Those public demonstrations must be pretty bad in Hong Kong, as they even climbed to the top of the Canadian news cycle today. The paper mache Goddess of Democracy ought to be making it's appearance about anytime now. The Oracle of Ottawa is really enjoying watching China's old men twist. This ain't 1989 Dear Reader! There is so much more at stake at the time of this writing. Back in 1989 China did not have access to the massive and gullible capital markets of the Western Free World.
China's old men - trapped by the ideological balls?
Why it was only last week that Jack 'Forrest Gump' Ma hit up the New York Stock Exchange for over twenty billion real American dollars in that monster Variable Interest Entity IPO of the previously unknown Alibaba electronic bulletin board! The Oracle of Ottawa spent all the week before it went public to inform investors to beware, and that it was really only a two dollar preferred debt offering. Of course the Oracle of Ottawa caught a ton of heat online about it, but come tomorrow we will soon see who was right won't we?
The real question here Dear Reader, is Truth or Dare, Money or Power? Will the demented old peasants of China's corrupt and inbred politburo stomp the citizens of Hong Kong in the social and journalistic media light of the world like they did in Bejing in 1989? And if they did what will be the opening prices of all the Chinese variable interest entities that trade at present on the New York Stock Exchange, come the opening bell on Monday morning?
It is real ignorant, real world irony, of classical proportions that the option chains on Alibaba start trading tomorrow morning! And the Oracle of Ottawa's feelers went all fuzzy, when it was reported on CNBC last week that some unknown hedge fund laid a huge short position on Alibaba, of 2.4 - 3.6% ! of the outstanding issue. Someone is real cocky or perhaps very well informed, perhaps a bunch of merchant banks from Hong Kong perhaps?
There were many reports about how many Chinese politburo members were "partners" in the last Alibaba IPO. Do you really think they are going to risk all that loot for the sake of a municipal election in Hong Kong? Will the old Chinese men cut the nose off of their very lost faces for mere ideological purity? The Oracle of Ottawa has heard that the Chinese can eat damn near anything, but ideology? Perhaps with a black bean sauce and some Deer Penis Wine...?
It was a wonderful Indian Summer day here in Ottawa today. The Oracle of Ottawa greatly enjoyed yet another perfect Saturday Routine. I hit all my spots, and scored a passenger seat load of hard to find future reads for my ever ongoing "Thinking About Thinking Project". It was just as I pulling in to my usual parking spot in the covered ground level parking garage at St. Laurent Shopping Center that I heard that roar of four Merlin engines. That fucking thing was real low this time. For a moment the Oracle suffered a small relapse and went briefly to utter black. You could feel the vibration through the car seat. It has been a while.
The Oracle of Ottawa slammed the Chevrolet into park, exploded out of the door, picked up the direction of the roar and sure enough it was that goddamned Avro Lancaster bomber flying way under 1000 feet. The Oracle of Ottawa thought he had taken care of this problem. It was many years ago that this monster of death was flying over the City of Ottawa at every occasion. The Oracle of Ottawa picked up the phone and called his Federal Member of Parliament. The Oracle then gave a very reasoned and passionate argument why these overflights, especially the real low ones must stop. The staffer must have been compelled by my argument, the flights stopped cold. Today was the first one since that time, it had been years of peace and quiet.
For any one who is reading this let the Oracle of Ottawa fill you in. The Oracle of Ottawa could get veteran license plates! Shit, the Oracle of Ottawa even still has his honorable release certificate, which is required at the DMV to get vet plates. But the Oracle of Ottawa would never do that. The Oracle of Ottawa truly believes that only veterans who served in a hot conflict, (i.e. shot at, a lot), should be the only people to ever get veteran plates. And don't even ask me about the Royal Canadian Legion. I have never been in one and I have no intention of ever going into one. It is a carry over of when they refused me entrance in the Arnprior, Ontario local branch, when I was in full uniform! Fuck those sweats for ever.
