The Antisocial Socialist

I'm going to just leave this article here because I think it speaks for itself and the real reason (not crack or cunnilingus remarks) that the Honourable Wife-Beater is a genuine fucking menace.

People Might Freeze To Death Because Rob Ford Won't Quit Being the Mayor Of Toronto. Excerpt:

It is amazing to me how quickly everyone I know has become used to the situation in Toronto, to the more or less total suspension of the ordinary. If you had told me last Christmas that in a year 39% of the voters of Toronto would support a crack-smoker, I simply would not have believed you. Daily life is weird.

Also, this article is mostly about other stuff, but I was wondering if Armando Iannucci (the creator of the remarkably-utopian-in-hindsight The Thick of It) had weighed in on Ford, and hey, yes he did:

Yes, that was huge over there [and in the US]. And Rob Ford's still in the job, that's the remarkable thing. You can sort of get away with stuff over there. If you're larger than life, people like you. Whereas if you're larger than life here, people think you're a nutter and the party gets rid of you.

Toronto politics are officially the most ridiculous in the industrialized world, you guys. Even Berlusconi was kicked out eventually, but the Laughable Bumblefuck continues undeterred. I suggest that the people currently shivering in the dark find something to light on fire and bring it on down to City Hall.

In the vast, sprawling spectacle that is the Mayor Ford Crack Scandal, the catfight between Finance Minister Jim Faherty and Employment Minister Jason Kenney, both of whom are complete douchecanoes, is at the moment a minor sideshow. But it's exactly the sort of thing I hoped would happen when the crack story first broke, and the reason why I want the Honourable Wife-Beater to remain mayor for as long as he continues to spiral out of control.

Reason being, despite the Laughable Bumblefuck's attempts to present himself as a roguish, independent man of the people, he is very much tied to the Tory political structure. He's buds with provincial Tory leader Tim Hudak (who would bring back chain gangs if elected) and Prime Minister Stephen "Soulless Robot Kitten-Eater" Harper. He is not some working class sitcom schlub; he's a millionaire son of a former Conservative MPP and his other head, Dougie, has provincial aspirations. They have money, and it's been noted that Toronto's elite has been overall quite silent and disinclined to cut ties with the Fords, biding their time to see if Hizzoner is re-elected.

Which is why the Flaherty-Kenney feud is of interest—it's a sign of cracks appearing in the Conservative machine. Harper got into power, despite having all the warmth and charm of a Vogon poet, on the basis of out-organizing the centre and the centre-left, as well as the less reactionary elements in his own party. He's fucking smart and he runs a tight ship. Even in the face of two gigantic scandals, no one in his cabinet is allowed to speak off-message.

Until now. Kenney is evil but may have a sense of which way the wind's blowing—he broke ranks to call on Ford to resign last month, and it has created a shitstorm. Flaherty, who was buddies with Doug Ford Sr., loudly told Kenney to "shut the fuck up," and apparently it almost came to blows. I think we would all like to see that.

The longer this goes on, IMO, the better it is for everyone. Ford is completely capable of dragging down the entire corrupt, nasty, Tory apparatus. In order for that to happen, though, we need to focus less on the salacious personal details of crack and cunnilingus and more on the political gangbang that is Canadian Conservative politics.

What happened: Lord Tubby of Fleet (that's not a fat joke BTW, that was apparently his prison nickname) interviewed his new BFF, the Honourable Wife-Beating, Drunk-Driving, Bird-Flipping, Crack-Smoking, Drug-Dealer-Murdering, Lying Liar What Lies Mayor of Toronto. You can watch the video here:


Or read the Star to get the most newsworthy bits.

But I think I'll do a reaction post anyway, because let's face it, this is an HISTORIC INTERVIEW OF EPIC LULZ.

( It's a reaction post! )

Well that was 17 minutes of my life I'll never get back. Worth it, though; the whole thing is comedy gold.

ETA some reaction gifs, because apparently I'm a 13-year-old girl on Tumblr.

It's another day of Fordsplosion as police have released some wiretaps. (Warning: autoplay video.) The latest revelations:

• Ford was aware of the crack video, despite claiming otherwise.
• He offered $5000 and a car to a gang member for the video.
• There were more images of Ford doing drugs and "being in a lot of fucked up situations."
• Ford associated with gang members, who tried to blackmail him with the video.
• Ford associated with at least one known felon, Lord Conrad Black. (Okay, that wasn't in the wiretaps, but I felt that I should point it out.)
• The crack video was the motive behind Anthony Smith's murder.

