Much Ado About The Deep State, NOT

This post is written from a Canadian perspective.

Deep state is a term used for (real or imagined) potential, unauthorized and often secret networks of power operating within a government but independently of its political leadership, in pursuit of their own agendas and goals. (Source:Wikipedia)

The above is the commonly understood definition of the Deep State. This post is not about that but more about my own intuitive understanding of the phrase deep state before I discovered the conspiracy theorists had appropriated the phrase.

This post is about recognizing and thanking the thousands of professional career public servants that serve faithfully in a non-partisan manner providing services and benefits to the people regardless of which party is in power.

In particular I want to recognize those who serve Elections Canada ensuring our elections and held in a fair and democratic manner free of political influence, as well as those that serve Parliament keeping the wheels of democracy turning. As well we recognize that the judges and Crown prosecutors and others within justice system that ensure justice is provided free of political influences are worthy of thanks, and those in the foreign service that serve Canada abroad. There are countless others throughout government serving the people faithfully that deserve our thanks. And we must also recognize those in provincial and municipal public service as well as the broader public sector providing education and health care to Canadians.

These are the people that make government work and provide the benefits and services we all depend on without any political agenda. Thank You.

Three Ways to Improve American Politics

I am writing this as a citizen of a world (and also as someone with a degree in Political Science) that no matter where we live are strongly impacted by whatever America does and whatever happens in America.

There are no easy solutions to the problems facing America today as I wrote in THE FIFTH COLUMN: Can America Be Saved.

These are the three most important changes I think need to be made to American electoral politics, although all three would require a tremendous amount of political will to make them happen.

1 – Eliminate politicians from controlling the electoral process

Elections cannot be free and democratic if they are run by politicians that benefit from their results, especially when they have a history of gerrymandering boundaries and suppressing the voting ability of their opponents voters. The United States needs a single neutral non-partisan non-political agency similar to Elections Canada to oversee their federal elections.

2 – Eliminate money from controlling the electoral process

Money should not be a gatekeeper to the electoral process. Elections should not be something that can be bought. Voting should not be like shopping where whoever spends the most on marketing gets the most customers. There need to be reasonable limits on spending by parties and candidates. There also needs to be reasonable limits on donations to political parities and candidates including a ban on corporate donations and the elimination of PACs and Super PACs. If people want to donate they should donate to the candidate of their choice or to a registered political party..

For example Canada’s spending and donation limits are outlined here:

Understanding spending limits – Elections Canada

Limits on Contributions – 2025 – Elections Canada

3 – Eliminate the domination of two parties in the electoral process

The American two party system, which shuts out any other party’s candidates, with a few notable exceptions like Independent Senator Bernie Sanders and a few left leaning Democrats who might be considered Social Democrats, limits the representation of Americans political views to those of the two major parties and leaves many voters not voting for their choice of candidate or party but for the lessor evil of the two parties they do not support, and leaves many voters feeling unrepresented and that their votes do not count.

The solution to this, at least for the House of Representatives, would be the implementation of Proportional representation that would see all Americans political views represented and all votes counting.

Proportional representation would be difficult to do in the Senate with only two Senators per state, although possibly feasible with 4 Senators per state. Alternatively Ranked voting would at least allow voters to select their preferred candidate as their first choice.

And then there is the Presidency with the archaic Electoral College system which can, and has, allowed the candidate with the fewer votes (of the actual voters) to become President. Why there has not been a popular uprising against this I will never understand. Clearly since proportional representative cannot be used for a single position, the obvious choice is a direct popular vote of citizens using ranked voting to elect the President, allowing every voter to vote for their preferred candidate as their first choice without losing the opportunity vote for their choice of the two leading candidates at the end of the process.

Postscript –The Senate

When I was looking at the impact of the two party system on the representation of American voters political positions and philosophies in Congress I could not help but think about the Senate and the issue of Representation by population. I am aware the Senate was not intended to be based on rep by pop but I was not aware of just how egregious the rejection of that principal was, considering that the Senate has as much political power as the House of Representatives and indeed individual Senators seem to be more influential than individual Members of the House of Representative.