Avro Lancaster Bomber
And yes the Oracle of Ottawa had a ton of relative veterans. My grandfather, who served the whole length of World War II, and earned a very serious strip of medals damn near a foot wide, used to tell me war stories, until when I was about 11 years old, when I asked him if he had ever ran into Panzer Kurt Meyers Boy Army in France? I can still remember the look on his face as he went ashen white pale. There were no more war stories. I had an uncle (?) on my mothers side who was a tank crew man in the run to Germany. I never met him, he had a metal plate in his skull, from taking a round to the tank he was in. My parents thought it wasn't safe for us kids to visit. And there was that distant relative that actually flew in the big bombers over Germany. The Oracle of Ottawa never met him either, he was a total mental basket case, that my parents and their circle discussed in whispered tones, who passed away sometime in the early 1970's. And then there was my Mothers brother who served in Korea with the Royal 22nd. Regiment. My Dad used to tell me he was a little touched before he went in, but the Oracle of Ottawa can tell you for sure that he was totally nuts for the rest of his life. The story that he used to tell of the endless waves of Chinese coming at the position and the site of the ammo belts quickly diminishing has stayed with the Oracle all his life so far. And if you think it got awkward at my Mothers wake when my uncle first met one of my siblings Chinese wife, you have no freaking idea...
But it is that sound of the Avro Lancaster bomber that drives me into an utter black rage every time I hear it. Just one of them flying low over head has the most evil sound. Could you even imagine the sound of 722 of them? Can you imagine the sound of 722 Lancasters and 527 B-17's flying in onto a city? The Oracle often wonders if the people could have actually heard the drone of the Merlins before they saw them? Could you even imagine that there were Canadians flying those Lancasters over Germany? Over Dresden? And Dresden wasn't the only city that was fire bombed during World War II. How the hell can any well informed Canadian tolerate the utter wanton flaunting of this past evil? Let the Oracle tell you Dear Reader, if we would have lost, our relatives would have been tried as war criminals.
It feels like it was decades ago now, when the new Canadian Aviation Museum opened in Ottawa, there was an exhibit of a Lancaster Bomber flight deck, that was salvaged from a Lancaster that flew several missions over Germany, so the guide said. You could sit in the flight crew seats. Damn! If you are ever in Ottawa you gotta check it out. Carl Jung said that large machines have anima, he forgot to mention that steel can soak up fear forever. Sit in one of the crew positions, try to imagine your over Germany in a lumbering pig full of fuel and munitions, any moment now the flak and the night fighters will certainly appear. Maybe even a ME-262, the worlds first operational jet fighter. There was no defense against it. You will actually feel your heart start to beat faster. It is a real bit of experience.
The Oracle of Ottawa has went on way to long on this one. If you ever do a tour of any kind of military duty you will discover that there is evil in the world. If you live a long time after it and really become well informed you will discover that you really have no idea how evil the world really is... It is the Oracle of Ottawa's greatest wish that this last flying Avro Lancaster monster of death be pulled into a museum and welded forever to the floor...
You would have to be living under a rock if you were in Ottawa, at the time of this writing, not to know that the 'Harper Government' and the Canadian right wing revolution are like two pieces of excrement circling ever closer to the center of the bowl at ever increasing speed. As the latest poll numbers come in, confirming the young Justin Trudeau as the 'Next One', the excremental centripetal forces are nearing the point of catastrophic failure.
Ask yourself: Who really created ISIS?
The 'Harper Government' is at the point where it is now forced to reap what it has sown over the last decade. The punks in short pants at the PMO and the Conservative war room have been having fits and many late nights as of late. Nothing seems to work anymore. The poll numbers show that the Canadian Public has tuned out completely, waiting for the writ to drop, or October 2015, which ever comes first.
The panic really set in when the Franklin false flag campaign totally failed when the overall Canadian response was; Prove it! That was when all the announcement videos on You Tube started to vanish. (See earlier posts...) The latest round of attack ads only caused another spike up in the Liberal Parties numbers. It seems that whatever action is taken, it is like going out and actually campaigning for the young Justin Trudeau! This is the worst nightmare to a spin doctor/fart catcher, as it signifies that the point of no return has long ago been passed and exceeded.