Now, the shitty thing about being a pseudononymous blogger writing about an unfolding news story is that, unlike the cops and journalists, I don't get paid to do it. The nice thing is that no one cares what I have to say, and I don't have to worry about libel suits or fucking up a case, so I'm going to come out and say it: Ford had Anthony Smith murdered. At the very least, the Honourable Wife-Beater's poor decision making led to Smith's murder, but I think it's most likely that he directly ordered him killed.

If you think I'm leaping to conclusions, imagine what would happen if Ford, instead of being a multimillionaire white mayor of a major city, was instead a poor 21-year-old black man like the guy he had killed. Would he be in jail now? If he were lucky enough to have a job, would he have kept it for very long once it was proven that he'd committed crimes and taken drugs? Ford is only a free man, making tons of money, and able to keep his job (and not even have to work at it!) because of the race and class privilege that he embodies so completely.

The connections between the HWB and politicians like Hudak and Harper go beyond the fact that they're personally friends. It's something fundamental to the conservative ethos. They are above the law. The law does not apply to them. They can lie, cheat, and kill with impunity, and when they are, on rare occasion, found out, they are given the benefit of the doubt by the police and the media. Ford is a feature, not a bug.

And he had a guy killed to cover up his crack problem.

There's more than I can post about in the short time I have to post, and I'm slightly consumed with watching Jon Stewart discuss the Honourable Wife-Beater, which is fucking amazing. I know I say it a lot, but I still can't quite believe that this is a thing that is happening.

Here's a handy guide to the 97 allegations against Ford. Conveniently divided into categories: Abusing staff, Misuse of taxpayer money, Questionable meetings, St. Patrick's Day, Substance abuse, Drinking and urinating in public places, and Bits and bites.

Bless. The Star, unlike the CBC, is not playing softball. Yes, they're focusing more on the drugs and cunnilingus than the murder—or the murderous policies—but they are at least linking it back to his politics and exposing his lies about saving money.

Today, Ford showed up at a middle school. No one was impressed.

You know you're complete shit when even George fucking Bush is making fun of you.

A few days ago, a friend of mine, who worked in harm reduction, had some insightful things to say about the narrative around Ford's addition problems. Some of us begged him to post them publicly so that we could share what I think is a really vital discussion with others, so he did. If you read one Ford-related article today, read this one.

Meanwhile, Ford's buddy Harper is taking heat as the RCMP investigates the Senate scandal. To distract from the fact that Canada's Conservatives are finally facing the music for their many, many crimes, LOOK HARPER GOT A CHINCHILLA. That I'm sure he won't eat. I mean, he named it and everything.

I think he looks hungry.

Just watch it. There is no description that could possibly give it justice. But if you need one: Rob and Doug got into a screaming match with protesters at City Hall and then Rob basically went barrelling through the crowd and knocked over tiny Councillor Pam McConnell and everything is just crazy.

He also blew a kiss at Councillor Adam Vaughan. Why? I don't know.

City Council voted today to strip him of all powers, so he is mayor in name only. But! That still means that he gets to show up and fucking assault the elected representatives of the people, because apparently there is one law for everyone in Toronto and a different one for the Honourable Wife-Beating, Crack-Smoking, Drug-Dealer-Killing, Bird-Flipping, Drunk-Driving Mayor of the city.



He has offered $5000 of taxpayers' money for any staffer who stays on. In other news, Mr. Stop the Gravy Train makes $167,770 a year, though in fairness, that's probably a bargain for the level of entertainment we're getting out of the whole thing.

We really ought to be harping more on his shitty policy and outright lies rather than his continued outrageous behaviour, as entertaining as the latter is. The other day, the_axel and I were in a cab and naturally started talking about Ford with the driver. After about 10 minutes of "LOL CRACK" discussion, the driver said, "But he saved money. He said he'd stop the gravy train, and he doesn't grease palms and that's why they hate him. I don't care if he smokes crack, as long as we save money." Ford Nation right there (and not a guy well-served by Ford's actual policies or political beliefs, incidentally). The average person on the street doesn't know that fiscal conservatism makes everything more, not less, expensive, and a soundbyte like "stop the gravy train" is still getting taken by many at face value.

If I were embroiled in a drug scandal, among the things I probably wouldn't be doing is selling bobble-head dolls of myself.

They proved popular, unsurprisingly. If I didn't have to work tomorrow, I'd sell tiny crack pipes at the demo at City Hall.

In related Honourable Wife-Beater merchandise news, the wonderful and talented Stacey Case is selling #inadrunkenstupor t-shirts. I'd buy one (the money goes to a better cause—fuck the United Way, I'd rather support Stacey) but I think one Rob Ford t-shirt is enough for me.

