I made a statement some time ago of the voters' lists which had been received and printed, and I do not know that the attention of my hon. friend has been called to that statement. I shall in, quire again how far the work has been proceeded with and let him know.
Is it the intention to finish those of last year which were not printed ?
The statement is that the voters' lists are printed as fast as they come.
What progress is being made with the return moved for on the 19tli of April, showdug the passes issued on the Intercolonial ?
House resumed adjourned debate on the proposed motion of Sir Wilfrid Laurier for the third reading of the Bill (No. 72) to amend the National Transcontinental Railway Act.
as embodied in the amended agreement, is of a somewhat complicated nature, and I think I am not far from the mark in believing that not many members even of the cabinet, understand it thoroughly, while very few of their followers pretend to have studied it at all. The Minister of Railways (Mr. Emmer-son) may thoroughly understand it, but up to the present he has not given us any light on the subject, and we are entirely in the darrk as to the construction he puts upon its various clauses. We have been told by lion, gentlemen who have supported this ministry, one of whom is supporting it at present in this House, that all these matters are decided in caucus and that all discussion in the House is absolutely idle and unnecessary. That was in effect the language of the late Mr. Jamieson, who at one time represented in this House the city of Winnipeg, and it is the language used only very recently by the hon. member for the city and county of St. John (Mr. Tucker), who told the people of St. John, in so many words, that all these/matters are decided in caucus and that discussion in the House is absolutely futile and unnecessary. Well, Mr. Speaker, I do not so regard the institutions under which we are carrying on the government of the country ; , and therefore, notwithstanding that these agreements have been discussed at some length, I desire to add a few words.
I have remarked that not many members of the cabinet thoroughly appreciate this agreement, and even those of them who during the past four or five weeks have undertaken to discuss the subject have not always shown themselves thoroughly familiar with its provisions. The right hon. gentleman who leads the government told us even this year-and his remarks will be found on pages 2512 and 2513 of ' Hansard '-that the Grand Trunk Pacific is liable to pay three per cent oh lease of the eastern division. As a matter of fact, it is not liable to pay one cent.
The Minister of the Interior told us that the additional stipulations contained in the amending agreement do not impose one dollar of additional liability on the country, and his remarks in that regard were endorsed by the hon. member for Annapolis (Mr. Wade). Yet it has been demonstrated beyond a doubt that these amending provisions impose a very large additional burden of taxation upon the ratepayers of this country.
We also heard from the Minister of the Interior that the Grand Trunk Railway is! bound, under the terms of this agreement, to provide working capital and necessary betterments. As a matter of fact, the Grand Trunk Railway is under no legal obligation, under this agreement or otherwise, to provide any of the working capital for necessary betterments.
given particular attention to the measure, its provisions are not always thoroughly understood and appreciated, let me come to analyse the proposition and see whether or not it is designed to carry out the object laid down by the First Minister when he introduced the measure last year. He proposed to establish a national transcontinental railway from ocean to ocean on Canadian soil, and to do that for a certain reason,-that reason being the danger, of which he appeared then to be convinced, but of which we have not heard him say much since-the danger of the abrogation by the United States of the bonding privilege. How does the government propose to attain the object which the right hon. gentleman has in view? Let us consider for a moment what the proposal really embodies.
It is intended to accomplish this result by the following means. In the first place, we are to build the difficult portion of the line, about 1,900 miles from Winnipeg to Moncton, at a cost of not less than $76,000,000. Then we are to give this portion free to the Grand Trunk Pacific for ten years, without interest or rental. We are then to lease it for forty years additional to the Grand Trunk Pacific at a rental of three per cent, which will probably be less than the interest the government will have to pay on the cost of construction. And although we have asked the government to amend this-provision so as to provide that the country shall receive in the shape of rental at least as much as it pays in interest, that amendment has been voted down.
They next propose to grant running powers to the Grand Trunk Pacific for fifty years additional over the eastern division, or in the alternative to give a lease for fifty years additional after the period of the first fifty years shall have expired. In other words, the Grand Trunk Pacific is to have a lease or control by running powers for at least one century over the eastern division.
In the next place, the government permits the company to control all terminals on the eastern division, so that the government must eventually concede any terms which the Grand Trunk Pacific may dictate at the expiration of the lease. Then they permit the Grand Trunk Pacific to build branch lines from the eastern division to important strategic points and to retain such of these lines as are profitable and force the government to buy such as shall be found unprofitable.
Following this, it has been agreed apparently-if we may judge by the language of Sir Charles Rivers-Wilson and Mr. Hays at the meeting of the Grand Trunk Railway shareholders-to subsidize lines from the eastern division to Port Arthur and North Bay, although the Prime Minister has admitted that the freight which goes to North Bay must necessarily go thence to Portland.
In the next place, the government refuse to impose on the Grand Trunk Railway stipulations which would prevent that company from carrying western freight to Portland. That subject has been brought to the attention of the government over and over again. First by one and then by another amendment, we have asked the government to impose on the Grand Trunk Railway those stipulations which they regard as of so much importance when imposed upon the Grand Trunk Pacific, and in every case, for one excuse or another, our amendments and requests to that effect have been voted down and refused.
Then the government has refused to take such powers as would enable it to prevent the Grand Trunk Railway from unfairly apportioning the rates as between its system and the system of the Grand Trunk Pacific.
In the next place, it has so framed this contract that the Grand Trunk Railway Company can acquire, hold and utilize terminals so as to place the government absolutely at its mercy on the conclusion of the lease.
In the next place, the government has left it open for the Grand Trunk Railway Company to carry Canadian through traffic either via North Bay, or via lake ports, or via Chicago to its terminals in the United States. That is beyond doubt. It cannot be controverted. We have the declarations or I should say we have the admissions o? the ministers of the Crown to that effect.
*-and surely then it will go to Portland.
He is there referring to myself.
-I have read his speech carefully, and I must say-it may be my fault and I shall be glad to be illuminated-if he will explain how, having brought the freight from the west to North Bay, he can send it on to St. John and Halifax, over the Grand Trunk, I will be glad to hear him.
Well, I promised my right hon. friend some answer with regard to that, and I will answer him now. That freight which comes from west of the great lakes to North Bay can be carried to the national port? of Canada on the St. Lawrence or in Nova Scotia or New Brunswick if you extend the Intercolonial westward to North Bay. In that way you secure, and in that way alone, I believe, can you secure the carriage of western traffic to the national ports of Canada on the St. Lawrence and in the maritime provinces. But, if the right hon. gentleman thinks that traffic carried to North Bay will assuredly go to Portland, how is it in the first place that he is authorizing the Grand Trunk Pacific to build a branch line to North Bay ; and how is it, in the second place, that he has allowed to stand without contradiction for two months the statement of the president of the Grand Trunk Railway Company that that line is to be subsidized by this government as well as by the provincial government of Ontario ? If that line is so to affect the traffic of this country to the detriment of our national ports, why is it the policy of the government not only to permit the building of that line, but to encourage and aid the building of it by the granting of a very ample subsidy?
professions before attempting to read a lecture on the virtue of sincerity to hon. gentlemen on this side of the House.
I hope that if any possibility is presented of accomplishing such an object, the government will not lose the opportunity.
I believe that my hon. friend (Mr. Russell) during the present session has manifested a very great disbelief in the policy of government ownership. He has suggested that any person who expresses a belief in the possible advantages of government ownership cannot really be sincere. He thinks that those of us on this side of the House who have to some extent advocated that policy have done so altogether without sufficient study of the question. Yet, he possesses so high an opinion of his own ability that he fully believes that five years ago he was in a position to advocate this policy, and that we. after five years have intervened, and after we have been studying the question in that intervening period, are not in a position to pronounce on a question on which he was fully able to give an opinion five years ago. Thus, he does not seem to be unduly modest. But let us proceed further with his remarks.
It is a worthy aspiration for us to cherish that the mighty and ever swelling stream of Canadian commerce should not continue to flow for evermore for the enrichment of alien cities.
Mr. Blair explained a few days ago to the Halifax Board of Trade how improbable it was that either the Grand Trunk Railway or the Canadian Pacific would hand over to the Intercolonial at Montreal any considerable portion, if any portion whatever, of the traffic originating on those lines. The grain carried as far as Montreal by the Canadian Pacific when not shipped at that port will continue to be carried over the Canadian Pacific until it reaches its ocean terminus at St. John, and the traffic originating on the Grand Trunk will under like circumstances continue to be carried over the Grand Trunk until it reaches its ocean terminus at Portland. The Intercolonial must as to this class of business for ever continue to play second fiddle to these great company lines until it can establish a connection that will plant it right in the heart of the great distributing centres and emporiums of tho west.
Not until then will it ever be in a position to compete on even terms with its rivals for the grain-carrying business of the Dominion.
.... Give us a through line to the grain distributing centres of the west, and the country will no longer be beholden to a company road running through a foreign territory, nor pay tribute to the seaports of a foreign country. We shall have for the first time in our history all the year round an all-Canadian route for the transportation of the harvests of the Dominion to the markets of the world.
bour on the Atlantic shore. At all events that is our policy.
Now it may be the policy of the right hon. gentleman and it may be his sincere desire blit will he or any hon. gentleman on the other side of the House point out to me how it is that you are to have the traffic at present gathered up by the Grand Trunk Railway Company carried to Portland and how, at the same time you are to have the new traffic which they will gather in the west carried to our Atlantic ports ? That is a proposition which I for one am absolutely unable to understand. Let me point out that not one syllable or suggestion of that kind is to be found in the language of the magnates of the Grand Trunk Company at their meeting. Sir Rivers-Wilson and Mr. Hays distinctly point to the conveying of traffic across the Great Lakes and to the Grand Trunk handling that traffic and carrying it and routing it in exactly the same way as they handle and carry and route their traffic at the present time. There is not a syllable or suggestion of any abandonment of their former policy. The traffic which they get from the west at the present time is carried to Portland. They bring it across the great lakes and their railway takes it at certain ports on the east side of the lakes and they carry it to Portland as their winter terminus. How are you to distinguish what they gather up in the west at the present from what they will gather in the future, and how are you for one moment to believe that any portion of that additional traffic which they will gather up in the west shall be taken to any other terminus than that to which is carried all the traffic they now control? The suggestion seems to me to be absurd and laughable. There cannot be any question about it. They carry to Portland the trade that now comes to them from the west, and they will carry to Portland in the future the trade which they gather in the west by means of the Grand Trunk Pacific. I challenge my hon. friend to point to any reason that should lead us to believe that western traffic which as Mr. Hays says will come across the lakes or to North Bay will be carried to the maritime ports of Canada.
Indeed, the traffic carried by the Grand Trunk Railway at the present time is not delivered to the Intercolonial under an agreement of which we have heard a great deal in days gone by, and thus it is not carried to the maritime ports of Canada.
