Saturday 31 December 2011

Rob Fucking Ford: Strange Man, Strange Family

Rob Fucking Ford is in the news. Again.

Again with the 911 calls and police visits, which brings up two interesting questions:

Who's leaking this stuff to the Star?

And, does the mayor get preferential treatment from the cops?

We may or may not ever learn the answers to those, but I started wondering about the guy's psychology.

Specifically, he's a millionaire but also a lying, classless, buffoon. Yes, of course, millionaires can be lying, classless, buffoons, but wasn't he raised or educated better?

Back in April, 2010, Ford was still talking to the Star and was interviewed by Linda Diebel. The article is titled 'Rob Ford's complicated life'.

First bit of news to me: his father grew up 'dirt poor'.
He talks to the Star on a recent Thursday at Deco Labels & Tags, the Etobicoke company co-founded by his late father, Douglas Ford. He’s chief financial officer and offers a proud tour of a wholly family-owned operation that employs 250 in Toronto, Chicago and New Jersey and does close to $100 million in annual sales.

We’re in an office with a framed photo of his father, former offensive guard for the East York Argos, business leader, philanthropist, Conservative MPP in the Mike Harris government and, to his youngest son, an idol. His dad grew up dirt-poor in the east end, the youngest of nine, leaving school in Grade 5 to help his mother, known to the grandkids as “Big Nana.”

Now listen to him talk about his father:
Ford can’t get over his dad’s death. On July 1, 2006, he announced he had colon cancer. He was dead within three months, at 73. Ford calls it “the worst experience I’ve ever gone through.”

“What did he ever do to anyone? It was so sad to see someone who helped out so many people — he donated millions to the poorest of the poor — have to suffer and die like that. He was just gasping at the end. If you’ve ever heard a death rattle, it’s a ghastly affair.”

A long pause.

“Oh man. It’s rough. Terrible. It makes me upset when I think about it.”

Ford is still seething: “He could have lived a lot longer. There was nothing wrong, you know. . . . All his friends (are) still alive. They’re all 75, like my mom. He just got gypped 10 years and I don’t know why.

“He’s the last guy who deserved to go through what he went through . . . he taught Sunday school . . . There are hardened criminals, murderers, that don’t suffer like he suffered . . . . But, like you said, life’s not fair . . . I just can’t figure it out.”

There is a LOT of unresolved strangeness in there. Seething? Wanting 'hardened criminals' to suffer like his father did?

But wait, there's more.
This family is, to say the least, interesting.

“Like my dad said, ‘Many are called, few are chosen.’ It’s on his tombstone. The Ford family was chosen,” he says.

In a manner of speaking, perhaps.

“Our family has been through everything — from murder to drugs to being successful in business,” he says. “We’ve dealt with the very, very poor and the worst, worst tragedies . . . nobody can tell me a story that can shock.”

He talks about his sister, complaining, “the media never got it straight.”

How’s this for an explanation: “The killer wasn’t her ex-husband, it was an old boyfriend.”

As Ford tells it, Kathy Ford’s first boyfriend was Mike, before she married Jeff and had a daughter.

After divorcing Jeff, she lived six years with Ennio, bearing a son. She left Ennio and went back to Mike, and they rented a cottage up north.

Ford: In 1998, “from what I was told (by the kids), Ennio knocked on the cottage door and Mike answered it and Ennio shot him in the head” with a sawed-off shotgun. Charges were laid; Ennio went to prison for manslaughter.

In 2005, Ford says someone else “shot the top of her head off.” Press reports suggest it was an accident; two men were charged with firearms-related offences.

She’s functioning well, he says, living with her two children and on methadone for her heroin addiction.

“Bizarre, yeah, it’s really bizarre,” he says. “We all backed Kathy 100 percent; maybe what she was doing was wrong, but you don’t just throw people out into the street for doing the wrong stuff.”

I had never heard of anything about the sister, so I went looking. Look what I found from Sun Media in 2008. Toronto councillor Ford up on assault rap.
Outspoken city Councillor Rob Ford has once again landed himself in hot water, this time as he faces assault charges stemming from an alleged domestic incident with his wife.

OK, I knew about that, but again, there's more.
The councillor's family was also in the news after his sister Kathy Ford, then 45, was shot in the head in their childhood home on March 31, 2005.

She survived the shooting, which was later deemed to be accidental. Her boyfriend and another man were charged.

It wasn't the first time Ford's sister was touched by violence. In 1998 Kathy's ex-husband, Ennio Stirpe, used a sawed-off shotgun to kill Kathy's boyfriend, Michael Kiklas. Stirpe was later found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to 13 years in prison.

And now it gets timely. Ennio Stirpe is back in the news again. From December 9 this year:
A sensational attempted-murder case that led Vaughan’s former mayor to decry the justice system two years ago reached its conclusion Friday, with the conviction of Mayor Rob Ford’s onetime brother-in-law in a Newmarket courthouse.

