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Hmmm, will anyone be left standing at his side when the end comes?

News flash: The Donald Trump presidency death spiral is picking up speed. Okay, so that is not really a news flash. It is an ongoing spectacle that is impossible not to watch with both disbelief and guilty pleasure.

The Great Catering Truck Subterfuge is the latest head-shaking event in the Can this really be happening? comedy of errors. In case you are one of the few people who have been able to look away from the Trump fiasco, here are the details as reported by the media.

Trump boarded Air Force One in view of television cameras as he left a NATO Summit in Turkey last month. In response to a credible threat that Iran planned to fire a missile at the plane, he was smuggled off the plane, stowed away in a catering truck and transported to another military aircraft instead.

That embarrassing escapade is part and parcel of Trump’s disastrous war with Iran in partnership with Israel. Anyone with half a brain can see that he has created a war he cannot win and yet cannot pull out of without huge damage to his already tattered reputation.

At the middle of that bottomless pit is the Strait of Hormuz nightmare. Trump continues to insist that the Strait is under U.S. control and that its reopening is imminent. Iran continues to block the Strait and use it as a master bargaining chip in the on again, off again negotiations.

Everyone surrounding Trump knows that the war has become an unmitigated disaster. But they also know that Trump – in his infinite capacity for self-delusion – will never accept that reality. The only path forward is to keep up the flow of rhetoric however ridiculous it becomes.

It will surprise no one (except Trump himself) that the rats are beginning to abandon the ship. Elon Musk saw the writing on the wall early on and bailed out. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, who has been Trump’s loyal, puppet mouthpiece, has announced she will be leaving her role.

Leavitt’s cover story is that she wants to spend more time with her children. Translation: I knew it would be a tough job. But I never imagined the Trump presidency would become such a colossal shit show and that my part in in it would ruin my reputation. Get me the hell out of here!

The beginning of the end of the Trump presidency has already been reached. His approval level is at a new record low below 20% putting him below other past presidents at this this point in their terms.

The Midterm Elections happen in early November. The Democrats are slight favourites – leading the generic ballot by 6.7 points – to gain control of both chambers of Congress. (How it is even that close defies logic.) Trump and his cronies know that if the Democrats take control, Trump will be impeached.

The destructive path of the Trump presidency is accelerating toward its inevitable collapse. The death spiral is quite spectacular with fires popping up everywhere and the yawning pit about to swallow him up. The only real question is: Will anyone still be standing by his side when the end comes?

~  Now Available Online from Amazon, Chapters Indigo or Barnes & Noble: Hunting Muskie, Rites of Passage – Stories by Michael Robert Dyet

~ Michael Robert Dyet is also the author of Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel (now out of print) which was a double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com .

~ Subscribe to Michael’s Metaphors of Life Journal aka That Make Me Go Hmmm at its’ internet home www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog2. Instructions for subscribing are provided in the Subscribe to this Blog: How To instructions page in the right sidebar. If you’re reading this post on another social networking site, come back regularly to my page for postings once a week.

Tags:   Donald Trump · Karoline Leavitt · metaphor · Michael Robert Dyet · Midterm Elections · Strait of Hormuz · war with IranNo Comments.

Hmmm, is the ocean floor of your life definitively your own?

As I write this post, it is the Canadian, civic holiday that is observed on the first Monday of August. A very welcome long weekend for those still in the workforce.

I retired in 2023. Accordingly, for me, the holiday means only that there will be less traffic on the roads and conservation area parking lots will be crowded. I try to plan around crowded environments as I prefer quiet, peaceful places.

It feels like more than three years since my last day of work – almost like another lifetime ago which in some respects it is. Some people have a difficult time adjusting to retirement. They feel they have lost their purpose. Fortunately that is not the situation for me.

I never defined myself by my job. It was the way I paid the mortgage or the rent and the way I put food on the table. I did take pride in my doing my work well and being acknowledged for it. But I was more than ready to put work in my rear view on my 65^th birthday.

I do wonder how the people I worked with are coping with the state of affairs these days. The disruptive effect of the orange-faced crackpot south of the border must be making everyone very nervous about the security of their job.

In retrospect, I was fortunate in my working career to only be downsized out of a job once. It was a very worrisome time but I survived it. These days it is not uncommon to be shown the door several times over the course of a career. I cannot imagine how difficult that must be.

Forgive me if I am rambling a bit. Consider it the privilege of being a senior. All of the above is a prelude to my contemplating, partly in retrospect, the stages of our lives – childhood, youth, education years, working years, retirement – and how they influence our outlook.

