https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/feb/01/enduring-the-tide-the-flooded-philippine-islands-that-locals-wont-leave
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jan/31/chiberia-extreme-cold-in-chicago-inspires-solidarity-and-awe-polar-vortex
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jan/31/polar-vortex-latest-weather-news-midwest-record-lows
(Okay. 20 people died. But probably most of them were old, anyway.)
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/feb/01/january-named-as-australias-hottest-month-on-record
https://www.theguardian.com/news/audio/2019/feb/01/disaster-in-the-australian-outback-podcast
https://www.cbc.ca/news/thenational/national-today-newsletter-australia-youth-football-seniors-care-1.4996932
This is insane. But it all really happened.
The world's leading scientists agree that climate change is happening. They agree it will destroy all life on earth. We have known that for over thirty years. So how come are doing almost nothing?
This is a crisis that calls for immediate action with perhaps only a generation to get some kind of control. And it's not happening. Nor is it any secret why it's not happening.
The world's oil business leaders don't want anything to happen. Now - with all the evidence we have, how do we judge the intelligence (or even the sanity) of our world's leading oil barons?
Do they have an intelligence superior to all the world's scientists? Immediately, I think of the president of Irving oil who dropped out of university just two years after high school. Even those who stuck around for a few more years usually didn't touch the sciences.
But even their lack of knowledge doesn't explain their behaviour. How can they ignore the opinions of people who have spent their lives studying what is happening to our world? And even if we forget scientific opinion, how can they ignore the evidence of the last several years - the wild weather patterns, the melting of two continents.....? And again, I think of the president of Irving Oil who sprays poisonous chemicals on the land of his native province.
No. This is not a matter of differences of opinion. This is the wilful blindness of a super wealthy class who suffer a mental illness we can call greed. In the end, it will kill them, too. But greed blinds them.
Democracy fails us here because this super wealthy class owns most of our elected representatives. It also owns our major news sources on radio, TV, and newspapers.
And many of us, I'm afraid, take easy way of just doing nothing.
It's a kind of insanity - a refusal to see what is happening.
That's why, as a whole world crashes in on us, we spend our government money on weapons - and gasoline. It makes no sense. We need all our energy and all the money we can gather to deal with climate change. Instead, it's being spent on making weapons manufacturers richer and opening up new oil fields. And we have very little time to change that.
But I don't have the answer to how that is to be done.
You do.
_________________________________________________________________
When I lived in the province of new Brunswick. the local billionaire gave a donation to charity. (One of his companies, Irving oil, is modestly named after the family,) The provincial chambers of commerce got so excited, they almost wet their pants, and they held a very expensive dinner in praise of Mr. Irving, with the man himself graciously agreeing to be the speaker. (The poor and the hungry were not invited.)
Was this generous gift by him? Well, it was a very, very small gift considering this man did not pay any imcome taxes. And he paid only a very small part of the property taxes as was supposed to pay. As well, he demanded and received massive gifts of forest and government funding - any one of which was far, far more than his gift to charity had been.
The provincial newspapers went into ecstasies over his generosity.(He owns all the newspapers.) The Liberal and Conservative leaders heaped praise in him. (He owns them, too.)
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/feb/02/forget-philanthropy-super-rich-should-be-paying-proper-taxes
____________________________________________________________
And a new arms race. Just what the world needs.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/feb/02/russia-follows-us-in-suspending-nuclear-deal
________________________________________________
Capitalism's gift to the people.
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2019/feb/01/major-western-brands-pay-indian-garment-workers-11p-an-hour
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Despite the tone of much of our news media, the U.S. government doesn't give a damn about bringing democracy to Venezuela - or anybody else. It happily supports the world's crudest dictator in Saudi Arabia. It destroyed democracy in Guatemala, and murdered two hundred thousand who wanted democracy. In fact, it has overthrown elected governments all over the world. It was the U.S. that established dictatorship in Cuba back about World War 1. It was the U.S. that overthrew democracy in Haiti. The U.S. supported a brual dictatorship in Chile. It was the U.S. that murdered 200,000 in Guatemala to prevent the rise of democracy.
Iran, after a long struggle, became a democracy in 1948. But the U.S. and Britain soon moved in to destroy it, and to set up the shah as a dictator. Iran later overthrew the shah and re-established a democracy - admittedly a democracy with faults. (I don't know of a democracy that doesn't have faults.)