There cannot be much doubt about where it is profitable for the Grand Trunk to carry this traffic. We have some interesting admissions on that point by three members of the government and I think that all who know railway corporations can certainly agree in this very reasonable proposition that railway corporations will carry freight to the point which will afford them the Mr. R. L. BORDEN.
Our great competitor in the English market is the United States, and for six months in the year, yes, for seven months in the year, we are depending upon our chief competitor for an outlet to that market for our Canadian products.
Is that wise or is it prudent ? How can you get out from Montreal in winter except by way of Portland or Boston or New York ?
Halifax competing with Portland ? It is double the distance practically.
What is the use of talking ?
What is the use of talking ? Can we shut our eyes to geography ? Can we shut our eyes to facts ? How much of the trade of Montreal has gone to1 Halifax ? How much grain has gone from Montreal to Halifax or to St. John ? How much of our food products have gone that way? Invariably they have gone to Portland or to Boston or to New York. As Portland is to the Grand Trunk Railway so Boston is going to be to the Canadian Pacific Railway.
free ; but under the present contract they are obliged to give the same rate to St. John or Halifax as to Portland.
By the fact that the Canadian rate is not greater than the American rate, and we will trust to the patriotism of the Canadian shipper that when the rate to a Canadian port is not greater 'than to an American port, he will ship by the Canadian port.
Now, I have cited that for the purpose of showing that ministers of the Crown are not altogether in agreement with each other. The hon. Minister of Finance relies in the ultimate result upon the patriotism of the Canadian shipper.
these concessions obtain from the government either relief from the payment of this rental or a new agreement in regard to the terms upon which it shall continue to operate that railway.
Let us now look for a moment at the contract proposed by the government in so far as it affects the western division. Comparisons have been made by those who, 1 suppose, have no better argument, between the proposal which is now submitted to the country and the agreement which was made with the Canadian Pacific Railway Company some twenty-three years ago. We are told of the land grant, we are told of the cash subsidy, but I do not recollect that any of those hon. gentlemen on the other side of the House who have discussed the subject ever remember that their own political friends, the administration of the late Hon. Alexander Mackenzie, made a better offer to any one who would be willing to build the Canadian Pacific Railway than the offer which eventually was accepted. Let us remember that as a starting point and let us remember that the conditions in the Northwest Territories of Canada were absolutely different at that time from what they are at the present day. There was not any one of these hon. gentlemen who now so loudly talk about the resources and the development of the Northwest who had one iota of faith in the future of that country. The Minister of Trade and Commerce had no faith in it. He had now, he says, great faith in it. The right hon. leader of the government (Sir Wilfrid Laurier) did not then, in so far as I am aware, exhibit any faith in the future of that country. These hon. gentlemen we found decrying the country, and now, when the country has been developed and advanced by the very policy that they denounced, they' ventured to make a comparison between the terms which we then conceded to the Canadian Pacific Railway Company and the terms which are now offered to the Grand Trunk Railway Company. Do not these hon. gentlemen who make that argument agree with the view of the hon. Minister of the Interior and the hon. Minister of Agriculture (Mr. Fisher) who have pointed out in glowing terms during the past session that the proposition now offered to the Grand Trunk Railway Company is perhaps the best railway proposition that was ever offered in the world. Do they not remember that the Northwest has been developed, that its value has been ascertained, that the splendour of that great asset is now realized by the people of this country, aye, and by the people of other countries and that it is under absolutely different conditions that we are now making a bargain with this company that proposes to construct a railway in the Northwest Territories of Canada. Let us remember that the Canadian Pacific Railway company Mr. R. L. BORDEN.
which they derided in days gone by, that railway which they said would not pay for the grease used upon its axle wheels, that company which they said proposed to construct a line through a country only fit to be the home of the bear and other wild animals now yields annual profits in the shape of net earnings to its shareholders of fifteen millions and over. Conditions are so absolutely different they make an absurd comparison when they compare this proposal and that which was offered to the Canadian Pacific Railway twenty-three years ago.
What does the government propose to do for the Grand Trunk Railway Company? In the first place let us always and constantly bear in mind that there has been an exhibition of shrewdness and skill in the framing of this scheme on the part of the Grand Trunk Railway Company which has never been surpassed before. The Grand Trunk Railway Company did not go into this scheme itself under its own name. It took good care to organize, as its president has stated, a subsidiary company ; and the advantage of that is this, that the subsidiary company, in which no capital at all will be invested, will make all the contracts and incur all the responsibilities, which it can very easily and very lightly evade, while the Grand Trunk Railway Company without committing itself in any way to the obligations of the' contract will obtain all the advantages and all the profits, by means of controlling the Grand Trunk Pacific Company, and by means of the possession of its common stock, which it will receive at a nominal value, and which it will dispose of no doubt at a very considerable profit. Therefore the Grand Trunk Railway Company, under this scheme, occupies the enviable position of having all the advantages and all the profits, and incurring none of the responsibilities! or disadvantages.
eventually the bonds are paid. Further than that, the government agree to implement the bond issue on the whole western division in case the bonds shall be sold below par; and in that way, under the amended agreement, they materially increase the country's liabilities.
But that is not all, although one would suppose that in all conscience it was enough. The government agree further to pay four and a half years interest on the bonds guaranteed by the government over the whole western division, and to make that advance without interest for a period of about forty-five years. So that, summing all these up together, you see that the Grand Trunk Railway Company has certainly a very good proposition in respect of the western division. This payment by the government of four and a half years' interest is permitted because that will logically and naturally follow from the terms of the agreement. There is no foreclosure ; and entry into possession by the government cannot take place until the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway Company is in default for five years ; and one can easily see that the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway Company will allow its interest to be in default for four and a half years, and after that will see that it is not further in default. Thus the government will have made an advance of four and a half years' interest, upon which it will receive no return whatever until the fifty years period has expired.
equal footing, nevertheless in reality and in the practical working out of the matter, the Grand Trunk Railway Company will be in a better position than the government of this country with respect to the payment of interest.
compensating advantages which can be called at all adequate in view of the enormous aid which this country is giving towards the construction of this railway.
people of this country months after parliament had prorogued that that contract would be carried out-it is an interesting question, I say, why these concessions have been made. One thing is absolutely certain, and that is that the government did not make them voluntarily. They have told us that themselves. I have their language under my hand ; but I will not weary the House with it. The Minister of Finance, the Minister of Customs, the Minister of the Interior, have each declared that the government would have preferred the terms of the contract as it was approved last year, but that they could not adhere to the terms of that contract. They could not adhere to that contract because the Grand Trunk Railway Company would not permit them to do so.
The government take a somewhat supplicatory attitude with regard to this modified contract. They say : Do not blame us ; we did not want to make these concessions ; we preferred the contract as it was ; it was a fair contract, but the Grand Trunk Company has compelled us to make these concessions, and therefore .we are obliged to make them. Well, it is somewhat peculiar to have a contract, which was fan- to the corporation, amended by further enormous concessions to that same corporation, and to be told in the free parliament of a free people that these concessions were forced upon the government by this corporation. It is a strange condition of affairs, but it is a condition of affairs which is declared by no less than three responsible ministers of the Crown; and we are obliged to take their word for it. Therefore we must assume that there is some influence, which has apparently not been disclosed to the people of this country, and which compels the government to yield everything that the Grand Trunk Railway Company demands.
Mr. Speaker, I have run over thus briefly the provisions of this contract. I want now to say a word or two about the amendments which we have offered, and to make an observation or two on the reasons why we offered them and on the arguments which have been evoked from the government in voting them down.
I myself moved during the present session a resolution setting out our preference for a policy of government construction in place of the policy which the government is now advancing. My hon. friend from West Toronto moved another amendment demanding that the people of this country should be consulted before this enormous liability should be entered into upon terms so onerous to the country. That amendment was voted down-it is true, by a small majority-a majority of only 19, but still a majority sufficient for the purpose of carrying through this measure.
Our other principal amendments may be briefly enumerated. First, we moved an Mr. R. L. BORDEN.
amendment to oblige the Grand Trunk Railway Company to pay par for the common stock which it acquires in the Pacific Company. We moved that so as to prevent the rates payable by the people of this country in the future from being affected by watered stock, as they have been affected in the past, not only in this country, but in the United States.- I have been reading some works on the history of rates and the management of railways in the United States. I have not time to-day to go fully into that subject ; but there is not the slightest doubt that in the United States the amount of stock held by bona fide holders has influenced rates, and has been taken into consideration by those who have the control of rates in that country. We do not want any watered stock, and therefore we asked the government to oblige the Grand Trunk Railway Company to pay par for any common stock which it might acquire in the Pacific Company ; but the government called up its obedient majority, and voted down that amendment.
In the next place, we moved an amendment declaring that the Grand Trunk Railway Company, as it controls the Pacific Company, and as it will control it, ought to agree to carry out all the engagements of that company. Again our amendment wras voted down, although there seemed to be good reasons to support it Inasmuch as the Grand Trunk Railway Company obtain all the advantages under this contract, it ought surely to accept the engagements which the Grand Trunk Pacific Company is nominally assuming.
In the third place, we moved a resolution providing that the rates for carriage between Canadian inland points should not be greater than the rates charged between the same points by any route not wholly Canadian. We demanded this ins order that traffic might not be diverted to United States lines south of Winnipeg owned or controlled by the Grand Trunk; and again our amendment was disregarded by the government and again voted down.
We asked that rates upon this line should not exceed the lowest rates between corresponding points by the Canadian Northern Railway, a fairly reasonable proposition ; because, apart from that, we have not any control of rates except that afforded by the general law of the land ; and the arrangement which the Canadian Northern Railway had entered into with the government of Manitoba seemed to afford some guarantee at least that the rates on that line would be fairly low.
and that most important amendment was voted down. That amendment should not have been voted down if the government had at heart the interests of the national ports of Canada. The danger is not from the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway Company, because it has no terminals in the United States. The danger is from the Grand Trunk Railway Company, which has its enormous interests in Portland and Chicago. But when we asked that that company should be bound by the stipulations contained in this contract against the diversion of the traffic, every hon. gentleman on the other side of the House, even those who shouted most loudly for the interests of our Canadian portsj, stood up manfully and voted down our proposal.