Where you find your sense of meaning and purpose will necessarily evolve throughout your life. My advice is this: It must be grounded in something deeper than your job title and your annual performance appraisals. Retirement should be one door gently closing and another one swinging open to greet you – not a cliff you step off with no safety net to catch you.

The ocean floor of your life – the secure place out of reach of all the storms and tumultuous waves that we have to navigate as life rolls on – needs to be a quiet and still place that endures and provides refuge. It needs to be definitively your place not dependant on anyone or anything else. Mine resembles the photo at the head of this post although I need to substitute “forest” for “ocean.”

If you are still in the workforce, I hope you were able to unwind over the long weekend and do the things you enjoy most. Every long weekend should be a practice run for the day you hang up your nameplate and sail off into the sunset of retirement well prepared for the freedom you have earned.

~  Now Available Online from Amazon, Chapters Indigo or Barnes & Noble: Hunting Muskie, Rites of Passage – Stories by Michael Robert Dyet

~ Michael Robert Dyet is also the author of Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel (now out of print) which was a double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com .

~ Subscribe to Michael’s Metaphors of Life Journal aka That Make Me Go Hmmm at its’ internet home www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog2. Instructions for subscribing are provided in the Subscribe to this Blog: How To instructions page in the right sidebar. If you’re reading this post on another social networking site, come back regularly to my page for postings once a week.

Tags:   metaphor · Michael Robert Dyet · ocean floor · retirementNo Comments.

Hmmm, does NHL star Macklin Celebrini deserve $18.8 million per year?

I try not to pay attention to the salaries professional athletes make in this era. It disturbs me too much. But occasionally I feel compelled to delve into the controversy.

Celebrini just signed a new contract that makes him the highest paid NHL player. The details: a 5-year contract worth $94 million with an average annual salary of $18.8 million. He edged past Leo Carlson whose new contract comes in at an average annual salary of $18 million.

Last season Celebrini played 82 games and tallied 45 goals and 70 assists for a total of 115 points. Assuming my math is correct, if he matches those totals next season, he will earn $22,000 per game or $15,500 per point gained.

Celebrini’s contract is small compared to the highest paid baseball player. Shonei Ohtani earns $70 million per year. And it pales in comparison to the highest paid athlete in the world: soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo who earns $235 million per year. But $18.8 million per year is still a wad of cash.

The question is: Do these athletes deserve the huge amounts of money they are paid? I acknowledge that they are high performance athletes. They have honed their skills to the highest level and push their bodies to the maximum level of output. They deserve credit for that. But I still find it impossible to justify their salaries in the bigger picture.

Am I jealous of the amount of money they make? Honestly, yes I am. But jealousy is not the root of my objection. It is the relative scale of the equation that bothers me most.

For reference, the average annual salary in Canada is currently $69,300. Celebrini will earn that much in four games.

The minimum wage in Ontario will rise to $17.95 per hour in October. This equates to $718 per week and $37,380 per year – assuming the individual works full time hours which many do not have the opportunity to do. Celebrini will match their annual income in two games next season.

Does Celebrini deserve to earn 27 times more than the average Canadian? Or 49 times more than someone working at the minimum wage. No doubt some will answer: Absolutely, yes. But I have to disagree. In a society where the gap between the rich and the poor is ever widening – where growing numbers of people are homeless – Celebrini’s salary is off-the-charts excessive.

Have you heard of the rooted tree metaphor? It compares visible disparities in society to tree branches and fruit – showing that they are fed by deep, hidden historical roots of unfair policies and power dynamics. Nowhere is this more evident than in the salaries earned by athletes like Macklin Celebrini.

The sky is the limit in terms of how high athlete salaries will go. The historical roots of the rooted tree run ever deeper.

~  Now Available Online from Amazon, Chapters Indigo or Barnes & Noble: Hunting Muskie, Rites of Passage – Stories by Michael Robert Dyet

~ Michael Robert Dyet is also the author of Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel (now out of print) which was a double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com .

~ Subscribe to Michael’s Metaphors of Life Journal aka That Make Me Go Hmmm at its’ internet home www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog2. Instructions for subscribing are provided in the Subscribe to this Blog: How To instructions page in the right sidebar. If you’re reading this post on another social networking site, come back regularly to my page for postings once a week.

Tags:   athlete salaries · Cristiano Ronaldo · Macklin Celebrini · metaphor · Michael Robert Dyet · Shonei OhtaniNo Comments.

