Gnat Brained Municipal Workers in Neon Vests

Has anyone tried to drive anywhere in this city in the past few days? It is an exercise in futility. The construction festival has geared up because everyone is back from vacation. And with that festival come the detour signs.

Blanche, there is no doubt that in order to place the detour signs on the streets around construction areas, one has to be either dead drunk or have a brain the size of a gnat. One minute, are you talking about municipal workers?

In most cities, where an arrow points in a direction, it usually means, hey, that’s the direction to go to avoid the fixing. Not in this city.

Those arrows are part of a scavenger hunt because if you follow the detour arrow you wind up with another detour arrow sending you back in the direction from which you came. It must be then that there is something on each corner that we are meant to find and bring to someone.

The best part of this game is that on each corner stands a guy with a neon-coloured vest waving his flag in no direction at all. Welcome to la belle province.

Steve Scalise, the republican whip who was shot and badly injured while practicing for a baseball game in June, returned to Capitol Hill today.

He walked in using two canes, slowly one foot in front of the other. He then stood and spoke unaided. He got what he deserved – a huge hero’s welcome.

Finally, there are people speaking out against this kneeling business while the national anthem is being played before a football game.

One thinking person is none other than PK Subban who now plays for Nashville. Lest you didn’t know, he’s a black hockey player. He said he would “never” kneel during the Star-Spangled Banner, instead choosing to continue to “stand, respect, and sing along” to it.

As we said in our last entry, nothing will come from this. It’s purely feel good.

How about some black voices starting to come forward? How about someone like Oprah Winfrey? Black people, like all other peoples of the world need leadership. Until one of their own steps forward, it will be people like Colin Kapaernick who will take the lead. And between us, he may be a nice guy, but he’s no leader.

You may not like Trump, but he was correct to put a stop to the kneeling. The issues are from decades ago. Had Obama been a leader as the first black president of the United States, he would have done something, if not while in office then right after he left. He was and is weak and ineffective, duped everyone and is now laughing all the way to the bank because he sounds good. There is no barf bag big enough for him.

Sorry, we don’t buy that Hugh Hefner, who died today, did anything to help women. In fact, he helped create the false thinking that only beautiful women are worthy. He also helped create a culture where young girls felt they had to pout, wear skimpy clothing and pretend to be sexy to garner attention.

Those men and women who succumbed to his idolization of women are the losers. We will not lower ourselves to say what kind of man we really think he was. Suffice it to say he was not anyone to emulate.

The Montreal Canadiens have lost all of their pre-season games. Again we say when it stinks, it stinks from the head down.

The are in good company as the soccer team the Impact are also losers as are the Alouettes. And Montreal wants a baseball team? We have a very boring sports city with no one to cheer for. How about letting someone who knows what they are doing run those teams – French or not.

Trump has to get a handle on those around him using private jets to do their personal business.

Treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin requested the use of government plane to fly him and his wife, actress Louise Linton, to Europe for their honeymoon over the summer.

He later defended the action, claiming that a government jet would have provided him with a secure line of communication to the United States and therefore the request was in the interest of “national security. He withdrew the request and not a second too soon.

In case you don’t know how much it costs to run those private jets we will enlighten you. It costs roughly $25,000 an hour to operate its C-37, the military’s equivalent to a Gulfstream jet. It charges outside agencies roughly 10,000 an hour to fly in one.

Ok now, let’s go on.

Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price wins the prize as he took many, many private jets in the few months Trump has been president. It appears that his flights cost about $400,000 and were mixed with private visits to family and friends. He now said he feels badly and will repay the taxpayers.

No shortage of people with their sticky fingers in the taxpayers pocket. Or, they think themselves so entitled that they don’t even think about the cost. Either way, they need to be punished and at the very least pay back the money.

Kellyanne Conway has sold her polling firm. She owned 100% of it. It is believed that she got between $1 and $5 million. Smart woman.

Those Brexit talks with Great Britain divorcing the rest of Europe are taking a very long time and going very slowly. In case you were wondering what the three main issues are we will tell you: rights of EU citizens in the U.K. (and vice versa), the U.K.’s financial settlement and the Northern Irish border. Even if you don’t care, now you know.

Have an easy fast.

We’ll talk…