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Rob Ford's Toronto
- Thread starter MetroMan
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casita
Senior Member
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deidretree
New Member
A blogger saw Randy in the ahem, "receiving" tent with RF - sorry, I don't have techno skills to give you link.
VTB
Active Member
And I seem to remember mentioned somewhere that all or some of DoFo's 4K's were there, mingling with attendees. Sorry, can't remember the source.
ROFOMOFO
Active Member
That is SPOT ON!
Look no further than the Tea Party down south. Scared, white single issue voters, typically with low education.
There is a scene in Amazon's series "Alphahouse" which reminds me of Ford Nation.
It's a town hall type meeting, full of poor angry whites who felt they've been fucked over by "Big Government". One of the questioners gets all incensed that the Government is telling him what he can and cannot do, like not buying guns with his food stamps, which of course he sees as Government run amuck.
That's Ford Nation.
nohostages
Active Member
Like most married men out on a fling, they make promisesthey don't intend on keeping. After half a dozen affairs with married men leee34 should know this.
casita
Senior Member
"The mayor's brother Randy and the mayor's mother arrive in white Cadillac escalade #FordFest (see Randy in mirror)"
No mention of Mrs Rob Ford.
View attachment 30499
No mention of Mrs Rob Ford.
View attachment 30499
OSS 117
Senior Member
I wouldn't be surprised if the horse and those cheap burgers shared a good deal of DNA.
sublime
Active Member
Aww, sheesh. Kensington Marketeers know European was a simply great place to shop. The employees has a terrific attitude, the selection unrivaled, and great prices for quality. Cops and firefighters would come and walk straight to the back to pick up large orders for their suburban gatherings. It is much missed. You can ruin a burger on the grill.
Angelunatic
Active Member
From the pics I saw, there was really nothing to do there except wait in lines. There were no rides this time for the kids it seemed, only a bouncy castle. The amount of volunteers was minimal, it looked as though it was all thrown together last minute for as cheaply as possible. I read about last years event and there was a midway, halal meat lots of food etc. it looked like there was nothing to eat this time but burgers with ketchup and mustard or hotdogs. No salads, no fruit and veg. I am surprised that the people there were not complaining on twitter about the long waits , crapppy food and lack of stuff to do. Rob looked wasted in a lot of pictures. He also was very late. He also never left the tent which is weird given his perchance for grandstanding.
Pickles
Active Member
I was at Ford Fest from 6:00 to 8:45 PM. I came alone to protest (no one accepted my invitation to join me) and brought a sign that read: Rob Ford's Gravy Train -- (chew chew!). I first stood across the road from the entrance and got a few honks for the sign from motorists slowed down by the Fest traffic. Also lots of smiles. When I crossed the road to show the sign to the cars and people lined up to enter the park, I got more heckles than smiles. Some people didn't understand the sign and looked puzzled. A few people asked me what it meant, so I explained about how election expenses cost taxpayers a bundle because of the rebates offered to donors. I said that Ford lied last time about his family paying for Ford Fest because he actually charged it as an election expense. The commonist response to that was yelling "lies, lies! Wrong wrong!" and walking away, often hurling an insult at me as they went.
Around 6:20 I was approached by a bylaw officer who drove on the sidewalk just to reach me. He joked how I was there all by my lonesome and asked where my "group" was. I said I was deliberately there by myself and was not aligned with any of the other protestors I heard might attend. I asked if there were any inside the park. He told me that there were a few and that they were surrounded by Ford Nation people who were yelling and screaming at them. "They're having a pretty tough time". (This was well before the small gay contingent arrived)
He advised me not to go into the park and said I would not be safe there. I said "Toronto has reached a sad state if a bylaw officer has to warn me to stay away from an event in a public park for which the City granted a permit." He hastily said he wasn't speaking as a bylaw officer (no, just wearing the uniform and driving a City car with a "Bylaw Enforcement" sign down the sidewalk to talk to me as one individual to another....) I told him I would be entering the park in a bit regardless. Around 7:30 I did go in and was about to be interviewed by City Pulse when the queeruption happened down the hill. I couldn't see what was going on but there were lots of black shirts and Ford Nation shirts surrounding people and the media took off. I did not see another protestor anywhere on the grounds.
I felt safe except when I got close to the "Ford Nation" pavillion where two aggressive men came out and started yelling at me while a FN woman was chastising me. I said "I'm listening to this woman; don't interrupt." Amazingly, that worked. They kept yelling "Excuse me, excuse me" and I ignored them, keeping up a conversation with this woman that actually turned into a dialogue for a bit. The men eventually went away. The woman was a devout Christian, very antigay (though she said live and let live but "they" shouldn't try to "institute their way of life into society"). I corrected her on a bible mistake and that got her attention and she started to listen a bit. Tough sledding, though, and her mood was very volatile.
