Rob Ford's Toronto

[OSS 117]

Ford's recent bathroom-hide-out/gibberish adventure has me wondering again about his elevator incident. Could it be possible that he was out of it and unable to speak coherently, so his handlers and enablers held the elevator until he came around enough to give his speech?

 

[Crazy]

From a purely strategic standpoint, shouldn't Rob and Doug start ignoring these stories? With eight months to go until the election, we're probably going to get dozens more of these "Ford inebriated in public" articles. Why bother with denying, explaining, apologizing, promising? Just plough ahead with the fridge magnets and the gravy train talk. And keep mentioning the gym workouts and diet (it's obvious there is no real workout regimen/diet, but who cares, it sounds good to Ford Nation).

 

[JWBF]

So much for the no financial scandals rhetoric of Robbie's tenure:


TCHC hires lawyers to probe allegations of improper acts by CEO
Allegations against Toronto Community Housing Corp. head Gene Jones include fudged salary figures and firing of a top executive without the board’s knowledge.

The chair of the Toronto Community Housing Corp. board of directors has called in a law firm to investigate allegations of improper acts by senior management, including chief executive officer Gene Jones.
One allegation is that management made an inappropriate attempt to keep Jones’s executive assistant off of the public “sunshine list†even though she earned more than $100,000 in 2013.
A second allegation is that Jones unilaterally fired the public housing company’s new chief operating officer and gave her a severance payment while publicly claiming that she resigned.

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/201...tml?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

 

[Bebop17]

Sure, we'll remove the flag if you remove yourself, Mr Ford.

+1. Then once it's down, we raise it again in a joyous celebration of liberation.

 

[JWBF]

Ford's recent bathroom-hide-out/gibberish adventure has me wondering again about his elevator incident. Could it be possible that he was out of it and unable to speak coherently, so his handlers and enablers held the elevator until he came around enough to give his speech?

That's the conclusion I came to, Robbie can't handle stressful situations without little something, either before, or after, or both.

From a purely strategic standpoint, shouldn't Rob and Doug start ignoring these stories? With eight months to go until the election, we're probably going to get dozens more of these "Ford inebriated in public" articles. Why bother with denying, explaining, apologizing, promising? Just plough ahead with the fridge magnets and the gravy train talk. And keep mentioning the gym workouts and diet (it's obvious there is no real workout regimen/diet, but who cares, it sounds good to Ford Nation).

Robbie's statements at the debate on Pride has set a tone of not "denying, explaining, apologizing, promising" anymore. IMHO, Robbie is starting to take the "Canada, love it or leave it." style of explanation that has really worked in the states, although inadequate in light of truths.

Even Harped tried and failed with this, but it seems he is trying again, especially with the Israeli/Palestinian Apartied.

 

[uptown]

"The Real Reason Rob Ford Visited Vancouver"

http://forums.canadiancontent.net/canadian-culture/121944-real-reason-rob-ford-visited.html

There’s a Crack Pipe Vending Machine in Vancouver

http://www.vice.com/en_ca/read/theres-a-crack-pipe-vending-machine-in-vancouver1

I know you're joking but it's really easy to find an instant crack pipe at pretty much every mom and pop variety store. If you ever see a tiny plastic flower in a small cylindrical tube for sale it's not just some tacky love memento it's really an instant crack pipe when you get rid of the flower inside. Those little bottles of liquid ginseng you see on the counter are used for the same thing. I once asked a lady in one of those stores why brillo pads were being sold individually upon request (they were in a baggie behind the counter) she said "for cleaning" with a straight face.


DeBeers was wrong. Nothing says I love you quite like a crack pipe...

[

 

[tiffer24]

Toronto MYOB:

https://twitter.com/dtopping/status/432028720627712000/photo/1

 

[W. K. Lis]

I had no idea. I honestly never noticed. The song & video are cool.

anyways, thought this needed a caption

After Rob Ford's pledge to give up the booze (again), all I can think to say is:

Liar, liar pants on fire! Hang them from a telephone wire. Hang them high, hang them low, hang them in a picture show!
​

 

[the lemur]

I can buy the more-than-one-coat explanation (esp. since they were going for a funeral and maybe in view of different weather) but the woman seems to be the wrong height relative to Rob, even allowing for perspective and the fact there's someone standing between them.

Rob's behaviour and near-total silence suggests he knows something's coming and he's losing himself in his poisons before the inevitable. It's like he'd rather self-destruct than face up.

 

[John_Dee]

Sure, blame the poor, the suburbs, the blue-collar working class. If it makes you feel that you and your buddies are better people. But Ford maintains popularity because he has been and to some extent still is legitimized by institutions and people who are leading forces in the city. The Star was right to ask why political, cultural and business leaders weren't publicly taking stands against Ford. Conrad Black, scandalized but still a long way from poor, uneducated, suburban or working class, stood up for Ford when he thought it would aid his TV show. Look at all those well-heeled who paid $100 a seat to this to Ford begin his campaign at the Economic Club. (And its leadership who may have aided in some cover about getting stuck on an elevator.) When Ford made toxic the debate on transportation other politicians - councilors like De Baeremaeker and Stintz, then the province and Metrolinx, then the federal government - caved to him and his supposed hold on his voter base. The CTV, City, CP24, Global broadcast media, most interested in the middle-class family suburban car-driving demographic that Ford plays to, has always treated him gingerly, highlights his outrage issues and continues to find people to speak favourably of him on camera. Because he's now a celebrity everyone continues to focus on him and seek his attention. And the civic opposition, which burns much of its energy snarking on Twitter, makes most important minor issues, like if a Mayor who is not longer fully the Mayor will attend the Pride parade, and has failed to develop fresh vibrant candidates either for the mayoralty or the council seats.