Western news media talk a good game about America and democracy. But the reality is very different. Democracy is acceptable only if it's the servant of western capitalists.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/feb/02/venezuela-juan-guaido-interim-president-political-trouble-outside-interference
_____________________________________________________________
http://gwynnedyer.com/2019/trump-and-erdogan-bringers-of-chaos/
________________________________________________________________
Let's get real.
http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/rabblecas-staff-blog/2019/02/global-warming-unstoppable-while-capitalism-blocks
The reality, rarely if ever mentioned in our news media is that we do not control our capitalism. And if we don't control such a major force in our society, how can we claim to be a democracy?
_______________________________________________________________
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/02/01/european-colonizers-genocide-56-million-native-americans-so-devastating-it-literally
Yes. These were real people our ancestors slaughtered. It happened all over the Americas. A major reason for the American revolution was to turn American troops to the mass murder of native Americans so that people like George Washington could steal their land.
________________________________________________________
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/02/01/yiiiiikes-john-bolton-threatens-send-venezuelas-maduro-offshore-us-prison-guantanamo
The most dangerous man in the Trump administration may not be Trump. Not while John Bolton is there.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Which one looks most like a nazi?
https://www.commondreams.org/further/2019/01/31/assassins-israeli-soldiers-just-neutralized-female-terrorist-aka-16-year-old
_______________________________________________________________
https://www.thenation.com/article/border-patrol-guatemala-dictatorship/
_______________________________________________________________
The U.S., since 1945, has been on a crusade to conquer the world. And in twenty years, it cannot conquer Afghanistan, not even with more than half that country's population on the side of the U.S.
https://www.thenation.com/article/afghanistan-end-taliban-trump-unwinnable/
_________________________________________________________________
Canada's CBC has some very fine journalists working for it. But it comes under tremendous pressure from its bosses. I learned that a long time ago when I was doing weekly broadcasts for it.
My topics were harmless enough - mostly about Montreal history. But one day I was called in and fired.
It was explained to me that this had nothing to do with my broadcasts.
Quebec was then suffering a separatist movement to break away from Canada. I had never discussed that on air. But I was on the board of the major anti-separatist organization. That's why I was fired. it was not for having said anything on air about separatism. it was because those separatists in CBC management didn't want people like me on the air.
CBC is always under pressure from such groups in its bureaucracy. And this interference harms an otherwise excellent system.
https://countercurrents.org/2019/02/02/big-lie-technique-alive-and-well-on-cbcs-power-and-politics-or-at-least-a-lot-of-ignorance-is/
_______________________________________________________________
Trump has taken a big step to make world nuclear war inevitable. And yes, there are people who think that makes sense.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/51019.htm
_______________________________________________________________
In several years of watching it, I have found RT (RussiaTimes) to be a fairly honest news outlet. Where you cannot trust it is on its news of Russia. It never publishes anything that would make Russia look bad. It's also weak on China. But it's quite honest in dealing with the rest of the world. (A recent RT story on North Korea was surprising and quite superior to any western reporting I have seen on that country.)
And, in making judgements, consider that most of the western press lies constantly.
https://www.rt.com/news/450359-cnn-venezuelan-defectors-fake/
______________________________________________________________
And for a change of pace...
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/51024.htm
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
https://www.nationalobserver.com/2019/01/31/news/new-us-oil-and-gas-drilling-unleash-1000-coal-plants-worth-pollution-2050
________________________________________________________________
https://off-guardian.org/2019/02/01/conflict-is-inevitable/
_________________________________________________________________
https://theantimedia.com/bolton-venezuela-maduro-guantanamo-bay-prison/
________________________________________________________________
The U.S. considers itself as the great bringer of democracy throughout the world. But if you check, it has been a bigger bringer of dictatorship and mass murder. Check out this story about Saudi Arabia.
https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=373697047018228084#editor/target=post;postID=5480510760727188528;onPublishedMenu=allposts;onClosedMenu=allposts;postNum=0;src=postname
_______________________________________________________________
https://www.voltairenet.org/article204951.html
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This came in late for me - but I thought it well worth including.
https://www.globalresearch.ca/overthrowing-other-peoples-governments-the-master-list-of-u-s-regime-changes/5400829
_________________________________________________________
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jan/31/chiberia-extreme-cold-in-chicago-inspires-solidarity-and-awe-polar-vortex
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jan/31/polar-vortex-latest-weather-news-midwest-record-lows
(Okay. 20 people died. But probably most of them were old, anyway.)