We moved an amendment that the government should have power to enforce a fair apportionment of rates between the Grand Trunk system and the Grand Trunk Pacific system, a most important amendment ; but the government called on their supporters to vote that down also.
We moved that the rental of the eastern division should be secured upon the property of the Grand Trunk Pacific. That also was rejected.
We moved that the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway Company should pay a fair rental for any temporary lease of the line from Winnipeg to North Bay. The government did not approve of that amendment and rejected it.
We asked by an amendment that the government should supervise any agreement between the two companies respecting the issue of stock by the Grand Trunk Pacific Company, and thus prevent the creation of watered stock. The government has made a most ignominous surrender with regard to that. Last year over and over again ministers of the Crown declared that the rates payable by the people of this country might be affected by the issue of stock. This year they have permitted the Grand Trunk Railway Company to do that which it was forbidden to do last year. Watered stock is now to be permitted under this contract, and our amendment asking that it should not be permitted was voted down by that same obedient majority which was relied on with regard to the other amendments.
We asked that the government should receive shares of the common stock of the Grand Trunk Pacific Company in proportion to the support given by the government to the enterprise-that the people of this country, who are giving three or four times the support to this enterprise that the Grand Trunk Railway Company is giving, should be considered in the apportionment of stock, that the interests of the country, as well as the interests of the corporation, should be considered. Once more the government called up their majority so worthy to be relied on, and voted this down.
We asked further that alien labour should not be employed in the construction of this railway except where the Department of Labour found it to be necessary. A newfound zeal for the interests of labour was then displayed by the government, and we are promised general legislation to that end. In the meantime, however, we have asked that a special stipulation should be inserted in this contract in order that the Grand Trunk Railway Company should receive notice that in the surveys and in the construction of this road preference must be given to British labour, and in order that those how controlling the surveys and the construction of the road should clearly understand that other things being equal the preference must be given to our own . citizens.
In the next place, we moved that the stock of the Grand Trunk Pacific should not be placed upon the market unless issued payable at par. Surely that was reasonable. Surely it is not the policy of this government that stock issued at five, ten or fifteen cents on the dollar should go subsequently into the hands of bona fide holders at par, and stand in the fixing of rates as if it had been sold in the first instance at par. Surely the policy of the government is not a watered-stock policy ; yet that is the policy contained in this contract. In fact, so far as this stpck is concerned, it may be said that it is not even a good quality of water, and the simile has been used that it is only froth. A watered-stock contract is, however, what the government is submitting to us, a watered-stock policy is what they are advocating. If that be not the case, why did they vote down our amendment that the stock of the Grand Trunk Pacific should only be placed on the market if payable at par V Is there any reason why the people of this country should be saddled down with rates raised to an undue point because the stock does not represent capital invested, but merely the profits of the promoters ?
In the next place, we asked that a provision be inserted to the effect that if the Grand Trunk Railway or the Grand Trunk Pacific should divert traffic to foreign ports, any complaint thereon should be investigated by the Railway Commission, and be reported to parliament for action. If the government was sincere in saying that it desires to prevent diversion of traffic to foreign ports, it would have accepted this amendment, which is of the utmost possible importance to our national ports.
Then we moved a resolution that the prairie section should be completed within four years from the passing of the Act. That was voted down. Although time could not wait last year, the government was very anxious to have it wait this year.
the government might take all or any of the remaining branches. In this way we desired to prevent this country being placed in the position of having to take and operate unprofitable branches without having the option of controlling the situation by taking also all the branches this company might find profitable. We further moved that the government should have haulage rights and running powers over the western division for the same period granted to the company over the eastern division. Both these amendments were rejected.
In this connection it should be added that if, in the public interest, the whole or any portion of any great line of transportation can be more advantageously operated by the country than by a private corporation, then the same justification exists for exercising the right of eminent domain, upon payment of due compensation, as that which permits the government of a great railway corporation to expropriate the business, or property, or undertaking of a farmer, of a merchant or manufacturer.
My night hon. friend smiles, I do not know for what reason he would make any distinction between the two. The principle has been justified in the United States, In Great Britain and in this country, on the ground that it is in the public interest and in the interest of the -whole country, and I say I know of no reason why it should not be exercised in the case I have mentioned with all due regard of course to private interests, because in such cases you must not only be fair, but you must be generous to the person whose property is taken against his will. But so far as the principle itself is concerned, I say that it supports action in the one case as well as in the other.
I took that position last year with regard to the Canadian Pacific Railway, and I am prepared to take it with regard to the Grand Trunk Pacific. I make no distinction between the two, and I say that if the interests of this country should demand in the future that the government shall take over this undertaking and shall itself own the line which is to be constructed, to a very great extent, by means of the aid furnished by the public, this country should have no hesitation in doing so. And a provision of that kind should be inserted in the Bill, in order that the Grand Trunk Railway, the Mr. R. L. BORDEN.
Grand Trunk Pacific Railway and all others interested, may have due notice that this country is prepared to act upon those lines.
Since the dawn of history the great thoroughfares have belonged to the people, have been known as the King's highways, or the public highways, and have been open to the free use of all on payment of a small uniform tax or toll to keep them in repair. But now the most perfect and by far the most important roads known to mankind are owned and managed as private property by a comparatively small number of private citizens. Yet, in all its uses the railroad is the most public of all our roads.
The railroad is justly regarded as a public facility which every person may enjoy at pleasure, a common right to which all are admitted and from which none can be excluded	The railroad exists by virtue of authority proceeding from the state and thus differs in its essential nature from every form of private enterprise. The carrier is invested with extraordinary powers which are delegated by the sovereign and thereby performs a governmental function. ... So far from being a private possession, it differs from every species of property and is in no sense a commodity. Its office is peculiar, for it is essentially public.
While railway transportation in this country is carried on by private capital, it is essentially. a government function. . . . The railway is, from its very nature In respect to the greater part of its business, a virtual monopoly. The essential feature of a government function or of a monopoly is that it excludes the idea of competition.
So that we have in Canada to-day railways aided to the extent of $226,511,113. Besides this there are provincial loans and municipal subscriptions of stock, bringing the grand total up to $231,520,480, or $13,552 per mile for every mile of railway constructed in Canada. Besides this, there have been gifts to these companies of land aggregating at least 60,000,000 acres, or 3,500 acres per mile-lands which when given were worthless, perhaps, but some of which are now very valuable.
In bringing these facts to the attention of the country, 1 am not criticising bargains made in the past, but I am pointing out the enormous aid that these railway corporations have received, and I am suggesting that it is now time for us to pause and consider whether or not in the future we shall carry out the same policy, or whether we shall at least see to it that, in return for any aid afforded to railway construction, the country shall have some interest in the ownership of the roads and some share in the profits resulting from their operation. What returns have we at the present time from these enormous subsidies of money and land ? We have no interest in the roads which have been largely constructed from our own assets and no share in the evergrowing profits arising from the operation of these roads. These profits are, and must be, appropriated for the benefit of the shareholders. We cannot undo the past, as my right hon. friend has said. We cannot interfere with vested rights, and I am not suggesting that we should interfere with vested rights. But let me point out that in considering what is to be done in the future, we have the right to take into account what profits have been made by these companies so largely aided by the state in the past. During the year ending 30th June, 1903, the profits of Canadian railways were no less than $28,583,000. These are the roads that were aided by the country to the extent of nearly $14,000 a mile.
will be insistent that rates shall be so fixed that they may receive a fair return on stock for which they may have paid one hundred cents on the dollar although that stock in the first place may not have contributed ten cents on the dollar to the construction of the railways.
I do not minimize what these railways have done. I admit that they have done a great deal to open up and develop Canada. But we have to pause and consider whether a different policy in the past might not have brought about equally satisfactory results with greater advantages to the country. Suppose that we had undertaken, in the first place to build the Canadian Pacific Railway or some other great railway which yields an ample return; suppose that we make a very large discount for the alleged disadvantages of government ownership, should we not have had a fairly good paying property to-day, and might we not have had at least the same advantages that we now have in the opening up and devefopment of the country ? Could not even the splendid results which have attended railway enterprise in Canada have been gained with less cost to the country and with greater advantage to the country in the shape of a return of some revenue for the enormous public aid that has been given for the construction of these railways.
In North America, state ownership of railways has not made much progress. Perhaps, therefore, we may be overlooking the fact pointed out the other day by my hon. friend from Compton (Mr. Pope) that, outride of Great Britain, Canada and the United States, the total railway mileage of the world is distributed as follows ;-owned by private corporations, 87,834 miles; owned by the governments of various states no less than 146,813 miles. Of fifty-two countries that have been considered in a very able argument presented to the Senate of the United States, forty-two have public railways, while but twenty-nine have private railways ; twenty-one have public railways only, while but nine rely upon private railways only. Let us look very briefly at the experience of one or two countries in this respect. And I am not now making an argument in favour of state ownership, but rather reminding the House that, perhaps, we in Canada have not very much considered this question, and have not looked, as much as wo might have done, to the experience of other countries.
In Belgium, the state owns 2,513 miles of railway, out of a total of 2,845 miles. The operation of these railways resulted in a profit in the year 1900 of more than $11,000,000. Freight and passenger rates have been reduced more tha 40 per cent. A report on the administration of railways in Belgium made to the Royal Commission of Great Britain, states the result thus-and I am quoting from page 464 of Mr. Jeans' work on railway problems.
of government ownership in so far as the Intercolonial is concerned. On the contrary I think there is a stronger sentiment than ever in the minds of the people of Canada in favour of retaining and operating the Intercolonial Railway as a government railway of Canada. By the extension of that railway westward it could do a profitable.business. Its lines in the province of Nova Scotia and southern New Brunswick are profitable and paying although operated at a low freight rate. This line from Montreal westward would be even more profitable. These two profitable portions would ensure fair average results upon the whole system.
The remedy lies in railways under public ownership and operated by a non-partisan commission. The Intercolonial should be freed from the spoils system, placed under such a general manager as Sir Thos. Shaughnessy, Mr. Hays, Mr. Whyte or other efficient railway administrators, and extended to the Rocky mountains and the Pacific ocean.
I am glad I have the support of some of my friends on the other side of the House.


