During my absence, while I’ve been busy with DCYF (they’ve given me some paper targets of their own to shoot at), I’ve continued to take the Conservatarian fight to Lloyd Alter, formerly of Treehugger (aka “TH”), now the proprietor of his own place, Carbon Upfront. While being a failed architect (his description of himself – he’s now a professor, so guess which line THAT invokes), his real calling seems to be the embodiment of Steve’s GREAT line:
Have Less, Do Less, Be Less
And waving his philosophy of “Don’t use any Carbon, especially in building anything (as in “NIMBY or BANANA”) new in his writings. Most of his commenters, like those formerly at TH, kinda put up with me, and then there are those who agree with me (VB, Bob, COJ1, and a couple of others who help me give them fits).
So, with that long into, this isn’t about “carbon” (as in “how much carbon are we putting into the atmosphere that is killing our planet???”) but another BFD for Lloyd – bike lanes. Rather, in pursuit of his 1.5 degree lifestyle (not using carbon himself), he bikes all over the city of Toronto and laments that big gas-guzzling vehicles own the streets (he especially hates trucks like my F-150, which he’d make illegal if he could) and kill bicyclists and pedestrians (emphasis mine, reformatted):
Doug Ford will have blood on his hands if he rips out Toronto bike lanes
The Minister of Transportation takes a “a leap of faith that I’ll be able to get to the office on time.” I take a leap of faith about whether my family will get to work alive.
…Toronto should be—and easily can be—one of the world’s great bicycle metropolises. If really top-notch bike infrastructure were combined with the transit the Toronto area deserves, everybody—drivers, cyclists, straphangers, pedestrians—would be happier. They’d get where they’re going more comfortably, and the city would be a more attractive place. The problem is the would-be bicycle-and-transit metropolis is surrounded by the self-styled “Ford Nation.” As long as the Ford Dynasty is calling the shots, nothing is going to change. No, scratch that: things are definitely going to get worse. As in, more Torontians are going to die, killed by the drivers of cars and trucks.
And Doug and his gang will have blood on their hands.
Yeah, a propensity for hyperbole. Except he really means it. And at the time of his writing this (Nov 4th), Doug Ford was the Ontario Premier running to be the Mayor of Toronto, Canada) and had promised to remove dedicated bike lanes, which has put Lloyd’s knickers into double knots.
However, while there was some commenting about climate deniers, gas vehicles, and the like (which I’ll comment on later), I focused in on the hysterical “how could elections ruin our bike lane plans for the greater good??” as some of the commenters truly believe in the phrase “How DARE they?” just like the horrified Harris voters here in the States.
First, I took a swipe at Lloyd himself as I have, on occasion, taken him to task for frothing at mouth for what he wants but continues to stick his head in the sand about not working towards his end goals – not getting involved in politics. It’s almost as if he considers it beneath him and that everything he wants should just happen by his speaking them (what, a Harry Potter mentality?). Emphasis added here:
Blogging is nice and gets [some] word out about a topic.
To be brutally honest, unless you are willing to get your hands dirty in the politics of your city, your words rarely do more than just amount to “not much” because you’re preaching to the wrong audience.
What are you doing to get “your kind of folks” elected? Are you speaking to / giving testimony in front the RIGHT people? Catching the politicians in their offices, going to their meetings, getting in front of TV cameras, mics in front of your face, Letters to the Editor, and assembling your “mob” in getting organized to push your agenda and win elections to put the folks’ butts favorable to your issue(s) into those elected seats?
If not, it’s just “dust in the wind”…
And then off to comment on people that seemingly have NO idea of how elections work and what their purposes are supposed to be. It just seems to be all pixie dust and unicorn horns in believing what they want is not wanted by all (see emphasis below):
James Smith
Here in Guelph (rhymes with ELF) Ontario we have a 12 year old cycling master plan. The implementation will likely take at least that many more years to build out. To my shock, this fall a 2km section of protected bike lanes was installed on a busy road (ironically called a “parkway”). The bike lanes already existed, but were unprotected, perhaps they’ll stay.The cycling plan didn’t come from the sky, but was the subject of lengthy public meetings & citizen input and has been in place for a dozen years, yet on a whim this plan can get tossed out. People who share the current Ontario Premier’s PoV seem more interested in division than looking for solutions, more interested in Ruling rather than representing, more interested in distraction than responding to the issues at hand.
