Telus Like It Is!

SUBJECT: Group Mailing
Imagine you want to throw a birthday-bash for Grampa - so everybody living all over the map has to be invited months ahead of the event. With not all atwitter, facebooking, and calling them individually costing a fortune (you know how it is: getting stuck on the phone with Mom!), also to save time: invites have to go out by e-mail.
To make that as simple as possible you put everybody into an UNDISCLOSED LIST/GROUP on your PC - and the invite only has to be written once. Click SEND! Done!

Over time you may follow-up with a few more of these group-mailings to get everything just so for the big day.

SUBJECT: Spamalot
But - if some in that repeat-group have a telus.net account - TELUS may identify these group-mailings as SPAM! And DELETE the telus.net portions just like that! Not return them: delete as in gone! While only those with a different INTERNET SERVICE PROVIDER (ISP) will get theirs.
Happy Birthday, Grampa!

And - be still, poor heart - if you subsequently attempt to message any of these TELUS-contacts individually: same thing! Your IP (INTERNET PROTOCOL) ADDRESS - once blocked as SPAM-identifier of the repeat-group - will pop-up ever after. Promptly swallowing individually sent messages also!

Imagine the impact this simplistic - and among ISPs singular! - GROUP-equals-SPAM approach can have on TELUS customers - period. Certain very big and very known group-mailers seem immune and get through to them - but with a sender's IP ADDRESS not matching a prearranged good-to-go construct within the TELUS modus operandi - red lights flash, bells ring! You're out!

SUBJECT: NOT SPAM!
The above has been my experience with this blog and TELUS - for several years having notified readers in groups of around 20 of a new post. Without a hitch - except I know from 2 of my (fortunately!) only 6 telus.net contacts - out of several hundred with different ISPs: for some time, they have received neither links to new posts nor individual person-to-person messages like: how can this be? The other 4 haven't replied, and how could they: if they didn't receive my inquiry to begin with!

So I call TELUS. The rep guesses: somebody must have reported abuse, possibly even a hundred - who knows. She clearly doesn't! I sort this for her: with only 6 telus.nets who wouldn't complain - why would 100 non-telus.nets report so-called abuse to TELUS while not to their own ISPs?
And what abuse? Seeing the blog is not pushing any kind of illegal issue, Nigerian fundraising or marketing of New! Improved! products - and these brief post-reminders in themselves totally innocuous.

The TELUS-rep realizes there are flaws in their ointment and will take it up with the TEAM. In order to have me unblocked, she needs the link to the blog and gives me a superspecial telus.net address to send it to - while she waits on the phone.
My requested very basic message arrives in the TELUS-rep's office as - drum-roll!!! - SPAM!!! She is surprised - I am not!
I am to hear from her by phone within 48 hours that I, indeed, am not an evil spammer: henceforth off their no-fly list. One week and one e-mail reminder to the superspecial e-mail address later: nothing!

Not a telus.net subscriber myself this is only an annoyance to me - but much more to my telus.net contacts who have to put-up with this limited/limiting while full-price(y) service.
How could I possibly be the only one TELUS is happening to this way! 

TELUS! TELUS! TELUS!

 
SUBJECT: SPAM Control!
Nobody likes SPAM - the real thing - thus not receiving any at all ever is the way to go for many. Let the ISP deal with it: delete, delete, delete!
What many don't consider in their urge to unclutter - there's nobody there there determining pros and contras of individual messages. With TELUS it's a computer-program designed to make extremely narrow assumptions/decisions about sender and message.
Meaning: messages of direct importance to both - sender/addressee, grouped or singly - may not be DELIVERED! And dumped!

There obviously is convenience in having incoming mail presorted. This either needs a separate box for SPAM, or an individual message is identified as possibly being SPAM.
Different ISPs have their own ways of identifying then dealing with it. None are totally fool-proof, just as long as subscribers receive everything sent to them - unless otherwise agreed.
Personal choice!

Some ways of cutting-down on receiving INTERNET Spamalot:
1.
Don't post COMMENTS, participate in POLLS and SURVEYS - unless there's a direct personal connection. Even just clicking on Yes or No will register your IP ADDRESS. Which remains in that particular system!
Proof: If you think you can further your agenda by repeat-voting/thumb-indicating on the same issue - you will be told you have voted already, or your click will be ignored.
What/how you comment, vote, answer determines your value to specific commercial-interest groups ready to pounce!
2.
Never sign-up for Tips on anything.
3.
Never open SPAM!

Of course - how to control SPAM at its source is another matter!

 Bottom-line: All connections made from your computer make its DNA - your IP ADDRESS - available for harvesting. Often sold and resold on lists. As are - you! The more social media you subscribe to and interact through indiscriminately - the more you open yourself to cyberspace-junk floating around out there - including SPAM!






                         You're lonely - get a goldfish!

 

City Hall, 2nd Floor: Then and When

In the last pre-election Committee Of The Whole (COW), 20. Oct, 3 Councillors are absent.
In the first post-election COW, 17. Nov, Mayor Dooley is on his way to a Fleetwood Mac concert in Vancouver.

