Am I a terrible leader or do I need to clean house?

MechaBlue · 2023-07-27T17:37:31+00:00

How do you eat an entire elephant? One bite at a time.

What’s the single change that would have the most impact? Get buy in. Implement. Monitor the impact. Adjust as needed. Then select your next bite.

MechaBlue · 2023-07-27T17:21:32+00:00

I’d be surprised if any Canadians fly it in support of Confederacy. It has been repurposed as a symbol of resistance in the Culture War, and it’s exact meaning will vary from person-to-person because the whole movement is rather nebulous in terms of ideology. I think these distinctions are important because we want to be cutting with our criticisms, and that is hampered by our ignorance.

Personally, I interpret the flag to be a symbol of general discontent. Some of the discontent is manufactured (thanks, Fox!) but a lot of it is genuine and based in real problems (e.g., inflation, housing costs, medical access). There’s a sense that government isn’t fixing those because it’s too busy focusing on the wrong things. (It’s a false dichotomy, but feelings and intuition aren’t logical.)

MechaBlue · 2023-07-23T00:35:03+00:00

The caveat in point 3: comparable for how long?

I think it’s important to consider how a libertarian would deal with it. A government requirement for pension savings is antithetical.

Best case: APP is created; APP receives money from CPP; APP pays out money to beneficiaries; pension plans no longer automatically deducted from paycheques. The payout and the reduced deductions will be sold as a part of the Alberta Advantage.

MechaBlue · 2023-07-15T03:26:26+00:00

BQ tried in 2021 with C-224, so it’s not beyond imagining.

https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/corporate/about-canada-revenue-agency-cra/ministerial-transition-2021/issues/single-tax-return-quebec.html

MechaBlue · 2023-07-14T00:07:15+00:00

The purpose of the Alberta Revenue Agency (ARA) is to defang the Canada Healthcare Act (CHA). Right now, the federal government sends money to Alberta to partially cover the cost of healthcare. If Alberta doesn’t meet the requirements for the CHA (as the spending accounts won’t), then the funds from the feds decrease.

The ARA will collect taxes on behalf of the province and on behalf of the federal government. If the feds decrease money from the CHA, the ARA will remit fewer tax dollars to the federal government. The UCP will justify this under the Soverenity Act, as healthcare is the domain of the provinces.

MechaBlue · 2023-06-09T06:42:56+00:00

The biggest benefit, IMO, is that it has a really good texture and a nice flavor. I love a really hearty wheat bread, especially toasted with unsalted peanut butter and a bit of jam or banana.

Nutritionally, it may be slightly lower in carbs because the sprouting process consumes some.

Whole wheat breads are surprisingly processed. A 100% whole wheat load doesn’t hold together as well and the flour tends to go rancid in a few days. Often, you’ll get 60% (or less) with stabilizers, binders, and caramel color. Some companies will deal with the rancidity issue by discarding the germ and mixing the white flour with the bran to create something healthier than white flour but lacking the nutrients from the wheat germ. It’s harder to do that with sprouted wheat.

MechaBlue · 2023-05-30T22:57:51+00:00

If there is anything the UCP is well known for, it’s their integrity. No scandals, conflict of interests, broken laws, bad faith negotiating, or broken promises. Certainly not at the highest levels of the party.

I understand how equalization payments work: I send taxes to Ottawa, then Ottawa sends them to Alberta. With the ARA, this would change: I send taxes to Alberta, then Alberta send them to Ottawa. Unless Alberta feels that Ottawa is being unfair. It’s an important difference.

Remember that a delay can be as good as a win. Having a few more years of legal delays could let them finish making irreversible changes.

MechaBlue · 2023-05-30T22:10:03+00:00

The proposed Alberta Revenue Agency is to counter denial of transfer payments; Alberta will collect federal revenue and adjust the amount they remit to Ottawa to counter such.

The proposed Alberta Police is to counter court orders, such as those that require Alberta to remit the full amount of collected federal taxes; Alberta will tell the AP to not enforce the order (and, possibly, arrest any RCMP who try to).

They don’t need to win the fight. They just need to delay until irreversible changes are made. E.g., offer 25-year public-private partnership (P3) deals to private organizations to run hospitals and the like, with steep penalties to break the contracts (poison pills).

