Climate Hacking

The Washington Post reports that the scientific community across the United States is secretly copying and backing up publicly owned climate change data out of the fear that the incoming Trump administration will delete or destroy data that disagrees with its ideology.

Key appointed members of the Trump Cabinet have already sought a list of names of those civil servants involved in US government climate change policy who participated in climate negotiations. Scientists are accordingly worried that the incoming administration will target environmental policy specialists and climate experts.

Scientists, lawyers, database managers and other members of civil society have even sought jurisdictional protection by locating retrieved data in foreign jurisdictions such as Canada. The University of Toronto is involved in archiving Environmental Protection Agency information on climate change, toxins, air, water and other information at high risk of being deleted.

The precautions seem reasonable as a similar change of governments in Canada resulting in the election of former Prime Minister Stephen Harper resulted in the deletion and destruction of environmental records.

US Electoral College Vote - Russian Briefing

So you may or may not know that the US election isn't over? How so you may ask? Well - because of the country's third world democratic system actual votes by citizens don't count. The electoral college is comprised of 538 electors comprising the Electoral College and they will meet on December 19, 2016 to determine the results of the US election.

Electors are not legally required to vote along with the majority of voters in their state despite state based provisions that they vote in line with Winner Takes All standards (except Maine and Nebraska). There have been over 150 instances of faithless electors in the US voting system and one instance of them contributing to a constitutional crisis during the 1836 election.

In light of the CIA's recent assessment that there was active Russian digital intervention against Clinton during the election cycle, members of the electoral college are reportedly seeking a briefing on the matter.

So what does this spell? In theory, if the evidence is strong enough - Clinton would need 38 Electors to switch their vote and abandon their pledges.  Seems crazy but it isn't impossible? There would be no legal repercussions for faithless electors.

To make matters worse, if it did get to that point and a decision was required by the Supreme Court. That organization is currently in deadlock comprising 8 justices as a result of the US Republicans unwillingness to consider Merrick Garland.

Things could get interesting!

Identity Politics, Social Justice Warriors and the Collapse of the American Left

Left wing politics are in trouble these days as right wing populism continues to break out across Europe and the West after the Brexit Vote, the US election and now more recently the failure of Italy's constitutional referendum.

Although largely neglected since the end of the Cold War, the rise of reactionary right wing populism functions on some level as a re-emergence of class warfare.  Working class whites in the UK, US and Europe whose economic and medical living standards have declined in actual terms over the last quarter century are moving in mass towards populism.

The brutal decline in quality of life and economic well being was documented by Princeton scholars Anne Case and Angus Deaton in their recent journal article titled, "Rising morbidity and mortality in midlife among white non-Hispanic Americans in the 21st century". The study found a quiet epidemic responsible for taking the lives of over half a million Americans over the last 15 years. The rise in morbidity is mirrored by a corresponding increase in prescription pain killers and opioid addiction to the point where one in three working class white Americans report chronic pain or sciatica.

The dramatic collapse in living standards of labour occurred at the same time as the leadership of left wing parties, academia, civil servants and human resource professionals all moved towards identity politics as their philosophy du jour. Unfortunately, what this meant in real terms was that the traditional left wing leadership basically abandoned their base and started trying to solve non-existent problems instead of tackling issues linked to their base's interest.

Bi-partisan commitment of decision makers to globalization without implementing support measures like re-training or improved public sector management practices exacerbated this problem further by failing to deliver.

The dogma of political correctness and the associated social justice warriors have been so focused on niche issues that solving real world problems that plague everyone are relegated to afterthoughts.

This relegation of real concerns and replacement with a narrative blaming non-Hispanic whites for their historical privilege galvanized a reaction against identity politics and left wing leadership. In a community where, morbidity and addiction rates are skyrocketing while good jobs were disappearing, messages blaming that same community for society's problems naturally fell on deaf ears.

Donald Trump saw the gap between the leadership in both parties and the citizens' grass roots and exploited it.

Vancouver, Canada - Centre for Criminal Financing

Behind the lululemon pants, self-righteous activists and veneer of decency, Vancouver operates largely absent of corporate governance.

The last two years really haven't been good for Vancouver's finance sectors's facade of regulatory control.  The United States' Department of Justice (DOJ), the Office of Foreign Asset Control and the Postal Inspection Service announced civil and criminal actions against Vancouver-based PacNet Service Limited after officially designating it a Transnational Criminal Organization.

PacNet is accused of deliberately ignoring regulatory orders while processing payments for mail order scams on an industrial level and enabling fraud against consumers for over 20 years. A copy of the DOJ's announcement can be found here.

Canadian and British Columbian regulators were caught with their pants down including the national agency FINTRAC. To date, Canadian authorities have largely taken a hands off approach to the case - no raids, no regulatory filings, and no publicly reported investigations. 

Canadian enforcement failings are emblematic of a general trend north of the border towards process over content in terms of regulatory proceedings and government action. In contrast, American authorities are already seeking sentences of up to 20 years against PacNet associates Michael Rossi and Glen Burke of Las Vegas.

Oh Canada!

Joe Biden Goes North For a Date

In what really wasn't understood by anyone aside from Joe Biden as to why the soon to be retire Vice-President of the United States Joe Biden made an official visit to Canada on December 9, 2016. Canadians along with their Prime Minister desperate for attention easily fell for the soon to be powerless Vice President's charm after he proclaimed that the "World Needs Canada very badly".

Justin Trudeau, the youthful Prime Minister and Barrack Obama's former crush tearfully smiled upon hearing the Vice President's choice words - the meeting counted for the two countries' second official date in under a year.

Joe Biden was also able to get the necessary air miles to support his 2020 Presidential bid.

Make America Great Again

The surprise election of Donald Trump is emblematic of a sea change in Western democracies away from free trade and globalism towards protectionism and localism. The fact that the President-elect promised to his electorate that nationalism will come before globalism all the while proposing a tax holiday on re-domiciled corporate profits made abroad seems to fly in the face of that commitment.

Despite his erratic range of behaviour on social media and seemingly flawed logic, Donald Trump clearly demonstrates two underlying character traits or principles if you will.

1. He wants to win regardless of whatever the costs are.
2. He fears humiliation, craves respect and desires to crush both real and perceived enemies a-like.

There are really two radically different schools of thought both of which have contending merits on understanding the implications of a Donald Trump Presidency. The first traditional school assumes that he will follow through on his commitments to withdrawing from trade agreements, environmental protocols, a return to realpolitik transactional foreign policy and a mercenary approach to domestic politics.

The second perspective is really one linked to his ideological blank slate. He is not a free trader and clearly despises large portions of the political establishment. And indeed, if he plans on staying in power he will have to cater to the populist white working class coalition that voted for him.

Michael Moore's assessment of the Trump vote in the Brexit States of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania as the equivalent of a "fuck you vote" to the permanent political class could not have been more prescient a month before the US election. So what does this mean in terms of ramifications on his policy platform? Simple really - following through on the same expansionary programs that Linden Johnson rolled out namely expanding Medicare and Medicaid to compensate for the termination of Obamacare - targeted infrastructure spending in those same Brexit states to modernize infrastructure and provide key jobs to the working class whites all the while privatizing public infrastructure through public private partnerships that could provide sweet heart deals to Trump family linked firms and other friendly investors.

It appears that any considerations of conflict of interest has gone out of the window resulting in financial stimulus a la crony capitalist variant. And as there are no statutes governing Presidential conflicts, he will be well within his legal rights to play both sides of the coin.