Volatile people everywhere. One 70 - 80 year old woman ran after me to politely ask what my sign was about. She listened politely to 2 - 3 sentences until I talked about Rob Ford being on full salary while he campaigned. "You're a liar!", she screamed. "He's never taken a dime of public money!" I told her she must be thinking of Doug but our civil moment together was over. "Shove the sign up your ass!" she retorted and stomped away. I did meet 3 declared Rob Ford supporters who talked with me about the election expenses cordially and agreed that it wasn't right that the taxpayers had to pay for this.
I estimate that 90% of the people who attended Ford Fest were non-white. The majority were black and there were lots of people from other racial/ethnic groups as well. Most of the white people I saw looked tough, scruffy, suspicious and sullen as opposed to the non-whites who were well-dressed, relaxed and out for a good time with friends and families.
Just after Ford spoke I met someone who turned out to be the writer of the parody twitter account for rofo's sobriety coach. He had done as I had: come into the park alone to meet people on a one to one. Our experiences and impressions of Ford supporters matched. Even though he didn't have a sign like me, he found that discussions about Ford generally went off the rails fairly quickly once critical observations were made. We left the park together and were accosted by three tough-looking users who were very high on something (I suspect heroin and one of them boasted he was an addict). They wanted to yell at my sign at first but my new friend chatted with one of the men and I chatted with the woman and when we got to the bus stop, we all shook hands, said goodnight and the woman kissed my cheek! Then she said, "we're all all right, we're all good people." Then she staggered off across the street.
My observations:
Most people in attendance that I spoke with with fervent Ford supporters, not just there for the hamburgers.
Ford supporters recite the same lines over and over in arguments (when they decide to argue). It's like they all attended a training school for how to handle antiFord comments.
As other posters have said, many of their facts are dead wrong or twisted and they don't care. At least they've got a line to zing back with.
Some are willing to listen and be civil ( a small number) but there is a high level of suspicion.
They feel proud of their Ford Nation but also beleagured and attacked and ridiculed by media and protestors. Combine this with the fact that most of them are low-income members of visible minorities. Is there any wonder they think claims about Ford's racism are bogus and hypocritical, coming as they do from the media, other politicians and protestors who mock Ford Nation? Ford loves them, invites them, talks with them and stands up for them (at least verbally). He is their friend, hero, idol.
None of the other candidates come close to developing the rapport that Ford does. They patronize. People know the difference.
I had toyed with the idea of marching with the LGBT folks but didn't like their plan to do a "kiss-in" at Ford Fest. I watched for them at the front entrance, hoping to talk to them there but didn't see them arrive. I thought a kiss-in was a poor way to demonstrate concern over homeless gay youths and a sure way to provoke active opposition. I didn't want to get my head bashed in; I preferred to engage with people who choose to talk to me (usually to scold me) and to do so in a calm, smiling, friendly and respectful way. Perhaps there is some "value" in exposing the virulence of some extreme Ford supporters but I don't see much value. I do applaud these LGBT folks for stepping up and doing SOMETHING though, even if their choice of protest was not my own. So many more just sat at their twitter feeds and tut tutted.
Around 6:20 I was approached by a bylaw officer who drove on the sidewalk just to reach me. He joked how I was there all by my lonesome and asked where my "group" was. I said I was deliberately there by myself and was not aligned with any of the other protestors I heard might attend. I asked if there were any inside the park. He told me that there were a few and that they were surrounded by Ford Nation people who were yelling and screaming at them. "They're having a pretty tough time". (This was well before the small gay contingent arrived)
He advised me not to go into the park and said I would not be safe there. I said "Toronto has reached a sad state if a bylaw officer has to warn me to stay away from an event in a public park for which the City granted a permit." He hastily said he wasn't speaking as a bylaw officer (no, just wearing the uniform and driving a City car with a "Bylaw Enforcement" sign down the sidewalk to talk to me as one individual to another....) I told him I would be entering the park in a bit regardless. Around 7:30 I did go in and was about to be interviewed by City Pulse when the queeruption happened down the hill. I couldn't see what was going on but there were lots of black shirts and Ford Nation shirts surrounding people and the media took off. I did not see another protestor anywhere on the grounds.