As of 2025 the population of the 50 American states is 347.3 million (Source), while the population of the 25 least populated states is under 10 million (Source). The math says the voters in the least populated states have over 30 times the representation in the Senate than the voters in the most populated states. Again I have to say I do not understand why there has not been a popular uprising against this among the 97% of excessively under-represented voters.

I have no solution for this but it seems to me to be an affront to democracy. I sometimes wonder if Americans think their political system is god given and they have no right to change it.

Obama, Trump & The Nobel Peace Prize

The world took a collective sigh of relief when Donald Trump did not receive the Nobel Peace Prize, though nobody but Donald expected he would.

Donald Trump has always been someone craving praise and ever since the first black American President was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize he has coveted it.

Trump claims to have ended six or seven wars and has an actual claim to helping negotiate the recent Gaze ceasefire, although that actually happened just after this years Peace Price recipient was chosen.

How long this ceasefire will last is not known but many experts do not see it as a path to lasting peace.

The Nobel Peace Price over time has evolved to become about much more than just peace. .

Obama received it “for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples”.

It is as much about making the world a better place as it is about peace. It is also not just a prize for one single achievement but is as much about what the recipient stands for and believes in and for their character, which is why Obama received it and Trump never will.

What Is True Democracy

If your idea of democracy stops at majority rule it is not true democracy. If your idea of democracy allows the majority to oppress minorities it is not true democracy. If your idea of democracy provides political power based on income and wealth it is not true democracy.

Yes true democracy includes free elections based on one person one vote but it is much more than that. The electoral system must not be unduly influenced by money and it must elect a legislature that represents all philosophical/political viewpoints of it’s citizens, preferably through some form of proportional representation.

True democracy must balance majority rule with minority rights and it must balance individual rights with collective rights.

True democracy must include some aspics of libertarianism as well as many aspects of socialism.

From libertarianism we discard the extreme individualism but keep individual freedom of thought, belief, conscience and freedom of expression, including freedom of the press/media. We also add, though not usually considered libertarian but certainly philosophically libertarian, the right to be ones self, particularly regarding sexual orientation and gender identity.

From socialism we include collective and economic rights including freedom of association and collective bargaining, freedom of peaceful assembly, the right to employment and access to affordable housing, publicly funded education and health care, as well as economic security provided via a guaranteed annual income or universal basic income, as well as a progressive tax system that reduces economic inequality.

You cannot have political equality and thus a true democracy in a country that has massive economic inequality.

True democracy also includes individual responsibilities, such as being politically aware and active and caring for and helping your fellow citizens.

Diversity also strengthens a true democracy.

True democracy is not electing a dictator every four to five years.

Cryptocurrency and War – Cousins in Absurdity – Challenged by AI

Cryptocurrency – a way to supposedly create wealth by wasting massive amounts of water and energy to do meaningless computer calculations that solve no actual real life problems or serve any useful purpose but somehow create economic wealth for a few select people.

And War – a way to stimulate the economy supposedly creating economic growth, not by creating anything but by destroying infrastructure and killing people, while creating wealth for a few select people.

Both are absurdities of capitalism recently being challenged by so-called Artificial Intelligence (AI) which also wastes massive amounts of water and energy to create gibberish and wealth for a few select people.

Ain’t capitalism grand.

On The Record

Having accepted the evidence, without reciting it all here, The Fifth Column is going On The Record as recognizing that, among other things, Israel is committing genocide in Palestine.

How to Build an Intelligent Online Answer Machine

Ever since Facebook and Amazon people have become lazier, or perhaps more accurately addicted to convenience over all else, including ethics or accuracy.

