Category Archive: Wreckollection

Jan 01

Predictions for the Year 2024

COPS29 orders that the term “worst of the century” be dropped from the lexicon of all climate event headlines as they deem it to be, at best, redundant and, at worst, a given.

Fossil fuel companies and their political cronies are pissed when by-laws officers from the Borrough of Decorum (yeah, those guys) are hired to police their carbon emissions.

Almost every school kid in America (regardless of grade level) drops out and joins the army to have at least a fighting chance of not getting shot.

Realizing that theme-parks are raking it in on their death defying drops and rollercoasters, Airlines unveil a new in-flight surcharge based on what they call their Barfort scale for air turbulence. It is applied using an algorithm that combines the number of deployed air sickness bags multiplied by the decibel level of applause received after a safe landing.

American weather forecasts become more reliable as their new norm becomes, “Smoky with the absolute probability of a mass shooting. It’ll be raining bullets folks, so don’t forget your Kevlar.”

Prince Edward Island spins last year’s photo of a dead white shark on their beach to advertise their beaches as the safest in the world using the tagline, “Our waters so safe, the sharks are starving to death.”

Republican hawks and warmongers are beside themselves and demand that last year’s winner of the battle of the bombshells must be Cancelled and removed from all libraries and screens everywhere on the grounds that, when it comes to battles, anything pink is, at best, commie and, at worst, transgender and therefore cannot be tolerated. Other Birthers led by Donald Trump, claim Barbie should be disqualified unless she shows them her vagina.

A new global law that forces weapon makers everywhere to cease and desist their production of any weapon that is not bright pink ends war as we know it. Attempts to quash the law in America fail as there is nothing in the 2nd amendment that says they have the right to bear arms that are painted cool and manly colours. American gun enthusiasts and especially the thugs and homophobes rush to voluntarily surrender their firearms. Those that don’t demand that their state legislators rescind all open carry legislation.

Despite years of constantly foreshadowing his identification as a transgender, the World’s Most Pathetic Walks Like a Duck and Quacks Like a Duck Defendant-in-Chief comes out of his/her/its/their closet and down the escalator in fugly drag to officially announce that he/she/it/they have officially changed her/their name to Donna de Vile. Only his/her/their/its homophobic followers are surprised.

 

A judge in Georgia finds the Defendant-in-Chief of the Free to Do and Say Whatever He Wants (and his supporting menagerie of clowns) not guilty of racketeering. After hearing a mountain of evidence proving them to clearly unhinged and anything but organized, no sane judge or individual could ever convict him/them on a charge that normally targets organized crime.

Climate Deniers on both sides of the border claim victory over global warming when they disappear Death Valley, California, and Lytton, British Columbia through a combination of roadblocks, stolen sensors, and forced relocation.

Environmentalists find what they think is a new debris field that dwarfs the great south pacific plastics patch.  On closer inspection it turns out to be remnants of all North Korea’s rocket tests and failed satellite launches.

Donald Trump Exercises? Yes indeed. Insiders claim that on the strength of his gains last year from exercising his constitutional right to remain silent (but only in court) to not incriminate himself, Donald Trump wins all court cases against him by exercising his divine (billionaires’) constitutional right to a life of liberty to continue his pursuit of happiness by becoming President for life.

America spirals into complete chaos as, buoyed by the example of their newly elected president and role model, everyone lies about their net worth to become defacto billionaires to claim their constitutional right to lie and their freedom to do whatever makes them happy.

After their latest and most terrifying spate of ongoing internal soul(?) searching, the U.S. Repugnican Party finally digs up a Speaker of the House that will satisfy all their fractious factions.  All agree, that Achmed the Dead Terrorist is the only candidate they can trust to deliver their main party line. The fact that his state of decay trumps that of all the other decomposing fossils that are likely to form the American body politic in the immediate future just adds grave-y.

Silvio Berlusconi’s heirs make a killing when they auction all his “wrong stuff” for the Louvre off to art connoisseurs of the nouveau rich (if you trust their own evaluations of personal wealth) Make Loos and Man Caves Great Again movement.