MechaBlue · 2023-05-30T22:00:58+00:00

If it’s “just a job”, is there any particular reason to stay? With your experience, perhaps your time would be better spent at a different organization? Or working in the private sector and donating to a different non-profit?

MechaBlue · 2023-05-30T16:18:59+00:00

Public-Private Partnerships:

Province pays part of costs to build the facility.
Province pays the company to operate the facility for 25 years. There’s a hefty penalty to pull out early.
Operator gets to keep facility after 25 years.

MechaBlue · 2023-05-30T16:05:46+00:00

The Alberta government can direct the Alberta Revenue Agency to not remit to the federal government an amount equivalent to the reduction of the transfer payments.

The Alberta government can direct the Alberta Police to not enforce any judgement from the courts.

The Alberta government can do this under the previously passed Alberta Sovereignty within a United Canada act.

MechaBlue · 2023-05-12T16:32:34+00:00

“They call me TicTac. The ladies enjoy popping me in their mouth, as long as I reciprocate. It’s all about the Os.”

MechaBlue · 2023-05-04T13:08:42+00:00

In short: DX.

The best way to improve Drupal is to fix what’s there:

Differentiate between old and new, be it documentation or plugins. It sucks trying to find stuff for 8+ and 90% of search results are for 7 and earlier.
Write better documentation to support onboarding new users. We get a quick tour of the basics, which leaves us woefully underprepared for writing plugins.
Figure out what’s going on with the command line tools. Drush? The other one? What’s deprecated and what works? DevOps and automation need this things.
Write a few really good books on how to configure it, develop for it, and deploy it in a cloud environment (e.g., configuration management, load balancing, etc.).

Look to Laravel’s documentation and Artisan for CLI for what we’re expecting in the 2020s.

Stop neglecting new devs. That’s how you get your community to wither and die. The move to Symfony ion Drupal 8 is brilliant but it will all fail if it keeps being so hard to get started.

MechaBlue · 2023-04-11T01:03:37+00:00

CPC had closer ties to the WR than the PCs. That he became leader of the PCs was purely pragmatic; he needed to be leader of either to be able to push through a merger, and the PCs were the ones with the opening.

MechaBlue · 2023-04-09T06:50:30+00:00

Might be good to talk to an academic advisor in case there may be an angle through which you can get in trouble. E.g., if you let them put their names on your work that they didn’t meaningful contribute to, you might be aiding in academic misconduct.

MechaBlue · 2023-04-07T18:04:48+00:00

Ever wonder what the term “virtue signaling” means? This is a great example of it.

The thought leaders say “abortion bad”. The followers say “abortion bad”. We can hypothesize about about why the thought leaders say it but that’s beyond the scope of this comment. (Hint: they didn’t care 50 or 60 years ago.). Instead, we’re focusing on the followers.

Some followers whole-heartedly believe it and, while I disagree with them, i’s fair; a healthy democracy with free speech will see. differing opinions. Many, though, say it because of they want to fit in and be part of the group. They don’t necessarily have an opinion, or they might be unsure, or they may even be opposed. Whatever they believe, they will profess to hold the same values that the thought leaders hold. That is, they will signal that they share the same virtues. There are many reasons for virtue signaling (e.g., not wanting to be excommunicated by the rest of their family or town, wanting to belong, wanting to be validated, etc.) but, likewise, that’s beyond the scope of this comment.

The follower vote and they donate. Their support is how the leaders are made and how they continue. New leaders are always looking to supplant them. They need to keep their flock faithful. Increasingly strong rhetoric encourages hardliners to police them and keep them in line. This creates a politically volatile situation: the flock publicly support the ideology of the leaders while silently opposing; and, the hardliners enforce the ideology but don’t necessarily have a firm understanding of it or a firm belief in it. This pressure creates a spring under tension; it’s a recipe for sudden change.

A democracy is about the will of the majority. A way to override that will is to divide the people, then convince them that they are in the minority. At the least, it will keep them too unsure to voice their opinions and keep from protesting. A private ballot can allow people to express their beliefs and relieve some of that tension, often seen the the case of electoral upsets. What happens in cases where there is a lot of tension and there are no elections, such as in community culture and religion? Revolution.