Ennio Stirpe, a serial offender who was once married to Mr. Ford’s sister and later convicted of killing her new boyfriend, had been out of prison for a year when emergency responders found Angela Fantauzzi covered in blood inside his basement apartment on Vaughan’s Harmony Road in the fall of 2009.

He'll be sentenced in January.

Altogether some really weird stuff. Classic low-life shit.

But maybe Rob Fucking Ford is right. The Ford family has been chosen.

To fuck up everything they lay their hands on.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think that Mr Ford expresses the worst of our culture. But the worst of every culture includes lynching people because they're weird. Leave him alone for being a weird individual from a weird and unhappy family. But don't give him an inch for what he is doing in his public role - crucify him for his policies, not for the peculiarities of his private life.

Essbee said...

Great post Janet, love your blog. This is my take. Everything makes sense when viewed from a certain angle.

He's a child in a man's body(well..really two men's bodies at this stage).

He has never matured emotionally and is living with a completely engrained victim mentality, a very common Con trait. Unreliable parenting and lack of early attachment can lead to this in adults.

It produces constant anxiety, fear, an attraction to authoritarianism and a need to control everything

The idolization of the parents is also part of this as the adult/child is forever yearning to get the proper love and attention from the parent that they never got. The idolization is the constant attempt to appear supplicant enough to draw out that missing love. Doesn't work and then when the parents die the shock is immense because one then realizes that the love will never come.

Two common reactions to this are inward retreat, mourning and re-evaluation of ones life (this is the preferred outcome) and a concomitant maturation process.

The other is to hide in puzzlement and then direct the pent up rage outward as the fat fuck is doing now and will likely continue to do for the rest of his life barring some miraculous self realization or a tragedy of such magnitude that it forces self-reflection (good luck with that in Ford's case lol). The Narcissism in the family is shown by the idea that Ford beleieves that the family was "chosen".

Harper had a similar upbringing I believe (wealthy and largely absent parents, likely alcoholism in the family). He also has at least Narcissistic Personality disorder (all the photo-ops and pictures in the house con lobby) or is a full blown Sociopath(the dead eyes, they never smile). He ans Ford are very similar. Baird's rage, Pollievre's ways of acting out, its everywhere among the con's. Rage, victim-hood, dish it out but can't take it, a need to control everything.

This new breed of Cons are too a person mentally unbalanced. They attract each other because they recognize the illness in each other, just as children of alcoholics often are attracted to other children of alcoholics.

We are sort of fucked because no one yet quite gets just how mentally ill Harper and his goons are. So much stigma is attached to mental illness(as a cover I believe for all the mental illness/substance abuse problems among elites. I would lay money on the idea that all of the top cons come from alcoholic families (these can be dry families with the system still in place)

One cannot understand Harper's actions unless they are viewed through the lens of mental illness.

I know what of I speak, I come from a similar background, I retreated when my parents died and worked out my rage in private. It was difficult and leads me to understand just how big this problem is for our country.

I make no excuses for Ford, all adults are responsible for their actions.

Just look at how many in the GOP are sex offenders. I suspect its just as common up here.

Happy New Year.

Beijing York said...

Wow, that's quite the family background. I had no idea Rob Ford's father was an MP with the Mike Harris government.

Every family has it's ugliness and skeletons but how one reacts to such circumstances is variable. I agree there seems to be common element of anger and vindictiveness among many of the Harper Government™. There's a real fixation with punishing others.

Offroad Artist said...

wow - being chosen in such a way is like some kind of sickness - the infection has set in hard in that family. Easy to see why someone in the Ford household might call 911 and ask questions later. Is there any substantial evidence to back up what essbee said about GOP sex offenders or other sorts of violence? wouldn't surprise me at all - I wonder just how pronounced such trends are?

one of the great blogs here - have another great year blogging!

JJ said...

"Big Nana", LOL. Sounds like something out of the Sopranos.

The upside is that you guys from T.O. have endless material... sort of like one of Hizzoner's suits

Anonymous said...

We as society should be understanding and tolerant of mental illness, or at least is that not what we are taught as a civilized society, but l use that term loosely. Although there is no cure for this illness, I'm sure there is some treatment available. After all, we have Camh in Toronto. I'm sure with the right treatment, both Mr.Ford and Harper can be reintroduced to society, that is after a round of electro therapy and a lobotomy.

EssBee said...

Just stopped back and realized after reading Offroad Artists comment that I hadn't left any links to do with perversion in the Republican party (From what I've read I've come to think that child abuse, straight up and/or sexual in nature is endemic to the authoritarian conservative mindset, passed from generation to generation).

