As IF Times

link:  https://www.rebelnews.com/nova_scotia_premier_defends_right_to_wear_poppy_after_judges_demand_staffers_remove_them

One of the most annoying things in recent modern life is the phenomenon of “shrinkflation”.  As everyone has discovered by now, the price of everything has noticeably increased in our daily lives.  Why this has happened is a topic for another discussion, but suffice to say, it’s an issue that affects mostly everyone profoundly unless you are part of a government pay regime.

Let’s clarify what this is.  Consumers become more reluctant to purchase a given product because prices increase.  For example, a bag of potato chips that used to cost 3 dollars is now 4 dollars. People notice these things and thus, they avoid buying these more expensive chips.  What to do?  Well, a genius marketing fix was created.  Why not keep prices as they once were….but decrease the amount of product being sold in the package?  This stroke of genius has been embraced by all consumer companies and thus, producers maintain their saleability on store shelves.

If the producers were totally honest, they should re-label their products for transparency, thus M&M’s would simply be “M” and potato chips would be “some chips of potato”.  That’s not even mentioning the fact that many products aren’t even as they are implied.  Kraft single slices aren’t even cheese and thus, they are not allowed to label it as such. Thus, in this way, producers can hide from consumers the fact that the product that they’re accustomed to consuming is not the same as before.  It’s not exactly bait and switch, but it is a subterfuge nonetheless.

This genius technique of selling  much less of something than what is advertised is one which the political establishment has adopted with great success.  The best example of this is the nation once known as Canada.  I say once known, because the packaging has long outlived the actual contents.

Similar to the deceptive packaging described above, Canada is still regarded by some as a proud, free nation, welcoming to all and benefactor to the planet. In fact, the labelling on the package, aka the national anthem, states boldly, “the true north strong and free”. Who doesn’t recognize the unofficial icon of Canada which is a forthright, broad shouldered, Dudley Do Right of a Mountie. This used to represent the general “goodness” and decency of the nation, or as a former prime Minister invoked, “da Canadian values”.

The main pillar of Canadian-ness, if there actually is one, is that of a free,  lawful and peaceful society.

However, if there was any nation in the world best representing the phenomenon of “shrinkflation”, it’s Canada.  Recently, the premier of Nova Scotia had to go to court to fight for the right to wear a poppy on Remembrance Day, a long honored Canadian tradition. Ironically, this is the day on which Canadians honor those that fought and died in wars for the preservation of the free society in which we live today. It was a judge that wanted to prevent this. There is so much angst about offending virtually anybody who complains loudly enough that Canadians are willing to omit all traditional Canadian customs and values. Canadians are notorious for accommodating any and all sorts of complainers, in the name of inclusivity.

THE cornerstone of a free society is the sanctity of free speech. This liberty is specifically enshrined in the foundational document of the Constitution of The United States.  Because this is the foundation of any free society, it is also explicitly written in the Canadian Charter of Rights:

“…Section 2(b) of the Charter guarantees “freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression including freedom of the press and other media or communication” This right is recognize as a fundamental freedom and is protected against actions by all levels of government…”

Seems pretty clear, BUT WAIT!  There also follows a weasel clause which states:

“…it also allows for reasonable limits on expression if those limits are prescribed by law and can be demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society…”

In essence, it’s free unless someone decides it’s not a good idea.  So it’s really only a strong suggestion.  As we know, any vacillations in wording on laws are like small holes in a house. Like rodents, politicians will find their way inside.  Thus, the nation has prohibitions on what can be said online under penalty of fines or jail for non-compliance.  This is a page taken from the parent nation, the UK.  Access to certain internet site are now blocked if they don’t conform to official government approval. When asked how Canadians would access information, they are referred to, you guessed it, the official government media outlet, the CBC.

Sounds like political shrinkflation to me. The Canada of today is not what they were selling even a decade ago.  At the very least, change the national anthem to reflect this reality.  Though I’m not sure how they’ll fit “the true north, weak and not really free” into music stanzas.