The latter - also last - COW of this term is just so much (more!) political Smallishtown theater. Supporting actors looking for their marks close to Mayor-Elect Kozak just in case wink-wink. Positioning for future advantage: they are line-perfect and aglow with how particularly wonderful the last 3 years have been on/by City Hall's 2nd Floor. 

But no moment of reflection. No stock-taking. No we could - really should! - have done better!

My reality-check presentation starts-off this COW:

A Brief Post-Election Review of Pre-Election Council

Over the past 3 years I have made 31 COW presentations - usually taking-on aspects of Council's work Councillors either weren't willing to touch at all or had touched only superficially. I routinely provided print-copies of the material and links to my blog-posts. My It's-Your-Job! position towards them eliciting little direct response. Except for making me very unpopular for simply refusing to fit into a City Hall culture unacceptable to my principles.


Bottom-line: Input not welcome here!

But then - being present at most Regular & COW Meetings over that time-period - I don't remember a Councillor ever personally taking-on an issue - focused, clear, comprehensive - demanding the 2nd Floor's attention. Not once!

General unresponsiveness of Councillors to inconvenient issues, each other and the mayor directly facilitated expansion of his and the CAO's range.

Incoming Council will have to apportion substantial time and energy to fixing unattended, unresolved or botched issues before initiating new ones. Such as not-at-all-new affordable housing, secondary suites, water-rates, taxation, poverty - all inter-connectable.

A few more general pieces of Council's legacy:

1.

While the Community Master Plan curiously ignores the heart of the matter - Baker Street - it just as curiously prioritizes Stores to Shores - which finally is beginning to raise eyebrows. The reality of this stroll-to-nowhere raising mine in the COW, 22 Jun, 2013.The not-so-masterly plan having many other holes: embraced by Council in total.

2.

Council's addiction to outside consultants telling us - always at a hefty price - what's best for Nelson, while actually knowing little about us. And their reports usually fading away.

3.

Council glowingly approving the Nelson Commons mediocrity - clearly not a tourist-magnet - to become and remain for a long time the very unexceptional center of the Nelson universe. If it is actually built ...

4.

... because Council has habitually handed-out variances, permits to condo-developers - while ignoring what market? and developers' financial integrity. Despite the fact of over 350 advertised-by-Baker-agents-alone available properties in Nelson and vicinity.

5.

Council passing a very restrictive parking-bylaw change which - if enacted - will have great negative impact on downtown. And this only in order to benefit Nelson Commons financially.

6.

And finally - Councillors having spent much time and energy in meetings on bits-and-pieces championed by numerous groups, committees, commissions. Often with similar agendas. Except for funding and - control!

While - clearly - solutions to many issues plaguing Nelson could be found in inter-connecting groups - joining them like so many weak threads twisted together into a strong rope.

Before the previous election, a then-already-very-old-timer on Council expressed a need for fresh blood, new energy and ideas. As there was only going to be one vacancy: fresh blood, new energy and ideas could only have been infused in sufficient quantities by several old-timers leaving voluntarily. I said at the time: it's unfair to Nelson and new Councillors to just hang-in-there for another 3 years. If you're tired - for the good of the Whole - just leave!

 

Indeed - this Council sleepwalked through much of its term. Generally agreeing

with each other just to get on with it - instead of building consensus based on personal conviction: to arrive at well-balanced decisions.

Undoubtedly - it worked hard, but nobody will remember basic bread-and-butter results. Its legacy will be vital issues producing changes for the better, changes for the worse - and no changes at all.

This is not about blame - but acknowledgement of what is. After all - how can you build on denial?

   (End of presentation as such)

I then address Mayor-Elect Kozak directly - asking her to create an atmosphere in which all Councillors and the public feel free to express themselves clearly/fully - and are heard.
We shake hands, and I leave - missing-out on 2(!) consultants' reports and - of course - the popcorn!

Kozak - while campaigning - is cognizant of current Council not having been fully engaged, wants to facilitate across-the-board communication and further gathering/developing ideas from all. Good! Her first steps towards that: listening to concerns voiced to new Councillors during their campaigns. Good again! And - while totally reasonable - novel on the 2nd Floor!

A large part of her campaign - and its success - was contrasting her leadership-style to Dooley's. It is to be hoped this includes clearly locking-in the decision-making process leading to the implementation-process: Council decides - the Chief Administrative Officer (emphasis on Administrative) implements what has been decided. A growing fuzziness, tut-tutted over by many in the community.
Tightening, streamlining processes - until recently some the pleasure of only a few - will provide more certainty thus efficiency to all on the 2nd Floor. And ultimately Nelson.

... of this term and final post about it.



I look forward to Mayor Kozak and her Council going easy on the glow while leading Nelson from then and when to then and now!

Remembrance of Whatever

While Cpl. Cirillo - family-man and dog-lover, with no physical/psychological combat-wounds to show - will be elevated to sainthood in Hamilton come Remembrance Day - after being shot on his standing-around job in Ottawa by a man with mental-health issues and - for political expediency - praised for this heroic act to high heaven: who remembers those job-over redundants sort-of making it back from experiences of - to the mall-brained - impossible to imagine horror?