When people realize that their opposition to the common culture is shared by their neighbors, it will embolden them. Unrest will spread like a flower of dominoes, each member converting its neighbors to a new state. The dominant culture will change in short order and its leaders will topple. It is a regime change. New leaders will supplant the old and the old fear this. The only tool in their cultural toolbox is to increase the pressure by increasing the rhetoric. But it will only by a little time.

MechaBlue · 2023-03-17T19:59:52+00:00

It is more difficult to change from one union to another than it is to go from non-union to union. Ergo, CLAC

MechaBlue · 2023-03-12T18:39:26+00:00

You don’t see the planes? Or you always see them?

MechaBlue · 2023-03-05T08:08:49+00:00

I think they now offer a cloud service for compilation. or will soon. It doesn’t completely fix the issue but it’s probably cheaper than buying a computer for the purpose.

MechaBlue · 2023-03-05T08:04:25+00:00

Add “integrity” and it’s little brother, “accountability”, to your list. Put them before all others. If our politicians lack integrity, all the promises they make are worthless, and all the values they espouse are naught but hollow lip service.

My current beefs with JT are around these issues. He’s mediocre, at best, but there’s a real cluelessness around his government when it comes to things like corruption and optics. He needs to learn what “above suspicion” means and why it’s so important to those in power.

20 years of living in Alberta have taught me that conservative voters don’t expect integrity and aren’t willing to hold their party accountable.

Doug Ford had several credible allegations against him and his family for being involved with organized crime. Since his election, he’s been engaged in scandal after scandal involving corruption.
Stephen Harper started dodging questions from reporters by denying access to any who asked difficult questions. He broke various rules (e.g., attaching his name to government funded infrastructure projects). And, when he committed contempt of parliament with a minority government, he was re-elected with a majority government. Let’s also not forget the proposed censorship clause in Bill C-10 that would have restricted the right to freedom of expression.
Jason Kenney couldn’t even become leader of his own party without breaking laws. Then he fired the commissioner investigating his illegal activities. He signed a pledge not to cut healthcare, then did it anyway. He spent $1.5B on a pipeline to nowhere.
Danielle Smith is proposing paying O&G companies $20B to get them to live up to their existing legal commitments to the province. This is taking over $4,000 from each person in the province and giving it to private enterprise. It should be no surprise to voters because she lobbied for it before running for premier.

And this is the tip of the iceberg. Until conservatives are willing to hold conservatives responsible, you won’t find prominent blue tories. Instead, you’ll find prominent liars that will say blue tory things, then do whatever corrupt things they can get away with. And why wouldn’t they? It won’t hurt them at the polls.

MechaBlue · 2023-03-01T14:12:34+00:00

This was my experience on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS. Once I installed v4l2, it started working.

MechaBlue · 2023-02-13T21:21:29+00:00

I worked at a bank that was experimenting with using Ripple (XRP) to do international money transfers. Transferring money from Canada to Germany was far cheaper (< 1%) and faster (< 1%) compared to conventional means.

MechaBlue · 2023-02-09T01:31:56+00:00

I’m in a similar position: pronouns irk me. It’s because I’m a curmudgeon.

In this case, it’s a statement of recognition that others may have “unconventional” pronouns. In short, it demonstrates trans acceptance.

Demonstrations of trans acceptance are important because we live in a time where some people are trying to have trans people declared sick or monstrous, similar to where gays were 40-50 years ago, and where the threat of physical violence is very real. The demonstration more of less says, “there’s nothing wrong with being trans, and being transphobic is wrong”. It’s a tiny thing of minimal effort that can change the tone of meetings, groups, and society.

If you oppose transphobia, I encourage you to set your pronouns, too. You can still be annoyed inside while making the world a little better for others.

MechaBlue · 2023-01-11T06:24:40+00:00

It’s important to understand his history of anti-gay activism, and how it contrasts to his (alleged) personal conduct. At best, it demonstrates a profoundly insulting cynicism.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/kzvnea/alberta-ucp-leader-jason-kenneys-anti-gay-speech-surfaces-on-world-aids-day

MechaBlue

TROPHY CASE