The significant difference between the Manson years and today is that, in spite of the widespread rioting, looting, protest marches and media attention to the counter-culture in the 1960s the forces of anarchy and political upheaval never got close to real power in the corporate and business world of the West. They met Chicago mayor Richard Daley head-on in Grant Park and lost. While the counterculture kept trying (and keeps trying) they never got past the 1968 Democratic convention.

It’s that time of the year when young cisgendered heteronormative oppressors’ thoughts turn to football. And that means that BIPOC folk will again experience the cruel oppression of the name Washington Redskins. Washington offends because the first president was a slave holder, and Redskins because it tokenizes and minoritizes the native peoples of North America. Or something.

Was it something we said? Turns out that our recent columns about the knee-capping of TV hosts Wendy Mesley and Ben Mulroney have gotten considerable attention on social media. Which is a good and bad thing. It means you have a sticky story. It also means that the cancel culture has noticed you, too.

Poor Ben Mulroney. The impeccably coiffed interlocutor to the stars on eTalk, the veteran of a seeming thousand red carpets and photo ops has been sideswiped by the very crowd he thought would protect him. Instead of being preserved for the brave new world, he’s become a tasty morsel for the people he’s fed so long.

A single picture is said to be worth a thousand words. But to contemporary media, a single picture is now often a window into a thousand different realities for consumers hoping to make sense of the issues now raging in society— and to politicians trying to find a safe place to land on the issues.

In the end it was a rat who got Wendy Mesley. The CBC TV host of The Weekly was bushwhacked by someone(s) on her show staff, the trust of the unit broken by those who likely sat across from her at story meetings, smiling eagerly as they (I use this pronoun in both the traditional and non-binary sense) contemplated how to step over Mesley to win fame for themselves.

More people die choking on bottle caps than do blacks who are choked by police. But facts are secondary in the war against Orange Man Bad. The real goal is having authority take a knee to the street mobs while media look the other way as looting fills the street.

In this emotive age silent suffering is passé. Death, the natural end of us all, is suddenly La Boheme, an opera of grief and tragedy to play out in the front pages of a paper that once knew better. And now urges its readers to cower in fear of its own shadow.

The #StayAtHome scolds may have finally found their lever to open the entire society to their agenda. Masks. The facial covering associated with Covid-19 has become the buy-in to acceptance of a higher power. The converts even have their own name: Karens. And they’ll let you know just where you stand. Or should not stand.

They say journalism is the first draft of history. So can we do ourselves a favour and stop the Gotcha Game over Covid-19? You know the one. Where the media and political junkies assign blame for governments not being ready for the pandemic that swept over us in February?

Somehow the rights and traditions of the Magna Carta that have served civilization well for over 900 years are now, to Justin Trudeau and the Biden Bunch, archaic annoyances getting in the way of the Woke Revolution.

The pushback continues from Lockdown Inc. and those who see Covid-19 as an excuse to obliterate civil liberties and free speech. When the virus passes they’ll then begin sanitizing the history of how they panicked and got it wrong. Because let’s face it, them being right is what this whole panic was about.

NYC Mayor Bill De Blasio has proposed a ticker-tape parade to celebrate the frontline medical workers. Good idea. For some time in future. But first, why not celebrate how they have actually “flattened the curve” in North America?

This is just the tip of a double standard employed every day to further the editorial biases of the woke culture that has purged newsrooms of moderates and intimidated veteran people like Baquet to do their bidding.

However much elected officials want to save lives, their only play going forward is to save the economy before the Covid fallout makes 2008 look like a picnic.

The collision between the authority of “expert” classes and the population they presume to rule is coming fast. Expect nothing less than a seismic rupture unless those planning to wreck the economy can do better than wonky computer models and snitch lines to intimidate the population.

Canada’s response to the virus has been in lockstep with the World Health Organization’s wandering policy on first identifying and then stopping Covid-19. It has been a disastrous failure. But Canada still preaches the WHO gospel.

Taking all the august scientific advice from his panel, Trump has balanced the fear of losing citizens against the real potential that the civil contract will unwind if people are denied work, pay and access to the society at large. If it fails he will be destroyed.

There will be casualties in the Great Coronavirus Episode of 2020. Many, regrettably, will be human. A few will be political and financial. And not a moment too soon.

You may not know it but Canada has a new amending formula for the constitution. It now reads hereditary leaders + American trust fund money/ activist Canada Supreme Court justices times a prime minister who won’t enforce laws equals: kiss your country goodbye.