Inflation (both economic and obesitomic) disappears when Food and Drug associations around the world step up testing and honest reporting against all claims on processed foods and drugs.  The corresponding deflation of demand for those products leads to fire sale price reductions everywhere and a stronger appetite for real foods.

Drug companies get a hall pass for fraudulent cough syrup claims on the grounds of a certain “no harm no fowl” legal precedent set during some other liar’s high-profile case that trumps all liability for fraud.

Flying high on the success of last year’s disposable shoes for infants, Nike comes up with the brand-new idea of branding new-born babies with their swoosh tattoo. Hospitals don’t question the practice and just do it (perhaps on the grounds it can’t be any worse than a circumcision and unlike circumcisions this procedure is more politically correct because it can be applied to all sexes and religions).

When Florida’s favourite climate denier Gov. Ron d’Atlantis offers refugees from the sinking island of Tuvalu safe haven they take a Hard Pass.

COPS 29 trumpets progress when representatives from every country on the planet (excepting Alberta) unanimously agree there is an “urgent” need to reduce the number of fossil fuel lobbyists attending their Climate Conference… to level of 80% of last years’ delegations by 2050.

On the very eve of American elections, both Donald (It’s Not a Crime if I Don’t Think It’s a Crime) Trump and Joe (I Think It Would Be a Crime if Anyone Younger Than the Pope Occupies the Oval Office) Biden are sent to prison on trumped up charges.  The Pope is appointed Acting President of the Unites States of America until a viable octogenarian alternative can be dug up by either Party.  The Repugnicans were initially opposed to a Catholic President until they realized he also supported abortion.

When Ukraine loses its war after running out of food and ammunition, Russian tanks roll in and mass at the Polish border. When a couple dozen patriotic Polish truckers who were already entrenched there are ordered to maintain their Ukrainian blockade against the Russian threat, they hop into their rigs and run like hell.

Elon Musk wins the Nobel Peace Prize for his complete obliteration of Twitter thereby ridding the world of all the brainless mind-farts contained and trafficked therein.  It marks the end of kneejerk politics, kneejerk conspiracies, and a new Enlightenment for humanity while at the same time resulting in a marked reduction in greenhouse emissions from all those mind-farts and the server farms that supported them.  When asked what he was going to do with the prize money, Elon said, “I didn’t do it for your f@#!ing money! I did it because it was just fundamentally Wrong. Let me reiterate for you emoji heads who cannot spell or read a complete word. Writing, liking, and passing along incomplete mind-farts without context is X.”

All Hollywood movie directors become unemployed and theatre junk food concession sales crash after audiences everywhere cannot find the time to partake in a feature length movie experience that is growing longer with each new release.

YouTube profits soar, usurping the earnings for all Hollywood movies combined, when everyone who wants to Make their Hollywood Movie Experience Great Again tunes into its movie trailers instead.

Jan 01

Vital Statistics 2023

Vital Statistics 2023 2022 2021 2012
a Canadian dollar is worth $0.75US $0.73US $0.79US $ 0.94US
an ounce of Gold is worth $ 2,066US $1,824US $1,899US $1,204US
a Bitcoin is worth $42,550US $16,520US $29,259US $757US
S&P/TSX Composite Index 20,958 19,384 17,433 13,621
your share of the National Debt $30,604 $33,802 $17,433  $  18,133
the average Housing Price in Ottawa $633,138 $656,023 $540,500 $357,348
a domestic Postage Stamp costs $1.07 $1.07 $1.07 $0.63
a local call on a Bell pay phone $0.50 $0.50 $0.50 $0.50
a liter of Pepsi costs $3.79 $3.79 $2.79 $2.49
a liter of water costs $2.79 $2.59 $2.39 $2.39
a liter of milk costs (purchased in a 4 liter bag) $1.47 $1.42 $1.13 $1.35
a liter of gasoline costs $1.35 $1.47 $1.04 $1.27
a loaf of bread costs $4.39 $3.99 $3.49 $3.49
a paperback novel costs $13.99 $12.99 $12.99 $10.99
a weekly (Time) magazine costs $10.99 $8.99 $8.99 $6.99
a comic book costs $5.85 $5.50 $5.25 $2.99
a daily newspaper costs $3.05 $3.00 $2.38 $1.43
a regular bus ride costs $3.75 $3.75 $3.60 $3.40
a medium cup of coffee costs $1.83 $1.83 $1.79 $1.52
a basic cable television package $24.99 $24.99 $24.99 $38.67
a first run movie rental costs $7.90 $6.99 $4.99 $4.99
an adult’s movie theatre ticket costs $14.25 $12.99 $12.99 $10.99
a children’s movie theatre ticket costs $10.00 $8.50 $9.50 $7.99
Minimum wage (Ontario) $16.55/hr $15.50/hr $14.25/hr $10.25/hr
an adult men’s haircut $25.00 $24.00 $21.00 $18.00
a medium combination pizza $24.00 $22.00 $19.95 $16.25
a roll of toilet paper (based on a pack of 8) $1.75 $1.48 $1.13