Who doesn’t despise politicians? It’s a profession as ancient as the “oldest” one and the similarities are quite striking. They both claim to make your life better; they tell you things you want to hear; but in reality, they both cost you money and in many cases, you’re actually worse off.  In reality, the true purpose of both of their jobs is to get you to use them again.

Nothing has changed much in our lifetime except that the compensation for being in the political racket has vastly outpaced the compensation from the more pedestrian ‘oldest’ profession. In fact the ability to enrich themselves is quite a remarkable skill since politicians are able to parlay somewhat nominal salaries into improbable fortunes during their terms.  They all seem to have miraculous money management skills; at least personally.

In practice, politicians come and go, at least in so-called democracies. The premise is that if the citizens are not amused with the activities of the incumbents, they get tossed out at the next election; provided of course that they actually hold an election.

If only it were that simple.  What politicians leave behind, even as they leave the active theater of politics are often an enormous legacy of bureaucrats that continue to operate without controls.  People who populate bureaucracies are fully aware that once a trajectory has been initiated on a program, then it becomes almost impossible to stop, even with changing political faces.

Bureaucracies have become effectively a fifth column. While ostensibly created to facilitate the wishes of politicians, with time, they become their own arm of influence, not accountable to the electorate.  This reality was brought into stark focus recently with the revelations of the expenditures of USAID, an organization created to “spread American goodwill”. There’s more than enough discussion of disclosures involving their expenditures over the decades in previous articles and elsewhere, so no need to enumerate them here.

Bureaucracies are a social and economic malaise that infects all nations of course.  In the possibly future 51^st state of Canada, the growth of public sector employees between 2019 and 2023 grew by 13 percent; 3.6 times the growth in the private sector. These kinds of bureaucracies serve to make life difficult for those having to deal with them.  Think the motor vehicle licensing station on a super scale.

But the activities of another more dangerous bureaucracy has revealed itself recently and that is the European Union.  Some may be aware that originally this body was formed to look after the economic interests of the nations within the European Union.  The main purpose was to ensure economic activities passed smoothly between nations and to create internal rules for such.  How big need this body be?  Each nation sends a few reps and you get some accountants to work the numbers.  That would seem logical.  But in a recent interview with Viktor Orban, the president of Hungary, he revealed that the EU bureaucracy now numbers over 30,000 employees.  So for each of the 27 nations represented in the EU, that amounts to over 1100 bureaucrats per nation. As an aside, the number of employees estimated at another world bureaucracy, the UN, numbers over 133,000.

Well you may say, it’s Europe, they love their bureaucracies, their holidays and their social systems, so it’s no big deal.  Of course, we can accept that, since they can spend their money as they wish.

Of more sinister issue is that the EU have expanded their area of influence to dictating policies to their member states that have nothing to do with trade, or that  involves non-members such as Ukraine.  Suddenly, the unelected bureaucrats are now directing political and military policies as well. Thus, rather than permitting member nations to retain their own identity, they are all being forced to comply with edicts issued by the unelected tyrannical bureaucrats effectively removing nations’ constituents from decision making.  This was starkly demonstrated recently when they decided to suspend Hungary’s voting privileges for reasons of ‘solidarity’; ironically supposedly fighting for European democracy.  They have confused themselves with NATO.

Suddenly, an organization that was formed to police agricultural and marketing policies internally are now mandating military expenditures to fight the imminent existential threat of Russia! The EU, a trade organization, has been allowed to morph into a political entity not beholden to the wishes of their own member nations.

As we’ve observed here in the US, the taking back of power and influence from entrenched bureaucracy will not be easy. The structures took generations to build and they cannot be dismantled without severe pushback from entrenched interests. We’ve seen the image of Musk wielding a chainsaw to this monstrosity in the US to the horror of bureaucratic beneficiaries.  It would appear that a bit of horror is needed at the EU.