Something really desperate was required. And like magic and in perfect tune with the news cycle it appeared. The poor quality ISIS "audio tape" threatening Canada. Now the Oracle of Ottawa was not fooled for a moment with this one. ISIS is not a low budget operation, if that audio was real, ISIS would have made it into a video, and it would have been in full HD to boot! Complete with soundtrack and score, not a half assed production by the Young Conservatives of Ducks Ass, Alberta! Ho HO!! As they say in baseball; " Got Heeeeemmmm".
Although the Canadian public caught on at once to the rickety ploy, the Conservatives just kept running with it. Just stick to the speaking points and stay on message. Without the approval of Parliament the desperate 'Harper Government' puked up Canadian boots on the ground, without even the Americans asking! And while granting full media access to the Wall Street Journal (i.e. Fox News) hosted by Goldman Sachs, the chromed dome grise of the 'Harper Government' ran off at the mouth at the rate of over ten thousand words! And actually admitted that he lied to his own legislative body, when in the interview boasted (2:00) that Canada had the second largest force on the ground next to the United States! Which the Oracle of Ottawa was quick to notice would have be many more people than the lie of 39 persons that was sold to the Canadian media and the Canadian House of Commons!!
The best way to handle this rag assed ISIS uprising is to send in the drones 24/7. Put a phone number media campaign in the local television and radio media, that if you see black banners, call 1-800-PEST-Removal. The phone banks would be manned at CIA headquarters at Langley, and the targets listed and sent to Holloman Air Force Base. Where most if not all the drones are controlled from! Today there is simply no need for boots on the ground, you just set up a Face Book page! Too easy.
While checking my page views on Google + on Sunday(last) at 7:00 p.m. (E.S.T.) I had 1,024,571 views. At 12:03 a.m. Monday I discovered that I only now had 964,924 views! The Oracle of Ottawa was shocked that my Google + account was now counting backwards. What ever could be the cause of that?
Freedom of Speech is now selective?
Well it just so happens that the Oracle of Ottawa was making some pretty cutting comments on videos that were describing that insane Alibaba initial public offering that went off last week on the New York Stock Exchange. The Oracle of Ottawa didn't agree with the whole thing at all.
We have all heard about Gresham's Law, which states basically that bad money drives out good money. Well the Oracle of Ottawa is smart enough to be able to project that a little farther and to come to the stark conclusion that bad securities on a once good stock exchange will drive away all the good stocks. When you are ready to allow old thing, no matter how big it is, for one dollar more, we are on a real slippery slope people.
Of course the whole thing was a rather strange glitch that I am sure the best and brightest at Google are on top of. But it does give one pause doesn't it? The Oracle can't but help feel that if I only commented on cute and cuddly kitten videos nothing regarding my page views would have occurred. But what ever you do, don't comment on peasant Chinese securities offerings of Variable Interest Entities on the New York Stock Exchange!
A right hand glove could be put on the left hand, if it could be turned round in four - dimensional space. Ludwig Wittgenstein, Tractatus, Sec. 6.361111
Justin Trudeau at the time of this writing must certainly be at least 25 full percentage points in the lead of the last polls as favorite for Canada's next Prime Minister! It is the only explanation that the Oracle of Ottawa can come to explain the insane Franklin wheel spinning of the propaganda machine out of the Prime Ministers Office. In the last wasted decade of the 'Harper Government', the Oracle of Ottawa has never seen such desperation to date.
Howard Carter proved what he claimed to find...
The propaganda has shifted from Canada's old war exploits to the tragic and doomed Franklin Expedition. This is no doubt due to the bridge burning that has recently occurred with all of Canada's veterans, while out of one side of the Prime Ministers mouth he extolls the past victories and out of the other side he has cut just about every service that they have ever had!
