Bruce Dowbiggin
The Manchurian President: How Barack Obama Infiltrated America

First, they came for the belts. Then they came for the shoes. Then they came for the liquids. Then they came for the… lint roller? A NYC man convinced random citizens to submit to a voluntary roll-down. Subservience to authority is the byword in the 2020s.
How did we get from Question Authority to Lint Roller guy? Wasn’t this the generation that couldn’t be fooled? Apparently not. Lint rollers, systemic racism, masks, lockdowns— the former counter culture now swallows them whole, without question.
Is the current trans/ BLM/ DEI social upheaval worse than the 1960s revolutions that threatened the West? In July of 2020 we attempted to answer the question by pointing out the gap between Abby Hoffman and AOC. “The significant difference between the (Charles) 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. The Democratic Party (still controlled by its Dixie segregationists) held their radicals at bay after the George McGovern massacre in 1972. The ascetic monk Jimmy Carter was their response in 1976 to the over-heated circus of the ‘60s and 70s radicals.
The business community never felt any need to appease the SLA or the anti-war movement. Instead the co-opted it. Remember The Monkees? And while some in the media were amused by Flower Power and Jane Fonda being a traitor, the corporate media never felt the slightest need to abandon the power structure. So yes, the ‘60s make great material for films. But for political theatre they were just an opening act for the enormous societal transformation taking place since the time of Covid19.
Then how did the radical left, crushed by Nixon in 1972, re-emerge today to finally achieve its agenda? Enter: Barack Obama, the Manchurian President. For those who missed the 1962 film, The Manchurian Candidate, Laurence Harvey portrayed a former soldier brainwashed by communists in Korea and trained to assassinate a presidential candidate when a specific playing card was shown to him. Allowing the baddies to control the nation.
In this updated real telling a Democratic candidate is the vessel selected by defeated ‘60s radicals to complete their power grab. Hunkered down after their murderous bomb-throwing past, radicals like Bill Ayres and wife Bernadette Dohrn searched for the ideal candidate to get them that power. Like all good Marxists they were willing to play the long game. And if a few bodies hit the floor— well, that was collateral damage.
They first hoped Bill Clinton might get them there, but his sexual peccadilloes and triangulation with GOP left them disappointed. Eventually they saw the prophet in their Chicago living room, the embodiment of their hopes. Glib but not too glib. Black but not too-black. Hip but not too hip, Barry “Call Me Barack” Obama would succeed where Carter, Walter Mondale, Michael Dukakis, Al Gore and Hilary Clinton had failed in transitioning the culture.
Fawned over by the SJWs and elected as a moderate supporter of The Sanctity of Marriage Act, he was bullish on markets, equal opportunity versus equal outcome and other traditional Democratic policies on immigration, education and foreign policy. Once in the White House the Manchurian President was shown his trigger card in 2008.
Faster than you can say Henry Louis Gates, Obama and his coterie of ambitious advisors— Susan Rice, Ben Rhodes, Valerie Jarrett, Samantha Power— sent the Department of Justice and other key bureaus into police forces, universities, government offices and the military to implement a radical diversity program. Using the template his wife Michelle Obama had used in implanting critical race theory gender fluidity, white privilege and cultural appropriation into Chicago’s school and hospital system, they sought to make cultural guilt the most prominent fact of American life. Clever replaced wise.
”The future FLOTUS was a hot commodity, brimming with resentments despite her position at the top of the food chain. She was a product of Chicago’s leftwing community spearheaded by former Weatherman terrorist Bill Ayres. She regularly attended a church where the pastor hissed, “God damn America”.
Then she went to the University of Chicago Hospitals where, for the lofty salary of $273,610, she performed the same purgative act, inserting racial guilt and gender fluidity into their operations. By the time she left Chicago for the White House, the organizations she advised were in turmoil over white supremacy, slavery, sexism, colonialism and just about any product of the contemporary society. By all accounts her message was a raging success— for her.”
Soon, white males, police, bureaucrats, soldiers and foreign service diplomats were being cloistered in day-long encounter sessions, assailed for their “privilege” and racism, forced to recant or be fired. Over the eight years of Obama’s presidency it became clear that to access federal funds or seek advancement you had to dance the radical dance composed by Marxists professors the previous generation.
Hollywood, Wall Street and pro sports were then brought under the same authority of the restored 60s radicals. All was moving, in Obama’s words, with the arc of history. Hillary Clinton would provide a third term to seal Obama’s legacy.
They hadn’t accounted for Donald Trump. The pushback against Woke, interrupted in 2016, halted the radicals’ natural assumption of power. Shocked at the impertinence of Trump as POTUS they spent four years attacking, usurping and de-ligitimizing the flamboyant TV star. Denied their sinecures and Georgetown addresses the furious “Swamp” twice tried impeachment, launched a two-year Mueller investigation, employed MSNBC and CNN against him on a daily basis and finally blamed him for Covid.
They propped up a senile Joe Biden and exploited new Covid laws to get him elected. It worked. In the two years since wandering Joe became president, the momentum toward a Brave New World of battling “disinformation” and identifying traitors in their midst has captured all the vital organs of society.
Like the lint-roller victims, most people choose flight over fight, hoping that if they appease a trans-obsessed society it will go away. In the Manchurian Candidate Harvey’s character kills the bad guys and then himself. They hope.
Don’t count on Team Obama folk having second thoughts, however. Having allowed Trump to interrupt the gravy chain once they’ve re-doubled their efforts to stage a Red Guard-style movement, suppressing Wrongthink, disposing of the MAGA class while imposing an elite ruling cadre that will make sure no one tells the real story of Barack the Manchurian.
And the thing about this movie? Most of the lint rollers won’t know it’s done till the card is turned over.
Sign up today for Not The Public Broadcaster newsletters. Hot takes/ cool slants on sports and current affairs. Have the latest columns delivered to your mail box. Tell your friends to join, too. Always provocative, always independent. https://share.hsforms.com/16edbhhC3TTKg6jAaRyP7rActsj5
Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the editor of Not The Public Broadcaster A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada’s top television sports broadcaster, he’s a regular contributor to Sirius XM Canada Talks Ch. 167. Inexact Science: The Six Most Compelling Draft Years In NHL History, his new book with his son Evan, was voted the seventh-best professional hockey book of all time by bookauthority.org . His 2004 book Money Players was voted sixth best on the same list, and is available via http://brucedowbigginbooks.ca/book-personalaccount.aspx
2025 Federal Election
Will Four More Years Of Liberals Prove The West’s Tipping Point?

