A reader said of my last blog that I obviously didn't proofread because I had a sentence near the top that had a word in error.
That reader is right.
I usually start a blog in late morning, and finish it around nine or ten in the evening. I end with a spelling check. But, as man of wearying age, I'm sometimes too lazy and too tired to proofread. Life is hell.
________________________________________________________________
Three elements in Canada's federal election have been largely ignored by our news media.
One is the rise of the Boc Quebecois in Quebec. It's appeal to Quebec voters, at this point, is that it demands Canada recognize that Quebec has the right to be the only province in Canada to exclude people from employment if they wear religious symbols as part of their clothing in their work. An example is the hijab or shawl worn by Muslim women. And there are other examples. All of this is designed only to keep out people who are not pure French Quebeckers.
This comes from a province once noted for it's Roman Catholic symbols that covered the whole province. Teaching nuns taught in full nun regalia complete with crucifixes. Teaching brothers wore full religious gear. Crucifixes were in just about every room of every government building in the province.
So why has Quebec passed a law forbidding religious symbols? Simple. It's racism.
The whole world is moving, changing. Immigrants are a fact of life. But Quebeckers (like many Canadians) are racist. That racism largely destroyed an English population that had been there for centuries. And Quebec is determined that it will not accept people who are in any way different from them. People who are different are inferior. (I am a Quebecker of French descent that goes back to 1650 in Quebec. But I am not a true Quebecker because one of my nineteenth century French ancestors married a Scottish woman.)
And that is why Quebec defies the federal government to keep most immigrants out of Quebec. It's religious ornamentation law is designed to keep them out by refusing employment to them. This is racism.
(Interestingly, the French of France show no great interest in moving to Quebec.)
The Bloc Quebecois is really the old Quebec separatist movement of the late twentieth century.. Quebec refuses to accept that it is a part of Canada and subject to Canadian law. This is a crisis that Canada is going to have to deal with because it cannot have two standards of behaviour. Nor can it face the world with such an example of racism.
Nor is delay a good idea. The more we delay, the more Quebec will carve out a separate status for itself. And the result of that would be a breakup of Canada.
The case of Alberta is somewhat similar. It refuses to come to grips with oil legislation because it sees itself not really a part of Canada. No. They have their very own 'experts' on oil, people who say oil is good for you. Most of them, of course, are oil industry people.
But, like Quebec, Alberta has no interest whatever in Canada, and no wish to obey Canada's laws. It's premier is a man designed for this task. He's a bootlicker for the oil bosses. And he's a liar. Today, he announced that he has consulted leading scientists who told him that oil is perfectly safe. He praised their advice - though even he cannot be dumb enough to believe them. And who are those 'leading' scientists who disagree with all the climate change scientists I have ever heard of? He doesn't tell us.
Watch for Alberta to make noises about moving the province out of Canada.
Is it possible that the U.S. would court Alberta to leave Canada and join the U.S.?
The U.S. would jump at the chance.
Then there's another feature of this election - a feature that nobody is talking about.
There's lot concerned debate about government deficits and getting control of them. These deficits often make it impossible for governments to carry out essentially services. We could use some politicians who could do some deeper thinking on this and who would even propose action on it.
Governments run up huge deficits. But they still don't have enough money to meet important needs. That's why we have people sleeping in the streets. That's why the cost of pharmacare is, literally, killing us. That's why young people who go to university face costs so high they will have to pay for them for years. That's why public schools are overstuffed. Why don't we deal with these costs?
The reason we can't is that the very rich don't pay income tax. Unlike you and me, they're allowed to put their money in secret banks.
Does that money get spent on us? Get real. They can - and do - spend it all over the world to make money for themselves. They might spend some in Canada - but the whole world is there playground.
Amazingly, we also give them huge amounts of OUR tax money as gifts to add their corporate money-making sprees.
What the hell are we doing? We are letting ourselves be robbed blind by the super-rich. In consequence, almost all Canadians face anything from extreme poverty to hardship.
Why has no political party mentioned this? Why are we allowing ourselves to be impoverished to satisfy the unsatisfiable greed of a small number of rich thieves?
