Options in These Times

They were the worst of times, and the b... maybe not.

These are sad and dire times. The disaster unfolding in the US is truly terrifying, as is the way that the ultra-ultra- rich have managed to capture the major media, all of the government, and the courts. We’re now left to ask just how far they will go - because it seems that no-one is prepared to challenge them that has the power to stop them - and how many years or decades they will remain in power.

Yes I think that they can be characterized as Nazis, and yes I think that anyone not white and Republican should be planning possible escape routes. History does repeat itself.

At times like this it can be very, very easy to be consumed by endless news reports, and endless atrocities. Yes, you need to really understand these people, and try to anticipate what they will do, but that path can also lead you to the Nova Scotia refrain of “Oh well, what can you do?”

That helplessness is exactly what these people want you feel. When you give up, they win.

Instead, you also need to find places that fill your heart with joy, and solace, and hope.

You need light to battle the darkness that is wrapping itself around us.

For me, one of the single greatest ways to do that is by surrounding myself with music. It’s a truism in my life that I tend to have stretches when I just stop exploring new music and finding new ways to feed my soul. Right now I’m trying hard to break that habit.

In past years I did this by listening to the local community radio stations that I worked with, but in the absence of a local station, and because, honestly, I just got out of the habit of listening to radio, I’ve been finding places on-line to fill that gap.

Number one, without a doubt is Irene Fraser on BlueSky. Her tastes are almost exactly like mine, and she manages to pull up YouTube videos of songs that I had loved, but forgotten decades ago. And, this week, a Bob Dylan album that is truly superb.

The other place where I find new music is National Public Radio’s All Songs Considered podcast. Not everything they present impresses me, but every now and then there is an amazing find, like their presentation of Bad Bunny's Debí Tirar Más Fotos album. That was a moment of stop dead-in-my-tracks and marvel at how GOOD this music is. First, the film….

Then, the music… something truly magic coming out of Puerto Rico.

Listening to these stories out of another not-quite-a country, and remembering how it was treated by Trump during his last time in the White House, has me thinking about how likely it is this time that Canada is in line for the same sort of “third-world-country” treatment.

And no, I do not for one moment believe that Mark Carney will be prepared to stand up to Trump and his cronies.

Just this week Jeff Bezos’ Amazon announced that it is firing something like 1400 employees and shutting down three warehouses in Quebec. He is doing this for one specific reason: they unionized, and under Quebec law Amazon would now be required to sit down at a bargaining table and negotiate a contract with their workers.

Amazon instead is choosing to shut down their entire operation and subcontract it out to the lowest bidder.

This is a shot across the bow for Canada. It is Trump and his ilk telling us that THEY make the rules now, and that Canada has no choice but to accept it.

This is Amazon, and Trump, saying “Fuck you Canada. We OWN you.”

I’ve spent a fair amount of time this week trying to find a single Liberal that is willing to call out Amazon for union busting; to say “NO, that is NOT how we do things in this country.”

So far there has not been one of the Liberal candidates, or the cabinet, who have been will to even say the “U” word: Union.

It is a time for the music of a revolution.