Big Shiny Takes

Podfather Andre Goulet (@andremarrgoulet) of Harbinger Media Network (@harbingertweets) returns to BST to talk about anti-China neo-McCarthyism, as exemplified by John Ivison, whom you may remember from an earlier episode when he wrote a column about how CERB recipients are lazy parasites, for which he was rightfully dubbed the "worst person on the internet".

Ivison is mad that two Canadian MPs (Niki Ashton and Paul Manly) supported a rally calling for the release Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou, who was arrested by Canadian police at the request of the Trump administration. Ivison invokes Lenin (or was it Stalin?) to declare the two MPs "useful idiots". If that's the case, the only difference between them and Ivison is their usefulness.

Links

Bianca Mugyenyi - Backlash over 'Free Meng Wanzhou' event reflects growing anti-China sentiment

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Tech Won't Save Us - Fighting for Gig Workers' Rights after Prop 22

Forgotten Corner Hanukah Special

Jeremy - The hidden costs of food delivery apps

Ben Shapiro Pulls Pants Down to Ankles Before Peeing in Urinal

Socialism Success Stories in Passage

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Senior Big Shiny Takes Institute legal analyst Alex (@NaomiDecline) from Haus of Decline — America's foremost Calvinist pod — joins us to take on two NPCs (National Post Columnists) who are lawyers. 

First off, we've got Howard Levitt, whom you may know as Jordan Peterson's libel lawyer and the guy who abandoned his Ferrari in a puddle. He's here to tell you that you're not working hard enough from home, you filthy time thief!

Then we talk about another Jordan Peterson-affiliated lawyer, Bruce Pardy, who, according to a review on Rate My Professors, opens his class at Queen's University with a declaration that his classroom "will never be a safe space." However, he's quite triggered by Queen's' decision to renamed the Sir John A. Macdonald building.

Links

That time Howard Levitt abandoned his $200K car in a puddle

Sign up for City Hall Sprawl to read Jeremy's hot takes on the upcoming Calgary municipal election

Eric - It's Time for a Postmedia Sunshine List

Patrick Blanchfield - The Town That Went Feral

Davide Mastracci - TV Journalists Should Be Banned from Wearing the Poppy on Air

Also, sign up for Passage Daily

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Give us a 5-star rating on Apple Podcasts. You can also throw us a few bucks on our Patreon to access exclusive content and maybe even appear on the show.

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@bigshinytakes


 

If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to leave us a five star review on Apple Podcasts and give us a follow on Twitter and Instagram.

We're joined by Podcast High principal and Mount Royal University historian Roberta Lexier (@rlexier) to discuss Licia Corbella's postponed knee surgery and the only thing a Trudeau has done that she supports, invoking the War Measures Act to militarily occupy Quebec.

While hospital workers went on a wildcat strike across Alberta, winning the hearts and minds of working people, Corbella writes in the Calgary Herald that she'd love to support them but was mildly inconvenienced, so alas she cannot.

Meanwhile, NDP leader Jagmeet Singh and Bloc Quebecois leader Yves Francois-Blanchet have called for Canada to issue an apology for the October Crisis, in which Pierre Elliot Trudeau suspended civil liberties for all of Quebec in October 1970. In another piece, Corbella says we should never apologize for hardcore militarism against the French Menace. 

Roberta, who happens to be teaching a course on the October Crisis this semester, tells us why Corbella is engaging in crude historical revisionism.

Links

Our previous episode on Corbella, with the great Elaine Pauls

Eric - It's Time for a Postmedia Sunshine List

Roberta - The Regina Manifesto and the Origins of Canada's Parliamentary Socialists

Jeremy - Alberta Is Closer Than Ever to a General Strike

Greg Shupak - The Weapons Industry Doesn't Care Who's President

Betsy Reed - Glenn Greenwald Resigns from the Intercept

Leigh Phillips and Michal Rozworski - People's Republic of Wal Mart

Like what you hear?
Give us a 5-star rating on Apple Podcasts. You can also throw us a few bucks on our Patreon to access exclusive content and maybe even appear on the show.

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@bigshinytakes

If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to leave us a five star review on Apple Podcasts and give us a follow on Twitter and Instagram.

Big things are happening down at the old podcast factory. 

Executive Director of the Harbinger Media Network and longtime friend of the show Andre Goulet came by to talk about Harbinger and its goals for a new, independent, left podcasting space in Canada. 

