Trudeau's Minstrel Show: Obama Gives The Show Four Thumbs Up

The 2019 Canadian federal election now has its tipping point. Former U.S. president Barack Obama has inserted himself into a foreign election, endorsing his progressive buddy Justin Trudeau to keep his job as prime minister. “He's a hard-working, effective leader who takes on big issues like climate change,” said POTUS 44.  

He’s also a hypocrite who on multiple occasions in his adult life slapped on blackface. Obama— who famously chided everyone in his country about race sensitivity for eight years even when the facts didn’t warrant (hello Michael Brown)— doesn’t seem the slightest bit bothered by Trudeau’s thespian turns as Alladin, Harry Belafonte and a guy who seems to have a cucumber stuffed in his shorts. 

For a progressive chum of the realm those rules of engagement— or interfering in someone else’s election— don’t seem to matter. In the fraternity of woke politics it’s no blood, no foul. For everyone else? The dunking chair. (For the record Obama still supports white Virginia governor Ralph Northam who appeared as either a KKK klansman or a Showboat minstrel. in a photo)

Forget that America has been convulsed for three years by Obama’s Democrats trying to prove (unsuccessfully) that foreign powers got Donald Trump elected in 2016. Liberal icon Prince Barack has a different quality of mercy for friends caught wearing blackface. Call it NIMBY. Not In My Black Yard. Yes, racial rules are malleable for liberals. And Trudeau, whose campaign has been tickled the endorsement, is unashamed to accept the double standard. 

Nor has the PM blushed at the success of his recent attempts to buy off large swaths of the going-broke media. The latest testament to the efficacy of bumping up CBC’s allowance is playing out in court where the Corp is trying to punish the Conservatives for using clips from broadcasts— paid for by tax payers— in a campaign video. The video— which also includes CTV and Global footage— is unsparing in its criticism of Trudeau.

I’ll save you the legal weeds, but the kicker is that the suit named anchor Rosemary Barton and reporter John Paul Tasker as complainants, thereby thrusting the network’s No. 1 anchor and its news division into a partisan position during an election. It appears that Barton signed off on this effort three days before presenting herself as a beacon of objectivity in hosting the election debate. 

There seems some debate how much she knew of this action. Her predecessor Peter Mansbridge used Twitter to suggest she’d been put up to it by oily CBC lawyers. No doubt there was a helping of that. But unless she can prove CBC forged her name Barton had knowledge of the action beforehand. She had the option to resign or make a statement before the debate. She did neither. 

CBC says Barton— and Tasker-- are being removed from the suit. Their names, however, will forever be on social media as tainting fair journalism. But the crown corporation continues in its quest to have the CPC punished for using its footage. Thereby ignoring the rules of being in a hole. First rule? When trapped, stop digging.

But that’s what happens in the cozy world of Trudeaupia. People just do the darnedest things on the assumption that they’ll get a free pass if discovered it damages the enemies of Same Think.

Speaking of liberal Do As I Say Not As I Do, basketball superstar LeBron James has found himself trapped in a LaBrea Tar Pit of controversy over the ongoing NBA/ China fiasco we wrote about earlier. Just as the hypocrisy of the NBA censoring its employees over criticism of China’s Hong Kong policy was starting to taper, James pulled the scab off the wound with gusto. 

In an interview James— who possesses a high school diploma at best— excoriated Houston GM Daryl Morey: “I believe he wasn’t educated on the situation at hand, and he spoke.”  In a stupefying lack self-awareness he added “We all talk about this freedom of speech, yes, we all do have freedom of speech. But at times, there are ramifications for the negative that can happen when you’re not thinking about others and you’re only thinking about yourself.” 

James, the free-speech advocate who has received an estimated billion dollars from his shoes made and sold in China, is telling Morey to shut up, you’re bad for business. This from the apostle of the ginned-up Black Lives Matter hustle. James also regularly lectures about how blacks are allegedly targeted in his country. He refuses to visit the White House, because Orange Man Bad. But now he has no trouble crawling on his belly to the Forbidden City to defend the Communist authoritarians who run concentration camps for their citizens and whose leader Xi talked about grinding the bones of Hong Kong protesters.

Again the usual Left suspects have rushed to protect James’ shredded integrity. The league is putting up yellow crime-scene tape around their meal ticket to stop him from any further injuries inflicted by his mouth. Good luck. It may be a long while before running-shoe customers forget this craven act of self interest, putting his commercial ties in a totalitarian state ahead of the values that made him very, very rich in America.

Now, Conservatives have their blind spots, too, of course. They can be summed up in two words. Donald Trump. “If he’s winning we’re with him”. However, they do not see politics as a secular church. They don’t set up Potemkin villages of holy rage against their enemies only to beg absolution when discovered in a blackface contradiction. Their attitude to their lunatics and miscreants is “Sure, they’re bastards, but they’re our bastards.” Hence, the support for Trump.

It remains to be seen whether Obama’s love tap is enough to return Trudeau to the seat of power in Ottawa. But even if he loses you can rest assured that neither he nor Obama will be blamed. As ABBA once warbled, bait-and-switch is “the name of the game”

Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the editor of Not The Public Broadcaster (http://www.notthepublicbroadcaster.com). He’s also a regular contributor to Sirius XM Canada Talks Ch. 167. A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada's top television sports broadcaster, he is also the best-selling author of Cap In Hand which is available on BruceDowbigginBooks.ca