https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/antarctica-greenland-weather-1.5011904
_________________________________________________________________
There were people who fought fascism, including Brits, Canadians and Americans who fought fascism before that was respectable - through the years when our government and business leaders still thought Hitler was a nice guy. (One of the Hitler admirers of the time was Winston Churchill.)
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/feb/04/johnny-longstaff-a-forgotten-hero-the-spanish-civil-war-fighter-the-younguns-folk?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Outlook
______________________________________________________________
https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/phrma-drug-prices-pharmaceutical-industry-pmprb-health-1.5012423
The U.S. is notorious for having the highest drug prices in the world. And I mean really high. Of course. The U.S. market is controlled by capitalism, and capitalism exists to enrich capitalists. Who cares about people and health?
________________________________________________________________
The U.S. created the blockage of food to Venezuela. Now, as a nation starves, American capitalism (disguised as Christian concern) waves a magic wand to get food to them. The western news media will, of course, applaud this generosity - though it's real purpose is not to feed the people but to win over the Venezuelan army.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2019/feb/07/venezuela-blocks-border-as-maduro-tries-to-keep-troops-on-side-video
The poverty and hunger part will come back as American capitalists get control of Venezuela's oil fields. This has nothing to do with helping the Venezuelan people in the midst of a crisis the U.S. has created. It has everything to do with helping American billionaires.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2019/feb/09/democratic-republic-of-the-congo-election-a-defeat-for-democracy-disaster-for-people-mo-ibrahim
The African state of Congo has been under the control of western capitalists since 1876. And in that time, the people of Congo have known nothing but exploitation - particularly of their minersl resources - massive poverty, extreme violence, lack of basic needs, extreme disorder.....
_________________________________________________________________
http://rabble.ca/columnists/2019/02/canadian-policy-venezuela-about-imperialism-not-democracy
We should be learning more about imperialism - which has a long history of greed disguised as patriotism.
Imperialism, blended with populism and and very narrow form of patriotism as laid out by Hitler and Mussolini have been the guiding principles of our time. It's the reason why the western powers generally supported Franco in Spain. Donald Trump is today's love-child of Hitler and Mussolini. Another is Ontario's Doug Ford.
It is not a coincidence that Hitler and Mussolini - almost to 1939 - were much admired by politicians like Churchill and by capitalists like Henry Ford. (No. I am not exaggerating. Hitler and Mussolini are the ones who are the models for much of political thinking of today. What we call patriotism in our invasions of Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Venezuela .....is exactly the same as the aggressions of Hitler and Mussolini. The American war on Japan was not because Japan was evil. It wasn't even Pearl harbour that started it. It was because U.S. capitalists wanted the same control over China that Japan (and Britain) had taken.
In many a sense, we are our enemies. We are what we claim to hate.
______________________________________________________________
http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/activist-toolkit-blog/2019/02/canadian-provinces-are-poised-lot-more-populism-%C3%A0-la
_________________________________________________________________
https://www.thenation.com/article/nuclear-madness-inf/
_______________________________________________________________
https://www.thenation.com/article/venezuela-washington-funded-counterrevolution/
______________________________________________________________
Long - but intelligent and impartial.
https://countercurrents.org/2019/02/09/what-the-press-hides-from-you-about-venezuela-a-case-of-news-suppression/
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
https://countercurrents.org/2019/02/09/oil-agriculture-and-imperialism-averting-the-fast-track-to-armageddon/
______________________________________________________________
https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/02/08/dont-expect-rulers-of-nuclear-armed-nations-to-accept-nuclear-disarmament%E2%80%95unless-theyre-pushed-to-do-so/
________________________________________________________________
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/51077.htm
Too true.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/51071.htm
_________________________________________________________________
As an aside to this next item, - there's a problem. The west is very, very vulnerable because of its addiction to uncontrolled capitalism. But there's a danger of the East falling for a similar addiction.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/51073.htm
________________________________________________________________
And here is what might force Trump into more violent measures on the Mexican border.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/washington-secrets/poll-trump-voters-will-mutiny-if-the-wall-isnt-built-faces-43-drop-in-support
The decisions are being made by developing hatreds - in the populist style of Hitler and Mussolini. Latin Americans are Trump's Jews. The decisions are not about people - they are about race fears and hatreds. That's why there is no attempt to help with the terrible situation in which these people find themselves. They are Trump's untermensch.