Yes, Big Shiny Takes is on the network as well. We're joining the ranks of some of the best podcasts in Canada, including Alberta Advantage, 49th Parahell, Kino Lefter and more. 

Harbinger has some ambitious and worthy goals. These goals are only made possible through listener support, so check Harbinger, become a patron and support new media in Canada! 

https://harbingermedianetwork.com/

Also, this episode was meant for broadcast late last month but due to the world going absolutely insane for a little while, all editing was set aside for a moment. (sorry for the wait Andre)

If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to leave us a five star review on Apple Podcasts and give us a follow on Twitter and Instagram.

We get a bit tankie in our latest installment, featuring a dearly-departed posting legend, Ray the Red, whom you might also know as the CEO of Antifa.  He got banned from Twitter for saying mean things about J.K. Rowling.

The National Post has been on a red-baiting tear recently, more so than usual. We've got two batshit insane op-eds arguing that Justin Trudeau is a socialist mastermind. Huge if true. It would also be a marked improvement from his milquetoast neoliberalism.

First up is third-place Conservative party leadership loser, and likely future of the party, Leslyn Lewis, who tickles all those right-wing survivalist funny bones (except Venezuela, conspicuously) — big government, 5G, the COVID tracing app, debt, you name it. She also uses the word 'insidious' a couple of times, just so you know she isn't fucking around.

Next is Denis Tsarev, who is the co-founder (and co-member) of Truth in Consequences, a think tank nobody's heard of, warning us about the dangers of left-wing populism in Canada, as represented by the dangerous socialist radical Justin Trudeau. This Rebel Media contributor wants you to know that you too can have a nuanced perspective on the world, if you just listen to him.

We'd also like to announce that we're re-branding as the Big Shiny Takes Institute!

Links

Scott Schmidt - Laying It Out: In all fairness, what a waste of time

James Wilt - Do Androids Dream of Electric Cars? Public Transit in the Age of Google, Uber and Elon Musk

Ronan Burtenshaw - Jeremy Corbyn: 'We Didn't Go Far Enough'

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@bigshinytakes

If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to leave us a five star review on Apple Podcasts and give us a follow on Twitter and Instagram.

If there's anything Albertans love to do, it's complain. If there's anyone who knows this, it's Scott Schmidt (@shmitzysays), who writes about Alberta's grievance politics weekly in his "Laying It Out" column.

He joins us to discuss two excerpts from a recently-releases book, "Moment of Truth: How to Think About Alberta's Future," published in the National Post, of course.

Although Wexit is a fringe movement of QAnon crazies, Postmedia seems to be doing everything it can to mainstream it. The thrust of the selections we read are that Canadian confederation needs to fundamentally change to accomodate Alberta, or else.

First up is a chapter written by Ted Morton, which deals with a supposed cabal of bilingual people who are operating the levers of power in Ottawa. It's like the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, but with people who speak both official languages instead of Jews.

Next we discuss David J. Bercuson's case for an Albertan army to keep the the rest of Canada's filthy hands off our filthy oil that nobody wants to buy.

Through it all, Scott and Jeremy explain the bizarre political climate in Alberta to the co-hosts out east. It's the episode you've been waiting for!

Links

The Forgotten Corner

Scott - Laying It Out: Dragons love 'normal' — they never get burned

Ethan Cox - Anatomy of an expulsion: 48 hours in the life of the Green Party

Jeremy - The education of Doug Schweitzer

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Like what you hear? Throw us a few bucks on our Patreon for access to exclusive content.

If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to leave us a five star review on Apple Podcasts and give us a follow on Twitter and Instagram.

In this episode, we discuss a guy so anti-imperialist that he unquestioningly supports U.S. imperialism. That's right, we're talking about Macleans contributing editor, National Post columnist and all-around neocon ghoul Terry Glavin (Gladio). 

The piece in question is a masterful work of concern trolling, where he suggests that if BLM activists want to win him over, they'll have to stop wearing clothes. It's essentially a hornier, unironic version of the classic Matt Bors cartoon.

Gladio comes very close to making a valid point about supply chains in the Third World and their dependence on sweatshops, but bookends it with a wildly superficial attack on the moral integrity of BLM.

Joining us is long-time friend of the show and recovering podcaster Abdul Malik (@socialistraptor), who bonds with Eric over their Mississauga heritage.

Links

A write up of Gladio's hilarious talk at University of Victoria

Gladio's sole Rate My Professors review, which was totally not written by him

Abdul - Modern Monetary Theory could be the key to unlocking Canada's economic future

Joel Laforest - No More Excuses. It's Time to Fight for a Left Program in Canada

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If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to leave us a five star review on Apple Podcasts and give us a follow on Twitter and Instagram.

