some people that got this bug tested for COVID-19 antibodies. Maybe we already have herd immunity. MOO.