Lapdogs vs. Watchdogs

What a week.

I am up in Montréal, safely across the border from those nasty Americans and their wicked ways. The groundhogs have spoken...and we cannot make up our minds about it. The tariffs were dropped this weekend and officially, we are in the middle of a trade war. This feels like it will continue for some time since the chief occupier of the Oval Office only has two modes: you either win or you lose (his multiple bankruptcies seem to confirm this theory). And he does not want to face the truth: one of the countries he decided to hit over the nose with a newspaper is not as kind as he proposed.

Our prime minister - officially resigned from the position until a new leader can be found - has decided to hit back and not take the medicine that had been ladled out. Hockey fans, both east and west (an important point), have booed the national anthem of the country to the south. I should not really be that surprised by this, but I am...until I realize that I live in a country whose national sport is one where you are supposed to hit people on the other team while sailing around with a stick that looks like a scythe (look that up). And then, if you get in a fight or do something wrong on all that ice, they put you in a box with seat for a few minutes so that you can rest and get back out there and maybe do what made you end up in that box one more time.

Oh, dear...

I should not laugh. I have a million other things that could distract me. Another interview beckons for a summer teaching job. My collections of poetry and short stories beckon for a real publisher (I can no longer self-publish with Kindle; it's owned by Amazon and Bezos can do without the pennies my work will make him). My other work is beckoning for completion in some local contests (CBC - Canadian Broadcasting Corporation - and W.U.C. - The Writers' Union of Canada).

But this intrigues me...and so does the link above.

Mr. Mark Greenblatt was the Inspector General for the Department of the Interior for five-and-a-half years until he was fired by...well, you know who (the same man who hired him in 2019). The message notifying him that he had been let go mentioned 'changing priorities'. This is strange for many reasons. First, there was no thirty-day notice (required by law) and Congress was not notified. And what I think is a bigger paradox, he had been praised by the president for clearing Lafyette Park in June of 2020 when he needed a photo op at St. John's Church. This follows a pattern of the man turning his back on those who can no longer help him. And this is clearly a way for the president to have fewer people looking over his shoulder.

And this was the line that stood out to me:

Is he going to nominate watchdogs or is he going to nominate lapdogs?

Dogs are loyal, kind, protective, and of course, the best friend of a certain set of chromosomes. They have been known to pull people out of burning buildings or car wrecks. They have also been known to be just accessories for certain less-than-warm celebrities. Not everyone loves them.

Not everyone wants them to act as a guard.

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P.S. Finally, let me just say as a Canadian that I do not hate Americans and that this is only going to be a temporary problem until one side caves. Playing chicken with economies is never a good policy and I hope that this all gets settled sooner than later.

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You can find more poems, stories, and articles by Kendall Defoe on my Vocal profile. I complain, argue, provoke and create...just like everybody else.

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