Hmmm, does the rollercoaster ride of life allow for objections?

It has been a couple of weeks since I have put up a post. Why? I have been suffering through another of the debilitating back spasms that I seem to have to endure once a year or so. It hurts like hell and makes it impossible to sit at the computer for more than a few minutes or indulge in the nature hikes that I so cherish. I am on the mend now.

I find it particularly frustrating that I have to endure these episodes. I adhere rigidly to a routine of Tuesday morning chiropractic treatments at no small expense. (Multiple treatments for a couple of weeks when I have an episode.) I have a twenty minute routine of stretching and strengthening exercises that I carry out every morning. And yet these episodes keep happening.

If I broke the rules of bad back etiquette – lifting something heavy or bending in the wrong manner – it would be understandable. But once again, all I did was rise from a sitting to a standing position. Then came the sharp, stabbing pain and my low back went in spasm.

I bellowed, let loose a stream of four-letter words and cursed the gods of fate. It does not help one iota to do so. But I cannot help it because I know I will be incapacitated for a couple of weeks or more.

Why me? Why the hell do I have to have this miserable condition? I ask this question repeatedly but the only answer offered is the same: Everyone has something that they have to struggle with at times. Why should you be any different?

And then the lawyers of fate commence with their cross-examination of me:

Would you rather have a migraine headaches or a heart condition or cancer? Well, no, definitely not, thank you very much.

Have you thought about the people who have this same condition but cannot afford the treatments you can? Well, yes, I can see that I am fortunate in that respect.

Who told you that life is always fair and just? No one has ever made that claim. I have lived long enough to understand that reality. But in my defence, being caregiver to an aging parent with medical conditions does rather complicate the equation.

Are you the only one who has obligations to live up to? Is that really a defence to your reaction? Okay, point taken. I withdraw the objection.

Bottom line: Life is a rollercoaster ride through good times and bad. If the good times outnumber the bad times – and they do by a considerable margin – gratitude is the proper attitude.

But the requirement for gratitude notwithstanding, I still resent having to endure these miserable episodes. I reserve that right of objection.

~  Now Available Online from Amazon, Chapters Indigo or Barnes & Noble: Hunting Muskie, Rites of Passage – Stories by Michael Robert Dyet

~ Michael Robert Dyet is also the author of Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel (now out of print) which was a double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com .

~ Subscribe to Michael’s Metaphors of Life Journal aka That Make Me Go Hmmm at its’ internet home www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog2. Instructions for subscribing are provided in the Subscribe to this Blog: How To instructions page in the right sidebar. If you’re reading this post on another social networking site, come back regularly to my page for postings once a week.

Tags:   back spasm · metaphor · Michael Robert DyetNo Comments.

Hmmm, is there anything quite as eye-catching as the bright hues of Hover Flies?

There are many insect species that I delight in seeing but Hover Flies top the list. Also known as Flower Flies because they are regularly found around flowers, they are often brightly coloured with spots, stripes and bands of yellow or brown covering their bodies.

There are in the neighbourhood of 6,000 Hover Fly species world-wide. 539 species have been recorded in Canada with close to 400 of them occurring in Ontario. I have recorded 68 species of Hover Flies so I can look forward to the delight of finding many more.

What is so special about Hover Flies?

The obvious answer is their tendency to hover – maintaining a spot in the air as part of their display behaviour.

The less apparent answer and more interesting answer is that they exhibit Batesian Mimicry. This is a biological phenomenon where a harmless or palatable species evolves to imitate the warning signs – such as bright colours, patterns or behaviours – of dangerous or unpalatable species as a defence mechanism. For example, Falsehorn Flies (example above) can be mistaken for wasps.

What do Hover Flies look like?

Hover Flies vary in size considerably depending on the species. Some are as tiny as 1/8” in length while others can be a full inch long. They also vary in shape from small, elongated and slender – like the Globetail displayed above – to large and chunky like the Meadow Fly at the head of this post.

How long do they live and where?

Hover Flies are commonly found in meadows, woodlands, grassland and gardens. Adults are often found near flowers as their principal food source is nectar and pollen. They have relatively short lifespans in Canada ranging from 15 to 50 days.

Where do they fit in the quilt of nature?

Hover Flies are important pollinators of flowering plants, as well as agricultural crops, and are often considered the second-most important group of pollinators after wild bees. Larvae of Hover Flies play a function in biocontrol in nature as they prey on pest insects like aphids and leafhoppers.

