Not sure how or if this blog will work. My computer is behaving oddly. I can't even proofread because the print on my end in terribly small.
In 1939, Britain was the biggest and most powerful empire in world history. And Canadians, most of them, were fiercely loyal to Britain as 'the Mother Country'.
That's why Canada gladly fought in the Boer War, And then world wars 1 and 2. And that's why so many thousands of Canadians died. That's why, in my school days, the flag at the front of the class was the Union Jack, the flag to which we pledged allegiance every day. That's why, every morning, we sang God Save the Queen. To be a patriotic Canadian was to serve Britain.
But that was another Canada.
World War 2, with considerable help from the U.S. destroyed the British Empire. It tried to steal China from Britain - but failed because the Chinese had their own ideas on that subject. However, the U.S. did steal most of Africa and the middle east from British capitalists. And Canadians never made a peep.
Of course not. The patriotism fever that caused us to kill and die for Britain was pure propaganda. Canada has fought in wars since 1945. But they are American wars. (However, we don't hang star-spangled banners in our schools, and children don't sing God Bless America in the morning.) Andif Canadians fight and die today, it's with a patriotism that ties them to the U.S.
Beware of people who talk patriotism. It's almost always a cover for serving murderous billionaires.
Today, we're watching the final collapse of the pre-1939 Britain.
And who gives a damn?
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2018/dec/13/theresa-may-heads-to-brexit-talks-in-brussels-after-seeing-off-vote-politics-livede
________________________________________________________________
Now, it's quite possible that Canada be asked to send troops to help the U.S. we all love in a patriotic way to get tough with those nasty Venezuelans and aren't as nice as they should be to Americans.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/dec/12/venezuela-nicolas-maduro-assassination-attempt-white-house-ultra-right-locos
_____________________________________________________________
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/dec/10/love-knows-no-borders-agents-arrest-32-as-religious-leaders-gather-at-us-border
Wouldn't it be nice to see religious leaders in Canada do some religious leading?
But don't hold your breath.
____________________________________________________________
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/dec/12/china-canada-diplomat-michael-kovrig-detention-latest-
Typically, Canadians are patriotically serving the U.S. - even though it extremely that the U.S. has any legal right to charge her with anything. Her sin, it seems, is that she has had economic dealings with Iran. And the U.S. has told the world it is not allowed to deal with Iran. But let's get real. The U.S. has no right to ban anybody from trading with anybody.
________________________________________________________________
https://lfpress.com/opinion/columnists/dyer-saudi-game-of-thrones-could-be-its-ruination
___________________________________________________________
The creation of the NDP was a terrible mistake. It's predecessor, the CCF had been a party of accomplishments. Most notable was its it's creation of medicare for all Canadians. It was quite an accomplishment for a small opposition party to force the Liberals and Conservatives into adopting such a broad programme.
The CCF had been a party of creation, of innovation. But the CCF was not popjular with Canada's billionaires. And that meant it never came close to the income it needed. So it had to turn to the unions for funding.
But the union, alas, were too much like the billionaires. The price for union support was the create a new party, the NDP, that would destroy much of innovation and principle that had marked the CCF.
And it hasn't changed.
http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/brent-patterson/2018/12/courage-there-way-forward-federal-nd
___________________________________________________________
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/12/13/we-see-you-stephen-miller-white-house-reportedly-considering-despicable-and-racist
______________________________________________________________
https://www.thenation.com/article/trump-immigration-undocumented-housekeeper/
______________________________________________________________
https://countercurrents.org/2018/12/13/the-nostalgia-for-george-h-w-bush-and-the-dream-of-a-kinder-gentler-imperialism/
______________________________________________________________
Latin Americans are not trying to flee to the U.S. because they love it. They're fleeing because for more than a century the U.S. has made their own countries into hells on earth.
U.S. corporations (and Canadian ones) force the people of Latin America to work in unlivable conditions for unsurvivable pay. They destroy the lands. They plunder the wealth. They forbid the legislation that is needed to make life bearable. They destroy education. They make health care out of the question. They install dictators. And they murder anyone who objects.
What gives the U.S. the right to do this?
Well, a majority of American Christians feel that God wants them to rule those countries and, for that matter, to rule the whole world. The figure for Republicans is over 60%, And, surprise, it's over 80% for Democrats.
This belief in America's relationship with God goes back centuries to at least the Pilgrim Fathers. And it's much encouraged by American billionaires.
That's why it's okay for America to starve the children of Yemen to death. God says it's okay.
___________________________________________________________
This next story is almost certainly true, John Bolton was a long, long history of such behaviur (and so have most American governments.)
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/50751.htm
______________________________________________________
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/50749.htm
And contrary to what any of our news media might say, Canada is on the U.S. list. What it has now is a very subject Canada. But that's not going to be enough.
For convenience and to meet changing conditions, the U.S. iis gonig to want Canada to a part of the U.S. Count on it.
_______________________________________________________________
...not just in the U.S....
https://www.nationalobserver.com/2018/12/12/news/opposition-pounces-ontario-police-chiefs-call-investigation-appointment-doug-fords
_________________________________________________________________
https://off-guardian.org/2018/12/12/discuss-kerch-strait-and-azov-sea-tensions/
And it is very possible we shall find ourselves fighting a war over this.
_______________________________________________________________
https://www.npr.org/2018/12/13/676300525/almost-15-000-migrant-children-
now-held-at-nearly-full-shelters
Gotta watch them kids. They could be terrorists.
_____________________________________________________________
Don't worry about this next one. Wealthy Americans don't even think about it
https://truthout.org/articles/theres-a-hunger-crisis-in-north-carolina/
_____________________________________________________________
I taught university for almost 40 years. Student course evaluations showed that students liked my courses, but found me a hard marker. I was a hard marker. But most of my students, by far, passed their courses with me. I was, therefore, stunned at the failure rate in American colleges as reported below. Universities, of course, will trot out their usual song that they have high standards.
But that's bullslhit. A forty percent failure rate suggests to me abysmal teaching - and other problems.
To make it worse, rich countries like Canada and the U.S. force students to pay heavy costs for course and living expenses. I remember well, my shock on graduating to learn that I face d 15 years of paying off student loans - a situation that makes it impossible for most even to think of higher education.
Tiny Cuba can afford to pay for education. That's why Cuban doctors are to be found all over the world. But rich Canada and the U.S. can't afford it.
But that forty percent figure for the U.S. is stunning. To make it worse, rich kids of no brains at all can do well in university. Rich kid George Bush Jr. could get a first degree despite being close to illiterate. (He was also heavily into drugs at the time.) He also got accepted after for a graduate degree at at super reputation school - and he passed. (Impossible. But it happened.)
U.S. education is in trouble, big trouble.
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-12-12/nearly-40-american-college-students-never-graduate-study-finds
_________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
No comments:
Post a Comment