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/feb/01/january-named-as-australias-hottest-month-on-record
https://www.theguardian.com/news/audio/2019/feb/01/disaster-in-the-australian-outback-podcast
https://www.cbc.ca/news/thenational/national-today-newsletter-australia-youth-football-seniors-care-1.4996932
This is insane. But it all really happened.
The world's leading scientists agree that climate change is happening. They agree it will destroy all life on earth. We have known that for over thirty years. So how come are doing almost nothing?
This is a crisis that calls for immediate action with perhaps only a generation to get some kind of control. And it's not happening. Nor is it any secret why it's not happening.
The world's oil business leaders don't want anything to happen. Now - with all the evidence we have, how do we judge the intelligence (or even the sanity) of our world's leading oil barons?
Do they have an intelligence superior to all the world's scientists? Immediately, I think of the president of Irving oil who dropped out of university just two years after high school. Even those who stuck around for a few more years usually didn't touch the sciences.
But even their lack of knowledge doesn't explain their behaviour. How can they ignore the opinions of people who have spent their lives studying what is happening to our world? And even if we forget scientific opinion, how can they ignore the evidence of the last several years - the wild weather patterns, the melting of two continents.....? And again, I think of the president of Irving Oil who sprays poisonous chemicals on the land of his native province.
No. This is not a matter of differences of opinion. This is the wilful blindness of a super wealthy class who suffer a mental illness we can call greed. In the end, it will kill them, too. But greed blinds them.
Democracy fails us here because this super wealthy class owns most of our elected representatives. It also owns our major news sources on radio, TV, and newspapers.
And many of us, I'm afraid, take easy way of just doing nothing.
It's a kind of insanity - a refusal to see what is happening.
That's why, as a whole world crashes in on us, we spend our government money on weapons - and gasoline. It makes no sense. We need all our energy and all the money we can gather to deal with climate change. Instead, it's being spent on making weapons manufacturers richer and opening up new oil fields. And we have very little time to change that.
But I don't have the answer to how that is to be done.
You do.
_________________________________________________________________
When I lived in the province of new Brunswick. the local billionaire gave a donation to charity. (One of his companies, Irving oil, is modestly named after the family,) The provincial chambers of commerce got so excited, they almost wet their pants, and they held a very expensive dinner in praise of Mr. Irving, with the man himself graciously agreeing to be the speaker. (The poor and the hungry were not invited.)
Was this generous gift by him? Well, it was a very, very small gift considering this man did not pay any imcome taxes. And he paid only a very small part of the property taxes as was supposed to pay. As well, he demanded and received massive gifts of forest and government funding - any one of which was far, far more than his gift to charity had been.
The provincial newspapers went into ecstasies over his generosity.(He owns all the newspapers.) The Liberal and Conservative leaders heaped praise in him. (He owns them, too.)
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/feb/02/forget-philanthropy-super-rich-should-be-paying-proper-taxes
____________________________________________________________
And a new arms race. Just what the world needs.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/feb/02/russia-follows-us-in-suspending-nuclear-deal
________________________________________________
Capitalism's gift to the people.
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2019/feb/01/major-western-brands-pay-indian-garment-workers-11p-an-hour
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Despite the tone of much of our news media, the U.S. government doesn't give a damn about bringing democracy to Venezuela - or anybody else. It happily supports the world's crudest dictator in Saudi Arabia. It destroyed democracy in Guatemala, and murdered two hundred thousand who wanted democracy. In fact, it has overthrown elected governments all over the world. It was the U.S. that established dictatorship in Cuba back about World War 1. It was the U.S. that overthrew democracy in Haiti. The U.S. supported a brual dictatorship in Chile. It was the U.S. that murdered 200,000 in Guatemala to prevent the rise of democracy.
Iran, after a long struggle, became a democracy in 1948. But the U.S. and Britain soon moved in to destroy it, and to set up the shah as a dictator. Iran later overthrew the shah and re-established a democracy - admittedly a democracy with faults. (I don't know of a democracy that doesn't have faults.)
