https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/canada-haiti-deportation-violence-protests-1.5021661
For decades, Haiti was ruled by dictators subservervient to American billionaires. Then Haitians won the right to vote.
So the U.S. sent troops to bring back the good old days. And Canada kissed up wih 'peacekeepers'.
Yep. American governments are great believers in democracy.
_________________________________________________________________
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/feb/16/tijuana-migrant-child-murders-mexico-us-asylum
The refugee crises have just begun - in South America, Africa, parts of Asia. They can only get worse - much, much worse. And our most prominent response has been to act like the racists we are.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Venezuela might have beaten off the attempts of American capitalists to take it over. But now what?
It has still to deal with the U.S. restrictions on its trade. And until that happens there will be poverty and starvation. Unless....
China and Russia become a presence in this crisis. But then the rest is anybody's guess.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/feb/13/venezuela-nicolas-maduro-juan-guaido-campaign-latest
___________________________________________________________
This next one is possibly a repeat.
https://lfpress.com/opinion/columnists/dyer-hard-to-fathom-why-allies-support-u-s-on-venezuela
_____________________________________________________________
How the very wealthy live off our taxes - but don't pay a cent of their own.
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/02/15/new-york-hq-fiasco-and-0-federal-taxes-say-critics-confirm-amazons-status-deadbeat
How come our news media haven't launched any attempt to tell this story? Could that be because of who it is that owns most of our news media?
Get the picture. In fifty years, the U.S. has invaded over fifty countries. That's pretty expensive. And every one of those countries was invaded to meet the needs of Amperican capitalists. (Thousands, including Canadians, died in the war in Afghanistan. Why was that war fought? it was fought because AFghanistan is up to its ears in minieral wealth - and American capitalists want it, That's why Canadian died. Forget the crap propaganda about how they died for Canada. Afghanistan was not a threat to Canada - or the U.S.)
If the U.S. fights a war in Venezuela, it will be for exactly the same reason - to make American capitalists richer.
And who paid for those wars? Every cent came from the pockets of taxpayers in the U.S. and in American colonies like Canada. Nothing - not even a cent - came from the pockets of billionaires. They pay no taxes but the wars are fought to make them richer.
That's why the U.S. is facing severe education crises. That's why it can't offer its people medical care. That's why it can't deal with its massive homeless problem. That's why many tens of millions end their working careers in hopeless poverty.
________________________________________________________________
Our children are the ones who are going to suffer for the greed and corruption we have not had the courage to face and to deal with.
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/02/15/16-year-old-greta-thunberg-cheers-beginning-great-changes-climate-strike-goes-global
______________________________________________________________
https://www.commondreams.org/further/2019/02/14/1200-kids-gun-deaths-parkland-did-i-say-i-love-you
________________________________________________________________
Is it true that the U.S. needs a wall against Latin America? It's not just the U.S. We're all building walls. And it has nothing to do with criminals crossing our borders.
https://www.thenation.com/article/walls-and-borders-are-this-countrys-most-consistent-climate-change-adaptation/
_______________________________________________________________
America! Where you can say whatever you believe. (As long as it's the same as what everybody else believes.)
https://www.thenation.com/article/colin-kaepernick-nfl-settlement-collusion/
In this case, the sinner has been forgiven by the NFL for, among other things, dropping to a knee during the playing of the national anthem. However, the patriots in his home state don't feel any need for fortgiveness. They have banned him from being named as a role model in Black History Month.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
https://countercurrents.org/2019/02/16/the-venezuelan-coup-a-media-success/
The U.S. (like Canada only more so, much more so) has been a murderous, empire-biling nation from the early days of European settlement. There was the slaughter of native peoples by the millions, the war on Mexico to steal what is now Texas, Arizona, California, etc., the seizure of Hawaii, the several attempts on Canada, the colonization of Latin America, of The Phillipines and, most recently of lands in Africa and the middle east.
How many were slaughtered in all of this? We'll never know.
Some lover of democracy!
________________________________________________________________
The next item seems true enough. But it seems hopelessly idealistic. The U.S. (like many other countries is hopelessly mired in propagandas that they call their histories.)
https://countercurrents.org/2019/02/16/trumps-state-of-emergency-a-step-towards-presidential-dictatorship.
_________________________________________________________
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6705421/Three-babies-DAY-killed-conflict-turn-one.html
___________________________________________________________
Thinking of moving to California?
