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Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies.

Ambrose Pierce, American Journalist, 1842 – 1914

Hmmm, is P.T. Barnum about to lose his title as the greatest showman in U.S. history?

The quotation at the head of this post does a rather good job of summarizing the current state of politics. The fact that it dates back to an earlier era tells me that not much has changed in the last century. It is why I frequently tell myself not to try and make sense of what goes on in political circles.

But then along comes the U.S. presidential race. It is a wild, off the charts cataclysm that is so dysfunctional it is impossible to look away. It gets more voyeuristically fascinating with every passing day.

A quick review of some of the lowlights:

Biden and Trump go toe-to-toe in the debate. Biden has frequent mental lapses and loses badly. Democrats call for him to step aside. He vows to stay in the fight but gets diagnosed with COVID. I cannot help but wonder if that was an invented diagnoses to keep him out of the public eye while Democrats pushed him to throw in the towel.

An attempt is made to assassinate Donald Trump. Ear patches become a fashion accessory at the Republican Convention. Trump wins the nomination and selects Senator J.D. Vance, who was once a fierce Trump critic, as his running mate. Vance, whose main qualification is that he is a millennial and helps average out Trumps age, naturally accepts.

Biden flips the script and announces he is stepping aside. He endorses Vice President Kamala Harris to take his place in the race. Harris raises a bucketload of money overnight and positions herself to win the nomination.

Trump’s sons claim that Biden or the Democratic Party had something to do with orchestrating the Trump assassination attempt. Republican Senator Andy Ogles files articles of impeachment against Harris over her handling of the southern border issue and for allegedly covering up Biden’s cognitive decline.

On the final night of the Republican Convention, after gaining the nomination, Trump gives a rambling 90 minute speech, complete with a weird stage whisper, that makes Republican convention representatives wonder if they made a mistake voting for him.

Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle comes under fire for the failure to protect Trump and is pressed to step aside. She refuses. She is summoned to appear before Congress where she is eviscerated, accused of ducking questions and of being dishonest. She subsequently resigns.

P.T. Barnum, creator of the Barnum & Bailey Circus, is referred to as the greatest showman in U.S. history. But he may have to surrender that title collectively to the players in the U.S. presidential race who are staging a three-ring circus the likes of which we have never seen.

~  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 · Joe Biden · Kimberly Cheatle · metaphor · Michae Robert Dyet · P.T. Barnum · U.S. Presidential raceComments Off on The Presidential Race Three-Ring Circus

Hmmm, are the subtexts as influential and long-lasting as the act itself?

First let me state that I am loathe to post about the attempted assassination of Donald Trump. We have already been bombarded by reports as the media shark engages in its usual, blood-in-the-water feeding frenzy. Social media platforms are cluttered with wild speculations about the event being a publicity stunt or false flag operation.

But in these situations, I feel compelled to draw attention to the subtexts and how they influence or even overshadow the event itself.

Subtext #1: The assassination attempt will undoubtedly strengthen backing for Trump among his base of support. The Republicans will do their utmost to keep the matter on the front page as long as possible for this purpose.

To that end, delegates and supporters at the Republican National Convention wore versions of the Trump ear bandage, made of anything from cotton pads to tape to folded pieces of paper, theoretically as a form of support. They really have no shame on the matter.

Subtext #2: Strange as it may sound, Joe Biden (if he stays in the race) will benefit from the happening. His poor performance in the debate and the question of his mental acuity was the hot-button story until the shots were fired. The attempted assassination has kicked that issue to the background and the Democrats I am certain are pleased about that.

Subtext #3: Someone will ultimately have to – please excuse the bad pun – take the bullet for the failure to properly protect Trump. Several investigations are underway and already reports are emerging of how badly things went wrong. One timeline, which may or may not be accurate, that has hit the media already:

• 5:15 pm: Crooks first identified as a person of interest
• 5:30 pm: Crooks was spotted with a rangefinder
• 5:52 pm: Crooks was spotted on the roof by Secret Service
• 6:02 pm: Trump takes the stage
• 6:12 pm: Crooks fires first shots

Secret Service Agency Director Kimberly Cheatle is the most likely candidate for the sacrificial lamb to take the brunt of the blame as the many of those implicated – again, please pardon the pun – duck for cover. She has already been subpoenaed to testify before Congress.

