Monday, April 27, 2020

Morons



A moron is someone who is unteachable -- or, put another way -- someone who cannot learn. The president of the United States is a moron. His first secretary of state confirmed it -- and he added the F-bomb for emphasis. Canada's Conservatives appear to be equally moronic.

Yesterday, the Conservative finance critic, Pierre Poilievre, held a press conference. Kerri Breen reports that:

Conservative MP Pierre Poilievre took aim at the Liberals’ coronavirus stimulus programs on Sunday, saying that while his party supports compensating Canadians amid the pandemic, the measures are not working as intended.
Initiatives such as commercial rent relief and the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) discourage people from working — or businesses keeping their doors open — in order to meet eligibility requirements that are too strict, he said.
“These massive programs will be like a gigantic experiment in freakonomics because in many cases they are having the opposite of their intended effect,” he told reporters.

Where we live, all kinds of people really want to get back to work. Staying at home is not an option they cherish. But the expansion of benefits is something they see as only fair:

CERB, which pays out $2,000 a month to those who’ve lost their jobs, allows recipients to earn up to $1,000 per month under eligibility criteria that was expanded earlier this month.
The government’s business loan program — which Poilievre also criticized for shutting out some business owners — is another area where the Liberals have recently expanded eligibility criteria.
The rent relief plan, Canada Emergency Commercial Rent Assistance, is open to businesses that have lost 70 per cent of their income — which Poilievre said was too high — or have shut their doors completely.
Imagine a program that forces workers to stop working and forces businesses to go out of business,” Poilievre said.

Clearly, Poilievre's economic model acknowledges moral hazard but not moral imperative. And, clearly, the man knows nothing about public health. Poilievre offers more evidence that Canadian Conservatives are unteachable.

Image: Duluth Reader

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

!?

The best comment I've seen about The Moron in Chief is that bleach & sunlight are the most/only specific thing the GOP has put forward to replace the Affordable Care Act/Obamacare.

Canada's cons are free to criticize, but her Majesty's Loyal Opposition needs to present a credible plan.

Owen Gray said...

I've yet to see such a plan, !?

rumleyfips said...

Nice of the little peter to show us how lucky we are that he didn't run for leader.

Owen Gray said...

Spot on, rumley. We dodged a bullet.

Lorne said...

I came across something this morning, Owen, that seems relevant to the conversation:
"Experts Say Vast Deserts, Absence Of Life, May Indicate Mars Was Once Run By Conservatives"

https://outabouter.com/2018/10/16/experts-say-vast-deserts-absence-of-life-may-indicate-mars-was-once-run-by-conservatives/

Owen Gray said...

Thanks for the link, Lorne. I loved it. Here on earth, conservatism has created vast "dead zones."

The Disaffected Lib said...

Poilievre is a mendacious little prick. Without any evidence he, like Trump, throws out claims and allegations tailored to his narratives. Apparently people don't want to go back to work. The latest survey conducted by Angus Reid shows otherwise. Canadians would love to get back to work. In several distinct ways they're struggling with the burdens of quarantine. Half say their mental health is degrading. That's a far cry from the scenario being pitched by this nasty little shit.

Owen Gray said...

Poilievre has always struck me as a nasty, vengeful, little guy, Mound. Perhaps he understands those personality traits are not prime ministerial.

Anonymous said...

Poilievre is a nasty character but he does make a good point - the government shouldn't be paying people to stop working. If at all possible, it should be putting them to work.

The experts tell us that we won't get out of the current bind until a vaccine is developed. In the meantime, preventing the spread of the disease is a priority. This requires PPE, testing and contact tracing, and the government should be paying people to do all of these. The private sector is failing to provide adequate quantities of PPE to protect people or swabs and reagents to conduct testing. Factories need to be repurposed to produce these and people need to be paid to make them. The Cons will hate it, but that requires government to take over production.

Contact tracing is a massive endeavour that will take thousands of people to achieve. Fortunately, it's mainly telephone work that can be done from home. The government should be training and employing people to do this critical task. It's one step to pay people to stay home; the next step is to put them to work. That way people can learn new skills and contribute to society.

Cap

zoombats said...

What can you expect from a twerp like P.P. He argued for a two term limit for M.P.'s in his university days and now is on his sixth term. A career suckler at the teat of Stockwell Day no less. He must have developed some cruelty from his hay days as a punk in Alberta being bullied probably for his entire life as a dweeb. He always showed a "Nasty" side of himself working for the Boss Stephen H

Owen Gray said...

True, the government must invest in the medical resources we need to save lives, Cap. But it is also trying to prevent the bankruptcies that could follow from this pandemic. The crisis has revealed our failure to invest in basic health resources. But if people are going to go to work, there have to be places in which to work. Moreover, the virus has underscored the fact that we must establish new economic stabilizers to help us deal with future global crises. We know there will be more global crises.

Owen Gray said...

I find it hard to take Poilievre seriously, zoombats. He suffers from tunnel vision.

The Disaffected Lib said...

What Cap is suggesting could require the feds to invoke the Emergencies Act. They ought to have done that early February latest but they seem to have reasons for rejecting that option. Hard to know what Ottawa considers its threshold. Perhaps they've got slippery slope worries.

Owen Gray said...

Even though the law is on the books, that's a guaranteed constitutional fire, Mound. It would be a huge distraction -- and it would make work on climate change even tougher.

e.a.f. said...

that about sums it up Owen. Not much is going to change with that boy. he is about as dumb as a stump, but he got his 15 minutes of fame and the national media reported it all, as if it were important. PP is much like those republicans in the usa; it they're not rich they can die.

loved the comment, nasty little shit. over the years I've seen those words used regarding pp. not every one can be wrong. People want to go back to work its just they'll could die if they do. Most hair stylists are smarter than pp and donni. they know if they open their salons the virus will spread and people, including them could die.

I've yet to hear the Conservatives suggest one decent thing during this whole pandemic. they criticise, but offer no solutions. O.K. let me take that back. ford is doing a reasonable job and it shocked the hell out of me

the salamander said...

.. Poilievre, Sloan, Jenni Byrne, Jason Kenney, Gladu.. Scheer, Matt Wolf et al .. what a great cross section.. and what a parasitic waste of oxygen. They reflect just how ponderously and pompously our current political structures 'reward Canadians voters' .. ie their employers. I try to imagine how we came to 'accept' their utterings, sneering lecturing contraryism.. their 'caucus' consensus talking points as some sort of 'Public Service' deserving salaries, benefits, pensions, perks.. and Main Media adoration .. some end up on 'political panels' & some are granted op ed exposure. Somehow such 'political animals' have evolved.. prospered, become millionaires. In my view.. its become farcical.. as if they somehow transmogrified into 'royalty'. Perhaps I don't fully comprehend that the old normal includes freakshows like Poilievre or Scheer, Erin O'Toole or Peter McKay.. the leetch & lecture gang.. who purport to actually represent average Canadian 'Values'..

Perhaps someone will explain the bizarre mechanics of how an electoral riding in Canada.. could elect or trust such arrogant, graceless, & useless scumbags.. it boggles my comprehension

Owen Gray said...

When it comes to Ford I'm as shocked as you, e.a.f. -- but pleasantly so.

Owen Gray said...

It's my experience, sal, that voters are easily conned. However, it's times such as these that expose how ugly some cons are.