_____________________________________________________________
And, if you're honest, this is why you have a very limited future as a journalist.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/51068.htm
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.medialens.org/index.php/alerts/alert-archive/2019/892-venezuela-blitz-part-1-tyrants-don-t-have-free-elections.html
http://medialens.org/index.php/alerts/alert-archive/2019/893-venezuela-blitz-part-2-press-freedom-sanctions-and-oil.html
______________________________________________________________
Fascists are always careful not to spoil women.
https://www.nationalobserver.com/2019/02/08/opinion/putting-pay-transparency-ice-ontario
_________________________________________________________________
https://www.nationalobserver.com/2019/02/08/analysis/2-billion-oil-industry-subsidy-making-trans-mountain-files-toll-application
____________________________________________________________
Sieg heil!
https://www.nationalobserver.com/2019/02/07/news/doug-fords-ontario-proposing-stop-tracking-carbon-pollution-fuel-sold-oil-and-gas
______________________________________________________________
Following is an extremist view of a world like ours in which Donald Trump and Doug Ford are not extremists.
https://off-guardian.org/2019/02/08/the-real-left-phony-left-and-whats-left/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
https://off-guardian.org/2019/02/09/oil-agriculture-and-imperialism-averting-the-fast-track-to-armageddon/
_______________________________________________________________
And, of course....We have the insiights of John Bolton...
https://theantimedia.com/pompeo-iranians-venezuela/
________________________________________________________________
And don't worry about the story below. Canadian and American weapons makers will still supply Saudi Arabia with weapons, and with the blessings of both Canadian and American governments.
https://theantimedia.com/khashoggi-murder-saudi-officials/
_______________________________________________________________
In fairness, Pope Francis is the first pope to publicly admit failures of the Roman Catholic clergy.
https://theantimedia.com/pope-francis-nuns-sex-slaves-priests/
________________________________________________________________
This next item does not affect Canada. Canada has an effective and affordable system to make medical care available to all Canadians. The U.S. has a system that is affordable only to the wealthy. The U.S. has a pure profit system that condemns most of its population. But the U.S. billionaires tell us, as richest country in the world, can't afford a better system. It needs a system that, in fact, makes huge profits for the world's most wealthy people.
By coincidence, Trump who is the darling of the religious voters of rural America, has done nothing that could be called religious compassion - while the CCF party which was the founder of medicare in Canada and was the one that forced medicare on the old parties was profoundly influenced by religious values.
https://truthout.org/articles/two-thirds-of-personal-bankruptcies-are-caused-by-illness-and-medical-bills/
_____________________________________________________________
I notice quite a bit of religion in today's blog. Now, despite a very early fling as a preacher and a potential Protestant clergyman, I have no religion. That doesn't mean I have no religious values. In fact, it's probable that most of my values are Christian and Jewish - and quite likely shared by Muslims and Hindus.....
Back in the days when I was giving 80 or more public talks a year, many were religious groups. Of them, my favourites were synagogues and other Jewish institutions. (They responded to serious discussions; Christian preferred jokes. I still, now retired, miss my Jewish groups.)
But, alas, Jews are people and, like us Christians and Hindus and Moslems and the rest they can also be - well - human and vicious. It was Hitler that brought that vicious side into power. They had not only had a dreadful experience. They also realized that the western world in general was brutal toward them - and the only reason it gave them Israel was to get rid of them. (That's not a rant. I saw anti-semitism from the time I was a child. Almost all of us Christians were guilty. And it still happens in the most respectable circles.)
The settlers of Israel knew they were sent there to get rid of them. They retaliated by treating Muslims just as Hitler (and us) had treated them. It was contrary to the teachings of Judaism - but the rest of the Jewish world, elated that the years of discrimination seemed to be over, accepted it for many years.
But no more.
North American Jews, in particular, are increasingly dismayed at an Israel that seems to be working on hatred just as Hitler's Germany did. And their support of Israel has noticeably weakened in recent years. And that is made worse by the U.S. use of Israel against its Muslim neighbours. Thus the horrible treatment, rarely mentioned in our news, of Palestine.
https://theintercept.com/2019/02/08/democrats-end-right-ariel-sharon-israeli-occupation-palestine/
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We are in a dead end. World War 2 had to be followed by a massive change of governing principles, of social values.....but it didn't happen. We simply recreated the world of 1939 with some change of actors. Like the world of 1939, it was designed to make the rich richer. Only that. That's why Britain continued the wars to reconquer bits and pieces of the British Empire. That's why the west, led by the U.S., invaded Korea. That's why Britain and the U.S. have been fighting wars ever since to do what they have each been doing for centuries - to conquer countries for the benefit of their very wealthy.