I felt safe except when I got close to the "Ford Nation" pavillion where two aggressive men came out and started yelling at me while a FN woman was chastising me. I said "I'm listening to this woman; don't interrupt." Amazingly, that worked. They kept yelling "Excuse me, excuse me" and I ignored them, keeping up a conversation with this woman that actually turned into a dialogue for a bit. The men eventually went away. The woman was a devout Christian, very antigay (though she said live and let live but "they" shouldn't try to "institute their way of life into society"). I corrected her on a bible mistake and that got her attention and she started to listen a bit. Tough sledding, though, and her mood was very volatile.
Volatile people everywhere. One 70 - 80 year old woman ran after me to politely ask what my sign was about. She listened politely to 2 - 3 sentences until I talked about Rob Ford being on full salary while he campaigned. "You're a liar!", she screamed. "He's never taken a dime of public money!" I told her she must be thinking of Doug but our civil moment together was over. "Shove the sign up your ass!" she retorted and stomped away. I did meet 3 declared Rob Ford supporters who talked with me about the election expenses cordially and agreed that it wasn't right that the taxpayers had to pay for this.
I estimate that 90% of the people who attended Ford Fest were non-white. The majority were black and there were lots of people from other racial/ethnic groups as well. Most of the white people I saw looked tough, scruffy, suspicious and sullen as opposed to the non-whites who were well-dressed, relaxed and out for a good time with friends and families.
Just after Ford spoke I met someone who turned out to be the writer of the parody twitter account for rofo's sobriety coach. He had done as I had: come into the park alone to meet people on a one to one. Our experiences and impressions of Ford supporters matched. Even though he didn't have a sign like me, he found that discussions about Ford generally went off the rails fairly quickly once critical observations were made. We left the park together and were accosted by three tough-looking users who were very high on something (I suspect heroin and one of them boasted he was an addict). They wanted to yell at my sign at first but my new friend chatted with one of the men and I chatted with the woman and when we got to the bus stop, we all shook hands, said goodnight and the woman kissed my cheek! Then she said, "we're all all right, we're all good people." Then she staggered off across the street.
My observations:
Most people in attendance that I spoke with with fervent Ford supporters, not just there for the hamburgers.
Ford supporters recite the same lines over and over in arguments (when they decide to argue). It's like they all attended a training school for how to handle antiFord comments.
As other posters have said, many of their facts are dead wrong or twisted and they don't care. At least they've got a line to zing back with.
Some are willing to listen and be civil ( a small number) but there is a high level of suspicion.
They feel proud of their Ford Nation but also beleagured and attacked and ridiculed by media and protestors. Combine this with the fact that most of them are low-income members of visible minorities. Is there any wonder they think claims about Ford's racism are bogus and hypocritical, coming as they do from the media, other politicians and protestors who mock Ford Nation? Ford loves them, invites them, talks with them and stands up for them (at least verbally). He is their friend, hero, idol.
None of the other candidates come close to developing the rapport that Ford does. They patronize. People know the difference.
I had toyed with the idea of marching with the LGBT folks but didn't like their plan to do a "kiss-in" at Ford Fest. I watched for them at the front entrance, hoping to talk to them there but didn't see them arrive. I thought a kiss-in was a poor way to demonstrate concern over homeless gay youths and a sure way to provoke active opposition. I didn't want to get my head bashed in; I preferred to engage with people who choose to talk to me (usually to scold me) and to do so in a calm, smiling, friendly and respectful way. Perhaps there is some "value" in exposing the virulence of some extreme Ford supporters but I don't see much value. I do applaud these LGBT folks for stepping up and doing SOMETHING though, even if their choice of protest was not my own. So many more just sat at their twitter feeds and tut tutted.
EagleEye
Senior Member
I can't wait to find out where he plans to hold the Etobicoke and Downtown fests. They are going to have to put out a lot of money to rent space and to have booze.
Angelunatic
Active Member
I was horrified that the violence was happening for over 30 minutes and nothing was being done! Shame on all who took part in bigotted behaviour and shame on those people who stood by and watched and did nothing! It was shocking to see a mob mentality at work. Very scary and the city should address it , the mayor is the most disgusting , he stands for nothing but hate and anger.
Pickles
Active Member
Actually he did leave the tent and walked behind a nearby building, obviously seeking some privacy (for what, I wonder?). He was spotted and a swarm of of peoplemobbed him. He was in a dead end and stuck there while people held their cameraphones over their heads to get a shot of him. Kind of funny. After about 10 minutes his security crew came and rescued him. They escorted him back to the tent and that's when he gave his speech.
sublime
Active Member
Pickles, the author of the Sobriety Coach parody account also mentions your bravery and grace in a blog post: Jerk chicken in the belly of the beast
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