Why aren't Canadians raising hell about this? Why do we allow the children of the poor to suffer hunger while we feed the very rich to their burping point?
The reality is we are being robbed by the rich. And nobody has said boo.
The is going to come home to us in a savage way. In fact, it should have come home to thinking people a long time ago. It should have been forbidden even as it happened. And, oh, we are paying a price that has no end. We already are suffering economic decline even as our very rich laugh at us and steal more.
Think about it. We let thousands, even millions, starve. We drop steadily in our standard of living. (It's happening in the U.S., too.) This is going to lead to one hell of an explosion unless we deal with it as we should have dealt with it many years ago. Instead, we are allowing ourselves to be plundered by the greediest people in history.
_______________________________________________________________
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/scheer-minority-government-1.5323901
Can Scheer really be so ignorant of our political system as he appears to be?
To be a prime minister one does NOT need the largest, single party in parliament.
One needs the support of a majority, and that majority can be made up of two or even more parties. Governments can and have resigned if they lose and election. But that is because they lacked that extra support.
No party can maintain a government without a majority in the House. And if that majority is achieved by getting the support of another party, so be it.
_________________________________________________________________
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/dc-ukraine-hearings-sondland-1.5324110
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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/oct/13/cuba-oil-sanctions-shortages
U.S. big business wants a Cuba like the old days with cheap, cheap labour, virtually no public services, with a government made up of pro-U.S. capitalist thugs. Just like the old days and just like much of Latin America under U.S. control.
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This next item is an ad from The Guardian looking for financial support for the paper. It's quite a contrast with the news we get in North American newspapers who, for the most part, play down the danger of climate change and, for the most part simply ignore it.
I don't entirely agree with this next one. But the topic does deserve more thought than we've given it.
Here's the kind of story that would never appear in Ottawa's newspaper or it's owners at National Post.
https://countercurrents.org/2019/10/extinction-rebellion-sweeps-the-world
_____________________________________________________________
https://thetyee.ca/News/2019/10/17/Trudeau-Indigenous-Housing-Strategy-Nowhere-In-Sight/
______________________________________________________________
https://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2019/06/28/Andrew-Scheer-Real-Bad-Climate-Plan/
______________________________________________________________
https://www.globalresearch.ca/planet-has-been-heating-up-for-almost-two-centuries/5652874
______________________________________________________________
https://www.globalresearch.ca/israel-turn-bedouin-citizens-refugees-their-own-country/5692229
There are almost 2 million Arabs who live in Israel. These people are Israeli citizens and, indeed, they have been citizens, along with the many Jews who lived in that land for centuries, with both Jews and Arabs getting along well.
Then came the creation of Israel. The Arabs remained in the new country. But they were treated as trash by the inrushing Jews from Europe, forced to live in Ghettos, denied most government services. Now they are being kicked out of the land of which they are legally residents and that has been their home for centuries.
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In Canada and the U.S., the growing billionaire power over Liberals, Conservatives, Republicans and, to a lesser degree, Democrats is creating a steady growth of hunger and poverty. It was made worse, much worse, by the insane decisions to allow the superwealthy (and supergreedy) to avoid income tax. And, in addition, to throw billions of our money at them whenever they ask for them which is very, very often.
https://www.globalresearch.ca/millions-hungry-food-insecure-us/5692168
______________________________________________________________
https://www.globalresearch.ca/syria-restored-1554-schools-completely-destroyed-nato-terrorists/5692069
Onward Christian so-oldiers...
________________________________________________________________
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52408.htm
_____________________________________________________________
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52406.htm
______________________________________________________________
The next item is very complex - and I won't even pretend I fully understand it. But it does seen to explain what is really happening in Syria.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52412.htm
________________________________________________________________
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52409.htm
_______________________________________________________________
I haven't yet seen one of these. And I shall certainly try to avoid them.
https://www.nationalobserver.com/2019/10/17/analysis/explainer-rise-canadas-right-wing-meme-pages
_______________________________________________________________
https://www.nationalobserver.com/2019/10/16/features/how-jagmeet-singh-became-canadas-spokesperson-race-2019-election
_________________________________________________________________
\Some time ago, I wrote a column about a 'current event' of the early nineteenth century. But I just discovered it in my file as an unsent item. So, just in case, bear in mind that this could be a duplicate of something already sent.