They now may want to be nothing more than family-with-a-dog - but what they remember won't let them.

The propagandist's purpose is to make one set of people forget that certain other sets of people are human.

                                                  Aldous Huxley

Remember who got them there and (if) back like this!

Remember Peace!  

Sankai Juku

Sondra Wampler   

Pelant, NDCC Shape Shifter!

Council candidate Justin Pelant speaks for small business
The Nelson Daily, Nov. 4, 2014
Bill Metcalfe

Pelant's answers to 2 of Metcalfe's questions below - contrary to providing clarity for the non-business/not-wealthy segment of the electorate - may now raise pointed concern among them over his cozy (ongoing yes/no/what) connection(s) with the Chamber of Commerce (NDCC) and Economic Development Partnership (NAEDP).

These 2 questions - in local main-stream media finally! - are a direct result of earlier observations in 3 blog-posts immediately below: the electorate deliberately, consistently diddled for political advantage by 1 Council candidate. 

1.
Metcalfe:
Why, and when, did you step down as president of the Chamber of Commerce?

Pelant:
I stepped down as president because it could be viewed as a conflict of interest. I had not stepped down when I announced that I was running because two of the other executive council (?) were out of town and we were in the midst of selling our building. So at our next meeting two weeks later, I put forward a motion that I was stepping down. Depending on the outcome of the election I will either come back as past president or I will step down entirely. So I am on a leave of absence right now.

We will probably never know whether-or-not he actually did step down - seeing there has been so much dodging-and-weaving and evidence to the contrary thus far (see earlier 3 posts!).
What we do know: since his candidacy announcement, Oct. 8, until the SPAN all-candidates forum, Nov. 5 - Pelant repeatedly publicly used his connection with the NDCC/NAEDP to give substance to his candidacy for City Councillor.
So what's with this leave of absence?

His only-now-declared intention to have wanted to step down from the start, Oct. 8, and reasons for not doing so then are disingenuous at best. Why wait until cornered to speak-up about it - 2 weeks after he supposedly stepped-down? Clearly - his candidacy was hatched within the NDCC collective - way before its announcement. Thus - had the appearance of a possible conflict of interest actually been on the table then: this could/should have been handled before two of the other executive council (sic) were out of town and before we were in the midst of selling our building.
In the midst of selling our building??? As Joan Rivers used to say: Can we talk?!

Thus far running his NDCC/NAEDP-Botox act for 29 days out of 39 - between candidacy announcement and election. I say: thus far!

2.
Metcalfe:
Does this apply also to being on the board of the NAEDP?

Pelant:
No, because it is a partnership between the Chamber, the City and local businesses. I have talked to other members on the board and they said,"We still want you on (the board)." I will continue on that board whether I get elected or not, if they still want me.

  

 

If possible conflict of interest applies to the NDCC connection - it does even more so to this here Partnership! The NDCC - coaching local businesses - is funded by them and partly by the City. And Chamber Prez Pelant was appointed to the NAEDP-Board by the NDCC. Putting the NDCC in charge of the NAEDP. I am not aware of the NAEDP receiving any funding from the City - you following me so far? Deep breath: while Council candidate Pelant now is-or-not at the NDCC-top - he definitely is on the NAEDP-Board. Same shtick. With not a word from its City reps: Councillors Kiss and Kozak - the latter a candidate for Mayor. And John Dooley - current mayor and NDCC champion - wanting to be re-elected. Probably worried about that - so there's all-around urgency! Got it?
That other members on the board...still want you on (the board) - though cuddly - is seriously immaterial in this situation. If nothing else: a dinky preference over integrity.
Altogether not trust-building! For a Councillor-in-trying!

I don't know Pelant personally, and my problem is not with him but the NDCC: a moneyed old-boys' club of all-pervasive local influence, with the Nelson Star's direct backing and ideologically that of the current mayor. 

Ultimately Pelant is negligible as a viable presence in his own campaign: solely run as a means to get legitimate/permanent access to City Hall's 2nd Floor.

And while one would expect this backing to generate great star-power - it has left him colorless and hardly there there. Left! Because - to the great unwashed - his backers have been unable to seamlessly mesh his candidacy with their intentions: it's all blatantly about the NDCC - see its repetitious Star-coverage - with Pelant in a clumsy orbit, held sort-of in place by the group's gravitational forces only.   

Running for elective City office should mean: for the start-to-finish duration - officially, publicly severing all existing professional ties - and avoiding any reference to them for advantage - with the City!

Not done here - in a watered-down version of American politics! 

VOTE INTEGRITY!

Both questions/answers are direct quotes/copies.

Justin Pelant: Neither here nor there!

I think Nelson is a brilliant place to raise kids and have a family.
                                          Justin Pelant
                                                Nelson Star, 8 Oct.


The Councillor-candidates list shows his local address as that of his business on Baker. Where he does not live. Neither does his 5-year old son with his wife. In fact - they don't live in Nelson at all!
But in Bonnington.


Justin Pelant - brilliant!

Vote Integrity!