Mediaboss Marketing

So: One Toronto? That was a cute idea. Sounds nice in speeches. Makes a comforting tagline to get the rubes feeling all soft n fuzzy.

But when it comes to important stuff like appointing city councils executive and the chairs of the committees and agencies that will handle the citys business, new mayor John Tory wasted no time in deciding on a different governing theme. More of a LetsGetReadyToRumbleToronto kind of thing.

Its a weird choice for a guy who made moving on from the divisiveness of the Ford years the key plank in his election campaign, but here we are. Its hard to read Torys slate of proposed appointments, unveiled yesterday on the eve of councils first meeting, as anything other than a declaration of war against the downtown progressives who formed the opposition against Rob Ford.

Exhibit A: Tory suggests reappointing Frances Nunziata as council speaker, after a term in which she served as the constant symbol of the incompetent, truculent incivility of the Ford administration. As the moderator of council meetings, she never missed a chance to openly insult or shout down those she disagreed with, displaying little ready understanding of the procedural rules she was charged with enforcing, and little inclination to enforce them evenly when she did.

Further exhibits: Nine of the 13 members of Torys executive committee, which sets councils agenda, will be people who served in that capacity under Ford. Torys budget chief is Gary Crawford, a man whose dronelike fealty to Ford was so complete that his single newsworthy accomplishment last term was painting a portrait to hang on Mama Diane Fords wall.

Not a single councillor from the old city of Toronto will head up a standing committee (though two mushy middle councillors Ana Bailao and Mary Margaret McMahon will serve at-large on the executive). Not a single member of the NDP has been given any position of influence at all.

The one token gesture to progressives is the naming of Pam McConnell from Toronto-Centre Rosedale as one of three ceremonial deputy mayors. (The others are the mostly silent Ford stooge Vincent Crisanti and Slinky-like ward-heeler Glenn De Baeremaeker.) These extraneous deputy mayors have no statutory or procedural significance. They are human props to be trotted out for events that require ribbon cutting and civic-unity platitude uttering.

Now, the statutory deputy mayor that is, the actual deputy mayor is a different matter. Denzil Minnan-Wong will occupy that role, and seems set to be the second most powerful member of the government, after Tory himself. Minnan-Wong is going to sit on the boards, in Torys place, of both Invest Toronto and Build Toronto, as some kind of apparent development czar. Hes going to sit in Torys place on the board of Waterfront Toronto, an agency against which hes pursued a bizarre and spiteful vendetta for years. Hell head up the civic appointments committee, which will choose the people who run everything from libraries to community centres to the parking authority. Hell head up the striking committee that selects members of council committees, and head up the labour relations committee that negotiates with the citys unions.

Newly powerful Minnan-Wong is a smart conservative who has delighted in playing the moustache-twirling villain to downtown councillors for years, tying bike lanes to the railroad tracks and tossing lit-fused cherry bombs at pedestrian initiatives. He was the bad cop to Karen Stintzs good cop in opposition to David Miller, and has been the bad cop to the Ford brothers Keystone Cops since then. It was under his chairmanship of the public works committee that it produced vindictive surprise motions to kill the Jarvis bike lanes and the Fort York bridge.

When it came to firing up divisions in the city, the Ford brothers and Giorgio Mammoliti provided more explosive public flare-ups, but Minnan-Wong often more skillfully poured policy gas on the blaze. Effective? Often. But hes the opposite of a unifying figure.

Read more from the original source:
John Tory appointments put an end to the idea of unity: Keenan

San Francisco progressives dont win elections and its our own damn fault. Our vision could be relevant to a majority, so we should act accordingly. Our big yurt includes unions and other organizations accountable to an imperfect membership, nonprofits accountable both to constituents and New York foundations, and freewheeling activists accountable only to the tiny Audre Lorde in their heart. Theres no reason bicycle separatists and hotel workers should be allies, but they are. At best, we end up yelling in the same direction. Everywhere else, San Francisco equals radical, kinky, idealistic freakshows. Who will inspire wide-eyed rebels in backwaters like San Jose to introduce a farkakte policy that will be common sense eventually if we cant pass laws from the future here? We should win electionsbut dont because were stupid and annoying and no one likes us. But, you object, people do like us. Yes they do, if you only hang out at the Sad Documentary Film Festival. Were stupid because we never learn. Every time we lose, its the same debrief: we cant win only with white progressives; we have to win more votes and increase turnout among communities of color; absentee voters; massively outspent; lower turnout in off years; maybe we should be cool to women. We believe our own hype. Bill OReillys caricatures of us also suit us. For a long time, San Francisco boasted a high enough density of us that we could flimflam to victory. The activism where we only ever talk to other activists about activism in an infinite feedback loop Mobius strip of self-referential activism has fostered awful ideas about Power. Our sweep of supervisorial races in the aughts let us procrastinate reckoning with long-term problems. We call a protest and 50 other activists might turn up who happened to bike by, and we think we did something, even if we never talk to a regular person. Its as if we dont really want to win, while the other side is quietly privatizing everything. Did I say, privatizing? I meant, sharing. San Francisco progressivism can degenerate into a left-wing cronyism thats about whom we drink with, not the work we do. Thats why people dont like us. Were like an exclusive clique no one wants to join. We bum people out. We want everyone to know how miserable things are, and how superior we are for knowing it. We pretend the Fingerpainting Pansexual TIC-Owners of Eastern Hayes Valley Democratic Club is a credible coalition partner. We burn bridges over obscure beefs. We include people whose only activism is calling people whores on Facebook. Some of us need a hug, not to be anointed the voice of the community. San Francisco is not now and never has been majority progressive. Although our patron saint is Harvey Milk, Dan White was from here. Which means that since David Campos is the intellectual descendent of Harvey Milk, then tech mogul Ron Conway is the intellectual descendent of Dan White. Because having a billion dollars makes you more likely to be a sociopath, because both Conway and White embody backlash politics against uppity minorities, and because bullets and evictions both effectively dispose of us riffraff. Winning elections requires finally learning the lessons we dont learn every year. For starters, we may have to wake up before 10 a.m. Well need to do something truly subversive, like schlep to Visitacion Valley to ask people what they think. We may need to shoehorn engaging those voters for whom Harvey Milk is just a Humphry Slocombe flavor into our busy schedule of Burning Man decompression parties, Yelping and building puppets. Surely by now my comrades are poised to denounce me. Heres an out-of-the-box notion, though it may go against our mission: how about we try winning for once instead? We could achieve the leftist Holy Grail: high-rise affordable housing on Billionaires Row. Its on my bucket list. Whos in? Nato Green is a standup comedian, San Francisco native, and union activist. He perform standup every Friday with The Business at Hemlock Tavern and hosts a podcast called The Nato Sessions.