Subtext #4: Gun possession is constitutionally protected in the United States. Gun control opponents insist that it would prevent law abiding citizens from defending themselves against armed criminals. But Matthew Crook’s actions, using an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle, are as strong a case as you will ever find for the counter argument.

Subtext #5: One attendee at the Trump rally was killed and two others were critically wounded by the shots Matthew Crooks fired. Sadly, they will be considered collateral damage when the matter is recorded in history books.

A final question to ponder: If Donald Trump does go on to once again be elected as President of the United States, how will history judge this event as a factor in his victory?

~  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 · Kimberly Cheatle · Matthew Crooks · metaphor · Michae Robert Dyet · Trump assassination attemptComments Off on Trump Assassination Attempt: The Subtext

Hmmm, if you look a little closer at that leaf, you may be surprised at the battles being waged there.

Nothing brings me more joy than exploring nature in all her glory. Truth be told, on many days I would rather be communing with nature and her many creatures rather than with fellow humans. Sorry if that offends you but it is the truth.

If you follow my posts, you may know that I have becoming enamored with insects in the last couple of years. This summer I have taken a particular shine to Robber Flies like the Bee Mimic Robber Fly at the head this post. Confession: This post has no purpose other than to indulge my fascination, showcase a few Robber Flies and share a few facts about them.

Robber Flies are also called Assassin Flies because they prey on other insects – waiting in ambush and often catching their prey in flight as the Bee Mimic Robber Fly above had just done when I snapped this photo.

Robber Flies are powerfully built, bristly flies with a short, stout proboscis which they use to stab their prey and inject enzymes which paralyze it. The Common Micropanther shown above may well have been zeroing in on a meal.

Robber Flies feed on a wide variety of insects including other flies, beetles, butterflies and moths, bees, ants, dragonflies and damselflies, Ichneumon wasps and spiders. The Snow Bladetail shown above was likely in stealth, ambush mode.

Best not to try and handle these ferocious critters as they will defend themselves and can inflict painful bites. They sometimes mimic bees as the Eastern Yellow-backed Laphria shown above does. But I am told their bite is a match for any sting.

There are many apt analogies for nature. But Robber Flies argue for the battlefield metaphor. There are countless mini battles being fought every minute which are necessary for the delicate balance that holds it all together. It is a fly-eat-fly world however soothing and peaceful its effect on us.

~  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:   Bee Mimic Robber Fly · Common Micropanther · Eastern Yellow-backed · metaphor · Michae Robert Dyet · Robber Fly · Snow BladetailComments Off on Robber Flies: On Nature’s Battlefield

Hmmm, will the Ford government’s appeal to the lowest common denominator be its ultimate downfall?

The prospect of a dry summer has taken on new meaning in Ontario. Normally that would refer to hot weather and a scarcity of rain. But now it refers to the limited availability of liquor as 9,000 LCBO workers have walked off the job in the first strike in the history of the LCBO.

At stake is the Ford government’s decision to open up Ontario’s alcohol retail market to the private sector. The Ford government rhetoric machine is already ramped up to full capacity to muddy the waters and demonize OPSEU.

A “government source” was quoted as follows on the eve of the strike: If there’s no deal tonight, it’s because OPSEU has been almost exclusively focused on discussing the sale of ready-to-drink beverages and nothing else (i.e. wages, benefits, job security).

The Ford government has tried to create the impression that it is a one-issue debate in the hopes of simplifying the matter in the public’s eye thereby winning their support. It is a quite blatantly deceptive message.

OPSEU has been clear all along that it is the larger issue of opening up Ontario’s alcohol retail market to the private sector thereby putting LCBO jobs (and profits which help fund healthcare) at risk while benefiting private retailers including grocery chains and big box stores. In short, the Ford government is once again favouring big business over Joe Average Citizen.