This page lists Repub's and the crimes/acts that they have committed/are alleged to have committed. As the wiki says "Most are cited, some lack sources, and some are rumors". It's a big list so even ruling out rumors and un-sourced items still leaves a lot.

http://www.dkosopedia.com/wiki/Republican_Sex_Scandals

Another.

http://www.republicansexoffenders.com/

And there is evidence of links to the first Bush white house and a pedophilia ring.

http://www.voxfux.com/features/bush_child_sex_coverup/article_archive.htm

This story is found elsewhere and there is a news special that was made, scheduled for the discovery channel and then not aired.

The blurb: "From Senator John Decamp: In mid-1993, after The Franklin Cover-Up had been circulating for almost a year, the British-based TV station, Yorkshire Television, sent a top-notch team to Nebraska to launch its own investigation of the Franklin case. Yorkshire had a contract with the Discovery Channel to produce a documentary on the case for American television. Finally, the big day came. Their documentary was to air nation-wide on the Discovery Channel on May 3, 1994. It was advertised in the TV Guide and in newspapers for that day. But no one ever saw that program. At the last minute, and without explanation, it was pulled from the air."

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3395321338401208062

Also, what is known of the induction rituals of the Skull and Bones society at Yale is that it involves some bizarre sexual rituals. Bush and Bush senior were both members, as was Kerry(Dem.) I believe and others of the same circles.

Anonymous said...

How do we go from wasting more of our valuable time and intellegence on this idiot we call Mayor of Toronto, to the Bush family's potential sexual perversion. Let's talk solutions. Guess those who voted the Ford's into power will have to wait with us for 3 more years to get rid of him, unless his diet threats kill him first.

Bina said...

OMG, Frod's dad was in the Harris gummint? Now it all makes sense. All that draconian, ultra-right, crapitalist, privatize-everything bullshit. No wonder he's so cozy with Hudak and Harpo, too! They're ALL Harrisite Parasites!

Red Jenny said...

Honestly, the rubbernecking and judgment I'm seeing from people is making me ill. I can't stand Rob Fucking Ford either - for his policies - but I don't believe people should be criticized or judged for family members' personal lives. Being an addict and a victim of domestic violence doesn't make someone a bad person. The kind of coverage and discussion we've seen of this issue just further stigmatizes. Having come from a family that also had mental illness and violence (yet is full of love), and having been involved in many similar situations in my youth, this really hits home. I feel I'm relatively intelligent, caring and balanced and if I were to run for office I think it would be wrong for someone to dig up dirt on my brother or mother or whatever. Lastly, the kinds of things Rob was saying about his father's death are very normal responses to grief. He is a fuck up and a terrible mayor - isn't that enough to judge him on?

fern hill said...

I'm sorry you are offended, Red Jenny, but I think the man's psychology and background are germane. He's got four more years to devastate the city and I'd like to know where he's coming from.

No one is digging up dirt. He talks about this shit. He's proud of all the things his family has been 'chosen' for. He makes a big deal about being a regular guy. Well, regular people don't have 911 on speed-dial.

Further to that, now there's talk about security for him. So, the people of Toronto have to pay for security for him because his sister attracts violent drug-users? If I have to pay for something I want to know why.

As for his grief, it was five fucking years ago. I know something of grief and one is not seething and choking up five fucking years later unless it's for show or it's a sign of some really unresolved issues.

Anonymous said...

Had Rob Ford shown himself to be a decent, intelligent and levelheaded guy, I wouldn't care if his mother barked naked at cars driving past the house everyday at noon. However, Rob Ford isn't just a guy, he's the Mayor, and his own disgraceful actions against his family have brought his private life to the public.

Anonymous said...

Yes, he is probably dealing with mental illness, and no this shouldn't itself be something to taunt him with, but we should be able to know if someone diagnosed as a megalomaniac or sociopath is running the city, or the country.

Actually, I think this is a great chance to conduct a case study of the psychology of an ultra-right winger--with so many publicly documented incidents there is probably enough "data" now to start drawing some conclusions. I always liked the idea of looking at some politicians' sociopathic behaviour (they are obviously not all sociopaths) and diagnosing it as such, first in the politicians and then in the brand of politics they support.

Anyway if we are going to kick the habit of greed and fear as a species, I think we need to start reverse engineering the character traits of our "leaders".

Anonymous said...

The whole family is a mess; is it any wonder that Rob is self destructing? It is a proud family tradition...

Anonymous said...

glad to see reference to early childhood, attachment issues. I think Ford is nothing more than a badly hurt child ( as are his siblings ) who uses anger, food, drugs, alcohol, sex, whatever he can to deal with a lot of childhood trauma and unresolved shit. His issues are probably intergenerational. I feel for his kids, wife.

deBeauxOs said...

It's also quite possible that Rob is an adult survivor of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. He displays many of the traits and in particular, the behaviours of someone affected in this manner.

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