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text:
Leaders and the Vulnerabilities of Being Visible
By Jill Berkowicz and Ann Myers — June 28, 2016 5 min read
Jill Berkowicz and Ann Myers
What does it mean to be visible? Some think it means being out of your office. An old sign found on some leaders doors was "MBWA", management by walking around. It represented a philosophy that the leader was gathering data from observing what was happening and was doing it firsthand. An admirable thing. As an added value the leader was not hidden away in an office but was "out and about", visible for all to see and potentially accessible to all.
Surely, it is important to be present around the building and community. It helps develop relationships. It gives leaders multiple opportunities to see the work of teaching and learning in action. It helps leaders understand the "building in action" and allows them to have greater authenticity when they speak about it. Even the interactions at a game or concert or a civic club luncheon or a grocery store has value. These are all good things.
But, there is a subtle difference between this type of being out and about and what we call "being visible". That is a personal leadership characteristic that involves openness. Increasingly, leadership calls for one to be inclusive and inviting, to be a collaborator. But, being out front as a leader also makes one vulnerable. Isn't it is natural to protect one's self by holding back and isn't it healthy to establish boundaries? Yes, but for a leader, the heightened challenge is that the action of being protective can create an inauthentic presence, even if unintended. This is not one of those capacities that one can learn in an article, book, or training session. It is a life-long evolution that requires opening and withdrawing until one finds the right balance. It is a dance of constant attention, a place where painful mistakes can be made and lessons learned.
There are many ways "showing up" plays out in a leader's work. For the purpose of brevity in a blog post, we chose just one. In his book Meeting Ethical Challenges of Leadership, Craig E. Johnson turned to the work of ethicist Rushworth Kidder's nine checkpoints (pp.202-203). Number 5 is "test for right-versus-right values" and a supporting checkpoint is "truth telling versus loyalty to others and the institution".
Loyalty cuts both ways as they say. In many schools and districts, relationships have been built over time. Principals and superintendents might spend a decade or more working with the same people. And, more than that, teachers often work with the same cohort of teachers for their entire careers. The relationships become personal. Carpooling, shopping and shared exercise or sports evolve into attending each other's weddings, christenings, bar and bat mitzvahs, vacations, hospital bedsides, and funerals. In the best of cases, this contributes to a fabric that is woven with trust and loyalty. So what happens when one person takes on a new leadership role or when the fabric is tested by a leader deeply embedded in the relationship network, makes a very tough decision.
Good people have lost their entire career within this sticky wicket. Why? Let's look at three possible examples. Last year's movie Spotlight offers raw insight into the tug of war between the church's loyalty to itself as an institution and the values it purports to serve and protect the faithful, particularly the children. It took a group of outsiders without the distraction of loyalty to the organization to courageously expose the wrongdoing. Penn State's beloved Joe Paterno, not only lost his job but his life-long reputation because of the uncontrolled actions of Jerry Sandusky, who had been his assistant. Did JoePa not take what was deemed to be the appropriate steps in the face of sexual abuse because he wanted to protect the reputation of the college over the well-being of the children? Or do these two examples connect and did he take his cue from the church to which he was also dedicated, attending daily mass? More recently, there is Ken Starr, President and Chancellor at Baylor University. He was removed from the Presidency and resigned from the Chancellorship following an investigation into the mishandling of sexual assault charges at the school. Was the "mishandling" of a sexual assault an oversight, poor chain of command communication, or a misguided loyalty to the institution?
In these three cases, men in positions of power were not able to cross the loyalty line and clarify a value more important than loyalty. Perhaps it is integrity, or the one to do with respect for all, or with humanity above title and power of any kind. Whatever it is called, it comes from active conscience and it sometimes makes one walk over hot coals on a lonely path. The loyalty to the organization cannot take precedence over loyalty to a higher principle.
The lessons are that this business of doing the right thing when two rights are present is a clear example of how and why leaders must be able to access their highest values, their deeply seated values. Courageous conversations are essential. Whether confronting a single person, a group, being present and true to self is the route to solution. Poet David Whyte, an organizational consultant, lights the way into the kind of visibility that withstands such pressures.
One of the powerful dynamics of leadership is being visible. One of the vulnerabilities of being visible is that when you are visible you can be seen you can be touched and when you can be touched you can be hurt. So all of us have these elaborate ways of looking as if we are showing up and not showing up. Except in an organizational setting it has tremendous consequences on other peoples' lives. We've all worked in organizations where someone is sitting there at a crossroads or a nexus in the organization; they're there but they're not there. Because of that they are blocking everything that is trying to come through their particular portal. So one of the dynamics you have to get over with is this idea that you can occupy a position of responsibility, that you can have a courageous conversation without being vulnerable (David Whyte On Being April 7, 2016).
Connect with Ann and Jill on Twitter or by Email.
Johnson, C.E. (2015). Meething the Ethical Challenges of Leadership: Casting Light or Shadow. Los Angeles: Sage Publications
Illustration by fuzzbones courtesy of 123rf
School Climate Principals Superintendents
The opinions expressed in Leadership 360 are strictly those of the author(s) and do not reflect the opinions or endorsement of Editorial Projects in Education, or any of its publications.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Quarter-plate hand-tinted clear-glass ambrotype with metal back plate; original seal; evidence of asphaltum removal; stain in upper area of image.
Blindstamp on mat, "J. A. Clayton / San Jose".
Full black leather case, with an elaborate geometric scroll motif with jewel motif in center of cover.
Behind image an erased pencil inscription, "Maryu" on green backing paper.
Inscription on metal back plate, "this backing added 5-22-88 / K.A.