Western news media talk a good game about America and democracy. But the reality is very different. Democracy is acceptable only if it's the servant of western capitalists.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/feb/02/venezuela-juan-guaido-interim-president-political-trouble-outside-interference
_____________________________________________________________
http://gwynnedyer.com/2019/trump-and-erdogan-bringers-of-chaos/
________________________________________________________________
Let's get real.
http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/rabblecas-staff-blog/2019/02/global-warming-unstoppable-while-capitalism-blocks
The reality, rarely if ever mentioned in our news media is that we do not control our capitalism. And if we don't control such a major force in our society, how can we claim to be a democracy?
_______________________________________________________________
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/02/01/european-colonizers-genocide-56-million-native-americans-so-devastating-it-literally
Yes. These were real people our ancestors slaughtered. It happened all over the Americas. A major reason for the American revolution was to turn American troops to the mass murder of native Americans so that people like George Washington could steal their land.
________________________________________________________
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/02/01/yiiiiikes-john-bolton-threatens-send-venezuelas-maduro-offshore-us-prison-guantanamo
The most dangerous man in the Trump administration may not be Trump. Not while John Bolton is there.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Which one looks most like a nazi?
https://www.commondreams.org/further/2019/01/31/assassins-israeli-soldiers-just-neutralized-female-terrorist-aka-16-year-old
_______________________________________________________________
https://www.thenation.com/article/border-patrol-guatemala-dictatorship/
_______________________________________________________________
The U.S., since 1945, has been on a crusade to conquer the world. And in twenty years, it cannot conquer Afghanistan, not even with more than half that country's population on the side of the U.S.
https://www.thenation.com/article/afghanistan-end-taliban-trump-unwinnable/
_________________________________________________________________
Canada's CBC has some very fine journalists working for it. But it comes under tremendous pressure from its bosses. I learned that a long time ago when I was doing weekly broadcasts for it.
My topics were harmless enough - mostly about Montreal history. But one day I was called in and fired.
It was explained to me that this had nothing to do with my broadcasts.
Quebec was then suffering a separatist movement to break away from Canada. I had never discussed that on air. But I was on the board of the major anti-separatist organization. That's why I was fired. it was not for having said anything on air about separatism. it was because those separatists in CBC management didn't want people like me on the air.
CBC is always under pressure from such groups in its bureaucracy. And this interference harms an otherwise excellent system.
https://countercurrents.org/2019/02/02/big-lie-technique-alive-and-well-on-cbcs-power-and-politics-or-at-least-a-lot-of-ignorance-is/
_______________________________________________________________
Trump has taken a big step to make world nuclear war inevitable. And yes, there are people who think that makes sense.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/51019.htm
_______________________________________________________________
In several years of watching it, I have found RT (RussiaTimes) to be a fairly honest news outlet. Where you cannot trust it is on its news of Russia. It never publishes anything that would make Russia look bad. It's also weak on China. But it's quite honest in dealing with the rest of the world. (A recent RT story on North Korea was surprising and quite superior to any western reporting I have seen on that country.)
And, in making judgements, consider that most of the western press lies constantly.
https://www.rt.com/news/450359-cnn-venezuelan-defectors-fake/
______________________________________________________________
And for a change of pace...
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/51024.htm
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
https://www.nationalobserver.com/2019/01/31/news/new-us-oil-and-gas-drilling-unleash-1000-coal-plants-worth-pollution-2050
________________________________________________________________
https://off-guardian.org/2019/02/01/conflict-is-inevitable/
_________________________________________________________________
https://theantimedia.com/bolton-venezuela-maduro-guantanamo-bay-prison/
________________________________________________________________
The U.S. considers itself as the great bringer of democracy throughout the world. But if you check, it has been a bigger bringer of dictatorship and mass murder. Check out this story about Saudi Arabia.
https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=373697047018228084#editor/target=post;postID=5480510760727188528;onPublishedMenu=allposts;onClosedMenu=allposts;postNum=0;src=postname
_______________________________________________________________
https://www.voltairenet.org/article204951.html
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This came in late for me - but I thought it well worth including.
https://www.globalresearch.ca/overthrowing-other-peoples-governments-the-master-list-of-u-s-regime-changes/5400829
_________________________________________________________
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