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Rob Ford's Toronto

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pattycakes said:
Ex-Montreal Girl

You're right about the whole family being dysfunctional. Renata has been in the Ford family long enough to get dragged into the dysfunction, and I wouldn't be surprised if she used either booze or a "mother's little helper" to get through her days. I hope her parents can help her, she needs to get away from this toxic family, or her kids will repeat the cycle.
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OR you can have a catastrophic failure of the status quo that would make returning to the old patterns of behaviour impossible or exceedingly difficult - outing all the skeletons of the Ford family would be one. Is it ethical? Perhaps not, but it's certainly more ethical than enabling unintended self-destruction through inaction.

AoD
 
These people are so out of touch with reality that they are clueless to the fact, for example, when Doug Ford goes on CNN, it's not because CNN values his political opinions or punditry. He is comic relief from Obamacare.

And I am not prepared to cut any of them any slack, AoD. I was just saying that assuming that Renata is being physically abused is a big assumption.
 
Ex-Montreal Girl said:
And I am not prepared to cut any of them any slack, AoD. I was just saying that assuming that Renata is being physically abused is a big assumption.
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Oh her very presence at the presser after what Ford said, and her language is suggestive of so, so much. One can definitely feel the tension there - it's almost like she is on a leash. Her last words to the reporters (roughly) "I think my husband has said enough" is oh so loaded.

AoD
 
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TOperson said:
I knew right away what you meant... but I don't want to think too much about what that says about me...DENY DENY DENY
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Me too. AoD, your anger is totally justifiable, but please ... there's already been more than enough this week to make ppl want to vomit with disgust or curl up into a ball and moan with pain.
 
Ex-Montreal Girl said:
These people are so out of touch with reality that they are clueless to the fact, for example, when Doug Ford goes on CNN, it's not because CNN values his political opinions or punditry. He is comic relief from Obamacare.

And I am not prepared to cut any of them any slack, AoD. I was just saying that assuming that Renata is being physically abused is a big assumption.
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Doug doesn't know he's a joke, that's what is so frightening. The more he talks, the worse it gets, keep talking Doug.:rolleyes:
 
Just watching Piers Morgan and they are discussing Obamacare and Obama's poor approval rating (39%). Piers said "to put these poll numbers into perspective Obama's numbers are 6 points lower than the crack smoking mayor of Toronto" (everyone on the panel had a good laugh).

It's worth noting that Ford's latest approval numbers are higher than Kathleen Wynnes latest approval numbers!
 
AlvinofDiaspar said:
Andrew Coyne on the matter of blame:

http://www.canada.com/news/Toronto+Mayor+Ford+enablers+most+culpable+strategists/9172703/story.html

AoD
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Props to Coyne. I disagree with him utterly on fiscal policy but he is pretty good regarding decency and honesty, and is seriously articulate. Quote from what he wrote (my bold) ...

And of all his enablers, the most culpable are the strategists, the ones who fashioned his image as the defender of the little guy, the suburban strivers, against the downtown elites, with their degrees and their symphonies — the ones who turned a bundle of inchoate resentments into Ford Nation. Sound familiar? It is the same condescending populism, the same aggressively dumb, harshly divisive message that has become the playbook for the right generally in this country, in all its contempt for learning, its disdain for facts, its disrespect of convention and debasing of standards. They can try to run away from him now, but they made this monster, and they will own him for years to come.
 
CalgarianExOntarian said:
Props to Coyne. I disagree with him utterly on fiscal policy but he is pretty good regarding decency and honesty, and is seriously articulate. Quote from what he wrote (my bold) ...

<And of all his enablers, the most culpable are the strategists, the ones who fashioned his image as the defender of the little guy, the suburban strivers, against the downtown elites, with their degrees and their symphonies — the ones who turned a bundle of inchoate resentments into Ford Nation. Sound familiar? It is the same condescending populism, the same aggressively dumb, harshly divisive message that has become the playbook for the right generally in this country, in all its contempt for learning, its disdain for facts, its disrespect of convention and debasing of standards. They can try to run away from him now, but they made this monster, and they will own him for years to come.>
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I agree with him on the latter bit, the disdain for facts and caffe lattes.

But I don't think he has it on the strategists angle because Ford was Ford when he was just an unknown, or relatively unknown, Councillor. I didn't even notice him until "the fat fuck" video, for example -- although admittedly, as an ex-Montrealer, I was never much engaged in Toronto's municipal politics.

His first and biggest enablers were not his strategists but his family way way before he made it to city hall. He hired strategists that he knew would go along to get along. I seriously doubt any of those guys ever challenged him until the crack video came out -- and then the rats started dive-bombing off the ship.

I am going to guess that Ma Diane was the type of parent who would intimidate teachers into passing her failure son(s) into the next grade even though they didn't belong there. They coped by becoming bullies and compensated by gaining status at the high school (a Frank Zappa reference) by dealing drugs.

I will also bet that one or more of the elder Ford were boozers themselves and Diane and Father Ford only stuck together for political appearances' sake. I bet they yelled at each other a lot.

I know the type well.

Of course, this might all be total BS but I am fascinated by the psychopathology here, by how two guys can be so disconnected from reality and in positions of power.
 
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CalgarianExOntarian said:
Props to Coyne. I disagree with him utterly on fiscal policy but he is pretty good regarding decency and honesty, and is seriously articulate. Quote from what he wrote (my bold) ...

And of all his enablers, the most culpable are the strategists, the ones who fashioned his image as the defender of the little guy, the suburban strivers, against the downtown elites, with their degrees and their symphonies — the ones who turned a bundle of inchoate resentments into Ford Nation. Sound familiar? It is the same condescending populism, the same aggressively dumb, harshly divisive message that has become the playbook for the right generally in this country, in all its contempt for learning, its disdain for facts, its disrespect of convention and debasing of standards. They can try to run away from him now, but they made this monster, and they will own him for years to come.
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Indeed, Kouvalis et al, are you listening?

AoD
 
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