Posts with the White House tag

Barris Beat

Another Ford Greenbelt review?

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Richard Nixon, found out, covering up the truth, nearly impeached, claiming, “I am not a crook!” Poliitico.

I dodged most of the last few months of my university classes to see it. I sensed – as a journalist-in-training in the early 1970s – that reality was more important than theory. So, we all crowded into a student lounge at Toronto Metropolitan University (then Ryerson) to watch the daily TV Senate Committee hearings into connections between the Watergate break-in and then president Richard Nixon.

I specifically remember Committee Chair Sen. Sam Ervin sparring with Nixon’s then White House adviser John Ehrlichman.

“The President seems to extend executive privilege way out past the atmosphere,” Ervin said later. “What he says is executive privilege, is nothing but executive poppycock.” (more…)

Barris Beat

The balloon menace

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Anita Anand, minister of national defence, addresses 204th Toronto Garrison Officers’ Ball on Feb. 11, 2023.

The evening was all about military pomp and circumstance. Hundreds of Canadian Armed Services personnel had gathered last Saturday night at the Beanfield Centre on the CNE grounds for Toronto’s premier social event in the military community. I actually landed a ticket and was seated at a table of Navy regulars and reservists. The 204th edition of the Garrison Officers’ Ball was well underway, when the Minister of National Defence arrived in time to address guests at the ball.

“I have important news to share with you,” Anita Anand said. “Today at 3:41 p.m. aircraft assigned to NORAD successfully took down (a) high-altitude airborne object. The object, flying at an altitude of 40,000 feet, had unlawfully entered Canadian air space and posed a reasonable threat to the safety of civilian flight.” (more…)

Barris Beat

Thinking in herds

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Gatherings such as the Jan. 6, 2021,  insurrection on U.S. Capitol building illustrated all that’s wrong with herd thinking.

It’s human science. We are a species that gathers. We must gather, connect communicate and socialize. It’s quite simply in our DNA. And to our detriment, it’s our gathering in these two years of the pandemic that has been our undoing. And now it’s the fifth wave, the Omicron wave. The number of COVID-19 patients in Canadian hospitals rose 67 per cent last week over the week before, and Ontario is leading the way in high case numbers. So, once again, the Ontario government has decided to lock everything down to prevent us from gathering.

“We face a tsunami of new cases in the coming days and weeks,” Premier Doug Ford told reporters at a news conference on Monday. “The math isn’t on our side.”

But there are, I think, much more dangerous aspects to our species’ gatherings these days than just pandemic viruses. (more…)

Barris Beat

Hitler in a blue suit

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The Reichstag (German Parliament) torched in 1933 by Nazis.

They gathered in front of the presidential building. Business people, magnates and hand-picked allies were invited to attend and listen to their incumbent leader. The country faced a winter election. And those invited, that day, were told their leader would assure them of victory.

“We must stand before the election,” the leader said to the assembly of his faithful. “Regardless of the outcome, there will be no retreat. [If defeated] we will remain in power by other means, with other weapons.”

The date was February 20, 1933. The location was the presidential palace in Berlin. The election was the last election in Germany prior to the World War II. Seven days later, Nazi sympathizers used a secret tunnel to enter Germany’s national assembly building. Inside the Reichstag building, they scattered gasoline and lit the fire that would destroy all but the outer shell of the Parliament (not restored until German reunification in 1990). (more…)

Barris Beat

Of war presidents, losers and suckers

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Aisne-Marne American Cemetery

Just northeast of Paris, France, lies a small wooded hill. The few acres of green have been peaceful for most of the last century. Aisne-Marne American Cemetery resides here. It’s home to the memorial stones of 2,289 war dead, mostly Americans. A few hundred yards down the hill, 102 years ago, a great battle raged here.

Near the start of it, French troops found themselves overwhelmed by a charging enemy. In March 1918, the German Army had launched its largest offensive, that it hoped would drive the Allies into the sea and deliver them victory in the Great War. On June 2, 1918, a retreating French soldier is alleged to have shouted to arriving U.S. troops:

“Withdraw! Withdraw! We are overrun!”

