Category: nannystate

Your Criminal Future

It's Probably Nothing nannystate Surveillance State 21 Comments

The notion of prior restraint, or the idea that a person can be sanctioned today for a crime that he has not yet committed, but might commit in the future, just got a whole new lease on life in Canada. This idea gained traction during the pandemic when people were forced to quarantine despite the absence of any evidence that they were carrying Covid, so it’s not surprising to see some innovative totalitarians finding new uses for evil ideas.

Justice Minister Arif Virani has defended a new power in the online harms bill to impose house arrest on someone who is feared to commit a hate crime in the future – even if they have not yet done so already.

The person could be made to wear an electronic tag, if the attorney-general requests it, or ordered by a judge to remain at home, the bill says.

Compliance Costs

Cronies entitlement generation nannystate 14 Comments

If I were a Minnesotan, supposedly I would sleep at lot easier at night knowing that the state was ready to protect me from all those unscrupulous house painters out there.

The legislation, which was posted online February 15, would restrict the “sale of certain solvent-based paint materials to licensees; [establish] a paint contractor board; [and require] licensing for paint contractors and journeyworker painters.”

So regardless of their motivations, Minnesota lawmakers are at best offering an immoral “solution” to a problem that doesn’t exist. At worst, they are weaponizing the law to benefit special interests.

A Dragon No More?

Gradually Then Suddenly It's Probably Nothing nannystate 6 Comments

After the death of Mao, China’s embrace of free markets sparked one of the largest economic booms the 20th century has ever seen. But is China now in regress as the communist party tries to widen its control over the economy?

Xi expects business as well as people to serve the CCP. As authoritarian controls metastasize throughout the economy, everyone suffers. For instance, even foreign enterprises now must accommodate party cells. The Wall Street Journal’s Lingling Wei reported on a Chinese “official, one of several who had helped introduce Western-style stock trading to China,” who cited “a worrisome trend of the party inserting itself more into companies’ affairs by pressuring them to accept Communist Party committees in their offices. ‘The whole thing about getting listed companies to set up party committees,’ he said, ‘is a reversal of what we had tried to do’.”

Pandemic Myths

Freespeechers nannystate Safe and Effective 54 Comments

When I saw this latest interview with Dr. Clare Craig, author of Expired: Covid: The Untold Story, the first thing I thought of was why we never see any Canadian doctors speaking out against the standard narrative regarding Covid. Maybe that’s just another facet of “Canadian exceptionalism”, except that in this case it’s something to be ashamed of.

“…they must not allow themselves to be frightened by stories of a disease X no matter how frightening the stories are because it’s destructive to people’s mental health it’s destructive to their rational thinking and once you lose rational thought we end up in a crazy world again…”

 

 

Tantrum Time

Basic Dictatorship Cronies nannystate 46 Comments

Faced with the news that his media water-carriers are in financial trouble, Maximum Leader publicly berates them for failing to conjure up non-existent customers. Not at all shocking for a man who sees no need for boundaries between the state and the economy.

A fired-up Prime Minister Justin Trudeau unleashed on Bell on Friday, calling its move to layoff thousands of employees — including hundreds of journalists — a “garbage decision.”

“I’m pretty pissed off about what’s just happened,” Trudeau said during a press conference in Toronto.

“This is the erosion not just of journalism, of quality local journalism at a time where people need it more than ever, given misinformation and disinformation…. It’s eroding our very democracy, our abilities to tell stories to each other.”

(From Kate) Drama Queen: the PM had at least 16 weeks statutory notice from Bell about layoffs of this magnitude so “garbage decision” & “pretty pissed off” were hardly “from the heart”.

Socialist Boomerangs

nannystate There Goes The Narrative 15 Comments

It’s a basic fact of economics that it’s not the entrepreneur who determines wages, but the marginal consumer. Gig workers in Seattle are discovering that truth the hard way.

The Pay Up Legislation, as the city regards it, was meant to improve wages for gig workers by entitling them to “minimum pay,” or in other words, pay based on the time worked and miles traveled for each offer.

“Sundays before the ordinance,” Lardizabal. “You know, we’d be thinking breakfast. Today, I didn’t even touch it. They’re not going to order. It is definitely backfiring.”

“Assuming that you are working constantly, then yes, you’re going to be making that much money. But that’s not what’s happening right now. Because people are not ordering as much anymore. The tips are going down because they think we’re making all this money.”

The Bad Argument Contest Winner Is….

Featured Comment nannystate 11 Comments

While John Ivison starts out with a sensible premise, that the Trudeau liberals are sending the Canadian economy off the rails, he can’t seem to resist sending his own op-ed off the rails by attempting to associate a discredited Keynesian nostrum with libertarian Argentinian President Javier Milei.

At the same time, Milei’s invocation of the animal spirits of wealth creation is all but absent from the collectivist capitalism pushed by Freeland and Justin Trudeau.

It gets even worse when Ivison blames the 2008 financial collapse not on inept monetary policy driven by a failing fiat currency system but rather on the leftist boogeyman of “deregulation”.

What about the crash of 2008, which was the product of too little regulation, rather than too much?

Ban All The Things!

Electronic Nicotine nannystate 19 Comments

Tom Slater;

At the Conservative Party conference last year, Sunak decided that making England ‘smoke-free’ would be his chapter in history. So he announced Britain’s biggest experiment in prohibition for generations: a phased-in ban on tobacco products that will mean today’s 15-year-olds will never legally be able to buy cigarettes.