We're joined by our dear j-school pal Mahnoor Yawar (@mahnoorie) to talk about a familiar theme for our listeners — the complete lack of accountability for columnists at Canada's major newspapers.

The spark for this discussion was Toronto Star columnist Rosie DiManno's reply-all meltdown, in which she told the entire staff at the paper what she thought of the Star's new internal ombudsperson position, which was assumed by her far superior colleague, Shree Paradkar. (Hint: it's the name of the episode.)

The position gives young, racialized Star employees the opportunity to report concerns about discrimination and bias in the newsroom and paper to Paradkar, who can then bring them up to management, which for some reason DiManno found threatening.

We discuss a very bizarre and horny column DiManno wrote post-meltdown, which contains too many dick jokes to count. We also give DiManno her due for the times she has done better.

Links

Memo: Shree Paradkar Named 'First Internal Ombud' at the Toronto Star

That time DiManno was charged with assault

A good DiManno column on reparations

Pacinthe Mattar - Objectivity Is a Privilege Afforded to White Journalists

Taylor Noakes - To deface a monument is to engage critically with history

Jeremy - Blank spot: Why Chrystia Freeland's refusal to acknowledge her grandfather's Nazi collaborator past matters in 2020

Follow Big Shiny Takes on Twitter or Instagram!
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Like what you hear? Throw us a few bucks on our Patreon for access to exclusive content.

If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to leave us a five star review on Apple Podcasts and give us a follow on Twitter and Instagram.

We need to talk about the sock. Stephen Magusiak (@magusiak) of PressProgress joins us to explain a guy named Steven Kerzner (@EdtheSock) to our American buddy, Stephen from the Haus of Decline podcast in light of Kerzner's recent racist remarks against NDP leader Jagmeet Singh. 

Was Kerzner ever actually funny, or are we just nostalgic for a simpler time? We listen to some classic Fromage clips to find out. (Hint: They have not aged well.)

We also discuss Kerzner's recent foray into hyperpartisan Liberal politics and efforts to revive the '90s, when he was in a not-so-famous Canadian TV show.

In short, we put the sock in the drawer for good.

Links

Liberal MPs Denounce "Ed the Sock" After Calls to Disavow "Racist Dog Whistles" Targeting Jagmeet Singh

Just Drew's Show - Canada's Host (ft. Ed the Sock)

Lori Fox - The life you thought you were going to have is gone

Adrianna LaFrance - The Prophecies of Q

@mikeymiles160 on Instagram

Follow Big Shiny Takes on Twitter or Instagram!
@bigshinytakes

Like what you hear? Throw us a few bucks on our Patreon for access to exclusive content.

If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to leave us a five star review on Apple Podcasts and give us a follow on Twitter and Instagram.

YouTuber Tristan Johnson of Step Back History joins us to talk about how incinerating tens of thousands of Japanese civillians at the close of the Second World War is actually bad.

The impetus for this discussion is a chatacteristically long-winded Twitter thread from National Post opinion editor Matt Gurney, where he argues that dropping the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which he concedes were not militarily necessary, were good. That's because it allowed his grandfather to return home early and safely from carrying out British colonialism in India, where he was stationed with the Royal Air Force.

Whose lives are more valuable, 150,000 Japanese men, women and children, or Matt Gurney's? Real tough to say.

Apparently Gurney's voice was such a valuable addition to the discourse on Hiroshima and Nagasaki that he was invited onto Evan Solomon's iHeartRadio show to talk about it.

You may remember Evan Solomon from when he got fired from the CBC for using his position as the host of Power and Politics to sell his guests expensive art.

It's a Canadian media failson match made in Hell.

Links

Step Back History - Was the Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki Justified?

Gar Alperovitz - The War Was Won Before Hiroshima — And the Generals Who Dropped the Bomb Knew It

Wade Davis - The Unraveling of America

Jeremy - AIMCo loaned an oil company $45 million, let that company make millions in payments to shareholders and now it can't make the interest payments

Jeremy - Edmonton Police: Defacement of statue not a hate crime

Follow Big Shiny Takes on Twitter or Instagram!
@bigshinytakes

Like what you hear? Throw us a few bucks on our Patreon for access to exclusive content.

If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to leave us a five star review on Apple Podcasts and give us a follow on Twitter and Instagram.