The LCBO workforce is already at a distinct disadvantage. The union has stated that 70 per cent of LCBO workers are “casual” which means they have no guaranteed hours, benefits or sick pay. The LCBO has countered that “at least 50 percent of casual employees are guaranteed at least 1,000 hours per year”. So the other 50 percent are shit out of luck?

The “government source” went on to proclaim that: The government was elected twice on the commitment to expand the sale of alcoholic beverages to convenience and grocery stores, and the government is delivering on that promise.”

Really? The Ford government was elected exclusively on the basis of giving easier access to booze? And they are proud of that fact? It is a sad commentary on our political system if that in fact is true.

It does not take a genius to figure out that opening up alcohol retailing to big business will result in fewer workers at the LCBO and likely fewer LCBO stories. Not to mention even bigger profits for grocery chains who are already under fire for large hikes in grocery prices that have made it difficult for some people to put food on the table.

The political Bread and Circuses metaphor – the satisfaction of shallow or immediate desires of the populace at the expense of good policy – has never been more relevant. It is the hallmark of the Ford government. The LCBO strike is yet another in the saga of Doug Ford fiascos.

It may well be a dry summer in terms of alcoholic beverages. That development will be one more nail in the coffin of the Ford government as it stumbles over its own attempts to appeal to the lowest common denominator of voter interest.

~  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:   bread and circuses · Doug Ford · Ford government · LCBO strike · metaphor · Michae Robert DyetComments Off on LCBO Strike: Another Ford Fiasco

Hmmm, how delicate the dance between humans and nature’s tiniest creatures.

The art of capturing photographs of insects can be quite challenging. Butterflies tend to be skittish and take flight no matter how surreptitiously I approach them. Some species of dragonflies are compulsive flyers and decline to perch to be photographed. Many insects make their home down in the grass or weeds defying my attempt to get an unobstructed view of them.

I spend an inordinate amount of time chasing that one elusive moment when all the conditions converge for a good photograph. Such was the case for the half inch long Speckled Sharpshooter at the head of this post. It was perched on the stem of a plant affording me only a side view. I desperately wanted to see the speckled back which gives it its name.

We engaged in a kind of ritual dance. Each time I moved to the left or the right for a better view, it mirrored my movements and shuffled to the other side of the stem. This went on for several minutes until I surrendered to its ability to evade me. It occurs to me now that our interaction was a living metaphor for the fragile relationship between humans and nature’s creatures.

Dancing with a Sharpshooter – a random act of metaphor to remind me that I must be an observer, not a disturber, of the insects that fascinate me so.

~  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 · Michae Robert Dyet · Nature · Speckled SharpshooterComments Off on Dancing with a Sharpshooter

Hmmm, what if winning means declining to participate in the race?

I have been out of the workforce for 15 months now. People often ask me if I miss work. My answer never varies: Not at all. Not one bit! I was more than ready to hang it all up so that, as I often proclaimed, my time would be my own. But I am realizing that exercising control over time is easier in principle than in practice.

Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you.

~ Carl Sandburg, American Poet

Sandburg makes a very good point. Time is a form of currency. And yet, I cannot take possession of it, like a coin in my hand, as much as I like the idea. There are still things I must spend some of my time on – the business of living – whether I like it or not. I have more choice about timing now. But time itself does not answer or surrender itself to me.

How often do we lament: Where did the time go? I thought I would be done with that statement when I retired. But alas, the question still arises occasionally.

Time is a created thing. To say, ‘I don’t have time’, is to say ‘I don’t want to’.

~ Laz Tzu, Chinese Philosopher

This declaration begins to get to the core of the tyranny of time. Although humans invented clocks to measure time, minutes and hours are artificial concepts that do more to enslave us to time than wrestle it into something we can exercise control over.

We really only break free of time in those rare moments when we stop observing or paying attention to it. When those precious intervals are over, we are like to declare that the time got away from me as if that is a bad thing. It should really be the ideal to which we aspire.