The ultimate insanity continued today on CBC radio, as nervous rex Murphy introduced today's topic of Cross Canada Check Up. What do you think of the incredible discovery of Franklins lost ship? That wasn't so bad, as the intro piece that no doubt the PMO wrote for him, that compared the discovery of this unknown and unidentified wreck as the greatest achievement since Howard Carter's discovery of King Tut's Tomb! The Oracle of Ottawa couldn't believe his ears!
Sir John Franklin - Note the resemblance...
The 'Harper Government' found an, as yet, unidentified wreck of a vessel that was of the same kind that was used by Franklin in his last expedition. There is no proof at the time of this writing that is actually one of the two lost Franklin ships. Although it is in only eleven meters of water and a Canadian warship was in the area, the 'Harper Government' for some strange reason did not see fit to drop a clearance diver over the side for a closer look, some pictures, and some canon serial numbers which would be definitive proof had they matched the records! Can you explain that Dear Reader?
And for the riffraff of the likes of nervous rex Murphy, Peter Mansbridge, and the ultimate scum of the 'Harper Government' to deface and smear a great man of the ilk of Howard Carter to further their pathetic propaganda ends makes the Oracle of Ottawa want to puke. Howard Carter claimed what he found. And unlike the scum of the 'Harper Government' he was able to prove it at once to the world!
Unlike nervous rex Murphy, Peter Mansbridge, and most of the 'Harper Government' the Oracle of Ottawa actually graduated from an Ontario high school, and unlike the previous named, the Oracle of Ottawa even went to college and graduated from that also! The Oracle of Ottawa has learned a few things. The most important being that it is very dangerous to make bogus and or unproven claims in science, words, or law. No one in their right mind would even think of doing that. Why is the 'Harper Government' persisting in this unproven claim without any factual confirmation?
One thing is certain from the outcome of recent events. There are two contracts at the CBC that will no doubt not be renewed when the Trudeau Government comes to office.
The Oracle of Ottawa has been watching television for darn near as long as television has been around. My earliest memory is watching The Friendly Giant on the mother ship of the world famous CBC. It was pretty awesome on the 26 inch Zenith with the wooden curtains! The whole broadcast universe back then consisted of less than five channels. The Oracle still has very vivid memories of watching the development of the United States Gemini space program. And I can still vividly remember that summer night when man first walked on the moon, and the screams of my mother when Oswald was capped on live television. Television back then was important.
Television - Finally at the fork in the road?
Now the Oracle of Ottawa watches his television on a bitchin' 42 inch Samsung, with the digital box, with way more than one bundle. There is something on channel 1 through to channel 999! And even though he has enjoyed it for a couple of years now, the Oracle of Ottawa is still blown away sometimes by the images from high definition. But like most Canadians the Oracle of Ottawa has a lot of gripes with his local cable provider.
The main bitch that the Oracle of Ottawa has had and still has with his cable provider is trying to get rid of that bundle buried in the bundle(s) that he has already paid for. The Oracle of Ottawa calls this the STC bundle. And it doesn't matter what bundle you pick you always get stuck with the STC bundle. You just can't be rid of it. The STC bundle consists of the Sheets, Towels and Chopstick channels. For some weird reason in Canada and with Rogers Communications you just can't be rid of these useless channels.
Most Canadians don't give a shit about what it costs. We just want what we want, and some body better give it to us or we will make other arrangements. The cable companies still claim that it is technologically impossible to provide pick and pay! And they still deny that the cable box does not tell them everything that I do through their cable box remote! The Oracle of Ottawa is very relieved that his tax dollars have been spent maintaining the CRTC regulatory agency. These pick and pay hearings I am sure are going to bring us all a lot of relief.
So far it has been mighty funny watching the corporate whore lawyer from Bell spout the old same tired crap. But this time there is real fear in his voice. The Oracle of Ottawa just loved that. Pick and pay is coming, and it will no doubt be forced down the overfed throats of the corporate whores of media. May we all get to feast in our equal shares of the burnt savory offerings!