The internets, and my little corner of it, are full of big-hearted liberals professing concern for the health and welfare of our Honourable Wife-Beating, Crack-Smoking, I-Did-It-In-A-Drunken-Stupor Mayor. Yes, there's a fair amount of schadenfreude among my friends and to some degree among the media, but the heartfelt pleas for him to "get the help he needs" and all the bleeding-heart sympathy for his addiction problems actually do seem to predominate. Maybe that's why he's had a bump in the polls (as opposed to his usual bumps of coke); people feel sorry for his teary addict routine. At the heart of this loud-mouthed, sexist, racist, homophobic, austerity-pushing pig-rapist is a broken man. Pity him.

I don't.

And let me be clear: I believe that drug addiction is a health issue, not a criminal issue. I believe in the decriminalization of all drugs, including crack. I do not believe that addiction is a choice per se.

However, I also believe that the addict has agency, and that addiction can spiral well beyond the life of the individual afflicted and destroy the lives of others, and to that extent, an addict must be responsible for him or herself. Addiction isn't an excuse. Plenty of addicts live lives of quiet desperation, damaging only themselves; the ones who use their sickness as a bludgeon against others, against their consent, bear some responsibility.

Amidst all the public concern for the Laughable Bumblefuck on the part of the chattering class, I hear little concern for his wife and kids, and their physical and emotional safety. We know he's assaulted his wife. I can't imagine that his kids will grow up undamaged. Where's the sympathy for them?

Amidst all the wishes that he would get the help he needs, where are those volunteering to help addicts who are less white, less rich, less famous? The ones that Ford blocked harm-reduction initiatives for, the ones he suggested dry out in a jail cell, the ones he wanted to run out of town? When are they going to get the help they need?

What about the city? The kids in Scarborough who, because he's run the city for the past three years in a drunken stupor, are still cut off from educational, work, and recreational possibilities because he blocked the expansion of a functional transit system? The working poor who need affordable housing, the destitute who need shelters? Where's the sympathy for all the ordinary people he's fucked over?

Addiction's a tough ride no matter who you are, but Ford is a man who's had literally every possible privilege handed to him and every chance to get clean. He's insanely rich, politically connected, white, male, and heterosexual. If a guy like that can't get his shit together and check into a rehab, fuck him. Even if he did, fuck him anyway. Sobering up is unlikely to make him less of a jizzbag. I work with people who came to this country with nothing, who've had to scramble up to barely surviving and get shat on by the SUN for doing so, and the most out-of-control violent gangbangers I've ever met have destroyed fewer lives than this piece of shit.

At the risk of getting personal, I've been at the receiving end of someone else's drug addiction. Multiple times, actually. It's not pretty. It's not a victimless crime. I see my own experience writ large and ugly and all the guilty mushy liberals praying for his recovery.

All of Toronto is Ford's battered spouse, begging him to get help when we should be booting him in the ass. Let him dry out in a jail cell. Let him beg for change in a cardboard box. We owe every single junkie and dealer and petty thug in Toronto our sympathy and aid before we throw one iota of it in Ford's direction.

Let him destroy himself. The world will be a better place.

This is—

I don't even know how to begin this post. Cynic that I am, I actually did not, in my heart of hearts, ever think that I would get to make it.

The Crack Video exists. The cops have it. There are actually two crack videos. There is zero doubt that it is Ford. Lisi's been re-arrested for extortion in connection with the video.

The Honourable Wife-Beater has not yet resigned and says he has no reason to, and the police have not yet charged him.

The complete police report, which has a lot blacked out and which I admittedly have not had a chance to read, is available here.

I believe I called the cops having the crack video ages ago, and I concur with the theory held by frandroid and others that this has to do with Ford alienating Blair over the police budget.

But regardless, for the first time in my memory, the Toronto police have done something useful.

Guys? This is the best day ever. It's time for a parade of happy macros, though to be honest there is no macro in the world that can truly express how happy I am at the moment.









[Poll #1941396]

Now excuse me, folks, I have about a million e-mails to get through.

Following the arrest of his druggie, wife-beating buddy, the Toronto police have formed a special squad to investigate the Honourable Wife-Beater and his sketchy associates.

That was what the homicide detective was doing there when they arrested Lisi, I guess. He's heading up the squad.

Toronto cops, who are corrupt as all fuck, have had a record in the past of covering for Ford; he publicly breaks the law and they never charge him. There's a strong chance they have the crack video and are sitting on it. It's likely that the purpose of the investigation is to clear him, but then again, there's a chance that he's actually done something so serious that they can't cover it up anymore.

On an unrelated note, I learned how to make animated gifs, so here's one of Alex Jones in a Gorn mask and a top hat ranting about fluoride and Obamacare:



The whole video is worth a watch.

Guys, there is so much crazy in the world that sometimes I feel completely sane.