Perhaps the minister of Transportation who “takes a leap of faith” in his daily commute could address the 2 LRT lines that are years late in opening or a $6 Billon 2 stop subway that’s more than double the cost originally projected. No, better to blame and divide than actually govern.
Just like we are seeing here in the US with the Democrats, there is no sense of awareness within the process of elections. And just like the most ardent Democrats, note those bits of attacking the motives that simply disagree with him politically. So, I answered in pointing out his failures in understanding the basics of elections:
“…yet on a whim this plan can get tossed out.”
No, not a whim. By an election. More of the folks that DON’T like them voted than those of you that DO. See, simple. That why I wrote what I did to Lloyd, below.
“…more interested in division than looking for solutions, more interested in Ruling rather than representing, more interested in distraction than responding to the issues at hand.”
Well, now I know what your political PoV is, although more nicely put than deplorables, irredeemables, garbage, and anti-American from the Party from whom I share none of their values.
So James Smith decided to whine a bit more. Apparently, he seems to think that his Messaging was wrong but not his Message (like the Democrats of late):
Respectfully, you may not have a full picture of the situation as only 40% of voters chose the present Premier, & while building a $5 Billion highway to nowhere was part of his pitch to voters 2 years ago, removing cycling infrastructure was never part of his platform.
In our city we’ve had 3 elections since the cycling plan was implemented, so the citizens of this city have continued to support this plan. For added fun, the Premier has called our present Mayor a “looney lefty” a remarkable statement given the Mayor has been a member of the same Conservative party.
Wedge issues distract from real issues & real solutions; the very definition of Ruling, not Representing. Elected leaders are supposed to represent ALL their citizens not just their financial backers & business partners, & allow for discussion on issues not just pull policy from a hat. Perhaps once the RCMP have finished their investigation into but one of Mr Ford’s cases of shady deals, he’ll have yet another “Dead Cat” policy to distract.
The Left believes that ANY changes that they have put into place should NEVER be disturbed. They call it “Settled Law” and use that phrase to shut down all opposition. It does work with some, unfortunately, as they don’t realize that what the Left PUT into Law most likely “unsettled” that Settled Law in the first place.
And the other tactic, the percentage of voters that actually voted, should obviate anything that election the winners would then do. And James seems to have a weak grasp of the differences between political parties:
>> as only 40% of voters chose the present Premier…removing cycling infrastructure was never part of his platform.
Totally irrelevant and that’s not how elections work. The majority of those that actually bothered to vote put him into office and they expect him to do what he promised. You don’t seem to know what he may have promised others – naive, you may well be.
What it tells me is that 60% of your voters just didn’t care enough to bother. And your side either was way too small or they didn’t care ENOUGH either.
Heck, I call a lot of folks RINOs (Republican in Name Only), meaning they don’t really share my Conservatarian beliefs and they don’t support the values enumerated in its Platform. Often, they support the other side more than “our” side. So, I just helped, a couple of days ago, to knock them off politically.
In actuality, BTW, “looney lefty” is really very mild.
And remember, what one faction of the electorate may consider to be “wedge issues” are REAL issues to others.
>> Elected leaders are supposed to represent ALL their citizens
Naive, you are. No, they aren’t. Here in the US, I have never felt that elected officials that disagree with me are going to do what I ask, especially if they are in the opposite party. In fact, knowing what I want, they do the opposite. That’s why we have elections – to do what *I* want done and others like me; get MY people into office. That’s why we HAVE opposing political parties – they are supposed to uphold THEIR values and not other peoples’.
Your side failed. Try again next election. Or, as the T-shirt that my son gave me states: “Stop Whining. DO Something” (kinda what I tell others – he just made it more obvious).
Years ago, I supported a candidate to the hilt – he had said the right things and had an elected track record that backed up those words. He made promises to both me personally and to my followers. Once he got into Congress, he got co-opted and went “swamp”. So having “used me” and then double crossed me, I made sure that his opponent, who I couldn’t STAND, beat him in the next election.
And I made sure he never won again any race. There’s some advise in there for you if you can divine it.
So, not enough people on his side voted and now they are going to see actions that are anathema to their wants. It’s also clear that neither Lloyd or James have really thought about what elections MEAN, what the results MEAN, and how winning candidates react to their winning and those that put them into those seats.
I find James rather baffled that his expectations were so torn apart but NOT baffled that Lloyd just rants.
BTW, he did ban me as I kept going after his ideas and punching holes in them. I’ll write about that at some point. Please note, however, that I decided to see how much of a ban it was…it put a smile on my face.