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/california-nightmare-over-half-of-the-people-living-in-the-state-wish-they-could-leave
____________________________________________________________
The following account is heavily biased and, some times, just plain wrong. But compared to the reports we usually get about Cuba, it's brilliantly truthful.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/51112.htm
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here's a point of view very different from any in our news media.
http://www.medialens.org/index.php/alerts/alert-archive/2019/893-venezuela-blitz-part-2-press-freedom-sanctions-and-oil.html
_______________________________________________________________
Are Canadians cruel and arrogant? You bet.
https://www.nationalobserver.com/2019/02/15/news/people-will-die-if-nothing-done-cat-lake-first-nation-considering-evacuation-one
If those people were big time capitalists, that town would now be awash in doctors.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
https://www.globalresearch.ca/indigenous-communities-halting-humanitys-race-to-disaster/5668766
___________________________________________________________
https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/one-thousand-children-die-measles-madagascar/
Sorry, kids. We're all tied up killing children all over the world.
_________________________________________________________________
https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/children-in-conflict-save-the-children-report/
_______________________________________________________________
Here's a whole page of off-Guardian stories to give a sense of its general tone.
If off-Guardian is right and The Guardian is such a bad paper, why do I include it in my list of news media?
That's because, bad as it is, the Guardian. is still the best of major newspapers in this world. It's not so much a recognition of The Guardian quality as it is of the lying propaganda of all of our major news media.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------___
The following story can't be true. If it were, our news media would have told us all about it.https://truthout.org/articles/incarcerated-immigrants-are-being-tortured/
https://truthout.org/articles/incarcerated-immigrants-are-being-tortured/
Anyway, Trump's supporters are devout Christians - as is Trump. So there.
_______________________________________________________________
https://theintercept.com/2019/02/16/brazil-bolsonaro-indigenous-land/
Bolsonaro, new president of Brazil, is much admired by Trump and the Republican Party (and some Democrats).
_______________________________________________________________
I was reluctant to publish this one at first because it makes a complicated issue seem simple. The tone of this is that all Jews must be above criticism, and that any criticism is really a form of anti-semitism.
In fact, there is a lot of anti-semitism still out there - all over the western world. But it does not follow that all criticism of Jews is anti-semitic. (By the way, arabs, too, are semites.)
My experience of Jewish communities in North America - which is extensive - has been that these are intellectually alive and both intellectually and financially generous. ( In speaking to audiences, which I did many, many times every year for many years, I would look foward to Jewish audiences more than any other.)
As a teenager, I remember walking to see friends in Montreal's Jewish ghetto, and feeling a tremendous boost at window signs expressing delight at the founding of Israel.
But I came to know many Israelis - and to learn about their abysmal treatment of Palestinians.
For the Jews of Europe, Hitler destroyed their belief in Jewish principles. Understandable. But that has created an Israel lacking in in the religious principles of Judaism - making it rather, I fear, like those fundamentalist Christians who support Trump.
https://thesaker.is/and-now-a-word-from-the-jewish-democratic-council-of-america/
_________________________________________________________________
It's a slow day for news - so let's spare a few moments to get rid of misuse of some words.
To many people, communism and socialism are simply dirty words. To many others, the dirty word is capitalism.So let's try to get real.
Capitalism is a system in which economic growth is encouraged by encouraging private owndership - and depending on market controls to ensure it meets needs.. The problem, alas, iss that there are virtually no market controls. Major capitalists got rid of controls almost from the start so that the whole purpose of capitalism became not to develop an economy but to open it up to mass theft by a very few.
Karl Marx was a man dedicated to improving the condition of human life. He proposed a system based fitting the distribution of wealth by ensuring access to adequate housing, food, education....for all. But don't waste your time arguning about it because it's very, very rarely been even tried. The Soviet Union, in particular, was never communist.
China's communism, tried with some messiness by Mao's China, did have some success. By 1950, a China long brutalized and impoverished by western capitalists could hold its own against western capitalist armies. Over recent years, China blended communism with capitalism - and this counry which had suffered brurality and poverty inflicted by western capitalism suddenly emerged as a major world power. Offhand, I cannot think of any country in world history that has accomplished such a rapid change.
This surely suggests that neither capitalism nor communism is a remedy for the world's ills - but that combination of the two might work.
Socialism? Fundamentally, it's very similar to communism - but that similarity is avoided by all sides.
Very simply,capitalism simply means the accumulation of wealth by the already wealthy. it is designed to serve capitalists and only capitalists.And, left alone, that makes it a sure path to disaster.
The invariable result of lone capitalism means sure destruction of a society. We need a strong dose of legislation designed to benefit the whole society - not just its billionaires. Call it communism. Call it socialism. We need a system that creates - but also shares - wealth.
When I worked in China, I saw a country whose cities and housing and roads looked much as they must have done a century and more earlier. No more. Today, its housing increasingly resembles that of western powers. it's education is excellent. In a very short time, China has leaped from being a nation of shanties. I can recall - often - seeing outhouses as toilets in the middle of cities
With it's reliance entirely on a super-wealthy class and with its utter failure in paying attention to the rest, the U.S. (And Canada and the west in general) are headed for one hell of a crash.
As it is, our billionaires are destroying themselves.