The heartwarming hues of Hover Flies – another fascinating patch in the quilt of nature stitched together by threads of interdependence and natural balance.

~  Now Available Online from Amazon, Chapters Indigo or Barnes & Noble: Hunting Muskie, Rites of Passage – Stories by Michael Robert Dyet

~ Michael Robert Dyet is also the author of Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel (now out of print) which was a double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com .

~ Subscribe to Michael’s Metaphors of Life Journal aka That Make Me Go Hmmm at its’ internet home www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog2. Instructions for subscribing are provided in the Subscribe to this Blog: How To instructions page in the right sidebar. If you’re reading this post on another social networking site, come back regularly to my page for postings once a week.

Tags:   Black Spur Fly · Falsehorn Fly · Globetail · metaphor · Michael Robert Dyet · Nature · Yellow-throated Meadow FlyComments Off on Nature as a Quilt: The Hues of Hover Flies

Hmmm, is life about the journey or the destination?

I was on one of my nature hikes recently when I came across this giant Snapping Turtle which by all appearances had died rather tragically. It was lying against the barrier baked by the sun. Hard to say exactly how or why it died. But I can speculate based on where it ended its days.

Snappers live in freshwater habitats – slow moving bodies of water with soft, muddy or sandy bottoms and dense aquatic vegetation such as shallow ponds, rivers, marshes, swamps and river edges. There was a deep creek twenty feet away where this Snapper likely lived.

Local conservation workers had created a shallow pond in the flats adjacent to the creek. It appears the Snapper migrated to this pond – perhaps as part of the mating and reproductive ritual – while the construction was underway. When it tried to return to the creek, its path was blocked by the makeshift fencing put in place to block human access to the work site.

I cannot find the conservation officials at fault for undertaking the project. They had the best of intentions and were creating a new habitat at a time when natural habitats of this type are all too rapidly disappearing. The Snapper was an unfortunate victim of the project.

I have inserted a photograph of a live Snapper above which by chance had a small Eastern Amberwing dragonfly hovering above it – a good reference for size comparison.

Snapping Turtles weigh on average between 10 to 35 pounds with the males being larger as they have to fight for mating rights. Very old males can reach up to 75 pounds. I would wager that this one was a male in the upper echelon of the size spectrum.

They are rather prehistoric looking creatures with massive heads, hooked beaks and exceptionally long, dinosaur-like tails. They are classified as a species of concern in Ontario vulnerable to population declines.

Snapping Turtles have relatively long lives. They commonly live 30 to 50 years. But studies have shown that some can reach 75 to 100 years which is quite comparable to a human life.

I have no way of knowing how old this Snapper was and how close it was to the natural end of its life. It was sad to see such a noble creature that had died simply because its path back home was blocked. But I am inclined to think it was a journey that it had to take to reproduce.

Perhaps this is a lesson to us. Life is a highway we travel not knowing what obstacles we will encounter and when one of them might prove to be insurmountable. But we cannot life in fear of the obstacles. We must embrace the unpredictability and forge on.

The demise of this giant and the circumstances surrounding it bring to mind the lyrics of the great singer-songwriter Harry Chapin in his song Greyhound: It’s got to be the going, not the getting there, that’s good.

~  Now Available Online from Amazon, Chapters Indigo or Barnes & Noble: Hunting Muskie, Rites of Passage – Stories by Michael Robert Dyet

~ Michael Robert Dyet is also the author of Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel (now out of print) which was a double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com .

~ Subscribe to Michael’s Metaphors of Life Journal aka That Make Me Go Hmmm at its’ internet home www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog2. Instructions for subscribing are provided in the Subscribe to this Blog: How To instructions page in the right sidebar. If you’re reading this post on another social networking site, come back regularly to my page for postings once a week

Tags:   Harry Chapin · Harry Chapin Greyhound · metaphor · Michael Robert Dyet · Snapping TurtleComments Off on Demise of the Giant: The Moral

Hmmm, if a tree falls in the forest and there is no one there to perceive it, does it make a sound?

This is a longstanding, classical thought experiment that goes all the way back to the 1700’s. The answer depends on your perspective.

If you define sound as physical vibrations or pressure waves in the air, the falling tree makes a sound regardless of whether or not a human is there to perceive it. On the other hand, if you define sound strictly as the conscious experience and perception of those waves by a brain, then it does not make a sound without someone around to hear it.