An event of 1841 can scarcely be called a current event. But it has a lesson for us.
In 1841, the British feared a Russian attack on Afghanistan that would provide the base for an attack on British India. This sort of thing was ( and is) still common. Afghanistan is positioned almost as if designed as if it were deliberately a base of attack on a number of countries - (though it was not a nation of attack itself.) So the British decided to invade.
A base was established on the Afghanistan border. Then the main force of 3000 troops moved in to settle near Kabul. With that main force were wives, children, prostitutes attached to the army.base.near Kabul. Reluctantly,the British began the long trek to the coast through wild, mountain cover. The Afghans fired on them every step of the way. The worst stretch came in a valley with cliffs on both sides.
As the British plodded through the valley, Afghans kept up a constant fire from the hill sides as well as a steady dislodging of boulders to crash own onto the retreating British.
Soon after, a man exhausted rode into the British fort on the border. He was a doctor. And of the 3000 soldiers and their wives, children, prostitutes, he was the only survivor. \Afghanistan has a long history of defending itself against intruders.
Too bad George W. Bush was not much of student of history. There is, after all ,a quite modern parallel for those ghosts of the British army of so long ago.
In 1979, devout Muslims in Afghanistan rose in revolt against their communist government. They opposed communism,. In the remarkable war that followed, the Muslims were also supported with money and some weapons by the U.S.
This was a remarkably successful revolt against an enemy far, far bigger and better equipped than the Afghans were.
But then the U.S. made the strange decision to invade those Afghans it had supported.
I know of no official reason for that. At the time there was a lot of double talk that the Afghans were behind 9/11. But, in reality, there is no evidence of that.. On the contrary, most of the evidence then and now points to Saudi Arabia.
So why did the U.S.decide to attack? A logical possibility is that the U.S. was acting as Britain had in the early 1800s, and as the Russians did in the 1980s.
The U.S.wanted to occupy and control Afghanistan as an American base to attack Russia. It is Afghanistan's sin that it is a place attractive to major powers as a base to attack other major powers.
The U.S. had no other reason to attack. Canada joined the attack without even that much reason. We sent Canadians to die in Afghanistan for no good reason at all.
So, yes, we should remember those we sent to die in Afghanistan. We should also give bloody hell to the politicians who sent them. To respect the sacrifices our soldiers made is important. And that most certainly includes those who served in, say, Korea and Afghanistan. But respecting their sacrifices is only half the story. To show real respect, we should also remember what a betrayal it was for us to send them. I could wish the Canadian Legion would do that, and stop being a cheerleader to cover up for the politicians. The Canadian Legion should be defending the veterans, not the politicians who betrayed them.
________________________________________________________________
That reader is right.
I usually start a blog in late morning, and finish it around nine or ten in the evening. I end with a spelling check. But, as man of wearying age, I'm sometimes too lazy and too tired to proofread. Life is hell.
________________________________________________________________
Three elements in Canada's federal election have been largely ignored by our news media.
One is the rise of the Boc Quebecois in Quebec. It's appeal to Quebec voters, at this point, is that it demands Canada recognize that Quebec has the right to be the only province in Canada to exclude people from employment if they wear religious symbols as part of their clothing in their work. An example is the hijab or shawl worn by Muslim women. And there are other examples. All of this is designed only to keep out people who are not pure French Quebeckers.
This comes from a province once noted for it's Roman Catholic symbols that covered the whole province. Teaching nuns taught in full nun regalia complete with crucifixes. Teaching brothers wore full religious gear. Crucifixes were in just about every room of every government building in the province.
So why has Quebec passed a law forbidding religious symbols? Simple. It's racism.
The whole world is moving, changing. Immigrants are a fact of life. But Quebeckers (like many Canadians) are racist. That racism largely destroyed an English population that had been there for centuries. And Quebec is determined that it will not accept people who are in any way different from them. People who are different are inferior. (I am a Quebecker of French descent that goes back to 1650 in Quebec. But I am not a true Quebecker because one of my nineteenth century French ancestors married a Scottish woman.)