________________________________________________________________
For decades, Haiti was ruled by dictators subservervient to American billionaires. Then Haitians won the right to vote.
So the U.S. sent troops to bring back the good old days. And Canada kissed up wih 'peacekeepers'.
Yep. American governments are great believers in democracy.
_________________________________________________________________
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/feb/16/tijuana-migrant-child-murders-mexico-us-asylum
The refugee crises have just begun - in South America, Africa, parts of Asia. They can only get worse - much, much worse. And our most prominent response has been to act like the racists we are.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Venezuela might have beaten off the attempts of American capitalists to take it over. But now what?
It has still to deal with the U.S. restrictions on its trade. And until that happens there will be poverty and starvation. Unless....
China and Russia become a presence in this crisis. But then the rest is anybody's guess.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/feb/13/venezuela-nicolas-maduro-juan-guaido-campaign-latest
___________________________________________________________
This next one is possibly a repeat.
https://lfpress.com/opinion/columnists/dyer-hard-to-fathom-why-allies-support-u-s-on-venezuela
_____________________________________________________________
How the very wealthy live off our taxes - but don't pay a cent of their own.
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/02/15/new-york-hq-fiasco-and-0-federal-taxes-say-critics-confirm-amazons-status-deadbeat
How come our news media haven't launched any attempt to tell this story? Could that be because of who it is that owns most of our news media?
Get the picture. In fifty years, the U.S. has invaded over fifty countries. That's pretty expensive. And every one of those countries was invaded to meet the needs of Amperican capitalists. (Thousands, including Canadians, died in the war in Afghanistan. Why was that war fought? it was fought because AFghanistan is up to its ears in minieral wealth - and American capitalists want it, That's why Canadian died. Forget the crap propaganda about how they died for Canada. Afghanistan was not a threat to Canada - or the U.S.)
If the U.S. fights a war in Venezuela, it will be for exactly the same reason - to make American capitalists richer.
And who paid for those wars? Every cent came from the pockets of taxpayers in the U.S. and in American colonies like Canada. Nothing - not even a cent - came from the pockets of billionaires. They pay no taxes but the wars are fought to make them richer.
That's why the U.S. is facing severe education crises. That's why it can't offer its people medical care. That's why it can't deal with its massive homeless problem. That's why many tens of millions end their working careers in hopeless poverty.
________________________________________________________________
Our children are the ones who are going to suffer for the greed and corruption we have not had the courage to face and to deal with.
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/02/15/16-year-old-greta-thunberg-cheers-beginning-great-changes-climate-strike-goes-global
______________________________________________________________
https://www.commondreams.org/further/2019/02/14/1200-kids-gun-deaths-parkland-did-i-say-i-love-you
________________________________________________________________
Is it true that the U.S. needs a wall against Latin America? It's not just the U.S. We're all building walls. And it has nothing to do with criminals crossing our borders.
https://www.thenation.com/article/walls-and-borders-are-this-countrys-most-consistent-climate-change-adaptation/
_______________________________________________________________
America! Where you can say whatever you believe. (As long as it's the same as what everybody else believes.)
https://www.thenation.com/article/colin-kaepernick-nfl-settlement-collusion/
In this case, the sinner has been forgiven by the NFL for, among other things, dropping to a knee during the playing of the national anthem. However, the patriots in his home state don't feel any need for fortgiveness. They have banned him from being named as a role model in Black History Month.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
https://countercurrents.org/2019/02/16/the-venezuelan-coup-a-media-success/
The U.S. (like Canada only more so, much more so) has been a murderous, empire-biling nation from the early days of European settlement. There was the slaughter of native peoples by the millions, the war on Mexico to steal what is now Texas, Arizona, California, etc., the seizure of Hawaii, the several attempts on Canada, the colonization of Latin America, of The Phillipines and, most recently of lands in Africa and the middle east.
How many were slaughtered in all of this? We'll never know.
Some lover of democracy!
________________________________________________________________
The next item seems true enough. But it seems hopelessly idealistic. The U.S. (like many other countries is hopelessly mired in propagandas that they call their histories.)
https://countercurrents.org/2019/02/16/trumps-state-of-emergency-a-step-towards-presidential-dictatorship.
_________________________________________________________
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6705421/Three-babies-DAY-killed-conflict-turn-one.html
___________________________________________________________
Thinking of moving to California?