"...the user agent string for the latest Dev Channel build of Microsoft Edge: "... Edg/74.1.96.24" We've selected the "Edg" token to avoid compatibility issues that may be caused by using the string "Edge,"..."
We are now deliberately misspelling words in the User-Agent string.
"Ⱥ" and "Ⱦ" are Unicode characters, which increase in length (from 2 to 3 bytes) when lowercased. Nasty.
them: is 10 the highest CVE score you can have?
me: seems like a 10.
them: which returns select * on a quarter million unencrypted credit card #'s.
I thought this was a joke.
"Tonight I was using my iPhone to airplay a March Madness game to our Apple TV. When I misplaced my phone, I used my Apple Watch to ping it. The ping noise played through the Apple TV… Thanks a lot 🙄"


text:
/**
 * @fileOverview Pie Chart
 */
import PropTypes from 'prop-types';
import generateCategoricalChart from './generateCategoricalChart';
import PolarAngleAxis from '../polar/PolarAngleAxis';
import PolarRadiusAxis from '../polar/PolarRadiusAxis';
import { formatAxisMap } from '../util/PolarUtils';
import Pie from '../polar/Pie';

export default generateCategoricalChart({
  chartName: 'PieChart',
  GraphicalChild: Pie,
  eventType: 'item',
  legendContent: 'children',
  axisComponents: [
    { axisType: 'angleAxis', AxisComp: PolarAngleAxis },
    { axisType: 'radiusAxis', AxisComp: PolarRadiusAxis },
  ],
  formatAxisMap,
  defaultProps: {
    layout: 'centric',
    startAngle: 0,
    endAngle: 360,
    cx: '50%',
    cy: '50%',
    innerRadius: 0,
    outerRadius: '80%',
  },
  propTypes: {
    layout: PropTypes.oneOf(['centric']),
    startAngle: PropTypes.number,
    endAngle: PropTypes.number,
    cx: PropTypes.oneOfType([PropTypes.number, PropTypes.string]),
    cy: PropTypes.oneOfType([PropTypes.number, PropTypes.string]),
    innerRadius: PropTypes.oneOfType([PropTypes.number, PropTypes.string]),
    outerRadius: PropTypes.oneOfType([PropTypes.number, PropTypes.string]),
  },
});

