CBC news has a story
it ran back in November about the dismal performance of Canadian
shipyards in producing ships for the Canadian navy. And this happened
despite a gift to Irving of hundreds of millions of dollars. (As I
remember it, Irving also shook down the Nova Scotia government for
his generosity in hiring people to work on the contract.) I can't
remember seeing the story in the Irving press of what has happened to
those ships. So here it is.
Then there's a
related story that broke yesterday. And I don't think it will make
the Irving press, either.
The biggest story in
section A is that a fishing shack sitting on a frozen river has been
dismantled to prevent it from sinking. This is the second day for
this gripping story.)
On Opinion Page, the
cartoon is a remarkably limp one hinting that Harper is the mad
hatter from Alice in Wonderland. Gee. Mad hatter. That's not at all
like the nice, mass murderers on our side like Bush, Obama, Saudi
Arabia, Britain….
The editorial is an
Irving-kissing one that I've been expecting – an attack on those,
like the mayor of Montreal, who don't want an oil pipeline running
through their territory. Most of the editorial consists of calling
the mayor names, and pointing out that Dominic Leblanc really told
him off. So there! And accusing the mayor of polluting his river
(which he did). It gets on shakier ground with the assertion that oil
spills from a pipeline are not that dangerous.
Obviously, the
writer has never heard of the massive oil pipeline spill in
California that began in May of 2015, and is still going. It's rated
one of the worst oil disasters in history. But, of course, that's
another story that never made it into the Irving press. Check out
stories and pictures at google “California oil spill”.
The column below
that is by the president and CEO of an insurance company. It's about
the provincial deficit so, being president of an insurance company,
he'd know all about running a provincial economy.
What he says is
trite, to put it kindly. And what he has to offer, in a vague way, is
a cure that has been tried many, many times – and has never worked.
Then there's a
commentary by Bruce Fitch, a politician. It's a 'commentary' that is
a pure, feel-good political speech. He tells us that business is
suffering, too. (He knows one businessman who had to put off a
planned bathroom renovation.) His advice? “We must counter worry
and fear with confidence and hope.” This is just brainless crap.
Rod Allen has
another pointless story, mostly about himself. He must love mirrors.
Alec Bruce, alas,
repeats the official Irving line on the New Brunswick economy. In two
short sentences, the Irving doctrine is, “Make everybody suffer
through the budget deficit. Fire civil servants. Cut services. But
don't you dare make me and my friends pay taxes.”
In short, the whole of section A is just rough and scratchy toilet
paper.
And the big, big,
lead story for Canada and World? Several local ski resorts are
requiring skiers to wear helmets. Wow! I must communicate this to
Moscow.
The other story is
about New Brunswick's climate strategy. It takes up a quarter of a
page. And the story is? …..We don't have a climate strategy.
Foreign news is
almost absent. This could be the most incompetent, ignorant and
childish issue yet for Irving press. So let's go to the real world.
_____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
The next column
caught my attention because I think it's something that could be
written about us.
Adolf Eichmann, the
evil doctor of Auschwitz was, undoubtedly, evil. But he saw himself
as merely a functionary carrying out orders.
But he was a man who
carried out horrendously evil acts in the holocaust. Most of us would
agree with that. We see evil where we are told to see it. But, like
Eichmann, we don't see it when we, or our side, does evil...as in the
destruction of our native societies with damage that continues to
this day. We didn't see it when U.S. 'heroes' murdered Vietnamese by
the millions. And Guatemalans. We don't see it when we destroy whole
nations like Afghanistan and Iraq and Libya and Syria – just so a
handful of billionaires can get richer. We don't see evil in the
poverty and suffering we impose on Haiti, Guatemala. Africa, Latin
America. We don't even see it when our own wealthy impose suffering
on us and our families. And, of course, the Irving press never sees
it unless, like today's cartoon, it's about Putin.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jan/28/adolf-eichmann-final-message-architects-holocaust-evil
__________________________________________________________________________________
On that same topic
of evil, in the past two years Hilary Clinton has given 12 speeches
to gatherings of big bankers. In return, she received some three
million dollars. Can you seriously believe she had three million
dollars' worth to say? (If you can believe that, subscribe to the
Irving press. You'll love it.)
