Tariff Tergiversations/A Solution To Québec's Health-Care Woes

 Looks like the AI bot that automatically links certain keywords in the opening paragraphs of entries, and which suggests related stories, is kaputsky for good. Right, then. Much as I love sports, this means I can now dive directly into the heart of the matter.

As you might have noticed from the recent surge of entries, I am also feeling exceptionally well (for these weeks and months) these days. So, here we go.

Yesterday, the US announced that tariffs on Canadian, Mexican and EU steel and aluminium were going into effect as of just over six hours and change ago. (There was also the announcement that PenAir was discontinuing its Plattsburgh International Airport to Logan Airport route, massively inconveniencing many by forcing them to make the far costlier trip from Montréal to Boston, but this was not important enough to get Don Lemon or the Gaspesian media's attention, despite the fact that Plattsburgh is as much in America as is Ferguson, Missouri, and despite the fact that many Gaspesians go down to Plattsburgh to fly because it is more economic than flying out of Dorval.) Justin Trudeau a-huffedand a-puffedand a-Ima-ba-LOW-yo-house-down "retaliated" by imposing tariffs on, not only US steel and aluminium, but also on US toilet paper. Talk about overkill.

Being a proponent of the economic policies of Alexander Hamilton and Otto Graf von Bismarck, I am generally far more favourably inclined towards tariffs than Ayn Rand would be. That being said, although I support Hamilton and Graf von Bismarck's economic policies, I do not elevate them to the level of the enshrinement of dogma. This means I can call a bad tariff a bad tariff when a tariff is a bad tariff. The US tariff on steel and aluminium is a bad tariff. Who says so? RepublicanCongresswoman Elise Stefanik of New York's 21st Congressional District (Plattsburgh and the Adirondacks), who is pro-life and pro-Second Amendment, and who supports tariffs against China. Congresswoman Stefanik specifically said:

“Imposing these tariffs will raise prices on businesses in our district that use steel and aluminum, and these costs will be passed on to consumers. Furthermore, as a Northern Border district, I am concerned that these tariffs could incentivize Canadian firms in our district to leave, or possibly incentivize Canada to impose harmful tariffs on our own products. Thousands of manufacturing jobs in the North Country are directly tied to Canada and cross border supply chains, including more than 8,500 in the transportation equipment sector alone."

I like Congresswoman Stefanik. She is a conservative (as I am), but, unlike François Legault and Richard Spencer, she is not a far-right alt-right white nationalist.

You will notice that I cited a US, as opposed to a Canadian/Québec source for my opposition to the new, particular, US tariffs on steel and aluminium. There is a reason for that. First, I was born in Montréal and have been back living here for decades now, but I spent my formative years in the US, New York to be precise. While many Canadians--mostly the Trailer Park Bhoys, Corner Gasand Letterkenneytypes who have never left their Whiskey Tango shitholes of birth, or Peter Mansbridge-type ultra-nationalists --view America in the following terms,

I know that Americans are not a monolith and that what you see on the CNN Don Lemon Outrage du Jour show is Page Three garbage that is not at all representative of the America you see on professionalnews outlets like Mountain Lake PBS, WVNYWFF/MyChamplainValley,The Press-Republican, The Post-Star, The Adirondack Daily Enterprise, The Vermont Digger and WVMT 620.

So, yeah, a meta-point of this is that, contrary to what Canadians may think, there are decent Americans who do not care for the current steel and aluminium tariffs.

Now, why did I not whinge about these tariffs on the grounds that it threatens jobs in Québec's Côte Nord? Simple. I could not give a fuck about any bunch of Gaspesians, who, in this case, are all white nationalist Parti Québecois voters, losing their jobs. In fact, there is a certain bit of karma about Côte Nord white nationalists getting bitten in the ass by the current Administration.