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


The Flying Locksmiths Atlanta is an all-inclusive security provider. We encompass services ranging from antique locks and keys, all the way to card access systems, full door replacements, panic devices, door closures, and fully integrated master key systems. We pride ourselves in our ability to provide incredibly fast service, while maintaining a friendly-family like atmosphere.


text:
Q: Parsing JSON with AFNetworking give results with round brackets Here is the simplified JSON file, I need to download it from a net service and parse results in a table!
EDIT: I provide now more precise code, cleaned and formatted by online tool:
{
  "main": [
    {
      "id": 0, <--- float value
      "type": "type0", <--- STRING value
      "valueA": {
        "valueA1": 1, <--- float value
        "valueA2": 2, <--- float value
        "valueA3": 3  <--- float value
      },
      "valueB": {
        "valueB1": 1, <--- float value
        "valueB2": 2  <--- float value
      },
      "valueC": [
        {
          "valueC1": "string0C1", <--- STRING value
          "valueC2": 2, <--- float value
          "valueC3": 3, <--- float value
        }
      ]
    },

FORMATTED by online tool jsonviewer.stack.hu:

I need to parse it with AFJSONRequestOperation, and I write this code:
NSMutableArray *main = [JSON objectForKey:@"main"];
arrayID = [main valueForKey:@"id"];
arrayType = [main valueForKey:@"type"];

NSMutableArray *arrayValueC = [main valueForKey:@"valueC"];
NSMutableString *stringC1 = [arrayValueC valueForKey:@"valueC1"];

// I CANT USE objectForKey, XCode give an exception -[__NSArrayI objectForKey:]: unrecognized selector sent to instance

NSLog(@"id: %@",arrayID);
NSLog(@"type: %@",arrayType);
NSLog(@"string: %@",stringC1);

When I parse, I get this results from NSLog:
id: (
    0,
    1,
    2,
    3,
    4,
    5,
    6,
    7,
    8,
    9
)

type: (
    type0,
    type1,
    type2,
    type3,
    type4,
    type5,
    type6,
    type7,
    type8,
    type9
)

string: (
        (
        "string0C1"
    ),
        (
        "string2C1"
    ),
        (
        "string2C1"
    ),
        (
        "string3C1"
    ),
        (
        "string4C1"
    ),
        (
        "string5C1"
    ),
        (
        "string6C1"
    ),
        (
        "string7C1"
    ),
        (
        "string8C1"
    ),
        (
        "string9C1"
    )
)

As u can see its all perfect, I can extrapolate every value of ID (float) and TYPE (string), but I hate the round brackets in every object of the valueC1 string: how can I get the clean valueC1 without brackets and quotation marks? Please if u can provide some code. Thanks!

A: Don't use valueForKey:. Use objectForKey: instead. This is probably the major problem. But once you use it, you might run into new problem:
The following contains a problem that will manifest itself when arrayValueA is accessed the first time:
NSMutableArray *arrayValueA = [arrayMain objectForKey:@"valueA"];

The element stored at valueA is an object i.e. a dictionary and not an array.
Finally, your simplified JSON is invalid anyway. Several values are missing double quotes, e.g.:
"id": id0

should be:
"id": "id0"

You better shows the real JSON data and the real code.
Update:
You should be able to access the JSON data with the following code:
NSArray *main = [JSON objectForKey:@"main"];
NSDictionary* main0 = [main objectAtIndex:0];
arrayID = [main0 objectForKey:@"id"];
arrayType = [main0 objectForKey:@"type"];

NSArray *arrayValueC = [main objectForKey:@"valueC"];
NSDictionary *elem0 = [arrayValueC objectAtIndex:0];
NSString *stringC1 = [arrayValueC objectForKey:@"valueC1"];

NSLog(@"id: %@",arrayID);
NSLog(@"type: %@",arrayType);
NSLog(@"string: %@",stringC1);

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Lietuvos (Lithuanian)
Slovenščina (Slovenian)
New Zealand passes law decriminalising abortion
Home > Rael > Rael's comments
RAEL'S COMMENT:
New Zealand's parliament has passed a bill decriminalising abortion and allowing women to choose a termination up to 20 weeks into a pregnancy.
Voting to remove the procedure from the country's Crimes Act changes a law that has been in force since 1977.
Previously, two doctors were required to approve an abortion – and this could only happen if there was a "serious danger" to the pregnant woman's health.
The bill passed on its third reading by 68 votes to 51.
An earlier plan to put the issue to a public referendum was abandoned during the proceedings.
"From now abortions will be rightly treated as a health issue," Justice Minister Andrew Little said in a statement following the vote on Wednesday.
"The previous law required a woman seeking an abortion to go through many hoops," he said, adding: "The changes agreed to by parliament will better ensure women get advice and treatment in a more timely way."
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-51955148?fbclid=IwAR16B67UBWEWsZtJyXwBy6XgGwNWKKsxv7pY2USp52etfF1BoL6W9nePqNI
Read the messages given to us by our creators during Rael's UFO encounter in 1973!
Celebration of the Creation of the First Humans on Earth
Celebration of the Raelian New Years Day
Celebration of The Second Encounter
December 09 - 16, 2023
Former colony orders French troops to leave
RAEL'S COMMENT: Good news !


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Is the development designed to make it easy to find your way around?
8a Will the development be easy to find your way around? If not, what could be done to make it easier to find your way around?
Making it easy for people to create a mental map of the place by incorporating features that people will notice and remember. Create a network of well defined streets and spaces with clear routes, local landmarks and marker features. For larger developments it may be necessary to create distinct character areas. Marker features, such as corner buildings17 and public spaces combined with smaller scale details such as colour, variety and materials will further enhance legibility.
Providing views through to existing or new landmarks and local destinations, such as parks, woodlands or tall structures help people understand where they are in relation to other places and find their way around.
Legible features include: distinct character areas (for larger developments), framing views of existing or proposed new landmarks (and/or landscape features) both on- and off- the development site, a well-defined street hierarchy (for example, tree lined avenues can help create a simple but effective street hierarchy) and creating new marker buildings and spaces.
Making it easy for all people to get around including those with visual or mobility impairments.
Identifying important viewpoints within a development, such as views towards the end of a street. Make sure these viewpoints are identified and well considered. Anticipate other, more subtle viewpoints, for example a turn or curve in the street and how best these can be best addressed.
Creating a logical hierarchy of streets. A tree lined avenue through a development can be an easy and effective way to help people find their way around.
Creating a concept plan for a scheme that does not include careful consideration as to how people will create a mental map of the place.
Layouts that separate development from the car, unless the scheme incorporates secure underground car parking.
Creating overly long cul-de-sac developments, rather than a connected network of streets and spaces.
Terminating views down streets with garages, the rear or side of buildings, parking spaces, boundary fences or walls.


Many families like donations to be made to a chosen charity close to their hearts, in memory of their loved one. All donations are made online by debit or credit card payment by choosing the relevant funeral from the list below. Alternatively, to see all the funerals we are presently looking after, where the family have requested we display the details of the funeral service only without any donations, please click 'Current Funerals'.
Please note that 'Memory Giving', similar to other on-line payment services, take a 5% fee from the donation to cover their administrative costs. Debit/credit card payments are transacted via Worldpay who charge up to a 2% fee for processing each donation. These deductions are NOT applicable on any Gift Aid element of a donation and C. Waterhouse & Sons do not receive a fee from you or 'Memory Giving' for donations made through 'Memory Giving'.