Added on edit: Reporters chase him everywhere, knowing that he won't answer their questions, and that they will be used by him to spread his message. Councilors, who voted to remove him due to behaviour that brought their body into disrepute, continue to engage in football pools and other buddy nonsense with him now that he won't go away, and - like with Minnan-Wong - circle back to his side when it allows them to score points against their political enemies.

I couldn't agree more, Typezed. Not that I think any of the above lets Ford's more rabid fanboys amongst the poor, the lower middle class or working class off the hook - it doesn't - but I think a lot more people continue to rally behind him than would have been the case if his so-called 'opposition' weren't so wishy-washy, cowardly, incompetent, timid, and self-serving. And if many of them weren't hedging their bets, even now. The left, in particular, has been almost completely worthless since Mayor Cartman waddled into City Hall. During the Scarborough subway debacle, the councillors who comported themselves the most honorably were, by and large, conservatives, while the people who were supposedly in official opposition to Ford - i.e. left of centre types, mainstream liberals, the left - allowed themselves to be hamstrung by political correctness and the by-now depressingly typical caving in to stereotypical Canadian 'civility.' Which gave Ford the opening to steamroll right over them.

This is probably the most frustrating thing about this entire weird situation: I honestly believe the Fords are truly no more than they appear. Which is to say, Rob is a crude, moronic creep with subhuman levels of intelligence, and Doug a moderately bright (or perhaps just a simply less stupid) thug. They're both overgrown schoolyard bullies. But in politics, people actually want to vote for winners, or at the very least, those who look like they're trying to win. And to apolitical types, the Frods may very well appear to be no worse than anyone else since "they're all crooks." This makes it incumbent for his political rivals to fight back against the two thugs in meaningful ways that actually leaves Slob and Thug politically damaged. And almost no-one has been willing to do this.

During the Subway brouhaha, it looked at first like City Council had finally gotten a collective spine in regards to the Fords, and were treating them accordingly. Then, of course, Stintz and De Baeremaeker (among others) made the incredibly crass and stupid political miscalculation that Ford's fanboys were ripe for the picking if they'd flipflop on the issue, and they ended up handing the fat bastard an enormous propaganda victory on a silver platter. It's not that Ford played them so expertly; they played themselves. He's been far, far luckier in his opponents than he's deserved.

 

[eyewonder]

Yup. Crash and burn

 

[VTB]

I can buy the more-than-one-coat explanation (esp. since they were going for a funeral and maybe in view of different weather) but the woman seems to be the wrong height relative to Rob, even allowing for perspective and the fact there's someone standing between them.

Rob's behaviour and near-total silence suggests he knows something's coming and he's losing himself in his poisons before the inevitable. It's like he'd rather self-destruct than face up.

I think the Star's article should settle this:

[With Ford were three people: a man with curly hair and a man and a woman who appeared to be a couple he had recently met. The Star has not been able to identify these individuals.]

I tend to agree with Euler from a few pages back:

[Plus, I don't think Renata would really party with Rob. ;-) I'm not sensing a lot of love and good times there.]

 

[voxpopulicosmicum]

Nah, they're stupid bigots so they should feel bad and be made to feel bad at every availible oppertunity no matter how many of them there are because that's the right thing to do.

I agree and have been saying generally the same thing about Ford supporters for a decade, but the truth is no one hears you (or me) just because we're right and have been right all along. Life's not fair, truth doesn't always conquer and the good don't usually win. This was hard for me to admit until I got comfortable with the inability of the majority to understand "stuff" and the consequeny depth of my cynicism. Now I'm mostly a misanthrope but at least I don't get disappointed by the stupidity of humankind. Booze and drugs help. Thanks for listening.

 

[Huge Seagull]

Typezed and John_Dee: +1,000,000

 

[kaboi]

The Pride stuff is strategy, and making Ford look like a victim with a false spin on a real visit could be strategy, too.

Anti-gay as a considered campaign strategy? Edward Keenan is saying the same thing, but I'm not buying it.

I think all we're seeing is Ford unleashed. He has no experienced handlers at all. We know from the ITO that even when he had experienced staff to prop him up, he was very difficult to manage. But now he is completely unfettered - his chief of staff and spokesman have ZERO political experience, and he doesn't have a single senior policy analyst. So what's coming out is what Rob Ford actually thinks, instead of a tailored message he's been forced to repeat until it sounds natural.

Doug's comments on Pride were actually an attempt at damage control, rather than a strategic attempt to dig in. It's just that Doug is really, really bad at damage control. And he's as homophobic as Rob, so there's that too. This is no strategy. This is just unrestrained stupidity.

Rob ford is now officially running a "does not give a fuck" campaign.

More like "does not have a clue" campaign.