When it comes to information we used to search out reliable sources and read information in detail to find answers to our questions Now people just seek to ask so-called “chatbots” the question and accept whatever it gives them based on so called artificial intelligence (AI) which has nothing to do with intelligence or even accurate knowledge, being based on Large Language Models (LLMs) which probe the depths of the Internet to try to guess at what type of answer a real person would give based on all the garbage ever posted on the Internet, ignoring the Garbage In Garbage Out (GIGO) principal.

If people insist on not doing their own research there must be a better way for an “Online Answer Machine” to do it for them.

First you need a decent search engine that can handle AND, OR, NOT and “quotation marks for exact phrase searches” Boolean operators. Google Advanced Search at it’s prime before enshitification would be ideal.

You also need a sophisticated algorithm (some people might call this AI) that can translate natural language questions into Boolean search terms and identify the subject of the question.

The next part is the key to the whole process. You need a human curated database of accurate, reliable and authoritative information sources (web sites or other online sources) indexed by subject matter.

When a question is asked the algorithm would translate it into search terms, determine the subject and search the appropriate sources for that subject to extract an answer for the user, along with citations and links to the sources the answer was taken from.

This certainly will not be as good as doing your own research choosing your own sources but this would not be built for people who want to, or know how to, do their own research.

Historical Mythology – WWII: The Anti-Fascist War

As we watch the direction the American Trump regime is taking today we are seeing a lot of commentary and memes referencing how the allies went to war against German facism in the Second World War.

While it is true that Hitler’s Nazi Regime was fascist, that is not why the allied countries went to war with Germany. If they opposed fascism they would have acted against the fascist regime in Spain rather than calling those of the anti-fascist International Brigades dangerous communists and worst. They would have opposed Germany when it went fascist.

As to opposing German antisemitism, there was enough antisemitism to go around including within the allies, some of whom sent away Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Germany during the war. Also it is likely that some, if not most, of the western support for the creation of the State of Israel was to avoid Jewish immigration. The war only became about saving the Jews during the war, particularly when the allies discovered that Germany’s concentration camps were not work camps but extermination camps. It should be noted that the United States and Canada had internment camps of their own for undesirable “foreigners” of the wrong race, that included Canadian and American citizens.

The Second World war was not about fascism but about German expansionism. If Hitler had stopped at The Sudetenland there likely would have not have been World War II.

But post-war, the mythology became useful as a way to portray the western countries as places where fascism or genocide would never be tolerated even as we watch the history currently unfolding before us today.

Black and White Photo Versions of an Industrial Site

I was reviewing my Portugal Bike tour photos for PC wallpaper suitable photos and noticed this industrial shot that I thought might look better in black and white. So I opened it up in Franzis Black and White Projects to see what it would look like. Franzis Black and White Projects allows for a multitude of different black and white variations of the photo and in this case it did not disappoint, probably providing more variation than editing the photo as colour photo would. In this case some of the variations had subtle differences and some of the effects were more strikingly different.

I am presenting these photos in a slideshow, the first being the original unedited colour photo from my Panasonic Lumix FZ300 camera, followed by the black and white variations and ending with a colour version edited with Franzis HDR (high dynamic range) Projects.

 

 Recommend Viewing Slideshow Fullscreen

I’m Supposed to Write a Blog Post Today

When I rebooted this blog in the fall of 2018 I made a commitment to post at least once a month and so far I have kept that promise to myself. However I have not posted yet this month and it has been over a month since my last post. But what to write about.

Our neighbours to the south in the United States seem to be going deeper into the abyss day by day. People blame Trump, people blame the system, people blame the voters. But what more can be said that has not been said before.

In the Middle East a brutal genocide is being carried on against the Palestinian people by a governing regime of a state that was founded by holocaust survivors. Whatever can one say about that.

And what can we say about the British Labour party going off the ideological rails.

In Canada the people united to keep the Maple MAGA Conservative Party out of power by electing a Liberal government led by a small c conservative who has been called a climate activist. And this government thinks the key to our future is in becoming a fossil fuel superpower. How does one react to that.

I am at a loss for words about what to say about these things so there is no blog today,