At this point you are probably thinking: Oh hell, he is going to go on a long philosophical ramble! Relax, I do not intend to do so.

The question popped into my head as I was on one of my nature hikes this week. I heard a large crack-snap sound, a whoosh of air and a loud thump as a tree crashed to the ground in the forest not far from me.

To be very honest, the first question that popped into my head was much more self-serving. Thank goodness the tree fell sideways into the woods and not across the path where I was walking. If that had happened, I would be roadkill and the epitaph on my gravestone might read:

He went for a walk in the woods

Searching for bugs in the grass,

But a tree came crashing down

And knocked him flat on his ass,

Oh the look of surprise on his face!

A tree falling in the forest is a common and natural occurrence. The tree ages, the wood decays and the laws of physics take over. The fallen tree provides habitat for small animals that inhabit the forest floor. It is the circle of life.

But more importantly to me, it changed the timeline of the last half hour of my hike ever so slightly. I stopped to take a photograph of the fallen tree and contemplate the implications.

If I had not done so, the Sooty Crane Fly (which I had not seen before) that I spotted a little further down the path might not have been at that spot at that moment. Similarly, the colourful Tachinid Fly (shown at the head of this post) I spotted twenty minutes later, as I was almost back to my car, would probably also have escaped my notice.

I hike that particular trail regularly. Now every time I see that fallen tree I will be reminded to slow down, take a breath and admire the majesty that surrounds me on all sides.

~  Now Available Online from Amazon, Chapters Indigo or Barnes & Noble: Hunting Muskie, Rites of Passage – Stories by Michael Robert Dyet

~ Michael Robert Dyet is also the author of Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel (now out of print) which was a double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com .

~ Subscribe to Michael’s Metaphors of Life Journal aka That Make Me Go Hmmm at its’ internet home www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog2. Instructions for subscribing are provided in the Subscribe to this Blog: How To instructions page in the right sidebar. If you’re reading this post on another social networking site, come back regularly to my page for postings once a week

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Hmmm, being open to the possibilities is sometimes all you need.

Success in life most often comes from a combination of factors such as diligence, careful preparation, thoughtful planning, integrity and focused application of will. You have to put in the effort and invest the resources to get the result you want… most of the time.

There are times when it is simply a matter of being in the right place at the right time. A degree of randomness is involved that has no explanation and no relation to what you may or may not have invested in the moment.

Finding the Colorado Potato Beetle shown above was an example of the latter. I had finished a bug crawl along the Grand River Trail. I stopped at the nearby drainage pond (for a housing development) for a quick check hoping to see a dragonfly or two.

I was walking along the sidewalk, bordering the drainage pond and the weedy area surrounding it, when a bright flash crossed my line of vision. My reaction: Holy crap, what was that! Fortunately for me, the Beetle landed in a bush not far ahead of me and stayed there long enough for me to take several photographs of its chunky and brilliantly coloured form.

It will rank as one of my better finds for the year. (Yes, I know they are a major pest for potato farmers. But that is another conversation.)

A Colorado Potato Beetle appearing out of nowhere to be the highlight of my day. A random act of metaphor to remind me that Mother Nature doles out her beauty on her own schedule and her own whims. My part in the process is simply to be open to the possibilities.

~  Now Available Online from Amazon, Chapters Indigo or Barnes & Noble: Hunting Muskie, Rites of Passage – Stories by Michael Robert Dyet

~ Michael Robert Dyet is also the author of Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel (now out of print) which was a double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com .

~ Subscribe to Michael’s Metaphors of Life Journal aka That Make Me Go Hmmm at its’ internet home www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog2. Instructions for subscribing are provided in the Subscribe to this Blog: How To instructions page in the right sidebar. If you’re reading this post on another social networking site, come back regularly to my page for postings once a week.

Tags:   Colorado Potato Beetle · metaphor · Michael Robert DyetComments Off on Random Act of Metaphor: A Potato Beetle out of Nowhere

Hmmm, will the AI drone that the Data Center powers ultimately prove to be its Achilles heel?

I have been hearing a lot about Data Centres and the controversies surrounding them in the news lately. I had only a vague sense of what is involved and decided I should educate myself on the matter. Here is what I learned.

A Data Center is a centralized physical facility providing the infrastructure needed to process, store and distribute the massive volumes of digital data, cloud services and AI applications that exist today. They rely on specialized infrastructure:

• Servers: Powerful computers that host websites, run software & process user requests.
• Storage Systems: High capacity hard drives and solid-state drives for storage.
• Networking Equipment: Routers and switches that direct traffic efficiently to the right destination.

