Gwen and I raised three adult children in North Vancouver. Each lives in this community, as do our seven grandchildren. Before retirement, I worked in accounting and small business management. Since 2009, I have published commentary about public issues at IN-SIGHTS.CA.
Conservative J. Michael Luttig, a former U.S. Appeals Court Judge appointed by Republican George H.W. Bush Luttig, wrote in the NY Times about Trump’s “stunning frontal assault” on the rule of law. Luttig says the casualty “could well be the constitutional democracy Americans established 250 years ago.
I complain about rich people owning important media properties when they use those to benefit holders of extreme wealth. Billionaire Laurene Powell Jobs controls The Atlantic magazine and she allows her journalists to be effective critics of Donald Trump. The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans by editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg ought to amaze us. Instead, it is just another illustration of dangerous incompetence among the rulers in Washington DC.
I mentioned kakistocracy in the article Impoverishment of thought. The Cambridge Dictionary defines this as “a government run by the worst, least qualified, or most unscrupulous citizens.” Peter Navarro is 78-year-old Donald Trump’s 75-year-old counsellor for trade and manufacturing. Navarro provides just part of the evidence that the President’s kakistocracy is now in place.
In an age of extreme media coverage and immediacy, the associated defeat of intelligence is worrying. Genuine intellectual debate all too often disappears in favour of ersatz ideas dominated by the one-track thinking and the politics of offence.
I can no longer travel to the USA, the homeland of my father and paternal ancestors. The reason? I made public and private criticisms of the Trump administration. That is enough to have people denied entry and expelled from Trump’s America. Alternatively, they may be imprisoned.
Almost everything that Musk communicates or amplifies on X—and he posts and reposts a staggering quantity of content to a vast audience—is an outright lie, half-truth, or flagrant propaganda. And, of course, the only reason he can do this is that he inhabits a right-wing ecosystem in America which has wholly abandoned even the pretense of caring about truth, reality, or objectivity. …Musk is the most prolific source of misinformation on his own platform. When confronted with this behavior, the observation that everyone is biased obscures more than it illuminates.
I was first introduced to now-retired economist Erik Andersen by lawyer / commentator / broadcaster Rafe Mair. Using his professional experience, Erik analyzes several economic subjects. His recent comment about BC Hydro caught my attention.
Stephen Fry excels in many forms of entertainment and education. While there seems to be nothing he cannot master, Fry has struggled with bipolar disorder throughout his life. Three years ago, Fry narrated the video ‘What makes something right or wrong?’. It provides a short explanation of humanism.
Ten symptoms of Woke Mind Virus: 1. You read book, and don’t burn them. 2. You embrace science. 5. You believe in true equality FOR ALL PEOPLE! 8. You resepct others’ rights…
A couple of Tesla Takedown events in the lower mainland this weekend. The first one is today at noon at the Tesla Dealership in Vancouver. March 16, there is another event at noon, 12021 104th Avenue, Surrey.
In 2019, Anthony Scaramucci, Trump’s former White House communications director, warned us that the current American President “may not have early stage dementia, but he has full-blown early stage fascism.” We have seen recent evidence of both dementia and fascism.
A week ago, Senator Chris Murphy said the Trump White House was “on its way to being the most corrupt in the history of the country.” That statement is wrong. The White House is not on its way; it has already arrived. Today’s car show at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is additional evidence. White House deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino livestreamed the event on X, the social media app owned by Musk. The Tesla share price increased more than 7% today, so the stunt added $55 billion to the company’s market capitalization. Members of the Trump crime family who knew about the car show likely profited immensely.
The 12 directors are drawn exclusively from the business sector. Resource extraction companies, including coal miners, are particularly well-represented. So too are large construction and engineering companies. This may explain BC Hydro’s resistance to the idea that conserving energy is better than making energy. Residential consumers provide more revenue to BC Hydro than any other group, but that is not reflected by board appointments. Perhaps the government thinks a person primarily concerned with ratepayers would have a conflict of interest. However, there appears to be no concern that directors involved with extractive industries in remote regions might have conflicting interests.
Chris Murphy is the junior United States Senator for Connecticut. In 2024, The Guardian newspaper named him one of the Democratic Party’s rising stars, active in several policy areas, particularly healthcare, foreign policy and gun safety legislation. He delivered a scathing speech in the U.S. Senate about unprecedented corruption in the current administration. Canadians should pay attention to Senator Murphy. Trump has no desire for the continued independence of Canada. He views this country as a home for hewers of wood and drawers of water. It doesn’t matter that the phrase became outdated about 70 years ago. Canada has its own plutocrats waiting to steal from the common people. They may be inspired by the easy success of the Trump/Musk crime family.
Jonathan Rauch, senior fellow at Brooking’s Center for Effective Public Managment wrote in the Atlantic about the USA’s regime change. Rauch says that even those who expected the worst from Trump’s reelection expected more rationality. Instead, they got an administration that operates like a crime family, “divvying up the spoils, sometimes quarreling, but helping each other when needed.”
A reader responded to the IN-SIGHTS article, John Rustad: Trump is the victim. That comment is shown below…
Norway’s oil and gas taxation is far different from Canada’s. The northern country ensures that its future citizens will benefit significantly from resource exploitation, while Canadian governments prefer the immediate privatization of resource values.
IN-SIGHTS reader, environmentalist, and businessman Pat McCutcheon believes Justin Trudeau has tied one hand behind his back while responding against the country that aims to destroy Canada:
It is clear that rich American plutocrats are willing to punish poor people and America’s best neighbours, but intend to leave programs untouched if those schemes put more money into the pockets of wealthy Americans…
John F. Kennedy gave the commencement address at Yale University in 1962. Words Kennedy spoke more than 60 years ago are meaningful today…
God luck in the election. Your platform resonates with me, and we are thinking of returning to PR for our…
Hi Norm, You have that right. The angle we can use at the local level effectively has changed from directly…
[…] A friend of mine is deeply engaged with his local government. He is, by his own admission, a royal…
That alone should be investigated Why not one generator ata time and time it to rain season
in-sights.ca 
On the weighty subject of Theft... Don’t pay for what you intend to sell? How else to sell cheap gas?…