And that is why Quebec defies the federal government to keep most immigrants out of Quebec. It's religious ornamentation law is designed to keep them out by refusing employment to them. This is racism.
(Interestingly, the French of France show no great interest in moving to Quebec.)
The Bloc Quebecois is really the old Quebec separatist movement of the late twentieth century.. Quebec refuses to accept that it is a part of Canada and subject to Canadian law. This is a crisis that Canada is going to have to deal with because it cannot have two standards of behaviour. Nor can it face the world with such an example of racism.
Nor is delay a good idea. The more we delay, the more Quebec will carve out a separate status for itself. And the result of that would be a breakup of Canada.
The case of Alberta is somewhat similar. It refuses to come to grips with oil legislation because it sees itself not really a part of Canada. No. They have their very own 'experts' on oil, people who say oil is good for you. Most of them, of course, are oil industry people.
But, like Quebec, Alberta has no interest whatever in Canada, and no wish to obey Canada's laws. It's premier is a man designed for this task. He's a bootlicker for the oil bosses. And he's a liar. Today, he announced that he has consulted leading scientists who told him that oil is perfectly safe. He praised their advice - though even he cannot be dumb enough to believe them. And who are those 'leading' scientists who disagree with all the climate change scientists I have ever heard of? He doesn't tell us.
Watch for Alberta to make noises about moving the province out of Canada.
Is it possible that the U.S. would court Alberta to leave Canada and join the U.S.?
The U.S. would jump at the chance.
Then there's another feature of this election - a feature that nobody is talking about.
There's lot concerned debate about government deficits and getting control of them. These deficits often make it impossible for governments to carry out essentially services. We could use some politicians who could do some deeper thinking on this and who would even propose action on it.
Governments run up huge deficits. But they still don't have enough money to meet important needs. That's why we have people sleeping in the streets. That's why the cost of pharmacare is, literally, killing us. That's why young people who go to university face costs so high they will have to pay for them for years. That's why public schools are overstuffed. Why don't we deal with these costs?
The reason we can't is that the very rich don't pay income tax. Unlike you and me, they're allowed to put their money in secret banks.
Does that money get spent on us? Get real. They can - and do - spend it all over the world to make money for themselves. They might spend some in Canada - but the whole world is there playground.
Amazingly, we also give them huge amounts of OUR tax money as gifts to add their corporate money-making sprees.
What the hell are we doing? We are letting ourselves be robbed blind by the super-rich. In consequence, almost all Canadians face anything from extreme poverty to hardship.
Why has no political party mentioned this? Why are we allowing ourselves to be impoverished to satisfy the unsatisfiable greed of a small number of rich thieves?
Why aren't Canadians raising hell about this? Why do we allow the children of the poor to suffer hunger while we feed the very rich to their burping point?
The reality is we are being robbed by the rich. And nobody has said boo.
The is going to come home to us in a savage way. In fact, it should have come home to thinking people a long time ago. It should have been forbidden even as it happened. And, oh, we are paying a price that has no end. We already are suffering economic decline even as our very rich laugh at us and steal more.
Think about it. We let thousands, even millions, starve. We drop steadily in our standard of living. (It's happening in the U.S., too.) This is going to lead to one hell of an explosion unless we deal with it as we should have dealt with it many years ago. Instead, we are allowing ourselves to be plundered by the greediest people in history.
_______________________________________________________________
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/scheer-minority-government-1.5323901
Can Scheer really be so ignorant of our political system as he appears to be?
To be a prime minister one does NOT need the largest, single party in parliament.
One needs the support of a majority, and that majority can be made up of two or even more parties. Governments can and have resigned if they lose and election. But that is because they lacked that extra support.
No party can maintain a government without a majority in the House. And if that majority is achieved by getting the support of another party, so be it.
_________________________________________________________________
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/dc-ukraine-hearings-sondland-1.5324110
______________________________________________________________
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/oct/13/cuba-oil-sanctions-shortages
U.S. big business wants a Cuba like the old days with cheap, cheap labour, virtually no public services, with a government made up of pro-U.S. capitalist thugs. Just like the old days and just like much of Latin America under U.S. control.
