SUBTERFUGE

(09,23,2023) Subterfuge is a stratagem, or trickery, which is oft used to evade, escape, or conceal the truth. This type of guile, or insidious duplicity in attaining a goal, has become commonplace among politicians, throughout the world, in today’s toxic environment, in particular, among the conservative establishment. In Ontario, Canada, we have a premier who has become an expert in this subject. The ease with which our Premier, Doug Ford, has denied any wrong doing, in the Greenbelt land deal, is comparable only to many of his conservative counterparts in the United States. In December of last year, our Ontario housing minister, Steve Clark, and Premier Ford announced that they were going to set aside 7,400 acres of protected Greenbelt land, for building houses that were desperately needed. True that the houses were needed, but, untrue is the fact that Greenbelt land was required for the houses. As was reported earlier, tens of thousands of acres had already been allocated for this purpose. Furthermore, media investigations have shown that the key parcels of land have already been sold to developers who are large donors to the governing progressive conservative party. In fact, a great deal of that land had already changed hands as early as one year ago. Before their re-election, both Clark and Ford had promised, repeatedly, that they would not touch these protected lands. But then Ford was caught, on video, promising ‘a big chunk’ of the Greenbelt to his developer friends. Since all of this has been revealed, Clark’s chief of staff, Ryan Amato, has accepted the blame and resigned. However, repeated demands from the opposition parties had finally forced Clark to step down from his position as housing minister, although he still remains a minister in Ford’s caucus. Meanwhile, his boss, Doug Ford, still claims that he had known nothing about the transactions or any change of hands pertaining to the land deal. More subterfuge! Interestingly, more recent investigations have shown that Kaleed Rasheed, Ford’s minister of public and business service delivery, has also resigned, all due to new evidence recently uncovered, pertaining to the land deal. Mr. Rasheed had travelled to Las Vegas with Amin Massoudi, Ford’s principal secretary, at the same time as developer Shakir Rehmatullah, whose company own’s land that had been parceled out from the Greenbelt. Massoudi claimed that he only met Rehmatullah a handful of times, including at the wedding of Ford’s daughter. But, Rasheed said that he and Rehmatullah are close friends and Rasheed’s wife wife worked for the developer. Rehmatullah said that it was just a coincidence that they were at the same hotel around the same time. But, further investigation proved that all three, Rasheed, Rehmatullah and Massoudi met at the same Las Vegas hotel spa. And, according to the opposition, “all roads lead to the premier’s office in this $8.3 billion backroom deal that benefited Doug Ford’s fundraisers and his friends.” Just as an added note for interest’s sake, Jae Truesdell, who was serving in the private sector at the time, and who apparently was also present with the others in Las Vegas, is now Premier Ford’s director of housing policy. Until recently, Ford kept insisting that the deal would go through. However, persistent opposition has finally forced him to concede and admit that he made a mistake. Ford has had to replace a chief of staff, and two ministers, but still refuses to accept accountability of his own. Even as the layers of his subterfuge are being peeled away, let us not forget the promise, indeed, the lie that he made, a few years ago, when Ford said that he would not touch the Greenbelt! Much as he would like this topic to disappear, for Doug Ford, this is only the beginning, as his true duplicitous demeanour is revealed. If the subterfuge of this Ontario conservative premier reminds you of anybody, I believe that this is because Premier Ford has modelled himself after another conservative leader in the United States, one who he has been emulating ever since he entered the political arena. He even uses the same excuse, ” I did it for you!” in an effort to make his voters believe that he only had their best interests at heart. Of course, I am speaking of none other than the former president of the United States, the P.O.T.A.S.