_________________________________________________________________
There were people who fought fascism, including Brits, Canadians and Americans who fought fascism before that was respectable - through the years when our government and business leaders still thought Hitler was a nice guy. (One of the Hitler admirers of the time was Winston Churchill.)
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/feb/04/johnny-longstaff-a-forgotten-hero-the-spanish-civil-war-fighter-the-younguns-folk?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Outlook
______________________________________________________________
https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/phrma-drug-prices-pharmaceutical-industry-pmprb-health-1.5012423
The U.S. is notorious for having the highest drug prices in the world. And I mean really high. Of course. The U.S. market is controlled by capitalism, and capitalism exists to enrich capitalists. Who cares about people and health?
________________________________________________________________
The U.S. created the blockage of food to Venezuela. Now, as a nation starves, American capitalism (disguised as Christian concern) waves a magic wand to get food to them. The western news media will, of course, applaud this generosity - though it's real purpose is not to feed the people but to win over the Venezuelan army.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2019/feb/07/venezuela-blocks-border-as-maduro-tries-to-keep-troops-on-side-video
The poverty and hunger part will come back as American capitalists get control of Venezuela's oil fields. This has nothing to do with helping the Venezuelan people in the midst of a crisis the U.S. has created. It has everything to do with helping American billionaires.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2019/feb/09/democratic-republic-of-the-congo-election-a-defeat-for-democracy-disaster-for-people-mo-ibrahim
The African state of Congo has been under the control of western capitalists since 1876. And in that time, the people of Congo have known nothing but exploitation - particularly of their minersl resources - massive poverty, extreme violence, lack of basic needs, extreme disorder.....
_________________________________________________________________
http://rabble.ca/columnists/2019/02/canadian-policy-venezuela-about-imperialism-not-democracy
We should be learning more about imperialism - which has a long history of greed disguised as patriotism.
Imperialism, blended with populism and and very narrow form of patriotism as laid out by Hitler and Mussolini have been the guiding principles of our time. It's the reason why the western powers generally supported Franco in Spain. Donald Trump is today's love-child of Hitler and Mussolini. Another is Ontario's Doug Ford.
It is not a coincidence that Hitler and Mussolini - almost to 1939 - were much admired by politicians like Churchill and by capitalists like Henry Ford. (No. I am not exaggerating. Hitler and Mussolini are the ones who are the models for much of political thinking of today. What we call patriotism in our invasions of Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Venezuela .....is exactly the same as the aggressions of Hitler and Mussolini. The American war on Japan was not because Japan was evil. It wasn't even Pearl harbour that started it. It was because U.S. capitalists wanted the same control over China that Japan (and Britain) had taken.
In many a sense, we are our enemies. We are what we claim to hate.
______________________________________________________________
http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/activist-toolkit-blog/2019/02/canadian-provinces-are-poised-lot-more-populism-%C3%A0-la
_________________________________________________________________
https://www.thenation.com/article/nuclear-madness-inf/
_______________________________________________________________
https://www.thenation.com/article/venezuela-washington-funded-counterrevolution/
______________________________________________________________
Long - but intelligent and impartial.
https://countercurrents.org/2019/02/09/what-the-press-hides-from-you-about-venezuela-a-case-of-news-suppression/
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
https://countercurrents.org/2019/02/09/oil-agriculture-and-imperialism-averting-the-fast-track-to-armageddon/
______________________________________________________________
https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/02/08/dont-expect-rulers-of-nuclear-armed-nations-to-accept-nuclear-disarmament%E2%80%95unless-theyre-pushed-to-do-so/
________________________________________________________________
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/51077.htm
Too true.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/51071.htm
_________________________________________________________________
As an aside to this next item, - there's a problem. The west is very, very vulnerable because of its addiction to uncontrolled capitalism. But there's a danger of the East falling for a similar addiction.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/51073.htm
________________________________________________________________
And here is what might force Trump into more violent measures on the Mexican border.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/washington-secrets/poll-trump-voters-will-mutiny-if-the-wall-isnt-built-faces-43-drop-in-support
The decisions are being made by developing hatreds - in the populist style of Hitler and Mussolini. Latin Americans are Trump's Jews. The decisions are not about people - they are about race fears and hatreds. That's why there is no attempt to help with the terrible situation in which these people find themselves. They are Trump's untermensch.