Tim Hortons has been around darn near as long as the Oracle of Ottawa. It was one of Canada's most iconic and loved brands. The old days were the best. All the baked goods were actually baked in the store. Not received frozen and then microwaved by a temporary foreign worker. There fore each Tims location had its own finger print so to speak. There were no purchase or time restrictions once upon a time. And you could even smoke right at the table! Seems like the lost coffee shop of Eldorado don't it?
Board meeting at Burger King?
Now that the Oracle of Ottawa has left or rather, abandoned the rat race of this present locked down world, he finds himself less and less at the Tim Hortons. The last straw came when the corporate over whores in marketing at head office decided that that they would discontinue the extra small coffee size. And after tasting the new Dark Roast, the Oracle of Ottawa decided that it was all just a corporate whores marketing plan to 'frame' Tim Hortons more with the Starbucks crowd. If I wanted to go to Starbucks I would just go there. But I have never been in a Starbucks in my life and I am not changing that anytime soon.
As you get older and wiser, you realize that everything eventually comes to an end. It takes a brand with the highest morals and standards to preserve over long periods of time. An example of a brand that has survived since 1833 is C. F. Martin & Company the legendary maker of acoustic guitars. These brands are becoming more and more scarce as time goes on. The Oracle of Ottawa has come to the hard realization that the brand of Tim Hortons is in all likely hood just not going to survive the near future.
The worst, most untimely marketing campaign of all time?
When the Oracle of Ottawa first heard about the rumors that Burger King was in talks to take over Tim Hortons, the Oracle of Ottawa dismissed it all out of hand. The first thought that went through my very ample and brilliant head was; "Ain't ever gonna happen". But with the price of $94.00 a share and the backing of the Oracle of Omaha, the Oracle of Ottawa had to concede that it has a likely 50 -50 chance of actually happening.
What is most dismaying is that a scum, nearly dead brand such as Burger King could just march up to Canada flash some filthy cash and the board of Tim Hortons just seemed to cave in on the spot! The only reason that Burger King is doing this deal is to prop up its own nearly dead business model on the life blood of another, in the near future hope that there will be a bigger fool out there somewhere where by the Wall Street Bankers will be able to flip it over for a couple of million or billion, depending on the fool that can be found at the desired time.
It is all really depressing. But there is a silver lining. Somebody somewhere here in Canada will take a close look at the original Tim Hortons model and do it all again from scratch. Many ground floor opportunities are and will be had, and the Oracle of Ottawa will be watching out for them. And you should to Dear Reader...
A sentence in a story gives us the same satisfaction as a picture. Ludwig Wittgenstein, Philosophical Grammar, p. 171
It was all the news today here in Canada. It was announced by the chromed domed eminence himself, along with his most trusted spin doctors and fart catchers assorted, that one of the long lost ships of the doomed and tragic Franklin Expedition had been located somewhere up in Northern Canada south of King William Island. The first thing that struck the Oracle of Ottawa was how could they make that claim with out even having dived the wreck, which later in the day was announced to be in only eleven meters of water!
Sir John Franklin - As insane as Stephen Harper?
And then for some strange reason the Oracle of Ottawa felt a rage suddenly well up in him. And this reaction is being quite noted all over Canada at the time of this writing. This is not a Canadian story in the least. It is a tragic story of a megalomaniac with a very advanced death wish psychoses, not at all unlike Steve Harper of the 'Harper Government', who dragged himself and a whole expedition to their deaths. Just like the 'Harper Government' is dragging Canada to a very uncertain future. And whose policies have emboldened the likes of Putin and have created the world environment that has allowed the ISIS Islamic State to thrive...
It all started to unravel around 5:00 p.m. when the momentous discovery was discussed on Power and Politics on CBC Newsworld. The majority of the panel was less than impressed. There were very many questions. Such as how does this useless unchecked "discovery" make my life as a Canadian any better? Will it speed up the delivery of my unemployment check? Will it bring critically needed home services to Veterans that have recently been gutted by the 'Harper Government' ? Will it make the lives of the survivors of missing and murdered aboriginal women any better? Will it allow home door to door mail delivery to continue? No? Then what the fuck is it good for? And how in hell can you call finding the remains of a colossal failure very much not unlike your own as 'Nation Building' ?