The 1997 political comedy Wag The Dog featured a ruling president far behind in the polls engaging Hollywood to rescue his failing ratings. By inventing a fake war against Albania and a left-behind “hero”— nicknamed Shoe— the Hollywood producer creates a narrative that sweeps the nation.
The meme of hanging old shoes from the branches of trees and power lines catches on and re-elects the president. In a plot kicker, the vain producer is killed by the president’s handlers when he refuses to stay quiet about his handiwork. The movie’s cynicism over political spin made it a big hit in the Bill Clinton/ Monica Lewinsky days.

In the recent 2024 election the Democrats thought they’d resurrect the WTD formula to spin off senile Joe Biden at the last minute in favour of Kamala Harris. Americans saw through the obvious charade and installed Donald Trump instead.
You’d think that would be enough to dissuade Canadians who pride themselves on their hip, postmodern humour. But you’d be wrong, they don’t get the joke. Wag The Carney is the current political theatre as Liberals bury the reviled Justin Trudeau and pivot to Mark Carney. If you believe the polling it might just be working on a public besotted by ex-pat Mike Myers and “Canada’s Not For Sale”.
As opposed to Wag The Dog, few are laughing about this performative theatre, however. There are still two debates (English/ French) and over three more weeks of campaign where anything— hello Paul Chiang—can happen. But with Laurentian media bribed by the Libs— Carney is threatening those who stray— people are already projecting what another four years of Liberals in office will mean.
As the most prominent outlier to Team Canada’s “we will fight them on the beaches…” Alberta’s premier Danielle Smith is already steering a course for her province that doesn’t include going to war with America on energy. She asked Trump to delay his tariffs until Canadians had a chance to speak on the subject in an election April 28. Naturally the howler monkeys of the Left accused her of treason. She got her wish Wednesday when Canada was spared any new tariffs for the time being.