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/california-nightmare-over-half-of-the-people-living-in-the-state-wish-they-could-leave
____________________________________________________________
The following account is heavily biased and, some times, just plain wrong. But compared to the reports we usually get about Cuba, it's brilliantly truthful.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/51112.htm
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here's a point of view very different from any in our news media.
http://www.medialens.org/index.php/alerts/alert-archive/2019/893-venezuela-blitz-part-2-press-freedom-sanctions-and-oil.html
_______________________________________________________________
Are Canadians cruel and arrogant? You bet.
https://www.nationalobserver.com/2019/02/15/news/people-will-die-if-nothing-done-cat-lake-first-nation-considering-evacuation-one
If those people were big time capitalists, that town would now be awash in doctors.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
https://www.globalresearch.ca/indigenous-communities-halting-humanitys-race-to-disaster/5668766
___________________________________________________________
https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/one-thousand-children-die-measles-madagascar/
Sorry, kids. We're all tied up killing children all over the world.
_________________________________________________________________
https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/children-in-conflict-save-the-children-report/
_______________________________________________________________
Here's a whole page of off-Guardian stories to give a sense of its general tone.
If off-Guardian is right and The Guardian is such a bad paper, why do I include it in my list of news media?
That's because, bad as it is, the Guardian. is still the best of major newspapers in this world. It's not so much a recognition of The Guardian quality as it is of the lying propaganda of all of our major news media.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------___
The following story can't be true. If it were, our news media would have told us all about it.https://truthout.org/articles/incarcerated-immigrants-are-being-tortured/
https://truthout.org/articles/incarcerated-immigrants-are-being-tortured/
Anyway, Trump's supporters are devout Christians - as is Trump. So there.
_______________________________________________________________
https://theintercept.com/2019/02/16/brazil-bolsonaro-indigenous-land/
Bolsonaro, new president of Brazil, is much admired by Trump and the Republican Party (and some Democrats).
_______________________________________________________________
I was reluctant to publish this one at first because it makes a complicated issue seem simple. The tone of this is that all Jews must be above criticism, and that any criticism is really a form of anti-semitism.
In fact, there is a lot of anti-semitism still out there - all over the western world. But it does not follow that all criticism of Jews is anti-semitic. (By the way, arabs, too, are semites.)
My experience of Jewish communities in North America - which is extensive - has been that these are intellectually alive and both intellectually and financially generous. ( In speaking to audiences, which I did many, many times every year for many years, I would look foward to Jewish audiences more than any other.)
As a teenager, I remember walking to see friends in Montreal's Jewish ghetto, and feeling a tremendous boost at window signs expressing delight at the founding of Israel.
But I came to know many Israelis - and to learn about their abysmal treatment of Palestinians.
For the Jews of Europe, Hitler destroyed their belief in Jewish principles. Understandable. But that has created an Israel lacking in in the religious principles of Judaism - making it rather, I fear, like those fundamentalist Christians who support Trump.
https://thesaker.is/and-now-a-word-from-the-jewish-democratic-council-of-america/
_________________________________________________________________
It's a slow day for news - so let's spare a few moments to get rid of misuse of some words.
To many people, communism and socialism are simply dirty words. To many others, the dirty word is capitalism.So let's try to get real.
Capitalism is a system in which economic growth is encouraged by encouraging private owndership - and depending on market controls to ensure it meets needs.. The problem, alas, iss that there are virtually no market controls. Major capitalists got rid of controls almost from the start so that the whole purpose of capitalism became not to develop an economy but to open it up to mass theft by a very few.
Karl Marx was a man dedicated to improving the condition of human life. He proposed a system based fitting the distribution of wealth by ensuring access to adequate housing, food, education....for all. But don't waste your time arguning about it because it's very, very rarely been even tried. The Soviet Union, in particular, was never communist.
China's communism, tried with some messiness by Mao's China, did have some success. By 1950, a China long brutalized and impoverished by western capitalists could hold its own against western capitalist armies. Over recent years, China blended communism with capitalism - and this counry which had suffered brurality and poverty inflicted by western capitalism suddenly emerged as a major world power. Offhand, I cannot think of any country in world history that has accomplished such a rapid change.
This surely suggests that neither capitalism nor communism is a remedy for the world's ills - but that combination of the two might work.
Socialism? Fundamentally, it's very similar to communism - but that similarity is avoided by all sides.
Very simply,capitalism simply means the accumulation of wealth by the already wealthy. it is designed to serve capitalists and only capitalists.And, left alone, that makes it a sure path to disaster.
The invariable result of lone capitalism means sure destruction of a society. We need a strong dose of legislation designed to benefit the whole society - not just its billionaires. Call it communism. Call it socialism. We need a system that creates - but also shares - wealth.
When I worked in China, I saw a country whose cities and housing and roads looked much as they must have done a century and more earlier. No more. Today, its housing increasingly resembles that of western powers. it's education is excellent. In a very short time, China has leaped from being a nation of shanties. I can recall - often - seeing outhouses as toilets in the middle of cities
With it's reliance entirely on a super-wealthy class and with its utter failure in paying attention to the rest, the U.S. (And Canada and the west in general) are headed for one hell of a crash.
As it is, our billionaires are destroying themselves.
________________________________________________________________
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