Justin Trudeau, as I said, retaliated. He made it like Canada was actually a free trade zone before his pronunciamento yesterday. Concurrently reported Canadian news shows this to be, in the words of the legendary, one and only, Fred Reed, "either boilerplate brainlessness or deliberate cant." Saudi Arabia, Erdogan's Turkey and Communist China all have state censors. So does Canada. It is called the CRTC, and it has banned HBO and ESPNfrom Canada. Just as Trudeau was a-huffin' and a-puffinabout his "retaliation" yesterday, the CRTC censors were calling on the government to shake down NetFlix with a discriminatory tariff aimed at further subsidising the overwhelmingly kakalicious, already-taxpayer-funded abortion known as "Canadian content."

This, if anything, is an insult to the Canadian private sector which, WITHOUTmoney extorted from NetFlix, was able to produce world-class sci-fi and fantasy shows such as Continuum, Lost Girl, Bitten, Orphan Black, Killjoysand Dark Matter against which the US-made Expanse, the two latest turds in the Star Wars shit parade and the new Star Trek that (badly) imitates the BSGreboot are just plain mingin'. Not to mention that the Canadian private sector also produced the superb filims When Night Is Falling, Better Than Chocolate and Below Her Mouth without a dime from NetFlix. Unlike Québec's La Presse and Simons, Canada's private filim and TV sector does not need to get into bed with the government in a cartelto do well on the world stage.

Not to mention that superb writers/directors/producers like the legendary, one and only, Eli Cross, superb actors/directors/set designers like Kylie Ireland and superb set designers like Andy Appleton all produce a premium product, not only without a single dime from NetFlix, but with NetFlix airing that See You Next Tuesday Rashida Jones' ill-informed hit piece on their industry.

As well, while the US justslapped tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminium while Canada's state censor, the CRTC, has been discriminating against American companies for years, and publicly announced its intention to expand this discrimination. The new tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminium are wrong, but let's not pretend that Canada does (and has) not been doing the exact same thing on other US products.

Then, there is theLa Joute MMA/Hell-in-Cell Match between Québec Health Minister Gaétan Barrette and the Joute yobos, Part Deuce, yesterday. It wasn't nearly as entertaining as the day before. However, it did continue to discuss the serious problem that is the FUBAR that are Québec's nursing homes and long-term care facilities. The yobos came up with all sorts of anonymous, unverifiable, whingery. Dr. Barrette was a gentleman.

I am not a gentleman, but rather, at heart, a New York asshole, something you might have clued into if you noticed my slobbering adulation of Gore Vidal, Billy Martin, Howard Cosell and Al Goldstein. So, I can offer a solution in a blunt way Dr. Barrette cannot.

Simple. Require all current and prospective health care workers--as in EVERYBODY;doctors, nurses, orderlies and the entire constellation of made up "health care professions" which are actually support groups for thems who failed to get into medical school--to take and pass the REALFrench OPSCcourse. This will teach Québec health care "professionals" the concept of "get off your ass," the lack of application of this concept being THEcause of ALLof Québec's health care woes. It is not as if this concept is unknown in Québec. Details of it appeared in a recent edition of a professional journal readily available across Québec newstands.

OPSC: Something you will NEVERsee Gaspesian health care professionals doing

Compelling Gaspesian health care "professionals" to meet and adhere to (there is no biological way they will ever surpass) OPSC standards will, without doubt, generate resistance amongst Gaspesian health care "professionals." Easy fix. Unlike America, where the Posse Comitatus Actis the law, martial law is legal in Canada. If, in the face of requiring all current and prospective Gaspesian health care "professionals" to meet and adhere to OPSC standards, Dr. Barrette meets any opposition, he need only deem this to be an emergency, ask the federal government for martial law, then ask the REALFrench to simply send over four of their parachute regiments. REALFrench parachute regiments have a history of successfully putting an end to even the most determined nonsense. Gaspesians are in eternal penis envy of the REALFrench. If given a choice between having their rights and "being" French, this will cause a lot of cognitive dissonance in many a Gaspesian, leading these Gaspesian fucked stupid in the head to the point that they default to their penis envy and go for something simply because it has the "French" label attach to it, while causing other Gaspesians to simply shout out "À VOS ORDRES!" ("SIR, AYE-AYE, SIR!") and comply with what the REAL French parachute regiments tell them to do.