Clearly, she (and Saskatchewan premier Scott Moe) have no illusions about Carney not using their energy industry as a whipping post for his EU climate schemes. They’ve seen the cynical flip in polls as former Trudeau loyalists hurry back to the same Liberal party they abandoned in 2024. They know Carney can manipulate the Boomer demographic just as he did when he called for draconian financial methods against the peaceful Truckers Convoy in 2022.
Former Reform leader Preston Manning is unequivocal: “’Large numbers of Westerners simply will not stand for another four years of Liberal government, no matter who leads it.’“ So how does the West respond within Confederation to protect itself from a predatory Ottawa elite?
Clearly, the emissions cap— part of Carney’s radical environmental plans— will keep Alberta’s treasure in the ground. With Carney repeating no cancellation of Bill C-69 that precludes building pipelines in the future, the momentum for a referendum in Alberta will only grow. The NDP will howl, but there will be enough push among from the rest of Albertans for a new approach within Canada.
In this vein Smith even wants to approach Quebec. While it seems like odd bedfellows the two provinces most at odds with the status quo have much in common . “This is an area where our two provinces may be able to coordinate an approach,” Smith wrote this week. That could include referendums by the middle of 2026.
Perhaps the best recipe for keeping the increasingly fractious union together is a devolution of power, not unlike that governing the United Kingdom. While Westminster remains the central power since 1997, there are now separate parliaments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland that put power closer to the citizen, so that local factors are better recognized in decision making.
With so little uniting the regions of the country any longer, devolution might provide a solution. What form could decentralization take within Canada? A Western Canada Parliament could blunt predatory federal energy policies while countering the imbalances of Canada’s equalization process. Similar parliaments representing Quebec, the Atlantic provinces, Ontario and B.C. would protect their own special interests within Canada. Ottawa could handle Canada’s international obligations to defence, trade and international cooperation.
While the idea is fraught with pitfalls it nonetheless remains preferable to a breakup of the nation, which four more years of Liberals rule under Mark Carney and the same Trudeau characters will likely precipitate. Smith’s outreach case would be the beginning of such a process.
None of this would be necessary were the populations of Eastern Canada and B.C.’s lower mainland remotely serious after snoozing through the Trudeau decade. The OECD shows Canada’s 1.4% GDP barely ahead of Luxembourg and behind the rest of the industrialized world from 2015-2025. As we’ve said before the Boomers sitting on their $1 million-plus homes are re-staging Woodstock on the Canada Pension and OAS. As with Wag The Dog, they’re not getting the joke.

When the Boomers award themselves another four years of taxapalooza and Mike Myers and the other “Canada Not For For Sale” celebs head south to their tax-avoidance schemes how will the Boomers say they’ve left Canada better off for anyone under 60? We’ll hang up and listen to your answer on the TV.
Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the editor of Not The Public Broadcaster A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada’s top television sports broadcaster, his new book Deal With It: The Trades That Stunned The NHL And Changed hockey is now available on Amazon. Inexact Science: The Six Most Compelling Draft Years In NHL History, his previous book with his son Evan, was voted the seventh-best professional hockey book of all time by bookauthority.org . His 2004 book Money Players was voted sixth best on the same list, and is available via brucedowbigginbooks.ca.
Bruce Dowbiggin
Are the Jays Signing Or Declining? Only Vladdy & Bo Know For Sure

We were watching the Los Angeles Dodgers home opener on Thursday. The defending World Series champs came from behind to beat Detroit 5-4. The big hit was a three-run homer from a player named Teoscar Hernandez off AL Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal

If that name sounds familiar, Teoscar was a Toronto Blue Jay from 2018-2022. He pounded 121 homers in the span as part of the Jays’ order. But when Toronto decided it needed bullpen help he was traded to Seattle in 2022 for pitchers Erik Swanson and Adam Macko. While Swanson has battled injuries and Macko is no-go, Hernandez keeps pounding the ball.
In his one year in Seattle he had strikeout problems but did hit 26 homers with 93 RBIs. In the winter of 2023-24 he signed as a free agent with the aforementioned Dodgers. Batting behind Shohei Ohtani he launched 33 homers and 99 RBIs. He won the All Star Home Run Derby. His key hit in Game 5 of the World Series propelled L.A. to the title. The stacked Dodgers liked him enough to give him a three-year, $66 million contract.
Why are we telling you this? Because the Blue Jays also started their 2025 season at home, matched against the Baltimore Orioles. And while there are reasons to believe the Jays will not replicate their 74-win disaster of 2024, there remain the old bugaboos of injuries and pitching. In the four games against the division rivals they need to beat, Jays’ pitching gave up 24 runs while scoring 18—nine of them in one game.
The splashy acquisition of 40 year old HOF pitcher Max Scherzer has already gone sideways as a bad thumb has put him on the IL. The new stopper, Jeff Hoffman, was rejected on medical grounds by two other teams before Toronto’s money made him healthy. The rest of the bullpen— a disaster in 2024— got off to a rocky start with Orioles hitters playing BP against them. They’ve already DFA’d one pitcher and called up two more from the minors. The re-made pen performed well in Game 4, but how it holds up in their next 158 games is a mystery.
On offence, while their rivals in Boston and New York added sexy pieces to their rosters the Jays were only able to acquire veteran switch-hitting Baltimore slugger Anthony Santander. More typical of their other signees is ex-Cleveland 2B infielder Andres Giminez who in 2023 had the lowest average exit velocity of all AL batters (84.8 mph), and led the AL in percentage of balls that were softly hit (21.7%). He does play a slick second base.
The winter story line for the Jays offence was what to do about Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette, the erstwhile star-dust twins who were— along with Cavan Biggio— supposed to guarantee titles when they emerged in 2019. Biggio is gone, so the other two carry the credibility of the management team of Mark Shapiro and Ross Atkins. From the outside the Jays seem paralyzed to act.

