Wednesday, July 26, 2017

Oh baby


Justin Trudeau in Rolling Stone:

Then he gives the press corps a high-five. 
"The back and forth between the press and government is essential to any good democracy," he says. "When you're at your best, it reminds us and challenges us to be at ours. So thank you all for your tireless work."
Where are we? Narnia? Coachella recovery tent? 2009? We are in Ottawa, Ontario, a mere 560 miles from Washington, D.C.

And yet, we are half a world away. Join me as we visit a nation led by a man who wore a Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy T-shirt on national television, rides a unicycle and welcomed 40,000 Syrian refugees with open arms.

This article arrives just in time for Donald Trump's disgusting and perverted speech at the Boy Scout jamboree.

Imagine for a half-second what would have happened if Obama or either Clinton had ever alluded glowingly to a yacht sex party in a speech to a bunch of kids. Fox News headquarters in Manhattan would have sunk halfway to the earth's core from the weight of all the outrage.

I have some issues with the Rolling Stone piece on Trudeau. It says 'His critics call him "shiny pony."' but even a quick Google search on trudeau, shiny pony indicates what I could have told author Stephen Rodrick - the expression was invented by, and almost exclusively used by Trudeau-obsessive Ezra Levant.

But I did love the ending:
Trudeau heads back toward his three-car motorcade that stops at all red lights. In the hall, a couple hundred kids hold signs that say "Hope" and "Respect." They grab his sleeve and then skitter away wearing giant smiles. It would have been corny if it had not been so goddamned beautiful. This is Trudeau's vision of what a country can be. His land races toward inclusion, while our nation builds walls and lusts for an era of vanilla homogeneity that ain't coming back. At this moment, Justin Trudeau's Canada looks like a beautiful place to ride out an American storm.
Bonus Rolling Stone article about Trudeau & Macron.


Oh dear god this man is killing me.