Oh Canada Indeed

And now we get to watch what happens in a democratic country when the full weight of government, armed with a law for essentially wartime emergencies, is turned upon peaceful demonstrators:

MSN:

Police in Ottawa have begun to arrest truckers who have occupied the centre of the Canadian capital for three weeks in protest at Covid-19 restrictions and vaccine mandates.

The move comes after two of the protest leaders were taken in custody on Thursday night and much of downtown was designated a secure area behind 100 checkpoints. A third protest organiser was arrested on Friday during a Facebook livestream.

Canada’s parliament has shutdown and cancelled plans for a debate about the implementation of the Emergencies Act amid the ongoing police operation.

. . .

Police moved in on Friday morning and have been slowly, but steadily advancing, pushing protesters back towards the centre of the convoy. By lunchtime there had been 21 arrests and 21 vehicles towed — other trucks have reportedly left after officers threatened to smash their windows.

Charming, that.  Nothing says law and order like the Police openly threatening to performing acts of malicious destruction of property to peaceful demonstrators.

Also read that section again - Canada's Parliament - which should have met today to debate and decide on whether Trudeau's invocation of the Emergencies Act is lawful was ordered shut down.  Nice trick to extend these extra-ordinary powers without having any debate or vote on it.  It both spares Liberal Party members form having to vote for or against, and let's Trudeau run wild with it for longer, likely to make cracking down on the truckers a done deal before anything can be done about its invocation.

Meanwhile, as reported in the New York Post: Justin Trudeau sparks outrage after accusing Jewish conservatives of supporting swastikas.

Yes, he actually did that and has yet to apologize.  Schmuck.

Michigan Citizens' Ballot Proposals For Access To Other People's Pockets

Alexis de Tocqueville once wrote:

"The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money."

We've certainly gotten to that point, and then some.

In a demonstration of direct democracy, some activists have discovered they can push ballot proposals to give them access, through the government, to other people's money.

The Detroit Free Press: 3 citizen initiatives could get OK for signatures today

The initiatives include:

To allow for voting by mail: Read that as "Make vote fraud easier".

To increase the corporate tax rate to 11%: As one wag in the comments noted, it's the "Help businesses move to Ohio" initiative. Hey if you can get corporations to pay for your government largess and you don't understand the economic effect on both business and your economic opportunities as a result, why not right? What could possibly go wrong?

To force small businesses to have up to 40 hours worth of paid sick days and other businesses up to 70. That won't increase employer costs and move small businesses even closer to the edge now will it?

I'm surprised the initiatives didn't just cut out all the games and instead push a ballot proposal demanding the State of Michigan set a minimum wage of $60 per hour to make everyone in the state middle class.

After all if they vote for it, it must be make such a result, right?