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Being locked is being free!
With each year that I have my locs, I wish I had gotten locked up sooner. I would go on and on about them, but I'll keep it simple and do a list of why I love my locks.
1. I wake up and they are done.
2. I can shower and shampoo using the same bar soap (handmade all natural soap) and my hair is done.
3. If I want to I can roller set my hair. Braids it and take it aloose and that's a new style. Wear it in updos and so much more.
Get More Comments on Your Blog!
A few times I've read blogs about people not getting comments and how they feel nobody supports them. Or that AfroMyNaturalHairIsHotFireAndI'veBeenBloggingForManyYears has a clique and they comment on everything she posts. When I first saw these 'comment on my blog posts' I felt pity for the blogger. Then it sort of looks desperate, demanding, and ungrateful. So, I offer a little advice on blogging.
People make resolutions for the new year. I never do. Instead I just try to do a little better each day. I had in mind what I wanted to do and I just started doing it. I wanted to build my own website and I have. I wanted this month to be better than last month and it already is.
How do I do it? I continue to work towards my dreams each day, everyday.
Never give up and give it your all!
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text:
Evening Edition - September 1
9 He performs wonders that cannot be fathomed, miracles that cannot be counted.
Job 5:9 NIV
Sarah Palin loses
In a fairly shocking result, Sarah Palin lost the special election runoff to fill the House seat of the late Alaska Republican Rep. Don Young to Democrat Mary Peltola. It's the first time a Democrat has won that seat in 49 years.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/democrat-mary-peltola-wins-alaska-special-election-fill-remainder-rep-don-youngs-term
Naturally, the media are beside themselves with glee that Palin won't be in the House and that they have a story to flog about the big Democrat comeback and the end of the "red wave" talk. I know the last thing America needs right now is another Democrat in Congress, but before you start to despair, please note that this is in no way reflective of the vast majority of races coming up in November. Indeed, there will be a rematch in November for this seat. This election was just to fill it for a few months, until the end of 2022.
First of all, Alaska is still a very red state. I won't get into the issues with mail-in voting, because I don't want to go down the conspiracy rabbit hole. It was enough that Alaska recently adopted a complicated and confusing ranked choice voting system, which Palin already called for repealing because she claims it gives an unfair advantage to Democrats, and it appears she was right. This is why it took over two weeks just to figure out who won a House seat. Ed Morrissey at HotAir.com has a good explanation of this weird, baffling and ultimately wildly unfair system.
https://hotair.com/ed-morrissey/2022/09/01/baked-alaskan-60-of-voters-cast-ballots-for-republicans-a-democrat-won-n493760
The system asks voters to pick more than one candidate, ranking them in order of preference, so that determining who wins the seat is like predicting the winner of the Final Four. Instead of having two party primaries to pick two clear contenders, the special election primary ballot had voters pick the top four out of 22 candidates: 16 Republicans, six Democrats, two Libertarians and two Independents. In that race, Peltola won only 10% of the vote, with Republicans Palin and Nick Begich winning 27% and 19% respectively.
In the primary election, Peltola received 36.8% of the vote, Palin received 30.2% of the vote, and Begich received 26.2% of the vote. So the Republican vote was 56.4%.
Finally, in the run-off, Begich came in third, so his votes were divided up by how many voters listed either Peltola or Palin as their second choice. Palin got 50.3% of those, Peltola 28.8% and 11,000 failed to fill in a second choice. That means 11,000 voters whose first choice was a Republican saw their votes discarded while Democrat Peltola's margin of victory was only 5,000 votes. Nearly 60% of voters chose a Republican, but the District ended up with a Democrat whose share of votes specifically for her was only 40.2%. Imagine the howls from Stacey Abrams about "voter suppression" and "assaults on our democracy" if the parties had been reversed.
Don't take it too hard, or pay too much attention to the media trying to place a lot of importance on it. Alaska is still a red state, and far more voters wanted a Republican than a Democrat. This race was only a placeholder until the November do-over, when the choice will be clearer and turnout even larger, although the same thing could happen again if Republicans don't start uniting and stop the intraparty squabbling. But if you have to take something away from it, try this:
NEVER let your state adopt this kind of complicated ballot system (another awful idea pioneered by California) that confuses voters, splits votes and puts the wrong candidate into office. And don't get complacent about a "red wave." The Democrats have put in a lot of "insurance" policies in place in the election system to make sure that their protection of "our democracy" isn't derailed by actual democracy. So work, volunteer, donate, campaign, vote and make sure all your Republican friends and relatives VOTE. Do it as if the survival of America depended on it, because it does.
THIS might have been a hoax
I mentioned recently a bizarre story about podcaster and Proud Boys co-founder Gavin McInnes apparently being arrested live in mid-podcast. But I said at the time that nobody was able to confirm whether it was real or a hoax. There's been no further information since, which is suspicious in itself. Now, someone who knows McInnes claims that he privately admitted it was a hoax. The source isn't exactly reliable, but he did provide screenshots of alleged text messages from McInnes confirming it, for what that's worth. Here are details, but I'd suggest you take anything involving this story with a pillar of salt that makes Lot's wife look like a single grain.
https://www.unz.com/aanglin/owen-benjamin-says-gavin-mcinnes-hoaxed-raid/
Here's what all those months/years of COVID school lockdowns did to America's children
And some people are still pushing for more of them. Read this and vote accordingly.
https://www.foxnews.com/us/students-math-reading-scores-covid-19-pandemic-saw-steepest-decline-decades-education-department
Biden=Grandpa Simpson
When not making insane claims about the muzzle velocity of AR-15s or calling his political opponents fascists and terrorists, or suggesting that an armed citizenry couldn't possible defeat an army with superior weaponry…
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/biden-blasted-for-mocking-e2-80-98brave-e2-80-99-second-amendment-defenders-you-need-an-f-15-to-fight-america-not-a-gun/ar-AA11i6zJ
…(apparently forgetting about the American Revolution and the fact that one year ago, he surrendered Afghanistan – and a lot of our superior weaponry – to a collection of rifle-toting barbarians)…
https://redstate.com/brutalbrittany/2022/08/31/report-shows-taliban-got-7-billion-in-military-equipment-as-biden-targets-us-gun-owners-and-maga-n620596
President Biden shared another of his bizarre anecdotes that sound like Grandpa Simpson describing the good old days when men wore onions on their belts. This time, it was a story that he's somehow never recounted before that anyone can recall, about a time when he somehow found himself in an upper floor of a Victorian apartment building in Delaware. An old woman who lived there (now dead so he wouldn't name her, conveniently) told him she could hear gangs downstairs plotting crimes but was afraid to tell anyone. But he gave her the police's phone number (911?) so she could anonymously report it.
And then the crime rate dropped, he said: "Not a joke." Maybe not, but it sounds like the plot of a 1940s movie.
https://www.westernjournal.com/wildest-biden-tale-yet-says-single-handedly-helped-elderly-lady-take-gang/
As Joe Biden anecdotes go, that's actually one of the more believable ones. At least compared to the rest of his speech, like when he claimed that every Republican voted against funding and supporting the police, when they actually voted against a massive, trillion-dollar Democrat boondoggle bill that happened to have a little funding for the police in it.
If that story really does have any truth to it, it must've happened before today's Democrats came into power. Thanks to them, calling the police to report a crime and having them arrest someone is also starting to feel like a dim memory out of a 1940s movie.
Ten more unpleasant facts about EVs
Here are ten more unpleasant facts about electric cars that Democrats would rather we not know about the vehicles they're trying to force us all to buy
https://pjmedia.com/culture/marktapscott/2022/08/30/10-facts-electric-vehicle-advocates-dont-want-you-to-know-n1625157
That doesn't include some of the ones I've already written about, like the way that towing a trailer vastly reduces an EV's estimated mileage per charge, or that driving an older gas-powered car actually creates less pollution than manufacturing and charging a new EV. That would make it a dozen problems. Now, let's make it a baker's dozen with this story about the sticker shock a man got when he discovered how much it was going to cost to replace his EV's battery (nearly $30,000, far more than the car itself was worth.)
https://www.theblaze.com/news/florida-man-viral-cost-electric-vehicle-battery
And since 13 problems is an unlucky number, I'll add a couple more for the poor folks who are unlucky enough to be living in California and governed by idiots.
https://pjmedia.com/vodkapundit/2022/08/31/california-warns-here-come-the-blackouts-dont-charge-your-car-n1625210
Just one week ago, California bureaucrats passed a rule mandating that all vehicles in the state be "alternative fuel vehicles" by 2035. Well, the alternative fuel had better be soybeans or something because this week, they're asking residents to turn off their air conditioners because they can't even generate enough power to meet the needs they have now, much less to charge tens of millions of electric vehicles. And this while they're diligently working to shut down yet another vital, safe and non-CO2-producing nuclear power plant because…well, I assume because some green activists saw "The China Syndrome" when they were kids and wet themselves.
One picture is worth 1,000 words, but not 1,000 spectators
Here's why the media never show you a side shot of those rousing public appearances President Biden makes. He's not just trying to shake hands with an invisible person, he's speaking to an invisible crowd.
https://redstate.com/nick-arama/2022/08/31/heres-the-reason-they-dont-show-the-wide-shot-at-bidens-events-n620797
Permalink: https://www.mikehuckabee.com/2022/9/evening-edition-september-1
Sharon Faulkner
Bimbo Pelosi is a booze and botox sodden bag of bile as brain dead as Biden. You MUST be a Blue Reicher and if people didn't vote for Palin why did she get the most votes? Sheersh.
Other EV Issues:
Black/Brownouts
State electric rates
Replace battery
EV Cost
Lack EV Techs
Lack Commercial Chargers
Comm Chargers if any disrepair
No Emerg Road Service
No Incentives
No transition time for new energy ( CA)
Stephen K Lentz
"It was enough that Alaska recently adopted a complicated and confusing ranked choice voting system"
Here we go again. You rinos complaining about something the jackasses did AFTER they do it!! And just WHAT did you rinos do to STOP it while the jackasses were enacting it?? THIS is the problem in our "political" system. The jackasses are DOERS and the rinos are TALKERS!!!
The President is seemingly becoming more confused each performance. The Cabinet meetings must be very interesting. Of course most of the Cabinet is less than competent. At least Biden has the excuse of some type of old age dementia.
I predict that the Dems will wait until after the midterms and then Biden will gracefully resign due to reasons of health. Think of the mileage for the left, first woman President and a minority as well. Kamala will implode. Actually Nancy would make a more articulate President than all of them as she is supposedly quite intelligent. She could inflict a great deal of damage, obviously, but I suspect she would be tougher with foreign policy. As to foreign policy, Biden doesn't know what country he is in while traveling and Kamala would just giggle if China attacked Taiwan.
I am not sure why Trump, et al, are considered fascists. All of the things, like controlling the message and indoctrinating students is pure fascism. Add that to a corrupt Justice system and there you have it. I can hear my lib friends saying " we never thought it would come to this". Ring a bell. Frankly, .i have never figured out how the French, Polish, Dutch and Belgiums have ever forgiven the .Germans.
Elizabeth Floyd
Thank you for bringing up the "Ranked Choice Voting System". I think it is already in Wa State although I never remember voting for it. I vote in every election. I will have to be more alert. I usually send money to the candidates I choose, especially after Mitch McConnell pulled RNC funds from Alaska and Arizona, and after Tim Scott endorsed Lisa Murkowski, who usually votes with Schumer. I'm no millionaire, but I trust you, Pompeo and Charlie Kirk's insights, so thank you. My governor is a fan of PP and LGBTQ and my views have not been aligned with him for a long time. And my church after a couple of weeks reopened and never closed down again. We take the Bible for what it states, "Do not forsake the assembling of yourselves together". We need each other.
James Drury Jr.
Thanks Mike & Staff!
larry rippere
Biden's small audience? Later the video camera panned right and did indeed show a full crowd. Gotta be careful with that journalism, Mike!
But yes: I do live in CA and don't know whether to laugh or cry over this electric thing. Gotta open up 5 new gas-fired power plants! And ban gas connections in new housing. You would be amazed to see how many of my neighbors here actually own Teslas!!!!
ken moore
EV COMMENS it normally takes less than 5 minutes to put gas in a vehicle the EV can take 4-6 HOURS so are EV recharge centers going to offer a place to eat and perhaps a nap ha ha to the stupid's that want to FORCE EV'S outside the golf course
Kenneth T elly
Regards Palin losing.
She should have. All the people that she deserted when she resigned a position she was elected to, do have memories.
Yes, it's a shame that a democrat beat her, but she was possibly the worst choice for the party to support.
You don't support a quitter.


