Early Birds, March 25, 2021
Early Birds, March 25th, 2021
"Keep your thoughts positive because your thoughts become your words.
The tone of today's meeting was set right from the start with Brad Pachal relaying news that confirmed the procurement/logistics challenges that Ross Mikkelsen and Tony Fisher have discussed in meetings past (Great tip again from Tony on how to possibly circumvent problems when his turn comes around). The basic message that Ross and Tony have relayed before was very graphically confirmed in the article: If you see something in a store you need, buy it now. There may not be more of that particular item available until 2022.
The headline on the article was "From Down Under, a prediction on 2021 bike supply." The article itself is at: https://www.bicycleretailer.com/opinion-analysis/2020/12/16/down-under-prediction-2021-bike-supply-which-probably-applies-here-well?utm_campaign=later-linkinbio-bowcyclesports&utm_content=later-1124364&utm_medium=social&utm_source=instagram#.YFyqtEhKgaW.
Jim Bladon happened to be at another meeting with intel from the Stampede board in time to relay the news to the Birds. He shares it when his turn comes around in the video, but the highlights:
- Stampede Lotteries are a GO
- BMO Expansion is a GO
- 17th Avenue expansion through the grounds is a GO
- Stampede Park looks a LOT different: Hall A and B are gone, The Boyce Pavilion is gone, the Coral is gone
- Finally, working closely with the Feds and the province, Stampede itself will be a GO in some form. There'll be an announcement in early-mid-April about how it will look.
Jim also fleshed out information around various business aid programs initially brought up by Dwayne Vinck. Thanks to Jim for sending this information after the meeting.
ATB Business - Here is the direct link to the page on our website that has the links to the 13 Federal Programs, and 3 Provincial Programs - specific to businesses and COVID-19/Economic downturn.
https://www.atb.com/covid-19/government-relief-for-business/
HASCAP (Highly Affected Sectors Credit Availability Program Guarantee) - These loans are for small and medium-sized businesses that have seen their revenues decrease by 50% or more as a result of COVID-19.
https://www.bdc.ca/en/special-support/hascap
BCAP (EDC Business Credit Availability Program Guarantee) - For Canadian small and medium-sized businesses...To cover payroll and operating costs caused by the current economic situation. The Guarantee is actually from EDC (Export Development Canada), administered via BDC and all other financial institutions.
George Roberts picked up on comments initially made by Brett Bain regarding the acknowledgement of Indigenous peoples. He recently watched a BBC doc that among other things, "reframes" the word and notion of "colonialism" (explicitly at near the 35-minute mark). To quote George's email:
"Neil Oliver travels back to ice age Britain as he begins the epic story of how our land and its people came to be over thousands of years of ancient history. The ice age saw a struggle for survival in a brutal world of climate change and environmental catastrophe.
- Neil Oliver explains history poetically, absolute pleasure to watch.
- This narrator is like a smooth Scottish whiskey poured into my ears."
Another wee cultural treasure was shared by Ross Mikkelsen. Prodded by reading Red Notice, Ross went down the rabbit hole of Russian kleptocrats and oligarchs and found the book Kleptopia.
"In this shocking, meticulously reported work of narrative nonfiction, an award-winning investigative journalist exposes “capitalism’s monster”—global kleptocracy—and reveals how it is corrupting the world around us.
They are everywhere, the thieves and their people. Masters of secrecy. Until now we have detected their presence only by what they leave behind. A body in a burned-out Audi. Workers riddled with bullets in the Kazakh Desert. A rigged election in Zimbabwe. A British banker silenced and humiliated for trying to expose the truth about the City of London.
They have amassed more money than most countries. But what they are really stealing is power.
In this real-life thriller packed with jaw-dropping revelations, award-winning investigative journalist Tom Burgis weaves together four stories that reveal a terrifying global web of corruption: the troublemaker from Basingstoke who stumbles on the secrets of a Swiss bank, the ex-Soviet billionaire constructing a private empire, the righteous Canadian lawyer with a mysterious client, and the Brooklyn crook protected by the CIA.
Glimpses of this shadowy world have emerged over the years. In Kleptopia, Burgis connects the dots. He follows the dirty money that is flooding the global economy, emboldening dictators, and poisoning democracies. From the Kremlin to Beijing, Harare to Riyadh, Paris to the White House, the trail shows something even more sinister: the thieves are uniting. And the human cost will be great."
The link to purchase the book at Pages in Kensington is below.
https://pageskensington.com/?q=h.tviewer&using_sb=status&qsb=keyword&qse=YHsfyCIcKaW_u5mSgTbbRA
Another "share" before the meeting video comes via Matt Dart. He mentioned the Netflix series Narcos which was a fictionalized version of the various forces at work in the Mexican and Latin American Drug trade in citing a new documentary series called The Last Narc. It's on Amazon Prime, and the tailer is below.
It's not without a bit of controversy, a lawsuit from one of the DEA agents portrayed in the film as being complicit in the murder by the drug lords of a fellow agent. It's a quick read before you watch the trailer: https://variety.com/2020/tv/news/james-kuykendall-lawsuit-amazon-the-last-narc-1234868193/.
Finally, for your reading pleasure just before the video and via Tom Olson:
The Americans with No Abilities Act (ANAA)
The House and Senate are considering sweeping legislation that will provide new benefits for many more Americans. The Americans with No Abilities Act is being hailed as a major legislative goal by advocates of the millions of Americans who lack any real skills and ambition.
“Roughly 50 percent of Americans do not possess the competence and drive necessary to carve out a meaningful role for themselves in society,” said congresswoman AOC. “We can no longer stand by and allow People of Inability (POI) to be ridiculed and passed over. With this legislation, employers will no longer be able to grant special favors to a small group of workers, simply because they have some idea of what they are doing.”
In a Capitol Hill press conference, Nancy Pelosi pointed to the success of the U.S. Postal Service, which has a long-standing policy of providing opportunity without regard to performance. At the state government level, the Department of Motor Vehicles also has an excellent record of hiring Persons with No Ability (63 percent).
Under the Americans with No Abilities Act, more than 25 million mid-level positions will be created, with important-sounding titles but little real responsibility, thus providing an illusory sense of purpose and performance.
Mandatory non-performance-based raises and promotions will be given to guarantee upward mobility for even the most unremarkable employees. The legislation provides substantial tax breaks to corporations that promote a significant number of Persons of Inability (POI) into middle-management positions, and give a tax credit to small and medium-sized businesses that agree to hire one clueless worker for every two talented hires.
Finally, the Americans With No Abilities Act contains tough new measures to make it more difficult to discriminate against the non-abled, banning, for example, discriminatory interview questions such as, “Do you have any skills or experience that relate to this job?”
“As a non-abled person, I can’t be expected to keep up with people who have something going for them,” said Mary Lou Gertz, who lost her position as a lug-nut twister at the GM plant in Flint, Mich., due to her inability to remember “righty tighty, lefty loosey”. “This new law should be real good for people like me. I’ll finally have job security.” With the passage of this bill, Gertz and millions of other untalented citizens will finally see a light at the end of the tunnel.
Said Sen. Dick Durbin, II: “As a senator with no abilities, I believe the same privileges that elected officials enjoy ought to be extended to every American with no abilities. It is our duty as lawmakers to provide each and every American citizen, regardless of his or her inadequacy, with some sort of space to take up in this great nation and a good salary for doing so.”