This time, like all times, is a good one, if we but know what to do with it.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, American Essayist

Emerson offered a useful perspective. Instead of always fighting against time – trying to catch up to it or get ahead of it – we should try to focus on the moment we are in. After all, that is really the one thing we can exercise some control over.

Time sometimes flies like a bird, sometimes crawls like a snail; but man is happiest when he does not notice whether it passes swiftly or slowly.

~ Ivan Turgenev, Russian Novelist

Turgenev may ultimately have the best handle on the matter. Time is a relative thing – a matter of perception. If we could only stop noticing it and forever racing against it, time might really and truly become our own.

~  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:   Carl Sandburg · metaphor · Michael Robert Dyet · racing against time · Ralph Waldo Emerson · timeComments Off on Forever Racing Against Time

Hmmm, can Facebook’s brain trust ultimately win the battle for control of the virtual landscape?

Lately the Facebook (aka Meta) algorithms, or those who manipulate them, have decided that I must be a horny old man. My feed regularly displays multiple, AI-generated images of Jennifer Aniston in bikinis or lingerie attire. Most have her upper body physical assets considerably enlarged and bear only a passing resemblance to her.

Perhaps I paused a moment too long to… let’s go with ponder, over these images. (I am, after all, only human.) Subsequently, more and more of these AI-generated posts began to appear for other female celebrities such as Scarlet Johansson. Some days these posts clog up my feed.

In addition, there were a few days when my feed included revealing photos of mothers breastfeeding their infants. Presumably this was a widespread problem that the Facebook tech team got a handle on as those posts have ceased.

For the record, there are other annoying things clogging up my feed. I frequently get tagged by people for posts advocating their viewpoint on a particular issue. All of them are from complete strangers and are by and large on topics I have no opinion on one way or the other.

And of course, there is an ever-increasing volume of ads and paid posts. I confess I contributed to this trend in the last decade of my working career as social media made a move to become the premiere marketing tool of its age.

I did a Google search with the question: How many Facebook posts are generated per day? Figures came back for 2022 which are revealing although by now wildly out of date:

• Approximately 2.7 million posts every minute.
• 165 million posts per hour.
• 3 billion posts every day and 119 billion every month.

Facebook is becoming an unmanageable beast. I have no doubt that tech-savvy users are employing AI programs to wreak havoc with the algorithms and turn them to their advantage. No doubt Facebook is also employing AI to try and adjudicate content and fight back against those attempting to take it over.

Many years back I wrote a post that likened Facebook to a 200-tentacled octopus. That metaphor has long since ceased to have any validity.

Facebook is now a virtual, ideological and commercial AI-driven war zone in which the technologically-gifted do battle with the Facebook tech geniuses for control of the landscape. I am unconvinced that this is a battle Facebook can ultimately win.

FYI: I link to all my blog posts on Facebook. It is entirely possible that the Facebook algorithms will quarantine this post and prevent it from being seen. Let me know if you in fact see this post before the algorithm weeds it out.

~  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 · artificial intelligence · Facebook · Meta · metaphor · Michae Robert DyetComments Off on Facebook: The AI War Zone

Hmmm, do you ever feel like you do not belong where life has steered you?

I took the photograph displayed at the head of this post at Saltfleet Conservation Area on the outskirts of Hamilton. I was there for one of my bug crawls rather than to admire wildflowers. But the cluster of Irises captured my attention.

The Irises had sprouted in the middle of a grassy meadow without other wildflowers in it. The full cluster was three feet tall with multiple blooms of the extravagant purple flowers. An explosion of colour in the otherwise monotone setting. It looked to me to be out of place as if it had no business being there. But there it was in all its glory.

It occurred to me that there was a lesson to be learned from the observation. There are times when all of us feel like we do not belong in the situation or the place in life where we have landed. We feel stranded there like a castaway.

At these moments, we have a choice to make: Lay low and hope no one notices that we are the oddball or embrace our uniqueness and burst into full bloom making the place our own. I choose the later.