_______________________________________________________________
This next item is an ad from The Guardian looking for financial support for the paper. It's quite a contrast with the news we get in North American newspapers who, for the most part, play down the danger of climate change and, for the most part simply ignore it.
As the climate crisis escalates...
... the Guardian will not stay quiet. This is our pledge: we will continue to give global heating, wildlife extinction and pollution the urgent attention and prominence they demand. The Guardian recognizes the climate emergency as the defining issue of our times.
Our independence means we are free to investigate and challenge inaction by those in power. We will inform our readers about threats to the environment based on scientific facts, not driven by commercial or political interests. And we have made several important changes to our style guide to ensure the language we use accurately reflects the environmental catastrophe.
The Guardian believes that the problems we face on the climate crisis are systemic and that fundamental societal change is needed. We will keep reporting on the efforts of individuals and communities around the world who are fearlessly taking a stand for future generations and the preservation of human life on earth. We want their stories to inspire hope.
_______________________________________________
http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/david-suzuki/2019/10/we-owe-greta-and-youth-more-nobel-prize
Amen.
Greta Thunberg will arrive at the Alberta legislature on Friday. The premier will almost certainly not be there. But there will be a convoy of truckers to defend their province against a 16 year old girl. The oil industry has been beating up a storm against her.
This is very dangerous. And, on the part of the premier, bloody irresponsible.
___________________________________________
It is possible the Alberta oil industry is reforming itself?
No.
Until very recently, it denied there was any oil problem at all. They denounced all the scientists who warned us about it.
Now, they suddenly say there was one. But they have discovered it, and in just matter of months have cured it. (They don't quote any scientists in the field to support their claim - but who needs scientists?) And they have whipped Alberta into a fever of righteousness - and that reflects a profound danger in our federal election.
Albertans have been led to believe that Canada has betrayed them. The next move? ---- The oil industry, with it's American friends, abandons Canada and urges Alberta to join the U.S.
That sounds far-fetched. It's not. Alberta's news media and it oil bosses have been worked into a rage against Canada.
This is very similar to the Quebec separatist movement which, again is alive. Indeed, it is likely to sweep the province on election day to vote for the Bloc Quebecois.
The cause is Quebec's law forbidding the wearing of religious symbols. This is essentially a racist law aimed at the recent muslim immigration to Canada. And it is really a return to the policies of the separatist movements. French Quebec wants only 'pure wool' francophones in the province. That's why English communities, some going back hundreds of years in Quebec, have largely been destroyed in Quebec.
So Quebec has, quite illegally, targeted it's recent immigrants. And the Trudeau government has been too scared to act. And that means that Quebec has been getting away with this racism. It also means that Canada is ignoring Quebec's racism. It refuses to obey Canadian law. And that's the first step.....
We are drifting back to separatism, this time in two provinces.
_______________________________________________
Amen.
Greta Thunberg will arrive at the Alberta legislature on Friday. The premier will almost certainly not be there. But there will be a convoy of truckers to defend their province against a 16 year old girl. The oil industry has been beating up a storm against her.
This is very dangerous. And, on the part of the premier, bloody irresponsible.
___________________________________________
It is possible the Alberta oil industry is reforming itself?
No.
Until very recently, it denied there was any oil problem at all. They denounced all the scientists who warned us about it.
Now, they suddenly say there was one. But they have discovered it, and in just matter of months have cured it. (They don't quote any scientists in the field to support their claim - but who needs scientists?) And they have whipped Alberta into a fever of righteousness - and that reflects a profound danger in our federal election.
Albertans have been led to believe that Canada has betrayed them. The next move? ---- The oil industry, with it's American friends, abandons Canada and urges Alberta to join the U.S.
That sounds far-fetched. It's not. Alberta's news media and it oil bosses have been worked into a rage against Canada.
This is very similar to the Quebec separatist movement which, again is alive. Indeed, it is likely to sweep the province on election day to vote for the Bloc Quebecois.