It is going to look pretty bad if that hulk is not one of the two Franklin Expedition ships. It has totally shocked the Oracle of Ottawa that Parks Canada has not its homework on this one. The two expedition ships of the Franklin Expedition were known as bomb vessels. Do you know Dear Reader how many of these were built by and for the Royal Navy in the 19th century? The list is very long indeed. There were at least one hundred ships of this class constructed! Do you know Dear Reader how many expeditions were sent to look for Franklin in the 19th century alone - Twenty at least! And not to mention how many of these vessels were used by the Hudson Bay Company to supply their outposts into the 20th century!
But it was the communications genius of Geoff Norquay (a total sack of crap..) on hire from Earnscliffe Strategy Group that let all the cats out of the bag, on air, in real time. The little whippersnapper from the NDP mentioned that instead of looking for Franklins long lost remains it would have been more intelligent to be doing serious mapping for all the international boundary commissions that Canada will have to attend to defend its present borders in the next two years. Geoff Norquay rolled his eyes knowingly nearly into the back of his head and stated that there has been a serious amount of mapping done to locate Franklins trash. Then the young NDP lad stated that that mapping is over five hundred miles useless from the area where mapping was most required! It was killer Dear Reader and no doubt Geoff Norquays last screw up on the PMO dime.
No sign leads us beyond itself, and no argument either. Ludwig Wittgenstein, Philosophical Grammar, p. 114
You know it is the dog days of the 'Harper Government' when you have the Minister of Foreign Affairs in the personage of one John Baird, blathering gibberish that the Russians, having overflown HMCS Toronto somewhere in the Black Sea constitutes a grave act of war. The Oracle of Ottawa nearly fell of of his sofa when he saw the report on Power and Politics on the good old CBC. The Oracle of Ottawa is certain that the train wreck minister will soon be doing very gay interior designs for the new Liberal government McMansions in his riding of Barfhaven within the next year.
It is sort of like the Gulf of Tonkin incident all over again. The war hounds of the 'Harper Government' are trying just one more time, in the hope that a tragedy will some how save their worthless hides. Or it could be that the minister was reading from prepared notes from the United States Department of State, seeing as the president is to speak to the issue(s) on Wednesday night in Prime Time!
HMCS Toronto
Let the Oracle of Ottawa assure all Canadians that what happened to the HMCS Toronto is nothing out of the ordinary. Canadian naval units get "zoomed" all the time. What has really pissed off the Oracle of Ottawa is that when he as a young blood on HMCS Fraser sometime in 1984 and that not only got "zoomed", but "brushed up" by a big bad scary Kashin destroyer of the then Soviet Union! It got even worse and way more scary when they zoomed us with a Badger bomber at around 150 feet. All these incidents were done with full weapon radars in lock on mode! Which is an act of war in the international law text books. And can be very carcinogenic as we were all told later. And not a word of that ever got into the media back in Canada! What was up with that Dear Reader?
At least HMCS Toronto didn't run into this!
So what could the lads and ladies on the HMCS Toronto have been up to, to provoke such a nasty old cold war response from Ivan? It did not take the Oracle of Ottawa long to find out. And the Oracle of Ottawa has included video proof. The drone flight over the hot area in Ukraine probably did not go over very well. But even then there is nothing to worry about.
HMCS Toronto is part of, by now, a very large SAG, or surface action group. It includes on the newest and baddest American carriers which I shall not name. If there is a carrier, there is also several nuclear powered submarine attack boats. And seeing the gravity of this situation and how it could get all out of control it would not surprise the Oracle of Ottawa that there also a "boomer" somewhere on station. Loaded up with ICBM's with the pits in and standing by. Hopefully the hapless members of the press and the various MP's will ask about such things at John Baird's briefing tomorrow...