In fact, this
speaking thing has become a common way for the wealthy to buy
prominent politicians. The not-nice words for it are bribery and
corruption.
https://theintercept.com/2016/01/08/hillary-clinton-earned-more-from-12-speeches-to-big-banks-than-most-americans-earn-in-their-lifetime/
Actually, this is just a small part of the racket Hilary and Bill
have been running for years. Bush, too.
And, as always,
there is evil on both sides in war. Here's an account of what is
happening to people in regions occupied by ISIS.
http://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2016/jan/27/islamic-state-yazidi-refugees-mental-health-treatment
Well, we have no
trouble accepting that as true – as I'm sure it is. And we feel
righteous in denouncing the behaviour of ISIS. So,what are the
effects on Iraq where the U.S. killed over a million people? On
Vietnam where it killed at least several million? (not counting all
the rapes, murders, torture). Or Cambodia whose cities were bombed to
dust? How would you define the billionaires who wanted those wars so
they could get richer? Christian gentlemen?
Is Islam by its
nature evil? If so, how come most Moslems aren't that way? How come
the evil is just showing now?
By that same
reasoning, is it possible that Christianity is evil by its very
nature? It has killed far, far more people than ISIS has. And
Christianity has a history of close to two thousand years of mass
murder and destruction, much of it carried out either by the church
or with its blessing.
Gee. That would make
an interesting column for the Faith page.
__________________________________________________________________________
China is moving in
on the middle east to play a role in it. Middle east oil is vital to
China. Iran, very distrustful of the US and the west in general
(and with good reason for distrust), is welcoming China.
That's almost as
important as the Irving press big, world story that some ski resorts
in New Brunswick are making helmets compulsory.
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2016/01/china-pivot-persia-160124051232743.html
_________________________________________________________________________
The most important
decision since world war two, perhaps the most important decision in
history, was the decision by Bush and Blair to invade Iraq. (And
both of them lied about the reason for that decision.)
They killed well
over a million people, perhaps a million and a half. Most of them
were civilians. And Americans and British still honour their soldiers
who murdered a million and a half people, created millions of
refugees, destroyed hospitals and schools that are still unusable,
raped more women and children than can be counted, destroyed any
chance for most children of any education at all, wounded and
crippled even more than they killed. There will never again be a
real, Iraq nation.
Both Blair and Bush
live on, both far, far richer than they were when this started, and
both respected members of their Christian churches.
Iraq was a turning
point for the world. It destabilized the middle east into the chaos
it is now. That has murdered and starved as many as the Iraq war did.
It was the point of creation of groups like ISIS. It has drawn all
the major powers (and their followers) into the middle east with
massive destruction and suffering. It has created a refugee problem
that Europe can't handle, and that the U.S. won't handle, and that
Canada will minimally handle (with lots of bows to the audience.)
It has created wars
within wars – Saudi Arabia and Yemen, Turkey, Syria. It has wars
with some countries on both sides. The U.S. talks of the evil of
ISIS. But the US has also been supplying ISIS and helping others to
supply it, and it's been light on bombing ISIS because ISIS is a U.S.
proxy in the war to destroy Syria.
The U.S. is in this
so that American oil billionaires will get richer. Russia and China
are in it for a similar reason, but also because they need the access
to oil. The war is now the U.S., Britain, France, The Netherlands,
and any other country in NATO and the European Union that the U.S.
can coerce (or buy) into joining the war. Canada will join the
insanity. It will try to do as little as possible. But that will be
enough because the only reason the U.S. wants Canada in this is to
present a united front for democracy and freedom and, of course, for
God. It's also now Turkey, Russia, China, Iran and others, each
fighting for access to a fuel and its profits, a fuel that we MUST
phase out as soon as possible for its destructive effects on the
whole world.
What can we call
this? It's surely obvious. This is world war three.
And we're fighting
to benefit a handful of very wealthy and very greedy people who are
engaged in poisoning the Earth so it will be unlivable.
I guess that's
what's called tragi-comedy. But I don't think it's nice to make fun
of stupid, greedy people.
Not even if they're
very rich stupid and greedy people. And evil.
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