Well, I'm moving shop for 2 months. I have a new website built here, which is allowing a lot of things I can't very easily do here, all in one place.
I may be back, depending on if I decide that mobileme is worth the hundred bucks a year.


Much food for thought, as usual. I filled in the gaps with my own experiences, just as you said. I've always led from the front, but the obstacles my team and I overcame never included somebody shooting bullets and things at us. If dying was a possible outcome, I might have to telecommute.
You had me until the last sentence.


text:
Q: Is it possible to drive a HDMI output without exact clock frequencies (74.25 MHz, etc.)? I'm driving a TFP410 parallel to DVI (HDMI) converter using a DM368. Unfortunately I can't generate the exact clock frequencies required for HDMI CEA modes (74.25 MHz, 148.5 Mhz, etc.), I'm stuck with dividing a PLL. The PLL is 680 MHz, so the frequencies within the 720p-1080p video range I can use are basically 68, 75.5, 85, 97, 113 and 136 MHz.
I've written a kernel EDID parser that I'm using to get timing requirements from the monitors and feed them to the video encoder onboard the DM368. I know the video timings I'm sending to the TFP410 serialiser (HS/VS active lines, front/back porch, sync pulse width) are correct since that I'm testing them at the DVI/HDMI output using a development board where I can compare them with working signal sources. I'm also parsing maximum clock, min-max refresh ratios and keeping them into account when deciding the output clock.
Despite all this, I can't get the image to display on the oldest monitors (newer monitors are fine). I've spent quite some time on this, so I can tell you that for example, in one of the oldest monitors I can display an image by increasing the active size (720p to ~730p), or decreasing the clock (from 75.5 to 68 MHz). However, this approach doesn't really scale.
Are my problems due to my imperfect frequencies or is there something else I should look into? Unfortunately I can't add an external 74.25 MHz clock source at this stage.
HDMI is complicated and I'm afraid I don't understand it properly. I just wish monitors respected what they advertise in their EDID, but I'm starting to believe no one uses those specs anyway (max clock, min/max fps, etc.).

A: The thing is, once you go outside the spec, anything can happen (and usually does on a major customer demo!).
You might get it to work, sort of, sometimes, but as soon as you break spec, you are responsible for whatever does not work reliably.
I am not at all surprised that some monitors work and some do not, IME it is usually the computer monitors that are fussy while tellies will often take any old rubbish.
There are about half a dozen or so sets of frame timings that pretty much everything accepts, basically the broadcast derived ones, but they tend to need that clock that you don't have, and yea, EDID is often best ignored (or at least taken with caution), buggy does not begin to describe some of them.
One gotcha is to check the sound, as the dividers to derive the 48K audio rate from the pixel clock will be off, and that may cause issues.
Time for a board respin?