Historians tell us, in that moment, Lloyd Williams, a young Marine captain from Virginia, shouted back, “Retreat? Hell, we just got here!” (more…)

Barris Beat

With title comes responsibility

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Gen. Eisenhower encourages U.S. airborne members on eve of D-Day, June 5, 1944.

Conditions gave him little cause for optimism. A large low-pressure weather cell had socked-in England and occupied France. Low clouds and high winds portended the worst circumstances for a crossing of the English Channel. The Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Forces commander chain-smoked his Camel cigarettes and shared stiff drinks with other SHAEF members at the back of the Red Lion public house in Southwick, England, waiting for better news.

It came on June 5, 1944. The rain let up. Winds abated. The Channel calmed. And Gen. Dwight Eisenhower reclaimed the element of surprise and unleashed “Operation Overlord” against Nazi-occupied Europe on June 6, 1944.

“You are about to embark upon a great crusade,” he wrote to Allied troops on the eve of D-Day. “The eyes of the world are upon you…” (more…)

Barris Beat

Keeping our wits about us

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Lucille Ball in her famous “I Love Lucy” chocolate factory episode (1952).

I’d waited patiently – keeping my two metres of distance. Then, I was next in line to cash out at Zehrs. I started placing groceries on the conveyor, and the young cashier began processing my purchases. Problem was, the sensor that stopped the conveyer automatically at the cash register, suddenly failed. My bananas, sour cream, chips and meats all tumbled together onto her code-reader. She couldn’t scan the barcodes fast enough. We both shrugged and took advantage of the moment to smile at the jumble of food. And I couldn’t resist.

“Have you ever heard of Lucille Ball?” I asked, thinking she was far too young to know.

She looked skyward for a second, “Oh, yeah. Sure,” she said. (more…)

Barris Beat

Is ignorance bliss, or just ignorance?

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Spike Lee celebrating his Oscar win with Samuel L. Jackson.

He heard the news. He leapt up from his seat in the theatre. He clasped hands with a couple of colleagues on the way up the aisle, then Spike Lee galloped up the stairs to the stage and leapt into Samuel L. Jackson’s arms. In so many ways it was classic Lee, being entirely off the wall. In other ways – since he’d never won an Oscar before – it was unique. Then, he pulled notes from his jacket pocket and read his list of thank-yous. And since it was such an extraordinary night for black artists, Lee took the opportunity to make a political point.

“Before the world tonight, I give praise to our ancestors who built this country,” he said. “If we all connect with our ancestors, we will have love, wisdom, and regain our humanity. It will be a powerful moment.” (more…)

Barris Beat

What’s the problem here?

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Last Monday’s Candidate Forum in Uxbridge featured those vying for Mayor’s, Regional Councillor’s and Regional Chair’s positions. Photo John Cavers.

They’d just turned off the lights and cameras. The Rogers on-air microphones had gone silent. I’d finished my wrap-up of the second candidates’ forum over at the Uxbridge arena on Monday night. But we still had people standing in line at the floor mike eager to pose a few last questions. Then, with the broadcast done, a woman stepped to the mike and began to describe an eye-sore – a grain elevator – in her part of town. I wanted her to bring her concern to a question for the candidates, so I butted in.

“And the problem?” I said, expecting her to pose a question to one of the mayoral or councillor candidates.

“You’re the problem,” she said. (more…)

Barris Beat

Youth versus Bullets

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Tank Man, 19-year-old Wang Weilin faces Chines tanks on Tiananmen Square in June 1989. Wikipedia.

It’s an image that endures. It’s not old enough for us to call it historical yet. It only goes back about 30 years. But the frames of video taken by an amateur videographer show a man in a white shirt, dark pants, facing a column of military tanks. It was June 4, 1989. It was the final day of the student-organized, non-violence demonstration at Tiananmen Square in Beijing, just before China’s People’s Liberation Army gunned down hundreds of civilians for protesting government corruption and lack of free speech.

“Tank Man,” they called him. But the Sunday Express newspaper in Britain later claimed the man was Wang Weilin, a 19-year-old student, who’d joined the weeks-long protest, despite the threat of annihilation. (more…)