_____________________________________________________________
And, if you're honest, this is why you have a very limited future as a journalist.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/51068.htm
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.medialens.org/index.php/alerts/alert-archive/2019/892-venezuela-blitz-part-1-tyrants-don-t-have-free-elections.html
http://medialens.org/index.php/alerts/alert-archive/2019/893-venezuela-blitz-part-2-press-freedom-sanctions-and-oil.html
______________________________________________________________
Fascists are always careful not to spoil women.
https://www.nationalobserver.com/2019/02/08/opinion/putting-pay-transparency-ice-ontario
_________________________________________________________________
https://www.nationalobserver.com/2019/02/08/analysis/2-billion-oil-industry-subsidy-making-trans-mountain-files-toll-application
____________________________________________________________
Sieg heil!
https://www.nationalobserver.com/2019/02/07/news/doug-fords-ontario-proposing-stop-tracking-carbon-pollution-fuel-sold-oil-and-gas
______________________________________________________________
Following is an extremist view of a world like ours in which Donald Trump and Doug Ford are not extremists.
https://off-guardian.org/2019/02/08/the-real-left-phony-left-and-whats-left/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
https://off-guardian.org/2019/02/09/oil-agriculture-and-imperialism-averting-the-fast-track-to-armageddon/
_______________________________________________________________
And, of course....We have the insiights of John Bolton...
https://theantimedia.com/pompeo-iranians-venezuela/
________________________________________________________________
And don't worry about the story below. Canadian and American weapons makers will still supply Saudi Arabia with weapons, and with the blessings of both Canadian and American governments.
https://theantimedia.com/khashoggi-murder-saudi-officials/
_______________________________________________________________
In fairness, Pope Francis is the first pope to publicly admit failures of the Roman Catholic clergy.
https://theantimedia.com/pope-francis-nuns-sex-slaves-priests/
________________________________________________________________
This next item does not affect Canada. Canada has an effective and affordable system to make medical care available to all Canadians. The U.S. has a system that is affordable only to the wealthy. The U.S. has a pure profit system that condemns most of its population. But the U.S. billionaires tell us, as richest country in the world, can't afford a better system. It needs a system that, in fact, makes huge profits for the world's most wealthy people.
By coincidence, Trump who is the darling of the religious voters of rural America, has done nothing that could be called religious compassion - while the CCF party which was the founder of medicare in Canada and was the one that forced medicare on the old parties was profoundly influenced by religious values.
https://truthout.org/articles/two-thirds-of-personal-bankruptcies-are-caused-by-illness-and-medical-bills/
_____________________________________________________________
I notice quite a bit of religion in today's blog. Now, despite a very early fling as a preacher and a potential Protestant clergyman, I have no religion. That doesn't mean I have no religious values. In fact, it's probable that most of my values are Christian and Jewish - and quite likely shared by Muslims and Hindus.....
Back in the days when I was giving 80 or more public talks a year, many were religious groups. Of them, my favourites were synagogues and other Jewish institutions. (They responded to serious discussions; Christian preferred jokes. I still, now retired, miss my Jewish groups.)
But, alas, Jews are people and, like us Christians and Hindus and Moslems and the rest they can also be - well - human and vicious. It was Hitler that brought that vicious side into power. They had not only had a dreadful experience. They also realized that the western world in general was brutal toward them - and the only reason it gave them Israel was to get rid of them. (That's not a rant. I saw anti-semitism from the time I was a child. Almost all of us Christians were guilty. And it still happens in the most respectable circles.)
The settlers of Israel knew they were sent there to get rid of them. They retaliated by treating Muslims just as Hitler (and us) had treated them. It was contrary to the teachings of Judaism - but the rest of the Jewish world, elated that the years of discrimination seemed to be over, accepted it for many years.
But no more.
North American Jews, in particular, are increasingly dismayed at an Israel that seems to be working on hatred just as Hitler's Germany did. And their support of Israel has noticeably weakened in recent years. And that is made worse by the U.S. use of Israel against its Muslim neighbours. Thus the horrible treatment, rarely mentioned in our news, of Palestine.
https://theintercept.com/2019/02/08/democrats-end-right-ariel-sharon-israeli-occupation-palestine/
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We are in a dead end. World War 2 had to be followed by a massive change of governing principles, of social values.....but it didn't happen. We simply recreated the world of 1939 with some change of actors. Like the world of 1939, it was designed to make the rich richer. Only that. That's why Britain continued the wars to reconquer bits and pieces of the British Empire. That's why the west, led by the U.S., invaded Korea. That's why Britain and the U.S. have been fighting wars ever since to do what they have each been doing for centuries - to conquer countries for the benefit of their very wealthy.
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