The cause is Quebec's law forbidding the wearing of religious symbols. This is essentially a racist law aimed at the recent muslim immigration to Canada. And it is really a return to the policies of the separatist movements. French Quebec wants only 'pure wool' francophones in the province. That's why English communities, some going back hundreds of years in Quebec, have largely been destroyed in Quebec.
So Quebec has, quite illegally, targeted it's recent immigrants. And the Trudeau government has been too scared to act. And that means that Quebec has been getting away with this racism. It also means that Canada is ignoring Quebec's racism. It refuses to obey Canadian law. And that's the first step.....
We are drifting back to separatism, this time in two provinces.
_______________________________________________
http://rabble.ca/podcasts/shows/rabble-radio/2019/10/majority-minority-and-coalition-governments-karl-nerenberg-looks
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I don't entirely agree with this next one. But the topic does deserve more thought than we've given it.
http://rabble.ca/columnists/2019/10/biggest-winner-canadas-election-military
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http://rabble.ca/news/2019/10/liberals-fear-progressive-challenger-more-they-fear-right-wing
The Liberals are not nearly so different from the Conservatives as they would like us to think.
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The Liberals are not nearly so different from the Conservatives as they would like us to think.
______________________________________________
Big money owns American governments at all levels.
https://www.thenation.com/article/seattle-amazon-kshama-sawant/
American democracy has been dead since the day it was founded. It has always favoured the richest - starting with the very rich President Washington.
https://www.thenation.com/article/seattle-amazon-kshama-sawant/
American democracy has been dead since the day it was founded. It has always favoured the richest - starting with the very rich President Washington.
______________________________________________
https://www.thenation.com/article/bernie-sanders-aoc-debate/
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Here is a large selection of articles by Gwynne Dyer who, for my money, is quite possibly the world's best political commentator.
https://www.hilltimes.com/author/gwynne-dyer
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https://www.hilltimes.com/author/gwynne-dyer
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____________________________________________
It's a great world for the greedy.
https://countercurrents.org/2019/10/australia-rejects-imf-carbon-tax-preventing-4-million-pollution-deaths-by-2030
______________________________________________
https://countercurrents.org/2019/10/australia-rejects-imf-carbon-tax-preventing-4-million-pollution-deaths-by-2030
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https://countercurrents.org/2019/10/corporations-that-abuse-human-rights-are-a-threat-to-sdgs-and-our-planet
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
https://www.rt.com/op-ed/471073-syria-trump-media-kurds/
I rarely post Russia Times because so many readers would ignore it a propaganda. In fact, it commonly has more depth that many (most?) of our western news media.
I live in Ottawa, Canada's capital. The local paper is mostly trivial and trashy. Of course. It's owned by National Post.
_______________________________________________
I rarely post Russia Times because so many readers would ignore it a propaganda. In fact, it commonly has more depth that many (most?) of our western news media.
I live in Ottawa, Canada's capital. The local paper is mostly trivial and trashy. Of course. It's owned by National Post.
_______________________________________________
Here's the kind of story that would never appear in Ottawa's newspaper or it's owners at National Post.
https://countercurrents.org/2019/10/extinction-rebellion-sweeps-the-world
_____________________________________________________________
https://thetyee.ca/News/2019/10/17/Trudeau-Indigenous-Housing-Strategy-Nowhere-In-Sight/
______________________________________________________________
https://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2019/06/28/Andrew-Scheer-Real-Bad-Climate-Plan/
______________________________________________________________
https://www.globalresearch.ca/planet-has-been-heating-up-for-almost-two-centuries/5652874
______________________________________________________________
https://www.globalresearch.ca/israel-turn-bedouin-citizens-refugees-their-own-country/5692229
There are almost 2 million Arabs who live in Israel. These people are Israeli citizens and, indeed, they have been citizens, along with the many Jews who lived in that land for centuries, with both Jews and Arabs getting along well.
Then came the creation of Israel. The Arabs remained in the new country. But they were treated as trash by the inrushing Jews from Europe, forced to live in Ghettos, denied most government services. Now they are being kicked out of the land of which they are legally residents and that has been their home for centuries.