Now Sunak is going after disposable vapes, too. This is despite the fact that vapes are at least 95 per cent safer than cigarettes and currently help between 50,000 and 70,000 people in England quit cigarettes each year, giving ex-smokers the pleasure of puffing without the considerable health risks. We can’t be having that, it seems.

Universal Basic Insolvency

Alternative Subsidy Gradually Then Suddenly nannystate 28 Comments

If our experience with pandemic “emergency benefits” is any guide, when you pay people not to work, then lo and behold they are unlikely to…work. It will be no different if the magical non-concept of Universal Basic Income ever sees the light of day.

As for the notion that under UBI people will be free to become “care givers” to loved ones, I can foresee a whole lot of youngsters becoming “care givers” to their PlayStation instead.

The Parliamentary Budget Officer produced an analysis in 2021 that concluded that a national guaranteed basic income using parameters of Ontario’s 2017 pilot project could cut Canada’s poverty rate by half in just one year, but at a hefty cost of $91 billion in 2024–25 and $93 billion in 2025–26. That’s nearly double what Ottawa spends, for example, on health transfers to the provinces.

Une Patiente, S’il Vous Plait!

entitlement generation I, Napoleon nannystate Tommy Douglas: Not Dead Enough 16 Comments

I’m not surprised that the doctor lost patience with this woman, but a Quebec regulatory body views that as a perfectly good reason to discipline him. As per the Jordan Peterson controversy, I expect he’ll have no recourse to the courts.

The doctor said he had never prescribed hormones to someone who wanted to “transform into a gentleman.” He then brought up concerns that the hormone would lead to aggressive behaviour and changes in character, something the patient said was just a stereotype.

During the consultation, doctor and patient started arguing, with the patient reminding the doctor that he is a trans man, and the doctor responding that he is “genetically female” and noting that as far as being a trans man: “That is in your brain.”

No Free Speech For You!

Freespeechers nannystate The Tolerant Left 19 Comments

In a decision that was not surprising, given the philosophical state of the Canadian judiciary, an Ontario appeal court ruled that the regulatory body overseeing psychologists in Ontario can pretty much mandate any kind of “training” it wants to.

Peterson’s comments did not run afoul of any Canadian laws.

Rather, they were found to have contravened specific rules that exist for psychologists, a regulated profession.

“When individuals join a regulated profession, they do not lose their Charter right to freedom of expression,” says the ruling by the Ontario Divisional Court from August. “At the same time, however, they take on obligations and must abide by the rules of their regulatory body that may limit their freedom of expression.”

“The order is not disciplinary and does not prevent Dr. Peterson from expressing himself on controversial topics.”

Update from Kate: Soon to be the most watched series in the history of @realDailyWire
.

Soviet Medicine

Let Them Eat Taser nannystate Safe and Effective 5 Comments

If vaccine side effects are as rare as they are supposed to be, what’s the holdup when it comes to compensation?

Both men were approved for compensation through the federally-funded Vaccine Injury Support Program and have received payments, including ongoing monthly support as neither can work.

“I’ve been waiting for almost a year to hear whether my physical therapy will be covered,” he said.

Scholefield said he submitted his expenses almost a year ago and is still owed about $40,000. Wightman said he sent in expenses about 10 weeks ago and is yet to receive almost $30,000 in repayment.

Ponzi Finance

Children R Our Future entitlement generation nannystate 29 Comments

It’s by no means unexpected, but 2024 is going to bring some tax hikes for Canadians when it comes to funding their retirement. Or, more accurately, funding the retirement of people a lot younger than you. But that’s what socialized pensions are all about. You pay more, and “others” get the proceeds.

Anyone who has paid into CPP since 2019 will receive higher benefits, but the full effects will take decades to materialize, so  the youngest workers stand to gain the most. People retiring 40 years from now will see their income go up by more than 50 per cent compared to the current pension beneficiaries.

No Jobs For You!

Gradually Then Suddenly Great Moments In Socialism It's Probably Nothing nannystate 21 Comments

Defenders of minimum wage hikes usually claim that businesses will either effortlessly pass on the increased costs or accept a lower profit margin. There’s another way to get around such mandates, however: eliminate positions entirely.

Pizza Hut is laying off more than 1,200 delivery drivers in California.

The layoffs, which will take place through the end of February, come as California’s minimum wage is about to go up by $4. Fast-food workers in the state are set to get a pay bump of close to 30% in April as the minimum wages rises from $16 to $20 an hour.

History Repeats…or Rhymes

Freespeechers nannystate There Goes The Narrative Trump 14 Comments

For those of you following the recent Colorado Supreme Court decision, here’s a seldom discussed bit of historical background. Other than the Civil War, the 14th amendment of the U.S. constitution was invoked on another occasion, this time to sanction a socialist Congressman who was a vocal critic of World War One. It’s another example of a relevant historical event that gets studiously ignored due to the need for narrative damage control.

When the United States entered the war and passed the Espionage Act of 1917, Berger’s continued opposition made him a target. He and four other Socialists were indicted under the Espionage Act in February 1918. The trial followed on December 9 of that year, and on February 20, 1919, Berger was convicted and sentenced to 20 years in federal prison.

Berger’s conviction was appealed and was ultimately overturned by the US Supreme Court on January 31, 1921…

…the voters of Milwaukee once again elected him to the House of Representatives in 1918. When he arrived in Washington to claim his seat, Congress….declared the seat vacant, disqualifying him pursuant to Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

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