While the Jays dithered, the price for players like Guerrero and Bichette soared. Using Juan Soto’s Mets $765 M deal as a yardstick Guerrero turned down a Jays offer of just under $600 M, saying he was done talking during the season. If Shapiro/ Atkins had anticipated the market Guerrero would have cost a lot less in 2023-24. If there is no progress by the trading deadline the Jays will be forced to get what they can in a trade.
Shortstop Bichette— a gifted player who battled injuries in 2024—is likewise up for a new deal. He has started strong in 2025 and would command a handsome return in a trade. He says the Jays are waiting to see what happens with Guerrero first. Having sold the pair for years to their loyal fans, having to trade them will be a massive PR blow. And while Jays’ national audience can be an advantage, having a whole country pissed with you is devastating.
The rest of the secret sauce for a Toronto comeback revolves around one of their hitting prospects taking a step forward. Any/ all of Will Wagner, Alan Roden, Addison Barger or Leo Jimenez can have a job if they show their bats are for real. Otherwise Shapiro and Atkins will hope that Dalton Varsho, George Springer and Alejandro Kirk can find a little magic in their aging bats.
A failure to retain talent may prompt fans to recall that Rogers decided that Shapiro and Atkins, who dumped Teoscar, were worthy replacements for the previous GM who’d walked away. The man Schneider and Atkins were hired to improve upon— Canadian Alex Anthopoulos— has made the Atlanta Braves a dominant team. Since AA moved to Atlanta they’ve won 90, 97, 38 (Covid year), 88, 101, 104, 109, 89 games. They’ve won a World Series and two other playoff series. They won six straight NL East titles before injuries sank them last year.
The Braves have developed young everyday superstars like Ronald Acuńa Jr. who don’t get picked off second base. They have built a pitching staff largely from within, not splashy FA signings. They have swagger without cockiness. They are set for years to come.
The Blue Jays? Since AA left they’ve won 73, 67, 32 (Covid), 91, 92, 89, 74 games. They’ve won zero postseason games while missing the playoffs in four seasons. The players they traded are starring for other teams in the postseason. They are again employing an inexperienced company guy as manager.
While it’s true that the sun can’t shine on the same team every day, Jays fans believe it would be nice if the great orb would find their club as it did back in the 1992/93 World Series days. Instead of the reflected glory of past stars winning for other teams. Patience is thin. And time is ticking.
Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the editor of Not The Public Broadcaster A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada’s top television sports broadcaster, his new book Deal With It: The Trades That Stunned The NHL And Changed hockey is now available on Amazon. Inexact Science: The Six Most Compelling Draft Years In NHL History, his previous book with his son Evan, was voted the seventh-best professional hockey book of all time by bookauthority.org . His 2004 book Money Players was voted sixth best on the same list, and is available via brucedowbigginbooks.ca.
-
Alberta2 days ago
Owner sells gas for 80 cents per litre to show Albertans how low prices ‘could’ be
-
2025 Federal Election1 day ago
MORE OF THE SAME: Mark Carney Admits He Will Not Repeal the Liberal’s Bill C-69 – The ‘No Pipelines’ Bill
-
Break The Needle2 days ago
Why psychedelic therapy is stuck in the waiting room
-
Automotive2 days ago
Trump Must Act to Halt the Tesla Terror Campaign
-
2025 Federal Election1 day ago
Three cheers for Poilievre’s alcohol tax cut
-
2025 Federal Election1 day ago
‘Coordinated and Alarming’: Allegations of Chinese Voter Suppression in 2021 Race That Flipped Toronto Riding to Liberals and Paul Chiang
-
Alberta1 day ago
Energy sector will fuel Alberta economy and Canada’s exports for many years to come
-
2025 Federal Election1 day ago
Don’t let the Liberals fool you on electric cars