________________________________________________________________
In Canada and the U.S., the growing billionaire power over Liberals, Conservatives, Republicans and, to a lesser degree, Democrats is creating a steady growth of hunger and poverty. It was made worse, much worse, by the insane decisions to allow the superwealthy (and supergreedy) to avoid income tax. And, in addition, to throw billions of our money at them whenever they ask for them which is very, very often.
https://www.globalresearch.ca/millions-hungry-food-insecure-us/5692168
______________________________________________________________
https://www.globalresearch.ca/syria-restored-1554-schools-completely-destroyed-nato-terrorists/5692069
Onward Christian so-oldiers...
________________________________________________________________
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52408.htm
_____________________________________________________________
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52406.htm
______________________________________________________________
The next item is very complex - and I won't even pretend I fully understand it. But it does seen to explain what is really happening in Syria.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52412.htm
________________________________________________________________
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52409.htm
_______________________________________________________________
I haven't yet seen one of these. And I shall certainly try to avoid them.
https://www.nationalobserver.com/2019/10/17/analysis/explainer-rise-canadas-right-wing-meme-pages
_______________________________________________________________
https://www.nationalobserver.com/2019/10/16/features/how-jagmeet-singh-became-canadas-spokesperson-race-2019-election
_________________________________________________________________
\Some time ago, I wrote a column about a 'current event' of the early nineteenth century. But I just discovered it in my file as an unsent item. So, just in case, bear in mind that this could be a duplicate of something already sent.
An event of 1841 can scarcely be called a current event. But it has a lesson for us.
In 1841, the British feared a Russian attack on Afghanistan that would provide the base for an attack on British India. This sort of thing was ( and is) still common. Afghanistan is positioned almost as if designed as if it were deliberately a base of attack on a number of countries - (though it was not a nation of attack itself.) So the British decided to invade.
A base was established on the Afghanistan border. Then the main force of 3000 troops moved in to settle near Kabul. With that main force were wives, children, prostitutes attached to the army.base.near Kabul. Reluctantly,the British began the long trek to the coast through wild, mountain cover. The Afghans fired on them every step of the way. The worst stretch came in a valley with cliffs on both sides.
As the British plodded through the valley, Afghans kept up a constant fire from the hill sides as well as a steady dislodging of boulders to crash own onto the retreating British.
Soon after, a man exhausted rode into the British fort on the border. He was a doctor. And of the 3000 soldiers and their wives, children, prostitutes, he was the only survivor. \Afghanistan has a long history of defending itself against intruders.
Too bad George W. Bush was not much of student of history. There is, after all ,a quite modern parallel for those ghosts of the British army of so long ago.
In 1979, devout Muslims in Afghanistan rose in revolt against their communist government. They opposed communism,. In the remarkable war that followed, the Muslims were also supported with money and some weapons by the U.S.
This was a remarkably successful revolt against an enemy far, far bigger and better equipped than the Afghans were.
But then the U.S. made the strange decision to invade those Afghans it had supported.
I know of no official reason for that. At the time there was a lot of double talk that the Afghans were behind 9/11. But, in reality, there is no evidence of that.. On the contrary, most of the evidence then and now points to Saudi Arabia.
So why did the U.S.decide to attack? A logical possibility is that the U.S. was acting as Britain had in the early 1800s, and as the Russians did in the 1980s.
The U.S.wanted to occupy and control Afghanistan as an American base to attack Russia. It is Afghanistan's sin that it is a place attractive to major powers as a base to attack other major powers.
The U.S. had no other reason to attack. Canada joined the attack without even that much reason. We sent Canadians to die in Afghanistan for no good reason at all.
So, yes, we should remember those we sent to die in Afghanistan. We should also give bloody hell to the politicians who sent them. To respect the sacrifices our soldiers made is important. And that most certainly includes those who served in, say, Korea and Afghanistan. But respecting their sacrifices is only half the story. To show real respect, we should also remember what a betrayal it was for us to send them. I could wish the Canadian Legion would do that, and stop being a cheerleader to cover up for the politicians. The Canadian Legion should be defending the veterans, not the politicians who betrayed them.
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