Read more from the original source:
A recipe for a SF progressive comeback at the polls

MANILA Dressed as a Katipunero, actor Robin Padilla attended the November 30 Bonifacio Day rites led by Bagong Alyansang Makabayan in Liwasang Bonifacio.

Before the main program started where he read the 14 code of conduct of the Katipunero written by Emilio Jacinto, he dropped by at the campout of the 300-plus Manilakbayan ng Mindanao.

Padilla expressed support to the campaign of Manilakbayan and vowed that he will join the struggle of the indigenous peoples of Mindanao since he had been struggling for the welfare of indigenous peoples anyway. Padilla told the lumad leaders he would also approach his fellow celebrities supportive of cultural minorities, for example Dingdong Dantes, Piolo Pascual, Venus Raj.

Datu Jomorito Guaynon, spokesman of Manilakbayan ng Mindanao, told Bulatlat.com that what Robin Padilla promised is significant to them. As Padilla quipped, many people may play deaf and blind to the indigenous peoples struggle and calls, but if actors and actresses also speak out, these people may unite and throw support. Padilla said he can lend support that way.

Padilla addressed the protesters at Liwasang Bonifacio as fellow revolutionaries.

Text and photos by MARYA SALAMAT

The rest is here:
Robin Padilla joins progressives commemoration of Andres Bonifacio

The All Progressives Congress federal lawmakers in the House of Representatives have berated the Ekiti Governor, Mr. Ayodele Fayose, over the leadership crisis rocking the state House of Assembly.

They were reacting to the purported removal of Dr. Adewale Omirin, as the Speaker of the Ekiti State House of Assembly, and his replacement with Dele Olugbemi by 10 pro-Fayose lawmakers.

The Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Communications, Mr. Oyetunde Ojo and a member representing Ekiti South Federal Constituency II, Mr. Bamidele Faparusi, vowed that the matter would be raised on the floor of the House as a motion anytime the House resumed from recess.

Speaking in Ode-Ekiti, headquarters of Gbonyin Local Government Area of the State on Friday, the Lawmakers said the House will not watch helplessly when its regulatory powers over the Houses of Assembly was being threatened.

Ojo said, Available facts showed that Omirin never planned to impeach the Governor, but only called for due process to be followed in the screening of the Commissioner-nominees. This is what democracy is all about. The process cannot allow you to assume a dictatorial status.

The APC lawmaker added that the party was well-positioned to defeat the Peoples Democratic Party in the 2015 general elections by ensuring that candidates with grassroots appeal were picked.

He said, You can see that many of our members had to scale the fence last week to defend democracy. If not, what happened to Omirin in the hands of the PDP in Ekiti would have happened to Hon. Aminu Tambuwal. That is why we have to be more vigilant.

You can see that nobody is contesting primaries with me in my constituency because the people felt I have represented them well. Let politics be based on performance and the peoples wish and not by act of brigandage as being done by PDP.

In the last Governorship election, PDP came as an opposition and won. So the chances of APC are very bright in 2015. We will defeat PDP roundly in all elections because we have done the people proud, he said.

Faparusi urged Fayose and the PDP lawmakers to bury their heads in shame for allegedly working against democracy that made them.

More:
APC Reps berate Fayose over Ekiti Assembly crisis

Former Vice President and All Progressives Congress presidential aspirant, Atiku Abubakar, on Saturday sought the support of delegates of the party in Ondo state in his bid to fly the partys flag in next years election.

He held several meetings with the delegates and party officials at the Royal Bird Hotel, Alagbaka before moving to the APC secretariat where he was received by the state Chairman, Isaac Kekemeke.

He told journalists in Akure shortly after the meetings that the issue of consensus candidate was no longer feasible in the current calculations.

He said, We have gone past the stage of reaching any consensus or producing a consensus candidate.

He noted that his meetings with delegates in Ondo State was fruitful and encouraging.

Asked if he stood any chances against front runner, Muhammadu Buhari, Atiku said he would prove his popularity at the primaries proper.

He assured that he would emerge victorious in the contest irrespective of the seeming popularity of his main opponent.

Chairman of APC in the state, Isaac Kekemeke, said the party saw Atikus visit as that of an elder visiting members of his family.

He said, What we know is that any of our partys aspirants who emerge would be better that Goodluck Jonathan.

We have not taken any position as a party on any aspirant. But we are excited at the visit of Atiku as an elder in the party.

See the rest here:
Primaries: Atiku woos Ondo delegates, rules out consensus