An extravagant cluster of Irises marooned in a flowerless meadow. A random act of metaphor to give us the reassurance that we are never out of place if we embrace who we are in all our glorious uniqueness.

~ 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 which was a double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com or the novel online companion at www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog.

~ 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:   Iris · metaphor · Michael Robert Dyet · Saltfleet Conservation AreaComments Off on Random Act of Metaphor: An Extravant Cluster of Irises

Solitude is a human preoccupation. Every quiet step is thunder to beetle life underfoot, a tug of impalpable thread on the web pulling mate to mate and predator to prey, a beginning or and end. Every choice is a world made new for the chosen.

Barbara Kingsolver: Novelist, Poet and Essayist

Hmmm, can you fathom the quiet thunder?

The quotation at the head of this post is one of my favourite opening lines of a novel from one of my favourite novelists. It is from Kingsolver’s Prodigal Summer.

The words echo in my mind frequently these days as I trudge through fields and down woodland trails, along ponds and marshes, immersing myself in the endless fascinating, miniature world of insects. I decided I was overdue to give a little love to the oft-overlooked world of Beetles.

There are an estimated 380,000 beetle species in the world and over 8,500 species in Canada. Beetles represent 40% of the world’s known insects.

Beetles occupy nearly every available terrestrial and freshwater habitat. They range in size from less than a millimeter to 19 centimeters in length.

Beetles are strong, durable and adaptable. They have evolved to survive in a wide range of habitats and are able to overcome many challenges.

I will give the last word on the subject to British-Indian Scientist John B.S. Haldane:

If one could conclude as to the nature of the Creator from a study of creation it would appear that God has an inordinate fondness for stars and beetles.

~  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:   Barbara Kingsolver · beetles · metaphor · Michael Robert DyetComments Off on Beetles: Quite Thunder

Hmmm, will you jump on the bandwagon whatever it represents in the moment?

I have become completely disenchanted with the main political parties in Canada, what they purport to represent and how they conduct themselves. The legislative assemblies shift on a regular basis between trench warfare and the sandbox squabbles of spoiled five-year olds.

Therefore, after much soul-searching and self-reflection, I have made the momentous decision to form a new and never before envisioned political party. It will be called the Liberally Conservative Democratic Green Party of Canada (LCDGP).

You will want to know where my party stands in the political spectrum: far right, right, left or far left. The answer is all of the above and none of the above simultaneously. The LCDGP will float across the political spectrum from day to day depending on how I feel and how pissed off I am at one more of the mainstream parties on that particular day.

You will also want to know whether the LDCGP is a ‘big tent party’ (covering a broad spectrum of beliefs) or an ideologically specific party. The answer is all of the above and none of the above simultaneously. By its very nature the LDCPG will resist definition. It will champion different issues on different days depending on how annoyed I am at the various special interest groups that are or are not active.

You will want to know where the LDCGP stands on the big issues that affect everyone. Our platform is by random design both broad and narrow:

Opposed to personal tax increases in favour of tax increases for big corporations and vice versa as the situation and the flavour of the day dictates.

Favouring individual freedoms for present and future generations and vice versa except in situations where the alternative makes more sense or is politically expedient.

Favouring social democracy and democratic socialism and radically pro-environment except and unless there is a compelling reason to lean in the other direction.

Reducing the budget deficit will be a key and non-negotiable priority except in the short term and in long term situations where it makes sense to act otherwise.

I have thought long and hard about my party’s slogan and arrived with certainty at the following: Whatever and Whenever If Ever. The party official colour will be an earthtone muddy brown in keeping with our top-down, grassroots approach.

The Liberally Conservative Democratic Green Party of Canada will be, with apologies as necessary, an unapologetic bandwagon party that prides itself on being definitively difficult if not impossible to define. All party members will be narrowly open-minded or openly narrow-minded as, when and if appropriate.

Can I count on you to jump on the bandwagon in the next provincial and/or federal election?

~  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:   Conservative Party · Green Party · Liberal Party · metaphor · Michael Robert Dyet · New Democratic PartyComments Off on My New Bandwagon Political Party