2023 2022 2021
Births this year 134,280,255 133,990,136 140,086,055
Deaths (Covid-19 Deaths) this year   60,760,395 237,357   67,095,983(1,225,106)  58,811,482(3,511,231)
Net Annual population growth   73,519,859   66,894,154   81,274,573
Current World Population 8,082,415,468 8,008,590,852 7,917,257,610

Bonus – Other Vital Stat Meters at a Glance:   https://www.worldometers.info/

Jan 01

Epilogue 2023

And there you have it, our best cut at making some slick verse from the sow’s year that was 2023.  Now if you will excuse us, we’ll take a couple days to sleep it off in anticipation the billions and billions of WOKE Chinese (and Chinese rabbits) who will be hopping mad and hurrying to harey us with hate over that last turn of phrase.

 

Have a Happier New Year Everyone!

Jan 01

2022 Year in Review

The Chinese called it the Year of the Tiger. The United Nations dubbed 2022 the International Year of Glass and the International Year of Artisanal Fisheries and Aquaculture. It was the year that the Commercial Video Games industry [Pong] and the Egg McMuffin turned 50. Commercials (a 10 minute radio spot advertising a new NY apartment complex) turned 100 years old in 2022 which also marked the 100th anniversary of:

That’s right folks! In spite of the best efforts of antivaxxers, xenophobes, extreme right radicals, and Vladimir Putin, most of the rest of us seem have come a long way over the past 100 years.

I thought I might just forget about the [SPOILER ALERT!] permacrisis that was 2022 and enjoy a normal New Year’s Eve for a change, but the voices in my head escaped to remind me that it is important that we never forget and/or ignore even the worst years of our lives so as to learn, rinse, and never repeat them again. That said, we took a shot (lots of them actually) at dredging up last year’s most important history lessons.

As always, we’ll do our best to dismember the events through the lens of a glass half full (if not fuller). To that end, and in anticipation that our cups may, at times, runneth over while we enthusiastically attempt to achieve said goal, we asked Santa for and received this spanking new spill proof keyboard we are currently hammered on.

Grab your plungers and buckle up your hip waders folks, it’s time again to plunge down memories drain.

Jan 01

Story of the Year 2022

 “Putin pulls a Hitler”

The world’s most dangerous psychopathic narcissist tears a page from Hitler’s playbook and invades the free state of Ukraine perhaps believing, like Hitler, that the rest of Europe (and the world) would sit back and tut.  Might have worked too but for the facts that: 1) Putin’s army was not nearly as formidable as Hitler’s; and 2) the Ukrainians kicked their ass. So far, most of Europe and the rest of the world (that is not also run by authoritarian megalomaniacs) chose to align with the right side of history and/or Winston Churchill’s dictate, “those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” On the other hand, Putin, all those old school Russian patriots, his state controlled news agencies, and a host of Fox News pundits who are continuing to enable him seem to have forgotten what happened when Hitler, yesteryear’s most dangerous psychopathic narcissist, invaded mother Russia with an army that was vastly more powerful than Putin’s.

So that happened. A megalomaniac’s attempt to turn back time and make the USSR great again (or rather to make his Russian speaking neighbors not so great again) blows up in everyone’s face. Not the least being his own and those of his own people. The good news: when Russia is called upon to pay reparations, its people will be for the most part unaffected given that all their money has always been in Putin’s pockets anyway.