The boom in Data Centers has resulted in significant pushback – not in my backyard or county or city – across Canada and the U.S from bipartisan groups and activist groups. Why the backlash? It is the scope of the infrastructure needed to fuel these digital beasts.

Data Centres require continuous, uninterrupted power for artificial intelligence and cloud computing. This has resulted in surging electricity rates and a strain on the electrical grid in the areas where a Center is located.

The equipment in Data Centres generate extreme heat. Liquid cooling systems are needed to maintain optimal operating temperatures. They require millions of gallons of water every day. Areas with limited water resources are concerned about dropping water tables, water rights and water quality.

The emergency diesel backup generators required in these facilities apparently produce immense amounts of nitrogen oxide emissions raising concerns over local air quality and respiratory illness.

In essence, we are talking about giant energy sucking, water gulping and potentially air polluting digital fortresses setting up shop and competing with other businesses and residents for resources. One can understand the concerns.

But something else comes to mind in terms of risk. If you are a terrorist group wanting to cripple the country you are idealistically at odds with, what better way to do so than bombing the Data Centers? The ripple effect on the country’s economy could be devastating.

These digital fortresses have extensive security measures – biometric scanning, gated perimeters and 24/7 monitoring. But the ultimate irony is that an AI drone powered by the Data Center may be the device that drops the bombs that reduces the facility to rubble.

~  Now Available Online from Amazon, Chapters Indigo or Barnes & Noble: Hunting Muskie, Rites of Passage – Stories by Michael Robert Dyet

~ Michael Robert Dyet is also the author of Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel (now out of print) which was a double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com .

~ Subscribe to Michael’s Metaphors of Life Journal aka That Make Me Go Hmmm at its’ internet home www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog2. Instructions for subscribing are provided in the Subscribe to this Blog: How To instructions page in the right sidebar. If you’re reading this post on another social networking site, come back regularly to my page for postings once a week

Tags:   AI · AI drone · Data Center · metaphor · Michael Robert DyetComments Off on Data Centres: The Achilles Heel

Dear Litigious Doug:

I have been highly critical of your actions as Premier of Ontario. But it occurs to me that I have been delinquent in giving credit where credit is due. You have set a new high water mark for the number of court battles waged singlehandedly keeping the courts in business.

The list of your government’s court cases – a dozen or more – is eye-opening and I venture to say unprecedented. A few examples of these battles starting with ones you have lost:

LOST Bill 124: Public Sector Wage Cap

The province’s highest courts declared this law, which capped salary increases for broader public sector workers, to be unconstitutional. You were forced to repeal the law. Justice 1: Ford :0

LOST Phone Logs and Transparency

You were pressured to disclose records from your personal device made regarding the controversial Greenbelt land development. You took the matter to court block release of the records but lost.

You found a way around that ruling by changing the Freedom of Information laws. Of course, those changes are going to be challenged in court as well. Good luck with that one. Justice 2: Ford: 0

LOST Ministerial Zoning Orders

In Bill 197, the COVID-19 Economic Recovery Act, you tried to sneak through changes to rules relating to Ministerial Zoning Orders to fast-track land development projects. The courts ruled that you violated the Environmental Bill of Rights which requires you to consult with Ontarians before making such changes. Justice 3: Ford: 0

LOST Carbon Pricing

You campaigned on a promise to fight the federal Liberal’s carbon pricing program and budgeted $30 million in taxpayer funds for the court battle. You lost this battle at every judicial level. The Supreme Court brought a definitive end to the legal challenges. Justice 4: Ford: 0

LOST Cabinet Mandate Letters

You have been waging a three-year battle to keep secret your mandate letters to cabinet ministers. The Ontario Information and Privacy Commissioner ordered your government to release the documents. You appealed to Ontario’s Divisional Court to overturn the decision but lost that case too.

Still undaunted, you took the matter to the Ontario Court of Appeal. The judges have not yet rendered their decision but they have not been inclined to support anything you want to do. Justice 5: Ford: 0

Well, it seems I have run out of space before I get to the few court cases you have won. Sorry about that. I was only able to reference less than half of the cases you have lost. How much taxpayer money went down the drain fighting those losing battles? Oh, I forgot. You do not disclose that kind of thing.

The verdict that really matters is in. The legacy of expensive legal battles lost has become an anchor dragging you down. Enjoy what time you have left because that anchor will ensure you will never be elected again.

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