Monday, January 1st, 2018 —> -19˚C / -3˚F & clear in Atlantic Canada @ 9:59 am Atlantic Time —

– A quote from Amanda Tapping { Actress, Creative Person known for her roles in Stargate SG-1 & ‘Sanctuary’ } –

— I heard this a lot lately, –  Not many people will be sad to see the year 2017 go away – Amanda Tapping got it right in a tweet.

– Eleanor Roosevelt Quote? – It seemed to me that the ‘Right To Work’ slogan came right from the mind-set of the “1984” Big Brother Propaganda team who also said stuff like “Love is Hate”, “War Is Peace” – and in general, twisted everything around so they could control the thoughts of everyone. Eleanor ( if she really said this ) had it right. –

— My paternal grandfather crossed picket lines after the union he supported in the 1940’s took a pay-off and went along with a corporation’s shutting down operations in Connecticut to more their textile factory to the non-union south where they got away with paying their workers a lot less than they would have had to if they had a union to deal with. – My father joined a union because it had a credit union that had better rates than any bank, but only for union members. – A family friend had nightmares after riding in a car near a picket line and hearing angry people shouting at each other.

— After I started working for the US Post Office in 1979 I quickly learned that there was a war going on between the Supervisors and Managers on one side { with the White House and a lot of congress behind them } and the people who did the work on the other. – Supervisors tried to sabotage postal vehicles in an effort to try to catch a minority postal carrier { “Mail-Man” } failing to properly protect the sanctity of the mail – the supervisors didn’t like this Hispanic America guy and wanted to do anything they could to either fire him or drive him to the point where he quit. – I watched the supervisor in charge of one station walk right past an African American custodian, who was doing his job, and yell to a bunch of carriers putting up their mail, “Do any of you know where that lazy [ Name Hidden to protect the innocent ] is hiding?” The custodian could not help but hear that and he turned to me with a disbelieving gasp. – That same supervisor went into the men’s washroom after that same custodian had just cleaned it, tore up a bunch of paper towels and threw them around, then sprayed them with amonia and stormed out onto the floor and yelled for a couple carriers who were working nearby – had them come into the washroom with him and yelled, “He didn’t clean anything – look at the mess – I can smell it all the way from my desk.” – This was when the the post office wanted to fire all their custodians and hire some cheaper outside contractors to come in and clean all their post offices. – This was under the Reagan administration. – That same supervisor tried to ‘B.S.’ his way into using a phony complaint from a fictional customer to get the stools removed from where the clerks sold stamps and other services to customers. —> Because he couldn’t stand to see an African American woman sitting while she was working when he had been told by his boss, “If I ever catch you sitting on your [ butt ] when these carriers are putting up their mail again, you’ll be flipping hamburgers for a living.” —> I was stunned. That guy got away with stuff that I wouldn’t believe if I didn’t see it with my own eyes, because nobody believed that anybody was stupid enough to try to get away with that kind of [ stuff ] in Connecticut, in the 1980’s. So Yeah, I joined the union and I am glad I did.

— & last night I heard a talk show host trying to claim she was completely against bringing up any politics while asking people to call in their prognostications for what might happen in the year 2018 as it dawns on us here. The thing is, she told a caller that his ideas were entirely positive when he said he believed that both Republicans and Democrats would get on the same page and do what’s right for the USA by slamming the door shut on immigrants and putting America First. Callers who parroted Donal J Trump’s party line got to talk all they wanted. One man tried to explain why he voted for Hillary Clinton and he was cut off mid sentence. So much for unbiased radio? – Are ‘the Politicks of Divide and Conquer’ so deeply rooted in our psyches that we don’t even notice when we’re praising one set of slimeballs and spitting out negative party line comments about the others?

– “Meanwhile in Canada” – Come for the warm-hearted people – stay because you fall in love with their sense of humour. –

— & Believe it or not, I see some shockingly good stuff ahead for us in 2018.

~~~~~ Jim