(President of the American Supremacists), who has taught Premier Ford how lying and false promises can get one ahead in the conservative world of politics! This appears to be the modus operandi for conservatives on both sides of the border. In fact, Canada now has a separatist conservative, from out West, who is using this method to gain him the popular vote over our liberal prime minister, although this conservative has never lifted a finger to actually help the Canadian people! Unfortunately, this strategy works, to some degree, because if one or more people repeat a lie, over and over again, eventually some people start to believe that there must be something to it. This is what Premier Ford is banking on. While still claiming that he had nothing to do with the land deal, he has now agreed to give the land back to the Greenbelt, in the hope that it will avoid any further investigation. He is willing to admit that his cabinet ministers made a mistake, but implies that his only mistake was in trusting them. What about Jae Truesdell, Doug? It is kind of ironic that he is now your director of housing policy! How does that work, when he was also involved in the shady land deal? Perhaps you should ask your mentor, the P.O.T.A.S., how to talk your way out of this one! But, your friend, the P.O.T.A.S., has problems of his own, right now, besides the four indictments and sexual assault conviction. It would seem that the P.O.T.A.S. is showing signs of dementia, according to sources, which is probably why he refuses to show up at the primary debates. Recently, the P.O.T.A.S. claimed that Biden is too old to be president, and yet, it is the P.O.T.A.S. who says that Biden is trying to start World War Two! Yes! I said ‘Two’, or rather, the P.O.T.A.S. did. But, that was not just a singular mistake. At other times, the P.O.T.A.S. appeared to believe that he is still running against Barack Obama! Indeed, the P.O.T.A.S. has even admitted, in a recent interview on national television, that it was his idea to send aides with Rudi Giuliani, to several states, at the end of the election, in order to dig up votes and to do anything necessary to invent Republican votes and destroy Democrat votes. I ask you, which is crazier, the fact that he did it or the fact that he admitted to it on national television, while he is being prosecuted for just such an action? The D.A. is going to have a field day with this, while the P.O.T.A.S.’ lawyers must be having a conniption! But, Rudi Giuliani has problems of his own that are mounting up. Besides being sued by his own lawyer for non-payment of fees, Rudi’s indictment is just the beginning of his woes. They say that ‘absolute power corrupts absolutely!’ And Giuliani is no exception to that rule. Ever since he hooked up with the P.O.T.A.S., Giuliani has shown signs of being drunk with power. Of course, sources say that he was, literally, inebriated most of the time, but, being around the P.O.T.A.S. brought out Rudi’s true colours. While already being charged with sexual assault by his former personal aide, Rudi Giuliani has been accused, by Cassidy Hutchinson, of sexually assaulting her on Jan. 6 of 2021. I always believed that Rudi had appeared demented when promoting the P.O.T.A.S. on national television. And he was practically frothing at the mouth, like a mad dog, whenever he spouted his lies. He has already been ordered to pay for some of his lies when convicted of defamation of two Georgia election workers. Rudi accused them of being on hard drugs while they seemed to tamper with votes. Of course, this was untrue and Giuliani has to pay damages for destroying the lives of these two women as well as endangering them. I think Rudi was the one on drugs. Unfortunately, these two women will probably never see a penny from Rudi, because his legal bills are mounting up to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Then, of course, backing up Rudi and the P.O.T.A.S. are the freaks who are running the House of Congress, at the present. The far right have not only hijacked the house, but are currently extorting their own speaker. Even moderate republicans, in the house, are calling it a clown show, with comments like, “the lunatics are running the asylum”, coming from other conservatives. The really sad part is that there are clones of the P.O.T.A.S. also running for the presidency. While Chris Christie has denounced the P.O.T.A.S. for his lies, and Nikki Haley has admitted the truth about the P.O.T.A.S. being responsible for having run up the deficit to over $8 trillion, the other two runners up, Vivek Ramaswamy and Ron DeSantis are scary individuals. DeSantis likes to censor books and rewrite history while making other tyrannical demands of his people, just like any good little fascist dictator. And, Ramaswamy is another true P.O.T.A.S. clone who likes to repeat the same conspiracy theories while denying the truth. Just ask him to admit that the P.O.T.A.S. lost the election. From the very beginning of his campaign, Ramaswamy’s fake smile made me cringe. It was so insincere that it reminded me of a snake oil salesman of old, and the words that came out of his mouth solidified that notion. It made my skin crawl when he shamelessly stood up and started spouting ridiculous conspiracy theories as though they were facts. While his opponent, Mr. DeSantis, buries himself deeper with his outrageous policies, in Florida, Mr. Ramaswamy comes across as one who is truly oleaginous!