Jan 01

Newsmaker(s) of the Year 2022

The Ukrainian People 

The Ukrainians represent a beacon of hope and an example for the rest of us. The next time you find yourself hard done by and surrendering to whatever real or perceived woes you are dealing with, turn on the news, take look at Ukraine, buck up, and fight back. The Ukrainians are the most courageous Russian speaking people on the planet. That’s right Putin. You and your country of Russian serfs who have surrendered to your yoke of oppression without a fight are spineless pussies by comparison.

Runner Up: Iranian Women

Another courageous group of people who are fighting like hell against an authoritarian, nationalistic, psycopathy in order to change their world for the better.

Jan 01

Newsmaker-upper of the Year 2022

Russia

If their lips are moving chances are they are espousing bald faced lies (or what some of their Authoritarian wannabees in the West refer to as Trumped up alternate truths).  Putin’s accusation that the West was engaging in “nuclear blackmail” and another that the Ukrainians are planning to explode a “dirty bomb” on their own people are some nutso subtle examples.

In a related story: Putin’s American understudy, Donald Trump was russian’ to launch his own assault on reality, a social media platform called Truth Social boasting absolutely no censorship and by extension zero fact checking. Truth be known, like its brainchild, it left lots to be desired. Fortunately, he no longer has the launch codes (we hope) to launch anything more dangerous than that.

Jan 01

Person of the Year 2022

Volodymyr Zelenskyy

Perhaps the only real world leader that is alive today. Against all odds when the rest of the world had already rolled over and ceded imminent victory to Adolph Hitler’s diabolical Russian understudy, the President of Ukraine stepped up and inspired hope (not fear) in his people and the world.  Spartan King Leonidas would be proud (and anyone else who is not proud of Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his people should be ashamed).

Runners Up:

Marina Ovsyannikova, a journalist and the only Russian with the balls to publicly call out Putin’s lie on State news.  She was subsequently fined for “discrediting” Russia’s army (which seemed quite capable of doing that all by themselves). She continues to be a thorn in the Kremlin’s side. She is currently facing charges that could lead to 10 years in prison.

Related Quote: “I go to the courts like I go to work… I deeply regret that I never got around to acknowledging all the greatness of the Russian world. I could not express my gratitude to Putin on behalf of 30 million Russians who live in the 21st century without sewers and warm toilets”  Marina Ovsyannikova

 

Dmitry Muratov, a Russian Independent News Editor, who still refuses to call Putin’s war special, auctioned off his Nobel Peace Prize medal for $103.5m saying all of the  money from the sale would go to help refugees from the war in Ukraine”.

Jan 01

Feelgood Story of the Year 2022

“Doh!mocrazy in the USA”

Despite the fact that everyone was predicting that any person (or primate) with a pulse on the Republican ticket was going to crush their Democratic rival in last year’s midterm elections, many of the  Republican wingnuts that were endorsed, if not handpicked by The Doh!nald were rejected by voters. Although the Republicans still managed to capture a majority in Congress, and re-stock their “swamp” with no less than 126 election deniers across Senate, Congress, and some Governor’s mansions; the good news lies in the fact that “Nobody who denied the legitimacy of the 2020 election has won a 2022 race to run future elections in a swing state.” In short, although he failed in his bid to “drain the swamp” (and might have even polluted it beyond hope), the Doh!nald managed to drain the expected tsunami of republican victories. No-one can say for sure how good (or bad) he and/or the Republican Party are feeling about that; but since me and my voices are writing this history that makes him and them by definition the losers.

Jan 01

Sleeper Story of the Year 2022

Climate Change

As world and industry leaders continue to sleepwalk, the rest of us get this sinking,“there goes the neighbourhood” feeling as cities start to close and relocate entire neighbourhoods that are suffering from perennial floods and insurance companies refuse coverage in wooded areas threatened by wildfires.

Related Story: “Buyer Beware, If yowna beach property!”

After Hurricane Fiona smacks Atlantic Canada we are told that unless we move a lot faster on putting a lid on our carbon emissions, the lids on our houses will be the least of our worries when we face more, and more extreme weather events to the point where the world will be become uninsurable.

Older posts «

» Newer posts