By Gary Abernathy*
*Gary Abernathy, a contributing columnist for The Post, is a freelance writer based in Hillsboro, Ohio. After spending 13 years as an editor at three Ohio newspapers from 1983 to 1996, Abernathy worked in Republican Party politics in Ohio and West Virginia,
Mr Abernathy wrote a column this weekend entitled We are all socialists now. And boy is he right.
The money being thrown at this Virus is simply mind-blowing and will in my humble opinion turn the majority of Americans into Progressives. The West, including my country Canada, has already swallowed the cool-aide and the only place where the fight between right and left has prevailed is in America. Indeed until the current crisis, the split was right down the middle - 50/50. But like Mr. Abernathy - I too believe those days to be well and truly over.
Welcome to our Progressive World US of A.
Good thing? Bad Thing? even I no longer know - as a fiscal conservative I would never had thought the Government Debt / Deficits could grow to such levels as we have seen since the mortgage backed security scandal of 2007 and 2008. And that does not even include the massive quantitative easing - the art of financial institutions printing money without backing. Kinda like former Fed Chair Ben Bernanke suggesting helicopter drops of cash to fight deflation. I laughed at the time but since then... seeing this more or less happen - I am laughing no more.
So in my humble opinion Abernathy is correct and so to is one of my favourite author's ...
Lord Conrad Black of Cross Harbour.
Lord Black writes of the Hysteria caused by the Pandemic and in particular focuses on the closing of the Canada / US border to Non-Essential Travel. Black reviews in some length the long and storied history of our open border - the longest undefended border in the world. Now a casualty of this bug that confronts us all.
There is one other author I would like to reference though will leave this wayward wag nameless. He too sees change and likes it. The change he endorses is the end of the handshake and notes with glee that 'history has never witnessed a more disgusting and dangerous interaction between humans besides murder'. To him I say...Get A Life.. He goes on to say he expects the elimination of the handshake will survive the current pandemic. I hope he is wrong.
He does not mention the long tradition of European Cheek Kissing but you can just imagine his horror at just the thought.
So what does he suspect will replace these longstanding traditions? An elbow bump? God save us.
Both of the above referenced traditions are intimate yet respectable manifestations of a warmth between two human beings. If we lose that bond we will have lost something very special. So if you have a elbow bump planned for me...save it for your dog.
None of what I have written pertains to China but ready or not, I am going to deal with this subject here as well.
There is something ugly in Canada's relation with China and more to the point - something ugly in our National Liberal Party's - aka Laurentian Elite relationship with that country. Some day I hope that a Inquiry is called to investigate this and it will not be pretty.
For decades now former senior liberal politicians and senior bureaucrats have gone off to the China Trough.
Justin Trudeau, even before he became Prime Minster, waxed eloquent about how much he respected this ruthless dictatorship which more or less mirrored his late father's view - former Prime Minister Pierre Elliott.
More recently and during the beginning of the Pandemic - the Liberal Government went out of its way to praise China for the effective way in which they went about fighting this outbreak. All the while they had to know that China was dramatically downplaying the disease's seriousness while 10s of thousands of its citizens were dying or were traveling across the world spreading the joy.
Canada was welcoming China's sick with open arms. We are still paying the price for this Liberal Government Folly.
And then we sent China tons of medical supplies which China did not use but sent back to us. To add to this nonsense we then ordered tons of medical supplies from China at a cost but the items turned out to be defective.
When non-liberals complained they were showered as being racist pigs. Who is the racist and who is the pig?
And all this being done while China is holding two of our citizens for 480 days and counting. The two are Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig. If you do not know the sad story of their kidnapping... I encourage you to look it up.
What is clear in all of this is that in all of our dealings with this ruthless dictatorship - no attempt has been made to see our two brethren freed. At least some good might have come from our niceness to the Giant but my extensive reading on this has found no indication that any attempt was made to see the two Michaels freed. And until these two fellows are released Canada should give them spit and refrain from saying anything nice about them. We should also be working to ensure that China is jettisoned from every world organization known to mankind. It needs to be shunned.
So we are seeing changes wrought by the Virus - some of which maybe permanent. But the one constant throughout is that Canada remains suppliant at the Dictators Feet.
As I See It...
K.D. Bell
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